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Published: 1993

Total Pages: 370

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After the English seized New Netherland in 1664, they organized a large portion of their new colony into a jurisdiction they called Yorkshire. This new Yorkshire, like its English namesake, was divided into administrative units called ridings. All of Long Island east of Oyster Bay fell in the East Riding. This volume contains the records of the Court of Sessions of the East Riding from 1670 to 1688. After 1683, New York was reorganized into counties, and the East Riding was renamed Suffolk County. For the most part, this volume consists of probate records. It also contains records of court cases and copies of deeds. But its chief value is as a collection of wills and estate inventories of an entire generation. Enmeshed in the stylized formulas used when drafting wills can be discerned the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of the ordinary men who lived on Long Island in the latter half of the seventeenth century. For many of them, these wills and inventories constitute the principal enduring expression of their lives. The book contains a full-name index; six stylized maps showing home lot locations for Southampton, Southold, East Hampton, and Smithtown; and a beautiful reproduction of Robert Ryder’s antique map of Long Island, courtesy of Brown University.