The Churches 253 



At the town-meeting at Westchester, January 2, 1692, it 

 was agreed: 



"that there shall be an orthodox minister in the town 

 aforesaid, as soon as possible may be; and to allow him forty 

 or fifty pounds per annum, equivalent to money, for his 

 maintenance. It is also voted and agreed upon, that a man 

 shall go to the Honorable Colonel Heathcote, and see if he can 

 prevail with him for to procure us a minister, in his travels 

 in New England, otherwise, that Captain William Barnes shall 

 go and procure us a minister." 



September 21, 1693, the Provincial Assembly passed an act 

 for settling a ministry; and the county of Westchester was 

 divided into two parishes, Westchester and Rye. The former 

 included the towns and precincts of Westchester, Eastchester, 

 Yonkers, and Pelham Manor, and was required to raise fifty 

 pounds per annum for the support of a minister. There was 

 also to be "called, inducted and established, a good, sufficient 

 Protestant minister"; but so few persons at that time were 

 qualified to accept the call of the vestry that it was not until 

 May, 1695, that steps were taken to call the Reverend Warham 

 Mather, a graduate of Harvard and a member of the famous 

 family which gave so many divines to New England. 



That there was a church building at Westchester is evident 

 from the description of the town given by the Reverend John 

 Miller in 1695. "There is a meeting-house at Westchester, 

 and a young man coming to settle there without orders 

 [i.e., not a clergyman of the Church of England]. There are 

 two or three hundred English and Dissenters, a few Dutch." 

 When this meeting-house was built is problematical ; but as on 

 May 5, 1696, it had so fallen into decay that the town voted 

 to repair it, we may surmise that it might have been perhaps 

 twenty years old. On May 3, 1697, " It was voted and agreed 



