94 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



tersection of Pelhamdale avenue with the sea-side boulevard, stands the 

 parochial edifice called Christ church. 



It may be as well to state here the progress of religious affairs in Pel- 

 ham prior to the erection of this church in 1S43. Under the royal char- 

 ter of 16S7, the Pelis were possessed of the " impropriation and the pat- 

 ronage of the church or churches erected or to be erected within the 

 manor." In 16S9, John Pell did give and grant to Jacob Leisler for 

 the French Refugees at New Rochelle ' one hundred acres of land for 

 the use of the French church erected or to be erected by the inhabitants.' 

 This glebe, which was situated only a short distance from Christ church 

 was held for nearly one hundred and fifteen years by Trinity church, 

 New Rochelle; upon the rgth of March, 1697, John Pell, Esq., as impro- 

 priator laid the corner stone of the French church at New Rochelle, which 

 instituted the only edifice within the Manorial limits for one-hundred and 

 forty-six years. 



By the act of Assembly passed 24th March, 1693, the Manor of 

 Pelham had been made of the four precincts of West Chester Parish ; 

 and the first vestryman elected under it, in 1702, was the said impro- 

 priator John Pell, Sen., Esq.; in May. 1703, the quota contributed by Pel- 

 ham Manor toward the rector's support and poor of the parish was 

 P^":.i3S. "At a meeting of ye church-wardens, vestrymen, freeholders 

 and parishoners of ye Borough of West Chester, etc., held in West 

 Chester the 10th day of January A. D. 1709-10." etc. "Mr. Thomas 

 Pell was chosen and appointed ye vestryman of ye Manor of Pelham." 

 The quota for the precinct the same year was ^3.0.0; in 1720 the 

 quota furnished by Pelham Manor had increased to ^4-4S. i^d. 



As early as 1 695 a clergyman of the Church of England was settled in 

 the manor of Pelham ; but as the freeholders were obliged to pay towards 

 the rector's support at West Chester appointed to him by act of Assem- 

 bly, they were rendered incapable of doing anything for their own minis- 

 ter; so that the principal support which the three French ministers of 

 the Manor of Pelham, residing at New Rochelle, received prior to 

 the Revolution, was derived from the Venerable Society for the Propa- 

 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 



In 1 7SS, New Rochelle was separated from the Manor of Pelham, but 

 the latter still remained united, for all eclesiastical purposes with the 

 former until 1S40, when the late Rev. Robert Bolton, the rector of the 

 parish of East Chester, first extended his ministerial labors to this town, 

 which was as yet, destitute of the sen-ices of the Church. At this time, 

 Mr. Bolton, besides his stated duties in East Chester, held a Sunday ser- 

 vice at his residence in Pelham, accomodating in the ample hall a neigh- 



