Notices of all kinds, whether of funerals, weddings, or christenings, were given to the sexton, who took them to the clerk ; and the latter, having a bamboo rod with a split end kej^t for that very purpose, stuck the paper in the slit and jjassed it up to the domine, who was perched overhead in a half-globe pulpit, canopied by a sounding board. "The minister wore (out of the pulpit) a black silk mantle, cocked hat, and a neckband with linen cambrick bcffy on his breast; for cravats were then uncanonical/' The first psalm, we are informed, "used to be set with moveable figures, suspended on three sides of the pulpit, so that all, as they entered, might prepare for the lofty notes. " At the end of the service the deacons took the contribution bags, which were fixed on the ends of poles, and made their rounds to collect the coppers of the congregation. It is a significant fact that besides the bag there was an alarm bell on the end of each pole, as though to notify the soundest sleepers that the sermon had come to an end. Tokens, stamped by the church and redeemable at stated times, were received instead of money, which was a scarce

Rondout and Kinc^ston 449

commodity at a time when the government stiU legalised the payment of "seawant" or wampum for debts. At the communion table church members always wore black, and invariably stood to receive the sacrament. The Kingston church is ]particularly worthy tof >- notice from the fact that it occupied a unique position, being an inde])endent church as late as 1808. For a century and a half it had rejected the jurisdiction of the General Synod of the Dutch Church in America. The ministers had been called from Europe, and an individual charter was granted in 17 19 by the British Crown.