The JRector of this Church is maintained by a tax levied upon all the Inliabitants of the city, amounting

*If this suspicion be correct, he is also brother to the apostate Thos. Gage, the author of the New Surve)' of the West Indies, a curious book much pillaged by niodern travellers. He was a friar, but fell so low as to become priest taker, and even betrayed the illustrious Father Peter Wright, S. J. while the latter was chaplain in his brother's house. Oliveh, Verbn, "Wright." Various Eililions of the " New Survey of the West Intiies" above mentioned will be found in the State Lib : Albany ; also in the collection of Harvard College, Mass.

11 -2 STATE OF RELIGION.

to X160, one hundred whereof is entailed forever upon the Incumbent for the time being, and Sixty pound is added by the iniiuence of his Excellency the Governor and an Act of the General Assembly, during the life and residence of the present incumbent, M^ William Vesey.

And for his further encouragement, his Excellency, out of his great goodness, hath ordered in council, twenty six pound per annum to be paid out of the Revenue for the Rent of the house of the said Incumbent.

His Excellency hath also, by a law, incorporated the Rector and all the Inhabitants of this City of New York, that are in communion with the church of England, as by law established, by wliich they and their successors are vested with sundry rights and privileges ; particularly the said law hath enacted, that the patronage and advowson of the said church, and right of presentation, after the death of the present Incumbent, or upon the next avoidance, shall forever thereafter belong and appertain to the church wardens and Vestry men of the said church, in communion with tlie church of England, which before was in the Vestry chosen by all the Inhabitants of the said city.