Under the Lord Proprietor, 1664-1685 53 



confirmatory patent, given by Governor Lord Cornbury in 

 1708, were filed with the controller of the city. 



From a number of items in the town records, it seems that 

 there were numbers of rattlesnakes, and that, occasionally, 

 the settlers took a day off to go out and kill them. Wolves 

 were so numerous that wolf pits were constructed, and it was 

 enacted "that ye inhabitants do see to fill them up." In 

 1679, it was decided by vote that the inhabitants pay ten 

 shillings for every wolf that is killed within the limits of 

 Eastchester. Later, by act of the Provincial Assembly, the 

 reward for killing a full-grown wolf was thirty shillings to a 

 Christian, and ten shillings to an Indian, and half as much 

 for a whelp. Deer and bear were plentiful, and hunts in the 

 Long Reach patent — "ye eight English miles to run north- 

 west into ye woods as far as Bronck's River" — sometimes 

 lasted for a month at a time. The indefiniteness of boundary 

 lines led, at a later date, to disputes with both Westchester 

 and Pell. 



On October 6, 1666, a large part of Pell's purchase of 1654 

 was confirmed to him by Governor Nicolls by patent: 



"and that the said tract of land and premises shall be forever 

 hereafter held, deemed, reputed, taken and be an enfranchised 

 township, manor, and place itself . . . as if he had held the 

 same immediately from his majesty the King of England, 

 etc., etc., etc., his successors, as of the manor of East Green- 

 wich, in the county of Kent, in free and common socage and 

 by fealty only, yielding, rendering, and paying, yearly and 

 every year . . . one lamb upon the first of May, if the same 

 shall be demanded." 



As this was the first of the manors which played so import- 

 ant a part in the history of the State, a brief explanation of a 

 manor may not be amiss. Under the feudal system, which 



