Hawkins,) in the war, whether from the Royalist or American armies proved fatal to several of them. At Rye, Mr. Avery was a principal sufferer ; his horses were seized, his cattle driven off, and his property plundered. His death, by some supposed to have been occasioned by these losses, happened soon afterwards.''^

» Hawkins' Hist. Not. Col. Church, 281. Mr. Avery was a step-son of Uie celebrated General Putnam. -- Editor.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 75

The Rev. Isaac Hunt succeeded Mr. Avery in the. rectorship, havinjr been appointed by the Propagation Society in 1777, with a sah\ry of c€40.

During the subsequent years the parish of Rye suffered considerably from the confusion that attended the Revolutionary war. The church was burned, the glebe lands hired out on terms which produced but a small income, and the parishioners scattered.

After the close of the war, the congregation received a letter from the Rev. Samuel Provoost, rector of Trinity Church, New York, Abraham Beach and Benjamin Moore, dated April 17, 1786, inclosing the journals of the convention of the Proiestant Episcopal Church, held in Philadelphia, September, 1785. Upon the reception of this letter, a meeting of the congregation was called, which assembled at the house of Mrs. Haviland, in Rye, on the 5th of May, 17S6.

Mr. Joshua Purdy was unanimously elected president of the meeting. On motion it was resolved to take the sense of the congregation, whether they would comply with the request of the letter, and send delegates to meet in convention at St. Paul's Church in New York, upon the third Tuesday in May next.