Such ridiculous conduct on the part of a mere acting governor, who was only a plain, merchandizing citizen and Dutchman, could not be submitted to by the sensitive Cosby. He demanded that Rip Van Dam should deliver over to him one-half of the salary thus taken. 'host ATan Dam shrewd lv responded that he would cheerfully do so if Cosby him paid York City, would, on his part, relinquish half the fees that had been One of his sons. ried Judith ISayard. anus Van Cortlandt. ter, Margaret Van

Jr.. marRip Van Dam, i granddaughter of StephThis couple had a daughDam, who married Willof Xcw Coekroft, iam brother James was the ancestor of the present Coekroft family of Sing Sing.

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for the same period. Cosby scornfully refused to listen to so impudent a proposal, and Van Dam stubbornly declined to accept any less equitable terms. This unseemly dispute over a paltry matter of salary led to official proceedings of the most peculiar and arbitrary nature, which aroused the people to strong resentment, and out of which was developed a question of popular right as fundamental and weighty as any that ever came up for decision in colonial times. Governor Cosby, still determined to wring the money from the obstinate Van Dam, was now compelled to resort to the forms of law to compass that end. Not content to leave the case to the decision of the ordinary courts of the province, he proceeded to erect a Court of Chancery for its trial. Equity courts, of which the governor was ex officio chancellor, had always been extremely distasteful to the people, and being constituted by the exclusive act of the executive, without the consent of the legislature, were, according to the best legal opinion, tribunals of at least doubtful authority. The assumption of the powers of chancellor by former governors had given rise to intense popular discontent, and the more intelligent predecessors of Cosby had shrunk from attempting to exercise them, except quite sparingly.