measure, and to each lot in the town plat was annexed one lot or farm of about 24 or 25 morgens, each morgen containing about 2 acres, another lot for a garden, about 1 acre, and a third lot for pasture of about 5 acres. "After this division, they procured patents, or ground briefs for their respective lots.

"Soon after the first settlement of the said town, the inhabitants and freeholders, for maintaining good order and advancing their settlement, began the election of five Trustees then called Commissaries. These Commissionaries took cognizance of Small Causes arising within the limits of the town.

"They also purchased lands for the use of the freeholders and inhabitants of the town, and part of their business and powers was to sell and dispose of the common lands belonging to the town, which they did, as well to strangers as to the original Settlers, Their acts were deemed by the inhabitants to be legal and binding, and their Sales of the Common land valid.

"Upon the Surrender of this Province to the Crown of England, the inhabitants of Schenectady procured from the Duke's Governors confirmations for the lands they then held in Severalty; but they still continued the custom of annually choosing Commissaries, who exercised the like powers as the Commissaries had done in the Dutch time, until the 1st of November, 1684, when Governor Dongan, by patent under the great seal of this province granted to William Teller, Ryer Schermerhorn, Sweer Teunise, Jan Van Epps, and Myndert Wemp, a tract of lands including not only all the lands the inhabitants of Schenectady held in severalty but also a large additional tract before purchased of the Indians for the use of the town, to hold the same to the said William Teller, Ryer Schermerhorn, Sweer Teunise, Jan Van Epps, and Myndert Wemp, on the behalf of the inhabitants of the town of Schenectady, and their associates, their heirs, successors and assigns, unto the proper use and behoof of the said William Teller, Ryer Schermerhorn, Sweer Teunise, Jan Van Epps and Myndert Wemp, their heirs, successors and assigns forever.'

"The Inhabitants of Schenectady, at the date of this Patent consisted of upwards of fifty persons, and the patent was procured not only to obtain a confirmation of the lands they then held by particular patents, but also a continuation of the powers of their Commissaries, as the same had been before used.

"Why the town was not properly incorporated is unknown, but the inhabitants antiently conceived that the true intent and design of this patent, was to enable the grantees or trustees therein named to sell their Common lands in the manner, which had been before used by the Commissaries, either to the freeholders and inhabitants of the town, or to such Strangers as might be inclined to purchase and Settle among them; and accordingly, soon after the Date of the patent, the trustees proceeded to grant parcels

of the land included in the said patent to such persons as were willing to take the same, reserving a rent for the use of the town, as the Commissaries had usually done, and continued to do so till the year 1690, when the town was sacked and burned, in a memorable irruption of the French and their Indian allies.

"The destruction of the town and the massacre of many of the inhabitants having discouraged any new Settlements in that exposed frontier, no sales of the common lands were afterwards made till the peace of Ryswick in 1697; when such of the trustees as were living again proceeded to grant the common lands in the said township, in the manner as they did before.

"In 1702 Ryer Schermerhorn the Petitioner's grandfather, became the sole surviving trustee, and continued so till the year 1714, during which time, he as surviving trustee, made conveyances of parcels of the said common lands, as well to strangers as to such as were descended from those settled in the township at the time Dongan's patent was obtained.

"Ryer Schermerhorn by indenture of lease and release bearing date the 22d and 23d of October, 1714, reciting the death of his fellow trustees, and that the estate, right, and title of, in and to all the land included in Dongan's patent, and not disposed of by the trustees, was solely vested in him in fee simple by survivorship; and that he growing antient was desirous that the premises should be conveyed to others with himself and their heirs and assigns, that the intent of the patent might be duly observed, did thereby grant and convey the said premises to William Apple, his heirs and assigns, in trust to convey the same to the said Ryer Schermerhorn, Jan Wemp, Johannes Teller, Arent Bradt and Barent Wemp in fee, to the intent the same might be held and enjoyed according to the true intent and meaning of Dongan's patent.

"William Apple by indentures of lease and release bearing date the 25th and 26th of October 1714, in pursuance of said trust, granted and conveyed the premises aforesaid to the said Ryer Schermerhorn, Jan Wemp, Johannes Teller, Arent Bradt and Barent Wemp in fee.

"King George the First, by his letters patent under the great seal of this province, bearing date the 6th day of November in the first year of his reign [1714] granted and confirmed the premises aforesaid to the said Ryer Schermerhorn, Jan Wemp, Johannes Teller, Arent Bradt and Barent Wemp, their heirs and assigns forever to hold to them, their heirs and assigns forever, in trust, nevertheless, to and for the only use, benefit and behoof of themselves and the other inhabitants and freeholders of the said town of Schenectady their heirs and assigns forever.'

"After obtaining the second letters patent the trustees named therein proceeded in granting the common lands in the same manner as their predecessors had done until the year 1755. So that the greatest part of the estates in the township of Schenectady now depend upon the conveyances from the trustees.

"None of the inhabitants of Schenectady ever, till lately, pretended to have any estate in the common lands belonging to the town, nor are there any instances, unless of a very late date, of any of them, except the trustees conveying or devising any of the said common lands, or any interest therein.

"But supposing the trustees held the individual land for the common benefit of the town and the inhabitants, as well strangers as the original settlers, their descendants have from the first settlement of the town to the present day, indiscriminately claimed and enjoyed the privilege of cutting their necessary timber and firewood on the said common lands, a privilege without which many families in the said town would be reduced to great extremities.

"About the [year] 1750, Jan Schermerhorn, the petitioner's father, first set up the pretence that all those who were inhabitants and freeholders of Schenectady at the date of Dongan's Patent, were equally entitled to all the common lands, included therein as tenants in common fee. And in 1754, the petitioner after his father's death, upon the same pretence, purchased of the heirs of three of the original settlers, their right in the common lands belonging to the town; but from the trifling consideration he paid, there is reason to believe the grantors themselves did not suppose they were entitled to the rights they pretended to sell; for two of them sold for six pounds each of the third for ten, and the lands claimed by the petitioner in virtue of each of these conveyances were then worth at least fifteen hundred pounds.

"In 1755, Ryer Schermerhorn, the petitioner, pretending that there were but twenty-five freeholders and inhabitants in Schenectady at the date of Dongan's Patent; and that they were equally entitled to the undivided lands as tenants in common, and claiming one share as heir to his grandfather, the three shares he had purchased as aforesaid, and one-sixth of a share by the will of Catalyntie Andriese De Vos, filed a bill in Chancery against Arent Bradt, then the surviving trustee, and several others, to compel an acknowledgment of his claim, and a conveyance from Bradt of the lands he claimed, and obtained an injunction, which prevented Bradt from making any more sales of the common lands. The defendants answered the bill, but no further proceedings were had in that cause.

"On the 11th of March, 1765, Arent Bradt made his will, and devised the premises in question to twenty-three trustees in fee; to hold to them and their heirs and assigns forever in trust to and for the only use, benefit and behoof of themselves and the other freeholders and inhabitants of the said township of Schenectady, their heirs and assigns forever.

"In 1767, soon after the death of Arent Bradt, the said Ryer Schermerhorn filed a bill in Chancery against all the trustees named in his will and a great number of other persons. This bill admits there were twenty-seven freeholders and inhabitants in Schenectady at the date of Dongan's patent and

prays a partition among those entitled under them. All the trustees except three and some of the other defendants filed their answer in April, 1768. Since which no further proceedings have been had in that cause.

"The trustees are willing and desirous of having the cause determined by the court in which the petitioner thought proper to bring it, and they suppose he now declines that judicature, from a consciousness that equity is against him; for as the courts of justice in this province have always shown a great indulgence to the infancy of time, for the preservation of justice and private tranquility, the trustees conceive the petitioner cannot expect to prevail in opposing a usage begun by all their ancestors and invariably continued for nearly a century; especially as the construction now insisted upon by the petitioner is not only repugnant to the constant sense of the inhabitants and freeholders of Schenectady, but will be necessarily productive of the ruin of the greatest part of the inhabitants and throw the whole township into confusion.

"For the petitioner claims to have the common lands divided into twentyseven shares, of which he himself claims four and one-sixth, and the inhabitants of said township now consists of about four hundred freeholders and a division upon the petitioner's plan must be made only among about twenty persons, and none of the rest of the freeholders or inhabitants will have any shares, although they always considered themselves as equally entitled with the heirs of the original settlers, to the benefit of the common lands in virtue of their purchases, and have in consequence of such presumption been at great expense in building and other improvements."*

When New York at the close of the revolution ceased to be a province of the British empire, many laws and legal customs of the mother country became obsolete; among which was the law of primogeniture. Up to this time Ryer Schermerhorn and his friends acting under said law, had claimed that the common lands belonged of right to the eldest sons and heirs of the first settlers or to their assigns, only from twenty-five to thirty of whom were then living in the township. But with the change of the laws, the number of the claimants to the common lands was greatly increased. It is said that in 1797 there were nearly 500 families in the township, descendants from the first settlers, who claimed in right of law that these lands belonged to them or their assigns and not to those interlopers, who had become citizens long subsequent to their forefathers.

And as a recognition of rights they claimed that these lands should be leased to them on durable leases and at a nominal rent of from 50cts. to $7.50 per 100 acres.

* Schenectady Directory, 1857-8, p. 142.

These claims and demands of the "descendants" exasperated the other and later settlers, and led to protests and petitions, to the appointment of committees of conference, to consultations with legal authorities and to various reports and plans of compromise.

One of the most elaborate and well digested plans for the management of the common lands was that of 1793, offered by a committee appointed at a town meeting held Oct. 1, 1792, a "respectable number of the inhabitants being present."

This committee consisted of, John Van Petten, John Glen, Andrew Van Patten, John Sanders, Albert A. Vedder, and Abraham Oothout, and made their report Jan. 28, 1793. Among other things they recommended :

"1. That the inhabitants of the township choose seven freeholders to whom the present trustees of the common lands shall render an account of their acts during their term of office.

"2. That the present trustees shall nominate seven freeholders to whom said trustees shall resign their trust of the common lands, etc.

"3. That the freeholders of the town shall yearly appoint seven other freeholders to audit the accounts of the seven trustees last above mentioned.

"4. When the trustees last above elected shall be reduced to three, that said remaining trustees shall assign their trust to seven other freeholders nominated by the inhabitants.

"5. That the male inhabitants who have resided in the town before the year 1760 and their descendants of full age, shall be the electors of said new trustees and so on in succession.

"6. That the income of the public property shall be expended as said trustees and ten other freeholders appointed yearly may order.

"7. That a certain tract of land on the north and south sides of the river and in the westerly bounds of the township shall be set apart for commons. "8. That the highest price for land shall be forty shillings, and the lowest eight shillings per acre, the highest price for land leases shall be £10, the lowest £4, the hundred acres." Then follow a code of rules and by-laws.

These recommendations were never carried into effect. In 1795, the old Board of Trustees appointed under Arent Bratt's will, had been in power thirty years, many had passed away, the others had become aged, and it seemed proper and desirable that new blood should be infused into this body; therefore, on the 13th January, 1795, the following persons then seized in fee of the common lands, "as surviving trustees of the town in virtue of the Patent, 1714, and certain mesne conveyances and devises," to wit: Abraham Fonda, Harmanus Bratt, Isaac Vrooman, Nicholas Van Petten, Nicholaas Van der Volgen, Jacobus Myndertse, Samuel Bradt and Abraham Wemple, associated with themselves as trustees, Nicholaas Veeder,