THE TOWN, OF HARRISON. 375 



whence he returned to England.) Concerning this individual, Dr. Car- 

 michael in his history of St. George's church, observes, " that he com- 

 menced his ministrations there, in the spring of 1705, under the auspices 

 of the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts. In a letter 

 addressed to the secretary of that society, Oct. iSth, 1724, he says, 

 " Good sir, give my humble duty to the Honorable Society, and assure 

 them of my utmost fidelity, as far as lame limbs and a decrepit state of 

 health will permit. My heart is warm and sound, though lodged, God 

 knows, in a crazy, broken carcase; nay, more, pray tell them that 

 Epaminondas like, I shall fight upon the stumps for that purest and best 

 of Churches, as long as God indulges me with the least ability do it." 

 "After this," continues Dr. Carmichael, "we find no more letters from 

 Mr. Thomas to the Society, whose distinguished ornament he was, and 

 presume from other circumstances, that he died near about that time ; 

 but, in the Society's Annual Report, printed in London, Feb. 16th, 1827, 

 we have discovered the following touching memento, viz., a gratuity of 

 ^50, to Mrs. Thomas, is voted, the widow of the late Rev. Mr. Thomas, 

 missionary at Hempstead, in New York, in consideration of his long and 

 faithful services, upwards of twenty years."* 



• His eldest son, was the Hon. John Thomas, (already alluded to) first 

 Judge of the county of Westchester, and for many years a representa- 

 tive in the general assembly of the province. This distinguished gentle- 

 man was a warm whig, and took an active part in the scenes that pre> 

 ceded the Revolution, on which account he was particularly obnoxious 

 to the enemy. Judge Thomas was seized in his bed by a party of Brit- 

 ish troops, at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning, March 2 2d, 1777,, and 

 conveyed to New York where he was committed to the provost. 

 Here he lingered until the 2d of May, 1777, when (between four 

 and five o'clock in the morning of that day,) death released him 

 from his sufferings. His remains were interred the following Saturday 

 evening, between seven and eight o'clock in Trinity church yard. 6 "The 

 following is a brief summary," says Dr. Thatcher, of the systematic 

 method adopted and practiced for " the destruction of American prison- 

 ers," as taken from the New London Gazette, from General Washings- 

 ton's letter of complaint to General Howe, and from the verbal state- 

 ment of the officers and soldiers who have returned from New York by 

 exchange. They were crowded into the holds of prison ships, where 

 they were almost suffocated for want of air, and into churches, and open 

 sugar houses, etc., without covering or a spark of fire. Their allowance 



a Carniichael's Hist, of St. George's church, p. 28. 

 6 Extracted from James Franklin's Bible. 



