The results are presented as types, derived from a carefully indexed analysis of the minutes for the year 1778, and are supplemented by very material variations of later date. On April 24, 1778, Leonard Gansevoort, Jr., was appointed clerk or secretary to the Albany County commissioners, and took his oath of office, promising to "keep secret all such Matters as should be given him in Charge," until discharged therefrom by the board. John M. Beeckman, one of the commissioners, acted for a time as treasurer of the board, For financial materials see Appendix II.

Introduction 37

until August 6, 1778, when Gansevoort was charged also with

that trust. 1 In the beginning, the salary of Gansevoort was ten shillings for every day's entry in the minutes. On August 3, 1778, his pay was raised to twenty shillings per day, "it being the same Pay allowed by the Commissioners at Poughkeepsie." Evidently, this extra allowance had also some relation to his enlarged duties, committed to him three days later. Expenditures by the secretary-treasurer were authorized or approved by the commissioners in session, and to them he was obliged to report. When the commissioners entrusted funds to any of their own members or to military officers, they were likewise required to make an accounting. 2 Jacob Kidney was doorkeeper to the board. 3 He also served warrants upon recalcitrant citizens, apparently in the capacity of a constable. 4 Counterfeiters -- By an act of March 8, 1778, it was made a felony without benefit of clergy to counterfeit any true bill of credit issued by or thereafter to be issued by the authority of Congress, or by the authority of any provincial congress or any convention of the State of New York, before or since the Declaration of Independence, or by authority of the legislature of any other of the States since July 4, 1776, or to alter by raising the amount of any true bill of credit, or to attempt to pass such paper, or bring into the State any such paper, knowing the same to be counterfeit or altered. 5 The same substance was contained in the similar act of March 27, 1781. 6 By the act of November 20, 1781, counterfeiting French See May 23; June 18; July 29; August 6, 1778; June 28, 1780. 2 August 14; September 15; December 1, 1778. 8 February 15; June 30, 1779; June 28, 1780.