It was built of brick, which caused it to be known as the Brick Church -a name retained by that organization to the present day. Maps show that it stood in the middle of the trapezoidalshaped lot before described, and pictures show that it faced southward toward the then principal part of the town. It was a handsome two-story building with a single-gabled roof, at first without spire. The steeple, which was added in 1793 (Stokes' Iconography), was in general appearance similar to that of St. Paul's Chapel near by on Broadway. The Brick Church had two rows of windows on each side, five windows in a row. The windows were half-round at the top. In the center of the north wall, back of the platform, was a large window occupying part of the height of both stories, with two smaller windows one in the first story and one in the second on each side. Above the large central window, in the angle of the gable-end, was a small round window.

The New York Gazette, or, the Weekly Post-Boy, of Thursday, December 31, 1767, contains the following brief notice:

To-morrow Morning, being New-Year's Day, the Second Presbyterian Church in this City will be opened, and a SERMON preached, by the Rev. Mr. Rodgers. Divine Service will begin at the usual Time."

The same newspaper of Monday, January 4, 1768, contains the following:

"On Friday last being the first Day of this Year, the Presbyterians of this City in Communion with the established Church of Scotland, opened their Brick Church lately erected on the Green. The Rev. Mr. Rogers conducted the worship and preached from the words of the Prophet Haggai I will fill this House with Glory, saith the Lord of Hosts.' There was a very crowded audience; and by the Solemnity of the Occasion, and the Address of the Preacher, the whole Assembly seem'd to be impressed with a Mixture of Seriousness, Gratitude and Joy, more easily conceived than expressed, and highly becoming the Dedication of a House to the Worship of Almighty God. Divine Service is to be constantly performed there as in the Old Church; and all that incline to take Pews in the Brick-Church are desired to attend there at Ten o'Clock this Morning."

The Brick Church was considered as one body with the Wall street church. They had one Board of Trustees, one eldershir and one ministry.

VII

THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

Loyalty of the Presbyterians and Abuse of Their Churches

The patriotic attitude of the Presbyterians upon the question of American Independence is reflected in a letter written by Rev. Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity Church, to Rev. Dr. Hind, under date of New York, October 31, 1776. In the course of this lengthy epistle, he declares the belief that while civil liberty was the ostensible object or "fact that was thrown out to catch the populace at large and engage them in rebellion, yet it is now past all doubt that an abolition of the Church of England was one of the principal springs of the dissenting leaders' conduct; and hence the unanimity of dissenters in this business. Their universal defection from government, emancipating themselves from the jurisdiction of Great Britain, and becoming independent, was a necessary step towards this grand object. I have it from good authority that the Presbyterian ministers, at a Synod where most of them in the middle colonies were collected, passed a resolve to support the continental congress in all their measures. This and this only can account for the uniformity of their conduct; for I do not know one of them, nor have I been able, after strict inquiry, to hear of any, who did not, by preaching and every effort in their power, promote all the measures of the congress, however extravagant." (Hawkins' Missions.)

In Shepherd Knapp's "History of the Brick Presbyterian Church," at pp. 58-72, there is an instructive chapter on the participation of the New York Presbyterians in the War for Independence. And the history of "New York in the Revolu tion" by the loyalist Judge Jones, in referring in the bitterest terms to" the Presbyterian faction" who took the lead in receiving the New England delegates to the second Continental Congress, attests the active sympathy of the Presbyterians with the patriot

cause.

The Declaration of Independence was read in the presence of Washington and a portion of the Continental Army on the Commons (now City Hall Park) July 9, 1776. On the

town and six men who were killed were buried in Bowling 12th, British ships passing up the North river bombarded the Green. On Sunday, the 14th, the Church of England churches were shut up and there was service in none or few of the other churches. On Sunday, August 18th, the British men-of-war came down the river and again bombarded the town, a nine-pound shot passing through the old German Lutheran church on Broadway below Rector street. On Sunday, September 15, the British landed and captured the town. During the action of the day, a large cannon ball hit the North Church. On the night of the 21st a great fire broke out in the vicinity of Whitehall and destroyed a part of Broad, Stone and Beaver streets and much property along Broadway, including the old Lutheran Church and Trinity Church. (Diary of Rev. Mr. Shewkirk of the Moravian Church in Memoirs of L. I. Hist. Soey III, 120 et seq.)

The Presbyterian Church in Wall street escaped the fire of September 21, 1776, but did not escape desecration by the British military authorities. Greenleaf says that the Wall street church was converted into barracks and the Brick church into a hospital. John F. Watson, who talked with men who were in New York during the Revolution, says in his "Annals of New York" (p. 326): "All the Presbyterian churches in New York were used for military purposes in some form or other. I suspect they were deemed more whiggish in general than some of the other churches. The clergymen of that order were in general throughout the war said to be zealous to promote the cause of the Revolution."

It will be recalled that the prisoners captured at the battle of Fort Washington on the upper end of the island on November 16, 1776, further recruited the number of prisoners taken at the battle of Brooklyn, and the British were hard pressed for accommodations for them in town. Mr. Shewkirk, in his diary, says:

"In November, new troubles began on account of the quartering of soldiers, of whom more and more come in. Many of the public buildings were already filled with Prisoners, or sick, etc.; especially all the Dutch and Presbyterian churches, as also the French church, the Baptists and new Quaker meeting, and we were not without apprehension that something of that nature

might come upon us; and this the more, as the Chapel-House has the appearance of a spacious building; and just opposite the same they were fitting up the fine North church of the English Dutch for Barracks."

We get a picture of the scenes within the Brick Church during the Revolution from the reminiscences of Levi Hanford of Delaware county, N. Y. (Disoway's "Earliest Churches,” 145 et seq.) Hanford entered Gen. Lee's army in 1775 at the age of 16 and was among those who broke ground for the fortifications on Governor's Island. Being captured by the enemy during the war, he was imprisoned successively in the "Old Sugar House."* the small pox hospital, the Quaker Meeting house hospital, the prisonship Good Intent" and at length in "Dr. Rodgers Brick Meeting-house." Speaking of his transfer in winter in a boat half full of water from the prison-ship to the meeting house he says: "One poor fellow that could not sit up we had to haul on the gunnel of the boat to keep his head out of water, but he got wet and died in a few minutes after he was got on shore." When he arrived at the church, he says: "From the yard I carried one end of a bunk, from which some person had just died, into the church, and got into it, exhausted and overcome." He had to remain in the hospital a long time on account of the condition of his feet. "And of all places," he continues, "that was the last to be coveted; disease and death reigned there in all their terrors. I have had men die by the side of me in the night and have seen fifteen dead bodies sewed up in their blankets laid in the corner of the yard at one time, the product of one twenty-four hours. Every morning at 8 o'clock, the dead cart came, the bodies were put in, the men drew their rum, and the cart was drawn off to the trenches."

A letter from Fishkill, N. Y., dated May 22, 1783, in Shannon's Manual for 1870 (page 787) says:

"A correspondent observes that he has lately viewed the Churches and Houses in New York and that all the Churches are. except the Episcopal, the Moravian and the Methodists, converted into stores or barracks, and appear in a very loathsome condition: the fences which encompassed the burying-yards being destroyed,

* Probably the Liberty street sugar house which stood on the south side of Liberty Street next east of the Middle Dutch Church.

the pews in all and the galleries in some of them pulled down, the windows broken and otherwise much abused. It would add much to the honour of the British government to repair the damage done to those fabricks, dedicated to the worship of God, which they have in a great measure wantonly and unnecessarily abused; and should General Carleton not have it in his power to repair the Churches, the respect which ought to be shewn to places of divine worship should prompt him to order them swept, washed and cleaned, and the abominable filth removed out of the Churches and churchyards; and at the same time order the Houses which he and his predecessors in command have turned into Barracks to be cleaned and repaired, that as much as possible grounds of complaint may be removed in these respects. If these abuses remain unnoticed, they will surely fix a lasting stigma on the British commander-in-chief who had it in his power to do much to the redress of those reasonable complaints. The period now draws nigh when he may have orders to evacuate the city, and to leave Churches, Houses and Streets full of Filth will not reflect credit on the present possessors. We wish therefore that everything may be done to promote mutual good understanding and to prevent the curses of an injured people."

The churches were never repaired by the British, who evacuated the City on November 25, 1783, and when Dr. Rodgers returned to the city, neither the Wall street church nor the Brick church was fit for services, but the vestry of Trinity Church courteously placed St. George's Chapel in Beekman street at the service of the Presbyterians until the latter could rehabilitate their own houses of worship.

On December 11, 1783, thanksgiving services were held in the various churches of the city pursuant to Governor Clinton's proclamation and Dr. Rodgers resumed his ministrations in St. George's Chapel on that date. A newspaper of December 13, 1783, quoted in Shannon's Manual for 1870, page 837, says:

"Last Thursday, appointed by his Excellency the Governor to be a Day of Public Thanksgiving for the final establishment of American Independence and the long desired restoration of Civil Government, in the blessings of an honorable Peace, was observed with the greatest deference to his Excellency's Proclamation dated

During the war, the congregations were scattered and the ministers left the city. Mr. Treat never returned and the pastoral relation with him was terminated October 2. 1785.