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ORIGIN AND HISTORY
OF
MANOES
IN
NEW YORK
AND THE
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.
t^^
•
OKIGIN AND HISTORY
OF
MANORS
IN THE
PROVINCE OF NEW YORK
AND IN THE
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER
BY
EDWARD FLOYD DE LANCEY
NEW YORK
1886.
iL^/d'S-ldA^^
JAi, 22 1887
r/^
M \/fVi/^r^cn^ '
PREFATORY NOTE.
This volume is a separately-printed chapter contributed to " Scharl 's
History of Westchester County, New York." Its subject, therefore, has been
treated with reference to its being but a part of that large and handsome work,
and not as fully in every respect as it really merits, or as the writer would
desire. It is suflBcient, however, to give a general idea of a matter of history
of which very little is known in America. , ^^'\^.^ Cl>v cu>fc\!?3^----
I — .^ — AczC/ C—tSyx.'^^-^
LaTCa^
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9 ■ /
CONTENTS.
PARTS:
PAGE
1. The Indiak Owkers of New Nethebland and Westchester 31
2. How THE Indian Title vested successively in the Dutch West India Company, the British Crown,
AND THE Independent State of New York 35
3. The Dutch in New Netherland 37
4. The Colonization by the West India Company 42
5. The Nature of the Dutch System of Gtovernment and Law established in New Netherland, and
OF the Patroonships 57
6. The Patroonship of Colen Donck 66
7. The Capture of New Netherland from the Dutch, and the erection of the English Province of
New York 73
8. The English System under the Duke of York as Lord Proprietor 78
9. The Manors in New York, what they were not, and what they were . * 85
10. The Franchises, Privileges and Incidents of Manors in the Province of New York, and in the
County of Westchester, and the Parishes in the Latter 90
11. The Church of England Parochial Organization in Westchester County, and its Relations to
THE Manors 99
12. The Manors and the County in their Mutual Relations, and the Origin and Formation of the
Latter 108
13. The Manor of Cortlandt, its Origin, Special Franchises, Division, First Lord and His Family,
Particular History and Topography 115
14. The Manor of Scarsdale, its Origin, Local History, Adjoining Patents, its First Lord and His
Family, Division, and Topography 141
<2 ^
V
J2_ eovV
'i. o
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^\^tio^ VAJO-v>Arv-^*jA>5
THE
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MANORS
IN
NEW YORK
AND IN THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.
The Indian Otoners of Westchester.
The Europeans who, it is certain, first heheld any
part of what is now the County of Westchester, were
Henry Hudson, and his mixed crew of Hollanders
and Englishmen. They sailed up the great " Kiver
of the Mountains '' in the yacht Half-Moon of Am-
sterdam, fiying the orange, white and blue flag of the
United Provinces, on the thirteenth and fourteenth
days of September, 1609.*
They were the earliest civilized men to gaze enrap-
tured on the beautiful land of Westchester. They saw
before all others, her lofty hills, rich valleys, and
deep magnificent forests, glowing in the transparent
air and warm sun of Autumn beneath the bright blue
sky of America.*
They sailed up the river as far as the site of Albany
and then slowly returned. On the second of October,
they anchored at the historic inlet of Spyt-den-Duy-
vel, their progress being checked by a strong flood
tide. Here, they first met the tawny, well formed,
brown eyed, people, clad in skins and adorned with
feathers, who then ruled over Westchester ; and most
unhappily as enemies. The cause was this. While
still in the lower bay the Half- Moon, on the 9th of
1 Juet's Journal of Hudaon*B Voyage, I. N. T. Hist. Soc. Coll. Second
Seriee, 323. These colon were those of William I , Prince of Orange^
Kaaaan. The orange bar was changed to red after the death of William
II. in 1650. As thns altered the flag of Holland continnes to this day.
de Jonge, cited in I. Brodhead, 325 n.
2 That any earlier navigator sailed up the Uudton^ as has lately been
alleged, is, as yet, without sufficient proof.
September, was threatened by some canoes full of
savages. Hudson therefore detained two Indians as
hostages, "putting red coats on them." Six days
later, when she had got into the Highlands, the two
Indians escaped through a port and swam ashore.
When she stopped at Spyt-den-Duy vel on her return,
one of the escaped Indians, and others, in a canoe,
with some more canoes of Indians, tried to board her.
Being repelled, they made an attack with bows and
arrows, supported by about a hundred moire Indians
on shore. The fire-arms of the crew drove them off*
with a loss of nine or ten killed.'
Such was the unfortunate beginning oT the inter-
course of white men with the Indians of Westchester.
These Indians, as well as all the others with whom
Hudson came in contact, belonged to a great aborigi-
nal nation, or stock, termed the Leuni-Lenape. This
was the name of that great confederacy of Indian
tribes, which, as Heckewelder states, extended from
the mouth of the Potomac northeastwardly to the
shores of Massachusetts Bay, and the mountains of
New Hampshire and Vermont, and westwardly to the
Alleghanies and the Cattskills,^ and were afterwards
known as the Delawares. Beyond the Lenni-Lenape,
still further to the northeast, and extending to the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and up the magnificent river of
that name to the Great Lakes, was a second great na-
tionality or confederacy of Indian tribes, that of the
Hurons or Adirondacks, sometimes called the Algon-
quins. The term "Algonkin" or "Algonquin" is
3 Jnet's Journal, I. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., Second Seriett, 324, 326, 330.
* Moutton's Hist. N. Y., 95 and 226.
32
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
used, however, by many writers to describe all the
aborigines east of the Mississippi and south of the
St. Lawrence, from the singular and very striking
fact, that but one language was spoken throughout
this entire region which was styled the " Algonqiiin '»
or '' Algonkin/' All the Indians within these limits
understood each other. There were only compara-
tively slight local variations. They required no in-
terpreters, except to communicate with white men.
West and northwest of the Lenui-Lenape, extend-
A SUSQUEHANNA OR DELAWARE CHIEF.
(From Smith's •• Hi«tory of VirginU.")
ing from the western slopes of the Cattskills and the
Helderbergs south of the Mohawk, and north of it,
from the banks of the upper Hudson and the waters
of Champlain to the shores of Lake Erie, and thence
through the region south of that lake to the Missis-
sippi, was the dominion of the third, and, perhaps, the
most famous of the three great nationalities or races
of confederated Indians, the Five (and later Six), Na-
tions or Iroquois, and their aflSliated tribes.
These were the three great stocks of aborigines, who
were in possession of North America from the Poto-
mac and Ohio on the south, to Canada on the north,
and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east, to the Fath-
er of Waters on the west, at the time of Hudson's
discovery of the great bay of New York and the mag-
nificent river which bears his name.
Each of these three confederacies embraced numer-
ous distinct tribes, sub-tribes, and smaller tribal di-
visions, or cantons, and chieftaincies, all having sep-
arate names, but united more or less closely by the
bond of a common origin. Each tribe, or sub-tribe,
possessed its own locality and specific region as its
own property, which was never lost, except by volun-
tary migration or by conquest.
There also existed a distinguishing characteristic
of a different nature in all these great Indian confed-
erations. This was the clan or family distinction.
Each confederacy was divided into tribes, families, or
clans, designated by the name of some living creature,
which they called their totem, or badge, the represen-
tation of which was painted upon their persons and
upon their lodges. This tie, as members of the same
confederacy, or even of the same totemic family, was
not of itself sufficient to prevent them warring with
each other in all cases. Like more civilized people
they took up the hatchet against a tribe of the same
stock, if occasion arose, as freely as against an enemy
of another race. Conflicting claims to lands, dis-
puted boundaries, and the rivalries of neighborhoods,
not unfrequently gave rise to enmities and wars.
Thus in 1609, the tribes on the western side of the bay
of New York and the lower Hudson, and those on the
eastern side, were bitter enemies,* although all were
tribes and sub-tribes of the Lenni-Lenape or Dela-
ware stock.
Among the Lenni-Lenape there were but three
clans or families, designated from their totemt or
badges, as the Unamis, or Turtle (or Tortoise) clan,
the Unalachtgo or Turkey, and the Minsi or Wolf,
clans,* to one, or the other of which, belonged every
tribe or minor sub-division of the Delaware stock.
The tribes east of the Hudson, and all the sea coast
tribes on both sides of Long Island Sound belonged
to the Turkey clan, the tribes between the Hudson
and the Alleghanies to the Minsi (sometimes termed
Moncey) or Wolf clan, and those on the Lower Dela-
ware, Lower Susquehanna, and Potomac to that of the
Turtle (or Tortoise) clan.
The first writer on New Netherland, was Johan
(John) de Laet, a learned man, a native of Antwerp,
but a resident of the city of Ley den. He wrote in
1622, and first published in 1625, sixteen years only
after the discovery, through the Elzevirs at Leyden
a ** History of the New World," which contains the
first historical account of what is now New York.
He was a director of the Dutch West India Company,
subsequently one of the first patroons of New Nether-
i De Laet'i New World, I. N. T. HIat. Societj's CJoll., 2d Seriet, 297.
s Ruttenber'i Hist. River Indiana, 47. Moulton Hiit., M. Y., 36.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
33
land, and a personal friend of Hudson , whose private
journal, as he tells us, he had before him when he
wrote and from which, the extracts in his pages, are
all that exist of Hudson's own account of his great
discovery. At that time, de Laet says, the Indians
on the west side of the Bay and River were called
*' Sankhicanni" or Sanhicans, and those on the east*
" Mahicanni" or Mahicans, Mohicans, or Moh^ans*
the latter being Connecticut spelling of the word'
The Dutch termed them ** Mahikanders" and the
natives on both sides of the Hudson collectively, the
" River Indians." The Dutch word, however in gen-
eral use, when speaking or writing of them
was, " the Wilden," literally the wild men,
or the savages.
The Long Island Indians the Dutch
called Matouwacks. They were Mohicans
and were divided into twelve or thirteen
sub-tribes or chieftaincies. All bore differ-
ent names and possessed distinct, and
different, localities. The ruling tribe were
the Montauks who possessed the eastern
extremity of the island. They owed their
supremacy to the abundance of clams in
their waters, from the shells of which they
made the seawant or Indian money. This
great abundance of the clam-shells ena-
bled them to supply the Indians of all
tribes westward almost to the great lakes
with seawant, and thus Montauk became
the seat of financial power, not only of
Long Island, but of a region larger even
than the Dutch Province of New Nether-
land.
AH the natives of the main between the
Hudson and the CJonnecticut, from the
Sound on the south to the Green, and the
White, mountains on the north, were
Mohicans, and their great council fire was
established on the Hudson, in the present
town of Green bush, nearly opposite Al-
bany. The name of the Hudson was
** Mahicannituck,'' or River of the Mahic-
ans; just as the Delaware was called by
them "^ Lenape-whi'hi'tvck" or the rapid
river of the Lenape; on the right bank of
which, near where Philadelphia was afterward built,
was the place of the Great Council Fire of the
Lenni-Lenape confederacy.*
The Iroquois name of the Hudson, according to
John R. Bleecker, the old Indian interpreter and sur-
veyor of the middle and latter part of the last century,
was "Cahotatea.''"^ Judge Egbert Benson in his
"Memoir" says, on the authority of a Palatine set-
tler on Livingston manor, that the Hudson was also
called "Shatemuc" by the Indiana of that locality.'*
1 Moulton, 34 and 35.
« I. N. Y. Hist. Coll., 2, 3.
3 Memoir, N. Y. Hist. Soc. CoU., II. series, vol. 2, p. 86.
The Indians of Westchester County were therefore
Mahicans, or Mohicans, as it is easier to call them,
of the Turkey tribe or clan of the Lenni-Lenape, or
Delaware, stock of North American aborigines. They
were divided into several sub-tribes, cantons, or
chieftaincies, each ruled by a Sacchima, as the Dutch
called the title, or Sagamore, or Sachem, and owning
its own specific location.
Upon the island of New York, and in Westchester
west of the Bronx, and as far north as Yonkers, were
seated the Manahatas, as de Laet calls them, or the
Manhattans ; those of them in Westchester were also
DELAWARE INDIAN FAMILY.
(From Campanius' "New Sweden.'*)
termed the Reckewacks, or Reckgawawancks, their
territory, Keskeskick, and their chief village, Nap-
peckamak, was situated on the Nepperhaem, now
Neperan, or Sawmill river, where it flows into the
Hudson, the site of the present city of Yonkers.* The
next tribe were the Wickquaeskecks, or Wickquaes-
gecks, or Wickerschreecks, so called from their
village of that name which De Vries, writing in 1640,
thus describes,— " Opposite Tappaen is a place called
Wickquaesgeck. This land is also fit for com, but
too stony and sandy. We got there good masts. The
« Rut « nber, 78. II. Col. Hirt. N. Y., 2nd Series, 6.
34
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
land is mountainoas/' This " place " was the site of
the present village of Dobbs Ferry. A few miles
further up the Hudson was another town of the same
tribe called Alipconck, or place of Elms, now Tarry-
town. This tribe seems to have held the centre of the
County from the lands of the Siwanoys on the east to
the Hudson on the west. Adjoining them on the north
were the Sint-sinks possessing two villages, Ossingsing
now Sing-Sing, and Kestabuinck, the latter of which
was inland and a little south of the Croton river.
From the Kicktawanc, or Croton, extending up the
river to Anthony's Nose, and what is now the north
line of the County, dwelt the Kicktawancks, or
Kitchawongs, whose chief village was just above the
mouth of the Croton river, on the isthmus connecting
Senasqua, or Teller's Point, with the main land, and
near the old Van Cortlandt Manor House. East-
wardly their lands appear to have extended to Con-
necticut and the lands of the Siwanoys. The Indians
in the northern part of the county were also called
the Tankitekes, which seems to have been a general
DELAWARE INDIAN FORT.
(From CampaniiM* "New Sweden.")
name for all dwellings north of the Wickquaeskecks.
These last were said by Tienhoven in 1661, to have
extended east to the Sound, but this being in conflict
with de Laet*s account of 1624, is believed to be an
error. From Hellgate along the Sound, including
the whole eastern side of Westchester County, and
Connecticut, as far as Norwalk and its islands, and
inland to the valley of the Bronx and the head waters
of the Croton, a single and numerous tribe possessed
all the land. These were the Sewanoes, or Siwanoys,
as de Laet writing in 1624, the earliest and most
trustworthy authority on New Netherland history,
distinctly states.* They had several towns in this
territory, some of which were fortified. One of the
latter occupied the beautiful height in the township
of Westchester overlooking the Sound, on which still
stands the old seat of the Wilkins family, which
from it has always borne, and still bears, the name of
"Castle Hill." A village, and also a burial-place,
existed on Pelham Neck, another on Davenport's
1 De Laet'8 New World, ch. VIII.
Neck in New Rochelle, still another on Heath-
cote Hill and Nelson's Hill, at the head of Mam-
aroneck Harbor. A fifth, and a very large one,
was on the attractive banks of Rye Lake in the
northern end of the town of Harrison. Besides
these there were scattered collections of a few lodges
in othejr places chiefly resorted to in the fishing and
hunting seasons. One of these was at Throg's Point,
another at the extreme point of Pelham Neck,
another on de Lancey's Neck at the narrowest point
at the mouth of the Harbour, where a small creek
running into the Harbour from the west, and a round
field of upland adjacent to it, are still known as the
Indian creek, and the Indian field, and the point
itself as Indian Point. A fourth existed on Milton
Neck, and a fiflh on Manussing Island, both in the
town of Rye. This account of the Westchester In-
dians is based upon a study of de Laet, de Vries,
Van der Donck, O'Callaghan, Brodhead, Moulton,
Schoolcraft, Ruttenber, and an examination of many
Indian deeds, and records of councils.
From the Sakimas, Sagamores, or Sachems, of these
various tribes, and some of their chief men and
women, have come by deeds of conveyance the
Indian titles to all the lands in Westchester County.
There is no part of America of equal area, in which
the Indian title was so fiilly and fairly extinguished.
And none where in proportion to its size more Indian
deeds have been given, preserved, and recorded.
There was a peculiarity in the customs of the
Indians in relation to sales of lands which should
always be remembered, and to their observance of
which is to be ascribed the discredit sometimes
attached to them in these matters. " Oh ! you are an
Indian giver " is sometimes heard, expressive of the
idea, of giving a thing and then taking it back, which
has its origin in this custom. They sometimes sold
and deeded the same land more than once, in whole,
or in part. This was in pursuance of a custom
which with them was a law. It is thus stated by
Ruttenber in his " History of the River Indians," page
80. " Land8 held by them were obtained by conceded
original occupation or by conquest. If conquered
original right ceased and vested in the conquerors ;
if re-conquered, the title returned to its original
owners. This rule they applied also to the sale of
lands to the Dutch. [And to the English also.] As
often as they sold to the latter and subsequently
drove off the settlers, so often was re-purchase neces-
sary, and if it was not made, a cause of grievance and
future war remained." It was in fact, nothing but
the application of their idea of the right of eminent
domain. Of course there were instances of fraudulent
deeds by Indians who had no power or right to con-
vey, or who were drawn into sales when intoxicated
or prisoners by designing whites. And there were
some where rival Sachems claimed and deeded the
same lands to different parties ; but these exceptions
were rare.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
35
In Westchester Oounty the Indian title was first
extinguished by purchase from the Indians pursuant
to a license from the Dutch or English authorities,
then Manors and Grants, by patents were obtained in
the manner directed by the Dutch or English laws.
And usually in the case of the Manors and larger
patents, deeds of confirmation were subsequently
obtained from the Indians, merely as a matter of
precaution, notwithstanding the fact that the Indian
title had, pursuant to the laws both of the Dutch and
the English, been always extinguished by deed or
deeds beforehand.
The North American Indians claimed that they
sprung from the earth — ^that they were Autochthon!,
produced from the earth itself, and hence they
boasted their title to the lands could never be ques-
tioned and was indefeasible. This belief was the
underlying foundation of the many curious, grotesque,
and absurd, accounts of their origin given by different
tribes, and difierent writers at difierent times. This
is not the place to discuss the origin of the Indians,
nor any of the many theories that have been broached
to account for it.
But the belief above mentioned, in some form or
other, always existed among themselves. Never was
it more forcibly, or more eloquently expressed than
by the great Tecumseh at the Council of Vincennes
held by General Harrison, afterwards the ninth
President of the United States, at that place in 1811.
The chief of some tribes attended, to complain of a
purchase of lands which had been made from the
Kickapoos. The harshness of language used by
Tecumseh in the course of the conference caused it to
be broken up in confusion. In the progress of the
long ''talks,'' which took place, Tecumseh, having
finished one of his speeches, looked around, but see-
ing every one seated, while no seat was prepared for
him, a momentary frown passed over his countenance.
Instantly General Harrison ordered that a chair
should be given him. Some person presented one,
with a bow, saying, " Warrior your father General
Harrison offers you a seat." Tecumseh's dark eyes
flashed. '' My father I " he exclaimed with indigna-
tion, and extending his arm towards the heavens,
burst forth " The Great Spirit is my father and the
earth is my mother ; she feeds and clothes me, and I
recline on her bosom."^
2.
How the Indian Title vested successively in the Dutch
West India Company, the British Crowns and the
Independent State of New York,
The nature and extent of the Indian ownership,
and the foundation of the title to the domain of the
State of New York were settled by the principles on
these subjects very early adopted and carried into
effect by the different European nations which di-
1 Moulton'8 Hist. N. Y., 27.
vided between themselves this western world. These
principles formed the basis of a conventional inter-
national law which has been always observed in
America. They define with precision, to whom the
Indians could dispose of their rights to dominion and
to the soil, and to whom they could not They
have been laid down by Chancellor Kent and Chief
Justice Marshall in the highest courts of this State
and the United States.*
These decisions are so admirably treated by Moul-
ton, in that most valuable fragment of his '' History
of New York " ' which is all that his early and la-
mented death has lefb to us, that his statement a
little abridged will be almost all that is necessary to
say on this subject here.
" Upon the discovery of this continent the great na-
tions of Europe, eager to appropriate as much of it
as possible and conceiving that the character and re-
ligion of its inhabitants afforded an apology for con-
sidering them as a people, over whom the superior
DAVID PIETEB8EN DE VBIES.
genius of Europe might claim an ascendancy, adopted,
as by a common consent, this principle, —
" First, that discovery gave title to the government,
by whose subjects, or under whose authority it was
made, against all other European governments, which
title might be consummated by possession. Hence if
the country be discovered and possessed by emigrants
of an existing acknowledged government, the pos-
session is deemed taken for the Nation, and title must
be derived from the sovereign in whom the power to
dispose of vacant territories is vested by law.
"^Secondly, Resulting from this principle was that of
the sole right of the discoverer to acquire the soil from
the Natives, and establish settlements, either by pur-
chase or by conquest. Hence also the exclusive right
cannot exist in government and at the same time in
private individuals ; and hence also, —
" Thirdly, The Natives were recognized as rightful
occupants, but their power to dispose of the soil at
their own will to whomsoever they pleased, was
<In Goodell v. Jackson, 20 Johnson, <
Lessee v. Mcintosh, 8th Wheaton, 543.
3 P. 301, ±0.
and Johnson A Graham's
36
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
denied by the original fundamental principle, that
discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it.
" Fourthly, The ultimate dominion was asserted, and,
as a consequence, a power to grant the soil while yet
in the possession of the Natives. Hence, such do-
minion was incompatible with an absolute and com-
plete title in the Indians. Consequently they had no
right to sell to any other than the government of the
first discoverer, nor to private citizens without the
sanction of that government. Hence the Indians
were to be considered mere occupants, to be protected
indeed while in peace in the possession of their lands,
but with an incapacity of transferring the absolute
title to others.
" Fifthly, The United States have acceded to those
principles which were the foundation of European
title to property in America. The Declaration of In-
dependence gave us possession, and the recognition of
Independence by Great Britain gave title to all the
lands within the boundary lines described in the
treaty that closed our revolutionary war, subject only
to the Indian right of occupancy, and we thus be-
came possessed of all the right Great Britain had, or
which before the separation the provinces possessed,
but no more. Hence the exclusive power to extin-
guish that right, was vested in that government
which might constitutionally exercise it. Therefore
each State before the Union in 1789, and each State
since, (within its circumscribed territorial jurisdic-
tion) possessed, and possesses, by its government the
exclusive right to purchase from the Indians.
*' Sixthly, That the allodial property in the territory
of this State, or that which has become exclusively
vested in the United States, is solely in the govern-
ments respectively, and that no foreign grant or title
can be recognized by the Courts of Justice of this
State, or of the United States.
•'Spain though deriving a grant from the Pope, was
compelled to rest her title on discovery ; Portugal to
the Brazils ; France to Canada, Acadia, and Louis-
iana ; Holland to the discoveries of Henry Hudson.
England, though she wrested the Dutch possessions
on the ground of pre-eminent right, asserted it on the
same principle, tracing her right to the discovery of
the Cabots, though they merely sailed along the coast
of America, and extending her claim from 34° to 48°
of north latitude. This principle of ultimate domain,
founded on discovery is recognized in the wars, nego-
tiations, and treaties of the European nations
claiming territory in America. Such were the con-
tests of France and Spain as to the territory on the
north coast of the Gulf of Mexico; between France
and Great Britain from their nearly contemporaneous
settlements, till the treaty of Paris in 1763, when
France ceded and guaranteed to Great Britain, Nova
Scotia or Acadia, Canada and their dependencies.
The cessions and retrocessions of the European powers
in America were all made while the greater portion
of the territories so ceded and retroceded were in the
possession of the Indians. This was also the case
when the right of ultimate dominion was asserted by
actual settlement. The charter to Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, renewed in that to Sir Walter Raleigh ; the
charters of James I. successively vacated, surrendered,
annulled, or renewed, to the North and South Vir^
ginia Companies, until that to the Duke of Lenox
and others in 1620 ; were all granted while the coun-
try was in the occupation of the Indians.
'' Under the last mentioned patent, viz. to the Plym-
outh Company, New England has, in a great meas-
ure, been settled. They conveyed to Henry Rosewell
and others in 1627, the territory of Massachusetts,
who, in 1628, obtained a charter of incorporation.
Having granted a great part of New England, the
Company made partition of the residue in 1685, and
surrendered their charter to the Crown. A Patent
was granted to Ferdinando Grorges for Maine, which
was allotted to him in the division of property. New
Hampshire was granted to John Mason. Before the
surrender by the Dutch of their colony, now New
York, in 1664, the King of England had granted to the
Duke of York, the country of New England, and as
far as the Delaware Bay. The Duke subsequently
transferred New Jersey to Lord Berkeley and Sir
George Carteret. And yet, during these events, a
great proportion of the country was in possession of
the Indians. In 1668 the Crown granted to Lord
Clarendon and others the country lying between the
36th degree of North latitude and the River St.
Mary's; in 1666 the proprietors obtained a new char-
ter granting to them that province in the King's do-
minions in North America from the Atlantic to the
South Sea. Thus our whole country, the soil as well as
the right of dominion, was granted while occupied by
the Indians. However extravagant the pretension
may appear, of converting the discovery of an inhab-
ited country into conquest, if the principle has been
asserted in the first instance, and afterwards main-
tained ; if a country has been acquired and held under
it ; if the property of the great mass of the community
originates in it, it becomes the law of the land and
cannot be questioned The law of conquest,
founded in force, but limited by that humanity or
policy which incorporates the conquered with the
victorious, spares all wanton oppression, and protects
title to property, whether the vanquished became in-
corporated, or were governed as a distinct society, was
incapable of application to the aborigines of this
country. The tribes of Indians were fierce savages,
whose occupation was war, and whose subsistence
was chiefly from the forest. To leave them in pos-
session of their country, was to leave the country a
wilderness ; to govern them as a distinct people was
impossible, because they were as brave and high
spirited as they were fierce, and were ready to repel
by arms every attempt on their independence. To mix
with them was impossible. The Europeans were then
compelled either to abandon the country, and all
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
37
claim to their diBCoyery, remain exposed to perpetual
hazard of massacre, or enforce their claim by the
sword. Wars, in which the whites were not always
the aggressors, ensued. European policy, numbers,
and skill, prevailed. As the white population ad-
vanced, that of the Indians necessarily receded. The
country in the neighbourhood of agriculturalists be-
came unfit for them. The game fled into thicker and
more unbroken forests, and the Indians followed.
The soil to which the Crown originally claimed title,
being no longer occupied, was parceled out according
to the will of the sovereign power, and taken posses-
sion of by those claiming under it. Hence the abso-
lute title and exclusive right of extinguishing that of
the Indians having been vested in, and exercised by,
the government cannot exist at the same time in pri-
vate individuals, and was incompatible with an abso-
lute and complete title in the Indians. The British
government, which was then ours, and whose rights
passed to the United States by, and at, the peace of
1788, asserted, and maintained, a title to all the lands
occupied by the Indians in the British colonies in
America, and the exclusive right of extinguishing
their title by occupancy. These claims were carried
to the line of the Mississippi by the terms of the
treaty of 1783. Our title to a vast portion of the
lands we hold originates in them. The United States
therefore maintain the principle which has been
received as the foundation of all European title in
America."
By the treaty of peace, in 1783, Great Britain relin-
quished all claim not only to the government, but to
the soil, and territorial rights, of the thirteen Colonies
as claimed by the American negotiators of that treaty,
the boundaries of which collectively were fixed by its
second article. And by that treaty all the powers
of that government and its right to the soil passed to
the Thirteen States, not as a single Sovereignty, but
as thirteen Independent Sovereignties. But neither
the Declaration of Independence, nor the Treaty, could
give us more than we possessed by virtue of the for-
mer, or to which Great Britain was before entitled.
New York, four years before the Articles of Con-
federation were adopted and became operative (which
did not occur till March, 1781), adopted a constitu-
tion, at Kingston, on the 20th day of April, 1777 ; by
the 37th Article of which (since reincorporated in all
the subsequent State Constitutions), contracts for
lands with the Indians in this State are made void
unless sanctioned by the Legislature, and such pur-
chases are declared to be a penal offense by a subse-
quent act of the Legislature; the object being the
protection of the Indians in the possession of their
lands.
During her whole existence as a British Colony,
a period of one hundred and nineteen years, New
York was a Royal Government, a Province indepen-
dent in all respects except her allegiance to the
British sovereign, whose representative was the Royal
Gk>vernor for the time being. As such representative
the Governor granted by patent all the lands which
were granted in the Province, except those previously
granted by, the prior Dutch government, the posses-
sion of which by their owners was duly confirmed by
the Articles of Capitulation under which the Dutch
surrender of New Netherland was made in 1664.
By the thirty-sixth article of the first State Consti-
tution of 1777, all these crown grants under, through,
and by Provincial Governors, prior to October 14,
1775, were declared to be valid and incontestible, and
were thereby confirmed. And this declaration and
confirmation have been continued and adopted in all
the succeeding constitutions of New York to the
present time. Consequently a grant from the British
Crown is the highest source of title in this State, and
one which is irrefragable, and incapable of being
affected adversely in any way by any legislative, or
other, act of the State government, or any decision of
any Court of this Stale, or of the United States.
8.
The Dufch in New Netherland.
A brief statement of the dealings of the Dutch
with their newly discovered country, before its colon-
ization was actually begun, is necessary to a right
understanding of the principles upon which that
colonization was undertaken, and of the system oi
government, and laws, which that great nation estab-
lished, in New Netherland.
And here let it be noted, that this name was New
Netherland, not New Netherlands, as so often, and so
wrongly, printed, written, and spoken. " Niew Ned-
erlandt'' was the term in Dutch. Adding a final
"s" to the English translation, and calling it New
Netherlands, is simply a pure New England vulgar-
ism, and an utterly erroneous translation of the true
name.
The Netherlands, in the plural, was the correct
name in English of the United Provinces, from the
fact that they consisted of seven Provinces, while
Niew Netherlandt was but a single Province, not-
withstanding its great extent, and hence was always
spoken of, and written of, by the Dutch in the singu-
lar number.
The announcement of Hudson's great discovery
did not produce rapid results. The extraordinary
success of the East India Company at that time and
the enormous dividends it declared drew the genera]
attention to the eastern, and not to the western
world. A single vessel in 1610, the year after the
return of the Half Moon, made a successftil trading
voyage to the "River of the Mountains," returning to
Holland with a valuable cargo of peltries. Two
Dutch navigators, Hendrick Christiaensen, or Cor-
stiaensen, and Adrian Block, chartering a vessel
commanded by Captain Ryser, next made a voyage to
the new region. In the early part of 1613, Hendrick
Corstiaensen, in the "Fortune," and Block, in the
38
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Tiger, sailed again to the Manhattans, and ex-
plored the adjacent coasts and waters. Other vessels
also visited the bay and river, and all returned with
profitable cargoes of furs. No trouble was expe-
rienced with the natives, who were ready and willing
to exchange their skins for the novel and attractive
goods of Europe.
Block's vessel, the "Tiger," was accidentally burned
in the Bay of New York in the autumn of 1618, and
he therefore built another during the succeeding win-
ter,* — the first ever constructed by white men in the
waters of New York. It was a small yacht of only
sixteen tons burden (English measure), which, with
strange appropriateness, he named " the Onruat ^* — the
Eestless, In this yacht, in the summer of 1614, Block
sailed through Hellgate and explored Long Island
Sound and the adjacent coast as far east as Cape Cod,
discovering the Housatonic, and Connecticut rivers^
Narraganset Bay, and the island that still bears his
name. He then first ascertained that Long Island
was an island. The Connecticut river he ascended to a
little above the present city of Hartford. He was
the first European who sailed through the Sound,
and the first white man who beheld the southern and
eastern shores of Westchester County.
Corstiaensen finally determined to remain at Man-
hattan to extend the Indian trade. Turning over his
own ship to Block, who left him the Onrust, the
latter returned to Holland. Corstiaensen built two
fortified trading-stations, one on an island below
Albany, the other at the south end of Manhattan
Island, and visited and traded with the Indians
of all the neighboring tribes. Three other vessels,
the Little Fox, the Nightingale and the Fortune,
under Captains John de Witt, Rhys Volkertssen and
Cornells Jacobsen May, respectively, visited the
"River of the Mountains,'' exploring and trading
with the natives, and those of the regions adjacent.
This trade, thus begun, was so profitable that it
induced these navigators, and the owners of their
ships, to apply to the States-Greneral of the United
Provinces for a grant of the sole privilege of trading
with the new and pleasant land beyond the ocean.
They presented a memorial to this effect, accompanied
by the first map ever made of the region of New
Netherland — ^a " Carte Figuratif," as they styled it —
to the States-General in the autumn of 1614. The
application met their approval, and on the 11th of
October, in the same year, that sovereign body made
a grant to the petitioners of the privilege sought, to
run for the term of three years, from the 1st of Jan-
uary, 1615. This grant is in the following words,
and in it appears for the first time, as the name of
the new region, the term " New Netherland,**
" The States-General of the United Netherlands
to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting.
1 1. Ck)l. Hist. N. Y., 12. I. OTallaghan's Hint, of New Nether-
Und, 47.
Whereas Gerrit Jacobz Witssen, antient Burgomaster
of the City of Amsterdam, Jonas Witssen, Simon
Morrissen, owners of the ship named the Little Fox,
whereof Jan de Witt has been skipper ; Hans Hon-
gers, Paulus Pelgrom, Lambrecht van Tweenhnysen,
owners of two ships named the Tiger and the For-
tune, whereof Adriaen Block and Henrick Corstiaen-
sen were skippers; Amolt van Lybergen, Weasel
Schenck, Hans Claessen and Barent Sweettsen, own-
ers of the ship named the Nightingale, whereof
Thys Volckertsen was skipper; Merchants of the
aforesaid City of Amsterdam, and Pieter Clementzen
Brouwer, Jan Clementzen Kies, and Cornells Volck-
ertssen, Merchants of the City of Hoom, owners of
the ship named the Fortuyn, wherof Cornells
Jacobssen May was skipper ; all now associated in
one company, have respectfolly represented to us,
that they, the petitioners, after great expenses and
damages by loss of ships and other dangers, had,
during the present year discovered and found, with
the above-named five ships, certain New Lauds situ-
ate in America, between New France and Virginia,
the seaooasts whereof lie between forty and fortyfive
degrees of Latitude, and now called New Netherland :
And whereas We did, in the month of March last, for
the promotion and increase of commerce, cause to be
published a certain General Consent and Charter,
setting forth, that whosoever should thereafter dis-
cover new havens, lands, places or passages, might
frequent, or cause to be frequented, for four voyages,
such newly discovered and found, places, passages,
havens, or lands, to the exclusion of all others from
visiting or frequenting the same from the United
Netherlands, until the said first discoverers and find-
ers shall, themselves, have completed the said four
voyages, or caused the same to be done within the
time prescribed for that purpose, under the penalties
expressed in the said Octroy, &c., they request that
we should accord to them due Act of the aforesaid
Octroy in the usual form :
" Which being considered. We therefore in Our As-
sembly having heard the pertinent Report of the Pe-
titioners, relative to the discoveries and findings of
the said new Countries between the above-named
limits and degrees, and also of their adventures, have
consented and granted, and by these presents do con-
sent and grant, to the said Petitioners now united into
one company, that they shall be privileged exclusively
to frequent, or cause to be visited, the above newly dis-
covered lands, situate in America between New France
and Virginia, whereof the seacoasts lie between the for-
tieth and forty fifth degrees of Latitude, now named New
Netherland, as can be;seen by a Figurative Map hereun-
to annexed, and that for four voyages within the term
of three years,commencing the first of January, sixteen
hundred and fifteen next ensuing, or sooner, without it
being permitted to any other person from the United
Netherlands, to sail to, navigate, or frequent the said
newly discovered lands, havens, or places, either di-
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
rectly or indirectly, within the said three years, on
pain of confiscation of the vessel and Cargo where-
with infraction hereof shall be attempted, and a fine
of Fifty thousand Netherland Ducats for the benefit
of the said discoverers or finders ; provided, neverthe-
less, that by these presents We do not intend to
prejudice or diminish any of our former grants or
charters ; And it is Our intention, that if any disputes
or differences arise from these our concessions they
shall be decided by ourselves.
" We therefore expressly command all Grovernors,
Justices, Officers* Magistrates, and inhabitants, of the
aforesaid United Countries, that they allow the said
company peaceably and quietly to enjoy the whole
benefit of this Our grant and consent, ceasing all con-
tradictions and obstacles to the contraiy. For such
we have found to appertain to the public service.
Given under our seal, paraph and signature of Our
Secretary, at the Hague the xith of October, 1614."*
This exclusive charter expired by its terms on the
first of January, 1818, and the company of merchants
to whom it had been granted, — *' the United New
Netherland Company" — ^as they styled themselves,
applied for its renewal. This the States-General re-
fused, having in contemplation to charter a great
military and commercial company for the West
Indies similar to the great organization of that nature
then existing for the East Indies. The object in view
in both was the same, namely, to establish a power,
which could, at the same time, maintain profitable
foreign trade, and carry on military and naval enter-
prises against Spain, thus in both ways crippling
their hereditary enemy. In the summer of 1618,
Hendrick Eelkens and his partners, by special per-
mission of the States-General, sent their ship, the
'* Scheldt" to the Manhattans for a single trading
voyage. In 1619 Captain Cornells Jacobsen May,
who had made the voyage, a few years before in com-
mand of the "Fortune," sailed again in the ship
" Glad Tidings," and explored the Bays of the Del-
aware, and the Chesapeake. Returning in 1620, he
and his owners applied to the States-General for a
special charter in their favor, and Eelkens and his
partners put in an opposing petition claiming such
special charter for themselves on the ground of prior
discovery. The States-General tried to compel these
parties to settle their differences, and unite their
interests, and appointed a committee upon the sub-
ject. This committee sat for several months endeav-
oring, after hearing both sides, to effect this object ;
but finding it impossible, they so reported, and the
States General refused to give either party the wished
for prize. In less than seven months after this
rejection, " the long pending question of a grand
armed commercial organization was finally settled;
and an ample charter, (bearing date the third day of
June 1621) gave the West India Company almost
U. Col. Hist. N. Y. 11.
unlimited powers to colonize, govern, and defend New
Netherland." «
In the year 1619 Captain Thomas Dermer, a naviga-
tor in the employment of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, one
of the leading corporators of the " Council of Plym-
outh '^ (as the Company chartered by James I. in
1606, was styled) who terms him " a brave stout gen-
tleman," was sent in command of a ship of two
hundred tons on a voyage to Monh^an, an island on
the Coast of Maine some distance east of the Mouth
of the Kennebec. One object of this voyage was to
obtain a cargo of fish, another was to return to his
home Squanto, one of the twenty-seven Massachu-
setts Indians kidnapped, carried to Malaga in Spain,
and sold as slaves, late in 1614, by Hunt, the master
of one of the three vessels of Captain John Smith,
which that famous explorer left behind him to com-
plete her cargo on his departure from New England
in July, 1614.»
By the good efforts of some benevolent monks of
Malaga many of the kidnapped Indians were
rescued from slavery, and eventually found their way
back to America. One of these was Squanto, who on
reaching London, was sent by Mr. Slaney, merchant
and treasurer of the Newfoundland Company to that
island. There Dermer met him, on touching at the
island on his way to England on a previous voyage,
and carried him back to that country, as the easiest
way of returning him to New England. On this, his
next voyage he carried Squanto along with him. On
arriving at Monhegan, and leaving his vessel there
to obtain her cargo of fish, he took the ship's pin-
nace, an open, undecked boat, of only five tons, and
with Squanto and two or three sailors departed for
the home of his Indian friend. The unhappy sav-
ages BO wickedly kidnapped by Hunt were natives of
Patuxet on the coast of Massachusetts Bay and its
neighborhood, Squanto himself having been bom at
that place. Dermer left Monhegan on the 19th day
of May, 1619, and in his letter to the Bev. Samuel
Purchas, (which the latter published in the fourth
volume of his "Pilgrimage," in 1626,) says, "I
passed along the coast where I found some ancient
plantations, not long since populous, now utterly
void; in other places a remnant remains, but not
free firom sickness. Their disease is the plague, for
we might perceive the sores of some that had escaped
who described the spots of such as usually die, (evi-
dently the small-pox). When I arrived at my
savage's native country, finding all dead, I travelled
a long days journey westward to a place called
Nummastaguyt (a place fifteen miles west from Pa-
tuxet) where finding inhabitants, I despatched a
messenger a days journey farther west to Pocanaoket
which bordereth on the sea, (now Bristol, Rhode
Island) ; whence came to see me two kings, attended
« I. Brod. 97.
» N. Y. Hint. Soc. Coll., 2d Serlea. Vol. I. 347. I. Brodhead, 97.
40
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
with a guard of fifty men, who being well satisfied
with what my savage and I discoursed unto them — be-
ing desirous of novelty — gave me content in whatever
I demanded, where I found that former relations were
true.
'' Here I redeemed a Frenchman, and afterwards,
another at Mastachusit, who three years since escaped
shipwreck at the north-east of Cape Cod."
Patuxet was the very place where on the 21st of
December, 1620, eighteen months later, the Pilgrims
from Ley den landed from the Mayflower, and which
Captain John Smith six years before had called
" Plymouth," a name which will ever be famous in
New England history. Strange are the historic
facts, that slaves were its first export, and those slaves
Indians, that its first foreign visitors, after its dis-
covery by Smith, were Frenchmen, the two redeemed
by Dermer, who was the first to point out its
advantages for a town, and that the coming there of
the Pilgrims afterward was the merest accident of an
accident, they having sailed for New Netherland.
Dermer reached Mon began on his return, on the
23d of June, 1619, and after despatching his ship
back to England, prepared to sail on a voyage to
Virginia in his pinnace. " I put," he says, " most of
my' provisions aboard the Sampson of Captain
Ward, ready bound for Virginia from whence he
came, taking no more into the pinnace tban I thought
might serve our turns, determining with God*s help
to search the coast along, and at Virginia to supply
ourselves for a second discovery if the first failed."
He then sailed along the coast to Virginia arriving
there on the 8th of September, 1619. Squanto
terribly disappointed at finding all bis people dead,
remained with Dermer, till he touched on this second
pinnace voyage, at Sawah-quatooke (an Indian town
in the present township of Brewster on Cape Cod)
" where," in Dermer's words, " he desired to stay with
some of our savage friends." Subsequently Squanto,
from the knowledge of English he had picked up»
became of great assistance to the Pilgrims as an in-
terpreter and his later career is well known.
Dermer stopped at Martha's Vineyard, and thence
as he says, shaped his voyage *' as the coast led me
till I came to the most westerly part where the coast
began to fall away southerly. (This was the eastern
entrance of Long Island Sound.) In my way I dis-
covered land about thirty leagues in length hereto-
fore taken for main, where I feared I had been em-
bayed, but by the help of an Indian I got to sea
again, through many crooked and straight passages.
I let pass many accidents in this journey occasioned
by treachery, where we were twice compelled to go
together by the ears; once the savages had great
advantage of us in a strait, not above a bow-shot,
[wide], and where a great multitude of Indians let
fly at us from the bank ; but it pleased God to make
us victors. Near unto this we found a most danger-
ous cataract amongst small, rocky islands, occasioned
by two unequal tides, the one ebbing and flowing two
hours before the other." This was Hellgate, and the
place were the Indians '' let fly " at them was in the
neighborhood of Throg's Point. Such was the voy-
age of the first Englishman who ever sailed through
Long Island Sound, and the first who ever beheld the
southern and eastern shores of Westchester County.
This was five years after the Dutch skipper Block
had sailed through the same Sound from the Man-
hattans, and ten years after Hudson's discovery of
" the Great River of the Mountains." Very singular
it is, that fights with the Indians, both, on the Hud-
son, and on the Sound, aud at points nearly opposite
each other, were the beginning of civilization in
Westchester County ; and that the first was with
the Dutch and the second with the English, the two
races of whites, which, in succession, ruled that
county, and the Province and State of New York.*
Dermer spent the succeeding winter (1619-20) in
Virginia, went back to New England the next sum-
mer, again visited Plymouth in June, and described
its advantages for a town settlement in his letter of
the 80th of that month, went again to Virginia, and
there died.
On this return voyage from Virginia, Dermer, in
the words of the " Brief Relation " of the Plymouth
Company's proceedings from 1607 to 1622, "met with
certain Hollanders, who had a trade in Hudson's
river some years before that time, with whom he had
a conference about the state of that coast, and their
proceedings with those people, whose answer gave
him good content."
This visit of Dermer to " certain Hollanders " was
the first visit of an Englishman to Manhattan Island,
and he was the first man of that race who trod its soil.
Hudson never landed on the island, and they who
first did so, and those whom Dermer found there,
were Dutchmen. This voyage, however, was the basis
of one of the most famous myths of American and
New York history. Twenty-nine years after Dermer's
visit, in the year 1648, there appeared in England a
pamphlet, under the nom de plume of "Beauchamp
Plantagenet, Esq.," entitled, ** A Description of the
Province of New Albion," in which it is stated, that
Capt. Samuel Argall, on his return to Virginia from
Acadia in 1613, '* landed at Manhatas Isle, in Hud-
son's river, where they found four houses built, and a
pretended Dutch Governor under the West India
Company of Amsterdam," and that he (Argall) forced
the Dutch to submit themselves to the King of Eng-
land and to the government of Virginia.*
This story, often and often repeated, is not sup-
ported by any oflicial document of the English,
Virginia, or Dutch governments yet discovered to this
day, and is believed by modern scholars to have been
1 This letter of Dermer reprinted from Purchas with a learned preface,
is la I. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. 2d Series, 343. Also in 2C Maw. Hist. Coll.,
p. 63.
« I. N. Y. HiBt. Soc. Coll., 2d Series, 335.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
41
basad by '* Plantagenet " on Dermer's account of his
voyages, somewhat dressed up. In 1613 the Dutch
West India Company had not only not been incorpo-
rated, but it was not formed till 1621. That eminent
American historical scholar, the late Hon. Henry C.
Murphy of Brooklyn, a great lawyer, a practiced
statesman, in the Dutch language profoundly skilled,
and who had been minister to Holland, after a
thorough investigation of this story of ArgalFs visit,
placed in a note to his translation of Van der Donck's
" Vertoogh," or ** Representation," of New Nether-
land, published in 1849, the following emphatic
opinion, — " This story is a pure fiction, unsustained
by any good authority — ^though some writers have
heaped up citations on the subject — and as fully sus-
ceptible of disproof as any statement of that character
at that early period can be." ^
It is clear that from Hudson's Discovery to the
chartering of the West India Company the Dutch
considered New Netherland as a colony for commer-
cial purposes only, and maintained it simply for the
profits of the fur trade with the Indians. Its true
colonization, as a land to be settled by their own
people, for its agricultural and other resources, and as
a possible market for the productions of Holland, was
gradually forced upon them by their experience of its
constantly increasing value, and pleasant, and pro-
ductive, climate and soil.
The first step in this direction was the chartering of
the West India Company by the States General of the
United Netherlands on the third of June 1621. Such
an organization as an armed military trading com-
pany to Africa and Virginia, was suggested by
William Usselinx, a merchant of Antwerp, in 16u6,
as a means of aiding the Government in the war with
Spain, then raging. Some preliminary measures
were taken, but before any practicable ones could be
adopted, the truce of 1609 was agreed upon for the
term of twelve years, and the scheme fell to the
ground.
The charter of 1621 was not put into immediate
operation, but was held for further consideration
and discussion, during the next two years. Finally
the interests of all parties were harmonized, certain
amplifications and amendments were fully agreed
upon, and were embodied in an "ordinance" of the
States-General, which pasi^ed the seals on the 21st of
June 1623, containing twelve " Articles," and which
closes in these words : —
" We having examined and considered the aforesaid
articles, apd being desirous to promote unity and con-
cord between the directors and principal adventurers,
and the advancement of the West India Company,
have with the advice of the Prince of Orange,' thought
fit to agree to, and approve of, and do hereby agree
1 II. N. T. Hist. SoG. Coll., 2d Series, 326 ; see also I. Brodhead, 51,
and note E., p. 754.
s Prince Maurice.
4
to, and approve thereof, and direct that the same shall
be punctually attended to and observed, by the direc-
tors, members, and every person concerned therein,
in the same manner as if they were inserted in the
charter; because we find them proper for the service
of the West India Company." *
While these modifications were being considered
the States-General authorized many special voyages
to New Netherland, each under a special license,
which also contained a proviso obliging the parties
in interest to return with their ships by the first of
July 1622. This Waa to avoid any interference with
the West India Company, or any anticipation of the
commencement of their business.^
The Charter of the Dutch West India Company
was modeled aflber that of the Great Dutch East India
Company, and like it was intended to promote trade,
colonization, and the breaking down by armed fleets
of the power and pride of the kingdom of Spain.
Both were armed commercial monopolies with most
extensive powers and enormous capital. Both were
established on the basis of the public law of Holland,
which was simply the " Roman Law," with slight
modifications. And both were supported by the
assistance and strength of the Government of the
United Provinces.
The West India Company's Charter consists of a
preamble and forty-five articles, together with the
preamble and twelve articles of the final agreement
of the 2l8t of June 1623 above-mentioned. The
central power of this vast association, as O'Caliaghan
states, '' was divided, for the more efScient exercise of
its functions, among five branches or chambers,
established in the different cities of the Netherlands,
the managers of which were styled * Lords Direct-
ors.' Of these, that of Amsterdam was the principal,
and to this was intrusted the management of the
affairs of New Netherland. The general supervision
and government of the Company, Were, however,
lodged in a board, or Assembly of Nineteen delegates
[briefly termed the Assembly of XIX.] ; eight(changed
to nine in 1629) of whom were from the Chamber at
Amsterdam; four from Zealand; two from Maeze;
and one from each of the chambers of Friesland and
Groeningen (forming the North Department). The
nineteenth was appointed [as their own representa-
tive] by their High Mightinesses, the States General
of the United Provinces."
Apart from the exclusive trade of the coast of
Africa, from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good
Hope, and of the coast of America, from the Straits
of Magellan to the extreme North [Terra Nova or
Newfoundland], this Company was authorized to form
alliances with the chiefs of the Indian tribes, and
obligated to advance the settlement of their posses-
sions, encourage population, and do everything that
8 I. O'Call., Appendix " B," 408.
* 1. Col. Htot. N. Y., 22-27.
42
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
might promote the intereste of those fertile countries
and increase trade.
To protect its commerce and dependencies, the
Company was empowered to erect forts and fortifica-
tions; to administer justice and preserve order; main-
tain police, and exercise the government generally of
its transmarine affairs ; declare war and make peace,
with the consent of the States-General ; and, with
their approbation, appoiut a Governor or Director-
General, and all other ofScers, civil, military, judicial,
and executive, who were bound to swear allegiance
to their High Mightinesses, as well as to the Company
itself.
The Director-General and his Council were invested
with all powers judicial, legislative, and executive,
subject, some supposed, to appeal to Holland; but the
will of the Company, expressed in their instructions,
or declared in their marine or military ordinances,
was to be the law of New Netherland, excepting in
cases not especially provided for, when the Roman
Law, the imperial statutes of Charles V., the edicts,
resolutions, and customs of Patria — Fatherland —
were to be received as the paramount rule of action.*
^' The States General engaged, among other things,
to secure to the Company freedom of navigation and
traffic, 'within the prescribed limits, and to assist them
with a million of guilders, equal to nearly half a
million of dollars ; and in case peace should be dis-
turbed, with sixteen vessels of war and four yachts,
fully armed and equipped ; the former to be at least
of three hundred, and the latter of eighty, tons bur-
then ; but these vessels were to be maintained at the
expense of the Company, which was to furnish, un-
conditionally, sixteen ships and fourteen yachts, of
like tonnage, for the defence of trade and purposes of
war, which, with all merchant vessels, were to be
commanded by an admiral appointed and instructed
by their High Mightinesses." *
Such were the great and extensive powers under
which New York was colonized. And such was the
basis of the legal system under which civil rule and
civil law was first established within its borders ; and
under which it flourished and was governed, till the
close of the Dutch dominion, a period of more than
half a century.
4.
The Colonization by the West India Company,
In the same year, 1623, the West India Company
began the colonization of New Netherland, which
was then erected into a Province, by the States-
General and invested with the armorial bearings of a
Count;' the shield being, argent, a pale sable charged
with three crosses saltire, argent, paleways; the crest
a Beaver couchant proper.*
1 I. O'Call. Hist., 89.
« lb , 91.
8 I. Brod., 148 ; I. O'Call., 99.
* TheBe arine, in 1654, appear on the first seal of the Province, which
To the Chamber of Amsterdam was committed its
direction and management. That body despatched
the first expedition in March, 1623, under Cornells
Jacobsen May * — from whom the northern cape at the
mouth of the Delaware is named — ^as the first Direc-
tor-General of New Netherland. It consisted of the
ship " New Netherland " of 266 tons burthen, with a
cargo of supplies and tools, and thirty families of
colonists, who were Protestant Walloons. These Wal-
loons were the inhabitants of the frontier between
France, and Flanders, from the river Scheldt to the
river Lys, their language was the old French, and
their religion the Reformed Faith of the Huguenots.
Associated with this expedition, as the captain of the
ship, was Adrian Joris, who had made several prior
voyages to the coast of America, although he is some-
times erroneously styled " Director." • After a two
months' voyage by way of the Canaries and the West
Indies May and his colonists arrived in the bay of
New York. He divided the Walloons into several
parties, sending some to Albany, some to the Del-
aware, some to Hartford, some to Staten Island, some
to Long Island — where the name of the Wallabout
bay still denotes the place of their settlement — and
retained others on the island of Manhattan. Thus
began the real colonization of New Netherland, a
region out of which was to be formed four of the
Middle States and one of the New England States of
the American Union. The first colonists of this
region spoke no English, and knew no English law,
and they were brought here by the nation which first
discovered and occupied the land,^ a nation likewise
ignorant of English law and of the English tongue. The
Roman law, with a few Batavian customs engrailed
upon it, was the first legal system established in the
entire region, and it not only governed the foundation
of European rule and civilization in New Netherland,
but maintained their continuous existence there, for
half a century; and even then only yielded to another
tongue and another legal system by the force of arms.
May administered the affairs of the new colony
about a year, and was succeeded by William Verhulst
as second Director- General, whose administration
likewise continued only a year, when he resigned and
returned to Holland. It was marked however by the
arrival and introduction of the first wheeled vehicles
and first dcgnestic animals into this State. Peter
Evertsen Hulst, a merchant, and a director of the
Amsterdam Chamber, despatched to "The Man-
hadoes" three ships of 280 tons each, at his own
expense and risk, in April 1625, with supplies, tools,
In those dayn was also the seal of "New Amsterdam," sarmounted
by a mantle havinf^ in its centre the letters G. W^. C, the initials of
" Geoctroyeede West Indiache Compagnie," the Dutch appellation of the
W^est India Company.— III. Doc. Hist , 396.
B Wassenacr, III. Doc. Hist., 43.
« I. Brod., 156.
T Cabot, whose voyage along the coast of North America was the
basis of the English clnim to New Netherland, never landed upon nor
took possession of any part of it for the King of England.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE MANORS.
43
and wagons, and one hundred and three head of
aiiimalB, consisting of stallions, mares, hulls, cows,
swine and sheep ; ** each beast," says Wassenaer, in
his account of the voyage, '' had its own separate
stall," arranged on a flooring of sand three feet deep,
which was laid upon a deck specially constructed in
the vessel, beneath which were stowed 300 tuns (casks)
of water. Only two beasts died at sea. The rest on
arriving were landed on "Noten," now Governor's,
Island, then covered by a dense forest of nut trees,
so thick that the pasturage was insufficient, and two
days later all the animals were transferred to Man-
hattan Island where they throve well. These ships
also brought six more families of Walloons, and a few
single people, forty-five persons in all.^
To Verhulst succeeded, as third Director-General,
Peter Minuit, of Wesel, in Westphalia, who was of
French Huguenot origin. He sailed from the Tezel
on the ninth of January, 1626, in the ship Sea-Mew,
and reached '' the Manhadoes " on the fourth of the
succeeding May.
The Hecond and third articles of the Charter of the
West India Company conferred upon it the power of
appointing the Directors-General, and other officers,
of all colonies it might establish. The Amsterdam
Chamber, to which had been committed the care of
New Netherland, under these powers proceeded to
organize the first civil government in the new Prov-
ince. The grant in the West India Company's
charter is very extensive. The operative words are,
" and also build any forts and fortifications there, to
appoint and discharge governors, people for war, and
officers of justice, and other public officers, for the
preservation of the places, keeping good order, police,
and justice, and in like manner for the promoting of
trade ; and again others in their place to put, as they,
from the situation of their afiairs shall see fit."
By virtue of these powers, and of the vote of the
Company placing New Netherland under its sole
control and management, the Amsterdam Chamber of
the Company appointed Peter Minuit Director-
General, and the following persons as his council,
viz., Peter Bylvelt, Jacob Elbertsen Wissinck, Jan
Jansen Brouwer, Symon Dirksen Pos and Beynert
Harmensen. To these were added Isaac de Basieres
as Provincial Secretary, and Jan Lampo as *^Schout-
Fiscaal," (pronounced cu if spelled ^^ Skowt"\ who
was an executive officer, combining the powers of a
sheriff and an attorney-general. These formed the
first organized civil government in what is now this
State of New York — and collectively were styled "The
Director-General and Council of New Netherland."
The Schout-Fiscaal was entitled to sit with the Coun-
cil but had no vote. The Secretary was the officer
next in importance to the Director, and was also
" Opper-koopman," or book-keeper and treasurer.
This Council had supreme executive and legislative
1 III. Doc. Hiat. N. Y., 41-43.
authority in the colony. It was also the sole tribunal
for the trial of all civil and criminal cases, and all
prosecutions before it were instituted and conducted
by the Schout-Fiscaal. In taking informatiouA, he
was bound to note as well those points which made
for the prisoner as well as those against him, as the
Roman law provides, and after trial to see that the
sentence was lawfully executed. He was also chief
custom-house officer and had power to inspect vessels
and their cargoes, sign their papers, and confiscate all
goods introduced in violation of the Company's regu-
lations. This most responsible of all the offices in the
new government was held during Director Minuit's
entire administration by the above-named Jan Lampo
who was a native of Cantelberg. It should be stated
also, that when the Schout-Fiscaal acted as prosecut-
ing officer he retired from the bench. It will be seen
that this Council acted in a twofold capacity, as an
Executive Council, and as a Court of Justice. When,
later, inferior tribunals were established, its members
were not amenable to them. On extraordinary
occasions it was usual to adjoin some of the principal
inhabitants, or Public Servants, ppo hoc vice, to the
Council by its own vote, who then had an equal voice
in the decision of the matter in question.'
Such was the nature of the body by which execu-
tive, legislative, and judicial authority was exercised,
not only on Manhattan Island, and in the County of
Westchester, but in all parts of New Netherland.
The new government began vigorously. The
Governor and Council first laid out and commenced
the erection of a regular fortification on the extreme
southern point of Manhattan Island. The engineer
was Krijn Frederickje, and it was begun in 1626, was
not finished in July 1627, as de Rasieres tells us, but
was probably completed at the end of 1627. Its pred-
ecessor, though called a fort, was simply a stock-
aded trading house. This, however, was a regular
work of four biistions, entirely faced with stone.'
Isaac de Rasieres, the writer of the letter mentioned,
arrived in the ship " Arms of Amsterdam " on
July 27th, 1626. He was a Huguenot Walloon, an agent
of Blommaert an Amsterdam merchant, and a mem-
ber of the West India Company, to whom his letter
is addressed. He was made by Minuit Provincial
Secretary, and as such, opened a correspondence with
Grov. Bradford of Plymouth, for a friendly trade,
visited that celebrated place, as a New Netherland
envoy in 1627, and has left us an account of it in
this letter, discovered at the Hague in 1846, and
first printed in II. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2 Series,
339.
On the 23d of September, 1626, this ship, the
" Arms of Amsterdam," sailed again on her return
voyage to Holland, with a very valuable cargo of furs.
9 I. O'Call., 101 ; N. Netherlaud Register, 2.
« Waawnaer, III. Doc. Hist. N. Y., 47 ; Brodhead's Early Colonization
of N. Netherland. II. N. Y. Uiat. Coll., 2d Series, pp. 363-365.
44
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
She also carried out the ofScial account of the most
important event that had yet happened in New
Netherlands the result of a treaty held by Director
Minuit and his Council with the natives of Man-
hattan, the first ever held by the Dutch with the
Indians in America. This event was the purchase of
the Island of Manhattan by the West India Com-
pany, which is the foundation of title to all the real
estate on the Island of New York, and by which the
city holds all the land that it still possesses at this
day, south of the Harlem River. She had a compara-
tively rapid passage, reaching Amsterdam on the
fourth of November following, a little over six weeks.
The very next day, the delegate of the States-
General in the "Assembly of the XIX.," then in
session, advised that august body of the arrival, and
the news, by letter. Unfortunately Minuit's official
despatch has not been preserved, but the letter of
Pieter Schagen, the States-GeneraPs representative,
is still in the Royal Archives at the Hague, and
proves the fact. It is, in full, as follows ; —
"High and Mighty Lords : — ^Yesterday arrived here
the ship 'the Arms of Amsterdam,' which sailed
from New Netherland out of the River Mauritius,^ on
the 23d of September. They report that our people
are in good heart and live in peace there ; the Women
have also borne some children there. They have
purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for
the value of 60 guilders; 'tis 11,000 morgens in size.'
They had all their grain sown by the middle of May,
and reaped by the middle of August. They send
thence samples of summer grain ; such as wheat, rye,
barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans, and flax.
The cargo of said ship is ; —
7,246 Beaver skins.
1781 Otter skins.
675 Otter skins.
48 Minck skins.
36 Wild cat skins.
38 Minckes.
34 Rat skins.
Considerable oak timber and hickory.
Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, be recom-
mended to the mercy of the Almighty.
In Amsterdam, the 5th of November A. D. 1626.
Your High Mightinesses obedient,
P. SCHAOEN."
It is endorsed, "Received 7th November, 1626."
This action of Director-General Minuit and the
Council of New Netherland marks the beginning of
the policy of the Dutch nation in its treatment of the
Indians of America in the matter of their lands, and
also its Christian character. This policy and all the
dealings with the natives pursuant to it was based on
1 The Dutch ao named the Hndaon after Maurice, the then Prince of
Orange.
* A morgen, or Dutch acre, was two English acree ; " 60 guilders'* was
24 duUurs of our money.
the principle, that the Indiana were the lawful pro-
prietors of their native land by original right of occu-
pancy, and that it could only be alienated by their
own act, and not taken from tbem by right of con-
quest, or by rapine. Of no other of the nations of
Europe which colonized America, except the Dutch,
can it be truly said that this wise and Christian
principle always governed them in their dealings
with the Indians. Much has been written about
William Penn as being the first to purchase their
lands by treating with them. But Director Minuit on
the banks of the Hudson preceded him in this honor-
able and Christian treatment of the Indiiins by more
than half a century. And the same policy and treat-
ment was ever continued during the whole period of
the Dutch possession of the Province of New Nether-
land.
At the date of the purchase the Indian population
of Manhattan Island is said by some writers to have
been 200, men, women, and children, and by none
has it been put at more than 300. The numbers of
the Dutch, we know, were only 270.' So that the
population on each side could not have been far from
equal. A fact that speaks well for those early Dutch
people, for from the discovery up to 1626 their pos-
session of the island was only by the sufferance of
the Indians, and during that whole time there was
never a contest or a quarrel between them and the
savages.
The price paid for the Island was a fair one, for the
time, age, and place, for it was nothing but a little
wild island on a coast almost unknown, of a continent
entirely unknown. It was but one of hundreds and
hundreds of small islands lying all along the Western
shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with nothing to show
it had any value at all except the prior occupation
of one end of it as a trading post by the Dutch.
And many of those same little islands in as out-of-
the-way places, may be purchased to-day for a price
almost as low.
De Laet in his history of the West India Com-
pany gives a table of the annual exports and imports
from, and into. New Netherland, from 1624 to 1635,
from which it appears, that in 1626, the year of the
purchase, but two ships came to, and went from. New
Amsterdam, and that the value of the imports (sup-
plies and goods) was 20,384 guilders, about 8,500 dol-
lars, and that of the exports (furs and timber) were
45,050 guilders, about 14,000 dollars.*
It was simply as a station to collect furs from the
Indians that Manhattan Island then had any value
whatever. Such was the beginning of that "Prov-
ince of New Netherland" in the year 1623, which
262 years later, in 1885, is the State and City of New
York, the former with 5,000,000 of inhabitants, the
latter with 1,260,000 people. And the island that was
« Waisenaer, III. Doc. Hist N. T., 47.
* De Laet, 1. N. Y. Ilwt. C^n., 2a series, 385. I. O'Cair., 104.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
45
then bought for 24 dollars, now has a valae so high up
in the millions of dollars, that the mind with difGicultj
can take it in ; while the city built upon it, is the
third in importance, size, and wealth in the civilized
world, and the chiefest in the western hemisphere.
The Walloons had moved in the matter of leaving
Holland for America in the year 1621, two years be-
fore the thirty families came out under Director May
as mentioned above. They applied to Sir Dudley
Carleton, British Ambassador at the Hague, to know,
whether the King of England, James the First, would
permit them "to settle in Virginia," in accordance
with a petition setting forth the terms and conditions
under which they desired to undertake the enterprise.
This Petition of fifty-six heads of families, Walloon,
and French, all of the Reformed Religion was pre-
sented to, and left, with Carleton, who sent it to Eng-
lind, enclosed in a letter of his own favoring its
object, dated the 19th of July, 1621. Accompanying
the petition was a written covenant in these words ; —
"We promise' his Lordship the ambassador of the
most serene king of Great Britain, that we will go to
settle in Virginia, a part of his Majesty's dominions,
at the earliest time practicable, and this under the
conditions set forth in the articles we have communi-
cated to his said lordship the ambassador, and not
otherwise."
This paper bore the signatures of all the petitioners,
attached in the form of a round-robin the centre of
which was the above covenant; and it showed, be-
sides the names of the signers, their occupations, and
the number of the children of each. Among the
names are those well known in New Amsterdam from
that day to this, as De Forest, De La Montague, Lam-
bert, LeRoy, DuPuy, and others, as good, honest,
upright people. The Lords in Council referred the
application to the Virginia Company, who received it
very coldly, suggested a few modifications and de-
clined any assistance, in money or in transportation.
This ended the matter with the English, and these
"Walloons as well as French," afterwards made ar-
rangements with the West India Company to go to
New Netherland, which were carried out under May
in 1623 as mentioned before.
This petition to the British King contained seven
articles specifying in detail, the conditions and terms
under which, these first colonists desired to enter upon
the work of colonization, and is therefore of the great-
est value as acquainting us, beyond cavil, with the
views and ideas of those who actually did begin that
work in what is now the City and State of New York.*
In this document appears the very earliest mention
of the land tenure which the first colonists of New
York desired and asked for. It was that with which
they were familiar, and which they fully understood,
iThis petition is glT«n at length, with an engraving of the "round
robin'* and itg Blgnatur«a, In the Taluable "History of the Huguenot
Emigratlun," by the Bev. Pr. G. W. Baird, toI. I. p. 158Ju8t published.
and under which they had always lived, and was
based on fealty, homage, and manorial rights, as fixed
by the Roman law, with which alone they were ac-
quainted, and which under the West India Company
was established as the law of New Netherland, and
governed it till its conquest by the English in 1664.
The articles of this ** petition" numbers five and six,
are in these words (The whole is in French, and
this is the translation) :
"VI. Whether he (His Britannic Majesty) would
"grant them a township or territory, in a radius of
" eight English miles, or say, sixteen miles in diameter,
"which they might improve as fields, meadows, vine-
" yards, and for other uses ; which territory whether
"conjointly or severally, they would hold from his
"Majesty upon fealty and homage; no others being
"allowed to dwell within the bounds of the said
"lands, unless they shall have taken letters of citi-
"zenship; in which territory they would reserve to
"themselves inferior manorial rights; and whether it
" might be permitted to those of their number who
" are entitled to maintain the rank of noblemen, to
" declare themselves such.
"VII. Whether they would be permitted in the
"said lands to hunt all game whether furred or
" feathered, to fish in the sea and the rivers, to cut
"heavy timber, as well for ship building as for com-
" merce, at their own will ; in a word, whether they
" could make use of all things either above or beneath
" the ground, at their own pleasure and will, the royal
" rights reserved ; and whether they could dispose of
" all things in trade with such persons as may be per-
" mitted them.
"Which provisions would extend only to said
"families and those belonging to them, without ad-
" mitting those who might come afterwards to the said
" territory to avail themselves of the same, except so
" far as they might of their own power, grant this to
" them, and not beyond, unless his said Majesty should
" make a new grant to them."
Such were the clear, undeniable wishes and desires,
expressed in their own words, by those men who
began the actual settlement of the region now known
as New York, and which they did carry out, a little
modified, by the Dutch system and rule.
The West India Company by its charter was bound
to take measures for the increase of the population
of its new Province, and the development of its agri-
cultural resources. It found this a difficult duty to
perform, mainly in consequence of two causes. The
first was, the extreme profit of the fur trade which
absorbed the general attention. The second was, that
the farmers and laborers of Holland knew that they
could do well enough at home. This fact is thus stated
in a report of the Assembly of XIX. to the States.
General in 1629, referring to the effect of a proposed
truce with Spain, upon the interests of New Netherland.
46
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
"Moreover the colonizing such wild and uncul-
tivated countries, demands more inhabitants than we
can well supply ; not so much through lack of popu-
lation, in which our provinces abound, as from the
fact, that all who are inclined to do any sort of work
here, procure enough to eat without any trouble ; and
are, therefore, unwilling to go far from home on an
uncertainty." ^
This subject had engaged the attention of the Com-
pany, and of the Chamber of Amsterdam especially,
in 1627 and 1628. After much discussion, and long
deliberations, it was finally determined in the Assem-
bly of the XIX. that a plan should be prepared giv-
ing special privil^es, powers, and exemptions, to
such members of the Company who would, at their
own expense and risk, send out expeditions, and estab-
lish separate and distinct plantations in any part of
New Netherland, Manhattan Island excepted. The
details were slowly and carefully determined, and not
till the seventh of June, 1629, was the plan finally
approved and adopted by the Assembly of XIX., and
ratified and confirmed by their High Mightinesses the
States-General.
This plan, or charter, as it sometimes styled, was
entitled : —
"FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS.
GRANTED BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE XIX. OF THE
PRIVILEGED WEST INDIA COMPANY, TO ALL
SUCH AS SHALL PLANT ANY COLONIES
IN NEW NETHERLAND."
It consisted of thirty-one articles, and was printed
in a small quarto pamphlet of four or six pa^^es and
distributed throughout the United Provinces in 1630.
Only three or four copies of this pamphlet are now
known to exist, and it is so rare that within ten years
a distinguished New York antiquarian reprinted it in
fac-simile.
As it LB the first instrument under which lands in
the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and Delaware, and Connecticut, were acquired, and
on which titles rest, it is here given in full from the
translation made by the late eminent historian of
New Netherland. Dr. Edmund B. O'Callairhan, for
hi« own grent work, the " History of New Netherland ;
or, New York under the Dutch," first published in 1846-
"FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS.
GRANTED BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE XIX. OF THE
PRIVILEGED WEST INDIA COMPANY, TO ALL
SUCH AS SHALL PLANT ANY COLONIES
IN NEW NETHERLAND:
" I. Such members of the said Company as may be
inclined to settle any colonie' in New Netherland,
1 1. Col. HIrt. N. T., 39 ; Ibid., 85.
■ Thtoword "oolonie/* pronoimced in Dutch with the accent on the
lact two letters, doee not mean "colony" in the Enfcliah ienee, bnt mmnii
a plantation, or vettlement, and inchidAS people, rattle, tools, stock of all
kindi, as well as the lands on which oil wei'e to be placed.
shall be permitted to send in the ships of this Com-
pany going thither, three of four persons to inspect
the situation of the country, provided that they, with
the officers and ships company, swear to the articles,
so far as they relate to them, and pay for provisions
and for passage, going and coming, six stuyvers per
diem ; and such as desire to eat in the cabin twelve
stuyvers, and to be subordinate, and give assistance
like the others, in cases offensive and defensive ; and
if any ships be taken from the enemy, they shall re-
ceive pro rata, their proportions with the ships com-
pany, each according to his quality ,* that is to say,
the colonists eating out of the cabin shall be rated
with the sailors, and those who eat in the cabin with
those of the company's men who eat at table and re-
ceive the lowest wages.
"II. Though, in this respect, shall be preferred
such persons as have first appeared and desired the
same from the Company.
" III. All such shall be acknowledged Patroons of.
New Netherland, who shall, within the space of four
years next after they have given notice to any of the
chambers of the company here, or to the Commander
or the Council there, undertake to plant a colonie
there of fifty souls, upwards of fifteen years old ; one-
fourth part within one year, and within three years
after the sending of the first, making together four
years, the remainder, to the full number of fifty per-
sons, to be shipped from hence, on pain, in case of
wilful neglect of being deprived of the privileges ob-
tained; but it is to be observed that the company
reserve the island of the Manhattes to themselves.
" rV. They shall, from the time they make known
the situation of the places where they proposed to set-
tle colonies, have the preference to all others of the
absolute property of such lands as they have chosen ;
but in case the situation should not afterwards please
them, or they should have been mistaken as to the
quality of the land, they may, after remonstrating:
concerning the same to the Commander and Council
there, be at liberty to choose another place.
"V. The Patroons, by virtue of their power, shall
and may be permitted, at such places as they shall
settle their colonies, to extend their limits four miles
along the shore, that is, on one side of a navigable
river, or two miles' on each side of a river, and so fsr
into the country as the situation of the occupiers will
permit; provided and conditioned that the company
keep to themselves the lands lying and remaining be-
tween the limits of the colonies, to dispone thereof,
when, and at such time, as they shall think proper, in
such manner that no person shHll be allowed to come
within seven or eight miles* of them without their
consent, unless the situation of the land thereabout
* These are Dutch mllo*, one of which i* <H|nal to four English ones.
« Twenty-eight or tblrty-two English miles. ^
THE OKIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
47
were such, that the Commander and Council for good
reasons, should order otherwise; always observing
that the first occupiers are not to be prejudiced in the
right they have obtained, other than, unless the ser-
vice of the Company should require it, for the build-
ing of fortifications, or something of that sort ; re-
maining, moreover the command of each bay, river,
or island, of the first settled colonic, under the su-
preme jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses the
States^General, and the company; but that on the
next colonies being settled on the same river or island,
they may, in conjunction with the first, appoint one
or more council, in order to consider what may be ne
cessary for the prosperity of the colonies on the said
river and island.
" VI. They shall forever possess and enjoy all the
lands lying within the aforesaid limits, toge(h3r with
the fruits, rights, minerals, rivers and fountains there-
of; as also the chief command and lower jurisdic-
tions,^ fishing, fowling, and grinding, to the exclusion
of all others, to be hold en from the company as a per-
petual inheritance, without it ever devolving again to
the Company, and in case it should devolve, to be re-
deemed and repossessed with twenty guilders per
colonic, to be paid to this Company, at the chamber
here, or to their Commander there, within a year and
six weeks after the same occur, each at the chamber
where he originally sailed from ; and further, no per-
son, or persons, whatsoever, shall be privileged to fish
and hunt but the Patroons and such as they shall per-
mit ; and in case any one should in time prosper so
much as to found one or more cities, he shall have
power and authority to establish officers and magis-
trates there, and to make use of the title of his colo-
nic according to his pleasure and the quality of the
persons.
" VII. There shall likewise be granted to all Pa-
troons who shall desire the same, venia testandi, or
liberty to dispose of their aforesaid heritage by testa-
ment.
"VIII. The Patroons may, if they think proper,
make use of all lands, rivers, and woods, lying con-
tiguous to them, for and during so long a time as this
company shall not grant them to other Patroons or
particular individuals.
" IX. Those who shall send persons over to settle
colonies shall furnish them with proper instructions,
in order that they may be ruled and governed con-
formably to the rule of government made or to be
made by the Assembly of the Nineteen as well in the
political as the judicial government; which they
shall be obliged first to lay before the directors of the
respective colleges [or chambers].
" X. The Patroons and colonists shall be privileged
to send their people and effects thither, in ships be-
> Under the Roman Dutch law.
longing to the company, provided they take the oath '
and pay to the Company for bringing over the people
as mentioned in the first article; and for freight of
the goods five per cent, ready money, t^ be reckoned
on the prime cost of the goods here; in which is,
however, not to be included such creatures and other
implements, as are necessary for the cultivation and
improvement of the lands, which the Company are to
carry over without any reward if there is room in their
ships. But the Patroons shall at their own expense,
provide and make places' for them, together with
every thing necessary for the support of the crea-
tures.
"XI. In case it should not suit the Company to
send any ships, or in those going there should be no
room ; then the said Patroons, after having communi-
cated their intentions, and after having obtained con-
sent from the Company in writing, may send their own
ships or vessels thither; provided that in going or
coming they go not out of their ordinary course; giv-
ing security to the Company for the same, and taking
on board an assistant, to be victualled by the Patroons,
and paid his monthly wages by the Company; on
pain, for doing the contrary, of forfeiting all the
right and property they have obtained to the colonic.
"XII. Inasmuch as it is intended to people the
island of the Manhattes first, all fruits and wares that
are produced on the lands situate on the North River,
and lying thereabout, shall, for the present, be brought
there before they may be sent elsewhere; excepting
such as are from their nature unnecessary there, or
such as cannot, without great loss to the owner there-
of, be brought there ; in which case the owners shall
be obliged to give timely notice in writing of the dif-
ficulty attending' the same, to the Company here, or
the Commander and Council there, that the same
may be remedied as the necessities thereof shall be
found to require.
" XIII. All the Patroons of colonies in New Nether-
land, and of colonies on the Island of Manhattes,
shall be at liberty to sail and trafBc all along the
coast from Florida to Terra Neuf,* provided that they
do again return, with all such goods «s they shall get
in trade, to the Island of Manhattes, and pay five per
cent, for recognition to the Company, in order, if pos-
sible, that after the necessary inventory of the goods
shipped be taken, the same may be sent hither. And
if should so happen, that they could not return, by
contrary streams or otherwise, they shall, in such
case, not be permitted to bring such goods to any
other place but to these dominions, in order that
under the inspection of the directors of the place
where they may arrive, they may be unladen, an in-
ventory thereof made, and the aforesaid recognition
9 Of allegiance to the Company, and to the States General.
* Stalls, or other accommodations.
* Newfoundland.
48
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
of five per cent, paid to the company here, on pain,
if they do the contrary, of the forfeiture of the goods
80 trafficked for, or the real value thereof.
" XIV. In case the ships of the Patroons, in going
to, or coming from, or sailing on, the coast from
Florida to Terra Neuf, and no further without our
grant, should overpower any of the prizes of the enemy,
they shall be obliged to bring, or cause to be brought
such prize to the college (chamber) of the place, from
whence they sailed out, in order to be rewarded by
them; the company shall keep the one-third part
thereof, and the remaining two-thirds shall belong to
them in consideration of the cost and ri'^k they have
been at, all according to the orders of the company.
" XV. It shall also be free for the aforesaid Pa-
troons to traffic and trade all along the coast of New
Netherland and places circumjacent, with such goods
as are consumed there, and receive in return for
them, all sorts of merchandise that may be had there,
except beavers, otters, minks, und all sort^ of peltry,
which trade the company reserve to themselves. But
the same shall be permitted at such places where the
company have no factories,* conditioned that such
traders shall be obliged to bring all the peltry they
can procure to the island of Manhattes, in case it may
be, at any rate, practicAble, and there deliver to the
director, to be by him shipped hither with the ships
and guods ; or, if they should come hither, without
going there, then to give notice thereof to the Com-
pany, that a proper account thereof may be taken, in
order that they may pay to the Company one guilder
fnT each merchantable beaver and otter skin; the
property, risk and all other charges, remaining on
account of the Patroons or owners.
" XVI. All coarse wares that the colonists of the
Patroons there shall consume, such as pitch, tar,
wood-a^hes, wood, grain, fidh, salt, hearthstone, and
such like things, shall be brought over in the com-
pany's ships, at the rate of eighteen guilders ($7.20)
per last; four thousand weight to be accounted a last,
and the company's Hhip's crew shall be obliged to
wheel and bring the salt on board, whereof ten lasts
make a hundred. And in case of the want of ships,
or room iu the ships, they may order it over at their
own cost, in ships of their own, and enjoy in these
dominions such libertien and benefits as the company
have granted; but in either case they shall be obliged
to pay over and abqve the recognition &ve per cent*
eighteen guilders per each hundred of salt that is car-
ried over in the company's ships.
" XVII. For all wares which are not mentioned in
the foregoing article, and which are not carried by the
last, there shall be paid one dollar per each hundred
pounds weight ; and for wines, brandies, verjuice, and
^ Trading stations.
vinegar, there shall be paid eighteen guilders per
cask.
'* XVIII. The Company promises the colonists of the
Patroons, that they shall be free from customs, taxe»*,
excise, imposts or any other contributions, for the
space of ten years ; and after the expiration of the
said ten years at the highest, such customs as the
goods are taxable with here for the present.
"XIX. They will not take from the service of the
Patroons any of their colonists, either man or woman,
son or daughter, man-servant or maid-servant ; and
though any of them should desire the same, they will
not receive them, nor permit them to leave their Pa-
troons, and enter into the service of another, unless on
consent obtained from their Patroons in writing; and
this for and during so many years as they are bound
to their Patroons; after the expiration whereof, it
shall be in the power of the Patroons to send hither
all such colonists as will not continue in their ser-
vice, and until then shall not enjoy their liberty.
And all such colonists as shall leave the service of
their Patroons, and enter into the service of another,
or shall, contrary to his contract, leave his service ;
we promise to do everything in our power to appre-
hend and deliver the same into the hands of his Pa-
troon, or attorney, that he may be proceeded against,
according to the customs of the country as occasion
may require.
"XX. From all judgments given by the courts
of the Patroons for upwards of fifty guilders ($20),
there maybe an appeal to the Company's Commander
and Council in New Netherland.
" XXI. In regard to such private persons as on their
own account, or others in the service of their masters
here (not enjoying the same privileges as the Pa-
troons), shall be inclined to go thither and settle;
they shall with the approbation of the Director and
Council there, be at liberty to take up as much land,
and take possession thereof, as they shall be able
properly to improve, and shall enjoy the same in full
property either for themselves or masters.
" XXII. They shall have free liberty, of hunting and
fowling, as well by water as by land, generally, and
in public and private woods and riven*, about their
colonies,'* according to the orders of the Director and
Council.
" XXIII. Whosoever whether colonists of Patroons,
or free persons for themselves, or other particulars
for their masters, shall discover any chores, bays, or
other fit places for erecting fisheries, or the making of
salt pond:), they may take possession thereof and begin
to work on them in their own absolute property, to
the exclusion of all others.
s Plantations.
THE OKIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
49
And it 18 consented to that the Patroons of Colo-
nists may send shipsi along the coast of New Neiher-
land, on the cod fishery, and with the fish they catch
to trade to Italy, or other neutral countries, paying in
such cases to the Company for recognition six guilders
($2.40) per last ; and if they should come with their
lading hither, they shall be at liberty to proceed to
Italy, though they shall not, under pretext of this
consent, or from the company, carry any goods there,
on pain of arbitrary punishment; and it remaining in
the breast of the company to put a supercargo on
board each ship, as in the eleventh article.
" XXIV. In case any of the colonists should, by
his industry and diligence, discover any minerals,
precious stones, cr^'stals, marbles, or such like, or any
pearl fishery, the same shall be the property of the
Patroon or Patroons of such colonic ; giving and or-
dering the discoverer such premium as the Patroon
shall beforehand have stipulated with such colonist
by contract. And the Patroons shall be exempt fr m
all recognition to the company for the term of eight
years, and pay only for freight, to bring them over,
two per cent., and after the aforesaid eight years, for
recognition and freight, the one-eighth part of what
the same may be worth.
" XXV. The company will take all the colonists,
as well free as those in service under their protection,
and the same against all outlandish and in Ian dish
wars and powers, with the forces they have there, as
much as lies in their power, defend.
"XXVI. Whoever shall settle any colonic out of the
limit of Manhattes Island, shall be obliged to satisfy
the Indians for the land they shall settle upon, and may
extend or enlarge the limits of their colonies, if they
settle a proportionate number of Colonists thereon.
** XXVII. The Patroons and colonists shall in par-
ticular and in the speediest manner, endeavor to find
out ways and means whereby they may support a min-
ister and school-master, that thus the service of God,
and zeal for religion may not grow cool, and be ne-
glected among them ; and that they do, for the first,
procure a comforter of the sick there.
" XXVIII. The colonies that^'hall happen to lie on
the respective rivers, or islands (that is to say, each
river or island ior itself), shall be at liberty to appoint
a deputy, who shall give information to the Comman-
der and Council of that Western quarter, of all things
relating to his colonic, and who are to further matters
relating thereto, of which deputies there shall be one
altered or changed every two years; and all colonies
shall be obliged, at least once in every twelve months,
to make exact report of their colonic, and lands there-
about, to the commander and council there, in order
to be transmitted hither.
"XXIX. The colonists shall not be permitted to
make any woollen, linen, or cotton cloth, nor weave
any other stuffs there, on pain of being banished, and
as perjurers to be arbitrarily punished.
"XXX. The company will use their endeavours to
supply the colonists with as many blacks as they con-
veniently can, on the conditions hereafter to be made;
in such manner, however that they shall not be bound
to do it for a longer time than they shall think proper*
" XXXI. The company promises to finish the fort
on the island of the Manhattes, and to put it in a pos-
ture of defence without delay."
It will be noted that under the first article of this
Plan, or charter, of Freedoms and Exemptions, the
privilege of becoming Patroons, with all their rights,
powers, and exemptions, hereditary and otherwise
was confined solely to the members, that is the stock-
holders, of the West India Company. Other persons
however, could, with the permission of the Direct<ir
and Council of New Netherland, take up as much
land as they could improve, "and enjoy the same
in full property either for themselves or others," but
without any of the advantages and privileges con-
ferred upon the Patroons. These were styled Free
Colonists. Under these clauses the colonizing of the
territory of New Netherland began.
While the charter was in process of discussion and
formation in the Assembly of the XIX., which it will
be recollected was composed of directors chosen from
the several chambers of the West India Company,
certain directors of the Amsterdam Chamber, which
had been specially charged with the care and super-
vision of New Netherland, as soon as it became
certain that the charter would be approved by
the Company and ratified by the States- General,
sent out to agents to purchase for them, the
Indian title to certain lands in different parts of
New Netherland, so that they might be ready
to constitute themselves Patroons under the charter,
as soon as it should finally pass and go into effect.
The first of these were Samuel Godyn and Samuel
Blommaert, whose agents, sent out some time pre-
viously, on June 1st, 1729, a few days before the
passing of the charter, bought for them of the
Delaware Indians, the lands on the southwest side
of Delaware Bay from Cape Henlopen thirty-two
miles northwardly in length, and two miles inland
in width. As these were Dutch miles, the tract was 128
English miles long and eight miles broad.
After the passage of the charter and on the 19th of
June, 1729, Godyn notified the Chamber of Am-
sterdam that he had sent out agents to purchase lands*
and declared "that he now in quality of 'Patroon'
has undertaken to occupy the Bay of the South
River, on the conditions (the charter) concluded in
the last Assembly of the XIX., as he hath likewise
advised the Director Pieter Minuit, and charged him
to register the same there." ^
» I. O'Call., Appendix S, p. 479.
50
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Minuit in due time with his Council executed
and passed the grant, or *' transport" as the Dutch
termed the instrument, and sent it to Godyn in
Holland. In 1841 Mr. J. Romeyn Brodhead found
the original document in the West India House at
the Hague, brought it back to New York, and it is
now deposited in the State Library at Albany. It
bears date the 15th of July 1630, and bears the sig-
natures of Pieter Minuit and his Council, — ^the only
signatures of those officials known to be in existence,
and is the first title given by civilized men to lands
in the present State of Delaware, and the first in New
Netherland under the charter of Freedoms and Ex-
emptions of 1629. Its date is two years before Lord
Baltimore's charter of Maryland from Charles the
First, and fifty- two years prior to William Penn's
charter of Pennsylvania from Charles II. The name
Grodyn and Blommaert gave to their ^* Colonic" was
" Zwanandael ;" in English. "Swansdale." The fol-
lowing is a translation of this first conveyance for
any part of New Netherland.
TRANSPORT.
The Direator and CuwicU of New NtiKtrland to
Sjimu'l Qodyn and Samuel Blommae't
"We, the Director and Council in New Netherland,
residing on the Island Manahatns and in Fort Am-
sterdam, under the authority of their High Might-
inesses the Lords States-General of the United
Netherlands, and of the Incorporated West India
Company, Chamber at Amsterdam, hereby acknowl-
edge and declare, that on this day, the date under-
written, came and appeared before us, in their proper
persons, Queskakous, and Eesauques, Siconesius,
and the inhabitants of their village, situate at the
South cape of the Bay of the South River, and ireely
and voluntarily declared, by special authority of the
rulers and consent of the Commonalty there, that they
already, on the first day of the month of June of the
past year, 1629, for and on account of certain parcels
of cargoes, which they, previous to the passing
hereof, acknowledged to have received and gotten
into their hands and power, to their full satisfaction,
have transported, ceded, given over, and conveyed in
just true and free property, as they hereby transport
cede, give over, and convey to, and for the behoof of,
Messrs. Samuel Godin and Samuel Blommaert,
absent; and for whom We, by virtue of our
office, under proper stipulation, do accept the
same namely: the Land to them belonging, sit-
uate on the South side of the aforesaid Bay,
by us called the Bay of the South River, ex-
tending in length from C. Hinlopen off unto the
mouth of the aforesaid South River, about eight
leagues (groote mylen), and half a league in breadth ;
into the interior, extending to a certain marsh
(leegte) or valley through which these limits can
clearly enough be distinguished. And that with all
the action right and jurisdiction to them in the
aforesaid quality, therein appertaining, constituting,
and surrogating the said Messrs. Godin and Blom-
maert in their stead state, real and actual possession
thereof; and giving them at the same time, full and
irrevocable authority, power, and special command,
to hold in quiet possession, occupancy and use, tan-
quam Actores et Procuratores in rem propriam, the
aforesaid land acquired by the above mentioned
Messrs. Godin and Blommaert or those who may heri>-
after obtain their interest; also to do barter and
dispose thereof, as they may do with their own well
and lawfully acquired lands. Without they, the
Grantors having, reserving, or retaining for the future,
any, the smallest part, right, action, or authority,
whether of property, command, or jurisdiction
therein ; but now, hereby, forever and a day desisting,
retiring from, abandoning and renouncing the same
for the behoof aforesaid; promising further, not only
to observe, fulfil, and to hold fast, unbroken and irrev-
ocable, this their conveyance, and whatever may be
done in virtue thereof, but, also, the said parcel of
land to maintain against every one, and to deliver
free of controversies, gainsays and contradictions, by
whomsoever instituted against the same. All in good
faith without guile or deceit. In witness is this con-
firmed with our usual signature and our seal de-
pendant therefrom. Don^ on the aforesaid Island
Manahatas, this fifteenth of July, XVP and thirty.
(Signed) Pieter Minuit, Director,
Pieter Bylvelt,
Jacob Elbertsex Wissixck,
Jan Jansen Brouwer,
Symon Dircksen Pos,
Reyner Harmensen,
Jan Lampo,
SheHff.^
Another of the directors who took time by the fore-
lock in the matter of the Patroonships was Kiliuen van
Rensselaer of Amsterdam, who de Vries tells us " wns
accustomed to polish pearls and diamonds.'' ' At his
request Sebastian Jansen Kraol, who had resided as
commissary at Fort Orange for three or four years,
bought for him early in 1630, of the Mohican Indian^,
a tract on the west side of the Hudson, and shortly after
another agent, Gillis Hosset, bought for him another
tract on the east side of that river, of the same Indians.
These purchases were on the 13th of August duly
" transported " or granted to van Rensselaer by Director
Minuit and his Council, and were the first lands in
the State of New York granted under the charter of
Freedoms and Exemptions, and consequently the
following "transport" of these lands, is the first deed
of conveyance for any lands in thin State to a private
person under the charter of 1629. The original in
Dutch is in Holland, the translation was made by
II. CaI. Hint. N. Y., 43.
<D« VriM,p. 1C2.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
51
the late Dr. Edmund B. O'Callaghah, from the copy
in Datch in the Brodhead Papers, and is as follows :
TRANSPORT.
The Director and Council of New Netherland to
Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Anno 1630, adi^ 13th August.
We the Director and Council of New Netherland,
residing on the Island of Manahataa and in Fort
Amsterdam, under the authority of their High
Mightinesses the Lords States-General of the Uuited
Netherlands and the Incorporated West India Com-
pany, Chamber at Amsterdam, do hereby acknowledge
and declare, that on this day, the date underwritten,
before us appeared and presented themselves in their
proper persons: Kottomack, Nawanemit, Albantzeene,
Sagiskwa, and Kanaomack, owners and proprietors of
their respective parcels of land, extending up the
River, South and North, from said Fort* unto a little
south of Moeneminnes Castle, to the aforesaid pro-
prietors, belonging jointly and in common, and the
aforesaid Nawanemit's particular land called Semes-
seerse lying on the East Bank opposite Castle Inland
off unto the above mentioned Fort; Item from Peta-
nock, the Millstream, away North to Negagon(^e, in
extent about three miles, and declared freely and
advisedly for and on account of certain parcels of
cargoes, which they acknowledge to have received in
their hands and power before the execution hereof,
and, by virtue and bill of sale, to hereby transport, con-
vey, and make over to the Mr. Kiliaen van Rensselaeri
absent, and for whom We, ex-officio and with due
stipulation, accept the same; namely: the respective
parcels of land hereinbefore specified, with the
timber, appendencies, and dependencies, thereof
together with all the action right and jurisdiction to
them the grantors conjointly or severally belonging,
constituting and surrogating the said Mr. Rensselaer in
their stead, state, and right, real and actual possession
thereof, and at the same time giving him full, abso-
lute, and irrevocable power, authority, and special
command, to hold in quiet possession, cultivation,
occupancy, and use, tanquam actor et procurator in
rem suam ac propriam, the land aforesaid, acquired
by said Mr. Van Rensselaer, or those who may here-
after acquire his interest; also to dispose of, do with,
and alienate it, as he or others should or might do
with his other and own Lands and domains acquired
by good and lawful title, without the grantors therein
retaining, reserving, or holding, any the smallest
part, right, action, or authority, whether of property
command, or jurisdiction, but rather hereby desisting,
retiring, and renouncing therefrom forever, for the
behoof aforesaid; further promising this their con-
veyance and whatever may by virtue thereof be
done, not only forever to hold fast and irrevocable, to
observe and to fulfil, but also to give security for the
1 Ahbrevlfttion of " Anno Domini.*
SFurt Orange is here meant
surrender of the aforesaid land, obligans et renun-
cians a bona fide. In testimony is thus confirmed by
our usual signature, with the ordinary seal thereunto
depending.
Done at the aforesaid Island Manahatas and Fort
Amsterdam on the day and year aforesaid.
(Signed) Pieter Minuit, Director,
PlETER Byvelt,
Jacob Elbertss. Wissinck,
Jan Jansen Bbouwer,
Symon Dircks. Pos,
Eeyner Harmensex,
Jan Lampo,
Sheriff.
There was besides : This conveyance written with
mine own hand is, in consequence of the Secretary's
absence, executed in my presence on the thirteenth
day of August, XVJ,® and thirty as above.
(Signed)
Lenart Cole,
Depuiy Secretary}
The lands covered by the above " transport '* together
with some adjacent land subsequently acquired by
Kiliaen van Rensselaer formed the great Patroonship
of " Rensselaerswyck." In 1705, seventy-five years
later, it wa^ erected into a Manor of the same name
under the English law, and continued in unbroken
existence till 1837, when the last Patroon Stephen
van BeuRselaer died.
He devised in fee to his eldest son Stephen the part
of the manor west of the Hudson, and to his son
William the part east of that river. Under titles de-
rived from these two sons the lands of the old manor,
which had not been sold by their father, the last
Patroon, in his lifetime, are now held in fee, subject
in some cases to former leases the terms of which are
not yet expired.
A third keen, long-headed, director of the Amster-
dam Chamber was Michael Pauw of Achtienhoven,
near Utrecht. Like Oodyn, Blommaert, and Van
Rensselaer, early in 16S0 he bought through agents
the Indian title to the lands on the west side of the
Hudson River, opposite Manhattan Island from the
heights of Wehawken, and Hoboken, to Bergen
Point, and also the island of Staten Island. He duly
obtained like transports of these regions from the
Director and Council, and gave to his Patroonship the
name of " Pavonia,'' a Latinized derivation from his
own surname.
These three Patroons in a document laid before the
States-General in June 1684/ thus, describe their own
action in relation to their Patroonships, their rights as
Patroons, and the expenses they had incurred in the
colonization of their lands. After stating the enact-
»I. Col. Hist. N. T., 44.
«I. Col. Hitt.,84.
62
HISTORY OP WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
ment of the Freedoms and Exemptions on the 7th of
June 1629) they continue thus ; —
"Whereupon some directors of the before-named
Company in addition to the great interest they pos-
sessed with their next friends in the said Company
(who imported [to the value of] more than two tons
of gold) ; animated with new zeal to carry out their
High Mightinesses' intentions, and hoping in con-
sequence for God's blessing, preceded all the other
stockholders by way of a good example, saving the
Company from expenses, troubles, and heavy charges,
and further involved themselves by undertaking
divers Patroonships, the expenses whereof incurred
and laid out to this day, amount to not far from one
ton of gold, cash down, and are yearly taxed, in ad-
dition, with at least 45,000 guilders for the support of
three of their Patroonships."
" The Patroons proceeding on daily, notwithstand-
ing, bought and paid for not only the grounds belong-
ing to the chie& and natives of the lands in New
Netherland, but also their rights of sovereignty {fara
Majestatit) and such others as they exercised within
the limits of the Patroons purchased territories.
" So that on the 28th November, 1630, were read at
the Assembly of the Directors, the deeds of convey-
ance of the lands and jurisdictions purchased from
the Saccimaes, the Lords of the Country, executed for
the behoof of the Patroons, their successors ; and the
new proprietors were accordingly thereupon con-
gratulated.
"On the 2d December, in the year aforesaid, the
patents sent to the Patroons from New Netherland
were in like manner also again read, recorded in the
Company's Register, ordered by the Assembly to be
ensealed with the seal of New Netherland ; the
Patroons were again congratulated and handed their
patents.
" 16th ditto. The Patroons on resolution of the
Assembly, delivered to the Company's Counsel a per-
fect list of their undertaken patroonships.
" 8th January, 1631. The Patroons Colonies were ex
supra abundanti con6rmed, on submitting the ques-
tion to the Assembly of the XIX., holden in Zea-
land."
Such was the manner and the method in which
began the colonization, settlement, and population,
of New Netherland in general, and the territories of
the States of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York
in particular. Space will not permit mention of
other and later Patroonships in different parts of the
Dutch territory in America, except that of Colen-
Donck, the only one which was created in the County
of Westchester which will be treated of hereafter.
Very soon difficulties arose between the West India
Company and the Patroons in relation chiefly to the
trade in furs and the claims of the Patroons to embark
in the same under the articles of the charter of Free-
doms and Exemptions. The latter were more in-
clined to push the trade in peltries than the agricul-
tural settlement of their lands, for the reason that the
former was highly profitable, whereas the latter re-
quired a constant outgo of money with a prospect of
only distant and much smaller returns. Clashingsas
to civil powers and duties also occurred between them.
But notwithstanding, population and agriculture
slowly increased. Other Patroonships were taken
up, and some lands were settled by individuals.
The West India Company, although several other
Directors in the Assembly of the XIX. had been
taken in as partners by the three Patroons above
named in their ventures, but without participation in
their personal privileges and dignities, thought that
the Patroons were prospering too much at the ex-
pense of the interests of the Company itself, and
sought to restrict them in their trading operations.
The Patroons on their side claimed that the Company
not only had no right to restrict them, but had not
fulfilled its own obligations as laid down in the articles
of the Freedoms and Exemptions.
These controver.-ies led finally after much discus-
sion, to a determination by both parties, concurred in
by the States-General, to which both had appealed,
that the charter of 1729 should be revised, changed
in some important respects, and re-enacted in the
form of an entirely new Charter of Freedoms and
Exemptions.
One of the memorials of the Company to the States-
General presented in October 1734, growing out of
these difficulties and those arising from the claim set
up by the English to authorize trade to New Nether-
land, is of extreme interest for its clear and succinct
account of the Dutch discovery and settlement from
1609 to 1634.
It states, "That said river" (" the North River in
New Netherland," so styled in the memorial which
is believed to be the first time it is so named in any
official document) " and adjacent countries had been
discovered in the year 1609, at the cost of the East
India Company, before any Christians had ever been
up said river, as Hudson testified, who was then in
the service of said Company, for the purpose of dis-
covering the north-west passage to China.
"And that your High Mightinesses' grant hath
conferred from that time down, on divers merchants,
the exclusive trade in peltries there.
" Likewise, that one or more- little forts were built,
also under your High Mightinesses' chief jurisdiction,
even before the year 1614, and supplied with people
for the security of the said trade ;
" Further, that after these countries had passed into
the hands of the incorporated West India Company,
not only were the above-named forts renewed and
enlarged, but said Company purchased from the
Indians who were the indubitable owners thereof, the
Island of the Manhattes, situate at the entrance of
the said river, and there laid the foundation of a city.
" As also, not only on that river, but likewise on
the South River, and others lying to the east of the
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
63
aforesaid North River, divers natives and inhabitants
of these countries, by the assistance of said Company,
planted sundry Colonies, for which purpose, were also
purchased from the chiefs of the Indians, the lands
and soil, with their respective attributes and jurisdic-
tions.
" As is to be seen by divers deeds of Conveyance
and cession, executed in favor of the Patroons of the
Colonies by the Sachems and Chief Lords of the
Indians, and those who had anything to say therein/' ^
In 1638, A " Report on the Condition of New Nether-
land was made to the States-Gkneral by a special
Committee of eight members, of which Rutger Huy-
gens was Chairman, in the form of eight brief ques-
tions and answers thereto, (The questions were pro-
pounded by the States-Oeneral, and the answers
were made by the special committee of that body,
after it had held a joint meeting with the Company's
Assembly of the XIX. at the Hague.) of which the
last three very clearly show the state of affairs at that
time; —
"6. Has the Company realized profit or loss since
the planting of New Netherland ?
A, Loss. But it could afford profit, principally
from grain.
" 7. And in case of loss, and their High Mighti-
nesses consider it advantageous to preserve the limits
of New Netherland, and to establish the population
on a better and surer footing ?
A, The Company cannot people it; because the
Company cannot agree among themselves ; but a plan
of throwing it open must be considered.
** 8. Whether it would not, therefore, be expedient
to place the district of New Netherland at the dis-
posal of the States-General ?
A. They have no intention so to do ; unless they
derived profit by it. But they hope, now that they
have taken some order about Brazil, that it will prove
a source of profit in time.
They propose to surrender the trade with the
Indians, or something else. Nothing now comes from
New Netherland but beaver skins, minck*s, and other
furs ; considerable grain could be raised there in
course of time." *
The effect was, that the States-General appreciating
the necessity of action, considered a "plan of throw-
ing open " New Netherland, adopted it on the 2d of
September 1688, and at once put it into operation.
This plan opened the trade of New Netherland to
all the world on certain simple conditions, and per-
mitted any one to take up land according to his means
for immediate cultivation. It is in these words ; —
" Whereas the Directors of the Incorporated West
India Company, Chamber at Amsterdam, are author-
ized by resolution of the XIX., to promote and im-
prove the trade and population of New Netherland ;
1 1. Gol. Hist. N. Y., 94.
» I. Col. nw.. 107.
they, therefore, with the approbation of their High
Mightinesses, hereby make known to all and every
the inhabitants of this State, or its allies and friends,
who may be disposed to take up and cultivate lands
there, and to make use for that purpose of the harbors
of these countries, that they may henceforth convey
thither in the company's ships, such cattle merchan-
dise and property as they shall deem advisable ; and
receive the returns, they, or their agents may obtain
therefor in those parts; on condition that all the
goods shall first be brought to the Company's store,
so as to be put on shipboard all at once, in the best
manner, on payment of the following duties and
freights ; and the Directors will take care that they
shall be sent thither by the safest conveyance ;—
On all merchandises going thither, there shall be
paid to the company here (an export duty) a duty of
ten per cent, in money, proportionably to their value ;
and on those coming thence hither (an import duly)
fifteen per cent, there, in kind or money, at the choice
of the Company or its Agent ; eighty-five remaining
for the owner. And if any one happen to commit
an error, in the valuation of his goods, the Company
shall be at liberty to take such goods, paying one-
sixth more than they are entered at ; but all concealed
and smuggled goods, either in this country or that,
which may be discovered to have been brought on
board the Company's ships, by secret plans or other
cunning contrivances, shall be immediately forfeited
and confiscated to the profit of the said Company,
without any right of action accruing thereby." And
after specifying rules for freight charges, it continues
thus ; —
''And whereas it is the Company'^ intention to
cause those countries to be peopled and brought into
cultivation more and more, the Director and Council
there, shall be instructed to accommodate every one
according to ^is condition and means, with as much
land as he can properly cultivate, either by himself
or with his family. Which land thus conceded to
any person in the name of the Company, shall re-
main the property of him, his heirs, or aligns, pro-
vided he shall pay to the Company after it has been
pastured or cultivated four years, the lawful tenths of
all fruit, grain, seed tobacco, cotton, and such like,
as well as of the increase of all sorts of cattle ; of
which property a proper deed shall be given, on con-
dition that he truly undertakes the cultivation or
pasture thereof. Failing therein, he shall incur, in
addition to the loss of such land, such penalties and
fines as shall be mutually agreed on at the time of
the grant. To which penalties and fines his suc-
cessors and assigns shall be also bound. And in
order to obviate all confusion and losses, which have
formerly arisen therefrom, and are hereafter to be
expected in a still graver degree, no one shall hence-
forward be allowed to possess or hold any lands or
houses in those parts, that have not previously come
through the hands of the Company.
54
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
The Company, subject to the High and Mighty
Lords States-Genera], shall take care that the places
and countries there shall be maintained in peace and
quietness, in proper police and justice, under its
ministers or their deputies, conformably to the regu-
lations and instructions thereupon already established
and issued, or to be hereafter enacted and given, upon
a knowledge and experience of affairs.
All those who will be inclined to go thither, to
inhabit the country or to trade, shall severally declare
under their signatures, that they will voluntarily sub-
mit to these regulations, and to the orders of the
Company, and shall allow all questions and differ-
ences there arising, to be decided by the ordinary
courts of justice, which shall be established in that
country, and freely suffer there the execution of the
sentences and verdicts, without any further opposi-
tion. And shall pay for passage and board in the
state-room, one guilder, in the cabin twelve stuivers,
and between decks, eight stuivers, per diem/' ^
The effect of thus throwing open to the world the
trade of New Netherland, was to increase at once its
population, and the development of the agricultural
capacity of the country. Capital was attracted,
colonists came over from Holland, and Patroonships
and individual grants of lands were freely taken up.
Englishmen and their families driven from New
England by Puritan persecution, — ^a persecution un-
paralleled in North America save by that inflicted by
the Spaniards in Mexico, fled to the Dutch pro-
vince, became subjects of the New Netherland gov-
ernment, and as grantees of its Ian :1s took the
oaths of allegiance to the West India Company
and to the States-General of Holland.
The old disputes between the Company and the
Patroons as to their respective rights, though modi-
fled, still continued. At last in January, 1640, the
matter was t-aken up by the States- General, the
Assembly of the Nineteen, and the Patroons, with a
determination to come to a final settlement of the
whole subject. Debates, discussions, and negotiations,
were actively continued till July of the same year,
with the result, that an entirely new charter of
** Freedoms and Exemptions " was framed which met
the assent of all parties. This was reported to the
States- General on the 19th of July, 1640, duly en-
acted, and went into immediate operation.
The first charter of " Freedoms and Exemptions of
1629," and this new charter of 1640, together, are the
foundation of civilized government as originally
established, in New York, and successfully maintained
there during the entire period of its possession by
the Dutch nation.
Before describing the system of government, civil
and ecclesiastical law, and land tenures, thus founded
and set in operation, it is necessary to a right under-
standing of the subject to set forth at length, in its
II, Col. HUt, 113.
own words, the new charter of 1640, so that there can
be no misunderstanding of these most important
inntrumeats as to what they do, or do not, contain.
It is entitled ; -^
" Freedoms and Exemptiois^s granted and accorded
by the Directors of the General Incorporated
West India Company at the Assembly of the
XIX., with the approbation of the High and
Mighty Lords States General of the free Unit« d
Netherlands, to all Patroons, Masters, or Private
persons who will plant any Colonies or introduce
cattle in New Netherland. Exhibited 19th July,
1640.
" All good inhabitants of the Netherlands and all
others inclined to plant any Colonies in New Nether-
land shall be at liberty to send three or four persons
in the Company's ships going thither, to examine the
circumstances there, on condition that they swear to
the articles, as well as the officers and seamen, as far
as they relate to them, and pay for board and passage
out and home, to wit, those who eat in the master's
cabin, fifteen stivers per day, and those who go and
eat in the orlop, shall have their board and passage
gratis, and in case of an attack, offensive or defensive,
they shall be obliged to lend a hand with the others,
on conditiop of receiving, should any of the enemy's
ships be overcome, their share of the booty pro rcUa,
each according to his quality, to wit — the Colonists
eating out of the Cabin shall be rated with the sea-
men, and those eating in the cabin with the Com-
pany's servants who board there and have the lowest
rate of pay.
" In the selection of lands, those who shall have
first notified and presented themselves to the Com-
pany, whether Patroons or private Colonists, shall be
preferred to others who may follow.
" In case any one be deceived in selecting ground,
or should the place by him chosen afterwards not
please him, he will, upon previous representation to
the Governor and Council then be at liberty to select
another situation.
" For Patroons and Feudatories of New Nether-
land, shall be acknowledged all such as shall ship
hence, and plant there a Colonic of fifty souls, above
fifteen years of age, within the space of three years
after having made a declaration and given notice
thereof to some Chamber of the Company here or to
the Governor there ; namely, one- third part within
the year, and so forth, from year to year, until the
number be completed ; on pain of losing, through
notorious neglect, the obtained Freedoms and catile.
But they shall be warned that the Company reserves
the Island Manhattes to itself.
" All Patroons and Feudatories shall, on requesting
it, be granted Venia Testandi, or the power to dispose
of, or bequeath, his fief by Will.
"For Masters or Colonists, shall be acknowledged,
those who will remove to New Netherland with five
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
55
Bouis above fifteen years ; to all such, oar Governor
there bhnll grant in property one hundred morgens,
Rbineland measure, of land, contiguous one to the
other, wherever they please to select.
"And the Patroons, of themselves or by their
agents, at the places where they will plant their
Colonies, shall have the privilege to extend the latter
one mile (consisting of, or estimated at, 1600 Rhine-
land perches) along the coast, bay, or a navigable
river, and two contiguous miles landward in ; it being
well understood, that no two Patroonships shall be
selected on both sides of a river or bay, right opposite
to each other; and that the Company retains to itself
the property of the lands lying between the limits of
the Colonies, to dispose thereof hereafber according
to its pleasure ; and that the Patroons and Colonists
shall be obliged to give each other an outlet and issue,
{vyttewteghen ende uifttewateren) at the nearest place
and at the smallest expense; and in case of disagree-
ment, it shall be settled in the presence and by the
decision of the Governor for the time being.
" The Patroons shall forever possess all the lands
situate within their limits, together with the produce,
superficies, minerals, rivers and fountains thereof,
with high, low and middle jurisdiction, hunting, fish-
ing, fowling and milling, the lands remaining allodial,
but the jurisdiction as of a perpetual hereditary fief,
devolvable by death as well to females as to males, and
fealty and homage for which is to be rendered to the
Company, on each of such occasions, with a pair of
iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders within
a year and six weeks, at the Assembly of the XIX.,
here, or before the Governor there ; with this under-
standing, that in case of division of said fief or juris-
diction, be it high, middle or low, the parts shall be
and remain of the same nature as was originally con-
ferred on the whole, and fealty and homage must be
rendered for each part thereof by a pair of iron
gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders, as afore-
said.
" And should any Patroon, in course of time, hap-
pen to prosper in his Colonic to such a degree as to
be able to found one or more towns, he shall have
authority to appoint officers and magistrates there,
and make use of the title of his Colonic, according
to the pleasure and the quality of the persons, all
saving the Company's regalia.
" And should it happen that the dwelling places of
private Colonists become so numerous as to be a( -
counted towns, villages or cities, the Company shall
give orders respecting the subaltern government,
magistrates and ministters of justice, who shall be
nominated by the said towns and villages in a triple
number of the best qualified, from which a choice
and selection is to be made by the Governor and
Council ; and those shall determine all questions and
suits within their district.
"The Patroons who will send Colonies thither,
shall furnish them with due instruction agreeably to
the mode of government both in police and justice
establishtd, or to be established, by the Assembly of
the XIX., which they shall first exhibit to the Direc-
tors of the respective Chambers, and have approved
by the Assembly of the XIX.
" The Patroons and Colonists shall have the privi-
lege of sending their people and property there in
the Company's ships, on condition of swearing alle-
giance, and paying to the Company for the convey-
ance of the people, as in the first article, and for
freight of the goods requisite for their bouwery, five
per cent, on the cost of the goods here, without, how-
ever, including herein the cattle, on the freight of
which the Company shall be liberal.
" But in case it should come to pass that the Com-
pany have no ships to dispatch, or that there be no
room in the sailing vessels, in such a case the Patroons
and Colonists can, upon previously communicating
their determination to, and obtaining the consent of
the Company in writing, send their own ships thither,
provided, in going and returning, they shall not leave
the ordinary track laid down, and take a supercargo,
whose board shall be at the expense of the Patroons
or Colonists, and whose wages shall be paid by the
Company; on pain, in case of contravention, of
forfeiting their ship and goods to, and for the behalf
of, the Company, it remaining optional with the
Patroons, during the term of the current grant, and
no longer, to convey over their cattle, wares and
people in the Company's ships, in their own or in
chartered vessels.
" And, whereas, it is the Company's intention first
to settle the Island of the Manhattes, it shall pro-
visionally be the staple of all produce and wares
accruing on the North river and the country there-
about, before they can be sent further, except those
which by nature itself are useless there, or cannot be
brought there except with great loss to the owners, iu
which case the latter shall be bound to give timely
notice of such inconvenience to the Company here,
or to the Governor and Council there, that it be pro-
vided for, according as the circumstances shall be
found to require.
" All Patroons, Colonists and inhabitants there, as
well as the stockholders in the Company here, shall
be privileged to sail and trade to the entire coast,
from Florida to Newfoundland, on the following con-
ditions : —
" First, that all goods which will be sent hence for
sale there, whether freighted by the Company, or by
Colonists, or the stockholders themselves, must be
brought into the Company's stores for inspection and
payment of the proper duties, to wit : ten per cent,
on the cash co»t of the article here, besides convoy-
freight and average, an agreement being made for the
freights of what may be sent in the Company's ships;
and bulk will not be allowed to be broken any where
except at the Manhattes, or such place as the Com-
pany here may order, so as to be at liberty, after
56
HISTOKY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
proper inspection of their loading and the entry
thereof, to depart to whatever place they think
proper.
" And on the other wares which will be sent thence
hither, shall be paid here, over and above the convoy
duty granted by the State to the Company, five per
cent., according to the valuation to be made here, on
such penalty as aforesaid ; but an agreement must be
made with the Governor and Council there, for the
freight of any of the goods that are being sent from
there in the Company's ships, as aforesaid ; and on
all beavers, otters and other peltries, which will be
sent from there here, shall be paid to ihe Governor
and Council there, ten per cent., all in kind, and due
receipt for the payment thereof, nhall be brought
along, on pain of confiscation of all the furs which
will be found not to have paid any thing for the be-
hoof of the Company, and with that to be exempt
from further duty.
^' And in case said private ships, in going or com-
ing, or in ranging along the coast from Florida to
Newfoundland, happen to capture any prizes, they
shall, in like manner be obliged to bring the same, or
to cause the same to be brought, to the Goveraor and
Council in New Netherland, or to the Chamber
whence they respectively sailed, to be rewarded by
them, and the third part thereof shall be retained for
the Company, before deducting his Highness' and the
State's portion, the two other third parts for them-
selves, in return for their incurred expenses and risk,
all in pursuance of the Company's order.
" In like manner they shall not be at liberty to de-
part thence with their goods obtained in barter, with-
out first returning to the said place, to enter their
goods there and to obtain proper clearance, signed by
the Governor and Council, and they shall be bound
to return to this country, with their ships and yachts,
to the place they sailed from, in order to discharge
all their freight into the Company's stores, according
to the register and clearance to be brought from
thence, on pain of forfeiting their ship and goods for
the Company's behoof, should they go and break
bulk elsewhere, or have any unregistered goods on
board.
" The Company promises, during the continuance
of the present charter and no longer, not to burden
the Patroons and Colonists in that country, either
with customs, toll, excise, imposts or any other con-
tributions, and after the expiration hereof, at farthest,
with no greater duty than is imposed on goods in this
country.
" The Company shall not take from the service of
Patroons or Colonists, their man servants or maid
servants, even though some person should solicit it;
nor receive them, much less suffer them to go from
their master's service to that of another, during the
term of such years as they are bound for ; and if any
man servant or maid servant run away, or take his
freedom contrary to contract, the Company shall.
according to its means, cause such to be delivered
into the hands of their masters, to be proceeded
against according to the circumstances of the case.
" From all definitive judgments pronounced by the
Courts of the Patroons or Colonists, for an amount
exceeding one hundred guilders, or from such as en-
tail infamy, also from all sentences pronounced in
matters criminal, on ordinary prosecution, conform-
able to the custom of this country, an appeal shall lie
to the Governor and Council of the Company in New
Netkerland.
"All Patroons, Colonists and inhabitants are al-
lowed free hunting and fishing, both by land and by
water, generally in public woods and rivers in the
extent of their lands, according to the order to be
made thereupon by the Governor and Council ; and
the Patroons exclusively within the limits of their
Colonies, with the clear understanding that the
Governor and Council shall not be excluded there-
from.
" All Patroons, inhabitants or Colonists, are also
allowed to eend ships along the coast of New Nether-
land and the countries circumjacent thereunto, to fish
for Cod, &c., and to proceed with the catch straigh'}
to Italy or other neutral countries, on condition of
paying to the Company for duty, in such case, six
guilders per last, and on coming here with their
freight, it shall be allowable and sufficient to pay the
Company the custom dues alone, without conveying,
under pretence of this consent, any other goods else-
where, on pain of arbitrary punishment, it remaining
at the pleasure of the Company to put a supercargo
on board each ship, on such conditions and terms as
hereinbefore set forth.
" If any Patroons, inhabitants or Colonists happen
by their industry, diligence or otherwise to discover
any minerals, precious stones, crystals, marbles, pearl-
fisheries or such like within the limits of their lands,
all such Patroons and Colonists shall give one-fifth
part of the nett proceeds to the Company, which for
this purpose shall have the power to appoint one or
more inspectors, at the charge of said mines and
pearl fisheries; but. any one finding such without their
limits, the same shall belong to the Company on pay-
ing the discoverer such premium as the merits of the
case shall demand.
"The Company shall take all Colonists, whether
free or bound to service, under th*eir protection, de-
fend them as far as lies in their power with the force
which it has there, against all domestic and fon-ign
wars and violence, on condition that the Patroons and
Colonists shall, in such case, put themselves in a suit-
able state of defence for which purpose each male
emigrant shall be obliged to provide himself, at his
own expense, with a gun or musket of the Company's
regular calibre, or a cutlass and side arms.
"And no other Religion shall be publicly admitted
in New Netherland except the Reformed, as it is at
present preached and practiced by public authority
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
57
in the United Netherlands ; and for this purpose the
Company shall provide and maintain good and suit-
able preachers, schoolmasters and comforters of the
sick.
" The particular Colonies which happen to lie on
the respective rivers, bays or islands shall have the
privilege (to wit, each river or island for itself) of
designating a deputy who shall give the Grovernor
and Council of that country information respecting
his Colonic, and promote its interests with the Coun-
cil : one of which deputies shall be changed every
two years, and all the Colonies shall be obliged to
communicate to the Grovernor and Council there a
pertinent report, at least every twelve months, of their
condition and of the lands in their vicinity.
'* The Company shall exert itself to provide the
Patroons and Colonists, on their order, with as many
Blacks as possible, without however being further or
longer obligated thereto than shall be agreeable.
** The Company reserves unto itself all large and
small tythes, all waifs, the right of mintage, laying
out highways, erecting forts, making war and peace,
together with all wildernesses, founding of cities,
towns and churches, retaining the supreme authority,
sovereignty and supremacy, the interpretation of all
obscurity which may arise out of this Grant, with
such understanding, however, that nothing herein
contained shall alter or diminish what has been
granted heretofore to the Patroons in regard to high,
middle and low jurisdiction.
''The Company shall, accordingly, appoint and
keep there a Governor, competent Councillors,
Officers and other Ministers of Justice for the pre •
tection of the good and the punishment of the
wicked; which Governor and Councillors, who are
now, or may be hereafter, appointed by the Company,
shall take cognizance, in the first instance, of matters
appertaining to the freedom, supremacy, domain,
finances and rights of the General West India Com-
pany; of complaints which any one (whether
stranger, neighbor or inhabitant of the aforesaid
country) may make in case of privilege, innovation,
dissuetude, customs, usages, laws or pedigrees; de-
clare the same corrupt or abolish them as bad, if
circumstances so demand; of the cases of minor
children, widows, orphans and other unfortunate per-
sons, regarding whom complaint shall first be made
to the Council holding prerogative jurisdiction in
order to obtain justice there; of all contracts or
obligations; of matters pertaining to possession of
benefices, fiefs, cases of lesse majestatis, of religion
and all criminal matters and excesses prescribed and
unchallenged, and all persons by prevention may
receive acquittance from matters there complained of;
and generally take cognizance of, and administer law
and justice in, all cases appertaining to the suprem-
acy of the Company."
Owing to the difficulties which arose at the close
of Kieft*s administration, and continued during the
5
earlier years of that of Stuyvesant, between the
Commonalty of New Netherland and the West India
Company as represented by those Directors, growing
out of the restrictions upon trade and traders estab-
lished by the Company and strictly enforced by their
officers, the States-General, after the delegates. Van
der Donck, Couwenhoven and Bout, who were sent by
the Commonalty to Holland, had explained the mat-
ters in question, enacted on the 24th of May 1650, a
third Charter of " Freedoms and Exemptions," which
modified somewhat the clauses of that of 1640 re-
lating to trade, and the administration of justice in
some minor points.^ It did not however vary in the
least the principles of the former Charters, or the
system of settlement and Colonization by them fixed
and established in relation to land and its tenure. It
is therefore unnecessary to refer to it more par-
ticularly in this connexion. These three were the
only charters of "Freedoms and Exemptions," in
force in New Netherland during the entire Dutch
domination.
5
TTie Nature of the Duich Si/9tems of Government and
Law esMUshed in New Netherland j and of the
FairooMhipa there.
To comprehend the system of government, lawn,
and religion, established in New Netherland, through
the West India Company, by the Dutch republic un-
der these Charters of Freedoms and Exemptions, a
brief account of that of the "Fatherland," or "Pa-
tria," as that republic was called in its province in
America, must be given.
The form of government of the Seven United Prov-
inces was republican, the law was the Roman law,
and the church was the established Reformed Church
of Holland in accordance with the Synod of Dort.
All were transplanted to New Netherland, and there
existed and flourished until its capture by the English
in 1664. Nine years later when the Dutch re-con-
quered it, all were re-introduced, a Dutch Governor
re-appointed, and New Netherland replaced in its
original position, except as to the names of its three
largest towns which were changed. New York, as the
English had called it, was re-named " New Orange,"
Albany was re-named " Willemstadt," and Kingston
"Swanenburgh," instead of New Amsterdam, Bevers-
wyck, and Wiltwyck, their original appellations.
The Province of Holland the largest of the seven
United Provinces formed at an early period a por-
tion of the Kingdom of the West Franks, and about
the year 922 was conferred by Charles the Simple
upon Count Dirk, who thus became the first " Count
of Holland." In 925 Charles ceded it to Henry the
Fowler, King of the East Franks, with the rest of the
Kingdom of Lotharingia, the Count of Holland still
being its own local sovereign. The successive Counts
1 1. Col. Hist., 401.
58
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
of Holland ruled over their little province, to which
in the counse of time they added the adjoining prov-
ince of Zeeland, for four hundred year^ of unbroken
male descent when their race died out, and the Count-
ship passed into the hands of the Counts of Hainault.
From them it devolved upon the Dukes of Bavaria,
the last representative of which houae was dispos-
sessed by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who
held the rest of the Netherlands under his rule. By
the marriage of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, with
the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the entire
Netherlands passed from the House of Burgundy to
the Imperial House of Austria. In 1496, Philip the
Fair married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Castile and Arragon, and the Netherlands,
through this marriage came under the dominion of
the Kings of Spain. Philip the Fair was succeeded by
hi^ only son, the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who was
born in the Netherlands, and ruled the country as a
part of his empire till 1^55, when he abdicated in fa-
vor of his son Philip 11. By Philip II. as King of
Spain, through savage persecutions and ferocious
wari«, were the people of the Netherlands driven into
a rebellion and war of Independence, which after an
heroic struggle of forty years continuance, was suc-
cessfully terminated by the famous twelve years truce
of 1609.'-
One of the strange results of this truce, was the
voyage of Hudson in search of a western passage to
Cathay, and his momentous discovery of the Bay of
New York and the magnificent river which has im-
mortalized his name. Another femarkable result,
was the establishment in the same year of the Bank
of Amsterdam, which so long ruled the exchanges of
Europe, and through which, the financial transactions
of the first merchants and Patroons of New Nether-
Ijind were subsequently carried on.
During the whole period in which these different
Princes, Kings, and Emperors, possessed the Nether-
lands, they ruled the provinces of Holland and Zee-
land, which together comprised about five-eighths of
the area of the "United Provinces," not in their
royal capacities, but as *^ Counts of Holland." These
two Provinces with, Friesland, Groningen, Utrecht,
Guelderland, and Overyssel, comprising the other
three-eighths of the Netherlands, formed the " Seven
United Provinces" of the Republic, which founded
Christian government and Christian civilization in
New York.
What was the nature and constitution of this Repub-
lic ? A Republic which not only established its own
independent existence as one of the nations of Eu-
rope, but humbled forever the pride and power of
Spain then one of the greatest of those nations. A
Republic ^hich founded in the New World a system
of government, the principles of which to-day form
1 Maaadorp's Introdnction to his translation of Grotius' treatise on
Dutch Juriaprudence, p. ir.
the *basis, upon which rests the constitution of that
greater Republic which under the name of the United
States of America dominates the Western Hemi-
sphere.
The Republic of the Netherlands was a small coun-
try, in area but a trifle larger than Wales, but its
population of about two millions in 1609, of Teutonic
origin, was dense, reliant, and self-supporting. Each
of the seven provinces into which it was divided con-
tained a number of cities and large towns, each gov-
erned by a Board of Managers styled a * Vroedschap.'
These Boards of Managers were self-electing close cor-
porations, the members of which were appointed for
life from the general body of the citizens. Whenever
vacancies occurred these Boards either filled them by
a direct election of new members, or by making a
double or triple nomination of names, and submitting
them to the Stadtholder, or Governor, of the prov-
ince, who selected one to fill the vacancy. This
Stadtholder was, originally, the representative of the
Count, or the Sovereign, but at the period of which,
we are treating, he was elected by a body called the
"States-Provincial" of each Province, which con-
sisted of deputies elected by the Boards of Managers
and Nobles of the Province. These " States Provin-
cial" managed all the affairs of each Province for it-
self, the Provinces in their domestic concerns being
entirely independent of each other. They were the
representative assemblies of the numerous Munici-
palities and Nobles of which each Province was com-
posed. The " States Provincial" had also conferred
upon them, another, and most important, power, one
which then existed in no other part of the civilized
world. For neither in the Swiss republic, nor in the
Italian republics of the middle ages, did a precisely
similar power exist. This was the election of envoys
to the Supreme Legislature of the republic, — ^the
States General. The members of this body so elected
were not representatives in the usual sense of that term
but envoys from their respective Provinces to the Su-
preme Parliament of the nation, in which each Prov-
ince, though it could have as many envoys as it pleased,
had but one vote. These envoys were bound by in-
structions in writing from their constituents the
" States Provincial," whom they were obliged to con-
sult in all doubtfiil or new matters before acting upon
them. Neither war nor peace could be made, nor
troops nor money raised, without a unanimous vote
of the whole seven Provinces by their envoys in the
States-General. The title of this Supreme Council of
Parliament of the Republic, was " The High and
Mighty Lords the States -General." It received am-
bassadors, appointed its own to other nations, and
conducted, wholly, the foreign relations of the repub-
lic. Each Province, by one of its deputies or envoys
presided in turn for a week. Its GreflSer, or Clerk
read all papers, put all questions to vote, and an-
nounced the result. Its sessions were held, at the
Hague, in a very handsome oblong apartmen*^ in the
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
59
Binnenbof, the old palace which formed a part of the
ancient chateau of the Couute of Holland, which re-
mains to this day.^
In these Independent "States Provincial/' their
representative envoys, and the States-General in which
they sat, we see the origin of the Independent Sover-
eign states of the Federal Constitution of 1787, the
Senators who represent those Sovereign States, and
that great body, the Senate of the United States of
America, in which they sit. So ancient and honor-
able is that system and doctrine of State rights,
upon the continued preservation of which in their
integrity depends the existence of the American
Union.
The source of power in the " States Provincial " of
Holland was in the constituencies of the deputies to
them who were the Municipal Councils of the towns
and cities, and the College of Nobles, by which the
deputies were elected. To them was each deputy
responsible, and under their instructions alone he
acted.
Holland was an aggregate of independent towns and
cities each administering its own taxation, finances,
and domestic affairs, and making its own ordinances.
Its inhabitants were not on an equality. To entitle
a man to every municipal franchise, he must have ac-
quired the greater or lesser burger-right — '^burger
recht" — either by inheriting it, by marriage, or by
purchase. In the latter case a larger sum was re-
quired for the great burger right and a smaller sum
for the lesser. In either case, however, the amount
was not very large. Only a year*s previous residence
was necessary for any foreigner to obtain it. The
privileges it conferred were, freedom of trade, exemp-
tion from tolls, special privileges and preferences in
the conduct of lawsuits, and an exclusive eligibility
of election to municipal office. The privileges of the
two classes of burghers varied only in degree. The
city and town governments consisted of a Board of
Burgomasters and Schepens, and a -Schout, that is a
Board of magistrates and aldermen, and a sheriff who
was also a prosecuting officer.
These Burgomasters and Schepens, provided for the
public safety, attended to police matters, called out
the military when needed, assessed all taxes, and ad-
ministered all financial, and civic matters. They
were elected either by the general body of the citizens
possess! i>g a small property qualification, or by the
'* Vroedschapen," or Boards of Managers mentioned
before, who were themselves elected by the general
body of qualified citizens, the custom varying in dif-
ferent towns and Provinces.
Such was the form of political liberty which con-
stituted the great strength of the Dutch Republic,
by which it conquered its own independence of
Spain, and which it carried to, and established in,
1 Maasdorp'i introductiun to his traDBlatioo of GrotiuB, vi. I. Brod.
Hlat. N. Y., 4S4.
New York.' It is well summed up by Brodhead in
these words, "The self-relying burghers governed the
towns; the representatives, of the towns, and of
the rural nobility, governed the several Provinces,
and the several States of the respective Provinces
claimed supreme jurisdiction within their own pre-
cincts." The system of the Dutch Republic was a
thorough system of town government, expanded to
meet the needs of a national governmental organi-
zation. It was also a strikingly conservative as well
as effective form of government, and after the termina-
tion of the twelve years truce with Spain in 1621, it
enabled the Netherlands to carry on that brilliant
series of hostilities against Spain which, in 1648, re-
sulted in her final acknowledgment of the United Pro-
vinces as an Independent Nation.' Subsequently to
that event the Republic enlarged and increased the
machinery of her government — developing it further
upon the same principles to meet the enlarged sphere
of action upon which she had entered, but this ic
is unnecessary to describe here.
There was in this system of government one princi-
ple which must be particularly noticed, one which
has had but scant mention from American historians,
and yet upon it rests the system of colonization begun
by the Dutch in New Netherland, and that is the
rights, powers, privileges, and position of the nobles
of the Netherlands in the government of their native
land.
The Dutch people of the United Provinces at the
date of Hudson's discovery of New Netherland, and
during the period of its settlement and possession by
that Republic consisted, by their own law, of two
classes, "Nobles" and "Commoners." The Com-
moners were subdivided into " Gentlemen by birth,"
and "Common people." Thus practically making
three classes of Dutch citizens.
They are thus described, and the definition of each
given, by the most famous of the great lawyers of
Holland;—*
"From descent comes the distinction whereby some
are born Noble and some Commoners.
Noble by birth are those sprung from a father
whose ancestors have, from times of old, been ac.
knowledged as noble, or who was himself ennobled
by the sovereign.
For some families have held their rank for a period
so far distant, and so fully acknowledged, that no
proof is necessary. Other families have been en-
nobled from services, or favors subsequently bestowed.
Commoners were formerly of two classes, such as
Gentlemen by birth and the common people.
SFirat learned in Holland by the Engllah lelfexiled BrowniMs it
was carried by them to Plymouth their now home acroos the Atlantic,
and was thus the origin of the town and township system established in
New England.
»I. Sir Wm. Temple's Works, 68, 70, 126, 127, 131. 139-142.
* Grotius, ch. XIV. ; also note IX. to Benson's Memoir, II. N. Y. Hist
Coll., 2d series, p. 138.
60
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
It seems formerly that Gentlemen by birth were
those who from generation to generation were de-
scended from free and honorable persons. These,
being favoured by different Counts [of Holland], and
especially by Count Floris, who was disliked by the
nobles (which gave rise to a conspiracy against him
and ultimately to his death), had a right to wear
arms publicly, as a token of descent, to ride with a
spur, and be exempt from taxes. At present [1620,
in which year Grotius wrote] all these matters, together
with others, having become general by practice, the
only distinction is, that those who are gentlemen born
are selected as judges of the Bailiff's Court, in the
place of vassals [or tenants], and were consequently
exempt from serving in the office of schepens, or civic
magistrates.''
The Seven United Provinces were composed of
the patroonships of nobles, cities, and towns, the
two latter possessing municipal privileges, or rather,
privileges as municipalities, similar to those possessed
as individuals by the nobles. Both originated in the
ancient Teutonic system of military tenures modified
by the Roman law and the spirit of commercial enter-
prise. There were then in the United Provinces, no
small independent farms; isolated houses scattered
through the country did not exist. The people dwelt
in the towns and cities, and only the nobles on large
estates in the country with great buildings, strong-
holds, and sometimes churches, to accommodate
themselves and their numerous retainers whom they
were bound to protect. In the single province of
Holland alone, the largest of the seven provinces of
the republic, there existed, and had existed for more
than a century prior to the Discovery of New Nether-
Innd, three hundred of these Patroonships, or fiefs as
they were called,^ to the mutual advantage of their
owners and their tenants or vassals, as the then
flourishing and powerful condition of the Dutch re-
public fully proves.
There was no clashing of interests between the
nobles, the commoners, and the municipalities. Each
held their rights and privileges from the same sover-
eign authority. The latter were in fact incorporated
nobles, so to speak. The people of the towns, as the
military features of the feudal system gradually
weakened, demanded and obtained of the Sovereign
authority. Count, Xing, or Emperor, the same rights
and privileges as a body, which the nobles possessed
individually. The Sovereign, as Lord Paramount,
granted these as they were desired, for he was per-
fectly willing that the people of the towns should
commute for specific annual sums the military and
other feudal services to which he was entitled, just
as the nobles did. The people, however, in the
Dutch provinces, always claimed and demanded the
right to fix the amount of these annual sums them-
selves. This was always granted, and they ever held
iLO'Call. 1392.
tenaciously to this right of taxing themselves. In
this manner town corporations and city corporations
originated, in the Netherlands, and as such were in
full vigor, with a happy, flourishing, and united
population, not only when New Netherland was dis-
covered, but for a very long period preceding that
event. The magistrates of these municipalitieB,
chosen by the people themselves, were the means by
which they were united with the Sovereign power,
and through which the latter communicated with the
people of the municipalities themselves, just as the
nobles were the point of union and communication
between the same Sovereign power and their own vas-
sals or tenants.
The nobles formed a distinct House or College in
each province, and sent deputies to the States of the
Province, and the States-General, and also to the three
Councils, of State, Accounts, and Admiralty. In the
Council of State their deputy was the President, and
in the States-General his was the first vote* cast.
"The Dutch Nobility" says the English author of
the "Description of Holland" in 1743, seem to
observe a medium between the loftiness of those of
the same rank in some countries, and the meanness of
others. The Italian Nobility do not scruple to trade:
The French are nicer: yet they make no difficulty to
marry a tradesman's daughter, if she be rich, and
thereby capable of repairing a shattered Estate. The
British Nobility do not differ from the French in this
respect. The Oermans abhor trade; and perhaps ia
effect of the general barbarous constitution of their
country. Tyrant and Slave, disdain to mingle their
blood with that of base plebeians, though their
brethren of nature."*
It was this combined and harmonious system pf
mingled municipalism and aristocracy, which gave
the United Netherlands their great power and made
them such a strong, conservative, and successful
nation. It was a system they had tried, and under
which they had lived, for more than two centuries,
which all classes approved, and with which they
were fully satisfied and thoroughly familiar. Hence
it was, that when the West India Company undertook
to colonize New Netherland, they naturally adopted
for that new possession the same system which they
knew had always worked well in the old, which they
had always been accustomed to, and which was in
entire consonance with the views, habits, manners,
and customs, of the people of the Batavian re-
public.
It was not this system in New Netherland, but the
ways and means of putting it into operation and carry-
ing it out, which produced the delays, disputes, and
changes, that began soon after the enactment of the
charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, and only
9 " Description of Holland," p. 76. Tliie work, by an Englishman, resi-
dent from infancy In Holland, was published in 1743, and is a full, fair
and good account of that country.
8 Ibid., 79.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
61
ended with the adoption of the revised and amended
charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1640.
It is needful to consider only the most salient
features of these instruments, for a simple reading of
documents themselves, as above given in full, will
afford the best possible idea of the nature of the sys-
tem of colonization, of which they were the foun-
dation, and upon which rests that civilization, which,
increasing and improving in the course of years, and
modified, not abrogated, by a subsequent change of
dominion and rulers, now constitutes the pride and
glory of the great Empire State of New York.
They were drawn in accordance with the views and
spirit of the age in which they had their birth, and
should, and must, be judged in the light of that age
if we W(>uld wish to form a fair and true opinion of
them and the system they established. No more un-
just, yet more common error, exists, than to make the
views and spirit of this, our own age, the standard by
which to judge the views, spirit, and actions of every
age that has gone before it, and to praise or condemn,
accordingly.
Judged by the lights of the seventeenth century
these charters of Dutch Colonization were extremely
free and liberal, far more so than those of any other
nation at that time. It must be remembered, too,
that, they were the work of an armed commercial
organization, of the nature of those then existing,
intent upon its own interests, as well as those of the
nation to which it belonged ; an organization equally
well adapted to triumph in the pursuits of peace, or
conquer in those of war.
Essentially monopolies, as were all the colonizing
and commercial companies of that era in England)
and in all the other European nations, the charter
of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629 confined its
benefits and privileges to the members of the Dutch
AVest Indian Company by which it was granted.
This was changed by that of 1640 which threw
them open to, ''All good inhabitants of the
Netherlands and all others inclined to plant
any colonies in New Netherland." The former
acknowledged, and granted the rights, powers,
and privileges, of Patroons, as they then existed
in the United Provinces of the Netherlands,
to those who would plant a ''colonic," (that is estab-
lish a plantation) of fifty souls above fifteen years of
age, within four years in New Netherland, after noti-
fying the proper authorities of their intention so to
do. The latter reduced the time to three years, and
by it all New Netherland was thrown open to the
establishment of Patroonships, except the Island of
Manhattan, which the Company reserved to itself.
All Patroons under the first charter (Art V.) were
permitted, after settling upon a location, to extend
the limits of their "colonies," or plantations, four
miles Dutch, (equal to sixteen English) along the shore
on one side of a navigable river, or two miles {eight
English) on each side of the same, at their option.
This was restricted by the second charter, to one
Dutch mile along a navagable river, or two miles
landward.
The latter also provided for a class of colonists, not
Patroons, in these words " For Masters or Colonists,
shall be acknowledged, those who will remove to New
Netherland with five souls above fifteen years; to all
Huch, our Governor there shall frrant in pro|>erty one
hundred morgens, (two hundred English acres) Rhine-
land measure, of land, contiguous one to the other,
wherever they please to select."
Thus were provided for New Netherland colonists
of the two upper classes then dwelling in the Republic
of the United Provinces, nobles and commoners of the
first clflss, as before described. Both of these classes,
broufl^ht out the third, the common people, the boerH,
who were the men and women, whom they settled
upon their ''colonies" and farms.
All the colonists, whether the Patroons, or of
the Masters of farms, "Free Colonists," as they were
styled in the charter of 1640, were freed from customs,
taxes, excise, imposts, or any other contributions for
the space of ten years." '
The special powers, rights and privileges of
Patroons are set forth in articles VI, VII, VIII, and
IX, of the charter of 1629, and as revised, and
slightly altered, are thus stated in the charter of
1640;—
"The Patroons shall forever possess all the lands
situate within their limits, together with the produce,
superficies, minerals, rivers, and fountains thereof,
with high, low, and middle jurisdiction, huntin^r,
fishing, fowling, and milling, the lands remaining
allodial, but the jurisdiction as of a perpetual
hereditary fief, devolvable by death as well as to
females as to males, and, fealty and homage for which
is to be rendered to the Company, on each of such
occasions, with a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable
by twenty guilders within a year and six weeks at the
Assembly of the XIX here, or before the Governor
there; with this understanding, that in case of divi-
sion of said fief or jurisdiction, be it high, middle, or
low, the parts shall be, and remain, of the same
nature as was originally conferred upon the whole,
and fealty and homage must be rendered for each part
thereof by a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by
twenty guilders as aforesaid.
And should any Patroon, in course of time, happen
to prosper in his colonic to such a degree as to be able
to found one or more towns, he 'shall have authority
to appoint officers and magistrates there, and make
use of his Colonic, according to the pleasure and the
quality of the persons, all saving the Company's
regalia.'
And should it happen that the dwelling places ot
private Colonists become so numerous as to be ac-
1 Charter of lfi29, art. XVIII.
s Bights of Sovereignty.
62
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
counted towns, villages, or cities, the Company shall
give orders respecting the subaltern government,
magistrates, and ministers of justice, who shall be
nominated by the said towns and villages in a triple
number of the best qualified, from which a choice
and selection is to be made by the Governor and
Council; and those shall determine all questions and
suits within their district.
The Patroons who will send colonies thither, shall
furnish them with due instruction agreeably to the
mode of government, both in police and justice,'
established, or to be established by the Assembly of
the XIX, which they shall first exhibit to the
Directors of the respective chambers, and have
approved by the Assembly of the XIX."
The possession of the land, with everything, in,
upon, or produced by it, as well as all matters of
every kind, within the bounds of the patroonship,
was first granted. Then follow the powers, rights,
and privileges, the first of which was the high, middle,
and low jurisdiction within the patroonship ; a power
necessarily appertaining to the ownership of the
land, as requisite to the orderly government of the
patroonship, the due protection of the tenants in
their rights, and the determination of all contrc-
versies between themselves, or between themselves
and the Patroon, or his agents, as well as the trial
and punishment of criminal ofienses. "High juris-
diction" means the power of capital punishment.
Under the charter of 1629 (Art. XX), a right of
appeal from all judgments of these courts, of fifty
guilders ($20), and upwards, lay to the Governor and
Council in New Netherland. By that of 1640, the
limit was increased to 100 guilders ($40), and the
right extended to all cases of criminal sentences, and
judgments entailing infamy upon any person. Thus
the rights of all people were thoroughly protected.
Next are enumerated the sole rights of hunting,
fishing, fowling, and milling. These explain them-
selves, except the last, — milling. This means, not the
actual grinding, or manufacturing, but the right to
erect, or control the erection of, all mills within the
Patroonship. For every Patroon was to build a mill,
or mills, for the use and benefit of the tenants or
vassals, these terms being simply synonymous, of the
Patroonship. These mills could, either be run by the
Patroon or his agent, or rented by him to any one who
wished to run them, at a fixed rent or toll. But the
Patroon was in all cases bound to provide the mills
and appurtenances themselves.
The Tenure by which the lands, rights, powers,
privileges, and jurisdictions of the Patroons of New
Netherland were held, is thus stated in the sixth
article of the charter of 1629, **to be holden from the
Company as a perpetual inheritance, without it ever
1 This means "political and Judicial," the original being badly trans-
lated. See Art. X, in the charter of 1629, where the language, " is
aa well in the political as the Judicial goverument."
devolving again to the Company, and in case it shouhl
devolve, to be redeemed and repossessed with twenty
guilders per colonic to be paid to this Company, at
the Chamber here {Hbliand), or to their commander
there (New Netherland) within a year and six weeks
after the same occurs, each at the Chamber where he
originally sailed from." This continued without
change till 1640, when the revised charter of that
year, stated the same tenure more fully, in these
words, ''the lands remaining allodial, but the juris-
diction as of a perpetual hereditary ^ef, devolvable by
death as well to females as to males, and fealty and
homage for which is to be rendered to the Company,
on each of such occasions with a pair of iron gaunt-
lets, redeemable by twenty guilders within a year and
six weeks, at the Assembly of the XIX here {in
Amstfrdam), or before the Governor there (m New
Amsterdam) ; with this understanding, that in case of
division of said fief or jurisdiction, be it high, middle,
or low, the part-s shall be and remain of the same
nature as was originally conferred on the whole, and
fealty and homage must be rendered for each part
thereof by a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by
twenty guilders as aforesaid.'*
The Dutch words translated in the above quotation
"a perpetual hereditary fief," and in the sixth article
of the charter of 1629 "a perpetual inheritance/'
mean more than these English renderings, and ex-
press a technicality of the Dutch law which the latter
does not convey. It is this. A feud, or fief, (these
terms are synonymous) is thus defined in the Dutch
law, "an hereditary indivisible use over the immove-
able property of another, with a mutual obligation of
protection on the one side, and a duty of homage and
service on the other."* Such a fief, under the law,
" was not divisible, except by charter and passed only
per capita, or by stipulation in cases of intestacy, to
the eldest male amongst the lawful children, or fur-
ther descendants, of the last possessor; to males
sprung from males, the nearest degree taking prece-
dence of one more remote."' These, the old fiefs of
the Fatherland, were termed ^^ recta fetida ,^^ right fieft,
and were the fiefs referred to in both the New Nether-
land charters of " Freedoms and Exemptions " and the
above translations of them. As they were indivisible
and passed of right to the eldest male representative
of the last possessor, and did not depend upon the
intestacy of a son, they were termed "undying" fiefs,
as opposed to fiefs where the succession might be
changed by stipulation at the time of the inves-
titure, or afterwards, which last were also hereditary.
These "old fiefs" were not transplanted to New
Netherland by the charters of Freedoms and Exemp-
tions, but the new fiefs created by virtue of those
charters had merely the same rights of jurisdiction,
hunting, fishing, fowling, and milling, as the old uu-
• HeriN)rt*8 arotins, 230, \ I.
8 Ibid. I II.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
63
dying ones. In all other respects they were entirely
different. The jurisdiction of the Patroons and their
seignorial rights were held ''as" of these undying
liefs, that is in the same manner as jurisdiction and
seignorial rights were held under them. But the land
itself, together with the produce, superficies, minerals,
rivers and fountains thereof, was held by a very
different tenure. That tenure was allodial, which
means, not feudal, independent of a lord paramount.
''The lands remaining allodial but the jurisdiction as
of a perpetual (undying) hereditary fief" is the lan-
guage of the charter of 1640. Then follows this
radical change from the old fiefs, "devolvable by
death as well to females as males," to women as well
as to men, is the literal translation of the original
words. Thus in New Netherland the right of suc-
cession was extended to at least double the number of
persons, that it was under the old fiefs of the Father-
land. Annexed to this right, was the provision that
upon each person succeeding to the inheritance of the
Patroonship, fealty and homage were "to be rendered
on each of such occasions to the Company with a
pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders
within a year and six months, at the Assembly of the
XIX. here (Amsterdam), or before the Governor
there (New Amsterdam) " This was simply a method
adopted for the acknowledgment by the Patroons of-
the political supremacy of the West India Company,
as the ultimate and paramount government and
source of title in New Netherland ; a method bor-
rowed from the old feudal manner in which the
tenant, or vassal, acknowledged the holding of his
lands from a lord paramount, who was in his turn
thereby obliged to protect him, and which was called
tenure by knight-service. Nothing of the latter ever
existed in New Netherland. Except this political
acknowledgment of the West India Company to be
what we now call " the State," the Patroonships were
held as hereditary allodial lands, which the Patroons
could divide in parts and sell in fee at their pleasure ;
but what they did not sell in fee, descended to the
next heir, whether man or woman, unless devised
by will otherwise.
This power of devising by will was earnestly
desired and contended for by the Patroons. The
seventh article of the charter of 1629 says, " There
shall likewise be granted to all Patroons who shall
desire the same, venia testandi, or liberty to dispone
of their aforesaid heritage by testament." "All
Patroons and feudatories (Jundatartes were the holders
of any part of the fief) shall, on requesting it, be
granted " Veniu Tkstandi, or the power to dispose of, or
bequeath his fief by Will," is the language of that of
1640. This power alone, as it insured at some time or
other the dividing up of all large fi^fs, was sufficient to
prevent the New Netherland fiefs from ever becoming
dangerous, or the source of a great, continued, and
oppressive aristocracy.
The "feudal system" of Europe, as such, never
existed in New Netherland. That system however is
the basis of the land titles of every civilized country
of Europe at this hour, as it was at the discovery of
the New World; and, as derived from the various
countries of Europe which colonized America, is now
the basis of those of the various States of the
American Republic. The system of tenure intro-
duced into New York by the Dutch, was divested
of all burdensome attributes — the nova feuda, the new
fiefs, by which all the land was there held were purely
allodial, with full right in the Patroons to sell
in fee in whole or in part, and to devise it in whole
or in part by will, free of all charges and incum-
brances, except the mere political acknowledgment of
the West India Company as the ultimate paramount
source of all title, the State. It was the most liberal
land system, introduced upon the American Con-
tinent; far more so than the English system as intro-
duced into the English Colonies, and the full feudal
system, introduced into the American Colonies of
France, Spain, and Portugal. It certainly did not
"scatter" in New Netherland "the seeds of servitude*
slavery, and aristocracy."^ There were no "serfs"
in the feudal sense, either in the Dutch republic or
its colony of New Netherland. Slavery was, and had
been, the universal, acknowledged, source of labor,
the result of conquest originally, for centuries be-
fore, and at that time — the 17th century — all over the
world. And equally in all countries of civilization
was the division of society into classes of diverse
grades, and the existence of an aristocracy, the only
one known, established, and existing; and every
State and government then in being was based upon
it How futile then \s the idea, that to these New
Netherland charters of Freedoms and Exemptions
is owing the introducing of all these institutions into
what is now the State of New York. Had neither of
these charters ever existed the "seeds" of all three
of these institutions would have found their way
thither because they were simply the universal in-
stitutions of the highest human civilization at that
era.
The reason why it was possible for the liberal fiefs
of New Netherland to be created, was the nature of
the investiture required to establish the Patroons in
their rights, the seizin or delivery of possession to
them established by the charters. This in the old
fiefs, and under the feudal system, in Europe gen-
erally, was by an act of the lord upon receiving the
oath of fealty and the homage of the tenant or vassal,
at which time the latter also presented the lord with
a fine, that is, a gift of some small article or thing as
a token of his fidelity. In the New Netherland fiefs
by virtue of the charters this whole matter was
changed. The delivery of the grant of the fief by
the Governor and Council itself was the livery of
seizin, or investiture, of the possession in the Patroon.
1 MoQlton in his Hift of N. T., 387-8.
64
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
And at that time the latter took the oath of alle-
giance which was the "fealty," to the Company, and
did his " homage," which was simply by holding up
his hands in the presence of some other tenant, o^
the Company or Patroon, verbally acknowledging the
Company as the ultimate possessor, of the land, or as
we should say, the State, requesting the Governor to
invest him with the possession, and at the same time»
presenting to him the pair of iron gauntlets (the hand
armor of a coat of mail), or twenty guilders in money.
They were thus under the Dutch law nova feuda, new
fiefs, as distinguished from the old fiefs described
before; and the Company as the ultimate possessor
* of the land by its Grovernor's grant could, and did*
make the new investiture that has been described. If
a Patroon divided his patroonship, the same jurisdic-
tion attached to each part, and the same kind of in-
vestiture, had to be made for each part, as was pro-
vided for the whole patroonship in the original
grant.
The numerous provisioiis of these charters relating
•to the trade, and other commercial privileges, granted
to the Patroons do not require to be here considered.
Neither do a few other provisions of a general nature.
The twenty-sixth article of the charter of 1629 as
has been mentioned, provided that every one who
"shall settle any colonie out of the limits of Manhat-
ten Island, shall be obliged to satisfy the Indians for
the land they shall settle upon," thus absolutely
protecting the natives in the possession of their
territories.
The twenty-ninth article, in accordance with the
political economy of Europe at that day, which
taught that colonies should be kept as markets for the
productions of the mother countries, prohibited all
manufactures in New Netherland on pain of banish-
ment.
The thirtieth article of that of 1629, provided
'* that the company will use their endeavours to supply
the colonists with as many blacks as they con-
veniently can, on the conditions hereafter to be
made ; in such manner, however, that they shall not
be bound to do it for a longer time than they shall
think proper." The charter of 1640, says, "The
company shall exert itself to provide the patroons
and colonists, on their order, with as many blacks as
possible, without however being further or longer
obligated thereto than shall be agreeable." These pro-
visions were simply to furnish the cheapest labor then
known, and were in accordance with the manner and
methods of colonizing at that day, and the views of that
era, as to labor. It was a similar provision to those
put in contracts in our day and generation, for build-
ing railroads, canals, mines, and other enterprises, by
syndicates and construction companies, and corpora-
tions, by which, so many hundreds, or thousands, of
laborers, black, yellow, or white, are to be furnished
at such a price for such wages. Were slavery not
now abolished everywhere except in the Spanish
Colonies, these contracts now would call for slaves as
the cheapest kind of labor.
But one other subject of these charters remains to
be considered, and that is the religion they estab-
lished in New Netherland. All the charters were
approved and enacted as laws by the West India
Company, and the States-General ; the sovereign power
of the Seven Provinces of the United Netherlands.
The twenty-seventh article of the charter of 1629 is
in these words, — "The Patroons and Colonists shall
in particular and in the speediest manner, endeavour
to find out ways and means whereby they may sup-
port a minister and school-master, that thus the
service of God and Zeal for religion may not grow
cool, and be neglected among them ; and that they
do for the first, procure a comforter of the sick there.''
The charter of 1640 speaks much more strongly and
directly : — " And no other Religion shall be publicly
admitted in New Netherland except the Reformed,
as it is at present preached and practiced in the United
Netherlands ; and for this purpose the company shall
provide and maintain good and suitable preachers,
school-masters and comforters of the sick." By these
provisions of the two charters was the Reformed
Church of the Netherlands, the national established
church of the Dutch Republic, made the established
church of New Netherland. And as such it remained
until the seizure of the province by the English in
1664. It was re-established at the recapture by the
Dutch, nine years later, and only ceased as "the
Establishment" |on the surrender of the province to Sir
Edmund Andros, for the King of England, pursuant
to the treaty of Westminister, on the tenth of Novem.-
ber 1674, On this occasion the Dutch Governor,
Colve, sent certain " articles " to Andros to which he
required answers before surrendering, " for the satis-
faction of the Dutch Government and for the greater
tranquillity, of the good People of this Province."
These related mainly to the settlement of debts, the
validity of judgments during the Dutch administra-
tion, the maintenance of the titles of the owners ot
landed property to its possession, and the position of
the established church. Andros directed Mathias
Nicolls, the former secretary under the English, to
confer in person with Colve on these subjects. Nicolls
satisfied Colve that Andros would give satisfactory
answers as soon as he assumed the government, and
this assurance was fully carried out. The article
relating to the Church is in these words : — " that the
inhabitants of the Dutch nation may be allowed to
retain their customary Church privileges in Divine
Service and Church discipline." ^ This was granted,
and with the Province of New Netherland fell for-
ever the "Establishment" of the Dutch Church.
But Arom that day to this, that great and ven-
erable Church has continued in the enjoyment of its
creed, privileges, and property, as fully and as freely
iIIBrod..S70.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
65
as it did, ivbile having the power of the Province
Grovernment at its back to enforce its support and
prohibit all doctrines it did not approve. And how
strong this power was, its dealings with the Lutherans,
and with the Quakers in Governor Stuyvesant's time,
fully attest.
At the beginning the maintenance of the Church
though undertaken by the West India Company,
was, under the charter of 1629, devolved by it upon
the Patroons and Free Colonists ; but under that of
1640, and during the entire Dutch dominion afterward,
it was placed upon the Province Government, as the
representative, or rather agent, of the West India
Company, without however relieving the Patroons
and Colonists from their obligations in regard to it.
If they were in default, the Company itself was to
maintain "the Established Church'' through its
Provincial Government from its own revenues. Be-
fore the charter of 1629 the Company undertook
the support of the church. This appears from
a letter of the Rev. Jonas Michaelius, the Orst
clergyman of the Dutch Church in New Nether-
land to a brother clergyman at Amsterdam, the
Rev. Adrian us Smoutius, dated August 11, 1628,
which was discovered and first printed, only in
1858, in a periodical of Amsterdam by Mr. J. J. Bodel
Nijenhuis of that city, and subsequently translated
and sent to the late Dr. Edmund B. O'Callaghan then
of Albany, the author of the " History of New
Netherland," by the late Henry C. Murphy, then
United States Minister at the Hague. The second
volume of the *^ Holland Documents" translated and
edited for the State by Dr. O'Callaghan, was, when
the letter arrived, j ust printed, but not bound nor
published, and in it, as an appendix, that learned
editor inserted Mr. Murphy's translation of this
letter. Michaelius sailed from Holland, January
24th, 1628, and arrived at the ''Island of Man-
hatas," as he calls it, on the 7th of the succeed-
ing April, and wrote the letter the following August*
In it he says, ** In my opinion, it is very expedient
that the Lords Managers of this place (the Anuierdam
Chamber of the West Indian Company) should furnish
plain and precise instructions to their Governors that
they may distinctly know how to regulate themselves
in all difficult occurrences and events in public
matter ; and at the same time that I should have al^
such Acta Synodalia, as are adopted in the Synods of
Holland, both the special ones relating to this region*
and those which are provincial and national, in rela-
tion to ecclesiastical points of difficulty, or at least
such of them as in the judgment of the Reverend
brothers at Amsterdam would be most likely to present
themselves to ns here." . . . The promise
which the Lords Masters of the Company had
made me of some acres or surveyed lands for me
to make myself a home, instead of a free table which
otherwise belonged to me is wholly of no avail. For
their honors well know that their are no horses, cow^ ^
or laborers to be obtained here for money. Every
one is short in these particulars and wants more."
This letter also proves incidentally, that slavery
existed in ''the Manhatas" at its date, the year
before the enactment of the charter of 1-629 which
provided for their being furnished by the Company to
the Patroons, as stated above, and to which has been
so often, and so wrongly ascribed their first introduc-
tion in New York. Speaking of his family matters, for
his wife had died since his arrival leaving him with
"two little daughters," Michaelius writes, "maid-
servants are not to be had, at least none whom they
advise me to take; and the Angola slaves are
thievish, lazy and useless trash." Evidently slaves
had been by no means lately introduced in "the
Manhatas " in 1628.
The Canon law and the Roman law came into Hol-
land together, and that country was governed by both
until the Reformation. Then the former was overr
thrown, and the law of the Reformed Church of Hol-
land promulgated in 1521, and confirmed in 1612, went
into operation, but the Roman civil law remained as
before the law of the land. Under the law of the
Reformed Church of Holland, matters ecclesiastical
come first before the Consistory, then before the
Assembly, and finally before the Synod. There being
no Synod in New Netherland, the care of the church
there was entrusted to the Assembly or classis of
Amsterdam, by whom the Dutch clergymen were
approved and ordained, at the request, or with the
assent, of the West India Company at Amsterdam. ^
Except when as a matter of mere charity on their being
driven from New England, the English settlers of the
Congregational belief were granted freedom of con-
science and to worship in their own way, and to cboose
their own civil officers, * people of other denominations
were not allowed to hold office.' This was because
the Reformed Religion in accordance with the doc-
trine of the Synod of Dort was the Established Re-
ligion of New Netherland, and the magistrates were
bound to maintain it against all sectaries, and there-
fore they must have belonged, or been friendly, to
that faith.*
Such were the provisions of the charters of
Freedoms of Exemptions as to tenure of lands and
the rights, powers and privileges of the Patroons, and
the Masters or Free Colonists, of New Netherland,
and the farm people, or boers, they brought over to
cultivate the soil ; and as to the Church.
The total number of land grants of all kinds, from
a Patroonship, to a single lot in Manhattan Island,
issued by the Dutch Provincial Government from
1 Lawi of N. N., ▼.
I See charter of Hempitoad graatod bjGoYernor Kieft, in 1644. Laws
N.N., 42.
» Ibid, 479.
4 On March 17, 1664, Stnyreiant and his oonncll passed an ordinance,
that all school -roasters should appear with their school-children every
Wednesday afternoon in the church, that they might be oatechiaed by
the Miniflters and Elders. Laws of N. N., 461.
66
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
1630 to 1634^ as far complete as the Books of Patents
and Town records now admit was 638, as shown by
the statement of O'Callaghan appended to the second
Tolume of his history. It is not absolutely correct,
but is soffieiently so as a very fair approximation.
The territories and rights of the original Patroonships
on both sides of the Hudson River, with but two
exceptions, were subsequently on account of the diffi-
culties of their owners, with the West India Company,
and the obstacles they met with in settling their lands,
subsequently bought back by the Company. Thus they
became again part and parcel of the public domain,
and as such were retransported and regranted to vari-
ous individuab, by the Director and 0[>uncil. That of
New Amstel on the Delaware, was finally conceded
to the city of Amsterdam in Holland, as late as 1656,
and that city took upon itself the settlement and
colonization of that Patroonship.
The two exceptions to the re-purchase of the New
York Patroonships, were those of Rensselaers-wyck
and Colen-Donck, both of which continued in the
possession of their Patroons. Space will not permit
of even a brief account of the former, which, changed
in 1705 to an English Manor, has continued to our
own days, striking and interesting as it is. The
latter, the only Patroonship established in West-
chester County, will now be described.
6
The Pabrowukip of OoUn-Donek.
( Yonlen,)
In that portion of New Netherland which now
constitutes the county of Westchester there existed
under the Dutch dominion but one Patroonship. It
was called Colen-Donck, in English '' Donck*s Col-
ony," from the name of its Patroon, Adriaen van der
Donck, to whom it was granted by Director Eieft
and his Council in the year 1646.^
It was granted as the sole property of one of the
most noted and intelligent of the leading men of
New Netherland. Public affairs in which its Patroon
was engaged almost immediately after it was granted,
and his necessary absence in Holland, retarded
its successful development. His death following
shortly after his return, and its sale under the power
he obtained to dispose of it by will, practically ter-
minated it after an existence of only twenty years.
Adriaen van der Donck, styled by the Director and
Council of New Netherland in a summons to the
Rev. Everardus Bogardus, dated the second of Janu-
ary, 1646, "the Yoncker"' was an educated Dutch
gentleman, a native of Breda,' a graduate of the Uni-
versity of Leyden, and a doctor of both the civil,
and the canon, law, " utriusque juris," as that degree
was then expressed in Latin. He came to America
1 II, OGrL, S84 : 1. Brod., 480.
*XIV.GoLHirt^70.
SLCoLHIft., 477.
in the autumn of 1641, in the service of Kiliaen van
Rensselaer, the first Patroon of Rensselaerswyck,
having been appointed in the early part of that year
by that gentleman Schout-Fiscaal of the Patroonship
of that name. This office, which, as shown before,
combined the duties of a Sheriff and an Attorney-
General, was a most important one, and brought him
into close connection with the other officers, and the
tenants, of Rensselaerswyck ; the rights and interests
of all parties being in many particulars subject to
his official action. His first instructions from the
Patroon were dated July 18, 1641, and his first account,
still existing in the books of that colonic, begins on
the 9th of September following.^ The above mention
of van der Donck as " the Yoncker " is the earliest
mention of that title as applied to him that I have
found. As it is used in referring to a matter which oc-
curred in 1645, it is clear that he was so called and
known four years only after his arrival in America.
The term is simply a corruption of " Jonkheer," son
of a gentleman.^ It is of interest, for, from this title
so given to him who became in the succeeding year,
1646, the Patroon of Colen-Donck, is derived the name
which that Patroonship, in common parlance, ever
afterwards bore, and which is to-day perpetuated in
the corporate name of the beautiftil city which is em-
braced within its limits — Yonken.
Van der Donck was the first lawyer in New Nether-
land, and of course in that part of it now New York.
Lubbertus van Dincklagen, who was appointed
Schout-Fiscaal and Vice Director of New Nether-
land, 5th May, 1645, also a doctor of civil and canon
law, was the second, and Dirk {Richard) van Schel-
luyne, who was also the first notary, commissioned
8th May, 1650, was the third.
These first lawyers are mentioned here because
their names are found appended to so very many of
the early deeds, and public and private documents,
of the earliest part of the Dutch dominion in New
York. Prior to leaving Amsterdam, van der Donck,
probably as part of the terms between them, received
from Kiliaen von Rensselaer, a lease of the westerly
half of the first island on the west side of the Hud-
son below Albany then called Welysburgh, from van
Wely, a relative of the Patroon. Later it was styled,
'' Castle Island," because upon its southern end was
built the first fortified trading house erected by Cor-
stiaensen under the charter of "The United New
Netherland Company," of 14th October, 1614, and
called Fort Nassau, which three years later, in 1617,
was destroyed by a freshet Subsequently, and till
this day, from its proprietors.it was, and still is, known
as Rensselaera Island. Here van der Donck erected
a house and dwelt. In 1643 difficulties between him
and Arendt von Curler, or Corlaer, the Patroon's
commissary, occurred, and van der Donck, determin-
ing to leave his position, undertook to arrange for the
«L0*CiU.,327.
•L Brod. 421.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
67
planting of a " Colonic " at '* Katskill," of which he
himself was to he the Patroon. This was a violation
of the sixth and twenty-sixth articles of the charter
of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, and the Patroon
of Rensselaerswyck, on the 10th September, 1643,
sent written orders to van Curler, to see that van der
Donck desisted at once, being his *' sworn officer," and
if he did not, that he should ''be degraded from his
office and left on his bowerie to complete his con-
tracted lease without allowing him to depart." This
effectually put an end to the project of the Katskill
Colonie, van der Donck continued to perform his
duties, and matters grew much easier with van Curler.
On the 18th of January, 1646, van der Donck's house
burned down, at which very time he was negotiating
for a sale of his lease to one Michael Jansen, to
which, as the Patroon's Commissary, van Curler had
to assent. A new quarrel at once arose, as to whether
the loss should fall on the Patroon as van der Donck
claimed, or on the latter as van Curler insisted. The
matter was finally referred to the Patroon in Holland^
van der Donck left the island, and lived in a hut near
Fort Orange, till spring, and then came down to
New Amsterdam.^ In the previous year, 1645. he
had been of great assistance to Director Kieft in
advancing the requisite funds, and settling the
terms of peace with the Indians, which closed the
wicked war that Kieft had wantonly begun two or
three years before, and which proved so disastrous
to New Netherland.^ The Patroon of Rensselaers-
wyck, died at Amsterdam later in 1646, and with his
death the connection of van der Donck with that
Patroonship ceased, Nicolas Coom succeeding him in
his office by the appointment of the executors of the
late Patroon, Johannes van Wely and Wouter van
Twiller.
Van der Donck still desiring to become a Patroon,
immediately occupied himself, «n returning to New
Amsterdam, in looking for a proper location. He
finally selected the lower portion of what is now the
county of Westchester and northern part of the city
of New York, between the rivers Hudson and Har-
lem, on the west and south, and the Bronx on the
east. A choice which eminently proved his good
taste and sound judgment. The Indian name for this
region was Keskeskick, and the Indian title to it
was extinguished by its sale to the West India Com-
pany by its Indian owners on the third of August,
1639, in these words, " This day, date as below, ap-
peared before meCornelis van Tienhoven, Secretary in
New Netherland, Tequeemet, Rechgawac, Pachamiens,
owners of Keskeskick, who in presence of the under-
signed witnesses voluntarily and deliberately declare,
that in consideration of a certain lot of merchandise,
which they acknowledge to have received and accepted
» I .O'CrII., N. N., 33% 338, 345, 34A ; I. Brod., 419, 420.
* Von derDuiick*8 New Notherland in I. N.T. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d Serlegi
127 and 161.
before the passing of this act, they have transferred,
ceded, conveyed, and made over, as a true and lawful
freehold, as they herewith transfer, cede, convey, and
make over, to, and for the benefit of, the General
Incorporated West India Company, a piece of land,
situate opposite to the flat on the Island of Manhat-
tan, called Keskeskick, stretching lengthwise along
the Kil, which runs behind the Island of Manhattan «
mostly east and west, and beginning at the head of
the said Kil and running to opposite of the high hill
by the flat, namely by the Great Kil, with all Hght,
titles, &c., &c. Done at Fort Amsterdam, the 3d of
August, 1639.
cornelis van der hoylen,
David Pietersen de Vries,
as witnesses,
in my presence,
C0RNELI8 VAN Tienhoven,
Secretary.
This instrument is recorded in Book G, G, of
Patents page 30, in the Secretary of State's Office in
Albany.' By it was vested in the West India Com-
pany the right of soil and possession of the Indians in
the tract described. It will be noticed that it bears no
marks of the Indians as signatories, but is only signed
by the witnesses and the Secretary of the Province,
difiering in this respect from the Indian Deeds of
much later dates, and especially from those executed
under the English rule. This was strictly in accord-
ance with the Dutch Provincial " Ordinance," or law,
enacted by the Director and Council of New Nether-
land the year before the date of this deed, which, as
it is not generally known, is in full as follows ; —
" The Free people " (those not FatroonSf nor boei's
or farm laborers) "having by petition requested
Patents of the Lands which they are at present cul-
tivating, the prayer of the Petitioners is granted, on
condition that at the expiration of Ten years after
entering upon their Plantation, they shall pay yearly
to the Company the Tenth of all crops which God
the Lord shall grant to the field; also from this time
forth, one couple of capons for a house and lot."
This ordinance of the Director and Council was
passed on the 24th June, 1638.^
On the 19th of the following August another ordi-
nance was passed by the same high authority, in
which occurs this clause providing that all legal
documents, shall be drawn up by the Secretary of the
Province ; — " Likewise, that, from now henceforward,
no instruments, whether contracts, obligations, leases,
or Bills of Sale, or such like writings of what nature
soever they be, and concerning which any dispute
a It is also printed in XIH. Gol. Hist., 5.
«Law6 N. N., 16. This law was the origin of the "four fkt fowls"
clause of the manorial leases in New York.
The " tenths '' or tithes were simply a form of rental, the recompenre
to the Ck)mpauy and the Patroons for their outlay and expense in settling
their lands.
68
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
may arise, shall be held valid by the Director and
Council, unless they shall be written by the Secretary
of this place. Let every one take warning and save
himself from damage. This done and published in
Fort Amsterdam this 19th of August, 1638." ^
The witnesses to the above instrument were well
known men of mark at that day. The name of the
first correctly entered should have been Comelis van
der HoyAren, or van der Huyghens, as the name was
truly spelled. He was, on July 13th, 1639, just pre-
vious to the date of this deed, appointed the Schout-
Fiscaal, or Sheriff and Attorney-General, of the Prov-
ince, served for several years, and was drowned on
the voyage to Holland in 1647 with Governor Kieft.
David Pietersen de Vries was the famous navigator,
the author of the " Journal notes of several voyages
Sn Europe, Africa, Asia and America," one of the
earliest and most authentic writers on New Netherland.
He was also a Patroon of Swanandael on the Dela-
ware, of another Patroonship upon Staten Island, and
in the words of Brodhead, was " frank, honest, relig-
ious, and a sincere advocate of the true interests of
New Netherland." »
Cornells Tienhoven the Secretary, so long in oflSce
ynder Kieft and Stuyvesant, and often their envoy
to the different English Colonies, and active in
other public positions in New Amsterdam is so well
known as to need no further mention.
Van der Donck began his settlement on the banks
of the Neperhaem, or, as more lately termed, the
Neperan near its confluence with the Hudson, erect-
ing a saw mill, and other improvements incident to
such an enterprise, at that place. From this mill the
stream derived its Dutch name of Saeg-Kill, or Saw-
Kill, and the English one, by which it continues to be
known, the " Saw-Mill River." For his own residence
and home plantation, he selected the southern end of
the beautiful peninsula, or tide island as it really was,
and the meadows immediately about it, which the Indi-
ans called Papirinemen, directly opposite the north-
ernmost extremity of Manhattan Island, almost sur-
rounded by .the waters of the same name, connecting
the Spyt-den-Duyvel Creek, on the west, with the
Great Kill, or Harlem River on the east ; and upon
which afterward was erected the first bridge connect-
ing Manhattan Island with the mainland of West-
chester County, then, and to this day called Kings-
bridge. ' He also cultivated the ancient corn grounds
of the former Indian owners, now the beautiful fiat
surrounding the old "Cortlandt House" soon to
be the parade-ground of the new "Van Cortlandt
Park ; " that estate which has continued in the family
for nearly two centuries, having now been wisely
acquired by the City of New York for a grand sub-
urban park.
Becoming engaged, as a leader, in the disputes
, 1 Laws N. N., 17.
t Vol. I. 381, note.
8 Van der Oonck*a Letter. Biker's Hurlem, 163.
between the people of New Amsterdam and Governor
Stuyvesant as the representative of the West India
Company, he could not give his Patroonship the
attention it needed. Three years after the grant to
him of Colen-Donck by Governor Kieft, the troublea
with Stuyvestant came to a head. The Commonalty
of the " Province of New Netherland," drew up by
a committee, a Petition to the States-General for a
redress of their grievances, dated July 26th, 1649;
the draughtsman, and first signer, of which wiis
Adriaen van der Donck. This Petition, with a full
explanation in the form of notes, also by van der
Donck, and signed by him and the others of the com-
mittee was transmitted to Holland.* Two days laier
on the 28th of July, waa also signed the famous
"Remonstrance," or " Vertoogh" of van der Donck,
giving a long, detailed, history of the discovery, pro-
ductions, settlement, and alleged misgovernment of
the New Netherland by the officers of the West India
Company.
Van der Donck, Jacob van Couwenhoven, and Jan
Everts Bout, were appointed by the Commonalty a
delegation to proceed to Holland and lay these docu-
ments before the States-General and the West India
Company and ask for a redress of what they deemed
oppression. On the 12th of the succeeding August,
von Dincklagen the Vice-Director under Stuyvesant,
but not favored by him, sent a letter to the States-
General, in which he says, " whereas the Condition of
that most fertile New Netherland is seriously impair-
ed by the war,^ and the Commonalty hath resolved
on a delegation of three of the Nine Selectmen in
order that your High Mightinesses may obtain full and
thorough information on every point, [and] I have not
been able to dissuade them therefrom. I cannot but
say they intend what is right. These persons are
thoroughly conversant with the situation of the coun-
try. I hope your High Mightinesses will be pleaj«ed
thereby and extend to them a favorable audience,
and give them despatch as soon as your High Mighti-
nesses' more weighty affairs will permit, as the people
are very anxious." •
These papers were received on the 13th of October,
1649, by the States-General from the delegate?, and
referred to a special committee to examine and report
upon them. On the 31st of January, 1650, the com-
mittee reported adversely to the Petitioners, answering
their documents article by article, and using strong
language.^ The delegates replied by a further short
petition on the 7th of February following, which was
also referred to a special committee.^ Other com-
munications were subsequently received and referred.
Finally their committee reported to the States-Gen-
eral a long, detailed, and very full "Provisional Order
respecting the Government, Preservation and Peo-
* I. Col. Hist, 259, 270.
6 Kieft'B late war with the iDdiansis here referred to.
«I. Col. Hist., 319.
7 1 Col. Hist., 338, etc. » Ibid., 346.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
69
pling of New Netherland on April 11, 1650." It con-
tained twenty-one sections materially modifying the
action of the West India Company, — and one of
which instructed Stuyvesant to return to Holland.^
The Company opposed its adoption, and it was tempo-
rarily laid over.* A new modification of the Free-
doms and Exemptions was also adopted on the 24th
J^Iay, 1650, which however did not clnenge the prin-
ciples of those of 1629, and 1640, but referred chiefly
to minor details. This was the last legislative action
of the States-General relative to the colonization of
New Netherland.' Van der Donck endeavoured
to aid his "Colonic," and New Netherland gen-
erally, in the matter of population. On the
11th of March, 1650, he and the other delegates,
concluded a contract "to charter a suitable fly
boat of two hundred lasts, and therein to go to
sea on the 1st of June next, and convey to New
Netherland the number of two hundred passengers,
of which one hundred are to be farmers and fann
servants, and the remaining one hundred such as the
Amsterdam Chamber is accustomed to send over,
conversant with agriculture, and to furnish them with
supplies for the voyage," on condition that the con-
tractors should be allowed four thousand guilders
from the export duties on New Netherland freights,
"to pay present expenses," and the further sum
of seven thousand guilders from the peltry duties at
New Amsterdam ; and in case of failure by the con-
tractors they were to restore the four thousand guil-
ders, and forfeit, besides, two thousand guilders more
of their own funds.*
Van Couwenhoven and Bout returned to New
Netherland with a copy of the "Provisional Order,"
arriving there on the 28th of June,* leaving van der
Donck in Holland to complete the business of the
delegation, and return when the redress was actually
voted. Failing to obtain action, van der Donck, on
the 14th January, 1651, presented the States-General,
with a further petition " again praying that a speedy
and necessary redress may be concluded on, in regard
to the affairs of New Netherland."
Stuyvesant declined to obey the "Provisional
order," except in some minor matters, and opposed it
by strong despatches to the company, while his Secre-
tary van Tienhoven was already in Holland flghting
van der Donck strenuously before the authorities
there. On the 10th of February, 1652, nothing having
been Anally determined, still another representation of
the contumacy of Stuyvesant, and the continued bad
state of New Netherland, and the necessity for an act
of redress of their grievances was made by van der
Donck. It thus concludes, — "the said delegate of
the Commonalty of New Netherland again humbly
prays and requests your High Mightinesses to be
II. Col. Hi«t.,387.
s Ibid., 401.
il. Colonial Ill0t., 447.
sibid., 303.
4I.Col. Hist., 379.
pleased to dispose favorably of the aforesaid, in order
that he, the delegate, may leave by the flrst ship this
spring on his return for New Netherland." *
With this paper van der Donck laid before the
States-General a voluminous mass of extracts of let-
ters and other documents received chiefly in the year
1651, by him from New Netherland, detailing the
difficulties there.'' Ailer a reference of these papers
to the different chambers of the West India Company
and considering their various reports thereon, which
occupied many months, the States-General adopted
and sent the following recall to Stuyvesant, " Honor-
able &c. We have, in view of the public service con-
sidered it necessary to require you, on sight hereof, to
repair hither in order to furnish us circumstantial and
pertinent information, as to the true and actual con-
dition of the country and affairs; and also of the
boundary line between the English and the Dutch
there. Done 27th April 1652." »
The very day before, on the 26th of April, at his
own request pursuant to the charter of Freedoms and
Exemptions, the States-Greneral granted to van der
Donck, by patent under seal, the " venia tesfandi" or
right to dispose by will as Patroon, "of the Colonic
Nepperhaem by him called Colem Donck, situate in
New Netherland."'
He now thought everything was completed and that
he should soon be again on the banks of the Hudson.
He embarked his goods and everything in the way of
supplies for his " Colonic," in a vessel then anchored
in the Texel, and on the 13th of May 1652 applied to
the States-General for their formal permit to return
home, which was requisite by a resolution of that
body of the 14th of the preceding March. But he was
doomed to disappointment. The Amsterdam chamber
supported their officers, and were displeased at van
der Donck, and the delegation for laying all their
matters before the States-General instead of before
themselves, thereby forcing the chamber to bring its
own action in New Netherland before the " Lords of
Holland," as the States-General were tiermed. And
it had influence enough among them to annoy van der
Donck in every way. His request was merely referred
to a committee " to examine." But on the 24th of May
he sent in a long and sharp, but respectful, memorial,
protesting against their inaction. In this, he says,
"that proposing to depart by your High Mightinesses
consent, with his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants,
maids, and in that design had packed and shipped
all his implements and goods," but he understood
"that the Hon.^'* Directors at Amsterdam had for-
bidden all skippers to receive him, or his, even though
exhibiting your High Mightinesses express orders
and consent," * * * "by which he must, without
any form of procedure, or anything resembling
thereto, remain separated from his wife, mother, sis-
•I.CoI. Hint, 438.
•I. Cul. HiBt.,472.
U. Col. Hist., 444-461.
•I. Col. Hint., 470.
70
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
ter, brother, servants, maids, family connexions, from
two good friends, from his merchandise, his own
necessary goods, furniture, and also from his real
estate in New Netherlands'^ But this also was
merely referred to the various chambers" for their
information."' Nothing was done, and on the
5th of August, 1652, he again solicited permission
to depart. ' He was again denied, and this, too,
in spite of his showing that his affairs were
going to ruin, and the cruelty of separating him
from his wife and family. The family therefore were
obliged to sail without him, and he returned to the
Hague.*
To this persecution and vindictiveness of his oppo-
nents, however, we are indebted for the most valuable
account of New Netherland written by any one who
had then been a resident there. He seems to have
begun this work immediately upon his return to the
Hague and it was probably finished in the course of
the ensuiug winter. In May he applied for a copy-
right, which after an examination of the book both by
the Chamber of Amsterdam, and a Committee of the
States-General, was granted by the latter body on the
24th of May, 1758. The correspondence on this subject
between these bodies, shows that a copy of this little
book was sent by the former to the latter on the 2d of
May, and referred to a committee " to inspect, examine,
and report thereon.''^ It must therefore have been
printed at that time, though no copy of that date is
now known to exist. This is the more probable from
the fact, that van der Donck was at length permitted to
depart, and returned to New Netherland in the sum-
mer of 1753.^ As we know that he intended to write
an addition to this work in order to make it complete
as a history, and obtained an order from the West
India Company, in the shape of a letter from it to
Stuyvesant, to permit him to examine the papers and
records in the Secretary's oflSce of the Province, for
that purpose, it may be, that though printed, it was
not published in 1653. Stuyvesant on his return
refused him access to the records, and thus defeated
his plan, and he then, in all probability, consented to
the publication of what had already been printed in
Holland. He died in 1655, about two years afler his
return to America,^ and in the same year the first
edition of his work that we now have, was issued in
Amsterdam, with a view of New Amsterdam inserted.®
A second edition was issued in 1656, also in Amsterdam,
without the view, but containing a map of >iew
Netherland. This book was entitled! " Beschry vin I.
van Niew Nederlandt," or, " A Description of New
Netherland" (such as it now is) Comprehending
the nature, character, situation and Fruitfulness of
a I. Col. Hist., 476, 478.
4 Ibid., 532.
1 1. Col. HlBt, 479.
sibid., 485.
»I. Col. Hist, 631, 532.
• N Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d SeHaa, vol. ii. 258.
7 1. Col. Hi»t, .-iSa ; II. O'Call., 551.
It fa a small 4to toL of 104 pages, with an introdaction of 3 page«.
that Country," 4&c., &c., with an account of the man-
ners and customs of the Indians, and of the natural
history of the Beaver." This and the "Vertoogh"
or "Remonstrance'' referred to before, published in
1650, which was a contemporaneous relation of events
in New Netherland, historical, civil, and military,
are the two most valuable and authentic accounts of
New Netherland and its early history and condition,
that exist, and are the sources to which all writers
ever since, have gone for information on the early
history of what is now New York. The first named
work was first published in English, only in 1841, in
the first volume of the second series of the Collections
of the New York Historical Society, the translation
having been made by the late General Jeremiah
Johnson of Brooklyn. And in the second volume of
the same series, is an admirable translation of the
"Vertoogh," from the pen of the Hun. Henry C.
Murphy of the same city.
This full sketch of the Patroon of Colen Donck and
his career is given, because it shows, that it was
owing to what may be called his public life, that he
was unable to effect the better settlement of his West-
chester Patroonship. His enforced absence for so
long a period, was followed by his death two years
only after his return to America, too short a time to
enable him to carry out any plans he may have
formed in regard to it. And also because that ca-
reer, one of the most striking and remarkable in New
Netherland history, was the career of the Patroon
of the only Patroonship in Westchester County.
Prior to leaving Rensselaerswyck, and in the year
1645, von der Donck married Mary Doughty,
a daughter of the Rev. Francis Doughty, a New
England clergyman, who in 1642, three years before,
had been driven, with many of his friends, by the
persecuting Puritans of Massachusetts from his home
in that colony. Having stated publicly, at Cohasset,
'Hhat Abraham's children should have been bap-
tized," he was forthwith dragged out of the assembly
and otherwise harshly used; and with one Richard
Smith and some others who held like views of bap-
tism, was forced to " escape from the insupportable
government of New England ' to New Netherland.*
He and his friends were granted in compassion for
their sufferings and poverty, a tract, with the priv-
ileges of a patroonship for those interested collect-
ively, but without the privilege of milling, or the title
of Patroon to any one of them, for 6000 Dutch
acres, at Maspeth, on Long Island, dated, March
28th, 1642. But quarrels between the parties them-
selves, the Indian war, and Doughty's demands for
money for himself personally, made the enterprise a
failure, and the lands were after^vards, under the law,
confiscated to the company by Governor Kieft, and
subsequently regranted in parcels, to different indi-
viduals.*®
» N. Y. Col. Hlit., 131.
10X17. Col. Hi«t., 413.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
71
This is the oaly instatice on record of a collective
transport of a Patroonship, and seems to have been
made ex-gratia as a matter of charity, to the poor
persecuted exiles from Puritan Massachusetts, who
brought practically nothing but their own persons
to New Netherland. Nothing was paid by them
for the land, and all that the grantees had to do,
was ''to acknowledge the said Lords Directors
as their Masters and Patroons, to pay, after the
lapse of ten years, the tenth part of the produce of
the fields, whether cultivated with the plough, or hoe,
or otherwise (orchards and gardens not exceeding one
acre, Holland measure excepted)."* Doughty after-
wards removed to Patuxent, in Maryland, where his
daughter resided and where he was living in October,
1669.*
When Van der Donck died in 1655, his widow was
left, after a married life of ten years, with some small
children, but how many, is not now known. As we have
seen that he had sought and obtained the veiiia tea-
itmdiy or the right of disposing of his Patroonship by
will, he probably devised Colen-Donck to his widow.
She subsequently married Hugh O'Neale of Patuxent,
Maryland, and resided with her husband in that
province. Eleven years after van der Donck's death,
and two after the English seized New Netherland, a
new patent dated October 8th, 1666, in the nature of
a confirmation was issued by Governor Richard
Nicolls to O'Neale and his wife in their joint names,
thus vesting the title to the whole Patroonship in
them jointly. This Patent styles it " Nepperhaem,"
and is in these words ; —
" Richard Nicolls, Esq., Governor under his Royal
Highness, ye Duke of York, of all his territory es in
America, to all to whom this present writing shall come,
sendeth greeting : Whereas there is a certain tract of
land within this Government, upon the Main, Bound-
ed to the northwards by a rivulet called by the Indi-
ans, Macakassin, so running southward to Nepper-
haem, from thence to the Kill Shorakkappock,' and
then to Paperinemin,^ which is the southern most
bounds, then to go across the country to the eastward
by that which is commonly known by the name of
Bronck's, his river and land, which said tract hath
heretofore been purchased of the Indian proprietors
by Adriaen van der Donck, deceased, whose relict,
Mary, the wife of Hugh O'Neale, one of the paten-
tees is, and due satisfaction was also given for the
same, as hath by some of the said Indians been ac-
knowledged before me ; Now for a further confirma-
tion unto them, the said Hugh O'Neale and Mary
his wife, relict of the aforesaid Adriaen van der
Donck, in their ]>ossession and enjoyment of the
premises Knovo ye, that by virtue of this our commis-
1 The original transport is in Latin, and an English translation is in
XIV. Col. Hist., 38 ; I. O'Qill, 237 ; and Appendix, 427 and 428.
s II. Col. Hist., 93.
s The Indian name of Spyt-den-Dnyyel Creek.
4NowKing8bridge.
sion and authority, given unto me by his Royal High-
ness the Duke of York, I have thought fit to give,
ratify, confirm, and grant, and by these presents do
give, ratify, confirm, and grant, unto the said Hugh
O'Neale and Mary his wife, their heirs and assigns,
all the afore mentioned tract or parcel of lands called
Nepperhaem, together with all woodri, marshes,
meadows, pastures, waters, lakes, creeks, rivulets
fishing, hunting and fowling, and all other profits,
commodities and emoluments to the said tract of land
belonging, with their, and every of their appurten-
ances, and of every part and parcel thereof, to have
and to hold the said tract of land and premises, with
all and singular their appurtenances, to the said
Hugh O'Neale and Mary his wife, their heirs and
assignes to the proper use and behoofe of the said
Hugh 0*Neale and Mary his wife, their heires and
assignes forever, he, she, or they, or any of them, ren-
dering and paying such acknowledgment, and duties,
as are, or shall be, constituted and ordayned by his
Royal Highness the Duke of York, and his heirs, or
such governor, or governors, as shall from time to
time be appointed and set over them within this
province. That, if at any time hereafter, his Royal
Highness, his heirs, successors, or assigns, shall think
fit to make use of any timber for shipping, or for
erecting or repairing of forts within this government,
liberty is reserved for such uses and purposes to cut
any sort of timber upon any unpianted grounds, on
the said tract of land, to make docks, harbours,
wharfes, houses, or any other conveniences relating
thereunto, and also to make use of any rivers or
rivuletts, and inlets of water, for the purposes afore-
said, as fully and free as if no such patent had been
granted.
Given under my hand and seal at Fort James, New
York, on the Island of Manhattan, the eighth day
of October, in the eighteenth year of the reign of
our sovereign Lord, Charles.the Second, by the grace
of God, of England, France, and Ireland, King,
defender of the Faith, &c., &c., in the year of our
Lord God, 1666."*
The acknowledgment by the Indians referred to
in the foregoing deed, thus appears under date of
September 21st, 1668, in Book of Deeds III., at Albany,
page 42 :
^'This day came Hugh O'Neale and Mary his
wife (who in right of her former husband laid claime
to a cert"^ parcele of land upon the Maine not farre
from Westchester, commonly called the Younckers
land), who bro't severall Indyans before the gov" to
acknowledge the purchase of said lands by van der
Donck commonly called ye Youncker. The said
Indyans declared y bounds of the sd. lands to be
from a place called by them Macackassin at y^ north
so to run to Neperan and to y* Kill Soro-quappock,
then to Muskota and Papperinemain to the south,
6 Recorded in Sec. of State's office, Albany
72
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
and crosse the country to y* eastward by Bronckx his
Ry ver and Land. The Indyan Propyetors name who
was cheife of them is Tackareeck living at the
Nevisans ^ who acknowledged the purchase as before
described, and that he had received satisfac" for it. —
Claes y* Indyan hav' interest in a part acknowledged
to have sould it, and received satisfact" of van der
Donck. All the rest of the Indyans present being
seven or eight acknowledged to have rec* full satis-
faction."
The date of this instrument, 1668, is evidently a cleri-
cal error for 1666, as the acknowledgment is recited in
Nicoll's patent of confirmation which bears day Oc-
tober 8th, 1666.
From this patent it is clear that no part of the
patroonship had been parted with since van der
Donck's death in 1655. And from the fact that on
the 30th of the same October in the same year in
which this patent was granted, only twenty-two days
afterward, the first conveyance under it was made by
O'Neale and his wife, it seems evident that it was
obtained simply as a confirmation of the original
title, and an acknowledgment of its validity, by the
New English government, in order to make the sale
alluded to. This sale of the tract, on October
30th, 1666, was made to Elias Doughty, of Flushing,
Long Island, who was the son of the Rev. Francis
Doughty, and a brother of van der Donck's widow,
the then wife of Hugh O'Neale, and vested the entire
Patroonship in him.
Elias Doughty at once began the sale of it in
different parcels to different individuals in fee. On
the first of March, 1667, four months after he had
become its owner Elias Doughty sold to John Arcer,
or Archer, as this Dutch name was Anglicised,* " four
score acres of upland and thirty of meadow betwixt
Broncx river & y" watering place at the end of the
Island of Manhattans,"* which four years later^
with some adjoining purohases of lands, was erected
in his favor into the Manor of Fordham ,by Grover-
nor Lovelace on the 13th of November, ITIl,
On June 7th, 1668, Doughty sold to John Heddy *
of Westchester a tract of three hundred and twenty
acres, now part of the old van Cortlandt estate, re-
cently taken for van Cortlandt Park. The next
month, on the 6th of July, 1668, Elias Doughty sold
to George Tippitt and William Betts another piece of
Colen-Donck, thus described : "A parcell of land &
meadow to ye Patent to William Betts and George
Tippett who are in possession of a part of the same'
land formerly owned by old Youncker van der Donck
which runs west to Hudson's river & east to Broncks
River, with all the upland from Broncks River south
to Westchester Path, & so runs due east and north
1 The Neveraink Highlands in New Jersey.
« Biker's Harlem, 278.
8 Deed Book III., 138, Albany.
4 This DAme, spelled aim}*' Headdyt^ was really, it isbelieTed,"Kad(2eii/'
beginning at the boggy swamp with*" the liberty of
the said Patent, & the southrnmost bound to run by
the path that runneth or lyeth by the north end of
the aforesaid swamp, & so to run due east to Broncks
River, & due west to the meadow which cometh to
the wading place." *
From this George Tippett, or Tippits, as the name
is spelled in his inventory made the 29th of Septem-
ber, 1675," the stream is called Tippetts brook, which
forms the van Cortlandt Lake, and, thence flowing
southerly in a sinuous course, falls into Spyt-den Duy-
vel Creek just east of Kingsbridge. Its Indian name
is Mosholu.
On the 1st of December, 1670, another part of the
Patroonship, on its western side was sold by Doughty
to Francis French and Ebenezer Jones of Ann
Hooks Neck (now Pel ham Neck), and John West-
cott, of Jamaica, Long Island. This was the tract
on the Bronx then, and now, so well known as Mile-
square.^
These were all the sales of Doughty in the south-
em part of the Patroonship. At the mouth of the
"Nepperhaem River," he sold on the 18th of August,
1670, to Dame Margaret Philipse, on behalf of her
husband, Frederick Philipse, and Thomas Lewis, for
£150, the south half of that River with its mill
privileges, and also about three hundred acres of land
adjoining it. The north half of the river and its mill
privileges he sold to one Dirk Smith, reserving the
right to repurchase if Smith wished to sell. This
right Doughty conveyed to Philipse and Lewis, who
subsequently effected the re-purchase.®
Two years after, and on September 29th in the
year 1672, Frederick Philipse, Thomas Delavall and
Thomas Lewis, bought of Elias Doughty all the
remainder of Colen-Donck, each taking a third in-
terest, the whole amounting to seven thousand seven
hundred and eight acres. Delavall devised his share
ten years later, in 1682, to his son John, and he, to-
gether with Frederick Philipse and Mrs. Geesie Lewis,
the widow of Thomas Lewis, obtained a patent for
the whole on the 19th of February, 1684. Frederick
Philipse bought out DelavalPs share on the 27th of
August, 1685, and on the 12th of June, 1686, also
acquired by purchase that of Mrs. Lewis and her
children. These lands, with all the territory above
them on the north, as far as Croton River,
and extending from the Hudson eastwardly to the
Bronx, subsequently acquired by Philipse and his
son from the Indians, were seven years later, on
the 12th of June, 1693, erected into that mag-
6 Book III. of Deed8, p. 134, Altutiy.
<>Lib. I., N. Y. Surv. Off., p. 2.34. He was a mere farmer and the
inventory is but a list of farm stock and common house utensilB. It, how-
ever, thuB deecribea bis farm,— " Item, a tract of land and meadow piir^
chased of Eiias Doughty, with the dwelling-house, orchard and bsirne
now standing on the said land, — ^£100, 0, 0.'* It also mentions his
neighbor, "John Heddy, of Yonkers, carpenter.**
7 Book III. of Deeds, 139.
8 Book of Deeds, IV. 0.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 3IAN0RS.
73
nificent Manor under the English system, which
from his own name, its first lord called "Phil-
lipseboroogh/' or, as it was later, and is to this day
termed " Philipseburgh."
Thus was divided up, and ended forever, the only
Patroonship under the Dutch system of Colouizatton,
which existed within the limits of the County of West-
chester. And its termination strictly in accordance
with the provisions of the charters of Freedoms and
Exemptions, by will under the power of the venia tet -
tandi, as therein set forth, strikingly illustrates the
fact, that the tenure of the Patroonships could never
have become dangerous to the rights, and liberties,
and laws, of the people of New Netherland.
What became of van der Donck's children is not
now known, nor their names, nor in fact how many of
them, if any, reached maturity. We know that in
1653 his mother, a brother, and the son of the latter,
came out to New Netherland; that the name of the
former was Agatha, that of his brother Daniel, and
that of the son of the latter, Guisbert. But here all
certainty ends. We may hope that the blood of so
able and prominent a Hollander still exists, but that
is all.
Although but this one Patroonship was established
in Westchester County, there were a number of grants
of smaller tracts to individuals, made by the Dutch Di-
rectors-General, after they had purchased the Indian
title for the West India Company, or it had by their
permission been bought of the Indians, by the per-
sons, or for the persons, to whom the grants were
made. But these require no special mention here.
7%« Oaptnre of New Netherland from the Dutch, and
the Oreatum of the English ^Province
of New York:
The continued encroachment and pressure of the
English of Connecticut, and of the east end of Long
Liland — then practically a part of Connecticut— upon
the Dutch in New Netherland, led the Burgomasters
and Schepens of New Amsterdam and the del^ates
from the adjoining towns, in public meeting, on the
2d of November, 1663, to send a Remonstrance to the
Directors of the West India Company asking for as-
sistance and protection. In this document they make
this striking statement of their position, and the con-
dition of the Province, at that time, and the conse-
quences that would follow unless relief was afforded,
consequences which really happened in less than a
year afterward.
'* When it is considered that the Remonstrants, on
the one side, stand here between barbarous nations,
and are bounded on the other by a powerful neigh-
bour who keeps quarreling with this State about the
limits. Thus the good people are thereby brought
and reduced to a condition like unto that of a flock
without a shepherd, a prey to whomsoever will seize
6
his advantage to attack it And lastly (and what is
of the most considerable force), is evident by the ag-
gressions attempted on the part of the English Nation,
our neighbours, on divers places into the jurisdiction
of this Province ; whereof your Honors will, no doubt,
have been advised by the Director- General and Coun-
cil. Which English Nation hath, as your Remon-
strants learn, found out a way neglected by your
Honors, to provide and arm itself with a coat of mail
in the shape of an unlimited patent and commission^
which it lately obtained from his Majesty of England.^
*' So that this commission and patent being executed by
them according to their interpretation ; for experience
in State affairs teaches and abundantly exempliftes,
that the strongest are commonly in the right, and that
the feeble, ordinarily, must succumb; the total loss of
this Province is infallibly to be expected and antici-
pated, such apprehension being indubitably very
strong; or, at least, it will be so cramped and clipped,
that it will resemble only a useless trunk, shorn of
limbs and form, divested of all its internal parts, the
head separated from the feet; and therefore the Re-
monstrants would be, if not at once, wholly oppressed,
and reduced to such a state of anxiety, as to be des-
perately necessitated, to their irreparable ruin, to
abandon and quit this Province, and thus become
outcasts with their families.
"It being objected and pleaded by the above named
English, as a pretext for their designs, that the real
right and propriety of this Province and its territories
were not duly proved and justified on your Honors
parts by proper commission and patent from their
High Mightinesses. Whence it appears in conse-
quence of the want of such commission and patent,
the obtaining whereof from their High Mightinesses
has been so long postponed, as if your Honors have
been pleased to place the good inhabitants of this
Province, as it were, upon glare ice, and have given
them grounds and lands to which you have no real
right.' And in this way, too, the well intentioned
English who have settled under your Honors Gov-
ernment are held in a labyrinth and a maze, without
any right assurance how they shall have to demean
themselves in observing the oath taken by them.
[of allegiance to the Company and the Slates- GetiercU],
Wherefore the Remonstrants in these their troubles,
afflictions, intricacies, and extreme necessity, are
cotne, in all humility, to throw themselves on your
Honors consideration, fervently and heartily praying
you to be pleased to enable them exactly to apply
the essential means, whereby, they, your Honor's
most faithful servants, may be effectually supported
and maintained in the real possession of the lands,
properties, and what depends thereon, which were
given and granted them by the above mentioned ex-
1 The Connecticut Patent, granted to the New Bavcu and Hartford aet-
tlemenu on the 23d of April, 1U62.
s Special patents Hnd charten, like thoee under Eiigllflh law, were not
favoi-ed by the Buiuun Butch lavf of Holland.
74
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTT.
emptiona, and by them possesfled at the expense of
vaat labor, bloody fatigue, and the outpouring of
countless drops of sweat." *
The formal enactment of the W. I. Company's
Charter of Privileges by the States-General, and of the
different charters of " Freedoms and Exemptions "
were amply sufficient for all purposes under the Law
of the United Prorinces, to vest perfect titles to all
lands granted under them in New Netherland.
The English of Hartford and New Haven, only
obtained their Charter of Connecticut from Charles
II., on the 23d of April, 1662. Not till after they
got this document, did they seriously claim that
the Dutch had no title by patent from the States-
General. The claim was baseless, and only made as
a cover for encroachment.
Ten days after the above Remonstrance was drawR
up and, later, on the 10th of November, 1663, Di-
rector Stuyvesant, in a despatch referring to it, also
fully and vigorously warns the Company in Holland,
in these words ; —
" In regard to the unrighteous, stubborn, impudent,
and pertinacious proceedings of the English at Hart-
ford. I can only repeat what has for many years past,
and especially these two last, been so frequently
stated, set forth, and requested ; all which neither
time, nor opportunity, permits us to relate and include
herein. Your Honors will be able to see from the in-
closures, what efforts have been made agreeably to
your Honors letters, to conclude, in this country, a
settlement of the Boundary with our neighbors. It
was first attempted by the Director- General in person
at the general meeting of the four Englii^h Colonies
at Boston ; and since on the advice of three of the
Colonies,^ by our Commissioners, viz : Mr. Comelis
van Ruyven, Secretary Oloif Stevens Cortlandt, Bur-
gomaster of this city, and John Laurens (Lawrence),
burgher and merchant, made to the General Court,
or Legislature, at Hartford.
" On reading over both journals, your Honors will
not only perceive the impossibility of effecting any-
thing here, unless all be given up to them, hardly ex-
cepting alone what the Dutch Nation justly possessed
and settled on Manhatans Island and on the North
River.
'^ By virtue of a patent signed in the year 1626, Bos-
ton [Afassnchusetta] claims whatever is north of 42J
degrees. East and West, from one sea to the other.
This line includes the whole of the Colonic of Rens-
selaers-Wyck, the village of Bever-wyck, and all the
Mohawk and Seneca country. Again, the General
Court at Hartford lay claim to, and demand, in vir-
tue of the newly obtained patent [that far Oonnec-
ticut of 1662], all the country lying South of the afore-
said line of 42J degrees, and westerly until it touches
another Royal Patent, and therein include all of New
III. Col. Hist., 478.
s 3Iaaiachuw»tta declined to take part In the necond conference.
Netherland, south to the seacoast, and west to a Royal
patent ; and furthermore declare positively ; —
*' JFlrst, Contrary to the advice of the other three
colonies, that the treaty concluded at Hartford, An".
1650, is null and void.
"/Secondly, That they will dissolve the Union with
the other three colonies, [rather] than acquiesce, to
the prejudice of their patent, in the advice of the
Commissioners at Boston.
" Thirdly. They know no New Netherland, nor gov-
ernment of New Netherland} except only the Dutch
plantation on the Island of Manhatan.
"Fourthly. They will and must take Westchester,
and all the English towns on Long Island, under
their protection, by virtue of their patent, without
being obliged to wait for any further order of the
King, since such was their understanding.
" Fifthly and lastly, 'Tis evident and clear from their
repeated declaration, that were Westchester and the
five English towns on Long Island,' surrendered by
us to the Colony of Hartford, and what we have justly
possessed and settled on Long Island left to us, it
would not satisfy them, because it would not be pos-
sible to bring them sufficiently to any further arrange-
ment with us by commissioners to be chosen on both
sides by the mediation of a third party ; and as in
case of disagreement, they assert in addition, that
they may possess and occupy, in virtue of their un-
limited patent,^ the lands lying vacant and unsettled
on both sides of the North River and elsewhere, which
would certainly always cause and create new preten-
sions and disputes, even though the Boundary were
provisionally settled here." He further says, that if a
settlement of all disputes cannot be obtained and ef-
fected through their High Mightinesses with " Ambas-
sador Douwning,"^ and by them both, and their High
Mightinesses Resident in England, with his Majesty,
"by next spring, one of two things is certainly and
assuredly to be apprehended ; — ^bloodshed, and with
bloodshed, which they seem only to wish, loss of all
we possess, if proper, active, opposition be not offered
to the English or their daily encroachments and in-
trusions; reducing under their obedience now this,
and then that, place, and occupying suitable spots,
here and there, up the North river, and elsewhere,
abundance of which are yet unpeopled and unset-
tled." •
But the clear-headed and patriotic Director-General
was greatly mistaken in "Ambassador Douwning," or
rather in his expectation that that envoy would aid in
bringing matters to a settlement. Sir George Down-
ing was as inimical to the Dutch nation as Gk)vernor
Winthrop or any other Connecticut Englishman. He
had been long in Holland under Cromwell and dis-
• Qrevoeend, Hempstead, Flushing, Newtown and Jamaica.
* Its claim was westward to the sea.
ft Sir Richard Downing, the English envoy to HoUand at that Ume.
oil. Col. Hist.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
75
liked and feared the Dutch. When it was evident
that Charles the 2d would be restored, he hastened to
make his peace with him, and the Duke of York,
before they left the Netherlands. Sharp, unprincipled,
and determined to break down Dutch power, and Dutch
commercial supremacy, if he could, he was the last man
to give any assistance to effect such a solution of the
Dutch and English difficulties as Stuy vesant deitired.
The Duke of York, though he should not have pos-
sessed such feelings towards the people who had be-
friended his brother and himselfin their exile, also was
personally unfriendly to the Dutch Nation. Certain
libels against him though punished by the Dutch
courts, had not been punished as thoroughly, or as
soon, as he wished. The Dutch West India Company
in trading under their charter to the Guinea coast, in-
terfered with the business of the Royal African Com-
pany of which he was the Governor. He complained
of the Dutch on this account before the English Parlia-
ment, and, of his own authority as Liord High Admiral,
sent a fleet to harass them on the coast of Africa. There-
fore it was as a matter of revenge, as well as hoped for
profit, that he obtained from Charles the 2d on the 12th
of March, 1664, O. S.,^ only a year and eleven months
after the date of the Connecticut Colony's Patent, a gift
by patent of the whole of New Netherland, based on
the sailing along its coast by the Cabots, in the reign
of Henry VII., without proof of their having seen it,
and though no actual possession of it was ever taken
by them or anybody else, prior to the discovery, and
actual settlement, by the Dutch, a hundred years and
a little more afterwards. There was actual peace be-
tween the Dutch and English nations at the date of
the patent, and at the time of the seizure by the latter,
though war broke out soon afterward ; a fact which
deepened the flagrancy of one of the most striking in-
stances of the rapacity and wickedness of a strong
people dealing with a weaker one, in all history.
Borrowing four vessels of the English navy, of
which he was Lord High Admiral, the Duke of York
sent an expedition under the command of Colonel
Richard Nicolls, with Sir Robert Carr, George Cart-
wright and Samuel Mavericke as co-commissioners
with Mathias Nicolls, subsequently Secretary for
New York, and a few other English officers, in com-
mand of about 450 men, to visit the Plantations
in New England, and to "reduce" the Dutch Province
of New Netherland " to an entire obedience to our
government" as their instructions from the King
expressed it.' These instructions, and the special
communications from Charles 2d to Massachusetts
and Connecticut in relation to the commission and
its powers were dated the' 23d of April, 1664, as
well as his "Private Instructions " which were only
to be considered by the commissioners between
1 The original, a beautiful MS. is in tha State Library at Albany. It ia
printed in II. Col. Hist. 205 ; Bred. II. 661.
>ni. Col. Hist, 62.
themselves.' The Royal Commission to Nicolls and
the others, was dated two days later, on the 25th
of April, 1664. The latter, strange to say, does
not mention, or even refer to. New Netherland.*
Why this remarkable omission was made is not
now known, but such is the fact. On the second
of April, 1664, three weeks previously, the Duke
of York had given Colonel Richard Nicolls a com-
mission from himself as his Deputy Gk>vernor. ' This
document after redting the King's Patent to him-
self, and a brief description of the boundaries therein
set forth, continues: — **And whereas I have con-
ceived a good opinion of the integrity, prudence,
ability, and fitness of Richard Nicolls, Esquire,
to be employed as my Deputy there, I have thought
fit to constitute and appoint, and I do hereby con-
stitute and appoint him the said Eiehard Nicolh,
Esquire, to be my Deputy Governor within the land^,
Islands, and places aforesaid, To perform and execute
all and every the powers which are by the said Let-
ters Patent granted unto me to be executed by my
Deputy Agent or Assign. To Havb and to Hold
the said place of Deputy-Governor unto the said
Richard NicoUs Esquire, during my will and pleasure
only ; Hereby willing, and requiring, all and every the
Inhabitants of the said Lands, Island:?, and places, to
give obedience to him the said Richard Nicolls, in
all things according to the tenor of his Majesty's said
Letters Pattent."*^
Under the King's Patent of the 12th March, 1664,
and these Instructions and commissions from Charles
2d, and the Duke of York, the forcible seizure and
annexation of the Province of New Netherland to
the English Kingdom was effected.
The expedition, consisting ofthe Guinea of 86 guns,
Capt. Hugh Hyde, the Elias of 80 guns, Capt. William
Hill, the Martin of 16 guns, Capt. Edward Grove, and
the William and Nicholas, Capt. Morley, of 10 guns,
carrying the commissioners and a body of troops,
about 450 in number, sailed from Portsmouth. on the
15th of May, 1664. Nicolls the commander-in-chief
and Cartwright embarked in the Guinea, and Carr
and Mavericke in the Martin. Their orders were to
rendezvous in Gardiner's Bay, at the CASt end of Long
Island. The voyage was long, the vessels got sepa-
rated, and the Martin, and Nicholas and William,
were obliged to run into Piscataway (Portsmouth)
New Hampshire on the 20th of July, 1664, whence
Mavericke the same day wrote the following brief ac-
count of the voyage to Capt. Breedon of Boston ;—
" It hath pleased God (after a tedious voyage of neare
ten weeks time) That two of our ships arrived here
this afternoon at Pascataway where wee hourly ex-
pect our other two; the Guiney comanded by Capt.
Hyde wee lost sight, of this day se' night, and Capt.
a Ibid., 51-63. * Ibid.. 64.
« Book of PiiteDtfl, AlbAoy, II. 11G-I18 ; U. Brud., 153 ; Learning and
Spicer's Jeivey Laws, C6d.
76
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Hill with the Elyas on Sunday last. * * * « our
stay here being only for a little water and our other
shipps, which if they come not in time, we must go
to our appointed port in Long Island.'' Three days
later, on the 23d of July, the Guinea and Elias arrived
at Boston. Nicolls wrote at once to Thomas Willet at
Plymouth, and Gov. Winthrop at Hartford, and ap-
plied for assistance. On the 29th of July the vessels
from "Pascataway" arrived at Boston. Further
letters from Nicolls were sent to Winthrop asking for
aid, and to Thomas Willete at Plymouth, and direct-
ing them to meet the expedition at the west, instead
of the east, end of Long Island. A few days later the
ships sailed, and piloted by New Englanders, came
direct to New Utrecht, or Nayack, Bay, now called
Gravesend Bay, between the west end of Coney Island
and the main, the Guinea arriving on the 25th of August,
and the other three vessels three days later, on the 28th.
Winthrop with other Connecticut officials, and
armed men, from that colony and the east end of
Long Island, met them there, as well as Thomas
Clarke and John Pynchon, of Boston, with offers of
military aid from Massachusetts. On the 8th of the
preceding July Thomas Willett had heard, from a
young man of the name ofLord, a rumor from Boston,
that an expedition had sailed from England to attack
New Netherland, and immediately informed Governor
StU3rTesant, but subsequently, for some reason, alleged
that the troops had disembarked, that Commissioners
to settle the boundaries were appointed, and that
there was no danger. This put an end to Stuy vesant's
anxiety, and he went to Albany to settle a quarrel
among the Indians in that neighborhood. He was
also lulled into security by the receipt of a despatch
from the Directors at Amsterdam that no danger from
England need be entertained as the King only wanted
to reduce his own colonies to uniformity in church
and State.^ The truth was, that the Directors of the
Company, intently engaged in the public affairs of
Holland (it was the period of John de Witt's ascen-
dancy and the efforts of the Prince of Orange's party
to destroy it) really neglected New Netherland, and
their own interests there, giving both such slight at-
tention, as not only disappointed its people, and their
own officials, but facilitated, the treacherous action of
the English King, and inclined its inhabitants to yield
with less resistance and feeling to his military power,
than they otherwise would.
Of course no real resistance,' greatly as he desired
to make it, could be offered, by Director-General
StUYvesant, and his people ; and after several days
negotiations, Articles of Capitulation were definitely
settled by a commission, composed of John De Decker,
Nicholas Varleth, Samuel Megapolensis, Cornells
Steenwyck, Jacques Cousseau, and Oloff Stevens
in. O'Cftii.,6".
SThe details of StnyTeeanVs action at thiscrislR are too nnmorons to be
given in an eanj or this kind, and are so generally known, at least in
their outlines, as nut to need further mention.
van Cortlandt, on the part of Director Stuyvesant,
and Robert Carr, George Carteret, John Win-
throp, Samuel Willys, John Pynchon, (the latter
three of Connecticut), and Thomas Clarke (of Ma»'
sachtisette) on the part of Gk)vemor Nicolls, and con-
sented to by both. The negotiations took place, and
the terms were finally agreed upon, on Saturday,
September 6th, 1664, at Gov. Stuyvesant's house in
the Bowery. This house, as I have been told by the
Hon. Hamilton Fish, now. the oldest living descend-
ant of Stuyvesant, stood on what is now the block
between 12th and 13th Streets facing the Third
Avenue, as that part of the Bowery road is now called,
and on the east side of that avenue. The old Stuy-
vesant pear tree which stood till within a few years
at the north east corner of 18th St. and Third
Avenue wa^ one the Governor planted in his
garden. Nicolls ratified the articles the same
day. The next day was Sunday, during which the
Director-General and his Council considered them,
and early on the morning of the succeeding day, Mon-
day, September 8th, 1664, ratified them. About eleven
o'clock of the same morning Stuyvesant marched out of
the fort with the honors of war, at the head of the Dutch
regulars, about 150 in number, and through Beaver
street to the ship ** Gideon," in which they were at
once embarked for Holland, though she did not sail
till some days later. A corporal's guard of the Eng-
lish took possession of the fort as the Dutch marched
out. " Col. Nicolla's and Sir Robert Carr's compan-
ies one hundred and sixty-eight strong, formed into
six columns of about thirty men each, next entered
New Amsterdam ; whilst Sir George Cartwright oc-
cupied with his men the city gates and Town Hall.*'
The volunteers from Connecticut and Long Island,
were detained at the ferry at " Brenkelen," " as the
citizens dreaded most being plundered by them."
Finally the Burgomasters having proclaimed Nicolls
Governor, he called Fort Amsterdam " Fort James,"
and the name of the city and Province he changed
to " New York." ' Thus ended the Dutch dominion
in America, and thus forever passed away the great
Batavian Province of New Netherland from the Re-
public of the United Netherlands.
The Articles of Capitulation were twenty-three in
number, and never were more favorable terms granted
by a superior power. Great prudence on one side
was met by great liberality on the other, and Nicolls
proved that he was all that his commission as Dep-
uty-Grovernor described him, honest, prudent, able,
and fit. It would be foreign to our purpose to discuss
these Articles of Capitulation, or as usually termed
'* Surrender," at length.* Those only which bear
upon our subject will be mentioned, viz — ^the third,
eighth, eleventh, twelfth, sixteenth, and twenty-first.
They are as follows : —
sil.O'Call., 536.
* Ttiey are to be found in II. Col., Hist., 260 ; I. Brod., 762, and in many
other lilsturical wurlis.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
77
" III. Ail people shall still continue free denizens,
and shall enjoy their lands, houses, goods, wheresoever
thej are within this country, and dispose of them as
they please.
"VIII. The Dutch here shall enjoy the liberty of
their consciences in divine worship and church dis-
cipline.
" XI. The Dutch here shall enjoy their own customs
concerning their inheritances.
"XII. All publique writings and records, which
concern the inheritances of any people, or the regle-
ment [regulation] of the church, or poor, or orphans
shall be carefully kept by those in whose hands now
they are, and such writings as particularly concern
the States-General may at any time be sent to them.
"XVI. All inferior civil officers and magistrates
shall continue as now they are (if they please) till the
customary time of new elections, and then new ones
to be chosen by themselves, provided that such new
chosen magistrates shall take the oath of allegiance
to his majesty of England before they enter upon
their office.
"XXI. That the town of Manhattans shall choose
Deputyes, and those Deputyes shall have free voyces
in all publique affiiires as much as any other Depu-
tyes."
By the third, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth, all
Dutch grants of land under the' former laws and or-
dinances, of the Province, and under the Roman-
Dutch law, were acknowledged as valid, and the
possession of them confirmed to their owners, as well
as their former power of disposing of them by will, and
all legal incidents thereto appertaining. This settled
the question of the holding of the lands by their owners,
at once, and proved that there would be no confiscation,
or other interference with them, and no imposing of
any English law of inheritance.
The sixteenth article confirmed and continued in
their offices all the civil magistrates and officers of
every grade in the country, from the highest to the
lowest, and provided for the election of their success-
ors, under the existing Dutch laws, conditioned only
that the new officers, should take the oath of alle-
giance to their new English King. No such oath was
wisely demanded of the old ones, and the administra-
tion of justice, not only in regard to lands, but in all
its forms, went on precisely as if no change of govern-
ment had taken place.
The twenty-first article confirmed to the City of
New York, all the civil rights and powers it had un-
der its former organization, and under the Assem-
blies which had been called, and in which it had been
represented, during Stuyvesant's administration. Its
lands were preserved to it, and all rights in rela-
tion thereto, by the same articles, which preserved
the other lands of the province to their respective
owners, as well as all the municipal rights, powers,
and privileges the city possessed under the Dutch
rule.
The Eighth article, in connexion with the twelfth,
preserved, maintained, and continued, to the Estab-
lished Dutch Church all its rights, privileges, and im-
munities of creed and worship, and guaranteed to it
freedom of conscience and church discipline, as well
as the continuance of its regulations, as to its own
concerns, and to the poor and to orphans, in the same
hands, and under the same control, that they had ever
been. But these articles did not continue it as the
Established Church of the Province, or provide for its
maintenance and control as such, by the government,
or rather, through the government, as had been the
case under the West India Company, and all the
Charters of Freedoms and exemptions from the first
to the last They did however continue and guaran-
tee to it everything else. Its lands and all its rights
of property were guaranteed and continued to it by the
same third, eighth, eleventh and twelfth articles,
which guaranteed and maintained all the other land-
holders of the Province in their rights of possession
and property in their realty. In short the Dutch
Church was acknowledged in its existence, confirmed
in its creed, discipline, and worship, maintained in
the possession of its property, and guaranteed in its
rights in every respect and in every way. Nothing
was altered, nothing abrogated, except its position as
the Established Church of New Netherland. That
was determined by the fall of the Dutch Province.
Both were ended by the surrender to England. The
new Province of New York had during its whole ex-
istence no connexion officially, with the Dutch
Church, or any other church, except "the Church of
England as by law established."
When the Province was recaptured by the Dutch
on the 8th of August 1673 the Dutch Church was re-
established in all her rights, privileges, and powers,
as she originally possessed them. And when the sec-
ond surrender to the English was made pursuant to
the treaty of Westminster in September 1674, all were
guaranteed to her again precisely as in 1664, except,
of course, her position as an establishment ; and she
was also permitted to keep up her ecclesiastical con-
nexion with, and subjection to, the ecclesiastical
bodies of the Established Church of Holland, a con-
nexion and dependence which continued unimpaired
until the close of the American Revolution more than
a century later. The position of the Dutch Church
as an Established Church, was the reason why it was
so particularly guarded, and provided for, in the
Articles of Capitulation of 1664, and again in the
special articles of surrender formulated by Governor
Colve, and carried into effect by the English Gk)vernor
Andross, in 1674, no other church being mentioned or
referred to in either. And to this circumstance is
owing the fact, that it was in consequence of these
provisions in both sets of articles, that during the en-
tire existence of New York as an English Province,
the Dutch Church was ever treated with greater favor
than any other church dissenting from the Church of
78
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
England; and that between these two churches a cor-
dial relation ever existed, and one which has been
maintained down to this day, when both churches are
flourishing, each with a name slightly changed, under
a new political dominion, to a degree which was im-
possible under either of the dominions of old.
The change from the Dutch system of goTemment
and laws to that of the English, was very gradual in-
deed. It was no part of the policy of the Duke of
York to make changes other than what might be ab-
solutely necessary. All that he insisted upon, at first,
was, that he should be acknowledged as Lord Propri-
etor of the Province under the Patent from his brother
King Charles the 2d, of 1652. The prudence, skill and
wisdom of Richard Nicolls, his Deputy Governor, after
much objection and opposition, which he completely
and gently overcame, effected this; and between the
20th and 25th of October^ 1664, hardly five weeks after
the surrender, all the former Dutch officials, and nearly
three hundred of the male inhabitants of New York,
including Stuyvesant, van Cortlandt, van Ruyven,
van Rensselaer and Beekman, took the oath of alle-
giance to Charles the 2d and the Duke of York, as the
lawful Sovereign, and the lawful Lord Proprietor of
New York.
8.
The English Syttem in the Province of New York under
the Duke of York as Lord Proprietor,
From the eighth day of September, 1664, when the
gurrender of New Netherland to the English took
place, the right of soil, the right of domain, the right
of jurisdiction, and the source of power, in the Prov-
ince of New York, was vested, and acknowledged to
be vested, in the Duke of York under the Patent to
him from King Charles the Second of the 12th of
March, 1664. In this Patent, perhaps the strongest,
most sweeping, and most comprehensive in its terms,
of any granted in America by an English Monarch,
the King gave to the Duke the entire territory of New
Netherland therein described, (though of course that
name was not used) upon this tenure, namely; — "To
be holden of us our Heirs and Successors, as of our
Manor of East Greenwich and our County of Kent,
in free and common soccage and not in Capite, nor by
Knight Service, yielding and rendering * * * * of and
for the same, yearly and every year, forty beaver
skins when they shall be demanded, or within Ninety
days after."
The Patent was drawn by Lord Chancellor Claren-
don, the Duke's father-in-law, and practically vested
in him all the powers of an absolute Sovereign, sub-
ject only in the execution of them to the laws of Eng-
land. But in all matters not covered by those laws,
his own rule in person, or by his Deputy-Governor,
was supreme. The only power that was reserved to
the King was the hearins: and determining of Appeals
from Judgments and Sentences.
The theory of the Patent was, that the King had
resumed control of a territory originally belonging to
the Crown by the right of its discovery by the Cabots.
That all people therein, Indians excepted, were tres-
passers without legal right, that the territory was
without lawful government, that the Sovereign of Great
Britain, of his own right, therefore established there-
in such government as he saw fit. That he chose to
give, and did give, in the exercise of such right, the
entire territory, and his own powers and rights there-
in, and thereover, to his brother the Duke of York,
with ftill authority to establish, and carry them into
effect, as he should see fit. The only proviso, aa to
all " Laws, Orders, Ordinances, Directions and Instru-
ments " that the Duke or his Deputy might make or
execute, was, that they should ** be not contrary to,
but, as near as conveniently may be, agreeable to the
Laws, Statutes and Government of this our Realm of
England."*
The principle the English acted on, was, that as
regards the territory of New Netherland, the right of
conquest governed, and the King could institute therein
such form of government, system of laws and other in-
stitutions, as he pleased. This view was not at all satis-
factory to the owners and holders of land under Con-
necticut titles in Suffolk County, Long Island, who
were the very earliest to obtain new grants and patents
from the Duke of York. The towns there took out
patents from the Duke, with extreme reluctance, but
they did it, nevertheless. Among these patents were
that of Smithtown to Richard Smith of the Sd of
March, 1665, that for Gardiner's Island in the same
year, and that for Shelter Island to the Sylvesters of
June 1st, 1666.
The principle just mentioned was essentially modi-
fied in its application by two things. It was limited
by the terms of the Articles of Surrender, which bound
the conqueror as well as the conquered. And it was
also limited by that rule of the law of nations, which
provides that the ancient laws of a conquered people
remain in force till changed by the conqueror.
Under these instruments and principles the rule
of England, and the Lord Proprietorship of the Duke
of York had its beginning in the "Province of New
York in America." That Proprietorship lasted twen-
ty-one years, (excepting only the fift;een months of
the Dutch reconquest), ending on the 6th of February,
1685, on which day, by the death of his brother,
King Charles, the Duke became James the Second,
King of England. His Proprietary rights merging
in those of the Crown on his accession to the throne,
New York became thenceforward a Royal Province
under a Royal Government, uncontrolled by any
charter. From that time till the close of the Amer-
ican Revolution by the Peace of 1783, she so remained,
the freest and most flourishing of all the British
American Provinces, ruled by her own people, enact-
ing her own laws, supporting her own government
> See ratent.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
79
and local institutions by taxation imposed by her
own elected Legialatore, and by her own parish, town,
and county authorities.
The slight interruption, by the Dutch reconquest
from the 9th of August, 1673, to the 10th of Novem-
ber, 1674, did not, except for the time being, change
the character of the Proprietorship of the Duke of
Yurk in point of fact. But as the Province was re-
stored by the Dutch to England as a conquest under
a treaty and a formal surrender of it pursuant to such
treaty, the crown lawyers in England held that the
Dutch reconquest in 1673 terminated the Duke's
Proprietorship; and that the renamed Province of
New Netherland was vested anew in Charles the
Second as King solely by the treaty of Westminster
in 1674. Therefore a new Patent was granted by the
King to the Duke on (he 29th of June, 1674. It was
almost in the same words as the first, vesting him
again with the same sweeping and absolute rights
and powers, but not mentioning the first Patent nor
referring to it in any way. The object of this second
Patent was to cure the defect in the first, that it was
signed, sealed, and delivered, while the Dutch were
in actual possession of the territory it described, and
therefore it was, by the law of England, void; and
was not subsequently confirmed by Charles the Sec-
ond after the title was really vested in him in 1677,
by the treaty of Breda. Had Charles made such a
confirmation, no second Patent would have been re-
quired.
The new Patent of 1674, on its face was an original
grant, but in fact it simply revested the Duke with
all the rights, powers, jurisdiction and territory he
possessed under the Patent of 1664.
These facts are distinctly stated, because the valid-
ity of the confirmations of all Dutch ground briefs,
transports, and other grants, and all subsequent Eng-
lish grants during the Proprietorship of the Duke of
York, and the later Royal Government, as well as
those originally made by Connecticut authorities on
Long Island, and subsequently confirmed by the
Duke, rests upon them.
The tenure by which the Duke of York held his
Province in New York was allodial in its nature.
In this respect it was the same as that under which,
as has previously been shown, the Dutch West In-
dia Company held New Netherland under their
charter, and the Patroons held their Patroonships
under the different '^ Freedoms and Exemptions."
But it was not to follow a good Dutch example, that
this tenure was granted by the King and accept e<fby the
Duke, but because the law of England had then been
recently changed, and neither King nor Duke could
do otherwise, even if they wished, of which there is
no evidence. Four years before New York was given
by the King to the Duke, and its surrender by the
Dutch, the Parliament of England had passed that
Great Act, second only to Magna Charta itself,— if it
was second,— in its effect on English liberty, and
the rights of English subjects, the act abolishing
feudal tenures, and all their oppressive incidents for-
ever throughout the realm.
This was the famous " 12 Charles II, cap. 24,"
and its title is, " An Act taking away the Court of
Wards and Liveries, and Tenures in Capite, and by
Knight Service, and Purveyance, and for settling a
Revenue upon his Majesty in lieu thereof." It swept
away, at one blow, all the grievous feudal military
tenures, their great exactions, and the means possessed
by the monarch for enforcing them, as well as all
charges payable to the King, or any lord paramount
under him, arising therefrom; and prohibited their
creation afterward, forever. After the clauses of aboli-
tion, the act continues, — "And all tenures of any
honours, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments,
of any estate of inheritance at the common law,
held either of the King, or of any other person, or
persons, bodies politic or corporate, are hereby enact-
ed to be turned into free and common socage, . . .
any law, custom, or usage to the contrary hereof in
any way notwithstanding." ^ The fourth section pro-
vided, " That all tenures hereafter to be created by
the King's Majesty, his heirs or successors, upon any
gifts or grants of any manors, lands, tenements, or
hereditaments, of any estate of inheritance at the
common law, shall be in free and common socage
only, . . . and not by Knight Service or in
Capite."
As this abolition deprived the King of large reve-
nues, and the means of supporting his military, and
other governmental expenses, the act granted to him
as a recompense duties upon beer, ale, and other
articles in common use.'
It is thus seen not only that there were no feudal
rights nor privileges granted in New York to the
Duke of York by his Patente, but that the King had
no power whatever to grant any to him, or to anybody
else. And none ever were granted by any British
Sovereign, or British Governor, in that Province. The
rights and privileges contained in the subsequent
Manor grants in New York, were simply those ap-
pertaining to, and consistent with, the free socage
tenure on which they were granted, and under which
they were held.
This allodial tenure of land, though it has been for-
merly referred to under the Roman Dutch legal system
of New Netherland, may now be more fully described,
as it was also the tenure by which all lands in New York
under the English system were held.
1 Section 1 of the act.
>" Up to the panage of this act, every tree land-owner waa burdened
with military service, which was not considered an incident of tenure, but
a duty to the State/' Digby'a Law of Real Property, 20. Hence, (he
•ubatitution of taxation in lieu of military aerrice by this act, is the
foundation of governmental support by taxation, both in England and
America, and of the existing systems of taxation in both eonntiies.
The military tenures " were sold, or released to the country in considera-
tion of the hereditary revenue of excise by the Statute, 12 ch. 2, c. 24."
Fourth Keport of the £ugU»h Law Commissioners, IIU.
80
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
The law of land both in Holland and England was
of Teutonic origin. In the fonner country it was
modified earlier than in the latter by the conquest
by the Romans, and the introduction of the Roman
Law, and at a later period in each, by the introduc-
tion of the Canon L:iw. IJie Teutonic idea of
property in land was based on its conquest by a body
of men under a leader or chief, — a successful barbaric
invasion. The land so won was considered the com-
mon property of its captors, not of the leader alone.
He, as chief, had the regulation of the distribution
of the conquest among the conqueror*, and of the
cultivation of the land by the distributees who re-
ceived it As he was the leader of this community in
war so he was its head in time of peace.
The land thus belonging to the community was in
both Holland and England considered as what we
should now call "public land." Among the Saxons
it was called " folcland," that is, land of the folk, or
people. As civilization progressed and Christianity
was introduced, the band of barbaric invaders, or
tribe, adopted, of necessity, a political organization.
The leader became a chief of a district or principality,
or king of a petty kingdom; his followers became
his supporters or subjects; and the land was made
the source of revenue, by its being given in separate
parcels to individuals in severalty as their private
property. Lands so given were granted by a writ-
ten " book " as it was termed, which was a deed or
charter, delivered to the grantee, and it was then said
to be " booked '• to him, from which it was called "boc-
land," that is, booked land. This '* book," or grant,
stated that the grantee was to hold the land free from
all burdens and from any services or money payment,
except three, — military aid in cafe of invasion, manual,
or money aid in the repairing of fortresses, and in the
repairing of bridges, wbich duties were borne by all
landholders indiscriminately, and was termed the trin-
oda necessitas, or threefold obligation. This military
aid, was simply the liability to be called on to defend the
country in case of attack, and not the tenure by knight
.service under the feudal system, which tenure was
unknown in England till after the Norman conquest.
Thus before that event all land in England was either
' folcland" or "bocland."^
All land not made 'bocland' remained * folcland'
and was held in common by the community. Later
it became vested in the chief, as its head man, and
subject to his control. " Nearly, if not quite coex-
tensive with the conception of " bocland," says Dig-
by, "was that of allodial land. The term *alod,'
allodial, did not, however, have any necessary refer-
ence to the mode in which the ownership of land had
been conferred; it simply meant, land held in abso-
lute ownership, not in dependence upon any other
body or person in whom the proprietary rights were
supposed to reside, or to whom the possessor of the land
1 DIgby's Hilt. Law of Real Property, Cli. I. Sect. 1.
was bound to render service." * It was another name
for *bocland' and signified that it was devisable by
will, and in case of intestacy was divisible among
children equally.' It could be freely sold at pleasure
by its possessor ; or its beneficial enjoyment could be
granted by him for a longer or shorter term, at the
end of which it reverted to him or his heirs; when
this last disposition of it was made it was called
" laenland," literally loan land, or in modern parlance
leased land.
The success of the Norman Conquest of England
changed almost entirely these early allodial tenures.
William the Conqueror introduced the military tenure
of" Knight-sen'ice " or " in chivalry," with all its feudal
attributes and exactions, which had come into yogae
in the western and southern portions of the European
continent. That system with its correlative rights of
protection by the King or the lord, and of service as
soldiers by the tenants or vassals, carried down
through all classes of society from the highest to the
lowest, termed the feudal system, thus introduced, be-
came the basis of the English land system and land
law. From William of Normandy to Charles the
Second, gradually developed in the earliest reigns of
the Norman Kings to its fullest extent, its principles
governed English land, English law, and English
thought, until the enactment of the statute of 1660 in
the twelfth year of Charles the Second abolished
feudalism forever, practically restored the old Saxon
allodial tenures, and turned to freedom the mind of
England. " Perhaps," said that most learned chief
justice of Massachusetts, James Sullivan, in 1801,
then that State's Attorney-General, " the English Na-
tion are more indebted to this one act for the share of
liberty they have enjoyed for a century and a half
past, and for the democratic principles by that law
retained in their government, than to Magna Charta,
and all the other instruments of which they boast."'
To show how entirely different the "feudal sys-
tem" was from the systems introduced into New
York by the Dutch and English ; and how erroneous
have been, and are, the views that have been ex-
pressed by American, and New England, as well as
New York, writers, respecting the latter, it will be
well to recur to what "feudalism" really was.
Scarcely any subject of an historic«al nature has
been more fully and thoroughly investigated, studied,
and written upon, in late years, by modern historical
scholars than this. Germany, France, and England,
have each produced writers who have given to the
world the results of searches and investigations of the
most exhaustive character; von Maurer, Waitz,
Eichorn, Roth, and Richter, in the former, Guizot,
• The word "alod" (Latinized Into allodium, whence the English
** allodial **) does not occur in An^lo Saxon documents before the
elereuth century, when it appears in the Latin of Canute's laws in the
Colbertine MS. as the equivalent of "bocland" or "hereditas. "
Stubbs Cons. Hist. 7G, n.
SHist. Land Titles in Ma«. 52.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
81
Thieny, Sismondi, Lavel^ye in France, and Palgrave,
Austin, Freeman, Digby, Maine, and Stubbs in Eng-
land. The latter, the latest writer on this subject,
has treated it so taWy, that a short statement almost
in his own words will make the Inatter clear.
Feudalism was of distinctly Frank growth. The
principle which underlies it may be universal, but
ItR historic development may be traced step by step
under Frank influence, from its first appearance on
the conquered soil of Roman Gaul to its full develop-
ment in the jurisprudence of the Middle Ages. As it
existed in England, it was brought full grown from
France at the Norman Conquest ; * and "it may be de-
scribed as a complete organization of society through
the medium of land tenure, in which from the King
down to the lowest land owner all are bound together
by obligation of service and defence: the lord to pro-
tect his vassal, the vassal to do service to his lord ;
the defence and service being based on, and regulated
by, the nature and extent of the land held by the one
or the other. As it developed territorially, the rights
of defence and service were supplemented by the
right of jurisdiction. The lord judges, as well as
defends, his vassal ; the vassal does suit as well as
service to his lord. In States in which feudal govern-
ment has reached its utmost growth, the political,
fin^cial, judicial, every branch of public administra-
tion, is regulated by the same conditions. The cen-
tral authority is a mere shadow of a name. *
It grew up from two sources, the beneficiary system
and the practice of commendation . *' The system tes-
tifies to the country and causes of its birth. The bene-
ficium is partly of Roman and partly of German ori-
gin.' In the Roman system the usufruct, the occupa-
tion of land belonging to another person, involved no
diminution of the status (the condition) of the occu-
pier ; in the Germanic system he who tilled land that
was not his own was imperfectly free. Ck)mmenda-
tion on the other hand may have had a Gallic or
Celtic origin, and an analogy only with the Roman
clientship." *
" The beneficiary system originated partly in gifts
of land made by the kings out of their own estates to
their kinsmen and servants with a special undertak-
ing to be faithful, partly in the surrender by the land-
owners of their estates to churches or powerful men
to be received back again and held by them as ten-
ants for rent or service. By the latter arrangement
1 Freeman in hln fifth volame denies this in his osual self-sufflcieDt Dian>
ner, and attacks "lawyers '* for saying so, very fiercely. But before be
ends that chapter he confines his words to govemtMntalmaUen^ and really
admits that *' the lawyers " were right after all as to the lemireM.
<I. Stubbs* Ck>n8. Hist., 252.
'The beneflcia, or benefices, were *' grants of Roman provincial land by
the chieftains of the tribes which OTorran the Soman Empire ; such
grants being conferred on their associates upon certain conditions, of
which the commonest was military service." Maine's Village Communi-
ties, 132. The same writer also says, "that in the IneradicHble tendencies
of the Teutonic race, to the hereditary principle, the benefices became
descendible from father to son.*'
« I. Stubbs' Cons. Hist. 254.
the weaker man obtained the protection of the
stronger, and he who felt himself insecure placed his
title under the defence of the church. By the prac-
tice of commendation, on the other hand, the inferior
put himself under the personal care of a lord [fhat
iSj commended himself to him, hence the term'] but with-
out altering his title, or divesting himself of his
right to his estate ; he became a vassal and did hom-
age. The placing of his hands between those of
his lord was the typical act by which the connexion
was formed. And the oath of fealty [/aith/ulness]
was taken at the same time. The union of the bencr
ficiary tie with that of commendation completed the
idea of feudal obligation ; the twofold tie on the
land, that of the lord and that of the vassal, was sup-
plemented by the twofold engagement, that of the
lord to defend, and that of the vassal to be fiiithful." *
This oath of 'fealty' and wherein it differed from
'homage* may be explained best in the words ot
Littleton, "Fealty is the same that 6delitaa is in
Latine. And when a freeholder doth fealty to his
lord he shall hold his right hand upon a booke (a
Bible) and shall say thus: Know ye this my lord,
that I shall be faithfull and true unto you, and faith
to you shall beare forthe lands which I claime to hold
of you, and that I shall lawfully doe to you the cus-
toms and services which I ought to doe, at the termes
assigxied, so help me Grod and his Saints; and he shall
kisse the booke. But he shall not kneel when he
maketh his fealty, nor shall make such humble rever-
ence as is aforesaid in homage.*
The practice of commendation became so very gene-
ral, that in the words of Sir Henry Maine, it " went
on all over Europe with singular universality of
operation, and singular uniformity of result, and it
helped to transform the ancient structure of Teutonic
society no less than the institutions of the Roman
Provincials."' It was one of the leading causes of
the universality of feudalism in Europe.
Well writes one of the most distinguished living
jurists of New York, on this subject, —
" Feudalism is compounded of barbaric usage and
Roman law. While it resembled in some respects a
Hindoo village community, it is in other respects
quite different. The Hindoo communities gathered
together by instinct, and new comers were introduced
by fiction. The feudal obligation was created by con-
tract. The feudal communities were, for this reason,
more durable and varied in character than the ancient
societies. Some would hold that the variety of
Modern Civilizaiion is due to the exuberant and er-
ratic genius of Germanic races. In opposition to this
error, it may be asserted that the Roman Empire
bequeathed to society the legal conception to which
all this variety is attributable. The one striking and
s I. stubbs, 252.
e Co. Litt., chap. II. sect. 91.
7 Hist, of Institutions, 155
82
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
characteristic fact in the customs and institutions of
barbaric races is their extreme uniformity.'' ^
The effect of feudalism on the society ot the era in
which it existed, was two fold. It repressed and
harshly kept down the personal rights and freedom of
what in our day we now term *' the masses/' but it
also gave rise to, maintained, and established in those
who then ruled the masses of that day, those feelings,
rules of conduct, and principles of action, to which
are really due the vastly higher general civilization of
both classes of people at this era. If we investigate
feudalism in its social aspects, in the words of the late
chief justice of Ceylon, '^ we shall find ample cause
for the inextinguishable hatred with which, as Guizot
truly states in History of Civilization'in Europe, it has
ever been regarded by the common people. But this
ought not to make us blind to its brighter features.
There was much in feudalism, e»pecially as developed
in the institutions of chivalry, that was pure and
graceful and generous. It ever acknowledged the high
social position of woman, it zealously protected her
honour. It favoured the growth of domestic attach-
ments, and the influence of family associations. It
fostered literature and science. It kept up a feeling
of independence, and a spirit of adventurous energy.
Above all, it paid homage to the virtues of Courage
and Truth in man, and of Affection and Constancy in
woman." *
Such was the feudal system in reality, iU origin and
principles. As a system of land tenure, or of govern-
ment, it not only never existed in the Province of New
York, but it was absolutely the opposite of the systems
of both which were there established. No lord para-
mount, either as Duke of York, or as a Lord of a
Manor, was ever known within this State while an
English Province. The former was a Proprietor only,
as William Penn and Lord Baltimore were, in Penn-
sylvania and in Maryland. The latter was an owner
in fee with no powers, rights or privileges, but those
appurtenant to, and consistent with, the freest allodial
tenure. Moreover, it not only never existed, but it
could not possibly have existed in New York. For it
was prohibited by the statute law wiihin the realm of
England four years before New York became an
integral part of the dominions of that realm.
What then was the tenure described, ** as of our
mannor of East Greenwich and our County of Kent
in free and common soccage and not in capite or by
Knight service, upon which the Province of New York
was holden under his grant from the King of Eng-
land by the Duke of York as Lord Proprietor ? "
Socage' tenure was a holding of lands by a certain
service or rent. Certainty as opposed to the uncer-
tainty of tenure by Knight service, or as sometimes
iDwIghrsIntrodactionto the American edition of Maine's Ancient
Law, LXIV.
« »\r E. Creery'B Rise of the British Constitution, 83.
> The word is now spelled with one '* c '* only.
Styled, ** in chivalry," was for its essence. It made n6
matter what the service, or rent, was, so long as it was
absolutely certain. It might be by ploughing Ian di^ for
a fixed number of days at a time fixed, or it might be
for a fixed annual reitt, payable either in cattle, produce
or in money, or it might be by homage, fealty, and a
fixed money rent, in lieu of all manner of services, or
by fealty only in lieu of every other service.* This
inherent element of certainty was what gave this
tenure its power, and has made it the only tenure by
which, in different forms and under different modifi-
cations, and under systems based upon its principles,
lands are now held in the English-speaking nations
of the world.
Property in land has a double origin. " It has
arisen," in the words of Maine, " partly from the dis-
entanglement of the individual rights of the kindred
or tribesmen, from the collective rights of the Family
or Tribe, and partly from the growth and transmuta"
tionofthe Sovereignty of the Tribal Chief. . . . Both
the sovereignty of the Chief and the ownership of
land by the Family or Tribe were in most of Western
Europe passed through the crucible of feudalism ;
but the first re-appeared in some well-marked char-
acteristics of military or Knightly tenures, and the
last in the principle rules of non-noble holdings, and
among them of Socage, the distinctive tenure o( the
free farmer." * Its essential character was " its liability
to rents and services due, not to the State, but to the
grantor, who in most cases was the lord of the manor,
holding under a charter {meaning a grant or patent)
given or confirmed by the crown." • The word socage
is generally believed to have been derived from " soca "
a plough. It was " originally applied only to husband-
men who owed fixed services for husbandry. Where
these rustic services had not been commuted for a money
rent the tenure was called ' villein socage," as distin-
guished firom ' free and common socage.' ^ In Knight-
service tenure, and in the spiritual tenure of Francal-
moigne or Free Alms, that is freedom from all earthly
services [on which churches, abbeys, and cathedrals,
in England held and still hold so many of their
lands], and in all the military tenures the services
were uncertain : from all other free tenants of lands a
fixed amount of service, or rent, was due, and their
tenures were included in the general name of socage '
It was a free tenure, the land a freehold, and the
* Litt. oh. 5, Sect. 117, 85a ; Reeve's Hist. 3d vol. ch. xxl. 49^ ;
I. Francis Sullivan's Lecturee on the Laws of England, 167 ; Christian's
BlackBtone. ii. 81, n I ; Sullivan's Mass. Land Titles, 34 ; Maine's Hist
Inst., 120 ; Stubbe' Cons. Hist., 649.
<^ Maine's Hist. Inst'ns., 120.
• Elton's Tenures of Kent, 29.
7 A villein was an inhabitant of a Tilla, the ancient name of a famif
and in the earliest times was attached to it permanently. And as
many villas were included in a manor, it had often many vflleinn* '
Thoee villeins gradually came to be allowed to hold parcels of land, on
condition of manuring, or ploughing the lord's demesne lands, or on
bnse or rustic services. Hence arose the tenure termed villein-socage.
8 Elton's Law of Copyholds, 3, note b.
»Ib. 3.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
83
holder a AreemaD, because he, as well as tne land, was
entirely free from all exactions, and from all rents
and services except those specified in his grant. So
long as these last were paid or performed, no lord or
other power could deprive him of his land, and he
could devise it by will, and in case of his death,
intestate, it could be divided among his sons
equally.*
At a later period, after the Norman conquest, this
latter quality of the tenure became changed by the
introduction of the principle of primogeniture in all
parts of England ; a principle of Teutonic origin, and
one necessary to the maintenance of the feudal syfi-
tem as a military system. One of the parts of England
which, atthetime of its conquest, first submitted peace*
ably to William of Normandy, was the Saxon Kingdom
of Kent, afterward, and now, the County of Kent, the
southeastern extremity of England. In consequence
of this action the Norman king confirmed its inhab-
itants in all their ancient laws and liberties. " Kent
was firmly attached to the Conqueror by the treaty,
which he never broke, that the law of Kent should
not be changed.*
One of the provisions of the law of Kent was the
custom or tenure of * Gafolcund ' or ' Gavelkind,' one
of the most ancient of the free socage tenures, by
which the greater portion of that county was then,
and is now held.
According to this ancient relic of the early Saxon
law, the land descended to all the sons equally, was
usually devisable by will, did not escheat in case
of attainder and execution for felony, and could be
aliened by the tenant at the age of fifteen.' It
was a freeman's tenure, and so general, thougli
not universal, in the county, that it was con-
sidered by the common law of England, and
judicially taken notice of by the King's Courts as the
" common law of Kent." The only instance in all
England of a county having a difierent common law
from the rest of the Kingdom. And it so continues
to this day. Much of its area originally gavelkind
has been changed by special acts of parliament, or, as
it was termed, ' disgaveled,' and thiis made knight ser-
vice land and subject to the law of primogeniture.^
The name is derived from the Saxon word * gafol/ or
* gavel,' [the pronunciation of the words being nmilar
in sound] which was the Saxon word for rent, ** in-
cluding in that term money, labor, and provisions." *
Gavelkind land therefore means primarily rented
land with the privileges above stated.
One of the Manors of the Crown of England was
that of East Greenwich in this favored County of
Kent which had never been reduced to the new mili-
tary tenures brought in by the Norman Conqueror,
and owed no claim for suit or services or other obli-
>T»<Kby.72, •mton>TenuPM0fKent,72.
»T»1flchy'i» HIrt. H«il l»Poperty. 38," n. 2.
* Eltou'c Tenuret uf Kept jxuaim. ^ Ibid. 29.
gat ion than that of fealty and allegiance.* Hence it
was that when the tenure of the British {^ants iu
America came to be settled, it was described as of our
Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent,
that manor being held only " in free and common
soccage." The object being to give to the new pos-
sessions in America the most &vorable tenure then
known to English law.
The fixed "service" or "rent" on which New
York was held in socage by the Duke of York was
the yearly payment of *' forty beaver skins when they
shall be demanded or in ninety days after." When
the Puke became King in 1686, this nominal rent
ceased and he held the Province from that date as
Sovereign of England. And under him and his suc-
cessors, from that year until the peace of 1788, by vir-
tue of this fact New York continued to be a Royal
Province, under Royal Governors commissioned by
its English monarchs under their signs manual.
As such representatives of their Sovereigns were all
grants, of Manors, and other great, and small, tracts
of land, made by the Governors of New York as long
as New York continued to be a British Province.
The tenure of all was the same as that in the Patents
from Charles IT. to the Duke of York, "in free and
common socage as of our manor of East Greenwich
in County of Kent." The fixed services or rents
varied, but were merely nominal in all cases. In
some of the minor incidents of the grants of manors,
and of lands not manors, they also varied, but the im-
portant thing, the tenure itself, was the same in all;
When William and Mary directed their Governor to
call General Assemblies, with the advice and consent
ofthe Council, and the first Assembly held in New
York, under those sovereigns, met in April, 1691, that
Assembly, in the second act it passed, declaring the
rights and privileges of their Majesties' subjects to
their Province of New York, enacted " That all the
Lands within the Province, shall be esteemed and ac«
counted Land of Freehold and Inheritance, in f^e
and common Soccage. according to the tenor of East
Oreenmch in their Majesties' Realm of England." *
And it is owing to these facts that this subject has
been so fully dwelt upon, dry as it must necessarily
be to the general reader.
The confirmations by the English Governors ofthe
Dutch groundbriefii, transports, and othergrants, were
rendered necessary, by the change of the Sovereign
Power. The Dutch instruments, under the Dutch law,
it will be remembered, required their grantees to take
the oaths of allegiance to the West India Company
and to the States-General of the United Provinces.
Of course when the country became a British posses-
sion, and the Duke of York became its Lord Proprie-
tor, the terms on which the Dutch grantees held their
lands required to be changed in this respect, so as to
e SolliTan's Miihi. Land Tit1<«, A9.
7 II. Bradford's Lawi, N. T., ed. 1710, p. 4.
84
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
conform to the actulil chaDge of the owners of the ul-
terior sovereign right of eminent domain.
This was provided for in that very ably drawn, lib-
eral, and just '' Code of Laws/' enacted and promul-
gated at the first meeting of delegates of the people of
the Towns of the Province of New York under the
English rule, held at Hempstead, in Queens County,
on June 24th, 1665, nine months only after the Dutch
surrender, known as "The Duke's Laws." This
code, the earliest of the codes of New York, full, clear,
and complete, is well arranged in an alphabetical di-
vision of its subjects. Under the heading " Lands,"
is this provision, *^ To the end all former Purchases
may be ascertained to the present possessor or right
owner, They shall bring in th^ir former Grants, and
take out new Patten ts for the same from the present
Governoure in the behalf of his Royall Highness the
Duke of Yorke ; " then after directing the making and
filing of a survey and map within a year from the
date of a purchase, the law continues, " Every Pur-
chaser in acknowledgment of the propriety of such
Lands belonging to his Royal Highness James Duke
of York, shall upon the sealing of the Pattent Pay
unto the Governoure so much as they shall agree
upon ; not exceeding hundred acres." Some amend-
ments and alterations were made to this code pursu-
ant to its own provisions at a meeting of the Court of
General Assizes ' held in the City of New York at the
close of September, 1665, three months later, one of
which re-enacts the last cited clause in these more
definite words, — '* To the end all former Purchases &c,
all persons whatsoever who have any Grants or Patents
of Towneshipps, Lands, or Houses, within this Gov-
ernment, shall bring in the said Grants or Patents to
the Governoure and shall have them Revewed by
Authority from his Royall Highness the Duke of
Yorke, before the beginninge of the next Court of As-
sizes.^ That every purchaser &c. shall pay for every
hundred acres as an acknowledgment two Shillings
and six pence."
This law and this sum marked the beginning of
the Quit-rents and their amount or rate paid ever
after to the King, and subsequently to the American
Revolution to the State, and which only terminated
under the State Quit-rent statute of 1816, which com-
muted them all for gross sums of money, as will be
fully explained hereafter.
Governor Lovelace sent a report to the Duke of
York on the state of the Province, undated, but which
is believed to have been made early in 1669, the year
after his arrival in New York. In this he says:
"The Tenure of Lands is derived from his Royall
Highness who gives and grants Lands to Planters as
their freehold forever, they paying the customary
rents and duties with others toward the Defraying of
1 Tbii court combined Judicial and legislative powers, and was created
by thM code itself.
s This court sat annually in September.
<Tbe Duke's Laws, I. N. Y. H. Coll., 359 and 410.
the Publique Charges. The highest Rent, or ac-
knowledgment of his R. H., will be one penny per
acre for Lands purchased by his R. H., the least two
shillings six pence for each hundred acres, whereof
the Planters themselves are purchasers from the lu-
dyans."*
In the year 1666 the " General Court of Assizes "
made an order, that all persons who had old patents
should bring them in to be renewed, and they that
had none should be supplied therewith by a certain
time therein limited. A proclamation of the Gov-
ernor dated at Fort James the 1st of July, 1669, to
"the Inhabitants about Delaware" shows us very
clearly what this order meant. After quoting the
order, it continues in these words: "Which said
order did extend itself to Albany, Esopus, and all
other places of the Governm*, as well as this City and
more particularly to all those who had beene under
the Dutch, and are now reduced to his Majesties
obedience.' These presents doe declare and make
Knowne that the Inhabitants in and about Delaware
being under this Gtovernm' are likewise concerned as
well as the rest ; So that all persons there who hould
their lands by Patent or ground briefs of y* Dutch
Tenure are to have their Patents renewed. And
those who have none are with all conveniente speed
to bee supplyede therewith, otherwise they are liable
to incurre thepenaltye in the Law set forth."*
The terms on which the new Patents of Confirma-
tion were granted were very liberal. So much so as
to explode the idea indulged in by many writers that
the sole object was to extort fees. The evidence is
conclusive. The mayor and aldermen of New York
presented a petition of inquiry to the Court of As-
sizes on this subject. In this Court it will be remem-
bered the Grovernor presided. In the proceedings
of the Court in the Assize Book, under date of March
26, 1667, two years prior to the proclamation just
cited, is Grovernor NicoUs' reply to this petition in
the form of six specific entries. They are as follows,
(the contractions in the original being plainly written
out).
"1. The reason for renewing all former groundbriefs
was, and is, to abolish the express conditions con-
tained in every one of them, to hold their lands and
houses from and under the States of Holland and the
West India (company in Amsterdam as their Lords
and Masters.
"2. Whoever shall bring a certificate from the
mayor, or deputy mayor, or two aldermen of his inca-
pacity shall pay nothing for renewing an old or grant-
ing a new patent.
'^3. No man shall pay more than a beaver for a
new patent and all the transports depending there-
upon. If any person shall desire his own transport to
be converted into a patent, it shall be done for 3
guilders in beaver.
* III. Col. Hist. N. Y. 188.
ft XII. Col. Hist. 463.
THE ORIGIN A$^D HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
\
85
** 4. Where the original groundbii«f of severdl trans-
ports cannot be found each transport sha^L be confirmed
for 3 guilders.^ ]
" 5. If any man have 2, 3, or more ground beliefs of
small parcels of land they shall be comprised in one
confirmation at the half price allowed by the Cf urt.
"6. The Mayor and Alderman to draw up a^ist of
houses and lots belonging to persons now in Holland
or else where not in amity; nor under allegiance to
his Majesty of Qreat Britain who are deprived ^f the
benefit hereof. ^
As the time allowed for bringing in the said ground
brie& is almost expired the Governor suspends the
penalty for not bringing them in at or before the 1st
April next until the 1st May this present year, 1667."
Surely more favorable or easier terms could not have
been promulgated.
Such, in brief, was the nature of the tenure of land
established in New York when the Province came
under English rule. It was fortunate that that event
was almost simultaneous with the greatest change in
the law of England since the days of King John.
That change really gave to New York the freehold,
partible, and perfectly alienable, land system, which,
with slight modifications, has existed from that day to
this, and under which her population has increased
from the 10,000 souls in the last year of Director
Stuyvesant to the 5,000,000 people over whom Gover-
nor Hill now rules in this year of grace 1886.
9.
The Manor$ in New York, whai they were not, and
what they were.
What were the Manors which existed in New York ?
What were those in the County of Westchester ? To
answer these questions, the origin and nature of
Manors, especially those of England, all of which
were created prior to the 18th year of the reign of
Edward I. (Anno 1290), jnust be considered. The
statute of Edward, called " of iVeetminster" or " Qui/i
emptores '* from its| first two words, ** in the year 1290
put an end forever to New Manors in England." * Those
Manors were feudal Manors, of the kind already alluded
to, those erected In New York, four hundred years
later were freehold Manors. Tiieir difference, and why
Manors could be erected in New York, and not in
England will be shown.
**lt has often been noticed," says Sir Henry
Maine, "that a Feudal Monarchy was an exact
counterpart of a Feudal Manor,' but the reason of
the correspondence is only now beginning to dawn
upon us, which is, that both of them were in their
1 It will be remembered that under the Datch syatem, the " ground-
brief* was the license to buy of the Indians, and the "transport" the
deed of the Director and Council for the land after the purchase of the
natives had been made.
SGneist's Const. History of ISngland, 148.
' A similar statement is found In West's Manner of Creating Peers, 7.
10. Cruise on Dignities^ p. 13.
origin bodies of assumed kinsmen settled on land and
undergoing the same transmutation of ideas through
the fact of settlement. The history of the larger
groups ends in the Modern Notions of Country and
Sovereignty ; the history of the smaller in the Mod-
ern Notions of Landed Property. The two courses
of historical development were for a long while
strictly parallel, though they have ceased to be so
now.'' * It is not possible in the limits of this essay
to describe, except in outline, the various steps and
changes by which the barbarian Teutonic leader and
his followers, developed into the family or tribal ruler
and his kindred by blood or by tribe settled upon the
land which they had seized, and which they retained
as their own. How strong, how natural, and how
general, was this principle of a specific land-settle-
ment on the basis of kinship by blood or by tribe, is
proven by the examples which now exist in three
continents at this day. The more prominent of which
are, the clans of Scotland, the Septs of Ireland, the
Slav tribes of the Balkan regions, in Europe, the
Hindoo Joint-Families of British Asia, and the na-
tive Indian tribes of North America.
Out of the tribal settlement on a fixed district of
land came the Teutonic village or town. This was
^* an organized, self acting group of Teutonic families
exercising a common proprietorship over a definite
tract of land, — its Mark, — cultivating its domain on a
common system, and sustaining itself by the pro-
duce."^ It had its separate households, each gov-
erned by the father of a family, and each entirely free
from any interference by anybody else. Its master
was supreme, and from this feature, continually pre-
served and maintained to this day, comes the familiar
principle of English and American law, that '' every
man's house is his castle." These groups of families,
or societies, with their Leader, or Headman, wer^
often involved in disputes, with neighboring societies
and their families and Headmen. And to this fact
of native Teutonic quarrelsomeness the German in-
vestigators and writers ascribe the change (which
took place gradually) that evolved the manor from
the Mark. " One community conquers another and
the spoil of war is either the common Mark (the part
oftlu district cultivated in common), or the waste (the
uncultivated part), of the worsted community. Either
the conquerors appropriate and colonize the part of the
waste so taken, or they take the whole domain and
restore it to be held in dependence on the victor
society." ' This was the origin of the idea of suzer-
ainty or lordship. Another cause of the change from
this Mark system to the manorial system, the German
writers say, was the fact, that these Teutonic village
societies, '' though their organization can only be de-
scribed as democratic, appear, nevertheless, to have
< Hist Inst 77.
> Von Maurer cited by Maine, Vill. Com. 10, with approval
•Maine's Vill. Com. 143.
86
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTBis COUNTY.
generally had an abiding tradition that in some one
family, or in some families, the blood which ran in
the veins of all the freemen was purest ; probably be-
cause the direct de<»cent of such family, or families,
from a common ancestor waa remembered or be*
lieved in.
From the members of these families the leader for
a military expedition would, as a rule, be chosen, and
the power he would thus acquire *' would be a combi-
nation of political, military, and judicial, power."
This leader, ''thus taken from the privileged family
would have the largest share of the lands appropriated
from the conquered village societies; and there is
ground for supposing that he was sometimes rewarded
by an exceptionally large share of the common land
belonging to the society which he headed." Another
privilege which the leading family and its chief ob-
tained, was the power " to sever his own plot of land
from the rest, and, if he thought fit, to enclose it ; and
thus break up or enfeeble that system of common cul-
tivation under rules of obligatory custom which de-
pended mainly on the concurrence of all the villag-
ers." * A(id to this the inherent tendency of the Teu-
tonic mind to the principle of primogeniture, and we
have the basis of what is known as the manorial
system. Transplanted into England by its early Ger-
man invaders this inchoate manorial system tojk root
and existed under the Saxon domination till the days
of Harold. At the Norman conquest, which, as we
have seen, brought full-grown to England the Feudal
System, William of Normandy had little difficulty in
engrailing it upon the existing Saxon system, or rather
in transforming that system into Norman Feudalism,
which was that of France and Continental Europe.
Such is the view, of the latest historians, and
most learned writers, on this subject. A view most
tersely summed up by Sir Henry Maine, "our
modern English conception of absolute property in
land is really descended from the special proprietor-
ship enjoyed 'by the Lord, and more anciently by
the tribal chief, in his own Domain." * "Manors,"
Sir William Blackstone, tells us "are in substance
as ancient as the Saxon Constitution, though perhaps
differing a little in some immaterial circumstances
from those which exist at this day ; just as we ob-
served of feuds, that they were partly known to our
ancestors, even before the Norman Conquest."'
Originating before the feudal system itself, that
system when it became fully developed and consoli-
dated in England under its Norman Kings, gave its
own coloring and imparted its own features to the
manor land-system of the England of the Saxons.
The impression is very common, especially in
America, that the Manor system is purely of feudal
origin. Writers who have referred to the New York
manors, as a rule, describe them as the same as the
1 Maine Vill. Ooni. 1215, and 146.
s II. Chrbtlau's Blackstone, 90.
t Hi5t. Int. 126.
feudal manors of.Brfgland. Not aware that manors
have DOt be^ created in England since 1290, not
aware ^tha^ the law of England at the time of the
wrestling df New Netherland Irom the Dutch, prohib-
ited the existence in the New Province qf New York of
feu,dal !/lfanor«, they have indulged, and do indulge,
in a great deal of fine, and sometimes indignant,
writing on this subject, which had, and has, no real
basis whatever.
The word ' Manor ' is an English corruption of the
Frencii word, * Maikoir* a habitation, or mansion, in
which the owner of land dwelt permanently ; and
that is derived from the Latin verb ' Maneo,' to remain,
to abide in a place, to dwell there. In Latin a Manor
was termed ' ManeHum * which signifies the same as
the French ' Manoir.' It has, however, been stated
to be a synonym of * Manurium* because it was
labored by handy work,* ' Manus ' being the Latin
for ' hand ; ' but this signification is very doubtful.
Ellis in his introduction to Domesday Book, the
Great Survey of the Lands of England made by order
of William the Conqueror,* says, that the earliest ap-
pearance of the word Manor in England was in the
reign of Edward the Confessor who was fond of in-
troducing Norman language and customs.
In that famous survey the words * mansio,' 'villa,'
and * manerium,' are synonymous. " The conquest,"
Mr. Digby states, probably wrought but little change
in the relation of Saxon supreme land owners, or
lords of districts, and the tenants holding small par-
cels of land under them. " A Norman lord might be
substituted for a Saxon, but the dues and services
would substantially 'continue the same. . . . Afler
the Conquest, England is [found] parcelled out into
manors varying greatly in size, having, as a rule,
fixed boundaries, often coinciding, as is still the case
at the present day, with the boundaries of the parish.
In some cases manors were diminished or added to,
and new ones created. Probably however there was
no great addition after the Conquest to the number ot
Manors." • In the reigns of the later Saxon Kings,
those subsequent to Alfred, the English Commis-
sioners on the Law of Real Property tell us, "that
portions of the royal domains, with jurisdiction were
granted, and afterwards jurisdiction was granted
although the land might never have belonged to the
King. The objects of these grants were lay favorites
or monastic houses, and the operation of them was to
invest the grantees with the power of judging the
people dwelling in their territory. The courts for
this purpose were framed after the ordinary model.
The lord or a deputy presided, and the tenants and
suitors formed the jury. They were commonly held
in the hall of the lord^s house, and were thence called
Hallmotes." The words which granted this jurisdic-
tion " were BOca, soea, and tfrnmct of which one of the
4 Tomllua, 618. Tower's Law Diet.
» P. 2-6.
'Manors."
•Digby 34,36.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
87
laws supplies as with the interpretation. Baca, meant
the privilege of administering justice locally ; soca,
the territory or franchise in which the privilege
was to be exercised ; theime,^ the seignorial jurisdic-
tion.*' "It will be obvious to every one's mind that
this species of local and private jurisdiction is what we
now call a Manor. The substance of a manor is
therefore justly said by Mr. Ellis to be as ancient as
the Saxon constitution ; and the lord having soc and
sac over his own men, and the baron holding his
own court for his own men, were the same characters
lu were afterwards termed lords of Manors. The
word manor was not however applied in pure Saxon
times ; nor perhaps were all the laws and usages such
as we now have them." •
The ancient manor as it became consolidated in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries is thus defined and de-
scribed by that " reverend Judge eminently knowing
in the common and statute law, William Bastall " ' in
his famous book on the Terms of the Law : — "Mannor
is compounded of divers things ; as of a House, Ara-
ble Land, Pasture, Meadow, Wood, Rent, Advowson,
Court's Baron, and such like which make a Mannor.
And this ought to be by long continuance of time,
the contrary whereof man's memory cannot discern ;
for at this day a Mannor cannot be made because
a Court-Baron cannot be made, and a Mannor
cannot be without a Court-Baron and Suitors and
Freeholders, two at the least ; for if all the Freeholds
except one escheat to the Lord, or if he purchase all |
except one, there his Mannor is gone, for that it can- •
not be a Mannor without a Court Baron (as is afore-
said) and a Court-Baron cannot be holden but before
Suitors, and not before one Suitor; and therefore
where but one Freehold or Freeholder is, there can-
not be a Mannor properly, although in common speech
it may be so called.
Mansion (Mansio) is most commonly taken for the
Chief Messuage or habitation of the Lord of a Man-
nor, the Mannor-House where he doth most reside,
his Capital Messuage as it is called ; of which the wife
by the Statute of Magna Charta, chapter 7. shall have
her Quarantine." *
It will be noticed that in this description the Court-
Leet is not mentioned. This is because, though it ex-
isted in every Manor, it was not of its essence as the
Court-Baron was. The Court-Leet was a SheriflTs
court and had cognizance only of offences against the
King, or the King's peace, below the degree of high
treason.
The Manors of New York, in consequence of their
having been erected after the statute of Charles IL
(12 Charles II., ch. 24, Anno 1660) abolishing the
31 This word i» so spelled in the Report, but It is spelled 'Theam ' or
*Team,' by Sir Henry ElUsln the " Introdoction to Domesday," vol. I.
p.275.
'Toarth Report of Coromisstoners, Appendix, p. 106.
* Coke's preface to his 10th report.
'^ « Terms of the Law 490, ed. of 1686.
military tenures and turning them into free and com-
mon soccage, never possessed, nor were their lords
ever invested with, the powers, privileges, rights,
duties, and burdens of the old feudal manors of Eng-
land as thus described. It is owing to ignorance of
this fact, or the concealment of it, as the case may be,
that so much misconception has been generated in the
popular mind, by some writers, and also by some law-
yers and men in public life, who in the recent pa^t
sought political preferment, or private gain, in
relation to the manors of New York, their ten-
ants, and their owners. As to the latter, a curious
error has obtained credence. We often, at this day,
see them written of, and hear them spoken of, as
Nobles. " Lord Philipse" and "Lord Pell " are fa-
miliar examples of this ridiculous blunder in West-
chester County. No grant of a feudal manor in Eng-
land at any time from their first introduction ever
carried with it a title,^ and much less did any grant of
a New York freehold manor ever do so. Both re-
lated to land only. The term Lord of a Manor is a
technical one, and means simply the owner, — the pos-
sessor, — of a manor, nothing more. Its use as a title
is simply a work of intense, or ignorant, republican
provincialism. "Lord" as a prefix to a manor
owner's name was never used in England, nor in the
Province of New York.®
The origin, nature, existence and continuance ot
the Manors of New York, and the reason why they
could be erected by the English Sovereigns here, when
those Sovereigns could not do so in England since
1690, was so fully, thoroughly and learnedly set
forth, more than thirty years ago, ih an opinion by
one of the greatest chief justices who ever graced the
State of New York, that no apology is necessary for
giving it in his own language: "The grantees are
authorized in terms to hold a court- leet and a court-
baron, to award fines, have the customary writs, etc.,
to have the waife and estrays, deodands, etc., and the
patronage of any churches to be erected on the tract;
and the freeholders of the manor are empowered to
elect a representative to sit in the General Assembly
in the Province of New York. [ThU ^^privi/ege" was
granted only to the three manors of Oortlandt, Livings-
ston and Rensselaer swyck, and the Borough towns of
West Chester and Schenectady}, There is nothing in
the patent which in terms empowers the patentees to
grant lands to be holden of themselves, [and all the
manors were alike in this re^ecf^, but it is argued that
the erection of a manor and the authority to hold the
courts mentioned, which, according to English law,
are manor courts, necessarily implies the power to
create suitors, who must of necessity be tenants, hold-
ing of the proprietor of the manor, owing him suit
* In France this was different. Many seignoriee there did carry with
them the right to a title, but it was not the case with all.
^The SoTereign alone Is the " source of honor " in England, and the
sole power that can, or eyer could, grant a title, or confer nobility,
under English law.
88
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
and service. This, it is said^ is a violation of the sta-
tute called quia emptores terrwum, passed in the eight-
eenth year of Edward the First, (Anno 1290). This
statute, after reciting that the feudal tenants have sold
their lands to be holden in fee of themselves, instead
of the chief lord of the fee, whereby those lords have
lost their escheats and other feudal perquisites to their
*' manifest disinheritance," enacts that *' forever here-
after it shall be lawful to every freeman to sell at his
own pleasure his lands or tenements, or part thereof,
so neverthless that the feoffee [the gi'antee]^ shall
hold the same lands or tenements of the same chief
lord of the fee and by the same services or customs as
his feoffor [grantor], held them before. A second
chapter provides for an apportionment of the services
in case of a sale of a piift of the land out of which
they issued. (Coke, 2 Inst. 500.)
" The freedom of alienation thus conferred upon
the military tenants, was undoubtedly a very material
amelioration of the feudal system, but at the same
time the main object of the statute would seem to
have been to secure to the great barons their profits
arising out of these tenures. It is stated in the sta-
tute itself that it was ordained ''at the instance of the
great men of the realm," and it was clearly for their pro-
tection, though incidentally, and probably by its unfore-
seen operation, proved a relief to the inferior tenants.
The evil was that the chief lords were defrauded of
the fruits of their tenures, and the remedy provided
was, that every tenant, however remote, should re-
main the debtor of the chief lord instead of his im-
mediate feoffor [jgrantor'] for the services incident to
the tenure. But as one may generally waive an ad-
vantage secured to himself, so it was held that the
chief lord might forego the benefit of the statute by
authorizing his tenant to make a subinfeudation, that
is, grant lands to be holden of himself; but this could
not be done by a mesne (middle) lord on account of
the interest of his superiors.
... As the King is lord paramount in all feudal ten-
ures, no subject, since the statute, can, by his own
authority, create a manor; and at» in England, all the
land was granted at, or soon after the Conquest, it fol-
lows that English Manors must have their origin prior
to (this statute) the eighteenth of Edward first (Anno
1290). But as the King does not hold of any superior^
he may grant land to be holden of himself, " for,'' says
Coke, '' hereby no man is restrained, but he which
holds over of some lord, and the King holds of none'*
(2 Imt, 67). Therefore, if there are crown lands in
England at this day which have never been granted
to a subject, they may, without doubt, be erected into
royal manors. And cannot the King grant to his im-
mediate tenant the right to make grants to be held of
himself, the tenant, since thus there would be the as-
sent of all the lords, mediate and immediate. The
King's tenants in capite could not make such grants
before the statute quia emptores without his consent.
This was by force of the King*s prerogative, and was
an exception to the general rule, which permitted
subinfeudations by all lords except the tenants in
cajnte. But I think that as well since, as before, ihe
statute, the King could license his immediate tenant
to alien to hold of himself the tenant."
After citing and quoting several authorities to this
effect he continues, '' Assuming the law to be as in
these authorities stated, and assuming further that
the grant of a manor and the right to hold manor
courts ex vi termini implied an authority in ihe paten-
tees to create manor tenants by means of grants re-
serving services to themselves, it still seems clear that
the patents (ihe manor grants) were no violation of
the statute referred to. The patent so construed was
itself a license to the patentee to make grants to hold
of himself. On the making of such grants the paten-
tees became the mesne lords, holding of the King, and
the grantees of the patentees were the tenants para-
vail ( so called because ihey have the avails or profits of
the land), holding by license from the King as lord
paramount, of their immediate lords the patentees.
The statute would prevent any further subinfeuda-
tions, by the freeholders holding under the patentees,
unless, indeed, the King and patentees should both
consent.
''That this was the understanding of the crown
lawyers who prepared the patents for lands in the
Colonies, is evident from the terms of several Colonial
grants. The charter of Pennsylvania empowered
Penn, the patentee, to erect manors and to alien and
grant parts of the lands to such purchasers as might
wish to purchase, *' their heirs and assigns, to he h^ld
of the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, by
such services, customs and rents as should seem fit
to the said William Penn, etc., and not immediaidy
of the said King Charles, his heirs or successors,^* not-
withstanding the statute of quia implores (I. Wheaton
348; 9 Wheaton 256). . . .
"The records of some ten or twelve patents exist in
the oflSce of the Secretary of State, issued respectively
in the reigns of James II., William and Mary, Anne,
and George I., and the enrlier government of the
Duke of York [among which are those of Scarsdale,
FhUipsburgh, Fordham, Pelhom, Cortlandt, and Mor-
risania, in Wa' Chester County], with powers re-
specting a manor and Manor Courts similar to those
under consideration [the English manor grants of
Rensselaerswyck]', and the proprietary charters of sev-
eral of the Colonies authorize grants to be made to
hold of the proprietaries. If the statute against sub-
infeudations was in force in the colonies, these pro-
prietary grants were as much violations of its pro-
visions as the grants in question or any other grants
from the King. The practice of making such grants
for a long course of years is pretty strong evidence
that the statute was never understood to apply to the
King. . . . The general expressions of writers and
judges to the effect that manors cannot have a com-
mencement since the statute of Edward [in the year
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
89
1290] is quite correct, if we add the reason, which is
always understood, viz., that all thi lands in England
are already in tenure, and subinfeudations are forbid-
den by the statute. The reAark was never appli-
cable to the ungranted crown lands in the Colonies,
upon which the statute, I think, never had any, or
only a qualified, bearing.^ I have considered this
question as though the statute was in force, and con-
trolled the tenures in this Colony (New York) in any
case to which in England it might be applicable ; and
I do not think it material to deny the proposition,
though it has been questioned by respectable authority.
Whether it was generally in force or not, it did not,
in my opinion, apply to the ungranted crown lands ;
and in respect to these, the King, I think, was com-
petent to authorize his immediate grantees to create
tenants of a freehold manor by granting lands to be
held of themselves.
"It will not be supposed that all the vexatious inci-
dents of the feudal tenures were engrafted upon these
Manor lands (in New York), If the feudal system
ever prevailed in the American Colonies, it had been
shorn of its most severe features before either of the
grants in question [or any other of the Manor grants
in New York'] was made, by the Statute 12 Charles
II., ch. 24 {Anno 1660), whifch abolished the pe(?Wiar
incidents of the military tenures, and changed tn^
whether holden of the King or others, into free and
common socage ; and which was re-enacted in this
State soon after the Revolution with a retronpectto the
time of the passage of the English statute I. Green-
leaf, 869, p. 2."
The case in which the foregoing opinion was de-
livered was the famous one of the People against Van
Rensselaer instituted by the Attorney-General of this
State expressly to test the validity of manorial grants
and privileges in the former province of New York,
reported in 6 Selden 291. It was decided by the
Court of Appeals unanimously in favor of the de-
fendant Mr. Van Rensselaer, in 1858, the decision
being, that " Royal letters patent granting lands in
the province of New York are not void by reason of
their conferring manorial privileges and franchises
upon the patentees."
These " privileges and franchises " are set forth at
length in every Manor Grant, being such incidents of
the Grant as the Crown chose to express in the
instrument itself, and saw fit to bestow upon the
grantee therein named.
These privileges and franchises of " the Freehold
Manors of New York " as Chief Justice Denio styles
them, were, in his words," " free from the vexatious
incidents of the feudal tenures. And he further says
"the feudal system, which if it ever prevailed in the
American colonies, had been shorn of its most severe
1 Chief Jiutice Ambrom Spencer, said from the bench that the statute
in qnefltion never applied to the American Coluniea. 18 Johnson
p. 180.
7
feature before either of the grants in question, [or any
other of the Manor grants in New York] was made, by
the statute of Charles II. ch. 24, which [in 1660] abol-
ished the Military tenures and changed them into free
aud common socage." Thb tenure as we have seen is
purely allodial, save only in the fealty due the King as
the ultimate lord of all the land of the realm. It was
formally, as has previously been stated, declared by
the Provincial Act of 1691 to be the tenure of lands
in the Province of New York. No change was made
or efiected by the American Revolution, except that the
Independent Sovereign State of New York succeeded
to the position of the King as ultimately entitled to all
the land within its borders. On the 20th of February
1787, before the United States had an existence, before
the Convention of Independent States out of which
this Union proceeded, had been chosen, and two
years and twelve days before the Constitution of the
United States formed by that convention went into
effect, the Legislature of the State of New York, passed
an "Act concerning Tenures " of a remarkable charac-
ter. It would take too long to give its genesis here, in-
teresting as it would be. It was passed ten years after
the formation of the Constitution of the State. Its
first section (there are six altogether) establishes
and admits Manor grants, but calls the Lord of a
Manor "the Chief Lord." It is as follows: ''Be it
Enacted by the People of the State of New York, rep-
resented in Senate and Assembly^ and it is hereby
Enacted by Authority of the same, That it shall for-
ever hereafter be lawful for every Freeholder to give,
sell; or alien the Lands and Tenements whereof he or
she is, or at any time hereafter shall be seized in Fee
Simple, or any Part thereof, at his or her Pleasure, so
always that the Purchaser shall hold the Lands or
Tenements, so given, sold or aliened, of the Chief
Lord, if there be any, of the same Fee, by the Same
Services and Customs by which the Person or Per-
sons, making such Gift, Sale or Alienation, before
held the same Lands or Tenements.
And if such Freeholder give, sell or alien only a
Part of such Lands or Tenements to any, the Feoffee
or Alienee shall immediately hold such Part of the
Chief Lord, and shall be forthwith charged with the
Services for so much as pertain eth, or ought to per-
tain, to the said Chief Lord, for the same Parcel, ac-
cording to the Quantity of Land or Tenement given,
sold or aliened, for the Parcel of the Service so due."
The second, third, fourth and fifth sections practically
re-enact the statute of Charles II. abolishing military
tenures, the fifth being in these words, " Provided
always J and be it further enacted by the Authority afore-
said, That this Act, or any Thing herein contained,
shall not take away, nor be construed to take away or
discharge, any Rents certain, or other Services incident
or belonging to Tenure in common Soccage, due or to
grow due to the People of this State, or any mesne
[middle] Lord, or other Private Person, or the Fealty
or Distresses incident thereto." The Sixth and final
90
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
section enacts "That the Tenure upon all Gifts,
Grants, and Conveyances heretofore made, or here-
after to be made, of any Manors, Lands, Tenements,
or Hereditaments, of any Estate of Inheritance, by
any Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this State,
or in any other Manner, by the People of this State,
or by the Commissioners of Forfeitures, shall be and
remain Allodial, and not Feudal^ and shall forever
hereafter be taken and adjudged to be, and to con-
tinue in free and pure Allodium only."
The Statute of Charles seems to have been re-
enacted, out of pure caution only, for its provisions
had been the law of the Province and the State from
the Dutch surrender to the time this statute was
passed. It was pure surplusage. But why the first
section was enacted is by no means clear. The act
certainly confirms the free socage tenure of all lands
in New York, does away with every other tenure and
its incidents, except the fealty to the State and to
" the Chief Lord " in the first section stated. Wfhile
the last section declares the Socage tenure purely
allodial in so many words. It thus actually re-enacted
the entire English Provincial system of land tenure,
including the manor system as the State land system
of New York.
Under this act the State law as to tenures remained
without change from its enactment in 1787 to the
year 1830, when the Revised Statutes went into eflTect
which declare that all lands since that date are allo-
dial and abolish all incidents of the socage tenure,
and, the tenure itself, using the word * feudal ' to ex-
press it, preserving, however, all rights under the same
as they had previously existed. The '' Tenure of Real
Property " is thus stated.
i 1. The People of this State, in their right of sov-
ereignty, are deemed to possess the original and abso-
lute property in and to all lands within the jurisdic-
tion of this State ; and all lands, the title to which
shall fail from a defect of heirs, shall revert or escheat
to the people.
i 3. All lands within this State are declared to be
allodial, so that subject only to the liability to escheat,
the entire and absolute property is vested in the own-
ers, according to the nature of their respective estates;
and all feudal tenures of every description, with all
their incidents, are abolished.
i 4. The abolition of tenures shall not take away
or discharge any rents or services certain, which at
any time heretofore have been, or may hereafter be,
created or reserved ; nor shall it be construed to affect
to change the powers or jurisdiction of any Court of
Justice in this State. ^
From and after 1830, therefore, the land tenure of
New York has been and continues to be purely allodial.
The vested rights and incidents of the former socage
tenures were preserved, but the erection of any other
tenure than a pure allodial one is forbidden.
1 II. B. S„ Part II. Title I, p. 718, flrrt ed.
The state has thus after the lapse of centuries re-
turned to the free and just ' alod ' of the earliest Saxon
days of England.
The nature of the old Feudal Manors, and the dif-
ference from them of the Freehold Manors of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in New York
having been shown, the incidents, franchises and
privileges of the latter next demaild attention.
10.
The Franchises, Privileges^ and InddenU, of Manon
in the Province of New York, and in the Omnty
of Westchester, and the Parishes in the latter.
The erection of ' Manors * by the English in New
York, like the previous creation of 'Patroonships,' by
the Dutch in the same Province, was simply the es-
tablishment and carrying out, of what they deemed
the best method of promoting the growth and de-
velopment of their new possession under their own
laws and customs. To the same idea is due the grant-
ing therein of similar large tracts of land which were
7wt manors. The latter, the ' Great Patents,' as they
were called, were usually granted to several grantees.
The Manors were necessarily granted to one only.
The franchises, privileges, and other valuable inci-
dents, which the Manors possessed, and which the
Great Patents did not possess, were much fewer than
id generally supposed. The term ' feudal,' popularly
applied to the former, has caused much misconcep-
tion. The tenure of both classes of these crown grants
was precisely the same, being ''in free and com-
mon socage as of the Manor of East Greenwich in the
county of Kent," which has been already explained.
The greatest difiference between them lay in the pe-
culiar public incidents, as they may be called, which
constituted a Manor, incidents essential to its exist-
ence, and which related more to the government and
good order of the territory of the Manor and the pro-
tection of the inhabitants, and their rights as English-
men, than to the power and profit qf the Lord. Tenants
could, and did, take up lands under the grantees of the
Great Patents, as well as under the Lords of the
Manors. The former could, and did, settle people
upon their Patents under leases, as well as deeds in
fee, just as the latter did upon their Manors. Both
classes of Proprietors sold in fee, or granted on leases
of different kinds, just as their interests or wishes
dictated. The Great Patents, their grantees, and the
inhabitants upon them, were subject, in general and
local matters, to whatever public territorial divisions
of the Province embraced them, and the laws in force
therein. The Manors, their Lords, and their inhabit-
ants, whether tenants, or holders in fee simple of
manor lands by purchase from the Lords, were sub-
ject only to the jurisdiction and courts of the Manors
in local matters. Both, in all matters not local, were
governed by the laws, courts, and the civil and
military authorities, of the county and of the Prov-
ince.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
91
There were in the county of Westchester Six
Manors, which together comprised by far the largest
part of its area. The Great Patents were much more
numerous, but together not so extensive in area.
These latter and the Borough-Town of Westchester,
with a few small original grants, formed the rest of
the county as it was originally. The lower part of the
'* Equivalent lands " or " The Oblong," received in set-
tlement of a boundary dispute from the colony of Con-
necticut was not added to the county till the year
1731, and this too, was then embraced in a single
Great Patent.
The Manors were those of " Cortlandt," " Scarsdale"
*'Felfiam," '' Morrisania;' " Fordham;' and '' Philipse-
boroughy' or as it was, and is, usually written and pro-
nounced ** Philipseburgh." Of these, Cortlandt, and
Philipseburgh, were much the largest. It will give a
correct idea of the great extent and thoroughness of
the manorial settlement of Westchester county, as well
as the satisfactory nature of that method of settlement
to its inhabitants, although a surprise, probably, to
many readers, when it is stated that in the year 1769,
one-third of the population of the county lived on the
two Manors of Cortlandt and Philipseburgh alone.
The Manors of Fordham, Morrisania, Pelham and
Scarsdale, lying nearer to the city of New York, than
these two, and more accessible than either, save only
the lower end of Philipsburgh, were, if any thing, much
more settled. It is safe to say that upwards of five-
eighths of the people of Westchester County in 1769
were inhabitants of the six manors that have been
named. As the people upon the manors were iree of
general jury duty the fact threw upon the rest of the
county an increased burden. The ' Burgess ' (or Rep-
resentative) of the "Borough of Westchester" in the
Assembly in 1769, was John de Lancey of Rosehill,
Westfarms, of the second, or Westfarms, branch of
that family, being the second son of Peter de Lancey
of Rosehill, Westfarms, and his wife Elizabeth, the
daughter of Governor Cadwallader Colden. He at-
tempted the relief of the non -manorial inhabitants of
the county and brought this matter before the As-
sembly in this speech, from which we learn the fact
above-mentioned, —
**Mr. Speaker, — As the qualification required by
the act for returning able and sufficient jurors in the
several counties of this colony, entirely disqualifies
all the tenants settled upon the Manor of Philips-
burgh, and great part of those settled upon the Manor
of Cortlandt, in the county of Westchester, from serv-
ing upon juries; which makes that service extremely
hard upon the other parts of the county (the Manors
of Philipsburgh and Cortlandt, containing at least one-
third of all the inhabitants of the said county) ; I there-
fore move for leave to bring in a bill, to enable and
qualify the tenants holding lands improved of the value
of sixty pounds ($150), either for years, or at will, within
the IVianors aforesaid to serve upon juries within the
aaid county of Westchester." Leave was given, and
the next day Mr. de Lancey introduced the bill. ^The
jury act refeiTed to required all jurors to be possessed
either in their own rights and names, or that of Trus-
tees, or in that of their wives, of " a freehold in lands,
messuages, or tenements, or rents, in fee, feetail, or
for life, of the value of sixty pounds New York cur-
rency ($160) free of all incumbrances." In the City
of New York alone personalty of sixty pounds value
was permitted as a qualification. The object of Mr.
de Lancey's bill was to make the tenants in the
Manors, who were not freeholders, subject to jury
duty. This legislative action proves that none of the
leases in th'e manor of Philipsburgh were " fee-farm "
leases, that is leases in perpetuity, for such leases
were " freeholds," and the '* tenant* freeholders," by
law; and that the same thing was true of a "great
part " of the leases in the Manor of Cortlandt. Mr.
de Lancey's attempt to aid his constituents was not
successful. His bill failed to pass, but why, the jour-
nals of the House do not show. Probably the tenants
of the Manors were in a majority sufficient to control
their members in the House. The two members for
the County had the tenants of Philipsburgh, and of the
four smaller manors of Scarsdale, Pelham, Morris-
ania and Fordham among their constituents, and
" The Manor of Cortlandt " had its own representa-
tive. One of the county members was Frederick
Philipse, the third, and the then. Lord of Philipseburgh
(the other being John Thomas of Harrison), and the
member for the Manor of Cortlandt, was Pierre van
Cortlandt, of Croton, of the second branch of that
family, and subsequently the first Lieutenant-Grov-
ernor of the State of New York. Both the county
members had a majority of Manor tenants in their
constituency.
The next year, 1770, Mr. Thomas, one of the County
members, tried a little different measure, apparently
punitive. He introduced a bill relating to the Manor
of Philipsburgh alone, entitled " a bill to enable and
qualify tenants holding lands improved to the value of
sixty pounds, either for years, or at will, within the
Manor of Philipsburgh, in the County of Westchester,
to serve as jurors in the justices courts held in said
Manor, where the parties concerned in the cause to
be tried, are tenants as aforesaid."^ This was practic-
ally to invest Justices' courts in the Manor, with the
jurisdiction of the Courts-baron of the manor, only
with a justice instead of the Lord or his Steward as
its presiding head, and thus imposed double jury duty
on the tenants. This measure also failed to pass. These
facts, and the proposed legislative action, first men-
tioned, occurring as it did, only five years before the
beginning of the American Revolution, show how
widely-extended was the manorial system of New
York, in Westchester County, how numerous and
1 Assembly Journals. Session from Ist November, 1769, to 27th January,
1770, pp. 6 and 7.
< Assembly Journals. Session from 21st Nov. 1769 to 27th Jan. 1770,
p. 80.
92
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
politically powerful were the tenants of the manors
there, and how well they were satisfied with their
position. The objection coming from those only who
were not manorial tenants.
The peculiar incidents of an old English Manor
have not been described, although they have been
referred to. The definition of a Manor already given,
shows that it had two Courts, a Court-Baron, and a
Court-Leet. The scope and duties of the former of
these, that in which the Lord exercised jurisdiction,
we learn from Coke. "If,*' says he, **we labour to
search out the antiquity of these courts-baron, we
shall find them as ancient ba manors themselves.
For when the ancient kings of this realm, who had
all England in demesne, did confer great quantities
of lands upon some great personages with liberty to
parcel the lands out to other inferior tenants, reserv-
ing such duties and services as they thought con-
venient ; and to keep courts where they might redress
misdemeanors within their precincts, punish offences
committed by their tenants, and decide and debate
controversies arising within their jurisdiction ; these
courts were termed courts baron." ^
This jurisdiction was the very essence, so to speak,
of a Manor, for the same great authority also says,
that, " A Manor in these days [the age of Elizabeth,
in which Coke wrote] signifieth the jurisdiction and
royalty incorporate rather than the land or scite." ^
An old English Manor may be said to have con-
sisted of: —
1. Demesne lands, which were the Lords personal
demesne. These were of two kinds, first, the Manor-
House and the land immediately about, or adjacent
to, it, which the Lord himself cultivated for his own
maintenance, or demised to others to be cultivated
for that purpose, on terms of years, or for the life of
the tenants ; and secondly, the uncultivated lands of
the manor including those allowed as common lands
for pasturage, <&c., to the freehold tenants generally,
which were termed the "wasted lands," or more
usually the "Lords waste," not because they were
worth nothing, but because they were untilled.
2. The services, rents, and duties, reserved to the
Lord upon the original freehold leases to the freehold
tenants of the manor.
3. The reversion of those parts of the demesne
lands granted for lives or terms of years, and of those
escheated to the Lord in the case of freehold tenants
djring intestate and without heirs.
4. Jurisdiction in a Court-Baron, and the rents and
services of the freehold tenants liable to escheat and
owing attendance as suitors at the Court. This Court
was a necessary incident of a manor, and without it,
and at least two suitors, no manor cx)uld exist. The
Lord, or his Steward always presided, no one else
could hold it. The freehold tenants were the judges
of fact, just as jurors are in ordinary Courts ; thus no
1 (Jited in Cruise on Dignities, 24.
« Ibid.
man could be tried except by his peers. It was an
absolute necessity that it should be held within the
Manor limits, for if held outside, its proceedings were
null and void. Hence it was usually held in or near
the Manor House.
5. The right to hold a Court-Leet. This Court
was not necessary to the existence of a manor as a
Court- Baron was. It was simply one of the general
franchises given in and by » Manor Grant. It was
not given to all manors, but in those in New York it
was usually one of the franchises granted. All the
manors in Westchester County possessed this fran-
chise. The Court-Leet was a Court of Record having
a similar jurisdiction to the old Sheriff's " Tourns" or
migratory courts held by the Sheriff in the different
districts, or 'hundreds' of his County, for the punish-
ment of minor offences and the preservation of the
peace, but had more extended powers. It was a
criminal Court only and took cognizance of all crimes
from the smallest misdemeanors, up to, but excluding,
treason. It was granted to lords of manors " in order
that they might administer justice to their tenants at
home." * All the people in the district of the Court-
Leet were bound to attend under penalty of a small
fine. The Steward of the Manor was the judge, and
the people of the manor alone could be the jurors.
" Anciently," said Lord Mansfield, " the Toum and
the Leet (derived out of it) were the principal Courts
of Criminal Jurisdiction ; coeval with the establish-
ment of the Saxons here. There were no traces of
them either among the Romans or Britons ; but the
activity of these Courts is marked very visibly both
among the Saxons and the Danes." *
6. The Franchises annexed or appendant to a
Manor. These were privileges specifically given by
the Crown in the Grants of manors, or of lands not
manors. " A franchise," says Cruise, " is a royal
privilege or branch of the King's prerogative sub-
sisting in a subject by a grant from the Crown."*
When so granted they were said to be appendant to
the manor, or other grant in which they are set forth.
There was nothing whatever which was "feudal " in
their nature. They were simply favors extended by
the crown to the grantees of lands whether manorial,
or non-manorial, to increase the value and enjoyment
of their properties. They varied much, some manors
having more, some less. Most of these franchises
were common to both manorial, and non-manorial,
lands. Some, however, were only granted to Manors,
and were held by their Lords in addition to those com-
mon to both these classes of Crown -granted lands.
Among those of the non-manorial lands were Hunt-
ing, Hawking, Fowling, Fishing, &c., among the lat-
ter, those of Courts-Baron, Courts-Leet, Waifs, Estrays.
Advowsons, Deodands, &c. In the case of Manors
8 Coke 2 Inst 70.
4 3 Burrow's Bep. 1860. See as to the Jurisdiction of these Courts
HalUm's "Middle Ages," 347.
(Ditcest, Title, xxvil. |1.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
93
there were often special franchises granted, growing out
of the geographical situation of the land itself, or
other special circumstances of a local nature, such as
franchises to establish ferries, bridges, fairs and
markets ; and for the tenants to meet and choose
assessors and other local officers, and elect represen-
tatives of the Manor in the General Assembly. The
latter, a very high franchise, was conferred upon
three only out of the great number of Manors in New
York. These were the Manors of Cortlandt, Living-
ston, and Eensselaerswyck, of which the former, the
first in which the franchise was granted, was the only
one in Westchester County. All three of them
bordered upon the Hudson River, and eventually
embraced within their territorial limits large numbers
of inhabitants.
All these franchises were what the law terms ^in-
corporeal hereditaments," which are rights and pro-
fits arising from, or annexed to, land. Among them
was that of advowson and church patronage. An ad-
Yowson is a right of presentation to a church, or
any ecclesiastical benefice. It existed in New York,
during the Colonial period. The word is derived
from the Latin advocation which means receiving in
clientship, because in England originally the one
possessing this right was termed advocatm ecclesicBf
as he was bound to defend and protect, both the rights
of the church, and the clergyman in charge, from op-
pression and violence. Hence the right of presenta-
tion to a church acquired the name of advowson, and
he who possessed the right was called the patron of
the church. The origin of the right was this : — In
the early days of Christianity the nomination of all
ecclesiastical benefices belonged to the Church. When
the piety of some rich and prominent men, or great
lords, induoed them to build churches, near, or upon,
their own estates, and endow them with land called
a glebe, or to appropriate the rent or tithes from
neighbouring lands of their own, to their support,
the bishops, (non-episcopal church organizations did
not then exist) desiring to encourage such pious un-
dertakings, permitted these rich men to appoint what
person they pleased to officiate in such churches, and
receive the emoluments annexed to them ; reserving to
themselves only the power to examine, judge of, and
pass upon, the qualifications of the persons so nomi-
nated. Originally a mere indulgence, this practice in
process of time became a right. And those who had
either founded or endowed a church naturally claimed
and exercised the right of presenting a clergyman to
the bishop for institution whenever the Church became
vacant. This right of presentation originally allowed
to the person who built or endowed a church, became
by degrees annexed to the estate or Manor in which
it was erected ; for the endowment, whether land, or
tithes of its produce, was taken as part of the Manor
and held of it ; hence the right of presentation passed
with the Estate or Manor to which it was appendant
by grant, and thus became a species of property.
* Presentation ' is the offering of a clergyman by the
patron, or owner, of an advowson to the Bishop or or-
dinary, by a kind of letter in writing, requesting him
to admit the clergyman named in it to the Church.
When the Bishop, or Ordinary, after due examina-
tion, certified in writing that the clergyman was a fit
person to serve the church, the latter was said to be
"admitted." The Bishop, or Ordinary then "institut-
ed" the clergyman, by the formal commitment to
him of the cure of souls. This was done by the
clergj'man kneeling before the bishop and reading his
promise of faithful duty from a written instrument
prepared beforehand with the episcopal seal attached,
which he held in his hands, and afterwards retained.
This gave him the right to the temporalities of the
Church. After the completion of the " Institution "
the Bishop, or Ordinary, issued a " Mandate of Induc-
tion " in writing, directed to him who had the power
to fnduct of common right, or, in case of there being
no person possessing this power, to any other proper
person whom he saw fit to name, to perform the of-
fice. The Actual Induction was made by the author-
ized person taking the clergyman and putting his
hand on the door, wall, or other part of the church
edifice, and saying to this effect — " By virtue of this
mandate to me directed I do induct you into the real,
actual, and corporeal possession of the Church of
(naming it) with all the rights, profits, and
appurtenances thereunto belonging," or similar words
to that eff*ect. He then opened the door, and led the
new clergyman into the church, who usually tolled
the bell, if there was any, for a few moments, to make
known his induction to his parishioners and the pub-
lic. This course was followed in New York, and the
other British- American colonies in which the church
of England existed. But as there was no Bishop at
that time in this country, the Ordinary was either the
Governor, by virtue of his Commission, or the Bishop
of London's Commissary, who was a clergyman ap-
pointed by the Bishop to perform certain adminis-
trative duties here, and one or the other acted in the
Bishop's place. The Governor of the Province usually
issued the mandate of, and appointed a proper person
to perform the ceremony of. Induction.
This right of advowson and church patronage was
specifically granted in express terms to four out of the
six manors in Westchester County, and is set forth
specifically in the Manor Grants of ' Cortlandt,' * Phil-
ipseburgh,' *Pelham,' and * Morrisania.' In that of
Scarsdale it is not granted, nor in that of Fordham, a
proof of the statement made above that Manor fran-
chises varied in different Manor Grants.
At the beginning, the instruments of Presentation
and Induction in New York were in Latin, and many
of them are recorded in the public offices of the
older Counties, in that tongue. Later they were in
English. The following is a complete sequence of
these curious and instructive documents showing the
Collation and Induction into the "Parish of Rye,
94
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Mamaroneck, and Bedford/' of the Rev. Ebenezer
Pundereon, as its incumbent in the year 1768, the
whole being in English. The originals are in the
possession of John 0. Jay, M.D., of Rye. They are
printed in Bolton^s History of the Church in the
County of Westchester, page 300, etc. The headings
do not appear in the originals. In this case the
right of Patronage was Tested in the Wardens and
Vestry of the Parish itself, as was often the case.
THE PRESENTATION TO THE PARISH OF RYE OF
MR. EBENEZER PUNDERSON.
"To the Honorable Gad wallader Golden, Biq., hie Mi^eety'e Lieu-
tenant Goremonr, and Gommander in Ghief of the ProTinoe
of New York, and the Territories depending thereon, in
America :
The Ghurchwardeoi and Yeetrymen of the Pariah of Rye, including
the diatricte or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck,' and Bedford, in the
County of Weetchester, in the Province of New-Tork, the true and un-
doubted patrons of the said Parish, within your Honour's goTemment,
in all reTerence and obedience to your Honour, due and suitable, send
greeting, In our Lord God everlasting, and certifye that to the said Par-
lib of Rye, including the districts or precincts of Rye, Mamamneck, and
Bedford, now being vacant by the natural death of James Wetmore,
the last incumbent of the same, and to our presentation of full right be-
longing, we have called our beloved in Ghrist, Ebenezer Pnnderson,
Clerk, to officiate in the said Parish church of Bye, called Grace
Church ; and him, the said Ebenezer Pnnderson, sends by these presents
to your Honour, present, humbly praying that you would vouchsafe him
to the said church and Parish of Rye, including the districts or pre-
cincts aforesaid, to admit, institute, and cause to be inducted, with al^
its rights, members, and appurtenances, and that you will, with favour
and effect, do and fnliUl all and singular, other things which in this
behalf are proper and fitting for your honour to do.
In testimony whereof, we, the Churchwardens and vestrymen afore-
said, have to these presents put our hands and seals, this day of Novem-
ber, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-
three.
Ebenezer KNirrEsi, 'i
> (JhurehteardetUf
Andrew Merrit. j
and seven Yestrymen."
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR COLDEN'S ADMISSION OF
MR. PUNDERSON TO THE PARISH OF RYE.
" I, Cadwalladbr Golden, Esquire, his Mi^jesty's Lieutenant Gover.
nour, and Commander in Chief of the province of New- York, and the
Territories depending thereon in America, do admit yon, Ebenezer Pun-
darson, Clerk, to be Rector of the Parish Church of Rye, commonly
called Grace Church, and of the Parish of Rye, including the several
districts or precincts of Bye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County
of Westchester, within the said Province.
Given under my hand and the prerogative seal of the Province of New-
York, at Fort George, in the City of New- York, the seventeenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and
sixty-three.
Cadwallader Coldbm."
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR COLDEN'S INSTITUTION OF
MR. PUNDERSON AS RECTOR OF. THE PARISH OF
RYE.
** I, Cadwallader Golden, Esquire, bis Majesty's Lieutenant Gover-
nonr and Commander in Chief of the Province of New- York, and the
Territories depending thereon, in America, do institute you, Ebenezer
Pnnderson, Clerk, Rector of the Parish Church, of Rye commonly
called Grace Church, and of the Parish of Rye, including the several
districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County
of Westchester, In the said Province to have the cure of the souls of the
parishioners of the said Pfuish ; and take your cure and mine.
Given under my hand and the prerogative seal of the Province of New-
York, at Fort George, in the City of New-York, the seventeenth day of
November, In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
■izty-threo.
Cadwallader Colden.'*
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR COLDEN'S MANDATE TK>
INDUCT MR. PUNDERSON INTO THE PARISH OF RYE.
"The Honorable Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, his Majesty's Lieuten-
ant Govemonr and Commander in Chief of the Province of New- York,
and the Territories depending thereon in America. To all and singalsir
Rectorsand Parish Ministers whatsoever, in the Province of New-York,
or to Andrew Merrit and Ebenezer Kniffen, the present Churchwardena
of the Parish of Rye, In the County of Westchester, and to the Vestry-
men of the said Parish, and to each and eveiy of you, greeting :— Where-
as, I have admitted our beloved in Christ, Ebenezer Pnnderson, Clerk, to
the Rectory of the Parish Church at Rye, commonly called Grace Church,
and of the Parish of Rye, including the several districts or precincts of
Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester, within this
government, to which the said Ebenezer Punderson was presented unto
me by the Churchwardens and Yestiymen of the said Parish, the tra e
and undoubted patrons of the said Parish, vacant, as is say*d by the
natural death of James Wetmore, the last incumbent there, on or about
the nineteenth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and sixty ; and
him, the said Ebenezer Punderson, I have instituted into the Rectory of
the said Parish Church and Parish, with all their rights, members, ami
a]q[>urtenanoes, observing the laws and canons of right, in that behalf
required and to be observed. To you therefore, Jointly and severally, I
do commit, and firmly ii^oinlng. do command each and every of yoa,
that in due manner, him, the said Ebenezer Punderson, or his lawfVill
Proctor, in his name, and for him into the real actual, and corptnml
possession of the Rectory of the said Parish Church and Parish, inclodins
the districts and precincts aforesaid, and All of their rights and appur-
tenances, whatsoever, you induct, or cause to be inducted, and him so
inducted you do defend : and of what you shall have done in the premises
thereof, you do dnely certify unto me or other competent judge, in thst
behalf, when there unto you shall be duely required.
Given under my hand and the prerogative seal of the Province of New-
York, at Fort George, in the City of New- York, the seventeenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and
sixty-three."
Cadwallader Colden.'*
CERTIFICATE OF MR. PUNDERSON'S INDUCTION
INTO THE RECTORSHIP OF THE PARISH OF RYE.
" I, John Milner, Rector of the Parish of Westchester, in the County
of Westchester and Province of New- York, do hereby certifye, that by
virtue of a warrant hereunto annexed, from the Honourable Cadwalla-
der Colden, Esquire, his MiO^y's Lieutenant Govemour and Com-
mander in Chief of the Province of New- York, aforesaid, and the Terri-
tories depending thereon, in America ; I have this day inducted the Rer.
Ebenezer Punderson, into the real, actual, and corporal possession of the
Rectory of the Parish Cliurch of Rye, commonly called Grace Cliurch
and of the Parish of Rye, including the several districts or precincts of
Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester aforesaid,
with all their rights, members, and appurtenances, the 2lst day of
November, Anno Domini, 1763. The induction of the Rev. Ebenezer
Punderson being executed, the above certificate was signed, in conse-
quence thereof, by the Rev. John Milner, in the presence of us, who
subscribe our names as witness thereunto.
JOHN MILNER, Rector of St. Peter's Church Westehetter,
and twenty -one others."
MR. PUNDERSON'S DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY.
" I, Ebenezer Punderson, do here declare my unfeigned assent and
consent to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by ye Book
entitled the Book of Common Prayer, and administrations of ye sacra-
ments ; and ye Rites and Ceremonies of ye Church, according to the uss
of the (Thurch of England ; together with ye Psalter or Psalms of David,
pointed as they are to be sung or said In Churches, and the form or man-
ner of making, ordaining, and consecrating BishupB, Pnests and Dea-
cons,"
'* Upon the 4th day of December, 1763, the above mentioned Ebenez-
er Punderson, after divine service wus beKan, and before it was ended,
read distinctly the thirty-nine articles of Religion, and declared his un-
feined assent and consent to them ; and also made the above declaration.
WUneMf Haciialtah Brown, Timothy Wetmore."
The Rent8 incident to a manor were of two kinds,
those arising from the demense lands of the lord, and
those from the freehold lands held bv the tenants of
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
95
the manor. It is a proof of the fact that the renting
of land from a superior, was a most natural as well as
most ancient custom, that from the payment of rent
is derived our English word/an». In early Saxon
days, and at, and just after, the Norman Conquest,
the estates of the chiefs and leaders were cultivated by
the people attached to their different lands, the vil-
leins, heretofore mentioned, who were practically
slaves, and, in the very earliest times, passed with the
estates on which they dwelt. In course of time the
land owners allowed them to occupy specific parts of
their lands at will, yielding a return of com, hay, of
other portions of their crops ; and later they granted
them the lands for a certain number of years, by
which they were enfranchised, the owners reserving
an annual return of portions of the corn or other pro-
visions. From this the lands thus granted were called
farmsj from the Saxon word/eorm, which signifies pro-
visions.^ This return for the use of the land, was ex-
pressed by the Latin word reddiius, which means ' re-
turn,' and from it comes our English word * rent.'
Rents were of three kinds, 1. Rent service; that is
payment of money or produce, and fealty, which was
the only rent known to the common law and to which
a right of distress was incident. 2. Rent charge;
when the rent was created by deed, no fealty was
annexed and consequently there could be no distress
in case of non-payment ; hence an express power of
distress was inserted in the deed to cure the difficulty.
A rent so reserved was said to be charged with a dis-
tress, and hence called a rent charge. 8. Rent seek,
or dry or barren rent ; this was simply a rent for the
recovery of which no power of distress was given by
the common law, or by the agreement of the parties.'
All three kinds were used, but the first or rent
service was that generally reserved in manor leases in
New York. The leases themselves were granted for
terms of years of longer or shorter periods, with cov-
enants of renewal, or without, as the parties could
agree. Usually they were for long terms, and some-
times they were made in perpetuity, in which latter
case they were called fee-farm leases, and the rents
fee-farm rents. In the Westchester County Manors
there was great latitude in the character of the lease
holds. The Lords and their Tenants were bound by
no hard and fast rules, and made just such agreements
with each other as they saw fit. Sometimes the right
to purchase the fee by the tenant upon terms was in-
serted in the leases. But it was the custom generally
to sell the reversion of the fee to the tenant, whenever
it was desired and the parties could agree upon the
terms of the purchase. These leaseholds were de-
visable by will, and divisible, with the lord's assent,
into parts in the lessee's lifetime. This made it easy
for tenants to retain their farms in their fiimilies
from father to son if they wished, or to divide up a
1 Cruise Tit. VIIl., ch. I. ^ 1., and Tit. XXVITI., ch. I. J 1.
aCrukeTIt. XXVIIL, ch. 1.
large farm into smaller ones, among several sons, or
married daughters. But in all cases the consent in
writing of the lord was necessary. And, as a rule,
this was never withheld, when the subdivisions pro-
posed were not made too small. In these divisions of
a leasehold, the rent was arranged to be paid in one
of two ways. Either the lord consented to take it in
fixed parts from the holders of the subdivisions, or,
which was most usual, it was agreed amon^ the sub-
tenants that some one of them should pay the entire
rent under the whole lease to the lord, and be re-im-
bursed by each of them for his own part. The amounts
for the different parts were apportioned among them-
selves in this case as they chose. When the lord ac-
cepted the rent in parts the apportionment was made
by him, or his steward, with the tenants at the time
such division into parts was agreed upon. In the
Manor of Scarsdale, there were, within the personal
knowledge of the writer, instances of tenants holding
their|farms for four and five generations, and then pur-
chasing the reversion of the fee from the lineal repre-
sentatives of the Lord to whom the fee had descended.
And it may be said that much the greater number of
the original tenants of that manor, or their descend-
ants became the owners in fee of their farms by' direct
purchase from the first Lord, Caleb Heathcote, or his
lineal descendants. Several of these farms have been
so sold and so acquired in the memory of the writer.
Another rule which obtained with the owners of that
manor, and with some of the owners of the manor of
Cortlandt,al80, to the writer's knowledge, was, that no
stranger to the tenants of any farm was ever permitted
to purchase the fee of a farm, without the owners first
giving the tenant in possession the first opportunity
to purchase it. In the latter manor many farms were
originally leased to tenants on ninety-nine years leases,
and in some instances they have remained in the fam-
ilies of the same lords and the same tenants during
that entire term, and upon its expiration then sold
in fee. One of these farma which descended to the
writer, had been divided into four parcels by the origi-
nal tenant in the manner above mentioned. And ten
years ago, when the ninety-nine years' lease had ex-
pired, two portions of it were still in the hands of the
great-grandchildren of the first tenant. The right to
purchase, though there was no obligation to do so, the
term having expired, was oflered to them. But not
wishing to profit by it, the fee was sold at public
auction, and bought by an adjoining neighbor, who
some years before had acquired the fee, or " soil right"
of his own farm in the same way.
The quit-rents, payable to the sovereign authority,
whether the Crown, or, after the Revolution, the
State of New York, from all Manors, as well as the
Great Patents and Small Patents, granted by the
Crown, were incidents of all the Manors, as well as
of the other Crown grants of every kind. The term
itself is derived from the Latin * quietus redditus, and
signifies a rent reserved in grants of land, by the
96
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
payment of which the tenant is quieted, or quit, from
all other service. They were at once the acknowl-
edgment of the tenure, the holding, of the lands,
from the Sovereign Authority, and the source of a
part of its revenue. And this is the reason why the
success of the American Revolution had no effect what-
ever upon quit-rents, and that they continued payable
afker it, just as they were before, the State succeeding
to the revenue from them formerly enjoyed by the
Crown.
The Manor-Grants in the County of Westchester
varied a little in the form and terms of the clauses
providing for the reservation and the payment of
these quit-rents, and the times of their payment.
The clauses were framed in the model of the quaint
old clauses of the ancient Manors of England, of five
centuries before. But except this mere resemblance
there was nothing ''feudal'' in them more than in
the reservations of rent in a modern lease of a store
on Broadway, a farm in the Country, or an opposition
Rail Road, or Oil, Company. The quit-rent clauses
of the different Manor-Grants in Westchester County
are these ; —
Manor of Cortlandt : — '* Yielding rendering and
paying therefor yearly and every year unto us, our
heirs and successors, at our City of New York, on the
feast day of the Annunciation of our Blessed Virgin
Mary, the yearly rent of forty shillings current money
of our said Province, in lieu and stead of all other
rents, services, dues, and demands whatsoever for the
afore recited tracts and parcels of land and meadow.
Lordship and Manor of Cortlandt and premises."
Manor of Scarsdale: — "Yielding, rendering, and
paying therefor yearly and every year forever at our
City of New York, unto us our heire and successors,
or to such officer or officers, as shall from time to time
be empowered to receive the same, five pounds cur
rent money of New York, upon the Nativity of our
Lord, in lieu and stead of all services, dues, duties,
or demands whatsoever."
Manor of Pelham: — Like Scarsdale as far as the
word "same" inclusive, and then, " twenty shillings,
good and lawful money of this province, at the City
of New Yorke, on the five and twentyeth day of the
month of March, in lieu of all rents, services, and
demands whatsoever,"
Manor of MorrUania : — " Yielding rendering and
paying therefor yearly and every year, on the feast
day of the Annunciation of our Blessed Virgin, unto
us, our heirs and successors, at our city of New York
the annual rent of six shillings, in lieu " etc. " for
the said lordship and manor of Morrisania, and
premises."
Manor of FordJiam: "Yealding, rendering, and
paying yearly and every year unto his Royal High-
ness, the Duke of Yorke and his successors, or to such
governor, or governors, as from time to time, shall by
him be constituted and appointed, as full acknowl-
edgment and quit-rent, twenty bushels of good peas
upon the first day of March, when it shall be de-
manded." *
Manor of Fhilipsborough : * " Yealding, rendering,
and paying therefor, yearly, and every year, on the
feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, at our fort at New York, unto us our heirs and
successors, the annual rent of four pounds, twelve
shillings current money of our said province, in lieu
of all former rents, services, dues, duties, and de-
mands for the said Lordship or Manor of Philips-
borough and premises."
In the parts of this essay treating of these Manors
severally, will be found copies of the official receipts
for these quit-rents given by the authorized Crown
officers to whom they were payable. Being so small,
they were practically allowed to run for a number of
years, and then paid in a gross sum. Upon Crown
Grants all over the province, not Manor-Grants —
Patents as they were termed — the quit-rents were
usually fixed upon the number of acres included, or
estimated to be included in them, at the rate of two
shillings and six pence sterling per hundred acres.
But though this rate varied in some instances it may be
taken as the general rate. Some of them were payable
in kind usually in winter wheat. As the Province
grew the amount of quit-rents increased and came to
be an important part of the public revenue. Several
acts of the Legislature from time to time regulated
the times and manner of their payment, when they had
fallen into arrears, which was a common occurrence,
the last of which was in 1762, which also carefully pro-
vided for the partition of large estates where they had
come into the possession of numerous heirs. But
space will not permit of more than this allusion to
this legislation.
After the Revolution when the State succeeded to
the rights of the Crown, and in 1786, an act was
passed providing for the payment of the quit-rents to
the State, and permitting the owners of lands subject
to them, to commute by paying a sum in gross, upon
the receipt of which, the lands were declared free
and discharged from then forever. The sum fixed
was fourteen shillings in cash for every one
shilling of annual quit-rent payable any time be-
fore the 1st of May, 1787, in the same State
securities receivable in payment for forfeited estates.
In the case of those payable in kind they were to be
settled for in the method in the book of the Receiver-
General of the former Colony, if this could be found,
and if not found, then upon principles of equity and
good conscience by the State Treasurer. This law
was extended from time to time by various special
acts. In 1791 one of these acts also changed the pay-
ments from the securities mentioned above to gold
and silver, at the lower rate of twelve shillings for
1 This was the only Manor-Grant in the County of Westchester issued
under the Duke of York as Lord Proprietor.
*So styled in the Manor-Grant, but usually pronounced "Philipee-
burgh."
THE ORiaiN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
97
every shilling of quit-rent. The extensions continued
to be made nearly every year up to 1813, when all
payments and commutations were suspended for two
years.^ In 1815, the Comptroller was autlborized to
sell and commute, on the same terms as before, but
in a method specified in the Act.' In 1816 and 1817
two more Acts were passed regulating and fixing the
whole subject and placing it in the hands of the State
Comptroller, and under these the quit-rents were
gradually commuted until about the year 1823, when
Commutation had been made for nearly all the lands
subject to them, and the quit-rents became finally ex-
tinguished.
Another subject requires brief mention in this place.
In the account of the old English Manors which has
been given before, little or no mention has been made
of the Copyhold lands. This was because, copyhold
lands as such did not exist in the New York Manors.
The Copyhold Tenure in England grew out of and
was simply an enlargement by custom of the greater
firity of the villein holdings of the manors, which,
as has been shown, were originally terminable at the
wUl of the Lord. As the custom of permitting the
villeins to hold their lands from father to son in-
creased, it finally became regulated by the Steward of
the Manor forming a Court roll of such holdings in
the Court-Baron, and for the tenants when a death or
other termination of such a tenancy by gift or pur-
chase occurred, to apply at the Court- Baron, over
which the Steward, in the absence of the Lord, pre-
sided, for an entry of such change in this Court roll,
a copy of which was given to the new tenant.
From this custom such tenants were called "Tenants
by copy of Court Roll," and in shorter terms " Copy-
holders.'' As the tenure grew solely out of a custom
of the Manors, it could only exist in Manors old
enough to have a custom. But as the freehold
Manors of New York, were, as above shown, all New
Manors, no custom of a manor could possibly exist
in the Manors in that Province, and consequently
there could not be any "Copyholds" or "Copy-
holders " therein.
In England at this day, it may be said, that with
few exceptions, all the lands of the old manors
except the private demesne lands of the Lords, have
long since become Copyhold lands, and their Tenants
Copyholders. Manors there are frequently bought
and sold as a whole, and the purchaser succeeds to all
the rights, franchises, privileges, and powers of the
original Lord of the Manor. In the growth of Eng-
land many Manors have become enormously valuable,
by the spreading over them of large towns and cities.
Hence many rich men have bought out these old
Manors when in the neighborhood of flourishing cities
and towns as an investment, or on speculation. The
Lords, whether old or new ones are always ready in
such cases to sell the fee of these Manor lands on
satisfactory terms, which is termed Enfranchising the
lands. It will be seen when a town or city has over-
grown a Manor and the latter has been divided into
lots how very valuable manors in such a condition
become. The writer personally knew of such an in-
stance in Gloucestershire, where the City of Chelten-
ham has spread over the Manor of that name.
A little upwards of twenty years ago, that manor
was purchased in the manner just mentioned, and the
new Lord issued through his Steward, who was also
the Steward of the former Lord, his proposals for En-
franchising the lots in the Manor within that City. A
copy of them is here given as an illustration of the
nature and working of copyhold lands in an old Eng-
lish Manor, and their advantages and disadvantages,
and the method by which they can become lands in
fee simple. Although no copyhold lands did exist or
could have existed, in New York the matter is of
interest in connection with the general subject of this
1 Ch. 2:32 of Laws of 1813.
s Ch. 209 of Law8 of ISlf).
"MANOR OF CHELTENHAM.
Enfranchisement of Copyhold Property,
The Purchase by Robert Sole Lingwood Esquire of
the Manor of Cheltenham having been completed, we
are requested by him, as Lord of the Manor, to signify
to the Copyholders that every facility will be afforded
to those who desire to enfranchise their Copyhold
Property, and that the terms on which such enfran-
chisement may be effected can be ascertained either
through us or by application to Mr. Lingwood.
Whilst very reasonable terms will now be accepted
to induce the Copyholders to avail themselves of the
present opportunity to effect enfranchisements, the
Lord of the Manor directs us to inform the Copyhold-
ers that he requires all Leases and dealings by the
Owners with their Copyhold Tenements to be made
in strict conformity with the Act of Parliament reg-
ulating the Customs of the Manor ; and this notifica-
tion is rendered the more necessary because Leases
have heretofore frequently been made and executed
by Tenants of the Manor in violation of the Custom
regulating the mode of leasing, and because a Lease
of Copyhold properly by the Owner made contrary to
the Custom occasions an absolute forfeiture to the
Lord of the property so leased.
Among the objections to Copyhold property which
will be got rid of by Enfranchisement may be enu-
merated the following :
1. The risk of forfeiture of the property by reason
of ignorance in granting Leases contrary to the Cus-
tom. —
2. The expenceofthe perpetually recurring Stewards'
fees payable on every occasion of dealing by Sale or
Mortgage with the Copyhold property. —
3. The like expence of Stewards' fees payable on
the death of every Owner of Copyhold property, for
the admittance of his heir or devisee. —
4. The expence and inconvenience, frequently oc-
98
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
casioned, to the Wife of a Copyholder, of having to
travel from a distance to make in person a surrender
of property sold or mortgaged by her Husband. —
6. The liability to publicity consequent on the sur-
render of Copyholds being made in open Court, and
the proceedings being recorded on the Court Rolls
which are accessible to all the Tenants of the Manor.
This is particularly objectionable with reference to
Mortgages.-—
6. The liability to absolute forfeiture of the prop-
erty, if the Owner dig clay or brickearth therefrom, or
cut timber, or otherwise commit waste without the
previous sanction of the Lord.
Many other grounds might be stated in favor of the
Enfranchisement of Copyholds — ^butthe foregoing are
some of the more important ; and in Cheltenham,where
one-half of the property is Copyhold, nothing need
be added to shew the importance of the Copyholders
availing themselves of the opportunity now offered to
them of immediately enfranchising their property on
reasonable terms. —
Cheltenham W. H Gwinnett,
19 January, 1863. * Steward of the Manor."
One incident of a manor was the right to tithes which
sometimes could be acquired by the lords by prescrip-
tions. This incident, as the manors of New York were
new, was of little value for no prescription could attach
to a new manor. It is singular, however, that in the
very first manor erected in Westchester County, that
of Fordham, in 1671, provision was made for the pay-
ment of a parson when it should have inhabitants.
Its Lord, John Archer, and hie heirs, were granted
the privilege of obliging the inhabitants, when there
should be enough of them, to contribute to the
maintenance of a minister.^ Had this been done
which it never was, the method of contribution would
naturally have been by tithes. As tithes were not
known in America, it is perhaps well to explain
briefly what they really were. During the first ages
of Christianity the clergy were supported by the
voluntary offerings of their flocks. But this being a
precarious subsistence then, as it is now, the eccle-
siastics in every country in Europe, in imitation of
the Jewish law, claimed, and in course of time es-
tablished, a right to the tenth of all the produce
of lands. This right appears to have been fully ad-
mitted in England before the Norman Conquest, and
acquired the name of tithe from a Saxon word sig-
nifying tenth. " Dismes or Tithes are an Ecclesias-
tical inheritance, collateral to the estate of the land,
and of their proper nature due only to Ecclesiastical
persons by the ecclesiastical law.^ They were
merely a right to the tenth part of the produce of
the soil, produce of live stock, and the personal in-
dustry of the inhabitant^, in return for the benefit the
latter derived from the ministry of their spiritual
> Manor Grunt of Fordham. II, Bolton, o()6, 2d ed., and po$t.
>II. D'Arner's Abridgment of Com. Law, 582.
pastors. They were an application of the Mosaic
law to modem exigencies, very similar to certain ap-
plications of other parts of that dispensation to their
own exigencies by the Puritan settlers of NewEngland,
and were like the latter, strictly enforced. Both were
simply methods of paying the clergy. They were of
various kinds and descriptions varying with the pro-
ducts of the soil, but these require no further men-
tion here.
Glebe lands, however, were very common in Amer-
ica, in New York, and in Westchester County. They
were lands given as an endowment by the Lords of
Manors, and other large landholders, for the support,
or in aid of the support, of Rectors, or other clergy-
men, of parishes. The original parishes of West-
chester County all had glebes ; and so, towards the
close of the Colonial era, had the different churches
and parishes erected and formed at different places,
out of those parishes. Of course, all the original par-
ishes &s well as the later ones, were parishes and
churches of the Church of England, as is shown by
their very nomenclature. A nomenclature which the
dissenting organizations of all kinds always repud-
iated, and never have used, since they severally came
into existence during the last three centuries. Like
all English parishes these in Westchester County
were territorial divisions, each having Church War-
dens, Vestrymen, and minor Parish ofllcers.
In addition to their duties and powers relative to
the Parish church, its Eector, and the maintenance, of
church services in their fullness and propriety, the
Wardens and Vestrymen possessed, exercised, and
were by law bound to perform, many civil duties, now
laid upon, and performed, by Town and County offi-
cers, such as the repairs of highways and bridges,
maintenance of the poor, the assessing and collection
of rates and taxes, and similar local duties, including
the preservation of the public peace. They were not,
as Church wardens and Vestrymen now are, officers
of a purely ecclesiastical organization, but the civil
officers of the parishes or territorial organizations of
the church of England, as established by law in the
County of Westchester. They were elected by all
the freeholders resident in their respective parishes,
whatever their religious views might be. And before
entering upon the duties of their offices, pursuant to
a law of the Province passed the 27th day of July
1721, took the following oath annually, which of
itself demonstrates their powers in one of the im-
portant respects just mentioned : —
" You do Swear on the Holy Evangelist, That you
and every of you shall well and truly execute the
Duty of an Assessor, and Equally and Impartially
assess the several Freekoldei^s avd inhahitanU^ accord"
ing to the value of their respective JSstateSj in an equal
proportion J in every of your respective City, CbuntieSy
and Precincts J for which you are chose Vestry-men and
according to your b€«t Skill and Knowledge therein.
You shall spare no jyersons for Favour or Affection, or
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
99
grieve any person for Haired or HI Will, So Help
you God." 1
Their powers and duties of every nature were per-
fectly well understood and acknowledged, and their
authority obeyed, without hesitation, by the people of
Westchester County throughout the Colonial era. Oc-
casionally some bitter opponent of the church of
England would try to prevent the performance of
their legal duties or the legal exercise of their powers,
by word, and deed, sometimes with great heat and
violence, just, as the dissenting clergy did in matters
of tlie exercise of clerical functions. But their legal
rights and duties as parish officers under the laws of
the Province were never contested or denied in the
Courts of the Province. The People knew them
perfectly and acted accordingly. A remarkable
proof of this was furnished in the case of the Parish
of Rye, in 1794, eleven years after the peace of
1788, and six years aftier the first organization of the
County into townships, in 1688, which terminated
the political existence of the Parishes and the
Manors. Certain creditors of the "late Parish of
Rye," in that year obtained payment of the debts due
them from the various newly organized towns form-
erly parts of that Parish, through an Act of the Legis-
lature of the State passed for that express purpose.
The executors of one of the Creditors sued "Joshua
Purdy one of the Church Wardens of the late Parish
of Rye " and recovered judgment. Thereupon he and
the other creditors laid the case before the Legislst-
ure which granted the relief sought by passing the
following Act, thus showing the continued and ac-
knowledged lawful action of the Parochial officers of
the Parish of Rye, under the Ministry Act of 1693,
which created the Parish, up to its extinction by the
Act of 1784, repealing that Act, and its subsequent
transformation into townships by the Act of 1788.
The Act with its interesting preamble, and severe pro-
visions for its due enforcement is in these words ; —
An Act for raising Monies in arrear from the Utte
Parish of Rye, in the County of Westchester.
Passed the 2Sth nf January 1794.
Whereas it hath been represented to the Legisla-
ture that a judgment of fourteen pounds damages
hath been obtained by the executors of John Law-
rence, deceased, against Joshua Purdy, as one of the
late Church Wardens of the late Parish of Rye, in
the County of Westchester, for monies in arrear to
their late testator for keeping and supporting a
pauper committed to his care by the said Joshua
Purdy, together with the Costs of suit, and that other
monies are in arrears from the late parish of Rye to
other persons ; Therefore ;
Be it Enacted by the People of the Stnte of New
York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That it
shall and may be lawful for the Supervisors of the
said County of Westchester, or the major part of
1 II. Bradfurd's Laws, 211 ; I. Liv. & Smith, 146.
them, and they are hereby required at their next
annual meeting to examine into, and ascertain the
amount of the monies so recovered as aforesaid, as
also the costs of defending the said suit, and to ascer-
tain also the amount of other monies so due from the
late Parish of Rye as aforesaid, and to cause the said
monies, and also such other sum or sums of money as
they shall find to be so due, together with one shil-
ling in the pound for collections, and three pence Id
the pound for the fees of the County Treasurer for re-
ceiving and paying the same, to be levied on and
raised from the Towns which constitute the said late
Parish of Rye, in the same manner as the contingent
chaiges tyf the said County are usually raised ; which
monies when so raised, shall be paid by the Collect-
ors r^pectively, to the Treasurer of the said County
on or before the first Tuesday of February in the year
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, who
shall pay the same after deducting his fees, to the
persons to whom the monies are due: and if
any Collector shall refuse or neglect to perform
the duty required of him by this act, he shal)
forfeit and pay the sum of twenty pounds to the
Treasurer of the said County to be recovered with
costs in any Court having cognizance thereof by an
Action of debt in the name of the Treasurer of the
said County for the time being, and to be disposed of
for the use of the same County in such' manner, and
for such purposes as the Supervisors of the said
County, or the Major part of them shall think proper,
and direct.'
11.
The Church of England Parochial organization in
West Chester County in its relation to the
Manors therein.
In England the Boundaries of a Parish and a
Manor were often coincident, and in the very earliest
times this was generally the case. Later a Manor, of-
ten embraced more than one Parish. Sometimes a
Parish contained within its limits two or more Manors
or parts of Manors, and lands non Manorial. In New
York the latter was the case. In the County of West-
chester the Parishes erected, in 1693 by an act of the
Legislature were, the " Parish of Westchester," and
the " Parish of Rye." The former included West-
chester, Eastchc8ter, Yonkers and the Manor of Pel-
ham, the latter Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford.^
These divisions were termed the " Precincts" of these
Parishes. The Parish of Westchester included the
three Manors of Pelham, Morrisania, and Fordhahi,
with the lower part of Philipseburgh. The "Ten
Farms," as Eastchester was originally termed, were
separated from the mother Parish and erected on the
petition of its people into a Parish by itself in the
year 1700, under a special act of the Legislature, "by
the name and stile of The Parish of Eastchester in
2 Laws of the 17th Senion A.D. 1794, p. 6.
• II. Bradford, 19-20.
100
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
the County of Westchester." ^ The " Parish of Rye"
included the Manor of Scarsdale, aod the non-man-
orial lands of Rye and Bedford.
Later Yonkers was taken from Westchester, and
made a Parish by itself. It was the only Parish
entirely embraced within the limits of a Manor, being
wholly included within the boundaries of Philipse-
burgh as they are described in the Manor-Grant of
that Manor. New Rochelle was taken out of the
Manor of Pelham and eventually made a Parish by
itself, though it long continued a Precinct of the
Parish of Westchester.
These were the Parishes in Westchester County,
one of the four Counties of New York, in which, the
Ohurch of England became, under the legal action of
the Crown of England in its conquered Province, the
Established* Church ; the others being the Counties of
New York, Richmond, and Queens.
A misconception has existed in relation to the
origin and establishment of the Church of England
in the part of the territory of New York, comprising
the four Counties that have been named. It has been
owing mainly to the little attention bestowed on the
subject, both by those who are now the successors in
belief of the Church of England since the American
Revolution, and those of the dissenting ecclesiastical
organizations. The few writers who have referred to
the subject at all, have taken for granted, and honestly
believed, that no such establishment ever existed,
and, of course, have written in that belief and with
that idea. But some attention to the Authorities,
and the then law, bearing upon the subject, will show
that the current popular opinion is not as well found-
ed as has been supposed.
The question is a purely historical one. And only
In an historical point of view can, and will, it be con-
sidered here.
From and after the English conquest of New York
in 1664, excepting only the fifteen months that the
Dutch reconquest of 1673 lasted, under all the Eng-
lish Governors, their Chaplains maintained the ser-
vices of the Church of England and performed all
clerical duties in the chapel in the Fort in New York.
By the several " Commissions "' and " Instructions "
to the Governors under the signs-manual of their
Sovereigns, and their several oaths of office, the dif-
ferent Governors were commanded and compelled to
maintain and support the Church of England in the
Province of New York. This was the exercise in
New York of a power which was legally vested in
the Sovereign of England by the law of England, and
which by his coronation oath he was bound to exer-
cise. Although so strictly commanded, the Governors
were unable to carry out their Instructions in any
other way than in the King's chapel in the Fort, as
above stated, for twenty-nine years. This was owing
to the fact that the English speaking people in the
1 II. Bradford, 39.
Province were so few in comparison with the Dutch,
and the French, (the latter alone being one-fourth of
the City population prior to 1790), that the church in
the Fort was sufficient for their needs in the City ;
while those in other parts of the Province where
there were any English at all were so very few, that
it was impossible to act at all in the matter. All this
time it must be borne in mind that the Commissions
and Instructions of the Governors were continually
in force. At length the increase of the English
population became sufficient to justify a movement
putting them in operation. On the 28th of August,
1692, Colonel Benjamin Fletcher arrived in New York
as Governor in the ship "Wolf," having been ap-
pointed by William and Mary on the 18th of the
preceding March.^ He was warmly attached to the
Church of England. Chief Justice LewiB Morris in
a judicial opinion in 1701, speaks of him as "Colonel
Fletcher (justly styled the great patron of the Church
of England here).'* ' At his instance, pursuant to his
Commission and Instructions, the Legislature, com-
posed of the Governor, Council, and Assembly, an-
swering to the present Governor, Senate and Assembly,
passed on the 24th of March, 1693, seven months only
aft«r his arrival as Governor, "An Act for Settling a
Ministry and Eaising a Revenue for them in the City
of New York, County of Richmond, Westchester and
Queens Counties."^ This act gave an impetus to the
Church of England in New York, which it never af-
terwards lost. Under it and the efforts and support
of a few English Churchmen in the City of New
York who had organized themselves into a body
styled " The Managers f^f the Church of England in
New York," at the head of which was Colonel Caleb
Heathcote, that Church began a growth, which has
continued to this day. Increasing ever after, some-
times faster, sometimes slower, that Church became
during the Colonial era, as it has continued to be
since the American Revolution, under its present
title of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States, the leading church in influence and standing,
but not in numbers, in the City, Province, and now
State of New York.
Under, or rather by, this Act of 1693, the Par-
ishes of Westchester County were constituted.
The reasons why this "Ministry Act," as it was
commonly styled, was confined to the regions it names
in establishing the Church of England have not been
adverted to by any writer who has mentioned it. The
Counties it designates were the only portions of the
Province in which English-speaking people dwelt,
with the single exception of the County of Suffolk, in
the eastern portion of Long Island. In all the other
counties of the Province, the Dutch, with many
French in two or three of them, were the sole inhabi-
tants. In those counties the Dutch church, for fifty
« III. Col. HlBt, 846, 83:i. a ChalmerB Opinions, 267.
« II. Bradford's Laws, 19.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
101
years prior to 1664, the Established Church in the
Province, with ^hich the French Protestants, outside
of New York City, generally affiliated, was maintained
in its worship, privileges, property and dependence on
the Church of Holland, by the Crown of England, pur-
suant to the Articles of Surrender of 1664, the Treaty
of Breda in 1667, and the Articles of Surrender of
1674. All that it really lost by the change of dominion
from Holland to England was the pecuniary support
it derived from the Dutch West India Company under
the different charters of Freedoms and Exemptions,
and the title of the ' Established Church.* Hence it
was impossible to establish the English Church in
those parts of the Province, where not only were
there no English-speaking people, but where the pre-
existing Dutch Church was guaranteed by the English
Crown in its faith, worship, and rights of property,
neither of which, by the law of the land, could be
interfered with in any way whatsoever. In Suffolk
County, the only other English-speaking region of
the Province, there existed an Established church,
the Congregational Church of New England. That
County claimed to be a part of, and was claimed by,
the Colony of Connecticut, was represented for
years by delegates in the " General Court '* at
Hartford, and was an integral part of that Colony.
As such, the " General Court," under the '* Body of
Laws of Connecticut, concluded and established in
May, 1650," ruled supreme in church and state on the
east end of Long Island. What that rule so ''estab-
lished" was, is best stated in the very words of " The
Laws of Connecticut Colony." " It is ordered by tlje
Authority of this Court ; That no persons within this
Colony shall in any wise imbody themselves into
Church Estate without consent of the General Court,
and the approbation of Neighbour Churches.
'' It is also ordered by this Court ; That there shall
be no Ministry or Church Administration entertained
or attended by the Inhabitants of any Plantation in
this Colony distinct and separate from and in opposi-
tion to that which is openly and publicly observed
and dispensed by the approved Minister of the place,
except it be by approbation of this Court and Neigh-
bour Churches, upon penalty of the forfeiture olMve
pounds for every breach of this order
" This Court having seriously considered the great
Divisions that arise amongst us about matters of
Church Government, for the Honour of Gk)d, welfare
of the Churches, and preservation of the publick peace
80 greatly hazarded.
'^ Do Declare ; That whereas the Congregational
Churches in these parts for the general ^ of their Pro-
fession and practice have hitherto been approved ; We
can do no less than approve and countenance the
same to be without disturbance until better light in
an orderly way doth appear.
" But yet forasmuch as sundry persons of worth for
1 So in tbe original.
prudence and piety amongst us are otherwise perswad*
ed (whose welfare and peaceable satisfaction we desire
to accommodate ; this Court doth Declare ; That all
such persons, being so approved according to Law, a»
Orthodox and Sound in the Fundamentals of Chris-
tian Religion, may have allowance in their perswa-
sion and Profession in Church ways or Assemblies,
without disturbance. . . .
" It is further ordered ; That wheresoever the Minis-
try of the Word is established according to the order
of the Gospel throughout this Colony, every person
shall duely resort and attend thereunto respectively
upon the Lord's day, and upon such publick Fast
dayes and day es of thanksgiving, as are to be general-
ly kept by the appointment of Authority. And if any
person within this Jurisdiction, shall without just and
necessary cause, withdraw himself from hearing the
publick Ministry of the Word, after due means of
conviction used, he shall forfeit for his absence from
every such meeting five shillings, . . .
" It is ordered by this Court ; That the Civil Authori-
ty here established hath power and liberty to see the
Peace, Ordinances and Rules of Christ be observed in
every church according to his Word ; as also to deal
with any Church member in a way of civil justice
notwithstanding any Church relation, office, or inter-
est, so it be done in a civil and not in an ecclesiasti-
cal way, nor shall any church censure degrade or de-
pose any man from any Civil Dignity, Office or Au-
thority he shall have in the Colony.'
Such was the Established Congregational Church
of Connecticut, on the East end of Long Island. To
both it and the Colony, the final determination of the
Joint-Commission appointed to settle the boundary
question after the Dutch surrender, that the eastern
part of Long Jsland was included in the Duke of
York's Patent and was a part of New York, was a
blow as severe as it was unwelcome, and the people of
that region protested against it, but in vain. Al-
though this decision severed the civil connexion
between Suffolk County and the Colony of Connecti-
cut, it did not affect the ecclesiastical connexion be-
tween them except that it ended the latter's power to
enforce its church laws there by the civil arm. And
its effect is perceptible to this day, notwithstanding-
the fact, that Presbyterianism came there about 1717,.
and that, since the American Revolution, several
other forms of Christian belief have obtained a.
foothold in that County. So strong was, and is,,
this old feeling, that the editor of the Southampton
Records, published in 1877, says in his preface to the
second volume, " Had the wishes of the people been
consulted, this union would have still continued, and
to-day our delegates to the Legislature, would ascend
the Connecticut Elver rather than the Hudson." '
These were the causes, the efficiency of which can-
9 Book of the Genenl Laws, collected out of the Records of the General
Court, pp. 21, 22- Brinley's Beprint of 1866, of the ed. of 1673.
8 Mr. W. 8. Pelletreau.
102
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
not truthfully be denied, why the English Goyernore of
the Province of New York, in obedience to the " In-
fitructions " of the English King, could take no steps
to establish the Church of England, except in those
parts of that Province, where it could possibly be done.
The Church of England in New York originated
' not in this " Ministry Act'' as has been so generally
believed and stated, but in the earlier action of the
English Sovereigns, in virtue of the law of England.
That act was merely the second step taken in obedi-
ence to the Royal Instructions. It was also an
illustration of a principle, which obtained through-
out British America irom the earliest settlement
of Virginia down to the close of the American
Revolution. That principle was this, '*that
some form of religion, dissent from which in-
volved serious civil disabilities was established in
nearly all the Colonies by virtue, of either the local or
the imperial law." These are the words of Ex- Pro-
vost Still6 of the University of Pennsylvania, in his
** Religious Tests in Provincial Pennsylvania." ^ Mr.
Stille has treated this subject so ably, and so well,
and his conclusions being so nearly identical with
those to which its investigation had already led the
writer, that his statement (which has only appeared
since this portion of this essay was begun) is here
given in preference to the writer's own, which was not
quite so full, and because it corroborates his views.
"The truth is," says Mr. Stille, "that during the
Colonial period we were essentially a nation of Pro-
testants, with fewer elements outside Protestantism
than were to be found in any country of Europe, and
that we, forced to do so, either by our own earnest
conviction that such was the true method of support-
ing religion, or by the laws of the Mother-country,
took similar methods of maintaining aivl perpetuating
our Protestantism, excluding those who dissented from
it from any share in the government, and frankly adopt-
ing the policy which had prevailed in England from the
time of Queen Elizabeth There were, it is true,
in some of the Colonies, especially New York, at times
* ineffectual murmurings ' against laws which forced
people to pay taxes for the support of a ministry
whose teachings were not in harmony with the re-
ligious sentiment of the great mass of the inhabitants,^
and in Pennsylvania there was a long, and at last a
successful struggle to induce the Imperial Govern-
ment to regard the affirmation of a Quaker as equiv-
alent to the oath of another man ; but if there were
any men in our Colonial history who, after the ex-
ample of William Penn, and Lord Baltimore, lifted up
their voices to protest, as these men had done, against
the violation of the principle of religious liberty here,
I have not been able to discover their names. The
1 IX. Penn. Mag. of History, 372.
* The laws in the New England Colonies, though not mentioned by
Hr. Stlll6, were 9till more severe than the Ministry Act of Mew York In
compelling dissenten fh>ni the Puritanism of those colonies, to pay
taxes to support their "Established Church.'*
only subject of a quasi-ecclesiastical nature which
appears to have excited general interest and to have
met determined opposition was a scheme, at one time
said to have been in contemplation of sending Bishops
to this country. It was opposed not so much because
it was thought to be the first step towards forming a
Church Establishment in this [whole] country, as be-
cause the Colonists had a peculiar abhorrence of the
methods of enforcing the jurisdiction of the English
Church as they were familiar with them in the old
country. They may have forgotten many of the
sufferings they had endured in England in conse-
quence of their non-conformity and even committed
themselves to a theory of Church establishment, bat
there was one thing they never could forget, and that
was the prelatical government of Land and the High
Commission, and upon this were founded the popular
notions of the authority wielded by Bishops. ... I
I am well aware that these statements of the general
prevalence of a principle here during the Colonial
period, which in contrast to that now universally re*
cognized I must call the principle of religious intol-
erance, will appear to many too wide and sweeping.
But a very slight examination of the provisions in
this subject in the laws of the Colonies will, if I mis-
take not, produce a different impression. In Virginia
where the English Church was early established by
law and endowed, men who refused or neglected to
bring their children to be baptized were -punished
with civil penalties; Quakers were expelled from the
Colony, and should they return thither a third time,
tf^ey were liable to capital punishment. Any one
who denied the Trinity or the truth of the Christian
religion was deprived by the Act of 1704 of his civil
rights, and was rendered incapable of suing for any gift
or legacy. In New England, except in Ehode Island,
religious intolerance was very bitter. It is true that
in Massachusetts, under the charter of 1691, the
power of committing those barbarous acts of perse-
cution of which the theocracy ofthe old standing order
had been guilty was taken away, and all Christians,
save Eoman Catholics, were permitted to celebrate
their worship, yet none but membera of the Congre-
gational Church could be freemen, and all were taxed
for the support of the Ministry of that Church. In
Maine which was a District of Massachusetts, in New
Hampshire, and in Connecticut, the same general
system of religious intolerance prevailed. Conformity
was the inflexible rule throughout New England. In
New York, the Dutch were protected by the provisions
of the Treaty of Breda, which guaranteed them the
possession of their property then held there for reli-
gious purposes and their ecclesiastical organization.*
liut the royal Governors of that Province expelled
I any Catholic priests who might be found within their
territory on the plea that they were exciting the In-
8 The ax-ticles of the two "surrenders of 1G«4 and 1674," should hare
been mentioned also in this connexion.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
103
dians to revolt against the government, and they
established the English Church, so far as it could be
done in a Province where the Episcopalians were
very few in number by requiring each of the towns to
raise money for the support of the clergy of that
church, by dividing the country into parishes, and by
exercising the power of collating and inducting into
these parishes such Episcopal Rectors as they thought
fit.^ In New Jersey, after the surrender of the Charter,
when the Colony came directly under the royal
authority in 1702, liberty of conscience was pro-
claimed in favor of all except Papists and Quakers ;
but as the latter were required to take oaths as quali-
fications for holding office, or for acting as jurors or
witnesses in judicial proceedings, they, of course the
great mass of the population, were practically dis-
franchised. But the story of the arbitrary measures
taken by the Governor of this Colony [New Jersey],
Lord Cornbury, to exclude from office or the control of
public aflfaire all except those who conformed to the
Church of England is too well known to need to be
retold here. In Maryland the English Church was
established in 1696, and one of the first acts of the
newly organized Province was to disfranchise those
very Catholics and their children by whom the
doctrine of religious liberty had been established in
the law of 1649. In Carolina after the fanciful and
impracticable Constitution devised for it by the cele-
brated philosopher, John Locke, had been given up,
by which the English Church had been established
and endowed in the Cqlony, the Church feeling was so
strong, and the determination to secure its supremacy
so unyielding, that an Act was passed in 1704 requir-
ing all members of the Assembly to take the sacra-
ment according to the rites of the Church of England.
Georgia, following the example of her elder sisters,
gave free exercise of religion to all except Papists,
and such rights in this respect as any native born
Englishman at that time possessed ; a grant, as we
have seen, of very doubtful value to EngliHh non-
conformists, then ruled by the tender mercies of the
Toleration Act.* The result of this review is to show
that in all the Colonies named except, perhaps,
Rhode Island, liberty of worship was the rule, ex-
cepting, of course, in the case of Roman (catholics.
Throughout the Colonies, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, the man who did not conform to
the established religion of the Colony, whether it was
Congregationalism in New England, or the Episcopal
form elsewhere, was not in the same position in regard
to the enjoyment of either civil or religious rights as
he who did conform. If he were a Roman Catholic
1 All this waa done under the ** Ministry Act ** above mentioned, and
its amendments, An Act which was not repealed till 1784:, one year after
the establishment of Independence. It was the binding law of New
York from 1G93 to 1784, full ninety years.
SI. W. andM., Ch. 18. Exempting dissenters from the penalties of
•certain laws against non-conformity, but requiring an oath against
transubstantiation, and of nllegiauce to William and Mary.
he was everywhere wholly disfranchised. For him
there was not even the legal right of public worship.
If he were a Protestant differing in his creed fi:om the
type of Protestantism adopted by the rulers, although
he could freely celebrate in nearly all the Colonies
his peculiar form of worship, he was nevertheless ex-
cluded firom any share in public affairs. He could
neither vote nor hold office,' and he was forced to
contribute to the support of a religious ministry
whose teachings he in his heart abhorred. And this
condition of things, extraordinary as it seems to us
now, had- not been brought about by any conscious
arbitrary despotism on the part of the rulers, but was
the work of good but narrow-minded men who were
simply following out the uniform practice of the
Christian world, and who no doubt honestly thought
that in so acting they were doing the highest service
by obeying the will of God." *
The Ministry Act of New York was simply the
carrying out as far as it was possible of the Commis-
sion and the *^ Instructions " which Grovernor Fletcher
had received from the King. These "Instructions"
to the Governors of the British Crown Colonies, which
were delivered by the English Sovereigns in writing
to each Governor when first appointed, were the Con-
stitutions of the Colonies under which they were
ruled by their Governors, just as the Charters from the
same Sovereigns were the Constitutions of the Char-
tered Colonies under which they were governed.
Both were given in the exercise of the Royal Prerog-
ative, and were in fact grants of it. The charters
could not be revoked except for cause as long
as they were lived up to and obeyed. The /'In-
structions" were the Royal directions from the
King for the governing of his Province, and could
be altered, varied, or revoked at his pleasure. In
|)oint of fact they were never changed in the time
of each Governor, except to meet some exigency
not contempleted when they were issued. Upon the
appointment of a new Governor, either new "In-
structions " were given to him, or, if those of the
preceding Governor were satisfactory to the Province
and the King, he was simply directed to carry them
out as his own.
The Instructions of Charles II. to Sir Richard
NicoUs the first English Governor of New York,
dated the 23d of April, 1664, five months prior to the
capture of New York from the Dutch, directed him
to avoid giving umbrage to the people of Massa-
chusetts, where he was to stop on his way to New
York, by being present at their devotions in their
churches, but the document thus continues, " though
wee doe suppose and thinke it very fit that you carry
with you some learned and discreete Chaplaine, ortho-
dox in his judgment and practice, who in your owne
* New York was an exception to this, as to all religions, except the
Roman Catholic.
4 IX. Penna. Mag. Hist., 372-376.
104
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
familyes will reade the book of Common Prayer and
performe your devotion according to ye forme
established in the Church of England, excepting
only in wearing the surplesse which haveing never
bin seen in those countryes may conveniently be for-
borne att this tyme." ^
The Instructions of Lovelace the second Governor
seem not to have been preserved, but he says in a
letter of the 28th of August, 1668, to Secretary Lord
Arlington: ''I have since happily accomphisht my
voyadge and am now invested in the charge of His
Royal Highnesses teritorys being the middle position
of the two distinct factions, the Papist and Puritane/' '
In the time of Thomas Dongan, afterward the
Earl of Limerick, the third Governor of New York,
Charles the Second died, the Duke of York succeeded
as James the Second, and his Lord Proprietorship
merging in the Crown, New York thenceforward be-
came a Royal Province, governed directly by the King
through his appointed Governor. Though a Roman
Catholic himself, and his Governor, Dongan, was of
the same religion, James, as King, acted promptly,
and without hesitation, and gave Dongan the most
pointed, and strongest possible, " Instructions " to
establish the Church of England in New York. A
King of England by the law of England could not do
otherwise. But the thoroughness of James's action
under the circumstances is very surprisins:. His *' In-
structions" to Dongan bear date May the 29th, 1686.
They not only established the Church of England,
but also placed it under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and are in these
words :
'^31. You shale take especial care that God Al-
mighty bee devoutly and duely served throughout
yo"^ Government: the Book of Common Prayer as it
is now established, read each Sunday and Holyday,
and the Blessed Sacrament administred according to
the Rites of the Church of England. You shall bee
carefol that the Churches already builtt here shall bee
well and orderly kept and more built as y® Colony
shall, by Gk>ds blessing bee improved. And that be-
sides a competent maintenance to be assigned to y^
Minister of each Church, a convenient House bee built
at the Comon charge for each Minister, and a com-
petent Proportion of Land assigned him for a Glebe
and exercise of his Industry.
'' 32. And you are to take care that the Parishes
bee so limited & settled as you shall find most con-
venient for ye accomplishing this good work.
'* 33. Our will and pleasure is that noe minister be
preferred by you to any Ecclesiastical Benefice in that
our Province without a Certificat from ye most Rev-
erend the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury of his being
conformable to ye Doctrine and Discipline of the
Church of England, and of a good life and conversa-
tion.
1 III. N. Y. Col. Hi«t. 49.
i Ibid. 174.
34. And if any person preferred already to a Bene-
fice shall appear to you to give scandal either by his
Doctrine or Manners, you are to use the best means
for y* removal of him ; and to supply the vacancy in
such manner as we have directed. And alsoe our
pleasure is, that, in the direction of all Church Affairs,
the Minister bee admitted into the respective vestrys.
And to th'^ end the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of
the said Archbishop of Canterbury may take place in
that our Province as farr as conveniently may bee.
Wee doe think fitt that you give all countenance and
encouragement in y' exercise of the same ; excepting
only the Collating to Benefices, granting licenses for
Marriage, and Probate of Wills, which wee have re-
served to you our Gov' & to y* Commander-in-chiet
for the time being.
" 36. And you are to take especial care, that a Table
of Marriages established by ye Canons of the Church
of England, bee hung up in all Orthodox churches
and duly observed.
''37. And y(U are to take especial care that Books
of Homilys & Books of the 89 Articles of y* Church of
England bee disposed of to every of y*^ said churches,
and that they bee only kept and used therein.
" 38. And wee doe further direct that noe School-
master bee henceforth permitted to come from Eng-
land & to keep school within our Province of New
York, without the license of the said Archbishop of
Canterbury; And that noe other person now there, or
that shall come from other parts, bee admitted to keep
school without your license first had."
In the face of these direct, positive " Instructions " of
James II. to Governor Dongan there can be no ques-
tion that the King in the legal exercise of his power as
King, as soon as it was possible after he came to the
throne of England established the Church of England
in his former Proprietary, and now Royal, Province of
New York, subject only to the articles of surrender of
1664, of 1674, and the treaty of Breda in 1667, which
guaranteed the continued existence therein of its for-
mer established Church of Holland with all its rights
of faith, discipline, and property; and subject also as
far as Suffolk County was concerned, to the pre-existing
Congregational Church of Connecticut as there prac-
tically established under the authority of the General
Court of that Colony. If the latter was a legal estab-
lishment under the laws or charter of Connecticut
prior to the Dutch surrender in 1664 and the treaty
of Breda in 1667, then the King of England was legally
bound to maintain it as such. He did immedi-
ately after the first Dutch surrender, by his com-
missioners make a change in the civil condition of
Suffolk County by deciding that Long Island, of
which it was then, as it is now, the eastern end,
was not a part of Connecticut, but was a part of New
York. He appointed civil officers in Suffolk County,,
and instituted there the complete civil and military
jurisdiction of New York, but made no change what-
ever in its ecclesiastical condition, which continued
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
105
precisely the same aa when it claimed to be a part of
Connecticut.
The above-cited provisions of the Instructions of
King James to Crovernor Dongan relative to the
Church of England in New York were continued by
William III., Anne, George I., George II., and George
III. in their different " Instructions" to the different
Governors of New York they succesBively appointed,
with little or no variation in language and none in
effect.* Occasionally a new one was added, as in the
Instructions to Lord Cornbury when he was appoint-
ed Governor by Queen Anne, dated the 29th of Jan-
ary, 1702, in which, clause No. 63, is in these words ; —
*' You are to inquire whether there be any minister with-
in your Government who preaches and administers the
Sacrament in any orthodox church or chapel without
being in due orders and to give an account thereof to
the Bishop of London." The use of the word ** Minis-
ter " in these various Instructions is shown by the con-
text of them, and markedly in this additional one to
Cornbury, to mean and to designate clergymen only of
the Church of England. And the same thing may
be said of the term ** Orthodox Church," for by law
neither the King nor the Bishop could acknowledge,
or have any ecclesiastical jurisdiction over, any Minis-
ter or any Church which did not belong to the
Church of England. No other church and no other
other clergyman could be, in the eye of the law,
either of England or New York, orthodox. King
William, as King, formally approved the Ministry
Act of 1693 passed by the Legislature of New York,
and as by the law of England he could not acknowl-
edge any other church as orthodox or any other
Ministers, as Ministers, except those of the Church of
England, it follows that the words and terms of that
act referred to the Church of England and only to
that church. That this is the sense, and the only
legal sense, in which these words were then used, is
shown by an opinion'of Sir Edward Northey, the At-
torney-General, in 1706, asked by the Board of Trade
and Plantations, upon the grant of ecclesiastical power
in the Patent of Maryland, which closes with these
words, *' and the consecrations of chapels ought to
be, as in England, by Orthodox Ministers only." ^
No English Governor has been more denounced for
his action in regard to the church of England than Lord
Cornbury, and his official act« concerning it have been
abused in almost every possible way. His action has
been taken as the result of pure bigotry, and he termed
a bigot, while he was merely carrying out the Instruc-
tions he had sworn to support and maintain. His
"Instructions" are therefore here given at length,
taken from the original Instrument which with his
Commission under the hand and seal of Queen Anne,
are now in the hands of a gentleman in New York.
1 In the 3d, 4th« 5th and 6th volnmee of the " Col. Hilt of N. T." near-
ly all of them may be found.
^Chalmen* opinions, 4*2. The Italics are the writer's, and not in the
original.
7*
From the Instructions to Lord Cornbury, dated
January 29, 1702-3.
60. You shall take especial care that Grod Almighty
be devoutedly and duly served throughout your (gov-
ernment, the Book of Common prayer, as by Law es-
tablished, read each Sunday and Holy day, and the
blessed Sacrament administered according to the rites
of the Church of England ; You shall be careful! that
the Churches already built there be well and orderly
kept, and that more be built as the Colony shall by
God's blessing be improved, and that besides a Com-
petent maintenance to be assigned to the Minister of
each Orthodox Church, a convenient house be built at
the Common charge for each Minister, and a competent
proportion of Land assigned him for*a Glebe and exer-
cise of his Industry. And you are to take care that the
parishes be so limited and setled, as you shall find
most convenient for the accomplishing this good
work.
61. You are not to present any Minister to any Ec-
cleeiasticall Benefice in that Our Province without a
certificate from the right reverend Father in God the
Bishop of London, of his being conformable to the Doc-
trine and Discipline of the Church of England, and
of a good life and conversation, and if any person
preferred already to a Benefice shall appear to you to
give Scandall, either by his doctrine or Manners, You
are to use the best means for the removal of him, and
to Supply the Vacancy in Such manner as Wee have
directed.
62. You are to give order forthwith (if the same be
not already done) that every Orthodox Minister with-
in your Government, be one of the Vestry in his res-
pective parish, and that no Vestry be held without
him, except in case of Sickness, or that after notice
of a Vestry Summoned he omitt to come.
63. You are to enquire whether there be any Minister
within your Government, who preaches and adminis-
ters the Sacrament in any Orthodox Church or Chap-
pell without being in due Orders, and to give an
account thereof to the said Bishop of London.
64. And to the end the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction
of the Said Bishop of London may take place in that
province So farr as conveniently may be. Wee do
think fitt, that you give all Countenance and encour-
agement to the exercise of the Same. Excepting
only the Collating to Benefices, granting Lycenses for
Marriages and probate of Wills, which Wee have re-
served to you Our Governour and to the Commander-
in-chief of Our Said Province for the time being.
65. Wee, do further direct that no Schoolmaster be
henceforth permitted to come from England, and to
keep Schoole within Our Province of New York,
without the Lycense of the said Bishop of London,
and that no other person now there, or that shall
come from other parts, be admitted to keep School
without your Lycense first obtained.
66. And you are to take especial care that a Table
of Marriages, established by the Canons of the Church
106
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
of England be hung up in every orthodox Church and
duly observed, and you are to endeavour to get a Law
past in the Assembly of that province (if not already
done) for the strict observation of the Said Table.
79. And you are also with the assistence of the
Council and Assembly to find out the best means to
facilitate and encourage the conversion of Negroes
and Indians to the Christian Religion ; more especi-
ally you are to use your endeavours with the Assem-
bly that they make provision for the maintenance of
some Ministers to inhabit amongst the five Nations
of Indians in order to instruct them, and also to pre-
vent their being Seduced from their Allegiance to us,
by French priests and Jesuits.
In the instance not only of Cornbury but of each
Grovernor, it must be remembered that these " Instruc-
tions " were, not merely directions to him personally,
but were the binding constitutions of the Province in
all thingt* civil, military, and ecclesiastical, during
each Gk)vernor's period of office. They were the law
of the land both for the Governor and the people,
which was to be obeyed by both. They were laid
down, and set forth, by each Sovereign, in his Kingly
capacity, under the law of England for the govern-
ment of his or her Province of New York. This fact
has not been considered by American historians, or
by English ones either, in treating of the civil and re-
ligious, — especially the religious — aspects and condi-
tions of the Royal Provinces in America in general,
and of New York in particular.
What then was the Kingly authority in these re-
spects? Whence came the monarch's legal right to
govern his Royal Provinces by " Instructions " to his
representatives the Governors? What were the
powers then vested in the Crown by the laws of Eng-
land?
The attributes of the Monarch of England, sove-
reignty, perfection,^ and perpetuity,'* which are inhe-
rent in, and constitute, his political capacity, prevail
in every part of the territories subject to the English
Crown. "In such political capacity as King he is
possessed of a share of legislation, is the head of the
Church, generalissimo throughout his dominions, and
is alone entitled to make war and peace.' But in coun-
tries which, though dependent on the British Crown,
have different local laws, as for instance the Colonies
the minor prerogatives and interests of the Crown must
be regulated and governed by the peculiar law of the
place. But if such law be silent on the subject," or if
the place has become by conquest or cession a Colony
or Province of the Crown, having never before been
possessed by the English nation, "it would appear
that the prerogative of the King in his political ca-
pacity as chief of the State, as established by English
1 This is expresaed by the well-known legal iixiom " The King can do
no wrong."
«ThIs is expreflMd by that other well-known axiom "The King in
dead, long live the King."
SGhalmem' Opinioiu, 160.
law, prevails in every respect."* "When a country
is obtained by conquest or treaty the King possesses
an exclusive prerogative power over it, and may en-
tirely change or new-model, the whole, or part, of its
laws, and form of government, and may govern it in
all respects by regulations framed by himself, subject
only to the Articles or Treaty on which the country
is surrendered or ceded, which are always sacred and
inviolable according to their true intent and mean-
ing.^ Lord Mansfield thus most fully and suc-
cinctly lays down the law on this subject, citing
New York as an example. "A country conquered
by the British arms becomes a dominion of the
King in right of his crown. . . . After the con-
quest of New York, in which most of the old Dutch
inhabitants remained. King Charles 2d changed the
form of their Constitution and political government,
by granting it to the duke of York, to hold of his
crown under all the regulations contained in the
letters patent." " It is not to be wondered at," con-
tinues the Great Chief Justice of England, "that an
adjudged case in point has not been produced. No
question was ever started before but that the King
has a right to a legislative authority over a conquered
country ; it was never denied in Westminster Hall ; it
was never questioned in parliament."* This decision
was made in the Court of King's Bench in 1774 — a
century after the practical application of, and action
under, its principle, by Charles the Second, and James
the Second, and William & Mary in their Province of
New York, to say nothing of Queen Anne and her
successors. There can therefore be no question as to
the law itself, or the legality of the power by which
the Sovereigns of England, by their ** Commissions "
and "Instructions" to their Governors, established
the Church of England in their American Province
of New York.
Now what was a " Province " in law ? This term,
in Latin Provinciu, was first used by the Romans to
designate a portion of territory outside of Italy,
which they had subjected by conquest. Its general
use, however, says Chief Justice Stokes of the Colony
of Georgia, is " to denote the divisions of a Kingdom
or State, as they are usually distinguished by the ex-
tent of their civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction. With
us. [the English people] a Province signifies— 1st. An
out-country governed by a Deputy or Lieutenant;
and 2dly, The circuit of an Archbishop's jurisdiction.
When the British settlements in America are spoken
of in general, they are called the Colonies or Planta-
tions. If it is a Government on the Continent [in con-
tradistinction to the West India Islands] where the
King appoints the Governor it is usually called a
Province, as the Province of Quebec ; but a Planta-
tion in which the Governor was elected by the inhab-
^Chltty'a Prerogativee of the Crown, 26 and 26.
6 Ibid. 29 ; Cowper'a Rep. 208.
•Hall V. Campbell, Cowper*s Boports, 208, 211. Calvin'g Case 4 Coko*B
Eep. 1.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
107
itantSy (under a charter of incorporation from the
King) was usually called a Colony, as the Colony of
Connecticut." * Thus the very name was expressive
of the character of the King's power by virtue of
which he erected and established in New York
Manors, Parishes, Churches and a General Assembly.
Sir William Blackstone in speaking of the American
Provinces, says, " In the Provincial Establishments
(commonly called King's Grovernments) their constitu-
tion depended on the respective commissions issued
by the Crown to the Governors, and the Instructions
which usually accompanied these commissions ; under
the authority of which Provincial Assemblies were
constituted with the power of making local ordinances,
not repugnant to the laws of England." * It is clear,
and beyond question, that the very authority by which
New York was granted the right to possess and elect
a representative Assembly of its own people, a priv-
ilege granted to it by William and Mary in 1691,
which continued from that time without interruption as
long as it remained a British Province, sprang from
precisely the same source, as the establishment of the
Church of England within its limits — the Commission
and King's Instructions to his Governors ; To say
nothing of the first granting of the right to elect and
hold A^emblies by James II. himself as Duke of
York to Governor Dongan in 1683, eleven years be-
fore ; which assemblies sat for three years, and the
laws which they passed in those years, still in exist-
ence, are the earliest English statutes of New York ;
and which assemblies were called and held solely by
virtue of James's " Commission " and " Instructions "
to Governor Dongan.
There is another point of importance in this con-
nexion. Every Commission to every Governor from
every Sovereign of New York, contained in it a clause,
delegating to him the power of collation to church
benefices, a power under the law of England which
could be exercised only in the Church of England.
It was in these words, " And we do by these presents
authorize and impower you to collate any person or
persons to any churches, chapels, or other ecclesiastical
benefices within our said province and territories as
aforesaid, as often as any of them shall ha])pen to be
void." ' This was the delegation by the King of his
own power as Ordinary. This word derived from the
Civil Law primarily signifies one who, of his own
right, has authority to take cognizance of causes. In
the common law it is usually applied to the Bishop of
a Diocese, who only could certify to ecclesiastical and
spiritual acts in his own diocese. The King as the
Head of the Church possessed this temporal right
throughout his whole Kingdom, and could delegate
it. The Bishop could only delegate his power in
temporal ecclesiastical matters in his own diocese.
> CoDfltitutionii of the Britiah Ck>Ionle8 in America, 2.
* 1 Blackstono*B, Comm. 108.
sStokea's Ck>n«. of the Am. Ooloniet, 158. And see the different Oom-
miHionB tbenuelTee in the Tolamee of the Colonial History.
As there were no dioceses as such in the British
American Colonies, the King delegated the power of
collating to benefices here to his different Governors
as his personal representatives. From the same source
came their power to grant probate of wills, and mar-
riage licenses.
The spiritual supervision of the Church of Eng-
land in America, was, as we have seen, first com-
mitted by King James to the Archbishop of Canter-
bury. Later it was deemed most convenient to
attach this supervision to the Bishop of London, who
appointed ''Commissaries" in different parts of
America, to oversee the clergy in their different
districts, in such matters not purely episcopal, as a
Bishop did in his Diocese in England.
As there were then no Dioceses in America, the
King in the different Instructions to the Governors,
directed them to retain these powers, of collation, to
benefices, of granting probate of wills, and of licens-
ing marriages to themselves. This was in virtue
both of the King's Legislative power, and his power
as Head of the church. Perhaps nothing has been,
or is, more misunderstood, and that very honestly, in
America than the Royal Supremacy of the Church of
England. Of course, it cannot be treated at length
here. We can only state the popular idea of it, and
then show what it really is. The popular idea of it in
this country is, that the Sovereign of England was,
and is, the head of the Church of England in spirit-
ual as well as temporal matters, and is the superior of
the Archbishops and Bishops in all that relates to their
offices as such, and is governed by his or her own
ideas of what is true and right in matters of doctrine
and discipline. Of course this is only the common
idea, but it is held by many people of education and
general intelligence nevertheless, who are, and are
usually considered, well informed.
A recent writer after citing and examining the legal
authorities, and writers of England since the Re-
formation, on this subject, says, " These numerous
authorities repeat again and again theiiame opinions
touching the supremacy of the Crown. According to
them the Royal Supremacy is simply and strictly a
temporal or civil power over all causes and persons
in things temporal, and over spiritual persons and
causes as far as their temporal or civil accidents are
concerned. But it has no inherent spiritual power
as such, nor ecclesiastical authority, whatsoever, the
spirituality alone possessing the power of the Keys."*
Lord Selborne the learned and eminent Lord High
Chancellor in Mr. Gladstone's late Government says,
" The Sovereign has not (as some suppose) a temporal
supremacy in temporal things and a spiritual suprem-
acy in spiritual things ; it is one undivided temporal
supremacy, extending to all persons, causes, and things,
whether ecclesiastical or civil, of which the law of
the land takes cognizance, and upon which that law has
« Fuller's Appellate Jnriedictlon of the Grown, 186.
108
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
operation. It does not and it can not extend to the
province of religious belief, or to moral and spiritual
obligations recognized by the conscience as springing
from a source higher than the laws of the land.'' ^
That most eloquent and able prelate, Wilberforce
Bishop of Winchester, when Bishop of Oxford, in
a debate in the House of Lords, in which this subject
was brought up, thus spoke out : — " he did not believe
that it was a correct or constitutional interpretation
of that supremacy^ to say that the occupant of the
throne should settle in his or her individual capacity,
articles of faith or any other questions whatever. He
was sure that the exalted personage who at present
occupied the throne would be herself the first to re-
pudiate so unconstitutional a doctrine. The Supre-
macy of the Crown meant nothing more than this,
that the Crown had the ultimate Appeal in all questions
ecclesiastical and civil, deciding such questions not
of herself, but through her proper constitutional
agents." And Mr. Gladstone himself writes, in bis
Letter on the Royal Supremacy ; — *• I contend that
the Crown did not claim by statute, either to be by
right, or to become by convention, the soura^ of that
Kind of action which was committed by the Saviour
to the Apostolic church, whether for the enactment
of laws or for the administration qf its discipline ;
but the claim was that all the canons of the church,
and all its judicial proceedings, inasmuch as they were
to form parts respectively of the laws and the adminis-
tration of justice in the Kingdom, should run only
with the assent and Sanction of the Crown.''
This full statement has been written to show, that in
their Province on the Hudson, the Sovereigns of Eng-
land in virtue of their political, ecclesiastical, and
legislative, capacities, as Sovereigns under the laws of
England, through their direct ^' Commissions " and
*' Instructions" under their own signs-manual, legally
established and maintained in that Province, by pre-
cisely the same legal instruments and methods, the
same form of civil government and the same form of
religious belief, that was established in England, as far
forth as both could possibly be there done, consistently
with the Surrenders and Treaty by which the Province
became a possession of their Crown. And it also shows,
that historically, the existence in New York, of a
General Assembly of elected representatives of the
people, of Manors, of the Church of England with its
Parishes, and taxation of all inhabitants for the sup-
port of its Ministers and churches, had one and all ex-
actly the same origin, and were equally the legitimate
results, of the legitimate action, of its legitimate
Sovereign authority, the monarchs of England.
12.
The Manors and the County in their Mviual rdatUmSj
with the Origin and Organization of the kUter.
The six Manors of the County of Westchester, in
1 Letter of Lord Selbome, then Sir Rouodell Palmer, Atty. Gen., of 30
Dec. 1850. in Plymouth Herald of 11th Jan. 1861. Fuller, app. B. 251.
the order of their erection, were * Fordham ' in No-
vember 1671, * Pelham' in October 1687, * Philipsbor-
ough ' in June 1693, * Morrisania ' in May 1697, ' Cort-
landt ' in June 1697, and * Scarsdale ' in March 1701.
As the ' Manor of Cortlandt ' comprised the whole
northern part of the County from the Hudson to the
Connecticut line, and was ten miles in width, it will
be described first, then following the order of location
of the others down the eastern side of the county to
its southern extremity, * Scarsdale,' ' Pelham,' * Morri-
sania,' and * Fordham,' will be successively treated,
then * Philipsborough,' which comprised the entire
western portion of the County bordering upon the
Hudson as far north as the south line of the Manor of
Cortlandt, and extended eastwardly to the Bronx River
which runs through the centre of the County from
north to south and was the boundary between it and
the manors of the east side.
The general nature and history of Manors in a
legal point of view, the origin of the ancient mano-
rial system of England, its tenures, and the modern
manorial system of New York with its incidents,
and tenure introduced by the English ^upon its cap-
ture from the Dutch, have been described. But be-
fore treating of each of the Manors separately, the
general Province and County Jurisdiction as it
affected the Manors as a whole, and the origin and
formation of the County itself will be showu.
The authority of the Grovernor, as Governor, of the
Governor and Council in the Executive capacity of
the latter, and of the Governor, Council in its legis-
lative capacity, and the General Assembly, the three
together forming the Legislature of the Province, ex-
tended throughout the manors of New York in all
respects save one. Neither of these authorities could
in any way whatever alter, change, abridge, or in any
way interfere with the franchises, rights, powers, priv-
ileges, and incidents, vested in any Lord of a Manor
by his Manor-Grant. The Lords might not choose,
or desire, to exercise any one or more of the fran-
chises, rights, powers, privileges, and incidents of their
Manors. This was a matter in their own discretion,
but none of them could become void by non-user, nor
could the Province authorities of any grade modify
them in any way. If the Lords preferred, or had no
objection, to have any local duties, legal acts, or offices,
exercised by justices of the peace, assessors, consta-
bles, and other minor officers, either chosen by their
tenants alone, or by their tenants in connection with
the inhabitants, freeholders of any adjoining non-
Manorial lands, this could be done by an act of the
Provincial I^egislature. But no act of such a nature
could be passed against their wishes. Hence there are
to be found many acts of the kind alluded to in the
Colony laws.
The jurisdiction of the " Supreme Court," of the
" Inferior Court of Common Pleas " and of the Court
of Sessions, extended to all lands whether Manorial
or non Manorial.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
109
So too, in the matter of elections, the inhabitants of
all the Manors, (except that of Ck)rtlandt which had
a representative of its own as a franchise of its Manor-
Qrant) united with the people of the non- Manorial
lands id the choice of Members of Assembly for the
County.
The power of the High Sheriff of the County, who
was always a gentleman, was appointed by the Gk)y-
emor, and served without pay, as in England, was as
complete and thorough in the Manors as out of them.
The fees of the office, which were vastly lighter in
proportion, than those of elected Sheriffs now, went
after being reported to, and scrutinized by the High
Sheriff, to the Undersheriff and the one or two
deputies, who were all that the business of the Coun-
ty required in the Colonial era. If any overcharge
or oppression, was attempted, a complaint properly
proven, to the High Sheriff himself, was all that was
necessary to right the wrong.
Again, in military matters, the military organiza-
tion of the County was effected in the County as a
whole without regard to the Manors. Sometimes,
however, their names were given to the companies
enrolled within their limits.
A Colonel for the County commissioned by the
Qovemor, commanded the one regiment, which was
formed of the enrolled companies within its limits,
all of which were infantry. Toward the close of the
Colonial period, when the population had increased,
a Light Horse organization of one or two troops for
the County in general was formed, the Commander
of which was a Lieutenant-Colonel, or Colonel. The
inhabitants of the Manors were enrolled in both pre-
cisely as were those of the rest of the County.
The third act passed by the first Assembly under
William and Mary in 1691, provided for the annual
election in each town of " a certain Freeholder " " to
supervize and examine the Publick and Necessary
Charge of each respective County, which persons so
duely chosen shall elect and constitute a certain
Treasurer for each respective County." It also pro-
vided for the election of two Freeholders in each town
as Assessors. This was the origin in New York of
County Assessors, Supervisors, and Treasurers.* Only
Freeholders could be electors, and the second Act of
1691, defines a Freeholder to be, "every one who
shall have Forty shillings per annum (N. Y. Currency)
in Freehold." ' And the same act apportioned to
Westchester County two Members of Assembly. In
the second year of Queen Anne, eleven years later,
this third act of 1691 was re-enacted in an enlarged
and amended form. Its provisions are worth quoting in
full as showing the early internal economy civil and
political of the County and how all interests manorial
and non-manorial moved in harmony and unison.
Its words are *' That there be elected and chosen once
every year, in each respective Town within this Prov-
UU. BzBdford 6.
>IUd.3.
ince, by the Freeholders and Inhabitants thereof, one
of their Freeholders and Inhabitants, to compute, as-
certain, examine, oversee, and allow the Contingent
public 'and necessary charge of each County, and that
each and every Freeholder in any Manor, Liberty,
Jurisdiction, Precinct, and out-Plantation, shall
have liberty to joyn his or their Vote with the next
adjacent town in the County where such Inhabitant
shall dwell, for a choice of Supervisor (except the
Manor of Rensselaerswyck who shall have liberty to
chuse a Supervisor for the same Mannor). And also,
that there shall be in each Town, Mannor, and Pre-
cinct, by the Freeholders and Inhabitants hereof, in
every respective County annually two Assessors, and
one Collector, which Supervizors, Assessors, and Col-
lectors, shall be annually chose in every Town on the
first Tuesday in Aprils or such days as is appointed by
their Charters or Patents, which Supervizors so chosen
shall annually meet at the County Town in each
respective County, on the first Tuesday in October^
and at such other time and times as the said Super-
vizors shall judge and find necessary and Convenient,"
to perform the duties of their office.'
In 1722 the number of Supervizors was increased
in the County of Westchester by a special Act, passed
on the 6th of November in that year, as the former
Act which applied to the whole Province, worked
unequally in some respects in Westchester. It pro-
vided "for such Mannor or Mannors aa (in their
Rates and Taxes) have usually been or hereafter may
be divided into two or more Divisions. That a Super-
vizor may in like manner be chosen for each of such
Divisions by the Freeholders and Inhabitants there-
of. And where the said Inhabitants shall omit to make
such annual choice in any of the said Divisions, or
in such Mannor or Mannors, where not above twenty
Inhabitants do dwell or reside, the Owner or Owners
of such Mannor or Mannors, or of such Division
thereof as aforesaid, or their Stewards or Deputies,
shall be deemed and esteemed the Supervizors thereof
respectively, and have the same Powers, to all intents,
constructions, and purposes, whatsoever as those
chosen by virtue of the Act above mentioned.^
The act of 1703 called for the annual meeting of
the Supervisors at the "County-town," which then
waa the Town of Westchester. In 1746 the popula-
tion had so much increased as to make a change
to another part of the County desirable, therefore
an act was passed on the 27th of November in that
year changing the place of meeting as " much for the
ease of the people," which provided that " the an-
nual meeting shall be at the School House in the
Town of Rye," and that the majority shall have
power to adjourn to such time and place as they see
proper.*
The next change did not occur till 1773, twenty-
sm. Bradford, 53. « HI. Bradford 212.
AI Van Schaak'a Lawa, ch. 804.
110
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
eight years later. Then another act was passed chang-
iDg the annual meeting of the Supervi7X)r8 ** to the
Court-House at Whiteplains on account of the in-
crease of inhabitants of the northerly part *of said
County/' with a like liberty to adjourn to such time
and place as they should please.^ This building was
the first Court-House in Whiteplains which was
burned by the Americans a day or two after the
battle of Whiteplains in 1776. It stood on the same
site as its successor, the old wooden Court-House on
Main St., which was pulled down after the erection of
the present handsome stone edifice on Rail-Koad
Avenue.
Another fact of interest which shows the upward
march of population of the people, both of the
manors and the towns is the change in the place
holding the County elections which it produced.
The Colonial elections, it must be remembered, were
not by ballot as ours are now, but like those in Eng-
land, viva voce. The term '* hustings " was, and is
used in England to describe the place of election, but
though the thing was the same in New York, the
word does not seem to have been in use here. At
least no instance of its employment has been met
with by the writer,
The first law on the subject passed in 1699 directed
that the Sheriff " shall hold his Court for the same
Election at the most publick and usual Place of Elec-
tion within City or County where the same has most
usually been made."'^ This was usually at West-
chester before it was chartered as a " Boroughtown "
and after that at Eastchester.
But in 1751, on the 25th of November the place
was changed by a special act of the Legislature, ^
which is of such curious interest for its reasons and
choice of a new place, and its stern enforcement
of that choice that it is here given in full. .
*' Whereas the County of Westchester is very exten-
sive, and the extreme parts thereof to the Northward,
have of late years become very populous; and where-
as the Elections for Representatives to serve in the
General Assembly for the said County, have, from the
first settlement of the said County, been held at the
Southern Part of said County ; it now becomes ex-
tremely inconvenient for the Freeholders of the
Upper or Northern Parts thereof, which are now be-
come, by far, the most numerous, to attend those
Elections at so great a distance from their respect-
ive Habitations : For Remedy whereof for the Fu-
ture ;
I. Be it Enacted by his Excellency the Governor, the
Conncilj and the General Assembly and by Authority of
the Same, That in All Elections hereafter to be Made
in the said County of Westchester, for electing Repre-
1 1 Tan Schuk*s Lawn, cb. 690.
< n. Bradford 113. The reference here is to the elections held for the
Anemblles for 1683 to 1685 inclusive under the Duke of York, the last
of which was under James oa King.
9 Ch. 1411 of I. LiT. &, Smith, 453.
sentatives to serve in this, or any future Assembly of
this Colony, the Sheriff* of the Said County for the
time being, or his Deputy, shall hold his Court of
Election at or near the Presbyterian Meeting-House
in the White-Plains, in the said County, and at no
other Place Whatsoever ; any Law, Usage, or Custom
to the contrary notwithstanding.
II. And be it Further Enacted by the Authority afore-
said, That if any Sheriff* of the said Counsy of West-
chester, or Deputy of the said Sheriff*, Shall after the
Publication of this Act, in the Execution of any
Writ or Writs for the electing " Representatives for
the Said County, to serve in this or any future Aa-
sembly, act contrary to the Directions, and true In*
tent and Meaning of this Act; they shall respectively
forfeit the Sum of One Hundred Pounds ($250). to be
recovered in any Court of Record within this Colony,
by any person aggrieved ; and the said Election so
made contrary to the Directions and true Intent and
Meaning of this Act, shall be null and void to all
Intents, Constructions, and Purposes Whatsoever."
Not only does it prove the great change of popula-
tion, south of the Manor of Cortland t, to which it
not apply as that Manor elected its own representa-
tive, but the severity of the last clause would seem to
show that there was some opposition, probably politi-
cal, to the change. It applied to the whole County
except the Manor of Cortlandt and the " Borough "
of Westchester, which elected their own representa-
tives.
No other change was made during the Colonial era,
and from 1751 to 1776, all the County " Courts of
Election " were held at the Presbyterian Church in
White plains.
The Colonial elections were not held at fixed times
as at present, but at whatever dates the " writs " of elec-
tion were issued to the Sheriff* by the Secretary of the
Province, at the command of the Governor and Coun-
cil. Consequently they were held at various seasons
of the year, but usually early in the spring or in the fall.
The qualification for electors " in the Cities, Coun-
ties, and Mannors " of the Province, was the having
by "every one of them," "of Land or Tenements
improved to the value of Forty Pounds in Freehold,
free from all Incumbrances, and have possessed the
same three Months before the Test of the said Writ."
As soon as the writ was received by the Sheriff*, he
was obliged in six days to give at least six days pre-
vious public notice of the time and place of election,
to each constable in his bailiwick to be affixed to the
most Public Place in each Town, or Mannor. At the
time and place fixed the Sheriff* attended with his
Deputies and presided at the " Court of Election."
The electors met, the candidates being present, the
Sheriff* announced the names of one side, when all of
their supporters held up their hands ; then he an-
nounced the names on the other, and their supporters
held up their hands. He then announced who had the
most. In case the election was not determined by this
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
Ill
** view/' as the law calls it, or ** show of hands/' as it
was popularly termed, with the consent of the elec-
tors, then " a Poll " was required. The Sheriff then
appointed a sufficient number of clerks who were
sworn, "Truly and Indiferently to take the same
Poll, and to set down the names of each Elector,
and the place of his Freehold, and for whom he shall
poll, and to poll no Elector who is not sworn, if so
required by the Candidates or any of them, then and
there present." The Sheriff also appointed to each
candidate such one person as the latter designated
" to be Inspectors of Every Clerk." Every elector
if a candidate desired it was obliged to swear in his
vote, which was given audibly by word of mouth. At
the end the Sheriff made a return of the votes cast in
writing and announced the result. The return, which
was a certified copy of " the poll " as taken by the
Clerk '* in his presence, the Sheriff returned to the
Secretary of the Province, who produced it at the
first meeting of the Assembly which was the judge of
the validity of all elections of its members. Neither
the Sheriff nor his deputies were permitted to charge
any fees whatever. And he was bound to furnish " a
copy of the poll " to any one who demanded it, on
'^payment of a reasonable charge for writing the
same."
Such was a Westchester County election in Colony
Times, and such the Presbyterian Church in White-
Plains witnessed from 1751 to 1765 inclusive. This
edifice of wood stood on the site of the present stone
church on Main street, but was burned down in 1776
by the Americans, Massachusetts troops, in the same
fire which destroyed the Court-House as has been
mentioned above.
Another matter of interest in Colonial days to the
people of Westchester, were the two Fairs held by law
in the county. In England Fairs were often a fran-
chise of a manor, as well as of a town or county, but
neither of the Westchester manors possessed it. The
reason probably was, that very early, in 1694, before
the time several of them were erected, a general ''Act
for the settling of Fairs and Markets in each respec-
tive City and County throughout the Province " was
passed.^ It directed that two Fairs be '- kept " in the
County of Westchester, the first at Westchester on the
second Tuesday in May, the second to be "kept" at
Rye on the second Tuesday of October, each yearly,
and to be " held for four days inclusive and no longer,"
so as to end on tixe " Fryday " of each week; "All
which Fairs shall be holden together with a (hurt of
Pt/powder, and with all LiberUe* and Free Oustarru to
such Fairs appertaining, or which ought or may ap-
pertain, according to the Usage and Customs of Fairs
holden in their Majesties Realm of England." The
Governor of the Province commissioned for each Fair
" a Grovernour or Ruler " authorized to hold a Court
of Pypowder on each of the days of the Fairs, who
1 III. Brad. 17.
was charged with the preservation of order, and who
could try all causes of Complaint of every Kind, and
all disputes, arising at the Fairs, and could punish
" by Attachments, Summons, Arrests, Issues, Fines,
Redemptions, and Commodiiies, and other Rights
whatsoever, to the same Courts of Pypowder any way
appertaining," To these Fairs, could be carried, for
sale, (for they were not Exhibitions for prizes like
modern Fairs, but places for trade) "all sorts of Cattle
Horses, Mares, Colts, Grains, Victuals, Provisions, and
other Necessaries, together with all sorts of Merchan-
dize of what nature soever, and them to expose to
aale or Barter in Gross or by Retail, at the Times,
Hours, and Seasons, that Governours or Rulers of the
said respective Fairs, for the Time being, shall pro-
claim and appoint." The Governor was also obliged
to set apart a certain space or " Open Place " for all
the horse kind, where they could be sold, and put a
person in charge as " Toll-Gatherer " who was to take
" Nine pence " a day for every animal brought there and
sold ; and who was to put down in writing in a book,
the names, sir-names, and dwelling places of all the
said Parties, and the Colour, with one special mark at
least, of every such Horse, Mare, Gelding, or Colt,"
sold, bartered, or exchanged under a penalty
of a fine of Forty Shillings. The "Toll-gatherer,
was obliged the next day after the Fair" to
deliver the said book to the "Governour," who
was to make a note therein of all the number of all
the animals, so sold &c. at the Fair, and subscribe
his name to it, for which entry of such sale &c. he
was " to take for Toll of the same the sum of Nine
pence, the one half to be paid by the Buyer, the other
half by the Seller." It is evident from this that the
old Westchester men meant that their dealings in
horses at their Fairs should be as honest as the nature
of the business would permit, whatever may been the
practical result.
Such were the County Fairs of the Colonial Days,
and to them went regularly great numbers of people
with their stock and produce, from the Manors,
Great Patents, and villages of all Westchester. And
there too went as in more modern days the county
politicians of all kinds who of course attended, as
their successors do now, solely for the good of their
country.
In this connection it is proper to state the origin
and organization of the County itself as such. •
Under the Dutch there was no county organization,
each of the settlements then in existence, and the
Patroonship of Colendonck, were simply mere parts of
the Province of New Netherland entirely independ-
ent of each other.
When the Dutch surrendered New Netherland in
1664, one of the first acts of the first English Governor
Richard Nicolls was to re-name it and its parts in the
English language in the English manner. This he
did by using mainly the name and titles of the Duke
of York, who was Lord Proprietor of the Province,
112
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
and by whom he was appointed the Chief of the Commis-
sion to capture it, and then to command it as its first
Governor. It was a very natural thing for him to do,
but its result has been to fasten forever on what is now
the chiefest city of the Western hemisphere, that most
inadequate name— New York. As the entire region
surrounding Old York in England, from which the
Duke took his title, forms the County there called
"Yorkshire; " and as it is one of the largest in Eng-
land, it was early for convenience sake divided into
three Districts, termed in the peculiar Dialect of that
region, Ridings, which from their position were termed
the East, West, and North, Ridings of Yorkshire.
This example Governor Nicolls faithfully followed.
He called Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester,
as the region nearest to " New," York, " Yorkshire,"
and divided it into three "Ridings, the "East,"
"West," and "North," "Ridings. The region now
Suffolk County formed the " East Riding ; " Staten Is-
land, Kings County, and the town of Newtown in
Queens County, formed the " West Riding ; " there-
mainder of what is now Queens County, together with
what is now Westchester County, being all the territory
on the main. North of the Harlem River and South of
the Highlands, between the Sound and the Hudson, he
called the " North Riding." As the portion of "the
North Riding " on the main, Westchester Cojinty was
legally and popularly known till the year 1683. In
that year it received its present name in an act of the
first legislature of New York, which sat in the " Hall "
of Fort James. This Assembly which there sat, was
called by the express " Instructions" of the Duke of
York by his Governor Thomas Dongan subsequently
Earl of Limerick, and was the very first ever held in
New York. This Act, passed on the 1st of November,
1663, runs thus: "Haveing taken into Considerayon
the necessity of divideing the province into respective
County es for the. better governing and setleing Courts
in the same. Bee It Enacted by the Governour, Coun-
cell and Representatives, and by authority of the same
That the said Province bee divided into twelve Coun-
ty es as folio weth : . . .The County e of Wesf Chester
to contain West and E<ist Chester , Bronx ^ Land^fford-
ham, Anne Hooks Neck, BichbillSy Min/ord's Island and
all the Land on the Maine to the Eastward of Man-
hattan's Island As farr as the Government Extends
and the Yonckers Land and Northwards along Hudsons
River as farr as the High Lands." After describing
all the "countyes" seriatim, the Act terminates with
this clause, which first created English High Sheriffs
in New York : "And for as much there is a necessity
for a High SherifFe in every County in this Province,
Bee it therefore Enacted by the Governour, Councell,
and Representatives in Generall Assembly mett and
by the Authority of the same. That there shall be
1 Thifl is the earliost iiutanco the writer has found of the use of the
word "Bronx." •' Bronkes hl« land" and " Bronkea' Land'* and
Bronkes River, were the first tenns luod.
yearly and Every yeare an High Sheriffe constituted
and Commissioned for Each County And that Each
Sheriffe may have his under Sheriffe Deputy or Dep-
utyes." From 1683 to 1783, precisely one hundred
years, the High Sheriff existed, and so were they
always designated. After the Revolution the prefix
was dropped, the duties remained the same, however,
except the holding of *' Courts of election " was taken
from them, and these officers themselves were appoint-
ed by the State Governor. By the Constitution of 1821
they were made elective. A great mistake, for an
officer clothed with a Sheriff's powers, of all others,
should never be made elective. As its result we see
the corruptions, extortions, and cruelties, which are
known to every observant man, especially in the cities
of the State.
The Acts of the Legislatures from 1683 to 1685 in-
clusive under the Duke of York as Lord Proprietor,
and of 1686 under him as James II. though existing
in manuscript in the State, have, strange to say, never
been printed by the Province, nor the State of New
York, a fact disgraceful to both. This one dividing
the Province into Counties, however, has by itself been
printed in two or three historical works, the last of
which is the xiiith volume of the Colonial History
of New York, in which it is on the very last page.
But to this hour it has never appeared in any of the
volumes of the Laws of New York. It was passed
and signed by Governor Dongan on the 1st of No-
vember 1683, and is entitled "An Act to divide
this Province into Shires and Countyes." It was
the third act of the first session of the first Legislature
which ever sat within the limits of this State.*
Eight years later the first Assembly under William
and Mary was called by Governor Sloughter.
The first Act of the second session of this first Leg-
islature under the " Instructions " of those Sover-
eigns, held at the '' Fort Hall " in September 1691,
was a confirmation of the foregoing law, in the form
of " An Act to divide this Province and Dependencies
into Shires and Counties," ^ with a preamble that it
was enacted to prevent mistakes in the boundaries.
The first clause provides " That the said Province be
divided into twelve Counties, as followeth ; " and the
third clause is, " The County of Westchester , to con-
tain East and Westchester, Bronkes Land, Fordham,
Mannor of Pelham, Miniford Island^ (now City Island)
and Richbiirs Neck, (now De Lancey's Neck) and
all the land on the Main to the Eastward of Manhat-
tans Island, as far as the Government at present ex-
tends, and the Yonckers Land. And Northwards along
Hudsons River as far as the High Lands." The
member chosen from Westchester Countv to this Ar-
s It i8 here cited from a MS. copy of the original Manuacript of the
Dongan Laws, at Albany, in which it is found on page 12.
«TI. Bradford's Laws, ed. 1710, p. 11. III. Bradford's Laws, ed. 1726,
p. 11. I. Livingston & Smith's Laws, 6., II. Van Schaack, 6.
* Westchester is named first in the original act, while it is second here.
This is the only change that was made.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
113
sembly was John Pell, who was thus the first of a line
of Assemblymen for the County which has existed
from that day to this. In the Governor's Council at
the time of this first Assembly as Members by Royal
appointment, and as such, members of the Upper
House which passed this Act, were Stephanus Van
Cortlandt and Frederick Phi J ipse, who were also of
the Council under James as Duke and as King. Thus
among the framers of the original act which created
the County, who, so to speak, were present at its birth,
and also at its confirmation were two members of fam-
ilies, subsequently manorial, both of whom were the
first Lords of the Manors of Philipsburgh and Cort-
landt, neither of which had then been erected.*
Who represented ** The North Riding," in the As-
sembly under the Duke of York is not known as the
Journals of all the Assemblies from 1683 to 1686 have
been lost, and the names of the members of all of
them have consequently gone into oblivion.
No change whatever took place in the limits of
Westchester after the act of 1691, uniil the "Equiva-
lent Lands," or "Oblong," was acquired by New York
in the settlement of a boundary dispute with the
Colony of Connecticut, on the 11th of May, 1731.
This was a strip nearly two miles in width taken ofl
the western side of Connecticut as far north as Mas-
sachusetts, and ceded to New York in exchange for
lands upon the Sound yielded to Connecticut. The
extension of the counties of New York over this strip
was not made by a Legislative act. Being an addi-
tion to a Crown Colony, it was a new acquisition by
the Crown, and as such its status was legally deter-
minable by the King. Hence an " Ordinance " by the
Governor of New York in the name of the King was
issued on the 29th of August 1733 extending West-
chester and the other counties alfected up to the new
line between New York and Connecticut established
by the agreement of the 14th of May 1731. As this
Ordinance does not appear in any collection of New
York Laws and Ordinances that the writer has seen
nor in the two volumes of Historical Documents relat^
ing to the Boundaries of New York, lately compiled
and printed by order of the Regents of the University
and is rare, it is here given in full from an original
printed copy in the writer's possession.
"An
Ordinance for The Running and better Ascertaining
the Partition Lines between the Counties of West-
chester ^ DutchesB, Albany and Ulster y and extending
those Counties on the East side of Hudsons River to
the present Colony Line of Connecticut,
George the Second, by the Grace of God, of Gfreat
Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the
Faith, &c. To all Our loving subjects inhabiting or
being in our Province of New York, and to all others
whom it doth or may concern. Greeting,
lAnd John Pell who was the member for the County in 1691, and
Toted for the tirt of that year, wnii of that old family which then pos-
seesed the Manor uf Pvlhain.
8
Whereas since the passing of the Acts of Assembly
in the year 1683, and 1691 , for dividing this Province
and its Dependencies into Shires and Counties, there
are several acquisitions of Lands by New Settlements,
and otherwise, particularly the Equivalent Lands Sur-
rendered by the Colony Connecticut, whereby this
Colony has became larger than it was before. And
Whereas notwithstanding that the Counties lying on
the West side of Hudson's River, were by the said
Acts intended to be parted and divided by a West
Line to be drawn from Hudson's River, at the respec-
tive Stations and Places on the said River, mentioned
in the said Acts, to the utmost extent of Our said
Province on the West side of the said River ; and
that the Counties lying on the East side of the said
Hudson's River were likewise, by the said Acts, in-
tended to be parted and divided by an East Line to
be drawn from Hudson's /if /o«r at the respective Places
and Stations on the said River, mentioned in the
said Acts, to the utmost extent of Our said Province,
on the East side of the said River, Yet the People
living on the Borders of the said Counties, or some of
them, for want of the said actual Running and Sur-
veying of the said Partition Lineit, protest sometimes
that they are in one County, and sometimes within
another, and on that pretence have committed several
Abuses, and endeavored to elude all Process issuing
from the Courts of Judicature, to the great hindrance
of Justice, encouragement of Fugitives and Vaga-
bonds, and to the disturbance of our Peace.
And IVhereas, since the passing of the said Acts,
the Christian Settlements and Plantations, have been
greatly extended into the Indian Counties, particu-
larly in that part of the Province, which is called and
esteemed the County of Albany, from whence some
Doubts have arose, Whether the Settlements made
since the passing of the said Acts, are at present
within the said County of Albany f
In order therefore, to remove such Doubts, remedy
such mischiefs, and prevent the like Inconvenencies
for the future, We do hereby Ordain and Direct, That
the County of Westchester do and shall contain, AH
the Lands on the Main between Hudson's River and
the /Sound, to the Southward of an fkist Line drawn
from a Red Cedar Tree on the North Side of a high
Hill in the Highlands, commonly called and Known
by the Name of Anthmiy's Nose, and running thence
to the Colony Line, together with the adjacent Is-
lands in the Sound,
Nmo We do herdiy further Ordain and Direct, That
the South Bounds of the County of Albaiiy, do and
shall begin at the Mouth of of a Creek or Brook
called the Sauyer's Creek, on the West side of Hudr
son*s River, and from thence Shall run West to the
utmost extent of our Province of New- York. And
that on the East side of the said River, the said
County of Albany shall begin at the Mouth of a
Brook called Roeloff Jansen's Kill, and shall run
thence Eastward to the utmost extent of oar said
114
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Province; and that the said County of Albany
shall extend from the said South Bounds Northerly,
on both sides Hudson^ % River, to the utmost extent ol
Our said Province, and shall comprehend therein the
Mannor of Livingston, the Mannor of Ranhlaerffioyck-
Schenectady, and all the Towns, villages, neighbours
hoods and Christian Plantations, and all the Land,
that now are, or at any time heretofore in possession
of or claimed by any of the Indians of the Six Na-
tions, the Biver Indians, or by any other Indians be-
longing or depending On Our said Province.
And we do hereby likewise Ordain and IHrect, that
the North Bounds of our County of Ulster shall be-
gin at the Mouth of the said Sawyer's Greek or Brook,
and extend from thence West to the utmost extent of
Our said Province.
And We do hereby further Ordain and IHrect, That
the County of Dutchess do and shall contain All the
Lands between HudjmCs Biver and the Colony of
Connectictit, from the North Bounds of the County of
Westchester to the South Bounds of the County of Al-
bany,
And Our Boyal Will and Pleasure is, and We do
hereby IHrect and Require, That Our Surveyor Gen-
eral of Our said Province of New York, shall, with
all convenient speed, Bun, and Survey the Partition
Line between the Counties of Westchester & Dutchess,
the Partition Line between the Counties of Dutchess
and Albany, and the Partition Line between the
Counties of Albany and Ulster,
In Testimony Whereof, We Have caused these Our
Letters to be Made Potent, and the Seal of Our Province
of New York to be hereunto affixed. Witness our Trusty
and Wdl'beloved William Cosby, Esq., Captain Gen-
eral and Governour-in Chi^ of Our said Province of
New York and the Territories depending thereon in
America, Vtoe-Admiral of the same, and Qjlanel ifi his
Majesty's Anny, &c. in and by and with the Consent and
Advice of Our Council of Our said Province, ai Fort
George in Our City of New York, the Twenty nineth
Day of August, in the Seventh Year of Our Reign
Annoq; Dom. 1733."
This Ordinance really established the boundaries,
not only of Westchester County but of the whole
Province outside of Long Island, Staten Island, Man-
hattan Island and the County of Orange at its date. Its
description of the County of Albany is believed to be
the largest and fullest of that County extant, prac-
tically including in it the whole Indian territory of the
Six Nations westward, wherever they ruled in 1733.
By it the southern portion of the " Oblong " was
formally annexed to, and made apart of the County of
Westchester as it has ever since remained. It did not
however extend the lines of the Manors and Patents
granted before its date, and bounded by the original
Colony line to the new one. The manor of Cort-
landt was not thereby extended to the new Colony
line established in 1731. Mr. Robert Livingston a
few years after the date of this ordinance, undertook
to claim that his Manor of Livingston was by implied
intendment extended to the new Colony line, and
instituted an ejectment suit against the then owners of
the part of the Oblong adjoining his manor, but he did
not succeed. Some of the papers in this matter which
the writer has examined show, however, that the
'' Oblong " owners were exceedingly alarmed at this
claim. This Ordinance is also of interest as being a
good admirable example of an instrument of royal
rule confined to the British Crown Colonies in America.
For the next thirty-five years the Bounds of the
County remained unchanged, no other Ordinance or
Act relating to the limits of Westchester was made or
enacted. The division line in the Hudson River and
in the Sound, however, became questioned in criminal
Proceedings. To settle all questions on ihis subject
of every kind, whatsoever, on the 30th of December,
1768, the very last day of that year, an Act was
passed, ''To ascertain Part of the Southern and West-
ern Boundaries " of the County of Westchester, the
Eastern Boundaries of Orange County, and Part of the
Northern Bounds of Queens County." ^ It settled the
jurisdiction over, and also the title to, all the islands
and inlets in the Sound, many of them mere masses of
naked rock, rising from its waters. It is in these words ;
'' Whereas there are many Islands lying and being
in the Sound, to the Eastward of Frog*s Neck, and
Northward of the main channel, opposite to the
County of Westchester, several of which are not in-
cluded in any county in this Province.
And Whereas, also that part of Hudson's River,
which lies opposite to the said County of Westchester,
is not included in any County of this Province ; in
order to remedy which, and to render the Administra-
tion of Justice more effectual ;
I. Be it Enacted by his Excellency the Governor, the
Council, and the General Assembly, and it is hereby En-
acted by the Authority of the same,* That by all the
Islands lying and being in the Sound to the Eastward
of Frog's Neck, and to the Northward of the Main
Channel, and as far Eastward as Captain's Island, in-
cluding the same, together with all that part of the
Sound, included within these Boundaries shall be
and remain in the County of Westchester; and all the
Southernmost part of the Sound from the bounds
aforesaid as far as Qtieens County extends Eastward,
shall be, and is hereby, annexed to Queens County ;
and all that part of Hudsons River, which adjoins the
County of Westchester, and is to the Southward of the
County of Orange,^ or so much thereof as is included
within this Province, and the Easternmost half Part
of said River, from the Southermost Bounds of the
County of Orange, to the Norther most Bounds of the
County of Westchester, shall also be and remain in the
said County of Westchester.
1 II. Van Schaack'u Laws ch. 1376. p. 527.
2 This wan the furci of enacting clauiie uaad in the Colonial Legislature
of New York.
3 Orange then Included whot is now Rockland County.
<
<
Q
<
«
Mrt'«"oei-»ss
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
115
II. The second clause enacts that '* The Middle of
the said (Hudson) River shall be, and is hereby de-
clared to be, the Boundary Line between the said
Counties of Orange and WeUcheater" and that the
western half '' is declared to be included in, and an-
nexed to the said County of Orange, together with all
the Islands included within the said Bounds."
III. And be it further Enacted by the Authority a/ore"
8aid, That from and after the Publication of this Act,
all the Islands and Premises hereby included in, and
annexed to the said County of WeHchester^ shall be
taxed and subject to all such Laws, Rules, and Regu-
lations, with those Manors, Towns, or Districts, to
which they are nearest in Situation.'*
The effect of this law was to remove all doubt that
might arise in relation to the subject of the act. It
affected the coast-line of every Manor in the County.
From the ninth day of July, 1776, when the Provin-
cial Congress sitting then at White Plains, accepted,
while '* lamenting the necessity which rendered that
measure unavoidable," ' the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, until 1789, when the Government of the
United States, framed by the convention of 1787,
went into operation, New York was an independent
Sovereign State, mistress of herself, and as such
was one of the thirteen independent Sovereignties
so acknowledged by the British Treaty of Peace
in 1788. While in this condition her Legislature
divided her territory into counties and townships,
and made some changes in the former from what they
had beea under the Province of New York. This
was done by two acts passed on the 7th of March,
1788, chapters 63 and 64 of the Laws of 1788.' Both
acts, however, were only to take effect from and after
the first day of April, 1789. By the former, which
related to the counties, the State was divided into
sixteen counties, four more than by the act of 1691,
to be called by the names of New York, Albany, Suf-
folk, Queen's, King's, Richmond, Westchester, Or-
ange, Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia, Washington, Clin-
ton, Montgomery, Cumberland and Gloucester."
Westchester is thus described: "The County of
Wutchester to contain all that part of this State,
bounded southerly by the Sounds easterly by the
State of QmneeHcut, northerly by the North Bounds
of the Manor of OoriUmdt, and the same line
continued east to the bounds of Connecticut,
and west to the middle of Hudson's River, and
westerly by a line running from thence down the
middle of Hudson^s River until it comes opposite to
the Bounds of the State of New Jersey^ then west to
the same, then southerly along the east Bounds of the
State of New Jeney to the Line of the County of Nnn
York, and then along the same easterly and southerly
to the Sound, or East River, including Captain's
Island, and all the islands in the Sound to the east of
1 ReftolutioD in I. Joiirimls Pniv. (^ongretw, 518.
> n. Jones k Varick, 317 and 319.
Frog's Neck and to the northward of the main chan-
nel."
By the latter act Westchester County was divided
into the following towns named in the following
order : Westchester, Morrisania, Yonkers, Greenburgh,
Mount Pleasant, Eastchester, Pelham, New Rochelle,
Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, White-Plains, Harrison, Rye,
Northcastle, Bedford, Pound-Ridge, Salem, North
Salem,Cortlandt,Yorktown, and Stephentown, twenty-
one in all, — the bounds of each being clearly set
forth.
This was the first division of the County into town-
ships, an organization which has since continued
without variation except divisions of a few of the
towns, some alterations of the bounds of two or three
others and the incorporation of a part of Yonkers as
the City of Yonkers, the details of which need not
be given here.
The Boundaries of the County remained wholly un-
changed, until the annexation of the new towns of
Morrisania and Kingsbridge, formed from the southern
portions of the old towns of Westchester and Yonkers
to the City of New York of which they now form the
twenty-third and twenty-fourth Wards. The upper
part of the old town of Yonkers has been incorpora-
ted as the City of Yonkers. The County of West-
chester therefore with these exceptions retains its
original limits as fixed in 1683, and confirmed by the
State County act of 1788.
The Township Act of 1788 is remarkable for its use of
the Manors in enacting the bounds of the townships
it created. No less than fourteen of those twenty-one
townships are described and bounded in part by naming
special lines of the old Manors, or the Manors them-
selves as a whole. Eleven towns out of the
twenty-one, were formed wholly out of the Manors.
These were Morrisania, Yonkers, Greenburgh, Mount
Pleasant, Pelham, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, North
Salem, Cortlandt, Yorktown, and Stephentown. Two,
Salem (now Lewisborough) and Poundridge, were
partly so formed, about half of the former and one-
third of the latter, being portions of the Manor of
Cortlandt.
13.
The Manor of Cortlandt, Rs Origin, First Lord and
hie Family, Special Franchisee, Division, Local
History, and Typography.
The most northern part of the County of West-
chester, a tract reaching from the Hudson River on
the west to the first boundary line between the Prov-
ince of New York and the Colony of Connecticut,
on the east, twenty English miles in length by ten in
width, in shape nearly a rectangular parallelogram,
formed, *' The Manor of Cortlandt." Acquired by
direct purchase from the Indians, in part, by Stephan-
us van Cortlandt, a native bom Dutch gentleman of
New York, and in part by others whose titles he sub-
sequently bought, this tract, together with a small
116
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
tract on the wedt side of the Hudson River opposite
the promontory of Anthony's Nose, which he also
purchased from the Indians, was, by King William
the Third through his Governor, Benjamin Fletcher,
on the 17th of June 1697, erected into *' the Lordship
and Manor of Cortlandf The original Manor-Gran^
covering two skins of vellum beautifully written, and
bearing the Great Seal of the Province, its opening
words highly ornamented, still exists in perfect pres-
ervation. Above the writing is an el^antly en-
graved border nearly two inches in width, of rich
Italian arabesque design of fruits, flowers, figures
and birds, in the centre of which appear the arms of
England in full. The initial letter " G" of " Guliel-
mus," the King's name in Latin, with w^hich the in-
strument commences, is very large, is richly orna-
mented, and has within it a bust portrait of William
wearing the large peruke, and full laced scarf, of that
day. The great seal attached is that brought over by
Governor Sloughter in 1691, made pursuant to a war-
rant of William and Mary bearing date the 3l8t of
May 1690. It has upon its obverse the Arms of Eng-
land as borne by the Stuarts with the addition of a
shield of pretence in the centre, charged with the
lion rampant of the house of Nassau ; and, on its re-
verse, full length effigies of the King and Queen, the
latter holding the orb and sceptre, and kneeling at
their feet an Indian man and woman, the former of-
fering a roll of wampum, and the latter a skin of a
beaver. The legend around the obverse is in Latin,
signifying ** The seal of our province of New York
in America," that around the reverse, also in Latin,
is, " William III. and Mary II. By the Grace of God,
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King and
Queen, Defenders of the Faith."
It is attached to the fold of the vellum by a thick
silken cord, is of wax, and lies in the covered metallic
case originally made for it, and is three inches and
one half in diameter. Upon the fold of vellum is
the signature of Benjamin Fletcher, the Governor,
and the countersignature of David Jamison, Deputy
Secretary of the Province.
This description of the seal of William and Mary
is given because it was that used in New York
throughout their joint reign, the reign of William
alone, and of Anne until the Gth of September 1705,
on which day the new seal of that Queen was received,
and this old one was defaced, and sent back to Eng-
land to be broken, in accordance with the law. It
authenticated every Manor-Grant and Patent in the
Province from 1691 to 1705, and was appended to
every Manor-Grant in the County of Westchester, ex-
cept those of Fordham and Pel ham, the former of
which bore the seal of James as Duke of York, and
the latter that of James as King, they being the two
oldest Manors in the County. From the fact that this
seal was so used, after the deaths of Mary and of
William, upon patents and other instruments in New
York issued in the early part of the reign of Anne,
attempts were once made to deny their validity in
Court, but always in vain. A notable example of which,
was that of the original charter of Trinity church
in 1697. This seal was decided to be the lawful seal
of the Province until superseded by the first seal of
Queen Anne, as above stated in September 1705.
The ancient and important instrument just described,
now nearly two centuries old, at present the prop-
erty of Mr. James Stevenson van Cortlandt of
Croton, the only surviving son of the late Colonel
Pierre van Cortlandt, is the foundation of the title
to the whole Manor of Cortlandt as possessed by
Stephanus van Cortlandt, and of all existing titles
within its limits. It is therefore here given in full : —
MANOR-GRANT OF THE MANOR OF CORTLANDT.
Gulielmus Tertius, Dei Gratia, Anglise Scotia:,
firancisB, Hiberniie, Rex, fidei Defensor, &c. To all
Whom these Presents Shall Come Sendeth Greeting.
Whereas our Loveing Subject Coll. Stephanus Van
Cortlandt One of the Members of our Councill of our
Province of New York Ac., Hath by his Petti tion pre-
sented unto our Trusty and well belove** Coll. Benja-
min Fletcher our Capt. General and Governour in
Cheifof our Said Province of New York &c. and ter-
ritorys Depending thereon in America &c. prayed our
Grant and Confirmation for a Certain tract and par-
cell of Land Situate Lyeing and being upon the East
side of hudsons River Begining on the North
Line of the Maunor of Philipsburge Now in the ten-
our and Occupation of Fredrick Phillipse Esq', one of
the Members of our Said Councill And to the South
side of a Certain Creek Called Kightawank Creek
and from thence by a Due East Line Runing into
the Woods Twenty English Miles And from the said
North Line of the Mannor of Phillipsburge upon the
South Side of Said Kightawank Creek runing along
the said Hudsons river Northerly as the said River
runs into the north side of a high Hill in the high
Lands Commonly Called and Knowen by the Name of
Anthonys Nose to a Red Ceadar tree Which makes the
south Bounds of the Land Now in y^ Tenour And Oc-
cupation of Mr. Adolph Phillipse Including in the
Said Northerly Line all the Meadows Marshes Coves
Bays and necks of Land and pennensulaes that are
adjoining or Extending into Hudsons River within
the Bounds of the Said Line and from said red
ceadar tree another Due Easterly Line Runing into
the Woods Twenty English Miles and from thence
Along the Partition Line between our Colony of Conec-
ticut and this Our province untill you Come unto the
place Where the first Eastterly Line of twenty Miles
Doth Come the Whole being Bounded on the East
by the said partition Line between our said Collony
of Conecticut and this our province & on the south
side by the Northerly Line of the Mannor of Phillips-
burg to the southward of Kightawank Creek aforesaid
and on the west by the said Hudsons river and on the
North side from the aforesaid red Ceadar tree by the
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
117
south Line of the Land of Mr. Adolph PhiUip«;
And also of a Ceartain parcel of Meadow Lying and
being Situate upon the West side of the Said Hud-
sons river Within the Said High Lands over Against
the aforesaid Hill Called Anthonys Nose Begining
on the south Side of a Creek Called by the Indians
Sinkeepogh and so Along Said Creek to the head
thereof and then Northerly Along the high hills as
the River Ruueth to Another Creek Called Apinna-
pink and from thence along Said Creek to the said
Hudsons River Which Certain tract of Land and
Meadow our Said Loving Subject is Now possessed
thereof and Doth hold the same of us by Virtue of
Sundry grants heretofore Made unto him by Coll.
Thomas Dongan Late Govr. of our Said province and
Whereon our Said Loving Subject hath made Con-
siderable Improvements haveing been at Great Cost
Charge & Expence in the Purchasing the said Tract
of Lund and Meadows from the Native Indians, as
well As in the Setling a Considerable Numbers of
Famalies thereon, and being Willing To make Some
further Improvements thereon doth by his Said Peti-
tion further Request & Pray that we should be Gra-
ciously pleased to Erect the Aforesaid tract of Land
and meadows Within the Limitts and Bound Afore-
said Into a Lordshipp or Mannor of Cortlandt, Which
reasonable Request for the future Incouragement of
our said Loving Subject wee being willing to Grant,
Xnow Fe that of our Especial grace Certain
Knowledg and Mere motion We have given granted
ratified and Confirmed And by these presents do for
Us our heirs &Succesors give grant ratifie and Con-
firm unto our Said Loving Subject Stephanus van Cort-
landt all the Afore recite** Ceartain Parcell & tract
of Land and Meadows Within theire Several and Re-
spective Limits and bounds Aforesaid Together with
all and Every of the Mesuages Tenements buildings
Barnes Houses out houses Stables edifices Gardens In-
cloeures fences pasture" fields Feeding" woods under-
woods trees timbers Swamps meadows marshes pools
ponds Lakes fountains waters Water Courses rivers
Revuletsruus Streams Brooks Creeks Harbours Coves
Inlets Outlets Islands of Land and Meadows Necks
of Land and Meadows Penncnsules of Land and Mead-
ows ferrys fishing fowling hunting and hawking and
the Fishing on Hudsons River so far as the bounds
of the Said Land Extends upon the same, Quaries,
Mines, Minerals, (Silver and Gold mines only Ex-
cepted) And all the Other the rights. Members, Lib-
ertys, Priviledges, jurisdictions, prehemenenccH, Emol-
uments Royaltys, Profits, Benefits, Advantages, Heri-
dittements, & apurtenances, whatsoever, to the afbre
recite** Ceartain paccells or Tracts of Land and Mead-
ows Within their Severall and Respective Limits and
Bounds aforesaid belonging or In any wise Apper-
toaning, or Eccepted, Reputed, taken, known, or Ocu-
pied, as part parcell or member thereof, To Have
And To Hold all the afore Recite** Ceartain parcell"
and tracts of Land and Meadows within their Several
and Respective Limits and Bounds Aforesaid; To-
gether with all end Every of the mesuage Tenuemento
Buildings barns houses out houses Stables Edetices
Orechards Gardens Inclosures fences Pasture fields
feedings Woods underwoods trees timber Swamps
Meadows Marshes pooles ponds Lakes fountains Wa-
ter Water Courses Rivers Revuieis Rivulets Runs
Streams brooks Creeks harbours Cuves inlets Outlets
Islands of land and Meadows Necks of Land and
Meadow Penninsules of Land and Meadow ferry*
fishing fowling hunting and hawking and the fishing
on hudsons River so far as the Bounds of the Said
Land Extend' upon the said River, Quaries Mines
minerals (Silver and Gold Mines only Excp^) And all
other the Right" Members Libertys priveledges jur-
risdictions prehemmeneuces Emoluments Royaltys
profits benifits Advantages herideti men ts and Appur-
tenances Whatsoever to the afore recited Certain
parcell and tract of Land and Meadow within the
several and Respective Limitts and bounds aforesaid
belonging or in any wise apertaining or accepted Re-
puted taken Known or ocupied as part parcel! or
member thereof unto the Said Stephanus van Cortlandt
hid heirs and assigns to the Sole and only proper use
Benefit and Behofe of him the said Stephanus van
Cortlandt his heirs and assigns for Ever.
And Mi/reover Know ye tnat our further Especial
Grace Certain Knowledge and mere Motion we have
thought titt according to the Request of our i5aid Lov-
ing Subject to Erect all the before Recited Ceartain
Parcell and tracts of Land and Meadow Within the
Limitts and Bounds aforesaid into a Lordship or
Mannor, and therefore by these presents we do for us,
our bein, and Successors, Erect make And Consti-
tute, all the afore Uecited Ceartain purcells and tracts
of Land and Meadows Within the Limitts and bounds
aforesaid, together with all and Every the above
Granted premises With ail and Every of Appurte-
nances Into one Lordship and Mannour to all Intents
and purposes, And it is our Royall will and pleasure
that the said Lordship and Mannour Shall from
henceforth be Called the Lordship and Mannour of
Cortlandt; And further Know yee that wee Reposeing
Especial trust and Confidence in the Loyalty wisdom
Justice Prudence and Circumspection of our said
Loving Subject do for us our heirs and Successors
Give and Grant unto our said Loving Subject Ste-
phanus van Cortlandt and to the heirs and assigns of
him the said Stephanus van Cortlandt full power and
authority at all times for Ever Heareafler in the
said Lordship and Mannour one Court Leet and one
Court Barron To hold and Keep at Such time and
times and so Oflen Yearly as he or they Shall see
meet, and all fines Issues and Amerciaments at the
Said Court Leet and Court Barron To be holden
within the said Lordship and Mannour to be Let for-
fited and Employed or payable or hapning at any
time to be payable by any of the Inhabitants of or
Within the said Lordship and mannour of Cortlandt or
118
HISTOKY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
theLimitts and bounds thereof And Also all And every
of the Powers and Authoritys herein beforemetioned
for the holding and Keeping of the said Court Leet
and Court Barron from time to time and to award
Issue out the acCustomary writs to the Heirs and As-
signs of the said Stephanus Van Cortlandt for ever or
their or any of their steward Deputed and apointed
with full and ample power and Authority to Distrain
for the rents Services and Other Sums of Money pay-
able by Virtue of the Premises and all other Lawfull
remidies and means for the having possessing Re-
ceiving Levying and Enjoying the premmises and
every Part and Parcell of the same and all waifes Es-
trayes Wrecks Deodands goods of felons happening
and being Forfeited within the said Lordship and
Mannour of Cortlandt and all and Every Sum and
sums of Money to be paid as a Post fine upon any
fine or fines to be Levied of any Land Tennements or
Heriditements within the said lordship and mannour
of Cortlandt together with the Advowson and right of
patronage and all and Every the Church and
Churches Erected or Established or heareafter to be
had Erected or Established in the said mannour of
Cortlandt.
And we do by these presents Constitute and Ap-
point our said Loving Subject Stephanus van Cortlandt
and his heirs and Assinys to be our Sole and only
Ranger of the Said Lordship and Mannour of Cort-
landt and to have hold and Enjoy all the Benifits
perqusites fees, rights priviledges Profits and Apurten-
ances that of Right doth belong unto a Ranger Ac-
cording to our Statutes and Customs of our Realm of
England in as full and Ample Manner as if the same
were perticularly Expressed in these presents anything
to the Contrary Hereof in any ways Notwithstanding.
And we Likewise do further give and Grant unto the
said Stephanus van Cortlandt and to his heirs and As-
sinys, That all and every the tennants of him the Said
Stephanus van Cortlandt Within the Said Lord Ship
and Mannour of Cortlandt Shall and May at all times
heareafter meet Together and Chuse Assessors within
the Mannour aforesaid According to such rules wa^s
and Methods as are prescribed for Citys towns and
Countys within our said province by the Acts of Gen-
erall Assembly for the Defraying the Publick Charge
of Each respective City town and County aforesaid
and all such sum or sums of Money So assessed and
Levyed to Collect pay and Dispose of for Such Uses as
the act of General Assembly shall Establish and Apoint.
And further of our Especial grace Certain Knowl-
edge and Mere Motion we do by these presents for us
our heirs and Successors give and Grant unto our Said
Loving Subject Stephanus van Cortlandt and to his
heirs and assinys forever that he the said Stephanus van
Cortlandt his heirs and assinys Shall and May From
time to time and after the Expiration of twenty Years
Next Ensueing the Date of these presents Return and
send a Discreet Inhabitant in and of the said man-
nour to be a Represent! tive of the said Mannour in
every Assembly after the Expiration of the said twen-
ty Years to be summoned and holden within this our
said province which Representative so Returned and
Sent Shall be Received into the house of Representa-
tives of Assembly as a Member of the said house to
bave and Enjoy such privi ledge as the other Repre-
sentatives Returned and Sent from any other County
and Mannours of this our said province have had and
Enjoyed in any former Assembly holden within this
our said province ;
To have and to hold possess and Enjoy all and Sin-
gular the said Lordship and Mannour of Cortlandt and
premisses with all their and every of their Roy altys and
appurtunancys unto the said Stephanus van Cortlandt
his heirs and assignes to the Sole and only proper use
Benefitt nnd Behoof of him the said Stephanus van Cort-
landt his heirs and Assignes forever To Be holden of
us our heirs and Successors in free and Common Soc-
cage as of ou rMannour of East Greenwich in our
County of Kent within our Realm of England, Yield-
ing Rendering and paying therefore yearly and Every
year for Ever unto us our heirs and Successors at our
City of New York on the feast Day of Annunciation of
our Blessed Virgin Mary the yearly Rent of forty
Shillings Current money of our said province in Lieu
and Stead of all other Rents Services Dues Dutys and
Demands whatsoever for the Afore Recited Tract
and Parcell of Land and Meadow Lordship and Man-
nour of Cortlandt and premisses.
In Testimony whereof we have Caused the Great
Seal of our said province to be hereunto affixed Wit-
ness our Said trusty and well beloved Coll. Benja-
min Fletcher our said Cap : Generall and Governor
in Chief or our Province of New York and the Terri-
torys Depending thereon in America and Vice Ad-
miral of the same, our Lieu* and Commander in Chief
of the Militia and of all the forses by Sea and by Land
within our Collony of Connecticut and of all the Forts
and places of strength within the same, in Coun-
cil at our fort in New York the Seventeenth day of
June in the Ninth Year of our Reign Anno Domini
1697.
Benjamin Fletcher.
By his Excelys. Command,
David Jamison D. Sec'y.*
The earliest movement of Stephanus van Cortlandt
towards obtaining the Lands of the Manor, was to
take out, pursuant to the law of the Province,' a Li-
cense to purchase them from the Indians, in order to
extinguish the Indian title. This instrument, from
the original among the van Cortlandt papers, is in
these words :
License fro7n Gov, Andros.
" By The Governor :
Whereas application hath been made unto mee by
divers persons for lands at Wyckerscreeke, or ad-
iBecorded in Book of Patents No. 7, begun id 1695, pp. 166-170.
SBxpUiued above la thia <
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
119
jacent parts, on the east side of Hudson's River, the
which have not yet heen purchased of the Indyan
Proprieto". These presents are U) authorize you,
Co" Stephanus vin Cortlandt, Mayor of this City, if
fitting opportunity shall present, to treat with, and
agree for, any part of the said Land for wh*"*" there
may be present occasion of settlement, or for the
whole, with the Indyan Sachems or Proprieto". The
payment whereof to be made publicly at the Fort or
City Hall.
Given under my hand in New York this 16th day
of Novem**", 1677.
Andros." *
This license, it will be seen, was general, and per-
mitted van Cortlandt to buy of the Indians whenever
it might conveniently be done. No time was men-
tioned and it operated as an indefinite permission
to extinguish the Indian title in the region named.
Six years after its date, in 1683, he bought the penin-
sula afterwards, and now known as Verplanck's Point,
and another large tract adjoining it running to the
eastward, the former called by the natives Meanagh,'
and the latter Appamapogh, which were conveyed to
him by the annexed Deed; —
SiECHAM, and six other Indians, to Sttphanus van
Qirt/andt.
" To all christian people to whom this present writing
shall come : Siecham, Pewimine, Oskewans, Turhnm,
Querawighint, Isighera, and Prackises, all Indians,
true and rightful owners and proprietors of the lands,
hereinafter mentioned, as for themselves and the rest
of their relations send, greeting, know ye that for
and in consideration of the sum of twelve pounds
in wampum and several other merchandises, as by a
schedule hereunto annexed more at large, doth and
may appear, to them the same Indians in hand paid
before the ensealing and delivering thereof, the re-
ceipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and for other
divers causes and considerations, they, the said In-
dians have granted, bargained and sold, aliened,
enfeofted and confirmed, and by these presents do
fully, clearly and absolutely grant, bargain, sell, alien,
enfeof, and confirm unto Stephanus Van Cortlandt of
the city of New York, merchant, his heirs or assignes
forever, all that certain tract or parcel of land situate,
lying or being on the east side of the Hudson River,
at the entering in of the Highlands, just over against
Haverstraw, lying on the south side of the creek
called Tammoesis, and from thence easterly in the
woods to the head of the creek called Kewightahagh,
and so along said creek northerly to Hudson River,
and thence westerly to the utmost point of the said
iThis iMper is recorded iu tb« Sec. of State's off., Albany, Lib. 27, p.
238, and iu West Cu. R«g. off., Lib. A, 228. It is also in XIV. Col. Hist.,
616.
2 This word is so spelled in the original deeds and wills in which it oc-
curs. The spelling " Mealiagh " in simply a copyist's, or printer's, cor
ruption.
tract of land, and from thence southerly along said
Hudson River to the aforenamed creek, Tammoesis,
which said tract or parcel of land known by the
Indians by the name of Appamaghpogh and Meanagh,
including all the lands, soils, meadows and woods
within the circuit and bounds aforesaid, together
with all, and singular the trees, timber-woods, under-
woods, swamps, runs, marshes, meadows, rivulets,
streams, creeks, waters, lakes, pools, ponds, fishing,
hunting, fowling and whatsoever else to the said
tract or parcel of land within the bounds and limits
aforesaid, is belonging or in any wise appertaining
without any restriction whatsoever, to have and to
HOLD the said parcel or tract of land, and all and
singular other the premises and every part and parcel
thereof unto the said Stephanus Van Cortlandt, his
heirs and assignees to the sole and only proper use,
benefit and behoof of him, the said Stephanus his
heirs and assignees forever, and they, the said In-
dians do for themselves their heirs and every of them
consent, promise, and engage, that the said Stephanus
Van Cortlandt his heirs and assignees shall and may
from henceforth and forever lawfully peaceably and
quietly have, hold, possess and enjoy the said tract or
parcel of land, and all and singular the other the
premises with their appurtenances without either let,
hindrance, disturbance or interruption of or by them,
the said Indian proprietors, or their heirs or any other
person or persons claiming, or that shall hereafter,
shall or may claim, by from under them or either of
them, and that they shall and will upon the reasona-
ble request and demand made by the said Stephanus
Van Cortlandt, give and deliver peaceable and quiet
possession of the said tract and parcel of land and
premises, or of some part thereof and in the room of
the whole under such person or persons, as by the said
Stephanus Van Cortlandt shall be appointed to re-
ceive the same, in witness whereof the said Indians
Pewemine, Oskewans, Turham, Querawighint, Siech-
am, Isighera, and Prackises, the Indian owners and
proprietors aforesaid, have hereunto set their hands
and seals in New York, this twenty-fourth day of Au-
gust in the thirty-fifth year of his majesties reign.
Anno Domini, 1683.
Signed sealed and de- ( (Here follow the seals,
livered in presence of I and the marks, of Siecham
Francis Rumbouts, ^ and the other six Indians
Guelyne Verplancke. I named).
Appended is the " schedule " of " other merchan-
dises" mentioned in the deed as part of the consid-
eration ;
8 guns, 12 shirts,
9 blankets, 50 pounds powder,
5 coats, 30 bars of lead,
14 fathoms of Duffels, ' 18 hatchets,
14 kettles, 18 hoes,
> A coarse but soft woolen cloth made in Holland.
120
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
40 fathoms black wampum, 14 knives,
80 fathoms white wampum, A small coat,
2 ankers of rum, 6 fathoms stroud - cloth,
5 half vats strong beer, 6 pair of stockings,
6 earthen jugs, 6 tobacco boxes."
On the ninth of March, 1682, Cornel is van Bur-
sum of New York City, obtained the following License
to purchase Indian Lands from Anthony Brockholes,
who, as Senior Member of the Council had succeeded
Andros in the Command of the Province when the
latter went to England.
LyceiiM to Oornelis Van Bursum,
By the Commander in Chiefe.
" Whereas Oornelis Van Bursum of this City hath
made Applicayon for Liberty and Lycense to pur-
chase of the Indyans a Certain parcel or Tract of
Land Lyeing on the f^t side of Hudson River Be-
hither the High- Lands, toSettle Affarmeor Planta<;on
or for the Improvem' of Husbandry, These are to
certify that I have and Doe Hereby with Advise of
the Counsell Grant Liberty and Lycense to the said
Curnelis Van Bttrsum to purchase of the Indyans the
said Parcel 1 or tract of Land and to Settle A ffarme or
Plantayon thereupon, he Makeing Due return thereof
to the office of Records there in Order to C(mfirma-
9on, and Makeing Improvement and performing what
the Law in Such Oases Requires.
Given under my hand in New-Yorke this third Day
freb''y, in the thirty Fourth yeare of his Mat'**
Reigne Annoy. Domini 1681-2. A. B. ' "
Van Bursum acted immediately, and four months
later received from Ackimak, and nineteen other In-
dians, a deed for the lower peninsula which forms
the South bounds of Haverstraw Bay. It was called
by the Indians Senasqua, and by the Whites "Sa-
rah's," and ** Teller's,*' Point, and later "Croton"
Point. The last from the fact that it forms the North
Side of the estuary of the Croton River. Sarah was
the wife of William Teller who long lived upon the
Point, she having survived her husband several years-
It is decribed in the Indian deed to Van Bursum as,
" all that parcell, neck, or point of Land, with the
Marsh, Meadow ground, or valley thereto Adjoining
and Belonging, Situate lying and being on the east
side of the North or Hudson's River, over against
verdrietye's Hooke, commonly called and Known by
the name of Slauper's Haven, and by the Indians
Navinh, the Meadow* being called by the Indians
Senasqua, being bounded by the said River and a
certain creek called or known to the Indians by the
name of Tanrackan, and divided from the Main land
by certain trees marked by the Indians, together with
half of the said creek &c. for, and in consideration of,
a certain sum of Wampum, and divers other goods,
paid by Cornelius van Bursum. *
I XIII. Coi. Hiat., .V»4. «0n the poulnsula.
3 Wuut Co. Reg. off. Lib. A, 182.
The lands from the Croton River Northward to
Stephanus van Cortlandt's Appamapogh purchase
before mentioned, and running eastward to the Kea-
kates or twin ponds, or Cedar Ponds, as they are called
on the Manor Map, and thence down the Mescoot and
Croton rivers to the latters mouth, were bought of the
Indians by Grovernor Thomas Dongan himself. Their
deed to him was dated August 1685. Dongan on the
20th March 1686, sold the land to one John Kuighta.
Dongan's deed from the Indians thus describes the
tract, which from the Indian name of the Croton, wajs
called Kichtawanck, or Kitchtawong; — "all that
Tract or parcell of Land situate Lying and being on
the East side of Hudson's River, within the County of
Westchester, beginning at Kichtawong Creek, and
M) running along Hudson's River northerly to the
land of Stephanus van Cortlandt, from thence' to the
eastwardmost end of the Said van Cortland ts Land,
and from thence to a great fresh Water Pond called
Keakates, and from the said pond along the creek
that runs out of the said Pond to Kichtawong Creek,
and so downward on the south side of the said creek
to Hudson's River, including all the land, soil, and
meadow within the bounds and limits aforesaid."
John Knights, on the 20th of April, 1687, reconveyed
it by deed to Governor Thomas Dongan. * And from
Dongan it subsequently paased to Stephanus van
Cortlandt.
Previously to his purchase of the Dongan lands,
and on the 13th of July, 1683, Stephanus Van Cort-
landt bought irom the Haverstraw Indians a tract on
the West side of the Hudson River, directly opposite
to the promontory of Anthony's Nose, and North of
the Dunderbergh Mountain, forming the depression
or valley,* through the upper part of which, in the
Revolutionary War, Sir Henry Clinton came down
and captured Forts Constitution and Montgomery,
then commanded by his distant relatives and name-
sakes, Generals, George, and James, Clinton. The
original deed, among the Van Wyck papers, which
has never before been printed, is as follows :
Indian Deed to Stephanus van Oortlandt
for I^nds on the Went Side of tlie Hudson.
" To All Christian people To whom this Present
writing shall come Sakaghkeineck Sachem of Haver-
straw, Werekepes, Sa(iu()gharup, Kakcros, and Kaghtsi-
kroos, all, Indians true and Rightfull owners and Pro-
prietors of the Land herein after mentioned and Ex-
pressed, Send Greeting. Know ye, That for and in
Consideraion of the Sume of Six Shillings Curr:
Silver money to them the said Indians in baud payed
before the Ensealing and Delivery here of the Receipt
whereof is hereby acknowledged and for Diverse other
Valuable Causes and Oonsideraious they the said
Indians have Granted Bargained Sold Aliened Enfe-
offed and Confirmed and by these Presents Doe Fully
4 Lib. A, 121, Wwt. Co. Reg. off.
^Thifl valloy bears now tho odd apiiellatiou uf " Doodletowu/
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE MANORS.
121
Cleerly and Absolutely Grant Bargain 6ell Alien
Enfeoff and Ck>nfirm unto Stephanug Van Cortlandt
of the Citty of New Yorke Merchant hia heires and
aasignett for ever All that A Certaine Tract or Parcell
of Land Situate Lyeing and being on the West side
of Hudsons River within the High Lands over Against
a greate Hill Commonly called Anthonys Nose be-
ginning on the South side at a Oreieke called Sinka-
pogh^ and so alongst the said Creeke to the head
thereof and then northerly alongst the high hills as
the River runneth to Another Creeke called Assinna-
pink' and from thence along The said Creeke to
Hudsons River againe togather with A Cenaine Island
and Parcell of Meadow Land neere or adjoyneing to
the same called Wanakawaghkin and by the Christ-
ians known by the name of Salsbury's Island ' In-
cludeing all the Lande Soile and Meadows within the
Bounds and Limitts aforesaid togather with all and
singular the trees Timber Woods Underwoods Swamps
Moores Marshes Meadows RivolettsStreamesCreeckes
Waters Lakes Pooles Ponds ffishing hunting and
fowleing and whatsoever Else to the said Tract or
Parcell of Land within the Bounds and Limitts afore-
said is belonging or in any wise appurteineing with-
out any Reservaion whatsever To have and To hold
the said Tract or parcell of Land and all and singuler
other the Primisses and every Parte and Parcell
thereof unto the said Stephanua Van Cortlandt his
heirs and Assigns to the sole and only Proper use
Benefitt and Behoofe of him Van Cortlandt his
heires and Assigns for ever. And they the said In-
dians Doe for themselves and their heires and every
of them Covenant Promise and engage that the said
Steph : Van Cortlandt his heires and assignes Shall
and may from henceforth for Ever Lawfully Peace-
ably and Quiettly have hold Possesse and Enjoye the
said Tract or Parcell of Land and all and singuler
other the Premisses with their Appurtenences with-
out any Lett Hindrance Disturbance or Interrupion
whatsoever of or by them the said Indian Proprietors
or their heires or of any other Person or Persons
Claymeing or that hereafter shall or may clayme by
from or under them or either of them.
And that they shall and will upon reasonable Re-
quest and demand made by the said Stephanua Van
Cortlandt Give and Deliver Peaceably and Quietly
Possession of the said Tract or Parcell of Land and
Premisses or of some Parte thereof for and in the
name of the whole unto such Person or Persons as
by the said Stephanus V. Cortlandt shall be ap-
pointed to Receive the same
In Witnesse whereof the said Sakaghkeineik Sa-
chem of Haverstraw Werekepes Saquoghharup Ea-
keros and Kaghtsikroos the Indians owners and Pro-
prietors aforesaid have hereunto Sett their hands and
1 Now called Snakohole Greek.
>Ttae Creek South ofSnakehole Creek.
* Now called lona Island.
Scales in New Yorke the 18th day of July in the
thirty-fifth yeare of his Ma^ Reigne Anno Domin
1683.
Signed Sealed and Delivered
in the Presence ot Uss the mark of
By Sakaghkeineck ^ Sakaghkeineck f Sachem
Werekepes & > of Haverstraw
Kaghtsikroos J The marke of
Fredryck Flypssen Werekepes
Gulain Verplancke The Marke of
John Weis f
My Marke Kaghtsikroos''
t
Mantion
The last purchase which Stephanus Van Cortlandt
ia known to have made, was a tract on the east side
of the Hudson, then belonging to " Hew MacGregor,
Gentleman, of the City of New York," who previous-
ly obtained it from the Indians. The original deed
from MacGregor is among the Van Wyck papers and
bears date the 13th day of July 1695, only two years
and twenty-five days before the date of the Grant of
the Manor. It is a full covenant warrantee deed,
signed by both Hew McGregor and Stephanus Van
Cortlandt, the witnesses being Johannus Kip, Theu-
uis De Key, and John Barclay. The consideration
mentioned is " a certain summ of good and lawfiiU
money." And the premises conveyed are thus de-
scribed — " All that certain tract of land situate, ly-
ing, and being up Hudson's River on the East side
thereof, beginning at the East side of the land late
belonging to Jacob De Key and Company at a Creek
called Pohotasack and so along a creek called by the
Indyans Paquingtuk and by the Christians John
Peak's Creek. to another creek called by the Indyans
Acquasimink, including two small water ponds called
Wenanninissios and Wachiehamis, Together with all
and singular meadows, marshes, woods, underwoods,
waters, ponds, water-courses, improvements, privi-
l^es, hereditaments and appurtenances whatsoever
to the said Tract of land and premises belonging or
appertaining."
How extensive an area this description embraced
cannot be stated its terms being too vague, but is was
a very large tract lying east of the eighteen hundred
acre tract called Sachus, or Sachoes, and known as
" Rycke's Patent," which embraced the present vil-
lage of Peeks Kill and its immediate neighbourhood,
the fee of which was not owned by Stephanus van
Cortlandt, although within the limits of the Manor,
and subject to its jurisdiction, till 1770, when it
was granted by special act a civil organization of its
own, as will be hereafter shown.
These lands including all his purchases upon both
sides of the Hudson River were granted and con-
firmed, to Stephanus van Cortlandt, June 17th, 1697,
by the Manor-Grant of the Manor of Cortlandt. It^
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
boundaries as therein stated are thus set forth, ** a
certain tract and parcell of Land situate Lying and
being upon the East side of Hudson's River, Begin-
ning on the North Line of the Mannor of Philipee-
burghe, now in the tenour* and occupation of Fred-
rick Phillipse, Esqr., one of the Members of our said
Councill, and to the south side of a Certain Creeke
called Kightawank Creek,' and from thence by a
Due East Line Runing into the woods Twenty Eng-
lish miles, and from the said north line of the Man-
nor of Philipseburghe upon the south side of said
Kightawank Creek running along the said Hudson
River Northerly, as the said River runs, unto the
North side of a High Hill in the highlands commonly
called and Known by the Name of Anthony's Nose,
to a Red Ceader tree. Which Makes the South Bounds
of the Land now in y* tenour and occupation of
Mr. Adolph Phillipse' Including in the said North-
erly Line all the Meadows, Marches, Coves, Bays,
and Necks of Land and pennensulaes that are ad-
joining or Extending into Hudson's River within the
Bounds of the said Lines, and from said red ceader
tree another Due Easterly Line Runing into the
Woods Twenty English Miles, and from thence along
the Partition Line between our Colony of Conecticut
and this Oar Province untill you come into the place
where the first Easterly Line of twenty miles Doth
Come, the Whole being Bounded on the East by the
said Partition Line between our said Collony of
Conecticut and this our Province, and on the south
side by the Northerly Line of the Mannor of Philipse-
burghe to southward of Kightawank Creeke aforesaid,
and on the west by the said Hudson's River, and on
the North side from the aforesaid red ceader tree by
the south Line of the Land of Mr. Adolf Phillipse.
And also a Ceartain parcel of Meadow Lying and
being situate upon the West side of Hudson's River
Within the said High Lands over against the afore-
said Hill called Anthony's Nose, Beginning on the
South side of a creek called by the Indians Sinkee-
pogh, and so along said Creeke to the head thereof
and then Northerly along the high hills as the River
Runeth to another Creeke Apinnapink, and from
thence along said Creeke to the said Hudson's
River."
From this description we are able to see the out-
line and appreciate the extent, and area, of this mag-
nificent Manor of Cortlandt, which contained on the
East side of the Hudson River 86,213 acres, and on
the West side at least 1,500 acres, making altogether
the enormous total of Eighty-seven thousand seven
hundred and thirteen acres of land.
About two years after receiving the Grant of the
Manor Stephanus van Cortlandt, following the usual,
1 Tenure.
* The Croton Rlrer:
■ A brother of Frederick Phiilipae. The tract wm called "PhiUipee's
Upper Patent,** and included almost all of what is now Putnam
Cuunty.
and the wise, rule of the day in such matters, (the
reason of which has been fully explained in the
beginning of this essay in speaking of the Native
owners of the County) * obtained from the Indian
dwellers upon the lands of his grant as a whole, a
special deed of confirmation. This Instrument is
very important as it states specifically the lands in,
and the bounds of, the region embraced in the Manor
of Cortlandt. It is dated the 8th of August 1699,
and is in there words ;
Indian Deed qf Confirmaiion of the Manor of Cortlandt,
" We, Sachima- Wicker, Sachem of Kightawonck,"
(and twenty two other Indians seven of whom were
squaws) "all right, just, natural owners and proprie-
tors of all the land hereinafter mentioned, lying and
being within the bounds and limits of the Mannor of
Cortlandt, &c., have sold, for a certain sum of money,
all that tract and parcel of land, situate, lying, and
being in the Mannor of Cortlandt, in West Chester
County, beginning on the South side Kightawonck
Creek, and so along the said Creek to a place called
Kewighecock ', and from thence Northerly along a
Creek called Peppeneghek ' to the head thereof, and
then due east to the limits of Connecticut, being the
easternmost bounds of said Mannor, and from thence
Northerly along the limits of Connecticut aforesaid
to the river Mutighticus^ ten miles, and from thence
due west to Hudson's river, together with all the
lands soils &c &c.^ The witnesses were John Naufau
(the Lieut. Governor) Abraham De Peyster, James
Graham, and A. Livingston.
Thus Stephanus van Cortlandt became the undis-
puted and acknowledged Lord of " The Lordship and
Manor of Cortlandt."
There were two small parcels of land within the
above general limits of the Manor, the soil of which
was not owned by either Stephanus van Cortlandt or
his heirs, one of eighteen hundred acres and one of
three hundred, the latter fronting on the north side
of Peekskill bay, the former on the Hudson River be-
tween Verplank's Point and Peekskill creek. The
former was the tract known as " Ryke's Patent." Its
Indian name was "Sachus," or "Sackhoes," and it
was purchased of the Indians on the 21st of April,
1685, under a license dated March 6, 1684, from Gov-
ernor Dongan, by Richard Abrams, Jacob Abrams,
TeunisDekey or De Kay, Seba, Jacob and John Harxse;'
and on the 23rd of December, 1685, a patent was
granted to these purchasers and one or two others for
this tract, in which it is thus described : — "All that
certain tract or parcel of land, situate, lying, and
being on Hudson's River at a certain place called by
4 Ante p. 34.
ft Or Kewlgtateqaack, u spelled on the Map of the Uanor.
* Now CroM Riyer, an aaatern braDch of the Croton.
7 Now called the Titicoi.
8 Book I of Indian Deeds, 88, Sec. of State's offi. Albany.
*So spelled and nanjed in the original petition to Dongan for the
Patent in vol. 2 of Land Papers of 1(>83, Sec. uf State's Office, Albany.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE MANORS.
123
the Indiana Sachus. and stretching by the north side
of StephanuB van Crortlandt, his land up to the said
river, to another creek, and so runs up said creek in
seyeral courses, to a certain tree marked T. R. west
of the aforesaid creek which lies by Stephanus van
Cortlandt's land, including all the meadows both
fresh and salt within said bounds, containing in all
1800 acres or thereabouts." The tenure like that of
the Manor was " in free and common soccage accord-
ing to the tenure of East Greenwich in the County of
Kent in his Majesties Kingdom of England." The
quit rent was '* ten bushels of good winter merchant-
able wheat yearly, on the five and twentieth day of
March [New Years Day according to the then ** old
style "] in the city of New York.^
From Ricl^ard Abrahamsenoneofthesix patentees
this tract derives its name of Ryke's Patent, ''Ryke"
being a Dutch abbreviation of Richard, he having
subsequently acquired the shares of several of the
original owners.* From him and his brother Jacob
Abrahamsen of " Upper Yonckers," their title passed
by purchase to Hercules Lent who also acquired
finally the title to the whole 1800 acres. Hercules
Lent devised the patent in several parcels among his
children and grandchildren by will in 1766.' The
name of Lent is still very common in the neighbor-
hood of Peekskill to this day, and some of the name
still own portiona of the original tract The 300 acre
tract, which was of little importance, fronted on the
inner and upper part of Peekskill bay, and became
prior to 1732 the property of John Krankhyte. Both
these pieces are shown, colored in pink, on the accom-
panying map of the Manor of Oortlandt.
The earliest traces of the settlement of any part of
the Manor was that at the trading station with the
Indians, which resulted in the erection of the stone
fortified building, at the north side of the mouth of
the Croton, which subsequently became the present
Manor House. The largest Indian village was upon
the high fiat at the neck of the peninsula of Senas-
qua, or Tellers, or Groton Point, which unites it with
the main land, and over which now runs the
Biver Road. Hence for convenience sake the
Dutch traders sought the landing place of the In-
dians, in the sheltered North side of the Estuary of
the Groton, then an open bay without the sedge
fiats which now nearly fill it. Here too was subse-
quently established the ancient ferry and ferry house,
as the population, and the traffic, up and down the
Hudson, began to grow and increase. The next point of
settlement was about the mouth of the Peekskill Greek,
and in the tract called Ryke's Patent. The method
of settlement adopted by Van Gortlandt was the
same as that, which was adopted by the early Dutch
1 Lib. A. of Patentap Sec of 8tote*g Off., 114. Ub. I., Wert. Co., Be^.
Off., 145.
s Tbe " Von Ryeken " origin of Uiia name, giren in Boltou'i History,
is fancifnl.
SLlb. 25, Wills, N. T. Snrr. Off., 337.
colonists, and subsequently continued by the English.
What it was we learn from the '' Information relative
to taking up Land in New Netherland in the form of
Golonies, or private bonweries " written in 1650 by
Secretary Tienhoven, for the information of the States-
General of Holland. " Before beginning to build " he
says, " Twill above all things be necessary to select a
well located spot, either on some river "or bay, suitable
for the settlement of a village or hamlet. Thia is pre-
viously properly surveyed and divided into lots, with
good streets according to the situation of the place.
This hamlet can be fenced all round with high palisades,
or lonjg boards, and closed with gates." * * " Outside
the village or hamlet, other land must be laid out
which can in general be fenced and prepared at the
most trifling expense."
" In a Golonie each farmer has to be provided by
his landlord with at least one yoke of oxen or with
two mares in their stead, two cows, one or two sows for
the purpose of increase, the use of the farm, and the
support of his family." * * " And as it is found by
experience in New Netherland that farmers can with
difficulty obtain from the soil enough to provide
themselves with necessary victuals and support, those
who propose planting colonies must supply their
fimners and families with necessary food for at least
two or three years, if not altogether, it must be done
at least in part." Then the proprietor had to furnish
mechanics of all kinds, carpenters, smiths, wheel*
Wrights, millers, and boat builders, and if possible a
doctor, and a clergyman or school master. In this
document, there are descriptions of a few regions in
New Netherland which he mentions as well adapted
for settlement and among them, that of the eastern
and northern part of West Gheyiter county comprising
the subsequent Manors of Gortlandt, the upper part
of Philipsburgh, and lands immediately adjacent to
them and the Manors of Scarsdale and Pelham. The
r^ion is thus mentioned, " The country on the East
River between Greenwich and the Island Manhat*
tans is for the most part covered with trees, but yet
fiat and suitable land, with numerous streama and
vallies, right good soil for grain, together with fresh
hay and meadow lands.
Wiequaeskeck, on the North River, five leagues
above New Amsterdam, is very good and suitable land
for agriculture, very extensive maize land, on which
the Indians have planted. Proceeding from the shore
and inland 'tis fiat and mostly level, well watered by
small streams and running springs. It lies between
the East and North Rivers, and is situate between a
rivulet of Sintinck and Armonk." *
This is the first topographical description of the up*
per part of the county that exists. Written tiyen ty-sev-
en years before Stephanus von Gortlandt obtained his
license of 1677, and thirty -three before he made his
41. Col. Hist 365^70.
the ^yaom river.
These streams were the Sitig Sitig eraek ud
124
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
first purchase of its northern part from the Indians,
it gives us a good idea of the clear-headedness and
shrewdness of the man, and the obligations he took
upon himself in undertaking to settle the tract. He
undoubtedly did a good deal in bringing in inhabit-
ants and stock, between 1683, the date of his first
purchase, and 1697, the date of his Manor-grant.
Here it was that he erected the mills, mentioned (in
the plural) in his will, dated three years later in 1700,
the year of his death, which by both Dutch and Eng-
lish law the Patroons and the Lords of Manors were
bound to provide for the benefit of their tenants. Had
. Stephanus von Cortlandt lived to be seventy-five or
eighty years old, like so very many of his descendants in
every generation, instead of dying at fifty-seven, leav-
ing a large family, mostly minors, it is probable that
he would have left his manor as flourishing and as
populous in proportion as that of Bensselaerswyck at
the same date.
The general franchises 'and privileges of a Manor
having already been described, those only which were
peculiar to this particular Manor of Cortlandt will be
mentioned here. The Rent Service on which the
Manor waa held, was ** Forty shillings current money
of our said Province " (five dollars), payable ** at our
city of New York on the feast day of tJie Annuncia-
tion of our blessed Virgin Mary." The peculiar
franchises of the Manor of Cortlandt were two only,
the Rangership of the Manor, and the right to be
represented by its own member in the Oeneral Assem-
bly after the expiration of twenty years next ensuing
the date of the Manor Grant, the 17th of June 1697.
In this as in all the other Manor-Grants was a clause
giving to the Lord and his heirs the right for his
tenants to meet and choose assessors and provide for
public charges in accordance with the general laws
of the Province.
Like all the other Manor-Grants silver and gold
mines were excepted from the grant and reserved to
the Crown. This reservation was actually acted upon
by the Crown in the case of this Manor. And the
last century a Crown-grant was made of a silver mine
which waa discovered just by Sing Sing village.
But space will not permit more than this mention
of the fact.
" Rangers " were sworn officers of the Crown, to
whom were granted by the Sovereign the " Royal
rights or franchises, of waifs, estrays, hunting, royal
fish, treasure trove, mines, deodands, forfeitures, and
the like. They were appointed, either, by a special
royal grant, over a special district, which was the
more usual, or else, as in this instance) the franchise
was named among others in the grant of a Manor.
The appointment by Governor Hunter on September
4th, 1710, of Major Thomas Jones, of Fort Neck,
Queens County, the grandfather of Judge Thomas
Jones the author of the " History of New York dur-
ing the Revolutionary War " as 'Ranger-General of
Long Island ' is an instance of the former. That of
Stephanus van Cortlandt in his Manor-Grant of
Cortlandt one of the latter. Its value to the Lord of
Cortlandt was, that it gave him the regulation and
absolute control of the methods of Hunting and
Fishing, throughout the Manor, the forests and waters
of which were remarkable for their more than great
numbers of deer, beaver, wild turkies, wild geese
swans, ducks, and other feathered game, and the great-
plenty of salmon, shad, herrings, and striped bass,
which filled the Hudson, to say nothing of the trout,
black bass, and pickerel of its beautiful fresh water
lakes and streams, which gemmed in clear brilliance
the vales and glades of the Manor amid its bold
lofty hills, and dark, magnificent forests.
The other special franchise was that of fiending a
Representative to the General Aseflembly. This was a
franchise of so high a character that it was granted
to but two more out the many New York Manors,
those of Rensselaerswyck in 1705 and Livingston
in 1715, the former eight years, the latter eighteen
years, after the grant to Cortlandt. The franchise in this
case was not to be enjoyed till after the lapse of twen-
ty years from the date of the Manor-Grant, June 17th
1697, that is until after June 17th, 1717. The reason
of this was to allow a sufficient time to elapse for the
coming in of a population numerous enough to re-
quire a representative.
In 1697 when the Manor was erected, except a few
white people near the mouth of the Croton, and near
Verplanck's Point, the whole Manor was occupied by
the Indians. True, their title to the lands had been
duly purchased, but, as in almost all Indian purchas-
es a right to hunt and fish and plant corn, was prac-
tically reserved by the Indians. And this the whites
always acknowledged. In consequence the entry of
the whites was extremely gradual. Therefore, until
people enough to require a representative had settled
upon the Manor there was no need of one.
It was* not until 1734, however, that the heirs of
Stephanus van Cortlandt, who had died in 1700, chose
to avail themselves of this privilege of representa-
tion. In that year at their instance Mr. Philip Ver-
planck ^ was chosen to represent the Manor in the
General Assembly. The admission of its Members to
the Assembly is interesting and curious. On the 10th of
June 1784, says the Journal of the House, "Philip
Verplanck, Esq., attending without, was called in, and
produced to the House, an indenture that he waa duly
elected a Representative for the Manor of Cortlandt,
in this present Assembly, as likewise the Letters Patent
of the said Manor dated in the year 1697, whereby a
Power and Pri vilege [wasjgran ted to choose said Repre-
sentative living within the same, to commence twen-
ty years after its date — Ordered, that the same be
taken into consideration to-morrow morning." The
next day, the eleventh, the House resolved that Mr.
^ The husband of G«rtrude, only child of JohaDDos (John) van Cknrt-
landt, tlie eldest son of Stephanus, which Johannes was then dead.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
125
Verplaock " be admitted as a member of this House
for the said Manor as soon as an act is passed for that
purpose, and that leave be given him to bring in a
bill accordingly." Four days afterwards, on the 15th
of June 1784, " Mr.De Lancey" (Etienne or Stephen
De Lancey, the first of that family in America, then
the first named of the four members for the City of
New York, a i»on-in-law and one of the heirs of
Stephanus van Oortlandt) " according to leave pre-
sented to this House a bill entitled, An Ad for regula-
ting the choice of a Representative for the Manor of
Oortlandt in the County of Westchester ; which was
read the first time and ordered to be read the second
time. Two days later, on the 17th, in the morning
session, the bill was read a second time and referred
to the Committee of the Whole. In the afternoon
session of the same day ** Col. Lewis Morris, Jr., *
from the Committee of the whole House reported the
bill with an amendment, "which were read and
agreed unto by the House/' and the same ordered to
be engrossed. Five days later the Governor (Cosby)
gave his assent to the bill and it was, with nine others,
" published at the City Hall." Aft;er which and on
the same day, on motion, Mr. Verplanck was admit-
ted as the Representative for the Manor of Oortlandt.
He was then called into the House, and Messrs. Le
Count and Van Kleek were directed to go with Mr.
Verplanck before the Governor, and see him take the
oaths and subscribe the Declaration according to
Law. This was done, and on their return Mr. Le
Count reported that the duty had been performed,
whereupon it was, "Ordered, that the said Mr. Philip
Verplanck take his place as a Member of this House
accordingly." * It is easy to see from these proceed-
ings that the Assembly was very jealous of its own
privileges, and careful to see that the admission was
strictly according to law.
The Act itself consists of a long preamble and four
sections, the last of which was the "amendment''
added in Committee of the Whole. It is recited in the
preamble that Mr. Verplanck had been elected " pursue
ant to a Writ lately issued to the Freeholders of and in-
the said Manor," and it then gives the reason for enact-
ing the law in these words ; — " But inasmuch as the
Heirs of the said Stephanus van Oortlandt, by Reason
of the said Manor's remaining undivided among
them, and otherwise, had not, untill very lately, as-
serted and claimed their said Privil^e; and there
not being sufficient Provision made in the said Grant
for the regulating and orderly chusing such Repre-
sentative, some Debates and Controversies did arise
in the House of Representatives,' upon the Return
made to them of the choice of the said Philip Ver-
1 Son of the Gbl«f justice of the aune name.
s See Jounudii of the AflBcmbly toI. I. pagee 666 to 609 for theee pro-
oeedJDgs.
< This term **Hoii«e of Bepreeentativee '* so familiar to all Americans
now, was the term always used in Now York in colony times, to distin-
guish the Assembly officially.
planck as aforesaid; and thereupon for the regular
admission of the said Philip, it was ordered that he
should have leave to bring in a bill for that purpose;
Wherefore and to the end such Representative may
be more orderly and duly elected for the foture."
It was enacted ;—first,'^ that Verplanck's election
should be confirmed ; second, that the Freeholders of
the Manor should elect " a fit and discreet Inhabitant
and Freeholder " of the Manor to represent it in the
Assembly; third that the Returning officer of the
Manor should hold the elections precisely as the High
Sheriff held the elections in the County, and be em-
powered to administer the same oaths ; * and fourth and
last, the amendment reported by Col. Lewis Morris,
Jr., which as it is both curious and interesting, is
here given in full ; IV. Provided and Be it enacted by
the Authority aforesaid, That the Freeholders and In-
habitants of the said Manor of Oortlandt, shall at all
times pay the Wages of their own Representative;
and that nothing herein contained shall exempt them
from paying their due and equal proportion of the
Wages of the Deputies or Representatives for the
County of Westchester, and of all other the annual
publick, and necessary charges of the same County."*
It is certainly very evident that the Assembly of
1784 did not believe in Representation without double
taxation. There was probably some jealousy, or
political feeling at the bottom of the insertion of this
provision, for three years later, in 1787 it was uncon-
ditionally repealed by an Act passed on the 16th of
December in that year,* except as to the general
County charges. This act also fixed the " Wages "
of the Representative of the Manor at " Six shillings
for every day he attends the Service of the said As-
sembly," and expressly provided that the Inhabitants
of the Manor should ''only pay the charges and
Wages of their own Representative."
It also provided for the annual election in the
Manor of " one Supervisor, one Treasurer, two As-
sessors, and one Collector " with all the powers and
duties of those officers in the Counties of the Pro-
vince, pursuant to " The Act " of William and Mary
of 1691, *' for defraying the public charges of the
Province, maintaining the poor, and preventing vag-
abonds." This was the first time these officers be-
came necessary in the Manor.
Elected and admitted to his seat under this fran-
chise in 1784, Philip Verplanck was constantly re;
elected to subsequent Assemblies and sat for the
Manor of Oortlandt continuously up to the year 1768,
the long period of thirty-four years. A continuous
period of service without a parallel in Province of
New York, and which has never occurred under the
State of New York. The nearest approach to it un-
der the State Government, singularly enough, being
4 8eepp. 110, lIl.iiNte.
*I. V. S. Laws, chap. 607, p. 183.
• I. V. 8. Laws, ch. 6M,p. 192.
126
HISTOKY OP WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
that of the distinguished, and very able, gentleman,
who has, in our own day, represented this same Man-
or of Oortlandt and the portions of the County ad-
joining it, now the third Assembly District of West-
chester County of which he is a native, for 16 years
in the Assembly 11 of which were of continuous ser-
vice, the Honorable James W. Husted of Peekskill ;
and who in the Assembly of this present year — 1886
— now presides over that fiody as its speaker,— the
fourth time to which he has been chosen to that high
office. ^ Mr. Verplanck having died and Sir Henry
Moore the Governor having dissolved the old Assem-
bly on the 6th of February 1768, writs for a new
election were issued on the 10th of February return-
able on the 22d of March following, between which
dates the new election was held, in the manner that
has been before described, and " Pierre Van Cortlandt
Esq.*' was duly elected representative for the Manor,
and took his seat at the opening of the session on the
27th of October 1768.' This Assembly was a very
short one, having been dissolved by the same Gover-
nor on the 2d of January 1769. New writs for a new
election were issued on the 4th of the same month re-
turnable on the 14th of the ensuing February.' The
election in the manor took place on the Ist of Febru-
ary 1769 "Pierre Van Cortlandt Esq." being again
elected. The following is a copy of the " return ** of
the election under the hands and seals of the return-
ing officers, and as showing the method in use in Col-
ony days is of much interest. It is endorsed " Copy
of Indenture certifying the election of Pierre Van
Cortlandt Esq', to serve as Representative of the
Manor— 1769."
tnderUure of Election,
" This Indenture made and concluded this first day
of February in the Ninth year of the Reign of Our
Sovereign Lord George the Third by the Grace of
God of Great Brittain France and Ireland King, De'
fender of ye Faith, etc., and In the year of Our Lord
One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Nine —
With and Between Joshuah Traviss Constable of the
one Part and Jeremiah Traviss, Charles* Moore,
Joseph Traviss, Abraham Purdy and John Stevens
Principal Freeholders of the Manor of Cortland of
the Other Part, Witnesseth that the said Constable
in obedience to His Majesties Writ to him directed
bearing Date the Fourth day of January did give
Public Notice to the Freeholders of the said Manor
of Cortland who assembled and met Together on the
First Day of February and by Plurality of Voices
made Choice of Pierre Van Cortlandt, Esq., one of
the Principal Freeholders of the Said Manor to be
the Representative to Assist the Captain General or
1 For one year of Mr. Hiuted's serrice in the AoBembly, he flat for
Rockland Ckiunty directly acrosB the Hudsoa.
s Anembly Journals of 1768, 3.
3 Aasembly Journab of 1769, p. 3, By a printer's error the Joumala
make the issue of the new Writs the '*14th,'' instead of the "4th" of
January, 1769.
Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New-York
In General Assembly for Said Province, on the Four-
teenth day of February. In Testimony Whereof we
have hereinto set our Hands and Seals this day and
year First Above Written.
Joseph TravisSi [l. s.] Joehuah Traviss, Constable
[l. 8.] Abram Purdy, [l. sJ Jeremiah Traviss, [l. s]
John Stevens, [l. b.] Charles Moore, [l. s.] ^
This Assembly was the last elected in the Province
of New York, and sat till 1776. Pierre Van Cort-
landt sat for the Manor during its whole existence.
In 1756 the population had so increased that an act
was passed reciting the fact and authorizing the elec-
tion of two Constables, one from those ''having
Habitations near Hudson's River/' and the other
from those whose " Habitations *' were " on the East-
ern parts of said Manor." ^
By 1768 the numbers of the people had so much
more increased that, the last mentioned act was
amended by authorizing the election of three Con-
stables, and dividing the Manor into three *' Divi-
sions " or Wards, each of which was to elect one of
the three constables. The first of these ''division"
contained all the Manor West of the east bonds of
North lot No. I. and South lot No. I., North of the
Croton Biver, and West of the West bounds of lot No.
8 on the South of the Croton. ^he second division,
lay east of the first, and West of the West bounds of
North lot No. 8 and South lot No. 8, and West of the
East bounds of lot No. 10 South of the Croton. The
third was all the rest of the Manor East of the East
bounds of the second division.' This act also provid-
ed for the annual election of " Overseers of Roads **
in each of the above divisions and specified their
powers and duties.^
In all these elections, and public actions under the
forgoing laws, the inhabitants of the Krankhyte 800
acre tract, and of Ryke's Patent were included, be-
ing political portions of the Manor of Cortlandt, al-
though the fee of the soil was in the owners of the
patents solely. Several of the Manors in New York
likewise embraced within their limits in the political
sense, small parcels of land not owned in fee by their
proprietors, in the same way. By 1770 the people in
Ryke's Patent had so increased in number, that an
act was passed on the 27th of January in that year,
for their special benefit which provided " that for the
better defraying the common and necessary charges
of Ryke's Patent in the Manor of Cortlandt in West-
chester County," the Freeholders thereof should elect
on the first Tuesday in every April, one Supervisor,
one Constable, one Assessor, one Poor-Master, two
Fence- Viewers, one Pound-Master, and one or more
Surveyors of Highways, with all the powers and
*The original is among the Van Cortlandt papers.
»I. V. 8. Laws, Ch. 1015, p. 369.
* Thene diyisions are often bpokon of in the documents of that day,
as the throe wards of the Manors.
T II. V. 8. Laws, Ch. 1378, p. 529.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
127
duties and subject to the same pains and penalties of
the like officers under the Laws of the Colony.*
A singular law in regard to the Manor, as it appears
to us now, was one passed the 13th of December,
1768, which enacted that in case any person whatso-
ever " shall carry on the Practice of Inoculation for
the Small-Pox in the Manor of Cortlandt within the
Distance of Half a Mile of any Dwelling House he
shall forfeit the sum of Twenty Pounds {$dO,) for every
such offence, upon proof before a Justice of the Peace,
one-third to go to the prosecutor, and the other two
thirds " for the use of the Poor in the Said Manor.''
The patient had consequently lo go through the oper-
ation and subsequent treatment, either in a barn or a
shanty in the woods.
The Manor of Ck)rtlandt was erected on the 17th of
June, 1697. Stephanus van Ck)rtlandt its first and
only Lord died on the 25th of November 1700. Three
years and about five months only did he possess U
This time was too short for any practical development
of its Manor privileges, all that he seems to have done,
was to make the stone trading house situated at or
rather near, the northern terminus of the ferry across
the mouth of the Croton River, better adapted to its
purposes, to bring in some farmers and mechanics, and
build mills. Precisely when this house was built is
uncertain, but probably about 1683. Van Cortlandt's
home was in New York, and this first building was
intended as a station for Indian traffic. Naturally it
became his place of temporary residence when visit-
ing his lands after his first purchase, either for busi-
ness, pleaaur&, or the enjoyment of hunting and
fishing. It is a tradition that Governor Dongan often
visited this region for the latter purposes, as he was a
sportsman in his tastes, a thorough gentleman and a
great personal firiend of van Cortlandt* Dongan was
fond of flowers and fruit culture, and he introduced a
kind of apple into this region still known in the
Manor District as the " Dongan Apple." Subsequently
the House was enlarged and becanie the still existing
well known " Manor House of Cortlandt's Manor."
From the days of Stephanus to the present hour it has
Qver continued to be the property and the residence of
one of his family and his name, and ever the scene of a
continued^ and generous hospitality. The main part of
the structure is built of reddish free-stone, with a high
basement and walls nearly three feet thick. The roof
is a rather low pitched one, in the Dutch style with
dormer windows. A piazza of modern construction,
extends along the entire front above the high base-
ment. It stands on the brow of a declivity sloping
to, and overlooking, the wide estuary of the Croton
River, and commands a magnificent view, to the
southwest of the wide Tappan Sea of the Hudson,
and its striking, beautiful, bold, and almost mountain-
ous scenery. It was originally pierced with T shaped
openings for defence, in cajse of hostile attacks, and
1 II. V. 8. Laws, Ch. 1459, p. 676.
one or two of them have been kept unwalled up, as a
matter of interest, to this day. The ancient ferry
near which it was built was then and long after the
only method of crossing the Croton River from the
south to the north, west of Pine's Bridge near the
centre of the present Artificial Croton Lake, a dis-
tance of several miles. That bridge was not built
till late in the 18th century. To the death of Steph-
anus van Cortlandt so shortly after the erection of his
lands into a Manor, is probably to be ascribed the
fact, that there are no records to show whether he
ever organized his Manorial Courts. The probability
is, from the then sparseness of the inhabitants, that
he did not. Nor before his death, was there sufficient
time to have introduced very many new settlers. We
know however that all the privileges and franchises
of the Manor, general and political, were enjoyed by
his heirs, or their assigns during the whole Colonial
era.
It will be remembered, that, by the terms of the
surrender of New Netherland to the English under
Nioolls in 1664, and afterwards under the provisions
of the treaty of Breda in 1667, the Roman-Dutch law
of inheritance was guaranteed to the new Netherland
colonists. Hence it was, that when Stephanus Van
Cortlandt died on the 25th of November, 1700, his
will made on the 14th of the preceding April, was
found to be in accordance with that law, and not with
the law of England. Very ample and honorable pro-
visions was made for his wife, both, in case she wished
to marry again, or in case she did not, the latter of
which proved to be the case, although she outlived her
husband nearly four and twenty years. The peninsula
of Verplanck's Point was devised to his eldest son Jo-
hannes, and all the rest of his property of all kinds
was divided equally among all his surviving children,
eleven in number, including Johannes. The devise
of Verplanck's Point was all that Johannes received
in addition to the others in virtue of hid being the
eldest son.' Had it not been for the terms of surren^
der and the treaty this eminently ju^t will could not
have been made, nor could the action under it which
the widow and children adopted, have been taken.
Before describing that action and its results, it is
necessary to state who Stephanus Van Cortlandt was,
who was his father, what his family, and who were
his children.
Stephanus Van Cortlandt was the eldest of the two
sons, Stephanus and Jacobus (Stephen and James),
of Olofi; (or Oliver), Stevens Van Cortlandt, the first of
that name in America, by his wife Annetje (Ann)
Lockermans. He was born at his father's house in
" Brouwer," now Stone, street, in New Amsterdam on
the seventh of May, 1643, and was baptized three days
later, or the eleventh, in the Dutch church in the
Fort. He married on the tenth of September, 1671,
in his 28th year, Gertrude, daughter of Philip Pie-
1 The will if rooorded in the N. T. Sorr. Off., Ub. 2 of Wills, p. 78.
128
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
terse Schuyler, of Albaay; and died, as has been
stated on the twenty-fifth day of November, 1700, at
the comparatively early age of fifty -seven years, leav-
ing him surviving his wife and eleven children.
His fiither, Oloff Stevens, or Stevenae, van Cort-
landt, came to New Netherland, a soldier in the ser-
vice of the West India Company, arriving there in the
Ship Haring (The Herring) with Director Kieft on
the 28th of March, 1638.^
He was a native ot Wijk, a small town in the prov-
ince of Utrecht, in Holland. But of the origin of hid
family nothing is definitely known. He had a good
education and the positions he subsequently held, his
seal with the van Cortlandt arms, still in the posses-
session of his descendants, as well as articles of Dutch
plate bearing the same arms, show that his position
was good, and that of a gentleman. He remained
only a short time in the military service, having been
appointed by Kieft in 1639 " Commissary of Cargoes,'*
or customs ofiicer, and in 1643, Keeper of the Public
Stores of the West India Company, a responsible po-
sition under the provisions of the Charters of Free-
doms and Exemptions, being the Superintendent of
the collection of the Company's Revenue in New
Amsterdam, most of which was paid in furs. In 1648
he resigned from this official position, was made a
freeman of the City, and entered upon the business
of a merchant and brewer, in which he was eminent-
ly successful, becoming one of the richest men in
New Amsterdam. In 1649 he was chosen Colonel of
the Burgher Quard, or City train Bands, and also
appointed one of the *^ Nine Men " a temporary rep-
resentative board elected by the citizens. ' In 1654
he was elected Schepen, or a Alderman, and the next
year, 1655, appointed Burgomaster, or Mayor, of New
Amsterdam. This office he filled nearly uninterrupt-
edly till the capture by the English in 1664, at which
he was one of the Commissioners appointed by Di-
rector Stuy vesant to negotiate the terms of Surren-
der, was prominent in their settlement, and the docu-
ment bears his signature with those of the other Com*
missioners. He was also engaged in several tempo-
rary public matters as a Councillor and Commissioner
during the administration of Director Stuyvesant,
notably in the Connecticut boundary matter in 1663,
and the settlement of Capt, John Scott's claim to
Long Island in 1664. He acted in similar capacities
under the first English Governors, Nicolls, Lovelace,
and Dongan, and was chosen the Trustee of Lovelace's
estate to settle it up in 1673. He married on the
26th of February, 1642, AnnetjeLockermans ofTurn-
hout, near Antwerp, a sister of Govert Lockermans,
who came out with Director von T wilier, in 1633, and
was so prominent afterward in New Netherland af-
fairs. " Govert Loockermaus after filling some of the
1 1. O'Coll. 180. Alk. Rec. 1., 89. The Dutch troops in New Amster-
dam were detachmenti from the regular army raised iu Holland by the
West India Company, and were changed from time to time.
s He WHS also one of the " Eight Men *' a timilar body, in 1646.
highest offices in the Colony," says O'Collughan, (vol.
2, p. 88, n.) died, worth 520,000 guilders, or $208,-
000 ; an immense sum when the period in which he
lived is considered." Olofi* Stevense van Cortlandt
died on the 4th of April, 1684, and his wife followed
him about a month afterwards.' They had seven
children, the oldest of whom was Stephanus, and the
youngest Jacobus, who respectively, were the progen-
itors of all of the name now living. The former found-
ed the oldest branch, the van Cortlandts of the Man-
or, the latter the younger branch, the van Cortlandts
of Cortlandt House, Yonkers. The names of Oloff
Stevense and Annetje van Cortlandt's seven children
were:
1. Stephanus, born 7 May 1643, married Gertrude
Schuyler.
2. Maria (Mary), bom 80 July 1645, married Jere-
mias Van Rensselaer.
3. Johannes (John), born 11 Oct. 1648, died a
bachelor.
4. Sophia, born 81 May 1651 married Andries
Teller.
5. Catharine, born 25 Oct. 1652, married
1. John Dervall,
2. Frederick Philipse.
6. Cornelia, born 21 Nov. 1655, married Brandt
Schuyler.
7. Jacobus, bom 7 July 1658, married Eve Philipse. *
After the death of the oldest of these children,
Stephanus, his Manor vested in his own surviving chil-
dren as joint tenants under his will. Their Father,
Stephanus van Cortlandt, the first and only Lord of
the Manor, was one of the most eminent men of the
Province of New York after it become an English
Colony. Except the Gk>vernorship itself, he filled at
one time or another every prominent office in that
Province. And when Lt. Gov. Nicholson went to
England at the outbreak of Leisler's insurrection and
actual usurpation, to report in person to King Wil-
liam, he committed the Government itself in his
absence, to Stephanus van Cortlandt and Frederick
Philipse. ^ A fact that caused Leisler, to seek their
lives and forced them to escape from the City of New
York to save themselves. Space will not permit more
than the briefest mention of the events of his career,
perhaps the most brilliant and varied in the fifty-
seven years it occupied, of any inhabitant of New
York in the seventeduth century ; and undoubtedly
the first brilliant career that any native of New York
ever ran. Born in New Amsterdam in 1648, he was
a youth of twenty-one, when in 1664 the English
capture took place and New Amsterdam became New
8 The facts sUted in this sketch are fonnd in 1.0'CaIl. 180 and 212.
New Netherland Register under its several headings, and the 11. vol.
of the Colonial History. Also in Brodhead's History, both volumed.
And the Lookenuan's Family Bible in the library of the Bible Society
of New York.
« Daughter of the first Frederick Philipse.
6 III. Col. Hist. 675.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
129
York. Brought up uaSer the eye of his father, and
educated by the Dutch clergymen of New Amster-
dam, ^ whose scholarship was vastly higher than it
has pleased modern writers to state, and which would
compare favorably with that of the clergy of the
nineteenth century, young van Cortlandt long before
the death of his father in 16S4, showed how well he
had profited by the example of the one, and the
learning of the others. He was a merchant by occu-
pation. His first appointment was as a member of
the Court of Assizes, the body instituted under '' the
Duke's Laws " over which Sir Richard Ni colls pre-
sided, and which, as we have seen, exercised both
judicial and legislative i>owers. In 1668 he was ap-
pointed an Ensign in the Kings County Regiment,
subsequently a Captain, and later its Colonel. From
1677 when at the age of 34 he was appointed the first
Native American Mayor of the City of New York, he
held that oflice almost consecutively till his death in
1700. When by the Duke of York's Commission
and Instructions to Governor Dongan, a Gov-
ernor's Council was established in New York,
Stephanus van Cortlandt and Frederick Philipse were
named by the Duke therein as Councillors, and with
them Dongan was to appoint such others as he deemed
fit for the office. His name was continued in each of the
Commissions of all the succeeding Oovernors down to
and including Bellomont's in 1697, and he continued
in the office till his death in 1700. Early in this latter
year he was appointed Chief Justice, but he only filled
the office till his death in November of the same year.
He had many years before been appointed Judge of the
Common Pleas in Kings County, and later in 1693 a
Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1686 Dongan made
him Commissioner of the Revenue — ^and on the 10th
of November, 1687, he was appointed by the King's,
Auditor-General in England, William Blathwayt,
Deputy Auditor in New York, his accounts being reg-
ularly transmitted to England and approved.
He was appointed also Deputy Secretary of New
York and personally administered the office, the Sec-
retary always residing in England, after the British
Icustom. He was prominent in all the treaties and
conferences with the Indians as a member of the
Council, and was noted for his influence with them.
His letters and despatches to Governor Andros, and
to the difierent Boards and officers in England
charged with the care of the Colonics and the man-
agement of their affairs, remain to show his capacity,
clear headedness and courage. * Equally esteemed
and confided in by the governments of James as Duke
and King, and by William and Mary in the troublous
times in which he lived, and sustained by all the
Governors, even though, as in Bellomont's case, they
did not like him personally, no greater proof could be
adduced of his ability, skill, aud integrity.
Ull. Col. Hint. r>88.
2 la vola. III. and IV. of the Col. Uini. of M. Y.
With this sketch of their Father we pass to the
disposition he made of his Great Manor among his
children, and their management and final division of
it among themselves :
The whole number of the children of Stephanus
van Cortlandt and Gertrude Schuyler, his wife, who
were married on the 10th of September 1671, were
fourteen ;
1. Johannes (John), born 24 Oct. 1672, married in
1695 Anne Sophia van Schaack
and left one child Gertrude,
who married Philip Verplanck
grandson of Abraham Isaucsen
Verplanck the first of that
family in America.
2. Margaret, born 12 Aug. 1674, married to Col. Sam-
uel Bayard only son of Nicholas
Bayard the youngest of the three
nephews of Gov. Stuy vesant.
3. Ann, born 13 Feb. 1676, married Etienue (in Eng-
lish Stephen) de Lancey, the first
of that family in New York,
where he arrived, a fugitive Hu-
guenot, on the 7th of June, 1686.
4. Oliver, born 26 Oct. 1678, died a bachelor in 1708.
5. Maria (Mary), born 4 Apl. 1680, married Ist, Kilian
van Rensselaer fourth Patroon,
and first * Lord of the Manor,'
of Rensselaerswyck, aud 2nd
John Miln, M.D., of Albany.
6. Gertrude, Born 10 Jan. 1681, died unmarried.
7. Philip, born 9 Aug. 1683, married Catherine de
Peyster, daughter of the first
Abraham. From this couple
spring the eldest line of the van
OortlandtSy now British subjects.
8. Stephen, born 11 Aug. 1685, married Catalina
Staats. These were ancestors of
the * van Cortlandt of Second
River ' (the Passaic) New Jer-
sey, now extinct in the males.
9. Gertrude, born 10 Oct. 1688, married Col. Henry
Beekman. No issue.
10. Gysbert, born 1689, died young.
11. Elizabeth, born 1691, died young.
12. Elizabeth, 2d, born 24 May 1694, married Rev.
Wni. Skinner of Perth Amboy.
13. Catharine, born 24 June 1696, married Andrew
Johnston of New Jersey.
14. Cornelia, born 30 July 1698, married Col. John
Schuyler of Albany. These
were the progenitors of the
Schuylers des<jended from Gen.
Philip, who was their son, and
from his brothers and sisters. ^
10
s The genealogy above given is taken from a tmuncript of tbe entri««
in the van Cortlandt family bible, obtained from one of the eldest branch,
the EngllHb one, by the Uite Geu. Pierre van 0. of l^rutou in 1826 and
130
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
This large family, of which four sons and seven
daughters lived to maturity, the latter of whom mar-
ried into the first families of the Province, and three
of the sons, (one having died a young bachelor) mar-
rying into the same or allied families, formed a fami-
ly connexion, of great extent and influence. It wield-
ed a power, social and political, during tlie Colonial
era which largely controlled the society and the poli-
tics of the Province, and in social matters its influ-
ence has continued to be felt to this day. All the
married daughters, except Mrs. Beekman who had
no issue, had large families, and those of the sons
were also numerous. And when to these were added
the children of Stephanus's younger brother Jacobus
van Cortlandt of Yonkers, and their wives and hus-
bands, it will be seen what an enormous family circle
it was, and will explain why at this day all these
families now so widely extended, are by the mar-
riages and inter-marriages, among their descendants,
so connected together as to form an almost inexplica-
ble genealogical puzzle. In no other American colo-
ny did there exist any such great kinship. It also
explains why nobody can write correctly the history
of New York under the English, without first mak-
ing himself, or herself, the master, or the mistress, of
at least the leading facts of this kinship of the differ-
ent governing families of that Province.
The political influence of these New York families
is best shown by the following extract from William
Smith's History of New York, a most partizan and
prejudiced work, but which in this instance can be
relied on, as the language is that of a political enemy,
and was written to explain the worsting of his own side
in the party contest of the day to which it refers. Speak-
ing of the New York Assembly of 1752, and the influ-
ence of Chief Justice James de Lancey, Smith says, " It
may gratify the curiosity of the reader to know, that of
the Members of this Assembly Mr. Chief Justice De
Lancey was nephew to Col. Beekman, brother to Peter
De Lancey, brother-in-law of John Watts, cousin to
Philip Verplanck and John Baptist Van Rensselaer ;
that Mr. Jones the Speaker, Mr. Richard, Mr. Wal-
ton, Mr. Cruger, Mr. Philipse, Mr. Winne, and Mr.
Le Count, were of his most intimate acquaintances ;
and that these twelve, of the twenty-seven, which
composed the whole house, held his character in the
highest esteem. Of the remaining fifteen he only
wanted one to gain a majority under his influence,
than which nothing was more certain ; for except Mr.
Livingston who represented his own Manor, there
was not among the rest a man of education or abilities
qualified for the station they were in." *
" The Seven Miss van Cortlandts," as they were
long collectively spoken of, were noted for their char-
lent to the writers Grandfather John Peter de Lancey of Maniaruneck
(the two fccntlemeu bein^ second cousins) and now in the writers ixMfi-
aesBioD. It was printed by the writer in the Apl. No. , 1874, of the
N. Y. Gen. & Biog Bocord.
1 II. Smith's Hist, N. Y., 142. ed. of 1829.
acteristic decision of characCbr, good sense, personal
beauty, and warm afiection for each other. When
their mother died in 1723, the list of her descendants
and family relatives present, which is still preserved,
is most surprising for its numbers, length and promi-
nent names. The funeral took place in New York
and was one of the lai^est ever seen in that city up
to that day. Space will not permit any mention of
its details here, interesting as they are.
Of these children of Stephanus van Cortlandt, the
eleven who survived their Father, are thus named in
his will in the order of their births, Johannes, Marga-
ret, Ann, Oliver, Mary, Philip, Stephanus, Gertrude,
Elizabeth, Katharine, and Cornelia. With the ex-
ception of the devise of Verplanck's Point to Jo-
hannes as being the eldest son, the whole real estate
afler the decease of his wife, he divided among his
children equally. It was very large, for besides the
Manor of Cortlandt, it included, lots and houses in
New York, his share of the great Patent above the
Highlands, a tract in Pennsylvania, and other lands
owned in connexion with Gulian Verplanck, in
Dutchess county, and some small pieces in other
counties. It is only the Manor of Cortlandt that
can here be treated of. His wife Gertrude was made
*' sole Executrix," and with her as guardian of the
minor children, of whom there were several, as well
as of the others, he appointed " my Brother Jacobus
Van Cortlandt, my Brother [in law] Brant Schuyler,
and my cousin William Nicolls,* to be Guardians,
Tutors, and Overseers over my said children." The
personal and mixed estate including '* plate and
jewels " was bequeathed " to my well beloved wife
Gertrude," whom he charged with the payment of all
debts and funeral charges. And to her were also
given " the full and whole rents, issues, and profits of
all and every part of my said houses, lands, mills,
and other such Estate whatsoever, without giving or
rendering any inventory or account thereof to any
person whatsoever." The will was dated the 14th of
April 1700, and was proved the 7th of January 1701.
There was a custom among the Dutch people of New
York, not to have the will of a deceased parentr
opened till alter the expiration of a month from the
day of the death, as a token of respect.' Then it was
read in a family council, and immediately offered for
probate. This custom was probably followed in this
case. The Witnesses who proved the will were,
Thomas Wenham, Rip Van Dam, John Abeel, Rich-
ard Stokes, and Andrew Teller jr., names familiar in
New York to-day.*
The third clause, ailer devising all his real estate
whatsoever and wheresoever to his eleven children
above named their heirs and assigns respectively,
a Sou of Matthias Nicolls the first English Secretary of the Province,
wlio had marrietl "Mn. Van Rensselaer, widow of this Patroon.
'The writer lias iiei-sonallj known instances of this custom, which in
some families has come down to thcsi> days.
*Lib. 2 of Wills, N. Y, Surr. Off., pp. 78-84.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
131
coQtinues, " and it is my Desire and Appointment
that the same houses, lands, and premises be Either
£k}ually Divided amongst them my said children, or
that they hold or enjoy the same in Common Amongst
them, as my said children and Overseers and Guar-
dians hereafter named shall judge and think most
efTectuall and proper for their best advantage, use,
and benefit." The next clause directs " that upon a
Division of my said houses, lands, mills, and other
Real Estate, my Sons according to their priority of
birth shall have the first choyce, alwayes allowing to
the value of those parts they shall choose, that the
respective partys and persons of my children may be
made Equall in worth to one another."
The family was a very united one and deeply at-
tached to the mother, who was a woman of a very af-
fectionate, but strong, and decided, character. She
never marrie<l Hgain, but devoted herself to her chil-
dren and their interests. Under these circumstances,
very many of the children being minors at their
father's death, and the above being the provisions of
his will, it was determined, that the Manor should be
kept in common and not divided. Ann, Mrs. de
Lancey, and Margaret, Mrs. Bayard, were the only
daughters married in their father's life-time, the for-
mer only in the January, and the latter only in
the April, of the same year, 1700, in November
of which he died. This determination continued
not only during Mrs. van Cortlandt's life, which
terminated in 1723, but up to the year 1730, when
it was agreed to divide that part of the Manor
lying north of the Croton River, During this
period the population gradually increased, the rents
were applied, in part, to its development in building
of mills, the making of roads, and aiding those ten-
ants who desired to take up lands. The few people
brought in, and improvements undertaken, by Steph-
anus van Cortlandt between his first purchase and his
death, were settled and made in the western portion
of the Manor, along the river, and in its immediate
neighbourhood. The progress was from west to east,
not from east to west. The access to New York and
from Albany was by water the landing places being
at the ferry near the Manor House, and near the
mouth of *' John Peak's Creek " as well as at a spot
south of the latter in Ryke's Patent. Johannes, or
John, van Cortlandt the eldest son of Stephanus, had
married Anna Sophia van Schaack of Albany, and
had only one child a daughter who became the wife
of Philip Verplanck son of Abraham Isaacson Ver-
planck the first of that name in America, To her
was devised by her Father at his death, the Point,
from her husband's name called " Verplanck's
Point," and his one eleventh interest in the Manor.^
Oliver van Cortlandt, the second son of Stephanus,
1 Johannes has aometinies been called the '* Second Lord of the Manor,"
but this is an error as the personal dignity was ended by the division
) by Stephanus in his will.
died in 1708, at the age of 30 years, a bachelor, and
devised by will dated the 3d December, 1706, his en-
tire share of his father's estate equally among hib
surviving brothers and sisters and their heirs.
Philip Verplanck was a man of good education,
good ability, and one of the best surveyors in the
Colony. To him his relatives entrusted the survey-
ing and division into parcels of the whole Manor.
How well and thoroughly he performed the duty
his survey and map remain to attest to us to-day. The
original of the latter disappeared, at a comparatively
late day, but in 1774, before the American Revolu-
tion, a fac-simile copy (the oldest in existence, and
often wrongly called the original Manor Map) was
made from it by the well known surveyor of the
City of New York of that period. Evert Bancker, and
is now among the Van Wyck papers in the possession
of that family ; of which by their permission, a re-
duced copy accompanies this essay. To it are made
all the references of parcels, lots, and owners herein
mentioned. It speidcs for itself of the ability of
Philip Verplanck, who was the same Philip Ver-
planck mentioned above, who sat for the Manor of
Cortlandt in the Assembly of the Province from 1734
to 1768, thirty-four years.
This survey was made in the spring of 1732, and
is dated the thirtieth day of May in that year. The
Agreement of the children and grandchildren to make
a division of the estate was dated November the 13th
1730. It provided for a division into ten equal parts
of the estates of Stephanus and his son Oliver, " and
to that end all the said parties with an unanimous as-
sent and consent did elect and choose Philip Ver
planck, surveyor, to survey and lay out the same into
thirty Lotts, by virtue of which nomination and ap-
pointment he the said Philip Verplanck did project
and lay out the Greater part of the lands and meadow
in the said Manner into thirty Lotts, shares, and al-
lotments," and made a map of the same, and the said
parties ''did further by the assistance of the said sur-
veyor, and Daniel Purdy and Samuel Purdy, ap-
praisers elected and chosen by all of them for that
purpose, make a perfect dividend, separation, and di-
vision of the said thirty Lotts, shares, and allot-
ments,"* which several shares were conveyed to each
in October 1732, by partition deeds executed by all
the parties to each other respectively. This division
comprised only ''the greater part of the nianor
lands."
In 1733 under the same articles of agreement, the
parties in interest made in the same way, another di-
vision " of the other and remaining part of the lands
aforesaid," into ten lots, and duly executed to each
other similar deeds of partition dated November 1st,
1733. These two divisions, however, were confined
to lands north of the Croton river about which there
was no dispute. There were some lands of the manor
2 Becltals from one of the Diwds of partition to one of the hein.
132
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
which had been encroached upon, others that had
been entered upon by ''squatters ^* who retained pos-
session in spite of the owners, and others again ad-
joining adjacent tracts and patents, in which the
boundary lines were contested. These had been
omitted specifically from the first two Divisions on
these accounts, and had continued to be held as un-
divided lands of the Manor. Some of these questions
had been settled and others not, while the lands were
held in this manner. At length, to settle all questions
absolutely, and to effect a final division of these un-
divided lands and those south of the Croton river, a
special agreement was entered into by all of the heirs
as they stood, in 1753, in virtue of which a final dis-
position and distribution of the lands was efiected,
with some small exceptions.
At the first two divisions, the ten heirs who made
them were these persons : —
1. Philip Verplanck, in right of Gertrude his wife.
2. Samuel Bayard, in right of Margaret his wife.
3. Stephen de Lancey, in right of Ann his wife.
4. Philip Van Cortlandt, of the Manor.
5. Stephen Van Cortlandt, of Second River, N. J.
6. John Miln, M.D., in right of Mary, (widow of
Kilian Van Rensselaer) his wife.
7. Henry Beekman, and Gertrude, his wife.
8. William Skinner, in right of Elizabeth his wife.
9. Andrew Johnston, in right of Catherine his wife.
10. John Schuyler, Jr., in right of Cornelia his wife.
During the twenty years which elapsed between
1733, and the execution of the agreement for the
division of 1753, changes by death had occurred, so
that the heirs who joined in the latter were as
follows :
1. Stephen Van Cortlandt (of Second River, N. J.).
2. John Miln, widower.
3. Henry Beekman and Gertrude his wife.
4. William Skinner and Elizabeth his wife.
5. Andrew Johnston, widower.
6. Cornelia Schuyler, widow.
7. Stephen Bayard, Nicholas Bayard, Samuel Bayard,
sons, and Peter Kemble, son-in-law, James Van
Home, son-in-law, and Nicholas Van Dam and
William Cockrofb and Margaret his wife, grand
children of Samuel and Margaret Van C. Bay-
ard deceased.
8. The Honorable James de Lancey, of New York,
Peter de Lancey, of Westchester, Oliver de Lan-
cey of New York, Susannah Warren, widow of
Sir Peter Warren, K.B., Admiral John Watts
and Ann his wife, children of Stephen and Ann
Van C. de Lancey deceased.
9. Stephen Van Cortlandt, Junr., and Pierre Van
Cortlandt, of the Manor, children of Philip Van
Cortlandt, dec**.
10. Philip Verplanck and Gertrude his wife.
The method of the division of 1753 was a little dif-
ferent from that of the former ones. All the persons
last above named in whom the undivided lands had
vested in 1753, by lease and release, the latter dated
the 14th of December in that year, conveyed them to
Oliver de Lancey, John Watts, and John Van Cort-
landt, in trust, to settle all disputes as to encroach-
ments and trespasses on the lands, either by eject-
ment, or arbitration, as they saw fit; and all as to
boundaries in the same way, and when the lands
were recovered to sell the same and divide the pro-
ceeds among the heirs; and in case of all undis-
puted lands to have the same surveyed and divided
equally among all the parties.
These details of thma partitions and divisions have
been taken from recitais in original dee*la in pcH*-
session of the Van Cortlandt, Van Wyck, and Kem-
ble, families, and papcn* uml documents in the
writers own possession. In the Set^retary of Stat«*8
office in Albany, and in the Westchester County
Register's office, at White riain^ many of the orig-
inal deeds may be found on reeorcJ. Tha orig:iiia]
release of 1753, last mentioned, is among the Van
Wyck papers in the possesaion of that larnily.
The lauds north of the Croton River were divided
into two ranges called north and south "Great
Lots" of the same Arabic numbers, from 1 Uy 10~
Those north of the Crotf^n but fronting on the Hud-
son River were called *^ Front lots" and were aJao
numbered from 1 to 10. Number 11, was the tract
on the west side of the Hudson. The lots »niitli ol
the Croton were also numbered in the same way, and
called **Lot8 South ofCrot^in.'*
The fourth clause of the Will of Stephatuis Van
Cortlandt directed that when a division was det^ided
upon it should be as follows : " Item, It is my will
and appointment and Direetion that upoo a division
of my s* houses, lands, and niillH, and other R<?al Es-
tate my sons according to their priority of birth shall
have the first choyce, alwayes allowing to the value
of those parts they shall choose that the respective
parties and persons of my children may he made
Equall in worth one to another.'* Nothing is said
as to how the daughters* shares should be chosen,
which presumably was to be in the ordioary way,
that is by lot. It is believed that when the first two
divisions were made the sons flrst chose their parceli
in the order of their births, and that the daughters
drew lots for the remainder. But in whatever w^y
these two divisions were mafic, the res^uit was, that
the following lots fell to the following named child-
ren —
To Philip Verplanck, Nos. two, and thrceof theSoutb
lots north nf Croton, and No.
two of the *' Front Lots" on
the Hudfton.
To Samuel and Margaret Bayard, North lot No.
Uiree and South lot no, nine,
North of Croton, and No. seven
of the Front lota on the Hud-
son.
J
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
133
To Stephen deLaiicey, North lot No. ten, and South
lot No 5, north of Croton, and
Front lot No. six, on the Hud-
son.
To Philip Van Cortlandt, north lot No. six and South
lot No. one, north of Croton,
and Front lot No. one on the
Hudson.
To Stephen Van Cortlandt, South lots Nos. six and
seven, North of Croton, and
Front lot No. 4 on the Hudson.
To John Miln,' North lots Nos. two and eight North
of Croton and Front lot No.
five on the Hudson.
To Gertrude Beekman, wife of Henry Beekman,
North lot No. three, and South
lot No. eight, North of Croton,
and Front lot No. 10 on the
Hudson.
To William Skinner, South lots Nos. four and ten
north of Croton and Front lot
No. three on the Hudson.
To Andrew Johnston, North lot Number one and
Front lot Number nine on the
Hudson.
To John Schuyler jr. North lots Nos. four and nine
north of Croton, and Front lot
No. nine on the Hudson. .
It is easy to see, from the choice of the sons in this
division and the extra value that must have been put
upon the lots which fell to Andrew Johnston, to
equalize, that, the lots on and nearest the Hudson
were then deemed the most valuable and desirable.
When Verplanck's Map was made the ten lots
SmUh of the Croton, sho¥m in it were not included
in the " thirty lots " divided in the first two divisions
of 1732 and 1738. Consequently no names of owners
appear on them. They were however subsequently
divided, later among the heirs by the same method,
and they fell to the following persons:
To Philip van Cortlandt, No. one South of Croton
" Andrew Johnston, " two " "
" Stephen Bayard" *' three " "
" Stephen van Cortlandt," four
*' Philip Verplanck, " five
" Philip Schuyler* " six
" William Skinner, " seven "
" Henry Beekman, •* eight " "
" Stephen de Lancey, "nine ** "
" John Miln, " ten " " *
After the first two divisions there was a little
changing among the heirs of their lots, either by ex-
1 Tbii ig the correct name. It has been spelled Mellu, and Mllin, in
some papers and maps. Uc was a physician of Aluany, N. T., and mar-
ried Maria, or Mary, ran C, the widow of Kilian Tan Benaelaar, the
Patroon of his day, and first Lord of Rensselaersburi^h cm a Manur.
s For himself and the other children of his mother Margaret Bayard.
* For himself and the other children of his mother Cornelia Schuyler.
« From a MS8. statament in the Tan Wyck papen.
change, or by purchase. Exactly what their arrange-
ments were in all cases it is now difficult to say. One
change, which will illustrate this matter, was made
between Mr. de liancey and Mr. Schuyler, and Mr.
Miln, by which the latter two transferred to the former,
North lot No, Nine North of Croton adjoining North
lot No. ten and about two thirds of North lot No. 8 ad-
joining No. 9, to the West which fell to Mr. de Lancey.
These iwo and two-third lots, together, comprise
about nine-tenths of the present township of North
Salem and extended from the old Colony line to the
main Croton River, embracing the beautiful valley of
Titicus, the easternmost branch of the Croton. Mr.
de Lancey died in 1741, and under his will and the
division of his Estate among his children, two of these
lots became the property of his eldest son James, then
the Chief Justice of the Province. In 1744 the lat-
ter conveyed them, as a glA;, to his second son Steph-
en. Stephen a few years later began their settlement,
and brought in many farmers, and some mechanics.
The whole tract was laid out into farms rectangular
in shape of two hundred acres each, as a rule. These
were leased for long terms of years, at low rents, the
highest not being more than ten pounds, and the
lowest about two or three pounds. The rent rolls and
map showed the farms, which were all numbered, the
tenants names, and the rents payable by each, but
are omitted for lack of space. It was always
understood, that the tenants might buy " the soil
right," as the fee was termed, at any time
the parties could agree upon a price. In practice
however the tenants did not begin to apply for the
fee till about the time of the Revolution, and then
but rarely. After that event, more were sold to appli-
cants, but many farms continued in the families of the
tenants till late in this century. The last, which
had descended to himself and the widow of a de-
ceased brother, the writer sold in 1875, after the
expiration of a lease for ninety-nine years. Stephen
de Lancey, the younger, the son of James, likewise
about the year 1766 built a very large double frame
house on the Titicus River and resided there many
years. It is still standing, and, from just after the
revolution was "The Academy of North Salem,"
having been sold for that purpose. It was One
of the very first established in this State, and has
only recently been discontinued, under the present
School policy of the State, which has put an end to
the numerous "Academies" which formerly existed all
over New York. Until late in this century it was the
largest building upon the whole Manor. These facts
are mentioned because, the same system of leasing out
their lots in farms was carried out by all the other
owners of the Manor Lands. Some sold the fee of
their lands at an early day to relatives who thus
increased their holdings. Others retained them.
The result of this was, that some portions of the Man-
ors acquired in common parlance distinctive names,
which long continued. Mrs. Beekman's estate on the
134
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Hudson, was from her Christian name, styled "G«i^
trudeshorough/' that of Philip van Cortlandt "Cort-
landttown " (now with adjacent lands called '' The
town of Cortlandt," and that of Mr. de Lancey, '* De
Lanceytown" now "The Town of North Salem."
" Hanover " was also a name for part of the present
"Somers" town.
The number of acres in the shares of the respective
heirs and their valuation, in the division of 1732 and
1738 are of much interest, when the present enor-
mous value of the present townships formed out of
the Manor is considered.
The contrast is almost incredible notwithstanding
the century and a half which have elapsed since the
valuations were made.
The following statement showing the numbers and
contents in acres of each of the lots is from Yer-
planck's survey of May 30 1732. The first column
shows the numbers and areas of the first or north
range of Great Lots north of the Croton ; the second
those of the south range of the Great Lots north of
the Croton ; and the third those of the Front lots on
the Hudson.
North range of the Great Lots North of the
Croton.
No. 1, contents 4095
acres.
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10.
2784
2904
2864
2811
3168
3696
3696
3696
3273
32,887
South range of Great Lots north of the Croton.
No.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
contents 2225
2994
2904
3712
, 2982
2760
2660
2394
3568
2566
acres.
No.
28,765
Front lots on the Hudson.
1, contents 1255
2, „ 932
3, „ 1886
4, „ 1447
5, „ 1220
6, ,. 1720
acres.
No. 7, contents 1027
» 8, „ 808
>i 9, „ 1233
„ 10, „ 2764
14,333
Recapitulation.
Great North lota 32,887
„ South lots 28,765
Front Lots on Hudson 14,333
Total in the Divisions of 1732
and 1733 75,985
Lots South of Croton 7,128
83,113
Lands in Poundridge 3000
Parson's Point on the Hudson 100
acres.
Total east of the Hudson... 86,213
' Tract on West side of the
Hudson 1500 „
Total number of acres in the
whole Manor 87,713 „
The areas and valuations of the shares of each of
the heirs named above in the divisions of 1732-3 are
thurf stated in an " Estimate of the Value in the
Manor of Cortlandt, 1733." "
Names. Acres. Value in pounds.
P. Verplanck 932 215.
2995 345.
2904 413.
6831 £973.
Margaret Bayard 1027
wife of Samuel Bayard 2811
3560
7398 £948,»
Stephen De Lancey 1172 234.
3273 210.
2932 565.
7377 £999.
Philip Van Cortlandt 1255.. ;.300.
2225 195.
3168 480.
6648 £975.
Stephen Van Cortlandt, 1474 214.
2760 383.
2660 375.
6894 £972.
> This is not In Verplanck's survey, but is added as an estimate from
the beet information the writer could obtain.
'From the MS. in the Van Wyck papen.
* The separate values of each of those three loti are omitted in the
original, though the total is given ; evidently an accidental error.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
135
Names.
Acres.
YaIuo in pounds.
John Miln
1234....
2784....
3696
238.
300.
450.
7714
£988.
Gertrude Beekman
2764....
2904
2394
210.
596.
106.
8062
£912.
William Skinner
1886....
3712....
2565....
120.
675.
156.
8163
£951.
Andrew Johnston
4095....
1283
3695....
339.
240.
810.
9028
£889.
John Schiiyler, jr
808
2860
3696
218.
575.
225.
7364 £1018.
Recapitulation.
Amounts In N.
Names. Acres. Ciinency.
Philip Verplanck 6831 £ 973.
Margaret Bayard 7398 £ 948.
Stephen DeLancy 7377 £ 999.
Philip Van Cortlandt 6648 £ 975.
Stephen Van Cortlandt 6894 .£ 972.
John Miln 7714 £ 988.
Gertrude Beekman 8062.... £ 912.
William Skinner 8163 £ 951.
Andrew Johnston 9023 £ 889.
John Schuyler, jr 7364 £1018.
75474 »
£9625.
The above values are in New York currency in
in which the pound was equal to two dollars and a
half oi' United States Currency. Hence the entire
value in money of the 75,000 acres and upwards, in
1733, when the division among the heirs took place,
was only $25,062, or about $2,500 per share ; and as
the shares averaged 7000 acres each, it is seen at once
how extremely low was the value of land per acre in
New York and in Westchester County at that time.
This valuation also is evidence of the good serise
and sound judgment of Mrs. Stephanus van Cortlandt,
the sole executrix of her husband's will, and of Wil-
>This ADiouMt is 511 acres leas than the total acreage o< the same
lots 1(75,085 acres) in Vorplanck's survey, priuted above. As the MS.
from which this last statement is taken is a rough one and unsigned, it is
probable that its author made this error, and that the survey is correct
Ham Nicolls, Jacobus van Cortlandt, and Brandt
Schuyler, his relatives and her advisers under the
same, in deciding to hold, and not divide up, the
Manor, soon after Mr. van Cortland t's death. It
likewise proves conclusively the little actual value,
the enormous New York Manors and Great Patents
really had at the period they were erected and
granted.
When the Manor was divided into townships by
the Act of 1788, there were carved out of it four
entire Townships, * Cortlandt,* * Yorktown,* * Stephen-
town,' (now changed to'Somers'), * Salem,' and about
one- third of a fifth, ' Poundridge.' ' Salem was sub-
sequently in 1790 divided, into * North Salem' and
' South Salem,' the name of the latter being changed
in 1840 to Lewisborough. So that five of the old
townships and about a third of a sixth, were formed
ott4 of the Manor of Cortlandt. The following tab-
ular statements of the valuation of the land in these
five and one-third townships, in 1829 and in 1875,
the former about a century and the latter about
a century and a iialf, after the valuation of the
Manor as a whole in 17S2-83 above given, show in
the most striking manner the tremendous increase in
value of the Manor between the tkue of its division
among the ten heirs of Stephanus van Cortlandt and
^he present day. *
Valuation of 1829. '
Township of Cortlandt, $505,801
" of Yorktown, 499,404
" of Somers, 450.945
of North Salem, 244,665
of South Salem, 292,574
of Poundridge, i 55,440
$2,048,829
Valuation of 1875. *
Township of Cortlandt, $4,316,150
** " Yorktown, 1,258,641
** Somers, 1,402,108
" North Salem, 1,123,500
" Lewisborough,* 952,4;^
" Poundridge, i 114,202
$9,167,037
It must be borne in mind, however in comparing
these tables of 1829 and 1875, that the valuation of
1732-3 embraced only the divisions of those years
s It is greatly to be regretted that a party squabble about the political
patronage in the talcing of it, should have prevented the taking of any
State Census in 1885, so that a- comparison of values up to that year
could have been here given. It is, perhaps, fair to say, that, taking one
town with another, an addition of ten per cent, to the figures of the
census of 1875 would be about the actual value in 1885.
s From the Table appended to Westchester County, in the great Atlas
of the Counties of New York, compiled by the celebrated Simeon De
Witt, under an Act of the Legislature, iu 1829 and published at Ithaca,
N. Y., by David H. Burr. This is the most authentic Atlas of New
York that exists, and is now rare.
4 From the State Census of 1875, Table no. 68.
ft formerly South Salem.
136
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
among the heirs, while the valuation of the Townships
embrace in addition the lands subsequently divided
among the heirs in 1753, and a small portion of lands
then left undivided, as mentioned above ; and also that
in North Salem and Lewisborough the "Oblong" lands
are included in their respective valuations, which
were never a part of the Manor. But allowing, for
these corrections, they are sufficient to show the
great increase of value in a century, and a century
and a half, of the lands forming the Manor of Cort-
landt.
Precisely which of the great lots of the Manor,
were embraced within the limits of each of the five
Townships, and one-ihird, which were carved out of
it, is a matter of interest, to the antiquarian at least,
at this day. The following statement of the areas of
the respeciive townships in Great Lots and Acres, is
taken from a MS. among the Van Wyck papers, un-
dated, but drawn up, as appears by an indorsement,
relative to the calculation the payment of the q«it
rents. It bears no signature, and was probably made
up as a basis for their commutation, sometime, within
the first twenty-five years of this century. As will
be seen by the footing at the end, the gross number
of acres somewhat exceeds the figures of the gross
number by Verplanck*s survey as stated above.
With<^ut attempting to explain this discrepancy the
statement is given as in the original, because it shows
clearly which great lots of the old Manor were em-
braced in each Township, carved out of it, and the
amount of the quit rent due for each Township at the
time the statement was prepared, whenever that was.
Town of Chrtlandt;
Acres.
All the Front Lots 14,333
South Lot No. 1 2,225
North Lot No. 1 4,095
No. 1, South of Croton 562
No. 2, South of Croton 586
J of No. 3 300
Tellers Point 300
Parsonage Point 100
Ph. V. Planck (Verplancks Point) 915
23,416
Yorkhnon.
N. Lot No. 2 2,784
N. Lot No. 3 2,908
N. Lot No. 4 2,864
S. Lot No. 2 2,995
S. Lot No. 3 2,904
S. Lot No. 4 3,712
All the Lots South of Croton River 7,128
2J Lots taken off' for Cortlandt Town 1.484
5.644
23,811
Somen Town.
Acres.
N. Lot No. 5 2,811
N. Lot No. 6 3,168
N. Ix)t No. 7 3,696
Ab<»ut a third of N. Lot No. 8 1,232
S. Lot No. 5 2,982
S. LoiNo. 6 2,760
Half of S. Lot No. 7 1,330
17,979
North Safern.
i of N. Lot No. 8 2,464
N. Lot No. 9 3,696
N. Lot No. 10 3,273
9,433
tSouth Salem.
i of S. Lot No. 7 1,330
S. Lot No. 9 3,696
S. Lot No. 10 3,273
9,433
Ptfundruige, Stone Hills. *
About 3,000
Town of Oirllandt 23,416
Yorktowu 23,811
Somerstown 17,979
North Salem 9,433
South Salem 9,857
Poundridge, Stone Hills 3,000
87,496
Recapitulation.
Share of
Acres. quit rent
Town of Cortlandt 23,416 $137.00
Yorktown 23,811 138.00
Somers Town..... 17,979 103.00
North Salem 9,433 54.00
South Salem 9,857 57.00
Poundridge, Stone Hills.. 3,000 17.00
1506.00
Philip von Cortlandt the third son of Stephanus,
born the 9th of August 1683, was a man of clear head,
of good abilities, and possessed of great decision of
character. He was a merchant in New Amsterdam,
and like his father took an active part in public
affairs. In June 1729 he was recommended to the
King for appointment as a Councillor of the Province
by Governor Montgomerie in place of Lewis Morris
jr. The appointment was made the 3d of February
1730, he took his seat in April of the same year, and
continued in the Council until his death on the 21»t
of August 1746, when he was succeeded by Edward
1 This is Ui6 common namo of Uie uortUern part of this Town.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE MANORS.
137
Holland through the recommendation of Governor
Clinton. He was a prominent member of the Com-
mission on the part of New York, in the case of the
Colony of Connecticut and the Mohegan Indians.
His wife was Catharine daughter of Abraham de Peyster
to whom he was married in 1710. ^ He left him sur-
viving, six children, five sons and one daughter,
Catharine, who was killed by the bursting of a can-
non on the Battery while watching the firing of a
salute in honor of the King's birth day June 4th
1738, in her 13th year. By the death of his elder
brothers, Johannes who left only a daughter, Ger-
trude, the wife of Philip Verplanck, and Oloif, or
Oliver, who died a bachelor, Philip became the head
of the Van Cortlandt family. His five sons were
Stephen, Abraham, Philip, John, and Pierre. Of the
five, Abraham, Philip, and John, all died unmarried,
.ephen the eldest who succeeded his father as the
. -ad of the family, was born the 26th of October
1710, married, in 1738, Mary Walton Ricketts, and
died the 17th of October 1766, leaving two sons
Philip and William Ricketts, Van CortUndt. Philip
the elder, the fourth head of the family born 10th
November 1739, preferring a military life, entered
the British Army, in which he served many years,
dying on the 1st of May, 1814, in his 75th year.
He is buried in Hailsham Church where a mural
monument is erected to his memory. He married on
Aug 2d, 1762, Catharine, daughter of Jacob Ogden of
New Jersey. They had the large number of 23
children (several being twins) of whom twelve lived
to grow up, five being sons and seven daughters. The
former all became officers in the British Regular Army.
'J'hey were
1. Philip 1
2. and Stephen J <^wins, b. 30 July 1766, the latter
died young, the former married
Mary Addison and died, having
had one son, George W., who died
young.
o. Jacob Ogden von Cortlandt, Captain 23d Fusiliers,
killed in Spain in 1811, leaving
issue.
4. Henry Clinton van Cortlandt, Lt. Col. 31st Foot,
died a bachelor.
5. Arthur Auchmuty van Cortland, Capt. 45th Foot
died a bachelor in India.
The daughters were, 1. Mary Ricketts, married John
M.Anderson; 2. Elizabeth, married William Taylor,
Lord Chief Justice of Jamaica, and left one son. Col-
onel Pringle Taylor of Pennington ; 3. Catharine,
twin with Mrs. Taylor, married Dr. William Gourlay
of Kincraig Scotland ; 4. Margaret Hughes, married
0. Elliott- Elliott of Berkshire and died without issue ;
5. Gertrude married, Admiral Sir Edward Buller and
left issue ; ' 6. Sarah Ogden van Cortlandt, died
1 Col. Hist. N. Y. V, and VI.
8 Lady Bnller*H only aurTlving daughter, Anna Maria, marriod, 26tb of
11
single ; 7. Charlotte, married Gen. Sir John Eraser ;
8. Sophia married Sir Wm. Howe Mukaster R. N.
The second son of Philip, William Ricketts van
Cortlandt, born the 12th of March 1742, married
Elizabeth Kortright, and had two sons, the eldest of
his own name, who married 1st Miss Stevens, and
2ndly Miss Cornell, and Philip, who married Mary
Bunker, and one daughter Eliza, married to her cousin
Mr. William Ricketts. Descendants of William Rick-
etts van Cortlandt still own and dwell upon portions of
the property that fell to his Grandfather Philip van
Cortlandt at the division of the Manor in 1732-33.
Pierre van Cortlandt, the youngest son of Philip
the third son of Stephanus, born the 10th of January
1721, and who died the Ist of May, 1814, in conse-
quence of the deaths in early manhood of his brothers
Abraham, Philip, and John, unmarried, and of the
death in 1756, of his eldest brother Stephen, and the
absence in the army of his nephew Philip, Stephen's
eldest son, became early and closely identified with
the affairs of the manor and the interests of his rela-
tives therein. Marrying Joanna a daughter of Gil-
bert Livingston he naturally leaned to political side
of his wife's family in the party contests anterior to
the opening of the American Revolution. He was
the representative of the Manor in the Colony As-
sembly from 1768 to 1775, and unlike his nephew,
Philip, the head of the family, he took the American
side in the Revolution. He was a member of the
Provincial Convention, the Council of Safety, and tlie
Provincial Congress ; and upon the organization ot
the State Government in 1777, was chosen Lieuten-
ant Governor of New York, and served as such
till 1795. In 1787 he was President of the Con-
vention which formed the Constitution of the United
States. He had four sons Philip, Gilbert, Stephen,
and Pierre, and four daughters, Catharine the wife ot
Theodosius P. van Wyck, Cornelia, wife of Gerard G.
Beekman, Anne wife of Philip S. van Rensselaer, so
long the Mayor of Albany, at which city she died in
1855 at the age of 89 years, and Gertrude who died,
a child in her eleventh year in December 1766. Of
the four sons, two, Gilbert, and Stephen, died in early
life unmarried. The eldest was the celebrated Colo-
nel Philip van Cortlandt of the Revolution, who at
its close was made a Brigadier General, and died a
bachelor Nov. 2l8t 1831. To him the portion of the
Manor containing the Manor House descended, and
there he lived all the latter part of his life. Upon
his death it passed to his youngest brother Major-
Gen* Pierre van Cortlandt. The latter was born the
29th of August, 1762, and died in 1848. He married
1st in 1801, Catharine, a daughter of Governor George
Clinton, by whom he had no issue, and 2nd Anne
Stevenson, of Albany. He was all his life a resident
February, 18:24, Lt. Col. Janicii DrummuDd Elphiustone, wheu ho uwumci)
Uui name of BuUor before ElpliiuRtone. She died 26 Fob. lS4d, leaving
four tiona and four daughters, the eldest of which sous William Buller
Fuller Elphinstoue B. N. in the 16tb and present Baron Elphinstone.
138
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
of the Manor, and one of the most prominent men of
Westchester, and its representative in Congress. By
his second wife he had one child, a son, the late Colo-
nel Pierre van Cortlandt, who died only on the
eleventh of July 1884; leaving him surviving, his
widow, Catherine, eldest daughter of the late eminent
Theodrick Romeyn Beck, M.D., of Albany, one son,
Mr. James Stevenson van Cortlandt, and two daughters,
Catharine, the wife of the Rev. John Rutherfurd
Mathews, and Miss Anne St-evenson van Cortlandt.
The Manor House and adjoining estate is still the
home of Col. Pierre van Cortlandt's widow and chil-
dren, having continued in the family and name of
St«phanus van Cortlandt since 1683, a little upwards
of two hundred years.
The necessarily very brief sketches of the van
Cortlandts in this essay are only intended as an out-
line, to show the general descent of the elder branch
of the van Cortlandt family, the van Cortlandts of
the Manor of Cortlandt.
The nature, origin, and existence of the Quitrent,
payable from the Crown granted lands, to the Colon-
ial, and, subsequently, to the State, Grovernment of
New York, have already been explained.^ Those for
which the Manor of Cortlandt, and all the prior
grants within its limits were liable were paid at inter-
vals, but in full, till their final extinction by commu-
tation under the acts of the Legislature, and the ac-
tion of the state government of New York as late as
1823.
In the case of the Manor of Cortlandt the first pay-
ments of its quitrent, were receipted for by the King-
Receiver-General and Collector, on the back of the
Manor-Grant itself, which has been already described.
This course was unusual and was owing probably to
the early death of its first, lord and the careiul atten-
tion of his widow and executrix. The receipts for sim-
ilar payments being generally given on separate pas
pers. These receipts are four in number, and cover
from 1697, the date of the Manor Grant to 1732,— the
date of the first division — thirty-five years, and are as
follows :
1" Endorsement.
** Received this 29th March A D 1716 of M" Ger-
truyd van-Cortlandt the sum of Twenty-eight Pounds,
Proclaramation monney in full of Quit-rent for the
Lands Lying in the within Pattent, untill the 25th
day of this instant month of March as witness my
hand
T. Byerley OolK
2"** Endorsement,
Received (In Quality as Receiver-Gen erall of this
province) this 16 August 1720 of M" Geertruydt Van
Cortlandt Executrix of Stephanus Van Cortlandt de-
ceased, the Sum of Eight pounds proclamation mon-
ey. In full of Quitrents for all the Lands Lying
within the Manner of Cortlandt, to the 25 of March
iPfMTt 10, of tbiB easay, anU pp. 95, 96.
Last Pursuant to the within Pattent as wittness my
hand
T. Byerley CJoll'.
3** Endorsement.
Received of Phillip Cortland Esq' for account oi
M" Geertruydt Van Cortland two pounds proc*. mon-
ey in full for one years quitt rent to the 25 of March
last for the lands mentioned in the within Instru-
ment. Wittness my hand this 29 day of June 1721
T. Byerley ColP.
4* Endorsement.
Received of the heirs of Coll. Stephanus Van Cort-
landt, by the hands of Samuell Bayard Esq' Thirty-
two pounds procln money which together with thirty-
eight pounds like money Received by M' Byerley is
in full for His Majestys quitrent from June 1697 to
the 17 of last witness my hand Nov' 7"* 1732
Arch** Kennedy Rec' Gen*.
Thomas Byerly the Receiver General and Collector
whose bold signature appears to these receipts, arrived
in New York on the 29th of July 1703,* and was a
prominent official in New York and New Jersey, of
both which Provinces he was of the Governor's Coun-
cil. He died in 1725, and was succeeded as Receiver-
General in New York by Archibald Kennedy, who
signs the last of the above receipts, in 1726.
Subsequent to the divisions of 1732-33 among the
heirs, the quit rents were paid proportion ably by the
different owners. During the Revolutionary war and
after it nothing seems to have been paid, till the state
Comptroller advertised to sell the lands to pay the
arrears under a State law. The following correspond-
ence with, and memoranda of, General Philip Van
Cortlandt will show how the quit rents were settled.
" Mamaroneck November 7, 1815
Sir
In a conversation I had with Judge Purdy a few
days since, I understood from him that you had gone
to Albany to ascertain if the quit-rents now demand-
ed for the Manor of Cortlandt had not already been
paid, if not on what part of the Manor those now de-
manded were due, and how the different proprietore
are to proceed in estimating their respective propor-
tions. As I am interested in a part of the Manor, I
will thank you for any information you can give me
on this subject. I hope you will excuse the trouble I
give you, and believe me. Sir
Respectfully Yours
J. P. deLancey'
General Philip Van Cortlandt.
Manor House
Nov. 29 1815
Dear Sir
On my return from Albany I was favored with
yours of the 7th, and am happy to inform you that
« IV. Col. lltet., 1066.
>MS. Lotter. Mr. John Peter de Lancoy, of Mamaroneck, the
Yrrlter of this lottor succeeded to the uniwld portion of the Miuior lands
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE MANORS.
139
I have settled and paid up all the Q. Rent of the
Manor of Cortland t and also commuted for all fiiture
Q. R. in such manner as not to he obliged to call on
any of the Proprietors. Neither will any tax be neces-
sary. So that you may Henceforward rest perfectly
contented. There remained some undivided land
which was sold to accomplish it.
I am with great respect
Yours
Ph. V. Oortlandt.'
Mr. J. P. deLancey
Mamaroneck.
The following letter and certificate written by Gen.
Philip Van Oortlandt explains fully this matter of
the Quit Rents.
" The Comptroller is requested as soon as conven-
ient to make out what amount of Quit Rent is due
from the Manor of Cortlandt Pattent, which includes
in its bounds, the Patten ts granted to Stephen V.
Cortlandt for lands on both sides of the Hudson,
Dated March 16, 1685— John Knight, dated March
24 1686— and Hugh McGregory dated the 2d of April
1690 — which became the property of the said Stephen
Van Cortlandt, and no Q. Rent from them is ex-
pected to be paid as by the words expressed in the
said Manner Pattent, which is dated the 17th of June
1697, will appear.
" Of this a part to be sold — see below.
" A patent granted to Tennis DeKey and others al-
tho within the said Manor was not the property of
Said Stephen Cortlandt, and is subject to Q. Rent.
" This was mentioned to the Comptroller, and it was
requested of him to wait a few days and the money
should be paid. This the Comptroller must have for-
got when the same was sold to Mr. Lawrence who is
very willing to give up the same if agreeable to the
Comptroller.
" This is to be paid and commuted for.
" There is another small Patent granted to Tennis
Dekey, Sybout Ilarchie and Jacobus Harchie which
is also included in the Manor and is subject to pay Q.
Rent.
" Of this a part to be sold.
" There is about eighty acres called Parson's Point,
which was left by the Proprietors of the Manor un-
divided and now is in the possession of the Dutch
Minister — and if sold a title can be obtained, which
can not be done without. Further information will
be given by the Comptroller's.
Humble Serv*
Ph. V. Cortlandt."
" I do hereby certify that it appears from papers in
my possession, that when the Manor of Cortlandt was
divided in about the year 1732 — there was left a piece
of land said to contain about eighty, or a hundred
of his brother, Stephen do Lancey, in the town of North Salem. The
lattor died in 1795 without imUo.
IMS. Letter.
acres, which I have always understood was originally
intended by the Proprietors for a Parsonage, and
which was not divided among the Heirs, although
they all held an undivided right therein. After the
Revolutionary War I obtained possession thereof and
put the Dutch Reformed Congregation in possession.
As they cannot obtain a complete title from the
Heirs, I want it sold for the benefit of the said
church, or as much thereof as will pay the Quit
Rent now due from the said Manor of Cortlandt.
Ph. V. Cortlandt.'
Parson's Point is bounded on the West and South
by Hudson's River, and on the East and North by
Divided lands of said Manor of Cortlandt."
At the time of the first divisions of the Manor
there were settlers upon all the lots more or leas. The
lots were divided up into farms averaging 250 acres
in some parts of the Manor and 200 acres in others.
Each farm numbered, and leased as " Farm No. ,
in Great Lot No. ," and when described the ten-
ants name was generally added, thus " and in pos-
session of so and so." By 1750, the whole Manor had
become populated, as appears by the list of farms and
tenants names in the accounts still extant rendered
to many of the heirs and their representatives. A
very few farms here and there had been sold in fee.
About 1770, as the tenants had prospered and their
families increased, they began to acquire the ** soil
right" as they termed it by purchase from the
landlords. The Revolution checked this movement
entirely for the time being, nor was it till 1787 or 8
that it began again. But from that time it progressed
continually, so that by 1847, there were only about
2500 or 3000 acres of *' leased land," exclusive of the
estate belonging to Gen. Pierre Van Cortlandt, left
throughout the Manor. Of this about 1200 acres
divided into dye farms are, at this moment, still
held, in the Great Lot, No. 6, south of Croton, by
descendants of the heir to whom that lot fell at the
original division. In Nine cases out of ten the
tenants themselves acquired the fee of their own
farms. And the result has .been that in every town-
ship in the Manor, very many of the descendants of
the original tenants still live, as owners in fee, upon
the same lands which their ancestors originally took
upon leases, and thus have held them for four, five,
and sometimes six generations.
In all the townships there are a few instances
where dishonest persons have by trick and chicanery
acquired farms, by a series of "squattings" and
fraudulent transfers and so-called sales of leases. But
as a body the old tenants dealt honestly and squarely
with the owners.
Some of the leases it may be said, provided for
a partial payment of the rent fixed, in kind, as in
wheat, in two or four fat fowls, and in so many
s Original MS.
140
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" days nvork with carriage and horses/' meaning not
" a carriage '* in our sense of the word to-day, but a
day's work with wagon and team. This latter was
Often spoken and written of as a '' day's riding.''
These were all originally introduced as an easy way for
the tenants in those times when there was very little
money in the country to pay a part of the rents re-
served in the leases, which as a rule ran from one or
two, tp ten pounds a year, New York currency. Dur-
ing the latter part of the last century, especially
after the Revolution, the landlords and tenants made
between themselves a private commutation, in money,
for these rents in kind.
The Manor as far as the personal dignity of the
Lord of the Manor was concerned, ended with the
death of Stephanus Van Cortlandt in November?
1700. In all other respects manorial, parochial'
civil, and political, it continued intact, until its final
termination by being divided up into townships
under the Act organizing the State into Townships
in 1788.
The topography of the Manor is very remarkable,
and very beautiful. The valley of the Croton lies al-
most whol y within its limits. The northernmost
branches of that River rising in Putnam County and
the easternmost, in Connecticut, each receiving in its
course many small affluents, meet near its centre, and
form the main stream of the Croton, which falls into
the Hudson on the south sideof the striking peninsu-
la of Teller's, or Croton, Point. Five or six small
streams, the largest of which, is " John Peaks Creek,"
now Peekskill (kill being the Dutch word for creek)
also fall into the Hudson. These streams form
deep sinuous valleys between the high, rocky hills
through which they force their way to " The Great
River of the Mountains. They take their rise in the
range of hills dividing the valley of the Croton
from that of the Hudson, which run nearly parallel
to the latter at a distance to the east of it about three
or four miles. From the eastern slopes of these hills to
the Connecticut line extends the valley of the Croton
proper, broken by lesser ranges of wooded hills, and
high fertile ridges, into numerous smaller valleys,
through which run perpetually, clear and winding
streams. Notwithstanding this fair region has been
the abode of a numerous and thriving population for
more than a century and a half, it still possesses exten-
sive forests, and rocky, wooded hills, amid which glist-
en, like diamonds, numbers of small transparent lakes.
So many are they that only a few of the larger are to
be found upon the Maps. This region so remarkably
wooded and watered, formerly abounded in beaver,
all kinds of deer, and the ever present foes of the lat-
ter, wolves. Many are the provincial statutes offering
bounties for the destruction of the latter. The beaver
lived on the streams and in the forests of Core-
landt till early in this century, the last having been
killed near Lake Waccabuc in 1837. To this day
one beautiful branch of the Croton bears the name of
" The Beaver Dam," and a high wooded ridge, not
far from it is still called, "The Deer's Delight." There
are two points, from which the greater part of this
splendid region can be looked down upon almost as
a whole. The first is " Knapp's Hill," or " Louns-
berry Hill," just over the Manor line in Bedford,
which was used as a military station of observation
during the Revolution. The second, and the finer, is
. Prospect Mount in the eastern part of North Salem. It
is just within the " Oblong," and though a part of
North Salem since 1731, was not originally within
. the Manor. From its summit looking west the eye
; ranges over the whole twenty miles in length of the
Manor of Cortlandt, the view being only terminated
by the Rockland Mountains across the Hudson. The
depression in which the latter lies is distinctly seen.
Immediately in front of the spectator spreads the
I rich and affluent valley of the Titicus, the " Mughti-
ticoos" of the Indians, the eastern branch of the
' Croton, bounded on each side by high, irregular forest
clad hills, the silver stream winding and gleaming
through green smiling meadows till it falls into the
Croton itself five miles away. Beyond it are seen
the rich, rolling, fertile lands of Somers and York-
town, the foot hills of the Highlands their northern
boundary. And further still the fair heights of the
eastern bank of the Hudson and above them the lofty
High Tor upon its western side. No more splendid
scene can be looked upon in America, than to witness
from this Mount the setting of the sun on a clear
summer evening. The whole twenty miles of the
Manor, hill, valley, river, and forest, glowing in the
most brilliant radiance beneath the deep red tints of
a gorgeous sky, and then as the great luminary,
tinting their peaks with gold, sinks behind the blue
Rockland Mountains, the whole suddenly blotted out
in a deep purplish sombre gloom.
Upon the lower slopes of the height stands the
old home of the Keelers, now the residence of Hobart
Keeler, the fourth or fifth in a direct line who for a
century and a half have always dwelt there. And
yet it is so high, that from his dining room windows
on a clear day. High Tor and the other Rockland
mountains are plainly visible.
In the southeastern part of the Manor is a range
of heights trending from northwest to southeast
dividing the valley of the Croton from that of Long
Island Sound, in which rise st reams running south-
erly to the Sound the chief of which are the Myanos,
now known as the Mianus, and the Armonck, or By-
ram River. Thus within the Manor are three distinct
water-sheds, two carrying their waters into the Hud-
son, and one into the sound.
The origin of the name of the river, the great natural
feature of the Manor, the waters of which supply the
great city of New York by means of a magnificent
aqueduct without a rival in Ancient or Modern
times, is not certainly known. Diiferent theories
have been and are held upon this subject. What Ib
.k
®*«fe»>
^4
^
V^
l/f
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(itr
*^
S I
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
141
certain is that the Indian name of " Kichtawank/' or
^* Kightawong " is that given to the River in all the
earliest Deeds and Patents. In Philip Verplancks
survey and map made in 1732 the name he gives to
it is the " Ejghtewank Creek or Groatan's River." *
As Mr. Verplanck lived many years prior to 1732 in
the Manor, and knew every one interested in it, from
shortly after the death of Stephanus Van Courtland
to his own death a period of about seventy years, his
opportunities of knowing the English name of the
stream were certainly better than those of any one of
whom we now have knowledge. He was also a sur-
veyor, and hence obliged to be particular in giving
correct names to natural features. Now he called it
on his map of 1732 " Groatun's River/' hence at that
date such was certainly its English name. Therefore
the name must have originated between 1697 the date
of the Manor Grant in which it is described by its In-
dian name and 1732, the date of the Manor Map, that
is within the period of thirty-five years. But
whether " Groatun " from which the change to " Cro-
ton '' was very easy, was the name of an Indian or a
Dutchman can never be known. The probability is
that if there was such a man he dwelt near the
mouth of the stream, and his name given to it at his
dwelling-place was extended gradually throughout its
entire length. But whatever the origin, " Croton " it
has been for more than a century, and '^ Croton '' it
will forever remain.
14
The Manor of Scaraddle^ Its Origin, Local History,
Adjoining Patents and ManorSy Its First Lm^d
and his Family , Division and Topography.
Named by its Lord after that division of the beau-
tiful county of Derby, nearly the geographical centre
of England, in which the city of Chesterfield, crown-
ing a lofty verdant height, sits like a queen upon her
throne, the rivers Rother and Hipper flowing to-
gether at her feet, termed the " Hundred of Scars-
dale,'* in which he was bom, Colonel Caleb Heath-
cote proved at once his own good taste and his love
for the ancient home of his fathers. The name de-
scribes equally well the English locality and its Amer-
ican namesake. "Scarrs" was the Saxon word for
rocky crags, and "dale" for valley. The western
and northwestern parts of the Hundred of Scarsdale
are noted for the rocky heights and deep valleys
which form that striking Derbyshire scenery immor-
talized in the " Peveril of the Peak " of Sir Walter
Scott. The western and northwestern parts of the
Manor of Scarsdale are overlooked by the hills and
crags, half covered with forests, at the foot of which
flows the river Bronx ; while the vales and glades of
the lower heights which separate the valleys of the
Bronx and the Sound, upon one of which he dwelt in
1 See the Manor map and hie *' ezplanatlone " appended to It
his earlier life, are also immortalized in the " Spy "
of the Neutral Ground of Fenimore Cooper.
The Manor of Scarsdale was of irregular shape ow-
ing chiefly to the winding course of the Mamaroneck
River, which formed a large part of its eastern bound-
ary. By its terms the Manor-Grant included a tract
embracing the present towns of Mamaroneck, Scars-
dale, a small part of Harrison, with White plains, and
a portion of Northcastle. But as a dispute existed
with " some of y' inhabitants of y® town of Rye " as
to White plains at the time of Colonel Heathcote's^
purchase of the tract, the Manor-Grant expressly
provided that it should give no further title to White
plains to Colonel Heathcote than what he already
had before it issued. Irrespective of White plains and
the lands beyond, the length of the Manor was about
nine miles by an average width of a little more than
two miles. The following is the
MANOR-GKANT OF THE MANOR OF SCARSDALE.
William the third by the Grace of God of Eng-
land, Scotland, France & Ireland, King, Defender of
the faith 4&c. To all to whom these presents shall
come sendeth greeting ; Whereas our loving subject
Caleb Heathcote, Esqr. hath petitioned the
Hon.ble John Nan fan our Lt. Govern'r, & Comand'
in Cheif of the Province of New Yorke in America,
& our Councill of the said Province, for a confirmation
of a tract of land in the County of Westchester, Begin-
ning at a marked tree by Mamoronack River w'ch is
the eastermost side of the Nortliern bounds of Mamo-
ronack Township, being about two miles from the
country road <& to run along the sd. River to the head
thereof, <& thence on a north line untill eighteen
miles from the said marked tree is compleated ; west-
erly, beginning at the marked tree or a great rock be-
ing the westermost part of the northern bounds of the
aforesd. township, being about two miles from the
country road, <& thence to run northerly eighteen
miles as the line on the eastermost side of the said
land runeth, including in the sd. Mannor his eighth
parte of the two miles laid out for the town of Mamo-
ronack, with the lott he now liveth on, & the lott
bought of Alice Hatfeild, w'*' the lands & meadows
below westerly to a path to him belonging by virtue
of his deeds & conveyances, parte of w^^ land within
ye bounds aforesd. was purchased by Jno. Richbell
from ye Native Indian Proprietors w*''' sd. Jno. Rich-
bell had a grant & confirmation for yc same from
Coll. Fra.~ Lovelace, late Gov', of ye sd. Province, &
the right of ye sd. Jno. Richbell therein is legally
vested in the sd. Caleb Heathcote, & other parte has
been purchased by ye sd. Caleb Heathcote of ye Na-
tive Indian Proprietors; & whereas ye sd. Caleb
Heathcote hath further petitioned our sd. Lt. Gov-
ernor & Councill that ye sd. tract of land may be
erected into a Mann our by ye name of ye Mann our
2 This name Is properly pronounced as if spellod *'HethcQt,"
** Heethoote," m oftun heard.
not
142
HISTORY OF WESTCflESTER CX)tlNTY.
of ScarsdalCf whereupon our sd. Lt. Govern' by & vf^
ye advice of o" Councill Directed a Writt to ye high
Sherrife of ye sd. County of Westchester to enquire to
w' damage such patent would be, w""* writt issued ac-
cordingly, w"* a proviso that it should not give ye sd.
Caleb Heathcote any further title then which he al-
ready hath to ye lands called ye White Plains, w**** is
in dispute between ye said Caleb Heathcote & some
of the inhabitants of the touni of Bye, whereupon the
sd. sherrife returned y* the Jurors found that there is
no damage to the King, or his subjects, in erecting
the Mannour aforesd., except ye sd. white Plaines w.***'
are in dispute <& contest between ye sd. Caleb Heath-
cote & the town of Rye, & excepting James Mott &
the rest of ye freeholders of Mamoronack who have
deed within the patent of Richbell ; Know yee that of
our special grace, certain knowledge, & meer motion,
wee have given, granted, ratified, & confirmed, & by
these presents, doe for us, our heires & successors,
give, grant, ratifye, & confirme, unto ye sd. Caleb
Heathcote, his heires, & assignes, All & every ye
aforesd. tracts & parcells of land and meadow w*' in ye
respective limits & bounds beforementioned & ex-
pressed, together w*' all & every ye messuages, ten-
em*^, buildings, barnes, houses, out-houses, fences,
orchards, gardens, pastures, meadows, marshes,
swamps, pools, ponds, waters, water courses, wood?,
underwoods, trees, timbers, quarries, runs, rivers, riv-
oletts, brooks, lakes, streames, creeks, harbores,
beaches, bayes, islands, ferries, fishing, fowling, hunt-
ing, hawking, mines, mineralls, (royal 1 mines ex-
cepted) & all the rights, members, libertys, privil-
ledges, jurisdiccons, royaltys, hereditam.*", profitts,
benefitts, advantages, & appurtenances, wH^oever, to
aforesd. severall & respective tracts & parcels of land
and meadow belonging, or in any wise appurteining,
or accepted, reputed, taken, known, or occupied, as
parte parcell or member thereof, To Have and to
Hold all the aforesd. severall & respective tracts, &
parcells of land & meadow & premises w.***jn the re-
spective limitts & bounds aforesaid, w.'** all & every
of their appurtenances, unto him the sd. Caleb
Heathcote, his heirs, & assigns, to the only proper
use & behoof of him the sd. Caleb Heathcote, his
heires & assignes forever, provided that nothing here-
in conteined shall be construed, deemed, or taken, to
give the sd. Caleb Heathcote any further title then
what he now, by virtue of these our letters patents,
lawfully hath to ye sd. white Plaines in dispute as
aforesaid nor any jurisdiction w"'in the sd. White
Plaines untill the same shall happen to belong to the
sd. Caleb Heathcote, and moreover. Know yee that of
our further speciall grace, certain knowledge, & meer
motion, wee have thought fitt to erect all the aforere-
cited tracts & parcells of land & meadow, w**in the
limitts & bounds aforesaid, into a Lordship and Man-
nour, except as before excepted, and therefore by
these presents wee doe for us, our heires, & success"',
erect make & constitute all the aforerecited tracts and
parcells of land and meadow within the limits &
bounds beforementioned (except as before excepted),
together w.***' all & every the above granted premises,
w.""' all, and every, of their appurtenances, into one
Lordship or Mannour, to all intents and purposes, &
it is our royal will and pleasure, that the sd. Lord-
ship and Mannour shall from henceforth be called the
Lordship and Mannour off Scarsdale ; and Know yee
that wee reposing especiall trust <& confidence in the
loyallty, wisdome, justice, prudence, & circumspec-
tion, of our sd. loveing subject, doe for us our heires
& success." give & grant unto the sd. Caleb Heath-
cote, his heires & assignes, full power & authority, at
all times forever hereafter, w"*in the sd. Lordship or
Mannour, one Court Leet & one Court Baron, to
hold, & keep, at such time & times, & so often yearly,
05 he or they shall think meet, & wee doe further
give & grant to ye sd. Caleb Heathcote, his heires
6 assignes, all fines, issues, & amerciaments, at the sd.
Court Leet & Court Baron to be hold en within our
said lordship or manor, to be sett, forfeited, or im-
posed, or payable, or happening, at any time to be
payable, by any of the inhabitants of, or w*in, the
said Lordshipp or Mannour of Scarsdale or the Lim-
itts & bounds thereof, & also all & every power &
powers, authority & authorityes, for the holding &
keeping, the sd. court leet, & court baron, from time
to time, & to award <& issue out, the accustomed writts
to be issued & awarded out of courts leet <& courts
baron, as also that the sd. court leet & court baron be
kept by the sd. Caleb Heathcote his heires and as-
signes forever, his, or their, or any of their, stewards
deputed & appointed, w*^ full & ample power & au-
thority to distrain for the rents, services, & other
sumes of money, payable by virtue of ye premises &
all other lawful remedys & means for the haveing,
possessing, levying, & enjoying the premises, <& every
parte & parcell of the same, <& all waifes, estrayes,
deodands, & goods of fellons, happening, or to hap-
pen, being or to be, forfeited, w.^'in the sd. Lordship
or Mannour of Scarsdale. And wee doe further give
& grant unto the said Caleb Heathcote his heires &
aHsignes, that all & singular ye tenants of him the sd.
Caleb Heathcote, within the sd. Mannour, shall &
may at all times hereafter meet together & choose
assessors within the man.' aforesd. according to such
rules, wayes, <& methods, as are prescribed for cities
towns & counties within our sd. province, by ye acts
of Generall of Assembly for defraying the publick
charge of each respective city, town, & county, afore-
said, & all such sumes of money so assessed & levyed,
to collect <& dispose of, for such uses, as any act or
acts of the sd. gener." assembly shall establish & ap-
point, to have, hold, possess, <& enjoy, all &, singular
the sd. Lordship or Mannour of Scarsdale & premises,
with all & every of their appurtenances, unto ye sd.
Caleb Heathcote, his heires & assignes, forever, and
that the sd. Lordship or Man.' aforesd. shall be &
forever continue free & exempt from the jurisdicson
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
143
of any town, township, or Manoar, whatsoever, to be
holden of us, our heires & successors, in free & comon
soccage according to the tenure of our Mannour of
East Greenwich in the county of Kent, w**'in our
Kingdome of England, yielding rendering and paying
therefore, yearly^ & every year, forever, at our city of
New Yorke, unto us our heires & successours, or to
such officer or officers as shall from time to time be
im powered to receive the same, five pounds currant
money of New Yorke, upon the Nativity of our Lord,
in lieu & stead of all services, dues, duties, or de-
mands, whatsoever.
In testinwny whereof wee have caused the great seale
of our province of New Yorke to be hereunto affixed.
Witness John Nanfan Eisq.' our Lt. Governour &
Comander in Chief of our Province of New York &
territories depending thereon, in America.
Given at fort William Henry in our city of New
Yorke this 2l8t day of March in the fourteenth year
of our reign Anno Domini 1701.
John Nanfan.
By his Hon"' comand
M. Clarkson Secry.
/ do hereby certify the aforegoing to be a true copy
of the original record word & 5th line page 229 being
obliterated and or interlined in its stead as in said
record. Compared therewith by me.
Lewis A. Scott, Secretary,
Stat^ of New York, 1 ^ .
Office of the Secretary of Stale, )
I have compared the preceding copy of Letters Pat-
ent with the record thereof in this office, in Book
Number Seven of Patents at page 195 and I do hereby
certify the same to be a correct transcript therefrom
and of the whole thereof.
Witness my hand and the seal of office of the Secre-
tary of State, at the City of Albany, the 1st day of
September J one thousand eight hundred and eighty four,
Anson G. Wood
Deputy Secretary of State.
John Richbell who is stated in this Manor-Grant,
to Colonel Heathcote (which expressly vested Rich-
belPs title in the latter), to have been the purchaser of
part of the Manor-land originally "from ye native
Indian proprietors," was one of a family of Hamp-
shire-men either in, or from the neighbourhood
of the city of Southampton, in that County, in Eng-
land. They were also merchants in London engaged
in trade with America. In the seventeenth century
a large trade was carried on between England, the
West Indies, and the ' Plantations on the Maine' of
America. Of this trade the central point in the West
Indies was Barbadoes then, as now, a British Island.
The voyages were from England to Barbadoes, thence
to New York or Boston, and thence back to P^ngland.
Hence the continual reference in the accounts and
letters of that day to the "news from home vUi Bar-
bardoes." Precisely when John Richbell left Eng-
land is not known. He was a merchant in Charlestown,
Massachusetts, according to Savage's Genealogical
Dictionary in 1648. In an inventory of the estate of
Robert Gibson of Boston, dated the 11th of August
1659, appears this item, "due from Mr. John Rich-
bell for wages and wine £36, 4, 0, under date of 8th
August 1656.^ The next year 1657 he was apparently
in the Island of Barbadoes. Prior to this latter date
he was in the island of St. Christopher's, where he
received from his mother-in-law Margery Parsons
«* certain goods formerly delivered and paid unto me
by Mrs. Margery Parsons upon the Island of St.
Christopher's." '
When in Barbadoes he met with two other English-
men, Thomas Modiford a resident of that island, and
William Sharpe of Southampton in England. The
three entered into an agreement to undertake a busi-
ness which the oppressive navigation laws of England
tempted, and practically compelled, many Englishmen
and Colonists to go into. These laws increased in
extent, and vigorously enforced by Cromwell, bore
harshly upon England's "Plantations in foreign
parts" at that time just beginning to exist. Then began
that illicit contraband trade in America which con-
tinued and increased from that time during the whole
colonial period. And which proved, in conseciuence
of the very stringent measures adopted by -England
late in the eighteenth century to suppress it, thereby
injuring the business interests of the colonies, one of
the potent, if not the most potent^ of the causes which
produced that great event, the American Revolution.
The " Instructions" to Richbell from his partners
in relation to their business still exist in the public
Archives of New York. The parties named, were
"Thomas Modiford of Barbadoes, William Sharpe of
Southampton [England], and John Richbell of
Charlestown, New England, Merchants. " All were
in Barbadoes apparently at the date of the " Instruc-
tions," which, as clear and specific, as they are inter-
esting and curious, are here given in full. They are
beaded : —
" Instructions delivered to Mr. John Richbell in ordeA
to t/ie intended settlement of a Plantation in the
south-west parts of New England, in
behaJf of himself and of sub-
scribers,"
They piously begin, and are in these words : —
" God sending you to arrive safely in New England,
our advice is that you informe yourself fiilly by sober
understanding men of that parte of [the] land which
lyeth betwixt Connecticott and the Dutch Collony,
and of the seacoast belonging to the same, and the
Islands that lye betwixt Long Island and the Maine,
viz. : within what government it is, and of what kiude
that government is, whether very strict or remisse,
who the Chiefe Mjigistrates are, on what termes ye
« XI. N. K. Gon. Rec., p. 347.
s Bedtal in adood to her of 14th Nov., 16G8, in tbo wrfter*8 poowwiou.
144
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Indians stand with them, and what bounds the Dutch
pretend to, and being satisfyed in these particulars,
(viz.) that you may with security settle there and
without offence to any. Then our advice is that you
endeavour to buy some small Plantation that is al-
ready settled and hath an house, and some quantity of
ground cleared and which lyeth so as you may enlarge
into the woods at pleasure in each, — ^be sure not to
fayle of these accommodations.
I. That it be near some navigable By ver, or at
least some safe port or harbour, and that the waye to
it be neither long nor difficult.
II. That it be well watered by some running
streame, or at least by some fresh ponds and springs,
near adjoining.
III. That it be well wooded, which I thinke y<W
can hardly misse of. That it be healthy, high, ground,
not boggs or fens, for the hopes of all consists in that
consideration."
TheD afler cautioning him to obtain a good title,
and directing him how to begin and carry on the
actual settling and planting of the location, the in-
structions, with a sharp eye to their main object, thus
conclude ; — " Lastly, we desire you to advise us, or
either of us, how affairs stand with you, what your
wants are, and how they may be most advantageously
employed by us, for the life of our business will consist
in the nimble, quiet, and full, correspondence with us;
and although these instructions we have given you,
clearly indicates [our views] yet we are not satisfied that
you must needs bring in the place so many difficulty es,
and also observe so many inconveniences, which we
at this distance cannot jxjssibly imagine ; and there-
fore we refer all wholly to your discretion, not doubt-
ing but that you will doe all things to the best advan-
tage of our design e, thereby obliedging your faithful
friends and servants
Thos. Modiford
Barbadoes Sept. 18, 1657. Will. Sharpe.*
Certainly John Richbell carried out these " instruc-
tions " to the letter. No better description of the
situation of Mamaroneck and its peculiar local char-
acteristics could be written than they contain.
Directly on the Sound, close to Connecticut and
claimed by that Colony, yet within the Dutch juris-
diction, with a deeply indented harbour, and a fine
ever running stream of fresh water falling over a reef
directly into it, backed by high wooded hills, and
skirted by the cleared planting fields of the Indians ;
and within a day's sail of the " Manhadoes," Richbell
could not have found on the whole coast a locality
better adapted to the " nimble " business of himself
and his Barbadoes friends. There was only a single
point in which it failed to meet their "instructions."
It was not "already settled," and had no "house"
already built. The Siwawoy tribe of Mohican Indians
were its sole inhabitants when Richbell first saw
1 DeoU book III., Soc. of Statu'B off., 122, 126.
Mamaroneck, and their Sachems were Wappaque-
wam and Mahatahan,' brothers in authority, but not
in blood.
How soon Richbell left Barbadoes, after the date of
his instructions, or when he arrived in New Nether-
land, or on Long Island, is not known. He pur-
chased that beautiful peninsula, or a part of it, in
Oyster Bay, afterwards, and still, known as Lloyd's
Neck, on the 5th of September 1660, which six yeare
later he subsequently sold.' He was a resident of
Oyster Bay from 1660 to 1663 or 1664, and afterwards
of Mamaroneck.
A year later, in September 1661, he made the first
purchase of the Mamaroneck lands of the Indians,
the deed for which is as follows : —
Th4i Indian Deed to John Richbell,
Mammarauock, y* 23** Sept. 1661. Know all men
by these presents; — That I Wappaquewam Right
owner and Proprietor of part of this Laud, doe by
order of my brother who is another Proprietor & by
Consent of th^ other Indyans doe this day Sell, Lett,
& make over from mee my heyres and ussignes for-
ever, unto John Richbell of Oyster Bay his heyres &
assign es forever, three Necks of Laud, the Easter-
most is called Mammaranock neck, and the Wester-
most is bounded with Mr. Pell's purchase : Therefore
Know all men whom these presents concerne, that I
Wappaquewam Doe this Day alienate and Estrange
from mee, my heires, and assign es for ever unto John
Richbell his heyres and assignes forever these three
Necks of Land with all the Meadows Rivers and
Islands thereunto belonging, Also the said Richbell
or his Assignes may freely feed cattle, or cutt Timber
Twenty miles Northward from the marked Trees of
the Necks, fibr and in consideracion the said Richbell
is to Give and Deliver unto the aforenamed Wappa-
quewam the goods hereunder mentioned, the one
halfe about a month aft«r the date here of, and the
other halfe the next Spring following, as the Inter-
preters can Testify e, & for the true performance
hereof I Wappaquewam doe acknowledge to have
Reseived two Shirts & Ten Shillings in Wampum the
Day and Date above Written.
The mark of
+
Wappaquewam,
Twenty Two Coats,
One hundred fathom of Wampum,
Twelve Shirts,
Ten paire of Stockings,
Twenty hands of powder,
Twelve barrs of Lead,
Two firelockes,
ffifteen Hoes,
3 In a Hiiigle imiikt uf thu tituo, thiti uaiue itf spulliHl " Muthutiuoa/'
but 111 all tlio utli«ni *' Muliutahau."
'' 8oo cbuptur un " Mumarunoi^k " fur mnw delailM uf liichbell aod bli
rooldencu io Oyator Bay.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
145
ffifteen Hatchets,
Three Kettles.*
In the December following the execution and de-
livery of the foregoing deed one Thomas Revell also
of Oyster Bay a merchant, and rival of Eichbell at-
tempted to claim the same lands under a deed from
an Indian, for " two Necks " dated the 27th of Octo-
ber 1661. This led to an examination into the facts
by the Dutch authorities when Richbell presented to
them his memorial for a '' grondbref,'' or permit to
extinguish the Indian title, in December 1661. This
examination shewed Revell's claim to be a fraud,
and the Dutch Government accordingly issued their
ground brief to Richbell, and later, their ** Trans-
" port," or Patent. When the change of rule came
and the English were in power and the Dutch
Transports, or patents, had been confirmed by
English ones under the Duke of York, Richbell had
recorded with his English Patent, in the Secretary's
office of the Province, the numerous affidavits
made in 1661 and 1662 and laid before the Dutch
authorities, on which they condemned Revell's In-
dian deed and claim, and decided in his own favor,
together with another by an eye witness made in
1665,' and an Indian certificate of Confirmation of
the foregoing Indian deed to him of September 23**,
1661.»
The latter is in these words : —
Indian Oertificate of Confirmation to John Richbell,
" Recorded for Mr. John Richbell the 6th day of
June 1666 this Indyan deed.
I Wampaquewam, together with my brother Maha-
tahan, being the right owners of three Necks of
Land, lying and being Bounded on ye East side with
Mamaranock River, and on y* West side with the
Stony River which parts the said Land and Mr. Pells
purchase, Now These are to certify to all and every
one of whom it may concerne, That I Wampaquewam
did for myselfe and in the behalfe of my aforesaid
Brother Mahatahan^ firm firmly Bargain and Sell to
Mr. John Richbell of Oyster Bay, to him and his
Heires forever, the above mentioned three Necks of
Land, together with all other Priviledges thereunto
belonging, Six weeks before I sold it to Mr. Thos.
Revell. And did mark out the Bounds, and give Mr.
Richbell possession of the said Land, and did receive
part of my pay there in hand, as Witness my hand.
Witnesse The mark of
Jacob Yough +
Catharine Yough.* Wampaquewam.
i This deed 1b recorded in the Secretaiy of State's ofBoe at Albany,
Book of Entries No. 4, p. 126 ; and Is here printed from a copy certified
by W. Bobln Depr SecJ of the Province on 12th March, 1722, in the
writer's poesemiun. In the Books as now numbered at Albany, It is in
Liber 2 of Deeds, p. 192. The mark of Wappaqaewam is omitted in the
record.
s As explained above in this SMay.
s Liber 2 of Deeds, 192-199, Sec. of state's off» Albany.
« Liber Two of Deeds p. 128.
11a
In December, 1661, John Richbell made his appli-
cation to the Dutch Governor and Council for the
grond-bref above alluded to. His memorial, dated
the day before Christmas, 1661, is in these words :
John Richbells Petition to the
Dutch Goveknment for a Patent.
Amsterdam in New Netherland, 24 Dec, 1661.
To the Most Noble, Great, and Respectful Lords,
the Directors-General and Council, in New Nether-
land, solicits most reverently John Richbell, that it
may please your Honours to grant him letters patent
for three Necks of Lands, the east Neck being named
Mammoranock Neck, the western with the adjacent
Land by some named Mr. Pells Land, promising that
all persons who with the supplicants permission or
order would settle there with him, shall be willing to
solicit letters patent for such a parcel of land as they
may imend to settle. In the meantime he suppli-
cates that your Honours may be pleased to grant
him letters patent for the whole tract, which he is
willing to enforce and instruct them of your Honours
Government and will, in similar manner, on terms
and conditions as are allowed to other villages. Hop-
ing for your assent he remains, respectfully,
John Richbell.*
This memorial was read and considered by director
Stuyvesant and his Council on the 19th of January,
1662, and the applicant was requested to explain
more fnlly the extent and meaning of his proposal.
Richbell subsequently did so, and on the 6th of the
succeeding May (1662) there was granted him the
annexed "grond-bref" or ground-brief signed by
Stuyvesant himself.
Dutch Ground' Brief for Mamaroneck,
We, the Director-General and Council of State of
New Netherland, doe declare by these presents, that
we, upon the memorial or petition of Mr: John Risse-
bel and his friends, that he be under the protection
of the high and subordinate Authority of this Prov-
ince, upon terms and conditions that other inhabi-
tants doe enjoy, may take up and posssess a certain
Neck and parcel of Land called Mammarinikes, pro-
vided that the aforesaid Mr. John Ris«$ebel, his asso-
ciates, and every one that are now hereafter to come,
in due and convenient time, shall present themselves
before us to take the oath of fidelity and obedience,*
and also as other inhabitants are used, to procure
a transport of what they possess.
Given under our hand and seal the 6th day of
May, 1662, in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland.
P. Stuyvesant.^
B Deed BooK iii. 37, Sec.State*8 Office. See ante pp. 64-67 for the " terms
and conditions" referred to in this document.
> As required by the charter of ** Freedoms and SSemptions '* mentioned
above in part " 4 " of this chapter."
7 The original in Dutch of this paper in the writer's posseesiou, was
a few years ago accidentally destroyed. It is recorded in toI. zx. of the
State Records at Albany, 127.
146
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
The Dutch " Transport " which was formerly in the
writer's possession was unfortunately destroyed by
accident at the same time with the original Ground-
brief as stated above. It vested the lands in Rich-
bell absolutely.
The English Patent of Confirmation of the Trans-
port to John Richbell was granted by Governor Fran-
cis Lovelace on March 16, 1668, and is as follows : —
The English Patent of Oonfirmation to John Richbell
Francis Lovelace, Esq., Governor General, under
his Royal Highness, James, Duke of York and Al-
bany, &c. &c., of all his territories in America, to all
to whom these presents shall come, sendeth greeting.
Whereas, there is a certain parcel or tract of land
within this government, upon the main, contained in
three necks, of which the eastermost is bounded with
a small river, called Mamaronock river, being almost
the east bounds or limits of this government upon the
main, and the westermost with the gravelly or stony
brook or river, which makes the east limits of the
land known by the name of Mr. Pell's purchase. Hav-
ing to the south, the sound, and running northward
from the marked trees upon the said neck, twenty
miles into the woods, which said parcel or tract of
land hath been lawfully purchased of the Indian
proprietors, by John Richbell of Mamaronock, gentle-
man, in whose possession now it is, and his title
thereunto suflSciently proved, both at several courts
of sessions, as also at the general courts of assizes,
now for a confirmation unto him the said John Rich-
bell, in his possession and enjoyment of the premises :
Know ye, that by virtue of the commission and author-
ity unto me given by his Royal Highness, I have
given, ratified, and confirmed and granted, and by
these presents do give and ratify, confirm and grant,
unto the said John Richbell, his heirs and assigns,
all the aforecited parcel or tract of land as aforesaid,
together with all woods, beaches, marches, pastures,
creeks, waters, lakes, fishing, hawking, hunting and
fowling, and all other profits, immunities and emolu-
ments to the said parcel or tract of land belonging,
annexed, or appertaining with their and every of
their appurtenances, and every part and parcel there-
of, and in regard to the distance of the plantations
already settled, or to be settled upon the said necks of
land, from any town, the persons inhabiting,or thatshall
inhabit thereupon, shall have a petty constable chosen
amongst themselves yearly, for preserving of the
peace, and decision of small differences under the
value of forty shillings, and they shall be excused
from all common attendance at training or other ordi-
nary duties at Westchester. But in matters of assess-
ment and public rates, they are to be assessed by the
officers of that town to which they do properly be-
long, being th^ nearest unto them, to have and to
hold the said parcel and tract of land in the said three
necks contained, and premises with all and singular
the privileges and appurtenances to the said John
Richbell, his heirs and assigns, to the proper use and
behoof of the said John Richbell, his heirs and as-
signees forever, as free land of inheritance, rendering
and paying as a quit rent for the same yearly, and
every year, the value of eight bushels of winter
wheat, upon the five and twentieth day of March, if
demanded, unto his Royal Highness and his heirs, or
to such governor or governors as shall from time to
time be appointed and set over them. Given under
my hand and seal, at Fort James, in New York, on
Manhattans Island, the 16th day of October, in the
twentieth year of the reign of our sovereign. Lord
Charles the second, by the grace of God, of England,
Scotland, France and Ireland, king, defender of the
faith, &c. &c., Anno Domini, 1668.
Francis Lovelace.*
The three Necks described in this patent, were
called the " East " the " Middle," and the "West"
Necks. The Middle Neck was sometimes styled the
" Great Neck," from its longer extent of water front,
which led to the supposition that its area below West-
chester Path was greater than that of the East Neck.
The "East Neck" extended from Mamaroneck River to
a small stream called "Pipins Brook" which divided it
from the Great Neck and is the same which now crosses
the Boston Road just east of the house of the late Mr.
George Vanderburgh ; the " Middle Neck " extended
from the latter stream westward to a much larger
brook called " Cedar or Gravelly Brook," which is the
one that bounds the land now belonging to Mr. Meyer
on the west ; and the " West Neck " extended
from the latter to another smaller brook still further
to the westward, also termed " Stoney or Gravelly
Brook," which was the East line of the Manor of
Pelham. A heated controversy arose between John
Richbell and John Pell, as to which of the two brooks
last named was the true boundary between them,
Pell claiming that it was the former and that the
" West Neck " was his land. After proceedings be-
fore Governor Lovelace and in the court of assizes
the matter was finally settled on the 22d of January
1671 by an agreement practically dividing the dis-
puted territory between them. This was approved
by Governor Andros and permission given for a sur-
vey.*
For some reason not now known, the survey and
division was not actually effected till 1677, when it
was made by Robert Ryder the Surveyor-General as
follows ; —
" Whereas there hath been a difference between
John Richbell and Mr. John Pell which by virtue of
an order from the Right Honourable Major Edmund
Andros Esqr. Governor Generall of New York, I have
made a division of the within mentioned Neck of
Land by and with the mutual consent of both parties,
1 This patent is recorded in Book of Patents II. p. 75, at Albany,
s A cotemporary copy of this agreement signed by Pell, with Andros'
permit annexed is in the writer's poeseaslon.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
14T
which is in manner and fonn as is hereafter expressed
viz/ That the said Richbell shall extend from Cedar
Tree Brook or Gravelly Brook, south westerly fifty
degrees to a certain marked Tree, lying above the now
comon Road thirty and four chains in length, marked
on the east with R and on the west with P/thence ex-
tending south sixty three d^rees East by certain
marked Trees pfixed ^ ending by a certain piece of
Meadow at the Salt creek which runs up to Cedar
Tree Brook or Gravelly Brook, extending from the
first marked Trees Nor Nor West to Brunkes's River
by certain Trees in the said Line marked upon the
west with P. and upon the east with R. performed
the twenty second day of May 1677.
p' me Robert Ryder Surv.y'
The preceeding Surveyor above mentioned is mu-
tually consented unto by the above mentioned Mr.
John Richbell and Mr. John Pell in presence of us.
Thomas Gibbs
Walter Webbs
John Sharp
Joseph Carpenter,'
Thus was permanently settled the controversy re-
garding the West Neck, a settlement which finally
determined the eastern boundary of the Manor of
Pelham. As neither the Middle or Great Neck, nor
the West Neck, formed any part of the Manor of
Scarsdale, an account of them will not be given here,
but will be found in the chapter on the Town of
Mamaroneck as now erected.
In Richbell's Petition of the 24th of December
1661 to the Dutch Government for a ground-brief
above given, he says the name of the " East Neck "
is *'Mamaranock Neck." A misreading by Mr.
Bolton of the first of these two words in this docu-
ment as recorded led to his stating in the first edition
of his History of Westchester County issued in 1848,
(vol. i. 282) that the ''aboriginal name" of the East
Neck was " Wanmainuck," and the error has con-
tinued in the second edition, (vol. i. 463). This has
led subsequent writers to repeat the statement. It
was however purely a mistake of Mr. Bolton. The
true "aboriginal name" of the East Neck was
** Mamaranock," the same as the river which formed
its eastern boundary. This word was spelled in very
many ways, in early days, by the Dutch and English
in public and private letters, documents, and instru-
ments, but all aiming at giving the original Indian
sound. In the early part of the eighteenth century
the present spelling "Mamaroneck" obtained and
has ever since been used. It is the Indian name of
the River flowing into the head of the Harbour.
Like most Indian names it is descriptive of a strik-
ing natural object and efiect, and signifies "The Place
where the Fresh water falls into the Salt." A short
> So in the original.
SFrom a cotemporary copy of the original in the writer's
distance above the present bridge between the towns
of Mamaroneck and Rye where the river bends sud-
denly to the east and then takes a northerly course,
a rocky reef originally crossed it nearly at right
angles, causing the formation of " rapids." It was
high enough to prevent the tide rising over it at high-
water, so that the fresh water of the river always fell
directly into the salt water of the harbour, and at low
water with a strong rush and sound. It was thus a
striking and unusual occurrence in nature, and is the
source of the Indian name of the River itself and of
the East Neck of which it was the eastern boundary.
No authority has been found for another significa-
tion " the place of the rolling stones " that has been
ascribed to the word " Mamaroneck " by Mr. Bolton.
Rolling stones are not found anywhere in the neigh-
borhood, the rocks being what the geologists call
in situ, and the boulders of huge size and weight.
RichbelPs Patent of confirmation from Governor
Lovelace is dated October 16th, 1668. On the 14th of
the ensuing November, twenty-eight days later, he
conveyed the East Neck to Margery Parsons, his
wife's mother, " for valuable consideration of certaine
goods formerly delivered and paid unto me by Mrs.*
Margery Parsons upon the Island of St. Christopher's
in America.' Two days afterward, on the 16th of No-
vember 1668 Margery Parsons conveyed to her daugh-
ter Mrs. Richbell the East Neck " for that singular
and dear affection I have and bare to my most dear
daughter Mrs. Ann Richbell wife of the said Mr.
John Richbell for her dutiful observance towards
me." * By way of making this provision for his wife
more secure, John Richbell settled the same East
Neck upon her as a jointure, by a deed in trust to
John Ryder dated 23d of April, 1669, " in considera-
tion of a marriage long since had and solemnized
between the said John Richbell and Ann his present
wife," and therein describes the Neck as follows, "All
that parcell or neck of Land where he now Lives
called the East Neck, and to begin at the Westward
part thereof at a certaine creeke lying, being, and ad-
jacent by and betwixt y* Necks of Land commonly
called y* Great Neck, and the East Neck, and so to
run eastward as farr as Momorononeck River, includ-
ing therein betwixt the said two lines, all the land as
well North into y* woods above Westchester Path
twenty miles, as the lands belowe the Path southward
towards the Sound."*
John Richbell died the 26th day of July 1684,«
leaving his widow him surviving, in whom his entire
real estate vested in fee absolutely under the above
deeds and jointure, except what little he and his wife
had together conveyed in his lifetime.
8 Ancient copy of the deed in writer's poaBeasion. It is alao Becorded in
SecT* offlco and in We«t. Co.
* Ancient copy of tliit original in the writer's pooaession, original not
recorded.
& Ancient copy in writers pceseesion. Also recorded in book A, 238
Ac West. Co.
ft West. Co. Records Lib. A. p 34.
148
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
On the 23d of December 1697 Mrs. Ann Riehbell
conveyed the entire East Neck and all her right, title
and interest therein and thereto, by a fiill covenant
warranty deed, in consideration of £600 New York
currency, to "Coll. Caleb Heathcote, Mayor of the
Borough of Westchester,'' his heirs and assigns forever
in fee simple absolute, excepting only a small tract
previously deeded as a gift to James Mott and his
wife in 1684, and another small piece deeded as a gift
to John Emerson on the 80th of Sept 1686, which
latter was subsequently conveyed by Emerson to Mott
by deed dated 25th of June 1690, the wives of
both being daughters of Mrs. Riehbell. The deed to
Colonel Heathcote also provided that "this Deed of
Sale shall not obliedge the said Ann Riehbell to make
good to the said Caleb Heathcote any of the outlands
within the Two Miles further than her right and title
therein." With these exceptions Ann Richbell's en-
tire right title and estate under the deeds and Patents
of her husband John Riehbell was conveyed to, and
vested absolutely in, Colonel Caleb Heathcote.'
The above reservation to Mott referred to a small
piece of upland at the entrance to that portion of the
East Neck, subsequently, and to this day, called "De
Lancey's Neck," of about thirty acres deeded by
Mrs. Riehbell to Mary and James Mott on the 8 August
1684, which from Mott's heirs finally became vested in
the late Giles Seaman after whose death it passed by
sale to the late Isaac Hall, who sold it in his life-
time to its present owner, who built upon the prem-
ises the fine summer hotel now called, from his own
name, the "Rushmore."
The last and only other reservation in the above
deed to Col. Heathcote related to some lands which
Riehbell and his wife in his lifetime had sold in small
parcels which he called " Alottments or House Letts."
It will be recollected that Richbeirs object was to estab-
lish a quiet place for trade at Mamaroneck. In his
application to the Dutch Director and Council for
leave to purchase the Indian title and their ground-
brief, above given, authorizing him so to do, mention
is made of some persons who, with his permission,
would settle there with him, and for whom he made
himself, and was held to be, responsible. These ap-
pear to have been persons from Oyster Bay on Long
Island and Manussing Island in Rye, between which
places a sort of ferry communication across the Sound
then existed. Nothing remains to show whether the
trade of Modiford Sharpe and Riehbell was, or. was
not, profitable. If the latter, it could not have been
so very long, for the English conquest of New
Netherland in 1664, three years after Richbell's pur-
chase of Mamaroneck, put an end to its advantages
for a contraband business. After his controversy with
Pell was terminated in 1671 aa shown above, Rich-
iThiB deed wu acknowledged by Ann Riehbell March 22<i 1697 before
"Joseph ThealJustice" and wa« recorded la Lib. B, of West. Co. Bec>
ords ; p 371 Ac June 15ti> 1698.
bell did little or nothing practically towards settling
Mamaroneck. His English Patent was issued October
16, 1668. A few months later he apparently set apart
a strip adjoining the north side of the old Westches-
ter path or road from the crossing of Mamaroneck
river down to and along the shore of the harbour west-
ward for what he termed, " Alottments or House
Lotts " eight in number. The first deed from him-
self and wife was, it is believed, made to one John
Bassett on the 4th of March 1669, for number
"four" of these ''House Lotta." It was a deed of
gift, the consideration being " the Oood opinion and
Good affection we beare to Mr. John Bassett." It was
bounded east by No. three, and west " with my own
house lot named No. five." It reserved a rent of
"one bushel of winter wheat payable annually on
the 25th of March," and " one day's work each yearly
harvest ; " and prohibited any sale of the land " but
by and with the consent and approbation of the said
John Riehbell or Ann his wife." Of the other six
" House Lotts " those which were sold were conveyed
in a similar manner and with similar reservations,
except that the consideration was in monev. To each
" House Lott " was appurtenant an undivided eighth
part of a tract in the rear of the ** House Lotts,"
which, with, and including, the latter, extended two
miles " northwards into the woods." ' Later with the
consent of his grantees he had a survey made of this
tract, by Robert Ryder the Surveyor-General of the
Province. The original is in the writer's possession,
and is in these words :
THE FIEST SURVEY OF MAMARONECK.
** These may certifie all whom it may conseme y^
by a mutual consent agreed on between e Mr. John
Riehbell & the inhabitants of Momoronacke I have
runn out a certaine tract of Land w'''' is in partner-
ship betweene the said Inhabitants and the said Mr.
Jo.° Riehbell, beginning at Momaronacke [River]
running thence southwesterly fifty degrees along the
harber ninety and two chains : to a certaine runn or
Swamp called Dirty Swamp : running thence to the
ffalls of Sheldrake River including the said fialls
within the said line : N. W. 20 degrees: forty and five
chaine : running thence upon a N. W.ly [line] 46
degrees to a certaine Rocky hill being upon the
Southermost pt. of the greate plaine, one hundred
twenty and two chaines: running thence by pt, of
the edge of the plaine & threw the woods to Momor-
ronacke River one hundred twenty & seaven chaines :
ffrom thence running by the side of the River to the
Going over of the said River: one hundred & sixty
chaines. & in testimony hereof I have hereunto sett
my hand this 16'»» ffeb : 1671. Ro. Ryder
Surueye*" : " '
s Theae details are taken fhim a copy of the deed to Baaiett, In tha
writer's posBeasion. It doee not appear on the Weetoheeter Reoords nor
on thoee of the town, which begin only in 1697.
>This surrey was subsequently on the llti> of August, 1687, recorded in
Wesf . Co Lib A, 149.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
149
RichbelPs Patent of 1668 ran according to its terms
North Northwest twenty miles into the woods, its
eastern boundary being the Colony line fixed Decem-
ber Ist 1664 by Crovernor Nichols, and Ck)mmission-
ers Cartwright and Mavericke on the part of the
Duke of York and Gov. Winthrop Secretary Allyn,
and Messrs. Richards, and Crold, on the part of Con-
necticut. That line these Commissioners thus offi-
cially describe in their formal treaty between
the two Colonies ; — *' We order and declare that the
creeke or river called Mamoroneck which is reputed
to be about thirteen miles to the east of Westchester,
and a line drawn from the east point or side where
the fresh water falls into the Salt at Highwater-Mark
Nprth Northwest to the line of the Massachusetts to
be the western bounds of the said Colony of Connec-
ticut." This line remained unchanged till 1683,
nineteen years later, when the boundary was fixed at
the mouth of Byram River as its starting point. Con-
sequently the direction of the lines of RichbelPs
Patent being the same as that of the Colony line
of 1664, they could not be legally set aside or suc-
cessfully disputed in a Court of law. But certain
" Ryemen " being of Connecticut origin did make a
claim to Richbell's lands in the Whiteplains, as belong-
ing to them by virtue of a deed from an Indian named
Shapham, and several other Indians to " the Town
of Rye " dated 22d Novemb. 1683— twenty-two years
after RichbelPs purchase of the lands in September
1661. But this deed was not obtained, nor the claim
under it made by the " Ryemen," until Richbell was
about to dispose of his lands in Whiteplains. What a
perfect *' Yankee trick " this claim was is shown by
the fact that it describes the Whiteplains as being
" within the town bounds of Rye," when six days
({fter its date the then pending public negotiations
fixed the boundary line at Byram River, and Rye
ceased to be a part of Connecticut, as she claimed to
be and from which she got her " town bounds." It
was obtained in a hurry so as to base on it a
claim for the land as a part of Connecticut Smart
as it was, it proved, in the end a complete failure.
The claim of the ''Rye Men " was simply a claim
under the charter of Connecticut, which they insisted
took in every part of Westchester County across to
the Hudson River. Richbell at once brought the
matter before Governor Dongan by the following
complaint and petition for redress :
EICHBELL*8 PETITION AGAINST THE CLAIM OF RYE-
MEN TO WHITEPLAINS.
To the Right bono:'*'" Coll Tho Dongan Leiv* Govern'
and vice admirall under his Roy" high" of N.
Yorke and Dependences in America &c. And
to the bono"* Couneell.
The humble Peticon of John Richbell of Momoro-
neck Gentl.
Humbly Sheweth That whereas your Petition'
hath been for Severall years Possessed and Enjoyed
of a Certain Tract or Parcell of Land within . this
Governm' upon the maine, Contained with a small
River Commonly called Momoroneck River being
also the East bounds or Limitts of this Governm*
upon the maine, and the Westermost with the grav-
elly or Stony brooke, or river which makes the East
limitts of the Land knowne by the name of W^
Pell's Purchase haveing to the south the sound and
runing northward from the marked Trees upon the
said Neck's twenty miles into the woods the which
said Parcell or Tract of Land hath been heretofore
Lawfully purchased of the Indian Proprietors by the
said John Richbell Gentl and his Right and Title
thereunto Sufficiently Proved as |^ his Pattent filom
Governour Ijovelace bareing Date the 16*^ of October
in the 20*^ yeare of his Ma' Reigne Anno Dom 1668.
Relation being thereunto had will more fully A
at large appeare. Butt now soe it is may it please
your bono' and the hono^*® Couneell haveing a Desire
to dispose of some Quantity of said Land which is
Called the Whiteplaines and is men<;oned within said
Pattent to Severall Persons whose names ^ are Sub-
scribed to a writeing hereunto annexed for the better
Improvem*. And manureing the same & to Settle
thereon with themselves and familyes is wholly Ob-
structed and hind^ by Ryemen haveing made a greate
Disturbance amongst them and Pretends a right to the
Same therefore Cannot dispose of any part or p'cell
thereof till your bono' will be pleased to grant an
Order to Cleare the Same.
Therefore humbly pray and beseech your hono^
and the bono***" Couneell that you will bee pleased to
take the Premises into your serious consideration and
grant an order to Cleare the same Accordingly Deeire-
ing only the privlidges as farr as his Pattent doth
Extend. And shall pray Ac John Richbell.
This petition came up for hearing before the €k>v-
ernor on the 17*** of March 1684, and the people of
Rye were summoned to show cause at the next Court
of Assize why John Richbell was not the true owner
of the lands in question. But before the next Court
sat, Richbell passed from earth, his death occurring
on the 26th day of July 1684. He left his widow
Ann and three daughters, Elizabeth, second wife of
Adam Mott, of Hempstead, Mary, the wife of Capt.
James Mott and Anne, the wife of John Emerson, of
Maryland, bis only children him surviving. The
Rye claim however did not die, but remained a
source of annoyance to his widow. In 1694 the mat-
ter came to a bead. Mrs. Richbell served the follow-
ing Protest upon the Rye people at a town meeting,
and subsequently began a suit at law to test the
question.
PROTEST OF MRS. RICHBELL AGAINST RYE.'
" To all Xt*" People to whome this present Protest
1 These names do not appear upon the record at Albany,
s From the original in the writer's poesenlon. It Is recorded In Lib. A
West Co. Records, 108.
150
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
ehall Come Greeting : Know yee that whereas I Ann
Richbell of Momorronock in the County of West-
chest' in the province and Colony of New yorke the
Widdow and Relict of Jn^ Richbell Esq'., D^eaaed
Am Credebly Informed that Humphry Underhill
and severall other persons belongeing to the Towne of
Rye have made a forcable Entry : and are further
proceeding in the Like Manner Upon and into Sever-
all parcel Is and Tracts of Land within the pattent
Right of me the said Anne Richbell as may and dos
Appeare by the Grand Pattent Granted under the
hand andSeale of Coll Frances Lovelace the then Gev-
emo' of this Province: it Contrary toy* Peace of their
Maj*^ & Therefore know Yee y' I Ann Richbell of
Momorronock aforesaid being the true & Absoelute
Owner of the said Tracts or parcells of Land doe
Protest Against & forbidd any Person whatsoever
for making any forcable Entry upon the same or any
part or parcell thereof and likewise do warne and
desire all such persons that have already made such
forceable entry thereon or upon any part or parcell of
the said Pattent as aforesaid that they expell and
forthwith remove therefrom, and further do protest ag'
the Register of the County and doe forbid him at his
perrill no* to enter any of their privite agreem.** or
writing in the Records ot the County in presence of
James Mott Justice of the peace and Benjamin
Collier Esq' High Sheriff of the said County : In
Consideration whereof I doe hereby obleidge myselfe
and my heirs Execuf* and Administrators firmly by
these p^sents : to Indemnifie and Keepe harmless the
said Register concerning y* Premises aforesaid In
wittness whereof I have hereunto put my hand and
seale this twenty sixth day of February in the sixth
year of their Maj**** Reigne Annoq* Domj 169} Ac-
knowledged before us by the above Ann Richbell to be
her Act & deed the day and date above written.
Ann Richbell fl|[3l
James Mott Justis Pece.
Joseph Lee Pub. Not'.
This Instrum* was Read at a publick Towne meeting
at y' Towne house of Rye the day and date above
written, and their Answer was if they did not meddle
or make with any Lands that belongs to M" Richbells
Patent But at the same Time they wan makeing a
Qenerall Agreem* to Lay out and devide a parcell of
Land the said M" Richbell Layeth Clame Too by
virty of her said Pattent.
, Test Joseph Lee t** Comitt.
Westchest'."
This lustrum* is Recorded in the Records of the
County of Westchest' in Booke N** B. Foleo, 168 :
169.
The suit referred to was tried at the then County
town of Westchester in December 1696 and resulted
in favor of Mrs. Richbell. The following is the
verdict, which is printed from a copy certified by the
Court clerk at the time, now in the writer's possession.
It is believed to be the only Westchester County Court
document of the kind of the seventeenth century
which has come down regularly to a present represen-
tative in interest of one of the parties to the ori^nal
action. Its form being somewhat different fi*oin that
now used, and showing the names of the Judges, Ju-
rors, and Counsel, and the summary of the evidence,
gives it great and curious interest.
Verdict for Mrs, Richbdl,
" Westcheste'
Countys Ss. Att a Court of Pleas held at Westchester
for the said County Dec. y* 3**, & fourth in the
Eight year of his Majestie's Reigne, Annoq*
Domj. 1696.
Present
The Honob** James Graham, Judge, John Pell, John
Hunt, Wm Barnes, Thos Pinkney, Esq".
Maddam Richbell by Peter Chock Atturney Read
the Pattent & Joynt** &c.
Upon which the Jury was Impanneld & Swore, viz.
Edm*. Ward
Jno. Bayly
Gabriell Leggatt
Joseph Hunt, Sen"
Thomas Baxter
Charles Vincent
Thomas Bedient
Robt. Hustice Jun'
Wm Davenport
John Barrett
Roger Barton
Thomas Shuite
Mr. Underbill Reads an ord' about the Line
betweene this Province and Canniddecott and Pleads
the Land in question not within this Governm* but in
Canniddecott.
Mr. Peter Cock ' Pleads that Joseph Lee' might be
swore to give what Report he cann about the Surveigh
of the now Surveyo' Generall, who upon oath, saith,
that he begun his Sur^'ey at or about Momoronock
Bridge : * and soe Runn up by the River till till he
Came where Umphry Underhill Lives, who made
opposition with Gunns, Stones, &c. and soe went no
further.
(vert.)
The Pattent with the rest of Papers needfull Given
to the Jury, and the Sherrife Sworne to Keepe them
from fire and candles &c. until! they bringe in their
verdict,
viz.
The Jury find that Momorronack River is the bounds
of Richbells Pattent where the ffresh water ffals into
the salt in said River, and from thence a northerly
line into the woods : and if the Tenn^ in Possession be
on the West side of said Line then wee find for the
plaintive, otherwise for the Defendant.
Joseph Lee, CI."
It would have been of more interest still at this
I Jointure.
>So Id the original.
* The CJouuty Register, and aim Cleric of the Court.
4 The original bridge, which waa Aome distance north of the preient
bridge, the location of which was only made in 1800, by the Wettcheiter
Turnpike Company under their charter of that year.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
161
day, had it given the exact location of the premises
for which the suit was brought. It is believed to
have been the land of one Hunt, son-in-law of Under-
bill, who lived above and adjoining him on the upper
part of Mamaroneck River; but this is only a sur-
mise.
This decision finally established the east boundary
of Richbells Patent and settled the legal as well as ac-
tual direction of both the east and the west boundary
lines of that Patent. In the next century two con-
troversies arose regarding the location of the dividing
line between the east and the Middle Necks of
Richbell's Patent, one in 1731 and the other in 1768,
both of which were decided in favor of the Proprietors
of the Manor of Scarsdale, which included the East
Neck, the particulare of which belong more appropri-
ately to the history of Mamaroneck as a town under
the Act of 1788.
We now turn to Colonel Heathcote's title to the
part of the Manor which he obtained directly from
the Indians. This was the portion between Hutch-
inson's River and the Bronx, bordering to the south
on the Eastchester Patent, now a part of the town of
Scarsdale, a tract which in the Colony days bore,
and to a certain extent still bears, the local name of
" Th^ Fox Meadows." It is thus described in the
Indian deed from Patthunke, Beopo, Cohawney, and
Wapetuck to Colonel Heathcote, " To begin on the
west side at southermoet end of a ridge known by the
name of Richbell's or Horse- Ridge at a great Rock
and so to run a north-northwest line to Broncks's
River, and on the eastermost side from Mamaroneck
River, and from the head thereof to Broncks's River." ^
Nearly a year later, another deed was executed to
Colonel Heathcote by three of the above named In-
dians, Pathuuke, Wapetuck, and Beopo, for that part
of the land lying between the above tract and the
Eastchester Patent line in which it is thus described,
" butted and bounded as followeth Eastwardly by the
marked trees or westermost bounds of a certain tract
of Land sold by the said Beopo Patthunke Wapetuck
So Cohawney to the said Heathcote bearing date the
thirtieth day of March one thousand seven hundred
and one, northwardly by Bronxe's River Southwardly
and Westwardly by Henry Fowler's purchase and
others." * Thirty years afterward, in the first of the two
suits above alluded to instituted by the then propri-
etors of the Manor of Scarsdale against one Quimby for
trespass, Henry Fowler gave the following account of
the circumstances of this purchase of Colonel Heath-
cote, in the form of an affidavit ; — '* Memorandum
that on y' Sixth day of May 1731 in the fourth year
of his Majesties Reign Annoq. Dom. 1731, Henery
fibwler Sen' of Eastchester in y* County of West-
chester and Collony of New York, yeoman, of full age
Being sworne on ye Holly Evangelist of Almighty
1 From the original deed dated 30 March 1700-1.
3 Original deed in the writer's poMenion dated 24 Feb. 1701-2.
€k>d, Saith ; — ^that about the time Coll. Caleb Heath-
cot was lying out the purchase which is commonly
called the fox meadow purchase, Coll. Heathcott
Desired said Henery Fowler, this Deponent, to show
him said Coll. Heathcott the bounds of the Indian
purchase, that the said Henery ffowler this Deponent
had purchased of the Indians Ann Hook, Woupa-
topas, &c. for himself and others his neighbours '
this Deponent further saith that Coll. Heathcott fur-
ther said to him, I have purchased a tract of Land of
the Heathen Joyning to your bounds ; this Deponent
further saith that he went along with ColL Heathcott
and showed him his bounds of the land he had pur-
chased of the Heathens for himself and neighbours,
which waa from the Head of HatchinBonB Bivor a
straight course to Brunksis River to a marked tree,
which Coll. Heathcott acknowledged to be his Bounds
of his Indian Purchase, and this Deponent further
Saith that he hath no claim to any parts of the lands
in y^ Indian purchase or lands therein contained
which the said Henery ffowler purchased for himself
and neighbours adjoining to Coll. Heathcotts; and
that he Doth not now Declare this truth either in
hopes of loss or gain, or through any fear, or in hopes
of gaining any favour or affection of any person what-
soever, and further this Deponent saith not.
Henery ffowler.
This Deponent being
about Seventy four years
of age was sworn
before me ye date aforesaid.
Sworn before me one of his
Majesties Justices of the peace
for Westchester County.
John Ward, Justice.'
In 1696, the year before Colonel Heathcote pur-
chased from her the Mamaroneck lands, he obtained
from Mrs. Richbell her written consent to his getting
the usual deeds of Confirmation^ from the then Indians
of the neighborhood for the lands formerly bought
from Wappaquewam and other Indians by her hus-
band John Richbell. The above deeds seem also to
have been obtained to remove any possible claim to the
Fox meadows from any parties whatever whether In-
dians or whites. He also obtained on the eleventh
of June 1701 from the same Indians Patthunke, Beo-
po, and Wapetuck a similar deed of confirmation for
Richbells Mamaroneck two miles tract.*
In the course of the same year and the next he ob-
tained, with others in interest, similar Indian deeds
of Confirmation for all the lands in the great "West,"
" Middle " and " East Patents" which together cov-
ered all the county between the Manors of Cortlandt
on the north, Philipsburgh on the west, Scarsdale
on the south, and the Connecticut line on the east.
'From an ancient copy of the original in the writer*! powwioa.
4 Before explained in this en^y.
A WMt. Co. Becorde Lib. D 52.
152
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
a short account of which will be given in another
connection.
At the time of his purchase from Mrs. Ann Rich-
bell of the entire estate and rights in her Mamaro-
neck and Scarsdale lands, in 1697, Colonel Heathcote
was residing at Westchester, which the year before,
through his influence, had been created a Borough-
Town, with all its municipal privileges of a Mayor
and Aldermen and Assistants, and the additional one
of a representative of its own in the Assembly of the
Province,^ its charter, by which he was named its
first Mayor^ bearing date April 16th, 1696. He was a
merchant in New York, where he also had a town
residence, and a member of the Council of the Prov-
ince. He had been a property holder in both West-
chester and Eastchester, from about the time of his
coming from England to New York, which was in
1691. Being a man of education and means and of
affable manners, he took a prominent part in the af-
fkirs of both settlements, and, in accordance with the
popular wish, was appointed C3olonel of the Military
of the whole County. Hence the title of " Colonel,"
by which he was ever afterwards known, and spoken
of, notwithstanding the many higher and more dis-
tinguished positions and appointments he afterwards
held, one of which was the judgeship of Common
Pleas of the County, which he filled at the same time
he was colonel of its militia.
Succeeding to all the Richbell estate in the East
Neck, including the proprietary rights in the town-
ship tract of Mamaroneck, after obtaining the Indian
confirmations and other deeds for the lands, and ac-
quiring those from the head of Hutchinson's River
to the Bronx, he had the whole erected into the
Manor of Scarsdale under the Manor Grant above set
forth in 1701.
Upon an eminence at the head of Mamaroneck
harbor, overlooking the two beautiful peninsulas
forming its eastern and western sides, the blue
waters of the wide Sound into which it opens, and the
distant hills of Long Island, called from him to this
day, " Heathcote Hill," Colonel Heathcote erected a
large double brick Manor-House in the English style
of that period, with all the usual offices and outbuild-
ings, with the purely American addition, however, of
negro quarters, in consonance with the laws, habits,
and customs of that day. Here he dwelt during the
remainder of his life.
The people then living at Mamaroneck were very
few. One of the first movements of Colonel
Heathcote was to obtain the confirmation deed from
the then Indian chiefs for Richbell's two-mile town-
ship tract above referred to. This instrument, dated
June 11th, 1701, not quite three months after he ob-
tained his Manor-Grant of Scarsdale, gives us the
names of the then owners of the tract which was di-
1 It and Schenectady were the only " Borough-Towns " erected in the
ProTince of New York. Both were perfect examples of the old English
Borough-Towns in every respect.
vided into eight house or home lots. It is executed
by two Indian chiefs, Patthunk and Wapetack, and
confirms the tract " unto Collon.** Caleb Heathcote,
Capt. James Mott, William Penoir,' John Williams,
Henry Diabrough, Alice Hatfield, John Disbrough
and Benjamin Disbrough.'" Henry Disbrough's deed
fi-om John and Ann Richbell, of 16th of February,
1676,^ for his eighth part gives us the precise bound-
aries of this tract, which it terms " Maramaroneck
limmits,'' " being in length two miles and in Breadth
one mile a half and Twenty-eight rods." * The object
was to show that no difficulty with the natives might
be apprehended by persons desirous of settling at
Mamaroneck. Colonel Heathcote established a
grist mill on the Mamaroneck River near the original
bridge crossed by the " old Westchester Path," and
a saw mill high up on that river, now the site of the
present Mamaroneck Water Works, upon which site
there continued to be a mill of some kind until it was
bought two years ago to establish those works. He
made leases at different points throughout the Manor,
but did not sell in fee many farms, though always
ready and willing to do so, the whole number of the
deeds for the latter on record being only thirteen
during the twenty-three years or thereabout which
elapsed between his purchase from Mr. Richbell and
his death. Some of these farms, however, were of
great extent. He did not establish as far as now
known any Manor Courts under his right to do so.
The population was so scant, and the Manor like all
others in the county, being subject to the judicial pro-
visions of the Provincial Legislative acts, there was
really no occasion for them. He personally attended
to all duties, and matters, connected with his Manor
and his Tenants, never having appointed any Steward
of the Manor. Papers still in existence show that
his Tenants were in the habit of coming to him for
aid and counsel in their most private afiairs, especially
in the settlement of family disputes, and he was often
called upon to draw their wills- But space will not
permit mention of incidents and facts of only per-
sonal or local interest, or of details of his general
management of the Manor, or his agricultural
management of his demesne lands, which included
besides those attached to his Manor House the whole
of that portion of the East Neck below the old West-
chester Path now called De Lancey*s Neck.
Colonel Heathcote died very suddenly in the city
of New York from a stroke of apoplexy on the 28th
of February, 1720-21. In the Philadelphia American
Weekly Mercury of March 11, 1721, is a letter from
New York, under date of March 6th, which says,
" On the 28th day of February last, died the Honorable
Caleb Heathcote, Surveyor- General of His Majesty's
s Penoyer was really this name.
> Ancient copy in the writer's posseasion. Rec. Lib. G, West Co.,
p. 52.
< Lib. A, 33, West. Co. Rec.
^ The length wu north and south, and the breadth east and west
Reproduced from the Engraving from the Original Painting in possession of the
Rt. Rev. W. H. De Lancey, Bishop of Western New York.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
153
Customs for the Eastern District of North America,^
Judge of the Court of Admiralty for the Provinces of
New York and New Jersey and Connecticut, one of
His Majesty's Council for the Province of New
York, and brother of Sir Gilbert Heathcote of
London.
"He was a gentleman of rare qualities, excellent
temper, and virtuous life and conversation, and his
loss lamented by all that knew him, which on the
day of his death, went about doing good in procuring
a charitable subscription in which he made great
progress." He was buried in his "family burial-
place " in Trinity church yard, where his widow and
three of his children who died young are also buried.
His grave was in the church yard, almost beneath the
southwest window of the teamd Trinity Church.' His
widow Martha survived him till August 18th, 1786,
when she died, and was buried in the same place the
evening of the next day.' She was the daughter of
Colonel William Smith, of St. George's Manor, Long
Island, Chief Justice and Preddent of the Council of
New York. He had previously been Governor of
Tangiers, in Africa, while it was an appanage of the
British crown, where his daughter, Martha Heathcote,
was bom on the 11th of September, 1681.
Colonel Caleb Heathcote was the sixth son of Gil-
bert Heathcote, Mayor of Chesterfield, Derbyshire,
England, by his wife, Anne Chase Dickens. He was
born in his Father's house in that city, still standing,
in 1665. He was the sixth of seven sons who lived to
maturity — Gilbert, John, Samuel, Josiah, William,
Caleb and George. Of these, who all became suc-
cessful merchants in England and foreign countries,
three — ^John, William and George— died unmarried,
the latter at sea in 1678, in his thirtieth year.
Josiah's family line became extinct in August, 1811,
while the families of Gilbert, Samuel and Caleb con-
tinue to this day, but the latter only in the female
line. Gilbert, the eldest, was Lord Mayor of Lon-
don, Member of Parliament, one of the founders and
the first Governor of the Bank of England, knighted
by Queen Anne, and created a Baronet in 1732 by
George II. His grandson of the same name was
raised to the Peerage in 1856, as Baron Aveland, of
Aveland, in the County of Lincoln, and his great
grandson is the present Lord Great Chamberlain of
England. Samuel, the third son, who made a large
fortune at Dantzic, was the ancestor of the Heath-
cotes, Baronets, of Hursley Park, in the County of
Hampshire ; his son William having been created a
Baronet in 1783, and his great grandson was the late
1 The commission appointing him to this office is in the writer's pos-
semion. It is an enormouB parchment document dated, 1715.
■ This ftwjt waa told the writer by bis Father, the Rt. Rev. William H.
De Lancej, who was told it and shown the place by his father, John
Peter De Lancey, of Mamaroneck, a grandson of Colonel Heathcote. All
stones were destroyed when the First Trinity was burned, Sept. 16,
1776.
8 New York GoMHte, No. 664, of 23 Ang., 1736.
Right Honorable Sir William Heathcote, Bart., of
the Privy Council, late Member of Parliament for the
University of Oxford, the pupil and warm friend of
the poet Keble, whom he preferred to the Rectorship
of Hursley, which will ever be as famous as that of
George Herbert at Bemerton, and father of Sir Wil-
liam Heathcote, the sixth and present Baronet.
Caleb, the sixth son, left six children — Gilbert and
William and four daughters : Anne, Mary, Martha
and Elizabeth. Three of these — William, Mary and
Elizabeth — died young. Gilbert, while a youth of
twenty, co mpletiug his education in England under
the care of his Uncle Gilbert, took the small pox and
died, and is buried in that city. Anne, the eldest
daughter, married James de Lancey (bom 1708,
died 1760), eldest surviving son of Etienne— in Eng-
lish Stephen — de Lancey, the first of that family in
America, subsequently Chief Justice and Grovernor of
the Province of New York, of whom the late Rt. Rev.
William Heathcote de Lancey (bom 1797, died 1865)
was the eldest surviving grandson, and the father of
the writer of this essay. Martha, the only other
child of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, who came to ma-
turity, married Lewis Johnston, of Perth Amboy,
New Jersey, and left two sons — John L. and Heath-
cote — ^and two daughters — Anne and Margaret. The
line of Heathcote Johnston is now extinct, and that
of John L., it is said, is now extinct in the males.
Anne married William Burnet, son of Governor Bur-
net of New York, and grandson of the famous Bishop
Burnet of King William's and Queen Anne's day, but
this line is also extinct. Margaret, the other daugh-
ter of Martha Heathcote Johnston, married Bowes
Read, a prominent and distinguished public man of
New Jersey, and her grandson was the late Rt. Rev.
Charles P. Mcllvaine, Bishop of Ohio, who has many
descendants.
The Father of Colonel Heathcote, Gilbert the Mayor
of Chesterfield, was a Roundhead in the English Civil
War, and served with credit in the Army of the Par-
liament against King Charles the First. He died in
1690 and lies in the burial place of the Heathcotes on
the north side of the altar rails, in the ancient
Parish Church of Chesterfield, the cmciform church
600 years old, with the central twisted spire 230 feet
high and 14 feet out of the perpendicular, yet per-
fectly secure, which, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
is a puzzle whether it was or was not so erected origi-
nally. Against the wall of the chancel arch is a very
handsome mural monument in the ornamented style
of the 16th century, erected jointly by all his sons to
his memory bearing this inscription ;
At the foot of this here lieth,
in hopes of a blessed resurrection,
the body of Gilbert Heathcote
late of this town, Gentleman,
who departed this life the 24*^ April, 1690,
in the 69*** year of his age.
154
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
By his wife Ann,
daughter of Mr George Dickens of this town
he had eight sons and one daughter, viz.
Gilbert, John, Samuel,
Elizabeth, Josiah, William
Caleb, George, and Thomas ;
of which Elizabeth and Thomas died in their infancy;
but he had the particular blessing to
see all the rest Merchants adventurers,
either in England or in foreign parts.
This was erected by his sons,
as well to testify their gratitude,
as to perpetuate the Memory
of the best of fathers.
Here also lieth interred
the body of Ann, his said wife,
who departed this life
the 29th of November, 1705
in the 76th year of her age.
The family was an ancient one, the first of whom
there is authoritative mention having been a Master
of the Mint under Richard II. The Arms were Ar-
gent, three Pomeis, each charged with a cross or.
And for Crest, on a wreath of the colours, a mural
coronet azure surmounted with a Pomeis charged with
a cross or, between two wings displayed, ermine.
Motto : Habere et Dispertiri.^
Colonel Heathcote singularly enough was Mayor of
the City of New York in 1711 to 1714 at the same time
that his elder brother Gilbert was Lord Mayor of Lon-
don. He was one of the strongest and most active
Churchmen of his day. To him was the Church of
England in New York and in Westchester County in-
debted for its foundation and growth more than to
any other one man. He formed an organization of a
few churchmen in the City of New York termed the
Managers of the Church of England in New York, of
which he was the chairman.
This was the body which took the earliest steps to
establish an English Church in that city which event-
ually became the well known " Parish of Trinity
CJiurch," subsequently the Mother Church of all the
earlier churches in the city and to a large extent of
those in the State of New York. Heathcote was the
moving spirit and the active man in the whole move-
ment, a fact which being fully admitted by them has
drawn down upon him the ire of many writers of
dissenting bodies of Christians. He also was the
leading man in founding the parishes of Westchester
East Chester, and Rye, in the County of Westchester
to all of which he contributed his efforts and his
means. His Manor of Scarsdale and Mamaroneck
formed one of the precincts of the Parish of Rye,'
1 On the 2d of December, 1708, at the request of Gilbert and his
brothers, theta arms were confirmed, with the change of the shield from
argent to ermine, by the Herald's College of England.
s See ante p. 99 for the facts of the establishment of the Church of
England and its parishes in Westchester County.
of which he was elected by the inhabitants a warden
and vestryman. And from it he and the Rector of
Rye, the Rev. George Muirson, went forth upon those
Missionary tours which first brought the knowledge
of the Church of England into the then benighted
Colony of Connecticut, of which he has left us reports
so full that to them friends and foes have gone for
the most authentic account of men and af&ira at that
day in that Colony. So strong was the opposition
and savage the threats, that he always went fully-
armed to defend both Muirson and himself.
In consequence of the death of all his children ex-
cept Ann, Mrs. de Lancey and Martha, Mrs. Johnston,
his entire estate, real and personal, descended to those
ladies in equal shares. By Indentures of lease and
release dated the 1"* and 4*** days of July 1738 Lewis
Johnston and Martha his wife conveyed her undivid-
ed half part of her Father's estate to Andrew John-
ston a relative of her husband. And he by deed
dated July 7*** 1738 reconveyed it to Lewis Johnston
and his heirs in fee. This was for the easier manage-
ment only. By James de Lancey and wife and
Lewis Johnston jointly, were all the lands in the
Manor sold and conveyed, or leased, up to the death
of James de Lancey on the 30th of July 1760. He
died intestate, and Mrs. de Lancey 's share of the
Manor thereupon reverted to her alone absolutely in fee.
From that time to 1774 all deeds and leases ran jointly
in the names of Anne de Lancey and Lewis John-
ston, they holding the estate jointly in fee. During
this period a great deal of the Manor was sold, both
to tenants and strangers. The former were always
given the first right to purchase their farms in fee, and
no farm was ever sold to strangers except with the
tenants' assent, notwithstanding the proprietors were
not bound to do so.
In 1773 Anne de Lancey and Lewis Johnston
determined to have a partition of all the lands in the
Manor that remained unsold, and proceedings to that
end were begun under the act of the Provincial
Legislature of 1762, for that purpose. But before
they had gone very far Dr. Johnston died. The Pro-
ceedings were therefore begun anew in the names of
Anne de Lancey and the Heirs of Lewis John-
ston.
These Proceedings in Partition were instituted
under " An Act for the more effectual collection of
his Majesty's Quit-rents in the Colony of New York
and for the Partition of Lands in order thereto "
passed the 8th of January 1762, and of another
amendatory Act passed the 30th of December 1768.
The original Petition was in the name of Lewis
Johnston ; after his death his children were substituted
in his place. They were Heathcote Johnston, John
Burnet, Anne Burnet, Bowes Reed and Margaret
Reed. The other party in both Petitions was of
course, Anne de Lancey. The Commissioners to make
the partition were, Philip Pell, Jacobus Bleecker, and
William Sutton, " all of the County of Westchester."
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
155
Affc^r the proper advertisements had been published
the proper time in Rivington's New York Gazetteer
and Holt's New York Journal, two of the newspapers
of the day, the Commissioners met to organize ** at the
house of Thomas Besly in New Rochelle " on the 5th
of April 1774. Philip Pell, Jr , was appointed clerk.
The Commissioners and clerk were sworn in by Judge
Thomas Jones of the Supreme Court ^ who attended
for the purpose, and delivered to each a certificate of
their appointment, signed by himself. The Commis-
sioners ordered a notice that they would proceed to
make the survey and partition on the 6th of June 1774,
to be published, and also to be served on Alexander
Golden, Surveyor-General. This notice, with a full
description of the lands, was published weekly for six
weeks in Rivington's New York Gazetteer and Holt's
New York Journal. On the 6th of June 1774 the Com-
missioners met at the house of William Sutton, on what
is now De Lancey's Neck, accordingly. William Sut-
ton was the leading man of his day at Mamaroneck.
He was one of the Commissioners, and had been the
tenant of De Lancey's Neck for a great many years pre-
viously and continued such to his death about the close
of the Revolutionary war. He knew every one of note
in the County, and was as thoroughly acquainted
with the Manor lands in general as he was with those
he himself had in cultivation. Jacobus Bleecker was a
prominent resident and land holder of New Rochelle,
and the grandfather of the late Anthony J. Bleecker,
the well known Real Estate Auctioneer of New York.
Philip Pell was of the old manorial family of the Pells
of Pelham, and Philip Pell, Jr., the clerk was his oldest
son. All were persons thoroughly acquainted with
the extent, situation, and value, of the Heathcote
estate, and the Manor of Scarsdale.
" Sutton's House " long the farm house of the Neck,
stood near, and a little south west of, the new farm house
built about 1844, by the late Mr. Thomas J. de Lancey,
which is now a part of the house standing at the
angle of Mamaroneck and Long Beach Avenues, re-
cently bought of the James Miller estate by Mr. J.
A. Bostwick. At the meeting at Sutton's on the 6th
of June 1774, the clerk reported that he had served
Surveyor-General Colden with notice on the 2nd of
the preceding May. The Commissioners then ap-
pointed Charles Webb, at that time and for thirty
years after, one of the best Surveyors of the Province
and State, Surveyor to make the Survey under oath,
which was duly administered to him, and also to
Joseph Purdy and Gilbert Robinson as chain bearers
and Doty Doughty as " flagg carrier," and then they
adjourned to the next day, the 7***, when the survey was
begun. It was carried on daily till near the middle of
the following August, on the 16th of which month.
Maps, Field books, and Journals of the Commissioners,
were duly signed in triplicate, one copy of each of
I The author of the
War."
History of New York during the Revolutionary
which was filed in the oflSce of the Secretary of the
Province, one in the clerk's office of Westchester
County, and one retained by the owners. On the 25th
of August notice of the filing, and appointing the 11th
of October 1774 as the day of balloting for the lots as
surveyed, was ordered advertised in the papers. On
the 4th of October notice to John Harris Cruger to
attend the balloting as one of the Council of the Pro-
vince was served. On the 11th of October the Com-
missioners and Cruger met in New York at Hull's
Hotel, in Broadway, on the site of which now stands
the *' Boreel Building," and the drawing took place.
The Survey and Map, a reduced copy of the latter of
which is annexed, divided all the unsold lands then,
in 1774, remaining in the possession of Colonel Heath-
cote's heirs, into three divisions, the North, the Mid-
dle, and the South Divisions, designated by the number
of the respective lots in each. The balloting was thus
effected, a boy blindfolded, one John Wallis by name,
was appointed to draw the numbers of the lots, and the
names of the parties to whom they fell. He drew the
lots in the different divisions seriatim, 'b^inning at
the north division, taking out first a ticket with the
number of the lot, and then one with the name of an
owner. The latter tickets bore either the name of
"Anne de Lancey," or the* words "The Heirs of
Lewis Johnston." After the whole was completed the
proceedings were duly certified to in triplicate, by the
Commissioners, and each copy duly approved by the
signature of John Harris Cruger, as the Councillor of
the Province, present.
The Map gives the perimeter of the whole Manor,
and those of some of its interior parts, besides the un-
sold portions included in the partition, necessary to a
right understanding of the latter. The portions left
blank are those parts of the Manor which had previous-
ly been sold by the Proprietors. It also shows the
"Great Lotts" or the "Long Letts" being those in
the northern part of the township Tract which Colo-
nel Heathcote and the other owners had so laid out
in 1706, in the former's lifetime, and also the short lots
at their southern end, all of which took up the whole
of that tract northward and beyond the home lots, to
the township line. The latter are not shown. Colonel
Heathcote had in 1708, and in 1716 long after his Manor-
Grant, and at other later times, bought several parts
and parcels of the original home lots as Richbell had
laid them out, which in the couree of time had been
divided up by their owners. All these were either
owned separately in 1774, by his heirs, or had been
previously disposed of by them, the two extremely
small ones fronting on the Westchester path or Bos-
ton road being all that were in joint ownership at the
date of the partition. The accompanying map being
on so small a scale gives only a very general idea of
the Manor, without showing the details on the original
maps, which are all very large.
From the respective owners who received their par-
ticular lots under this final partition of the Manor
156
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Lands of Scarsdale in fee, have those lands passed to
the great number of parties now owning and occupy-
ing them, with, of course, all the rights and privileges
of all lands granted by the Crown of England prior to
the 14th of October 1775, and guaranteed and con-
firmed by all the successive constitutions of New
York, both as an Independent Sovereignty, and as one
of the United States.
The Topography of the Manor of Scarsdale is pecu-
liar, the Bronx and the Hutchinson rivers flow south-
westerly from its northwestern part, the Mamaroneck
river with its main affluent the Sheldrake, and its up-
permost branches flows southeasterly into the Sound.
It is well watered, hilly, and has singularly enough
among the hills two or three extensive flat fertile plains.
The valleys between the hills are beautiful and some of
them very deep. The country is well wooded and the
*' Sax ton Forest," formerly 300 acres, though much
reduced in size, is still one of the largest single forests
in the county. The drives are exceedingly fine,
abounding with great and varied beauty. The soil is
fertile and yields abundantly.
In elosing this chapter the writer regrets that space
will not permit specific local details of the other Ma-
nors in the county, as was the original intention, but
having assented to the editor's request to permit a por-
tion of the pages allotted him to be employed by oth-
ers, it cannot be done.
The manor grants for them are therefore only given.
MAKOB GRANT OF FELHAM.
Thomas Dongan, Captain General and Governor-
in-chief in and over the province of New Yorke, and
the territories depending thereon in America, under
his most sacred Majesty, James the Second, by the
grace of God Kinge of England, Scotland, France
and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c., — to all to
whom these presents shall come, sendeth greeting :
Whereas, Richard NicoUs, Esq., late governor of this
province, by his certaine deed in writing, under his
hand and scale, bearing date the sixth day of Octo-
ber, in the eighteenth year of the reigne of our late
sovereigne lord, Charles the Second, by the grace of
God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland,
Kinge, defender of the faith, &c., and in the yeare of
our Lord Gk>d one thousand six hundred sixty and six
— did give, grant, confirme and rattefye, by virtue of
the commission and authoritye unto him given by his
(then) royal highness, James, Duke of Yorke, Ac.,
(his now Majesty,) upon whome, by lawful grant and
pattent from his (then) Majesty, the propriety and
government of that part of the maine land, as well
of Long Island and all the islands adjacent. Amongst
other things was settled unto Thomas Pell, of Onk-
way, alias Fairfield, in his Majestye's colony of Con-
necticut — ^gentleman — all that certaine tract of land
upon the maine lying and being to the eastward of
Westchester bounds, bounded to the Westward with a
river called by the Indians Aquaconounck, commonly
known to the English by the name of Hutchinson's
River, which runneth into the bay lyeing betweene
Throgmorton's Neck and Anne Hooke's Neck, coin-
only caled Hutchingson's Bay, bounded on the
east by a brooke called Cedar Tree Brooke, or GraveHy
Brooke ; on the south by the Sound, which lyeth be-
tweene Longe Island and the maine land, with all the
islands in the Sound not before that time granted or
disspoBsed of, lyeing before that tract of land so
bounded as is before expresst ; and northward to
runne into the woods about eight English miles, the
breadth to be the same as it is along by the Sound ,
together with all the lands, islands, soyles, woods,
meadows, pastures, marshes, lakes, waters, creeks,
fishing, hawking, hunting and fowling, and all other
proffitts, commodityes and heridetaments to the said
tract of land and islands belonging, with their and
every of their appurtenances, and every part and
parcel thereof; and that the said tract of land and
premises should be forever thereafter held, deemed,
reputed, taken and be an intire infrancbised towne-
shipp, manner and place of itself, and should always,
from time to time, and at all times thereafter, have,
hold and enjoy like and equall priviledges and immu-
nities with any towne infranchised, place or manner
within this government, i&c, shall in no manner of
way be subordinate or belonging unto, have any der
pendance upon or in any wise, bounds or the rules
under the direction of any riding, or towne or towne-
shipps, place or jurisdiction either upon the maine or
upon Longe Island — but should in all cases, things
and matters be deemed, reputed, taken and held as an
absolute, intire, infranchised towneshipp, manner
and place of itselfe in this government, and should be
ruled, ordered and directed in all matters as to gov-
ernment, accordingly, by the governour and Coun-
cell, and General Court of Assizes — only provided,
always, that the inhabbitants in the said tract of land
granted as aforesaid, should be oblidged to send fibr-
wards to the next townes all publick pachquetts and
letters, or hew and cryes coming to New Yorke or
goeing from thence to any other of his Majestie's col-
lonys ; to have and to hold the said tract of land and
islands, with all and singular the appurtenances and
premises, togaither with the privilidges, imuneties,
franchises, and advantages therein given and granted
unto the said Thomas Pell, to the proper use and be-
hoofe of the said Thomas Pell, his heirs and assigns for
ever, ffully, fireely and clearely , in as large and ample
manner and forme, and with such full and absolute im-
unityes and priveledges as before is expresst, as if he
had held the same immediately ffrom his Majesty the
Kinge of England, <&c., and his suckcessors, as of the
manner of East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, in
free and common sockage and by fealtey, only yeald-
eing, rendering and payeing yearely and every yeare
unto his then royall highness, the Duke of Yorke and
his heires, or to such governour or governours as from
time to time should by him be constituted and ap-
poynted as an acknowledgement, one lambe on the
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
15T
first day of May, if the same shall be demanded as by
the said deede in writeing, and the entrey thereof in
the bookes of records in the secretarie's office for the
province aforesaid, may more fully and at large ap-
peare. And whereas, John Pell, gentleman, nephew
of the said Thomas Pell, to whom the lands, islands
and premises, with appurtenances, now by the last
will and testament of him, the said Thomas Pell,
given and bequeathed, now is in the actual, peaceable
and quiett seazeing and possession of all and singular
the premises, and hath made his humble request to
mee, the said Thomas Dongan, that I would, in the
behalf of his sacred Miyesty, his heirs and suckces-
Bors, give and grant unto him, the said John Pell, a
more full and firme grant and confirmation of the
above lands and premises, with the appurtenances,
under the seale of this his Majestie's province : Nwo
Know YeCj that I, the said Thomas Dongan, by virtue
of the commission and authority unto me given by
his said Majesty and power in me being and residing,
in consideration of the quitt rent hereinafter reserved,
and for divers other good and lawfiill considerations
me thereunto mouving, I have given, rattefied and
confirmeand by these presents do hereby grant, rattefie
and confirme unto the said John Pell, his heirs and as-
signs for ever, all the before mentioned and rented
lands, islands and premises, with the heridatements
and appurtenances, priveledges, imuneties, ffran-
chises and advantages to the same belonging and ap-
pertaining, or in the said before mentioned deede in
writing expresst, imply ed or intended to be given and
granted, and every part and parcell thereof, together
with all that singular messuages, tenements, barnes,
stables, orchards, gardens, lands, islands, meadows,
incloeures, arable lands, pastures, feedeings, commons,
woods, underwoods, soyles, quarreys, mines, min-
nerally, (royall mines only excepted,) waters, rivers,
ponds, lakes, hunteing, haucking, ffishing, ffowleing,
as alsoe all rents, services, wasts, stray es, royal tyes,
liberties, priviledges, jurisdictions, rights, members
and appurtenances, and all other imunityes, royalty ee,
power of franchises, profitts, commodeties and here-
datements whatsoever to the premises, or any part or
parcell thereof belonging or appertaining: and fiir-
ther, by vertue of the power and authority in mee
being and residing, I doe hereby grant, rattefie and
confirme, and the tract of land, island and premises
aforesaid are, by these presents, erected and consti-
tuted to be one lordship and manner — and the same
shall henceforth be called the lordshipp and manner of
Pelham ; and I doe hereby give and grant unto the
said John Pell, his heirs and assigns fiull power and
authority at all times hereafter, in the said lordshipp
and manner of Pelham aforesaid, one court leete and
one court barron, to hold and keepe at such times so
often yearly as he and they shall see meete, and all
sines, issues and amerciaments at the said court leete
and court barron, to be holden and kept in the man-
ner and lordship aforesaid, that are payable from time
to time, shall happen to be due and payable by and
from any the inhabitants of or within the said lord-
shipp and manner of Pelham abovesaid ; and also all
and every the powers and authorities herein before
mentioned, for the holding and keepeing of the said
court leete and court barron, ffrom time to time, and
to award and issue forth the costomary writts to be
issued and awarded out of the said court leete and
court barron, and the same to beare test and to be
issued out in the name of the said John Pell, his
heirs and assignes, and the same court leete and court
barron to be kept by the said John Pell, his heirs and
assignes, or bis or their steward, deputed or ap-
poynted; and I doefiirther hereby give and grant
unto the said John Pell, his heirs and assignes, full
power to distraine for all rents and other sums of
money payable by reason of the premises, and all
other lawful remedys and meanee for the haveing, re-
ceiving, levying and enjoying the said premises and
every part thereof, and all waifts, strayes, wrecks of
the sease, deodauds and goods of ffellons, happening
and being within the said manner of Pelham,
with the advowson and right of patronage of all and
every of the church and churches in the said man-
ner, erected and to be erected — ^to have and to hold
all and singular the said tract of land, islands and
manner of Pelham, and all and singular the above
granted or mentioned to be granted premisses, with
their rights, members, jurisdictions, privileidges^
heredaments and appurtenances, to the said John
Pell, his heirs and assignes, to the only proper use,
benefitt and behoofe of the said John Pell, his heirs
and assignes forever ; to be holden of his most sacred
Majestye, his heirs and successors, in free and com-
mon soccage, according to the tenure of East Green-
wich, in the county of Kent, in his Majestye's king-
dom of England, yielding, rendering and praying
therefore yearly and every year forever, unto his
said Majestye, his heirs and successors, or to such
officer or officers as shall from time to time be ap-
pointed to receive the same — ^twenty shillings, good
and lawful money of this province at the citty of
New Yorke, on the five and twenty th day of the
month of March, in lieu and stead of all rents, ser-
vices and demands whatsoever.
In testimony whereof, I have signed these presents
with my handwriting, caused the seale of the province
to be thereunto affixed, and have ordained that the
same be entered upon record in the Secretary's office,
the five and twentyeth day of October, in the third
yeare of the Kinge Majestye's reigne, and in the year
of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty and
seven. ^
Thomas Dongan.
manor-grant of morrisania.
William the Third, by the graceof God, of England,
Scotland, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the
» Alb, Book of Pat. No. II. 306., Co. R«c. Lib. A., 240.
158
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Faith, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come,
sendeth greeting : Whereas, the Hon'ble Edmond An-
dross, Esq., Seigneur of Sausmarez, late governor of
our province of New York, &c., by a certain deed or
patent, sealed with the seal of our said province of
New York, bearing date the 25th day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1676, pursuant to the commission
and authority then in him residing, did con6rm unto
Col. Lewis Morris, of the Island of Barbadoes, a cer-
tain plantation or tract of land laying or being upon
the maine over against the town of Haerlem, com-
monly called Bronckse's land, containing 250 margin
or 800 acres of land, besides the meadow thereunto
annexed or adjoining, butted and bounded as in the
original Dutch ground brief and patent of confirma-
tion is set forth ; which said tract of land and meadow,
having been by the said Col. Lewis Morris long pos-
sessed and enjoyed, and having likewise thereon made
good improvement, he, the said Edmond Andross, late
governor of our said province, did further, by the said
deed or patent, sealed with the seal of our said prov-
ince, and bearing date as aforesaid, we grant and con-
firm unto the said Col. Lewis Morris, for his further
improvement, a certain quantity of land adjacent unto
the said tract of land — which land, with the addition,
being bounded from his own house over against Haer-
lem, running up Haerlem River to Daniel Turner^s
land, and so along this said land northward to John
Archer's line, and from thence stretching east to the
land of John Richardson and Thomas Hunt, and
thence along their lands southward to the Sound,
even so along the Sound about southwest through
Bronck's hill to the said Col. Lewln Morris' house —
the additional land containing (according to the sur-
vey thereof) the quantity of fourteen hundred and
twenty acres, to have and to hold the afore-recited
tract of land before possessed by him, and the addi-
tional land within the limits and bounds aforesaid, to-
gether with the woods and meadows, both salt and
fresh watei-s and creeks, belonging to the said lands,
unto the said Col. Lewis Morris, his heirs and assignees
forever, under the yearly rent of four bushels of good
winter wheat, as by the said deed or patent, registered
in our secretary's office of our said province of New
York, &c., — relation being thereunto had — may more
fully and at large appear. And whereas, our loving
subject, Lewis Morris, (nephew unto the said Col.
Morris, lately deceased, his sole and only heir,) who is
now, by right of descent and inheritance, peaceably and
quietly seized and possessed of all the aforesaid tracts
of land and premises within the limits and bounds
aforesaid, hath,by his petition, presented unto our trusty
and well beloved Benj. Fletcher, our Captain General
and Grovernor-in-chief of our said province of New
York and territories dependent thereon in America,
Ac, prayed our grant and confirmation of all the
afore-recited tracts and parcels of land and prem ises
within the limits and bounds aforesaid ; and likewise
that we would be graciously pleased to erect the said
tracts and parcels of land, within the limits and
bounds aforesaid, into a lordship or manor, by the
name or title of the manor or lordship of Morrisania,
in the county of Westchester ; and whereas, it is pub-
licly manifest that the said Col. Lewis Morris, de-
ceased, in his lifetime, and our said loving subject, his
nephew and sole and only heir since his decease, have
been at great charge and expense in the purchasing,
settling and improving of the said tracts and parcels
of land, whereon considerable buildings have likewise
been made; and our said loving subject, being willing
still to make further improvements thereon — which
reasonable request, for his further encouragement, we
being willing to grant; and know yee, that we, of our
special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion,
we have given, granted, ratified and confirmed, and
by these presents do for us, our heirs and successors
give, grant, ratify and confirm unto the said Lewis
Morris, his heirs and assignees, all the aforesaid tracts
and parcels of land within the limits and bounds
aforesaid, containing the quantity of one thousand,
nine hundred and twenty acres of land, more ox less,
together with all and every the messuages, tenements,
buildings, houses, out houses, barns, barracks, stables,
mills, mill dams, mill howles, orchards, gardens,
fences, pastures, fields, feedings, woods, underwoods,
trees, timber, meadows, (fresh and salt) marshes,
swamps and pools, ponds, waters, water courses, brooks,
rivulets, baths, inlets, outlets, islands, necks of land
and meadow, peninsulas of land and meadow, ferries,
passages, fishing, fowling, hunting and hawking,
quarries, mines, minerals, (silver and gold mines ex-
cepted,) and all the rights, liberties, privileges, juris-
dictions, royalties, hereditaments, benefits, profits,
advantages and appurtenances whatsoever to the
afore-recited tracts, parcels and necks of land, and mill,
within the limits and bounds aforesaid belonging, ad-
joining, or in any way appertaining, or accepted, re-
puted, taken, known or occupied, as part, parcel or
member thereof, to have or to hold all the aforesaid
recited tracts and parcels of land within the limits and
bounds aforesaid, containing the quantity of one thou-
sand nine hundred and twenty acres of land, more or
less, together with all and every the messuages, tene-
ments, buildings, houses, out houses, barns, barracks,
stables, mills, mill dams, mill houses, orchards, gar-
dens, fences, pastures, fields, feedings, woods, under-
woods, trees, timber, meadows, fresh and salt, marshes,
swamps, pools, ponds, waters, water courses, brooks,
rivers, rivulets, streams, creeks, coves, harbors,
bridges, baths, strands, inlets, outlets, islands, necks
of land and meadow, peninsulas, land and meadow,
ferries, passages, fishing, fowling, hunting and hawk-
ing, quarries, mines and minerals, (silver and gold
mines excepted,) and all the rights liberties, privileges,
jurisdictions, royalties, hereditaments, tolls, and bene-
fits, profits, advantages, and appurtenances whatso-
ever, to the afore recited tracts, parcels and necks of
land and mill within the limits and bounds aforesaid be-
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
159
longing, adjoining, or in any appertaining or accepted,
reputed, taken, known unto him, the said Lewis Morris,
his heirs and assinees, to the sole and only proper
use benefit and behoof of him the said Lewis Morris,
his heirs and assinees forever, and moreover, that if
our further special grace, certain knowledge, and
mear motion, we have brought it according to the
reasonable request of our said loving subject to erect
all the the aforerecited tracts and parcels of land
and premises within limits and bounds aforesaid
into a lordship and manor, and therefore, by these
presents, we do, for us, our heirs and successors, erect,
make and constitute all the afore-recited tracts and
parcels of land within the limits and bounds afore-
mentioned, together with all and every the above
granted premises, with all and every of their appurte-
nances, unto one lordship or manor, to all intents and
purposes, and 'tis our royal will and pleasure, that the
said lordship and manor shall from henceforth be
called the lordshipor manor of Morrisania; and know
yee, that we reposing especial trust and confidence in
the loyalty, wisdom, justice, prudence, and circum-
spection of our said loving subjects, do, for us, our
heirs and successors, give and grant unto the said
Lewis Morris and to the heirs and assignees of him the
said Lewis Morris, full power and authority at all times
forever hereafter, in the said lordship or manor, one
court leet, and one court-barron, to hold and keep at
such time and times, and so often yearly as he or they
shall see meet, and all fines, issues and amerciaments,
at the said court-leet and court barron, to be holden
within the said lordship or manor, to be set, forfeited
or employed, or payable or happening at any time to
be payable by any of the inhabitants of or in the said
lordship or manor of Morrissania, or the limits and
bounds whereof, and also all and every of the power
and authority therein -before mentioned, for the hold-
ing and keeping the said court-leet and court barron
from time to time, and to award and issue out the said
accustomary writs, to be issued and awarded out of the
said court-leet and court barron, to be kept by the
heirs and assinees of the said Lewis Morris, forever,
or their or any of their stewards deputed and ap-
pointed with full and ample power and authority to
distraine for the rents, serveses, and other sums of
money, payable by virtue of the premises and all
other lawful remedies and means, for the having, pos-
sessing, recovering, levying and enjoying the prem-
ises, and every part and parcel of the same, and all
waifes, estrages, meeks, deadodans, goods or felons,
happening and being forfeited within the said lord-
ship or manor of Morrissania, and all and every sum
and sums of money to be paid as a post fine, upon
any fine or fines to be levied, of any bounds, tene-
ments or hereditaments within the said lordship or
manor of Morrissania, together with the advowson
and right of patronage, and all and every the church
and churches erected or established, or thereafter to
be erected or established within the said manor of
Morrissania, and we do also give and grant unto the
said Le^is Morris, his heirs and assinees, that all and
each of the tenants of him the said Lewis Morris,
within the said manor, may at all times hereafter,
meet together and choose assesors, within the manor
aforesaid, according to such rules, ways and methods,
as are prescribed for cities, towns and counties within
our province aforesaid, by the acts of general assem-
bly for the defraying the public charge of each re-
spective city, town and county aforesaid, and all such
sums of money assesed or levied, to dispose of and
collect for such uses as the acts of the general assem-
bly shall establish and appoint, to have and to hold,
possess, and enjoy, all and singular the said lordship
or manor of Morrissania and premises, with all their
and every of their appurtenances, unto the said Lewis
Morris, his heirs and assinees forever, to be holden of
us, our heirs and successors, in free and common
socage, according to the tenure of our manor of East
Greenwich, in our county of Kent, within our realm
of England, yielding, rendering and paying therefor,
yearly and every year, on the feast day of the Annun-
ciation of our blessed virgin, unto us, our heirs and
successors, at our city of New York^ the annual rent
of six shillings, in lieu and stead of all former rents,
dues, services and demands whatsoever, for the said
lordship and manor of Morrissania, and premises :
in testimony whereof, we have caused the great seal of
the said province to be affixed. Witnesse our trusty
and well beloved Benjamin Fletcher, our capt. gen.
and gov. in-chief of our province of New York, and
the territories and tracts of land depending thereon,
in America, and vice-admiral of the same, our lieu-
tenant commander-in-chief of the militia and of all
the forces by sea and land within our colony of Con-
necticut, and of all the forts and places of strength
within the same, in council at our fort in New York,
the 8th day of May, in the ninth year of our reign.
Anno Domini, 1697.^
By command of his excellencey.
Ben. Fletcheb.
David Jamieson, Sec'y.
MANOR-GRANT OF FORDHAM.
Francis Lovelace, Esq., one of the gentlemen of his
Majestie's Hon'ble Privy Chamber, and Governor-
General under his Royal Highness, James, Duke of
York and Albany, and of all his territories in Amer-
ica, to all to whom these presents shall come, sendeth
greeting : Whereas, there is a certain parcel or tract
of land within this government, upon the main conti-
nent, situate, lying and being to the eastward of Har-
lem River, near unto ye passage commonly called
Siting Devil, upon which land ye new dorp or village
ia erected knovm by the name of Fordham — ^ye utmost
1 Lib. Tii. of Patento, Albany.
160
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
limits of the whole tract or parcel of land beginning
at the high wood land that lyes due northwest over
against the first point of the main land to the east of
the island Pqnriniman — ^there where the hill Moskuta
is — and soe goes alongst the said kill, the Said land
striking from the high wood land before mentioned
east southeast, till it comes to Bronk's, his kill ; soe
westward up alongst ye main land to the place where
Harlem Kill and Hudson River meet, and then forth
alongst Harlem Kill to the first spring or fountain,
keeping to the south of Orabb Island; soe eastward
alongst Daniel Turner's land, the high wood land,
and ye land belonging to Thomas Hunt ; and then to
Bronk's Kill afore mentioned, according to a survey
lately made thereof by the surveyor-general — ^the
which remains upon record ; all which said parcel or
tract of land before described being part of the land
granted in the grand patent to Hugh O'Neal, and
Mary his wife, purchase was made thereof, by John
Archer, from Elyas Doughty, who was invested in their
interest as of the Indian proprietor, by my approba-
tion, who all acknowledge to have received satisfac*
tion for the same : and the said John Archer having,
at his own charge, and with good success, begun a
township in a convenient place for the relief of
strangers, it being the road for passengers to go to and fro
from the main, as well as for mutual intercourse with
the neighboring colony, for all encouragement unto
him, the said John Archer, in prosecution of the said
design, as also for divers other good causes and con-
siderations : know yee, that by virtue of ye commis-
sion and authority unto me given by his royal high-
ness, upon whom, by lawful grant and patent from his
majestie, the propriety and government of that part
of the main land, as well as Liong Island, and all the
islands adjacent, amongst other things, is settled, I
have given, granted, ratified and confirmed, and by
these presents do give, grant, ratify and confirm to ye
afore mentioned John Archer, his heirs and assignees,
all the said parcel or tract of land butted and bound-
ed as aforesaid, together with all the lands, soyles,
woods, meadows, pastures, marshes, lakes, waters,
creeks, fishing, hawking, hunting and fowling, and all
ye profits, commodityes, emmoluments and heredita-
ments to the said parcel or tract of land or premises
belonging or in any wise appertaining, and of every
part and parcel thereof ; and I doe likewise grant unto
ye said John Archer, his heirs and assignees, that the
house which he shall erect, together with ye said par-
cel or tract of land and premises, shall be forever
hereafter held, claimed, reputed, and be an entire and
enfranchised township, manor and place of itself,
and shall always, from time to time, and at all times
hereafter, have, hold and enjoy like and equal privi-
leges and immunities with any town enfranchised or
manor within this government, and shall, in no manner
of way, be subordinate or belonging unto, have any
dependence upon, or in any wise be under the rule,
order or direction of any riding, township, place or
jurisdiction either upon the main or Long Island, but
shall, in all cases, things and matters, be deemed, re-
puted, taken and held as an absolute, entire, enfran-
chised township, manor and place of itself in this
government, as aforesaid, and shall be ruled, ordered
and directed, in all matters as to government, by ye
governor and his council, and ye general court of as-
sizes, only always provided that the inhabitants of
the said town, or any part of the land granted as
aforesaid, shall be obliged to send forward to ye next
town or plantation all public pacquetts and letters, or
hue and cryes, comming to this place or going from
it towards or to any of his majestie's colonies ; and I
do further grant unto the said John Archer, his heirs
and assignees, that when there shall be a sufficient
number of inhabitants in the town of Fordham afore-
mentioned, and the other parts of ye manor capable
of maintaining a minister, and to carry on other
public afiairs ; that then the neighboring inhabitants
between the two kills of Harlem and Bronk's be
obliged to contribute towards the maintenance of
their said minister and other necessary public charges
that may happen to arise, and likewise that they be-
long to the said town, according to the direction of
the law, although their said farms and habitations be
not included within this patent, to have and to hold
ye said parcel and tracts of land, with all and singular
the appurtenances and premises, together with the
privileges, immunities, franchises and advantages
herein given and granted unto the said John Archer,
his heirs and assignees, unto the proper use and be-
hoof of him, the said John Archer, his heirs and as-
signees forever, fiilly, truly and clearly, in as large
and ample manner, and from and with such full and
absolute immunities and privileges as is before ex-
pressed, as if he held the same immediately from his
majesty, the King of England, and his successors, as
of the manor of East Greenwich, in the county of
Kent, in free and common soccage and by fealty, only
yealding, rendering and paying yearly and every year
unto his royal highness, the Duke of York and his
successors, or to such governor and governors as from
time to time shall by him be constituted and appointed,
as all acknowledgment and quit rent, twenty bushels
of good peas, upon the first day of March, when it
shall be demanded. Given under my hand, and
sealed with the seal of the province at Fort James,
in New York, on the island of Manhattan, this thir-
teenth day of November, in the twenty-third year of
the reign of our sovereign lord, Charles the Seccond,
by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France
and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and Anno
Domini, 1671.
Francis Lovelace,
manoe-grant of philips^borough.
William and Mary, by the grace of God, Ac., "king
and queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland,.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
160a
-Jh
efenders of the f ith, &c., to a]] to whom these pres-
nts shall come, greeting: whereas, the Honorable
Uchard Nicolls, Esq., late governor of our Province
>f New York, &c., by a certain deed or patent, sealed
fvlth the seal of our said Province, bearing date the
3th day of Oct., in the year of our Lord, 1666, pursu-
ant to the authority in him residing, did give and
grant unto Hugh O'Neale and Mary his wife, their
heirs and assigns, all that tract of land upon the main,
bounded to the north by a rivulet called by the In-
dians, Meccackassin, so running southward to Nep-
perhan, from thence to the kill %orackkapock and
to Paparinnomo, which is the southermost bounds,
then to go across the country, eastward by that which
is commonly known by the name of Bronx's river,
together with all the woods, marshes, meadows, pas-
tures, waters, lakes, creeks, rivulets, fishing, hunting
and fowling, and all other profits, commodities and
emoluments to said tract of land belonging, with their
and every of their appurtenance, to have and to hold
unto the said Hugh O'Neale and Mary his wife, their
heirs and assigns forever, as by the said deed or pat-
ent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and
at large appear, and whereas, the said Hugh O'Neal
and Mary his wife, by their certain deed or writ, dated
30th day of Oct., in the said year of our Lord, 1666,
did sell, alien, assign and set over all and singular
the right and title and interest of in and to the
aforenamed tract of land and premises, unto Elias
Doughty of Flushing, in the Co. of York, on Long
Island, unto the said Elias Doughty, his heirs and as-
signs forever, as by the 'said deed or writing, relation
being thereunto had, as may more fiilly and at large
appear, and whereas, the said Elias Doughty by his
certain deed or writing, bearing date 29 day of Nov.,
in the year of our Lord, 1672, for the consideration
therein expressed and mentioned, did assign and set
over, all and singular his right and title and interest,
of, in and to the aforementioned tract of land and
premises unto Thomas Deleval, Esq., Frederick Phil-
ips and Thomas Lewis, mariner, to hold to them, their
heirs and assigns forever, as by the said deed or writ-
ing relation being thereunto had, may more fully and
at large appear ; and whereas, the said Thomas Dele-
val, in and by a certain codicil annexed unto his last
will and testament in writing, bearing date the 10
day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1682, amongst
other things did devise unto John Deleval his only
son, all that his interest in the aforementioned land
and premises, his one full, equal and certain third
thereof, as by the said codicil in writing, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear; and, whereas, the Hon. Col. Thomas Don-
gan, late gov. of our said' province, &c., and as by a
certain deed or patent, sealed with the seal of our
said province, &c., and bearing date the 19th of Feb.,
in the year of our Lord, 1684-^, pursuant to the
authority in him then residing, for the consideration
therein expressed, did further grant, ratify and con-
lib
firm, unto the said Thomas Deleval, Frederick Phil-
ips, Geertje Lewis, relict of the said Thomas Lewis,
due their heirs and assigns, all the aforesaid tract and
parcel of land beginning at a small rivulet known and
called by the Indians, Makakassin, from thence into
the woods due east by a great rock stone and a lyne of
marked trees, to Bronx's river, and thence by said
river, four miks and something more, to a marked
white oak tree upon the middle of a great ledge of
rocks, which is the north-east corner of the land of
Francis French & Co., in the mile square formerly
sold out of the aforesaid patent, then by the said land,
west, 35 deg. northerly, 1 mile or 80 chains from
thence east 35 deg. southerly to Bronx's river to a
marked tree, which is the south-east corner of the
mile square, excepted out of the said patent, from
thence by Bronx's, his river, 89 chains to a marked
tree, which is the north-east corner of Wm. Betts and
George Tippets, and then by a certain lyne of marked
trees due west 30 chains to the marked tree or south-
east corner of the purchase of John Heddy, then due
N. 34 chains, from thence due west by their purchase,
90 chains to the north-west corner of the 300 acres,
then due south 16 chains to the north-west corner of
the 20 acres purchased of John Heddy, thence and
by the said land west 12 chains to the north-west cor-
ner, then by the side of the kill, south 18 chains to
the land of Wm. Betts and George Tippette, from
thence by a lyne of marked trees due west 79 chains,
to a white oak tree standing on the bank of Hudson's
river, to the south of Dog-wood brook 16 chains and
} and then northerly by the Hudson's river to Nep-
perha, which is near the Yonkers mills, and so con-
tinue by Hudson's river to the first mentioned small
rivulet, Maccakassin, the whole being bounded to the
north with a lyne of marked trees and a great rock
stone, to the east by Bronx's river and the land of
Francis French and Co., to the south by the land of
Wm. Betts, George Tippets and Thomas Heddy, to
the west by Hudson's river, containing in all, 7,708
dcrea, together with all and singular the messuages,
tenements, buildings, bams, stables, orchards, gar-
dens, pastures, meadows, mills, mill-dams, runs,
streams, ponds, rivers, brooks, woods, under-woods,
trees, timber, fencing, fishing, fowling, hunting,
hawking, liberties, privileges, hereditaments and im-
provements whatsoever, belonging or in any way ap-
pertaining, to have and to hold all the aforementioned
tract and parcel of land, with all and singular the
aforementioned premises, unto the said John Deleval,
Frederick Philips, Geertje Lewis, their heirs and
assigns forever, as by the said deed or patent reg-
istered in our secretary's oflice of our province of New
York aforesaid, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear ; and, whereas the said
Thomas Deleval, by a certain deed of indenture,
sealed with the seal, and bearing date the 27th day of
August, in the year of our Lord, 1685, did, for the
consideration therein mentioned, grants bargain and
1606
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
sell, all that one full third ])art of all and singular the
said tract of land, afore recited, described and bounded
within the limits aforesaid unto him the said Freder-
ick Philips one of the parties aforesaid, together with
all that one full and equal third part of all and singu-
lar, the houses, out-honses, barns, stables, mills, mill-
dams, buildings, fences and edifices thereon erected
and built, and likewise one full third part of all and
singular the waters, water- courses, streams, woods,
underwoods, fishing, fowling, hawking, hunting,
hereditaments and appurtenances to the same belong-
ing, or in any way appertaining to have and to hold
unto the said Frederick Philipse, his heirs and as-
signs forever, as by the said deed or indenture, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large ap-
pear ; and whereas, the said Geertje Lewis, executrix
of the last will and testament of Thomas Lewis, late
of New York, mariner, her late husband, deceased,
and Lodivick Lewis, Barrent Lewis, Leonard Lewis,
Katharine Lewis and Thomas Lewis the children
and co-heirs of said Thomas Lewis and Geertje his
wife, by a certain deed of indenture, sealed with the
seal bearing date the 12 day of June, in the year of
our Lord 1686, did, for the consideration th^ein
mentioned, grant, bargain and sell, all that the full
one-third part of all and singular the said tract of
land afore-recited, described and bounded with the
limits aforesaid, unto him, the said Frederick Phil-
ips, one of the parties aforesaid, together with all that
one full and equal third part of all and singular the
houses, out-houses, barns, stables, mills, mill-dams,
buildings, fences and edifices thereon erected and
built, and likewise one fiill third part of all and
singular the water, water-courses, streams, woods,
underwoods, fishing, fowling, hunting, hawking,
hereditaments and appurtenances to the same be-
longing or in any wise appertaining, to have and to
hold unto the said Frederick Philips, his heirs and as-
signs forever, as by the said deed or indenture, rela-
tion being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear, and whereas, the Hon. Sir Edmund Andross,
late governor of our said province of New York, Ac,
by a certain writing or patent, sealed with the seal
of our said province, bearing date the first day
of April, in the year of our Ix>rd, 1680, pur-
suant to the authority in him then residing,
did give and grant unto the said Frederick
Philips, a certain tract or parcel of land, beginning
at a creek or river called by the Indians, Pocanteco
or Wackandeco, with power thereon to set a mill or
mills, with a due portion of land on each side, adjoin-
ing unto the said river, lying within the bounds of
the Indians land at Wickers creek, on the east side of
the Hudson river, which said Indian land was by the
said Frederick Philips purchased fromthesaid native |
Indian proprietors thereof, by the licence and appro-
bation of the said Sir Edmund Andross and the said
Indian proprietors did, in thepresence of Sir Edmund
Andross aforesaid, acknowledge to have received a full
satisfaction of him the said Frederick Philips for the
said land adjoining, to each syde of the creek or river
aforesaid, which said land is situate, lying and being
on each side of the said creek or river, north and
south 1600 treads or steps which at 1 2 ft to the rod,
makes 400 rod and runs up into the country so far as
the said creek or river goeth, with this proviso or re-
striction that if the creek or river called by the Indi-
ans, Nippiorha, and by the charters Yonkers creek or
kill shall come within the space of land of 400 rods
on the south side of the aforenamed creek or river,
that shall extend no farther than the said creek or
river of Nippiorha, but the rest to be so far up into
the country on each side of the said creek or river
called Pocanteco as it runs, being about north-east,
to have and to hold all the aforesaid recited tract or
parcel of land unto him the said Frederick Philips,
his heirs and assigns forever, as by the said grant
or patent registered in our secretary's ofiSce of our
province of New York, Ac., aforesaid, relation being
thereunto had may more fully and at large appear,
and whereas the Honorable thomas Dongan late gov.
of our province of New York, Ac., aforesaid, by virtue
of the power in him then residing hath, by another
grantor patent sealed with the seal of our said prov-
ince of New York, and registered in our secretary's
office of our province aforesaid, bearing date 23d of
September, in the year of our Lord 1684, given,
granted, ratified, and confirmed, unto said Frederick
Philips, his heirs and assigns, several tracts and par-
cels of land with the limits and bounds hereafter men-
tioned, that were according to' the usage, custom, and
laws of our said province purchased by the said Fred-
erick Philips from the native Indians and proprietois,
in manner and form following, (that is to say,) all
those certain parcels and pieces of land lying about
the Wigquaskeek that was on the 25th day of October,
in the year of our Lord, 1680, purchased by the said
Frederick Philips of the Indian Goharius, brother of
Weskora, sachem of Wigquaskeek, for himself and by
the full order of Goharius, which certain parcel or
parcels of land are lying about Wigquaskeek to the
north syde and tending from the land of the aforesaid
Frederick Philips running along the North river to
the north of the small creek called by the Indians
Sepackena creek, as far as it goeth into the woods,
and coming to the end of the aforesaid creek, then
shall the aforesaid pieces or parcels of land have
their line north-east, or if the creek Pocantoco Wack-
andeco upon which at present ^ stands the mills of
the said Frederick Philips, shall run upon a north-
east lyne, then the said land shall run along the said
creek Pocanteco, or Weghkandeco, into the woods as
the said creek or kill shall go, and there shall be the
end or utmost bounds of the said certain pieces of
land, as by the said writing or Indian deed, relation
being thereunto had may more fully and at large ap-
1 12 JuD«, 1693.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
160c
pear, as Ukewise another tract or parcel of land on
the east side of Hudson's river that was by said Fred-
erick Philips purchased of the Indians Goharius, Co-
bus, and Togquanduck, on the 23d day of April, in the
year of our Lord, 1681, which tract or parcel of land
being situate on the east side of the North or Hud- j
son's river, beginning at the south side of a creek |
called Bissigktick, and so ranging along the said river
northerly to the aforesaid land of the aforesaid Fred-
erick Philips, and then alongst the eaid land north-
east and by east until it comes to and meets with the
creek called Nippiorha, if the said creek shall fall
within that lyne, otherwise to extend no further than
the head of the creek or kill called Potanteco, or
Puegkanteko, and southerly alongst the said river
Neppiorha if the same shall fall within the said line
as aforesaid, or else in a direct lyne from the head of
the said creek or kill called Pocanteco Puegkandico,
untill it comes opposite to the said first mentioned
creek called Bissightick, and from thence westwardly
to the head of the said creek and alongst the same to the
North or Hudt^on's river, being the first station, as by
the said writing or deed, relation being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear, as also another
certain tract or parcel of land on the east syde of the
said Hudson's river that was by the said Frederick
Philips purchased of the native Indians Armaghqueer,
Seapham alias Thapham, on the 8th day of April, in
the year of our Lord 1682, which certain tract or par-
cel of land is situate, lying, and being on the ea^^t
side of the North or Hudson's river to the south of
the land formerly bought by the said Frederick Phil-
ips, of the said Indians, beginning at the south side
of a creek called Bissightick, and so ranging along
the said river southerly to a creek or fall called by the
Indians Weghquegsik, and by the Christians Law-
rences's plantation, and from the mouth of the said
creek or fall upon a due east course to a creek called
by the Indians Nippiorha, and by the Christians the
Yonkers kill, and from thence alongst the west side
of the said creek or kill as the same runs to the before
mentioned land, formerly bought by the said Fred-
erick Philips of the sayd Indians, and so along that
land to the first station, as by the said writing or In-
dian deed, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear, as also another tract or par-
cel of land on the east side of Hudson's river that was
by the said Frederick Philips purchased of the na-
tive Indians Warramanhack, Esparamogh, Anhock.
&c., on the 6th day of September, in the year of our
Lord, 1682, which certain tract or parcel of land is
situated, lying, and being on the west side of the North
or Hudson *8 river, beginning at the north side of the
land belonging to the Yonkers kill, Nipperha, at a
great rock called by the Indians Meghkeckassin, or the
great stone, (as called by the Christians,) from thence
ranging into the woods eastwardly to a creek called by
the Indians Nipperha aforesaid, and from thence
along said creek northerly till you come to the eastward
of the head of a creek called by the Indians Wegquis-
keek, being the utmost bounds of the said Frederick
Philipe*s land, formerly bought of the Indians, and
from thence westwardly along the said creek Weg-
queskeek to Hudson's river aforesaid, as by the said
Indian deed, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear, and also another tract or
parcel of land that was by the said Frederick Philips
purchased of the native Indians Sapham, Ghoharius,
Kakingsigo, on the 7th day of May in the year of
our Lord, 1684, which tract or parcel of land is situate,
lying, and being to the eastward of the land of the
said Frederick Philips between the creek called
Nippiorha or the Yonkers kill, and Bronk's river,
beginning on the south side at the northerly bounds
of the Yonkers land, and from thence along the afore-
said creek, Nippiorha, however it runs, till you come
to the most northerly bounds of the said Frederick
Philips's lands, and from thence north-east into the
woods unto Bronk's river, as it runs southerly to the
eastward of the Yonkers land aforesaid, and from
thence with a westerly lyne to the aforenamed
Yonkers kill, or Nippiorha, as by the said Indian
deed, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear, all which several tracts and
parcels of land within the several respective limits
and bounds aforementioned, and purchased by the
said Frederick Philips of all and every the respective
native Indians aforesaid, in manner aforesaid, were
by the said Thomas Dongan, late gov. of our province
under the seal of our said province, bearing date as
aforesaid, given, granted, ratified and confirmed
unto him, said Frederick Philips, his heirs and as-
signs, together with all and singular the houses,
buildings, messuages, tenements, and hereditaments,
mills, mill-dams, rivers, runns, streams, ponds, with
liberty to erect other mills or dams, or places conve-
nient, woods, underwoods, quarriea, fishing, hawking,
hunting and fowling, with all liberties, priviledges,
and improvements whatsoever to the said land and
premises belonging or in anywise appertaining, to
have and to hold all the aforesaid tract and tracts,
parcel and parcels of land and premises with their
and every of their appurtenances unto said Frederick
Philips, his heirs and assignees forever, as by the said
grant or patent sealed with the seal of our said
province, and registered in our secretary's ofiice
of our said province bearing date 23d day of De-
cember in the year of our Lord 1684, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear, and whereas the aforesaid Thomas Don-
gan, late Gov. of our said province, by virtue of
the said power and authority in him residing hath
moreover by another grant or patent sealed with
the seal of our said province and registered in
our secretary's office aforesaid bearing date the
11th day of November, in the year of our Lord
1686, given, granted, ratified, and confirmed un-
to Philip Philips, eldest son of him the said
leod
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
moiety or equal half part of the said meadows
and premises with the appertinences unto the said
Frederick Philips, his heirs and assigns forever, as
by the said grant or patent, sealed with the seal of our
said province and registered in our secretary's office
aforesaid, bearing date the said 27th day of June, in
the year of our Lord, 1687, and as by the said deed
of conveyance, under the hands and seals of the said
George Lockhart and Janet his wife, bearing date
20th day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1685,
relation being thereunto had respectively may more
fully and at large appear ; and whereas Augustine
Gray ham our surveyor general for our said prov-
ince of New York, &c., hath by warrant bearing date
the 11th of February, in the fourth year of our reign,
surveyed and laid out for the said Frederick Philips,
a certain small parcel of salt meadows situate and
being on the north side of Tappan creek in the county
of Orange, beginning at a certain stake on the east
side of the said creek, and from thence run east 37°
40 min. northerly to Hudson's river six chains and
ninety links, thence along the said river twelve chains
and ninety links south one degree, westerly to the mouth
of the aforesaid creek, and from thence along the said
creek west five degrees thirty-five minutes, northerly
eleven chains, thence north twelve degrees, eastwardly
two chains and forty links, thence east forty degrees,
southerly three chains forty-five links along the said
creek, thence east eleven degrees thirty minutes,
southerly two chains twenty links, thence north six
degrees twenty -five minutes, seven chains and seventy
links, to the stake where the line first began, being
bounded on the north-west by a certain parcel of
Frederick Philips all that tract or parcel of land
commonly called by the Indians Sinck Sinck, and
situate, lying, and being on the east side of Hudson's
river by the norther most part of the land purchased
by the said Frederick Philips, and so running alongst
Hudson's river to a certain creek or river called
Kichtawan, and from thence running alongst the said
creek two English miles, and from thence running up
the country upon a due east lyne untill it comes unto
a creek called Nippiorha, by the Christians Yonkers
creek, and so running alongst the said creek un-
till it comes unto the northerly bounds of the
said land of Frederick Philips aforesaid, and from
thence alongst the said land untill it comes to
Hudsons river, together with all manner of rivers,
rivulets, runns, streams, feedings, pastures, woods,
underwoods, trees, timbers, waters, water courses,
ponds, pools, pits, swamps, moors, marshes, mea-
dows, easements, proffits and commodities, fish-
ing, fowling, hunting, hawking, mines, minerals,
quarries, (royal mines only excepted) and all
royalties, profits, commodities, hereditaments and
appurtenances whatsover to the said tract or parcel
of land within the bounds and limits aforesaid, be-
longing or in any way appertaining, to have and to
hold the said tract or parcel of land and all and
singular other the premises with their and every of
their appurtenances, unto the said Philip Philips, his
heirs and assigns forever, as by the said grant or
patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear, and whereas the said Philip
Philips did by mean assurance in the law, sell,
alienate, enfeoff, and confirm unto his said father
Frederick Philips all the afore-recited tract or parcel
of land within the limits and bounds above mentioned
and expressed, together with all and singular the
premises with their and every of their appertinences,
to have and to hold unto him the said Frederick
Philips, his heirs and assigns forever, as by his deed
of conveyance under his hand and seal bearing date
the day of in the year of our Lord 168-,
relation being thereunto had more fully and at large
appear; and whereas the aforesaid Thomas Dongan,
late Gov. of our said province, by virtue of the said
power and authority in him residing hath, by another
grant or patent sealed with the seal of our said pro-
vince and registered in our secretary's office aforesaid,
bearing date the 27th day of June, in the year of our
Lord, 1687, given, granted, ratified, released and con-
firmed unto the said Frederick Philips all that the
moiety or one equal half part of a certain entire
parcel of meadow ground, situate, lying, and being at
a certain place called Tappan near Hudson's river,
bounded to the north by a certain creek called or
known by the name of Tappan creek, to the east by
Hudson's river afuresaid, to the west by a certain
parcel of upland now in possession of George Lock-
hart, and to the south by Hudson's river aforesaid,
the said moiety or equal half part of the said mea-
dows to be laid out along the side of Hudson's river
aforesaid throughout the whole length of its bounds
upon said river from Tappan creek aforesaid, and to
be bounded to the north by Tappan creek, to the
east by Hudson's river, to the west by the other
moiety or half part of the said meadows, still running
to the said George Lockhart's, and so to run southerly
to the end of the said meadows, nothing excepted or
reserved thereof, to the said George Lockhart, his
heirs or assigns, but one cart or waine way through
the said moiety or half part of the meadow
aforesaid, which moiety or equal half part of
the meadow aforesaid was by mean assurance in
the law conveyed to the said George Lockhart
and Janet his wife unto the said Frederick Philips,
his heirs and assigns, to have and to hold the
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
meadow said to belong to Cornelius Claater, on the
east by Hudson's river, on the south and west by the
said creek, containing in all six acres three roods and
eight perches, as by the return of the survey, beaiing
date the 19th day of April, in the said fourth year of
our reign, and in the year of our Lord, 1692, relation
being thereunto had may more fully and at large ap-
pear, all which several tracts or parcels of land lying
together, and bounded and limited in manner hereaf-
ter expressed and mentioned, (that is to say) all the
said tracts or parcels of land that are on the east side
of Hudson's river are bounded to the northward by a
creek or river commonly called by the Indians Kigh-
towank and by the English Knotrus river, and now
belonging to Stevanus van Cortlandt, Esq., and so
eastward into the woods along the said creek or river
two English miles, and from thence upon a direct
east line to Bronxes river, and so running southward
along the said Bronxes river as it runs until a direct
west line cutteth the south side of a neck or island of
land at a creek or kill called Papparinemo which di-
vides York island from the main, and so along the
said creek or kill as it runs to Hudson's river, which
part of the said creek is called by the Indians Sho-
rackhappok, and continues dividing the said York
island from the main, and so from thence to the north-
ward alongst Hudson's river untill it comes into the
aforesaid creek or river called by the Indians Kighta-
wank and by the English Knotrus river and the salt
meadow grounds on the west side of Hudson's river,
are bounded and limited as here before is plainly
mentioned and expressed. And whereas our loving
subject the said Frederick Philips, one of the mem-
bers of our council of our said province of New York,
and the territories depending thereon in America,
hath by his petition presented to Benjamin Fletcher,
our captain-general and governor-in-chief of our said
province of New York, &c., prayed our grant and
confirmation of all and every the tracts and parcels
of land within the limits and bounds aforesaid, and
that we would likewise erect all the said tracts and
parcels of land within the limits aforesaid into a lord-
ship or manor of Philipsborough, and that we would
further grant unto our said loving subject a certain
neck or island of land called Paparinemo adjoining
to the land aforesaid, with the salt meadows thereunto
belonging, together with power and authority to erect
a bridge over the water or river commonly called
Spiten devil ferry or Paparinemo, and so receive toll
from all passengers and droves of cattle that shall
pass thereon according to rates hereinafter mentioned ;
and whereas it is manifest that our said loving subject
bath been at great charge and expense in the pur-
chasing and settling of the aforerecited tracts of land
whereupon considerable improvements have been
made, and that he is likewise willing at his own proper
cost aild charge to build a bridge at the feny afore-
said for the benefit and accommodation of traveUers,
which reasonable request for his future encourage-
ment we being willing to grant, Know ye^-^sX of our
special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion,
we have given, granted, ratified, and confirmed, and by
these presents do, for us, our heirs and successors, give,
grant, ratify and confirm unto said Frederick Phil-
ips, his heirs and assigns, all and every the afore-
cited tracts and parcels of land and meadow ground
within the limits and bounds before mentioned and
expressed, and likewise the aforesaid neck or island
of land called Paparinemo, and the meadow there-
unto belonging, with power, authority, and privilege
to erect and build a dam bridge upon the aforesaid
ferry at Spitendevil or Paparinemo, and to receive
rates and tolls of all passengers and for droves of cat-
tle according to the rates hereafter mentioned, (that
is to say,) three pence current money of New York
for each man and horse that shall pass the said bridge
in the day time, and three pence current money afore-
said for each head of neat cattle that shall pass the
same, and twelve pence current money aforesaid for
each score of hogs, calves, and sheep that shall pass
the same, and nine pence current money aforesaid for
every boat, vessel, or canoe that shall pass the said
bridge and cause the same to be drawn up, and for
each coach, cart, or sledge, or waggon that shall pass
the same the sum of ninepence- current money afore-
said ; and afier sunset each passenger that shall pass
said bridge shall pay two pence current money afore-
said, each man and horse sixpence, each head of neat
cattle six pence, eaeh score of hogs, calves, and sheep
two shillings, for eaeh boat or vessel or canoe one shil-
ling and six pence for each coach, cart, waggon or sledge
one shilling and six pence current money aforesaid,
together with all the messuages, tenements, buildings,
bams, houses, out-houses, mills, mill-dams, fences, or-
chards, gardens, pastures, meadows, manges, swamps,
moors, pools, woods, under-woods, trees, timber, quar-
ries, rivers, runs, rivulets, brooks, ponds, lakes, streams,
creeks, harbours, beaches, ferrys, fishing, fowling,
hunting, hawking, mines, minerals, (silver and gold
only excepted,) and all the other rights, members,
liberties, privileges, jurisdictions, royalties, heredita-
ments, proffits, tolls, benefits, advantages and appur-
tinances whatsoever to the aforesaid tracts and neck
or island of land and meadows, ferry, bridge, and
mills belonging or in any ways appertaining, or ac-
cepted, reputed, taken, known, or occupied as part,
parcel, or member thereof ; and moreover, hmw ye,
that of our further special grace, certain knowledge^
160/
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
and mere motion, we have thought fit, according to
the request of our said loving subject, to erect all the
aforesaid recite tractsd and parcels of lands and
meadows with the limits and bounds aforesaid, into'a
lordship or manor, and, therefore, by these presents
we do erect, make, and constitute all the aforesaid
recited tracts and parcels of land and meadows,
within the limits and bounds aforesaid mentioned,
together with all and every the afore granted prem-
ises with all and every of the appertinances into a
lordship or manor, to all intents and purposes ; and
it is our royal will and pleasure that the said lordship
and manor shall from henceforth be called the lord-
ship or manor of Philipsborough, and the aforesaid
bridge to be from henceforth called Kingsbridge in
the manor of Philipsborough aforesaid. And know
ye, that we, reposing special trust and confidence in
the loyalty, wisdom, justice, prudence and circum-
spection of our loving subject; do, for us, our heirs
and successors, give and grant unto the said Freder-
ick Philips, and to the heirs and assignees of him the
said Frederick Philips, full power and authority at
all times forever hereafter in the said lordship or
manor, one court leet and one court baron to hold
and to keep at such times, and so often, yearly and
every year, as he or they shall see meet; and all
fines, issues, and amercements as the said Court Leet
or Court Baron to be holden within said lordship or
manor to be sett, forfeited, or employed, or payable,
or happening at any time to be payable by any of the
inhabitants of or within the said lordship or manor
of Philipsborough, in the limits and bounds thereof,
as also all and every of the power and authority herein
before mentioned, for the holding and keeping the
said Leet and Court Baron from time to time, and to
award and issue out the customary writs to be issued
and awarded out of the said Court Leet and Court
Baron to be kept by the heirs and assignees of the
said Frederick Philips forever, in their or every of
their stewards deputed and appointed, with full and
ample power and authority to distrain for the rents,
levies, or other sums of money payable by virtue of
the premises, and all other lawful remedies and means
for the having possession, receiving, levying, and en-
joying the premises and every part and parcel of the
same, and all waifes, estrays, wrecks, deodans, and of
thefellons happening and being furnished within the
said lordship and manor of Philipsborough, and all
and every sum and sums of money to be paid as a
parte fine upon any fine or fines to be levied of any
lands, tenements or hereditaments with
in the said lordship or manor of Phil-
ipsburgh, together with the advowson
and right of patronage of all and every
the church or churches erected or to be erected or estab-
linhed or hereaft^er to be erected or established within
the said manor of Philipsborough; and we do also
further give and grant unto the said Frederick Philips,
his heirs and assignees, that all and singular the
tenants of the said Frederick Philips, within the said
manor shall and may at all times hereafter meet to-
gether and choose assessors within the manor afore-
said, according to such rules, ways and methods as
are prescribed for the cities, towns and counties
within our province aforesaid by the acts of General
Assembly, for the defraying the publick charge of
each respective city, town, and county aforesaid, and
811 ch sums of money so assessed or levied to collect
and diiipose of for such uses as the acts of General
Assembly shall establish and appoint, to have and to
hold, possess, collect and enjoy all and singular the
said lordship or manor of Philipsborough, together
with the aforesaid halls and premises, with all their
and every of their appertinances, unto the said Fred-
erick Philips, his heirs and asstignees, to the only
proper use, benefit, and behoof of him, the said Fred-
erick Philips, his heirs and assignees forever, reserv-
ing unto us, our heirs and successors, free egress and
ingress of all our and their forces, horse or foot, of
our and their coaches, waggons, stores of war, ammu-
nition, and expresses, that shall from time to time
pass the said bridge for our or their service, or any
thing contained to the contrary herein in any ways
. notwithstanding, to be holden of us, our heirs and
successors, in free and common soccage according to
the tenure of our manor of East Greenwich within
our county of Kent in our realm of England, yeald-
ing, rendering, and paying therefor, yearly and every
year, on the feast day of the Annunciation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, at our fort at New York unto
us, our heirs and successors, the annual rent of £4
12«. current money of our said province in lieu and
stead of all former rents, services, dues, duties, and
demands for the said lordship or manor of Philips-
borough and premises. In testimony whereof we
have caused the seal of our province of New York to
be hereunto afiSxed. Witness Benjamin Fletcher our
captain -general and governor-in-chief of our province
of New York aforesaid, province of Pennsylvania and
county of New Castle, and the territory and tracts of
land depending thereon in America, at Fort William
Henry, the 12th day of June, in the fifth year of our
reign, and in the year of our Lord, 1693.*
1 Lib. vii. Sec. of State's ofl^, Albany.
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