USA > New York > Westchester County > History of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the county of Westchester, from its foundation, 1693, to 1853 > Part 23
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seven days' at the parish house, at 2s. 6d. per day
0 17 6
£67 17 6
Collecting money
3 11 6
£71 90
Quoted as follows :
Rye - 4
-
-
-
£35 10 0
Bedford
-
-
-
-
17 00
Mamaroneck
10 12 0
Scarsdale
-
-
-
-
5 00
North Castle
-
-
-
3 70
-
-
-
-
£71 90
Upon the 25th of April, 1727, the Vestry addressed the fol- lowing letter to the Secretary of the Venerable Society :---
W. BURNET.
241
AND CHURCH OF RYE.
REV. SIR,
The Churchwardens and Vestrymen of ye parish of Rye have ordered me to return their humble thanks to you and the Honourable Society for ye favour of yours of September 30th, in which you acquaint us that the Honourable Society have consented to ye exchange for which we had humbly ad- dressed, and accordingly have appointed ye Rev. Mr. Wetmore, to be our minister, which is very much to ye satisfaction of ye whole parish, even those who are dissenters from our Church.
And now we are once more peaceably settled, we hope by the blessing of God, to see religion revive among us, which by con- tentions and divisions, is sunk to a very low ebb. As the Rev. Mr. Wetmore has been born in the country, and long known among us, who has had his conversation becoming his sacred character and profession, we doubt not but ye people of this Par- ish, will continue their affection to him, and hope to see this good fruit of it, viz : that they be brought to a proper sense of religion, and more general and constant attendance in ye public worship and sacraments, which, for a long time have been very much neglected among us. We earnestly pray for the blessing of Almighty God, upon that Venerable Society, whose extensive charity, (under God,) finds food for so many souls, famishing in ignorance and error, and shall always look upon ourselves strict- ly bound to pay it, the greatest honour and most cheerful obedi- ence to all their commands and directions, and beg leave to sub- scribe with all dutiful respects,
Rev. Sir, your and ye Honourable Society's most humble and obedient servants,
[Signed by order of the Vestry,]
JOHN CARHARTT, Clerk."a
In answer to a letter from the Secretary, dated December 30th, 1726, Mr. Wetmore replies :-
· Church Records of Rye, p. 38.
16
242
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
MR. WETMORE TO THE SECRETARY.
Rye, May 11th, 1727.
REV. SIR,
"I received yours of December 30th, wherein you acquaint me that the Honourable Society have appointed the Rev. Mr. Col- gan, to New-York, and me to Rye, according to our request, for which I return my humble thanks ; and inasmuch as the people of Rye appear to me to be much gratified by this exchange, I shall endeavour to make the best use I can of the good affection they profess to me, to promote the interest of piety and religion among them, which seems to be sunk to a very low ebb. My labours have been divided the winter past, between Westches- ter and Rye, but so that when I preached for Mr. Colgan at Rye, he preached for me at Westchester, and our labours have not been without success. Besides those baptized by him in both Par- ishes, I have baptized about 40 infants, and one adult person, and have had 7 adult persons apply to me for baptism, whom I have. deferred for further preparations, two of which are ne- groes. I have admitted to the communion, three new communi- cants, all converts from Dissenters; and several others with whom I have taken particular pains, have promised to come to the com- munion when they shall have gained some further knowledge of the virtne and necessity of the institution. The town of Rye, tho' by much the greater part Dissenters, have upon my request, chosen trustees, who are impowered to raise a tax upon the town, to repair and finish the Church, which is now in a very poor condition, and I have promised to give them a bell if they will build a steeple to hang it in, which I believe they will comply with. I shall be able to give more particular accounts of the state of the Parish, when I have been some longer time with them. Mr. Henry Caner, being, as he tells me, about to undertake a voyage to England, to offer himself to the service of the Honour- able Society, I beg leave to recommend him as a person of a good character among us, and qualified to serve the Church, sober, grave, and exemplary in his conversation, and of good report,
243
AND CHURCH OF RYE.
even among those that are without, of whom I speak with the greater assurance both as to his piety and loyalty to his Majesty, because I have been personally and intimately acquainted with him for more than three years. It is matter of joy to me, to see so many new churches going forward in this country, and the good position of so many people in all parts of it, notwithstand- ing the violence and bitterness of its numerous adversaries. I pray God to bless and reward the charity of that Venerable Body, which gives life and motion to the church in these parts, and beg leave to subscribe with all dutiful regard,
Rev. Sir, Yours, and the Honourable Society's, most humble and obedient servant,
JAMES WETMORE."a
On the 16th of January, 1727, the vestry voted that a drum be bought out of ye money in Bank, for the use of the Parish, and chose Joseph Bloomer, Clerk of ye Church, drummer for ye year insuing.b In the fall of 1727, Mr. Wetmore reports "he hath baptized one adult, and 35 children, one of which is a negro, and has had three more communicants ; that he is preparing 5 or 6 for baptism, 2 of which are negroes, and that his congrega- tion increases and have been much more constant and steady in attending the Church, the last summer, than formerly."
In reply to certain enquiries from the Secretary, Mr. Wet- more gives the following account of his Parish :-
MR. WETMORE TO THE SECRETARY.
Rye, February 20th, 1727-S.
REV. SIR,
"Yours of June 16th, came not to hand, till the 14th of Novem- ber. I have since used my utmost diligence to prepare myself to
a New-York MSS. from Archives at Fulham, vol. i. p. 676-7. (Hawks'.)
৳ Church Records, p. 40.
244
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
answer the queries contained therein, which is something difficulty considering the large extent of my Parish, in which is but one Church, viz : the Town of Rye, built by a license from Lord Cornbury, Governour of New York, in the year 1706, the mate- rials of which are rough stone, from the foundation to the roof, and the east end was first built with stone to the top, but the wea- ther beating through to the prejudice of the ceiling, it has been since pulled down and built with wood and shingled, and the ceiling repaired, which cost £30, which £30 was part of a year's salary, after Mr. Bridge's death, applied to that use by order of the General Assembly. The chief promoter of the Church, and its greatest benefactor, was Col. Caleb Heathcote, who gave the nails and all the iron work; Mr. Muirson paid the masons, whose work amounted to about £40, whether he procured the money by donations in York, or otherways, I can't certainly find ; the remainder was paid by a tax upon the Town, but nothing of the inside was then done, but the ceiling. In the Rev. Mr. Bridge's time, a subscription was promoted for finishing the Church, but nothing more was done, than building the pulpit and altar, and laying part of the place afterwards. When Mr. Jenney was minister of the Parish, £8 was raised by the Parish to make shutters for the windows, and six pieces were built by particular men. Upon the first town meeting after I was ap- pointed to this parish, I prayed the town to take into considera- tion the neglected and ruinous state of the Church, being gone very much to decay, and to think of some method that would be most acceptable to the people, to put it into a better condition ; upon which they chose trustees, to repair it according to an act of Assembly of the Province, empowering trustees so chosen to repair public buildings. These trustees made a tax of £100, and immediately provided for repairing and finishing the Church, and have put a new cover of cedar shingles upon it, the old one which was of oak, being worn out ; they have also finished the floor and all the pews, and would have proceeded to repair the doors and glass which are gone much to decay, and to paint the walls and clean the church, but are obliged to cease for the present, by reason of some opposition they meet with
245
AND CHURCH OF RYE.
from some of the Presbyterian party, instigated by a very troub- lesome fellow, one John Walton, who set up for a Teacher among them, before my being appointed here, from whom I have met with a great deal of opposition. These Presbyterians have com- menced a law suit against the collector of the tax, and tho' we hope they will finally get no advantage, yet it caused the work to cease; but I hope we shall find some method to revive it again and to build a steeple, to encourage which, I have promised to give them a bell when the steeple is finished. The Church is 49 feet in length from west to east, and 34 feet in width; there are two large aisles in the Church, one from the west door up to the altar, the other from the south door up to the reading pew, which stands before the pulpit ; the rest is now filled in with handsome pews, the altar is raised two steps and railed in, but a poor al- tar piece. We have a silk carpet for the communion table, and a pulpit cloth, given by Queen Anne, of blessed memory, with a Chalice and Paten ; we have a folio Bible and Common Prayer Book, worn old, given by the Honourable Society, or by the Queen, as also the library as usual to every minister.
There is a salary of £50 per annum, New-York money, which is equivalent to about £31 sterling, settled by an Act of Assembly upon an orthodox minister, called by the Vestry, and inducted by the Governour. This Vestry consists of ten men and two Churchwardens, to be chosen annually, the second Fri- day in January, by the votes of the whole parish. The glebe is a small, old house, and three acres of land lying near the Church, one acre of which was given by Justice Denham, and about eight acres, a mile distant, lying in such a form as to be of very little use, but at present rented for three bushels of wheat per annum, for seven years. The house was first built by the town for a Presbyterian minister, before there was a church in town, but never any particular settlement of it upon any ; when a minister of the Church came, and they had no Presbyterian minister, the house was put into his possession and enjoyed successively with the glebe, by the minister of the Church, but the Presbyterian party threatening to give trouble about it in
246
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
Mr. Jenney's time, he procured a survey of it for the Church, and got it entered upon the public records of the Province ; he also repaired the house, which was almost fallen down, being neglected by Mr. Bridge, who thought it not worth repairing.
When the Church was first built, the town was but small and the people poor. I find by an old list, that the number of people taxed for building the Church were about ninety-three, some of which were widows, and some young men without fam- ilies, and tho' they were generally Presbyterians, by Col. Heath - cote's influence, and Mr. Muirson's industry and good behaviour, and the Governour of the Province being zealous to encourage the Church, they all united in building the Church, and fre- quented the worship in it, as long as Mr. Muirson lived, and so they did in Mr. Bridge's time, but after his death they fell into division, and invited a Presbyterian minister among them, and tho' they have never had one ordained in the Presbyterian or In- dependent way, yet they have kept up their party, and whenever there has been a vacancy, the Independent ministers from the Col- ony of Connecticut have then especially been very busy to strengthen that party and increase their prejudices against the Church. This Walton I before mentioned, took an opportunity to get into the parish at a time when there was a contest be- tween the Rev. Mr. Jenney and the people, concerning the salary, during the vacancy after Mr. Bridge's death, which the Vestry raised, rather than stand a trial at law, and Mr. Jenney laid it out in repairing the house and glebe, but many that before came to the Church, and some who had been communicants in Mr. Bridge's time (yet always lovers of Independency) being now disaffected, readily fell in with this Walton, and being a bold, noisy fellow, of a volible tongue, drew the greatest part of the town after him, and he has taken all imaginable pains to give them ill impressions of the Church ; he spurred them forward to build one meeting house at the White Plains, about six miles from the Church, and has set them on to build another in the town, within about one hundred rods of the Church, to defray the expenses of which, they have obtained briefs from the
247
AND CHURCH OF RYE.
General Assembly of Connecticut Colony, to beg in all the towns and villages of that Colony, who being great enemies of the Church, have contributed largely out of mere opposition to the Church. I have used my utmost diligence and prudence since my coming among them, to dispose them to a reconcilia. tion, and to establish and strengthen the wavering, and my en- deavours have, in some degree, been successful. I have brought some over to the Church, several to the communion, and in- spired others with a greater love and zeal for the worship and constitution of the Church, tho' it must be confessed to their shame, there is still a very great indifference and slackness in attending the public worship of God, among those that profess themselves churchinen, as well as among the sectaries.
As to the general condition, employ, and business of those who frequented the Church at first, their estates lay much in unimproved lands, and I can't learn that they raised much, if anything, for the market, but what they trafficked with was chiefly wood and cattle. As to their sentiments in matters of religion, I have already intimated they were by profession, Pres- byterians, and always loved the Independent principles, but the Act of Assembly providing for the support of a ministry, being so worded as to give the benefit only to ministers of the Church of England, tho' many of the Assembly perhaps might design otherways- - and the Governour's being zealous to encourage the Church, and Colonel Heathcote, being in the parish, a man of great influence over the people, and especially the better sort; and Mr. Muirson being acceptable to the people by his sober and grave conversation, and very industrious to remove the scruples they had conceived, and their prejudices against the Church, they generally fell in to encourage and promote the Church, and frequented the worship of it, but those of them now liv- ing, who have left the Church, say they were always Presbyte- rians, but while they were in no condition to get a minister ac- cording to their own mind, they thought it was better to go to Church than to have no religion, (tho' we have some now that are hardly of that opinion.) Their manner of living was at
1
248
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
first somewhat more compact than it is now, for as they increase, they move out into the woods, and settle, where they can get good farms. The Parish consists of three towns, Rye, and Mamaro- neck, about four or five miles south, and Bedford, about twenty miles north. The nearest English Church is Westchester, about fifteen miles north from Rye, and very bad travelling in the winter and spring, but in the summer, pretty good, but from Bedford to Westchester is thirty five miles and always bad trav- elling.
The parish is very much improved since the first settling of the Church here, especially as to their numbers, and tho' there are many that live very meanly, and counting the value of un- improved lands (all which belonged to a few men, and now sold or divided among their children) we may look upon the former inhabitants as possessing better estates than most of their children now ; yet 'tis certain in general, that the manufacture of the country is very much increased, and there are more hun- dreds of bushels of wheat sent to market in a year now, than single bushels twenty years past. There are now in the whole parish, as I find by the several lists for the year past, three hun- dred and forty persons upon whom the tax is levied, heads of families, and young men in the township of Rye two hundred, in Mamaroneck twenty, in the Manor of Scarsdale thirty, in Bedford sixty, and thirty in North Castle, a new settlement be- tween Rye and Bedford, about six miles from Bedford ; this place was chiefly settled by people of no religion at all, very ig- norant and barbarous, being descendants of the Long Island Quakers, and having more knowledge of Quakerism than of any other religion, are more receptive of that, but there being a few people of the Church among them, Mr. Jenney first began to take pains with them, preached among them, and baptized several, tho' they are since all returned to Quakerism or nothing ; and 'tis certain they have left the Church, partly by the instiga- tion of the Quakers (who have been very busy among them while they were long neglected) from Mr. Jenney's being called to Hempstead, at my being fixed here, and partly upon disgust,
249
AND CHURCH OF RYE.
being disappointed of some preferments they expected Mr. Jen- ney would procure for them, and being reproved for bringing a scandal upon religion by their loose and irregular living ; how- ever, there are a few sober people that live there, and to accom- modate them and Bedford, or at least some from Bedford that are willing to come to Church, I preach once in about five weeks at North Castle. There are three meeting houses in the parish, one at Bedford, built for, and used by the Presbyterians, one in the township of Rye, about seven miles from the Church, towards North Castle, built last year by the Quakers, and one at White Plains, in the township of Rye, about six miles from the Church, built last year by the followers of Walton, who are the old Independent party, and they are about building another near the Church. The haughty, insolent behaviour of Walton, drew upon him the displeasure of the dissenting teachers. on which account he removed from the parish a few days ago, but introduced a young man to be his successor, who holds forth one Sunday at White Plains, and another in the town of Rye, alternately, for which they give him £50 per annum, which they raise by subscriptions; they have besides given him money to purchase a house and land, but how much I can't tell. The Quakers have no constant holder forth among them, but keep silent meetings, unless when some travelling speaker chances to straggle among them, and then they follow it every day in the week, from one place to another, taking all imagina- ble pains to seduce the ignorant and unstable. At Bedford they have had a Presbyterian minister, they gave him a house and farm to work upon, and £40 per annum, but finding it not suf- ficient to support him with a numerous family, he has left them, and they are now settled with another young man, to whom they give the same allowance. As to the number of people dissent- ing from the Church, of all sorts throughout the parish, they are much the greater part at Mamaroneck. They are chiefly Qua- kers in the town of Rye; the number of Church people and Independents are near equal, about sixty families each-about fifteen families, Quakers, and the rest are a sort of people that
250
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
frequent no manner of public worship, and by all I can learn have no private worship, neither. There are some of this sort at North Castle, about ten families of the Church, and the rest Quakers ; at Bedford, there are about eight or ten families of the Church, and the rest Presbyterians or Independents ; at the Manor of Scarsdale, about eight families of the Church, and the rest Dissenters of one denomination or another. There are no more Dissenting teachers in the Parish than I have mentioned, these officiate without any sort of ordination, and without qual- ifying themselves according to the act of toleration; in that peo- ple are suffered to do and say what they please about religion under a notion that the laws of England relating to religion, don't extend to the Plantations. As to schools for teaching children, there are several poor ones in the different parts of the parish ; while Mr. Cleator had his sight, they tell me he kept a constant and good school, but now, where a number of fami- lies live near together, they hire a man and woman at a cheap rate, subscribing every one what they will allow ; some masters get £20 per annum, and their diet, some £12, but there is no public provision at all for a school in this parish, except what the Honourable Society allow Mr. Cleator, nor is there any do- nations or benefactions to the minister or schoolmaster, besides what I have mentioned, nor is there any library besides the Honourable Society's.
The number of negroes in the parish is about one hundred; since Mr. Cleator has been blind and unable to teach school he has taken pains with the negroes, so many as their masters would allow to come, but of late, they have left coming alto- gether; those that belong to Quaker masters, they will allow them no instruction; some Presbyterians will allow their ser- vants to be taught, but are unwilling they should be baptized, and those of the Church are not much better, so that there is but one negro in the parish, baptized. I had two of my own, which I baptized, but I have lately sold them out of the parish, and I have another, which I have instructed and design to baptize very speedily.
251
AND CHURCH OF RYE.
Since I received my Lord of London's letters to the masters and mistresses, I have taken particular pains with them, and they give me encouragement that they will send them to be in- structed, if the masters can agree upon some regulations to pre- vent the common inconveniencies of their meeting together, and I hope I shall prevail upon many of them to send their servants upon Sunday afternoons, and if Mr. Cleator can do anything towards the instruction it will be a pleasure to the good old man and I shall assist him in it myself, and endeavour that many of them may be brought to receive Christian baptism.
This is the most true and exact account I can anyways give in answer to the queries contained in your letter.
Rev. Sir, your and the Honourable Society's most obedient humble servant, JAMES WETMORE."ª
The Society's abstracts for 1728, say : " letters have been receiv- ed from the Rev. Mr. Wetmore, missionary at Rye, in New- York, that his congregation is considerably increased ; that since his last, he hath had nine new communicants, and hath bap- tized seventeen children, and five adults, one of which is a ne. gro slave; that he hath four negroes under instruction, whom he expects to baptize in a month ; that there are many unbap- tized persons in that parish, and many careless livers who seem wholly thoughtless of a future state and quite indifferent about religion, however, he has had some success in his endeavours to reclaim them; that at North Castle, a new settlement in the woods, there are more than forty families, most of which are unbaptized, and that he preaches there every fifth Sunday to accommodate that place and Bedford, about six miles further northward, that a great many of the people come to church, and he hath baptized four adults and sundry children there."
From a letter of Mr. Wetmore, to the Secretary, dated Rye, Province of New-York, November 1st, 1728, we extract the fol- lowing :
· New-York MSS. from Archives at Fulham, vol. i. 683, 694. (Hawks'.)
-
252
HISTORY OF THE PARISH
REV. SIR,
"There are many whole families I have found that were never baptized, and there are many more in which some part are bap- tized, and some not, and to find out the exact number through the parish, is exceeding difficult, but I shall endeavour as fast as I can, to acquaint myself with the state of every family, and persuade those to their duty, who have hitherto neglected it.
There are three large families in this Town, that I have taken particular pains with, to convince them of the necessity and importance of attending that Institution, in one of those families there are eleven children, some of them grown to years of un- derstanding; the mother has desired me to baptize them; the children grown up, frequent the Church. The father is a Qua- ker, and will not consent to their being baptized. The mother would have it done without his knowledge, and this is not the only instance of this nature I have been puzzled with."a
In 1728, the Society appointed Mr. Flint Dwight, a native of New England, educated at Harvard College, to be catechist and school master amongst the poor people at North Castle, in the Parish of Rye, in New-York.
At a meeting of the Vestry, on the 3d of February, 1729, "it was moved whether the money voted to be raised for buying a pall, at the last meeting of the Vestry should be raised according as it was then voted, or not, and it was now carried in the affir- mative by a great majority, and with thisexplanation, that it is a convenient provision for the poor, for their decent interment."b
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