He was for some time a Justice of the Peace, and a warm friend and supporter of the Church of England, and for the endowment of this parish gave one hundred acres of land said to be the " Parsonage Lands."* The services of the Church of England were held in his house prior to the erection of the church edifice in 1771, which stood on land donated by him, directly opposite the cross roads leading from South Salem to Ridgefield. This land is now held by the family of the late Thaddeus Keeler. The Rev. Ebenezer Dibblce, D. D., rector of St. John's church, Stamford, and missionary of the venerable Propagation Society, who considered Salem at that time to be within his cure, records the following in his parochial register: "1758, May 12th, baptized, Obediah, slave of James Brown, Esq., of Salem.""

Upon the 20th of September, 1775, we find James Brown, of Salem,

a Tln> will on the back has this endorsement-- James Brown's will Proved March Tth, 1769, Exec. Accept. Recorded. Copied from original will on file in Probate office, Falriield, Conn. There is no proof of its ever having been recorded. [Editor.]

b This deed of (rift has always been withheld from the Episcopal Church, since and even prior to the Revolution. It Is asserted on the testimony of the late William W atson Weilman, of New Haven, for many years a vestryman of this parish, that Stephen Pardee, of South Salem, was once heard to declare, between the years 1S30 and ISafi, that " a Mr. Joseph B nedlct of the same piace had ni his possession the deed from James Brown to the church tor the Parsonage Lands in question. v it is not a little singular that thla same Stephen Pardee, on two or three occasions In 1849-1850, visited the present Alfred S.