We have not heard how it happened." ^ The destruction of the court-house on February 4, 1758, and the felt necessity for a more central location for the county town, led to the passing of the following act on December 16, 1758 : " An Act to impower the Justices of the Peace and Aldermen of the Borough of Westchester, in conjunction with the Supervisors of the said County, to ascertain and fix the place for erecting a new Court-House and Gaol for the said County ; and for raising a sum not exceeding One thousand Pounds, on the Estates, real and personal, of all the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the said County, for and towards erecting the said Court- House and Gaol." White Plains was selected as the place, and on November 7, 1759, the Court of Common Pleas held its first session in the court-house.* The act of February 6, 1778, directed the supervisors to meet in the court-house. In July, 1776, the Provincial Convention met in it. November 5, 1776, the building was burned by some of the American troops, the records having previously been removed to a safe place. During the Revolutionary War the courts were held in the Presbyterian Church at Bedford until its destruction by the British, in 1779. From this time until November, 1884, they were held at the meeting-house in Upper Salem. The act of April 11, 1785, ordered them to be held in the Presbyterian meeting-house at Bedford until the court-house should be rebuilt or until further orders of the Legislature. The act of May 1, 1786, directed the erection of courthouses at both White Plains and Bedford and eighteen hundred pounds was appropriated for the purpose. Stephen Ward, Ebenezer Lockwood, Jonathan G. Tompkins, Ebenezer Purdy, Thomas Thomas, Richard Hatfield and Richard Sacket, Jr., superintended their construction.