USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > Newport > Annals of Trinity church, Newport, Rhode Island, 1698-1821 > Part 8
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Jaby Champday
son of the second Chris- topher Champlin, was born August 31, 1728, and was admitted a free- man May, 1758. He was High Sheriff from 1775 to 1780, and the duty fell on him, in 1776, to take the Charter of the
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100
ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
August 27, 1750. The committee who wrote to invite Dr. John- son, are now desired to write to the Rev. Mr. John Beach100 to know of him if he is willing, on proper encouragement, to remove here to be the Pastor of this Church.
September 17, 1750. Solomon Townsend101 was married to Rebecca Sturgis.
January 30, 1751. Voted : that application for an organist should be suspended till we hear from the Society respecting a minister.
Easter Monday, April 8, 1751. Capt. Robert Shearman was elected the elder Church Warden, and Mr. Jonathan Thurston the younger.
Vestrymen elected : William Coddington, Jahleel Brenton, God- frey Malbone, John Brown, Peter Bours, Samuel Wickham, George Wanton, Joseph Wanton, Edward Scott, James Honyman, Peleg Brown, William Paul, Thomas Wickham, Walter Chaloner, and Charles Wickham.
Colony out of the house of Governor Wanton, who had refused to take the oath of office. He was made a prisoner in the war, and was exchanged. In 1780 he was appointed Barrack Master. He died in January, 1805. Hannah Gibbs was the daughter of George Gibbs.
100 In 1732 Trinity Church contributed to the fund to send Mr. John Beach, a young student of theology, to England, for Holy Orders. He returned to America in September of that year, and began his work in the ministry at Redding and Newtown, Ct. Rev. Mr. Caner was then at Fairfield, the elder Seabury at New London, and Rev. Samuel Johnson at Stratford. He died in 1782, after a ministry of sixty years.
Dr. John Brett wrote of him from Nassau, New Providence, November 6, 1752 : " The People of our Church at Newport I think will be quite happy with the indefatigable labors of the ever industrious Mr. Beach, and he will be somewhat assisted by Mr. Leaming, to whom I have again wrote a consolatory letter on his great loss."
101 Solomon Townsend was a merchant, largely interested in commerce, and was associated with John Mawdsley in many ventures on the sea. He married Rebecca Sturgis, September 17, 1750, and after her death, Frances Brenton became his wife, January 12, 1764.
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NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
John Grelea elected Clerk and Thomas Vickars sexton.
May 13, 1751. At a meeting of the congregation Mr. Samuel Bours, Peter Bours and Edward Scott were appointed to send to ye Rev. Mr. John Beach, a copy of the Society's letter to us, of y8 of March, 1751, as also a copy of a paragraph of theirs to y8 Rev. Jeremiah Leaming of the same date, and to acquaint him that the congregation still continue their good opinion of him, and desire his immediate answer.
May 22, 1751. Benjamin Almy,102 of John and Anstiss, was mar- ried to Sarah Coggeshall by James Searing, P. E.
June 10, 1751. At a meeting of the congregation of (and at) Trinity Church, it was voted and agreed : that Samuel Wickham, Peter Bours and Edward Scott, be a committee to answer a letter from the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, dated 5th of March, 1751, and recommended the Rev. Mr. John Beach: and also to send him [Rev. Mr. Beach] a copy of the letter they write to the said Society.103
102 Benjamin Almy was not a man of much force of character, and for many years was content to keep a boarding-house, run chiefly by his second wife. His first wife, the above Sarah Coggeshall, was the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Coggeshall. She died February 22, 1756, and October 22, 1762, he married Mary Gould, daughter of James Gould and great- granddaughter of Governor Walter Clarke. She favored the efforts of the Crown to retain the Colonies, and remained in Newport during its occupation by the British. She died March 25, 1808. The journal that she kept during the siege of Newport, an interesting document, has been published in the Newport Historical Magazine.
103 " The Society, at the earnest request of the Church at Newport, hath consented to the removal of the worthy Mr. Beach, their missionary at the Church at Newtown, to that numerous congregation; and they will endeavor to provide the Church at Newtown with a worthy successor, as soon as they shall be informed of Mr. Beach's removal thence."-Abstracts of Proceedings of the Society.
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ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
September 26, 1751. Stephen Decatur104 (a native of Genoa) was married to Priscilla Hill.
Easter Monday, March 30, 1752. Mr. Jonathan Thurston was appointed eldest Church Warden, and Capt. John Jepson, youngest.
The Vestry remained the same as last year, except that George Wanton retired, and Daniel Ayrault, Jr., was elected in his place.
John Grelea elected Clerk, and Thomas Vickars, sexton.
April 13, 1752. At a meeting of the Vestry, Rev. Jeremiah Leaming,105 the Church Wardens and Vestrymen being present, voted : that the pews be handsomely numbered with paint on each door, and that Mr. Bours' lease be lengthened three years.
July 20, 1752. Thomas Vernon was chosen Church Warden, in place of Capt. John Jepson, who was going to sea.
July 19, 1752. David Thomas Leaming was baptized. The sureties were Capt. [John] Brown, Joseph Wanton (Collector) and Jerusha Thompson.
August 27, 1752. At a meeting of the congregation at the Church, voted : that Samuel Wickham, Peter Bours and Edward Scott, be a committee to advise Mr. Beach that we have received a letter from Dr. Bearcroft, by which we learn that he has leave to be our minister, and to invite him to come to us.106
104 Capt. Stephen Decatur died at Frankfort, Pennsylvania, November 14, 1808. His son, who became a distinguished officer in the American navy, was baptized June 7, 1752. He married a lady named Wheeler, of Virginia, celebrated for her beauty, and at the time a reigning belle.
105 The Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, as already shown, by a vote of the congregation, July It, 1750, received a temporary appointment as minis- ter, he having previously officiated as Assistant Minister. He was still filling the pulpit.
106 No copies of the correspondence with Rev. Mr. Beach have been preserved, and no reason is given in the Church records for his declining the call ; but from the Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Society, the fol- lowing particulars have been gathered :
" The Rev. Mr. Beach, the Society's missionary at Newtown and Read-
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NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
Voted : that Jahleel Brenton, Esq., Capt. John Brown, and Joseph Whipple, Esq., be a committee to collect by subscription a sufficient sum of money to purchase a house and glebe for a minister of the Church for the time being, and that they appropriate the same to that purpose.
Voted : that the vestry-room and Church Wardens' pew be con- verted into private pews, and that John Whipple, Esq., and Mr. John Baninster have the offer of them. Samuel Wickham, Peter Bours and James Honyman were to draw up an instrument to regu- late the tenure of the pews.
Voted : that £40 per annum be allowed the Rev. Mr. John Beach as soon as he is settled as our minister.106a
October 2, 1752. Voted : that £10 sterling be added to the £40 allowed Mr. Beach at our last meeting.
December 26, 1752. Voted: that Messrs. Samuel Wickham,
ing, in Connecticut, having declined, through want of health, to accept of the great care of the Church at Newport, in Rhode Island, which, at the earnest request of the inhabitants thereof, had been offered to him, the Society hath appointed the Rev. Mr. Pollen, M.A., late curate of St. Antholins Church, in London, but then curate of the Episcopal Church of Glasgow, to that mission, upon his own request ; and it is hoped that he is by this time safely arrived, and to good purpose employed in the duties of his holy function there."
This is the first mention of Mr. Pollen in connection with the Church. 106a In the diary of Rev. Ezra Stiles, D. D., there is this entry :
" When, in 1755, I had a formal invitation from the Episcopal Church in Stratford to conform and succeed Dr. Johnson, with at least £100 ster- ling a year ; and before that, in October, 1752, when I sustained a vig- orous application to take orders and become a minister in the Episcopal Church in Newport, then representing a living of £200 a year ; I thank God none of these things moved me."
No mention is made in the records of the Church of the above appli- cation, which must have come from individuals, and not from the Corpo- ration or Vestry.
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ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
Jahleel Brenton, Edward Scott, James Honyman and Peter Bours, Esqrs., be a committee to draw up a letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and desire them to send us a minister, and that they assure the Society we will give £50 sterling per annum, exclusive of his improvement of our house and glebe.
Voted : that £50 sterling per annum be settled as a salary of a minister of this Church, as soon as one shall be appointed by the Society, and that it shall commence from the time of his appoint- ment.
Easter Monday, April 23, 1753. Thomas Vernon107 was chosen eldest Church Warden, and Edward Cole the youngest.
Vestrymen : Wm. Coddington, Jahleel Brenton, Godfrey Mal- bone, John Brown, Peter Bours, Joseph Wanton, Edward Scott, James Honyman, William Mumford, Peleg Brown, William Paul, Thos. Wickham, Walter Chaloner, Chas. Wickham and Daniel Ayrault.
107 . Thomas Vernon, born May 31, 1718, married, September 9, 1741, Jane, daughter of John Brown, merchant, of Newport. She died April 28, 1765, aged 43 years. He next married, May 20, 1766, Mary Mears, who died in August, 1787. He was a merchant of the firm of Grant & Vernon ; was royal port-master, at Newport, from 1745 to 1775, registrar of the Court of Vice-Admiralty twenty years, and secretary of the Red- wood Library. While holding the office of Senior Warden, Dr. John Brett, then at Nassau, New Providence, wrote to him on his appointment : " The streams of honor are greatly diffusive and convey their influence to the most distant regions ; consequently when I am congratulating you upon your late ecclesiastical preferment, I am in some measure partaking of the honors thereof. Dignities and distinctions are due to merit, con- sequently I must think the second dignity in the Church was not conferred on my good friend, Mr. Vernon, had he not been worthy of it. Make my congratulations to the Church Warden's lady, who certainly has as just title as any one to partake of the honor."
Mr. Vernon suffered imprisonment for his principles as a Tory. His journal while so confined, now belongs to the Newport Historical Society.
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105
NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
John Grelea Clerk, and Thos. Vickars Sexton.
August 15, 1753. Voted : that the application made to Mr. Brown,108 of Portsmouth [New Hampshire], by Jahleel Brenton, Esq., Capt. John Brown, Mr. Honyman and Peleg Brown be approved of, and that those gentlemen be a committee to address him again, in answer to his letter of Ioth of August, instant, and inform him that the letters between him and them have been laid before the con- gregation, and the contents unanimously approved; and that they desire a visit, or, in case he can't come, to beg that he will be more explicit in his answer.
[The following document was evidently prepared at this time. It is without date, and is in the handwriting of Daniel Ayrault, Jr. No mention is made of it, or of the circumstances connected with it, in the Church records :]
Whereas the Society for the Propagation of the Gospels in For- eign Parts, in consideration of the present circumstances of the Con- gregation of Trinity Church, in Newport, have thought fit to with- draw £20 sterling, per annum, of the salary which they formerly allowed to the Minister of the said Church, whereby it has become absolutely necessary for the Congregation to augment the allowance which they heretofore made for his better support; and whereas it is found by experience that the weekly contributions are insufficient to answer this purpose, it has been therefore thought necessary, at a meeting of said congregation, that the weekly contributions should be continued as usual, and that in addition thereto a moderate tax should be laid upon the pews in the said Church, in order as well to make up the deficiency as to pay the salaries of the other Church officers, and other incidental charges. Wherefor we, the present owners and possessors of the said pews, duly considering the ne- cessity and duty of supporting our Minister in a comfortable and decent manner, do freely and voluntarily consent and agree to the
108 The Mr. Browne above referred to was Rev. Marmaduke Browne, son of Arthur Browne, then a missionary at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
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106
ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
following taxation, to commence the first day of January, Anno Domini, 1753, which we do hereby oblige ourselves, our heirs and successors to the said pews, to pay yearly and every year over and above our weekly contributions, for so long a time as the congrega- tion shall judge the same to be necessary ; and we further consent and agree, that in case that we or our successors in the same pews, or any of us or them, should hereafter refuse or neglect to pay the respective sums at which each pew is rated, for the space of three months after the same becomes due, that then it shall be in the power of the Church Wardens and Vestry of the said Church, for the time being, at their discretion, to place one or more persons in the said delinquent's pew, as shall be willing to pay the yearly rent it is set at ; and that such person or persons so placed in such pew, shall continue therein for so long a time as the said Church Wardens and Vestry shall think fit; or, until the owners of the said pews shall comply with the covenant and agreement ; provided, neverthe- less, that no person or persons who shall be placed in any such pews for the reason aforesaid, shall be from them displaced in less time than one whole year after their entering therein, and that they shall not be obliged to pay the rate or tax of such pews for any longer time than they continue to have a place in them.
In testimony of our free consent to the foregoing exaction, and of our obligation to comply therewith, we have hereunto subscribed our names :
Henry Bull,
Elis. Jepson for J. Jepson,
John Brown,
Content Rogers,
M. Goulding,
Walter Cranston,
W. Coddington,
Godfrey Malbone,
Daniel Ayrault,
Jas. Honyman, John Brown, P. Wilkinson,
Edward Cole,
Augst Johnston, 109
109
8 Johnston
Augustus Johnston was born at Amboy, N. J., about 1730. He showed him- self to be a man of talents, came rapidly into notice, and on June 13, 1757, he was elected Attorney-General of the Colony; an office that he held
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NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
M. Howard Jr.,
Jon. Thurston,
Jos. Wanton,
L. Payne,
D. Coggeshall,
Wm. Mumford,
Jer. Clarke,
M. Brett,
Jahleel Brenton,
M. Bowler,
Walter Chaloner,
John Whitehorn, Wright,
WVm. Paul,
E. Cole for A. Cole,
John Bourke,
Edw. Scott,
John and Jos. Thurston,
Peter Bours,
Dan1 Fortaine,
Samuel Bours,
D. Updike,
Rob Elliot,
Silas Cooke,
Benj. Wanton,
Samuel Wickham,
Mrs. Munday,
Isaac Stelle,
E. Gidley,
G. Dunbar,
Wm. Gardner Wanton,
Thos. Jeffries,
Thos. Wickham,
Rob Shearman.
Joseph Whipple,
IN THE GALLERY.
M. Phillips and M. Bowler,110 Chas. Bardin,
for nine years. His popularity was so great that the town of Johnston was named after him. In 1765 he was appointed Stamp Master by the British Government ; an office that brought him into trouble-his house was beset, his furniture destroyed, and at the hands of a mob he suffered many indignities, even to being burnt in effigy [with others associated with him in the Stamp Office] on the Parade. In 1766 he was appointed Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, in South Carolina, and in Charleston he resided a part of each year ; holding in that city a number of offices. He died suddenly, at the age of 49 years.
110
Metcalf Bowler was for many years one of the most active and enterprising of the merchants of Newport, and, with the Malbones, Wantons and others, fitted out and kept at sea many privateers in the French and Spanish war, from 1756 to 1763. He had both his town and his country house ; the former
108
ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
Henry Taggart,
John Tweedy,
Jas. Cahome,
Robt. Wheatley,
Samuel Ayrault,
Nath. Norton,
George Gibbs,
Jas. Holmes,
Jas. Hasting,
John Barzee,
Jonª Ingraham,
Benj. Jefferson,
John Haxham,
J. Beard and J. Cooper,
Rob‘ Dunbar,
John Launce,
Ann Pye,
W. G. Owen,
John Archer,
Jas. Wilson,
Chas. A. Wigneron,
John Briston,
Job Snell, John Vial.
Henry Allen,
was what is now known as the Vernon House, on Mary and Clarke streets, and the latter was a farm in Portsmouth, where the gardens were filled with the choicest fruits and the rarest flowers. But he suffered severely under the enforcement of the rule of 1756, and was subjected to vexa- tious suits in England, from Dutch and other neutrals whose vessels had been taken and condemned for covering property of the enemies.
Mr. Bowler also took an active part in public life. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1767 to 1776. With Henry Ward he was appointed a Commissioner to the Congress held in New York, and in 1765 he was among the foremost who opposed the Stamp Act. On the anniversary of the repeal of that Act, 1767, he threw open his house and entertained the friends of liberty right royally. In 1768 he was elected one of the Assistant Judges of the Superior Court of Judicature, and in 1776 he was made Chief-Justice of the Court. He also rendered public service as one of a committee to obtain the earliest intelligence of the acts and measures of the British Parliament that bore on the American Colonies, and to maintain a correspondence with the other colonies. But the return of peace found him in straitened circumstances; his property was depreciated ; he was too old to enter upon his old pursuits again, and in 1787 he was keeping a boarding-house, the "Queen's Head," in Providence, where he died in 1789.
109
NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
CHAPTER VII.
1753-1762.
AUGUST, 20, 1753. Voted : that the Church Wardens be a com- mittee to repair the steeple of the Church, roof and gates, and what- ever else belonging to the Church that may want it ; and to partition off a part of the belfry for a vestry-room.
Voted : that the half-yearly tax or rent on the pews, now due, should be immediately collected by the Church Wardens, and Mr. Leaming's demand for payment of his usher satisfied out of it.
August 27, 1753. At a meeting of the congregation, voted : that John Grelea, for his ill-behavior in absolutely refusing to sing the tune played by the organist in the morning service yesterday, and also refusing to read the first line of the Psalm he proposed to be sung after he was desired to do so by Mr. Leaming, then minister, be, and he is hereby dismissed from being Clerk of said Trinity Church.112
September 17, 1753. Charles Handy113 was married to Ann Brown.
112 The above was the outcome of a quarrel between John Grelea, the Clerk of the Church, and Capt. Charles Bardin, the organist. Primarily the organist was to blame for playing a different tune from the one selected by the Clerk ; and the Clerk sinned in failing to lead in the singing, and then in refusing to go on when so requested by the minister. The matter was finally adjusted, as will be seen further on.
113 Capt. Charles Handy, son of Samuel Handy, was born in Maryland, October 8, 1729. Ann Brown, to whom he was married as above, was the daughter of Capt. John Brown, an active member of the Church. She was born August 19, 1733, and died July 26, 1780. After her death he
1IO
ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
November 12, 1753. Voted . that Mrs. Hannah Leadbethy should take possession of the parsonage-house and dwell there free, provided she was warned out and removed within three months of the time of her entering into it; and in case she remains in it three months longer, she is to pay a reasonable rent ; Mr. James Honyman engag- ing she shall remove immediately when required, and leave the house in as good repair as she finds it.
Voted: that Mr. George Owens be sexton for the remainder of the year.
January 17, 1754. Benjamin Mason114, was married to Mary Ayrault.
February 1I, 1754. Voted : that Richard Beal and Metcalf Bow- ler be a committee to collect the remainder of the subscription to the parsonage house, in the room of Jahleel Brenton, Esq., and Capt. John Brown, who have desired to relinquish that office.
It was also voted : that Joseph Wanton, Esq., Godfrey Malbone, Jr.,115 and Martin Howard, Jr., be a committee to procure an organ-
married Mrs. Abigail Wilkinson, widow of Philip Wilkinson and daughter of Jahleel Brenton. His daughter Ann became the wife of Major Thomas Russell, a Revolutionary officer, and his son, Major John Handy, was also an officer in the Revolution. Capt. Charles Handy died July 25, 1793.
114 Benjamin Mason born in December, 1728, and died January 7, 1775, was a merchant extensively engaged in trade in Newport. Mary Ayrault, his wife, was the daughter of Daniel Ayrault, Jr., born in 1735, and died March 17, 1792. 115
G. Malt one cual Godfrey Malbone, Jr., was the eldest son of Godfrey Malbone. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, and returned to Rhode Isl- and in 1744. In 1756 he commanded a regiment of 400 men, and marched for Albany, but his orders were countermanded before he reached that point. After the war
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NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
ist as soon as may be; for the payment of whose salary they are to raise money by subscription.
Easter Monday, 1754. Edward Cole was elected elder Church Warden, and Metcalf Bowler, the younger.
The Vestry remained the same, with the addition of Evan Malbone.
William Allen chosen Clerk, at £60 per annum, and George Owen, sexton, at £40 per annum.
May 13, 1754. The Rev. Mr. Pollen16 having delivered us a letter from Dr. Bearcroft, Secretary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, advising us of his, the Rev. Thomas Pollen, being appointed a missionary of our Church, it was voted : that it is agreeable to us, and he is received accordingly ; and that Edward Scott, Peter Bours, and James Honyman be a committee to return our thanks to the Society for their care in sending him.
Voted : that Edward Cole be a committee to collect what money remains unpaid of the subscription for purchasing the parsonage house, in place of Richard Beel, who refuses to act.
he retired to Pomfret, Ct., and resided there. His wife was a sister of Francis Brinley. He died without issue, at the age of 60 years, Novem- ber 12, 1785.
116 " Rev. Thomas Pollen. Dr. Berriman, in a letter to Dr. Samuel John- son, dated London, February, 1754, says : 'Mr. Pollen is appointed a Missionary to Rhode Island. He is a worthy clergyman, and esteemed a good scholar. He was cotemporary at Christ Church College, Oxford, with your friend Dr. Burton, who is now Vice-Provost of Eton College. I would beg leave to recommend him to your favorable notice and that vou would advise and assist him in any case that may need your helping hand. He is a traveller and has seen the world, and has been lately employed in an Episcopal Church at Glasgow, but was never in your parts ; and being quite a stranger to such a kind of settlement, may often have occasion to consult you, who are so much known and so well esteemed by all around you.'"-History of the Narragansett Church.
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ANNALS OF TRINITY CHURCH,
Voted : that £400, old tenor, be given the Rev. Mr. Pollen, a present, for the payment of his passage, &c.117
May 27, 1754. Voted : at a meeting of the congregation, that the salary we voted to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Pollen, should be paid him from Christmas day, last ; at fifty [pounds ] sterling per annum, agreeably to a former vote of y& 26th December, 1752.
Voted : that the proceedings of the Church Wardens and Vestry, at their last meeting, should be, and are hereby confirmed.
117 " By a letter of thanks to the Society, from the Church Wardens and Vestry of the Church at Newport, in Rhode Island, bearing date the 28th of May, 1754, for the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Pollen to that mis- sion [as mentioned in the abstracts of the Society's proceedings in the year 1753] it appears that Mr. Pollen arrived safely in the beginning of that month, and was very acceptable to them; not only for his general good character, but also from his good behavior and abilities in his pasto- ral duties, as far as they have yet experienced them ; and they made no doubt but he would answer the pious and charitable design of the Society in sending him to them. And Mr. Pollen, by his letter of June the 7th, 1754, gives an account of his kind reception, and that he hath great hopes of propagating the true Christian faith, and doing much good among them, towards which he promises his best endeavors shall not be wanting." -Abstracts from the Proceedings of the Society.
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