enthusiastic believer, and talked the new doctrines freely. She loaned the treatise on Heaven and Hell to her pastor, Mr. Post, which he is supposed to have read.

Mr. and Mrs. Arnott, in 1820, were cited to appear before the Session of their Church, and answer as to their alleged heresy; and Mrs. Arnott wrote an able defense, but declined to appear in person; and because they did not appear when cited for the third and last time, they were both suspended from the sacraments of their Church by a vote of the Session.

Mrs. Arnott was a native of Northumberland, England. She never heard but two New Church sermons, and they were preached by Rev. Manning B. Roche, of Philadelphia, in the Protestant Methodist Church on Congress Street, Georgetown, in 1830. She died, May 12, 1835, aged seventy-five years.

There were other people in the city, who were interested about this time; among them, Mr. and Mrs. Coad, natives of England, who came here from Philadelphia; Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel; James N. Taylor; Mr. and Mrs. French; Miss Pringle; Steven Ustick; Dr. Wing; Leonard Whitney; Dr. Nathaniel C. Towle; and Mr. A. Thomas Smith. Most of the men last named were clerks in the executive departments, and when Jackson's administration began, they were dismissed to make vacancies for new men, on the theory of party government then in vogue, that "to the victors belong the spoils."

Dr. Towle was the first Recorder of Deeds of this District, and lawyers and title-examiners are familiar with the record books in the office, bearing his initials, "N. C. T." Dr. Towle came prior to 1838, with his wife and her sister; and they lived at Third Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the first meetings for New-Church worship were held at his house.

In 1839, Mr. Smith came, and meetings were held in his house, and in the Unitarian Church, corner 6th and D Sts., on the site of the present Police Court, on Sunday afternoons. Dr. Towle and Mr. Smith were the readers. Many still living in this city will remember that Mr. Smith was the father of Mrs. John J. Halsted, whose husband was for years a prominent patent attorney here.

In the fall of 1839, Rev. Nathan C. Burnham, of New York, preached several times in the Medical College at the corner of 10th and E Streets. In 1840 meetings continued. to be held at this building until it was destroyed by fire. Two meetings were then held at the residence of Mrs. Milburn; and thereafter at other private houses, until the College building was restored, when they were again held there.

In 1841, June 2, Rev. Richard De Charms came to Washington from Philadelphia, and baptized Miss Pringleand Mrs. Milburn, and instituted the first New-Church. Society in this District. It was a small Society, and Mr. A. Thomas Smith was the leader. No records are found of this Society, but meetings were held at the Medical College, at the City Hall, at the schoolhouse at the foot of Capitol Hill, and at Temperance Hall, on E Street, between 9th and 10th, where Marini's dancing academy was later located. Rev. Mr. De Charms preached twice in the last named place. The readers who conducted the services during this time were Messrs. A. Thos. Smith, Richard K. Cralle, S. Yorke Atlee, Rufus Dawes, Lynde Elliott, and Wilson M. C. Fairfax. In 1844 a meeting was held in the council chamber at the City Hall, on Sunday evening, for the purpose of forming a society of the New Jerusalem, and the following names were recorded as members:

Catherine E. Smith, Margaret Milburn, Margaret Clarke, F. M. Towle, Richard K. Cralle, A. Thomas Smith, Samuel Yorke Atlee, John Cranch, Clement Humphreys, N. C..

Towle, Strickland Kneass, Marsh B. Clark, Wilson M. C. Fairfax, and T. S. Arnold. At this meeting Mr. Smith read the constitution of the first society, and said it bore date June 20, 1841, but no minutes of its proceedings could be found. It is most probable that it was abandoned by

common consent.

In 1845 meetings were held at the residences of Chief Justice Cranch, Mr. Fairfax, Dr. Towle, Thomas Bartlett, and James Crutchett. Judge Cranch was associate Judge and Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, first appointed by Adams in 1801, and appointed Chief Judge in 1805, by Jefferson, and he was probably on the bench longer than any other United States Judge, having served 54 years. He was intimately acquainted with the Dawes family, having studied law with Judge Thomas Dawes, of Massachusetts, the father of Rufus Dawes, the poet. Judge Cranch's daughter, Bertha, married Rufus Dawes, and his family and the Dawes family, were all readers of the New-Church literature, and many of them members of New-Church Societies.

On March 16, 1846, a letter was sent to Rev. Benjamin F. Barrett, of New York, signed by twelve persons, requesting him to come and organize them into a Society of the New-Church. The letter was signed by Rufus Dawes, F. E. Dawes, N. C. Towle, E. M. Towle, Wilson M. C. Fairfax, James Crutchett, Elizabeth Crutchett, Thomas Bartlett, Jr., S. A. Makepeace, Sarah Simms, Harriet Barber, and Elizabeth Braiden.

Elizabeth Crutchett, Stella A. Makepeace, and Harriet Barber do not appear as signors of the Constitution, when the society was instituted, on April 12, 1846, but the other nine all signed as the first members of "The Washington Society of the New Jerusalem." On the same day, Mr. Barrett preached in the Hall of Representatives of the

United States, at the Capitol, on "the progressive nature of regeneration." The meeting in the afternoon was at the residence of James Crutchett, Bethel Cottage, on C Street near North Capitol Street. This frame house was still standing, until the condemnation of the land for the plaza between the Union Station and the Capitol, caused it to be removed about 1915.

Stella A. Makepeace died the day before the Society was formed, and was buried April 13, 1846, Mr. Barrett conducting the funeral.

While here, Mr. Barrett delivered five lectures in the Unitarian Church. Rev. Joseph Auger was then pastor, and Mr. P. Thompson, chairman of the church committee of the Unitarian Church Society.

The money required to pay the expenses of Mr. Barrett's visit, and the several lectures and addresses and services by him while here, was $45.00. The newly organized society was assisted by friends in raising this money, and a list of the donors, and amounts by each, may be found in the old records, as follows:

"Wilson M. C. Fairfax, Treasurer, charged himself with the following contributions:

This fund was more than required to pay all said expenses, and the balance was appropriated to meet any other proper expense of the society.

Dr. Ferdinand Fairfax, of King George County, Va., was the son of Bryan Fairfax, the Eighth Baron Fairfax. Ferdinand was the beneficiary under the will of his uncle, George William Fairfax, who was the early companion of George Washington, and associated with him in surveying the Fairfax lands in Virginia. Ferdinand's father, Bryan, was a life-long friend of Washington. He became an Episcopal cleryman in 1789, and soon after took charge of the parish in Alexandria.

At the meeting of the newly formed society, held on April 14, 1846, the following action was taken.

"Whereas, this society recognizes the important uses of a church in a larger form, and desires to co-operate and be connected with such a church;

"Therefore, Resolved that we desire to be represented in, and to co-operate with, the General Convention of Societies of the New Church in the United States, so far as we may feel free and see it to be our duty to do so; and that we now elect three delegates to represent the Washington, D. C., Society in said Convention to be held in Philadelphia in June next."

Messrs. Dawes, Towle, and Crutchett, were appointed such delegates.

The society was duly received as a member of the Convention for the first time, early in the session in June,