In the conflicts of factions, in that body, it will be remembered that no more consistent and no more steadfast opponents of the Home and Colonial Governments were seen than the two Representatives of the County of Westchester and the other two, who represented, respectively, the Manor of Cortlandt and the Borough Town of Westchester, although Frederic Philipse, representing the County, and Isaac Wilkins, representing the Borough, were of one faction, and John Thomas, also representing the County, and Pierre Van Cortlandt, representing the Manor of Cortlandt, were of the other and opposing faction. 4

At the adjournment of the House, in April, 1775, these four gentlemen appeared to have returned to their respective homes, and to have remained there, without immediately participating in the political events of the day, except in the instance of Frederic Philipse and Isaac Wilkins, who, eight days after the adjournment of the General Assembly, united in the Declaration and Protest against the assembling of the Provincial Convention for the sole purpose of electing Delegates to a second Congress of the Continent, which Declaration and Protest a large number of the inhabitants of the County of Westchester then signed and published. 5

It will be remembered, also, that among the earliest of those whom the handful of office-seekers, in the interest of themselves and of the Rebellion, proscrib-

3 Vide page 32, ante. « Vide pages 48, 49, ante. 6 Vide pages 72-74, ante.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY".

ed, because of his action in the General Assembly -- notwithstanding it was in an earnest opposition to the Ministry and in an equally earnest support of the demands of the Colony for a redress of grievances -- because of his Declaration and Protest at the White Plains, and, undoubtedly, because of his understood authorship of some political tracts which were obnoxious to the controling political faction, Isaac Wilkins was obliged to seek personal safety in flight -- he left his family and his estate and found a refuge in London. 1