Reformed Church of New Paltz Records
(1683-1895)

Finding Aid completed by Beth Patkus, 2024
Special thanks to Joan Kelley for her inventory of the record books held at
the Reformed Church of New Paltz, on which the Box/Folder list is based.

Inclusive Dates: 1683-1895
Bulk Dates: 1683-1882
Volume: 0.5 cu. ft. (plus other materials housed at Reformed Church of New Paltz)
Collection ID: MSS.065 and RCNP
Language: French, Dutch, English
Acquisition: Partial collection housed at HHS, on loan from the Reformed Church of New Paltz (RCNP).
Access and Use: Unrestricted. Request for permission to publish materials from these records should be directed to the Archivist/Librarian at Historic Huguenot Street (HHS).
Digital Access: Partially digitized in 2023. Hosted online at New York Heritage, click on Reformed Church of New Paltz, or see links in Box/Folder listing below).

Administrative History 

Founded in 1683, the Reformed Church was the first place of worship established in New Paltz, NY. In 1677 twelve French-speaking Protestant men from what is now northern France and Belgium signed a land agreement with the Indigenous Esopus people, agreeing to exchange European goods for permission to reside on approximately 40,000 acres of land that would become New Paltz and surrounding towns.

According to a translation of the earliest church record, on January 22 1683, “Mr. Pierre Daille, minister of the Word of God, arrived at New Paltz and preached twice on the following Sunday.” [1] Daille was a minister of the French Reformed Church who immigrated to New York in the early 1680s. He had been a professor at the French Protestant Academy of Saumur (closed by order of the Catholic French king in 1684). The church members followed his recommendation that the male heads of families vote to select an elder and a deacon by electing Louis DuBois and Hugo Freer, respectively.

The Dutch Reformed Church in America

The Dutch Reformed Church in America was founded in New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1628, more than 50 years prior to the establishment of the New Paltz Reformed Church. Both Huguenots (Calvinists from France) and Walloons (French-speaking Calvinists from the Spanish Netherlands, now Belgium and parts of Northern France) experienced religious persecution in their homelands throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, resulting in various waves of migration to other European countries (including The Netherlands, England, and Germany) and to the New World. When the first settlers arrived in New Amsterdam from The Netherlands in 1624, the group included some French-speaking Huguenots and Walloons. However, the Walloons who would settle New Paltz emigrated later, in the 1650s and 60s, first to Mannheim in the Palatinate in Germany and then to New Netherland.

The earliest French-speaking settlers in New Amsterdam were ministered to by Jonas Michel, a Dutch Reformed minister of French descent, and then by Dutch clergy until the arrival of Rev. Daille in the early 1680s. In 1687 a second French clergyman, Rev. Pierre Peiret, ministered in the French Reformed Church in New York City, while Rev. Daille regularly visited French-speaking Reformed communities in New Paltz, New Rochelle, Staten Island, and New Jersey.

The Reformed churches in the colony of New Netherland were subject to the Classis of Amsterdam of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands. This was a regional church governing body within which the West India Company, which administered the colony until 1664, was located. After the Dutch surrendered the colony to the English in 1664, and re-captured and re-surrendered it in 1674, the colony of New York attempted to impose the Church of England on the inhabitants, but with limited success. Ultimately the French Reformed churches in the colony would be absorbed into the Dutch Reformed Church, which today is the Reformed Church in America.

Coetus/Conferentie Dispute

In the early decades of the 18th century, some Dutch Reformed ministers (dominie) in America advocated for an American governing body to support the churches in the colonies. This would address the shortage of clergy (ministers could be educated and ordained in America rather than sending them to Amsterdam), as well as the challenges of long-distance communication that made it difficult for the Classis to assist congregations and resolve ecclesiastical issues. Other more traditionalist dominie opposed this, fearing both that the intention was to be completely independent and that more evangelical, pietistic American ministers might bring theological change.

In 1739, the Classis created an American “Coetus,” a term used for an assembly of minsters and elders from various congregations that is deliberative with very limited authority to act. By 1754 some American dominie were urging transformation of the Coetus into an American Classis that could examine and ordain ministers and establish a college to educate them. In 1755 this group gained control of the Coetus, considering themselves independent, while the opposition group came together as the “Conferentie” (little conference). A meeting of the Coetus and Conferentie groups in New York in June 1763 resulted in the Conferentie formally organizing as an assembly subject to the Classis of Amsterdam. Churches and ministers took sides, and the dispute caused much upheaval in American Reformed churches over the next decade, including in New Paltz. The dispute was settled on the national level in 1771, when a gathering of ministers and elders was held in New York City and a plan to unify the two groups was approved, finally creating an American governing body. The Reformed Church in America became an independent denomination in 1792.

The Reformed Church of New Paltz Early History

Given the French Protestant origins of the early inhabitants of New Paltz, worship and record-keeping were in the French language for the first fifty years of the congregation. Records were kept in Dutch for about the next seventy years, with English being adopted around 1800. Through the years, New Paltz sometimes shared ministers with other churches in the area, such as New Hurley. The first church building in New Paltz was constructed of wood, located near the community’s burying ground on the southern end of Huguenot Street. It was replaced in 1717 by the first stone church. A replica of the 1717 stone church was built in 1973 on land adjacent to its original location near the burial ground, and this replica is currently part of the Historic Huguenot Street site.

In its early years, the New Paltz church considered itself an independent Walloon/French congregation rather than a congregation of the established Dutch Reformed Church, and consequently found it challenging to attract a minister. [2] It was served by Pierre Daille (as described above) until 1692 and then by David de Bonrepos (who had previously served the French Reformed Church in New Rochelle) from about 1695 to 1702. They visited New Paltz only occasionally, so most of the time church elders and deacons read printed sermons in French during worship.

From 1702 until about 1731, the church had no minister, but Sunday services continued. During this time the 1717 stone church was built, indicating the importance of local worship to the community. Church members traveled to the Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston as needed to receive the sacraments.

In 1731 the church called Rev. Johannes van Driessen to preach and offer the sacraments a few times per year. Van Driessen turned out to be controversial; his ordination by Congregationalists at Yale was considered irregular, and he had been accused of “unchristian” behavior. His arrival at New Paltz was opposed by the minister of the Kingston Dutch Reformed Church, which initiated a longstanding dispute between the two churches over whether the New Paltz church was independent of Kingston.

This dispute was reinforced with the arrival in 1749 of another pastor with a controversial ordination, Johannes Henricus Goetschius (the Classis considered his first ordination illegitimate and required him to be ordained again). After much consultation (amongst the two churches, the Coetus, and the Classis) the New Paltz church was declared to be separate from Kingston. In 1751 under Rev. Goetschius, the congregation decided to become part of the Dutch Reformed Church. In August 1753 they called Rev. Barent Vrooman as their pastor (who had recently been ordained in The Netherlands by the Classis and would stay only a year in New Paltz) and formally recorded their declaration of acceptance of the teachings of the Dutch Reformed Church. Between 1751 and 1754, ninety-six new members joined the New Paltz church.

The Coetus-Conferentie Dispute in New Paltz [3]

Kenneth Shefsiek argues that in New Paltz, the Coetus-Conferentie dispute was less about the Conferentie group’s stated desire to remain subordinate to the Classis of Amsterdam and more about the desire of conservative members of the community to preserve their Dutch culture against the increasingly predominant English culture.[4] Motivations were likely complex, but the timeline of the Coetus-Conferentie dispute in New Paltz is clear.

In 1760, the New Paltz church called Johannes Mauritius Goetschius (younger brother of Joh. Henricus Goetschius) as its pastor; he would remain there until his death in 1771. Mauritius Goetschius had been ordained in 1757 by the Coetus without the approval of the Classis, so he and the majority of the New Paltz congregation took the side of the Coetus in the dispute. However, a small group led by Hendricus DuBois did not agree. In the summer of 1765 Hendricus was called three times to appear before the New Paltz consistory, accused of “Sedition and schism” (see Related Collections below for links to the letters sent to Hendricus by the consistory). He refused to appear and in August 1765 church records show that he was censured.

In August 1766, Hendricus, along with members of the Elting, Low, Van Wagenen, Van Vliet, Ean and Auchmody families (many of them related to Hendricus directly or by marriage) met to pledge funds to build a new church on Libertyville Road in New Paltz. It was built on land owned by Noah Elting called the “Great Piece” on the west side of the Wallkill River, south of the village. Hendricus DuBois, Josiah Elting, and Noah Elting were elected churchmasters, and they appointed Philip DuBois to oversee the building of the church. They also purchased a book for recording detailed accounts relating to the subscriptions for the building and its construction (now held by HHS as MSS.151, see Related Collections below). The Conferentie Church was completed by December of 1766, and was colloquially known as the “Owl Church,” perhaps due to the owls that frequented the area. The church was a frame building 30 feet square with a shingle roof. The interior was plastered with clay, and large enough to allow a gallery to be built if needed.

The new church did not yet have a minister, but on August 29, 1767 it was officially organized and approved at a meeting held at the home of Hendricus DuBois. Domine Isaac Rysdyk, Conferentie pastor of the Poughkeepsie and Fishkill churches, his consistory, and five members of the Kingston Reformed Church who lived in New Paltz (Josiah Elting, Noah Elting, Petrus Van Wagenen, Jacob DuBois, and Dirk D. Wynkoop) were in attendance. An August 3, 1767 letter from the Kingston consistory dismissed the five members on the condition that a new church loyal to the Classis of Amsterdam was formed in New Paltz. The attendees stated they could not consider the existing New Paltz Reformed Church lawful, since it was loyal to the Coetus rather than the Classis. The Kingston members also noted that they lived too far away to properly attend worship and educate their children in Kingston.

The New Paltz Conferentie congregation was always small, but it continued even after 1771 when the unification conference in New York City ended the Coetus/Conferentie dispute within the American church. The first New Paltz church sent Johannes Hardenbergh as its delegate and its Consistory approved the unification, but the Conferentie Church did not send a delegate.

Between 1767 and 1774, baptisms, marriages, and consistory meetings at the Conferentie Church were conducted either by Domine Rysdyk or by Domine Gerhard Daniel Cock, Conferentie pastor at Rhinebeck and Camp. In 1774 the Conferentie Church called Ryner Van Nest as its first and only pastor, shared with the Shawangunk Conferentie Church. In the later 1770s, members began to gradually move back to the original congregation. Hendricus DuBois died in 1780 and in 1783 the two churches reunited. The “Owl Church” register shows that 60 baptisms and 2 marriages were recorded, and a total of 35 members joined the church during its almost 20 years of existence. On May 25, 1783, 19 of them rejoined the first Reformed Church, marking the end of the Conferentie Church.   

Later Reformed Church of New Paltz History [5]

Despite the Coetus/Conferentie dispute, during the 1770s the growing first Reformed Church congregation built a larger stone church farther north on Huguenot Street. Located in the area adjacent to the current church, the 1770s church location is marked with a brick outline in the grass in front of the church parking lot.

Rev. Stephen Goetschius (son of Rev. Joh. Henricus Goetschius), married Elizabeth DuBois, a descendant of Louis DuBois, and succeeded his uncle Mauritius as pastor from 1775 to 1796. The first resident pastor, he built a stone house in 1790 at 164 Huguenot Street, and the 1790 census states that he enslaved four people in his household. The year 1799 marked the beginning of the abolition of slavery in New York, and church records show the first enslaved people (Henry, Isaac, and Samuel) baptized in 1803. Rev. John Meier (Meyer) followed Rev. Goetschius as pastor from 1799-1803.

Rev. Peter Froelich pastored the church from 1807 to 1816, followed by Rev. William Bogardus from 1817 to 1831, and Rev. Douw Van Olinda from 1832 to 1844. The current church building was constructed in 1839, an example of Greek Revival architecture with a four-column portico and two-stage clock and bell tower. The 1770s church was dismantled and its stone used in the foundation of the new church. In addition to overseeing the 1839 building project, in 1833 Rev. Van Olinda was closely involved in organizing and building the New Paltz Academy, forerunner of the State Normal School and today’s State University of New York at New Paltz.

Pastor John Van der Voort served the church from 1845 to 1848, followed by Rev. Charles Stitt from 1848-1865. Rev. Stitt shepherded the church through the Civil War years, during which several church members who served in the 156th Regiment were lost. Transepts and a shallow chancel with a central pulpit were added to the church in 1872 during the pastorate of Rev. Dr. Philip Peltz (1865-1881). From 1882 to 1886 Rev. Ame Vennema, later President of Hope College in Michigan, pastored the church, followed by Pastor Abel Huiginga (1886-1894) and Pastor John Fagg (1894-1895).

The church continued to grow in the 20th century, hosting Stone House Days along Huguenot Street and building a separate Education Building in 1958, named for Rev. Gerret J. Wullschleger, who served the church from 1931 to 1968. In 2020, the church voted to join the Reformed Association United Church of Christ, a group of churches who are dually affiliated with the Reformed Church of America and with the United Church of Christ.

Collection Description 

This finding aid covers Reformed Church of New Paltz (RCNP) records housed at HHS (MSS.065) and at RCNP, contained in eight bound RCNP church registers and several miscellaneous folders of loose items. The RCNP materials also include an additional church register maintained by the Conferentie Church (Owl Church) during its existence from 1767 to 1783. This book was most likely returned to the RCNP when the two churches reunited.

The majority of the records described here are found within the registers, which date from 1683 to 1882. Loose records in folders are miscellaneous in nature, with most dating prior to 1780, but including scattered items from 1807 to ca. 1895. Some additional pre-1882 materials and most post-1882 materials are housed at RCNP and not covered in this finding aid.

Types of records are widely scattered within the registers, but fall into several categories: vital records (memberships/baptisms/marriages); consistory records; ministerial records; records of church pew sales and church construction/repair; and miscellaneous financial records. These categories are discussed in detail below. There are significant date gaps in all the categories, but many important events in the history of the church are documented.

All items housed at HHS are digitized. Of the materials at RCNP, the items labeled Church Register Volumes 3, 5, and 6, plus the Conferentie Church Register (labeled Volume 4), are digitized, along with some miscellaneous loose items. Church Register Volumes 7, 8, and 9, along with additional miscellaneous items, will be digitized as part of the 2024-2027 New Paltz Historic Documents (NPHD) project. All digitized items are available on New York Heritage (see www.newpaltzhistory.org and https://nyheritage.org/collections/new-paltz-historic-documents). Direct links are provided in the Box/Folder list below.

Updated translations (as of 2024) are provided on New York Heritage for the first two church registers. References to translations in Dingman Versteeg’s Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977; originally published as Vol. III of Collections of the Holland Society of New York, 1896) are provided in the Folder/Item list below for the third church register and for the Conferentie Church register. Researchers should be aware that the translations in Versteeg were placed in chronological order rather than in their original order in the registers, and some Dutch material in the original registers may not have been included.

Vital Records

Vital records make up the majority of the First Register and include primarily baptisms, intermingled with a few marriages, membership records, and deaths/burials – dating from 1683 to 1702 overall. The volume also includes two baptisms dated July 6, 1718, recorded in Dutch. Other than this exception, baptismal records from 1702 to 1729 are not recorded in the church registers. It is likely that some members had their children baptized in the Kingston church during that time.

The Second Register includes baptisms from 1729-1765 (child/parents’ names, date, and sponsors are provided). Baptisms continue in the Third Register from 1765 to November 1816. Baptisms pick up again in February 1817 in the Seventh Register, going through to 1882 in the Eighth and Ninth Registers. There is a gap in the second half of 1851 and in 1848. Baptisms for the Conferentie Church are included in its register, dating from August 1767 to June 1779.   

Only scattered marriage records appear in the First Register. Prior to 1733 it is likely that some members were married in the Kingston church. Several marriages within the time period in the transcribed records of Kingston Dutch Reformed Church note that the parties resided “in the Pals” [New Paltz]. [6] Marriages are recorded more consistently beginning in 1733 in the Second Register. They appear there through 1765, with a gap between 1742 and 1745. Marriages from 1765 to 1815 are recorded in the Third Register, with a gap between 1803 and 1808. Marriages appear again in the Sixth Register beginning in February 1817 and continue through January 1844. They pick up again in the Ninth Register in June 1849 and continue through August 1882. Two marriages for the Conferentie Church dating from 1768 and 1769 appear in its register.

Membership records are quite scattered. A few appear in the First Register and members are listed from 1733-1764 in the Second Register. The Third Register contains a list of members from 1768-1815. Membership lists continue with February 1817 to October 1832 in the Sixth Register and additional member lists in the Eighth Register. There are also several censuses of church members in the Ninth Register, dating from 1849 through 1882. Members of the Conferentie Church are listed in its register, from its founding in 1767 to 1783 when it rejoined the First Church.

There are very few death records in the early registers. Some are provided in the Eighth Register, and the Ninth Register includes a record of deaths and funerals from March 1849 to December 1880. Deaths are not recorded in the Conferentie Church register.

Consistory Records

In the Reformed Church tradition, the local church is governed by a consistory made up of elders, deacons and ministers. The First Register records the church's organization on January 22, 1683, but records of consistory meetings do not begin until 1730 in the Second Register, continuing until 1765. Consistory minutes continue in the Third Register from 1760 to 1798 in Dutch (not yet translated) and 1799 to 1816 in English. They pick up again in the Sixth Register (in English), from June 1817 to May 1831 and January 1832 to April 1875. The Conferentie Church Register also includes consistory records, in Dutch, dating from 1768 to 1776.

Consistory minutes primarily document elections of elders and deacons, but also sometimes record other events. The Second Register documents the congregation’s union with the Dutch Reformed Church in 1753, as well as an accusation of dishonesty lodged against Abraham LeFever by Hanyoory Rang in 1761-62 and its resolution.

In addition to the Conferentie Church Register that documents the life of that church, records relating to the 1760s and 1770s Coetus/Conferentie dispute appear in other registers and loose documents. These include: a copy of the minutes of the 1771 unification meeting in New York City in the Second Register; an August 1765 document in Dutch in the Third Register, likely related to Hendricus DuBois’ refusal to appear before the Consistory to address accusations of schism;a loose letter dated 1760 in the HHS miscellaneous folders; and a loose account record in the RCNP miscellaneous folders.

Ministerial Records

Records relating to ministers are scattered through the Second Register and the loose documents held at HHS, as well as the Third Register and Fifth Register held at RCNP. Ministerial records include a copy of Johannes van Driessen’s ordination by the Presbytery at Yale and the calls to ministry of Stephen Goetschius and John Meier in the Second Register. Salary receipts for Johannes van Driessen, Mauritius Goetschius, Stephen Goetschius, John Meier, Peter Froelich, William Bogardus, Douw Van Olinda, and Charles Stitt are found in the Second, Third, and Fifth Registers. A few additional items are found in the miscellaneous folders, including draft consistory minutes of 1844 concerning Rev. Douw van Olinda. The 1774 call of Reyner Van Nest to serve the Conferentie Church and the Shawangunk Church, both loyal to the Classis of Amsterdam, is included in the Conferentie Church register.

Church Buildings

Records of the construction and repair of the several churches built by RCNP are scattered through the church registers and included in the loose documents. The construction of the 1717 stone church and church repairs are documented in the Second Register, while the building of the 1770s church (including the teardown of the 1717 stone church) is documented in the Fifth Register and the miscellaneous foldered records at HHS and RCNP. Records relating to building the New Paltz parsonage and purchasing a share of the New Hurley parsonage are included in the Fifth Register. There are undated records of pew sales in the Second Register, some pew sales from 1774 in the miscellaneous folders held at HHS, and additional pew sales in the Fifth Register. The building of the 1839 church is documented in the Eighth Register, which also includes a pew diagram from 1839 with a key to the owners and the prices. The building of the Conferentie Church in 1766 is documented in an account book held separately by HHS (see Related Collections below).

Financial Records

Financial records are also scattered throughout the collection and primarily relate to records mentioned above such as pew sales and building projects. Types of items include receipts, invoices, accounts, and subscriptions for repairs. In addition, the folder of Deacon’s Accounts in the HHS collection (a photocopy, location of original unknown) documents relief given to the poor by the local church from 1698 to 1712.

Related Collections at HHS and other Repositories

• New Paltz Conferentie Church (“Owl Church”) Records (1766-1787). MSS.151. One bound volume and one loose item. An account book documenting the construction of the Conferentie Church in New Paltz by members who separated from the RCNP (“First Church”) as part of the Coetus/Conferentie dispute in the Dutch Reformed Church.

• Hendricus DuBois Family Papers. MSS.010. Contains three letters from Rev. Joh. Mauritius Goetschius to Hendricus DuBois, requiring him to appear before the Consistory of New Paltz, accused of “Sedition and schism.” Hendricus DuBois later led the group that founded the Conferentie Church in New Paltz.

• Roelof J. and Ezekiel Elting Family Papers. MSS.017. Contains two items relating to Rev. Douw van Olinda dating from 1839-1844.

• New Paltz Town Records. MSS.033. Poor relief was provided by the church from 1698 to 1712 (see below, folder MSS.065.000.007, Deacon’s accounts). The New Paltz Town Records show that the town elected overseers of the poor beginning in 1763, and include records kept by the Overseers of the Poor from 1820-1882.

• Reformed Church of New Paltz Records. As described elsewhere in this finding aid, additional primary sources are located at the Reformed Church of New Paltz, 92 Huguenot Street, New Paltz NY 12561. Some items are digitized and available on New York Heritage; see the links in the detailed listing below.

Box and Folder List

Digital page numbers below refer to the page(s) within the digital object in New Paltz Historic Documents.

ITEMS AT HISTORIC HUGUENOT STREET
Digitized as part of the New Paltz Historic Documents Project, 2021-24

MSS.065.000.001 (folder) Church Register, Volume 1 (1683-1702, 1718) originals and copies
Digital page #

1 Organization of the church, January 22, 1683
2-21 Baptisms, intermingled with a few marriages, membership records, and deaths/burials, from 1683 (earliest records on p. 3) to February 21, 1702.
9 Also includes two baptisms dated July 6, 1718, recorded in Dutch (page 9 of the digital object).

MSS.065.000.002 (folder) Church Register, Volume 2 (1720-1773, 1846)
Digital page #

3 In Latin, Johannes van Driessen’s testimonial of ordination, Yale College Presbytery, 1727
5 Consistory “subject themselves to the Church Order” (e.g., unite with the Dutch Reformed Church), 1753
9-13 Membership records, 1733-1764
15-20 Information regarding the 1717 stone church and pew sales, 1720
21-22 Marriages 1733-1742
23-26 Pew sale records, undated
27 Baptisms, 1846
28 List of subscribers for church repairs, n.d.
29-30 Marriages, 1745-65
31-58 Baptisms 1729 – 1765, with sponsors
59-69 Copy of minutes of 1771 unification meeting, New York City (includes RCNP affirmation of meeting vote, 1773)
70-80 Consistory minutes, 1730-65 (dispute between Hanyory Rang and Andras Lafefer on pages 78-80)
82 Marriages, 1761
84 Appointment of supervisors/builders for new church, 1762
85 Salary receipts for Rev. van Driessen, 1732-33

MSS.065.000.003 (folder) Consistory Records (1807-1848 and undated) primarily relating to ministers

MSS.065.000.004 (folder) Correspondence (1760-1892)
Includes a 1760 letter relating to the Coetus/Conferentie dispute, as well as personal letters unrelated to church matters.

MSS.065.000.005 (folder) Miscellaneous Church Records (1770-1872 and undated)
Includes receipts, invoices, pew deeds, and documents relating to building and salaries.

MSS.065.000.006 (folder) Miscellaneous Church Records (ca. 1720-ca. 1895) Includes letter, drawings, and financial records.

MSS.065.000.007 (folder) Deacon’s Accounts (1698-1712) – PHOTOCOPIES (not digitized). Entries document relief given to the poor by the church.

ITEMS AT REFORMED CHURCH OF NEW PALTZ
Digitized as part of the New Paltz Historic Documents Project, 2021-24

RCNP 002.001 (item) Church Register, Volume 3 (1760-1815)
V = page number in transcription/translation in Versteeg, Dingman (trans.), Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977).
Digital page #

8-10 Call of Stephen Goetschius 1775. V: 16-19
13-16 Call of John Meier 1779
17-19 Documents in Dutch relating to Joh. Mauritius Goetschius, 1760 (copy) and 1771. V: 4, 9-12
20-33 Consistory Minutes, 1766-1798 (Dutch) and 1799-1816 (English)
36-37 Recommendation to the Reformed Dutch Church in Schenectady for Rev. John Meier, 1803
39-181 Baptisms, June 9, 1765 – November 1816. V: 117-239
185-194 List of Members 1768-1815. V: 75-79
195-200 Marriages 1765-1803. V: 82-87
206-207 Document in Dutch, August 31, 1765. Mentions the separation of Hendricus DuBois.
208-215 Marriages 1808-1815. V: 88-93
216-218 Receipts for ministers’ salary (Joh. Mauritius Goetschius, Stephen Goetschius, John Meier), 1765-1803
219 Account record in Dutch, undated. Subscription money received and owing. V: 59-60

RCNP 003.001 (folder) Funding agreement, 1752

RCNP 003.002 (folder) Account record (may pertain to the Owl Church), undated, ca. 1752

RCNP 003.003 (folder) Account record (ca. 1752) and funding agreement (1752)
Public notice, request to dismantle the 1717 church building, April 1772
Public notice, distribution of 1717 church building materials, 1772

RCNP 003.004 (folder) Appointment of Roelof Elting by the Consistory of New Paltz to attend meeting of area churches, 1773

RCNP 003.005 (folder) Church pew deed, Isaac Hasbrouck, 1774

RCNP 003.006 (item) Conferentie Church (Owl Church) Register (1767-1783) [also known as “Church Register, Volume 4”]
V = page number in transcription/translation in Versteeg, Dingman (trans.), Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977).
Digital page #

4-8 Copy, account of the founding of the Conferentie Church (Second Church) in New Paltz, August 1767, in Dutch. V: 7-9
8-9 Letter from Kingston consistory, August 3, 1767, in Dutch.
Relating to five members in the group that founded the Conferentie Church. V: 6
10-16 Consistory minutes of the Conferentie Church, 1768-1776. V: 71-73
17 Blank page
18-22 Conferentie Church baptisms August 30, 1767 – June 27, 1779. V: 113-117
24 Conferentie Church marriages (2 entries) November 1768 and August 1769. V: 82
26-27 Conferentie Church members 1769-1783. V: 79-80
29-32 Call of Ryner van Nest to the Conferentie churches of Shawangunk and New Paltz, 1774, in Dutch (copy). V: 13-16

RCNP 004.001 (item) Church Register, Volume 5 and Account Book 25 (1771-1837)
Digital page #

3-14 Alphabetical Index
15-25 Accounts in Dutch, 1770s second stone church construction, October 25, 1771 – September 5, 1772
30-167 Account ledger in Dutch, likely relating to construction of the 1770s church, 1771-1778
168-171 Accounts, four loose pages, ca. 1810
172-188 Accounts in English, construction of parsonage, 1799-1819
190 Account records, purchase of New Hurley’s rights in the parsonage, and sale of lots
191-198 Church accounts, 1829-1836
200-217 Receipts for ministers’ salary, 1811-1863
218-219 Consistory Minutes, 1828 and 1829 regarding purchase of 1/8 of parsonage from New Hurley
220-221 Purchase of books for young men preparing for the Gospel Ministry, February 17, 1837
222-224 Records, minister’s salary, 1809 and 1816, and repair of the parsonage, 1817
225-233 Records of Pew Purchases, 1774

RCNP 004.002 (item) Church Register, Volume 6 (1817-1844)
Digital page #

5-19 Member list, New Paltz and New Hurley, February 18, 1817 – October 12, 1832
24-63 Register of marriages, February 18, 1817 – January 26, 1844.
Starting on p. 38 (January 1832) ages, occupations, and residences included; occupations dropped on page 50 in 1834.
68-80 Consistory minutes, June 5, 1817 – May 20, 1831

LATER CHURCH REGISTERS AT REFORMED CHURCH OF NEW PALTZ
To be digitized in Phase 2 of the New Paltz Historic Documents Project, 2024-27

• There are additional records housed at RCNP that are not included in the NPHD project.

• W = Page number in transcription in Worden, Jean D. Ulster County Church records : New Paltz Reformed Dutch Church, 1817-1882, New Paltz and Plattekill Methodist Episcopal Circuit, 1842-1867 : Shokan Reformed Dutch Church, 1799-1892 ; death notices from newspapers, 1865-1895 ; Quaker records from Plains monthly meeting, 1787-1864 (Decorah, IA: Anundsen Publishing Company, 1987).

Church Register, Volume 7 (1817-1849)

Section 1 Baptisms, February 18, 1817 – August 30, 1831 (lists child, parents, birth date, and baptism date) W: 1-34
Section 2 Several pages are missing and appear to have been cut out.
Section 3 Assorted loose pages, March 2, 1845 – January 13, 1849

Church Register, Volume 8 (1832-1875)

Section 1 Consistory Records, January 1, 1832 – April 11, 1875 (pages 11-378).
Baptisms to 1847 (pages 11-119); membership records; deaths (page 124) W: 36-51
Pews diagram (map), early 1870’s; and list of pew owners (pages 344-349)
Section 2 Records for building the 1839 church, March 10, 1837- December 18, 1839
Section 3 Pew diagram with key to owner and price paid, 1839 (pages 409-446)

Church Register, Volume 9 (1849-1882)

Section 1 Membership list. Census of members as of March 3, 1849 and later.
Includes: from where received; when dismissed, suspended, excommunicated, restored, and died; with remarks.
Alphabetical order by surname; some wives listed by given and maiden names.
Additions for 1850 by date; not alphabetized. Ends in 1882, with some death additions later.
Section 2 Church census, January 1, 1850.
Includes: heads of families, number of family members, remarks. Divided by district.
Section 3 Church census, 1864-1865. Same information as noted above, but with no remarks.
Section 4 Baptisms, January 7, 1849 – September 16, 1882.
Includes: names of child and parent, birth date, baptism date, death date; with remarks. W: 52-87
Section 5 Marriages, June 10, 1849 – August 3, 1882.
Includes: bride and groom, residences, some ages, witnesses and witness residences. W: 101-125
Section 6 Record of deaths and funerals, March 3, 1849 – December 11, 1880. Includes narratives of deaths.

Notes

[1] New Paltz Historic Documents, Reformed Church of New Paltz (housed at Historic Huguenot Street). “Church Register, Volume 1.” New York Heritage Digital Collections. 1683-1702. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/24406/rec/2

[2] Kenneth Shefsiek. Set in Stone: Creating and Commemorating a Hudson Valley Culture (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2917), 143.

[3] Information about the history of the Conferentie Church was gathered from translations/transcriptions of the original records found in Dingman Versteeg (trans.), Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977; originally published as Vol. III of Collections of the Holland Society of New York, 1896); from Shefsiek, Set in Stone, 2017; and from Ralph LeFevre, History of New Paltz and Its Old Families, second ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1973; originally published Albany, 1909), pp. 148-151.

[4] Shefsiek, Set in Stone, 159-165.

[5] Information about the later history of the church was gathered from: Kevin Cook. The Reformed Church of New Paltz: A Timeline History (New Paltz: Reformed Church of New Paltz, 2020) and the RCNP website at https://www.reformedchurchofnewpaltz.org/our-church-history.html.

[6] Marriage and baptismal records, 1660-1809. Old Dutch Church, Kingston NY. Transcriptions online at https://olddutchchurch.org/history/genealogy/.