Frydav morning [21st] we rode in company with the Commanderin-Chief as far as the Widow Day's, at Harlem where we held a council.1 at a fter Sir Guy Carleton m 1 Irving sa tifled Washi ys tli 1 of the time when the diffe it would be pleasing to believ QgtO] of Eastchester was the plac .■Hi posts w ould be v acated, Governor Clinto nil official arrangements wer men ibers of the State counc " summoned to convene 1at theE astel [ester on the 21st of Ni lording to Lieutenant-Goverm vember, foi pose of establishing civ the n ting of tl ouncil f. in t ae (1 istricts hither! is held on Manhattan Island. rcupie

CHAPTER GENERAL

XXIY

FROM THE REVOLUTION HISTORY OF THE COUNTY CONTINUED TO THE COMPLETION OF THE CROTON AQUEDUCT (1842)

the organizaN a previous chapter we have briefly noticed tion of the State government of New York on the 20th of April, 1777, when a constitution, framed by John Jay, was adopted by the "Convention of Representatives of the State of New York " in session at Kingston. At the time of the British invasion of Westchester County, beginning October 12, 1776, the county records were removed from the courl house at White Plains by Theophilns Barton, clerk of the county court, and deposited in a place of safety, where they remained until the end of the war. White Plains, which had been the county seat since 1759, ceased to be adapted for that purpose, partly because of the burning of the court house on the night of the 5th of November, 1776, and partly because of the exposed situation of the village between the lines of the two armies. Upon the destruction of the court house the village of Bedford was made the seat of the county meeting-house of Bedgovernment, and it was in the Presbyterian under the provisions of ford that the first county court organized the constitution of 1777 held its sessions.