The "Toll-gatherer, was obliged the next, day after the Fair" to deliver the said book to the "Governour," who was to make a note therein of all the number of all the animals, so sold &c. at the Fair, and subscribe his name to it, for which entry of such sale Ac. he was "to take for Toll of the same the sum of Nine pence, the one half to be paid by the Buyer, the other half by the Seller." It is evident from this that the old Westchester men meant that their dealings in horses at their Fairs should be as honest as the nature of the business would permit, whatever may been the practical result.

Such were the County Fairs of the Colonial Days, and to them went regularly great nnnd)ers of peof)lc with their stock and produce, from the iManors, Great Patents, and villages of all Westchester. And there too went as in more modern days the county politicians of all kinds who of course attended, as their successors do now, solely for the good of their country.

In this connection it is proper to state the origin and organization of the County itself ius such.

Under the Dutch there was no county organization, each of the settlements then in existence, and the Patroonship of Coleudonck, were simply mere parts of the Province of New Netherland entirely independent of each other.

When the Dutch surrendered New Netherland in l(i()4, one of the first acts of the first English Governor Richard Nicolls was to re-name it and its parts in the English language in the English manner. This he did by using mainly the name and titles of the Duke of York, who was Lord Proprietor of the Province,