204 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

1687. The Clerk’s office of Kings County was kept in this town, by the Deputy Register, Jacob Vandewater, who saw also a Notary Public here at the same period. The Register, Samuel Bayard, Esq., resided in the city of New York.

The popular hopes which had been excited by the appointment of the Colonial Assembly, proved delusive, for after its third annual session, it was prohibited by the Duke of York, who, under the title of James II., had succeeded to the throne of England, and had begun to disclose his true character, and his intention to establish an arbitrary and Catholic government over the Protestant province of New York. The gloomy apprehensions of the people, however, were suddenly relieved, in 1689, by the news of his abdication, and the succession of their Protestant majesties, William and Mary, to the throne; and the citizens of New York, suspicious of the hireling officials of the late king, suddenly deposed them, and intrusted the government of the colony to Capt. Jacob Leisler, who held it in the name of the new sovereigns. Beginning, however, with the best intentions, Leisler was finally swept into the assumption of extreme power, whereby he incurred enmity which finally brought him to the scaffold on an unmerited charge of high treason. The administration of his successor, Gov. Henry Sloughter, which commenced in March, 1691, was distinguished by the reconstruction of the provincial government, upon a basis which remained intact and uninterrupted to the close of the American Revolution. Among other

1 The Roll off those who have Taken the oath off Allegiance In the Kings County in the Province off New Yorke the 26th 27; 28; 29 and 30th day off September