>From the book "History of Washington and Kent Counties, Rhode Island" by J.R. Cole, published 1889, New York, W.W. Preston & Company. Beginning on page 553. [xxx] respresents either notes or the page number. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. – A Presbyterian church was established on Tower Hill May 17th, 1732, and the Reverend Doctor Joseph Torrey was the first pastor. He labored there with untiring fidelity for sixty years. After his death, which occurred November 25th, 1791, the church neglected to repair the meeting house, which had become somewhat dilapidated, and it was finally sold at auction. Mr. James Wilson was born and lived in a house constructed from the materials of the old Presbyterian church. Reverend Thomas Kendall took up the pastorate in 1802, and continued to preach the gospel to the benighted sons and daughters of the village until 1818. Under his ministrations religious services were held alternately in the school house on Tower Hill and in the court house at Little Rest. Most of the graves in the burying ground have been plowed over. Robert Helme was buried there, clothed in a suit of black broadcloth with a gold watch in his pocket, which was wound up a short time before the funeral services, agreeably to his request. The church at Tower Hill was gathered less than three months after the birth of General Washington, with Joseph Torrey for pastor, William Mumford, George Douglass, Mary Wilson and Alice Gardner, the original members. The following forty-six years show 124 baptisms, among whom were the Douglasses, Wilsons, Helmes, Nichols, Mumfords, Hazards, Coles, Armstrongs, Niles, Smiths, Hammonds, Holloways, Tisdales, Woodbridges, Pollocks and Browns, Doctor Torrey making for himself an exhibit of fourteen children and thirteen grandchildren on the roll of the consecrated; Oliver Hazard, the great-grandfather of Oliver Hazard Perry of Lake Erie fame, and his wife Elizabeth also. Of his numerous offspring six succeeded to the ministry. [554] This ancient church was really the same with the Congregational church at Kingston Hill. The house of worship was on Tower Hill. Its field was the Pettaquamscutt purchase. Its revenue originally was derived from a donation of three hundred acres of land made in 1668 by th first purchasers. Doctor Torrey married, October 15th, 1730, Elizabeth Wilson, and left five sons and five daughters. Thomas Kendall became pastor in 1802, and continued till 1818. The court house, the jail and the law having migrated to Kingston Hill, it must be that the Gospel, with its alleviations, should follow. Reverend Oliver Brown took up his pastorate in 1820, in which year the present Kingston church was built. In 1857 valued members residing in Peace Dale joined themselves to other pious souls, an the church in that place was organized.