274 The Story of The Bronx 



the church, and indeed is a better building than that. . . . 

 To the third head of enquiry, I say there are three meeting- 

 houses in my parish — one of the Quakers at Westchester, one 

 of the Dutch, from it three miles west [Fordham], and one 

 of the French at New Rochelle. . . . The Quakers preach 

 against hireling priests, and pretend to give nothing to their 

 teachers." 



In Mr. Seabury's letter of June 25, 1767, he says: "The 

 professed dissenters in this parish are not numerous; some 

 Calvinists or Presbyterian French at New Rochelle; a few 

 Presbyterians at Eastchester, and some Quakers ; at West- 

 chester, a good many Quakers." So that it does not seem 

 that, as time passed, there was much decrease in the number 

 of Friends. The Revolution played havoc with them, though 

 probably not to so great an extent as with other denominations, 

 owing to their tenet of non-resistance. That a Quaker can 

 break away from his doctrines and take up the sword is 

 shown in the case of one of our great Revolutionary generals, 

 Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island ; and it is likely that many 

 of the Westchester Quakers took up arms for King George or 

 for the Congress. 



The old Quaker meeting-house formerly stood immediately 

 south of the ancient burying-ground. It was probably erected 

 before 1700, and was at first used by the Orthodox Friends, 

 but later by the Hicksite party. About 1828, the Orthodox 

 Friends erected another meeting-house on the opposite side 

 of Westchester Avenue. Nothing remains of either except 

 the foundations of the older one, they both having been 

 destroyed by incendiary fires on the same night in the spring 

 of 1893. For several years before their destruction, they had 

 been unused ; but the inhabitants of Westchester felt consider- 

 able pride in the ancient landmarks. 



