USA > New York > The earliest churches of New York and its vicinity > Part 19
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The Charleston church alone, in our land, has main- tained until this day the Huguenot Calvinistic Liturgy in its primitive purity, with publie worship according to the usages of the primitive French Protestant Churches. The language only of its earliest founders has been dispensed with. Its present pastor is the Rev. Mr. White, formerly of the Reformed Dutch Church on Staten Island.
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The Charleston Huguenot church uses a Liturgy in its public services, a copy of which lies before me, politely furnished by Daniel Ravenel, Esq., one of its authorized compilers. It is the "Liturgy of the French Protestant Church, translated from the editions of 1737 and 1772, published at Neufchatel, with additional prayers, carefully selected, and some alterations ; ar- ranged for the use of the congregation in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston : printed by James S. Burgess, 1836." According to its preface, Joseph Manigault, George W. Cross, and Daniel Ravenel were appointed a committee on the translation of this Liturgy, and presented the work on Sunday, October 23, 1836, as the result of their labors. It was principally compiled and translated from a French quarto copy, formerly used in the pulpit of this congregation. The work containing no burial-service, one was added from the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, omitting the Rubrics. Neither were there any "Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings," which now were obtained in part from the same book, and a French work printed at Amsterdam, 1763, entitled " 1 Liturgy for the Protestants of France : or Prayers for the Families of the Faithful. Deprived of the Public Exercise of their Religion : with a Preliminary Discourse."
Only one entire prayer was composed for the work. the original of which was found among the papers of the Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, after his lamented death. The translation was made by Elias Hony, George W. Cross, and Mr. Grimke, the first and last of which gen- tlemen did not live to see the Liturgy printed, although
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NORTH REFORMED DURCH CHURCH, CORNER OF WILLIAM AND FURIOUS SIN.
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completed before they died. We have been thus par- ticular in our reference to this Huguenot church, as" it is the only standing monument in our whole land of the religions principles and worship which brought the French Protestants to this New World. In every other place, the descendants of these French refugees have long since united with other evangelical sects. Origin- ally, four French Protestant congregations existed in South Carolina ; but three of their number conformed to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and were then sup- ported by the public funds. This Charleston church alone sustains its original distinctive character.
After all our inquiries, we have been able to collect very little historical information concerning the early Huguenot preachers of South Carolina, and hence we have indulged in more general views than otherwise would have been the case. Still, they have a value and importance upon the subject of our early American Church history, and we gladly add this mite of ours to aid the important subject.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
SOUTHOLD THE FIRST SETTLED TOWN ON LONG ISLAND (1640), REV. J. YOUNGS, PASTOR-IIIS SUCCESSORS -- JAMES DAVENPORT AN ENTHIU- SIAST, BUT REFORMS-SOUTHAMPTON CHURCH BUILT 1640-REV. MR. PIERSON-THE "PLANTATION COVENANT"-THE REFORMERS EMIGRATE TO NEWARK, NEW JERSEY-MINISTERS OF SOUTHAMPTON-SALARIES -BRIDGEHAMPTON PARISH-MINISTERS-BROOKHAVEN THE LARGEST TOWN-REV. N. BREWSTER AND SUCCESSORS-EASTHAMPTON SETTLED BY PURITANS (1648)-STRICT LAWS-VOTING-THOMAS JAMES, EAR- LIEST PASTOR-IIIS SINGULAR DYING REQUEST-REV. N. HATTING - DR. BUEL PREACHED TEN THOUSAND SERMONS -DR. LYMAN BEECHER THE FOURTHI PASTOR.
SOME imagine that Long Island at one period was a part of Connecticut, and subsequently separated by the irruption of the Atlantic Ocean, forming the present "Sound." Into this geological question it is not neces- sary for us to enter. Still, the churches on Long Island, except those in the vicinity of New Amsterdam, were founded by Connecticut men and preachers.
Southold was the first town settled on the island, and in the year 1640, its earliest settlers coming from Now Haven. They were mostly Englishmen, from Norfolk- shire, who had spent a short time in the New Haven colony. The Rev. John Youngs, their pastor, came with Them, organizing their church. He was an excellent man, died in 1672, and his descendants are now nu- merous on Long Island. Next, a committee went to Boston for "an honest and godly minister." Such was
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their instruction ; and what a pity is it that such a good desire does not satisfy the people of our day ! They obtained the Rev. Joshua Hobart, who died in 1717, aged eighty-eight years. The Rev. Benjamin Woolsey became the third pastor, in the year 1720, but removed during 1736.
Next among the Southold pastors came the Rev. James Davenport, of remarkable history. He was born at Stamford, Connecticut, in the year 1710, graduating at Yale College, 1732, and ordained at Southold, 1738. Pious and ardent while at college, he became intimate with a wild enthusiast, named Lewis, who professed to know the will of God in all things, had led a sinless life for six years, and claimed a higher seat in heaven than even Moses himself. He particularly professed to know that not one in ten of all the New Haven church mem- bers could be saved. He afterwards turned a Quaker preacher.
Davenport, embracing many of his fanatical notions, imagined that God had revealed to him the coming of His kingdom in great power, and also that he was especially called to labor for its advancement. On one occasion, he addressed his people for nearly twenty-four successive hours, until he was quite wild. Like all religious enthusiasts, his zeal soon became unrestrained, setting at naught all the rules of Christian prudence and order. He headed his followers, in procession, whilst singing psalms and hymns through the streets. A great advocate of trances and visions, he esteemed such in- ward impulses and feelings the rule of duty for himself and others.
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Mr. Davenport also indulged another striking charac- teristic of religious enthusiasts ; he sat in judgment on the character of other ministers, often declaring them to be in an unconverted state. He told the people that they might as well eat ratsbane as hear such unregene- rated preachers ! Against pride in dress he severely declaimed, styling it idolatry ; and in New London, on one occasion, he kindled a large fire, and burned costly garments, with ornaments and many good books, and among them Flavel and Bishop Beveridge's works, as heretical. Confusion and dissensions in the churches were the bitter fruits which followed these delusions.
Davenport, however, at length saw the evil and folly of his fanatical ways, and by a public confession renounced them. In the year 1746, dismissed from Southold, he settled in Hopewell, New Jersey, where he died, 1757, aged forty-seven.
SOUTHAMPTON.
The church at this place was erected at the same time with the one in Southold (1640), and these two were the first sanctuaries of the Lord within the entire Province of New Netherland; they were founded two years before (1642) the Old Reformed Dutch Church in the fort at the Battery, and built by Governor Kieft. A company of eight men, called " undertakers, " settled Southampton, and this number was increased to sixteen, before the emigrants left Lynn, Mass., and among them was the Rev. Abraham Pierson, of Boston, their first minister. The records of their early laws have been pro-
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served, and they are quite as remarkable as the famous "Blue Laws" of New England.
Mr. Pierson belonged to that school believing that all civil government, as well as ecclesiastical, was vested in the Church ; so that church members only should hold public office, or vote in the community. When this new colony was incorporated, Lord Sterling gave the settlers privilege to regulate those matters according to their own peculiar notions. Idolatry, witchcraft, her- esy, blasphemy, and smiting or cursing parents, were punished with death. Profane swearing received either stripes, branding with a hot iron, or boring through the tongue, as "he hath bored and pierced God's name." Mr. Pierson, having served the church four years at Southampton, removed to Beaufort, Conn., some of his people going with him, where he ministered twenty- three years. His labors were very useful in promoting religion and education among the Indians.
In the year 1666, Mr. Pierson, with most of his con- gregation and many prominent persons from Guilford, New Haven, and Milford, signed a " Plantation Cove- nant," to remove where they could maintain their no- tions of Church goverment, now impracticable in the Connecticut colony. Emigrating to New Jersey, the reformers selected a spot for their settlement, calling it "New Ark," which is now the beautiful city of New- ark. Ilere they made laws and customs after their own notions and hearts, and planted the seeds of good order and industry, the fruits of which the people of that place enjoy to the present day, after a lapse of more than two hundred years. He died on the 9th of August, 1678.
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His son Abraham, for some time associated with him in the pastoral charge at Newark, became the first Presi- dent of Yale College.
The Rev. Joseph Fordham, John Heinman, and Jo- seph Taylor succeeded Mr. Pierson in the pulpit at Southampton. Mr. Taylor came in the year 1680, the people promising a salary of one hundred pounds, with a parsonage; one hundred and eighty acres of land, " commonage," with one hundred also in the woods, to him and his heirs forever. The salary was to be paid in winter wheat at five shillings a bushel ; summer, four shillings sixpence ; Indian corn, two shillings sixpence ; beef, forty shillings per cwt. ; tallow, threepence per pound ; green hides, threepence; whalebone, eight- pence ; and oil, thirty shillings a barrel. Such were the prices of these staples a century and three-quarters ago. Whales were then caught in the waters of Long Island Sound, and this became a leading business with the settlers. These articles for the minister's support were all to be good, merchantable, and collected by the con- stable. We imagine that all the clergymen now labor- ing on Long Island are not as well supported as this reverend gentleman was, as far back as 1680.
In the year 1792, the Rev. Herman Dogget was settled in Southampton, a preacher of fine talents and character, and although social and cheerful, it is stated that he was never known to laugh."
Bridgehampton parish is six miles cast of the old Southampton church, and is remarkable for the length
* Rev. S. I. Prime's Early Mini ters of Long Island.
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of time its pastors served the congregation. In 1605, the Rev. Ebenezer White was the first settled, remain- ing fifty-three years, and he died at the age of eighty- four, in 1756. Rev. James Brown, the next pastor, set- tled in 1748, resigning 1775, and resided here until his death, in 1788. During the Revolutionary War this
congregation had no preacher. After this the Rev. Aaron Woolworth came, in 1787. He died in the year 1821, aged fifty-eight years, and the thirty-fourth of his sacred ofice. These three faithful mon ministered to this Long Island church a period of one hundred and twenty-six years, from 1605 to 1821. Greatly to their praise, it is said, that this congregation never dismissed a minister. The next pastor was the Rev. Amri Francis, who diedl in 1845, after a useful pastorate of twenty-two years. His death was very triumphant, remarking dur- ing his final hours, that he had "never conceived it possible, in this mortal state, to have such views of the heavenly world as he was permitted to enjoy." Dr. Woolworth's name to this day remains a sweet savor in that region, and will long continue so.
Brookhaven, the largest town in Long Island, was first settled by fifty "planters" at Setauket, a place so called from the Indian tribe formerly occupying the region. The Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, having three sons among the settlers, visited them and remained as minister of the place. Thus he continued forty five years, and died in 1690, aged seventy. He was a remarkable man : a grandson of Elder Brewster, of the famed " May- Flower," and pastor of the " Pilgrim Fathers." It is also said that he was a graduate in the first class of Har-
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vard University, and probably the first native graduate in the New World.
The Rev. George Phillips was the next minister, and, when ordained, the town of Brookhaven voted one hun- dred acres of land to him, in fee, with two hundred acres more, if he would preach there as long as he lived. Such offers, or bribes, we may add, are rare now. The Rev. David Youngs and Rev. Benjamin Talmage were the next pastors, the latter ordained in 1754.
Basinampion was seitical by some families from Lynn and other Massachusetts towns, in the year 1648. They were stern Puritans, with peculiar and strict laws. In 1651, we find the following enactment: "Noe man shall sell any liquor, but such as are deputed thereto by the town, and such shall not lette youth and those under authority remaine drinking at unreasonable hours ; and such persons shall not have more than half a pint among four men." A wise and excellent enactment! Unto a false witness, it was ordained, that it should be done unto him as "he had thought to do unto his neighbour, whatever it be, to the taking away of life, limb, or goods."
Notwithstanding all these pious efforts of these good people to secure religious institutions at the commence- ment of their settlement, wickedness abounded. Very early in their history, "a woman was sentenced to pay a fine of three pounds, or stand one hour with a split stick on her tongue, for saying that her husband had brought her to a place where there was neither Gospel or magistracy." The Easthamptoners have been cole- brated for their unity of sentiment in polities and reli-
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gion. When party questions became so violent, about the beginning of the present century, only two dissent- ing votes were generally given at the polls, and these were cast by Sag Harbor men, living just over the town Mine. We do not believe the old saying, however, that the people of Suffolk continue to vote for Tom Jefferson every four years ! Their religious unity has been most remarkable. Until visitors made Easthampton a fashion- able resort in summer, the place had but one house of worship for almost two hundred years, with very few professors of religion, except the "standing order" of Presbyterians.
The earliest pastor in Easthampton was the Rev. Thomas James. He came with the first settlers, or very soon followed them. He is said to have been a man of talent and very eccentric. A pastor forty-four years, he left an injunction at his death, that his body should be buried in the eastern section of the graveyard, his head towards the east, while people generally are laid with their heads to the west. This strange direction was complied with, and he gave this reason for it : That he desired on the morning of the Resurrection to arise with his face towards his congregation. His tombstone may still be seen-now more than one hundred and sixty years old-with this legend :
MR. THOMAS JAMES.
DYED THE 16TH DAY OF JUNE, IN THE YEARE 1636.
He was a minister of the Gospel and pastor of the Church of Christ.
Rev. Nathaniel Hunting succeeded him, serving this congregation fifty-three years, and died in 1753, at the
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advanced age of eighty. The Rev. Samuel Buel, D. D., the third pastor, was ordained in the year 1746, Presi- dent Edwards preaching the ordination sermon. - He was an able divine, excellent pastor, and powerful in the pulpit. In 1798 be finished his useful course, almost' eighty-two years old, and nearly fifty-two the pastor of this church. Its three first ministers labored here about one hundred and fifty years. Dr. Buel delivered ten thousand sermons. One writer mentions that a weakness of his was to marry a young wife in is old age! He must have been very free from the infirmities of human nature if this is the only evidence of weakness.
Dr. Lyman Beecher was the fourth pastor of East- hampton, and ordained here in 1799. His zeal, talents, and fervent piety, in every respect fitted him to succeed Dr. Buel, and, remaining ten years, he left an impres- sion still enduring.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
CHURCHES ON LONG ISLAND, CONTINUED-HUNTINGTON --- REV. MR. JONES FIRST MINISTER -- REV. EBENEZER PRIME HIS ASSISTANT, THEN SOLE PASTOR-CONGREGATION MUCH DISPERSED BY THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR -- OUTRAGES OF THE ENEMY, AND PERMITTED BY COLONEL THOMPSON -- PATRIOTISM OF MR. PRIME -- THE IN- DIANS-REV, MR. LEVERICH PREACHES TO THEM (1653) -- REV. A. HORTON ORDAINED TO LABOR AMONG THEM-A FAITHFUL MAN -HIS JOURNAL -- BRAINARD-SAMSON OCCUM, THE MOHEGAN IN- DIAN-IIIS ZEAL AND LABORS-A POET-EXTRACTS -- PETER JOIN, ANOTHER NATIVE CONVERT AND PREACHER-PAUL CUFFEE, AN- OTHER-HIS TOMBSTONE AND INSCRIPTION-DISAPPEARANCE OF THE INDIANS ON LONG ISLAND.
THE Rev. Mr. Jones, from Connecticut, began to preach at Huntington, Long Island, in the year 1676. In this parish, he served God and the people over half a cen- tury, and died June 5th. 1731, in his ninety-first year He was a man of great purity and simplicity of manners, a faithful and successful preacher. Rev. Ebenezer Prime was born in Milford, Connecticut, in 1700, and graduated at Yale College in 1718, and the next year, became an assistant to Mr. Jones in the Huntington church. Here he afterwards continued the sole pastor, till increasing age rendered an assistant necessary. The Rev. John Close was settled with him in 1766, and after seven years' services was dismissed, 1773, when Mr. Prime was left alone in his pastoral duties. The strug- gle for Independence now coming on, the congregation
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became much broken up, and the aged pastor was com- pelled to fly from home with his family, by the British and Tories. They hid their silver plate in a well, and. thus secured, it has been handed down as a kind of "heirloom" to the descendants. Long Island suffered severely from the ravages of the common foe, but no town more so than Huntington. The church pews torn up, the sacred edifice was converted into a military depot, and afterwards entirely pulled down ; the timber was used to construct barracks and block-houses. To outrage the feelings of the inhabitants still more, level- ling the graves, the enemy erected some of their build- ings in the burying-ground, and used tombstones for ovens and fireplaces. One historian relates, that bread from these baking-places could be seen, by persons, with the epitaphs of their friends indented on the bot- tom crust ! Such are the refinements of war! Colonel Benjamin Thompson, of the enemy's forces, permitted these outrages-a man, too, of distinguished science, and afterwards made Count Rumford by the Duke of Bava- ria ! This officer entertained great hatred to the Rev. Mr. Prime and his son, on account of their ardent patri- otism and efforts to sustain- the infant cause of freedom. The British officers took possession of his house, de- stroying many valuable books in his library, and mutila- ting others. An exile in a retired neighborhood, nearly fourscore years old, this venerable soldier of the cross, in the midst of the war, ended his useful life in 1779. In the year 1782, Colonel Thompson encamped in the graveyard of Huntington, pitching his tent behind this old pastor's grave, " that he would have the pleasure."
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he said, "every time he went out and in, of treading on the old rebel." Refined feelings and enjoyment for a Count ! Count Rumford !
The Rev. Mr. Prime was a divine of much learning, ability, and usefulness ; his manuscripts contain living evidence to his devotion, and ardent desires for the ad- vancement of the Lord's kingdom.
When Long Island was settled by the Dutch and Eng- lish, Indians occupied its whole territory, and here re- sided, or rather roamed, thirteen distinct tribes of the Aborigines. Their history would fill an interesting chapter, but we are now to notice them as idolaters and pagans, for very early did the attention of Christians in New England direct itself towards these poor, benighted people. As early as 1653, the Rev. Mr. Leverich, one of the original purchasers of Oyster Bay, who had studied the Indian language in Massachusetts, was employed by the "Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England," as a teacher of the Indians on the island, and he devoted five years to this work. The Rev. Mr. James also, first minister at East Hampton, studied the Indian language, and, moved with compassion, labored among the Mohawk tribe, about 1660. For a century, the re- ligious efforts of these missionary men and others seemed to have been almost useless. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, however, 1741. the Rev. Azariah Horton was ordained as a missionary to these Indians by the Presbytery of New York, and he became, in word and deed. a true missionary. His important charge extended along the whole southern shore of the island for over one hundred miles; and four or five
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times a year he itinerated, like a more modern Wesleyan, from Montauk to Rockaway. We find him subsisting on Indian fare, sleeping in their wigwams, preaching the Gospel almost daily, and teaching the savages to read God's Word. His journals have been preserved, and prove his scal and success among them. For illus- tration, we make a few extracts :
" Rockaway, June 6th, 1742 .- Preached. My hearers attended with serious- ness, and appeared somewhat thoughtfv !.
" Mouches, June 13th .-- Preached. Two Indians awakened, and soveral others under distressing concern of mind, &e. Most of these are endeavouring to learn to read.
"June 19th .- Spent most of the day in visiting, from wigwam to wigwam, both the sick and well.
" Islip, October 24th .-- Preached. Some deeply concerned, &c., &c., among the Indians."
These Christian efforts continued eleven years, the missionary pursuing his solitary work uncheered by the presence of a single fellow-laborer. In February, how- ever, 1742, he was encouraged by a visit from the well- known David Brainard, preparing to set out on a similar errand of mercy to the New Jersey Indians. To Hor- ton's "poor dear people," he preached a single dis- course. In 1752. Mr. Horton settled at Madison, Now Jersey, where some Long Islanders had emigrated, and he became the first pastor of the place, and remained for fifteen years. He here finished his earthly work in 1792, and His tombstone has this simple inscription :
THE REV AZARIAHE HORTON, POR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS PASTOR OF THIS CHURCH. Hind March With. NET, and sixty-two years.
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His name should never perish from the early churches, and especially the Indian missions of Long Island.
The year after Mr. Horton left Long Island, Samson Occum, a Mohegan Indian, was sent as a teacher to the Indians there. He was a most remarkable man ; born 1723, he embraced Christianity in 1741, then eighteen years old. Very anxious to be useful, he obtained ad- mission into the school of the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, of Lebanon. This seminary resulted in "Moor's Charity School," and that led to the establishnemt of Dartmouth College. In the year 1759, he received ordi- nation from the Presbytery of Suffolk, and preached the Gospel with great power among his Indian brethren. He accompanied the Rev. Mr. Whittaker to England in 1765, to obtain funds for the "Moor's Charity School." The first Indian preacher that ever appeared among the English, he attracted great attention, and crowded houses listened to his discourses. He obtained more than forty thousand dollars in England and Scotland, the King donating two hundred dollars.
Occum removed from Long Island to Oneida County in the year 1786, where he died, 1792, aged sixty-nine. More than three hundred Indians attended his funeral. the Rev. Mr. Kirkland preaching the sermon. This native preacher addressed, acceptably, the most intelli- gent congregations, as well as the ignorant Indians. When preaching to the latter, his manner was free, clear, and eloquent ; but more constrained to other audiences. He was a poet, also, and one of our familiar hymns comes from this Mohegan's pen :
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