New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-06
TIME-STAINED DOCUMENTS.
QUAINT RECORDS OF WESTMINSTER
COUNTY AT WHITE PLAINS
MASS OF ANCIENT LEGAL PAPERS WHICH
HAVE BEEN ACCUMUIATING SINCE
GEORGE II WAS KING

HAVE BEEN ACCCMUIATING SINCE
GEORGE II WAS KING.
Down in the cellars OF the Westchester County
buildings at White Plains employees Of the Coun-
ty Clerks office for the last seven weeks have
been engaged in overhaulng a mass Of time
stained. musty papers that have been accumulat-
Ing for more than a century. Formerly West
chester had two county seats. and many of these
papers were brought to White Plains when the
county seat at Bedford was abandoned. about
twenty-five years ago. The papers consist of
every imaginable form Of legal writings-bail
bonds. judgments, Governors appointments COL
iectors bonds, Court of Common Pleas papers
dry enough reading and uninteresting save for
their peculiar forms of phraseology. old-style
penmanship. paper and method of folding. Dur
ing the Revolution Westminster experienced all
the evils of war-her towns were burned, her
fields laid waste, and her records, carried hither
and thither, were mostly scattered and lost A
few' however. were brought safely through the
contest, and among the papers now being sorted
out are number bearing date prior to 1716.
one OF the Oldest of these ante-Revolutionary
documents is a parchment entitled AN Ordi-
nance Tor altering one Of the times appointed for
holding the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and
the Court of General Sessions of the Peace in
the County of Westches;er." The ordinance be-
gins with the words George the Second by the
Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ire
land King, Defender of the Faith, etc. To all
our loving subjects inhabiting and being in our
Province of New-York Greeting After setting
forth the objects of the ordinance as indicated
by the Endorsement. the paper concludes as fol-
lows: I'm testimony whereof Wee have caused
these our letters to be made patent and the
great seal of our said Province of New-York to
be hereunto affixed. Witness trusty and
we!l-bcloved George Clinton, Esqr., our Captain
General and Governor in Chief of our Province
rf
Ing in America. Vice-Admiral of the same and
Admiral of the White Squadron of Fleet, at
our Fort in our City IF New-York. the sixteenth
day OF May, in the twenty-fourth year of our
Reign and in the year of our Lord thousand
seven hundred and ffty-one." signed Clarke
Junr.' The seal to this document is missing,
although the Sits in the parchment through
which the ribbon passed by which it was at
tached still remain in evidence that it was once
there.
In a majority of instances the old State seals
that were formerly pendant from all documents
signed by the Governor have been removed or
broken. only fragment remaining attached to
the paper by a ribbon, curiously to the bot
tom of the document. This is invariably folded
UP, forming a hem about inch wide for the
better securing of the seal, and inclosng a slip
OF parchment evidently cut from some old docu-
ment, through which the ribbon passed prevent
ing any possibility of tearing out under ordinary
circumstances
The best-prcserved CT these seals is at
tached to a paper dated 1896 and reading as
follows:
THE People of the State OF New-York. by the
Grace of God free and Independent, To Carrot
Dyckman, Esquire, Greeting: Whereas by our
Letters patent and Commission Of the peace OF
cur County of Westchester. under the Great Seal
of our said State. bearing date the Seventh day
OF March, One thousand seven hundred and
ninety-four, We did appoint and assign iona than
Grifen Tompkins and the thirty-six persons
hereinafter named Justices to keep the peace in
our said county of Westchester: And, Whereas
on the Second day of October Of the Same Year
Letters patent and Commission of the peace did
issue appointing William l.. Bayley and Daniel
Delavan also Justices to keep peace in
our said County: And Whereas on the twenty
ninth day of September. One thousand seven
hundred and ninety five. Letters patent and
Commission of the peace did issue appointing
Elijah Crawford and four other persons therein
after named also our Justices to keep the peace
In said county: And, whereas. on the Second
day Of April instant Letters patent and Commits
sion Of the peace did issue appointing Thomas
Brown and three other persons hereinafter
named also our Justices to keep our peace in our
said County, by the said severa! in part recited
Letters Patent and Commissions or the Record
thereof in Secretary's ONCE may more fully
md NJ lnrrv Won't oty We