This in the old fiefs, and under the feudal system, in Europe generally, was by an act of the lord upon receiving the oath of fealty and the homage of the tenant or vassal, at w^hich time the latter also presented the lord with a fine, that is, a gift of some small article or thing as a token of his fidelity. In the New Netherland fiefs by virtue of the charters this whole matter was changed. The delivery of the grant of the fief by the Governor and Council itself was the livery of seizin, or investiture, of the possession in the Patroon.

> Moulton iu his Hiat. of N. Y., 3S7-8.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

And at that time the latter took the oath of allegiance which was the " fealty," to the Company, and did his " homage," which was simply by holding up his hands in the presence of some other tenant, o^ the Company or Patroon, verbally acknowledging the Company as the ultimate possessor of the land, or as we should say, the State, requesting the Governor to invest him with the possession, and at the same time, presenting to him the pair of iron gauntlets (the hand armor of a coat of mail), or twenty guilders in money. They were thus under the Dutch law nova feuda, new fiefs, as distinguished from the old fiefs described before; and the Company as the ultimate possessor of the land by its Governor's grant could, and did) make the new investiture that has been described. If a Patroon divided his patroonship, the same jurisdiction attached to each part, and the same kind of investiture, had to be made for each part, as was provided for the whole patroonship in the origiilal grant.