240 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



A Church 

 Secession 



Presbyterian 



Church 



Formed 



A Missionary 

 Pastor 



Pastor 

 Stouppe 



172? 



a license was procured for building a new one. The new 

 diurch was begun in tlie summer of the following year 

 and was completed that same autumn. It was of stone, 

 nearly square in shape, and perfectly plain both outside 

 and in. Of the building of this church a i)ious chronicler 

 records that " so anxious were all to contribute something 

 towards its completion, that even females carried stones 

 in their hands, and mortar in their aprons, to complete 

 the sacred work." 



Shortly after the conformation to the Episcopal Church, 

 a schism arose to rend the harmony of New Rochelle. 

 "The seceders erected a meeting-house, styled themselves 

 'The French Protestant Congregation,' and remained 

 violently opposed to their lawful pastors ; and not only 

 so, but in opposition to their own founders, proscribed 

 the Church of England in her doctrine, discipline, ordi- 

 nances, usages, rites and ceremonies, as popish, rotten 

 and unscriptural." Those were "parlous times," and 

 if we may read between the lines, religious discussion 

 waxed extremely warm in the otherwise peaceful village. 

 The present Presbyterian Church is the flourishing 

 progeny of the "seceders." 



Concerning Pastor Bondet the same active layman, 

 Colonel Heathcote, writes : ' ' He is a good man, & preaches 

 very intelligibly in English, which language he uses every 

 third Sabbath, when he avails himself of the Liturgy ; he 

 has done a great deal of service since his arrival in this 

 country. His pay is only thirty pounds ($150) per 

 anum." In 1714 this good man took the spiritual charge 

 of the Mohegans, or River Indians. In his reports he 

 states that there were fifty communicants in his church. 

 After labouring here twenty-seven years, he died in his 

 sixty-ninth year, in 1722. 



The third minister was Rev. Pierre Stouppe, A. M. He 

 gives some interesting information in a letter dated Decem- 

 ber 11, 1727, about the early settlement of New Rochelle. 

 He writes : ' ' The present number of inhabitants is about 



