HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 205

changes, courts of common pleas and general pleas were organized in every county; the form of municipal or town government was revised, and assumed more nearly its present form; the commissioners’ court was replaced by the assumption of its duties by the justices; the number of supervisors in each town was reduced to one; and three surveyors of highways were added to the town officers.

May 6th, 1691, an act was passed by the General Assembly, confirming to all the towns of the colony their respective grants and patents, by which law both of the patents of Brooklyn were confirmed.

Governor Sloughter died suddenly in July, 1691, and was succeeded by Col. Benjamin Fletcher, who arrived August 30, 1692, and whose avaricious and arbitrary character very soon rendered him quite unpopular with the people.

At a Court of Sessions, held at Flatbush, November 8, 1692, the following regulation was promulgated:

“The Courte doe order that there be a good pare of stocks and a good pound made in every town within Kings County, and to be always kept in sufficient repairs, and that there be warrants issued to the Constables of every towne to see the order of the Court performed, as they will answer the contrary at their perill.”

The retailing of liquors within the county was also forbidden, excepting under a license from the Justices of the County.1

April 10th, 1693, the name of Long Island was changed to the “Island of Nassau,” which alteration was neither popular nor generally adopted, and gradually became obsolete by disuse, although the act, it is believed, was never explicitly repealed.

The town of Breuckelen having acquired a large amount of common land, by the purchase from the Indians in 1670, the inhabitants thought best to adopt some measures for its proper division, together with their other common lands. Accordingly, "at a Town meeting held the 25th day of February, 1692-3, att Breuck-

1 Ct. Sess. Rec., Old Road Book.