USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 13
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* From November to May seems a long time. But such were the delays of travelling and of mails in those days, that the consents of Dioceses and Bishops, few, comparatively, as they were, were not all received till February.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
" the great Catholic principle of reverencing and studying tradition as leading to a correct understanding of the Rule of Faith," and its necessary consequence in the maintenance of the Historic Episco- pate in the Church. To the Bishop-elect was the congratulation that he was to be accompanied and aided by a zealous, affectionate, and devoted clergy, and that the Apostolic mantle fell on him where it was laid down by the beloved Hobart .*
The Presiding Bishop, Dr. Alexander V. Griswold of " the Eastern Diocese," was the Consecrator, assisted by the Bishops of Pennsyl- vania (Henry U. Onderdonk), New York (Benjamin T. Onderdonk) and New Jersey (George W. Doane). The Bishop-elect was pre- sented by the Bishops of New York and New Jersey, and attended by the Rev. Pierre P. Irving, of Geneva, and the Rev. Augustine P. Prevost, of Canandaigua. Three hundred of the Clergy and Laity present received the Holy Communion, in which all the five Bishops assisted. t
On re-assembling at four o'clock, the Committee to whom the fare- well address of the Acting Bishop was referred reported a grateful acknowledgment of his services ; the Rev. Mr. Proal addressed him in behalf of the Convention ; the Bishop made "a brief and affectionate reply," and vacated the Chair, to which Bishop De Lancey was con- ducted with an address from the Rev. Dr. Rudd, to which the Bishop replied at some length, setting forth very fully and clearly the Divine Constitution of the Church as "the Pillar and Ground of the Truth," and the true ideal of the Episcopal office.
"The erection of this portion of the State into a separate Diocese," he concludes, " has thrown it to a great degree on its own resources for Church objects. I have utterly mistaken the character and means, the energy and liberality of the Diocese over which I am to preside, if it be not found adequate, with God's blessing, to the exigencies of this new position. Doubtless it will become us to meet them with resolute minds, with liberal hearts, and with open hands. The Church in this State has hitherto moved forward with gigantic strides, thrill- ing the hearts of Churchmen with joy, and extorting admiration from all sections of our Zion. With majestic dignity, and a calm and pru- dent piety above all praise, she has apportioned this her favourite
* The Sermon and those preached on the same occasion by three others of the Bishops, are given in full in the Journal of the Special Convention.
t Gospel Messenger, May 18, 1839.
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CONSECRATION OF BISHOP DE LANCEY
daughter, and assigned her to a separate and independent household. What is it now that demands our united efforts, prayers and liberality ? That the Church in this Diocese may grow in holiness, zeal and num- bers, exemplifying in her unity and peace the power of the Gospel, combining the hearty and strenuous efforts of both Clergy and Laity in support of her distinctive principles and true interests, making daily inroads on the territories of sin and Satan, carrying forward God's design of saving and enlightening a benighted and perishing world, and commending herself to them that are without for the soundness of her doctrine, the steadiness of her worship, the faithfulness of her Ministry, and the exemplary characters and lives of all her members. To this end let us unite our prayers and efforts."
Resolutions followed of thanks to the Presiding Bishop for appoint- ing the Consecration within the Diocese, with a gift of $100 for his expenses ; for a Committee " to devise ways and means to support travelling missionaries to visit individuals and families remote from places of public worship;"of thanks for hospitalities, etc. At the Evening Service Bishop De Lancey preached his first Sermon in the Diocese on " Personal Holiness in the Ministry." Those who can remember Bishop De Lancey's preaching will recognize in this discourse the model of exactness in construction and elegance in language from which he hardly ever varied .*
The Bishops in attendance, by permission, placed on the Journal " their grateful acknowledgment of the kind reception and cordial hospitalities that have met their visit to the village of Auburn."
In the final adjournment of the Convention, the Bishop expressed his grateful emotions at being " at home " in the Diocese by the cor- dial welcome with which he had been received, and his intention to commence a primary visitation as soon as the removal of his family would allow. His first appointment, however, was at Geneva, where on the following Sunday he preached twice and confirmed thirty-one persons ; the next day he visited Syracuse, and on Wednes- day Utica, going thence to Philadelphia to arrange for removing his family to Geneva, " where for the present he had determined to reside."
But finding that it would be some time before a house could be ready for them, he returned to the Diocese and began his primary visitation at once in Oneida county. This first visitation continued from June 20 to Sept. 29, 1839, including 65 parishes (out of 96 in
* It is one of the four Sermons appended to the Journal.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
the Diocese) in which he confirmed 482 persons. It was not inter- rupted by the removal of his family to Geneva on the first of Septem- ber .*
NOTE ON THE FAMILY OF BISHOP DE LANCEY.
ETIENNE (or STEPHEN) DE LANCEY, son of the Seigneur Jacques De Lanci and Marguerite Bertrand of Caen, Normandy, and sixth in descent from Guy, Vicomte De Lavail and Nouvian, A. D. 1432,-born Oct. 23, 1663, fled (as a Huguenot) in July, 1686, to New York, died there 1741, buried in Old Trinity churchyard (being a vestryman of Trinity Parish) ; married, Jan. 23, 1700, Anne, dau. of Stephanus Van Cortlandt (first Mayor of New York,) and Ger- trude Schuyler, b. 1677, d. 1742. Their eldest son was
Lieut. Gov. JAMES DE LANCEY, b. 1703, d. 1760, m. Anne, dau. of Col. Caleb Heathcote, who d. 1779.
JOHN PETER DE LANCEY, third surviving son of James, b. July 15, 1753, d. Jan. 30, 1828, of Heathcote Hill, Mamaroneck, N. Y., m. Sept. 28, 1785, Elizabeth, eldest dau. of Col. Richard Floyd, b. 1759, d. 1823. Their children were
I. Anne Charlotte, b. Sept. 17, 1786, d. May 29, 1852, m. Dec. 10, 1827, as 2d w., John Loudon M'Adam (inventor of M'Adam roads) who d. Nov. 26, 1835. No issue.
. Thomas James, b. Aug. 12, 1789, d. Dec. 22, 1822.
3. Susan Augusta, b. Jan. 28, 1792, d. Jan. 20, 1852, m. Jan. 1, 1811, James Fenimore Cooper, of Cooperstown, N. Y., b. Sept. 15, 1789, d. Sept. 14, 1851. Their 2d son was Paul Fenimore Cooper, b. 1824, Hobart Coll. 1844, d. April 24, 1895 ; and the 2d dau., Susan Augusta, was the author of " Rural Hours."
4. Maria Frances, b. Aug. 3, 1793, d. Jan. 17, 1806.
5. Edward Floyd, b. June 18, 1795, d. Oct. 19, 1819.
6. WILLIAM HEATHCOTE, b. Oct. 8, 1797, d. April 5, 1865, Yale 1817, D.D. 1828, LL. D. Union 1847, D.C.L. Oxon. 1852, first Bishop of Western New York 1839-65, m. Nov. 22, 1820, Frances, 3d dau. of Peter Jay Munro (s. of the Rev. Harry Munro, D.D., last Rector of S. Peter's, Albany, under the Crown, and Eve, dau. of Peter Jay of Rye and Mary Van Cortlandt, and sister of Chief Jus- tice John Jay), and Margaret, dau. of Henry White and Eve Van Cortlandt of New York,-b. Jan. 9, 1797, d. March 30, 1869. They had 5 s., 3 daus.
(1.) Edward Floyd, b. Oct. 23, 1821, Hobart 1843, res. 1903, Ossining, N. Y. ; m. Nov. 16, 1848, Josephine Matilda, dau. of William Steuben De Zeng of Ge- neva, who d. June 5, 1865.
* In the Journal of the Semi-Centennial of 1888 will be found (p. 13) an interest- ing note from Dr. Anthony E. Stocker, who accompanied the Bishop and was with him constantly for some time on his first coming into Western New York. "No one could be so intimate with him," he says, "without an ever-increasing love and respect for him ; and with joyful truthfulness I can say, he was in all his going out and coming in, a man of God."
WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY First Bishop of Western New York .
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THE DE LANCEY FAMILY
(2.) Margaret Munro, b. Feb. 1, 1823, d. Jan. 6. 1890, m. May 6, 1852, Thomas Fortescue Rochester, M.D., LL.D., of Buffalo, Hobart 1845, who d. May 24, 1887.
(3.) Elizabeth Floyd, b. 1825, d. y.
(4.) John Peter, b. May 30, 1828, d. June 22, 1870, m. June 11, 1863, Wil- helmina V. Clark.
(5.) Peter Munro, b. 1830, d. Oct. 18, 1849.
(6.) William Heathcote, b. 1832, d. y.
(7.) Frances, b. 1834, d. y.
(8.) William Heathcote (2), b. May 2, 1837, Hobart 1856, res. New York ; m. Sept. 6, 1860, Elizabeth Des Brosses Hunter.
7. Elizabeth Caroline, b. March 4, 1801, d. Feb. 25, 1860, unm.
8. Martha Arabella, b. Jan. 10, 1803, d. May 21, 1882, unm.
CHAPTER XXII
WESTERN NEW YORK IN 1839
ISHOP De Lancey found his new Diocese a fairly com- pact wedge-shaped territory, 230 miles from east to west, 170 north and south at the east end, and about 85 at the west, containing 21,463 square miles. The four corner parishes were Sackett's Harbor on the north- east, Binghamton on the southeast, Westfield on Lake Erie, and Lewiston on the Niagara River. On this area was a population (in 27, now 29 counties) of about eleven hundred thousand, not far from one-half the whole people of the State at that time. Buffalo and Rochester, the only two cities, were about the same size, each having about 18,000 inhabitants. There was not a hundred miles of rail- road in the whole Diocese ; the Erie Canal was for many purposes by far the best thoroughfare. The Diocese had 67 Priests and 8 Dea- cons, all but 8 in parochial or missionary work ; 5 candidates for Orders ; 96 parishes and missions, with 70 church buildings, and a little more than 4,000 communicants, averaging some 40 to a parish.
Two-thirds of the parishes were missionary stations, aided tempor- arily by a grant from the Diocese of New York ; the whole amount contributed from the Diocese itself for its own missionary work in its first year was $761.00. It is to be remembered that Western New York never received anything for this work from outside the State of New York. Only one parish could be called a large one, S. Luke's, Rochester, reporting 400 communicants ; Geneva and Utica came next with 154 and 151, S. Paul's, Rochester, with 118, and S. Paul's, Buffalo, and Oswego, with about 100 .*
The Bishop's first work at the conclusion of his visitation of 1839 was to establish some effective method of maintaining and expanding the missionary and educational work of the Diocese, towards which only 40 of the 96 parishes had given anything that first year. The system proposed by him and adopted then is the same which has been in operation to this day ; the Bishop and Standing Committee
* These reports of communicants are for 1839, nearly a year after the erection of the new Diocese.
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THE BISHOP'S RESIDENCE
constituting a " Board of Church Objects ;" the parishes making monthly offerings for "Missions, Education, the Expenses of the Convention, the Distribution of Bibles, Prayer-Books and Tracts, and the increase of the Episcopal Fund." The immediate effect of this plan was the increase of missionary offerings to $1,46 1 the second year, and $3, 170 the third year. These offerings took the place, for the time being, of what had been received from the Diocese of New York, and so did not provide for any great or immediate expansion of missionary work ; but they did at once place the diocese on a basis of self-support, which was obviously the first thing to be done. I have said elsewhere that " how deeply the Bishop felt the importance of this work, how carefully all its details were studied by him, how the condition, wants, prospects and trials of each mission and missionary were always borne upon his mind and heart, none who knew him personally can forget. How he would labour to build up the Church in this or that feeble or almost desert place, not only by visits and correspondence, but by large contributions from his own small means. It was sometimes thought and said that he exalted this diocesan work at the expense of larger interests of the Church ; but the records of his Episcopate show that during its twenty-seven years, the offerings of the Diocese for objects exterior to itself were more than for its own missions, and that they increased fourfold, while those for diocesan objects trebled."*
The Bishop's conclusion as to a place of permanent residence is thus stated by him at the close of his second annual Address (1840):
" Having had an opportunity of visiting all portions of the Diocese, and of thus forming a judgment of the best location for convenience in the discharge of my duties, and for intercourse with the various parts of the Diocese, and having ascertained the general sentiment in regard to the point, I find that my own judgment concurs with the predominant opinion in the Diocese in favor of fixing my permanent residence at Geneva, Ontario County, as a position combining, in its centrality, accessibility, and power of reaching and influencing the Church mind through the College there situated, more advantages than any other of the many beautiful and attractive cities and villages with which the Diocese abounds. The cordiality with which my residence would have been welcomed in every place, and the unob- trusive deference which has left me to an unfettered exercise of my own judgment and sense of duty in the selection, have been pecul-
* Semi-Centennial of W. N. Y. p. 26.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
iarly grateful to my feelings. I shall continue to reside there, unless prevented from so doing by the difficulty of renting a suitable house for the accommodation of my family."*
The " hired house " in which the Bishop and his family lived during their first fourteen years in Geneva, was a pleasant cottage- like brick building on the lake side, with sufficient though not " ample " ground for a little lawn in front, and descending the high bank of the lake in the rear. The house, somewhat changed, is now the home of Mr. S. H. Ver Planck, 803 Main street. It was certainly a very modest residence for a Bishop even in those days and in Geneva ; but it was, I presume, fairly comfortable, and was very pleasant to those who saw it only as the Bishop's guests. To such, the abiding memory of that house and its successor will ever be the simple yet refined and charming hospitality, without a particle of effort or pre- tension, which it gave to all who had the shadow of a claim to it, and most likely to a good many who had not even that. To the Bishop's own charm of manner and conversation were added the cordial and thoughtful housemotherliness of Mrs. De Lancey, which never failed to make his guests thoroughly at home with a sense of personal welcome.
There was some feeling in the Diocese that the Bishop ought to have some better home than a hired house, and at the Convention of 1841 a committee was appointed to consider the subject.t They reported resolutions to the effect that "the Convention are sensible of the importance of providing a more convenient and permanent residence " for the Bishop, and consulting his wishes as to its loca- tion ; and appointing another committee to endeavour to raise funds for procuring such a residence, and paying meantime the rent of the Bishop's house. # That Committee reported next year (1842) that they had raised only $234 out of $400 necessary for the rent, and recom- mended raising a fund of $10,000 by subscriptions of $100 or more, in five annual instalments, out of which the rent should be paid till the Diocese was ready to build a house. Without adopting this plan, the Convention continued the Committee to raise the $400 and deficiency
* Journ. W. N. Y. IS40, P. 37.
+ Dr. Shelton, Dr. Gregory, W. S. De Zeng, W. C. Pierrepont, H. E. Rochester.
# Joum. W. N. Y. 1841, p. 50.
GENEVA FROM SENECA LAKE
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THE BISHOP'S HOUSE
for the next year, and ascertain whether a suitable house could be obtained in Geneva for a term of years,-it appearing that he was at present only a tenant from year to year .* But in the following year the subject was effectually disposed of in the Bishop's Address.
" It will be recollected," he says, "that at the meeting in 1841, in Utica, the subject of providing a residence for the Diocesan, unsolicited on his part, was brought before the Convention. The movement was against my own privately expressed judgment as to the feasibility of the plan by any action of the Convention, in conse- quence of my conviction that local prejudices and discordant views of the bearing of the measure would be an obstacle to its success. From similar views I had objected to such a movement in the Convention at Buffalo.
" The result arrived at in 1841, was to substitute for present action, the assumption of the rent of a house for the Diocesan, and the appointment of a Committee to report to the next Convention. In 1842 the action was to postpone the consideration of the subject to the present Convention, and to direct the Committee to provide for the arrears and current payments of the rent of the house for the Diocesan. The mode adopted (apparently the only one open to the Committee) for raising the proposed sum, was calculated to bring the object into injurious collision, as I thought, with our monthly collec- tions for Missions and other Church objects, and very soon after the rising of the Convention I requested the Committee to take no further proceedings in the matter. They had however addressed a circular to the parishes ; but at my request the subject has been no farther pressed. The amount raised during the year ($194.87) I have requested the Treasurer to transfer to the Missionary Fund of the Diocese, as there was a deficiency in that fund to meet the demands of the Missionaries for the July payments. The balance to be raised, about $350, I remit to the Convention. And believing that when any steps are taken in regard to this object, they had better be taken by private individuals independently on the Convention, before whom, from diversity of views and local feelings, the subject will be likely always to prove a disturbing one, I request that the whole matter, as far as Conventional action is concerned, may be dropped. That private munificence may, and in due time will, adopt some effectual measures in this matter, I am fully persuaded.
" If a subscription by one hundred individuals of $100 each, payable in four years, in annual instalments of $25, or some similar plan, would secure the amount to be raised, I think in due time it will be
* Journ. W. N. Y. 1842, p. 62. The house then occupied by the Bishop be- longed to Capt. Samuel W. Swift, a cousin of the late Gen. Joseph G. Swift of Geneva, who only resided in it for two years, from 1836 to 1838.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
done. An experience of four years has satisfied me that while the three items of house-rent, travelling expenses, and postages, exhaust so large a portion as one thousand dollars of the proceeds of the Epis- copal Fund, and the Diocesan is subjected to other unavoidable claims and expenditures arising from his official position, the existing pro- vision for his support will be inadequate without resort to private means."*
" Whereupon, on motion, the Committee were discharged from the future consideration of the subject." The total income of the Epis- copate Fund (and all that the Bishop received from the Diocese at this time, and for many years afterwards) was $2,485 ; so that aside from house-rent and other official expenses mentioned in his Address, his actual Episcopal income was less than $1,500. After the Conven- tion of 1843, " an effort was made by a number of gentlemen residing within the Diocese to increase the Fund by voluntary subscriptions to the extent of $10,000," and about $4,000 was subscribed payable in four annual instalments. Subsequently, by a Committee appointed by the Convention, but chiefly by the personal efforts of the Rev. James A. Bolles, D.D., and the Rev. William B. Ashley, D.D., suc- cessively Chairmen of this Committee, the Fund was gradually in- creased till it amounted in 1858 and later to a little more than $50,000. But nothing more was done about providing a residence for the Bishop. In 1853 he removed to a house which he had bought, a little north of the College, now No. 616 Main St., in which he resided for the rest of his life, and which is still substantially the same, a plain two story brick house with a central hall, whose front rooms were the " parlour " on the north, and the Bishop's study on the south ; a very small grass-plot in front, and a garden in the rear ; often, after his taking possession of it, called with a pleasant sense of incongruity, " the Palace."t It was plain and modest inside, with its old-fash-
* Journ. W. N. Y. 1843, p. 33. The Bishop had alluded in his Address of 1839 to the importance of increasing the Episcopate Fund to provide "for an ex- panding Church, in a land rapidly increasing in population, and where augmented expenses of living must of necessity proceed pari passu with the growth of the country, and where a few years to come will find us as much in advance of the present period as the present period is of a few years now past." (Journ. 1839, p. 28.) 1 In 1839 the Bishop replied as follows to a communication from the Vestry to S. Peter's Church, Auburn, asking him to accept the Rectorship of that Parish : " I could fully appreciate the force of the several reasons urged by the Com- mittee in favour of my acceptance of the important post offered to me, and feel
135
PAROCHIAL REPORTS
ioned substantial furniture brought from Philadelphia, but thoroughly comfortable and home-like.
The first form of Parochial Report, applying alike to Parishes and "Missionary Stations " (most of which were also organized parishes) was adopted at the Convention of 1839. A form had been adopted by the Convention of New York as early as 1834, but did not include the reports of diocesan Missionaries. Up to that year the Parochial Reports, and "extracts" at least from the Missionary Reports, were regularly read in the Convention, as was required by the Canons of the General Convention from 1804 to 1832, from which latter year " such parts of them as the Bishop shall think fit " were to be read and entered on the Journals of the Convention .* This change left the reading and printing of the Parochial Reports entirely in the hands of the Bishop, where it remains to this day, except that the present Canon substitutes " may " for "shall " so far as the reading is con- cerned. From that time on, it was customary for many years to resolve each year that "the reading of the Parochial Reports be dis- pensed with, and that they be appended to the Journal of the Conven- tion," both of these proceedings being ultra vires according to the Canons of the General Convention. f The form of Parochial Report
extremely gratified by the honour done me in the choice ; but having been elected to my present office under circumstances which would preclude my assuming any parochial connexion without the previous consent of the Convention of the Diocese, I have no alternative but to decline. Even, however, could I obviate the diffi- culty thus referred to, I find the duties of the extensive charge with which I am entrusted, as Diocesan, quite as much as my health and strength are likely to bear. To the labour of visitations is added an increasing correspondence with all parts of an extended and growing Diocese, together with the duty of preparing such counsel and instruction as its necessities may from time to time exact. Hence in the Parish I should have little time for aught else but occasional ser- vices, and my connexion with your church would sink into a mere formal one, alike unsatisfying to myself and unedifying to the Parish. I need not assure you that a residence in your beautiful village would be very agreeable to me and my family, and I cherish a warm sense of the kindness and courtesy already experi- enced there." [From the original letter dated Geneva, Oct. 22, 1839, through the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Brainard.]
* Journ. Gen. Conv. 1832, p. 118 (Canon XLIX).
ยก Later, the action was made still more irregular by directing at the close of the Convention " that the Clergy present their Parochial Reports to the Rt. Rev. the Bishop," whereas the Canon requires that they shall be presented " on or before the first day of every Annual Convention." (Journ. Gen. Conv. 1853, Canons, p. 70.)
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
was long afterwards amended and greatly improved on the report of a Committee of which the present Bishop of Maryland was Chairman. I have it from Bishop De Lancey that the Triennial Reports of West- ern New York were exhibited in the General Convention as a model for all the Dioceses.
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