1706 and of the trans-atlantic churches; for from you, next to God, these seek consolation and assistance. If sufficient gratitude or reward be wanting here, may the All-Sufficient One be a shield and reward to your Reverences in eternity. This is the wish and prayer of him, who desires always to be remembered in your prayers, and who honors himself when with modest boldness he calls himself, with great respect for your Reverend Body, and with deep humility, Reverend Fathers and Colleagues in Jesus Christ, Your grateful servant and fellow-worker in Jesus Christ, New York, the 28th of May, 1706. Henricus Beys. This agrees with the original. D. Meyer Clarke. DUTCH CHURCH OF NEW YORK. May 29, 1706. On rescinding of resolutions. It was The Consistory having met, called on God's name. unanimously Resolved, That henceforth, no resolutions or orders, adopted either unanimously or by a majority, shall be reversed or altered except by unanimous consent in full Consistory. -Lib. A. 223. 1706 CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM. Correspondence from America. Portfolio "New York," Vol. i. The Church of New York to the Classis of Amsterdam, New York the 10th of June 1706. To the Rev. Gentlemen, Fathers and Brethren in Jesus Christ, constituting the Rev. Classis of Amsterdam: Reverend Gentlemen: After we had closed our letter, and after Domine Beis had, on the 6th of June, left for Esopus, not to enter upon his public duties, indeed, but only, etc., as his journal and letters show: the Governor, upon the unceasing requests of the principal men in the Province, and the persistent urging of Colonel Schuyler and Mr. Abram de Peyster, at last granted permission to Domine Beis to perform henceforth all his ministerial duties. These gentlemen having occasion to speak with his Excellency about something on the morning of the 7th of June, they then took occasion to make request of his Excellency, that he would be pleased to permit Domine Beis to perform his duties freely and openly, etc. Thereupon the Governor, who up to that time had said nothing of a license, stated he had no objection to Domine Beis personally; but some people had informed him that he had spoken disrespectfully about his Excellency:- which accusation, we are sure, is not true- and if this was not so, and Domine Beis would assure his Excellency of the contrary, by a letter, he would allow him henceforth to perform his duties without interference. Thus matters have been brought so far that both the ministers, Antonides and Beis, are actually performing service. Your Rev. Assembly will easily perceive, however, that our whole ministerial 1706 service remains dependent on his Excellency's will and pleasure, thereon, we commend your Reverences to God and the Word of Your Reverences Humble servants and brothers in Jesus Christ, Gualtherus du Bois, S. Staats. ACTS OF THE CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM. Indian Affairs. 1706, July 19th. The letter referring to the Affairs of India, sent over since the last Christian Synod, were more fully considered by Rev. Depp. ad res exteras. Extracts therefrom were made by them, and handed in to the Classis. No later letters have up to the present come over. ix. 129. (Besides Vols. xxxix, 1635-1648, and Vol. xix., 1655-1705, no volumes of extracts, earlier or later, are now in the Archives of the Classis.) 1706, JULY 27-Aug. 6. SNYOD OF NORTH HOLLAND, HELD AT AMSTERDAM. NO ALLUSIONS TO AMERICA. LORD CORNBURY TO THE LORDS OF TRADE. Inventory of Effects of Rev. Edmund Mott. October 3, 1706. In your letter of the 28th of November 1705, you are pleased to direct me to send your Lordships an account of what pay is due to the Rev. Mr. Mott, late Chaplain to Her Majesty's forces here, and what effects he has left in the Country. As for effects, he has left some books of which I herewith send you a catalogue and a very few cloths not worth in all six pounds, a silver seal, a silver headed cane, and some other trifles all mentioned at the foot of the inventory; I will likewise send you the appraisement of the whole and wait your Lordship's further directions before anything is disposed of. 1706 Reverend Edmund Mott seems to have succeeded the Rev. Mr. Brisac as chaplain to the forces at New York. He was interested originally in what is called the Minisink purchase, but having died in July, 1704, previous to the issue of the Patent, his name was dropped, and that of George Clarke inserted in the Grant. On his death, his place was offered to the Rev. John Talbot of Burlington, N. J., and on that gentleman declining, it was given to the Rev. John Sharp of Cheesquakes, N. J. Collections of Protestant Episcopal Society, I., xvii, 56, 58; New York Council Minutes, ix., 470; Licenses and Warrants, vi., 62, 65; Book of Commissions, iii., 95.- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 1181, 1182. 1706, OCT. 14. LORD CORNBURY TO THE LORDS OF TRADE. (About Revs. Makemle and Hampton; with Notes.) To the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations: My Lords: I trouble your Lordships with these lines to acquaint you that on the 17th of January 1705/6 a man of this town, one Jackson, came to acquaint me that two Ministers were come to town; one from Virginia, and one from Maryland, and that they desired to know when they might speak with me; I being willing to show what Civillity I could to men of that character, ordered my man to tell Jackson that they should be well come to come to dine with me; They came, and then I found by the Answers they gave to the questions I asked them, that one, whose name is Francis Mackensie, (Makemle)* is a Presbyterian Preacher settled in Virginia; the other, whose name is John Hampton, is a young Presbyterian Minister lately come to settle in Maryland; They dined with me, and talked of indifferent things: They pretended they were going towards Boston; they did not say one syllable to me of preaching here, nor did not ask leave to do it; They applied themselves to the Dutch Minister, for leave to preach in the Dutch Church in this Town, who told them he was very willing, provided they could get my consent; They never came to me for it; They went likewise to the Elders of the French Church; to desire leave to preach in the French Church, they gave them the same answer the Dutch had; all this while they never applyed themselves to me for leave, nor did they offer to qualify themselves as the Law directs. But on the Monday following I was informed that Mackensie (Makemie) had preached on the day before at the House of one Jackson, a shoemaker in this Rev. Francis Makemie, who is said to have been the first Presbyterian clergyman in New York, was a native of Ireland, and appears to have officiated in the West Indies about the year 1698-9. In the year 1700 he was sent out by a respectable body of Dissenters in the city of London, to America, and fixed his habltation on the peninsular between the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, in the county of Accomack, Virginia, very near the Maryland line. While there, he had already been arrested, it is said, through the influence of the Episcopal clergy, and carried over the Bay to Williamsburg, to answer for the crime of preaching. But the result was that he conciliated the Governor, who gave him a general license to preach in the Dominion. After his difficulty in New York, he narrowly escaped a second prosecution, for preaching another sermon, with a new charge, as some say, of being the author of the Jersey paper called Forget and Forgive. His name is affixed in the catalogues to a Tract entitled,- Truths in a True Light; or a Pastoral Letter to the Reformed Protestants in Barbados: 16 mo. Edinburgh, 1699. He published another pamphlet in Virginia, in reply to an Errorist who had charged him with denying the influence of the Holy Spirit. A formal report of his trial was published in 1707, under the title of "A Narrative of a new and unusual American Imprisonment of two Presbyterian Ministers and prosecution of Mr. Francis McKemie, one of them, for preaching one sermon in the city of New York". It is republished at length in Col. Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. iv., from which, and from Miller's Life of the Rev. Dr. Rodgers, the above particulars are mainly obtained. Mr. McKemie was a man of eminent plety as well as of strong Intellectual powers.- Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 1187. 1706 town; and that Hampton had preached on Long Island; and that Mackensie after having preached here on Sunday was gone over to Long Island with intent to preach in all the towns in that Island, having spread a report thereto, that they had a Commission from the Queen, to preach all along this Continent; I was informed on the same day from New Jersey, that the same men had preached in several places in that province, and had ordained, after their manner, some young men, who had preached without it among the Dissenters; And that when they were asked, if they had leave from the government they said they had no need of leave from any Governor, they had the Queen's authority for what they did: These Reports and the information I had from Long Island, of their behavior there, induced me to send an order to the Sherif of Queen's County on Long Island, to bring them to this place, which they did on the 23rd day of January in the Evening; The Attorney General was with me; I asked Mackensie how he came to preach in this Government, without acquainting me with it, and without qualifying himself as the Law Requires; he told me he had qualified himself according to law in Virginia, and that having so done, he would preach in any part of the Queen's Dominions where he pleased; and that this Province is part of the Queen's Dominions as well as Virginia, and that the License he had obtained there was as good as any he could obtain here. I told him that Virginia was part of the Queen's Dominions as well as this Province, but that they are two different Governments; That no order or Law of that Province can take place in this, no more than any order or Law of this Province can take place in that, which no reasonable Man would imagine could be allowed; he told me he understood the Law, as well as any man, and that he was satisfied he had not offended against the Law; That the Penal Laws of England, did not extend to, and were not in force in America; to which the Attorney General replyed, that if the Penal Laws did not take place in America, neither did the Act of Toleration; nor is it proper, said he, that it should, since the latter is no more than a Suspension of the former; Mackensie said that the Queen granted liberty of Conscience to all Her Subjects without Reserve. I told him he was so far in the Right, that the Queen was graciously pleased to grant liberty of Conscience to all her Subjects except Papists; that he might be a Papist for all that I knew, under the pretense of being of another persuasion; that therefore it was necessary he should have satisfied the government what he was, before he ventured to preach; Upon that he told me, that he would quallify himself in any manner, and would settle in this Province; I told him whenever any of the people of either of the Provinces under my Government had Desired leave to call a minister of their own Persuasion, they had never been denyed it, but that I should be very cautious how I allowed a man so prone to bid Defiance to Government as I found he was: He said he had done nothing that he could not answer, so I ordered the High Sherif of this City to take them into his Custody; And I directed the Attorney General to proceed against them, according as the Law directs; which he has done by preferring an Indictment against Mackensie for preaching in this City without Qualifying himself, as the Act of Toleration directs; The Grand Jury found the Bill, but the Petty Jury acquitted him, so he is gone towards New England uttering many severe threats against me; As I hope that I have done nothing in this matter but what I was in duty obliged to do, especially since I think it is very plain by the Act of Toleration, it was not intended to tollerate or allow strowling Preachers; But only that those persons who dissent from the Church of England should be at liberty to serve God after their own way, in the several places of their abode, without being lyable to the Penalties of certain laws; so I intreat your Lordships protection against this malicious man, who is well known in Virginia and Maryland to be a Disturber of the Peace and quiet of all the places he comes into; he is Jack of all Trades; he is a Preacher, a Doctor of Physick, a Merchant, an Attorney, or Counsellor at Law, and, which is worse of all, a Disturber of Governments; I should have sent your Lordships this account sooner, but that I was willing to see the Issue of the Tryal. I am, My Lords, New York, or 14, 1706. Your Lordships most faithful humble Servant, Cornbury. - Col. Docs. N. Y. iv. 1186-7. |