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. In that year it received its present name in an act of the first legislature of New York, which sat in the " Hall " of Fort James. This Assembly which there sat, wiis called by the exj)ress " Instructions" of the Duke of York by his Governor Thomas Dongan subsequently Earl of Limerick, and was the very first ever held in New York. This Act, passed on the 1st of November, 1()63, runs thus : " Haveing taken into Considerayon the necessity of divideing the ])rovinee into respective Countyes for the better governing and setleing Courts in the same. Bee It Enacted by the Governour, Councell and Representatives, and by authority of the same That the said Province bee divided into twelve Countyes as foUowoth : . . . The Countye of Westcheder to contain West and Eaxf Chester, Broii.v^ Land, (fordham, Anne Hooks Neck, Bich/il/ls, Minford'x Island and all the Land on the Maine to the Eastward of Ma?ihaftan's I.fland As farr as the Government Extends and the Yoncl-e7-s Land and Northwards along Hudsons River as farr as the High Lands." After describing all the "countyes" seriatim, the Act terminates with this clause, which first created English High Sheriflfs in New York : "And for as much there is a necessity for a High Sherifie in every County in this Province, Bee it therefore Enacted bv the Governour, Councell, and Representatives in Generall Assembly mett and by the Authority of the same, That there shall be