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STATE OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN CHURCH.
peaceable of any on the continent, by a strange fatality is become the scene of war, and suffers most.This city, especially, has a double portion of the calamities brought on by the present rebellion ; andperhaps a brief detail of our situation for some months past, may gratify curiosity, and convey to theSociety the clearest idea of the state of things here. Upon general Howe’s departure from Boston to Halifax, early in the last spring, the rebel army was drawn to this city, which they fortifiedin the best manner they could, expecting it would be attacked. Most of the inhabitants, warnedby these symptoms of the gathering storm, moved into the country, and carried their valuableeffects with them. Among others, I moved my family, consisting of a wife and three small children,seventy miles up Hudson’s River where they still remain, that part of the country being yet pos-sessed by the rebels . 1 Dr. Auchmuty, the rector , 2 being much indisposed during the spring andsummer, retired with his family to Brunswick in New Jersey ; and the care of the churches, in hisabsence, of course, devolved on me, as the oldest assistant, a situation truly difficult and trying insuch times, especially as the other assistants were young and inexpeiienced, though very loyal, andotherwise worthy young men.
About the middle of April, Mr. Washington, commander in Chief of the rebel forces, came totown with a large reinforcement. Animated by his presence, and I suppose, encouraged by him,the rebel committees very much harassed the loyal inhabitants here and on Long Island . They weresummoned before those committees, and upon refusing to give up their arms, and take the oaths thatwere tendered, they were imprisoned or sent into banishment. An army was sent to Long Island todisarm the inhabitants who were distinguished for their loyalty. Many had their property destroyed,and more were carried off prisoners. It should be observed, that members of the Church of England were the only sufferers on this occasion. The members of the Dutch Church are very numerousthere, and many of them joined in opposing the rebellion ; yet no notice was taken of them, northe least injury done to them. About this time, Mr. Bloomer 3 administered the sacrament atNewtown, where he had but four or five male communicants, the rest having been driven off, orcarried away prisoners. At this present time there are many hundreds from this city and provinceprisoners in New England ; and among these the Mayor of New York . 4 Several judges and mem-bers of his Majesty’s Council, with other respectable inhabitants.
1 They were sent to New Windsor, Orange Co. in Oct 1775, whence they removed to Goshen. Mr. X. obtained a flagof truce in the beginning of Dec. 1776 and applied to the Com. of Safety, then at Fishkill, for permission to remove hisfamily, together with his furniture, books and papers back to the city. It does not appear whether he obtained permissionor not. His family then consisted of his wife, Mrs. Cookes her mother, and three children, the oldest not quite threeyears, the youngest about three months old, and four servants. Journal of the N. ¥. Prov. Congress,.!. 746, 74S; ii. 249.
2 Samuel Auchmuty, D. D., son of Judge A. was born at Boston , and graduated in 1742, at Harvard . In 1747, he wasappointed, on the special recommendation of Gov. Clinton, successor to the Rev. Mr. Charlton, as catechist to the Negroes,and assistant minister of Trinity Church, N. V., of which church on the death of the Rev. Dr. Barclay in 1764, he waselected rector. His degree of Doctor of Divinity he obtained from Oxford. On the commencement of the revolutionarytroubles, he evinced strong loyalist feelings, and on the occupation of N. York by the American army, retired with hisfamily to Brunswick , N. J. , but on the return of the British forces, he succeeded in getting back to town. The fatigue towhich he exposed himself on this occasion, being obliged to travel by night, brought on a severe cold, which threw himinto a fever that proved fatal on the 3d March 1777. His son Sir Samuel A. died in 1822, a Lieutenant General in the British army.
3 Joshua Bloomer graduated at Kings Coll. N. Y. in 1761. He had been a major in the provincial service and afterwards a merchant. He went to England in 1765 for orders, and succeeded Dr. Seabury in Jamaica , L. I., to which wereattached Newtown and Flushing. His letters, some of which will be found in this Vol. among the Queen’s Co. papersdenote his opinions on political subjects. He died at Jamaica on 23d June 1790, aged 55, and was succeeded in his church bythe Revd. William Hammel. Thompson’s Hist. L. I., ii. 125.
4 David Matthews. This gentleman belonged originally to Orange Co. Having been admitted early to the bar, heacted as crown officer upwards of twenty years. He succeeded Mr. Hicks as Mayor of the city of New York in 1776, butbeing a decided loyalist his name was entered on the list of the suspected, as early as May of that Year. Tie was shortlyafter arrested by order of the Committee of Safety, and lodged in N. Y. Jail, whence he was soon removed to Connecticut .