170 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



"May the nth, 1671, at a Court of Assembly holden at Hartford, 

 Captain Nathan Gold, Thomas Fitch, Mr. Holly, Lieut. Richard Olm- 

 stead, and Mr. John Burr, they, or three of them, are desired to repair 

 to the said Rye, as soon as may be, and to endeavour a comfortable com- 

 posure and issue of such differences as are among the people there, and 

 to use their endeavours in procuring a minister, and comfortably settling 

 of him in the plantation of Rye. Then the Court doth empower the 

 aforesaid committee to agree with a suitable man for that work in that 

 place, and to agree with him for maintenance to the value of ^40 per 

 annum, which the Treeasurer, by warrant to the Consable of said Rye, 

 shall order for the gathering and payment thereof with the county 

 rates."* 



"On the i^th of May, 1674, the General Court desires Mr. Elipha- 

 let Joanes" (one of the ministers of Fairfield) "to take the paynes to 

 dispence the word of God to the people of Rye once a fortnight on the 

 Lord's Day, till the Court, October next, and then this Court will take 

 further order concerning them and for Mr. Joanes' satisfaction. " b 



This gentleman was the first who is known to have officiated for any 

 length of time in the ministry of the Gospel at Rye. And it so happens 

 that we are able to glean further information concerning him than about 

 any of his immediate successors. Eliphalet Jones was the son cf the 

 Rev. John Jones, a man of some note in the early history of the New 

 England churches. He came to this country' from England, in 1635, 

 a clergyman of the Established Church; and was first settled at Concord, 

 Massachusetts, and afterwards at Fairfield, Connecticut, where he be- 

 came pastor of the church organized there by his efforts. Eliphalet was 

 born at Concord in 1641. He received his education under the care of 

 the learned and pious Peter Bulkley, who had been his father's colleague 

 at Concord, and studied at Harvard College, but did not graduate. In 

 1669, we find him admitted to the privileges of a freeman of Connecti- 

 cut. c He was at Greenwich in 1674, when the above order was given; 

 not however as the settled pastor of that town, but as a missionary or 

 evangelist. It would seem that he continued in this neighborhood for 

 about three years, preaching at Rye, probably, from time to time, as oc- 

 casion appeared. 4 In 1677, Mr. Jones accepted a call to Huntington, 

 Long Island, where he remained and labored for more than fifty years ; 

 dying in 1 731, at the good old age of ninety. He was never married. 

 He is said to have been ' a man of great purity and simplicity of life and 

 manners, and a faithful and successful preacher. ' e 



o Hartford Col. Rec. vol. UL, p. 12. 



b Public Kec. of Conn., vol. it p. 232, Baird3 Hist, of Rye, p. 2T6. 

 e Public Rec of Conn , vol. ii. p. 106. 



d .Mr. Savage (Gin. Jnct of th>> First Settlers of X. E.) speaks of him as ' having preached at 

 Rye some years,' (voL ii. p. 50!). I lind no confirmation of this statement. 

 e Thompson's History of Long Island, vol. i. p. 481, Baird's Hist, of Rye, p. 276. 



