minister, Don Diego de Gardoqui, on Broadway, near the Bowling Green, in the Vauxhall Gardens, which was a hall on the river front near Warren Street, and in a carpenter's shop in Barclay Street. Finally, an Irish Capuchin, Father Charles Whelan, who had served as a chaplain in De Grasse's flect, and was acting as private chaplain to the Portu- guese consul-general, Don José Roiz Silva, took up also the care of this scattered flock, which numbered less than two hundred, and only about forty of them practical in the observances of their faith.
Through efforts led by the French consul, Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (q. v.), an act of incorporation was secured, on 10 June, 1785, for the "Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church of the City of New York," in which José Roiz Silva, James Stewart, and Henry Duffin were associated with him as the first board. An unexpired lease of lots at Barclay and Church streets was bought from the trustees of Trinity church, Thomas Stoughton, the Spanish Con- sul-general, and his partner Dominick Lynch, advancing the purchase money, one thousand pounds, and there on 5 Oct., 1785, the corner- stone of St. Peter's, the first permanent structure for a Catholic church erected in the State of New York, was laid by the Spanish minister, Gardoqui. The church was opened 4 Nov., 1786. The first resident pastor was Fa- ther Whelan, who, however, was forced to retire owing to the hostility of the trustees and of another Capuchin, the Rev. Andrew Nugent, before the Church was opened. The prefect Apostolic, the vener- able John Carroll, then visited New York to admin- ister confirmation for the first time, and placed the church in charge of a Domin- ican, Father William O'Brien, who may be regarded as the
was named: a letter sent on 8 Nov., 1808, by Father
Kohlmann, who was then acting as the administrator
of the diocese, to his friend Father Strickland, S. J., of
London, England, says, "Your favour of the 6th Sept.
was delivered to me at the beginning of October in the
City of New York, where our Right Rev. Bishop Car-
roll has thought proper to send me in the capacity
of rector of this immense congregation and Vicar
General of this diocese till the arrival of the Right Rev.
Richard Luke Concanen, Bishop of New York. The
congregation chiefly consists of Irish, some hundreds
of French, and as many Germans, in all, according to
the common estimation, of 14,000 souls. Rev. Mr.
Fenwick, a young Father of our society, distinguished
for his learning and piety, has been sent along with
OLD ST. PETER'S CHURCH, BARCLAY ST. (1785)
organizer of the parish. He had as his assistants
Fathers John Connell and Nicholas Burke, and, in his
efforts to aid the establishment of the church, went as
far as the City of Mexico to collect funds there under
the auspices of his old schoolfellow, the archbishop of
that see.
He brought back $5920 and a number of
paintings, vestments, etc. Father O'Brien and his
assistants did heroic work during the yellow fever
epidemics of 1795, 1799, 1801, and 1805. In 1801 he
established the parish school, which has since been
carried on without interruption. The church debt at
this time was $6500; the income from pew rents,
$1120, and from collections, $360, a year. The Rev.
Dr. Matthew O'Brien, another Dominican, the Rev.
John Byrne, and the Rev. Michael Hurley, an Au-
gustinian, were, during this period, assistants at St.
Peter's. In July, 1807, the Rev. Louis Sibourd, a
French priest, was made pastor, but he left in the fol-
lowing year, and then the famous Jesuit, Anthony
Kohlmann (q. v.), was sent to take charge. It was
at this time that the Holy See determined to erect
Baltimore into an archbishopric and to establish the
new Dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and
Bardstown, Ky.
II. CREATION OF THE DIOCESE.-We have a picture of the situation in New York when the first bishop me. I was no sooner arrived in the city and, behold, the trustees, though before our arrival they had not spent a cent for the reparation and furniture of their clergy- man's house, laid out for the said purpose above $800. All men seem to revive at the very name of the Society of Jesus, though yet little known in this part of the country." What rapid progress Was made, he indicates, two years later, when, again writing to Father Strickland, on 14 Sept., 1810, he tells him: "Indeed it is but two years that we ar- rived in this city without hav- ing a cent in our pocket, not even our passage money, which the trustees paid for Father Fenwick and me and to see things so far ad- vanced as to see not only the Catholic religion highly re- spected by the first characters of the city, but even a Cath- olic college established, the house well furnished both in town and in the college in- provements made in the col- lege [sic] for four or five hun- dred dollars . . . is a thing which I am at a loss to con- ceive and which I cannot ascribe but to the infinite liberality of the Lord, to whom alone, therefore, be all glory and honour. The college is in the centre not of Long Island but of the Island of New York, the most delightful and most healthy spot of the whole island, at a distance of four small miles from the city, and of half a mile from the East and North rivers, both of which are seen from the house; situated between two roads which are very much frequented, opposite to the botanic gardens which belong to the State. It has adjacent to it a beautiful lawn, garden, orchard. etc."-This spot is now the site of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth ave- nue.
We can judge from the family names on the register of St. Peter's church that the early Catholics of New York were largely Irish; next in number come the French, then the Germans, followed by those of Ital- ian, Spanish and English origin. There were enough Germans in 1808 to think themselves entitled to a church and pastor of their own nationality, for on 2 March of that year Christopher Brichill, John Kner- inger, George Jacob, Martin Nieder, and Francis Werneken signed a petition which they sent to Bishop Carroll praying him "to send us a pastor who is capa- ble of undertaking the spiritual Care of our Souls in the German Language, which is our Mother Tongue.
