THE TOWN OF 4 LEWISBORO. 425 



and William Smith, were the parties solely interested in these lands, 

 and had already petitioned the Crown on the 5th of July, of that year, 

 (175 1 ) to grant them a Patent which was to include the same,* conse- 

 quently their names are not to be found in the surreptitious deed dated 

 six months afterwards. No doubt these so-called proprietors contended 

 in opposition to Brown and Smith, that they had a right of freehold 

 vested in the Lower Oblong, given them by Connecticut in years past, 

 which no power could possibly deprive them of ; but the settlement of 

 the boundary question in 173 1, vested the whole Oblong in the Crown. 

 This they had themselves tacitly admitted in accepting the East Patent 

 from the Crown the very same year, and certainly they could never show 

 any grant from the Crown for the undivided lands of the Oblong. It is 

 a little curious that thirteen out of the twenty signers of the surreptitious 

 deed to the Presbyterian Society in 1751, were grantees under the East 

 Patent in 1731. There can be no doubt whatever, that they attempted 

 to convey away property that did not belong to them ; besides which, 

 these lands were undivided and they could not legally dispose of their 

 claim, even if they had any, until a division of them was made. Here, 

 then, we see the intention of the noble donor sadly prevented, as the gift 

 has never been realized by the Parish — more than one hundred years 

 have now passed since the land was given ; yet, tradition has preserved 

 it inviolably. The Church was re-organized in 18 10, in hopes of recov- 

 ering it ; and that noble band of Churchmen consisting of Augustus Mc- 

 Carroll, 6 William Sherwood, Henry Hoyt, Gould Bouton, Jesse Jarvis, 

 Samuel Brown Isaacs, Samuel Amber, Joseph Nash, Absalom Holmes' 7 

 and James Church, who were constantly in the habit of discussing their 

 right to the property and probability of recovering it, while attending on 

 the services at the mother Church of North Salem, have all passed away 

 to their rest.** Still the trust remains to be guarded by their successors ; 

 who should never forget what they owe to the resolute men who planted 

 and watered the Church in the Colonies, and still clung to her after the 

 close of the Revolution, looking in sure faith to Almighty God for the 

 increase. The crime of violating or alienating to other purposes what 

 has been once appropriated or consecrated to the service of God's 



a It is quite clear from the will of James Brown, Senior, in 1T66, that the Patent adjoined 

 the south side of the road leading from Ridgefield to Bedford. A fence running almost due 

 north from the late Milo Webster's house, (close to the road leading from South Salem to 

 Ridgefield,) and so across through the swamp near to the residence of Wafeeman B. Wood, 

 (on the road between Bedford to Ridgefield,) is said to have been the east line of James 

 Brown's lands. 



b Augustus McCarroll or McCaul, was a strong Scottish Churchman. His son, Ennis, left 

 a son, Stephen, and a daughter, Sarah, the widow of David Farrington. 



c Holmes lived near Lake Wacabuc. 



d The testimony of Mr. Sam'l Field, now living who has often overheard them discusing the 

 subject at North Salem, after the services of the day. 



