They were particularly instructed to ordain against fighting and wrestling, and the sheriffs were cautioned that the places under their charge were to be " cleansed of all mobs, gamblers . . . and such like impurities." The sheriff" and schepens nominated a double number of persons for magistrates, to be presented to the Governor, who made his election therefrom. Thelatter, however, reserved the power to continue some of the old ones in office in case he deemed it necessary. Tbe magistrates he recommended should be " the best qualified, the honestest, most intelligent and wealthiest inhabitants." He also required them to be of the Reformed Christian religion or at Irast well affeciioned thereunto.
On September 8, 1673, one Jonathan Silck (or Sellick), of Oyster Bay, came into the Council and asked tliat he might have an old ketch which was laying sunk in Westchester Creek, ^ for which he agreed to pay something, and, after considerable higgling, it was agreed that the ketch could be had for sixty beavers, thirty in cash and the residue in cattle, for which Captain Sellick gave security. The Council confiscated the ketch, called the " Rebecca and Sarah," of twelve lasts burthen, and of which William Merritt was the late skipper; and, as she was the property of the enemies of the Dutch -- Captain Delaval, the English mayor of Harlem -- she was declared to be a lawful prize.
Archer (of Fordham), of course, was in trouble
with the new government. At a council held at Harlem on October 4, 1673, the Governor-General and Cornells Steenwyck (his secretary) being present, the inhabitants of Fordham appeared and complained of the ill government of their landlord, John Archer, and asked that they might be allowed to nominate their own magistrates. Archer was present and voluntarily declared that he would desist from the government and patroonshij) of the town, but reserved to himself the property and ownership of the lands and houses there.