14 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



act was passed in that year to enable the justices to finish and 

 complete their courthouse (42). 



On March 6, 1729, a court was held in the courthouse at Rich- 

 mond Town, according to Clute (p. 459), while the earliest men- 

 tion of the court of sessions being held at Richmond is dated Sep- 

 tember 2, 1729, according to Morris (i : 80). If we accept these 

 dates, which we have not verified by the original records, it can 

 properly be said : 



1729. Courthouse built at Richmond which had been selected 

 for the county seat in 1707. 



The tenth date and event inscribed on the tablet is : 

 1776. Declaration of Independence announced at New Dorp, 



The committee of 1906 selected and approved the following: 

 " 1776. Arrival of British army on Staten Island. Declaration 

 of Independence announced at New Dorp. Battle of Long Island 

 planned at New Dorp. British-American conference at Billopp 

 House." 



By referring to Morris (i : 207) it may be seen that the event 

 commemorated is the reading of the Declaration of Independence 

 by Sir Wm. Howe and his generals, in the Old Rose and Crown 

 farmhouse at New Dorp. There can be no reasonable doubt that 

 they read this great document, as thousands of others did ; but 

 why this incident should be perpetuated as one of our most im- 

 portant historical events, and the date of the evacuation of Staten 

 Island by the British pass unnoticed, is not clear. We believe 

 that the inscription mentioned does not clearly indicate the nature 

 of the event commemorated, and that the event is not of sufficient 

 importance to have a place on the tablet. 



" 1783. Staten Island evacuated by the British," would be a 

 more satisfactory inscription. This proposed inscription in a 

 slightly modified form, it should be said, was suggested by the 

 committee of 1906, but was not given a place on the tablet. 



