“October 11, 1693, at a meeting of the justices of Kings county, at the county hall. Present, Roeleff Martinse, Nicholas Stillwell, Joseph Hegeman, and Henry Ffilkin, esqrs. justices. John Bibout, of Broockland, in the county aforesaid, we aver being committed by the said justices to the common jail of Kings county, for divers scandalous and abusive words spoken by the said John against their majesties justices of the peace for the county aforesaid, to the contempt of their majesties authority and breach of the peace; the said John having now humbly submitted himself, and craves pardon and mercy of the said justices for his misdemeanour, is discharged, paying the officer’s fees, and being on his good behaviour till next court of sessions, in November next ensuing the date hereof.”
In another instance, during the same year, in the month of October, in the town of Bushwyck, a man named Urian Hagell, was imprisoned for having said, on a training day, speaking jestingly of the soldiers, “Let us knock them down, we are three to their one.” The justices called these “mutinous, factious, and seditious words;” which, with the like, appear to have been favourite terms with them. Again, in the same month and year, Hendrick Claes Vechte, of the town of Brooklyn, was imprisoned by the justices, on a charge of “raising of dissension, strife, and mutiny, among their majesties subjects.” And May 8, 1694, two women of Bushwick were indicted at the sessions, for having beat and pulled the hair of Captain Peter Praa, whilst at the head of his company of soldiers on parade. One of them was fined £3, and the cost, £1 19s. 9d.; and the other 40s. and the cost, £1 19s. 9d. In the last mentioned year, (1694) Volkert Brier, constable of Brooklyn, was fined £5, and the costs of court amounting to £1, by the sessions, “for tearing and burning an execution directed to him as constable.”[18] Brier afterwards petitioned the governor to have the fine remitted; a copy of which petition is in the appendix, marked C.
This town with respect to legal matters was under the jurisdiction of the court of sessions held at Gravesend, for the West Riding of Yorkshire, upon Long-Island,[19] until the year 1683; when an act was passed by the first legislative assembly of this colony, dividing the province into counties, by which the ridings were abolished. The court however continued to be held at Gravesend until 1686, when it was removed to Flatbush, in conformity to an act of the colonial assembly, passed in the year 1685. This town continued under the jurisdiction of that court, and the court of common pleas, which was afterwards established, until the close of the revolutionary war. At the close of the war the courts were re-organized, and this town still continues under their jurisdiction.
PRESENT GOVERNMENT.
In 1816 the village of Brooklyn was erected out of the town, and constituted a distinct government; thereby forming an imperium in imperio.
The present government both of the town and village, approach as near a pure democracy as that of any other place in this state. No business of importance is undertaken without first having the sanction of a public meeting. Here these sterling principles, that all power emanates from the people, and that public officers are but public servants, are fully recognized, and acted upon.
This head the compiler will divide into two divisions, in order to avoid confusion: First, the Town Government, and second, the Village Government.
First—the Town Government.
The government of the town is administered by
A Supervisor, elected by the people, at the annual town-meeting, on the first Tuesday of April. The duties of this officer are principally confined to the apportionment of taxes, presiding at elections, &c. He is also ex officio a commissioner of excise for granting tavern licenses in the town, and the general guardian of the town rights. There is no salary attached to this office: the supervisor receives a compensation of two dollars per day, for attending the general meeting of the supervisors of the different towns in the county, and a trifling amount for granting licenses. The present supervisor is William Furman, esq.