USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Narragansett > A history of the Episcopal church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, including a history of other Episcopal churches in the state > Part 41
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I believe I need not tell you that Pennsylvania is an absolute stranger to an uniformity in religion ; for the different countries, that contributed to the peopling of this province, carried their respective preachers and opinions with them.
The Church of England entered no earlier here than 1700; but God's blessing upon the few laborers employed as missionaries among them, has given the church a large and promising spread. The So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, maintain at present eight missionaries among them, who have the care of treble that number of churches, besides where they officiate in private houses.
In the city of Philadelphia there is a large church, where the so- ciety maintain Mr. Sturgeon, their catechist ; but the incumbent (the worthy and reverend Dr. Jenny, son of Archdeacon Jenny, in Wa- ney-town, in the north of Ireland) is maintained at the expense of his own auditors.
There is a public and open mass-house in this city, which I note, there being none allowed to the northward of it, in all the English plantations.
The Irish are numerous in this province, who, besides their inter- spersions among the English and others, have peopled a whole county by themselves, called the county of Donnegal, with many other new out-towns and districts. In one of these frontiers, on the forks of Del- aware, I assisted my brother* (who left Ireland against my advice)
* James McSparran, of Erie, Penn., in a letter states :- " Archibald Mc- Sparran was the eldest son of Archibald, and lived with his parents on the homestead. James, his father, received a classical education at Glasgow, and was educated for the ministry, and was sent to Narragansett. Archi -. bald being in possession of the homestead, made sale of it, and emigrated to this country in search of his brother James, who was settled at Rhode Island. The ship in which he embarked made another port, and he settled near New Castle, on the Delaware Bay, near the Pennsylvania line. Ar- chibald had seven children ; three daughters, Margaret, Eliza, and Bridget ; and four sons, John, James, Archibald, and Joseph. The eldest, John, be- came a merchant in Philadelphia, and there died. James was a husband- man ; lived with his father ; was in the possession of the homestead, and there died. Archibald was in the mercantile business, at or near Balti- more. Joseph, the youngest, was born in this country, and was quite
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in purchasing a large tract of land, which, by his wife's demise, above a year ago, descends to his children.
This puts me in mind, to intercede. with your Honor, in behalf of his eldest daughter, married to one Gamble, and who, I hear, re- solves to return again, to receive them to your favor, if you find they deserve it, as descended from ancestors who lived happily under your father and grandfather, and great-grandmother, the Hon. Lady Cork ..
The exportations from this province are principally wheaten flour, which they send abroad in great quantities ; and by the accessions and industry of the Irish and Germans, they threaten, in a few years, ' to lessen the American demands for Irish and other European linens.
Philadelphia is a city incorporated, and governed by a Mayor and Aldermen ; and they have lately erected a little academy in this city 'for the education of youth.
Next to Pennsylvania, and on the east side of the river Delaware, lies the province which goes by the name of the East and West Jer- seys. This tract was formerly reckoned part of Nova Belgia, now New York; but the aforesaid Duke of York, to whom Penn's coun- try, this, and the present province of New York, was granted by King Charles II., gave this part, in 1664, to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. These gentlemen cantoned this country into two parts, East and West Jerseys ; but the proprietaries, in 1702, sur- rendered their rights to the late glorious Queen Ann, ever since which surrender it has gone by the name of New Jersey. It used to be so annexed to New York, that whoever was Governor of the latter was also Commander-in-chief over the former ; but they had
young when his father died. He was father to my father, that is, my grandfather ; my father's name is Archibald. My father (after the death of his father, Joseph) emigrated from the interior of this State to this sec- tion of the country. He was among the early pioneers to this place ; he - has resided here near forty years. My father has no written geneology of his relatives, and the information he gives me is from memory, of what his father imparted to him. Yet, from what my father relates, I am confi- dent that Doctor James McSparran, whom you mention was great uncle to my father, and that his brother Archibald was grandfather to my father. The Dr. McSparran, of Narragansett, of whom my father speaks, made a will, at the request of his partner, previous to their going to England, and devised a portion of his property to the son of his brother, Archibald, by the name of James, uncle to my father."
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a distinct legislature ; and they are now separated, each having its respective Governor.
He who at present presides as Governor over New Jersey is a New - England man ; an Independent, but occasionally conforms in conse- quence of the test act. His name is Belcher ;* and as he was born at Boston, in New England, he was many years Governor there .- The first inhabitants were Quakers and Anabaptists, and Sabbatari- an Baptists.
But as your Honor may have a curiosity to know wherein these latter differ from other Antipædobaptists, you are then to know, that to the errors of the other sects of this stamp they add this, as peculiar to themselves, that they, in a sort, judaize in their beginning and manner of keeping the Sabbath, and refuse all religious regard to the Lord's day by abstaining from their ordinary callings on Sunday.
After the conquest of this country, in 1664, out of the hands of the Dutch, their religious affairs were a long time unsettled and con- fused ; but, at present, its inhabitants are generally Dutch and Irish - Presbyterians, New England Independents, Quakers, and Baptists of divers sorts.
The Church of England, however, began to enter here in 1702, and its success and progress yields matter of great thanksgiving to God. The society maintain here seven or eight missionaries, who have the care of many more churches ; and, as our church gains ground, the sectaries lessen both in their opposition and numbers .- There are several considerable towns in this province, and one small city, namely, Perth Amboy, but more thinly inhabited than many of their towns.
Their produce and commerce, being much the same with that of Pennsylvania and New York, may be considered in the paragraphs
* " Jonathan Belcher was graduated from Harvard in 1699. He was a good scholar, and possessed a literary taste. He visited Europe and be- came acquainted with literary and political characters of influence. In 1730, he was appointed Governor of Massachusetts, and was superceded in 1741. He moved to New Jersey, and was appointed Governor of the colony in 1747. He died in 1757, greatly lamented for his private virtues and public services. He was esteemed a pious man, and some thought him an enthusiast. He was a great admirer of Whitefield. He was a great benefactor and patron of Princeton College."'
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dedicated to them. They have lately set up a little college as a seminary for their youth.
The next province we proceed to is that of New York. This pro- vince (exclusive of Nassau Island, which is 200 miles long, and on that account called Long Island, and other lesser islands) is that tract of land that lies between New England and New Jersey, and is not above twenty miles broad upon the Hudson river, but extends along that river up into the main land at least 200 miles.
It has two cities, viz., New York, at the mouth, where Hudson's river throws itself into the sea ; and Albany, 100 miles up the said river, to which vessels of any burden under 100 tons may go up, and smaller ones, 20 miles further, to the village of Schenectady .- These two cities, after the reduction of this province, were named in honor of the Duke's English and Scottish titles. The Dutch, soon after their transporting the English Brownists (of whom more here- after) from Leyden, in Holland, to New Plymouth in N. England, in 1620, sent a colony of them to their own N. York, at that time called the Manhadoes by the Indians ; but King Charles the Second sent Sir Robert Carr, at the head of three or four thousand men, who soon subdued Hogan Mogan, and wrested this country out of these Hol- lander's hands. However, in the peace that succeeded the first Dutch war in that reign, this tract, containing the present Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, and New York, was forever ceded to the Crown of England ; and Surinam, a sugar settlement, in the latitude of five degrees north, on the main land of America, was yielded to the Dutch in lieu of it. Almost all the English Surinammers quitted their plantations, agreeable to the articles, to the Dutch supplanters. But not so Dean Swift's Nicholas Frog, who had overspread the fens and fat farms of Hudson's river; they almost all to a man, sub- mitted to the Crown of England, and saved their settlements.
A little time after this conquest, great numbers of English came into this country, and by after-accessions, it is become a well culti- vated and extensive, and, in consequence, a rich and populous pro- vince. Indeed, no places but what are populous, can ever be opu- lent.
The King's quit-rents from this, and New Jersey, are considera- ble, and, as you may easily believe, every day increasing. The Governor and Council are commissioned by the Crown, who, with
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the representatives chose by the counties and corporations, constitute the Legislature. Four independent companies, paid out of the privy purse, as part of the guards, (not upon the national establishment) are cantoned in York, Albany, Schenectady, forts Ann and Hunter, . Oswego, and other frontiers, to watch the motions of their neighbors the French, and the frenchified Indians.
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Several gentlemen have taken out patents for large tracts up in the country, which they are settling as fast as they can ; and, in an age or two, (if, before that, we should not be drove into the sea by the French) will be profitable estates. Sir Peter Warren, the Ad- miral, and our countryman, is one of those who own much of these lands.
The exportations from this province are principally furs, flour, bread, wheat, Indian corn, pickled beef and pork, rye, buckwheat, and other articles, being much the same as the produce of the two last mentioned provinces, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
As the provinces above pointed at are remarkable for melons, peach- es, cherries, apples, &c., so the farther north you come, the less rich and poignant those hot country fruits are ; but then this loss is made up by apples and pears growing better, in proportion as you remove farther from the sun. In this province you begin to meet with good cider and perry, which grows better and better as you advance more eastward.
While I am writing this, the public prints, brought me by post, purport, that the trustees of Georgia did, in June last, surrender - their charter to the Crown, and that a patent had passed the great seal to invest the King, and his successors, with all the properties, powers and privileges, heretofore granted to the body politic.
The first public beginning of the Church of England in the pro- vince of New York, was Anno Domini 1693; but so remarkable has God appeared against schism and heresy, and in behalf of the truly Apostolic faith and decent worship of the church of England, that, at this day, there are ten missionaries, who officiate in more churches. Besides these ten clergyman, the society maintains six Episcopal school-masters, one catechist on Long Island, and another catechist, in holy orders, in the city of New York, for the instruction of the negro slaves there, and as assistant to the rector. of the church of that city, who is maintained by the people. So that, where noth-
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ing but heresy, and irreligion, and schism prevailed, there are now twelve regular clergymen in holy orders ; and the posterity of the French and Dutch, forgetting their respective languages, are crowd- ing into the English churches, and worshiping God with them, with one mouth and one heart. There is also a subscription on foot for erecting a little college in this province. But I think the multiplica- tion of such small seminaries, though it may a little increase knowl- edge, will not advance learning to any remarkable pitch ; as the en- dowments must be small, and the libraries ill-stocked, to what those of one general university might be.
Next to New York, in proceeding east and by north, we enter on the country called New England, and which is cantoned into the two colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, with the four provinces of the Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Main, and Sagadahock .- Before I enter particularly into these provinces, I must beg leave to premise a few words relating to New England in general. King James the First, of England, and Sixth of Scotland, granted this country to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and others, mostly Devonshire gentlemen, under the style and title of the Council of Plymouth ; and as the geography of this country was hardly emerged into any tole- rable light, instead of ascertaining their limits on earth, they fixed their boundaries in the heavens. He granted them all that Ameri- can tract between the degrees of 40 and 45 of north latitude, and across land to the South sea. A grant surely void, on account of uncertainty, and for that no king of England, or other European monarch, were lords of the American soil, who had a vast number of savage, petty, and yet absolute princes of its own. However, their royal grants gave them the exclusive right of pre-emption from the native princes ; as no subject can, without royal license, transport themselves out of the precincts of any prince, more than transfer their allegiance.
Thus the patents whereby the lands are held, and civil dominion exercised, gave them leave to remove hither and purchase ; but, re- served the sovereignty over them, as subjects of the English Crown.
New England was first peopled by the Brownists, the first sect that separated from the church; and its increase was owing to the after accession of Puritans, whose actual departure from the national
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worship commenced no earlier than their entrance into New Eng- land.
While the virgin Queen, of immortal memory, sat at the helm, she steered so steady a course, and rode with so tight a rein, that Calvin's English disciples, impregnated with the leaven of Geneva, could do little more, upon their return, after the Marian persecution, than fret in her fetters, murmur, and mutter their discontents in se- cret.
It's true, that the above said Browne, a young clergyman, of fire and zeal over-proportionate to his discretion, drew the first dissenting disciple after him; who, though he boasted he had been in every prison in England for religion and conscience sake, yet when he cooled, and came into the church again, by a recantation, he found it easier to mislead, than to reduce his followers into the right road again. It should seem God would not so far favor the first schis- matic, as to vouchsafe him either skill or success in 'rebuilding the beautiful fabric of his church, he had before done his utmost to de- face and pull down ; an honor which 'tis possible the great apostle of the gentiles had never enjoyed, had his zeal, instead of spending itselt in forcibly keeping his countrymen to the old religion, which certainly came from God, been employed in a sly seduction from an apostolical church into another, that had less of divine, and more of human contrivance in it.
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To Elizabeth succeeded James, father of the martyr; he, imag- ining it more for his ease, threw away that Queen's curb, and rode with a snafle. Under this soft sovereign, the Noncons seem, by the galliotism of the state, and the grindalizing of the church, to have grown into great numbers. But Charles resumed, in some sort, the heroine's bridle, and gave leave to Laud to make use of the whip and spur ; so the sturdy puritan, unused to restraint, and grown res- tive, finding flouncing and plunging would not throw down, run away from his riders, and took sanctuary in New England. But, good God! how dearly did that most pious prince and holy prelate pay for this ! and how fatal and lasting have been the consequences of that grand rebellion, that brought both those great personages to the block ! I return from this digression, to acquaint your Honor, that Connecticut is that part of New England next to New York.
The first English settlers of this colony were puritans, who trans-
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ported themselves hither in 1630. They formed themselves into a civil society, by an instrument of government of their own making, and by so doing, became, by strictness of law, liable to the penalties . of treason ; and into an ecclesiastical society, by a platform partly borrowed from the Brownists of Plymouth, who come nine years be- fore them, and partly by additions and inventions. of their own, and so became Independents, and, if you please, schismatics.
"When Cromwell began the exercise of sovereign power, without the character and style of king, these sectarian settlements soon sub- mitted to his yoke ; and their fulsome and fawning addresses, stuffed with the odious cant peculiar to the age and people, and at this day offensive to a loyal and pious ear.
In' 1663, when the revival of the good old cause became despe- rate, by the succeeding restoration and re-settlement in church and state, they made a virtue of necessity, and submitted to the Crown. The restored monarch, who was all condescension, grace, and good nature, gave them a charter, which, though surrendered in the reign of his royal brother, was resumed at the revolution, and by that they still govern.
In consequence of this charter, the freeholders annually choose a Governor, and a certain number of assistants, who compose the coun- cil, or upper house of Assembly, and are also the grand ordinary in all testamentary cases. The freeholders also choose from among themselves two to represent each town, who are the lower house ; and both houses, resolved into a grand committee, choose all other civil and military officers ; and this whole house have the cognizance of matrimonial and other matters.
Marriages are too often, and for slight causes, dissolved by the Assembly ; and divorces, with liberty to marry again, easily ob- tained.
Independency, by a more creditable nickname called Presbyteri- anism, is the religion of the State ; but, of late years, some Quak- ers, more Anabaptists, and a still greater number of churchmen, have crowded into, or rather conformed in that colony ; and, by pre- sent appearances, one may foretell, that the members of our church will, in a century more, amount to a major part of the whole.
I myself began one church, by occasional visits among them, at
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a place called New London,* and that has given rise to others ; so that the society so often spoken of, maintain at this day, and in this colony, eight Episcopal missionaries, who have the care of double that number of churches, two school-masters, and one catechist.
As to the character of the Independent teachers, those who have undertaken to draw their picture, have represented them as noted for - enthusiasm, and those affected inspirations, which for the most part begin in folly, and often (if not always) end in vice. Some pens have distinguished them for a grave hypocrisy, phlegmatic stiffness, and sacerdotal tyranny ; and the laity, for formality and preciseness, ard covering over ill arts and acts with a cloak of re- ligion.
But I think this picture wears too harsh features ; though, it must be owned, not to be absolutely void of resemblance. Whatever they
* To show the agency of Dr. McSparran in erecting the church at New London, the following letter is transcribed :
NEW LONDON, Jan. 10, 1842.
Dear Sir,-The church in New London originated in 1725. but under what particular circumstances, does not appear. Dr. McSparran, however, appears to have had a prominent and influential agency in laying its foundation. I have been led to the belief, that he first officiated here according to the forms of the church of England ; but whether by any stated arrangement, or only occasionally, I can find no evidence to determine. The earliest en- try in our register, is the copy of a subscription paper, by which the sub- scribers bind themselves to pay the amount of their several subscriptions, to Mr. McSparran, as Treasurer of the fund, for the erection of a church, dated June 6th, 1725. Under date of Sept. 27, 1725, is a paper, which seems to be a copy of a voluntary agreement of sundry persons to consti- tute themselves a committee, for the purpose of erecting a church ; and under the same date, is the appointment by said committee, of Mr. Mc- Sparran as their treasurer. Under date Feb. 25, 1726, is a letter from the committee to Mr. McSparran, requesting him to appoint a sub-treasurer, and to use his good offices in obtaining assistance for them at Newport, and especially to obtain for them the frame and appurtenances of the old church there, to be brought hither and set up. Then follow sundry letters from him having reference to this business, in one of which he speaks of coming to New London to preach. The last is dated June 14th, 1726, and after this I find no mention of him in our books. * *
I regret your application had not been sooner, as there was living here, until a few months since, a venerable lady, who was a niece of Dr. Mc- Sparran ; remembered him well, and might have furnished you with some valuable facts. * * * If in any way I can be useful to you in your under- taking, you will please to command my services without ceremony.
Yours,
W. UPDIKE, EsQ.
R. A. HALLAM.
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have been, there are certainly many valuable people among them ; and the introduction of our church, and their intermixture with Eu- ropeans, begins to give them a better complexion ; and one need not despair of their improvement, under the present appearances ; though I say this, in this paragraph dedicated to Connecticut, yet it is with very little variation applicable to the New Englanders in general-I mean such as are Novanglians, by a first, second, and third descent, and downwards.
This colony, in its first beginnings, and during the usurper's reign, was two distinct jurisdictions, under the names of the colonies of New Haven, and that of Say-Brook, so called from the Lords Say and Brook.
Charles the Second united these in 1663 ; and from a large navi- gable river, that rises far up in the inland country, called it the col- ony of Connecticut. The two capital towns, where the General Assembly alternately sit, are Hartford, situated on the great river, and New Haven, on the sound, that separates Long Island (in New York province) from the main.
In the latter of these, viz. New Haven, there is a college with 70 and more students, with a president and two or three fellows. One of the present fellows is a son of Mr. James Hillhouse,* who lived near
* Respecting Mr. Hillhouse, Miss Mary L. Hillhouse, of Sachems Wood, New Haven, in a letter to me has furnished the following information, from memoranda, made by William Hillhouse, Esquire, of New Haven, fourth son of the Hon. William Hillhouse of New London county, and grandson of the Rev. James Hillhouse, while on a visit to his relations in Ireland, in the year 1789 :
" John Hillhouse, of Free Hall, in the county of Derry, Ireland, was the son of Abraham Hillhouse, and possessed a landed estate estimated at about two thousand pounds sterling a year. He was the father of Abra- ham, James, William, John, Samuel, and Charles. Abraham settled in Ireland, and inherited the family estate He was first married to Miss Elizabeth Herson, by whom he had no children, and then to Miss Ann Ferguson, who was the mother of his two children, Abraham James, and Rachael.
Abraham James died unmarried, in London, in the year 1756; Rachael married a Mr. McCauslond, and her family possessed the estate of Free Hall, a town of Mimornan, and the towns of Upper and Lower Main, by means of the jointure of their grandmother, Ann Ferguson, made in 1717, and recorded in 1756. August 28th, 1789, rode out to Free Hall ; it is about a mile from -, and two miles from Newtown ; went on the Coleraine road until we came to a lawne that leads to the old mansion house. It had been very large, with pavements, gates, walls, gardens, &c., and had been
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