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ABSTRACTS OF WILLS

ON FILE IN THE SURROGATE'S OFFICE,

CITY OF NEW YORK.

VOL. II.

1708-1728.

WITH APPENDIX AND MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS volume, the second of the series of Abstracts of Wills in New York Surrogate's office, embraces Libers 8 to 10 inclusive. It also includes abstracts of Libers 144 and 19 B. These volumes although out of the regular succession, are composed of wills and documents of an earlier date than Liber 11 which would naturally follow.

Liber 19B also contains a long list of complaints entered in the "Court of Mayor and Aldermen." This court was established immediately after the English Conquest, and for long years was the tribunal for the trial of petty cases. By the Dongan Charter, the Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen, or any three of them, were authorized to hold Mayor's Court.

While Maturin Livingston was Recorder, Mayor De Witt Clinton ceased to preside at Mayor's Court, and from that time till 1821 the Recorder presided, the business having greatly increased, and the Mayor having ceased to preside, it was concluded that the title of "Mayor's Court," no longer appropriate, should be abandoned. An Act of Legislature was passed changing the name to "Court of Common Pleas," and the office of First Judge was created. The Mayor and Aldermen were still authorized to sit as a Court, but the First Judge was empowered to hold it without them, and it was his special duty to do so.

The work of making the abstracts of this volume, as in the preceding, has been performed by MR. WILLIAM S. PELLETREAU, and the index is by MR. ROBERT H. KELBY, the Librarian of the Society.

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Record of complaints entered in the Court of Mayor and Aldermen, and miscel-

lancous documents, 420 to 466.

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