USA > New York > Queens County > Jamaica > The origin and history of Grace church, Jamaica, New York > Part 5
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Some of the later decisions in this controversy are here given:
April 7, 1715. In the Supreme Court a Special verdict was given in an action brought by Mr. Poyer against Mr. McNish for recovering part of the minister's money, where the right of Mr. Poyer was fully argued and judgment passed in his behalf. The expenses of the suit were £30, and were paid by the Venerable Society. The lawsuits for Glebe lands and the Church itself were lost by the Church of England people.
On the 25th of Feb., 1719, in the case of the non-pay- ment of salary to Mr. Poyer, the Judges gave judgment against the two church wardens, imposing a fine and dis- missing them from office. New church wardens were then appointed in their stead.
The cause of this unhappy controversy can be clearly traced to the deep-seated opposition of the Independent and dissenting element in the population of the American Colonies, to the recognition of a foreign secular authority over the religious affairs of the Colonies.
There was proceeding from this opposition a plain denial of the canonical rights of the Bishop of London in the Established Church, when he proceeded to control and appoint the ministers of the Established Church in the Colonies.
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CHAPTER VIII.
The Rectorship of Rev. Thomas Colgan.
Rev. Thomas Colgan was born in 1701, and entered upon the work of the Venerable Society in America in 1725. He had a mission to the negroes and Indians in and about New York from 1725 to 1731, and had gained the favor of the rector and wardens of Trinity Church, where he began to read services, and to preach in June, 1732. Endowed with a peculiarly clear and distinct voice it was also so strong that it could be heard by the remotest wor- shippers, and his services were received "with great applause."
Mr. Colgan was so highly recommended to the Society for the vacancy made by Mr. Poyer's resignation, that he received the appointment, and began to officiate in June, 1732. He was inducted by mandate of Governor Cosby Jan. 31, 1733. This mandate was addressed "to all and singular, the rectors, vicars, chaplains, curates, clergymen, and ministers, whatsoever, in and throughout the whole Province wherever established: and, also to Samuel Fish and Samuel Smith, present Church Wardens of the Paro- chial Church of Jamaica, on Long Island, in the Province of New York." It presented Thos. Colgan "to the rectory or parochial church; it firmly enjoined and commanded them, to collate and induct the said Thomas Colgan, or his lawful proctor in his name and for himself, into the real, actual and corporeal possession of said rectory or church, with all its rights and appurtenances."
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The Vestry refused to pay Mr. Colgan any salary before his induction or after it, and he brought suit for the £60 due him before his induction. The dissenting wardens sought by special act of the Assembly to divert it from him, but were unsuccessful.
"From that time there were no further complaints of non payment of salary, no law suits nor quarrels." (-Onderdonk.)
Grace Church, 1734. (From an old print.)
The spirit of his ministry was well expressed in his letter to the Society, a few years after, describing the new church which had been built, as one of the handsomest in North America. "Our Church is flourishing and many are added to it. We are at peace with the Sectarians around
1
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us. I shall be of a loving and charitable demeanor to every persuasion."
Mr. Colgan undertook to erect churches in the three towns. One was built in Newtown in 1735. It is still standing and in use for the Sunday School of St. James. Another in Flushing, eleven years after, in 1746.
From the beginning of Mr. Colgan's rectorship, the St. James Church in Newtown prospered. In five years he had baptized there twenty-three persons in two families, and many others, both white and black, and distributed among the poor the books sent over by the Society. In Flushing and Jamaica, Quaker families conformed to the Church, and were baptized, his distribution of pastoral and theological books and prayer books having been very effective for their enlightenment.
Mr. Colgan for two years gathered the people for ser- vice in the Town House, where Mr. Poyer had ministered in the latter part of his life, to a disheartened people.
Under Mr. Colgan's direction they began to exert them- selves towards building a new church, but finding them- selves unable alone to accomplish the undertaking, they were obliged to apply to several well-disposed Christians in the province, from whom they received considerable help, and especially from the Governor and his family.
Mr. Colgan married Mary, daughter of John Reade of New York, and a niece of Rev. Mr. Vesey. With property thus acquired, he bought the farm of the widow of Mr. Poyer, and added to it, so that it contained 66 acres. His comparative wealth gave him a higher position in the community. Mr. Colgan was strong and vigorous but peaceful in disposition. His people continued to worship in the Town House, and his congregations grew so large
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in all three communities to which he ministered, that they sought to build churches for themselves. They had in- creased from 20 or 30 to 200 in Jamaica. The people in Jamaica were aided by others in the Province, and espe- cially by Governor Cosby, his wife and family. A lot of land was given by the widow of Col. Heathcote bordering on the highway west of the Stone Church. It contained about half an acre, and was deeded to Thos. Colgan, Rector, his heirs and successors, to remain the property of the Church, so long as it should retain its Episcopal wor- ship and character. Here was erected the first Episcopal Church concerning which there could be no contention. The churchmen, however, solicited aid in its building, which was freely given.
By June, 1734, it was in a condition to hold services, though far from completion. There was no bell, but decent and comely vestments were furnished by the Gov- ernor's wife, "a great friend and patroness." The ap- pointments of the services under former rectors, and the gifts of the Society were still preserved for use.
Grace Church was opened on Friday, April 5, 1734, for the first service, and it was a notable event in Jamaica.
There is no reason assigned for thus naming the church. It seems to have been first applied to the Jamaica Church. The origin of the name has been traced to a Grace Church St., in London, where there was in old times a Church popularly called the Grass Church, because of the holding of a market close by, and spreading grass on the ground. From this the street apparently took its name. Some col- onist in the early Georgian days, remembering the name of the street in London, thought it was named from Grace Church and suggested the name for Jamaica. The name
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of William Harrison, minister of Grace Church, is signed on a tract, A. D. 1704, entitled, "The rights of Protestant Dissenters," which has a printed ending: "A vindica- tion of the Ministers of the Gospel in and about Lon- don, from the unjust aspersions Cast upon their former Actings for the Parliament. As if they had promoted the bringing of the King to Capital Punishment," &c. The date of the vindication is fixed by the exhortation to their followers, to pray "that God would restrain the violence of men that they may not dare to draw upon themselves and the Kingdom, the blood of their Sovereign," being therefore some months before Jan. 1648-9, when Charles I was beheaded. (Letter of Prof. Richard H. Thornton, Law School of the University of Oregon.)
The name of Grace Church first appears on this occa- sion. No account of its origin or the reasons for its use are given, but the very fitness of the name to the charac- ter of the services and the Church thenceforth under the ministry of Mr. Colgan and his successors were a vindica- tion of its appropriateness.
"Our church," Mr. Colgan writes soon after, "is in a flourishing state, and by the blessing of God many are added to it; now we are at peace with those several secre- taries that are round about us, and I hope by God's help peace will subsist amongst us. To sow the seeds thereof shall be my endeavor, to be of a loving charitable de- meanor to all men of whatever persuasion in matters of religion shall be by God's help my practise, that so dis- charging my duty herein, I may contribute my mite to the good of the Church of Christ." (Letters to the Society.)
The successive reports of Mr. Colgan to the Society show an appreciation in the communities to which he min-
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istered, of the peaceable and charitable spirit thus avowed as the aim and tenor of his ministry. It had become the prevailing disposition of those who were Churchmen, and dissenters were also brought in to happier relations with their neighbors and fellow citizens. The truths of re- ligion, and the reasonable claims of the Church that from the first had stood for them had their due effect.
Mr. Colgan wrote, Nov. 22, 1740: "We have yearly for seven years last past increased in church members. So those buildings are generally well filled in time of Divine service, and the worship of God is duly performed with decency and good order, the several sects which are around us do look upon the Church with a more respectful eye than formerly: there being not wanting either in myself or people any Christian like or prudential means necessary to form a reconciliation and union among us."
About a year later, Dec. 15, 1741, Mr. Colgan wrote the Society: "I must with a great deal of truth say of these churches Jamaica, Newtown and Flushing, that not only are they in a growing condition and the members thereof generally of an exemplary life and conversation, but that the Church of England here was never in so much credit and reputation among the Dissenters of all sorts as at this day: their opinion concerning her Doctrine as well as dis- cipline being vastly more favorable than ever."
This moral and spiritual prosperity with increase of numbers and activity continued for several years. Sept., 1743, Mr. Colgan writes: "Never in so thriving a condition -have baptized since my last report seventeen persons in three families." But he wrote a year later, 1744: "Inde- pendency which has been triumphant in this town for the 40 years last past is now by the Providence of God in a
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very faint and declining condition." It is evident that the old spirit was not dead, but had moved into the other house.
The prosperity of Grace Church was increased at this time by a violent dissension in the Dutch Church in New- town and Jamaica.
On Sept. 29, 1746, a Church had been erected in Flush- ing and Mr. Colgan hoped that it could be finished in three months. "There was," he wrote, "no set of people within this province who are greater objects of the Society's pity and charity than those belonging to the town of Flushing." This Church was only enclosed so as to keep out the weather. It had to stand fifteen years before it was fin- ished. The Quakers, who were very numerous in Flush- ing, not only bitterly opposed the Church of England ser- vices, but through their doctrines of the inward light as their only guide removed the restraints of worship, the word of God, and the outward forms of religion, and cor- rupted the youth and those indifferent or hostile to re- ligious authority.
It seems incongruous with such piety as Mr. Colgan and his people possessed that in 1747 they resorted to a public lottery for the benefit of the church. Thirteen hun- dred tickets were sold at eight shillings each, equal to £520. From each prize won, 12 1/2 per cent. was drawn for pur- chasing a bell for Grace Church.
The home life of Mr. Colgan's family offered social at- tractions to the people of Jamaica. His extensive farm, situated on the west side of Beaver Pond, which was in full view, added to the beauty of the location.
Upon the farm, which was fenced, was an orchard of one hundred trees, from whose fruits a hundred barrels of
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cider could be made each year. The house had eight rooms on a floor, and two good rooms upstairs. The shrubs and bushes around the pond were frequented by birds and game. It is of historic interest that this estate, afterwards the residence for two or three generations of the family and descendants of Hon. Rufus King, and his son, Governor John A. King, and Senator John A. King and Miss Cornelia King, became the spacious and beauti- ful King Manor Park in the center of Queens Borough and Jamaica. One of Mr. Colgan's daughters, Mary, married Mr. Christopher Smith, who after Mrs. Colgan's death inherited the farm, and resided there. From them it came by purchase into the possession of Hon. Rufus King. A journal of the family life of Mr. and Mrs. Smith has been preserved, which contains no notable incidents of general interest. Mrs. Colgan, the widow, died in the Mansion April 17, 1776. She had the same peaceful temper of Christianity which brings comfort in life, which marked her husband's ministry, and as wife, parent and friend traveled through "the path that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
The pews and lots in the new Church and grounds were sold to the highest bidder. The terms of the sale required that each purchaser should build his own pew. If he did not make use of it the Church should let it out to another, and if he left the parish, the pew or lot was to revert to the Church.
The names of the purchasers of the thirty pews, on Feb. 23, 1737, were found in a book of Christopher Smith, copied in 1786 from a certified copy of the original list, which was itself copied in 1761, by Edward Willett and John Troup. These names include some which became distinguished in subsequent history of New York families.
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1 Daniel Whitehead, 2 Robert Howell, 3 George Reyn- olds, 4 William Steed, 5 Rector for time being, 6 Anthony Waters, 7 Richard Betts, Jr., 8 Richard Betts, 9 Samuel Clowes, 10 Samuel Clowes, Jr, 11 Gabriel Luff, 12 John Willett, 13 Andrew Clark, 14 Robert Freeman, 15 Com- mon pew, 16 Henry Wright, 17 Edward Willett to Samuel Smith, 18 Benjamin Taylor, 19 Sarah Poyer, gratis, 20 Benjamin Thorne, 21 Samuel Clowes, 22 Thomas Colgan, 23 William Welling, 24 Timothy Bridges, 25 Guy Young, 26 Isaac Van Hook, 27 William Wiggins, 28 Daniel Saw- yer, 29 Silas Wiggins, 30 Benjamin Whitehead.
The ministry of Mr. Colgan in Jamaica especially fos- tered the education of his parishioners and in the same year of his induction, from the Venerable Society, Mr. Willett received a salary of £15 a year as a teacher, com- mended for his exemplary life and diligence. Five years after he had forty-three pupils, of whom twenty-three were freely taught by the Society. Thomas Temple main- tained a school at intervals from 1731 to 1746, and in 1743, Mr. John Moore, a graduate of Yale College, and a candidate for holy orders was recommended to the sup- port of the Society by Rev. Mr. Vesey, to teach in Jamaica. The venerable school-house thus made memorable to many of the early churchmen of Jamaica, as their paro- chial school, was sold in 1761 for £3.
Four years before the close of Mr. Colgan's ministry, in 1751, he reported the same prosperous condition of Grace Church. He had "fifty steady communicants, had bap- tized sixteen whites and ten negroes in the last six months; religion was progressing and the Society's bounty turned to good account." With about the same number of bap- tisms in the year 1753, he could say that "all three churches of his cure were in an increasing state."
REV. THOS. COLGAN.
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When Mr. Colgan died, Dec., 1755, he was regretted as a gentleman much esteemed by his acquaintance. He was buried in the chancel of the church, which he had seen erected without dispute and which he had steadfastly used for the glory of God.
He left a family consisting of his wife and eight chil- dren. The married names of his daughters were Mary Smith, Sarah Hammersley, Jane Van Zandt. The remain- ing children were Judith, Thomas, Fleming, and John, who died in 1758.
Mrs. Colgan was buried beside her husband in Grace Church, where their lives had been of gracious service to a united people.
On Christmas, 1903, a life-size portrait of Mr. Colgan was given to Grace Church by Mary Sheaf Glover Mills, in loving memory of his great granddaughter, Mary Col- gan Joanna Smith Hoyt. A portrait of this granddaughter is in the King Manor collection.
The Colgan family arms on parchment were also given, with the portrait of the rector, as an interesting relic to be preserved in Grace Church. He belonged to a family in England of some distinction, whose descendants have been allied by marriage with those of high rank in the nobility of the realm.
The Church in Jamaica, erected during the ministry of Mr. Colgan, having become too small, gave way to another in 1821, built on the same ground, which had been sur- rounded with graves of its parishioners.
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CHAPTER IX.
The Ministry of Rev. Samuel Seabury, Jr .- 1757-1766.
The contentious spirit so long restrained by the pacific and prosperous rectorship of Rev. Mr. Colgan again broke forth after his death. The law of the Province still pre- vailed, making it possible for the community to elect Wardens and a Vestry hostile to the Church of England. The Vestry in fact had a majority of Dissenters, and they presented Mr. Simon Horton for induction into the parish of Jamaica town. Mr. Horton was a dissenting teacher. Sir Charles Hardy, the Governor of New York, following the instructions of the King, refused to admit him to the cure. He could not present the requisite certificate under the Episcopal Seal of the Bishop of London. No person who had conformed to the Liturgy of the Church of Eng- land was presented, and after six months, the Governor appointed the Rev. Samuel Seabury, Jr., a missionary supported by the Society, at New Brunswick, to the cure of the three churches.
The three Churches had been supplied by the ministra- tions of several clergymen, one of whom, Rev. Mr. Bar- clay, had made report to the Society of their needs, which the Society took into consideration, and prompt action.
Mr. Samuel Seabury, Jr., had been early in the service of the Society, as a lay reader, or catechist at Huntington, L. I., under the direction of his father, Rev. Samuel Sea- bury, rector of the church in Hempstead. At the time of Mr. Colgan's death he was a missionary of the Society and
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rector at New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was trans- ferred to Grace Church, Jamaica, in 1757.
Mr. Seabury was born at Groton, Conn., Nov. 30, 1729, when his father was rector at New London, nearly oppo- site to Groton. When the father removed to Hempstead, the scene of his most noted and useful missionary labors, his son was fourteen years old, and was to be educated at his father's parochial school in Hempstead. Here he was both a pupil and tutor. He received the degree of M. A. at Yale College in 1748. Thus began the distinguished career of the Samuel Seabury, Jr., who became the fifth rector of Grace Church by appointment of the Society. Having served as catechist in Huntington, L. I., from 1748-1752, he went to England and received Holy Orders from the Bishop of Lincoln in 1753; from thence he went to New Brunswick, New Jersey.
His ancestors were of Portlake, Devonshire, England. His great grandfather was a noted physician and surgeon at Duxbury, Mass., and his grandfather, John Seabury, a Congregational deacon, his grandmother, Elizabeth Alden, was a granddaughter of John Alden of the Mayflower. The sturdy character which the rector of Jamaica had thus inherited from Puritan ancestry was well fitted to meet the grievous trials which came to him in his ministry at Jamaica, and his valiant and unique service to the Epis- copal Church in America as the first Bishop, and the first Bishop of the Anglican Communion outside of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Archdeacon Tiffiny says in his History of the American Church: "Jamaica made its mark on him, as well as he on it." His rectorship of the three churches continued for eight years, till 1765. He valued the association which
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this ministry gave him, with Rev. Samuel Seabury of Hempstead, since it brought him "nearer to a most excel- lent father, whom he dearly loved and whose conversation he highly valued." Mr. Seabury was brought at once into contact with the Quakerism which had smothered the principles of the Church, and produced indifference and infidelity, the neglect of divine worship and contempt of the sacraments. He reported gloomily of the state of re- ligion in Flushing, which he called "the grand seat of Quakerism, in the last generation, and in this the seat of infidelity." In Jamaica, 1759, he wrote, there was less "open infidelity, but a general remissness in attending Divine Service prevails, though I know not from what par- ticular cause."
Six months later he wrote the Society: "A general indif- ference towards all religion has taken place; and the too common opinion seems to be that they shall be saved without either of the Christian Sacraments, without any external worship of God,-in short without the mediation of Christ, as well as with; and even among those who pro- fess themselves members of the Church of England, a very great backwardness in attending her service prevails, and particularly with regard to the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; so great is their aversion to it, or neglect of it, that I fear the number of Communicants at present scarce exceeds twenty." (Original Letters, Vol. XIX, L. 154; 2 Ibid I, 155.)
It was at the time of Mr. Seabury's ministry in Jamaica that the needs of the Church of England in America made the question of the appointment of Bishops of vital im- portance. After the preaching of Whitfield there was an increase of strolling preachers who abused the Church of
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England, and led those who had any inclination to religion into strange and fanatical expressions of it.
The authority of the orders in the Church was disputed, and there was no one to represent that authority or defend and justify it by the ordination of ministers, and the con- firmation of those who were baptized. The urgent and repeated calls of the Colonies for resident Bishops were refused by the mother country. Yet young men willing and qualified to serve the church often lost their lives to obtain ordination in England.
In a letter, dated April 17, 1766, Mr. Seabury wrote of these often recurring calamities, as follows:
"We have lately had a most affecting account of the loss of Messrs. Giles and Wilson, the Society's Missionaries, the ship they were in being wrecked near the entrance of Delaware Bay, and only four persons saved out of twenty- eight.
"Their death is a great loss in the present want of clergymen in these Colonies; and indeed, I believe one great reason why so few from this Continent offer them- selves for Holy Orders is because it is evident from expe- rience that not more than four or five who have gone from northern colonies have returned. This is one unanswer- able argument for the absolute necessity of bishops in the colonies. The poor Church of England in America is the only instance that ever happened of an Episcopal Church without a bishop, and in which no orders could be ob- tained without crossing an ocean 3000 miles in extent. Without bishops the Church cannot flourish in America. And that it is of the last consequence to the State to support the Church here, the present times afford a most alarming proof."
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The effect of Mr. Seabury's steady ministry of the doc- trines and sacraments of the Church was to produce a serious state of mind in his parishes. In Flushing, in 1762, the white congregation had increased from twenty to eighty. At Jamaica, Mr. Seabury reported to the Society that there were 120 families in communion with the Church and twenty-nine communicants. The families of Dissenters at the same time amounted to 500. In 1764 he had baptized at one time "ten adults who gave a good account of their faith." In 1765, after Jamaica and Flush- ing had been visited by Mr. Whitfield, and the effects of his tenets and preaching duly considered, Mr. Seabury found that none of his own people had been led away, while many of them had become more serious and devout. Mr. Seabury's sober judgment was that where there had been the greatest number of Quakers among the first settlers of the country, there infidelity and disregard to all religion has taken the deepest root; the religious principles of the other inhabitants were weakened and religion re- garded with indifference.
The provident churchmanship of Mr. Seabury brought about the incorporation of the parishes under his charge. Under date of April 8, 1761, application was made to the civil authority in the Colony of New York for a charter of the parish of Jamaica. It was signed by Samuel Seabury, minister, and twenty laymen, "inhabitants of the town of Jamaica on Nassau Island, Communicants and professors of the Church of England by law established." It nar- rates that a Church was erected in Jamaica by voluntary subscription, that it was in need of repairs, and that there was danger that moneys contributed for church purposes would be improperly applied for want of persons ap- pointed with legal authority, to superintend its affairs.
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