The Instructions of Charles II. to Sir Richard Nicolls the first English Governor of New York, dated the 28d of April, 16C4, five months prior to the capture of New York from the Dutch, directed him to avoid giving umbrage to the people of Massachusetts, where he was to stop on his way to New York, by being present at their devotions in their churches, but the document thus continues, " though wee doe suppose and thinke it very fit that you carry with you some learned and discreete Chaplaine, orthodox in his judgment and practice, who in your owne

' New York was an e.xception to this, as to all religions, except the Roman Catholic. *IX. Fenua. Mag. Hist., 372-376.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

fainilyes will reade the book of Common Prayer and performe your devotion according to ye forme established in the Church of England, excepting only in wearing the surplesse which haveiug never bin seen in those countryes may conveniently be forborne att this tyme." ^

The Instructions of Lovelace the second Governor seem not to have been preserved, but he says in a letter of the 28th of August, 1668, to Secretary Lord Arlington : " I have since happily accomphisht my voyadge and am now invested in the charge of His Royal Highnesses teritorys being the middle position of the two distinct factions, the Papist and Puritane."

In the time of Thomas Dongan, afterward the Earl of Limerick, the third Governor of New York, Charles the Second died, the Duke of York succeeded as James the Second, and his Lord Proprietorship merging in the Crown, New York thenceforward became a Royal Province, governed directly by the King through his appointed Governor. Though a Roman Catholic himself, and his Governor, Dongan, was of the same religion, James, as King, acted promj)tly, and without hesitation, and gave Dongan the most pointed, and strongest possible, " Instructions " to establish the Church of England in New York.