USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume II > Part 43
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rebellious state of the English villages, wherein the magis- trates (schepens) appointed by the Dutch Government had been removed ; but nothing could be done ; and soon the whole province passed to the English. When, in 1673, the Dutch again came into possession of New Netherland, Jamaica was again the place of a convention of Dutch delegates, who gath- ered to institute, or reëstablish, Schepens Courts.
Hempstead had been the venue of an important English convention, that at which, in February-March, 1665 the Duke's Laws had been promulgated. A court house had been built at Gravesend in 1668, and this, which is said to have been the first building erected on Long Island for such purposes, seems to have established Gravesend as the county town, as it were, though courts were held in each of the three ridings of the shrievalty of Yorkshire. The court house stood on one of the squares of the original village plat, near the later site of the Dutch Reformed Church. It was used until 1686, though somewhat inaccessible.
Under the Duke's Laws the high sheriff took the place of the schout, but without the judicial status of the latter, and he was not often called upon as an advocate. William Wells, of Southold, who was the first high sheriff of Yorkshire, could act as such, for he was a lawyer. The justices of the Court of Sessions were Daniel Denton, of Jamaica, John Hicks, of Hempstead, Jonas Wood, of Huntington, and James Hubbard, of Gravesend. The first court of record ever held in what became Kings County was, it is said, that which opened in Gravesend on March 17, 1668. There was some business be- fore the court in that initial session, though not important. Peter Faltus sued Nicholas Janner for "tortiously taking and converting to his own use one vehicle known as ye cart with attendant impliments, of the value of ten pounds." Verdict for plaintiff, for full amount, was rendered, with six cents costs of suit.
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In 1682, by the Dongan Act, the shrievalty of Yorkshire was divided into counties, Kings, Queens, Suffolk and Rich- mond of the present Second Judicial District being among them. By act of November 7, 1685, Flatbush became the county seat, and in the next year the courts were removed to that place, from Gravesend. A court house was built at Flatbush in 1686. The site which later became known as "Court House Lot" was used for the small unpretentious court house and also a separate jail, both of which buildings were used for county purposes for more than seventy years. The jail was burned in 1757, and the court house was only with difficulty saved. Soon thereafter it was decided to erect a building that would serve both judicial and jailing purposes. So the old court house was demolished and the new county building, which was two stories high, provided for jail and jailer on the ground floor, and for the court on the upper.2 By the year 1792 this building had become much too small to meet the growing needs of the county, and was in dilapidated
2. "In 1757 the jail was burned and the courthouse was barely saved from the flames. Subsequently the courthouse was taken down and a new building erected. This was two stories high, and was designed both for court and jail purposes. A hall ran through the building dividing the lower floor; on one side was a jailer's room, and on the north side the jail apartment.
"The jail room was constructed of heavy oak planks fastened to solid timbers by wrought iron spikes, and the floor was the same material. The doors were made of heavy oaken timbers four or five inches thick, the planks running diagonally and being defended by heavy iron bars horizon- tally across the door. A single diamond-shaped opening near the top of the door was strongly bound in iron. Two grated windows opening to the street gave light to the apartment. Sometimes the grates of these windows were cut with instruments supplied by friends to the prisoners, who thereby were enabled to escape. On the second story of this building was the court room, with a bench for the judges, desk for the clerk, the needed chairs for the jurors, docks for prisoners, and seats for spectators. The original cost of the building was $448, which was raised by assessment upon the taxable inhabitants of the county. During the Revolution, while the British were in possession of Long Island, the court room was converted into a ball room for the use of the British officers."-Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York," quoting Proctor's "History of the Bench and Bar of Kings County," a part of Stiles' "History of Kings County," Vol. I, p. 339.
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state. Therefore, measures were taken to build another and larger court house upon similar plans. The building com- missioners appointed were John Vanderbilt, Johannes E. Lott and Charles Doughty, but the first named declined to serve, so Rutger van Brunt took his place. The old court house was sold by auction and removed, its timbers being used in build- ing a dwelling house.3 The new combined court house and jail was completed in 1793, at a cost of $2,944.71.
This building served many purposes ; the courtroom on the second floor was used for almost all public functions-school exhibitions, town meetings and so forth. In 18II, states Judge Furman, the Brooklyn historian, "the court house was let to James Simson for one year at $3 in money." It was, however, still used for county purposes, for the justices "re- served for themselves the chamber in the said house called the court chamber, at the time of their publique sessions, and courts of common pleas, and private meetings; as also the room called the prison, for the use of the sheriff if he had oc- casion for it." The building was not well suited for jailing purposes ; in fact, it became "a common remark in those days" that "prisoners were in great danger of falling out of Flatbush jail." Fortunately, prisoners were few.
The court house at Flatbush served for county purposes with tolerable satisfaction until the third decade of the nine- teenth century. In December, 1821, the subject of re- moving the court sessions from Flatbush to Brooklyn was first agitated. The county clerk's office had been removed to Brooklyn in 1819, and there were logical reasons why the borough should also have the court house. However, the movement did not gather much force for some years, but in January, 1825, a committee was organized to further the
3. Michael van Cleef bought the old courthouse at auction, and sold the timbers to the Rev. Martinus Schoonmaker. He built a house which was occupied for years by his son, Stephen .- Hazelton's "Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, Counties of Nassau and Suffolk" (1925).
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project, and soon reported progress. In 1826, a petition was presented to the Legislature. It brought action by that body, the approving measure providing that thereafter Brooklyn should alternate with Flatbush as the place of court sessions for Kings County. Hence, a session of the Kings County court, the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of General Sessions, opened in Brooklyn in January, 1827, the courtroom being in the Apprentices' Library, which had just been erected in Cranberry Street. The Supreme Court sessions, however, seem to have been held in Flatbush Court House until 1832, when the contention between Flatbush and Brook- lyn was finally decided in the favor of the latter, by the burn- ing of the Flatbush Court House. It is recorded that "dur- ing the conflagration all the prisoners confined in the jail, except one, labored with great alacrity to extinguish the flames, and, when all was over, voluntarily submitted to re- imprisonment provided in another place." The moral standard among criminals at that time was apparently higher than one would expect of the class nowadays, else prison conditions were better.
Since 1832 all session of the county and higher courts in Kings County have centered in Brooklyn. The last Circuit Court session held at Flatbush opened on May 4, 1832, Judge Ogden Edwards presiding. The November session of the Court of Common Pleas of that year was held at Brooklyn, Judge John Dikeman presiding. Presumably, a sitting of Cir- cuit Court was also held in Brooklyn in the same half year. But many years were to pass before Brooklyn could satisfac- torily accommodate the courts;4 and a jail was not built at
4. After the destruction of this courthouse, Flatbush ceased to be the county seat, the courts and all other county business being transferred to Brooklyn. It was five years before the new court buildings were completed in Brooklyn, and during that time the county courts were held in the Apprentices' Library. As there was no jail, prisoners arrested in Kings were sent to the old Bridewell Prison in New York City, where they were in charge of the sheriff of New York.
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once. Brooklyn had a debtors' prison in 1829,5 and local pris- oners were confined in cells in the almshouse, on the south side of Nassau Street, between Bridge and Jay streets; but the county prisoners were sent to the old Bridewell prison, in the city of New York, after the burning of the Flatbush jail in 1832. It was not until 1839 that the first county jail was built in Brooklyn, a site on Raymond Street being used. Until 1864 the supervisors of Kings County held meetings in the county jail,6 and the County Court was also using one of the rooms in that year. The movement of the courts from 1832, when Flatbush Court House was burned, until 1864, when the building of a county court house was nearing com- pletion, seems to have been as follows: The Apprentices' Li- brary was used for about five years from 1832; Hall's Ex- change Building, a four-storied brick structure erected by Brooklyn's first mayor, and situated at the southwest corner of Fulton and Cranberry streets, was used until the building was razed by the great fire of 1848, the County and Circuit
Thereupon one of the principal measures before the public was the loca- tion of a county courthouse. In view of the rapid increase of property and population which had taken place in Brooklyn, it seemed appropriate that the new edifice should be erected there. The town then had 2,266 electors, whereas all the rest of the county had only 710; 553 jurors and the other towns 270; taxable property assessed at $7,829,684, while that of the rest of the county was only $1,610,594. The proposition, however, to locate the court here, and to increase the representation of the village in the board of supervisors, met with strenuous opposition from the other towns of the county. An act was finally passed by the Legislature, April, 1833, authorizing its location in Brooklyn, and appointing Messrs. L. van Nostrand, Joseph Moser and Peter Conover as commissioners to fix upon the site .- Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York," Vol. III, p. 77.
. The triangle bounded by Fulton, Court, and Joralemon Streets was acquired as site, and construction began in 1835; but, like most building plans of that hectic period, the projectors had pictured an especially roseate future for Brooklyn and had decided to build "for posterity"; therefore, when in 1837 the Nation was gripped by the most serious financial panic it had up to then suffered, Brooklyn was not able to carry through its ambi- tious plans; indeed, all building had to be suspended in August, 1837, by which time the construction had not gone beyond the basement story. This was roofed over. The most important event of the next few years was the judgment against the borough, in favor of Masterson and Smith, the
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Courts using the third story ; Raymond Street Jail was used for at least one session, pending completion of Brooklyn Bor- ough Hall, in 1848; the latter was used by almost all the courts, inferior and higher, from 1849 to 1865, although after the consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Bushwick, in 1852, the municipal requirements became so many that the county departments found the borough hall somewhat incon- venient, the congestion eventually resulting in some of the county departments removing to quarters in the county jail. In March, 1865, however, all the courts-Supreme, County, City, Sessions-as well as the supervisors and county offices took possession of the new court house, at Fulton and Jorale- mon streets.7 The building is still used as the main court house, and the most recent renovation of it occurred in 1916. The municipal courts, however, have other quarters, among the latest arrangements made for the accommodation of the inferior courts being the purchase of the Williamsburg Trust Company's building, on Williamsburg Bridge Plaza in 1916,
marble contractors, for $72,999.98. Work was not resumed on the borough hall until 1844, and the building was not completed until 1848. The total cost was $250,000.
5. The trustees of the village of Brooklyn deemed a debtor's prison an important addition to the city. In February, 1829, Joseph Sprague, presi- dent of the Board of Trustees, made a report on the subject of fitting up under the market a prison room for debtors. A lockup was provided and cells built under the market. These cells were often crowded and little provision was made for the comfort of the occupants. During those early days prisoners were also confined in cells in the almshouse, then situated on the south side of Nassau Street, between Bridge and Jay streets .- Ches- ter's "Legal and Judicial History of New York," Vol. III, pp. 81-82.
6. The first county jail building was erected on Raymond Street in 1839 and six years later an addition was built to provide for a female ward. Until 1864, the supervisors held meetings in the jail and at that time the county court was also held in one of the rooms of the building. In 1879 the present structure was erected and it has accommodation for seven hundred and fifty inmates, a capacity largely in excess of any demands that have yet been made upon it.
In 1846 the Board of Supervisors began consideration of purchasing land on which to erect the workhouse and penitentiary, in accordance with the act of the Legislature passed in April of that year. A tract of land was purchased on a spot familiarly called Crow's Hill, a space of two blocks on
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and the remodelling of same for use as a Magistrate's Court ; the opening of a new $200,000 court house on Snyder Avenue in December, 1923, for use of Magistrate and Municipal courts, and the renovation of the Gates Avenue Court Building in the same year. Authorization has been given for the expend- iture of $6,000,000 in the construction of a municipal building, which structure when ready for occupation will enable the city to vacate many rented quarters.
It is recorded that prior to 1783 Kings County had no resi- dent members of its bar. The great city nearby drew all the lawyers within accessible distance to it, and the lawyers of the metropolis were wont to serve the courts of the counties within the metropolitan area. The Court of Common Pleas was reorganized as a State court, under the Constitution of 1777, in 1785, with Nicholas Cowenhoven as first judge. The first surrogate, Johannes E. Lott, organized the Surrogate's Court at Flatbush in 1787. John Wells, who graduated from Princeton in 1788, and opened a law office as soon as possible
the outskirts of the city, bounded by Nostrand, Rogers, President, and Carroll streets; the institution faces on Carroll Street. Work upon the building was begun in 1846, and in March, 1848, a small portion of the struc- ture was so far completed that the first prisoners, thirteen in number, were received into it. In the following year the hospital was finished. The entire building was completed in August, 1856, at a total cost of $205,000. Mean- time steps had been taken to build a female wing, and this was done in 1855. Prisoners committed for thirty days or more are sent to this institution. The Penitentiary has been particularly famous for the reason that it has been utilized by the United States Government as the place of confinement for Federal prisoners .- Chester's Legal and Judicial History of N. Y.," Vol. III, p. 82 (19II).
7. The subject of building a new courthouse was agitated before the middle of the nineteenth century. After Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Bush- wick had been consolidated into one city, the court accommodations in the city hall were more than ever inadequate and agitation for the erection of an independent courthouse was renewed. In January, 1853, a special committee of the Board of Supervisors reported in favor of asking the Legislature to authorize the work. In response the Legislature passed an act giving per- mission to the county to borrow a sum not to exceed $100,000 for the pur- chase of the site for the erection of the buildings. Some discussion ensued in regard to the site for the proposed buildings, and one of the locations which was seriously considered, principally on account of its sightliness, was
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thereafter, lived in Brooklyn, but his office was in Pine Street, New York. But there was no dearth of lawyers in attend- ance at sessions of court in Kings County in the early decades of the State period. As the "Brooklyn Eagle" stated on Oc- tober 26, 1911, "few of the communities of any State in the Union have the traditions surrounding its bench and bar that Kings County has." The Brooklyn paper supported this as- sertion by pointing out that "the most famous men in Ameri- can history have appeared before its bench to plead as law- yers. Among the jurists were John Marshall, John Jay and Joseph Story, whose names are starred forever in the United States Supreme Court. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were pleaders at its bar." One of the cases in which Burr ap- peared was that arising out of the bitter disputes between the town of Gravesend and the owners of the Bruyn patent, in 1789.8 But Kings County could count no more than fifteen lawyers as its own in the opening year of the nineteenth cen- tury, in which year it is said the first term of Circuit Court
Fort Greene. Subsequently, Vanderbilt Avenue, near Baltic Street, was proposed, but this site met with opposition. Thus the project was delayed for one reason or another until 1860, when a new application was made to the Legislature, and new authority received. The Board of Supervisors were authorized to select and determine the location and to superintend the building. As in the years preceding the advocates of different localities became active and the old discussion was renewed. Finally a plan sub- mitted by King and Tackritz, of Brooklyn, was accepted, and land on Fulton Street, near the city hall, was purchased in March, 1861, as the final decision of the Board of Supervisors. This spot was once the Brooklyn Garden and also as the Military Garden it was a place of popular resort famous in the village annals. The ground on which the courthouse stands was one hun- dred and forty feet on Fulton and Joralemon streets, by three hundred and fifty-one feet deep.
The building was constructed under the direction of the Board of Super- visors, a special building committee being Samuel Booth, Charles C. Talbot, William H. Hazard, Charles A. Carnaville, Gillian Schenck, and George G. Herman. The corner stone was laid May 20, 1862, with Masonic cere- monies, and on this occasion addresses were made by Mayor Kalbfleisch, General Cooke, president of the Board of Supervisors, Judge John A. Lott, and Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs.
Three years were then expended in the building of the edifice, which ultimately cost, with the land upon which it was located, nearly $550,000. In
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and Oyer and Terminer held in Kings County, under the Con- stitution of 1777, was opened. And even thirty-five years later (1835), Kings County bar had only twenty-one mem- bers.9 The progress during the second half of the nineteenth century, however, was great, and Brooklyn could count 1,500 lawyers at its close. It now has more than two thousand.
The writer does not accept the statement that the first term of Supreme Court held in Kings County was that which was opened at Flatbush on June 6, 1800, by Justice Egbert Benson. According to the act of April 19, 1786, one or more justices of the supreme Court were required to hold circuit courts every year in every county ; and as the justices used to travel even as far as Geneva and Canandaigua during the next decade, much of the journey being through the well nigh im- penetrable forest, it would seem that terms would also be held in the more accessible Flatbush prior to 1800. However, the Kings County records in this connection go back no further. And it must be admitted that Justice Egbert Benson's charge
March, 1865, the Supreme Court, the County Court, the City Court, the Ses- sions Supervisors and other offices were located therein.
The main building of this structure is of Westchester marble, with Corinthian columns. It is sixty-four feet in height, and one hundred and forty feet in width, and extends back to Livingston Street, a distance of two hundred and fifteen feet. It is surmounted by a cupola composed of ribs and panel work, rising one hundred and four feet above the street .- Ches- tel. s "Legal and Judicial History of N. Y.," Vol. III, pp. 80-81.
8. "Several interesting cases were tried in the early courts of the county after the Revolution. For years there was a bitter dispute known as the 'Bruyn or Brume controversy,' between the town of Gravesend and those who had by purchase become owners of what was known as the 'Bruyn' patent, which included the fishing in certain waters in the town. In 1789 one Albert Voorhees, who had been the owner of the patent, brought action for trespass against several inhabitants of the town for taking fish in the waters which he claimed. The trial of the case, which occurred in Septem- ber, 1789, was particularly noteworthy from the fact that the celebrated Aaron Burr, who was then in the midst of his splendid practice at the bar and one of the most distinguished lawyers in the country, appeared for the town. The jury brought in a verdict in accord with the argument of Mr. Burr, and in favor of the town of Gravesend and its inhabitants. It appears from the records that Burr received for his services in this suit altogether thirty-five pounds. To the hotel keeper in Flatbush, for enter-
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to the jury10 on this occasion seems to indicate that it might have been the initial session of the State Court. The first cause tried in this session was that of John ven Nuis vs. Peter Duryea. Attorney for the plaintiff was Peter R. Livingston, of Dutchess County.
It is not necessary to state here what were the courts that functioned at different times, under different constitutions and charters, in Kings County; the subject has been dealt with once, or more, in other chapters; and in the review of New York City courts much has been written regarding the local courts of Greater New York. All of the courts of Kings County have had worthy men upon its bench and at its bar; some have gone to the highest courts; other distinguished lawyers of Brooklyn have gone to high places in the public affairs of State and Nation. Of the bench and bar of contem- poraneous times, the following were named in a review in IQII; Justice Calvin E. Pratt, of the Supreme Court; Chief Judge Edgar M. Cullen, of the Court of Appeals Judge Henry A. Moore, who was county judge from 1871 to 1896; George B. Abbott, surrogate, 1889-1902; Chief Judge Nathaniel H. Clement, Judge Augustus Van Wyck, Judge William J. Os- borne, all of the City Court and, from 1896, of the Supreme Court; Benjamin D. Silliman, who from the time of his admis-
taining during the trial, thirty pounds was paid, and also the amount of Burr's bill at the same hotel for board while he was conducting the trial." -Ibid., Vol. III, pp. 77-78.
9. James B. Clark, Richard D. Covert, George C. Dickson, John Dike- man, Theodore Eames, Gabriel Furman, William A. Green, Nathan B. Morse, Henry C. Murphy, Nathaniel Porter, Alepheus R. Rolph, Gilbert Reed, William Rockwell, John Smalley, Silas P. Smith, William B. Waldo, and Nathaniel Waring.
IO. "Your county, gentlemen, over which the smoke of battle fields has but recently floated, has before it a magnificent future. Upon grand juries, upon courts of justice, upon the officers of courts, and upon all persons connected with the admiration of the laws, rest solemn responsibility which are to tell on the future, for now is the seed time, now is the ground fallow which is to yield fruit for generations to come. See to it then, gentlemen, that the responsibilities with which the law clothes you are properly executed and directed."
BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL 1846
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