In a dispute between Samuel Odell and the heirs of Jonathan Vowles about the southernmost part of that island, John Frost testified that in 1()93 he went, by request of Vowles, to the said island, " where he did see Jonathan Vowles . . . cut a turff upon the same, as also cut a stick or twigg thereon ; and the said Jonathan Vowles did then and there deliver the said turfe and twigg to the said Samuel Odel, who tiesiretl this deponent to take notice that Jonathan Vowles did putt him in full and peaceable possession." The life of the early settlers was marked by simrhester County. Slavery ceased forever in the State of New York under the law of 1S17, which enacted that every " negro, nuilatto or mustee within this .State, born before the 4th day of July, 17!)!l, shall, from and after the 4th day of .Inly, 18-.i7, be free."

' 1733 -- Mr. Silas Wood gives the population of the province this year to be 'iO,291, of which 7231 were slaves. -- Walson.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

plicity and naturalness in their social relations. Their ont-door amusements were of the kind that promoted vigorous bodies. The Dutch skated on the frozen streams in winter, as they had done in Holland, while the English were mightily given to riding and hunting. As in all new countries, women were in the minority ; the demand exceeded the supply, and she was usually an incorrigible old maid who passed her twentieth year without finding a husband. The marriage festival was an event to which friends and neighbors from all the country round were bidden ; much ale and liquor was drunk, and the dancing was kept up the night through. There does not, however, seem to have been the strictest morality observed concerning the relation of men and women, for on January 5, 1658, the Council of the New Netherlands issued a very stringent order against those who had had their banns published and then had not had the ceremony performed.