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,

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

aud by whom he was appointed the Chiefof the Commission to capture it, and then to command it as its first Governor. It was a very natural thing for him to do, but its result has been to fasten forever on what is now the chiefest city of the Western hemispliere, that most inadequate name -- New York. As the entire region surrounding Old York in England, from which the Duke took his title, forms the County there called "Yorkshire; '' and as it is one of the largest in England, it was early for convenience sake divided into three Districts, termed in the j)eculiar Dialect of that region, Ridings, which from their position were termed the East, West, aud North, Ridings of Yorkshire. This exami)le Governor Nicolls faithfully followed. He called Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester, as the region nearest to " New," York, " Yorkshire," and divided it into three " Ridings, the " East," "West," and "North," "Ridings. The region now Suffolk County formed the " East Riding ; " Staten Island, Kings County, and the town of Newtown in Queens County, formed the " West Riding;" theremainder of what is now Queens County, together with what is now We.^tchester County, being all the territory on the main, North of the Harlem River aud South of the Highlands, between the Sound and the Hudson, he called the " North Riding." As the portion of "the North Riding " on the main, Westchester County was legally and })0])ularly known till the year 1683.