WALL STREET IN 1718
the case was such that Noell appointed four men in each ward to inspect returns. His opponents pronounced the proceeding irregular, and refused to serve. The work went on, however, and the aristocratic party were found to be in the majority. Noell then called another meeting in the City Hall to swear in the new aldermen. Such as the movement would displace marched along the streets, and entered the hall with the others. They took their seats side by side, with anger in their faces. When Noell attempted to swear in those who had been legally chosen, shouts of protestation were heard from every part of the hall. The clerk administered the oaths amid a deafening roar of voices, and when the mayor attempted the transaction of business, all took part with audacious effrontery. Such was the confusion that the Board was adjourned for two weeks, and the case went to the Supreme Court. The decision was for an equal division of the aldermen and assistants between the two parties; then, as the mayor and the recorder were politically opposed, the Board stood equally divided.
The property on the north side of Wall Street was divided between the owners into lots for building purposes, and a map made of it in 1718. About that time a lot was sold to the congregation of Presbyterians, on the north side of Wall Street, to the westward of the City Hall, eighty feet front by one hundred and twenty-four feet deep. Upon this site the First Presbyterian Church was erected in 1719. The congregation was allowed to meet for public worship in the City Hall (by special act of the corporation) prior to the completion of the edifice, which stood a little back from the street with a small graveyard in front, shaded by handsome trees. This church had an eventful history; it was enlarged in 1748, taken down and rebuilt in 1810, burned in 1835, rebuilt in 1836, and in 1844 sold and removed stone by stone and re-erected in Washington Street, Jersey City,
