HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

it has been connected with the Presbyteries of Bedford and Connecticut and finally with that of Westchester.

Under the long pastorate of Solomon Mead that church appears to have had a peaceful and uneventful history. Its affairs do not seem to have called for interference on the part of the Presbytery of Dutchess County at any time. In the church records is the following entry which is sufficiently concise :

"September 5th, 181 2, departed this life the Rev. Solomon Mead, aged eighty-six years, nine months and two days. He officiated in the ministry forty-eight years three months and fifteen days." In his ministry he baptized 912 children and adults, and married 666 (couples). Here we see ended a long life of a venerable minister who may well be remembered by this church for his great zeal in the cause of Religion, for his planting a church in this place, and in letting his light shine in such a manner as to be imitated safely by all."4

Mr. Mead was descended from " John Mead, one of two brothers, who emigrated from England about the year 1642. The family was then an ancient and honorable one, though it is not within the author's means to trace their geneology previous to their emigration to this country. One of their ancestors had been the friend and the physician of the talented, though not very amiable, Queen Elizabeth. One of two brothers emigrated to Virginia, where the family still exists." The late venerable and Rt. Rev. William Meade, Bishop of Virginia, was of this line. The other, John Mead, with his two sons, came to New England about the year 1642. The name is spelled Meade as well as Mead. Many claim that they emigrated from Greenwich, Kent County, England.