In 1784 Philip Cox , a Methodist Circuit rider, roamed Long Island conducting family prayers and other religious services for those requesting it. Before Cox died in 1794, he was pivotal in establishing a Methodist class in Bloomfield, now Lynbrook. This led to the construction of the Old Sand Hole Church and the development of the Methodist community of Lynbrook and Rockville Centre.
Decades later in 1826, when this record set began, several other ministers were stationed in Hempstead, Jamaica and Rockaway circuits at different times until 1854. A circuit was a specific area in which a minister would travel within. Ministers found in these books include Henry Hatfield, John J. Matthias, Humphrey Humpreys, Edmund O. Bates, Daniel De Vinne, Noble W. Thomas, Bradley Sillick, Laban Clark, Richard Seaman, Noah Bigelow, Jesse Hunt, Joseph Law, David Holmes, J. Youngs, John W B Wood, Samuel Merwin, Charles Stearns, Henry C.Glover, William Gothard, Samuel W. King, Albert Booth, James W. Horne, Henry D. Latham, and James D. Bouton. These men also traveled around like Cox did, marrying and baptizing those who were also of the Methodist Episcopal denomination.
