Among those who were, also, arrested and thrown into prison, by the Committee of Westchester-county, under the provisions of the enactment of the Provincial Congress which is now under consideration, were Joshua Purdy, Caleb Morgan, John McCord, Gilbert Horton, Josiah Brown, Edmund Ward, Samuel Merrit, Philip Fowler, Gabriel Purdy, William Barker, Junior, John Besley, Isaac Brown, Bartholomew Haines, Joseph Purdy, and Jonathan Purdy; and, as an evidence of the wide-spread ruin which was inflicted on the inhabitants of the County, by the sequestrations of the real and personal estates of those who were " suspected " of being opposed to the Rebellion, there were sequestrated in the single Town of Salem, prior to the sixth of December, 1776, the properties of Ephraim Sanford, Thomas Smith, Benjamin Close, Gilbert Hum, Samuel Baxter, Abraham Close, Job Keeler, Jonathan Wallace, Ezra Morehouse, Jacob Wallace, Samuel Wallace, Nathaniel Palmer, Nathan Osborn, Abraham Dan, Edward Jones, and George Butson.*

It was a reasonable consequence, under the existing circumstances, that questions should be raised, concerning the legitimacy of any such authority as the Provincial Congress had created, in these enactments, and delegated to the several local Committees, none of which were recognized by the Law of the land and all of which were antagonistic to those Laws. It was a short-sighted policy, also, even among those who were in rebellion, which inflicted penalties, especially such penalties as these, on those persons who continued, peacefullj', on their respective farms, quietly pursuing their daily labors, honestly respecting the Laws of the country, and consistently recognizing and honoring the Sovereignty of the King, whom even those who were in rebellion quite as fully recognized, as their undoubted Sovereign ; and these, for no other reason than for disrespectful words, concerning the several Committees and Congresses, and for the utterance of questions concerning their respective authorities.