THE LIBRARY OF TRINITY PARISH 29 his formation of the Bray Associates, the income from whose charity fund has, since his decease in 1730, established and perpetuated hundreds of Theological Libraries in Great Britain and in her dominions beyond the seas. But the New York Library, with others in what is now the United States, received no further support from home. Nor did they, on the other hand, meet with much encouragement from the colonists. The Library idea was too advanced for them, especially in New York, where confusion of tongues still prevailed, and where the Anglican element was too unpopular to secure aid for a purely sectarian institution. And the predominant character of the Bray collections was so exclusively devotional and churchly as not to be generally acceptable. It was thus never possible to establish or confirm this early Library by legislative enactment, as its pious founder earnestly desired, and as was done in other provinces.1 Furthermore, the Knickerbockers were too deeply engrossed in their private and political concerns for even the well-to-do to be men of leisure. All alike were engaged in business, while for recreation they not unnaturally preferred out-of-door pastimes to excursions in theology. When Governor Bellomont first set foot on the island of Manhattan, echoes of the distracting Leisler excitement, the reflection in New York of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, had by no means died away in the little city, whose settled portion lay wholly below Wall street, and whose inhabitants numbered less than five thousand souls. From the following lines in an old history one gains See Colonial Laws of Maryland, 1699, 1727; of South Carolina, 1700, 1704, 1706, 1712; of North Carolina, 1715. an interesting picture of the cultural conditions of those times, discrediting the while its concluding assertion, especially in view of the facts to be brought out in the present work. Listen, then, to the learned Britisher, James Grahame, how he writes: A printing-press was established at New York, in the year 1693, by a printer flying from the strange occurrence of Quaker tyranny and persecution in Pennsylvania; and a library was founded under the government of Lord Bellamont in the year 1700. But the schools in this province were inconsiderable; and although the wealthier families obtained valuable instructors for their children among the numerous Protestant refugees from France, the great bulk of the people were strangers even to the first rudiments of science and cultivation, till the era of the American Revolution.1 On this allusion to a Library has been based the hitherto uncontroverted claim that "The history of the New York Society Library commences in the year 1700," at which "time "The Public Library' of New York was founded during the administration of the Earl of Bellamont." Not a little of the glamour attaching to this long-vaunted, cherished belief is therefore dispelled in a realization that the collection was originally but a paltry "parcell" of sober tomes for a Parish Library. Knowledge of the fact, however, will in turn soothe any sting of disappointment at learning that this early Library never had the slightest connection with the Society Library, founded confessedly in 1754. The two institutions maintained independent existences for twenty-two years, side by side in the little capital, the one in Trinity 1 James Grahame. The History of the United States. (London, 1827, 1836.) Boston and Philadelphia, 1845. Vol. II, p. 256. 2 The New York Society Library. History, Charter, By-Laws, &c. Erected, 1698; enlarged, 1737; destroyed by fire, 1776 Home of the first Library in New York, 1698-1776 THE LIBRARY OF TRINITY PARISH 31 Church and the other in the City Hall,' until the moribund career of the former and the first epoch in the history of the latter came to a simultaneous end under the ravages of the Revolution. An even earlier mention of the older Library is found in another historical work, published almost contemporaneously with the event chronicled, and bearing the ambitious title, "The British Empire in America, Containing the History of the Discovery, Settlement, Progress and present State of all the British Colonies, on the Continent and Islands of America."2 In the chapter on New York it is stated as proof of advancement that “A Library was erected, this Year [1700], in the City of New-York: And the Dutch Inhabitants built Mills to saw Timber; one of which wou'd do more in an Hour, than 50 Men in 2 Days."3 The very arrangement of these informing particulars points with unconscious emphasis to the relative insignificance of a Library in comparison with the general interests of the community at that time. There is no evidence at hand to show that the Dutch ever had so much as thought of a Church Library in New York; while the only reference to books that can be found in their public acts appears in an ordinance of 1662 by the director-general and council of New Netherland against 'The City Hall then stood in Wall street opposite Broad, scarcely a stone's throw from Trinity Church, on Broadway facing Wall street. 2 John Oldmixon. London, 1708. Vol. I, p. 128. In the "Rensselaerswyck MSS." there is recorded a "Catalogue of Books which are sent for the Library in Rensselaerswyck, to be forwarded there." This list comprises 17 titles of theological works by 4 scholars of well-nigh as many nationalities, English, French, German, Latin, Italian and Spanish, as well as Dutch. The little collection was despatched from Holland in the same vessel that bore the Rev. Johannes Megapolensis to his new field in the colony of Rensselaerswyck. For a list of the books with "remarks," see E. B. O'Callaghan. History of New Netherland. New York, 1846. Vol. I, pp. 454–455. |