USA > New York > Putnam County > History of Putnam County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 2
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" His bark the only ship,
Where a thousand now are seen."
4
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
Continuing his voyage, he sailed for 150 miles up the river that bears his name, still hoping that the dream of long years was about to prove a reality, and he had discovered a new passage to the Southern Ocean. But the freshness of the water as he ascended toward its source soon convinced him that he was upon a river, and not upon a strait between two oceans, and his voyage completed, he returned to Holland.
In 1610, another vessel was sent to trade with the natives, and in 1612 two more followed, and a small fort and a few buildings were erected at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island, and the place was named New Amsterdam. In 1614, the States General of Holland granted a charter to the mer- chants engaged in these expeditions, and exclusive privileges were granted to them for a term of years. One Hendrick Christiansen had ascended the river and a trading post and fort were erected on the present site of Albany, which was named Fort Orange, and in 1621 the Dutch West India Company was established. The emigration to the new colony began in 1623. As might be expected, many of the people who were anxious to emigrate and seek new homes in the wilderness were not pos- sessed of the means necessary to enable them to accomplish their purpose, while persons of comfortable circumstances were under no inducement to leave the comforts of their native land. This led to the system of patroonships, by which wealthy men obtained grants of large extents of land and sent settlers at their own expense, who became their tenants, and paid a small, and sometimes merely nominal rent, for the lands which they occupied. At first settlements were only made near the two forts at New Amsterdam and Orange, but as the danger from the Indians decreased they became more widely extended. In 1629, the company offered tracts to patroons who should found settlements of fifty or more adults, and several availed them- selves of this offer.
Peter Minuit was appointed governor in 1626, and was recalled in 1633, and Wouter Van Twiller was appointed in his place. It was during his administration that the controversy between the English and Dutch concerning the jurisdiction commenced, the former claiming under the discoveries made by Cabot, and the grant which had been made by King James I, to the Ply- mouth Company. On the other side, the Dutch claimed full ownership as being the first to take possession and establish
5
GENERAL HISTORY.
colonies, and that the claim of England was null and void on the grounds that " Prescriptio sine possessione haud valeat" (Prescription without possession is of little worth). In 1638, Van Twiller was succeeded, in the government of the colony, by William Kieft, but owing to hostilities which occurred with the Indians on Long Island and for which Kieft was censured, he was recalled, and was succeeded in 1647, by the famous Peter Stuyvesant, the greatest and the last of the Dutch gov- ernors. In the year 1664, King Charles II, of England, granted to his brother, James, Duke of York and Albany, all the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware, including the entire Dutch possessions. To enforce this grant a fleet was sent under the command of Col. Richard Nicolls, who entered the harbor and demanded the surrender of the provinces. After much fruitless negotiation, the Articles of Surrender were signed by Governor Stuyvesant and the Dutch power ceased to exist. As all the inhabitants were confirmed in the full pos- session of their property, the transfer of the government made little change in their circumstances. The name New Amster- dam was changed to New York, and Fort Orange to Albany, new laws were prescribed for the province, and courts were established. Although the change cannot be defended upon any abstract principles of right, yet it can be looked upon in no other light than as the making of the province, as the Nor- man Conquest was the making of England.
· Richard Nicolls, the first English governor, resigned in 1668 and was succeeded by Col. Francis Lovelace, and New York was retaken by the Dutch in 1673, but reverted to the English in the following year. Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned governor, and proving a despotic ruler he became unpopular with the people and involved the province in difficulties with the neighboring colonies. He was recalled, and his successor, Thomas Dongan, took charge of the government in 1683, and the first Colonial Assembly was convened and many needed reforms were made. About this time Charles II died and was succeeded on the throne by his brother, who reigned as James II. A bigoted and narrow-minded tyrant, he refused to confirm the privileges which had been granted when he was duke, pro- hibited the Assembly, forbade the establishment of the printing press, and filled the principal offices of the province with Roman Catholics. In 1689 King James was driven from the
6
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
throne and William and Mary began their reign. Jacob Leisler, a prominent merchant of New York, seized the fort in New York for the new sovereign and became for a time the actual governor. Upon the accession of Col. Sloughter, who was commissioned governor in 1689 and arrived in March, 1691, Leisler refused to surrender the fort at first. For this act he was tried for treason by a special commission, and through the influence of his enemies was condemned to death. The governor refused to sign the death warrant, but was persuaded to do so while intoxicated, and before he had recovered from his intoxi- cation the ill-fated victim was in eternity. Governor Sloughter died in July of the same year, and in 1692 Benjamin Fletcher arrived with a commission as governor and this brings us down to the period when the History of Putnam County may be said to begin.
It remains to state the regulations and circumstances under which grants of land were made in the new province of New York. When the Dutch settlers first began to found their set- tlements, "The land was all before them where to choose." The low lands that reminded them of their native Holland, and whose rich fertility promised abundant harvest with easy tillage, were the first to be occupied and here they established their "boweries" or farms. While the early settlers of New England invariably settled in villages where the inhabitants could be a mutual protection, the Dutch " Boers," or farmers, seemed possessed with a desire to reside, each on his own plantation and remote from the rest, and surrounded only by his family and dependents. This principle of separation was continued even after death, and it was the almost universal cus- tom among the Dutch settlers, and their descendants for many generations, for each family to have a private burying ground, and to be buried on their own land. These little cemeteries, overgrown with weeds and briars, and in a condition of utter neglect, are very frequently to be found on the old farms of the Dutch settlements, long since passed into the hands of strangers, and the memory of the early inhabitants only known by tra- dition, and the few names inscribed upon tombstones fast crumbling to decay.
Both under the Dutch and English rule, the first step to be taken when a new settlement was to be established, was to obtain a license from the governor to purchase the land from
7
GENERAL HISTORY.
the tribe of Indians, who claimed to be the owners. This license having been duly procured, an interview was obtained with the sachems of the tribe, and the purchase was effected in exchange for various articles of European manufacture, seldom amount- ing in value to more than a hundred dollars, and generally in- cluding a little rum. When the license and purchase were duly entered in the office of the secretary of the colony, a patent, issued by the governor, with his signature and the seal of the province affixed, was delivered to the owner and recorded at length in the secretary's office. The original patents were written upon parchment in the elegant hand-writing of a pro- fessional copyist, and were of great length, with all the repeti- tion and verbiage so commonly used in conveyances of land under English law, while the seal attached, without which they were of no value, was frequently a cake of wax, several inches in diameter and of proportionate thickness, impressed with the arms of the province. Though many of these original docu- ments have been lost and only exist among the records in Albany, yet some are in existence and in a fine state of preservation.
The obtaining of grants of land was not unfrequently con- nected with gross abuses. The boundaries were generally stated in an indefinite manner, the extent of one patent very often trespassed upon the bounds of another, and the result was a tract of "disputed lands," a fruitful cause of litigation, generally settled by commissioners appointed for that purpose. The large tracts of land engrossed by single individuals ren- dered it necessary to pass a law limiting the amount to be pur- chased by any one person. This, however, was often evaded by several persons combining in the purchase, and as soon as the patent was obtained, selling out their shares to some of the number, the arrangement having been made in advance. Prior to the time when the lands now included within the limits of Putnam county were purchased, many tracts of land had been taken up and settlements established on both sides of the Hud- son River. Farms or "Boweries" had been laid out on Man- hattan Island, at the earliest period. In 1639, Jonas Bronck became the owner of a tract in Westchester county, which derived its name (Bronck's land) from him, and in after years was known as Morrisania. In 1646, Adrian Van der Donk pur- chased the land now included in the city of Yonkers and part
8
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
of New York city adjoining, and established the colony of Colendonk, which was afterward purchased by Frederick Philipse and was patented to him as the Manor of Philipsburg, in 1693.
On the west side of the river a colony had been founded at a very early date near Tappan. This was destroyed by the Indians and abandoned. In 1686, the Orangetown Patent was granted, the most southerly part of Rockland county. At Nyack a settlement was first made by Class Jans Van Pur- marent, and his son, Cornelius Classen, obtained a patent for the land in 1671. The land at Haverstraw was purchased, in 1666, by Balthazar De Hart and his brother, Jacobus. The greater part of Clarkstown, in Rockland county, was embraced in the patent of Kakiat, granted to Daniel Honan and Michael Howden, in 1696. The true boundary between New York and New Jersey was not settled until a later date, and as late as 1671 it was thought that the bounds of the latter extended as far north as Stony Point.
On the east side of the Hudson, lands by Croton River were sold to Stephanus Van Cortlandt in 1683. Ryck Abrahamsen Lent purchased the lands now the southern part of the village of Peekskill in 1685. The northern part of Peekskill was granted to one Hugh McGregory in 1691, while to the north of this and extending to the Highlands was a tract patented to John Knight, in 1686, and sold by him to Gov. Thomas Dongan, in 1687, and with the other purchases were combined in the great patent known as the Manor of Cortlandt, granted to Stephanns Van Cortlandt, in 1697. As the north line of the Manor of Cortlandt was the south boundary of the tract now included in Putnam county, the description is given as found in the original patent, "Running northerly along Hud- son River as the river runs, nnto the north side of a high hill called Anthony's Nose, to a red cedar tree, which marks the southermost bounds of the land now in the tennre and occupation of Mr. Adolph Philipse, and from the said red cedar tree, another due easterly line running into the woods twenty English miles." The "twenty English miles " extended to the boundary between the colonies of New York and Con- necticut as established.
On the 17th of October, 1685, a patent was granted to Francis Rumbout, Jacobus Kipp and Stephanus Van Cortlandt for
9
GENERAL HISTORY.
"All that tract of land situated on the east side of Hudson river, beginning from the south side of a creek called the Fish Kill, and by the Indians, Mateawam, thence north along the river 500 rods beyond the great Wappink Kill, thence into the woods four hours going, sixteen English miles, keeping 500 rods north of Wappinger's creek. Also from the said Fish Kill or the creek called Mateawam, along said Fish Kill into the woods at the foot of the High Hills including all the reed or low lands at the south side of said creek, with an easterly line four hours going, sixteen English miles, thence to the north side of Wap. pinger's creek as aforesaid." This tract, which is generally called the Rumbout Patent, was originally purchased by Fran- cis Rumbout, Jacobus Kipp and Guillian Ver Planck. The last agreed to sell his share to Stephanus Van Cortlandt but died before making the transfer. His widow and executrix married Jacobus Kipp, and they and Francis Rumbout sold one third to Van Cortlandt and the patent was granted to them as stated above.
On the 22d of April, 1697, a patent was granted to Henry Beekman for "All that tract of land in Dutchess County, beginning at the north side of the Highlands, at the east of the lands of Col. Van Cortlandt and Company,' so far as the line between the Province of New York and the colony of Con- necticut extends." These two tracts and the Manor of Cort- landt became afterward the boundaries on the north and south, of what is now Putnam county. It is not strange that the range of lofty mountains, which presented no attractions for the cultivator of the soil, should have remained unpurchased while there were fertile lands to be procured, but the time was soon to come for a man who should call the rugged mountains his own.
1The Rumbout Patent.
CHAPTER II.
ADOLPH PHILIPSE AND HIS PATENT.
A S stated in the previous chapter, the first step usually taken by a person who wished to procure a grant of land from the colonial government, was to obtain from the governor a license to purchase the desired tract from the native occupants of the soil. The first persons who thus made application for the land now embraced in Putnam county were Lambert Dor- landt and Jan Sybrant (Seberinge). Of these two men we have very little knowledge except that they were among the emigrants who came from Holland, in the early days of New Amsterdam. From the New York Colonial Records it appears that on De- cember 2d, 1680, Lambert Dorlandt had a tract of 130 acres on the north side of Staten Island, while as early as 1669 Jan Sy- brantse was indebted one bushel of wheat for quit rent for his plantation in the same locality. They were of the ordinary rank of Dutch burghers, who held no official station and whose names would have long since ceased to be in remembrance, ex- cept as incidentally mentioned in the early records. These men obtained from the Indians a deed for a tract of land which em- braced the western part of the present county of Putnam, in 1691, having first obtained the license of the governor for that purpose. Of this license the following is a copy:
"By the Commander in Chiefe.
" Whereas John Rooloofe Sybran hath Desired ye liberty and Lycense to Purchase of the Indian Natives A Certain tract or parcell of Land lying and being on Hudson river in the high lands at a place called the Butterberge on the east side of the river. These may Certifie that the said John Roeloffe Sybran hath hereby Liberty and Lycense Granted him, to purchase the said lands before menconed, Provided the same be not taken up
11
GENERAL HISTORY.
or appropriated by any other, and the purchase to be made on or before the Second day of June and returned into the Sectys office in order for obtaining a Patent which is to be taken out before the first day of July or else this license to be voyd and of none effect. For which this Shall be your warant. Given under my hand and seal att ffort James, the 26 October 1687. " ATHO. BROCKHOLTZ."
" Passed ye Secretarys office JOHN KNIGHT Secretary.
" Entered June 15 1697."
In accordance with this license, Sybrant and his partner, Dor- landt, obtained the following Indian deed.
" KNOW ALL MEN by these Presents that wee Anguikenagg Raentagg Wassawrawigh Mannakahorint, Moakenap, Weawei- noww, Awanganugh, for and in consideration of a competent som of current money, of this Province to us in hand paid by Lambard Dorland and Jean Seabrant, at or before the ensealing and delivery of these presents, the Receipt whereof we and each of us doeth hereby acknowledge to have received, and to be therewith fully satisfied and contented, and of and from ye same and every part and Parcell thereof doth hereby fully freely and absolutely acquit, exonerate and discharge the said Lambard Dorlandt and John Seabrant their heirs executors and Admin- istrators and every of them, firmly by these presents, Doth grant and sell unto the said Lambard Dorlandt and John Sea- brant their heirs and assigns, all that Certain Tract or Parcell of Land lying and being in ye highlands on the east side of Hudson river, beginning at the north side of a Certain hill called Anthonys nose, by a redd Seader marked tree, and along said river northerly. to the land belonging to Stephanus Van Cort- landt and the heirs of Francis Rombont and Guillian Ver Planck and eastwards in the woods as farr along the said lands of Steph. Cortlandt and Co. aforesaid to a marked tree; together with Pollepels Island, and all ye woods, underwoods, trees, timber, meadows, marshes, lowlands, rivers, rivolets, swamps, thereto belonging or in any ways appertaining. To Have and to Hold unto the said Lambard Dorlandt and Jno. Seabrant, their heirs and assigns for ever. To the only proper use benefit and behoofe to them the said Lambard Dorlandt and Jno. Seabrant, their heirs and assigns forever. Witness our hands and seals
12
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
att New York this 15th, day of July, in the 3d year of their Majesties Reigne and in the yeare of our Lord 1691.
Signed sealed and delivered The mark of X ANGUIKENAGG.
in the presence of The mark of X RAENTAGG.
S. VAN CORTLANDT. The mark of X WASSAWRAWIGH.
NICHO. REYNELLS. The mark of X MANNAKAHORINT.
The mark X of CLOWES. The mark of X MOAKENAP.
the Indian Interpreter The mark of X WEAWEINOWW.
and witness to these The mark of X AWANGANUGH.
presents.
"Memorandum, that the payment and satisfaction for the above land is made in my presence to their full content. Wit- ness my hand the 15th day of July 1691, in New Yorke.
"S. VAN CORTLANDT."
The purchasers of this tract, Dorlandt and Sybrant, did not obtain a patent for the land from the governor but transferred and sold all their right to the premises to Adolph Philipse, a wealthy merchant of New York, in 1697, as will appear by the following:
DEED TO ADOLPH PHILIPSE.
"This Indenture made the 16th day of June Anno Domini 1697 in the ninth year of the Reigne of our Sovereign Lord William the third by the Grace of God King of England Scot- land France and Ireland Defender of the faith and Between Lambert Dorlandt and Jan Seabrandt of the one party, and Adolph Philipse of the City of New York merchant, of the other party, Witnesseth, that whereas Jan Sybrean did obtain lycense from Anthony Brockholls Esq. Commander then in Chiefe of this Province, for the purchasing vacant lands on the east side of the Hudson river, at the Highlands, by virtue of which lycense he the said Jan Sybran, together with the said Lambert Dorlandt his partner, did purchase from the native In- dian Proprietors all that vacant and unimproved land on the east side of the Hudson river called the Highlands, from the north side of the hill called Antonios Nose to the land of Col. Stephen Cortlandt and Company, with Pollopels island, and backwards into the woods so farr as the land of Col. Cortlandt and Company extendeth, and have paid and satisfied for the same, but have not yet obtained any Patent for the same. Now
Fac-simile, much reduced in size, of deed by Wappinger Indians to Dorland and Seabrant, July 15th 1691.
note all men Bachele Vents that we Aroni hensyn, Remtije, wassauraways. Ivana kanorme inakonap, Unnarrannve , Ananasmyk, .
for and in insideration of 2 Compilare form of money of this Province town hand paid by dams ad hortanon Heardentrant und begre the intealina and Helping of these Relents in jecips where we and Excise we both hereby acknowledge to have received and to be there to fully Jauispred and Content and of and from ( James and every bart and Parcells Shores Doch Reply Paly freely and absolute a acquis Examezato & Diechange The Law)
and Immestraton in Every of them Firmly By these, DELnu Both Granicy Lele where lin Lais. : Cand & john leatrans there him and affignes all that Certain Tracker Parcell of Land dying and Going my Rigin find, on the East De of hudson frow Fegapone ist the north Des of A Certain hill Gede ctortonys Rojo by a ged leader marked her and along Low die , the marty to the land belonging to Its phanes ban Collarde and the neves francis Rombouts & quilionel erplant & eauswahl, in the world as far of this land Landof Pop: Co Магдева foro and hands together w" Podlepets, stand Dawy wood, underwood, Trus Tempus Meadow Mart low lands zwer Quelon, wampe thereens belonging along way up. pertaining to have and to hed into the Law amontant In land s/nº caberant-their hies and aligner for ever to the One ty Proper che bonifico and be theage of them the fam - ampere Derland bien beatvorrebbeil hair and afins for ever , bu itt ner our Rando & Leals att the yorke this 15th- Day july for the 3" your of their maj"2" Priamo xinity your aynor hand bags
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13
GENERAL HISTORY.
the said Jan Sybran and Lambert Dorlandt for a valuable con- sideration to them in hand paid by the said Adolph Philipse, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged and themselves there. with to be fully contented and paid: have granted bargained and sold, and by these presents, do grant bargain and sell unto the said Adolph Philipse all the said tract of land Island and premises together with all their right title and interest property, claime and demand, thereunto, or to any part or parcel of the said tract, of land, Island and premises. To have and to hold the said tract of land, Island and premises limited and bounded as aforesaid, unto the said Adolph Philipse his heirs and as- signs, to the sole and only proper nse benefit and behoof of him the said Adolph Philipse his heirs and assigns forever. And for the further confirmation and assurance of the said tract of land, Island and premises they do deliver, up unto the said Adolph Philipse the said lycense and deed of sale from the In- dians for the said tract of land Island and premises, at the time of ensealing and delivery of these presents, and do likewise testify their consent and desire by the ensealing and delivery of these presents that a Patent be granted under the seal of the Province for the said tract of land, Island and premises to hold to the said Adolph Philipse his heirs and assigns forever. In witness whereof the partyes to these presents their hands and seals have interchangably sett, the day and year first above written.
"Sealed and d. d. in JAN SEBERINGE,
ye presence of us LAMBERT DORLANDT."
THO. YOUNG, DAVID JAMISON.
In this way began the ownership of the famous family whose name and deeds form so important a portion of the annals of the county and State. Adolph Philipse having thus acquired the title from the original owners, proceeded at once to take the necessary steps for obtaining a patent for his lands, and presented in due form the following petition to Benjamin Fletcher, who was then governor of the province of New York.
"To His Excellency Benjamin Fletcher, Captain Generall, and Governor in Chief of the Province of New York.
"The humble petition of Mr. Adolph Philipse Sheweth, That for a valuable consideration, your Excellency's petitioner
14
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
has purchased from Jan Sybrante and Lambert Dorlandt, a cer- tain tract of vacant land on the East side of Hudson river, in Dutchess County, beginning at a marked cedar on the north side of that Hill called Anthony's Nose, and stretching along said river upward to the land of Col. Cortlandt and Company, and stretching backwards from the said river into the woods as farr as the land of Col. Cortlandt and Company aforesaid, in- cluding Pollepells island, which land became theirs by a ly- cense and deed but was never yet patented. Your Excellency's petitioner being desirous to make some improvements thereon, and especially the backward parts from the mountains, there- fore hereby prays your Excellency to grant him a Patent for the same and that the bounds * * may be the dividing line between * * * under such moderate quit rent * * *
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