In the mean time, under the English rule, the territory east of the Bronx was in the jurisdiction of the West Riding of Yorkshire, or Long Island, and the people attended the courts there, while the Fordham people had their court at Fordham and Harlem. On December 28, 16G-5, Governor Nicolls informed the inhabitants of Westchester that he would defer the laying out of the town in metes and bounds until they informed him as to every man's estate there, so that the whole could be equally divided into lots in proportion to each man's assessed valuation. Thomas Pell endeavored to prevent the granting of a patent to the people of Westchester, but the lawsuit that he had had a few years before with Cornell, relative to his grant, wsis treated by Nicolls as a good precedent. About the same time a delegation went from Westchester to an interview with the Governor's secretary about the division of the land, and the Governor directed that they should divide the meadows as they plejised, but observing the order made by Mr. Delaval and Mr. Hubbard. They were to have as much of Mrs. Bridge's meadows as Delaval and Hubbard ordered, but they were not to meddle with the fortytwo acres, by Rattlesnake Brook, claimed by the Ten Farms (East Chester) which were to remain to the use of the families settled there, and to be concluded thereby and bounded by the brook. Every one hundredth estate was to have six acres, and every two hundredth estate eight acres of good meadow land lying most convenient for each lot, but no further division was to be made, the remainder of the land being left in common for the encouragement of future settlers. The meadow ground of the Ten Farms was between Hutchinson's River and Rattlesnake Brook, and the reservations made as to territory included what is north of the East Chester line.