Mark.

The Rev. George Muirson in one of his earliest reports to the venerable Propagation Society says : -- " Rye is a large parish, the towns are far distant, the people were some Quakers, but chiefly Presbyterians and Independents. They were violently set against our Church ; but now, blessed be God, they comply heartily. I find that catechising on the week days in the remote towns and frequent visiting is of great service."

The quota furnished by this division towards the rector's tax in 1725, was £16, S2. Mr. Wetmore writing to the Society in February, 1728, says : -- " That there are three meeting houses in the parish, one at Bedford, built for and used by the Presbyterians, &c. They have had a Presbyterian minister, they gave him a house and farm to work upon, and ,£40 per annum; but finding it not sufficient to support him with a numerous family, he has left them, and they have now settled another young man to whom they give the same allowance. There are at Bedford about eight or ten families of the Church, and the rest Presbyterians or Independents."

"The Dissenting" teachers "officiate without qualifying themselves according to the Act of Toleration, so that the people are supposed to do and say what they please about religion, under a notion, that the laws of England relating to religion don't extend to the Plantations." In 1 73 1 , he writes : -- " That the people of Bedford, who are most rigid and severe of all, came very generally to Church, when I was last among them, and many that never before were at Church." Again in 1744, he informs the Society : -- " That at Bedford and North Castle there were four hundred families belonging to the cure, &c." The same year the parishioners addressed the following letter to the Society : --