In 1777 the Court of General Session was created as a criminal counterpart to the Court of Common Pleas.  Both of these courts operated at the county level under the Supreme Court of Judicature system. The Court of General Sessions could try all criminal cases except those punishable by death or life imprisonment.  When the courts were reformed in 1846 under the new state constitution, the Supreme Court of Judicature was replaced by the Supreme Court and the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions were replaced by the County Court.  The records in this series are individual court filings, including true bills (indictments), affidavits, subpoenas, recognizance, and minutes.  Documents relating to the same case are not filed together.

Created as a court of original jurisdiction under the New York State Supreme Court of Judicature, the Circuit Court was to be held once a year in each county to hear mainly civil cases.  Before 1823, Supreme Court Justices traveled to each county to preside over these sessions.  Beginning in that year, the number of Supreme Court Justices was reduced from five to three and the Governor appointed circuit judges for each of eight newly developed judicial districts.  Westchester County was part of the second district.  Judgments from the Circuit Courts were sent to the Supreme Court clerk to be signed, filed, and docketed there.  Therefore, the County retains only minute books and certain documents relating to particular cases, but not the bulk of the legal documents.  The new constitution of 1846 replaced the Supreme Court of Judicature with the Supreme Court and abolished the individual circuit judges and circuit courts and returned to the system by which the Supreme Court Justices (now elected rather than appointed) presided again over circuit court sessions.  The records in this series include calendars, minutes, and miscellaneous court documents.

Courts held by local justices of the peace.  By the time New York achieve statehood, it was standard for each town to have four justices of the peace appointed.  Individually, a justice could preside over a civil court, trying personal actions involving demands for less than $50.  The Justice Courts were not courts of record so very little paperwork was kept.  Only the more substantial judgments, $25 and up, were sent to the county clerk. Three justices of the peace could sit on a Court of Special Sessions (Series 259) for local criminal cases ranging from misdemeanors to petit larceny.  Gradually, the jurisdiction and responsibilities of the justice courts were transferred to other courts.  The Justice Courts were Types of records found in this series include bonds, judgment satisfactions, discharges, true bills (indictments), examinations, and affidavits.

Courts of Special Sessions were criminal courts at the town level.  They were presided over by three justices of the peace (after 1845 only one was required) and handled misdemeanors and minor felonies.  Though courts of justices of the peace were not normally courts of record, any convictions were required to be filed with the county clerk.  Courts of Special Sessions are not to be confused with the Court of Sessions or the Court of General Sessions.  These entities were county courts with more complete jurisdiction over criminal matters.  The Courts of Special Sessions were abolished in 1896.  Included in this series are true bills (indictments) and minutes, along with miscellaneous documents not readily categorized.

Related records: Park Commission Photographic Collection; Bronx River Parkway Photographic Collection

Records of the 1826 New York State election for Westchester County. Includes the appointment papers for inspectors of elections and the election returns for individual towns. Votes were cast for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, one State Senator in the second senatorial district, one Representative in the United States Congress for the fourth congressional district, three Members of the State Assembly, and for amendments to the state constitution for electing Justices of the Peace by the people and for extending the elective franchise.

Related records:  The cumulative 1826 election returns for Westchester County, along with a complete list of the inspectors of elections for each town, may be found on pp. 17-20 of Series 75 Board of Canvassers Records.

Inquests, also referred to as inquisitions, by the coroner into causes of death. For the most part, the inquests from the 19th century include the name of the deceased (when known), gender, and presumed cause of death; many note the condition and position of the body when found; and some the date of death.  The towns where the deceased were found are noted, but the towns where they lived are not recorded.  Each inquest is signed and sealed by the coroner, the foreman, and a panel of witnesses or jurors. The records also include one coroner’s warrant and one ante-mortem inquisition. 

A significant percentage of the deceased covered by these records were discovered on the side of a road, lying on a beach, or floating in a body of water, often in an advanced state of decay. Many of the deaths were witnessed, however, and took place in houses, barns, or off of boats. Between ten and fifteen percent of the deceased were not identified.  The Coroners’ Inquests are largely devoted to violent, sudden, or unusual deaths. Drowning, accidents and misfortune, suicide, and “the visitation of God” are the four most frequent causes of death. Others include intoxication, syphilis, lightning, and murder. Cases of suicide are usually attributed to bouts of insanity or seduction by the Devil. For ten percent of the legible cases, the cause of death was officially declared unknown. It seems that the determination of cause of death was typically made through visual observation alone; there are only a few inquests that describe autopsies.  Due to water damage suffered by the records from the 19th century, part of the page is illegible or nonextant on many of the documents, consequently the cause of death cannot be discerned on about twenty percent of the inquests.  

The records available for 1905-1911 are fully intact and in fairly standard format.  They include testimony of witnesses who either knew the deceased and/or witnessed the death, the report on the body by the examining physician, and the concluding pronouncement of the coroner as to the cause of death.  Sometimes the testimony recounts the lineage of the deceased -- where he/she was born and the names and places of birth of his/her parents.  One of the primary causes of death for the records available for this period was being struck by a train.  Other causes of death included accidental drowning and disease.

These records are currently being indexed.  Once the index is completed, it will be made available on this website. 

Related records:  Series 170, Westchester County Control Survey, 1939 Report.

The Task Force board minutes in the first subseries cover January to July 1980, which led up to the creation of the Office for Women in August 1980. The correspondence and news releases that follow cover meetings, events and programs, such as the Office’s Woman of the Year award and seminars that promoted the needs and concerns of women such as teen pregnancy, employment assistance, and health. There is also a separate grouping of folders that primarily contains correspondence between the director of the Office for Women and Westchester County Executives Alfred Del Bello and Andrew P. O’Rourke for the periods April-June 1982, July-August 1983, and January-August 1984.

The Office for Women’s scrapbooks house flyers, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to the Office, its director, and issues related to their causes. These items include the Office for Women’s official bi-annual pamphlet “A Woman’s Place” listing all of the programs offered for the year and other pamphlets covering issues such as health care and domestic violence. Other scrapbook items include flyers for the Office’s Legal Awareness for Women lunchtime series of free mini legal clinics and the numerous free Lunch-N-Learn workshops that teach numerous personal and business improvement techniques such as assertiveness in the work place, stress management, resumes, coping in a drug environment, and assistance in learning how to speak in front of groups.

The photographic subseries includes both 5x7 and 8x10 images and 8x10 proof sheets of events, conferences, and award ceremonies such as the annual Woman of the Year award and the Health Fair conferences. Although most of the events themselves are identified, for the most part, the individuals in the photographs are not.

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