And wliere the said Inhabitants shall omit to make such annual choice in any of the said Divisions, or in such Mannor or Mannors, where not above twenty Inhabitants do dwell or reside, the Owner or Owners of such Mannor or Mannors, or of such Division thereof as aforesaid, or their Stewards or De[)uties, shall be deemed and esteemed the Supervizors thereof respectively, and have the same Powers, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, whatsoever as those chosen by virtue of the Act above mentioned.^

The act of 1703 called for the annual meeting of the Supervisors at the " County-town," which then was the Town of Westchester. In 1745 the population had so much increased as to make a chiinge to another part of the County desirable, therefore an act was passed on the 27th of November in that year changing the place of meeting as " much for the ease of the people," which provided that " the annual meeting shall be at the School House in the Town of Rye," and that the majority shall have power to adjourn to such time and place as they see proper.^

The next change did not occur till 1773, twenty-

8 UI. Bradford, 5.3. * III. Bradford 212.

^ I Vau Scbaak'a Laws, ch. 801.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

eight years later. Then another act was passed changing the annual meeting of the Supervisors " to the Court-House at Whiteplains on account of the increase of inhabjtants of the northerly part of said County," with a like liberty to adjourn to such time and place as they should please. ^ This building was the first Court-House in Whiteplains which was burned by the Americans a day or two after the battle of Whiteplains in 1776. It stood on the same site as its successor, the old wooden Court-House on Main St., which was pulled down after the erection of the present handsome stone edifice on Rail-Koad Avenue.