In Westchester-county, the heirs and assigns of Stephanus Van Cortlandt having failed to exercise thoprivilege which had been given to the latter, as the Lord of the Manor of Cortlandt, of electing a Representative for that Manor in the General Assembly, that privilege was transferred, by the Act of June 22, 1734, to the body of the Freeholders resi-

* A complete list of those who were admitted to the Freedom of the I City of New York, from 1749 until 1775, may be seen in the Manual of I Hie Corporation of the City of JVciu York for 1856, 477-502.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

who had usually assumed to be their social and political superiors, in order to secure their sturdy assistance in the intimidation of the Government, and, at other times, unrecognized by those whom they had thus befriended, as if they possessed no Rights, in political matters, which the franchised well-born

dent on the Manor. {Laws of New York, Chapter DCVII., Section II., Livingston and Smith's edition, New York: 1752, 219,220; the same, Chapter DCVII. , Section II., Van Schaack's edition, New- York : 1774, 183, 184.) It will be seen, therefore, that none, except those who were Freeholders holding improved and unencumbered Real Estate worth Forty PoundB, agreeably to the Act of May 8, 1699, could vote, in Colonial Westchester-county ; but, on the other hand, the Freeholders en the Cortlandt Manor possossed and, undoubtedly, exercised the Right to vote twice, at every such Election for Representatives to the General Assembly -- that for the Representative for the Manor, under the Manorial Charter, and that for the two Representatives for the County, under the Statute, already mentioned. Of course, the great body of the Tenantry, no matter how valuable its Leaseholds might be ; those whose humble homes were not worth, in each instance, Forty Pounds; and those whose Freeholds, of every value, which were encumbered by debts, had not the right of voting at the Polls.