"September 25, 1731. Gentlemen: I have this day received your representation, relating to the want of a due ministerial dispensation of God's Holy Word and Sacraments within your parish, and shall not be wanting in my endeavours to answer your desire. Mr. Jones, who, for some years past, hath resided in Charles county, and hath from all obtained a good report of his life and conversation, is desirous to remove to your parts, and he has had my promise, for some time past, of such removal as he should choose; and as I think it is but justice to give, upon such occasions, the preference to such as have resided with a fair character amongst us, before any stranger from other parts, I send this by him, who is desirous to visit you and your parts, to see how far the circumstances of your parish may suit him, and also to conciliate your good will towards him, in case of his acceptance and appointment as proposed. Wishing you all health and prosperity, I remain, Gentlemen, your friend and servant, BENEDICT LEON" CALVERT." Benjamin Pearce, John Baldwin, John Pennington, Col. John Ward, Henry Ward, Joseph Wood, William Ward, Vestrymen; Alphonso Cosden, and William Rumsey, Church Wardens." Mr. Jones' visit was successful. He and the parish were so well satisfied with each other, that the Governor gave him a Letter of Induction, and he became the incumbent there, October 2, 1731, being then about sixty years of age. There were in this parish, as early as 1696, when there were but three hundred and thirty-seven taxables in the whole county, a small parish church, and a small chapel of ease, which furnished ample accommodations at that time. But now, after another parish had been taken off from it, embracing more than half the territory of the county, the taxables of the parish were eleven hundred, and yet these two small old places of worship were the only ones it contained. Mr. Jones at once set himself to meet this exigency, and in the second year of his ministry succeeded in beginning the erection, which, in due time, was finished, of two large and substantial brick edifices. In the parish church were a hundred and sixteen pew-holders. The two buildings continued, fulfilling the purposes for which they were erected, for nearly a century. Mr. Jones' ministry went on quietly, yet prosperously. But he had not done publishing yet. There were some Romanists in the county, and his attention was consequently drawn towards their system. Accordingly, in 1745, he preached and published a Sermon called "A Protest against Popery," which was widely noticed in its day. As he grew old, he required help, and in 1750 he had his brother for a Curate; but how long he remained the Record does not show. His Rectorship, however, continued till about the middle of the year 1760, when, at the age of ninety, he resigned his parish, in favour of his nephew, the Rev. William Barroll.* The Maryland Gazette, of that date, takes notice WILLIAM BARROLL was a native of Wales, or Herefordshire, England. He was licensed by the Bishop of London, for Maryland, March 4, 1760, and immediately on his arrival in the Province, succeeded his uncle, the Rev. Hugh Jones, in the incumbency of North Sassafrass Parish, Cecil County. In the following year, he married Ann Williamson, the daughter, it is believed, of the Rev. Alexander Williamson, then late of St. Paul's Parish in Kent County. In of the change, and speaks of him as "the venerable Hugh Jones." Soon after this, on the 8th of September, he died at the great age of ninety-one, having been incumbent of this parish twenty-nine years, and in the ministry more than sixty-five years. He was buried at his parish church, and his successor erected over his grave a monument, with an appropriate inscription. Mr. Jones was a man of very considerable learning, and he gained strong friends wherever he went. His piety was earnest, and his morals unexceptionable. He had a clear, vigorous mind, and wrote in a style at once lucid and chaste. His published works do credit to his memory. I have thus given you the result of my researches in respect to this venerable old minister. My dear Sir: The position which Commissary Vesey occupied in the Church of England in this country, while it was yet in its infancy, fairly entitles him to a place in your work; though it is not easy, at this late period, to frame a very minute or satisfactory account of his life. Most that is now known of him exists in the form of insulated facts, scattered here and there in different publications; and the best and all that I can do, is to bring together the more important of these facts, and try to construct out of them a somewhat continuous narrative. WILLIAM VESEY was born in Braintree, in the Colony of Massachu setts, in the year 1674, his ancestors having some time before emigrated to that place from England. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1693, and pursued his theological studies under the direction of the Rev. Samuel Myles, Rector of King's Chapel, Boston. Governor Benjamin Fletcher arrived in this country in the year 1692. He succeeded, the following year, in what his predecessor failed in, namely, in bringing about the connection between Church and State in the Colony, by prevailing on the Legislature to lay a direct tax on a portion of the inhabitants to carry out that measure. This tax was raised and collected 1776, when the livings were taken away from the Clergy in Maryland, he removed to Elkton, the County seat,-probably, as others of the Clergy were then compelled to do, to teach school to supply his family with bread; for being a non-juror, he was prohibited from preaching the Gospel. He was a man greatly respected even by those who opposed his political views. He died in 1778, of consumption, aged about forty, and was buried, at his late parish church, in the same grave with Mr. Jones. He left a widow, who survived him many years, and died in Chestertown; and also three sons and two daughters. They are all now dead, but have left many descendants. Two of his grandsons are highly respectable members of the Baltimore Bar. Mrs. Payne, the lamented wife of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Payne, now Missionary Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Africa, at Liberia, who recently died there, was his grand.. daughter. in the counties of New York, Queens, Richmond, and Westchester, by persons annually elected, styled Vestrymen and Wardens, the choice of the minister being left to the Magistrates, and said Vestrymen and Wardens, in those counties. In 1695, Mr. Vesey, previous to his taking Orders, was officiating at Hempstead, Queens County, under the tax just referred to. Visiting occasionally the city of New York, he gave satisfactory evidence of piety and talent in his public performances, which ultimately paved the way for the offer of the contemplated congregation in that city. Governor Fletcher and Colonel Caleb Heathcote took the lead, with the Magistrates, the Vestrymen and Wardens, in making the call, and advanced the necessary amount, from the collected taxes, to pay Mr. Vesey's expenses to England for Holy Orders. Governor Fletcher now granted a Charter to the inhabitants of the city, belonging to the congregation, who were authorized to elect Church-wardens and Vestrymen-the Church to be known as Trinity Church. The parties, elected under the Act of 1693, were designated as the Civil Vestry; those under the Charter of Fletcher, as the Church Vestry. The following is a copy of the proceedings of the Civil Vestry in reference to Mr. Vesey's call:: This Board having read a certificate under the hands of the Rev. Mr. Samuel Myles, Minister of the Church of England in Boston, in New England, and Mr. Gyles Dyer, and Mr. Benjamin Mountfort, Church-wardens of the said church, of the learning and education, and of the pious, sober, and religious behaviour and conversation of Mr. William Vesey, and of his often being a communicant-the receiving of the most holy sacrament, in said church, have called the said Mr. William Vesey to officiate, and have the care of souls in this city of New York. And the said Mr. William Vesey, being sent for, and acquainted with the proceedings of this Board, did return them his hearty thanks for their good favour and affection showed unto him, and did assure them that he readily accepted of their call, and would, with all convenient expedition, repair to England, and apply himself to the Bishop of London, in order to be ordained according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, and would return to his church here by the first convenient opportunity." Agreeably to this arrangement, Mr. Vesey embarked for England in the spring of 1697. On the 16th of August following, he was ordained by Dr. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, who, on Mr. Vesey's return immediately after, addressed a letter to the Vestry, of which the following is an extract: Gentlemen-I do most heartily thank you for your choice you have made of Mr. Vesey to be your minister; for I take him to be a man every way capacitated to do you service by his ministry: therefore I have most gladly conferred Holy Orders upon him, and recommend him back to your favourable reception, &c." A few years after this,-about 1712,the Bishop of London appointed him his Commissary, owing, no doubt, in a degree at least, to the favourable impression which he received in respect to Mr. V., at this time. It would seem that the Governor considered the induction of Mr. Vesey a religious act, from the circumstance of his putting in requisition the Rev. Henricus Selyns of New York, Rev. Johannes Petrus Nucella, of King ston, Ulster County, Thomas Wenham and Robert Lurting, Church-wardens, to perform that service; and it accordingly was performed, on Christmas day, in the Dutch Church. As the appointments of the Governor and the return made to him by the inductors are in Latin; as the Dutch Dominies probably possessed but a very limited knowledge of the English language; and as the Classis of Amsterdam sent out to this country none but first rate scholars, it has been conjectured, and not without some reason, that the service on that occasion was performed in Latin. Mr. Selyns and Mr. Vesey now preached alternately in this church, one in Dutch, the other in English, for about three months. Meanwhile Trinity Church was so nearly finished that it could be used for Divine service. Mr. Vesey was about this time married to a Mrs. Reade. The marriage license from the Governor, as appears from the Records, was dated March 1, 1698. This lady, with her connections, had taken a deep interest in the concerns of Trinity Church; and on the day that it was first opened for public worship, (Sunday, March 13, 1698,) she appeared in it as a bride. Governor Fletcher, in addition to his other numerous benefactions to the Church, made a grant of a tract of land known as "The King's Farm," for a term of years, subject to a rent. As the rent was his perquisite, he relinquished it to the Church during his administration, which terminated on the arrival of the Earl of Bellamont. The Earl considered the lease, in connection with other grants to individuals, as extravagant and unwarranted, and induced the Legislature to declare them null and void; which proceeding was approved by the King and Council. The rent he exacted, and handed it over to the minister of the French Church. This gave rise to a violent controversy between the Earl and Mr. Vesey, which was terminated by the sudden death of the Governor, in March, 1701. The next Governor, Lord Cornbury, restored the farm to the Church. Mr. Vesey, in his capacity as Commissary, had a protracted controversy with Governor Hunter, in relation to the induction of a minister to the Church at Jamaica, Queens county: it was ultimately decided by the Courts of Law that the Presbyterian minister at that place was entitled to the church edifice, and there the matter ended. The vacant church on Staten Island had chosen a minister in which the Civil and Church Vestries united. Governor Burnet withheld his Letter of Induction to that living, until he should be satisfied as to the fitness of the minister to fill the place; and, as a test, proposed to give him a text from which he should write a sermon in the Governor's library. But the proposal was declined. Commissary Vesey endeavoured to persuade the Governor that the Bishop of London had the exclusive jurisdiction in the case; but without effect. Another minister was afterwards chosen, who presented himself to the Governor, and received the Letter of Induction, in consequence of complying with the Governor's terms. When this affair was represented by the Commissary to his Supervisor in London, the Governor was censured for the course he had taken. When Colonel Caleb Heathcote was in England, he became a member of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and in a letter to the Society, dated New York, June 13, 1709, he says of Mr. Vesey, His life and conversation has been very regular, and without the least stain or blemish as to his morals. He is not only a very excellent preacher, but always very careful never to mix in his sermons any thing improper to be delivered out of the pulpit: and the good providence of God has continued him long among us, for a thorough settlement of the Church in this place, where, although the Presbyterians have made several attempts, they have not been able to break in upon us,-a happiness no city in North America can boast of besides ourselves." Mr. Vesey seems, during a part of his ministry at least, to have found both his salary and his perquisites an insufficient support. In 1713, there seems to have existed some difficulty in respect to the payment of his salary, the causes of which, however, are not fully explained by any existing documents relating to the subject. Mr. Vesey's life, combining, as he did, the two offices of Rector and Commissary, must have been a most active and laborious one. He was engaged too in some earnest and protracted controversies, which must have put in requisition all his mental force, and disturbed not a little some of his social relations. But he seems to have been a man of an enterprising and resolute spirit, who never shrunk from any responsibility which he thought was legitimately devolved upon him. He was aided not a little in his labours by Schoolmasters and Catechists, which were provided by the Venerable Society; and had also as Assistants, at different periods, the Rev. Robert Jenny,* Rev. James Wetmore,† Rev. Thomas Colgan,‡ and Rev Robert Charlton.§ * ROBERT JENNY, the son of Archdeacon Jenny, of Waneytown, in the North of Ireland, came to this country as a Missionary from the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1715, being appointed an Assistant to the Rev. Mr. Vesey, Rector of Trinity Church, New York. In 1722, he was transferred to Rye, County of Westchester, N. Y., where he remained till 1728, when he took charge of the church at Hempstead, L. I. In 1742, he accepted an invitation to Christ Church, Philadelphia; and in November of that year entered upon his duties as Rector of that church, by a license from the Bishop of London. He died at the age of seventy-five, in January, 1762, having been fifty-two years in the ministry, and inore than nineteen, Rector of Christ Church. Ilis remains lie beneath one of the aisles of this church. He was honoured with the degree of LL. D. The Rev. Dr. William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, preached a sermon on the occasion of his death, in which he makes the following statement concerning him :-" He was a man venerable in years, and a striking pattern of Christian resignation, under a long and severe illness. Those who knew him best in that situation, know that his chief concern was not for himself but for the distressed and perplexed state of his congregation. He was a man of strict honesty, one that hated dissimulation and a lie, exemplary in his life and morals, and a most zealous member of our Episcopal Church." JAMES WETMORE was graduated at Yale College in 1714; was ordained the first Congregational minister in North Haven, Conn., in November, 1718; but in September, 1722, declared in favour of the Church of England. He went to England immediately after, and obtained Orders, and returned in 1723, as Catechist, and Assistant to the Rev. Mr. Vesey. In 1726, he became Rector of the Church at Rye, N. Y., where he continued till the close of his life. He died of the small pox, May 15, 1760. He left two sons, one of whom, Timothy afterwards became Attorney General of the Province of New Brunswick. He is said to have been a man of highly respectable talents, and to have devoted himself with great zeal to the interests of the Church with which he was finally connected. He published Quakerism a Judicial Infatuation, represented in three Dialogues; a Letter against President Dickinson in defence of Waterland s Discourse on Regeneration, about 1744; a Vindication of the Professors of the Church of England in Connecticut against the Invectives contained in a Sermon by Noah Hobart at Stamford, December 31, 1746. In a Letter to a Friend, 1747; a Rejoinder to Hobart s Serious Address; an Appendix to Beach's Vindication. 1 THOMAS COLGAN came to this country under the direction of the Venerable Society, in 1726, having been appointed to the church in Rye; but, by a subsequent arrangement, he became Assistant to Mr. Vesey, and continued in that relation till 1732, when he became Rector of the Church in Jamaica, L. I., where he remained till bis death, in 1755. § ROBERT CHARLTON officiated as Catechist. first at New Windsor, and afterwards at New York, where, in 1732, he became successor to Mr. Colgan, as Assistant to Mr. Vesey. He was in the habit of publicly, every Sunday, explaining the Church Catechism, and was reported by |