212 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

Owing to the complete absence of the town and county records, from the year 1700 to the close of the American Revolution, we are unable to glean much material for a history of Breucklyn during that period. The slender data on which we are obliged to base our chronicle of the progress of the place, axe mostly derived from provincial records, stray deeds and documents, newspapers, letters, etc. Two bitter controversies agitated the public mind during that period: the first between this town (together with Flatbush and Bushwick) and Newtown, concerning their respective bounds, which ended only in 1769; 1 and the second between this town and the city of New York, relative to town and ferry rights, which has not yet (1867) ended. This latter topic, however, will be more fully discussed in another portion of this work.

April 21, 1701, a piece of land, about 200 feet square, lying within the limits of the subsequent village of Brooklyn, was sold for £75, is “current money of the Province of New York.”2

August 30, 1701, John Bybon sold to Cornelius Vanderhove, for £37 10s., the one equal half part of a brew-house, situate at Bedford, in the town of Brookland, fronting the highway leading from Bedford to Cripplebush; together with one equal half part of all the brewing-vessels, etc.3

In the year 1703, “Brookland’s improveable lands and meadows within fence,” were surveyed, and found to amount to 5,177 acres.4 The greatest landowner, at that time, was Simon Aerson, who owned 200 acres.

On the 28th of March, 1704, the main road or “king’s highway,” now called Fulton street and Fulton avenue, was laid out by Joseph Hegeman, Peter Cortelyou, and Benjamin Vandewater, commissioners, appointed by act of the General Assembly of the Colony of New York, for the laying out, regulating, clearing, and preserving of public highways in the colony. The record of this road, which now forms the chief thoroughfare of the city of Brooklyn, is as follows:

“One publique, common and general highway, to begin ffrom low water marke at the ferry in the township of Broockland, in Kings County, and

1 See Appendix No. 7. 8

2 Furman’s Notes, 91.

3 Furman’s Notes, 91.

4 N. Y. Col. MSS., lxxii. 31.