An historical sketch of Trinity Church, New-York

Preface

The present volume will have, perhaps, but slight claims to general attention, while, at the same time, it may be by no means deficient in local interest. The minuteness of detail into which it was thought expedient to enter, in order to give a full and perfect history of Trinity Church, may make it wearisome to those who are altogether unconnected with it. This very circumstance, however, will probably render it still more acceptable to the actual members of our ancient Parish ; to those who have been nurtured in it, but who are now scattered abroad among the churches which have sprung from it ; to the descendants of those who formerly belonged to it ; and to such others also, as delight in antiquarian research, and take pride in the growth and improvement of their native place. It is only necessary to add, that the materials for this work were derived from a great variety of authentic sources, but principally from the Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Smith’s History of New-York, Hawkins’ Missions of the Church of England, the Minutes of the Vestry from the foundation of the Parish to the present time, and from my own recollections for nearly half a century.

V

HISTORY

O P

TRINITY CHURCH.

Chapter I

The opening of the new edifice for public worship, shortly after its consecration, seemed to me a suitable occasion for giving an historical sketch of Trinity Church. In rising, for the first time, to address the vast multitude, with which this solemn and stately temple was thronged, I was affected with feelings which I could not express. That I had been spared to see that day, I regarded as an especial reason for thankfulness to God $ for how many, who desired it, had looked forward impatiently for the completion of the work, but died before it ! This spot was to me, as to them, endeared by the holiest and tenderest recollections. There I had worshipped in youth,

there I had ministered in manhood, and there I appeared again before the congregation, on the verge of old age. There the few of the scanty remnant which was left when I began my ministry among them, and whose recollections in some cases went back much farther than my own, had once more presented themselves amidst a new generation, and may have felt on the occasion more deeply than myself.

With such associations and feelings, it may well be supposed that the work in which I was engaged was to me a labour of love, and in the course of my inquiries it grew upon my hands, both in interest and extent, far beyond either my thoughts or my designs.

It is well known to those who are familiar with our colonial history, that the province of New- York was settled by the Dutch, shortly after its discovery by Hudson, in 1609. In the following year, a few stations were formed in various parts of it, and in 1620 a settlement was made on a larger scale, when the district was called New Netherlands, and the principal cluster of houses, on the site of a town which now contains nearly 400,000 inhabitants, was named New Amsterdam. In the reign of Charles the Second, 1664, and during the war with Holland, the province was taken possession of by the English, while under the administration of Governor Stuyvesant, and being granted to the Duke of York, received the name which it has since borne. In 1673, however, through the treachery of Manning, an English officer, it was delivered up again to the Dutch. But the new governor only enjoyed his office for a very short season, for the province was finally ceded to the English by the4 treaty of peace between England and the States General, in 1674, and Sir Edmond Andross was appointed governor. Wherever the conquests and settlements of our mother country have extended, she has at all times shown a laudable anxiety that the religion of the country should go with them. u The members of the Protestant Episcopal Church (then known as the Church of England in America) first held stated religious services in this city in a chapel erected in a fort which stood near the battery. In this place, under the Dutch administration, the service of the Church of Holland had been performed. On the first surrendery of the colony of New-York to the British, in 1664, the service of the Church of England (it being a government establishment) was of course introduced. 55 # The congregation, however, increasing, a larger edifice was needed, but no steps were taken towards the erection of it for several years. Colonel Fletcher, the newly appointed governor of the colony, was one of the first who moved in this business. As the greatest part of this province consisted of Dutch inhabitants, all the governors thereof, as well in the Duke of York’s time as after the revolution, thought it good policy to encourage English preachers and school-masters

* Christian Journal, Yol. ii. p. 249.

in the colony. For this commendable zeal, Colonel Fletcher has been reviled and denounced by Smith, onelof the earliest writers of the history of New- York, as a bigot to the Episcopal' form of Church government. But as he had declared, at a meeting of the Colonial Assembly, that he would take care that neither heresy, sedition, schism, or rebellion should be preached among them, nor vice and profanity encouraged ; so he earnestly laboured to carry out his purposes to good effect. His measures were violently opposed by many of the members, and even by some from whom a different course might have been reasonably expected. For it was at this session, on the 12th of April, 1695, that, upon a petition of five churchwardens and vestrymen of the city of New-York, the house declared it to be their opinion, that the vestrymen and churchwardens have power to call a dissenting Protestant minister, and that he is to be paid and maintained as the act directs. This was a looseness of opinion, on the part of the Episcopalians concerned, which must astonish sound Churchmen, and which would have been abundantly lax for the most latitudinarian among us at the present day. But through the juster notions of others, and the persevering zeal and firmness of the governor, things were soon put in a better train.*

* It is very possible, however, that the five wardens and vestrymen of the city of New-York referred to, might not have been members of the Church of England. For it appears, by the following act of the Colonial Assembly, for settling a ministry,

TRINITY CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

In the fifth year of the reign of William and Mary, 1697, by an act of Assembly, approved and and raising a maintenance for them in the city of New- York, County of Richmond, Westchester, and Queen’s County, passed the 22d of September, 1693, that there were other persons in New- York bearing the titles of Churchwardens and Vestrymen, besides those of Trinity Church.

“ Whereas, profaneness and licentiousness hath of late overspread this province, for the .want of a settled ministry throughout the same : To the end the same may be removed, and the ordinances of God duly administered ;

I. Be it enacted, by the Governor , and Council , and Representatives convened in General Assembly , and by the authority of the same , That in each of the respective cities and counties hereafter mentioned and expressed, there shall be called, inducted, and established, a good sufficient Protestant minister, to officiate, and have the care of souls, within one year next, and after the publication hereof, that is to say : In the city of New- York one, &c. &c.

II. And for their respective encouragement, Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , That there shall be annually, and once in every year, in every of the respective cities and counties aforesaid, assessed, levied, collected, and paid, for the maintenance of each of their respective ministers, the respective sums hereafter mentioned; For the city and county of New- York, one hundred pounds , &c. &c.

III. And for the more orderly raising the respective maintenances for the ministers aforesaid, Be it further enacted, That the respective justices of every city and county aforesaid, or any two of them, shall every year issue out their warrants to the constables, to summons the freeholders of every city, county, and precinct aforesaid, together, on the second Tuesday of January, for the choosing of Ten Vestrymen and Two Churchwardens ; and the said Justices and Vestrymen, or major part of them, are hereby impowered, within ten days after the said day, or any day after, as ratified by and with the consent and authority of the governor of the province, a royal grant and confirmation were made of a certain church and steeple, lately built in the city of New-York, together with a certain piece or parcel of ground adjoining thereunto, being in or near to a street without the north gate of the said city, commonly called and known by the name of Broadway. The title which was given to the church by the original charter, is the same which it bears at the present day — the Parish of Trinity Church. Means were appointed by it for the support of the Rector. The Wardens and Vestrymen were duly constituted, and particularly named ^ comprising several members of his majesty’s council, and as it would seem, some of the most respectable inhabitants in the province.

Among them were the names of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, an ancestor of Dr. Delancey, Bishop of the Western Diocese of New-York 5 of Emott, Clarke, Morris, Read, and Ludlow, so familiar to ouy ears at the present day. These, with the Bishop of London for their Rector, were established a body corporate and politic, with all the privileges and to them shall seem convenient, to lay a reasonable tax on the said respective cities, counties, parish, or precincts, for the maintenance of the minister and poor of their respective places ; and if they shall neglect to issue their warrants, so as the election be not made that day, they shall respectively forfeit five pounds current money of this province,” &c. &c. — Laws of New- YorJc, Vols . 1 and 2, folio ed., 1774, jyp . 18, 19c powers usually pertaining unto the same. This appointment of the Bishop of London, as Rector, who could not actually fulfil the duties of the office, was a mere temporary arrangement, in order to provide the corporation with a head, essential to its due organization, if not to its existence.*

In 1705, in the reign of Queen Ann, a grant was made to the corporation of Trinity Church by deed patent, signed by Lord Cornbury, who was at that time governor of the province, of a tract of land then called the Queen’s farm, now the Church farm, lying on the west side of Mannahata Island, and extending from St. Paul’s Chapel northwardly along the river to Skinner road, now Christopher street. This property, which was then literally what it was called, a farm, and which was comparatively of little value, has long since become a compact part

* Wardens and Vestrymen appointed by the Charter of Trinity Church. — 1697. rl he Lord Bishop of London , Rector. Thomas Wenharn and ) The first Church Wardens of the said

Robert Lurting Caleb Heathcote, William Merret, John Tudor,

James Emott, William Morris, Thomas Clarke, Ebenezer Wilson, Samuel Burt,

James Evets, Nathaniel Marston, parish.

Michael Howden, John Crooke, William Sharpas, Lawrence Read, David Jamison, William Hudleston, Gabriel Ludlow, Thomas Burroughs, John Merret, and William Jane way,

The first Vestrymen of the said parish.

of the city. Even now, however, from a large proportion of it having been put out on long leases, at mere nominal rents, it is much less productive than has been generally supposed.

As soon as the charter was procured, the most active measures were taken for carrying on the building of the church. Provision had been made for this purpose in the instrument itself. It was there ordained and declared, that the Church Wardens and Vestrymen, or any eleven or more of them should make, or cause to be made, an estimate in writing, under the hand or hands of some sufficient person or persons qualified for the same, of the charge and finishing the said church and steeple, and providing a clock and one or more bells for the same, and other works necessary and requisite in and about the said church and steeple, and of building a convenient house for the Rector. And such sum or sums of money as should appear to them, upon such estimate, to be in their judgment competent to accomplish the premises, were to be charged upon all and every of the inhabitants in the said parish to be by them paid in seven years, by twenty-eight quarterly and successive payments. And the said Churchwardens and Vestrymen were required and authorized to assess, tax, and rate all these quarterly payments, as they should think most reasonable, equal, and meet; all which assessments should be confirmed and allowed by two justices of the peace within the said parish, and in communion of the said church as aforesaid, under their hands and seals, and be collected by such persons as the said Vestrymen should from time to time appoint.

The estate of the Corporation, at that time, was totally unproductive. The English inhabitants, in the infancy of the province, were few in number, and scanty in means. But what was lacking in ability was abundantly supplied by activity and zeal. A committee of the Vestry was appointed, consisting of Major William Merret, Mr. Thomas Clarke, Captain William Morris, and Captain Tudor, (absent in the service,) who, on the 28th of June, 1697, made a return, that according to order, they had spent a day in getting subscriptions and in collecting money for erecting Trinity Church. The members of the corporation generally encouraged the good work also by their own example, not only in the cheerful payment of their lawful dues, but by their free will offerings. #

* Mr. James Emott presented four pistoles as a voluntary gift.

Mr. Benjamin Aske, .

Capt. Thomas Wenham, Mr. Robert Lurting, .

William Merret, Esq.

Mr. James Evets, . .

Mr. Michael Howden, Mr. Nathaniel Marston, Mr. Thomas Burroughs, Mr. William Jane way, Capt. William Morris, Mr. William Hudleston, Mr. Gabriel Ludlow, .

Mr. John Crooke, . .

Capt. Ebenezer Wilson, Mr. William Sharpas,

► As free gifts .

On two subsequent occasions several of these persons contributed respectively from three to five pounds.

A special subscription was afterwards set on foot for the building of the steeple. The names of the subscribers, the most of which are familiar to us at the present day, and the amount of their contributions, are all recorded in the book of minutes. The sum total collected was £312 13s. 7<7., together with £5 12s. 3 df., a contribution from the Jews. This curious paper, which it is thought will be looked over by many with some degree of interest, will be found in the appendix A.

The subscriptions, though small, were doubtless according to the ability of the donors, and they must also be regarded in reference to the relative value of money at that period and the present. While some gave of their means, for the promotion of this object, others, as it would seem, cheerfully bestowed their labour and their time. A curious instance of this is entered in the minutes of the V estry :

Ordered. That Mr. Sam1 Burte do goe down to Huntington with all expedition, and purchase all the Oyster Shell Lime he can get there, not to exceed the rate of 8 or 9 shillings pr Loade for the use of the Church ; and that his expences in travelling and horse be defrayed out of the Publick Stock, he desiring nothing for his time or trouble.

Colonel Peter Schuyler having subscribed five pounds to the church, to be paid in boards, it was ordered that Captain Thomas Wenham should write to him to send the same in such boards as Mr. Evets should direct.

The governor of the province sent to the church twenty-five pounds, and Chidley Brooke, Esq. thirty pounds.

TRINITY CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

Another singular expedient was adopted with a view to increase more effectually their limited means.

At a meeting of the Vestry, held on the 6th of August, 1697:—

Ordered, That there be a petition drawn for the money that was collected for the Slaves in Sally, and in case that it was not disposed for that use, then to be dispos’d for other Pious uses as his Excellency and Council should think fitt ; and the same to be delivered to his Excel, by Mr. Mayor and Capt. Tho. Wenham.

It was likewise

Ordered, That the following address should be signed by the Church Wardens in behalf of this Board, and forthwith presented to his Excelly and Council, viz.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY BENJAMIN FLETCHER, CAPTAIN-GENERAL AND

GOVERNOR IN CHIEF OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW-YORK, ETC.

The humble petition of the Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Trinity Church , in the city of New-Yorh ,

Sheweth,

That there is a certain sum of money raised by virtue of a Lycense from yr Excel, with advice of the Council, from the voluntary contribution of the Inhabitants of this Province and others, towards the relief of Christian Captives in Sally, wch did belong to this Province, and in case of their death, or other escape, or that it be impossible to relieve them; by ye said Lycense it is to be employed to ye like or some other pious use as yr Excel, ye Govr and Council shall appoint.

That it so happens ye said Captives are escaped, dead, or otherwise not to be relieved.

That ye Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Trinity Church for and towards ye furnishing of said Church did, upon their humble application by Yr Excells favor, obtain from yr Excell in Council on ye 2d of Decembr 1697 an order for ye paym* of said money to the Church Wardens of said Church, towards ye finishing of said Church, upon condition that if any of ye said Captives be in captivity and to be relieved, ye Corporation of Trinity should procure their relief and redemption at their charge.

And as the persons intrusted by Yr Excel withe the managem* of said money towards ye redemption of Captives, viz. Col. Stephen Van Courtlandt, Peter Jacobs Morris, Doct. Kerfbyl, and Capt. John Kip, will not meet together at ye request of ye said Church Wardens, to deliver up ye acco* of ye amount of ye said money and to assign the same ;

Therefore Yr Excells Petns humbly pray Yr Excel, to order that ye sd persons be summoned to appear before yr Excel, and give an acco* of ye amount of the said money, and be ordered to assign ye said money, to the said Church Wardens, for ye aforesaid use of Trinity Church without further delay.

And Yr Excels Petns, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.

In the following year—

Mr. Jamison reports to this Board, that ye petition ordered ye last meeting of this Board was read in Council Thursday last* and that Col. Courtlandt one of the Council and one of ye persons concern’d therein, informed ye Govr and Council, that they were ready to deliver up all papers relating to the money collected for ye redemption of Captives in Sally and to assign the same. Whereupon it is ordered, (Mr. Tho. Wenham being indisposed) that Mr. Robt. Lurting, Mr. James Emott, and Mr. David Jamison do waite upon the said Col. Courtlandt and ye other persons to whose charge the said money was committed, and demand all papers relating thereunto, and assignm* of ye same.

On the 10th of April, 1705 —

Mr. Jamison presented to the Yestry a letter from Mr. Geilnick & Lodwick of London, dated the 12th of Septr. 1705, wch advised of one hundred and seventy pounds two shillings and threepence sterling, laid out in thirty eight half pieces of stroud waters, and ship1 on the New York Merchb Capt. Jeffors Comander, as per

TRINITY CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

Bill of Lading and Invoice, with an acco1 curr1 ; being the net produce of one hundred and ninety pounds twelve shillings and twopence sterling, remitted from Mr. Hero May and Wm. Banker out of Holland, wch was Intended for Redemption of Slaves out of Sally ; failing that use, was assigned to Trinity Church in New York, wch wer4e read, and Mr. Jamison owned the receipt of the said goods, and informed this Board that his LordP was pleased on Mr. Yesey’s application to him, to give a Bill of Store for the Custome of said goods, amounting to Tenn pounds.

It was thereupon

Ordered, That Mr. Jamison and Capt. Lurting, be Impowerd to dispose of the Thirty Eight pieces of strouds to the best advantage for the use of the Church.

Capt. Lurting and Mr. Jamison soon after acquainted this Board that they had disposed of Thirty pieces of strouds, part of the Cargo from England, at Twelve pounds per piece, wch money was ready to be produced, amounting to the sum of three hundred and sixty Pounds.

The Eight remaining peeces were subsequently sold at eleven pounds pr peece, amounting in all to £448.

Another singular method was devised, to increase the funds for building the Church, but the final success of which, however, unlike the last, remains unknown.

Capt. Wenham inform^ this Board, that notwithstanding the many signal gifts his Excel, had bestowed, for the encouragement of Piety and Religion amongst us, in the carrying on of the building of Trinity Church, his Excel, has been further pleasd, for the better effecting of the same, to grant to the present Church Wardens and Managers of the said building, a Commission for all Weifts, Wrecks, and Drift Whales.

And Capt. Clarke was commissionated to depute such proper persons on the Island of Nassau, as he should see meet, for the securing, cutting up, and trying of all such drift whales, &c. as should come on shoar on ye said Island ; and that for their care and Labour therein, he should allow them reasonable encouragement.

After the appointment of various committees, for soliciting the benevolence both of citizens and strangers, and the most persevering diligence and activity in the discharge of their duties, there still appears, from the following entry on the minutes, to have been a deficiency in their means, and a necessity for borrowing money, in order to hasten the completion of the work.

Whereas, the Protestants of this City of the Communion of the Church of England, as by Law weVe Incorporated, and made a body Politic, Col. Caleb Heathcote, Major William Merret, Capt. Tho. Wenham, Capt. Ebenezer Wilson, Capt. Thomas Clarke, Capt. William Morris, Capt. Jeremiah Tothill, and Mr. Derrick Vanderburgh, did become, and are still obligd by obligation, under then’ hands and seals in the sum of Four hundred Pounds current money of New York, on condition to pay two hundred pounds like money with the interest of six per cent unto the widow Hellegond Dekay, it being employed for the more speedy and better carrying on of the building of Trinity Church : It is therefore ordered, that the same be a corporation debt, and that the Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestrymen of the said Church for the time being, do indemnifie the said persons from the said obligations.

In a very short time after the grant of the charter, the nominal office of the Bishop of London as Rector, gave place to one that was actual.

a The choice of a clergyman was lodged in the Vestry, who, after having built the church, offeree! the appointment of Rector to Mr. Vesey, a gentleman well known and generally esteemed in the city, provided he should be admitted to holy orders. Mr.

TRINITY CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

Vesey accordingly went to England and was ordained, and his whole subsequent life fully justified the choice which had been made of him. For fifty years he continued to discharge the duties of Rector of Trinity Church, and for a great part of that time was entrusted with the general ecclesiastical oversight of the Church in this colony, as the Bishop of London’s Commissary.”* The new Rector first performed divine service in Trinity Church on the 6th of February, 1697. The Rev. Mr. Keith, one of the missionaries of the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts, thus quaintly notices it a few years afterwards. u At New York there was a brave congregation of people belonging to the church, as well as a very fine fabric, and the Rev. Mr. Vesey was very much esteemed and loved, both for his ministry and good life.” This testimony is also most amply confirmed not only in regard to Mr. Vesey, but all the clergy of the province, by a letter from Lord Cornbury, who was a great upholder of the Church within his jurisdiction, and by another from Colonel Heathcote, written in the same year, on the 9th of November, 1705. The language of the latter is particularly strong : a I must do all the gentlemen the justice to declare, that a better clergy were never in any place, there being not one amongst them that has the least stain or blemish as to his life and conversation.”

* Hawkins’s Missions of the Church of England, p. 275.

Trinity Church was originally a small square edifice, but it was afterwards enlarged in 1737. 44 It

stands,” as was remarked by an early writer of the history of New York, 44 very pleasantly upon the banks of Hudson’s river, and has a large cemetery on each side, enclosed in the front by a painted paled fence. Before it a long walk is railed off from the Broadway, the pleasantest street of any in the whole town. This building is about one hundred and forty-eight feet long, including the tower and chancel, and seventy-two feet in breadth. The steeple is one hundred and seventy-five feet in height, and over the door facing the river, is the following inscription ;

PER ANGUSTAM.

Which being Englished, is,

This Trinity Church was founded in the eighth year of the reign of the Most Illustrious Sovereign Lord William the Third, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord 1696 ; and built by the voluntary contributions and gifts of some persons, and chiefly encouraged and promoted by the bounty of his Excellency Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, Captain General and Governor-in-chief of this Province ; in the time of whose government the inhabitants of this city of the Protestant Religion of the Church of England as now established by law, were incorporated by a charter under the seal of the Province, and many other valuable gifts he gave to it of his private fortune.*

“The church is within ornamented beyond any other place of public worship among us. The head of the chancel is adorned with an altar-piece, and opposite to it, at the other end of the building, is the organ. The tops of the pillars which support the galleries are decked with the gilt busts of angels, winged. From the ceiling are suspended two glass branches, and on the walls hang the arms of some of its principal benefactors.” Among these, a conspicuous place was given to Governor Fletcher’s, and the same inscription was placed under them as that which has already been noticed over the door of the church.

From a due sense likewise of all his Excellency’s favors, it was

Ordered, That Mr. James Evets do lay out the ground for his pew in the East part of the Church next to the chancell, to remaine forever to the aforesaid use, or the use of others, as his Excel, shall think fit to direct.

It was likewise

Ordered, That the Gallery designed to be built on ye South side of Trinity Church, at ye charge of ye Govern^, for ye use of ye Govr

* Entry on the minutes of the Vestry.

and Council of this Province, have a part added to it at ye charge of this Corporation, to run towards ye West end of ye Church, and those persons that will have pews therein do in proportion pay ye charge thereof.

The following is the Form of Assignment of Pews in Trinity Church :

The Rector and Inhabitants of the City of New- York, in Communion of the Church of England as by Law Established : To all to whom it doth and may concern — Greeting. Know ye, that for a valuable consideration to us in hand paid by A. B. of the said City, we have given and granted, and by these presents do give and Grant unto the said A. B., and the heirs of his body, all the one-half part of the Pew in Trinity Church in NYork marked No. (10) ; whereof the other part doth belong to C. D. : To use & enjoy the same forever ; He the said A.B. and his heirs cleansing, maintaining, and keeping the same in good repair at their own proper charge, saving and reserving always unto the said Rector & Inhabitants, and their successors forever, not only the reversion thereof, failing the heirs ot the said A.B, but also upon his or their removal from the said City of New- York to Inhabit in other parts, the free use and disposition thereof for the benefit and profit of the said Church during their absence. In testimony whereof, the said Rector and Inhabitants have caused their seal to be hereunto affixed: Witnessed, John Crooke and David Jamison, the present Church Wardens at New-York, the day of Anno Dom: 1709.