History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 137

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 137

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FINANCES .- The valuation and taxation of the county in 1880 were as follows :

Value of real estate, 852,095,188 ; of personal property, $3,579,658. State tax : schools, $73,545 ; other purposes, $122,901. County tax for other purposes than schools, 8278,821. Tax in the school districts, $204, 736; in minor civil divisions, $626,623. Grand total of taxes paid $1, 306,626.

The gross indebteduess of the county in 1880 was 82,971,757 ; divided as follows : honded debt, 82,957,536 ; floating debt, §14,221. The sinking fund of 85,647 (belonging to Peekskill) reduced the total to $2,966,110 net. This amount is subdivided as follows : county debt, $320,000 ; town- ship debt, $1,083,278. School district debt, $931. City and town debts $1,554,258 bonded, and $13,290 floating debt, less $5,647 sinking fund. Net debt, 81,561,901.

525

WESTCHESTER COUNTY AT THE PRESENT DAY.

The city and town debt is divided as follows :

Yonkers takes the lead with a bonded debt of $1,389,000 ; the purpose fur which bonds are issued being,-

For bridges. $22,000

Public buildings

12,000

Refunding old debt.

730,000

Water works.

625,000

Total

$1,389,0' 0.

Sing Sing had a floating debt of .

$576

Peekskill, bonded debt

$135,208

Less sinkiny fund . 5,647

129,561

Port Chester, floating debt

10,000

White Plains, bonded

$23,300

Floating . 1,600

24,900

Mount Vernon, bonded $6,750

Floating . 1,114

7,864

The financial report of the mayor of Yonkers for the fiscal year end- ing March 1, 1885, shows the condition of the bonded debt to be as fol- lows:

Consolidation bonds, amount outstanding $525,000

Water

745,000

Bridge

4 €

14,000

Public Building and Dock “

30,000

Total amount outstanding March 1 $1,314,000

There was paid during the previous year $25,000 on consolidation and §3,000 on bridge bonds. Water bonds were issued to the amount of $ 15,000.

The county treasurer's report for the quarter ending January 31, 1886, shows the disbursements during the quarter to have been $60,- 019.76, and the balance on hand, February 1, $40,258.19.

The total amount paid on account of the county in- debtcdness during the year, as shown by reports, was twenty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-nine dollars.

EDUCATION .- The people of our county manifest a constant interest in educational affairs and the eon- dition of our schools is such as we may justly be proud of. There has been for many years a steady improvement in the character of school buildings and the methods of teaching have been as steadily per- fecting themselves. The teachers' institutes held yearly are of indisputable benefit and their effects are already felt in the schools.

At the spring holding of the institute, at New Rochelle, May, 1885, seventy-one per cent. of the whole number of teachers were in attendance.

The school commissioners' report for 1885-86 shows in the three school commissioners' districts of our county the following :

The number of teachers in the county is 334, apportioned by districts as follows :

1st Commissioners' District 66

138

130

The total number of pupils of school age in the county was 30,647, as follows :

Ist Commissioners' District 6,767

12,884

3dl

10,996

The average attendance In the connty was 9,440, di_ viled as follows :

Ist Commissioners' District . 1,877

4,110

3,453

The School Commissioners are for the, ---

1st District . Jared Sanford 2d . James B. Lock wood

John W. Littel, Peekskill

The city of Yonkers being a separate commissioners district, is accordingly not included in the above cal- culation.

The number of children of school age residing in the district of Yonkers, at the beginning of 1885, was seven thousand three hundred and sixty-two; of these one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine attended private schools and two thousand nine hundred and forty-eight the publie schools. Yonkers has thirteen private schools and seven publie school buildings; one of which is built of frame and six of brick.

In the county towns there are forty-six private sehools, with a total membership of four thousand and thirteen pupils.

Of the one hundred and fifty-four school buildings in the county at the present time (1885) one hundred and twenty-two are built of frame, twenty-eight of brick and four of stone.

The county school libraries contain twenty-seven thousand two hundred and twenty-one volumes, val- ued at nineteen thousand one hundred and twenty- four dollars. The Yonkers library, three thousand one hundred and fifty volumes, valued at thirty-eight hundred dollars.1

According to the annual report of the State Super- intendent of Publie Instruction for 1886 Westehester County has ninety-one ehildren over five and under twenty-one years of age, for each qualified teacher ; forty-eight children attending sehool any portion of the year for each qualified teacher; twenty-eight children the average daily attendance for each teaeh- er; 30.76 per cent. of average daily attendance on whole number of children between five and twenty-one years of age, and 58.33 per cent. of average daily at- tendanee on whole number of children attending school any portion of the year.

The Yonkers report shows one hundred and seventy- two children of school age for each qualified teacher; sixty-one the whole number of children attending sehool any portion of the year, for each qualified teacher ; thirty-seven the average daily attendance per teacher ; 21.51 the per cent. of average daily at- tendanee on the whole number of children of school age, and 60.65 the per cent. of average daily attend- ance on the whole number of children attending school any portion of the year.

Thomas Scharf

1 The number of school buildings and books has increased since this report.

526

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BENCH AND BAR.1

BY HON. ISAAC N. MILLS, Judge of the County Court.

PREPARATORY to writing this chapter we have carefully examined the court records, in the county clerk's office at White Plains, from the earliest times ; perused the fragments of history, here and there ex- tant, bearing upon the subject, and such biograph- ical sketches of judges and lawyers as can be found : and also received from the lips of some of the veteran members of the bar and old residents of the county a mass of traditionary information, giving the names, characteristics and relative standing of the leading members of the bar for nearly a century past, and abounding in interesting reminiscences and anecdotes, the publication of which the limits of this chapter do not permit.

Westchester County has had an established bench for about two hundred years, and an established bar for nearly, if not quite, that length of time. A period so long could not fail to prove a rich field for histori- cal investigation. While, in the main, the materials in hand arc abundant, still, in some cases, it has seemed impossible to recover from oblivion the biog- raphy of one who, from the frequent appearauce of his name upon the records of the court, we should judge to have been in his time a leading counselor and advocate.

With this mass of materials before us, it is no easy task to write a chapter upou the bench and bar of Westchester County ; it would be much easier to write a volume.

Under the scheme of this work, however, many of the leading judges and lawyers are treated of at length elsewhere, iu separate biographies, or in con- nection with the history of the several towns where they resided and whose names they have honored by their lives and work.

As to the living judges and lawyers, we shall under- take merely to give their names and residences, and leave to the future historian the presentation of their characteristics and careers when their life-work shall be complete.

The history of the bench of Westchester County begins in the year 1688, when John Pell was ap- pointed the first judge of the county. Ou pages 11 and 12, liber B of decds, in the office of the register of the county, his commission is stated in the following words :

" James the Second, by the grace of God, King of England, Scot- land, France, Ireland, &c., to all to whom theso presents shall couic,

greeting : know ye that we have assigned, constituted and appointed, and by these presents do assign, constitute and appoint, our trusty and well beloved subject, Jolın Pell, Esq., to be judge of our inferior Court of Commou Pleas, to be holden in our county of Westchester, in our territory and dominion of New England, with authority to use and ex- ercise all power and jurisdiction belonging to said court and to do that which to justice doth appertain, according to the laws, customs and stat- utes of our kingdom of England, and this, our territory and dominion, aud the said John Pell, assisted with two or more justices of the peace in our said county, to hear, try and determine all causes and matters civil by law cognizable in the said county, and to award execution thereon. Accordingly, iu testimony whereof we have caused the great seal of our said territory to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Sir Edmund Andros, Knt., our Captain-generall and Governor-in-Chief of our terr i- tory and dominion aforesaid, this 25th day of August, in the fourth year of our reign, A. D. 1688."

We have given elsewhere a very full account of the Pell family, in connection with the founding of Pelham. The first Court of Sessions, shown by the court records, was held on the 3d of June, 1684, the next year after the county was established. The rec- ord does not show who presided, or who sat as associ- ate judges. We have not been able to learn from any source the name of the presiding judge. It is pos- sible, therefore, that some one may have been ap- pointed, or acted, as judge of the county beforc Judge Pell; or it may be that he had been ap- pointed and acted prior to the appointment above detailed.

Caleb Heathcote was the next judge of the Court of Common Pleas, holding that office from A. D. 1693 to 1720. He was the sixth sou of Gilbert Heathcote, of Chesterfield, England, who had fought with distinction in the Parliament army during the civil war which cost Charles the First his head. The Heathcotes were an ancient aud honorable family of Derbyshire. They are mentioned as engaged in mer- cantile pursuits at Chesterfield during the reign of Edward IV. (1470-1471).2

A romantic story is told of the cause of Caleb Heathcote's emigration to America. He was engaged to a very beautiful young lady, who jilted him for his elder brother, Sir Gilbert Heathcote (afterwards M.P. for London and Lord Mayor of that city in 1711). Caleb came to New York in 1692. " From the time of his arrival he became a leading man in the colony," and being possessed of great wealth, which he had acquired in mercantile pursuits, he made extensive purchases of lands in Westchester County. These, on the 21st of March, 1701, were " erected into the lordship and manor of Scarsdale, to be holden of the King in free and common soccage, its Lord yielding and rendering therefore annually, upon the festival of Nativity, five pouuds current money of New York, etc." Besides his judgeship, Mr. Heathcote held other offices of honor in the province. He was colonel of the Westchester militia all his life, " first mayor of the borough of Westchester, a councilor and survey- or-general of the province, mayor of New York for three years, for a time commander of the colony's

Many interesting facts relating to the history of the bench and bar in Westchester County may be found in this volume in the chapter ou the Civil History, prepared by the Rev. William J. Cumming, of York- town.

2 MS. book of Sir William Heathcote, quoted by Boltou.

527

THIE BENCH AND BAR.

forces, and from 1715 to his death, in 1721, receiver- general of the customs of all North America." 1

A sincere churchman, he was senior warden of Westchester Parish from 1695 to 1762, and senior warden of the parish of Rye from 1703 to 1710.2

William Willett, who succeeded Colonel Heathcote as judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county in 1721, was the son of Colonel Thomas Willett, of Flushing, Long Island, and the grandsou of Honor- able Thomas Willett, first mayor of New York. The Willetts descend from the Rev. Thomas Willett, a distinguished English diviue, who died in 1597. The descendants of Honorable Thomas Willett occupied promineut positions in the province, such as high sheriff's, judges and mayors.

Frederick Phillips was judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas from 1732 to 1734. His full history is giveu in connection with Yonkers, where his resi- dence was located, and also in the history of Green- burgh.

Israel Honeywell, one of the earliest settlers of the town of Westchester, where he had a number of local offices, was judge of the same court from 1734to 1737, and again from 1740 to 1743. Samuel Purdy, of Rye, was also judge of that court in 1734-37, and again from 1740 to 1752.

John Thomas was judge of the Court of Commnon Pleas in 1737-39, and again from 1765 to 1776. Judge Thomas was the son of the Rev. John Thomas, a mis- sionary of the Honorable Propagation Society at Philadelphia, and first rector of St. George's Chureli, Hempstead, L. I., in 1704.3 Judge Thomas was the most prominent personage in Rye. He espoused the patriotic side in the Revolution, and his influence was greatly felt in its behalf. In 1777 a party of British troops, makiug one of their frequent raids into the interior of the county, seized Judge Thomas at his house in "Rye Woods." He was particularly obnoxious to the British, who had long been seeking to cffeet his capture. He was taken to New York and cast in a prison, where he died soou after. He was buried in Trinity Church-yard.‘

John Ward, one of the judges of the Common Pleas in 1737-39 and 1752-54, was from East Chester. He died iu 1754. Probably a relative of Hon. Stephen Ward.

Lewis Morris, Jr., of Morrisania, sat on the bench of that court in 1738-39. A notice of him will be found in the history of Morrisania.

William Leggett, of West Farms (then part of the town of Westchester), was judge of the same court in 1752-54. He was the third son of Gabriel Leggett; of Essex County, England, who "emigrated to this

country in 1661, and in right of his wife, Elizabeth Richardson, daughter and co-heiress of John Rich- ardson (one of the joint partners), became possessed of a large portion of the [Planting] Neck." Judge Leggett was mayor of the borough of Westchester, A.D. 1734.

Nathaniel Underhill, judge from 1755 to 1774, was the great-grandson of the " redoubtable " Captain Jolin Underhill, a soldier under the illustrious Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, in the Low Countries, who came to New England in 1630, and attained such dis- tinetion there that he was appointed one of the first deputics from Boston to the General Court, aud one of the carliest officers of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery.5 Nathaniel Underhill was elected mayor of the borough of Westchester in 1775. He filled various other offices aud died in 1784.

Jonathan Fowler was judge in 1769-71 and 1773-75. No positive data are to be found concerning this per- sonage. In all likelihood he was the son of Caleb Fowler, county judge during the intervening year 1772 and until 1776. Caleb Fowler was a resident of the West Patent of North Castle, where he owned a good deal of property. He was surrogate in 1761-66. His son Jonathan (one of the twelve children) was appointed one of the executors of his will, which in- strumeut, dated in the year 1760, was offered for pro- bate September 14, 1784. The persous already men- tioned appear by the court records to have been the presiding judges of the County Court of Common Pleas during the colonial period and at the times re- spectively giveu. The list differs somewhat from that given iu the New York Civil List or in Bolton's His- tory, but is believed to be substantially correct.

From May, 1776, until May, 1778, the Court of Common Pleas held no session in Westchester County. After the latter date there was a principal or "first" judge, as he was called, iu this court, and a number of associate judges. Sometimes there was as many as five associate judges at one time.

Robert Graham, of White Plains, was the first to fill this office of " first " judge. A biographical uotice of this distinguished man is given elsewhere.

Stephen Ward, of East Chester, appointed in 1784, was for many years " first" judge of the County Court of Common Pleas. "He was the son of Ed- mund Ward, of East Chester, for a long time a meni- ber of the Colonial Assembly, and grandson of Ed- mund Ward, of Fairfield, Conn., who removed to East Chester about the latter period of the seven- teenth century." Hou. Stephen Ward was an ardent patriot, and was proscribed at an early period of the Revolution by the Loyalist party and a price set upou his lread. "Ward's house " was the seene of several engagements between the Americans and the British, and was finally burned down by the latter in 1778.

Ebenezer Lockwood, of Poundridge, was the next

1 " Doc. Hist. of New York."

2 Bulton's "History of Westchester County." See also Edward F. de Lancey's chapter on the "Manors of Westchester County," in this volume, and his sketch of Mamaroneck.

3 Bolton's " llistory of Westchester," vol. ii., Appendix A.

+ Baird's "History of Rye."

5 Algerine Captive, by D. Updliko Underhill, quoted by Bolton.

528

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

" first " judge, 1791-94. Judge Lockwood was known as "Major " Lockwood through the Revolutionary War, he having been a major in the regiment of Westchester County Militia, commanded by Colonel Thomas Thomas, and engaged in active service dur- ing most of the campaign of 1776. From 1776 to 1783 he filled several public offices. He was a member of the Provincial Congress, member of the Committee of Safety, member of the Provincial Convention for forming a Constitution of Government for the State, and was returned a member of the Legislature for several years after the close of the war.

Judge Lockwood was born in Stamford, Conn., and was the fourth son of Joseph Lockwood, who emi- grated to Poundridge in 1743.

Jonathau G. Tompkins, of Scarsdale, father of Vice- President Daniel D. Tompkins, was first judge from 1794 to 1797. " He was a member of the State Con- vention which adopted the Declaration of Iudepend- ence aud the first Constitution of the State. He was clected to the Legislature and remained in that capacity during the whole period of the Revolution, and on the institutiou of the University was ap- pointed one of the regents, which situation he held until his resignation of it, in 1808." 1

Judge Tompkins was the son of Stepheu Tompkins, whose ancestors emigrated originally from the north of England and landed at Plymouth, Mass. Jonathan was adopted by Jonathan Griffin, from whom he rc- ceived his middle name, Griffin. Judge Tompkins died in 1823, aged eighty-seven years.

Ebenezer Purdy, of North Salem, sat on the county bench 1797-1802 (the Purdys are numerous and the only Ebenezer we find among them is put down by Bolton as the son of Abraham Purdy, of Yonkers ; born 1754.)

Jolın Watts, who was "first judge" of Court of Common Pleas in Westchester County from 1802 to 1807, was born in New York, of which city his father (also named John) was a prominent citizen and a member of the King's Council. Judge Watts received a legal education aud was eminently qualified for the bench. At twenty-five years of age he was appointed royal recorder of the city of New York, 1774, and was the last to hold the position. From 1791 to 1794 he was Speaker of the Assembly of New York, and after- wards he became a member of Congress. His home was at No. 3 Broadway, New York. He was one of the wealthiest men in New York City, and owned much property not only there, but also throughout the State. He had a fine residence in Westchester County, near the village of New Rochelle, on a slope overlooking Hunter's Island, and there lived in very good style. In person, he was remarkably fine- looking. Hc married Jane, daughter of Peter De Lancey, of "The Mills," in the town of Westchester. In Mr. Watts' character, equanimity was the most

noticeable trait. As a writer audspeaker, he possessed much conciseness of expression, and Samuel B. Ruggles once said of him, that "John Watts could express more on a page of note paper than most men could on a sheet of foolscap." Mr. Watts died Sep- tember 3, 1836, being then within three days of eighty- seven years of age. Of his family of eight or nine children, but one survived him, and that one was childless. He had three grandchildren, however, one of whom, John Watts De Peyster, now living in New York, was his chief legatee. Mr. Watts was the founder and endower of the Leeke and Watts Orphan House, corner One Hundred and Tenth Street and Ninth Avenue, New York.

Caleb Tompkins, son of Jonathan G. Tompkins, of Scarsdale, and eldest brother of Vice-President Daniel D. Tompkins, was first judge of the County Court of Common Pleas from 1808 to 1820, and again from 1823 to 1846. He died January 1, 1846, aged eighty-six years and nine days. He was buried at White Plains. Mr. Tompkins was a learned jurist and a man of great abilities. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the gifts and virtues for which the Tompkins family has ever been noted.

Nehemiah Brown,2 who served two terms as county judge, was of the ancient family of Brownes of Rye and of Hastings, England, and a lineal descendant of Peter Brown, whose name is iuscribed on the Pil- grim's Monument at Plymouth, Mass.

He was born at Rye, Westchester County, Novem- ber 29, 1775, and until his death, on November 1, 1855, occupied the lands on which he was born, and which had been held by his family since the first set- tlement of the town. Few men were better known in his county or held in higher esteem. Of sound judgment, inflexible integrity, withal genial and given to hospitality, his counsel was widely sought aud val- ued. He received a captain's commission in the War of 1812, but, as far as is now remembered, was not en- gaged in the field, being detailed to assist in the for- tifications of Throgg's Neck and other points in the vicinity of New York. He served as a member of the Legislature in 1824, and two terms as county judge, occupying the beuch with Judges William Jay, Con- stant and others. A righteous man and beloved, he left a rich heritage of memories to his family and friends:

Judge Brown's first wife was Mary, daughter of Major Seymour, of Greenwich, Coun. The second was Pamelia, daughter of Dr. Clark Sanford, of Petersburg, Va. The third and surviving wife was Abby Jane, daughter of David Brown, of Rye. His only children were by his second wife, viz .: Sanford C. Brown, a young man of exceeding promise, who, although dying at the age of twenty-eight years, from exposure iu Asia Minor, on business for his firm, was a prominent director and member of the Stamford

1 Bolton's " History of Westchester."

2 This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor.

al-

Mehr Browse

529

THE BENCH AND BAR.

Manufacturing Company, and universally popular in business and social circles ; Mary P., wife of Samuel K. Sitterlee, of Rye; and Anna Evelyn, wife of Dr. Arthur F. Bissell, of New York City.

William Jay,1 second son of the Hon. John Jay, filled the intervening term between Judge Tompkins' two terms -- that is, from 1820 to 1823. Judge Jay was born at New York June 16, 1789. His early educa- tion, which was conducted under the care of his father, was finished at Yale College, where he gradu- ated in 1808. Adopting the profession of the law, he speedily became prominent in its practice, and in 1818 was appointed by Governor Tompkins judge of the County Court of Westchester. This office he held with honor to himself, and to the eredit of the community of which he formed a part, until 1842 when he was relieved from the position by Governor Bouck, in compliance with the demand of that portion of the Democratic party whose sympathies were with the South and slavery, and ou account of his plainly expressed views in favor of Abolition. From his earli- est years he seemed destined to be a life-long defender of the right and a stern opponent of wrong, in whatever shape they appeared. As early as 1815 he was the means of organizing a temperanee society, one of tlie first in the country, which, at the time, seemed likely to be overwhelmed with intemperance and its aeeom- panying evils. He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society, and till the elose of his life was one of the ablest and most devoted supporters of the institution, which has printed the word of God in almost every known language, and distributed it frcely in every clime.

When the evils of slavery began to be one of the vital questions of the time, the cause of human free- dom found in Judge Jay an enthusiastic advocate. In 1826 there was living in this county a freeman of color named Horton. Going to the city of Washing- ton, he was there arrested as a fugitive slave and advertised for sale, to pay the expenses of his arrest and imprisonment. Providentially, a copy of the newspaper containing the advertisement came into the hands of Judge Jay, and he made application to Governor De Witt Clinton to demand his release as a free citizen of the State of New York. This was one of the first events in the history of the great struggle against slavery, which ended only when battle-fields had been stained with the blood of its supporters. Throughout this long contest Judge Jay was ever active with tongue and pen in behalf of liberty. In 1835 an effort was made by the slavery power, through President Jackson, to prevent the cireula- tion of Abolitionist documents by means of the United States mails. This effort, so repugnant to the principles upon which our government was founded, was met by the American Anti-Slavery Society with a dignified and earnest reply, which was written by

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 137

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354