In 1681 the general court of that colony ordered the laying out of a plantation at the Hop ground.

On the 11th 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 11th of May, 1682, the general court ordered that the name of the town be henceforth called Bedford.''''

The town records, preserved in the clerk's oflice, contain the following items, which, from their curiosity we insert: -- January 14ih, 1682, a committee was appointed to take measures for building a grist mill for ihe town." July, 1682, at the first town meeting held in Bedford it was voted that any person having a right in land and not building a house by the last of next May, or who should build a house and not inhabit it for three years, should forfeit his right to the town.

January 29th, 1688. The town by vote doth order, that every one here present at the town meeting shall have a piece of land consisting of four acres added to the former dividend, for their faithfulness in attending town meetings. Seventeen were present on this occasion. On the 9ih of January, 1699, the town agreed to give six acres of land for a grind stone. November 17ih, 1701, the town bought a mill for £15. The present village contains a court house and prison, two churches, an academy, two taverns, three stores, forty dwellings, and about two hundred and fifty inhabitants ; it is fourteen miles from Sing Sing, and sixteen from Tiirrytown, on the Hudson, forty-four from New York, and twelve from Greenwich in Connecticut, on the sound.