USA > New York > Dutchess County > Poughkeepsie > The records of Christ church, Poughkeepsie, New York, Vol I > Part 3
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The Records of Christ Church
The nearest approach to a settlement, in the vicinity of these families, was around the Dutch church which they built at Hopewell. In neighborhoods, such as either of the above, there was small hope for a Church of Eng- land mission.
Poughkeepsie Precinct was not comparable to Rom- bout in its acreage, which was perhaps a quarter as great. But an analysis of the records of the Board of Supervisors of Dutchess County for 1766, the year of Mr. Beardsley's settlement, suggests that other forces were at work within it. For example, the total assess- ment in each of these precincts, divided by the total number of taxpayers, shows that the average assessment per capita was very nearly the same in them, although in Rombout the average number of acres, held by each taxpayer, was more than double that of the average in Poughkeepsie. Something beside agriculture was evi- dently telling in Poughkeepsie.
That something is not far to seek. As has been pointed out elsewhere, before now, the early location of the Court House at Poughkeepsie determined the char- acter of the development of the community. Until 1750, the development was slow; thereafter it was steady and evident. The court sessions attracted lawyers and their clients, for whose accommodation inns were necessary ; then tradesmen followed, and, some years before the Rev- olution, the river landing and freighting business began. Between 1756 and 1766 the number of taxpayers in Poughkeepsie increased twenty-five per cent.
While Mr. Seabury and Mr. Beardsley had been made warmly welcome at Fishkill, that little settlement did not possess within itself the potentialities for growth which were, even then, operating in Poughkeepsie.
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Bartholomew Crannell of Poughkeepsie was "a sharp sighted man," said William Emott. He was a lawyer, and would naturally have been alive to the influence upon the place of his fraternity. The supposition that the view of Poughkeepsie, just outlined, was held by him, and by him presented to Mr. Beardsley, is to some ex- tent supported by an incidental sentence in a letter Mr. Beardsley wrote John Davis many years later, in which he said he supposed the glebe must have risen very much in value, lying, as it did, "so near ye heart of ye capital of ye county." 1, 2
Mr. Crannell, originally a New York man, established himself at the county seat of Dutchess to practise law, soon after 1740. Beside his general practise, he acted as Surrogate from 1752 to 1775, and was so called, although a Probate Court was not organized here until after the Revolution. But wills from all over the county were proved before him, and taken to New York City to be filed.3 In 1744,4 he built his house (which stood on the south side of Main street, about opposite the head of Mill), and married Peter Van Kleeck's daughter, Tryntje. He acquired a large tract of land on the north side of Main street, to the east of which lay the farm he recommended to the Church.
The property which was thus chosen for a glebe was purchased of Gideon Ostrander. He had bought it in 1763 from Hendrick Ostrom, paying £100.0.0 in cash,
1 Appendix, Beardsley papers, No. 8.
2 The red sandstone, colonial marker is still standing a few feet east of the glebe-house, "1 mile from the Poughkeepsie Court House."
3 Collections New York Historical Society, Abstracts of Wills, Vols. pub. 1895-1900.
4 Francis Filkin's Common Place Book, Court House, Pough- keepsie.
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and giving a mortgage for £500.0.0. August 1st, 1767, he conveyed two-thirds of the farm to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for £400.0.0. This deed is not recorded in the County Clerk's office, but a copy of it is among the parish papers. On the same day, he con- veyed the remaining third of the property to John Beardsley, "Clark," for £200.0.0., which deed Mr. Beardsley had recorded in the Clerk's office, on May 12th, 1805.1
The extreme western portion of the glebe, thus con- veyed to Mr. Beardsley, was always known as "the twenty-three acre lot," and it occasioned, first and last, an amount of difficulty out of all proportion to its size or value. The correspondence and proceedings regarding it are so voluminous that they are added at the close of this volume as a section of the Appendix, it being impossible to halt the action in each chapter to present all the de- tails of such a complicated question.
The roots of the troubles which grew up over the title to the glebe lay in the loose business methods of Mr. Crannell and Mr. Beardsley. Upon this point William Emott said:2 "There being very few churchmen at that time in Poughkeepsie, Mr. Crannell and Mr. Beardsley volunteered in managing the whole concern; they col- lected the donation moneys, and made the purchase so far as related to our Church. * It is further to be remarked that Mr. Crannell and the parson continued to direct the temporalities of the Church, with the assis- tance of a nominal Vestry who kept no regular minutes of their proceedings, until about 1772; during which period they had the entire disposal of all money matters,
1 Dutchess County Clerk's records, deeds, Liber 19, p. 174.
2 Appendix, Beardsley papers, No. 28.
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and it is to be lamented that they never came forward, after the Charter was obtained from the then govern- ment, to explain the purchase of the Glebe and the pay- ments. By which means their transactions for a number of years are not well understood."
In another place Emott wrote1: "Mr. Crannell being Counsellor and conveyancer, drew one deed for 33 to the Society in England, and the other for 13 to Mr. Beardsley. This policy was necessary to induce the society to establish the mission, and to appease the Fishkill gentelmen. Mr. Beardsley was at this time in low circumstances, as is generally the case with young professional men, and, having no connections to assist him in pecuniary matters, it is conceived that his re- ceiving a conveyance thro the management of Mr. Crannell was merely a nominal thing, for he has never condescended to inform the episcopal Corporation of any payments made by him on the lot." Mr. Beardsley, himself, said? that "Mr. Crannell advanced a principal part of Poughkeepsie's share, as well in payment for ye old Glebe as for finishing ye house."
That Mr. Crannell should give generously to the Church, and omit to keep an accurate account of his expenditures, was not the aspect of the case which gave rise to trouble. The trouble was caused by the manner of Mr. Beardsley's acquirement of the twenty-three acres, taken in connection with later events and political changes, which brought about a veritable tangle with the law.
Before the Church came into possession of the Ostrand- er farm in August, 1767, the building of a house had been
1 Appendix, Beardsley papers, No. 35.
2 Appendix, Beardsley papers, No. 8.
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begun upon it, and Mr. Crannell took up at once the continuation and finishing of the work. Account books and bills of the period show payments for building mate- rials (bricks, lime, and heavy timber), from May to November, 1767, and also for "brass knob latches," hinges, locks, glass and other sundries. This glebe- house is still standing and in good repair, although altered in some minor details. Within recent years, the writer went over it, finding the original beams of garret and cellar sound and strong and the "brass knob latches" of 1767 still in use.
Simultaneously with the purchase of a glebe for the Church of England clergyman, a movement was begun at Poughkeepsie to build a school-house, "and appoint a Master to teach the English language," a subscription paper being opened on July 28th, 1767. This document, and the others on the same subject, are found among Christ Church papers for the reason that Richard Davis, one of the most prominent members of the congregation, was appointed a manager of the school, and apparently had the custody of some of its records. The interesting fact, which these papers witness, is the decline of the influence of the Dutch language at this date, the sub- scribers toward the purchase of a lot and the erection of the school-house being fifty-seven in number, and the major part of them members of the Dutch Reformed Church.
They procured from Lewis DuBois, for "£10.0.0 in cash and £90.0. 0 in subscriptions," a lot in Poughkeep- sie, forty-five feet broad in front and in rear, "and in length the length of Abraham Buys's lot," bounded west by the Post Road, north and east by land of Lewis DuBois, and south by land of Robert Patten. This is
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THE GLEBE-HOUSE
Erected 1767 Sold 1791 Occupied by the Rev. John Beardsley and by the Rev. Henry Van Dyck
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The Records of Christ Church
the lot which, on the 1790 map of Poughkeepsie, is marked "School," on what is now the southeast corner of Market and Church streets. By the terms of the subscription paper, the school-house was to be a frame building, twenty-one by twenty-eight feet. The name of the master does not appear, but it is easy to suggest the possibility that Daniel Roberts, one of the leaders in the English Church in its first few years of existence, might have filled the post, inasmuch as he was a schoolmaster in Poughkeepsie so early as 1754.1
Although the after-history of this school does not form part of this narrative, it may not be out of place to add that Richard Davis continued his association with it so late as 1812. By that time, a lot on Church street had been secured, on which the school was conducted; the old building on Market street was disused for its original purpose, the map of Poughkeepsie for 1799 show- ing that it was occupied then as a "Clerk's Office."
While the affairs of the glebe and the school were shaping at Poughkeepsie, the Churches at Beekman and Nine Partners were gaining no ground.
The congregation of Beekman held a meeting on April 26th, 1767, and organized a vestry. William Humphrey and Joshua Carman were elected wardens, and James Van Der Burgh, Richard Cornell and Thomas Cornell vestrymen. On May 1st, 1767, they paid to Peter Harris of Poughkeepsie £25.0.0 "towards the payment for a Glebe purchased for the Church of England," this amount having been contributed in sums ranging from £1.0.0 to £6.8.0 by Bartholomew Noxon, James Van Der Burgh, William Humphrey, Joshua Carman, Richard and Thomas Cornell and Samuel Osburn. On
1 Dutchess County Clerk's records, deeds, Liber 4, p. 147.
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May 1st, 1768, the vestry, above named, were reelected, the election taking place at Mr. Humphrey's, but this is the last heard of the Church at Beekman until 1774, when it had disbanded.
The salary accounts of Christ Church reveal the fact that, after December, 1768, the Church at Poughkeepsie assumed the quota of the congregation at Nine Partners, which thus, after two years' effort, lapsed out of existence. By "Nine Partners" was meant the general vicinity of which the hamlet of Washington Hollow now forms the center,1 it being in that neighborhood that the families of Germaine, Filkin, Beadle and De La Vergne lived, all of whom were in some measure interested in the Church of England.
In 1773 the vestry made formal note that the Rector was giving half of his services to Christ Church, and voted that his salary be paid annually, and that he also be paid annually for "part services," the latter clause probably referring to some portion of the quarter of his time which would have been devoted to Beekman, had that Church lived.
An effort was made in 1774, by the Poughkeepsie vestry, to induce the Church at Fishkill to pay the Beek- man share of the Rector's salary. In a letter dated February 16th they said that:2 "the Vestry Considering how Absolutely Necessary it is for the Security and promotion of the Church here that their Clergyman be secured in the payment of his full Salary, and Under- standing that since Beekman's Precinct dismissed Mr. Beardsley no proper security has been given him to secure the payment to him of that Quarter, we Can't
1 The later Precinct of Charlotte included this section.
2 Appendix, Fishkill papers, No. 3.
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help mentioning this matter to you as a thing of moment; we, on our parts, have made proper provition for the Quota of the Nine Partners from the time of his dis- mission from thence, and recommend to you to do the same with Regard to the other. With the failure of one, may deprive us both of a Clergyman, and be a means of our being represented in an Unfavorable light to the Venerable Society on whom we so much depend."
The Fishkill wardens, Daniel TerBoss and Richard King, replied1 that they "would be heartily glad if it were in their power to comply," but they conceived it to be impossible for them to do so. A memorandum of May 27th, 1775,2 speaks of the fact that Beekman's quarter of the Rector's services was being given to Fishkill, but that his salary for the same was unpaid.
The joint affairs of the four congregations were summarily disposed of by the events at large of 1775, and the quadrilateral arrangement was never again attempt- ed.
With the purchase of a glebe accomplished, a glebe- house built, and a school in existence for teaching Eng- lish, the subject of importance which would naturally have claimed attention next was the erection of a church building. But this was postponed by a delay that arose from an unexpected source, which is succinctly described by John Davis:3
"Adjoining to the Glebe lay a parcel of waste, uncul- tivated land, in Common, then said to belong to the Descendants of Myndert Harmanse, one of the Original proprietors of the soil, and, according to the Deed of the
1 Appendix, Fishkill papers, No. 4.
2 Appendix, Fishkill papers, No. 6.
3 Appendix, Fishkill papers, No. 14.
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Glebe to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, the'Glebe had a right in it for pasture and wood.
"After some years the people of Poughkeepsie was Informed that the land said to be Commons was like to be .Vacant Land, and that Mr. Leake had Petition(ed) the Governor and Council for a patent for it; and it was also said that the Title of all the Land in the patent, under which the Glebe was held, was not good, and that the Inhabitants living thereon were uneasy and wanted a Confirmation for them.
"The members of the English Church in Poughkeepsie then petition(ed) for part of the land then deemed Vacant, and, in Order to have the Confirmation made out, got Mr. Cockburn to survey and make a map of it.
"Mr. Beardsley, hearing that the Governor would con- firm unto the Inhabitants, holding under Saunders and Harmense, all the Lands they possessed, and knowing that the deed of the Glebe did Intitle the Glebe to some part of the Common Land, did, when Mr. Cockburn sur- veyed the Glebe, git annexed to it a part of the said waste land, and which was accordingly confirmed to and with the Glebe; and then Governor and Council did give and grant unto the Corporation of Christ Church in Pough- keepsie Two Hundred acres of the said Vacant Land."
The patent referred to was granted in 1686 to Robert Sanders and Myndert Harmense Van der Bogert, and covered the middle and northern portions of the present . city of Poughkeepsie and its outskirts. It was drawn up with such ambiguous description of boundaries that William Emott said1 .that "Governor Moore, in March 1768, determined Hermanses and Saunders patent was intended to grant only 1,200 acres, instead of 12,000
1 Appendix, Fishkill papers, No. 33.
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acres," and that the Church was "justly alarmed at the insufficiency of the title they had purchased under." Further,1 that "John Beardsley, Barth'w Crannell, Isaac Balding & Richard Davis Signed a petition to Gov'r Tryon 4 Oct'r 1771, Setting forth, in Substance, that all the lands purchased of Ostrander was the Sole property of the Church, & was, for want of Letters of incorporation, held by Deeds of trust only,-to wit, a Deed to the Society and also a deed to Mr. Beardsley; all which is again contained in the Recitals in the Con- firmation and Charter and other Documents. And this same Mr. Beardsley, under the Counsel and direction of Mr. Crannell, went to New York as Agent, and pre- sented said petition, and attended to Business with the utmost diligence, until he got it accomplished."
This petition was presented on December 31st, 1771, and a favorable vote upon it was taken by the Governor and Council May 19th, 1772,2 but ten months intervened before the large parchment document (still in good preservation with the seal attached) was made out. It was passed February 17th,8 and, on March 9th, 1773, signed by the Secretary of the Province.
Relieved of a burden of antiquated legal phraseology, the simple provisions of the charter of Christ Church stand revealed:
1198571
George the Third,
To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting;
Whereas :- "The Reverend John Beardsley Clerk and other Inhabitants of Poughkeepsie" presented to Governor William Tyron, December 31st, 1771, a petition;
1 Appendix, Beardsley papers, No. 35.
2 Calendar of Council Minutes, Vol. 31, p. 12 (New York State Library).
3 Ibid., p. 59.
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Petition set forth that "said inhabitants and those adjacent in like Communion" had long been inconvenienced for want of regular administration of divine service; they had some time since procured the Rev. John Beardsley to be sent them by the S.P.G .; they had lately purchased a glebe of 87 acres, part of the tract granted to Sanders and Harmense, but which, for want of letters patent of incorporation was held by deeds of trust, only;
Therefore :- petitioners asked for Royal charter of incor- poration and Royal confirmation to their said corporate body of title to the land, and a grant of a parcel of waste land, known by number 68 and by appellation common, and bounded at one end by said glebe.
On consideration of said petition, Council did, on May 19th last past, vote to incorporate the petitioners, confirm the title to the 87 acres bought as a glebe, and give title to 200 acres of common adjoining.
Description of land; 287 acres.
The petitioners corporate title to be "The Rector and In- habitants of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County in Communion of the Church of England as by Law Established."
The Corporation is capable of being party to suits at law, and has power to buy and sell real estate, provided the yearly value of the real estate (exclusive of the church building) does not exceed £500.0.0.
The Corporation is to have one Rector, two wardens and eight vestrymen.
The charter appoints as wardens Bartholomew Crannell and Samuel Smith, and, as vestrymen, Richard Davis, John Child, John Davis, John Ferdon Jr., John Medlar, Zachariah Ferdon, Isaac Baldwin, Jr. and David Brooks.
The annual vestry election to be held on Tuesday in Easter week. The election to be held at the church (when that has been erected), after "at the least a week's notice thereof, by publicly declaring the same after divine service in the Morn- ing, on some Sunday not more than three weeks before the time of election." The election to be by "the Voices of the members of the Corporation hereby constituted."
In case of a vacancy, the Rector and wardens, or any two of them, to appoint a day for an election to fill it; notice to be given "immediately after divine service on some Sunday not more than three weeks next preceding the day appointed."
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Non-residents of Poughkeepsie, when members of the Church of England, are eligible to election to the vestry.
Royal order that a church building be erected in the Precinct of Poughkeepsie as soon as possible, to be called Christ Church.
Provisions for vestry meetings.
Vestry empowered to transact the business of the Church, and to make its own rules.
A record of proceedings to be kept.
The vestry has power to choose and change the Cor- poration seal.
The Rector given sole power to appoint a clerk to assist him in performing divine service, and to appoint the sexton.
In case of vacancy in the Rectorship, the power to fill it vest- ed in the wardens and a majority of the vestrymen.
The patronage of the Rectorship vested in the vestry.
Royal confirmation of title to 87 acres of glebe granted to "The Rector and Inhabitants of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County, in Communion of the Church of England as by Law Established."
Royal grant, to the same, of 200 acres of common or waste land, excepting all gold and silver mines and white pines fit for masts for the Royal Navy.
Rent of two shillings, six pence, each hundered acres or part thereof, to be paid at the Custom House in New York City, annually on the Feast of the Annunciation, commonly called Lady Day.
If, within the ensuing three years, the Corporation fails to plant and cultivate at least three acres for every fifty, of lands here granted, the lands are forfeited and revert to the Crown.
The charter to be registered in the Secretary's office, New York City, within six months from the date thereof.
Signed and sealed March 9th, 1773.
Mr. Beardsley reported to the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel:1
Poughkeepsie 26th October 1773
Rev'd Sir
permit me to acquaint the venerable Society that I have in the year past baptized fifty nine white and two black Infants,
1 S. P. G. Records, Vol. 3, B, New York, Part II, 1759-1782.
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& four white adults; that the Church in this Mission is much in the Same State as when I wrote last April, Slowly improving under low circumstances; and that I have drawn my Bill of £17.10.0 Sterling in favour of Mr. Thomas Fisher, Merchant, of New York.
We have, by a Smile of government, lately obtained a Char- ter of Incorporation to our Chh at Poughkeepsie, with a grant of Two Hundred Acres of waist Land nearly contiguous to the old Glebe, which Lands (though at present of but Small value being something rough & unimproved) will in Time Set us on a respectable footing.
I am Rev'd Sir the venerable Society & your most obe- dient & most
Humble Servant John Beardsley.
Hardly had the ink upon the charter dried, when protest was raised by the Church at Fishkill that two charters of incorporation, and two confirmations of title to the glebe, had not been obtained.
It had been Mr. Beardsley's original intention to procure two. On October 4th, 1771, he and the vestry of Trinity Church (composed of Jacobus Terbos and Joseph Green, wardens, and Zebulon Southard, Joseph Cary, John Halstead and Thomas Pyre, vestrymen) had filed a petition1 asking for incorporation, which the Council voted,2 November 13th, 1771, should be granted.
Some one in the Secretary's office at that time must have been making money over red tape and the law's delays, for the expense of getting business done through that office proved so great that Mr. Beardsley decided two charters were beyond the financial reach of his con- gregations. The statement, over his own signature, is
1 Calendar New York Historical Mss. (English), p. 797.
2 Calendar of Council Minutes, Vol. 29, p. 514, N. Y. State Library.
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twice found1 that but one charter was gotten in order to save the cost of two.
The land confirmed by the charter consisted of the original glebe, which was owned jointly by the Pough- keepsie and Fishkill Churches; the twenty-three acre lot, which Mr. Beardsley held a deed for; and two hun- dred acres of commons, a gift from the Crown.
At the first meeting held by the vestry of Christ Church after the charter had been received, a resolu- tion2 was passed, formally recognizing the claim of the Fishkill Church to half of the original glebe. No men- tion was made of the two hundred acres of commons, which the Poughkeepsie vestry considered had been given to their Church alone. Mr. Beardsley was present at this meeting.
Correspondence took place between the two vestries in 1773, 1774 and 1775, on this subject, which, with related material of later date, is included in the Appendix to this volume.
The vestry at Fishkill wished either of two things. One, to receive from Christ Church a firmer guaranty to them of their title, which had apparently been absorbed under the charter; the other, that the glebe should be sold and their share of the proceeds put out at interest towards the Rector's support.
The vestry of Christ Church replied to the first that they did not know what more of a guaranty they could give than they had already in the resolution they had passed; and to the second that, as the Fishkill vestry had repudiated certain agreements made by their pred- ecessors, on the ground that the latter "had not Suffici-
1 Appendix, Beardsley papers, No. 8, & No. 23.
2 Appendix, Fishkill papers, No. 1.
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ent Authority to make Such an Agreement, So this Board conceive the Same Objections may lay in future to any agreement now to be made with their Brethren of the Fish Kill Church by their present Representatives; are therefore of Opinion nothing firm and lasting Can be determined on till a Charter of Incorporation for the Church at fish Kill be first Sued out and Established."1
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