Chase was taken and lodged in a guard house at Peekskill, whereupon two or three hundred Tories assembled in arms and demanded his release ; Hyatt, hov\'- ever studily refused to give him up. Nathaniel Merritt, who lived in Peekskill, v.-as also another influential man among the Tories; he assembled a large company at his house and threatened to release the prisoner, upon this my father, uncle Henry, and Joseph Strong, obtained six hundred Continental troops of the committee, and disarmed the Tories and placed their arms and instruments in the Parsonage house for safe keeping. A more queer collection of arms it v/as impossible t(.i collect together, old fire locks, rusty and worn out pistols, and ancient swords of all descriptions, >S:c."''

At the time of its destruction, the old church appears to have been used as a store house by the Continental troops ; for, during the year 1739, a select committee appointed by Congress to investigate Revolutionary claims, reported "That Congress paythe Yorktown congregation' the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars out of the first unappropriated funds -- the Government ha\ing occupied the church and parsona Testimony of tin; late T'l^iina-i .S-:uij:, ui Yorktuwu, in 1>44. ZU. >:cDo:ui:u s .MS?, iu the possession oIG'- uri^'o Muore, iJ^ii., of >.. V.

668 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

age as barracks and store houses, during the Revolutionar)' war." T.'-.j appropriation, however, was never made by Congress.

The present edifice'^ is constructed of wood, presenting in front a lofty colonnade, above which rises a neat tower, finished with a rich cornice and pinnacles, in which is a large bell weighing over 600 lbs., inscribed as follows :