If you took the time to read the above post, you might also find this interesting. As I read Dawson’s Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution, I came across a letter written by Samuel Seabury, who was captured by a patriot mob led by Isaac Sears in late 1775 and held in Connecticut. Up until then, he was the rector at St. Peter’s Church, in the town of Westchester. He wrote the letter to prove his innocence and describe his captivity, which he considered to be unlawful. In the letter he writes:
“As a clergyman [Samuel Seabury] has the care of the towns of East and West Chester. That there is not now a clergyman of any denomination nearer than nine miles from the place of his residence, and but one within that distance without crossing the Sound ; so that in his absence there is none to officiate to the people in any religious service, to visit the sick, or bury the dead.”
So, according to Seabury, there was now only one “clergyman” in the area–with Seabury captured and Tetard on campaign with Montgomery in Quebec. I am not really sure who that person would have been, so I’ll have to research the old churches of lower Westchester County to find out. There does seem to have been a serious lack of clergy in the area during the Revolution.