THE TOWN OF RYE. 



I8 7 



After a vacancy of nearly two years the mission was again filled by 

 the appointment of the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson." In 1763, this 

 gentleman informs the Society " that since writing his last letter, besides 

 two-thirds of the Sundays at Rye, and the other third at White Plains, 

 North Castle and Bedford, he had been twice to Crumpond and once 

 to Croton ; he had also baptized nineteen adults, and ninety-two chil- 

 dren." 



Mr. Punderson died in 1764. The following inscription is taken from 

 his monument in the grave yard. 



Sacred to the Memory 



of the 



REV. EBENEZER PUNDERSON, 



late Missionary to the Ven. Society for 



Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 



who died 22d Sept., A. D. 17G4, 



being GO years of age. 



" With pure religion was his spirit fraught, 

 Practiced himself what he to others taught." 



Upon the 19th day of December, 1764, Grace church Rye, received 

 the following charter from King George the Third : 



CHARTER OF GRACE CHURCH, RYE. 



George the Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland 

 King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth, To all to whom these presents shall 

 come, greeting : Whereas our loving subjects, Peter Jay, Elisha Budd, Christo- 

 pher Isinghart, Timothy Wetmore, Caleb Purdy, Joshua Purdy, John Guion, 

 Joseph Purdy, Gilbert Willet, John Carhart, Thomas Sawyer, Gilbert Brundige, 

 John Thomas, William Sutton, Anthony Miller and John Adee, inhabitants of 

 the parish of Rye, in the County of Westchester, in our Province of New York, 

 in communion of the Church of England as by law established, by their humble 

 petition presented on the sixteenth day of November last past, to our trusty and 

 well beloved Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, our Lieutenant Governor and Com- 

 mander-in-Chief of our Province of New York and the territories depending 

 thereon in America, in Couucil did set forth that the inhabitants of the said 

 parish of Rye, in communion of the Church of England as by law established, 

 have by voluntary contributions erected and finished a decent and convenient 

 church in the town of Rye, in the said parish, for the celebration of divine service 

 according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England ; but that from a 

 want of some persons legally authorized to superintend the same and manage 

 the affairs and interests thereof, the said church is greatly decayed, and the peti- 



a For the induction of Mr. Punderson, see Surrogate's office, N. Y. Book of Commissions, 

 Fol. v. 



