Regarding: >What were the differences between "freemen" and "commoners" in Southold > during the 1700s? I would look to Langdon Wright's 1974 Cornell dissertation "Local Government in Colonial New York, 1640-1710" for a discussion in chapter four, 'Town Meetings and Town Magistrates,' on the differences (or non-differences) between the terms "freeholder," "freeman," "townsman," and "inhabitant" used on Long Island in this period. Edward Knoblauch Managing Editor, The Encyclopedia of New York State