CHURCHWARDENS OF SCHENECTADY TO SIR WM JOHNSON. Hond Si Schenectady Decr 4th 1766. After rendring you our sincere thanks for the tender regard you expressed for our Church, in your favour to the Revd Mr Auchmuthy, we would acquaint you that Mr. Lyne-when in New York waited on his Excellency to know the result of our petition, and we have the pleasure of hearing that it was laid before the Council where it met with a favourable reception, agreeable to which the Charter will shortly be sent up with his Excellencies subscription money and Church furniture. Mr Lyne has also procured a Clerk to officiate in the Church, who we are persuaded will answer the Character given him by several Gentlemen of Credit in New York. We conclude with craving a continuance of your protection of our Church and its Liberties, and subscribe ourselves I but lately received your Honours Letter of the 8th instant, am sorry tho have been the occasion of so much Trouble to your Honour whose Indulgence and Condescention I have so often experienced, and stand corrected with Pleasure. I am surprised that the Revd Brown should suspect that by privatly informing him of what he was said to have done I intended to intimate the misconduct of those in whose Presence it was said he did it. I never doubted may it please your Hon' but that his Exelency the Govenor had a Right to ask and obtain Mr Browns assistance in Conferring his Name upon whome he pleasd and this without transgressing the strictest Rules of Christianity, and was far from thinking that his Exelency or any Gentleman in the Civil Government would interpose his authority with a clergyman to oblige him to rebaptize Children because they were first baptized by ministers of another Denomination. Nor was I may it please your Honr suspicious that the Gentlemen of the establishd Church Clergy gave themselves or others too much Trouble to bring into Disrepute other religious Persuasions. I treated this Report or at least aimd to like what was false and only wrote Mr Brown for his authority to say it was false. I gave a greater Latitude to some Expressions than I should otherwise that Mr Brown might give me a direct answer which would stop the mouths of those who can see nothing significant in arguing what men will do from their Character-but never once supposed the Revd Gentleman would make so great an affair of it as to have me answerd as he has in a manner which gives me the greatest Pain. I mentiond the Presence of his Exelency the Govenor, the Honble Sir William Johnson and other Gentlemen and the Indians with no other view than to give the Report the airs with which I several Times heard it told not suspecting that the Letter would be proposed to any one as what was designed to fault the conduct of my Rulers, for to this I dont give myself a License in any case but especially should not with your Honour to whom I am so much indebted must therefore may it please your Honour beg the continuance of your Honours favours to be without which will be itself a mark of ungratfull and will soon render me intirrely useless. In hopes to obtain this I conclud and beg Leave to subscribe myself May it Please your Honour your Hon's most obediant humble servant THEOPHLUS CHAMBERLAIN. Sr REV. MR. BROWN TO SIR WM. JOHNSON. The Bearers hereof are going up the Mohawk River to try to collect money to finish off a Church at Great-Barrington, where they have suffer'd every Hardship from the Presbaterian Party; And designing to call at yr House I have taken the Liberty of requesting yr advice. They beg of me to return with them to Barrington for a Sunday, but as my Duty call's me to the Mohawks cannot think of going without your consent. A Line from you will Determine the Case. I hope you will not let yr Fondness for master Peter keep him too long from his Studies as a misapplication of his Time will make him forget what he has learnt. 1 am Sr with Respect Albany Jan 30th 1767. yr most obedient Servant If I do not go to Barrington a number of Brother's propose paying you a Visit on Saturday. To Honble Sr Wm Johnson. REVD. MR. HANNA TO SIR WM. JOHNSON. Honorable Sir, Schenectady May 29th, 1767. The many Favours I have received at your Hand, lay me under Indispensible Obligations to acknowledge your Generosity; & acquaint you that as it is not in my Power to return them in this Life: You are therefore to look for your Reward where the most of Good Benifectors have done before you, viz in Heaven; But can assure you, that I bear a sincere & grateful Sense of your Kinnesses in my Breast & shall never forget them while I am mindful of myself: particularly your last Letter to the Governor in my Favour which was of Singular Service to me. Sir, Since my Return from your House, I have attended close at Mr. Silvesters Office, to acquaint myself with the Formalities & proceedings of the Court, have got my Licence, & qualified last Tuesday, am come to Schenectady, with a Design to settle & should be glad to have it in my Power to serve you or any of your Friends. all from Honorable Sir your most humle. & obed, servt. WILLIAM HANNA1 Sir MR. JOHN ARBO, SECY TO THE MORAVIANS TO SIR WM JOHNSON. Bethlehem the 6th Januar. 1768. The high and important Station in which the Providence of GOD and our Gracious Sovereign have placed You, together with Your well known benevolent Disposition towards the Indians in general, occasions my Addressing Your Excellency at this Time. 1 Rev. WILLIAM HANNA, the first Presbyterian clergyman at Albany, was educated at the Revd. Dr. Finley's Academy at Nottingham in Maryland; he next was assistant at Rev. Dr. Robert Smith's School at Pequea, Pennsylvania, and graduated at Princetown College. In 1759 he received the degree of A. B from Kings College, New York, and that of Master of Arts, in 1765, from the same institution. He was licensed to preach by the Litchfield Presbytery, Connecticut, 28 May, 1760. He became pastor of the Presbyterian Church organised for the first time in Albany in 1762, of which congregation he continued pastor for the space of about five years. But "having taken a civil commission from the governor," and "as it was not customary for any member of the church to which he belonged to bear a civil office," the congregation requested his Dismission, which followed accordingly. It seems that he next moved to Schenectady, after having studied law with Mr. Silvester of Albany, and was admitted to practice, as appears above, in May 1767. But his success at the bar was not commensurate with his expectations, and in 1771 he expressed a desire to be admitted to orders in the Church of England. The clergy of New York, for reasons to be found in Dr. Auchmuty's letter (post) of the 11th June 1771, thought it would not do for them to recommend him for ordination, but suggested his application to Lord Baltimore. He thereupon proceeded to Maryland, and having been furnished with letters to Col. Washington and other leading gentlemen of Virginia, he went next to the latter Colony. His reception, here, was so favorable that he, forthwith, sailed for England, where the Bishop of London conferred orders on him, 14 June 1772.-ED. I presume Your Excellency cannot be unacquainted with the Missions and Labours of the Brethren, begun and hitherto subsisting for upwards of Twenty five Years amongst the Northern Indians, and that their Zeal, in bringing many of them to the Knowledge of GOD our Saviour Jesus Christ, has been crown'd with great Success. True it is, the Troubles and Calamities attending the late Indian War, in which the Missionaries and their Converts met with such a Variety of Distress, Vicissitudes and Interruption in their Labours, as even threatened their total Extirpation; Yet it has nevertheless pleased the Almighty GOD in his great Goodness, after very many of them had departed this Life in Faith and Love to Jesus Christ, still to preserve a Remnant of them, who now live together in brotherly Love at Wiealusing on the Susquehannah possessing the same Mind with Us to lead a peaceable and quiet Life in all Godliness & Honesty under the British Government. This Infant Indian Settlement, which we now have the Pleasure of seeing in a prosperous Situation, We beg Leave to recommend with our Missionaries, to Your Excellency's Kind Notice and Protection. In this View I have the Pleasure of transmitting to Your Excellency the Greenland History in 2 Vols. wrote by David Cranz one of our Brethren; which we beg Your kind Acceptance of. The first Vol: Containing a Description of the Country and the natural Curiosities of that cold Climate, I flatter myself, may not prove Unentertaining and the second, I imagine will convey to Your Excellency the truest and best Idea of the Brethrens Method of propagating the Gospel amongst the Savage Nations. For this purpose also this History has been presented to their Majesties the King and Queen, the Ministers of State, Bishops & Board of Trade &c. &c. In Behalf of the Members of the Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel amongst the Heathen I have the Honour to subscribe myself Your Excellency's most obedt Humble Servant JOHN ARBO, Secretary |