420 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



About the year 1764 the parish of Salem united with the parishes of 

 Ridgefield and Ridgebury, and engaged Mr. Richard S. Clark to read 

 divine service and sermons on Sundays. In 1766, Mr. Epenetus Town- 

 send was engaged as a lay reader; in a letter of Oct. 1st, 1767, Mr. 

 Dibblee of Stamford writes to the Secretary of the Venerable Propagation 

 Society, as follows : " Mr. Townsend thankfully accepts the leave to go 

 home for Holy Orders; and if the society is not pleased to appoint him 

 their missionary, at Salem, and parts contiguous, where he is much 

 wanted, he will submit to the will and superior wisdom and direction of 

 the society." 05 Mr. Townsend returned from England, April 22nd, 1768, 

 and was formally inducted rector of Salem on Sunday, the 29th of May, 

 1768, by his predecessor, the Rev. Ebenezer Dibblee. 6 In one of his 

 earliest communications to the society from Salem, Mr. Townsend says: 



"The fatigue which necessarily arises from a steady performance of 

 my duty in these three places, I have hitherto, and I trust in God, I shall 

 for the future be enabled to undergo with cheerfulness, tho' I expect it 

 will in a little while be increased, occasioned by the building a new 

 church in Salem, which when it is finished, I propose, with the society's 

 leave, to officiate in it sometimes. To acquaint the society with the 

 propriety of building a new church in Salem, I would observe that Salem 

 is a township twelve miles in length, and but two in breadth — joining on 

 the one side to Connecticut, and on the other partly to Cortlandt's 

 manor, which extends twenty miles westward to Hudson River; and partly 

 to another patent, which extends several miles westward towards Bed- 

 ford, which is the utmost limit of Mr. Avery's mission. The church, 

 which is already built, is situated within about two miles of the north 

 end of Salem, on the borders of Cortlandt's manor, as the society was 

 informed in the petition of the church wardens and vestry. It was built 

 by people of this part of Salem and Cortlandt's manor in conjunction, 

 and this congregation is larger than either of those in Connecticut — there 

 being generally, in good weather in the Summer season, upwards of two 

 hundred people assembled. The church, which I expect will soon be 

 built in Salem, will be abo t five or six miles further to the southward, 

 and about two or three miles to the westward from Ridgefield church, 

 where I have been informed there are near thirty families of Church 

 people, besides a considerable number in places very contiguous, for 

 whom it is extremely difficult to attend public worship, either at Ridge- 

 field, or at the church towards the north end of Salem, on the borders 

 of Cortlandt's manor, where I reside. When this church is built, (if the 

 Society approves of my officiating in it sometimes, besides my attend- 

 ance at the other three churches,) I would request the favor of the 

 Society, to give a quarto common Prayer Book and Bible to this, as they 

 have to the other churches of Salem and Ridgebury." 



a Conn. MSS. from archives at Fulham, p. 541, (Hawks.) 

 b Fowler's MSS. Biog. of the Clergy, Vol. VI., 1061. 



