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- John Bassett became a clergyman of the Reformed Dutch Church and was ordained in Albany, New York on 28 Jun 1787.
Reverend John Bassett
by Stefan Bielinski
John Bassett was born in Brooklyn in 1765. He was the son of Captain John and Eleanor Bassett.
He was trained for the ministry by Reverend John H. Livingston at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He was twenty-one in 1787 when he accepted an associate pastorship at the Albany Dutch Reformed Church. The first New York native to serve the Albany pulpit, he was assigned to provide English language spiritual and educational services to the Albany congregation. Primarily charged with running a school, he was named President of the Dutch Church Academy. That venture proved unsuccessful and Bassett was made a scapegoat.
For the first few years, Bassett lived in a modest home in the first ward. Following the death of Dominie Westerlo in 1790, he moved into the parsonage on Market Street.
Initially retained as an assistant, young Bassett took charge of the church while the consistory searched for a senioir minister. Never the favorite of the New Netherland ancestry church leadership, he would never become pastor. In 1796, Reverend John B. Johnson became the pastor even though he was several years younger than Bassett. Overlooked for promotion, his relationship with the consistory continued to deteoriate. However, Bassett still was able to serve and expand his role involving ministering to two Albany churches.
In the meantime, the now thirty-year old Bassett had married. In 1795, he wed Albany native Anna Hun and moved in with her family also on Market Street. The marriage produced five children between 1796 and 1805.
After 1804, Bassett withdrew from the Albany church - accepting a call from the Reformed congregation of the Boght.
Reverend Bassett took charge of the Reformed church in Bushwick, Long Island in1814. He died in Bushwick in August 1824. He was fifty-nine years old.
Excerpt from Dominie Westerlo
by Stefan Bielinski
The last European-born dominie, Eilardus Westerlo was Albany's patriot minister during the American Revolution.
Born in Groningen, Holland in 1737, Eilardu was the son of Reverend Isaac Westerlo - dominie of the Groningen church. Trained for the ministry, young Westerlo graduated from the University of Groningen in 1760 and applied for service overseas.
He came to America in that year to become pastor of the Albany Dutch Reformed Church. His long tenure in Albany mirrored his own transition from the formality of a European education and ecclesastical background to that of a more spirited and practical leader of a large and diffused congregation of "plain and experienced Christians". From the beginning, his commitment to the task made Westerlo a respected member of the Albany community. During the early 1770's, he became an active supporter of the "Plan of Union" adopted in America to heal a doctrinal rift in the Dutch Reformed Church. From his Albany base, he reached out to budding Reformed congregations across Albany County.
In July 1775, he married the Catherine Livingston - the young widow of patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer II. Already well-connected in the Albany community, that marriage carried the thirty-eight year old cleric to the top of the community's social ladder. For the next decade, the Van Rensseler Manor House served as Westerlo's parsonage as well. By 1783, the marriage had produced three children.
Westerlo was considered a warm supporter of the American cause. During the war, he offered daily prayers for safety and victory and often ministered directly to the troops. He conducted a church school and trained a number of future clerics. Interested in secular as well as theological education, in 1779 he was named one of the trustees of Clinton College. Westerlo preached primarily in Dutch. But, after 1780, he held an English-language service as well.
With the end of the war and the coming of age of Caterine's son, Stephen, the Westerlos moved back to Albany to the Market Street parsonage the dominie occupied for the rest of his life. By that time, his health began to fail. In 1787, Brooklyn-born John Bassett was made associate pastor and preached in English. House-bound, Westerlo still maintained an active correspondence with some of the leading clerics of his day.
Dominie Westerlo died in December 1790. He was but fifty-three years old and the last of the Dutch-speaking dominies. His thirty-one year tenure stands as the longest in church history. The Albany County "hilltown" of "Westerlo" was named for him in 1815. Westerlo Street in Albany's South End also commemorates his career.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1764 - 1824 (59 years)