50 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



From time to time the Trustees have sold the land belonging to the 

 parsonage, which formerly consisted of a large Tract, for the more pro- 

 fitable use of the minister, until there is not more than eight or ten acres 

 left at the present date, May 27, 1874." 



After Mr. Tennent, in 1721, there is no certainty as to who preached 

 here until 1740, when the Rev. Robert Sturgeon was minister in Bed- 

 ford. He was a native of Scotland. He left his native place under 

 some embarrassment and came to New England, and was licensed by a 

 council greatly to the regret of Cotton Mather, by reason of his conduct 

 here and at home. He is said, in President Stile's Papers, to have been 

 settled in Bedford, N. Y., for twelve years. But here seems a discrep- 

 ancy in the history of those times, for the Presbytery of New Brunswick 

 installed here, in 1743, the Rev. Samuel Sacket. This would hardly 

 seem probable if Mr. Sturgeon still sustained any relation to the people ; 

 but, says Mr. Webster, the historian, when so many other ties were sun- 

 dered rudely, even this unbrotherly act may have been committed. Mr. 

 Sturgeon was present in 1745, at the first meeting of the Synod of New 

 York, as a member of the New York Presbytery. His name is not men- 

 tioned after 1750, and where he finally settled and died we have not the 

 means at hand of knowing. 



The next minister of the Presbyterian Church was Rev. Samuel 

 Sacket, son of the Rev. Richard Sacket, minister of the Second Society of 

 Greenwich in i7i7,who was, in all probability, installed pastor here by the 

 Presbytery of New Brunswick. He acted also as a sort of missionary 

 n this part of the country, and in 1747 Crumpond obtained his services 

 for half of his time; he supplied Salem, also, and Peekskill. In Decem- 

 ber 1749, he was released from his labors in Crumpond, now Yorktown, 

 and gave the whole of his time to Bedford ; but resigned the care of the 

 Church here in April 4th, 1753, the affections of the people being alienated 

 from him after ten years' labor. He left here and settled at once over 

 the Church of Hanover in Cortland Manor. He was dismissed from 

 here on April 1st, 1760, and the next year was installed again in Crum- 

 pond. The Church Missionary of Hanover, immediately wrote to Eng- 

 land that the new light preacher had left them. Mr. Sacket had a great 

 deal of trouble with his brethren in the Presbytery, as he differed widely 

 from them in both the doctrines and government of the Church. He 

 preached for twenty years in Yorktown or Crumpond, and finally died 

 there June 5th, 1784. His tomb in the cemetery bears record that he 

 was judicious, faithful, laborious and successful in his ministry. 



On the resignation or Mr. Sacket in 1753, the Rev. Eliphalet Ball 

 was called as pastor, and was installed Dec. 31st, 1754. He created quite 



