USA > New York > The earliest churches of New York and its vicinity > Part 16
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Paul Heck, or Hick, Philip J. Arcularius, Thomas Carpenter, Abraham Russel, Israel Disosway, Joseph Smith, Andrew Mercien, George Suckley, Stephen Dan- do, were also carly trustees of this congregation, and have all "died in the faith." Their descendants, num- bering hundreds, are among our best citizens in Church and State.
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CHAPTER XXII.
DESCRIPTION OF NEW NETHERLAND, BY FATHER ISAAC JAQUES, A JESUIT MISSIONARY, 1664-IHIS JOURNEYS --- MURDERED BY THE IN- DIANS-EARLIEST CATHOLIC FAMILIES IN NEW YORK -GOVERNOR DONGAN-LAWS AGAINST THE ROMAN CATHOLICS -- NEGRO PLOT ---- CATHOLIC PRIEST OFFICIATING IN NEW NETHERLAND-JAMES II., ON THIE THIRONE, FAVORS HIS OWN CREED-DONGAN RECALLED-WIL- LIAM AND MARY PROCLAIMED KING AND QUEEN-THIE ENGLISHI CHURCH BECOMES THE ESTABLISHED ONE IN NEW YORK-PERSECU- TIONS-A CONGREGATION FORMED IN 1783-ST. PETER'S, BARCLAY STREET, BUILT IN 1786-REV. MR. NUGENT ITS MINISTER -- THIS SUC- CESSORS-ST. PETER'S REBUILT IN 1836, BISHOP DUBOIS LAYING THE CORNER-STONE-ST. PATRICK'S FOLLOWED, IN 1815-HERE BISHOP HUGHES RESIDED -- THE CATHOLICS PURCHASE DR. LYELL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ANN STREET-DR. MCLEOD'S, CHAMBERS STREET-THE OLD UNIVERSALIST, ON DUANE STREET, AND THE PRESBYTERIAN ON ASTOR PLACE-UNIVERSALIST CHURCH-REV. JOUN MURRAY THE EARLIEST PREACHER-A SOCIETY FORMED-REV. EDWARD MITCHELL BECOMES THEIR MINISTER-THEY PURCHASE A CHURCH ON PEARL STREET. AND SOON AFTER ERECT THE BRICK CHURCH ON DUANE STREET, NEAR CHATHAM-MR. MITCHELL CONTINUED THEIR MINISTER UNTIL INIS DEATH, A PERIOD OF FORTY YEARS-HIS SUCCESSORS IN THE MINISTRY.
ONE of the earliest notices we find of New York is. " A Description of New Netherland, in 1644," by Father Isaac Jaques, a Jesuit missionary. He says: " No re- ligion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, and orders are to admit none but Calvinists; but this is not ob- served ; for there are, besides Calvinists, in the colony.
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Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists,
here called Mnistes, &c." "On this island of Manhate, and in its environs, there may well be four or - five hundred men of different sects and nations. The Director-General told me that there were persons there of eighteen different languages." Such was our great metropolis two hundred and twenty years ago. Jaques was a very early French missionary from Paris to Canada, arriving at Quebec in the year 1636, and thence proceeded to the Huron country. Captured by the Mohawks, he suffered almost every torture short of the stake. After a year's captivity. he escaped to the Dutch at Fort Orange (Albany), from whom the missionary re- ceived most kind treatment.
But his savage captors following, the Dutch refused to surrender him, and he was sent to New Amsterdam. There Governor Kieft, politely receiving the missionary, furnished him a passage to France. Shipwrecked on the English coast, with the loss of all he had, he finally reached his native land in utter destitution. After peace with the Mohawks, Father Jaques again returned to Montreal, and was selected as ambassador, to exchange ratifications with those Indians. He set out in May. 1616, passing through Lakes Champlain and George, naming the last "St. Sacrament," and reached Fort Orange in June. Thence, he visited the Indians ; and in September again started for the Mohawks, as a missionary of the Gospel, and reached Gandawwaga, the seone of his former captivity, on the 27th of September. Jaques, on his former departure, had left a little box containing some trifling articles. The
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harvest came, and the worm had spoiled the In- dians' fields and crops. and they imagined that the box held the Evil Spirit which had ruined them ; and in revenge, the missionary was doomed to die. He was invited to sup in one of the cabins, and, entering the door, received a blow, and fell dead to the earth. Next, decapitated, his head was fixed to the palisades of the village, and the body thrown into the Mohawk River.
Thus perished. in his fortieth year, as far as we have ascertained. the first missionary in New York ; and it is supposed that he was murdered in Montgomery County. A copy of the original French MS. was presented to the Regents of the University by the Rey. Mr. Martin. Superior of the Jesuits in Canada.
Fourteen years after this (1658), orthodoxy and hetero- doxy came to blows on one occasion in New Nether- land. A Frenchman and an Englishman were arrested by the sheriff of " Breukelen," charged with refusing to support the Rev. Dominio Polhemus. The old record says : "They most insolently pleaded frivolous excuses ; the first, that he was a Catholic ; the other, that he did not understand Dutch." They were each fined twelve guilders .* The carliest Catholic families settled in New York during the administration of Governor Dongan. about 1685. under the reign of James IT.
The Governor was a Roman Catholic, and the preju- dices of the people became strong against his Church, and, under the administration of subsequent governors. very oppressive laws wore passed against the exer-
* Alb. Rec .. xiv 181.
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cise of its religion. By a law, enacted (1700) in the reign of William Ilf., every Catholic and Jesuit priest, who would come voluntarily into the colony, should be condemned to death. Thanks to more noble and Christian feelings, there is no evidence that this out- rageous statute was over enforced ! In August. 1741. John Ury, an Englishman, a reputed Catholic priest, was publicly executed in the city ; but we must re- member that he was indicted for being concerned in the "Negro Plot," a supposed conspiracy of the blacks, and others, to burn the place and murder its inhabitants. Nor is there any evidence that the law, passed against the Catholics, was brought into view at all in this case. Ury was a schoolmaster, and in vain did the poor man declare that he was a nonjuring clergyman of the Church of England, and could prove, by reliable witnesses, that he never associated with the negroes. He was con- demned and hung ! Infamous law, verdict, and act !
There were other Roman Catholic clergymen in New York, according to the catalogue of the Society of Jesus. It records, that " Father Thomas Harvey (Soci- ety of Jesus), a native of London, was in New York from 1683 to 1690, and subsequently in 1696, the interval being spent in Maryland, where he died in 1796, atat. eighty-four. Father Henry Harrison, Society of Jesus, was in New York in 1685, and returned to Ireland in 1690, and in Maryland. 1697. Father Charles Gage, Society of Jesus, was also employed there in 1686 and 1687."# Gage was stationed, an old account says, "at Norwich, the capital of Norfolk, at a very celebrated
* Doc. Hist., iii. 110.
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chapel, where Father Charles Gage excited a wonderful sensation by his sermons, and labored so zealously in that vineyard, that the faithful unanimously addressed a letter of thanks to the Father Provincial, for having provided them with such a distinguished preacher."
Netherlands became a British province under the Duke of York, in the year 1644. He was a zealous Roman Catholic, and an avowed opponent to the Pro- testant faith, and upon his accession to the British throne, as the royal James II., he aroused the distrust of the American colonists, by elevating to power those of his own persecuting creed. It became, very naturally, his settled purpose to convert the Indians, and encourage Catholicism in his dominions. Romanists began to emi- grate rapidly, and the Collector of Customs, with several officials, were avowed Papists. Many of the citizens, especially the Waldenses and Huguenots, who had fied to this land from the religious persecutions of France, grew jealous of the Catholic influence, and feared its spread.
Governor Dongan, although a Romanist, exhibited great religious toleration : but this wise and judicious policy displeasing his royal master, he was suddenly recalled to Europe. Returning afterwards, he settled on his "Manor." Staten Island. the property remaining many years in the possession of his family.
The attempt of James to restore the Catholic religion made him odious to the British people, and the birth of a son, in the year 1688, destroyed all hope of a Protest- ant succession. But the mails soon brought to the American colonists cheering intelligence. William,
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Prince of Orange, who had married Mary, the eldest daughter of King James, and was the champion of Pro- testantism in Europe, invaded England. The people everywhere flocking to his standard, William and Mary were proclaimed King and Queen of England. Poor, bigoted James, deserted even by his own children, sought refuge in benighted Catholic France ! Thus fare religious tyrants. These good tidings reached America in 1689, causing great excitement, and William and Mary were proclaimed on the British throne, by the flourish of trumpets through the colonies. The English Church now became established in our land, and, like all established "National" churches, at times it interfered with the precious rights of conscience. Our Divine Master teaches a different lesson.
Before the American Revolution, New York was the dépôt of the captures by the British cruisers. In the year 1778, a large armed French prize-ship arrived for condemnation. The Rev. Mr. De la Motte, an Au- gustin Catholic priest, was her chaplain, and, with other officers, was allowed liberty, on parole of honor. His countrymen solicited religious services according to the forms of the Romish Church, when he applied for the proper permission from the public authorities. But this was refused, and De la Motte, not understanding the English language, imagined that he had obtained his request. Then he commenced the services, when he was arrested and closely confined until exchanged. This exclusion continued as long as the British laws prevailed, and no Roman Catholic priest was permitted to discharge the duties of his office in the colony of
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New York. Our National Independence acknowledged, every man, thanks be to God, has been allowed to wor- ship Him according to the free dictates of his own con- science.
The Roman Catholics, availing themselves of this com- mon privilege, formed a congregation in New York, November, 1983, under the ministry of the Rev. Andrew Nugent. It is believed that he was sent here by the Bishop of Maryland. Vauxhall Garden then was situa- ted on the margin of the North River, between Warren and Chambers streets. Here a suitable building was erected for their religious services, and one of the most active men in its introduction was Sieur de St. Jean de Crevecoux, French consul for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Himself, with Jose Roix Silva, James Stewart, and Henry Duffin, became incorporated, June 11, 1785, by the name of the " Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church in the city of New York." This place not being well suited to its religious purposes, an appli- cation was made for the use of the "Exchange," then a building at the foot of Broad street, and occupied as a court-room. But failing in this attempt. measures were taken to erect a new church on the corner of Church and Barclay streets. It was a brick edifice. forty-eight foet by eighty-one in size, and finished far enough to have Mass celebrated for the first time on November 1, 1786. On this occasion the Rev. Mr. Nugent, the pastor, con- ducted the services, assisted by the chaplain of the Spanish ambassador and the Rev. Jose Phelan. In the following spring its name became " St. Peter's Church."
Mr. Nugent officiated here until 1788, when the Rev.
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William O'Brien succeeded him in the priesthood, and continued to the day of his death, in the year 1816. Next came in the sacred office John Power, D. D., with the Rev. Charles C. Pise, D. D., as colleague.
From the increasing congregation, it became necessary to rebuild "St. Peter's," when it was taken down in 1836, and a most substantial stone edifice erected in its place. Bishop Du Bois laid the corner-stone, October 26, 1836, and during the following September publie ser- vices commenced in the basement, and Bishop Hughes consecrated the new building February 25, 1838.
For more than thirty years "St. Peter's," in Barclay street, was the only Roman Catholic Church in New York city, its sacred aisles often overcrowded, and its worshippers at times occupying the public street in front. This sight we have often witnessed.
ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL.
To relieve St. Peter's, and accommodate the rapidly increasing Roman Catholic denomination, "St. Patrick's Cathedral' was founded, in the year 1815. It was a very spacious stone edifice, one hundred and twenty feet long and eighty wide, on the corner of Mott and Prince streets, and enlarged a few years afterwards by the addi- tion of thirty-six fort to its length. Although it has no galleries, except the "organ-loft," two thousand persons can be accommodated within its spacious walls and pews. "St. Patrick's Cathedral" is considered the seat of the Episcopate in this Diocese, and here then resided Bishops Hughes and MeCloskey. with their subordinate
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clergy. After this period, a number of new Roman Catholic congregations sprang up in various sections of the city. Some old churches of the other denominations were purchased by the Catholics for their religious pur- poses. In 1826 they thus became owners of the Episco- pal church in Ann street, once Dr. Lyell's. The Rev. Felix Varela, from Spain, was priest; and it was de- stroyed by fire in 1834, when two new churches followed -the one on James street, 1835, continuing the legal title of "Christ Church," and the other, purchased in 1836, the "Reformed Presbyterian" house of worship on Chambers, calling it the " Church of the Transfigura- tion." Dr. Varela continued this pastoral charge.
The Catholics also purchased the old Universalist church in Duane. near Chatham, naming it "St. An- drew's" and at the time under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Magiunis. So also passed away the Pres- byterian church on Astor Place, formerly Dr. Mason's, in Murray street. What a comment on the changes of our ever-changing city ! The materials of the old church "down town" were brought to this spot and rebuilt in 1842. Those venerable walls, which so long resounded with the impressive, truthful appeals of Dr. Mason, the most eloquent preacher in his day, now witness the Mass and the dull monotonies of Romanism !
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH-(1796).
Among the old churches of New York must be ranked the " Universalist." At an early period, the Rev. John Murray and other preachers of this faith occasionally visited our city and held religious meetings. After soy-
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eral years, three prominent members of the John Street Methodist Society embraced the new doctrine of a lim- ited future punishment, with the final salvation of all men. On account of these opinions they withdrew from that congregation in April, 1796, and during the next month, with several others, fourteen in all, formed the "Society of United Christian Friends in the city of New York." This society, at first, held their religious meet- ings in a private house, but, their members increasing, a small edifice was erected on Vandewater street, near Frankfort. For some seven years they conducted their meetings among themselves, using their own gifts. Mr. Mitchell was an Irishman, and a man of much natural eloquence, and was ordained their preacher, July 18, 1803. The society still enlarging, the members pur- chased a house of worship erected on Pearl, between Chatham and Cross streets. In the spring of 1810, Mr. Mitchell received an invitation to preach in Bos- ton, as colleague with the Rev. John Murray, which he accepted. Recalled, however, to New York, he returned, in the year 1811, to his former flock. Soon a new and larger house was required, when a neat and substantial briek church was built, on the corner of Duane and Augustus streets, at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Mitchell remained faithful in this pastoral relation until his death. in the year 1834. having been connected with the Universalist Society for a period of forty years. Mr. Brouwer and Mr. Snow. however, the other founders of the body, returned in after years to their old Methodist fold in John street, both reaching well-known honorable old ages.
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After the death of the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Edward Cook took charge of the society for a year, and then the Rev. Mr. Pickering, during two. By this time, the con- gregation considerably reduced and others established, in 1837 they rented their house of worship to the " West Baptist Church," and retired to a public hall on Forsyth street. Subsequently the place was sold to the Roman Catholics, who have greatly beautified it and continue their worship there. After this, the "Society of United Christian Friends," or the "First Universalist Church," ceased to assemble for public worship. Several other Universalist churches, however, sprang up in various sections of the city.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
HUGUENOTS AMONG THE EARLIEST EMIGRANTS TO AMERICA-THEIR FIRST MINISTERS -EDICT OF NANTES-HENRY IV. - FALL OF ROCHELLE-EDICT REVOKED-EMIGRATION OF THE HUGUENOTS -- ADMIRAL COLIGNY (1555)-FRENCH PROTESTANTS REACH CHARLES- TON, BOSTON, AND NEW ROCHELLE-REV. DANIEL BONDET -NEW PALTZ (1677)-WALLOON CHURCHES-STATEN ISLAND.
AMONG the earliest emigrants to America were the Huguenots, or French Protestants. The sacred rights of conscience brought them here, and they brought their ministers of religion, a pure faith, and their Bibles with them. What greater treasures could have emigrated ? We devote a chapter or more to the history of their earliest preachers in America, as very little is com- paratively known of these excellent, self-denying Chris- tian missionaries to our land. The famous Edict of Nantes, to speak accurately, was a new confirmation of former solemn treaties between the French Goy- ernment and the Huguenots, or French Protestants. It was, in fact, a royal act of indemnity for all past offences. From the rolls of the superior courts the ver- diets against the " Reformed" were erased, and to these pious Frenchmen unlimited liberty of conscience was recognized as a right. This important " Ediet" marked for France the close of the Middle Ages and the true commencement of modern times. The document itself'
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was sealed with the great seal of green wax, to testify its perpetual, irrevocable character. Henry IV., in sign- ing it, triumphed completely over the usages of the "Middle Ages," whilst the illustrious monarch wished nothing less than to grant the " Reformed" all the civil and religious rights which their enemies had refused them.
France now, for the first time, raised herself above religions parties. Still, such a new state policy did not fail to arouse the clamors of the violent. with the hatred of the factious. Henry, the sovereign, however, remained firm. "I have enacted the Edict," he said to the Parlia- ment of Paris; "I wish it to be observed. This must serve as the reason why : I am king ; I speak to you as king. I will be obeyed." Royal language this. And to the clergy he added : "Thy predecessors have given you good words, but I, with my gray jacket, -I will give you good deeds. I am all gray on the outside, but I am all gold within." Honored be the memory of Henry IV. for such noble and generous sentiments !
During the first half of the seventeenth century more than eight hundred Reformed Churches could be counted in France, with sixty-two Conferences. Such was the prosperity of the Huguenot, Protestant, or Evangelical party in that vast kingdom until the fall of brave Rochelle, then emphatically called the " Citadel of Reform :" and this great misfortune terminated the long religious wars of France.
But. strange and wonderful to relate, amidst all this national religious prosperity and happiness, France again was to appear before the world the persecutor of her virtuous and religious citizens-the fatal destroyer
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of her own best interests. On the 22d October, 1685. the famous Ediet of Nantes was revoked ; in a word, Protestant worship was entirely abolished, under the penalty of arrest, with the confiscation of goods. In a fortnight, Huguenot ministers were ordered to quit the kingdom. Protestant schools were closed, and the laity forbidden to follow their pastors under severe and fatal penalties. But, in spite of all these enact- ments and persecutions, the Huguenots began to leave France by tens of thousands. It is impossible, in our day, to ascertain the correct amount of this emigration.
But, assuming that one hundred thousand Protestants were distributed among twenty millions of Roman Catholics, we think it safe to calculate that from two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand, during fifteen years, expatriated themselves from France. Sis- mondi estimates their number at three or four hundred thousand.
Reaching London, Amsterdam, and Berlin, these French refugees were received with open arms and purses ; and thus Germany, Switzerland, Denmark. Sweden, Russia, Prussia, Holland. and America, all were profited by this wholesale proscription of perso- cuted pions Frenehmen. All agree that, 'wherever they went. they introduced the industry and arts by which they had enriched their own native land, thus abun- dantly repaying the kindness and hospitality of those countries which afforded them that safe asy hun ornelly denied them in their own.
This bird's-eye view of the French " Huguenots." "Protestants," or " Refugees," and their expulsion
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from France, we have taken for a better understanding of our present subject ; at this period there is increased attention to historical research, and we gladly contribute our mite to the important cause.
The brave Admiral Coligny first conceived the plan of a colony in America, for the safety of his French perseented Huguenot brethren. It was undertaken as early as the year 1555, but failed ; again attempted in 1562, and alike unsuccessful. But a century afterwards. Protestant England took up the generous plans of the pious old Admiral, and with success. That nation then possessed twelve colonies in North America, and, when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, resolved here to offer safe homes to the persecuted French Protestants.
Even before the Revocation, as early as 1625, some "refugee" families reached the settlement of New Amsterdam. In 1663, distribution of lands was made in Charleston to the Frenchmon, Richard Batin, Jacques Jones, and Richard Deyos, who were put in possession of freeholders' rights, and placed on a footing with the English colony .* Like concessions were made to other Huguenots. During 1679, Charles II. ordered two ves- sols to transport, at his own expense, French Protest- ants to Carolina, and in the next year some two thou- sand five hundred more selected this region for their homes. About the same period, others emigrated to Boston, where they erected a church in 1686. Their pastor was a refugee minister, named M. Lawrie, who was assisted by the Rev. Daniel Bondet. 1. M. Wo shall learn more of this early missionary at Now Ro-
* Weiss's Huguenots.
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chelle. New Oxford, near Boston, was the French colony, and in 1686 it received from Massachusetts the liberal benefaction of eleven thousand acres of lands:
A large body of the Huguenots went to Ulster, New York, a region, like their own native land, celebrated for its fertility and great natural beauties. New Paltz was settled in 1677, and for the information of many readers, we insert the original purchasers : Louis Du- bois ; Christian Dian, since Walter Deyo; Abraham As- broucef, now spelled Hasbrouck; Andrew Le Fever, often Le Febre and Le Febvre ; John Brook, said to have been changed into Hasbrouck; Peter Dian or Deyo ; Louis Bevier ; Anthony Crispell ; Abraham Dubois ; Hugo Frier ; Isaac Dubois ; Lemon Le Fever.
A copy of this ancient agreement with the Indians still exists, and the curious antiquarian may find it among the State Records at Albany. It is a very sin- gular document, with the signatures of both parties ; the patentees written in the antique French character, with the Indian hieroglyphie marks. A few "Indian goods," kettles, axes, beads, bars of lead, powder, blankets, needles, twine, awls, with a clean pipe, were the insig- nificant articles given for these lands, now proverbially rich, and worth millions of dollars. This treaty was eventually executed on the 20th of May, 1677.
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