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CHAPTER I.
THE COLLEGIATE REFORMED DUICH CHURCH OF NEW YORK THE EARLIEST FORMED IN NORTH AMERICA-MOTLEY'S "RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC"-EMIGRANTS SENT TO AMERICA BY THE WEST INDIA COMPANY - DIRECTOR MINUIT'S ARRIVAL, 1620 -- THE ZIEKENTROOSTER -- REV. JONAS MICHAELIUS, THE FIRST MINISTER- DOMINIE BOGARDUS-FIRST CHURCH-THE SECOND, ST. NICHOLAS, HOW BUILT -- EARLIEST MINISTERS - GARDEN STREET CHURCH BUILT -- DOMINJE DUBOIS -- MIDDLE AND NORTH DUTCH BUILT- THEIR MINISTERS.
THE Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church of New York was the first formed in North America, dating its origin from the earliest settlement on Manhattan Island. Its name is derived from historical associations. The term Protestant, in the sixteenth century, was applied to the Reformers and all who denied the authority of the Pope and rejected the unseriptural doctrines of the Romish Church. The term itself arose in 1520, when six princes of the German Empire solemnly protested against the decrees of the Diet of Spires, and it has ever since been the distinctive name, universally used, as applied to the blessed Reformation. Early in the Reformation a difference happened among the Protestants on some points, and particularly with respect to the real pres-
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ence of Christ's humanity in the Lord's Supper. Those who held the doctrine with Luther, the great Reformer, were called Lutherans, whilst they rejecting it, Re- formed.
At an early period of the Reformation in Germany, a spirit of religious inquiry spread through the Nether- lands, when a terrible struggle for civil and religious liberty ensued against the gigantic power of the Papal Empire. The TRUTH triumphed. Seven northern prov- inces of Holland became independent, whilst the ten southern were attached to the Imperial and Papal power. Studious readers will find the history of this great struggle of the sixteenth century in those admi- rable works of research and classical finish -- the " Reign of Philip the Second," and "The Rise of the Dutch Republic," down to 1684, by Motley. These volumes have inspired an interest in the history of the martyrs and heroes in the Holland Reformation never before felt and known. The noble "Confessors" of the Nether- lands unfold as rich a page as can be opened in any history. When first formed, they called their churches "The Churches under the Cross." In 1563 its ministers assembled at Antwerp, and established a Synod of the Churches, and soon after adopted the Catechism and Confession, which, to this day, constitute the doctrinal standards. The Reformed Church of Holland became distinguished for her learned theologians and devoted, zealous, and pious pastors. Her bosom was the home of the persecuted Waldenses, Huguenots, with the Cov- enanters and the exiled Puritans. Such, in the seven- teenth century, was the Reformed Church of Holland,
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from which the Reformed Dutch Church in America . derives its origin.
It is proper to state that the West India Company, whenever they sent emigrants under their auspices to America, also sent with them a pious schoolmaster, whose duty was to instruct the children, preside in re- ligious meetings, and read a sermon, until the regular ministry should be established. This individual was called the Ziekentrooster, or Comforter of the Sick. Director Minuit arrived at Manhattan, May 4, 1620, in the ship Sea Mew, when two Zickentroosters were se- lected to read the Scriptures and Creeds to the people on Sundays. Their names have been preserved-Sebastian Jansen Krol and Jan Huyck. When Fort Orange was built, and a trading post established there, Krol was appointed Viec-Director of that settlement, seldom visit- ing Manhattan. From a recently discovered letter by Mr. Murphy, whilst Minister at the Hague, we learn that the Rev. Jonas Michaelius reached the "Island of Manhatas, in New Netherland, this 11th August, anno 1628." The Rev. Dominic Bogardus came with Gov- ernor Van Twiller, and has always been considered the earliest minister. Mr. Michaelius, however, arrived hero five years earlier (1628). His letter is long, curious, and full of interest about the infant settlement ; and he says: " We have first established the form of a church, and it has been thought best to choose two elders for my assist- ance. . . . One of those whom we have chosen is the Honorable Director himself. . . . We have had at the first administration of the Lord's Supper full fifty com- municants-not without great joy and comfort for so
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many -- Walloons and Dutch. .. . We administer the Holy Sacrament of the Lord once in four months. The Walloons and French have no service on Sundays otherwise than in the Dutch language, of which they understand very little. . . . Nevertheless, the Lord's Supper was administered to them in the French lan- guage, and according to the French mode, with a pre- ceding discourse, which I had before me in writing, as I could not trust myself extemporaneously." Such was the earliest ecclesiastical history of New Netherland two hundred and thirty-five years ago.
The same letter describes the Indians of the new coun- try : "Savage and wild, strangers to all decency, yea, uncivil and stupid as posts, proficient in all wickedness and ungodliness, devilish men, who serve nobody but the devil; that is, the spirit, which in their language they call . Manetto.' . . . They are as thievish and treacherous as they are tall; and, in cruelty, they are more inhuman than the people of Barbary, and far exceed the Africans. . .. How these people can best be led to the true knowledge of God and of the Mediator Christ, is hard to say. . . . The country yields many good things for the support of life, but they are all to be gathered in an uncultivated and wild state. We have ten or twelve farmers, with horses, cows, and laborers in proportion, to furnish us with bread and fresh butter, milk, and cheese. They are making a windmill to saw the wood, and we also have a gristmill. . . . The coun- try is good and pleasant ; the climate is healthy, not- withstanding sudden changes of cold and heat. The sun is very warm: the winter strong and severe, and
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continues full as long as in our country. The best remedy is not to spare the wood, of which there is enough, and to cover oneself well with rough skins, which can easily be obtained. . . .
"JONAS MICHAELIUS."
Such is the graphic picture of our great city, when it was the Colony of Manhattan, over two centuries ago. In the horsemill here mentioned, prayers had been read for seven years; then it was vacated, and a wooden church built on the shore of the East River, in Pearl street, between Whitehall and Broad streets; and near by were also constructed a parsonage and stable. We know the region well, for it is the place of our own nativity-a native-born New Yorker.
In 1633, the Rev. Everardus Bogardus arrived. asso- ciating with him Adam Rolandsen as schoolmaster. He organized a church school, which has been handed down to the present day, an institution of great good to Church and State. Do the Puritans boast of their early minis- ters and schools of education? The Dutch of New Amsterdam share the same honor. A horsemill was built as early as 1626. and a tower added, in which were hung the Spanish bells, captured, the previous year, by the West India Company's fleet, at Porto Rico.
The Dutch settlers worshipped in the frail Pearl street church until 1012, when steps were taken to build a new edifice. This was done at the instigation of the celebrated navigator De Vreis. In his journal he says that, dining with Governor Kieft, he said to his Excel- 2
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lency : "It was a shame that the English, when they visited Manhattan, saw only a mean barn, in which we worshipped. The first thing they built in New Eng- land, after their dwelling-houses, was a fine church. We should do the same." A new church followed, erected within the fort (the present battery). "It was a shame that the English, who had such fine churches in . their settlements, should see them worshipping in a mean barn, when they had plenty of fine wood, and stone, and oyster-shells for lime, at their very doors."
How to obtain the necessary funds, however, was now the question. Kieft promised to advance one thousand guilders on the company's account, and De Vreis com- menced a private subscription with one hundred more : but these sums were quite insufficient, when a little management supplied what was wanting. A daughter of Dominie Bogardus was to be married, and the princi- pal citizens were invited to the marriage. In the midst of the bridal festivities, the subscription-paper was in- troduced, when the guests emulated each other in their donations to the proposed work. John and Richard Ogden, of Stamford, contracted for the mason-work at two thousand five hundred guilders, with a bonus of one hundred more, should the work prove satisfactory. The roof was covered with oaken shingles, then called wooden slates. The church was seventy-two feet long. fifty-two wide, and sixteen high. In its front wall, on a marble slab, was this legend :
"An. Dom, MDCXLIL .. W. Kicit, Dir. Gen., Heft De Gemeente dese Tempel dyen Breve-In the year of our Lord 1642. W. Kieft being Director-General, has this congregation caused this Temple to be built."
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When the old fort at the Battery was demolished, in" 1790, to make room for the Government House, built on the spot, this stone was found buried, and then it was removed to the belfry of the "Old Garden Street Church," where it was preserved until both were de- stroyed, in the great conflagration of 1835. The writer well remembers that terrible night and fire, as he stood on the flat roof of a lofty store adjoining, and beheld this sacred temple, with hundreds of houses, envel- oped in the unconquerable, raging, fiery element. The town-bell of Manhattan was removed to the church in the fort, where its tones regulated the public business of the city, the courts, merry peals for weddings, the funeral knell, and the Sabbath assemblages.
The old church in the fort was called " St. Nicholas." in honor of the tutelary and guardian saint of New Amsterdam ; and here, for half a century, from 1642 to 1693, the early Dutch settlers worshipped God. We add a tabular view of their ministers, in regular succession. as obtained from the Rev. Dr. Dewitt, the best authority we know of the early ecclesiastical history of New Netherland :
Everardus Bogardus, from 1633 to 1617
Joannes Backerus
Joannes Megapolensis .
" 164 to 1699
Samuel Drissius 1652 to 1671
Samuel Megapolensis = 1664 to 1688
Willchans Van Nienvenhuysen
1671 to Ios1
Henriens Selvas .
1682 to 1701
These ministers, it is said, were all educated in the universities of Holland, and well prepared for their
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important work. Dominie Bogardus, in 1647, took pas- sage for Holland, to meet some charges against him before the Classis of Amsterdam. Governor Kieft em- barked in the same vessel, which was lost at sea, all on board perishing. Dominie Backerus came from Curacoa, and, after a year spent here, he returned to Holland. Megapolensis preached at Rensselaerwyck, now Albany. Samuel Drissius was called on account of his knowledge of the French and English languages, that he might minister in both to the people. He preached once a month to the French Huguenots on Staten Island. Samuel Megapolensis, the son of the former-named, returned to Holland in 1668. Selyns preached at Burekelen (Brooklyn) and on Governor Stuyvesant's Bowerie, or farm. He went back to Hol- land in 1664, and, during 1682. was called to St. Nicholas , Church. Henricus Selyns was the most distinguished dominio who came from Holland. Van Nieuvenhuysen died in 1681, when an urgent appeal was made to Selyns, and he became pastor from 1682 to 1689, and died in 1701. He gave a strong and happy direction to the interests of the church.
The literature of New Amsterdam was entirely dif- ferent from that of our day. In the place of novels, romances, magazines, and light reading, which now so often fill the centre-tables, there was to be found little else than Bibles, Testaments, with the Psalm-Books; still every family possessed these household volumes. The matron's Church books were generally costly bound. with silver clasps and edgings, and sometimes of gold : and these, suspended to the girdle by silver or gold
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chains, distinguished the style of the families using. them on Sabbath days.
Sunday, in New Amsterdam, was better observed than by New Yorkers now. All, arrayed in their best, attended the public services of religion : and the people, almost exclusively Calvinists, "went to" the Reformed Dutch Church. The "Kocek," or bell-ringer and sexton united, was an important officer on the sacred day, sum- moning the congregation by the ringing of the church- going bell. He also formed a procession of himself and his assistants, to carry the cushions of the burgomasters and schepens from the City-hall to the pews appropri- ated to these officials. At the same time, the "Schout" went his rounds, to see that quiet was kept in the streets during divine worship, and also to stop the games of the negro slaves and Indians, to whom the day was allowed for recreation, except during the church hours. The Dutch Church was then located within the fort at the Battery, and the present Bowling Green, an open field, exhibited many country wagons arranged in proper order, while their horses were permitted to graze on the hill-sides which led down to the Hudson River.
Soon after the entrance of Dominio Selyns on his pas- toral duties in St. Nicholas, a new church was talked of, and its consistory circulated a subscription for this object. He was settled in 1682; and Dr. Dewitt has in his possession a rare curiosity a manuscript volume of the Dominic's, dated 1686, the Register of his church members, arranged according to Streets. These are below Wall and east of Broadway, whilst the remaining families are placed " along shore," on the East River
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and Governor Stuyvesant's Bowerie, or farm. This volume, doubtless, was the guide in his pastoral visits. and it is a great honor, as well as advantage, to the Reformed Dutch Church, that its Register has been carefully continued and preserved from that early period until the present time.
Garden street was then thought to be too far out of town for a new church ; still this was the spot chosen, and the deed conveying the property is dated in the year 1690. The lot was one hundred and twenty-five feet in front, and one hundred and eighty feet deep, and is defined as adjacent to the orchard of Elizabeth Dris- sius, the widow of Dominie Drissius. What changes ! Where the fruits of the orchard were once gathered, there now the Jews, with the brokers, assemble daily, to win and to lose the golden fruits of California, or the paper "greenbacks" of Unele Sam. The new church was opened for divine service in 1693, before it was entirely finished. and cost sixty-four thousand one hun- dred and seventy-eight guilders, or twenty-seven thou- sand six hundred and seventy-one dollars. It was an oblong square, and had a brick steeple. The windows were small panes of glass set in lead. and. according to the fashion of that day, many of them had the coats-of- arms of the elders and magistrates curiously burnt on the glass by a Mr. Gerard Duykinek. Other armorial pictures hung on the walls, and this sacred edifice was the only house of worship for our Dutch ancestors in New York until the erection of the " Middle Dutch." the present Post-office. Nassau street. When this last- named was occupied, the Garden street church took the
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name of the "Old Dutch," and the Nassau the "New ;" and, as soon as that on William and Fulton was erected. it was called the "North," Garden street the "South," and Nassau the "Middle."
There is a head stone in the old cemetery at Newark, New Jersey, with this inscription :
" Here Lye ye Body of Peter Van Tilburgh. aged 76 years, Dec. ye 28, 1734. " Earth take my Earth, Satan my sin I'll leave; The World my Substance, Heaven my Soul."
The tradition is, that the old gentleman, who must have been a Dutchman, gave the lot on which Garden Street Church stood, and that in the church was placed a tablet to his memory."
In 1699, the Rev. Gualterus Dubois was associated with Dominic Selyns-two years before his death. Dubois continued in the pastoral office fifty-two years, till 1751.
When the Dutch colony was transferred to the Brit- ish, in 1664, the worship of the Church of England was. of course, introduced, and the chaplain of the British forces conducted public services in the old Dutch church at the fort. There was a very friendly feeling between the two denominations, as their always should be among sincere Christians ; and when Mr. Vesey. the first rector, arrived, he was kindly invited to hold reli- gious worship with his people, on a part of the Sabbath. in the okdl Garden Street Church. When he was induet- ed into his sacred office, Governor Fletcher invited two
* Librarian of the New Jersey Historical Society.
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of the Dutch clergymen to be present-Selyns, of New - York, and Mucella, from Kingston. For more unifor- mity, however, in our subject, we shall continue the sketches of the early Reformed Dutch churches before we trace those of the other denominations.
In 1714, the Rev. Henricus Boel became the colleague of Dominie Dubois, and, during the year 1726. the con- sistory resolved to erect a new church. Five hundred and seventy-five pounds were paid for a lot on Nassau street at the time, directly north of the Huguenot Church, near by, in Pine. The length of the new edifice was one hundred feet, and breadth seventy, with tower at the north end; and it was dedicated to the service of the Almighty in 1729. At first, it had no galleries, and the ceiling was one entire arch, without pillars. There were important changes made in the interior, after the introduction of English preaching. during 1784. The galleries were erected. and the pulpit removed from the east to the north end of the building. Its outlines are still preserved, particularly its turret and steeple, calling up, in the minds of our oldest citi- zens, many interesting and impressive remembrances. The face and hands of its venerable clock are there, which, so many years, regulated the time movements "down town." But they have long since ceased to point out the fleeting hours and moments. We have often wondered why the Government did not wind up the venerable regulator, and again set its pendulum in useful motion. Devoted, as the edifice now is, to the regulation and immense transportation of our nation's mails, it seems most proper that our New York Post-
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office should have such a public time-piece. Day and night a watchman stands in the belfry, on the look-out for fires, and a faithful city clock would be, as it were, a faithful companion to his vigilant, solitary hours.
For years after the erection of the "Middle Dutch," the preaching was entirely in Dutch; still, the want of English services was felt by very many of the con- gregation. All the public business was transacted in this language : intermarriages between the English and Dutch families were constantly increasing, and the Eng- lish was daily becoming the common tongue. In 1761. a petition from the majority of the congregation was presented to the consistory, urging the introduction of English preaching. The older members of the church at once violently opposed the measure; still. in 1763. a large majority of the consistory called the Rev. Archi- bald Laidlie, minister of the Scotch Reformed Church at Flushing, Holland. He reached New York in 1764, when some of the opponents to English preaching com- menced a suit in the civil courts, which was decided against them. This opposition seems very strange to us now, but we must not forget how deep in the human mind is the attachment to old associations, customs, and even language.
When the " Middle Dutch" was erected. the ministers officiating in Dutch were Dominies Ritzoma and De Ronde -- the one settled in 1744. the other in 1251. Dr. Laidlie was a native of Scotland, and there thoroughly educated. Living some years in Holland, he became acquainted with the Dutch language ; and kind, concili- ating in his spirit, ho gradually disarmed the opposition
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which existed when he first came to New York. He was, too, a powerful evangelical preacher. When the British took possession of New York he retired to Red Hook, where he ceased from his earthly labors in 1778. During his ministry of but a few years in the Middle Dutch Church, he used the English language on parts of the Sabbath, and the large edifice soon was filled.
At this period, 1766, the Old South Church in Garden street was thoroughly repaired, and the necessity of another and third house of worship was felt. Accord- ingly, in June, 1767, the consistory resolved that "the church should be erected on the grounds of Mr. Har- pending ; that it should be one hundred feet in length and seventy in breadth, and should front Horse and Cart Lane (William street), and be placed in the middle of the lot." Mr. John Harbendinck, as he wrote his name, was an aged and excellent member of the church, and gave the lots for the new edifice. He died in 1772, at a very advanced age, leaving no children, and was a liberal benefactor to the Dutch Church, both in life and death. Directly back of the pulpit of this church con- spicuously hangs a coat-of-arms, commemorative of this Christian man. Its motto is: "DANDO CONSERVAT" (by giving, it is secured)-a true sentiment-for the best way of securing our property is by devoting it to good purposes. We think it doubtful whether this was really his coat-of-arms, but rather a design by the church to commemorate his liberality. At first, the painting was placed in the Garden Street Church, and then removed to the " North Dutch," where it still bangs. It is a relic of the "olden tine," now one hundred years oldl, and
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well worthy of preservation. Mr. Harbending was a tanner and currier, and this armorial has painted on it the implements belonging to his trade.
The "North Dutch" cost twelve thousand pounds (sixty thousand dollars), and is a noble stone edifice, now venerable in years and associations. Upon the capital of each pillar are engraved the initials of those who donated them and gave subscriptions also. Isaac Roosevelt, one of the elders, laid the corner-stone, July, 1767, and Dr. Laidiie preached the dedication sermon on May 25, 1769. This church was erected more especially for English preaching and services, and an additional preacher became necessary, when John H. Livingston, in after years so well known as the venerable Dr. Liv- ingston, was called to this pious field of labor in 1770. Ile was eminently useful and universally loved during a long life.
When the war of the American Revolution broke out, this congregation warmly espoused the cause of inde- pendence, and consequently was scattered about the neighboring country. Whilst the British possessed the city, several churches, whose members had espoused the side of freedom. were abused and desecrated, and especially the Middle and North Dutch. The former was used as a prison, and afterwards for a riding- school of the British cavalry, witnessing great dissipa- tion and profanity : its galleries were destroyed, leaving the bare walls and roof. In the North Dutch there was a hospital : pows and pulpit were torn down, and its walls defaced. Nor can we properly pass by the well-known cruelties and outrages committed by the
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British soldiers whilst in our city. The churches, the Old Sugar House in Liberty street, the Jail, and the prison-ships, were memorials of these atrocities ; they became the abodes of cruelty, where thousands of patri- otic Americans perished, victims to hunger, cruelty, disease, and death. Many of their bleached bones, col- lected from Long Island, have been buried in old Trinity Churchyard. Gratitude to the noble band of native Americans who have there erected the splendid mauso- leum over these remains !
Just before the Revolution a new and beautiful pulpit had been placed in the North Dutch Church, which mysteriously disappeared some time afterwards, and no traces of it could be discovered. After the close of the war, however, one of our citizens, visiting a country church in England, saw in its pulpit the striking resem- blance to that of the North Dutch. A gentleman present remarked that it was probably the same, for it had been brought from America in a British ship !
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