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. Accordingly, in testimony whereof we have caused the great seal of our said territory to be hereunto atBxed. Witness, Sir EJmuu d Andros, Knt., our Captain-generall and Governor-in-Chief of our terr itory and dominion aforesaid, this 25th day of August, in the fourth year of our reign, A. D. 1688."

We have given elsewhere a very full account of the Pell family, in connection with the founding of Pelham. The first Court of Sessions, shown by the court records, was held on the 3d of June, 1684, the next year after the county was established. The record does not show who presided, or who sat as associate judges. We have not been able to learn from any source the name of the presiding judge. It is possible, therefore, that some one may have been appointed, or acted, as judge of the county before Judge Pell; or it may be that he had been appointed and acted prior to the appointment above detailed.