Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/406

 392 ///. THE COLONIAL PERIOD Governor Dongan in his report to the Committee on Trade, ^ February 22, 1687, gives a Hst of the courts of justice estabhshed at that time: (1) a court of chancery composed of the governor and council, which is the supreme court of appeals; (2) the courts of oyer and terminer held yearly in each county; (3) the court of the mayor and aldermen in New York; (4) the courts of session (justices of the peace); (5) court commissioners for petty cases; (6) a court of adjudicature, a special court established to hear land cases. These courts had none of the popular ele- ments which we have noted in the Puritan colonies. Gov- ernor Dongan also states that the laws in force were the laws of the Duke of York and the acts of the general assem- bly, not mentioning the common law in this connection. In a similar report. Governor Nichols ^ states that " all causes are tried by juries, and that there are no laws contrary to the laws of England," while he ascribes full law-making power to the court of assizes (1669). Governor Andros reports that, " He keeps good correspondence with his neigh- bors as to civil, legal and judicial proceedings." Bellomont, in 1699, sending a copy of the printed laws to the council, asks for a careful perusal and criticism of them by some able lawyer in England; which would indicate the absence of trained jurists in the colony at that time. ^ In a report on the methods of proceedings in court, William Smith writes to Bellomont in 1700 : ^ " The rules and methods we are governed by in all trials is the common law of England, and the several statutes declarative thereof according to the manner and methods of the courts at Westminster." In the earlier days of the colony, confused notions of law and equity seem to have prevailed ; and in a number of re- ported cases tried on Long Island after verdict of the jury there was an appeal to equity, most generally successful. No settled rules were here regarded, but a discretion sim- ilar to that of the New England magistrates was exer- • Documentary History of New York, I, 147. • Documentary History of New York, I, 87. • Documents Relative to Colonial History of New York, IV, 520. • Ibid., VIII, 28.