THE TOWN OF WESTCHESTER. 39 1 



By this act the vestry, or a major part of them, were vested with full 

 power to call and induct a a minister. Accordingly, at a meeting, in 

 August, 1795, Mr. Ireland was confirmed in his call to the rectorship of 

 the church. 



Mr. Ireland continued his ministrations till 1797 ; b during this period 

 the present church edifice was consecrated, and the congregation con- 

 siderably increased. In 1798 he was called to St. Ann's church, Brook- 

 lyn, where he remained until 1S06, when he removed to Grace church, 

 Jamaica, Long Island. In 1809, he ceased his parochial administra- 

 tions, and entered the navy as a chaplain, in which capacity he served 

 up to the time of his death. He died in the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, on 

 the 25th of March, 1822. " He was (says one who knew him intimately) 

 a very accomplished man, possessed of highly polished manners, and an 

 excellent scholar, being gifted with a remarkably harmonious and pleas- 

 ing voice : he excelled in the delivery of his sermons, whilst his style of 

 composition would compare with the best models in our language." The 

 following is the the inscription from his tombstone : 



REV. JOHN IRELAND, 



died the 25th day of March, 1822, 



aged G6 years. 



••At a meeting of the wardens and vestrymen, with the congregations 

 of Westchester and Eastchester, on the 7th day of June, 1798, it was re- 

 solved, that the said congregations do unite and associate, in order to pro- 

 cure a clergyman to officiate for them." c Accordingly on the 9th of March, 

 1789, the Rev. Isaac Wilkins, A.M., was elected minister of the two 

 churches. As we have already seen, he was the son of Martin Wilkins, 

 a rich planter of Jamaica, W. I., where he was born in 1741. His father 

 dying when he was quite young, he was sent to New York to be edu- 

 cated. In 1756 he entered King's College, (now Columbia,) where he 

 graduated A.B. in 1760; receiving his A. M. degree in 1763. He pre- 

 pared himself for the ministry of the Church, but did not take holy orders 

 until 1798. Having settled in this county, he was returned as a mem- 

 ber of the House of Assembly, in which body he became a leader on the 



a " Indue ion is the vesting of the minister with the temporalities of the Congregut 10:1, and 

 In the Church of England, is performed by the patron of the living, who also appoints the 

 minister; aud in the Church in this country the vestry or congregation choose the mil inter, 

 and fix his salary and other temporalities. The bishop or some other mlnislei 'appo nted by 

 him, iiuttttutea the minister thus chosen to the spiritual charge of the congregation. The 

 General Convention recognized the principal, aii'l prescribed the office of Institution agreeably 

 to the above; Induction is mat act by which a minister is vested with the temporalities of a 

 living ; Institution is that by which he is vested with the cure of souls." 



b Agreeably to the 4i h Canon of 1T96, Mr. Ireland gave in to the Bishop his parochial report 

 the 4th of Oct., 1797.— See Journal of Diocesan Con. The parochial reports were not printed 

 with the journals until 1S04. 



c Westche3ter Vestry Book. 



