Two were ordered for Westchester County -- " one to have the care of Westchester, East Chester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pelham ; the other to have the care of Rye, Mamaroneck and Bedford." Each was to be paid fifty pounds per annum by a levy laid upon the people, which they might pay " in country jiroducc at money price." Iron-clad enactments jjrotected the pastor against the possibility of non-payment of salary. The justices of the county were required to issue warrants to the constables to summon the freeholders on the second Tuesday of January, to choose ten vestrymen and two church wardens ; the justices and the vestrymen laid the tax, and if it was not paid, the constables had the ])ower to distrain for it. At each stage of the proceedings fines were jirovided for persons or officials who failed to discharge their duties.'

I The laaguage of the act refers only to a "Protestant Minister.', .'There can be uo Joubt," says Mr. Dawson, in the "Historical Jlagazine," "that it was the intention of the .\ssembly to provide for the maintenance of the Dissenting clergy. Tlie act was very loosely worded, which, as things stood when it was niaile, could not be avoided. Tlie Dissenters could claim the benefit of itas well as Cbun huii-n, and unless

The Puritans were keenly aflFected by this issue. Francis Doughty, who had been expelled by the Congregationalists from Taunton, Mass., is said to have been the first Puritan or Presbyterian minister in New York. He officiated from 1643 to 1648, and was supported by voluntary contributions from the Puritans and Dutch of the city. Puritans were certainly among the early settlers of Westchester. In volume iii. page 557, of the Documentary History of New York, there is an interesting description of a Puritan service at Westchester in 1656, conducted by two laymen, Robert Bassett and a Mr.