In 1 68 1 the general court of that colony ordered the laying out of a plantation at the Hop ground.

On the nth of October, 1681, the proprietors of the Hop ground appointed a committee to lay out and divide the residue of the land at the Hop ground. It was also agreed to receive eleven inhabitants in order to form a town, and a committee appointed to go and view the land for the purpose of laying out a cart way to the Hop ground.

"Upon the nth of May, 1682, the general court ordered that the name of the town be henceforth called Bedford."

Bedford has for a long period been celebrated for its schools. "The Bedford academy was one of the first Institutions chartered by the Regents of the University after their incorporation in 1784, but is not now subject to their supervision."*1

The Bedford Female Institute, which is situated on a beautiful hill, (formerly known as part of the "East Field") surrounded by a grove of forest trees, is an incorporated institution and under the control of a board of trustees, subject to the Regents of the University. "In 1S13 the town voted to comply with the State act providing for common schools and elected the requisite board of Commissioners and Inspectors. Since that time the town has maintained (besides the Academies and Seminaries already alluded to) fifteen public schools and has been fully up to the average rural towns in matters of education."6

"Bedford yields nothing that is interesting in a business point of view. Before the construction of the Harlem Rail Road there was quite a lively traffic carried on by means of stages along the Boston post road which passes through the villages between New York and Danbury."