"There was no puritan religion" .... well, maybe, but not really. The Church of England was created by the English government and it produced no real theology of its own. On to some basic principles inherited from the Roman Church, the Church of England borrowed very heavily from Luther in its early years .. say the 1540's/1550's when the "Book of Common Prayer" was written, etc. In was, at the time, an English form of Lutheranism with a heavy Romanist underpinning.
     Later 1560's/1590's, the Church of England shifted more heavily towards Calvinism ... so by the later part of the reign of Elizabeth I, you had a mixture of Lutheran, Calvinist and Romanist ideas all boiling up inside the official state church.
     Some thought the English Church needed to continue along on its path towards Calvinism and junk its Lutheran and Romanist features. This faction became the "Puritans" .. because the wished to "purify" the English Church from all the errors of Romanism and Lutheranism. Chief among these "Popish errors" was the Episcopacy .. government of the Church by bishops. They also objected to ceremonies, holidays  .. especially those of pagan origin like Christmas .. and a whole host of non-Scriptural traditions they saw as wrong.
     The first important person on these lines was Robert Browne, a preacher in Norwich. He separated himself and his congregation from the Church of England and created a Calvinist church since he was "separated" his followers became "Separatists." Some of them moved to Calvinist Netherlands and a faction of those Separatists came to America in 1620. We know them in our history as the "Pilgrims" of Plymouth Colony.
     After Elizabeth I died, the English crown went to her cousin King James VI of Scotland. He had had it with the Presbyterians and Calvinists in Scotland and started to put the screws down on the "Puritan" faction within the Church of England. The situation boiled and steamed ... and the Puritan faction grew. Under James' son Charles I, the situation reached the boiling point. The English Civil War and the execution of the King in 1649.
     A group of Puritans still within the Church of England got a charter for Massachusetts Bay and starting in 1629-1630 Puritan settlements were made in the new colony. Quickly, once this faction was on this side of the ocean, they recognized the illogic of their religious position .. within Church of England, but fighting the basic structure of the Church and its legal head... the King of England. These Massachusetts Puritans soon united with their next door neighbors and swung over to "Separatism." The churches in Massachusetts were set up on strict congregational lines ... no bishops ...and the churches were purged of all Romanist and Lutheran errors ... a Calvinist church was set up. This evolved in time into Congregationalism.
     Most of the early Puritan churches on Long Island affiliated with the Presbyterians in the early 1700's. [Presbyterianism is essentially the Scottish and Irish form of Calvinism; it is somewhat less Congregational than pure Congregationalism because the local Presbyteries have some power over the local church]. The Congregationalists were the state Religion in Massachusetts and Connecticut until the early 1800's. They were far and away the major religion in New England until the Unitarian split ca. 1800 and the advent of the Irish Catholics in the 1830's and 1840's.
     Since the Puritans were congregational, the seeds of discord were always present. A preacher with a new idea or a faction within a congregation can break off .. pure congregationalism by its very nature leads to constant independent thought and frequent turmoil with local congregations.
     First you had Roger Williams ... his ideas give rise to the first Baptist congregation in America ... his church at Providence, R. I., which was established after he and his followers were thrown out of Massachusetts Bay.  Next Anne Hutchinson and her followers ... early roots of Quakerism.
     So, soon the Calvinist Puritans had given rise to two new groups that they hated ... Baptists and Quakers. They attempted to stamp these groups out, just as the "high church" Anglicans tried to stamp them out .. and with about as much success.   Later, they gave rise to Unitarism and Universalism  especially in eastern Massachusetts [late 1700's-early1800's].
     Today the bulk of the remaining Puritan churches are a part of the United Church of Christ, formed in 1957, by a union with German Calvinist churches in Pennsylvania and the Middle West. However, most of the very oldest Puritan congregations in Massachusetts today are not UC of C, but are members of the UU [Unitarian - Universalist] church.
     So, "Puritanism" was both a faction within the Church of England ... where it eventually died out ....and an independent religious group that exists today as the United Church of Christ and the UU's, plus all those factions that spun off .. Baptists, Quakers, etc.
     Another interesting point, Mormonism, Christian Science and Seventh Day Adventism all grew out of the teachings of people from northern New England. That concept of independent thought in religious matters lasted a long time. The irony is that the early Puritan leaders of Massachusetts Bay wanted that freedom of thought for themselves alone, yet look at all that has come out of that tradition ... some quite radically different than what these early Puritans envisioned. [By David Roberts]

     I am curious as to when the Southold church adopted the name Presbyterian", and what the circumstances were, as both Rev Youngs and Hobart were mainstream Puritans, I believe - which takes us through, about 1715-1717... ? I believe the first separatists on Long Island were James Davenport, circa 1748, and Rev Elisha Paine in Bridgehampton, circa 1750?? or were there earlier ones??
     The History of Mattituck, pg 103, indicates James Davenport, "fourth pastor" of Southold, was a separatist... Not sure who the pastor between Hobart and Davenport was.
     ‘I think this is a sort of "apples and oranges" situation, caused by the use of the term "Separatists" to cover two distinct movements at different periods. In Elizabethan and Jacobean times Separatist referred to a Calvinist movement to establish churches completely independent of the Church of England- the forerunners of the Congregational churches. In the 1740's and 50's it referred to a those, who under the influence of the "New Light" revival movement, wished to establish separate Calvinst churches in towns where they felt the local existing Calvinist church, either Congregational or Presbyterian, had become too lenient.
     In the former case the "Separatists" were seeking to create a church radically different than the existing established church in both theology and ritual; in the latter case it was more a matter of seeking to establish a church basically similar in theology and ritual to the local churches, but one which would practice a stricter discipline- although it should be noted that the "New Lights" also tended to favor a more emotional style of preaching than was common in the mainstream Congregational or Presbyterian churches.
     If I recall correctly the Suffolk Presbytery was founded in 1747, but without further research I cannot say if the member churches considered themselves Presbyterian or Congregational before then. In any case, I think there was a great deal of fluidity between the two denominations in Suffolk County into the early 19th century.

The East Moriches Presbyterian Church

      The Methodist Protestant church grew from a Methodist church that was closely aligned with the Church of England, but the Revolution changed all that.  The re-formed in 1784 and concentrated power in the Bishop who appointed circuit riders to preach at churches over a widespread area. They grew rapidly and in 60 years, became the largest church in America at that time.  In Center Moriches, L.I. they formed in 1838.  By 1868 there were only five members left and they gave their church to a Manorville sect. The Methodist Protestant church of Moriches was originally located just west of the Ketcham Inn.  It was moved to Manor, across from the Post Office,  where the building is currently involved in a preservation effort. (Van Field)
      The Methodist Protestant Church merged in 1939 with the 2 Episcopal Methodist churches to form The Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church is a legal successor of the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Protestant Church is considered one of the antecedent parts of today's United Methodist Church.
     After 1939, those Methodist Protestant churches which opted out of the Union/Re-union could, I guess, take any name they wanted. Protestant and Bible certainly are terms related to any form of Methodism, so I guess that's why the name was chosen. Wesley's concepts of "personal holiness" gave rise in the late 1800's and early 1900's to various "Holiness" groups that eventually broke off from traditional Methodism, which they saw as growing too comfortable, too non-evangelical, and too "liberal" in theology.
     On the one hand you have a merger of traditional Methodism and on the other a breaking off of the "Holiness" groups, which develop into various Pentacostal and related churches.
     The 1939 union of the Methodist Protestant with the two Episcopal Methodist churches allowed individual Methodist Protestant congregations to opt out and keep their property. [In th
old Methodist Episcopal churches as well as the present-day U. M. Church, property belongs to the Annual Conference, not the local congregation]. It would seem that Eastport opted out of the 1939 merger and by 1946 became an independent church. There is, I believe, a tiny remnant of The Methodist Protestant Church left, but I think many of those that opted out eventually became independent churches, or joined other denominations.
     The Methodist Protestant Church in Centerport eventually became something called "Union Chapel" if I'm reading my "Long Islander" correctly. That was the only Methodist Protestant. church I've found so far in the Huntington area.
     The Methodist Protestant. Church in Rockville Centre/Lynbrook grew out of a split in the Methodist Episcopal congregation over some issue and a faction pulled out of the church and
formed a Methodist Protestant congregation.
    The "Long Islander" published the pastoral appointments for the Methodist Episcopal Annual Conference in the paper each year [1880's and 1890's], but said very little about the Methodist Protestant Church .. which I gather was extremely weak in western Suffolk and eastern present-day Nassau.
    According to church historian LeRoy Wilcox the Eastport church was indeed an Methodist Protestant church. It remained so until 1946 when it became independent. After 1939, those M.P. churches which opted out of the Union/Re-union could, I guess, take any name they wanted .. Protestant and Bible certainly are terms related to any form of Methodism, so I guess that's why the name was chosen.
     Wesley's concepts of "personal holiness" gave rise in the late 1800's and early 1900's to various "Holiness" groups that eventually broke off from traditional Methodism, which they saw as growing too comfortable, too non-evangelical, and too "liberal" in theology.
     So, on the one hand you have a merger of traditional Methodism and on the other a breaking off of the "Holiness" groups, which develop into various Pentecostal and related churches.
The Methodist Protestant Church merged in 1939 with the two Episcopal Methodist churches to form The Methodist Church. In 1968, The Methodist Church merged w/ the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church is a legal successor of the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Protestant Church is considered one of the antecedent parts of today's United Methodist Church.
     The United Methodist Church is an outgrowth of the Church of England, although that might seem strange to most people today. John Wesley, Methodism's founder, wanted to keep the Methodist "Societies" within the Church of England .. in the early days no marriages, baptisms nor celebration of Holy Communion was allowed by the Society or its preachers ..that was to be done in the official Church of England.
     This system broke down during the later part of John Wesley's life, broke down first in this country. In 1784, the Methodists in the new U. S. formed an independent church, will full powers to administer the Sacraments and its own Episcopacy. This was the Methodist Episcopal Church {Methodist Episcopal}. [Actually, the Methodists got going a few years before the present Episcopal Church established itself also as an independent body .. the Episcopal Church remained within the "Apostolic Succession" and remained in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury ... the Methodists did not].
     After 1800 and until about 1840 or so, the Methodists were the largest religious body in the US and remained as the largest Protestant group until about 1950/60 when the Southern Baptists passed them.
     About 1830, a faction grew dissatisfied with the centralized power of the Episcopacy. Methodist congregations couldn't hire nor fire their clergy ..that power lay with the Conference and the Bishop. This and other issues caused the formation of the Methodist Protestant Church [Methodist Protestant] The government of the Methodist Protestant church was more congregational based and more similar to that of the Presbyterians or Baptists. They took the name "Protestant" to indicate they wanted a church in the freer Protestant tradition of self-government.
     The Methodist Protestant Church was very strong in parts of Maryland and Virginia, but nationally was much weaker than either the Northern or Southern branches of Episcopal Methodism.
     On Long Island, there were only a few Methodist Protestant congregations .. the center on L. I. was the eastern part of Brookhaven and the western part of Southampton Towns. There as a church in Rockville Center/Lynbrook area and one in Centerport .. but other than those I really don't know of too many outside that in the Moriches-Manorville area.
     Episcopal Methodism really controlled Long Island Methodism and the Methodist Protestant churches were very much in the minority. In 1939, the remaining Methodist Protestant churches were merged back with the larger Episcopal Methodist churches. What the Methodist Protestant's gained from the union is really unclear to me, since the present United Methodist Church has a very strong episcopacy.
     All records of the Methodist Protestant churches [IF THEY EXIST .. BIG IF] should be with the Archives of the United Methodist Annual Conference .. in the case of Long Island that would be the New York Annual Conference in White Plains, maybe Westchester County.