256 The Story of The Bronx 



In accordance with the request, the Society sent out to 

 Westchester the Reverend John Bartow, A.M., who arrived 

 in New York in 1 702 ; and who, on the sixth of December of 

 the same year, was regularly inducted into the Parish of 

 Westchester and Eastchester by the Reverend William Vesey, 

 Rector of Trinity Church, New York, and Josiah Hunt, 

 church-warden of the parish, acting under instructions from 

 the Bishop of London, and from Lord Cornbury, the Governor 

 of the province. Mr. Bartow thus became the first regular 

 rector of the parish, and served as such until his death in 1726, 

 at the age of fifty-two. Mr. Bartow was of Huguenot extrac- 

 tion, the ancestor of the family having fled to England after 

 the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. The name was 

 originally Bertaut, but it became, in time, anglicized into 

 Bartow. 



In an account of the state of the Church in the Province 

 laid before the clergy at New York, October 5, 1704, we find 

 the following summary: 



"Westchester, Mr. Bartow, Rector 



"Here is a church built, but not finished, being neither 

 glazed nor ceiled. The parish of Westchester is divided into 

 four several districts, viz., Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers 

 and the Manor of Pelham. 



"There is £50 settled on the ministers by act of Assembly. 



"There is twenty acres of land given by Westchester division 

 for a glebe. 



"There is one Independent Congregation at Eastchester, 

 whose minister designs to leave there, whose congregation 

 upon his departure, are resolved to join with the Church. " 



Under date of December 12, 1706, it was ordered by the 

 justices, church-wardens, and vestry of the parish to finish 



