Albany. The church at
New York was probably the oldest, and was founded at, or before, the year
1639; this is the earliest period to which its records conduct us. The
first minister was the Rev. Evarardus Bogardus. But when he came from
Holland, does not appear. Next to him were two ministers by the name of
Megapolensis, John and Samuel.

The first place of worship built by the Dutch in the colony of New
Netherlands, as it was then called, was erected in the fort at New York,
in the year 1642. The second, it is believed, was a chapel built by
Governor Stuyvesant, in what is now called the Bowery. In succession,
churches of this denomination arose on Long Island, in Schenectady, on
Staten Island, and in a number of towns on the Hudson River, and several,
it is believed, in New Jersey. But the churches of New York, Albany, and
Esopus, were the most important, and the ministers of these churches
claimed and enjoyed a kind of episcopal dignity over the surrounding
churches.

The Dutch church was the established religion of the colony, until it
surrendered to the British in 1664; after which its circumstances were
materially changed. Not long after the colony passed into the hands of the
British, an act was passed, which went to establish the Episcopal church
as the predominant party; and for almost a century after, the Dutch and
English Presbyterians, and all others in the colony, were forced to
contribute to the support of that church.

The first judicatory higher than a consistory, among this people, was a
Coetus, formed in 1747. The object and powers of this assembly were merely
those of advice and fraternal intercourse. It could not ordain ministers,
nor judicially decide in ecclesiastical disputes, without the consent of
the Classis of Amsterdam.

The first regular Classis among the Dutch was formed in 1757. But the
formation of this Classis involved this infant church in the most unhappy
collisions, which sometimes threatened its very existence. These disputes
continued for many years, by which two parties were raised in the church,
one of which was for, and the other against, an ecclesiastical
subordination to the judicatories of the mother church and country. These
disputes, in which eminent men on both sides were concerned, besides
disturbing their own peace and enjoyment, produced unfavorable impressions
towards them among their brethren at home.

In 1766, John H. Livingston, D. D., then a young man, went fro