SEAL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

It

The coat-of-arms was granted by King James II to the city a few months after he ascended the English throne. was engraved on a new seal, which was delivered with much formality by the Governor, in the King's name, to the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty, on the 24th of July, 1686, and duly accepted by them.

There was no motto, but the legend on the seal is “Sigillum civitatis Novi Eboraci" in the contracted form of "Sigill. civitat. Novi Eborac."-in English, "Seal of the City of New York." These arms are shown depicted in their correct heraldic tinctures, or colors. They are thus blazoned:

SHIELD: Argent, charged with the four sails of a windmill proper; between their outer ends, two beavers proper, one in chief and one in base, and two flour barrels proper, in fess, one on each side.

CREST: A royal crown, or, lined gules.

These arms have remained unchanged, and are the coatof-arms of the City of New York to-day; the crest, however, was altered, in 1784, to a bald eagle proper rising from a demiterrestrial globe, which was adopted, in place of the crown, from the original State arms of the State of New York.

AIMBOTLIAD

INTRODUCTION.

The body of records which in these volumes is issued in printed form occupies, with those of Philadelphia and Albany, a rare place among the sources of American history. They correspond in general character to the records of an English municipality of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; while they are much more extensive and important than the accessible records of either of the cities just named. No similar memorials are known to have survived in Charleston, South Carolina, or in the few smaller boroughs which existed in the southern and middle colonies. The records of Boston, until some time after the beginning of the nineteenth century, are those of an expanded and overgrown New England town. A belief that the printing of these minutes was a necessary condition for the study of the early growth of city government in this country has led to the undertaking, the completed result of which is now submitted to the public.

These Minutes of the Common Council comprise in their entries by far the most important collection of material relating to the early administration of municipal affairs in New York which has survived. The fragments which now remain in manuscript will be found in certain ledgers and journals that were kept by the old city treasurers, in a few tax lists, in certain volumes of grants of city lands and water lots, in a few maps, ferry leases and other miscellaneous papers. Unfortunately, nearly all the papers of the

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Common Council, except those which were spread upon its minutes,

have disappeared.

The original rough minutes themselves have also, for the most part, been destroyed, and the text which is here presented is based chiefly upon two copies, one of which was made soon after 1880, and the other at a much earlier date. Of these the former abounds in errors, and the latter leaves much to be desired, especially in the later volumes. But fortunately, after editorial work had been begun, an early and exact draft covering the years subsequent to 1750 was brought to light, and this has been freely used for the purpose of perfecting the text for entries after that date.

Words which were repeated in the original have been printed in italics, while words or letters which it seemed necessary to introduce in order to complete the sense have been enclosed in brackets. The original spelling, capitalization and punctuation, with the special signs which were used, have been retained. The pagination of the original will also be found in the printed text.

Early in the administration of his Honor Seth Low, the New York Historical Society addressed to the Mayor a memorial requesting that steps should be taken for the publication of the Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York covering the dates 1675 to 1776. It was also stated that the Society was ready to suggest the names of gentlemen who would be willing to supervise the editing of these records. To this proposal the Mayor acceded. After action by the Board of Estimate, he addressed a message to the Board of Aldermen requesting them to pass a resolution authorizing the work. This action was taken by the Aldermen on February 10, 1903. Their resolution provided that the committee, already named by the Mayor, and consisting of members of the Historical Society, should have editorial charge of the work. They were Herbert L. Osgood, Frederic W. Jackson, Robert H.