" That it be recommended to all the General County "Committees, in the several Counties in this Colony, " to apprehend all persons holding Military Commis- "sions under the King of Great Britain, and also all "such persons holding Civil Offices under the said " King, or, being possessed of influence in their re- "spective Counties, as are suspected of holding prin- "ciples inimical to the said United Colonics; and " a'ter they shall have apprehended, to deal with them "in such manner as is prescribed for the conduct of " the Committee above named.

" All which is, nevertheless, most humbly sub- "raitted.

" John Alsop, Chairman." ^

When that Report was presented, read, and approved, there were, throughout Westchester-county, the entire body of officers of the Colonial Militia, including some of the members of the Van Cortlandt and other leading families ; the entire number of the King's Justices of the Peace; the entire bodies of the Court of Sessions and Court of Common Pleas, at the

3 Jounml of the Provincial Congress, "Die Veneris, 9 ho., A.M. May 24,

"n7f.."

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

head of the last-named of which was John Thomas, who is already known to the reader as, also, one of the members of the former General Assembly and as the head of that prolific family of office-holders bearing that Welsh surname ; and the entire body of County Officers, including those of the Prerogative Court, the Sheriff, the County Clerk, etc. All these, together with those who were especially obnoxious and all these whose social standing did not warrant the admission of them into the first class, were to be apprehended -- the more jjrominent by detachments of the Continental Army, the less prominent by the County Committee-- and "dealt with," after a "man- "ner" which was " prescribed for the conduct'* of those under whose directi(ms the several " apprehen- " sions" should be made.