[The year 1729 opened with an event of great interest to the Church-the arrival in America of Rev. George Berkeley, Dean of Derry, who, on his return to England, after a stay of nearly three years on this Island, was made Lord Bishop of Cloyne. The object of his visit to America, and the events connected with his life on this Island, are so well known that I need not here recall them. The circumstances attending his landing at Newport, January 23d, after a passage of five months, are thus given in "Bull's Memoir of Rhode Island":]

The

"The ship ran into the west passage, and came to anchor. dean wrote a letter to Mr. Honyman (Rector of Trinity Church), which the pilots took on shore at Conanicut Island, and called upon a Mr. Gardner and Mr. Martin, two members of Mr. Honyman's Church, informing them that a great dignitary of the Church of England, called Dean, was on board the ship, together with other gentlemen passengers. They handed them the letter from the dean, which Gardner and Martin brought to Newport in a small boat, with all possible dispatch. On their arrival they found Mr. Honyman at Church, it being a holyday on which divine service was held there. They then sent the letter by a servant, who delivered it to Mr. Honyman in the pulpit. He opened it and read it to the congregation, from the contents of which it appeared the dean might be expected to land in Newport every moment. The Church was dismissed with a blessing, and Mr. Honyman, with the wardens, vestry and congregation, male and female, repaired immediately to the Ferry Wharf, where they arrived a little before the dean, his family and friends."

[Dean Berkeley found in Newport a congenial society, and a residence here delightful. He bought about one hundred acres of land, built a house and called the place Whitehall, a name that it still retains. How well pleased he was with his surroundings, within three months of his landing, is shown in a letter to Thomas Prior.]

Newport, on Rhode Island, April 24, 1729.

I can by this time say something to you, from my own experience, of this place and people. The inhabitants are of a mixed kind, consisting of many sects and sub-divisions of sects. Here are four sorts of Anabaptists, besides Presbyterians, Quakers, Independents, and many of no profession at all. Nothwithstanding so many differences, here are fewer quarrels about religion than elsewhere, the people living peaceably with their neighbors of whatsoever persuasion. They all agree in one point, that the Church of England is the second best. The island is pleasantly laid out in hills and vales, and rising ground; hath plenty of excellent springs, and fine rivulets, and many delightful landscapes of rocks, and promontories, and adjacent lands.

The town of Newport is the most thriving place in all America, for business. It is very pretty and pleasantly situated; I was never more agreeably surprised, than at the first sight of the town and harbor.

March 12, 1729.

Palmer.

May 27, 1729.

Major Fairchild was married to Bathsheba

William Mumford was married to Elizabeth Honyman by Dean Berkeley.

39 The "Major" was Fairchild's Christian name, and not a title. In an old deed he is styled "cooper." He was engaged in trade, chiefly commercial, and his daughter Ann became the wife of Metcalf Bowler. With Bowler he was engaged in commercial enterprises. October 28, 1764, he married Katharine Malbone, daughter of Godfrey Malbone, who became his second wife.

40 William Mumford was put in command of Fort George in 1756, and he was also in command in 1759. Elizabeth Honyman, who became his wife, was the only daughter of Rev. James Honyman. Her married life was short, for she died on the 21st of July, 1730, in her 24th year. Her remains lie buried in the churchyard, by the side of those of her father and mother. This is the only entry in the Church records of a marriage by Dean Berkeley during his residence on the Island, and it was a graceful tribute to him on the part of Mr. Honyman to ask him to marry his daughter.

June 12, 1729. David Chesebrough was married to Abigail Rogers."1

September 21, 1729. Henry Barclay [Berkeley] son of Dean Barclay, was baptized by his father, and received into the Church. September 25, 1729. Captain Robert Oliver12 was married to Mary Dunbar.

There are no entries for 1730, and, in fact, much of the material brought together in these pages up to this date was gathered from other sources than the Church records. The record of baptisms and marriages is fairly well preserved, but there is no record of deaths up to this period. From 1731 the records go on regularly, but are far from minute in their details; and when we come down to the revolution there are gaps that cannot now be filled. The services of the Church were kept up, and when the town was taken possession of by the British they were continued the same, for the minister, Rev. George Bisset, was a loyalist. Other places of worship were desecrated and turned into stables, but that of the Church of England was kept from such defilement.

An interesting event connected with the stay of Dean Berkeley on the Island was the formation, in 1730, of the Philosophical Society, out of which, ultimately, grew the Redwood Library. The influence of Berkeley was felt long after his departure. His personal friends, who joined him in the formation of the society, were Daniel

"Mrs. Chesebrough died in Newport in 1737. Mr. Chesebrough's second wife was Margaret Sylvester, of whom there is a portrait extant painted by Blackburn, the second artist who came to America. Mr. Chesebrough removed to Stonington, and died there in March, 1782. His daughter Abigail, by his first wife, married Alexander Grant, oldest son of Sir Alexander Grant, of Scotland. In the Newport Mercury of September 11, 1775, it was announced that "The Hon. Mrs. Abigail Grant, lady of Sir Alexander Grant, arrived at Newport from London via New York." 42 Captain Robert Oliver was an active and widely-known commander, in his day, in the mercantile marine.

Updike, the Attorney-General of the Colony, James Searing, Judge Edward Scott, Henry Collins, Nathan Townsend, Jr., James Honyman, Jr., Jeremy Condy, Samuel Wickham, Thomas Ward, Josiah Lyndon, John Callender, Jr., Sueton Grant, Dr. John Brett, Captain Charles Bardin, Hezekiah Carpenter, Joshua Jacobs, Joseph Sylvester, John Checkley, Jr., William Ellery, John Adams, Daniel Hubbard, John Wallace, Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Johnston, nearly all of them men whose influence was commanding.

Dean Berkeley, realizing that in all probability there would be some delay in securing the grant that would enable him to establish the projected college at Bermuda (the object of his visit to America), prepared to make himself comfortable during his stay by buying a farm of ninety-six acres and building thereon a modest house, which he called Whitehall. There he resided till the autumn of 1731, when, in September, he embarked from Boston for England. After his return to England he gave Whitehall to Yale College with a valuable collection of books, a list of which may be found in an article on "Bishop Berkeley's Gifts to Yale College," by Daniel C. Gilman, Vol. I. of "Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society." He also gave valuable books to Harvard College and Trinity Church, Newport. To the Church he gave seventy-five volumes, some of which are still in the possession of the Church, with many of the volumes sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts when the parish was in its infancy.

THE officers of the Church on the 5th day of July, 1731, were:

}

Church Wardens.

Vestry.-Nathaniel Kay, Col. William Wanton, Capt. John Brown, Col. Wm. Coddington, George Goulding, Daniel Ayrault, Col. William Whiting, Capt. John Freebody, Capt. Henry Bull, Capt. Godfrey Malbone, Capt. John Brown, Jr., Capt. John Chase, Jahleel Brenton, Jr., Daniel Updike, John Gidley, Peter Bours, and James Martin.

James Martin was appointed Clerk of the Vestry.

Ordered that the Church Wardens do all things necessary for the repairing of the bell, and have the fence and gates painted.