382 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



as a store was kept at the house by the ferry, and which was well patron- 

 ized by the farmers on King street and the Plains, and was quite a. 

 resort for their wives and daughters, for the purchase of "calicoes, 

 ribbands, fans, gloves, necklaces, looking glasses, etc, a which were kept 

 for sale here. 



The first Friends Meeting House was erected here in 1727, upon 

 ground given for that purpose by Anthony Field, "who had removed 

 hither two years before from Flushing, Long Island, and who owned the 

 adjoining farm." 6 



This seems to have been the favorite settlement of the Friends. They 

 were shamefully persecuted in Connecticut and Massachusetts ; from 

 there driven to Rhode Island, from whence they had to fly to Long 

 Island. Even there they could find no rest, for the Governor cf New 

 York issued an order forbiding them to worship even in a barn. So 

 they crossed by means of the ferry to Rye, and settled principally in 

 Harrison ; here they were hemmed in by their old enemies, the Dutch 

 on the Hudson River, and the unforgiving and intolerant Puritans on 

 the East. They thus extended up this narrow strip of country, and the 

 family names of the first settlers can be traced for over one hundred 

 miles north. 



Samuel Haight, of Flushing, one of the five patentees of Harrison 

 Purchase, was a Friend. When after a lapse of twenty years or more a 

 considerable emigration from Long Island to the Purchase took place, 

 it consisted mainly, if not wholly, of families of Friends. 



In 1706 they appear to have begun to settle in Rye, for Mr. Muirson, 

 Missionary of the Gospel Propagation Society, tried to win them over to 

 his faith, but failed. Mr. Bridge, his successor, reported seven families 

 of Quakers in his parish in 1710, and four or five families inclining to 

 them. 



One of these, probably, was the family of Captain John Clapp, who 

 came to Rye as early as 1705. In 17 18 he was called a reputed 

 Quaker. 



From Mr. Bridge's account, it seems that in the winter of 17 10, an 

 attempt was made by certain persons to form themselves into a society 

 in the neighborhood of his parish. He called them Cale's followers, or 

 Canting Quakers. Mr. Bridge in 17 12, records his success in disputing 

 with these people. (They could not have been true Quakers). They 

 have never, he says, held a public meeting since in these parts. Five 

 years afterwards, however, he writes, " The Quakers come frequently in 



a Baud's Hist, of Jive. 

 b Ibid. 



