LIBRARY OF CONGRESS D0D1355D554< UBRARY^CONGRESS. Shelf ^JM-^a^.%- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ / ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, HEMPSTEAD. Anthony Yelverton Head Workman. Opened for divine worship Wednesday, April 23, 1735. Rev. Robert Jenney, Rector. ^^^rvij^'^^^^ HEMPSTEAD, INCLUDING ^ OYSTEKBAY AND THE ILLUSTRATED FKOM LETTERS OF THE MISSIONARIES, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS. By henry ONDERDONK, Jr., A. B., University of Cambridge ; A. M., Columbia College •,:-.^ •' A' dm HEMPSTEAD, N. Y.! LOTT VAN DE WATER, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER, 1880. dl I J H405% In 1701, some members of the Church of England formed a "Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Their Missionaries were required to report to the Society once a year, or oftener, the state of their several Missions. This volume contains so much of their correspondence relating to Hempstead as has been procurable : for which privilege the compiler is indebted to the kindly influence of the Rev. George Williamson Smith and the Rev. Dr. Drovvne, and the obliging courtesy of Bishop Perry, the custodian. This Venerable Society held its annual meetings in London, and published abstracts from the Reports of its Missionaries. Some of these letters seem to have been subsequently lost or mislaid ; for in the collection made by the Rev. Dr. Hawks many letters used in making out the Society's Annual Reports are not now to be found. These printed abstracts are now, however, all incorporated in the present volume with the Rev. Dr. Hawks' unabridged transcripts; and they shed additional light on the obscurity of the early history of the Hempstead Church. After the first selection of these letters had been printed, my generous publisher, Mr. Lott Van De Water, like a true son of the Church, allowed me to go over the field again for a second gleaning. Hence the letters do not follow in a chronological order ; but as the topics are quite independent of each other this will cause little inconvenience. Though Mr. Thomas served the parish over twenty years, all remembrance of him had so faded out that his name does not appear in the list of Ministers inscribed, in 1823, on a marble tablet in the church. Some extracts from his correspondence and that of the succeeding Missionaries were published for the first time in 1841, by the Rev. Dr. Carmichael, in "The Rise and Progress of St. George's Church." The Rev. Dr. Moore, the eleventh Minister of this ancienc Parish, has for some years been gathering materials fur a more connected, full and complete history of the Church, brought down to the present time, which it is hoped may see the light at no distant day. IV John J. Latting, Esq., has kindly copied and verified sundry documents and greatly facilitated my researches. The author of this compilation has in press: "Antiquities of the Parish Church, Jamaica, L. I.," which will be a companion volume to this, as the two will embrace an outline of the early history of the entire Diocese of Long Island. Henry Onderdonk, Jr. Jamaica, L. I., May, 1880. Other Contributions to Local History by the Compiler. Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County," 1846. Letters to J. F. Cooper on the Death of General WoocUiull," 1848. Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties," 1849. Genealogy of the Onderdonk Family," 1852. ' Queens County in Olden Times," 1865. ' Bibliography of Long Island," 1866. ' Reformed Dutch Churches and Ministers on Long Island," 1866. 'Agriculture, Stock-Breediug and Manufactures in Hempstead," 1867. ' Rise and Growth of Friends on Long Island and in New York City," 1870. ' Annals of Hempstead," 1878. ' Antiquities of the Parish Church, Jamaica, L. I.," 1880. |iiiti(ntitics flf Jcmpstciib C|iirc|. By henry ONDERDONK, Jr. Hempstead was settled in 1643, by Presby- terians and Independents, who bnilt a house of worship and maintained a minister by a town rate. We cannot ^ive a clear account of the early ministers. In 1G51 Rev. John Moore styles himself " Minister of the Church of Hempstead." In a letter of the Dutch ministers at New York (1G57) it is stated that " At Hempstead there are some Independents ; also many of the Dutch persuasion and Presbyterians. They have a Presbyterian preacher, Richard Denton, an honest, pious and learned man, who has in all thinojs conformed to our Church. The Independents listen attentively to his preaching, but when he begins to bap tise the children of parents who are not mem- bers of the church, they sometimes burst out of the church." In IGoT, July 15tli, Gov. Stuyvesant., who favored the Presbyterian interest, visited Hempstead in hopes of settling Mr. Denton's continuance there, and says : " It he cannot be persuaded to stay, you must then look for another able and godly man ; but as Mr. Fordham, sometime your minister, left the place and exercise of the ministry without our wish or knowledge, and for little or no reason, we cannot admit of his coming back again." The quarter's rate for Mr. Denton in 1657 was £17.10, being a levy of 3i pence to the acre. In 1658 it was paid in wheat at 5s. per bushel, or cats at 2s. 6d. In August, 1657, traveling preachers of the Society of Friends began to visit Hempstead, and by inveighing against paying money to " liireling priests," in the course of time drew off many from the church. 1660, November 10. The town order a house-end to be set up to Goodman Pearsall's >«<0-D " From the want of a minister, now so long continued, many of our children are yet un- baptised." Tlie Governor sent (March 12th) Rev. Samuel Drisius to them, who preached and baptised forty -one children and an aged woman In 1662, May 16th, the town had voted a salary of £70 to Mr. Jonah Fordham, who had been one year amonst them ; but the magistrates had to send to the Governor for a warrant against some that refused to pay the minister's rate. 1670, April 1st. By major vote the minis- ter of the town is allowed to have free pasture for six oxen. 1671, April 25. The town-house or the par- sonage lot is sold at £9 in corn. 1674, November 80. Some of the towns- people petition the Governor " to install such authority among us as may be a means under God for upholding and maintaining the min- istry, the worship of God and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ amongst us, that the honor of God might be promoted and his Sab- baths observed, for the good of us and our posterity." 1678, January 7th. By major vote it was agreed to build a meeting-house forty by twenty-six feet, and twelve feet in the stud, with a leanto on each side. 1679, May 26th. Gov. Andros forbids Qua- ker meetings in Hempstead, but to no pur- pose. 1680, May 12th. The old meetinghouse and the fort enclosing it were sold at outcry for £2.12 in meeting-house pay. 1682, May 6th. By major vote at town- meeting, Rev. Jeremy Hobart is called to be minister. A house eighteen by thirty-six feet is to be built for him to live in. His salary was by subscription, £70 in corn or cattle, house, for the entertainment of young Master and his fire wood brought him at free-cost. Fordham, and that the meeting house be re- Jeremy Wood is allowed 10s. a year for look- paired and made comfortable to meet in. In 1661, February loth, some people of ing after the opening and shutting of the window-shuts of the meeting-house, and to Hempstead write to Gov. Stuyvesant that : look carefully after the hour-glass. Though the town had ordered a bell from Amsterdam as long ago as 1G56, it seems not to have ar- rived, for Richard Gildersleeve, Sr.. is hired, at 20s. a year, to beat the drum to announce the hours of worship. 1087. The people of Great Neck (then in- cluded in the town) complain that Hobart don't preach and visit amongst them. In 1083 they had built a church by themselves and hired Eev. Morgan Jones as pastor, but Hobart forbid his preaching there as being in his parish. 1090, April 20. Samuel Sewall says, "I rode to Hempstead to hear Mr. Hobart, but he was at York. So I staid at Mr. Jackson's, read chapters, and Mr. Stoughton, my com- panion, prayed." In 1090, December 4th, Mr. Hobart bad to resort to the Court of Oyer and Terminer to compel the town to pay tlie arrears of his salary. In 1092 he was constrained to leave Hempstead, " by reason of numbers of the peoi)le turning Quakers and many others being so irreligious that they would do nothing toward the support of the Gospel." In 109-1—5, Mr. William Vesey is set down as an Independent minister here, the same who in 1007 became first rector of Trinity Church, New York.* We no longer find the names of the minis- ters on record, but there must have been such. Roger Gill, a Friend, speaks of having among his hearers (August 3d, 1099) a candidate for the Presbyterian pulpit, who took notes of his discourse. * "lu the year 1697, Gov. Fletcher by his example and coniUenance promoted the building of Trinity Church, in New York, by voluntary contribution, and placed in it the present incumbent, Rev. William Ve- sey, who at that time was a dissenting preacher on Long Island. He had received his education in Har- vard College, under that rigid Independent, Increase Mather, and was sent from thence hi/ him to confirm the minds of those who had removed for their con- venience from New England to this Province ; for Mr. Mather having advice that there was a minister of the Established Church of England come over in quality of chaplain of the forces at New York, and fearing that the Common Prayer and the hated ceremonies ol our Church might gain ground, he spared no pains oi care to spread the warmest of his emissaries through this Province; but Gov. Fletcher, who saw into thi^ design, took oft' Mr. Vesey ty an invitation to this living, [Trinity Church], a promise to advance his sti- pend considerably, and to recommend him for Holy Orders to your Lordship's predecessor ; all vi'hich was performed accordingly, and Mr. Vesey returned from England in Priest's orders."— ^^iWre.v.v to the Bishop of London (about 1714) from Gov. Hunter's friends. The Friends having made such inroads into the Presbyterian Church, there seemed a good opening for establishing a Church of England. Accordingly the Rev. George Keith, a con- verted Quaker, but now an itinerant mission- ary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, resorted to Hempstead sev- eral times in hopes of gaining over both Friends and Presbyterians to the Church. On one occasion Keith, following the steps of one Samuel Bovvnas, a traveling preacher, to Hempstead, appointed a meeting at the same hour as Bovvnas had, and to preach within hearing distance. Between the two appoint- ments there was a very large gathering. The Quaker champion says: "I being very young and strong, my voice was plainly heard by the people who were with Keith, so that they all left his meeting but the clerk and William Bradford, and came to ours, for we had room enough for both meet- ings, it being a very large barn of Nathaniel Pearsall. Keith says: 1702, September 27, (Sunday), I preached at Hempstead, in the afterncwn, from Luke x, 42. where was such a multitude that the church [Independent meeting-house] could not hold them, so that many stood at the doors and windows to hear, who were generally well affected and greatly desired that a Church of England minister should be settled amongst them. November 20th, (Thursday), I preached there on Acts, xxvi, 18 ; and November 29, (Sunday), I preached there again on Hebrews, viii, 10, 11, 12. In 1708. November 21, (Sunday), I again preached there on 1st Peter, ii, 9, and lodged at Isaac Smith's, [north side the Plains], four miles from the church, where I baptized a young woman of his family, and a boy and girl of his relations, and a neighbor's child, a boy. This Smith had formerly been a Quaker, and was scarce then fully come ofi', but came and heard me preach, and was well affected and did kindly entertain me. 1708, January 12. " At a general town- meeting, John Pine was chosen church warden, and Jonathan Smith, Samuel Denton, John Haviland and .vestrymen for Hemp- stead : Mr. Thomas Jones, church warden, and Edmund Wright, Isaac Doughty, Samuel Dickinson, Richard Willis and Nathaniel Coles, vestrymen for Oysterbay. Thomas Gildersleeve was chosen, April 1st, in place of John Pine. The above election was held agreeable to the Ministry Act of September 22d, 1693, which seems to have lain dormant hitherto, but was probably revived by the new Gov- ernor, Lord Cornbury. By this act Hemp- stead and Oysterbay were constituted one parish, and were required to raise £60 per annum for the sujjport of a good sufficient Protestant minister. The successive steps by which a Church of England minister was eventually settled at Hempstead are not well known, but we give all we have discovered. The Rev. John Bartow, of Westchester, writes (May 24, 1704,) that " Hempstead has long expected a Missionary from the Venera bie Society, and I hope they will soon be an- swered." The Rev. Mr. Pritchard, of Rye, writes (November 1, 1704,) that " The Venerable So- citty would do well to recommend Mr. Stuart to Hempstead, where they stand very much in need of a minister, and complain very much for [want of] a Churchman, it being the best place in the Province of New York, and best aifected for the Church. I design to preach there frequently, (God willing), in order to continue them in a good opinion of our Church till a minister comes. Mr. Vesey and the people of Hempstead have been very pressing on me to remove thither, say- ing Lord Cornbury would willingly consent thereto." Lord Cornbury writing (August 23, 1703,) gives Mr. John Thomas a letter of commen- dation to the Venerable Society. He says he is a sober, ingenuous gentleman, and has served as lecturer over three years in Phila delphia. I hope you will send him to Ja niaica or Hempstead. Keith says (April 2, 1703,) Mr. John Thomas, an ordained deacon, has set up a school in Philadelphia, and man- aged it well for above two years. He intends for London a year hence to be ordained pres- byter. He was assistant to Rev. Evan Evans, and also preached in the country places about Philadelphia. The vestry of Christ Church commend him to the favor and patronage of the Bishop of London, as being discreet and inoffensive to all. Mr. Thoma.s had left Phil adelphia by or before April 7, 1704, and had returned from England, in December follow- ing, in priest's orders and with an appoint- ment to the church at Hempstead. MANDATE FOR THE INDUCTION OF JOHN THOMAS. EDWARD, the most illustiious Viticount Cornbury, Captain General and Governoi- of the Province of New York in America, Vice-Admiral of the same, &c. To ALL and singular the rectors, vicars, chaplains, curates, clergymen and ministers whatsoever in and throughout the \vhole Province of New York, wherever established, and also to the present church wardens of the parochial church of Hempstead, Greeting. Whereas, I commit to yon jointly and severally our beloved in Christ, John Thomas, clergyman, pre- sented to the rectory or parochial church of Hemp- stead, now vacant, to be instituted as rector of the same, and flinily enjoining I command that you col- late and induct, or cause to be inducted, the same John Thomas (or his lawful proctor for himself and in his name) into the real, actual and corporal pos- session of said rectory or parochial church, and into all its rights and appurtenances, and that you defend him so inducted; and what you shall have done in the premises you will (when duly required thereto) certify me or some other competent judge in this behalf, or he will certify whichever of you being pres- ent may have executed this mandate. Given under the prerogative seal of said Province, the 26th day of December, Anno Domini 1704. Cornbury. Geo. Clarke, Sec'y. THE RETURN. We whose names are subscribed, by virtue of the above instrument have inducted the Reverend Domine Thomas into the real, actual and corpor.il possession of the rectory or parochial church of Hempstead, the 27th oay of December, Anno Domini 1704. William Vesey, Rector of Trinity Church, N. Y. William Urquhart, Rector of the Parish Church, Jamaica. Thos. Jones, '-Churchwardens. Thos. Giluersleeve, ( In a letter of March 1st, 1705, Mr. Thomas thus writes of his new situation, to the Ven- erable Society : " After much toil and fatigue, I am through God's assistance safely arrived, and have been two months settled at Hemp- stead, where I met with civil reception from the people. They are generally Independ- ents or Presbyterians, and have hitherto been supplied, ever since the settlement of the town, with a dissenting ministry. " The prejudice and bias of education is the greatest difficulty I labor under. The coun- try is extremely wedded to a dissenting min- istry, and were it not for His Excellency my Lord Cornbury's most favorable countenance to us, we might expect the severest entertain- ment here that malice and the rigor of preju- dice could afflict us with. All we of the clergy need the influence of His Lordship's most fa- vorable aspect. Government is our great asylum and bulwark which My Lord exerts to the utmost when the necessities and inter- ests of tlie Charcli call for it. His counte- nance, next to the Providence of Heaven, is inj' chiefest safety. I have scarce a man in the parish truly steady and real to the inter- est and promotion of the Church any farther than they aim at the favor or dread the dis- pleasure of His Lordship. His Lordship's extraordinary respect to the clerjry has set them above the snarlincr of the vulgar and secured to them respect and deference from the best of the people. The people of Hemp- stead are better disposed to peace and civility than they are at Jamaica. 'I'his is the face of affairs here accordino- to the best observation I could make in the short time I have lived here. " The gall of bitterness of this Independent kidney is inconceivable — not unlike that of Demetrius and his associates at the conceived downfall of the great Diana of the Epiiesians. We have a great work to go through, unruly beasts (with Daniel) to encounter, but we trust that the great God whose cause we stand for will enable us to go on. "The fathers of these people came from New England, and I need not tell you how averse they of that country are to our C'hurcli discipline. The people here being generally very poor, and utterly averse to the service of the Church of England. The inhabitants transported themselves here from New Eng- land, and have been ever since their first set- tlement supplied by a ministry from there. " I have neither pulpit nor anj' one neces- sary for the administration of the Holy Eu- charist, and only the beat of a drum to call the people together. His Excellency Lord Cornbury is a true nursing father to our infancy here, his countenance and protection is never wanting to us, his being by inclina- tion a true son of the Church moves him zealously to support that wholly. If it liad not been for the countenance and support of Lord Cornbury and his Government, it would have been impossible to have settled a Church on the Island." It appears that the possession of the church, house and lands at Hempstead were willingly surrendered by the Independent minister, when demanded by Mr. Thomas. 1705, April 33. Mr. Thomas writes that " The church is not only better attended now than it ever was before, under the Dissenters, according to their confession, but I have ad- mitted to the communion at one time three. at another four of the most rigid of the Inde- pendents, while twelve had just received the holy ordinance of baptism, among whom were several adults." 1705, May 26. Mr. Thomas writes: "My path here is very thorny ; all my steps are narrowly Avatched ; I am obliged to walk very singuly. I have brought some few of the honestest, best-inclined, to religiou, and the soberest to the holy communion, and hope in titue (if God enable me) to have a plentiful harvest among them." 1705, May 30. Governor Cornbury orders, " the parsonage house and home lot to be re- ])aired so that they may be tenantable, and the parsonage meadow fenced at the town's cost, and the church to be repaired, and what is needful about them all." Town meetings were held in the church. 1705, June 27. "The people here are all stif}' Dissenters — not above three Church peo- ple in tlie whole parish — all of them of the rebellious offspring of '42. Brother Urquhart, of Jamaica, and myself belong to one county, and the only English ministers on the Island. We are the first that brake the ice amongst this sturdy, obstinate people, who endeavor what in them lies to crush us in embryo ; but, blessed be Gml, by the propitious smiles of heaven and the particular countenance of my Lordship's Government, we keep above water, and, we thank God, have added to our churches." 1706, April 7. Mr. Thomas writes : " I have by God's blessing advanced the number of my communicants from three to twenty- one, all of them rigid Dissenters, influenced against conformity to the Church by the strong bias of deep prejudice, inveteracy, and a contrary education. I have the prospect of a plentiful harvest among them, having al- ready waded, I hope, through the most for- midible difficulties." 1707, April 22. Mr. Thomas writes that : " Common Prayer Books are very much want- ing to be given away, for though the people cannot be prevailed upon to buy, (were they to be sold), yet being given away, they might in time be brought to make use of them. My Lord Cornbury is very countenancing and as- sisting to me, and it is by an order from him that this building (a gallery in the church) gets forward. He is truly our very good friend : we want nothing that the countenance of Government can make us happy in." " The inhabitants of this county are gene- [ rally Independents, and what are not so are either Quakers or of no professed religion at , all. The generality are averse to the disci- pline of our Holy Mother the Church of Eng- land, and enraged to see her ministers estab- lished among them. Their prejudice of edu- ' cation is our misfortune, our Church their i bugbear, and to remove the averseness im- bibed with their first principles must be next to a miracle." 1709. Mr. Thomas writes that "Though Hempstead had been settled above sixty years before my coming, and the people had some sort of Dissenting ministers, yet for above fifty-five years the sacrament had never been administered here. The oldest here could not remember to have seen or heard of its being celebrated." I have brought thirty- three to full commanion of the Church, though at the first time of administering I could per- suade but three to receive. The young grow up in miserable ignorance, and I can't cate- chise for want of a schoolmaster to teach chil- dren to read." 1710, January 16. The Vestry pay to Job Bedell 10s. a year for beating the drum on Sundays and other Church days, and to Daniel Bedell 20s. for sweeping and cleaning the church, taking care of it, and opening and shutting the doors. 1710, December 3. "Nothing new or very memorable since my last. All is well in my parish in general, and a happy continuance of mutual accord and affection between me and my parishioners." 1712. Mr. Thomas writes to the Venerajjle Society that the children of Hempstead, for want of letters and education, are as wild, un- cultivated and unimproved as the soil was when their forefathers first had it, and re- quests that Mr. Thomas Gildersleeve be ap- pointed catechist and schoolmaster. The Society grant him £10 yearly to teach the poorer children (with several others) reading, writing and to cast accounts, at under 20s. yearly a head each. The Society also send paper for the use of the school. The Vestry write to the Venerable Society that : " With- out your bounty our children would have no education. Our people are poor and settled distantly from one another. 1715, February 17. Mr. Thomas writes that: "The Church is in a tolerably thriving condition (how powerfully opposed by its ad- versaries, dissenters of all denominations,) chiefly through the prayer books sent by the Venerable Society, whose charity was well answered in that benefaction, consisting of two dozen prayer books, two dozen " Kings Inventions of Man," two dozen " Dean of St. Asaph's Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man," and one " London Cases Abridged." 1716, July 21. " The earmark of Mr. John Thomas is a crop on each ear." So he seems to have kept creatures to graze on the Plains. 1717, " I have been a considerable time in these parts, rowing against wind and tide ; first in Pennsylvania, against the Quakers, and here about twelve years, against rigid In- dependents. I have always observed that the pious fraud of a caressing, well-modeled hospitality has captivated and inclined their affections more powerfully than the best- digested discourses out of the pulpit." 1718, October 1. Mr. Thomas writes: " The people did not know it to be their duty to communicate, having never heard it so stated, nor seen the sacrament administered in any way whatever : nor indeed had it ever been administered, according to the testimony of the oldest inhabitants, at any time since the settlement of the town, till my arrival, embracing a period of more than half a cen- tury of j'ears." 1720, February 17. Mr. Thomas thanks the Society for some books which have had a very good influence on many of the most thinking and solder part of the people. 1722, April 20. Mr. Thomas writes : " My last summer's sickness has produced a small Dissenting meeting house in one part of my parish, [Fosters Meadow], but I thank God it is only the scum that is concerned in it ; the people of figure and sub.stance being entirely of the Church's side. This seems a great fe- licity to me, who at my first coming among them found not three persons in the whole compass of the parish any way addicted to the Church, but all of them to the bitterest de- gree prejudiced against it. It is the opinion of my best friends that if God will be pleased to enable me with health and strength to go on in my duty, this novel meeting and place, like another phantom, will soon disappear and come to nothing. The cat in the fable, transformed to a woman, could not at the sight of a mouse forget her ancient nature ; so it is with some of these people." 6 1723, February 21. Mr. Thomas witliin eighteen months has baptized at least one hundred and sixty, many of whom adults. He inculcates in the people a sense of the benefit and privileges of the sacraments, and finds them in the main convinced of the wholesomeuess and necessity of these ordi- nances. 1734, October 1. " Pray, Good Sir, give my humble duty to the Honorable Society, and assure them of my utmost fidelity in my mission as far as lame limbs and a decrepid state of health will permit. My heart is warm and sound, though lodged, God knows, in a crazy, broken carcase. Pray, tell them that like Epaminondas I shall fight upon the stumps for that purest and best of Churches as long as God indulges me with the ieast ability to do it." 1737, February 16. "A gratuity of £.jO is voted by the Venerable Society to the widow of the late Rev. Mr. Thomas, missionaiyat Hempstead, in consideration of his long and faithful services, upwards of twenty years." Mr. Thomas' will was made March 17, 1734, and proved October 38, 1726. He gives his wife Margaret the management of his farm in Harrison's Purchase, Westchester County. He leaves a son John* [born October 2:3, 1708,] and two daughters, Margaret and Gloriana. His wife, his brother-in-law Edmund Smith, Cayjtain Jonn Tredwell and John Cornell of Kockaway, are the executors. The witnesses are Jeremiah Bedell, Elias Dorlin and William Willis. Tne last is probably the writer of the will. He had an undated codicil as to the disposition of his negro boy Plato. The wit- nesses to it were Katharine Cock, John Mor- ris and Ephraim Golding. Mr. Thomas appears to have married Mar- garet Floyd, of Brookhaven, who was born April 35, 1690. Edmund Smith married her sister Susanna. In 1706 Queen Anne gave the church a silk carpet for the communion table, a silver chal- ice and paten, a pulpit cloth, a large Bible, a Common Prayer, and book of Homilies. The church into which Mr. Thomas was inducted was described, in 1738, as " An ordi- nary wooden building, forty feet long and twenty-six wide, the roof covered with cedar shingles and the sides clapboarded with oak. * John Thomas married Abigail Sands, a Quakeress, daughter of John Sands, living at the bottom of Cow Neck, February 19, 1729, and lived at the Purchase. Within, it is not ceiled overhead, but the sides are boarded with pine. There is no pulpit, but a raised desk only, having a cloth, and cushion of silk. A large table stands before the desk, where the justices and lead- ing men sit when they come to church. There are no pews except one for the Govern- or's Secretary, Mr. George Clarke. The rest of the church is filled with open benches. There is no fence around it, and the burial l>lace is at some distance from it. It stands in the open road near a small brook which runs between it and the parsonage house." 1734, February 19. The Society receive petitions from a great part of the inhabitants of Brookhaven for a minister of the Church of England, which they have been destitute of hitherto, of whom there is great necessity. While Mr. Wetmore, catechist, of New York, was at Brookhaven, he baptized two adults and seventeen children. At Easter he had eight communicants, since which five more have been added. In which place a consider- able number of the better sort are brought over to the Church, and there is a prospect of gaining the whole town if a sober, prudent minister was settled among them. 1735, February 18. Mr. Thomas Standard is appointed missionary to Brookhaven, at £50 a year salary. 1735, May 35. Governor Burnet signs a mandate for the induction of Rev. Robert Je/iney as rector of the parish of Hempstead. 1736, February 17. £10 per year is granted to Mr. Daniel Denton, of Oysterbay, for teach- ing poor children to read and in.structing them in the catechism. 1737, The Society grant £50 gratuity to Widow Thomas, in consideration of her hus- band's long and faithful services, upwards of twenty years. 1737, March 37. Mr. Jenney's ear-mark is a crop on the off ear and a slit in the end of the near ear and a nick under it. 1737, May 1. Mr. Jenney writes that he baptized (in 1736) eleven persons, whereof two were adults and one negro infant slave of his own, and has admitted six to the sacra- ment, all persons of piety and strict honesty, one a negro slave who has all along preserved his character unblemished. 1728, February 21. Mr. Jenney, since his last, has baptized eight adults and twenty- four infants, two of whom neorro slaves. He has one negro communicant, and his own two negroes were baptized in their infancy, and shall be carefully instructed while he hath them. 1728, February 21. Daniel Denton reports about twenty nine scholars whom he teaches, with success, and that he likewise teaches to read and instructs in the Church catechism three negroes as often as they can get time to come to him. 1728, June 27. Mr. Jenney writes that "The Church's right to all this (the parson- age, &c.,) is hotly disputed, and I am often threatened with an ejectment, (1) by the heirs of one Ogden, from whom the purchase was made; (3) by the Presbyterians, who plead, from the purchase having been made by them before any church was settled here, and from their minister having been long in possession of it, that it belongs to them ; (o) by the Qua- kers, who are a great body of people, and argue that it belongs to them, and ought to be hired out from time to time, as the major part of the freeholders can agree. The body of the Presbyterians live here in the town spot, but they are so poor and few that it is with difficulty they can maintain their minis- ter, and we daily expect he' will leave them." 1729, February 20. Mr. Jenney writes that he preaches every Sunday morning and cate- chises, and reads lectures on the catechism every Sunday afternoon — every third Sun- day at Oysterbay, and the other two at Hemp- stead, at both which places he has an encour aging number of hearers. He has baptized, the last half year, in Hempstead, one woman, eighteen children, and two'hegro children. The Society grant to Mr. Campbell, mission- ary at Brookhaven, £60. 1731, February 18. £70 to Mr. Campbell, missionary at Brookhaven. £10 each to Gil- dersleeve and Denton. 1782, February 16. £10 to Mr. [Thomas] Keeble, schoolmaster at Oysterbay. £I0 to Mr. Davies, missionary at South Hampton. 1733, February 15. £10 each to Mr. Kee- ble and Davies, and £60 to Mr. Brown, mis- sionary at Brookhaven. 1734, June 3. Mr. Jenney writes the Soci- ety that he proceeds in the performance of his duty with success, both at Hempstead and Oysterbay. In Hempstead his congregation is so much increased that the old church can- not contain it, and therefore the people have come to the resolution to build a new one, and es])ecially as the old church is not worth en- larging. They have already made great progress in the work, and raised a frame of timber fifty feet long and thirty six feet wide, with a steeple, and hope to finish it so as to be fit for service by September next. It is fitted with galleries and will be able to hold the congregation conveniently. He baptized, in 1733, twenty-six children and two adults. 1734, April 29. Rev. Isaac Brown, mis- sionary at Brookhaven, writes that he arrived at his parish December 14th last, where he hath continued to perform Divine service twice every Lord's day. He has good reason to believe the church is in a growing state, and that many dissenters who had a dislike to the Common Prayer are come into a good liking of it. He wishes some Common Prayer Books sent him to disperse among the poorer people who are not able to buy. He has dis- tributed almost all the small tracts the So- ciety sent him, which were received thank- fully by the people. The church wardens and vestry of Caroline Church, in Brookhaven, return thanks to the Society for sending Mr. Brown there, agreea- ble to their request. They find him well qualified for the work he is engaged in. They contribute £16, New York currency, towards his better support, and promise to advance their subscriptions as soon as they have finished the church they are now build- ing. 1735, February 20. Mr. Jenney proceeds with success in the duties of his mission : preaches two Sundays at Hempstead and every third Sunday at Oysterbay. At Hempstead, where he resides, he has a numerous congre- gation when the weather permits ; but many live very far from the church, and cannot, without great inconvenience and some danger, attend in very bad weather. The people are building a new church, the old one being too small and also ruinous. Governor Cosby en- couraged and promoted the work very much. The church is named St. George's, and was accordingly opened on that day with Divine service ; on which occasion His Excellency and a great number of ladies and gentlemen were present. The building is fifty feet long besides the steeple, and thirty-six feet wide. The steeple is fourteen feet square. It has a 8 spire and gilded ball about one liuudred feet from the ground. The pitch of the ceiling within is about twentj'-three feet. It is a timber frame covered with cedar shingles; it is partly pewed already and soon will be com- pletely pewed. The congregation is very nu- merous, and there are many poor people of it. They very much want Common Prayer Books, as not being able to purchase. Several of these poor people have been with him beg- ging books, and some negroes, too, who can read, were very desirous of having them ; and lie wishes more sent him. Since his last ac- count he has baptized thirty two, whereof one adult and one child were negro slaves; of the thirty remaining, eight were adults and the rest children. 1735, February 20. Mr. Brown, of Brook- haven, writes that he takes diligent care of his parish ; six have been added to his com- municants, and he has baptized fifteen infants. He has lately preached two sermons at South- old, fifty miles distant eastwards, where he had upwards of one hundred hearers, well- disposed persons. Erection of a New Church. 1734. April 2. John Mott and Thomas Gil- dersleeve, by order of the town, set apart half an acre for a new church, west of the old one. The carpenter gave the vestry a scantling of the timber. Anthony Yelverton, the head workman on the church, had 4s. Gd. a day and found. He boarded at Richard Bedell's. His apprentices had, some 4s., some 2s. per day. Joseph Hall, Sr., worked with the car penters, at 48. 3d. a day and found himself. His sons, Joseph, Benjamin and John also assisted. At first the church was only half pewed ; there were eighteen pews, presumably square ; No. 1 was given to George C'larke, Secretary to the Governor, who lived at Hyde Park and was a benefactor to the church. 1734, November 1. At a town meeting the majority voted to move the seats out of the old church into the new. Consecration op St. George's Chttrch. 1735. On Tuesday, April 23, His Excel- lency our Governor, with his lady and family, attended by his son-in-law and lady, Secretary Clarke, Chief Justice Delancey, Rev. Mr. Ve- say, some of the clergy, and a great many of the principal merchants and gentlemen and ladies of the city of New York, set out for Hempstead, to be present at the consecration of the church lately erected there. About six miles west of Jamaica he was met by the troops of horse, who escorted him to Jamaica, where a handsome dinner was provided for all the company. In the afternoon he pro- ceeded to Hempstead, (escorted as before), where he arrived in the evening, and was en- tertained in a very handsome manner by the Rev. Robert Jenney, minister of that place. The next day, being St. George's Day, the regiment of militia and troop being drawn up on either side, from Mr. Jenney's house to the church. His Excellency, attended by the most considerable gentlemen of the county, walked to the church, where a very excellent sermon was preached on the occasion, before a most crowded audience, by the Rev. Mr. Jenney, from Psalm Ixxxiv, 1,2: " How amiable are Thy tabernacles," &c. After Divine service His Excellency re- viewed the regiment of militia and troops standing under arms, and expressed a partic- ular satisfaction on the appearance both of the officers and men. His excellency was after- wards entertained in a splendid manner by Colonel Tredwell, commander of the regi- ment, and in the evening by Colonel Corn- well, of Rockaway, in the same manner. The next day the Governor returned, and arrived in town in good health, pleased with the reception he everywhere met with from all ranks, with the extraordinary concourse of people from all parts on the occasion, and with the handsome appearance of the militia, both horse and foot. — Neic York Gazette. A generous collection was made for the church on this occasion. The Governor gave the King's arms," painted and gilded ; Secre- tary Clarke, a crimson damask set of furniture for the communion-table, pulpit and desk ; and John Marsh a silver basin for baptism. The Rev. Mr. Vesey and his people had already contributed about £50. 1735, June 27. Name of petitioners for the charter of the church : IJev. Robert Jenney. Rector, James Albertiis, Robert Marvin, George Biilden, Jacamiah Mitchell, Gerhardus Clowes, Clerk Joseph Mott, of Vestry. William Cornel l.Sr.& Jr.. John Cornell, Jr., John Cornell. Richard Cornell, Jr., William Cornell, Thomas Cornell, Jr., Charles Peters, James Pine, Sr., John Roe. Micah Smith, Peter Smith, Jr., Timothy Smith, Peter Smith, Isaac Germon, Jacob Smith. ' Thomas Gildersleeve, Joseph Smith, (}eors:e Gildersleeve, Silas Smith, Daniel Hewlett, Kobert Sutton, James Hugins, Richard Thome. Esq., i Joseph Langdon, Joseph Thome, Esq., i William Langdon, Thomas Williams. Thomas Lee, The Governor, July 23d, presented His Majesty's Royal Charter of Incorporation, by ' the name of the " Rector and inhabitants of the parish of Hempstead, in communion of the Church of England as by law established." 1735-6. Thomas Jecocks was clerk and sexton, at 3o8. a year. Mr. Jenney writes (May 5, 1737.) that he has received the box of Common Prayer Books and has distributed them where he thought them most wanted, and received for the Soci- ety humble thanks from every one of the re- ceivers of them. He baptized within the last year thirty-two, viz.: three adults (one a negro man slave) and twenty-nine infants. 1737 to 1745, Daniel Patrean was clerk for setting the Psalms. John Marsh left the church a legacy of £100 : £25 of it was given for a bell ; the rest of the money went toward repairing the church, house and yard fence. 1737, November 14. Mr. Keeble writes from Oysterbay that he has twenty seven scholars under his care, and has received the Society's present of catechisms, and returns his humble thanks. 1738, March 25. Mr. Jenney writes that the year 1737 has offered nothing remarkable in his parish. He baptized thirty-five, of whom five were adults and one a young negro slave. He officiates, as usual, two Sundays at Hempstead and the third at Oysterbay. At Hempstead he has a large congregation, when weather permits, the larger part of his flock living a great way from the church, many of them twelve or thirteen miles; but at Oyster- bay he meets not with the same encourage- ment, owing, as he supposes, to the want of a resident missionary among them. 1738, May 24. Rev. Isaac Brown, mission- ary at Brookhaven, writes from Boston that he reads prayers and preaches twice every Sunday in his parish, and diligently performs the other duties of his function. In his jour- ney towards Boston he read prayers at Shelter Island, where, as far as he could learn, the service of the Church of England had never been performed, and almost all the inhabit- ants came to it ; and there he baptized a man more than thirty years old and three of hi* children, and has baptized in his own parish twelve infants in the preceeding half year, and will always make it the study of his life to promote the interests of religion to the utmost of his abilities. 1739, September 23. Rev. Isaac Brown assures the Society that he continues diligent in the care of his parish and steadily performs Divine service twice every Sunday ; but he has some reason to fear that enthusiasm is creeping into it, chiefly by means of Barclay's Apology for the Quakers, which hath lately been sent over and industriously sjtread among the people, who seem (many of them) but too well pleased with the book, which is given out among the Quakers to be an unanswera- ble piece. £10 each are granted to Messrs. Gilder- sleeve and Keeble, schoolmasters. 1739. Money paid for pews: Daniel Kis- sam, £11 ; Justice Lewis Hewlett. £12 ; Henry Allen, £13; John Hewlett, £5 ; Daniel Hew- lett, £5. 1739—45. Thomas Jones was sexton, at 35s. a year. 1740. John Rowland finished the steeple and arched it from post to post. 1740, April 21. Mr. Jenney writes that he proceeds carefully in his duty, and has a very encouraging congregation. He has baptized within the half year twenty persons, of whom two are adults and ten negro children. He recommends and transmits a petition of the inhabitants of Hempstead, that Mr. Thomas Temple* be appointed schoolmaster there in place of Mr. Gildersleeve, deceased. Mr. Tem- ple is well qualified, and has taught school many years in the neighborhood, with a good character. 1741. Mr. Jenney went to England. Jenney was born in Ireland, 1688, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, ordained priest 1710, and was chaplain in the navy till 1714, when he became an assistant in Christ Church, Philadelphia, and in 1715 in Trinity Church, New York. From 1717 to 1722, he was chap- lain in the Fort at New York ; then rector of the church at Rye, whence, in 1725, he came * In 17:31, Mr. Temple was schoolmaster at Jamaica. From 17:39 to 1753 he was employed in Hempstead. In 1744, he married Isabella Thorne. and in 1753 the Widow Denton. In 1756 we find him in the alms- house. In 1706 Mr. Alexander Baird was licensed by Lord Cornbury to teach a school [at Fosters Meadow] in Hempstead. 10 to Hempstead, wliere his wife (Sarah) died, en Christmas. l7oS. In 1742. he was chosen rec- tor of Christ Chnrch. Philadelphia, where he died Januarv 5, 1762. childless. His second wife I Joanna Elizabeth) survived him onlv six days. He had a fit of the dead palsy, and for over five years, owing to his great bodily in- disposition, was allowed an assistant in his ministrations. 17-12. December 7. The province of Xew York is troubled from Methodism and the Xew Light, in which a deep tincture of enthu- siasm appeared, which has induced many serious-thinking dissenters there also to come to OUT Chnrch to worship God in sobriety and truth. Dr. Jenney is removed by the Lord Bishop of London to Philadelphia, and the churchwardens and vestry have called Rev. Mr. Seabury. missionary at Xew London, to be their minister, in virtue of a law of the province, and he has accepted, on condition that it be approved by the Society, which Mr. ; Vesey recommends, as it will very much con- 1 tribute to the peace and edification of the I good people at Hempstead. ] 114.2. December 10. Bev. Samuel Seabury ' was inducted as rector by the Rev. Mr. Col- gan, of Jamaica. Mr. Jenney having resigned on ;?\ ovember 26ih. Mr. Seabury had been a Congregational minister : but having doubts of the validity of his ordination, he conformed and went to England to obtain orders at the hands of the Bishop of London. He took the following letter to the Secretary of the Society : BosTos. 3oD Maech, IT^iW. Sib : — This -waits upon the Sociery in the hand? of one Mr. Seabnrr. a person who npon rme aud regrilar coETicnon is oome into the bosom of our excellenr Ctureh, and now hnmblr desires a Mission from the Socierr in her service. Mr acquaintance with him is earlier than my own Mission, and I have had farther opportunity of in- forming myself of him from the Dissenters among whom he has preached, and I find everything in favor of his sobriety and good conduct, for which reason he haih my ardent wishes of success in tliis afljair, and my intercessions for him to the Society, with the deepest humility and resj>e>ct due from their and your obedient. j. ilareh. 25. Mr. Seabnry writes that vent a ' the increase of the conorre^auion at Hemp- 17^ stead had broa^ht them to a resolation ofaret.: erecting galleries in the charch. which were congr- _ then almost completed, and his commnnicatnis 17*^ 1 - ' - had increased to seventy-eight. he ha- : - - _ ■ 1755. Febrnary 21. Mr. Seabsiry writes i adalts to that the Cuoreh in the province of Xew York. 'Jz--- - — ' is truly militant, being eontinoally artacfced ; on one side or the other: sometimesbythe Ren;:~-ei: - tz enemies of Revelation, at other times by the preacher, ari in wild enthusiasts: but in the midst of them: Separate Baptis" irue religion gains ground, and his churches The church i of Hemp'Siead. Ovsterbay and Huntington are attend but seldcm. > crowded in got>i weather. cos members alwaj^ 1756. April 19. Mr. Seabury writes that minister. his parish in general is in a gixrd stare, and At Hem^ptstead ar^ * - at the request of the petjple of Duchess Coonty namber of aduirs he had made them a vist. staid six davs and :— =-- preached four times to large assemblies. - 1 - 1756-S. Miss Millicent Betts ijccupied half : n-.^. ~e-e:i:7-:-^ of Xo. 1. . . Zn:^Iind. sevez 1757. May 31. £1 a year for the pa!=t year. Ti^e rest ire dis?en:-=r?. exie;; i rU* and 25s. a year for next year, is allowed to 17'52, Mirrl C ' ^^r >eabary writes tli^ Xewpjrt. the sexton, i probably Mr. Seabury's under Gr-i : t happy astz^n£B< slave), for sweeping and keeping the church in hringir r - ' apasHi. vbo a& ap- clean, and for his service on Sundays in ring- peared pror-er.j a3=cted on theoeeaam. Oae Seabury wrixes thas -^- - bring sevt^al es wiH adorn . _ IS well glled, ysterbay. though ^-th an Independent ■baj Anabaptisc and - ire eotiSEantly heid. _""" "^h^^^ he caa Its : tiie rar was - " iren ing the belL He is to demand 2s. for tolling a funeral belx. 1757. Jaeob Johnson is to build anew the zi ~: fence around the church. _ - - 175S. April 1-5. Mr. Seafcurv. Sr.. inf<»ms ^ the Society that he had extended his misHon : j and taken I*uches5 Countr onder lus care. of them in rarticolar. Jceeph C hccgcaH aiL. de- clared pabliclj "I:ai it was aft^ etresMJarfng an»i - _ He - - y^LT. thir:; 17S2- S- that he - :h* r ' — _;uca his wife He had visited them, four times aad peached to very crowded audiences. 1759. April 5. Mr. Seabozy liad latelv visited Duchess County aad fbaad tbem at- tentive to Divine worship. The war pievHits County, wn-. - them from pr'j'viding means for a missionary, very crowded 1759. April 5. Mr. Seabury writes that at dajs. " " Hempstead no other place is kept up for pub- tizee lie worship except a Quaker's nii^CiBg boose : has also j rii.:.^^i :^o Sondajs to the pesfje aseenUies. and three week -s of the o?uncy.and bap- _:rtv-three cMIdi^L He r of Huntington, whose application for a mis- sionary lie begs leave to reconunend. The people of Huntington, as appears by their own petition and letters from Dr. Johnson and others, liave already erected an edifice for the worship of God according to the liturgy of the Church of England, and purchased a valuable house and glebe worth about £200, New York currency, which they are ready to make a conveyance of for the use of the church at Huntington forever, hoping to have leave, within a year or two, to send over a candidate for holy orders. Mr. Seabury adds that his own people con- tinue to attend Divine service in great num- bers, and as usual at Oysterbay, where one of the Separate Anabaptist assemblies is broken up and their credit with the people much de- clined. He has baptized, this half year, two adults and fifty-three children, making in the whole, since he came into the mission, one thousand and thirty-two baptisms. 17G3, April ^10. Mr. Ebenezer Kneeland, late catechist at Flushing, has undertaken, with the advice of Mr. Seabury, Sr., the office of reader at Huntington. [Mr. Kneeland died in April, 1777.] 1764, February 17. In Huntington, which Dr. Johnson recommends for a mission, there are about forty families ; and if Oysterbay was annexed, thirty or forty more; but on the south side of Long Island, to which they ex- tend, there are not less than one hundred who have no teacher of any sort. ADMISSION AND INSTITUTION. The number of inhabitants of Hempstead is I, Sir Henry Moore. Baronet. Captain-General and six thousand, of whom seven hundred and i ^^"^'^""""""-'^"'"'^^ '" """^ °^''^'' ^'^^ Province of New „. ,. ,, , ,. , ^, , r X-, i York and the territories depending thereon, in Aiuer- fifty profess themselves of the Church of Eng- , .^,^ chancellor and Vice-Admiral of the same. * * land ; the remainder are dissenters, except a ; * * have Admitted our beloved in Christ, Leonard very few heathens and Indians. Mr. Seabury j Cutting, clersrymau. to the Rectory of the Parish and baptized, within the year, three adults and|P""*h Ch"''cli »f Hempstead, in Queens County, to .,.,.... ^ , ■ . ^, ,1 . which he was presented by the Church-Wardens and thirty six infants, makinff in the who e, since i„ . ., . i ^ u» i . pa •' '^ ' Vestrvmen, the true and undoubted patrons of said he came into this mission, one thousand and ! parish vacant, it is said, by the natural death of Sam- eeventy-one ; and his communicants are sixty- ; uel Seabury, the last incumbent there; * * * * three. At his request, a number of Comtiion ' ""fl Have Instituted him into the Rectory of said r)„ ...... -D 1. » 4. 1 J- i -1 .„^ ' Parish Church and Parish, with all their rights, mem- Frayer liooks were sent to be distributed i , , ^ ■ . , ^ •' bers and appurtenances, observing the laws and canons among the poor. The vestry beg the Society to consider them still in the number of their missions, and to permit them to look out for some proper person to succeed their late worthy minister. In the meantime Mr. Seabury, of Jamaica, promises to give them all the assistance in his power. 1765, October 1. Mr. Seabury writes that the parish of Hempstead being vacant bj the death of his father, he has been obliged some- times to leave his own people to assist in supplying that mission, where he has baptized ten children. Tlie church wardens and vestry have called Mr. Cutting, (who was licensed by the Bishop of London, December 21, 1763), and petitioned the Society that he be removed thither ; but his removal from New Brunswick, being at- tended with some difficulty,, is not yet deter- mined. 1765, February 15. £10 are allowed Mr. E. Kneeland, catechist at Huntington. £50 are granted to Mr. James Lyons, missionary at Brookhaven. Mr. Seabury has taken one journey to Islip, preached there, on a week day, to a large con- gregation, and baptized four white children, and one negro adult and five negro children. 1764, June 18. Cloth is to be bought for a funeral pall for the church. 1764, July 12. Rev. Samuel Seabury, of Jamaica, acquaints the Society with the death of his father, at Hempstead, by whose death that laborious and extensive parish is become I Timothy Smith, James Wood, John Peters, vacant, and a very large congregation of George Watts, James Turner, Leffert Haga- decent and well-behaved people left desti- wout, George Ryerson, Adam Seabury, Cor- tute. ! nelius Van Ostrandt and others. of right iu that behalf requiring to be observed. * * Given the 24th day of July Anno Domini. 17e6. H. MOORE. 1766, August 11. Rev. Leonard Cutting was inducted rector by the Rev. Samuel Sea- bury, of Jamaica, in presence of Daniel Kissam, 13 1767-74. The salary of Jonathan Gilder- sleeve, sexton, is raised from 27s. a year to £2. 1767, April 9. Mr. Cutting, from Hemp- stead, with pleasure acquaints the Society that his people testify their gratitude for the continuance of the missionaries amonir them, by endeavoring to render their missionaries' situation in every respect easy and comforta- ble. Their church is in general well filled, and persons of different denominations are very frequent in their attendance, and behave devoutly. There are in Hempstead about eighty or ninety families, professed members of the Church of England, beside the Dutch, who are numerous and declare their regard for it. Numbers of adults have applied to him concerning baptism, whom he hopes soon to convince of the sacredness and expediency of that holy institution. 1768, January 7. Mr. Cutting writes that his new mission is a large one. He thinks the people of his parish to be civil, hospitable and grateful, and mentions one act of their gratitude, in building a house, at their own expense, for the widow of their late worthy missionary. His church is large and in gen eral full. The spot where he lives is sur- rounded with Presbyterians, who are kind and obliging neighbors, sober and pious in their conversation, and averse to religious animosities. Great numbers remain unbap- tized, owing to the principles of Quakerism which prevailed there so long. To the south of Hempstead are many inhabitants who are willing to be instructed and among whom he frequently officiates on week days ; but being a very indigent people they have not the abil- ity to get their children instructed, nor indeed the opportunity, there being no schoolmaster, which he thinks would be a real blessing in those parts. The Society, being of the same opinion, have desired Mr. Cutting to acquaint them at what place he wished a school to be fixed ; and if he can procure a worthy and fit man, he has their leave to employ him. At Oysterbay the church (which still re- mains unfinished) is in general well filled ■with constant, serious and devout people, but not equal in numbers to those of other de- nominations. Since April he has at Hempstead baptized four adults and twenty-seven children, and admitted two new communicants. 1770, February 19. Mr. Cutting, in a sec- ond letter sent within the year, has observed that there are in Hempstead eighty or ninety families. The new school to the south of Hempstead was opened June 22, 1769, by Mr. William Leaky, who had before taught in several places with a good character, and the Society have accordingly appointed him, with a grant of £10. Mr. Leaky left in 1771, hav- ing found a more profitable school. Mr. James Greaton is appointed missionary at Huntington, with an allowance of £40. He was licensed January 28, 1760, by the Bishop of London. 1773, January 13. Mr. Greaton's account of his mission at Huntington was a very ac- ceptable one to the Society. They lament his death, which has since happened, and the cir- cumstances of his family, which have been represented to them as necessitous. 1773, Died, April 17, at Huntington, after a short illness, (said to be attended with fits), the Rev. Mr. James Greaton, Episcopal min- ister at that place, and formerly of Christ Church, Boston. 1774, December 29. Last Sunday sennit, at Huntington, B. Y. Prime, M. D., was married to the amiable Mrs. Mary, [Wheelwright], relict of the Rev. James Greaton. 1775, February 17. Mr. Cutting lives on very amicable terms with the dissenters. In the course of the year he has baptized thirty- six children and seven adults, and admitted six men communicants. He hath at last found out a person (Mr. John Lefferts, a per- son of character,) to undertake the school erected by the Society to the south of Hemp- stead, and upon his recommendation the Soci- ety have appointed him schoolmaster, with the usual salary, £10. 1775, February 17. A petition hath very lately been received from the churchwardens, vestry and professors of the Church in Hunt- ington, Brookhaven, Islip and Queens Village, requesting the appointment of a missionary in the room of their late worthy pastor, Mr. Greaton, with the former allowance from the Society, to which they hope they shall be able to add £20 ; but the Society, considering the proposed subscription as insufficient, nor prop- [ erly engaged for on the part of the petition- ers, have thought it advisable for the present to postpone the application. 1776, January 9. Mr. Cutting says that Mr. Lefferts continued but a quarter of a year at his school, and that he hath no encourage- ment to attempt a supply of the vacancy. 14 This cliurch continues in its usual state. He has baptized thirty-three children and eight adults, and admitted five new communicants. Owing to the general disturbance in the Colonies, the Society say the accounts are short and imperfect. 1777, January 6. The Society have re- ceived one letter from Mr. Cutting, whence they learn that his church at Hempstead had escaped better than was expected, but that he was obliged to shut it up for three Sundays before the arrival of the King's troops, and that in the foregoing year he had not attended at Huntington, thinking it not advisable to go out of his own parish. Since his last he has baptized one negro child and twenty-five whites, and five white adults and one negro woman. 1779. John Van Nostrand was clerk, at £5 per year, with the vestry's thanks for past services. 1779. LefFert Hagawout, treasurer, reported that he had £8 in paper (which was worth- less) and £25 in gold and silver. 1779, September 30. Rev. Mr. William Walter, a refugee from Boston, writes: "I have visited Huntington once. I was glad to find the state of that mission so much better than I had expected. The church and par- sonage house are in good repair, but few of the members have been driven away by the rage of this rebellion, and their places have been abundantly supplied by refugees from the Continent, who have taken up their resi- dence in this pleasing township. If we add to this the ruinous state of the meeting-house and the fliglit of the dissenting minister, many of whose parishioners, I am told, highly disapproved of his inflammatory preachments, and would willingly join to the more sober and judicious order of the Church of England, I cannot help thinking the present a very favorable opportunity of building up and es- tablishing a flourishing church in this place, if a prudent and sensible clergyman could be found, who would devote himself to the serv- ice of the people." 1780, February 4. The British commander in-chief asks of Cutting a part of the church for a granary. Dr. Samuel Martin and LefFert Hagawout were appointed by the vestry to wait on Colonel Birch, the commandant at Hempstead, and represent the situation and order of the church. When informed of the nature of the building, Colonel Birch politely and generously relinquished all pretensions to it, and said the congregation sbould not be deprived of public worship for an inconsid- erable inconvenience to the army. The vestry thank him for his polite behavior. 1780. May IG. Mr. Cutting and the church wardens waited on Colonel Birch and com- plained of an outrage committed against the church during Divine service on Whitsunday, May 14th, by Cornet Searle, of the 17th Dragoons, and begged redress for it in the name of the congregation, and protection in future, that the congregation may attend the worship of God in peace and security. The cornet was compelled to send in a written apology. 1780, July 20. Mr. John Sayre writes that, in compliance with the wishes of the Society, he went to the assistance of tlie mission at Huntington twice, and preached, baptized the children, visited the sick, and gave notice of his intention to administer the sacrament on a future day ; but the next night but one after he was gone, the house where he lodged was searclied by an armed party from Connecticut, who having neither plundered nor insulted the family, he conjectured that he was the object of their search, and tlierefore he has been afraid to venture there again. 1781, February 16. Mr. Cutting has writ- ten one letter to the Society, in which he ob- serves that confusion and tumult are not at all favorable to religion, and the inhabitants of Hempstead being, many of them, in the King's service, and frequently employed on Sundays, are prevented from their regular attendance on Divine service; but that in summer time the church is pretty well filled ; and upon the whole, he thinks that the church has by no means lost ground in these factious times. He goes to Huntington as often as he can consistently with his safety, and baptizes the children. Since his last he had baptized forty-nine, and had five new communicants. He complains of the great advance in all pro- visions, which bears the more hard upon him as he receives now nothing from his people, nor for two years past the small allowance that was made by Act of Assembly. 1781. Mr. Cutting writes that the Loyal- ists suffer more from the King's troops than they did from the Insurgents. " We have nothing that we can call our own." He especially complains that, having bought a house and twenty five acres of land, near the 15 town spot, it was taken last winter by the British commandant and used as a hospital for the 17th Dragoons, till July or August, and no rent allowed him. They left it in a ruinous condition, merely saying they had no further use for it. Since then he has repaired the house and let it, with one acre, to a tenant, for £50 a year. It had fourteen acres of win- ter grain on it, which is much damaged, the house being in the midst of it. On October 28th, by order of the commanding officer of the 17th Dragoons, the house was a second time taken, broken open and entered by vio- lence, for a hospital. Mr. Cutting petitions the British command- ing officer at New York that the house be re- stored or the rent paid, as he bought the farm to eke out his ill-paid salary, and went in debt for it. The 17th Dragoons came to Hempstead in 1778, writes Mr. Cutting, and the command- ant, after sundry acts of violence and oppres sion by which I suffered, he moved a public building which he used as a guardhouse to the school-house, and thus broke np the school. 1781, December 9. Timothy Wetmore, a refugee, kept school at Hempstead. 1782, April 11. Mr. Cutting complains to Captain Archdale, commandant at Hempstead, of an outrageous insult, on Saturday night by violently breaking open the doors of the church by Cornet Sinclair, Lloyd, Delancey and others. Mr. Cutting's reception was not satisfactory. The captain, however, said he gave the soldiers a severe lecture.* 1783, February 21. Mr. Cutting has writ- ten one letter wherein he remarks that occur- rences in an old mission are not very various. He continues in his duty, and within the year he had baptized one hundred and nine, viz.: sixty-six children and ten adults in his own mission ; nine children and three adults at Huntington ; the rest were the children of Hessian Yagers and of the 17th Light Dra- goons. March 3, 1785. Thomas Lambert Moore was inducted. * Mr. Cutting had, in 1776, removed the furniture of the church and the King's coat of arms, and concealed them in his own house. 1785, November 3d, Thursday. Bishop Seabury, in St. George's Church, ordained John Lowe, from Virginia, being the first or- dination in this State. The assembly was numerous. 1785-6. Jonathan Gildersleeve is sexton, Mr. Throop had been clerk. The bell, being extremely bad, had to be carted to and from Brooklyn. 1786. Hendrick Onderdonk, who became connected with the church a little before 1770, was sent as lay delegate to the Diocesan Con- vention. 1787-9. Jacob Bedell was clerk, at £5 a year. 1788. John Latham was clerk to the ves- try. Leffert Hagawout is thanked for his past services, on retiring from the vestry. 1789. Silvanus Bedell is appointed clerk, provided he proves satisfactory. 1790. Mr. D. Kissam offers to be clerk, if Bedell won't serve. 1790, October 3. Died at Brookhaven, the Rev. James Lyons, aged about ninety. He was a zealous advocate for the Episcopal Church, and has left a handsome estate to his surviving relatives. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Mr. Lyons sided with the King, and took every method to seduce the ignorant and counteract the measures recommended by Congress for redress of grievances. August 11, 1775, he was put under guard in General Wooster's camp. 1799, May 15. Mr. Rattoone declined a call, for sundry reasons which attached him to Jamaica. 1804. Richard Wiggins was clerk. Rev. Mr. Hart, rector from 1801 to 1829, was of an inventive turn of mind and much given to mechanical contrivances. He in- vented a machine for shearing cloth, and went over to England to secure a patent for it. He also got up a machine for making brooms. He also kept a boarding school. Among his teachers were Adam Empie (1811) and Mr. Noble (1813). These, with Eli Wheeler, (1814), also officiated on Sundays in the church, being in deacon's orders. 1813, March 2. The vestry of St. George's Church need $100 to enable them to pay Rev. Birdseye Glover Noble for ministerial services, and solicit the friends of the church to pay to the several collectors what they think their just proportion. The present subscription for the rector's yearly salary is about |350, the 16 proportion of eacli will be about one-tliird of their yearly subscription. If the money col- lected overruns the sum immediately wanted, the overplus shall be applied to procure other assistant services (as opportunity may offer) in our churches. Subscribers" Names. £ 8. d. £ s. d. Dr. Benj. Tredwell, 1 Samuel Poole, 2 8 John Tredwell, 1 Johu Peters, 4 Benjamin Piatt, 1 Jonas Denton, 2 8 Samuel Valentine, 2 8 Received May 8, 1813, from Mr. Benjamin Tredwell, $9, on account of the above sub- scription for Itev. Seth Hart. Wm. H. Hart. One Sunday, as the people were cominor out of church, an itinerant Methodist preacher, who had found his way into Hempstead, standing on a wagon near the door began to address them on the subject of religion, and taking advantage of the crowd that the nov- elty of the thing had collected around him, urged them to repentance and reformation. Such, it is said, was the origin of Methodism in Hempstead. OMISSIONS. 1735, June 23. Mr. Jenney writes that a thunder-clap struck the -steeple, which was surmounted by a weather-cock, and did con- siderable damage, but we are proceeding vig- orously in repairing it, and the difficulty is how to get a bell. Governor Cosby com- mends us and thinks we have done wonders. We now use Tate & Brady's version of the Psalms, having discontinued Sternhold & Hopkins. 1736, July 14. Mr. Jenney complains that "Justices of the peace take it on themselves to solemnize the sacred banns of marriage, which the constables formerly did also, in the absence of ministers. Colonel Tredwell vends licenses for the Government. In about fifteen months he vended forty-four, the greater part of which were for persons in my parish, of whom I married but four couples." 1739, May 24. Extract from T. Keble's letter, at Oysterbay : " There are six schools kept in this township — one in the town, one at Norwich, one at Matinecock, one at Mus- queto Cove, one at Cedar Swamp, and one at Jericho. At times there are several more places where schools are kept. The masters generally that teach in them are necessitous traveling persons, so that there is seldom school kept above one-quarter of a year or one- half a year at a place. I cannot hear that any of them are of any denomination, and but two of the masters that teach in them ; the one at Jericho goes under the denomination of a Qua- ker, and the other, at Cedar Swamp, calls himself Churchman. Many people of this townspot and township are of no denomina- tion. Some go constant to church and others to all sorts of meetings and sects that fall in their way ; and some seldom go to any, but are so infatuated in the spirit of enthusiasm, and say that their inward guide will teach them all things without going to hear any religion, which makes some of them run into infidelity."— Hawks' MSS., ii, 118. 1742, March 26. Mr. Keble, at Oysterbay, writes: " Since Mr. Jenney went home [on a visit to Europe] there has been here a volun- tary Anabaptist preacher from North Caro lina, and tells them there is no other way of baptizing but plunging, and that infant bap- tism is sinful and mock. His stay here was short. Since, there have been several of the enthusiastic people here baptized in that way, which has increased their meeting, which before was so small that there was but little notice taken of them, for the less reason there is in their preaching, the more they are minded amongst such people." — Hawks' MSS., ii, 143. 1744, June 23. Thomas Keble, Oysterbay, writes to the Secretary : " Since Mr. Seabury came he has visited and preached upon week days, and has roused them up in all quarters of his parish, amongst all the denom- inations and others, particularly in this place where I now live. He has preached three times upon week days, besides several visits, and has baptized children out of four families, and one adult, in this place, and has preached several times at the Dutch church in the bounds of Hempstead, [Success], being invited by the Dutch people there, and of late has preached at Huntington, an old Independent i place within five miles of Oysterbay church. 17 beingr invited by some of the people there who I of late come constantly to church at Oyster- bay and sometimes to Hempstead ; for the Independent and voluntary preachers have infused false notions into the people in these parts, of the discipline of the Church of Eng- land, particularly of the Liturgy, which Mr. Seabury takes great pains to explain at all seasonable times." — Hawks' MSS., ii, 168. Mr. Thomas writes to the Secretary of the Venerable Society, (March 1, 1705): "Oyster- bay, thirteen miles from hence, is likewise in my parish, where I preach every third Sun day. They 'have generally been canting Quakers, but now their society is much broke and scattered. Deplorable ignorance is their great misery, not free from a deep tincture of obstinacy. " I want Common Prayer books and some small tracts of controversy between us and tlie dissenters. ' Bennet's Abridgement,' and ' The Faith and Practice of a Church of Eng- land Man,' would do very great service, and help blunt the knees of their bias and preju- dice. The people are highly sensible and gratefully accept of the charity of the Honor- able Society. The £5 worth of books which yoa gave me in trust have been distributed to the best advantage." Mr. Thomas writes, (May 26, 1705): " I now draw for £10, which i;)lease deduct out of my allowance for the year 1705, my time having commenced on Lady day last. I hope my drawing so soon will be no offence, my pres ent exigencies pressing me to it. Our £60 here being paid in ' country pay,' and corn at present very cheap, makes our allowance here very poor and dilatory. As for perquisites, I have none here, marriages being solemnized by the justices of the peace. Buryings and christenings we have nothing for. They are all dissenters, and being easy with them that way will be one powerful motive to gain upon them. I thank God I have a very thronged church, which (were you thoroughly ac- quainted with the inveterate humor of the people) would seem to you next to a miracle. It is my misfortune that I have none to an- swer the Responses ; for that anybody should speak in the church besides the minister is, in the sense of these people, confusion. My path here is very thorny — all my steps narrowly watched — I am obliged to walk very gingerly. I shall endeavor, by God's assistance, not to give them the least occasion to calumniate, and be as cautious in walking as I know they are in watcMng." Mr. Thomas writes, (June 27, 1705) : " I am very pleasantly situated here, upon an even, delightsome plain, sixteen miles long, richly furnished with beef, mutton, and fowls of all sorts; the air sharp and severe, and not sub- ject to those fulsome fogs so natural to the English climate. The place is sweet and pleasant. I have two distinct churches, fif- teen miles asunder, where I preach by turns, but have neither Bible nor Common Prayer book in either, so I am necessitated to carry small ones of my own about with me for to read Divine service. I know of no place upon the main that is a truer and more real object of 'the Honorable Society's charity than this, the people being generally very poor and ut- terly averse to the service of the Church of England." August 23. " The vestry of Oysterbay have raised a handsome sum to build an addition to the small church there, and the vestry of Hempstead a considerable sum to build a gal- lery in the church, (which the ministers of their kidney neither wanted nor could bring them to), as also to repair an old, weather- beaten parsonage-house they have here. Be- tween both they raised about £200. I have a more constant and numerous congregation since I came here than ever was known when they had a dissenter, one of their own kidney, among them. This building will enflame the greatest part of them, and I must expect daily broadsides from them. Though all be- ginnings are difficult, I hope to live to make it a post easy enough for my successors. I baptized a dozen, Sunday was a sevennight, some of them adults. I am very much put to it here for witnesses ; godfathers, &c., being a great bugbear among them. I am necessi- tated to qualify the charge given the god- fathers, &c., by the words, ' endeavor and as far as God shall enable me'; for our baptism will not go down by any means in the strict- ness of our Liturgy, for it seems to them, as they say, too severe, the charge being abso- lute and unconditional." 1705, November 9. " Our parishes here are widely extensive (being eighteen miles one way and sixteen the other) and the people much scattered. Besides, two sermons a San- day make my private visits and familiar con- ferences with them at their own dwellings fewer than I could wish. However, I em- 18 brace all occasions of converse with them, that are consistent with my studies." 1707, April 23. Mr. Thomas writes: "I have often laid before my vestry the necessity of a register book in the parish, but to no purpose. Having no method of raising a fund to defray that and such like public exi- gencies, since I came here, I have converted the communion offerings (the poor here being very few and provided plentifully for by a public tax from the government) to buy some requisite necessaries for the communion table, &c., and out of our late Easter offerings I hope to buy a register book, which I bespoke al- ready ; and then I shall take particular care to register all christenings, marriages and burials, according to our instructions from the Venerable Society. I have baptized some scores of infants and adults since my arrival here, and married some dozens of couples, but would never receive a farthing perquisites for them hitherto. It was customary here for the justices to solemnize marriages, who are very tenacious of that addition to their offices, and in order to bring marriages to the church I have solemnized all gratis; first, in order to reconcile them to our way, and then to take off that grand aspersion so often in their mouths against the Church of England's min- isters, that they greedily covet the fleece and neglect the flock. I have received four pieces of eight [f 4] for one funeral sermon, the per- son dying being a bachelor and ordered it to me in his will ; and 12 shillings from one married couple, who going out of my parish to be married into the city, Mr. Vesey reserved oue-half of his perquisites for me ; and that is all I accepted of since my coming to this par- ish. The people I live among are poor, and from their cradles prejudiced and disaffected to our constitution, and should I have screwed them up to perquisites I should assuredly have nipped the church in the bud. I have been strictly brought up in it, and shall spare no pains to propagate it. I allow my clerk a small salary out of my own annually, and without that I could have none. I have raised a school in the town since my coming, and allow towards it (in conjunction with the inhabitants) £20 a year. We are now build- ing a schoolhouse and settling a piece of land upon it, which I have contributed unto. A good precedent of that nature, I presume, is the most moving rhetoric I can use to per- suade those whose intellectuals are so mean and earthly that they cannot discern the ad- vantage, worth and excellency of education for their children's present and future welfare. In vain I preach to them the superstructures of Christianity when they are destitute of the groundworks and fundamentals of religion by education. I have bought catechisms to give away among the children, and hope in some time to have a set of catechumens. While the Honorable Society are pleased to continue to us their allowance, we may live upon honorable terms, independent of our people and not subject to either their scorns or contempts. When it is once withdrawn, we must expect to be assuredly miserable and subject to their insolencies. " 1709, Jane 12. Mr. Thomas having prose- lyted some [thirty-five] rigid dissenters to the unity of the Church, the Venerable Society desire of him "a list of rigid debauchees, de- moralists and rigid heathen converted to the faith, that being the chief design of the estab- lishment of the Society." Mr. Thomas con- ceives himself "sent here as the minister of the parish. He has to prepare for preaching every Lord's-day twice, besides visiting and instructing the poor, ignorant people dis- tantly scattered about the wilderness. Is not this employment enough for one man consci- entiously to perform ? I have within my district infidels of my own color, too many upon whom I bend my whole force. To con- vert a heathen into Christianity is a very good and pious work : but to reconcile the English, in a great degree sunk into pagan- ism and infidelity, to the principles of the Christian faith, is a far worthier employ, especially since I find the one practicable, the other morally impossible. As to the infidels whose conversion you press home on me, they are of two sorts, negroes and Indians. I have many negroes who are constant hearers, but the native Indians are very few hereabouts, all whalers, sottish, debauched, wholly given up to drink. They are incapable of any Christian impression. Rum and strong liquors being the only deities they care to worship. " We had a schoolmaster settled among us for two and a half years. Now we are desti- tute, the people being utterly weary of the subscriptions I had engaged them in, I hope in God's due time to induce them to settle an- other. I shall not be wanting to contribute towards it, both by purse and persuasion, as heretofore." 19 1723, April 1. Mr. Thomas writes that be has baptized ninety children and adults, thirty-seven whereof at one time. 18 of whom were adults, upon which occasion (it being performed in a distant private house) he dis- coursed at larjre, ex tempore, upon the subject and great necessity of the sacrament of bap- tism. "I have all along inculcated into the people here a sense of the benefit and privi- lege of the sacraments, that particularly of the Lord's supper. The word ' damnation,' so rendered in our English translation, is a mighty bugbear to weak, scrupulous con sciences, which by public y)reacliiug and pri- vate conferences I have endeavored to explain. " My necessary hospitality has all along in a very great measure amounted to the height of my salary both here and at home, much beyond those more cautious limits consistent with the welfare of my family. I have served my public view by it, though to the detri- ment of my private self. Burthening the purses of the new converts to the Church would soon render our ministry of little effect. I find affability and hospitality, next to a con- scientious dischargeof duty, to be very sinewy, prevailing arguments to mollify their innate, inveterate principles. It promotes my public designs. '• I have had a severe return of my distem- per this last March, which for some time un- qualified me for my duty, and the service of the church was wholly unperformed, for here are no supernumeraries to assist us when God is pleased to afflict us with sickness." 1724, October 1. " I am truly sorry," writes Mr. Thomas, in his last letter, " that Brook- haven is not likely to have a missionary. It lies forty miles distant from me, but I am tolerably acquainted with the place, having married my wife from thence, and am morally assured that a discreet gentleman settled there would be of the highest consequence to the interest of the Church in that country. They have three times petitioned for a Church minister, once above twenty years ago. JENNEY. Mr. Jenney writes, June 27, 1728 : " Our past winter has been very severe. Mr. Gil- dersleeve, our schoolmaster, says Hempstead was settled some time before they bad any minister or house for Divine service. The first church was very small, much less than the small one we have now. Traveling preachers, sometimes Independents, some- times Presbyterians, (for the most part from New England), did now and then officiate, without any covenant with the people or set- tlement by law. In 1680 tlie town agreed to build a better house by name of a meeting house ; but after it was built there arose a great controversy between the Presbyterians and Independents, in which the Presbyterians got the better, and one Denton was covenanted with to be their minister; but he soon left, as did several others that were afterwards cov- enanted with after the same manner, till the arrival of Mr. Thomas from the Honorable Society. Him they inducted into the posses- sion of the church, parsonage-house and glebe. * * * The church is not kept in good repair, which occasions thin congregations in cold weather. There is a cloth, said to be presented by Queen Anne, which seems de- signed for a table in front of the desk, which we are forced to make use of when we receive the sacrament. The minister's salary is £40 from Hempstead and £20 from Oysterbay, by an agreement among them. I have in pos- session an old, ruinous house, much out of repair, near the church, with three acres of poor, worn-out land, the pasture of which will not support one horse. There belongs to the parsonage a farm, about five miles distant, of one hundred and seventy-two acres of upland and twenty-five of meadow. I have put a poor man upon it, but whether to any advan- tage to me I can't yet tell. These two have been surveyed by Mr. Samuel Clowes, of Ja- maica, who underwrites his draft that the church has a title to a hundredth part of the whole township. Besides this there is, about seven miles distant, a small lot of meadow, which I did lease out but got nothing by it. " But I am threatened with an ejectment, first, by the heirs of one Ogden, from whom the purchase was made, in what year I can- not find, for it is not in the records, and the deeds are lost, and all those concerned in the purchase are dead ; second, by the Presbyte- rians ; third, by the Quakers, who say it belongs to the town. " As to the number of inhabitants at first, I can't meet with any information, from the oldest men here being at a loss in this point. 20 But it is certain it is niucli greater now, for the whole parish is settled very thick. In 1732 the governor ordered a census. The constable gave in : Hempstead. Oysterbat. WUITES. 475 Men, 532 Boys I 325 Men, 331 Boye 472 Women, 472 Girls | 325 Women, 268 Girls NEGROES AND INDIAN SLAVES. 116 Men, 76 Boys 1 41 Men, 17 Boys 76 Women, 51 Girls | 27 Women, 26 Girls Total, 3,629 in my parish. " At the first coming of Mr. Thomas, I am told, not above five or six adhered to the Church, and they brought their religion from England, where they were born. The rest were Presbyterians or Independents, and the most Quakers. Our congregation now is very uncertain, being greater or smaller according to the weather. In summer we are generally crowded entirely, especially in the afternoon, and also in winter when there is snow enough upon the ground to carry their slays (a very convenient and easy way of traveling at such seasons), but they are but rare at other times. Our church is generally full, but not crowded. Most of the professed members of the church livii at a distance from it ; the body of the Presbyterians, at least the much greater part, live here in the town spot. The people's manner of living is scattered up and down, excepting that there are a few very small villages, as Hempstead, Jerusalem, Success, Bungy or Westbury, Oysterbay, Bethpage, Norwich and Wheatly. Those who live in the villages are the poorest of the people, the more substantial farmers finding it for their intei'est to live at a distance from each other. There are but two churches in my parish, one at Hempstead and a very small one at Oyster- bay, where our congregation increases, but is yet very small. " The Quakers have two meeting houses, one at the Head of Cow Neck, another at Bungy ; but they meet at many places in barns or houses, according to the bigness of their congregation. " In the town spot of Hempstead is but one Presbyterian meeting house, the only one in the parish ; but they are so poor and few that it is with difficulty that they maintain their minister. We daily expect he will leave them. " The religions in my parish are a very few Presbyterians in Hempstead, and rather fewer Baptists ; at Oysterbay more of the Church, more than both together of the Quakers. But most of all of latitudinarians, who run from one congregation to another and hold to that religion whose preacher pleases them best. " Both the towns of my parish extend across the Island, sixteen miles from north to south, from east to west about twenty miles, from corner to corner near thirty miles. The roads are good in good weather, but yet traveling is very troublesome in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, which are both ex- treme. For great part of my parish being a plain of sixteen miles long, without shade or shelter, the wind and sun have their full strength, and sometimes in winter the snow is so deep as to make traveling impossible, and so it has been for a great part of this winter. " There is nothing more inconstant than schools here, excepting those from the Honor- able Society. The usual custom is for a set of neighbors to engage a schoolmaster for one year. 'Tis seldom they keep the same longer, and often they are without for several years. The only master that has staid long with his employers is one Thomas Keble, upon a neck of land called Musqueto Cove, where he behaves very well and does good service. The common rule for payment for the masters is by subscription, £20 with diet, or £30 without. But Mr. Gildersleeve has five shil- lings per quarter for each scholar. " The church has no donation ; the minister and schoolmaster no benefactions ; the library is only that from the Venerable Society. "The negroes are so dispersed that it 'is impossible for me to instruct them, and scarce any of their masters or mistresses will. " There is in the town spot Mr. [Gerardus] Clowes, who about three quarters of a year ago began a school, spent the Sunday even- ings in catechising those negroes which would go to him, during the winter; but in summer he has no time, the evenings being short and the day taken up with the service in the church being twice performed, and then there went but a few to be instructed by him. I have one negro a communicant, and my own were baptized in their infancy, and they (being two) shall be carefully instructed while I have them. " At my first coming here several of the leading men of the town pressed me earnestly to represent to the Society the necessity of a successor to Mr. Gildersleeve. Then Mrs. 21 Thomas was amonjr them, who assured me that her husband designed to do so if he had recovered. I enclose a memorial recommend- ing Mr. Clowes. He thereupon has wrote me a letter, which is also enclosed. He is the son of a very active friend of the missionaries, Mr. Samuel Clowes, of Jamaica, whose ser- vices, especially to the two parishes of Ja- maica and Hempstead, are upon record." Mr. Jenney writes, (September 8, 1729): "A few Presbyterians at Hempstead have an un- ordaiued preacher, as probationer, to officiate for them, whom they could not support were it not for the assistance which they receive from their brethren in the neighboring parish of Jamaica. They don't gain on me. So prevalent is Quakerism, that it is difficult to persuade constant hearers to be themselves or have their children baptized. This is more visible in Oysterbay, and I believe the weak- ness of religion there proceeds greatly from the want of a minister resident among them. My indispensable engagements to Hempstead restrain me from visiting them oftener than every third Sunday. I have a dozen cate- chumens at Hempstead, and would be more if I had books. I have been out of pocket for catechisms and prayer books. My circum- stances won't permit me to answer all the demands on me. I beg the version of Psalms by Tate & Brady may be bound in the prayer books, for that version only do I use in the congregation. Some negroes who can read are desirous of using prayer books in Divine service. I believe it would tend to promote decency in the public service if they were supplied." Mr. Jenney writes, (December 5, 1739) : "The justices yet marry. I formerly wrote you that Colonel Tredwell, who lives not a half of a quarter of a mile from me, and vends licenses for the government, in about fifteen months vended forty-four, by much the greater number of which were for persons living in my parish, and of them I married but four couples. I yesterday saw a new book of Bonds for Licenses of the same Colo- nel Tredwell, wherein were but ten, all but one being to persons living in my parish, of which I married but one couple. The first was September 29, 1739. I am satisfied that justices marry, if not all, at least very near all that are not married by me." SEABURY. Mr. Vesey writes, (November 22, 1742): " The precinct of Hempstead, as I am credibly informed, (though they have several dissent- ers among them), are inclined to call the Rev. Mr. Seabury, of New London, to officiate there ; which if they should do and he accept of their call and be inducted, on condition of the approbation of the Honorable Society, it is the opinion of the wisest among us that it wf)uld be the most effectual means to preserve that infant church from disturbances and lawsuits, confusion and ruin." Mr. Seabury writes. (September 30, 1746) : "The people have imbibed Quaker notions, and are loth to come to the sacrament. I had two new communicants, and want copies of the ' Reasonable Communicant.' I have bap- tized many adults and a vast many children since my mission at Hempstead,* many of whom are grown to years to join in the public worship. It is a genuine work of charity to give thera prayer books. I want catechisms with questions, to try whether the catechu- mens understand the answers." Mr. Seabury writes, (March 26, 1746) : " The sectaries of all sorts (who abound in this par- ish) and professed infidels exert themselves to the utmost to hinder the growth of the church ; and the more diligence I use, the more the infidels particularly seem to be inflamed, yet the church manifestly gets ground." Mr. Seabury writes, (September 30, 1748) : " My son is now studying physic, and before he be of age to present himself to the Society, I intend he shall spend one or two years at Edinboro' in the study of physic. I wish the Society to give him a place in their books, and grant what C-ommissary Vesey may rec- ommend in regard to Huntington. He is not yet nineteen. He may be employed at some small allowance, as I presume to hope at Huntington, in reading prayers and sermons, and in catechising, to good purpose, before he will be of age for Holy Orders." 1750, October 5. " Religion prospers, though infidels try to weaken it. The new church at Oysterbay. which has been some years in building, is so far completed as to be con- venient for use, and was dedicated to the service of God according to the Liturgy of England, on the 14th of June last. * In compliance with prevailing notions, Mr. Sea- bury, when requested, baptized by immersion. 22 " The cliurcli at Huntington is also ren- dered very commodious, and a conprregation of fifty or sixty persons, and sometimes more, constantly attend Divine service there, who behave very devoutly and perform their part in Divine worship very decently. They had taken from them in the late mortal sickness four of their most substantial members, who bore the principal part of building the church, which has very much weakened their ability, and they have desired me to ask of the Society a folio Bible and Common Prayer Book, for the use of the church." 1752, March 26. " Religion has gained but little in our bounds, the winter past, the church having been troubled with some dis- turbers from a pretence that could hardly have been suspected. The increase of our congregation had brought us to a resolution to build galleries in the church, which were accordingly erected by subscription, are well- nigh completed, and are commodious to en- tertain one hundred and fifty people, which some restless spirits, enemies to the Church and Revelation in general, envying (as I fear) the church's prosperity, have made an occa- sion to raise a party who seem zealous for nothing bat contention ; but I hope, by the moderation of those who have the good of the church at heart, that the ill eflfects and mischief intended will be obviated. " Never did any place need the means of religion more than this, or perhaps deserve it less, a few compared to the whole excepted. Religion meets with no support from the Government, except the establishing a sup- port for it by some former laws, nor is it at all considered in the characters of those intrusted with commissions, in which ' party' (with which the country is terribly harassed) seems to have the greatest influence. Pro- faneness meets with no frown from the civil magistrate, there being none to put any man to shame for anything ; nor doth the civil Governor seem to have anything in view but to secure interest and property, and though iniquity is not established by law, it is by custom ; against the prevalence of which we have nothing to oppose but the public exer- cise of our religion and the example of a few. "But the church gains ground, maugre all opposition ; but then the comforts of such a Mission, where a man must always be strug- gling with gainsayers, must be in the pros- pect of a future reward. Indeed, if a man will laugh at every jest cracked upon religion and revelation, and seem pleased with blas- phemy which infidels call wit, he will find himself caressed by many ; but a grave coun- tenance and serious rebuke will not fail to get him implacable enemies." Mr. Seabury writes, (October 13, 1752): " My son laid down his place as catechist at Huntington, in July last, and embarked from New York for Edinburgh in August, to spend one year in studying of physic and anatomy, the church has gained ground in Huntington by his assistance, and under a discreet minis- ter it would be a flourishing church, notwith- standing the loss by death of its best mem- bers. " In Hempstead the church holds its ground in spite of the great variety of sectaries and the implacable malice of infidels, who are not ashamed to scotf at the whole scheme of sal- vation by a mediator. October 2, 1759. Mr. Seabury says : " The last time I wrote I sent the Society a pam- phlet containing " Animadversions' upon my letter to the Society, and under the form of 'A Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend,' in Duchess County with my reply. 1 purpose to make another visit to that County this instant October. " I attend a full church at Huntington twice a year, on Sundays ; and at Huntington South, which is sixteen or seventeen miles from any church or meeting house except Quakers, I have preached sundry times on week days, to a congregation of one hundred people, generally poor, who express great thankfulness." 17. 1, October 21. " Although the Indepen- dent meeting house in Hempstead has been constantly supplied with a preacher, and Anabaptist and Separate Baptist meetings be held constantly at Oysterbay, our church is well filled at both places, and they perform Divine service far more regularly than for- merly. When I can attend Huntington (which is but seldom) we have generally a full church, and the zealous members always lament their want of a minister, and beg me to mention them to the Society by way of re- membrance." BOARDING SCHOOL. 1762, March 25. " The Rev. Mr. Seabury, in order to enlarge his school for the instruc- tion of youth in Latin, Greek and the mathe- matics, (or, if desired, in reading, writing and 23 arithmetic), has engaged a young gentleman, who is a candidate for Holy Orders, to be his usher, and to give constant attendance in his school, both in the day time, and also, from November 1 to March 1, till 9 o'clock in the evening. " Mr. Seabury will entertain young gentle- men at his own house, in a genteel manner, at £30 per annum, schooling, washing and wood for their school-fire included, they find- ing their own bedding. Whatever gentle- men or ladies shall be so good as to entrust him with the education of their children, may depend on their being used in the politest manner ; and the strictest regard will be had to their morals, by their humble servant, " Samuel Seabury." prize in a lottery. 1763, June. Mr. Seabury says, in his diary : ' The ticket No. 5856 in the Light house and Public lottery of New York drew in my favor, by the blessing of God, £500, (of which I re ceived £435, there being a deduction of fifteen per cent.), for which I now record to my pos terity my thanks and praise to Almighty God. the Giver of all good gifts. A7nen." 1764, March 26. Mr. Seabury writes that " Great numbers of people can't be brought to attend any sort of public worship, under a pretence of spending the Sunday as well at home ; and this sort of people seems to be upon the increase, from the conversation of some deistical people, the spreading of deisti- cal books, and the disposition of people of loose education to throw off all restraint ; be- sides, many seem to interpret the Act of Tol- eration a toleration to be of no religion at all. From whence, and from a firm attachment to the Established Church being no recommend- ation to the public honors of the Government, and most of all from the Quakers' leaven, it comes to pass that it is an arduous task to bring people to the sense of their Christian oljligations to attend the two sacraments which Christ has ordained in His Church." CUTTING. Mr. Cutting (April 9, 1767,) writes; "It is with pleasure I can inform you of the civil behavior of the congregation of Hempstead towards me. They have built a barn and put the house in convenient repair, and endeavor at present to render my situation easy and comfortable. The Mission is very extensive, and as the severity of the weather came on before I was well settled, I could not take such a circuit round the country and can't give so perfect an account as I could wi«h. The church is in general well filled. It is difficult to form any proper judgment of the real members from the numbers of those that attend, as I find persons of different denomi- nations pretty constant in their attendance, and apparently devout during the perform- ance of Divine service; but according to the best calculation I have as yet been able to make, there are about ninety families, in Hempstead township, profest members of the Church of England. The Dutch are numer- ous and powerful, and declare to me their regard to our Established Church.* The Quakers and their adherents are, I think, the next in number. The Presbyterians appear to me at present to be the fewest. I find it for the interest of religion and the Church to make in regard to my external behavior no difference betwixt the members of my own and other congregations. " I have baptized at Hempstead fifteen white children. I find it very difficult to de- mand godfathers. Necessity, I hope, will excuse me if I accept frequently of the pa- rents. I must go to their houses and comply sometimes with their humors, or the children will go unbaptized. "The communicants that I have seen pres- ent have been about thirty-five at one time. The long interval betwixt the death of the late Mr. Seabury and my being appointed has been of some disservice to the church. " I officiate at Oysterbay every third Sun- day. The greatest numbers there are Ana- baptists and descendants from Quakers. This town is of large extent. As the weather now grows moderate, I propose visiting every part of the Mission as often as I can on week- days, that I may be enabled to give a more perfect account to the Society in my next." 1768, January 7. Mr. Cutting writes : " I have not transmitted an account of my Mission in the limited time, owing to my being inca- pable of giving so perfect information as I * It was about this time that Hendrick Onderdonk, grandfather of the two bishops, joined the Hempstead church, which proltably drew forlli the above pleasant remark.^ of Mr. Cutting. 24 could have wislied. The parisli is large, and I was prevented in the summer, by several accidents, from visiting every part of it, as I expected, nor is it an easy matter in so short a time to form a certain judgment of so great a number, so dispersed. I have, however, found the people civil and hospitable, and I may venture to say, are grateful. As a proof of this, on the death of their late worthy Mis- sionary, Mr. Seabury, they at their own ex- pense built a handsome house and made it a present to his widow ; but I am afraid they are opinionated and not very easy to be per- suaded. The church at Hempstead is large and in general full ; but that is an imperfect way of judging of the number of a congrega- tion, as several of other denominations pretty constantly attend Divine service. The secta- ries here have no settled teacher amongst them. Many of them, therefore, frequent the church, and appear devout and attentive. The spot where I live is surrounded with Presbyterians. I find them kind and obliging neighbors, sober and pious in their conversa- tion, and no friends to religious animosities ; though I am confident the number of those who profess themselves members of the Church are superior in number to those of any other denomination, the Dutch excepted. Great numbers of every profession, however, remain unbaptized, owing, I imagine, to the principles of Quakerism which prevailed here so long, nor are there so many catechumens as I might have hoped from so large a parish. I have proposed to some to attend for that purpose on evenings, at houses properly situ- ated, and hope that plan will succeed. To the south of Hempstead, for several miles, are great numbers of inhabitants, in general in very indigent circumstances. They say they can't procure conveniences to come so far to church. I frequently on week-days go among them to officiate. I find large numbers of them assembled, who appear glad of my ser- vices and willing to be instructed ; but are totally illiterate, great part of them not being able to read, nor have they abilities or oppor- tunity to get their children instructed. A school there would be a real blessing. " At Oysterbay, the church is not finished, nor are they able to do it. It is indeed in general well filled, as neither have the dis- senters there (who are mostly Anabaptists and Quakers) any settled teacher. The mem- bers of the church are constant, serious and devout, though not equal in numbers to those of other denominations." Mr. Catting writes, (December 28, 1768): " As we are not in this parish disturbed with a variety of itinerant preachers, a greater appearance of regularity, with its happy con- sequences, prevails ; and as no animosity (that I can discover) reigns amongst those of differ- ent persuasions, no considerable change in any short time can be expected. Persons of all denominations attend Divine service, and the church here is much esteemed, and is cer- tainly, both in respect to the number and im- portance of its friends and professors, superior to the sects. Amongst the friends to the church I include the Dutch, (who are a very respectable congregation), and it is with pleasure I observe that the disputes which some evil-minded persons (to serve a present particular turn) have raised concerning our earnest desire for Episcopal government in the Church, has been of real service, as it has opened the eyes of the people, made them examine more closely the principles of the Church, and habituated them to the name of a Bishop, and taught them to reflect upon that sacred office without terror or suspicion." Mr. Cutting writes, (January 8, 1774): " The dissenting teacher who was settled to the south of Hempstead made no long continu- ance here. He married, and from the inability of the people to support him was obliged to remove. They now depend (as they have for a long course of years) on those who are sometimes sent by the Presbytery from the other congregations. When their meeting- house is shut, numbers attend Divine service at church, and we live on very amicable terms. " As to the wild set at Oysterbay, they must dwindle. They already disagree amongst themselves. Opposition would raise them to a character they can't attain of themselves, and as it is not worth while for any artful person to make himself their head and form them into a regular sect, they will, I trust, soon sink into their primitive insignificance. The masters of the slaves and the near inhab- itants feel the principal inconvenience." Mr. Cutting writes. (January 6, 1777): "la the turbulent and precarious situation tliis county has been in since January last, the church here and at Oysterbay has escaped better than was expected. The people in general in this parish and through the whole 25 county were profest steady Loyalists and op- posed to the utmost of their power the choos- ing Delegates, Committees, &c. They were indeed harassed by parties from almost every Province ; our houses often filled with an armed rabble who lived at free quarters ; the men forced to quit their habitations and con- ceal themselves in woods and swamps ; some were seized and carried prisoners to Connect- icut. These frequent incursions, however, and this temporary distress they rather chose to suiFer than submit to the hourly tyranny of a Committee of the basest and vilest among themselves ; and in this they persisted till the King's troops happily landed on this Island. In this distracted state the church was often threatened by banditties from the Jerseys and other Provinces. I continued, however, as usual. Divine service was uninterrupted for some weeks after Independence was declared by the infatuated Congress, and the church was in general much better filled than I could expect from the perilous situation the y)eople were in. Orders were often issued from some distant parts, to take me out of the church, but never executed. At last I re- ceived intimation that as this was the only church in this and the neighboring Provinces that was kept open, it would be particularly marked for vengeance ; and as the succeeding Sunday several armed men were sent from various districts, we were advised, though with reluctance, to shut the doors. I ab- stained from performing Divine service three Sundays at Hempstead and one at Oysterbay, when we were (by the blessing of God) re- lieved by His Majesty's forces, since which time we have been secure and undisturbed, suffering now only, in common with others, the natural though great inconvenience that must attend every place Avliich is the seat of war, the scarceness and dearness of the neces- sities of life. " The church here has rather gained, I think, during this unnatural tumult, for it is with pleasure said, I can assure you that in the whole parish there were not above three who called themselves Churchmen amongst the malcontents, and as there was no settled Presbyterian preacher to influence the minds of the people, the dissenters were left to their own cool judgment, attended the church- service, and in general approved of and joined their neighbors in the opposition to the Con- gress. " I have not attended the vacant Church at Huntington this last year, as the principal persons of my congregations thought it by no means advisable for me to go out of my own parish. " I have written some particulars to the Rev. Dr. Chandler, which (as he knows the people) may be agreeable to him." Mr. Cutting was a graduate of Cambridge, England, 1747 ; a tutor of Greek and Latin in Columbia College, New York, from 1756 to 1763 ; rector of Hempstead and Oysterbay, 1766 to 1783 ; rector successively of churches at Snow Hill and Newbern. He returned to New York, where he died, January 25, 1794, aged sixty-nine, beloved equally by his pu- pils, parishioners and friends. He, as well as Messrs. Seabury, Moore and Hart, kept a classical school. An obscurity hangs over the life of Rev. John Tliomas and the circumstances of his family. Colonel Morris says of him, in 1708 : " He has the reputation of being a good man. He has a great deal of warmth in his temper, but I have not heard of any prejudicial trans- ports of it." The date of his marriage is not known, nor what became of his widow and two daughters. His son John, who lived on the farm in Purchase, is complained of as not being a church-goer, attending only once or twice a year. In the Revolution he was a Whig, and was carried off to the Provost, where he was inoculated for the small-pox, but died May 2, 1777, aged seventy, and was buried in Trinity churchyard. In 1709, the Rev. John Thomas (by the help of his wife's money, doubtless,) bought a half of two-twenty-eighths part of a tract of land in New Jersey, for £200. How he ac- quired ownership of the farm in Westchester County we know not. Bishop Hobart says : " On Friday, Septem- ber 19, 1823, I consecrated St. George's Church, Hempstead. This building has been erected near the site of the former church, which was built about eighty years ago, and the decayed state of which rendered it neces- sary to take it down. The present church is of larger dimensions than the former, very neat in its style, and commodious in its ar- rangements, and reflects great credit on Mr. Hart, the rector, and parish, by whose exer- tions and liberality its erection has been ac- complished." 26 .Mr. .lenney write.s from Hempstead, July 30, IToO: My congregation had grown too bio- for the house I officiated in, whicli is also very much gone to decay, and too old and ' crazy to be repaired and enlarged to any tol , erable purpose. So we resolved to build a new one. We now make use of it. When 1 first set about it I consulted Mr. Commissary Vesey, and he proved very serviceable, by contributing largely out of his own purse, and by the interest he has, of a long standing, amongst my people, whom he encouraged and spurred on to the business, and by recom mending the affairs to his own people, from vvhom I have above £50. His Excellency Governor Cosby* and his lady (under whose influence and encouragement the church flourishes continually) have appeared for us in a public and remarkable manner, so as to influence others. They have done us the honor to name our churcli St. George's, and appointed St. George's day for the opening of it. There were present at the Divine service His Excellency and lady, with their Excel- lencies' son in-law, with his lady, attended by Secretary Clarke, Chief Justice Delancey, Rev. Commissary Vesey, some of the clergy and a large company of gentlemen and ladies from New York, and some from other parts of the Province. At the same time a collection was made after the sermon, in which the Governor and lady and the gentlemen and ladies present were remarkably generous. Mr. John Marsh, a gentleman from Jamaica, W. I., now in this Province for the recovery of his health, gave us a silver bason, to serve for baptism in the place of a font, which we are not provided with. His Excellency also has made us a most noble present of His Majesty's Royal charter to make us a corpor- ation, &c. Mr. Secretary C'larke has gener- ously remitted the fees of his office. Mr. Attorney General Bradley has given his fee, and Messrs. John Chambers and Joseph Mur- ray, counsellors and attorneys at law of great reputation, have prepared and engrossed the charter gratis. The chancel is railed in. Our pulpit and desk is completely finished, and half the church is pewed. We design to pew the other half. The east end window only is as yet glazed, and no plastering done ; but we were in a fair way of completing the ^vhule, when an unha])i)y acciilcnt ]»ut a stoj) for a while to our proceedings. On the 2-id of June a thunderclap struck our steeple and did it considerable damage, but we are now vigorously proceeding to repair it, and at present the greatest difficulty we apprehend is how to get a bell of such size as to be ser- viceable to so large a parish. His Excellency and all his company have been pleased to ap- prove our proceedings. They commend the workmanship and think we have done won- ders, considering our circumstances and the time we have been about it. 1767, May 1. The Methodists now began itinerating on the Island. Mr. Auchmuty writes from New York that : " There is one Lieutenant Webb here who has commenced preacher. The man iS turned mad and does a good deal of mischief about the country. His mad zeal is such that I shall not be sur- prised if he lays aside his red coat and en- deavors to get into holy orders, which would be another affliction to the clergy here." 1776, July. Judge Thomas Jones says that : " Colonel Cornell, of the Rhode Island Line, by Washington's orders established his quarters at Hempstead when hunting for tories. He converted the Episcopal church into a store house, forbid the parson to pray for the King or Royal family, and made iise of the communion table for a conveniency for his Yankees to eat their pork and molasses upon." Mr. Cutting says nothing of this. 1781, December 9. Mr. Cutting writes: " My situation obliges me to trust my letters to a friend, generally to the gentleman who takes my bills. In respect to the schools, Mr. Timothy Wetmore is at present provided for. Mr. James Wetmore* I know not ; and if I * Governor Cosby had a rural villa on the Edge of Hempstead Plains (1736) at or near Hyde Park, and attended Mr. Jenney's church. * James Wetmore writes from New York, (Novem- ber 1, 1779): "I continued my school at Mnsqueto Cove until the first of August last, to the satisfaction of my employers; but a number of my neighbors being captivated by the Rebels, and I very Providen- tially escaping, and the Loyal inhabitants being obliged to lodge in the fields for safety, I have thought it consistent with my duty, and prudent to quit the school, and am at present unsettled. My wife and a number of my younger children barely subsist between the lines, living in continual fear and subject to fre- quent depredations. I long to see the time that Rebels to God and King may be sensible of their folly and return to a true sense of their duty and happiness, a prospect that seems yet at a distance. I have been three years separated from my wife and children by the inhumanity of the times. I had forty scholars, at 6 shillings, currency, per quarter. I could art'ord my family but little relief were I not assisted by the Society." (lid, it woiiM l)e to no puipose, as tlie rapacity of an officer of rank [('ol. Birch] has put an end to all hopes of that kind. When the 17th Lifjht Dragoons came to Hempstead in 1778, the conimandinof officer, after various acts of violence and oppression too tedious to mention, (and by which I suffered considerably in my property), at leno^th moved a public building [tlie cage] which he had used as a guard- house, and joined it to a house he had seized with some land, (the owner [Mr. Samuel Pin- tard] being then in England), converted the school to a guard-house, and appropriated to his own use three acres of land allotted for the benefit of the schoolmaster. In 1780 this officer was removed to a very high command in New York. We then had assurance that the school and land should be restored. In this expectation I wrote to the Society ; but as [yet] his worse than useless regiment has been scarce out of the smoke of Hempstead since its first arrival. He still keeps posses- sion of all. This is one, and perhaps the most trifling instance of a thousand, that might be produced of the tyranny we groan under. Where the army is, oppression (such as in England you have no conception of) univer- sally prevails. We have nothing we can call our own, and the door to redress is inaccessi- ble. What a state must that people be in who can find relief neither from law, justice nor humanity, where the military is con- cerned ! This is the case of the inhabitants within the King's lines. In regard to myself I have often applied for redress; first in 1778, to Mr. Eden, one of the Commissioners, from whom I had a letter to head-quarters, which, however, was ineffectual. On other occasions I tried memorials to as little purpose. Neces- sity obliged me to apply more attentively to the earth for subsistence, and an advantageous purchase presenting, a friend kindly lent me the money to secure it. I now hoped to pro- vide for my family in spite of oppression. How I was disappointed the enclosed memo- rial [to Governor Robertson] will show. It had no effect. Whether it proceeded from want of power or something else in the Gov- ernor is not for me to determine. Hospitals and everything of that kind are, I know, fully charged to governments, and when private property is thus violently seized, it is only to fill the purse of the oppressor." " The memorial of Leonard Cutting humbly showeth that the means for subsistence for my family having been much impaired by the present times, I some time since made a purchase of a dwelling house and about twenty-five acres of land near the town-spot of Hempstead. During the last winter, while I was proprietor of it, the house was occupied as a hospital for the 17th Regiment of Light Dragoons ; that no rent being allowed by them, I applied to Your Excellency for allow- ance of rent, or for the removal of the troops ; that the troops continued in it till July or August last, and then left it in a ruinous con- dition, saying they had no further use for it. Wishing since to make the most advan- tageous use of it for the support of my fam- ily, I have been at considerable expense in repairing the house, and have let it to a tenant for the ensuing winter, who was put in possession of it. I have also on- the land upwards of fourteen acres of winter grain, and have contracted to let the bouse and one acre of land for a year from next spring at a rent of £50. On October 38th, by order of the commanding officer of the above-said reg- iment, said house was broken open and en- tered into by violence, and possession taken of it, for the purpose of a hospital ; and I am the more astonished at a measure so injurious to me, after sustaining last winter the burden of having the same house employed for the public use without receiving any compensa- tion for it. At present my winter grain, in the midst of which is the house, will be ex- posed to destruction if the hospital is contin- ued in it. I beg leave to complain of an un- j ustifiable violation of my property and of an unreasonable imposition on me ; nor can I help feeling the distresses to which my fam- ily must be exposed when stript of so consid- erable a part of the slender means I have for their support. I hope for redress from your humanity and your well-known justice, and pray Your Excellency will order the house to be restored to me or rent given for the use of it." " However, the house and barn being a second time ruined, the fences torn away and the winter grain exposed to certain destruc- tion, will put me even in a worse state than I was before, as I shall be destitute of grain, and the land will not only be useless, but I shall be encumbered with the loan of the purchase [money]. I am advised to transmit a copy of my last memorial to the gentleman who presides over American affiiirs, with a 28 circumstantial account of the violence and in- dignities both myself and the church have suffered. Various complaints from various persons are on their passage home. If they gain admittance they may, perhaps, raise a suspicion that more pains have been taken to subjugate the Loyalists within than to reclaim the Americans without the lines. The army has done more essential injury to the King's cause than the utmost efforts of his enemies. " As to the church, it is in the same state as when I wrote last. The building at Oys- terbay is in a ruinous condition, as I men- tioned in my last, and, as it is exposed to every storm, must grow worse ; nor have the people spirits or opportunity to repair it at present. The congregations of Hempstead and Oysterbay attend Divine service in as great numbers as the circumstances of the times will permit, and appear remarkably se- rious and devout." Rev. Charles Inglis writes from New York, (November 26, 1779) : " Rev. Epenetus Town- send's battalion was ordered to Halifax, and he embarked at New York with his wife and five children. A most violent storm arose soon after the fleet in which he sailed left Sandy Hook. The fleet was dispersed and several ships perished. He has not been seen since. " The only vacant mission on Long Island is that at Huntington ; but no loyal clergyman dare settle there. That part of the Island is infested by Rebels who are constantly making incursions across the Sound, plundering the inhabitants and carrying many of them off captives. The only place on the Island where a clergyman would be safe and have hearers (besides Hempstead and Jamaica, where mis- sionaries are fixed,) is Brooklyn, where Mr. James Sayre officiates three Sundays out of four to a pretty numerous congregation, in a Dutch church of which he is allowed the use." 1779. Judge Jones says that Colonel Birch sent a party to Secatogue, twenty miles east of Hempstead, to pull down a Quaker meeting house and bring away the materials for his own use. On their return they also took out all the sash windows of a house of Thomas Jones, at Fort Neck. Every Sunday when J udge Jones went to church he had the mor- tification of seeing the windows of his house fixed in a barn which Birch had converted into a barrack. The same year Birch had the Presbyterian meeting-house at Fosters Meadow pulled down, the materials brought away and converted to his own use. This sacred edifice was built by the villagers for the sake of Divine worship. Every inhabit- ant there was remarkably loyal. A minister who had prior to the rebellion occasionally preached in it was a Rebel. This, Birch made a pretence for robbing the loyal inhabitants of their church. Samuel Pintard, a soldier at Oswego (1755) and wounded at Minden, had retired to Hemp- stead, where he bought a genteel, snug house, and a neat little farm adjoining the parsonage ; but being tired of the thieving soldiers, he removed his furniture to Mr. Cutting's, a rela- tion of his, and then locked up his house and embarked for Madeira, where he had rela- tions. Birch soon fixed his eyes upon the place. He forced open a window ; creeping through, he opened the door and took posses- sion, sent his compliments to Mr. Cutting, and begged the use of Mr. Pintard's furniture for a few days, till his own could be brought from New York. Mr. Cutting, not willing to disoblige so powerful a neighbor, acquiesced and delivered up tlie furniture, which the colonel afterwards refused to return, claiming it as rebel property ! A Mr. Hewlett, five miles from Hempstead, had laid in shingles for building a house ; these Birch brought away without leave or license. When Mr. Hewlett, a noted Loyalist, applied for pay- ment, he was called a Rebel, threatened with the provost and turned out of doors ! Birch next cast his eyes upon a small building called " The Cage," erected by the inhabit- ants to confine persons convicted of drunk- enness, swearing and petty larcenies. He thought it would do for a wash-house. On Justice Clowes' refusing to give consent to its removal, the colonel ordered it removed, " For ' The Cage' he would have." Birch's soldiers were expert at plundering, and nothing es- caped their hands. In the course of six weeks not a lamb nor a calf, a duck nor a goose, a turkey, a pig nor a fowl, was to be seen in the town, nor a potato, a turnip nor a cabbage in the fields. EPISCOPAL CHURCH, BROOKLYN. The earliest account of any attempt to or- ganize a church in Brooklyn is found in the 29 following advertisement from Rivington's Gazette of March 17, 1774 : LOTTERY For raising £600, for building a cliurch at Broolclyn- ferry, under the patronage of Trinity C'hurcli, New Yorlc, there being no place in King's County for pub- lic worship where the English Liturgy is used. Tlie inhabitants (having long submitted to inconveniences [in crossing the river to New York] from the inclem- ency of the weather in the winter season and other causes) intreat the assistance of the Public in pro- moting this laudable method of raising money for the erection of a decent building for the service of Al- mighty God. There are £4,000 in prizes, 4,000 tickets at 20 shil- lings each, 1,332 prizes and 2,668 blanks. Managers, Alexander Colden, Esq., Capt. St. Payne Ayde, Messrs. Matthew Gleaves, John Carpenter, Thomas Everlt, John Crawley, Whitehead Cornell and Thomas Horsfield. 1774, March 81. Many persons have been misled by an opinion that the church proposed to be erected by Lottery at Brooklyn is to be under the ministry of the Rev. Jlr. Bernard Page.* It will be a truly orthodox church, strictly conformable to the doctrine and disci- pline of the Constitutional Church of England as by law established, and under the patron- age of the Rev. Rector and Vestry of Trinity Church. — Rivingto/i's Gazette. 1778. On Sunday morning, April 5th, to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants, the church* at Brooklyn was opened, and Divine service according to the ritual of the Church of England, performed by the Rev. Mr. James Sayre,f who preached an excellent sermon and baptized a child, which was the first infant admitted to that sacrament within said church, where there will be Prayers and a sermon next Sunday and on Good Friday, also on the three Sundays, following : every fourth Sunday, afterwards, the church will be occupied by the Dutch congregation. — Gaine's Mercury. 1778, December 23. Rev. Mr. Walter writes from New York : " I have resided more than two years in this city and neighborhood. The first summer I spent in Brooklyn, where I occasionally officiated to a small congrega- * Mr. Page was licensed by the Bishop of London, August 24th, 1772, for Wyoming. lie was evangelical, of the Whitefleld school. He died in Virginia. See "Meade's Virginia," ii, 259. + Mr. Sayre lived in the large white house of Isaac Cortelyou, on the Bay side of New Utrecht, which was burned November 15, 1779. He published " God's Thoughts of Peace in War." He went to Nova Scotia. but returned to Fairtield, where he died, 1798, aged 53. His brother John died in New Brunswick, 1784. tion of English, who obtained for this purpose an order from the Commandant of New York to make use of the Dutch Church whenever the Dutch people had no service in it them- selves, which was as often as three Sundays in five. This summer the Rev. Mr. Sears [James Sayre] has officiated there in the same manner, and still continues to do so. Next [summer] I shall probably reside far down upon Long Island, and then I propose to be a frequent visitant to the Society's vacant mis- sion of Huntington, and the people of that neighborhood, who are at present totally des- titute of all public worship." Mr. Thomas, the first rector of Hempstead, was careless in keeping Records. He, how- ever, left the following memorandum in a Register Book : " I. John Thomas, of Jesus College, Oxford, was inducted Rector of Hempstead, December 37, 1704, and since my induction to the pres- ent, July 13th, 1707, have baptized the under- written persons and children. The distinct time of their initiation into the Church by baptism I cannot particularly and precisely notice, this Register Book being lately brought and delivered into my hands. But all christenings hereafter shall (God willing) be duly and precisely registered." BAPTISMS. Children of Thomas and Mary Gildersleeve, baptized 1705: Asa. born March 19, 1685 I Richard, born April 7, 1695 George, " Oct. 22, 1687 | Elisha, " M;iy 7, 1697 Thomas," May 16, 1690 I Elizabeth, " ApriU, 1701 Maiy. " March 12, 1693 | Dorcas, " May 17, 1704 Dorothy (wife of Samuel) Smith, aged 35, and all their seven children, baptized August 18, 1707: Dorothy, b'n Oct., aged 13 I Abraham, b'n June, aged? Samuel, •' June, " 12 •lohn, " Feb., •" 5 Jonas, " Oct., " 9 I Isaac, " Dec, " 4 Josias, born January, aged 2 years. Sons of Samuel Syren : James, born SepK. 23. 1708 | Daniel, born June 10, 1706 John, born November 23. 1707. John, son of John and Margaret Thomas, was born October 23, 1708, and baptized November 29th. John, son of Asa Gildersleeve, born May 23, 1706. Hannah Flower, aged 19. Daughters of Samuel VV^illiams : Mary, born March 26, 1703 | Miriam, born Dec. 17, 1705 Here end Mr. Tbomas' records, as far as can be now ascertained. 1741, October 19. Mr. Brown writes from Brookhaven : " My church was never more flourishing. Some sober religious persons have been lately added to the communion. I baptized one brought up a Quaker, and five 30 of his cliildren, and a woman over seventy. and several infants. Another Quaker has come over to the Church, the father of a large family, who attends steadily public worship on Sundays. I have lately been on the East end of the Island, fifty or sixty miles east- ward. In passino: through the villages I preached six or seven times in eight days to large congregations, and in the meeting- house at East Hampton, a large building with two rows of galleries, one above the other. The house seemed full from bottom to top. There never was so glorious a pros- pect of increasing the Church as at this day, if a missionary could be sent among them. Slielter Island (where are several families favorably disposed to the Church, whom I myself have baptized) lies in the middle of three towns — East Hampton, Southampton and Southold. They are too far oif for me to visit, and then there is the expense of time and money in traveling. In five years past I don't know three persons who would have gone in a church sooner than in a Turkish mosque. I am the first person who performed the service of the Church of England there. In Southampton and a neighboring village the teachers and people conducted me into their meetinghouses unanimously, and they everywhere behaved with becoming decen- cy."* 1748. Mr. Henry Barclay made a visitation as Commissary, and writes, October 5th, that " Mr. Seabury had preached several times at Huntington, where he found a good prospect of making a considerable congregation. On the good people's solicitation the ministers recommend Samuel Seabury, Jr., to be their catechist for the present, to read the Church service and sermons, with such encourage- ment [pay] as the Venerable Society think proper. The schoolmasters at Hempstead and Oysterbay are incapable of further service, the one being deaf and the other deprived of the use of his reason. Their salaries might be paid to Huntington ; although it may seem hard to turn a superannuated servant out of * Rev. John Sharpe, Chaplain, had written from Foit Anne, N. Y., (November 24, 1705), " I think mis- sionaries are wanting. Two for Suffolk Coiuity, in the East end of Long Island, might do good service." Lord Cornbury also writes, November 22d: "I was (on a tour to the East end of Long Island) last summer, at Brookhaven, and my chaplain (Sliarpe) preached twice there. The minister and people came in to hear him." bread, it is more unreasonable that the Society should be burthened with them, when ample provision is made for the poor by law." 1768, November 30. The church wardens and vestry of Huntington lay before the Venerable Society '• their unhappy circum- stances." In Huntington and Queens Village, five miles distant, are upwards of thirty heads of families, professors of the Church of Eng- land, who are destitute of the administration of God's Word and Sacraments. We era- ployed Mr. Kneeland to read prayers and sermons to us and sent him to England for orders. Henry Lloyd, of Boston, recommends Mr. Greaton, of Boston, at a salary of £30, with firewood, a house and glebe. His ser- vices to include Islip and Queens Village. He may revive the Church at Brookhaven, which is almost ruined and come to nothing, through Mr. Lyons' misconduct."* 1769, August 8. Mr. Greaton, at Boston, [on a visit], writes that at Huntington I have a very decent congregation, who almost con- stantly attend. Frequently a laimber of dis- senters come to hear me, who behave with the utmost decency and seem much pleased. Several times I have had the church so full that it could not conveniently hold more, and many were obliged to go away for Y'ant of room. I flatter myself that in time a flourish- ing church may be raised up there, if the people are so happy as to continue to enjoy the smiles of the Society. The people have * 1767, April 23. The Society will continue their salary to Mr. Lyons till Michaelmas next, and no longer, as his mission is dwindled down under his ill conduct [eccentric habits] to almost nothing. Mr. Lyons replies: "I fling myself on the mercy of the Society. My enemies would deprive me of bread and cliaracter. They say my behavior is sordid, that I go to church in a lay dress, with blue cloth cloak ; tliat I wear a threadbare coat on week days. This old coat harmonizes with my house, ready to tumble down, having for several years been propjjed within and without, and no assistance from the people. IIow much two or three bold leaders will influence a multi- tude ! They are Churchmen in words, but Congrega- tionalists in discipline. They can't charge me with omission of duty or immorality. I have been twenty- flve years in the Society's service. I've preached every Sunday since my last letter, baptized four infants, had nine communicants last Christmas and seven this Easter. I've drawn a set of bills for £25 in favor of Garret Kapelye." Mr. Lyons thanked the Society (March 25, 1747) for a gratuity of £10, has baptized eight in his new mission, wants Clark's sermons and some tracts in opposition to Methodism, as enthusi- asm prevails in these dark regions, through the hot zeal of canting preachers. 31 purchased a new glebe, with a good house, at a cost of £344, currency, which they propose to make over to the Society in lieu of the old glebe, which cost only £120. 1780, May 18. Rev. Mr. Walter writes from New York that : "I was last Sunday at Hunt- ington, and officiated for the first time this season at that church, to a small but attentive congregation. The church, which till last winter had remained untouched amid the desolations of war, was then taken by the [British] army for barracks, and, according to custom, greatly abused and damaged. The parsonage house is in tolerable repairs, but the barn has suffered in common with the church. Several of the principal families have gone into the rebellion, but their places are supplied by a number of refugees from Connecticut, who, uniting with the remaining families, are desirous, notwithstanding their discouragements, to keep the service of the Church among them. I have promised to visit them once a month till winter, and I hope to prevail on some of our refugee clergy here to do the same." LOTTERY For the benefit of Cniolint; Church, Sotauket; 9.S0 pi-izesi, 2,070 blauki^, being 3,000 tickets at $4 each niMkinj; $12,000, with a deduction of 15 per cent. It is purely for the assii^tnnce of an infaut community, not able to assist themselves, and for the promotion of the Christian religion. It is hoped every charitable and well-disposed person will cheerfully contribute their mite for the completion of so laudable and de- sirable an end. As soon as full, the drawing will com- mence at Brookhaven, under tlie direction of the Warden and Vestry, and under the immediate manage- ment of Selah Strong, Esq., John Moore, Esq., Joseph Brewster and Henry Nicoll. Tickets to be had of the printers, V. P. Ashfleld, and of said Manajjers.— ii«p- i7tgtun's Gazette, January 22, 1783. MR. CUTTING'S SALARY NOT PAID. Nov. 5, 1783. To Mr. Antony Van Nostrand, WoLVER Hollow: Sir— I believe you remember that at a meeting of the Vestry and Justices of Osyterbay, in April last, I attended, and that it appeared both from my book and the receipts produced by Mr. Van Wyck that there was two years' salary due to me from the loth of January hut. Mr. Van Wyck paid up to 1779. Mr. Isaac Hewlett was then chosen church-warden, and the constable paid into the hands of Mr, Justice John Hewlett 20 shillings for the year 1780. The years 1781 and 1782 are therefore still unpaid ; and this present year, 1783, is not reckoned. All this, as you remem- ber, appeared plain to the Vestry, who agreed that they thought it right that the back salary should be paid, but desired that the present year might not be brought to account. To this I agreed, and the con- stable then said he would get me the money in a few days. When I called upon liim he told me he was not prepared. I went to him a second lime. He then told me it was necessary that I should have an order frona the clerk of the Vestry. I accordingly waited upon you twice, but had not the pleasnre of finding you at home. Since that I have been very ill, and can scarce now sit to write. I have therefore sent my son to beg the favor of you to give an order for the years 1781 and 1782. You must think it hard for services through all weathers for so long a time, attended with fatigue to myself and expense in horses, should pass unre- warded. Depending therefore entirely upon your humanity and justice for giving me that satisfaction which the Vestry at that time agreed to, I with pleas- ure subscribe myself your very humble servant and friend, Leo'd Cutting. 1705, June 14. Lord Cornbury to the Gen- eral Assembly: " The ditHculties which some very worthy ministers of the Church of Eng- land have met with, in the getting the main- tenance settled upon them by Act of General Assembly of this Province, passed in the year 1693, moves me to recommend to you the passing an Act explanatory of the above- mentioned Act, that those worthy, good men, who have ventured to come so far, for the service of God and His Church, and the good and edification of the people, to the salvation of their souls, may not for the future be vexed, as some of them have been, but may enjoy in quiet that maintenance which was by a law provided for them. I further recommend to you the passing an Act to provide for the maintenance of some ministers in some of the towns at the east end of Long Island, where I do not find any provision has yet been made for the propagating religion." — JouR. Ass., i., 196. 1717, April 13th. The memorial of Rev. Robert Jeuuey, master of the Grammar School, New York, was by order of Council laid be- fore the House of General Assembly and recommended to their consideration, which proposed that a sufficient fund may be raised for building a school house and dwelling house for the master, and to allow him a salary of £70 per annum for^eaching thirty- five boys. — JouR. i., 393. Rev. John C. Rudd, deacon, was a mission- ary for several months in 1806, to the desti- tute congregations of Huntington, Oysterbay, Setauket and Islip. The three former con- gregations before the Revolution were nu- merous and respectable, but since, having only occasional services, were fast dwindling away. In Huntington he found it difficult to 32 arouse the dormant zeal for the Church of the few scattered families ; but the ministra- tions of the Church revived their former at- tachment, and they arranged to repair their decayed church. At Oysterbay the church w^as totally de- cayed, the few materials that remained were sold, and an Academy was built on the Church lot, the right being reserved to use it as a Church on Sundays. The Church families had become extinguished or joined other de- nominations. Mr. Rudd could do nothing, as the establishing a church would (as they feared) divert the property from the acad- emy.* At Setauket the Church people being nu- merous, tliough destitute of public worship, yet retained a love for the Liturgy, welcomed Mr. Rudd, attended his ministrations, and joined in the responses, so that the prospects of the revival of the Church were flattering. At Islip the congregation was small and had no money, yet were zealous and tried to put their church in decent repair. A family prevented its being desecrated, and though there were no services there, they cleaned out the church yearly and decked it with Christ- mas greens. In 178G, Mr. Andrew Fowler had been reader at Islip. Brookhaven and Oysterbay. CHRIST CHURCH, MANHASSET. For many years the congregation living north side the Plains (especially on the Necks) felt it a great inconvenience to ride over to the Hempstead church. To relieve them in some measure, occasional services were held in the Dutch church at Success. In 1799, June 26, Rev. J. H. Hobart preached at Major Kissam's, Flower Hill. On June 22d, 1803, the vestry of St. George's Church consented that a church should be built at Cow Neck, and on December 2d, George On- derdonk, farmer, and Sarah, his wife, for $195.47 sold two acres and ninety-seven square rods, at the Head of Cow Neck, to John M. Smith, Benjamin Tredwell, William Mitchell and Thomas C. Thorne, farmers, in trust for an Episcopal church and cemetery. SUUSClflPTIONS FOR BUILDING THE CHURCH. Akerly, Jacaniiah $5 | Akerly, I'rit^cilla ^5 * Tho Ac'idemy wa? opened April 1st, 1802, under the cure of Rev. Marmp.duko Earl, a Bapti.-t, who was boin Miinh 1, nfi'J, and died July 13, 185(i, Allen. Henry $40 Allen, John 2d 5 Allen, Richard 30 Allen, David 105 Allen, Jame8 30 Allen, Gideon 1 Allen, William, Jr., 2 Allen, Philip, Jr., 6 Allen, Jacamiah 5 Allen, Charles P. 60 Allen, Dobson 2 Allen. Maria, daughter of Philip 50 Allen, Mary, d'ter of S. 10 Allen, Daniel 10 Allen, Eliz , wid. John 5 Allen, Richard K. 5 Allen. Benjamin & Co. 20 Appleby, Epenetus 25 Barton, John 2 Baxter, Israel 5 Beadle, Uriah 10 Blades, John 1 Blossom, Elisha 20 Burtis, John 10 Cash, ,1 Cheesman. Benjamin 2 Cheesman, Richard 2 Cheesman. Timothy 3 Coles, Abram 1 Cornwall, Charles 20 Cornwall, James 50 Cornwall, Richard H. 20 Coniwell. Daniel 10 Cornell, Hannah, 1 Cornell, Hannah, wid. 1 Cornell, Hannah, wid, of Japhet 1 Cornell, Henry 2 Cornell, Hewlett 50 Cornell. Joseph 4 Cornell, Joshua 3 Cornell, Morris 2 Cox, William 1 Crominelin, Charles 2 <;ro(nmelin, Charles, Jr. 5 Dayenport, Newbury 20 Davenport, Samuel H. 5 Denton, Jonas 7 Denton, Lawrence 7 Denton. Samuel 6 Dodjje, Thomas 2 Dodt,'e, Tristram 2 Dodge, William 3 Dodge, William (i Ellison. John 5 Ferguson. David 1,50 Hagner, Henry 20 Hagner, Henry, Jr. 15 Ilains, Daniel 1 Ilaviland, William 5 Hawxhurst, Townseiid 4 Hewlett, Benj. & Sons 50 Hewlett, Benjuniin 85 Hewlett, George 150 Hewlett, Hannah 10 Hewlett, James 60 Hewlett, James. Jr, 20 Hewlett, Joseph L. 75 Hewlett, Lewis S. 45 Hewlett, Samuel 45 Hewlett, Sarah 10 Hewlett, Susan P. 5ll Hewlett, Whitehead II Hewlett. William 10 Hicks. Samuel 5 Hicks, Sarili, w. Morris 2 Hicks, William 1 Hoogland, Daniel 1 Hutchings, .lolin 4 Hutchings, Stephen 1 Hutchings, William 4 Hutching^;. Sam'l "1 p* Mott, Benj. B. I -iJ ,„ Ross. Charles {T< Weeks, Nicholas J j Kei-Ier, Ebenrzer 20 Kissani, Henjainin T. 35 Kissain. Daniel (PI.) 35 Kissam. Daniel 23 Kissam, Dnn.Whiteh'd$18 Kissam, John 120 Kissam, Joseph 25 Kissam, Joseph, Jr. 5 Lawrence, Stephen 2 Marston, Lawrence 1 Mitchell, Allen 20 Mitchell, John 100 Mitchell, Robert 5 Mitchell, Samuel T. 10 Mitchell, Singleton 5 Mitchell, Sing. & Jos. 35 Mitchell, Uriah 10 Mitchell, Whitehead 3 Mitchell, William 100 Morrell, Ann 5 Morrell, John 85 Mott, Jacob 10 Onderdonk, Hendrick & Sons 150 Onderdonk, Peter 5 Peters, John 3 Piatt, Benjamin 100 Poole, James 5 Reeve, Isaac T. 5 Heeve, Jonathan 1 Hemsen, Daniel 2 Salts, Maurice 4 Silts, William 1 Sands. John 50 Sands, Johi?. Jr. 50 Sands, Ray & Griffin 10 Schenck, Rulef 10 Sealey, William 1 Sealey, Daniel 2 Searing, Mary 5 Sell, James 55 Smith, Hannah 1 Smith, James 20 Smith, John M. 85 Smith, Jos. i& Silvauus, 25 Smith. Richard 35 Smith, Richard R. 5 Smith, Thomas 10 Smith, Timothy 20 Smith, Timotliy 8 Smith, William (iO Tatterson. Rich:ird 10 Thorne, Henry W. 10 Thorne, John 80 Thome, John, Jr. 20 Thorne, Richard 100 Thorne, Richard, Jr, 30 Thorne, Thomas C. 55 Thorne, William 65 Thorpe, John B. 3 Toftey, Daniel 20 Tofloy, Rebi'cca 2 Town send, Hewlett 20 Townsend, Jost'ph 2 Townsend, Jotham 2 Townsend. Rich (Hills) 18 Townsend, Ruth and Freelove, 10 Tredwell, Dr Benjamin 30 Tredwell, Benjamin 100 Tredwell, John 70 Tredwell. Thomas 80 Utton. Charles P. 30 Vaieiitine, Cah-b 2 Valentine, Jacob 5 Valentine, Philip 10 Valentine, Richard 10 Van Wyck, Barnt 10 Van Wyck, Cornelius 5 Williams, John H. 5 Williams, William 4 Williams, Wil.-on 2 Willis, Townsend 15 Woolli'}, Bfiij:Miiin, Jr. 1 Woolley, IJeiijainin 24 Wool ley, Henry 20 Woolley, John 17 Woolley. Samuel 20 Woolley, Thomas 15 $3,725.50 Trinity Ciiurch, 2.000.00 Total, $5,725.50 83 SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR Haiiner. Mary Hejieinan. Catharine { Hesoman, Rebecca ) Hewlett, Plu'be Kissiitn, Elizabetli Kissam, Pliebe ) Kissam, Rebecca f Kissam, Sarah B, Mitchell, Jane H. Mitchell, Kebecca J. IMitchell, Sally Ondeidonk. Maiia Piatt, Eliza and Sarah Reeves, Caiuliiio A. CHURCH FURNITURE. Sands, Anna 3 Sands, Kezia 3 Sands, Sarah 3 Smith, Jane 5 Smith, Rebecca 5 Sell. Catharine 3 Townsend, Sarah 2 Tiedwell, Hannah 3 Tredwell, Pegiry 3 Tredwell, Marian 3 WooUev, Susanna 3 Total, $116 At the raising of the clmi'ch a bountiful dinner was served up in the open air, on tables made of rough boards.* On Sunday, November 20th, 1803, Bishop Moore consecrated the new edifice by the name of Christ Church, and also confirmed fifty persons. Mr. Hart read prayers and the Bishop preached. In 1804, $14 was paid Mr. Sell, sexton ; and in 1805, $9.37 was paid Daniel Corn well, parish clerk. f William and * In 1818, Christ Church Academy (the first in North Hempstead) was erected by the vestry on the Chiircli land, and opened in October, under the care of Rev. Eli Wheeler, who was assisted in succession by James P. Cotter, William Shelton and Harry Finch, candi- dates for Holy Orders, and Ebenezer Close. In May, 1824, the Rev. J. P. F. Clarke (ordained deacon in St. George's Church, December 10, 1820,) succeeded him, among whose assistants were William J, Barry, Fred- erick Craft, Henry Ondcrdonk, Jr., (1827-8), and Rev. William Ernenpentch. t Mr. Cornwel! sat in a little box under the reading desk. He made the responses, gave out the Psalms to be sung, and led the singing, there being no musical instrument as yet in the church. The pulpit was a gift from St. George's Church, New York. It was made of mahogany, being the spar of a ship repaired in the Bay of Honduras. It was quite too large for the chnrch. It was covered by a sounding-board of exquisite workmanship, on the summit of which was perched the emblematic dove with the olive-sprig in it« mouth. The chancel and communion table were between the three-story pulpit and the rear window, Dobsou Allen built a store and inn near by, and in 1806 William was sexton and enter- tained the rector and cared for his horse on Sundays. The rector. Rev. Seth Hart, officiated in the church every other Lord's day till 1818, when Mr. Wheeler, (ordained deacon May 8th, 1814.) who had been a private tutor in Wynant Van Zandt's family, became his assistant ;* and thereafter the church was open every Sunday. Christ Church was separated from St. George's, March 29, 1819,f and incorporated, Mr. Wheeler remaining sole minister till No- vember 1, 1823 ; and Mr. Clarke was called December 1st, and resigned in June, 1832 ; and Joseph F. Phillips was called August 20th, who was ordained priest in this church, October 17, 1833. In 1835, Nov. 30th, Moses Marcus came, and left in 1837, when Mr. Clarke was recalled. May 9th. Mr. Clarke resigned again, October 17, 1849. The rec- tors thereafter were Samuel Cox, 1849; Gt.W. Porter, 1854 ; (t. F. Bugbee, 1805 ; and James E. Homans. 1869. as it was in St. Paul's, New York. This arrangement was after the ancient manner, but it prevented the congregation from having a fair view of the most in- teresting ceremonies of the Divine office. * To THE Rector, Churchwardens and Ves- i TRY OP St. George's Church, Hempstead, f I now have the pleasure of informing you that I accept the call to the office of Assistant Minister in the parish, which you were so kind as to give me in your meeting held at the Court House. I am, Messrs,, Your Ob't H'ble Ser., July 17, 1818, Eli Wheelek. t The writer hereof was present when Mr. Hart preached his farewell sermon. He shed abundant tears. Several respectable families had so deep- seated an affection for their old pastor that thej' were loath to part from him. For a while he met them on Sunday afternoons in the Reformed Dutch Church at Success, IIsTIDJaiK. Aoadomy, Adults, Albertiis, James Allen. Allgeo, David Anabaptists, Ai'chdale, Captain Ashfleld, V. P. Ayde, St. P. Baird, Alexander Baldwin, George B.ill, Baptism, Baptists, Barn, Barracks, Bartow, Rev. John Bason, Bedell, 3-2, 33 4, 8 9, 33 11 11, 16, 2d 15 31 29 9 8 2,4,6 11 23. 27 28,31 3 26 5, 6, 15 Delancey, 8, 15, 2S Denomination, 16, 24 Denton, 1, 2, 6, 7, 16 Desk, 6, 26, 33 Dickinson, Samuel 2 Dinner, 8 Dis.senters, Distemper, Donation, Dorland, Doughty, Isaac Dragoons, 4, 13, 21, 30 19 2n 6, 10 2 14, 37 Drisius, Rev. Samuel 1 2, 9, 15, 16, -26 Bell, Benches, Benefaction, 20 Bethpage, 20 Betts, Millicent 11 Bible, 6, 17. 22 Birch, Colonel 14, 37, 28 Bishop, 34 Boarding school, 23 Books, 5, 17 Bovvnas, Samuel 2 Bradford, William 2 Brewster, Joseph 31 Brookhaven, 6, 7, 30 Brooklyn. 28, 29 Brown, 7, 8, 9, 11, 39 Bungy, 20 Burying-place, 6 Buryings, 17, 18 Cage, 27, 28 Campbell, 7 Canting, 17, 30 Caroline cliurch, 7, 31 Carpenter, John 29 Carpet, 6 Catecliise, 20 Catechist, 5, 6, 10, 22, 30 Catechisms, 10, 18 Catechumens, 18, 21, 34 Drum, Duchess Co., Dutch, 1, Earmarks, Easter, East Hampton, Education, Ellison, Richard Einpie, Adam 2,4, 5 11, 33 13, 23, 39 5.6 6, 18, 30 30 5, 18 11 15 Enthusiasm,9, 10, 11,16,30 Ei)iscopal, 34 Eucharist, 4 Evans. Rev. Evan 3 Everit, Thomas 29 Flower, Ilauuah 29 Floyd, 6 Fogs, 17 Fordhara, 1 Fort. 1 Fort-neck, 28 Posters Meadow. 5, 2» Fowler, Andrew 33 Friends. 1, 2 Funeral bell, 11 Funeral pall, 13 Funeral sermon, 18 Gallery, 4, 7, 11, 23 Gernion, Isaac 9 Gildersleeve, 3, 3, 5,9,13,29 Gill, Roger 2 Gleaves, Matthew 29 Kissam, 9, 11, 15, 32 Kneeland, Rev. E., 12, 30 Cedar Swamp, Chalice, Chancel, Chandler, Charter, Cheeseman, Joseph Christ Cliurch, Christenings, Christmas, Church, Church-days, 16 6 26, 33 25 9, 36 11 10. 33 17, 33 30 4, 14, 30 5 Ch. of England. 4. 5,29.30 Churchman, 3, 16. 25, 30 Churchwarden, 2, 7, 10 Clap-board, 6 Clarke, George 3, 6, 8 Clowes, 8, 11, 19 Clerk, 2, 9, 10, 18 Cloth, b, 19 Cock, Katharine 6 Colgan, Rev. Thomas 10 Cohlen, Alexander 29 Coles, Nathaniel 3 Cotnmissary, 21, 26. 30 Communicants, 4, 23 Communion, 5 Glebe, God-father, GoUliug. Good Friday, Great Neck, Greaton, Guard-honse, Hagawout, Hall, Hart, Havilaud, John Heathen, Hewlett, Hobart, Holy Orders, Homilies, Horsfield, Thomas Hospital, Hospitality, Hour-glass, Hugins, James 18, 30, 31 17, 23 6, 11 39 2 13, 30 27 II, 14, 15 8 15, 33 2 12, 18 9, 28, 31 1, 2, 25, 33 21, 23 6 Langdon, Lady-day Latham, John Latitudinarians, Leaky, William Lean-to, Lectures, Lee, Thomas Lefferts, John Library, License, Liturgy, Lloyd, Henry Lord's day, Lord's supper, Lottery, Lowe, John Loyalist, Lyons. Mandate, Maintenance, Marriag'es, Martin, Marvin, Marsh. John Mather, Matin ecock, Meadow, Meeting-house, Methodism, Michaelmas, Minister, Missionary, Mitchell, Moore, Morris. Mott, John Musqueto Cove, Negroes, New England, New Light, Nicoll. Henry Noble, Norwich, Ogden, Onderdonk. Ordination, Outcry 29 27 5, 19 1 9 Comm'n table, 18, 19, 26, 33 Insurgents Huntington, 10. 11.12,14,30 Huntington South, 33 Hyde Park, 8, 36 Immersion 21 Independents, Indians, Induction, Infidels, Institution, Congregationalist. 30 Consecration. 8, 10, 25, 33 Cornbury, Lord, 3, 30 Cornell, 6, 8, 26, 29, 33 Cosby, Governor 7, 16 Cow Neck, 20, 33 Crawley, John 29 Cutler, Rev. Timothy 10 Cutting, 12, 14, 23, 25, 31 Cushion, 6 Damask. 8 Damnation, 19 Davies, V Davi.s, 10 Deists, 23 Islip Itiner.tnt, Mr. Jackson, Jamaica, Jecocks. Thomas Jenney. Jericho, Jerusalem, Johnson, Jacob Jones, Justice Keble, 11, 18 3, 6. 10. 13 18, 31 13 14 12, 13, 30, 33 3, 16, 34 9 17 15 20 13 1 7 9 13 20 21 17, 29, .33 10, 15, 30 7, 18 10, 19 23, 29, 31 15 25, 28 10, 12, 15, 30 3. 6 31 16, 17, 18 11, 14 8, 11 8, 9, 26 3 16 19 1, 23 10, 16, 26 30 6, 17, 20 30 8, 33 1, 15, 31 6, 35 8 16 6, 8, 18, 20 4 10 31 15 16, 20 7, 19 15, 23, 33 15 1 Oyst'rb'y, 3.6.10,13.16,28,33 Page, Rev. Bernard 29 Pall, 12 Paper, 5 Parish, 3, 16, 17, 20. 24 Parish Clerk, 14, 15 Parsonage, 1, 4, 19 Paten, 6 Patrean, Daniel 9 Pearsall, Nathaniel 1, 3 8, 11, 16 17, 18 6, 8, 36 21,23 3,8 27, 28 5, 17, 20 16 16 8,3 Rockaway, 8 Roe, John 8 Rowland, John 9 Rudd, J. C. 31 Rum, 18 Ryerson, George 12 Sabbath. 1 Sacrament, 5, 6, 21 Salary, 1,31 Sands, 6 Sayre, 14, 28, 29 Scantling, 8 School. 15, 16, 20, 22, 26 Schoolhouse. 18 Schoolmaster, 5, 10, 18, 30 Seabury, 10, 12, 21 Seats. 8 Searle, Cornet 14 Secatogue, 28 Sectaries, 21, 24 Sermon, 8, 17. 30 Setauket, 31, 33 Sexton, 9, 11. 13 Sharpe, Rer. J, 30 Shelter Island, 9. 30 Shingles, 6,8, 38 Sickness, 5,22 Sinclair, Cornet 15 Silk, 6 Slaves, 6 Slays, . 20 Smith, 2, 6, 8, 9, 29 4 9 6, 8, 9 16 20 11 Peters. Perquisites, Pews, Physic, Pine, Pintard, Samuel Plains, Piatt, Benjamin Poole, Samuel Prayer-book, 4, 5, Presbyterians, 3, 7, 20, 24 Prime. Dr. B. Y. Pritchard, Probationer, Provost, Profaneness, Proselyte, Psalms, Pulpit, Quaker, 1, 2, Quakerism, Queens Village, 1 3 21 25, 38 33 18 16, 21, 33 4. 6. 36, 33 7, 9, 19, 30 13. 31 13, 30 Spire, Snow, 20 Southampton, 7. 30 Southold, 8. 30 Standard, Rev. Thomas 6 Sounding-board, 33 Steeple, 7, 16 St. George, 7 Strong. Selah 31 Stoughton, 3 Stuart, 3 Stuyvesant, 1 Success, 16, 20, 32 Sweeping, 11 Sundav, 9, 23 Sutton, Robert 9 Syren, 29 Table, 6 Temple, Thomas 9, 10 Thomas, 3, 6. 25. 29 Thorne, 9, 11. 33 Throop, 15 Thunder-clap, 16, 26 Toleration, 23 Town send. Rev. E. 28 Town-house, 1, 10 Tracts, 7 Train-bands, 10 Tredwell. 6, 8, 16, 21. 32 Trinity Church, 2, 99 Turner. James 12 ITrquhart, Rev. Wm. 3, 4 Valentine, Samuel 16 Van Nostrand. 14, 31 Van Ostrant, Cornelius 12 Van Wvck, 31 Vesey. Rev. Wm. 2, 3. 8. 26 Vestry, 5, 15, 31 Visiting. 17 Walter, Rev. Wm. 14, 29, 31 Watts, George 12 Weather, 19, 20, 23, 31 Westbuiy, 20 Kciitli. Rev, George Kidney. King's arms. Wetmore, Whalers, Wheatly, Wheeler. Rev. Eli Whitsunday, Wiggins. Richard Williams, 30 Willis, 15 Windows, 28 Witnesses, 31 Wood, 18, 39 1 Wolver Hollow, 3, 3 ; Religion, 23 | Wright, Edmund 4. 17 I [Responses, 17, 33, 33 j Yagers, 8, 15 Robertson, Governor 27 j Yelverton, Anthony Rapelye, Garret Rattoone, Rev. E. D 2, 3. 9, 26. 38 I Rebels, 6, 31 Refugees. 7, 9, 16. 20 1 Register-book, 6, 15, 36 18 20 15, 33 14 15 9,29 2,6 1, 26, 28, 3JJ 17 1, 10 31 2 15 8