Report of Committee on Historical Tablet 13 



tain and contradictory to warrant the placing of the inscription 

 upon the tablet. 



We think an inscription " 1683. Richmond County established, 

 and Courts of Justice provided," would be a suitable substitute 

 for that on the tablet. 



The ninth date and event inscribed on the tablet is : 



1729. County Seat changed to Richmond and second Court 



House built. 



The committee of 1906 approved the following inscriptions: 

 " 1728. Erection of Second Court House, at Richmond." " 1729. 

 County Seat removed to Richmond." 



We have appended to this report what evidence we have found 

 in reference to the establishment of the courthouse at Richmond 

 (39), and from this it can properly be inferred that the court- 

 house therein mentioned was the first erected at public expense 

 on Staten Island, and that what is now known as Richmond was 

 selected as the county seat by a committee of His Majesty's jus- 

 tices of the peace for the County of Richmond in 1707, acting 

 under the law passed in 1704 requiring the selection of "Such 

 convenient place or places neer the middle of the said County " 

 (40). 



It would appear that the site selected by the justices in I707> 

 which was on land belonging to " Mr. Rezoe and Lues Deboys," 

 provided they gave the land (40), was not that on which the jail 

 and courthouse was ultimately built, for there is no record to show 

 that the above owners gave or sold their property for the purpose, 

 and we learn from a deed given in 1768, that a plot near by had 

 been "heretofore granted by Richard Cole, or William Tillyer, 

 to the County of Richmond, for the use of settling a Court 

 House." This deed of 1768 describes the property conveyed, as 

 " beginning at the S. W. corner of Court House as it now stands " 



(41). 

 In 1 741 the courthouse had not been entirely finished, for an 



