USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume II > Part 46
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the Court of Common Pleas. During the provincial period the Hicks, Coe and Willett families provided many county judges ; the last first judge of the Crown Court was Thomas Hicks, who-unless the record is incomplete-served in that capacity from 1748 until the end of the English period, or probably for more than thirty years. With this exception the present incumbent, Judge Humphrey has served longer than any other county judge of Queens. The is no exception in the case of Surrogate17 Noble; no other surrogate of Queens County has served half as long as he has. He was district attorney18 for some years before becoming surrogate.
Garret J. Garretson, who was surrogate of Queens County in 1880, and county judge from 1885 to 1896, was elected to the bench of the Supreme Court, Second Judicial District, in 1896 for a full term, and was reelected in 1910, for another full term, of which, however, he could only serve seven years, as
jamin W. Strong, 1834; David S. Jones, 1840; Henry I. Hagner, 1843; Isaac E. Haviland, 1846; Henry I. Hagner, 1847; William J. Cogswell, appointed September 7, 1849, vice Hagner, deceased; Morris Fosdick, elected November, 1849; Elias J. Beach, 1857; John J. Armstrong, 1865; Garret J. Garretson, 1885; Harrison S. Moore, appointed, December, 1896, vice Garretson, resigned; Burt J. Humphrey, 1903.
17. Surrogates, Queens County-John Bridges, 1721; John Messenger, 1735; Samuel Clowes, Jr., 1748; Thomas Braine, 1754; Samuel Clowes, 1759; Edward Dawson, 1767; Joseph Robinson, 1784; David Lamberson, Jr., 1816; John D. Ditmis, 1820; John W. Seaman, 1821; Nicholas Wyck- off, 1826; Henry I. Hagner, 1834; William J. Cogswell, 1849; Morris Fos- dick, 1849; William H. Onderdonk, 1865; James W. Covert, 1869; Alex- ander Hagner, 1873; Garret J. Garretson, appointed April, 1880, in place of Hagner, deceased; Charles de Kay Townsend, elected November, 1880; Augustus N. Weller, 1886; Daniel Noble, 1898.
18. District Attorneys, Queens County-Eliphalet Wickes, 1818; Wil- liam T. McCoun, 1821; Benjamin F. Thompson, 1826; William H. Carroll (Barroll), 1836; Alexander Hadden, 1842; John G. Lamberson, 1847; Wil- liam H. Onderdonk, 1853; John J. Armstrong, 1859; Benjamin W. Down- ing, 1865; John Fleming, 1883; Thomas F. McGowan, 1886; John Flem- ing, appointed August, 1887, vice McGowan, resigned; John Fleming, elected November, 1887; Daniel Noble, 1893; William J. Youngs, 1896; George W. Davison, appointed 1898, vice Youngs, resigned; John B. Merrill, 1899; George A. Gregg, 1902; Ira G. Darrin, 1905; Fred G. DeWitt, 1908; Mat- thew J. Smith, 1911; Denis O'Leary, 1914; Dana Wallace, 1920; Richard S. Newcomb, 1923.
olen a. Com
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in 1917 he would reach the age limit of seventy years. He was born in Newtown in 1847. Two of the present justices of the Supreme Court, Second District, are residents of Jamaica : James C. van Siclen and Leander B. Faber.
John Alsop King, who was Governor of New York, 1857-59, may be claimed by Queens County, and also may be included in the legal records of that county, for he was a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar before war broke out in 1812. In that campaign he was a cavalry officer. After re- entering civil life he farmed at Jamaica for awhile. In 1819 he was elected to the Legislature, and thereafter until his re- tirement, in old age, engaged mostly in public and political work. He died in Jamaica in 1867, aged seventy-nine years. Egbert Benson, the first attorney-general of New York, is in State records as of Jamaica. He became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
Suffolk County was one of the original twelve counties organized in 1683. Southold, within its bounds, was the first English settlement established on Long Island. During the Dutch period it was for nearly the whole time almost inde- pendent of Dutch authority, its affairs being largely in its own hands. And Southold was one of the last to bow to the authority of the first English Governor, Nicolls, and to gov- ernment by the Duke's Laws.
The settlement at Southold began in 1639, it is believed. In 1640 John Youngs led his little band of settlers forth to choose a site for their meeting house, after the customary manner in New England. They chose the corner of an acre lot, whereon the founder's monument stands to-day. There they raised a building which was to serve as church, school- house, town house, court house-in fact for all public purposes. It was also fortified, to serve as a fort, in case of attack by Indians. The residences were probably built nearby, so that
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refuge would be taken quickly in the fortified house, in case of sudden attack, this being the general New England plan of defence adopted in outlying settlements. And though the settlement was in New Netherland, the settlers recognized only the jurisdiction of the New Haven General Court.
One of the first settlers was William Wells, who, it is said, was a lawyer. It seems fittings, therefore, that he should have been chosen as the first high sheriff of Yorkshire, in 1665, when New Netherland passed to the English and Governor Nicolls organized Long Island and part of the mainland near New York as the shrievalty of Yorkshire. Suffolk County was the East Riding.
Those of the East Riding who attended the convention at Hempstead in February-March, 1665, to consider the Duke's Laws included delegates from Huntington, Seatalcot, South- ampton, Southold and Easthampton. The names are given in Part II. In 1680 Captain Youngs was sheriff of Yorkshire, and when Governor Dongan arrived, became a member of the Governor's Council, which was to all intents the highest court of the province. The Dongan Assembly, in 1683, divided Long Island into three counties, of which Suffolk was one. Thereafter, the County Court of Sessions held its regular terms alternately at Southampton and Southold. In 1684 it was decided to erect a prison at Southold. The town of Southold met this requirement by building a new meeting house, and delivering the original church-court town- house to the county for use as a jail. The second story of the Horton homestead was remodelled as a courtroom, and until 1729 court sessions continued to be held in Southold and Southampton alternately. In 1729 a court house was erected at Riverhead. It was a small frame building, but was in- tended to serve as both court house and jail; and it was suffi- cient to justify the claim of Riverhead to be the county seat of Suffolk County. A century later, after another jail had
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been erected and the court house repaired, the latter con- tinued to serve the county until 1854-55, when a new court house was erected on a large plot of ground in what was then the northwestern suburb of Riverhead. "The first court house, after reconstruction and enlargement is standing even to modern times in the center of the business portion of the village," stated one writer in 1911. This is surprising, and would have been much more surprising to Dr. Dwight, presi- dent of Yale College, who toured through Long Island in 1804. and stated in his journal that the Riverhead court house was then "a poor decayed building." He wrote: "Riverhead is the shire town of this country. The court house, a poor de- cayed building, and a miserable hamlet containing about ten or twelve houses, stand near the efflux of the river. From this account of the court house, it will naturally be expected that the business of lawyers and sheriffs is not here in very great demand, nor in very high reputation. The suspicion is certainly well founded. The county court, or Court of Com- mon Pleas, sits here twice a year ; assembles on Tuesday, and, after having finished its whole business, adjourns almost always on the succeeding day. No lawyer, if I am not mis- informed, has heretofore been able to get a living in the county of Suffolk. I entertain a very respectful opinion of the gentlemen of the bar, but all will agree with me in saying that this exemption from litigation, while it is peculiar, is also a very honorable characteristic of the county." The whole- some standard of life, the standard set by the New England pioneers whose first object was to erect a church in the settle- ment, so that they might set their lives according to its cor- recting guidance, probably explains the exemption from liti- gation that Dr. Dwight, in 1804, thought was so "peculiar." And though the inhabitants of Suffolk County now provide litigious matters in sufficient quantity to yield satisfactory incomes to the twenty-five, or more, lawyers who practice in
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the county, it must not be inferred therefrom that the moral standard of the county is lower now than it was in 1804- increase in population, wealth, business, and so forth, is the explanation.
The court house erected in 1854-55 was a substantial struc- ture. The "building committee which had charge of the work of construction consisted of S. B. Nicoll, of Shelter Island ; William R. Post, of Southampton; and Sylvester Miller, of Riverhead. The building is of brick and stone, and cost $17,800. The jail, an octagonal building of stone, occupies the center of the yard in the rear. In 1881, the jail having proved to be insufficient for its purpose, a new building was added to it, a court house two stories in height rising from a stone basement. The basement and a part of the main floor are occupied for the living rooms of the sheriff or jailer; on the main floor are the jury rooms, while the supervisors' rooms and the court room are on the second floor."
The first session of court held in Riverhead was that con- ducted on March 27, 1729. The first case of capital punish- ment of which there is record (though it would seem that there were probably earlier cases in provincial times when a person might be hanged for stealing trifles) was that of John Slocum, who was executed on September 4, 1786, for horse stealing. This begins the State period. On October 5, 1799, William Erskine, a negro, was executed for rape. On Janu- ary 12, 1835, William Enich was hanged for murdering his wife. On July 2, 1836, John Hallock was hanged for murder. Others hanged for murder were Samuel Johnson, July 6, 1841, and Nicholas B. Hand, on December 15, 1854.
The list of county judges is given at foot.19 The list is
19. County Judges, Suffolk County-Suffolk County, or that, the east- ern, part of Long Island was designated the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1665, when the Duke's Laws were promulgated. Under the Dutch governors, and also under the early English governors, it was somewhat restless and inde- pendent. One sheriff, William Wells, for the whole of Yorkshire, was appointed in 1665, and the County of Suffolk was not organized until 1683.
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from 1691 to 1924. The earlier records are not available, though it might be stated that Captain John Youngs, who was one of the wealthiest men on Long Island, was one of the judges appointed by Governor Sloughter, in 1691, to try Lieu- tenant-Governor Leisler, who was sentenced to death for treason. The first county judge (William Smith, in 1691) was also the first surrogate, a practice which was again adopted during the period 1847-79. One other county judge also served as surrogate-Joseph Fordham, in 1709. With these exceptions, Suffolk County has always had a separate surrogate. The roster is stated below.20
The first will recorded in Suffolk County is that of Joseph Stanborough, who lived in Sagaponack, in the town of South- ampton. It was dated July 16, 1661, and was proved at the Quarter Court held in Southampton on September 3, 1661. It does not, however, come into the records of New Nether-
Reorganizations took place in 1691, and under the code of that year William Smith was one of the judges of the colony. He was also Surrogate of Suffolk County. Isaac Arnold is shown as Common Pleas Judge of Suffolk County in 1693, but the regular list of appointments to judgeships begins with Joseph Fordham on March 24, 1707. His successors in the Court of Common Pleas have been : Henry Smith, 1713; Daniel Smith, 1744; Rich- ard Floyd, 1751 ; William Smith, 1771; Selah Strong, 1784; Ebenzer Platt, 1793; Abraham Woodhull, 1800; Thomas S. Strong, 1810; Nathaniel Pot- ter, 1823; Jonathan S. Conklin, 1828; Hugh Halsey, 1833; Abraham T. Rose, 1847; William P. Buffett, 1851; Abraham T. Ross, 1855; George Miller, 1857; J. Lawrence Smith, 1857; Henry P. Hedges, 1865; John R. Reid, 1869; Henry P. Hedges, 1873; Thomas Young, 1879; Wilmot M. Smith, 1891; Benjamin H. Reeve, 1896; Walter H. Jaycox, appointed Jan- uary, 1902; Timothy M. Griffing, 1906; John R. Vunk, 1912; George H. Furman, 1918.
20. Surrogates of Suffolk County-William Smith, 1691; Giles Syl- vester, 1706; Joseph Fordham, 1709; Jeremiah Scott, 1723; B. Sylvester, 1727; Henry Smith, 1739; Malby Gelston, 1753; Elijah Hutchinson, 1753; William Thrope, 1754; Samuel Landon, 1757; Richard Miller, 1766; Wil- liam Smith, 1766; Jared Landon, 1768; Nathan Woodhull, 1769; David Gelston, 1775; Hugh Gelston, Jr., 1786; Thomas Tredwell, 1787; Nicholl Floyd, 1791; Ebenezer M. Case, 1823; Hugh Halsey, 1827; George Miller, 1840; Charles A. Floyd, 1844. After 1846 the offices of County Judge and Surrogate were merged, until 1879, when James H. Tuthill was elected Sur- rogate; Nathan D. Petty, 1891; Joseph M. Belford, 1903; William G. Nicoll, 1909; Selah B. Strong, 1915; Robert S. Pelletreau, 1921.
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land, for at that time the town was under the jurisdiction ot Connecticut, and the probate was according to the laws of that colony.
It will be seen by the list of district attorneys21 that many of the lawyers who served Suffolk County in this capacity were, later or earlier, appointed or elected to the bench of the county court. George Miller was county judge in 1857 and district attorney in 1859; Henry P. Hedges was district attor- ney in 1862 and county judge three years later ; and the names Smith and Strong are encountered frequently in all the lists. William Smith was first judge in 1691, and his namesake held that judicial dignity when the provincial court was in its last years. The first William Smith was one of the judges at the
Leisler trial in 1691 ; and he was Chief Justice of the province of New York under Cornbury, being restored by the latter not because of his eminence as a jurist, but, perhaps, to dis- credit Bellomont, a former Governor, who had removed Smith for incompetency. As a matter of fact, politics-arising out of the Leisler case-had more to do with it than anything else. Several later Smiths come creditably into judicial his- tory of the provincial period-see Chapter XXVII. Selah Strong became first judge of Suffolk County when the State Court of Common Pleas was organized in 1784; Thomas S. Strong was first judge for thirteen years from 1810; Selah B. Strong was district attorney from 1821 to 1847, and a name- sake of a later generation was surrogate of Suffolk County from 1915-20, going from that county office to a Supreme Court justiceship in 1921. The present surrogate, Robert S.
21. District Attorneys of Suffolk County-Silas Wood, 1818; Selah B. Strong, 1821; Charles A. Floyd, 1830; Selah B. Strong, October, 1830; William Wickham, Jr., elected June 7, 1847; J. Lawrence Smith, 1857; George Miller, 1859; Henry P. Hedges, 1862; Samuel A. Smith, 1866; James H. Tuthill, 1867; Nathaniel D. Petty, 1879; Wilmot, M. Smith, 1884; Benjamin H. Reeve, 1890; Walter H. Jaycox, 1893; Livingston Smith, 1899; George H. Furman, 1905; Ralph C. Greene, 1911; Leroy M. Young, 1917; George W. Hildreth, 1923.
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Pelletreau, is of the family to which Suffolk County is in- debted for much of its interesting history. Walter H. Jaycox, who was district attorney of Suffolk County from 1893 to 1899, and its county judge from 1902 to 1906, was elected to the bench of the Supreme Court, Second District, in 1906, and was reëlected in 1920; he will reach retiring age in 1933. The present county judge of Suffolk, George H. Furman, was dis- trict attorney for six years, 1905-II.
RICHMOND COUNTY.
Richmond was one of the original counties of New York established in 1683, the proceedings being begun in March and organization completed on November I of that year.
Stony Brook was named as the county seat, and it con- tinued to be the shire-town until 1729, when Cuckholdstowne, now Richmond, was succesful in persuading the Legislature to transfer the county seat-of-justice to it.
The Court of Sessions held its regular terms in Richmond County under the Dongan Act it would seem, but there are no records of judicial appointments until 1691, when the Court of Common Pleas was organized in each county. The first judge of Common Pleas of Richmond County was Ellis Dux- bury, who was commissioned in 1691. He seems to have served until 1710, when Daniel Lake was appointed. The first surrogate was Walter Dongan, appointed in 1733, after removal of the county seat to Cuckholdstowne.
The first court house and county jail, at Stony Brook, was a one-storied structure, containing two rooms. "One of these rooms, built of roughly-hewn logs filled in with clay and shell lime, served as the jail. The only door to it was built of rough boards, hung on raw-hide hinges, and opened outward. A window about a foot square, which the prisoners could regulate for their own comfort by filling with brush when the rain, snow or cold crept in, was the only other opening." The jail had an earthen floor, and the furniture of the room
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consisted of "a bench-like log which extended along the rear of the room." The lock was made of strips of rawhide, which were tied on the outside. These were not very secure quar- ters, and the prisoners had many friends outside ; hence it is not surprising to read that "the dignity of the law was so frequently trampled upon by the escape of prisoners" that the first judge directed the sheriff to "forthwith purchase a more substantial lock, and to procure a bell wherewith to give alarm in case there should be any further attempt to escape from ye said jail." An appropriation was made to meet this expenditure, which presumably was incurred, and the ends of justice more surely carried through thereafter. The other room of the one-storied county building served not only as court house, but as living quarters for the jailer ; it was built of stone, and was probably more comfortable than the jail. But at best it was primitive, though perhaps suited to the time and place.
While Stony Brook was the county seat, the legal busi- ness naturally centered in it; but from 1730 the bar of Rich- mond County has functioned from Richmond. It was not a very strong bar in early days; indeed, it is more than likely that there were no resident lawyers during the provincial period, save perhaps those New York lawyers who lived on Staten Island and did most of their practicing of law in New York City courts. However, as was stated by Judge Stephen D. Stephens in his address at Stony Brook in 1909, upon the occasion of the Hudson-Fulton celebration exercises : "From the days of Ellis Duxbury and Walter Dongan, the bench of Richmond County has been occupied and honored, and the bar has been represented by men whose ability and integrity have been equal to any and second to none in this great coun- try ; and never once has the ermine been tarnished in any manner by any act of any judicial officer who has worn it."
Richmond County has been especially fortunate in its
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county judges.22 Judge Stephens was on the bench for thirty years, 1881-19II, and his successor, Judge Tiernan, is now serving his third term of six years. Judge Tysen was first judge of Common Pleas for seventeen years, 1823-40; First Judge Paul Micheau, who was the first to preside over the Richmond County Court of Common Pleas after the Revolu- tion, served for eleven years; and Judge Farmar presided over the provincial court for twenty-seven years, 1712-39. Judge Duxbury, therefore, established a good precedent when he held presiding care over the County Court throughout its first two decades. The Surrogate's Court23 of Richmond County has an even better record in this respect. Walter Dongan was surrogate for more than a generation, 1733-59; his successor, Benjamin Seaman, served until the end of the provincial period, probably for twenty years; and Abraham Bancker was surrogate for seventeen years, 1792-1809. Some very capable lawyers are listed among the district attorneys of Richmond County.24 Henry B. Metcalfe, who was district
22. County Judges, Richmond County-Ellis Duxbury, 1691; Daniel Lake, 1710; Joseph Billop, 1711; Thomas Farmar, 1712; Richard Merrill, 1739; John LeConte, 1739; William Walton, 1756; Joseph Bedell, 1761 ; Benjamin Seaman, 1775; Paul Micheau, 1786; Gozen Ryerss, 1797; John J. Murray, 1802; John Garretson, 1803; Jacob Tysen, 1823; Henry B. Met- calfe, 1840; William Emerson, 1841; Albert Ward, 1844; Henry B. Met- calfe, 1847; Tompkins Westervelt, 1876; Stephen D. Stephens, 1881; J. Harry Tiernan, 19II.
23. Surrogates, Richmond County-Walter Dongan, 1733; Benjamin Seaman, 1759; Adrian Bancker, 1787; Abraham Bancker, 1792; John Housman, 1809; Cornelius Bedell, 1810; Jonathan Lewis, 1811; Cornelius Bedell, 1813; Tunis Egbert, 1815; Richard Conner, 1820; John Garretson, 1820; Tunis Egbert, 1821; Richard Crocheron, 1830; Lewis R. Marsh, 1843; Henry B. Metcalfe, 1847. The last-named was also County Judge, the office of Surrogate and County Judge being merged by Constitution of 1846.
24. District Attorneys, Richmond County-Act of February 12, 1796, created the office of Assistant Attorney-General. Of the seven State dis- tricts the first embraced Kings, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester counties. The assistants were Nathaniel Lawrence and Calwallader D. Colden. The Act of April 4, 1801, established the office of District Attor- ney, with reorganization and addition of districts. New York was added to the First District, which was served by: Richard Riker, 1801; Cadwal- lader D. Colden, 1810; Richard Riker, 1811; Barent Gardenier, 1813;
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attorney from 1826 to 1833, was the first judge to reach the Richmond County Court bench by election. He was chosen by the electorate as county judge of the reorganized County Court in 1847, and, by the new Constitution, became surrogate at the same time. He held both of these offices continuously for twenty-eight years, until 1875, when he resigned to become a member of Congress. He died in 1881. His successor, Judge Stephens, was destined to win an even higher place of honor, his record in length of service bettering that of Judge Metcalfe's by a couple of years.
Only one member of the bar of Richmond County has reached the bench of the Supreme Court, if those who merely resided on Staten Island and practiced in New York City be excepted. In the latter class would come Justice Ogden Ed- wards, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards and cousin of Aaron Burr. He lived on Staten Island between 1820 and 1830. However, Richmond County's legitimate member of the Su- preme Court bench was Lester W. Clark, who was elected to the Supreme Court in November, 1906, for a full term of fourteen years.
If Justice Ogden Edwards be admitted to the Richmond County judicial circle, then Daniel D. Tompkins, who became Vice-President of the United States in 1817, should be ad- mitted. He was born in Westchester County, and, as a young man, began to practice law in that county. But State records show that he was a resident of Richmond County in 1807, when he became Governor of New York. His subsequent
Thomas S. Lester, 1815. The Act of 1818 gave each county a separate District Attorney. Those of Richmond County have been: George Met- calfe, 1818; Henry B. Metcalfe, 1826; Thomas S. Kingsland, 1833; George Catlin, 1839; Roderick N. Morrison, 1840; Lot C. Clarke, 1841; George Catlin, 1849; George White, 1850; Alfred DeGroot, 1850; Abraham W. Winant, 1850; John H. Hedley, 1865; Sidney F. Rawson, 1872; John Croak, 1875; George Gallagher, 1881; Thomas W. Fitzgerald, 1889; George M. Pinney, 1895; Edward S. Rawson, 1898; John J. Kenney, 1904; Samuel H. Evins, 1907; Albert C. Fach, 1910; Joseph Maloy, 1919; Albert Fach, appointed February, 1924, elected November, 1924.
DANIEL D. TOMPKINS
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record is shown in the Westchester County sketch, Chapter XLIX.
NASSAU COUNTY.
The early history of the region of the present civil division known as Nassau County is, of course, part of the history of Queens County, which has already been written into this chap- ter. The act setting apart as the county of Nassau the towns of Oyster Bay, North Hempstead and that part of the town of Hempstead which was not in Queens Borough, was passed by the Legislature on March 24, 1898, and signed by the Gov- ernor on April 28 following ; but the change was not effective until January 1, 1899.
The new county included within its bounds the follow- ing villages : Hempstead, Glen Cove, Freeport, Rockville Cen- tre, Oyster Bay, Hicksville, Lynbrook, Port Washington, Garden City, Sea Cliff, Roslyn, Farmingdale and Manhasset. Although a new county, some of its villages date back to the Dutch period, and possess very interesting history. Hemp- stead was settled in 1643; Oyster Bay was settled in 1653; and several other villages came into existence in the seven- teenth century. At Hempstead, the important convention of English delegates was held in 1665, to consider the Duke's Laws, by which the English province was thereafter to be governed. One of the first settlers at Hempstead, Andrew Ward, "had been a judge of the first court ever held in New Haven."
In 1788, four years after North Hempstead had been set apart from Hempstead, and five years after the Revolution ended, a court house was erected at North Hempstead which then became the shire-town. Mineola is now the county seat, the beautiful court house erected at that place in 1900 being situated not far from where the old court house stood on Hempstead Plains. Theodore Roosevelt, Governor of New York, who resided at Oyster Bay, laid the cornerstone of the Mineola structure on July 14, 1900.
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The first county judge25 of Nassau County was Robert Seabury, elected in 1898; the present incumbent has served one full term, and was reelected in 1922. The first county judge was also surrogate,26 but in 1910 the offices were sep- arated. The first district attorney27 of Nassau County, James P. Neimann, became county judge in 1910, and his successor as judge, Lewis J. Smith, also served a term as district at- torney.
25. County Judges of Nassau County-Robert Seabury, 1898; Edgar Jackson, 1904; James P. Niemann, 1910; Lewis J. Smith, 1916.
26. Surrogates of Nassau County-Robert Seabury, 1898; Edgar Jack- son, 1904; John J. Graham, 1910; Leone D. Howell, 1916.
27. District Attorneys of Nassau County-James P. Niemann, 1898; Franklin A. Coles, 1904; Charles N. Wysong, 1910; Lewis J. Smith, 1913; Charles R. Weeks, 1916.
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