THE TOWN OF EAST CHESTER. 215 



all the land between Hutchinsons brook, and Rattlesnake brook, to the 

 extent of the half mile shall be for a perpetual sheep pasture."" 



Upon the 30th of May, 1707, John Drake and Edmund Ward were 

 chosen sheep-masters by the freeholders of Eastchester. 



The town and village of Eastchester were distinguished, in our early 

 colonial annals, for the active part they took in favor of Governor Leis- 

 ler ; for we find " Leisler's party strengthened on the 3d of June, 1689, 

 by the addition of six captains and four hundred men in New York, and 

 a company of seventy men from Eastchester, who had all subscribed on 

 that day a solemn declaration to preserve the Protestant religion and the 

 fort of New York for the Prince of Orange and the Governor whom the 

 Prince might appoint as their protector." 6 



The pleasant village green in front of St. Paul's church was formerly 

 used as a general training ground for this section of the county ; and here, 

 too, the county elections were not unfrequently held. The following 

 article is taken from the New York Weekly Journal of Monday, Dec. 

 24, 1733, " containing the freshest advices, foreign and domestic:" — 



" Westchester, Oct. 29th, 1733. 



"On this day Lewis Morris, Esq., late chief justice of this province, was, by 

 a majority of voices, elected a representative from the county of Westchester. 

 * * Election of great expectation ; the court and country's interest was exert- 

 ed (as is said) to the utmost. I shall give my readers a particular account of it, 

 as I had it from a person that was present at it. Nicholas Cooper, Esq,, high 

 sheriff of the said county, having, by papers affixed to the church of Eastchester 

 and other public places, given notice of the day and place of election, without 

 mentioning any time of the day when it was to be done, which made the electors 

 on the side of the late judge very suspicious that some fraud was intended — to 

 prevent which, about fifty of them kept watch upon and about the green East- 

 chester (the place of eleetion) from 12 o'clock the night before till the morning of 

 that day. The other electors, beginning to move on Sunday afternoon and even- 

 ing, so as to be at New Roehelle by midnight, their way lay through Harrison's 

 Purchase, the inhabitants of which provided for their entertainment as they passed 

 each house in their way, having a table plentifully covered for that purpose. 

 About midnight they all met at the house of William Le Count, at New Roehelle, 

 whose house, not being large enough to entertain so great a number, a large fire 

 was made in the street, by which they sat till daylight, at which time they began 

 to move. Theywere joined on the hill at the east end of the town by about seventy 

 horse of the electors of the lower part of the county, and then proceeded towards 

 the place of election in the following order, viz. ; First rode two trumpeters and 

 three violins ; next four of the principal freeholders, one of which carried a ban- 

 ner, on one side of which was affixed, in gold capitals, 'King George,' and on 

 the other, in golden capitals, ' Liberty and Law ; ' next followed the candidate, 



a Town Eec. vol. ii. 



b Smith's History of New York, English edition, p. 59. 



