USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 54
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Philip Schuyler, the hero of New York, and conqueror of Bur- goyne, was the direct descendant of the first Mayor of Albany in 1668. Born the 22d of November, 1733, he was educated by a good and wise mother, until sent to a school at New Rochelle,
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where he experienced a long confinement at the age of sixteen, from an attack of hereditary gout. He here acquired a knowledge of the French language, and improved himself in various branches of learning. The exact sciences were his favourite study, and to them he owed his superiour skill in finance, military engineering, and political economy. In 1755, he commanded a company in the New York levies, and served with Sir William Johnson, in the French war. In 1758, Lord Viscount Howe selected young Schuyler as chief of the commissariat department ; and the talents of the youth justified the choice. When Howe fell in the ill-judged attack of Abercrombie upon Ticonderoga, Schuyler was directed to convey the corpse of that gallant gentleman to Albany, and there cause it to be buried with appropriate honours. We have seen that Charles Lee was shot through the body, at the head of his company of grenadiers, in this same murderous action, and was received and nursed in the family mansion of the Schuylers at the Flats. After the peace of 1763, Philip, now called Colonel 'Schuyler, served as a commissioner on the part of New York, in the controversy with Massachusetts, respecting the boundary line. In 1768, he represented the City and County of Albany in the general assembly, and continued his patriotick exertions until the assembly was dissolved by Tryon, in 1775. With the glorious minority he combatted the influence of England, and with George Clinton, Nathaniel Woodhull, Colonel Tenbroeck, and Colonel Philip Livingston, he is entitled to the eternal gratitude of New York and America. In May, 1775, Colonel Schuyler was elected by his fellow-citizens as their delegate to the continental congress in Philadelphia, and had scarcely taken his seat, when he was ap- pointed the third major-general of the American army, and charged by Washington with the command of the province of New York, on the 25th of June. Six days after, congress directed him to repair to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, secure the command of Lake Champlain, and, if practicable and expedient, to take pos- session of St. John's, Montreal, and Quebec. The difficulties of an expedition into Canada, without the materials or equipments of war, were clearly perceived by him, and strongly felt ; but he surmounted them with a rapidity and success that no other indivi- dual, says the judicious Chancellor Kent, "could at that period have performed."
Before the end of August, a large force was sent down Lake Champlain under General Montgomery, who declared his happi- ness in serving under the orders of so competent a commander ay Schuyler. But this truly efficient man was prevented following farther than the Isle Au Noix, where he was conveyed in a state of exhaustion from severe sickness, and obliged to fix his head-quar- ters. Montgomery wrote to him, " I hope you will join us with
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all expedition. Let me entreat you (if yon can possibly) to follow in a cockle-boat, leaving somebody to forward on the troops and artillery. It will give the men great confidence in your spirit and activity. . Be assured, I have your honour and reputation highly at heart, as of the greatest consequence to the publick service." It will be seen how the opinion of this good man will contrast with the words of some others. '"All my ambition," said the chival- rick Montgomery to his commander, " is to do my duty in a sub- ordinate capacity, without the least ungenerous intention of lessen- ing the merit so justly your due."
Captain Graydon, who about this time was sent by congress to convey a sum of money to the general from Philadelphia, and found him on the borders of Lake George, says, " Though General Schuyler has been charged with such haughtiness of demeanour, as to have induced the troops of New England to decline serving under his command, as stated in Marshall's Life of Washington, the reception we met with was not only courteous, but kind. His quarters being contracted, a bed was prepared for us in his own apartment, and we experienced civilities that were flattering from an officer of his high rank. Though thoroughly the man of busi- ness, he was also a gentleman, and man of the world ; and well calculated to sustain the reputation of our army in the eyes of the British officers, (disposed to depreciate it,) as is evidenced by the account given by General Burgoyne of the manner in which he was entertained by him, at Albany .... He certainly was at no pains to conceal the extreme contempt he felt for a set of officers, who were both a disgrace to their stations and the cause in which they acted !"
Schuyler was obliged to return to Ticonderoga; but never ceased his exertions for the success of the expedition. His very impaired health rendered General Schuyler's situation oppressive. He was charged with the duty of supplying the Canadian army with recruits, provisions, clothing, arms, and money ; and to do it adequately, was beyond his power. He was obliged to apply to congress for leave to retire : but his application was not listened to ; and on the 30th of November, congress resolved that his conduct, attention, and perseverance, merited the thanks of the united colonies. They expressed, through President Hancock, their greatest concern and sympathy for his loss of health, and requested that he would I.ot insist on a measure which would deprive America of his zeal and abilities, and rob him of the honour of completing the glorious work which he had so happily and successfully begun. General Washington, who always maintained a close and constant corres- pondence with Schuyler, expressed the same regret and desire; and in his letters of the 5th and 24th of December, conjured both
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him and Montgomerie " to lay aside all such thoughts of retirement, alike injurious to themselves, and excessively so to the country. . They had not a difficulty to contend with that he had not in an eminent degree experienced." Who can withhold his unqualified admiration of the man, who gave such advice, at such a crisis ! To his incomparable fortitude and inflexible firmness, America owes her national existence.
General Schuyler determined to continue in the service ; and especially, as he said, " after the fall of his amiable friend Montgo- merie, who had given him so many proofs of the goodness of his heart, and who, as he greatly fell in his country's cause, was more to be envied than lamented." The distressed condition of the northern army in the winter and spring of 1776, was quite unpar- alleled in the history of the revolution. General Schuyler was roused to the utmost limit of exertion, in his endeavours to relieve it, by collecting and despatching men, provisions, arms, and mili- tary and naval equipments to the northern posts, and to the army. His attention was directed to every quarter, exacting vigilance, order, economy, and prompt execution in all the complicated con- cerns of the department. His duty was more arduous and difficult -it was inexpressibly vexatious, and could not be sternly and effectually performed without collisions, provoking jealous, and angry feelings, and requiring large sacrifices of transient popularity. With his exhausted and debilitated frame of body, every person who saw him, concluded that he must soon sink under the pressure of his duties. His incessant correspondence with congress was full of the best practical advice. At that crisis, congress multi- plied his concerns to an overwhelming degree. On the Sth of January, lie was required to cause the river St. Lawrence, above and below Quebec, to be well explored. He was to fill up blank commissions for the Canada regiments in his discretion. He was to establish an accountability for the waste of the publick supplies. He was to put Ticonderoga in a defencible condition. But the army in Canada engrossed his attention. After the death of Mont- gomerie, the command devolved on Brigadier-general Wooster. The most alarming, and next to the want of provisions, the most distressing deficiency in the northern army, was in muskets, am- munition, and cannon. The call was also loud and incessant for specie ; and General Schuyler went so far as to raise, on his own personal security, £2,100 York currency, in gold and silver, for that purpose. Nothing shows more strikingly the want of arms, than the fact, that even General Washington, in his camp at Cam- bridge, applied to Schuyler for assistance in that particular. " Your letters and mine," said the former, " seem echoes to each other -- enumerating our mutual difficulties."
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Great apprehension was entertained at this eventful moment, from the disaffected inhabitants in the Mohawk country, under the influ- ence of Sir John Johnson ; and congress directed General Schuy- ler to cause the tories in that quarter to be disarmed, and their leaders to be secured. He accordingly marched into that country, in the month of January, and executed the service with such zeal, despatch, and discretion, as to receive the especial approbation of Congress.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Churches and Clergy-Lawyers and Physicians.
BEFORE I conclude this first volume, it will not be improper to give some account of the churches in the city of New York, and then notice the principal clergy, lawyers, and physicians of New York prior to the revolution.
After Kieft's church in the fort had become the King's chapel, as I have said, the church of the Dutch Reformed, in Garden street was built about 1693. William Smith, in his history of New York, says, it was of stone, and ornamented within by a small organ loft and brass branches. The next Dutch church was built in 1729 : we know it as the Middle Dutch : in Smith's time it was called the New Church. The last Dutch church I shall mention, is the North Church, which was first dedicated in 1769, although before that time, Episcopal churches were built. The North Church was built on ground given by John Hardenbrook, and his coat of arms is still preserved over the pulpit. John Street was so named in honour of him. A Dutch church was built at Harlem, and one at Brooklyn.
The Episcopal church was the immediate care of the English government. Fletcher and Cornbury were the early leaders ; and the ministers were missionaries. Fletcher, in 1696, built Tri- nity Church on its present site. The building was dedicated to the publick worship of God on the 16th of February, 1697, when divine service was performed in it, for the first time, by the Rev. Mr. Vesey, rector of the parish. Mr. Vesey was the first regular clergyman sent over here as rector. His original commission from the Bishop of London is still preserved, and can be seen among the manuscript papers of the New York Historical Society, at their rooms in this city. In the year 1703, the city corporation
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granted the ground on which the Trinity Church stood, to be a burial place for the inhabitants of the city forever ; and the pro- ceeds of the burial charges were to go to the rector. The origi- nal church was a small square edifice, but affording sufficient ac- commodation to the congregation, till the year 1735, when it was enlarged by an addition at the east end. In 1737, it was again augmented to the size which it appeared in at the time of its destruction.
William Smith, in his History of New York, describes it thus : the church is, within, ornamented beyond any other places of pub- lick worship among us. The head of the chancel is adorned with an altar-piece, and opposite to it at the other end of the building, is the organ. The tops of the pillars which support the galleries are decked with the gilt busts of angels winged. From the ceil- ing are suspended two glass branches, and on the walls hang the arms of some of its principal benefactors. The aisles are paved with flat stone. In this condition the writer saw it in 1775. In a pew fitted up for the purpose, Mr Vesey, preached to the new corporation every October, and was paid five pounds therefor.
St. George's Chapel was built in 1752 ; and in 1764, the first stone of St. Paul's was laid.
In 1704, the French Huguenots or Calvinists, who had settled in New York, built the old French Church in King, now Pine street. The Rev. Doctor Miller, in his MMS. deposited in the New York Historical Library, tells us, that when the Huguenots first settled at New Rochelle, the only place of worship they had to attend was in New York city. They had taken lands on terms which required the utmost exertions of men, women, and children among them, to clear, and render tillable. They were therefore in the habit of working till Saturday night, spending the night in trudging down on foot to the city, attending worship twice the next day, and walking home the same night, to be ready for work in the morning. Amidst all these hardships they wrote to France, what great prireleges they enjoyed ! 1
It was not until 1754, that the first stone of a college was laid at New York, under the name of King's College, partly by the mu- nificence of the corporation of Trinity Church, and partly by the British Society for the promotion of the gospel in foreign parts.
Shortly after Doctor Samuel Johnson came to this city from Stratford, in Connecticut, and remained its first president until he returned thither in 1763. The most distinguished of the Epis- copal clergy to this time (1774) were Samuel Johnson, S. Auch- muty, S. Provoost, Benjamin Moore, (the two latter successively Bishops of the Diocese,) and the last president of King's College, Doctor Cooper.
One of the earliest sects of christians that appeared in the city,
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after the surrender of Governour Stuyvesant, in 1764, was that of Lutherans. They petitioned for liberty to send to Germany a call for a regular pastor. This petition, of course, Governour Nicolls granted, and in February, 1669, two years after Colonel Nicolls had left the government, the Rev. Jacobus Fabricius arri- ved in the colony, and began his administration.
On the 13th of October, 1669, Lord Lovelace, who had suc- ceeded Colonel Nicolls in the government, publickly proclaimed his having received a letter from his master, the Duke of York, expressing his pleasure that the Lutherans should be tolerated.
In 1710, they erected their first church, where Grace Church now stands, and in 1764, the church now standing in William street in the Swamp.
The Friends erected their first church 1696, in Crown street, where it stood until converted to a seed store.
The Jews were scarcely tolerated. Their first church, or syna- gogue, was built in Mill street, a narrow street so called, from a stream which fell into the great water in Broad street. They built here in 1730 ; and John F. Watson, in his book on Olden times, says, I once heard from Phillips' family, that in early times, when the Jews first. held their worship there, (Mill street,) they had a living spring in which they were accustomed to perform their ablu- tions and cleansings, according to the rights of their religion.
The Presbyterians built a small church in Wall street, in the year 1729, which afterwards grew, and in despite of the Episco- palians, became in 1747, a great one. In 1766, the Brick Church at the head of Beekman street, was built.
In 1751, the Moravians built a small chapel on the spot where the present church faces in Fulton street.
About the year 1753, the Baptists held their meetings in the rigging-loft in Horse and Cart, subsequently, William street, where in 1767, the Methodists first assembled, and where Whitefield preached at times. The building yet stands with its gabel to the street, and is used as a retail shop. The Baptists began the church in Gold street in 1760.
The Methodists now so numerous and powerful, held their first meetings as above ; and Lieutenant Webb of the British army was conspicuous as a member and preacher in his military cos- tume. In 176S, they founded their first church in John street, where now one of their Temples stands.
Among the distinguished clergymen of that time, Jonathan Edwards stands out conspicuous, though very many deserve the record of the historian.
From the days of Dr. Vanderdonk to those of Murray, Smith (the father of the historian) and Alexander, (the father of Gen. Lord Stirling,) when Andrew Hamilton, the great barrister of Philadel-
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phia-at the trial of Zenger-established the rights of juries, we find no eminent lawyers, but William Smith, the chief justice and historian, Whitehead Hicks, William Livingston, and John Morin Scott. These men flourished about this time, and made it brilliant for talent. Samuel Jones, (father of two of our most eminent jurists-Samuel Jones, ex-chancellor of the State, and present chief justice of the Superior Court of the city, and David S. Jones,) Richard Harison, John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States, the lustre of whose name both as a man and a lawyer, is still reflected by his worthy descendant Peter Augustus Jay, and Peter Van Schaack, to whom about 1774, the legislature com- mitted the task of revising the statute law of the province ; all shining lights of the bar, and Messrs. Jay and Harison* of the bench, commenced their legal career before the revolution and continued it after the conclusion of peace.
The venerable Dr. Thacher, in his American Medical Biography, very justly observes, New York has strong claims to pre-eminence in the noble pursuit of improvement in medical science and litera- ture : and a writert still more recent, in his account of the pro- gress of medical and surgical science in this state, remarks as follows : " The nature of the medical profession is such, that its cultivation as a science becomes a duty of vital importance to society ; and whenever individuals are congregated to any consi- derable extent, measures, the offspring of individual efforts or of municipal authority are adopted to aid in the advancement of the healing art. A careful examination (continues he) into the lives and services of those who exercised the abilities of the medical profession in the city of New York, even at an early date, will show that this metropolis has at all times been favoured with some few in this profession whose career was a blessing to the state. Long before the establishment of any thing like a medical school, some pupil of Boerhaave, or a well educated physician of a foreign university might be found among us ; and Dubois, Beekman, Dupuy, Macgrath, and Farquhar, are often mentioned as conspicu- ous in their day and generation."# From the scanty materials fur- nished me, I shall first notice those of the healing art who seem to have been best known either by their professional services or their public stations. Vanderdonk, in his description of the New Netherlands, mentions the name of Johannes Le Montanye as a physician. The Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, and his brother the Rev. Samuel Megapolensis, were both in the city of New York
* He was Recorder of the City of New York.
t Dr. John W. Francis.
# Description of the city of New York, in Hinton's United States, quarto, vol. 2, p. 397, American edition.
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at the conquest in September, 1664. The former attended the meeting of the citizens, and proposed the questions as to the con- ditions offered by Nicoll, in behalf of the Duke of York, to which the citizens gave. assent. The latter (Samuel who was also a physician) was one of the commissioners to the treaty, and it was, it is supposed to him that the special provision was made as con- tained in the eighth article of the treaty .*
Besides Dubois and Dupuy among the early physicians, may be added Jolin Nicoll, M. D., a native of Scotland, and a graduate at Edinburgh. He flourished about 1700. Cadwallader Colden, who has often been noticed as a statesman, was also an eminent physician. He wrote several medical and philosophical papers of value, among which may be mentioned his account of the yellow fever of 1742-3, and was a correspondent of Franklin and Lin- næus. Colden died in the S9th year of his age, on the memo- rable 2Sth of September, 1776, a few hours before the city of New York was in flames. " Dr. Colden," says Dr. Francis, " began at an early period of his life to pay great attention to the vegetable production of America, in, which delightful study his daughter afterward became distinguished : and it has generally been asserted that the eminent female botanist received from Lin- næus the high complement of having a plant of the tetrandrous class named Coldenia in honour of her merits. The Linnean correspondence, however, recently published by Sir James Ed- ward Smith, removes all doubt on the subject : the genus was so denominated as a tribute due to Dr. Colden himself. For it de- serves to be recollected, that Dr. Colden was the first American expositor of the Linnean system in the new world. This he taught on the banks of the Hudson almost immediately after its announce- ment by the illustrious Swede."t
Macgrath was a physician of the Radcliff school, and by birth a Scotchman : he settled in New York about 1740. He was noted for his wit as well as his knowledge ; and " seems to have been con- spicuous for his strenuous opposition to the practice of employing cold water externally in the treatment of febrile and inflammatory disorders."# Dr. John Bard was eminently distinguished as a practitioner in New York for a period of more than fifty years. He was author of an interesting account of the malignant pleurisy which prevailed at Long Island in the year 1749, besides some other medical papers.§ Dr. Ogden, of Long Island, introduced
* Communicated by G. B. Rapelye, Esq.
t Dr. Francis's life of Colden, in Family Magazine of New York, vol. 5, pub- lished by Redfield.
# Dr. Francis.
@ Hosack and Francis's Amer. Med. and Philosophical Register. -
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the use of mercury in the treatment of the malignant sore throat. Dr. Samuel Bard, eminent for his learning and practical skill, wrote on the scarlatina suffocativa about the same time. In 1775, John Jones, an eminent practitioner and surgeon, published his work on wounds and fractures. This book was intended as a guide for young surgeons about to enter into the service of the American army. We find the same John Jones, with Samuel Bard, Samuel Clossy, James Smith, (the brother of the historian of New York,) John V. B. Tenant, F. R. S., and Peter Middle- ton, the founders and first professors of the medical school estab- lished in New York in 1768. This school was connected with Columbia College, then called King's College, and the first medi- cal degrees of M. D. were conferred by them on Samuel Kissam and Robert Tucker ; on the former in 1769, and on the latter in 1770. In the records of the early medical literature and science of this state, we also find Richard Bayley, a native of Connecticut, and born 1745, but whose professional life was appropriated to the benefit of the city of New York, and whose papers on the croup and yellow fever will long be cited among the most important- contributions to the science of healing ; and William Moore, M.D., a native of Newtown, Long Island, who though little known as an author, was long pre-eminent as a practitioner of medicine in New York .*
Were it within our prescribed limits, there are many others whom it would be our duty to notice at some length in these pages as useful and honoured members of the medical faculty, whose career of professional life began shortly after the close of the re- volutionary contest of the colonies with the mother country, and who have paid the debt of nature within a late period ; as Nicholas Romayne, Samuel L. Mitchill, Edward Miller, David Hosack, Wright Post, and others.
1
The charter for the New York Hospital, in Broadway, was granted by Lord Dunmore, the governour of the province, 1771, at the instance of Peter Middleton, John Jones, and Samuel Bard. Dr. Bard in particular may be considered its projector. In 1775 the Hospital was burnt down by accident.
* See Dr. Thacher's valuable biography of distinguished American physicians.
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