These duties were transferred to a board of supervisors by an act of general assembly passed June 19, 1703 (2d Anne), entitled " An Act for the better explaining and more effectually putting into execution an act of general assembly made in the third year of the reign of their late majesties, King William and Queen Mary, entitled An Act for defraying the publick and necessary charges thro'out this province, and for maintaining the poor and preventing vagabonds." The freeholders and inhabitants of each town were authorized to choose once each year, on the first Tuesday of April (unless otherwise directed), one supervisor, two assessors, and one collector. The supervisors elected were directed to meet in the county town on the first Tuesday of October, ascertain the contingent charges of the county and such sums as were imposed by the laws of the colony, apportion to each town, manor, liberty, jurisdiction, and precinct their respective quotas, and to transmit them to the assessors of the different towns, etc.. who should apportion them among the inhabitants. The supervisors were authorized to choose annually a treasurer. The court of sessions was thus relieved of that portion of its duties which was legislative and not judicial. Supervisors had been chosen in several of the towns before the passage of the act of 1703 (Eastchester, 1681!; Mamaroneck, 1697; New Rochelle, 1700); but what their duties were it is impossible to state.1

During the ton years following The arrival of the first royal governor under King William, and the definite erection of representative government in the province, there was a steady expansion of population, wealth, and enterprise. Sloughter died only two months after Leisler's execution, and was succeeded as governor the next year by Benjamin Fletcher, who was superseded in 1G98 by the Earl of Belloniont. one of the best and most conscientious of New York's early colonial rulers.