satisfaction to the

people, and to have crowned all with a good life. From his appointment at NewYork, in 1732, to 1740, he had baptized two hundred and nineteen blacks, of whom twenty-four were adults.* The next year he had seventy black and ninety white catechumens. In 1746, their number had considerably increased, and he could plainly discover a truly pious spirit among them.

It appears, by letters from the missionaries in NewYork, that about this period this province, though much less disturbed than the neighbouring ones, had not been without trouble from Methodism and the new light; in which such a deep tincture of enthusiasm had appeared, as had induced many thinking dissenters to come to our churches and worship God in soberness and truth. And the Rev. Mr. Commissary Vesey writes, that the several boxes of books from the Society, sent through his care to their missionaries, catechists, and schoolmasters, had done good service among the people, and that they were very greatly beholden to the Society for their constant paternal care and bountiful benefactions to them.

In 1746, the Rev. Mr. Commissary Vesey transmitted to the Society an account of all the churches under his inspection, and it gave them great pleasure to observe the wonderful blessing of God on their pious cares and endeavours to promote the Christian religion in these remote and dark corners of the

* In 1741 he writes, that he had more than fifty white adult catechumens, besides a great number of children, and that his catechetical lectures were well attended.

world, and the great success that had attended the faithful labours of their missionaries in the conversion of so many from vile errors and wicked practices, to the faith of Christ; it appearing that there were twenty-two churches flourishing and increasing within his jurisdiction.

The Rev. Mr. Vesey, the first Rector of Trinity Church, continued, as has been before remarked, without interruption for fifty years in the service of the Parish. The last one has been nearly thirty-five years, comprehending together more than one half of the entire period of its existence. What were the labours, the trials and discouragements of the former in his parochial cure, or what were the fruits of his exertions through this long tract of time, I have found no opportunity of learning. The very register of the baptisms he performed, the marriages he celebrated, the funerals he attended, which would have furnished some clue to them, is blotted out of existence; being reported by tradition to have been destroyed in the great conflagration of 1776. But judging from the multitude of these duties which were discharged by his immediate successors, and the innumerable calls upon the time and attention of most clergymen in large towns or cities, it may be fairly inferred that his burthens were heavy, and his labours abundant.

Thus divided between his public cares and the more retired duties of his parish, and assisted in the latter by most humble and conscientious fellow-labourers, he passed a long life in usefulness and honour, and was at length gathered to his fathers in peace.

The Churchwardens and Vestry of Trinity Church, by their letter, dated December 5, 1746, inform the Society of the death of the very worthy Mr. Commissary Vesey, in a good old age, he having been Rector of that Church from its first building, in the year 1697, to the day of his death, the 11th of July, 1746. In the character given of him in the public papers of New-York, he is represented "as having conscientiously performed the duties of his office with unwearied diligence, and uncommon abilities, to the general satisfaction and applause of all. And as he had been a great instrument in promoting the building and settlement of that Church, (when there were but a few of the established religion here,) so, by the blessing of God upon his pious and earnest endeavours, he had the satisfaction to see his congregation from time to time increase, the building enlarged and beautified, and now, at last, the inward pleasure of leaving in peace and good order one of the largest and finest churches in America, with a very considerable congregation, which justly lament their almost irreparable loss in him, who, in his private life, was truly good, of a grave, thoughtful, prudent and discreet disposition, yet very affable, cheerful and good-natured in his conversation; a most tender, affectionate husband; a good, indulgent master; a faithful, steady friend; and beneficent to all.

"His corpse was decently interred in the family vault, attended by several gentlemen of his Majesty's Council, most of the principal magistrates, and chiefest part of all the inhabitants; and as he always lived a faithful soldier and servant to his great Lord and

Maker, so he bore his sickness with great patience, resolution, and constancy of mind, and in his last moments cheerfully resigned his soul into his hand who summoned him hence, to receive the eulogy in the Gospel, Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

I know not how I can more beautifully close this first epoch in the history of our Parish, than with the termination of the labours of him, who was thus happily connected with its very commencement.

Immediately after this event, the Board considering the great loss they had sustained by the death of the Rev. Mr. Vesey, and not being willing to call another Rector till they had duly weighed and considered the matter; in order that the Church might be duly supplied during the vacancy, passed an order that the Churchwardens should be desired to write to the ministers of this and the neighbouring provinces, as they should think proper, to preach in Trinity Church in their turns.

CHAPTER II.

In the brief sketch of the history of Trinity Church which I proposed to give, I brought down the account in the last chapter to the death of the Reverend and very worthy Commissary Vesey, first Rector of the Parish. The Vestry, as it appears from their letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, immediately proceeded to the appointment of another in his place. In choosing him a successor, they profess to have acted with all the care and precaution becoming so weighty an affair, and they inform the Society that they have elected the Rev. Mr. Barclay, their missionary at Albany and to the Mohock Indians, to be the Rector of Trinity Church.

The Rev. Henry Barclay was father of the late Thomas Barclay, Consul-General of his Britannic Majesty in the United States, so well known and so highly esteemed by thousands among us, and whose place, as British Consul, is at this moment so worthily filled by Mr. Anthony Barclay, one of his sons. In the strange mutations of this growing and changefu city, it is an interesting circumstance that the latter is still a worshipper in our Parish, keeping up the