History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
With this mass of materials before us, it is no easy task to write a chapter upon the bench and bar of Westchester County ; it would be much easier to write a volume.
Under the scheme of this work, however, many of the leading judges and lawyers are treated of at length elsewhere, in separate biographies, or in connection with the history of the several towns where they resided and whose names they have honored by their lives and work.
As to the living judges and lawyers, we shall undertake merely to give their names and residences, and leave to the future historian the presentation of their characteristics and careers when their life-work shall be complete.
The history of the bench of Westchester County begins in the year 1688, when John Pell was appointed the first judge of the county. On pages 11 and 12, liber B of deeds, in the office of the register of the county, his commission is stated in the following words :
"James the Second, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come,
'Many Interesting facts relating to the history of the bench and bur in Westchester County may bo found in this volume in the chapter on the Civil History, prepared by the Kev. William J. Gumming, of Yorktown.
greeting : know ye that we have assigned, constituted and aiipciiud d, and by those presents do assign, constitute and appoint, our trusty and well beloved 8ub.ject, John Pell, Esq., to be judge of our inferior Court of Common Pleas, to be holden in our county of Westchester, in our ti rritory and dominion of New England, with authority to use and exercise all power and jurisdiction belonging to said court and to do that which to ju.stice doth appertain, according to the laws, customs and statutes of our kingdom of England, and this, our territory and dominion, and the said John Fell, assisted with two or more justices of the peace in our said county, to hear, try and determine all causes and matters civil by law cognizable in the said county, and to award execution thereon.