" Town Rec. fol, ix. 120, 121. -- At a court of common council held 1740, it was ordained that no person not belonging to this corporation do take and carry away our clams or oysters, but that all boats, canoes, or other craft belonging to persons who shall presume to take the same, not inhabiting witliin this county, shall be seized, and further no person belonging to this corporation shall have power to give eave to any person not living in this corporation to get oysters or clams.

b Called by the Dutch, Oost dorp kil.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 179

sloops to the New York market. The Westchester ereek (at high water) admits of vessels carrying 300 tons, to the landing. There are three school districts in the town, viz., Westchester village, Throckmorton^s neck, and Bear swamp. There are also several manufactories, and two grist mills, one of which is a tide mill."-

Westchester is by several years the oldest village in the county, its first settlement (by the Puritans) being coeval with Throckmorton's purchase, in 1042.^ At this early period, it formed a part of the Dutch district of Yrede-land (or land of peace) and was, therefore, within the limits and jurisdiction of the New Netherland. By the Dutch it was named Oostdorp^ (East town) from its situation east of the Manhattans. So early as 1657, Gov. Stuyvesant ordered that Westchester should have four English or one Dutch mile square of land for the town.

During the Dutch dynasty, courts appear to have been holderi regularly at Oost-dorp, for, among the town records, is a small volume, entitled " The Book of Court acts, from 1657 to 1662," from which we extract the following memoranda.