USA > New York > The earliest churches of New York and its vicinity > Part 25
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At this period, Elizabethtown was the largest place in 25
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the province of East Jersey, containing some three hun- dred families, and it is believed that these were the first Episcopal services ever held there. The Rev. John Brook was sent to America by the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and. advised by Governor Cornbury to settle at Elizabeth Town and Perth Amboy, he writes from the former place, August 20, 1705: "Shrewsbury, Frechold, and Middletown are already supplied by Dr. Janes, a very goode man. . . . There are five Independent ministers in and about the places I preach at, and the greatest part of the people are followers of them. We design, God willing, next spring, to begin to build two churches -- one at Elizabeth Town, the other at Amboy (November 23. 1705). I must expect no subscriptions before they be finished. I have gathered a large congregation at Pisca- taway, about twenty miles from Elizabeth Town. An Independent minister has left them since I came, and now they are very desirous that the Rt. Rev. and IIon- orable Society would be pleased to send one of the Church of England, who is not a Scotchman. If a min- ister of temper was sent hither, he might do more service than any other place I know."
In the year 1706, on St. John the Baptist's Day, Mr. Brooks laid the foundation of a brick church at Eliza- bethtown, calling it . St. John's." fifty feet long, thirty wide, and twenty-one high. His communicants num- bered ten. The congregation increasing. he obtained a barn for his religions services, and, he writes. " in har- vest we were obliged to relinquish, wherenpon. the dissenters, who, presently after I came, were destitute
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of their old teachers (one of them being struck with death in their meeting-house, as he was railing against the Church, and the other being at Boston), would not suf- . fer me, upon my request, to officiate in their meeting- house, unless I would promise not to read any of the prayers of the Church, which I complied with, upon condition I might read the Psalms, Lessons, Epistle, and Gospel appointed for the day, which I did, and said all the rest of the service by heart, the doing of which brought a great many to hear me, who otherwise, prob- ably, would never have heard the service of the Church. . . . Their teacher begins at eight in the morning, and ends at ten, and then our service begins ; and in the afternoon, we begin at two. The greatest part of the Dissenters generally stay to hear all our services. We shall only get the outside of our church up this year, and I'm afraid t'will be a year or more before we can finish the inside. for I find, these hard times, a great many are very backward to pay their subscriptions. At Amboy, we've got a great many of the materials ready to build a stone church with, fifty-four feet long and thirty wide, next spring. . . Upon my arrival here, instead of churches, which I expected, I met only with private rooms, except at Amboy, where there is an old little court-house that serves for one. . . .11-
most discouraged, to find the Church had got so little footing in these parts. I resolved heartily and sincerely to endeavor to promote her, so much as in my power, in order to which I began to preach, catechise, and ex- pound, twelve, fourteen, sometimes fifteen days per month (which I still do). I drew a bill of fifty
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pounds upon my sister, who receives my money of Mr. Hodges, which I've given to Elizabeth Town; ten pounds to Piscataway; ten pounds to Amboy ; five pounds to the church that is to be at Freehold; two pounds to that at Cheesequakes ; three pounds to- wards printing Dr. Ashton's piece against the Anabap- tists, and for Catechisms to give away-and it hath cost me above ten pounds in riding about the provinces of New York and Pennsylvania, and this to get subscrip- tions. I should never have mentioned this, had not my circumstances obliged me to it. I could not have given near so much out of your one hundred pounds per an- num, had I not been very well stocked with clothes I brought from England, and had some money of my own. For, I ride so much, I'm obliged to keep two horses, which cost me twenty pounds : and one horse cannot be kept well under ten or eleven pounds per annum. 'Twill cost a man near thirty pounds per annum to board here ; and, sure, 'twill cost me much more, who, pilgrim- like, can scarce ever be three days together at a place. All clothing here is twice as dear, at least, as 'tis in Eng- land ; and riding so much makes me wear out many more than I ever did before. .. . I've so many places to take care of that I've scarce any time to study : neither can I supply any of them so well as they should be. I humbly beg, therefore, you'll be pleased to send a minister to take charge of Elizabeth Town and Raw- way upon him, and Ell take all the care Lean of the rest."
Such was the introduction of the Church of England in the province of New Jersey. In reading its account
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from this earliest and zealous missionary, it reminds us of John Wesley's saddle-bag Christian heroes. We have extracted largely from Mr. Brooks's letter, as it is the best record of those times that we can present.
In the year 1702, Lord Cornbury, the eldest son of Earl Clarendon, arrived in America, charged with the administration of the government of New York and the Jerseys. These provinces had been divorced for some time, but the proprietors differing, they ceded their patents to Queen Anne, when her majesty placed both under the command of Lord Cornbury. He was a near kinsman of her own, and the two colonies remained thus united until the year 1735, cach however preserving a distinct legislative assembly. Cornbury was a wicked adventurer, whose sole claim to this important coinmand could only rest on his relationship to the Queen or roy- alty. Churchman, as he was, his conduct became very arbitrary to ministers of his own denomination.
The Governor imprisoned in Fort Anne, 1707, the Rev. Thomas Moore, but he escaped ; when, Mr. Brooks fear- ing the same treatment, both left for England. An early writer says that " Mr. Brooks and Mr. Moore are much lamented, being the most pious and industrious mission- ors that the Honorable Society ever sent over, " and " whose crime was for opposing and condenming boldly vice and immorality."
Wearjed with Cornbury's tyranny, the citizens of New York and New Jersey at last petitioned the Queen for his removal, when she had to revoke her kinsman's commission. Immediately, his creditors threw him into the debtor's prison, at the new City Hall on Wall street,
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where the persecutor remained until the death of his father, Earl Clarendon, elevated him from the cell to the peerage of England.
Mr. Brooks died in 1707, and two years afterwards the Rev. Edward Vaughan was appointed missionary for this region of New Jersey, at a salary of fifty pounds per annum, which, he writes, "will not afford me a competent subsistence in this dear place, where no con- tributions are given by the people towards my support, and where I am continually obliged to be itinerant, and consequently at great expense in crossing ferries." This was one hundred and fifty years before the present day of well-known Jersey railroads and bridges. The Prop- agation Society, in 1710-11, sent over from England a Mr. Thomas Halliday, to divide the missionary burdens with Mr. Vaughan. The new missionary officiated at_Amboy and Piscataqua, and reports that "Amboy is a place pitched on by the Jerseys as most commodious for their trade in the country, in good hopes that some time or other it will appear a well-peopled ally. . . Piscataqua makes a much greater congregation, and there are some pious and well-disposed people among them ; some come from good distances to this meeting, but there is nothing among us like the face of a Church of England ; no surplice, no Bible, no communion table : an old broken house, insufficient to keep us from the injuries of the weather, and where, likewise, the Anabaptists, which swarm in this place, do sometimes preach, and we cannot hinder, the house belonging to the town." Piscataqua was the earliest Baptist settlement in the State, the tract purchased from the Indians in the year 1663, and their
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patent obtained the following year of Governor Nicolls, under the Duke of York. Among the recorded settlers here, we find the Gillmans, Drakes, Hands, Hendricks, Martins, Higginses, Dunhams, Fitz Randolphs, Suttons, Fords, Davises, Mortons, Dunns, &c., &e. Most of these. it is supposed, were Baptists, " and their first preachers Hugh Dunn, John Drake, and Edmond Dunham. These, with Nicholas Bonham, John Smalley, and John Fitz Randolph. in the spring of 1680, were constituted a "Baptist Church" in Piscataway. Then succeeded the Rev. Benjamin Stelle, of French extraction, who died in 1759 ; who was followed by his son, Isaac Stelle, 1781; Reune Runyan till 1811; James McLaughlin, 1817; Daniel Dodge, 1832; Daniel D. Lewis, 1833, &c.
The Seventh-day Baptist Church was formed by sev- enteen seceders from the Piscataqua Church, in the year 1707, the Rev. Edmond Dunham becoming their first pastor ; his son, Jonathan Dunham, was his successor, and Nathan Rogers the next preacher. During thirty years this congregation was the only one of the denomi- nation in the State of New Jersey. The Rev. Walter B. Gillette became its next pastor. In 1747, the Baptist Church at Scotch Plains was formed by members of the Piscataqua society, and the Rev. Jacob Fitz Randolph became their minister, and after him the Rev. Lebbeus Lathrop, and E. M. Barker.
Let us now return to the Episcopalians. In 1714, we find that " Mr. Vaughan is settled, and marrying a for- tune of two thousand pounds, and has taken up his residence at Amboy, and intends to serve it and Elizabeth
* Hist. Col. New Jersey.
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Town." Mr. Vaughan continued to minister at Eliza- bethtown for nearly forty years, remarkable for his amia- ble and social qualities, and beloved by his own people. He became very intimate with the Rev. Mr. Dickinson, the Presbyterian pastor of the town, although in tem- perament and doctrine warmly opposed to each other. Just as Mr. Vaughan was dying, the intelligence came of Dickinson's death, and among his last audible words be said . "O that I had hold of the skirts of brother Jonathan !"*
After his death, the Rev. Mr. Wood occasionally served the Episcopal church at Elizabethtown and New Brunswick. Then an application was made to the Soci- ety in England for a permanent minister, and Thomas Bradbury Chandler was appointed catechist, and after- wards ordained rector of the church. Subsequently he rose to distinction, becoming a very able defender of Epis- copacy. Under his ministry, in the year 1782, the church received a charter from the Crown, which still remains the law to regulate the secular affairs of the congrega- tion. The Revolutionary War had a ruinous effect upon this church. Connected with the Crown. a Churchman and a for of popular liberty became synonymous terms. Dr. Chandler retired to England, remaining there for some years after the war, but returning in 1785. He died 1790. His ministry protracted and able, his name will long be revered among the fathers of the Episcopal Church in New Jersey. The interior of the church was destroyed, and converted into a stable by the common enemy. After the close of the war it was soon repaired.
* Murray's Notes on Elmbothtown.
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and for some time continued the only place for the pub- lic worship of God in the town. After its repair, Dr. Ogden here preached with great power and success, but subsequently became a minister of the Presbyterian Church.
The Rev. Mr. Spragg, previously a Methodist minis- ter, was elected rector in 1789, and enjoyed the con- fidence and respect of his people. After a brief ministry of five years, he died suddenly, in 1794. The Rev. Mr. Raynor, who had also been connected with the Methodist Church, succeeded him, 1795-6, but removed to Connecticut in 1801. He gave up Meth- odism for Episcopacy, and then Episcopacy to embrace Universalism. Strange changes ! He now preached the doctrine first declared to Eve in the garden of Eden by the lying serpent: "Ye shall not surely die;" a doc- trine whose boast and claim to antiquity are certainly beyond all question.
The Rev. Dr. Beasley next occupied the pulpit. remaining until 1803. Then the Rev. Mr. Lilly served the parish (1803) for two years, when he, removing to the South, died. His successor was the Rev. Dr. Rudd. in 1806, and after a very successful ministry of twenty years, took charge of a large congregation at Auburn, New York.
In June, 1826, the Rev. Smith Pyne was called to fill the vacancy, and retired December, 1828. Next sue- ceeded, in 1829, the Rev. B. G. Noble, resigning 1833 : and the Rev. Richard C. Moore, Jr., a most excellent and pious pastor, in February, 1834. In 1855, he resigned the rectorship of St. John's, and is now the
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pastor of Christ Church, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. During his long and fruitful ministrations at Elizabeth- town, the church was almost rebuilt, a fine Sunday- school room added, and the communicants largely increased. Grace Church, a missionary one, was also erected at Elizabethport by the zoal and liberality of his congregation. In the year 1853, the members of St. John's formed another congregation under the name of Christ Church, and erected a beautiful stone chapel and rectory in the Gothic style, at a cost of over thirty thousand dollars, including the lot. Its pews are free, and the Rev. Mr. Hoffman its zealous pastor. A parish library has also been founded.
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
EXTENT OF NEW NETHERLAND - ITS SETTLERS-PALATINES AT KING- STON (1660) - BEAUTIFUL TRADITION --- " TRI-CORS "- FRENCH BIBLE -- RELIGIOUS LIBERTY-CHURCH ORGANIZED AT NEW PALTZ BY REV. P. DAILLE (1683)-THE "WALLOON PROTESTANT CHURCH? -HIS MISSION-FRENCHI THE COMMON LANGUAGE-THE "DUZINE" -LOUISE DUBOISE, ELDER, AND HUGH FREER, DEACON-DAILLE'S GRAVE RECENTLY DISCOVERED -- INSCRIPTION-IHIS WILL-BONRE- POS HIS SUCCESSOR AT NEW PALTZ (1696)-DUTCH LANGUAGE INTRODUCED-NEW CHURCH-CURIOUS DOCUMENT.
THE colony of New Netherland continued forty years after the first agricultural settlement until 1664, when it was ceded to the British Government. It had extended from New Amsterdam to the neighboring regions of Long Island and New Jersey ; and the Dutch population was to be found at Esopus, now Kingston and vicinity, and at Rensselaerwyck, the present Albany. Hollanders and Huguenots soon settled in the valleys of the Hack- ensack, Passaie, and Raritan Rivers, and along the Mo- hawk and Schoharie. Some of the Protestant French families from the Palatinate, in Germany, found their way to Kingston as early as the year 1660. They had fled the religious persecutions of France for a temporary asylum in Germany, and thence emigrated to America.
There is a beautiful traditionary incident which gives a clear insight into their earliest religious life in America. As soon as they had unharnessed and unpacked their
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teams on the Wallkil, where they at first had intended to settle, at a place called the "Tri-Cors," then they opened their French Bible, and reading the twenty-third Psalm, engaged in the solemn duties of Christian wor- ship. Pious inauguration of their American history ! Here they settled, and a few weeks after, among the first buildings erected was a log cabin, answering the double purpose of a church and school-house. In this humble place, doubtless, for the first time they enjoyed a free Gospel in their own sweetly-flowing tongue. From this fountain, springing up in the American wilderness, they now imbibed religious liberty-a privilege, happiness, and realization sweeter to them than life itself ; they had fled from home, and kindred, and country, to procure this inestimable blessing. Mrs. Hemans has finely por- trayed such a sublime sight in her "Huguenot's Fare- well :" ---
*
"I go up to the ancient hills, Where chains may never be; Where leap in joy the torrent rills; Where man may worship God, alone and free.
" And song shall midst the rocks be heard, And fearless prayer ascend; While thrilling to God's most holy Word. The mountain pines in adoration bend.
" Then fare thee well, my mother's bower ; Farewell, my father's hearth ! Perish my hotne! where lawless power Hath tout the tie of love to native earth.
"Perish! let death-like silence fall Upon the lone abode ; Spread fast, dark ivy-spread thy pall -- I go up to the mountains with my God."
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To this little pious band in the American wilderness the Rev. Pierre Daille first gave the bread of life. The church at New Paltz was organized by him on the 22d of January, 1683, with the name of the "Congregation of the Walloon Protestant Church, "" after the manner and discipline of the Church at Geneva, and according to John Calvin's tenets.
Mr. Daille may be styled the great apostle of the Huguenots in America. His missionary services appear to have been divided between the French Protestant churches at New Paltz and New York, until his depar- ture to serve the Huguenots in Boston. In the city of New York, Mons. Peter Pieret succeeded him, in 1697, who received towards his salary twenty pounds annually from the municipal government. +
We learn this historical fact of the organization of the church at New Paltz from its record, written in French MSS. It extends from 1683 to 1702, a period of nineteen years, during which the French was the prevailing lan- guage of the settlement. The entries were made by eight different hands, including the autographs of Abraham Hasbrouck, Louis Dubois, and Louis Bevier, three of the original " Duzine, " or "Twelve Patentees." At the close of the record are two or three entries in Dutch, and hence we conclude that then, about the year 1700. the French was superseded by the Dutch. Its first entry is the organization of the church, reading thus: "January 22d. 1683, Mr. Pierre Daille, minister of the Word of God, arrived at Now Paltz, and preached twice
Hon. A. B. Hasbrouck. t Doe. Ilist.
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on the Sunday following, and proposed to the families to choose by a majority of votes of the fathers of fami- lies an elder and deacon, which they did, and. chose Louis Dubois for elder, and Hugh Freer for deacon, to aid the minister in the management of the members of the church meeting at New Paltz. who were then con- firmed to the said charge of elder and deacon. The pres- ent minister has been made to put in order the things which pertain to the said church."
Thus early, one hundred and eighty years ago, was organized a church in New Paltz, consisting originally of only ten or twelve families. Mr. Daille, their pastor, did not reside permanently among them, but visited them at their homes, preaching the Gospel and adminis- tering the Sacrament. His journeys must have been by water to Esopus, and thence on the land over the rugged intervening region-a tedious, toilsome road then. His last recorded service was the marriage of "Peter Gui- man, native of Saintonge, to Esther Hasbrouck, native of the Palatinate, in Germany, April 18, 1692." About the year 1724, he was settled in the French church in New York. In 1696, he removed to the French church, in Boston. He was a preacher of talents, and beloved as a faithful pastor.
For a long time his grave has been an object of search by those who venerate his name and memory. It was accidentally found. 1860. in the Boston Granary Burial- Ground ; and some time after, while excavating a collar in Pleasant street, some of the workmen struck the headstone. It is a slate-stone slab, with this inserip tion :
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IIERE LYES YE BODY OF YE REV. MR. PETER DAILLE, MINISTER OF YE FRENCH CHURCH, IN BOSTON : DIED THE 21 OF MAY, 1715, IN THE 67 YEAR OF HIS AGE.
Mr. Daille buried two wives while residing in Boston : he left a widow, named Martha, and in his will directed his body to be " decently interred," "with this restric- tion, that there be no wine at my funeral, and none of my wife's relations have any mourning clothes furnished them, except gloves." Measures have been taken to restore the newly-discovered, venerable gravestone of Mr. Daille to its true original spot in the Granary Burying-Ground.
The next pastor of the French church at New Paltz was the Rev. M. Bonrepos. This is the same minister who signs himself " the Pastor of this French Colony," in a communication, during the year 1690, to Governor Leister, from New Rochelle. He was naturalized at the same place, under the great seal of the province, in 1696,* and his first ministerial recorded services at New Paltz are dated May 31, 1696. In the year 1699 he held two communion services, when eight were received at the Lord's table. His last ministerial record is dated June 19, 1700. The name of Bonrepos is among the most illustrious of the Huguenot leaders or Reformers in Francs, and we can easily imagine that this exiled Pro- testant French preacher was a worthy descendant of pious "noble sires ;" but we have never been able to * Doc. Hist. N. Y.
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discover any thing further of his history than this mere notice.
Between the years 1700 and 1730, at New Paltz, the Dutch language took the place of the French, and, in consequence of this transition, the French church did not secure a settled ministry. Still, although the fathers of the colony did not have the ministrations of a preacher in their own native tongue. they were by no means neg- leetful of their Church obligation and duties. The early records of baptisms in the Reformed Dutch church in Kingston bear witness that many a tiresome journey was made to that place by these Huguenots, to enjoy the preaching of the Gospel and its holy ordinances.
At a later period, when the Dutch language had be- come more general, the services of Dutch ministers from Albany and Kingston were obtained, and the Huguenots even erected a second church, which was dedicated to the service of the Almighty on December 20th, 1720. This was small, and the brick imported from Hol- land; its form square, each of the three sides having a large window, and the fourth a capacious door and portico. In the centre of its steep roof stood a little steeple, from which sounded the horn, the notice of religious services. At this period there appears a curi- ous document, written in French, designating the places which each seat-holder should oeenpy on the benches. It purported to be an article of agreement between the members of the congregation, and no doubt answered every purpose of a doed, securing the rights of the hear- ers to their sittings.
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CHAPTER XXXVIII.
NEW PALTZ, CONTINUED ---- REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH -- DOMINIE VAN DRIESSEN -- THE COTUS AND CONFERENTIE-REV. MR. FREY ENMOET JOINTLY CALLED BY ROCHESTER, MARBLETOWN, SUJAWANGUNK, AND NEW PALTZ-MR. GOETSCHIUS SUCCEEDED HIM-A TEACHER OF THEOLOGY-HIS YOUNGER BROTHER, AN M. D., TAKES HIS PLACE, PREACHING IN GERMAN AND DUTCH-CALLED THE "DOCTOR DOMINIE -CURES A MANIAC BY MUSIC-DIVISION IN THE CHURCHI (1767) -- DOMINIES -- OLD CHURCH AT NEW PALTZ TAKEN DOWN AND NEW ONE ERECTED -- REV. S. GOETSCHIU'S THE MINISTER (1775)- UNITES THE TWO CONGREGATIONS-INDIAN INCURSIONS-NEW PALTZ ESCAPES -THE PASTOR'S LAST SERMON-HIS SUCCESSORS, REV. W. R. BOGARDUS, VAN OLINDA, AND VANDERVOORT.
NEW PALTZ REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH.
FROM the dedication of the Second French Church at New Paltz, no permanent pastoral services were per- formed until 1731. when Dominie Van Driessen visited the little flock, and from the records we learn that he ordained deacons and elders. He styles them "Our French Church," and his ministry among them contin- ned until May 11th. 1736. Twenty-two members were received on probation during his ministry at the Paltz. He came from Belgium originally, and sustained a thorough examination before the Presbytery of New Haven in 1727, and, after ordination, his first settlement was at Livingston Manor (now Linlithgow), and Rensso- laerwiek Kinderhook and Claverack). Here he was in- vited by Rob Livinston, who had just finished a church at the Manor, and removed soon after his death, in 1728. 26
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Mr. Van Driessen was not regularly installed at New Paltz, in consequence of his not having received ordina- tion and license from the Mother Church, which, at that moment, was regarded as most essential. Notwith- standing this irregularity, he performed the duties of a pastor at New Paltz from 1731 to 1735, when he was called to Acquackanonck, remaining there till 1748. Dominio Van Driessen appears to have been a represen- tative man, as he was the first instance, in the northern section of the Reformed Dutch Church, of irregularity in ordination. This question originated the contention between the two parties, the Cotus and the Conferen- tia. Notwithstanding he pursued this course to save the trouble and the expense of a journey to Holland for ordination, the regular ministry here denounced him, warning their churches against him, and in 1731 a simi- lar act was passed by the church of Kingston, calling him a schismatic with Johannes Hardenburg (father of J. R. Hardenburg). The old record says: "The said Van Driessen having preached dangerous doctrines, in a barn in Henley, on the Sunday previous in New Paltz, and on September 21st in Marble" (Marbletown). His heresy evidently consisted not so much in his doctrines as the want of regularity in his ordination." Notwith- standing this opposition, his ministry was successful at New Paltz.
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