For Bill in Va and others who want to know more
about Dukes County, one of New York's original counties:
........................................Long Island's Original East End,
.....................................and its connection to New England
This is the story of the Island of Martha's Vineyard and the 300+year old
tradition that followed Martha's Island through 3 name changes, 2 states and
a
typographical error in a legislative bill.
On November 1, 1683 when the first General Assembly of Freeholders
established the first 12 counties of New York and created the office of
Sheriff in each
county, Martha's Vineyard was known as Martin's Vineyard and was in Dukes
County in New York. The other original counties were Albany, Cornwall,
Dutchess,
Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester.
The effect of these laws was to combine the separate jurisdiction of the
Vineyard and the Island of Nantucket and to add another office or two to the
civil
list, which was promptly filled by Matthew Mayhew, of Martin's Vineyard, who
seemed to feel that nothing was too small for his attention from chief
magistrate down to register of deeds. Prior to this, Nantucket had been
conducting
its own affairs under a local autonomy subject to a certain suzerainty of
the
Mayhew proprietary government.
Martin's Vineyard becomes Mathew's Vineyard at or before a meeting of Dukes
County officials meeting at Nantucket on September 21, 1686 to discuss the
establishment and timing of when the Court would meet on each of the main
islands
of the county.
On October 7, 1691, by the Charter of William and Mary, Dukes as well as
Cornwall County leave New York and become counties in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
However, with the passage to Massachusetts, the good people of Nantucket,
after several tries, were finally successful in their attempt to separate
from
the grip of the Mayhews on what is now (and forevermore) Martha's Vineyard.
On
May 28, 1695, the General Court (Assembly) of Massachusetts allowed
Nantucket
to secede from Dukes County, but the enacting legislation permanently
changed
the name of Dukes to "Dukes County" by inadvertently putting the word
"County"
after Dukes in the bill.
Cornwall County becomes part of Maine when Maine secedes from Massachusetts
in 1820. Cornwall County included Pemaquid and its dependencies, comprising
what is now a considerable part of the coast of Maine.
I hope this information is useful or, at least, interesting.
Regards,
Walter Greenspan
Great Falls, MT & Jericho, NY