386 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

Jackson, was sold, and Jackson street was opened to Jackson Ferry. About this time, also, the suppression of the rebellion in Ireland caused the emigration to this country of many persons who had been engaged in that unfortunate struggle, some of whom came to New York. A portion of these refugees, who had a little property, were induced to purchase lots on JacksonÕs land, at a spot to whichcleverly appealing to their patriotism—he had given the name of “Vinegar Hill,”1 in honor of the scene of the last conflict of that memorable rebellion.

On the 2d of April, 1801, the village of Brooklyn was incorporated as a fire district, by an act entitled “An Act to vest certain powers in the Freeholders and Inhabitants of part of the Town of Brooklyn, in Kings County,” etc., the 6th section of which is of much importance, inasmuch as it authenticated the copies of Old Road Records, then recently transferred from the County Clerk’s office to the office of the Clerk of the Town.

“And be it further enacted, that all copies and abstracts of records in the said County relative to roads and highways in the said Town of Brooklyn, examined and certified to be true copies by the Clerk of the said County, and registered by the Clerk of the said Town, in a book to be provided by him for that purpose, shall be deemed to be the records of the said Town, and of the same validity as the original records remaining in the office of the Clerk of the said County.”2

Crime and vice seem to have made fresh and increasing inroads upon the primitive simplicity of this old Dutch town; for, in 1802, the town took measures to determine the location and ascertain the expense of erecting a “cage, or watch-house.” Whether this was a rebuilding of the old one, or an additional one, is somewhat uncertain.(3) At the same meeting, the foremen of the fire-engines were

1 Near the Navy Yard.

2 A similar act had been passed, Feb. 9th, 1798, whereby, in consideration of the lose or destruction of the original records of the Town, during the Revolutionary War, such copies and abstracts of the County Records as related to the Town of Brooklyn, were considered as records of the said Town.

3 This was a movable structure, made of joists strongly put together, and capable of holding four persons, one only of whom could sit down. When it was deemed desira-