The year was 1769 and a group of Anglicans was forming its own church in the 14-year-old county of Sussex.
Their first purchase was to have tickets printed up for a lottery, their way of raising money to support the new church.
Their fourth purchase was 1 pound, 3 shillings paid to Henry Hairlocker for entertainment for a "frolic," the Colonial equivalent of a party. The notation doesn't specify what the entertainment was to be except to note "including one gallon and a half of rum."
The minutes of that first meeting were among a bundle of documents "lost" in plain sight at Christ Church on Main Street that were discovered by the Rev. Robert T. Griner, the church's rector, when he was looking for something else about two years ago.
In the church office is a large safe that held some of the older records of the church. The safe backs against a wall that had a counter with doors and drawers under it and several cabinets above them.
Griner re-created the discovery last week as he climbed onto a chair he had pulled from a nearby office, and opened the door.
More here-
http://www.njherald.com/story/19814207/old-church-records-tell-historic-tale-with-rum
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