CHAPTER   XII.

ADMINISTRATION OF  GOVERNORS BURNET   AND MONTGOMERY.

Arrival of Burnet—His Marriage—His Love of Books—Vesey's Account of Church
Affairs in New York—Rev. James Wetmore Appointed Catechist—Bradford's Gazette
—Rev. Mr, Colgan Appointed at Trinity Church—Montgomery Succeeds Burnet,
April 15, 1728—Earthquake—Map of the City Published by Bradford—Petty Theft
in the Parish Church—Gift of Books—Death of Montgomery, June 30, 1731.

ON the 19th of July, 1719, Governor Hunter's admin¬
istration ended, and on the 19th of April, 1720, it
was announced in London that William Burnet, son of
the Bishop of Salisbury, had been designated by the King
as Governor of New York and New Jersey. Before the
arrival of the new Governor, the necessary functions were
performed by Peter Schuyler as President of the Council.'
Governor Burnet arrived at Amboy, N. J., September
16th, and on the following day published his commission
in New York. His instructions were similar to those of
his immediate predecessor.'

During this administration, the Church and rector were
in amicable relations with the civil authority. The Gov¬
ernor attended the services regularly, gave a suitable
measure of his time to the transaction of public business,
and spent the rest of it among his books, of which he had
a great number, and in which he took delight, like an
honest bibliophile. After all that we have read of disa¬
greeable and vexatious in the career of Hunter, Bellomont,

' N.  Y. Col. Docs., v., 537.

' Ibid., v., 541, and N. Jersey Col. Docs., S. I., v., I.

■97