meeting, whose jurisdiction extended over the subordinate meetings in the colonies of New York and Connecticut.

1693. 26th of 6th mo. Agreed that Henry Willis, Ri. Willits, and Jn° Fake shall take down, sell or dispose of the meeting house, as they shall see meet, in behalf of Friends."

1698-9. 25th of 12th mo. "Agreed that the Man's meeting that was heretofore at Mary Cooper's shall henceforth be kept at Nath' Seaman's, Hempstead; and a meeting be kept at her house, every next Fifth day after the Man's meeting at Hempstead."

1702. 11th of 6th mo. Tho's. Story says: "I with Jn° Rodman as companion, having appointed a meeting, Jn° Richardson and Ja's Bates arriving the day before from Rhode Island, came to me at my lodgings, and we went together to the meeting which was small but comfortable, the good presence of the Lord being with

Geo Keith, hoping to profit by the internal dissensions at Oysterbay, arrived there September 17th, 1702, "where" he says, "we were kindly received and hospitably entertained by Mr. Edward White at his house on free cost for several days. He was a Justice of the peace and had formerly been a Quaker. His wife had been a Quaker also and was not quite come off from them. Sunday 20th, at Mr. White's request, and some other neighbors in the town, having used the church prayers before Sermon, I preached on Titus, II; II and 12th, and Mr. Talbot baptised a child at the request of its mother, her husband being from home. * December 6th, I preached in the town house on Romans X; 7, 8, 9th, and we were kindly entertained at Mr. White's.

* *

* * *

November 17th, Wed', I preached on Jude 20, 21st; and 19th, I baptized Mrs. White, and all her children, (three sons, and five daughters), also the wife of Captain Jones; 20th, I baptized Justice John Townsend, with his three children, and Mr. Nath'l Cole and his wife and his three children. There had scarce been any profession of the christian religion among the people of

that town. They had scarcely any notion of religion but Quakerism. The Quakers had formerly a meeting there; but many of them became followers of Tho's. Case, and were called 'Case's Crew,' who set up a new sort of Quakerism, and among other vile principles, condemned marriage and said it was of the Devil, perverting that text of Scripture. 'The children of the resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage,' and they said they were the children of the resurrection.' This mad sort of Quakerism held that 'they were come already to the resurrection and had their vile bodies already changed.'

1704. 24th of 12th mo. "John Feake, is to go to the widow Cooper's, and receive from her the deeds for Friends' land and bring them to the Yearly meeting."

1705. 24th of 9th mo. "A Com is to write to Isaac Horner, to get a conveyance of the right in trust which resides in him for the Burying ground given Friends by Anthony Wright.

“Isaac Horner,

1706. 28th of 3d mo. for 20 shillings, silver money, sclls two pieces of ground in the town-spot, (which he, in partnership with Simon Cooper, and Samu'l Andrews, bought of Alice Crabb, in April 1682,) to W Willis, Henry Cock and John Prier, and put them in possession by delivery of twig and turf.'

1706 24th of 6th mo. "Agreed that a meeting be kept at the house of Simon Cooper on the first day in every month." 1709-10. 25th of 11th mo. "A Com are to go and see about the bounds of Friends' meeting house ground and Burying place, and set some posts up at the corners of it, and let it to some body as long as they think fit, provided it be not above ten years, and that they reserve liberty in the lease for Friends to be buried in the Burying ground if they desire it."

1717. 28th of 5th mo. "Died WTM Fry, in good unity. He was convinced of Truth in Bristol, in his early days, and there suffered for it.'

1720. 5th of 3d mo. "It is proposed to exchange a piece of land."

1721. 5th of 8th mo. The monthly meeting propose to buy a certain house for a meeting house. A Com is appointed, and if they shall think it may answer for the Yearly meeting for some time, that is at Matinecock, then they may proceed. 1722. 4th of 7th mo. John Fothergill says: "I had a large and precious meeting in a barn. There were most of the chief of the place and several Justices of the peace present, and the Lord's powerful testimony prevailed in the hearts of many of the people and I believe Truth will again be exalted in that place."

1725. (winter), Thos. Chalkley says: "We had a very large meeting, many there, not of our Society, who steadily gave attention to what I declared. There being many young people I persuaded them to give up their blooming years to do the will of God. Friends said there had not been such a meeting there in a great while."

1736. 28th of 5th mo. "'Friends' Burying ground is leased to Freelove Underhill, for twenty years.

1741. 30th of 10th mo. "A ComR are to give a deed to Zebulon Dickinson for some land near where Friends' Burying place was; and take a deed of him for some land near the same place in exchange."

A

1743. 30th of 1st mo. "Friends or Friendly people subscribe liberally and petition for a meeting house to be built1747-8. 24th of 12th mo. The request is repeated and is referred to the next Quarterly meeting.-1748 1st of 10th mo. subscription is begun in the Flushing monthly meeting. Jn° Thorne is to get it finished and collect the money for Flushing; Jas. Way for Newtown, and Jos. Delaplaine for New York.-1749. 29th of 1st mo. Shingles and boards are bought.

1751. 27th of 1st mo. "Jas. Chichester proposes that a meeting once in three months be settled."

1757. 30th of 3d mo. "A Com are to treat with the owners or claimers of the dwelling standing on Friends' ground and acquaint them that the time has expired

that the house was to stand on the land, and to inquire if the claimer intends to sell it.-1758. sell it.-1758. 30th of 8th mo. The Com viewed the house and found it much out of repair, the timber and covering much rotten and not worth the money the owner asks." owner asks." It was offered for £18 but was sold to others and removed.

1758. 12th mo. WTM Reckitt says. "I had a meeting at Oysterbay where there had been a large meeting, but now much declined; yet we had a large meeting accompanied with Divine power. 1762. 30th of 6th mo. "Robt. Townsend desires liberty to fence in and make use of a small part of Friends' ground. John and Joshua Cock are to view it and see what part it may be proper to let him have."

1775. 29th of 11th mo. "The holding of a meeting at Oysterbay, is proposed in the monthly meeting.'

1782. 31st of 7th mo. "The meeting house is much out of repair and requires Friends' care. The gallery and seats are destroyed by military men,' the doors and windows shattered. windows shattered. The Burying ground is encroached upon by other people. A Com is to get our ground restored, put it in good fence and fix some monuments on the bounds and provide a lock to fasten the house; and to repair the doors and windows.-cost £58, 4s. and twenty-five boards and twenty-one planks on hand."

1784. 25th of 8th mo. Meetings are to be held once a month under the inspection of a Com®.

1797. 8th mo. Richard Jordan says: "We had a meeting at Oysterbay where are not many Friends; but a considerable number of others came, to whom the Gospel was freely and largely preached, with which they seemed well satisfied. The meeting concluded with prayer and the people parted with great solemnity."

In conclusion we may add that a small meeting house is yet standing at Oysterbay, which is occasionally visited by travelling ministers.

1 It was used at one time by the British as a commissary store.

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NAVY.-A few years ago while looking over a volume of MSS. letters in the Charleston (So. Ca.) Library, I found a leaf of coarse foolscap, with the following endorsement:

"Origin of the Navy."

"At a caucus in 1794, consisting of Izard, Morris, and Ellsworth, of the Senate, Ames, Sedgwick, Smith, Dayton &c., of the Repres., and of Secret, Hamilton and Knox, to form a plan for a national navy. Smith began the figuring as Secret'. of the meeting. Hamilton then took the pen, and instead of minuting the proceed'g, he made all the flourishes here described, during the discussion. In consequence of the plan adopted at this meeting, a Bill was reported for building six frigates, which formed the foundation or origin of the American Navy."

The "figuring" on the top of the page consists of five lines and is as follows:

"First cost of a Frigate 44 Guns of 1300 tons and provisions for six months.

}150.

150.000 51.000 11.000 212,000

The rest of the page below these estimates is occupied by bold flourishes, which seems, if they meant any thing, to imitate a drawing of a peacock's tail "in its pride" to use the Herald's phrase. Similar scratching but to a less extent is on the other side of the page.

During the bombardment of Charleston, and directly after the capture of the city by the Union troops, the library was subjected to some devastation. As the only member of the Book Committee then in the city, I obtained very readily a protection for the building and its contents from Gen. Hatch, the commander of the post, but I know not whether this valuable volume of manuscripts escaped the cupidity of the gatherers of scraps for the paper manufactories, many of whom were then in the city and whose first depredations, I was not in time to prevent. If the volume is not there now, this will be the only

memorial left of an interesting record of the early history of our government, and as such may be worth a place in the pages of the "American Historical Record.

ALBERT G. MACKEY, M. D. Washington, D. C. 12 March, 1872.

JUDICIAL NOTES.-In "Delaplaine's Repository," published in 1813, there is an engraving of "John Jay, late Chief Justice of the United States." It is engraved from Stuart's picture, and represents the Chief Justice in robes entirely different in appearance from those now worn by the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. Has it always been the custom for the Judges of the Supreme Court to wear robes? H. J. K. Philadelphia, April, 1872.

Yes: It is a custom borrowed from the English, where the Justices also wear large wigs. The Americans adopted the robes but omitted the wigs.

NEGRO SAILORS.-The very interesting Colloquy of the Buffalo Historical Society page 114 of the Record, recalls to my mind an incident, which I have often proposed to publish.-Towards the close of the war of 1812, I noticed a long procession of Wagons crossing the "Green," in Pittsfield, Mass. I was then in early childhood, but an indelible impression was made on my memory, when I learnt that it bore the crew of the frigate Constitution, which had been driven into an eastern port by the British fleets. The crew consisted of three or four hundred sailors, and was on the way to man the American ships on Lake Ontario. The sailors seemed delighted with their "land voyage," as they named it. I remember the fact from the reverence I felt for them as associated with the fame of "Old Ironsides." She was an object of almost national idolatry, and I had imbibed from my father, his fervid patriotic feelings on the subject. But to my historical fact.

GENERAL PREvost.- -was not his name James?1

Subjoined is a list of the LX (or Royal American) Regiment:

Col.-Maj. Genl. Jeffery Amherst. Col. Comd' ts.-John Stanwix, James Prevost, Charles Lawrence, James Murray. Lieut. Cols.-Henry Bonquet, Fredk. Haldimand, John Young, Sir John StClair.

Majors. Thos. Oswald, Augustine Prevost, Wm. Walter, Herbert DeMunster. F. M. E.

Philadelphia, April 3, 1872.

A REVOLUTIONARY RELIC.-The Royal Savage, a Schooner of twelve guns, was sunk near the South Western point of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain, in the action of 1776, between Arnold and Carlton. The wreck remains almost entire, and

1 Augustine and James Prevost, the former Major-general,

the latter a Lieutenant-colonel, were brothers, and both were in the British service, in Georgia, in 1778 and 1779- I have before me a letter written to J. White, dated November 22d 1778, signed "J PREVOST, Lieutenant-colonel." I have another letter dated September 16, 1779, written to the Count D' Estaing, at Savannah. signed "A. PREVOST, MajorGeneral."Editor.]

is distinctly visible in low water, when the surface is calm. Various attempts have been made to raise the vessel, and her bows have been more than once elevated above water, but breaking away from the tackling, she has uniformly fallen back into a worse position than before. Bursted cannon and munitions have been rescued from her but nothing of value. The writer has seen canes fabricated from her oaken timber, which had become almost as heavy and black as ebony, after the submersion of almost a century. It is said that the bottom of the lake in the vicinity is strewn with balls, which have been so burnished by the action of the sand, that they glitter like steel or silver.

At Panton Beach, Vermont, the charred relicts of the Gondolas, burnt the same year by Arnold, are yet accessible. Military material are often gathered from the wrecks. The writer has in his possession, bullets taken from them only a few years ago. C.

66

THE PARK THEATRE OF NEW YORK.— In the HISTORICAL RECORD for March, appears the copy of an engraving entitled, 'A view of the New Theatre in New York," and purporting to be a representation of the building afterwards known as the Park Theatre.

I have long been acquainted with the original print, having been shown one several years since by Mr. Benjamin R. Winthrop of New York, and having seen another when collecting material for the "Records of the New York Stage," in the library of the N. Y. Historical Society.

That it was the original design for the theatre I have no doubt, but a vast amount of evidence forces me to the conclusion

that the actual building was never finished in accordance with it. My own memory does not go behind its conflagration in 1820, but I have been familiar with many persons (now deceased', who were contemporary with its erection, and I never knew one to say that its front was other than rough and entirely unembellished.

A gentleman nearly eighty, a native,