It is related in Governor Cosby 's official letter to the home government concerning Morris's famous decision that Justice Philipse, in common with Justice de Lancey, heard k' with astonishment "the abrupt declaration by the chief justice that the Court of Chancery was not a legal tribunal; and this no doubt was a quite faithful representation of his mental attitude on that trying occasion. Whatever may be thought of the conduct of the ambitious de Lancey, Philipse's action was unmistakably ingenuous. It probably never occurred to him to doubt the perfect regularity and sufficiency of a court which had been set over the people at the discretion of the king's governor and his advisers. Philipse's career on the bench, excepting in this single case, was uneventful and wholly acceptable. After the Van Dam decision the Supreme Court was dominated by the individuality of de Lancey, as it had previously been by that of Morris, and the function of a second judge was not an onerous one. Judge Philipse is described in an official communication from the council to the English government as " a very worthy gentleman of plentiful fortune and good education." On his manor -- or rather his section of the manor, for it was only during the last two years of his life, after the death of his uncle

ARISTOCRATIC

FAMILIES

Adolph, that he enjoyed possession of the whole property -- he ruled with much appreciation of his proprietary dignity and correspondingobservance of ceremony, but to the uniform satisfaction of his tenants, lie displayed none of the puffed-up characteristics of the parvenue lord, but was kind, approachable, moderate, and good to the poor. He presided in person over the manorial court. The inhabitants of the estate, except his immediate household, continued to be tenant farmers. He is said to have had fifty family Servants, of whom thirty were whites and twenty were negro slaves.