THE TOWN OF WESTCHESTER. 387 



nominations in this State, to appoint Trustees, who should be a body 

 corporate, for the purpose of taking care of the temporalities of their 

 respective congregations, and for other purposes therein mentioned."" 

 Under the provisions of this act, St. Peter's church, Westchester, was 

 incorporated on the 19th of April, 1788, the following persons being 

 chosen trustees: Lewis Graham, Josiah Browne, Thomas Hunt,. Israel 

 Underhill, John Bartow, Phillip I. Livingston, and Samuel Bayard. ^ 



The earliest record of the proceedings of the trustees, is dated May 

 1 2th, 1788, when "it was resolved that the old church be sold to Mrs. 

 Sarah Ferris, for the sum of ten pounds." Their next business was to 

 obtain the necessary funds for the erection of another edifice. Accord- 

 ingly, at a meeting held September, 1788, Israel Underhill and John 

 Bartow, Jr., were authorized "to draw up a subscription paper, and 

 carry it round to the people, in order to raise a sum of money to build 

 a church, on or near the same ground where the Church of St. Peter, 

 late removed, stood." At a subsequent meeting, held October 13th, 

 1788, Phillip I. Livingston laid before the corporation the following 

 petition to the Venerable Society : — 



"TO THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL 

 IN FOREIGN PARTS. THE PETITION OF JOSIAH BROWN, 

 LEWIS GRAHAM, SAMUEL BAYARD, ISRAEL UNDERHILL, 

 AND JOHN BARTOW, JR., 



"Humbly shewcth : — 



•'That your petitioners are by law Trustees of the Episcopal Church of St. 

 Peter's, in the Township, late Borough of Westchester, and State of New York, 

 in North America. The Township in which your petitioners reside, from its 

 vicinity to the Capital of this State, was, during the late war, subject to the in- 

 cursions and depredations of both British and American armies, unprotected by 

 either. That thus circumstanced, their church and parsonage house very early 

 suffered the ravages of war, and have been so materially wasted as not to claim 

 the expense of a reparation. That the greater part of their congregation have 

 been, also by these means, greatly injured in their estates, and many reduced to 

 abject poverty ; and that under these calamitous events they have been since the 

 commencement of the late war, and even unto this day, without a Gospel Minis- 

 ter established in their township — and therefore, as might be expected, vice and 

 irrcligion too much prevail amongst the people. And your petitioners further beg 

 leave to show, that from a sense of duty, owing to themselves — as well as from 

 a most unfeigned regard for the welfare of the souls of those with whom they 

 are connected in society— they are most anxiously solicitous, as soon as may be, 

 to erect another church upon their glebe, and establish a minister. But as the 



a Laws of N. T. from 1T78 to 1T8T. Greenleaf, vol. i, chapter xviii, 71. 

 6 County Rec. Religious Soc. Lib. A. p. 19. 



