south side. There are two monumental tablets in this church: the first placed against the south wall is inscribed; To perpetuate the memory of the REV. ELIAS COOPER, 27 years Rector of this church, who departed this life, Jan. 16, 1816, aged 58 years and 11 days. He laboured industriously to promote the happiness by advancing the influence of the Christian religion. BIGOTRY; a friend to the poor and an ornament to the church, respected and honored through life by those and in his death universally lamented. who knew him, loved him, and lament their loss, this inscription their esteem, affection and regret. The second on the chancel wall is erected TO THE MEMORY OF THE REV. ALEXANDER H. CROSBY, A. M., January 4, 1839, aged 35 years. In the General Theological Seminary, THE PIETY, VIRTUES AND TALENTS, were nurtured, which fitted him for the CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, sincerity of character, kindness of heart, and purity of life, united with steady zeal, In all things he was an example and a A BELOVED BROTHER and faithful minister in the Lord. The flock for whose sakes he gladly spent himself, have erected this tablet to attest their sense of his excellence, and their grief for his loss. The bell was presented to the Howland, Esq., and contains the Hanks, Mansfield, Con., 1818." church, by the late Joseph following inscription: “B. It is much to be regretted, that the old communion service of this church was carried off during the war of the Revolution for safe keeping, to the city of New York. Some years after the close of the war, the altar cloth was discovered in an old dusty box, where it had lain through the whole period of the Revolution: this is now in use at St. John's chapel, Tuckahoe. The silver now used at the administration of the holy sacrament, consists of one large silver flagon, 2 silver chalices, a silver bason or font; the latter presented by a member of the Van Cortlandt family; and a silver plate bearing the following inscription: "Presented to the Episcopal Church of the town of Yonkers 1795." ■ Bells were used by the ancient Romans to signify the time of bathing, and naturally applied by the early Christians to denote the hours of devotion. During the troubles of the Revolution, an American soldier killed in this neighbourhood is known to have been interred beneath the floor of this church, but there is no tradition of the cause of so unusual a place of sepulture being chosen. The church-yard has been long since abandoned on account of its rocky situation. The one now used is located on the old parsonage property, and formed once a portion of the glebe. It is beautifully situated on a rising knoll in the valley of the Saw Mill. The first interment on record occurs 1783, Richard Archer. Among other memorials in this yard are those of LEMUEL WELLS, ESQ. born in the city of Hartford, mar. Eliza H. died Feb. 11, 1842, aged 82. MISS SUSANNAH HOWLAND born in Boston, 1753, died in Greenburgh, 1823, aged 73 years. The first mention of the parish of Yonkers occurs in an act passed during the first session of the third Assembly, 5th of King William and Queen Mary, September, 1693, entitled an act for settling a ministry and raising a maintenance for them in the city of New York, counties of Richmond, Westchester and Queens; "Wherein it was enacted by General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, that in each county there shall be called and inducted two clergymen for the county of Westchester, one to have the cure of Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the manor of Pelham; the other to have the cure of Rye, Mamaroneck and Bedford; and allowed £100 each, to each £50 to be paid in country produce. In raising the respective maintenances for the ministers, the respective justices of every city and county aforesaid, or any two of them are required to issue out warrants to the constables to summon the freeholders of every city, town and precinct, for the chosing two vestrymen and two a wardens: Confirmed the 11th of May, 1697. This act was further explained 3rd Queen Anne.b A. D. 1698. Lord Cornbury, Governor of the Province, issued orders to the magistrates of the several towns in Westchester County to build churches; by virtue of this, several towns were enabled to build public houses for the worship of Almighty God. St. Peter's Church, Westchester was thus built and became the parish church, inclusive of the precincts of Eastchester, Manor of Pelham and Yonkers. The quota contributed by the precinct of Yonkers towards the support of the Rector and poor of the parish in 1702, was £7 6, in 1709, £8. The first vestryman elected by the freeholders of this precinct was Mr. John Archer; seven years later John Archer and Noah Barton, were vestrymen. A. D. 1702, King William III. by Royal Charter incorporated the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The principal object of this society was to send clergymen to the colonies; "and the society to earnestly request and beseech all persons concerned that they recommend no man out of favor or affection or any other worldly consideration; but with a sincere regard to the honor of Almighty God and our blessed Saviour, as they tender the interest of the Christian religion and the good of men's souls.c The first Rector of the parish of Westchester and precinct of Yonkers was the Rev. John Bartow, who received his license from the Bishop of London in 1702. The same year upon his arrival here, he was inducted by the commission of his Excellency Governor Cornbury. In 1703 Rev. John Bartow commenced his services within this precinct. September 5, 1708, he writes to the society that he occasionally preached at Yonkers, where the population was then 250 souls.d Acts of Assembly passed in the province of N. Y. from 1691 to 1725, p. 23. b Ibid. • From a collection of papers printed by order of the Society, 9. From the Westchester Records we take the following extract, "John Archer, In 1713, the Propagation Society founded a charity school for the education of children in this town. The same year £5 per annum is granted to a schoolmaster at Yonkers, where there is a large congregation of Dutch and English, for instructing the younger sort in the catechism and liturgy, provided he can produce a certificate of his teaching thirty children. A. D. 1719, Mr. Jones was allowed fifty shillings for teaching children to read at Mile Square. In 1761, the Rev. Mr. Milner, Rector of the parish, informs the Propagation Society that one of the edifices he preaches in at Yonkers was a new one, raised by the generosity of Colonel Frederick Philipse of Philipsborough, who has given to its service a fine farm as a glebe, consisting of two hundred acres, upon. which he purposes to build a good house for a minister. In 1764 the society report that they have received a letter from Colonel Frederick Philipse of Philipsborough within the Province of New York, dated October 23, 1764, representing "That at the expense of himself and family there is now erected on the Manor of Philipsborough a handsome stone church completely finished, and every thing necessary for the decent performance of divine service prepared, that about three quarters of a mile from the church he has laid out and appropriated two hundred and fifty acres of excellent arable and wood land for a glebe for the minister for ever, and that he fully intends as soon as they are happy to have a worthy clergyman of the Church of England settled among them, to build him a genteel and handsome house upon said glebe, the materials for which are now providing, and which will cost at least £400. He therefore earnestly requests the society to send them a missionary, that he and his tenants, nearly one hundred and fifty families, may be no longer destitute of the worship of the Church of England." The board taking this letter into consideration have appointed the Rev. Harry Munro, a gentleman recommended to them by all the clergy of New Jersey and the Rev. Messrs. Charlton and Auchmuty at Perth Amboy, September 20th, 1764, and by other constable of the Yonkers appears, with a receipt from Mr. Bartow, bearing date ye 21 May, 1714–15 since the year 1702, as the minister's rate with the collection allowed, &c. ■ Vol. i. 315. |