The eleventh installment (paragraph) of the Sesqui-Centennial Address of Sussex County given by Justice Francis J. Swayze on 2 Sep 1903 and printed by the Sussex Independent newspaper.... Churches were few in the county at that early period. I find no record of any except those already mentioned in the Delaware Valley. The first church of which I find mention in Wantage township if the First Baptist Church of Wantage, which was organized in 1756. The earliest record of a church in Newton is the incorporation of Christ Church in 1769. The settlers were too few and too widely scattered to support regular pastors. Doubtless meissionaries like Brainard and the Moravians occassionally gathered a congregation. Even those who could afford to contribute to the support of the minister were not always willing to do so, and a charge of six shillings was therefore made by the churches in the Minisink country for the baptism of a child, which was reduced to three shillings "for those who live without our bonds." Cathy DiPietro