{{Short description|American judge and landowner (1778–1861)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Philip Schuyler Church | image =Judge Philip Church.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1778|4|14|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1861|1|7|1778|4|14|mf=yes}} | death_place = Angelica, New York, US | death_cause = | resting_place = Until the Day Dawn Cemetery, Angelica, New York | employer = | spouse = {{marriage|Anna Matilda Stewart|1805}} | children = 9 | relatives = | family = Schuyler | parents = John Barker Church<br/>Angelica Schuyler Church }}

'''Philip Schuyler Church''' (April 14, 1778 – January 1, 1861) was an American judge, landowner, and founder of the town of Angelica, New York.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/> From 1798 to 1800, during the Quasi-War with France, he was a captain in the U.S. Army and ''aide-de-camp'' to Alexander Hamilton, his uncle, who was then Major General of the Army.

==Early life and education== [[File:Philip Church by John Trumbull, 1784.JPG|thumb|left|Church as a child by John Trumbull, 1784]]

Church was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1778. He was the oldest child of Angelica Schuyler Church and John Barker Church, a British-born merchant and member of Parliament.

As a small child, he moved with his family from New York to Paris, where he and his mother were painted together by John Trumbull. After 18 months, the Church family moved to London, and Philip was educated for six years at Eton College. He began the study of law at the Middle Temple before returning to New York in 1797.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/>

In New York, he continued his law studies, working in the offices of Nathaniel Pendleton. He also served as a U.S. Army captain and was appointed ''aide-de-camp'' to Alexander Hamilton from 1798 to 1800, while Hamilton was Major General and Inspector General of the Army during the Quasi-War with France.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/><ref name=ColumbiaPress/> His mother, Angelica, was the sister of Hamilton's wife Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.

Prior to his admission to practice law in New York, Church served as second to his cousin Philip Hamilton in his fatal 1801 duel with George Eacker.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/>

==Settlement of Allegany County== In May 1800, at the age of 22, Church became a major landowner in western New York, with a tract of {{convert|100000|acre|ha}} of land in present-day Allegany County and Genesee County, New York that had been a portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/>

Church's father John Barker Church had loaned money to financier Robert Morris, and accepted a mortgage on the tract in May 1796 as security for the debt owed to him by Morris.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/><ref name=Clune/> After Morris failed to pay the mortgage, John Barker Church foreclosed and sent Philip to Canandaigua in May 1800 to attend the foreclosure sale, where Philip made a successful bid and acquired the tract.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/>

Philip Church traveled in 1801 to the area with his surveyor Moses Van Campen and four others to take possession of the land.<ref name=Minard/><ref name=sketches/> Church selected specific acreage for a planned village along the Genesee River, with plots and design to be reminiscent of Paris.<ref name=Minard/> The plan included a circular road enclosing a village park at the center of town, streets radiating from the circular road to form a star, and five churches situated around the circle. Philip named the village Angelica, after his mother, and began to open it up for sale to settlers.<ref name=Minard/> By 1803, the village was populated with log cabin homes, including Church's, and he had erected a sawmill and a gristmill.<ref name=Minard/>{{rp|406}}

On February 4, 1805, Church married Anna Matilda Stewart (1786–1865), the daughter of General Walter Stewart.<ref name=Clune/><ref name=LinnEgle1968/> Soon after their wedding in Philadelphia, the two settled in the village of Angelica, where a small whitewashed house (locally known as the "White House") had already been built for the couple on the banks of the Genesee River.<ref name=pioneer/>

In 1806, Angelica and John Barker Church began construction on a thirty-room mansion nearby, called Belvidere, which still stands as a privately owned home on the banks of the Genesee in Belmont, New York, near the town of Angelica.<ref name=pioneer/> Although they had intended to make it their summer home, it instead became the residence of Philip and Anna Church when it was partially completed in 1810.<ref name=pioneer/>

== Career and later life == Church was still under 30 when he was appointed the first Judge of the New York County Court for Allegany County, in 1807.

He died in Angelica on January 7, 1861, at the age of 82.

''The New York Times'' cited the Erie Railway as Church's "great work to which for a number of years he devoted his time and applied his energies... which he lived to see completed and the process of transformation which followed fairly begun."<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/> The ''Times'' also credited Church with being the first to suggest the idea of the Genesee Valley Canal, and influential in its completion.<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/>

== Children == Philip and Anna Church had nine children. These included:

* Elizabeth, who married Robert Horwood (or Harwood),<ref name=Warren/> and resided in England<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/> * Major Richard Church, who held a position {{circa|1895}} as a political appointee in the New York Custom House<ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch/> * Angelica (d. 1895), who married John Warren and resided in New York City<ref name=Warren>{{cite news |title=Mrs. John Warren's Life and Family |url=https://www.readex.com/sites/default/files/var/www/vhosts/readex.com/httpdocs/sites/default/files/blog/Cutterham-Image6-NewYorkHeraldTribune7March1895.pdf |newspaper=New York Herald Tribune |date=March 7, 1895 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528024935/https://www.readex.com/sites/default/files/var/www/vhosts/readex.com/httpdocs/sites/default/files/blog/Cutterham-Image6-NewYorkHeraldTribune7March1895.pdf |archivedate=May 28, 2018 }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em|refs= <ref name=Clune>{{cite book |last1=Clune |first1=Henry W. |title=The Genesee |date=1963 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, New York |isbn=9780815624363 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jL_KeQ_KrWAC&q=john+barker+church&pg=PA162 |accessdate=October 20, 2016 |language=en}}</ref> <ref name=ColumbiaPress>{{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Alexander |editor-last=Syrett |editor-first=Harold Coffin |title=The Papers of Alexander Hamilton |date=1976 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780231089234 |page=230 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQKBMzWRGKEC&q=john+b.+church&pg=PA412 |accessdate=October 20, 2016 |language=en}}</ref> <ref name=LinnEgle1968>{{cite book |last1=Linn |first1=John B. |last2=Egle |first2=William H. |title=Record of Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4UpsDxHI8YC&pg=PA243 |year=1968 |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Co. |isbn=978-0-8063-0214-0 |page=243}}</ref> <ref name=Minard>{{cite book |last1=Minard |first1=John S. |title=Allegany County and Its People |date=1896 |publisher=W.A. Ferguson & Co. |location=Alfred, NY |page=405 |url=https://archive.org/stream/alleganycountyit00mina#page/404/mode/2up}}</ref> <ref name=NYT-PhilipChurch>{{cite news |title=Philip Church's Career – One of the Most Prominent of Allegany's Early Settlers |work=The New York Times |date=June 23, 1895 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15751680/the_new_york_times/ |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213165411/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15751680/the_new_york_times/ |archivedate=December 13, 2017 }}</ref> <ref name=pioneer>{{cite web |title=Allegany Pioneer Life: In 1805 Mr. and Mrs. Philip Church Journeyed from Bath to Belvidere on Horseback |first=Angelica Church |last=Hart |website=Allegany County, NY – Local History & Genealogy Site |url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/allegany/InterestingStoriesFiles/AllegPioneerLife.htm |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704135754/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/allegany/InterestingStoriesFiles/AllegPioneerLife.htm |archivedate=July 4, 2008 }}</ref> <ref name=sketches>{{cite book|last=Hubbard|first=John Niles|title=Sketches of Border Adventures: In the Life and Times of Major Moses Van Campen, a Surviving Soldier of the Revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/sketchesbordera02hubbgoog|year=1842|publisher=R.L. Underhill & Company}}</ref> }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Church, Philip Schuyler}} Category:Schuyler family Category:1778 births Category:1861 deaths Category:Founders of populated places in New York (state)