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.

Caleb Heathcote was the next judge of the Court of Common Pleas, holding that office from a.d. 1693 to 1720. He was the sixth son of Gilbert Heathcote, of Chesterfield, England, who had fought with distinction in the Parliament army during the civil war which cost Charles the First his head. The Heathcotes were an ancient and honorable family of Derbyshire. They are mentioned as engaged in mercantile pursuits at Chesterfield during the reign of Edward IV. (1470-1471 ).'^

A romantic story is told of the cause of Caleb Heathcote's emigration to America. He was engaged to a very beautiful young lady, who jilted him for his elder brother, Sir Gilbert Heathcote (afterwards M. P. for London and Lord Mayor of that city in 1711). Caleb came to New York in 1692. " From the time of his arrival he became a leading man in the colony," and being possessed of great wealth, which he had acquired in mercantile pursuits, he made extensive purchases of lands in Westchester County. These, on the 21st of March, 1701, were "erected into the lordship and manor of Scarsdale, to be holden of the King in free and common soccage, its Lord yielding and rendering therefore annually, upon the festival of Nativity, five pounds current money of New York, etc." Besides his judgeship, Mr.