INTRODUCTION. 
51 
The ignorance aud venality of the governors, and the extortions practised in the 
court, tended greatly to increase the popular odium ; but governor Burnet was 
exempt from these reproaches. 
In 1724 a collision arose between the governor and the assembly, upon his 
refusing to administer oaths to a member named De Lancey, who had been 
returned as a member of the assembly, on the ground that he was not a subject 
of the crown. The assembly claimed the right to judge of the qualifications of 
its members. This right of the assembly was not afterwards questioned. 
It is recorded, to the honor of governor Montgomerie, who entered upon his 
administration in 1728, that he declined to officiate as chancellor until he received 
positive directions from the ministry. About this period in the history of the 
colony, the legal profession begins to claim attention. 
Our first lawyer was Adrian Vanderdonk. He was educated at the University 
at Leyden, and came to America in a bark belonging to the patroon of Rensse- 
laerwyck, in 1642. He resided in the last mentioned manor several years, filling 
the office of scout, which combined to some extent the duties of judge and sheriff. 
He subsequently removed to New-York, then New-Amsterdam, where he acted 
as chamber counsel, the government denying to him permission to appear in the 
courts, because there was no other lawyer to confront him. He signalized him¬ 
self in 1650, by a remonstrance to the States General, upon the abuses of power 
in the colony, and in 1653 by his description of the New-Netherlands. The bar 
of the colony in 1716, admitted to its honors William Smith, the father of the 
historian, and James Alexander, father of Lord Stirling, who afterwards rose to 
eminence. 
Rip Van Dam, lieutenant-governor, performed the executive duties in the in¬ 
terval between the death of Montgomerie and the arrival of colonel Cosby, who 
was appointed the successor. Cosby had instructions to relinquish to V an Dam 
one half of the salary and perquisites of the office, which had accrued during 
his administration ; and, upon Van Dam’s refusal to refund, assumed to clothe the 
judges of the supreme court with the dignity of barons and the powers and juris- 
