Abraham Ambler a frame house fortyfeet by twenty- two.

*' 16th of December, 1692, David Mead was chosen by the town to k'eep the town druu), to keep it in repair and to beat it when necessary, and to be allowed 10 shillings yearly."

Prior to the use of bells in New England, the meetings were summoned by beat of drum, or the blowing of the conch shell: to this practice the poet alludes :

"New England's Sabbath day," Is heaven-like, still, and pure, Then Israel walks the way Up to the temples door : The time we tell, When there to come, By beat of drum, Or sounding shell. On the 19th of October, 1694, the town agreed to buy a house and lot of John Ambler for a parsonage, provided his price do not exceed £35.

On March 2 1st, 1698, the town voted that every man should pay three pence per acre for all the land he had for the support of a minister.

Upon the 9th of January, 1699, the inhabitants of the town re-

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 21

quested the ministers in the county to inform them wliere they could procure a minister, at the same time offering forty acres of land and £30 in current provision as his pay.*

On the 26th of December, 1699, the town agreed with Mr. Joseph Morgan, minister as follows, viz : first to give him the use of the parsonage, on condition he stays three years ; secondly, to build him a two story house, twenty-seven feet by twenty, the house to belong to his heirs if he die in the town ; if he removes he shall pay the towfj the expence of building the house ; third, to give him the first year £40, and plant and manure forty acres for him, and after the first year to give him £20, and to raise ten acres of winter grain for him yearly, to cut and cart his fire wood, and transport himself and family to Bedford free of expence.