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THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL 



T I 



1587-1883. 



kk . 




FROM-THE- LIBRARY-OP 
TWNiraOLLEGE TORONTO 





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THE HISTORY 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



THE HISTORY 



AMERICAN 

EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



1587-1883 



BY 



WILLIAM STEVENS PERRY, D.D., LL.D. 



BISHOP OF IOWA 



IN TWO VOLUMES 



VOL. I 

THE PLANTING AND GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN 
COLONIAL CHURCH 

1587 1783 



PROJECTED BY CLARENCE F. JEWETT 



BOSTON 
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 

1885 



Copyright, 1885 

JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 
All rights reserved 



Press of Rock-ioell anJ Churchill, Boston 



THE RT. HON. AND MOST REV. EDWARD W. BENSON, D.D., 

ETC., ETC., 
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND AND METROPOLITAN; 



THE MOST REV. ROBERT EDEN, D.D., 

LORD BISHOP OF MORAY, ROSS, AND CAITHNESS, AND PRIMUS OF THE 
CHURCH IN SCOTLAND; 



THE RT. REV. ALFRED LEE, D.D., LL.D., 

BISHOP OF DELAWARE, AND PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH, 



75 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 



PREFACE. 



rjlHAT the history of the American Episcopal Church is 
not more widely known, and more generally accessible, 
is not from the lack of earnest and painstaking inves 
tigators, nor from any want of abundant material. Pam 
phlets and volumes, "broadsides" and papers, letters, 
records and manuscripts, bearing upon our history and illus 
trating the annals of earlier or later days, exist in almost 
embarrassing profusion. Even the statutes at large of our 
jurists and the secular histories of our States or the Nation 
cannot be studied, or even casually examined, without the 
revelation of the connection of the Church of England with 
early maritime discovery and colonization, and the confession 
of the fact that the State and the Church grew up together 
among us from the first. In fact, our ecclesiastical history is 
necessarily coeval with that of the civilization and develop 
ment of the continent. One cannot turn the dingy pages 
of the 

" Small, rare volumes, black with tarnished gold," 

the coveted treasures of the bibliomaniac, and the "nuggets " 
of collectors of "Americana," without finding in black 
letter or in plain Roman the story of the Church s progress 
through trials and difficulties from her first transplanting on 
American shores to her present independence and promise. 



PREFACE. 

It is, nevertheless, true that with a rich and almost 
exhaustless store of material to draw from, and with a his 
tory of which we have no reason to be ashamed, the narrative 
of the Church s foundation and growth has been but partially 
told. The labors of the late Francis Lister Hawks, D D., 
LL.D., first historiographer of the American Church, prose 
cuted as they were among many discouragements, and 
received, as we must confess, with inadequate support, gave 
us the annals of the Church in Virginia and Maryland, and, at 
a Inter date, and in connection with the present writer, the 
documentary history of the Connecticut Church. The ven 
erable Bishop White, in his invaluable "Memoirs of the 
Church," placed within our reach an authoritative resume 
of the facts and principles of our organization as an inde 
pendent branch of the catholic Church of Christ. Others, 
whom it would be impossible to name, have supplied, in 
diocesan or parish histories, and in the biographies of our 
leading men, data of the greatest value and interest. But 
the only accessible history of the Church, as a whole, is the 
admirable summary of our annals, written by the celebrated 
Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and Winchester, and since 
this admirable work was prepared nearly half a century of 
growth and development has already passed. 

The scheme of this History originated with Mr. Clarence 
F. Jewett, who entrusted the further development of the work 
to the writer, and it is now offered to supply, for a time at 
least, the confessed lack of a record of the Church s progress 
during its earlier days of planting and struggling as a feeble 
and somewhat neglected branch of the Church of England, 
and its history after the war of the Revolution as an organiza 
tion which has now closed its first century of independent 
life. In the presentation of this story of church life and 
growth there have been added to the narrative numerous im 
portant and valuable monographs, prepared by distinguished 



PREFACE. 



IX 



writers of our communion, and serving to elucidate the state 
ments of the text or to add to their fulness and accuracy. 

Other papers of this nature, of perhaps equal value and 
interest, were prepared; but, with a view to condensation, the 
results of these investigations have been incorporated in the 
narrative and illustrative notes. It is believed that by this 
division of labor a more satisfactory result has been attained 
than could possibly have been secured in any other way, and 
these noble volumes, which in their typography and careful 
illustration, attest the taste and liberality of the publishers, 
are therefore commended to the kind consideration of the 
members of our Church as the first complete history of our 
communion. 




x^C. ,/ x 3 r ^ 

&jUt&^^2M^- 



CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PREFACE vn 

Ejje panting antr 0rofotfj of tfje American Colonial Cjjurcjj. 

BY THE EDITOR. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONNECTION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH AMERICAN 

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT 1 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Sebastian Cabot, 3 ; Martin Frobisher, 6 ; The Arms 
of England, 8; Cavendish, 11; Sir Francis Drake, 14. 

AUTOGRAPHS : Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., 2 ; Queen Mary, 
Queen Elizabeth, 4 ; Sir Francis Drake, 5 ; Martin Frobisher, 6 ; 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 8 ; Sir Walter Ralegh, 9 ; Ralph Lane, 10. 

NOTES, CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL . 15 



CHAPTER II. 

SERVICES AND SACRAMENTS AT RALEGH S COLONIES AT ROANOKE, ON 

THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST 18 

CRITICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION . ... 23 



CHAPTER III. 

FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS AT THE MOUTH OF 

THE KENNEBEC 26 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Smith s Map of New England, 28 ; Ancient Pema- 
quid, 33. 

AUTOGRAPHS : George Waymouth, 27 ; Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 2!) ; Sir 



XII CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

John Popham, Rev. Richard Hakluyt, 30; William Strachey, 34; 
Lord Bacon, 37. 

CRITICAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 38 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH. AND STATE IN VIRGINIA .... 42 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Capt. John Smith, 43 ; Jamestown, 44 ; Lord Dela 
ware, 61 ; George Percy, 55. 

ACTOGRAPHS : Capt. John Smith, 47; James I., 49; De la Warr, 53; 
Thomas Gates, 54 ; George Percy, 55. 

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 63 

CHAPTER V. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF HENRICO, AND EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION 

AND CIVILIZATION OF THE SAVAGES 66 

ILLUSTRATION : Fac-simile Seal of Virginia, 72. 
AUTOGRAPH : John Harvey, 72. 

CRITICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 78 

CHAPTER VI. 
PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND 81 

ILLUSTRATIONS: John Endicott, 83 ; Standish s Sword and a Match 
lock, 84 ; John Winthrop, 88; St. Botolph s Church, 89; John 
Cotton, 91; Winthrop s Fleet, 93; Fac-simile Letter of Thomas 
Lechford, 98; Petition of Robert Jordan, 106. 

AUTOGRAPHS: Robert Browne, 81; Thomas Morton, 82; John Endi 
cott, 83 ; Miles Standish, 84 ; William Blaxton, Thomas Walford, 
Samuel Maverick, 87; John Winthrop, 88; John Cotton, 91; 
William Hubbard, 94 ; Roger Williams, 95 ; Thomas Lechford, 
98; Ferdinando Gorges, Captain Mason, Roger Goode, Thomas 
Gorges, 100; Robert Jordan, 104; Signers of Covenant "First 
Church in Boston" (John Winthrop, John Wilson, Isaac John 
son, Thomas Dudley), 111. 

CRITICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 107 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR .... 113 

ILLUSTRATION : The College of William and Mary as it appeared a 
century and a half ago, 123. 



CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. XIII 

AUTOGRAPHS: William Berkeley, 114; James Blair, Robert Boyle, 
115; Thomas Dawson, John Camm, James Horrocks, 125. 

ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL NOTES 126 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COMMISSARY BRAY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN 

MARYLAND 129 

ILLUSTRATIONS: Lord Baltimore, 130; The Baltimore Arms, 132; 
Cecil, second Lord Baltimore, 133; Fac-simile Title-Page of 
Tract, 139; Endorsement of the Toleration Act, 146; All-Hal 
lows Parish Church, Snow Hill, Maryland, 147. 

AUTOGRAPHS: John Harvey, Leonard Calvert, 131; John Lewger, 
Thomas Cornwaleys, 132; King Charles II., 135, 145; Sir George 
Calvert, William Stone, 145; Philip Calvert, 146. 

CRITICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES . . 145 



CHAPTER IX. 

BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK AND THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 148 

ILLUSTRATIONS: Arms of Sir Francis Nicholson, 151; The Fort and 
Chapel, Old New York, 155; Sir Edmund Andros, 157; Arms of 
Andros, 158; Lord Bellomont, 163. 

AUTOGRAPHS : Richard Nicolls, 148 ; Charles Wolley, 150 ; Thomas 
Dongan, 152; King James II., 153; Lord Bellomont, 163; Gov 
ernor Fletcher, 170. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 170 



CHAPTER X. 

GOVERNOR ANDROS AND THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON, 175 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Fac-simile of Earliest Record-Book of King s Chapel, 
Boston, 178; Great Seal of New England under Andros, 181; 
the first King s Chapel, 186 ; John Nelson, 188 ; Fac-simile Note 
frorii the Records of King s Chapel referring to the Rebellion 
against Andros, 190; Holy Table in Use in 1686, 191; Com 
munion Flagon, 192; Communion Plate given by King William 
and Queen Mary, 193. 

AUTOGRAPHS: Robert Ratcliffe, 175; Samuel Sewall, 176; Charles 
Lidgett, 177; Edward Randolph, 179; Edmund Andros, 181 ; Ben 
jamin Bullivant, 187; John Nelson, 188 ; Ministers, Wardens, and 
Vestry of King s Chapel, 1700, 194; Rev. Peter Daille, 195. 

ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL NOTES .... 195 



XIV CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY 
FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS . . 197 

ILLUSTRATION : Seal of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts, 198. 

ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL NOTES 205 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT " FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE TO 

CARATUCK," NORTH CAROLINA 206 

ILLUSTRATIONS: The King s Missive, 1GG1, commanding the Release 
of the Quakers, 207 ; Rev. George Keith, 209 ; Joseph Dudley, 
211; Fac-simile Title-Page of Sermon preached by Rev. George 
Keith, 213 ; George Fox, 216 ; Increase Mather, 222. 

AUTOGRAPHS : Cotton Mather, James Allen, Joshua Moody, Samuel 
Willard, 208; Joseph Dudley, 211 ; John Talbot, 215. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES ..... 221 



CHAPTER XIII. 
THE PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE, 223 

ILLUSTRATIONS : William Penn, 223 ; Seal of Pennsylvania, 224 ; the 
Queen Anne Plate, Christ Church, 231; Clirist Church, Philadel 
phia, 236 ; Interior of Christ Church, Philadelphia, 238 ; Jacob 
Duch6, 241; Old Swedes Church, Wilmington, Delaware, 244; 
Gloria Dei (old Swedes) Church, 245 ; Old St. David s Church, 
Radnor, 246. 

AUTOGRAPHS: William Penn, 223; Evan Evans, 226; Peter Evans, 
Robert Hunter, 232 ; William Keith, 233 ; Edmund Gibson, Lord 
Bishop of London, 237 ; Robert Jenney, William Sturgeon, Ja 
cob Duche, 239 ; Richard Peters, 240 ; John Kearsley, Thomas 
Coombe, Jacob Duche, 241 ; Philip Reading, Thomas Barton, 
Charles Inglis, Hugh Neill, 242; William Thompson, Robert 
Jenney, William Smith, 243. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 244 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE CONVERSION TO THE CHURCH OF CUTLER, RECTOR OF YALE 

COLLEGE, AND OTHER PURITAN MINISTERS OF CONNECTICUT . . 247 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Timothy Cutler, 248 ; Christ Church, Boston, 252. 




CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. XV 

AUTOGRAPH : Timothy Cutler, 248. 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 255 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLET, AND THE STRUGGLES OF THE 

CHURCH IN MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND 257 

AUTOGRAPHS : John Checkley, Ezekiel Cheever, 257 ; William Dum- 
mer, Robert Auchmuty, 264. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 271 



CHAPTER XVI. 
CONTROVERSIES 273 

ILLUSTRATION: Rev. James McSparran, 280; Memorial Tablet to 
Rev. John Beach, 282. 

AUTOGRAPHS: George Pigot, 273; Samuel Johnson, 274; Charles 
Chauncy, 276; James Wetmore, 279; James McSparran, 281. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE 282 



CHAPTER XVII. 

DOCTOR JOHNSON, OF STRATFORD, AND THE GROWTH OF THE CON 
NECTICUT CHURCH 283 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Samuel Johnson, 289 ; Christ s Church, Stratford, 
297. 

AUTOGRAPHS : Timothy Cutler, 285 ; Samuel Johnson, 289. 
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 302 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE LEADING MISSIONARIES AND CLERGY AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH : 

THEIR LlVES AND LABORS 304 

AUTOGRAPHS: Hugh Jones, 307; James Honyman, 311; Matthias 
Plant, 312; Thomas Bacon, 317; Edward Bass, 321. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE .-. 321 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MISSIONARY LABORS AMONG THE MOHAWKS AND OTHER INDIAN 

TRIBES 322 



XVI CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Sir William Johnson, 331 ; the Lord s Prayer from 
tin- Mohawk 1 rayer-Book, 334. 

334 



ILLUSTKATIVE NOTE 



CHAPTER XX. 



THK WKSI.KYS AND GEOHGE WHITEFIELD, MISSIONARIES OF THE 

CHURCH IN GEOKGIA 3 <*5 

ILLUSTRATIONS : General James Oglethorpe, 336 ; Fac-stmile Title- 
Page of Wesley s Journal, 346; Rev. George W T hitefielil, 349; 
Whitefield s Orphan House or Bethesda College, 351 ; Fac-siinile 
Title-Page of Sermon Preached by Rev. Edward Ellington, 358 ; 
Fac-simile Title-Page of Journal of Voyage from London to 
Georgia, 367. 

AUTOGRAPH : George Whitefield, 349. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 360 



CHAPTER XXI. 
COMMISSARY GARDEN AND THE CHURCH IN SOUTH CAROLINA ... 372 

ILLUSTRATIONS : St. Michael s Church, 374 ; Fac-simile Title-Page of 
Six Letters to Rev. George Whitefield, 389 ; Interior of the Goose- 
Creek Church, 391; St. Andrew s Church, 392; Ruins of St. 
George s Church, Dorchester, 393. 

AUTOGRAPHS: Affra Coming, 375; Alexander Garden, 385; South 
Carolina Clergymen, 1724 (Thomas Hasell, John La Pierre, 
Benjamin Pownall, William Dawson, Alexander Garden, Brian 
Hunt, Albert Powderous, Richard Ludlam, Francis Varnod, 
David Standish), 394. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES , 390 



CHAPTER XXII. 
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EPISCOPATE 395 

ILLUSTRATIONS: Jonathan Mayhew, 411; An Attempt to Land a 
Bishop in America, 413. 

AUTOGRAPHS : Thomas Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury, 407 ; 
Jonathan Mayhew, 411; Thomas Bradbury Chandler, 414. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE 426 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

KING S COLLEGE, NEW YORK, AND THE COLLEGE AND ACADEMY OF 

PHILADELPHIA 428 



CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. XVII 

ILLUSTRATIONS: Benjamin Franklin, 429; Rev. Richard Peters, 431; 
Rev. William Smith, 434; Distant view of King s College in 1768, 
443. 

AUTOGRAPHS : Richard Peters, 431 ; Benjamin Franklin, 433. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE 446 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE POSITION OF THE CLERGY AT THE OPENING OF THE WAR FOR 

INDEPENDENCE 447 

ILLUSTRATION : Dr. Joseph Warren, 452. 
AUTOGRAPH : William Stevens Perry, 468. 

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE . 467 



Ellustrattfo 



MONOGRAPH I. 

THE RELATIONS OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONY 

TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Robert C. Winthrop .... 469 

ILLUSTRATION: Pilgrim Relics, 478. 

AUTOGRAPHS : John Winthrop, 469 ; Margaret Winthrop, 470; Samuel 
Browne, John Browne, 476 ; Samuel Fuller, 477 ; Robert C. 
Winthrop, 478. 

MONOGRAPH II. 

EARLY DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST OF NEW ENG 
LAND, UNDER CHURCH AUSPICES. Benjamin F. De Costa . . 479 

ILLUSTRATIONS: John Hawkins, 480; Ship of the Seventeenth Cen 
tury, 483; Blackstone s Lot, 498. 

AUTOGRAPHS: John Hawkins, 480; Samuel Maverick, 491; John 
Cotton, 493; James I., 494; Benjamin F. De Costa, 500. 

MONOGRAPH III. 

PURITANISM IN NEW ENGLAND AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Thomas 

Winthrop Coit 501 



519 



XVI| , \M> ILLUSTRATIONS. 

i Hugh Peters, :.o:!: Tl.mna* Shepard, 505; William 
III., .Ml ; Tliciinas \V. Coit, 518. 



MONOGRAPH IV. 

DKAX BKKKI.KY > S.MOURX IN AMERICA. 1729-1731. Moses Coit 
f ...... ...... ......... 

ILLUSTRATIONS : " Whitehall," the Residence of Dean Berkeley while 
in Rhode Island, 520; George Berkeley, 523 ; Dean Berkeley s 
favorite Resort at Newport, now called Berkeley s Seat, 533. 

AITOGRAPHS: George Berkeley, 523; Moses Coit Tyler, 540. 



MONOGRAPH V. 

TIIK NON-JURING BISHOPS IN AMERICA . John Fulton 541 

ILLUSTRATIONS : Episcopal Seal bearing the Name of Talbot, 541. 
AUTOGRAPHS : Charles GookSn, 549 ; John Fulton, 560. 

MONOGRAPH VI. 

YALE COLLEGE AND THE CHURCH. E. Edwards Beardsley . . 561 

AUTOGRAPH : E. E. Beardsley, 576. 

MONOGRAPH VII. 

SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. NEW ENGLAND . 577 

ST. JOHN S CHURCH, PORTSMOUTH. N.H. Henri/ E. Hovey . . 577 

ILLUSTRATION : Interior of St. John s Church, 579. 
AUTOGRAPH : Henry E. Hovey, 580. 

UNION CHURCH, WEST CLAREMONT, N.H. Francis CJiase . . 580 

ILLUSTRATION : Union Church, West Claremont, 581. 
AUTOGRAPH : Francis Chase. 582. 

CHRIST CHURCH. BOSTON. Henry Burroughs 582 

AUTOGRAPH : Henry Burroughs, 588. 

CHRIST CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE. Nicholas Hoppin 588 

ILLUSTRATION : Christ Church, Cambridge, 589. 
AUTOGRAPHS: East Apthorp, 588; Nicholas Hoppin, 592. 



CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. XIX 

TKIXITT CHURCH, NEWPORT. R.I., AND ST. PAUL S CHURCH. 

KINGSTON, R.I. Thomas March Clark 592 

AUTOGRAPH : Thomas M. Clark, 594. 

THE OLD NARRAGANSETT CHURCH. Daniel Goodwin .... 595 

ILLUSTRATION : The Old Naragansett Church, 595. 
AUTOGRAPH : Daniel Goodwin, 597. 

SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. THE MIDDLE STATES 598 

THE HISTORIC AND ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY CHURCHES OF LONG 

ISLAND. Henry Onderdonk, Jr 598 

AUTOGRAPH : Henry Onderdonk, Jr., 599. 

HISTORIC CHURCHES OF NEW JERSEY. George Morgan Hills . 599 
AUTOGRAPH : George M. Hills, 605. 

THE UNITED CHURCHES OF CHRIST CHURCH AND ST. PETERS, 
PHILADELPHIA. TJiomas F. Davies 605 

AUTOGRAPH : Thomas F. Davies, 610. 

SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. SOUTHERN STATES 610 

MARYLAND (DIOCESE OF EASTON). Henry C. Lay . . . . 610 
AUTOGRAPH : Henry C. Lay, 613. 

MARYLAND. George A. Leakin 613 

ILLUSTRATION : All-Hallows Parish Church, Maryland, 613. 
AUTOGRAPH : George A. Leakin, 614. 

COLONIAL VIRGINIA. Philip Slaughter 614 

ILLUSTRATION: St. Luke s Church, near Smithfleld, Va., 624. 
AUTOGRAPH : Philip Slaughter, 633. 

DIOCESE OF EAST CAROLINA, ST. PAUL S PARISH, EDENTON, 

CHOWAN COUNTY, N.C. Robert B. Drane 633 

ILLUSTRATION :, St. Paul s, Edenton, North Carolina, 634. 
AUTOGRAPH : Robert B. J)rane, 637. 

ST. THOMAS S CHURCH, BATH, BEAUFORT COUNTY, N.C. Joseph 

Blount Cheshire, Jr 637 

AUTOGRAPH : Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., 638. 



XX CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

HI<TOI;I. (IHK.III- IN S,,I;TH CAROLINA. J. J. Pr ingle Smith, 638 
ILLUSTRATION : St. David s, Cheraw, S.C., c,44. 
AUTOGRAPH >J. .1. Pringlc Smith, 644. 

MONOGRAPH VIII. 

THK CHT-IJCII CHARITIES OK THK KIGHTEKNTH CENTURY . . . . 645 

THK BOSTON EPISCOPAL CHARITABLE SOCIETY. Thomas C. 

Amort/ 645 

AUTOGRAPH : Thomas C. Amory, 646. 

THE CORPORATION FOR THE RELIEF OF WIDOWS AND CHILDREN 
OF CLERGYMEN OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
John William Wallace 647 

AUTOGRAPH : John W. Wallace, 660. 

CHRIST CHURCH HOSPITAL, PHILADELPHIA. Edward A. Foyyo, 660 
AUTOGRAPH : Edward A. Foggo, fi61. 

THE ORPHAN HOUSE AT BETHESDA, GA. John Watrous Beck- 

with 661 

AUTOGRAPH : John Watrous Beckwith, 665. 



THE HISTOKY 

OF THE 

AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of tfte Slmtrican 



(Colonial 

1587 - 1783. 

BY WILLIAM STEVENS PERRY, D.D., LL.D., 

Bishop of Iowa. 






CHAPTEE I. 

THE CONNECTION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH 
AMERICAN DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 

r I COWARDS the close of the sixteenth century the effort to found 
I an empire in the New World, which had more or less occupied the 
mind of England since the discoveries of the Cabots, began to as 
sume importance and promise results. It was an age of restless activity 
and far-reaching enterprise. In all departments of life men were wont, 
as was said of Ralegh, to "toil terribly." No pains were spared, whether 
the effort were to advance the glory of the State, or to increase the indi 
vidual s wealth or power. The great dramatist of the day, and of all 
time since as well, reflecting in his plays the humor of the times, alludes 
to those who were not willing to spend their youth at home, but went 

. . " To seek preferment out; 
Some to the wars, to try their fortune there ; 
Some, to discover islands far away." 

So universal was this temper of the times that each ambitious spirit 
felt that it 

. . " Would be great impeachment to his age, 
In having known no travel in his youth." 2 

Although the fairest and most inviting portions of the continent, 
which had been first discovered by English expeditions nearly a 
century before, were in the grasp of other and rival nations, and only 

1 Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I., Scene III. * Ibid. 




SIGN BIANUAL OF 
HENRY Vn. 



2 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

the Virgin s land, Virginia, remained for those who sailed in the service 
of the Virgin Queen, in which to lay the foundations of England s 
dominion in the West, the work was attempted as a bounden duty 
of the State and Church. For Church and State went hand in hand in 
these efforts for discovery and settlement. Without doubt John Cabot, 
who, under the auspices of King Henry VII., on 
the Feast of St. John Baptist, 1497, first discovered 
the American continent, carried with him, in his 
ship "The Matthew," of Bristol, some minister of 
the Church of England, as yet unreformed ; while a 
year later the royal bounty was extended to a 
priest going to the New-found-land l of the western 
hemisphere. Early in the sixteenth century a canon 
of St. Paul s, London, Albert de Prato, appears 
upon the American coast, who addressed his patron, 
Cardinal Wolsey, in a letter not extant, from the 
harbor of St. John s, Newfoundland. But it was 
not destined that the Church of England, unre 
formed, should people with her sons and daughters these distant lands. 
A new spirit was to animate the nation ere the settlement of a land, 
designed in the providence of God 
to be the home of civil and religious 
liberty, was to be successfully at 
tempted. It was thus that the English 
Church, delivered " from the tyran- 
nye of the Bishop of Rome, and all 
his detestable enormities ; " 2 purified 

in the fiery furnace of the Marian persecutions from Romish error, as 
well as freed from Romish rule, entered upon the work of adding new 
realms to the dominions of the Cross, with the same intrepidity and tire 
less zeal which inspired the adventures of English captains sailing out 
in quest of mines, or fisheries, or furs. Discovery and settlement be 
came, in fact, acts of faith. The spirit in which 
these expeditions were undertaken is plainly dis 
closed in the instructions prepared by the vener 
able Sebastian Cabot, as governor " of the mysterie 
and companie of the Marchants aduenturers for the 
AUTOGRAPH OF discoueric of Regions, Dominions, Islands and 
EDWARD vi. places unknowen," under the direction of King 
Edward VI. , for the expedition under Sir Hugh 
Willoughby, despatched, in 1553, to attempt the discovery of the 
northern passage to Cathay. These brave explorers, who 

..." The passage sought, attempted since 
So much in vain, and seeming to be shut 
By jealous nature with eternal bars " 3 

i In Nicolas s " Excerpta Historica," pp. don, upon a prest for his shipp going towards the 
85-133j several curious entries compiled from New Ilande, 20." 

rth P ^ _ . ^e English Litany of 1549, King Edward 

the voyaged "to the West. One we subjoin: VI. s Prayer-book. 

" 1498, March 24, to Lanslot Thirlkill, of Lon- 3 Thomson s " Seasons," Winter. 




AUTOGRAPH OF HENRY VIII. 




CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVEHY AND SETTLEMENT. 3 

hud with them "Master Kichard Stafford, Minister ; " and the three ships 
of K)0, 120, and 90 tons burden, respectively, made up, as Fuller in his 
" Worthies " tells us, " the first reformed Fleet, which had English 




SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



prayers and preaching therein." It was strictly enjoined in Cabot s code 
of instructions " that the morning and evening prayer, with other com- 

1 This cut follows a photograph taken from 1824, Vol. n., p. 208, and a photo-reduction of 

the Chapman copy of the original. The original that engraving appears in Nicholl s " Life of Se- 

was engraved when owned by Charles J.Har- bastian Cabot." Other engravings have appeared 

ford, Esq., for Beyer s "Memoirs of Bristol," in Sparks s "Amer. Biog.," Vol. IX., etc. 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



mon services appointed by the king s inajestie, and lawes of this realme, 
he read and saide in every ship, daily, by the minister in the Admiral!, 
and the marchant or some other person learned on the other ships, and 
the Bible or paraphrases be read devoutly and Christianly to God s 
honour, and for his grace to be obtained, and had by humble and heartie 
1 >r:iier of the Nauigants accordingly." l Tragic as was the result of this 
ill-fated expedition so far as the "Admiral" and his hapless crew were 
concerned, all of whom were frozen to death while wintering in the har 

bor of Arzina, in Russian Lapland, 
the great work of discovery, checked 
during the bitter and bloody reign 
of Queen Mary, was resumed with 

AUTOGRAPH OF QUEEN MART. vigor when the land was again free 

from the rule of Rome. "Good 

order" in the "dayly service " and prayers unto God for success were 
enjoined in the instructions given to the voyagers sent out by the Rus 
sian Trading Company, at the beginning of Elizabeth s reign, while the 



\f\ 
J 




AUTOGRAPH OF QUEEX ELIZABETH. 

incidental mention of this requirement, in the midst of other directions, 
proves that attendance upon the church s daily prayers was a recog 
nized duty incumbent upon all men. 

In the name and fear of God did these old explorers and advent 
urers put forth upon the almost unknown sea. The Body and Blood of 
Lhrist was their viaticum, and the last home-words that fell upon their 
ears were the prayers and praises of the "Book of Common Prayer." 
i cross, with the arms of England at its foot, marked their discoveries 
and their chosen sites of settlement; and the words of their English 
ok of Prayer were said at morn and even, wherever these dauntless 
voyagers pursued their way, -North, till the impenetrable ice barred 

h^ w ? Ut V- 111 ?* farthest P ints of both hemispheres were 
d ; West, till in the broad rivers and inland seas of the New 

1 Anderson s " Colonial Church," i., p. 25. 



CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 5 

World they dreamed of finding a speedier way to Cathay and the spice- 
yielding East. Everywhere these sailors and settlers went till the fame 
of England s Queen and the faith of England s reformed Church were 
known throughout the world. Each new acquisition of the unknown 
land, lying in the direction of the setting sun, was so much virgin soil 
rescued from Spanish thraldom and Rome s inquisitorial sway. Each 
city sacked, each galleon captured on the Spanish Main, took somewhat 
from the luxuries of the pampered priests, or held in check the growing 
rapacity of Philip s court. So thoroughly did this crusading spirit pos 
sess the English mind that the very freebooters of the age, such as 
Drake and Cavendish, who knew no peace with Spain " beyond the 




AUTOGRAPH OP SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 

line " that marked the Pope s gift of the Western World to that king 
dom, 1 carried chaplains among their motley crews, and numbered in 
their train not a few who dared to die by the rack or in the flames rather 
than give up, at the bidding of the pitiless inquisitors of Rome, the little 
faith they had. Thus was it with all the captains sailing to the Spanish 
Main, and finding amidst the islands and upon the seas of the West In 
dies, and all along the coast of South America, the spoils of successful 
contests with the galleons of Spain. The exploits of the noted captains 
who sought gold and glory in ceaseless strife with Spain, the nation s 
formidable foe, have each their record of daily common prayer and 
solemn services and sacraments, conducted by the adventuresome priests 
of the Church of England, who were the chaplains of fleets that ruled all 
waters, and sailed fearlessly around the globe. We cannot wonder at 
the mingling of religion and politics shown in this hatred of Spain and 
distrust of Rome. Memories of the Smithfield and Oxford fires had 
not died out from the popular mind. The racks and thumb-screws, 
and all the appliances of the Inquisition, found in the shattered hulks 
of the "Armada," and borne in open view through the streets of Lon 
don to the Tower, where they are still preserved, told plainly of 
Romish intolerance and the Spaniards cold-blooded hate ; and the 
humblest sailor of these ships of discovery felt that the victory or 
advantage of Spain would light anew the Marian fires and burn out free 
dom and faith from the land. As these men were in earnest in their 
work, so they were ennobled by it, and they did well their part, daring 

>In 1493 the western hemisphere was de- nius IV., in 1438, to the crown of Portugal, an im- 

clared, by a decree of Pope Alexander VI., to aginary line was supposed to be drawn from pole 

belong to the united kingdoms of Castile and Ar- to pole, a hundred leagues west of the Azores ; 

ragon. In order not to interfere, however, with all discoveries to the east of which were assigned 

a previous grant made by a bull of Pope Euge- to Portugal, and all to the west to Spain. 



6 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

danger and death in the strife, whose guerdon was a continent s redemp 
tion The old charters and letters-patent, the records of the trading 
companies, and the very log-books of the ships of adventure, display 
a peculiar mingling of evangelizing and commercial projects. Ihe 
printed accounts of these adventures, or the " advertisements," as they 




were often styled, designed to enlist the interest and sympathy of the 
public in the schemes for discovery and colonization, always refer to 
" the carriage of God s Word into those very mighty and vast countries " 
which is expressly stated as a primary object of the expedition of Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, the first attempt of the English to colonize 
the New World. This deep, religious feeling was not suffered to ex 
pend itself in words. In the fleet of " fifteen sayle of good ships " which 
left Harwich on the 31st of May, 1578, under the command of Martin 



CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 7 

Frobisher, one of the most stirring spirits of the times, was, as Hakluyt 
quaintly tells us, "one Maister Wolfall, a learned man, appointed by 
her Majestie s Councell to be their Minister and Preacher," who, "being 
well seated and settled at home in his owne countrey, with a good and 
large liuing, hauing a good, honest woman to wife, and very towardly 
children, being of good reputation amongst the best, refused not to take 
in hand this painefull voyage, for the onely care he had to saue soules and 
to reforme these infidels, if it were possible, to Christianitie." This 
worthy man was the first missionary priest of the reformed Church of 
England who ministered on American shores, and the record of his ser 
vices among the ice-fields at the North, as given by the old chronicler 
we have already quoted, is full of interest, as indicating the spirit in 
which these adventurers essayed the settlement of the Meta Incognita 
they had found : ^ 

Maister Wolfall on Winter s Fornace, preached a godly sermon, which being 
ended, he celebrated also a Communion vpon the land, at the partaking whereof 
was the Captain of the Anne Francis, and many other Gentlemen, and Souldiers, 
Mariners, and Miners with him. The celebration of the diuine mysteiy was the first 
signe, scale, and confirmation of Christ s name, death, and passion euer knowen in 
these quarters. The said M. Wolfall made sermons, and celebrated the Communion 
at sundry other times in seuerall and sundry ships, because the whole company could 
neuer meet together at any one place. 

While this solemn service and sacrament were taking place far to 
the northward on the eastern coast, there were pressing on their way 
through the Straits of Magellan, and all along the western shores of 
the New World, the voyagers in the "Pelican," under the adventure 
some Francis Drake. The story of Drake s fulfilment of his purpose 
and prayer, when, at the first sight of the Pacific Ocean, " he fell upon 
his knees and implored the divine assistance that he might at some 
time sail thither and make a perfect discovery of the same," is written 
by his chaplain, Francis Fletcher, and the end and aim of this famous 
voyage, in which the world was circumnavigated, was, by capture, 
conquest, and sack, to wreak vengeance on Spain for injuries which 
diplomacy had failed to make good. It was while sailing to the north 
ward that the great seaman discovered, in 1579, the coast of Oregon 
and that part of California which now belongs to the United States. 
On this coast, in " a convenient and fit harbor," on the first Sunday 
after Trinity, June 21, they landed for repairs. Here, at a gathering 
of the natives, who seemed to regard their visitors as superior beings, 
Drake called his company to prayers. In the presence of the abo 
rigines of this distant land, these rough sailors, who scrupled not to 
plunder or murder every Spaniard they met, lifted their eyes and hands 
to heaven, to indicate by these symbolic gestures that God is over all ; 
and then, following their chaplain s lead, they besought their God, in 
the church s prayers, to reveal himself to these idolaters and " to open 
their blinded eyes to the knowledge of Him and of Jesus Christ, the 
salvation of the Gentiles." It is interesting to note that this strange 
service took place on the eve, or else on the Feast Day, of St. John 
the Baptist. 1 Later, on leaving the scene of their sojourn, it was only by 

1 Narrative and Critical History of America, in., p. 70. 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




THE ARMS OF ENGLAND. 



prayers and the singing of psalms that the departing voyagers were 
able to dissuade the simple natives from " doing sacrifice to them " as 
gods. 1 It was thus that the church s prayers were first heard on the Pa 
cific coast ; and in taking solemn possession, by the planting of the 
cross with the arms of England affixed thereto, of " New Albion," for 
England s Queen, the far west of our 
national domain was claimed for the 
Church of the English-speaking race. 
To Francis Fletcher, the priest of a 
motley crew, belongs the honor of 
being the first in English orders who 
ministered the Word and Sacraments 
within the territory of the United 
States ; and if, as is probable, the 
"fayre and good baye" where he 
repaired his ship, and where the 
events we have referred to occurred, 
was the bay of San Francisco, it was 
on this spot that the words of the 
Common Prayer were first heard 
on the Pacific coast. 

The attempt of Frobisher to mine for gold upon the inhospitable 
shores of Hudson s Bay failed, as did, a few years later, the efforts of 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to whom was assigned by the Queen letters- 
patent, bearing date of June 11, 1578, "for the inhabiting and planting 
of our people in America." This gallant Christian knight, nearly allied 
with that " prince of courtesy," Sir Walter Ralegh, entered upon the 
work of peopling the New World with English immigrants, with an 
honest purpose of securing " the full possession of these so ample and 
pleasant countreys for the Crown and people of England." Among the 
motives urging him to undertake this labor were " the honour of God " 
and "compassion of poore infidels, captived by the deuill, tyrannizing 
in most wonderful and dreadful manner over their bodies and soules, it 
seeming probable that God hath reserved these Gentiles to be reduced 
into Christian civility by the English nation." It was for the spread of 

the Christian 
faith that Gil 
bert hazarded 
life and fortune 
in these schemes 
o f settlement ; 
and the preg 
nant clause of 
the first charter 
granted for the 
establishment of 
an English col 
ony on American shores that the laws and ordinances of the settle 
ment " be, as neere as conveniently may, agreeable to the forme of 

1 Narrative and Critical History of America, in., p. 70. 




AUTOGRAPH OF SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 



CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 9 



the laws and pollicy of England ; and also, that they be not against 
the true Christian faith or religion now professed in the Church of 
England," attest both his loyalty and love of mother-church. Al 
though conceived and undertaken in this spirit, the expedition itself, 
in the familiar words of our prayers, quoted by the old chronicler, 
was " begun, continued, and ended, adversly." At the outset great 
delays and disappointments were experienced, and when at length 
the expedition had set sail, it was driven back by a Spanish fleet with 
loss of ships and men. A few years later the adventurers succeeded 
in reaching St. John s Harbor, Newfoundland, where Gilbert and 
his company landed on the tenth Sunday after Trinity, August 4, 
1583. On the following day Sir Humphrey took formal possession of 
St. John s and the neighboring country, and, in token of his feudal 
rights, received, " after the custom of England, a rod and a turffe of 
the same soile." Of the three laws he set forth for immediate observ 
ance, the first provided that the religion of the colony, "in publique 
exercise should be according to the Church of England ; " the others 
enjoined the maintenance of the royal prerogatives . Having thus settled 
the government and religion of Newfoundland, Sir Humphrey undertook 
the exploration of the coast of the main-land to the southward, but the 
loss of one of his ships forced him to change his course for England. 
The little " frigat " of ten tons burden, which carried this intrepid navi 
gator, foundered amidst the "outrageous seas," and Sir Humphrey, who 
was last seen by the crew of his companion vessel " sitting abaft with a 
booke in his hand," and crying out, " We are as neare to heaven by sea 
as by land," was prevented by this fate from being the first settler within 
the limits of the United States, and, possibly, from shaping the relig 
ious history of New England in the direction of conformity to the Church 
of which he was a faithful member. 

But death and disappointments could not check the spirit of ad 
venture now rife in England ; and the zeal for the evangelization of 
the heathen beyond the sea, which now animated the English Church 
and realm, soon found expres 
sion in acts as well as words. 1 
Ralegh, to whom may be given 
the proud title of " The Father 
of American Colonization," was 
impatient to win the prize 
which his half-brother had 
failed to secure. The year following Sir Humphrey s loss a fresh patent 
was granted by the Queen to her favorite courtier, vesting in him 
and his heirs the powers and privileges which had been bestowed 
upon Sir Humphrey. As before, provision was made that the laws 




AUTOGRAPH OF SIB WALTER RALEGH. 



1 " The carnage of God s word into those very 
mightv and vast countreys," to quote the word s 
of Haies, one of Gilbert s captains, and the chron 
icler of his ill-starred fortunes, was a labor of so 
high and excellent a nature as should, indeed, 
" make men well advised how they handled it," 
and Haies as well as Sir George Peckman, " the 
chief adventurer and furtherer of Gilbert s 
voyage," in their published reports of " the heavy 
succeise and issue of" this "first attempt" of 



England to plant a colony, show clearly that a 
moving cause in the enterprise was the wish and 
belief that it was destined, in the counsels of the 
Almighty, that England should bear the evangel 
of our L ord Jesus Christ to the savages of the 
western world. Thus is the first effort to 
found a settlement of the English race upon our 
American shores plainly proved to be an attempt 
to promote the spread of the Christian faith by 
the evangelistic labor of the English Church. 



10 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

" be not against the true Christian faith nowe professed in the Church 
of England." These letters-patent bear the date of Lady-day, 1584, 
and on the 27th of the following month two barks, well furnished with 
men and provisions, commanded by Masters Philip Amadas and 
A rtbur Barlowe, respectively, set sail from the west of England at the 
charge and by the direction of Ralegh. About two months were 
-pent by these adventurers on the coast of North Carolina, which they 
reached on the 4th of July (old style) ; and, having kidnapped two 
of the natives, Wanchese and Manteo, and gained some vague infor 
mation with respect to the natural productions of the country and the 
manners and customs of the people, they returned to England, where 
they arrived about the middle of September. The story of this voyage, 
written by Barlowe, spread far and wide the fame of the paradise dis 
covered in the New World. A rude map, made during the expedition by 
the adventurers themselves, a copy of which was afterwards published by 
De Dry, represents the large vessels riding at anchor outside the sound, 
while a single-masted pinnace, bearing at its prow a man holding an 
uplifted cross in his hand, is making towards the shore as if to testify the 
desire of the adventurers for the propagation of Christianity in the lands 
they had discovered. That this desire was no mere passing thought 
subsequent events fully proved. The Queen, deeming her reign 
signalized by the discovery of so fair a land, gave to it the name 
" Virginia." Ralegh soon obtained from the Parliament, in which he 
represented his native Devon, a bill confirming his patent of discovery. 
He was shortly afterwards knighted by his royal mistress, and the 
means were provided, by the grant of a profitable monopoly, which 
enabled him to prosecute without delay his schemes of settlement. 

Seven vessels, under the command of Ralegh s cousin, Sir 
Richard Grenville, a brave and gallant knight, whose life and death 
were heroic, comprised the fleet that set sail from Plymouth, on Good 
Friday, April 9, 1585, to plant a colony in the New Virginia. Master 
Ralph Lane, afterwards knighted by the Lord Deputy of Ireland for his 

military services in that unhappy 
land, was appointed governor 
of the one hundred and eight 
colonists who were to found the 
first settlement in the New World. 
Master Philip Amadas, who was 
one of the discoverers of the site 
of settlement, was commissioned as "Admiral of the Country." First 
on the list of those, "as well gentlemen as others, that remained one 
whole year in Virginia," is the honored name of " Master Hariot," the 
historian of the colony, and still remembered as the inventor of the 
system of notation used in modern algebra. It is to the keen observa 
tion of the natural products of the country by Thomas Hariot that the 
world owes the knowledge of the value of the tuberous roots of the po 
tato and the " many rare and wonderful " virtues of the tobacco-plant. 
Among the "principal gentlemen of the company" was Cavendish, 
its * High Marshall," who afterwards circumnavigated the world, and 
was knighted by the Queen ; and the wise forethought of Ralegh had 




CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 11 

provided that John White, an artist of merit, should accompany the 
expedition, whose water-color studies from life of the aborigines, their 
habits and modes of living, as well as of the plants, birds, and beasts of 




CAVENDISH. 



Virginia, are still preserved in the British Museum, 1 and were at the 
time reproduced in the fascinating pages of De Bry. Others, men of 
family and fortune, together with not a few "bad natures," as Hariot 

1 An interesting account of these one hundred collection in the British Museum, is found in the 
and twelve water-color drawings, in the Sloane " Archseolotf ia Americana," IV., pp. 20-25. 



12 HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

styles them, made up the expedition, which had, at least, its outward 
recognition of religion in the appointed " prayers " at which, as we 
learn from the same chronicler, the aborigines were sometimes present 
as interested attendants on the settlers common prayer and praise. 
Anthony Wood, in his gossiping "Athenae Oxonienses," * has at 
tempted to impugn the orthodoxy of Hariot ; but this accusation is 
refuted, not only by contemporary authority, but by his own words, 
which, as the first published record of missionary effort among the 
aborigines of our land by a member of our mother-church, are well 
worthy of our notice. In "A Briefe and True Report of the New 
Found Land of Virginia," after describing the undisguised wonder of 
the simple natives at the sight of the mathematical instruments, the 
time-pieces, burning-glasses, fire-arms, and books of the colonists, 
Hariot proceeds as follows : 

They thought they were rather the workes of gods than of men or at the least 
wise they had bene giuen and taught vs of the gods. Which made many of them 
to haue such an opinion of us, as that if they knew not the trueth of God, and religion 
already, it was rather to bee had from vs, whom God so specially loued, than from 
a people that were so simple, as they found themselues to be in comparison of vs. 
Whereupon greater credite was giuen vnto that wee spake of, concerning such 
matters. 

Many times and in euery towne where I came, according as I was able, I made 
declaration of the contents of the Bible, that therein was set foorth the true and onely 
God, and his mightie workes, that therein was conteined the time doctrine of 
saluation through Christ, with many particularities of Miracles and chiefe points 
of Religion as I was able then to vtter, and thought fit for the time. And although 
I told them the booke materially and of itselfe was not of any such virtue, as I 
thought they did conceiue, but onely the doctrine therein conteined; yet would 
many be glad to touch it, to embrace it, to kisse it, to hold it to their breastes and 
heads, and stroke ouer all their body with it, to show their hungry desire of that 
knowledge which was spoken of. 

But even these evidences for God s Word were far from being the 
sole results of Hariot s zealous efforts in behalf of the natives, efforts 
designed, as he observes in the same narrative, that they "might live 
together with us, be made partakers of His truth, and serve Him in 
righteousness." A man of prayer himself, both by example and teach 
ing, he impressed these gentle savages with a sense of the value of 
prayer. 

The Wiroans (or chief) with whom we dwelt, called Wingina, and many of his 
people would bee glad many times to be with us at our prayers, and many times 
call vpon us both in his owne towne, as also in others, whither hee sometimes 
accompanied vs, to pray and sing Psalmes, hoping thereby to be partakers of the 
same effects which we by that means also expected. Twise this Wiroans was so 
grievouslv sicke that he was like to die, and as he lay languishing, doubting of any 
helpe by his owne priestes, and thinking hee was in such danger for offending vs, 
and thereby our God, sent for some of vs to pray and bee a means to ovr God, that 
it would please Him that he might Hue, or after death dwell with Him in blisse : so 
likewise were the requests of many others in the like case. 

If the leaders of the expedition had shared the high and holy pur 
poses and missionary zeal of Hariot its history would have been far 
different. Its appointed head soon showed himself unworthy of his 

Bliss s edition, n., p. 299. 



CHUKCH CONNECTION WITH DISCO VERY AND SETTLEMENT. 13 

position. With him words took the place of deeds, and his speedy 
desertion of his post appears in marked contrast with his professions 
of martyr-like devotion to the cause he had undertaken. 

From "Port Ferdinando, in Virginia," the governor addressed the 
following words to Sir Francis Walsingham, Her Majesty s Secre 
tary of State. We have modernized the orthography, which, in the 
original, is especially defective : - 

Myself hare undertaken, with the favor of God and in His fear, with a good 
company more, as well of gentlemen as others, to remain here the return of a new 
supply; as resolute rather to lose our lives than to defer a possession to her 
majesty, our country, and that our most noble Patron, Sir Walter Ralegh, of so 
noble a kingdom, as by his most worthy endeavor and infinite charge, as also of 
your honor and the rest of the most honorable the adventurers, an honorable entry 
is made into (by the mercy of God) to the conquest of; and for mine own part do 
find myself better contented to live with fish for my daily food and water for my 
daily drink in the prosecution of such one action than out of the same to live in the 
greatest plenty that the Court could give me ; comforted chiefly hereunto with an 
assurance of Her Majesty s greatness hereby to grow by the addition of such a king 
dom as this is to the rest of her dominions ; by means whereof likewise the Church 
of Christ through Christendom may, by the mercy of God, in short time find a 
relief and freedom from the servitude and tyranny that by Spain (being the sword 
of that Antichrist of Rome and his sect) the same hath of long time been most 
miserably oppressed with. Not doubting, in the mercy of God, to be sufficiently 
provided for by Him, and most assured by faith in Christ, that rather than He will 
suffer His Enemies the Papists to triumph over the overthrow of this most Christian 
action, or of us His poor servants, in the thorough famine or other wants, being 
in a vast countiy yetunmannered, though most apt for it, that he could command 
even the ravens to feed us, as He did by His servant the Prophet Habakkuk ( !) and 
that only for His mercy s sake. . . . From the Porte Ferdinando in Virginia the 
12th of August, 1585. 

On the same day the governor wrote to Sir Philip Sydney some 
further "ylle fashioned lynes," proposing an expedition against the 
island of St. John and Hispaniola, as San Domingo was then called, 
by which the forces of the King of Spain could be diverted from 
England to the West Indies, and begging the gallant Sydney, who had 
earlier contemplated leading a colony of settlers to the New World, not 
" to refuse the good opportunity of such a service to the Church of 
Christ, as the seizure of the mines of treasure, in the possession of 
Spain, would be." 

Deeply may we regret that these words of daring, and their promise 
of self-denying devotion to the mighty enterprise in hand, found so 
inadequate a fulfilment. A few weeks of loneliness in the wilderness 
unmanned both governor and colonists, and the high hopes of the 
moment of debarkation were forgotten in an overmastering longing to 
return to home and friends across the Atlantic. 

But little remains to mark the site of this first settlement upon 
American soil. The records of the colonists fix the location of the 
modest fort and village, erected by these early adventurers, not far 
from the northern point of the island of Roanoke, just enough removed 
from the shore to be sheltered from the ocean gales by the headlands 
and the forest, while the outlook upon the waters whence their supplies 
were to come was not obscured. Traces of the entrenchments are still 

* These interesting letters are found in " Arcuaeologia Americana," Vol. rv., pp. 8-18. 



14 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



to be s<3en, with here a gate-way, flanked by a deep trench, and there a 
bastion, thrown out at the angle of the fort. The pine, the live-oak, and 
other forest trees, draped with luxuriant vines, and standing in the midst 




SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 

of a dense undergrowth, have tilled the ditch and overgrown the site. 
In the rank grass a moss-covered stone, or a fragment of brick, are all 
the relics that remain of Ralegh s settlement on Roanoke Island. 

At this spot Lane and his little company remained until the 19th 
of June, 1586. The governor, by this time, had grown dissatisfied with 



CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 15 

the site chosen for the settlement. There was no harbor in which the 
ships of England, coming with succors and supplies, could ride at anchor 
in safety. To the northward the governor had found a fairer site. On 
the shores of Chesapeake Bay the difficulties and dangers environing 
them in their present location could be met and overcome. Lacking in 
sorely needed supplies, on ill terms with the natives, whom Lane had 
harshly treated, it was with no little joy that, on the 8th of June, the 
colonists discovered the horizon flecked with the white sails of the fleet 
of Sir Francis Drake. The noted freebooter at once offered to his 
countrymen the needed supplies. He added the proffer of some of his 
prizes ; but a sudden gale drove one of these ships to sea, while the 
others were of too great burden to enter the narrow roadstead, which 
was their only harbor. Suddenly the colonists determined to abandon 
their new home, and Drake assented to their request for transportation 
to the mother-land. A fortnight later the first supply-ship, sent by 
Sir Walter, reached the American coast, and shortly after followed 
Sir Eichard Grenville, with three ships, bringing the promised stores. 
It was in vain that Sir Eichard sought for the colonists, now half-way 
across the Atlantic, and, leaving fifteen men on the deserted island, 
amply provisioned for two years, he returned to England. Lane 
never revisited his American domain. By his inexplicable desertion 
he lost the opportunity of an immortality such as has fallen to 
but few. 






NOTES, CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 

WE assume, as is generally conceded, that the Cabots 1 voyage of discovery took 
place in 1497, and was followed by a second voyage the following year. The 
patent granted by Henry VII. to John Cabot, or Zuan Caboto, as his name appears in 
the Venetian archives, his three sons, their heirs and assigns, provided that the expe 
dition was to be " at their own proper cost and charge." The " prima tierra vista" 
was taken possession of by the formality of planting a cross, with the insignia of 
England and St. Mark, and by the proclamation of the right of the King of Eng 
land to the new discovery. Though the discovery made by the Cabots was that of 
a continent, still the result of these voyages made under the royal patronage and 
those on private account were followed by few results. The sending of the little 
fleet, under Willoughby, in the spring of 1553, to the north-east, and the subsequent 
incorporation of the merchant adventurers with Sebastian Cabot as their head, were 
undertaken by the merchants of London, with a view of checking the decay of trade 
in England by opening a new outlet abroad for the manufactures of the nation . 
But this was not the only incentive urging Englishmen to attempt the colonization 
of the New World. Richard Eden, in his " Decades of the Newe Worlde or West 
India," etc., published in 1555, expresses the earnest desire that the faith of Christ 
may be extended by the conversion of the natives of these distant lands : 

" How much, I say, shall this sound unto our reproach and inexcusable sloth- 
fulness and negligence, both before God and the world, that so large dominions 
of such tractable people and pure Gentiles, not being hitherto corrupted with any 
other false religion (and therefore the easier to be allured to embrace ours) , are 
now known unto us, and that we have no respect neither for God s cause nor for 
our own commodity, to attempt some voyages unto these coasts, to do for our parts 
as the Spaniards have done for theirs, and not ever like sheep to haunt one trade, 
and to do nothing worthy memory among men or thanks before God, who may 



16 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

herein worthily accuse us for the slackness of our duty toward him." The plans 
ripe in London ere the year had closed in which the discovery of America was 
made, contemplated the fitting out by the king early in the following spring of an 
expedition to colonize the new discovery. " All the convicts " were to be placed at 
the disposition of Cabot, and with the expedition there were expected to go " sev 
eral poor Italian monks," who had "all been promised bishopricks." > The gos 
siping writer of these reports to the Duke of Milan thought the benefices in store 
for him "a surer thing" than the " archbishopric," which he felt confident of ob 
taining through his acquaintance with the " Admiral." This second voyage, evi 
dently*^ scheme of colonization, proved a failure. One of the ships, in which a 
" Friar Duel" sailed, returned to Ireland damaged, and the adventuresome ecclesi 
astic failed to secure the well-earned and promised mitpe. For years all schemes 
of discovery and colonization in the distant west were substantially abandoned. It 
was left, as we have said, to the men of the reformation to undertake and carry out 
successfully the colonizing and Christianizing of the shores of North America. 

The religious spirit of the reformation age pervaded literature and life. Even 
the slave-traders went forth to their cruel work, as though it were a crusade. Sir 
John Hawkins, knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his success in this iniquitous traffic 
and for the wealth brought through his voyages to the realm, sailed in a ship named 
"Jesus," and his sailing orders close with words expressive of his religious faith, 
as well as his practical good sense: "Serve God daily; love one another; pre 
serve your victuals; beware of fire; -and keep good company." By the first in 
junction was meant the daily morning and evening prayer of the church, and it was 
after the use of these solemn forms of worship that they proceeded day by day to 
carry out their nefarious plans. In their reverses, as well as in their successes, they 
recognized the interposing of God, who never suffereth his elect to perish." 2 Even 
Hawkins s coat^armor, by its mingling of the pilgrim s scallop-shell in gold between 
two palmer s staves, would seem to indicate that, in the judgment of the Herald s 
Office, the capture of Africans and the sale of human flesh was the " true crusade 
of the reign of Elizabeth." 3 

It should be borne in mind, in explanation of the creed and practices of Hawkins, 
Drake, and other " freebooters " of the age, that there was " no peace with Spain 
beyond the line " ; and that both of these noted voyagers had been the victims of 
Spanish treachery when lying peaceably at anchor in the port of San Juan d Ulua. 
Attacked both by sea ana from the land, but two of the five ships composing the 
fleet escaped ; and the captives, at least a hundred in number, fell into the hands 
of the Inquisition, where their sufferings, save in a few exceptional cases, were 
only terminated by death. As Dr. Edward Everett Hale forcibly puts the case in 
" The Narrative and Critical History of America " (Vol. m. , p. 64) : " If Hawkins s 
account of the perfidy of the Spaniards at San Juan d Ulua be true, and it has 
never been contradicted, the Spanish Crown that day brought down a storm of 
misery and rapine from which it never fairly recovered. The accursed doctrine of 
the Inquisition, that no faith was to be kept with heretics, proved a dangerous doc 
trine for Spain when the heretics were such men as Hawkins, Cavendish, and 
Drake. On that day Francis Drake learned his lesson of Spanish treachery ; and 
he learned it so well that he determined on his revenge. That revenge he took so 
thoroughly that for more than a hundred years he is spoken of in all Spanish an 
nals as The Dragon, a play upon his name, Dracus, or Draco. " 

Numerous relics of Frobisher s voyages were obtained by Captain Charles F. 
Hall in his first expedition to seek for traces of Sir John Franklin, 1860-1862, some 
of which are deposited in the National Museum in Washington. The purpose of 
leaving a party to winter in these northern latitudes was shown by the erection of 
a house of lime and stone on the Countess of Warwick s Island, where numerous 
articles were deposited. Had the " ore," of which more than thirteen hundred 
tons were taken across the ocean, proved of value, the chill of winter and the dan 
gers of an almost unknown sea would not have deterred crowds of adventurers 
From seeking their fortune on these inhospitable shores. Lacking the stimulus of 
gold, further effort for the settlement of these lands was wanting, and the keen 
search of the sailors of England for the discovery of new territories in the Western 
World was elsewhere directed. 

The chief authority for the famous voyage of Drake is "The World Encom 
passed by Sir Francis Drake, . . . Carefully Collected out of the notes of Master 

1 Narrative and Critical History of America, m., p. 55. 2 find., p. 63. " Ibid. 



CHURCH CONNECTION WITH DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 17 

Francis Fletcher, Preacher in their employment, and divers others, his followers in 
the same ; Offered now at last to publique view, both for the honour of the actor, but 
especially for the stirring vp of heroick spirits, to benefit their country, and eternize 
their names by like noble attempts." London. 4to. 1628. This volume of upwards 
of one hundred pages was reprinted in 1653, and has been reissued by the Hakluyt 
Society, in 1855. The narrative of the voyage is found in the general collections of 
Hakluyt, Harris, and others. Mr. Froude, in his History of England (Volume xi., 




Register," gives a partial list of the companions of Drake, and in the "American 
Historical Record " (Vol. HI., pp. 344-353), under the title, " The First Englishmen 
in North America," reexamines the whole subject of the voyage and voyagers. Ilo 
pronounces "The World Encompassed" "as a literary performance " to be "of 
the first rank of that period." 

Ralegh is not only to be regarded as the founder of the transatlantic colonies 
of England, but also has the credit of securing for the colonists those guarantees 
of political rights and pi ivileges which formed the grounds on which, in later years, 
the people of North America made successful issue with the mother-land in the 
struggle which resulted in independence. 

In the charter granted to him on Lady-day, 1584, not only was he empowered to 
plant colonies upon " such remote heathen and barbarous lands, not actually pos 
sessed by any Christian prince nor inhabited by Christian people," as his expedi 
tions might discover, but the lands thus acquired by discoveiy were to be enjoyed 
by the colonies forever, and the settlers themselves were to " have all the privileges 
of free denizens and persons native of England, in such ample manner as if they 
were born and personally resident in our said realm of England," and they were 
to be governed " according to such statutes as shall be by him or them established; 
so that the said statutes or laws conform as near as conveniently may be with those 
of England, and do not oppugn the Christian faith or any way withdraw the people 
of those lands from our allegiance." It was through the far-seeing wisdom of this | 
accomplished soldier and statesman that the English in America were enabled from \ 
the veiy beginnings of settlement to claim all the privileges, franchises, and ini- / 
munities enjoyed and possessed by. the people of England. 

The subjects alluded to in this chapter are fully and authoritatively treated in 
the opening pages of "The Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. in. 
To this exhaustive work we would refer for the latest and most judicial treatment 
of the many disputed questions which have arisen with reference to our early 
annals of discovery and settlement. The positions assumed in the text are those 
so ably maintained by Mr. Winsor and his collaborateurs. 



CHAPTER II. 

SERVICES AND SACRAMENTS AT RALEGH S COLONIES AT 
ROANOKE, ON THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST. 



pusillanimous desertion of the colony by Lane failed to dis 
courage the high hopes and purposes of Kalegh. The governor 
himself had borne testimony, in the freshness of his first enthu 
siasm, that it was "the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven; the 
most pleasing territory of the world." The climate was "whole 
some," and, with the presence of people and the domestic animals, "no 
realm in Christendom were comparable to it." Hariot, also, in his 
" Brief and True Report of the New Found Land in Virginia," dedicated 
"to the adventurers, favorers, and well-willers of the enterprise for 
the inhabiting and planting in Virginia," which was published in Eng 
land the following year, had attested the fertility of the soil and the 
healthiness of the climate. It was not difficult, therefore, for Ralegh 
to collect another party of settlers, numbering one hundred and fifty. 
Of this colony, which for the first time numbered among its members 
women as well as men, John White was appointed governor ; and twelve 
assistants, spoken of in the charter as " gentlemen," and " late of Lon 
don," were associated with him in the administration of the government. 
The charter of incorporation for the settlement contemplated the es 
tablishment of a municipality under the name of " The City of Ralegh, 
in Virginia," and a fleet of three transports, chartered for the advent 
urers, set sail from Portsmouth, on Friday, the 8th of May, the day fol 
lowing the Feast of the Ascension. In the charter given by Sir Walter 
to the adventurers there is mention of a donation of one hundred pounds 
sterling, made by Sir Walter Ralegh, to be invested by them as they 
pleased, the profits of the venture to be applied " in planting the Chris 
tian religion, and advancing the same." This is the first gift on record 
for the evangelizing of our American shores. By the last of July, after 
various mishaps, the colony had disembarked, not on the shores of 
Chesapeake Bay, as Sir Walter had proposed, but at ill-fated Roanoke, 
where the first sight that met their eyes was the bones of one of the fif 
teen men left in the fort by Grenville, after Lane s desertion of both 
fortification and settlement. The fort had been razed, the houses were 
tenanted only by the wild deer, attracted by the luxuriant growth of 
melons, which had clambered through the open doors and windows and 
covered the ruined palisade. The unfortunate fifteen, as was subse 
quently ascertained from the natives, had been attacked by the savages. 
The survivors, betaking themselves to their boat, floated to a small 
island near Hatteras, and, on their removal thence, probably in search 
of Croatoan, were lost sight of forever. 



SERVICES AND SACRAMENTS AT ROANOKE. 19 

" The sundry necessary and decent dwelling-houses," left by Lane, 
were at once repaired, while " other new cottages " were built ; and the 
colony under White, which numbered ninety-one men, seventeen 
women, and nine children, was soon established in its New- World home. 
We can without difficulty picture the daily life of these strangers in a 
strange land. We cannot doubt but that the " daily prayer," which 
Hariot tells us was attended by those who founded the earlier settle 
ment under Lane, was not omitted now, when, as we have every reason 
to believe, a priest of the Church of England formed one of the set 
tlers, or at least transferred his duties as chaplain of the little lleet to 
the shore, while seamen and settlers sought to lay the foundations of 
the city of Ralegh. The drum-beat was doubtless their summons to 
prayer, and the motley crowd of gentlemen and yeomen, the soldier in 
his light armor, the settler in his homespun, the friendly savage in his 
paint and feathers, the women thinking of the noble churches in the 
far-away home of their early days, the children wondering at all they 
saw and heard, these made up the grouping as the simple matins and 
even-songs of mother-church were ferventl} said. The day thus 
opened and closed would be spent in the effort to build and beautify 
the home, in striving to gain experience and alertness in the use of 
weapons of defence, in hunting the timid deer, or fishing from the 
rocks and in the little streams, or else in traffic with the aborigines. 
Expeditions of discovery along the coast or into the interior ; meetings 
with the friendly Indians in council, or preparations against the sudden 
attacks of those who had been alienated from the English by the ill- 
judged severity of Lane ; the cultivation of the virgin soil, or the 
preparation of the grateful narcotic so recently introduced to English 
use, in these occupations the days went on. The kindred of Manteo, 
a chieftain who had been taken to England by the first discoverers, and 
had returned to his home with Lane, lived on the island of Croatoan, 
and with them friendly relations were at once established. In contrast 
to the kindly disposition of Manteo was the implacable hate of Wan- 
chese, who had also been carried to England, but who, on his return, 
became the bitter foe of the colonists. Through his influence the efforts 
of the English to secure the friendship of the aborigines on the main 
land failed. Shortly one of the settlers, straying incautiously from 
the fort, was killed by the hostile natives. In the attempt to avenge 
this loss, by a night attack, one of the friendly savages was unfortu 
nately slain, having been mistaken for a foe. Thus untowardly the 
work of founding the city of Ralegh went on to its accomplishment. 

On the 13th of August the faithful Manteo was admitted to Christ s 
Church by holy baptism. This administration of the sacrament had 
been provided for by Ralegh ere the expedition sailed from England, 
and, in accordance with the proprietary s will, the neophyte was made 
Lord of Roanoke and Dasmonguepeuk, in recognition of his faithful 
and untiring service. This act of christening took place on the ninth 
Sunday after Trinity. On the following Sunday, Virginia, daughter 
of Ananias and Eleanor Dare, and granddaughter of the governor, 
White, who was born on Friday, the 18th of August, was christened, 
being " the first Christian borne in Virginia." We do not know the name 



20 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of the faithful priest of the English Church to whom was given the 
honor of admitting to holy baptism, according to the English rite, the 
iirst Indian convert and the iirst child born of English parents in the 
New World. The list of those who remained at Roanoke is extant ; 
but there are no means of ascertaining who was the priest of the set 
tlement, if, indeed, a priest remained, to live and die with the unhappy 
settlers. But that there was some one in holy orders available for 
this solemnity is to be inferred, not only from the pecord of the 
administration of the sacrament, but also from the fact that Ralegh 
had, as we have seen, made provision for the baptism of Manteo prior 
to the departure of the expedition from England. It may have been 
the case that the clergyman who officiated at these baptisms was the 
chaplain of the fleet which brought over the colony, and shortly after 
returned with the governor, John White, on board. The departure of 
the fleet with the governor, who had reluctantly yielded to the urgings 
of the colonists in embarking, left behind eighty-nine men, seventeen 
women, and eleven children, two of whom had been born in Virginia. 
White certainly gave hostages for his speedy return, in leaving behind 
him his daughter and grandchild. Already it had been decided to 
abandon the present site of the colony and to remove to the main-land. 
It was among the last instructions of the governor that, in the event of 
this removal, the settlers should carve, on some post or tree, the name 
of the place of their new home, and if in distress to cut a cross above 
the letters. On the 28th of August the ships weighed anchor and set 
sail for England ; and on the 5th of November the returning voyagers 
landed at Martascn, near St. Michael s mount, in Cornwall. 

It was at a time of apprehension of invasion from Spain that 
White reached England. The "Armada" was afloat, and Ralegh, 
Grenville, and Lane were busied in measures for the defence of the 
homes and altars of their native land. Still, Ralegh found means to 
despatch two barks, under the command of White, with supplies for 
his colony. But these ships were more anxious to tight the Spaniards 
than to relieve the settlers at Roanoke, and in their search for prizes 
one of the two fell in with men-of-war from Rochelle, and after a 
bloody encounter was boarded and plundered by the foe. Both ships 
were forced to return to England, defeated in their purpose of reaching 
the North Carolina coast. The delay proved fatal, for, in the culmina 
tion of the struggle, which shortly followed, in which the independence 
of England and the existence of England s reformed Church were at 
stake, there could be no relief for the Roanoke colonists till after the 
final destruction of the " Armada." 

At length, when victory had been gained and security assured, in 
the complete overthrow of the Spanish fleet, Sir Walter Ralegh, who had 
already expended forty thousand pounds in his efforts for colonizing 
America, found himself too much impoverished to renew the attempt. 
Availing himself of the privileges secured by his letters-patent he 
granted to a company of merchants and adventurers his rights of pro 
prietorship in the Virgin s Land beyond the seas. But, notwithstand 
ing his large concessions, the company proved laggard in its schemes 
of colonization, lacking the lavish support and persevering counsels 



SERVICES AND SACRAMENTS AT ROANOKE. 21 

of the father of American colonization. It was not till more than 
another year had elapsed that White was able to return to the shores 
where he had left his daughter and her child. Touching, indeed, is 
the glimpse given us, in White s own words, of the fate of these ear 
liest English settlers on our American continent. The voyage had not 
been without mishaps, and at the approach to the shore the most 
of a boat s crew were drowned by a heavy sea : " This mischance did 
so much discomfort the sailors, that they were all of one mind not to go 
any further to seek the planters ; but in the end, by the commandment 
and persuasion of me and Captain Cooke. they prepared the boats, and 
seeing the captain and me so resolute they seemed much more willing. 
Our boats and all things fitted again, we put off from Hatorask, being 
the number of nineteen persons in both boats ; but, before we could 
get to the place where our planters were left, it was so exceeding dark 
that we overshot the place a quarter of a mile ; there we espied, tow 
ards the north end of the island, the light of a great fire through the 
woods, to the which we presently rowed. When we came right over 
against it, we let fall our grapnel near the shore, and sounded with a 
trumpet a call, and afterwards many familiar English tunes of songs, 
and called to them friendly ; but we had no answer. We therefore landed 
at daybreak, and coming to the fire we found the grass and sundry rotten 
trees burning about the place . From hence we went through the w oods to 
that part of the island directly over against Dasamongwepeuk, and from 
thence we returned by the water-side round about the north point of the 
island, until we came to the place where I left our colony in the year 1586. 
-In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the savages feet of two 
or three sorts trodden in the night ; and as we entered up the sandy 
bank, upon a tree, in the very brow thereof, were curiously carved 
these fair Roman letters, C. R. O., which letters presently we knew 
to signify the place where I should find the planters seated, according 
to a secret token agreed upon between them and me at my last depart 
ure from them : which was that in any ways they should not fail to 
write or carve, on the trees or posts of the doors, the name of the 
place where they should be seated ; for at my coming away they were 
prepared to remove from Roanoke fifty miles into the main. Therefore, 
at my departure from them in An. 1587, Twilled them, that if they 
should happen to be distressed in any of those places, that then they 
should carve over the letters or name a -f- in this form ; but we found 
no such sign of distress. And, having well considered of this, we 
passed towards the place where they were left in sundry houses, but 
we found the houses taken down, and the place very strongly enclosed 
with a high palisade of great trees, with curtains and flankers very 
fort-like ; and one of the chief trees or posts at the right side of the 
entrance had the bark taken off, and five feet from the ground, in fair 
capital letters, was graven CROATOAN, without any cross or sign of 
distress ; this done, we entered into the palisade, where we found many 
bars of iron, two pigs of lead, four iron-fowlers, iron locker-shot, and 
such like heavy things thrown here and there, almost overgrown with 
grass and weeds. From thence we went along by the water-side toward 
the point of the creek, to see if we could find any of their boats or 



22 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

pinnace ; but we could perceive no sign of them nor any of the last 
fulcons or small ordinance which were left with them at my departure 
from them. At our return from the creek, some of our sailors meeting 
us told us that they had found where divers chests had been hidden, 
and long sithence digged up again and broken up, and much of the 
goods in them spoiled and scattered about, but nothing left of such 
things as the savages knew any use of, undefaced. Presently Captain 
Cooke and I went to the place, which was in the end of an old trench, 
made two years past by Captain Amadas, where we found five chests 
that had been carefully hidden of the planters, and of the same chests 
three were my own, and about the place many of my things spoiled 
and broken, and my books torn from the covers, the frames of some of 
my pictures and maps rotten and spoiled with rain, and my armor almost 
eaten through with rust. This could be no other than the deed of the 
savages, our enemies at Desamongwepeuk, who had watched the depart 
ure of our men to Croatoan, and as soon as they were departed 
digged by every place where they suspected anything to be buried ; 
but although it much grieved me to see such spoil of my goods, yet on 
the other side I greatly joyed that I had safely found a certain token 
of their safe being at Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo was 
born, and the savages of the islands our friends." 

The hopes of a speedy reunion with child and grandchild, and the 
revival on a new site, and with happier auspices, of the city of Ralegh, 
and the scheme of colonizing on the American coast, so naturally excited 
by the results of this day of exploration, were to be crushed out for 
ever. The skies were overcast. The sailors with difficulty regained 
their ship. In the morning, as they weighed anchor for " Croatoan," 
the cable broke, and the gale drove them towards the shore. After a 
narrow escape from wreck, with a strained and leaking bark, and with 
not a single anchor left, they were forced to turn their course towards 
the West Indies, leaving the colonists to their fate. No further effort 
availed for their relief. A century later, as the historian of North 
Carolina relates, the Hatteras Indians, at Croatoan, were wont to tell 
"that several of their ancestors were white people, and could talk in a 
book as we do ; the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyes being found 
frequently among these Indians, and no others. They value themselves 
extremely for their affinity to the English, and are ready to do them 
all friendly offices." The tradition of these Indians may shadow forth 
the fate of some of these unfortunate colonists, or possibly may eluci 
date the mystery attending the disappearance of Grenville s fifteen men. 
But in the " History of Travaile into Virginia Britannia," by William 
Strachey, recently published l from a manuscript in the British Museum, 
there are incidental references and statements, which lead us to infer 
that the Iloanoke settlers survived amidst their savage friends till 
about the year 1607, at which tune " the men, women, and children of 
the first plantation at Roanoke were, by practice and commandment 
of Powhatan (he himself persuaded thereunto by his priests), miser 
ably slaughtered, without any offence given him, either by the first 
planted (who twenty and odd years had peaceably lived intermixt with 

i By the Hakluyt Society, 1849. 



SERVICES AND SACRAMENTS AT ROANOKE. 23 

those salvages, and were out of his territory ") . In another reference to 
this matter Strackey tells us that " at Ritanoe, the Weroance Eyanoco 
preserved seven of the English alive, four men, two boys, and one 
young maid (who escaped and fled up the river of Chanoke) , to beat 
his copper, of which he had certain mines at the said Ritanoe." Vague 
and imperfect as these and other incidental allusions contained in 
Strachey s history arc, they certainly imply that some of " these unfor 
tunate and betrayed people " escaped the " miserable and untimely des 
tiny " which involved the major part of them in destruction, and com 
municated in sonje way with the settlers at Jamestown. Certainly the 
" one young maid " may have been the first-born Anglo-American, 
Virginia Dare, or else the other child of Virginian birth, whose sur 
name was " Harvie," and who was doubtless born just before the em 
barkation of White. These are the only two on the list of settlers 
given us by White, who could have been spoken of as " maids" in 1607. 
Possibly, though, from the lack of authority, there can be no certainty 
of the fact, the scanty remnant of this unfortunate colony may have 
been incorporated with the Jamestown settlers. We may be thankful 
that there is even a gleam of hope that the first-born of the Virginia 
Church and State, may have found her way back to civilization and 
Christianity, after many vicissitudes and hardships, and in the rude 
church at Jamestown, and amongthose of her own race, though stranger 
to her than the savages, heard, with interest and delight, the words of 
the same " Book of Common Prayer " out of which had been read the 
office of her christening. 



CRITICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 

rpHE connection of Sir Walter Ralegh with American colonization forms the sub- 
JL jectof an interesting chapter in The Narrative and Critical History of America." 
The stoiy of the voyages undertaken by this gifted man in furtherance of the task 
he had so much at heart is told from the original accounts, by the Rev. Increase N. 
Tarbox, D.D., in his " Sir Walter Ralegh and his Colony in America," issued by 
the Prince Society this present year. This volume contains, besides a Memoir of 
Ralegh : I. Charter in favor of Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, for the Discovery and 
Planting of New Lands in America, 25 Mai ch, 1584. II. The First Voyage to Amer 
ica under the Charge and Direction of Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, 1584 (by Arthur 
Barlowe). III. The Second Voyage to America under the Charge and Direction of 
Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, 1585 (chiefly furnished to Hakluyt by Ralph Lane, 
Sir Richard Grenville possibly contributing a small portion of the narrative) . IV. 
The Third Voyage to America under the Charge and Direction of Sir Walter Ralegh, 
Knight, 1586. V. Inti-oduction to the Narrative of Thomas Hariot, by Ralph Lane. 
VI. Historical Narrative, by Thomas Hariot. VII. The Foui th Voyage to America 
under the Charge and Direction of Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, 1587 (by John 
White). VIII. The Fifth Voyage to America under the Charge and Direction of 
Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, 1590. The annotations by Dr. Tarbox are pertinent 
and valuable. 

The original sources of information respecting the Colony of Ralegh are as 
follows : I. Arthur Barlowe s Diary of the Voyage (April 9-October 18, 1584) , printed 
by Hakluyt, and reprinted by Dr. Hawks in his " History of North Carolina," and 
by Dr. Tai box, as noticed above. II. Governor Ralph Lane s two letters to Sir 
Francis W alsingham and his letter to Sir Philip Sidney, August 12, 1585, together 
with Lane s third letter to Walsingham, of Sept. 8, 1585, printed for the first time 
in " Archoeologia Americana," iv, pp. 8-18, and edited by the Rev. Edward E. Hale, 



21 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

D.D. ; and an extract from Lane s letter to Richard Hakluyt, of the Inner Temple, 
dated Sept. 3, 1686, printed by Hakluyt and reprinted by Dr. Hawks, in. " Harlot s 
Narrative;" first issued in 1588, and published by Hakluyt the following year, and 
by De I3ry in 1690. IV. Lane s Narrative, as given by Hakluyt. This account, and 
that by Hariot, will be found in Dr. Hawks s "North Carolina," and in Dr. Tarbox s 
Sir Walter Ralegh and his Colony." V. " A Summarie and Trve Discovrse of 
Sir Fram-is Drake s West Indian Voyage, wherein were taken the Townes of Saint 
Ja<>-o, Sancto Domingo, Cartagena, and Saint Augustine," by Thomas Cates, Lon 
don, 1589, and reprinted in the fourth volume of Ilakluyt, 1600. VI. " The original 
Drawing of the Habits, Towns, Customs of the West Indians ; and of the plants, 
birds, fishes, &c., found in Greenland, Virginia, Guiana, &c., by Mr. John White," 
preserved in the Sloane Collection in the British Museum. The " Critical Essay," 
appended to Mr. William Wirt Henry s chapter on Ralegh in " The Narrative and 
Critical History of America," gives in detail notices of the various sources of infor 
mation, both original and secondary. 

Between the years 1587 and 1G02 Ralegh fitted out, at his own charge, five ex 
peditions to Virginia. It "required a prince s purse" thus to attempt the coloniza 
tion of his Virginian domain, and he only ceased his labor and lavish expenditures 
in the prosecution of his plans when he lost the royal favor and became a prisoner 
under sentence of death. In the last year of Queen Elizabeth s reign he despatched 
Samuel Mace, a mariner of experience, with special orders to relieve the survivors 
of White s colony. On the return ot Mace, Ralegh s interest in the colony had es 
cheated to the crown by his attainder. Still his faith in the ultimate success of the 
efforts for colonization he had inaugurated was unchanged. On the eve of his own 
fall he had written, "I shall yet live to see it an English nation ; " and. though it was 
from the tower-cell and the scaffold, he lived to see his words fulfilled. 

It was provided in the charter granted to Ralegh, on Lady-day, 1584, that 
the statutes, laws and ordinances be "as ncre as conueniently may bee, agreeable 
to the forme of the lawes, statutes, and gouerment, or pollicie of England, and also 
so as they be not against the true Christian faith, nowe professed in the Church of 
England." Tarbox s Sir Walter Ralegh and his Colony in America, p. 100. We 
cannot doubt but that a priest of the English Church accompanied this expedition, 
and on occasion of the baptism of Manteo, as well as at the christening of Virginia 
Dare, performed the service as found in the " Book of Common Prayer." Although 
there is no indication of the name of this missionary priest in the list appended to 
White s narrative giving "the names of all the men, women and children, which 
safely arriued in Virginia, and remained to inhabite there, 1587, Anno regni lleginoe 
Elizabeths, 29," the absence of the title is no proof that there was no clergyman 
among the settlers. It may be that Roger Baily, whose name appears on the 
list next to that of the governor s, and before that of his son-in-law, Ananias Dare, 
was the one who ministered to the colony in spiritual things ; but this is only con 
jecture. It is quite unlikely that the mystery attending this question will ever be 
dispelled. Manteo, the first-fruits of the aborigines of our land to Christ and his 
Church, had been twice in England, having been taken in the first place by Captains 
Amidas and Barlowe, in 1584. Returning to his native land with Sir Richard Gren- 
ville, in 1585, he again crossed the Atlantic with Sir Francis Drake, the following 
year. In company with another savage, Towaye, he accompanied the expedition 
of White in 1587, and remained friendly to the English, while Wanchese became 
their implacable foe. There is reason to believe that in the removal of the Roan- 
oke settlers to Croatoan the advice of Manteo was followed, and that among his 
kindred and under his protection the colonists patiently awaited the expected relief 
from England, which never came. But for Powhatan s murderous interference, at 
the instigation of his priests, jealous, it may have been, of the influence of the Eng 
lish in leading others than Manteo to Christ, there might have sprung up an Anglo- 
Indian community, Christianized and civilized, and inaugurating: the conquest of"the 
New World to Christ and his Church. 

The references in Strachey s "Historic of Travaile into Virginia" to the 
Roanoke settlers, are as follows : 

I. In the author s " Cosmographie of Virginia," in his first chapter, he thus 
incidentally alludes to them: "This high land is, in all likelyhoodes, a pleasant 
tract, and the mowld fruictfull, especially what may lye to the so-ward; where, at 
Peccarecamek and Oehanuhoen, by the relation of Machumps, 1 the people have 

1 An Tndiun who had visited England, the brother of Winjrannskc, a favorite wife of Pow- 
hatan, and nn occasional guest at the house of the governor. Sir Thomas Dale. Vide Strachcy s 
Historic, \.\,. 26, 54, 94. 



SERVICES AND SACRAMENTS AT ROANOKE. 25 

bowses built with stone walles, and one story above another, so taught them by 
those Englishe whoe escaped the slaughter at Roanoak. at what tyme this our col 
ony, under the conduct of Capt. Newport, landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where 
the people breed up tame turkeis about their howses, and take apes in the moun 
tains, and where, at Ritanoe, the Weroance Eyanoco 1 preserved seven of the Eng 
lish alive fower men, two boyes, and one yonge mayde (who escaped and fled 
up the river of Chanoke), to beat his copper, of which he hath certain mynes at the 
said Ritanoe, as also at Pamawauk are said to be store of salt stones," p. 26. 

It would appear from this reference that, at the time of the landing of Captain 
Newport, in 1607, there were "Englishe whoe escaped the slaughter at Roanoak" 
living at " Peccarecamek and Ochanahoen," evidently incorporated among the In 
dians in these communities, and contributing to the comfort and civilization of their 
captors and preservers. Still, as the Rev. Edward E. Hale, D.D., in commenting 
on this passage in " Archseologia Americana" (Vol. iv., p. 36) observes, "it must 
be confessed that this tantalizing passage is very obscure." Another extract, still 
more obscure," is as follows : 

II. " Yet noe Spanish intention shalbe entertayned by us, neither hereby to 
root out the naturalls, 2 as the Spaniards have done in Hispaniola, and other parts, 
but only to take from them these seducers, .... declaring (in the attempt 
thereof) unto the several weroances, and making the comon people likewise to un 
derstand, how that his majestie hath bene acquainted, that the men, women, and 
children of the first plantation at Roanoak were by practize and comaunclement of 
Powhatan (he himself perswaded thereunto by his priests) misei-ably slaughtered, 
without any offence given him either by the first planted (who twenty and od yeares 
had peaceably lyved intermixt with those salvages, and were out of his territory) 
or by those who nowe are come to inhabite some parte of his desarte land," etc. 
Strachey > pp. 85, 86. 

In the third chapter of his " Historic," Strachey, describing " the great king, 1 
Powhatan, refers to the same massacre as follows : 

III. " He doth often send unto us to temporize with us, awayting perhapps 
a fit opportunity (inflamed by his furious and bloudy priests) to offer us a tast of 
the same cuppe which he made our poore countrymen drinck of at Ronoak." 
p. 50. 

Again, at the close of chapter fourth of the second book of his "Historic," 
Strachey refers to the return of John White to England, in 1589, in these words : 

IV. " Howbeit, Captaine White sought them no further, but missing them 
there, and his company havinge other practizes, and which those tymes afforded, 
they returned, covetous of some good successe upon the Spanish fleete to returne that 
yeare from Mexico and the Indies, neglecting thus these unfortunate and betrayed 
people, of whose end you shall yet hereafter read in due place in this decade." 
p. 152. 

From this reference, and another contained in the " Prsernonition to the Reader," 
to the effect that Ralegh " endeavoured nothing less then the relief of the poore 
planters, who afterward, as you shall read in this following discourse, came there 
fore to a miserable and untymely destiny" (p. 9), it is evident that Strachey was 
aware of the particulars of the fate of the Roanoke colonists. Unfortunately the 
remainder of the " decade" is imperfect, and we can only, by the careful compar 
ison of the extracts we have cited, infer that a number of the Roanoke settlers 
survived the massacre incited by Powhatan and were living among the savages at 
the time of the arrival of Capt. Newport, in 1607. It is possible that a second mas 
sacre may have occurred after this date, occasioned by the fear of the Indian chief 
tain that the later settlers might, if they learned of the hardships to which their 
countrymen had been subjected, avenge their wrongs. If this were so it would 
account for the silence in the early narratives of the Virginia settlement with ref 
erence to the subject. It is not impossible, however, that some of the survivors 
communicated with the settlers at Jamestown, if they did not escape from captivity 
and rejoin their countrymen in their new Virginian home. Certainly this is not an 
unreasonable supposition, and as such we have engrafted it in the text. We find 
the following statement on the margin of p. 1728 of Vol. rv. of " Purchas His 
Pilgrimes," "Powhatan confessed that hee had bin at the murther of that 
[Ralegh s] Colonie, and shewed a Musket barrell and a brasse Morter, and cer- 
taine pieces of iron which had bin theirs." Still, unless the missing portion of 
Strachey s " Historic " should be recovered, the fate of the Roanoke settlers will 
ever be shrouded in mystery. 

1 Commander or governor. 2 Aborigines. 



CHAPTER III. 

FOBT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS AT THE 
MOUTH OF THE KENNEBEC. 

rjlHE beginning of the seventeenth century witnessed renewed and 
more successful efforts for American colonization. In the spring 
:iud early summer of 1602 Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, a mari 
ner of the west of England, with a company of thirty-two persons in all, 
spent several weeks on the island of Cutty hunk, situated at the south 
of Buzzard s Bay, on the Massachusetts coast. On this island, which 
was " overgrown with trees and rubbish," a site was fixed upon for a 
settlement, a cellar was dug and stoned, and a house built, which was 
thatched with sedge and fortified with palisades. Here wheat, barley, 
oats, and peas were sown, and in a fortnight the young plants M were 
sprung up nine inches and more." But when a valuable cargo of sas 
safras, cedar, furs, and other commodities had been obtained for the 
return voyage, there arose dissensions among the adventurers, and the 
number of those who had agreed to remain rapidly dwindled till " all 
was given over," and, on the 18th of June, the whole company set 
sail for England, where they arrived after a five weeks voyage to find 
themselves involved in the meshes of the law for their violation of Sir 
Walter Ralegh s patent. The lack of Sir Walter s permission would 
of itself have been fatal to the success of an attempted settlement, and 
the letter of Ralegh to Cecil, in which he invokes redress, clearly 
asserts that the expedition " went without my leve and therefore all is 
confiscate." l This letter indicates that a chief promoter of this unau 
thorized enterprise was the notorious Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham. 
No later reference to the settlers at Roanoke than that neither Gil 
bert, " Lord Cobham s man," who was Gosnold s associate, nor Mace, 
who had arrived at Wey mouth in Ralegh s pinnace, from Virginia, 
" spake with the people," appears in Sir Walter s correspondence. 
The toils were already enclosing him, which in time bound him for 
the slaughter, the victim of royal faithlessness. 

The following year, 1603, Martin Pring, under the patronage of 
the merchants of Bristol and with the formal consent of Ralegh, vis 
ited the New England coast, and spent nearly two months in the har 
bors of Plymouth and Duxbury. 2 Here Pring erected a " barricade," 
and, in emulation of Gosnold s experiment, sowed " wheate, Barley, 
Gates, Pease, and sundry sorts of Garden seeds, which for the time 
of our abode, being about seven Weeks, although they were late sown 

Edwards s " Life of Sir Walter Ralegh," " Gosnold and Prin?. 1602-3," inN.E. Hist. Gen. 
II., p. 253. Vide critical notes at end of chapter. Reg., xxxn., pp. 76-80. Vide, also, Ma. of Am. 
3 Vide the Rev. Dr. DeCosta s article on Hist., vin., Part n., pp. 807-819. 



FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 27 

came vp very well." Accompanying these expeditions of Gosnold and 
Pring was Robert Salterne, who, shortly after his return to England, 
took orders in the English Church. As the sacred calling to which 
he so soon devoted his life was doubtless in his mind while seeking 
adventure or recuperation in these noteworthy voyages of discovery 
it is not an unlikely supposition that as a layman he conducted the 
services of the Church for his companions of travel, both at sea and on 
land. If this conjecture is correct and there is every reason in its 
favor the prayers and praises of the Leyden settlers, whose landing 
on Plymouth Rock has become historic, were anticipated by the forms 
of the Church of England in the very locality where the " Pilgrim 
Fathers " lived and died. Salterne s account of Pring s voyage, as con 
densed in Smith s " General History," concludes with the following 
pious couplet : 

" Lay hands vnto this worke with all thy wit, 
But pray that God would speed and profit it. " * 

On Easter-day, the last day of March, 1605, an expedition, under 
the command of George Waymouth, "weighed anchor, and put to 
sea in the name 
of God," from 
Dartmouth Ha- 
ven. The pro- 
moters of this 
enterprise were 
Henry Wriothes- 
ley, Earl of AUTOGRAPH OF GEORGE WAYMOTTTH. 

Southampton, 

the accomplished patron of Shakespeare, and his brother-in-law, 
Thomas Arundell, Lord Wardour. "The sole intent of the honor 
able setters-forth of this discovery," as we are informed by Rosier, 
the chronicler of the voyage, was "not a little present profit, but a 
public good, and true zeal of promulgating God s holy Church, by 
planting Christianity." In the middle of May the adventurers reached 
the shores of New England, discovering, as they sailed along the 
coast, the island of Monhegan, which they hoped would be " the most 
fortunate ever discovered." " The next day," proceeds the chronicler, 
" being Whitsunday," they anchored in "a convenient harbor, which it 
pleased God to send us, far beyond our expectation," and " all with 
great joy praised God for his unspeakable goodness, who had from so 
apparent danger delivered us, and directed us upon this day into so 
secure an harbor, in remembrance whereof we named it Pentecost 
Harbor." On " Whitsunmonduy, the 20th day of May," they landed 
and dug wells, planted peas, and barley, and garden seeds, lingering 
for more than a fortnight among "the pleasant fruitfulness." At 
length, on Wednesday, the 29th of May, the shallop, brought in pieces 
from England, was prepared for use, and, as a mark of discovery and 
possession, the record tells us "we set up a cross on the shore side 

*The Trve Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith. Richmond 
reprint of the original edition of 1629, i., p. 109. 




28 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



upon the rocks." On Thursday, May 30, Way mouth, with thirteen 
men, "in the name of God, and with all our prayers for their pros 
perous discovery and safe return," departed in the shallop on a 
voyage of exploration up the river, doubtless the Kcnnebec, at 
whose mouth they had been riding at anchor. On Friday, the 



Jo; irillraflcfaojoji Smith* &4ck -to beare,) 
ju tliy JwH,tD niakc. J5ra/j6 Stcdc- outwears. 

%%%""?&. **to~i?~*.\ 



TheEiver CHARLES 




SMITH S MAP OF NEW ENGLAND, ISM. 



O 



the river for fort ^ miles - Mean- 
savages, and a mutual good-will 

er"inhi, 1 . ptain had two of the n ^ives at 

advice who"! U AT thC1 ^ demeanor a "d bad them in presence 
e . who behaved themselves very civilly, neither laughing nor 



FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 



29 



talking all the time, and at supper fed not like men of rude education." 
The following morning trade was intermitted, " because it was the 
Sabbath day ; " but the week thus scrupulously begun was not half 
over when Way mouth kidnapped " five savages and two canoes, with 
all their bows and arrows ; " while on " Sunday, the 16th of June, the 
wind being fair, and because we had set out of England upon a 
Sunday, made the islands upon a Sunday, and as we doubt not (by 
God s appointment) happily fell into our harbor upon a Sunday ; so 
now (beseeching him still with like prosperity to bless our return 
into England, our country, and from thence with his good-will and 
pleasure to hasten our next arrival there) we weighed anchor and quit 
the land upon a Sunday." The names of these enslaved savages were 
"Tahanedo, a Sagamore, or commander; 4-m6ret, Skicowaros, Ma- 
neddb, Gentlemen ; Saffacomoit, a servant." l We are assured that they 
"never seemed discontented," but were "very tractable, loving, and 
willing." Their exhibition in England, together with the glowing 
recitals of the returned voyagers, who had seen the coast of Maine in 
the beautiful month of June, gave a new impulse to western ad 
venture. The presence of the captives at Plymouth, where Waymouth 
had brought them, enlisted the interest of the royal governor, Sir Fer- 
dinando Gorges, who was 
thus incited to a lifelong and 
most persistent devotion to 
schemes of American coloni 
zation. "And so it pleased our 
great God," wrote Gorges, 
that Waymouth "came into 
the harbor of Plymouth, 
where I then commanded. 
I seized upon the Indians ; 

they were all of one nation, but of several Parts, and several Fami 
lies. This accident must be acknowledged the means under God 
of putting on foot, and giving life to all our plantations." Gorges 
took three of the savages into his home, was at pains that they should 
be instructed in the English language, and " kept them full three years." 
From them he obtained information of the " stately islands and harbors " 
of their native country : " what great rivers ran up into the land, what 
men of note were seated on them, what power they were of, how 
allied, what enemies they had, and the like." It was thus that he was 
led to become, in the words Bradford, of Plymouth, records, "not 
only a favorer, but also a most special beginner and furtherer of the 
good of this country, to his great cost and no less honor." 2 

The condition of affairs in England was now favorable to schemes 
of colonization. There was a redundancy of population throughout 




AUTOGRAPH OF SCR FERDINAND GORGES. 



1 Of these unfortunate aborigines, the first and 
third, also styled Dehamda and Skitwarres, were 
returned in the Pophain expedition. The two 
last, whose names appear as Manuido and Assa- 
comoit, embarked with Capt. Henry Challons, 
Aug. 12, 1 006, and were taken as prisoners into 
Spain with the rest of the ship s company, where; 
we are told that both of the natives " were lost." 



Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., xxvi., p. 682. " Assa- 
cumct" appears to have come over with Capt. 
Hobsou ia 1614. Drake s Old Ind. Chronicle, 
p. 14. Vide, also, Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., V., p. 332, 
and Nar. and Grit. Hist., m., p. 180. 

- Bradford s Letter Book. Mass. Hist. Soc. 
Coll., first series, ill., p. 63. 



30 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



the land ; the parishes found it difficult to maintain their poor, and the 
cessation of warlike operations by sea and land, which during the 
days of Queen Elizabeth had given occupation to many in all depart 
ments of life and trade, threw out of employ a number of restless 
spirits, whose love of adventure led them to seize eagerly the 
opportunity to form a new empire in the West. Gosnold, who could, 
from personal knowledge, attest the fertility of the American shores, 
and who doubtless remembered with chagrin that it was only the timid 
ity or treachery of his associate, Bartholomew Gilbert, " Lord Cob- 

ham s man," as Ralegh styled him, 
that prevented his establishment 
of a colony when on the Massachu 
setts shores, had already associated 
with himself in a scheme of coloni 
zation a few brave spirits, afterward 
to be well and widely known in 
connection with the far-distant Vir 
ginia. These were Captain John 
Smith, Mr. Edward-Maria Wing- 
field, and the excellent Robert 
Hunt, a clergyman of the church. 1 

For upwards of a year these, and others of like mind, sought to 
effect their purpose, till, at length, reinforced by the assigns of 
Ralegh, among whom Richard Hakluyt, Prebendary of Westmin 
ster, the promoter and chronicler of American discovery and settle- 




AUTOGRAPH OF SIR JOHN popHAM. 



Ate 






h(J <**a*/{ 



/ 
<?$ . 








AUTOGRAPH OF REV. RICHARD HAKLUYT. 

ment, was preeminent, and gaining the countenance and support of 
the Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir John Popham, and Sir 
.berdinando Gorges, as similar schemers had earlier secured the sup- 
poit of the Earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, the kin", 

irn!f S A ga ? the first charter of Virginia, on the 10th of Aprfl 
K>. At this period not an Englishman, save the captive sur- 
the Roanoke settlers, is known to have been in the belt of 
land comprising twelve degrees, and stretching from Cape Fear to 
Halifax. The Great Patent of Virginia" assigned the right of colo 
nization between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude to "two 
several Colonies and Companies." One of these, denominated in the 

1 William Simons, D.D., in Smith s Histoiy," i., p. 149. 



FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 31 

charter the First Colony, consisting of " certain Knights, Gentlemen, 
Merchants and other adventurers of our city of London, and else 
where," was restricted to the territory lying between the 34th and 
38th degrees of north latitude, that is, from Cape Fear to the south 
ern border of Maryland. To the Second Colony was given the 
exclusive right to occupy the country between the 41st and 45th 
degrees. This company was composed of " Sundry Knights, Gentle 
men, Merchants and other adventurers, of our cities of Bristol and 
Exeter, and of our town of Plymouth, and of other places." The 
religious nature of the scheme is expressed at the outset: "We, 
greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for 
the Furtherance of so noble a work, which may, by the Providence 
of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Maj 
esty, in propagating of Christian Eeligion to such People as yet 
live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and 
Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, 
living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and good 
Government: Do, by these our Letters Patents graciously accept 
of, and agree to, their humble and well-intended Desires." A council 
in England was charged with the general superintendence of the 
whole colonial system, while the appointment of a subordinate council 
for each colony provided for the local administration. The members 
of the Supreme Council were appointed solely by the king, and 
held their office at his pleasure ; the ultimate decision of all matters, 
whether grave or moral, rested with the monarch. The rights of 
free-born Englishmen were secured to the colonists and their descend 
ants. Provision was made for a revenue to be levied on vessels 
trading in the harbors of Virginia, while the colonists were permitted 
to import goods for their own use, free of duty. A fifth of the gold 
or silver, and a fifteenth of the copper, mined in either colony, was 
reserved for the Crown. The privilege of coining money was con 
ceded, and the seals of the Superior Council and its local subordi 
nates were minutely prescribed. 

In the list of the original patentees to whom " the Great Patent 
of Virginia " was granted, the names of Gorges and Popham do not 
appear. Hakluyt was one of the incorporators of the London Com 
pany, and the brother of the Chief Justice, George Popham, and Ralegh 
Gilbert, son of the eminent explorer Sir Humphrey, and nephew of Sir 
Walter Ralegh, were associates of the Plymouth Company. 

Although not included among the original patentees, the Lord 
Chief Justice despatched, within a month after the charter had passed 
the great seal, " a tall ship belonging to Bristol and the river Severne 
to settle a plantation in the river of Sagadahoc ; " and in the following 
August Sir Ferdinando Gorges sent out a ship, under the command 
of Henry Challons, with two of the savages brought over by Way- 
mouth as pilots, with a view to the same end. Both of these ventures 
came to naught, as the Spaniards captured the ships ere they reached 
the American coast. But another vessel, sent two months later by 
Chief Justice Popham, of which Thomas Hanham, one of the patentees, 
was in command, and Martin Pring, the master, reached the shores of 



32 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Maine in safety, and, after making a careful survey of the coast, 
returned with such glowing accounts of the land they had visited that 
it was determined to send out planters the following spring to found a 
settlement at the mouth of the Sagadahoc. 

It was in consequence of the mishaps of these voyages of explora 
tion that Virginia was settled a few months prior to the occupancy of 
the coast of Maine. 

Sailing from Plymouth on Trinity Sunday, May 31, 1607, on 
the first day of June, the " Mary and John," under Captain Ralegh 
Gilbert, and the "Gift of God," under Captain Popham, left the 
" Lizard," on their westward journey. Parting company at the Azores, 
where the " Mary and John " had a narrow escape from the Nether- 
landers, who detained Gilbert, under the charge of piracy, while the 
" Gift of God " sailed on without stopping to succor her consort, the 
two vessels met off the island of Monhegan on Friday, the 7th of 
August. At midnight of this auspicious day Gilbert, with a number 
of the adventurers and the native " Skidwarres," rowed to Pemaquid 
"amongst many gallant islands," the "weather being fair and the wind 
calm." Landing in a little cove, to which the savage had directed 
their course, the explorers crossed Pemaquid Point, and after a march 
of three miles reached the Indian village of Nahanada, one of Way- 
mouth s captives who had returned with Pring the previous year. 
Received at the first with distrust, as was but natural, an interchange 
of kindly words and offices followed, and the English remained for 
nearly two hours, visiting the wigwams and receiving every token of 
welcome. On the afternoon of Saturday the party returned to the 
ships. On Sunday, the tenth after Trinity, the settlers held a solemn 
service on Monhegan, where they had earlier found across, which they 
conjectured had been raised by Way mouth, but which it is more likely 
was erected by Pring. The record of the voyage, in the Lambeth 
Library, 1 whence we have drawn many of our particulars of this expe 
dition, gives us in full the story of this Sunday service : 

"Sunday being the 9th of August, in the morning the most part 
of our whole company of both our ships landed on this island, the 
which we call St. George s Island, where the cross standeth, and there 
we heard a sermon delivered unto us by our preacher, giving God 
thanks for our happy meeting and safe arrival into the country, and so 
returned aboard again." 

Strachey, in his narrative of this event, alludes to the preacher by 
name as Mr. Seymour, and speaks of" the chief of both the shipps with 
the greatest part of all the company " as forming the congregation of 
this first service of the Church, of which we have record, in the Eng 
lish tongue and on the New England coast. With deep solemnity must 
the words of common prayer and common praise have sounded on the 
ears of that little company of worshippers. Those words remain as 
our heritage, and we can call up the scene under the tall cross, the 
symbol of our salvation and a proof of English occupancy for Christ s 

" A Relation of a Voyage to Sagadahoc," now first printed from the original MS., in the 
Lambeth Lihrarv. Edited with Preface, Notes, and Appendices, by the Rev. B. F. DeCosta. 8. 
Cambridge, 1880i Pp.43. 



FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 



33 



Church as well as for a Christian State, and recite the verba ipsis- 
sima, then for the first time echoing on the still air of our northern 
shores. Among the Psalms of the day was the Deus noster rsfugium, 
and its words of glad assurance must have had a meaning unknown 
before : " God is our hope and strength, a very present help in trouble. 
Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the 
hills be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof 




ANCIENT PEMAQUID. 

rage and swell, and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the 
same. ... Be still, then, and know that I am God: 1 will be 
exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted on the earth. The 
Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." What 
more fitting words could be found than those of the second morning 
lesson, for these worshippers in God s free temples? "Howbeit 
the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; as saith the 
Prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what 
house will ye build me? saith the Lord; or what is the place of my 



34 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

rest ? Hath not my hand made all these things ? " l It was hallowed 
ground where these few settlers for the first time raised the note of 
praise or voice of supplication to heaven, and we may well rejoice 
that the words then used were those of our own common prayer, with 
the English Bible, which was brought to our shores by these devout 
colonists. The preacher, Richard Seymour, there is reason to believe, 
was a great-grandson of theDuke of Somerset, who, as"Lord Protector," 
ruled the kingdom during the minority of his nephew, the boy-king, 
Edward VI. : and was " related to Gorges, the projector of the colony ; 
to Popham, its patron ; to Popham, its president ; and to Gilbert, its 
admiral, all through the common link of the family of his mother." 9 
Who would be more likely to offer himself as chaplain for this expe 
dition than this young priest of the English Church ? To him belongs 
the honor of being the first English preacher of the glad tidings of our 
holy faith in our New England territory. His name will go down to 
posterity linked with that of the saintly Robert Hunt, the apostle of 
Virginia, who, at Jamestown, was at this very time using the same 
prayers and preaching the same salvation. 

The week following the solemn service was spent in effo&ts to 
secure a safe anchorage, which was at length successful, the two ships 
anchoring side by side, at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, on Sunday, 
Aug-ist 16th. On the 18th of the month choice was made of a site for 
the settlement on the peninsula of Sabino, and, as the Lambeth "Rela 
tion " informs us, on " Wednesday, being the 19th of August, we all went 
to the shore, where we made choice for our plantation, and there we 
had a sermon delivered unto us by our preacher, and after the sermon 
our patent was read with the orders and laws therein prescribed ; then 
we returned aboard our ship again." 3 

Strachey, in his "Historie of Travaile in Virginia," gives us 
further particulars of this solemn inauguration of the new settlement 

by the forms of divine as well as human law. 

^l/Ji&JLfn. J?nx. dtc ^^ e " Present s commission " was read after 
jf the sermon, "with the lawes to be observed 
AUTOGRAPH OF WILLIAM and ^P*" and this Caving been done , " George 
STRACHEY. Popham, gent., was nominated President, 

Captain Ralegh Gilbert, James Davies, Rich 
ard Seymer, Preacher, Captain Richard Davies, Captain Harlow, were 
all sworn assistants." Thus was formally begun, in the fear of God and 
with due reverence to law, the first occupation and settlement of New 
England, and from this date, and by virtue of these acts, the title of 
England to this portion of the New World was assured. The " lawes 
to be observed and kept," read on this interesting occasion, are still 
extant ; they carefully provide at the outset for the spiritual welfare 
of colonists and savages : " Wee doe specially ordaine, charge, and 
require, the said presidents and councills, and the ministers of the 
said several colonies respectively, within their several limits and 

Actsvii. 48-50. 

* Bp. George Burgess, in " The Popham Memorial Volume," p. 103. 

A Relation, etc., p. 30. 



FOKT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 35 

precincts, that they, with all diligence, care, and respect, doe provide, 
that the true word, and service of God and Christian faith be preached, 
planted, and used, not only within every of the said several colonies, 
and plantations, but alsoe as much as they may among the salvage 
people which doe or shall adjoine unto them or border upon them, 
according to the doctrine, rights, and religion now professed and 
established within our realme of England, and that they shall not 
suffer any person or persons to withdrawe any of the subjects or 
people inhabiting, or which shall inhabit within any of the said several 
colonies and plantations from the same, or from their due allegiance, 
unto us, our heirs and successors, as their immediate soveraigne under 
God." The conversion of the aborigines is again referred to in this 
document: "Wee doe hereby determine and ordaine, that every 
person and persons being our subjects of every the said collonies and 
plantations, shall from time to time well entreate those salvages in 
those parts, and use all good means to draw the salvages and heathen 
people of the said several places, and of the territories and countries 
adjoining, to the true service and knowledge of God, and that all 
just, kind and charitable courses shall be holden with such of them as 
shall conform themselves to any good and sociable traffique and deal 
ing with the subjects of us, our heirs and successors, which shall be 
planted there, whereby they may be the sooner drawne to the true 
knowledge of God, and the obedience of us our heirs and successors," 
etc. 1 In^this Christian manner was the settlement on the peninsula of 
Sabino, at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, begun. The following day 
they entered upon the work of entrenching the site of their new home, 
and the building of a fort and storehouse. The carpenters busied them 
selves in constructing a pinnace, and while these active operations 
were well under way, Gilbert, in his shallop, explored the coast, 
visiting Cape Elizabeth, noting the almost numberless islands in 
Casco Bay, and sailing up the Sheepscot and Penobscot rivers. Trade 
was carried on with the Indians, who were treated with kindness and 
consideration, even when threatening hostilities. 

A record, under date of October 4th, found in Strachey, gives us 
an interesting glimpse of the religious life of the settlers : " There came 
two canoas to the fort, in which were Nahanada and his wife, and Skid- 
warres, with the Basshabaes brother, and one other called Amenquin, a 
Sagamo ; all whome the President feasted and entertayned with all kind- 
nes, both that day and the next, which being Sondaye, 2 the President 
carried them with him to the place of publike prayers, which they were 
at both morning and evening, attending y 4 with great reverence and si 
lence." 3 As the year drew to its close, the " Mary and John," under the 
command of Capt. Robert Davies, was sent back to England, " with let 
ters to the Lord Chief Justice, ymportuninge a supply for the most nec 
essary wants to the subsisting of a colony to be sent unto them betymes 
the next yeare." On the 13th of December, the third Sunday in 
Advent, two days before the departure of the " Mary and John," the 

1 Vide Appendix to " A Vindication of the Claims of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, as the Father 
of English Colonization in America. By John A. Poor." New York : 1862. Pp. 134, 136. 

2 The eighteenth after Trinity. 3 Historic of Travaile, p. 178. 



36 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

president addressed a letter in Latin to the king, in which he writes : 
" Optima me tenet opinio, Dei gloriam facile in his regionibus eluces- 
cere, Vestne Majestatis imperium amplificari, et Britannorum rempub- 
licam breviter augmentari." "My well-considered opinion is, that in 
these regions the glory of God may be easily evidenced, the empire of 
Your Majesty enlarged, and the public welfare of the Britons speedily 
augmented." l 

After the departure of the " Mary and John," the fort was com 
pleted and fortified with twelve pieces of ordnance. Five 2 houses were 
built, besides a church and storehouse, and "the carpenters framed a 
pretty Pynnace of about some thirty tonne, which they called the * Vir 
ginia ; the chief shipwright being one Digby, of London." 

On Saturday, the 5th of February, the eve of Quinquagesima, the 
president died. " He was well stricken in years," says Gorges, in his 
" Briefe Narrative," 3 " and had long been an infirm man. Howsoever, 
heartened by hopes, willing he was to die in acting something that might 
be serviceable to God, and honorable to his country." In the sonorous 
Latin which he employed in his letter to his king, his epitaph, cut in en 
during stone, records for all time to come, 

" Leges literasque Anglicanas 
Et fldem ecclesiamque Christ! 
In has sylvas duxit." 4 

The loss of so noble a leader was fatal to the new enterprise. The 
winter had proved exceedingly severe. So extreme was the cold that 
" no boat could stir upon any business." Still, on the return of Captain 
Davies, " with a shipp laden full of victuals, armes, instruments, and 
tooles," all things were found " in good forwardness." The barter-trade 
with the Indians had yielded " many kinds of furs ; " a " good store of 
sarsaparilla," a root much esteemed at that time, had been gathered ; 
and the new pinnace was "all finished." Gilbert, who had succeeded 
Popham as president, was compelled to return to settle the estate of his 
brother, Sir John Gilbert, who had lately died, and to whose property 
he was heir. Besides, the Chief Justice had died in England, ere his 
brother had passed away in America, and as there had been " noe mynes 
discovered, nor hope thereof, being the mayne intended benefit ex 
pected to uphold the charge of this plantacion, and the fears that all 
other wynters would prove like the first, the company by no means 
would stay any longer in the country," " wherefore they all ymbarked 
in the new arrived shipp, and in the new pynnace, the Virginia, and 
set sail for England." " And this," concludes Strachey, " was the end 
of that northern colony vppon the river Sachadehoc." 5 

It must not be overlooked that no mention of the return of " The 
Gift of God " to England is found in any of the narratives of this 
short-lived settlement. It has been conjectured with no little reason 
that upon the death of Popham and the succession of the London inter- 

1 ph t am Memorial Volume, p. 224. He brought into these wilds English laws 

btrachey says " fifty," an evident clerical and learning, and the faith and the Church of 

error. Christ." 

8 Maine Hist. Coll., n., p. 22. Historic of Tra vailc, pp. 179, 180. 




FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 37 

est in the person of Gilbert to the presidency of the colony, the Bris 
tol men, with the Popham bark, the " Gift of God," left the peninsula 
of Sabino and Fort St. George, where the hostility of the Sagadahoc 
savages had been aroused, and sought a new home atPemaquid, under 
the protection of Nahanada and his followers. This agrees with the 
statement of the painstaking and accurate Prince, in his " Chronology," 
that all but forty-five planters departed for England, on the breaking 
up of the colony, in two ships, of which the " Virginia," the first Ameri 
can-built ship, was one. Thirteen years after the abandonment of the 
Sagadahoc plantation there was a hamlet of "fifty families," known as 
the " Sheepscot Farms," on the banks of the Sheepscot river ; while at 
Pemaquid there appear to have been settlers, or traders at least, almost, 
if not quite, from the time of the return of Gilbert and his followers 
to England. Year by year Sir Francis Popham, who, as we learn 
from Gorges "Brief Narrative," " cared not to give it over," sent ships 
" in hope of better fortunes," while the story of Gorges own efforts 
to found a loyal and a churchly colony on the shores of Maine proves 
that his perseverance was not wholly fruitless, though finally the iron 
heel of the Massachusetts settlers crushed out at once both Episcopacy 
and independence. 

Still the claim of the English for the possession of the territory 
of New England rests upon this settlement on the peninsula of Sabino, 
at Fort St. George ; and even the Puritan historian, Hubbard, dates 
the occupancy of the English upon our northern American shores from 
the year 1607. There has been no little discussion with reference to 
the character of the Sagadahoc colonists ; but nothing has been proved 
to their disparagement. Citations from a tract by Sir William Alex 
ander, and from Lord Bacon s famous essay on Plantations, have been 
adduced to prove that they were " pressed to that enterprise as endan 
gered by the law, or by their own necessities;" l or, in the stronger lan 
guage of Bacon, were convicted felons, 
who left their country for their coun 
try s good. But the words of Alex 
ander are far from implying that these 
planters, or any of them, were crimi 
nals, as the phrase he uses may, and 
AUTOGRAPH OF LORD BACON. doubtless does, refer to poor debtors ; 

and, at the time of the Popham expedi 
tion, there were no laws in force authorizing the transportation of crimi 
nals into Virginia. Besides, the great charter under which they sailed 
provided only for the sailing of such as went "willingly." If criminals, 
their return would have been to certain death, and even the "extreme ex 
tremities " 2 of a New England winter would have been preferred to this. 
There is nothing in the story of their abode at Fort St. George to indicate 
any want of principle or character from the first to the very last. They 
began their work with prayer and lessons of duty; they complied 
with all the forms of law ; the minister of religion was among them, 
and, by their reverent participation in the worship enjoined by their 

i Sir William Alexander s " Encouragement * Captain John Smith s " General Historic of 

to Colonies," London, 1624, p. 30. New England," London, 1624, p. 204. 




38 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

patent, even the wondering savages were impressed with the power of 
a faith they could not comprehend. Industry and good order were 
maintained. The tendency to discontent, consequent upon the loss of 
their storehouses and provisions, was restrained. The change of presi 
dents, on the death of the worthy Popham, was quietly and lawfully 
made. Their relations to the savages were friendly, and were main 
tained in good faith, and their record is unstained by the shedding of 
blood. Short as was their residence on the bleak coast of Maine, they 
have won their place in history as the first settlers of New England. 
They laid the foundations of State and Church at the North a year 
before the men of Leyden signed their solemn " compact " in the cabin 
of the " Mayflower," in Plymouth harbor, and began on a soil to which 
they had no claim, and without the presence of a minister of their own 
faith, the civil and religious history of Puritan New England. 



CRITICAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

WE are reminded by Dr. De Costa in his interesting chapter on "Norutnbega 
and its English Explorers," in the third volume of " The Critical and Nar 
rative History of America," that the first Englishman certainly known to have 
traversed the territoiy of Massachusetts and Maine was David Ingram. Landed in 
the month of October, 1568, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, by Captain, after 
wards Sir John, Hawkins, with a lai ge number of companions in misery, Ingram 
and two of his fellows traversed the continent, following the Indian trails, fording 
the intervening rivers, and finding a pathway through interminable forests till 
Cape Breton and the St. John s river were reached. Here Ingram embarked in a 
French ship, the " Gargarine," commanded by Captain Champagne, and reached 
his native land by the way of France. Of the narrative of this extraordinary jour 
ney, which is embellished by marvellous tales of houses with pillars of crystal and 
silver, and cities three-fourths of a mile in length, we can only quote the caustic 
words of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, in " The Critical and Narrative History of 
America" (Vol. m., p. G4), as follows: 

" It is a real misfortune for our early history that no reliance can be placed on 
the fragmentary stories of the few survivors who were left by Hawkins on the coast 
of the Gulf of Mexico. One or two there were who, after years of captivity, told 
their wretched story at home. But it is so disfigured by every form of lie, that the 
most ingenious reconstructor of history fails to distil from it even a drop of the 
truth. The routes which they pursued cannot be traced, the etymology of geogra 
phy gains nothing from their nomenclatures, and, in a word, the whole story has to 
be consigned to the realm of fable." 

Ingram s Narrative was printed by Hakluytin 1589, but was omitted in his next 
issue. The " Rare Travailes " of Job Hortop, who was landed ou the Mexican coast 
with Ingram, and reached England after more than a score of years of wandering, 
is included in Dr. E. E. Hale s sweeping condemnation. Purchas, referring to 
Hakluyt s omission of these narratives in his later impressions, sums up the case in 
a word : " The reward of lying being not to be believed in truths." A copy of the 
" original manuscript," preserved in the Sloan Collection in the British Museum, was 
printed by Plowden Charles Gennet Weston as the first of his " Documents Connected 
with the History of South Carolina," one hundred and twenty-one copiesof which were 
reproduced at the Cheswick press for private distribution by the editor. Vide a review 
of Mr. Weston s volume by the author of this history in the Hist. Mag., I., pp. 376, 377. 
The title of this Narrative, as printed by Mr. Weston, is in " The Land Travels of 
Davyd Ingram and others in the vear 1568-69 from the Rio de Minas in the Gulph 
of Mexico to Cape Breton in Acadia." Mr. Sparks, who had a MS. copy in his col- 




FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 39 

lection of historical documents, indorsed it thus: "Many parts of this narrative 
are incredible, so much so as to throw a distrust over the whole." Still the larger 
portion of the statements of this narrative appear to be true, though the writer, who 
had suffered much, doubtless saw many things with a diseased brain." There can be 
little doubt, in view of the strong religious sentiment of the age, shared by high 
and low alike, that these wanderers, whose adherence to the faith of England s 
Reformed Catholic Church had exposed numbers of their companions to the mer 
ciless rigors of the Inquisition, in their lonelv and dangerous journeyings, offered 
again and again to God the prayers of the cfiurch, which, as uttered by their lips, 
were first heard in the wilds through which they passed. Rude and ignorant though 
they were, they were loyal to the Crown and Church of England, and the church s 
story would be incomplete without a reference to their faith and fate. Vide, also, an 
interesting article on " Ingrain s Journey through North America in 1567-69," by 
Dr. De Costa, in the " Magazine of American History," ix., 168-176. 

Mr. George Bancroft, the historian of the United States, in the " Magazine of 
American History," ix., p. 459, reasserts the statement, in his revised history, 
that Gosnold s voyage was " undertaken with the permission of Sir Walter Ralegh." 
This assertion Mr. Bancroft proceeds to sustain as follows : 

"Immediately on Gosnold s return from this voyage, a report was made of it 
by one of Gosnold s companions, expressly for Raleigh, and was forthwith printed 
in London, and it bears this title : A Briefe and true Relation of the Discouverie 
of the North part of Virginia, being a most pleasant, fruitful, and commodious soile ; 
Made this present yeere 1602, by Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold, Captaine Bartholo 
mew Gilbert, and divers other gentlemen, their associates, 

BY THE PERMISSION 
OF THE HONORABLE KNIGHT 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, ETC. 

Written by M. John Brereton, one of the voyage . . . Londini : Impensis 
Oeor. Bishop, 1602. Raleigh was displeased that Gosnold, or some of his compan 
ions, had infringed on his monopoly by bringing back sassafras wood for the Lon 
don market; but he favored every attempt to plant an English nation in America." 

Ralegh s letter, in Edwards, undoubtedly complains of the infringement of 
his monopoly, and his language seems to imply that, at least, Gilbert, " Lord 
Cobham s man," went without his authority, and " therefore all is confiscate." He 
had earlier said, " And it were a pitty to overthrow the enterprise ; for I shall yet 
live to see it an English nation." Ralegh claims, in his letter to Cecil, asking for 
the seizure of the 22 cwt. sassafras which had been taken to London, " I have a patent 
that all shipps and goods are confiscate that shall trade ther without my leve." 
Evidently if Gosnold and Gilbert had sailed with Ralegh s "leve," he could not 
have demanded the confiscation of the cargo brought back. 

Appended to Brereton s "Brief and True Relation " (reprinted in 3 Mass. Hist. 
Soc. Coll., vui., pp. 83-125), is " a brief note of the sending another Bark this present 
year, 1602, by the Honorable Knight, Sir Walter Ralegh, for the searching out of his 
Colony in Virginia 1 : 

" Samuel Mace, of Weymouth, a very sufficient mariner, an honest, sober 
man, who had been at Virginia twice before, was employed thither by Sir Walter 
Ralegh, to find those people which were left there in the year 1587. To whose 
succor he hath sent five several times at his own charges. The parties by him set 
forth performed nothing ; some of them following their own profits elsewhere ; 
others returning with frivolous allegations. At this last time, to avoid all excuse, 
he bought a bark, and hired all the company for wages by the month ; who depart 
ing from Weymouth in March last, 1602, fell forty leagues to the south-westward of 
Hatteras, in thirty-four degrees or thereabout, and having there spent a month ; 
when they came along the coast to seek the people, they did it not, pretending that 
the extremity of weather and loss of some principal ground-tackle forced and feared 
them from searching the port of Hatteras, to which they were sent. From that place 
where they abode, they brought sassafras," etc. 

In connection with the references to Waymouth s voyage we may allude, in 
passing, to the controversy which has arisen with reference to the particular river 
which he explored. It would be foreign to our purpose to enter upon this discus 
sion, with respect to which a difference of opinion may be quite allowable. The 
subject is fully treated in the " Narrative and Critical History of America," HI., pp. 
189-192. The " Magazine of American History," ix., pp. 459,460, contains the latest 
reference to this controversy in which Mr. Bancroft defends the statement in the 



40 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

revised edition of his History of the United States" : that the island Waymouth 
"struck was Monhcgan; that the group of islands among which he passed was 
the St. George s; that the river which he entered was the St. George s." In Mr. 
Bancroft s view, " Any one who knows the coast of Maine, and reads the descrip 
tion of Waymouth, with the charts of the Coast Survey before him, will see that 
the case is clear beyond a question." 

The connection of Richard Ilakluyt, Prebendary of St. Augustine, m the 
Cathedral Church of Bristol, not only with the various voyages to the western 
world, but also with the preservation in his priceless volumes of the records of dis 
covery is too interesting and too important to be lightly passed over. This pains 
taking priest and indefatigable chronicler of the maritime achievement of his native 
land was descended from an old family in Hertfordshire, and was brought up at 
Westminster School. Chosen to a scholarship at Christ Church, Oxford, he was, 
while at the University, a contemporary and friend of the gallant Philip Sidney, to 
whom he inscribed his collection of voyages and discoveries, printed in 1582. 
Hakluyt s interest in these subjects dates back to his boyhood. In his " Epistle 
Dedicatorie" to Sir Francis Walsingham, prefixed to his issue of 1589, he thus 
describes an interview he had, in his youth, with a kinsman of the same name, to 
whom he owed his taste for history and cosmography : 

" I do remember that being a youth, and one of her Maiestie s scholars at West 
minster, that fruit full nurserie, it was my happe to visit the chamber of M. Richard 
Ilakluyt, my cosin, a gentleman of the Middle Temple, well knowen vnto you, at a 
time when I found lying open ypon his boord certeine bookes of Cosmographie, with 
an vniversal Mappe. Ho seeing me somewhat curious in the view thereof, began 
to instruct my ignorance by showing me the diuision of the earth, into three parts 
after the olde account, and then according to this latter and better distribution into 
more : he pointed with his wand to all the knowen Seas, Gulfs, Bayes, Straights, 
Capes, Riuers, Empires, Kingdomes, Dukedomes, and Territories of ech part, with 
declaration also of their speciall commodities and particular wants, which, by the 
benefit of traffike and entercourse of merchants, are plentifully supplied. From the 
Mappe he brought me to the Bible, and turning to the 107th Psalm, directed mee 
to the 23 and 24 verses, where I read, that they which go downe to the sea in 
ships, and occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord, and his 
woonders in the deepe, etc. Which words of the Prophet, together with my cousin s 
discourse (things of high and rare delight to my young nature), tooke in me 
so deepe an impression, that I constantly resolued, if ever I were preferred to the 
Vniuersity, where better time and more convenient place might, be ministered for 
these studies, I would, by God s assistance, prosecute that knowledge and kind of 
literature the doores whereof (after a sort) were so happily opened before me." 

This interview decided Hakluyt s after-life. With wnat cost of toil and labor 
he prosecuted his chosen vocation we may learn from the preface to the second 
edition of his voyages : 

" I do this second time, friendly reader, presume to offer vnto thy view this 
first part of my three- fold discourse. For the bringing of which into this homely and 
rough-hew en shape which here thou seest ; what restlesse nights, what painef ull 
days, what heat, what cold I have indured ; how many long and changeable jour 
neys I have travailed; how many famous libraries I have searched into; what 
varietie of ancient and moderne writers I haue perused ; what a number of old rec 
ords, patents, priuileges, letters, etc., I have redeemed from obscuritie and per 
ishing ; what expenses I have not spared ; and yet what grave opportunities of 
Eriuate gain, preferment, and ease, I have neglected ; albeit thyself can hardly 
nagine, yet I by daily experience do find and feel, and some of my entier friends 
can sufficiently testifie. Howbeit (as I told thee at the first) the honour and benefit 
of this common weale wherein I Hue and breathe, hath made all difficulties seem 
easie, all paines and Industrie pleasant, and all expences of light value and mo 
ment to me." 

It was, as Fuller, in his Worthies," well styles it, "a work of great honour to 
England," that Ilakluyt accomplished, both in his efforts to stimulate discovery in the 
West and to record its progress. It was all done in the faith and fear of God. In his 
epistles dedicatory to Ralegh, written from Paris in 1587, where he was Chaplain 
to the English embassy, and prefaced to his edition of " Peter Martyr s History of 
the New World," Hakluyt explicitly states that the glory of God was the great 
end to be had in view in undertaking to extend the bounds of a Christian Common 
wealth. No nobler monument could be raised, no brighter name left for posterity 



FORT ST. GEORGE AND THE CHURCH SETTLERS. 41 

than the proof given by Ralegh in these efforts for discovery and colonization 
that he sought to restrain the fierceness of the barbarian, and enlighten his 
darkened mind by the knowledge of the one only true God. We cite these words 
in the sonorous Latin of the time: " Judex rerum omnium tempus, diligensque 
tuorurn ministrorum inquisitio, inulta inopinata quae adhuc latent, modo Deus in- 
tersit, nobis aperient. Deum autem adfuturum non est cur dubites, quandoquidem 
de ipsius gloria, animarum infinitarum salute, Reipublicse Christianse incremento 
agitur. Eja ergo age ut coepisti et aeterni tui nominis ac famas apud posteros, 
quaa nulla unquam obliterabit astas, relinque monumenta. Nihil enim ad posteros 
gloriosius nee honorificentius transmitti potest quam barbaros domare, rudes et 
paganos ad vitse civilis societatem revocare, efferos in gyrum rationis reducere, 
hominesque atheos et a Deo alienos divini numinis reverentia imbuere." It was, as 
Hakluyt asserts in his English dedication, for " the glorieof God, and the saving of 
the soules of the poore and blinded infidels," that Ralegh undertook his scheme of 
Virginia colonization, and his purpose of sending "some good churchmen thither 
as may truly say, with the apostle, to the savages We seek not yours but you, " 
is mentioned in this prefatory epistle in such a way as makes it evident that pro 
vision was made for the spiritual needs of the colonists, whom this statesman and 
soldier sent forth. On Hakluyt s return to England he was appointed to a preben- 
dal stall in Bristol Cathedral, and was afterward preferred to the living of Weth- 
eringset-in-Suffolk. But, wherever his lot was cast, he was still occupied in his 
self-appointed work of recording the annals of exploration and colonization, and 
in giving a wise and salutary direction to the various schemes of discovery and 
settlement in which he took a prominent part. In 1605 he was appointed a Pre 
bendary of Westminster, and the following year became a member of the Com 
pany of Virginia, the interests of which he carefully watched over till his death 
in 1616. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, and his lifelong devotion to the 
affairs of the Western World is a notable instance of the religious and churchly 
aspect of Western discovery in his day and age. 

The story of the Sagadahoc settlers, under the leadership of Popham, as told by 
Strachey, and by a number of recent writers whose sympathies were with the 
Church, has given rise to a long and somewhat acrimonious discussion, which has 
but lately ceased. Prior to the publication by the Hakluyt Society of Strachey s 
"Historic of Travaileinto Virginia," in which the annals of the Popham Colony are 
simply told, all that was known of these early settlers on the coast of Maine was 
to be gathered from notices in Purchas s Pilgrimage ; " in the Brief Relation" of 
the President and Council for New England ; Smith s " Generall Historic ; " in Sir 
William Alexander s " Encouragement to Colonies," and Sir Ferdinando Gorges s 
brief narration. These notices are gathered together by Dr. De Costa in the 
Appendix to " A Relation of a Voyage to Sagadahoc," from a MS. in the Lambeth 
Collection. (Cambridge, 1880.) The publication by the Hakluyt Society of Stra- 
chey s " Historic " attracted attention to this colony, and made those interested in 
the history of the church aware that this settlement was undertaken under churchly 
auspices, and that its inception was accompanied by the services of the " Book of 
Common Prayer." Strachey s narrative was republished by the Historical So 
cieties of Massachusetts and Maine, with annotations ; and in 1863 the latter society 
published a "Memorial Volume." Three years later appeared " The Popham Colony : 
a Discussion of its Historic Claims," containing articles by William F. Poole, the 
Rev. Edward Ballard, D.D., and Frederick Kidder, with a bibliography of the sub 
ject up to 1866. Subsequently, as before, various articles appeared on the one side 
or the other, in the newspapers and magazines of the day ; and for several years 
the addresses at the Popham celebrations were issued in pamphlet form, and occa 
sioned not a little criticism and numerous replies. The main matter in point, so 
far as we are concerned, is the unquestionable priority of the services and sacra 
ments of the Church on the New England coast, years before the coming of the 
Leyden " Pilgrims," or the nonconformists of Massachusetts. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 

ON Friday, the 19th of December, 1606, an expedition consisting 
of three ships, the "Susan Constant," of one hundred tons 
burden; the "Good-speed," of forty; and the " Discovery," a 
pinnace of .twenty, sailed from Black wall for Virginia, under the com 
mand of Captain Christopher Newport, " a mariner well practiced for 
the waterrie parts of America." l The holydays were spent upon the 
coast, as unpropitious winds detained them for six weeks in sight of 
England, " All which time," proceeds the chronicler of the voyage, 
" Mr. Hunt our Preacher was so weake and sicke, that few expected his 
recovery. Yet although he were but twentie myles from his habitation 
(the time we were in the Downes) , and notwithstanding the stormy 
weather, nor the scandalous imputations (of some few, little better than 
Atheists, of the greatest ranke amongst vs), suggested against him, all 
this could never force from him so much as a seeming desire to leaue 
the busines, but preferred the service of God in so good a voyage, be 
fore any affection to contest with his godlesse foes, whose disasterous 
designes (could they haue prevailed) had even then overthrowne this 
businesse, so many discontents did then arise, had he not with the water 
of patience, and his godly exhortations (but chiefly by his true devoted 
example) quenched those flames of envie, and dissention." 2 Selected 
by the first president of the colony, Edward-Maria Wingfield, with the 
approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the celebrated Dr. Bancroft, 
as " a man not anywaie to be touched w th the rebellious humors of a 
popish spirit, nor blemished w th y e least suspition of a factius scis- 
matick," 3 this first missionary priest of the Church of England 
resident on our American shores, whose name is preserved, well 
deserved the eulogium of the famous Captain Smith, who further 
speaks of him as "an honest, religious, and courageous Divine ; dur 
ing whose life our factions were oft qualified, our wants and greatest ex 
tremities so comforted, that they seemed easie in comparison of what 
we endured after his memorable death." 4 Robert Hunt, A.M., who 
thus with the concurrence, and under the authority, of the primate of 
all England, went forth on the church s mission to Virginia, and whose 
home appears, from Smith s "Historic," to have been in Kent, was doubt 
less the Vicar of Reculver, whose appointment to that cure was dated 
Jan. 18, 1594, and whose resignation of the same took place in 1602, 
at which time he appears associated with Gosnold, Smith, and Wing- 

1 Smith s Gen. Hist, i., p. 150, Richmond ed. 2 Ibid. 

8 Wingficld s "Discourse of Virginia," in " Archseologia Americana," iv., p. 102. 

4 Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters, p. 33. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 43 

field, in plans for the settlement of Virginia. 1 Well may the historian 
of the United States record his opinion of this excellent man as "a 
clergyman of persevering fortitude and modest worth." 2 There was 
need of every Christian virtue in the spiritual guide of so disorderly 
and ill-assorted a company as the little fleet of Newport bore to the Vir 
ginian shores. They were embarked on an expedition to found an em 
pire in the West ; but the composition of the colony was such that 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



"gentlemen" were largely in excess of artificers, and, unlike the "Colony 
of Roanoke," there were no women to bind in families, and cement in 
heart and home-loves, these founders of a commonwealth. The long 
and tedious voyage was productive of discontent and dissensions, and it 
was not till Sunday, the third after Easter, April 26, that the voyagers 
entered the magnificent bay of the Chesapeake. Several weeks were 
spent in selecting a site for the settlement, but at length, on Wednes- 

1 Fide Anderson s "History of the Colo- * Bancroft s " Uuited States," I., p. 118. 

nial Church," 2d ed., I., pp. 169, 170. 



44 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



day, the 13th day of May, the peninsula of Jamestown, about lifty 
miles above the mouth of the river, already named in honor of the king, 
was determined upon. This decision made, the members of the M Coun 
cil " designated in the sealed orders, which were opened immediately 
on the first landing of the expedition, were sworn into office, with the 
exception of Smith, who had aroused the ill-will of the chief of the 
colonists ; and Edward-Maria Wingfield was chosen president. 

Quaintly does the chronicler proceed : "Now falleth every man 
to worke, the Councell contriue the fort, the rest cut down trees to make 
place to pitch their tents ; some provide clapbord to relade the ships, 
some make gardens, some nets, etc. . . . The President s overween 
ing jealousie would admit no exercise at armes, or fortification, but the 





JAMESTOWN. 



boughs of trees cast together in the forme of ahalfe moone, by the ex 
traordinary paines and diligence of Captain Kendall." 2 Agreeably to the 
directions of the council in England, on Thursday, the 21st of May, Cap 
tain Newport, with five gentlemen, Percy, brother of the Earl of Nor 
thumberland, Archer, Smith, Brooks, and Wotton, four " mariners," 
and fourteen sailors, ascended the James river in the " shallop " as far as 
the falls of the river, where Richmond now stands. The record of this 
exploration remains, and its quaint recital of the daily progress of this 
little band amidst the forest glades and along the water-courses of their 
new home, proves that Newport and his men were not unmindful of the 

1 This cut follows a sketch made about 1857 by a travelling Englishwoman, Miss Catharine 
C. Hoplcy, and shows the condition of the ruinea church at that time. 
Smith s "General Historic," Richmond ed., I., p. 157. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 45 

fact that they were both Christians and Englishmen. Full of interest 
is the mention of " May 24, Sunday, Whit-Sunday ; " telling of their 
kindly intercourse with the savages, and their simple banquet of " two 
peeces of porke to be sodd ashore with pease," with w beere, aquavite, 
and sack, "to which the savage chieftain, Powhatan, was an invited guest. 
As the day declined they raised a cross " upon one of the little iletts 
at the mouth of the falls," with the inscription, " lacobus, Rex, 1607," 
and Newport s name below. " At the erecting hereof, we prayed for our 
Kyng, and our owne prosperous succes in this his actyon ; and pro- 
claymed him kyng with a great shoute." l To the narrative of this expe 
dition, which its gallant leader trusted would "tend to the glory of God, 
his majestie s renowne, our country e s profytt, our owne advaunciug, 
and fame to all posterity," 2 is appended, " A Brief Description of the 
People," from which we extract the following incidental proof of the 
religious character of the explorers : 

I found they account after death to goe into another world, pointing eastward 
to the element ; and, when they saw us at prayer, they observed us with great 
silence and respect, especially those to whome I had imparted the meaning of our 
reverence. To conclude, they are a very witty and ingenious people, apt both to 
understand and speake our language. So that I hope in God, as he hath miraculously 
preserved us hither from all daungers both of sea and land and their fury, so he will 
make us authors of his holy will in converting them to our true Christian faith, by 
his owne inspireing grace and knowledge of his deity. 3 

Among the turbulent and discontented settlers who had been sent 
to Virginia to form the nucleus of a new Commonwealth and a new 
church there seems to have been but one common bond of union, the 
faithful and devoted minister of the Prince of peace. Scanty and un 
satisfactory as are the notices of the life and labor of this most estimable 
man, it is a satisfaction that we can picture to mind the scene of his pub 
lic services. In Smith s " Advertisements for the Unexperienced Plant 
ers of New England," dedicated to Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
we have a description of the rude house of prayer, where the colonists 
repaired for worship each morn and even, and beneath whose canvas 
roof the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ was duly adminis 
tered according to the use of our mother-church : 

I have been often demanded by so many how we beganne to preach the Gospel] 
in Virginia, and by what authority, what Churches we had, our order of service, and 
maintenance for our Ministers, therefore I think it not amisse tosatisfie their demands, 
it being the Mother of all our Plantations, intreatmg Pride .to spare laughter, 
to understand her simple beginning and proceedings. When I first went to Virginia, 
I well remember, wee did hang an awning (which is an old saile) to three or four 
trees to shadow us from the Sunne, our walls were rales of wood, our seats unhewed 
trees, till we cut plankes ; our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees : 
in foule weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for wee had few better, and this 
came by the way of adventure for new. This was our Church, till wee built a homely 
thing like a barne, set upon cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth ; so 
was also the walls ; the best of our houses of the like curiosity, but the most parte 
farre much worse workmanship, that could neither well defend wind norraine, yet 

1 Newport s " Discoveries in Virginia," in " Archaeologia Americana," iv., p. 47. 
* Ibid., p. 55. 8 Ibid., pp. 64, 65. 



46 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

wee had daily Common Prayer morning and evening, every Sunday two Sermons, 
and every three moneths the holy Communion, till our Minister died. But our 
Prayers daily, with an Homily on Sundaies, we continued two or three yeares 
after, till more Preachers came. 

It was under this canvas roof that, on the third Sunday after Trinity, 
June 21, 1607, the first sacrament was administered. It was a memo 
rable day in the history of this infant settlement. The wranglings 
and jealousies, which had been fomented during the voyage, were, for 
the moment at least, allayed. The kindly offices of the priest had re 
sulted in the quelling of consciences ill at ease, in the subduing of bitter 
strifes and envy ings, and in bringing men to be of one mind in an 
house. " Many were the mischiefes that daily sprung from their igno 
rant, yet ambitious spirits, but the good doctrine and exhortation of 
our Preacher, Mr. Hunt, reconciled them, and caused Captain Smith to 
be admitted of the Councell." " The next day," continues the chronicler, 
" all received the Communion," drawing near, as we may well believe, 
with faith and penitence, to take this holy sacrament to their comfort 
in this their new home. Surely there was a lesson for these turbulent 
men in the opening words of the epistle for the day, St. Peter s 
words to them, and to all men, " All of you be subject one to another, 
and be clothed with humility." Doubtless there came, also, with telling 
force to these wanderers, far from their homes, and in the midst of no 
mere figurative wilderness, the parable of the gospel of the day, 
Christ s story of the lost sheep sought and found, and the joy in heaven 
over the one sinner repenting of his sin. 

Five weeks had elapsed since the landing, ere at the table of their 
Lord the contentions and animosities of the colonists were forgotten, 
and on the next day supplications were again offered at their rude altar 
in behalf of Captain Newport "returned for England ; for whose passage 
and safe retorne wee made many Prayers to our Almighty God." * One 
hundred and four colonists were left at Jamestown to effect the begin 
ning of the English Empire in the New World. 

It was no easy task that these men had undertaken. The forests 
were to be felled ; the ground was to be brought under subjection by 
the will and labor of the agriculturists. There were homes to be built ; 
fortifications were required ; trade was to be opened with the crafty 
and treacherous savages. Meanwhile the midsummer heat was such that 
the fields could not be tilled. Disease, engendered by the dampness of 
the climate, prostrated nearly every one, and the lack of suitable food 
lessened the possibilities of cure. " Our drink," writes the chronicler 
of these unhappy days, " was unwholesome water ; our lodgings, castles 
in the air ; had we been as free from all sins as from gluttony and 
drunkenness, we might have been canonized for saints." Still, though 
during the summer there were not at any one time five able men to 
guard the bulwarks, the prayers at morn and even were not omitted. 
Even when on Sundays there was apprehension of an attack by the 
savages, and the sermon was necessarily omitted, the service was in 
variably performed, while "in the tyme of our hungar" when "the 

1 Win-jficld s "Discourse of Virginia," in " Archzcologia Americana," iv., p. 77. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 47 

common store of oyle, vinegar, sack, and aquavite were all spent, sauing 
twoe gallons of each, the sack was reserued for the Communion 
Table." On the 22d of August Captain Bartholomew Gosnold died, 
" a worthy and religious gentleman." He was " honorably buried, 
having all the ordnance in the port shot off, with many volleys of 
small shot." 

One-half of the colonists had died before autumn, and pitiful, indeed, 
is the record of Percy : " If it had not pleased God to have put a 
terrour in the savages hearts, we had all perished by those wild and 
cruel Pagans, being in that weak state as we were ; our men night and 
day groaning in every corner of the fort, most pitiful to hear. If there 
were any conscience in men, it would make their hearts bleed to hear 
the pitiful munnurings and outcries of our sick men, without relief, 
every night and day for the space of six weeks ; some departing out of 
the world, many times three or four in a night ; in the morning, their 
bodies trailed out of their cabins, like dogs, to be buried. In this sort 
did I see the mortality of divers of our people." 1 

"The living were scarce able to bury the dead," says Smith, 2 who, 
at no little risk, made expeditions among the . v 

savages for corn. But even hunger was not the j 

only ill threatening the destruction of the infant "~J& 
colony. Early in January the rude church and \s 
the rude town described by Smith were de- AUTOGRAPH OF 
stroyedby tire. In this disastrous conflagration CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Good Master Hunt, our Preacher, lost all his Librarie, and all that hee had 
(but the clothes on his backe) yet none ever saw him repine at his losse. Upon any 
alarme he would be as readie for defence as any ; and till he could not speake 
he never ceassed to his utmost to animate us constantly to persist ; whose soule 
questionlesse is with God. 3 

The settlers, impoverished and homeless, wasted and worn by dis 
ease and privation, disappointed of their hopes of speedy fortunes, 
and fearing, in their well-nigh defenceless state, the attacks of the 
savages, bethought themselves of abandoning so ill-starred an enterprise ; 
but the fortunate arrival of Captain Newport, with supplies, gave the 
colony a further lease of life. The sailors were employed, under their 
leader s direction, in the erection of a " faire store house, "and the mari 
ners, "aboute a church," which "they finished cheerfully and in short 
tyme." Shortly after, Newport sailed for England, taking with him 
Wingfield, whose consolation was, that his " trauells and daungers " had 
" done somewhat for the behoof of Jerusalem in Virginia." 4 The church 
which Smith calls "a golden Church," built when the mariners were 
striving to load the ship with "golden dirt," as it proved to be, and of 
which the chronicler tells us that " the raine washed " it " neere to 
nothing in fourteen days," 5 shortly required rebuilding. Meanwhile, 
the saintly " Preacher " appears to have sickened and died. No mention 

1 Purchas, iv., p. 1690. * Wingfield s " Discourse," in " Archaeologia 

2 Historic, i., p. 682. Americana," rv., p. 103. 

8 Purchas, iv., p. 1710. Smith s " Historic," 5 Historic, i., p. 169. 

I., p. 168. 



48 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of him is found save the reference to his death we have already quoted 
from Purchas. He may have lived to solemnize the first marriage in 
Virginia between John Laydon and Anne Burras, which took place 
towards the close of the year 1608 ; but of this we are by no means 
assured, and we cannot but agree with Anderson, " that, had he lived so 
long, some more distinct traces of his valuable ministrations would 
have been preserved." l Doubtless he was " taken away from the evil 
to come " early in the second year of the settlement he had labored so 
devotedly to found. His latest efforts appear to have been directed 
towards the rebuilding of the church, a work undertaken coincidently 
with the repair of the palisades and the planting of the cornfields and 
the re-covering of the storehouse ; and then, his labors ended, his life- 
work done, he "fell asleep." That he died as he had lived, encourag 
ing his fellow-settlers to persist in their effort to found a settlement, is 
on record, and we may, in adding our tribute to the memory of this 
pioneer mission-priest of the mother-church, express our accord with the 
old chronicler in the pious confidence that his soul "is with God." 

" Prayers daily, with an Homily on Sundays," were continued for 
the "two or three years after, till more Preachers came," and even on 
the expedition sent into the interior under the command of the ad 
venturesome Smith, " our order daily was to haue prayer with a Psalme, 
at which solemnitic the poore salvages much wondered ; our Prayers 
being done, a while they were busied with a consultation till they had 
contrived their business." 3 It is interesting to notice these evidences 
of a devotional spirit animating the better portion of this wild com 
munity. Amidst the strifes and wranglings of the office-holders and 
office-seekers, amidst perils and dangers threatening all alike, the words 
of common prayer were daily used, and in their hallowed phrases the 
worshippers were united with those of their faith and lineage across 
the sea, in supplication to a common Father in heaven. 

On Smith s return after one of these excursions into the country, 
to which we have referred, the office of president was assigned to him, 
and it well accords with other statements relating to this remarkable 
character, that we are told that "now the building of Ratcliffe s (the 
former president s) pallace stayed as a thing needlesse ; and the church 
was repaired." In the autumn of 1608 more settlers came, and among 
them two females, "Mrs. Forest, and her maid, Anne Burras." The 
farce of a coronation of Powhatan was enacted, under the direction of 
Captain Newport, for the third time on the Virginian coast, and the 
time of the settlers, which was not wasted in such senseless ceremonies 
as this, was devoted, by order of the council at home, to the search for 
gold. Search was also directed to be made for the recovery of the 
Roanoke settlers, but in vain ; and the company required immediate 
returns for their investments, threatening the settlers that, unless their 
orders were complied with, "they should be left in Virginia as banished 
men." 3 

The threats of the London Company were as futile as their hopes. 
Their anticipations of finding an El Dorado amidst the luxuriant forest- 
glades of Virginia were not to be realized. Dissensions, privations, 

1 Colonial Church, i., pp. 181, 182. Historic, I., p. 182. Bancroft, I., 135. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 49 

the " accursed thirst for gold," and the stubborn unwillingness of the 
ill-assorted " first planters of Virginia " to submit to any power or 
rule save that of self, brought this settlement in the far-distant west 
into disfavor and distrust at home. The colonists, lacking the sweet re 
straint of the teachings and example of the saintly Eobert Hunt, changed 
only from bad to worse, and the story of their strifes and jealousies, 
their struggles for a miserable and precarious existence, and the failure 
of all the cherished expectations in England of the speedy reduction 
of the savages to civilization and Christianity, gave abundant occasion 
to the " enemy to blaspheme." The " malicious and looser sort," says 
a writer, but a little later in the history of Virginia colonization, "with 
the licentious stage poets, have whet their tongues with scornful taunts 
against the action itself, insomuch as there is no common speech, nor 
public name of anything this day, except it be the name of God, which 
is more widely depraved, traduced, and derided by such unhallowed 
lips, than the name of Virginia." 1 Still, no thought of abandoning 
the enterprise entered into the minds of the friends of colonization at 
home. The succession of misfortunes, which had attended every step 
of the scheme of settlement, served to deepen the enthusiasm and 
zeal of men who were determined to succeed. There rallied in support 
of the new plans for promoting the settlement of Virginia the leading 
men of the age. The royal assent to a new charter was obtained on 
Tuesday, in Rogation week, May 23, 1609, 
and "The Treasurer and Company of Ad 
venturers and Planters of the City of London 
for the first Colony in Virginia " were duly 
and formally created by the king s patent " a 
corporation and Body Politick." By this 
instrument not only were the limits of the 
colony extended, but the company itself 
was enlarged by the addition of numbers AUTOGRAPH OF JAMES i. 
of the nobility, gentry, and tradesmen, 

so that, whether we consider the rank and character of its members, 
or the rights and privileges with which the company was vested 
by the royal authority, it claims a place in history as one of the 
most important bodies ever created, either for trade or government. 
The names of twenty-one peers of the realm appear in the list of in- 
corporators, headed by the powerful Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, the re 
lentless foe, as he had earlier been the rival, of Ralegh, who, in his 
dungeon in the tower, doubtless felt a keen interest in these efforts for 
the successful accomplishment of a work to which he had long since 
given influence, wealth, and personal concern. The Bishops of London, 
the celebrated Abbot, afterward translated to Canterbury, Lincoln, 
"Worcester, and Bath and Wells, and Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who had 
long been interested in the colonization of America, were associated in 
this scheme. Hakluyt, Prebendary of Westminster, was also a mem 
ber of the company, with William Crashaw, B.D., and other clergy 
men of the Church. The numerous companies of tradesmen of the 

1 Dedicatory Epistle to the " New Life in Virginia." 




50 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

city of London, the mercers, the drapers, the goldsmiths, the merchant 
tailors, the cutlers, and more than fifty others, were interested in this 
<rigantic corporation. Merchants, artificers, yeomen, were all repre 
sented in a list which comprised, not merely the great, but all sorts and 
conditions of men. To this company, in which all gradations of rank 
were merged in a common equality, was transferred the powers which 
had beenreserved to the king by the former patent. The execution 
of the privileges conceded by the charter was committed to a council 
of upwards of fifty, o f which Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, 
was :it the head, a position well deserved by the interest he had taken in 
the planting of Virginia from the first. To this council almost unlimited 
powers were intrusted. Under its direction the Governor of Virginia 
could exorcise well-nigh despotic rule, while in the event of mutiny 
or rebellion he was empowered, at his discretion, to proclaim martial 
law, and to carry into force all the rigorous provisions of this stern 
code. The life, liberty, and property of the settlers were wholly in the 
power of an officer owing his appointment and allegiance to a com 
mercial corporation. The lands heretofore conveyed in trust, or held 
in joint proprietorship, were now granted in absolute fee. But one 
restriction upon emigration was enjoined, and that was the requirement 
of the Oath of Supremacy from all voyagers previous to setting sail ; 
and the reason assigned for this injunction was as follows : 

Because the principal Effect, which we can desire or expect of this Action, is 
the Conversion and reduction of the People in those Parts unto the True Worship of 
God, and Christian Religion, in which Respect we should be loth, that any Person 
should be permitted to pass, that we suspected to effect the superstitions of the 
Church of Rome. 1 , 

It was at this juncture in the affairs of Virginia that the name of 
the devout and amiable Nicholas Ferrar appears in connection with the 
enlarged and re -chartered company. The father of John and Nicholas 
Ferrar had been a friend of Ralegh, Hawkins, and Drake, and from the 
first had shown himself to be " a great lover and encourager of foreign 
plantations." 2 It is an evidence of the zeal of the dignitaries and mem 
bers of the English Church in the missionary work in the New World, 
that we find associated, in this renewed effort for colonization, men 
holding the highest positions in Church and State, whose names are fresh 
in remembrance after the lapse of nearly three centuries. With the Fer- 
rars, whose memory the Church of England has ever held dear, and whose 
services to the American Church we, in this Western World, may well 
recall, we also find the name of Sir Edwin Sandys, son of an Archbishop 
of York, and pupil of the "judicious " Hooker. Certainly, if patient, 
untiring, and abundant exertions, springing from a full and earnest rec 
ognition of the bidding, sounding down the Christian centuries, from the 
Master s lips, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature," could have met the aspersion cast on England s reformed 
Church by the Church of Rome, "that she converts no believers abroad," 

1 Stith s " History of Virginia," Sabin s Re- McDonough s " Memoirs of Nicholas Fer- 

print, Appendix, p. 22. rar." 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 51 

labors such as Hakluyt counselled, and the Ferrars seconded, and a host 
of others aided and approved, would have blotted out this slander for 
ever. 

With the grant of the new charter fresh interest attached to the 
work. Thomas, Lord De la Warr, a man of "approued courage, tem 
per, and experience," was created Governor, or Captain-General, of 
Virginia, and an expedition of "Adventurers," under his leadership, was 
at once fitted out, the expense of which was largely borne by the com- 




POKTRAIT OF LORD DELAWARE. 



mander-in-chief, while his zeal and interest were such as to " reuiue and 
quicken the whole enterprise by his example, constancy, and resolution." 
It was an age of pomp and circumstance, and yet it must have 
been an interesting pageant when the chivalrous De la Warr, and the 
Council of Virginia, with the "Adventurers," walked in solemn state to 
the Temple Church, where William Crashaw, the preacher of the Tem 
ple, and father of the poet whom Cowley praised and Pope was will 
ing to imitate, preached the first missionary sermon ever addressed by 
a priest of the Church of England to members of that church, about 
to bear that church s name, and carry that church s teachings to a distant 
land. The text was from St. Luke s Gospel, xxii. 32, and the true 



52 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

missionary spirit with which this unique discourse is filled may be 
judged by the following extract : 

If there be any that come in, only or principally for profit, or any that would so 
come in, I wish the latter may never bee in, and the former out again. If the plant 
ing of an English Colonie, in a good and fruitfull soil, and of an English Church in 
a heathen countrey ; if the conuersion of the Heathen, if the propagating of the Gos- 
pell, and enlarging of the kingdome of Jesus Christ, be not inducements strong 
enough to bring them into this businesse, it is a pitie they be in at all. I will dis 
charge my conscience in this matter. If any that are gone, or purpose to go in per 
son, do it only that they may Hue at ease and get wealth ; if others that aduenture 
their money have respected the same etfds, I wish for my part, the one in England 
again, and the other had his money in his purse ; nay, it were better that every one 
gave something to make vp his aduenture than that such Nabals should thrust in 
their foule f eete, and trouble so worthie a businesse. And I could wish, for my part, 
that the proclamation which God injoined to bee made before the Israelites went to 
battell, were also made in this case : namely, that whosoever is faint-hearted, let 
him returne home againe, lest his brethren s hart faint like his ; (Deut. xx. 8) for 
the coward not only betraieth himself, but daunts and discourages others. Priuate 
ends haue been the bane of many excellent exploits ; and priuate plots for the gaine 
of a few haue given hindrance to many good and great matters. Let us take heed 
of it in this present businesse, and all jointly with one heart aime at the generall and 
publike ends lest we finde hereafter to our shame and griefe, that this one flie hath 
corrupted the whole box of oyntment, though never so precious. Let vs therefore 
cast aside all cogitation of profit, let vs look at better things ; and then, I dare say 
vnto you as Christ hath taught me, that, if in this action wee seeke first the Kingdom 
of God, all other things shall be added unto us (Matt. vi. 33), that is (applying it 
to the case in hand), if wee first and principally seeke the propagation of the Gos- 
pell, and conuersion of soules, God will vudoubtedly make the voiage very profita 
ble to all the aduenturers, and their posterities, even for matter of this life : for the 
soile is good, the commodities many, and necessarie for England, the distance not 
far offe, the passage faire and easie, so that there wants only God s blessing to make 
itgainfull. Now the highway to obtain that, is to forget our owne affections, and 
to neglect our own priuate profit in respect of God s glorie, and he that is zealous 
of God s glorie, God will be mindful of his profit. 

Wise and titting words with which to preface an effort for the glory 
of God and the extension of the Church of Christ. The preacher was 
far-seeing. Earnestly does he deprecate the allowance of any Papists, 
"Brownists," and factious " separatists," then beginning to excite no 
tice and alarm at home, among these founders of a daughter Church 
of England in a New World. A touching reference to the leader of 
the " Adventurers" occurs at the close of this discourse. At the battle 
of Poictiers, as Froissart informs us, the French king was captured by 
an ancestor of the governor, Sir Roger la Warr, and John de Pelham . 
This incident of the family annals was thus " improved " : 



And thou, most noble Lord, whom God hath stirred vp to neglect the 
pleasures of England, and with Abraham to goe from thy country, and forsake thy 
kindred and thy father s house, to goe to a land which God will show thee, giue 
me leaue to speak the truth. Thy ancestor many hundred years agoe gained great 
honour to thy house ; but by this action thou augmentest it. He tooke a King 
prisoner in the field in his owne land; but by the godly managing of this businesse, 
thou shalt take the Diuell prisoner in open field, and in his owne kingdome ; nav 
the Gospell which thou carriest with thee shalt bind him in chaines, and his angels 
in stronger fetters than iron, and execute upon them the judgement that is written ; 
yea, it shall Icade captiuitie captiue, and redeeme the soules of men from bondage. 
And thus thy glory and honour of thy house is more at the last than at the first. 

Goe on therefore, and prosper with this thy honour, which indeed is greater 
than eueiy eie discernes, euen such as the present ages shortly will enioy, and the 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 53 

future admire. Goe forward in the strength of the Lord, and make mention of His 
righteousnesse only. Looke not at the gaine, the wealth, the honour, the aduance- 
ment of thy house that may follow and fall vpon thee ; but looke at those high and 
better ends that concerne the kingdom of God. Remember thou art a generall of 
English men, nay, a generall of Christian men ; therefore principally looke to 
religion. You goe to commend it to the heathen ; then practice it yourselues ; 
make the name of Christ honourable, not hatefull vnto them. 

In like burning words of high and holy encouragement had the 
Rev. Dr. Symonds, preacher at Saint Saviour s, in Southwark, a few 
months earlier, addressed the "many honourable worshipfull, the ad 
venturers and planters for Virginia," at White-chapel. The text was 
from Genesis xii. 1-3, the portion of Scripture which relates the call of 
Abraham and the promise of God s blessing on his going to a strange 
country. At the close of an earnest and impassioned discourse we 
find these words : 

What blessing any nation had by Christ, must be communicated to all nations ; 
the office of his Prophecie, to teach the ignorant ; the office of his Priesthood, to 
give remission of sinnes to the sinnefull ; the office of his Kingdome, by word, and 
sacraments, and spirit, to rule the inordinate ; that such as are dead in trespasses, 
may be made to sit together in heavenly places. . . . If it be God s purpose, 
that the Gospell shall be preached through the world for a witnesse, then ought 
ministers to bee carefull and willing to spread it abroad, in such good services as 
this that is intended. Sure it is a great shame vnto us of the ministery, that can 
be better content to sit and rest us heere idle, than undergpe so good a worke. 
Our pretence of zeale is clearly discoured to be but hypocricy, when we rather 
choose to mind unprofitable questions at home, than gaining soules abroad. 

These discourses illustrate the popular feeling with reference to 
the New World. The end and aim of the expeditions to the West was, 
as Crashaw declared, " the destruction of the deuel s kingdom, and 
propagation of the Gospell." "The planting of a church," 1 the 
" converting of soules to God," 
these were the objects held con 
stantly in view by the promoters 
and leaders of the successive 
schemes of colonization, and, if 
the same high and holy spirit 
failed to animate the rank and 
file of the settlers, the record 
tells us constantly of those who 
lived and labored for the Chris- AUTOGRAPH OF DK LA WARE. 

tianizing of the savages and the 
extension of Christ s Church in the New World. 

Circumstances prevented the entrance of De la Warr upon the 
duties of his office at the outset, and, consequently, the first expedition 
despatched under the new charter sailed from Plymouth on the 1st day 
of June, 1609, in nine vessels ; Sir Thomas Gates, who had been in 
the service of the United Netherlands, being lieutenant-general, and 
Sir. George Somers, admiral, of Virginia. Newport was in com 
mand of the fleet ; and the three were empowered to administer the 
aftairs of the colony until the arrival of Lord De la Warr. The ship 

1 Crashaw s sermon, quoted in Anderson s " Colonial Church," I., p. 193. 




, r )4 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

"Sea Adventure" carried Gates, Somers, and Newport. In the 
"Diamond " were Captains Ratcliffe and King; in the "Falcon," Cap 
tain Martin and Master Nelson. The " Bless- 

^ TV jj ing," with Captain Archer and Master Adams, 

* I fa /I (&ZM conveyed horses and mares ; while the " Unity," 

t-X td5_ the " Lion " the "Swallow," a "Ketch," and "a 

^^- boat built in the North Colony," atSagadahock, 

AUTOGRAPH OF w ^ Captain and Master Davies, who were 

THOMAS GATES. among the settlers of that northern colony, 

made up the fleet on which about five hundred 

colonists were embarked. The voyage was favorable until the 23d of 
July, when the "Ketch" was lost in a hurricane, while the "Sea Vent 
ure," driven before the storm, was stranded, on the 28th, upon the shores 
of " the still vcx d Bermoothes." Seven ships only reached Virginia. 
The lives of the shipwrecked colonists at the Bermudas were mar 
vellously preserved, and one and all were at once occupied in prepar 
ing the means of escape from the place of their detention. An excel 
lent priest of the English Church, recommended by Dr. Ravis, Bishop 
of London, was in the company, and " publique Prayer, every morn 
ing and Evening," was faithfully observed ; while on Sunday two sermons 
were preached by the Rev. Richard Bucke, a graduate of Oxford, and 
" a verie good preacher," as John Rolfe characterized him in a letter to 
the king, a little later. The chronicler of the expedition further tells us 
that " it pleased God also to give vs opportunitie to performe all the 
other Offices and Rites of our Christian Profession on this Island." On 
the 26th of November (the twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity) occurred 
a marriage. On the first of October (the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity) 
and on " ChristraasseEve," which fell on Sunday, the fourth in Advent, 
the holy communion was celebrated, "at the partaking whereof our 
Governor was, and the greatest part of our Company." On the llth of 
Feburary, Sexagesima Sunday, Bermuda, the child of "one John Rolfe," 
was christened ; Captain Newport, William Strachey, and Mistress 
Horton being godparents ; and on the 25th of March, which was both 
Passion Sunday and Lady-day, the son of Edward Eason, named Ber 
mudas, was christened, Captain Newport, William Strachey, and 
Master James Swift being godfathers. Six of the company were 
solemnly buried, with the church s rites. On leaving the island in the 
rude cedar ships they had builded, the governor, Sir Thomas Gates, 
erected " afaire Mnemosyon in figure of a crosse," made of some of the 
timber of the wreck, bearing on each side an inscription in Latin and 
English : " In memory of our great deliuerance, both from a mightie 
storme and leake ; wee haue set vp this to the honour of God." Thus 
piously leaving the harbor which had proved to them a safe haven, they 
sailed for Virginia, which they reached in safety on Wednesday, the 
23d of May, only to find the miserable remnant of the colony, which 
but a few months before numbered five hundred men. It was "the 
starving time." The fort was dismantled, the palisades torn down, the 
ports open, and the gates forced from their hinges. The new-comers 
proceeded at once, on landing, to the ruined and unfrequented church. 
The governor caused the bell to be rung, and the dispirited and starv- 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 55 

ing people dragged their enfeebled frames to the house of God, that 
they might join in the "zealous and sorrowful prayer" of the faithful 
Bucke, as in the church s words he pleaded, in that sad and solemn hour, 
for himself and his fellow-worshippers, before the Lord their God. At 
the close of this solemn service the commission of Gates was formally 
proclaimed, and the insignia of office was surrendered to him by Percy, 
the brother of the Earl of Northumberland, who had been acting 1 as 

O 

president since the departure, for England, of Captain Smith. A brief 




survey of the condition of the colony was sufficient to discourage any 
one. Driven to extremities, without provisions or the means of pro 
curing any, disappointed as to the past, and hopeless for the future, 
Gates determined to abandon the ill-fated settlement, and proceed to 
Newfoundland, where he hoped to distribute the pitiful remnant of the 
colony among the English fishing-vessels off the Banks. On Thursday, 
the 7th of June, at noon, the whole company embarked, Sir Thomas 
Gates last of all, "giving a farewell with a peal of small shott," none 
dropping a tear at leaving a spot where " none had enjoyed one day of 
happiness." At eventide the ships drifted down the river, and the 
abandonment of the first colony in Virginia was complete. 



56 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Heaven interposed to save the future church and commonwealth of 
Virginia. On the morning of Friday, the 8th, when the ships freighted 
with the returning colonists lay at anchor at the mouth of the river, 
waiting the return of the tide, a boat was descried in the offing, which 
had been sent by the captain-general of the colony, Lord De la Warr, 
to announce his arrival from England. Gates and his company returned 
at once to the forlorn and dismantled town they had so lately quitted, 
and on the first Sunday after Trinity, June 10, 1610, the squadron of 
De la Warr, consisting of three ships, arrived off the fort, and he, with 
his retinue, lauded in the afternoon at the small gate of the palisade. 
In the spirit of true Christian chivalry did this excellent nobleman enter 
upon his work for Christ and his church in the New World. Though 
the lieutenant-governor and the few survivors were drawn up under 
arms to receive him, De la Warr, ere he acknowledged their courtesy or 
assumed any show of authority, fell on his knees on the ground, and in 
the presence of all the people offered long and silent prayer to God, 
and then marched in solemn state through the town to the little church. 
Here, after prayers and a sermon by the worthy Parson Bucke, the com 
mission of the governor was read, the seals of office were formally sur 
rendered to him, and he addressed the assembly with a few words of 
encouragement and admonition. 

Thus, solemnly and in the fear of God, did this excellent nobleman 
enter upon the duties of his thankless office. Strachey, the secretary 
and recorder of the colony, as well as its historian, gives us, among his 
earliest notices of the new regime_t}iiis inaugurated, the following quaint 
picture of the church and church-life at Jamestown, at this time : 

The Captaine General! hath giuen order for the repairing the Church, and at 
this instant many hands are about it. It is in length threescore foote, in breadth 
twenty-foure, and shall haue a chancell in it of Cedar, and a Communion Table of the 
Blake Walnut, and all thePewesof Cedar, with faire broad windowes, to shut and 
open, as the weather shall occasion, of the same wood, a Pulpet of the same, with a 
font hewen hollow, like a Canoa, with two Bels at the West end. It is so cast, as to 
be very light within, and the Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall doth cause it to 
be kept passing sweete, and trimmed vp with divers flowers, with a Sexton belong 
ing to it : and in it euery Sunday we haue Sermons twice a day, and euery Thursday 
a Sermon, hauing true preachers, which take their weekly tnrnes ; and euery morn 
ing at the ringing of a bell, about ten of the clocke, each man addresseth himselfe 
to prayers, and so at foure of the clocke before Supper. Euery Sunday, when the 
Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall goeth to Church, he is accompanied with all 
the Counsailers, Captaines, other Officers, and all the Gentlemen, with a guard of 
Holberdiers, in his Lordship s Liuery, faire red cloakes, to the number of fifty both 
on each side, and behinde him : and being in the Church, his Lordship hath his seate 
in the Quier, in a greene veluet chaire, with a cloath, with a veluet cushion spread 
on a table before him, on which he kneeleth, and on each side sit the Counsell, Cap 
taines, and Officers, each in their place, and when he return eth home againe, he is 
waited on to his house in the same manner. 2 

Of the " true " preachers referred to in this interesting extract 
Richard Bucke was surely one, and the other, or others, doubtless 
accompanied De la Warr. We have no record of the name or 
names. 

1 Evidently a clerical error for ;< tw>," the alternate being, doubtless, the chaplain of De la 
Warr s fleet. 

Purchas, iv., p. 1754. 




THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 57 

In the long and touching recital of affairs, sent by the Governor and 
Council to the London Company, dated "James Towne, July 7th, 1610," 
the request is made for " a new supply in such matters of the two-fold 
physicke, which both the soules and bodies of our poor people here 
stand much in neede of," and in the " Table of such as are required in 
their plantation," issued by the Council at home, the foremost entry is, 
" Foure honest and learned Ministers." One of these was Alexander 
Whitaker, who arrived in the colony on the 10th of May, 1611, 
with Sir Thomas Dale, the High Marshal of Virginia. He was the 
son of the celebrated William Whitaker, Master of St. John s College, 
and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, and 
although, to quote the words of Crashaw, "seated in the North 
Countrey, where he was well approued by the greatest and beloued of 
his people, and had competent allowance to his good liking, and was 
in as good possibility of better living as any of his time," having also 
" meanes of his owne left him by his parents," he, " without any per 
suasion (but God s and his own heart) did voluntarily leaue his warme 
nest ; and to the wonder of his kindred, and amazement of them that 
knew him, undertooke this hard, but to my judgment, heroicall reso 
lution to go to Virginia and help beare the name of God unto the 
Gentiles." Of his faithfulness and zeal we shall have occasion to 
speak again and again. We can well understand the purpose of 
Whitaker in leaving his " warme nest " to go to Virginia to assist that 
Christian plantation, in the function of a preacher of the Gospel. In 
the call for help, addressed by the Council to the people of England, 
the argument is employed that upwards of six hundred " of our Breth 
ren by our common mother the Church, Christians of one faith and one 
Baptism," have been exposed "to a miserable and inevitable death " in 
adventuring upon this plantation, whom it was the bounden duty of 
their countrymen to aid. At length, aware of the mistake of trans 
porting men of loose morals and depraved character to Virginia, the 
Council announced that they would receive " no man that cannot bring 
or render some good testimony of his religion to God, and ciuil man 
ners and behaviour to his neighbour with whom he hath lived." The 
spiritual wants of those already in Virginia, and the promised posses 
sion of worthy and religious settlers in the future, made the " planta 
tion of Religion " in the New World a worthy object of desire to zealous 
men filled with the love of souls, and of those who responded to this 
cry for spiritual help no one was more worthy of the work than was he 
who won the title of Apostle of Virginia, by his few years of devoted 
service. It was the glad response to the cheering words earlier borne 
across the ocean : " Doubt not God will raise our State and build our 
Church in this excellent clime- It is the arm of the Lord of Hosts, 
who would have his people pass the Red Sea and the wilderness, and 
then possess the land of Canaan." 

In June, 1611, there accompanied Sir Thomas Gates, on his second 
voyage to Virginia, " an approved Preacher in Bedford and Huntingdon 
shire, a graduate of Cambridge, reverenced and respected," 2 by the 
name of Glover. He was in easy circumstances and already somewhat 

i True Declaration, pp. 45, 46. * Crashaw s " Epistle Dedicatorie." 



58 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

advanced in years, but so earnest in his desire for missionary work that 
he sought the opportunity, and being " well liked of the Counsell " he 
went bravely to his post. But, as Crashaw tells us, " he endured not the 
sea-sicknesse of the countrcy, so well as younger and stronger bodies ; 
and so, after zealous and faithfull performance of his ministcriall dutie, 
whilest he was able, ho gave his soule to Christ Jesus (under whose 
banner he went to fight ; and for whose glorious name s sake he under- 
tooke the danger) , more worthy to be accounted a true Confessor of 
Christ than hundreds that are canonized in the Pope s Marty rologie." 

In the beginning of the year 1611 the health of the governor 
failed, under the cares and anxieties of his position, and the diseases inci 
dent to the climate, and after a lingering illness he was compelled to 
commit the administration of the government to George Percy, and on 
Thursday, in Easter- week, March 28, to sail for England. Necessary 
as was this step, ft could not but have a disastrous effect upon the 
colony, while it produced " a damp of coldness " in the breasts of the 
adventurers at home. Still " one spark of hope remained ; " for, before 
the departure of De la Warr was known at home, Sir Thomas Dale, " a 
worthy and experienced soldier in the Low Countries," had sailed for 
Virginia, with three ships, with men and cattle for the settlement at 
Jamestown. In June, 1G11, Sir Thomas Gates, who had been named 
first in the original patent for Virginia, embarked with his wife and 
daughter, in a fleet of six ships, carrying three hundred men, with large 
supplies of cattle and stores. The relief thus afforded was most grateful. 
Already had the mishaps of the colonists excited the derision of the 
public. " And whereas we have by undertaking this plantation under 
gone the reproofs of the base world," was the plaint coming from the 
dispirited and disappointed settlers, " insomuch as many of our owne 
brethren laugh vs to scorne," and "papists and players, . . . the 
scum and dregs of the earth," " mocke such as help to build up the 
walls of Jerusalem." l The new-comers were welcomed with general 
thanksgiving. For the first -time the settlement began to extend be 
yond the limits of Jamestown. A new plantation, seventy miles up the 
river, was founded, and a handsome church of wood was erected at the 
start. The " fair-framed Parsonage impaled for Master Whitaker," and 
the "hundred acres called Rocke Hall," set apart for the future support 
of the ministry in this new settlement, are referred to in the story of 
the first planting of Henrico. 

Sir Thomas Dale, under whose leadership this step in the advance 
was taken, was a man of no ordinary character, and when, on the return 
of Gates to England, the sole command of the colony devolved upon 
him, he displayed the earnest, patient, persevering Christian devotion 
of one who recognized "in whose Vineyard" ho labored, "and whose 
church with greedy appetite " he desired " to erect." In a letter to a 
friend, still extant, 2 he professes that the end of his exertions was " to 
build God a church ; " and, although we may \vell condemn the spirit 
and letter of "The Laws Diuine, Morall and Martiall," which, as 

1 From " A Praicr duly said Morning and Evening vpon the Court of Guard," appended to 
" The Laws Diuine, Morall and Martiall." 
Purchas, iv., pp. 1768-1770. 




THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 59 

drawn up by William Strachey, the secretary of the colony, were 
transmitted to Dale by Sir Thomas Smith, the treasurer, we cannot 
doubt that even this code, which was both impolitic and inhuman, was 
administered by the " High Marshall of Virginia " with as much mercy 
as was possible. With these laws, so far as they are "publique," or 
"martiall," we need not concern ourselves. Stern and inhuman as 
they appear, they reflect the spirit of the age, and their approval by 
Gates, who first enjoined them on his arrival, in 1G10, and by De la 
Warr and Dale, will surely lead one to infer that the disorders rife in 
the colony required a rigorous repression, and the exercise of a prompt 
and summary severity. This remarkable code is at the outset imbued 
with the religious temper of the time, and begins as follows : " First, 
since we owe our highest and supreme duty, our greatest, and all 
our allegiance to Him, from whom all power and authoritie is derived, 
and flowes as from the first, and onely fountaine, and being especiall 
souldiers emprest in this sacred cause, we must alone expect our suc- 
cessefrom Him, who is onely the blesser of all good attempts, the King 
of kings, the Comrnaunder of commaunders, and Lord of hostes, I do 
strictly commaund and charge all Captaines and Officers, of what 
qualitie and nature soeuer, whether commaunders in the field, or in 
towne or townes, forts or fortresses, to haue a care that the Alinightie 
God bee duly and daily serued, and that they call vpon their people 
to heare Sermons, as that also they diligently frequent Morning and 
Euening praier themselues, by their owne exemplar and daily life and 
dutie herein encouraging -others thereunto, and that such who shall 
often and wilfully absent themselues, be duly punished according to the 
martiall law in that case prouided." Among the offences punishable 
by the most severe penalties were speaking " impiously or maliciously 
against the Holy and blessed Trinitie, or against the knowne Articles of 
the Christian Faith ; " the utterance of blasphemy or " unlawful oathes ; " 
"the derision or despite of God s holy word ; " and disrespect " unto any 
Preacher or Minister." It was strictly enjoined that "euerie man and 
woman duly twice a day, vpon the first towling of the Bell, shall vpon 
the working daies repaire vnto the Church to hear diuine service." The 
Lord s day was to be duly sanctified and observed by individuals and 
families "by preparing themselves at home with private prayer, that they 
may be the better fitted for the publique, according to the commandments 
of God and the orders of our Church." Every one was required to " re 
paire in the morning to the diuine seruice, and sermons preached vpon 
the Saboth day, and in the afternoon to diuine service and catechising." 
It was ordered that "All Preachers or Ministers within this our Colonie 
or Colonies, shall in the Forts, where they are resident, after diuine Ser 
uice, duly preach euery Sabbath day in the forenoone, and Catechize in 
the afternoone, and weekely say the diuine service twice euery day, and 
preach euery Wednesday, likewise euery minister where he is resident 
within the same Fort or Fortresse, Townes or Towne, shall chuse vnto 
him, foure of the most religious and better disposed as well to informe 
of the abuses and neglects of the people in their duties and seruice to 
God, as also to the due reparation, and keeping of the Church handsome, 
and fitted with all reverent obseruances thereunto belonging ; likewise 



60 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

euery minister shall keepe a faithful and true Record, or Church Booke, 
of all Christnings, Marriages, and deaths of such our People as shall hap 
pen within their Fort or Fortresses, Townes or Towne at any time, vpon 
the burthen of a neglectfull conscience, and vpon paine of losing their 
Entertainment." Touching, indeed, was the prayer appended to these 
Laws and appointed to be " duly said Morning and Euening vpon the 
Court of Guard, either by the Captaine of the watch himselfe, or by some 
one of his principall officers." Words such as these, daily on the lips and 
in the hearts of the settlers, are of no little interest in determining the 
plans and purposes of the settlement. "And seeing Thou hast honoured 
vs to choose vs out to beare thy name vnto the Gentiles ; we therefore be 
seech Thee to bless vs, and this our plantation, which we and our nation 
haue begun in thy fear and for thy glory . . . And seeing, Lord, 
the highest end of our plantation here is to set vp the standard and 
display the banner of Jesus Christ, euen here where Satan s throne is, 
Lord, let our labor be blessed in laboring the conversion of the heathen. 
And because Thou vsest not to work such mighty works by vnholy 
means, Lord sanctifie our spirits, and giue vs holy harts, that so we may 
be thy instruments in this most glorious work . . . And seeing by 
thy motion and work in our harts, we haue left our warme nests at 
home, and put our Hues into our hands, principally to honour thy name, 
and aduance the kingdome of thy son, Lord giue vs leaue to commit 
our liues into thy hands ; let thy angels be about vs, and let vs be as 
Angels of God sent to this people . . . Lord blesse England our 
sweete natiue country, saue it from Popery, this land from heathenisme, 
and both from Atheisme. And Lord heare their praiers for vs and vs 
for them, and Christ Jesus our glorious Mediator for vs all. Amen." l 

The growth of the colony under the new regime was rapid and 
healthy. Its leaders were men of singleness of purpose, and no pains 
were spared to encourage industry, to extend the limits of the planta 
tions, and to provide, as we learn from "The New Life of Virginia," 
published in 1612, "for the honour and seruice of God, for daily 
frequenting the Church, the house of prayer, at the tolling of the bell, 
for preaching, catechizing, and the religious observation of the Sabbath 
day, for due reverence to the Ministers of the Word, and to all su- 
periours, for peace and love among themselves, and enforcing the idle 
to paines and honest labour . . . in a word, against all wrongfull 
dealing amongst themselves, or imperious violence against the Indians." 2 
The assignment of lands to the settlers for their individual use and 
ownership took the place of the former plan of cultivating the land in 
common, and good order and abundance were the result. The Indians 
were no longer hostile, and the strength of the colony was such that it 
no longer feared their assaults. In the quaint language of the writer 
of " The New Life of Virginia," "good " were " these beginnings where 
in God is thus before." 

It was at this epoch in Virginian settlement that the devoted Whita- 
ker, who had now spent nearly two years in the New World, contrib- 

1 This " Praier " is, without doubt, the composition of William Crashaw, several of its phrases, 
as well as much of its argument, being found in other writings of his. 
1 Force s " Historical Tracts," I., p. 13. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 61 

uted to the London press, then teeming with tractates on colonization, 
a thin quarto, entitled, "Good News from Virginia." l It was " a pithie 
and godly exhortation," as Crashaw styled it, coming from one who 
" diligently preacheth and catechizeth," performing " daily and diligent 
service, acceptable to God, and comfortable to our people." 2 It coun 
selled self-sacrifice on the part of those at home, to relieve "the poore 
estate of the ignorant inhabitants of Virginia." It bespoke compassion 
ate efforts in behalf of the " poore Indians," " naked slaves of the devil." 
Simple, straightforward, homely even in its diction, it waxed eloquent in 
its appeals for English cooperation in the good work undertaken " for 
the glory of God, whose kingdom you now plant, and good of your 
countrey, whose wealth you seeke." "Awake, you true-hearted Eng 
lishmen I " is the impassioned cry ; " you servants of Jesus Christ, 
remember that the Plantation is God s, and the reward your countrie s." 
We can readily understand Crashaw s testimony to the zeal and ability 
of the mission priests of the Church of England who had emigrated to 
Virginia. " We see to our comfort, the God of heaven found us out, 
and made us readie to our hand, able and fit men for the ministerial 
function in this plantation, all of them Graduates, allowed preachers, 
single men, hauing no Pastorall cures, nor charge of children ; and, as 
it were, every w r ay fitted for that worke. And because God w r ould 
more grace this busincsse, and honor his owne w r orke, he prouided us 
such men as wanted neither liuing, nor libertie of preaching at home. 
. Hereafter, when all is settled in peace and plentie, what marvell, 
if many and greater than they are willing to goe ? But, in the infancie 
of this Plantation, to put their liues into their hands, and, under the 
assurance of so many dangers and difficulties, to deuote themselues unto 
it, was certainly a holy and heroicall resolution, and proceeded undoubt 
edly from the blessed spirit of Christ Jesus, who for this cause appeared 
that he might dissolve the works of the devill. And though Satan visi 
bly and palpably raignes there more than in any other knowne place of the 
world, yet be of good courage, blessed brethren, God will treade Satan 
under youi feet shortly, and the ages to come will eternize your names 
as the Apostles of Virginia." 

Foremost among these "Apostles of Virginia," and worthy of honor 
able mention and lasting remembrance on the pages of the missionary 
annalsof the Church of Christ, was Alexander Whitaker, to whom wehave 
already referred . It was by him that Pocahontas , the child of romance and 
song, was instructed in the faith of Christ, and admitted to holy baptism. 
Much has been written with reference to this Indian maiden whose name 
is inseparably connected with the history of the Virginia Church and 
State. There is little doubt but that the extravagant tales which find 
their place in Smith s " General Historic, " and many of which have this 
simple Indian girl for their heroine, are exaggerations and of a piece 
with the marvellous stories which, late in life, that egotistical writer 
tells at length of his own career on the confines of Christendom in the 
East; but, when the romance has all been eliminated, enough remains 
to make us grateful to God for the conversion of this gentle Indian 

1 Published in 1613. * Crashaw s " Epistle Dedicatoric." 



62 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

maiden, and her subsequent marriage to a young Englishman of family 
and repute. The unsuspicious girl had been betrayed by some of her 
own people into the hands of Argall, in 1612. Detained, with a view to 
secure from her father the return of men and stores which he had in 
possession, Pocahontas learned to love her captors, and in time an even 
more tender passion sprang up in her gentle breast for "an honest 
gentleman, and of good behaviour," named John Rolfe, a widower, 
whose struggle of mind in reference to marrying an "unbelieving creat 
ure," " one whose education hath been rude, her manners barbarous, 
her generation accursed, and so discrepant in all nurture " from him 
self, is quaintly set forth in his own inimitable letter to Sir Thomas 
Dale. 1 Carefully instructed in the Christian religion by order of the 
governor, after she had made good progress therein, Pocahontas "re 
nounced publickly her countrey Idolatry," and " was as she desired bap 
tised." Dale, writing to a London clergyman respecting this marriage, 
bears testimony to the worth and piety of the new convert : " She liues 
ciuilly and louingly with him, and I trust will increase in goodnesse as the 
knowledge of God increaseth in her. She will goe into England with 
mee ; and were it but the gaining of this one soule , I will thiuke my time, 
toile, and present stay well spent." This interesting marriage ceremony 
took place, we are told by Hamor, "about the 1st of April, 1613," and was 
solemnized in the little church at Jamestown, an uncle, Opachisco, and 
two brothers of Pocahontas, being present. The 1st of April was Maun- 
day Thursday, and there can be little doubt, in view of the natural re 
pugnance to marriages in Lent, that it was at Easter-tide w r hen this 
espousal took place. April 4, the date of the Easter feast in 1613, 
may well be held in remembrance, for in this union the future of the 
colony was assured. In 1616 Pocahontas accompanied her husband 
to England, in the train of Sir Thomas Dale, meeting with a gracious 
welcome, and finding, in the providence of God, a grave. Purchas, who 
grows garrulous in her praise, tells of the pomp and state with which 
Dr. King, then Bishop of London, entertained her : " beyond what I 
have ever seen in his great hospitalitie afforded to other ladies," and 
quaintly adds, " At her return towards Virginia she came to Graues- 
* end, to her end and graue, having given great demonstration of her 
Christian sincerity as the first fruits of Virginian conuersions, leaving 
here a godly memory and the hopes of her resurrection, her soule aspir 
ing to see and enjoy presently in Heaven what here shee had joyed to 
heare and beleeve of her beloued Saviour." Modest, dignified, and 
gracious, " the Lady Pocahontas," as she was called, carried herself " as 
the daughter of a king." Present at a representation at court of Ben 
Jonson s Masque, "Christmas," on the Feast of the Epiphany ; referred 
to by the same great dramatist in another play, 2 as " the blessed 

"Pokahontas, as the historian calls her, 
And great king s daughter of Virginia ; " 

and courted and caressed by all classes and conditions of men, her 
brief career in England won for her many friends, and in her early 
death, at the age of twenty-two, there was the consolation that an in- 

1 Appended to Ilamor s " True Discourse." * The " Staple of News," first played in 1625. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. G3 

fant son survived, among whose descendants many of the highest social 
rank in Virginia have been proud to number themselves. It was for 
"the good of the plantation," as Rolfe anticipated, that this alliance 
resulted. A lasting peace with the aborigines followed, and the friends 
of the " holy action " of Christianizing and civilizing the natives of the 
American forests, whose hopes had long been " languishing and for 
saken," took heart again. The " pious and heroic enterprise " of bring 
ing to the savages the knowledge of the gospel of Christ was again un 
dertaken. The seed sown was at length beginning to take root, and 
spring up with the promise of a gracious harvest. 



CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 

E earliest book of American literature," as Professor Tyler > reminds us, is 
"A True Relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath 
hapned in Virginia since the first planting of that Collony, which is now resident 
in the South part thereof, till the last return from thence. Written by Captaine 
Smith, Coronell of the said Collony, to a worshipfull friend of his in England, 
London, 1608." This black-letter tract, written on the spot by the leading spirit 
in the settlement, and covering the period 1 rom the arrival of the colonists at Cape 
Henry, on the 26th of April, 1007, to the return of Captain Nelson in the "Phoenix," 
on the 2d of June, 1608, is the first published work known to bibliographers relat 
ing to the Jamestown colony. The original edition is exceedingly rare, and as such 
its title is included in Mr. Payne Collier s " Rarest Books in the English Language," 
1865. Mr. Collier attributes its authorship to Thomas Watson, whose name appears 
on the title-page of some copies, but there is no reason to doubt that it was written 
by Smith, to whom Purchas assigns its composition. The work is made accessible 
by a reprint admirably edited by Charles Deane, LL.D., Boston, 1866, with a ful 
ness and accuracy of annotation which might be expected from so competent a hand. 
We cannot better indicate the contents of this interesting and important work than 
by citing the critical resume of its scope and style, given by Professor Tyler, in his 
" History of American Literature " : 

"Barely hinting at the length and tediousness of the voyage, the author 
plunges, with epic promptitude, into the midst of the action by describing their 
arrival in Virginia, their lirst ungentle passages with the Indians, their selection of 
a place of settlement, their first civil organization, their first expedition for dis 
covery toward the upper waters of the James River, the first formidable Indian 
attack upon their village, and the first return for England, two months after their 
arrival, of the ships that had brought them to Virginia. Upon the departure of 
these ships, bitter quarrels broke out among the colonists ; things were neither car 
ried with that discretion nor any business effected in such good sort as wisdom 
would ; . . . through which disorder, God being angry with us, plagued us 
with such famine and sickness that the living were scarce able to bury the dead. 
. . . As yet we had no houses to cover us ; our tents were rotten, and our cabins 
worse than naught. . . . The president and Captain Martin s sickness com 
pelled me ... to spare no pains in making houses for the company, who, not 
withstanding our misery, little ceased their malice, grudging, and muttering . . . 
being in such despair as they would rather starve and rot with idleness than be 
persuaded to do anything for their own relief without constraint. But the energetic 
captain had an eager passion for making tours of exploration along the coast and 
up the river ; and after telling how he procured corn from the Indians and thus 
supplied the instant necessities of the starving colonists, he proceeds to relate the 
history of a tour of discovery made by him up the Chickahominy, on which tour 
happened the famous incident of his falling into captivity among the Indians. The 

1 A History of American Literature. By Moses Coit Tyler, i., p. 21. 



64 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

reader will not fail to notice that in this earlier book of his, written before Powha- 
tan s daughter, the Princess Pocahontas, had become celebrated in England, and 
before Captain Smith had that enticing motive for representing himself as specially 
favored by her, he speaks of Powhatan as full of friendliness to him ; he expresslv 
states that his own life was in no danger at the hands of that Indian potentate ; and., 
of course, he has no situation on which to hang the romantic incident of his rescue 
by Pocahontas from impending death. Having ascended the Chickahominy for 
about sixty miles, he took with him a single Indian guide, and pushed into the 
woods. Within a quarter of an hour, he heard a loud cry and a hallooing of 
Indians ; and almost immediately he was assaulted by two hundred of them, led 
by Opechancanough, an under-king to the Emperor Powhatan. The valiant captain, 
in a contest so unequal, was certainly entitled to t\ shield; and this he rather un 
generously extemporized by seizing his Indian guide, and with his garters binding 
uie Indian s arm to his own hand, thus, as he coolly expresses it, making my 
hind my barricado. As the Indians still pressed towards him, Captain Smith 
discharged his pistol, which wounded some of his assailants, and taught them all 
a wholesome respect by the terror of its sound; then, after much parley, he sur 
rendered to them, and was carried off prisoner to a place about six miles distant. 
There he expected to be at once put to death, but was agreeably surprised by being 
treated with the utmost, kindness. For supper that night they gave him a quarter 
of venison and some ten pound of bread, and each morning thereafter three women 
presented him with three great platters of line bread, and more venison than ten 
men could devour. Though eight ordinarily guarded me, I wanted not what they 
could devise to content me ; and still our larger acquaintance increased our better 
affection. After many days spent in travelling hither and yon with his captors, he 
was at last, by his own request, delivered up to Powhatan, the over-lord of all that 
region. He gives a picturesque description of the barbaric state in which he was 
received by this potent chieftain, whom he found proudly lying upon a bedstead a 
foot high, upon ten or twelve mats, the emperor himself being richly hung 
with many chains of great pearls about his neck, and covered with a great covering 
of raccoon skins. At his head sat a woman ; at his feet, another ; on each side, sit 
ting upon a mat upon the ground, were ranged his chief men on each side the fire, 
ten in a rank ; and behind them, as^many young women, each a great chain of white 
beads over their shoulders, their heads painted in red ; and with such a grave and 
majestical countenance as drave me into admiration to see such state in a naked 
salvage. He kindly welcomed me with good words, and great platters of sundry 
victuals, assuring me his friendship and my liberty within four days. Thus day by 
day passed in pleasant discourse, with his imperial host, who asked him about the 
manner of our ships, and sailing upon the seas, the earth and skies, and of our God ; 
and who feasted him, not only with continual platters of sundry victuals, but with 
glowing descriptions of his own vast dominions, stretching away beyond the river 
and the mountains to the land of the setting sun. Seeing what pride he had in his 
great and spacious dominions, ... I requited his discourse in describing to 
him the territories of Europe which was subject to our great king, . . . the 
innumerable multitude of his ships. . . . Thus having with all the kindness 
he could devise sought to content me, he sent me home with four men, one that 
usually carried my gown and knapsack after me, two others loaded with bread, and 
one to accompany me. The author then gives a description of his journey back to 
Jamestown, where each man, with truest signs of joy, welcomed him; of his 
second visit to Powhatan ; of various encounters with hostile and thievish Indians ; 
and of the arrival from England of Captain Nelson in the Phoenix, April the 
twentieth, 1608, an event which did ravish them with exceeding joy. Late in the 
narrative he makes his first reference to Pocahontas, whom he speaks of as a child 
of ten years old, which not only for feature, countenance and proportion much ex- 
ceedeth any of the rest of his people, but for wit and spirit the only nonpareil of 
his country. After mentioning some further dealings with the Indians, he con 
cludes the book with an account of the preparations for the return to England of 
Captain Nelson and his ship ; and describes those remaining as * being in good health, 
all our men well contented, free from mutinies, in love with one another, and as we 
hope in a continual peace with the Indians, where we doubt not, by God s gracious 
assistance, and the adventurers willing minds, and speedy furtherance to so honor 
able an action, in after times to see our nation to enjoy a country, not only exceed 
ing pleasant for habitation, but also very profitable i or commerce in general, no 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE IN VIRGINIA. 65 

doubt pleasing to Almighty God, honorable to our gracious sovereign, and commo 
dious generally to the whole kingdom. 

" Thus, with words of happy omen, ends the first book in American literature. 
It is a book that was written, not in lettered ease, nor in the still air of delightful 
studies, but under a rotten tent in the wilderness, perhaps by the flickering blaze 
of a pine-knot, in the midst of tree-stumps and the filth and clamor of a pioneer s 
camp, and within the fragile palisades which alone shielded the little band of 
colonists from the ever-hovering peril of an Indian massacre. It was not composed 
as a literary effort. It was meant to be merely a budget of information for the 
London stockholders of the Virginia Company. Hastily, apparently without revi 
sion, it was wrought vehemently by the rough hand of a soldier and an explorer, 
in the pauses of a toil that was both fatiguing and dangerous, and while the inci 
dents which he records were clinging in his memory. Probably he thought little of 
any rules of literary art as he wrote this book ; probably he did not think of writing 
a book at all. Out of the abundance of his materials, glowing with pride over 
what he had done in the great enterprise, eager to inspire the home-keeping patrons 
of the colony with his own resolute cheer, and accustomed for years to portray in 
pithy English the adventures of which his life was fated to be full, the bluff 
captain just stabbed his paper with inken words ; he composed, not a book, but a 
big letter ; he folded it up, and tossed it upon the deck of Captain Nelson s depart 
ing ship. But though he may have had no expectation of doing such a thing, he 
wrote a book that is not unworthy to be the beginning of the new English literature 
in America. It has faults enough without doubt. Had it not these, it would have 
been too good for the place it occupies. The composition was extemporaneous ; 
there appears in it some chronic misunderstanding between the nominatives and 
their verbs ; now and then the words and clauses of a sentence are jumbled together 
in blinding heaps ; but, in spite of all its crudities, here is racy English, pure Eng 
lish, the sinewy, picturesque, and throbbing diction of the navigators and soldiers 
of the Elizabethan time." I., pp. 25-27. 

With this as the initial volume of the printed accounts of the Jamestown settle 
ment, the story was continued in " Purchas His Pilgrimes," rv., pp. 1685-1690, pub 
lished in 1625, under the title " Observations gathered out of a Discourse of the Plan 
tations of the Southerne Colonie in Virginia by the English, 1606, written by that 
Honorable Gentleman Master George Percy." As printed in Purchas, this is a meagre 
abridgment of the original narrative, which has not been preserved. A third account 
of the beginnings of this colony is entitled " Newport s Discoveries in Virginia," and 
was printed for the first time from copies of originals in the English State Paper 
Office, edited by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., in " Archaeologia Ameri 
cana," rv., pp. 40-65. The same volume contains, pp. 67-163 : "A Discourse of Vir 
ginia," by Edward-Maria Wingfield, the first president of the colony. The dis 
covery of this interesting and important manuscript is due to the Rev. James S. M. 
Anderson, M.A., Preacher of Lincoln s Inn, the accomplished and accurate author 
of "The Histoiy of the Church of England in the Colonies and Foreign Dependen 
cies of the British Empire." Found among the MSS., in Lambeth Library, by this 
painstaking annalist of the Church in America, it was referred to in the first volume 
of his " History," and, thus attracting the attention of American scholars, was pub 
lished from a copy made by the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury, under 
the editorship of Charles Deane, LL.D. Another contemporaneous account is " A 
Relation of Virginia," written by Henry Spelman, " the third son of the Anti 
quary." Spelman came to Virginia as a boy in 1609, lived for some time in cap 
tivity among the Indians, became an interpreter for the colony, and was killed by 
the savages in 1622 or 1623. The " Relation" was privately printed at the Chis- 
wick press, in 1872, at London, for J. F. Hunnewell, of Charlestown, Mass., from 
the original MS., at one time the property of Dawson Turner. 

For further bibliographical notices of the early-printed works, illustrative of 
this period of our civil and ecclesiastical annals, as well as those later issues con 
taining the story of Virginia to our own days, vide "The Narrative and Critical 
Histoiy of America," ra., pp. 155-166. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF HENRICO, AND EFFORTS FOR THE CON 
VERSION AND CIVILIZATION OF THE SAVAGES. 



strict, but upright, administration of Dale was succeeded by 
I that of Argall as deputy governor, whose avarice, tyranny, and 
obstinate self-will rendered life insecure, and made property sub 
ject to a rapacity which failed to discriminate between the possessions of 
the unhappy settlers whom he ruled, and those of the company he pro 
fessed to serve. At length, after a bitter struggle, the rule of Sir 
Thomas Smith, for twelve years treasurer of the company in London, 
was overthrown, and, in the strife of rival and antagonistic factions, 
the influence and character of Sir Edwin Sandys prevailed. Argall 
was displaced, and the government was intrusted to the popular, 
though inefficient, Yeardley. The new governor arrived in April, 1619. 
Scarce one in twenty of the emigrants, sent over at so great a cost, 
was still alive. In Jamestown there remained " only those houses that 
Sir Thomas Gates built in the tyme of his government, with one wherein 
the govemour allwayes dwelt, and a church, built of timber, being fifty 
foote in length and twenty in breadth." At Henrico there were only 
" three old houses, a poor ruinated Church, with some poore buildings 
in the islande." "For ministers to instruct the people only three were 
authorized ; two others had never received their orders." One of these 
was, as we learn from other sources, Mr. Richard Bucke, minister at 
Jamestown, "a verie good preacher." Mr. Alexander Whi taker, "a 
good diuine," who had had "the ministerial charge " at Bermuda Hun 
dred, had been drowned early in 1617. Mr. Glover had died long 
before. Mr. William Mease, the first minister at Hampton, had been in 
the colony since 1611. Mr. George Keith had arrived in the "George" 
in 1617, and was at Elizabeth City. 1 Mr. William Wickham, "minis 
ter " at Henrico, " who in his life and doctrine " gave " good examples 
and godly instructions to the people, "and Mr. Samuel Macock, "a Cam 
bridge scholar," appear to have had only deacon s orders. Wickham 
had served as curate to the apostolic Whitaker, and succeeded him. 
Mr, Thomas Bargrave, who came over, in 1618, with his uncle, Captain 
John Bargrave, and was also the nephew of the Dean of Canterbury. 
Dr. Bargrave probably succeeded Wickham at Henrico, and Whita 
ker at Bermuda Hundred. He died in 1621, leaving his library, 
valued at one hundred marks, or seventy pounds sterling, to the col 
lege at Henrico, thus anticipating the act of the young Puritan min- 

1 Neill, in his " History of the Virginia Com- latter does not appear to have come over before 
pany of London," gives the names of the three 1618, while Keith, according to Neill s " Virginia 
clergymen as Bucke, Mease, and Bargrave ; but the Colonial Clergy," p. 17, arrived the year before. 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 67 

ister of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who, a few years later, left his 
loved books to the struggling college at Cambridge, and by that act 
gained a name and remembrance wherever "Harvard" College is 
known. Would that "Henrico" had been as long-lived in its educa 
tional career, and that Bargrave s gift had won for him a like immor 
tality ! 

"From the moment of Yeardley s arrival dates the real life of 
Virginia," says the historian Bancroft. 1 He brought with him, not 
only the authority, but the instructions, "for the better establishment 
of a commonwealth" in Virginia. By proclamation he announced the 
abrogation of "those cruell lawes" by which the colony "had soe 
longe been governed." He secured to the oppressed settlers the res 
toration of their rights as Englishmen. With a view " that they might 
have a hande in the gouverning of themselves," the holding of a 
general assembly was provided for, comprising the governor and 
council, "with two Burgesses from each Plantation freely to be elected 
by the Inhabitants thereof." The assembly was empowered "to make 
and ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by them be thought 
good and profitable." 

In conformity with these instructions, and in accordance with the 
new policy thus inaugurated by the company at home, Sir George 
Yeardley " sent his summons all over the country, as well to invite 
those of the Councell of Estate that were absente, as also for the 
election of Burgesses," and on Friday, July 30, 1619, the first elective 
body convened upon this continent met in " the Quire of the Churche " 
at James City. 2 The records of this initial legislative meeting have 
been preserved, and their quaint details bring vividly before the mind 
the scene witnessed on that midsummer day in Jamestown, so fraught 
with blessings for the ill-starred colony. The governor is seated " in 
his accustomed place." The councillors are ranged on either side. The 
speaker sits before the governor, with the clerk on the one side, and 
the sergeant-at-arms "standing at the barre, ready for any service the 
Assembly should command." "But," proceeds the record, "for as 
muche as men s affaires doe little prosper when God s service is neg 
lected, all the Burgesses tooke their places in the Quire till a prayer 
was said by Mr. Bucke, the Minister, that it would please God to 
guide and sanctifie all our Proceedings to his owne glory and the 
good of this Plantation." " Prayer being ended " the Burgesses-elect 
retired into the body of the church, from whence " they were called 
in order and by name " to take the oath of supremacy, and thus " en 
tered the Assembly." 

Among the earliest measures which received the consideration of 
this body were provisions that the company at home should take care 
that the ministers glebes should be cultivated, and that the company 
should send " workmen of all sortes " for the " erecting of the Univer 
sity and College." The first enactment of this assembly was for the 
protection of the Indians from "injury or oppression." Idleness and 
gaming were made punishable offences. The minister was to reprove 

1 History of the United States, i., p. 153. 

- Colonial Records of Virginia. Richmond, 1874. 



68 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

drunkards, at first privately, and then " in the church," publicly. To 
restrain immoderate excess in dress it was provided that the rate for 
public contributions was to be assessed in the church, on the apparel 
of the men and women. Restrictions were placed upon the indiscrimi 
nate commingling of the savages with the settlers ; but, at the same 
tune, a special enactment provided for the education and Christianiz 
ing of the children of the natives : " Be it enacted by this present 
Assembly that for laying a surer foundation of the conversion of the 
Indians to Christian religion, eachetowne, citty, Borough, and particu 
lar plantation do obtaine unto themselves, by just means, a certaine 
number of the natives children to be educated by them in true relig 
ion and civile course of life of w cb children the most towardly boyes 
in witt and graces of nature to be brought up by them in the first 
elements of litterature, so to be fitted for the Colledge intended for 
them, that from thence they may be sente to that work of conversion." l 
It was further enacted that " All ministers shall duely read di 
vine service, and exercise their ministerial function according to the 
Ecclesiastical lawes and orders of the Churche of England, and every 
Sunday in the afternoon shall catechize such as are not ripe to come 
to the Communion. And whosoever of them shall be found negligent 
or faulty in this kinde shall be subject to the censure of the Govern r and 
Counsell of Estate." " Ungodly disorders " were to be " presented " by 
the minister and church- war dens. Persistence in open sin was to be 
punished by excommunication, arrest, and seizure of property : " Pro 
vided alwayes, that all the ministers doe meet once a quarter, namely, at 
the feast of St. Michael the Arkangell, of the Nativity of our Saviour, of 
the Annunciation of the blessed Virgine, and about midsummer, at 
James citty, or any other place where the Governo r shall reside, to de 
termine whom it is fit to excommunicate, and that they first presente 
their opinion to the Governo r ere they proceed to the acte of excom 
munication." For swearing, after "thrise admonition," a fine of five 
shillings was imposed on freemen, while servants were to be whipped and 
were required to make public acknowledgment of the fault in church. 
It was enacted that " all persons whatsoever upon the Sabbath daye 
shall frequente divine service and sermons, both forenoon and after 
noon, and all such as beare armes shall bring their pieces, swordes, 
poulder and shotte." The " Great Charter of lawes, orders and privi- 
ledges " granted by the company at home was accepted by the " general 
assent and the applause of the whole assembly," professing themselves 
" in the first place most submissively thankful to Almighty God " for 
"so many priviledges and favours." 

Full of interest are the records of this first elective legislative body 
that ever convened on the continent ; meeting, as it did, in the little 
church of the first settlers, with its proceedings begun with prayer by the 
church s minister, and providing for the preaching of the Word, and 
the administration of the sacraments, according to the church s usages 
and laws, more than a year before the " Mayflower," with its company 
of Leyden Separatists, left the harbor of Southampton to found upon 
the bleak shores of New England the Puritan theocracy. 

1 Colonial Records of Virginia, p. 21. 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 69 

In a plantation avowedly settled " for the glorie of God in the 
propagation of the Gospell of Christ," and for " the conversion of the 
savages," l there could not fail to be, from the first, the wish and pur 
pose for the provision of some institution where the higher learning 
then deemed indispensable for the exercise of the ministry, could be 
obtained without recourse to the universities of the mother-land, three 
thousand miles away. The Church whose " form of sound words " 
was first heard on our American shores, conveying to heaven the 
devotions of men of English speech and lineage, was foremost in the 
effort to meet this acknowledged want. In this attempt to lay the 
foundations of an educational system, by the provision of a public 
school and college, the cooperation of the colonists themselves was 
secured at the very outset. To that remarkable assembly in the choir 
of the church at Jamestown, on Friday, July 30, 1619, and from which, 
rather than to the cabin and " compact " of the " Mayflower," we may 
date the foundation of our popular government, we must look for the 
inauguration of efforts for popular and the higher education. It was in 
the course of its proceedings that measures were taken " towards the 
erecting of the University and Colledge," as well as for the education 
of Indian children, for whom, as well as for the sons of the settlers, 
these seminaries of learning were designed. All this was in accordance 
with the will and purpose of the Council of Virginia in England, to 
which was intrusted the rule of the infant commonwealth. The govern 
ment of the colony by Sir Thomas Smith, the treasurer of the Virginia 
Company, under which the settlers had languished for twelve hopeless 
years, was scarcely over, when, at the incoming of Sir George Yeardley 
as governor, orders were given for the establishment of a university 
in the colony, with a college for the instruction of the Indian youth. 
In letters from the council, previous to the accession of the new 
governor, reference is made to this design ; but we must date the 
beginning of active measures for its accomplishment to the accession 
of the excellent Sir Edwin Sandys to the treasurership of the com 
pany. Soon after the return of Sir Thomas Dale, a "King s letter," 
addressed to the archbishops, had authorized four collections to be made 
within the two following years, in the several dioceses of the two 
provinces of Canterbury and York, to enable the company to erect 
" churches and schooles for y e education of y e children of the Barba 
rians." This paper, which we give in full, in view of its interest and 
importance, both in an educational and religious point of view, was 
addressed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York : 

"Most Reverend Father in God, right trustie and well beloved counsellor, 
wee greete you well. You have heard ere this time, of y e attempt of diverse 
worthie men, our subjects, to plant in Virginia (under y e warrant of our L"* 
patents) , People of this Kingdome, as well for y e enlarging of our Dominions, as 
for propagation of y e Gospel amongst Infidells : wherein mere is good progresse 
made, and hope of further increase : so as the undertakers of that Plantation are 
now in hand with the erecting of some Churches and Schooles for y e education of 
y children of those Barbarians, w ch cannot but be to them a very great charge, 
and above the expence w ch for civill plantation doth come to them. In w ch wee 

1 Vide " A Brief Declaration of the Plantation of Virginia," etc., in the " Colonial Records 
of Virginia," p. 69. 



70 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

doubt not but that you and all others who wish well to the encrease of Christian 
Religion will be willing to give all assistance and furtherance you may, and there 
in to make experience of the zeale and devotion of our Avell-minded subjects, espe 
cially those of y 8 Clergie. Wherefore wee doe require you, and hereby authorize 
you to write y or Letters to y 6 severall Bishops of y Dioceses in y or Province, that 
they doe give order to the Ministers, and other zealous men of their Dioceses, both 
by their own example in contribution and by exhortation to others, to move our 
people w^in their several charges to contribute to so good a worke in as liberall 
a manner as they may, for the better advancing whereof our pleasure is that those 
collections be made in all the particular Parishes four seuerall times wthin these 
two years next coming: and that the seuerall accounts of each parish, together 
wth the moneys collected, be retouraed from time to time to y e Bishops of y 6 
Dioceses, and by them be transmitted half yearly to you ; and so to be deliuered to 
the Treasurer of that Plantation, to be employed for the Godly purposes intended, 
and no other." 

In response to this appeal, said to be the first instance of the 
issuing of a "brief " in England for any charitable purpose connected 
with her foreign possessions, nearly 1,500 was received, and on the 
18th of November, 1618, the company in England gave these in 
structions to Yeardley, and placed them in full upon their records : 

" Whereas, by a special grant and license from His Majesty, a 
general contribution over this Realm hath been made for the building 
and planting of a college for the training up of the children of those 
Infidels in true Religion, moral virtue, and civility, and for other god 
ly ness, We do therefore, according to a former Grant and order, 
hereby ratefie, confirm, and ordain that a convenient place be chosen 
and set out for the planting of a university at the said Henrico in time 
to come, and that in the mean time preparation be there made for the 
building of the said College for the Children of the Infidels, according 
to such instructions as we shall deliver. And we will and ordain that 
ten thousand acres, partly of the land they impaled, and partly of the 
land within the territory of the said Henrico, be alotted and set out for 
the endowing of the said University and College with convenient pos 
sessions." 2 

Shortly after the preparation of these instructions to the newly 
appointed governor, the charge of the college was offered to the Rev. 
Thomas Lorkin, a ripe scholar, later distinguished as the secretary of 
the English Embassy in France, who was promised " 200 a year and 
better ; " 3 but Lorkin did not accept the tempting offer. On the 26th of 
May, 1619, within a month after the election of Sir Edwin Sandys 
as treasurer, and Mr. John Ferrar as deputy, the attention of the 
court was called by the treasurer to the fact that "1,500, or there 
abouts" had been contributed under the king s letters, "to erect 

Anderson s "Col. Ch.," i., pp. 255, 256. within three or four days a condition of going 
Vide, also, Stith s " Hist, of Va.," p. 162, who re- over to Virginia, where the Virginia Company 
fers to this Royal Letter. Neither author gives means to erect a College, and undertakes to pro- 
the date, which, in the copy in the State Paper cure me good assurances of 200 a year and bet- 
Office, from which the above transcript was made, tcr, and if I should find there any ground for 
is illegible. It would appear to have been issued dislike, liberty to return at pleasure. I assure 
at least as early as 1616, and probably even you, I find preferment coming on so slowly here 
earlier. at home, as makes me much inclined to accept 

Z MS. Instructions to Yeardley, quoted in it." Several interesting letters from this first 

Neill s " Virginia Company of London," p. 137. president-elect of the University at Henrico are 

Lorkin s letter is quoted in Neill s "History printed in the second volume of Bishop Good- 

of the Virginia Company of London," pp. 137, 138. man s "Court of James I." 
as follows : "A good friend of mine propounded 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 71 

and build a Colledge in Virginia for the training and bringing up 
of Infidells children in the true knowledge of God and understanding 
of righteousness." Upon consideration it was determined to se 
cure an annual revenue from the investment of the means in hand, 
and from this source to begin in time the erection of the college. The 
land previously assigned for the use of the college in Henrico was 
definitely granted for this purpose, and provision was made for fifty 
tenants to cultivate the same on shares. The grant of land embraced 
ten thousand acres. 

The zeal of Sandys in furthering every plan for the Christianizing 
of the Indians, and the ready will with which, under his lead, the 
company undertook the work of providing the means for their conver 
sion, could not fail to win the favor of all those in England who had 
this great work at heart, and benefactions began at once to come in to 
the company s coifers. At the meeting of the court, on the 21st of 
July, a service for the administration of the holy communion was 
presented by an unknown person, through the treasurer, with the 
following quaint communication : 

* 
I. H. S. 

SIR EDWIN SANDYS Thr** of Virginia. 

Good luck in the name of the Lord, who is dayly magnified by the experi 
ment of your zeale and piety in giuinge beginning to the foundation of the Col- 
ledge in Virginia, the sacred worke so due to Heaven and soe longed for on earth. 

Now knowe wee assuredly that the Lord will doe you good and blesse you in 
all your proceedings, even as he blessed the howse of Obed Edom and all that 
pertayned to him because of the Arke of God. Now that you seeke the Kingdome 
of God, all thinges shall be ministered unto you. This I well see allready, and 
perceuie that by this your godlie determinacon the Lord hath giuen you fauor in 
the sight of the people, and I knowe some whose hearts are much enlarged 
because of the howse of the Lord our God to procure you Wealth, whose greater 
designs I have presumed to outrun with this oblacon, which I humbly beseech you 
may be accepted as the pledge of my devocon, and as an earnest of the vowes 
which I have vowed unto the Almighty God of Jacobb concerning this thing, which 
till I may in part perform I desire to remayne unknowne and unsought after. 

The things are these : 

A Communion Cup with the couer and vase ; 
A Trencher plate for the bread. 
A Carpett of crimson veluett. 
A Linnen damaske table-cloth. 

In the following February, on the Feast of the Purification, an 
anonymous letter, addressed to " Sir Edwin Sandys, the faithful 
Treasurer for Virginia," was presented at the Quarter Court, which 
promised 550 for " the converting of Infidles to the fayth of Christe." 
The plan proposed by the donor, who signed himself "Dust and 
Ashes," was " the maynteuance of a conveyent number of younge In 
dians taken att the age of Seauen years, or younger, and instructed 
in the readinge and understandinge the principalls of Xtian Religion 
unto the age of 12 years, and then as occasion serueth, to be trayned 

l NciU 3 " Virginia Company of London," pp. 152, 153. 



72 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



and brought upp in some lawfull trade with all humanitie and gentle 
ness untill the age of one and Twenty years, and then to enjoy like 
liberties and pryviledges with our native English in that place." 
A few days later the promised gift was received in " new golde." 
Other gifts came swiftly in ; among them, "Faire Plate and other rich 
Ornaments," for the altars of the college and a church which pious 
benefactions had earlier founded. Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, Sen., a rich 
merchant of the city, in whose noble mansion the company usually 
met after Easter, 1619, had in his will bequeathed 300 "for the 
College in Virginia, to be paid when there shall be tenn of the Infidels 
Children placed in it, and in the mean time four and twenty pounds 
per year, to be distributed unto three discreet and godly men in the 
Colony w* h shall honestly bring up three of the Infidels Children in 
Christian Religion and some good course to live by." The Bishop 
of London, Dr. King, collected and paid in 1,000 towards Henrico 




NOTE. This is a fac-simile of the engraving used in the publications of the 
company. Cf . " Calendar of Virginia State Papers," I., p. xxxix ; Neill s Virginia 
Company," p. 156. An example of this seal with the same dimensions and devices, 
but with the different legend on the reverse of " COLONIA VIRGINS CONSILIO 





PRIMA," is in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society. It is of red wax 
between the leaves of a foolscap sheet of paper, and is affixed to a patent for land 
issued by Sir John Harvey, governor, dated March 4, 1638. 

1 Virginia Company of London, p. 182. 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 73 

College. Bibles, prayer-books, and works of divinity were given in 
for the use of the college or clergy ; and, early in 1620, an estimable 
and pious gentleman, Mr. George Thorpe, a relation of Sir Thomas 
Dale, and formerly holding a place of honor at the court, was sent 
over to take charge of the college, as superintendent, ample provision 
being made for his support, and for the successful accomplishment of 
his plans. 

The records of the " quarter sessions " of the Virginia Company, 
held in the rooms of the elder Ferrar s spacious house, in St. Sythe s 
lane abound in references to this favorite scheme of English church 
men for the conversion of the American aborigines, and the furtherance 
of the projected Indian school. Towards the close of the year 1620, 
"four great books," one of them, S. Augustine s w De Civitate Dei," 
translated into English, and the remaining three, the works of the cele 
brated William Perkins, D.D., of the University of Cambridge, were 
given by one of the company to " be sent to the Colledge in Virginia, 
there to remayne in saftie to the use of the collegiates thereafter." 
In the company s letter to the colonial authorities, under date of July 
25, 1621, the council wrote as follows : 

We exceedingly approve the course in taking in of Indian families as beinge 
a great meanes to reduce that nation to civility, and to the imbracing of our Chris 
tian religion, the blessed end wee have proposed to ourselves in this Plantation, 
and we doubt not of your vigilancie that you be not thus entrapped, nor that the 
Savadge have by this meanes to surprize you. 1 

In the same letter, which is signed by the Earl of Southampton, 
Sir Edwin Sandys, Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, and others, assurance is given 
of the company s purpose "to send to the College tennants a very 
sufficient minister," and the Superintendent Thorpe is desired to take 
steps "that a house may be ready for him, and good pro vision to 
entertaine him." 2 

On the 24th of October, 1621, the deputy treasurer, John Ferrar, 
informed the court that " one Mr. Copeland, a minister lately returned 
from the East Indies " and chaplain of the " Eoyal James," had pre 
vailed upon the officers and crew of this ship, when on their home 
voyage, to contribute seventy pounds towards the establishment of a 
church and school in Virginia. At a meeting, a few days later, it was 
determined that this offering, together with an anonymous gift of thirty 
pounds, should be devoted " towards the erection of a public free school 
in Virginia," " for the education of children and grounding of them in 
the principles of religion." Charles city was chosen as the site of the 
" East India School," as it was determined to call it ; and provision was 
made that it should depend upon the " College in Virginia." A thou 
sand acres of land were allotted for the maintenance of the master and 
usher, and three hundred acres were granted to Mr. Copeland. 

About this time, when the attention of so many in Church and 
State was turned towards Virginia, a young clergyman, nephew of the 
celebrated Bishop Hall, and the private secretary of that prelate at 
the Synod of Dort, published, in a thin quarto of eighty-four pages, 

1 Virginia Company of London, p. 228. 2 Ibid., p. 231. 



74 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

a rudimentary grammar for the schools projected or established 
amongst "the Virginians," as well as elsewhere among "barbarous 
nations." This labor of love for " our loving countrymen of Virginia " 
was presented to the "Court" on the 19th of December, 1621, as 
the work of " a painfull schoolmaster, one Mr. John Brinsley," and 
received the company s thanks. Prepared, as the compiler states, 
"for drawing the poor natives in Virginia and all other of the rest of 
the rude and barbarous from Sattan to God," this little volume had 
the commendation of no less a scholar and divine than " James Ussher," 
then " Doctour and Professor of Divinitie in the Universitio of Dublin," 
and afterwards archbishop. The following year a carpenter was sent 
out to erect " the East India Schoole ; " but the " monies would not 
reach unto the sending of an Vsher as was at first intended, and be 
sides, upon a second consideration, it was thought good to give the 
Colony the choice of the Schoolmaster or Vsher." In July, 1622, 
the "Court thought fit to bestow a freedom vpon Mr. Pemberton, a 
minister of God s word, intending forthwith to go to Virginia and 
there to employ himself for the conuerting of the Infedels." In the 
midst of these efforts for the conversion of Jhe Indians the spiritual 
welfare of the settlers demanded attention. The five or six clergymen l 
who were settled at the several settlements were unable to render the 
services required by the rapidly extending colonists. The number of 
boroughs was now eleven, and each required the ministrations of a cler 
gyman. Services and sacraments were in danger of a wide-spread neg 
lect, and, in this extremity, the company sought the aid of the Bishop of 
London, in supplying the colony with "pious, learned, and painful 
ministers." Bishop King, \vho then filled the See, had already shown 
his personal interest in the christianizing of Virginia, and in the estab 
lishment of the college for the Indians. Chosen a member of the 
king s council for Virginia, it was but natural that, in all matters 
ecclesiastical, his opinions should have great weight ; and there grew 
out of this personal interest and episcopal care the recognition of the 
spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of London over the colonies which 
existed, almost without question, until the issue of the war for inde 
pendence secured the ecclesiastical, as well as the civil, independence 
of the United States. Other measures for the advantage of the Colony 
were taken by the council. Provision was made for the increase 
of the number of tenants upon the company s domain. Boys and 
girls, indentured as apprentices, were sent out to meet the demand for 
servants, and an importation of young women, of blameless reputation, 
sent out under the auspices of the council, furnished the settlers with 
a much-desired supply of eligible wives. Unfortunately, at this 
juncture, the royal mandate required the transportation of a number 
of " dissolute persons ; " and thus, in the indignant language of Frank 
lin more than a century later, let " loose upon the New World the out 
casts of the Old." At the same time the purchase of twenty negroes 
from a Dutch trading-ship, by some of the settlers at Jamestown, in 
troduced into the colony the system of slavery. Thus, by an act of 

1 These were Whitakcr, Stockham, Mease. Bargravc, and Wickham. 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 75 

private cupidity, a measure was inaugurated which was to influence for 
all time the fortunes of the colony and country itself. 

On the expiration of Yeardley s commission, in 1621, Sir Francis 
Wyat, a man of character and reputation, was appointed to the gov 
ernorship of the colony; the faithful treasurer, Sir Edwin Sandys, 
was succeeded by the Earl of Southampton, to the great annoyance 
of the king, who was pleased to assert that " the Virginia Company 
was a seminary for a seditious Parliament," l and to style Sandys as 
" his greatest enemy." The arbitrary imprisonment of Sandys by the 
king, during the session of Parliament in 1621, and the committal of 
Southampton to the Tower after the dissolution, conclusively prove the 
hatred of the monarch against those members of the Virginia Company 
who resisted the encroachments of the royal prerogative, and sought 
to thwart the unwarrantable interference of the king in the affairs of 
the colony. Unfortunately, both for the company at home and the 
colony abroad, the ascendency which Spain had acquired through her 
wily ambassador, Gondomar, at the English court, was sufficient to 
secure the adoption of a policy on the part of the king, the result of 
which was the development of the Spanish colonies to the prejudice 
of his own. The last days of the Virginia Company s corporate 
existence were those of strife and bitterness. 

The new governor brought with him a new ordinance for consti 
tuting a Council of State, as well as regulations for the General 
Assembly. The first recommendation of his articles of instruction, 
addressed to the governor and council in Virginia, requires them 
"To take into their especial regard the service of Almighty God and 
the observance of His divine Laws ; and that the people should be 
trained up in true religion and virtue. And since their endeavours, for 
the establishment of the honour and rights of the Church and Ministry, 
had not yet taken due effect, they were required to employ their 
utmost care to advance all things appertaining to the Order and Admin 
istration of Divine Service, according to the form and discipline of 
the Church of England ; carefully to avoid all factious and needless 
novelties, which only tended to the disturbance of peace and unity ; and 
to cause that the Ministers should be duly respected and maintained, 
and the Churches, or places appointed for Divine Service, decently 
accommodated, according to former orders in that behalf. They were, 
in the next place, commanded to keep the people in due obedience to the 
King; to provide that justice might be equally administered to all, as 
near as could be, according to the forms and constitution of England ; 
to prevent all corruption tending to the perversion or delay of justice ; 
to protect the natives from injury and oppression, and to cultivate 
peace and friendship with them as far as it should be consistent with 
the honour of the nation and safety of the people. They further pressed 
upon them, in a particular manner, the using of all possible means of 
bringing over the natives to a love of civility, and to the knowledge of 
God and his true religion; to which purpose, they observed to them, 
that the example given them by the English in their own persons and 

1 " A short Collection of the most remarkable Passages from the Originall to the Dissolution 
of the Virginia Company," London, 1651, p. 4. 



76 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

families would be of singular and chief moment; that it would be 
proper to draw the best disposed among the Indians to converse and 
labour with our people, for a convenient reward ; that thereby, being 
reconciled to a civil way of life, and brought to a sense of God and 
religion, they might afterwards become instruments in the general con 
version of their countrymen, so much desired. That each town, 
borough, and hundred ought to procure, by just means, a certain 
number of their children to be brought up in the first elements of 
literature ; that the most towardly of these should be fitted for the 
College, in building of which they purposed to proceed, as soon as 
any profits arose from the estate appropriated to that use ; and they 
earnestly required their utmost help and furtherance in that pious and 
important work ; not doubting the particular blessing of God upon 
the Colony, and being assured of the love of all good men, upon that 
account." l 

Private subscriptions were not wanting on the part of the members 
of the Virginia Company to further these schemes of settlement and 
evangelization. The countenance and generous support of Southamp 
ton and Sandys were not withheld, and so successful and persistent 
were their efforts, and so acceptable were the conditions attached to 
grants of land, that numerous patents for new settlements were granted 
to actual and intending colonists, and during the years 1619, 1620, 1621, 
more than three thousand five hundred emigrated to Virginia . Of these 
settlers a number were Puritans, and the kindly treatment they received, 
in a colony avowedly and unequivocally churchly in its sympathies and 
principles, stands out in striking contrast with the narrow bigotry tow 
ards church settlers at the North, displayed at this very period by the 
separatists from Leyden who had settled on the bleak New England 
coast. It is the confession of the historian of the United States, the 
painstaking and accurate Bancroft, in speaking of this period, that " Vir 
ginia was a refuge even for the Puritans," 2 and, although the statute- 
book may have contained stringent provisions respecting the Establish 
ment, the temper of the government and the settlers was equitable and 
tolerant. 

The arrival of Wyat and his party in safety, and the successful 
initiation of the measures recommended by the council for the develop 
ment of the colony, were made the occasion of a solemn service of 
Thanksgiving at the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, in London, on the 
17th of April, 1622. The preacher was the Rev. Patrick Copeland, 
who, as chaplain of an East Indiaman, had secured, while at the Cape 
of Good Hope, a liberal offering from the officers and men of his ship, 
for the establishment of a school for the Indian children in Virginia. 
So full of missionary spirit was this excellent divine that he was soon 
afterwards invited by the council to go over to Virginia. With this 
end in view he was chosen one of the Council of State, and made 
rector of the college for the education and conversion of the Indians. 
The pastoral care of the tenants settled on the college domain was also 

1 Stitb s " History of Virginia," p. 94. 

1 History, I., 156 ; vide, also, i., p. 196 ; H., p. 459, note. 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 77 

assigned to him, and the tithe of the produce of their lands was 
pledged towards his support. 

It was in the midst of these glad auguries of success that a blow was 
struck, making the very foundations of church and state tremble. The 
Indians had long since, to all appearance, laid aside all thought of in 
flicting injury upon the settlers, and were on terms of friendship, and 
even intimacy, with them, guiding them through the forests in their 
quest for game, taking them in their canoes on their fishing expedi 
tions, learning from them the arts of husbandry and the use of the 
implements of agriculture, and professing their desire to gain a knowl 
edge and love of the Christian s God. All apprehension of danger 
from the savages was removed. Powhatan had been succeeded by Ope- 
cancanough, who professed himself a firm ally of the English, and on 
occasion of the death of an Indian at the hands of the settlers, through 
his own imprudence, gave assurance that he held the peace so firm 
" that the sky should fall sooner than it should be violated on his part." 
Even then the plans were matured for a general massacre. The sav 
ages waited but the signal from their perfidious chieftain to fall upon 
their unsuspecting victims. The 22d of March was fixed upon as the 
day of slaughter. In one hour, on that day, and almost at the same 
moment, there fell beneath the murderous assault of the savages three 
hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children. Among the vic 
tims was the excellent Thorpe, with five other members of the council. 
In the death of Thorpe, whose zeal, piety, and gentleness, and self- 
consecration to the work of evangelizing those who were his murder 
ers, had given promise of most happy results, a grievous wrong was 
inflicted by the savages on themselves. Such was his confidence in 
those who sought his life that he neglected the warnings given him of 
his danger, and failed utterly to realize his peril until it was too late to 
escape. 

The massacre would have been complete had it not been for a 
Christian Indian, who lived with his English master, Edward Pace, as 
a son with his father. Solicited, the night before the outbreak, by his 
own brother, to engage in the fiendish plot, the faithful convert found 
means to acquaint his master with the impending danger. Pace hast 
ened to Jamestown, before the dawn, to inform the governor, and the 
intelligence was at once forwarded in every direction. Wherever 
resistance was offered, the savages refrained from attempting to put 
their bloody purpose in execution. Where the news of their plans had 
not reached, the work of extermination was complete. Sickness and 
famine followed this wholesale slaughter. Out of eighty prosperous 
plantations but a tithe remained. Of the thousands who had come from 
England but eighteen hundred survived. A natural distrust of the 
natives was followed by the exercise of an unrelenting severity, which, 
in many instances, developed a fierce and unreasonable hatred of all 
measures for the conversion or the civilizing of the Indians. The ap 
pointment of Copeland as rector of the college at Henrico, and the 
erection of the Indian school at Charles city, were not proceeded with 
by the company at home, and, in fact, the clergy and colonists in 
Virginia, for a time at least, lost heart with respect to the advance- 



78 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

ment of Christian education, or the bringing of the natives to the faith 
and Church of Christ. 

The closing reference to educational matters in the records of the 
Virginia Company, ere its dissolution by the arbitrary interference of 
the king, is the recommendation of a grant of land to Richard Downes, 
who, " being bred a scholar, went over in hope of preferment in the 
College there." l He had " continued in Virginia these four years," 
and at length, his hopes dying out, he turned his attention towards 
other pursuits. The "University of Hcnrico," and the "East India 
Free School," were never to be built. In the words of Dr. Hawks, 
" The massacre of Opecancanough thus gave a death-blow to the first 
efforts made in America for the establishment of a college, and years 
elapsed before the attempt was renewed." 2 



CRITICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 

rpHE records of the Virginia Company, of London, carefully copied from the orig- 
_L inals, which are supposed to be lost, and attested by the signatures of the secre 
taries, are to be found in two manuscript volumes in the Library of Congress. The 
history of these valuable papers is curious. They appear to have been transcribed 
at the time when the king, who had long been inimical to the company, gave signs 
of his purpose of annulling their charter, and the work of copying haa barely been 
completed when the king ordered the seizure of the papers of the company. Nicho 
las Ferrar, 3 with the assistance of Secretary Collingwood, procured the transcription 
of these records at the house of Sir John Danvers, in Chelsea. Collingwood compared 
and signed each page, and, when the copy was complete, committed it to the keeping 
of the president ot the company, Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. On 
the death of his son Thomas, Lord High Treasurer of England, these records were 
purchased in 1669 by William Bird, of Westover, Virginia, for sixty guineas, and 
it was from the Bird family that William Stith obtained them for use in the prepara 
tion of his " History of Virginia," which was completed in 1746. By some means 
these volumes came into the possession of Peyton Randolph, Stith s brother-in-law, 
and at his death, in October, 1775, his library was sold to Thomas Jefferson, who 
acquired these records as part of his purchase. On the sale of Jefferson s library 
to the United States these invaluable volumes became a part of the Library of Con 
gress. 

The importance of these papersled Mr. J. Wingate Thornton, in an article in the 
"Historical Magazine, "11., p. 33-35, and in a pamphlet published the following year, 
" The First Records of Anglo-American Colonization " (Boston, 1859) , to urge their 
publication. Ten years after the appearance of Mr. Thornton s suggestion, in May, 
1868, Mr. Edward D. Neill, who had made use of these volumes in the preparation 
of his " Terra Marias," memorialized Congress for their publication, under his edi 
torship. Failing in this purpose, Mr. Neill made these papers the groundwork of 
a "History of the Virginia Company, of London, with Letters to and from the 
First Colony, never before printed," Albany, 1869, which was subsequently reissued 
abroad with changes, as " The English Colonization of America during the Seven 
teenth Century," London, 1871. Interesting and important as are the extracts of these 
records, printed in Mr. Neill s volumes, the publication of the whole is still greatly 
to be desired. It is to be regretted that a second effort to secure this end, made by 
Senator John W. Johnston, of Virginia, in 1881, which passed the Senate, failed in 

1 History of the Virginia Company, pp. 379, Vide the " Memoir of Nicholas Ferrar," by 

380. Peter Peckard, London, 1790, a work full of refer- 

1 Hawks s " Eecl. Contributions," I., Virginia, ences to the early colonial history of Virginia, 

p. 42. Compare Palfrey s " New England," I., p. 192. 



EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES. 79 

the House of Representatives. As Mr. Thornton says : "The republication of this 
work would open a new volume of our earliest existence, a most valuable chapter 
in Anglo-American history, in its moral and social aspect; a phase, though most 
important, yet most difficult to preserve, because of its evanescent character ; it is 
not, cannot be, set forth in record and in diplomacy always and necessarily more 
or less deceptive and its spirit is only feebly discerned by the most elaborate 
analyses of the wisest student." The same authority refers to Nicholas Ferrar as 
deserving our grateful remembrance and demanding our highest regard, " as the 
very soul of Virginian .colonization," adding that his life is " of unparalleled in 
terest;" and closes his argument with these words: "As these volumes are of 
national rather than local interest, reaching back to the veiy foundation of the Eng 
lish companies for colonizing America ; as they have escaped the chances and mis 
haps of two centuries, on either side of the Atlantic ; as they have not been used by 
our historians, lying virtually unknown ; and as Providence has now placed them 
in the keeping of our National Congress, is it not our National duty to have them 
appropriately edited and published } Hist. Mag., n., p. 35. 

The spirit in which the intelligence of the massacre was received in England 
is indicated in a noble sermon preached before the Virginia Company by the cele 
brated poet and divine, Dr. John Donne, Dean of St. Paul s, on the 13th of Novem 
ber, 1622, from the text, Acts i. 8. We give some extracts of this quaint but excel 
lent discourse : " Those of our profession, that goe ; you, that send them who goe, 
doe all an Apostolic function. What action soeuer hath in the first intention 
thereof a purpose to propagate the gospell of Christ lesus. that is an Apostolicall 
action ; Before the end of the world come, before this mortalitie shall put on immor- 
talitie, before the creature shall be deliuered of this bondage of corruption, vndcr 
which it groanes, before the martyrs vnder the Altar shall be silenc d, before all 
things shall be subdued to Christ, his kingdom profited, and the last enemie (death) 
destroyed, the Gospell must be preached to those men to whom ye send ; to all men. 
Further and hasten you this blessed, this ioyful, this glorious consummation of all, and 
happie re-vnion of all bodies to their soules, by preaching the Gospell to those 
men. Preach to them doctrinally, preach to them practically, enamore them with 
your Justice, and (as farre as may consist with your securitie) your Ciuilitie ; but 
inflame them with your Godlinesse and your Religion. Bring them to loue and 
reverence the name of that King that sends men to teach them the wayes of Ciuilitie 
in this world ; but to feare and adore the Name of that King of Kings, that sends 
men to teach them the wayes of religion for the next world. Those amongst you 
that are old now, shall passe out of this world with this great comfort, that you con 
tributed to the beginning of that Commonwealth, and of that Church, though they 
liue not to see the growth thereof to perfection. Apollos watred, but Paul planted ; 
he that began the worke was the greater man. And you that are young now, may 
liue to see the enemy as much impeached by that place, and j~our friends, yea 
children, as well accommodated in that place, as any other. You shall haue made 
this Hand, which is but as the suburbs of the old world, a bridge, a gallery to the 
new ; to ioyne all to that world which shall neuer grow old, the Kingdome of 
Heauen. You shall adde persons to this Kingdome, and to the Kingdome of 
Heauen, and add names to the Bookes of our Chronicles, and to the Booke of Life." 

The laws of the House of Assembly, drawn up at the time when the king was 
seeking to effect the dissolution of the company at home, begin with the regulation 
of church affairs, and the first seven of the thirty-five articles in which they were 
comprised are wholly concerned with ecclesiastical matters. These enactments 
provide : " That in every Plantation, where the people were wont to meet for the 
worship of God, there should be a house or room, set apart for that purpose, and 
not converted to any temporal use whatsoever ; and that a place of burial be em 
paled and sequestered, only for the burial of the dead : That whosoever should 
absent himself from Divine Service any Sunday, without an allowable excuse, 
should forfeit a pound of tobacco, and that he who absented himself a month, should 
forfeit fifty pounds of tobacco : That there should be an uniformity in the Church, 
as near as might be, both in substance and circumstance, to the Canons of the 
Church of England ; and that all persons should yield a ready obedience to them, 
upon pain of censure : That the 22nd of March (the day of the massacre) should 
be solemnized and kept holy : and that all the other holidays should be observed, 
except when two fall together in the summer season (the time of their working and 
crops), when the first only was to be observed, by reason of their necessities and 
employment : That no Minister should be absent from his cure above two months 



80 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

in the whole year, upon penalty of forfeiting half his salary; and whosoever was 
absent above four months should forfeit his whole salary and cure : That whoso 
ever should disparage a Minister, without sufficient proof to justify his reports, 
whereby the minds of his parishioners might be alienated from him, and his min 
istry prove the less effectual, should not only pay five hundred pounds of tobacco, 
but also should ask the Minister s forgiveness, publicly before the Congregation : 
That, no man should dispose of any of his tobacco, before the minister was satisfied, 
upon forfeiture of double his part toward the salary ; and that one man of every 
Plantation should be appointed to collect the Minister s salary, out of the first and 
best tobacco and corn." Stith s Virginia, Sabin s reprint, New York, 1865, p. 319. 
These laws, doubtless taken, as Stith suggests, from the Articles sent over by 
Sir Thomas Smith, though in some respects severe and arbitrary, are far mom 




lished from the original MSS. in the State Paper Office (Colonial, Volume v., No. 
2), by the State ot Virginia (Richmond, 1874), we find the following clergymen 
recorded as living at that time, viz. : 

Grivcll (Greville) Pooley, Minister at Flourdien Hundred, Sir George Yeard- 
ley s Plantation ; Ilant Wyatt, Minister at James City; David Sanders (or Sandys), 
Minister at Hogg Island ; " Mr. Keth " (George Keith), Minister at Elizabeth City. 

Neill, in Ms Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy" (Philadelphia, 1877), 
gives the names of the clergy in Virginia up to the time of the massacre, as follows : 
Robert Hunt ; Glover ; Alexander Whitaker ; Richard Bucke ; William Wick- 
ham ; George Keith ; William Mease ; Thomas Bargrave ; David Sandys (or San 
ders) ; Jonas Stockton (or Stockham) ; Robert Paulet ; Robert Bolton ; Hant Wyatt ; 
William Bennett; Thomas White ; William Leate (or Leake), and Greville Pooley. 

A list such as this affords ample evidence of the interest taken by the clergy 
of the English Church in the work of ministering to the colonists and savages of 
Virginia. This solicitude for the spiritual wants of the settlers in America, shown 
by the mother-church of England, appears in striking contrast with the absence of 
any provision for months on the part of the Plymouth " pilgrims" for a minister s 
presence among^ them, although their coming to this country was professedly on 
religious grounds. 



CHAPTER VT. 

PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 



New England coast, which, during the eventful winter of 
I 1607-8, echoed the familiar words of the church s "Common 
Prayer" in the little chapel in which Richard Seymour ministered, 
at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, received, thirteen years later, the 
Ley den Brownists at Plymouth. Separatists from the Church, as they 
were, they, nevertheless, in their famous Leyden Articles, professed 
that " the authoryty of y e present bishops in y e Land wee do acknol- 
idg so far forth as y c same is, indeed, derived from his Majesty untto 
them." 1 But it is unnecessary to say that the first visitor to this 
cradle home of New England Puritanism, in holy orders, the Rev. 
William Morell, who came over in 1623, with Robert Gorges, saw no 
opportunity for the exercise of his ministry. 

Though armed with a commission from the ,-y, /> ^ . 

ecclesiastical authorities at home to exercise -^oCJ^ */3 t-O^Tt 
a quasi episcopal authority over the religious 

organization of the infant colony, Morell occupied his leisure in Plym 
outh in the composition of a Latin poem, closing with the expression 
of a natural aspiration, 

" To see here built, I trust, 
An English kingdom from this Indian dust," 

and only revealed the nature and extent of his commissarial power 
when on the eve of returning to his native land. Morell was " a modest 
and prudent priest," and during his year s residence contented him 
self with collecting such information as was within his reach ; and then, 
weary of living as a stranger in a strange land, where the strong ten 
dency to " separatism " could not well be resisted, he returned to 
England, baifled and defeated. There were churchmen among the 
early settlers at Plymouth ; but the ministrations of an English priest 
would hardly be permitted in behalf of those whose attempt at keep 
ing Christmas in default of prayers by out-door sports appropriate for 
a holiday had been received with evident disfavor by the authorities 
of the settlement. 2 

1 N.E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., xxv., p. Christmas-day y Gov r caled them out to worke, 
276. (as it was used,) but y most of this ne\v-com- 

2 " And herewith I shall end this year, pany excused them selves and said it wente 
Only I shall remember one passage more, rather against their consciences to work on y day. So 
of mirth then of waight. On y day called y e Gov r tould them that if they made it mater 



82 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

In June, 1622, probably in the ship " Charity," which brought over 
a number of Weston s men, sent out to establish a trading port in the 
vicinity of Plymouth, Thomas Morton, of "Clifford s Inn, Gent.," as 

he styled himself, and a " gentleman 



Boston, established himself, " with 

thirty servants and provisions of all sorts tit for a plantation, 1 upon 
Passonagesset, or Mount Wollaston , an eminence in the present town 
of Quincy, Massachusetts, overlooking the bay. Morton, whose mode 
of life and belief was not in accord with the rigid separatism of Plym 
outh, was deemed by them " a maine enemy to theire Church and 
State." 5 The lofty site of his settlement he named "Ma-re Mount," 
or Merry Mount. Here, on the feast of SS. Philip and James, he 
and his men, "with the help of salvages," set up a May-pole, "a 
goodly pine tree of eighty foote longe," with a pair of buck s horns 
nailed near the top, "as a faire sea marke for directions how to finde 
out the way to mine Host of Ma-re Mount." 3 Bradford, whose 
interruption of the out-door sports and games, attempted at Plym 
outh on Christmas, 1621, we have already referred to, looked with 
evil eye on the roystering Morton and his company. In the view of 
the Puritan magistrate " Morton became the lord of misrule and main 
tained (as it were) a School of Atheisme." The revels around the 
May-pole, in his judgment, were as bad " as if they had anew revived 
and celebrated the Feasts of y e Roman Goddes, Flora, or the beastly 
practices of y c madd Bachanalians." But is it not more than probable that 
the grave offence of the " Sachem of Passonagesset," as Morton styles 
himself, in the eye of Bradford, was that he " was a man that endeav 
oured to advance the dignity of the Church of England," one who pos 
sessed and valued the " sacred booke of common prayer," and used it in a 
laudable manner amongst his family, " as a practice of piety " ? The un 
prejudiced reader of Morton s quaintly written "New English Canaan" 4 
will not dispute the assertion with which he begins one of his chap 
ters : "In the year since the incarnation of Christ, 1622, it was my 
chance to be landed in these parts of New England, where I found two 
sorts of people, the one Christians, the other Infidels, these I found 
most full of humanity, and more friendly than the others." 5 The 
festivities about the May-pole were as summarily ended as the Christ 
mas-tide sports at Plymouth. "That worthy gentleman, M r . John 
Endicott," "visiting those parts caused y* May-polle to be cutt downe," 
and rebuked the revellers "for their profannes, and admonished them 

of conscience, he would spare them till they were hath been atcmptcd that way, at least openly." 

better informed. So he led away y* rest and Bradford s History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 

left them; but when they came home at noone 112. Tin s "new-company" referred to, was the 

from their worke, he found them in y e streete at body of immigrants brought over in the " For- 

play, openly; some pitching y barr, & some at tune," which arrived at Plymouth, Nov. 11, 1621. 
stoolc ball, and shuch like sports. So he went to New English Canaan, p. 41. Force s 

them, and tooke away their implements, and " Hist. Tracts," Vol. n. 
tould them that was against his conscience, that 2 Ibid., p. 100. 

they should play & others worke. If they made 3 Ibid., p. 89. 

y* keeping of if mater of devotion, let them kepe 4 Morton s " New English Canaan," p. 93. 

their houses, but thcr should be no gamcing or 3 Ibid., p. 15. 

revelling in y c streets. Since which time nothing 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 



83 



to look ther should be better walking." 1 The "Lord of Misrule," 
the merry " Sachem of Passonagesset," was arrested by the Puritans, 
under the command of the choleric Captain Miles Standish, whom 




Morton facetiously styled " Captain Shrimp" Left with scanty pro 
vision for his wants to winter on the Isle of Shoals, and succored by the 
Indians, whom he found more " full of humanity " than " these Christians," 
Morton made his way to England, where, as Bradford acknowledges, 
he was "not so much as rebukte," 2 arid whence he shortly returned, 



Bradford s " History of Plymouth Plantation," p. 238. 



* Ibid., p. 243. 



84 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

under the protection of one of the leading Puritans, Isaac Allerton, 
who, as Bradford complains, seems to have brought him " to y e towne 
(as it were to nose them) and lodged him at his owne house and for a 
while used him as a scribe to doe his bussiness." 1 But the opposition 
of the authorities compelled the friendly Allerton " to pack him away," 
as Bradford informs us, and "so he went to his old nest in y e Massa- 

chusets." This "nest" 
was his by patent, and 
but for the implacable 
hate of the 




might 



long 



Puritans it 
have been 
"Our mas 
the Bible 



said of him, 
ter reades 

and the Word of God, and useth the Booke of Common Prayer" 
within the limits of the Massachusetts Bay. But charges were 
made against this "proud insolent man," as Winthrop styles him, 
of "injuries done by him both to the English and Indians; and 
amongst others, for shooting hail-shot at a troop of Indians for 
not bringing a canoe unto him to cross a river withal ; whereby he 
hurt one, and shot through the garments of another." 2 This, of course,. 




STANDISH S SWORD AND A MATCHLOCK. 

is the testimony of his foes. If we may judge from his book, and 
from the fact that, though living near Weymouth, where Weston s men 
had been massacred by the savages, he was unharmed, and lived evi 
dently without fear, we should regard him as a friend of the red men, 
who were welcomed to Ma-re Mount, and there, initiated in a superior 
woodcraft, and dissuaded from the excessive use of aqua vitce, were 
instructed in the kindly religion of the "Book of Common Prayer." 
But the court decreed on the 7th of September, 1630, " that Thomas 
Morton, of Mount Wolliston, shall presently be set into the bilboes, and 
after sent prisoner into England, by the ship called the Gift, now re 
turning thither ; that all his goods shall be seized upon to defray the 
charge of his transportation, payment of his debts, and to give satis 
faction to the Indians for a canoe he unjustly took away from them ; 

i Bradford s " History of Plymouth Planta- Lincoln, quoted in Bradford s " Hist, of Plyin- 
" n. 2n3_ ou th Plantation," p. 253, note. 



2 Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. gfl 

and that his house, after that his goods are taken out, shall be burnt 
down to the ground in the sight of the Indians, for their satisfaction, 
for many wrongs he hath done them from time to time." l In the 
words of a recent investigator, " these were high-handed acts of unmis 
takable oppression." 8 Evidently, to quote the same authority, "the 
probabilities in the case would seem to be that the Massachusetts mag 
istrates had made up their minds in advance to drive this man out of 
Massachusetts." 3 The cruel sentence was fully carried out, and, by a 
refinement of cruelty, it was ordered that Morton should " saile in 
sight of his howse " 4 " fired " by order of his pitiless foes, and thus be 
a witness of the ruin of his hopes and home. The captain of the 
" Gift " refused to carry him agreeably to the order of the court, and 
it was three months before the authorities could rid themselves of 
the distasteful presence of the offender. In England he naturally 
sought redress for the injuries he had received, and committed the 
further offence of writing what Bradford styles "an infamouse and 
scurillous booke against many godly and cheefe men of y e cuntrie ; full 
of lyes and slanders, and fraight with profane callumnies against their 
names and persons, and y e ways of God." 5 Returning "after sundry 
years," as Maverick tells us, "to look after his land for which he had a 
patent," he was, to quote the testimony of Bradford, "imprisoned at 
Boston for this booke and other things, being grown old in wickedness." 6 
Maverick testifies as to the severity of his treatment at the hands of his 
relentless and unscrupulous persecutors, by whom he was refused bail, 
and imprisoned in the common gaol without fire or bedding through a 
cold winter, "although there was nothing laid to his charge but the writing 
of this book." Even Winthrop s account would be sufficient to convict 
the Massachusetts authorities of the grossest disregard of justice. " Hav 
ing been kept in prison about a year, in expectation of further evidence 
out of England, he was again called before the court, and, after some 
debate what to do with him, he was fined 100 and set at liberty. 
He was a charge to the country, for he had nothing, and we thought 
not fit to inflict corporal punishment upon him, being old and crazy, 
but thought better to fine him and give him his liberty, as if it had 
been to procure his fine, but indeed to leave him opportunity to go 
out of this jurisdiction, which he did soon after, and went to Agamenti- 
cus, and, living there poor and despised, he died within two years 

1 Mass. Col. Records, quoted in Bradford, hoisted by a tackle, and ncare starned in the 
p. 253, note. passage. No thinge was said to him heare : in 

2 Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., in the the tyme of his abode heare, he wrote a booke en- 
" Atlantic Monthly," 1877. titled New Canan, a good description of the 

s Ibid. Cuntery as then it was, only in the end of it he 

* Coll. N.Y. Hist. Soc., 1869. Publication pinched too closely on some in authoritie there, 

Fund, " Clarendon Papers," p. 40. We have the for W h some yeares after cominge ouerto look 

following account of Morton in a letter to the after his land for w ch he had a patent many 

Earl of Clarendon by Samuel Maverick, reciting yeares before, be found his land disposed of anil 

the acts of injustice done by the Massachusetts made a towncsbip, and himselfe shortly after ap- 

authorities : " One M r Morton, a gen* of good prehended, put into the gaole w lh out fire or bed- 

qualitie, vpon p tence that he had shott an Indian, dinge, no bayle to be taken, where he remained 

wittingly, W h was indeede but accidentally, and a very cold winter, nothing laid to his charge 

no hurt donn, they sentenced him to be sent fo r but the writings of this booke, w oh he confessed 

England prisoner, as one who had a designe to not, nor could theyproue. He died shortly after, 

sett the Indians at varienee w th vs, they fui ther and as he said, and may well be supposed on his 

ordered as he was to saile in sight of his howse hard vsage in prison." 
that it should be fired, he refusinge to goe in to ; Bradford, p. 254. 

the shipp, as havinge no busines there, was * Ibid., p. 253. 



86 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

after." l He had been robbed of his land, his house had been burned 
before his eyes, his goods had been distrained, he had been banished 
from a territory to which he had, by virtue of his patent, as good a 
right of eminent domain as those who sat in judgment upon him, and 
now, when "old and crazy," lie is considerately spared "corporal 
punishment" at the hands of those who winced beneath the lashes of his 
wit, and with the burden of a fine resting upon him, " poor " because 
spoiled of all he had by those in power, and " despised " only by those 
who were smartingunder the lash of his sarcasm, the worn-out old man 
sought refuge in the royal province of Maine, and died at Agamenticus. 
His " infamouse and scurillous booke " is still extant. Its perusal will 
not bear out the charge of the Puritan historian. If not better than 
his foes he was no worse, and churchmen may well remember that 
even if there were the May-time revels of Old England at Ma-re 
Mount, the reading of God s word and the use of the " Book of Common 
Prayer " were not forgotten by this motley crew of sportsmen and 
savages who fell under the displeasure of the zealots of Plymouth and 
the Massachusetts Bay. 

Meanwhile there had been other attempts to introduce the Church 
upon the New England coast, and within the limits of the patents of 
Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay. In 1623 the London advent 
urers sent over " a preacher," though, to quote Bradford s words, " none 
of the most eminent and rare, "to minister to the colonists at Plymouth. 
This was the Eev. John Lyford. He had been in Ireland before his 
coming to New England, and " had wound himself," as Bradford writes, 
" into y e esteeme of sundry godly and zelous professours in those parts, 
who, having been burdened with y c ceremonies in England, found there 
some more liberty to their consciences." 8 Here he had fallen into gross 
immorality, the proofs of which were readily furnished when he sought 
to " set up a publick meeting aparte, on y Lord s day," and " would goe 
minister the sacrements by his Episcopal! caling." There was no disposi 
tion at Plymouth to tolerate a schism, and Lyford and his friend Oldham 
were promptly banished from the colony. He became the minister, first 
of the little company at Nantasket, of which Roger Conant was one, and, 
Jater, of the unsuccessful settlement at Cape Ann, from whence he went 
to Virginia. There is no evidence that Lyford was any more of a con 
formist than to rely upon his ministerial commission imparted by the 
English Church. The records do not speak of his use of the prayer-book 
forms, or of his exercise of his ministry in Virginia, where none but 
conformists were admitted to parishes. Besides, the only charges of 
immorality brought against him were made during his espousal and 
advocacy of separatist views and practices, while of his career while in 
the " Episcopal calling," if we know little or nothing, we know nothing 
ill. 

About the year 1625 the present site of Boston was occupied by 
a " clerk in Holy Orders," and a graduate of Emanuel College, Cam 
bridge. The Rev. William Blaxton took the Bachelor s degree at the 
University in 1617, and his Master s degree in 1621 ; and we are told 

1 Winthrop s "Hist, of New England," 11., * Hist, of Plymouth Plantation, p 193. 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 87 

that when he appeared in America he was still less than thirty years 
old. 1 The researches of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., leave little 
or no doubt but that Blaxton, with his friends, and neighbors at a later 
date, Maverick and Walford, accompanied Robert Gorges in the expe 
dition which left Plymouth, England, in the midsummer of 1623, which, 
to quote the words of this accomplished and accurate writer, " repre 
sented the whole power and dignity of the Council for New England." 2 
It was but natural that the Rev. William Morrell, the ecclesiastical 
head of the new government, should be ac 
companied by a clerical assistant, the Rev. 
William Blaxton. That there was a close 
connection existing between Blaxton and 
Gorges is evident from notices of business 
transactions still extant. Blaxton s occupancy 
of " Shawmut " was known and recognized by 
the Puritans, who assessed him twelve shil 
lings towards the charges of arresting Thomas Morton of Ma-re Mount. 
This was on the 9th of June, 1028. Later, on the 29th of April, 1621), 
he was empowered by Gorges to put John Oldham,Ly ford s friend and 
companion in exile from Plymouth, in possession of lands near Boston, 
and in 1631 a similar authority was given him in favor of a settler at 
Dover, New Hampshire. 

Prior to 1629 Blaxton seems to have lived in solitude, apart from 
his kind, with only nature as his study, and the savages as her in 
terpreters. At length a 
churchman like himself, 
Thomas Walford, is re- 
ferred to as occupying a 
palisadoed and thatched 
house at Mishawum, now 
Charlcstown. Later, Samuel Maverick, an uncompromising church 
man, is found living at Noddle s Island, now East Boston, where he had 
built a small fort, " placing thereon some Murtherers, to protect him 
from the Indians." Thus the three peninsulas, now covered by the 
city of Boston , and part of the pat 
ent of Gorges, himself a churchman, At 
were occupied by men of the same O* m u JC ->/n 
faith, who thus, as it were, took 

possession of this important territory in fealty to the crown and church 
of the mother-land. Maverick was, as Savage informs us, " a gentleman 
of good estate," 3 but, as we learn from Johnson s " Wonder- Work ing 
Providence," 4 "an enemy to the reformation in hand, being strong for 
the Lordly prelaticall power," " though a man of a very loving and 
courteous behaviour," and " very ready to entertaine strangers." 
" Worthy of a perpetual remembrance " is the testimony given of him 
by Winthrop, 5 for his loving ministrations, and those rendered by his wife 

1 Dr. De Costa s "Monograph on William 3 Winthrop s "New England," I., p. 32, 
Blackstone, in his relations to Massachusetts note. 

and Rhode Island," p. 4. * Lib. r., Chap, xvn., in " Mass. Hist. Soc. 

2 Memorial History of Boston, i., p. 75. Coll.," 11., p. 86. 
Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., 1878, I., p. 143, Savage s ed. 
pp. 194-206. 




88 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



and servants, when the Indians in his neighborhood sickened and died 
of the small-pox. He " went daily," we are told, to the sufferers, " minis- 




tered to their necessities, buried their dead, s and took home many of their 
children." Josselyn, who visited this noble-hearted philanthropist, in 



1 The best portrait of Governor Winthrop is 
that iii the Senate Chamber of Massachusetts, 
always ascribed to Van Dyck. There is a mar 
ble statue of him, in a sitting posture, in the 
chapel at Mount Auburn, and another, stand 
ing, in the Capitol at Washington. A third, 
standing and in bronze, has been recently 
erected in the city of Boston. All the statues 
are by Richard S. Greeuough. See R. C. Win- 
throp s " Life and Letters of John Winthrop," 
n., p. 408. The portrait in the Senate Cham 
ber is that referred to in Mather s " Magualia." 



A descendant in New York has another likeness, 
much inferior, of which there is a copy, or 
duplicate, in the hall of the Antiquarian Society 
at Worcester. The family has also a miniature, 
thought to be an original, but it is in very 
bad condition. There are two copies of the 
Senate Chamber likeness in Memorial Hall at 
Cambridge; another in the Boston Athenaeum, 
and one in the gallery of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society. 

1 " Above thirty buried by Mr. Maverick, of 
Winesernett in one day." iViidhrop, I., p. 142. 



PIONEERS OF THE CHUECH IN NEW ENGLAND. 89 

July, 1638, speaks of him as "the only hospitable man in all the 
country, giving entertainment to all Comers, gratis" l He lived in his 
island home for many years, falling from time to time under the ani 
madversions of the authorities, for the too free exercise of the apos 
tolic virtue, "given to hospitality," and apparently continuing stead 
fast in his devotion to the church of his baptism and early love. 

In 1630 the quiet possession of the peninsula of Boston was broken 
by the appearance of Governor Winthrop and his followers at Misha- 
wuin. In their journey of exploration made on foot from Salem "to 
Mattachusetts, to find out a place for our sitting down," Winthrop re 
cords 2 that they "lay at Mr. Maverick s," and it was not long before 




ST. BOTOLPH S CHURCH. 

they had established themselves at their new home. The story of 
their change of location from Charlestown to Boston is recorded in the 
Charlestown Records : 

In the meantime, Mr. Blackstone, dwelling on the other side Charles River 
alone, at a place by the Indeans called Shawmutt, where he only had a cottage, at 
or not far off the place called Blackstone s Point, he came and acquainted the Gov 
ernor of an excellent Spring there ; withal inviting him and soliciting him hither. 
Whereupon, after the death of Mr. Johnson and divers others, the Governor, with 
Mr. Wilson, and the greatest part of the church removed hither: whither also the 
frame of the Governor s house, in preparation at this town, was also (to the dis 
content of some) carried ; where people began to build their houses against winter ; 
and this place was called Boston. 3 

1 Two Voyages to New England, p. 13. 3 Quoted in the " Memorial History of Bos- 
Boston, 1865. tori," i., p. 116. 

2 New England, I., p. 32. 



90 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

To this spot "a paradise," l as Winthrop styles it, when, for the 
first time sending a letter, dated from "Boston, "to his wife the solitary 
Blaxton welcomed his countrymen. His humble home was situated 
on the west slope of Beacon Hill, from which he commanded an unob 
structed view of the mouth of the Charles. Around him were culti 
vated grounds, and, it is said, an orchard. It was on the 7th of 
September, O.S., the 17th as we now reckon it, in the year 1G30, 
that the Court of Assistants ordered " that Trimountaine shall be called 
Boston," a name endeared to the new-comers from its associations with 
the Lincolnshire town of Boston, England, named for St. Botolph, 
from which the daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, the Lady Arbella 
Johnson, and her husband, had come to die in this distant land, and 
where one whose name was long to be held in honor in the new home 
of his adoption the Rev. John Cotton was still ministering as 
vicar of the noble parish church. 

The settlers at Shawmut were of the company which sailed from 
Southampton on the 22d of March in the year (1630), bringing both 
the governor and " the Company of Massachusetts Bay," and bearing 
with them the charter of Massachusetts. In the principal ship, the 
"Arbella," with the governor, were the Lady Arbella, from whom the 
vessel took its name, and her husband ; Sir Richard Saltonstall, the 
Rev. George Phillips, the minister ; Thomas Dudley, the deputy-gov 
ernor, and others ; while John Wilson, subsequently the first minister 
of Boston, was in one of the other vessels, which bore the names of the 
"Talbot," the " Ambrose," and the " Jewel." Detained by unfavorable 
winds at " the Cowes," and again while off Yarmouth, it was not until 
the second week in April that this memorable voyage, which brought to 
our shores "The Great Emigration," as it was called, was fairly begun. 

The delay had given opportunity for the members of the company 
on board the " Arbella" to address " The Humble Request of His Majesty s 
Loyall Subjects, the Governor and the Company lately gone for New 
England, to the rest of their brethren in and of the Church of England, 
for the obtaining of their Prayers, and the removal of suspicions, and 
Misconstruction of their Intentions." In this touching farewell and 
address, evidently prepared for the correction of misapprehensions which 
were rife as to designs of these emigrants, occurs the following striking 
profession of their intentions and belief: 

Howsoever your charity may have met with some occasion of discouragement 

through the misreport of our intentions, or through the disaffection or indiscretion 

of some of us, or rather amongst us (for we are not of those that dream of perfec- 

i tion in this world), yet we desire you would be pleased to take notice of the 

; principals and body of our company, as those who esteem it our honor to call the 

Church of England, from whence we rise, our dear mother ; and cannot part from 

: our native country, where she specially resideth, without much sadness of heart, 

and many tears in our eyes, ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we 

have obtained in the common salvation, we have received in her bosom, and sucked 

it from her breasts. 

We leave it not, therefore, as loathing that milk wherewith we were nourished 
there ; but, blessing God for the parentage and education, as members of the same 
body shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow that 

1 Memorial History of Boston, I., p. 117. 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 



91 



shall ever betide her, and while we have breath, sincerely desire and endeavor the 
continuance and abundance of her welfare, with the enlargement of her bounds in 
the Kingdom of Christ Jesus. 1 

Words such as these are conclusive as to the attitude of the leaders 
of w The Great Emigration " towards the Church on the " Easter Mon- 





day, Anno Domini 1630," when the excellent Winthrop began on the 
" Arbella," " riding at the Cowes, near the Isle of Wight," the invaluable 
journal whence we derive our fullest knowledge of the colony for 
nearly a score of years. It was not till the ocean was crossed that 
those stigmatized in this " Address " as indiscreet or disaffected were 
found to be in the ascendant in number and influence, and speedily 



Quoted in the " Mem. Hist, of Boston," i., p. 108. 
t., pp. 487, 488. 



Vide, also, Hutchinson s " Hist, of Mass.." 



92 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

drew to their side the very writer of this admirable "Address." It had 
been urged that "faction and separation from the Church" had been 
"secretly harboured" by those who were projecting this trans- Atlantic 
settlement, and that the colony was intended to become "a nursery of 
faction and rebellion, disclaiming and renouncing our church as a limb 
of Anti-Christ." White, in "The Planter s Plea," 1 answers this objec 
tion by a reference to " the letter subscribed with the hands of the 
Governour and his associates," as affirming the contrary ; and this 
"patriarch of New England colonization," as he is called, proceeds to 
defend the settlers from the imputations of " non-conformity " as well 
as " separation." " Some variation from the formes and customes of 
our church " might be hoped for or expected, but that the promoters 
of this enterprise were " projecting the erecting of this colony for a 
nursery of ScJtismaticks"* was indignantly denied. The assertion was 
made that at least " three parts of foure " of the planters were " able 
to justifie themselves to have lived in a constant course of conformity 
unto our church government and orders," and that the governor, "Mr. 
lo. Winthrop," had " beene every way regular and conformable in the 
whole course of his practise." " Neither all nor the greatest part of 
the Ministers are unconformable," 3 it was added. Thus earnestly did 
the adventurers themselves, at the outset of their enterprise, and their 
friends whom they left behind, disclaim the charge of separation or 
non-conformity. It is certainly noteworthy, in view of these profes 
sions of conformity and acquiescence in the teachings and practice of 
the mother-church, that but a few weeks elapsed after they had landed 
in the New World ere their " faction and separation from the Church " 
were openly confessed. 

The fleet that bore the company and charter of Massachusetts Bay 
and their fortunes had but barely reached the New England coast when, 
on the 30th of July, six weeks after their landing at Salem, the 
governor, his deputy, Mr. Isaac Johnson, the husband of the Lady 
Arbella, and John Wilson, the minister, organized, at their new 
home in Charlestown, a separatist, non-conforming "congregation or 
church." 

Sickness and death made havoc in the little community at Charles- 
town. The lack of fresh-water was sorely felt, and the invitation 
of the solitary Blaxton to the other side of the peninsula doubtless 
prevented the extermination of the colony. 

On the 19th of October, Blaxton and Maverick were admitted 
as "Freemen" ; 4 but the following May, Thomas Walford, the Charles- 
town blacksmith, a churchman who was not a freeman, was fined 40s., 
and, with his wife, banished from the " pattent," for " his contempt of 
authority and confrontinge officers, &c.," 5 and it was ordered, at the 
next meeting of the General Court, that " for time to come noe man 
shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but such as 

1 The Planter s Plea, London, 1630. Re- sympathy with the Puritan party, of which he 

printed in Force s " Hist. Tracts," n., pp. 33, 34. subsequently hccamc a prominent member. 

" The Planter s Plea" was written by the a Ihid., p. 37. 

Rev. John White, of Dorchester, En<r., who has 3 Ibid., p. 35. 

been styled the " father of the Massachusetts Records of Massachusetts, i., p. 79. Hist. 

Colony, and " the Patriarch of New England." Gencal. Register, in., pp. 41, 42. 
At this time he was a conformist, though in -"Records of Massachusetts, i.. p. 86. 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 



93 



are members of some of the churches within the ly mitts of the same." 1 
The cords of restraint were thus being tightened around the few old 
settlers who were churchmen. Even the cut of Blaxton s coat was 
offensive. We find, in Johnson s " Wonder- Working Providence," a 
quaint passage, throwing a little light on the manners and reputation 
of this eccentric, but amiable, scholar and recluse, who was the earliest 
settler of Boston. Eeferring to the spring of 1629, this writer adds : 

All this while little likelihood there was of building the Temple for God s 
worship, there being only two that began to hew stones in the Mountaines, the one 
named Mr. Bright and the other Mr. Blaxton, and one of them began to build, but 
when they saw all sorts of stones would not fit in the building, as they supposed, 
the one betooke him to the seas againe, and the other to till the Land, retaining 
no simbole of his former profession, but aCanonicall Coate. 2 




WINTHROP S FLEET. 

In the "Magnalia" Cotton Mather speaks of Blaxton as reckoned 
among the "godly Episcopalians," and refers to him as one "who by 
happening to sleep first in an hovel upon a point of land there, laid claim 
to all the ground whereupon there now stands the metropolis of the 
whole English America, until the inhabitants gave him satisfaction." 4 
The early settlers evidently recognized the existence of more than a 
claim on Blaxton s part, for, in the spring of 1633, the records state 
that "it is agreed, that M r . William Blackestone shall haue 50 acres of 

eight guns and fifty-two men, is in the fore 
ground, being towed to her anchorage. The 
"Talbot," the vice-admiral, riding at anchor, 
hides Governor s Island from the spectator. The 
" Jewell," the captain of the fleet, is the distant 
vessel on the right, where Castle Island appears. 
The time is late in a July day. The spectator s 
position is between Boston and East Boston. 
Fide " Memorial Hist, of Boston," i., p. 115. 

< Magnalia, Book m., Chap, xi., Hartford 
edition of 1855, p. 243. 



1 Records of Massachusetts, I., p. 87. 

2 II. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., n., p. 70. 

3 This cut is a reduction, by permission, from 
an oil-painting recently completed by Mr. Will- 
liam F. Halsall, representing a part of the fleet 
which brought Winthrop and his company to 
Salem just as they had come round to Boston 
Harbor and were dropping anchor. The vessels 
are a careful study of the ships of the period. 
The " Arbella," the admiral of the fleet, a ship 
of three hundred and fifty tons, carrying twenty- 




94 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

ground sett out for him neere to his howse in Boston, to inioy for 
euer." l And when, at a later day, Blaxton proposed to remove from 
his home in Boston, full payment for his property was made by a tax 
laid on all the inhabitants of the growing " metropolis." 

We have no record of services and sacraments performed by this 
solitary "clerk in Holy Orders," who seems to have spent much of his 
time in raising fruit and stock, and the rest among the tall folios and 
quartos that constituted his well-furnished library. A few allusions in 
the Puritan histories of the time, added to the reference to Blaxton 
and another clergyman who was among the settlers at Salem, which we 
have already cited from Johnson s " Wonder-Working Providence," 
afford us all the light we have with reference to Blaxton, or to those 

who with him clung to the church of 
f\ their baptism. Hubbard, in his " Gener- 
<Ji al History of New England," following 
Johnson, associated Blaxton with the 
Rev. Francis Bright, the conformist minister of Salem, of whom 
it is said that he, "not unlike Jonah, fled from the presence of the 
Lord, and went down to Tarshish." Finding that the settlers at 
Naumkeag, or Salem, were disposed to go to greater lengths in their 
separation from the Church than he approved, and, doubtless, having 
sympathized with those of the people who had already set up the 
" Common-Prayer-Worship after a sort," as Mather tells us, he re 
moved to Charlestown, and there meeting the same tendency to separa 
tion he " betooke him to the seas again," or in other words, returned to 
England. Hubbard, alluding to these abortive efforts on the part 
of Bright and Blaxton, one an Oxford and the other a Cambridge 
graduate, to introduce the Common Prayer, repeats the sneer of 
Johnson as to the ecclesiastical habit of the latter, adding that he 
" betook himself to till the ground wherin probably he was more 
skilled, or at least had a better faculty, than in the things pertain 
ing to the house of God." 2 Nor only this ; our critic waxes eloquent 
in his amplification of Johnson s words. " For any one," proceeds 
Hubbard, "to retain only the outward badge of his functions, that 
never could pretend to any faculty therein, or exercise thereof, is, 
though no honor to himself, yet a dishonor and disparagement to the 
order he would thereby challenge acquaintance with." 3 We cannot 
wonder that Boston soon became too strait for this churchman, who so 
pertinaciously clung to his " canonical coat." As Mather tells us, " this 
man was, indeed, of a particular humor, and he would never join him 
self to any of our churches, giving this reason for it : I came from 
England, because I did not like the lord-bishops; but I cannot join with 
you, because I would not be under the lord-brethren. " 4 Consequently, 
in 1634, he turned his back upon orchard and garden and spring, receiv 
ing " satisfaction " from the Bostonians he left behind, for his landed 
estate, to the amount of 30, every householder paying six shillings, 5 
and with his books and, tradition tells us, a herd of cattle, he pene- 

1 Records of the Col. of the Mass. Bay, i., 3 Ibid. 

p. 104. Masjnalia, Book in., xi. 

2 Hubbard. in n. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Memorial History of Boston, I., p. 85, 
V., p. 113. notf. 





PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 95 

trated further into the wilderness, and among "God s first temples" set 
up his sanctuary and home. A few years later, in 1641, Lechford, a 
churchman, and the author of " Plain Dealing," writes as follows : 

" One Master Blakeston, a Minister, went from Boston, having lived there 
nine or ten yeares, because he would not joyne with the Church," adding " he lives 
neere Master Williams, but is far from his opinions. " * 

It was to a spot to which he gave the name of " Study Hill," 
within the limits of the present town of Lonsdale, Rhode Island, that 
Blaxton removed, thus becom 
ing the first white inhabitant, 
as well as minister, of that 
State. From time to time he 
visited Boston, where he mar 
ried Mistress Sarah Stephenson, July 4, 1659. He is said to have 
occasionally officiated at Providence, when he was old, gathering about 
him the children by gifts of fruit ; and, without doubt, the words of the 
Common Prayer were heard at stated times by the little community at 
"Study Hill." Hopkins, of Providence, who gives us traditionary 
tales of this simple-minded, gentle-hearted recluse, speaks of him as 
"an Exemplary Christian." Fond of tilling the earth, fond of the " low 
ing herd," fond of study, and fond of children, as these old chroniclers 
depict him, we may be proud of Boston s first inhabitant and Rhode 
Island s earliest settler, the Rev. William Blaxton, A.M. He died at 
Cumberland, Rhode Island, May 26, 1675, the Wednesday after Whit 
sunday, being upwards of fourscore years old, and having survived his 
wife nearly two years. His library, numbering nearly two hundred vol 
umes, together with his "paper books," ten in number, and inventoried at 
five shillings, were destroyed by the Indians shortly after his decease. 

In the " First General Letter of the Governor and Deputy of the 
New England Company " to the settlers at Naumkeag, or Salem, in 
Massachusetts, under^ Endicott, written from Gravesend, April 17, 
1629, and beginning with the pious ejaculation, "Laus Deo," appear the 
names of " Mr. John and Mr. Samuell Browne," as members of " the 
Councell of the Mattachusetts Bay," 2 following next to the names of 
the ministers, Francis Higginson, Samuel Skelton, and Francis Bright. 
In a postscript to this important official communication the writers ap 
pend a special recommendation of " two Brethren of our Comp : Mr. 
John and Mr. Sam.: Browne, who, though they bee noe adventurers in 
the generall stock, yett are they men wee doe much respect, being 
fully perswaded of their sincere afieccions to the good of o r plantacion. 
The one, Mr. John Browne, is sworne an Assistant heere, and by vs 
chosen one of the councell there a man experienced in the lawes of 
o r kingdome, and such an one as wee are perswaded will worthy lie de 
serve yo r fauor and furtherance, w ch we desire he may haue, and that in 
the first devision of land there may be allotted to either of them 200 
acres." 3 

* Plain Dealing, or News from New Eng- 2 Records of Massachusetts, I., p. 387. 

land, Boston, 1867, p. 97. 3 Ibid., i., p. 398. 



96 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The story of the Brownes, as given by the Puritan authorities, is 
as follows : 



ic of the passengers that came over, observing that the ministers did not 
the book of Common prayer, and that they did administer baptism and the 



Sonn 

at all use the 

Lord s supper without the ceremonies, and that they professed, also, to use disci 
pline in the congregation against scandalous persons, by a personal application of 
the word of God, as the case might require, and that some that were scandalous 
were denied admission into the church, they began to raise some trouble. Of these, 
Mr. Samuel Browne and his brother were the chief, the one being a lawyer, the 
other a merchant, both of them amongst the number of the first patentees, men of 
party and post in the place. These two brothers gathered a company together, in 
a place distinct from the public assembly, and there, sundry times, the book oi 
Common prayer was read unto such as resorted thither. The governour, Mr. Endi- 
cot, taking notice of the disturbance that began to grow amongst the people by this 
means, he convented the two brothers before him. They accused the ministers as 
departing from the orders of the Church of England, that they were separatists, 
and would be anabaptists, etc. ; but for themselves, they woum hold to the orders 
of the Church of England. The ministers answered for themselves, that they were 
neither separatists nor anabaptists ; they did not separate from the Church of Eng 
land, nor from the ordinances of God there, but only from the corruptions and dis 
orders there ; and that they came away from the common prayer and ceremonies, 
and had suffered much for their nonconformity in their native land, and, therefore, 
being in a place where they might have their liberty, they neither could nor would 
use them, because they judged the imposition of these things to be sinful corrup 
tions in the worship of God. The governour and council, and the generality of the 
people, did well approve of the ministers answer ; and, therefore, finding those two 
brothers to be of high spirits, and their speeches and practices tending to mutiny 
and faction, the governour told them that New England was no place for such as 
they ; and, therefore, he sent them both back for England, at the return of the ships 
the same year; and though they breathed out threatenings, both against the gov 
ernor and ministers there, yet the Lord so disposed of all, that there was no further 
inconvenience followed upon it. 1 

The records of the colony 2 show, in addition to the story as told 
above, that the letters of these brothers to "divers of their private 
friends in England," notwithstanding their official position and standing 
in the company and community, were " opened and publiquely read." 
Those of Mr. Samuel Browne were not delivered, by order of the com 
pany, w but kept to bee made vse of against him as occasion shalbe 
offered." Banished as " factious and evil-conditioned ; " their goods, left 
behind them in their summary and forced departure, were, as they 
alleged, " undervalued and divers things omitted to be praised ; " and, 
on their presentation of "a wryting of grevances," desiring recompeuce 
for " loss and damage sustained by them in New England," it need not 
surprise us that it was voted that, on their submitting their case to 
the company s " fynall order," two of the company should " sett 
downe what they in their Judg mt shall thinke requisite to bee allowed 
them for their pretended damage sustained, and soe to make a fynall 
end accordingly." The records contain no report of a committee thus 
constituted. 

The " fynall end " does not appear. Driven from their new home, the 
expenses of the outfit, voyage, and settlement were, of course, a total 
loss. Though they had remained in New England but five or six 

1 Morton s " N.E. Memorial," p. 147. in., pp. 50-54, 56, 65, 76. Vide, also, " Rccordsof 

Published in " Archseologia Americana," Massachusetts," I., pp. 51 *>4, 60-69 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 97 

weeks, the sacrifice of property was doubtless considerable. A learned 
American archaeologist, 1 in annotating on this portion of the Massa 
chusetts Records, says, that "it is probable that a reasonable remunera 
tion was allowed them ; " but of this there is no proof. In the view 
of those who perpetrated this flagrant outrage on personal liberty and 
freedom of conscience, the behavior of the Brownes was "offensive," 
and their loss and damage but "pretended." Careful to have "an 
obsequious eye " to " the State," the authorities at home were willing 
to caution the ministers and magistrates of Salem to be wary of their 
< scandalous and intemperate speeches," in " publique sermons or 
prayers in N. England," and " rash innovations begun and practised 
in the civil and I^cclesiastical Government;" 2 but for the aggrieved 
and injured brothers there was no redress, either for the wrong done 
to their persons, or the injury to their property. With their forcible 
ejectment from the settlement at Salem, the use of the Common Prayer 
and all efforts for conformity, of which any record is extant, ceased. 
The Rev. Francis Bright, either to escape a like fate, or despairing of 
any success with the determined separatists under the leadership of 
Endicott, Higginson, and Skelton, removed to Charlestown, and 
shortly afterwards sailed for England. 

During the years 1638-1641, Thomas Lechford, " of Clement s 
Inne, in the County of Middlesex, Gent," who had earlier, as he tells 
us, " suffered imprisonment, and a kind of banishment . . . for some 
acts construed to oppose, and as tending to subvert Episcopacie, and the 
settled Ecclesiasticall government of England," resided in Boston. The 
offence to which he refers, as we learn from a passing allusion in Mr. 
Cotton s " Way of Congregational Churches Cleared," was his " wit 
nessing against the Bishops, in soliciting the cause of Mr. Prynne." 
Lechford landed in Boston a little more than a year after Prynne s trial 
in the Star Chamber. He was accompanied from England, it is sup 
posed, by his wife. Almost from the very hour of his landing he was 
regarded with distrust by those of influence and authority in church 
and commonwealth. His profession was objectionable, " no advocate 
being allowed" in matters requiring legal process; and his views in 
ecclesiastical matters were soon found to be diametrically opposite to 
those which obtained in the Massachusetts Bay. 3 The " divine right of 
Episcopacy," which he maintained in conversations with the leading 
men of the colony, he sought to prove in a manuscript treatise, which 
he submitted to the deputy governor, Dudley, a man of marked 
conscientiousness, narrow vision, and intense prejudices, who saw in 
the toleration of novel opinions in theology "a cocatrice s egg," 

" To poison all with heresy and vice." 

Dudley pronounced the book " erroneous and dangerous, if not he- 
reticall," and sent it to Winthrop with the suggestion, "that instead of 
puttinge it to the presse as hee desireth, it may rather be putt into the 
fire as I desire." 4 This manuscript, with another of Lechford ^ theo- 

i S. F. Haven, LL.D., editor of a por- 2 Records of Massachusetts, i., p. 407-409. 

tion of the " Records of the Company of the Mas- s Winthrop s " New England," ir., p. 43. 

sachusetts Bay." Archaeologia Americana, in., *J. Hammond Trumbull s Reprint of 

p. 76. " Plain Dealing," pp. 22, 23. 



98 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




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v . $tf. 




PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 99 

logical essays, was submitted to a council of the Elders ; but neither in 
conference nor in writing could the author be convinced of error, while 
the Elders would not admit that the opinions he advanced could be held 
" salvafide " Consequently the friend and supporter of Prynne was 
compelled to remain outside of the pale of the New England "church," 
and exclusion from church fellowship carried with it exclusion from the 
privileges of a freeman, and disqualification for civil office. " Kept 
from all places of preferment in the Commonwealth," he was "forced 
to get his living by writing petty things, which scarce found him 
bread." 1 By plying his pen as a conveyancer, scrivener, or draughts 
man, he eked out a scanty livelihood ; but regular employment as a 
clerk, or public notary, for which his studies and experience peculiarly 
qualified him, was denied him by the court, as he states, "for fear of 
offending the churches because of" his " opinions." Debarred from the 
exercise of his profession for his injudicious and unprofessional exer 
tions in behalf of a client s cause, his apology was received by the court, 
and he was suffered to practise again, with, it would appear, but little 
improvement of his " low and poor estate." In his capacity as a copy 
ist he was employed in writing " The court booke " for Mr. Endicott, 
and among other things, the " breviatof laws," subsequently adopted, 
with some amendments, as the Body of Liberties. It was during the 
execution of this latter work, which, as Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull 
says, "in his hands, we maybe sure, was something more than that of 
mere transcription," he " conceived it his duty, in discharge of his con 
science," and " as Amicus curia, with all faithfulness to present," to the 
governor and magistrates, his objections to certain laws proposed to be 
embodied in the code. But, though industrious, and evidently honest 
in his convictions of duty, and in his conscientious devotion to his opin 
ions, it was evident that he was daily becoming more and more 
dissatisfied with both church and commonwealth as they existed in 
New England. That his prelatical views, and his zeal in advocating 
them, made him obnoxious to the magistrates, to the ministers, and 
to the members of the Puritan church, is evident. The wonder 
is that he was tolerated at all. He was neither a freeman nor a 
church-member. He was not even a householder. In the eye of 
the law he was merely a " transient person," who could be warned 
out of the jurisdiction of the magistrates, if need be, without the assign 
ment of a reason. He questioned the validity of non-episcopal orders, 
and disapproved of the exercise by the " freemen," as they were con 
stituted in the Massachusetts Bay, of the right to elect their own rulers. 
These opinions he complacently communicated to Governor Winthrop, 
the deputy-governor Dudley, and the preachers, Mr. Cotton and Mr. 
Wilson ; and these views, with possibly some reserve in the expression 
of his " full mind in some things," he doubtless expressed to all who 
came in his way. At length the General Court was " pleased to say 
something to him, as for good counsel about some tenets and disputa 
tions which he had held, advising him to bear himself in silence and as 
became him." The records show that he confessed that " hee had over 
shot himselfe," and was " sorry for it," and on his promise "to attend 

1 Plain Dealing, p. 69. 



100 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



his calling, and not to meddle w th controversies," he was dismissed. 1 
The controversies in which he had " too far meddled " concerned 
" matters of church government and the like ; " " the foundation of the 
church and the ministry, and what rigid separations may tend unto." 
Shortly after these experiences he returned to England. It was sup 
posed that Prynne sent the money for his passage. He sailed from 
Boston on the 3d of August, 1641, touching at Newfoundland on his 
homeward route. On the Kith of November he was again an inmate 
of Clement s Inn, and had returned " humbly " " to the Church of 
England, for whose peace, purity, and prosperity" his daily prayers 
went up to heaven. His book was an attempt to prove that " all was 
out of joint, both in church and commonwealth," in Massachusetts. 
The book was not written in a wholly unfriendly spirit, and certainly 
does not deserve the sweeping criticism of Mr. Cotton, that it might 
be called " false and fraudulent." Dr. Hammond, his latest editor, 
pronounces him "conscientious, painstaking, tolerably exact, and 
almost always reliable." 

We know nothing of Lechford s career after his return save a 
single sentence in Mr. Cotton s " Way of Congregational Churches 
Cleared," which tells us that " when he came to England, the Bishops 
were falling, so that he lost his friends, and hopes, both in Old Eng 
land and New : yet put out his Book (such as it is) and soon after 
dyed." 2 The " Plain Dealing " is his sole legacy. It is certainly the 
work of an honest man, whose churchmanship was the result of con 
viction, and had the merit of 
being avowed at a time most 
inopportune for the convert s 
fortunes. 

But a little later than the 
settlement of the Ley den Puri 
tans at Plymouth, and under 
the authority of the Council of 
New England, a patent was 
granted to Captain Mason of all 
the territory from the river of 
Naumkeag, now called Salem, 
round Cape Ann, to the Mer- 
rimack, and extending up each 
of the rivers named to its 
source ; then crossing from the 
ne& d f one to the4iead of the 
other, and including all the 
islands lying within three miles 
of the coast comprised within 
these limits. This grant re 
ceived the name of Mariana, and was made in 1621. 3 The following 
year a grant was made to Gorges and Mason jointly of all the territory 
between the rivers Merrimack and Sagadahock, and extending back to 




1 Mass. Col. Records, i., p. 310. 
- Part I., p. 71 . 



3 Belknap s " New Hampshire," I , p. 4. 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW. ENGLAND. 101 

the great lakes and river of Canada. This domain received the name 
of Laconia. 1 

Under the authority of this grant Gorges and Mason, in connec 
tion with a number of merchants of London, and the leading eities in the 
west and south-west of England, organized the " Company of Laconia," 
and in 1623 attempted a colony and fishing-station at the mouth 
of the river Piscataqua. Two settlements were established, one on 
the southern shore of the river, near its mouth, called Little Harbor. 
Here a fort was erected, and a manor-house, called Mason Hall, was 
built on a commanding eminence protected by the fortification. A 
part of the original settlers, Ed ward and William Hilton, fish-mongers, 
of London, occupied a neck of land eight miles farther up the river, 
which they named Northam, and afterwards Dover. In 1629 the set 
tlers at the mouth of the Pascataqua combined for mutual protection, 
and set on foot a scheme of local government. Two years later up 
wards of fifty men were in the employ of Captain Mason, as stewards 
and servants. Some idea of the comparative importance of this church 
settlement, for such it was, can be drawn from the fact that, in the 
assessment of the settlers at various points, towards the charges of arrest 
ing Thomas Morton, in 1628, " Pascataquack " was rated the same as 
"Plimouth." Various efforts were made by Mason for the furtherance 
of the settlements made under his auspices, with but indifferent suc 
cess ; and in 1638 Winthrop, the Governor of the Colony of Massa 
chusetts Bay, records his death as that of "the chief mover in all 
the attempts against us ; " adding, " the Lord in mercy, taking him 
away." 2 The character of this sturdy old churchman, who was a rela 
tive of the Rev. Doctor Robert Mason, chancellor of the diocese of 
Winchester, to whom a reversionary interest was bequeathed in his 
will, may be better judged by his gift in trust of a thousand acres of 
land for the maintenance of " an honest, godly and religious preacher 
of God s Word," and a bequest of a similar nature and value for the 
support of a grammar school ; the first bequests in New England, on 
record, for religious or educational purposes. That there was a clergy 
man of the Church connected with these early settlements in New 
Hampshire does not admit of a doubt ; and the name of " John Mich- 
ell, a Minister," is found on the Privy Council Register, June 27, 1638, 
as having a claim on Sir Ferdinando Gorges for remuneration for advent 
ures in Laconia. 3 In 1640, May 25th, 4 a grant of fifty acres of land 
for a glebe was made by the governor, Francis Williams, and inhab 
itants of Strawberry Bank, since known as Portsmouth, to Thomas 
Walford, the "smith" of Charlestown, who had been banished from 
the spot where he had been the first occupant, by Winthrop and his 
associates, and Henry Sherburne, church-wardens of Portsmouth, 
and their successors forever as feoffees in trust, by virtue of which grant 
this land is still held. At this time there were a chapel and parsonage 
at Portsmouth. The church was furnished " with one great Bible, 
twelve Service Books, one pewter flagon, one communion cup and 
cover of silver, two fine table cloths and two napkins." 5 These had 

iBelknap s " New Hampshire," I., p. 4. 4 Belknap s " New Hampshire," i., p. 28. 

2 Savage s " Winthrop," I., p. 223. Batchelder s " Hist, of the Eastern Dio- 

8 Jenness s " Transcripts," etc.. p. 29. cesc," T., p. 134. 



102 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

been sent over by Mason, with that thoughtful care and reverent loy 
alty which marked a devout and earnest churchman. The erection of 
"the parsonage house, with a chapel thereto united," was the "free and 
voluntary " act of " divers and sundry of the inhabitants of the lower 
end of Pascataquack." 1 Twelve of the fifty acres granted to the 
church-wardens were adjoining the parsonage. The remainder was 
laid out at the head of " Strawberry-bank Creek." The right of pre 
sentation to the "living" was in the hands of the parishioners. The 
grant proceeds as follows : 

And for as much as the said parishioners have founded and built the said par 
sonage-house, chappell, with the appurtenances at their own proper cost and charges, 
and have made choyse of Mr. Richard Gibson to be the first parson of the said par 
sonage, soe likewise whensoever the said parsonage happen to be voyd by death of 
the incumbent, or his time agreed upon expired, that then the patronage presently 
and nomination of the parson to be vested and remain in the power and election of 
the said parishioners or the greater part of them forever. 8 

In the inventories of the property possessed by the settlers at 
" Ne witch wanicke " and "Pascattaquack," in July, 1633, we find in 
cidental evidence of the churchmanship of the colony. Record is 
made of " 1 Psalter" ; " 1 communion cup and cover of silver ; 1 small 
communion table cloth " 3 and " 2 service bookes. " In July, 1635, there 
were inventoried as belonging to the "Plantations at Piscataway and 
Newichewanock," " For Religious Use," " 1 great bible, 12 service 
books, 1 pewter fflaggon, 1 communion cup and cover of silver, 2 fine 
table cloths, 2 napkins." 4 

The independence, whether civil or ecclesiastical, of the church 
pioneers of New Hampshire was but short-lived. The settlements on 
the Piscataqua passed, in 1641, under the authority of Massachusetts. 
The power thus acquired was speedily and remorselessly exercised to 
crush out all tendencies towards " the hierarchy and descipline of the 
Church of England." 5 At the " General Court, " held in 1642, as Win- 
throp tells us, "appeared one Richard Gibson, a scholar, sent three or 
four years since to Richman s Island, to be a minister to a fishing 
plantation there, belonging to one Mr. Trelawney (Tretaway?) of 
Plimouth in England. He removed from there to Pascataquack, and 
this year was entertained by the fishermen, at the Isle of Shoals, to 
preach to them. He being wholly addicted to the hierarchy and dis 
cipline of England, did exercise a ministerial function in the same 
way, and did marry and baptize at the Isle of Shoals, which was now 
found to be within our jurisdiction. This man being incensed against 
Mr. Larkham, pastor of the church at Northam (late Dover), for 
some speeches he delivered in his sermon against such hirelings, etc., 
he sent an open letter to him, wherein he did scandalize our govern 
ment, oppose our title to those parts, and provoke the people, by way 
of arguments, to revolt from us (this letter being shown to many be 
fore it came to Mr. Larkham). Mr. Gibson being now showed this 

1 Batcbelder s " Hist, of the Eastern Dio- z Provincial Papers, I., pp. 78, 80. 

cese," I., p. 134. < Ibid., p. 116. 

Provincial Papers, New Hampshire, i., 5 Winthrop s "Hist. of N. E.," n.,p. 79. 
pp. 111-113. 






PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 103 

letter, and charged with his offence, he could not deny the thing, 
whereupon he was committed to the marshall. In a day or two after 
he preferred a petition which gave not satisfaction, but the next day he 
made a full acknowledgment of all he was charged with, and the evil 
thereof, submitting himself to the favor of the court. Whereupon, in 
regard he was a stranger, and was to depart the country within a 
few days, he was discharged without any fine or other punishment." l 
There is, as a late annotator 2 on the men and measures of this period 
of New England history aptly describes it, in his reference to a similar 
exercise of authority, " a grim solemnity " in the Puritan governor s 
record of the arrest and imprisonment of this " scholar," who was 
willing to lay aside his books to minister the word and sacraments .to 
the fishermen of the Isle of Shoals. Doubtless his sorrow for the 
offence of doubting the high-handed usurpation of the Massachusetts 
authorities over the churchmen of his cure, and scandalizing the 
government of Winthrop and his fellow-magistrates, was quickened 
by a realization of the despotic power at whose mercy he was placed. 
Even the "corporal punishment," thought unfit for Morton, "be 
ing old and crazy," as well as the winter imprisonment on scanty fare, 
and without either fire or bedding, added to* a heavy fine, which was 
ff awarded to a member of the legal profession, " whose offence, as stated 
by Winthrop, was that he had made a "complaint against us at the 
Council Board," might have been anticipated in the case of the "scholar" 
Gibson, but for his timely submission to the powers that were. To 
question the " right divine " of the Puritan theocracy ; to petition against 
gross abuses to the source whence whatever authority claimed or pos 
sessed under the Massachusetts charter was derived ; or to " provoke 
the people by way of arguments to revolt" against the unscrupulous 
usurpation, were no light offences. Well was it that the "scholar" 
was disposed to seek refuge in his home across the seas. Well might 
the non-conformist JBurdet, in his letter to the primate, speak of the 
Massachusetts government, at this very time, in language such as this : 
"She is not merely aiming at new discipline, but sovereignty ; for 
even her General Court account it perjury and treason to speak of 
appeals to the king." 3 

The time of Gibson s coming to New England is not known. 
Even his birthplace and college are not recorded. As we have seen, 
Winthrop asserts that he was sent over by Trelawney,or Tretaway, as 
another reading has it, to minister to the plantation on Richmond s 
Island, on the coast of Maine. Others say that he came at the in 
stance of Sir Alexander Rigby, "the patron of Episcopal ministers, 
and the friend of the enterprising, ignorant poor." 4 He was probably 
on the coast as early as 1636. It was at this time that Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, under the authority of a royal grant, set on foot at Winter 
Harbor, on the Saco river, the first organized government within the 
limits of the present State of Maine. In common with the Provincial 
Charter, secured by Gorges in 1639, this grant provided for the estab- 

i Winthrop s " Hist, of N.E.," pp. 79, 80. Williamson s " Hist, of Maine," i., p. 270. 

* Charles Francis Adams, Jr., in his intro- Vide, also, Hutchinson s Mass., I., p. 85, and 

duction to " The New English Canaan," Prince Winthrop s, passim. 
Society s edition, p. 97. 4 Williamson, T., p. 209. 



104 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

lishment of the Church of England, and gave to the patentee the 
nomination of the ministers of all churches and chapels which might 
be built in the province. In the autumn of 1636 "a book of 
rates for the minister to be paid quarterly, the first payment to 
begin at Michaelmas next," was drawn up at Saco, and subscrip 
tions to the amount of 31 15s. were raised among the few 
settlers at this spot. The pioneer clergyman was accompanied by his 
wife, Mary Gibson, and the faithfulness of his ministrations, and his 
fidelity to his convictions, are both matters of record at the hand of 
the keen and observing historian of Puritan Massachusetts. The his 
torian of Maine, Williamson, although destitute of ecclesiastical affili 
ations with Gibson, speaks of him as " a good scholar, a popular 
speaker, and highly esteemed as a gospel minister." 1 

Gibson was succeeded, in part of his field, by the Rev. Robert 

Jordan. 8 The 

-y Jo- / f church interest in 

23 V >tv c /t^O^i^ fr*> *-**-*" New Hampshire 

V had faded out 

before the re 
pressive measures of the Massachusetts authorities. But at Scar- 
boro , Casco, now Portland, and at Saco, Jordan, who arrived about the 
year 1640, labored assiduously and with success. He was but twenty- 
eight years of age when he undertook the work from which Gibson had 
been practically banished. But the aggressions of the Puritan magis 
trates were not to cease with the obliteration of church ministrations in 
New Hampshire. The restless longing for further acquisitions of terri 
tory, und a wider range of power, could not be satisfied, while, as the 
author of "Ancient Pemaquid" asserts, "Maine was distinctively Episco 
palian, and was intended as a rival to her Puritan neighbors." 3 But the 
task of subjugation was not an easy one. Jordan bore no inconsiderable 
part in the opposition to the policy of Massachusetts and the Puritans ; 
and as by his marriage with Sarah, the only child of John Winter, 
the leading settler at Richmond s Island, he became one of the great 
landed proprietors and wealthy men of the colony, the faithful mission 
priest of the coast of Maine was in a position to wield a powerful influ 
ence in favor of the Church, as well as to contend against the intrigues 
of those who sought to overthrow the independence of Maine. 

At the time of Jordan s arrival on the coast Richmond s Island was 
an important commercial plantation. It is probable that a church was 
erected there. In an inventory of the property on the plantation at 
Richmond s Island and Spurwink, taken in October, 1648, mention is 
made of" The minister s bedding ; the communion vessels ; one cushion ; 
one table cloth ; \\ pint pot, 4." 4 In an account against " The plan 
tation," rendered by Jordan at this time, we find as follows : "Dr. for 
his charge, ^ a year, 20 ; for his ministry as by composition, ^a year, 

1 Williamson s " Hist, of Maine," II., p. 291. The signature of Jordan is copied from 

* Notices of the family of Jordan, contrib- an original deed executed by him in 1660, and 

uted by John Wingate Thornton, are to be preserved in the " Willis " collection of MSS., 

found in the first volume of the " Hist. Magazine " in the Public Library in Portland, 
for 18o7, p. 54. Vide, also, W. II. Whirmore s & Thornton s " Pemaquid," p. 175 

article, on the same subject, in the " N. E. Hist. 4 Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., i., p. 223. 

Geneal. Register," xiu., pp. 221. 222. 






PIONEERS OF THE CHUKCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 105 

10." Charge is also made for his tithe of "train or mackerel," and 
"share offish." l In 1648 Jordan removed from Richmond s Island to 
a place on the Spurwink river, adjoining the property of his late father- 
in-law. On the 18th of December, by virtue of a " Decree of the General 
Assembly of the Province of Lygonie, holden at Casco Bay," the pre 
ceding September, Mr. Jordan became possessed of "all the goods, lands, 
cattle, and chattels belonging to Rob . Trelawny, dec d," in payment of a 
debt of 609 Os. 10|^. The settlement of the estate which he inherited 
from his father-in-law involved Jordan in much litigation, but the respect 
shown to him by his fellow-settlers is attested by his frequent choice 
as assistant and justice. He lived in Falmouth thirty -one years, preach 
ing and administering the sacraments according to the usages of the 
Church of England, save when silenced by the Puritan authorities of 
Massachusetts. The baptismal basin brought from the old home, and 
used by this devoted churchman and colonist, is still preserved in the 
family of one of his descendants, and is an interesting memorial of the 
ministrations that proved so distasteful to the Puritan rulers. The " Rec 
ords of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," under 
date of October 16, 1660, contain the following proof that the frontier 
priest was not forgotten in his exercise of his sacred calling : 

Whereas it appeares to this Court, by serueal testimoneys of good repute, 
that M r . Robert Jordan did, in July last, after excercise was ended vpon the Lord s 
day, in the house of M". Mackworth, in the toune of Falmouth, then & there bap 
tize three children of Nathanell Wales, of the same toune, to the offence of the 
gouernment of this Colnonwealth, the Court judgetb it necessaiy to beare wittnes 
ag e such irregular practises, doe therefore order that the secretary, by letter, in the 
name of this Court, require him to desist from any such practises for the future, and 
also that he appeare before the next Generall Court to ans what shall be layd ag 1 
him for what he hath donne for the tyme past. 8 

That the General Court did not confine itself to words may be in 
ferred from the testimony of Col. Cartwright, one of the Royal Com 
missioners in 1665, who, in his official report, preserved among the 
"Clarendon Papers ," 3 states that " They did imprison , and barbarously use 
M r . Jordan for baptizing children, as himselfe complayned in his petition 
to the Commissioners." A few years later, in 1671, a warrant was is 
sued against him, requiring his presence at the next court, "to render 
an account why he presumed to marry Richard Palmer and Grace Bush, 
contrary to the laws of this jurisdiction." 4 There is little doubt, from 
the documents of the period, that this intolerance and persecution pro 
duced its natural result. Exasperated at the treatment he had received, 
and impatient of the rule of the Puritans, whom he despised, bitter 
speeches of his against the ministers and magistrates of the Massachu 
setts Bay are on record, and charges of falsehood and profanity 5 were 
made against him by men who scrupled at nothing to silence, or even 
annoy, a man so influential and so difficult to control. It is but just 
to state that the witnesses to these charges were Falmouth men, who had 

1 Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., I., p. 230. 8 Published by the New York Historical 

*Shurtleff s "Records," Vol. rv., Pt. I., Society, " Collections," 1869, p. 84. 
p. 436. Ballard s " Church iu Maine," p. 16. 

8 Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., i., p. 108. 



106 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



little or no reputation, and their violence was discountenanced even by 
those whose interests they sought to serve. Complained of and silenced 
by the usurpers, he, in his turn, brought a complaint to the court against 
the Puritan minister at Scarborough, for " preaching unsound doctrine 




PETTTION OF ROBERT JORDAN TO THE COURT OF ASSISTANTS, 
AT BOSTON, SEPTEMBER 4, 1663. 

to the settlers." -But enough of these recriminations. It is pleasant to 
turn to other representations giving us a kindlier view of this stout 
hearted and fearless champion of the Church. When even the cele 
brated Lord Chief Baron, Sir Matthew Hale, and Sir Thomas Browne, 
the famous physician of his time, were not superior to the belief in witch 
craft, and favored the punishment of those supposed to have dealings 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 107 

with familiar spirits, the clear-headed and sensible minister of Spur- 
wink, when a " drunken preacher " sought to convict a witness of his 
unfaithfulness of this offence, " unriddled the knavery and delivered the 
innocent." 1 

In the Indian war, excited by the Chieftain Philip, Jordan s house 
was attacked by the savages. The aged clergyman, with his family, 
barely escaped the fury of the assailants. His house was destroyed, and 
he and his family were forced to take refuge on Great Island (now New 
castle), near Portsmouth, N.H. Invited, in 1677, by the Governor 
of New York, to settle at Pemaquid with his friend, Giles Elbridge, he 
preferred to remain in his quiet retreat. Old age had crippled his 
physical powers, and, after a residence of four years at Great Island, he 
died, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, in 1679. His will was made 
on the 28th of January, and proved on the 1st of July, 1679. Enfeebled 
and infirm, he had lost the use of his hands before his death, and was 
unable to sign the will that divided between his widow and his six sons 
a landed domain comprising several thousand acres. " Weak in body, 
but of sound and perfect memory, praysed be God," the old preacher 
professed himself to be at the time of making his last will and testament, 
and the document in which he bequeaths his " soule to God, hopeing by 
the merits of Christ " his " Saviour, to enjoy eternal life," recognized the 
fact that the temporalities he possessed were his "all by y e providence 
of Almighty God." He died as he had lived, the sole priest of thei 
Church on New England soil who was faithful to his ordination vows, ; 
and when his utterance of the words of Common Prayer was hushed in 
death, there was no voice to take up the familiar words, and the century 
drew near its close ere their sound was heard again. In April, 1688, 
a lay reader, John Gyles, reported that " ever since June last " he " had 
read prayers at the garrison, on Wednesdays and Fridays, and had not 
received anything for it." 8 No further reference to Church, to clergy 
men, or to the common prayer, appears in the history of the times. 
Thus ended for years the Church s possession of the coast of New 
Hampshire and Maine. 



CRITICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 

MR. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR., who had already, in one or two ex 
ceedingly clever papers, ref erred to the points at issue between Morton and his 
assailants, has recently (1883) edited for the " Prince Society,"-of Boston, a reissue 
of "The New English Canaan." The volume is carefully prepared, and the 
annotations throw no little light on obscure allusions and metaphorical subtleties 
of this "most careless and slipshod of authors." But Mr. Adams, who, in his 

1 Vide "A Modest Inquiry into the Nature England Historical Genealogical Kefirister."xni. 

of Witchcraft By John Hale. p. 19. 

Quoted by W. H. Whitmore, in the " New * Ballard s " Church in Maine," p. 22. 



108 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

earlier notices of Morton, had shown some sympathy for his hard usage, in this 
later and more elaborate treatment of the subject essays the complete vindication 
of Morton s opponents, and has only unstinted blame for this ill-starred adventurer. 
So plainly does Mr. Adams recognize the fact that the Puritans themselves are on 
trial, even by their own showing, that he feels it requisite to reproduce the ungener 
ous surmises and slanders respecting Morton that have no foundation other than 
the testimony of the men who persecuted him to death. The charge that Morton 
had fled to New England "upon a foule suspition of murther," is dwelt upon at 
length and pronounced not "improbable," although Mr. Adams is forced to 
acknowledge that, " though he was subsequently arrested and in jail in England, 
the accusation never took any formal shape." Forced to disavow much of Bradford s 
abuse of Morton s views, as well as his mode of life, Mr. Adams is certainly in 
consistent in his charge that " he cared little for either law or morals," and then in 
confessing that he was " better versed in the law of England than those who ad 
monished him," and in one of the two points at issue with Bradford and his people 
was " clearly right." Nor is this all that Mr. Adams is forced to concede. In regai d 
to the second point in question, " that the King s proclamation died with him," he 
admits that " this distinction was, a century and a half later, stated by Hume to have 
existed in James s time." Confessedly wrong in their legal exceptions to Morton s 
practices in his trade with the Indians, the deience is urged that " the question with 
the settlers was one of self-preservation." It is difficult to see why the necessities 
of self-preservation did not apply as well to Morton s smaller colony, and, in fact, 
to all the scattered i-epresentatives of the Gorges interest, as to the compact and 
well-fortified settlement at Plymouth. Bradford admits that, so far as the Plymouth 
people were concerned, they "had least cause of fear or hurt." But for the 
"straggling plantations," as Bradfoixl says, of "no strength in any place," the 
Plymouth settlers were willing to interfere, carefully assessing the costs of their 
undertaking on those whom they proposed to aid. Even Blaxton, the church cler 
gyman who first settled upon the site of the present city of Boston, was assessed 
twelve shillings towards this martial exploit of which the doughty Captain Standish 
was the leader, and life as well. There is no proof, however, that Blaxton paid this 
arbitrary assessment, or had any share in the persecution of his fellow-churchman. 
There is not a little reason to infer that Morton s success in the peltry trade was a 
moving cause in this interference on the part of the Puritan settlers, quite as much 
as their dislike of the Maypole revelry. Sent to England with Oldham, whom, as 
Bradford intimates, he "foold," there is no question that Mr. Adams is correct in 
stating that "Bradford s letter and complaints were quietly ignored ; and his lord 
of misrule, and head of New England s first schoole of Atheisme, escaped 
without, so far as could be discovered, even a rebuke for his misdeeds." And yet 
this was net an age when offences were likely to be condoned or lightly punished. 
The inference is certainly strong that Bradford s charges were found to be too 
trivial or too much exaggerated to be made the foundation for legal process, and 
"that unworthy man and instrmnente of mischeefe, Morton," was almost imme 
diately found domiciled in Allerton s house in Plymouth, brought over, as Bradford 
admits, "as it were to nose them." From Plymouth Morton returned to Mount 
Wollaston, and was soon embroiled with Endicott in his controversy with the " old 
planters." Required, in common with the other " old planters," to subscribe the 
articles drawn up by Skelton, to the effect " that in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as 
political, the tenor of God s word should be followed," on pain and penalty of banish 
ment, he refused to set his hand to these papers without the proviso, " So that nothing 
be done contrary or repugnant to the laws of the kingdom of England." Thus were 
the very words of the royal charter made use of in thwarting the establishment of 
the Massachusetts Theocracy. Morton also refused compliance to the dictation of 
Endicott with reference to trading with the natives. For a time he was unmolested. 
But Endicott was not a man to forget one so open in his opposition to the Massa 
chusetts " Church and State." Apprehended by order of the court, " set into the 
bilboes," his house burned before his eyes, "that the habitation of the wicked 
should no more appear in Israel," sent to England in a ship, as Adams states it, 
" unseaworthy and insufficiently supplied," we can certainly agree with the editor 
of the "New English Canaan," though not in the meaning he intends, that this 
" second arrest of Morton was equally defensible with the first." Certainly, the 
statement that " he had systematically made himself a thorn in Endicott s side," or 
that he had refused to enter into any covenants, whether for trade or govern 
ments," or even the charge that " he had. openly derided the magistrate and eluded 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 109 

his messengers," are not a sufficient warrant for the high-handed measures of 
Endicott and his followers. That even the forms of law were disregarded may be 
inferred from Mr. Adams s words, that " he was apparently cut short in his defence 
and protest by impatient exclamations and even bidden to hold his peace and hearken 
to his sentence." We may further quote Mr. Adams, whose sympathies are wholly 
with the Puritan authorities, and acquiesce in his judgment of the proceedings of 
the so-called "court": "Nothing was said in the sentence of any disregard of 
authority or disobedience to regulation. No reference was made to any illicit 
dealings with the Indians or to the trade in fire-amis. Offences of this kind would 
have justified the extreme severity of a sentence which went to the length of 
ignominious physical punishment, complete confiscation of property, and banish 
ment ; leaving only whipping, mutilation, or death, uninflicted. No such offences 
were alleged. Those which were alleged, on the contrary, were of the most 
trivial character. They were manifestly trumped up for the occasion. The accused 
had unjustly taken away a canoe from some Indians ; he had fired a charge of shot 
among a troop of them who would not ferry him across a river, wounding one and 
injuring the garments of another; he was a proud, insolent man, against whom a 
multitude of complaints were received for injuries done by him both to the English 
and the Indian. Those specified, it may be presumed, were examples of the rest. 
They amount to nothing at all, and were afterwards veiy fitly characterized by 
Maverick as mere pretences." It was " a serious blunder," Mr. Adams 
confesses, to send Morton to England; but "the Massachusetts magistrates had 
made up their minds before he stood at their bar." They " proposed to purge 
the country of him," and in doing it they regarded, as in other cases, neither 
law nor right. 

In England Morton naturally sought redress. His Puritan foes had underes 
timated his abilities, and they soon found reason to tremble for themselves. It was 
in evidence that " the ministers and people did continually rail against the state, 
church and bishops," and among the men of note arrayed against the Puritan theoc 
racy was the celebrated Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. To Morton s testimony, 
and that of others who, like him, had felt the relentless persecutions of the Puritans, 
was added this significant fact, that Endicott had dared to cut the red cross from the 
standard of England. The apologists for the Puritan settlers were styled " impos- 
terous knaves." Winslow was imprisoned, and the charter, which had been sur 
reptitiously taken to Massachusetts, was declared void. Morton was in a fair way 
to be avenged. 

It was at this juncture that the "New English Canaan " appeared. Bradford, 
with characteristic strength of expression, is pleased to style it as " an infamouse 
and scurrillous booke against many godly and cheef e men or the cuntrie ; full of lyes 
and slanders, and f raight with profane callumnies against their names and persons, 
and the ways of God." Written before the close of 1635, the New English Canaan " 
was printed at Amsterdam, by Jacob Frederick Stam, in 1637. It was reprinted by 
Peter Force, in the second volume of his " Tracts on American History." Mr. Force, 
following the " Bibliothecas Arnericanae Primordia," of White Kennett, erroneously 
assigns the publication to the year 1632. This is disproved by internal evidence. It 
was not entered in the " Stationers Register," in London, until November 18, 1633, 
and was, doubtless, incomplete at that time. Copies appear to have been issued with 
the imprint "Printed for Charles Greene, and are sold in Paul s Churchyard." The 
work is of exceeding rarity. 

In the summer of 1G43 Morton again appears in New England, and at Plymouth. 
The civil war had begun. Gorges was a royalist, and it may have been in the interests 
of the king that this restless churchman and politician revisited the scenes of his 
earlier experiences and trials. Edward Winslow, whom eight years before he had 
" clapte up in the Fleete," on the llth of September, wrote to Winthrop as follows : 
" Concerning Morton, our governor gave way that he should winter here, but before 
as soon as winter breaks up. Captain Standish takes great offence thereat, espe 
cially that he is so near him at Duxbury, and goeth sometimes a fowling in his 
ground. He cannot procure the least respect amongst our people, liveth meanly at 
tour shillings per week, and content to drink water, so he may diet at that price. 
But admit he hath a protection, yet it were worth the while to deal with him till we 
see it." Winslow proceeds to style him one of "the arrantest known knaves that 
ever trod on New England shore," devoted "to the ruin of the country," "this 
serpent," and " the odium of our people." Winslow feared lest " God, who hath 
put him in our hands," might make them " suffer for it" if they fostered him. 



110 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

In June, 1644, Morton was in the vicinity of Casco Bay. In August he was 
in Rhode Island, advocating his royalist views, and indulging, as Coddington wrote 
to Winthrop, in " bitter complaints," that " he had wrong in the Bay [to the] value 
of two hundred pounds." He professed his willingness to " let it rest till the gov 
ernor came over to right him, and did intimate he knew whose roasts his spits and 
jacks turned." Five weeks later, on the 9th of September, he was in custody in 
Boston. We turn to Mr. Adams for his explanation or extenuation of this arrest. 
His account of the transaction is as follows : 

1 The prisoner now arraigned before the magistrates had, fourteen years before, 
been arrested and banished ; he had been set in the stocks, all his property had been 
confiscated, and his house had been burned down before his eyes. He had been sent 
back to England, under a warrant, to stand his trial for crimes it was alleged he 
had committed. In England he had been released from imprisonment in due course 
of law. Having now returned to Massachusetts, he was brought before the magis 
trates, that the country might be satisfied of the justice of our proceedings against 
him. As the result of this proceeding, which broke down for want of proof, the 
alleged offender is again imprisoned, neavily fined, and narrowly escapes a whip 
ping." 

There is a grim sarcasm in this resume of the case, of which Mr. Adams, in his 
anxiety to befriend the cause of the Massachusetts authorities, is evidently uncon 
scious. 

The sequel is soon told. Kept in prison about a year in expectation of further 




as he complains in his petition to his oppressors for release, the only mercy meted 
out to him by these vindictive men of Massachusetts, was to refrain from the inflic 
tion of " corporal punishment upon him," and to connive at his removal to Maine, 
where, " poor and despised," he shortly died. It will require a more trenchant pen 
than that of Mr. Adams to refute the charge that Morton s churchmanship did not 
enter into the account in the vindictive treatment he received from the Puritans, or 
to prove that he was not unfairly dealt with in life and most foully slandered when 
dead, by the men whb persecuted him to the bitter end. 

In connection with Winthrop s testimony to the devotion of Maverick to the 
Indians when sick and dying, it should be noted that in the manuscript there appears 
to have been an attempt at the erasure of the epithet " worthy of a perpetual re 
membrance." We append the words of Mr. Savage, Winthrop s editor, " that Mav 
erick was not in full communion with our churches, was not, we may hope, the 
cause of striking a pen through this honorable epithet. No man seems better enti 
tled by his deeds to the character of a Christian. The MS. appears to testify that the 
mutilation was not Winthrop s." Note to Savage s Ed. of Winthrop s History, I., 
p. 143. 

In the " Memorial History of Boston " (i., pp. 83-86), Mr. Charles Francis 
Adams, Jr., gives, in his chapter on " The Earliest Settlement of Boston Harbor," 
an interesting account of Blaxton, to which Mr. Justin Winsor contributes annota 
tions of great value. Dr. De Costa s monograph on "William Blackstone in his rela 
tion to Massachusetts and Rhode Island " (New York, 1880) is a reprint of articles 
originally published in "The Churchman" newspaper, and is interesting and accurate. 
A pamphlet published in Pawtucket, R.I., 1855, by S. C. Newman, bears the fol 
lowing title : "An address delivered at the formation of the Blackstone Monument 
Association, together with the preliminaries and proceedings at Study Hill, July 4, 
1855." This address eulogizes the first settler of Boston, and gives many inter 
esting details of his life and labors. No history of Boston can ignore the existence 
of this amiable recluse and simple-hearted churchman. His name must live forever 
with that of the city of which he was the earliest inhabitant. 

We cite from " The Memorial History of Boston" (i., p. 114) the following 
notice of the organization of " The First Church in Boston " : 

"Here, in Charlestown, on the 30th of July, six weeks after their landing at 
Salem, after appropriate religious exercises, Governor Winthrop, Deputy-Governor 
Dudley, Isaac Johnson, and John Wilson adopted and signed the following simple, 
but solemn church covenant : 

" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to his holy will, and 
divine ordinances : We, whose names are here underwritten, being by his most 
wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay 



PIONEERS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. Ill 

of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite into one congregation or church, under the 
Lord Jesus Christ, our head, in such sort as becometh all those whom he hath 
redeemed, and sanctified to himself, do hereby solemnly and religiously, as in his 
most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according 
to the rule of the Gospel, and in all sincere conformity to his holy ordinances, and 
in mutual love and respect to each other, so near as God shall give us grace. 






AUTOGRAPHS OF THE SIGNERS. 

" The church thus formed is now known as the First Church of Boston. 
Winthrop, in his History (i., pp. 36-38), thus records the completion of the or T 
ganization the following month : 

" Friday, 27. We of the congregation, kept a fast, and chose Mr. Wilson our 
teacher, and Mr. Nowell an elder, and Mr. Gager and Mr. Aspinwall, deacons. 
We used imposition of hands, but with this protestation by all, that it was only as 
a sign of election and confirmation, not of any intent that Mr. Wilson should 
renounce his ministry he received in England. The Rev. John Wilson was a 
graduate at King s College, Cambridge. He was ordained again the following 
year (1632), as appears from Winthrop (i., pp. 114, 115), November 22. A fast 
was held by the congregation of Boston, and Mr. Wilson (formerly their teacher) 
was chosen pastor, and [Thomas] Oliver, a ruling elder, and both were ordained 
by imposition of hands, first by the teacher and the two deacons, (in the name of 
the congregation) upon the elder, and then by the elder and the deacons upon the 
pastor. " 

Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter, in his admirable volume, entitled " Congregation 
alism, as seen in its Literature," gives us further light upon what he styles "the 
curious change which the New England air wrought." Besides citing the words of 
John Higginson, as given by Cotton Mather in the " Magnalia," as follows : 

" We will not say as the Separatists were wont to say at their leaving of Eng 
land, Farewell Babylon ! Farewell Rome ! But we will say, Farewell dear Eng 
land ! Farewell the Church of God in England, and all the Christian friends f 
there ! We do not go to New England as Separatists from the Church of England ; \ 
j though we cannot but separate from the Corruptions in it ; but we go to practise j 
the positive Part of Church Reformation, and propagate the Gospel in America." J 
) Dr. Dexter calls attention to the fact that "the company which came ovei* to 
f\ Salem in 1629 was non-conformist, but not separatist, in its tastes and intentions. 
So rigid, in fact, on this point was the policy of the New England Company, that 
the Rev. Ralph Smith, who afterwards became the first pastor on this side of the 
sea of the church at Plymouth, having desired passage in the ships with the Salem 
people, and his request having been granted, and it afterwards com ing to the knowl 
edge of the Governor and Council of the Company that his views inclined towards 
separatism, or, as they phrased it, that he had a difference of juclgm in some 
things from o ministers, it was at first thought best to forbid his coming, but 
afterwards judged better to let him come, with the order that vnless hee wilbe con 
formable to o r governm , yo u suffer him not to remaine w^in the limitts of o 
graunt. " Quoting the strong expressions of the " Arbella" letter, Dr. Dexter pro 
ceeds to state that " the Rev. George Phillips was one of the signers of this Humble 
Request, and he acted as a chaplain, preaching twice on Sunday, and catechising on 
board of the " Arbella," during the voyage over; and yet, within sixteen days after 



112 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

his landing, we find him privately telling Deacon Doctor Fuller, who had been 
again summoned from Plymouth to attend the sick among these new-comers, that 
4 u they will have him stand minister, by that calling which he received from the 
prelates in England, he will leave them ; and Winthrop another signer hoping 
that the Plymouth church will not be wanting in helping them toward their 
necessary church organization ; and four weeks later we find Fuller, who had been 
at Mattapan, letting blood and talking polity till he was weary, writing from Salem 
to Bradford and Brewster, that after counselling with Winslow, Allerton, and himself, 
and with the Salem brethren, Winthrop s company had decided to form a church by 
covenant on the next Friday, and that the company do earnestly entreat that the 
church at Plymouth would set apart the same day for fraternal prayers that God 
would establish and direct them in his ways. " Congregationalism, etc., p. 417. 

The development from non-conformity to separatism, under the persuasive in 
fluences of the Plymouth settlers, proved easy and speedy. The Rev. John Cotton 
had advised the Massachusetts settlors "that they should take advice of them at 
Plymouth, and should do nothing to offend them ; " and, in accordance with the advice 
thus had, a separation from the Church was effected almost as soon as the New World 
was fairly reached. In what light this was regarded by the company at home Dr. 
Dexter informs us. In letters from the home authorities, of date some months later, 
we find alarm expressed at some innovations attempted by yo w , with the intimation 
that they vtterly disallowe any such passages, 1 and entreat them to look back upon 
their miscarriage w th repentance ; while they add that they take leav to think that 
it is possible some vndigested councells haue too sodainely bin put in execucion w" 
may haue ill construccion w th the state heere and make vs obnoxious to any adver 
sary. The plain English of all which was, that the patentees in England were surprised 
and offended that the colonists should so suddenly and so widely have departed 
from the Church as by law established ; and were apprehensive of the royal dis 
pleasure therefor, and of consequent harm to the secular interests they were seeking 
to promote." p. 419. In the words of Cotton, as addressed to Skelton, we have the 
whole story simply told: " You went hence of another judgment and I am afraid 
your change hath sprung from New Plymouth." 

In 1882 an interesting and most valuable contribution to our knowledge of 
the pioneer mission-priest of Maine appeared under the following title: The 
Jordan Memorial. Family Records of the Rev. Robert Jordan, and his Descendants 
in America. Compiled by Tristram Frost Jordan. (Boston, 1882.) From this 
painstaking and accurate work we cite the following introductory notice of its 
subject : 

" The Rev. Robert Jordan, a priest of the Church of England, came to Maine 
about the year 1640. In that year he became the successor of the Rev. Richard 
Gibson. It is evident that he found but little countenance as a representative of the 
Church of England. The exercise of his functions led to imprisonment, and he sought 
a maintenance by the employment of his talents in the way of business. Marrying 
Sarah, the daughter of John Winter, prominent in the settlement of the Spurwink 
river, and himself a large proprietor and merchant, he succeeded to a portion of 
Winter s estates, and developed great capacities as a manager and trader. For 
many years he held a prominent position in all the affairs of Richmond s Island 
and the adjacent region, and the early history of Maine shows him to have been a 
man able to conduct difficult enterprises, and to administer important trusts at a 
time when the unsettled condition of a new country, the imperfect execution of the 
laws, and the terrors of warfare with savage Indians, were combined and formidable 
obstacles to success. The nature and magnitude of the trusts committed to him, 
the journeys, law-suits, and contests to which he was subjected, and the fact that, 
at the conclusion of a long life, he left to numerous heirs a large and very valuable 
estate, sufficiently exhibit nim as a man of no ordinary powers." 

It is evident that the testimony of Edward Godfrey, who was long associated 
with Jordan as a magistrate, given in a letter to the authorities at home under date 
of March 14, 1660, that he was " equal with any in Boston," and that he was " an 
orthodox divine of the Church of England, and of great parts and estate," is fully 
borne out by the records of the time. As Godfrey proceeds, we may not doubt but 
that " he was conceded by all to be an active, enterprising man, placed by education 
above the mass of the people with whom he connected himself." 

From the Jordan Memorial we have, with the author s kind permission, taken 
the illustrations on p. 106. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 

TOO great praise can hardly be ascribed to the members of the Vir 
ginia Company of London, when we remember their unflagging 
zeal for the introduction of religion and culture into their trans 
atlantic domain. With them the propagation of the faith, and the 
support of that faith by the institutions of learning, and that, too, under 
the care and nurture of the Church of Christ, were objects for which 
they labored assiduously. In the many resolutions on their private 
records, providentially discovered after years of forgetfulness, to 
attest this faith and zeal ; in their instructions to the governors they 
sent out ; in the annual sermons they listened to in the Bow Church, and 
applauded to the echo, from the most famous preachers of the day, such 
as the noted Dean of St. Paul s, Dr. Donne, and others of like spirit and 
prominence ; in their personal gifts and wise administration of the charity 
of the nation and the Church, they deserved well of posterity. JVon 
sibi, sed aliis, was the motto of their lives and labors ; and the names of 
the Ferrars, of Sandys, of Thorpe, of Copeland, and the Earl of South 
ampton, Shakespeare s friend and patron, must ever be inseparably 
connected with the introduction of letters as well as religion upon our 
shores. Nor should it be forgotten, in connection with the mention of 
these honored names and all we owe their memory for their actual 
efforts and successes and their ever higher and holier intentions in be 
half of the Church and cause of Christ in America, that on the James 
river, where now a few mouldering ruins of church and fort recall the 
historic past, George Sandys, son of an Archbishop of York, and treas 
urer of the colony, completed in moments " snatcht from the howers of 
night and repose," his " Ovid s Metamorphosis Englished, Mythologiz d, 
and ^Represented in Figures," which, with the "First Book of Virgil s 
./Eneid," was the first poetical offering to the Old World from the New. 
In view of this service to letters and literature, well may old Anthony 
Wood hold that the author s " memorie " should 

a relique be 
To be ador d by all posteritie." 

It was a dark day both for Church and college, as well as for the 
commonwealth itself, when, shortly after the Indian massacre, the 
proprietary government was dissolved by the arbitrary exercise of 
the royal prerogative. Years passed, and in the midst of the trials 
preceding and attending the civil war in England, in which the colony 
bore its part, there was no further mention of a college in Virginia 




114 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

until the year 1660-61, when the "Grand Assembly," held at James 
City, on the 23d of March, amidst the rejoicings attending the restora 
tion of church and monarchy at home and in the colony, passed an act 
entitled "Provision for a Colledge," as follows : 

Whereas the want of able and faithful ministers in this country deprives us 
of those great blessings and mercies that alwais attend upon the service of God ; 
which Avant, by reason of our great distance from our native country, cannot in 
probability be alwais supplyed from thence ; Be it enacted, That for the advance of 
learning, education of youth, supply of the Ministry, and promotion of piety, thei e 
be land taken upon purchases for a colledge and free schools, and that there be, 
with as much speede as may be convenient, houseing erected thereon for entertain 
ment of students and schollers. 

At the same session of the Assembly a further act was adopted, 
quite in the spirit of the action of the House of Burgesses half a century 
before, entitled "A petition in behalf of the Church," in these words : 

Be it enacted. That there be a petition drawn up by this Grand Assembly to 

the King s Most Excellent Majes- 

o ^- tie, for his letters patients, to col 

lect and gather the charity of 
. . well disposed people in England, 
^/ for the ei ecting of colledges and 
schooles in this countiy, and also 
for his Majestie s letters to both 
Universities of Oxford and Cam 
bridge to furnish the Church here with ministers for the present, and this petition be 
recommended to the Right Honorable Governor, Sir William Berkeley. 

Further action in support of this plan for "the colledge" in Vir 
ginia is recorded under the same date, in the following preamble and 
resolution : 

Whereas, for the advancement of learning, promoting piety, and provision 
of an able and successive ministrie in this countrie, it hath been thought fit that a 
colledge of students of the liberal arts and sciences be erected and maintayned ; in 
pursuance whereof his Majestie s Governor, Council of State and Burgesses of the 
present Grand Assembly have severally subscribed several considerable sums of 
money and quantities of tobacco (out of their charity and devotion) to be paid to the 
Honorable Grand Assembly, or such treasurer or treasurers as they shall now, or 
their successors hereafter at any time appoint, upon demand, after a place is provided 
and built upon for that intent and purpose ; it is ordered, that the commissioners of 
the several! county courts do, at the next follovvinge courts in their severall countys, 
subscribe such sums of money and tobacco toward the furthering and promoting the 
said persons and necessary worke, to be paid by them or their heirs, as they shall 
think fitt, and that they also take the subscriptions of such other persons at their 
said courts who shall be willing to contribute toward the same. And that after such 
subscriptions taken, they send orders to the vestiys of the severall parishes in their 
severall countys for the subscriptions of such inhabitants and others who have not 
already subscribed, and that the same be returned to Francis Morrison, Esq. 

Thus do we find the Church and the college again, as from the first, 
in fact, in closest connection. The troubled days of the Puritan rule 
felt, indeed, but lightly in the " Old Dominion," where Church and State 
alike resisted the edicts of the English Commonwealth, when all other 
opposition had been crushed out, but yet felt had passed, and in the 



THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 115 

reestablishment of the authority of the Crown and the Common Prayer, 
there were these initial measures thought of for the establishment of 
"a colledge of the liberal arts." 

The following year the act of the preceding session was reenacted, 
and, although in consequence of fresh troubles, in the colony, and the 
"rebellion" of Bacon, which for a time engrossed all thought, these 
endowments and subscriptions, coupled with the legislative approval, 
were not followed by immediate and noticeable results, still we find 
from the preamble to the royal charter, granted, in 1693, to William 
and Mary College, that a site was actually selected, which was afterward 
changed, doubtless after some trial as to its fitness for collegiate use, 
to that of Williamsburg. 

Thus "the Colledge " was created by legislative act, and endowed by 
individual and public charity, as early as 166061. Possibly there may 
have been at "Townsend s Land, "the site already referred to as origi 
nally named in the charter of 1693, and doubtless purchased with the 
original subscriptions authorized in 1660-61, some earnest of the future 
College of William and Mary. Be this as it may, the action of the 
Assembly, and the favorable reception accorded to the plan throughout 
the colony, are gratifying proofs of a wide-spread interest in church 
education at this early date. 

In the year 1685 the Rev. James Blair, a graduate of one of the 
Scottish Universities, and a priest of the (Episcopal) Church in Scot 
land, came over to Virginia at the 
suggestion of Dr. Compton, the 
Bishop of London, and became the 
rector of Henrico. Here he con- 
tinued in the exercise of his ministry 
for nine years, removing thence to 
Jamestown, and finally to Bruton parish, that he might be near and 
useful to the college which owed its very corporate existence to his zeal 
and patient toil. Traditions of the earlier promise of Henrico, the 
scene of his first ministerial labors in Virginia, may have inspired the 
restless brain of this indefatigable clergyman to plan the realization of 
these hopes of the past. In any event, in 1688-89 the further sum of 
twenty-five hundred pounds sterling was subscribed towards the estab 
lishment of " The Colledge " by a few wealthy Virginians, aided by the 
benevolence of some English merchants. The Colonial Assembly, in 
1691, approved the scheme, and sent the Rev. Mr. Blair to England to 
solicit a charter from the crown. In these efforts, both in Virginia and 
in England, the assistance of the lieutenant-governor, Francis Nich 
olson, was freely given, and no little encour 
agement was found in the will of the Hon. 
Robert Boyle, Esq., dated July 18, -1691, 
which directed his executors, "after debts 
and legacies paid," to dispose of the residue 

of his personal estate "for such charitable and pious uses as they 
in their discretion should think fit." These executors agreed to 
lay out five thousand four hundred pounds sterling in land, and to apply 
the yearly rent thereof " toward propagating the Christian religion 





116 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

amongst Infidels," and after some delays, assigned the annual rents of 
their purchase, subject to a charge in perpetuity of ninety pounds per 
annum to be paid to the company for Propagating the Gospel in New 
England, to the president and professors of the College of William and 
Mary, in Virginia, for the maintenance and education of Indian pupils. 
The agency of the Kev. Mr. Blair in securing both the charter and this 
appropriation may be inferred from the interesting letters we print from 
the original MSS. in the Library of the Bishop of London at Fulham. 
They were addressed to the governor of the colony, whose unfriendly 
offices, at a later date, were made the subject of more than one "me 
morial" for his removal, addressed to the home authorities by the 
zealous commissary : 

LONDON, Deer. 3d, 1691. 

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOR : In my last from Bristol I gave your Honour an 
account of our passage, our landing in Ireland, my passage from thence to Bristol, 
with all the news I had then heard. This letter I left with M r Henry Daniel, who 
promised to take care of it & to send it by a ship that he said was there, almost ready 
to sail from Bristol to Virginia. M r . Randolph, of New England, & M r . Sherwood, 
who are now both bound for Virginia, will save me the trouble of writing news, so that 
I shall need only to give your Honour an account of my proceedings in the affair of 
the College. When I came first to London, which was the first day of September, 
there were many things concurred to hinder my sudden presenting of the address about 
the College, for M r . Jeoffreys was in Wales & did not come to Town to present the 
address upon their majesties accession to the crown ; the Bishop of London thought 
it not so proper to present an address about business ; then the King was in Flan 
ders; my friend, the Bishop of Salisbury, was at Salisbury; the Bishop of St. Asaph 
at his diocese in Wales, and before M r . Jeoffreys came to Town the Bishop of Lon 
don was taken very sick, so that for a month s time he was not able to stir abroad ; 
upon all which accounts I found it necessary to delay in the beginning, for which I 
had one reason, which was enough of itself if there had been no more, and that was 
that I found the court so much altered, especially among the Bishops (who were the 
most proper persons for me to apply myself to) , that really I found myself obliged 
to take new measures from what 1 had proposed to myself. The Bishop of London 
was at this time under a great cloud, and mighty unwilling to meddle in any court 
business, for notwithstanding his great merit from the present government, he had 
been passed by in all the late promotions, & the two archbishopricks had been 
bestowed upon two of his own clergy, viz., D r . Tillottson & D r . Sharp, so y not 
withstanding the Bishop of London s great kindness to Virginia, yet I found he was 
not at this time in so fit circumstances to manage a business at court as we expected. 
1 found that the Archbishop of Canterbury was the man who was wholly entrusted 
by the King and Court for all Ecclesiastical affairs, & I was told by everybody who 
had skill in Business that it was absolutely necessary to get him to be our friend. 
Thus the time past on, & I did nothing but make friends in private against the 
King s coming over, which was expected about the beginning of October, but hap 
pened not till the 19th of that month. 

All this while I waited duely on the Bishop of London, as knowing well that 
whenever this business came to be done he must appear cordially in it, or else no 
interest that I could make could prevail to get it done without him, it belonging so 
entirely to his province. I both discoursed him at large, and plyed him with me 
morials till I got him to be very perfect in the business of the College, but at the 
same time I disliked the method in which he was g^oing to put it, which was this. 
He advised me to put in the address by way of petition to the King in Council, & 
the council he said would defer it to the committee for plantations where he did not 
doubt but that it would pass. I told his Lordship that I never doubted the obtaining 
of the charter, but the great difficulty would be in obtaining a gift of such things 
from his Majesty as we had a mind to ask for the College, and that in order to this, 
the best way seemed to me to be to engage the Bishops about Court zealously in 
the thing & to get the King so prepared that when the address was presented to him 
he should consult the Bishops in it, it being an Ecclesiastical affair, & that bj 



THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 117 

their advice the whole business should be approved by his Majesty & all promises 
for the encouragement of it that we had a mind to ask, & then at last, if it was 
necessary, that it might be brought before the Committee of Plantations to see what 
they had to say against it, but for the council and the Committee of Plantations to be 
the first meddlers & contrivers of the business I did not like it, because as his Lord 
ship told me himself the church of England party was the weakest in the council, 
& if there is any of the revenue to be spared the courtiers are more apt to beg it 
for themselves than to advise the bestowing of it upon any publick use. But all 
that I could say could not prevail with the Bishop of London to have the business 
managed in this manner with the King himself. This was the first week in October 
when the King was daily expected, & I was really in a great deal of trouble & 
knew not how to help myself, when by God s good providence, by means of a min 
ister of my acquaintance, I was introduced to Dr. Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, 
one thought to be as much in favour with the Queen as any Bishop in England. I 
found the Bishop of Worcester exceeding well prepared to receive me kindly. 
The very first word he said to me was that he was very glad of this opportunity of 
beinf acquainted with me, that he had heard a great deal of me from the Bishop of 
London, of good things I had done and still designed to do for the Church in America, 
& he freely proffered to do me all the service that lay in his power. 

After some discourse with him I found that we had already run into one 
error, & seemed like to run into another. The first was, that all this time we had 
neglected the Queen, who he assured me would be the best friend that I could find 
in a business of this nature, as being a person that is a very great encourager of all 
works of charity. The other was that, as I told him, we intended to bring it before 
the council & committee of Plantations, which he assured me, was the ready way 
to spoil all. For the first I had this to say, that by my instructions I was to depend 
upon the Bishop of London, who presently after my coming to London was taken 
sick and was but just now beginning to stir abroad again. I desired him to be so 
kind as to acquaint her majesty with it, & withal to ask whether her majesty would 
have the address presented to her, or whether we must wait for his majesty s com 
ing, who was now expected every minute. He promised me that he would do it, 
& for the other wrong step we were like to make I was as much convinced of it as 
he could be, but I showed him the difficulty and begged that he would make use of 
. his interest with the Bishop of London to persuade him to take another course. 
About the same time I received a letter from the Bishop of Salisbury (whose as 
sistance I had desired) with one enclosed for the Archbishop of Canterbury-, wherein 
he recommended me & the business of our college to his Grace. And upon my 
address to him I was received very kindly ; he told me that he remembered me 
since I was with the master of the rolles. He heard me very patiently discourse 
the business of our college, and enquired concerning the state of our clergy in 
Virginia ; he assured me that he would do me all the kindness that he could in my 
afi aTr, & desired me to draw him up a couple of memorials, one about the college, 
and another about the clergy, and withal told me that if I would follow his advice 
he did not question but the business would do very well. He told me I must 
have patience for the King at his first coming would be full of his Parliament busi 
ness, but if I would leave it to him he would tell me when was the proper time to 
deliver the address, & would before hand prepare his majesty. He was utterly 
ao-ainst the making of it a council business, and promised me to talk with the 
Bishop of London in it, and to shew him the necessity of manageing it first 
with the King himself. Both these Bishops were as gooa as their words, for the 
Bishop of Worcester opened the business of the college to the Queen who seemed 
to like it extraordinarily, promised to assist in recommending it to the King, but 
ordered that the address should not be presented till the King came himself. And 
the Archbishop took an occasion to speak to the Bishop of London about it in the 
presence of the Bishop of Worcester. They all commended the tiling & for the 
right managing of it, the Archbishop proposed that the King should be prepared 
and then the address delivered to him, & if he thought fit to make a council business 
of it he might. The Archbishop desired leave of the Bishop of London to manage 
it with the King, to which the B p of London willingly assented to & so the thing 
was put again into a right method. The Archb p told me afterwards that he never 
saw the King take anything better than he did the very first proposal of our college, 
& that he promised frankly if I could find any thing in that country which was fit 
for him to give towards it lie would give it. After which I made it my whole busi 
ness to wait upon those Bishops & to give them memorials of my affair. I have 



118 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

already writ out three quires of paper in this sort of work, and all things seem to 
be in a right disposition towards it. 

After the heat of the parliament business was a little over, the Archbishop 
got the King himself to name a day for presenting the address. It was Nov r . 12 th , 
in the Council chamber, before the council sat. I was introduced by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury & my Lord Effingham (the Bishop of London should have been there, 
but was that day taken again with a fit of the stone) . I kneeled down & said these 
words, "Please your majesty, here is an humble supplication from the Government 
of Virginia for your majesty s charter to erect a free school & college for the educa 
tion of their youth," & so I delivered it into their hand. He answered, " Sir, I am 
glad that that colony is upon so good a design, & I will promote it to the best of my 
power." The King gave it to the principal Secretary, my Lord Nottingham, at whose 
office, within two days, I had it again, with this account from M r . Warre, my Lord s 
Secretary, that the King had ordered me to give in to the Bishop of London, both a 
scheme of the college, and an account what was expected of him toward the en 
couragement of it ; & if I could conceit the matter with the Archbishop and the 
Bishop of London, then it should be brought before the committee for plantations, 
& pass, if they had nothing to object against it. The parliament sits so close that it 
is an hard matter to find anybody at leasure, yet I persuaded the Bishop of London, 
on Wednesday last to come for half an hour to his chamber at Whitehall, where I 
presented & read to him a memorial I had prepared for his majesty s use, & the 
Archbishop & he were to wait an opportunity to speak to the King about it. Every 
one thinks it is in so good a way that it cannot well miscarry. I make it my whole 
business to wait upon it, & if I hear further before the ships go, your honour may 
expect another line about it. I find there will be a great deal of difficulty in 
finding of able masters, & yet I am sensible the life of the business lies in this. In 
England their masters of their colleges have a much easier life than is designed for 
the masters and professors of our college in Virginia. I can have several young 
men that are fit enough to be ushers, but cannot perswade any of the Eminent, ex 
perienced masters to go over. I have two in my eye that are very fit for it, if I can 
prevail with them to undertake it. 

There was one thing which was forgot in my instructions (and it was my fault, 
for I was not sensible of the necessity of it at this time), that is that I should have 
been ordered to provide a president of the college at the same time with the school 
master & usher. I thought y* at first a Grammar school, being the only thing we 
could go upon, a good Schoolmaster & Usher were enough to manage that. But 
the Bishop of London and some other Bishops and a great many other skillfull men 
whom I have consulted, have undeceived me, & persuaded me that the president 
of the college ought to be the first man of all the masters we provided for it. 
Their reasons are these : First, that the good success of the whole business depends 
upon the setting up & executing of a good discipline at first both among masters 
& Scholars, which, if it be left wholly to the Schoolmaster, he will be sure to make 
it easy enough for himself, & will contrive to lead the scholars in such a method as 
will keep them a great deal longer at school than they needed to be kept, only for 
his own advantage. Most of the masters here in England keep their scholars seven 
years at the Latin, which might be as well taught in four if they pleased. 2"*, It 
may so happen y* the school master & usher may want as much to be instructed them 
selves as any of the scholars. . . . 

LONDON, Feb*. 27, 1C91-2. 

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOUR : By the Virginia fleet which put to sea 
about six weeks ago, I sent you a whole packet of letters, which if they are come 
to hand will give you a very particular account of what I am doing here. Since 
that time my patience has been sufficiently exercised, for our college business (as 
indeed all business whatsoever), has been at a stand, the King being so wholly 
taken up with the thoughts of the war & the transportation of the household & the 
army, that for a long time he allowed not the Lords of the Treasuiy to lay any 
other business before him till all affairs of that kind were dispatched. There was 
another reason too why my business was delayed, &y l wasthatmy Lord Archbishop 
of Canterbury, who is the person I depend upon for managing of it with the King & 
Queen, was for five weeks frozen up at Lambeth so that he could neither get to 
Court nor Parliament but by coming round by the bridge, which he found to be so 
long and so bad a way that he choose for the most part to stay at home. But to 



THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURQ AND PEESIDENT BLAIR. L19 

make up this loss of time there happened two accidents in it, by which I believe I 
shall get 500 to our college, of which I should not have had one farthing if I had 
been out of the way. M r - Boyle died about the beginning of the last month, & left 
a considerable Legacy for pious uses, which, when I understood, I made my inter 
est with his executors by means of the Bishop of Salisbury, and I am promised 200 
of it for our college. Tne other is y* Davis & his partners having been long kept in 
suspense about that money which Captain Roe seized in Virginia, & their friends 
being quite tired interceding for them, & no money was like to come at last, I 
undertook to get them their money provided they would give a considerable share 
of it to our Virginia College. They engaged to give 300 pound, & I presently em 
ployed the Archbishop of Canterbury & Bishop of London who have so managed it 
with the council that the council is very glad of the expedient & I am assured it will 
take effect. This day their petition was read before a committee for plantations & 
I subscribed it signifying that the petitioners had devoted 300 of the money towards 
the carrying on the design of a college in Virginia if they might have an order for 
the rest, and the thing would have past but y the Lords thought they offered too 
little money ; so I am desired to try if I can bring them up to 500. So y* tho my 
main business is not yet finished, yet I make use of my time for some thing else 
than mere waiting. But I confess the trouble of managing the affair is so vastly 
great beyond expectation, that I doubt, could I have foreseen it, I should never 
have had the courage to have undertaken it. 

The chief news here since the Virginia fleet sailed is the disgrace of my Lord 
Marleborough. The reasons of it are not divulged, but it is said he is suspected by 
the King to nave made his peace with France. His place of Lieutenant-General of 
the English & Scotch forces is bestowed upon Coll. Talmagh, his troop of Guards 
upon my Lord Colchester, his regiment of fusil eers upon L d George Hamiltoune, 
one of Duke Hamiltoun s Sons, & his place of the bed chamber, for aught I know, 
is still void. My Lady Marleborough was likewise forbid the court, & the Princess 
Anne was desired by the Queen to dismiss her from her services, which the Prin 
cess took so ill that she has left the cockpit upon it & gone out to live at Sion house. 
But the news which concerns your Honour most nearly to be informed in is y my 
Lord Effingham has suddenly laid down the Government of Virginia which was im 
mediately conferred upon Sir Edmund Andros who is to sail from hence with all 
expedition along with Coll. Fletcher, Gov r of New York. M r Blathwayt is agoing 
for Flanders with the King s Secretary of War. On Wednesdav last the Parliament 
was adjourned till the 12 th of April, & it is expected that it will be adjourned from 
time to time till the King s return. I received yours of Nov r 19, shall be carefull 
of the contents. My Lord Bishop of S . Asaph has not yet been in Town, but is 
now shortly expected being to preach at the chapel on Easter day. I give my ser 
vice to all my masters of the council & house of Burgesses, & hope to give you 
shortly a good account of my proceedings in the affair wherewith I am entrusted. 
This with my prayers for your honour s health & prosperity being all at present, 
from 

Yours, Sir, &c., &c., 

JAMES BLAIR. 

Vivid, and amusing even, as are these notices of court intrigues 
and the intricacies of the paths leading to political preferment and suc 
cess, it is evident from their perusal that the interests of the College of 
William and Mary were in safe hands. Dr. Blair, from the time of his 
coming to Virginia, had been prominent both as a priest and preacher 
and as a politician as well. His ministry of upwards of half a century 
was so intimately connected with the history, not only of the city, the 
college, and the Church, of which he was the commissary and leading 
divine, that we cannot separate his public and official career from that 
of a devoted and faithful service of souls. As a preacher he won no 
little reputation. His four printed volumes of discourses upon our 
Saviour s " Sermon on the Mount," containing upwards of one hun 
dred sermons, went through two editions in England. The celebrated 
Waterland published a preface to the second edition, and Doddridge 



120 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

refers to them with high praise. As specimens of practical divinity, 
couched in scholarly language, and enforced with earnestness and 
power, they are worthy of commendation ; and in their original deliv 
ery before the colonial authorities, and the leaders of the political and 
fashionable world of Virginia, or as read in the homes and by the 
hearth-stones of the godly, both in the colony and in the mother-land, they 
must have had no little influence for good, in advancing the cause of 
practical and personal holiness they were intended to serve. Few men 
and few ministers had more difficulties to contend with than the rector 
of Bruton Parish ; but an indomitable will, a tireless persistence, a 
patience and perseverance almost unexampled, enabled him to sur 
mount all opposition, and to secure for himself and the Church of which 
he was the representative the respect and sympathy of those with whom 
he was brought in contact. Brought constantly into conflict with cor 
rupt and tyrannical men, the arbitrary, and often vindictive, officials 
sent from England to rule the colonists ; fighting manfully the battles 
of the Church and the college against indifference or obstructiveness 
in high places ; made by his position and prominence the object of 
envy and malevolent criticism, we have, both in the annals of the 
time and in the documents on either side of the controversies in which 
he was again and again engaged, abundant proofs of his sincerity of 
purpose, his devotion to his work, and his blamelessness of life. As 
commissary and representing the vaguely defined Episcopal authority 
of the Bishop of London, he was constantly hampered by the inter 
ference of the governor in his efforts for the maintenance of godly dis 
cipline among the clergy of his charge. As President of the "Royal 
College of William and Mary," as well as its founder, he found him 
self again and again forced into an attitude of determined opposition 
to the measures of the representative of the crown, which threatened 
the loss of chartered rights, or the subordination of the college to the 
vice-regal will. As a member of the council, brought into intimate 
and personal relations with the leading men of the province, and repre 
senting there the church s interest in debates and in decisions affecting 
the interests, civil and religious, of the commonwealth, he proved himself 
to be conscientious and incapable of corruption. One thus pure-minded 
and devoted to the cause of the Church and crown could not fail of 
being misrepresented and misunderstood, and of becoming person 
ally obnoxious to a venal or a time-serving administration. That one 
of his marked ability, his personal influence, and his official position, 
should, for more than half a century, be so intimately connected with 
the affairs of Church and State without frequent collisions with those 
in power, whose schemes he thwarted, and whose malfeasance in office 
he unsparingly proclaimed, was not to be supposed. The folios of 
manuscript telling the story of his trials, his labors, his dffiiculties, 
and disputes, still on file among the records in England, or repro 
duced in print in late contributions to our American ecclesiastical 
annals, arc to be numbered by scores and hundreds. That throughout 
his career he retained the respect and confidence of successive primates 
and bishops of London, with whom he was in constant and most un 
reserved communication, attests his character and worth. Accused 



THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBUEG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 121 

again and again by indignant and disappointed officials, or by envious 
and iniquitous clergymen, he never failed to justify his conduct, and 
to turn the tables upon his assailants. At the outset of his labors 
in behalf of the college he was brought in conflict with Andros, who 
had come from the North, where he had been driven ignominiously 
from his government, to try his hand in ruling the Virginians. By virtue 
of his instructions the royal governor was not only the representative 
of the crown, and consequently the civil head of the province, but he 
was also the " ordinary," the representative of the crown and Church 
as well in spiritual things, the commissary being subordinated to 
him. Against Andros, the fearless commissary, while in England, 
brought charges in detail, and amply supported his accusations by tes 
timony, representing the governor as an enemy to religion, to the 
clergy, the Church, and the college. The record of the examination 
of the commissary before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 
Bishop of London, with reference to these charges, in which the gov 
ernor was represented and defended by colonial officials and gentle 
men of distinction, is still extant. Two days were spent at Lambeth 
Palace in this searching investigation, in which the astuteness and 
ability of Blair appear as more than a match for the four able men 
arrayed against him. Never was vindication more complete than that 
of the commissary ; never was an indictment more fully sustained than 
that in which in full detail and with logical precision he assailed the 
character and conduct of the royal governor. The result was, as might 
have been anticipated, the commissary was sustained, and Andros was 
recalled in disgrace. The successor of Andros was Sir Francis Nichol 
son, elsewhere a friend and patron of the Church, and still remembered 
for his munificent benefactions towards the erection and support of 
churches all along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Virginia. 
Vain, conceited, passionate, and changeable, an affair of the heart, 
which resulted in an unlooked-for disappointment, made of the govern 
or a madman, of whose conduct both the council, the commissary, 
and a portion of the clergy complained. Nicholson had been in con 
flict with Dr. Bray, while Governor of Maryland, and complained 
of his usage " by a parcel of Black Coats." In his defence he re 
ferred with no little bitterness to the Bishop of London s commissaries, 
whose names are "monosyllables and begin with B." 1 ; but neither 
his conduct nor his explanations found favor at home. Again 
was the commissary successful, and the irascible and lovesick 
governor was recalled. His successor, Gov. Nott, an amiable and ex 
cellent man, died shortly after entering upon his duty, and was fol 
lowed in 1710 by Col. Spots wood, a man of resolute character and 
noble bearing, who for some years seconded all the efforts of the com 
missary on behalf of the Church and the college, and received in turn 
the commissary s support and sympathy- It was not till nearly ten 
years had passed that any disagreement arose, and then, as had been 
always the case, the commissary again triumphed, and the governor 
was recalled from his post. 

J Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., i., p. 182. 



122 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Meanwhile the college, established with this comprehensive object 
in view, as expressed in its charter, " to the end that the Church in 
Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the Gospel, 
and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and 
manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated amongst 
the Western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God," was formally 
opened, and began its beneficent career. Its charter named the com 
missary as its first president, and appointed the Lord Bishop of Lon 
don, Dr. Henry Compton, as its first chancellor. Towards the endow 
ment her Majesty contributed out of the quit-rents of the colony, 
1,985 14s. lOd. ; a penny per pound on all tobacco exported from 
Virginia and Maryland ; the office of surveyor-general, with all " its 
issues, fees, profits, advantages, conveniences, liberties, places, privi 
leges, and preeminences whatsoever ;" ten thousand acres of land lying 
on the south side of Blackwater swamp, and ten thousand acres on 
Pamunkey Neck, between the forks of York river. The right of repre 
sentation in the House of Burgesses was also granted to the faculty, 
who could elect one of their own number, or " one of the better part 
of the inhabitants of the colony." The college building was planned 
by Sir Christopher Wren, and was designed "to be an entire square 
when completed." Professorships of the ancient languages, mathe 
matics, moral philosophy, and divinity were provided for in the charter ; 
and another endowment, called the "Brafferton," the gift of the cele 
brated Robert Boyle, had for its object the instruction and conversion 
of the Indians. 

In 1700 the first commencement was held at the College of Will 
iam and Mary, 1 attracting a great concourse of people. The neigh 
boring planters came in coaches to witness this unwonted spectacle, and 
other visitors, from the provinces of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and even 
from distant New York, arrived in sloops, or by other means of convey 
ance, it being, as the chronicler tells us, "a new thing in that part of 
America to hear graduates perform their Exercises." Even some of the 
Indians, to whom commissioners had been sent to secure the attendance 
of a number of their children at the new college, upon the foundation 
established by Boyle, had the curiosity to join the crowd at Williams- 
burg upon this interesting occasion, and " the whole country rejoiced, as 
if they had some relish of learning." Two years later the death of King 
William was made the occasion of a suitable observance in the college 
hall, in the presence of the Governor, the Council, the House of Bur 
gesses, and others. A " Pastoral Colloquy in English Verse " was spoken 
by some of the younger scholars. Other scholars spoke a "pastoral" 
upon the " succession of her Sacred Majesty Queen Ann," while the 
commissary delivered a " funeral oration," which excited the governor s 
ire, in consequence, as Dr. Blair asserts, of his "making use of that op 
portunity to commend the mildness and gentleness of the King s reign, 
which our great man took to be a tacit reflection on himself for his furi 
ous and mad way of government." 2 

The General Assembly of Virginia was held at " his Majesty s 

Campbell s Va., pp. 361, 362. " Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., i., p. 126. 



THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 123 

Royal College of William and Mary," from 1700 until 1705, when, to 
gether with the library and philosophical apparatus, the college build 
ing was destroyed by fire. This occurred during the first year of 
Gov. Nott s administration. " The fire broke out about ten o clock at 
night, in a public time. The Governor, and all the gentlemen that 
were in town, came up to the lamentable spectacle, many getting out 
of their beds. But the fire had got such power before it was dis 
covered, and was so fierce, that there was no hope of putting a stop to 
it, and therefore no attempts were made to that end." The college 
was not rebuilt until Gov. Spotswood s time. To accomplish this 
end it was found necessary to hoard the revenues, which else would 
have gone for salaries, while the president " freely parted " 1 with his 




THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY AS IT APPEARED A CENTURY 
AND A HALF AGO. 

salary for this purpose. But during this period of depression the 
care of the Indians was not forgotten. An expedition against the 
aborigines, under the command of the gallant Spots wood, re 
sulted, as the governor reported to the General Assembly, in 
November, 1711, in compelling the Indians "to give pledges of a 
faithful peace by yielding up several of their chief ruler s children 
to be educated at our college." 2 " This fair step towards their conver 
sion," as the governor styled it, which was " the more valuable by how 
much all attempts of this kind have hitherto proved ineffectual," was 
undertaken with the conviction, we are assured, that " whilst by kind 
and gentle means we endeavor to change the savage nature of their 
youth, they will imbibe with the English language, the true principles 
of our Excellent Church, from whence will arise two of the greatest 
benefits, the salvation of many poor souls, and withal the best of se 
curities to our persons and estates, for once make them good Christians 



i Hist. Coll. Am. Col., Ch. I., p. 183. 



* Ibid., p. 129. 



124 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

and you may confide in them." The worthy governor was as good as his 
word. At no little pains and personal cost he established an Indian 
school, at Christanna, on the south side of the Meherrin river, in 
Southampton county. Here, under the protection of a fort, built on 
rising ground, in the form of a pentagon and enclosed with palisades, 
on which five cannon were mounted, and where twelve men kept guard, 
a school-house was erected. The Rev. Charles Griffin was appointed 
to the charge of this school, in which, the governor writes to the Bishop 
of London, there were in 1712 fourteen Indian children and six more 
expected. In 1716 Mr. Griffin reports to the Bishop of London, as 
follows : 

We have here a very handsome school built at the charge of the Indian 
Company at which are at present taught 70 Indian children, and many others from 
tho Western Indians, who live more than 400 miles from hence, will be brought 
hilher in the spring to be put under my care in order to be instructed in the religion 
of the holy Jesus. The greatest number of my scholars can say the Belief, the 
Lord s Prayer and Ten Command* perfectly well, they know that there is but one 
God and they are able to tell me how many persons thei e are in the Godhead and 
what each of those blessed Persons have done for them. They know how many 
Sacraments Christ hath ordained in his Church and for what end he instituted them. 
They behave themselves reverently at our daily Prayer and can make their re 
sponses ; which was no little pleasure to their great and good benefactor the Gov ., 
as also to the Rev*. M". Jn. Cargill, M r . Attorney General and many other gentle 
men who attended him in his progress hither. 1 

The celebrated William Byrd, of Westover, in his "History of 
the Dividing Line," 2 attests the excellence of Griffin, who was " a Man 
of a good Family who by the innocence of his life, and the sweetness 
of his temper, was perfectly well qualified for that pious undertaking." 
Byrd, whose only idea of christianizing the Indians was, as appears 
from repeated allusions throughout his work, their intermarriage 
with the settlers, speaks of " the bad success Mr. Boyle s charity has 
hitherto had towards converting any of these poor Heathens to Chris 
tianity." On the return of the pupils to their tribes, whether from the 
school from Christauna, or from the college at Williamsburg, " they 
have immediately relapsed into infidelity and barbarism themselves." 
He adds, that " as they unhappily forget all the good they learn, and 
remember the ill, they are apt to be more vicious and disorderly than 
the rest of their Countrymen." 3 We cannot but hope that the testi 
mony of the worthy surveyor may have been a little cojored by preju 
dice. 

The new building was sufficiently advanced for occupancy by the 
convention of the clergy, which met in April, 1719, and in 1723 it was 
completed, the delay arising from the want of means and the scarcity 
of skilled workmen. The Eev. Hugh Jones, in his " Present State of 
Virginia," published in 1722, gives the following description of the 
edifice : 

The College, which looks due east, is double and is one hundred and thirty- 
six feet long. At the north end runs back a long wing, which is a handsome hall, 
answerable to which the Chapel is to be built. The building is beautiful and com- 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., I., pp. 196, 197. * Dividing Line, i., pp. 74, 75. Ibid. 




THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 125 

modious, being first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren, adapted to the nature of the 
country by the gentlemen there, and since it was burnt down, it has been rebuilt, 
nicely contrived and adorned by the ingenious direction of Governor Spotswood, 
and is not altogether unlike Chelsea Hospital. 

The college being fully equipped for its work, the transfer of cor 
porate rights contemplated in the charter was made to the faculty, and 
the trustees became in form and in fact " the visitors and governors 

of the College of William and Mary 
m Virginia." The first entry in the 
oldest record book of the faculty 
begins with the pious invocation, 

" IN NOMINE DEI, PATRIS, FILII ET 

SPIRITUS SANCTI. AMEN." Its presidents were the Commissaries of the 
Bishop of London till the war of Independence ; and the names of Dr. 
James Blair, William Dawson, William Stith, the historian of Vir 
ginia, Thomas Dawson, William 
Yates, James Horrocks, and John 
Camm, who filled this honorable post 
prior to the breaking out of the war, 
have their place in a list which after 

the war comprised two Bishops of Virginia, James Madison and John 
Johns. Thus closely connected with the Church was the nursery of 
religion and learning from the first. 

The chapel to which reference has been made, in the quotation from 
Jones s description of the college buildings, was opened on Wednesday, 

June 28, 1732. The President, 
* Dr. James Blair, preached from 

V- c >^ _. ^ .+ J / the text : " Train up a child in the 

s/44lt +& \//0rf~0f*r u i , i . 

j/ ^~^~ :2 > wav should go, and when he is 

^ old he will not depart from it." 

Prov. xxii. 6. At this time Will- 

iamsburg was a copy of the Court of St. James, the seat of the royal gov 
ernment and of learning. The culturing influences of the college were 
felt throughout the colony. Its scholars became men of mark in all 
departments of letters and life. To Washington, William and Mary 
gave, in his untried youth, the commission by which he bore the sur 
veyor s staff into the trackless wilds of his native State, while the father 
of his country gave back in turn to her the latest public services of his 
honored and reflective age. She was the alma mater of Jefferson and 
Monroe and Tyler, Presidents ; of Marshall, Chief Justice ; of Peyton 
Randolph, first President of the American Congress ; of Edmund Ran 
dolph, who drew up the original draft of the Federal Constitution ; of 
Madison, the first bishop of Virginia, and of countless others, distin 
guished on the field, at the bar, as divines and men of letters. Her records 
note the bestowal of academic honors on Benjamin Franklin, who received 
the degree of A.M., conferred upon him in person on the 2d of April, 
1756, the first instance in which an honorary degree was given by the col 
lege. But the highest praise of this ancient institution of learning, second 
alone in point of years to Harvard, is the testimony of Bishop Meade, the 
historian of the Church in Virginia. " One thing is set forth in praise of 



126 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

William and Mary which we delight to record ; namely, that the hopes 
and designs of its founders and early benefactors in relation to its being 
a nursery of pious ministers were not entirely disappointed. It is posi 
tively affirmed by those most competent to speak that the best min 
isters in Virginia were those educated at the college and sent over to 
England for ordination." The names of Indian students educated at 
" Brafferton " appear in the list of alumni before the breaking out of the 
war for Independence ; and in connection with the names of Boiling, 
Byrd, Carter, Harrison, Page, and Randolph, in the class graduated in 
1776, are the suggestive names of Baubes, Gunn, and Sampson, who 
were the last of the long list of aborigines to receive the fruits of the 
pious bounty of Robert Boyle. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL NOTES. 

r\ EORGE SANDYS was of high social connection in England, his father being 
VJT Archbishop of York and an elder brother being the Sir Edward Sandys referred 
to in the text as the treasurer of the Virginia Company. As Tyler, in his " History 
of American Literature " (i., pp. 51-58), informs us, " At the time of his arrival in 
America, ^George Sandys was forty-four years old, and was then well known as a 
traveller in Eastern lands, as a scholar, as an admirable prose writer, but especially 
as a poet. His claim to the title of poet then rested chiefly on his fine metrical 
translation of the first five books of Ovid s Metamorphoses, the second edition of 
which came from the press in that very year (1621) in which the poet sailed away 
to America in the retinue of Sir Francis Wyatt. This fragment was a specimen of 
literary workmanship in many ways creditable. The rendering of the original is 
faithful ; and though in some places the version labors under the burden of Latin 
idioms and of unmusical proper names, it often rises into freedom and velocity 
of movement, and into genuine sweetness, ease, and power. How great a pity, 
perhaps some of his readers thought in 1621, that a man of such gifts and ac 
complishments should banish himself to the savagery of the Virginia wilderness, 
when, by staying at home, he might give us, in a version so pure and masterful, 
the remaining ten books of the Metamorphoses ! But there was one great poet 
then in England, Michael Drayton, who did not take so melancholy a view of the 
departure of George Sandys for Virginia. He, too, wished the translation of Ovid 
completed by that same deft and scholarly hand ; but he saw no reason why the 
lamp of letters should not burn on the banks of the James river as well as on 
those of the Thames. Therefore he addressed to his dear friend a poetical epistle, 
in which he exhorts him to keep up his literary occupations, even in the rough 
desert to which he had gone : 

" And, worthy George, by industry and use, 
Let s see what lines Virginia will produce ; 
Go on with Ovid as you have begun 
With the first five books ; lot your numbers run 
Glib as the former ; so shall it live long, 
And do much honor to the English tongue. 
Entice the Muses thither to repair ; 
Entreat them gently ; train them to that air 
For they from hence may thither have to fly. 1 

" These exhortations were not wasted on the gentle poet. His vocation to the 
high service of letters was too distinct to be set aside even by the privations of 
pioneer life in Virginia and by the oppressive tasks of his official position there. 
And yet those privations and those tasks proved to be greater, as it chanced, than 

1 Drayton s Works, Anderson s ed., p. 542. 



THE COLLEGE AT WILLIAMSBURG AND PRESIDENT BLAIR. 127 

any human eye had foreseen ; for, only a few months after his arrival, namely, in 
March, 1622, came that frightful Indian massacre of the white settlers along the 
James river, which nearly annihilated the colony; which drove in panic into 
Jamestown the survivors from the outlying settlements ; which turned the peaceful 
plantations, just beginning to be prosperous, into an overcrowded camp of half-fed 
but frenzied hunters, hunting only for red men with rifle (?) and blood-hound, and 
henceforward for several years living only to exterminate tnem from the earth. It 
was under these circumstances, the chief village thronged with the panic-struck and 
helpless peopie, all industry stopped, suspicions, fears, complaints filling the air, 
his high official position entailing upon him special cares and responsibilities, with 
out many books, without a lettered atmosphere or the cheer of lettered men, that 
the poet was to pursue his great task if he was to pursue it at all. It is not much 
to say that ordinary men would have surrendered to circumstances such as these ; 
George Sandys did not surrender to them ; and that he was able during the next few 
years, robbing sleep of its rights, to complete his noble translation of the fifteen 
books of Ovid s Metamorphoses, is worthy of being chronicled among the heroisms 
of authorship. It is probable that Sandys returned to England in 1625 ; at any 
rate, in the year 1626 he brought out in London, in a folio volume, the first edition 
of his finished work ; and in his dedication of it to King Charles, he made a touch 
ing reference to the disasters in Virginia from which he had only just escaped, and 
to the great difficulties he had overcome in the composition of the book that he 
thus laid at his sovereign s feet. He speaks of his translation as "This .... 
piece learned by that imperfect light which was snatched from the hours of night 
and repose. For the day was not mine, but dedicated to the service of your great 
father, and yourself, which, had it proved as fortunate as faithful in me, and others 
more worthy, we had hoped, ere many years had turned about, to have presented 
you with a rich and well peopled kingdom, from whence now, with myself, I only 
bring this composure : Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere laurus. It needethmore 
than a single denization, being a double stranger; sprung from the stock of the 
ancient Romans, but bred in the New World, of the rudeness whereof it cannot but 
participate, especially having wars and tumults to bring it to light instead of the 
muses. 

" This production, handed down to us in stately form through two centuries 
and a half, is the very first expression of elaborate poetry, it is the first utterance 
of the conscious literary spirit articulated in America. The writings which precede 
the book in our literary history the writings of Captain John Smith, of Percy, 
of Strachey, of Whitaker, of Pory were all produced for some immediate 
practical purpose, and not with any avowed literary intentions. This book may 
well have for us a sort of sacredness as being the first monument of English poetry, 
of classical scholarship, and of deliberate literary art reared on these shores. And 
when we open the book, and examine it with reference to its merits, first, as a 
faithful rendering of the Latin text, and, second, as a specimen of fluent, 
idiomatic, and musical English poetry, we find that in both particulars it is a work 
that we may be proud to claim as, in some sense, our own, and to honor as the 
morning star at once of poetry and scholarship in the New World. " 

Bishop Burnet, in his "History of his own Times," styles Commissary Blair 
" a worthy and good man," and this eulogium cannot be gainsaid. His voluminous 
correspondence, from which the two interesting specimens in the text are quoted, 
fills many pages of the first volume of the " Historical Collections of the Ameri 
can Colonial Church," edited by the author of this present work, and giving the 
documentary history of the Virginia Colonial Church. Bishop Meade, in his " Old 
Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia," gives frequent references to the life 
and labors of this " worthy" of the Virginia Church; and, in fact, the story of our 
.ecclesiastical, educational, or literary annals, is incomplete without notices of this 
eminent divine. 

The difference between the commissary and Governor Nicholson gave rise to 
a memorable controversy, which culminated m the preparation of charges of malfea 
sance in official duty and personal conduct, especially in the matter of his attach 
ment to Miss Burwell, and his ill-treatment of the Rev. Stephen Fouace, which were 
transmitted to England, and formed the indictment against him which occasioned 
his recall. No little feeling was occasioned in the colony, as quite a number of the 
clergy, with whom the commissary, a strict disciplinarian, was unpopular, espoused 
the cause of the governor, who had also ingratiated himself with these disaffected 
clergymen, by taking sides with them against the vestries. A convocation was sum- 



128 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

moned, and the friends of the governor prepared an answer to the charges made 
by the commissary and the council. Their meeting was satirized in a ballad, which 
set forth the unelerical hilarity of the gathering, and depicted the participants in the 
merrymaking in most unfavorable colors. 

This piquant brochure soon appeared in London, and contributed towards the 
downfall of the governor, whose supporters were represented in so disgraceful a 
light. Although but six of the clergy espoused the side of the commissary, while 
seventeen arrayed themselves on the side of the governor, the integrity and indom 
itable energy and perseverance of Dr. Blair triumphed, and upon the complaint 
signed by six of the council and the commissary, the governor was recalled in Au 
gust, 1705. After several years of active military service, the governor received 
the honor of knighthood in 1720, and as governor of South Carolina, Sir Francis 
Nicholson conducted himself so as to throw a lustre over the closing years of his 
American cai-eer. Returning to England in 1725 he died in March of the following 
year. His character is summed up by Campbell , the historian of Virginia, as brave, 
and not penurious, but narrow and irascible ; of loose morality, yet a fervent sup 
porter ot the Church. 11 History, p. 369. 

The efforts for the instruction of the Indians were productive of but little per 
manent results, though the names of a number of Indian students appear on the 
catalogue of the College of William and Mary. In 1754 there were seven scholars 
at the Indian school. The name of one is found recorded as attending the college 
in 1764, another in 1765, and two are enrolled in 1769. One appears in 1771, two 
in 1775, and three in 1776. At Christanna, there were at one time, according to 
Jones s " Present state of Virginia," seventy-seven Indian children at school, and on 
the removal of the master, Mr. Charles Griffin, and his school to the college, there 
continued, from year to year, a number of the natives under instruction. " These 
children could all read," says Jones, " say their catechism and prayers tolerably 
well, but this pious Design being laid aside thro the Opposition of Trade and In 
terest, Mr. Griffin was removed to the College to teach the Indians instructed there 
by the Benefaction of the Honourable Mr. Boyle. The Indians so loved and adored 
him, that I have seen them hug him and lift him up in their arms, and fain would 
have chosen him for a King of the Sapony Nation." The success so evidently 
attained at Christanna was not maintained at Williamsburg. In 1728, Col. William 
Byrd, in the " Westover Manuscripts," laments the "bad success Mr. Boyle s charity 
has hitherto had towards converting any of these poor heathens to Christianity. 1 
"Many children of our neighboring Indians," he proceeds to say, "have been 
brought up in the College of William and Mary. They have been taught to read 
and write, and have been carefully instructed in the principles of the Christian 
religion, till they come to be men. Yet, after they returned home, instead of civili 
zing and converting the rest, they have immediately relapsed into infidelity and 
barbarism themselves." This testimony is accordant to that of the Rev. Hugh 
Jones, who, at the same time, gives them credit for "admirable capacities, when 
their humors and tempers are perfectly understood." 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

COMMISSARY BRAY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH 

IN MARYLAND. 

PRIOR to the founding, on the 27th of March, 1634, of St. Mary s, 
by the " Pilgrims of Maryland," under the leadership of Leonard 
Calvert, or even the earlier landing on St. Clement s, and the 
raising of the Cross after "Mass" had been said on "Lady-day," the 
25th March, and the formal occupancy of " Terra Mariae, 1 in the Name 
of the Saviour of the World, and the King of England," a settlement 
had been made by Virginians and churchmen on the " Isle of Kent," on 
the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, at the mouth of Chester river, 
opposite the city of Annapolis. Here ministered the Rev. Richard 
James, who, at the age of thirty-three years, embarked for Virginia in 
August, 1635. 2 But not only on the Isle of Kent were there church 
men. It is evident, from records and documents still existing, that a 
large number of the " Pilgrims of Maryland " were members of the 
National Church of England, and, although no clergyman appears to 
have been sent over to care for their souls, the ordinances of the re 
formed faith were not neglected, even at St. Mary s. A chapel was 
erected, and the more zealous members of the reformed church met 
from time to time for worship and the reading of sermons. In July, 
1638, some "redemptioners," 3 or servants of Captain Cornwaleys, a 
member of the council, were in charge of a zealous Romanist named 
William Lewis, in whose house they were quartered. Among the 
number were Francis Gray and Robert Sedgrave. While reading aloud 
from Henrie Smith s sermons, where the writer alludes to the Pope as 
Anti-Christ, and to the Jesuits as Anti-Christian ministers, Lewis in 
terrupted them with the assertion " that it was a falsehood, and came 
from the devil, as all lies did, and that he that writ it was an instru 
ment of the devil, and he would prove it, and that all Protestant min 
isters were of the devil," and forbade them reading any more. At the 
request of Gray, Sedgrave drew up a petition, to be signed by the 
Church of England members on the following Sunday, at the chapel, 
couched in the following language : 

Beloved in the Lord, etc. This is to give you notice of the abuses and scan 
dalous reproaches which God and his ministers doe daily suffer by William Lewis, 
of St. Maries, who saith that our ministers are the ministers of the divell, and that our 
books are made by instruments of the divell ; and further saith, that those servants 

1 Named for Queen Henrietta Maria, wife island by Claibome, between the years 1631-1636, 

of Charles I. inclusive. Allen s Maryland Toleration, p. 25. 

* N.E. Hist. Geneal. Register, xv., 144. Allen gives (pp. 29, 30) an interesting account 

The Rev. Mr. James may not have been tho first, of Mr. James. 

and was not the only, minister of the Church at 3 Settlers who had sold themselves for a 

the Isle of Kent. In the depositions taken in term of years to pay the expenses of the voyage 

Virginia in 1640, " allowances for ministers " are over, 
sworn to as among the expenses incurred on the 



130 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



which are under his charge shall keepe nor read any booke which doth appertaine 
to our religion, within the house of the said William Lewis, to the great discomfort 
of those poor bondmen, which are under his subjection, especially in this heathen 
country, where no godly minister is to teach and instruct ignorant people in the 
grounds of religion. And as for people which cometh unto the said Lewis, or other 
wise to passe the weeke, the said Lewis taketh occasion to call them into his cham 
ber, and there laboreth with all vehemency, craft, and sublety to delude ignorant 




LORD BALTIMORE. 



persons. Therefore, we beseech you, brethren in our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, 
that you who have power, that you will doe in what lieth in you to have these 
absurd abuses and the rediculous crimes to be reclaymed, and that God and his 
Ministers may not bo so heinously troden downe by such ignominious speeches : 
and no doubt but he or they, which strive to uphold God s ministers and word, he 
shalbe recompenced with eternall joy and felicity, to reigne in that eternall king- 
dome, with Christ Jesus, under whose banner we fight for evermore. (All which 
words aforesaid, which hath been spoken against Wm. Lewis, the parties hereunder 
written wilbe deposed when time and opportunity shalbe thought meete.) Chris- 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 



131 



topher Carnoll, Ellis Beache, Ro. Sedgrave, and others which hereafter may be 
brought forth. 1 

On the morning of the sixth Sunday after Trinity, July 1, 1638, 
Lewis informed Capt. Cornwaleys that some of his servants had pre 
pared a paper with a view of effecting a combination of the Church of 




England men in a petition to Sir John Harvey and the Council of Vir 
ginia, for the arrest of himself, on the charge of having spoken dis 
respectfully of the clergy of the Establishment, and forbidden his 
servants to read authorized productions of divines of the English 
Church. Secretary Lewger, 2 himself a convert to the Church of Rome 
by the persuasions of his friend the celebrated William Chillingworth, 
was sent for, and, as Sedgrave and Gray were passing the house on 
their way to the chapel, they were brought face to face with their 
accuser. Sedgrave acknowledged the preparation of the paper which 
he had given to Gray, with the purpose of communicating its contents 
to some of the freemen, through whose intervention the redress of these 
grievances was expected. At a formal investigation before the gov 
ernor and secretary the latter pronounced Lewis " guilty of an offensive 
and indiscreete speech in calling the author of the booke read in his 
house an instrument of the divill ; and in calling Protestant ministers 
the ministers of the divill ; " that he had exceeded his authority in for 
bidding the reading of " a book otherwise allowed and lawful to be 
read by the State of England ; " adding, "and because these his offensive 
speeches and other his unseasonable disputations in point of religion, 
tended to the disturbance of the publique peace and quiett of the 
colony, and were committed by him against a publique proclamation 
sett forth to prohibite all such 
disputes ; therefore he fined 
him 500 weight of tobacco to 
the Lord of the Province ; 
andtoremaine in the Sheriff s 
custodie untill he found suffi 
cient sureties for his good be 
haviour in those kinds in time 
to come." 3 The Governor, 
Leonard Calvert, concurred 

wholly in this sentence with the Secretary, although both, and Corn- 
waleys as well, were Roman Catholics themselves. 

1 Streeter s Papers relating to tbe Early or Lewgar, is found in Streeter s Papers, quoted 
History of Maryland. Md. Hist. Soc. Fund above, pp. 218-276. Vide, also, pp. 147, 148. 
Publication No. 9 ? pp. 212, 213. Ibid., p. 216. 

2 An interesting Memoir of John Lewger, 




132 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




In 1642 a petition from the Church of England colonists, or the 
"Protestant Catholics," as they styled themselves, at St. Mary s, 
was brought before the Assembly, complaining of Mr. Thomas 
Gerard, a prominent Roman Catholic, for having taken away the key 

and removed the books 

j belonging to their chap- 

/! el. Influential as was 

\5;I ft>wf~y f the offender his station 
Ls* failed to secure him from 

being adjudged guilty of 
a misdemeanor. Compelled to restore the key and books, and to re 
linquish all title to them and to the building itself, he was also amerced 
a fine of 500 Ibs. of tobacco "towards the maintenance of the first 
minister that should arrive." 1 
The same year "the chapel 
of St. Mary s," with other 
buildings and land adjoin- 
ing, was purchased "in the 
name and for the use of the 

Lord Proprietary," for the sum of two hundred pounds sterling ; but 
Lord Baltimore refused to complete the purchase on the plea that 
there " were certain mistakes in the business " 2 which he proposed to 

rectify on his approaching 
visit to the province. But 
troubles with the Indians 
and the political changes 
at home, consequent upon 
the overthrow of the mon 
archy, prevented or inter 
fered with the adjustment 
of this matter, and we hear 
nothing more of the " Prot 
estant Catholics" or their 





chapel. In a few years the 
proprietary government 
was overthrown. Officers 
were appointed of Protes 
tant, if not Puritan, pro 
clivities ; a large immigra 
tion from Virginia was 
encouraged ; the principles 
of religious toleration were 
recognized by legislative 
enactments, and the pre 

ponderance of Romanists in positions of power or trust was gradually 

overcome. 

Years passed, and in the reestablishment of the monarchy and the 

restoration of the authority of the Proprietary in Maryland we find but 



THE BALTIMORE ARMS. 



Streeter s Papers, pp. 164, 165, 255, 256. 



Ibid., pp. 183,184. 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 



133 



little mention of the Church, though the records inform us that about the 
year 1650 the Rev. William Wilkinson, "clerk," fifty years of age, with 
his wife and family and servants, arrived in the colony and engaged in 
trade for his support. Notices of his officiating are to be found. It 




CECIL, SECOND LORD BALTIMORE. 



would seem that Mr. Wilkinson was the first resident clergyman of 
the Church in the province, other than the ministers of Kent Island, 
during Clayborne s rule, and prior to the landing of the "Maryland 
Pilgrims." At length there appear to have been in the colony in the 
year 1675 three clergymen of the Church of England, and a letter 
from one of the number, the Rev. John Yeo, of Pautuxent, addressed 
to Sheldon, then in the closing years of his primacy, was laid by 



134 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Compton, Bishop of London, before the Committee of Plantations, and 
is preserved in the State Paper Office. This letter is as follows : 

MOST REVEREND FATHER 

Be pleased to pardon this presumption of mine in presenting to y r serious 
notice these rude and undigested lines, w eh (with humble submission) are to ac 
quaint y r Grace with y* deplorable estate and condition of the Province of Mary 
land, for want of an established Ministry. Here are in this Province ten or twelve 
countys, and in them at least twenty thousand soules, and but three Protestant Min 
isters of us y are conformable to y* doctrine and discipline of y* Church of Eng 
land. Others there are (I must confess) y 1 runne before they are sent, and pre 
tend they are Ministers of the Gospell, y never had a legall call or ordination to 
such an holy office, neither (indeed) are they qualified for it, being, for the most 
part, such as never understood any thing of learning, and yet take upon them to 
be dispencers of y Word, and to administer y 6 Sacrament of Baptisme ; and sow 
seeds of division amongst y* people, and no law provided for y suppression of 
such in this Province. Society here is in great necessitie of able and learned men 
to confute the gainsayers, especially having soe many profest enemies as the Popish 
Priests and Jesuits are, who are incouraged and provided for. And y Quaker 
takes care and provides for those y are speakers in their conventicles, but noe care 
is taken or provision made for the building up Christians in the Protestant Religion, 
by means whereof not only many dayly fall away either to Popery, Quakerisme or 
Phanaticisme, but also the Lord s Day is prophaned, religion despised, and all 
notorious vices committed, so that it is become a Sodom of uncleannesse and a pest- 
house of iniquity. I doubt not but y r Grace will take it into consideration and do 
y" utmost for our eternal wellfare ; and now is y* time y y or Grace may be an in 
strument of a universall reformation with greatest facillity. Csecilius Lord Barren 
Baltemore, and absolute Proprietor of Maryland, being dead, and Charles Lord 
Barron Baltemore and our Governour being bound for England this year (as I am 
informed) to receive a farther confirmation of jr" Province from His Majestic, at 
w ch time, I doubt not, but y r Grace may soe prevaile with him as y* a maintenance 
for a Protestant ministry may be established as well in this Province as in Virginia, 
Barbados, and all other His Majestie s plantations in West Indies, and then there 
will be incouragement for able men to come amongst us, and y some person may 




brought by degrees to a uniformitie, provided we had more ministers y were truly 
conformable to our Mother y* Church, and none but such suffered to preach 
amongst us. As for my own p (God is my witness) I have done 7 my utmost en 
deavour in order thereunto, and shall (by God s assistance), whiles I have a being 
here, give manifest proof of my faithful! obedience to the Canons and Constitu 
tions of our sacred Mother. 

Yet one thing cannot be obtained here, (viz.) Consecration of Churches and 
Church-yards, to y" end y Christians might be decently buried together, whereas 
now they bury in the severall plantations where they lived ; unless y r Grace thought 
it sufficient to give a Dispensation to some pious Ministers (together with y manner 
and forme) to doe y same. And confident I am y you will not be wanting in any 
thing y* may tend most to God s glorie and the good of the Church, by w cb you 
will engage thousands of soules to pray for y ot Grace s everlasting happiness, but 
especially y" most obedient Son and S ervant. 

JOHN YEO. 1 

Patuxant River, in Maryland, 25th day of May, 1676. 

A letter from Archbishop Sheldon to the Bishop of London, Dr. 
Henry Compton, requesting him to lay this letter and Lord Balti 
more s reply before the Committee of the Privy Council, is still ex 
tant. The proprietor had pleaded in his answer the impossibility of 
applying an immediate or complete remedy to the evils complained of, 

Anderson s " Col. Ch.," n., pp. 394-396. 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 135 

the existence of which he does not appear to have attempted to deny. 
The character of the statutes then in force and the incongruous opinions 
of the members of an Assembly made up of Eomanists, Independents, 
and Quakers, as well as Churchmen, combined to prevent the adoption 
of the measures desired for the church s relief. The four clergymen in 
the province his lordship affirmed were " in possession of plantations 
which offered them a decent subsistence." l Already the majority of the 
settlers in Maryland were Protestants, and in the very year in which 
Yeo addressed the Archbishop of Canterbury Mr. Jeremiah Eaton de 
vised five hundred acres of land for the first Protestant minister settled 
in Baltimore County, 2 and during the following year another churchman 
conveyed his personal estate to the corporation of St. Mary s " for the 
maintenance of a protestant ministry from time to time among the 
inhabitants of St. George s and Poplar Hill hundred." 3 Besides the 
correspondent of the archishop, there appear to have been in the 
province, from the statement of Lord Baltimore, three other church cler 
gymen . One of them may have been the infamous John Coode , though it 
is to be hoped that one so profligate and abandoned in life and so avowed 
a disbeliever in religion, though at one time in holy orders, was not 
included in this enumeration. A clergyman, whose name has not been 
preserved, h;id been 
sent over by King 
Charles II., and 
Wilkinson, of whom 
we have spoken, 
may have been still 
alive. Yeo shortly 
left the province, 
and officiated for a 
time at Lewes in 

Delaware. After a few years absence he returned to Maryland, where 
he died, in Baltimore County, about the year 1686. In 1681 an allow 
ance was made from the king s secret-service fund for the payment of 
the passage of the Rev. Jonathan Sanders to Maryland, and there is 
among the records in the State Paper Office a recommendation of the 
Rev. Ambrose Sanderson by the Privy Council, dated October 8th in 
the same year, as a suitable minister for Maryland ; while two years 
later the Rev. Duell Pead and the Rev. William Mullett were desig 
nated for service in the province. Sanders, after a little, removed to Vir 
ginia. Pead was a faithful clergyman in Maryland for a number of years ; 
but of Sanderson and Mullet no trace has been found. In 1685, as 
we learn from a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, by 
Mary Taney, the wife of the Sheriff of Calvert County, and an ancestor 
of the late distinguished Chief Justice of the United States of America, 
there was no church clergyman residing in her neighborhood. In this 
appeal from a Christian mother for the ministration of the Word 
and sacraments, the words of the faithful Yeo, pleading for the set 
tlers souls, were echoed with no uncertain sound: 

1 Maryland MSS., State Paper Office, quoted * Griffith s "Annals of Baltimore," p. 9. 

by Anderson s " Col. Ch.," n., pp. 397, 398. Hawka s " Eccl. Contrib." Md., pp. 51, 52. 




136 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

May it please your Grace: 

. . . Our want of a minister, and the many blessings our Saviour de 
signed us by them, is a misery, which I and a numerous family, and many others 
in Marylana, have groaned under. We are seized with extreme horror when we 
think, that for want of the Gospel our children and posterity are in danger to be 
condemned to infidelity or to apostasy. We do not question God s care of us, but 
think your Grace, and the Right Reverend your Bishops, the proper instruments of 
so great a blessing to us. We are not, I hope, so foreign to your jurisdiction, but 
we may be owned your stray flock; however, the commission to go, and baptize, 
and teach all nations is large enough .... I question not but that your Grace 
is sensible, that without a temple it will be impracticable, neither can we expect a 
minister to hold out, to ride ten miles in a morning, and before he can dine, ten 
more, and from house to house, in hot weather, will dishearten a minister, if not 
kill him. 

Your Grace is so sensible of our sad condition, and for your place and piety s 
sake, have so great an influence on our most religious and gracious King, that if I 
had not your Grace s promise to depend upon I could not question your Grace s inter 
cession and prevailing. 500 or 600 for a church, with some encouragement for a 
minister, will be extremely less charge, than honor, to his Majesty. 

Our Church settled according to the Church of England, which is the sum of 
pur request, will prove a nui-sery of religion and loyalty through the whole Prov 
ince. But your Grace needs no arguments from me, but only this, it is in your power 
to give us many happy opportunities to praise God for this and innumerable mercies, 
and to importune His goodness to bless His Majesty, with along and prosperous reign 
over us, and long continue to your Grace, the great blessing of being an instrument 
of goodness to his Church. And now that I may be no longer troublesome, I hum 
bly entreat your pardon for the well-meant zeal of 

Your Grace s most obedient Servant, 

MARY TANEY. 

Accompanying this letter was a petition to the archbishop and 
bishops, reciting that the province of Maryland was "without a church 
or any settled ministry," and that the minister whom King Charles n. 
had sent (together with a " parcel of Bibles and other church books 
of considerable value ") was dead, and praying " that a certain parcel 
of tobacco, of one hundred hogsheads or thereabouts, of the growth 
or product of the said Province may be custom free, for and towards 
the maintenance of an Orthodox Divine, at Calvert Town." To this 
was added the request that their lordships, to whom the petition was ad 
dressed, would " contribute towards the building of a church at Calvert 
Town." Shortly after this earnest petition was received, on the 29th 
of September, 1695, an allowance was granted, from the secret-service 
fund of the king, to defray the passage of the Rev. Paul Bertrand to 
Maryland. The report of the clergyman, written in French, addressed 
to the Bishop of London, under date of September 12, 1689, is still 
extant, describing the condition of religion in the province at that time. 
A little later, among the host of "grievances " forwarded to King Will 
iam by a self-appointed convention, the outgrowth of the so-called 
" Protestant Revolution," was the allegation that " this church, which, 
by the charter, should be consecrated according to the ecclesiastical laws 
of England, was converted to the use of popish idolatry." The revolu 
tion was successful. " The convention " meeting in 1689, and again in 
1690, did not attempt to organize the government, but sought the in 
terference of the crown. In June, 1691, King William complied with 
the popular wish, and Maryland was constituted a royal colony. The 
following year, on the arrival of the royal governor, Sir Lionel Copley, 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 137 

the crown was finally recognized as the sole source of authority, the 
Protestant religion was established, and with it " the inviolability of the 
rights and franchises of the church ; " the ten counties were divided into 
thirty-one parishes ; the constitution of vestries was provided for, and 
a poll-tax of forty pounds of tobacco was laid, as a fund for the build 
ing or repairing of churches, the support of the clergy, or other pious 
uses. In July, 1694, Sir Francis Nicholson succeeded Copley. The 
new governor was a liberal and devoted patron of the Church, hasty in 
temper, utterly lacking in self-restraint, naturally imperious and arbi 
trary ; in demeanor, vain and conceited, and often tyrannical . There were 
still many redeeming qualities in his character, which made him popular 
among those over whom he bore rule, and secured for him the respect 
and admiration of men of widely differing opinions and beliefs. The 
purse and pen of Nicholson were ever at the service of the Church. 
More than a score of churches scattered throughout the colonies owed 
in great part their existence to his encouragement and liberality. His 
letters, many of which are still extant, manifest a solicitude for the 
church s welfare, and a disposition to further her growth, quite unusual 
among the correspondence of the times. While his foes were not 
backward in blazoning his faults and in exposing to public gaze the in 
firmities of a temper far from perfect, his friends, in equal numbers 
and with equal devotion, ascribed to him "every virtue under heaven." 
Energetic, intelligent, refined and courtly in manners, and possessing 
a statesman-like wisdom, he would have deserved well of the Church, ot 
which he was so ardent a supporter, had his life been more in accord 
ance with her holy teachings. 

At the coming of Governor Nicholson there were but three clergy 
men of the Church in the province. These three clergymen had, to 
quote their own language in a representation to the Bishop of London, 
"made a hard shift to live" "some time after they came" over, but 
" did afterwards marry and maintain their families out of the planta 
tions they had with their cures." 1 These three representatives of the 
Church had to contend with double their number of priests of the Church 
of Kome. Half-a-dozen clergymen accompanied the governor on his 
coming to the province, or were at once attracted by the new life of the 
Church, consequent upon the favor of vice-regal authority. Eight 
clergymen were speedily settled in the newly formed parishes, and at 
Annapolis, which was made the provincial capital in place of St. Mary s, 
the governor began at once the erection of the only brick church in the 
province. The establishment of a " free school " at the new capital of 
Maryland was another result of the change in administration which thus, 
in the language of the Council and House of Burgesses addressed to the 
Bishop of London, sought "to make learning an handmaid to devo 
tion." 2 Addressing the same source, recognized by the House of 
Burgesses as " our Diocesan," the clergy represented " the great and 
urgent necessity of an ecclesiastical rule here, invested with such ample 
power and authority from your lordship as may capacitate him to re 
dress what is amiss, and to supply what is wanting in the church." 3 

iHist. Coll, Am. Col. Church iv. (Mary- * Ibid., p. 1. 

land), p. 9. * Ibid., p. 12. 



138 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

This prayer for more direct episcopal supervision, which was not new, 
and which was heard continuously during the century just about to open, 
till in the "upper room" at Aberdeen, nearly a hundred years later, 
Samuel Seabury was made a bishop of the Church of God, was listened 
to so far as to secure the appointment by the Bishop of London of a 
commissary for Maryland. The choice fell on one most worthy of the 
office, and most willing to undertake the work. Dr. Thomas Bray, 
first commissary of Maryland, was born at Marton, in Shropshire, in 
1656. Prepared for the University at Oswestry, he was entered at 
Hart Hall in Oxford ; but narrowness of means required his removal 
from college soon after he had commenced Bachelor of Arts. Enter 
ing upon the work of the ministry, his. zeal and abilities commended 
him to the notice of Lord Digby, from whom he received the living of 
Sheldon. In this parish he prepared and published a series of Cate 
chetical Lectures, which, by their popularity and merit, won for the 
author the notice and patronage of the highest dignitaries of the Church. 
It was at this time that the Governor and Assembly of Maryland had 
unanimously agreed upon "a petitionary act" for the appointment and 
support of a "superintendent, commissary, or suffragan," and had ad 
dressed the Bishop of London, Dr. Compton, with the request that he 
would appoint and send to the province some experienced and unex 
ceptionable clergyman for this purpose. In April, 1696, the bishop 
offered the appointment of commissary to Dr. Bray. In accepting this 
post, which he did at no little social and pecuniary sacrifice, he made 
as a condition the provision of parochial libraries for the ministers who 
should be sent out to the province. It was by means of this provision 
that he hoped to be able to secure from among the unbeneficed and 
poorer clergy studiou% and sober men to undertake the service of the 
Church in America. The wisdom of this plan was apparent. In the 
library at Lambeth is still preserved a paper bearing the signatures of 
Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury ; and Sharp, Archbishop of York ; 
of Compton, Bishop of London ; of Lloyd, Bishop of Lichfield ; of Still- 
ingfleet, Bishop of Worcester ; of Patrick, Bishop of Ely ; and of 
Moore, Bishop of Norwich, expressing the readiness of these eminent 
divines and scholars to " contribute cheerfully towards these Parochial 
Libraries," and adding the hope that "many pious persons, out of love 
to religion and learning," would do the same. The wish thus expressed 
was fully realized. Nor this alone. The indefatigable commissary 
spared neither labor nor time in securing mission-priests for the work of 
the Church abroad. Detained for several years from visiting the prov 
ince under his spiritual charge he was by no means idle. Through his 
exertion the number of the clergy was increased to sixteen ere he set 
foot upon the soil of Maryland ; and besides other labors of love and 
devotion he formed the design of a Church of England "congregation, 
pro fide propaganda by charter from the king." This design, out of 
which grew within a few years the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, was laid aside for a time, while the busy brains 
of its author were occupied in another scheme, which, ere he left Eng 
land, took form in the establishment of the Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge. The original sketch in manuscript, prepared by 




BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 139 

Apoftoh cR Charity, 

1 1 <^ 

turr an& Cfyteflemt 

CONSIDER D. 

DISCo u RSE 

Upon D*H n. j, 
Preached a St. 7W&, at the Donation 

of fome ?rott(unl MifFtcmdties to be fenbfntQ the 
Plantations. 

To wh ich is 



i Colonies 

Religion \ in order fo jhttYvdrok Trvvif on L J wanting fir Me 
ptgation of Ckrift&nify in tlitfe ParfS. 

hh TkotofiJsfir th* Prv7nohi?g th&fymi : And to I 
-ttfo t-heCfeTgyjjf-fiijfantgdoitiy as an* PerJoTjS ofSofc/tfy and 
Abi(i\/et to dccepc o^ 



S Circular ttlltr Lc/tyfent- to t/ie C(o>gyi-tie+t. 



L N D AT, 
Printed for V/tl&*9Haw& &.* th-e $igx of rhe Refi 



1 A copy of this exceedingly rare tract is in that the above fac-simile has been furnished by 

the library left by the late Bishop Whittingham, the accomplished custodian of the library, Miss 

of Maryland, to the diocese of which he was for Whittingham, of Baltimore, Md. 
years the honored head. It is from this copy 



140 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

the Maryland Commissary, detailing the plan of this now vener 
able organization, is still extant in the Library of Sion College, 
London; and Dr. Bray was one of the five members who met 
together for the first time, March 8, 1698-9, to inaugurate this noble 
charity. On his return from his first visit to Maryland, charged -with 
important business for the Maryland Church, the opportunity offered 
for entering upon the department of labor earlier marked out, and the 
unwearied commissary lost no time in soliciting and securing from the 
king a charter for the incorporation of a society whose special duty 
should be to propagate the gospel throughout the colonies and foreign 
dependencies of the British empire. The influence of Tenison, Arch 
bishop of Canterbury, and Compton, Bishop of London, was exerted 
in behalf of this application ; but nothing can take from Thomas Bray 
the distinguished honor of being the originator and founder of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Reaching 
Maryland on the 12th of March, 1700, the commissary directed his 
attention at the outset to the settlement and maintenance of the parochial 
clergy. Convening the clergy on the western shore for consultation, 
at a time when their assembling was feasible, the commissary then pro 
ceeded on a visitation, throughout the progress of which he was received 
by the community with every demonstration of respect and regard. 
The result of his inquiries and observation was that but a twelfth of 
the entire population were Romanists, and a similar proportion were 
Quakers ; while almost the entire residue were at least nominal adherents 
of the Establishment, including many of the leading families of the 
province. That this was the case might be inferred from the unanimity 
with which laws for the establishment of the Church had been again and 
again adopted by the assembly. 

When the assembly convened, and the question of the establishment 
of the Church was under discussion, -the course of the commissary was so 
judicious and conciliatory that the formal thanks of the body were 
tendered him, and the attorney-general ordered to advise with him in 
preparing a draft of the bill desired. The act provided " that the Book 
of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments, with the rites 
and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of 
England, the Psalter and Psalms of David, and Morning and Evening 
Prayer therein contained be solemnly read, and by all and every min 
ister, or reader in every church or other place of public worship within 
this province." The closing words of this clause proved fatal to the 
approval of the act by the crown. To require the use of the common 
prayer " in every church or other place of public worship" in the prov 
ince was to deny all toleration to dissenters from the Establishment. 
Upon the completion of this act of legislation, by the Legislature, the 
commissary summoned all the clergy of the province to a visitation at 
Annapolis, on Thursday, in Whitsun-week, the 23d of May. Seven 
teen clergymen answered to their names at the opening of the session, 
to whom the commissary delivered a charge enforcing his views with 
reference to catechising, preaching, and private ministerial instruction. 
It was resolved by the clergy that they would preach to their respective 
flocks a " scheme of divinity ; " that they would " more religiously 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 141 

observe the great festivals of the Church" by preaching " upon the sub 
jects proper to such days : as at Christmas, upon the Incarnation of the 
Son of God ; on Good Friday, on the Death, Sufferings, and Satisfac 
tion of Christ ; on Easter-day, on the Eesurrection ; and on Ascension- 
day, upon the Ascension of Christ into Heaven ; on Whitsunday, upon 
the Divinity and Operations of the Holy Ghost ; and upon Trinity 
Sunday, on the Doctrine of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity." 1 The 
nature and necessity of the sacrament of holy baptism and the re 
moval of prejudice against the assumption of the sponsorial relation 
were also to be made subjects of sermons, while profaneness and im 
morality were to be openly rebuked from the pulpit. The maintenance 
of discipline among the clergy was made a theme of discussion, and 
deeds were added to words in a strict enforcement of the needed re 
forms in this matter. The case of a clergyman who had fled to Virginia, 
to escape the consequences of his misconduct, was brought before the 
clergy, who united with the commissary in his effort to expose and 
punish the offender. Nor was this the only evidence of a disposition 
to maintain godly discipline. Solemnly addressing one of the assembled 
clergy, the commissary charged him in open session with a grievous 
crime, and assigned a time for the trial of the accused. In pressing 
home upon the offender the heinousness of his guilt, the commissary 
urged as an aggravation of the offence : "First, That it is done by a per 
son in Holy Orders ; Secondly, By a missionary (which, by the way, 
my brethren, should be a consideration of no small weight with all of 
us) ; Thirdly, As to time, that this Scandal is given at a Juncture when 
our Church here is weakest, and our friends seem to be fewest, and 
our Enemies strongest; And lastly, as to place, it so happens that you 
are seated in the mid^t of Papists, nay, within two miles of the Chief 
amongst the numerous Priests at this time in the Province ; and who, 
I am credibly informed by the most considerable Gentlemen in these 
Parts, has made that advantage of your scandalous living that there 
have been more perversions made to popery in that part of Maryland, 
since your Polygamy has been the talk of the country, than in all the 
time it has been an English colony." 2 Turning from these evidences 
of the need of episcopal restraint and oversight in this missionary 
outpost of the Church, it is pleasing to find the story of this important 
visitation closed with proofs of a zeal for Christ s Church on the com 
missary s part which knew no bounds. The same love for souls and 
generous interest in, and care for, all who needed spiritual guidance, 
leading the worthy commissary to send two of the clergy who applied 
to him for work at the first instance, the one to Pennsylvania and the 
other to North Carolina, induced him to propose that the Maryland 
clergy, out of their penury, should contribute for the support of an 
additional missionary among the Quakers in Pennsylvania. It hardly 
need be added that the commissary s subscription was nearly equal to 
that of all the others whose names are appended to this first mission 
ary offering made in any portion of the American Church for carrying 
the gospel to "unbelievers." 

i The Acts of Dr. Bray s visitation, held Appendix to Hawks s "Eccl. Contributions," 
at Annapolis, in Maryland, May 23, 24, 25, Anno Maryland. 
1700. London : 1700. Folio. Reprinted as an - Acts of Dr. Bray s Visitation. 



142 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The visitation closed with the earnest and repeated request of the 
clergy that the commissary would return to England to care for the 
interests of the Church at home, by securing fitting action with refer 
ence to the law establishing the Church, and to obtain a further supply 
of clergy for the vacant cures. Though the journey was undertaken 
at his own cost, and at the sacrifice of his commissarial stipend while 
absent from his post, Dr. Bray acceded to the request of the clergy, 
and, by his presence in England, was able to defeat the machinations 
of the Quakers and Romanists in opposition to the Church, and after 
the present law had been refused the royal assent, to secure, at length, 
the passage of a bill which, approved by the authorities at home, was 
finally passed in Maryland, and confirmed by the king. The royal 
assent was given in the following terms : " Have the Quakers the bene 
fit of a toleration ? Let the Established Church have an established 
maintenance." It was during the discussion at home of the questions 
involved in the passage of this act that the tireless commissary pub 
lished "A Memorial Representing the Present State of Religion on the 
Continent of North America." This important paper, by its timely 
appearance and its careful presentation of facts, went far to awaken 
the attention of earnest members of the establishment to the spiritual 
wants of the American colonies. It described the needs of the Mary- 
laud Church in detail. There were seventeen clergymen. Churches had 
been erected in most of the parishes. These parishes were of large ex 
tent, and often but thinly inhabited. In these sparsely settled parishes 
the livings would yield but 25 or 30 per annum, the payments being 
made in tobacco, the staple article of produce in the province. In the 
better class of parishes the clergyman s income was, at that time, 
about 80, though a depreciation in values was apprehended in the 
near future. Not more than a twelfth of the population were Roman 
ists, though the number of their priests had been largely increased. 
The Quakers numbered about a tenth of the whole population, and 
were far from wealthy, when compared with the members of the 
establishment. At least forty mission-priests were required for Mary 
land alone, and the commissary detailed at length the qualifica 
tions of head and heart that they should possess. "Common 
men," he asserted, "the refuse of the clergy in England, would 
not do for American missionaries." The clergymen required for 
work in the colonies must be exemplary in their outward walk and 
conversation : men of the world, prudent, experienced in pastoral 
work and duty, and possessing " a true missionary spirit, having an 
ardent zeal for God s glory and the salvation of men s souls." Strength, 
learning, and youth were required for a work, the importance of which 
could not be over-estimated. The fertile mind of the commissary de 
vised a scheme for the selection of missionaries and their support, and 
although the plan thus originated was not literally carried out, the end 
proposed was attained, through the agency of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which, on Dr. Bray s 
petition, was incorporated by the king, and of which the commissary 
was both the founder and a life-long friend. Of these exertions in 
Maryland and at home he was at length, after expending the greater 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 143 

part of his private fortune, constrained to say : "The expense as well 
as fatigue had been insupportable. But as what has been hitherto 
done does but let ine into the view of so much more which is still 
wanting to propagate and maintain Christianity in those parts ; if any 
effort of mine shall contribute anything to promote the design, I shall 
obtain an end, to accomplish which I could be content to sacrifice my 
life, with the remainder of my small fortunes." 1 The issue of circular 
letters to the clergy, enforcing the subjects discussed and approved at 
the recent visitation, occupied a portion of the commissary s time ; 
but these official communications and subsequent efforts in the direction 
of the appointment of others in his place poorly supplied the lack of 
Bray s return to the Province of Maryland. It was in no spirit of 
shrinking from duty that he remained at home, but in deference to the 
judgment of those, his superiors in the Church, who thought his in 
fluence would be more wisely exerted in England than in America. 
His efforts to secure the blessings of the Episcopate for America ; 2 his 
untiring interest in missionary work of every kind ; his connection with 
charitable efforts for the education of the negroes, out of which grew 
the chartered body known as the "Associates of Dr. Bray ; " and his 
labor for the relief, release, and colonization in America of poor debtors, 
from which the colony of Georgia took its origin, added to his literary 
and clerical work, made up an honored and most useful life, the 
memory of which is still fragrant, after the lapse of years. What 
might not have been the story had the Church of England, instead of 
retaining the devoted Bray in London, sent him back, not merely with 
commissarial, but with episcopal, powers, to win to Christ and his 
Church the province and the people he so patiently served and so ably 
vindicated ! 

In 1702 the law drawn up under the direction of Dr. Bray, and 
approved in England, and then transmitted to Maryland to be enacted 
by the Assembly there, was duly returned, and received the royal as 
sent. Then, at length, was the Church in Maryland established by 
law. By the provisions of this act the "Book of Common Prayer" was 
ordered to be read in all the churches of the establishment, and every 
place of worship or congregation, for the maintenance of whose min 
isters a certain revenue or income was directed by law to be raised, was 
to be deemed part of the established church. Every minister having 
no other benefice, and "presented, inducted, or appointed" by the 
governor, was to receive forty pounds of tobacco per poll, out of 
which he was to pay yearly a thousand pounds to the parish clerk. 
For the prevention of "all illegal and unlawful marriages, not allowable 
by the Church of England, but forbidden by the Table of Marriages," 
copies of the Table of Affinity were to be set up in the churches ; jus 
tices and magistrates were forbidden to solemnize matrimony, and the 
exaction of a fee of "five shillings sterling, and no more," was author 
ized, " provided such persons come to such parish church or chapel at 
time of divine service, for solemnizing such marriages." The sheriffs 



_ 3 pr 
sity of one to superinteud the churdTand clergy Am. Col. Ch., rv., pp. 51, 52. 



144 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of the several counties were required to collect and pay over the min 
isterial tobacco to the incumbent of the cure. Select vestries, of at 
least six members, were to be chosen for each parish by the free 
holders who " contribute to the public taxes and charges of the said 
parish," the incumbent, being ex officio, "one of the vestry, and prin 
cipal " thereof. On the death or resignation of a vestryman the free 
holders supplied the vacancy, and on every Easter Monday two of the 
vestry who had served the previous year retired, and two were chosen 
to fill their places. Provision was made for a registrar of the vestry, 
and " the true and fair registry " of the proceedings of the vestry, "and 
of all Births, Marriages, and Burials (Negroes and Mulatoes excepted") . 
Record books were to be provided. Vestries were ordered to hold 
monthly meetings under penalties for unexcused absences. Church 
wardens were to be appointed yearly, who were to take the oaths of 
office, and to serve under penalty of fine. The church- wardens and 
vestry were to provide for the "Parochial charges," and "all necessary 
repairs," and improvements of churches, chapels, or church-yards, for 
which purpose all fines and forfeitures were to be appropriated; and, 
if required, rates were to be levied on the taxables of the parish, not 
exceeding ten pounds of tobacco per poll in any one year, to be col 
lected by the sheriff, and paid over for the uses named. No clergyman 
was to hold more than two livings, and the consent of both vestries was 
necessary for the union of two. A " sober and discreet person " might 
serve as lay-reader in the case of there being no incumbent who should 
be approved by the Ordinary, and to whose use a portion of the min 
isterial tobacco might be applied. The licensed lay-reader, on taking 
the oaths, was permitted to " read Divine Service, Homilies and such 
other good authors of practical divinity as shall be appointed." Eleven 
o clock A.M. of the first Tuesday in each month was appointed as the 
time for vestry meetings. The vestry books and accounts were to be 
open to inspection of the parishioners. The acts of toleration were 
extended to Protestant dissenters and Quakers, provided that they 
respectively conformed to the provisions of the acts, and their places 
of meeting were certified to, and registered at, the county courts. 1 

Such was the nature of the " Establishment " in Maryland, under 
which the Church existed, until the war for independence placed all 
religious beliefs and organizations on the same footing, in the eyes of 
the law. Some features of this carefully drawn act have survived the 
dis-establishment of the Maryland Church, and have become part and 
parcel of the "common law" of the American Church. We owe a 
debt of lasting gratitude to the life and public services of Dr. Thomas 
Bray. 

1 Bacon s " Laws of Maryland," 1702, Chap. i. Hist. Coll. Am. Ch., rv., pp. 139-148. 




BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 145 



CRITICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 

TO Maryland belongs the honor of having been the first government which pro 
claimed and put in practice the novelty of religious toleration. This grant of 

religious freedom was secured by the 
Charter given by Charles I., in 1632, 
to Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore. 
It will be borne in mind that this Char 
ter, though given to a professed mem 
ber of the Roman Catholic Church, 
was granted by the head of the re 
formed Church of England, and that 
the two references to religion, con 
tained in this important patent, were the exact phrases earlier used in the Avalon 
grant, issued to Sir George Calvert, when he was still a member of the English 
Communion. These references to religion in the Charter are found, in the first 
instance, in the fourth section, giving the proprietary the liberty of erecting 
churches, and the advowsons of all that should be built, and requiring the conse^ 
cration of the said 
churches according to 
the ecclesiastical laws 
of England; and, in 
the second place, the 
twenty-second section 
provided that no law 
should be made preju 
dicial to God s holy 
and true Christian re 
ligion. The original 
is as follows : Proviso 
semper, quod nulla fiat inlerpretatio, per quam sacro sancto Dei, et vera Christi 
ana religio . . . immutatione, prejudicio vel dispendio patiantur. Certainly 
the holy service of God and the true Christian religion, as understood by the power 
using these words to limit rights and privileges elsewhere conferred, could only 
mean that which was held by the established Church of England. The very exer 
cise of the Romish faith at this time was contrary to law. The Charter, by this 
somewhat vague proviso, secured, though it by no means directly enjoined, tolera 
tion, and the "Protestant Catholics," as we have seen, were not slow in claiming 
the protection of law, in the exercise of their religious freedom, and the Romish 
authorities were equally prompt in allowing and enforcing their claim of right. 

The Assembly of 1639 declared that the " Holy Church within this Province 
shall have her rights and liberties." A similar law was enacted the following year. 
Each of these provisions is founded on the first clause of Magna Charta, which 
expresses the same idea, and applies, of course, to the Church of England. This 
could not be otherwise in a legislative enactment, made by subjects of the English 
crown, who were, by their very common law of the kingdom, required to recognize 
the establishment as the national church. Besides, the continuity of the Church 
of England as reformed, with the Church of England prior to the Reformation, 
was asserted by the highest authorities of the realm, both legislative and legal. In 
these very references to " Holy Church," the church settlers of Maryland found 
their rights protected and their religious faith acknowledged. 

In April, 1649, the Assembly met under the new governor, William Stone. 
The faith of the members of this body, which passed " the first law securing religious 

liberty that ever passed a legally constituted 
legislature" (Narrative and Critical History 
of America, m., p. 534), has been a matter of 
dispute ; but it is certain that out of the sixteen 
members, including the governor, nine bur 
gesses and six councillors ; the governor, three 
of the council, and at least two of the burgesses, were Protestant, while of the rest 
the faith of two is doubtful. If the governor and council sat as a separate house, 
as is probable, the claim of the Roman Catholics to the enactment of this law is 




146 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



overthrown, and, in any event, the Romish element in the Assembly is not likely to 
have been in majority. The words of this act, so far as it relates to toleration, are 
as follows : 

"Whereas, the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion hath fre 
quently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths where 
it hath been practiced, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this 
province, and the better to preserve mutual love and unity amongst the inhabitants 
here "it was enacted that no person " professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall, 
from henceforth, be any waies troubled, molested, or discountenanced for, or in 
respect of, his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof within this province, 
.... nor any way compelled to the beleefe or exercise of any other religion, 
against his or her consent." By other sections of this act of toleration, blasphemy 
and the denial of the divinity of Christ, or the Trinity, were made punishable with 
death, and those using reproachful words concerning the Blessed Virgin or the 
Apostles, or applying epithets to any one in matters of religion, were punished by a 
fine, and in default thereof by whipping or imprisonment. It does not appear that 
these penalties were ever inflicted, and they were far less severe than those 
attached to an act of Parliament passed the year before for preventing the spread 
of heresy and blasphemy. Later, when the rule of the Commonwealth was 
extended over Maryland, the Puritans, who had been welcomed to a home by 

Governor Stone in 1649, when fugitives 
from penal laws in Virginia, exempted 
/ t 1 S\/ //I -.^ /o the Romanists from the privilege of tol- 

/7L rrf XV/i ///. /H i * eration. On the restoration of the monar 

t/J *r> 2WV/t**fcfe* chy there wag a return to the previous 

state of things. 

Following Chalmers, who was the 
earliest historian of Maryland, the Assem 
bly of 1649 has been generally regarded 
as containing a Roman Catholic majority. 
Mr. Sebastian F. Streeter, in his " Mary 
land Two Hundred Years ago," claimed 
that this Assembly was Protestant by 
majority. This question was carefully 
discussed by Mr. George Lynn-Lachlan 
Davis in his "Day Star of American 
Freedom ; or, The Birth and Early Growth 
of Toleration in the Province of Mary 
land ; " a work based on an examination 
of wills, rent-rolls, and other records. 
Dr. Richard McSherry, in an article 
originally published in the " Southern 
Review " and afterwards reprinted in his 
"Essays and Lectures," attacked the 
position of Streeter. The Rev. Edward D. Neill contributed an article on the rela 
tions of Protestants and Roman Catholics to the spirit of toleration in his " Lord 
Baltimore and Toleration in Maryland," printed in the " Contemporary Review," 
September, 1876. The Rev. B. F. Brown has added a valuable contribution to the 
discussion in his "Early Religious History of Maryland; Maryland not a Roman 
Catholic Colony," 1876. The Rev. Dr. Ethan Allen, Historiographer of the Mary 
land Church, in his "Who were the Early Settlers of Maryland?" published by 
the Historical Society in 1865, shows that the vast majority of the settlers from the 
very first were Protestants. The lato John P. Kennedy, in his discourse on the 
" Life and Character of the First Lord Baltimore," 1845, delivered before the His 
torical Society, maintained that toleration was in the Charter and not in the Act of 
1649, and that as much honor was due to the king who granted this boon as to the 
nobleman who received it. Reviewed in 1846, by Mr. B. U. Campbell, Mr. Kennedy 
felt called upon to reply. In 1855 Dr. Ethan Allen published in pamphlet form his 
"Maryland Toleration," which had earlier appeared in the "Church Review, in 
which he denied that Maryland was a Roman Catholic colony, and claimed that 
protection to all faiths was guaranteed by the royal charter. The subject received 
attention in the discussion between Mr. W. E. Gladstone and Cardinal Manning 
concerning the Vatican decrees, in 1875. The cardinal had appealed to the tolera 
tion granted, as he assumed, by Roman Catholics in Maryland, to meet the charge 




INDORSEMENT OF THE TOLERATION ACT. 



BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 



147 




ALL HALLOWS PARISH CHURCH, SNOW HILL, MARYLAND. 



of the premier that the Roman Church would, if it were in her power, enforce by 
pains and penalties the acceptance of her creed. In his " Vaticanism " Mr. Glad 
stone replied, and in his reissue of his essay, under the title "Rome and the New 
est Fashions in Religion," reiterated his arguments. Numerous other publications 
might be named, if it were worth while to attempt the bibliography of this interest 
ing subject. The notes to Chapter xni. of the " Narrative and Critical History of 
America," Vol. HI., pp. 553-562, and the chapter itself by W. T. Brautley, ibid., 
pp. 518-553, are full of valuable and important references to the whole subject of 
the early history of Maryland. 

"The deplorable state and condition of the Province of Maryland for want 
of an established ministry," referred to by the Pautuxent priest, is shown by the 
statements of the two Labadists, Jasper bankers and Peter Sluyter, who visited 
Maryland in 1680, and left on record their impressions of the religious condition 
of the province as follows : " The lives of the planters in Maryland and Virginia 
are very godless and profane. They listen neither to God nor his commandments, 
and have neither church nor cloister. Sometimes there is some one who is called 
a minister, who does not, as elsewhere, sorve in one place, for in all Virginia and 
Maryland there is not a city or a village but travels for profit, and for that pur 
pose visits the plantations through the country, and then addresses the people ; but 
I know of no public assemblages being held in these places ; you hear often that 
these ministers are worse than anybody else, yea, are an abomination." Memoirs 
of the Long Island Historical Society, i., p. 218. 

Dickinson, a Quaker preacher, as quoted by Neill, in his " Founders of Mary 
land" (p. 171), under date of "8th 11 mo. 1695, O.S.," writes from the Downs: 
" Several priests were going over into Maryland, having heard that the government 
had laid a tax of forty pounds of tobacco on each inhabitant for the advancement 
of the priest s wages." These were, possibly, the clergy ordained at Saint Paul s 
for the mission-work in America. 



CHAPTER IX. 

BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK AND THE 

MIDDLE COLONIES. 




annals of the Church in New York begin with an amusing 
I episode. Hudson, who, in the "Half Moon," discovered the 
island of Manhattan, was an Englishman and an English church 
man, and at the outset of his earliest voyage of discovery received 
the sacrament as his Viaticum; 1 but the Dutch, in whose employ he 
sailed, reaped the advantages of his discovery, and on the settlement of 

New Netherlands the faith of 
si ./ / the National Church of Hol- 

iLA^L, <2*c GC land was ^ rst intr0( iuced. At 
* the conquest of the colony by 
the English, under Colonel 
Richard Nicolls, in 1664, guarantees of liberty of conscience in "di 
vine worship and church discipline," 2 thus including the rights of the 
transplanted church, were granted to the vanquished. 

Still the occupancy of the town by the English was followed by the 
introduction of the Church of England Service, and as there was no 
place of worship but the Dutch church within the fort, it was cordially 
arranged by the articles of capitulation, that after the Dutch had fin 
ished their use of the building, the chaplain of the British forces should 
have the occupancy of the same. "This," says Brodhead, "was all 
the footing that the English Episcopal Church had in New York for 
more than thirty years." 3 

Recaptured by the Dutch in 1673, and again surrendered to the 
English the following year, it is to be noted that stipulations were made 
by Governor Colve in his communications with Major Edmund Andros, 
that the inhabitants " be allowed to retain their customary church privi 
leges in Divine Service and Church Discipline ; "to which Andros replied, 
that " the usuall discipline of their church bee continued to them as 
formerly. 4 The pastor of the old Dutch Church in New York at this 
time was Domine Wilhelmus Van Nieuwenhuysen, who had been sent 
out from Holland by the classis of Amsterdam, in 1671. In the ship 
which brought Governor Andros.froin England there came a clergyman 
who had both Dutch and English orders, Domine Nicolaus Van Rens- 
selaer, a younger son of the first Patroon of Rensselaerswyck. Meet 
ing King Charles II., when the latter was in exile, at Brussels, and 
predicting the restoration of the monarch to his hereditary rights and 

Anderson s " Col. Ch.," I., pp. 343, 344. Doc. Hist, of New York, Quarto Ed., in.. 

Brodhcad s " Hist of N.Y., r i., p. 762. p. 49. 
;! Ibid., n., p. 44. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 149 

throne, the domine accompanied the king on his return and served as 
chaplain to the Dutch ambassador, Van Gogh, and afterwards as minis 
ter of the Dutch Church at Westminster and lecturer at St. Margaret s, 
Lothbury, London. While in England he received both deacon s and 
priest s orders at the hands of John Earle, Bishop of Salisbury, between 
the years 1663-5, and sailed for America in company with Andros, 
bearing a letter from the Duke of York recommending him, at his own 
request, " to be minister of one of the Dutch churches in New York or 
New Albany, when a vacancy shall happen." 1 The duke had provided 
for a chaplain for the garrison at New York, with a stipend of 121 
6s. Sd. per annum, 2 and it is probable that a clergyman accompanied 
Andros on this expedition ; but no record of the name of either of these 
is extant, nor is there mention of any other prior to the induction of 
the Rev. Charles Wolley, in 1678. 

Domine Van Rensselaer appears to have remained only a short time 
in the city of New York, but proceeded soon after his arrival to his 
father s colony at Albany, where, in accordance with the mandate of 
the Duke of York and by order of Governor Andros, he was subse 
quently inducted into the charge of the Dutch Church in that city as 
associate with Domine Schaats. 3 On Domine Van Rensselaer s propos 
ing to baptize some children in New York the pastor of the Collegiate 
Church interposed with a peremptory refusal ; the matter reaching the 
council, on Van Rensselaer s complaint, the Dutch minister, who had on 
the street asserted that Van Rensselaer "was not aLawfull minister, nor 
his admittance at Albany to be Lawfull," 4 stoutly maintained that "no 
one y* only had orders from y e Church of England had sufficient Authority 
to be admitted a Minister here, to administer y e Sacraments without a 
certificate " from the classis. The irregularity of the proceedings in 
the induction of Van Rensselaer is evident from the fact that, instead of 
claiming his right to baptize on the ground of his ordination in Hol 
land, he produced his English letters of orders and certificates of his 
ministering in London, together with the Duke of York s recommen 
dation to any vacancy either in New York or Albany. The question 
before the council was " whether the ordination of y e Church of Eng 
land be not sufficient qualification for a minister comporting himself 
accordingly, to be admitted, officiate and administer y e Sacraments ac 
cording to y e Constitution of y Reformed Churches of Holland." 5 
Finally, though with evident reluctance, the Dutch domine, with his 
elders and deacons, presented in writing the following amended answer, 
with which all the parties litigant appeared to have been satisfied, to 
wit: 

To the Noble, High, Honorable Sir, the Major EDMUND ANDROS, Governor- 
General of all His Royal Highnesses Territories in America : 

NOBLE, HIGH, HONORABLE SIR, A minister, according to the Order of the 
Church of England lawfully called, is sufficiently qualified to be admitted to the 

N.Y. Col. Docs., in., p. 225. Brodhead s 4 O Callagkan s "Doc. Hist, of N.Y.," in., 

" Hist, of N.Y.," H., p. 272. pp. 526, 527. 

2 N.Y. Col. Docs., ni., p. 220. s Council Minutes in " Doc. Hist, of N.Y.," 

3 Brodhead s "History of New York," u., in., pp. 526, 527. Munsell s "Annuls of Albany," 
p. 228. vi., pp. 67-74. 



150 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




jording 

Noble, High, Honorable Sir, 

Your Excellency s servants and subjects, 
THE CONSISTORY OF THIS CITY OP NEW YORK, 
IN THE NAME OP ALL, 

WILHELMUS VAN NIEWENHUYSEN, 

Pastor. 
NEW YORK, October 1, 1675. 

On the following day Van Rensselaer yielded the point in contro 
versy, by subscribing the following agreement : 

I, the undersigned, have promised, and hereby promise, to conduct myself in 
my Church service as Minister of Albany and Rensselaerswyck according to the Low 
Dutch Church, conformably to the public Church service and discipline of the 
Reformed Church of Holland, pursuant to that which I have solemnly promised in my 
public installation before the whole congregation of Albany, etc. 

Done in the presence and view of Domine Wilhelmus Van Nieuwenhuysen, 
minister of the Word of God within New York, and Jeronimus Ebbing, Elder, and 
the Burgomaster Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt. 

NICOLAUS VAN RENSSELAER, 

Minister of the Word of God of New Albany and Rensselaerswyck. 
NEW YORK, October 2, 1675. 

The subject of all this controversy, a minister on whom the vows 
of ordination seemed to rest but lightly, was shortly brought before the 
court for " false preaching." On being imprisoned by the magistrates at 
Albany for " some dubious words in his sermon or doctrine," the 
court required accuser and accused to " forgive and forget." In 1677 
Andros deposed Van Rensselaer from his ministry " on account of 
his bad and scandalous life," 2 and the following year he died. 

It being evident that little good to the Church could be expected 
from the services of the eccentric Van Rensselaer, on the return of 
Governor Andros to New York, in August, 1678, he was attended by 

a Cambridge graduate, in holy or- 



pointed by the Duke of York, chaplain 
of the forces at Fort James. The 

HANDWRITING OF B.A. DEGREE, place of worship was the chapel in 

the fort, shared as it was for many 

* /7 9- >#? years with the Dutch minister and 

~itf fr & " s con g re g a tion, and, doubtless, the 
(/ place in which the Episcopally or 

dained Van Rensselaer was forbid- 
HANDWRITING IN M.A. DEGREE. 3 den to minister the sacrament of 

baptism. Among the first acts of 
the new incumbent was the compliance with the governor s " Brief" 

1 Hist. Mag., ix., pp. 351-354. sizar, 13 June, 1670." He was matriculated a 

Brodhead, " Hist, of N.Y.," II., p. 300. sizar of Emmanuel College, on the 9th of July, 

3 The signatures copied above are from the 1670. He took the B.A. degree in January, 

" degree-book " at the University of Cambridge, 1673-4, and proceeded Master of Arts in July, 

where, as we learn from the records, " Ch. Wol- 1677. 

ley of Liuc." (Lincolnshire) was "admitted 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 



151 



of the 17th of August, 1678, authorizing and requiring the collec 
tion of the charity of the well-disposed towards the redemption 
of Jacob Leisler, and several other inhabitants of New York, who had 
been taken captive by Turkish corsairs. The appeal was successful, 
and the captives were speedily released from slavery. An interest 
ing, if not flattering, account of Mr. Wolley s ministrations is furnished 
us in the journal of two Dutch "Labadists," 1 Jasper Dankers and 
Peter Sluyter, who had come from Wiewerd in Friesland, to select in 
the New World a site for the settlement of a colony of their people. 
Shrewd and observing men as these humble travellers were, their 
quaint narrative of the church service at New York, on the 20th Sunday 
after Trinity, October 15, 1679 (N. S.) is well worthy of reproduc 
tion in our pages : " 15th. Sunday. We went at noon to-day, to 
hear the English Minister, whose services took place after the Dutch 
Church was out. There were not above twenty-five or thirty 
people in the church. The first thing that occurred was the read 
ing of all their prayers and ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as 
is done in all Episcopal Churches. A young man then went into the 
pulpit and commenced preaching, who thought he was performing 
wonders ; but he had a little book in his 
hand out of which he read his sermon, which 
was about a quarter of an hour or half an 
hour long. With this the services were con 
cluded, at which we could not be sufficiently 
astonished. This was all that happened 
with us to-day." 2 Peter Sluyter is reported 
by Dankers, the writer of the journal, as 
having attended the church service again 
and again, with a view of " exercising him 
self in the English language." 3 On the return 
of these simple-minded enthusiasts to New 
York they had occasion to call on the govern 
or, which they did on the afternoon of Palm 
Sunday, about five o clock, "who was still 
engaged, at our coming, in the Common 
Prayer; but as soon as it was finished he 
came and spoke to us." 4 

But, in spite of his use of "a little 
book" in preaching and his failure to win the 
praise of the critical Labadist missionaries, 
Chaplain Wolley is entitled to kind remem 
brance for a contribution to the literature of the time, which, 
though encumbered with pedantry, and fuller of notices of the 
savages than the European settlers, still gives us valuable infor 
mation of the state of the city and province at the period of its 
composition. " A Two Years Journal in New York, and part of the 
Territories in America," by C. W., A.M., published in London, in 
1701, assures us with respect to his American home that it is "a place 

1 Followers of Jean De Labadie, a French 3 Ibid., pp. 160^ 164. 

enthusiast. 4 Ibid., p. 284. 

8 Long Island Hist. Soc. Coll., I., p. 148. 




ARMS OF SIR FRANCIS 
NICHOLSON, 1693. 



152 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of as sweet and agreeable air as ever I breathed in, and the inhabitants, 
both English and Dutch, very civil and courteous, as I may speak by 
experience, amongst whom I have often wished myself and family, to 
whose tables I was frequently invited, and always concluded with a 
generous bottle of Madeira." ! The chaplain s kindly disposition is shown 
.by his participation in the effort for the erection of the new Dutch 
church, to which the governor, despite his churchly inolinings, con 
tributed liberally, and for which he applied the surplus moneys raised 
in response to his brief in behalf of the captives in Turkey. Wolley 
bore with him, on his return, the following attestation of his worth 
and services : 

A Certificate to Mr. Charles Wolley to goe for England in the Hopewell. 

S Edmund Andros, Kn ., &c. Whereas M r . Charles Wolley (a Minister of the 
Church of England) came over into these parts in the month of August, 1678, and 
hath officiated accordingly as Chaplaine under his Royall Highnesse during the 
time of his abode here. Now upon applicaQon for leave to return for England, in 
order to some promoQon in the Church to which hee is presented, hee having 
liberty to proceed on his voyage, These are to certify the above, and that the s d 
M r Wolley hath in this place comported himselfe unblameable in his Life and Con- 
versa<jon. In testimony whereof 2 1 have hereunto sett my hand and seal of the 
Province in New Yorke, this 15 th day of July, in the 32 d yeare of His Maj tJ " Raigne, 
Annoq. Doinine, 1680. Examined by mee, M. N. Sec . 3 

It is possible that Chaplain Wolley returned to New York. In 
the preface to his published journal he speaks of having been " taken 
off, from the proper studies and offices of his Function, for his un- 
profitablenes;" and, whatever this may mean, the records of New 
York show that "Charles Wooley " was admitted a freeman in 1702. 
If this was the former chaplain, it is evident that he did not resume 
the exercise of his ministry, and it is probable that death soon closed 
his career. 

Two years elapsed ere the vacant chaplaincy was filled. Andros 
had been superseded by Colonel Thomas Dongan, who was a Roman 

Catholic, and who arrived in New 
York on Saturday, the 25th of Au 
gust, 1683. Accompanying him was 
an English Jesuit priest, Thomas Har 
vey, of London. In the same frigate, 
the "Constant Warwick," and accom- 
panying the new governor came the 

Rev. Dr. John Gordon, who was commissioned as chaplain to the forces at 
New York. Dr. Gordon remained but a short time with his charge, and, 
on his return, the Rev. Josias Clarke received the appointment. Mr. 
Clarke was commissioned on the 16th of June, 1684, and his cer 
tificate, or " Letter-dimissory," on record at Albany, 4 may be taken 
to indicate the term of his service. This document bears date of 

1 A reprint of Wolley s Journal was pub- Albany, xxxn., p. 83. Contributed by Dr. O Cal- 

lishcd by W. Gowans, of New York, in 1860, la<rhan,inthe"IIist.Mag. "i., pp.371, 372. Wol- 

with an* Introduction by Dr. O Callaghan. ley s salary ceased October 6, 1683. Camrlen 

* Vide Dr. O Callaghan s Introduction to Soc. Secret Services. Charles II. and James II., 

Wolley s Journal, p. 15, and Valentine s " Hist. p. 128. Brodhead, n., p. 375, note. 
of New York," p. 377. N. Y. Col. MSS., xxxin. 

3 General Entries in Sec. of State Min.. 




BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 153 

October 7, 1686. Mr. Clark s character and disposition may be in 
ferred from an incident occurring soon after his arrival at his post. 
Among the emigrants brought from Scotland in the " Seaflower " was 
an enthusiast, named David Jameson, who, though liberally educated, 
had allied himself with a body of ranters, -who abjured the various 
creeds of Christendom and rejected as well the received version of the 
Holy Scriptures. Having been examined before the Duke of York, at 
Edinburgh, Jameson was condemned to transportation to America, and 
Dr. George Lockhart, one of the proprietors of the " Seaflower," was 
authorized to sell him as a " Eedemptioner " to any one who would pay 
the cost of his passage. With the humane and kindly impulses of a 
Christian and a scholar, Clark, on the arrival of Jameson, promptly 
paid the redemption money, which "the chief men of the place "at 
once repaid to the charitable chaplain. The Scotch exile, thus saved 
from slavery, found occupation and a livelihood as master in a Latin 
school, for which position he was well prepared. 

While the Church was being quietly introduced into New York by 
the services of the successive chaplains at Fort James, the crown had 
passed into the hands of the Duke of York, who, as James II., was 
seeking at home the tolera 
tion, if not the establish 
ment, of the Roman faith 
he professed. When, at 
length, it was the royal 
pleasure to attend to the af 
fairs of the plantations, the 
Church of England, rather 

than that of Rome, seemed the object of the sovereign s concern and care. 
The " Rose " frigate brought to Boston, with the hated Edward Ran 
dolph, both the order vacating the charter of the colony and the Rev. 
Robert RatclifFe, a clergyman recommended by the Bishop of London. 
For the first time the service of the Church of England was regularly 
celebrated in the Town Hall of Boston, with Bibles and Service Books 
provided by the Roman Catholic king. In place of Sewall, who had 
controlled the press in Massachusetts, Randolph became its censor. 
Dudley and his associates quietly replaced the magistrates of the the 
ocracy, and while a baffled and defeated oligarchy sullenly mourned 
the loss of authority, the new government entered into place and 
power " with the general consent and applause of the people." l The 
" Instructions " to Andros and Dongan from the king were of similar 
effect. 

You shall take especiall care that God Almighty bee devoutly and duely 
served throughout yo r Government ; the Book of Common Prayer, as it is now 
establisht, read each Sunday and Holyday, and the Blessed Sacrament administered 
according to the Rites of the Church of England. You shall be careful that the 
Churches already built there shall bee well and orderly kept and more built as y 6 
Colony shall, by God s blessing, bee improved. And that besides a competent main 
tenance to bee assigned to y 3 Minister of each Church, a convenient House bee 
built at the comon charge for each minister, and a competent Proportion of Land 
assigned him for a Glebe and exercise of his Industry. 

1 Brodhead s " New York," n., p. 445. 




154 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

And you are to take care that the Parishes bee so limited and settled as you 
shall find most convenient for y^ accomplishing this good work. 

Our will and pleasure is that noe minister oee preferred by you to any 
Ecclesiastical Benefice in that Our Province, without a certificat from ye Most Rever 
end the Lord Archbishop of Canterburv of his being conformable to y e Doctrine 
and Discipline of the Church of England, and of a good life and conversation. 1 

The n Instructions " proceed to give the governor the power of 
removing scandalous incumbents. They provide that the ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction of the primate should prevail throughout the province in 
everything but collating to benefices, granting licenses for marriages, 
and the probate of wills , which were made the prerogative of the 
governor. The archbishop s license was also required for school 
masters. Tables of Affinity were ordered to be hung up in the churches 
and copies of the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Homilies were to be 
kept and used in the various parishes. 

It is evident that, although the monarch was a papist, the policy 
of the Commissioners of Plantations was that of the Establishment. 
The restriction respecting school-masters appears to have been adopted 
at the instance of Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, on the 15th day 
of April, 1685, and is found in the instructions to Sir Philip Howard, 
as Governor of Jamaica, April 27, 1685. a It was thus that the Church 
of England was " established " in New York. A noticeable variation 
from the usual form of these " Instructions " is seen in the mention 
of the Primate of All England, as having jurisdiction in the colony, 
instead of the Bishop of London. A measure of ecclesiastical authority 
appears to have been designated by successive sovereigns to the in 
cumbent of the See of London from the early days of discovery and 
colonization, when the zeal of the prelate filling that bishopric was 
naturally excited in behalf of the adventurers setting forth for the New 
World, from the docks and ship-yards of the Thames. Until as late as 
1675 the Committee of the Plantations was doubtful as to the extent 
of this power, and the bishop judged that his duties were merely 
ministerial, "the plantations being no part of his diocese, nor had he 
any authority to act there." After the accession of James the Second, 
in April, 1685, Dr. Henry Compton, then filling the See of London, 
was, at his own request, specially authorized by the king to exercise 
" all ecclesiastical jurisdiction on the plantations," including the licens 
ing of school-masters going thither from England. In view of this 
delegation of authority, the "Instructions" to the various colonial 
governors, issued or approved by the crown, clearly recognized this 
authority. But Dr. Compton incurred the displeasure of the king, by 
opposing the abrogation of the Test Act, and was removed from the 
Privy Council in 1686. It was on this account that the royal " Instruc 
tions " to Colonel Dongan ordered that the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
and not the Bishop of London, should have jurisdiction in all ecclesi 
astical matters in the province of New York. Subsequently, with a 
change of dynasty, there was a return to the old custom ; and, as in 
the judgment of the attorney and solicitor-general, " the authority by 
which the Bishops of London had acted in the Plantations was insuffi- 

1 New York Col. Doc., in., p. 372. * Brodhead s " Hist, of New York," u., p. 454. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YOKK. 



155 



cient," as it had proceeded simply from the royal instructions, from 
time to time, and, legally, the monarch could delegate his supreme 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction only by his patent under the great seal, 
such a patent was, in February, 1727, given to Bishop Edmund Gib 
son, and another in April of the following year. 1 It is interesting to 
note, in passing, that owing to differences arising between the arch 
bishop and the king, the superintendency of Bancroft over the colonies 
in ecclesiastical affairs was but short-lived, and the king ordered "that 
the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the Plantations " should be exercised 
by the Bishops of Durham, Rochester, and Peterborough, who admin- 




THE FORT AND CHAPEL, OLD NEW YORK. 



istered the See of London, in commission, during the suspension of 
Compton. 2 

In the humble chapel within Fort James, New York, the Rev. 
Alexander Innes succeeded Mr. Clarke, as the "orthodox" chaplain 
of the garrison. Mr. Innes s commission bears date of April 20, 
1686. 3 The population of New York was now about eighteen thousand, 
and yet the straitened chapel of the fort was the only place of worship 
possessed by the Establishment, and a garrison chaplain was the only 
one in holy orders to minister the word and sacraments to the small 
number of Englishmen who had come to this portion of the New 
World. Colonel Dongan writes, in 1687, "here bee not many of the 
Church of England;"* and states that for the "seven years last past," 



* Vide an interesting foot-note in Brodhead s 
" Hist, of New York," u., p. 456. 
Ibid., II., pp. 436, 457. 



8 Book of Deeds, vm., pp. 13, 31, 39, quoted 
in "N. Y. Col. Docs.," in., p. 415. 
N.Y. Col. Docs., in., p. 415. 



156 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

there had not come over into the province "twenty English, Scotch, 
or Irish familys." 1 Still there was need of a church in New York, as 
we learn from the same authority. " The Great Church which serves 
both the English and the Dutch is within the Fort which is found to 
bee very inconvenient. Therefore I desire that there may bee an 
order for their building another, ground being layd out for that pur 
pose and they wanting not money in Store where with all to build it." 3 
The prevailing religious opinion of the inhabitants was " that of the 
Dutch Calvinists." There were few Eoman Catholics ; abundance of 
Quaker-preachers, men and women especially ; singing Quakers ; 
ranting Quakers ; Sabbatarians ; Anti-Sabbatarians ; some Anabap 
tists ; some Independents ; some Jews ; in short, of all sorts of opinion 
there are some, and the most part, of none at all." 3 The observing 
governor reported that it was the endeavor of all " to bring up their 
children and servants in that opinion which themselves profess ; but 
this I observe that they take no care of the conversion of their slaves. 
It was, so far as "the king s natural-born subjects" were concerned, 
"a hard task to make them pay their ministers." 4 This was the testi 
mony of a Romanist, who, under the instructions of a Roman Catholic 
king, was busying himself in " establishing " the Church of England 
in a province where the prevailing opinion was that of the Calvinists 
of Holland. The fort that held the jointly occupied chapel, in which 
the Dutch and English worshipped, had also its Romish oratory, with 
its altar and "images ;" and the "two Romish priests, Fathers Thomas 
Harvey and Henry Harrison, that attended on Governor Dongan, said 
mass there, while one of the two, or else the third, of the number, 
Charles Gage, taught the Latin school, which Jameson had relinquished, 
and which Dongan sought to influence the monarch to endow with the 
" King s Farm." 6 On his expeditions the governor was attended by 
Chaplain Innes and Father Harrison, and, with characteristic impartial 
ity, while openly seeking to replace the French Jesuit Fathers, who were 
Christianizing the Indians in the interest of France, with English mis 
sionaries who would labor in the interest of their own country, he re 
ports to his superiors at home that the French priests " make religion 
a stalking-horse to their pretence." 6 

The king was seeking to establish the supremacy of England in 
the New World by opposing to the unity of the French in Canada 
the consolidation, so far as was possible and needful, of all the North 
American possessions of Great Britain under one vice-regal rule. To 
this end Andros had unified the independent and often jarring 
colonial governments of New England. The monarch next proposed 
to add New York, and East and West Jersey, which had just been sur 
rendered by the Crown, to the " Dominion of New England," thus con 
solidating the colonies north of the fortieth degree of latitude with the 
single exception of Pennsylvania. It would have been antecedently 
probable that the chosen viceroy of James would have been Governor 
Dongan. Of noble birth, a nephew of Tyrconnell and heir-presumptive 

1 N.Y. Col. Docs., in., p. 399. Ibid., p. 415. 

*Itnd., p. 415. "Brodheacl, n., p. 487. 

*Ibid. /&V7., p. 495. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHUHCH IN NEW YORK. 



157 



to the Earl of Limerick, and, besides, an Irish Romanist, it is no slight 
proof of the astuteness of the king that, with these recommendations 
to favor, Dongau was passed by, and Andros, a strong, uncompromising 
churchman, commissioned Governor-General of His Majesty s whole 




SIR EDMUND ANDKOS. 



" Territory and Dominion in New England." l In the " Instructions " 
given to the representative of the crown nothing appears about the 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury or the 
Bishop of London in the Anglo-American province. This had been 
carefully provided for in June, 1686 ; but the "Defender of the Faith," 
the temporal head of the Church of England, was now seeking to 

1 Brodhead, u., p. 501. 



158 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



bring about the subversion of the church he had sworn to protect. 
The change of governor was not unacceptable, especially to those who 
had been troubled at the influx of Papists in New York, " under the 
smiles " of the governor. Domine Selyns wrote to the classis at 
Amsterdam, with evident satisfaction and pride, that " Sir Edmund 
Andros, Governor at Boston, and the like, and now stepped into 
this government of New York and Jersey, as such having charge 
from Canada to Pennsylvania, is of the Church of England ; and, 
understanding and speaking the Low Dutch and French, he attends 
service and Mr. Daille s preaching." 1 At the same tune it would not 
be fair to the superseded Dongan not to note the testimony borne to 
him by the Puritan Hinckley, Governor of Plymouth, that he "showed 
himself of a noble, praiseworthy mind and spirit, taking care that all 
the people in each town do their duty in maintaining the minister of 
the place, though himself of a differing opinion from their way." 2 

Andros being called to Boston " to prevent a second Indian war," 
Francis Nicholson, his deputy, was left in command at New York. 
Work was begun on the fort, where the artisans had 
shown " great joy," on the arrival of Andros, be 
cause they were delivered from a "Papist Gov 
ernor," and had Nicholson as deputy at the fort, 
whom they relied upon to " defend and establish 
the true religion." The Romish chapel and 
" images " provided by Dongan were in danger ; 
but Nicholson, animated by the same spirit that 
had led his chief to respect the altar and emblems 
of the faith of the Baron Castine on the coast of 
Maine, ordered the workmen to assist the priest, 
who had assumed the nom deplume of John Smith, 
to remove the sacred emblems and furniture to a better room in the 
fort, and to arrange everything for him "according to his will." 

In the midst of the gradual settlement of State and Church in the 
colonies news came of the fall of James, and the accession of William 
and Mary to the throne of England. In New York the dramatic epi 
sode of Leisler s usurpation and overthrow marked the change from 
one dynasty to another. In the mass of papers still extant, relating 
to Leisler and his administration, we catch occasional glimpses of the 
Church and its representatives. Chaplain Innes was naturally accused 
by the fanatical adherents of Leisler of being a Papist. 3 An affidavit 
was prepared, wherein Peter Godfrey and Henry Carmer deposed 
" concerning the person and behaviour of the Minister Alexander Enis, 
by outward pretence a Protestant, but in effect a meere Papist, whoe 
deceitfully has provided him with a certificat of the Ministers of the 
Dutch and French Church, as if he was a true Protestant." 4 Leisler 
himself addressed the king and queen to the effect that "M r . Ennis, the 
late English Minister, lately departed from the place with testimony 
of the Dutch and French Ministers, has since been known to be of 
opinion contrary to our religion, whereof I have testimony in good 




ARMS OF ANDROS. 



1 Brotlhead s N. Y., n., pp. 515, 516. 
* Ibid., n., p. 516. 



New York Col. Docs., m., p. 610. 
IUd. t p. 630. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 159 

forme." l Addressing the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Burnet, Leisler 
asserts that "one Francis Nicolson, Lieu 1 . Gov r ," " together with M r . 
Innis the pretended protestant Minister, and their accomplices, sent to 
England a formal submission to their Majesties Government notwith 
standing which in their Assembly they did continue praying for the 
Prince of Wales, and that God would give K. James victory over his 
enemies." 2 Nor was this all. In examining Capt. McKenzie, who had 
openly defied the usurper s authority, Leisler asserted that the accused 
was " Popishly affected." The captain s answer cannot be better told 
than in his own words : 

I answered that is not true, I am as much a protestant as you or any man in 
the country ; why, said he, have I not heard you call Father Smith 3 a veiy good 
man P Yes, replyed I, and so I do still ; he is a very good-humoured man, but I 
never called him so because he was a Papist, and I was so far from haveing any 
friendship for his principles that in all the six years I had known New YorkI never 
so much as out of curiosity looked into their Chappell. He told me I kept with 
D r . Innes, I went to hear him, and prayed with him and that he was a Papist. I 
replyed, that is not true. He then told me that one had sworne it. I told him I will 
not believe it if ten of them should sweare it, but not one word of your honour 4 all 
the while, but after a great deal of their discourse which what I liked not I always 
contradicted, he at last said I might call him what I pleased, he would Pray God 
to bless me, and then I prayed God might bless him, in which holy sort of cornplem 1 
we continued a pretty while and at last said he would never do me any prejudice, 
and I made answer after the same manner, and so was dismissed very civilly, which 
I very much wonder at. 

The lieutenant-governor and chaplain reached England before 
Leisler s emissary arrived. The latter was at a further disadvantage 
in view of the loss of the voluminous " packetts " which had been taken 
by the French. This enabled the refugees, in Leisler s words, " not 
only to show a fair face of so ill a cause, but to render it in an other 
shape than in truth it is." Foiled in his attempt to secure the royal 
confirmation for his usurpation, mainly by the representations of 
Nicholson and Innes, 5 the reign of Leisler was shortly afterwards 
ignominiously terminated. Colonel Sloughter received his " In 
structions" for his new appointment on the 31st of January, 1690. 
The former orders respecting the Church were renewed. 6 The Bishop 
of London again appears as the Diocesan of the Colonial Church, certi 
fying ministers and licensing school-masters. Liberty of conscience 
granted to all by King James was renewed by his successors with the 
exclusion of "papists." The "Book of Common Prayer" was to be 
read and the " blessed Sacrament " administered according to the rites 
of the Church of England in the province, which at the time these in 
structions were given had neither a clergyman nor a church. The 
Church was thus " established " anew, so far as royal authority could 
do it, among former subjects of Holland, by the Dutch Stadtholder as 
King of England. Sloughter, on his arrival, made the establishment 
of religion an object of special care. On the 18th of April, 1691, the 

1 New York Col. Docs., in., p. 616. cis Nicholson. The whole is in "N.Y. Col. 

2 Ibid., p. 655. Docs," in., pp. 612-614. 

3 One of the Jesuit Fathers. * Brodhead s " Hist, of New York," n., p. 
* The letter of McKenzie, from which this 596. 

extract is taken, was addressed to Lt.-Gov. Frail- 6 New York Col. Docs., n., p. 688. 



160 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Assembly, on the recommendation of the governor to introduce a " bill 
for settling the Ministry and alloting a maintenance for them in each 
respective City and Town within the Province, that consists of Forty 
Families and upwards," instructed the attorney-general to prepare the 
bill. The act, as reported on the 1st of May, was rejected, 1 " as not 
answering the intention of the House." The occasion of this action on 
the part of the Assembly was, doubtless, that the draft, as reported by 
the attorney-general, provided for the establishment of the Church of 
England in conformity with the governor s " Instructions." The 
death of Sloughter left the matter in abeyance. 

On the 23d of August, 1692, the Assembly ordered that a bill be 
drawn for the better observance of the Lord s day, and that each 
respective town within the province have a minister or reader to 
read divine service. On the arrival of Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, 
with "Instructions" similar to those of his predecessor, the settle 
ment of the ministry and church was strongly urged by him upon 
the attention of the Assembly. The House took up the matter with 
evident reluctance, and the session came to a close without any satis 
factory action in the matter. A sharp rebuke from the governor 
failed to secure any other result. On the coming together of the new 
Assembly, in September, 1693, the governor, who was an ardent 
churchman, so strongly urged action that the subject could not be 
longer overlooked. A "Bill for settling the Ministry and raising a 
Maintenance for them," was reported on the 19th, passed two readings, 
and was referred. On the 21st it was adopted as amended, and trans 
mitted by the governor. The following day Colonel Fletcher and the 
council returned the bill with a proposed amendment, requiring the 
minister, when called by the wardens and vestry, to be presented to 
the governor, agreeably to his instructions, for approval and collation. 
To this the House replied, " that they could not agree thereto, and pray 
that it may pass without that amendment, having, in drawing up the 
bill, due regard to the pious intent of settling a ministry for the 
benefit of the people." 9 The governor replied with warmth to this 
very respectful, and, in view of the lack of clergy and churches of the 
English communion, not unreasonable request ; and, although referring 
to his right to collate to, or suspend from, any benefice the clergyman 
who might be chosen, still signed the bill. This act of September 22, 
1693, did not, however, in express terms establish the Church of 
England. It provided that a good, sufficient Protestant minister, to 
officiate and have the cure of souls, should be called, inducted, and 
established within a year in the city and county of New York, one in 
Richmond, two in Westchester, and the same number in Queen s ; that 
New York and Westchester should each raise 100 for the maintenance 
of their respective ministers ; that ten vestrymen and two church war 
dens should be annually chosen by all the freeholders, and that the 
wardens should pay the ministers stipend in quarterly instalments. 

Under this act the Rev. John Miller, chaplain to the troops in the 
fort, and the sole church clergyman in the colony, who had arrived 

Journals of the Assembly, quoted in " Hist. * Smith s " Hist, of New York," I., p. 130. 

Mag.," V., p. 164. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 161 

the year of its passage, claimed, the following February, 1694, to be 
inducted into the " living " of New York. In this view the governor 
seems to have coincided ; but the council refused to allow the claim, 
and Miller failed to secure recognition as the first minister of Trinity. 
It is probable that Miller remained in New York until June, 1695, 
when, "obliged by several weighty motives," to return to England, he 
was captured on his homeward voyage by a French privateer. He 
destroyed his papers lest they " should have given intelligence to an 
enemy to the mine of the province ; " but on his return he published 
his recollections of his experiences in New York to testify his earnest 
desire "to promote the glory of God, the service of his sovereign, 
and the benefit of his country." These recollections, printed in 
London, and dedicated to the Lord Bishop of London, contain the 
assertion that, of the " several chaplains successive to one another," 
" some have not carried themselves as to be, and that deservedly, without 
blame." Miller urged as a means for "the settlement and improvement 
of religion and unity," the conversion of the Indians and the conquest of 
Canada ; " that his Majesty will graciously please to send over a Bishop 
to the Province of New York." The plan contemplated the charging the 
bishop, who was to be a sufi ragan to the Bishop of London, with the 
secular government of New York. Contributions for the building of 
a church at New York were suggested. The revenue of the New 
England Society for the conversion of the Indians was to be ex 
pended under the bishop s direction. The "King s Farm" was to be 
assigned to him " for a seat for himself and successors ; which though 
at present a very ordinary thing, yet will it admit of considerable 
improvement." " Five or six sober young ministers, with Bibles and 
Prayer Books, and other things convenient for churches," were to be 
brought over with the bishop, who, with "these powers, qualifications, 
and supplies, would, "in a short time (through God s assistance), be 
able to make a great progress in the settlement of religion and the 
correction of vice." 

While the quondam chaplain was thus planning and publishing his 
visionary schemes for the introduction of bishops as pioneers of the 
Church in America, the Assembly Act went into force, and wardens 
and vestrymen were elected. In 1695, on the 12th of April, the five 
church-wardens and vestrymen of New York applied to the Assembly 
to know whether they could call a dissenting minister ; and the Assem 
bly gave it as their opinion that they could. In the meantime the 
churchmen, under the encouragement of Governor Fletcher, began 
to take steps to organize and build a church on ground they had se 
cured. 1 On the 6th of May, 1697, Caleb Heathcote, and others, 
" present managers of the affairs of the Church of England in the Citty 
of New York " petitioned the governor for a charter. This petition 2 

1 Vide" Petition for leave to purchase ground were Tho: Clarke, Robert Lurting, Jeremiah 

for an English Church in New York." Doc. TotMIl, Caleb Heathcote, James Evetts, Will: 

Hist, of New York, in., p. 407. The petitioners Morris, Ebenez Willson, Will Merret, Ja. Emott, 

asked a license " to purchase a small piece of R. Ashfield. License was also granted by the 

land lyeing without the north gate of the said governor for " the s d managers " to collect funds 

citty .behind the King s Garden and the burying for building the church. Ibid., p. 408. 

place, and to hold the same on mortmain and 2 This petition is given in fuU in the " Doc. 

thereon to build the said church." The signers Hist, of New York," in., pp. 409, 410. 



162 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

recites the action of the Assembly in 1693, that there shall be a " Prot 
estant minister to officiate and have the care of soules in the said city ; " 
that there was then " no publick church of building " for " the publique 
worship and service of God according to the Church of England ; " 
and that the petitioners have " built a church and covered the same ; " 
they, therefore, pray to be incorporated with the powers and privi 
leges usually appertaining to the churches of the Establishment, and 
ask the application of the maintenance voted in ihe Act of the Assem 
bly of 1693, for their minister s support, and also that they may have 
a grant of land near the church. This petition was granted by the 
council, and it was ordered that a " warr* issue for the drawing of their 
charter of incorporation, the quit-rent to be one pepper-corne as de 
sired." l On the same day the governor issued a charter in the name 
of the king which applied the Assembly Act of 1693 to the Church 
of England, incorporated the wardens and vestrymen of Trinity, 
granted the land prayed for, and constituted " the said Church, and 
Cemetery, or Church-yard, situate, lying, and being within the said City 
of New York as aforesaid " to " be the sole and only parish church, 
and church-yard of our said city of New York." The charter then 
proceeds: "And our Royal Pleasure is, and we, by these presents, 
do declare That the said Rector of the said Parish Church, is a good, 
sufficient Protestant Minister, according to the true Intent and Mean 
ing of the said Act of Assembly, made on the aforesaid Fifth Year 
of our Reign, entitled An act for the settling of the Ministry, &c., 
and as such we do further of our like special Grace, give, grant, ratify, 
endow, appropriate and confirm unto the said Rector of the Parish 
of Trinity Church, within our said City of New York, and his Suc 
cessors for ever, the aforesaid Yearly Maintenance of One Hundred 
Pound, directed by the said Act of Assembly to be yearly laid, assessed 
and paid unto the said sufficient Protestant Minister, for his Yearly 
Maintenance, to HAVE AND TO HOLD the said Yearly Main 
tenance of One Hundred Pound aforesaid, unto him the said Rector 
of the Parish of Trinity Church within our said City of New York, 
and his Successors, to the sole and only proper Use, Benefit, and Be 
hoof of him the said Rector of the Parish of Trinity Church within 
our said City of New York, and his Successors forever." 3 The rector 
named in this "royal Charter" was the Bishop of London, Dr. Henry 
Compton, son of the Earl of Northampton, and one of the leading 
bishops of his time. It is even now a matter of surprise that this act 
of the royal governor, practically and effectually establishing the 
Church in the City of New York against the evident intention and will 
of the assembly, should have been carried through without eliciting a 
protest or even occasioning surprise. By the tacit consent of the 
governor, and evidently without questioning on the part of those con 
cerned, the church-wardens and vestrymen to be elected by the free 
holders of the city in accordance with the provision of the Act of the 
Assembly of 1693 were superseded by, and found their powers vested 

l Council Minutes, quoted in " Doc. Hist, of 2 The Charter of Trinity Church in the city 

New York," in., p. 410. of New York, 1788, pp. 17, 18. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 163 

in, the church-wardens and vestrymen of Trinity Church, elected by 
those in communion with the Church of England alone. 





At the time of the Rev. John Miller s chaplaincy in New York 
there was "at Hampstead, in Queen s County," as minister, a "Mr. 



164 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Vesey," a graduate of Harvard College, in 1693, " without any 
orders." If we may believe Lord Bellomout, Vesey, who was a native 
of Massachusetts, was the son of a Jacobite, who had been pilloried at 
Boston for his adherence to the cause of the House of Stuart. Called, 
as it would appear by the church-wardens and vestrymen of New 
York, under the Assembly s interpretation of the act of 1693, per 
mitting their choice of a dissenting minister, Mr. Vesey, who was a 
popular preacher of the day, was induced, probably by the influence 
of the governor, to conform to the Church of England. He went 
to Boston, and on the 26th of July, 1696, the observing annalist, 
Sewall, records : " Mr. Vesey preached at the Church of England ; had 
many auditors. He was spoken to preach for Mr. Willard ; but am 
told this will procure him a discharge." This was while he was still 
" without any orders," to quote Chaplain Miller s phrase. He received 
the Holy Communion at the King s Chapel in Boston, and on the 
granting of the royal charter to Trinity Church, the vestry " having 
read a certificate, under the hand of the Rev. Mr. Samuel Myles, 
Minister of the Church of England in Boston, in New England, and 
Mr. Gyles Dyer, and Mr. Benjamin Mountfort, church-wardens of the 
said church, of the learning and education, and of the pious, sober, 
and religious behavior and conversation of Mr. William Vesey, and 
of his often being a communicant the receiving of the most holy 
sacrament in said church," called him "to officiate and have the 
cure of souls in New York." 1 He went to England for orders in 
1697, and then began a useful and honored ministry in New York, ex 
tending for nearly a half centuiy. Keith, in his journal, tells us that 
Vesey "was very much esteemed and loved, both for his ministry and 
good life." For many years he was the commissary of the Bishop 
of London, and throughout a life of active service of the cause and 
Church of Christ he lived without reproach. 

The erection of a church at New York called forth the benefac 
tions of many pious and distinguished churchmen on both sides of the 
ocean. The great Bible and other books were given by Governor 
Fletcher. The Bishop of London sent over by the Earl of Bellomont 
"a parcel of books of divinity." "Paving stones" were given by the 
Lord Bishop of Bristol. Lord Cornbury bestowed "a black cloth pall 
on condition that no person dying and belonging to Forte Ann should 
be deny d the use thereof, gratis." His Lordship also presented the 
prayer-books and the first part of his ancestors history of the Great 
Rebellion. The " communion plate and furniture " was secured through 
the Bishop of London, and among the first purchases ordered by the 
vestry were " two surplices and ten common prayer-books for Trinity 
Church." 

Thus was the Church introduced into the province, and from this 
beginning there was at once a rapid development. Early ha the 
following century we have " a summary account of the state of the 
Church in the province of New York, as it was laid before the clergy 
convened October 5, 1704, at New York, by the appointment of His 

Foote s " Annals of King s Chapel," I., p. 120. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 165 

Excellency Edward Lord Cornbury and Colonel Francis Nicholson, 1 
which we append to the chapter as indicating the strides made by the 
Church under the favoring influences of the Royal governor and others 
high in station and influence. 

The history of Old Trinity, and incidentally the annals of the prog 
ress of the Church in New York, will be given elsewhere. We turn 
to notice the introduction of the Church into New Jersey. 

In the year 1700 Colonel Lewis Morris addressed a memorial 2 
to the authorities at home " concerning the state of religion in the 
Jerseys." "The province of East Jersey has in it ten towns, viz. : 
Middletown, Freehold, Amboy, Piscataway, and Woodbridge, Eliza 
beth Town, Newark, Aquechenonck and Bergen ; and I judge in the whole 
province there may be about eight thousand souls. These towns are 
not like the towns in England, the houses built close together on a 
small spot of ground, but they include large portions of the country 
of from four, five, eight, ten, twelve, fifteen miles in length, and as 
much in breadth. . . . These towns and the whole province was peo 
pled mostly from the adjacent colonies of New York and New England, 
and generally by persons of very narrow fortunes, and such as could not 
well subsist in the places they left. And if such persons could/ bring 
any religion with them it was that of the country they came from." 
At Elizabeth Town and Newark there were "some few Churchmen." 
Perth Amboy, " the capital city, was settled from Europe, and we have 
made a shift to patch up the old ruinous [court] house and make a church 
of it, and when all the Churchmen of the province are got together we 
make up about twelve communicants." In Freehold was a Keithian 
Congregation, " most endurable to the Church." In West Jersey the 
number of Quakers had " much decreased since Mr. Keith left them. 
In Pennsylvania, which was " settled by people of all languages and 
religions of Europe," "the Church of England gains ground; "and 
" most of the Quakers that came out with Mr. Keith are come over to 
it." "The youth of that country are like those in the neighboring 
Provinces, very debauch* and ignorant." The measures suggested by 
Colonel Moms "for bringing over to the Church the people in the 
Country s," were the appointment of no one "but a pious Churchman " as 
governor, and confining, if possible, the membership of the council and 
magistracy to churchmen ; the granting of " some peculiar privilege 
above others " to churchmen by act of Parliament ; the adoption of 
measures " to get ministers to preach gratis in America for some time 
till there be sufficient number of converts to bear the charge ; " and, 
finally, the restriction of the great benefices for a number of years to " such 
as shall oblige themselves to preach three years gratis in America." " By 
this means," concludes the colonel, " we shall have the greatest and best 
men, and in human probability such men must, in a short time, make 

1 There is yet one generous Patron and bene- these parts, nor contoibuted so universally towards 

factor to y e whole infant church in North y erection of Christian Synagogues in different 

America, twere a crime to forget or conceal; and distant plantations in America. An Account 

we mean the Hon ble Col 1 Fran. Nicholson, Esq r ., of the History of the Building of St. Paul s 

whose libei-ality to this and other churches on Church, Chester, "Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Gh." 

this main deserves y highest encomium. We n., pp. 79, 80. 

may safely say no man parted more freely w th his * N. J. MSS., 1700. 
money to promote the interest of the Church in 



166 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

a wonderful progress in the conversion of those Countries, especially 
when it s perceived the good of souls is the only motive in the under 
taking." 

Keith, for whose coming Colonel Morris has expressed the wish, 
held his first service as a mission-priest of the Church of England at 
Amboy, in East Jersey, October 4. 1 "The Auditory was small," 
writes Keith, " but such as were there were well effected ; some of 
them, of my former acquaintances, and others who had been formerly 
Quakers but had come over to the Church, particularly Miles Forster, 
and John Barclay (Brother to Robert Barclay, who published the 
Apology for the Quakers) ." Keith preached on the following Sunday, 
October 10, at Toponemes in Freehold, and a week later at Middle- 
ton, and on numerous Sundays at Shrewsbury, and at Burlington. 
On the Sunday after Christmas, December 27, he again officiated at 
Shrewsbury. On the Feast of the Circumcision he was at Freehold, 
where he remained over the second Sunday after Christmas. On the 
First Sunday after the Epiphany he preached at Burlington, and admin 
istered Holy Baptism. On the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, Au 
gust 13, on his return from the southward, Keith " preached at the 
New Church at Burlington, on 2 Sam. xxiii. 34." Lord Cornbury 
was present. "It was the first sermon that was preached in that 
Church." On the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 12, 
Keith was again at Burlington, and on the following Wednesday 
preached at the house of " "Will Hewlins in West Jersey." In Sep 
tember, October, and November he was again at Burlington, Shrews 
bury, and Amboy, preaching, disputing, and baptizing. The last 
Sunday in Advent, Christmas day, the Sunday following the feast 
of St. John the Evangelist, and twice in the same week besides, and on 
the first Sunday in the year 1703, he was still busied in his ministerial 
and priestly work in the Jerseys. At the close of January, and the 
beginning of February, and, in fact, during much of the winter and 
spring, his labors were continued, and many converts to the Church 
from Quakerism were the results of the efforts of this able and per 
sistent " Missioner." In connection with the labors of Keith, we note 
the services of the Rev. Alexander Innes, who officiated in the Jerseys 
prior to Keith s coming, and the Rev. John Talbot, who accompanied 
the Quaker convert, and became the apostle of the New Jersey Church. 
The labors of these three men, wrote Colonel Morris, in the summer 
of 1 703 a had " brought over to the Church so many persons " as to render 
the appointment of a missionary to Monmouth advisable. In 1705 the 
excellent and amiable John Brooke was at Elizabeth Town and Amboy. 
A year later this devoted priest was officiating "at seven places, viz. : 
Elizabeth Town, Rahway, Amboy, Cheesequake, Piscataway, Rocky 
Hill, and a congregation near Page s, in Freehold." His cure was fifty 
miles in length. 3 In 1707 the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor, who had 
come to Burlington, was silenced by the governor 4 for refusing the 

0n the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. 4 In view of his treatment of the clergy, 

In the printed journal (p. 30 of the Reprint m it is interesting to read the following reference 

the Prot. Epis. Hist. Coll., I.) the date is incor- to the governor from one who was certainly well 

rectiy given October 3. informed : " Lord Cornbury comes upon the 

* N..T. MSS., 1703. 3 Ibid., p. 706. church favor; but Whig principles, as people 




BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 167 

sacrament to the Lieutenant-Governor Ingolsby, who was a notorious 
evil-doer, and was afterwards imprisoned at Fort Anne in New York. 
Through the kind offices of the Rev. Mr. Brooke he contrived to 
escape from confinement, and taking passage for England was never 
heard of more. Brooke died suddenly in 1707, well meriting Talbot s 
eulogium, who tells us that he was as " able and dilligent a missioner as 
ever came over." The Rev. Edward Vaughan succeeded the lamented 
Brooke, and for thirty-eight years carried on the work his predecessor 
had begun with singular faithfulness and success. Year after year his 
Notitia parochialis attested more abundant labor and a constant 
advance. 

In 1711 the Rev. Thomas Halliday was associated with Mr. 
Vaughan in the parish which had grown too great for a single priest. 
Still Vaughan labored on untiringly in the faithful exercise of his " sac 
erdotal function, which God had been pleased to crown with success." 
It is from the testimony of his people, addressed to the Society in 1717, 
that we may learn to estimate the character and excellence of the 
worthy mission-priest. That testimony is as follows : 

We esteem ourselves happy under his pastoral care, and have a thorough 
persuasion of mind that the Church of Christ is now planted among us in its purity. 
Mr. Vaughan hath to the great comfort and edification of our families, in these dark 
and distant regions of the world, prosecuted the duties of his holy calling with the 
utmost application and diligence ; adorned his behavior with an exemplary life and 
conversation ; and so behaved himself with all due prudence and fidelity, shewing 
uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, and sound speech, that they who are of the con 
trary part have no evil thing to say of him. 1 

This good man died in 1747, and in his decease the Church lost one 
most happily suited to the times in which he lived, and the work to 
which he was called. In private life he was exemplary, and possessed 
of every excellence. In his public ministrations he was sensible, ear 
nest, and even eloquent, while his rendering of the offices of the 
Church, especially his administration of the holy communion, was 
marked by great solemnity and feeling. His life and labors were 
long and gratefully remembered among the people to whom he had 
ministered. The immediate successor of Vaughan was Thomas Brad 
bury Chandler, a graduate of Yale College, an honorary Master of 
Arts and Doctor in Divinity of Oxford, and the first Bishop-designate 
of Nova Scotia. Dr. Chandler was one of the foremost men among 
the American clergy, and by his life and writings did good service to 
the cause of Christ s church. Untiring zeal in his mission labors 
marked a career that deserved, as it received, from an attached people 
and a grateful Church, every possible acknowledgment of approval 
and honor. The patient and painstaking examination which the young 
student of Yale had made of the grounds of difference between the 
Independents, among whom he had sprung up, and the Church ; and 
the whole-hearted adhesion he had given in favor of the side he es- 

talk. Pray desire Governor Hamilton and our x Humphrey s Historical Account of the 

folks to cany a good correspondence with him." Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign 

William Penn to James Logan, Nov. 4, 1707. Parts. 
Penn and Logan Correspondence, i., p. 75. 



168 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

poused, made him, from the start, an able and zealous defender of the 
church s position und claims. His mind, which was far-seeing, led him 
to forecast the results of the refusal of the authorities at home to listen 
to the prayer of the American churchmen, for the full exercise of their 
religion ; and he sought, with patient effort, and by calm, dispassionate 
reasoning, to convince the American public of the true nature of the 
relief sought for in the church s behalf. His " Appeal to the Public," 
and his defence of his first essay, are models of poletnical writing, and 
cannot fail, when read at this day, at least, to excite a feeling of wonder 
at the irrational opposition raised by fanatical and partisan leaders 
against a measure so free from objection. At the breaking out of 
the struggle for independence Dr. Chandler disapproved of the 
measures of Parliament which had provoked the animosity of the 
colonists, while he was far from approving the last resort, so persist 
ently urged by the New England patriots, of an appeal to arms. He 
succeeded in commanding the respect of both parties, and in securing 
comparative immunity from the wrath and persecution to which so 
many of his brethren were exposed ; and, after the war, this great man 
not only obtained for his views and suggestions great weight in the 
early councils of the American Church during the period of its organi 
zation, but he also had from the British government the proffer of the 
first colonial episcopate. Cheered during his long and useful ministry 
by abundant tokens of appreciation and success, it is from one of his 
reports to the society that we can best learn the condition of the 
Church in the province, just preceding the breaking out of the war. In 
1770 he writes to the society : - 

The Church in this Province makes a more respectable appearance than it 
ever did till very lately, thanks to the venerable Society, without whose charitable 
interposition there would not have been one Episcopal congregation among us. They 
have now no less than eleven Missionaries in this district, none of whom are blame- 
able in their conduct, and some of them are eminently useful. Instead of the small 
buildings out of repair in which our congregations used to assemble twenty years 
ago, we have now several that make a handsome appearance, particularly at Bur 
lington, Shrewsbury, New Brunswick, and Newark, and all the rest are in good re 
pair : and the congregations, in general appear to be as much improved as the 
churches they assemble in. 

Returning to notice the labors of the other missionaries in New 
Jersey, we need only refer to the long and honored work done by the 
apostolic Talbot at Burlington, interrupted and finally terminated by the 
colonial authorities, who feared that this poor old man, disaffected 
with the government, and not without reason, and already tottering on 
the brink of the grave, might, in working for Christ and the Church, do 
harm to the established dynasty across the sea. While this good and 
faithful soldier of Christ Jesus was for three years barred out of the 
church he had founded and had enriched from his scant means, Burling 
ton was left to the ministrations of a faithful catechist. In 1726 the 
service of the Rev. John Holbrook from Salem, New Jersey, was 
temporarily secured. He was followed, in 1727, by the Rev. Nathaniel 
Horwood, and he in turn, in 1730, by the Rev. Robert Weyman. But 
few notices of the administration of these men have come down to us, 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 169 

yet enough remains to prove that, though not equal to the great-hearted 
Talbot, they were at least faithful and earnest in building on the 
foundations so broadly laid by their predecessors. In 1737 the Rev. 
Colin Campbell succeeded Weyman, pursuing a ministry of twenty- 
nine years at Burlington and Mount Holly with most gratifying suc 
cess. The Rev. Jonathan Odell succeeded Campbell, and for nine 
years labored assiduously in the field already ripe for the harvest. 
The rebuilding and enlargement of St. Mary s Church during his 
incumbency attest the growth of the congregation to which he minis 
tered ; and his firm refusal to receive the offerings of his people for his 
own use, while any indebtedness remained on the church, bears witness 
to his own self-forgetfulness and devotion to the interests of the 
Church. But the opening of the war interrupted the relations of pastor 
and people in their ancient faith, and the tory clergyman who had 
ventured to put his political sentiments in verse was soon driven by 
the indignant rebels within the lines of the enemy. Another New 
Jersey missionary, the Rev. Michael Houdin, of Trenton, had left an 
important post which had been assigned to him in the Romish Com 
munion, that of Superior of a Canadian Convent, and had conformed 
to the Church of England, laboring with no little zeal and success to 
build up the church to which he had from deep convictions attached 
himself. 

But no notice of the New Jersey missionaries or mission work 
would be complete without a reference to the Rev. Thomas Thompson, 
a fellow of Christ s College, Cambridge, who " out of pure zeal to be 
come a missionary in the cause of Christ," as the journal of the vener 
able society bears record, resigned the prospect of preferment and 
position at home to labor for five years as a devoted mission-priest in 
Monmouth County, New Jersey. At the expiration of this term of 
faithful service he resigned, only to give his services to another and 
even less inviting field of labor. It is to Thomas Thompson, the New 
Jersey missioner, that the honor is due of being the first missionary of 
the Church to Africa. Having left his post in New Jersey in 1751, he 
landed on the coast of Guinea, under appointment as travelling mis 
sionary of the society among the negroes. Here he lived and labored 
in his self-denying work till illness drove him from his post ; but 
enough had been done to prove that, in this consecration of himself to a 
work so uncongenial and so full of danger, he had entered upon it 
" in a firm reliance on the good providence of God, whose grace is 
abundantly sufficient to perfect strength in weakness by his blessing 
on our poor endeavors." Thompson s published account of his two 
missionary voyages on the African coast is the first contribution from 
this land to the literature of the foreign missionary work. 

It is with the name of Thomas Thompson, the first foreign mis 
sionary to Africa, who learned his lesson of self-consecration on our 
own shores, and only exchanged the one field of labor for another, that 
we may fittingly close our references to the planting of the Church in 
the middle colonies. If the efforts for the spread of the gospel in the 
Church in these portions of America had produced but the self-deny 
ing labors and brilliant successes of Talbot and Thompson, it would 



170 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

have been enough. Gratefully do we recall the fact that we owe to 
day not a little to these worthy men, and to those who labored with 
them in the church s cause. They were righteous, and they shall be 
held in everlasting remembrance. 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 

FROM the archives at Lambeth palace we append the earliest document on file 
referring to this ancient parish : 

MAY 22 nd 1699. 
May it Please Tour Grace, 

The English nation for above Thirty years had been posses* of these countreys, 
without any place for public worship of Almighty God in this Citty except the Chap- 
pell in the Fort built by the Dutch and till lately that they built another Alterna 
tively used by both Nations for the Exercise of their Religion. So that tho the 
English grew numerous, the Government in their hands, ana the national laws took 
place, yet for want of a Temple for the Public Worship, according to the English 
church, this seemed rather like a conquer d Forrain province held by the Terrour of 
a Garrison than an English Collony Possest and settled by people of our own Nation. 
That which for so many years had only been Wisht for without any reason 
able hopes or Expectation of effecting Coll Fletcher, by his great Zeal, Generous 
Liberality and Indefatigable Industry in the latter part of his Government brought 
so far to perfection, that before his departure he was divers times present (to nis 
own and the General Satisfaction of the lovers of the English Church and Nation) 
at the Public Worship of God, in an English Church of which (if we must not say 
that he was the Sole Founder) , it is an offence to Truth and Injustice to him not 
to affirm that he was the principal promoter, and most Liberal Benefactor to it, and 
that without him to this day it never had had a Being. As it owed its begining to 
that Gentleman, so we must acknowledge its growth and increase is not a little In- 
debt to M r . Vesey our present Minister who by his good parts and learning ex 
emplary life, and inoffensive conversation gives a reputation to his function and has 
brought many into the Bosom of the Church. So farr as this, the subject of which 
we write to your Grace is Extream Agreable and pleasing, and it is our unexpresible 
griefe that we are forc d to offer anything of a contrary Nature. 

The fair character comon Fame gave our present Governor Bellemont filled us 
with hopes of enjoying a large share of Prosperity under his conduct and in Par 
ticular that the English church might have Flourished under his Administration, 
but Experience has Undeceiv d us and we find our selves under all the discourage 
ments Imaginable. Whether this our unhappiness proceeds from the Irreconcfle- 
able aversion this Noble man has to our late Gov r Coll" Fletcher who gave biith to 
this Church from his own inward principle, or other causes, we will not presume to 
Determine, but this we are too well assured of, or at least our ideas make us appre 
hensive, that Nothing less than the destruction of this fair beginning is Intended. 
Not to trouble your grace with many other instances this following gives us abun 
dant ground for our belief. Coll n Fletcher Towards the Finishing of this Church, gave 

alease for seven 
years of a small 
Farm (usually a 
perquisite to the 
(;<>v")lvt>mlrin 

f ^^" f^ _^ ^ ^^- >t" ^ ^ IrTliiaH- < T1- I. . 

-r-^?<^ 

Si If " ~ .^^^M* if> UJi M ii II 1 

per ann m , and 
the highest it 

AUTOGRAPH OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. ever before had 

been let for. 

The former Tenant s Term, expiring this Spring (when the lease to the Church 
begins) The Church Wardens at an action, lett the Farm to him who pub- 

1 New York MSS., i., pp. 1-4. 





BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 



171 



licly bid most for it, which was twenty-five pounds for the ensuing year, but the 
Tenant coming to enter upon it, has been kept out by the Earl s order, who con 
tinually exclaims at this lease, as if the Sacred Patrimony has been most Horribly 
Invaded, when indeed had it been leased to the meanest clown at the same rent, it had 
pass d in all probability unregarded. It is not credible that such a Trifle as Thirteen 

Sninds p ann, which is all the advantage can be made of it, can so much concern 
s excellency, but a further design must be at the bottom off which we have too 
many indications, and were this manner of dealing from a Profest enemy of the 
Church it were natural and what Rationally, might have attended, But being the actions 
of a Person (Lately) a constant hearer and usual communicant it s more surprising. 

We humbly lay this matter to your Gracious Consideration, earnestly beseech 
ing your Grace, as we are part of that Church and Nation over which God, in a 
most eminent station has placed you, we may be safe under your protection, and 
that this hopeful Foundation of an English Protestant Church in these Parts of the 
world, may Receive no Mischiefs from those whose duty oblige them, to give it 
assistance and further its welfare. 

To prescribe methods we can lay no claim to but humbly submit all to your 
Grace s Piety and Wisdom, not doubting but the Almighty God, will inspire you to 
take such Measures as will be for his own Glory and his Churches good to the 
disappointment of its enemy s. For the effecting of which we heartily implore both 
your prayers and endeavours, being in all duty, 

May it please your Grace, 

Your Grace s most obedient, dutiful, and most humble Servants, the churches 
Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church, in New York. 



RICHARD WILLET, 
W. NICOLL, 
DAVID JAMISON, 



THO. WENHAM, 
ROB 1 . LURTING, 
JEREMIAH TOTHILL. 
EBENEZER WILSON, 
W M . HUDDLESTONE, 
W 1 . ANDERSON, 
LANCASTER SYMES, 
JAS. GINOTT, 
WILL. MORRIS, 
THO 8 . BURROUGHS. 



The account laid before the clergy convened in New York in October, 1704, 
gives us in full the story of the Church s introduction and progress on every 
side : 

In this province are ten Counties. First New York, in which there is an 
English church, called and known by the name of Trinity church, already built, 
and the steeple raised to a considerable height by the voluntary contributions of 
several persons, a full account whereof has been given in a former scheme to my 
Lord of London. The Rector of the church is maintained by a tax levied upon all 
the Inhabitants of the City, amounting to 160, one hundred whereof is entailed 
forever upon the incumbent for the time being, and sixty is added by the influence 
of his Excellency the Governor, and an Act of the General Assembly, during the 
life and residence of the present incumbent, Mr. William Vesey. And for his 
further encouragement, his Excellency out of his great goodness, hath ordered in 
Council, twenty-six pound per annum to be paid out of the Revenue for the Rent 
of the house of the said Incumbent. His Excellency hath also, by a law incorpo 
rated the Rector and all the inhabitants of this City of New York, that are in com 
munion with the Church of England, as by law established, by which they and 
their successors are vested with sundry rights and privileges ; particularly the 
said law hath enacted that the patronage and advowson of the said Church, and 
right of presentation after the death of the present Incumbent or upon the next 
avoidance, shall forever thereafter belong and appertain to the Church Wardens 
and Vestiy men of the said Church in communion with the Church of England, 
which before was in the Vestry chosen by all the Inhabitants of the said City. This 
privilege established the Church upon a sure and lasting foundation. 



172 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

BENEFACTIONS OF TRINITY CHURCH OF NEW YORK. 

The Right Honorable & Right Rev* Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Lon 
don hath given a bell to said Church, value 60. His Excellency has also very lib 
erally contributed to the said Church, and beside used his interest to promote the 
same. A sum of about three hundred pounds formerly collected in the province of 
New York for the Redemption of some captives in Algiers. In a Brief for collect 
ing the said sum, it is provided that in case the Redemption or Death of the said 
Captives shall happen before the arrival of the said sum in Holland, that then it 
shall be disposed of to such uses as are mentioned in the said Brief. The Slaves 
being either dead or redeemed before the money was transmitted, his Excellency in 
Council hath assigned the said sum for the finishing of the steeple of Trinity Church. 
His Excellency, toe Governor, taking into his consideration the great charges the 

Earishioners have been, and are still at in raising the Edifice and Steeple to that per- 
jction they designed it, hath been graciously pleased to recommend to her Majesty 
the Queen, that it may please her Majesty to bestow a farm within the bounds of 
the said City, known by the name of toe King s farm to the use and benefit of toe 
said Church, designed by his Lordship for a Garden, and a house to be built for the 
said Incumbent. His Lordship has been pleased to encourage Religion, and dis- 
countenace Vice in toe said Province by Proclamation, and has used his utmost en 
deavours to promote toe Public Worship of God, and tram up Youth in toe doctrine 
& discipline of toe Church of England, particularly in the City of New York, and 
hath contributed to toe building of a French Church, and since toe death of toe late 
Minister of the French Congregation, resolves to use his interest to introduce a 
French Minister that shall have Episcopal Ordination and conform to toe Constitu 
tion of toe Church. His Lordship hath been also highly instrumental in enacting a 
law for establishing a Latin free School, and to endow it with a salary of fifty pound 
per annum, to which station his Lordship hath preferred toe ingenious Mr. 
George Muirson, who for some time discharged that function with approbation and 
success. Two other schools are likewise established in this City by his Excellency s 
care, and by these and other means, the Church daily increaseth, and it is hoped, 
if God pleases to continue his Excellency in the Administration of this Government, 
this Church is in a fair way of becoming the greatest Congregation upon the Conti 
nent. We are willing with much submission to represent to toe Honorable Society, 
how that excellent design of theirs, in supplying us with a Catechist might have 
their pious endeavors better served, if instead of toe pious and deserving Mr. Elias 
Neau who was brought up a Merchant and in good business, the worthy and ingen 
ious Mr. Muirson, who is now going for England in the hopes of being admitted 
into Holy Orders, were appointed for that purpose. Mr. William Vesey might be 
assisted by him, and for his encouragement has promised him Thirty pounds per 
Annum at his Arrival, being sensible how much this place abounds with Indian 
Slaves and Negroes. This is the state of toe Church in the City of New York. 

WILL. VESEY, 

Hector of New York. 
LONG ISLAND. 

In Long Island, in the Province of New York, are three counties, viz., King s, 
Queen s and Suffolk county. King s county, consisting of four Dutch congregations, 
supplied formerly by one Dutch minister, but now without any, by the death of the 
late Incumbent, they are sometimes supplied by the Rev. Mr. Vesey, where he finds 
all the English and some of the Dutch well affected to the Church of England. A 
minister sent by the society to that County, with some encouragement for a main 
tenance to preach and be a school-master, would be a great instrument of bringing 
the youth and others to the Church. 

WM. VESEY. 

In Queen s County, consisting of five towns divided into two parishes, and en 
dowed with 60 pounds of New York money per annum, each parish paid by a tax 
levied on all the inhabitants of the County by Act of General Assembly. 

JAMAICA. 

The parish of Jamaica, in said County, consists of three towns, Jamaica, 
New Town, and Flushing. In the town of Jamaica there is a church of stone, built 
by a tax levied on the inhabitants of the said town by an Act of General Assembly. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 



173 



It has a high spire with a bell, but is not furnished with pulpit, pews, or utensils. 
The church was built in the street. There is, also, a house and some land recorded 
for the Parsonage, which was formerly in the possession of the Independent minis 
ter, but now in the possession of the present Incumbent, by his Excellency s, Lord 
Cornbury s favor, who has been the great promoter of the Church in this Province, 
and especially at this place. In New Town there is a Church built and lately re 
paired by a tax levied on the inhabitants by an Act of General Assembly. This 
church was formerly possessed by a Dissenting minister, but, he being gone, it is 
in the possession of the present Incumbent by his Excellency s favor. 

Flushing. In this town there is no Church ; whereas the other two towns 
are chiefly inhabited by Independents, this is inhabited by the Quakers. The Rev. 
Mr. Urquhart, the present Incumbent, resides at Jamaica, according to the direc 
tions of an Act of General Assembly mentioning it as the Parochial Church and 
there preaches and reads Divine Service twice on the Sundays, for two Lord s days 
successively, and on the third Sunday preaches and prays twice at New Town, and 
at Flushing once a month on the week days ; and, by the blessing of God, the Con 
gregations in the respective towns daily increase. 

HAMPSTEAD. 

The parish consists of two towns, Hampstead and Oyster Bay. In Hamp- 
stead there is a church, a house, and lands for the minister. The people are gen 
erally well affected towards the Church of England, and long for the arrival of the 
Rev d Mr. Thomas. In Oyster bay there is no Church, but a considerable number of 
people desirous of a minister. 

ACCOUNT OF SUFFOLK COUNTY. 

In Suffolk County in the Eastend of Long Island, there is neither a Church of 
England, nor any provision made for one by law, the people generally being Inde 
pendents, and up held in their separation by New England Emissaries. But there 
are several already well affected to the Church, and if one or two Ministers were 
sent among them, suppoited at first by the Society, it would be an excellent means 
of reconciling the people to the Church, and of introducing an Establishment for 
a Minister by law. 

WM. VESEY. 
WESTCHESTER. MR. BARTOW, Rector. 

There is a Church built but not finished ; being neither glased nor ceiled. 
The parish of Westchester is divided into four several districts viz West-Chester, 
East Chester, Younkers, and the Manor of Pelham. There is 50 settled on the 
Ministers by Act of Assembly. There is twenty three acres of land given by West 
Chester for a glebe. There is one Independent Congregation of East Chester 
whose Minister designs to leave there whose Congregation upon his departure are 
resolved to join with the Church. 

RYE. THOMAS PRTTCHARD, Hector. 

There was no Church but the Minister preaches in the Town house : the parish is 
divided in three districts, viz Rye, Bedford, and Mamaronets. There is a salary of 
50 per annum established by Act of Assembly ; the number of communicants are 
considerably increased, Since the first celebration of the Sacraments. There is an 
Independent Church at Bedford where the Minister designs to leave them, they are 
well affected towards the Church and it is hoped when he is gone they will be in 
Communion with her. 

STATEN ISLAND, RICHMOND COUNTY. 

The greatest part of the people of this County are English and there is a tax 
of 40 per annum levied on the inhabitants of the said County for a maintenance 
to the Minister, and it is very necessary and much desired by the people that a 
Minister should be speedily sent them with some further encouragement from the 
Society who has at this time an opportunity of reconciling most of them to the 
Church. 

WILLIAM VESEY. 



174 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



ORANGE COUNTY. 

In Orange County there are about 60 families of several Nations who have no 
Minister nor are able to raise a salary for one. 

WM. VESEY. 

ULSTER COUNTY, COMMONLY CALLED ESOPOS. 

In this County the greatest number of people are Dutch, who about twelve 
years since, sent to the Classis of Amsterdam for a Minister. Mr. Newcella being 
lately called home left them destitute of any person to officiate among them, 
which his Excellency was pleased to take into his consideration, and has appointed 
the Rev. Mr. Hepburn to preach and to read Divine Service to them whereby the 
English who had never a Minister among them have the benefit of public worship, 
and are in good hopes of bringing the Dutch to a Conformity. The Rev. Mr. 
Hepburn has at present small encouragement from the people but cheifly under 
God depends on the kindness and bounty of his Excellency the Governor of this 
Provence. 

WM. VESEY. 
ALBANY. 

A large frontier town where most of the people are Dutch, who have 
from Amsterdam a Dutch Minister, one Mr. Lydius, but there are some English 
families, besides a garrison of soldiers, who are a considerable congregation. A 
Church of England Minister here will, in all probability, do signal service not 
only by setting up a public worship to the joy and comfort of the English, who 
impatiently desire a minister, and persuading the Dutch and others to conform, but 
also in instructing the Indians, which come in great numbers thither. Mr. Moore 
Missionary to the Mohawks, is coming to settle here for some time by the directions 
of his Excellency, my Lord Cornbury who gives him great encouragement and has 
been particularly pleased to promise him presents for the Indians. 



CHAPTER X. 

GOVERNOR ANDROS AND THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, 

BOSTON. 



ON Saturday, the eve of the Sunday after the Ascension, May 15, 
1686, the "Rose" frigate entered the harbor of Boston, bearing 
the Rev. Robert Ratcliffe, M.A., 1 an Oxford graduate, to whom 
had been assigned the task of inaugurating the services of the Church 





in Boston. "Freighted with 
wo " must this vessel have 
seemed to the ministers and 
members of the Puritan Com 
monwealth. The theocracy had 

fallen. The " Charter " of the colony had been abrogated, and 
Massachusetts was at length a royal province, to be ruled by a gov 
ernor appointed by the king, and responsible primarily to his royal 
master. The representative of the throne would naturally seek to re 
produce in his vice-regal court the forms of faith and practice of 
the " Establishment," of which his master was the temporal head ; and 
the "Rose" frigate, bringing the surpliced priest to worship after the 
usages of the Church of England, bore fittingly the king s commis 
sion appointing Joseph Dudley as President of Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, Maine, and the "King s Province." 2 The records of the 
Privy Council contain the order for Bibles and Prayer Books in folio, 
with copies of the Canons, Homilies, Articles, and Tables of Affinity, 
" to be sent to New England." And as Ratcliffe first looked out from the 
deck of the "Rose" upon the fair scene spread before him as he sailed up 
the bay and saw hills and valleys crowned and crowded with the homes 
and business haunts of "the Bostoneers," as Edward Randolph styled 
them, it must have been with a feeling that " the lines had fallen" to him 
" in pleasant places," and that he had " a goodly heritage." From the 
" Castle," a distance below the town, there came the salute in recog- 

1 B.A., Exeter, Oxford, Oct. 16, 1677 ; M.A., 2 Palfrey s " History of New England," in., 

June 15, 1680 ; B.D., July 16, 1691. pp. 484, 485. 



176 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

nition of the passing of the royal ship of war. Soon the three hills of 
the ancient " trimountain " were descried, one with its summit bris 
tling with guns ; another, with the huge arms of a windmill coquetting 
with the breeze, while under this emblem and evidence of industry was 
a battery well provided with the means of repelling hostile attacks ; 
while the third was crowned with the lofty beacon. At the wharf 
there was the ceremonious reception of the accredited representatives 
of the crown ; and then the mission-priest, to whom all was so new and 
strange, must have walked or driven up the short street to the market- 
house and town-hall of wood, " built upon pillars in the middle of the 
town, where their merchants meet and confer every day," 1 which 
was the business and official centre of the rising town, and thence, it 
may be, to the " Blue Anchor Tavern," a famous hostelry near by. 
The houses on either side, stretching north and south well-nigh a 
league, were " generally wooden," and the streets were " crooked, with 
little decency and no uniformity," in the judgment of the commission 
ers who wrote in 1664; but, in Dunton s eyes, "their streets" were 
" many and large, paved with Pebbles ; the Materials are Brick, Stone, 
Lime, handsomely contrived, and when any New Houses are built, they 
are made conformable to our New Buildings in London since the fire." * 
There were upwards of a thousand buildings in the town, with "stately 
houses" built of stone among them, and " three fair and large meeting 
houses or churches, commodiously built, in several parts of the town." 3 
" Gardens and orchards " adorned the south side of the growing capi 
tal. " On the north-west and north-east two constant fairs " were kept 
for daily traffic. On the south was the " small but pleasant Common." 
This " rich and very populous " town Dunton compares to Bristol, in 
England. 

It was to this New World and to a new life that the English priest 
had come. He did not wait long ere he entered upon his work. Dun- 
ton, the London bookseller, who was in Boston at the time of the 
coming of " the Charter and the Common Prayer," thus records the in 
auguration of the services of the Church at this critical period of Mas 
sachusetts history : " The next Sunday after he Landed, he preach d 
in the Town-house, and read Common-Prayer in his Surplice, which 
was so great a Novelty to the Bostonians, that he had a very large 
Audience." Dunton was present at this initial service and tells us that 
"the Parson " was "a very Excellent Preacher, whose Matter was good, 
and the Dress in which he put it, Extraordinary ; he being as well an 
Orator as a Preacher." This was, if Dunton is correct, on the Sunday 
after Ascension, May 16th. On the following Tuesday, the 18th, the 

Puritan diarist, .Chief Justice 
j (?\ . 

t i * Jf 

L (yeW&tLs ried by Mr. Randolph s Chaplain 

at Mr. Shrimpton s, according to 
y 6 Service-Book, a little after Noon, when Prayer was had at y e 

1 Dunton, in his " Letters from New England," Prince Society, 1867, describes the approach 
from the sea, p. 67. * Ibid. Ibid., p. 68. 




Sewall, records "a great wed- 
ding, fr m Milton, and are mar- 



THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 177 

Town House ; was another married at y same time ; the former was 
Vosse s son. Borrowed a ring. "Tis s d they having asked Mr. Cook 
and Addingtou, and y declining it, went after to y President, and 
sent y m to y Parson." The following Sunday, May 23d, was Whit 
sunday. There is no record of the service on this high festival. Dun- 
ton, the son-in-law of an eminent non-conformist, is careful to write, 
"for my own part, I went but once or twice at the first, tho Mr. Rat- 
cliff (as I have said before) was an Extraordinary good Preacher." 

On Tuesday, in Whitsun-week, the next government was inaugu 
rated, the president and council taking their places on the bench after 
the oaths had been administered. The day following, as Sewall re 
cords, "Mr. Ratcliffe, the minister, waits on the Council. Mr. Ma 
son and Randolph propose that he may have one of the three houses to 
preach in. This is denied ; and he is granted the east end of the town- 
house, where the Deputies used to meet, untill those who desire his 
ministry shall provide a fitter place." Randolph, who neglected no 
opportunity for putting forward the church, " desired Mr. Ratcliffe, 
our Minister, to attend the ceremony and say grace, but was refused." 1 
Dudley had not forgotten that he had been of old a non- conformist 
minister, and that his introduction of the services of the Church at his 
inauguration would never be forgiven by the fanatical people over 
whom he had been placed. The " small room in y e town-house," of 
which Randolph speaks, was all that could be had for the worship of 
the Established Church ; and, on Trinity Sunday, Sewall records in 
his diary : 

Sabbath, May 30* 1686. My son reads to me in course y* 26 th of Isaiah 
In that day shall this song, etc. And we sing y e 141 Psalm both exceedingly suited 
to y" day wherein there is to be Worship according to y" Ch ch of Eng nd as tis call d 
in y" Town House by Countenance of Authority. Tis defer d till y 6 th of June at 
what time y* Pulpit is provided. The Pulpit is movable, carried up and down stairs 
as occasion served. It seems many crowded thither, and y Ministers preached fore 
noon and afternoon. Charles Lidget there. 

This minute is somewhat obscure, but evidently the meaning of 
the watchful annalist is that the 
" company increasing beyond the 
expectation of the gou llt ," as Ran 
dolph writes, the change from the 




was deferred till the " Pulpit was 
provided," the services being still 
maintained where they had begun. 

The " Ministers " who preached were Parson Ratcliffe and Chaplain 
Buckley, of the " Rose " frigate. On Tuesday, the 15th of June, 
"the members of the Church of England, as by law established," 
assembled for organization. The record book is still extant, and gives 
the names of the following gentlemen as the founders of the Church in 
Boston: "M r . Ratcliffe, our minister; Edward Randolph, Esq r ., one 

1 Letters, p. 138. See, also, Dunton s Tanner MS., in " Hist. Coll. Am. Col. 

"Life and Errors." Ch.," in., p. 653. 



178 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



of his Majesty s Councell ; Captaine Lydgett, M r . Luscomb, M r . White, 
M r . Maccnrtie, M r . Ravenscroft, Doctor Clerke, M r . Turfery, M r . 
Bankes, Doctor Bullivant. The first action of this body was the pro 
vision of the weekly oftertory, or " publique collection by the Church 
wardens for the time being for the service of the church." Doctor 



**- ** &/***&*?, 

*-*/ / 
* 




"FAC-SIMILE OF EARLIEST RECORD BOOK OF KLNG S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



Benjamin Bullivant, Mr. Richard Bankes, were elected church- wardens. 
An address to the king and letters to the Archbishop and Bishop of 
London, praying for favor were ordered; and "Smith the Joyner," 
was directed to make "twelve formes for the service of the Church, for 
each of which he shall be paid 4s. 8d." The provision of a sexton was 
the first action of this meeting, which gave corporate existence to the 

1 From Rev. Henry W. Foote s " Anuab of King s Chapel," by the kind permission of the author. 



THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 179 

first Church of England in Massachusetts Bay. At the next meeting, 
held on Sunday, the 4th of July, with increased numbers, the salary of 
Mr. Ratcliffe was fixed at 50 per annum, " besides what y 6 Counsell 
shall thinke fitt to Settle on him." Provision was made for his assistance, 
and Smith the Joyn r was ordered to make a "readding table and Desk." 
A cushion was ordered for the pulpit ; a "Clarke," a sober and fit per 
son, was to be sought for ; a sacrament was appointed for the second 
Sunday in August, the 8th of the month and the 10th after Trinity; 
the Council were to be addressed for a " brief" for the building of a 
church ; and "the Prayers of the Church" were to be said every Wednes 
day and Friday, at seven in the morning in the summer, and at nine 
in the winter. On Thursday, the 5th of August, W m . Harris, boddice- 
maker, was the first " buried with the Common Prayer Book in Boston. 
He was formerly Mr. Randolph s landlord. " l On the 8th the same authority 
writes : " Tis s d y Sacram* of y c Lord s Supper is administered at y e 
Town-H." From this interesting source we catch glimpses of succes 
sive marriage and burial services, of the observance of November 5, 
the day of the gunpowder-plot, when the preacher, the Rev. Josiah 
Clarke, spoke " much against the Presbyterians in England and here," 
and of sacraments and sermons so carefully noted as to prove that 
nothing was done by the little band of church-folk in their straitened 
accommodations at the Town-House, without the knowledge and care 
ful observation of the leading members of the " Standing Order." 
There was no attempt at keeping back any of the distinctive features 
of the church s system for the avoidance of offence. When the com 
missioners visited Boston, in 1665, they had a Church of England 
chaplain in their train, but he had been directed not to wear his sur 
plice ; but now this " rag of Popery " was flaunted in the sight of all who 
cared to attend the services and sacraments at the Town-House Chapel. 
The " whole service of y e church, "Randolph writes," was read at the ear 
ly prayer on Wednes 
days and Fridays, 
and," proceeds this 
into resting chron i- 
cler, " some Sundays 
seven or eight per 
sons are in one day 
baptis d . " It was not 
to be expected that 
the introduction of the common prayer in the very metropolis of the 
Puritan theocracy would not be keenly felt and bitterly resented by the 
ministers and members of the Independents. Randolph records the 
" great affronts " cast upon the Church, "some calling our minister 
Baal s priest, and some of their ministers from the pulpit calling our 
prayers leeks, garlick, and trash." 2 Exasperated by these and even 
grosser affronts, Randolph, who had often proposed, in his correspond 
ence with the officials at home, the adoption of arbitrary and quite 

1 Sewall s Diary, v. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. orig. ed. Vol. n., pp. 294, 295, of the Prince 
V., p. 146. Society Reprint. 

1 Hutchinson s " Coll. of Papers," pp. 552, 553, 




180 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

unjustifiable measures for the support of the Church in Boston, again 
urged the confiscation of one of the Puritan meeting-houses for the 
use of the new congregation, or the appropriation of the funds of the 
corporation for evangelizing the Indians for building a church. The 
authority of the king was sought for laying a levy upon the weekly 
offerings at the Puritan meetings, and the Council was again and 
again approached with a view to the passage of an ordinance making 
the support of the Church a public charge. It was happily all in vain, 
and, although Randolph ingenuously confesses, " twas never intended 
that the charge should be supported by myself and some few others 
of oure communion," the answer of the Council, " those that hire him 
must maintain him, as they maintain their own ministers, by contri 
bution," was not to be gainsaid. The Church of England, as by law 
established, found itself possessed of no exclusive rights and privileges 
in its transplanting to Boston, and when put to the test it was found 
both capable of self-support and ready for it. 

Interesting glimpses of the progress of the Church in Boston are 
found in Randolph s voluminous correspondence with the authorities 
in Church and State at home. He speaks freely of his own unpopu 
larity, and confesses that he has to all his " crimes added this one as 
the greatest, in bringing the liturgy and ceremonies of the Church of 
England to be observed amongst us." 1 He narrates a story of the 
coming of the Indian converts, those " called ministers," to Mr. Rat- 
cliffe, with a complaint of their meagre allowance. The interference of 
Ratcliffe and Randolph seems only to have procured " the promise of a 
coarse coat against winter." The fact is stated that the commissioners 
"would not suffer Aaron, an Indian teacher, to have a bible with the 
common prayer in it, but took it away from him," and the assertion is 
made that the funds of the society were " now converted to private or 
worse uses." The number of "daily frequenters" of the church is 
stated as four hundred. " Many more would come over to us, but some 
being tradesmen, others of mechanick professions, are threatened by 
the congregations 11 men to be arrested by their creditors, or to be 
turned out of their work if they offer to come to our church." In a 
letter to Abp. Sancroft, Randolph refers to the " small artifices they 
have used to prevent our meetings on Sundays, and at all other tymes 
to serve God." " I cannot," he says, "omit to acquaint your grace, how 
tender-conscienced, members of our old church, for soe they are dis 
tinguished from the other two churches in Boston, are. Not long since 
I desired them to let their clerk toll their bell at 9 o clock, Wednes 
days and Fridays, for us to meet to go to prayers. Their men told me, 
in excuse for not doing it, that they had considered and found it in 
trenched on their liberty of conscience granted them by his Majestyes 
present commission, and could in noe wise assent to it." Doubtless 
this statement is not at all exaggerated, and we may judge somewhat 

1 Mr. Footc, in his " Annals of King s orthography " to the transcriber, stating that 

Chapel," in quoting one of Randolph s letters the originals are in this respect not veiy ex- 

from the Hutchinson Papers, indulges in a wit- ceptionablc. Orig. ed., p. 5u2. Reprint, p. 294. 

ticism at the expense of the writer s spelling This assertion of Hutchinson is confirmed by an 

"liturgy " as "letherdge." In a foot-note to this examination of the transcripts from Randolph s 

veiy letter Hutchinson attributes the " bad letters published in other collections. 




THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



181 



of the provocation churchmen in general, and Randolph in particular, 
must have borne from these incidents of fanatical intolerance. It may 
not be out of place to record Cotton Mather s reference to the chief 
promoter of all these schemes for the conversion of New England to the 
Church, penned after the object of the writer s malevolence was dead : 

Of Randolph I said, a good while ago, that I should have a further occasion 
to mention him. I have now done it. And that I may never mention him any more, 
I will here take my Eternal Farewell of him, with Relating That he proved a 
Blasted Wretch, followed with a sensible Curse of God, wherever he came, De 
spised, Abhorred, Unprosperous. Anon he died in Virginia, and in such Miserable 
Circumstances that (as it is said) he had only Two or Three Negro s to carry him 
unto his Grave. 1 

On Monday, December 20, 1686, President Dudley was super 
seded, and Sir Edmund Andros, who 
had arrived on the preceding day, the s~^/f / \ 
fourth Sunday in Advent, became the A- yyy-jjv J 
first royal governor of the province. V /()/\J^/^^~^ C* 
This noted character in New England Cx 

history had been a page in the royal 

household, and had shared the exile and falling fortunes of the 
House of Stuart. In the service of Prince Hemy of Nassau, and 




Obverse Reverse. 

GREAT SEAT, OF NEW ENGLAND UNDER ANDROS. 2 



afterwards as Gentleman in Ordinary to the Queen of Bohemia, 
the unfortunate " Queen of Hearts," he acquired the courtly man- 

1 " Not supported by evidence," is the com- torical Magazine," April, 1862, by George Adlard, 

ment of Mr. Foote, who quotes these characteris- and the account in his " Sutton-Dudleys of Eng- 

tic sentences. Annals of King s Chapel,!., p. 56. land;" see, also, "Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc.," July, 

1 See an account of the Great Seal in " His- 1862, and Palfrey, in., 516. 



182 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

ners and presence which, added to the experience he had had in two 
hemispheres in active military service, made him, as a courtier and a 
cavalier soldier, a valued and devoted servant of the reigning house. 
It was characteristic of the man that, on the very day of his inaugura 
tion, he sought to make an arrangement with the Puritan ministers 
for the use of one of the meeting-houses for the church s use, at a time 
when it would not interfere with the rights of the original proprietors. 
On Tuesday, the 21st, there was "a meeting at Mr. Allen s of y c 
ministers and four of each congregation to consider what answer to 
give y e Gov r . ; and twas agreed y l could not with a good conscience 
consent y l our Meeting-House, should be made use of for y c Comon- 
Prayer worship." The " ministers " were the Rev. James Allen, who 
had been for eighteen years a minister of the oldest Puritan Society, 
with whom was associated the Rev. Joshua Moody, who had felt the 
pressure of arbitrary rule in matters ecclesiastical under Cranfield s 
rule in Portsmouth. Imprisoned for refusing to administer the holy 
communion after the manner of the Church of England to Cranfield 
and his satellites, he had on his release come to Boston, to assist the 
Rev. Mr. Allen in his arduous charge. Later, and in consequence of 
his opposition to the witchcraft delusion, he returned to his old home, 
having through his public life preserved the respect and honor due to 
intelligence, integrity, and a fearless independence. At the second of 
the Boston "Meeting-Houses" were the Mathers, father and son, the 
first renowned for his prominence and success in secular life as well as 
in the ministry. As President of Harvard College, as agent at the 
Court of King James II. , and at that of King William and Queen 
Mary, and as the head of his order, Increase Mather wielded a power 
well-nigh absolute, and was the foremost man of Massachusetts. His 
son Cotton, then a young man, but full of parts and promise, has left 
a name which will never be forgotten in the history of his beloved 
New England. At the South Meeting-House was the Rev. Samuel 
Willard, a theologian of no mean ability, as his ponderous folio, the 
first published in New England, proves, and also a Vice-President of the 
college. These were the ministers of Boston at the time of Andres s 
coming. The names of the twelve laymen are not preserved. Sewall, 
who records in his diary the quaint but striking minutes of the events 
then passing under his eye, was, doubtless, one. Simon Bradstreet, " an 
old man, quiet and grave, dressed in black silk but not sumptuously," 
as the Labadist missionary describes himin 1682, was probably another. 
It is not unlikely that " Eliot, Frarye, Oliver, Savage, and Davis," 
mentioned a little later as uniting with Sewall in remonstrating with 
the governor for sending for the. keys of the Old South, were among 
the number. But, whoever the laymen were who united with their 
ministers in this meeting at Mr. Allen s, their opposition was for the 
time effectual. The Rev. Messrs. Mather and Willard, as we learn 
from Sewall, met the governor M at his lodgings at Madame Taylor s," 
and " thoroughly discoursed his Excellency about y e meeting-houses 
in great plainness, shewing they could not consent. He seems to say 

1 Long Island Hist. Soc. Coll., i. 



THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 183 

will not impose." 1 Although his commission from the king provided 
" that such especially as shal be conformable to the rites of the Church 
of England, be particularly countenanced and encouraged," 2 the gov 
ernor preferred not to " impose" for several months, uniting with the 
little band of fellow-churchmen in the services at the Town-House, 
while the all-observant Puritan diarist noted down, day after day, his 
attendance upon prayers and sacraments : 

Tuesday, January 25. This day is kept for S Paul, and y Bell was rung in 
y" morning to call persons to service ; the Gpv (I am told) was there. 

Monday, January 31. There is a meeting at y" Town-house forenoon 
and afternoon. Bell rang for it ; respecting y* beheading Charles y first. The 
Gov r there. 

It was not till the Tuesday before Easter, in the midst of the 
solemnities of that week which brings to churchmen so many cherished 
associations, that the governor, who had waited patiently, but in 
vain, for some sign of yielding on the part of the Puritan ministers, 
determined to carry out his cherished plan. The observing Sewall 
thus writes : 

Tuesday, March 22, 168 6 /7. This day his Excellency views the three Meeting 
Houses. Wednesday March 23. The Gov r sent Mr. Randolph for y* keys of our 
Meetingh. y may say Prayers there. Mr. Eliot, Frary, Oliver, Savage, 
Davis, and myself wait on his Excellency, shew that y e Land and House is ours, 
and that we can t consent to part with it to such use ; exhibit an extract of Mr. 
Norton s Deed and how twas built by particular persons as Hull, Oliver, 100 a 
piece, etc. 

Friday, March 25, 1687. The Gov r has service in y South Meeting house. 
Goodm Needham, [the Sexton] tho had resolv d to y 8 contrary was prevail d upon 
to Ring y Bell and open y" door at y" Governour s command, one Smith and Hill, 
Joiner and Shoemaker^ being very busy about it. Mr. Jno. Usher was thei-e, 
whether at y e very Begining, or no, I can t tell. 

This was on Good Friday. On Easter-day, as we learn from 
Sewall : 

Gov r and his retinue met in our Meetingh. at eleven; broke off past two, bee. 
of y e Sacrament and Mr. Clark s long sermon ; now we were appointed to come 
half hour past one, so twas a sad sight to see how full the street was with people 
gazing and moving to and fro, bee. had not entrance into y" house. 3 

The story is best told in the words of the Puritan annalist : 

Tuesday, May 10. Mr. Bullivant having been acquainted that May 15 th was 
our Sacrament day, he writt to Mr. Willard that he had acquainted those principally 
concern d, and twas judg d very improper and inconvenient for y" Gov r and his to 
beat any other House, it being Whit-Sunday, and they must have y 6 Comunion, and 
y twas expected should leave off by 12, and not return again till y y rung y Bell 
y might have time to dispose of y Elements. So remembering how long y j were 
at Easter, we were afraid twould breed much confusion in y" Afternoon, and so 
on Wednesday concluded not to have our Sacrament, for saw twas in vain to urge 
their promise. And on y 8 th of May [Sunday after Ascension] were bid past One 
a pretty deal. May 15. Goes out just hour after one; so have our Afternoon 

1 Quoted in appendix to Wisner s " History - m. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., n., p. 147. 

of the Old South Church in Boston," p. 93. s Wisner s " Old South," p. 94. 



184 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

exercise in due Season. But see y j have y* advantage to lengthen or shorten y r 
Exercises so as may make for y r purpose. 

The postponement of the Puritan sacrament, and the peculiar cir 
cumstances of the " South-Church " in consequence of " the Church of 
England s meeting in it," were the occasion of a day of fasting and 
prayer on the 1st of June. In the exercises of this occasion Messrs. 
Willard, Moody, and Cotton Mather participated. On the 12th of the 
same month, the third Sunday after Trinity, the Puritan sacrament 
was celebrated, and Sewall notes the fact that the " Ch h of E. Men go 
not to any other House ; yet little hindrance to us save as to ringing 
the first Bell, and straitning y c Deacons in removal of y Table." 

The summer passed without giving occasion for comment. Evi 
dently the opposing elements were somewhat held in check, if not by 
a spirit of mutual concession and tolerance, at least by an unwilling 
ness to precipitate a quarrel, the result of which could not but be un 
fortunate to both. But on October 1C, the twenty -first Sunday after 
Trinity, there was a slight conflict, the arrogant churchman, if we can 
credit Sewall, a by no means unprejudiced witness, ordering the 
venerable minister of the South Meeting-house " to leave off sooner " 
for his accommodation. The issue could not be other than that which 
Sewall records, "To w ch Mr. Willard not consenting, Gov r sent for 
him in y e night." The following day the attention of Sir Edmund 
was pleasantly diverted from ecclesiastical quarrels by the arrival of 
his wife, " a right good and virtuous lady," who came to New England 
only to die. The New Year had hardly opened when, after alterna 
tions of hope and fear, the diary that had noted her coming records 
her death : 

Sabbath 22 d (January 1G87/8) . My Lady Andros was prayed for in Public, who 
has been dangerously ill ever since the last Sabbath .... About the beginning 
of our afternoon Exercises the Lady Andros expires. 1 

On Friday, February 10, were the impressive funeral rites. 
Sewall thus describes the scene, which, in all its impressive details, 
must have looked strangely enough to a people unused to any pomp 
and circumstance at the last of earth : 

Between 4 and 5 I went to y* funeral of y* Lady Andros, having been invited 
$*y* Clark of y* South-Company. Between 7 and 8 (Lychus 2 illuminating y* cloudy 
air) the Corps was carried into the Herse drawn by six Horses, the Souldiers mak 
ing a Guard from y* Governour s House down y Prison Lane to y 8 South-M. House, 
there taken out and carried in at y western dore, and set in y" Alley before y* pul- 
p^t w" 1 six Mourning women by it. House made light with candles and Torches ; 
was a great noise and clamor to keep people out of y" House, y might not rush in 
too soon. I went home, where about nine a clock I heard y Bells toll again for y* 
funeral. It seems Mr. Ratcliffe s text was Cry, all flesh is Grass. The Ministers 
turn d in to Mr. Willards. The Meeting House full, among whom Mr. Dudley, 
Stoughton, Gedney, Bradstreet etc. Twas warm thawing weather, and the wayes 
extrearn dirty. No volley at placing the Body in the Tomb. On Satterday, Feb. 11, 
the mourning cloth of the pulpit is taken off and given to Mr. Willard. 

1 The maiden name of the Governor s wife Andros Tracts, published by the Prince So- 

was Marie Craven, sister of Sir William Craven, ciety, i., pp. xi.-xiii. 
and oldest daughter of Sir Thomas Craven, of s Lynchs ? i.e., links or torches. 

Appletrcewich, in the county of York. Vide The 






THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 185 

It was not long after this solemn service that a "Brief" was au 
thorized by the council for asking and receiving " the free and volun 
tary contributions of any of the inhabitants in the town of Boston 
towards the building and erecting of a house or place for the service 
of the Church of England." Nearly a hundred names are affixed to 
this document. No little difficulty was experienced in securing a site. 
Sewall was approached, but in vain. On Wednesday, March 28, 1688, 
we have the record : 

Capt. Davis spake to me for Land to set a Ch h on : I told him could not, 
Would not, put Mr. Cotton s Land to such an use, and besides twas entail d. After, 
Mr. Randolph saw me, and had me to his House to see y" Landscapes of Oxford 
Colledges and Halls. Left me with Mr. Ratcliff, who spake to me for Land at Cot 
ton Hill for a Church w* were going to build. I told him could not, first because I 
would not set up that w* y* people of N. E. came over to avoid ; 2 d y" Land was 
entail d. In after discourse, 1 mentioned chiefly the Cross in Baptism and Holy 
Dayes. 

Friday, Apr. 6. The Exposition of y* Ch b of Engl d Catechism, by y* Bishop 
of Bath and Wells, [Ken] comes out printed ^ Rich d Pierce, with y" 39 Articles. 

Saturday, Apr. 14. Mr. West comes to Mr. Willard from y 9 Gov r to speak to 
hmi to begin at 8 in y" morn, and says this shall be y e last time ; they will build a 
house. We begin ab* hour past 8, yet y* people come pretty roundly together. 
Twas Easter-day and y Lord s Supper with us too. 

Thursday, May 24 th . Bell is rung for a Meeting of y* Ch h of Engl* Men, being 
in their language Ascension day. 

On Trinity Sunday there was an altercation growing out of the length 
of the Puritan sacrament, which culminated on Saturday, June 23, when, 
to quote the marginal note of Sewall, there was " Hott Dispute with 
Gov r : about Meeting-House South." The following day through mutual 
forbearance, Sewall notes, " so we have very convenient time." A little 
later there was a conflict over the grave of Edward Lilley, one of the 
subscribers to the new church, between a Puritan deacon, Frary by 
name, who forbade the reading of the " Common Prayer " at the grave, 
and Parson RatclifTe who, in the satirical language of Increase Mather, 
" came with Gown and Book to settle a Laudable Custom in that Bar 
barous country." It is evident that Lilley had connected himself with 
the Church, or the parson would not have been at such pains to bury 
him with the Church s prayers. On Tuesday, October 16, " the ground 
sills of y e Ch h are Laid, y e stone foundation being finished." On the 
following day, Wednesday, October 17, "this day a great part of y e 
Church is raised." Note is made of the absence of Cotton Mather at the 
house-raising, which would indicate that the ministers generally, and 
doubtless the annalist himself, with other prominent citizens and officials, 
were in attendance, testifying, if not their personal interest, their satis 
faction at the approaching redemption of the governor s promise to 
terminate the joint occupancy of the South Meeting-house. The site 
fixed upon by the governor and his little band of churchmen was the 
corner of the old bury ing-ground, which was doubtless duly conveyed 
to the "rector, church- wardens, and vestry of the King s Chapel," as 
the little wooden structure was proudly styled, though the deed, if any 
were given, is not on record. That the proceedings on the part of the 
authorities in ceding the land for this use were in accordance with 



186 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



law is evident from the fact that on the overthrow of Andros the act 
was not annulled, and, indeed, its legality has never been impugned. 
The charges incurred in the erection of the King s Chapel were 284 
16s. The major part of this sum, 256 9s. was raised by the gifts of 
nearly one hundred subscribers, a list of whose names appears on the 
records, and is thus prefaced : 

BOSTON, July, 1689. Laus Deo. A memorandum of such honest and well- 
disposed persons that contributed their assistance for, and towards erecting a Church 
for God s Worship in Boston, according to the constitution of the Church of Eng 
land, as by law established. 1 

The balance of the cost was borne by Andros, who gave 30, and 
Nicholson who contributed 25. Plain in its exterior, bare within, 




THE FIRST KING S CHAPEL. 



lacking pews, and devoid of any attempt at adornment, it still had a 
"pulpit cushion with fringe, tassel, and silk." Meantime events were 
transpiring which, ere the opening of the church, resulted in the over 
throw of the government of Andros, and prevented the chief promoters 
and founders of the chapel from worshipping within its walls. Amidst the 
rejoicings of Eastertide, 1689, there came news of the laud ing of William 
of Orange, at Torbay. A young man named John Winslow brought, 
on his return from the island of Nevis, a copy of the printed declara 
tions of the Prince of Orange, on his landing in England, " on purpose," 

l Greenwood s " History of King s Chapel in Boston," p. 45. 






THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



187 



to quote his own words, "to let the people in New England understand 

what a speedy deliverance they might expect from arbitrary power." 1 

It should be understood 

that the news brought by 

Winslow could not have 

been of later date than 

the first month after the 

landing of the prince, and 

that the result of the 

expedition was at that 

tune quite problemati- 

\ N 

( O ^ 
^NS> 



Concealing the 




cal. 

declaration from An- 

dros ; 2 and, on his ap 

prehension, by order 

of the governor, refusing 

to produce the papers, 

"being afraid," he says, 

"to let him have them, 

because he would not let 

the people know any news , 

" 3 the " saucy fellow," 

as Andros styled him, was 

committed to prison by 

the Church Justices Bulli- 

vant, Lydget, and Fox- 

croft, " for bringing Trai- 

terous and Treasonable 

Libels and Papers of 

News . " A fortnight later 

" a general buzzing among 

the people, great with ex 

pectation of their old 

Charter, or they know not 

what, "attracted the notice 

of Andros ; and on Thursday, the 18th 

of April, when the "weekly lecture" at 

the " First Church " had afforded a pre 

text for the gathering of the people from 

the neighboring towns, by eight o clock 

in the morning the town was thronged 

with excited crowds, while an hour later 

the drums were beating, and the streets 

were filled with men in arms . The captain 

of the " Rose " frigate was seized by the 

militia-men, and placed under guard. 

Directly the old magistrates were es 

corted by the soldiery to the Council Chamber, and Secretary Ran- 



The Revolution in New England Justified. 
Andros Tracts, i., pp. 78, 79. 



2 Ibid., p. 77. 
s lbid.,v. 78. 



188 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




dolph, Justices Bullivant and Foxcroft, Sheriff Sherlock, Captains 
Ravenscroft and White, and " many more " of the governor s adherents 
were seized and confined in jail. About noon " The declaration of the 
Gentlemen Merchants and Inhabitants of Boston, and the country ad 
jacent," a long and carefully prepared document, evidently written by 



THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 189 

Cotton Mather, was read from the eastern gallery of the Town-house, 
at the head of King street, to the anxious and excited crowd below. 
The elaborated periods of this important paper would indicate " that 
the design of seizing upon Sir E. A. , and subverting kingly government 
in New England, had been long contrived and resolved on;" 1 and 
that the object of this popular insurrection was indeed "to rend 
themselves from the Crown of England," as was plainly charged at the 
time in the ablest vindication of the administration of Andros in print. 
The reading of this paper was received with a shout from the impatient 
crowd, whereupon their leaders, who had ostensibly drawn up the Dec 
laration, "drew up a short letter to Sir Edmund Andros," 2 demanding 
the surrender of " the Government and the Fortifications." This letter, 
signed by Wait Winthrop, Simon Bradstreet, William Stoughton, 
Samuel Shrimpton, Thomas Danforth, John Richards, Elisha Cooke, 
Isaac Addington and others, 3 fifteen in number, some of them counsel 
lors and others assistants under the abrogated charter, asserted that the 
signers were " surprized with the people s sudden taking of arms ; in the 
first motion whereof we were wholly ignorant." 4 Andros, who , accord 
ing to his adversaries, had, " at the first noise of the action, fled into the 
Garrison on Fort-Hill, where the Governor s lodgings were," 5 had de 
manded a conference ; but this was declined. About two o clock in the 
afternoon, "the Lecture being put by," as Byfield informs us, 6 there 
were "twenty companies " in arms, and a boat sent from the "Rose " 
frigate, for the relief of the governor and his companions who were in 
the fort, was seized, whereupon the leader of the insurgents, John 
Nelson, a fellow-churchman with Andros, demanded the surrender of 
"the Fort and the Governor." Andros finally consented to accompany 
his assailants to the council-chamber, where he was reviled by Stoughton, 
a member of his own council, and then confined for the night in the 
house of Mr. John Usher, a personal friend, while his friends were sent 
to jail. The sun set upon the complete overthrow of the royal author 
ity in Boston, and as " the Worship of the Church of England had," to 
quote the words of the author of " An Account of the late Revolutions in 
New England," "the disadvantage with- us that most of our Late Oppres 
sors were the great and sole Pillars of it there," so the Church suffered 
with the crown. Parson Ratcliffe, who had evidently been at pains to 
win the respect of his Puritan neighbors, and had sought, in many 
ways, as we learn from SewalPs diary, to cultivate friendly relations 
with the people among whom his lot was cast, appears to have escaped 
the imprisonment so generally meted out to his parishioners and 
friends. It is no trifling testimony to his urbanity and excellence that 
he was able to pass through such a trial unscathed. 

Still the little church on the corner of the public " God s Acre " 
was preserved, though in no little danger from the violence of the mob, 

1 New England s Faction Discovered ; or a England, by A. B. Boston, 1689. Andros Tracts, 
Brief and True Account of their Persecution of II., p. 196. 

v Church of England. London, 1690. This piece, Bradstreet, Danforth, Richards, Cooke, and 

by C. D.(Col. or Capt. Dudley) , is reprinted in the Addington, were respectively governor, It.-gov- 

Andros Tracts, 11., pp. 203-222. The statement is ernor, and of the assistants at the termination of 

confirmed by Puritan authority. Vide Andros the government in 1686. 
Tracts, n., pp. 191, 195. Vide, also, " Palfrey s * Reprinted in Andros Tracts, i., p. 20. 

New England," m., pp. 579, 600, note ; 596, note. B Andros Tracts, n., p. 196. 

2 An Account of the late Revolutions in New Ibid., I., p. 6. 



190 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



r* AJ 

> V* 1 

^ s 



Si 1 



\ 

4 



\ 



and "daily threatened to be pulled downe and 
destroyed." 1 The windows were "broke to 
pieces, and the Doors and Walls daubed and 
defiled with Dung and other filth in the basest 
manner imaginable, and, the Minister, for his 
safety, was forced to leave the country and 
his congregation, and go for England." 2 It 
would appear that on the fifth Sunday after 
Trinity, June 30, 1689, the church was opened. 
Mr. Ratcliffe does not appear to have sailed 
for England until the following month, while 
the records indicate 3 the presence of his suc 
cessor, the Rev. Samuel Myles, A.M., on the 
day of opening. The son of a Baptist preacher 
at Swansea, a graduate of Harvard College in 
the class of 1684, and a teacher, for some years 
after graduation, in Charlestown, he seems to 
have gone over to England for ordination in 
1687, and to have returned in time to take 
the place of Ratcliife. There are reasons to 
suppose that he was at this time in deacon s 
orders ; no notice of, or allusion to, the ad 
ministration of the holy communion being 
found on the reeords till the time of his visit 
to England, in 1692. If this was so it is 
probable that Mr. Ratcliffe lingered to break 
to his people the bread of life, on the occasion 
of the opening of the church, and that the 
two clergymen shared in the solemnities of 
this interesting day. 

In the meantime the chief supporters of the 
church were in prison. So closely was An- 
dros watched that his jailer would not suffer 
"his chaplain to visite him." 4 Ratcliffe, 
while escaping actual imprisonment, was 
hindered and obstructed in the discharge of 
his duty." 5 The Puritan ministers, "by all 
ways and means possible, as well in their Pul 
pits as private Discourses, eudeavour d to 
asperse, calumniate, and defame" 6 the mem 
bers of the church, "and so far did their malice 

1 Address of rector and wardens to the King, Foote s " An 
nals of King s Chapel," I., p. 101. 

2 New England s Faction Discovered, by C. D. Andros 
Tracts, n., p. 212. 

S 1689, July 1. By cash paid M r Miles, 20/ and the Clerke, 
5/ . . . y 27. By disbursements for y accommodation of 
M r - Ratcliffe, for his boy a home, as appears by several Bills 
on file, 11 4s. 8d. Foote s Annals of King s Chapel, I., p. 
105. Vide, also, ibid., p. 97. 

4 Hist. Collections of the American Col. Ch., ill., p. 60. 

B Foote s Annals, I., pp. 87, 101. 

*Ibid., p. 106. Andros Tracts, u., p. 211. 



THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



191 



and bigotry prevail, that some of them openly and publickly hindered 
and obstructed the Minister in the performance of the funeral Rites, to 
such as had lived and dyed in the Communion of the Church of Eng 
land." The burial of Major Howard 1 in the church-yard, where the 
grave had been prepared agreeably to the directions of his will, was pre 
vented by the interference of the Rev. Joshua Moodey, of the " First 
Church." The minister of the church was " publickly affronted and 
hindered from doing of his Duty." " Scandalous Pamphlets " were 
" Printed to villifie the Liturgy." Churchmen were " daily called Papist 
Doggs and Rogues to their Faces." The " plucking down the Church " 
was " threatened," " and whoso will but take the Pains to survey the 




HOLY TABLE IN USE 1686- 8 



Glass Windows will easily discover the Marks of a Malice not 
Common." 3 

The records of the church 4 note the payment of 5 10s. on the 2d 
of November, 1689, "for mending Church Windows," and th6 answer 
of the Puritans that " all the mischiefs done is the breaking of a few 
Quarels of glass by idle Boys, who if discover d had been chastiz d by 
their own Parents," 5 is disproved both by the amount paid for the repair 
of damages and also by the frequent recurrence among the church ac 
counts of payments for the same purpose. The publication by Increase 
Mather, in the midst of the excitement attending the overthrow of the 
Andros Administration, of "a most scandalous pamphlet," entitled "The 
Unlawfulness of the Common Prayer Worship," "wherein," says 
"C.D.," "he affirms and labours to prove the same to be both Popery 
and Idolatry," 6 was intended to add fuel to the flame of indignation ex- 

1 Major Anthony Haywood, as his name is - From Kev. Henry W. Foote s "Annals of 

sometimes given, is recorded as a contributor to King s Chapel," by the kind permission of the 

the building of the church of 10. He was one author. 

of those authorized by the council to receive con- 3 Palmer s "Impartial Account," reprinted 

tributions for this purpose. Foote s Annals, I., in the Andros Tracts, i., p. 53. 
pp. 76, 89, 90. One of the same name, possibly a 4 Foote s Annals, I., p. 110. 

son, is referred to as being redeemed from cap- z Andros Tracts, n., p. 63. 



tivity in Barbary. Ibid., p. 119. 



Ibid., p. 210. 



192 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



cited against the Church. This "Discourse " asserted that the church s 
prayers were derived from the Romish Mass, and were, therefore, idola 
trous. It describes "those broken Responds and shreds of Prayer 
which the Priests and People toss between them like Tennis Balls." 
" Some things," it was claimed, were " enjoined in it as cannot be prac 
tised without sin," such as the Eucharist at weddings, " Popish Holy- 
days," the surplice, the ring in marriage ; and the use of the cross was 
characterized as the "greatest Devil among all the Idols of Rome." It 
was asserted to be " an Apostacy in this Age of Light to countenance 
or comply with the Common Prayer-Book worship." Exceptions were 

taken to the doctrines of the Liturgy 
as M false and corrupt," and among 
the proofs of this charge we tind 
these statements : " It is there 
affirmed" (in the Liturgy) "that 
children Baptized have all things 
necessary to Salvation and are un 
doubtedly saved. Yea, that it is 
certain from God s Word that if a 
Baptized child Dye before actuall 
Sin, tis saved. This savours of 
Pelagianisme . . . And the Booke 
sayth that . . . Christ has Re 
deemed all Mankind." 1 Inspired 
by the success of this pamphlet in 
making the churchmen "obnoxious 
to the common people, who ac 
count vs Popish and treat vs ac 
cordingly," 2 the Puritan preachers 
fulminated in their pulpits against 
"the great sin of Formality in 
Christian worship," and "the sin- 
fulness of worshipping God with 
Men s Institutions ; " 4 and these as 
saults were the signal in each case for the destruction of " y e Church 
winders," 5 notices of which occur again and again in the records and 
accounts. 

Meanwhile the church was "benched." Sir Robert Robinson, 
Knight, gave to the church " hangings and a cushion for the 
pulpit." On Christmas, 1691, Mr. Thomas Gould and Mr. Will 
iam Weaver gave a brass standard for the hour-glass. Governor 
Nicholson sent 15 to be divided equally to the minister, to the poor 
at Christmas, and for the purchase of Bibles, Common Prayer-Books, 
and " singing psalms for the poorer sort of the Church." Green boughs 
were prepared against Whitsuntide. The poor were kindly cared for, 
and " plaisters and phisick " were provided for the sick. The Rev. 

i Quoted by Foote in his " Annals of King s King s Chapel," by the kind permission of the 

Chapel," I., p. 96, note. author. 

* Randolph to Abp. Bancroft, in "Hist. Coll. The themes of discourses by the Rev. 

Am. Col. Church," m., p. 657. Joshua Moodey and the Rev. Samuel Willard. 

3 From Rev. Hemy W. Foote s " Annals of B Foote s Annals, I., pp. 109-112. 




COMMUNION FLAGON, 1694. 



THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



193 



Syinon Smith and the Rev. George Hatton officiated during the absence 
of the Rev. Samuel Myles in England. Sir Francis Wheeler, Admiral 
of the Line, and the captains of his fleet, which was recruited in Boston 
harbor after the failure of the attempt against Martinique in the West 
Indies, left proof of their generosity in liberal benefactions for the little 
church. Silver vessels for the holy communion were provided. The 
" forms," or " benches," gave way to more stately and spacious pews. 
Offerings were made for the redemption of galley-slaves on the coast 
of Africa. Bequests and gifts for church uses are recorded on the church 
accounts. Another Harvard graduate, the Rev. William Vesey, of 
the class of 1693, 
conformed to the 
church, and on the 
26thof July, 1696, 
" preach d at the 
Church of Eng 
land," prior to his 
departure to Eng 
land for orders. 
Thomas Graves, 
who had been re 
moved from his tu 
torship at the col 
lege, though " a 
godly learned 
Man, a good Tu 
tor, and solid 
preacher," as Sew- 
all confesses, for 
"his obstinate ad 
herence to some 
superstitious con 
ceits of the Com- 
mon Prayer- 
Book," died and 
was buried with 
the forms he loved. At length the rector, who had lingered in 
England for four years, returned on the 4th of July, 1696, bringing 
with him " part of the gift of Queene Mary, performed by King 
William after her decease, viz. : the church furniture, which were 
A Cushion and Cloth for the .Pulpit, two Cushions for the Reading 
Deske, A Carpet for the Allter, All of Crimson Damask with Silke 
Fringe, one Large Bible, two Large Common-prayer Books, Twelve 
Lesser Common-prayer Bookes, Linen for the Allter ; Also two Sur- 
plises, Alter Tabele, 20 y 468 fine damask." 2 Later came "two great 
silver Flagons, and one silver basen, and one sallver, and one boul, and 
one Ewer, all of sillver, which was given to the Church by the King and 

1 From Rev. Henry W. Foote s " Annals of Foote s "Annals of King s Chapel," I., 

King s Chapel," by the kind permission of the p. 121. 
author. 




COMMUNION-PLATE GIVEN BY KING WILLIAM AND 
QUEEN MARY. 



194 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




few^4k 
/- y & 

^a^^zM/ttrrrt 




Quean and brought 
over by Cap 1 . John 
Foye." l Besides 
these, "The Deca 
logue, viz. , the 
tenn Command 
ments; the Lord s 
Prayer and the 
Creed," "drawne in Eng 
land," were brought over by 
the returning rector. The 
king added to other benefac 
tions the gift of 100 per 
annum, for the support of 
a lecturer or assistant min 
ister, and, shortly after, a 
library of standard theology 
for the minister s use, includ 
ing Walton s Polyglot, lexi 
cons, commentaries, fine edi 
tions of the Fathers, doctrinal 
and practical works by the 
Anglican divines, with his 
torical, controversial, and 
philological treatises. This 
was a notable collection at a 
time when New England pos 
sessed few collections of 
books, either in public or 
private hands. Two assist 
ants, sent out by the Bishop 
of London, by name Dansy 
and White, died on their 
passage. On the 4th of 
March, 1698-9, the Rev. 
Christopher Bridge entered 
upon his duties as assistant 
minister of the chapel, and 
the century closed with the 
Church fully organized and 
firmly established in the New 
England capital. Besides the 
clergy of the chapel, the min 
ister of the French church 
the Rev. Peter Daill6 was 
"Episcopally ordained,"* and 
the service and sacrament at 



MINISTERS, WARDENS, AND VESTRY OF KING S c j j 
CHAPEL, 1700- 



" 



Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., in., p. 8t. 




THE BUILDING OF KING S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 195 

the Huguenot congregation on " Christmas-day, as they abusively call 
it," is referred to by Sewall in his invaluable diary. From the same 
authority we learn that an humble churchman, who, by " the importu 
nity of Deacon Eliot and others," had 
connected himself with the " South 
Church," and had later found that it 
was " ki g Conscience to go to the Church 
of England, and had sin d in staying 
away from it so long," was formally 
excommunicated or his return to his spiritual mother. 1 

At length, in the changes in the government, a churchman was 
again appointed as royal governor, and on Friday, the 26th of May, 
1699, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, arrived at Boston in the capac 
ity of " Cap 1 . Generall and Governour in Chief of His Majestie s Prov 
inces of the Massachusetts Bay, New York and New Hampshire." His 
fellow-churchmen at the chapel welcomed with enthusiasm the repre 
sentative of the government at home. The Earl of Bellomont s escutch 
eon was hung in the church. A state-pew was fitted up for the new 
governor, who was also placed on the vestry at the Easter meeting. 
Although the new governor failed to satisfy the prejudices of his co 
religionists, who regarded his disposition to ingratiate himself with the 
adherents of the " standing order " of the people he had come to rule, 
still he was not unmindful of his allegiance to church as well as state. 
He refused assent to an act of the General Court respecting the govern 
ment of Harvard College, because of "the exclusion of members of the 
English Establishment from the academical government." 2 He also 
sought to further the wishes of" some persons in New England" for a 
" Church of England Minister ; " but in this matter and in many other 
ways he showed himself disposed to weigh well, and justly even, 
the preferences and policy of the church people. But all hopes of ad 
vantage or fears of disfavor, arising from the fact of the governor s con 
nection with the church, were summarily ended by the death, in New 
York, of the noble earl. Thus closed the seventeenth century upon the 
little church in Boston. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL NOTES. 

MR. WILLIAM H. WHITMORE, a distinguished New England antiquarian 
and scholar, in his memoir of Sir Edmund Andros prefixed to the three vol 
umes of The .4wdrps 2 racfe, published by the Prince Society, of Boston, claims that 
Andros has "received less than justice from the historians of Massachusetts" (i., 
xxiii.)- Reciting the statements of Hutchinson (History, r.,353), that " he was less 
dreaded than Kirke, but he was known to be of an arbitrary disposition," and 
Palfrey (in., 517), that he was " of ai-bitrary principles , and of habits and tastes 
absolutely foreign to those of the Puritans of New England," and " a man prepared 
to be as oppressive and offensive as the King desired ; " Mr. Whitmore proceeds 
to scrutinize, with deliberation, such charges against his character, and to insist upon 
undoubted evidence of his personal iniquities." As a result of this scrutiny, Mr. 

iFoote s Annals, i., p. 134. 2 Palfrey s "New England," rv., p. 195. 



196 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Whitmore comes to the conclusion that the zeal of Andros " for Episcopacy, which 
led him to insist upon haying a place for church services in one of the Boston meet 
ing-houses for a time," did not amount to " a very heinous offence." Although it 
may have been "a great annoyance to the members of the Old South Church to 
have the Governor use the building for Episcopal services," as this obnoxious wor 
ship was held only when " the building was not occupied by the regular congrega 
tion" (Palfrey, m., 522), Mr. Whitmore is of the conviction that we "cannot 
greatly censure Andros for his course" (i., xxvi.). He fails " to see any evidence 
that Andros was cruel, rapacious, or dishonest." He knows "of no charge affect 
ing his morality," and finds " a hasty temper the most palpable fault to be imputed 
to nim." 

Sent to England with his associates for trial, the result certainly proved, to 
quote the judicial words of Mr. Whitman, " that Andros had committed no crime 
for which he could be punished, and that he hud in no way exceeded or abused the 
powers conferred upon him " (i., xxxiii.). Thus favorably received at home by the 
new dynasty, in 1692 he was appointed Governor of Virginia, where, in consequence 
of disputes with Commissary Blair, he " brought the resentment of the Bishop of 
London and the Church (they say) on his head," and lost the government through 
"ft church quarrel" (N.Y. Col. Docs., rv., 490). Shortly afterwards he was 
appointed Governor of Guernsey, an office which he held for two years, retaining 
the post of Bailiff of the Island for life. His name appears among the newly 
elected members, in the " Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, 20 Feb., 1712-13 to Feb., 1713-14," and he was buried at 
St. Anne s, Soho, Westminster, London, Feb. 27, 1713-14, in the 76th year of his 
age. The Andros Tracts, edited by Mr. Whitmore, contain most interesting and 
important references to the early history of the church in Boston. 

A list of the admirable collection of books given by King William 1 to the 
Chapel Library is found in the Rev. Henry W. Foote s pamphlet, entitled "A Dis 
course on the Russian Victories, Given in King s Chapel, March 25, 1813, by the 
Rev. James Freeman, D.D., and a Catalogue of the Library given by King William 
m. to King s Chapel in 1698." With Introductory Remarks by Henry Wilder 
Foote. [Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., March and May, 
1881.] Cambridge : 1881. 8. p. 22. The covers of the books thus given were 
stamped : 

SVB DE 

AVSPICHS BIBLIOTHECA 

WILHELMI DE 

HI BOSTON. 

1 Vide Foote s " Annals of King s Chapel," i., p. 124. 






CHAPTER XL 

THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA AT THE BE 
GINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, AND THE 
FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION 
OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS. 



rTIHE institution of the venerable Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts grew out of the spiritual needs of the 
American plantations, and was in the main brought about by the 
exertions of one whom we are proud to claim as a clergyman of the 
American Church, the Rev. Commissary Bray. In the third year 
of the existence of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowl 
edge, a charity itself the creation of the same earnest and devoted 
mind, it was deemed best to delegate to a separate and independent 
organization the care it had originally assumed, at the instance of Dr. 
Bray, of the spiritual condition of the American settlements. Through 
the exertions of Dr. Bray, seconded by Archbishop Tenison, a royal 
charter was secured, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts held its first meeting at Lambeth Palace, on the 27th 
of June, 1701. The names of those who attended this initial meeting 
under the presidency of the archbishop will show the importance at 
tached to this new institution for foreign evangelization. Besides the 
Primate of all England, the bishops of London, the celebrated Comp- 
ton, Bangor, Chichester, and Gloucester were in attendance ; the Dean 
of St. Paul s, Dr. Sherlock, who was also Master of the Temple, and 
whose well-merited fame was to be eclipsed by his son, who succeeded 
his father in his Mastership of the Temple, and was subsequently trans 
lated from other sees to the Bishopric of London ; Dr. Hody, Regius 
Professor of Greek at Oxford, and Chaplain to Archbishops Tilotson 
and Tenison, whose scholarship and industry are demonstrated by his 
treatise on the Septuagint and Vulgate; Dr. White Kennett, Arch 
deacon of Huntingdon, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and com 
piler of the earliest American bibliography; and Dr. Stanhope, 
afterwards Dean of Canterbury, the well-known author of the Para 
phrase and Comment upon the Epistles and Gospels, were conspicuous 
among those who were present at the organization of the charitable 
corporation to which more than to any other source the Church in 
America owes a debt of gratitude for " a long continuance of nursing 
care and protection." 1 

The first business done at this meeting at Lambeth was the con 
sideration and acceptance of the royal charter, by which the society 

1 Preface to American Book of Common Prayer. 



198 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



was constituted "a body politick and corporate." This instrument 
declared the object of the society to be twofold ; first, the provision 
of " learned and orthodox ministers " for " the administration of God s 
Word and Sacraments " among the king s " loving subjects " in the 
"Plantations, Colonies, and Factories beyond the Seas belonging to our 
Kingdom of England ; " and, secondly, the making of " such other 
provision as may be necessary for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
those parts," comprehending of course the work of evangelizing the 
aboriginal inhabitants of those places where English settlements had 
been made. "Atheism and Infidelity," on the one hand, and "Popish 

Superstition and Idolatry," 
were to be guarded against 
among the people of the plan 
tations by the institution of 
this society, and a " mainten 
ance for ministers and the 
public worship of God" was 
deemed " highly conducive for 
accomplishing these ends." 
Thus did the society in the in 
strument that gave it corpo 
rate existence profess as its 
object and end the promotion 
of the glory of God by the 
instruction of the people in the 
Christian religion. The ob 
jects thus set before it at the 
outset have ever been kept in 
view. It was not the acknowl 
edgment of any new or lately 
learned obligation, but the re 
cognition and public avowal of 
an eternal commandment, none 
other in fact than that which 
gave birth and being to the 
church catholic of Christ : 
" Go ye, therefore, and teach 

all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatso 
ever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world. Amen." St. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. 

At the second meeting, which was held on the 8th of July, at the 
" Cockpit," which stood upon the site of the present Privy Council 
office, at Whitehall, the device of the society s seal was agreed upon. 
It was " a ship under sail making towards a point of land ; upon the 
prow standing a minister with an open Bible in his hand ; people 
standing on the shore in a posture of expectation and using these 
words, Transiens adjuva nos." The by-laws adopted at this meeting 
provided that the business of the society should. always be opened with 
prayer ; that a sermon should be preached before the members every 




THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA. 199 

year by a preacher appointed by the president, and that an oath should 
be taken by the officers of the society for the faithful discharge of their 
duties. The meetings of the society, held regularly from this time 
forward, took place sometimes at the "Cockpit," at other times at 
Lambeth Palace or at the vestry of St. Mary-le-Bow Church; but 
most frequently at Archbishop Tenison s library, at St. Martin s in the 
Fields. The day of meeting was, at the first, every Friday, and after-, 
wards on the third Friday, in every month. A record was kept of the 
proceedings, which is still preserved ; and the carefully kept correspond 
ence with the missionaries, in which the history of the Church in 
America was given year by year, in the very words of those who were 
the actors in the events they detailed, was long a most interesting and 
valuable part of the archives of the society. Providentially it was 
examined, and, so far as it related to our North American colonies, 
copied minutely and fully by the late historiographer of the American 
Church, the Rev. Francis Lister Hawks, D.D., LL.D., under direction 
and by the authority of the general convention. Shortly after these 
transcripts were made, the originals were destroyed by fire, and the 
American Church, by its gift of the volumes of these letters, sumptu 
ously printed under the authority of the general convention, has fur 
nished the society with the material for much of its own history, which 
had else been hopelessly lost. 

The collection of funds for the support of this Anglican " propa 
ganda " was a matter of interest and care from the first, and among 
the most valuable laborers in this department of the society s opera 
tions was the Bishop of Ely, the celebrated Patrick, who had from the 
first, and even prior to the organization of the society, sought to further 
the work of foreign evangelization to the utmost of his power. A grate 
ful acknowledgment of his disinterested and abundant services, so far 
as the province of Maryland is concerned, was made by the royal 
governor, Nicholson, and allusions to the zeal and world-wide charity 
displayed by this great-hearted prelate and commentator are to be 
found in the correspondence of the like-minded Dr. Bray. Among 
those who emulated the good Bishop of Ely in this respect was the 
excellent William Burkitt, Vicar of Dedham, in Essex, himself a noted 
commentator on the New Testament, who, so far from being content 
with being a contributor to the funds of the society, sought out and 
was the means of sending to America one of the best of the colonial 
clergy, the Rev. Samuel Thomas, missionary to South Carolina. The 
celebrated Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, added to his personal 
subscription and blessing suggestions for securing the offerings of the 
charitably disposed in his own diocese. The other bishops of England, 
the archbishops of Ireland, and the heads of colleges at the universities, 
showed their readiness to promote the work undertaken by the society 
by individual contributions., and by recommendations of its object and 
operations to their clergy and people. It is an interesting fact that in a 
letter from the Rev. Mr. Stubs, of Wadham College, Oxford, under date 
of April 14, 1703, afterreciting the proofs of interest in the society s plans 
felt by the members of the university, reference is made to the fact 
that the society, as early as the second year of its existence, was con- 



200 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

sidering the necessity of the appointment of a suffragan bishop for 
America, and debating the possibility of obtaining the Episcopal relief, 
so earnestly desired, from the Scotch bishops. Unfortunately for the 
Church in America there were then "but six Scotch bishops remaining, 
and they aged men." 1 It was not till after more than fourscore years 
of weary waiting, that the wished-for boon of the episcopate was 
secured through this very channel, thus indicated so many years in 
advance. 

With such abundant evidences of interest in the work undertaken 
by the society funds were lavishly supplied. In March, 1701-2, a 
donation of one hundred guineas was reported from the Princess of 
Denmark, who at a later day, as Queen Anne, was constant in her 
charities towards the colonial church. This royal gift was in further 
ance of a favorite plan of Dr. Bray, the support of a superintendent 
over the clergy of Maryland, the importance of which province none 
could better know, or more warmly advocate, than the devoted commis 
sary himself. At the same time the records chronicle a gift of 50 
from Archdeacon Beveridge, who, at a later day, when raised to the 
episcopate, lost none of his old interest in the mission-work carried on 
by the society across the sea. A still more munificent gift of 1,000 
was reported at the same time from " a person who desires to be un 
known," recalling by its exhibition of unobtrusive and unostentatious 
charity the earlier days of zeal and self-denial for the infant Virginia 
Church and State. 

Among the leading laymen who were connected with the society, 
either at the start or immediately afterwards, the name of Robert Nel 
son must stand preeminent. Elected to membership on the 21st of 
November, 1701, a day noteworthy in the annals of the society, as 
being that on which the Archbishop of Canterbury and ten other pre 
lates were formally enrolled among its members ; it is even now a 
source of gratification that in this holy work of foreign evangelization, 
as well as in that of the Christian Knowledge Society, the non-juror, 
Robert Nelson, could still find and gladly embrace opportunities for 
cooperation with the church of his baptism. His name will ever be 
held in grateful memory by the members of the Anglican Communion, 
so long as festival and fast shall bring to mind his admirable exposi 
tions, and clear and convincing explanations of the church s services. 
He stands foremost in his day and generation for the singular purity 
and consistent holiness of his life, the largeness and extent of his 
liberality, the pains with which he cultivated each gift and grace be 
stowed upon him, and the complete, unreserved consecration with which 
he devoted himself and all that he was or had to God. Casting in his 
lot with those brave and holy men, who, at the Revolution, felt that 
they could not in conscience transfer to one sovereign the allegiance 
they had sworn to another ; and, in their obedience to the dictates of 
their consciences, suffered deprivation of all preferments, and con 
sequent poverty and obscurity all the days of their life, Nelson teaches 
us that it is possible for men to differ widely, and yet charitably, and 
in maintaining stoutly and strenuously one s own convictions to find at 

l Anderson s " Col. Ch.," in., p. 36. 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA. 201 

the last means for the healing of all differences in a common love for a 
common Lord. It is, and will ever be, our glory as a church, that it 
was in measures for our planting and nourishing that Robert Nelson 
was brought in close union with those who shared none of his scruples, 
but recognized his unswerving devotion to conscience and truth. An 
interesting proof of the interest of Nelson in the work of the society 
is found in the special Collect, which he drew up in the society s behalf, 
and which is contained in his well-known Companion for the Festivals 
and Fasts. It breathes in most felicitous language the earnest petition 
that the members of this important Christian charity might be diligent 
and zealous in the discharge of their duties, and receive the wisdom 
to discern, and the courage and resolution to pursue, the most fitting 
means for the promotion of the good work they had in hand. 

The day of Eobert Nelson s admission to membership was signal 
ized by the admission of the celebrated Francis Nicholson, Governor 
of Virginia. The excellences, as well as the defects, of Nicholson s 
character were marked, and known of all men. His churchmanship 
was in many respects uncompromising ; and yet instances are recorded 
of his ready compliance with the requirements of the Romish ritual 
at one time, and those of the barest Calvinistic worship on the other. 
Devoted to the Church ; liberal, munificent even, in his gifts for the 
furtherance of her interests ; sparing no pains, and reckless even of 
personal popularity, in accomplishing the building of churches, and 
the settlement of clergy in the various governments intrusted to his care 
from time to time, he could not or would not restrain a hasty temper, 
and a passionate self-will, leading him into altercations with the clergy 
and rendering him obnoxious for his despotic and unprincipled de 
meanor. Still the zeal and generosity so uniformly manifested by him 
in promoting the growth of the colonial church were more likely to be 
known and remembered in England than his defects of temper, or his 
mistakes in governing ; and it was but natural that one who had in 1700 
received the thanks of the Christian Knowledge Society for " his great 
services in the propagating Christian knowledge in the plantation," 
should become an honored member of the sister society, having the 
same great end in view. 

Another honored name, that of a true and world-renowned Christian 
gentleman, John Evelyn, appears among the list of members of 
the society during the first year of its existence. The minutes show that 
this worthy English gentleman was elected to membership on the 15th 
of May, 1702, and the diary of Evelyn himself, one of the choicest 
fragments of our English literature, makes the following reference to 
the election and to the society s work : 

Being elected a member of the Society lately incorporated for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, I subscrib cl 101. per ann. towards the carrying it on. 
We agreed that every missioner, besides the 2QI. to set him forth, sho d have 501. 
per ann. out of the Stock of the Corporation, till his settlement was worth to him 
1001. per ann. We sent a young divine to New York. 

Between two and three years after the date of this record Evelyn 
entered into his rest, leaving the society which had numbered him 



202 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

among its members the more worthy of our veneration and remem 
brance, because approved and aided by so true a Christian, and so per 
fect a gentleman. 

With such an object in view, even the conversion of the world, 
and such a noble band of workers associated in its behalf, the society 
was not long in taking a firm hold upon the affection and support of 
English churchmen. The call was at once made, through the bishops 
and other church dignitaries, for " such clergymen as have a mind to be 
employed in this Apostolical work," and the promise of support was 
made to all such who, being found "duly qualified," proposed to "devote 
themselves to the service of Almighty God and our Saviour, by propa 
gating and promoting the gospel in the truth and purity of it, according 
to the doctrine, discipline, and worship established in the Church of 
England." Testimony was required in the case of each applicant for 
appointment as to age, condition in life, temper, prudence, learning, 
sober and pious conversation, zeal for the Christian religion and dili 
gence in his holy calling, and his conformity to the doctrine and disci 
pline of the Church of England. An earnest appeal was made to "all 
persons concerned, that they recommend no man out of favour or affec 
tion, or any other worldly consideration, but with a sincere regard to 
the honour of Almighty God and our blessed Saviour ; as they tender 
the interest of the Christian religion and the good of men s souls." The 
"instructions for the missionaries," which were prepared and published, 
cover every particular which could be required, and are couched in lan 
guage so simple and so affecting as to be models of rules for holy living. 
These " instructions " begin with the missionary s appointment, cover 
the period of his passage to his distant field, and then provide for his 
" circumspect and unblamable " behavior upon his arrival at his post. 
These laborers for Christ were enjoined : 

I. That they always keep in their view the great design of their undertaking, 
viz. : to promote the glory of Almighty God, and the salvation of men, by propa 
gating the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. 

II. That they often consider the qualifications for those who would effectually 
promote this design, viz. : a sound knowledge and hearty belief of the Christian 
religion; an apostolical zeal, tempered with prudence, humility, meekness, and pa 
tience ; a fervent charity towards the souls of men ; and, finally, that temperance, 
fortitude, and constancy, which become good soldiers of Jesus Christ. 

III. That in order to the obtaining and preserving the said qualifications, 
they do very frequently in their retirement offer up fervent prayer to Almighty God 
for his direction and assistance ; converse much with the Holy Scriptures ; seriously 
reflect upon their Ordination Vows ; and consider the account which they are to 
render to the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls at the last day. 

VI. That in their outward behaviour they be circumspect and unblamable, 
giving no offence either in word or deed ; that their ordinaiy discourse be grave 
and edifying; their apparel decent and proper for clergymen; and that in their 
whole conversation they be instances and patterns of the Christian s life. 

VIII. That in whatsoever family they shall lodge, they persuade them to join 
with them in daily prayer, morning and evening. 

With respect to their parochial work they received equally full 
and minute instructions. The "rules of the Liturgy " were to be con 
scientiously observed "in the performance of all the offices of the Min 
istry." liesides the Sunday and Holy-day services they were, if 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA. 203 

practicable, to have daily prayers, and to neglect no opportunity of 
preaching. The service was to be performed with " seriousness and 
decency," so as to "excite a spirit of devotion" in the people. The "chief 
subjects " of their sermons were to be " the great fundamental principles 
of Christianity, and the duties of a sober and godly life." Vices pre 
dominant in the places of their residence were to be particularly preached 
against. They were required to " carefully instruct the people concern 
ing the nature and use of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord s 
supper, as the peculiar institutions of Christ, pledges of communion 
with Him, and means of deriving Grace from Him." Catechising, the 
instruction of "Heathen and Infidels" and constant visiting, the distri 
bution of tracts and the lending of "useful books," together with the 
setting up of schools for children, were particularly enjoined. 

It was with this end in view that the venerable society undertook 
the work of evangelizing the colonies of Great Britain in America. 
There was need of such an agency. Through its abundant labors the 
church s prayers were again heard, and her sacraments administered, 
in New England, after years of banishment and consequent disuse. 
New York had at length the regular ministrations required for years 
by royal rescripts, but only just obtained. In Pennsylvania the 
Church had only been introduced. Maryland had its half-a-dozen 
clergymen, and Virginia a greater number ; but in both of these 
provinces there were numerous vacancies, and what were the few 
clergy, scattered at great distances and ministering under many diffi 
culties, among the many infant settlements springing up on every 
side? At the southward the Church had only a name to live, and was 
well-nigh dead. In consequence of the insufficiency of clergymen 
churches were closed, and the young and old grew up, lived, and 
died without the knowledge of God s word or the administration of 
the sacraments. Laxity of opinion and practice followed the withholding 
of the teaching of God s truth, and the dispensing of the means of grace. 
The Church could not advance in view of such hindrances to success. 
That she survived this period of indifference and neglect is only to be 
accounted for by the divine promise that, " the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against her." 

Dr. Bray presented to the archbishop, and published in 1701, a 
memorial " representing the present state of religion in the several 
provinces on the continent of North America, in order to the provid 
ing a sufficient number of missionaries, so absolutely necessary to be 
sent at this juncture into those parts." 3 The statistics he gave are 
similar to those we have recited, and from this " memorial," as well 
as from other contemporary documents, it appears that outside of 
Virginia and Maryland there were not at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century half-a-dozen clergymen of the Church in all the 
colonies of North America, and that, including these provinces where 
the Church was legally established, the whole number of priests of the 
mother-church ministering on American shores, from Maine to Caro 
lina, was considerably less than fifty, probably not two-score. 

1 Published in folio, London, 1701, p. 15. Collections," i., pp. 99-106, and is there erro- 
This valuable paper, with a nnmber of varia- neously dated " about the year 1740." 
tions, is printed in the " Prot. Epis. Hist. Soc. 



204 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

With such a lack of ministers and ministrations, the efforts which 
had marked the earlier days of settlement for the conversion of the 
Indians, and the later labors which had been undertaken from time to 
tune in behalf of the civilizing and Christianizing of the negroes, 
already become numerous and brought within reach of instruction, 
had wholly ceased. Morgan Godwyn, who had been a student of 
Christ Church, Oxford, and after taking orders, had spent several 
years in Virginia, in his pamphlet, entitled : " The Negroes and 
Indians Advocate, suing for their admission info the Church," pub 
lished in London, in 1680, pleads earnestly with his countrymen in 
behalf of the negroes and other heathen at that time in the West 
Indies. But earnest and able as were his arguments, and applicable 
as they were to the condition of things on the main land as well, they 
failed to convince those whom he addressed. Godwyn, in a letter to 
Governor Berkeley, gives an account of the state of religion in Virginia, 
where he had ministered before the time of Bacon s rebellion, and 
which there is no doubt continued to be correct until the beginning of 
a new century. Acknowledging that the governor had, " as a ten 
der father, nourished and preserved Virginia in her infancy and 
nonage," he reminds Berkeley " that there is one thing, the propa 
gation and establishing of religion in her, wanting." The occasion of 
this lack, among other reasons, is thus stated : " The ministers are most 
miserably handled by their plebeian Juntos, the vesteries, to whom 
the living (that is the usual word there) and admission of ministers 
is solely left. And there being no law obliging them to any more 
than procure a lay-reader (to be obtained at a very moderate rate), 
they either resolve to have none at all, or reduce them to their own 
terms ; that is, to use them how they please, pay them what they 
list, and to discard them whensoever they have mind to it." Again, 
" two-thirds of the preachers are made up of readers, lay-priests of the 
vesteries ordination : and are both the shame and grief of the rightly 
ordained Clergie there." Parishes, extending some of them sixty or 
seventy miles in extent, were kept vacant for many years, to save 
charges. " Laymen were allowed to usurp the office of ministers, 
and Deacons to undermine and thrust out Presbyters, in a word all 
things concerning the Church and religion were left to the mercy of 
the people." To this he adds, " to propagate Christianity among the 
heathen whether natives or slaves brought from other parts 
although (as must piously be supposed) it were the only end of 
God s discovering those countries to us, yet is that lookt upon by our 
new race of Christians, so idle and ridiculous, that no man can forfeit 
his judgment more than by any proposal looking or tending that 
way." 

Such was the state of religion and the Church in a province where 
the Church was established by law ; elsewhere sectism in various forms 
prevailed, and it was reserved to the venerable society to undertake 
the work which in the course of years gave us our American 
CShuroh. Without the labors of the society, in supplying us with men 
of Apostolic zeal" and " unblameable character," of true religion and 
good ^earning, the Church, betrayed by those who should have 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICA. 20.5 

sought her highest good ; " wounded, like her Master, in the house 
of her friends," would have died. The gates of hell would have 
prevailed against her. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND CRITICAL NOTES. 

THE transcripts of the voluminous correspondence of the missionaries with the 
secretary of the venerable society, together with the copies of documents, relat 
ing to the early history of the Church in the colonies, in the collections of MSS. at 
Lambeth and Fulham, made under the direction of the late Rev. Dr. Francis L. 
Hawks, are contained in a number of ponderous folios, and form a most valuable 
part of the archives of the General Convention of the American Church. Several 
of these volumes have been published. The volume of Connecticut Church MSS. 
was published under the editorship of Dr. Hawks and the author of this history, in 
two octavo volumes, in the year 1863 and 1864. The Virginia MSS. formed the 
initial volume of a series of five noble quartos, printed in sumptuous style, under 
the general title of " Historical Collections of the American Colonial Church," of 
which the issues were, successively, Virginia, in 1871 ; Pennsylvania, in 1872 ; 
Massachusetts, in 1874; Maryland, in 1878, and Delaware in the same year. Of 
these important volumes but jtwo hundred and fifty sets were printed ; and they 
have, in consequence, already become rare and costly. It is proposed to resume 
the publication of this series, and to issue the remaining volumes in a less expensive 
form . 

Our notices of the venerable society would be incomplete without a reference 
to the " White Kennet Library," a collection of the rarest books, pamphlets, tracts, 
broadsides, etc., gathered by Dr. White Kennet, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, 
and presented by him to the society as an " American Library." The catalogue of 
this collection, itself a most valuable bibliographical volume, is entitled " Bibliothecao 
Arnericanse Primordia. An Attempt towards laying the foundation of an American 
Library, in several books, papers, and writings, humbly given to the Society for the 

Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts By a member of the 

Society." Quarto, 1713. Although this valuable collection is not wholly preserved, 
after the lapse of nearly a century and three-quarters, many of its volumes arc 
yet in the possession of the society ; while others which have strayed are, from time 
to time, found in other collections, bearing the name and book-stamp of the far-sec- 
ing and indefatigable collector. Vide an interesting Account of the White Kenuet 
Library of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. By 
Charles Deane." Cambridge, 1883. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT " FROM NEW HAMP 
SHIRE TO CARATUCK," NORTH CAROLINA. 



career of the Rev. George Keith, the first " missioner " ap- 
J_ pointed by the venerable society, had been a strange and 
checkered one. Born and brought up at Aberdeen, and a 
student at the ancient university of this city with Gilbert Burnet, the 
great Bishop of Salisbury, who was a few years his junior, Keith had 
been at the first connected with the established kirk. Converted from 
Presbyterianism to the doctrines and practices of the Quakers, he 
proved the sincerity of his change of views and his fearlessness in the 
advocacy of his inner convictions, by coming forward as the champion 
of the belief he had adopted at a time when it was assailed with the 
fiercest persecution. A ready writer and a skilled controversialist, 
his numerous writings in defence of the tenets of the Quakers were 
marked by acute reasoning and abundant learning. Restless in mind 
and body alike, America soon became the home of his adoption, and 
the heralding of the views of his sect the chief occupation of his life. 
Coming to America about the year 1682, and settling in Mon- 
mouth, N.J., we find him employed in 1687 as surveyor-general to 
draw the boundary line between the eastern and western division of 
the province in which he had made his home. Two years later he 
moved to Philadelphia for the purpose of taking charge of the Friends 
public school, then first established in the city of Penn. As a teacher 
he was faithful and successful, and in the exercise of his gifts as a 
preacher " among an unlearned and ignorant company of people, as 
for the most part these preachers were," he easily "excelled them all, 
appearing as a bright luminary, and outshining all the rest of that 
order among them ; and by his remarkable diligence and industry in 
all parts of his ministerial office, he rendered himself beloved of 
them all, especially the more inferior sort of people." 1 But with 
shining parts, and all the elements of popular success, the Quaker 
teacher and preacher possessed an irresistible fondness for con 
troversy. He had distinguished himself as a writer in favor of 
Quakerism as early as 1665, and in crossing the sea he had not lost 
either his fondness for controversy or his skill in disputation. His 
zeal, quickened by the relentless persecution of his fellow-religionists 
at the hands of the Puritans of New England, led him to bear his 
M testimony " in the very midst of those among whom Quakerism had 

1 Gerard Croese, quoted in "Prot. Epis. Hist. Soc. Collections," i., Introduction to reprint of 
Keith s Journal, p. ix. 




THE KING S MISSIVE, 1GG1, COMMANDING THK RELEASE OF THE QUAKERS. 



-0*4 



208 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

already reaped what its adherents deemed a glorious martyrdom. 
The "King s missive" had, indeed, emptied the jails and stopped the 
bloody scourgings and painful martyrdoms which had been the Puri 
tan s favorite mode of dealing with heresy, but the old hate had not 
died out ; so- the Quaker champion fearlessly threw down the gauntlet 
and challenged to the polemic strife the most astute and famous of 
the champions of Puritanism. It was thus that he began his " Solemn 
Call and Warning from the Lord to the People of New England to 
repent" : 

" The burden of the Word of the Lord that came unto me on the 
twenty-first day of this fourth month, 1688, in the town of Boston, in 
New England, to declare it unto Boston and its inhabitants, and to the 

inhabitants of New England." 
A copy of this "warning-cry," 
couched in prophetic language, 
and bitter and remorseless in 
its denunciations of those to 
whom it was addressed, was 
posted in the most conspicuous 

of defiance was followed by 
the publication of a letter writ 
ten in similar style, and ad 
dressed to " James Allen, 
Joshua Moody, Samuel Wil- 
lard, Cotton Mather, called 
preachers in Boston." In this 
communication Keith charged 
those whom he named with preaching false doctrine, and boldly chal 
lenged them to a public disputation. The reply is characteristic of 
men who knew their position and power, and at the same time could nol 
overlook or fail to resent this daring insult offered to their dignity : 

Having received a blasphemous and heretical paper, subscribed by one 
George Keith, our answer to it and him is : if he desires conference to instruct us, 
let him give us his arguments in writing as well as his assertions ; if to inform 
himself, let him write his doubts ; if to cavil and disturb the peace of our churches 
(which we have cause to suspect) , we have neither list nor leisure to attend his 
motions. If he would have a public audience, let him print ; if a private discourse, 
though he may know where we dwell, yet we forget not what the Apostle John 
saith, Epis. 2, 10th verse. 1 

It needed no invitation to induce Keith, thus baffled in his wish 
for a disputation with the Puritan ministers, to seek "a public audi 
ence " through the press, and his reply was even more scathing and 
sevei e than his first attack. Not content with the immediate issue, he 
revives the controversies of the past, and opens up old sores in "A 
brief answer to some gross abuses, lies and slanders, published some 
years ago by Increase Mather, late teacher of a church at Boston, in 

1 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, 
neither hid him God speed. 




THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT. 



209 



New England, in his book called An Essay for the recording of illus 
trious Providences, etc., and by Nath. Morton, in his book called 
New England s Memorial. " 

It was not long after this acrimonious controversy that Keith found 
his convictions no longer in accord with the prevailing views of his 
own party. Differences of opinion touching many important points of 
doctrine and practice became at length so pronounced as to lead, not 




REV. GEORGE KEITH. 



only to his removal from his position in the school, but to his public 
condemnation and practical excommunication from the Quaker body. 
Having openly charged the Friends in Pennsylvania with laxity of dis 
cipline, as well as a departure from their original belief, he proceeded 
to resist the authority of their tribunals, on the ground that the accept 
ance in their own persons of the magistracy was a violation of their 
religious profession. But his arguments convinced only his adherents 
and himself, and, being brought to trial, he was convicted and fined. 
The fine was subsequently remitted, but whether this leniency arose 
from a conviction on the part of the judges that their authority was in 
deed questionable, or from a hope that the offender might be reclaimed, 



210 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

it is impossible to determine. It is certain, however, that from this 
tune Keith proceeded to claim for his followers and himself the right to 
be regarded as the true exponents of Quakerism, and to denounce all 
others as apostates. No other course remained for those who were 
arrayed against this new expositor of Quakerism but to bear their 
public testimony against him. Admonitions and persuasions had 
failed to dissuade the fearless Keith from avowing his convictions, and 
assailing all who differed from his views ; and even when the great 
body of the Friends publicly disavowed all connection with him, his 
answer was, that " he trampled their judgment undei his feet as dirt." 
He set up at once a separate " meeting," and numbering, as he did, 
among his followers, many who are described by the historian of Penn 
sylvania as "men of rank, character and reputation, in these prov 
inces, and divers of them great preachers and much followed," 1 
his success occasioned great alarm. w A Declaration, or Testimony 
of Denial," was solemnly borne against the schismatic at a public meet 
ing of the Friends, in Philadelphia, on the 20th of April, 1692, and 
confirmed by the general meeting held at Burlington, N.J., a few 
months afterwards. Its language of mingled sorrow and condemna 
tion proves the severity of the blow inflicted upon them by this 
secession from their numbers, and is in marked contrast with the con 
temptuous tone in which they were wont at a later day to refer to it. 
The words of the lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan are 
made use of to describe their feelings as they moan over the loss of 
the " mighty man " who had dropped from their ranks. As long as 
he walked " in the counsel of God and was little in his own eyes," his 
" bow" abode " in strength," and his " sword returned not empty from 
the fat of the enemies of God." " Oh, how lovely," they continued, 
" wert thou, in that day when this beauty was upon thee, and when 
this comeliness covered thee ! " And then, taking up the language of 
the message to the Church of Ephesus in the Apocalypse, they bade 
him who had " left his first love " to remember from whence he was 
"fallen, and repent, and do his first works." 2 

This "Testimony" against Keith, thus given by the Friends in 
America, was confirmed in 1694 by the yearly meeting of the Quakers 
in London. But he was only the more steadfast. The grounds of his 
separation were such that there could be no compromise. He and his 
followers claimed as their title that of "Christian Quakers." Keith 
charged upon his opponents a tendency towards Deism. 

Returning to England in the same year in which the testimony 
of the London meeting was delivered against him, he found himself 
disowned, derided, and despised. Patiently and resolutely he betook 
himself to the task of self-vindication. But the line of reading and of 
argument which he pursued in his attempt to disprove the errors of 
Quakerism convinced him that the Church of England, at once Cath 
olic and reformed, claimed his allegiance and service. With him con 
viction was at once followed by action, and, openly confessing his 
previous errors, he was received into the Church, and began his prepa- 

> Proud s " History of Pennsylvania," I., p. 369, note. Ibid., pp. 365, 366. 



THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT. 



211 



ration for holy orders. The pen which had proved so trenchant in 
its advocacy of the tenets of the Friends was at once devoted to the 
service and defence of the church of his latest love. So fully did he 
receive her doctrine, and so ready and convincing were his arguments 




in her defence, that his exposition of the church s teaching, as contained 
in his "Larger and Lesser Catechism," was the first book adopted for 
circulation by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. His 
" Reasons for renouncing Quakerism, and entering into Communion 
with the Church of England," which was published in 1700, became at 



212 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

once an authority in the controversy, from its vigorous style and acute 
and lucid reasoning. Received early in the same year to holy orders, 
his "Farewell Sermon, preached at Turner s Hall, May the 5th, with 
his two initiating Sermons, on May the 12th, 1700, at St. George s, 
Butolph s Lane, by Billings-Gate," attest the earnestness of his convic 
tions, and the entire consecration of himself to his new work, at the 
beginning of his ministry. Commended by Dr. Bray to the Societ} 7 " 
for Propagating the Gospel, soon after he had received Priest s orders 
he prepared, at the request of the Secretary, a " Memorial of the State 
of Religion " in those parts of North America where he had travelled. 
In this interesting paper he refers to his opposition to the Quaker 
" notion of the sufficiency of the light within every man to salvation, 
without anything else," as having been the occasion of his own sepa 
ration, and asserts that on his coming to England, in 1694, he left be 
hind him " fourteen or fifteen meetings in Pennsylvania, West and East 
Jerseys, that met apart from the Quakers (on the account of their 
opposition to these errors) to the number of above five hundred per 
sons." The Memorial pointed out the best places among the Amer 
ican colonies for the introduction of the Church ; and its wise and 
temperate suggestions, coupled with the knowledge of the writer s 
familiarity with the country and its varying and discordant sects, and 
his zeal for the church of his adoption, influenced the society to 
appoint Keith its first travelling missionary, commissioning him to 
explore the field in its length and breadth, and associating with him the 
Rev. Patrick Gordon as a fellow-itinerant. The newly appointed 
missionaries embarked on the 24th of April, 1702, on board the "Cen 
turion" for Boston, where they arrived on the llth of the June follow 
ing. Col. Joseph Dudley, the royal Governor of New England, and 
Col. Lewis Morris, Governor of New Jersey, were passengers in the 
same ship. The chaplain of the " Centurion," the Rev. John Talbot, be 
came so interested in the mission of Keith as to devote himself to mis 
sion work, or, as he was fond of styling it, " the service of God and His 
Church, apud Americanos" "Worthy Mr. Gordon" died at Jamaica, 
Long Island, about six weeks after his arrival in Boston. His career, 
though thus early closed by death, had been long enough to win for 
him the respect and regard of churchmen and dissenters alike, and 
Colonel Morris, in a letter to Archdeacon, afterwards Bishop, Bever- 
idge, bore testimony to his "abilities, sobriety and prudence," and 
mourned his untimely removal "just as he was entering upon his 
charge." 

The " Centurion " landed its passengers at Boston, and the clergy 
of the Queen s Chapel, the Rev. Samuel Myles and the Rev. Chris 
topher Bridge, welcomed these three brethren to their homes. On 
the following Sunday Keith preached in the Queen s Chapel, from the 
text Eph. ii. 20, 21, 22, before "a large Auditory not only of Church 
people but of many others." At the request of the ministers and 
vestry, and others, this sermon was printed. It contained " six plain 
brief rules," which the preacher told his hearers agreed well with the 
Holy Scriptures, and which, if "put in practice, would bring all to the 
Church of England who dissented from her." " This," remarks Keith, in 



THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT. 213 

his journal, " did greatly alarm the Independent Preachers at Boston." 
To no less a controversialist than the celebrated Dr. Increase Mather 
was assigned the task of combating these "rules," and overthrowing 
the arguments of a disputant, who, as an advocate for the Church, re 
ceived a hearing and a reply, denied him years before, when he was 
contending in behalf of the vagaries of Quakerism. A short contro- 



D o c TR I N E 

OF THE HOLY 

Apoftles & Prophets the Foundation 

Church of Chrift, 

As ir was Delivered in a 

SERMON 

At Her Maieflies Chappel, at 
HoHon in h(e Englana, the 
. oifnne 1701. 



By C&eorj&e Betty, M. A, 

BOSTON. 
Printed for Samuel Fhillifs at the Brick Shop, 1702. 



versy followed, though Keith s answer was printed in New York, " The 
Printer at Boston not daring to print it lest he should give offence to 
the Independent Preachers there." 

Before setting forth on his missionary journey Mr. Keith was 
induced by Colonel Morris to remain at Boston until the " Commence 
ment" of the college at Cambridge, "at which," writes Morris, "the 
good man was met with very little University breeding, and with less 
learning, but he was most distressed by the theses which were there 



214 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

maintained of predestination and immutable decrees, to which he drew 
up a long answer in Latin." The theses of President Willard, thus 
pronounced unsound, are recorded in Keith s journal, as follows : 
"I. That the fall of Adam, by virtue of God s decree, was necessary. 
II. That every free act of the reasonable creature is determined by 
God, so that whatever the reasonable creature acteth freely, it acteth 
the same necessarily." 

The Latin letter sent to the president was afterwards " put into 
English" and published at New York. In Willard s reply, " notwith 
standing his many shufflings, and seeming to disown the charge," he 
"very roundly and plainly" maintains all that had been alleged, and 
" much more," in these words : 

Nor shall I part with my opinion, viz. : that the Origins and cause of the 
necessity of the first sin is more to be derived from God, than from Man himself. 
Nay, further, that the whole cause of the futurity of it is owing to the Divine 
decree, though still the whole sin and blame of it is due to Adam, for that in ac 
complishing of his Apostacy, he abused his own free Will, and voluntarily trans 
gressed the command. 

The answer of Keith to this defence had, we are told, " a good 
effect in quieting the minds of many people in these parts, and bring 
ing them over to the Church." 

Early in July Keith and Talbot began the extended tour of mis 
sionary exploration which occupied two years, and extended from 
" Piscataway River in New England to Caratuck in North Carolina." 
Beginning in Lynn, the Quakers were visited in their homes, and at 
their " Meetings." In spite of abuse and interruptions they pursued 
their labors at Hampton, Salisbury, Dover, and Salem ; returning 
thence to Boston, and having throughout their journey received the 
hospitality and coftperation of the " New England ministers," who made 
common cause with them in their assault upon Quakerism. On their 
second journey, which was towards the southward, they were accom 
panied by the Rev. Mr. Myles of Boston. At Newport there was a 
public disputation with the Quakers, which attracted great attention ; 
and at Portsmouth, Narragansett, Little Compton, and Swansea, the 
indefatigable " missioner " pursued his work of exposing the errors of 
the Quakers, and proclaiming the faith of the Church of England. 
Starting out from Newport on a third tour, New London was the first 
point reached, and the journal tells us that on Sunday, September the 
13th, "Mr. Talbot preached there in the forenoon, and I preached 
there in the afternoon, we being desired to do so by the minister, Mr. 
Gurdon Saltonstall, who civilly entertained us at his house, and ex 
pressed his good affection to the Church of England, as did also the 
minister at Hampton" [the Rev. John Cotton], "and the minister at 
Salisbury" [the Rev. Mr. Gushing], "and divers other New England 
ministers did the like. My text was Rom. 8,9; the auditory was 
large, and well affected. Col. Winthrop, governour of the colony, after 
Forenoon Sermon invited us to dinner at his house, and kindly enter 
tained us both then and the next day." Crossing Long Island Sound in 
a sloop which they hired, they reached, after two days travel on horse- 



THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT. 21f> 

back, Oyster-hay, where, on Sunday after prayers, Mr. Keith preached, 
and his companion baptized a child. At this point the Rev. William 
\ r esey, of Trinity Church, New York, joined the party, and all pro 
ceeded to the Quaker meeting at Flushing. 

The attempt of Keith to speak was interrupted by " the clamour 
and noise ; " but in the disputes that followed it is evident that Keith 
was far from being worsted by his bitter antagonists. From Hamp- 
stead, where a Sunday was spent, and the church s service and a sermon 
given to a people "generally well affected " and desirous that a Church 
of England minister should be settled among them," the party pro 
ceeded to New York. It was a time of pestilence. "Above five 
hundred" had "died in the space of a few weeks, and that very week 
about seventy." Keith preached from St. James v. 13, at the " Weekly 
Fast which was appointed by the Government by reason of the great 
mortality," and on the following day proceeded on his journey south 
ward. Sunday, October 3, was spent at Amboy ; "the auditory was 
small." The "text was Tit. ii. 11, 12." "Such as were there were 
well affected." Among them were some "Keithan Quakers, who 
had conformed to the Church. Of these converted Quakers one was 
John Barclay, " brother to Robert Barclay, who published the Apol 
ogy for the Quakers." On the following Sunday, at Freehold, Keith 
attended the "Yearly Meeting" of the Keithan Quakers, where, after 
a Quaker discourse, the journal records as follows : "I used some 
of the Church Collects I had by heart in prayer ; and after that I 
preached on Heb. v. 9. There was a considerable auditory of Quakers ; 
they heard me without any interruption, and the meeting ended 
peaceably." This was repeated the following day, and an oppor 
tunity for 

private con- ^ 

ferencewith <* 

the Quaker 
p re a c h e r 
was not 
lost. The 
following 
Sunday 

Keith preached at Middleton, Mr. Talbot reading the prayers, and 
the text being St. Matt, xxviii. 19. Here " most of the auditory were 
Church people, or well-affected to the Church." A week later Keith 
held a "three days meeting" at Shrewsbury, it being the time of the 
Quakers Yearly Meeting, during which Keith publicly "detected 
the Quakers errors out of their printed books, particularly out of 
the folio book of Edward Burroughs Works, collected and pub 
lished by the Quakers after his death," reading "the quotations to 
the Auditory, laying the pages open before such as were willing to 
read them, for their better satisfaction." From Shrewsbury Keith 
and Talbot proceeded to Burlington, where they preached in the town- 
house, the church not being built. Here they had "a great auditory 
of diverse sorts, some of the Church, and some of the late converts 
from Quakerism." Here again Keith " detected the Quakers errors 





216 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

out of their great authors, George Fox his Great Mystery, and Edward 
Burroughs Folio Book, and others." From Burlington, where, as else 
where in New Jersey, they received marked attention from the lead 
ing officers of the crown, they journeyed to Philadelphia, where 
they were heartily welcomed by "the two ministers there and the 
church people, and especially by the late converts from Quakerism, 
who were become zealous members of the Church. * The visit of these 
distinguished representatives of the venerable society was made the 




GEORGE FOX. 



occasion of a meeting of the clergy in New York, where seven 
assembled in the second week in November and drew up " An Account 
of the State of the Church in Pennsylvania, East and West Jersey and 
New York." The names of those composing this first Clerical Convo 
cation in the city of New York were, George Keith ; Evan Evans, 
" Minister of Philadelphia ; " Alexander Innes, " Presbyter ; " Edward 
Mott, " Chaplain of Her Majesty s Forces in New York ; " John Talbot ; 
William Vesey, "Rector of New York ; " and John Bartow, " Rector of 

1 This follows Holmes s engraving of the ppr- if his brother William, he died in 1G83, aged 73. 
trait of Fox, by Ilonthorst, in 1654, when Fox The original canvas was recently offered for sale 
was in his thirtieth year. This Dutch painter, if in England. Avicwof Swarthmore Hall, where 
Gerard Houthorst, was born in Utrecht, in 1592, Fox lived, is in Gay s " Popular History of the 
was at one time in England, and died in 1660; United States," n., p. 173. 




THE MISSION OP KEITH AND TALBOT. 217 

West Chester County." The journal of Keith, in recording the fact 
of this important meeting, adds the following interesting particular : 
"Colonel Nicolson, Governor of Virginia, to encourage us to meet, 
was so generous as to bear our charges (I mean of all of us that lived 
not at New York) , besides his other great and generous benefactions 
to the building and adorning many Churches lately built in these 
parts." The session of the clergy was followed by a brief stay in 
New York, where Keith and Talbot were entertained by the erratic Lord 
Cornbury, Governor of New York and the Jerseys, and where Keith 
availed himself of his intimacy with the royal governor to obtain an 
opportunity for speaking to the Quakers at Flushing, the scene of his 
former unsuccessful attempt. 

His opponents were in no mind to listen to one whom they re 
garded not only as an apostate, but also as a hireling, and even the 
governor s letter and the presence of two justices of the peace, deputed 
to see that he should not be interrupted in his discourse, could not 
compel the Quakers to listen patiently to his criticisms, or enable him 
to speak to their regular congregations. 

Christmas was spent with their fellow-passenger on the " Centurion," 
Colonel Lewis Morris, at whose request Keith preached in the Morris man 
sion, and Talbot administered the holy communion, " both Mr. Morris 
and his wife and divers others " receiving. Turning southward, on the 
following Sunday Keith preached at Shrewsbury in New Jersey, " at a 
planter s house, and had a considerable auditory of Church people 
lately converted from Quakerism, with divers others of the Church of 
best note in that part of the Country." The new year began with the 
baptism of several Quaker converts at Freehold, and after a brief visit 
at Burlington, and a longer stay in Philadelphia, Keith began anew his 
labors at Chester, Concord, and other places in the neighborhood, 
preaching in churches or houses, and confirming in their new faith nu 
merous followers of his in his separation from the Quaker meeting, who 
had made the further change from Keithan Quakerism to the Church. 
In the first week of February, 1702, Keith convened the Keithan Sepa 
ratists and their preachers, in Philadelphia, continuing his efforts with 
them till at length he was able to write that " most of that party, both 
in town and country and also in West and East Jersey, and some in 
New York, came over with good zeal, and according to good knowl 
edge, to the Church praised be God for it." Keith remained in 
Philadelphia, busy in preaching and disputations, 1 until early in April, 
when he began a journey southward, 2 stopping on his way and preach- 

1 Early in the year James Logan wrote to prevented its further journey. None appeared 

William Penn as follows : " G. Keith, on the 5th but Win. Southby to answer a calumny, as I am 

instant, had a public dispute with himself, ac- informed, raised against him, and soon withdrew, 

cording to his way, at Whitpain s great house : Those called Keithans here, as John Hart, I. 

he declaimed a very little time, I think not an Wilson, Jno. McComb, &c., are his great oppo- 

hour, and to less purpose: his business was to nents, and in short in tli is place his execution has 

expose, &c., but his chief success that way was, been exceeding small." Penn and Logan Cor- 

tis thought, upon himself. He sent his chal- respondence, I., p. 179. 
lenges, as thou wilt find by a copy of one of them 2 We find in a letter from J. Kirll to Jonathan 



he sent the original to be shown to them, under was coldly received by most sorts of people ; he 
his hand, but being brought to Thomas Storey he had disputes with several sorts ; but one William 



218 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

ing or baptizing at Chester, New Castle, and Yorktown, Virginia, 
whence he proceeded to VVilliamsburg, where Mr. Talbot and himself 
were " kindly received " and " entertained by Col. Nicholson," then Gov 
ernor of Virginia. On Wednesday, the 21st of April, Keith preached 
in the Williamsburg Church, " before the Convocation of Clergy there 
assembled." On the following Sunday Keith preached at Jamestown, 
" at the request of the Reverend Mr. Blair, Minister there, and Com 
missary, who very kindly and hospitably entertained us at his house." 
Visiting Kicketan, where Keith s daughter, who had " fully come off from 
the Quakers, "resided, the associated "missioners" officiated for several 
weeks in the vicinity, penetrating even into North Carolina to "Corre- 
tuck," and, being prevented by contrary winds from proceeding " in a 
canoe over a great bay," still further to the southward. After a series 
of sermons and services, with numerous baptisms of children at Abing- 
ton, at churches and chapels in Princess Anne and Elizabeth counties, 
at Hampton and at Yorktown, the two evangelists proceeded to Mary 
land. At Annapolis there was " a large auditory, well affected." The 
sermon, from 1 Thess. i. 5, was printed, at the request, and mostly at 
the charge, of " a worthy person who heard it." Here Keith visited the 
Quakers meeting at Herring Creek, accompanied by several of the 
leading men of the province and the rector of the parish, the Rev. Mr. 
Hall, with " divers other ministers of the neighboring parishes." But 
the Quakers would not listen to his arguments. Driven from the 
Quaker meeting, a large number resorted to an adjacent chapel, where, 
after prayers, Keith preached on the errors of Quakerism. For several 
weeks Keith pursued his mission throughout Maryland, and then in 
August returned to Philadelphia. In September occurred the Quakers 
yearly meeting, and the Rev. Mr. Evans, with the consent of the vestry, 
opened the church in Philadelphia, on all the days of the Quakers 
meetings, for services, while Keith and Talbot sought to gain a hearing 
from the Quakers themselves. They were met with violence, Talbot 
being thrust from the place of meeting by force, and Keith being jostled 
and assaulted, and the bench on which he was standing pulled from 
under him. So disorderly was the affair that little or nothing could be 
expected either in the way of refuting the Quakers errors or in the 
proclamation of a more excellent way. The remainder of the year was 
spent in journeyings to and fro in the middle provinces. Many con 
verts were made. Two of Keith s sermons, preached in New York, 
were published at the request and cost of those who heard them. Tal 
bot, who had made numerous mission-journeys by himself, was at 
length appointed to the charge of the church at Burlington, and after 
a few months more travel, in the course of which Keith revisited Mary 
land and Virginia, he returned to England and published an interesting 
"Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck," whence we 
have drawn many of our notices of his work. Received for the most 
part with courtesy, preaching in churches, chapels, meeting-houses, 
private dwellings, or wherever an opportunity offered, " oft again and 

Davis, a Seventh-day Baptist, had a. dispute with Virginia. I believe he stayed here longer than 

him in the Keithan meeting-house, where George he was welcome in most sorts." Penn and 

had the worst of it, and was forced to quit the Logan Correspondence, i., p. 185; vide p. 196. 
field to his great dishonor; he is now gone to 



THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT. 219 

again drawing crowds to hear, in many instances for the first time," 
the church s forms of prayer, administering the sacraments to num 
bers who had learned from their lips the nature and importance of these 
means of grace, and in public and private testifying to the teachings 
and practice of the Church of which they were members and ministers, 
the progress of these two mission-priests was an event in the history 
of the American Church. The results were immediate and apparent. 
Talbot, writing from Philadelphia, September 1, 1703, says: 

We have gathered several hundreds together for the Church of England, and 
what is more to build houses for her service. There are four or five going forward 
now in this province, and the next, That at Burlington is almost finished. Mr. Keith 
preached the first sermon and before my Lord Cornbury. Churches are going up 
amain where there were never any before. They are going to build three at North 
Carolina ; and three more in these lower Counties about Newcastle ; besides those 
I hope at Chester, Burlington and Amboy." 

It was in no spirit of exclusiveness that these worthy " missioners " 
pursued their chosen work of rooting out the errors of Quakerism, and 
implanting, instead, the truth of God. While they bore strong testi 
mony in word and act to the church s ways and words, they neglected 
no opportunity to preach the Gospel, whether it was in the dissenters 
places of meeting, whenever they could be had for their use, or in 
town-halls, or even private houses which were opened to them. As 
Talbot writes, under date of November 24, 1702 : 

We preached in all churches where we came, and in several dissenters 
meetings, such as owned the Church of England to be their Mother Church, and 
were willing to communicate with her, and submit to her bishops, if they had op 
portunity. I have baptized several persons whom Mr. Keith has brought over from 
Quakerism ; and, indeed, in all places, when we arrive, we find a great ripeness 
and inclination among all sorts of people to embrace the gospel. 

It was but natural that the reception they had from the Quakers 
should be different. The return of Keith among those who but ten 
years before had with confessed regret been forced to cast him out as 
a schismatic and as an apostate, in the character of a priest of the 
Church against whose rules they had revolted, and against whose min 
isters they had again and again borne testimony as hirelings and false 
guides, could not but be regarded with anger and alarm. In separat 
ing from his old associates Keith had not contented himself with a silent 
withdrawal. From the moment in which his eyes were opened he had 
showed himself the fearless, tireless, and most relentless antagonist of the 
faith he had once professed. To the crowds assembled at Turner s Hall, 
in London, or to that larger constituency reached by the press, the aid 
of which was invoked again and again ; in tracts and broadsides and vol 
umes, well-nigh innumerable, Keith had ceaselessly appealed for a hearing 
and belief. Able as he was zealous, argumentative as he was thoroughly 
informed, plying his foes with a logic that was unsparing, and having 
at his command every possible argument or reply that could be urged 
against his thrusts, it could not but excite the indignation of the 
Friends that this their enemy had " found them out " in the New World 
as well as in the Old. To know that this man, whose power they had 



220 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

learned to respect, was going from house to house, from meeting to 
meeting, in the hamlets and towns with which he was personally 
familiar, confuting their ablest preachers, converting their members, 
and convicting their very standards of confessed errors and gross per 
versions of truth, was hard, indeed, for the Quakers to bear. We may 
not wonder, then, that when they saw this hated pervert present in 
their assemblies, and seeking, after their own preachers had ended 
their discourse, to avail himself of " the liberty of prophesying," which 
was their boast, to convict them of doctrinal error by citing their own 
standard authorities against them, they sought to drown the accusing 
voice with their clamor, or else hastily dismissed the assembly. But 
their opposition only whetted the zeal of their adversary. Silenced at 
one moment, he only waited an interval of quiet to renew his attack. 
He met them on their own ground. He attacked them in their own 
familiar way, and it was only by a breach of their own professed prin 
ciples that they could rid themselves of his testimony and presence. 
It could not be otherwise than that many, who felt that noise and clamor 
were no fitting answer to arguments, and who felt aggrieved at "this 
silencing of one who claimed only the privileges accorded to all who 
felt moved by the Spirit within to give utterance to their testimony, 
should be led to embrace the doctrine proclaimed by these church 
" missioners." Their converts were numbered by hundreds, who, 
within the period of their mission work in America, or immediately 
afterwards, were united with the Church by baptism. Keith himself, 
in his recital of his " Travels, Services and Successes," at the close of 
his journal, thus modestly speaks of his work and its results : 

To many, our ministry was as the sowing of the seed and planting, who, 
probably, never so much as heard one Orthodox sermon preached to them before 
we came and preached among them, who received the word with joy ; and of whom 
we have good hope, that they will be as the good ground that bringeth forth fruit, 
some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. And to many others, it was a 
watering to what had been formerly sown and planted among them ; some of the 
good fruit whereof we did observe, to the glory of God, and our great comfort, 
while we were with them, even such fruits of true piety and good lives, and sober 
and righteous living, as prove the trees to be good from which they did proceed. 

Keith returned to England, receiving the living of Edburton, in 
Sussex, where he remained till his death. He was at least once again 
drawn into the arena of controversy, as appears from a sermon 
preached by him, at "the Lecture at Lewes," September 4, 1707, upon 
" The Necessity of Faith, and of the Revealed Work of God to be the 
Foundation of all divine and saving Faith." The text is from Hebrews 
xi. 6, and the discourse, as avowed in the title-page, is "against the 
fundamental error of the Quakers : that the light within them, and 
within every man, is sufficient to their salvation without anything else, 
whereby (as to themselves) they make void and destroy all revealed 
religion." This tractate is written with all the logical acuteness and 
vigor which characterized the numerous treatises prepared by the author 
in previous years upon the same great theme. It serves to show that 
in the comparative seclusion of his country vicarage he had lost none 
of the zeal and fire of his earlier days. He continued to prosecute 



THE MISSION OF KEITH AND TALBOT. 221 

his clerical labors in Edburton till 1716, when, on the 29th of March, 
the parish register bears record that " the Rev. Mr. Keith, Rector 
of Edburton, was buried. " 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 

JN the "Descriptive Catalogue of Friends Books, o*r Books written by Members 
of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, from their first rise to the 
present time, interspersed with critical remarks, and occasional biographical no 
tices, and including all writings by authors before joining, and by those after haying 
left the Society, whether adverse or not, as far as known. By Joseph Smith." 
(2 vols., octavo, London, 1867), upwards of thirty pages are required to give the 
titles of the books, tracts and broadsides of the " Keithan Controversy," while the 
distinct publications of Keith himself exceed a hundred in number. Besides 
the " Doctrine of the Holy Apostles and Prophets, the Foundation of the Church of 
Christ," the title-page of which we have given in fac-simile, Smith notices the fol 
lowing tracts and pamphlets, issued in America during the missionary tour 
from "New Hampshire to Caratuck " : 

Some of the many False, Scandalous, blasphemous & self-contradictory 
assertions of William Davis, faithfully collected out of his book, printed Anno 1700, 
entitled, Jesus, the Crucified Man, the Eternal Son, of God, &c., in exact quotations 
word for word, without adding or dissenting. Quarto, Philadelphia, printed 1703. 

This pamphlet is signed^ by George Keith and Evan Evans. Smith asserts 
that John Talbot had a hand in the composition. 

The Spirit of 3&atltitg=<8f)tmet and of Baal s 400 Lying Prophets entered into 
Caleb Puseg and his Quaker-Brethren in Pennsylvania, who approve him. Contain 
ing an answer to his and their Book, falsely called, Proteus Ecclesiasticus, Detect 
ing many of their gross Falsehoods, Lies, Calumnies, Perversions and Abuses, as 
well as his and their gross ignorance and Infidelity contained in their said Book. 
By George Keith, A.M. Printed and sold by William Bradford, at the Sign of the 
Bible, in New York. Quarto, 1703. 

The power of the Gospel, in the conversion of sinners, in a Sermon Preached 
at Annapolis in Maryland, By George Keith, M.A., July the 4. [AnnapolisT\ 
Printed and are to be sold by Thomas Reading, at the- sign of the George, Anno Dom 
ini MDGCIIL Quarto, 1703. 

Reply by Mr. Increase Mather s Printed Remarks on a Sermon Preached by 
G. K. at Her Majesty s Chapel in Boston the 14th of June, 1702, in vindication of the 
six good Rules in Divinity there delivered, which he hath attempted (though very 
Feebly and Unsuccessfully) to refute. New York Quarto, 1703 

Refutation of a dangerous and hurtful opinion maintained by Mr Samuel 
Willard, an Independent Minister, etc., and President, etc. 

New York Octavo 1702 

Some brief Remarks upon a late Book, entituled, George Keith once more 
brought to the Test by Caleb Pusey. New York : Printed Quarto 1704 

The Notes of the TRUE CHURCH with the Applications of them to the 
Cfjurdj of Bngianto and the great sin of seperation from Her. Delivered in a 
SERMON Preached at Trinity Church in New-York, before the administration of 
the holy Sacrament of the Lord s Supper, the 7 th of November, 1703 By George 
Keith, M. A. 

Printed and sold by William Bradford at the Sign of the Bible in New- York. 

Quarto. 1704 



IIISTOHY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




An ANSWER to Mr. Samucll aaillarto (one of the Ministers at Boston in New- 
England) his REPLY to my Printed sheet, called a Dangerous and hurtful opinion 
maintained by him, viz. That the Fall of Adam, and all the sins of Men necessarily 
come to pass by virtue of God s decree, and his determining both of the Will of 
Adam, and of all other Men to sin; By George Keith, M. A. 

Printed and sold by William Bradford at the Sign of the Bible in New York. 

Quaito 1704 

A JOURNAL of TRAVELS from New Hamphire to Curatuck, on the Continent 
of North America, By George Keith, A. M., late Missionary from the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and now Rector of Edburton, in 
Sussex. 

London, Printed by Joseph Downing, for Brab. Alymer at the Three-Pigeons 
over against the Royal-Exchange in Comhill. Quarto. 170G. 

This last publication is reprinted in the tirst volume of the Prot. Epis. HisL 
Soc. Collections. New York, 1851. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE PLANTING OF THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND 

DELAWARE. 



PROVISION was made in the original charter granted by Charles 
II., in 1681, for the introduction of the Church into the colony 
established under the auspices and by the authority of the cele 
brated William Penn. Section xxii; of this important document is as 
follows : "And our farther pleasure is, and we do hereby, for us, our 




224 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



heirs and successors, charge and require, that if any of the inhabitants of 
the said Province, to the number of twenty, shall at any time hereafter 
be desirous, and shall, by any writing, or by any person deputed by 
them, signify such their desire to the Bishop of London, for the tune 
being, that any preacher, or preachers, to be approved of by the said 
Bishop, may be sent unto them, for their instruction ; that then such 
preacher, or preachers, shall and may reside within the said province, 
without any denial, or molestation whatsoever." 1 It was not until 
1694-5, that in the midst of the dissensions growing out of the seces 
sion of George Keith from the body of which he had so long been a 
faithful and honored member, those who opposed both the Quakers 
principles and policy united in a petition to the crown, for " the free 
exercise of our religion and arms for our defence." 2 In the view of the 




THE SEAL OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Quakers this attempt to bring in " the priest and the sword " was an 
invasion of their chartered rights. The attorney who was suspected 
of drawing up this petition was taken into custody, and those who had 
ventured to sign it were brought before the sessions for examination. 
But it was impossible, by the most rigid scrutiny or the most fanatical 



"Proud s " Hist, of Penna.," I, p. 186. Com 
pare " Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Church," n., p. 5. The 
history of this section of the charter will be found 
in the following extracts from the proceedings of 
the Lords of the Committee of the Pi-ivy Council 
for the Affairs of Trade and the Plantations, 
at Whitehall, January 22, 1680-1: "Upon the 
draught of a patent for Mi 1 . Penn, constituting him 
absolute proprietary of a tract of jand," etc., which 
was referred to Lord Chief Justice North, " A 
paper hcing also read, wherein my Lord Bishop 
of London desires that Mr. Penn be obliged, by 
his patent, to admit a chaplain, of his Lordship s 
appointment, upon the request of any number of 
planters ; the same is also referred to my Lord 
Chief Justice North." On the 24th of February, 
the same year, " The Lord Bishop of London is 
desired to prepare a draught of a law to be passed 



O</1< (/lf< tt*f 1| \ l_ * 4AJtSj m V* W tU>0, 1*1-01/9 J.J.10V* VSVU* 

Am. Col. Ch.," n., pp. 497. 498. The Bishop 



of Ixmdon referred to was Dr. Henry Comp- 
ton. 

In connection with these references to the 
Bishop of London s interest in the settlement of 
Pennsylvania, it may not be inappropriate to quote 
from a letter of the proprietary, the interesting 
fact, attested by Penn himself, that the celebrated 
Compton was the source of that admirable policy 
towards the natives which contributed so largely 
to the safety and success of the settlement : 
" Philadelphia, the 14th of the Sixth month, 1683. 

"1 have only to add, tliat the Province has a 

Erospect of an extraordinary improvement, as well 
y divers sorts of strangers as by English subjects ; 
that in all acts of justice we revere and venerate 
the King s authority ; that I have followed the 
Bishop of London s^ counsel, by buying and not 
taking away the natives land ; with whom I have 
settled a very kind correspondence." Proud s 
Hist, of Penna., I., p. 274. 

* Suder s Letters, in "Hist. Coll. Am. Col. 
Ch.," n., p. 9. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 225 

opposition, to hinder the " Church party," 1 for such it soon became, 
from petitioning for a minister and from obtaining their request. The 
exact date of the introduction of the services of the Church is unknown. 
A letter from "Mr. I. Arrowsmith, School-master, to Governor Nichol 
son," under date of March 26, 1098, still preserved among the MSS. at 
Fulham, speaks of " there being very little encouragement to those of 
our church," but adds, "we have a full congregation and some very de 
sirous to receive the sacrament at Easter." It is possible that Arrow- 
smith, whom Clayton refers to again and again as " brother," was in 
deacon s orders ; for he refers in his letter to the governor, to his having 
lived in dependence on "the king s allowance for this place" (evidently 
a ministerial stipend) , and asks his excellency s advice how to dispose 
of himself in the event " of a minister coming to this place," of which 
he had heard. He also alludes to his efforts to secure the presence of 
the Rev. Richard Sewell, of Maryland, for the Easter sacrament, in 
which there is little doubt but that he was successful, as Arrowsmith 
records the promise of this estimable man to officiate. It is, therefore, 
more than probable that Sewell was a pioneer priest of the Church in 
Philadelphia, as well as at other places in Pennsylvania.. The church had 
been built in 1695. Gabriel Thomas, to whose description of the prov 
ince we are indebted for the knowledge of the date of its erection, 
speaks of it, in 1698, as "a very poor church." Built but twelve years 
subsequent to the laying out of the city, and at a time when the popu 
lation "could not have been more than from four or five thousand," 2 it 
must have been, in its size and style, " a goodly structure for a city 
then in its infancy." Traditions vary as to the material of which this 
structure was composed. 

It is probable that the first services were held within the walls, and 
during the erection of the more substantial church of brick in an 
humbler building or frame, or even shed, of wood. The bell " was 
hung in the crotch of a tree " near by. Towards the middle of the 
year 1698 we find that the services of Mr. Arrowsmith and the occa 
sional visits of the Rev. Mr. Sewell were superseded by the regular 
ministrations of the Rev. Thomas Clayton, first incumbent of Philadel 
phia. He was reviled by the Quakers as " the Minister of the doc 
trine of Devils." 3 Clayton sought to convert the Quakers about him 
to the Church, addressing their "yearly meeting," and seeking to con 
trovert their views and arguments in open debate. His zeal seems to 
have been deemed intemperate by his brethren in Maryland, whose 
remonstrances, or, as he styles it, whose " inhibition " served to re 
press his efforts at proselyting, which were extended to all classes of 
dissenters. The labors of Clayton were not without success. Refer 
ence is made by Keith in his journal to " the considerable number of 
converts to the Church from Quakerism," that "the Rev. Mr. Clayton 
had baptized ;" 4 and the Rev. Edward Portlock, the first clergyman of 
the Church of England in New Jersey, who appears to have followed 

1 The dissensions between the " Quakers and ixth and xth volumes of the " Memoirs of the 

Churchmen," " upper counties and lower," date Pennsylvania Historical Society." 
almost from the first settlement of the province, 2 DOIT S " Christ. Church, p. 7. 

and are spread in full on the pages of the " L enn "Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., IT., p. 11. 

and Logan Correspondence, published in the 4 Prot. Epis. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., p. 49. 




22fi HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Clayton, writes, under date of July 12, 1700, to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, of the " considerable progress the Church of England has 
made " in the province, " insomuch that in less than four years space 
from a very small number her community consists of more than five 
hundred sober and devout souls in and about this city. 1 A letter from 
Isaac Norris to his friend Jonathan Dickinson in Jamaica, 2 in giving 
an account of the great pestilence that prevailed in Philadelphia in 
1C>99, has the following incidental allusion to Clayton s death, and to 
his immediate successor, probably Portlock: "Thomas Clayton, min 
ister of the Church of England, died at Sassafras, in Maryland, and 

here is another from London in his room, 
happened to come very opportunely." The 
incumbency of Portlock, if, indeed, he was 
more than a temporary supply, was but 
brief, for ere the close of the year 1700 the 

Rev. Evan Evans was sent over by the Bishop of London as " mis 
sionary " 3 to Philadelphia. He lost no time in seeking, as did his 
predecessors, the conversion of the Quakers to the Church, and his ef 
forts met with marked success. The zeal of Evans led him to under 
take the introduction of services at Chichester, Chester, Concord, 
Montgomery, Radnor, and Perkiomen, besides his Sunday duties, and 
Wednesday and Friday prayers at Philadelphia. 4 In 1700, and for 
three years, the Rev. John Thomas, who was in deacon s orders, was 
assistant at Christ Church, and school-master. He also officiated at 
Trinity Church, Oxford. The presence and labors of the Rev. George 
Keith and the Rev. John Talbot on their " missionary journey " from 
New Hampshire to Caratuck, North Carolina, gave a great impetus to 
the growth of the Church in Philadelphia. The Rev. Henry Nicholls, 
who was stationed at "Upland." or Chester, ventures, in 1704, the 
" guess " that " one-half of the inhabitants may be churchmen." Hum 
phrey, in his historical account of the venerable society, asserts that 
Mr. Evans had baptized prior to the coming of Keith and Talbot 
" above five hundred men, women, and children, Quakers in Pennsyl 
vania and West Jersey." This number was increased, according to the 
same testimony, before the return of Keith to England to " above eight 
hundred persons." Humphrey adds an interesting account of the 
labors of Mr. Evans, as follows : " Mr. Evans used to preach two 
evening Lectures at Philadelphia, one preparatory to the Holy Sacra 
ment, on the last Sunday of the month ; the other to a Society of young 
men who met together every Lord s Day, after Evening Prayer, to 
read the Scriptures, and sing Psalms. Mr. Evans was always pres 
ent at these meetings, unless hindered by some public service, and 
used to read some select Prayers out of the Church Liturgy, and 
preached upon subjects suitable to an audience of young men. There 
arose an unforeseen advantage from these Lectures, for not only the 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., H., p. 16. asserts that Evans was the " Church Missionary " 

s Printed in the "Penn and Lo^an Corre- at Philadelphia as early as 1698; but the state- 

spondcncc" (i., pp. Ivii., Iviii.) pub. in the ixth meut in the text i? based on his own assertion, 

vol. of the Penn. Hist. Soc., " Memoirs." The and is without doubt, correct. Vide "Hist. Coll. 

date of this letter is " llth, 7fh mo., 1699." Am. Col. Ch.," n., p. 33. 

Watson, in his "Annals of Phila." (i., p. 370), Watson s Annals, I., p. 379. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 227 

young men who designedly met were improved, but a great many young 
persons who dared not appear in the daytime, at the public service of 
the Church, for the fear of disobliging their parents or masters, would 
stand under the Church windows at night and hearken. At length many 
of them took up a resolution to leave the sects they had followed, and 
became steadfast in the communion of the Church." 1 At this time, 
according to Keith, the services of the Church were as follows : 

At Philadelphia, they have prayers in the church, not only on the Lord s days, 
and other holy days, but all Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, and the Sacrament 
of the Lord s Supper administered monthly, and the number of the communicants 
considerable. The church is commonly well filled with people, every Lord s day ; 
and when they are fully assembled, both of the town and country that belong to 
that congregation, they may well be reckoned by modest computation, to amount 
to five hundred persons of hearers. But sometimes there are many more ; and 
generally the converts from Quakerism are good examples, both for frequenting 
the church prayers, and frequent partaking of the Lord s Supper, with zeal and 
devotion, and also of sober and virtuous living in their daily conversation, to the 
frustrating the lying prophecies and expectations of the Quaker preachers espe 
cially, who used to prophecy that whoever left the profession of Quakers, after that 
should be good for nothing but as unsavoury salt, to be trod under foot of men. 3 

There is little doubt but that political dissensions and factions 
among the colonists tended somewhat to the growth of the Church. 
In 1701 James Logan writes to "William Penn: "I can see no hopes 
of getting material subscriptions from those of the church against the 
report of persecution, they having consulted together on that head, 
and, as I am informed, concluded that not allowing their clergy here 
what they of right claim in England, and not suffering them to be 
superior, may justly bear that name." 3 From a letter to the pro 
prietor, from his trusty friend Logan, early in 1702, 4 it appears that 
the vestry took an active part in the local politics, securing affidavits 
of alleged instances of maladministration for transmission to the 
Bishop of London, and giving to the friends of Penn no little trouble. 
Later, Logan reports to Penn his success at paying court to Lord 
Cornbury, whose relationship to the queen, 5 as well as hid official 
position, made him of importance, and adds : 

He expresses a great regard for theo, and is much averse to the warmth of 
those who go by the name of the church here ; for which reason, or some other 
which I cannot yet learn, none of the chief of them waited on him up the river, 
chiefly, I suppose, because he was pleased to be in Quaker hands. 6 

The Quakers, Logan writes, regarded Cornbury "as their saviour 
at New York," and were "well satisfied to be under him, for they 
believe that they could never have one of a more excellent temper." 

Penn, in addressing Logan, refers to " a dirty paper about perse 
cuting the Church of England in the person of Leake, under the hand 
of Keeble," produced by the Bishop of London, who "is one of the 
Lords de propaganda fide" 7 " The hot church party " is accused by 

Humphrey s "Hist. Ace.," pp. 150, 151. "He was Her Majesty s first cousin. 

2 Prot. Epis. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., p. 50. "Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., p. 

*Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., p. 65. 110. 

4 Ibid., pp. 90, 91. 1 1bid., p. 117. 



228 HISTORY OF THK AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Logan, 1 as opposing the measures taken to put the government in a 
position of defence in view of a declaration of war, " because they 
would have nothing done that may look with a good countenance at 
home." Again, the writer complains that "the attestation of a Friend 
is in very few things serviceable : " " it is the oath of a churchman must 
do, if any." 8 The leading churchman, Colonel Robert Quary, had 
been Governor of South Carolina for a brief period in 1684, and again 
in 1690. He was now judge of the Admiralty in New York and Penn 
sylvania, and a bitter opponent of the plans and policy of Penn. An 
ardent adherent of the Church, he appeared to the Quaker proprietor 
as "the greatest of villains whom God will make, I believe, in this 
world for his lies, falsehood, and supreme knavery." 3 His represen 
tations to the government were denounced by Penn as " swish-swash 
bounces," 4 and the proprietary seeks the aid of his correspondent for 
means whereby he " might put the nose of an Admiralty Judge out of 
joint." 5 Penn sends " 2 or 300 books against George Keith, by R. 
Jenney, which may be disposed of as there is occasion and service." 6 
On Lord Cornbury s second visit to Philadelphia, as we learn from 
Logan, he fell into the hands of "Col. Quary, with a party of his 
gang." The morning after his arrival " Col. Quary, with the rest 
of the churchmen, congratulated him, having the easiest access, and 
afterwards presented an address from the -vestry of Philadelphia, 
who now consist, I think, of twenty-four, requesting his patronage to 
the church, and closing with a prayer that he would beseech the 
Queen, as I was credibly informed, to extend his government over this 
province ; and Col. Quary also, in his first congratulatory address, 
said they hoped they also should be partakers of the happiness Jersey 
enjoyed in his government. In answer to the vestry s address, he 
spoke what was proper from a churchman, to the main design of it, 
for he is very good at extemporary speeches ; and to their last request, 
that it was their business, meaning to address the Queen, I suppose, 
but that when his mistress would be pleased to lay her commands" 
on him, he would obey them with alacrity. 7 " The next clay being 
the first of the week," continues Logan, "he went to their worship." 
Encouraged by his intimacy with the royal governor, and aware of the 
regard paid to his representations at home, Colonel Quary spared no 
pains to secure the overthrow of the proprietary government, and to 
advance the interests of the Church and crown. His efforts, with those 
of his following, are characterized by Logan and Penn in vigorous 
language. The former styles the opponents of Penn s policy as 
" hungry scamps, who seek nothing but to render themselves great 
by the spoils of the innocent, without any regard to any other interest 
whatsoever, as is sufficiently known by all their neighbors of probity, 
as well of their own church as of others, whose eyes they have not yet 
darkened by throwing that specious mist and pretence of religion be 
fore them." 8 Penn regarded the address of the vestry to Lord Corn- 
bury as an open defiance of his authority. He spoke of it as 



1 Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., pp. 124, 125. Ibid., p. 182. 

2 Ibid., i., p. 151 . Ibid., p. 163. i Ibid., p. 223. 

3 Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p. 1G4. Ibid., p. 213. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 229 

"Quary s and his packed vestry s address." 1 He was disposed to 
prosecute Quary " with the utmost vigor." He required it of his 
officials that if "Quary, or any of his rude and ungrateful gang," 
offered " to invade or affront " the powers of his grant, or the authority 
of his laws, they should be made to " feel the smart of them." A 
postscript to this belligerent letter refers with evident satisfaction to 
the fact that "the great blower-up of these coals, the Bishop of London, 
is himself under humiliations." 2 

In spite of the efforts of the proprietary and his friends at court 
and in the colony, early in 1704, Logan writes, " The clergy increase 
much this way. Burlington and Chester have their churches and 
members, and several more are building. God grant that a spirit of 
charity and kindness may be cultivated among us in place of hatred 
and persecution." 3 The same year Logan writes that a "great part of 
the church are become of the loyal side, and tis hoped will shortly ad 
dress the Queen," which gives incidental support to a charge repeated 
at a later date, that the church people at Philadelphia were Jacobites. 
There is an evident change in feeling to be observed in the letters be 
tween Logan and Penn with reference to the turbulent churchmen. 4 
The proprietary s foes were now of his own peculiar shade of belief. 
As the year 1704 closed, Quary and his friends are referred to as 
"very good." It was "only that lurking snake, David Lloyd," 5 
whose fangs were to be feared. 

Turning from this digression, which will serve to indicate the 
position and the growing power of the " hot church party " in Phila 
delphia, we note, in 1707, the return to England, on business, of the 
Rev. Evan Evans, "the parson," as Penn styled the incumbent of 
Christ Church ; and the service rendered by the Rev. Andrew Rud- 
inan, a worthy Swedish clergyman, during his absence, attests the 
kindly feeling and intercommunion between the Swede and English 
churches and churchmen. It was at this time that the Upland or 
Chester missionary, the Rev. Henry Nichols, in addressing the society 
in an apologetic strain for not being able to " carry all things before 
us," adds : " The truth is, as long as our adversaries have the whole 
interest, power and wealth of the country in their hands, and as long 
as animosities, ambition and confederacys do prevail among some of 
our own members, as much as they do, it will be a great matter for us 
to keep the footing we have got."* 5 The excellent Rudman continued 
his services at Christ Church until his death, on the 17th of Septem 
ber, 1708. He was buried under the chancel of the Swedish Church 
at Wicaco, and is remembered as a faithful and self-denying minister 
of Christ. The Rev. Mr. Evans, whose return did not take place till 
the following year, presented to the venerable society a report of his 
missionary labors in Pennsylvania, from which we glean that the 
services of the Church had been widely introduced and welcomed in 
the various settlements in the province. Especial attention had been 
paid by this faithful missionary to his fellow-countrymen at Radnor, 

1 Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., p. 272. 4 Watson s Annals, i , p. 380. 

- Ibid., p. 278. 8 Penn and Logan Correspondence, i., p. 361. 

3 Ibid., pp. 282, 283. 6 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., n., p. 31. 



230 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Montgomery and elsewhere ; and the distribution of the " Whole Duty 
of Man," and Bishop Bailey s " Practice of Piety," and other practical and 
devotional works in the Welsh language, and ministrations in the same 
tongue, were productive of no little good. Churches had been erected 
at Oxford, Chester, Newcastle, and Philadelphia, and the memorial 
closes with an earnest and eloquent appeal for a resident American 
bishop, in which the missionary argued " that the ends of the mission 
can never be rightly answered without establishing the Discipline as 
well as the Doctrine of the Church of England in those parts, for the 
one is a fortress and bulwark of defence to the other, and once the 
outworks of religion come to be slighted and dismantled, it is easy to 
foresee, without the spirit of prophecy, what the consequence will be." l 
It was during the absence of Evans, that the Eev. Messrs. Moor and 
Brooke sailed for England, bearing accusations against Lord Cornbury. 
Colonel Quary, who evidently took sides with the queen s representa 
tive, addressed the society with reference to the grievances of these 
gentlemen. The letter states, as the occasions of the difficulty between 
the royal governor and the missionaries, that the clergymen had been 
"unwarily betrayed " into an alliance with a faction in opposition to 
the constituted authority of the province. In the view of the colonel, 
who was certainly an uncompromising friend of the Church, the same 
mistake of interfering with political affairs had proved the ruin of 
other clergymen. The " unhappy meeting " of the missionaries in New 
York, at the charge of the generous Nicholson, is stigmatized as " the 
very first original of all our unhappiness in relation to the Church and 
clergy in these parts." 2 

At this meeting, under oath of secrecy, the colonel assures us 
that " they voted the laying aside of all Vestrys as useless ; they being 
able to govern and manage the Churches themselves without any other 
help; but," continues the writer, "I believe they forgot how they 
should be subsisted hereafter without the help of those useless things, 
the Vestrys, who are the chief men of every government, men of the 
best estates, best sense, true sous of the Church, most zealous and 
hearty in promoting the interest and good of it, men of the best in 
terest to defend it, or procuring laws for its support and subsistence, 
and yet these men must be all laid aside and blown off at once that 
these young gentlemen of the Clergy may be absolute and govern as 
they please without the least control." "I am sure,* continues Colo 
nel Quary, " that this rash act of theirs hath given as fatal a blow to 
the Church in these parts as was in their power to have done. Some 
of these gentlemen have already found the ill effects of it, and have 
heartily repented their folly. Some others have persisted in their 
imaginary grandeur till their full Churches have grown empty almost, 
and nothing but confusion amongst those that are left. I do assure 
you, Sir, I tell you this truth with much grief and concern, but it is 
what I have been an eye-witness of in several places where my duty 
calls me. To hear the people complain of their minister, and he com 
plaining of them, even in those places where not long since the strife 

Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., u., p. 37. * Ibid., p. 41 . 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 




was who should outdo each other in all sorts of kindness, love and 
charity. The minister could no sooner propose or mention a con- 
veniency or want but immediately the Vestry met and supplied it, and 
every man thought himself happy that could enjoy most of the Minis 
ter s conversation at their houses." l This letter closes with the ear 
nest request for a bishop as the only solution of this difficulty, and 
other questions that could not foil to arise. It is evident that either 
from the causes assigned by Colonel Quary, or for other reasons, the 
growth of the Church in Pennsylvania and Delaware, which had so 
promisingly begun 
with the new cen 
tury, was checked, 
and ere the expira 
tion of its first dec 
ade the clergy had 
removed to Virgin 
ia, or Maryland, or 
died ; the churches 
were closed, and the 
parishes had dwin 
dled away. In the 
midst of this gen 
eral depression the 
Church in Philadel 
phia steadily in 
creased in numbers 

and strength. Mr. Evans, on his return from England in 1709, 
brought with him the communion plate, presented to the church the 
preceding year by the queen. 

A " minister s house " and a " school-house " had been acquired by 
the parish, and bricks were bought for the belfry and a " new rope for 
the bell," which now, if not before, was hung in its proper place. 
Some ill-feeling had grown out of the unwillingness of Mr. Evans to 
admit to a " lectureship " the new school-master, the Rev. George Ross, 
who had supplanted the Rev. Mr. Clubb, the former incumbent ; but 
even this dissatisfaction could not hinder the growth of the congre 
gation nor detract from the universal respect and regard with which 
the rector was held by the whole community for his blameless life and 
untiring zeal and diligence in all the duties of his calling. In 1711 
the church was found too small to accommodate the increasing congre 
gation. Among the subscribers to this object were the " Honorable 
Charles Gooking," who gave 30, and the "Honorable Robert Quary," 
who gave 20. The addition, as we learn from a memorial addressed 
by the rector to the venerable society, comprised two aisles. 2 During 
the time of the enlargement of the church the congregation worshipped 
in Wicaco church for three successive Sundays. The following year 
mention is made in the records of the " great bell " and the " little 
bell," and there is reference to the use of the "surplice." Colonel 



THE QUEEN ANNE PLATE, CHRIST CHURCH. 



1 Hist, Coll. Am. Col. Ch., n., p. 41. 



2 Ibid., p. 73. 



232 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




Quary, who had been an interested as well as an influential member 
of the congregation from the first, gave to the church a large silver 
flagon and two silver plates for use at the holy communion,. and a large 
silver basin for the font, all of which bore the donor s name and the 
date "October 8th, 1712." In 1715 Mr. Evans again visited England 
on * account of some family concerns," and during his absence an un 
worthy clergyman, the Rev. Francis Phillips, who had made trouble 
fix-where, intruded into the vacant charge, and, for a time, maintained 
his ground against the curate appointed by the authorities at home. 
At length his baseness was made clear, and, after he. had been chal 
lenged to mortal combat by a gentleman who had chivalrously espoused 
the cause of a slandered woman, the court, which had entered pro 
ceedings against the challenger, found a true 
bill against the clergyman for evil conduct. 1 
From the Logan MSS. we learn that Phillips 
"was carried to gaol for a day, w r here the 
Governor took sides with him as a churchman, 
and entered a nolle prosequi. Some others of 

the Church in the mean time met at the Court house and voted him to 
have acted scandalously and to receive no further countenance." 
Dismissed from his cure, censured by the whole body of the clergy 
as a profligate, still this turbulent man succeeded in obtaining attesta 
tions to his good character from a number of the parishioners of Christ 
Church. But the prompt action of the Bishop of London in placing 
the church in the hands of the excellent Talbot, of Burlington, pre 
vented the continuance of a scandal from which the Church was a long 
time in recovering. The " lamentable breach made in the church of 
Philadelphia by the unhappy conduct of that lost man, Mr. Phillips," 2 
to which frequent references are made in the correspondence of the 
time, was succeeded by political dissensions which the foes of the 
Church were only too ready to foment. The governor, who had, it is 
asserted, from personal pique, warmly espoused the cause of Phillips, 
directed his efforts to the silencing of Talbot, who had continued to 
officiate at Christ Church during 
the prolonged absence of Evans, 
and to whom " the box money " 
of that " poor distracted church " 
was appropriated for his services. 
The charge of sympathy with the 
dispossessed House of Stuart, and 
a consequent disloyalty to the gov 
ernment, was made by Gooking 
against Talbot. This charge had 
been made by " Brigadier Hunter," the Governor of New York, and the 

1 Watson, in his "Annals of Philadelphia," Joseph Carpenter s garden betwixt seven and 

I., p. 334, gives the original challenge from the eight, where I shall expect to meet you yladio 

files in the clerk s office. It is as follows: "To cinctus, in failure whereof, depend upon the usage 

Mr. Francis Phillips, Philadelphia, Sir : You you deserve from 
have basely scandalized a gentlewoman that J Y r ever, 

have a profound respect for. And for my part PETER EVANS, 

shall give you a fair opportunity to defend your- at the Pewter Platter." 

self to morrow morning 1 on the west side of ; Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., u., p. 99. 




THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 233 

faithful missionary had appealed to the records that he had taken all 
the oaths, and that his friends could testify that he "was a Williamite 
from the beginning." l On the return of Mr. Evans, in the year 1716, 
the society placed the missions at Radnor and Oxford under his care, 
these churches having been established mainly through his exertions. 
Dr. Evans for he had returned with this added title of respect con 
tinued in charge of Christ Church until 1718, when, finding himself, 
after an incumbency of eighteen years, unable to perform the duties 
of the cure, he accepted the offer of a living in Maryland, where he 
died soon after, universally beloved and esteemed. Prior to his 
departure the vestry took measures to restrict the franchise at the 
Easter meeting to actual communicants who had received the sacra 
ment within the twelve months preceding the election. 

At the removal of their old and faithful rector the vestry 
was at pains to secure from the parishioners, through the church 
wardens, a suitable re 
turn of gratitude from 
the congregation over 
which he had so long 
presided. 2 Arrange 
ments were made 
through the governor, 
Sir William Keith, 
who had been made 
chairman of the vestry, 
for the supply of the 
vacancy by securing 
the services of the Rev. Messrs. Talbot of Burlington, Humph 
reys of Chester, Ross of Newcastle, and Sandel of Wicaco. These 
gentlemen declined receiving any pecuniary reward for their 
services, though " a liberal compensation " had been voted them 
by the vestry. Petitions for the introduction of an American 
Episcopate, prepared by the indefatigable Talbot, were again and 
again submitted to the vestry, signed by clergy, wardens, and vestry 
men, indorsed by the governor, and forwarded to the authorities at 
home ; and the influence of this veteran missionary laborer would 
appear to have suffered no diminution, while his zeal and diligence in 
caring for the things which remained knew no bounds. Ere the de 
parture of this worthy to England, for his last visit to the home of his 
youth, the vacancy at Christ Church appears to have been filled. On 
the 4th of September, 1719, the vestry records recite that "the Rev. 
Mr. John Vicary laid before the board the license of the Right Rev. 
Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of London, appointing him minister 
of this church." Whereupon, the record continues, the "vestry being 
well pleased with his lordship s care therein, heartily concur in his 
lordship s appointment, and accordingly receive the said Mr. Vicary as 
their minister, with the respect due to his character, always acknowl 
edging his lordship s unquestionable authority over our church." 3 Mr. 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., H., p. 94. s Dorr s " Christ Church," p. 43. a Ibid., p. 48. 




234 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Vicary continued in charge until his death, in 1723. He joined with 
his brethren, the Rev. Messrs. Ross, Humphreys, and Weyman, in a 
representation to the society of " the deplorable state of several churches 
within this government, which were once filled with a considerable 
number of communicants, whose early zeal led them, though poor, to 
erect decent structures for the publick worship of God, and some of 
them to build commodious houses for the reception of their ministers ; 
but their long vacancy, by the death of some missionaries, and the re 
moval of others, has, we fear, given too great opportunities to the ad 
versaries of our church to pervert and mislead many of them." l This 
was the case with the churches in Bucks, Kent, and Sussex counties. 

In 1722 the Rev. William Harrison supplied Christ Church for 
a time, during the illness of the incumbent, Mr. Vicary, and besides the 
help he rendered in Lent and at Eastertide, and later in the year, assist 
ance was freely rendered by the other missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. 
Becket, Ross, and Humphreys. In 1723 Mr. Talbot is again at Phila 
delphia. Taken ill while ministering, he visited the city for medical 
advice, and remained for a time in charge of Christ Church, with a view 
of repairing the injury done to the parish by the ministrations of the 
Rev. John Urmston, whose scandalous conduct had brought great re 
proach upon the Church, so that during his year of service " the best 
of the people had left." The clergy, in convention, concurred in the 
dismission of Urmstou, and the vestry placed the care of the church 
in their hands till the Bishop of London should send over a new in 
cumbent. Late in the year, on the translation of Dr. Gibson to the see 
of London from that of Lincoln, the vestry formally addressed their 
new diocesan for " such a gentleman as may be a credit to our com 
munion, an ornament to the profession, and a true propagator of the 
gospel." 3 More than half a year having elapsed without any appoint 
ment, the vestry, on the 27th of July, 1724, requested the Rev. Dr. 
Richard Welton, late incumbent of St. Mary s, Whitechapel, London, 
who had arrived in town the month before, to take charge of the church. 
The invitation was accepted, and the doctor entered at once upon his work. 

About the time of Welton s arrival, the Rev. Talbot had been 
silenced. A letter from Sir William Keith, the governor, to the Bishop 
of London, written just before the invitation to Dr. Welton to officiate 
at Christ Church, gives us information on this point as well as on the 
condition of the Church at large in the province : 

We have in this government twelve or thirteen more little edifices, called 
churches or chapels, which the people, by voluntary contribution in the neighbor 
hood, have erected in different parts of the country for their own conveniency, and 
most of them are, at times, supplied by one or other of the poor missionaries sent 
from the society to New Castle, Chester, Oxford, and Sussex, whose character for 
life and conversation, and a diligent application to their duty is, I believe, generally 
approved of, and I cannot say but their behavior to myself and the magistracy has 
been all along very decent and respectful. 

It seems to me necessary further to acquaint your Lordship that the manage 
ment of Christ Church, in Philadelphia, is in the hands of a Vestiy and two Church 
wardens, yearly elected and chosen by the people, and being they have all along 
claimed an independency of the Governor s authority, I am, for peace sake, obliged 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., n., p. 123. 2 DOIT S " Christ Church," p. f>4. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 235 

to be passive in things which are both indecent and disorderly, such as suffering of 
some clergy to read prayers and preach without mentioning the King, Prince and 
Royal family, according to the rubrick, so that myself and family, with such others 
as are of unquestioned loyalty to his present Majesty, are deprived of the benefit of 
going to church, lest it might give encouragement to a spirit of disaffection. Should 
your Lordship, therefore, be pleased to cause some enquiry to be made in this matter, 
it would probably put an effectual stop to what in time may become more pernicious, 
for it is confidently reported here that some of these non-juring clergymen pretend 
to the authority and office of Bishops in the Church, which, however, they do not 
own, and, I believe, will not dare to practice, for I have publicly declared my reso 
lution to prosecute with effect all those who, either in doctrine or conversation, shall 
attempt to debauch any of the people with schismatical disloyal principles of that 
nature. 1 

Sir William Keith s representations were not permitted to pass with 
out reply. Peter Evans, who had challenged the indiscreet Phillips 
for his slanderous insinuations against the character of a friend, now 
appeared in the character of a defender of clergy and congregation 
thus assailed. He asserted that the insinuation of disloyalty was "a 
piece of injustice." The invitation to Dr. Welton arose from no fond 
ness for " any mistaken principles of the Dr s," but simply to prevent 
the closing of the church, there having been no service for some months, 
and the congregation being gradually dissipated among the various 
sectarian bodies around them. The charge of misrepresentation was 
laid against the governor, and his removal from the vestry accounted 
for on the ground of his " taking upon him to overrule them, and en 
tirely depriving them of the freedom justly due." 2 

The unreliable Urmston, who charged his removal from Philadel 
phia upon Talbot, and was now in Maryland, wrote home to the effect 
that the old missionary had sought to exercise episcopal jurisdiction 
over his brethren. His words were these : " He convened all the clergy 
to meet, put on his robes and demanded Episcopal obedience from them. 
One wiser than the rest refused, acquainted the Gov r with the ill con 
sequences thereof, the danger he would run of losing his Gov mt , where 
upon the gov r ordered the Church to be shut up." 3 The same veracious 
authority added a postscript to mention the coming of Dr. Welton, 
bringing " with him to the value of 300 sterling, in guns and fishing- 
tackle, with divers printed copies of his famous Altar-piece at White- 
chapel." 4 The missionaries Ross, Humphreys, Weyman, and Becket, 
report to the Bishop of London the presence of " Dr. Welton at Phila 
delphia with whom we have no correspondence, nor of whom have we 
any further knowledge but that we hear he professes to have come into 
these parts only to see the country . " 5 Urmston " met him in the streets , 
but had no further conversation with him." 6 The governor professed 
himself powerless to interfere, in view of the vestry s claim of inde 
pendence of the governor or bishop, and the ministrations of Welton 
continued till January, 1726, when he was duly "served with his Maj 
esty s writ of Privy Seal commanding him upon his allegiance to re 
turn to Great Britain forthwith." He had served at Christ Church with 
great acceptance, and a testimonial of his conduct and behavior among 
them was, at his request, ordered by the vestry to be prepared by the 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., H., pp. 137, 138. 3 Ibid., p. 143. Ibict., p. 136. 

* Ibid., pp. 139, 142. Ibid. Ibid., p. 143. 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



church- wardens. With this attestation to his character, Welton sailed 
for Lisbon, where he "died of a dropsy, refusing to commune with the 




CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



English clergyman." 1 It is said that among his effects there was found 
"an Episcopal seal which he had made use of in Pensilvania, where 

Reliquiae Herniamr, IT., p. 2n7. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 237 

" he assumed and exercised, privily and by stealth, the character and 
functions of a Bishop." l Before Welton s departure he " had differed " 
with Talbot, and their correspondence had been broken off. Dr. Hawks 
asserts, with reference to both Welton and Talbot, that w there is direct 
evidence from the letters of some of the missionaries that they at least 
administered confirmation and wore the robes of a Bishop." 2 But little 
or no trace of their exercise of episcopal functions, other than excep 
tionally and with the greatest privacy and caution, is to be found, and 
the episcopate, if such it can be called, of these two non-juring "Bishops " 
must remain veiled in impenetrable obscurity. Again the neighboring 
clergy were appealed to for the supply of this vacant charge ; but the 
Bishop of London, in view of the circumstances of the case, was not 
long in providing an incumbent. In September, 1726, the Rev. Archi 
bald Cummings entered upon the cure of Philadelphia, by the appoint 
ment of Bishop Gibson, and continued to minister at Christ Church 
until his decease, in 1741, a period of 
nearly fifteen years. This was a period of s~> * 

great prosperity. The church had long >- I j y ) 

been too small for the congregation. It c ^^" --OrL<* 
had become " ruinous," in the judgment EDMUND GIBSON, LORD BISHOP 
of its leading members, and on Thursday, OF LONDON. 

April 27, .1727, the corner-stone of the 

present venerable edifice, associated with so many, and such impor 
tant events of our ecclesiastical history, was laid by the Honorable 
Patrick Gordon, the governor of the province, together with the mayor 
and recorder of the city, the rector, and a number of others. The plan 
of rebuilding was to add to the west end an enlargement of thirty-three 
feet, together with a steeple or tower, and when, in 1731, this addition 
was completed, measures were at once taken to remove the old build 
ing, and complete the church by the erection of the eastern portion. 
But the vestry had exhausted their funds in the completion of a third 
part of the contemplated building, exclusive of the tower and steeple, 
and in procuring the organ, bells, and furniture required for use ; and 
it was not until April, 1735, that the " ruinous state of the old part of 
the Church," occasioned immediate action, and the eastern end of the 
present church was begun. In 1735 the Rev. Richard Peters entered 
upon duty as assistant to Commissary Cummings ; but, in consequence 
of a misunderstanding having arisen between the rector and his curate, 
the latter resigned his post. Years afterwards he resumed the exercise 
of his ministry as rector where he had withdrawn from the curacy. 
It was during the incumbency of Cummings that Mr. Whitefield 
visited Philadelphia again and again. His first visit was in November, 
1739. He at once visited the commissary, and on the first Sunday of 
his stay, the twentieth after Trinity, November 4, he " read prayers and 
assisted at the Communion in the morning. Dined with one of the 
Church Wardens, and preached in the afternoon to a large congrega 
tion." 3 He read prayers and preached in Christ Church daily for a 
week, and on the following Sunday. On his return from a journey 

1 Reliquiae Hernianae, n., p. 257. The Two First Parts of Mr. Whitefield s 

* Hawks s " Eccl. Contributions," II., p. 183. Life, p. 267. 



238 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



northward, at the close of the month, he again availed himself of the 
church for prayers and sermons, being driven on occasion of his fare 
well discourse to adjourn to the fields, as the church could not contain 
"a fourth part of the people." On his third visit, after he had openly 
affiliated with the dissenters, the journal records a different reception : 
" Went to the Commissary s House, who was not at home ; but after 
wards speaking to him on the street he soon told me that he could lend 
me his Church no more. Thanks be to God thejields are open." On 




INTE1UOK OF CHRIST CHURCH, 
PHILADELPHIA. 

**-^***t 

the following Sunday, the second after 
Easter, April 20,1740, Whitefield attended 
church " morning and evening ; and heard 

Mr. preach a sermon upon Justification by Works, from James 

ii. 18." 2 In the evening the great evangelist " preached from the same 
words to about 1500 people and endeavour d to show the errors con 
tained in the Commissary s discourse." 3 It could not be otherwise than 
that the church should be closed to him from this time. Later, under 
date of August 29, 1740, the commissary writes to the secretary of 
the venerable society as follows : 



The Two First Parts of Mr. Whitcfield s Life, p. 339. 



Ibid. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 239 

The Bishop s Commissary (Mr. Garden), in $". Carolina lias lately prosecuted 
the famous M r . Wh d there upon the 38th Canon ; but he has appealed home. I 
hope the Society will use their interest to have justice done him. His character as 
a clergyman enables him to do the greatest mischief. He thereby fights against 
the Church under her colours, and Judas-like betrays her under pretence of friend 
ship, for which reason the dissenters are exceeding fond of him, cry him up for an 
oracle, and pray publicly for his success, that he may go on conquering and to con 
quer, and in return he warmly exhorts his proselytes from the Church to follow them 
as the only preachers of true sound doctrine. I have sent you a copy of my ser 
mon which I have mentioned in my last and refer yon to the preface for a brief 
account of his hopeful doctrines and malicious railings against the clergy. I am 
fully persuaded he designs to set up for the head of a sect, and doubt not but that 
he is supported under hand by deists and Jesuits or both. 1 

The language of the commissary is borne out by the testimony of 
the other clergy of the province 2 and, in fact, the published journals of 
the erratic evangelist as originally printed, and, without the prun- 
ings they subsequently received, go far to sustain the charge of an 
intemperate and censorious spirit, and a want of Christian humility, 
coupled with an indiscreet and reckless zeal, which could not fail to 
awaken suspicion and occasion opposition on the part of the members 
of the Church, whose bishops and clergy Whitefield did not hesitate 
to assail in the most opprobrious terms. The conservatism of the com 
missary and his clergy tended to the growth of the Church, for 
many of the more sober-minded of the dissenters were repelled by the 
excesses of the " new-lights " from frequenting their assemblies, and 
led to seek refuge in the Church. In April, 1741, Mr. Cummings 
died, and was succeeded, after an interval, during which the Rev. 
Eneas Ross 
officiated 

by the Rev. 
Robert 



who imme 

diately appointed Mr. Ross as his assistant. In 1744 the church-ward 
ens report that the church is " happily finished : " but it was not till 1755 
that the steeple was completed, and the "ring of eight bells," obtained 
from England, hung in their present place. The Rev. William Sturgeon 
had, in the early part of Dr. Jenney s ministry, been appointed "assist- 

ant to the rector and 
catechist to the ne- 
groes," and gave 

v s-\ t great satisfaction by 

is labors. A new 

/ / church, named St. 

Peter s, was at length 

found necessary to furnish accommodations to the increasing numbers 
of church folk in the city. 

i Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., n., p. 203. others, in " Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch.," n., pp. 204- 

1 Vide letters from the Rev. Messrs. Ross, 217, 230-236. 
Backhouse, Howie, Currie, Pugh, Jenney, and 





240 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The Rev. Jacob Duche, son of a leading supporter of the Church, 
\v:i> appointed an assistant minister of the parish in which his youth had 
been spent. The incumbency of Dr. Jenney continued until his death, 
in 1 762, thus covering a period of twenty years, in which the Church grew 
in strength and in numbers, not only in Philadelphia, but throughout 
the province. Sturgeon continued as assistant for nearly the same 
length of time, from 1747 to 1766, until ill-health compelled his resig 
nation. His career was one of uninterrupted usefulness. His labors 
among the negroes and others met with great success, and his faith 
fulness won not only the reward of souls, but secured for this devoted 
catechist the appreciation and material aid of the parish at large. His 
great pains and diligence in the work of the ministry " received the 
public commendation of the society, and his devotion to duty and his 
years of faithful service entitle him to an honorable mention and a 
grateful remembrance. Efforts were made shortly before the decease 
of Dr. Jenney to secure as an additional assistant the Rev. William 
MacClennachan, who had ingratiated himself with a party in the church. 
But Sherlock, Bishop of London, refused to license for this important 
post one who had deserted his mission at the northward without the 
consent of the society, and who was even then under an engagement 
to a parish in Virginia. The bishop s determination occasioned no little 
feeling on the part of the friends of MacClennachan ; but after a brief term 
of service he was compelled to withdraw 7 , having occasioned no little 
disturbance and division among the people. 

The completion of St. Peter s Church, which was opened on the 
4th of September, 1761, by a solemn service, at which the celebrated Dr. 
Smith, Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, preached, 

was shortly followed by the death 
of Dr. Jenney, and the election to 
the rectorship of the united par 
ishes of Christ Church and St. Pe 
ter s, of the Rev. Richard Peters. This gentleman, who had during his 
temporary suspension of clerical duty won for himself a name and posi 
tion at the liar, to which he had been originally brought up in England, 
proved to be an earnest and faithful incumbent, whose term of service 
continued until 1775, when age and infirmities compelled him to resign 
his charge. During his incumbency the united parishes received from 
Thomas and Richard Penn, proprietaries of the province, a charter con 
stituting the rector, church- wardens, and vestrymen of Christ Church 
and St. Peter s, "a body politick and corporate." The provisions of this 
important instrument received the careful scrutiny not only of the 
grantors and the rector who had been compelled to visit England for the 
bishop s license, but also of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the amiable 
and excellent Seeker. On the 28th of June, 1765, the charter "signed 
by the honorab 1 John Penn, esq., Lieutenant Governor, and under the 
great seal " of the province, was formally received and accepted by the 
vestry. The following year the rector declined to receive any further 
salary until the debt incurred in the completion of St. Peter s had been 
paid. In 1768, at the request of the governor and council, Mr. Peters 
made a journey to Fort Stanwix, on occasion of an Indian treaty, for 1 1n- 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 



241 





settlement of boundary lines, his long experience in Indian affairs hav 
ing given rise to the belief that his presence would be of service. 

In January, 1772, Doctor John Kearsley died at the age of eighty- 
eight years, "an ancient, worthy, and use 
ful member of the church. " He had served 
on the vestry for upwards of half a century . 
It was to his taste and exertions that the 
grace and architectural beauty of Christ 
Church are due, and throughout his long 
and honored career he never ceased to interest himself in the affairs, 
and to contribute to the prosperity, of the church of his love and bap 
tism. By his last will and testament he bequeathed a large portion of 

his estate to the united parishes, in trust 
^p /} f r the foundation of Christ Church 

^2. lfltf~/ / ? Lvf Hospital, "for the support of ten or 
\^_^, /9 more poor or distressed women, of 

the Communion of the Church of 

England, or such as the said corporation and their successors 
shall deem such ; preferring clergymen s widows before others, and 
supplying them with meat, drink, 
and lodging, and the assistance of 
persons practising physic and sur 
gery." Towards the close of this 
year the Rev. Thomas Coombe and 
the Rev. William White, both born 
and educated in the city and prov 
ince, were elected assistant minis 
ters. In 1775, on the resignation 
of the Rev. Dr. Peters, the Rev. 
Jacob Duche, the senior assistant, 
was elected rector in his stead, and 
continued to officiate in this capac 
ity until, at the close of the year 
1777, he determined on visiting 
England, with a view of answering 
" any objections the Bishop of Lon 
don might have to his conduct," 
and of removing the prejudices 
the Bishop had imbibed against 
him. He was succeeded by Will 
iam White, darum et venerabile 
nomen. 

While the Church in Philadel 
phia was thus steadily growing 
through many vicissitudes, and in spite of opposition on every hand, 
the various missions and parishes had largely increased throughout 
the province. On Wednesday, April 30, 1760, the first conven 
tion of the clergy was held in Philadelphia, agreeably to an under- 

1 Our engraving is made from a photographic sidered by those who knew him to be a faithful 
copy of an original portrait drawn in chalk, by likenesa. 
Francis Hopkmson, in the year 1770, and con- 




242 



HISTOHY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHUlJfH. 



standing entered into the preceding autumn. The list of the clergy 
present at this meeting, which continued in session until Monday, the 
5th of May, will indicate the strength the Church had attained. The 
list comprises the following names, viz. : "Doctor Robert Jenney, Rec 
tor of Christ Church, Philadelphia ; Doctor 
William Smith, Provost of the College in 
Philadelphia ; M . George Craig, missionary 
at Chester ; M r . Philip Reading, missionary 
at Apoquinimnick ; M r . William Sturgeon, 
Assistant Minister and Catechist to the 
negroes, in Philadelphia ; M r . Thomas Barton, missionary at Lancaster ; 
M r . William MacClennachan, another of 
the assistant ministers in Christ Church, 
Philadelphia ; M r . Chu". Inglis 
ary at Dover : M 1 

ary at Oxford, and M r . Jacob Duche , 

likewise an assistant minister in Christ Church, Philadelphia." 
Rev. Messrs. Samuel Cook and Robert McKean, of New Jei 




mission- 
Hugh Neill, niission- 




The 



;sey, were 
also in attendance. The Rev. William Thompson arrived from England 





during the session, and the Rev. Messrs. Ross, of New Castle ; Curry, 
of Radnor; Campbell, of Bristol ; and Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, 
were not present. At this convention the conduct of the Rev. William 
MacClennachan was discussed, and, on the receipt of advices from the 

Bishop of 

s ^ London, 

that he 
would not 
license 
him to 

LC h r i s t 
(J Church, it was resolved that he should not be 
recognized, or recorded in the minutes as acting 
in this capacity. Complaint was made of the 
action of a number of Presbyterian ministers 
in sending to the Archbishop of Canterbury an address in favor of Mr. 
MacClennachan, and the action of Dr. Jenney in dismissing him from 
the assistancy at Christ Church, and in refusing him permission to offi 
ciate there, was approved. The accounts of the missions in Pennsylva 
nia and Delaware were as follows : at Lewes, a clergyman, by the name 
of Matthias Harris, had intruded himself into the mission without the 
society s permission. Two of the churches under the charge of Harris, 
together with the intruder himself, had united in a "submission" to the 
convention with a view to regaining the society s favor. But, as the 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Cli.. ll.. pp. 295-319. 




. s *^s) 
^71 





THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 243 

church at Lewes was not represented in this submission, the convention 
refused to transmit the proffered papers. In the Dover Mission, which 
included the whole County of Kent, there were three churches under the 
care of the Rev. Charles Inglis. The churches were crowded, and the 
number of communicants was on the increase. At Easter there were 
seventy-three communicants. At Apoquimninick there were seventy 
actual communicants. At New Castle the church was " thin of people," 
and another church, 
connected with this (/i/ftl Q? 
mission, had refused M /rtfrfoih 
to receive the mis- S//U//l fir* 

sionary. Improve- * 

ment was reported at Chester. At Oxford 
the Church was "in a very flourishing way," 
and a "Sunday evening Lecture " had been established at Germantown. 
The missionary at Radnor was ill, and could not attend the convention ; 
but he was much esteemed in his extensive cure, and neglected no op 
portunity of doing his duty. At Lancaster there was a small church ; 
at Bangor, another, of stone ; at Pequa, a third of the same material. 

The mission in York and Cumberland 
had three congregations : one at Hunt 
ingdon ; a second at York, and a third 
at Carlisle. Mr. Thompson had been 
appointed to this cure. Berks and 
Northampton were frontier counties, 
in which the society had, as yet, no mission. At Reading there was a 
movement among the people to secure a missionary, and at Easton there 
was need of services which could be best rendered by the Rev Mr. 
Morton, itinerant missionary in New Jersey. Such was the condi 
tion of the Church in Pennsylvania and Delaware at this time. The 
clergy, in ad 
dressing the 
Archbishop of 
Canterbury, Dr. 
Seeker, dwelt 
on the hardships 

under which the Church was laboring, and prayed earnestly for the 
appointment of bishops for America. 

In 1763 Whitefield was again in Philadelphia, and, on the invita 
tion of the rector, preached several times in the two churches, " with 
out any of his usual censures of the clergy, and with a greater moder 
ation of sentiment." 1 In 1766 Commissary Peters writes: "Above 
twenty missions are now vacant." A third church, St. Paul s, origin 
ally built by a schismatic following of MacClennachan, was added to the 
Philadelphia churches. A society for the relief of the widows and 
orphans of the clergy was instituted. The college and academy of 
Philadelphia was contributing godly and well-learned young men for 
the ministry. Germans and Swedes were seeking comprehension in 
the Church, and, as the country found itself on the eve of a disastrous 

Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., n., p. 395. 




244 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



war, the prospects of the Church were never brighter. All hut hare 
existence was to be lost in the struggle for independence that followed. 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 



npHE story of the introduction of the Church in the Middle Colonies would be con- 
1. fessedly incomplete without a reference to the planting and presence of the 
Swedish Church on the Delaware, which, in its subsequent development, has grad 
ually merged into our own communion, until to-day one of the oldest houses of 
worship in which the liturgy of our American Church is used, and one of the old- 







OLD SWEDES CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. 



est churches of the reformed faith in the land, is the venerable Swedes Church, in 
the city of Wilmington, Delaware. The settlement of the Swedes was undertaken, 
as we learn from the royal proclamation authorizing the formation of a trading col 
ony on the shores of the Delaware in the New World, primarily with a view of 
planting the Christian religion among the heathen ; and in this spirit the settlers 
brought with them their spiritual guide, and one of their first cares was to provide 
within the walls of their rude fortification a house for the worship of God. Tor- 
killus, the Swedish priest, officiated among his countrymen until his death, in 1643. 
The needs of the settlers soon required the erection or a church at Crane Hook, on 
the south side of the mouth of the Christiana river. This church was not built until 
1667, twelve years after the short-lived conquest of New Sweden by the Dutch, and 
three years after the victors and vanquished had been subjected to the British power. 
The church at Crane Hook stood on a beautiful spot close to the Delaware, and its 
worshippers gathered from New Castle and Swedesboro 1 , N.J. (then known as 
llaccoon Creek), as well as from the banks of the Brandywine and the Christiana. 



THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 



245 



The sole remaining Swedish priest at this time was Lock, who ministered to the con 
gregation in the fort, and also in the church on Tinicum Island, which had been 
erected as early as 1646. 

In 1677 as the distance of Tinicum rendered attendance at service almost im 
practicable for the settlers at Wicaco, the block-house which stood near where 
the Gloria Dei Church, in Philadelphia, was afterwards erected, was used as a place 
of worship, and the first service was held in this church of logs, by the Rev. Jacob 
Fabritius, on Trinity Sunday, June 9, 1677. For fourteen years Fabritius, who 
iiad succeeded Lock, who had died or returned to Sweden, in 1688, ministered in 
this rude house of prayer. Nine of these years the preacher was totally blind, and 
when, by reason of infirmity, he was unable to officiate longer, there seemed little hope 
that his place would be supplied. At length news reached Sweden of the destitute 
spiritual condition of these settlers. They had appealed for " good shepherds " to feed 
them with God s " holy word and sacraments." King Charles XI. laid this request, 




GLORIA DEI (OLD SWEDES) CHURCH. 



which was signed by thirty of the leading colonists, before the Archbishop of Upsala, 
and after some delay the Rev. Andrew Rudman, Eric Biorck, and Jonas Auren sailed 
with the king s " God speed " from Gottenburg, on the 4th of August, 1696, reaching 
James river, in Virginia, June 2d of the folio wing year. Of these three mission priests, 
Biorck took charge of the congregation on the Christiana. On the llth of July he 
records his first service among his people : "I, their unworthy minister, clad in my 
surplice, delivered my first discourse to them in Jesus name, on the subject of the 
Righteousness of the Pharisees. " (Quoted in Bishop Alfred Lee s " Planting and 
Watering." Historical sketch of the church in Delaware, 1638-1881.) This service 
was held in the Crane Hook Church, but that site being from time to time over 
flowed, the new clergyman persuaded his people to build a stone church in a more 
suitable spot. The corner-stone of the present " Trinity," Swedes Chui ch, was laid 
on the 28th of May, 1698, and was formally set apart for its sacred uses on Trinity 
Sunday of the following year. The Rev. Andrew Rudman was the preacher on this 
interesting occasion, and the text was from the Psalms cxxvi. 3. The Lord had 



246 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



done great things for them, whereof they were glad. It was not till another year 
had passed that the church at Wicaco was built, and on the first Sunday after Trinity, 
1700, the " Gloria Dei " was dedicated to God s service, the sermon being preached 
from 2 Sam. vii. 29. 

At the church on the Christiana Andrew Hesselms, sent out by King Charles 
XII., in 1712, succeeded the faithful Biorck. He was followed by his brother 
Samuel, in 1723, who gave place to John Eneburg, in 1731. Long before this time 
there had been frequent exchanges of pulpits and parishes by the clergy of the 
churches of England and Sweden respectively, and when at length the Swedish 
language had ceased to be intelligible to the hearers, Trinity at Wilmington, and 
Gloria Dei at Wicaco, long since absorbed by Philadelphia, became part of the 
American Church. 







OLD ST. DAVID S CHURCH, RADNOR. 



One of the most notable of the old Pennsylvania churches is St. David s, at 
Radnor, built in 1714, and famous, if for no other reason, from being the subject 
of the beautiful poem by Longfellow, from which the following stanzas are 
quoted : 



What an image of peace and rest 

Is this little church among its graves ! 
All is so quiet ; the troubled breast, 
The wounded spirit, the heart oppressed, 
Here may find the repose it craves. 

See how the ivy climbs and expands 

Over this humble hermitage, 
And seems to caress with its little hands 
The rough, gray stones, as a child that stands 

Caressing the wrinkled cheeks of age ! 



Were I a pilgrim in search of peace, 
Were I pastor of Holy Church, 

More than a bishop s diocese 

Should I prize this place of rest, and release 
From farther longing and farther search. 

Here would I stay, and let the world 

With its distant thunder roar and roll ; 
Storms do not rend the sail that is furled 
Nor like a dead leaf, tossed and whirled 
In an eddy of wind, is the anchored soul. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE CONVERSION TO THE CHURCH OF CUTLER, RECTOR 
OF YALE COLLEGE, AND OTHER PURITAN MINISTERS 
OF CONNECTICUT. 







N Thursday, September 13, 1722, the day after the annual com 
mencement, the following paper was presented to the Trustees 
of Yale College, in New Haven, assembled in the library : 



To the Bev. Mr. Andrew and Mr. Woodbridge and others, our Reverend Fathers 
and Brethren, present in the Library of Tale College this 13th of September, 
1722, 

REVEREND GENTLEMEN: Having represented to you the difficulties which 
we labor under, in relation to our continuance out of the visible communion of an 
Episcopal Church, and a state of seeming opposition thereto, either as private Chris 
tians, or as officers, and so being insisted on by some of you (after our repeated 
declinings of it) that we should sum up our case in writing, we do (though with 
great reluctance, fearing the consequences of it) submit to and comply with it : And 
signify to you that some of us doubt the validity, and the rest of us are more fully 
persuaded of the invalidity of the Presbyterian ordination, in opposition to Episco 
pal ; and should be heartily thankful to God and man, if w6 may receive from them 
satisfaction herein ; and shall be willing to embrace your good counsels and instruc 
tions in relation to this important affair, as far as God shall direct and dispose us 
to do. 

TIMOTHY CUTLER, 
JOHN HART, 
SAMUEL WmTTLESEY, 3 
JARED ELiox, 4 
JAMES WETMORE, S 
SAMUEL JOHNSON, 6 
DANIEL BROWN. T 
A true copy of the original. 

Testify : 

DANIEL BROWN. 

The missionary of the venerable society at Stratford, the Rev. 
George Pigot, who was present by invitation of President Cutler at 
the time of this declaration, in his recital of the affair to the secretary, 
throws additional light upon the extent to which this defection was 
thought at the time to extend : "On the llth of the last month, at the 
desire of the President, I repaired to the Commencement of Yale 
College in New Haven, where, in the face of the whole country, the 
aforesaid gentleman and six others, hereafter named, declared them 
selves in this wise, that they could no longer keep out of the com- 

1 Harvard College, 1701. 5 Yale College, 1714. 

2 Yale College, 1703 ; tutor, 1703-1705. " Yale College, 1714 ; tutor, 1716-1719. 
Yale College, 1705 ; fellow, 1732-1752. Yale College, 1714 ; tutor, 1718-1722. 
Yale College, 1706; fellow, 1730-1762. 



248 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



n urn ion of the Holy Catholic Church, and that some of them doubted 
of the validity, and the rest were persuaded of the invalidity, of Pres 
byterian ordination in opposition to Episcopal. The gentlemen fully 
persuaded thereof are the five following, viz. : Mr. Cutler, president 
of Yale College ; Mr. Brown, tutor to the same ; Mr. Elliot, pastor of 
Killingsworth ; Mr. Johnson, pastor of West Haven ; and Mr. Wet- 




more, pastor of North Haven. The two gentlemen who seemed to 
doubt are Mr. Hart, pastor of East Guilford, and Mr. Whittlesey, 
pastor of Wallingford. These seven gave in their declarations in writ 
ing, and at the same time two more, and these pastors of great note, 
gave their assent, of whom the one, Mr. Buckley, of Colchester, 
declared Episcopacy to be jure divino, and the other, Mr. Whiting, 
of some remote town, also gave in his opinion for moderate Episco 
pacy." l 

The impression produced by such a paper as the one we have trans- 

i Hawks and Peny s " Conn. Ch. Docs.," i., pp. 68, 59. 



CONVEESIONS TO THE CHURCH. 249 

scribed could not be other than profound. In the words of one of the 
Puritan ministers who was present at this remarkable declaration, "all" 
were "amazed and filled with darkness." Another writes to the 
Mathers of Boston, of "the dark cloud drawn over our collegiate 
affairs," and adds, "How is the gold become dim! and the silver 
become dross ! and the wine mixt with water ! " while still another 
confesses, " It is a very dark day with us ; and we need pity, prayers 
and counsel." " Our condition I look upon as very deplorable and 
sad." 

Those who had thus professed their scruples as to the validity 
of Presbyterian orders were, as their opponents could not but confess, 
" persons of figure " and " not of the least note " among the ministers of 
the colony, " the most of them reputed men of considerable learning, 
and all of them of a virtuous and blameless conversation." Less than 
this could hardly have been said with truth. Cutler, the rector (or 
president) of Yale, was a native of Charlestown, in Massachusetts, 
and was graduated at Harvard in 1701. It was after a pastorate of 
ten years at Stratford that the trustees of the college invited him to 
assume the post for which his learning and acknowledged ability pre 
eminently qualified him. It was in the autumn of 1719 that Cutler 
entered upon his residence at New Haven, sharing the task of the 
instruction of the students with Daniel Brown, a gifted young Puritan 
minister, a tutor prior to Cutler s assumption of the headship of the col 
lege. Johnson had been one of the two tutors of the institution ; but 
with the settlement of the college on a permanent basis at New Haven 
he resigned his post, and was formally placed in charge of the Congre 
gational parish at West Haven, on Sunday, March 20, 1720, having 
been, as he himself states it, "a preacher occasionally ever since he 
was eighteen." The occasion of his settlement at West Haven appears 
to have been a desire to avail himself of the literary associations and 
privileges of the college and its library, then numbering about a thou 
sand volumes. His entrance upon the Presbyterian ministry was not 
without doubts and scruples as to the validity of the orders he was to 
receive ; but " the passionate entreaties of a tender mother," and the 
hope that he might thus " be doing some service to promote the main 
interest of religion," l together with a lack of familiarity with the condi 
tions prerequisite, and the formal steps to be taken to secure the coveted 
ministerial commission of the English Church, served to allay his diffi 
culties and justify his acceptance of " Presbyterial ordination." But 
the seed sown when Smithson, a devoted churchman of Guilford, 
placed in his hands the " Book of Common Prayer," was not to lie dor 
mant. His reading led him more and more to admire the doctrines 
and worship of the Church. Scott s " Christian Life," Archbishop 
King s " Inventions of Men in the Worship of God," Potter s " Church 
Government," Hooker s "Ecclesiastical Polity," Wall on "Infant Bap 
tism," Echard s "Church History," "The Whole Duty of Man," and 
other works of this class, could not fail to produce an effect upon a 
mind of unusual logical power, as well as singularly devout. One by 

1 Beardsley s " Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson," p. 15. 



250 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

one the folios of the great Anglican doctors of the seventeenth century 
were mastered by him in turn. His intimate friends shared his studies, 
and found themselves drifting steadily away from the Calvinistic tenets 
and the congregational polity in which they had been brought up. 
Each of the seven whose names are attached to the declaration of the 
13th of September, 1722, held positions of trust and influence in the 
vicinity of the capital of the colony and the seat of its college. 1 All 
but Cutler were graduates of the college, and three of them Johnson, 
Wetmore, and Brown were members of the same class, 1714, and 
intimate friends. John Hart was the minister of East Guilford ; Samuel 
Whittlesey was settled at Wallingford, Jared Eliot at Killing worth, 
and James Wetmore at North Haven. Meeting at each others homes, 
or in the college library with the ponderous tomes of Anglican 
theology within reach, "a few Episcopalian things which their 
library at New Haven had been unhappily stocked with," 2 the confer 
ences and researches of this " little knot of young men " convinced them 
that the Church of England offered the apostolic commission they 
sought, and that without this valid authority each of them was, as 
Johnson termed it, " an usurper in the house of God." 

Cutler appears to have been suspected of having fallen under the 
influence of one of the most uncompromising churchmen and gifted con 
troversialists of the day, John Checkley , of Boston. A contemporary 
account of the defection of Cutler and his friends, from which we have 
already quoted, and which appears to have been the production of 
Cotton Mather, speaks of " the great converter " as M a foolish and 
sorry toy-man, who is a professed Jacobite, and printed a pamphlet to 
maintain that the God whom King William and the churches there 
prayed unto is the devil ! ( horresco referensf)" and there can be little 
doubt but that Checkley, either by correspondence or conversation, 
aided Cutler in, coming to a decision in favor of the Church, though he 
" declared to the trustees that he had for many years been of this per 
suasion (his wife is reported to have said that to her knowledge he had 
for eleven or twelve years been so persuaded), and that therefore he 
was the more uneasy in performing the acts of his ministry at Stratford, 
and the more readily accepted the call to a college improvement at New 
Haven ." 3 Bitter indeed was the scorn and indignity heaped upon these 
confessors of the Church by the Boston ministers, and notably by Cot 
ton Mather. They are styled "cudweeds." It is "that vile, senseless, 
wretched whimsey of an uninterrupted succession " which they have set 
up. The charge is made that " they will have none owned for ministers 

1 Trumbull, in his "Hist, of Conn.," n.,p. 33, purpose, and to continue in their respective 

referring to the change of views of Cutler and places." 

his associates, adds: "It was supposed that 2 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., n., p. 137. Hawks 

several other gentlemen of considerable charac- and Perry s " Conn. Ch. Docs.," I., p. 72. This 

ter among the clergy were in the scheme of " Faithful Relation of a Late Occurrence in the 

declaring for Episcopacy and of carrying over Churches of New-England," which the editor of 

the people of Connecticut in general to that the "Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections" pronounces 

persuasion. But as they had been more private " not very candid or temperate, if faithful," ap- 

in their measures, and had made no open pro- pears by numerous coincidences in expression, 

fession of Episcopacy, when they saw the con- as well as by the general style of argument, to 

sequences with respect to the rector and the be the composition of Cotton Mather, whose 

other ministers and that the people would letter on the subject is printed in " 2 Mass. Hist, 

not hear them, but dismissed them from their Soc. Coll.," n., p. 133, and " Conn. Ch. Docs.," I., 

, they were glad to conceal their former pp. 75-78. 3 Conn. Ch. Docs., i., pp. 69, 70. 



CONVERSIONS TO THE CHURCH. 251 

of Christ in the world, but such as anti-Christ has ordained for him ; 
such as the paw of the beast hath been laid upon." They are " poor 
children," " degenerate offspring," " highflyers," " unhappy men," " de 
serters," " backsliders." They are accused of a " scandalous conjunction " 
" with the papists," of attempting " boundless mischief " " by this foolish 
cavil ; " and the question is asked, " Do not these men worship the 
beast?" 1 In striking contrast with these epithets and expressions are 
the words recorded by Johnson, in his private diary, immediately after 
the ordeal had been passed, and he had temporarily given up his min 
istry : 



It is with great sorrow of heart that I am forced thus, by the uneasiness of 
my conscience, to be an occasion of so much uneasiness to my dear friends, my poor 
people, and indeed to the whole colony. O God, I beseech thee, grant that I may 
not, in an adherence to thy necessary truths and laws (as I profess in my conscience 
they seem to me), be a stumbling-block or occasion of fall to any soul. Let not our 
thus appearing for thy church be any ways accessory, through accidentally to the 
hurt of religion in general, or any person in particular. Have mercy, Lord, have 
mercy on the souls of men, and pity and enlighten those that are grieved at this 
accident. Lead into the way of truth all those that have erred and are deceived ; 
and if we, in this affair, are misled, I beseech Thee show us our error before it 
be too late, that we may repair the damage. Grant us Thy illumination for Christ s 
sake. Amen. * 

At the suggestion of the governor of the colony, Gurdon Salton- 
stall, an attempt was made to give the signers of the September decla 
ration the satisfaction they craved by a public discussion in the college 
library, on the day following the opening of the October session of 
the General Assembly. In this debate the advocates of the Episcopal 
side of the question had the advantage of familiarity with the whole 
controversy acquired by long study and careful and prayerful thought. 
The governor, himself a theologian of no mean ability, " moderated very 
genteely," 3 but the " gentlemen on the Dissenting side " found that their 
chief argument from the indifferent use of the words bishop and pres 
byter in the New Testament was met by the incontestable evidence from 
Scripture of the superintendence of Timothy over the clergy and laity 
of Ephesus, and of Titus over the church in Crete. The appeal to the 
history of the first and purest centuries of the Church was made until 
" at length," as Johnson records it, "an old minister got up and made 
an harangue against them in the declamatory way to raise an odium, 
but he had not gone far before Mr. Saltonstall got up and said he only 
designed a friendly argument, and so put an end to the conference." 4 

Hart, Whittlesey, and Eliot, influenced it may be by the debate 
in the college library in October, or dismayed at the opposition their 
declarations for the Church, had excited, returned to their old faith, 
silenced if not satisfied. It is the testimony of Chandler that " amidst 
all the controversies in which the Church was engaged during their lives, 
they were never known to act, or say, or insinuate anything to her dis 
advantage." 5 The others were unshaken in their adherence to their 

1 Fide 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., n., 133 et s Beardsley s " Life and Correspondence of 

passim. Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Ch. Docs.." Samuel Johnson," p. 19. 
I., 72-78. *Ibid., pp. 19,20. 

* Beardsley s Johnson, p. 19. Life of Johnson, p. 31. 



252 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



convictions. Johnson, after the most patient self-scrutiny, as was his 
wont, records in his diary, that "upon the most deliberate consideration, 
I cannot find that either the frowns or applauses, the pleasures or profits 
of the world have any prevailing influence in the affair." 1 On the 17th 




CHRIST CHURCH, BOSTON. 



of October the trustees of the college voted, " in faithfulness to the 
trust reposed in them," to "excuse the Eev. Mr. Cutler from all further 
service as rector of Yale College," and "to accept of the resignation 
which Mr. Brown had made as tutor." 2 A week later Cutler, John- 



1 Beardsley s Johnson, p. 21. 



*TrumbulTs "Hist, of Conn.," n., p. 34. 



CONVERSIONS TO THE CHURCH. 253 

son, and Brown were on their way to the sea-board, with a view of 
taking passage for England for ordination. 

Meanwhile a movement had taken shape among the churchmen of 
Boston to erect a second church, the King s Chapel " not being large 
enough to contain the people of the church;" 1 and the attention of the 
promoters of this enterprise was turned at once towards securing the 
ex-president of Yale as their spiritual head. A letter from the leading 
members of the new Christ Church was addressed to Cutler, congratu 
lating him and his friends on their declaration for the Church, inviting 
them to Boston, assuring them that a passage to England would be 
provided for him and his friends, "and all things proper to support the 
character of a gentleman" during his "stay in London." The care of 
Mrs. Cutler and children was also assumed by the committee of the 
church, and liberal subscriptions attested the fact that the zeal of the 
Boston church-folk was equal to their professions. 

The journey to Boston was of itself long and tedious. Setting 
out on Tuesday, the 23d of October, Sunday the twenty-third after 
Trinity, and the Feast of SS. Simon and Jude, found them at Bristol, 
where Johnson records: "I first went to church. How amiable are 
thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! Mr. Orem 2 preached." 3 On the 
following Sunday, the twenty-fourth after Trinity, they " first com 
municated with the Church of England. How devout," proceeds the 
excellent Johnson in his diary, " grand, and venerable was every part 
of the administration, every way becoming so awful a mystery ! Mr. 
Cuthbert, of Annapolis Royal, preached. To-morrow we venture 
upon the great ocean for Great Britain. God Almighty preserve us." 4 
For five weeks and four days their " boisterous and uncomfortable 
voyage in the good ship Mary was protracted." The little party 
occupied themselves with religious reading and study. On Sundays, 
Wednesdays, and Fridays they read prayers. They blessed God at 
the sight of land, for the ocean passage at the time these men, and 
others who followed their course, braved its terrors was something to 
be dreaded in its discomfort and danger. On the third Sunday 
in Advent they attended service in the cathedral at Canterbury. 
Strangers though they were, and in a strange land, they found friends at 
once. On presenting themselves at the Deanery they announced them 
selves as " some gentlemen from America, come over for Holy Orders, 
who were desirous of paying their duty to the Dean." 5 The amiable 
and learned dean, Dr. Stanhope, whose name is yet familiar as a 
household word to all students of Anglican theology, welcomed them 
with great cordiality. A copy of the declaration, to which was ap 
pended the names of the signers, had found its way into the London 
papers, and the dean, and some of the cathedral prebends, were read 
ing it at the very moment of this opportune call. No further intro 
duction was necessary. The two archbishops, Dr. Wake, of Canter 
bury, and Sir William Dawes, of York, vied in extending to these 
new converts every possible attention and kindness. They were 

1 Foote s " Annals of King s Chapel." 3 Beardsley s Johnson, p. 23. Ibid. 

* The Rev. James Oroin, missionary of the s Beardsley s " Hist, of the Epis. Church in 

venerable society at Bristol, R.I. Conn.." i.. p. 45. 



254 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

formally introduced to the members of the venerable society, the 
Archbishop of York being in the chair, " who," as Johnson tells us, 
" with the whole body of the clergy present, received us with a most 
benign aspect, and treated us with all imaginable kindness." 1 The 
Bishop of London, Dr. Robinson, of Salisbury, Dr. Willis, of London 
derry, Dr. Nicholson, and others, showed them marked attention, and 
leading divines and laymen spared no pains to prove to these prose 
lytes from afar that their self-sacrifice and devotion were fully appreci 
ated. After receiving in private, in the Church of St. Sepulchre, 
hypothetical baptism, on Friday, March 22, at the Church of St.- 
Martin-in-the-Fields, they were first confirmed and then ordained 
deacons, and on Passion Sunday, the 21st of March, at the same 
church, they were advanced to the priesthood by the Lord Bishop of 
Norwich, Dr. Thomas Green, the Bishop of London, Dr. Robinson 
being incapacitated from duty by his last illness. On Easter even, 
April 13, Brown died of the small-pox, and on Easter Tuesday was 
interred in St. Duristan s-in-the-West, in the presence of about thirty 
of the city clergy. He was, as Johnson writes, "a fine scholar and a 
brave Christian." 2 At Oxford and Cambridge Cutler received the 
doctorate, and Johnson the master s degree. Before their return 
Wetmore joined them and was admitted to orders, and with the 
blessing of Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Gibson, the newly- 
made Bishop of London, they set sail for home, reaching the shores 
of America towards the close of September, Dr. Cutler immediately 
entering upon work at Boston, and Mr. Johnson a little later establish 
ing himself at Stratford, in Connecticut. 

The conversion of these Connecticut ministers to the Church and 
their admission to orders in England excited no little apprehension in 
the inind of some of the few clergy of English birth in New England, 
that they, to quote the words of David Mossom, of Marblehead, would 
" get the best places in the country and take the bread from off our 
trenchers." The assistant at King s Chapel, the Rev. Henry Harris, 
openly called in question the sincerity of Cutler in making the change 
from Congregationalism to the Church. The Rev. Matthias Plant, 
of Newbury, professed his readiness to join with Harris in addressing 
the Bishop of London for the purpose of preventing the ordination of 
the converts, and urged Mossom to unite in the same underhand 
proceeding. But the laity recognized the advantages likely to accrue 
to the church s cause by this accession, and the church- wardens and 
vestry of Trinity Church, Newport, wrote to the secretary of this 
venerable society, that " upon the whole it seems highly probable that 
upon these gentlemen s fate, we mean their reception and encourage 
ment, depends a grand revolution, if not a general revolt, from schisms 
in these parts." 3 

While the church people of New England viewed this addition 
to their ranks with mingled satisfaction and jealousy, the feeling among 
the adherents of the " Standing Order " was that of apprehension and 
dismay. At a fast observed at the " Old North," Boston, on the 25th 

i Beardsley s " Hist, of the Epis. Church in 2 Beardley s Johnson, p. 40. 

Conn.," I., p. 29. 3 Conn. Ch. Docs., i., p. 91. 



CONVERSIONS TO THE CHURCH. 25") 

of September, 1722, Chief Justice Sewall records in his diary that 
after a sermon by Cotton Mather, " Dr. I. Mather pray d ; much be- 
wail d the Conecticut Apostacie." At Yale the trustees voted that all 
rectors, or tutors, subsequently elected should declare before the 
trustees their assent to the " Saybrook Platform," and " particularly 
give satisfaction to them of the soundness of their Faith in opposition 
to Arminian and Prelatical Corruptions, or any other of dangerous 
consequence to the Purity and Peace of our Churches." l But the 
tide could not be stayed. Of the class of 1723 Jonathan Arnold 2 con 
formed. Of the class of 1724, Henry Caner ; 3 of that of 1726, Eben- 
ezer Punderson; of that of 1729, John Pierson, Solomon Palmer, 
Ephraim Bostwick, and Isaac Browne ; of that of 1733, Ebenezer 
Thompson, were converts ; and in the ten years subsequent to that 
memorable declaration more than one in ten of the graduates of Yale 
who entered into the ministry followed the example of Cutler, John 
son, Brown, and Wetmore, the leaders of the great army of con 
formists who, from their day to this, have been drawn into the 
church s service from without. 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 

YYTHELE the notable events recorded in this chapter were transpiring the Puri- 
VV tan leaders spared no pains to warn the people of the danger of apostasy, 
and to confirm them in the faith and practice of the standing order. " In Elijah s 
Mantle," published in Boston in 1722, " A faithful testimony to the Cause and Work 
of God in the Churches of New England," offered as a " highly seasonable " con 
tribution to the polemic literature of the day, we find this earnest appeal : 

"Hence also those among us that desire to setup in this Country any of the 
Wayes of Men s Invention, (as Prelacy, stinted Liturgies, Humane Ceremonies, in 
Worship), they will bid Defiance to the Cause and Interest of Christ, and of this 
People in these Ends of the Earth ; and will, I persuade myself, but lay themselves 
as Potters 1 Vessels under the Iron Bod, for Christ who has taken this possession of 
these uttermost parts of the Earth will not endure it. Let us Go forward to any of 
those Things of Christ that we are wanting in. But to Go backward unto those 
Things which we know and have openly Testified to be not of God, and which we 
departed from, will be such a Wickedness as the Lord s jealousy will not bear 
withal." 

The venerable Increase Mather, then fourscore and four years old, thus urged 
this same plea : 

"From the Suburbs of that Glorious World into which I am now entering, I 
earnestly Testify unto the Rising Generation That if they sinfully forsake the God 
and the Hope and the Religious Ways of their pious ancestors, the Glorious Lord 
will severely punish their Apostasy, and be Terrible from His Holy Places upon 
them." 

In " Some Seasonable Enquiries " concerning Episcopacy, issued the following 
year by Cotton Mather, the author refers to "The Sad and Strange Occurrence of 
This Day;" and, among his queries on the Scripture use of the word "Bishops" 
and the "Divine Right of Episcopacy," thus writes : 

" In Fine, Vain Men, What are you doing } Who, after the Word of God in 
the Sacred Scriptures dost so Plainly and Loudly Condemn the Usurpation of a 
Diocesan Episcopacy, will for the Sake thereof Renounce the Ministry and Com- 

1 Clap s " History of Yale College," p. 32. 3 M.A., Oxford, 1736 ; S.T.D., Oxford, 1766. 

1 M.A., Oxford, 1736. 



256 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

munion of all the Protestant Churches in the World, except a very little party on 
Two Islands ? 

" Whether the Churches, which have their Beauty and Safety in keeping the 
Second Commandment, and were Planted on the very Design of withdrawing from 
the Episcopal Impositions, will not, as they would Avoid the Jealous Wrath of the 
Glorious God, .... with much Unanimity concur to Express their Displeasure 
against such an Unaccountable Apostasy ? " 

Quincy, in his " History of Harvard University" (i., p. 365), quoting as author 
ity a letter from the celebrated Hollis to Rev. Benjamin Colman, under date of 
January 14, 1723, thus refers to an interview between this generous benefactor of 
" Harvard" and Cutler, when the latter was in England : 

" In the following January (1723) being in London, he was invited by the 
honest and zealous Hollis to a conference, in the hope of converting him from 
Episcopalianism. To this invitation Cutler acceded. The conference, however, 
never took place. I am no doubter ! said Cutler to Hollis, I am resolved. I 
hope to be speedily ordained. I may with as much reason hope to bring you over 
to me, as you can nope to bring me over to you. I have a wife and seven children, 
am not yet forty years old. I have lost all my old friends. I am turned out of all. 
And if 1 should do anything now that looked like doubting, it were the way to lose 
my new friends. I was never in judgment heartily with the Dissenters, but bore 
it patiently until a favorable opportunity offered. This has opened at Boston, and 
I now declare publicly what I before believed privately. After such positive 
barring cautions, I thought, says Hollis, the proposed conference would be of 
little service. " 

It is difficult not to believe this report somewhat colored by the prejudices of 
the writer, especially when we have the advantage of tracing all the facts relating 
to the conversion of Cutler and his companions from contemporary documents, 
exhibiting, as they do, both sides as they appeared at the time. 




CHAPTER XV. 

THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY AND THE STRUGGLES OF 
THE CHURCH IN MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND. 

" A RM yourself with the humility and courage of a Christian ; and 
f\ when God shall suffer the enemies of His Church to afflict you, 
receive it with patience and cheerfulness, praying for your 
persecutors." 1 These were the words of the Archbishop of York 2 to 
a nameless New Englander, who had sought his blessing and an audience 
in which to acquaint the venerable prel 
ate with the state of the Church across 
the sea. The stranger thus counselled 
was one who, more than any other man 
at this period of controversy and in 
quiry about the Church, occupied the 
popular mind. Of John Checkley s 
family little is known . He was born in 
Boston, in 1680, of English parentage, 
and received the rudiments of his education under the celebrated Ezekiel 
Cheever. He is said to have spent some time at the University of Ox 
ford, from which he subsequently received 
an h norai y degree of M.A. ; but it is 
certain that he did not graduate, and no 
trace of his matriculation even has been 
found. From Oxford he is said to have travelled for some time upon 
the continent, and on his return to his birthplace he was certainly 
prepared, both by study and travel, to enter prominently into the dis 
cussions and controversies then beginning to attract, and even to absorb, 
the attention of all classes of society. 

Abounding in wit and humor, possessing a genial temper, and an 
unfailing fund of anecdote, polished by his residence abroad, and espe 
cially interested in the political and religious controversies of the time, 
Checkley could not fail to attract the notice and secure the friendship 
of the men of parts who were from age and education his natural asso 
ciates. Among these was one somewhat his junior, Thomas Walter, 
a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1713, and the son of the Puritan 
minister of Roxbury, and grandson of the celebrated Increase Mather. 
Walter was witty and accomplished, and the friendship between the 
two youths, begun while Walter was at Harvard, was continued in spite 
of the warning of Cotton Mather, who feared the influence of the church 
man and Jacobite over his nephew. Churchman and Jacobite Checkley 
was, and while his friend, both from training and taste, leaned strongly 

1 H5st. Coll. Am. Col. Church, m., p. 665. 1713-14, and died April 30, 1724. Le Neve s 
1 Sir William Dawes, Bart., Bishop of Chester, Fasti Eccledas Anglicance, HI., p. 118. 
transfcirecl to the Archiepiscopal see of York, 



258 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

towards the Puritan theology and the House of Hanover, there grew out 
of their amicable discussions on the questions of divinity and politics 
then rife, a public controversy, which, ere its close, made itself felt in 
the Old World as well as the New. Several years after his friend s 
graduation, and while he was, probably, studying with his father in 
Roxbury, Checkley published a tract entitled " Choice Dialogues be 
tween a Godly Minister and an Honest Countryman, concerning Elec 
tion and Predestination." 1 This attack on a favorite tenet of Cal 
vinism provoked a speedy reply. The brochure of Checkley s, comprised 
within fifty pages, was answered at length by Walter, in " A Choice 
Dialogue between John Faustus, A Conjuror, and Jack Tory, His 
Friend ; Occasioned by some Choice Dialogues lately published con 
cerning Predestination and Election. Together with Animadversions 
upon the Preface to the Choice Dialogues, And an Appendix concern 
ing the True Doctrine of Predestination, as held by the Church of 
England, and the Absurdities and Inconsistency of the Choice Dia 
logues. By a Young Strippling." The " Strippling " is certainly an 
adept in sarcasm and abuse. Referring in his preface, which is signed 
"Christopher Whigg," to the assertion that the "Choice Dialogues" 
were written " by a Reverend and Laborious Pastor in Christ s Flock, 
by one who has been for almost twice thirty years a faithful and painful 
Labourer in Christ s Vineyard," he retorts : " I believe I know the 
Reverend and Labourious Pastor he means, viz. : a certain Jacobite 
Clergy-man, who, I dare vouch, has served the Pretender ten years 
where he has the Flock of Christ one." He proceeds : "And really I 
never met with such an Oddity and Inconsistency as to fill a book with 
Calumnies and Reproaches, which is written out of Charity to the Souls 
of Men. . . . But his high-flying bitter spirit savours of too much 
Rancour, to let the world think that Love to Souls, and not Hatred to 
the Churches of New England, was the Spring and Motive of his un 
dertaking this scurrilous Work." ..." Now, Gentlemen, we are come 
to the Rectilinear and uninterrupted Succession of Episcopacy from the 
Apostles. Ay, and this Doctrine of the Choice Dialogues has been in 
the same uninterrupted Manner, by oral Tradition, handed down by 
the Clergy to this Day." . . . " As for the Uninterrupted Succession 
of the Clergy from the Apostles, I mean of Bishops Diocesan, I could 
never see the Catalogue of them yet. It has hithertoo been much such 
a Secret in Ecclesiastical State as is the Philosopher s Stone in the king 
dom of nature ; of which it is often asserted there is such a thing in 
Rerum Natura ; but we never can be certain any Body has been so 
sagacious and sharp as to find it. But I drop the Chimera and let it 
vanish among the shades." In the body of the work John Faustus, an 
emissary of the devil, is represented as applauding Jack Tory, i.e., 
John Checkley, for his endeavor to prove that the New England 
churches worshipped the devil. The expression, "twice thirty years 
a servant of Christ," applied to the author of the Choice Dialogues, is 
changed to "twice thirty years a servant of the devil." Checkley is 
addressed, " You had better minded your shop than have took upon 

i A new edition of this tract was advertised and next week wil) be published." Vide "Ar- 
in the " American Weekly Mercury," Philaclel- chaeologia Americana," VI., pp. 384, 456. 
phia, Feb. 26, 740, 41, as " now m the press, 



THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY. 259 

you to be an author." The closing pages are full of animadversions upon 
the Church of England, and flings at the Jacobite views of Checkley. 

This reply may have been the direct cause of a more extended and 
virulent controversy, in which Checkley could not fail to bear a promi 
nent part, but other circumstances were also at work to produce a 
pamphlet war on the mooted question of doctrine, discipline, and wor 
ship. The preceding year Checkley had published the first edition of 
a treatise by the celebrated nonjuring divine, Charles Leslie, entitled : 

The RELIGION of JESUS CHRIST the only True RELIGION, OR, A Short 
and Easie METHOD WITH THE DEISTS, Wherein the CERTAINTY OF THE 



CHRISTIAN RELIGION Is demonstrated by Infallible Proof from Jfrittr 
WHICH ABE Incompatible to any Imposture that ever yet has been, or that can pos 
sibly be. In a LETTER to a Friend (Efje Scbcntfj Enition. BOSTON: Printed by 
E. Ulect, and are to be Sold by 3ofm (Efjccklrg, at the Sign of the Crown and Blue 
Gate over against the West End of the Town-House. 1719. 

From the title-page of this it would appear that Checkley was, at 
this time, in trade " at the sign of the Crown and Blue Gate over against 
the West End of the Town-House." Harris, the minister of King s 
Chapel, and the bitter foe of Checkley, writes of him, as we shall 
shortly see, as " one John Checkley who keeps a Toy shop in this 
place," and the " Stripling " refers, as we have seen, to his shop. But, 
whatever may have been this remarkable man s walk in life, he was an 
acknowledged power in the staid town of Boston, and in his " Toy 
shop" there were forged weapons for assault or defence, of a nature 
proving that there was no child s play purposed in the strife. In the 
controversy which grew out of these little tractates the leading theolo 
gians of New England were enlisted, and when arguments failed to 
support the dominant side the aid of the law was invoked to crush so 
determined and powerful an antagonist. 

While the popular mind was thus interested and occupied with these 
questions of discipline and doctrine events had occurred in the neigh 
boring colony of Connecticut which fanned the excitement into a flame. 
In 1722, on the day following the commencement at Yale College, 
Rector Cutler and several prominent ministers of the " standing order " 
presented a paper to the clergy and others assembled in the college 
library, expressing doubts as to the validity of Presbyterian ordination. 
A discussion ensued some weeks subsequent, resulting in the removal 
of the scruples in the minds of some of the signers, while the others 
openly avowed their conviction of the necessity of Episcopal ordination, 
and took measures to secure it. If we may believe the testimony of 
the inimical Harris, of the King s Chapel, this result, at least so far as the 
conversion of Cutler was concerned, was brought about by the keeper 
of the " Toy shop, at the sign of the Crown and Blue Gate, over against 
the West End of the Town House, in Boston." It is certain that Check- 
ley accompanied Cutler and his friends to England, on their mission 
for orders. He had earlier petitioned the venerable Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the appointment of an 

1 Title-page, " The Preface," pp. xii. The Some copies of the " Epistle to the Tral- 

terct, pp. 51. " The Epistle of St. Ignatius to the lians" appeal* to have been issued sepai-ately. 
Tralliaus," pp. 7. Vide " Arch. Am.," vi., p. 382. 



260 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

itinerant missionary for the northern colonies, who should be "obliged, 
once a year, to visit the utmost limits of New England," and also for the 
establishment of a lending library for" the poor deluded people of that 
country." 1 He now sought orders which were refused, as we shall see, 
through the interference of the Puritans at home, who dreaded his 
influence, and were aided in their opposition to his ordination by the 
representations of such half-hearted churchmen as Harris and his friends. 
While in London he procured the publication of another edition of 
Leslie s work against the Deists, with the following title-page : 

A Short and Easie | METHOD I WITH THE | DEISTS. | Wherein the | CER 
TAINTY | OF THE | CHRISTIAN RELIGION | Is demonstrated, by infallible Proof 
from | .Jfonr grilis, | WHICH ARE | Incompatible to any Imposture that ever yet | has 
been, or that can possibly be. | In a LETTER to a Friend. | The Eighth Edition. \ 
LONDON: \ Trinted by J. APPLEBEE, and Sold by JOHN CIIECKLEY, | at the Sign 
of the Crown and Blue-Gate, over | against the West-End of the Town-House in | 
Boston. 1723. 8 

The peculiarity of this edition is the addition to the " Short and 
Easie Method " of " A Discourse concerning Episcopacy of more than 
twice the length of the ostensible essay againstthe Deists. This " Dis 
course" is the work of Leslie, with occasional interpolations and addi 
tion of matter designed to apply the arguments of the author to the 
peculiar objections of the New England Independents, and will be found 
to have been chiefly taken from "A Discourse, shewing Who they are 
that are now qualified to administer Baptism and the Lord s Supper : 
Wherein the cause of Episcopacy is briefly treated." 3 The style is 
occasionally changed. Checkley himself alludes to the " lowness of 
diction," as " not ill-suited to the end proposed, viz. : demonstrating to 
either party the inconsistency of their respective schemes in their own 
dialect ; to keep close to which, and to write with perspicuity, I assure 
you, is not very easy." 4 

Some strong expressions found in the original text are modified. 
References to the Quakers, against whom Leslie specially directed his 
arguments, are made applicable to the Independents and Presbyterians, 
and the whole treatise, in arrangement and argument, is adapted with no 
little skill to the New England public. 

We can the more readily understand the excitement attending the 
publication and circulation of this work by giving a synopsis of the 
argument, and citing specimens of its style and language. It begins 
with " a solemn appeal to every person who has read the foregoing 
short method with the Deists, whether it is not absolutely necessary, 
that a lineal and uninterrupted succession of the Ministers of Jesus 
Christ should be preserved, lest Christianity, our holy Religion, should 
be rendered precarious, as a thing of which no certain proof can be 
given." 5 Assuming that this " lineal and uninterrupted succession " is 
" absolutely necessary," he appeals to a posthumous sermon by the cele 
brated Ebenezer Pemberton, in support of the position " that those 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., in., p. 138. Leslie s Theological Works, vri., pp. 95- 

*8vo, pp. 132. Pp. 41-127 contain, with- 183. 8vo. CKfovd, 1832. 

out any special title-page, " A Discourse concern- * Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., in., p. 664. 

ing EPISCOPACY." Pp. 128-132 are occupied with A. Short and Easie Method, pp. 41, 42. 

" The Epistle of St. Ignatius to the Trallians." 



THE TKIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY. 261 

who are to serve God in the Ministry of this Gospel must be duly 
authorized to discharge the office of a Gospel Minister." He then con 
siders the qualifications requisite in a " Gospel Minister" under the heads 
of " personal " and " sacerdotal." To the " holiness of the administra 
tor" must be added "an outward commission." Christ had his outward 
commission given him " by a voice from heaven at his baptism." Ho 
commissioned the twelve and the seventy. The apostles proceeded in 
the same method. They commissioned men who were in turn to impart 
this commission to others. "This succession from the Apostles is pre 
served and derived only in the Bishops." 

In support of this assertion he proceeds to give the historical argu 
ment for Episcopacy, defying the Presbyterians who, " only of all our 
Dissenters, have any pretence to succession," to prove " an uninter 
rupted succession of any one Presbyter in the whole World from the 
Apostles to this day." The Cambridge Platform is cited in proof of 
the assertion, that the Independents " allow laymen to ordain," and, 
consequently, our author asserts that they have neither " succession 
from the Apostles," nor " lawful ordination." " Our Korahites of sev 
eral sizes " are bidden to " take a view of the hcinousness of their 
schism ; and," proceeds our writer, "let them not think their crime to 
be nothing because they have been taught with their mother s milk, to 
have the utmost abhorrence to the very name of a Bishop, tho they 
could not tell why." The Papacy and the Jesuits were foes of Epis 
copacy, "Pope and Presbyter" using the same arguments, and "who 
ever would write the true history of Presbyterianism must begin at 
Rome and not at Geneva." The necessity of church government is 
evident. The universality of Episcopacy is urged, and the dissenters 
are challenged to produce " any one constituted Church .upon the face 
of the Earth, that was not governed by Bishops, distinct from, and 
superior to, Presbyters, before the Vaudois in Piedmont, the Hugue 
nots in France, the Calvinists in Geneva, and the Presbyterians thence 
transplanted in the last age, into Holland, Scotland, Old England and 
New England." Citations are given from the fathers and early coun 
cils, to prove that the government of the Church was in the hands of 
bishops for more than five hundred years before the Papacy. The 
testimony of " Calvin himself and Beza, and the rest of the learned 
Reformers of their part," that the lack of Episcopacy, which they 
owned to be a defect, was their misfortune rather than their fault, is 
given, and then the argument is succinctly summed up as follows : 

If Christ delegated his power to his Apostles, and they to others, to con 
tinue to the end of the world ; 

If the Apostles did delegate Bishops under them, in all the Christian 
Churches, which they planted throughout the whole Earth ; 

If Episcopacy was the known and received government of all the Churches 
in the world, not only in the Apostolic age, but in all the succeeding ages for 1,500 
years; 

If it was not possible for Churches so dispersed into so many far distant 
regions to concert all together, and at once, to alter that frame of Government which 
had been left them by the Apostles ; 

If such an alteration of Government could not be without great notice to be 
taken of it, as if the government of a nation was changed from Commonwealth to 
Monarchy ; 



262 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

And if no Author or Historian of those times makes the least mention of 
such a change of government, but all with one voice speak of Episcopacy, and the 
succession ot Bishops in all the Churches from tho days of the Apostles ; and in 
those ages of zeal, when the Christians were so forward to sacrifice their lives in 
opposition to any error or deviation from the Truth, no one takes any notice of 
Episcopacy as being an encroachment upon the right of the Presbyters or the peo 
ple, or being any the least deviation from the Apostolical institutions ; 

I say, if these things are not possible to any thinking man, then Episcopacy 
must be the primitive and Apostolical institution. 1 

Hence the " ordinations in opposition to Episcopacy are not only 
invalid, but sacrilege and rebellion against Christ," and "if their 
ordinations are null, then their Baptisms are so too, and all their 
ordinances. They are out of the visible Church, and have no right to 
any of the promises in the Gospel, which are all made to the Church, 
and to none other." a 

The appeal is made to " our misled Dissenters," in such words as 
these : 

And will tender parents carry their children to, at least, disputed Baptisms, 
while the Presbyterians themselves deny not the validity of Episcopal ordination, 
and, consequently, of the sacraments administered by their hands ? Will you run 
an hazard then, where your souls are concerned, ana of your children, when you 
may be sure, by the confession of all parties, even of those men who (through 
ignorance) unhappily mislead you ? 

The etymological argument, "the senseless jingle of the words 
Bishop and Presbyter," is next considered and illustrated by the use 
of the word " hnpcrator," and the question pressed, "How could these 
Bishops have thrust themselves thus into the chief governments all the 
world over, without any opposition, and to be owned as such, and 
acknowledged by all, if the original institution had been Presbytery 
or any other Frame of Government ? Or, if there were Presbyterians 
in those Days (as our Presbyterians would have us believe) , they were 
much more moderate and complaisant than our Presbyterians, to let 
the Bishops usurp upon their authority, and engross all into their own 
hands, without so much as one remonstrance, or the least snarle from 
any of them ? Strange ! Wondrous strange ! " 3 The objection, that 
" Episcopacy did not come in all at once, but encroached by degrees," 
is next considered. The call is made, "Shew us the beginning of Epis 
copacy." The beginning of Presbytery with Calvin, the beginning of 
the Papacy in the seventh century, the beginnings of Popish errors, 
are all set forth ; but no one can tell when Episcopacy began. These 
arguments are pressed with great directness, and the assertion made, 
" that it is downright impossible but that what has been said must 
create a doubt, at least in any considering man, whether he ought not 
to submit to Episcopacy." The case is then summed up in these inci 
sive sentences : 

Now suppose I come to the Sacrament, and have any doubt whether this man 
is lawfully ordained, and can consecrate and administer the Holy Sacrament to me, 
will not that of Rom. 14, 23, come into my mind? lie that doubteth is damned if/te 
cat, because he eateth not of Faith, for whatsoever is not of Faith, is sin. In what 

i A Short and Easie Method, pp. 97-93. * Ibid., p. 99. 8 Ibid., p. 103. 



THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY. 263 

condition then are our unhappy dissenters who cannot eat hi faith, unless they fully, 
plainly, and clearly answer what has been said, so as to lave no doubt behind it. 
They may (which God forbid) shut their eyes, and go on wilfully, but this will be 
a fresh aggravation, and will double their sin. 

What compassion can they have for their tender Infants, to carry them to disputed 
Baptism, when they may have that which is clear and undisputed offered to them? 
Will they present the provocation of their offerings, and pawn their souls upon the 
greatest uncertainty? Will they dare to say, that it is not an uncertainty at best, 
when they will not because they cannot answer for themselves? Is not this to be 
self -condemned ? To put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their faces, 
and then come to inquire of the Lord ! 

This I should think were enough to rouse the conscience of any Dissenter that 
is not hardened to a stone. I am sure, if I was a Dissenter, it would prick me to the 
heart. And till I could give an answer to what has been said in these papers, I 
would never go to a meeting, lest I perished in their sin. I would not receive their 
Sacraments, lest I offered their provocations : and I should think myself guilty of 
the blood of my child, if I brought it to their Baptism : At least my own blood 
would lie on my head, if I did it with a doubting mind, while I could have that Bap 
tism which was undisputed to make my child a member of the Church. And how 
can he who has thrust himself out of the Church, admit another to be a member of 
it ? Can I make another free of any corporation, Avho am not free myself ? No. 
If I am baptized by a schismatick, I am baptized into his schism, and made a mem 
ber of it, and not of the Church against which he is in rebellion and open defiance 
to it. The children of Korah, Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up with them. 
If we will hazard ourselves, let us have some compassion for our innocent children. 

The charge upon them is very, very heavy ; I must confess it is exceeding 
heavy, but it is as true as it is great. I know it will raise the indignation of many 
of them, and I shall hear it from all hands. What ! say they, would he un-church 
us, and annul our Sacraments ? would he make the ordinary ministrations of our 
Ministers as little valid, and more guilty, than if performed by a Mid-wife in case of 
necessity ? Where, where is the moderation of this man ? Where is his charity ? 
He makes all our meetings to be assemblies of Korah, in rebellion against God? 
We are not able to bear it We will not bear it It is not fit that such a man 
should live upon the earth. 1 . . . And must they not be told of this? Must I be 
their enemy because I tell them the truth ? Is it because I love them not ? God 
knoweth, I declare, so far as I know my own mind (though I cannot say as St. Paul 
did in a like case, yet) I would give my life to purchase their reconciliation, and 
that I might see the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace. 2 

Drawing the analogy between the transmission of the Creed, the 
Scriptures, the faith itself and the succession of the Church, our author 
proceeds to assert that the "evidence for them is the same, yea, and in 
one point stronger for Episcopacy, as being Matter of Government, 
which is more obvious to the notice of men, and any change or altera 
tion in it is more observable than in doctrines or opinions." 3 . . . 
" And the preservation of the faith and doctrine of the Church depends 
under God, mostly and chiefly in the support of the Government of 
the Church, that is in supporting her as a Society. Whence she is 
called in Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth." 4 . . . "Let 
the Dissenters see if there be one circumstance of difference betwixt 
their case and that of Korah? 5 And now as the Apostle says, If he 
died without mercy, who despised Moses s law, and the priesthood 
which he set up ; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he 
be thought worthy, who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and 
that Church and Priesthood which He has ordained and promised to 
be with it to the end of the world? FINIS." 6 

1 A Short and Easie Method, pp. 110-112. Ibid., p. 117. f lbid., p. 121. 

8 Ibid., p. 114. Ibid., p. 118. Ibid., p. 127. 





264 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Thus closed the most uncompromising and pungent attack which 
had yet been made upon the ecclesiastical authority of the Puritan col 
ony. Remorseless in its logic, unsparing in its denunciations of dis 
sent, and adding to the masterly argumentation of Leslie the keen 
thrusts and bitter sarcasm of Checkley s own cultivated wit and deep 

convictions, the impression produced by 
this thin octavo was profound. Nothing 
else was thought or talked of. On the 
street, by the firesides, in the shops, along 
the wharves, in the pulpits, in the very coun 
cil chamber and the halls of legislature, "the discourse concerning Epis 
copacy" was the staple of discussion. The lieutenant-governor, Wil 
liam Dummer, and the council, ordered the attorney-general and 
Robert Auchmuty, a dis 
tinguished lawyer, belong 
ing to the King s Chapel, to 
draw up an indictment 
against the book as " a scan 
dalous libel," and "against 
the author or publisher of 
the book when he shall be known." The order of council adopted 
March 19, 1723, gave its reasons for this indictment as follows : 

Observing in the s* Volume many vile and scandalous passages not only re 
flecting on the Ministers of the Gospel established in this Province, and denying 
their sacred Function and y* holy Ordinaces of Religion as administered by them, 
but also sundry vile insinuations against His Majesty s rightfull and lawfull author 
ity and the Constitution of the Governm 1 of Great Britain. 

The grand jury of Suffolk found a true bill agreeably to the wishes 
of the council, and Checkley, naturally averse to this mode of deciding 
the question of church government, retired from the province until the 
end of the sessions. But it was not the policy or the wish of so eager 
a partisan as Checkley to remain long under cover, and on the adjourn 
ment of the court he returned to Boston, and complications having 
arisen, from the fact that he had not taken the oaths of allegiance to 
the reigning family, he publicly took the oaths, provoking his foes 
thereby to explain that he did it "with a mental reservation." The 
indictment was pressed at the next sessions. The absurdity of trying 
our author for a polemic treatise seemed to strike the judges, who 
" often declared from the bench " that Checkley was not " to be tried 
for writing anything in the defence of the Church of England and of 
Episcopacy ; against the Presbyterian or Congregational Ministers in 
this Country : No, by no means 1 for the ministers were able to defend 
themselves" 

The attorney-general was ordered to insist only on the three 
clauses of the book supposed to reflect upon the government. The 
privilege of speaking in his own defence was denied to Checkley, and 
the jury found him " guilty of imagining and contriving by the sub- 
tility of arguments to traduce the title of His present Majesty." A 
"heavy judgment" was entered, but Checkley appealed to the Court 



THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY. 265 

of Assize. The case was heard in November, 1724, and "the speech 
of Mr. John Checkley upon his tryal at Boston, in New England, for 
publishing the Short and Easy Method with the Deists : To which was 
added, A Discourse concerning Episcopacy : In Defence of Christianity, 
and the Church of England against the Deists and the Dissenters," is 
among the most curious and interesting, as well as among the rarest 
and most costly of our American polemic publications. "The speech " 
was printed in London a few years later, 1 and a second edition was called 
for afterwards. 2 It is in Checkley s happiest vein, full of hardly sup 
pressed sarcasm and close reasoning. Disposing with great cleverness 
of the charge of sedition, while, at the same time, defending with 
marked ability the exclusive validity of Episcopal ordination and sacra 
ments ; compelling even the chief justice, who had attempted to cut short 
his arguments, to permit and listen to a labored defence of the most 
obnoxious portions of the discourse concerning Episcopacy ; quoting, in 
support of his position, that "all ordination by the people is null and 
void," the language of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, the Gen 
eral Assembly of Scotch Presbyterians, and the learned Ebenezer 
Pemberton s Discourse of Ordination, Checkley proceeded to prove, 
1st, that no provincial assembly could, by right or in fact, establish 
either the Presbyterian or Congregational systems " so as to make THAT 
the establishment and the Episcopal churches to be dissenters ; 2nd, 
that " by a just and true construction of the laws of this very Province 
the Church of England is established here ; " 3dly, that by the laws of 
England the Church of England, "as established in England, and no 
other, is positively established in all His Majesty s plantations." It is 
safe to assert that no such speech was ever made before a New Eng 
land audience, and it is not hard to imagine with what rage and vindic 
tive hate its sharp, cutting sentences were heard. The jury, at least, 
were influenced by so marked a display of learning and so ingenious 
and convincing a defence. The verdict was as follows : 

JOHN CHECKLEr, ^ rpHE jury find specially, viz. : If this Book entituled, A Short 
Adsect > J_ and Easy Method with the Deists, containing in it a Dis- 

Dom. Reg. ) course concerning Episcopacy (published and mauy of them 
sold by the said Checkley) be a false and scandalous Libel ; Then we find the said 
Checkley guilty of all and every Part of the Indictment (excepting that supposed 
to traduce and draw into dispute the undoubted Right and Title of our Sovereign 
Lord King George, to the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Territories 
thereto belonging). But if the said Book, Containing a Discourse concerning 
Episcopacy as aforesaid, be not a false and scandalous Libel ; Then we find him 
not guilty. 

Att 1 . SAMUEL TYLEY, Clerc. 

Thus the verdict of the jury of the court of the sessions was prac 
tically reversed, and, in his "plea in arrest of judgment, Checkley 
claimed there were " no expressions in the Book at bar tantamount to 
the censures of the Dissenters in the Canons " of the Church of Eng 
land " published by his Majesty s Authority under the Great Seal of 
England," these canons being " part of the law of the land." But 
neither logic nor wit could ward off the hastening vengeance. The 

1 In 1730. */1738. 



2G6 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

justices were men of sterner stuff than the befogged jurymen, and the 
closing page of "the speech" contains, without a word of comment, 
" the Sentence of Court " : 

SUFFOLK, ss. 

AT A COUBT OF ASSISE, &c., 

Nov. 27, 1724. 

CIIECKLEY, } rpHE Court having maturely advised on this special Verdict, are 
Adsect 1 > -L of opinion that the said John Checkley is guilty of publishing 
Dora. Reg. ) and selling of a false and scandalous Libel. It s therefore consid 
ered by the Court, that the said John Checkley shall pay a Fine of Fifty Pounds to 
the King, and shall enter into Recognizance in the Sum of One Hundred Pounds, 
with two Sureties in the Sum of Fifty Pounds each, for his good Behaviour for six 
Months, and also pay Costs of Prosecution, standing committed until this sentence 
be performed. Att 

SAMUEL TYLEY, Clerc. 

Such was the answer of New England Puritanism to the attack 
of the church s champion. It is a testimony to the force of the argu 
ments employed that recourse should have been had to the vengeance 
of the law. It is unnecessary to say that Checkley was not convinced 
by this mode of reply to his logic and learning. During his trial he 
"printed by stealth" 1 two pamphlets, one of which has been styled 
"the first original controversial writing of any importance on the 
Episcopal side in the long debate here." 2 This was 

A | Modest Proof | of the | Order & Government | Settled by Christ and his 
Apostles | in the | Church | By shewing I I. What Sacred Offices were Instituted | 
by them. | II. How those Offices were Distinguished | HI. That they were to be 
Perpetual and | Standing in the Church. And, I IV. Who Succeed in them, and 
rightly | Execute them to this Day | Recommended as proper to be put into the 
Hands of the Laity | Boston : | Re-printed by Tho. Fleet, and are to be Sold | by 
Benjamin Eliot in Boston, Daniel Aurault in | Newport, Gabriel Bernon in Provi 
dence, Mr. Jean in Stratford, and | in most other Towns within the Colonies of | 
Connecticut and Rhode-Island. 1723 | 

In the preface to this scriptural argument, which seems to be the 
only portion of the work of Checkley s composition, the premise is 
laid down : 

That whosoever justly sustains the character of a Minister of the Gospel of 
Christ, hath, besides his Internal Qualifications, an External Visible Commission 
delivered to him, by those who have Power and Authority to grant it: From 
whence these Inferences do naturally flow. 

First. That the Ministers of the Church of England, who freely own that the 
Power of Ordination was first vested in the Apostles, and from them, through all 
Ages since, in a succession of Bishops, from whence they derive their own Ordina 
tions, are to be acknowledged true Ministers of the Gospel. 

Secondly. That it is a daring Offence to intrude into the sacred Function, 
without a regular designation to the Exercise of it. See Numb. 16. 40. 2 Sam. 6. 
6, 7. 2 Chron. 26. 19, 20, 21, 22. Heb. 5. 4, 5. 

Thirdly. That People ought to endeavour after all the Assurance they can 
attain to, that they have the Means of Grace in the Word and Sacraments, duly 
administered and dispensed unto them, by Persons fully authorized for those holy 
offices. For since the Priest s Lips are to preserve Knowledge, the People ought to 
be satisfied that they are really such at whose Mouth they seek the Law. And, 

1 His own language. Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., III., p. 664. 

* Foote s " Annals of King s Chapel," pp. 294, 295. The title-page speaks of it as a reprint. 



THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY. 267 

Fourthly. That it is a very criminal Presumption, and an insufferable Inso 
lence in some, to value their Gifts at so high a rate, as to think themselves by the 
virtue of them, entituled to the Ministerial Office, without being admitted by the 
Imposition of the Hands of those, whom Christ has ordered to preside over the 
affairs of his Church. 

Fifthly. That since there is no approaching before God s Altar, without the 
appointed Kites of Consecration, nor any medling with his Institutions without his 
Order and Command ; those invaders of the sacred Services cannot be said to be 
Ambassadors of God, or accounted the Stewards of the Mysteries of Christ, who 
presume to touch those holy things, with their unhallowed Hands, and like Saul, 
would sacrifice without a Call. 1 Sam. 13. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. For those who offer 
strange Fire before the Lord, their Incense must be an Abomination to him. Levit. 
10. 12. 

Lastly. Tho we can by no means question our Saviour s Gifts and Abilities, 
yet he did not enter upon his Ministry, until he was solemnly inaugurated into that 
Office ; for he glorified not himself to be made a High Priest, but he that said unto 
him, Thou art my Son, which was said unto him at his Baptism, Luke 2, 22. So 
when he was about to leave the world, he commissioned others to go upon the great 
Embassy of Reconciliation, to transact in his Name, and proclaim and seal his 
Pardons, saying, As my Father sent me, so send I you : whereupon he immediately 
gave them the power of Censures and Absolutions, John 20. 22, 23. Matth. 28. 19, 
20. And they also before their Death, imparted their Power to others, by Imposi 
tion of Hands. Thus the Apostles ordained seven Deacons, Acts 6. 5, G. among^ 
other Services, to Preach and to Baptize, in the Exercise of which Offices we find 
St. Philip, one of them diligently employed, Acts 8. 1, &c. Thus Paul and Barnabas 
ordained Elders in every Church, Acts 14. 23. And thus St. Paul, who had ordained 
Timothy and Titus, appointed Titus to ordain Elders in every City in Crete, Tit. 1. 
5. And that these sacred Offices should continue in a regular Ministry to the end of 
the World, is undeniable from Matth. 6. 18, and Chap. 28. 19, 20, and Eph. 4. 11, 
12, 13. And finally, that there was a pre-eminence of Jurisdiction and Authority 
in some of these Church-Offices over others, is plainly proved in this Treatise, in 
the Apostolical Dignity (to which the Episcopal must needs succeed) over the sev 
enty, and the Deacons ; and St. Paul s Epistles to Timothy and Titus, where we find 
many marks of the Power of those Bishops over their inferiour Presbyters, as to 
Ordain them, or upon occasion to promote them to a higher Order, to Judge and 
Censure them, and if the case required, to proceed to Deposition. This is the 
standing Ministry that the Church of England claims a Part and Lot in : This is the 
Nature and true Notion of a Gospel Ministry, as we find it founded by our Saviour 
and his Apostles. 1 

The other tractate an octavo of sixteen pages with a supple 
mentary page of errata was "A Discourse Shewing Who is a true 
Pastor of the Church of Christ." The last five pages of this pamphlet, 
which bore neither title or imprint, were occupied by a reissue of "The 
Epistle of St. Ignatius to the Trallians." Certain peculiarities of type 
and " make up " prove conclusively that this little treatise was printed 
in London. A foot-note on page 11 indicates the object had in view 
in its publication : 

3T Those who have a mind to see the Propositions in this small Tract prov d 
beyond the Possibility of a Reply, are desir d to read a Discourse concerning Epis 
copacy, which they may have at the Crown and Gate opposite to the West End of the 
Town-House in Boston. Where likewise may be had Barclay s Persuasive, printed 
in London, by Jonah Bower, with other Books of the like Nature. 

f 

On a single octavo page, appended sometimes to the "Discourse 
shewing who is a true Pastor," and also to the second edition of the 
M Speech," is the following racy squib directed against his opponents, 
and evidently prepared in Checkley s happiest vein : 

1 " The publisher to the Reader," pp. i.-v. of the Preface to "A Modest Proof," etc. 



268 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

A | Specimen | Of a True | Dissenting Catechism, I Upon Ri^ht True- 
Blue Dissenting Principles, | with | * Learned Notes, I By Way ot Explica 
tion. Question. Why don t the Dissenters in their Pub | lick Worship make use 
of the Creeds ? I Answer. Why ? Because they are not set down | Word for Word 
in the Bible. | Question. AVell But why don t the Dissenters \ in their Publick 
Worship make use of the Lord s- \ Prayer 3 \ Answer. Oh! Because tliat is set 
down | Word for Word in the Bible. | ""They re so perverse and opposite | As 
if they worship d God for Spite. | 

"Printed by stealth," as Checkley acknowledges these tractates 
to have been, they were certainly of sufficient moment in the con 
troversy to have made his further comments probable : " Had the 
Judges known of it, they would have made it a forfeiture of my bonds 
(for, you must know, my countrymen think it treason to write in de 
fence of the Church); and indeed I had not run such a risque, had 
there not been a necessity for it." 1 It was soon apparent that other 
measures than oppressive verdicts were necessary to sustain the im 
perilled fabric of Puritanism. The " King s Lecturer," the Rev. Henry 
Harris, the assistant to the rector of the King s Chapel, angry, as the 
amiable Johnson of Stratford asserts, in consequence of the preferences 
given by the proprietors of the new Christ Church to the Rev. Timothy 
Cutler, Checkley s convert to the Church, in their choice of a rector 
over himself, arraigned the author and the discourse in a sermon , while 
he labored no less with his pen in letters addressed to the venerable 
society and to dignitaries of the Church at home, to create an unfavor 
able impression against both Checkle} 7 and his supporters. But "the 
Ministers," who were supposed by the justices to be "able to defend 
themselves," found themselves put upon their own defence. The 
minister of the First Church, Thomas Foxcroft, himself the son of a 
former warden of King s Chapel, but an adherent of the faith of his 
mother, the daughter of Lieutenant-Go vernor Thomas Danforth, issued 
"The Ruling and Ordaining Power of Congregational Bishops, or 
Presbyters. Being Remarks on some Part of Mr. P. Barclay s Per 
suasive, lately distributed in New England. By an Impartial Hand." 
This treatise dealt wholly with the scriptural arguments for and against 
Episcopacy, and, ostensibly at least, ignored the pungent sarcasm and 
remorseless logic of "The Discourse." It was felt, at least by some, 
that it was to take an unfair advantage to assail a work the responsible 
author or publisher of which was on trial before the civil courts, and 
consequently unable to avail himself of the press in reply. 

In the Boston " News Letter " of May 21, 1 724, the following adver 
tisement appeared, which is quite to the point : 

Whereas public notice was given, some time ago, in this Weekly Paper, 
that there was just going to the Press An Answer to the author of the Snake 
in the Grass,* his discourse of Episcopacy, with seasonable Remarks upon all 
the interpolations of the late Edition ot it: This is to give as publick notice, 
that the Author of the Answer hath hitherto supprest what he had prepared, 
because at present he could not encounter the Interpolator upon even G round. 
He leaves others to act for themselves : but for his part he thinks it ungenerous 
to attack one who must not have the Liberty of defending himself. 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch., m., p. 664. * The Rev. Charles Leslie. 



THE TRIAL OF JOIIX CHECKLEY. 269 

111 this manly view of the case and in its further confession of the 
" ill usage " meted out to " the Interpolator," we may possibly detect the 
chivalric spirit and generosity of Checkley s old friend and disputant, 
Walter, of Koxbury, who, as we shall see, a little later entered the 
fray. Others, however, shared no such scruple. They had no idea 
"of fairly and handsomely trying it out on equal terms." The Cam 
bridge Divinity Professor, Edward Wigglesworth, issued " Sober Re 
marks on a Book lately reprinted at Boston, Entituled a Modest Proof," 
etc., and a Presbyterian minister, afterwards the first president of the 
college of New Jersey, Jonathan Dickinson, published " a De 
fence of Presbyterian Ordination in answer to ... a Modest Proof," 
etc. A fellow of Harvard, Nathan Prince, A.M., himself a few years 
later a convert to the Church, issued "An Answer to Lesley and his late 
Interpolator s discourse concerning Episcopacy By N. P. ; " and Walter 
answered "the little Pert Jacobite," as he styles Checkley, with his 
accustomed vigor and vindictiveness. Reprints of English tracts were 
not wanting till the very "atmosphere was heavy with controversy." 
Ere the year ended which had witnessed his trial and condemnation, 
Checkley replied to four of his assailants at once. Dickinson issued a 
rejoinder, which Checkley answered early in the following year, 
speaking of Dickinson s " wild ramble " and " defective reason," and 
adding : " that the Defence of the Modest Proof has given a deep 
and sensible, nay, a mortal wound to your expiring cause, is demon 
strable in that the supporters of it hideously Roar and Rage at the 
Smarting of it." To this Foxcroft rejoined in defence of " the Ruling 
and Ordaining Power of Congregational Bishops or Presbyters" 
retorting upon Checkley s use of the phrase " expiring cause," and 
asserting " that he was really digging a profound grave to bury it in." 
The republication of Dr. Samuel Mather s " testimony from Scripture 
against Idolatry and Superstition," originally preached in Dublin in 
1660, was a proof that the Puritanism Checkley attacked was no less 
bitter than in its days of political preeminence. Words such as these 
are not to be equalled for severity and offensiveness of application by 
any of Checkley s arguments or language. Instancing in " Ten par 
ticulars the principal ceremonies and idols of the Church of England," 
Mather proceeds : 

1. Do you think that ever .lesus Christ wore a Surplice ? 2. The sign of the 

Cross, that special mark of the Beast. Rev. xiii. 16. 3. Kneeling at the Lord s 

Supper .... a dangerous symbolizing with the Papists, who kneel before their 

Breaden God. 4. Bowing to the Altar and setting the Communion-Table altar-wise 

.... a gross piece of Popish Idolatry. 5. Bowing at the Name of Jesus. A 

most vile piece of Syllabical Idolatry 6. Popish Holy Days. As if the 

Lord Jesus Christ himself were not wise enough to appoint Days and Times Suffi 
cient to keep his own Nativity, etc., in everlasting Remembrance in the hearts of his 
Saints, but the Devil and the Pope must keep it out. 7. Consecrating Churches. 
Inherent Holiness is in Persons which Places are no way capable of. 8. Organs and 
Cathedral Musick. Not one word of Institution for them in the Gospel ; but on 
the contrary they are cashiered .... by that General Rule, 1 Cor. xiv, 26, 15. 
9. The Book of Common Prayer. It is as unreasonable and absurd as to force a 
Man to go with Crutches when he is not Lame, etc., etc. 

Surely fanaticism and frenzy could hardly go further. The result 



270 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of all this pamphlet and pulpit, discussion is seen in the steady growth 
of the Church in numbers and influence. 

During a temporary cessation of the polemic war Checkley crossed 
the ocean, seeking the coveted privilege of ministering at the altars 
of the Church whose apostolical institution and government he had 
so stoutly maintained. He had become an object of special dislike 
to the members and ministers of the w Standing Order." He had 
ferreted out and published to the world an attempt of the Puritan 
members to assemble in a " Synod " l and had by his exposure pre 
vented an assembly which, though certainly harmless when assembled 
as an ecclesiastical body merely, became dangerous when convened 
with the sanction and by the direction of the civil authorities. His 
busy mind had sought and obtained an influence over the Indians 
of the north-eastern coast, and he had strong hopes of detaching them 
from the French and from the Jesuit teachers, and making them both 
allies of the English and members of the English Church. But in all 
these plannings there was the single purpose of obtaining the minis 
terial commission, and for this he crossed the ocean a second time in 
1728. He had received "hard usage" in the judgment of good Dr. 
Johnson, of Stratford, when he went before. He was again repulsed. 
The Bishop of London was warned against him as an enemy of the 
House of Hanover, 3 and as peculiarly inimical to the New England 
dissenters ; and, disappointed and defeated in his purpose of serving at 
the church s altars, he again returned to his home, " cast down " it may 
have been, " but not dismayed." The annals of King s Chapel bear 
witness to his undiminished zeal and interest in church matters, and in 
the year 1739 the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Stephen Weston, a friend of 
Bishop Sherlock s, " was found willing to hear this impracticable man, 
begging at the age of fifty-nine, to be allowed to minister in one of the 
hardest spheres on earth to which a churchman was ever doomed." 3 It 
was with no change of views or principles that Checkley received the 
" laying on of hands " in holy orders. He had just republished in 
London his famous "Speech" on his trial, bringing afresh before the 
world the issues on which he had been persecuted for his devotion to 
the church s cause. And there is little doubt but that the grace of 
orders was conferred upon him by the good Bishop of Exeter with 
the full knowledge and consent of the Bishop of London, who was 
still alive, and whose relations to the colonies and to the venerable 
society Avere such that Checkley could not have held a cure or received 
an appointment as missionary had not Bishop Gibson given his consent. 
The newly ordained clergyman, one of the oldest recipients of orders 
in the reformed church, was appointed, with a stipend of 60 ster 
ling, to St. John s Mission, Providence, and began at the age of sixty a 

1 For a notice of this attempted Synod, note charges were sufficient to cany the point, and 

Hntchinson s " Hist, of Mass.," second ed., n., their author exultantly records his pleasure; 

pp. 322, 323. Fide also references passim in the " Thus our Town and the Churches of this 

" Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Church," vol. ill. Province, through the favor of God, pot rid of a 

* The Rev. John Barnard, the Puritan minis- turbulent, vexatious, and persecuting-spirited 

ter of Marblchead, wrote, as he tells us in his non-juror." Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Series m., 

autobiography, to the Bishop of London, accusing Vol. v., p. 229. 

Checkley of lack of learning, of intolerance, and "Updyke s " Narragansett Church," p. 216. 
of disaffection to the government. These 



THE TRIAL OF JOHN CHECKLEY. 271 

ministry that was ended only by his death, after fourteen years faith 
ful service. Old though he was at his entrance upon duty, " No man 
was more desired" 1 by the church-folk of Providence. "Received 
with joy " by his congregation, he labored for the negroes and Indians 
as well as those more immediately of his charge, and in the midst of 
engrossing duties found time and strength to minister at Taunton, 
twenty miles distant, and also at Warwick and Attleborough. From 
time to time he visited (he Indians in various parts of New England, 
with whom he appears to have no little influence, in consequence of his 
ability to speak with them in their own tongues. At length, on the 
15th of April, 1754, having reached the age of nearly three-quarters 
of a century, after two years illness, the faithful old man died, and the 
worshippers who throng the noble church which has replaced the 
simple structure in which he ministered, pass, as they enter "the 
courts of the Lord," over his unmarked grave. "After life s fitful 
fever he sleeps well" and " his works follow him." 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 

rpHE interest attaching to the life of so remarkable a man as John Checklev, 
JL warrants the insertion of the following notices of his mission-work in Provi 
dence. They are transcribed from the yearly abstracts of the venerable society, a 
complete set of which from the beginning or the century to the close of the war of 
the Revolution is to be found among the treasures of the library of Brown University, 
Providence, R.I. : 

The Society removed Mr. (Arthur) Brown from the Town of Providence, be 
cause the Inhabitants of Providence aid not pay their promised Contributions 
towards a Missionary s support ; but they having since thought fit to purchase a 
decent House, with near Twenty Acres of Orchard, Meadow and Pasture Lands, and to 
settle the same forever on their Minister for the time being ; and humbly petitioned 
the Society for a new Missionary. The Society hath sent the Reverend Mr. Checkley, 
lately admitted into Holy Orders in England, upon the Recommendation of the 
Clergy of New England to the Mission at Providence, and there are good Hopes of 
his doing considerable Service there from his being a Native of the Country, from 
his great Skill in the neighbouring Indian Language, and from his long Acquaint 
ance with the Indians themselves, and it is to be hoped Mr. Checkley is by this 
time happily arrived at his Mission. 8. P. O. Abstract, 1738-9, pp. 42, 43. 

The Members of the Church of England in the Town of Providence, by a 
Memorial dated the 4th of May, 1739, return their most unfeigned Thanks to the 
venerable Society for reviving the Mission among them, by the Appointment of the 
Reverend Mr. Checkley to officiate to them, than whom no Man, they say, was more 
desired, and they do not doubt, but he will answer the Expectation of all good Men 
concerning him. And Mr. Checkley, by a Letter dated November 1st, 1739, 
acquaints the Society, that his Congregation received him with Joy ; and that as the 
most steady Application to his Duty is required, he can with Truth affirm, that he 
hath not been absent one Sunday since his Arrival, and hath baptized 13 Persons, 
one of them a Woman sick in Bed, and is preparing some Indians and Negroes for 
that Sacrament ; but at the Desire of the Reverend Mr. Commissary Price, he hath 
sometimes performed divine Service, and preach d on a Wednesday, at Taunton, 20 
Miles distant from Providence, where the Congregation consists of more than 300 

i Memorial of members of the Church of England, May 4, 1739. Quoted in Updike s " Nar- 
ragansett Church," p. 4u8. 



272 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Persons, many of whom were never befoi e in any Christian Church ; and he requests 
a large Common-Prayer Book for the Church of Providence, and some small ones 
for the Use of the Poor. The Society hath sent him a Folio Common-Prayer Book 
for the Church, and two Dozen of small ones for the Use of the Poor at Providence, 
&c. Abstract of 8. P. O., 1739-40, pp. 48, 49. 

The Reverend Mr. Checkley, Missionary at Providence, in New England, by a 
Letter dated November C, 1740, complains of his being hardly beset by several Rom 
ish Missionaries, and particularly by one in the shape of a Baptist Teacher, but that 
he was at last gone away, and notwithstanding all their Pains, his Congregation 
increased ; he hath been visited by some of his old Indian Acquaintance from dis 
tant Places, and they have promised to send their Children to him for Instruction ; 
and he hath himself visited the neighbouring Indians, and performed Divine Ser 
vice, and baptized three Children at the Distance of 50 Miles from Providence with 
out having been absent one Sunday from his Church. He hath baptized within the 
year twenty-six Persons, one a Mulatto and two Negroe Boys, and four white adults, 
two of them a Man and his Wife, whose Behaviour at the Font much moved and 
edified the Congregation and they received with great Devotion the Sacrament of 
the Lord s Supper on the Sunday following, and have been constant Communicants 
from that time. 8. P. 0. Abstract, 1740-41. 

The Reverend Mr. Checkley, Missionary at Providence in this Country, says, 
that notwithstanding all Opposition to the Church increases, and is likely to increase ; 
that he had found a greater Number of People in the Woods than he could have 
imagined, destitute of all Religion, and as living without God in the World; and 
he had likewise visited the Indians upon Quinabaag River, and was in Hopes of 
doing some Good among them. 8. P. O. Abstract, 1743-44. 

[Nothing relating to Mr. Checkley appears in the Abstracts for 1744-45, or 
1745-46, etc.] 

The Church of Providence, in Providence Plantation, being become vacant by 
the Death of the Rev. Mr. Checkley, and the Church-wardens and Vestry of that 
Church having very earnestly petitioned the Society to supply that Loss by the 
Appointment of a new Missionary, the Society hath thought it proper to appoint the 
Rev. Mr. John Graves, Vicar of Clapham in Yorkshire in the Diocese of Chester, a 
most pious and worthy Clergyman, Brother to the Rev. Mr. Matthew Graves, the 
Society s worthy Missionary at New London in the Colony of Connecticut, and ani 
mated witli the same holy zeal to propagate the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to be their 
Missionary to the Church of Providence ; and it is to be hoped that Mr. John Graves, 
he having before his departure resigned the Vicarage of Clapham, is happily arrived 
at that Mission. 8. P. G. Abstract, 1754-55. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

CONTROVERSIES. 



WE have traced in minute detail the controversies crystallizing 
around the name and fortunes of Checkley. This at least was 
due to a man of extraordinary perseverance and indomitable 
courage, to whose uncompromising churchmanship and persistent labors 
the Church in Massachusetts and Rhode Island owes a debt of lasting 
gratitude. With the appearance of his letter to Dickinson, in 1725, the 
controversy, if not terminated, ceased for a time at least. The number 
of converts to the Church steadily increased. The venerable society 
was beset with applications for missionaries from all parts of the New 
England colonies. One after another of the younger Puritan ministers, 
or the recent graduates of the colleges at Cambridge and New Haven, 
"conformed," and undertook the ocean passage, then beset with perils 
of which we know little now, to obtain the ministerial commission from 
apostolic hands. It was not till the year 1731 that the publication of 
a sermon preached by John Barnard, the minister at Marblehead, 
Massachusetts, on Christmas, 1729, on 
"The Certainty, Time, and End of the 
Birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ," awoke the smouldering fires and 
fanned them to a flame. Answered by 
the Rev. George Pigot, in his " Vindica 
tion of the Practice of the Antient Christians, as well as the Church 
of England and other Reformed Churches, in the Observation of 
Christmas Day," the churchman pertinently remarks : 

I wish . . . that the vile Rout and Firing of Guns at Marblehead, on Christmas 
Day, were suppressed by Authority ; and that the same Respect at least were paid 
to that day, and the Thirtieth of January, from his people, as is given by Church 
men to their Thanksgiving and Fast Days. For our Festivals are founded upon as 
food Authority as theirs can be : and if the Act of Toleration secures them from the 
enalty of the Law, for not observing em, so likewise ought the Rule of Modera 
tion to secure us from being insulted upon their Account. 

The observance of the church s feasts and fasts, which had pro 
voked the attack of Barnard, found an admirable defence in the re- 
publication in Boston of Bishop Beveridge s sermon concerning the 
excellency and usefulness of the Common Prayer. 1 The ice once 
broken by Barnard and Pigot, the controversy became general. In 
" The Scripture Bishop ; or, The Divine Right of Presbyterian Ordina- 

i The 29th edition of this tract, originally published at the request of Bp. Compton, was 
issued in Boston, 1733. 




274 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

lion and Government," published in Boston, 1732, the form of a 
dialogue, the interlocutors being named respectively " Prselaticus " and 
"Eleutherius," was adopted by Dickinson to present in the most at- 
tractiv e manner the Presbyterian argument. The Rev. Arthur Browne, 
of Providence, a man of education and culture, replied early the fol 
lowing year in "The Scripture Bishop, an examination of the Divine 
Right of Presbyterian Ordination and Government, considered . . . 
In two Letters to a Friend." In this performance the writer asserts in 
rebutting the charge of persecution, which had been raised against the 
Church of England, that Puritan New England had been "notorious 
for her barbarities and cruel Persecutions," and pressing the argument 
home adds, that she still "robs honest and well-meaning Christians, 
members of the True Church, for the support of schismatical teachers, 
and yearly imprisons them for refusing to comply." " Prcelaticus 
Triumphatus, the Scripture Bishop vindicated. A Defence of the Dia 
logue between Prselaticus and Eleutherius against the Scripture Bishop 
examined. In a letter to a friend, by Eleutherius, V. D. M.," speedily 
followed, in which Dickinson parried with no little ability the thrusts 
of Browne, and pressed home, with all the skill of an experienced 

disputant, arguments hard to 
be met. Meanwhile there 
appeared another answer to 
Dickinson s first attack. The 
amiable Johnson, of Strat 
ford, Connecticut, who, when 
a tutor at Yale, had conformed to the Church, with Cutler, the 
head of the college, and James Wetmore, Avho, though one of the 
signers of the address presented in the library of Yale, September 
13, 1722, had not been able to apply for orders till later, entered 
the arena of controversy under the title of "Eleutherius Enerva- 
tus ; or, an Answer to a Pamphlet intituled the Divine Right of 
Presbyterian Ordination." Published in New York in 1733. Phila- 
lethes and Eusebius, champions of Episcopacy, meet the Presby 
terian Eleutherius at the home of a mutual friend, Attalus, and ply 
the scriptural argument so warmly and well that the recreant Eleuthe 
rius, who had been brought up in the Church, is reclaimed from schism 
and confirmed in his original belief. Two letters from Johnson follow 
this happily conceived and sprightly dialogue in defence of the Epis 
copal government of the Church, in which the argument is made use of, 
that the government of the Church must be sought for, not in its forma 
tive period, while our Lord was on the earth, but after its constitution, 
agreeably to the divine injunctions, when the faith and order had be 
come fixed and settled. To this able presentation of the church s 
argument Foxcroft replied in his " Eusebius Ineriuatus. Just Remarks 
on a late Book Intitled Eleutherius Enervatus . . . done by way of 
Dialogue by Phileletith Bangor, Y. E. B." This bitter and biting 
answer was appended to Dickinson s " Prrolaticus Triumphatus," and 
is undoubtedly the most trenchant of all the pamphlets issued on the 
Presbyterian side. A "Letter from a Minister of the Church of Eng 
land to his Dissenting Parishioners," by Johnson, issued the same 




CONTROVERSIES. 275 

year, had elicited a reply from " an Irish Teacher " in his neighborhood, 
by the name of Graham. In noticing these " Remarks " of Graham, 
Johnson replied as well to Foxcroft, in a postscript to " A Second Letter 
of a Minister of the Church of England to his Dissenting Parishioners," 
published the following year. In this "Second Letter" Johnson re 
capitulates and enforces the positions he had earlier taken in defence of 
the Church. These " reasons" are as follows : 

1 . My first Reason against you was, that you are destitute of the Episcopal 
Government, which was at first appointed and established in the Primitive Church, 
and continued down for 1500 years, and is still, by God s Goodness continued and 
established in our Nation and Mother Country, as well as in several other Protes 
tant Countries Under this head I told you, that you have utterly forsaken 

the Scripture Rule, in not Ordaining Deacons, Acts, 6. 6., and in the Layity s Ordain 
ing Ministers, for which you have no Scripture Rule or Example, but the Contrary. 
This indeed you are generally asham d of, and have long laid aside. But I showed 
you from the Original Platform agreed upon in 1649, Chap. 9, it was the ancient 
allowed Custom of the Country, and has propagated a fundamental Disorder down 
to this very Day 

2. My next Objection was, that the Separation was founded upon an unwar 
rantable Disobedience to Authority, both in Church and State, contrary to those 
Texts, I. Pet. 2. 13, and Heb. 13. 17. . . 

3. My third Objection was of your being in a state of unjustifiable Separa 
tion from the Church 

4. My fourth Reason was, your not reading the Holy Scriptures in Public 
Worship, which I proved it to be your Duty to do, from Luke 4. 6, Acts 13. 27, 

1. Tim. 4. 13 

5. I told you it appeared to me a great Duty commanded by Christ, Luke 11. 

2, Mat. 6. 8, to use the Lord s Prayer in Public Worship 

6. I found fault with you that you are destitute of Public Forms of Prayer, 
which I proved to be the ancient Scripture-Method, from the examples of David, 
Solomon, Hezekiah, Daniel, our Saviour in John 17, and Mat. 6. 9, & 26, 44, and 
the Apostles, Acts 4. 24, &c 

7. Another thing I told you wherein you appeared to me to vary from the 
Scripture way of Worship is, that the People do not bear apart in your publick Wor 
ship. . . 

8. Another thing wherein you appeared to me to have gone off from Script 
ure rule and Example, was your Neglect of bodily Worship, which I proved to be 
you Duty from 1 Cor., 6. 20, where we are required to glorifie God with our Bodies, 
as well as our Spirits 

The last thing I objected against you, was your teaching Children " That 
God has preordained whatsoever comes to pass." For I say, since Sin has come to 
pass it seems clear to me that you must herein teach them that God has preordained, 
i.e., willed, Sin, &c. I added, that your Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation seemed 
to me decidedly inconsistent with what God declares with an Oath, in Ezek. 33. 11, 
that he hath no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth. Chap. 18. 32, &c 

This well-reasoned pamphlet, rising almost to the size, as it cer 
tainly does to the dignity, of a volume, closes with these earnest words, 
indicative of the temper and style of the writer and man : 

. For GOD S sake, my Brethren, Let us not, for the Future, study to put the 
worst Constructions we can on one another s Words or Actions ; but let us rather 
endeavour to make the best we can of them : Let us not try to niagnifie and aggra 
vate the Differences between us, but rather to make as little of them, and to consider 
them with as much Tenderness, as possible : Let us not dispute which has already 
most or least Charity, but let us strive to see who shall hereafter, really and in fact, 
most abound in the Practice of that Heavenly Virtue, both towards each other, and 
toward all Men : This is the best Course we can take, as far as possible in this im 
perfect State, to reconcile ourselves to one another, both in Judgment and Practice : 



// 



276 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

to meet together in Truth, and live in Peace here, or however to meet at last in that 
perfect State of Truth and Peace, and Holiness hereafter, where GOD and Charity 
alone shall forever Reign. 

Two years elapsed before Graham replied to this dignified and 
manly defence of the Church. In the meantime Charles Chauncy, a 

rising Puritan minister of Boston, 
destined to become one of the fore- 
most men of his profession in the 
land, published proposals in the Bos- 
ton "News-Letter," of May 30, 
1734, of "A Compleat View of the 
first Two Hundred Years after Christ, touching Episcopacy." Sub 
scriptions failed to warrant the appearance of this work, which was not 
destined to see the light for a whole generation, and then to gain a 
reading only in connection with the controversy respecting an Ameri 
can episcopate. Among the " Theses " prescribed for the Master s 
degree at Harvard in 1733, is this : "Is an unbroken Apostolic Succes 
sion necessary to the Validity of the Ministry ? " Of course it was the 
negative of the proposition that was maintained. 

In 1736 Jonathan Dickinson again entered the polemic arena, 
with the issue from the press of John Peter Zenger, of New York, of 
" The Vanity of Human Institutions in the Worship of God." The 
motto of this sermon, which was originally preached at Newark, N.J., 
June 2, 1736, is taken from Gal. iv. 9, and the turning " to the weak 
and beggarly elements" referred to is explained in the prefatory 
address to the Presbyterian congregation at Newark, which speaks of 
" the Circumstances of your Congregation where so many were enclined 
without any known Cause, to change their Profession and forsake your 
Communion." In the following February Mr. Dickinson felt it 
incumbent upon him to return to the attack, in " A Defence of a Ser 
mon . . . against the Exceptions of Mr. John Beach, in a Letter to 
him," occupying upwards of one hundred pages, and in the following 
year, "A Second Defence " is issued at Boston, at even greater length, 
with a view of meeting "The Exceptions of Mr. John Beach, in his 
Appeal to the Unprejudiced," and having, for its heading, the title 
" The Keasonableness of Non-Conformity to the Church of England in 
Point of Worship." John Beach, who was the object of Dickinson s 
repeated assaults, had conformed to the Church in 1732, and was the 
missionary of the venerable society at Newtown, Connecticut. Gradu 
ating from Yale College in 1721, the Puritan ministers of Connecticut 
sent him to counteract the tendency towards the Church among the 
people of Newtown and Ripon. This " very popular insinuating young 
man" l being " well-affected towards the Church, "and using "some of 
the Prayers out of the Liturgy," for a tune allayed the discontent, until, 
on "inquiry, reflection ancl prayer," he declared publicly for the 
Church, and sailed for England to receive the ministerial commission. 
"Ingenuous and studious," a "truly serious and conscientious Chris 
tian," as Dr. Johnson styles him. 2 his change of ecclesiastical relations 

i Conn. Ch. Docs., I., p. 99. * Ibid., I., p. 152. 



CONTROVERSIES. 277 

occasioned great uneasiness among the congregationalists, and his 
return to his old home in the capacity of a missionary of the venerable 
society was made the ground of a bitter and unrelenting personal op 
position. " Johnson s Plain Reasons for Conforming to the Church " 
had been issued at the instance of a brother of the new convert, who 
had himself conformed to the Church, 1 and when the controversy aris 
ing out of the " scurrilous and abusive ballad " published by John 
Graham, to which we have referred, had been closed by Johnson, 
Beach took up the Church s side in reply to Dickinson, as we have seen, 
in his " Vindication of the Worship of the Church of England." The 
rejoinder of Dickinson was immediately met by Beach in his " Appeal 
to the Unprejudiced," in the course of which appears this personal 
allusion to his change of views : 

I have evened the scale of my judgment as much as possibly I could ; and, to 
the best of my knowledge, I have not allowed one grain of worldly motive on 
either side. I have supposed myself on the brink of eternity, just going into the 
other world to give up my account to my great Judge ; and must I be branded for 
an anti-christ, or heretic and apostate, because my judgment determines that the 
Church of England is most agreeable to the Word of God ? I can speak in the 
presence of God, .... that I would willingly turn dissenter again, if you or any 
man living would show me reason for it. But then it must be reason (whereby 1 
exclude not the Word of God, the highest reason), and not sophistry and 
calumny, as you have hitherto used, that will convince a lover of truth and right. 

With this trenchant pamphlet the controversy, so far as the 
Church was concerned, was temporarily closed. The charge of 
" Arminianism " had been made by the veteran controversialist, Dick 
inson, in his attack upon Mr. Beach; and when, after a little, the 
polemic strife was renewed, it was in the form of a doctrinal dispute 
rather than, as before, a contest as to matters of polity or prayers. In 
the " advertisement " to " A Letter from Aristocles to Authades con 
cerning the Sovereignty and the Promises of God," published in 
Boston in -1745, 2 Dr. Johnson gives the following reasons for its 
appearance : 

What prevailed on me to consent to the publishing of the following Letter, 
was a sincere and firm Persuasion that it is really the Cause of God and his CHRIST 
that I here plead, and that the eternal Interest of the Souls of Men is very nearly 
concerned in it. For it is manifest to me that some Notions have of late been 
propagated and inculcated in this Country that are equally destructive to the right 
Belief both of God and the Gospel. I have indeed that Charity for those that 
have done it, that I do not believe they are at all sensible of these fatal Conse 
quences of what they teach, tho I very much wonder they are not aware of them. 

I am not insensible that the odious Name of Arminianism will be the Cry 
against these papers from those little Minds that are affected with Sounds more than 
Sense, and that are engaged at any Rate to support a Party, without seriously and 
impartially attending to the Truth and Right of the Case. But I do hereby declare 

1 Beardsley s " Hist, of the Epis. Church in on " God s Sovereign Free Grace," in 1748. It 

Conn.," I., p. 95. needed not the issue of these pamphlets, calm, 

2 Archseologia Americana, vi., p. 487. Dr. logical, and convincing, as they are, to secure 

Beardsley, in his " Hist, of the Epis. Ch. in for Johnson the Oxford Doctorate. He had 

Conn.," I., p. 137, assigns the year 1744 as the long since earned a claim to this dignity by the 

close of this controversy ; but Dr. Johnson s re- respect for his scholarship and ability he bad 

joinder to Dickinson bears date of 1747, and he obtained on both sides of the Atlantic, 
contributed a preface to Mr. Beach s pamphlet 



278 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

that I abhor all such Party Names and Distinctions, and that I will call no Man 
Master upon Earth, for one is my Master in Heaven. The only Question worth 
attending to is not what Calvin or what Anninius taught, but what CHRIST and his 
Apostles taught ; for lie alone was the Author and Finisher of our Faith. And 
(all Metaphysics and Words without any Meaning being set aside, which have 
nothing to do in the present Subject) I numbly submit it to every one s Candor 
and unbyassed Consideration, whether what follows be not truly the Doctrine of 
Christ : The Substance of which may be briefly expressed in the following Manner, 
and in the very Language of the Holy Ghost, viz. : 

" That God really means as he says, when he says, and swears by himself, That 
he hath no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth : That he is not willing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to Repentance and be saved . And that he 
hath given his Son a Ransom for all, who accordingly hath tasted Death for every 
Man, and was a Propitiation for the Sins of the Whole World : So that whosoever 
will may now come and take of the Waters of life Freely. And, because of our 
inability to help ourselves, God hath, by his blessed Son, assured us that he will, 
for his sake, give his Holy Spirit to every one that seriously asks him, and earnestly 
strives to work out his Salvation with Fear and Trembling, in whom he works by 
his blessed Spirit both to will and to do : And that he will, through his free Grace 
in Jesus Christ, most assuredly pardon every true Penitent, accept of every sincere 
Believer, and eternally reward all those that, in the way of well doing, or in a stead 
fast Course of sincere and universal Obedience to the Gospel, are faithful unto the 
Death." This is the true Doctrine of Jesus Christ ; and this is all that I was con 
cerned to defend in the following Letter. 

To this able and dispassionate treatise Dickinson replied the fol 
lowing year, in a "Vindication of God s Sovereign Free Grace," 
published in Boston, and shortly after in a " Second Vindication." 
Mr. Beach, in 1747, contributed to the controversy a reply to Dickin 
son, entitled "God s Sovereignty and Universal Love reconciled," 
while Dr. Johnson published at the very beginning of the same year 
"A Letter to Mr. Jonathan Dickinson, In Defence of Aristocles to 
Authades, Concerning the Sovereignty & Promises of God, From 
Samuel Johnson, D.D." The following year appeared Dickinson s 
"Second Vindication of God s Sovereign Free Grace, Against the 
Exceptions made to a former Vindication by Mr. John Beach, in his 
Discourse entitled God s Sovereignty, and his Universal Love to the 
Souls of Men reconciled, In a Letter to that Gentleman." The 
energetic Beach was not laggard in the strife, but before his answer 
could appear his antagonist had died. The " Second Vindication of 
God s Sovereign Free Grace Indeed, in a fair and candid Examination 
of the last Discourse of the late Mr. Dickinson" had a preface by Dr. 
Johnson. This closed the controversy so far as the Rector of Strat 
ford was concerned ; but Beach, whose appetite for discussion had 
evidently not been appeased, found a new antagonist, and issued the 
same year a pamphlet of twenty-three pages, with the title, "An 
Attempt to Prove the Affirmative of that Question, Whether there be 
any Certainty that a Sinner, under the Advantages of the Gospel and 
Common Grace, striving with all his Might, and persevering to the 
last in his utmost Endeavors to please God, shall obtain such a Measure 
of Divine Assistance as is necessary to fit him for Eternal Salvation ? 
or, Whether God be a rcwarder of all those who diligently seek him ? 
Containing some Remarks upon a late Piece, entitled : A Vindication 
of Gospel Truth, and Refutation of Some dangerous Errors, etc., 
Done in a Letter to Mr. Jedediah Mills." The doctrinal question 




CONTROVERSIES. 279 

being in a measure disposed of, the controversy broke out anew with 
reference to the old issues. 

A sermon preached at the ordination of the Rev. Noah Welles, 
of Stamford, Conn., by the Rev. Noah Hobart, on the last day of the 
year 1746, had contained some reflections on the Church and its mem 
bers, which were answered by the missionary at Rye, N.Y., the 
Rev. James Wetmore, in his "Vindication of the Professors of the 
Church of England in Connecticut 
against the Invectives contained in a 
Sermon preached at Stamford by Mr. 
Noah Hobart, Dec. 31, 1746. In a Let 
ter to a Friend." The Rev. Henry 
Caner, of Newport, issued early the fol 
lowing year a " Discourse on the Public 
Worship of God, the Liturgy of the Church of England, etc." Caner s 
maiden effort was, in a measure, overlooked ; but Hobart was not a 
man likely to pass lightly by the animadversions of Wetmore. Taking 
up and appropriating to himself the claim earlier advanced by John 
son in his "Letters to his Dissenting Parishioners," there appeared, in 
a ponderous duodecimo of one hundred and thirty-nine pages, "A 
Serious Address To the Members of the Episcopal Separation in JVew- 
Enyland. Occasioned by Mr. Wetmore s Vindication of the Profes 
sors of the Church of England in Connecticut. Being an attempt to 
fix and settle these three points : 

I. Whether the inhabitants of the British Plantations in America, those of 
New-England in particular, are OBLIGED, in Point of Duty, by the Laws of ftod or 
Man, to conform to the Prelatic Church, by Law established in the South Part of 
Great Britain. 

IJ. Whether it be PKOPER iti point of Prudence for those who are already 
settled in such chiu-ches as have so long subsisted in New-England, to forsake them 
and go over to that Communion. 

III. Whether it be LAWFUL for particular Members of New-English Churches 
to separate from them, and join in Communion with the Episcopal Assemblies in 
the Country. By Noah Hobart, A.M., Pastor of a Church of Christ in Fairfield." 

This ambitious title indicates with sufficient precision the animus 
and argument of the book. Its appearance was followed by a reprint 
of Micajah Towgood s "Dissenting Gentleman s Answer to the Rever 
end Mr. White ; Three Letters in which a Separation from the Estab 
lishment is fully justified ; The Charge of Schism is refuted and re 
torted ; and the Church of England and the Church of Jesus Christ 
are impartially compared, and found to be constitutions of a quite 
Different Nature." Several editions of this tract, which was one of 
the ablest of the dissenters publications, were issued in Boston and 
New York, and in its various forms was widely circulated throughout 
the northern colonies. Mr. Wetmore returned to the attack with a 
reprint of another famous polemical treatise on the side of the Church, 
and "The Englishman directed in the Choice of his Religion, with a 
Prefatory Address to the Gentlemen of America by J. Wetmore," 
closed up the controversial issues of the year. 

In 1749 John Beach issued " A Cairn and Dispassionate Vindication 



280 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of the Profession of the Church of England against Noah Hobart," 
with a preface by Dr. Johnson, and an appendix containing Wetmore s 
and Caner s animadversions. Jedediah Mills replied to Beach s attack 
on him of the preceding year, and an edition of the Rev. John White s 
" Letters to a Dissenting Gentleman " served to correct the arguments 
and misrepresentations of Towgood s dissenting gentleman s answer to 
White. 

The following year, 1750, the controversy took a new form. 
Two issues alone continued the Episcopal discussion, with a brief re 
joinder by Moses Dickinson to " Mr. Beach s Second Reply to Jonathan 




11EV. JAMES McSPAKKAN. 

Dickinson s Second Vindication of God s sovereign free grace." These 
issues were the reprint of " A Discourse on Government and Religion ; 
calculated for the Meridian of the 30th of January," and Jonathan 
Mayhew s " Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher 
Powers : with Reflections on the Resistance made to King Charles I. 
and on the Anniversary of his Death, in which the Mysterious Doc 
trine of that Prince s Saintship and Martyrdom is unriddled." 

In 1751 Beach published a " Continuation of the Vindication of 
the Professors of the Church of England against Mr. Hobart," while 
Hobart issued " A Second Address to the Members of the Episcopal 
Separation in New England " as an answer to the criticisms of Johnson 
and Wetmore. 



CONTROVERSIES. 281 

In 1752 the Rev. James McSparran, D.D., of Narragansett, 
published a sermon from Hebrews v. 4, on "The Sacred Dignity 
of the Priesthood Vindi 
cated." The occasion of x^ ___ p~~/Q 
this discourse, which was 77y>**f^/ ftf 1/10 ASl/l^fa }1~ 
preached on Sunday, Au- J*"rr* *syr 
gust 4, 1751, at St. Paul s, / / 
Narragansett, was de 
scribed by the preacher himself in a letter to his cousin and corre 
spondent, the Rev. Paul Limerick, of Ireland, printed in the appendix 
to the writer s "America Dissected " : 

Vagrant, illiterate preachers swarm where I am ; and the native Novanglian 
clergy of our Church, against the opinion of the European Missionaries, have intro 
duced a custom of young scholars going about and reading prayei-s, etc., where 
there are vacancies, on purpose that they may step into them when they can get 
orders ; yea, have so represented the necessity and advantages of the thing, that 
the very Society connive at it, if not encourage it. This occasioned my preaching, 
and afterwards printing, the inclosed discourse, on which I shall be glad to have 
your sentiments. . . . And as this was a bold step, I have sent one to the Bishop of 
London, and other Members of the Society ; and I hope, instead of procuring me a 
reproof, it will open their own eyes, and make them guard better against irregulari 
ties, which, when they happen to be coeval with any church, are hard to be re 
formed. 1 

Although the most cursory perusal of Dr. McSparran s sermon 
could not fail to convince any unprejudiced mind that the object of the 
preacher was to point out and correct certain irregularities which had 
crept into his own communion, the appearance of the discourse was 
made the signal for a bitter attack upon the Church. Mr. Samuel 
Beaven published "The Religious Liberties of the Christian Laity 
Asserted." Another reply issued anonymously, but the work of John 
Alpin, was entitled " An Address to the People of New England, 
occasioned by the preaching and publishing of certain Doctrines de 
structive of their rights and liberties, both religious and civil " (by 
James McSparran ) , " in a sermon entitled The Sacred Dignity of the 
Christian Priesthood Vindicated, by a native of New England." The 
motto of this splenetic production was taken with singular appropri 
ateness from 2 Peter ii. 16. A lawyer in Newport, Mr. William 
Richardson, replied to Alpin in an essay entitled " The Liberty of the 
Laity not infringed by the Sacred Dignity of Christian Priesthood, 
containing some gentle animadversions on a late Rhapsody, with a 
short Appendix by a Layman." Beaven rejoined in a pamphlet entitled 
" Lay Liberty re-asserted, in a Letter to the late Orthodox Champion 
for the Dignity of the Christian Priesthood." Dr. McSparran took 
no notice of his assailants, and with these issues of the local press 
the controversy which had not attracted attention to any extent be 
yond Newport and the adjacent mainland came to an end. 2 A New 
York reprint, issued in 1753, of Squire s "Answer to some late Papers 
entitled the Independent Whig ; so far as relate to the Church of 
England, as by Law Established, etc., "closed the general controversy 

1 Updike s " Narragansett Church," pp. 238, 239, 527. Ibid., pp. 238-241. 



282 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



for a number of years. It was in connection with the bitter strife en 
gendered by the struggle of the Church in the colonies for the episco 
pate that the polemic war again broke out. For a time the champions 
on either side rested on the field of battle. In the effectual silencing 
of their opponents and in the growth of the Church throughout the 
land the fruits of victory at least were found on the church s side. 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE. 



FOR the bibliography of these controversies, which, in their frequency and the 
numerous issues from the press, to which they gave birth, evidently occupied 
much of the time and thought of New England readers of the last century, we 
would refer to the " Archaeologia Americana," vi., pp. 307-661, which contains a 
" Catalogue of Publications in what is now the United States, prior to the Revolution 
of 1776-6." 




HEV- JOHH-aEACH A-M- 

roUKDEVOF TH1VWUSK- 

BORN ATSTFWf ORB COfl NA-DflD 



COMCriCfl CWJCMINGTO WCHUflC H Of Nd-WtDHE V*S AOMI I Ttt> 
TOHOlvORDeRSINtNCtAN&ADMDCCXXJliWDffPOlKTtOfllSSIOIWW 



VWSIAl I5TA8UAF*IAOU 




No portrait of the Rev. John Beach is known to exist. On the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Trinity parish, Newtown, Conn., a 
memorial tablet, secured through the exertions of the present rector, the Rev. 
(rouverneur Morris Wilkins, a descendant of the celebrated Isaac Wilkins, D.D., 
of Westchester, N.Y., was placed in the church as a fitting testimony that "he, 
being dead, yet speaketh." 



CHAPTER XVII. 



DOCTOR JOHNSON, OF STRATFORD, AND THE GROWTH OF 
THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 



earliest indication of the presence of churchmen in Con 
necticut appears in a " humble address and petition " laid be 
fore the General Assembly, in October, 1664. This document, 
signed by William Pitkin, Michael Humphrey, John Stedman, James 
Enno, Robart Reeve, John Moses, and Jonas Westover, all freemen 
of the corporation of Connecticut, and " professors of the Protestant 
Christian Religion, Members of the Church of England, and subjects 
to our sovereign lord, Charles the Second, by God s grace king of 
England," was intended "to declare our grievances, and to petition for 
a redress of the same." The petitioners complain of their " past and 
present want of those Ordinances which," they assert, " ought to be 
administered " to them and their children "as members of Christ s vis 
ible Church." They appeal to the language of the charter, and to the 
king s letter to the Massachusetts Bay Colony of June 20, 1662, as 
warranting their claim to the administration of the sacraments, and 
they ask the action of the assembly to put them " in a full and free 
capacity of enjoying those fore-mentioned advantages, which to us, as 
members of Christ s visible Church, do of right belong." They refer 
to the relations they stand in to " Our Mother Church," and assert that 
they and theirs " are not under the due care of an orthodox ministry 
that will in a due manner administer" the two sacraments. Profess 
ing themselves to be " as sheep scattered having no shepherd," they 
pray "that for the future, no law in this corporation may be of any 
force to make us pay or contribute to the maintenance of any minister 
or officer of the Church that will neglect or refuse to baptize our 
children, and to take care of us as of such members of the Church as 
are under his or their charge and care." This plea for comprehension, 
on the part of the few " members of the Church of England," was 
favorably received, and the following action entered upon the minutes 
of the General Assembly, to wit: - 

This Court vnderstanding by a writing presented to them from seuerall per 
sons of this Colony, that they are agrieved that they are not enterteined in Church 
fellowship ; this Court hauing duely considered the same, desireing that the rules 
of Christ may be attended, doe commend it to the ministers and churches in this 
Colony, to consider whether it be not their duty to enterteine all such persons whoe 
are of an honest and godly conuersation, haueinga competency of knowledg in the 
principles of religion, and shall desire to joyne w th them in Church fellowship, by 



1 Copied by C. J. Hoadley, M.A., from " Con- Doc. 106, and published in the " 
iccticut State Papers, Ecclesiastical," Vol. I., view," x., pp. 106, 107. 



1 Am. Church Re- 

necticut 



284 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

an explicitt covenant, and that they haue their children baptized, and that all the 
children of the Church be accepted and acco w real members of the Church, and 
that the Church exercise a due Christian care and watch ouer them ; and that when 
they are growne up, being examined by the officer in the presence of the Church, 
it appears in the judgment of charity, they are duely qualit yed to perticipate in that 
great ordinance of the Lord s Supper, by theire being able to examine themselues 
and discerne the Lord s body, such persons be admitted to full comunion. 

The Court desires y the seuerall officers of y respective churches would be 
pleased to consider whether it be not the duty of the Court to order the churches to 
practice according to the premises, if they doe not practice w th out such an order." 

Pitkin was a man of note in the colony, the attorney of the cor 
poration, and treasurer from time to time. Enno, or Ennoe, as the 
name is sometimes written, and Humphrey, had been pronounced 
guilty by the General Court, only the year before, on the complaint 
of " the Church of Christ at Winsor," 2 of " offensive practices " likely 
to "prove prejudicial to the welfare of the Colony," and, although the 
records do not recite the nature of these " practices," they appear to 
have been connected with ecclesiastical disputes, and may have grown 
out of the very " grievances " complained of at a later day. We hear 
nothing more of these aggrieved churchmen. In being " entertained " 
or received into communion with the "established" or "standing 
order," they, doubtless, were satisfied. No hope, even, of securing 
in their new home the services and sacraments of their "Mother 
Church " seems to have entered into their minds. Nearly half a cen 
tury was to pass ere that mother-church was to find a welcome and a 
permanent home in the Puritan colony of Connecticut. 

Towards the close of the seventeenth century it appears that 
there were " a considerable number of freeholders, inhabitants of the 
town of Stratford, professors of the faith of the Church of England," 
who were " desirous to worship God in the way of their forefathers ; " 
but, to use their own language, they were " hindered from enjoying 
the holy ordinances of Jesus Christ" until the year 1705. There is 
record of services at New London on the fifteenth Sunday after Trin 
ity, September 13, 1702, when the Rev. John Talbot preached to a 
large auditory in the morning, and the Rev. George Keith in the after 
noon, at the meeting-house occupied by Mr. Gurdon Saltonstall. 
There is little doubt but that this was the first time that the services 
of the Church of England were publicly held in the colony. It is 
certain that, prior to this date, no clergyman of the Church had 
preached to a Connecticut audience. It was through the kind offices 
of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, of Scarsdale Manor, in the province of 
New York, whose " principles and natural temper " led him " to do the 
Church all the service " he could, that the minister of Rye, the Rev. 
George Muirson, visited the few church-folk of Stratford. Applica 
tion for services had been made by them to the rector of Trinity, New 
York, the preceding year, to preach and administer baptism at Strat 
ford ; but, in consequence of the distance from New York, the duty 
was assigned to Mr. Muirson. In company with Colonel Heathcote 
this zealous young missionary visited Stratford on the fifteenth Sun- 

> The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, _prior. to the union with New Haven 
Colony. Hartford, 1860, pp. 437, 438. * Ibid., i>. 420. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 285 

day after Trinity, September 1, 1706. Application was made to the 
town authorities, for " the use of the publick meeting house," " either 
before, after, or between their exercises," but without success. "The 
ministers," wrote Colonel Heathcote to the secretary of the venerable 
society, were 

Very uneasy at our coming amongst them, and abundance of pains was taken 
to persuade and terrify the people from hearing Mr. Muirson ; but it availed noth 
ing, for, notwithstanding^ all their endeavours, he had a very great congregation, and, 
indeed, infinitely beyond my expectations. The people were wonderfully surprised 
at the order of our church, expecting to have heard and seen some wonderful, 
strange things, by the account and representation of it that their teachers had given 
them. . . . Mr. Muirson baptized about twenty-four, mostly grown people; 
and when he goes there next, I hope many more will be added to the church. 2 

At the second visit made by Mr. Muirson, who was not deterred 
by hard usage and threats of imprisonment, 3 the missionary, as we 
learn from Colonel Heathcote, who accompanied him, 

Baptized four or five more, mostly grown persons, and administered the sacra 
ment to fifteen. He met with more opposition this time than the last, the justices 
having taken the fredom to preach, giving out at the same time, amongst the 
people, that he and all his hearers should be put in gaol. 4 

On the night before the administration of the Lord s Supper one 
of the council, named Joseph Curtice, accompanied by James Judson, 
a justice of the peace, called at the house where Colonel Heathcote and 
the missionary were lodged, and read a formal protest against the. 
introduction of the church services in the town as illegal and a violation 
of the law of the colony : 

That there shall be no ministry or church administration entertained or at 
tended by the inhabitants of any town or plantation in this colony, distinct and 
separate from, and in opposition to, that which is openly and publickly observed 
and dispensed by the approved ministers of the place. 5 

On the following day, the member of the council, Mr. Joseph 
Curtice, 

Stood in the highway himself, and employed several others to forbid any 
person to go to the assembly of the Church of England, and threatened them with 
a fine of five pounds, as the law directed. 6 

It was an additional source of alarm that the independent minis 
ter of the place, the Rev. Mr. Reed, "the most ingenious man they 
have amongst them," writes Colo 
nel Heathcote, was favorably in- j^ 
clined towards the Church, and /J t rf s 

was only hindered from going to T/.^ A<rnJJ (/ 
England for orders by circum- * r/7LQ\/W \ 
stances over which he had no \^ ^/ V^- 

control. He lost his place in 

consequence of his leaning towards the Church, and was succeeded 
by the Rev. Timothy Cutler, who was in time to lead that vast 

i Hawks and Perry s " Connecticut Church Documents," i., pp. 39, 40. * Ibid., I., p. 19. 

3 1 bid., p. 17. * Ibid., pp. 19, 20. > Ibid., pp. 23, 24. *Ibid., p. 41. 




286 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

army of converts from Congregationalism to the Church at the sacrifice 
of place, power, and the love of all his early friends. At the third visit 
of Muirson and Colonel Heathcote, in April, 1707, the organization of 
the churchmen of Stratford was formally effected, and church- wardens 
and vestrymen chosen for the parish of Christ Church. Shortly after 
this step had been taken the infant parish was visited by the Rev. Evan 
Evans, of Philadelphia, who accompanied Mr. Muirson, with a view 
of ascertaining by personal inspection the prospects of the Church in 
the colony, and of furthering, on his return to England, the petition 
of the church people for help from home. In company with this ex 
cellent clergyman Mr. Muirson visited Fairfield, where he had been 
invited to preach and baptize some children. An application to the 
minister and magistrates for the use of the meeting-house for a week 
day service was refused. The Church was "railed and scoffed at," 
and even M the liberty of ringing a bell or beating a drum, to give the 
people notice," 1 was denied. Still a " large congregation" assembled 
at a private house, " notwithstanding all the stratagems used to hinder 
the people from coming." We may gather some interesting particu 
lars of the opposition encountered by this first " missioner " of the 
Church in Connecticut from an admirable letter he addressed to the 
secretary of the venerable society who had counselled " meekness and 
moderation " in his efforts to introduce the Church among the inde 
pendents : 

It will require more time than you will willingly bestow on these lines to ex 
press how rigidly and severely they treat our people, by taking their estates by 
distress, when they do not willingly pay to support their ministers. And though 
every churchman in that colony pays his rate for the building and repairing their 
meeting-houses, yet they are so maliciously set against us, that they deny us the 
use of them, though on week-days. They tell our people that they will not suffer 
the house of God to be defiled with idolatrous worship and superstitious ceremonies. 
They are so bold that they spare not openly to speak reproachfully, and with great 
contempt of our church. They say the sign of the cross is the mark of the beast 
and the sign of the devil, and that those who receive it are given to the devil. 
And when our people complain to their magistrates of the persons who thus speak, 
they will not so much as sign a warrant to apprehend them, nor reprove them for 
their offence. This is quite a different character, to what, perhaps, you have heard 
of that people. That they are ignorant I can easily grant ; for if they had either 
much knowledge or goodness they would not act and say as they do ; but that they 
are hot-heady I have too just reason to believe ; and as to their meaning, I leave 
that to be interpreted by their unchristian proceedings with us. ... I beg that 
you would believe that this account (though seeming harsh and severe, yet no more 
than is true) does not proceed from want of charity, either towards their souls or 
bodies, but purely for the good of both, and to give you better information concern 
ing the state of that people, that proper remedies may be taken for curing the evils 
that are among them, and that our churchmen in that colony may not be oppressed 
and insulted over by them, but that they may obtain a liberty of conscience, and 
call a minister of their own communion, and that they may be freed from paying 
to their ministers, and may.be enabled to obtain one of their own. This is all 
these good men desire. 58 

The death of the devoted Muirson, in October, 1708, put back for 
years the growth of the Stratford church. Surrounded by uncompro 
mising foes, destitute of regular ministrations, it was only by the self- 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," I., p. 24. * Ibid., pp. 30, 31. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 287 

sacrificing labors of the neighboring clergy that life was maintained at 
all, and the good work begun by Muirson saved from utter ruin. The 
services rendered during the dreary interval of months and years that 
elapsed ere a missionary was sent to them by that "faithful and 
worthy laborer in God s vineyard," the Rev. Mr. John Talbot, are 
specially mentioned by the church- wardens and vestry, in their address 
to the Bishop of London and the society, as giving the people " great 
comfort and courage ; " and the visits from the clergy to the westward, 
and the encouragement received from Colonel Heathcote, are referred to 
as the means of enduring " the trouble and grievances " they had ex 
perienced. "The want of a minister," they complained, was "the greatest 
of their afflictions." 1 But it was not until just before Christmas, 1712, 
that this lack was supplied, by the coming of the Rev. Francis Phillips, 
as missionary. Already hopes deferred had diminished the numbers 
of the churchmen, and retarded the building of the church, which had 
been determined upon ere the death of Mr. Muirson ; and then the 
new clergyman, tiring of his life among the poor, persecuted church 
men of this provincial town, spent the most of his time in New York, 
and after less than four months of actual service removed, without leave 
of the society, to Philadelphia. He was " of a temper," writes Colonel 
Heathcote, " very contrary to be pleased with such conversation and 
way of living as Stratford affords," and he "had no sooner seen that 
place but his whole thoughts were bent and employed how he should 
get from it." 3 Thus left " a scorn and reproach to the enemies of the 
church," there is little wonder that the Rector of Rye, the Rev. 
Christopher Bridge, was forced to write to the society " that the 
interest of the church in Stratford seems to be declining." 3 In ad 
dressing the society for relief they refer to the fact that they " have 
had at least a hundred baptized into the church, and have had at one 
time thirty-six partakers of the Holy Communion of the Lord s Sup 
per, and have several times assembled in a congregation between two 
and three hundred persons." 4 The timber for the church had been 
felled " at last," in the spring of 1714, and the hope had been ex 
pressed that the church would be " raised in three months time ;" but 
it was not till Trinity Sunday, May 31, 1722, that the mission received 
its priest, and the Rev. George Pigot entered upon the long vacant 
cure. A few weeks later he was able not only to administer the 
holy communion to thirty, and to baptize twenty-seven infants, but also 
to record his "expectations of a glorious revolution of the ecclesiastics 
of this country," the " President of Yale College, and five more," 
having had a conference with him, and being determined to declare 
themselves professors of the Church of England. We have already 
told the story of that startling defection from independency, which for 
a time shook the New England "standing order " to its foundations. 
Those who made this change were men of the highest position and 
promise, and no one could deny to Timothy Cutler, Samuel Johnson, 
James Wetmore, and Daniel Brown, full credit for conscientious con 
victions in casting in their lot with the almost unknown churchmen 

i Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," I., p. 47. 
> Ibid., p. 50. Ibid., p. 51. Ibid., p. 53. 



288 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

of Connecticut, at the sacrifice of all that they or others might hold 
dear in social position, influence, ease, or wealth. At the conference 
with the college trustees, under the presidency of the governor, Gurdon 
Saltonstall, once minister of New London, and the host of Keith and 
Talbot a score of years before, three of their number, Jared Eliot, 
John Hart, and Samuel Whittlesey, who only doubted the validity of 
Presbyterian ordination, were induced to remain attheir posts. Tradition 
points to one of the three Whittlesey as seeking the valid orders he 
so much craved, at the hands of one of the non-juring bishops in Philadel 
phia, a short time afterwards ; but, be that as it may , the thoughts of relig 
ious men throughout the American colonies were for a time busied with 
questions of church polity and practice to an extent never before equalled. 
In the conversion of Johnson, Cutler, Brown, and Wetmore, it 
does not appear that Pigot had any special part or share. A prayer- 
book, the gift of a Guilford churchman, Smithson by name, had been 
placed in the hand of Johnson ere he entered upon his ministerial life. 
He had earlier read the work of Archbishop King on " The Inventions 
of Men in the Worship of God," and the dislike of extemporaneous 
prayer, which this treatise had increased, was followed by a love and 
reverence for the forms of the Church which led him to the use of the 
prayer-book in his public services. The works of the leading divines 
of the Church of England were to be found on the shelves of the col 
lege library, and, with their help, the young minister pursued a 
course of reading that could not fail to lead him to conform to the 
Church. Even prior to his entrance upon the Congregationalist min 
istry he had his scruples about the validity of the orders he was to re 
ceive. Circumstances to which we have already alluded induced him 
to waive his doubts and enter upon the charge of the parish at West 
Haven. The coming of Pigot into the country, in the spring of 1722, 
gave to Johnson, and the friends who had shared his burden and who 
participated in his doubts, the opportunity for a conference with a clergy 
man of the Church of England who could answer their queries, and im 
part to them needed advice. Though Pigot was present at the famous 
Commencement, when the declaration for the Church was formally made, 
it does not appear that he took any part in the discussion, or that he 
supplied the disputants with arguments. There was no need. Each 
point of the controversy had been carefully examined and studied ere 
a conclusion was reached, and Johnson and his friends came out of the 
discussion only confirmed in their new faith. In the full ardor of their 
new conversion they set out for England for the orders they desired. 
Death invaded their number, and Brown fell a victim to the scourge 
that proved fatal to members who sought the valid commission in after 
years. Cutler found a home and life-long work in Boston. To John 
son was assigned, on his return from England, the work at Stratford. 
His arrival at his new home, early in November, 1723, was the signal for 
new life and new hopes among the church people there. The work on 
the church was at once resumed. It had proceeded " but heavily, by 
reason of the poverty of its professors, who," as Pigot writes, were " too 
closely fleeced by the adverse party to carry it on with despatch." l 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," i., p. 87. 






THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 



289 



It was not till Christmas of the year following the coming of Johnson to 
Stratford that it was opened for divine service, the only church edifice in 
the colony, "a very pleasant and comfortable building." 1 Here, in this 
quiet retreat, occupied in ministering to the people of his cure, and in ex 
tending the Church at Fairfield, where the Church, at the time of his 




coming, was " well enclosed," at Newton, Norwalk, West Haven, and 
Ripton, as well as elsewhere ; engaged in study , the result of which brought 
him face to face and on common ground, in after years, with the leading 
men of his time ; and numbering among his correspondents the best 
and purest spirits at home and abroad, Johnson spent the best part of a 
useful and honored life. His acquaintance with the celebrated Dean 
Berkeley, while this distinguished divine and philosopher was at New 
port, made him a " Berkleian " in his philosophical views ; while in his 
converse with this excellent man, to whom was well ascribed "every 

"Hawks and Perry s "Conn. Church Docs.," I., p. 100. 



290 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

virtue under heaven," he spent many hours of rare intellectual enjoy 
ment, and begun an intimacy which ended only with the life of the 
good bishop. From the Stratford study there went forth, from time 
to time, wise and temperate answers to the attacks made on the Church 
by the dissenters around him ; while, as years rolled on, his studies bore 
fruit in more learned treatises, the preparation and publication of which 
attracted attention and commendation in the Old World as well as in the 
New. The University of Oxford recognized his ability and merit by 
conferring on him the degree of Doctor in Divinity, and the clergy of 
Connecticut asked again and again for his appointment as their commis 
sary ; although this was not granted, as the bishops of London, to whom 
the request was presented, had in the one case settled on another choice 
before the name of Johnson was proposed, and in the latter decided 
not to make any appointment at all. Still the clergy of Connecticut, 
and of the neighboring provinces, looked up to Doctor Johnson as 
their guide and counsellor, and deferred to his wisdom and sought to 
further his plans in all the measures proposed for the church s good or 
advance. On his visit to Oxford, at the time of his journey to Eng 
land for orders, the ancient university, in recognizing his literary 
merits and his devotion to the church s cause, had expressed the hope 
that, through his exertions, another, and yet the same, communion 
might spring into being in the New World : " Speranles nempe, illius 
ministerio aliam et eandem olim nascituram Ecclesiam" l The work 
had found a measure of fulfilment, and in the diploma conferring the 
higher degree of the Doctorate it was so stated " ut incredibili Ecclesim 
incremento summam sui expectationem sustinuerit plane et superaverit." 
The worthy recipient of this merited distinction found in it a fresh in 
centive to live and labor for the Church of God. 

From the correspondence of this excellent man we can gain some 
insight into the condition of the Church in the colony where his minis 
trations were continued for a space of thirty years. Under date of 
February 10, 1727, he writes to the secretary as follows : 

I have just come from Fairfield, where I have been to visit a considerable 
number of my people, in prison for their rates to the dissenting minister, to com 
fort and encourage them under their sufferings. 8 

In a letter to the Bishop of London, referring to the same instance 
of persecution, he says : 

The complaint was drawn up, and some of the persons were in prison before 
I was sent for. Upon their request I came to the prison, and found it full of them, 
and an insulting mob about them. I administered what comfort I could to them, 
but I wish your lordship, or some of your sacred character, could have been by to 
behold the contempt and indignity which our holy religion here suffers among an 
ungrateful people. It could not fail to excite your utmost zeal and compassion ; 
and I assure your Lordship, the Church here is in a gasping condition, though, 
indeed, our people bear it with as much meekness and patience as can be expected. 3 

We give the Puritan governor Joseph Talcott s explanation and 
defence of these and similar acts of oppression : - 

Chandler s "Life of Johnson," p. 71. * Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docu- 

London ed., 1824. ments," i., p. 113. * Ibid., p. 108. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 291 

.... There is but one Church of England Minister in this Colony, and the 
Church with him have the same protection as the rest of our Churches, and are 
under no constraint to contribute to the support of any other minister. There are 
some few persons in another town or two, that have stipulated with the present 
ministers now living in said towns (which persons cannot be much recommended 
for their zeal for religion or morality), who cannot well be judged to act from any 
other motive than to appear singular, or to be freed from a small tax, and have 
declared themselves to be of the Church of England ; and some of them that live 
thirty or forty miles from where the Church of England s minister lives ; these 
have made some objections against their customary contributions to their proper 
minister, under whose administration they have equal privileges with their neigh 
bours. 

The law in this colony is such, that the major part of the householders in 
every town shall determine their minister s maintenance, and all within the pre 
cincts of the town shall be obliged to pay their parts in an equal proportion to their 
estates in said town or societies and so in the precincts of each ecclesiastical society. 
Under this security all our towns and ecclesiastical societies are supplied with ortho 
dox ministers. We have no vacancies at present. 1 

Such is the Puritan view of these acts of oppression. Of the suf 
ferers, whose character for piety or integrity the governor rates so low, 
Johnson writes : 

There are thirty-five heads of families in Fairfield who, all of them, expect 
what these have suffered ; and though I have endeavoured to gain the compassion 
and favours of the Government, yet I can avail nothing ; and both I and my people 
grow weary of our lives under our poverty and oppression. 2 

A few months later Johnson presented to the society, in response 
to the " Queries " sent out by the secretary, a brief sketch of the his 
tory of the Stratford church. In this interesting account of the progress 
of his work he gives the following description of the little structure 
which was the first " Church " in the colony : 

It is a neat, small wooden building, forty-five feet and a half long, thirty and 
a half wide, and twenty-two between joints or up to the roof; but there is no house 
or glebe belonging to it, nor is it at all endowed, nor has it any settled salary 
besides the honorable society s bounty ; only the poor people are as liberal in small 
presents as can be expected of them. 3 

There were about fifty church families within the limits of the 
town, " and besides them, there are a considerable number of people 
scattered up and down in the neighboring towns, some five, some ten, 
twenty and thirty miles off, who come to Church as often as can be 
expected/ 4 There was "no Church westward within forty miles, 
only Fairfield, which is eight miles off, where there is a small wooden 
Church built, and about forty families. * There was " no Church east 
ward within one hundred miles, only at New London, about seventy 
miles off, where I sometimes preach to a good number of people, and 
they are building a wooden Church somewhat larger than ours. 5 
There was " no Church northward at all." " We are," writes the dis 
couraged missionary, " oppressed and despised as the filth of the world, 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents,"!., pp. 106, 107. * Ibid., p. 113. 

8 Ibid., p. 118. IUd., pp. 118, 1 19. Ibid., p. 119. 



292 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

and the offscouring of all things, unto this day." 1 The Puritans "all 
boast themselves of an establishment, and look down upon the poor 
Church of England with contempt, as a despicable, schismatical, and 
popish communion." 2 A stranger, if a churchman, proposing to settle 
in their towns, was "immediately warned" to depart. He could 
not purchase land without leave of the authorities, and it was in 
their power, if he refused to leave, "to whip him out of town." 3 " By 
this means," writes Johnson to the Bishop of London, " several profes 
sors of our Church, for no other crime but their profession, have been 
prevented from settling here." 4 

In May, 1727, the church- wardens and vestry of the church at 
Fairfield petitioned " the Governor, Assistants, and Representatives in 
General Court assembled," for relief " from paying to any dissenting 
minister, or to the building of any dissenting meeting-house." They 
further asked the restoration of the amount taken from them by dis 
traint, as they recite, " we were, ten of us, lately imprisoned for our 
taxes and had considerable sums of money taken from us by distraint." 5 
Upon this petition the General Assembly enacted that all persons who 
were of the Church of England, and those who were of the religious 
societies established by the colonial law, living in the bounds of any 
allowed parish, should be taxed by the same rule and in the same 
proportion for the support of the ministry ; but when it chanced that 
there was a parish of the Church of England, having a clergyman in 
charge, so near any tax-payer, who had declared himself to be of that 
church, that he could and did attend public worship there, the collector 
was then to pay over such an one s tax to the nearest resident church 
clergyman, who was also authorized to receive and recover the same. 
If such portion of the taxes was insufficient for the support of the 
Church of England incumbent, the parish to which he ministered was 
authorized and empowered to levy and collect of the professed mem 
bers such additional assessments as should be deemed necessary. The 
members of the Church of England actually connected with some 
existing " society of the Church of England " were further excused 
from paying taxes assessed for the erection of meeting-houses for the 
established societies of the colony. Content with this measure of 
relief the church People of Fairfield declined to insist on the return of 
the money distrained from them. In fact, the passage of the law 
affording exemption to the members of the Church of England, in the 
matter of taxation for the independent establishment, was in direct 
consequence of the plain-spoken petition of the stout-hearted church 
men of Fairfield. It is recorded on the public records of the colony, 
immediately after the following recital of the Fairfield complaint, from 
which we have already given extracts, and the enactment was evidently 
passed in consequence of this earnest appeal for redress : 

Upon the prayer of Moses Ward, of Fairfield, church warden, and the rest of 
the church wardens, vestry-men, and brethren, representing themselves under 
obligations by the Honourable Society and Bishop of London, to pay to the support 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," I., p. 111. Ibid. 

* Ibid. "Ibid. Ibid., p. 124. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 293 

of the established church, praying this Assembly, by some act or otherwise, to free 
them from paying to dissenting ministers and for the building dissenting meeting 
houses, and complaining that money has been lately taken from them by distress, 
praying that the said money might be returned unto them. The said Ward appeared, 
and by his attorney declaring to this Assembly that he should not insist on the return 
of the* money prayed for, asserted it to have always been esteemed as an hardship by 
those of the profession establisht by this government, to be compelled to contribute 
to the support of the Church of England, where that is the church establisht by 
law ; and thereupon urged that no such thing should be here imposed upon any dis 
senting from the churches here approved and establisht by the law of this govern 
ment ; further urging, that there might be some provision made by the law for the 
obliging their parishioners to the support of their ministers. 1 

All honor to Moses Ward and the outspoken churchmen of Fair- 
field who fought and won this triumph for the Church. 

The same year, 1727, the Kev. Henry Caner entered upon the 
charge of Fairfield. Mr. Caner was a graduate of Yale, in the class 
of 1724, and received his master s degree in course, and an ad eundem 
from the University of Oxford, in 1736, from which honored source 
he obtained the doctorate in 1766. He found a " very serious and 
well-minded people," " ready to entertain any instructions that may 
forward them in the paths of virtue and truth and godliness." 2 He in 
formed the Bishop of London, in less than a year after the passage of 
the act to which we have referred, that 

Although the Dissenters in this Government have lately passed an act to 
exempt all professors of the Church from paying taxes to the support of their min 
isters, yet they take the liberty to determine themselves who may be called Church 
men, and interpret the act to comprehend none that live a mile from the Church 
minister ; by which means not only two-thirds of the Church, but of its revenues also, 
we are entirely deprived of the benefit of ; and the favour which they would seem 
to do us proves, in reality, but a shadow. 3 

To this testimony of Mr. Caner, that of Johnson may be added, 
to the effect that those churchmen " that live scattering in the country 
are yet persecuted as bad as ever." 4 Still, in spite of all these ob 
stacles and petty hindrances, the Church grew. At New Haven and 
Norwalk there were movements for the erection of churches and the 
organization of parishes. In 1728 the churchmen again memorialized 
the assembly : 

That an explanation of the Assembly s Acts, in May last, relating to the prem 
ises, may be given by them, and also that for the future the affairs of the Church 
may be wholly managed by the book of canons relating to gathering taxes for the 
support of the ministry that is established by law according to the rubrick of the 
Church of England ; and that for the future so long as there remains missionaries 
among us, we may gather all needful taxes by said book of canons and not by your 
collectors. 5 

The memorialists further urge that "great contentions have 
already arisen, and many lawsuits, as well as great hardship imposed 
upon us." In asking for relief they at are pains to " assure the As- 

i The Public Records of the Colony of Con- * Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docu- 

necticut, from May, 1726, to May, 1735, inclu- raents," i., p. 125. Ibid., p. 126. 

sive, p. 106. 4 jbid., p. 126. " Ibid., pp. 129, 130. 



294 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

sembly that we are bound in our consciences to adhere to said church 
in doctrine and discipline, let our difficulties be ever so great." In 
view of " the difficulties and oppressions " that the church people 
were under, w seven families " are reported by Johnson to the society 
in 1728, as having " removed hence into New York government." 1 It 
could hardly be otherwise when Caner, in much the same language 
he had earlier employed, writes the same year that church people 
" are slighted and despised, and imposed upon, accounted as the filth 
and dross of the earth, and the oifscouring of all things." 2 To avoid 
some of the annoyances and impositions Caner petitioned the society 
for an appointment as general missionary, serving " from Fairfield to 
Byram river," and residing sometimes in one portion of his field 
and sometimes in another ; but a legal opinion from the society s 
council was unfavorable to such an appointment, as liable to be con 
strued as an attempt at evading the act, and consequently not advisable. 
The church people of New London, Groton, and the adjacent towns, 
to whom Johnson had from time to time ministered, and where, as 
early as April 25, 1723, the Rev. Mr. Pigot had preached and ad 
ministered holy baptism, 3 had applied in 1730 for the appointment 
of Mr. Samuel Seabury, 4 " a gentleman born and bred in this country," 
as the petitioners recite, and their wish was granted. In the petition 
for the appointment of this worthy missionary, a graduate of Harvard 
College in 1724, and a convert to the Church from the Congregation- 
alists, there is brought to our notice for the first time a name which 
the American Church must ever delight to honor, as borne for gen 
erations by some of her best, wisest, and most distinguished sons. In 
1730 Johnson writes that "a good temper towards the church" " very 
sensibly increases." "A love to the church," he continues, "gains ground 
greatly." At Yale College " several young men that are graduates, and 
some young ministers," had been " prevailed with to read and consider 
the matter so far, that they are very uneas} out of the communion of the 
church, and some seem much disposed to come into her service, and those 
that are best affected to the church are the brightest and most studious 
of any that are educated in the country." 5 Two of these converts ap 
pear to have been JohnPierson and Ephraim Bostwick. These with Isaac 
Browne, brother of the lamented Daniel Browne, who died in England 
when Johnson and Cutler were there, all of the class of 1729, at Yale 
College, were doubtless referred to in this letter of Johnson. It was not 
long afterwards that, in 1732, the honored name of John Beach was added 
to the number. More than eight years before, in the summer of 1723, this 
* very popular, insinuating young man," 6 had been sent to Newton, for the 
purpose of counteracting the influence which the Church had obtained there 
and in the adjacent towns. The people of Newton and Ripton had 
applied for a missionary, but, in consequence of the delay which the 
necessity of sending to England for one in holy orders occasioned, 
the temper of the applicants cooled, and the acceptable ministrations 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docu- 4 Hawks and Perry s " Conii. Church Docu 
ments," I., pp. 131, 132. 2 Ibid., p. 133. inents," I., p. 140. 

8 Beardsley s " History of the Episcopal 6 Ibid., p. 142. 

Church in Conn.," i., p. 85. Ibid., p. 29. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 295 

of Mr. Beach put off for all these years the realization of the hopes of 
the few church-folk who were firm to their principles and faith. But 
discussion with his former college tutor, with " inquiry, reflection and 
prayer, opened his eyes to the truth, and on Easter day, the 9th of 
April, 1732, l the eloquent young independent preacher knelt at the chan 
cel-rail of the little church at Stratford, to receive the Holy Communion 
of the Body and Blood of Christ, as an avowed member of the Church 
of England. Recommended by his former instructor to the society 
as " a very ingenuous and studious person, and a truly serious and 
conscientious Christian," Mr. Beach sailed for England for holy 
orders, and on his return was appointed to minister to the people 
among whom he had served as an independent. The conversion of 
Beach was followed by that of others. In 1733 Mr. Johnson writes 
to the Bishop of London : 

That the growing confusion among the Dissenters in these parts very much 
tends, among other means, to put serious and thinking persons upon coming over 
to the church. Among others there are two or three very worthy young ministers 
in this colony, who, I have reason to believe, from no other reason than the love of 
truth and order, and a sense of duty, will, in a little time, declare for us, and two 
of them especially have hopes that the most of their congregations will conform 
with them. One of them is one Mr. Arnold, who succeeded me at West Haven, 
near the college, where I preach once a quarter. 2 

Jonathan Arnold was a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 
1723. Ebenezer Punderson, the other convert referred to, was of the 
class of 1726. The third was, doubtless, Solomon Palmer, of the 
class of 1729, which furnished to the Church four clergymen from its 
seventeen members, while but three of them were ministers of the 
" standing order." In the midst of these notable conversions of the 
studious and thinking men of the colony the Church was daily adding 
to its numbers on every side. Reading, Norwich, Hebron, and Milford 
were added to the number of congregations. At Fairfield Mr. Caner 
writes, in 1736 : " The professors of the Church of England here in 
crease in numbers and seriousness." At Newtown and Reading Mr. 
Beach reported over one hundred communicants. Twenty families in 
Hebron and its vicinity embraced the Church, and fourteen received the 
holy communion at the first administration by the Rev. Mr. Seabury. 
In 1739 six hundred and thirty males above the age of sixteen signed 
a memorial to the General Assembly, praying for the assignment of 
their share of the public money obtained from the sale of lands in new 
townships for the support of their clergy. The same year the Con 
necticut clergy, with the Rev. James Wetmore, of Rye, represented to 
the society the case of the church people of Stamford and Horseneck, 
who were compelled to pay taxes towards the support of the independent 
minister, instead of the Rev. Mr. Wetmore, their nearest church 
clergyman, who ministered to them regularly. Nor this only. The 
clergy proceeded in their petition to lay before the society the case of 
the Rev. Mr. Arnold, as follows : 

1 Beardsley s " Episcopal Church in Conn.," a Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docu- 

i., p. 89. ments," I., p. 156. 



296 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

William Greyson, of London, esq., made a donation of a piece of land in 
New Haven to Mr. Arnold, as Trustee for the Church of England, to build a Church 
on ; and when he went to take possession and make improvement of said land by 
ploughing the same, he was opposed by a great number of people, being resolute 
that no church should be built there, who, in a riotous and tumultuous manner, being 
(as we have good reason to believe), put upon it by some in authority, and of the 
chief men in the town, beat his cattle, and abused his servants, threatening both 
his and their lives to that degree that he was obliged to quit the field. And though 
he made presentment against sundry of them for breach of the peace to the court 
authority, yet they refuse to take cognizance of it, and so he could obtain no relief. 1 

Seven clergymen, including Wetmore, signed this memorial, John 
son, Caner, Beach, Seabury, Punderson, and Arnold. The folio wing year, 
1740, the clergy of New England met in convention at New London, on 
the 4th of May, and ten were present, five from Connecticut. About the 
middle of the year the Rev. Theophilus Morris succeeded Arnold at 
West Haven. He established services at Simsbury, where they had 
" prepared some timber to build a church," 2 at Derby, and at Walling- 
ford, where there were twelve church families. At the latter place, 
where Mr. Morris could come only once in four months, and where, 
"on every Lord s day besides," the people were wont to perform the 
service as far as is proper for laymen, the church-wardens and vestry 
addressed the Bishop of London as follows : 

With melancholy hearts we crave your Lordship s patience, while we recite to 
you that divers of us have been imprisoned, and our goods from year to year dis 
trained from us for taxes, levied for the building and supporting meeting-houses ; 
and divers actions are now depending in our courts of law in the like cases. And 
when we have petitioned our governor for redress, notifying to him the repugnance 
of such actions to the laws of England, he hath proved a strong opponent to us ; 
but when the other party hath applied to him for advice how to proceed against 
us, he hath lately given his sentence " to enlarge the gaol and fill it with them," 
(that is, the Church). But we supplicate both God and man that our persecutors 
may not always prevail against us. 3 

The dissenters in North Haven "obliged the church people to 
contribute towards building a meeting-house, and sent one poor fellow 
to jail who was not in a capacity to pay ; " 4 while "two more in North 
Haven were some time in jail," for " not paying their rates to the dis 
senting teachers." Some, "at a village called Cheshire," had "been 
hauled to jail and there been forced to abide till they paid the utter 
most farthing." 5 These are but instances selected from the correspond- 

1 Hawks andPerry s " Conn. Ch. Documents," ploit performed by the students of Tale College, in 

I., pp. 168, 169. A pertinent and amusing refer- which he was more than a spectator. The scene of 

ence to this act of violence is found in " A Vin- this noble action was a lot of ground in the town 

dication of the Bishop of LandafFs Sermon, of New-Haven, which had been bequeathed to the 

from the gross Misrepresentations and abusive ceiraCH for the use of a missionary. There 

Reflections contained in Mr. William Livingston s these magnanimous champions signalized them- 

Letter to his Lordship ... By a Lover of Truth selves ; for once upon a tome, quitting soft dalli- 

aud Order ... New York : 1768." ance with the muses, they roughened into sons 

" It would give me pleasure to have it in my of Mars; and issuing forth in deep and firm 

power to say, that the Society s missionaries have array with courage bold and undaunted, they 

met with the same kind of treatment in New not only attacked, but bravely routed a YOKE OP 

England. Their treatment in general has been OXEN, and a poor Plowman, which had been 

the reverse of this. They have met with great sent by the then missionary of New-Haven, to 

and undeserved opposition ; and have been in- occupy and plow up the said lot of ground. An 

jured not only in their character, but in their exploit truly worthy of the renowned Hudibras 

property, on account of their religion. Perhaps himself." pp. 40, 41. 

Mr. Livingston may remember some instances * Ibid., p. 176. s lbid., p. 139. 

of this himself; once especially in a gallant ex- * Ibid., p. 173. s Ibid., p. 173. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 



297 



eiice of the missionaries with the secretary of the venerable society, and 
are the record of but a single year, 1740. The wild enthusiasm that 
attended the Whiten eldian movement seems to have turned the atten 
tion of the persecutors to other matters and to other victims. The fruits 
of the enthusiasm that was so prevalent were found to result in "reconcil 
ing many sober, considerate people to the communion of the Church." l 




CHRIST CHUKCH, STRATFORD. 

In 1742 the clergy, in petitioning the Bishop of London, for the appoint 
ment of Mr. Johnson as commissary, report that there are now fourteen 
churches built and building, and seven clergj^men within this colony, 
and others daily called for. There were " considerably more than two 
thousand adult persons of the Church in the Colony," and " at least 
five or six thousand, young and old." 2 Since the progress of this 
" strange spirit of enthusiasm," the Church was " daily very much more 
Richard Caner, of the class of 1736, and Barzillai Dean, 



1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docs.," I., p. 181. 



*Ibid., p. 183. 



298 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

who was graduated the following year, were soon added to the number 
of clergy. In 1743 Mr. Johnson had admitted to the holy com 
munion, two " candidates for holy orders," graduates of Yale College, 
Hezekiah Watkins of the class of 1737, and Joseph Lamson of the class 
of 1741. Ebenezer Thompson, of the class of 1733, was now added to 
the list of converts. The church in Stratford had " so increased of 
late," writes Johnson, " that our house will not hold us, which has 
obliged us to build a new church, for which 1,500 of our money has 
been subscribed, and we have got timber and are going on vigorously. 
It is to be sixty feet long and forty-five feet wide, and twenty-four feet 
high to the roof; with a steeple sixteen feet square to be one hundred 
and twenty feet high ; and eight feet the chancel, which is to have a 
library on one side and vestry on the other." 1 There were four hun 
dred church families in the town. The devoted John Beach writes in 
the same year from Reading : 

My people are not at all shaken, but rather confirmed in their principles by 
the spirit of enthusiasm that rages among the Independents round about us, and 
many of the Dissenters, observing how steadfast our people are in their faith and 
practice, while those of their own denomination are easily carried away with every 
kind of doctrine, and are now sunk into the utmost confusion and disorder, have 
conceived a much better opinion of our Church than they formerly had, and a 
considerable number in this Colony have lately conformed, and several Churches 
are now building where they have no minister. Indeed, there is scarce a town in 
which there is not a considerable number professing themselves of the Church of 
England, and very desirous to have it settled among them ; but God only knows 
when and how they can be provided for. Were there in this country but one of the 
Episcopal order, to whom young men might apply for ordination, without the ex 
pense and danger of a voyage to England, many of our towns might be supplied 
which now must remain destitute. 2 

A new church was opened this year at Ripton ; and a congregation 
was gathered at Lyme. The church people at New Milford and New 
Fairfield were building a church, while on Sundays they met together, 
and " one of their number read some parts of the common prayer and a 
sermon." 

"But the Independents," writes Mr. Beach, "to suppress this 
design in its infancy, having the authority in their hands, have lately 
prosecuted and fined them for their meeting to worship God according 
to the common prayer, and the same punishment they are like to 
suffer for every offence in this kind, although it is the common, ap 
proved practice of the same Independents to meet for worship in their 
own way when they have no minister ; but what is a virtue in them is 
a crime to our people." 3 "The case of this people is very hard," 
continues Mr. Beach ; " if, on the Lord s day, they continue at home, 
they must be punished ; if they meet to worship God according to the 
Church of England, in the best manner they can, their mulct is still 
greater ; and if they go to the Independent meeting in the town where 
they live, they must endure the mortification of hearing the doctrine 
and worship of the Church vilified and enervated by enthusiastic anti- 
nomian dreams." 4 Mr. Caner writes that " where the late spirit of 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," I., p. 1S7. Ibid., p. 200. 

- Ibid., pp. 190, 191. * Ibid., p. 200. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 299 

enthusiasm has most abounded, the Church has received the larger 
accession." l At Guilford and Northbury there were, in 1743, numer 
ous applicants for a clergyman. Richard Miner, of the class of 1726, 
and Richard Mansfield, of the class of 1741, of Yale College, went 
over for orders. Miner and Lamson, of whose conversion to the 
Church we have already spoken, were captured on their passage and 
carried prisoners to France. Miner died in England, in 1744; but 
Lamson and Mansfield returned to do the Church good service. The 
following year, 1745, Jonathan Colton, of the graduating class at 
Yale, and one of the Bishop Berkeley Foundationers, offered himself for 
the Church ; while from the same class the Church was to secure the 
eminent Thomas Bradbury Chandler, and the devout Jeremiah Learn 
ing, and the faithful William Sturgeon, for the ranks of her future 
clergy. A year later the name of Ebenezer Dibble, of the class of 
1734, at Yale, was added to the conforming graduates of that institu 
tion, and a number of others of these or other years, whose applica 
tions for missions failed, were reported to the authorities at home. 
At Newtown another church had been erected, "forty-six feet long, 
thirty-five broad, and twenty-five up to the roof." 2 It was " a strong, 
neat building," and its erection attested the strength of the Church 
under the ministrations of the faithful Beach. Litchfield and Norwich 
were now added to the church congregations. At the former the 
dissenters had " executions out against " the church people, " for rates 
due long since," and daily " threatened to take them to gaol." One 
" who had been a communicant in the church above a year " was 
" actually seized by their collector, and on the way to the gaol was 
freed by his own brother, who paid the rate to the collector." 3 

Three clergymen of the Church were at the commencement of 
Yale College, in 1748, the "worthy Mr. Commissary Barclay," of 
New York, being one. " All consulted the best things," writes John 
son, " for the Church s interest." " Among the candidates for their 
degrees there were no less than ten belonging to the Church, five 
Masters and five Bachelors ; among the former two in orders, Messrs. 
Sturgeon and Learning; and two candidates, Chandler and Colton ; 
of the Bachelors, besides " Johnson s younger son and Mr. Ogilvie, 
Seabury had a promising son," " a solid, sensible, virtuous youth," 
who, as Johnson proceeds, " may in due time do good service." 4 This 
was the future first Bishop of Connecticut. 

The correspondence of the missionaries with the society for the 
year 1749 comprises a letter from the Rev. William Gibbs, of Sims- 
bury, dated from "Hartford Gaol," where the missionary was con 
fined on an execution for the costs in an unsuccessful suit he had 
entered for his " churchwarden s rate," collected by the dissenters of 
New Cambridge. The church people were still forced to pay their 
rates to the dissenters unless supplied with " ministers of their own 
in orders." " Meantime," writes Dr. Johnson, "many of our people 
are frequently persecuted and imprisoned for their rates to dissenting 
teachers, which they have never been in any stipulation with. The 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," I., p. 201. 8 Ibid., p. 235. 

Ibid., p. 227. 4 Ibid; P- 24o- 



300 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

case of great numbers is extremely hard, if they can have no ministers 
in orders, neither from any title of the Society, nor from any that 
themselves can make, and, at the same time, cannot have the excel 
lent liturgy and sermons of the church read to them by candidates of 
their own, whom they would gladly support to the utmost of their 
power, if they could have their own money for their own purposes." * 
But another grievance had arisen, and the good doctor thus con 
tinues : 

And to add to all our other griefs, it seems we have some enemy or other that 
has represented us to the Venerable Board, as presuming to vary from the estab 
lished form of Prayer, omitting, adding or altering, etc. This is very hard indeed, 
when we have given so much proof of our inviolable attachment to it, and that the 
Established Episcopacy and liturgy is dearer to us than any thing in the world 
besides ; so dear as to make us leave fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, houses and 
lands, and venture our lives to the greatest hazard for it ; twenty-five of us having 
gone a thousand leagues for Episcopal orders, of whom no less than five have lost 
their lives, and several others suffered the most dangerous sickness, and all at the 
expense of more than we could well afford, and all this when we might have had 
the greatest applause of all our friends and acquaintances, if we could have 
made our consciences easy as we were, and the best preferment they could give. 

I have diligently inquired what foundation there could be for the report and 
can find none. Most of the Clergy and readers have read in my Church in my 
absence, and my people tell me they never heard the least variation, nor can I find 
anything in this kind in the Clergy or lay readers. One, indeed, tells me he has 
sometimes added two or three words in the prayer after sermon, Grant us, we be 
seech Thee, etc., in which he had followed a great example he heard in London. 
Perhaps the first lesson, or some of the latter part of the liturgy may have been 
omitted on some extreme cold day, or in the collect for the day, for the gunpowder 
treason, it may have been read, Giving his late Majesty, King William, a safe 
arrival in England, instead of here, which could not be true ; and I should be glad 
if the informer were put upon proof, that if there ever was anything worse than 
this it might be made to appear,- that the offender might receive condign punish 
ment. 8 

The persecution of the Church still continued. Mr. Punderson 
writes, in 1750, "In Branford and Cohasset they have, in the most 
violent manner, been distressing and imprisoning the members of the 
Church of England." 3 The Rev. Matthew Graves, addressing the 
Bishop of London in the same year, proceeds : " Twould be too long 
as well as tragical to repeat the several difficulties, severities, and 
affronts which our hearers are harassed with in many parts of the 
colony, by rigorous persecutions and arbitrary pecuniary demands, 
inflicted on the conscientious members of our church by domineering 
Presbyterians, the old implacable enemies of Zion s prosperity and 
peace." 4 The Rev. Richard Mansfield addressed the venerable society, 
as appears by their minutes of July 22, 1750, to the effect, "that the 
people of Derby and Oxford, as well as those of Waterbury and West- 
bury, have been sharers in the great oppressions which are laid upon 
the members of the Episcopal Church in that Colony by means of the 
dissenting collectors distraining their goods towards the support of the 
dissenting teachers, and their meeting-houses." 5 Well might Arch 
bishop Seeker, in an autograph note appended to this " minute," write : 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," I., p. 269. * Ibid., pp. 259, 260. 
3 Ibid., pp. 262, 263. Ibid., p. 266. B Ibid., p. 267. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 301 

W N. B. These sort of complaints come by every ship almost; there 
are now some ministers of the Church of England in prison on account 
of these persecutions from the dissenters." l 

It is needless to multiply extracts in this vein. Enough have been 
cited to prove conclusively the temper and spirit of the "Standing 
Order " towards the Church, and to make its rapid growth under such 
untoward circumstances a proof of the strength of the convictions of 
its adherents, and their willingness to " suffer all things " for the cause 
they had espoused. As years passed on new parishes were established, 
though but sparingly, for the venerable society, assailed and vilified, and 
consequently hampered in its work, and somewhat impoverished in its 
revenues, could not accept all who offered their services. There were 
added one and another of the promising young graduates of Yale to 
the clergy list. In 1760, Dr. Johnson, who had removed to New York, 
writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury, " There are now thirty 
churches in that colony," Connecticut, " though but fourteen minis 
ters, there being three or four new ones." a This year the successor of 
Dr. Johnson at Stratford, the Rev. Edward Winslow, in his letter to 
the society, indicates the spread of doctrinal errors among the people, 
upspringing naturally, as a reaction from the wild enthusiasm of the 
Whitfield movement, and soon to find a general acceptance in the 
wide-spread defection of the Congregationalist body towards Unitarian- 
ism and Universalisra, which marked the close of the century and the 
beginning of the next. Mr. Winslow thus writes : 

At a late Convention of the Clergy of our Church in this Colony, at New 
Haven, a sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Beach, wherein, much to his own 
reputation and I trust, by the Divine blessing, to the credit of religion and advantage 
of the Church here, he has with great zeal and faithfulness, endeavoured to vindicate 
and establish the important fundamentals of the Sacred Trinity, and the Divinity of 
our blessed Saviour ; his atonement and satisfaction ; the necessity of the renewing 
and sanctifying influence of Divine Grace, and the eternity of future punishment, 
and to expose the falsehoods and errors of the contrary pernicious errors, which by 
means of spreading bad books and other industrious arts of too many men of bad 
principles in these parts, have been successfully propagated. The clergy have 
unitedly taken the occasion of the publication of this discourse to give their testi 
mony against these errors, and to recommend the doctrines inculcated as the prime 
truths 01 the gospel, and the foundation on which the whole structure of the articles 
and liturgy of the Church is framed. 3 

From this time, though the persecutions continued 4 in some 
places, the correspondence of the missionaries, in every instance, bears 
testimony to the increase of the Church. A new element of annoyance 
appeared, in the arrest and imprisonment, for over a week, of the Rev. 
Roger Viets, of Simsbury, for uniting in marriage a couple in the town 
of Great Barrington, although his license to officiate, from the Bishop 
of London, embraced New England. 5 Later the Rev. Richard Mosley 
was arrested, convicted, and fined, for performing the same office at 
Litchfield. 6 In 1765 a number of the clergy " accidentally convened," 
addressed the venerable society on the tumults growing out of the 
Stamp Act, and assured their ecclesiastical superiors that they and their 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docs.," i., p. 267. 2 Ibid., p. 311. 3 Ibid., p. 317. 
4 Ibid., ii., pp. 17, 18, 34, 56, 66, 187. " Ibid., II., pp. 59, 60, 78. Ibid, n., pp. 195, 196. 



302 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

people " will steadily behave themselves as true and faithful subjects," 
and as "obedient sons of the Church of England." 1 The names of 
James Scovil, Thomas Davies, Samuel Andrews, Bela Hubbard, and 
Abraham Jarvis, are appended to this document. In 1770 the Church 
was still rapidly advancing. In 1772 the Kev. Solomon Palmer, of 
Litchfield, and good Dr. Johnson, who had returned to Stratford, died 
in the odor of sanctity. 2 The clergy in convention had appointed a 
committee " to recommend candidates " and to provide for " the supply 
of vacant parishes." But the work of the Church was soon interrupted 
and, amidst the opening scenes of the revolutionary war, the churches 
were closed, the clergy silenced, and the loyalist churchmen banished 
from their homes. It was thus that the growth of the Connecticut 
church was for a time checked. But for the wondrous grace of God 
the Church would have been totally destroyed. 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 

rpHAT there was actual persecution encountered in the attempt to introduce the 
1. church s service in Stratford will appear from " An Account of the Sufferings 
of the Members of the Church of England at Stratford," preserved among the 
archives of the venerable society in London. From this " true narrative " we give 
some pertinent extracts. 

After reciting the circumstances of their first services and organization, and 
referring to their application to the venerable society for the appointment of good 
Mr. Muirson as their clergyman, the narrative proceeds: 

Before we had any return from England, it pleased Almighty God, in his 
providence, to bereave us of the Rev. Mr. Muirson, by taking ot him to himself, 
by reason whereof we remain as sheep without a shepherd, notwithstanding the great 
kindness we have received from the Rev. ministers to the west of us, viz., the Rev. 
Mr. Talbot, the Rev. Mr. Sharpe, who was near a month amongst us, and took 
much pains, and baptized many (amongst whom was an aged man, said to be the 
first man-child born in the colony of Connecticut) , and the Rev. Mr. Bridge, who 
have administered the holy Sacraments and ordinances of Jesus Christ, to our great 
comfort and consolation. Nevertheless, by reason of their great distance from us, 
we remain as sheep having no shepherd, and are exposed the more, as a prey to our 
persecutors, the Independents, who watch all opportunities to destroy the Church, 
both root and branch. 

But as yet we received no other persecution but that of the tongue, until the 
12th day of December, 1709. Some of their officers, namely, Edmund Lewis, 
Jonathan Curtice, and Francis Griffith, having a warrant from the authority, viz., 
Joseph Curtice and James Judson, abovesaid, to levy by distress of estate, or im 
prisonment of the bodies of such person or persons as should refuse to pay to them 
such sums of money as were by them demanded, they no sooner having power but 
put it vigorously in execution ; and on the 12th December, 1709, about midnight, 
did apprehend and seize the bodies of Timothy Titharton, one of our Church 
wardens, and John Marcy, one of the Vestrymen, and forced them to travel, under 
very bad circumstances, in the winter season and at that unseasonable time of night, 
to the common gaol, where felons are confined, being eight miles distant, not allow 
ing them so much as fire or candle light for their comfort, and there continued them 
until they paid such sums as by the gaoler was demanded, which was on the 15th 
day of the same month. 

Notwithstanding all this, they still persisted with rigor to continue their per 
secution, and seized the body of Daniel Shelton, at his habitation or farm, being 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Documents," II., p. 81. * Ibid., n., pp. 178, 179. 



THE GROWTH OF THE CONNECTICUT CHURCH. 303 

about eight miles distant from the town, and hurrying of him away toward 
the towu. in order to cany him to the county gaol; passing by a house, he 
requested of them that he might go in and warm him, and take some refreshment, 
which was granted ; but they being in a hurry bid him come along, but he 
desiring a little longer time, they barbarously laid violent hands on his person, 
and flung his body across a horse s back, and called for ropes to tie him on 
the horse; to the truth of which several persons can give their testimony, and 
are ready when thereunto called; and, having brought him to the town, they 
immediately seized the bodies of William Rawlinson and Archibald Dunlap, 
and carried them, all three, to the county gaol, it being the 16th day of January, 
1709, and there confined them, until such time as they disbursed such sums of money 
as the gaoler demanded of them, which money was left in the hands of the 
Lieutenant Governor, Nathaniel Gould, Esq., he promising them that the next 

feneral court should hear and determine the matter, and that the money left hi his 
ands should be disposed of as the court should order, and they were at present 
released, being the 17th day of the same instant. 

Several others of the Church had their estates distressed on the same account, 
and rended from them, particularly William Jeanes, having money due to him in 
the hands of the town treasurer, the above Edmund Lewis, distressed of his estate 
that which was in said treasurer s hands on the same account, for the maintaining 
the Dissenting minister the year 1709, and left no copy of his so doing ; and also the 
treasurer detains all the rest that remains in his hands, telling him that he will keep 
it for his rate, which rate is chiefly for the purchase of a house for their Dissenting 
minister, which house and land cost 180 : and so are our estates rended from us. 
Notwithstanding this, the said William Jeanes did, for himself in person, go to a 
town meeting convened in Stratford, (being empowered by the Society of the 
Church of England,) when they were ordering a rate to raise money to pay for the 
said house and land, and did, publickly, in behalf of himself and Society, declare 
and protest against any such proceedings, and tendered money to the town recorder 
to enter said protest, but he refused so to do. 

When the general court of said Colony of Connecticut was assembled in Hart 
ford, in May, 1710, the Society of the Church of England empowered William 
Jeanes, their lawful attorney, to address said general court for a determination and 
issue of what should be done with said money committed to the above said Lieutenant- 
Governor, and also to see if we should, for the future enjoy peace amongst them : 
our said attorney, hi order thereunto, tendered an address to said court, dated May 
20th, 1710, but could obtain no positive answer, but was detained there by dilatory 
answers, until the 26th day of the said instant, (May,) when one of the members of 
the lower house brought to the said Jeanes the address and power of attorney, and 
told him the thing had been often moved, but they see cause to give no answer, and 
so we find no relief for the poor distressed Church, nor the members thereof. 

The poor Church at Stratford, being left in a deplorable condition, destitute 
and without hope of any relief in this colony under this government, several of our 
Society have already, of necessity, fled, their persecution, finally, being such an 
additional one as was seldom heard of ; for finding that some of our Society, being 
tradesmen and handicraft, and such as had dependence upon working at their trades 
for other people, they combined together not to set them to work, saying that by 
that means they should weaken the interests of the Church ; by which subtle strata 
gem of Satan s to persecute the Church of Christ, we are likely to be brought low, 
for some are already gone, and others looking out where to shelter themselves from 
their cruelty, and must inevitably fall, if God, of his infinite mercy, do not raise up 
some goodly, compassionate friends for us ; and we, the subscribers, do assert the 
truth of what is here written. 

TIMOTHY TITHARTON, ? , , 
WILLIAM SMITH, I Church Wardens - 

WM. RAWLINSON, WM. JEANES, 

JOHN JOHNSON, RICHARD BLACKATH, 

DANIEL SHELTON, ARCHIBALD DUNLAP, 

JAS. HUMPHREYS, JAMES CLARKE. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE LEADING MISSIONARIES AND CLERGY AT THE NORTH 
AND SOUTH; THEIR LIVES AND LABORS. 

rthe annals of the Church in America do not furnish as many and 
is illustrious names on the list of the missionary priests as are 

afforded by other religious bodies, there are abundant reasons for 
this lack. For upwards of a century after the Reformation the Church 
was so constantly occupied in the defence of its position, and main 
taining its independence against the persecution and intrigues of the 
papacy on the one hand, and the plottings and vindictive assaults of 
puritanism on the other, as to have little time for the evangelization of 
the heathen world. Still, as we have already seen, there were not want 
ing, from the very first years of the reformed faith, men who counted 
not their lives dear unto them for the sake of advancing the cause of 
Christ abroad. The ships sailing westward from English ports on 
voyages of discovery ; the transports conveying to the new found 
world the founders of an empire for England in the west, had each 
their chaplains, who, at the sacrifice of ease and comparative comfort 
at home braved the terrors of the deep, and willingly endured the 
dangers and diseases incident to an unknown clime, to minister to 
settlers and savages alike. " Master Wolfall," amidst the snow and ice 
of the extreme north, the unknown priest who, at Raleigh s colony of 
Roanoak, admitted to holy baptism the Indian chieftain Manteo, and 
the Anglo-American infant Virginia Dare ; the devoted Richard Sey 
mour, "preacher" and priest at Popham s colony, at the mouth of the 
Sagadahoc ; the saintly Robert Hunt, the faithful priest of Jamestown ; 
Whittaker, the apostle of Virginia ; and the persecuted Richard Gib 
son, of the coast of Maine, were men who, in the early years of in 
dependence of the reformed and catholic Church of England, showed 
a spirit of consecration and self-denial second to none. They were 
men who hazarded their lives for the Lord Jesus. Their names are 
worthy of everlasting remembrance. 

Then came the great rebellion and the temporary overthrow of the 
Church. Her prelates and priests were silenced or banished. Her 
stately cathedrals and churches were despoiled. Her solemn services 
and sacraments were interdicted by law. Her members, if faithful to 
their mother, the Church, were helpless and hopeless before their foes. 

In the Old World, at but a single spot was the Church of England 
still " visible," the chapel of the English ambassador in Paris, where 
the services of the Church were maintained, and her sacraments ad 
ministered until this tyranny was overpast. But in the New World the 
Church was never fully overthrown. The clergy dispossessed of their 



LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 305 

benefices at home were welcomed in the loyal and faithful province of 
Virginia across the sea. The church s prayers, silenced and forbidden 
in the Old World, were never intermitted in the humble churches and 
chapels and homes of the " Old Dominion." The religion of the Church 
which divine George Herbert had in his day sung at standing tiptoe in 
expectance of the change, had crossed to the American strand. 

At length with the crown the Church was restored. With the in 
coming of the old-time faith and forms at home, we find at once the revival 
of efforts for the establishment of the Church from Maine to Carolina. 
It was, however, a day of Jittle faith and love. The undue austerity 
of the puritan rule was succeeded by a flood of licentiousness. The 
profligacy of the court permeated all classes of society, and, as a 
natural result of the wide-spread corruption , a period of indifference to 
religion rendered all efforts for its extension feeble if not futile. It 
was long before there was seen any disposition for the reformation of 
manners, or a return to the old moderation and purity of life. Still 
there were those who walked in white amidst the general corruption. 
There were those whose knees were never bowed to Baal. And in the 
coming of a better day we note the organization of efforts for the 
evangelization of the western world. The age which witnessed the in 
auguration of the great missionary societies of the English Church, 
providing for the dissemination of Christian knowledge at home and 
abroad, and the propagation of the Gospel in foreign lands, was preg 
nant with good for all time to come. It was the earnest of a better 
day. 

We have on other pages given the story of many of the faithful 
ones whose names would else appear under the heading of this chapter. 
It is not necessary to repeat what has already been said, and, in our 
search for an initial name, we need not go further back than the settle 
ment of Maryland, and tell in brief the story of the mission life and 
labors of William Wilkinson, 1 the first Church of England clergyman 
who came into the Lord Baltimore s province, though it had then been 
settled for fully sixteen years. Wilkinson was not indeed the first 
clergyman of the Church who settled on what is now the soil of Mary 
land, but the first in the settlement at St. Mary s, and under the Bal 
timore patent. As early as 1629, while the territory, afterwards 
known as Maryland, was a part of the Old Dominion, Kent Island, on 
the Chesapeake Bay opposite the site of the present city of Annapolis, 
had been settled by Virginians. With them came a clergyman of the 
Church of England, the Rev. Richard James. This clergyman had 
been in earlier years the librarian to Sir Robert Cotton, the famous an 
tiquary, and he had shown his zeal for the extension of the Church in 
the New World by accompanying Sir George Calvert, the first Lord 
Baltimore, before his perversion to the Roman Church, to his settle 
ment in Newfoundland under his patron s charter for Avalon. When, 
in 1638, Lord Baltimore obtained by force of arms the possession of 
Kent Island, Mr. James returned to England and died the same year 
at the place of his former master, Sir Robert Cotton. 

Rev. William Wilkinson, of Maryland, 1050-1663. 



306 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

At the time of Mr. Wilkinson s immigration, there were, as wo 
learn from the researches of the historian of the Maryland Church, 1 
at least three places of Church of England worship : Trinity Church, 
six miles west of St. Mary s ; Poplar Hill Church, about six miles 
to the north-west, and St. Paul s, some twenty miles still farther in the 
same direction, in what is now called King and Queen parish. It is 
not unlikely that there was still another church on the Patuxent, 
where Mr. Wilkinson located his grant of land, and settled with 
his family, wife, children, and servants, nine in all, about 
twelve or fifteen miles north of St. Mary s. So far as is known there 
was then but one Romish place of worship in the colony. This fact, 
among others, shows that the larger part of the immigrants were not 
of the Romish faith. It is not at all to the discredit of the Church 
that at the period of which we write it was difficult to find " mission- 
ers " for Maryland. It was an evil day for the Church. The parishes 
at home were filled with intruders. The clergy were silenced or 
banished. It was doubtless to escape the power of the prevailing 
party at home that Wilkinson left England for a home in the wilds of 
Maryland. 

Prior to the coming of this excellent priest the Church of Eng 
land settlers had been served by lay-readers, and in their humble log 
churches by the river side, or in the forest glades of the new settle 
ments, the prayers of the Church proscribed in the cathedrals and 
stately churches of the mother-land were heard and reverently listened 
to by these far-away and forgotten colonists, who were still faithful to 
their mother, the Church. 

Little is known of this first church clergyman of Maryland, save that 
the public records prove, by their incidental allusions, that he won for him 
self and his ministry the regard of those who with him were the pio 
neers of a new community, securing, for the Church and for himself its 
minister, the legacies of those who felt the obligation of recognizing 
his ministrations, and gaining by his integrity the care of the orphan, 
while his hospitality was such that his humble home became the refuge 
of the sick and the dying. Like his Master, this faithful priest seems to 
have gone about doing good. Evidences of the regard in which he 
was held appear in the records of the settlement, but we know little of the 
nature and extent of his clerical services save as they appear by these 
scant references to him, found in the midst of the dry legal or business 
details of the settlement. He died in faith in August, 1663, leaving 
in his will, which is still on record, the proof of his pious trust in 
God: 

Imprimis : I give my soul to God, and my body to the Earth, from whence it 
came, with humble confidence that both body, and soul shall, at the Resurrection, 
receive a happy union, and be made partakers of that happiness which is pur 
chased by my blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. 

Such was the sustaining hope of this pioneer priest of Maryland. 
In these words, he " being dead, yet speaketh." 

1 The late Rev. Ethan Allen, D.D., in Spragne s " Annals of the American Episcopal 
Pulpit," p. 5. 




LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 307 

In 1696 the Rev. Hugh Jones l came into the province of Mary 
land, and was for a time the incumbent of Christ Church parish, in 

Calvert County. Theannals of the colony 
attest the position he speedily acquired 
by his faithfulness, his devotion, and his 
learning ; while from his pen there ap 
peared amongother essays of importance, 
attesting his observation and literary taste, a general account of the 
province, which, as originally published in the Transactions of the 
Royal Society in London, made him widely known. 

Possibly, in consequence of these evidences of literary ability, or 
else from his known acquirements in this department of knowledge, 
he was appointed in 1702 or 1703, professor of Mathematics in William 
and Mary College, lately established under the charge of the excel 
lent and celebrated Commissary Blair. It is not improbable that the in 
fluence of Governor Nicholson may have been felt in this appointment, 
as it would appear that Jones first came to Maryland at the suggestion, 
or at least in the company, of the governor. His talents secured for 
him the appointment as chaplain of the Assembly and lecturer at Williams- 
burg. Subsequently he held the position of incumbent at James 
town, the historic parish of the Virginia Church. In 1722 he left 
Virginia, and two years subsequently he published in London an in 
teresting and valuable volume entitled " The Present State of Vir 
ginia," including a short view of Maryland and North Carolina. This 
work, which has been reprinted within the present century, is one of 
our most important original authorities for the period and the subjects 
of which it treats. It was certainly a literary venture of unusual merit. 

Returning to Virginia he officiated for a time as minister of St. 
Stephen s Church, in King and Queen County. The occasion of his 
leaving this place appears to have been a dispute " concerning the 
placing of the pulpit," but in his withdrawal he bore with him the at 
testation of the " principal inhabitants " of the parish to his diligence 
in the discharge of his sacred function, and to " his sober life and 
edifying conversation." His departure was "universally lamented 
even by his adversaries." With these ample testimonials he now re 
turned, after an absence of nearly a quarter of a century, to Mary 
land, and became the incumbent of William and Mary parish, where, 
in addition to his pastoral work, he engaged in the instruction of 
youth. Continuing in this double duty for several years, living " a 
sober and exemplary life," he was inducted by the governor into the liv 
ing of North Sassafras parish, in Cecil County, at the age of sixty 
years. Here he labored faithfully and successfully. The erection of two 
substantial churches of brick during his ministry in place of the tem 
porary structures he found at his coming attested the value his people 
placed on his services. A published sermon, entitled " A Protest 
against Popery," evinced his care for the spiritual needs of his charge, 
and when, at the age of ninety, he resigned his cure he had well and 
worthily won the title of " venerable." He died at the age of ninety- 

1 The Rev. Hugh Jones, M.A., Maryland and Virginia, 1696-1760. 



308 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

one after a ministry of sixty-five years, leaving the reputation of 
earnest piety, sound learning, und devotion to the work of the ministry. 
Among the early appointments of the venerable society was that 
of the Rev. George Ross 1 in 1705 to Newcastle in Pennsylvania (now 
Delaware) . After laboring for several years in this unpromising field, 
either on account of the unhealthiness of the climate or the little " en 
couragement" he received, the missionary left his post and removed to 
"Upland," or Chester, from which station the incumbent had with 
drawn. It was not the first effort the restless missionary had made for 
bettering his condition, and the society, in consequence of his un 
authorized removal, suspended the payment of his stipend. Returning 
to England he was able to vindicate himself before his superiors, and 
was restored to his charge. On his return voyage he was captured by 
a French man-of-war on the 9th of February, 1711, and carried into 
Brest, where he was stripped of all he possessed, even his clothes, and 
was treated in the most inhuman manner. On his release he proceeded 
to Chester, but not long after, by direction of the society, he resumed 
the care of Newcastle. In 1717, at the invitation of Sir William Keith, 
then Governor of Pennsylvania, he accompanied the governor on a 
tour through the counties of Kent and Sussex, in the course of which, 
in a single week, he baptized upwards of one hundred persons. He 
remained at Newcastle till the close of his long life. In the Abstracts 
of the Society for the year 1754-55, allusion is made to the receipt of 
a letter from this worthy old missionary, which we give below : 

NEWCASTLE UPON DELAWARE, Oct. 13, 1752. 
REV D SIR, 

I am at this time vipon the verge of extreme old age, being according to my 
own computation, in the 73 rd year of my life, and the 47* of my mission. 
Hence some imagine that I am not only the oldest missionary, but the oldest 
man in the mission. Be that as it will, I have been very often exercised for two 
years past with those maladies and infirmities which are commonly incident to my 
present stage of life. This, to my no small mortification, interrupted my former 
correspondence with you, and exposed me perhaps to the charge of negligence. 
My service at this time is confined to the mean village of Newcastle, where little 
or nothing occurring, beside the common offices of a settled cure, it was not in my 
power to offer anything to your consideration that deserved a place in your collec 
tion. As to the Behaviour of my Hearers at the public worship, it is not to be com 
plained of, save that the word Amen, for want of a Clerk is much suppressed 
among us. As I am in a tottering condition this may happen to be my last to you. 
If this should be the case, I beg this may transmit my most hearty acknowledg 
ments to the Hon bl * Society for their innumerable favours conferred upon me in the 
course of a long mission, which had my lot fallen anywhere but in a poor sinking 
town, would have proved I believe more successful. I cannot clear myself from 
oversights & mistakes in the course of so many years, but thank God he has been 
pleased in his great goodness to preserve me from such blots and stains, as would 
do harm to the cause I was engaged to maintain the Honor I mean and interest 
of the Church of England, from which I never varied from the day I wrote Man. 
I cannot conclude without paying my past acknowledgments to you, who upon all 
occasions showed yourself a constant advocate for & real friend to, 
Rev* Sir, 

Your most obliged and most humble Servant, 

GEORGE ROSS.* 

1 The Rev. Georjre Ross, of Pennsylvania * Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Church, v., p. 99. 

and Delaware, 1705-1754. 



LEADING MISSIONABIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 309 

But the end was not yet. On the 10th of October of the fol 
lowing year the aged missionary addressed to the secretary of the 
society the last letter that has been preserved of a long correspondence. 
We extract from this communication as follows : 

It is with great pleasure I can now acquaint you that, thro the divine 
assistance, I have been better enabled to go thro the Service of the Church and 
preaching than I have been for these two years past, and that I live in good esteem 
with the people here, both of our own and the Presbyterian Church, which is by far 
the most numerous congregation. But I am in great hopes I shall see the Congrega 
tion of the Church at ^New Castle nourish, to accomplish which my endeavour shall 
never be wanting. 1 

The abstracts of the society of 1754-55, to which we have already 
referred, state that, "it hath lately pleased God to call to Himself this 
worthy servant to receive the reward of his pious labors." Whitefield 2 
refers to the kindly welcome given him by this good man. A son, the 
Rev. JEueas Ross, became one of the best of the society s missionaries 
in Pennsylvania and Delaware, living " on friendly terms with the Dis 
senters," and hoping " in time to see many of them conform." Another 
son bearing his father s name, born at Newcastle in 1730, was a 
delegate to the Continental Congress of 1774, and a signer of the Dec 
laration of Independence from his native State. Though a devoted 
patriot he sought on several occasions to obtain that justice for loyalists 
in the courts which the people at the time were disposed to refuse. In 
1779 he was appointed judge of the Court of Admiralty, which office 
he held till his death. 3 

The Rev. Jacob Henderson, 4 a native of Ireland, was admitted to 
holy orders by the Bishop of London, in 1710, and proceeded directly 
to his mission at Dover, Kent County, in Delaware, where he remained 
for a year. He appears to have taken a prominent position among the 
clergy of the provinces from the start, as his representations of the 
state of the Church in New York and New Jersey, seriously implicat 
ing "Brigadier" Hunter, the governor, were deemed of sufficient 
importance by the accused to be met with rebutting evidence, secured 
at no little pains. The honesty and directness of Mr. Henderson, cer 
tainly gave him credit with the society, which the efforts of the gov 
ernor were unable to lessen or remove. On his return to America he 
received an appointment to a mission on the western shore of Mary 
land, where he married, and where, in 1713, he and his wife built a 
chapel on their own land and not far from thsir home. In 1716 Dr. 
Robinson, then Bishop of London, appointed Mr. Henderson as his 
Commissary on the western shore of Maryland, which, on the death 
of the Commissary of the eastern shore, the Rev. Christopher Wil 
kinson, in 1729, was renewed by Bishop Gibson, and made to include 
the whole of the province. In 1718 the Commissary was presented 
by Governor Hart with the living of Queen Anne s, the parish in which 
he resided, and of which his chapel now became a chapel-of-ease. On 

1 Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Church, v., p. 100. By Hist. Mag., in., p. 370, 371. 

a clerical error in the original MSS. the date of The Rev. Jacob Henderson, Commissary of 
the letter is incorrectly given as 1759. Maryland, Delaware and Maryland, 1710-1751. 

2 Works, vin., p. 48. 



310 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

the renewal and extension of his commissarial commission he exercised 
his delegated authority in the interest of a sound clerical discipline, 
and, in his official relations, sought to secure, on the part of the clergy, 
personal holiness of life and strict attention to the duties of their sacred 
functions. But the difficulty of enforcing his powers was such that 
in 1734 he resigned his office, and from that time the Bishop of London 
ceased to have an official representative in the province. In the year 
1737 he visited England, and was elected to membership of the vener 
able society, he being the first person elected from the colonies, other 
than the colonial governors or officials. The interest he took in the 
work of the society may be inferred from the efforts he made to secure 
gifts from his own parish and from other congregations in the neigh 
borhood, and from his bequest of his whole estate, on his decease, to 
this worthy cause. He died on the 27th of August, 1751, in the 
thirty-fourth year of his connection with the parish of which he was 
incumbent, and in the forty-fifth year of his ministry. He was at least 
sixty-five years old at the time of his death ; probably more, for the 
notice of his decease, in the Maryland " Gazette," refers to him as " the 
venerable and aged Jacob Henderson." Upwards of a thousand 
pounds sterling were realized by the venerable society from the estate 
of this eminently wise and godly man. 

Appointed, in 1712, by the venerable society, as assistant to the 
Rev. Gideon Johnstone, incumbent of St. Philip s, Charleston, the 
Rev. William Guy 1 was elected minister of St. Helena s parish, on Port 
Royal Island, where he officiated during the remainder of his diaconate. 
In 1713, returning to England for priests orders, he was appointed 
missionary to this extensive parish, which included the territory occu 
pied by the Yamassee Indians, to whom the Rev. Samuel Thomas had 
been sent a few years before. As no church had been erected Mr. 
Guy performed divine service and administered the sacraments in the 
homes of the planters, and proved untiring and devoted in the dis 
charge of his most arduous pastoral duties. In 1715 the war with the 
Yamassee Indians broke out so suddenly that many of his people were 
massacred by the savages, and Mr. Guy narrowly escaped with his 
life, taking refuge in an English ship, providentially lying in the river. 
After this unhappy interruption in his labors he was sent by the so 
ciety to Narragansett, Rhode Island. He reached his new home, at 
Kingston, in 1717, visiting and officiating in the neighboring towns of 
Tiverton, Little Compton, and elsewhere, as well as in the place of his 
residence. His labors were most assiduous and were very acceptable 
to his numerous congregations ; but, finding his health affected by the 
climate, he was ordered, at his own request, to his old home at the 
South, in 1719. Here he became incumbent of St. Andrew s Church, 
thirteen miles from Charleston, in which position he continued until his 
death, in 1751. He was not only diligent in caring for the people of 
his immediate cure, but extended his ministrations on every side, 
preaching and administering the sacrament to those at a distance from the 
parish church, and making the provision of a chape 1-of-ease a necessity. 

The Kev. William Guy, of Sonth Carolina, 1712-1751. 



LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 311 

The same results attended his labors in his own charge. From the in 
crease of his congregation, the parish church was found, in 1722, too 
small for the people who thronged to attend service, and, in 1723, it 
was enlarged by the addition of transepts, completingit in the form of a 
cross. The number of communicants largely increased under the efficient 
labors of this devoted clergyman. The people, notwithstanding the cost 
of their church, which was estimated at 3,500 currency, subscribed 
largely towards the settlement of Georgia, and for the relief of the 
sufferers at the great fire in Charleston, in 1740. An endowment fund 
in 1744 amounted to nearly 1,200 currency. Thus abundant in labors 
and successes the ministry of this amiable and excellent man continued 
until his decease. He left behind him a grateful memory of faithful 
ness unto death. 

In the year 1704 the Rev. James Honyman 1 was appointed, by 
the society, missionary at Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, 
where he discharged 
the duties of his mis- 
sion with devotion and 
success for forty-five 

years. Besides the H / 

care of his immediate 
cure he made frequent missionary visits to the neighboring towns on the 
mainland, until, in the growth of the congregations to which he had minis 
tered, another minister was required for their use. In 1 709, addressing 
the secretary of the society, he writes : " You can neither well believe, 
nor I express, what excellent services to the cause of religion a Bishop 
would do in these parts," adding the expression of his belief that if 
one were sent "these infant settlements would become beautiful nur 
series, which now seem to languish for want of a father to oversee and 
bless them." In 1714 he presented to Governor Nicholson a memo 
rial on the religious condition of Rhode Island. The people, he states, 
were divided among Quakers, Anabaptists, Independents, Gortonians, 
and Infidels, with a remnant of true churchmen. In 1723 it was his 
painful duty for a period of nearly two months to minister to a great 
number of pirates who were brought into Newport, and there suffered 
the penalty of the law. In 1728 Mr. Honyman and the Rev. James 
McSparran, of Narragansett, united in memorial in which, after com 
plaining of the " frowns and discouragements to which they were sub 
jected by the government," made the assertion that there was only 
"one baptized Christian in their whole legislature." Two years pre 
vious, in the year 1726, Mr. Honyman had preached a sermon in the 
King s Chapel, in Boston, before a convention of the clergy of New 
England, which was published anonymously in 1733. 2 This discourse 
is written in a moderate tone, quite in contrast with the bitter sarcasm 
and violent vituperation of the pamphlet publications of that contro 
versial period. Few allusions to matters other than those directly 
referring to the sacred functions of those addressed are found in this 
sermon. In fact, the chief allusion to the questions then in dispute 

1 The Rev. James Honyman, of Rhode * Vide Notices of this discourse in Hist. 

Island, 1704-1750. Mag., n., pp. 338, 356. 



312 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

between the clergy of the Church and the dissenters is a half-ironical 
disclaimer of the preacher, in his own and his brethren s behalf, of the 
desire manifested a few years earlier by the congregationalist ministers 
of Massachusetts for a "Ijtynod," which was frustrated through the efforts 
of the celebrated John Checkley and the Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler. 
The convention to which this discourse was addressed, must have been 
comprised of the major part or possibly of all of the few clergymen 
of the Church in New England. These were the Rev. Samuel Myles, 

rector of the chapel, and the Rev. 

Henry Harris, his assistant ; the 

Rev - Dr - Cutler of Christ Church, 
Bostoi) . the Rev Matthias Plant> 

of Newbury ; the Rev. George 

Pigot, who had just succeeded the Rev. George Mossom at Marblehead ; 
the Rev. John Usher, of Bristol ; and the Rev. Ebenezer Miller, of 
Braintree. 

The celebrated George Whitefield, in his early journals, thus 
notices his intercourse with this excellent missionary : 

Sunday September 14, - In the Evening, with him [Mr. C p (Clap) 

an aged Dissenting Minister] I waited on Mr H n, the Minister of the Church 

of England, and desired the use of his Pulpit. At first he seemed a little unwilling, 
being desirous to know " what extraordinary call I had to preach on Week Days." 
which he said was disorderly? I answered, " St. Paul exhorted Timothy to be 
instant in season and out of season ! That, if the orders of the Church were 
rightly complied with, our Ministers should read public Prayers twice every day, 
and then it would not be disorderly, at such time to give them a sermon. *Asto 
any extraordinary call, I claimed none otherwise than the Apostle s Injunction, as 
we have opportunity let us do good unto all Men." He still held out, and did not 
give any positive Answer, but, at last, after he had withdrawn and consulted with 
the Gentlemen, he said, " If my preaching would promote the Glory of God, and 
good of Souls, I was welcome to his Church, as often as I would, during my stay 
in Town." We then agreed to make use of it at ten in the morning, and three in 

the Afternoon Monday September 15 At 10 in the morning, and 3 in the 

Aftemoon, according to appointment, I read prayers and preached in the Church! 
Tis very commodious, and I believe will contain 3000 People. It was more than 
filled in the afternoon. Persons of all Denominations attended. God assisted me 
much, etc. Tuesday (misprinted Friday) September 1G. enabled to read prayers 
and preach with much Flame, clearness and power to still greater Auditories than 
Yesterday. It being Assembly Time, the gentlemen adjourned in order to attend 

the Service Before I retired to bed, I went to take my leave of MrH n, and 

had some close talk with him about the New Birth. TJie Lord give him an ex 
perimental knowledge of it. He was very civil, and would have had me stay with 
him longer ; but being to go a journey on the morrow, after we had conversed near 
half an hour, I took my leave. pp. 18, 19, 20, 21. 1 

In 1732 Mr. Honyman memorialized the society for a small 
increase of his stipend. In his application he states that, 

Between New York and Boston, a distance of 300 miles, and wherever there 
are any missions, there is not a congregation, in the way of the Church of Eng 
land, that can pretend to compare with mine, or equal it in any respect ; nor does 
my church consist of members that were of it when I came here, for I have buried 
them all ; nor is there one person now alive that did then belong to it ; so that our 
present appearing is entirely owing to the blessing of God upon my endeavors to 
servfe him. 

1 A continuation of the Rev. Mr. Whitffielfe Journal. The seventh journal. London, 1741. 









LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 313 

Mr. Honyman died in 1750. His epitaph speaks of him as "of 
venerable and ever worthy memory, for a faithful ministry of near 
fifty years in the Episcopal Church in this town, which, by divine 
influence on his labors, has flourished and exceedingly increased. He 
was of a respectable family in Scotland ; an excellent scholar, a 
sound divine, and an accomplished gentleman ; a strong assertor of 
the doctrine and discipline oif the Church of England, and yet, with 
the arms of charity, embraced all sincere followers of Christ. Happy 
in his relative station in life, the duties of which he sustained and dis 
charged in a laudable and exemplary manner. Blessed with an excel 
lent and vigorous constitution, which he made subservient to the 
various duties of a numerous parish, until a paralytic disorder inter 
rupted him in the pulpit, and in two years, without impairing his un 
derstanding, cut short the thread of life, on July 2, 1750." 

The most prominent name among the list of the Rhode Island 
clergy is that of James McSparran. 1 Educated at the University of 
Glasgow, where he proceeded, Master of Arts, in 1709, he took 
orders in 1720, being made a deacon by the Bishop of London, and 
receiving the priesthood at the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Appointed "to officiate, as opportunity shall offer, at Bristol, Free 
town, Swansea, and Little Compton," he reached his mission in 1721, 
and at the expiration of three years labor was able to report that " all 
the church people, young and old," were not less in number than three 
hundred. Faithful in his labors he carried the ministrations of the 
Church into the neighboring colony of Connecticut, rendering no little aid 
in the building of the church at New London, and being instrumental 
in the conversion to the Church of its first missionary, the Rev. Samuel 
Seabury, the father of the first Bishop of Connecticut. In 1731 the 
University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of Doctor in 
Divinity. Dr. McSparran published several sermons, one of which, 
on " The Sacred Dignity of the Christian Priesthood," occasioned, 
through a misconception of its purpose, a spirited controversy. A 
more ambitious work of his was entitled, " America Dissected, being 
a full and true account of all the American Colonies, showing the in 
temperance of the climates, excessive heat and cold, and sudden vio 
lent changes of weather ; terrible and murderous thunder and lighten 
ing ; bad and unwholesome air, destructive to human bodies ; badness 
of money; danger from enemies; but, above all, to the souls of the 
poor people that remove thither, from the multifarious and pestilent 
heresies that prevail in those parts. In several Letters from a Rev 
erend Divine of the Church of England, Missionary to America, and 
Doctor of Divinity ; Published as a caution to unsteady people who 
may be tempted to leave their native country." It is but just to the 
author to say that this remarkable title is supposed to have been the 
invention of the Dublin publisher, and to have been prefixed to the 
work without the writer s knowledge or consent. In the autumn of 
1754 the doctor and his wife visited England, where Mrs. McSparran 
fell a victim to the small-pox. This bereavement seriously affected 

iThc Rev. James MoSparran, D.D., of Rhode Island, 1720-1757- 



314 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

the health of the doctor, who, on his return, soon followed his wife to 
the grave. He died at South Kingston on the first of December, 
1757, having been the minister of the parish of St. Paul s, Narragan- 
sett, for thirty-seven years. Updike, the historian of the Narragan- 
sett church, pronounces him to have been "the most able divine that 
was sent over to this country by the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Certainly his manly devotion to the 
work of his ministry, his learning, candor, and untiring zeal deserved 
the honorable recognition he has received at the hands of the accom- 
nlished annalist who, in writing the history of the church to which 
McSparran ministered, made as the text of his work the records and 
journal of the faithful mission-priest. 

A ministry of upwards of half a century spent in a single parish 
offers but few matters for public record, but the name and memory of 
Rev. John Usher, 1 of St. Michael s Church, Bristol, Rhode Island, de 
serves, at least, a passing notice. A graduate of Harvard College in 
1719, the descendant of an ancient and honorable New England family, 
and ordained in 1722, Mr. Usher was at once appointed to Bristol, 
where a parish had been organized but three years before, and was then 
vacant by the removal of the first minister, the Rev. James Drew, to 
New York. Cordially received and entering upon his work with alac 
rity and zeal, the story of his long incumbency reveals no striking 
results, but simply the steady growth of a congregation faithfully min 
istered to, until he died on the 30th of April, 1775, at the age of eighty- 
six, having continued the exercise of his office, "though aged, lame, and 
infirm," to the very last. 

The son of this worthy missionary, whose baptism was the first 
recorded by his father on his entrance upon duty, was graduated at 
Harvard College, in 1743. Though a practitioner of the law, after the 
death of his honored father, Mr. John Usher assembled the scattered 
members of the congregation on each successive Easter Monday, and 
went formally through the prescribed duties of the day ; thus keeping 
up the organization to which his father had so patiently ministered. 
At the close of the war he gathered a congregation in the old court 
house, where he officiated as lay-reader until the erection of a church, 
and, in fact, until he received, at the age of seventy-one, holy orders, 
at the hands of Bishop Seabury, and was continued in charge of the 
parish which he retained till the year 1800. He died in July, 1804, in 
the eighty-second year of his age, leaving behind him the memory of 
sterling worth, indomitable devotion to the Church, and personal piety. 
He was doubtless one of the oldest candidates for orders who ever re 
ceived the apostolic commission. 

Among the students of Yale, at the time of the declaration for the 
Church by Rector Cutler and his associates, was Henry Caner, 2 a native 
of Connecticut, and a graduate of the college in 1724. In the follow 
ing year he began to read prayers at Fairfield, and, on obtaining orders, 
he was appointed missionary of the venerable society to this town, 
where, as well as at Norwalk, his services were received with every 

The Rev. John Usher, A.M., of Rhode *The Rev. Henry Caner, D.D., of Massa- 

Island, 1722-1778. chusetts, 1727-1783. 






LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 315 

token of satisfaction and were rewarded by abundant evidences of 
success. 

On the 27th of November the Kev. Koger Price, Commissary of 
the Bishop of London in New England, and the incumbent of King s 
Chapel, in Boston, announced his purpose of resigning his cure and 
returning to England. The parishioners of the chapel thereupon took 
the novel step of choosing a committee to recommend, not to the Bishop 
of London, but to the congregation, a suitable person to fill the vacant 
rectorship, and the choice fell on the missionary at Fairfield. Inducted 
to the rectorship of the leading church in New England Mr. Caner 
entered upon his work with every promise of success. He was a popular 
preacher and a man of exemplary life, possessing fine intellectual en 
dowments, coupled with unusual business talents, and enjoying, in an 
eminent degree, the affection and regard of his church and the community 
at large. It was under his successful rectorate that the rebuilding of the 
chapel was accomplished, and throughout his ministry in Boston the 
Church gained steadily in numbers and reputation. In 1766 Mr. 
Caner received the Doctorate from the University of Oxford. In the 
faithful and laborious discharge of the duties of his important position, 
he continued steadfast until, after some months of "difficulty and dis 
tress," he was forced to leave Boston on the evacuation of the town by 
the British, in March, 1776, and remove to Halifax. He "had but 
six or seven hours allowed to prepare for this measure," and was 
wholly unable to save his books, furniture, or any part of his fortune. 
He spent his last years in London, dying at the close of the year 1792, 
and at the age of ninety-two. His published discourses display learn 
ing and good taste. Though not a stipendiary of the society during 
his thirty years residence in Boston, he was its confidential adviser and 
correspondent. Few of the clergy filled a more important position in 
the Church of America, or could have filled it to better purpose for the 
Church. 

The Rev. Arthur Browne l was born at Drogheda, in Ireland, in 
the year 1699, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where, in 1729, 
he received the degree of Master of Arts. Ordained by Dr. Gibson, 
Bishop of London, in 1729, he was first sent to Providence, where he 
ministered for nearly six years at the King s Chapel, now St. John s. 
Here his talents, learning, and devotion were fully appreciated. His 
congregation and commtmi cants increased, but an urgent and unani 
mous invitation to the church established but a few years before at 
Portsmouth was the occasion of his removal, and in his new field of 
labor he remained for thirty-seven years, beloved, revered, and ad 
mired by all who knew him or came within the reach of his influence. 
He was an accurate scholar, a keen controversialist, a profound thinker, 
and an able and excellent preacher. An incident of his long and com 
paratively uneventful career has been told in charming verse among 
the " Tales of a Wayside Inn ; " and many, who else would never have 
even heard of this worthy priest and missionary, will recall, in "the 
Poet s Tale" of Lady Wentworth, the mention among the guests at 
the birthday feast in the " Great House," of, 

The Rev. Arthur Browne, A.M., of Rhode Island and New Hampshire, 1729-1773. 



316 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

" One in bands and gown, 

The rector there, the Rev. Arthur Browne, 
Of the established church ; with smiling face 
He sat beside the Governor and said grace." 

After a long life, in which he displayed a universal benevo 
lence, an unbounded hospitality, and an unquestioned piety, he died on 
the 20th of June, 1773, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, while on a visit 
to his daughter, the wife of the Rev. Winwood Serjeant. He was in 
his seventy-fourth year, and in the forty-fourth year of his ministry. 
His remains were brought to Portsmouth, and interred in the Went- 
worth tomb in the graveyard of old St. John s. A son of this noted 
clergyman was the Rev. Marmaduke Browne, who, after a ministry 
spent in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, died before his venerable 
parent. 

Among those who " left all " to serve the cause of the Church in 
America, the name of the Rev. Thomas Cradock, 1 of Maryland, must 
not be forgotten. Born in Bedfordshire, England, in 1718, and edu 
cated at Cambridge, the young Cradock, and his younger brother John, 
who afterwards became first Bishop of Kilmore, and then Archbishop 
of Dublin, grew up and entered upon their life careers under the pat 
ronage of the Duke of Bedford. Through the influence of his noble 
patron with Lord Baltimore, the proprietary of the province, a living in 
Maryland was procured for the intending immigrant ; and in October, 
1742, the probable year of his arrival, an act of the Assembly was 
passed for the erection of a chapel-of-ease in the north-western part of 
St. Paul s parish, providing that on the death of the incumbent of St. 
Paul s, the Rev. Benedict Bourdillon, the parish of "Baltimore Town" 
should be divided, and the chapel by the name of St. Thomas s, set off 
as an independent parish. On the death of the rector of St. Paul s, as 
had been provided, the Rev. Mr. Cradock was formally inducted to 
the new cure. It was then a frontier post. The church, built of brick, 
was placed on a hill , and still stands as it has done for nearly a century 
and a half, amidst old oaks and chestnuts, gracing the highest emi 
nence for miles around. In the course of a long and faithful ministry 
Mr. Cradock published several sermons, which are still extant. In 
1753 he published a "Version of the Psalms," translated from the 
Hebrew into heroic verse. This work was issued by subscription, and 
the number, position, and character of the subscribers indicate the 
high estimation in which the versifier was held. In 1763 Mr. Cradock 
was rendered helpless by an attack of paralysis, but, as his speech and 
mental powers were unimpaired, he still continued to officiate, being 
carried to church and placed in his accustomed seat. A few years 
later the loss of a son, who had been devoted to the ministry, and had 
shown unusual fitness of mind and heart for this holy office, brought 
sorrow to the infirm and enfeebled father, who, in the following year, 
on the 7th of May, 1770, at the age of fifty-two, entered into rest. 
He was a sincere Christian, a polished scholar, an eloquent and persua 
sive preacher, and a faithful priest. 

Tlie Rev. Thomas Cradock, A.M., of Maryland, 1742-1770. 




LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 317 

The Rev. Thomas Bacon, 1 of Maryland, a native of the Isle of 
Man, was a pupil and protege of the pious and celebrated Bishop 
Thomas Wilson, of Sodor and Man, by whom he was ordained 
both deacon and priest in 1744. He had been admitted to "the higher 
degree " within a few months after being ordered deacon , with a view 
to his going to the plantations ; and, having secured an appointment 
as chaplain to Lord Baltimore, the proprietary of Maryland, he sailed 
for the province, where 
he arrived in the au 
tumn of 1745. Here 
he was appointed to 
the curacy of the parish 
of Oxford, in Talbot 
County, of which a 
Huguenot, the Rev. 

Samuel Maynadier, was incumbent. On the death of this good 
old man, Mr. Bacon succeeded to the cure. So successful were his 
ministrations, that, within the first year of his incumbency, it was 
found necessary to enlarge the church. He remained here for two 
years, and then removed to Dover, about twelve miles higher up the 
country, near the head of tide-water. It was upon his entrance upon 
this new field of labor that he began the work of laboring for the 
good of the negro slaves about him, which will ever keep his name 
in honored remembrance. He thus addressed his people : 

Upon being appointed your minister, I began seriously and carefully to exam 
ine into the state of religion in the parish. And I found a great many poor negro 
slaves, belonging to Christian masters and mistresses, yet living in as profound ig 
norance of what Christianity really is as if they had remained in the midst of those 
barbarious heathen countries from whence they and their parents had been first im 
ported. Being moved, therefore, with compassion, at seeing such numbers of poor 
souls wandering in the mazes of sin and error, as sheep having no shepherd, no 
kind, tender-hearted Christian to set them right, and considering them as a part 
of the flock which the Almighty God had placed under my care, I began seriously 
to consider in what manner I could best discharge my duty to them, and deliver my 
own soul from the guilt of their blood, lest they should perish through my own 
negligence. 

His first attempts were by occasional conversations, mingling 
" short familiar exhortations" with advice, when meeting them in his 
own house, on the road, or when visiting them in sickness, or officiat 
ing for them at weddings or funerals. He next determined to preach 
to them. In carrying out this purpose he published in London two 
sermons which he had preached, just as they had been delivered, with 
a view of inducing " his brethren to attempt something in their respect 
ive parishes, towards the bringing home so great a number of wander 
ing souls to Christ." Before the close of the third year of his ministry, 
a chapel was erected for the use of those who lived on the confines of 
his parish. In 1749 he preached and published " Four Sermons upon 
the great and indispensable duty of all Christian Masters and Mistresses 
to bring up their slaves in the Knowledge and Fear of God." He had 

1 The Rev. Thomas Bacon, A.M., of Maryland, 1745-1768. 



318 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

found that he required help in his philanthropic and most Christian 
work, and he asked it where it was specially due. These sermons 
found a wide circulation, and were productive of no little good. But 
it was not only in behalf of the colored people of his cure that his in 
terests were excited and his labors rendered. He sought the improve 
ment and education of the poorer members of his parish, by the 
founding of a charity and working school. A sermon, preached and 
published with a view of enlisting the support and sympathy of the 
public, procured for his scheme the patronage of Lord and Lady Bal 
timore, and his old friend and patron, the saintly Bishop of Sodor and 
Man. A brick building was erected, and in 1755 a master employed, 
and the school removed to its new quarters. The school went on suc 
cessfully. The building is still standing, a monument of the philan 
thropy and Christian charity of its founder. 

Questions had arisen as to the rights of the clergy in the province, 
and Bacon, who was still the chaplain of the proprietary, codified the 
legislation of the colony, and placed within the reach of clergy and 
laity alike, in a folio of a thousand pages, an accurate transcript of the 
body of existing laws. He was soon after, in 1757, appointed to the 
best living in the province, All Saints, Frederick County. But the 
labors he had undergone had impaired his health. He lingered but 
three years after the completion of the " Laws of Maryland," and died, 
universally lamented, on the 24th of May, 1768. 

Few names are more deservedly held in high esteem in the Church 
than that of Jeremiah Learning. 1 Born in Connecticut, in the year 1717, 
he was graduated at Yale in 1745, and shortly afterwards conformed to 
the Church. In 1747 he received holy orders, with an appointment as 
school-master, catechist, and assistant minister at Trinity Church, New 
port, Rhode Island. After a residence of eight years at Newport, dur 
ing a portion of which time he had sole charge of the parish, which 
had been rendered vacant by the death of the Rev. James Honyman, 
rector, Mr. Learning removed to Norwalk, Connecticut, where he con 
tinued in charge for twenty-one years. At the close of this long rec- 
torate he was for eight years a minister of the adjacent town of Strat 
ford. During the war for independence Mr. Learning suffered in person 
and property. In July, 1779, his church and home were destroyed 
by the British troops under the command of General Tryon. In this 
generalruin hisfurniture, books, papers, clothing, in short, everything 
he possessed, were totally destroyed. He estimates his " loss on that 
fatal day was not less than twelve or thirteen hundred pounds sterling." 2 
Suffering thus from the ravages of the Tories, he was also a victim to 
the fury of the patriotic party, who put him in confinement as a loy 
alist and subjected him to such hardships that he became in consequence 
a cripple for life. He was universally respected for his faithful dis 
charge of the priestly duty, for his sound learning, and for his martyr- 
like devotion to his principles. He published several controversial 
tracts, one in "Defence of the Episcopal Government of the Church 
in 1766," and "A Second Defence of the Episcopal Government of the 

1 The Rev. Jeremiah Learning, D.D., Rhode * Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docu- 

Island and Connecticut, 1747-1804. ments," n., p. 203. 



LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 319 

Church, in answer to Noah Welles," in 1770, and a treatise on the 
"Evidences of the Truth of Christianity," in 1785. A convention 
sermon before the Connecticut clergy assembled at Middletown, in 
1785, was also published, and a thin volume of "Dissertations on Va 
rious Subjects," in 1789. These writings display unusual ability and 
no little intellectual grasp and strength. He was, in the language of 
his epitaph, " respected, revered, and beloved in life and lamented in 
death." 

At the meeting of the ten clergymen of Connecticut, at Woodbury, 
on Lady-day, 1783, the name of Learning was suggested for the epis 
copate, and the choice of the clergy lay between the active and ener 
getic Seabury and this amiable, excellent, but enfeebled man. Pains 
have been taken to prove that the preference of the electors, if such 
they can be called, was for Learning. In the absence of any records 
of this important meeting we cannot but believe that while the full 
reverence and appreciation of his brethren were then as ever accorded 
to the brave and devoted Learning, the clergy of Connecticut could 
not have been ignorant of the greater abilities, the wider reputation, the 
sounder health, and the fewer years of him who was, by their choice, 
the first Bishop of Connecticut. That the office was tendered to 
Learning we have no reason to doubt, but that it was so offered only 
in the event of Seabury s disinclination or refusal to accept the post 
we are confident. In fact, it was evidently a matter of conference be 
tween brethren, who should sacrifice himself for the church s weal, 
and, in accepting the appointment at the time, and under the circum 
stances he did, Seabury showed a daring of danger and displayed a 
spirit of self-forgetfulness worthy of all praise. 

Another worthy of the Connecticut Church, whose praise was in 
all the churches, was the Rev. Richard Mansfield, 1 who was born in 
New Haven, in the year 1724, and was graduated at Yale in 1741. In 
the course of his post-graduate studies and reading he became a con 
vert to the Church, and, after a few years spent in teaching, he was 
ordained in 1748, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the following 
year entered upon his ministry at Derby. For several years he had 
charge of West Haven, Waterbury, and Northbury, in connection with 
Derby, but about the year 1755 he relinquished the care of these con 
gregations, confining his services to the churches of Oxford and Derby. 
Of the Derby parish he was rector for the well-nigh unprecedented 
term of seventy-two years. 

During the war Mr. Mansfield was a decided loyalist. In De 
cember, 1775, he writes as follows : 

After having resided and constantly performed parochial duties in my mis 
sion, full twenty-seven year s, without intermission, I have at last been forced to fly 
from my churches, and from my family and home, in order to escape outrage and 
violence, imprisonment and death, unjustly meditated of late and designed against 
me, and have found a temporary asylum in the loyal town of Hempstead, pretty 
secure, I believe, at present, from the power of those violent and infatuated people 
who persecute me in particular, and disturb the peace of the whole British Empire. 
As soon as these sparks of civil dissension appeared, which have since been blown 

1 The Rev. Richard Mansfield, D.D., of Connecticut. 1748-1820. 



320 HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

up into a devouring flame, I did (as I thought it my duty) inculcate upon my par 
ishioners, both from the pulpit and in private conversation, the duty of peaceable- 
ness and quiet submission to the King and to the parent State ; and I am well assured 
that the clergy, in general, of the Church in the colony of Connecticut, with most 
of whom I have the pleasure of a particular acquaintance and friendship, did the 
same. That my endeavors and influence have had some effect, appears from hence, 
that out of 130 families which attended divine service in our two churches, it is well 
known that 110 of them are firm steadfast friends of the government ; that they detest 
and abhor the present unnatural rebellion, and all those measures that have led to 
it, ... the worthy Mr. Scovil and the venerable Mr. Beach have had still better 
success ; scarce a single person is to be found in any of their several congregations 
but what hath persevered steadfastly in their duty and loyalty ; and there are but 
few instances to be found in the Colony of persons who are professors of the Church, 
who are not entitled to the same character. 1 

Having communicated with Governor Tryon respecting the num 
ber and sentiment of the Tories in the western part of Connecticut, Mr. 
Mansfield was " forced to flee from home," leaving his wife and nine 
children " overwhelmed with grief, and bathed in tears, and but very 
slenderly provided with the means of support." 2 But his absence 
was only for a time, and even the rigor of partisan and political perse 
cution was relaxed not a little in favor of so good a man. At the close 
of the war Mr. Mansfield resumed the charge of his people, but after a 
few years he was able to officiate only in part, as an affection of the voice 
prevented his preaching. For nearly twenty years before his death 
he was thus silenced, but his pastoral labors were not remitted, and 
his influence for good was in no sense diminished. In 1792 he received 
the Doctorate from his Alma Mater ; and in April, 1820, he entered 
into rest. 

The first Bishop of Massachusetts 3 was born at Dorchester in 
1726. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1744. After leaving 
college he spent several years in teaching and in theological studies, 
and, after becoming a licentiate among the congregationalists, he con 
formed to the Church, and was admitted to holy orders, by Dr. Sher 
lock, Bishop of London, on the 24th of May, 1752. He was appointed 
by the society to assist the Rev. Matthias Plant, at St. Paul s, New- 
bury, Massachusetts. On the death of Mr. Plant, which occurred 
shortly after the coming of his assistant, Mr. Bass succeeded to the 
vacant cure. From the time of his entrance upon his work at New- 
bury until the breaking out of the war for independence little occurred 
that was noteworthy in the life or labors of this faithful missionary. 
The years of clerical service, in a quiet New England town, could not 
fail of being comparatively uneventful. He was assiduous in his work, 
successful in building up his church, and faithful in the discharge of all 
the offices of his sacred function. But with the first intimation of the 
coming storm and strife his position was at once complicated by the 
conflicting claims of duty and feeling. He appears to have been by no 
means unfriendly to the popular cause, but he could not in conscience, 
at the first at least, omit the State prayers as was done by the rector of 
Trinity, Boston, the excellent Parker, who succeeded him afterwards 
as Bishop of Massachusetts. To pray for the king and royal family was 

1 Hawks and Perry s " Conn. Church Docu- *The Rt. Rev. Edward Bass, D.D., Bishop 

ments," n., pp. 198, 199. * Ibid. of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 1752-1803. 



LEADING MISSIONARIES AT THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 321 

a grave offence in the eyes of the patriots, and consequently the officials 
of the church congregation finally made their formal request that 
these obnoxious portions of the prayer-book services should be omitted. 
The missionary-priest yielded, but with many misgivings, and the cor 
respondence between him and the venerable society, which had sus 
pended him from its service directly on learning of his compliance 
with the wish of the rebel sympathizers, is full of interest, and is not a 
little amusing. 1 

Left without support by the action of the society, it was only by 
the aid of individual members of his congregation that he was able to 
continue his ministrations. The parishes of the Church in New England 
had been so long dependent upon the alms of the Church abroad that the 
loss of the stipends, afforded so patiently and so abundantly by the so 
ciety, threatened for a time the utter extinction of the churches to 
whose support they had contributed. At the close of the strife Mr. 
Bass sought for the allowance of his arrearages, but in vain. Even a 
published plea for redress was unheard, and the missionary at Newbury 
found himself forever dismissed from the employment of the society in 
whose service he had labored for so many years. 

In the measures for the reorganization of the Church in Massa 
chusetts, Mr. Bass took a prominent part, and, by the kind offices of 
Mr. Parker, of Trinity, Boston, and for the purpose of bringing 
together in amicable union the churches of New England under Bishop 
Seabury, and those of the Middle and Southern States under Bishops 
White and Provoost, was elected to the Bishopric of Massachusetts in 
1789. The union desired being effected, the matter of Mr. Bass con 
secration was suffered to drop ; but, after a few years, it was again 
brought forward, and, on the 7th of May, 1797, he was consecrated in 
Philadelphia, Bishop of Massachusetts. New Hampshire subsequently 
placed herself under his episcopal care, 

and the signature of "Edward, Bp. Mass. ^^. ^_ - 

et New Hamp." is still to be found at- ~~s*// 6h~ **$ CL- fa 
tsfched to documents of the time. Dr. Bass ** 

had reached the age of seventy when he 

received the Episcopate, and, as he continued in charge of his parish, he 
was able to give but little time to the duties of his new office. But he 
officiated at times, and as occasion required, in his episcopal capacity, 
confirming and ordaining, and consecrating a single church, his own, at 
Newburyport. He died suddenly on the 10th of September, 1803, in 
the seventy-fourth year of his age. 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE. 

IT will be understood that the foregoing notices are far from exhausting the 
worthies of the American Colonial Church. Only those are noticed who, from 
their special worth or unusual work, are deemed particularly deserving of mention, 
and are not referred to at length in other connections. 

1 Vide these papers iu the " Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Church," in. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MISSIONARY LABORS AMONG THE MOHAWKS, AND OTHER 

INDIAN TRIBES. 



the year 1700 the Earl of Bellomont, Governor of New York, in 
1 a memorial addressed to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, 
urged, as a matter of state policy, the sending of some "mem 
bers of the Church of England to instruct the Five Nations of Indians, 
and to prevent their being practised upon by French priests and Jesuits." 
A representation on this subject having been submitted to Queen 
Anne a plan was agreed upon soon after, by authority of the queen 
in council, and referred to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Tenison, 
for the appointment of two clergymen to minister among the various 
tribes of Indians known as the Five Nations. Recognizing the pecu 
liar requirements of such a mission, and aware of the difficulty of pro 
curing missionaries familiar with the Indian dialects to undertake this 
work, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to whom the 
matter was submitted by the archbishop, first invited Dellius, who 
had for some years ministered to the Dutch settlers at Albany, and 
Freeman, a Calvinistic minister of Schenectady, to enter upon this 
mission. The familiarity with the language and mode of life of the 
Indians which these ministers had acquired during a residence in their 
immediate neighborhood, and the fact that Freeman had already trans 
lated portions of the Holy Scriptures in the Iroquois tongue, was 
deemed of sufficient importance to warrant their selection, though 
dissenters, for this important work. But, as they were unable to un 
dertake the duty assigned to them, the society intrusted the Indian work 
to the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor, who arrived in New York in 1704, 
and, after a welcome from the royal governor, Lord Cornbury, re 
paired directly to Albany. Here he occupied himself with the study 
of the language, seizing at the same time every opportunity of gaining 
the good-will and friendship of the savages who resorted to Albany 
for trade and barter. As soon as the snow began to melt, Moor pro 
ceeded to "the Mohawks Castle," whither he had been invited by one 
of the sachems, or chiefs. But this earnest missionary found himself 
thwarted in his efforts to gain permission of the Indians to reside 
among them, as the consent of the other four nations was represented 
as indispensable, and various excuses were offered from time to time 
as this coveted permission was delayed. The influence of the French 
was doubtless exerted to hinder the success of Moor s attempts to gain 
a foothold amopg th\o savages ; but he was denied the privilege of put 
ting his devotibn to Yhe proof through the gross misconduct of the 
royal governor of New -York. After waiting for nearly a twelvemonth 



MISSIONARY LABORS AMONG THE INDIANS. 323 

in the vicinity of Albany, in the vain hope of ingratiating himself with 
the Indians, whose conversion he was seeking to effect, he returned to 
New York, from whence he addressed the society with a statement of 
the reasons which had induced him for a time to withdraw from 
his work. An opportunity for clerical duty offering at Burling 
ton, in New Jersey, he entered upon work with a zeal and devotion 
which soon excited the indignation of the profligate Cornbury, the 
grandson of the celebrated Earl of Clarendon, who was Governor of 
New York and New Jersey. Lord Cornbury had, by his efforts in 
promoting the success of the" glorious revolution " of 1688, estab 
lished a claim for recognition at the hands of the monarch he had aided 
in securing the throne. But his acknowledged profligacy, his mean 
abilities, and his ungovernable temper prevented any reward being 
bestowed upon one who was a bankrupt in fortune and in reputation at 
home, other than the charge of a distant province. Here the commis 
sion of a series of acts of gross misconduct caused his speedy removal 
from his post, but not before his tyranny had been the cause of the 
imprisonment and flight, and consequent death, of the first missionary 
of the venerable society to the Indians of New York. The governor 
had interfered with Moor in the discharge of his duties, ordering him 
to discontinue the practice of a fortnightly sacrament, which, he as 
serted, was too frequent. This unwarrantable dictation, for which 
there was no legal ground, the faithful missionary was naturally un 
willing to obey ; and when to his disobedience in this respect he added 
the boldness of reproving the representative of the crown for his 
scandalous practice of arraying himself in female attire, and pub 
licly parading in this shameful guise along the ramparts of the fort, 
the enraged and mean-spirited governor cast the clergyman into prison. 
Moor soon afterwards found an opportunity to escape, and, embarking 
for England, was never heard of again. Thus brief and disastrous 
was the first effort of the venerable society to bring the savages of the 
Five Nations to civilization and Christianity. 

During the administration of Lord Cornbury an opportunity had 
occurred for establishing friendly relations with the savages, which, if 
judiciously followed up, would have furnished an excellent base for 
missionary operations. At a conference held by Cornbury in 1702 
with five of the Indian sachems, at Albany, the Indians expressed the 
hope that the Queen " would be a good mother and send them some to 
teach them religion ; 51 but it was long afterwards that Moor arrived on 
the ground, and even then without the countenance of those in 
authority, and, with the secret opposition of those who, for personal 
or political reasons, preferred to keep the Indians in ignorance of the 
reformed faith, or, in fact, of any Christian teaching at all, the feeble 
and unsupported efforts that he was able to make proved fruitless, and 
on his removal from the field the promise of successful labor failed. 

A few years afterward, through the efforts of Governor Nichol 
son, seconded by those of Colonel Schuyler, the confidence and 
allegiance of the Indians were secured to the English government. 

1 Vide the Rev. John Talbot s vivid account of this conference in Hawkins s " Hist. 
Notices," pp. 30, 31. 



324 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Four of their sachems visited England to confirm the treaty of peace 
which had been made by these people with the Governor of New 
York, and to solicit from the queen a supply of ministers and teachers 
to instruct them in the truths of Christianity. These representatives 
of a powerful tribe of savages were most cordially received. All 
classes and conditions flocked to see them. They were presented to 
the queen, to whom they tendered their gifts of wampum, and ad 
dressed a formal speech, in which they promised "a most hearty 
welcome " to those sent over to instruct them. There is little doubt of 
their insincerity hi this request ; but the address, which had been 
submitted to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the queen s command, 
for the consideration of the venerable society, was followed by the 
appointment of a missionary, the Rev. William Andrews, who arrived 
at Albany in 1712. Andrews was accompanied by a school-master 
named Oliver, and by an interpreter, Claussen by name, who, during 
a prolonged captivity among the Indians, had acquired great familiarity 
with their language. By the queen s command a fort, with a chapel 
and a residence for the minister, had been provided near the Mohawks 
Castle, about two hundred miles from New York. Andrews, in 
writing to the society, describes his reception in the following lan 
guage : " When we came near the town, we saw the Indians upon the 
banks looking out for my coming. When I came ashore they received 
me with abundance of joy ; every one shaking me by the hand, bid 
ding me welcome over and over." l At the first the missionary seemed 
on the point of attaining a marked and most gratifying success. The 
savages thronged to hear the instructions which the missionary, by 
the aid of the interpreter, was ready and glad to impart. Those of 
the Indians who understood English were frequent attendants at the 
chapel provided by the queen, and to which her majesty and the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Tenison, had given office-books and 
the other appliances for a solemn and stately service. The Mohawks 
sent their children, with apparent willingness, to the school which 
had been opened by Oliver. But the fair promise of success was 
soon succeeded by disappointment. Objections were made by the 
parents to the instruction of their children in English. The mission 
ary, undeterred by the difficulties of acquiring a rude and barbaric 
dialect, began at once the task. In this attempt he was greatly aided 
by the kindness of Freeman, whom the Earl of Bellomont had en 
gaged to instruct the savages, and whose services the society had at 
the first sought in vain to secure. Freeman had translated into the 
Mohawk language the morning and evening prayer, together with the 
gospel of St. Matthew, and some other portions of Holy Scripture. 
These translations he freely communicated to the baffled and disap 
pointed Andrews, who was soon able to make use of them so as to be 
understood by his Indian congregation. These translations, revised 
and corrected by the missionary, were shortly afterwards printed at 
New York, at the charge of the society, and were distributed among 
such of the Indians as cared to avail themselves of them. 

Hawkins s " Hist. Notices," p. 266. 



MISSIONARY LABORS AMONG THE INDIANS. 325 

This interesting volume, now among the rarest of our American 
bibliographical curiosities, is worthy of especial notice. We print from 
one of the two or three copies still extant that in the possession of 
the Library Company of Philadelphia its title in full : 

The Morning and Evening Prayer, I the Litany | Church Catechism | Family 

Prayers | and | Several Chapters of the Old and New Testament, j Translated into 

the Mahaque [sic] Indian Language, \ By Lawrence Claesse, Interpreter to William 

| Andrews, Missionary to the Indians, from the I Honourable and Reverend the 

Society for the Propagation [sic] of the Gospel in loreign Parts. | 

Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance \ and the 
Utmost Parts of the Earth for thy Possession, Psalm | 2 : 8. | 

Printed by William Bradford in New York, 1715. 

Ne | Orhoengene neoni Yogaraskhagh | Yondereanayendaghkwa, | ne | ene 
Niyoh Raodeweyena, | Onoghsad oye-aghtige Yondadderighwanon- | doentha, 
Siyagonnoghsocle Enyondereanayendagh- ] kwagge | Yotkade Kapitellhogough ne 
Karighwadaghkwe- | agh Agayea neoni Ase Testament, neoni Niyadegari- | wagge, 
I ne | Kanninggahage Siniyewenoteag \ Tehoenwenadenyough Lawrance Claesse, 
Rowenagaradatsk | William Andrews, Ronwanna-ugh Ongivehoentvighne \ Rodi- 
righhoeni Raddiyadanorough neoni Ahoenwadi- | gonuyosthagge Thoderighwa- 
waakhogt ne Wahooni | Agarighhowanha Niyoh Raodeweyena Niyadegoghwhen- 
jage | . 

Eghtseraggwas Eghtjeeagh ne ongwehoonwe, neoni ne | siyodoghwhenjook- 
tannighhoehh etno abadyeandough. 

This rendering of the service in their own tongue enabled the 
missionary to effect a marked improvement in the conduct of the 
savages. A number were received to holy baptism, both men and 
women ; and like results attended his labors among the Oneidas, whose 
chief resort was about a hundred miles into the wilderness from the 
Mohawks Castle. 

But the successes of these first years of labor were to be suc 
ceeded by bitter disappointments, trying the patience and wearying the 
spirit of the missionary, and leading him to doubt whether any per 
manent good had been effected by his labors among them. Their 
disregard of the rights of property ; their inhuman, savage nature 
leading them to commit murder with impunity ; their drunkenness, and 
their utter indifference to the restraints of morality or religion could 
not be overcome. Although about three years after he arrived he was 
able to report the attendance of a score of children at school, won, 
as he ingenuously confesses, by the promise and expectation of food, 
and although nearly forty had been received to the holy communion, 
out of a congregation sometimes numbering one hundred and fifty, still 
a little later he was forced to write of the Indians in general : 

Their lives are generally such as leave little or no room for hope of ever 
making them any better than they are heathens. Heathens they are, and heathens 
they will still be. There are a few, and but a few, perhaps about fourteen or fifteen, 
whose lives are more regular than the rest. 

Later he adds, "that, though he had been by the death-beds of 
several among them, he did not remember to have seen any one of them 
that he could think penitent." The savage soon tired of the restraints 
of civilization and Christianity. As soon as the novelty had worn off, the 
Indians would neither receive the ordinances of religion, nor suffer their 



326 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

children to continue at school, and the missionary, in despair of success, 
convinced that his efforts for the improvement of the Indians were in 
effectual, begged the society to remove him to another field. The work 
in which Moor had failed proved too hard for Andrews, and again the 
hopes of the society were disappointed. Still there were those in their 
service who were active and earnest in labors for this savage and 
degraded race. The earnest incumbent of Rye, the Rev. George 
Muirson, shortly before his death, in October, 1708, wrote to the 
secretary : 

As to the Indians, the natives of the country, they are a decaying people. We 
have not now, in all this parish, twenty families, whereas not many years ago 
there were several hundreds. ... I have taken some pains to teach some of them, 
but to no purpose, for they seem regardless of instruction. . . . They further say 
they will not be Christians, nor do they see the necessity for so being, because we 
do not live according to the precepts of our holy religion. In such ways do most 
of the Indians that I have conversed with, either here or elsewhere, express them 
selves. I am heartily sorry that we should give them such a bad example, and fill 
their mouths with such objections to our blessed religion. 

This was the experience and testimony of others than the worthy 
Muirson. But foremost among the laborers for the evangelization of 
the savages was the Rev. Henry Barclay, appointed missionary and 
catechist at Albany, with a view not only to the care of the English 
settlers but also to the instruction and conversion of the Indians and 
negro slaves. During the absence of Dellius, the minister of the Dutch 
congregation, many of the members of his congregation attended the 
services of the Church in the little chapel occupied by Barclay. Ac 
quainted as he was with the language, he preached to these sheep 
without a shepherd in their own tongue, and a number of them, 
attracted by the beauty of the services and the faithfulness of the 
preacher, became intelligent and devoted members of the Church of 
England. The influence of this faithful missionary was such that after 
a residence of seven years he secured the erection of a handsome 
church of stone by the voluntary offerings of the people. The people 
of the neighboring towns contributed to this object. 

At Schenectady, the remotest settlement of the English at that 
time, every inhabitant, save one, who was in extreme poverty, gave 
something for the purpose. They could hope to reap little personal 
advantage from their generosity, for Schenectady was twenty miles 
distant from Albany ; but they cherished a grateful recollection of the 
services rendered them by the devoted missionaiy. From the very 
first Barclay had shown deep interest in the spiritual welfare of the 
aborigines. He had accompanied Andrews and his party on his first 
going to the Mohawks Castle, and had witnessed those demonstrations 
of welcome which, unfortunately, were to be followed by disappoint 
ment and failure. And when Andrews had retired from his post, Bar 
clay, by occasional visits and ministrations, sought to prevent the 
utter loss to the Church of the seed that had been sown. But even 
his efforts, although pursued with exemplary patience, and animated 
by an earnest love for the souls of the savages, were long in producing 
any results. Still he persevered, in the hope and prayer that the 



MISSIONARY LABORS AMONG THE INDIANS. 327 

Lord of the harvest would, in His own good time, give the reward 
for his toil. Among the negro slaves at Albany he was abundant in 
labors, and not without a measure of success. 

The successors of Barclay at Albany continued the labors which 
Barclay had begun. The Rev. John Miln, who was appointed to the 
mission in 1729, was in the habit of meeting the Mohawks four times 
each year, remaining five days with them on each periodical visit. 
The commanding officer of the garrison wrote to the society in 1731, 
that Mr. Miln had been indefatigable in his labors in instructing the 
Indians in the principles of the Christian religion ; and, in 1735, he 
was able to state, "that the Indians were very much civilized of late, 
which he imputed to the industry and power of the Rev. John Miln ; that 
he was very diligent in baptizing both children and adults ; and that the 
number of the communicants was daily increasing. " He adds , tha