At a meeting of the Vestry of Trinity Church, held August 28th, 1888, the following action was taken: "The Vestry, having learned that the Senior Warden, Mr. George C. Mason, has written the Annals of Trinity Church, covering the most interesting periods in its history: Voted: that a committee be appointed to extend to Mr. Mason an invitation to publish in book form the material he has collected with so much assiduity, and to take such steps as they may deem expedient, to raise by subscription the means necessary to carry out the wishes of the Vestry, as here expressed; that' body having no power to appropriate money for this purpose." Voted That the Rector and V. Mott Francis, M.D., be that committee. GEO. C. MASON, ESQ. Dear Sir Having received by subscription the amount which you deemed necessary for the publication of the Annals of Trinity Church, we desire to carry out the wish of the Vestry of the Church, as expressed at their meeting, held on the 28th of August, 1888, and ask you to proceed to the work of publication. Very sincerely yours, G. J. MAGILL, } V. MOTT FRANCIS, Committee. Newport, Dec. 12th, 1889. PREFACE. THIS Volume, prepared as time and opportunity offered, is a transcript of the records of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, from its infancy at the close of the Seventeenth Century, down to Easter Monday, 1821, and covers the most interesting periods in its history. With the text, which is given with fidelity, there are copious explanatory notes and short sketches of the men who, in their day and generation, were in some way connected with the Church. In the earliest book of records there are gaps, the result of inexperience on the part of those who kept them, and which now cannot be filled. A more serious loss was that of a volume, covering the years just preceding the Revolution and the time the British troops were on the island. When the war broke out the minister was the Reverend George Bisset- -a good and faithful pastor, who had evidently entered upon his duties as his life-work. In common with other clergymen of the Church of England in America, at that date, he held that allegiance was due to the king, and remained on the island when the enemy took possession, preaching to the troops as he had preached to his own people. When the British left he went with them. It is probable that not knowing with whom to leave the record book he took it with him for safe keeping, and in this way it was lost. The other records have been preserved. While they are of great value, particularly to those who have occasion to search for confirmation of marriages, baptisms and deaths, there does not appear to be anything in them to warrant the printing of minutes of a later date than are here given. The edition is limited to three hundred and fifty copies. ANNALS OF TRINITY D CHAPTER I. 1698-1719. OWN to the closing years of the seventeenth century no footing had been obtained in America by the Church of England, nor had any attempt been made in New England to gain one, till May 30, 1686,' when the liturgy was read in public for the first time in Boston. Ten more years elapsed before there was much promise of a church there. Rhode Island was even more backward. The founders of the State, and the first settlers of the island of Rhode Island, were Baptists, who were divided among themselves; and when Quakerism was introduced it met with great success. Here was the field the Quaker had looked for, but which, till then, he had not found; here there was no persecution, no whipping at the cart-tail, or other methods to extort obedience to spiritual rulers. The heads of the people, the Coddingtons, Cranstons and The Rev. Robert Radcliffe came over in the ship that brought a commission for Joseph Dudley as Governor of Massachusetts, and landed in Boston May 15, 1686. He made application for a place in which to hold. religious service, and was allowed the use of the library room in the Town House. There he held the first service, and on the 15th of the following month a church was organized. |