Its interior consists of the nave, two aisles, gallery and chancel. On the north side of the latter there is a neat monumental tablet, erected

Rector

of Christ Church at Rye,

A native of Enniskillen,
Ireland.

Ordained April, 1820,

Appointed to the charge of this Parish,

September, 1823,

Died August 26, 1830.

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright,
for the end of that man is peace."-Psalm xxxvii. v. 37.

Erected by his affectionate

Widow.

His remains are interred in the village cemetery. Beneath the floor of the church lie pillowed in the darkness of the grave several of the early rectors.

The present building was erected at a cost of $5500, in the year 1788, upon the site of the old stone edifice called Grace church.

It was designed at first to have erected a steeple in place of the present tower, as appears by an act of the vestry, dated Sept. 17, 1791.

"Wherein it was ordered to remove the work projected for a steeple on the top of the roof, at the west end."

Anna Regi

The Queen's paten and chalice.

Belonging to this church is a silver paten and chalice presented by her Majesty Queen Anne, A. D. 1706.

These articles have been used in the administration of the holy sacrament nearly one century and a half. The royal donation originally consisted, (together with the above,) of a large church bible, common prayer book, book of homilies, cloth for the pulpit, and a communion table.

Upon two copper alms bowls are inscribed, "Presented to Christ Church at Rye, by James Meadows, 1769."

Besides a fine toned bell the church contains a neat organ.

The first notice of this parish occurs in the two acts passed by the Assembly of New York in 1693 and 1697.

The first entitled "An act for settling a ministry and raising a maintenance for them in the city of New York, and counties of Richmond, Westchester, and Queens."

The second ordered, "That there shall be called, inducted and established a good sufficient Protestant ininister to officiate and have the cure of souls within one year next ensuing, and after the publication hereof. In the county of Westchester two; one to have the cure of souls within Westchester, &c.; the other to have the cure of Rye, Mamaroneck and Bedford."a

• Acts of Assembly, Pro. of N. Y. 1691 to 1725, p. 23.

Pursuant to these acts of Assembly a town meeting was held, February 28, 1695, by virtue of a warrant granted by Justice Theal, when George Lane and John Brondig were elected churchwardens, and Jonathan Hart, Joseph Horton, Joseph Purdy, Timothy Knapp, Hachaliah Brown, Thomas Merritt, Deliverance Brown and Isaac Denham, vestrymen, the two last being chosen for Bedford.

The whole number of the appropriated precincts, belonging to the parish of Rye in 1725, were as follow; Bedford, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck and North Castle, to which were subsequently added White Plains and Harrison.

For collecting the minister's maintenance, writs of mandamus were issued to the justices and vestries, empowering them to make a rate for raising the rector's tax.

The following are specimens of the original taxation rolls of this benefice in 1725.

Bedford, £16 20. Mamaroneck, £18 0 0. Scarsdale, £5 3 0. North Castle, £2 9 0. Total with Rye, £67 18 0.

The first inducted rector of the parish was the Rev. Thomas Pritchard. In a summary account of the state of the church in the Province of New York, as it was laid before the clergy, convened October 5th, 1704, at New York, &c., it was stated, that "at Rye, of which the Rev. Thomas Pritchard is rector, there is no church, but the minister preaches in the town house; the parish is divided into three districts, viz. Rye, Bedford and Mamaroneck.

"There is a salary of £50 per annum, established by act of Assembly; the number of communicants are considerably increased, since the first celebration of the sacraments, &c."a

In a letter addressed to the Propagation Society, dated Rye, November 1st, 1704, Mr. Pritchard proposes to that body the Rev. Mr. Stewart then missionary at Bedford, as a most suitable person to fill the vacant parish of Hempstead, Long Island.

The Rev. Thomas Pritchard married Anna Stuyvesant, daughter of Nicholas William, and grand-daughter of the illus

a Church Rec. Vol. i. No. 16. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., editor. VOL. II.

8

trious Peter Stuyvesant.a Mr. Pritchard appears to have been inducted in 1702. He died A. D. 1706.

His successor was the Rev. George Muirson. Of this gentleman the Rev. Mr. Evans thus writes in a letter to the Bishop of London, under date of October 17th, 1704. "This comes by the hands of the ingenious Mr. George Muirson to receive holy orders from your Lordship, by the approbation of his Excellency my Lord Cornbury. I find that he is very well beloved and esteemed by all sorts of people, a man of a very sober and blameless conversation. He seems to be indued with great humility of mind, and has the character of being very prudent in his conduct. I give him this recommendation not to gratify himself, nor any body else, but because 1 sincerely believe he may be very instrumental of doing much good in the church."b

Mr. Muirson having been ordained, was appointed to the mission of Rye. In his first report to the Society he states "that he had a very great congregation every Sunday and that those were his hearers who never were in a Church of England congregation before. Though the people were of almost all persuasions, he had admitted into the church, by baptism, eighty persons young and old; hundreds however in the parish remain unbaptized.c

He further remarks to the Society, "I have lately been in the Government of Connecticut, where I observe some people well affected to the church, for those that are near come to my parish on Sabbath days; so that I am assured an itinerant missionary might do great service in that province. Some of their ministers have privately told me that had we a bishop among us, they would conform and receive holy orders, from which as well as on all the continent, the necessity of a bishop will plainly appear."d

"In these visits and in every effort for the good of the church, Mr. Muirson was heartily supported by Colonel Caleb Heathcote,

Rep. of Propagation Soc.

b N. Y. Hist. Collections, New Series, vol. i. 455.

e Hawkins' Hist. Not. of Col. Church, vol. ii. MS. letters, No. 34.

Hawkins' Hist. Not. of Col. Church, p. 277.

who also wrote to the Society on the subject, confirming the account of the opposition which the missionary had encountered, and stating that the justices had forbidden him to preach, and even threatened to put him and all his hearers in jail.

Of his own parish, Mr. Muirson reports, "I have baptized about two hundred young and old, but most adult persons, and am in hopes of initiating many more into the church, after I have examined, taught, and find them qualified. This is a large parish; the towns are far distant; the people were some Quakers, some Anabaptists, but chiefly Presbyterians and Independents; they were violently set against our church, but now (blessed be God!) they comply heartily, for I have now above forty communicants, and had only six when I first administered that holy sacrament. I find that catechising on the week days in the remote towns, and frequent visiting is of great service, and I am sure that I have made twice more proselytes by proceeding after that method than by public preaching.c

Mr. Muirson, besides his salary of £50 from the Society, was entitled to £50 currency, as settled by act of Assembly on Rye parish; but as his people were poor and for the most part recent converts, he considerately forbore to press his legal claim, and during the first two years of his ministry, had only received about ten or twelve pounds currency; thus plainly showing he sought not theirs but them.

"The following account of the Indians, written in the year 1703, will be thought interesting. As to the Indians, the natives of the country, they are a decaying people. We have not now in all the parish twenty families, whereas not many years ago there were several hundreds. I have frequently conversed with some of them, and been at their great meetings of "pawawing," as they call it. I have taken some pains to teach some of them, but to no purpose, for they seem regardless of instruction, and when I have told them of the evil cousequences of their hard drinking, &c., they replied that Englishmen do the same, and

Hawkins' Hist. Not. of Col. Church, p. 279.