By 1770 the people in Ryke's Patent had so increased in number, that an act was passed on the 27th of January in that year, for their special benefit which provided " that for the better defraying the common and necessary charges of Ryke's Patent in the Manor of Cortlandt in Westchester County," the Freeholders thereof should elect on the first Tuesday in every April, one Supervisor, one Constable, one Assessor, one Poor-Master, two Fence-Viewers, one Pound-Master, and one or more Surveyors of Highways, with all the powers and

< The original is among the Van Cortlandt papers. 61. V. S. Laws, Ch. 1015, p. 359.

6 These divisions are often spoken of in the documents of that day, as the three wards of the Manors. 7 II. V. S. Laws, Ch. 1378, p. 529.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

duties and subject to the same pains and penalties of the like officers under the Laws of the Colony.'

A singular law in regard to the Manor, as it appears to us now, was one passed the 13th of December, 1703, which enacted that in case any person whatsoever " shall carry on the Practice of Inoculation for the Small-Pox in the Manor of Cortlandt within the Distance of Half a Mile of any Dwelling House he shall forfeit the sum of Twenty Founds ($50.) for every such oftience, upon proof before a Justice of the Peace, one-third to go to the prosecutor, and the other two thirds " for the use of the Poor in the Said Manor." The patient had consequently to go through the operation and subsequent treatment, either in a barn or a ! shanty in the woods.