$28 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



at the three usual feasts, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday; to partake of 

 which I must confess, I have a - rally about twelve communicants, but 



have administered it to many on their sick and dying beds, who never received 



it before. I take care to catachise the children in the church; and to make 

 amends for an omission of that duty at any time, I allow a schoolmaster twenty 

 shillings per annum to encourage him to instruct the children in the Church cate- 

 chism. I can't repeat to yon the many janglings and contentions I have had 

 with Quakers and Dissenters ; nay. I may say with Atheists and Deists, but beg 

 you will believe the whole course of our ministry has been very onerous and dif- 

 ficult ; and if I have failed in any part of my duty, (as it seems you are in- 

 formed,) let me know it in your next, that I may amend. Perhaps there is more 

 my duty than I know of, especially if a minister may not be allowed judgment 

 of discretion in things that do not respect canonical obedience, but be obliged to 

 please singular fancies and humors repugnant to general reason and usage. 



I must also tell you that our church is wainscotted, and in a short time will be 

 ceiled over head, and more decently seated, and the communion table enclosed 

 with rails and bannisters ■ and am very sorry for that great loss we have had at 

 sea of church ornament, not knowing how it may be repaired but by the same 

 gracious donors. 



Since my last I have received some old arrears, and hope to have my salary 

 here better paid ; when we are well settled, we may inform the remis that they 

 must pay their dues. I have obtained of the town of Westchester (on a time 

 when it lay in my way to do them service with the Governor) a grant of twenty 

 acres of glebe, and three acres of meadow within half a mile of the church; 

 which, in time, will be a convenient residence for a minister, and also a small 

 share in some undivided land, which will be to the quantity of about thirty acres 

 more, but about four miles distant. I shall only add humble thanks and duty 

 to the society, and that I remain, &c., &c. TOH\ B YRTOW a 



Colonel James Graham, to whom Mr. Bartow alludes in the above 

 letter, was a native of Scotland, and a near relation of James Graham, 

 Marquis of Montrose.'' In 1691 he was returned as one of the four 

 members of the Provincial Assembly for the City and County of New 

 York, and in 1699 was chosen speaker of that body. He was the author 

 of the law for the maintenance of the clergy, and settlement of the Church 

 in 1693. He was also Recorder of the city of New York from 1693 to 

 1700, and subsequently received the appointment of Attorney General 

 of the Province. He was elected Senior Warden of the parish in 1703, 



a Hawks New Tori MSS. from archives at Fulham vol. i. 171 i. 175. 



b "The ancient and powerful family of Graham," says Sir Walter Scott, in the Lady of the 

 "held extensl ions ta the counties of Dumbarton and Stirling. Few families 



can boast of more historical renown, having claim to three of the most remarkable characters 

 In the Scottish annals ; sir John <;: Bine, the faithful and undaunted partaker of the labours 

 and patriotic warfare of Wallace, fell in the unfortunate field of Falkirk, in 1898. The cele- 

 1 sa of Montrose, in whom )><■ Retz saw realized his absl raci Ideas ofthe heroes 

 of antiquity, was the second of these worthies; ami notwithstanding the severity of his tem- 

 per, and the vigour with which he executed the oppressive mandates of the Panics, whom he 

 serverl,Ido DOthestitate to name, as the third, John Graham, of Claverhouse, Viscount of 

 Dundee, whose heroic death, in the arms of victory, may be allowed to cancel the memory of 

 his cruelty to the non-conformists, during the reigns of Charles II. and James II." 



