252 The Story of The Bronx 



[have] & maintaine them if to be had. There are abt 20 

 churches or Meeting places of w ch aboue [above] halfe 

 vacant." 



While the earlier account is before the occupation of the 

 mainland to any extent, except at Throgg's Neck, they both 

 describe conditions which prevailed during the earlier days of 

 the colony. 



The Westchester colony had no minister until 1665, and then 

 only for a short time, when the Reverend Mr. Brewster seems 

 to have officiated ; but that they had religious services of some 

 kind is shown by an extract from the journal of the Dutch 

 commissioners who visited Oostdorp in 1656: 



"31 Dec. after dinner, Cornelius van Ruyven went to the 

 house where they held their Sunday meeting, to see their mode 

 of worship; as they had, as yet, no preacher. There I found 

 a gathering of about fifteen men, and ten or twelve women. 

 Mr. Baly said the prayer, after which, one Robert Basset 

 read from a printed book a sermon, composed by an Eng- 

 lish clergyman in England; after the reading, Mr. Baly gave 

 out another prayer and sung a psalm, and they all sepa- 

 rated." 



Dominie Megapolensis bears similar testimony in a letter 

 to Holland in 1657. Like their New England brethren, they 

 combined town matters with religious ones; and the town 

 records contain references to both equally, the inhabitants 

 constituting the congregation, and vice versa. In the records, 

 under date of July 29, 1674, appears the name of the Reverend 

 Ezekiel Fogge, probably the first Independent, or Congre- 

 gational, minister to officiate at Westchester. In 1680, the 

 name of Morgan Jones appears as performing the rites of 

 baptism and marriage. 



