Edward Tanjore Corwin

Background

Edward Tanjore Corwin was born on July 12, 1834 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Edward Callwell and Mary Ann (Shuart) Corwin. He traced his ancestry to Matthias Corwin, an Englishman who first settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts and subsequently moved to Southold, Long Island. On his mother’s side, he was related to the Dutch founders of New York.

Education

Corwin was graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1853, and from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary three years later. After a year spent in special linguistic studies he was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church of America (Dutch) in 1857.

Career

Corwin was pastor successively at Paramus, New Jersey and Millstone, New Jersey, where he spent twenty-five years, and Greenport, New York. In an interval of seven years between the last two pastorates he was rector of Hertzog Hall at the Reformed Church Seminary at New Brunswick, New Jersey.

In each of his pastorates he became immediately interested in local church and town history, an avocation that resulted in the publication of Manual and Record of Church of Paramus (1858), The Millstone Centennial (1866), and General Ecclesiastical History of Columbia County, New York on Occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Church of Greenport, N. Y. (1896).

Research in a wider field enabled him to bring out A Manual of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America (1859), a revised and enlarged Manual a decade later, and two subsequent editions (1879 and 1902). A fifth edition, published in 1922, was dedicated to his memory. When a history of the Reformed Church, Dutch, was desired for the American Church History Series, Corwin was selected to write it. These historical instincts coupled with a genius for hard work finally resulted in The Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York (7 vols. , 1901 - 1916).

Corwin had been commissioned in 1897 by the General Synod of the Reformed Church to explore ecclesiastical archives in Holland. His report of his findings at Amsterdam and The Hague revealed so much of historic value that the New York legislature, in 1899, made an appropriation for the publication of the records under the general direction of the state historian with Corwin as editor. The Index Volume to this work, which was long delayed, represents the painstaking activity of Corwin’s last years; he did not live to see it in print.

Achievements

• Edward Tanjore Corwin became recognized as a historian of his denomination. His most popular publication was A Manual of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America (1859).

Works

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  • A History of the Reformed Church, Dutch: The Reformed Church, German, and the Moravian Church in the United States

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Ecclesiastical Records, State of New York

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Corwin Genealogy: Curwin, Curwen, Corwine, In The United States (1872)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Amsterdam Correspondence (1897)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • A Manual Of The Reformed Church In America, 1628-1902 V2

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Connections

Corwin was married on July 25, 1881 to Mary Esther Kipp at Geneva, New York.

Father:

Edward Callwell Corwin

Mother:

Mary Ann (Shuart) Corwin

Spouse:

Mary Esther Kipp