Yet we still find the said deed kept in abeyance for several years after the Revolution when it was most absurdly claimed that the " professors of the Church of England " were mixed into the "Presbyterian Society of Lower Salem."* Now it was, that the Board of Trustees moved the sale of those lands, as appears by the following record taken from their minutes in 1797 :

"At a meeting of Gould Bouton, Jacob Hayt, Enoch Mead, Nathan Adams and Abijah Gilbert, trustees of the church and congregation known by the name of the Presbyterian church and Congregation of the town of Lower Salem convened at the meeting house on the 14th day of February, 17S7. Together with the society, who being warned to meet to deliberate on matters which respect the Society.

The said meeting unanimously agreed by a vote then taken to sign and forward a Petition to the Legislature for a law to be passed to authorize the trustees to sell a part of the Parsonage Lands not exceeding fifty acres,

Rec'd. by Abijiah Gilbert, Clerk.l>

The real and personal estate belonging to the Presbyterian Society in 1798 is thus stated :

" An inventory and account of the real and personal estate belonging to the Presbyterian church and Congregation, called and known by the name of the Presbyterian church and Congregation of the town of Lower Salem made by the subscribers, trustees of said church and congregation which is as follows (to wit): The real estate consisting chiefly of unimproved lands occupied by the Rev. Solomon Mead the minister of the said church and congregation and two small pieces of ground rented at four shillings and six-pence per annum. The