the Royalists, "Several thousand men in the three western counties of the Colony would join him."
    Orcutt and Beardsley, in citing Mansfield's troubles during the American Revolution, cite his departure from the colonies, but neglected to convey the contests of the letter which apparently got him into his difficulties. The story of his flight from his parish is given by Orcutt and Beardsley as follows:
    "On a Sunday morning while preaching, a guard of American troops marched into his church when the good parson came from his pulpit in 'double quick' and escaping from the sanctuary without his hat, hastened to his home and soon fled to Long Island. . . It is said that his son-in-law (Elijah Humphries) being an officer on a war vessel arrested him in his flight, but it is more probable he became a guarantee for his conduct and obtained the privilege of his return not long after to his home and his pulpit. There is good authority for the statement that his son-in-law obtained the privilege for his brother John to take the place of the guard in the church to see that the devoted Loyalist did not preach against the American cause.
    It might be noted that his wife died at the age of 40 on August 29,1776.
    After his return to his parishes, with the war still in progress, there continued to be problems for the Episcopalians. Beardsley states, "The clergy could not officiate publicly and use the prayers for the King and the Royal Family according to the Liturgy without exposing themselves to inevitable destruction; and to omit these prayers . . . , was contrary to their oath and views of duty, as well as to the dictates of their own conscience. Therefore, to avoid the evils of this dilemma, at a Convention held in New Haven, July 23rd, 1776, (Mr. Jarvis presiding,) they resolved to suspend the public exercise of their ministerial functions." Norman Litchfield and Sabina Hoyt, in their History of the Town of Oxford, said, "From 1775 to 1778, the old Record book of  St. Peter's Church in Oxford contains no word of either parish or vestry meetings, and it may be that during that period, the church was closed."
    Litchfield, in his History of Christ Church, Quaker Farms, added a comment about the convention of 1776, and said, "after much deliberation, they devised a form of service