USA > New York > Westchester County > History of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the county of Westchester, from its foundation, 1693, to 1853 > Part 33
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In regard to this conformity of the people of Eastchester to the Church of England, Mr. Hawkins says :- " That the popu- lation of Eastchester was 400, who being Presbyterians, obtain- ed an act, by which they were formed into a separate parish, and obtained a minister of their own persnasion ; but on Mr. Bartow's coming among them, they were so well satisfied with the liturgy and doctrine of the Church, that they forsook their minister and conformed to the Church of England."
In an address to the Venerable and Honourable Society for Propagating the Gospel, the following account is given of the building of the church at Eastchester :-
" May it please the Venerable and Honourable Society for Propagating the Gospel,-
We, whose names are subscribed, do hereby certify, that the
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Church of Eastchester was built in the year of our Lord, 1692, by subscription of the inhabitants of said town, and that Mr. Matthews, a Presbyterian minister, for about three years, and after him Mr. Morgan, a Presbyterian minister, did preach till such time as Mr. Bartow began to preach unto us in the year 1703, since which time it has been in his possession, and he comes and preaches at Eastchester once in four weeks during the Winter, and once in eight weeks during the space of six months in the Summer.
And we further certify that the town of Eastchester was made a distinct parish from Westchester in the year 1700."
About this time the inhabitants addressed the following peti- tion to Governour Cornbury, asking for an abatement in their annual quota and thanking him for directing Mr. Bartow to preach among them :-
PETITION FROM EASTCHESTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, &c.
" The Humble Petition of John Drake, Joseph Drake and William Chadder- ton in the behalf of themselves and the Inhabitants of Eastchester,
Sheweth :
That Col. Heathcote, did, at the request of your Excellency's Petitioners, move your Excellency to give directions that what the Vestry had layd on the parish of Westchester for incidental charges over the minister's rate and consta- ble's allowance for allowing the same, might be aba ted from the quoata layd on our place, we being burthened with much more than our just proportion of that tax ; that Col. Heathcote did thereupon inform your Excellency's Petitioners, that your Excellency had been pleased to direct that some of the Justices which lived without the precincts, should make inquiry into that matter and make report thereof to your Excellency, but the Justices not being able before this time to get in the list of estates was the cause of the delay of that return, so hope your Excellency will pardon our not leavying what was layd upon us, by the late Ves- try, and will, in your great goodness and justice, protect us from paying more than our fair and equal proportion, which we shall always most readily do, so long as your Excellency shall think fitt to continue us joyned to that Parish. We are exceeding thankful that your Excellency hath been pleased to direct Mr. Bartow to preach sometimes amongst us, for we assure your Excellency that 'tis our earnest desires to come under the Regulation of the Church of England, as by law established, and so is our minister, Mr. Morgan, for which reason we are desirous to continue him amongst us, and maintaine him by subscription untill such times as your Excellency shall think fitt to have the parishes in the County otherwise divided, which are at present so very inconvenient, that not half of the
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HISTORY OF THE PARISH
people can have the benefit of the ministry. Your Excellency will find, by the re- turn of the Justices, that our divident of the late rate ought not to have been more than £7 5s. 6d., and the Vestry have layd £15 10s. upon us, and there being £7 10%, layed on the parish, besides the Minister's rate and the Constables's al- lowance for leavying the same, under the name of incidental charges, and that some, by the inequality of the division falling wholly upon us; we therefore, most humbly implore your Excellency to direct that we may pay no more at this time than £8, and for the future only our equal divident, and as in duty bound, your Excellency's Petitioners shall Ever Pray, &c.
-
JOHN DRAKE, JOSEPHI DRAKE, WILLIAM CHATTERTON." ®
The foregoing petition shows conclusively, that although Eastchester had been declared a seperate parish from Westches- ter, as early as 1700, yet the Colonial Governors still considered it as joined to that parish according to the prior aet of 1693.
This the inhabitants also acknowledged by the annual election of three Vestrymen for the precinet and paying the yearly rates laid on the parish. The choice of a minister, however, and , providing for his support, had been lodged by the aet of 1693, in the Vestry, and the choice of a Vestry in the people. Iuto the church and freehold of the parsonage lot (as it was then styled) of Eastchester, Mr. Bartow had been legally presented by the Vestry and inducted by the Governour's mandate, as we have al- ready seen.
At a meeting held by the Justices and Vestry of Westchester, the 12th of December, 1705, " John Smith, of Eastehester, consta- ble, in the year 1704, proved the payment of £9 17s. 6d., which is the full proportion of said Town for that year." The Vestry agreed that, " Mr. Bartow, if he pleased, shall preach at East- chester every fourth Sabbath day, which was condescended to by Mr. Bartow."
Upon the 25th of February, 1711-12, "at a town meeting held by the freeholders of Eastchester, the said freeholders did agree by vote, that Judge Drake, Isaac Taylor, and Moses Fow- ler, should be empowered to constitute and hire a man or men,
* Doc. Hist. of N. Y. vol. III. 92-8.
.
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as they shall think proper, to repair and finish the meeting house and making a pulpit in the same; and also to have power to make a rate on all and every of the freeholders and inhabitants of the said town, that shall amount to as much money as shall defray the said charges." On the 20th of March following, this resolution was repealed and the same men em- powered to " Repair the meeting house, in making a pulpit and pew in it, and also seal and make seats in the same so far as the boards that are already bought will go."
The next year the Rev. John Bartow contributed £9 6s. 6d. towards rectifying the pews and seats in East and Westchester Churches.
In 1718, Mr. Bartow informs the Society that some efforts were being made to introduce a Presbyterian minister at East- chester. This must have been the celebrated William Tennent, who officiated here for a short time only, from whence he re- moved to Bedford.
MR. BARTOW TO THE SECRETARY.
[EXTRACT.] Westchester, in the Province of New- York, Nov. 18th, 1718.
WORTHY SIR,
" I am sorry that I have occasion to acquaint the Society that there are endeavours now on foot to bring in a Presbyterian minister at Eastchester. Some of their main agents have been with me and signified their design, from which I laboured to dis- suade them, but in vain, for they told me if I would undertake to come and preach every Lord's day in their town, they would be contented, otherwise, they would have a minister of their own. This has bred a division amongst . the people, and some are for it and some against it, which schism, I think, would effectually be ended if they had a minister of the Church of England to reside amongst thein."ª
Mr. Bartow, writing to the Secretary, in 1725, says :- " The
a New York MSS. from Archives at Fulham, vol. i. 555. (Hawks.)
24
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HISTORY OF THE PARISH
pulpit and wainscoat of the church at Eastchester, are since decently painted, and a new gallery built, and the Presbyterian minister when he comes not permitted to officiate therein."
Upon the death of Mr. Bartow, the Rev. Thomas Standard, was inducted " To the rectory of Westchester, the glebe thereof, and to all the rights and appurtenances of the same."
In the year 1728, Mr. Standard officiated every other Sunday at Eastchester and publicly catechised the children.a
" During Mr. Standard's ministry here, some trouble-making spirits arose, who sought to upset the action of those Presby- terians, who joined the Church in Mr. Bartow's time, and get possession of the old building. But religious contracts were found to be as binding as civil bargains. Mr. Standard says, " The Church at Eastchester was supposed to be included among the rights and appurtenances of Westchester parish : that Mr. Bartow was legally presented and inducted into the church, and died possessed of it ; that he too was legally presented and inducted, and therefore laid claim to it as his own proper right exclusive of them, and so kept them out of it.""b
In 1744, Mr. Standard, who had now taken up his residence in Eastchester, writes to the Secretary as follows :-
MR. STANDARD TO THE SECRETARY.
[EXTRACT.] Eastchester, May 14th, 1744.
REV. SIR,
" My Brother Vaughan informs me, that Archbishop Tennison hath left upon his will, £50 per annum, to be paid to the oldest missionary, being an Englishman, which missionary he saith I am, and that it will be necessary for me to go home in order to obtain it, which if I do, and apply to my Lord Chancellor, he doubts not of success ; and he further adds, that Mr. Talbot re- ceived the same during his time. If you, good sir, know any
a Printed Abstracts of Ven. Soc.
৳ See Rev. Henry E. Duncan's Jubilee Sermon for 1851.
-
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thing of that affair, be pleased to communicate it to me and to intercede for leave for me to come home.
I am yours and the Venerable Society's very humble servant,
THOMAS STANDARD."a
"The following year he informs the Society, that the parishes of East and Westchester are in a peaceable and growing state.
As church business was at this time transacted with town matters, we find the inhabitants electing a sexton for Eastches- ter. On April the 1st, 1755, it was resolved, " That Richard Stevens be appointed grave-digger for the town, for the year ensuing, and to dig a grown persons grave for six shillings and three shillings for children." On the 7th of April, 1756, the town appointed the same individual grave digger and sexton for the town.
In 1758, Mr. Standard presented the bell to the church, which still summons the parishioners every Lord's day to the house of prayer, and by it, " He being dead, yet speaketh."
At the commencement of this year, the aged missionary was called to mourn over the grave of an affectionate wife, who came to her death in a terrible manner, as appears by the fol- lowing extract taken from the New-York Post Boy, of February 6th, 1758 :- " We have the following most schocking and mel- ancholy account from Eastchester, viz :-- that on Friday morn- ing, the 27th of January, Mrs. Mary Standard, aged about seventy years, wife to the Rev. Doctor Thomas Standard, of that place, was found dead on the chimney hearth of one of the apartments in the house, having her head, the chief part of both her breasts, with her left arm and shoulder entirely burnt to cinders. It appears that the unfortunate old gentleman and his more unfortunate old lady, had, upon some necessary occasion the evening before, agreed to lay separate ; and the Doctor taking
a New York MSS. from Archives at Fulham, vol. ii. 152. (Hawk's). " In 1728 Mr. Delpech was schoolmaster at Eastchester."
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HISTORY OF THE PARISH
his leave, went to bed, leaving his wife sitting before the fire, where, it is imagined, the poor old gentlewoman must either have been seized with a fit, or in rising from her chair, had fallen into the fire, and being undoubtedly rendered unable to move herself, she became the most moving spectacle imaginable to the most affectionate and tender husband, who first discover- ed her in the morning."
The Rev. Thomas Standard died at Eastchester, in January, 1760, at the advanced age of nearly eighty, and was buried by the side of his wife, beneath the chancel of the old church, on the Green. In 1518, their bodies were removed by order of the Vestry and interred under the communion table of the present edifice. a
The Rev. John Milner succeeded Mr. Standard, under the auspices of the Venerable Propagation Society, and was induc- ted rector of the parish Church of Westchester, including the several districts of Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pelham, on the 12th of June, 1761.
The following extract from the town records relates to the parsonage lot, described in 1695, as "Lying upon the Green in Eastchester :"-" At a public town meeting called by the justices of the town to enquire into several encroachments on lands in said town, held in Eastchester, on Monday, the 30th day of Angust, 1762, it was agreed, that these men (Jonathan Fowler, Charles Vincent, John Fowler and Joseph Drake) should regu- late the parsonage, and to take a bond of Isaac Lawrence of in- demnity, to deliver up the same to the town again at his de- cease." b
It was during Mr. Milner's ministry that the foundation of the present church was laid. In a letter to the Secretary of the
a Their remains were found in a good state of preservation, but crumbled lo pieces on exposure to the atmosphere. Tradition says, that Mr. Standard gave certain lands to the Church on condition that the remains of himself and wife should be removed whenever a new edifice should be built.
Town Records of Eastchester.
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Venerable Society, dated Westchester, 1761, he says :- " The people of Eastchester have laid the foundation of a new church of stone, seventy one feet by eighty-eight, in the room of a small decayed wooden building erected in the infancy of the settle- ment.1
In the year 1766, Mark Christian was appointed sexton for the town, an office which he subsequently held under the trustees of the church. Upon the 1st of April, of that year, he was directed, "To take care of the Green, to see that hogs don't dig and to dig graves, and to find a good bier."a
On the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Milner, the Rev. Dr. Sea- bury, afterwards Bishop of Connecticut, and the first Ameri- can Bishop, was inducted rector of the parish Church of West- chester and its precincts, 3rd of Dec., 1765. June 25th, 1767, he writes to the Secretary in these words :- " At Eastchester, which is four miles distant, the congregation is generally larger than at Westchester. The old church in which they meet, as yet, is very cold. They have erected and just completed the roof of a large well built stone church, on which they have ex- pended, they say, £700 currency ; but their ability seems ex- hausted, and I fear I shall never see it finished. I applied last winter to his Excellency, Sir Henry Moore, for a brief in their favour, but the petition was rejected."
In 1777, he wrote to the Society :- " With regard to my own mission, I can only say, that it is utterly ruined." Services had. been suspended for some time in Eastchester, and the congrega- tion dispersed. At this period the church was used as an hos- pital, and subsequently served the purpose of a court house. The following item occurs in the records of the Court of Com- mon Pleas :- " At a Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery, held at the Church at Eastchester, in and for the County of Westchester, on Tuesday, the 12th day of June, in
" At a town meeting held 7th of April, 1767, " It was agreed, that Dr. Wright should not be molested in his burring yard on said Green in said Town."-Town Records.
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HISTORY OF THE PARISH
the year of our Lord, 1787, present, the Honourable Richard Morris, Esq., Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Indicatore, for the State of New-York, Stephen Ward, Jonathan J. Tomp- kins, Ebenezer S. Burling, and Benjamin Stevenson, Justices of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery for the County of Westchester, &c .??
St. Paul's Church, Eastchester, was first incorporated on the 12th of March, 1787, in pursuance of an Act of the Legislature, entitled :-
AN ACT TO ENABLE ALL THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS IN THE STATE, TO APPOINT TRUSTEES WHO SHALL BE A BODY CORPORATE FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAKING CARE OF THE TEMPORALITIES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE CONGREGATIONS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES THEREIN MENTIONED.
Passed 6th April, 1781.
" The preamble of this act recites the 38th article of the Constitution.
Article 1 .- Directs that not less than three or exceeding nine in number of Trustees, are to be elected, to transact all affairs relative to the temporalities of their respective churches.
Article 4 .- Whether the same consist of lands, tenements. &c., and whether"the same shall have been given, granted or devised to and for their use, and they and their successors shall lawfully have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy all and sin- gular the churches, meeting houses, parsonages, burying places and lands there- unto belonging, with the hereditaments and appurtenances heretofore by the said church occupied or enjoyed, by whatsoever name or names, person or persons, as if the same were purchased and had, or to them given or granted, or by them or any of them used and enjoyed for the uses aforesaid, to them and their successors, to the sole and only proper use and benefit of them the said Trustees and their Successors for ever, &c.
Article. 6 .- And the Trustees are also to regulate and order the renting the pews în the said churches, and the perquisites of the said church arising from the brea- king of the ground in the cemetery, or church yard, and in the churches for burying the dead, &c., a
Under this Act, the following persons were elected Trustees :
· " The trustees were directed to make an annual report between the 1st of Janua- ry, and the Ist of April, to the Chancellor, or one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, or any of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, &c." Laws of N. Y., 1778 to 1787, Greenleaf's edition, Vol. i. chap. xviii, 71.
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" Thomas Bartow, John Wright, Isaac Ward, Elisha Shute, Lewis Guion, and Philip Pell, jun.
After this incorporation, all management of the Church and Church property at town meetings is dropped. The Church now manages her own affairs, her power and right to do so, be- ing fully recognized by the town, for upon the 3d of April, 1787, prior to the incorporation, it was resolved at town meet- ing, " To erect a school house, and to set it on the Green near where the stocks formerly stood," but this resolution was never carried into effect, because the Church had been incorporated, and consequently claimed the Green exclusively as her own. In 1790, therefore, it was ordered by thetown, " To build the school house on town g ound, by Charles Guion's, where it formerly stood." Again, at a town meeting in 1792, it was declared " That the burial ground shall, and of right, ought to belong to the Church." After the election of the Trustees, too, the sexton was always appointed by the Church.
On the 10th of December, 1787, an agreement was entered into between a majority of the 'Trustees of the Episcopal Church in Eastchester, of the one part, and William Heskins, carpen- ter, of the other part, wherein the latter agreed " To erect and build a pulpit, reading desk, and clerk's seat in the said church, according to the dimensions in the plan by him exhibited to the said Trustees, and the form of the pulpit in the church at Yonkers, &c."
The Trustees not only anxious to finish the church, but to obtain the services of a suitable minister, addressed the follow- ing letter to the Rev. Mr. Moore, afterwards Bishop of the Dio- cese :-
TO THE REV. BENJAMIN MOORE.
Eastchester, 15th Dec., 1787.
REV. SIR,
" We have this day disposed of the pew ground in our church in a manner that promises success to our religious endeavours. We havealso a prospect of completing our church in a respectable
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HISTORY OF THE PARISH
manner, and New Rochelle will join us in engaging a gentleman of the profession of the gospel to officiate in the two places. From a reliance on your pions wishes to promote the Christian Religion, we beg leave that whenever a gentleman of character, and qualified, in your opinion, for our purpose, may come to your knowledge, and whose condition may be adapted to our situation, that you'll please to signify the same to us.
We are, Rev. Sir, with much respect, your humble servants,
THE TRUSTEES."
In 1789, the Trustees appointed Marcus Christian for one year, bell ringer of the church, for which service he was al- lowed $4 per annum. a
The following year, the inhabitants of Eastchester appear to have associated themselves in the ministry, with the parish of Yonkers, for, "at a meeting of the Trustees, March 20th, 1790, Mr. Pell, one of the Trustees, produced a letter directed to the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, D. D., Bishop of the State of New-York, requesting the favor of his visiting the church in Eastchester next month, in order to ordain the Rev. Mr. Cooper, a priest for this and Yonkers church." On this occasion, William Crawford was requested to render an account of the rent due the church from him, for the glebe.
In 1792, we find the town defining the boundaries necessary for the church, for a yard and burial ground ; accommodating the remainder, of what was called the Church Green, (the site of
a At a meeting of the Vestry on the 7th of May, 1791, " Marcus Christian, the sexton to the church in Eastchester, was sent for and examined respecting the bell's being rung on Saturday, the 30th of April, on the family of James Bogart's mo- ving out of this place, which charge lie denied, and, in his examination, said he was lame in bed, and was not at the church that day. He was further examined on his former conduct, on his selling licure in the belfrie of the church, on a training day, which he acknowledged. Whereupon they did agree he was not worthy to keep the keys of the church, or to be employed as sexton ; upon which he delivered the key and was dismissed the service.".
In 1791 James Pell was elected sexton and bell ringer. He was succeeded by Benjamin Bartow in 1794.
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the old church, and burial place of one of its ministers) to pub- lic occasions, and appointing trustees to carry the same into exe- cution, notwithstanding the church had been in possession ex- clusively for near'y one hundred years.
" At a town meeting held in Eastchester, 3d of April, 1792, it was agreed as follows :- and it is also agreed by vote at this town meeting, that there shall be three trustees chosen, who shall have power, and are hereby authorized to affix and ascertain, in conjunction with the trustees of, the Episcopal Church of the town of Eastchester, the quantity and boundaries of the land necessary for said church and burying ground, and such boundaries when so fixed and determined on shall be declared in a certificate by the said trustees of the town, which is now to be chosen, under their hands and seals, and delivered to the Trustees of said Church, which certificate shall forever hereafter operate as a bar to any claim of this town to the lands within the said described boundaries. Power was also given to the trustees to lease out any of the public lands and tenements to the best advantage. The meeting proceeded to nominate and choose three men as trustees of said town, viz : Nehemiah Marshall, Benjamin Morgan, and James Morgan.
The following certificate appears in the town books immedi- ately after the above resolution :-
" Whereas, we, the subscribers, by a vote and order of the town meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Eastchester, in the County of Westchester, held in said town on the 3d day of April, 1792, were authorized and empowered to affix and ascertain, in conjunction with the Trustees of the Episcopal Church in Eastchester aforesaid, the boundaries and quantity of land necessary and conve- nient for said church, and for a burial place adjacent to the same.
And whereas, we, the said subscribers, having on the day of the date hereof, met with a majority of the trustees of said church, and having proceeded to view the premises, and in order to furnish the said church with sufficiency of ground for a yard and burial ground, and also to accommodate the remainder of what is called the Green, to public occasions, Do, in pursuance of the trust re- posed in us by the vote or order abovementioned, hereby certifiy, that the said trustees of the church aforesaid shall, and of right ought to possess the ground comprehended within the limits following, for the use and purposes aforesaid, that is to say :- Beginning at the distance of 343 feet directly north-east, from the north-east corner of said Church, from thence extending in a straight line wes- terly, observing the distance of 23 feet from the front of said church, until it comes to the edge of the bank between the upland and salt marsh, thence southerly by the said bank and marsh, until it comes to the fence by the salt meadows, at a monument stone, from thence easterly along said fence, until a line be drawn par- allel from the first mentioned boundaries, at the distance of 20 feet from the east side of said church, will touch the said fence, and along that line to the first men- tioned bounds. Nevertheless, always reserving to the proprietors of salt meadow›
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