HISTORY

OF

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 ap

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peared 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 NewYork 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

But the new

delivered up again to the Dutch. governor only enjoyed his office for a very short season, for the province was finally ceded to the English by the 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. "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."* 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, Vol. ii. p. 249.

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in the colony. For this commendable zeal, Colonel Fletcher has been reviled and denounced by Smith, one of the earliest writers of the history of NewYork, 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,

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 NewYork 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