40 STATEN ISLAND INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
regularly, and a justice from Staten Island was often, a member 
of the court. A due proportion of Staten Island cases were tried 
during this time although the court more than once during this 
period stated that “the said place (Staten Island) was alienated 
from the jurisdiction of the co™.” 
“ Att a Co™ of Sessions held at Gravesend in the west Ryding 
On Workshirestupon) Eonggisiand ies ctcsDeczo > nOs2naitawas 
“ Ordered that the Constable and Overseers of Staten Island, doe 
make a Rate for the building of a strong and sufficient Prison in 
some convenient place upon the said Island & also a Town House.” 
As Staten Island matters were adjudicated at the Court of Sessions 
in Gravesend as late as June 1683 with the Constable of Staten 
Island present, the last session on record in that year, it is prac- 
tically certain that sessions cases were tried at that town until the: 
County of Richmond was established and a court of sessions in 
the county provided for on Nov. 1, 1683.° 
The records of deeds in the County of Richmond begin in 1683, 
when the county was established, and the first volume contains the 
minutes of a Court of Sessions held for the County of Richmond 
March 6, 1687 (p. 194). We also find the minutes of “a Court 
of Sessions held for the County of Richmond at the Court House 
of the Said County” on Dec. 4, 1688, before Thomas Lovelace, 
Richard Stillwell, and Jacob Garrettson, Esqrs., Justices of the 
Peace (p. 643), as well as a record of an “Inferiour Courte of 
Pleas” held on the same day at the “Court House of the said 
County,” Thomas Lovelace being judge, and Richard Stillwell and 
Jacob Garrettson, Esqrs., justices of the peace within the county.* 
It was stated in the PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATEN ISLAND Asso- 
CIATION above mentioned (p. 12) that the whereabouts of a book 
referred to by Clute, which contains the records of a “Court of 
Sessions held in the Court House at Stony Brook,” was not 
known, and hope was expressed that the records might be found 
3 Court and Road Records Kings County, v. 2, 1688-1766. Proc. STATEN 
ISEUNSSOGMOMES4: 
4 Deeds B, p. 639, Richmond County. 
