Richard Morris was a brother of Colonel Lewis Morris, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a half-brother of Gonverneur Morris, lie was judge of the colonial Court of Admiralty, but his designation as a possible foe to the Revolutionary programme seems to have been wholly undeserved, lie resigned his crown commission, giving as his reason that he could not conscientiously retain it, ami his country-seat at Scarsdale was subsequently burned by the British and his estate devastated. On July 31, 1776, less than two months after he was singled out as a possible traitor, he was unanimously appointed by the fourth provincial congress judge of the High Court

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

of Admiralty under the new provisional government, In 1779 he became chief justice of the New York State Supreme Court, succeeding John Jay. The committee to detect conspiracies began its sessions on the 15th of June, with John Jay as its chairman. It sent summonses to all the Westchester County men named in the resolutions. The limits of our space do not admit of a detailed notice of the action of the committee concerning these various cases, none of which, excepting that of Frederick Philipse, possesses any very important historic interest. The history of Philipse's case may properly be completed in the present connection. In the summons sent to him he was ordered to appear before the committee on the 3d of July, lie sent the following reply: Philipsborough, July 2, 1776. Gentlemen :-- I was served on Saturday evening last with a paper signed by you, in which you suggest that you are authorized by the Congress to summon certain persons to appear before you, whose conduct had been represented as inimical to the rights of America, of which number you say I am one. Who it is that has made such a representation, or upon what particular facts it is founded, as you have not stated them it is impossible for me to imagine ; but, considering my situation and the near and intimate ties and connections which I have in this country, which can be secured and rendered happy to me only by the real and permanent prosperity of America, I should have hoped that suspicions of this harsh nature would not be easily harboured.