Gunter's chain) to a stake stuck in the ground with stones about it ; from thence, running southeasterly 47 degrees, -2 chains, to a marked chestnut tree, standing on the edge of the brook, a little to the north end of the said John Hallock's new grist mill ; from thence, running west two chains and eighty links to the aforesaid road ; an 1 from thence, running something to the east of the north three chains and ten links to the first bound, containing three-quarters of an acre, " &CB
For. some reasons, now unknown, it was determined to erect the Church five miles further north, in the tOwn of New Castle.
a From the original deed In the possession of Job Sands, of North Castfe.
THE TOWN OF NORTH CASTLE. 7 I 5
The Rev. Robert Jenney, rector of Rye, wrote the Venerable Propagation Society, in 1722: ">I have lately been to a settlement in the woods, where I had good success, having baptized a whole family -- parents and children." This refers to the present parish; for in 1728 Mr. James Wetmore, his successor, informs the same, " that at North Castle, a new settlement in the woods, there are more than forty families, most of which are unbaptized, and that he preaches there every fifth Sunday." For a number of years North Castle was destitute of religious privileges, until the Rev. Robert Harris, D. D., revived the cause.
The present church, St. Stephens, was organized on the 10th of Octeber, 1842, in a log cabin, at Mile Square (as the village was then called), and a church edifice erected, at a cost of $2,000, and was consecrated September 13, 1843. The rectory was built in 1870, on ground presented by William R. Carr, Esq., at a cost of $4,000.