Dongan, therefore, urged the expediency of consolidating all the king's colonies from the Delaware to and including Connecticut and Massachusetts. " 2 Despite some local opposition this was done, and in 1688 Sir Edmund 1 The representatives of Connecticut contended for a straight line between the two extreme points, fifty-three miles apart, because the old monuments and marks upon the line were generally removed, and the original line could not be traced with any certainty by reference to

them. On the other hand, the commissioners of New York considered their authority limited to "ascertaining" the boundary as originally defined.-- Scharf, i., 5. 2 Van Pelfs Hist, of the Greater New York, i., SO.

20L

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

Andros was appointed the first governor of the combined provinces, with headquarters in Boston. A lieutenant-governor, Colonel Francis Nicholson, was deputized to take charge of the separate affairs of the Province of New York. The old governor's council was retained, although nothing was as vet done toward reviving the assembly. Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson's councilors were Anthony Brockholst, Frederick Philipse, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, and Nicholas Bayard. Dongan, before being superseded, granted to the City of New York, in 1GSG, its first charter as a corporation, under the style of " The Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of New York," the city having two years previously been divided into wards and made to include the whole of Manhattan Island. This advance step taken by the city is fairly representative of the general development which had fairly begun at that period -- a development to which Westchester County contributed its share. The reign of James, the last of the Stuart monarchs, was brief. Three years after he ascended the throne the people of England, weary of the tyranny, corruption, and religious intolerance of his dynasty, rose against him, and received with open arms the Protestant William, Prince of Orange, who, as the husband of Mary, one of the daughters of James, was eligible to rule over them.