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The Warren Family |
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The Warren Family |
THE WARREN FAMILY.1 Eliakim Warren, who was the founder of one of the first commercial houses in this city, removed with his family from Norwalk, Conn., to Troy, N. Y., in 1798. His forefathers were among the earliest settlers of New England; the Wareings or Warrens being among those sturdy English Colonists who stubbornly disputed with the Dutch for the possession of Long Island, the eastern part of which was then a part of Connecticut.
Richard Waring, of Warren, the ancestor of Eliakim, was one of the original proprietors of Brookhaven in 1655. In a deed still in existence, he conveyed to his son Edmond, the grandfather of Eliakim, two pieces of land in the town of Huntington, L. I. Said land, etc., "shall not be sold to any furner [foreigner] or stranger by ye said Edmond before a tender made to sum of ye said Edmond's brothers."
Edmond married, in 1698, Elizabeth Bouton, whose grandfather, John Bouton, had emigrated to New England in 1635.
The name of Edmond Warren appears very often in the ancient records of Norwalk, and is there variously spelled; first as Wareing at his marriage in 1698, and Waren on his removal to Norwalk in 1705; finally, on his tombstone,2 in 1749, it is spelled Warin.
The syllable ing was the patronymic termination in early English, or rather the Teutonic languages generally. A few modern surnames, such as Harding, Hastings, Freeling, Willing, etc., still preserve the memory of this ancient tribal organization.
There is also considerable variety in the spelling of the maiden name of Edmond's wife. We find it spelled, in the ancient records, Bowton, Bowten, Bowtin, Boughton, Boutin, and Bouton. In "Hotten's list of passengers," it is spelled Bowten. Matthew, the son of John Bouton, of Norwalk, settled in Danbury, Conn., and he and his descendants have spelled the name Boughton. This last is in conformity with the spelling of the Boughtons of Warwickshire, England, although the founder of that family (temp. Henry VI.) first appears in England as Sir William de Bouton, but after his marriage with the heiress of Lawford the spelling of it was changed.
Such varied spelling of surnames was by no means uncommon in old colony times. Even in England, as late as the early part of the last century, the spelling of surnames was equally uncertain. Halliwell says that Sharespeare changed his mind thirty times as to the letters and the sequence of the letters composing his illustrious patronymic, and there exists a MS. of Sir William Dugdale in which one hundred and thirty-one different modes of spelling the name Mainwaring is given, while Fuller, in his "Worthies of England," observes "that the honorable name of Villiers is written fourteen several ways in their own evidences." "Will Honeycomb," says Addison's Spectator, "never liked pedantry in spelling, for when some errors were detected in the letters he writ in his youth to a coquette lady, he protested that he spelt like a gentleman and not like a scholar."
Among the ancestors of Eliakim Warren, besides the Boutons, were the Marvins, the Gregories, and the Reeds, all of whom immigrated to this country in the early part of the seventeenth century. His mother, Ann Reed, was a granddaughter of John Reed, an officer in Cromwell's army, who, at the Restoration, took refuge in New England, where he lived to the extraordinary age of ninety-eight years. The Boutons are said to have come from France,3 being probably among those Huguenots who, fleeing from persecution in their own country, took refuge in England.
Arriving in Boston, he probably went with the Connecticut colony the same year to Hartford; thence to Norwalk, and there settled as one of the original proprietors of the town in 1651. He was chosen selectman of the town, and for thirteen years was a deputy in the colonial Legislature. If this tradition be well founded, John Bouton was doubtless of the Burgundian stock and a fruitful vine, - for, transplanted from the soil of his native country, he has branched forth on every side in the land of his adoption. Moreover, these prolific Boutons have also been remarkable for longevity, several of them having attained the patriarchal age of ninety years.
The Warrens and Boutons have frequently intermarried since their first union in 1698.
Edmond Waring (or Warren) removed from Huntington, L. I., to Norwalk, Conn., in 1703. From the fact of his having built a pier in the harbor of Norwalk, it is inferred that he must have been engaged in some mercantile business, - probably that of exporting lumber, for he had purchased from time to time pieces of land extending all the way from South Norwalk to Five-Mile River, in extent far beyond the needs of farming as then practiced in New England. He died aged seventy-six, and to the wife and twelve children who survived him (eight sons and "four loving daughters") he bequeathed a considerable landed estate.
The following inscriptions were copied from ancient tombstones discovered at Norwalk, in 1862, by Mr. Jonathan Camp:
"Here lies ye body of Mr. Edmond Warin,4 who died August ye 5, 1749, in ye 76 year of his age."
Tradition says that Eliakim Warren (the grandson of Edmond), while still a resident of Norwalk, built a vessel which he named "The Three Brothers," in honor of his three sons, who were all under age at the time. Esaias, the eldest, although not yet twenty, was, however, intrusted with this vessel, and as supercargo made several trips to the West Indies.
It was on one of the return trips, after the cargo had been sold at Albany, that the idea of settling in Troy first suggested itself to them. There they heard of the thriving little village farther up the river. On personal inspection, they were satisfied that Troy would become a flourishing town,6 it being in reality at the head of navigation.
With characteristic promptness, Mr. Warren purchased a desirable lot and determined at once to remove with his family to Troy. His wife, who was a daughter of Esaias Bouton, of Norwalk, on hearing of what he had done, expressed her astonishment by asking him if he had taken leave of his senses. The good lady had afterwards abundant reason to be satisfied with the excellence of her husband's judgment on this matter, for they lived happily together in their new home for many years, seeing their children and their children's children grow up around them.
Her regret at leaving the home of her forefathers, where her family had lived, honored and respected, for nearly a century and a half, must have been considerably lessened by the fact that one of her sisters and two of the brothers, Nathan and Stephen, also removed to Troy about the same time. The Bouton homestead, to which they were all so much attached, picturesquely situated at the head of a little bay, protected from cold winds by surrounding hills, was quite a model of a New England farm-house of the better class.7 In old colony times the custom of burning the yule-log or Christmas-block was religiously kept up at this house. A log of unusual size having been selected in the summer was, on Christmas-eve, drawn from the woods, and with handspikes rolled into the kitchen, where it was solemnly placed in the huge fireplace which occupied one end of the apartment; and so long as this log burned, which was, usually, three or four days, all work was suspended on the farm, the household giving itself up to the hilarious observance of a merry Christmas. The house was burnt some time after the death of the proprietor. The substantial chimney, however (protected doubtless by the good St. Nicholas), has, up to the present time, stubbornly resisted the power of the elements, for, towering aloft, it continues to be, as it has been for more than a hundred years, a landmark to vessels coming into the neighboring harbor of Norwalk.
Esaias Bouton, the father-in-law of Mr. Eliakim Warren, lived to be ninety-one. At his funeral, the Rev. Dr. Sherwood, of the Episcopal Church, preached from the text Psalm ex. 7, "He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up his head." This text might have been appropriately applied to the six children who survived him, who also lived to a good old age, - averaging fourscore.
This digression is believed to be necessary in giving a sketch of the Warrens, for the two families have been so long connected that it would be difficult to give a history of the one without some notice of the other.
Eliakim Warren married Phoebe, daughter of Esaias Bouton, in 1771. From their earliest youth both of them had been devotedly attached to the Church of England. They found no Episcopal Church in Troy. Indeed, there was but one place of public worship in the village, built by the inhabitants, for the use of all denominations. Believing that they had providentially found a true missionary field for their exertions, they at once set about what seemed then the almost hopeless task of founding a church. Meetings were first held in the court-house; then a church (St. Paul's) was incorporated. By the way, it was the same name as that of their old parish church in Norwalk. The Rev. David Butler was called to its pastoral care. At first there were but three communicants, - Mr. Warren, his wife, and Lemuel Hawley, - and now there are, in what was then within the limits of St. Paul's parish, - Troy and West Troy, - Three times three churches, "a little one having become a thousand."8
With Mr. Eliakim Warren, religion was something more that a mere decent conformity required of respectable people by public opinion.
In his youth there had been a great awakening in the Church of England, originating, doubtless, in the preaching of the Wesley's, and many dissenters, even in New England, began to turn their thoughts toward the Church, and Mr. Warren was among those who, after serious thought and reading, came back to the Church of their forefathers. Tradition says that in those days he walked five miles every Sunday to attend the service of the nearest church.
Dr. Potter, President of Union College, in an anniversary sermon9 preached in St. Paul's Church, in 1872, says of him: "He who was destined to be the honored founder of the [Episcopal] Church in Troy had but recently removed to this place. Nevertheless, he resolved, in words that are still remembered, that Episcopalians, few though they were, must have a church of their own."
The brick church on the corner of Third and Congress Streets, the corner-stone of which had been laid in 1804, was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Moore, of New York, in 1806. Mr. Warren had two years previously been chosen senior warden, which office he held at the time of his death in 1824. His had been a long life of usefulness; indeed, few men of his time were more generally beloved and respected. Of him it might truly be said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." He often said in his old age that he never had a lawsuit; and in those days, when disputes between Episcopalians and Presbyterians ran high, he avoided polemical controversy. The recent wars with England doubtless added much to the bitterness of those disputes, for Episcopalians were suspected of a reactionary leaning towards monarchical institutions. When a lady, who chanced to see him at an evening party, in pleasant conversation with the late Rev. Dr. Coe, the then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, asked him how it was that he and the doctor got on so well together, he replied at once, "By avoiding controversial subjects, for they could easily find common ground of agreement."
Another anecdote, illustrative of Mr. Warren's meekness and humility, has fortunately been preserved. When the old brick church was enlarged, by the addition of thirty-five feet to the chancel end of the building, it was suggested to him that he might have a family vault constructed under the church, such as the Vander Heydens had built under the Presbyterian Church. It was a tempting offer to one who had always been so devout in his attendance on the services of the sanctuary, for in those days it was thought a distinguished honor to be buried under a church, but, after a brief consideration, he declined the offer, saying that the common burying-ground was good enough for him and his family.
At the time when the Oakwood Cemetery was planned this half-forgotten anecdote was brought to mind, suggesting to his descendants the idea of a mortuary chapel, Indeed, public opinion then required that the family should erect some suitable memorial, which at the same time should be an ornament to the cemetery. A chapel was therefore decided upon, and is that which now occupies a conspicuous position near the centre of the cemetery. It is a cruciform building, early English in character, of stone from quarries at the aqueduct, combined with granite. The more highly-wrought portions of the building are of Aubigny and Caen stone, imported from Normandy. The graves of the senior members of the family are covered with plain slabs of marble, containing appropriate inscriptions; upon these rests an alter-tomb of Caen stone, supporting a sculptured representation of the Last Supper, over which is a triple window of painted glass, the subject being the Ascension of our Lord. In a word, this picturesque building, in the language of architecture, might be considered a hymn of praise, as well as a confession of that faith in which those who rest beneath have lived and died.
In concluding this notice of one of Troy's worthiest citizens, we cannot do better than quote the following from his funeral sermon, preached by Dr. Butler: "Our departed friend was the first that moved the organization of our congregation; and to his prudence, perseverance, and liberality we are greatly indebted, under God, for our present prosperity. He spared neither labor, pains, nor expense in rearing this fabric, and in supporting the holy ordinances administered in it. Nor is it we alone that have occasion to deplore this sad event. The Church at large is deeply afflicted. One of the most copious streams of its liberality is dried up.10
But the good example of those who departed this life in the faith and fear of God had its usual good effect. Soon after a new church was resolved upon, and the spacious stone edifice which now stands on the corner of State and Third Streets was the result. Foremost in this good work were the three sons of Eliakim Warren, his second son, Nathan, being on the building committee; indeed, the architectural success of the work was said to be greatly due to his good taste and untiring zeal.
Among the institutions of religion and learning that those brothers assisted in founding was one of their own native State of Connecticut, Washington College, now known as Trinity College, Hartford. The portrait of Mr. Nathan Warren has been placed in the library, among the benefactors of that institution. The college, then comparatively poor, has since become wealthy, and the trustees are now erecting stately buildings which will compare with those in the English Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The Warren brothers were also promoters of other beneficent institutions at home as well as abroad.
They cheerfully responded to every call of their fellow-citizen to assist in those good works that had for their object the building up of Troy.
With such men as George Tibbits, Richard P. Hart, George and Henry Vail, Judge Cushman, Judge Buel, John Payne, Le Grand Cannon, and others that might be named, they devoted much of their time and energy to the interest of the city. The Troy Female Seminary; the Polytechnic Institute;11 the Savings-Bank, and other banks of discount and deposit; turnpikes opening to Troy the surrounding country; the water-works, and the Hydraulic Company utilizing the water at the State dam; the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, one of the first railroads constructed in the United States, - all these and similar works they and their associates labored to advance.
In those days before our railroad system was completed, when a bridge at Albany would have been fatal to the growth of Troy, they successfully resisted by representation in the Legislature the granting of a charter to bridge the Hudson at Albany. When first-class steamboats were to be built, to compete with those running to Albany, they liberally advanced capital, without stopping to consider whether it would ever be to them a money-paying investment; and in later times, when it began to be manifest that Troy must be a manufacturing rather than a mercantile town, they were equally ready, according to their ability, to forward all such industrial enterprise.
Their fellow-citizens frequently bestowed marks of confidence on them. Three of the family have been mayors of the city. The first, Mr. Esaias Warren, succeeded Col. Pawling, and, after serving several terms, declined any further re-election, having filled the office longer than any other mayor either before or since. Joseph M. and George B. Warren, Jr., a grandson and great-grandson of Eliakim Warren, held the same honorable office. Four of the family have been presidents of banks and other incorporated institutions in which large amounts of capital have been invested. These different trusts they have discharged with credit to themselves and advantage to the stockholders.
Even since their removal to Troy, and even from an earlier period, some of the family have been engaged in mercantile pursuits. Two of the largest commercial and manufacturing houses in the city at present include several of the family among their partners; and it is believed that from the time "The Three Brothers" made its first voyage to the West Indies to the present day, a period of nearly ninety years, their credit has been good, and never, even in the most trying times that Troy has ever seen, have they failed to meet their commercial engagements.
"The late George Bouton Warren was at the time of his death (1879) the oldest native resident of the city of Troy, where he was born on Sept. 25, 1797. While yet a young man, he became a partner in the firm of Southwick, Cannon & Warren, dry-goods merchants. On the incorporation of the Troy City Bank, in 1833, he was chosen a director, and on retiring from business became president of the bank, a position he held for many years. He was alderman of the Third Ward from 1835 to 1842, and representative in the Assembly in 1844. In 1846 he was the Whig candidate for representative in Congress, but was defeated by Gideon Reynolds, the candidate of the Anti-renters. At the time of his death he was president of the Troy Union Railroad Company. Mr. Warren was an ardent student of nature, and particularly in ornithology. His house was full of specimens of the rarest and most beautiful birds. Part of the collection, we believe, has been presented to the Polytechnic Institute. Very few, if any, ornithologists in this country have either theoretically or practically been so well versed in the life, habits, and peculiarities of birds. A true lover of nature, he was never happier than when in his holidays he sought the solitude of his native State, and in company with a few disciples of Isaak Walton as enthusiastic as himself drew the coy fish from their hidden retreats. Fifty years ago he was accustomed to visit the habitat of the denizens of the waters that circle among the Thousand Islands of the river St. Lawrence. Later on he penetrated the then almost unbroken solitudes of the Adirondacks, and went where before him the foot of civilized man had never trod. One of his most respected companions on these excursions was the late Rev. Dr. Bethune, who was styled Chaplain of the Piseco Club, a sporting organization founded by Mr. Warren, and named from Lake Piseco, in Hamilton County, a favorite resort for fishing."
In politics the Warrens have always been conservative, having a sincere distrust of novelties and dangerous experiments.
In old Revolutionary times, the family, or rather the Bouton half of it, were suspected of a leaning to Toryism, although it was only in matters of opinion, for, like other Connecticut Churchmen, they were apprehensive that a separation from the state meant also a separation from the Church of England. The fact that the brother of Esaias Bouton held a commission in the army that captured Quebec may have had some influence, but such inclination did not prevent Eliakim Warren from joining the patriots in defense of Norwalk, when the town was attacked by the British in 1779. Although at that time the British were compelled to retreat, it was not until they had burned the greater part of the town. Among the few houses of South Norwalk that escaped was the one belonging to Mr. Warren. Some said that these were spared because the owners were believed to be at heart friendly to King George. In more modern times they were Federalists. Since the downfall of that party they have been very moderate in their expression of political preferences; nevertheless, some of them have occasionally been candidates for office. Mr. Stephen Warren was once in the Assembly, and had the honor to be a presidential elector. His son, Mr. Joseph M. Warren, has been in Congress, and is now warden of St. Paul's Church, having succeeded his father, uncle, and grandfather in that honorable office.
On the completion, in 1828, of the new church edifice, on the corner of Third and State Streets, a tablet containing the following inscription was erected:
"This tablet is erected by the vestry in memory of Eliakim Warren, Senior Warden of this church from its organization, in 1804, until his death. To his zeal and munificence the congregation is indebted, under God, for its origin and prosperity. He died September 4th, 1824, aged 77 years. 'Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."
A few years later, another tablet was placed on the side of the chancel:
"This tablet is erected by the vestry in memory of Phoebe, Relict of Eliakim Warren. She died January 17, 1835, aged 80 years. A mother in Israel for 20 years, she supported and conducted a Saturday sewing-school for the children of the poor. 'The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon her, and she caused the widow's heart to sing for joy."
The following extract, clipped from the Norwalk Gazette of Oct. 7, 1879, was received after the above had been written. It is from a centennial sermon preached by the Rev. C. M. Selleck, at St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, September 28th, and refers to Eliakim Warren and his sons:
"Shortly after Tryon's ships had finally recrossed the Atlantic, a father and three sons, spiritually nurtured here, sailed out of this port and took up residence, in that day, remote from this place. You may see their names, you may read that of your town, inscribed legibly on several monuments and tablets which testify to their worth and usefulness in their adopted home.
"From a secular history, published two years ago, we gather the following interesting statement referring to the same family. On Jan. 16, 1804, a few persons met in a court-house in Northern New York to organize ecclesiastically. The first warden chosen was an old vestryman of this parish. Bishop Moore gave them a rector, who commenced his ministry with three communicants. The first two - we are in doubt as to the third - belonged here in the days of the burning. That parish, now queenly mother of seven right prosperous daughters, ranks to-day, in point of influence and wealth, among the first parishes in the Union: and old St. Paul's, Norwalk, has no reason to hide her head when she remembers the Warrens and the Boutons and the Cannons and the Kelloggs whom she gave it.
"On the east bank of the Hudson, and overlooking it and the beautiful city at its base and around it, is reared a massive temple, free for all time to come for the worship of Almighty God. Daily prayer ascends from its altars, the voice of daily praise is heard within.
"An institution for the instruction of the young - without money and without price, and now and for several years past presided over by one of the noblest sons of the Church - belongs to and adjoins it. Many rise and call Mary Warren blessed. She rests in Paradise, but her works survive and her memory is precious: and it is an act of but simple justice to it that we pronounce her name, with profound gratitude to-day, in this home and parish of her nativity."
The little school mentioned in the tablet was continued by her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Nathan Warren. From a Saturday sewing-school it was, not long after, converted into a day-school by its new patroness. This pious lady, with the approbation of the proper ecclesiastical authorities, soon determined upon another and still more important step, which was the founding of the Mission Church of the Holy Cross. The corner-stone of this edifice was laid on St. Mark's day, April 25, 1844. The choral parts of the service were performed by the children of the school, - in number about 80, - who for nearly two years had officiated as choristers in St. Paul's Church on saints' days and other week-day services.
From an address delivered on the occasion by Dr. Van Kleeck, Rector of St. Paul's, we take the following:
"The simple Saturday sewing-school, established twenty-nine years ago, by one12 whose labors, influence, and memory will ever be fresh and ever blessed in this community, continued since her death, and gradually enlarged as a day-school, and with more ample privileges and instruction, has suggested the good desire, for some time cherished, and the pious design this day begun, of connecting with 'this School of Industry,' to be provided for in blessed perpetuity, a mission church, which shall be always free, 'a house of prayer for all people.' This is the fifth instance in this diocese in which a church has been erected by the liberality of an individual, while it is, as we believe, the first (may it be followed speedily by many more!) which has been projected and devoted as 'a free or mission church."
It was continued by Mrs. Nathan Warren for five years. In the year 1839 she converted it into a every-day school for reading, writing, sewing, knitting, marking, quilting, Sunday-school lessons, catechism, and church music. The number of scholars is sixty-six. The teachers, Misses Pierce; music teacher, William Hopkins, 1842.
St. Mark's day had been selected by the founder for the laying of the corner-stone because, among other reasons, it happened to be the birthday of her eldest son, with whom had originated the idea of adapting to the American Book of Common Prayer the English cathedral or choral service, which was designed to be, together with the principle of free-sitting, a distinguishing feature in the enterprise.
In 1846 the church and school was incorporated. The church, though opened for the celebration of divine service on Christmas-day, 1844, was not consecrated until the completion of the chancel, Dec. 6, 1848. The Right Rev. Bishop Whittingham, of Maryland, officiated on the occasion. On the next day, in the newly-consecrated church, the bishop admitted to the priesthood the Rev. John Ireland Tucker,13 under whose pastoral care the church has continued to the present day, - a period of thirty-one years.
The altar-piece, "The taking down from the Cross," was painted and presented to the church by Prof. R. W. Weir, of West Point. The land upon which the buildings are erected, the organ, the chimes, and the stained-glass windows, are the gift of the children of the founder. During the war the clock was presented to the church by Maj. Gen. Schriver, the son-in-law of Mrs. Warren. After the death of the founder, in 1859, the church was greatly enlarged and beautified, the parsonage, on the north side, having been built two years previously.
There are several monuments in the church. One to the memory of the founder, on which is the following inscription:
"Here lies ye body of Mrs. Elizabeth Waring, wife of Mr. Edmond Waring,5 who died Nov. 7, 1760, in the 80th year of her age."
Another to her parents, whilst a third is to her daughter, the wife of Gen. Schriver.
There is, besides, a lecturn of brass, presented by Mrs. George Henry Warren, in memory of Mrs. Philip Phoenix, daughter of the late Stephen Whitney, of New York. This beautiful work of art is a fac-simile of the one in Exeter Cathedral, and was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition.
From the beginning, the choral or cathedral service has been a specialty in this church. It took some years to test the practicability of the experiment, and to overcome the prejudice against it. It is now, however, so well established that the example has been followed far and near, so that there is hardly a city in the United States that has not its choral service.
The old Van der Heyden mansion, nearly opposite, had been for many years used as a school-house, until it was burnt down in the great fire of 1862. Then the handsome building on the south side of the church was erected for school-house purposes.
It is a curious coincidence that the church should have been consecrated on St. Nicholas' day (the 6th of December). Indeed, no more appropriate day could have been selected, considering that St. Nicholas has always been regarded as the patron saint of schools and scholars. Certainly no saint in the calendar is more popular with children.
For forty years the time-honored festival of Christmas has been celebrated with great solemnity by the children of this school. It was at the residence of the founder (31 Third Street) that the Christmas-tree was first set up in Troy. Dr. Telkampf, a Prussian, and a professor in Union College, came over from Schenectady on purpose to give the needful instruction.
From that time to the present the celebration has been annually repeated, although of late years it has been held at the Institute. Here in the main school-room, decorated and arranged for the occasion, in the style of an old English manor-house, with blazing yule-log on one side of the room, while the Christmas-tree is being prepared in an adjoining apartment, the choir and children sing appropriate carols.
There is connected with this Christmas-tree celebration an open-air festival which should be here noticed. It is that of St. John the Baptist's day, which, indeed, in the estimation of the children, has come to rival that of Christmas itself. On this occasion (June 24th), divine service having been said in the morning, the children of the school have been accustomed to go in procession, their banners borne before them to Mount Ida, for many years the country residence of the founders of the school. Flitting about in the twilight, in their white dresses and straw hats, among shrubs and flowers, they suggest ideas of fairy-land.
On these occasions, vocal and instrumental music have, in a great measure, taken the place of the ruder May-games of the land of our forefathers.
The festivals of the Christmas-tree and the strawberry festival of the good St. John have become very popular, and so widely has the example set been followed that few, perhaps, of those who now participate in them know their history.
In the foregoing sketch little has been said, for obvious reasons, of the liberality of those of the Warren family now living, although the aggregate, if computed in dollars and cents, would doubtless reach no inconsiderable amount. It may, however, be proper here to add that the noble organ in St. Paul's Church was the gift of an aged lady of the family, now living, and that one-half the cost of the handsome parish house and chapel on State Street was defrayed by one of her sons.
It was the prediction of that servant of God, Eliakim Warren, when his sons were yet young men, and had the world before them, that if they would give liberally of their worldly goods as God should prosper them, they should never come to want.
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." - Malachi, chap. 3, ver. 10.
1 Kindly contributed by Dr. Nathan B. Warren.
2 There appears to be a doubt about the proper spelling of the names. It seems to have been taken for granted by the antiquaries and genealogists of New England that Waring was a misspelling of the name of Warren. The same mistake seems also to have been made in England. According to Nichol"s "Herald and Genealogist," Mr. Watson, the antiquarian, in his "History of t he Earls of Warren and Surrey," made Sir George Warren, of Cheshire, and Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, K. B., of Stapleford, Norringhamshire, descendants of a common ancestor, who lived three centuries before their time, and died in the Twenty-third, Henry VII.
There are, howver, very reasonable grounds for believing that the Warrens of Stapleford, Co. Nottingham, of which Sir John was the representative, were not at all descended from the ancient family of Warren. They were descended from Sir Arnold Waring, who was knighted 4th of March, 1632-33.
Burke, in his "Landed Gentry," says that the Warings were descended from Miles De Guarin, who came to England with William the Conqueror. At the Reformation temp. Queen Mary, the ancestor of the Warings of Lancashire, fled to Ireland to avoid persecution. The Warings of Waringstown, County Down, are of this stock.
Allibone mentions twenty-two authors of this name in England and America who have distinguished themselves in science and literature.
It appears, then, from the above, that the names of Waring and Warren are not identical, although both are equally ancient and probably of tribal origin. Richard Waring, of Brookhaven, does not appear to be related to the Warrens of Plymouth, Watertown, or Boston. Savage says he cannot find any evidence that these Massachusetts families are related to each other.
The name was very common in the eastern, western, and southern counties of England, from which the New England immigrants came. The writer has been thus particular onthe subject of names, because the numerous and widely-scattered descendants of Richard Waring, of Brookhaven, still continue to differ as to the spelling the pronunciation of their patronymic.
3 The Rev. Dr. Bouton, in his autobiography, says "The French stock can be traced back authentically as far as 1350, to Jean Bouton, seigneur de Guintiguie, son of N. Bouton, seigneur de Savidny. Many of the name appear in the French military and court records of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and later centuries. Nicolas Bouton, born in 1598, bore the titles of Count de Chamilly, Baron de Montague, and de Nanton. His son, Noel Bauton, born in 1636, advanced the honors of his house, and was created Marquis of Chamilly and (in 1703) Marshal of France. There are many of the same name still living in France and England. John Bouton, said to be the common anestor of all of the family name in this country, came from England in 1635."
4 "They were very careful to give no titles where they were not due. In a list of one hundred freemen you will not find above four or five distinguished by 'Mr.,' although they were men of some substance. 'Goodman' and 'Goodwife' were the common a;;ellations. -- Barber's Massachusetts.
5 It is curious to observe that there is the same variation of spellng in te last will and testament of Peter Warrin, the ancestor of the hero of the battle of Bunker Hill. It is there spelled both Warrin and Warring. The son, however (the grandfather of the general), spelled it as it is now spelled in Boston and Troy. Indeed, the 'g' in pronunciation seems to have been softened or altogether dropped by those believing it to be a provincialism. Mr. Eliakim Warren claimed to be a relative of the general, and this relationship was acknowledged many years ago by the late Dr. Warren, of Boston.
6 In the county clerk's office there is recorded a deed, dated 1801 ("made between Thomas Norton, of the Village of Troy, of the first part, and Essias Warren, Nathan Warren, and Iliakim Warren, Merchants, of the second part"), of the sale of a piece of property on River Street, twenty-seven feet front, "in consideration of two thousand and two hundred dollars, lawful money," and subject to a mortgage of six hundred and fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, due Albert Pawling. An in another deed, dated three years later, we find the same property sold for the sum of four thousand seven hundred and thirty dollars.
7 Mr. William Van Rensselaer, who inherited from the old patroon that part of the manor lying in Rensselaer County, resided with his family for many years in a house built on one of the headlands forming the bay.
8 "Today, my brethren, in the district so long under his [Dr. Butler's] charge, you will find nearly a score of churches, chapels, and schools, while organizations and gifts of Christ-like charity have multiplied a thousand-fold." -- Dr. Potter's Sermon.
9 A discourse on parochial progress, delivered in St. Paul's Church, in Troy, N. Y., on Sunday following St. Paul's day.
10 He was the founder of the Warren scholarship in the General Theological Seminary, and he had also donated to the church a fifty-foot lot, upon which the parsonage then stood, the life-long home of the preacher.
11 The ground upon which this institution stands was donated by the children of the late Stephen Warren, Esq.
12 The following history of this school is taken from a sampler worked by one of the girls since: "School of Industry of St. Paul's Church, Troy, Founded by Mrs. Phebe Warren, in the year 1815, as a Saturday Sewing school, and maintained by her until her death."
13 Dr. Tucker had previously charge of the church while in deacon's orders.
14 For more than twenty yers the school and choir were under the musical direction of Prof. William Hopkins.
15 The doctor was afterwards recalled to his native country, and advanced by the King of Prussia to high employment, being member of Parliament that met at Frankfort, and director of education in the province of Posen.
