1681.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 131 



Messrs. William Clayton, Wm. Warner, Robert Wade, Otto 

 Ern"' Cock, William Byles, Robert Lucas, Lasse Cock, Swan 

 Swanson and Andreas Bankson; the Sheriff, John Test, and 

 Clerk, Thomas Revell. Of the Justices, five are Englishmen and 

 four Swedes, two of whom had been members of the former Court. 

 The " Duke's Laws" were now inoperative. In pursuance of the 

 Deputy Governor's instructions, all was to be done " according 

 to the good laws of England." But the new Court, during the 

 first year of its existence, failed to comply with these laws in a 

 very essential particular, — persons were put upon trial without 

 the intervention of a Grand Jury.' No provision was made 

 under the Duke's laws for this safeguard of the citizen, and the 

 new Justices acted for a time in accordance with former usage. 

 A petit jury, so rare under the former Court, now participates in 

 every trial where facts are in dispute. In criminal cases, the 

 old practice is adhered to of making the prosecutor plaintiff. 



The first case that came up for consideration was that of 



Peter Errickson, Plff., ^ 



vs. I 



Harmon Johnson & Margaret his wife. Deft. j 



An action of Assault & Batt^. J 



Jurors. Morgan Drewett, Wm. Woodmanson, Wm. Hewes, 

 James Browne, Henry Reynolds, Robert Schooley, Richards Pitt- 

 man, Lassey Dalboe, John Ackraman, Peter Rambo, Jr., Henry 

 Hastings, & William Oxley. Witness, William Parke. 



The jury find for the plaintiff; give him 6d. damages, his costs 

 of suit. 



In the next case the parties are reversed; the offence charged 

 being the same, and tried by the same jurors. The witnesses 

 were Anna Coleman, Richard Buffington, and Ebenezer Taylor. 

 The jury find for the plaintiffs 40 [shillings] and their costs of 

 suit. 



At this first session of the Court, nine cases were tried and 

 sixteen withdrawn ; among the latter were two " for disobeying 

 the Justice's order." In the last case tried, which was for debt, 

 the verdict was 62 gilders — an evidence of the lasting influence 

 of the ascendency of the Dutch on the river. 



It having come to the ears of Justice Lassey Cock, that he 

 had been accused of speaking certain improper words to the 

 Indians, proclamation was made in the Court " that if any had 

 anything against him, they should declare it; whereupon Daniel 

 Brenson and Charles Brigham, upon oath, together with Walter 

 Humphrey, upon his solemn attestation, declared what they 



1 Many of the early criminal cases, having the form of civil actions for damages, 

 the defendants thereby really escaped a trial as criminals, and the necessity of a 

 Grand Jury was obviated. 



