COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. ; . 71

shall be for ever hereafter capable and able in the law to purchase, take, hold, receive, "and enjoy any messuages, tenements, houses, and real estate whatsoever, in fee simple for term of life or lives, or in any other manner howsoever, for the use of the said cliurch, and also any goods, chattels, or personal estate whatsoever, Provided always that the clear yearly value of the said real estate (exclusive of the said church and the ground whereon the same is built and the cemetery belonging to the same) doth not at any time exceed the sum of five hundred pounds current money of our said province, and that they and their successors by the same name shall have full power and authority to give, grant, sell, lease and dispose of the same real estate for life or lives, or years, or for ever, under certain yearly rents and all goods, chattels and personal estate whatsoever at their will and pleasure, and that it shall and may be lawful for them and their successors to have and use a common seal, and our will and pleasure further is. and we do hereby for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and appoint that there shall be for ever hereafter belonging to the said church one rector of the Church of England as by law established, duly qualified for the cure of souls, two churchwardens and eight vestrymen, who shall conduct and manage the affairs and business of the said church and corporation in manner as hereafter is declared and appointed, and for the more immediate carrying into execution our royal will and pleasure herein, we do hereby assign, constitute and appoint Peter .Tay and Elisha Budd to be the present churchwardens, and John Thomas, Joshua Purdy, Christopher Isinghart, William Sutton, John Adee, Caleb Purdy, Anthony Miller and Timothy Wetmore to be the present vestrymen of the said church, who shall hold, possess, and enjoy their said respective offices until Tuesday in Easter week, which shall come and be in the year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred and sixty-six, and for the keeping up the succession in the said offices, our royal will and pleasure is, and we do hereby establish, direct and require that on the said Tuesday in Easter week in the said year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred and sixty-six, and yearly and every year thereafter for ever, on Tuesday in Easter week in every year, the rector and inhabitants of the parish of Rye in communion of the Church of England as by law established, shall meet at the said church, and there by the majority of voices of such of them as shall so meet, elect and choose two of their members to be churchwardens and eight others of their members to be vestrymen of the said church for the ensuing year, which said churchwardens and vestrymen so elected and chosen shall immediately enter upon their respective offices, and hold, exercise and enjoy the same respectively from the time of such elections for and during the space of one year, and until other fit persons shall be elected and chosen in their respective places, and in case the churchwardens or vestrymen, or either of them, by these presents named and appointed or which shall be hereafter elected and chosen by virtue of these presents, shall die or remove from the said parish of Rye before the time of their respective appointed services shall be expired, or refuse or neglect to act in the office for which