[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] ostentatious life of a country gentleman. Even in the first move-ment of protest against the policy of Great Britain organized in this county, resulting in the White Plains convention of August, 1774, he had not been specially conspicuous. But after the refusal of the assembly to identify itself in any manner with the prevailing senti-ment, he became profoundly impressed with the importance of imme-diate and emphatic action by t he people in their original capacity. The occasion now presented was one demanding energy and management. It was not to be doubted that the powerful conservative party would exert its influence to the utmost to prevent any radical expression by Westchester County. There was more than a suspicion that this had been done deliberately, though insidiously, in 1774, when Frederick Philipse, the head and front of the conservatives, had been chosen chairman of the county convention, and that representative body, the first of its kind to meet in the county, had adjourned without adopt-ing any aggressive resolutions or appointing a committee of corre-spondence to co-operate with the one in the city, or making any pro-vision for the calling and assembling of future conventions of the county.