Walloon Church

Historic Marker Reads:
Site of
Walloon Church
Built Of Logs, First in 1683,
First Church Of Stone 1717.
Called "Our French Church",
Precursor Reformed Church.

Religion in New Paltz

The original settlers of New Paltz were French Huguenots who found themselves living in a totally Dutch colony. The language was Dutch, the customs were Dutch, the currency was Dutch and the predominant religion was Dutch Reformed.

In establishing New Paltz their motive was to create an enclave of purely French Huguenots free to speak French, worship in their French religion and raise their children with their French traditions. They had continuing good relationships with the Dutch, but they wanted an identity of their own and the protection that isolation would bring.

The first public structure they erected was their church. It would have been located very close to where the current structure stands and would have been quickly built of logs. The church would also have served as their school, the Huguenots believed firmly in the education of their children, girls as well as boys.

By 1717 they had erected their "permanent" church of stone. This structure was not where the current reproduction stands, but instead was located down on what is now the corner of Huguenot Street and Front street, where a small white house is located just a few yards to the north.

In practicing their religion the Huguenot desired to speak French, yet there was a complete lack of ordained French speaking ministers in the colony. The solution was to hold their weekly worship lead by various members of the community and special services like baptisms, marriages and funerals were conducted by a Dutch minister, or Dominie, coming down from Kingston.

This arrangement continued until 1753 when because of the influx of Dutch speaking parishioners they accepted having a Dutch minister and switched their services to the Dutch language.

This may seem a little odd, changing religions. But it really wasn't. The beliefs of the Dutch Church are Calvinist as were the Huguenots, so the change of language was of culture and tradition, not of religion. The new arrangement was that they continued as a Huguenot Church being taught in the Dutch language.

Huguenot use of the original stone structure lasted until they outgrew it's seating capacity and in 1773 a new stone church was built further north on Huguenot Street.

By 1800 they were holding their services and keeping their records in English. More importantly, somewhere in there they no longer considered themselves as following the Huguenot beliefs but had become Dutch Reformed. Their second stone church was finally replaced by the new brick edifice in 1839, the church now standing on Huguenot Street across from the Abraham Hasbrouck House, the Dutch Reformed Church of New Paltz. The cornerstone from the second stone church was built into the base of the south side of the portico of the new church and is visible there today.

In 1965 the Crispell Family Association was formed and took upon the task of reproducing the original stone church. Their Patentee ancestor had not moved to the New Paltz settlement so there was no house for them to take on as a project.

The church is a reproduction of what the church probably looked like on the outside. There is a contemporary drawing showing the original church as being a square structure with a hip roof crowned by a cupola and a door centered on the north side.

The interior of the church has been reproduced as it most probably would have looked. It is very spare with little decoration. The upright pews would have held about 60 people.

The reconstruction was completed in 1972 after years of painstaking research. The Crispell Family Association continues to work with the Huguenot Historical Society in the maintenance of the church and preservation of the associated graveyard. Located in the basement of the Walloon Church is the Huguenot Historical Societies archives. Individuals can access the archives by contacting the Huguenot Historical Society with a plan and research justification.

Huguenots - A very brief history...

The Huguenots of New Paltz were French Protestants of the Calvinist Sect, Walloons, from the north of France forced to emigrate by the persecutions of the Catholic Monarchy. The Protestants of France had a long and mixed relationship with the ruling monarchy of France. The pendulum had swung from intolerance to acceptance and back to intolerance. Remaining in France threatened their fortunes and their lives.

The roots of traces back to the 13th century and the Waldensians. Through the ensuing centuries the dissatisfaction with the Catholic bureaucracy grew until finally Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis on the church door in the early 16th century.

His ideas spread quickly through Germany and crossed into France. There Jean Calvin resonated to the revolutionary concepts and built his theories of religion which adopted much of Lather's thoughts as well as expanded beyond them.

Central to his theory, and our story, was what came to be known as "predestination." This idea revolved around the belief that the success of the Holy Commonwealth depended on God's Chosen, or the Elect. The Elect would know by "manifest signs" that they were the Chosen of God and could qualify for Eternal Salvation.

His ideas captured the French nobility and merchant classes as by achieving success you proved to be one of the Elect. Unique to Calvinism, and critically important to our story and to France, was this draw directly into the monied and trade classes of France. The flight of the Huguenot from France dealt a crippling cultural as well as economic blow to France because their numbers were made up almost completely of nobility, merchants, businessmen and tradesmen.

But not being Catholic in late 16th and into the 18th century France could prove to be a fatal disease. Very easily. With each change of monarch or prime minister attitudes of tolerance would swing from one side to the other.

In our history of New Paltz the breaking point came in 1643 when Louis XIV came to power with Cardinal Mazarin as Prime Minister. In 1648 the Treaty of Westphalia was signed granting independence and religious freedom to Holland and giving the lands in the north of France, including the provinces of Artios, Picardy and French Flanders, to the Spanish Netherlands.

Now we all know how tolerant the Spanish Catholics were..., the Huguenots of the north of France were propelled into exile to save their lives.

Thousands fled into the German Palatine and Dutch Holland where religious freedom was not a question. The German Palatine actually incentived the Huguenots to emigrate. From there many then saw the opportunities of the New World and continued their journey settling in communities in all the colonies of America, leaving the intolerance of Europe far behind.

Our particular collection of Huguenot found themselves in Wiltwyck, a settlement in the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, arriving as individuals, not as a group. The Dutch religion and Huguenot religion were both based on Calvin and his tenents. So there was happy religious co-existance. By the time of our band of Huguenots being in Wiltwyck there were so many Huguenots that official records were being kept in both Dutch and French.

Despite the religious similarities between the Dutch and Huguenots there were many differences between them. Primary among them was their different motives for being in the New World. The Dutch were mostly there to get their hands on and grab the treasures of the colony, make a fortune so they could return to Holland wealthy men. The Huguenot had arrived, tho with the idea of making a success based on their talents and experience as merchants and business people, primarily as settlers finding a new place to claim as their own and make permanent homes for their families.

The final aim of our band of Patentees was to acknowledge the Dutch, and later the English, but in New Paltz to create a permanent refuge where they could retain their language, their customs and their religion. Until the late 18th century they succeeded, then disappeared into the larger surrounding culture completely.