1701 We do assure your Majesty that the divisions and differences that have happened amongst your subjects in this province were never grounded upon the interest of your Majesty, but the private corrupt designs of some of the Pretenders to your Majesties service, who had laid hold of an opportunity to enrich themselves by the spoils of their Neighbours. The oppressions and hardships we underwent took an end by the arrivall of your Government, and during the whole course of the late warr, with your Majesties gracious assistance we chearfully sustained its burthen, some of us in our persons, and all of us by our purses; and by the fortunate influence of Your Majesties Empire, conserved this Your Colony entire from any conquest of the Enemy. Being conscious to ourselves of nothing more than an entire affection and faithful adherence to Your Majesties Royall person and interest, it was the greater surprise to find ourselves by the late Earl of Bellomont, without reason or colour, turned out of places in the Government, and those generally filled with persons least qualified for their posts; and to add to our misfortune, and evidence the injuries we have suffered, we find ourselves to be branded most unjustly with characters of disaffection and infamy; although with all dutiful submission we underwent the first, yet the latter, as being an offence to truth, and touching us in our good names, and the interest all faithfull subjects ought to have in a just Prince, we cannot, but be extremely sensible of. Your Majesties subjects could not at first foresee the ends designed; but the measures taken were of that nature as to give us just apprehensions of evil; great partiality in appointment of Officers, manifest corruption and injustice in all Elections, and that so open and barefaced, as the greater number of the people could not but see the destructive projections, not less than the injurious means used to attain them; being nothing else, but abusing Your Majesties glorious name; and under pretext of your Majesties service, by the Legislative power, to divest many of your Majesties good subjects of their just rights and possessions, and to share and divide the same amongst themselves and their confederates; with many other sinister, indirect and unjust proceedings, easily to be proved, but too many to enumerate at present to your Majesty; thereby greatly offending your Majesties good subjects, and tending to render your Majesties Government in these parts scandalous, vile and cheap in the Eyes of your people; although these Methods had long since been determined, if they had not lately met with new supports. We humbly implore Your Majesties justice in relieving us from these evils; and take this opportunity of assuring your Majesty that amongst the vast numbers of mankind, who have willingly subjected themselves and taken shelter under Your Majesties dominion, none are more heartily devoted to pray for your Majesties long and prosperous Reign over us, than your Majesties most obedient, most humble and most dutiful subjects and servants. Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 933-4. PETITION FROM EASTCHESTER. ANGLICAN CHURCH. To His Excellency etc. (Aug. 1701?) The Humble Petition of John Drake and William Chadderton in the behalf of themselves and the Inhabitants of East Chester. Sheweth That Coll. Heathcot did at the request of your Excellency's Petitioners_moue your Excellency to giue Directions that what the Vestry had Layd on the Parish of West Chester for incidentall charges over the ministers rate & Constables allowance for allowing the same might be abated from the quoata layd on our place be being burthened with much more than our Just proportion of that tax that Coll. Heathcot did thereupon inform your Excellency's Petitioners that your Excellency had been pleased to direct that some of the Justices which liued without the precincts, should make inquiry into that matter & make report thereof to your Excellency but the Justices not being able before this time to gett in the List of Estates was the Cause of the delay of that returne so hope your Excellency will pardon our not leauing what was Layd upon us by the late Vestry & will in your great goodness & Justice protect us from paying more than our fair & Equal Proportion which we shall always most readily do so long as your Excellency shall think fitt to Continue us Joyned to that Parish we are exceeding thankfull that your Excellency hath been pleased to direct Mr. Bartow to preach sometimes amongst us For we assure your Excellency that tis our Earnest desires to come under the Regulation of the Church of England as by law Established & so is our minister Mr. Morgan for which reason we are desirous to Continue him amongst us & maintaine him by Subscription until such times as your Excellency shall think fitt to have the Parishes In the County otherwise divided which are at present so uery inconuenient that not halfe of the People can haue the benefitt of the Ministry your Excellency will find by the return of the Justices that our diuident of the Here follows a list of names of 687 individuals who signed this petition, of whom only 61 made their marks. The names of those of New York and Albany are very full. From the other counties a few signed in behalf of all. The names of many elders and deacons of Dutch churches are recognized. late rate ought not to haue been more than seven pounds five shillings and six pence CHURCH OF NEW YORK. GIFT TO CHURCH OF SCHENECTADY. 1701-2. At the request of the Consistory of Schenectady, a collection was made by us in our congregation, for the building of a Church for them, amounting to fifty seven pounds and four shillings. This sum was paid to R. Schermerhorn, as appears by his written acknowledgement, to be found among the papers of the Elders. Lib. A. 217. SECRET INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR CORNBURY, JAN. 29, 1702/3, [1701/2]? AS GIVEN BY DIX i. 138. (So far as they relate to Ecclesiastical Affairs.) 1. Refers to his appointment. 2. Refers to the Council. 3. Refers to the reading of his Commission before the Council. As to the Oaths 4. Which being done, you shall yourself take, and also administer unto each of the members of our said Council, as well the Oaths appointed by Act of Parliament, to be taken instead of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the Oath mentioned in an Act entitled An Act to declare the alteration in the Oath appointed to be taken by the Act entitled An Act for the further security of his Majesty's person and the Succession of the Crown in the protestant line, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales and all other pretenders and their open and secrett abettors; and for declaring the Association to be determined, as also the test mentioned, in an Act of Parliament made in the twenty fifth years of the reigns of King Charles the second, entitled, An Act for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants; together with an oath for the due execution of your and their places and trusts, as well with regard to the equal and impartial administration of justice in all causes that shall come before you, as otherwise and likewise the Oath required to be taken by Governors of Plantations to do their utmost that the laws relating to the Plantations be observed. 5-59. As to Religion: 60. You shall take especiall care that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your Government; the Book of Common Prayer as by Law established, read each Sunday and Holy day, and the blessed sacrament administered according to the rites of the Church of England; you shall be carefull that the churches 17011702 1702 already built there be well and orderly kept, and that more be built as the Colony shall by God's blessing be improved; and that besides a competent maintenance to be assigned to the Minister of each Orthodox Church, a convenient house be built at the common charge for each Minister, and a competent proportion of land assigned him for a glebe and exercise of his industry; and you are to take care that the parishes be so limited and settled, as you shall find most convenient for the accomplishing this good work. 61. You are not to prefer any Minister to any Ecclesiastical Benefice in that our Province, without a certificate from the Right Reverend Father in God, the Bishop of London, of his being conformable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and of a good life and conversation; and if any person preferred already to a benefice appear to you to give scandall, either by his doctrine or manners, you are to use the best means for the removal of him, and to supply the vacancy in such manner as we have directed. 62. You are to give order forthwith, (if the same be not already done), that every Orthodox Minister within your Government be one of the Vestry in his respective parish, and that no Vestry be held without him, except in case of sickness, or that after notice of Vestry he will not come. 63. You are to inquire whether there be any Minister within your Government, who preaches and administers the sacraments in any Orthodox Church or Chappell without being in due orders, and to give an account thereof to the said Bishop of London. 64. And to the end of (that?) the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the said Bishop of London may take place in your Province so farr as conveniently may be, Wee doe think fitt, that you give all continuance (countenance?) and encouragement to the exercise of the same, excepting to the collating to benefices, granting licenceses for marriages, and probate of wills, which we have reserved to our Governour and to the Commander in Chief of our said Province for the time being. 65. Wee doe further direct that no schoolmaster be henceforth permitted to come from England and to keep school within our Province of New York, without the Lycense of the said Bishop of London, and that no other person now there, or that shall come from other ports, be admitted to keep school without your Lycense, first obtained. 66. And you are to take especial care that a Table of Marriages, established by the Canons of the Church of England to be hung up in every Orthodox Church and duly observed, and you are to endeavor to get a law past in the Assembly of that Province (if not already done) for the strict observance of the said Table. 67. You are to take care that Drunkenness and Debauchery Swearing and Blasphemy be discountenanced and punished; and for the further discountenance of Vice and encouragement of Virtue and good living (that by such examples ye Infidels may be invited and desire to partake of the Christian Religion), You are not to admit any person to publick Trust and Employments, whose ill-fame and conversation may occasion scandall.* TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK. Election of Church Wardens and Vestrymen. 1702, April 7. Church Wardens: Thomas Wenham, Richard Willett. These Instructions are not found in Colonial Documents, but are for the first, printed in Dix's History of Trinity Church, I. 138-140. See Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 883, 884, 887, 955, 1152, for allusions to them. Cornbury himself says that his Commission is dated September 9, 1701: and that he arrived, May 3, 1702; that the news of Bellomont's death (March 5, 1701) did not reach England until May, 1701. Orders were given to make out Cornbury's Commission, June 13, 1701; and this was reported done, June 26, 1701. 1702 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNBURY. May 3, 1702-1708 TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY. Cornbury was appointed successor to Bellomont, June 13, 1701; commissioned September 9, 1701; arrived May 3, 1702. Says Dr. Dix in his History of Trinity Church: "The Clergy" (of the Episcopal Church) regarded his arrival as a great deliverance; and no wonder, considering the reign of terror which he found here. Letters are extant from the Rev. John Bartow and other Missionaries of the Venerable Society, graphically depicting the perils of the Church (of England) under the administration of Bellomont and Nanfan, and hailing the arrival of the new Governor as an auspicious event." A number of the parish officials and their friends were in exile in New Jersey, where, beyond the reach of the ferocious Atwood, they were awaiting the arrival of the new Governor. Prominent members of Trinity Church were said to be in danger their lives worth little if Nanfan and Atwood had continued in power. Atwood's own writings show this. Trinity Church presented an address to Cornbury on his arrival. This address seems a refutation of the charges of disloyalty to Protestant interests raised by Mr. Atwood against Mr. Vesey and his friends. Mr. Vesey's father had been a Jacobite, in Massachusetts, but Rev. Mr. Vesey was far different. Cornbury countenanced Mr. Vesey in preaching against the two preceding Governors as persecutors. Cornbury received from Queen Anne a Commission and two sets of Instructions. These have never been printed. Brodhead failed to secure copies of them, for some reason, when he was in England collecting all civil documents relating to New York. Curiously enough, however, the originals have found their way here and are now in possession of a private individual. The Commission is dated December 5, 1702, (On page 134, Dix gives date as September 9, 1702,) and contains the following provision on ecclesiastical matters: "Wee do by these present authorize and Impower you to collate any pron (person) or prons to any Churches or Chappells, or other ecclesiastical benefices within our said province or dependencies aforesaid, as often as that any of them shall happen to be void."— Dix, 136-7. ADDRESS OF WELCOME TO GOVERNOR CORNBURY RY TRINITY CHURCH. "They say that with 'hearts full of charity and exuberant with joy ", they congratulate your Lordship's safe and happy arrival in this province with your worthy lady and family ". They then go on to speak of "the just fears which we had conceived under ye late administration of ye Predecessor and ye great hopes and confidence we perced in your Lordship's friendship for our Church and righteous cause". They also expressed their thankfulness to the King for "his Royal Letter of Protection to our Infant Church, to which was superadded our sence of that special and signal favor of sending your Lordship to be a healer and re 1702 storer amongst us, but as it needs appear'd to us to be the opening of a Doore of hope, so to those who were contriving to raise our very foundation, it caused a bitterness and overflowing of the Gall who not only labored to diswade the people from the hopes of seeing your Lordship, but raised a terrible and violent persecution against our Minister and most of the members and frequenters of our Church on account of Signing an Address to your Lordship and other Addresses, the contents of them being still to them unknown although some are innocently condemned to die as traitors, some outlaw'd and others forced to flye this Province and all put in Terror on that account, by a wicked, pernicious, perverse and strain'd Construction of an Act of Assembly of this Province made by Mr. Atwood and Mr. Weaver, who were the principal movers and managers of this disturbance and violators of the peace not only of our Church but of all the principal English, French and Dutch Protestant Inhabitants of his Majesty's Province". "The enemys of our peace being dissolute in principle as well as immoral in their Lives and Conversation made their study falsely and maliciously to slander our Minister as well as others with ye Character of Jacobitism and dissatisfaction to his Majesty's sacred person and the Laws and Government of England, and had like to have broke that hedge which his Majesty had most graciously placed about us, but your Lordship's happy and auspicious arrival like ye sun after morning darkness will dispell all those clouds and raise up our hands and hearts". In conclusion they assure the Governor of their willingness "with their lives and fortunes "to support and maintain correct principles as against "all his Majesty's enemys whosoever and ye enemys of ye true Protestant interest ".- Records, Trinity Ch. i. 38. Dix's Hist. Trinity Ch. i. 135. 1702, May 24. Whereas, We, the ruling Consistory and Church-Masters, find that the "Arms" of the late Jacob Lyslaer and Jacob Milbourne are now placed in our church, and have been there for four years past, and that hitherto, no church resolution has been taken on the matter: Therefore, We, the Consistory, assembled with the ruling Church-Masters this 24th day of May, 1702, having taken the matter into mature consideration, hereby declare this to be our salutary resolution and order for the best interests of the congregation, namely: That the said "Arms " shall be and remain in our church so long as the friends of the deceased shall think proper.* * And since the bodies of these gentlemen are buried therein, and the customary fee for the same has been paid, as appears from the book of the Church-Masters, we have also judged it expedient to declare by this our resolution, that the said bodies shall be and remain undisturbed.- Lib. A. 217. Domine Selyns had died in Sept., 1701. |