ANDREW WILLIAMS’ AFFIDAVIT OF PETITION: INTRODUCTION

On July 21, 1853, the city government passed a law authorizing that all the land from 59^th to 106^th Streets between Fifth Avenue and Eighth Avenue be taken by right of eminent domain in order to build Central Park. The City Surveyor was ordered to assess the value of each piece of property so that the owners could be compensated.

Many residents were dismayed at the low values the surveyor placed on their land. Andrew Williams was one of them. He, like others in the village, got a lawyer and filed an "Affidavit of Petition to the Commissioners of Central Park" in the State Supreme Court of New York.

Go to Andrew Williams' Affidavit of Petition. The original document is difficult to read because it is handwritten in script. Examine the original document and then read the transcription. What does it tell you about Andrew Williams? What information in the document strikes you as interesting? What does the "X" accompanied by the words "his mark" mean? What inferences can you make from it? How can you tell that two people wrote this document?