Colonial days in old New York

								

The relations between church, school, and state were equally close
throughout all New Netherland. Thus, in 1661, Governor Stuyvesant
recommended Charles De Bevoise as schoolmaster for Brooklyn; and
when Domine Henricus Selyns left the Brooklyn church, Schoolmaster
De Bevoise was ordered to read prayers and sermons, “to read a
postille” every Sabbath until another minister was obtained. He was
also a krankebesoecker, or comforter of the sick. Even after the
establishment of English rule in the colony, the connection of Dutch
church and school was equally close. When Johannis Van Eckellen was
engaged by the Consistory of the Dutch church in Flatbush in October,
1682, as a schoolmaster for the town, it was under this extremely
interesting and minute contract, which, translated, reads thus:--


ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT made with Johannis Van Eckellen, schoolmaster
and clerk of the church at Flatbush.


1st. The school shall begin at eight o’clock in the morning, and go
out at eleven o’clock. It shall begin again at one o’clock and end at
four o’clock. The bell shall be rung before the school begins.


2nd. When the school opens, one of the children shall read the morning
prayer, as it stands in the catechism, and close with the prayer
before dinner. In the afternoon it shall begin with the prayer after
dinner, and close with the evening prayer. The evening school shall
begin with the Lord’s Prayer, and close by singing a Psalm.


3rd. He shall instruct the children in the common prayers and the
questions and answers of the catechism, on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
to enable them to say their catechism on Sunday afternoons in
the church before the afternoon service, otherwise on the Monday
following, at which the schoolmaster shall be present. He shall
demean himself patient and friendly towards the children in their
instruction, and be active and attentive to their improvement. 4th.
He shall be bound to keep his school nine months in succession, from
September to June, one year with another, or the like period of time
for a year, according to the agreement with his predecessor, he shall,
however, keep the school nine months, and always be present himself.

 CHURCH SERVICE.


ART. 1st. He shall be chorister of the church, ring the bell three
times before service, and read a chapter of the Bible in the church,
between the second and third ringing of the bell; after the third
ringing he shall read the ten commandments and the twelve articles
of Faith, and then set the Psalm. In the afternoon, after the third
ringing of the bell, he shall read a short chapter, or one of the
Psalms of David, as the congregation are assembling. Afterwards he
shall again set the Psalm.


ART. 2nd. When the minister shall preach at Brooklyn or New Utrecht,
he shall be bound to read twice before the congregation a sermon from
the book used for the purpose. The afternoon sermon will be on the