NEW ROCHELLE 239 



and seal at New York this 23d day of June, 1705, and iii ye 4th jear 

 of her nia'tya Keign. COENBUEY. 



The next iiiiiiister at New Rochelle was the Rev. Dauiel Pastor Bondet 

 Boudet. He had been a student of the seminary at Geneva, 

 and upon the Revocation fled into England where he was 

 received into orders by the Bishop of London. He ac- 

 companied the settlers to New Oxford, where he was en- 

 gaged in missionary work among the Indians, and came 

 to New Rochelle probably during the fall of 1695. He 

 soon took a high place among the provincial clergy, and 

 in 1704 we find the clergy of New York writing of him 

 as follows: "Mr. Daniel Bondet has gone further and 

 done more in that good work (converting the heathen) 

 than any Protestant minister that we know ; we commend 

 him to your pious consideration as a person industrious 

 in ye service of the church and his own nation, ye French, 

 at New Rochelle." 



In 1709 the French Reformed Church of New Rochelle Becoming 

 conformed to the Church of England. The following is 1709 

 an extract from a letter of Colonel Heathcote, who was 

 instrumental in bringing the change to pass : 



At first Jlr. Bondet used the French prayers, according to the 

 Protestant churches of France ; and subsequently on every third Sun- 

 day, as appears by the above letter, the Liturgy of the Church of Eng- 

 land ; but in 1709 his congregation, with the exception of two indi- 

 viduals, followed the example of their Reformed brethren in England, 

 by conforming to the English Church. This memorable event is thus 

 recorded in the charter : " That on the 12th day of June, in the year 

 of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and nine, all the inhabitants 

 of the township of New Rochelle, who were members of the said 

 French Church, excepting two, unanimously agreed and consented to 

 conform themselves, in the religious worship of their said Church, to 

 the Liturgy and rites of the Church of England as established by law ; 

 and by a solemn act or agreement did submit to, and put themselves 

 under the protection of the same," 



Since the first wooden church had been built the num- New stone 

 ber of communicants had greatly increased, and in 1709 ^^'^^'^^ '^'° 



