When Leisler took possession of the fort at New York, Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson without dehij' set sail for England, leaving the government in charge of the Council, the membeis of which were, Philii)se, Van Cortland and Bayard. Of course, the public confidence was still more diminished. Leisler, taking advantage of this state of things, invited from each of the counties a delegation of two to meet in convention, and also two men from each to guard the fort.

This convention, which met June 2(), KiS'.t, and in which Westchester was represented, authorized ten of their number to be a committee of safetj', who, in their turn, commissioned Leisler to exercise the powers of commander-in-chief of the Province. In this committee were Richard Panton and Thomas Williams, of this County, who seem to have been most active supporters of Leisler.

Some months afterwards a letter from King William to Nicholson was intercepted by Leislei", who appropriating its directions to himself, set up the claim that " he had received a commission to be their Majesties Lieutenant-Governor," and then proceeded to appoint his Council, among whom was Thomas \Villiams, of Westchester.

The new Governor, Sloughter, did not appear until March 9th, but meanwhile acts of lawlessness and tyranny, rashness and demagogism abounded in the city and other parts of the colony, in which Leisler and members of his Council and their followers were the most active.

In a suit tried at Westchester in 1693, Williams, then sixty-two years of age, deposed that " the first reason of this difficulty was a big look violently from me. Caj)tain Panton commanded him (Leggett, the plaintiff) to hold his peace, but he still continued abusing the defendant, and said, ' here comes the father of rogues' and many scurrilous words, upon which I got a warrant against him." Williams lived in West Farms, and Gabriel Leggett was, as ai)pears by a deed of March 3, 1(595, his near neighbor.^