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The prayer for a charter was made to Hon. Cadwallader Colden, President of His Majesty's Council and Com- mander in Chief of the Province of New York. (N. Y. Doc. History, III, 324.)
The Charter was granted the same year. It empowered the Church of England in Jamaica to receive legacies and gifts, manage its temporal affairs and have a Vestry of its own elected by and out of its communicants.
There was now a double set of vestrymen, one elected by the voters of the three parishes, in accordance with the general law, and the other by those in communion of the Church of England. This affected the collection of funds for the support of the rector, and threw the responsibility on the communicants and Vestry in the Church, in each parish. Of the £60 currency pledged to Mr. Seabury's support, £20 were paid by the Flushing church, and the rest by Jamaica and Newtown. To this the £50 sterling given by the Society in England, was added, making the value of the stipend received by Mr. Seabury, as estimated on a gold standard of the present day, to be about 500 dollars.
Mr. Seabury, at the beginning of his settlement in Jamaica, purchased a farm half a mile east of the village, containing twenty-eight acres. He had fourteen acres additional of orchard, and eight acres of salt meadow. He was conveniently near to the Church and had a prosper- ous outlook in the first years of his ministry at Jamaica, being 28 years of age, strong in body, and vigorous in health. But his family increased rapidly; five of his seven children were born in Jamaica. To the cares of his farm essential to his support, were added the difficulties encoun- tered in his three parishes, where there was much indiffer-
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ence and discontent, and not a few jealousies to contend with from those who were prominent in church affairs. Among these was a notable controversy over his parochial rights invaded by the introduction of a Mr. Treadwell through the influence of a prominent layman, Mr. Aspin- wall. This minister, without application or notice to Mr. Seabury, gave a family baptism in Jamaica, and held ser- vices in Flushing. The correspondence remonstrating with and defending these ministrations was published in the New York newspaper, and much bitterness engendered thereby; and by the measures taken to complete the Church at Flushing, in 1760. The salary was but par- tially paid; the support gained from farm and parishes was insufficient, the advantage enjoyed by the proximity of his father in Hempstead was lost, through the senior Seabury's sickness and death. These considerations led to the resignation of his rectorship and assuming that of St. Peter's Church, Westchester, where he was instituted Dec. 3, 1766, and where he remained as missionary of the Society until 1771.
The history of the Long Island Churches is not related to Mr. Seabury's prominence as a loyal subject of Great Britain in the Revolution, nor with his distinguished career as Bishop of Connecticut. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Oxford University in 1777, shortly after he was driven from his mission by revolu- tionists and made a prisoner in New Haven. However, the next year he resumed his ministry in Staten Island, and continued there till 1782. Elected Bishop by the Episco- pal Clergy of Connecticut, he received ordination from the Bishops of the Church of Scotland. Mr. Seabury died of apoplexy Feb. 26, 1796, and was buried in New London, Connecticut.
RIGHT REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, FIRST AMERICAN BISHOP. (From "Life of Bishop Seabury," by permission of the author, William J. Seabury, D. D.)
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CHAPTER X.
The Ministry of Rev. Joshua Bloomer-1769-1790.
There were three years following Rev. Mr. Seabury's removal to West Chester when the Jamaica mission was left without a missionary from the Society. The three congregations could not unite in making an application. Some serious alienations had arisen, and yet by reason of its proximity to New York, the Capital of the Province, the mission was considered of great importance.
The number of communicants in the three towns was lamentably small. The adherents of the Church were in some instances affiliated with those who were disaffected with the English Government. The resistance to the pay- ing of the salary of £60, due from the parish, was displeas- ing to the Society. Among the clergy who were invited to officiate temporarily at Jamaica was the Rev. Charles Inglis, who harmonized the members of the three congre- gations; the congregations agreed upon the selection of Rev. Joshua Bloomer as Mr. Seabury's successor, and a few influential persons persuaded the Society in England to give him an appointment and a salary, reduced, how- ever, to £30.
Mr. Bloomer was a young man, studious and reputable, who desired to enter the ministry. He had received the degree of Master of Arts from Columbia College in 1758, and being highly commended by Rev. Dr. Johnson and others in America, he was ordained by the Bishop of Lon- don Feb. 28, 1769, and sailed from Downs March 19,
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1769, at a time when political dissensions arising from the passage of the Stamp Act were disturbing the country.
He arrived at Jamaica in May and was kindly received, finding there a well finished church building, and two small ones at Flushing and Newtown. There were 39 com- municants in the three Churches, who rallied to his sup- port, and he was highly esteemed by the peoples in the three communities, who treated him with kindness and respect whatever their religious persuasions. The Churches were filled as he ministered to them alternately, and there was but one suit against the parish necessary to settle the payment of the £60 stipend due, and enforced by the Chancellor's decree. It was determined to furnish the rector with a glebe, and a lottery scheme was carried through with great enthusiasm, for the purchase of the farm of William Creed, a mile west of the village, at a cost of £800. It contained seventy-eight acres of arable land, orchard, and buildings which needed repair and improve- ment, which cost the Rev. Mr. Bloomer £79, 19s. 9d. The glebe was not a success and it was soon advertised for sale.
On Easter Tuesday, 1773, the Vestry voted to purchase a pall, for funerals, for the use of which 4s. should be paid by those who did not subscribe, and the Sexton to deduct from it one shilling for his care and furnishing it. This was the beginning of a valuable record by Mr. Aaron Van Nostrand, which is preserved in this history, for informa- tion nowhere else to be obtained as to dates and persons buried in Jamaica. It contains 776 entries of interments and funeral bills, for the fees for which the Sexton ac- counted to the Vestry.
Mr. Bloomer continued in charge through the trying period of the Revolution, in which many of his people were
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involved in great troubles through arrests and confiscations of property; but, though often prevented from conducting services, he continued to administer as frequently as pos- sible the sacraments of holy communion and baptism. When the principal members of his congregation at Ja- maica refused to obey the decrees of Congress, and were imprisoned and detained for several weeks, Mr. Bloomer writes: "I administered the sacrament at Newtown, where I had but four or five male communicants, the rest being driven off or carried away prisoners. I was forbidden to read the prayers for the King and Royal Family. On con- sulting my Wardens and Vestry, rather than omit any portion of the liturgy, we shut up our Church for five Sun- days: but on the arrival of the King's troops, services were resumed, and in 1777 I had sixty-six communicants, and since my last letter have baptized 24 infants and 2 adults."
In 1781, he was still holding the interest and affection of his congregation, and had baptized 29 infants and two adults and married thirteen couples. This was his last report.
The prayer book used by Rev. Mr. Bloomer, in Flushing, during the Revolutionary period, is still preserved in St. George's Church. Compelled at last to pray for Congress and the Presidents, he pasted the prayer in manuscript over the one for the King.
Mr. Bloomer, with singular fidelity; courage and self- restraint, maintained his position as a loyal minister of the Church of England, when the passions of war were raging in the hearts of men around him, and his parishes were alternately in the possession of forces of England, and of the Rebellion.
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A chapter of grievances of the Clergy in Long Island and New York at the hand of patriots of the American Revolu- tion could be easily written. The steadfast loyalists had to suffer the fortunes of war when it ended in the triumph of the patriots, who, through the whole extent of Long Island, had been driven from their homes during its occupation by the British troops. After the 7000 or 8000 British troops had been removed, most of whom were in camps and bar- racks in the parishes of Jamaica, Hempstead, Newtown and Flushing, there was an emigration of loyalists to Canada. In 1782-3 there were more than 3000 persons carried to New Brunswick, Canada, from Queens County, in one fleet of twenty square-rigged vessels. They founded the City of St. John,
New York was specially bitter against the loyalists. The Committee of Safety compelled unconforming clergy- men of the Church of England to close or leave their churches if they would not omit the prayers for the King and Royal family. Those who were found aiding the British officers and soldiers, or denouncing the patriots, were arrested and exiled. The sufferings of their families, through the loss of their homes and effects, was very great. Their churches closed, their property destroyed, their friends and sympathizers exiled, and their neighbors hos- tile and making them obnoxious to the community by their accusations, there was no hope left of favor or returning prosperity in the Province. The members of the Church of England specially suffered in New York. Although many of the Dutch had opposed the war, they were not persecuted nor their homes nor churches violated. No injury was done to them.
Rev. Charles Inglis, in a long letter to the Society, from New York, writes, in illustration of the spirit of the times:
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"Soon after Washington's arrival, he attended our Church: but on Sunday morning before Divine Service began, one of the rebel Generals called at the rector's house, (supposing the latter was in town) and, not finding him left word that he came to inform the rector that Gen- eral Washington would be glad if the violent prayers for the King and Royal family were omitted. This message was brought to me, and as you may suppose, I paid no regard to it.
"On seeing that General long after, I remonstrated against the unreasonableness of his request, which he must know the Clergy could not comply with: and told him fur- ther, that it was in his power to shut up our churches, but by no means in his power to make the clergy depart from their duty. This declaration drew from him an awkward apology for his conduct, which I believe was not author- ized by Washington."*
Rev. Mr. Inglis states that on May 17, 1776, appointed by Congress as a day of public fasting, prayer and humilia- tion throughout the Continent, not only the Church in New York, but all but two in the Province, and so far as he could learn, "throughout all the thirteen Colonies as they are called, were opened on this occasion."
He continued: "Matters became now critical in the high- est degree; the rebel army amounted to near 30,000. All their cannon and military stores were drawn hither, and they boasted that the place was impregnable. I have fre- quently heard myself called a Tory, and traitor to my Country, as I passed the streets, and epithets joined to each, which decency forbids me to set down. Violent
*Hawkin's Historical Notices of the Missions of the Church of England, p. 333. -
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threats were thrown against us, in case the King were any longer prayed for. One Sunday when I was officiating, and had proceeded some length in the service, a company of about one hundred armed rebels marched into the church, with drums beating and fifes playing, their guns loaded and bayonets fixed, as if going to battle. The con- gregation was thrown into the utmost terror, and several women fainted, expecting a massacre was intended. I took no notice of them, and went on with the service, only exerted my voice, which was in some measure drowned by the noise and tumult. The rebels stood thus in the aisle for near fifteen minutes, till being asked into the pews by the sexton, they complied; still, however, the people ex- pected that, when the collects for the King and royal family were read, I should be fired at, as menaces to that purpose had been frequently flung out. The matter, how- ever, passed over without any accident. Nothing of this kind happened before or since, which made it more re- markable. I was afterwards assured that something hostile and violent was intended; but He that stills the raging of the sea, and madness of the people, overruled their pur- pose, whatever it was."
After the Declaration of Independence, which occurred about two months after this event, the Clergy closed their churches in New York and vicinity, having been requested by the Committee of Safety to take down the King's arms, to avoid their destruction by a mob. They refused to open their Churches at the request of rebel officers, that they might have services there. After the occupation of the city by the British forces under General Howe, the Churches were all opened and Divine Service given for the rejoicing citizens who were left in the city.
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But the same week the rebels succeeded in destroying 1000 houses or one-fourth of the city by fire. Trinity Church, the rector's house, and the Charity School were burned and about 200 buildings belonging to Trinity Cor- poration, were consumed at a loss of £25,000 sterling.
The missionaries were unable to draw their salaries, or to receive other money sent to their relief from England. All communications by letter were cut off, Messrs. Sea- bury, Bloomer and Cutting were mentioned as the only ones who could be relieved from the distress which came upon all the other clergy in the Colonies from this failure of their salaries.
Rev. Mr. Bloomer sent the last report of Grace Church to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1784. The last grant of £30 was made by the Society Feb. 20, 1784.
The revolt of the American Colonies had scattered the Clergy representing the Society. Many gave up their missions, returning to England or becoming refugees in the towns of the northern colonies, or in Canada. A few took the oath of allegiance to the Republic. After the acknowledgment of the Independence of the United States the charter of the Society did not allow the continued sup- port of missions outside the British Dominion.
The report of the Society for 1785 expresses the deep regret of its officers and members in parting with the clergy and the Churches for whom they had made many prayers and sacrifices of time and money. The report says:
"It is so far from their thoughts to alienate their affec- tions from their brethren of the Church of England, now
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under another government, that they look back, with comfort at the good they have done, for many years past, in propagating our holy religion, as it is professed by the Established Church of England, and it is their earnest wish and prayer that their zeal may continue to bring forth the fruit they aimed at, of pure religion and virtue: and that the true members of our Church, under whatever civil government they live, may not cease to be kindly affec- tioned towards us."
When the war was declared between England and the Colonies, the Society were contributing an average sum of £40 sterling a year each to nearly eighty missionaries. These were widely scattered as well as impoverished. "Some of the clergy were eventually appointed to Chap- laincies in the King's army; others were provided with missions in Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick: some went to England, whilst a few, who were recom- mended for long service, or disabled by age and infirmity, were allowed a small annuity by the Society."*
The clerical and lay deputies of the Church in sundry of the United States of America made this grateful ac- knowledgment to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England, in an address, dated Oct. 5, 1785:
"All the Bishops of England, with other distinguished characters, as well ecclesiastical as civil, have concurred in forming and carrying on the benevolent views of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts: a Society to whom under God, the prosperity of our church is, in an eminent degree, to be ascribed. It is our earnest wish to be permitted to make, through your lordships, this just acknowledgment to that Venerable Society."
*Hawkin's Notices, P. 343, 345.
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The separation of the Society from Churches in Jamaica and Newtown was the beginning of new struggles for existence. The very name of the Church of England as associated with them was a discredit in the new order of society under the Republic. The support of the English Army men who had been stationed in Long Island was missed. The devastations of war had been going on around the Churches, which were greatly out of repair, and yet the members of the parishes were too impover- ished and discouraged with their own affairs to renew them without great effort.
The rector, Rev. Doctor Bloomer, however, remained, and was personally greatly esteemed. In the summer of 1786, in accordance with the resolution of the Church Wardens and Vestry of Grace Church, at their annual meeting, a subscription was made by twenty of the parish- ioners amounting to £42; 5s. for shingling, painting, and other necessary repairs "for rendering the church decent and fit for public worship."
In 1788 there was expended by Mr. Bloomer in repair- ing the glebe £83, 13s., 11d. The money received from collections, pall and bell, from 1775 to 1782 was £148, 15s., 2d. The church held bonds of individuals amount- ing to £248, 13s., drawing interest at 6 per cent.
The Communion offerings for five years, from 1775 to 1790, amounted to £80, 7s., 1 d.
In 1790, a few months before his death, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon Mr. Bloomer by Columbia College. Doctor Bloomer died June 23, 1790, at the age of fifty-five, sincerely regretted and respected by all the people to whom he ministered. He was buried in the chancel, but his grave is unmarked.
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The conditions of living in the period when Rev. Mr. Bloomer was rector in Jamaica have been, with great inquiry and research, described in the history of Flush- ing by Rev. Henry D. Waller.
The communications with New York were slow and uncertain, and were generally by way of Brooklyn. The ferries were accomplished in row-boats, scows, or two- masted vessels that required, with favorable wind and tide, an hour for the passage. There was no post-office on Long Island. A private post rider went down the island and back once in two weeks. The dress of the gentry was, for men the short knee breeches, pointed toe shoes with large buckles, and a long-tailed, light-colored coat with silver buttons; for ladies, the dress was a full brocaded skirt, hung on large hoops, two feet wide on each side, a towering hat or a muskmelon buchet. The farm- er's homespun was changed on Sunday to a broadcloth suit that descended from father to son. He cultivated his fields with a wooden plow and reaped them with a scythe, and threshed them with a flail. The usual house was with- out paint or carpets, and the coarse plain food was pre- pared by the wife and daughter, whose constant compan- ions were the spinning-wheel and loom. The day laborer was dressed in yellow buckskin or leathern breeches and apron, checked shirt and red jacket, and heavy shoes with brass buckles.
The debtor's prison was a frequent lodging place, where men and women herded together, and the criminal and debtor often perished without bed or clothing to cover them. The currency of the Colonies varied in the num- ber of shillings, and pence which made a dollar. The school-houses were small, and neither painted, ceiled nor plastered. The wood was furnished by farmers, and the
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boy pupils cut it, while the girls swept and scrubbed the school-room floor. There were few books, and the sums of arithmetic were copied into ciphering books by the pupils. There were neither steel pens, writing books nor ruled paper; the quill pens were made by the master and the sheets were ruled with a piece of lead.
Jamaica was the shire town. All elections were held in Jamaica until 1789, for the neighboring towns of Queens County.
ROOD SCREEN. Memorial to Rev. Gilbert H. Sayres, S. T. D., By His Grandson, Gilbert B. Sayres, 1814.
IV THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY RECTORSHIPS-1795-1896
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CHAPTER XI. Short Rectorships in a Period of Thirty-five Years- 1795-1830.
REV. WILLIAM HAMMELL.
The Rev. William Hammell, from Hackensack, New Jersey, was the successor to Doctor Bloomer. He was elected Aug. 1, 1790, by the three Vestries of Jamaica, Flushing and Newtown, and was the last rector elected and supported conjointly by these Churches. He received Holy Orders as Deacon and Priest the same year of his election to Jamaica. The glebe had been sold, on account of a dispute between the three parishes, and the interest money, amounting to £25, was pledged to him and £90 per year from the three towns.
There were but 21 communicants in Grace Church, 27 at Newtown, and 13 in Flushing. The Churches were weak and dispirited, the salary insufficient for the support of Mr. Hammell, who had married, infidelity prevailed in the communities, and political and personal rancor. The rector's eyesight failed him and he became paralytic after five years of his ministry. These distressing conditions led to his resignation, and a donation was made for Mr. Hammell by the three Churches for his temporary support. They also drew up a memorial to the Corporation of Trinity Church in his behalf. That Vestry subsequently gave him a pension of £100 per year, which was continued for thirty years till his death.
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An effort to settle Mr. Charles Seabury, son of Bishop Seabury, who had recently been ordained Deacon, was unsuccessful. Mr. Seabury served only six weeks on trial, when he received notice of his father's death at New Lon- don, and went home. He wrote from New London that he would not return to Jamaica.
REV. ELIJAH DUNHAM RATOON.
Rev. Elijah Dunham Ratoon succeeded to the rectorship of Grace Church and St. George's, Flushing, which still was supported conjointly by these Churches, while St. James, Newtown, had become independent in 1795. Mr. Ratoon was a graduate of Princeton College, and was or- dained Deacon Jan. 10, 1790. He married a daughter of Rev. Dr. Beech of New York, and for a short time minis- tered to St. Ann's Church, in Brooklyn. He was a Pro- fessor of ancient languages in Columbia College from 1792 to 1797, and came from this position to Jamaica.
The Church Wardens and Vestry of Grace Church made a joint arrangement with Trinity Church, New York, for the support of Mr. Ratoon, agreeing to "give him the use and interest of £900 during the time he is rector and dis- charges the duties, and do covenant to raise annually £100 by subscription for his maintenance, on condition that divine service is performed in our Church every other Sun- day during the three months and every Sunday morning during the remainder of the year."
At a time when Grace Church seemed to be struggling for existence, so impoverished were the Churchmen of this period, and so inimical the spirit of the country to the Episcopal Church, which had inherited the rights and prop-
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erty and associations of the Church of England, the Hon. Rufus King, a noted statesman and patriot, established his family in Jamaica.
As a Vestryman of Trinity Church he had become inter- ested in the parish affairs. Grace Church had, from the beginning, often received her ministers and counsel in all her difficulties from the rectors and the staff of Trinity Church, and had been closely affiliated with the move- ments which were taken by Trinity to maintain and extend the influence of the Church in America.
It was through the efforts of Mr. King that Trinity Cor- poration came to the aid of the Churches in Queens County, Jamaica, Newtown, Flushing and Hempstead. Trinity Church assigned to Grace Church £500 in securi- ties, which were added to a similar fund of £60 which Grace Church already possessed, forming the nucleus of a fund which has continued to increase. Three city lots were also given, which in a short time yielded rentals and became very valuable. Similar donations were made to St. George's and St. James Churches with a forethought that contributed to their subsequent endowment and large efficiency.
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