Letter to Rev. Particular, Synod of Albany concerning "The Memorial of Ann Bevier and Rachel Westbrook, members of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Rochester"

              To the Reverend Particular Synod of Albany- to be
convened at Albany on the 18th of August Inst.- 

       The Memorial of Ann Bevier and Rachel West-
brook members of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of
Rochester. 

     Respectfully Skeweth. 

       		That the Rev. James Murphy came
to Rochester in 1814 as a candidate of the Dutch Church.
He had been deemed worthy not only to _________
“the sons of the Prophets” but he had also an additional
mark of regard, by being selected  by that Church as one of its
Beneficiaries-We received him therefore with all Christian
Confidence. 

       We were not then apprised1 of the mystery with which he
had enveloped the subject of his parentage.
He well knew- from his manifold2 and various acts to con-
ceal it, he very well knew the opprobrium3 that must follow the
discovery of the nature and complexion of that parentage—
An opprobrium not upon himself alone, but also upon his own people.
Had he settled in a congregation far removed from the place
of his nativity, and with the most distant probability of de-
tection; silence on the subject would be all that the [most en]
larged liberality of the Christian mind, might have tolerated-
every declaration from him calculated to give on the subject of
his birth an impression different from that which was true,
would make him a volunteer in the cause of Falshood [sic] and
Deception. 

       As he might reasonably have expected the detection
of his birth and parentage overtook him, soon after his settle-
ment, and contrary to the calculations of almost every other con-
gregation, his, did not shake him off---It was not their deci-
sion “you have deceived us, you have imposed yourself upon us,
therefore depart from us or we will depart from you”---While al-
most every other congregation would have indignantly shaken
him off, the Rochester people submitted to the infamy of their lot--


1 Apprised-to cause to know; inform
2 Manifold-of many kinds;varied
3 Opprobrium-disgrace inherent in or arising from shameful conduct; ignominy
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