[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] people were quite unwilling to intrust affairs to the council, com-posed as it was of the old royal favorites. The training band cap-tains, assuming temporary authority in the name of the people, called a convention of delegates from all the counties, which assembled on June 26, and appointed a committee of safety. By this committee Jacob Leisler, one of the captains and a prominent member of the GENERAL HISTORICAL REVIEW TO 1700 205 community, was placed in military command of the province, and the citizens were called upon to come together and choose by popular election a successor to Stephanus Van Cortlandt in the mayoralty of the city, which they did accordingly. Finally, in December, by vir-tue of a letter from their majesties, addressed to " Francis Nicholson, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief in our Province of New York, and in his absence to such as for the time being take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws" Leisler, at the direction of the committee of safety, assumed the functions of lieutenant-gov-ernor pro tempore, in addition to those of military commander. The committee, consisting of eight members, now transformed itself, at Leisler's request, into a gubernatorial council. This unprecedented and peculiar regime lasted for a little more than a year after Leisler's elevation to the executive office, or nearly two 3^ears from the time of Nicholson's deposition.