Davis Family Donation
Board of Supervisors Minutes and Justices’ Meetings 1700-1710
Around the turn of the eighteenth century, control over tax apportionment and collection for “county charges” was taken from the Sheriff and the Justices of the Peace and vested in representatives or supervisors from each township. That shift of authority is documented in these first minutes of the Ulster County Board of Supervisors. Long considered lost, these are the earliest such minutes extant in New York State. The first meeting is dated January 7, 1703 “to Examine ye debts of the County.” Most of the debts are fees for service; for sending Representatives to the Assembly in New York; for viewing and burying a corpse; for repairing a carriage wheel; for rum for the jury; for killing wolves; for ringing the bell; and for collecting the Queen’s taxes. In the same meeting the supervisors appoint a treasurer, establish his salary and resolve to repair the “county house” and “prison” by way of a tax. In fact, these minutes throw much light on taxation in the early colonial period. Mentioned are taxes for a fort at Onondaga, for batteries at the narrows at Staten Island, and “for the better securing the five nations of Indians in their fidelity to his majestie.” With calls to the town assessors to assess “all the inhabitants, residents and sojourners real and personal estates,” we can see the beginnings of England’s colonial trouble with taxation without representation.
Sample Entries
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Jan 23, 1701
Several Assessors make an “obstruction” that they will assess at the rate of the 1691 Act of the Assembly and no other. -
Feb 13, 1701
William Nottingham can not be the Assessor for Marbletown because he is not an inhabitant. Freeholders vote again and he is chosen for a second time. -
Jan 7, 1702
Captain Thomas Garton is allowed £15 18 shillings for 41 days service as a Representative and 12 days for his going and returning home at 6 shillings per day.
