192 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

cial use of the Dutch language in all the pulpits of the Dutch Reformed churches.’

The Rev. PETER LOWE, was born April 30th, 1764, at Esopus (now Kingston), N. Y., where he received his academic education. He pursued his theological studies with Rev. Dr. Livingston, of New York; and, soon

after his licensure, received several calls, finally giving the preference to that from the six churches of Kings County. In this relation he faithfully discharged the functions of the holy ministry for twenty-one years; until, the collegiate connection between the six churches being dissolved, by mutual consent, for the sake of a more frequent supply of the word and ordinances, he accepted the call from Flatbush and Flatlands, where he continued to labor more than nine years, with increasing usefulness, until his death, from cancer, in June, 1818, and in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He was frank, generous and affectionate in disposition; cheerful in his religion, modest and peaceful in temper, agreeable in conversation; sound and solid in his ministerial advice and public preaching. He was industrious, systematic, and active in habit, and bad learned the art of bookbinding, which he turned to good account in collecting and binding up all the church records which he could find. He built two dwellings, in succession, at Flatbush, and ornamented the grounds with shrubbery, trees, and flowers, of which he was extremely fond. His garden was his favorite place of meditation, from which he was wont to go to his lecture. The old Brooklyn church was a large, square edifice, with solid and very thick walls, plastered and whitewashed on every side up

1 “In 1792, it was resolved that divine service, which bad heretofore been maintained in the Dutch language, should be thereafter performed in English, in the afternoon, whenever Mr. Lowe should preach at Brooklyn, Flatbush, and New Utrecht. But Mr, Schoonmaker continued to preach in Dutch to the time of his death, having never attempted to preach in English but once (in 1788).”—Prime, 328.