As a Royal Province. 1685-1776 71 



Chester was appointed the shire town, or county seat. By 

 the act of May II, 1693, it was ordered that "a public and 

 open market" should be held every Wednesday in the same 

 town, and further, that there should be a fair held in the said 

 town yearly upon the second Tuesday in May and to last 

 four days, or to end on the Friday following; "to which it 

 shall be lawful for every person to go and frequent." 



But the most important act in the history of the town of 

 Westchester was its formation into a borough-town by royal 

 charter bearing date of April 16, 1696, and signed by Governor 

 Fletcher. The government of the town was organized by 

 Colonel Caleb Heathcote on the sixth of the following June. 

 The charter carefully denned the limits of the township and 

 prescribed that there should be a mayor, six aldermen, and 

 six assistants, or common council. They should "elect and 

 nominate one discreet and sufficient person, learned in ye law, 

 to be recorder and town clerk for ye s d borough and town of 

 W. Chester." A mayor's court was instituted which could 

 hear cases where the value in controversy did not exceed thirty 

 pounds. The mayor and aldermen were named in the charter, 

 but after the first year the positions were to be filled by a 

 majority vote of the electors. The electors should also send a 

 discreet person to represent them in the Assembly of the 

 Province. The "bod}: politick" in the said corporate town 

 should be styled "The Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of 

 the Borough and Town of Westchester." Twelve trustees 

 were appointed to dispose of the undivided lands of the town. 

 The quit-rent was an annual payment of thirty shillings cur- 

 rent money of New York. The county fairs to be held in the 

 town were to be increased to two, one in May, the other in 

 October. 



Colonel Caleb Heathcote, the first Mayor, through whose 



