Nice job.

Jason Pell

The area history that currently interests me the most is the settlements of the early to late 1600′s. I am doing research and am amazed that prior to about 1895, there was no Bronx. The town of Eastchester where the church is located was much bigger and included all of Mt Vernon as well as areas which now are the Bronx. Westchester County extended south to Manhattan – the Bronx was originally in Westchester. The settlers around St Paul’s in the 1600′s were people who fled south from the Mass Bay Colony – first settling in Conn. These included Anne Hutchison and her group as well as the families from Conn who settled the tract Thomas Pell purchased in 1654.

As I understand, Thomas Pell purchased the land from the Siwanoy Indians under the Conn. Crown authorities. New Amsterdam was still Dutch and the Dutch authorities contested his legal right to the land.

As a child I remember reading gravestones at St Paul’s dating to the 1600′s. When I revisited years later, they seemed to be missing. This started me on a recent quest to learn the early history of the Pelham Bay/Eastchester/St Paul’s area — who the 17C settlers were and what was their worship like prior to St Paul’s being changed into an Anglican congregation. When NY became a British Crown Colony, the English governor decreed the Church of England would be the official NY religion. This dispite the fact that the majority of area residents were some form of Dissenter/Calvinist Protestant denomination. They were Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Quaker or Puritans who left the theocracy of the Mass Bay Colony. At this time it appears that St Paul’s original congregation was not Anglican – but was changed by government fiat.
I did not realize how accustomed I am to living under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It is fitting that St Paul’s has become the National Shrine for the Bill of Rights – where our right to worship freely and the government is prevented from establishing any State Church. Confiscation of church property and persecution of non sanctioned religions existed here too and is the reason our founding fathers saw fit to protect our freedom of Religious Conscience!

P.S. note to John Kernstock above: Try contacting Bronx historical/cemetary records because most Eastchester cemetaries are now in the County/Borough of the Bronx. I’ve seen some Eastchester cemetary listings on Westchester historical sites too. You have to look under both Bronx NYC and Westchester because of the annexation about 1895. Even by Margaret’s death in 1905, the Town was still known as Eastchester even though it was in a new County. Also try Mt Vernon records because Mt Vernon was incorporated from Eastchester in the 1890′s. Margaret may be buried at St Paul’s but I don’t believe it’s church yard was ever known as Eastchester cemetary. Good Luck.