Selections from the correspondence of Thomas Barclay, formerly British Consul-General at New York

Prefatory Note

Of the voluminous correspondence of Thomas Barclay only fragments now exist. He kept few of the letters addressed to him, and none of a purely familiar or domestic kind. Copies, or sometimes rough drafts, of the letters he wrote were entered in letter-books, but none of his papers exist of a date earlier than 1790, and there are no letter-books later than 1818. Nevertheless, fragmentary as the collection generally is, the records of many of his public services are tolerably complete ; and it has seemed to one of his descendants that the printing of portions of his correspondence tvould not only afford some memorial of a long and honorable career, but might also throw new light upon certain historical events.

Few-York, Oct 15, 1894.

Chapter I

Thomas Barclay was born in the city of New- York on October 12, 1753. He was an active and zealous Loyalist during the Revolution, and at its close sought refuge in the Province, of Nova Scotia. In 1799 he returned to New-York as British Consul-General; and here, with brief interruptions, he resided until his death on April 21, 1830. Nearly fifty years of his life were spent in the public service of Great Britain, and yet he was by descent and marriage, as well as by birth and residence, essentially an American, and not an Englishman. He was indeed a very typical New-Yorker, of the pre-Revolutionary and loyal sort ; closely allied to the English Church and the Royal Government, but tracing his descent back through four generations to some of the earliest settlers in the colonies.

John Barclay, the first of the name in America, was a member of an ancient Scottish family, and settled about 1683 in New Jersey, whither he had been directed through the influence of his brother Robert, the well-known author of the "Apology for the People called Quakers." It came about thus: the Duke of York, dividing up the great province granted him by his brother, had conveyed what is now New Jersey to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley, whose shares were subsequently partitioned, East Jersey being set apart to Carteret. Carteret dying, East Jersey was sold to a company of twelve Quakers, who subsequently associated with themselves twelve other persons, mostly Scotch; and to these twenty-four the Duke of York, on March 13, 1683, made a new confirmatory grant. Among the twenty-four proprietors were the Earl of Perth, William Penn, and Robert Barclay. Barclay was appointed by the proprietors to be Governor of East Jersey ; but he never visited the colony, administering its affairs in England. He sent out instead his younger brothers David and John. David came over in 1684, returned again to Scotland, and sailing from Aberdeen the end of August, 1685, died at sea. John had come over earlier, for he was back in London by the end of December, 1683, bringing letters from East Jersey. One may guess that he was then about twenty-five years old, for his parents were married on January 26, 1648, and his mother died in 1663, leaving five children, of whom John appears to have been the youngest. 1 By the first of August, 1684, John Barclay was back once more in New Jersey, living at Elizabethtown, whence he removed to Plain field, and finally settled at Perth Amboy.' 2 About 1685 he married a lady whose name alone is sufficient evidence of her descent. She was Cornelia Van Schaick 3 — a member, it would seem, of the extensive Van Schaick family of Albany.

iGen. Acct. of the Barclays of Whitehead's Con. to Hist, of Perth Urie. London, 1812. Aniboy, p. 42.

2 N. J. Arch., Vol. I, pp. 446, 459 ; 3 Holgate's Amer. Gen., p. 129.

EARLIER YEARS S

In April, 1692, John Barclay was appointed surveyor-general of East Jersey, and later on became deputy secretary and register, clerk of the council, clerk of the courts, and a member of the Provincial Assembly. 1 He was not in favor during Lord Cornbury's turbulent administration ; and being in fact in violent opposition, was denounced in 1702 as one "of the Scotch and Quaker fractions concerned sundry years in y e divisions, & incendiary Parties, that has brought these Provinces into such Confusion of Governing Injustice to y e Proprietors, and aversion to y e Planters and Inhabitants." 2 In later years, and with a change of administration, he came to be on better terms with the colonial authorities ; and he died in the spring of 1731, fully seventy years of age, generally respected and with the character of a good neighbor and a useful citizen. 3

As we have seen, John Barclay was described as a Quaker in 1702. In point of fact he had by that time come over to the Church of England, being chiefly induced to that step by the influence of a very remarkable man — George Keith — who had himself been bred a Quaker, but had been united with the English Church, and, having taken orders, had been sent out to America by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1718 John Barclay was named as one of the churchwardens in the charter granted for St. Peter's Church in Perth Amboy, and he contributed liberally toward the erection of the church edifice. 4

Before the establishment of St. Peter's Church, ser-

1N. J. Arch., Vol. II, p. 81 ; Vol. 3 Smith's Hist, of N. J., p. 424.

XIII, pp. 200, 227, 262, etc. ; White- 4 Whitehead's Con. to Hist. Perth

head's Con. to Hist, of Perth Am- Amboy, pp. 21, 211, 218; Churchman's

boy, p. 42. Mag., Vol. VIII, p. 356; Keith's Jour.,

2 N. J. Arch., Vol. II, p. 487. in Prot. Epi3. Hist. Coll., Vol. I.

vices were occasionally held at Perth Amboy by an English clergyman, who was expected to minister to the whole region from Elizabethtown to Freehold. The Rev. Thorowgood Moore had attempted for a while to perform that somewhat extensive duty; but in August, 1707, his plain-speaking having offended drunken Lord Cornbury, he was thrown into prison, but escaped thence to Boston, and sailing for England, was lost at sea. Now this Mr. Moore, before coming to Perth Amboy, had been a missionary at Albany and among the Indians, and we may well suppose that he did not fail, when he found a likely young man with a vocation for the ministry, to urge the noble work that might be done on the wild frontier about the head waters of the Hudson River. Whether Mr. Moore did, indeed, find such a young man at Perth Amboy, and whether he did influence the course of his career, must remain a conjecture ; but certain it is that Thomas Barclay, a son of John Barclay, went early in the eighteenth century to England, took orders, and was in due time sent, in his turn, by the Society for the Propagation of the Grospel, as missionary at Albany and among the Indians. He seems to have reached Albany in 1707, or 1708, and there we find him zealously laboring in September, 1710. * He had been there for some months, catechizing the youth, teaching Dutch children to make their responses in the English tongue, marrying and baptizing in the absence of a Dutch minister, performing the Church of England services both in English and Dutch, shunning all controversies, and preaching once a month at Schenectady — "a village situated upon a pleasant river" — where there were about sixteen English and

1 Doc. Hist, of N. Y., Vol. Ill, p. 540. See, also, Hill's Hist, of the Church in Burlington, N. J., pp. 64-90.

one hundred Dutch families; in short, a very busy, earnest, sensible young man. " More of the Dutch," he writes, " would accept my ministry but that Mr. De Bois, minister of the Dutch Congregation of New- York, comes sometimes to Albany. He is a hot man, and an enemy to our Church, but a friend to his purse, for he has large contributions from this place." There was at that time no minister of any church north of New- York but Mr. Barclay, for the former Dutch ministers at Albany and Schenectady had died or moved away. The Dutch had converted some thirty Indians, who were communicants, "but so ignorant and scandalous that they can scarce be reputed Christians." The neighboring Indians were well disposed to receive missionaries, but — writes Mr. Barclay — " I am sorry to tell you, sir, that I am afraid the missionaries that are coming over will find hard work of it, and if the commander of that fort [ Fort Hunter, at the lower Mohawk castle] be not a person of singular piety and virtue, all their endeavors will be ineffectual; these, here, that trade with them, are loth that any religion get any footing among them ; besides, these savages are so given to drinking of that nasty liquor rum, that they are lost to all that is good." In 1714 the Governor granted a patent for building an English church in Albany, named, like the church at Perth Amboy, St. Peter's, and Thomas Barclay was appointed its first rector 1 — the services having theretofore been held in the fort — and in Albany the remainder of his life was passed. We read, however, that he was for a short time in New- York, and assisted in the services of Trinity Church. 2 He died at Albany in the early part of the year 172'2.

i Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., Vol. VI, p. 88. 2 Berrian's Hist. Sketch of Trinity Church, p. 34.

Soon after settling in Albany he married Anna Dorothea Draeyer, or Drauyer, daughter of Andries Draeyer and Gerritje, his wife — who was, in turn, a daughter of Groosen Grerritse Van Schaick, of Albany, 1 and probably a relative of John Barclay's wife. Of this marriage there were born three sons — Thomas, Anthony, and Henry. Thomas died unmarried. Anthony married Helena Roosevelt, became a merchant near New- York, and left many descendants, with whom, however, we have here no immediate concern.

Henry Barclay was born at Albany, probably about 1712, was entered at Yale College, and graduated at the head of his class in 1734. Returning to Albany, he was appointed, in 1735, catechist to the Mohawk Indians, in whom he seems at all times to have taken the liveliest interest. In later years he made some progress toward the translation of the Book of Common Prayer into the Indian language. 2 With youthful enthusiasm, he took a far more hopeful view of the possibility of effecting permanent results than his father had done. He believed the prospect of converting the Indians was " truly great," and he reported that he found them desirous of instruction. In 1737 he was recommended to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as a person of good morals and learning, who had many years applied himself with great diligence to learn the Indian language, and had made such progress as actually to instruct and catechize them in the Mohawk tongue. The society sent for him to England, and there, at the end of 1737, or beginning of 1738, he

1 Holgate's Amer. Gen., p. 145.

2 Doe. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., Vol. VIII, pp. 815-817; Doc. Hist, of N. Y., Vol. IV, pp. 206-217; Dexter'sYale Biog. Roc., p. 503.

was ordained. 1 Returning to Albany, he resumed his pious labors among the Indians, and succeeded to his father's cure as rector of St. Peter's. We find him writing on November 10, 1738, still hopeful, that there grew a daily reformation among the Mohawks, and an increase of virtue proportionable to their knowledge.

These rosy views and cheerful labors were destined to be soon ended. On him, too, fell the evils caused by the wickedness of Frederick of Prussia ; and when the whole world sprang to arms at Frederick's signal, and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America, that Frederick might rob a neighbor whom he had promised to defend, the quiet missionary in the valley of the Mohawk found that his dreams of Indian reformation and virtue were over. The Indians of the Six Nations had been temporarily quieted by the treaty held by Governor Clinton at Albany in the early summer of 1744 ; but by 1745 northern New- York was aflame, and the French and Indians ravaged the country as far south as Saratoga. In 1746 Albany had become the headquarters of a considerable army, and the Mohawks left their schools to enlist under the gentle influences of Sir William Johnson.

Such were the depressing surroundings at Albany when, on July 11, 1746, the Rev. William Vesey — for fifty years the rector of Trinity Church in New- York — finished his earthly course. " He had," wrote the vestry, " the inward pleasure of leaving in peace and good order one of the largest and finest Churches in Amer-

1 The Bishop of London, writing have had with him, he seems a truly

to Dr. Johnson, February 3, 1707-8, valuable man, and to have both abil-

says of him :" As this comes by Mr. ity and disposition to do much

Barclay, I need not say anything of good." — Churchman's Magazine,

what has been done here withregard Vol. VII (1810), p. 311. to him. By all the conversation I ica, with a considerable congregation, who, almost with one voice, named the Rev. Mr. Barclay to succeed Mr. Vesey as Rector." They would not, they added, have presumed to call him from his labors in the service of the Society for the Propagation of the Grospel, had they not been " well satisfied that, since the war with France he had met with insupportable discouragement, which rendered his mission and best endeavours fruitless, as well as the safety of his person precarious among those savages in the Mohawks' Country which, with many other parts of the County of Albany, being the frontiers of the province, is now deserted by the Christian Inhabitants, and almost laid waste by Barbarians and French." The call was not declined. On October 17, 1746, Mr. Barclay attended a meeting of the vestry, and formally accepted ; and on the 22d of the same month, by authority of the Governor, he was inducted into the church with no lack of formal ceremonial. 1 The society which he had so zealously served very highly approved of his action under the circumstances of the case ; but wrote requesting him to continue the Mohawk Indians under his care, as far as was consistent with his care of Trinity Church. The temptation to read the society a lecture on geography must have been great, but Mr. Barclay successfully resisted it, and gravely replied that he feared no missionary could reside among the Indians while the war should continue ; that if he had had the least prospect of doing so himself, he would not have laid down his employment ; and that he would do all in his power to keep alive and cherish that good seed which he had so happily sown among them.

Mr. Barclay had not only come by ecclesiastical pre-

1 Berrian's Hist. Sketch of Trinity Church, pp. 68-76.

ferment, but his removal to New- York led him to a very prudent and fortunate marriage. In 1749 he married Mary, the youngest daughter of Anthony Rutgers — a rich brewer, whose death had occurred about the time of Mr. Barclay's call to Trinity Church. 1 Mr. Rutgers had married the widow of Robert Benson — Cornelia de Roos, her maiden name — and left sons and daughters of unmixed Dutch descent, who, in their turn, multiplied plentifully. Mrs. Rutgers, by her first husband, had three children ; and of one of her grandchildren, Egbert Benson, we shall hear later on.

Of the marriage between Henry Barclay and Mary Rutgers — she pure Dutch, he one-fourth Scotch and three-fourths Dutch — there were born five children: Thomas, or Thomas H. Barclay, the eldest son, with whom we are here chiefly concerned; Anthony, who became a farmer at Newtown, L. I.; Catharine, who died young and unmarried; Cornelia, who married Stephen De Lancey ; and Anna Dorothea, who became the wife of Beverly Robinson.

Henry Barclay's incumbency of Trinity Church seems to have been prosperous and peaceful. The growth of his congregation soon made it necessary to found a chapel of ease, and St. George's was established, to become in time a strong and independent parish. The New-York Society Library was founded, and Mr. Barclay was named as one of its first trustees. And in 1754 the long-cherished wish of many in New- York was realized by the granting of a royal charter for the founding of King's College — under the terms of which the rector of Trinity Church was to be always ex officio one of the governors. Columbia College to-

1 His will is dated August 2, 1746, and was proved iu New-York, September 17, 1746.

day owes nmch of its prosperity to the valuable grant from Trinity Church of a tract of land — then estimated to be worth £3000, and now yielding the college upward of $100,000 a year. This tract was conveyed upon the express condition that the president of the college should forever be a member of and in communion with the Church of England, and that the morning and evening service should be in the liturgy of that church. The same condition was in substance embodied in the charter, but this concession was only gained by the Church party after violent discussions, which gave rise to much angry debate in public and much anxious thought in the Trinity vestry. The Presbyterians, under the lead of William Livingston, were earnest in their opposition. The founding of a college under such sectarian influences was, they cried, but the entering wedge for bishops and tithes, and would surely end in the loss of religious freedom, " and even in persecution itself." For a time the issue seemed in doubt ; but the Episcopalians remained firm and carried their point, and there is ample evidence that Mr. Barclay was a most active mover in the business, and steadfast to see that " a gift so valuable in itself, and so absolutely necessary," should "be a means of obtaining some priviledges to the Church." f

His zeal and diligence were rewarded by the honor of a degree of Doctor of Divinity, conferred by the University of Oxford about January 1, 1761, at the personal solicitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 2

iBerrian's Hist. Sketch of Trin- 2 The letter from Archbishop

ity Church, pp. 77, 101-105; Doc. Seeker to the vice-chancellor of the

Eel. Col. Hist. N. Y., Vol. VI, pp. University has been preserved. It

912-14 ; Jones's Hist, of N. Y., Vol. is dated November 22, 1760.

I, pp. 10-17 ; Beardsley's Life and After discussing the advantages to

Corr. of Samuel Johnson, p. 195. the cause of religion in the colonies

Dr. Barclay did not live long to enjoy his academic honors. On August 20, 1764, he departed this life, beloved and respected, leaving his wife and four children surviving.

"Last Monday morning," says the New- York Mercury, of August 23, 1764, "between three and four o' Clock, departed this Life, in the 53d Year of his Age, the reverend Henry Barclay, D. D. Eector of Trinity Church ; in this City, and on the Tuesday following, his Remains, attended by the Clergy of the several Denominations, the Grentlemen and Chief Inhabitants of the City, preceded by the Charity Scholars, who sung a Psalm, suitable to the melancholy Occasion, during the Procession, were carried to Trinity Church, where an excellent Funeral Sermon, from Rev. 14, 13, was preached, by the Rev. Mr. Achmuty, to a prodigious large Audifroin conferring the doctor's degree upon some of the principal clergy in those parts, the Archbishop prefers his request that that compliment be paid to Mr. Barclay, and continues : " It appears from the journals of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, that Mr. Barclay is the Son of a Missionary of that Society to the Indians on the frontiers of New York; that he was educated under Dr. Johnson at New Haven College; that in 1735 he was appointed by the Society Catechist to the Mohock Indians, and in 1737 ordained priest, and settled as a missionary among them ; on which occasions the fullest testimonials were given in his favor by persons of the first rank and character, Clergy & Laity; that having learnt the language of these Indians, he preached to them in it with such success as to form out of them a

Christian Congregation of 500 persons, 61 of whom, in all appearance were worthy Communicants ; that he continued in this station till the year 1745, when the French Indians, falling on the Mohocks, obliged him to retire for the safety of his person ; that in 1746 he was chosen Eector of Trinity Church, vacant by the death of Mr. Commissary Vesey, and hath continued there ever since. Dr.

Johnson saith further, that he is a prudent and laborious man, an accomplished divine and an excellent preacher." On January 20, 1761, the Archbishop writes to Dr. Johnson announcing that the degree had been unanimously conferred on Mr. Barclay, and offering his congratulations on this well-deserved compliment.

Dr. Johnson was then President of King's College. See Doc. Bel. Col.

ence, who were extremely affected with the pathetic and moving Manner, in which they were addressed."

Dr. Barclay's will bears date June 19, 1764. He bequeaths his books in English to his eldest son Thomas; his books in Dutch and other personal effects to his wife ; and the residue of his estate he gives, one-third to his wife and the other two-thirds to be equally divided among his four surviving children. He appoints as his executors his wife Mary Barclay, his brother Andrew Barclay, his brother-in-law Leonard Lispenard, and his friend David Clarkson.

Thomas Barclay was not quite eleven years old when that moving funeral sermon was preached before the " prodigious large Audience," and the legacy of books in English came to him. No record remains to show what store he set by his books, or how he was taught, or where he went to school. One may easily picture him growing up in the little provincial town in the early days when George the Third was King; and one likes to think of his widowed mother encouraging him in a constant spirit of loyalty to his father's memory, and to the church and state of which his father had been in a manner the official representative. No doubt the boy, with the profound and assured conviction of youth, believed his father to have been the finest preacher in all the colonies, the Church of England the embodiment of all spiritual truth, the young King the ablest and best of rulers, and the system of government administered by Cadwallader Colden the perfection of human reason. One form of education was certainly not lacking. The divine right of kings and the rights of the people must have been debated in every boy's hearing often enough in the stirring days when the

Stamp Act Congress was sitting in New- York, and the province was pointing the way to independence.

In 1768 Thomas Barclay, not qnite fifteen years old, was entered at King's College. His father, his uncle Leonard Lispenard, and his father's friend David Clarkson were among the original governors of the college. The two latter were still sitting in the board, and Lispenard was its treasurer. Dr. Myles Cooper, late a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford — a jolly, convivial gentleman, and an eager supporter of the royal authority — was president; Dr. Clossy, of Dublin, and Mr. Harpur, from Glasgow, composed the remainder of the faculty ; but the classes were small as yet, and the instructors were thus " enabled to extend their plan of education almost as diffusely as any college in Europe." Diffuse was indeed the word. An appalling list of studies remains, drawn up by Dr. Cooper ; and we find divinity, natural law, and Hebrew taking their place with Latin, Greek, and mathematics, and " whatever else of literature may tend to accomplish the pupils as scholars and gentlemen." To judge by results, the college system worked well. The best people in the place sent their sons, and the graduates were in good truth " scholars and gentlemen." Richard Harison, John Jay, Egbert Benson, Robert R. Livingston, John Watts, and Gouverneur Morris were among the most recent alumni. In the list of those who were fellow-students with Thomas Barclay we find the names of Pell, Knox, King, Ogden, Bogert, Philipse, Auchmuty, Robinson, Jauncey, Nicoll, Rapelje, Troup, Remsen, and Livingston — familiar to every student of the local history of New- York.

The college influence was of course in a direction favorable to the crown. While the College of New Jersey was in the hands of the Presbyterians and the college at New Haven was reckoned " a nursery of sedition, of faction and of republicanism," 1 King's College was under the shadow of the Church, and governed by a board which included not only the principal officers of the province, but such earnest Loyalists as John Watts the elder, Frederick Philipse, Oliver and James De Lancey, Charles Ward Apthorpe, Thomas Jones, Jacob WaltoD, and John Harris Cruger. Indeed, of the college graduates down to 1776 a greater number were to be found in the King's troops than in the service of the Continental Congress.

In the spring of 1772, when the long-threatening discontent of the colonies was daily gathering force, when Samuel Adams was preaching sedition in Massachusetts, and the men of Rhode Island were burning the Gaspee, Thomas Barclay was graduated. The commencement was held at Trinity Church on Tuesday, May 19th, in the presence of " a numerous and respectable Audience," which included Governor Tryon and General Gage. After prayers, and " an elegant Latin Oration" by Rev. Mr. Inglis, Mr. Ogden delivered the salutatory oration " with great propriety of Pronunciation and gracefulness of Gesture." The audience was next agreeably entertained by Mr. Bowden, "whose elegant Composition and animated delivery did him much Honour." Then Mr. Skene "discovered much Brilliancy of Fancy and Refined Taste " ; Mr. Winterton and Mr. Muirson maintained a "Forensic Dispute " ; Mr. King "gain'd much Applause by an animated Latin Oration"; and Mr. Roebuck made fun of the " Bold Hypotheses of Presumptuous Philosophers and the Ridiculous consequences of Confidence and Dog-

i Jones's Hist, of N. Y., Vol. I, p. 3.

matism " in a manner which " occasioned much mirth." The degrees having been conferred, " the Exercises of the Day were then concluded with a very sensible Valedictory Oration on Sociability by Mr. Barclay, whose judicious Observations and modest Address gave him universal Approbation. The Attention," adds the honest reporter, " paid by the Audience and the Satisfaction they expressed during the Course of the Exercises did much Honour to themselves, and the Speakers ; and must give pleasure to every Lover of Literature, and every true Patriot, who wishes to see the Sciences disseminated and widely flourishing in this happy country." l Barclay made choice of the law for his profession, and it is the tradition of his family that he became a student in the office of John Jay. In due course he was admitted to the bar — probably about 1775, when he was just of age. It was not a favorable time for a young lawyer to enter upon his profession. Even in the city of New- York, distant as it was from the fields of actual conflict, the laws were silenced in the clash of arms. The news of the battle of Lexington brought turmoil and confusion. The Provincial Congress met (Leonard Lispenard and David Clarkson among them), and began raising troops and fortifying at Kingsbridge and along the Hudson. Washington passed through New- York for the eastward, stopping at Lispenard's house. Zealous Dr. Cooper, roused at midnight and huddling on a few of his clothes, jumped from a back window of King's College to escape a party bent on shaving his head and cutting off his ears; and never stopped till he found safety in a snug living in England. Governor Tryon withdrew from the town and prudently took refuge upon the Asia, man-of-war, where he transacted all his business and held his councils. The courts were still sitting, but no business of a civil nature was transacted in them. Open outbreaks occurred between the people of the town and the crews of the King's ships, and on August 24th the Asia fired upon the city. Early in September one-third of the citizens had moved away. "Every office shut up almost," wrote John Morin Scott, " but Sam Jones's, who will work for 6/ a day and live accordingly — All Business stagnated, the City half deserted for fear of a Bombardment." ' Surely an unfavorable prospect for our young attorney.

But dark as the future might seem — and it doubtless appeared darkest to those who believed most firmly in the courage and constancy of the revolted colonies — young gentlemen of Tory families were not to be frightened away from assuming new duties and responsibilities. Marrying and giving in marriage went on, although Montgomery and Arnold were marching into Canada, and Washington was drilling his minutemen under the elms at Cambridge. Were not ships coming across the sea to set the world right once more? And so, on October 2, 1775, Thomas Barclay and Susan De Lancey were married at West Farms, near New- York. 2