New-York tribune., 1908-04-23
FINDS 200 OLD WILLSI
NONE OF THEJf RECORDED
Documents TzcO Centuries Old Come
to Light.

Curious. forgotten byways Of old New York's
history and quaint personal notes Of the towns
folk have been discovered recently bv William
s PeIletreau member Of the New York His
torical Society, who has found TWO hundred un-
recorded wills in the storerooms Of the Surro-
gates Court The earliest Of these is dated 1910,
and all bear date before 1870.
As far as Mr.. PelIetreau has learned in max
ing abst-a~-= ~ these doc1lments for the next
volume TO he issued ny the society, the wills do
not affect land titles. and the fact that they
were not recorded is in most cases eloquently
explained by the note added BY clerk: Fees
not paid" Many Of them were made by persons
who were not wealthy and the fees were large
Wills were supposed 70 be proved or probated
ry the Governor but in reality that official dele
gated the work to his secretary. Nevertheless.
the Governor received 10 shiIlings and the clerk
= los. York currency" in which a saiI-
ling was equal to 1212 cents and d pound TO
s. %
But this does not explain the fact that no wills
were recorded during the year 1929. and that a
majority OF the other unrecorded wills were
drawn in 172S Mr. PeIletreau thinks it ex-
trer7ely unlikely that all the residents Of the
province Of New York banded together and for
an entire year boycotted the royal Governor
and his fee harvesting secretary. Instead. no
thinks possibly the Office Of the secretary might
have been vacant or the secretary negligent
Probably the most interesting among the un-
recorded documents are several afhdaVltS regard
ing the will Of Cornela de Peyster, widow OF
Abraham de Peyster. Her will was probated IN
1-oa The aff1davits. however. were not put on
record 50 by digging them up from the yellow
and dusty recesses Mr.. PeIletreau has shown
t,,,- close old New York came to a will contest.
These afrdavfts were made by friends and rela-
-i,-az who perhaps, had not been as well re
,77ar7hared' as others in the Will. They state
that to the knowledge OF the deponents the
widow could not speak or read kngllsh- A.
though Dutch was her language. and Wills at
the rirna were often drawn in French and Dutch
her will was in English. a few faded notes
written on these affdavits say that tHe he-lS
os,raad finally to abide by the terms Of the WILL
rr1rlirfes have been made Of Mr.. PeLetTeau
zghather many wills We're unrecorded and lost
4,,-;,e- the Revolution. The situation. however
r,.aa inst the reverse Of what might have been
.,,ac+ed There we're two sets of books. Inc
r2ritish Governor and his secretary looked out
as usual for the wills in the British territory OF
New, York city. southern Westchester county
o,. Island and Staten Island. The RevoIu-
.to,,orz, state government appointed Thomas
7rAdvyeI Judge Of probate and Joseph hazard
c1a-z From their headquarters at F1snkiL-
-. KINGSTON the capital-they covered the rest
= Na
r,-t.ieb evacuated New York after the war sam
,,e1 paverd. his secretary. delivered the British
a,,,rds to Lewis A. Scott, the Colonial 9ecre-
80 Of state There were seven hundred orlgl-
raI wills and almost all were recorded.
while mentioning this" said Mr. PeLletreau'
- fsb The Tribune would state that John
Nj, SCOTT and his son. Lewis Alan Scott. are
l,-ia5 in the southwest corner Of the plot on tle
18th side Of Trinity Church. The stones are IN
row that are fiat the ground Inc III
-l~j,tfons are nearly Hegible and 1 have o1ten
hor,ad somebody or some society might recut
he letters for the benefit OF the present gener-
alton" - .t,a.
scattered through the wills are names that
.~. . mart of state and national history Peeps
- IocaI customs are afforded by bequests OF
49,. -ae,roa slaves or OF "a negroe "ench 10 NY
,.lo,.a1 daughter when the wench IS OF age.
Among the longest and most carefuHy drawn
,-flIs we're those of the ancestors OF PRESIDENT
roosevelt An echo OF the legal status OF
woman before the age Of suffragettes Is gwen
time and again. as in the will OF Daniel SUN
ar tnnteeper who died in 14I2. and wrote: l
Iea,,a 70 nv wife, Nancey. all her wearing ap-
uareu"