USA > New York > The centennial history of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of New York, 1785-1885 > Part 12
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"Colonel Peter Livingston acquaints us that he is to set off for town to-morrow. I am going to the Manor to trouble him with a few lines to inform you that we have received the articles you sent by the Judge's sloop, and to return Basford Abbey, for the use of which I am much obliged to your son David. You cannot expect much news from our situation. I have been prevented from going to Nine Partners by an ugly wound my right-hand man, Master Hanlet, gave himself in the foot with an axe, as he was cutting wood. The chil-
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dren are all well, but Maria is poorly. If the farm is not yet advertised, I really think it would be advisable to mention it as for sale, as well as to be let. Mr. Livingston will be able, without doubt, to put you in the way of sending up the money that you are to receive for me."
After the colonies had gained their independence and New York had been evacuated by the British and their Loyalist allies, Mr. Provoost was unanimously elected rector of Trinity Church, January 13, 1784, and immediately removed with his family to the city, and entered upon the duties of his office, preaching his first sermon on the Sunday following from the text, " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" It so happens that the joyous event was described to the writer in his youth by a venerable and ardent patriot who was present, and who said : " It was a glorious occasion, and many friends of their Country met that day for the first time in years. There were no rascally Tories there that morning." The rector of Trinity received many other honorable marks of the high esteem in which he was then, and always, held by his Whig contemporaries.
Before the close of the year (1784) Mr. Provoost was made a member of the Board of Regents of the University, and when the Continental Congress removed from Trenton to New York, he was, in November, 1785, chosen as their chap- lain. In the summer of 1786 he was selected by the Dio- cesan Convention, which met at that time, as first Bishop of New York. The choice seems to have been made by a sim- ple resolution, " Resolved, That the Reverend Mr. Provoost be recommended for Episcopal Consecration." There is no record of a ballot .* Three weeks later he received from the University of Pennsylvania the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In November of the same year Dr. Provoost proceeded to England in company with his friend, Dr. William White.
* The testimonials of Dr. Provoost, as Bishop-elect of New York ; Dr. Will- iam White, as Bishop-elect of Pennsylvania ; and Dr. David Griffith, as Bishop- elect of Virginia, were signed by the members of the General Convention held at Wilmington, Del. (of which Convention Dr. Provoost was President) on the IIth of October, 1786 .- Berrian's Sketch of Trinity Church, New York, 1847.
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They arrived in London on Wednesday, the 29th of that month, and after various preliminaries had been duly settled, including their presentation to the primate by John Adams, the American Minister,* they were consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, February 4, 1787, by Dr. John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. William Markham, Arch- bishop of York, Dr. Charles Moss, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Dr. John Hinchcliff, Bishop of Peterborough, participat- ing in the ceremonial. It has been claimed that, as senior presbyter and also senior in years, Provoost was consecrated first. While it would be pleasant to assign this honor to New York, it would appear that it properly belongs to Penn- sylvania, the weight of the evidence being in favor of Dr. White's just claim to that distinction.t On the following day the bishops left London for Falmouth, which was reached in five days. Detained by contrary winds, they at length embarked on the 18th, reaching New York on the afternoon of Easter Sunday, April 8th, after a long and tem- pestuous passage, during which Dr. Provoost was so ill that for several days it was supposed he would die.
* Adams was particularly polite and cordial to the bishops elect, notwithstand- ing his being the author of the following lines : " If Parliament could tax us they could establish the Church of England with all its creeds, articles, tests, cere- monies, and tithes, and prohibit all other churches as conventicles and schism- shops."-Works, vol. x., p. 287.
+ Dr. Samuel Seabury, of Connecticut, the first bishop of the American Church, meeting with obstacles and objections to his consecration from the English bishops, proceeded to Scotland where he was consecrated at St. Andrews by three bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church, November 14, 1784. Chaplain- General Gleig, of the British Army, whose father was a Scottish Bishop (1753- 1839), in a letter to the author of this paper, dated March 10, 1886, says : "I am glad to learn that you are engaged in a work which cannot fail to interest very many readers both in America and in England. The rise and growth of a Church in a nation, or any portion of a nation, which has expanded like the United States, is perhaps the most important theme in the history of the nation itself. And when I add that my father played a considerable part in getting Bishop Sea- bury consecrated when sent out on his great mission, you will see that something more than mere love of antiquarian research will carry me through the perusal of your promised volume." It may be added that this venerable man and well-known writer, before he entered the ministry, fought with Wellington in Spain nearly four- score years ago, and was severely wounded in the battle of New Orleans.
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Samuel
Bishop Provoost immediately resumed his duties as rector of Trinity parish, the two posi- tions, in those primitive times, being filled by the same person. He was one of the Trustees of Columbia College, appointed by act of legis- lature April 13, 1787, reviving the original char- ter of that institution. Two years later, in the organization of a new Congress under the pres- ent constitution, the bishop was elected Chap- lain of the United States Senate. After his inauguration as the first President of the United States, Washington proceeded with the whole assemblage on foot from the spot now marked by his statue in Wall Street, to St. Paul's Chapel, where, in the presence of Vice-President Adams, Chancellor Livingston, Secretary Jay, Secretary Knox, Baron Steuben. Hamilton, and other distinguished citizens, Bishop Provoost read prayers suited to the occasion. So closed the inauguration cere- monies of General Washington. The first con- secration in which Provoost took part was that of the Rev. Thomas John Claggett for the Church of the Diocese of Maryland, being the earliest of that order of the ministry conse- crated in the United States. It occurred at Trinity Church, September 17, 1792, during a session of the General Convention. As the presiding bishop Dr. Provoost was the con- secrator, Bishops White of Pennsylvania, Sea- bury of Connecticut, and Madison of Virginia,* joining in the historic ceremony and uniting the Succession of the Anglican and Scottish episcopate; his last act in conferring the epis-
* Dr. James Madison was consecrated Bishop of Virginia in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, September 19, 1790. He was the third and last bishop of the American Church conse- crated by the bishops of the Anglican Church.
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copate was in joining with Bishop White, as consecrator, and Bishop Jarvis of Connecticut, in the imposition of hands at the consecration of the Rev. John Henry Hobart for the Diocese of New York, and the Rev. Alexander Viets Gris- wold of the Eastern Diocese, in Trinity Church, May 29, 18II.
Dr. Provoost's first ordination was the admitting, July 17, 1787, in St. George's Chapel, New York, as deacon, Richard Henry Moore; his last, the admission as priest of John Henry Hobart in Trinity Church in April, 1801. The first corner-stone laid by the bishop was at the rebuilding of Trinity Church, August 21, 1788 ; the last that of the present St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, April 25, 1795. These edi- fices, when ready for worship, were the first and the last conse- crated by him.
A special meeting of the corporation of Trinity parish was held at the house of Bishop Provoost, No. 53 Nassau Street, on December 20, 1799, on an occasion when the country was plunged in the deepest grief by the news of the death of Washington. The vestry were called together to give ex- pression to their sorrow. The record on their minutes from the pen of the bishop, is beautiful for its simple brevity. " ORDERED, That in consideration of the death of Lieutenant- General George Washington the several churches belonging to this corporation be put in mourning."
Mrs. Provoost died after a long and lingering illness August 18, 1799, which, with other domestic bereavements and declining health, induced the bishop to resign the rector- ship of Trinity Church, September 28th of the following year, and his bishopric on September 3, 1801. His resigna- tion was not accepted by the House of Bishops, by whom consent was, however, given to the consecration of Dr. Ben- jamin Moore as an assistant bishop. He was subject to apoplectic attacks, and from one of these he died suddenly, Wednesday morning, September 6, 1815, aged seventy-three years and six months .* His funeral at Trinity was numer-
"* Died suddenly this morning in the seventy-fourth year of his age, the Right
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ously attended. The sermon was delivered by the Rev. William Harris, rector of St. Mark's Church, and the place of his interment was the family vault in Trinity churchyard.
In person Bishop Provoost was above medium height. His countenance was round and full and highly intellectual .* He was stately, self-possessed, and dignified in manner, pre- senting, in the picturesque dress of that day, an imposing appearance. He was a fine classical scholar, and thoroughly versed in ecclesiastical history and church polity. He was learned and benevolent and inflexibly conscientious ; fond of society and social life. He was a moderate Churchman. Under his administration as rector, for seventeen years, of Trinity, the church was rebuilt on the same site, but on a much larger and more imposing scale. During his episcopate of fourteen years the Church did not advance as rapidly as during the same period under some of his successors. It must not, however, be forgotten that those were days of difficulties and depression in the Church, and that the people of Pennsylvania threatened to throw their bishop into the Delaware River, when he returned from England in 1787. While it cannot be claimed that Provoost is among those "upon the adamant of whose fame time beats without in- jury," or that he should rank with those eminent founders of
Rev. Samuel Provoost, D. D., of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New York.
As among such a number of relations and so long a list of friends, it is impos- sible to send particular invitations, without some, tho' involuntary, omissions, the friends and relatives of Mr. Colden, and generally the friends of the Church, are hereby invited to attend the funeral of the bishop from his late residence, No. 261 Greenwich Street, to-morrow afternoon at five o'clock .- Evening Post, Wednes- day, September 6, 1815.
* Among a most interesting group of portraits of rectors of Trinity, including the first and the last, in the vestry-room of Trinity Chapel, there are several of great artistic excellence and value. There is to be seen a particularly fine picture, by Copley, of Dr. John Ogilvie ; another by Inman, of Bishop Moore, and the admirable portrait, by Benjamin West, of Bishop Provoost, from which the front- tispiece of this volume is engraved. A good copy of the painting is in the gallery of the New York Historical Society-the gift of Cadwallader D. Colden, the bishop's son-in-law. Another portrait of Provoost is in the possession of the Bishop of Western New York.
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the American Church, Seabury and White, or with the epoch- makers Hobart and Whittingham, it may with confidence be asserted that for elegant scholarship Bishop Provoost had no peer among his American contemporaries. To his polished discourses he gave the greatest care. They were characterized by force and felicity of diction, if not rising to the rank of the highest order of pulpit eloquence. So indifferent was he to literary distinction that I cannot discover that this faithful and diligent student ever printed a single discourse or brochure of any description. He translated Tasso's " Jerusalem De- livered," for which congenial work he found ample leisure on his Dutchess County farm. It was never given to the world, nor any of his occasional poems in English, French, and Ger- man of which examples are in the writer's possession. He conversed freely with Steuben and Lafayette in their own languages and had several Italian correspondents. He was the trusted friend of Washington, John Adams, Jay, and Ham- ilton, one of whose sons was believed to be the last survivor of all who enjoyed a personal acquaintance with the bishop and had sat at his hospitable board in the Greenwich Street residence where he died. There, and in his previous place of resi- dence, corner of Nassau and Fair Streets, the bishop gathered around him at his weekly dinner-parties most of the prominent men of the city, including Dr. J. H. Livingston of the Dutch and Dr. John Rodgers* of the Presbyterian Churches. In
* Though Dr. Provoost had probably little sympathy with the views and feel- ings of most other denominations of Christians, his general courtesy was never affected by any considerations merely denominational. For instance, he was in very agreeable, and I believe intimate, social relations with most of the clergymen of the Presbyterian and Reformed Dutch Churches ; and I suspect he rarely made a dinner-party but some of them were among his guests. An Episcopal clergyman from Ireland had come to this country, and I believe, through the bishop's in- fluence, had obtained employment, both as a teacher and as a preacher, in St. Anne's Church, Brooklyn. As the bishop was about to ordain one or more persons to the ministry, he invited this Mr. W- to preach on the occasion. Dr. Beach, the bishop's assistant minister, sent invitation to Dr. Livingston, Dr. Rodgers, and some other of the ministers of the city, not connected with the Episco- pal Church, to be present. The Irish parson took it into his head to magnify his office that day to a very bold defence of the Doctrine of Apostolic Succession, involving rather a stern rebuke to those whom he regarded as preaching without
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England he had enjoyed the distinction of an acquaintance with Dr. Johnson and the celebrated John Wilkes, whose grandniece married the bishop's grandson, David Cadwallader Colden, and of frequently listening to Lord Chatham and other illustrious public men of that period .*
At the first meeting of the Diocesan Convention held after Bishop Provoost's death, his successor, Dr. Moore, having fol- lowed him in February, 1816, Dr. Hobart said of our first bishop, Integer vitæ, salerisque purus-" To the benevolence and urbanity that marked all his intercourse with the clergy and, indeed, every social relation, there is strong and uni- versal testimony," and then added the words of Bishop White in regard to his official and personal intimacy with the de- ceased bishop, calling it a sacred relation " between two per-
any authority. Though it is not likely that the bishop dissented from his views, he felt that it was at least an apparent discourtesy to his friends who were present at the service, and he was evidently not a little annoyed by it. Old Dr. Rodgers, in speaking of it afterwards, shrewdly remarked, "I wonder from what authority the bishop derived his baptism," referring to the fact that he had been baptized by Dominie Du Bois in the Dutch Church .- Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. v., pp. 245, New York, 1855.
* For much of the material used in this monograph the writer is indebted to a venerable friend of his early youth, who was a frequent guest at his father's table. From the handsome old man of four score and ten, with his rich stores of memory, the writer heard many particulars of Bishop Provoost and his contem- poraries. By the bishop he had been presented to Washington, and he was present at his inauguration, the concluding ceremonies of which, as we have seen, occurred in St. Paul's Church. Daniel Burhans (1763-1854), the person of whom
Daniel Burhans
the writer speaks, was the last survivor of those who were ordained by Bishop Seabury, and he was well acquainted with almost all the early American bishops, including White, Madison, Moore, Bass, Hobart, Claggett, Griswold, and Ravens- croft. He was a delegate to several General Conventions, was in the ministry over half a century, and preached in St. Paul's Church, Poughkeepsie, where he resided for many years, at the age of eighty-nine. Two interesting letters written by the Rev. Mr. Burhans (D. D.'s were not so abundant in those days), de- scriptive of his friends, Bishops Seabury and Jarvis of Connecticut, may be seen in Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. The writer is also indebted to the Rev. S. H. Weston, D.D., for the perusal of a number of Bishop's Provoost's MS. sermons, and to the Rev. Drs. Dix, Eigenbrodt and Seabury for data kindly contributed.
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sons, who under the appointment of a Christian Church had been successfully engaged together in obtaining for it succes- sion to the apostolic office of the episcopacy, who in the subsequent exercise of that episcopacy had jointly labored in all the ecclesiastical business which has occurred among us, and who through the whole of it never knew a word or even a sensation, tending to personal dissatisfaction or dis- union.
" The character of Bishop Provoost is one which the en- lightened Christian will estimate at no ordinary standard. The generous sympathies of his nature created in him a cor- dial concern in whatever affected the interests of his fellow- creatures. Hence his beneficence was called into almost daily exercise, and his private charities were often beyond what was justified by his actual means. In the relations of husband and parent he exhibited all the kindly and endear- ing affections which ennoble our species. As a patriot, he was exceeded by none. As a scholar, he was deeply versed in classical lore, and in the records of Ecclesiastical History and Church Polity. To a very accurate knowledge of the Hebrew he added a profound acquaintance with the Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, and other languages. He made considerable progress also in the natural and physical sciences, of which botany was his favorite branch."
Je Grandis
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THE SECOND BISHOP OF NEW YORK.
BENJAMIN MOORE was born at Newtown, Long Island, on the 16th of October, 1748. This rare historic interest, there- fore, belongs to his life, that its childhood and youth were spent in our colonial days, while his manhood and age were devoted to religious service in our republic. In the critical years of transition from the old to the new order, the country had no greater need than that of a pure, able, and earnest clergy in its metropolitan city. The supply of leaders with radical ideas was larger than the nation required. The men who were especially wanted were those who had learned from the past, and were conservatively busy in the present ; com- manding universal respect, and building foundations quietly. A man for his time was found when Mr. Moore began his
Henry" Moore
ministry in New York, two years before the Declaration of Independence.
His earlier history, therefore, becomes a matter of inter- esting inquiry. He had an elder brother, who inherited the paternal estate at Newtown, and whose descendants continue to live on the property to this day. Another brother, Will- iam, studied medicine, and became one of the most eminent physicians of New York, in the early part of the century.
Benjamin was sent to school at New Haven, where he had the advantages for instruction that surrounded Yale College. But preferring to become a student of King's Col- lege (now Columbia), he removed to New York, and was fitted for it in a preparatory school. Little thought had he on the day when he was admitted as a Freshman, that he should become one of the most honored presidents of the institu-
B. Moore
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tion he was entering ; and that his college should then bear a new name in a new nation.
" After his graduation," says Dr. Berrian, "he studied theology at Newtown, under the direction of Dr. Samuel Auchmuty, rector of Trinity Church ; and for several years he taught Latin and Greek to the sons of gentlemen in New York. He went to England in May, 1774; was ordained deacon on Friday, June 24, in the chapel of the Episcopal palace at Fulham, by Richard Terrick, Bishop of London ; and priest, on Wednesday, June 29, 1774, in the same place and by the same bishop.
"Returning from England, he was appointed, with the Rev. John Bowden (afterward Dr. Bowden of Columbia College), an assistant minister of Trinity Church, Dr. Auch- muty being rector and afterward Dr. Inglis, since Bishop of Nova Scotia." *
At the beginning of Mr. Moore's ministry, the first Trinity Church (much larger and more imposing than the second), was still standing, and so remained until it was swept away in the conflagration which destroyed that part of the city in September, 1776. Built in 1696, and twice enlarged, its di- mensions were now one hundred and forty-six feet in length, by seventy-two in width, and its spire was one hundred and eighty feet high. Two chapels belonged to the parish-St. George's, built in 1752, and St. Paul's, in 1766. As yet, there was no St. John's chapel. That was erected in 1807.
Through all those trying years, when the enemies of the Church were many, and the site of its chief sanctuary was marked by a blackened ruin, the young assistant persevered in his work, until, twelve years later, in 1788, he saw a new Trinity Church completed, though smaller than the old edifice. Dr. Berrian says of his entire ministry in the parish : "His popularity was unbounded, and his labors most extensive ; so that in the period of thirty-five years, he celebrated 3,578 marriages, and baptized 3,064 children and adults."
* Historical Sketch of Trinity Church, New York, by the Rev. William Ber- rian, D.D. 8vo. 1847.
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Not only was he considered a man of learning, but of much power as a preacher. "His voice, though not strong, was so clear and musical that every syllable could be heard in the most remote part of the church." His words were re- inforced by the life which the people knew so well, and so thoroughly revered. Gentleness, kindness, simplicity, and a personal interest in his parishioners, together with great con- sistency, were his characteristics. Even in middle life there was something venerable in his appearance; and very famil- iar to New Yorkers were his intellectual head ; plain-parted hair ; tall, thin, and slightly bending figure; and the blend- ing in his manner of gentleness and courtesy. He was called apostolic. Theologically, he was a high-Churchman for his day.
He married, in 1778, Miss Charity Clarke, who inherited an estate on the banks of the Hudson, extending from West Nineteenth to West Twenty-fourth Street, and from the Eighth Avenue to the river ; a portion of which land, by the generosity of her son, Professor Moore, became the site and property of the General Theological Seminary. Bishop Moore's only child, Clement Clarke Moore, was highly edu- cated for the ministry, but he never entered it. He compiled a Hebrew Lexicon for students, also other literary works and a volume of poems, by one of which, "The Night before Christmas," he made all children his debtors .*
Bishop Provoost resigned the rectorship of Trinity Church in 1800, and Dr. Moore at once succeeded him in the parish, and afterwards in the diocese. On the 5th of Sep-
* Dr. Moore, who served the Theological Seminary with singular and saintly fidelity for twenty-nine years (1821-1850), first as Professor of Biblical Learning, then as Professor of Greek and Hebrew Literature, afterwards changed to Orien- tal and Greek literature, was the author of a Hebrew and Greek Lexicon, 2 vols., 8vo, New York, 1809 ; Poems, 12mo, 1844 ; George Castriot, surnamed Scander- beg, King of Albania, 12mo, 1852; and he edited and issued, in 1824, in two octavo volumes, a collection of his father's sermons, including several occasional discourses which had been published by the bishop. Among these are two printed by Hugh Gaine in Hanover Square, in 1792 and 1793, and bound together, which belonged to Bishop Provoost, and are now in the possession of the writer. -EDITOR.
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