From Flushing, probably, the Society of Friends spread at a very early day to this place. Rye was in regular communication with Long Island, in 1739; a ferry was established between it and Oyster Bay, Long Island. This ferry continued in use till the latter part of the century. A map of Rye in 1797 shows the house at the ferry near the mouth of Byram River.6 It must have been a place of frequent resort

a Baird'a 1 1 1 -t . of Rye, p. 358. t> BalrU's Utstory of Rye.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

as a store was kept at the house by the ferry, and which was well patronized by the farmers on King street and the Plains, and was quite l resort for their wives and daughters, for the purchase of "calicoes, ribbands, fans, gloves, necklaces, looking glasses, etc," 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 of 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.