Coeval with the foundation of the village was the organization of a church, in which the Huguenots appear to have adhered to the principles and as far as they were able at that time to have maintained the Articles, Liturgy, Discipline and Canons, according to the usage of the Reformed Church in France. " It was for their religion that they suffered in their native country, and to enjoy its privileges unmolested they fled into the wilderness."

As soon as the church was organized, the most active measures were taken for the erection of an edifice. Provision had been partly made for this purpose in the grant to Jacob Leisler on the 20th of September, 1689. It was there declared that John Pell, lord of the manor, with the consent of Rachel, his wife, did (besides the six thousand acres) give and grant " to the said Jacob Leisler, the further quantity of one hundred acres of land for the use of the French church, erected, or to be erected by the inhabitants of the said tract of land."

The first church edifice of which anything is known, was built by the Huguenots in 1692 -- as appears from documents taken from the comer stone soon after the church was burnt, about 1723.

It was constructed of wood, and stood a little below Mr. Stephen Carpenter's house, almost on the site of his bam, near the Presbyterian church and directly fronting the old Boston post road. It appears to have been held for many years by a small minority of the Huguenots who resisted the conformity of their brethren to the Church of England in 1709° Near the same time that the church was erected, Louis Bongrand did give unto the inhabitants of New Rochelle a piece of land forty paces square for a church yard to bury their dead/ A house and about three acres and a half of land were subsequently given by the town to the church forever.