Verbryck, Samuel

Verbryck, Samuel one of the progressive clergymen of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America, who established its independence of the Church in Holland, studied under dominies Leydt, Goetschius, and Vanderlinde. He was licensed by the Coetus, or American Classis, in 1749, and was settled at Tappan and New Hempstead (now Clarkstown), N.Y., from 1750 to 1784. He was an ardent friend of ministerial education in this country. His efforts to get a charter from the governor of New Jersey in 1761 for an academy so offended many of his people that they refused to pay his salary. The Conferentie party presented him to the Classis of Amsterdam fco ecclesiastical censure, complaining that if he procured the charter for an academy, it would only multiply just such ministers as himself. But he outlived all this, and saw the full fruit of his labors and those of his noble coadjutors in the establishment of Queen's College in 1770, of which he was one of the first trustees appointed by the charter itself. Such names and services deserve remembrance. Mr. Verbryck was a godly minister, and of good repute among all but his adversaries in these ecclesiastical and educational conflicts. He died in 1784. See Corwin, Manual of the Ref. Church, s.v. (W.J. R. T.)