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C. D. DESHLER

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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

REV. E. CLOWES CHORLEY

CHRIST CHURCH, NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J.
ORGANIZED 1742. INCORPORATED 1761.

MEMORIAL SKETCH

OF

OLD CHRIST CHURCH,
New Brunswick, New Jersey ;
AND OF
Right Reverend John Croes, D.D.,
First Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey:
BY
CHARLES D. DESHLER.

Originally Read at the 150th Anniversary of the Founding of
Christ Church Parish.

Dedicated to and Published by Christ Church Club.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J.
J. Heidingsfeld's Printing House, 42 Albany Street.
1896.

OLD CHRIST CHURCH
AND
BISHOP CROES.

Gathered here, under the shadow of our grey old
Church Tower, it were not an unnatural thought to
apostrophize it, as if it too were a sentient thing, and
ask : ' ' Old Tower, around whose feet lie so many gener
ations of our friends and kindred, what hast thou seen
in all the years that have come and gone since thy grey
stones were laid more than a century and a half ago ? "
Let us for a moment hold aside the curtain of the
Past, and rehearse a few of the things which this mute
but eloquent witness might tell.
When these old stones were laid, we were a "feeble
folk." Our towns and cities were then either petty vil
lages or had not yet emerged from the primeval forest
and wilderness. The aborigines of the Lenni-Lenapi
tribe still lingered among us. Our people were thinly
scattered over a narrow belt of land which fringed and
closely hugged the sea-board, and straggled from New
Hampshire on the north to South Carolina and Georgia

4 OLD CHEIST CHURCH
on the south. Our churches were few and widely sun
dered, and so also were our ministers and congregations.
There were few roads for the intercommunication of the
people, few schools for their instruction, no press for
their enlightenment, no manufactures to minister to
their wants, few elegances or ornaments wherewith to
adorn their homes, and in our colony no college had yet
been planted. Nor had the Nation, now so wide-spread
ing and puissant, yet been born ; but, instead, thirteen
feeble and dissevered colonies were loosely governed at
the beck of men beyond the sea, who have left no
marked impression of their genius or their virtue on our
history. Nor is this all. When these old stones were laid, the
marvellous powers of steam, of electricity, and of heat,
were lying unrevealed; the coal in our mountains waited
the miner's pick and shovel*; illuminating gas had not
yet been discovered ; the myriad uses and applications
of cotton, of rubber, and of iron and a score of other
metals (some of which last had not even a name), were
unknown and undreamed of, as were also daguerreotypy
and its more beautiful daughter photography, many of
the industrial arts and mechanisms which are now as
common as air, and a thousand other secrets which
science and invention have since wrested from nature
for the benefit and advancement of the race.
Yes. Standing aloft in the midst of us, reminding us
of those storied stones which in earlier times marked the
passing hours, our grey old tower has witnessed events
and changes manifold and wondrous. Let us note a few
of the things the staunch old pile has seen :

" No anthracite coal was mined and snipped to market prior to 1820 Frnm
1820 to 1824 inclusive the total amount mined and shipped to all ouartoJS
was less than 20,000 tons, as agamst 45,263,992 tons in 1891 s

AND BISHOP CROES. 5
Nearly a century and a quarter ago, severally in June
and July 1774, it saw gathered within a stone's throw
two conventions ; the one a short distance to the west
and south of the church, and the other a few hundred
yards away on the east and north of it. They were re
spectively composed of patriots of the Colony and of
the County, who had journeyed to our central town to
compare public grievances, to devise remedies, to pro
test against the exactions and usurpations of the British
parliament, to appoint delegates to the first Continental
Congress, and to vote sympathy and substantial aid to
the suffering patriots of the far-off Town of Boston.
This was the first organized act of revolt against Great
Britain by the people of New Jersey.
In the fall and winter of the following year, 1775,
and early in 1776, it again saw, assembled in anxious
and continuous daily sessions, hard by the church yard
gate, a notable body of grave and thoughtful men from
every county in the province. They had been chosen
by the people of their respective counties to represent
them in Provincial Congress, and had now been sum
moned to deliberate on urgent business affecting their
common liberties: to consider the grievances of the
colony and its sister colonies, to provide for the preser
vation of public order pending the abrogation of the
royal authority, to take care for the common defence,
and to prepare intelligently and energetically for the
war for independence which they foresaw was presaged,
and which they were resolute to precipitate.
In the spring of 1775, at two o'clock on the morning
of April the 24th, the old tower faintly descried through
the gloom, a moving cloud of dust approaching the town
from the east by the " King's Highway," on the farther

6 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
side of the bridge. Soon, a horseman became visible,
speeding his steed to the utmost. He thundered across
the bridge regardless of the signs warning travellers to
proceed at "no faster gait than a walk," and, in less
time than it has taken to tell the story, he had halted
his reeking horse in front of the old Indian Queen Ho
tel, had dismounted, and had handed a packet to some
members of the "Committee of Safety" who were on
duty there. Upon opening the packet and reading its
contents there was a hum of excitement, a fresh horse
was quickly provided, the packet was copied, re-sealed,
and addressed to fellow-members of the " Committee"
at " Princetown," with directions to "read and forward
with all speed to Trenton " — whereat the horseman re
mounted and dashed on past the old tower at a mad gal
lop. It was the tidings of the Battle of Lexington — the
shot that echoed round the world — which had been de
spatched to their brother patriots by the patriots of Bos
ton, and was now speeding onward to electrify the hearts
and nerve the arms of the patriots in Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and the Caro-
linas. Again, on the morning of July the 8th, 1776, the old
tower saw still another horseman enveloped in a cloud
of dust, this time speeding onward from an opposite di
rection — galloping over the road from Princeton, dash
ing across the Mile Run Brook, thundering down French
and Albany streets, stopping at the White Hall Tavern,
again delivering a packet to the members of the " Com
mittee " who were there and who fairly leaped for joy
again supplied with a fresh horse, and again spurring
across the bridge, bound for Elizabethtown, Newark
New York, and the states to the North and East. It

AND BISHOP CROES. 7
was the tidings of the immortal " Declaration " that
proclaimed our independence and made us a nation.
On Friday, the 29th day of November, in that same
eventful year (1776), coming slowly over the same road
which had been so madly traversed by the horseman
who brought the news of Lexington, the old tower saw
a sadder sight. There was no cloud of dust now, for it
was winter and the earth was icebound. It was the lit
tle patriot army with Washington at its head, helplessly
retreating across the Jerseys before the advancing
columns, in its rear, of the powerful and well-appointed
British army; toiling painfully over the deep ruts of the
frozen road; hungry, wearied, half-clad, barefoot, and
despondent, and destitute of even the commonest in
trenching tools. Sadly and silently, marched the little
army, crossed the bridge, struggled up the Albany street
hill, and on the following day and the night of Sunday
vanished over the King's Highway in the direction of
Princeton and Trenton, aiming to reach and cross the
sheltering waves of the Delaware before the enemy
could overtake and annihilate them. Thanks be to
God! they did so, and a few weeks later turned the
tables on their pursuers at Trenton and Princeton.
Hardly had Washington's sorely bestead army left our
town — its rear-guard was yet holding the bridge on the
hither side — when the drums of the pursuing host were
heard, and its advance showed itself on the farther end
of the bridge. And then our old tower looked on an
other scene. The rear-guard of the fleeing patriot army
galloped quickly past, and the British army poured into
the town with drums beating, banners flying, and all
the pomp and pageantry of war. Instead of instantly
pursuing the flying patriots, most providentially, the

8 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
British leader chose "inglorious ease." His troops
were distributed over the town, and strong outposts
were established in all the adjacent villages within a
radius of six or eight miles ; and then began a wholesale
spoliation of the pronounced patriots of our town and
of the surrounding country. The old tower looked
grimly down on a scene of almost universal violence and
rapine. Homes were rifled, stores plundered, houses
dismantled, and barns, dwellings, and churches sacked
or burnt to the ground. In New Brunswick alone, then
consisting of 150 families, over 100 were spoliated or
had their houses burned. It was a sore sight for the
old tower; and sometimes it seemed as if the church
which it flanked would suffer as did the other places of
worship in the town. For although its minister, the
Rev. Abraham Beach, D.D., was mildly loyal to the
British Crown, the church numbered in its congregation
some of the most unflinching patriots in the colony,
foremost among them being staunch and sturdy John
Dennis,* its Senior Warden; valiant George Farmer;
and chivalric Anthony Walton White. Fortunately,
however, it escaped, after experiencing some minor
depredations which are described in the following
appraised inventory, which I copy from the original
M.S.S., in the State Library at Trenton:
"Damages Committed by the British and their Ad
herents to Christ Church, New Brunswick :
1777 To damages done to said church by
breaking and taking away 6 seats £0.15.0
To fence round the sd Church of Red
Cedar posts and rails and Cedar
Boards 40.0 0

£40.15.0

* Mr. Dennis was plundered by the British to the value of £2.341.

AND BISHOP CROES. 9
William Harrison being sworn saith that the inven
tory by him exhibited in behalf of the Congregation of
Christ Church is just & true to the best of his knowledge
and belief, and that he was knowing to the Enemy's
doing the damage to the abovesaid Church
Sworn, Oct. 5, 1782 | William Harrison
Before Benjn Manning App1 j
Joseph Vickers declares upon oath that he has viewed
the damages done to Christ Church in New Brunswick
as above mentioned in this inventory, and do adjudge
the said damages to the amount of £40.15.0. And has
good reason to believe it was done by the British Troops.
Sworn, Oct. 5, '82, as above Jos Vickers."*
These are only a tithe of the sights which our good
grey tower has witnessed. I might dilate indefinitely
and describe its sight of the entry into our town of
Washington's victorious army after the Battle of Mon
mouth, in 1778, and of its rest and recruitment here;
its sight also of the first steamboat that came up our
winding river, of the first load of anthracite coal that
was brought here for fuel, of the first steam-engine that
pulsed and throbbed within our limits, of the first rail
road that sped through, of the first electric wire that
flashed intelligence to and fro, and of manifold other
first things which it has seen since its courses were laid.
But I desist, for methinks I hear the stout old pile say,
as it looks down the vista of the Future which ii shall
see, but whose depths are hidden from us :
" As we surpass our fathers' skill,
Our sons will shame our own ;
A thousand things are hidden still,
And not a hundred known.
* The total amount of the damages to property in M iddlesex County, by
the British during their occupation of it from Dec. 1st, 1776 to June 23, 1777,
was £82.313. This included 2 churches burned, 3 churches damaged, and 142
dwellings and other buildings burned, or otherwise damaged or destroyed,
the greater portion of which was within cannon-sound of our town.

10 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
Meanwhile, my brothers, work and wield
The forces of to-day,
And plow the Present like a field,
And garner all you may.
You, what the cultured surface grows,
Dispense with careful hands:
Deep under deep for ever goes,
Heaven over heaven expands."
[Tennyson's Mechanophilus.]
My first recollection of the old Church Edifice, before
it was replaced by the present one, dates from 1824 —
seventy-two years ago, when I was a child of five, not
long transplanted from my birthplace on the Delaware,
at Easton, Pa., and come luther to reside with my
maternal grandfather, Jacob Dunham, M.D. Seventy-
two years ! Two years past the allotted threescore and
ten ! As I look around me, I see no face that I then
knew.* For the most part, they who then formed a
part of our congregation lie in the peaceful God's-acre,
around the feet of the storied old tower they knew so
well. With the exception of the tower, the present church
edifice is comparatively new, it having been built some
thirty years later than the period which I am now re
calling. The tower alone remains as at the beginning
— the sole survivor of all the houses or other buildings
that then stood within the limits of our city. The older
edifice, whose interior had been slightly remodeled
during the episcopate of Bishop Croes, was slightly
narrower and considerably shorter than the present one.
I have heard English gentlemen say after a visit to it
that it was an admirable fac sim He, on a reduced scale
of the best examples with which they were familiar of
* When this paper was first read, in 1892, my brother-in-law Bdwarri r
Boggs D.D was present Since then he has departed, and nbw lies with
his and my kindred, nearly at the foot of the tower.

AND BISHOP CROES. 11
the old parish churches then extant in England. I do
not know its exact dimensions, and speak only approxi
mately, from memory, when I say that the height of the
interior from the ground floor to the ceiling was about
the same as that of the present structure. In breadth,
it must have been only a few feet narrower ; while its
entire length was about equal to the distance from the
tower to the present exterior arch of the chancel-recess.
Its windows were lancet-shaped ; they were much wider
and taller than those in the newer edifice, and were
heavily mullioned with branching stone-work. Its east
window was a noble one. It was far larger and more
imposing than were the side windows; and the present
structure offers no architectural feature that even re
motely compensates for its loss. Directly in front of
this fine window, and lighted by it, were the Reading
Desk and the Pulpit : the former, a spacious box-like
structure, capable of holding half-a-dozen clergymen
at once, on whose long and wide book-rest, facing
the people, with its correspondingly long and wide
cushion covered with rich crimson silk, lay the large folio
Bible and the large folio Service-books that were then
used. The pulpit was reached, and there was no other
entrance way to it, by a spiral staircase, which sprang
from the floor on the south side of the reading desk.
It was very capacious, was provided with a seat at the
back for the use of the clergyman, and was surmounted
by a huge, shingle-roofed sounding board, on the apex
of which was a gilt dove in the attitude of taking flight.
On the front of the pulpit, facing the centre of, the
church, was a tablet of polished brass, representing
sun-rays streaming outward from the capital letters
"I. H. S." and irradiating the world. Well do I re-

12 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
member the interest which these letters and the sur
rounding golden sun-rays, excited in my callow mind,
and the satisfaction with which I learned the full signif
icance of each. The entrance to and exit from the read
ing desk were on the right, or Church street side: and
this recalls the circumstance, novel in our day, that in
those more primitive days there was no convenient robing-
place near the chancel, as there now is. Consequently,
when the officiating minister exchanged the surplice for
the black gown, as was then the custom preliminary to
entering the pulpit for the sermon, he was obliged to
traverse the long aisle on the Church street side, for
the whole length of the church, in order to reach the
vestry, or robing room, which was a narrow little apart
ment, on the north side of the tower and opposite the
tower stairs, large enough to permit one only to disrobe
at a time, so that when two or more were robing or dis
robing, all save one had to sit down until he had com
pleted his ecclesiastical toilet. Of course, the aisle had
to be re-traversed after the change of robe was effected.
Immediately in front of the Reading Desk was the
Chancel, in which, close against the Reading Desk,
stood the Communion Table. The chancel formed a
large semi-circle, which extended some five or six feet
in front of and nearly around the reading desk on
both sides. It was separated from the body of the
church by a mahogany railing like a balustrade, at the
foot of which on the outer side was a kneeling cushion
for communicants and others. Directly in the centre,
and just outside the railing, stood our time-honored
Font. The arrangement of the pews was as follows : In the
northeast and southeast corners, on either side of the

AND BISHOP CROES. 13
east window and the reading desk, was a large canopied
and wainscotted square pew, each elevated one step
higher than the pews in the body of the church, and
graced with pilasters upholding the canopy. Alongside
and attached to each of these, respectively facing the
north and the south side of the pulpit and reading desk,
was a common pew, on a level with but rather wider
than the pews in the body of the church. These ornate
elevated square pews were undoubtedly a survival of
the "Squire's Pews" in the old-time English parish
churches. Opposite them, in the northwest and south
west corners, under the gallery, were two other square
pews, also elevated one step above the common pews,
as were those just described, but considerably less
ornate and less ample than they, and unlike them
neither canopied nor wainscotted.
I shall not attempt further to describe in words the
interior arrangement of the old church, but instead shall
introduce a ground-plan, which, I think will afford a
more intelligible idea of the pews, and aisles, and other
features, than can be derived from a verbal description.
It will be understood that this diagram is reproduced
from memory only, and that while it is correct in its
general outlines, it does not assume to give exact
measurements, or to show the precise number of the
pews. (See diagram next page. )
Such was the old edifice when I first knew it seventy-
two years ago ; and so it remained without defacement
for nearly thirty years afterward, when all save the
tower was torn down, and the fine old relic of the past
was replaced by the present structure. As I recall its
appearance in those earlier years, notwithstanding its
bareness and simplicity, its plainness and paucity of

14

OLD CHRIST CHURCH

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AND BISHOP CROES. 15
ornamentation, its straight and high-backed pews
hiding all save the heads of the occupants when seated,
and its restricted dimensions, it yet looked every inch
a church. There was picturesqueness in the nakedness
and solidity of its strong walls; and its large lancet-
shaped windows, more especially its noble east window,
imparted an aspect of severe dignity, despite their small
panes of 6x8 glass. Nor did the appearance of good
Bishop Croes detract from the simple and severe dignity
of his church. Tall above the common ; venerable,
apostolic, and authoritative in his mien ; grave almost
to austerity but for the benevolence that lurked on his
lips and sparkled in his eyes; his face lined with care
and thought, and ever bearing himself with natural and
unconscious stateliness — if the church in which he
ministered seemed every inch a Church, so also did he
seem every inch a Bishop.
With all its simplicity, however, the old Church had
its alleviations. Among these were its music; of which,
I may say that, notwithstanding what might now be
sneered at as its lack of elaborateness or of classicality,
it pre-eminently embodied the elements of worship and
of genuine devotion. In those primitive times, the
music was usually confined to a " voluntary" on the
organ at the opening and close of the services while the
congregation were gathering or dispersing; to the
"TeDeum,"the "Venite,"the "Gloria in Excelsis,"
the "Jubilate" or the "Benedicite," the "Gloria
Patri " at the end of the Psalter, and a psalm before
and a hymn after the sermon. This at morning ser
vice. And at evening service, the ' ' Cantate " or the
" Bonum est," the "Misereatur" or the " Benedic
Anima Mea," the "Gloria Patri" at the end of the

16 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
Psalter, and again a psalm before and a hymn after the
sermon. Besides, whensoever a Sunday fell on the
30th or 31st day of the month, the final psalm of the
Psalter, the " Laudate Dominum," was almost invari
ably sung. The only deviation from the above was on
Christmas Day, when the service was begun, before the
reading of the sentences, by the choir and the congre
gation voluntarily joining with great spirit in the
favorite "Portuguese Hymn," in the English version,
beginning with the words " Hither ye faithful," etc.
I may add, that there never was a Christmas, then nor
for many years later, when the delightful old hymn,
" While shepherds watched their flocks by night," was
omitted. At the period of which I speak, Christ Church was
the only church in New Brunswick which had an organ.
It was a small, but sweet toned instrument, having
only a single bank of keys and but six stops. It had
no pedal key-board, and was supplied with air by means
of a foot-pedal, under the bank of keys, which was
worked by the organist by leg- power when he was
playing. This was exceedingly awkward when the
organist happened to be a lady; and, consequently, it
was the custom for some young lad to stand beside her
and apply the necessary power — a capacity in which I
have often served, with a glow of pride for having been
chosen for the service. The regular organist was the
venerable and excellent William Lupp, the grandfather
of the present inheritor of the name. He was an ardent
lover of music, and his taste was faultless. While he
played, his whole being was rapt in the music, so that
as I stood by and watched him at his practisings'
especially if he thought he was playing to himself in

AND BISHOP CROES. 17
the empty church, in my boyish fancy it seemed as if
his soul and the soul of the organ were holding com
munion and that he held confidential converse with it,
as he drew from it the quaintest, weirdest, and most
dulcet harmonies, or exquisite strains of far-off melody
a little tinged with gentle sadness, or grand notes of
triumph and exultation, according as his moods were
bright or sombre.
The choir then consisted, first, last, and all the time,
of Miss Ann S. Croes, the eldest daughter of the
Bishop, whose pure and wonderfully sympathetic con
tralto, with its rare faculty, of touching the sensibilities
of her hearers, often so as to melt them to tears, was
always listened to with delight, even when most sur
charged with plaintiveness, and never failed to elicit
the involuntary admiration of strangers. A little later,
the basso was Thomas Targee, afterward for many
years Chief of the Fire Department of St. Louis, a
large, jovial, genial, fair-complexioned man, with a
head of luxuriant, silken, and fiery-red hair. His voice
was a superb and serviceable baritone — of great com
pass and power : its lower notes grave and deep, and its
upper tones having the fine, clear and penetrating qual
ities of a tenor, and all of them of prodigious power
and volume, when he chose to exert them — which was
not seldom. The remainder of the choir, consisted of
half-a-dozen or more ladies and gentlemen, whose at
tendance was rather for companionship than for any
substantial assistance in the music, although on occa
sion they formed a fair chorus. The choir, I may say
in passing, sat in two large square pews, in the gallery,
one on each side of the organ — the ladies, and the geu-
tlemen who took the upper parts, in the one on the left
PJ

18

OLD CHRIST CHURCH

of the organist, and the bassos in the one on his right,
as he sat with his back to the pulpit.
And then, too, there was the dear old Christmas-tide,
which the congregation of the old church never suffered
to pass without the outward and visible manifestation
of their joy and gladness. Then, the bare old walls were
resplendent with greenery, and tall young evergreen
trees filled the spacious windows. The pulpit,1 the read
ing desk, and the chancel-rail were decked with green
boughs ; and from the dove, high up on the pulpit- top,
green cables streamed down on either side to the front
roofs of the canopied pews, which, in their turn were
half -hidden by festoons of hemlock and holly and dec
orated by large branches of fragrant pine and red cedar.
The quaint old gallery and the organ, too, were gaily
dressed in Christmas green ; and from a pendent of the
stucco-work, which ornamented the ceiling directly over
the centre of the pews, depended long green wreaths
that swung to the four corners of the church. But the
body of the church, though the most simply dressed,
ever seemed in my eyes the most effectively adorned
of all : each pew having planted on its front and rear,
along its side against the wall and -also on the aisle,
nought but a simple bough of evergreen, thus convert
ing the pews of the church into the semblance of a wav
ing forest of odorous pine and cedar. Of the weeks of
loving toil and preparation for all this, and of the inter
change of happy intercourse which it entailed between
young and old, gentle and simple, rich and poor, pastor
and people, I need not enlarge, since the gracious ameni
ties of church-dressing at Christmas still continue among
us, and long may they survive.
Indissolubly associated, in my memory, with our older

AND BISHOP CROES. 19
church edifice, is the form of the venerable revolutionary
soldier, Colonel Daniel Kemper, the father of the late
Bishop Jackson Kemper. This fine old gentleman was
one of the most familiar and notable figures of our town.
A little above the medium height and an exceedingly
active man, he might have been seen on our streets al
most every day, where he always attracted attention by
his erect bearing, his military air and gait, his eagle eye
and nose, his long and serviceable walking staff, and
his old-fashioned and highly becoming garb. Among
his friends and intimates, he was a great talker; and
we children thought him one of the most delightful
chroniclers. From an age so early that it is lost in the
shadows, I was admitted to the freest intercourse1 in the
plain but refined household of this venerable gentleman,
where I have been many scores of times regaled with
the delicious cakes and preserves made by his daughters,
Miss Eliza and Miss Jane, and fascinated by his stirring
recitals of the incidents of the Revolutionary War in
which he had been an actor.
Among his other peculiarities, the good Colonel had
a loud and ringing voice, and was very emphatic in his
enunciation of words when reading aloud. This pecu
liarity was exhibited in the church services, in a manner
so marked as to excite my admiration and pique my
rivalry. When making the responses his voice, clear
as a clarion and in its tone not a little peremptory,
might be heard far above all other voices, so that to my
childish fancy the service seemed to be a colloquy in
which he and the minister were the chief interlocu
tors. On more than one occasion, so great was my
admiration of the Colonel's stentorian responses, that I
was irresistibly tempted to enter into a rivalry with him,

20 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
to be abruptly silenced, however, or made to moderate
my childish treble, by a sharp nudge from my grand
father on the one side, or on the other by the gentler
admonition of my loving and most tenderly loved Aunt
Eliza. ... Ah ! How the good Colonel's familiar tones
yet ring in my ears, as he read ahtiphonally from the
Psalter, in a voice loud enough for a regiment to hear
and with the most impressive emphasis, such passages
as these:
" *Put them in fear, O Lord, that the heathen may
know themselves to be but men.
" He maketh his angels sperrits, and his ministers a
flaming fire.
" There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan,
whom Thou hast made to take his pastime therein.
" Whose feet they hurt in the stocks; the i-ron en
tered into his soul.
" O *put not your trust in princes," etc. etc.
Then there was Mrs. Rattoone, one of the surviving
daughters of Rev. Dr. Beach: the gentlest, serenest,
and most benign of women, and withal one of the most
cultivated and intellectual. In her case, truly, was age
beautiful ; for it was made lovely by pious and kindly
thoughts, and was rich in that intensely human feeling
that makes all men kin. I recall the tender reverence
with which, in my very early childhood, I used to watch
her slight, black-robed, and a little bent figure, toil up
the long north aisle to her pew, which was directly next
to and facing the chancel and font ; and with what so
licitude I regarded her intent devotion during service
And when childhood gave place to youth, and I visited
her with other youths of both sexes at her tranquil and
elegant home, "The Farm," on the Easton Turnpike I
• The " u " sounded as In but.

AND BISHOP CROES. 21
count among the happiest and most refining influences
of my life the delightful hours we spent there listening
to, or striving to entertain her. It was an education in
taste, delicacy, and refinement to us young folk to be
invited to tea and to spend an evening with her ; and
her softening and elevating influences were not confined
to us, though she specially loved the society of the
young, but reached and blessed the entire social circle
of which she was the loving and beloved centre.
In those early days of our century, there were still
many slaves surviving among us ; their children being
apprentices to the masters till they were twenty-five,
when they were to become free. To prepare these last
for freedom, they were encouraged to learn trades by
many of the more thoughtful masters; and were taught
to read and write, and instructed in morals and religion
by the females of their masters' families. For the
grown negroes, a number of pews were set aside on the
south side of the gallery next the wall ; but to keep the
young negro- lads in order while in church, and also to
make sure that they came to church, a long, low-seated,
high-backed bench was provided for them, which was
placed at the foot of the east window, directly under
neath the pulpit, and facing the congregation, so that
they might be seen of all men. You may rest assured
that, under such unfavorable circumstances for pranks,
there was very little sky-larking indulged in by the
youthful darkeys.
In my early boyhood, coal had not yet come into use
as a fuel; and, necessarily, the church was very im
perfectly warmed by wood-stoves. These were huge
cast-iron boxes, oblong in shape, which were fed with
wood of various thicknesses, and varying from two to

22 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
three feet in length. It often happened on very inclem
ent days that the stoves required replenishing during
the service. This was the office of the sexton ; and, as
all who are familiar with wood fires will realize, some
times involved considerable noise. Thus., it further
happened that, when the stoking, had to be done during
the lessons or the sermon, the minister prudently held
up for a few moments, till the disturbance ceased. With
every attention paid to the stoves to keep them in full
blast, in exceedingly cold weather, .however, the church
was often far from comfortable. .To provide against
such a contingency, it was the. custom, to carry to church,
as I have often done for my grandmother, foot-.stpves
for the old or invalids. And on some bitterly cold days,
we all exercised the further precaution against cold fin
gers and toes, of carrying with us heated bricks muffled in
flannel for the benefit of the feet, and heated round
cobble-stones of suitable size and similarly muffled for
the benefit of the hands — just as we did when going on
a long and cold sleigh ride. But after all was done, it
was sometimes pinching work to sit through the service..
As that was before the. introduction of gas, the method
of lighting the old church was as primitive as the mode
of heating it. For that matter, however, the church
only needed ligh ting-up on dark days, as I cannot recall
a service in those days save in the morning and after
noon — -the morning, service beginning at 10 o'clock and
the evening service at 3 o'clock. The body of the
church was lighted by oil lamps, suspended by iron rods
from the ceiling, supplemented by others that rested on
brackets which extended from the side and rear walls
Here and there, too, in some dark corners in the gallerv
the tower, and elsewhere, tin sconces with candles were

RIQHT REVEREND JOHN CROES, D. D.
FIRST BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE OF NEW JERSEY.

AND BISHOP CROES. 23
hung about against the walls ; and on the pulpit were
movable chandeliers, with spermaceti candles, which
were lighted by the, sexton on dark days, just before the
sermon. These reminiscences of the old church in which he
ministered are an appropriate prelude to a brief me
morial of the revered man who was its first settled rector
after the revolutionary war, and who became the first
bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey. In this sketch, I
shall not retrace the ground occupied by the late Rev.
Mr. Norton in his brief "Life of Bishop Croes," or by
the late Alfred Stubbs, D.D., in the generally accurate
memoir of the bishop which he embodied in his histori:
cal sketch of Christ Church, save where there are omis
sions of interesting facts, or where the accounts are less
full and correct than is desirable.
John Croes was born at Elizabethtpwn, New Jersey,
on the first day of June 1762, of a Polish father and a
German mother, who had emigrated from Europe not
long before his birth, and who removed from thence to
Newark (N. J.) when he was eleven years old. His
father originally designed the lad for his own occupa
tion, that of a -baker : his means not being such as to^
warrant the expense of a liberal education, for which
the boy had early manifested a strong inclination. The
father, himself a man of a great native shrewdness and
intelligence but whose education had been very limited,
observed and pondered ; and finally, as the upshot of
his reflections, gave the youth the option of learning the
baker's trade, or of procuring an education by his own
exertions supplemented by such pecuniary aid as the
father could afford. Young Croes promptly chose the
latter alternative ; but his efforts in that direction were

24 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
interrupted by the war of independence; and while yet
only a lad of sixteen, he entered the revolutionary army
as a private in Captain Craig's company in Col. Van
Courtlandt's Essex regiment of State Troops, serving
successively thereafter in it, and in Captain Nathaniel
Camp's, Captain Robert Neil's, and Captain Gillam's
companies of State Troops, respectively as sergeant and
sergeant-major, besides engaging in several hazardous
volunteer expeditions in the northern part of the State.
When the war approached its close, in 1782, he returned
home, where he pursued his studies for a time under the
advice and tutelage of the Rev. Alexander Macwhorter,
D.D., an eminent local teacher and a liberal-minded
Presbyterian clergyman of Newark. Here, among others,
he had for intimate friends and fellow-students, Alex
ander C. Macwhorter, a son of the Doctor, Zadock
Squier, Ashbel Green, afterward President of Princeton
College, and Isaac Watts Crane, who afterward became
his brother-in-law, and was an acute but eccentric law
yer. In 1782, the three first named entered Princeton
College; and their letters to their young friend, now
preserved in the archives of Christ Church,* describe
the college and college matters with great minuteness
and vivacity, and breathe a freshness and heartiness of
affection for their absent comrade, which is very pleas
ant to contemplate  These letters reveal that
young Croes, who was then rising twenty, was inclined
to pursue a collegiate course at Nassau Hall in company
with his young friends, in response to their urgent ap-
* Wherever In this memoir, letters and other manuscripts referred to, are
said to be "preserved in the archives of Christ Church," they were pre
sented to Christ Church, in 1895, by the grandchildren of Bishop Croes, Mr.
J. James K. Croes, and his sisters, Miss Mary R. Croes and Miss Helen Croes,
of Yonkers, New York. These relics are in the special custody of Christ
Church Club.

AND BISHOP CROES. 25
peals. The subject is very, seriously revolved : — Croes
feeling debarred by his lack of means from carrying the
joint desire into effect; and his friends, especially the
future President of Nassau Hall, casting earnestly
about to devise some employment for him as a teacher
in connection with the college, which would enable him
to defray his tuition fees and board bills. For some
reason, which does not appear in the correspondence,
whether the inability of his friends to secure the desired
employment or a change of purpose on the part of
Croes, the project fell through. The probability is, as
was hinted in the letters of one of his friends, that he
had. become engaged to be married, since in 1785, he
married Martha Crane, of Newark.
The next we hear of. him is as an occasional contribu
tor of aTticles to the newspaper press, mainly vigorous
criticisms of men, manners, books, and morals ; and as,
at the same time, industriously pursuing his studies and
readings with a view to his preparation for the ministry
in the church in which he had been baptized. Either
iii 1785 or 1786, he became the principal of the Acad
emy at Newark, which position he filled with marked
acceptability until 1789, when he resigned it and an
nounced himself a candidate for Holy Orders. In the
meantime, his health having suffered from the double
strain of his duties as a teacher and his devotion to his
classical and theological studies, he was recommended
to seek relaxation and re-establishment by a horse
back journey through New Jersey and parts of Penn
sylvania and Maryland, during which he was also look
ing around for an opening in some parish that needed a
minister. Before setting out on this tour, his older
friends in Newark, among whom were excellent Dr.

26 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
Macwhorter, his pastor the Rev. Uzal Ogden, the .ven
erable and distinguished Judge Elisha Boudinot, ,and
Judge Abraham Ogden, supplied him with letters of in
troduction and credence, which are now, happily, pre
served in the archives of Christ Church, and which are
extreniely interesting as souvenirs of those gentlemen
and as evincing their high estimate of the character and
abilities of their young friend.
The first of these letters is from his old preceptor and
constant friend, Dr. Macwhorter; and is addressed
to a friend of the doctor residing at Baltimore, thus : ,
"Newark, July 13th, 1789.
"Sir:' ' I take the liberty of introducing to you Mr. John
" Croes a young gentleman of a good character who was
" brought up in this Town and one whom I havepartic-
" ularly known, from a boy. He is I trust a truly pious
" man and of most irreproachable morals. His natural
' ' abilities are considerably above the common level, and
' ' tho' he has not had the advantages of a college edu-
" cation, yet he is a good classical scholar, and has some
" considerable acquaintance with the Sciences, and is em-
" inently acquainted with the grammar and construction
' ' of the English languge. He has taught both English
' ' and Latin in this town for a number of years with
" distinguished reputation. He belongs to the episco-
" pal Church and his purpose is to enter into orders in
" the same. He is now taking a journey for his health,
" and if there should be any important vacancy and he
" can be properly introduced to it, I doubt not he will
" fill it with dignity.
" My most respectful compliments to Mrs. Ridley.
I am, Sir, with the highest esteem
" Your affi? and very hum1.? Ser*
" Alex. Macwhorter "
' ' Mr Ridley "

AND BISHOP CROES. 27
In addition to this personal letter, Dr. Macwhorter
furnished his young friend with the following general
letter of credence :

" "To Any gentleman to Whom this may be pre-
" sented: —
" This certifies that Mr. John Croes, whom I have
' ' known from a boy, is a young gentleman of good nat-
" ural abilities, of a pious character, and of unexcep-
" tionable morals; a good classical scholar, of considera-
" ble reading in the Sciences, and well acquainted with
' ' the grammar and construction of the English language.
" He taught the languages and an English School in this
" Town for a number of years with great reputation.
" He was bred in the episcopal church and his intention
" is to enter into orders in the same. And if he meets
' ' with due encouragement I doubt not he will be an or-
"namenttohis church. He is now on a journey for
"his health, and this is to recommend him to the re-
" spect and friendship of any gentleman to whom he
" may come.
" Given under my hand at Newark in New Jersey
" this 14th day of July 1789
" Alex. Macwhorter, D.D."
From his pastor, the Rev. TJzal Ogden, D.D., Rector
of Trinity Church, Newark, Mr. Croes received the fol
lowing circular letter :
" " Newark, 14th July 1789
" I do certify that the Bearer, Mr. John Croes, hath
" taught with Reputation, the Latin and Greek Lan-
" guages in this Town, for three years last past; that
"he is a Candidate for Holy Orders ; that he supports
" an unblemished moral character, and that occasionally,
" at the Request of the Vestry of Trinity Church, in

28 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
" Newark, and myself, he hath read Prayers and a Ser-
" mon'in said Church, of which he is Communicant
" Uzal Ogden, Rector
" Of the Church above mentioned.
" To, Such of the Clergy and Laity
of the Protestant Episcopal Church ,-
as these presents may come."
The letter given to Mr. Croes by the distinguished sol
dier and civilian, Elisha Boudinot, has a characteristic
touch of patriotic feeling, inspired by the fact that his
young friend had served in the army of the revolution.
It was addressed to Joshua M. Wallace, an eminent
lawyer of Burlington, N. J., and one of the vestry of
St. Mary's Church in that city, and was as follows :
"Newark 17 July 1789
"My Dear Sir
' ' I take the liberty to introduce to your acquaintance
' ' the bearer hereof, Mr. John Croes, a Gentleman who
" was born in this county and has been at the head of
' ' our Academy some years — he has always maintained
' ' an irreproachable character.
" He designs to take orders as soon as an opening
" shall appear. He has been studying divinity some
" time, and I doubt not will make a worthy minister of
" the Gospel, and is respected by all denominations
" here.
" He is now riding for his health, and intends to pass
"thro' your place. I have no doubt, if you know of
" any vacancy, that you will afford him your advice and
' ' assistance. As he is an American and a firm friend
" of his Country, I think such ought to be preferred to
" strangers who are pouring upon us from Europe, and
" we are frequently taken in with them.
" I think you mentioned that Mr. Heath was not firm-
" ly or regularly settled with you. If there should be
" a prospect of his leaving you in any time I should

AND BISHOP CROES. 29
" advise Mr. Croes to wait if it was a twelvemonth — as
" I know of no situation preferable to Burlington,
" Mrs. Boudinot joins me in our best respects to Mrs.
' Wallace, and wishes for an opportunity to convince
' ' her how happy we should be in a visit from you.
IamDT Sir
Yours Sincerely
" Joshua Wallace Esq. Elisha Boudinot "
Mr. Croes's visit to Mr. Wallace and his. presentation
of the foregoing elicited the following from Mr. Wallace
introducing Croes to William Bradford, of Philadelphia,
a son-in-law of Judge Elias Boudinot, and the then
Attorney-General of Pennsylvania — subsequently Attor
ney-General of the United States :
" " Burlington, 29* July 1789
"D? Sir:
" This will be handed to yon by Mr. John Croes a
' ' Gentleman by whom I received the enclosed Letter of
"Introduction from Mr. Elisha Boudinot. I men-
" tioned to him a Church which I supposed was vacant
' ' on the Road from Philada to Lancaster, I think about
"18 or 20 miles from the latter Place. Having no Ac-
" quaintances in the Congregation, and supposing that
" you may have^ if that is the Case I shall be obliged
" to you to recommend him to such as you think may
" be of service to him. The Recommendations he has
"with him from The Rev? BT. M?Whorter and Mr.
" Ogden, added to Mr. Boudinot's Letter, appear to be
' ' sufficient Authority to recommend him with Safety.
' ' Mrs. Wallace, and myself were much pleased with him
" the day he spent here last week.
" Mrs. Wallace, Miss Bradford, and the children are
" well, and send their affect? Regards together with
" mine tp Mrs. Bradford, Miss Pintard and yourself.
" I am DT Sir
" Yours Sincerely
" Joshua M. Wallace. "

30 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
In addition to the foregoing, the following circular
letter of recommendation was given to Mr. Croes, pn his
return from his journey, several months later, by the
venerable Judge Ogden :
" To Whom it may Concern."
' I, Abraham Ogden of New Ark in the County of
' Essex and State of New Jersey, Attorney at Law and
' one of the Vestrymen of Trinity Church at New Ark
' afs? do certify
' That Mr. John Croes hath resided in this Place my
' Neighbour for many years last past; that I am well
' acquainted with him, having had frequent Communi-
' cation with him as the Teacher and Instructor of my
' Children ; that he sustains the general Character of a
' religious good Man ; And I verily believe him to be a
' Man of Learning, of integrity, of unexceptionable
' morals, and a good Christian.
' Ab™ Ogden.
' New Ark 21 September 1789."
In the course of his journey, Mr. Croes had visited the
congregation of the old " Swedes' Church," at Swedes-
boro, Gloucester county, in this State, which was then
without a pastor; and there was some conference be
tween him and them looking to his possible candidacy
for the position. Nothing definite had been arrived at,
however, owing to the fact that another gentleman had
been previously invited there, and the time agreed upon
for a final response from him had not yet expired. But
soon after his return home, on September 12th, 1789,
the vestry of the church at Swedesborough addressed a
letter to Mr. Croes, which must have been received at or
about the date of Judge Ogden's recommendatory letter,
and possibly was the occasion of it, in which they in
formed him that the time had now elapsed which had

AND BISHOP CROES. 31
been named for an answer from the gentleman they had
previously addressed, and that they had come to a conclu
sion with respect to him. They, therefore, invite Mr.
Croes to pay them " one other visit," in order that they
may have ' ' some further conversation with him about his
establishment in Swedesboro," for the " further satisfac
tion of the Congregation as to his abilities." This visit
was made, and as a result of it the congregation' " de
rived the highest opinion of Mr. Croes's abilities." Af
ter acting for them several months as a lay-reader, on
January 24th, 1790, a formal call was presented to him
by the vestry, inviting him to become their regularly
established minister as soon as he should obtain ordi
nation in the Protestant Episcopal Church. In due
time that was obtained* he was made Deacon by Bishop
White on February 28th, 1790, and he became the
rector of the Swedesborough Church soon afterward.
His compensation was, the equivalent of $312.50 in
money, the use of the parsonage and woodland belong
ing to the church, and the benefits of a meadow also
belonging to the church and commonly known as
"The Minister's Meadow." He was still serving ac
ceptably at Swedesborough, having in the meantime
become one of the leading presbyters of the diocese,
the president of the diocesan convention, (there being
no bishop), and a delegate tp the general convention,
when he was called simultaneously to the rectorate of
Christ Church, New Brunswick, and to the pastorate of
St. Peter's Church at Spotswood. These, calls were
coupled with an invitation from the Trustees of Queen's
(now Rutgers) College to take the charge and superin
tendence of the Grammar School connected with that
institution. The calls to Christ Church and Spotswocd

32 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
and the invitation to the rectorate of the Grammar
School were finally accepted in the autumn of 1801,
after having been the subject of protracted negotiations
and many letters for more than a year. The corres
pondence, now preserved in the archives of Christ
Church, reflects in a very lively way the deliberate cir
cumspection and the minute exactitude of the people of
that day, and is also suggestive Of the smallness of
their means and Of the modest salaries they paid clergy
men and others.
As bearing more immediately upon the connection of
Mr. Croes with the Grammar School, at New Brunswick,
I append a letter, now in the archives of Christ Church,
written by his old and steadfast friend, excellent Dr.
Macwhorter, in reply to one of inquiry from Chief
Justice Kirkpatrick, on behalf of the Trustees of
Queen's College when they were canvassing Mr Croes's
qualifications. The letter is as follows :
"Newark, July 14, 1800
' Hon. Andrew Kirkpatrick
' ¦ New Brunswick, N. Jersey.
' Dear Sir,
' I was duly honoured with the receipt of your favour
' of the 11th It respects the Rev? Mr. Croes to take
' the charge of your Grammar School. It is perhaps
' rather unfortunate, your application to me who have
' known him so well, that I have been prejudiced in a
' very favourable opinion of him from a boy. I shall
' be very modest in my recommendation, but will
' endeavour to be correctly just, as far as I know and
' believe.
' Mr. Croes was bred an episcopalian, and has uni-
' formly, without superstition or bigotry, adhered to
' the peculiarities of his own religion. If your Episco
palians wish for a man of the first abilities, prudence

" H

AND BISHOP CROES. 33
and discretion in this State let them exert themselves
to get him.
His literary qualifications and his gifts as a School
master, I suppose, are what you principally wish my
opinion upon.
He is wholly almost a self-made scholar by his own
application and diligence, and you will generally find
these useful men.
He is a good latin scholar, and very capable of
teaching that language, and^taught it in this Town
with reputation.
With regard to his Greek learning, I will not ven
ture far to affirm. I think to the best of my recollec
tion, after learning the Grammar, he read some in the
Testament and in Lucian. Whether he proceeded
" farther, and whether ever he taught the Greek I can-
" not tell. But from what I know of his abilities, am-
' ' bition, and industry, I should not hesitate in entrust-
' ' ing boys to his care to begin that language, and to
" carry them thro' all the lengths that are usual. If you
" have boys reading Homer, Hesiod, Xenoph'on, Epicte-
" tius &9 , I would by no means advise him to under-
" take their instruction.
" He is an English scholar above the common level.
"He is well acquainted with and has taught the Eng-
" lish Grammar, the rudiments of Rhetoric and Criti-
" cism, and the beauties and proprieties of our language
" with respectability.
" He is intimately acquainted with Arithmetic, vulgar
" and decimal, understands the practical principles of
" Mathematics, Trigonometry, Surveying, Navigation
" &9 What his Knowledge of Geometry and Algebra
"is, I know not. He has read Natural Philosophy.
" He has taught with reputation the rudiments of
" Astronomy — the use of the Globes, and Geography.
" I have thus gone through his literary qualifications
" in my view of them. I must now add something to
" all I have said, which gives a superior complexion to
" the character of a Schoolmaster. He possesses the

34 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
" gifts of government in an high degree. He governs a
' ' school in such a manner as to acquire the esteem and
"affection of boys, without undue rigor or extreme
" severity.
' ' You will find him a man of sense and reading, but
" a certain vail of modesty sheds an obscurity over his
" abilities and accomplishments.
' ' I wish you may be so happy as to get such a man as
' ' Mr. Croes at the head of "your school.
' ' I am Sir your & & hum? Serv*
" A. Macwhorter.
"Judge Kirkpatrick"
On May 12th, 1801, the committee of the Trustees of
the College invited Mr. Croes to take charge of the
Grammar School, as appears from the following official
agreement, the original of which is now in the archives
of Christ Church, the body of the document being in
the handwriting of Judge Kirkpatrick, and the signa
tures being autographs :
" The Committee appointed by the Trustees of
" Queen's College in New Jersey to provide Teachers
" and superintend the Instruction of the Grammar
' ' School under their charge, Agree in behalf of said Trus-
' ' tees to pay the Rev. John Croes the sum of two hun-
' ' dred dollars for the first year, one hundred and fifty
' ' dollars for the second year, and one hundred dollars
' ' annually thereafter in addition to the income of the
" School, and the use of the College Lot, for his super-
" intendence and regular instruction of the scholars
" who may be committed to his charge.
" New Brunswick 12 May 1801 —
Ira Condict
" John Neilson
" Jas. Schureman
" Lewis Dunham
" And. Kirkpatrick"

and bishop croes. 35
The protracted correspondence that had been prose
cuted for more than a year between Mr. Croes and rep
resentatives of Christ Church culminated in March of
the same year, in a series of resolutions by the Vestry
preliminary to a call to the Rectorate, and, in May, in a
formal call which he accepted. Both the resolutions and
the call are interesting for the circumspection and minute
exactitude to which I have already adverted ; and also
for the names of old and influential citizens which are
attached to them. I copy them literally from the origi
nals, now in the archives of Christ Church — the signa
tures being autographs, and the body of each in the
handwriting of the late Robert Boggs.
The preliminary resolutions purport to be a copy of
an entry that had been made in the Book of Minutes of
Christ Church, and bear date March 16th, 1801, as fol
lows: " "At a Meeting of the Wardens & Vestry of
" Christs Church. in the City of New Brunswick on
" Monday the 16th day of March An: Dom: 1801,
" Present:
" John Dennis Sen? ) w ,
Mathew Egerton [ wameils
" John Dennis Jun? Nehemiah Vernon 1
" William Lupp George Farmer !Vooh„7ino„
' ' William P. Deare Miles Smith f v esu J men
"RobT Boggs John Garnett J
" Resolved and Agreed unanimously, that the Rev?
" John Croes of Swedesborough, New Jersey, be invited
" to accept the permanent Rectorship of this Church
" from and after Easter next, or from and after such
" further day, not exceeding six months, as he may
" agree to, at a Salary of three hundred and seventy
" five Dollars per Annum, to be paid by four equal
" quarterly payments, for two thirds of his time; or at

36 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
" that rate for any smaller portion of his time that may
' ' be agreed upon — And that a Call in due form be made
" out accordingly, and signed by the Vestry, on receiv-
' ' ing notice from Mr. Croes of his willingness to accept,
' ' specifying the portion of time he inclines to afford this
" Church, and the period he proposes to remove here.
' ' Resolved that Robert Boggs, esquire, be requested
' ' to accompany such Gentlemen as may be appointed to
" wait on Mr. Croes by the Committee of the Trustees
' ' of Queen's College of this City, and to inform Mr.
' ' Croes of the above Call, and the sincere wish of the
" Vestry that he may accept the same; and if Mr. Croes
' ' shall accept the same, then that Mr. Boggs be, and he
' ' is hereby authorized to agree, in behalf of the Vestry of
' ' this Church, to pay Mr. Croes the af*:? Salary of three
" hundred and seventy-five Dollars per Annum, in man-
" uer afs? , to commence at the end of the third calender
" month from and after the day Mr. Croes shall attend
" and officiate in the said Church. And the Vestry of
" this Church hereby engage to sanction and perform
" such agreement as Mr. Boggs shall make with Mr.
" Croes in their behalf, under this authority.
' ' Ordered and agreed that the foregoing be signed by
' ' the members of the Vestry.
" John Dennis |w ,
Mathew Egerton) warueils
" George Farmer
" John Dennis J?
' ' Nehemiah Vernon
" Miles Smith
W? P. Deare
" John Garnett'

- Vestrymen

For prudential reasons, these resolutions and the call
which they embodied, were not deemed sufficiently spe
cific by Mr. Croes ; and nearly two months later another
formal call was made by the Vestry which was accepted
by him. This final call was made May 11th, 1801, and
was as follows :

AND BISHOP CROES. 37
At a Meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of Christs
Church m the City of New Brunswick on Monday the
eleventh day of May in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and one— Present
John Dennis Sen? ) w -,
Mathew Egerton f Waraens
William Lupp Robert Boggs
George Farmer John Garnett
David Davies Miles Smith
Simon Hillyer John Dennis Jun?
Nehemiah Vernon
William Peacock

> Vestrymen

In conformity to the Resolution of the Vestry of
the sixteenth day of March last — It is hereby Resolved
and Agreed unanimously that the Rev? John Croes,
of Swedesborough, New Jersey, be invited to accept
the Regular and Stated Rectorship of this Church
from and after the first day of November next, at a
Salary of three hundred and seventy five dollars per
Annum, to be paid by four equal payments — For
which he is to preach in the said Church fifty two
Sermons in a year, that is to say one on each Sunday,
or one Sermon a day on two Sundays out of three, dur
ing six Months — and two Sermons a day on two Sun
days out of three, during the other Six Months the
time to be regulated by the Vestry, or at the rate of
fifty two Sermons a year, on Sundays in such other
order, as shall from time to time be mutually agreed
upon between him and the Vestry.
Ordered that the foregoing Call be signed by the
Members of the Vestry and transmitted to the Rev?
Mr. Croes by the Clerk of the Vestry, and his accept
ance thereof be requested.
New Brunswick 11th May 1801
Robt Boggs Clk
John Dennis ) w -,
Mathew Egerton r '¦'' •"••- i!"

38 OLD CHRIST CHURCH

William Lupp
George Farmer
D? Davies
Simon Hillyer
Nehemiah Vernon
William Peacock
Rob? Boggs'
John Garnett
Miles Smith"

Vestrymen

While it was taught by Mr. Croes the Grammar School
of Queen's College became a large one, and enjoyed a
high and an extensive reputation. Besides those from
our own state, scholars were attracted to it from Penn
sylvania, Delaware, and other states. One of the pupils
was William Read, a son of George Read, of New Cas
tle, Delaware, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence. A letter from that gentleman to Mr.
Croes, dated September 9, 1805, is preserved in the ar
chives of Christ Church, in which, after some words of
thanks in behalf of his son, Mr. Read speaks as follows
of the school and its teacher : "I am assured, sir, that
the correctness of your system of education and the
strict attention with which it is conducted, must con
tribute in an eminent degree to promote the progress of
your pupils, and gives the seminary over which you pre
side a character that is not surpassed by any on the
continent." Mr. Croes continued master of the school to the satis
faction of the Trustees of the College until 1808, when
he was compelled to withdraw from it by his increasing
clerical and parochial duties.* Among his pupils, at
various times, were Benjamin W. Richards, afterward
" In his historical sketch of our parish, Eev. Dr. Stubbs states that Dr
Croes gave up the Grammar School when he was elected bishop, in lfiis
This is an error. He gave it up seven years earlier, in 1808, as above stated

AND BISHOP CROES. 39
Mayor of Philadelphia, Charles C. Stratton and Charles
S. Olden, afterward governors of New Jersey, Jackson
Kemper, afterward Bishop of Missouri and Indiana,
Edward W. Dunham, afterward one of the founders
and for many years the President of the Corn Exchange
Bank, in New York City, and sons of the Boggs, Neil-
son, Dunham, Pool, Lupp, Sayre, Hardenbergh, Rich
mond, and other families.
Soon after coming here, Mr. Croes became deeply in
terested in an Academy for Young Ladies which had
been established in our city by an accomplished English
gentlewoman, Miss Sophia Hay, and in which she had
enlisted the services of a large staff of competent in
structors. The academy, widely known as ' ' Miss Hay's
Academy," enjoyed for many years a deserved and
almost a national reputation — its pupils comprising
representatives of the oldest families in our city and
state ; and so extended was its celebrity that many were
drawn to it from New York, Pennsylvania, and distant
New Hampshire on the one side, and from Kentucky and
Tenessee on the other. Miss Hay was a loyal church-
woman and an active parishioner; and naturally she
sought the sympathy and encouragement of her new
pastor. These were not withheld. From an early day
after his arrival here, he manifested a lively interest in
her school, and in 1811 he undertook the instruction of
a class of its more advanced young ladies in his favorite
studies, grammar and geography. For some years
thereafter, he continued to take an active and practical
interest in this justly celebrated academy, many of
whose pupils afterward became mothers in our Israel in
every part of the Union.
Mr. Croes, as I have learned from competent judges

40 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
who had been his pupils, was an admirable instructor,
a critical and an accomplished grammarian and orthoe-
pist, a correct writer, a logical reasoner, an elegant
classical scholar, a most skillful penman, and a strict
but judicious and paternal disciplinarian. Having been
a soldier in his early years, and in 1794 the Chaplain of
the New Jersey Cavalry in the " Whiskey Rebellion,'
he was himself scrupulously exact in the performance
of every duty ; and he required the most punctilious
attention to duty on the part also of the youths whose
education had been entrusted to him. He brought
something of the strictness and precision of the camp
into the school room ; but his main reliance was upon
the honor as gentleman and sons of gentlemen of his
pupils. As a scholar, he was also a precisian, but
nevertheless nothing of a pedant. His style as a writer
of the vernacular was Johnsonian rather than Addison
ian : succinct, balanced, formal, and somewhat stiff and
rhetorical, though not wanting in touches of grace and
manly simplicity. He was preeminently a man of
sound common sense, clear judgment, great practical
wisdom, and rare business qualifications. Not a pic
turesque nor an imaginative writer, he was a sound
thinker, and an acute and a strong, but not a brilliant
nor a versatile reasoner. Judging from the estimates
of those who had been his pupils, as well as from my
own observation and reflection, I should define him to
have been a strong man intellectually, and a model of
rectitude morally.
I have often heard the late Abraham S. Neilson
Charles Dunham, Sr., Major James C. Van Dyke and
ex-Governor Olden, speak admiringly and affectionately
of Bishop Croes as a preceptor; and when doing so they

AND BISHOP CROES. 41
gave him unstinted praise for the excellence of his
methods, the unwearied and conscientious pains he be
stowed upon his pupils, and the valuable practical
training to which he subjected them. And I recall also
their acknowledgement of their gratitude to him for the
salutary influence he exerted upon them, and their
warm expressions of affectionate attachment to him.
In this respect, my information, and my own vivid per
sonal recollections of the Bishop, are completely at vari
ance with the statement made, as I am persuaded, on
insufficient evidence by Rev. Dr. Stubbs (who, it may
be remarked, never saw Bishop Croes) in his sketch of
our parish. Dr. Stubbs writes: " Many of the most
respectable citizens of New Brunswick have been heard
to say that as much as they esteemed Bishop Croes they
never could overcome the feeling of childish repugnance
they entertained for him as their former teacher. " I
am sure, from their unreserved statements in my pres
ence, that none of the gentlemen whom I have named
ever experienced any repugnance, ' ' childish " or other
wise, for Bishop Croes. Further evidence in the same
line is afforded by the letter of Dr. Macwhorter to Chief
Justice Kirkpatrick which I have cited, and in which
he speaks from personal knowledge. That able in
structor, you will recall, had observed among other
things ' ' which give a superior complexion to the char
acter of a schoolmaster," the manifestation by Mr.
Croes, along with " the gifts of government in an high
degree," the faculty of governing "a school so as to
acquire the esteem and affection of boys." And the
same was equally true of girls : for when he ceased to
be an instructor in Miss Hay's Academy, a number of
the young ladies whom he had taught there formed a

42 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
"geographical class" and prevailed on him to carry
them forward in his favorite study. This class met
regularly for instruction by him at the hospitable man
sion of Mrs." Isaac Lawrence, now the residence of Mr.
Henry L. Janeway, Jr.* Naturally we ask, "If Dr.
Croes's pupils entertained for him ' the feeling of child
ish repugnance ' which Dr. Stubbs chronicles, is it not
remarkable that these young ladies should voluntarily
urge him to impart to them some of his, for that day,
large wealth of geographical knowledge and research ? "
It is not easy to believe that they were moved by any
feelings of "repugnance" for the dignified and urbane
gentleman, just consecrated to the bishopric, who un
bent himself from his severer studies for their edifica
tion in Mrs. Lawrence's elegant parlors.
Dr. Croes was almost simultaneously chosen bishop in
1815 by the dioceses of New Jersey and Connecticut;
and much of the correspondence relative thereto now
forms a part of the archives of our parish. This corre
spondence reveals that, although the compensation
offered by Connecticut was considerably greater than that
offered by New Jersey, yet, after a careful study of the
question, " Where his services were most needed, and
where he could be able to effect the most for God and
the Church ? " the Bishop-elect decided for the poorer
and feebler diocese ; and, accordingly in the course of
the year, he was consecrated in Philadelphia by Bishop
White, assisted by Bishops Hobart and Kemp. The
correspondence further reveals that the Bishop's choice
was largely influenced by the affectionate, and at times
tearful, solicitations of the people of our parish, whose
* This incident is derived from a contemporaneous letter, written by one of
the young ladies to her brother, now in the possession of the writer of this
sketch. Mrs. Lawrence, it may be added, was a sister of Mrs. Rattoone and
a daughter of Rev. Abraham Beach, D.D. '

AND BISHOP CROES. 43
love and respect he had won in an eminent degree,
and which he tenderly reciprocated.
Of the manner in which Bishop Croes performed his
joint duties as bishop of the diocese and rector of Ghrist
Church, no words of commendation could be too strong.
He literally spent himself in the toil of building up the
weak parish and the still weaker diocese. In his solici
tous oversight of the latter, he travelled in winter and
summer, not as his successors have done over comforta
ble railways and in luxurious ears (for that was before the
day of railroads), but over rough and unbroken roads, on
horseback or in gig or sulky, penetrating every remotest
part of the state, wherever he went breathing new life
into expiring parishes, imparting strength and encourage
ment to those that were weak, and inciting those that
were comparatively strong to increased effort and zeal.
The new missions that were established in remote parts
of the diocese through his efforts and incitements ; the
long-closed church doors that were opened, and the long
silent pulpits that were made vocal ; the new churches
that were built, and the old ones that were enlarged and
beautified ; the increased number and the increased ac
tivity of the clergy and communicants : — all this is a
lasting memorial of the arduous and successful work
done by Bishop Croes, under the most discouraging
circumstances, during his exercise of the episcopate in
those early days and in that hour of small things.
Not only did Bishop Croes win the love and esteem of
his own people, in our diocese and parish, by his patient,
persistent, and indefatigable labors for Christ and His
Church. He also won the respect and confidence of the
bishops and other clergy of other dioceses — especially of
Bishops White, Hobart, Chase, and Moore — not a few of

44 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
whom sought his counsel and advice in matters where
they knew that his sound scholarship and clearness of
judgment were to be relied upon. With Bishop Hobart,
he had long been on terms of confidential intimacy;
and, during that prelate's absence in England, at his
request, Bishop Croes performed episcopal functions in
his stead, in the diocese of New York, receiving there
for the grateful acknowledgments of the returned
bishop and of the clergy and laity of that diocese.
Much that relates to this faithful and laborious epis
copal work, more especially as respects our own diocese,
may be found in detail in the manuscript relics of Bishop
Croes recently presented to Christ Church by Mr. J. J.
R. Croes and his sisters. There, are preserved in the
Bishop's own bold and graceful chirography, his full
and methodical statements of the various duties per
formed by him in the field of his labors. There, are re
corded in precise and eloquently simple phrase the story
of the awakening of the churches and parishes* of the
diocese, from Cape May to Sussex, from a death-like
torpor to vigorous life. There, are garnered his manly
and unaffected Convention Sermons, and examples of
his paternal sermons to his own immediate flock. And
it is impossible to scan them without experiencing an
affectionate admiration for the man who accomplished
so much with such inadequate means : impossible not to
feel a high respect for the severe simplicity, the decor
ous energy, the modesty which vaunts not itself, the in
defatigable performance of duty, the patience, the con
scientiousness, the fervent piety, the equanimity of tem
per, and the calmness of judgment of the first bishop of
the Diocese of New Jersey.
Although I was only thirteen years old when Bishop

AND BISHOP CROES. 45
Croes died, I have a lively recollection of him, due to the
intimacy that subsisted between his family and that of
my grandfather, Jacob Dunham, M.D., in which last I
was reared; and, also, to the. fact that he was the rector
of the church to which our family belonged. I am thus
able to recall many personal incidents associated with
the Bishop which occured in the interval between my
fourth or fifth and my thirteenth years  I never
met him on the streets, from a period as early as I can
remember, but that he would salute me familiarly by my
baptismal name, ask me some kindly question, inquire
cordially after the health of my mother or of my grand
parents, or pass some pleasant or fatherly remark.
When I met him at his own, or my grandfather's house,
it was his custom to place one of his hands on my head,
or on my shoulder as I grew to be a larger boy, and say
some friendly word, which made me feel that I was worth
being noticed and gave a fillip to my sense of self-
respect  It was his usage, once a month, on a
Sunday, to have the more advanced children of the par
ish come before him in the church, when he examined
us, as we stood in a semi-circle before him around the
chancel, in the church catechism or the longer catechism ;
and I well remember the assiduity with which we conned
our lessons preparatory to our recital of them to him,
in order that we might win the choice but few words of
commendation he bestowed on those who did well.
Of great native dignity of bearing and manners, the
Bishop was yet one of the most urbane of men. He was
polite with a courtly politeness to children : and if he
met a negro (negroes were then mostly slaves or the chil
dren of family-slaves) who bowed to him on the street,
lie would bow in return as ceremoniously as if he were

46 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
returning the civility of a lord-mayor. His manner to all
was grave and dignified, but without the least admixture
of pride or haughtiness ; and it was characterized by the
rather formal and stately but very striking and impres
sive old-school style of courtesy  He was tall
and well-proportioned, being over six feet in height.
He wore his hair short, his face was always clean-shaven,
for beards, whiskers, mustachios, and imperials had not
yet invaded the pulpit ; and he was invariably clad in
the old-time broad swallow-tail coat and breeches of
black broadcloth. His countenance was severe and
somewhat ascetic, when in repose ; but when he unbent
in the society of friends, it relaxed into a quiet benig
nity, and his conversation sparkled with gentle pleas
antries, mild repartees, and genial anecdote or reminis
cence  His salary from first to last was an ex
ceedingly limited one : all told, I think, it never much
exceeded a thousand dollars ; yet he always lived within
it, frugally but not stingily, and thus he was able, with
out the help of the modern device of Christmas and
other donations, year by year to lay aside a small
surplus, which he managed so capably that he was
able to give liberally to the poor and needy, to thor
oughly educate his sons and daughters, and to become
the owner of a modest but comfortable home 
He was a skillful gardener, in a day of good gar
deners, and cultivated his large garden with his own
hands, assisted in the severer work by some humble
friends and dependents; and its yield, after generous
gifts to his neighbors and the poor, went far toward the
support of his family. Every foot of it was utilized and
made productive, so that at the end of a season the ca
pacious root-cellar of his house was well stored with

AND BISHOP CROES. 47
beets, carrots, celery, turnips, cabbages, potatoes, and
the like, for winter use ; while the fruit of his goose
berry, currant, and barberry bushes, and of his cherry,
plum, peach, pear, quince, and apple trees, was con
verted into generous home-made wines or toothsome
preserves or dried fruit, which as often found their way
to the table of some poor or sick friend as to his own
frugal but elegant board.
I have remarked that Bishop Croes was a " skillful
gardener, in a day of good gardeners," and I now digress
to recall the names of several of our old-time citizens,
besides the Bishop, who were famous for the fine gar
dens which they cultivated with their own hands.
These were Dr. Edward Carroll, the next door neighbor
of the Bishop; Robert Boggs, father of Admiral and
Rev. Dr. Boggs; pains- taking and excellent William
Lupp; testy Colonel Nichols; jovial 'Squire Aaron Has-
sert ; thrifty David Voorhees, and my grandfather, Dr.
Jaoob Dunham. Along with their gardens, these gen
tlemen cultivated a friendly but very sharp rivalry as
to which should produce the earliest and finest vegeta
bles, specimens of which were sent, as soon as gathered,
to the old Market House, for exhibition on the stall of
old James (popularly known as "Buff") Fisher, where
the first radishes, leeks, lettuce, shalots, asparagus, etc.
of the season, were promptly surrounded by a knot of
interested admirers (including the friendly rivals), and
where congratulations were showered upon the success
ful exhibitors. It is pleasant to add that a liberal share
of the product of the fine gardens of these gentlemen
found its way to the homes of widows and invalids, of
those who had no gardens of their own, and of the poor
generally-

48 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
Bishop Croes had some peculiarities and idiosyncra
sies : He was strenuously opposed to the ordinatiOn of
any one who was physically imperfect ; his reason being
that the minister of God's word and sacraments should
not be chosen from the blind, the halt, the maimed, the
deformed, or the impotent, but should be without spot
or blemish ; and in support of this view, he was wont to
cite God's command to Moses (Leviticus xxi. 17-23),
excluding those who have blemishes from ministering
in the sanctuary  When he conducted the ser
vices of the church, whether in the reading-desk, the
pulpit, or the chancel, his demeanor was reverent, dig
nified, patriarchal. He never wore the ornate and
alternating variety of clerical "fal-lals" so much af
fected by the more dudish of our latter-day "bishops
and other clergy." He required that his vestments
should be scrupulously clean, read the service and ad
ministered the sacraments and the rite of confirmation
in a surplice, but invariably preached in a black silk
gown. When preaching, he always wore black silk
gloves, because, among other reasons, he considered it
more seemly, and also because it was his opinion that
the vanity of displaying handsome white hands and be-
ringed fingers should not be indulged in by the minis
ters of God  If an unseemly noise occurred in
the church during divine service, he would pause at
some convenient halting-place, whether in the liturgy
or the sermon, and parenthetically rebuke the offender.
His rebuke was always authoritative, yet so calm and
devoid of temper that it was inoffensive, but still effect
ive  In this connection, I am reminded of an
instance of a woman and crying baby, in the gallery :
The good Bishop was in the midst of a sermon, when the

AND BISHOP CROES. 49
child wailed, then cried aloud, then subsided, then
wailed and cried again, the poor mother's loudly whis
pered Bushings and coaxings, in the meanwhile, being
audible to the entire congregation, the younger ones of
which craned their necks and turned their eyes in the
direction of the disturbance. Some of the congregation
were impatient, others annoyed or irritated, others sym
pathetica!, others (and I fear I was one of these) were
ready to shriek with laughter. After several such in
terruptions, the Bishop grappled with the situation ; and
turning to the quarter of the gallery from whence the
noise proceeded, said quietly and benevolently, but with
impressive distinctness: "If the good woman in the
gallery hesitates to leave the church lest she should dis
turb me, I will suspend the sermon until she removes
the child," and then sat down ip the pulpit. The poor
mother took the hint and quickly bundled the crying
child out of the gallery into the tower; whereupon the
Bishop resumed his sermon as placidly as if nothing had
occurred to interrupt it  On another occasion,
one Sunday morning while the Bishop was preaching,
it . was noticed that several times he turned partly
around in the pulpit and glanced out of the window
immediately behind it. The church, it should be here
explained, had not then been changed and enlarged,
and its fine old arched east window, over twelve feet in
width, with heavy mullions of stone-work separating
divisions of the window panes, and reaching from
within four feet of the floor to the centre of the arched
ceiling, was directly behind the pulpit, and so near it
that the Bishop often reached back to it to open or
close the green Venetian blinds which shaded it, as he
desired to admit or exclude the light. It seems, that as
W

50 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
the Bishop was mounting the spiral staircase, which led
from the reading-desk to the pulpit, to begin his ser
mon, he observed through the window a dense smoke in
the distance. Again and again, after he had begun the
sermon, as he turned to the window and glanced out, he
perceived that the volume of smoke was growing denser
and blacker. The congregation, meanwhile, wereignor-
antof what was happening, and marvelled at the unusual
demeanor of the Bishop. At length, in one of his
glances, he saw bright tongues of flame darting upward
amid the cloud of smoke, and closing his sermon-book,
he quietly said : "I perceive that there is a large fire
near the Market House, at which your services may
be required. After the ascription the congregation will
be dismissed"; and immediately thereon, he began the
familiar formula, the congregation rising as they were
wont, "And now to God," etc., at the close of which
the people dispersed "decently and in order." The
fire, which was a serious one, was in a large double
frame-house, belonging to the late Richard Manley, on
the north side of Hiram street, near the corner of Den
nis street. And the Bishop rightly conjectured that the
aid of every member of his congregation was needed;
for that was the day of small things in our town, when
the services of every man, woman, or child, who could
handle a full or empty Are bucket, were required to
combat the fire-fiend.
As has been said, in his youth Bishop Croes was a
soldier in the army of the Revolution. Yet, with innate
modesty, he uniformly declined to speak of his own
services in that great struggle, or to "fight his battles
o'er again " ; but would relate with great spirit anec
dotes of the enterprise, the devotion, or the heroism of

AND BISHOP CROES. 51
others, their perils and sufferings. Undoubtedly, he
took a just pride in the fact that he had served his
country faithfully in the war that secured its independ
ence; but this was in the nature of patriotic retrospect
rather than of anything resembling self -commendation
or vaunting. He persistently shunned even the appear
ance of making capital for himself out of his revolution
ary services.
If we contemplate the character of Bishop Croes, as
illustrated by the incidents and occurrences of his life
from childhood to old age, we shall have in epitome an
ideal of personal excellence, of civic virtue, and of
christian temper and conduct. We shall see that, as a
boy he was studious, acquisitive, and obedient; that as
a youth approaching early manhood, he glowed with
the ardor of patriotism, and under its impulse rendered
willing and efficient military service to his native land,
in the hour of its extremest need; that as a young man
preparing to enter upon his chosen life-work, he was
less ambitious of applause than of becoming so quali
fied in scholarly attainments and in biblical and theolo
gical knowledge as might befit him for the adequate
performance of his duties as an ambassador for Christ;
that, as a mature man, he exercised his high functions,
first as priest and afterward as bishop, with a degree of
dignity, dispassionateness, and saneness of judgment,
which won for him the respectful approbation of his
brother prelates and clergy ; and that, in his last and
declining years, his equable christian spirit, and his
absolute devotion of himself to the strict performance
of his duty when oppressed by the twin-burthen of age
and ill health, commanded the reverence of all men.
Summing up the record of this good and strong man,

52 OLD CHRIST CHURCH
these traits are everywhere conspicuous: A self-control,
which never allowed passion, or prejudice, or pique, or
self-interest, to warp his conscience or influence his de
liberate opinions. An habitual sobriety of thought,
which always interposed to avert hasty, or intemperate,
or extreme judgments. ' A sense of equity, which was
keen to distinguish between right and wrong, error and
truth, and prompt to decide for the true and the right.
A resolute will, without the slightest trace of obstinacy
however, which enabled him to face difficulty without
flinching, whether it proceeded from intrinsic and per
sonal causes, or from the conflicts of other men's opin
ions and interests. A vigorons common sense, from
whose kindly soil sane and calm judgments were the
natural outgrowth and fruit. A benignity of dis
position, the result of his habitual self-discipline and
self-restraint, which was proof against worry from
within or without, and conciliated love and good- will.
A purity of life, and a simple but earnest piety, which
incited the emulation of others and were a perpetual
example to all men of the beauty of holiness. A self-
denial and an honesty in his dealings, that made toil
honorable and labor sweet because they enabled him to
provide for his household and to give to those who were
in want. And, finally, a life-long, loving, and untiring
devotion to the spiritual welfare of the flock that had
been more immediately committed to him — beginning
at the cradle of many of them and ceasing only at the
grave — which caused him to be regarded as the friend
and counsellor of all. True to the life, in its strong
likeness to Bishop Croes, is the portrait of a poor but
faithful parson drawn by a great poet five hundred
years ago :

AND BISHOP CROES. 5:!
'• This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf,
That first he wrought and afterward he taut/lit,
To drawen folk to heven, with fairenesse,
By good ensample was his businesse :
He waited after no pompe ne reverence,
Ne maked him no spiced conscience,
But Criste's lore, and His Apostles twelve,
He taught, ~butfirsthefolwed.it himselve."
[Geoffrey Chaucer]
The life of the good man and beloved pastor and
bishop draws to a close. In the summer and autumn
of 1831, his health, which had been failing, became ser
iously impaired. Notwithstanding, he persisted in the
performance of his episcopal functions, although his
strength was utterly unequal to the strain. In the early
part of 1832 — the " cholera year," as the first visit of
that dread plague to our land was long and familiarly
designated — his health rapidly declined, and at length,
in the midst of the excitement of that fateful year, he
succumbed. He died on the 30th day of July, 1832, in
the seventy-first year of his age, universally mourned
by the people of the town of which he had long been one
of the most familiar and most impressive figures. He
was buried by his attached congregation beneath the
chancel of the old church which he had loved so dearly
and had served so long and faithfully, surrounded on
every side, under the friendly shadow of our grey old
tower, by those whom he had signed with the seal of the
Cross at baptism ; whom he had dedicated to God in
confirmation; whom he had fed with the Bread of Life
at the Lord's Table ; whom he had joined together in
holy matrimony ; and whom he had laid at rest when
" life's fitful fever was o'er." There, the brave Bishop

54

OLD CRRIST CHURCH AND BISHOP CROES.

and his flock await that great and terrible day of the
Lord when the Grave shall give up its dead, and when
He who is the Resurrection and the Life shall come to
judge both quick and dead. It is not irreverent, I
trust, to express the belief that, in that supreme hour,
our, and our fathers' friend and shepherd, shall hear
the gracious plaudit: " Well done, thou good and faith
ful servant!" and the loving award, "Enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord ! "

#W*M5>

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