Patent, North Castle originally embraced a portion of the Middle Patent and also a separate grant made in 1700 to Ann Bridges, Roger It even encroached on the bounds Mompesson, and seven others.1 of the East Patent, covering a considerable part of the present Town The number of settlers increased rapidly, and we of Poundridge. are informed that at the time of its division by the setting off of New Castle " it was the second town in the county in assessed valuation, ranking next to Westchester in that respect, and the first in population." 2 Inasmuch as North Castle lay entirely in the interior, and quite remote from New York City, its exceptional prosperity is Wenham, a member of the governor's Thomas council. Roger Mompesson = " History of Now Castle," by Joseph Bar. Chief Justice John Bridges. was chief justice of the province at the time. rett, Seharf, ii., 615. One of their associates in the patent was

grant lay diei This Patents. Ann between Bridges thewasWest the and wife Midof

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a striking proof of the fact that the wealth of our county had its origin exclusively in the agricultural interest. The old Town of Salem, now constituting the Towns of North Salem and Lewisboro, also has an interesting early history, on account of the inclusion in it of all of the lands of the " Oblong," or " Equivalent Tract." It will be remembered that the Oblong was uot laid off and monumented until 1731. In 1700 twenty-live citizens of Connecticut (mostly residents of Norwalk) obtained from the government of that colony the grant of what is known as the Ridgefield Patent, whose western boundary was the New York State line, at that time supposed to be twenty miles from the Hudson.