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up in the most convenient place. The drawing of the deed for the ground is committed to the care of Thos. Powell, and to be transported to Jn° Titus, Sam'l Bowne and Ri. Seaman; and from them by deed of trust to Nath'l Seaman, Benj. Field, Thos. Pearsall, Ri. Willits and Thos, Powell, Jr." 1702, 21st of 9th mo. Wm Willis for £4, sold Friends 34 acres. 1702, 29th of 6th mo. Thos. Story says; Accompanied by many Friends we went from Jn° Rodman's, Bayside, over the Plains to Quarterly meeting at Westbury where we had a good service; and the business being all finished; the next day, being First day, the Lord gave us a glorious meeting in a new meeting house fitted up on that occasion; and many hundreds of Friends and abundance of other people were there and generally satisfied, many things of importance in religion being clearly opened by the power of Truth. The meeting being ended, there came over the Plains with us at least one hundred horse to their several habitations in that quarter."

1702, 27th of 12th mo. "Quarterly meeting at the house of Ri. Willits, Jericho. Concluded that it should be entered in this book that since it hath pleased God to increase the number of his dear people so hereaway, that at Jericho and Matinecock, the former places of Friends' Quarterly meeting, they have not sufficient room; therefore Friends have built a meeting house upon Hempstead Plains for that purpose as also for what further service they shall see needful from time to time. It is therefore ordered that the first Quarterly meeting at the new house [Westbury] begin tomorrow; and so hereafter the Quarterly meeting that used to be kept at Jericho and Matinecock shall be kept there.

1704. S. Bownas says: "There was a very large yearly meeting at Westbury to which most of the Friends of the Island and many of the better sort at the west end came. I was very much opened in setting forth the difference between true and false worship. Some of Keith's

friends were there and threatened to take me up again, but Truth was over them. They could do no more than show their teeth, for they could not bite."

1704, 26th of 6th mo. Thos. Story says "We were at the Quarterly meeting which held two days and was very large and well, only some of the Ranters in the Island came there and made a howling and hideous noise, as is common with them, and thereby gave the meeting some uneasiness, but all ended in great quietness and peace."

1706, 29th of 3d mo. Monthly meeting was held in the meeting house for the first time; and 24th of 6th mo., "it was agreed that the several First day meetings belonging to this meeting be from this time forward kept at the meeting house every First day except the last one in every month; and then at Thos. Powell's, [Bethpage.]

1707, 31st of 10th mo. "John Titus and Wm Willis are made choice of to visit Friends to see that things in their families are kept in order."

1708, 26th of 12th mo. "Wm Willis is to take care to build a stable for Friends' horses."

1711, 31st of 8th mo. "Thos. Pearsall and Thos. Powell, Jr. are appointed to give account to the Quarterly meeting how the Westbury and adjacent meetings are kept."

1714, 11th of 7th mo. "died, Henry Willis aged eighty-six. He received the Truth soon after its breaking forth in these latter days, and in very early life suffered much mocking, stoning, beating, bruising and imprisoning in old England."

1715, 7th of 2d mo. “died, Edmund Titus aged near eighty-five. He received the Truth many years since. In his later days his eyes grew dim so that he could not see, and he became thick of hearing, all which he bore very patiently. In his last sickness he said 'my life is in Christ, my God; I have received with meekness the engrafted word that is able to save the soul; I have put away all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness;' and soon after

is chosen to look after the shutting the meeting house, and the fences, and other small necessary things; and to bring his account of charges at the year's end. 26th of 7th mo. agreed with him to provide wood and make fires, sweep the meeting house and take care to open and shut the doors for 35s the ensuing year.

1716-7, 30th of 11th mo. "It is thought it might be of service for a meeting to be kept every First day in the Westbury meeting house. It is not intended but that the meetings at Hempstead and Bethpage should be kept as usual.'

1722, 28th of 1st mo. "The Monthly meeting taking into consideration the necessity of enlarging and repairing the meeting house have unanimously given their sense that it will be well to do it; and have appointed a Come to attend the Flushing monthly meeting and desire

their concurrence.

1 Edmund Titus was born in England in the year 1630. He left England while a youth, and in young manhood, he left New England, his first place of residence in America, and settled at Hempstead, L. I. the first of his name in that region. He married Mary Washburne, and soon afterward settled at Westbury, upon an estate yet in possession of his descendants to the sixth or seventh generation. He had eleven children one of whom died young. The remainder were all living when the youngest was fifty years old, and several lived to be more than eighty years of age. Two sons, Peter and Silas, are mentioned in Mr. Onderdonk's papers here given.

Edmund Titus was "convinced of the truth" under the preaching of George Fox, and was a consistent Friend from that time until his death. His son Samuel, married the widow of Mathew Prier, (mentioned in a former paper), who was a daughter of John Bowne of Flushing. The second daughter of Edmund Titus (Martha) mentioned in this paper married Epenetus Wood, who was the ancestor of Samuel Wood, the well known bookseller and stationer in New York, for many years. Edmund Titus' widow survived him twelve years, dying in February, 1727, in the ninetieth year of her age. She was a renowned midwife, and was very skilful in surgery.-EDITOR.]

1724, 4th mo.

Thos. Chalkley1 had a very large meeting on a First day and some were convinced.

1726, 25th of 3d mo. "The visiters report that their visits in the families of Friends were well received, and they were pretty well satisfied in their service."

1729, 24th of 7th mo. "A stable is to be built forty-two by eighteen feet with leantos nine feet wide. Jeremiah Williams and Thos. Pearsall are to procure shingles, nails and boards; Peter Titus, Thos. Townsend and Benj. Seaman are to procure timber and get it carted, and agree with a carpenter to build it."

1737. John Fothergill says: "I went to the Quarterly meeting; the meeting for ministers and elders, and a large public meeting being held the 26th of 6th mo., and another for business the 27th. First day 28th there was a mighty concourse of people and the Lord God made it a precious time; next day we went to Thos. Pearsall's where divers Friends coming to visit us, we had a meeting that evening."

1739, 28th of 1st mo. "Jn Willis is to get fencing stuff and make up the fence well about the meeting house ground and discount the pay out of the bond he oweth. John and Henry Willis, Silas and Peter Titus and Nath'l Seaman are to take and mind the shutting up the gate putting up of the bars; and also to speak to such as shall turn their horses into said ground [for pasture] a-First days when there is no real occasion."

care

and

Friends

1 Thomas Chalkley was an eminent preacher among He was born in London in 1675. In early life he was placed on board a man-of-war, but was dismissed as his principles forbade him to fight. He entered upon the ministry when he was about twenty years of age, and he came to America on a religious visit, in 1698, landing in Maryland. He visited Virginia and New England, and returned to old England in 1699. After visiting Ireland, he came back to America with a wife, whom he settled in Philadelphia in 1701, and then made many journeys throughout the country. In visited Barbadoes, and thence he sailed for England and was shipwrecked on the Irish coast.

1707, he

He then journeyed through Great Britain, and ravelled extensively in Holland and Germany, when he returned to Philadelphia, where, by a bequest in his will, he founded the Library of Friends in that city. He died at Tortola, one of the Virgin Islands, in the West Indies, in November, 1741. His journal, kept to within a few days of his death, as pub lished, with a collection of his writings, in Philadephia, in 1749. [EDITOR.]

1743. John Griffith says; notice was given of our intending to be at Westbury next First day. I went thither from Henry Willis's. Friends came to it from divers parts of the Island, and also many people of other societies, so that it was a

very large meeting. Their expectation was greatly out after words, which the master of our assemblies did not see fit to gratify, for we were almost wholly shut up as to ministry, which I hope proved a profitable lesson of instruction to many.""

Washington was a childless man. At the age of twenty-seven he married a beautiful widow three months younger than himself; a small, plump, elegantly formed woman, with two pretty children and a large fortune in lands and money, the legal evidences of which, in the form of deeds, mortgages, bonds and certificates of deposit in the Bank of England, were contained in a strong iron box. That fortune was left to her by her husband's will. He was Daniel Parke Custis, son of the Honorable John Custis, of Virginia, who married Fanny, daughter of Colonel Daniel Parke, the aide of the duke of Marlborough, who carried to Queen Anne the glad tidings of the victory at Blenheim. She was a shrew, and led her husband such an uneasy life, that he pointed to the fact revengefully in the inscription on his own tombstone which, in his will, he ordered his son to have so inscribed and set up, under penalty of disinheritance. is the inscription:

"Under this Marble Tomb lies the body
of the Hon. JOHN CUSTIS, ESQ.
of the City of Williamsburg,
and Parish of Bruton.

Formerly of Hungar's Parish on the
Eastern Shore

Here

of Virginia, and County of Northampton, Aged 71 years and yet lived but Seven Years, which was the Space of Time he kept a Bachelor's Home at Arlington, On the Eastern Shore of Virginia." Mrs. Washington's children were a son and daughter. The latter, a beautiful brunette and called "the dark lady" died at Mount Vernon, in 1773, at the age of sixteen years. The son, John Parke Custis, grew to manhood, married Eleanor Cal.

vert, a descendant of Lord Baltimore, and when the old war for Independence began was attached to the military staff of Washington. He was serving in that capacity at the time of the siege of Yorktown, in the Autumn of 1781. He then had four children, of whom two were infants, Eleanor Parke having been born in March 1779, and George Washington Parke, in April 1781.

He

Whilst engaged in military duty before Yorktown, John Parke Custis, then twentysix years of age was seized so violently by camp-fever, that he was compelled to quit, his post and retire to Eltham, a place not far distant. Washington heard unfavorable accounts from him every day. could not leave his post, for a victory over Cornwallis must be achieved. When that victory was accomplished the General hastened to Eltham. He was met at the door of the sick man's chamber, by Dr. Craik, with the sad news that all was over. He entered the room in deep sorrow, took the weeping young widow by the hand, and after a moment's indulgence in silent grief with her, he said, "I adopt the two younger children as my own." So it was that GEORGE WASHINGTON PARKE CUSTIS, the younger of the two children, became the adopted son of Washington at the age of six months. Faithfully, patiently and anxiously did the Great Patriot watch over the childhood and youthhood of this boy, who was a wayward lad while in school at Annapolis and a student in the College at Princeton. He was the idol of Mr. Wash

1 The remainder of this, the last of Mr. Onderdonk's Articles on Friends' meeting houses, will be published in the next number of the RECORD.