But before this time conformable to instructions from his late Majesty King William to the Governor for the encouragement of Religion in general and the Established Church in j^articular and to settle parishes within tlie said province in the year 1693 an Act of General Assembly passed whereby it was enacted that in the several Cities & Counties therein mentioned tliere should be called and Inducted and Established a sufficient protestant minister amonsfst which one was to be for Jamaica and the two adjacent towns and another for Hempstead and its adjacent towns but so unhappy was this province as to remain a scattered people without any true Shepherd till the year 1697 when the Rev<i W Vesey came to the City of New York, however that act remained in force to enable any of the places to esta;blish and induct Orthodox Ministers when tliey could obtain them from England, no others being intended by the express words of the act as is conceived neither have the Dissenters made any use of this, believing it not to suit their Church Government. --

Nevertheless it- is confessed that they have made use of independent and sometimes itinerant preachers in no wise ordained, out of pure necessity for want of Orthodox preachers and out of the same necessity Quakers have been admitted into offices of trust at Pensylvanja Avithout taking the Oaths and Justices of

PAPERS RELATING TO CHURCHES IN QUEENS COUNTY. 227

peace in the province of New York to perform the Office of matrimony (tho' both against the known laws. --