THE authorities from which the writer has derived his information, in preparing this work, are generally noted at the foot of the pages. But after having gathered his materials, most faithfully, from every printed source, the volume would hardly have been written, but for the kindness of an old and valued friend, Mr. Thomas N. Stanford, who suggested a way in which some of the private papers of Bishop Provoost might be obtained, and, of the Rev. S. H. Weston, of Trinity Parish, New York, who took the trouble to make application for them.
Although the first Bishop of New York will not rank with the most zealous champions of the Church, and his name can never arouse such emotions as that of Hobart, or Griswold, or Ravenscroft, or Chase must excite, he certainly occupies no mean place in the Church's history; and the times in which he lived, and the scenes in which he mingled, render his life most interesting.