USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 12
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While in Holland Van der Donck was not forgetful of the interests of his colony, but in good faith strove to fulfill the obligations which he had assumed in acquiring the proprietorship of so extensive a domain. On March 11, 1650, in conjunction with his two associate delegates, he entered into a contract " to charter a suitable flyboat of two hundred lasts, and therein go to sea on the 1st of June next, and convey to New Netherland the number of two hundred passengers, of whom one hundred are to be farmers and farm servants, and the re- maining one hundred such as the Amsterdam Chamber is accustomed to send over, conversant with agriculture, and to furnish them with supplies for the voyage." In making this contract (which, on ac- count of circumstances, was never carried out), Van der Donck un- doubtedly had in view the locating of at least a portion of the two hundred emigrants on his own lands. Pursuant to his perfectly serious intentions respecting his estate in this county, he obtained from the States-General, on the 26th of April, 1652, the right to dispose by will, as patroon, " of the Colonie Nepperhaem, by him called Colen Donck, situate in New Netherland." From this time for more than a year he was constantly occupied in seeking to overcome the obstacles put in the way of his departure for America by his enemies of the West India Company. He evidently regarded the securing of this patent as the final step preparatory to the systematic colonization and de- velopment of Colen Donck; for immediately after its issuance he em- barked his private goods, with a varied assortment of supplies for the colony, on board a vessel lying at anchor in the Texel. But upon ap- plying to the States-General, on the 13th of May, for a formal permit
109
DR. ADRIAN VAN DER DONCK
to return, he was refused. On the 24th, renewing his application, he stated that " proposing to depart by your High Mightinesses' consent, with his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants, and maids," he had "in that design packed and shipped all his implements and goods "; but he understood " that the Honorable Directors [of the West India Company ] at Amsterdam had forbidden 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, sister, brother, servants, maids, family connections, from two BESCHRYVINGE Van good friends, from his merchan- NIEUVV - NEDERLANT ( Ghelijek het tegenwoordigh in Statt is ). dise, his own necessary goods, furniture, and from his real estate Begrijpende de Nature, Aert, gelegentheyt en vrucht- baerheyt van het felve Lant ; mitfgaders de proffijtelijcke en- de gewenfte toevallen, die aldaer tot onderhout der Menfchen, (foo uyt baer felven als van buyten ingebracht ) gevonden worden. ALS MEDE in New Netherland." These and other strenuous representations proving unavailing, he was at last compelled to dispatch his family and effects, remaining himself in Holland to await the more favor- able disposition of the authorities.
De maniere en onghemepne epgenschappen · bande IDilden ofte Naturelten vanomn Zande. Cnbc Een byfonder verhael vanden wonderlijcken Aert ende bet Weefen der BEVERS, DAER NOCH BY CEVOEGHE IS Em Difcours ober de gelegenthept bon Nieuw Nederlande, tuffchen con Nederlandes Patriot , ende cen · Nieuw Nederlander. Beschreven door
Resigning himself to the situa- ADRIA E N vander D ON CK, Beyder Rechten Doctoor, die teghenwoop- digb noch in Nieuw Nederlant is. tion. he now turned his attention to literary labors, which resulted in the composition of a most valu- able work on the Dutch provinces Xxxx in America. We reproduce here a facsimile of the title page of this interesting book, which, Bp Evert Nieuwenhof, Bocck-berkooper / woonaide op t PAEMSTELDAM, Auflandt in't athmf- boerh / Anno : 6 5 5. translated, is as follows: " De- scription of New Netherland (as TITLE PAGE OF VAN DER DONCK'S BOOK. It is Today), Comprising the Nature, Character, Situation, and For- tility of the Said Country; Together with the Advantageous and Desirable Circumstances (both of Their Own Production and as Brought by External Causes) for the Support of the People Which Prevail There; as Also the Manners and Peculiar Qualities of the Wild Men or Natives of the Land. And a Separate Account of the Wonderful Character and Habits of the Beavers; to Which is Added a Conversation on the Condition of New Netherland between a Netherland Patriot and a New Netherlander, Described by Adriaen Van der Donck, Doctor in Both Laws, Who at present is still in New Netherland. At Amsterdam, by Evert Nieuwenhof. Book- seller, Residing on the Russia [a street or square], at the [sign of
110
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
the] Writing-book. Anno 1655." The book was probably first pub- lished in 1653, the copy from which the above translation is made being of a later edition. It was Van der Donek's intention to enlarge upon his facts by consulting the papers on file in the director-general's office at New Amsterdam, to which end he obtained the necessary permit from the company. But upon his return to America, which occurred in the summer of 1653, Stuyvesant, who still harbored re- sentment against him, denied him that privilege.
Van der Donck's book, despite its formidable title, is a volume of but modest pretensions, clearly written for the sole object of spread- ing information about the country. Considering the meagerness of general knowledge at that time respecting the several parts of the broad territory called New Netherland, and remembering that the writer peculiarly lacked documentary facilities in its preparation, it is a remarkably good account of the whole region. Especially in those parts of it where he is able to speak from the results of personal observation or investigation, he is highly instructive, and is thor- oughly entitled to be accepted as an authority. His description of the Indians, though quite succinct, ranks with the very best of the early accounts of native North American characteristics, customs, and institutions. While he makes frequent allusion to his residence at Rensselaerswyck, there is no special mention of that part of the country where his own patroonship was located-our County of West- chester,-a circumstance which may reasonably be taken to indicate that he never had made it his habitation for any length of time.
Some of the statements which appear in Van der Donck's pages belong to the decidedly curious annals of early American conditions. For example, he relates that in the month of March, 1647, "two whales, of common size, swam up the (Hudson) river forty (Dutch) miles, from which place one of them returned and stranded about twelve miles from the sea, near which place four others also stranded the same year. The other ran farther up the river and grounded near the great Chahoes Falls, about forty-three miles from the sea. This fish was tolerably fat, for, although the citizens of Rensselaers- wyck broiled ont a great quantity of train oil, still the whole river (the current being rapid) was oily for three weeks, and covered with grease." His accounts of the native animals of the country, excellent for the most part, become amusing in places where he relies not upon his individual knowledge but upon vague stories told him by the Indian hunters of strange creatures in the interior. Thus, he makes New Netherland the habitat of the fabled unicorn. "I have been frequently told by the Mohawk Indians," says he, " that far in the interior parts of the country there were animals, which were seldom
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
seen, of the size and form of horses, with cloven hoofs, having one horn in the forehead from a foot and a half to two feet in length, and that because of their fleetness and strength they were seldom caught or ensnared. I have never seen any certain token or sign of such animals, but that such creatures exist in the country is supported by the concurrent declarations of the Indian hunters. There are Chris- tians who say that they have seen the skins of this species of animal, but without the horns." He also speaks of " a bird of prey which has a head like the head of a large cat " -- probably a reference to the cat- owl. His remarks about the beaver, based upon personal study and knowledge, are singularly interesting. The deer, he informs ns, " are incredibly numerous in this country. Although the Indians through- out the year, and every year (but mostly in the fall), kill many thou- sands, and the wolves, after the fawns are cast and while they are young, also destroy many, still the land abonnds with them every- where, and their numbers appear to remain undiminished."
Being finally granted leave to go back to New Netherland, Van der Donek applied to the West India Company for permission to practice his profession of lawyer in the province. But the company, careful in conceding substantial favors to a man who had caused it so much trouble, allowed him only to give advice in the line of his profes- sion, forbidding him to plead, on the novel ground that, " as there was no other lawyer in the colony, there would be none to oppose him." After his return to New Amsterdam he did not figure prominently in public affairs. He died in 1655, leaving, it is supposed, several chil- dren, whose names, however, as well as all facts of their subsequent lives and traces of their descendants, are unknown.
Van der Donek's Colen Donek was the only patroonship ever erected in Westchester County, and was the first of the great landed estates which, during the seventeenth century, were parceled ont in this section to gentlemen of birth and means, and various enterprising and far-seeing individuals. All who had preceded him above the Harlem were ordinary settlers, who merely sought farms and home- steads, without any aristocratie pretensions or aspirations. During the nine years which intervened between his death and the end of the Dutch régime, the general condition of the province was too un- satisfactory to justify any similar ambitions endeavor in the direction of extensive land ownership above the Harlem. The Indians were still restless and inclined to harass individual settlers. Indeed, in 1655, the year of Van der Donck's death, a general massacre of set- flers by the Indians occurred, and the people in the outlying localities again crowded into Fort Amsterdam for protection. It was not until after the beginning of the English government that private land hold- ings in Westchester County at all comparable to Van der Donck's
113
DR. ADRIAN VAN DER DONCK
were acquired. He was the only Dutch gentleman-for Bronck be- longed strictly to the burgher class throughout the forty-one years of Dutch rule who, under the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, an instrument framed expressly to create a landed aristocracy in America, formally sought to establish a fief in this county. It is noticeable, however, that most of the estate which he owned passed before many years-although not until the Dutch period was ended- into the hands of one of his fellow-countrymen, Frederick Philipse, in whose family ii continued for a century. Moreover, almost the entire Hudson shore of Westchester County was originally acquired and tenaciously held by Dutch, and not by English, private proprietors.
The fract of Nepperhaem, or Colen Donek, was devised by Van der Donck, in his will, to his widow. This lady subsequently married Hugh O'Neale, of Patuxent, Md., and resided with her husband in that province. Apparently, nothing whatever was done by O'Neale and his wife in the way of continuing the improvements begun by Van der Donek; and, for all that we know to the contrary, the estate remained in a wholly wild and neglected condition for some ten years. But in 1666 the O'Neales, desiring to more perfectly establish their legal title, with a view to realizing from the lands, obtained from the Indians who had originally soll the tract to Van der Donck formal acknowledgment of such sale, and also of their having received from him full satisfaction; and thereupon a new and confirmatory patent for Nepperhaem was issued by Governor Nicolls. This is dated " at. Fort James, New York, on the Island of Manhattan," October 8, 1666. It describes the property in the following words: " A certain tract of land within this government, upon the main, bounded to the north wards by a rivulet called by the Indians Mackassin, so running south- ward to Nepperhaem, from thence to the kill Shorakkapock [ Spurten Duvvil], and then to Paperinemen [the locality of Kingsbridge], which is the southernmost 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 traet hath heretofore been purchased of the Indian proprietors by Adriaen Van der Donck, de- ceased." The English patent was bestowed upon O'Neale and his wife jointly. They at once proceeded to sell the lands in fee to dif- ferent private persons. Notice of the resulting sales must be do- ferred to the proper chronological period in our narrative. 1i may be noted here, however, that the principal purchasers of Van der Donck's lands were John Archer and Frederick Philipse, who later became the lords, respectively, of the Manors of Fordham and Phil- ipseburgh, the former lying wholly, and the latter partly, within the borders of the old patroonship.
CHAPTER VI
BEGINNINGS OF SERIOUS
SETTLEMENT-WESTCHESTER TOWN, RYE
THE destruction by the Indians of the early English settle- ments in the Vredeland on the Sound was followed by a long period of almost complete abstention from further colonizing enterprises in that portion of Westchester County. It is true that after the definite conclusion of peace be- tween the Dutch and the Indians in 1645, both the Dutch govern- ment of New Netherland and the English government of Connec- tient began gradually to give serious attention to the question of the boundary between their rival jurisdictions, and that the result- ing conflict of interests touching the ownership of those lands gave rise to practical measures on both sides. It will be remembered that the Dutch authorities, while permitting Throckmorton and his associates to settle on Throgg's Neck, and later granting Cornell's Neck to Thomas Cornell, simply received these refugees from New England as persons coming to take up their abodes under the pro- tection of their government and subject to its laws. Indeed, the formal acts of the Dutch director in issuing licenses to the English colonists are sufficient evidences of the merely individual character of the first English settlements on the Sound. But white willing to accommodate separate immigrants from New England with homes, the Dutch had always regarded the presence of the English on the banks of the Connecticut River, and their steady advance westward in an organized way, with apprehension and resentment. To secure the Dutch title to original and exclusive sovereignty over the whole country, Kieft made land purchases from the Indians, in 1639 and 1640, extending as far east as the Norwalk archipelago, purchases which, however, were matched by similar early deeds granted by the natives to the English to much of territory in the eastern part of Westchester County. After the close of the Dutch and Indian wars, the territorial dispute steadily grew in importance, although it was a number of years before the Dutch found any special cause for complaint on the score of actual English encroachment.
On July 14, 1649, Director Stuyvesant, representing the West India Company, confirmed the former Indian deeds of sale by pur- chasing from the sachems Megtegichkama, Ofeyochgue, and Wegta-
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SETTLEMENT OF WESTCHESTER TOWN
koekken the whole country " betwixt the North and East Rivers." The boundaries of this tract, which in the record of the transaction is called Weckquaesgeck, are not very distinctly defined; but the in- tent of the purchase was evidently incidental to the general Dutch policy of showing a perfect title to the country. At all events, a very large part of Westchester County was embraced in the sale, the recompense given to the Indians consisting of " six fathom cloth for jackets, six fathom seawant [wampum], six kettles, six axes, six addices, ten knives, ten harrow-teeth, ten corals or beads, ten bells, one gun, two lbs. lead, two lbs. powder, and two cloth coats."
The English of Connecticut, on the other hand, do not seem to have attached any peculiar political value to Indian land purchases. There is no record of any purchase of Indian lands extending into Westchester County ou the part of the government of Connecticut. The authorities of that colony were evidently satisfied to leave the westward extension of English possessions to the individual enter- prise of the settlers, meantime holding themselves in readiness to support such enterprise by their sanction, and regarding all the land occupied by their advancing people as English soil, withont refer- ence to the counterclaims of the Dutch.
The purchase made by Nathaniel Turner, for the citizens of New Haven, in 1640, of territory reaching considerably to the west of the present eastern bonndary of our county, was confirmed to the inhab- itants of Stamford on August H1, 1655, by the Indian chief Ponus and Onox, his eldest son. The fract bought in 1640 ran to a distance sixteen miles north of the Sound. By the wording of the new deed of 1655, its bounds extended " sixteen miles north of the town plot of Stamford, and two miles still further north for the pasture of their [the settlers'] cattle; also eight miles east and west." The Indian owners, upon this occasion, received as satisfaction four coats of English cloth. No settlement of the region was begun during the continuance of Dutch rule in New Netherland, and thus the matter did not come prominently to the notice of Director Stuyvesant.
But in the preceding year a private English purchase from the Indians was made of a district lying nearer the Dutch settlements and within the limits of the already well-established jurisdiction of the New Amsterdam anthorities, which became a matter of acute irritation. On the 14th of November, 1654, Thomas Pell, of Fairfield. Coun., bought from the sachems Maminepoe and Ann-Hoock (alias Wampage), and live other Indians, " all that traet of land called West Chester, which is bounded on the east by a brook, called Cedar Tree Brook or Gravelly Brook, and so running northward as the said brook runs into the woods abont eight English miles, thence west 10
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
Bronck's River to a certain bend in the said river, thence by marked trees south until it reaches the tide waters of the Sound,
. together with all the islands lying before that traet." This is the earliest legal record we have of the application of the name Westchester to any section of our county; although there is reason for believing that for several years previously this locality on the Sound had been so called by the people of Connecticut, and that some squatters had already made their way thither.1 The bounds of Pell's purchase overlapped the old Dutch Vredeland and encroached upon the grants formerly made in that region to Throckmorton and Cor- nell. Indeed, after the English took possession of New Netherland, the Town of Westchester set up a claim to the whole of Throgg's Neck, and Pell brought snit to recover Cornell's Neck from Thomas Cor- nell's heir; but as it was a part of the English policy to confirm all legitimate Dutch land grants, both these pretensions were disal- lowed. Westchester, as originally so styled, covered a much greater extent of country than the township of that name. Gravelly Brook, named in the conveyance from the Indians as its eastern boundary line, is a creek flowing into the Sound in the Township of New Rochelle; so that the territory at first called Westchester included. besides Westchester township proper, the townships (or portions of them) of Pelham, Eastchester, and New Rochelle. It is an interest- ing fact that the first of these four townships to be settled was the one most remote from Connectient and nearest the seat of Dutch authority; which lends color to the strong suspicion that the migra- tion of the English to this quarter was under the secret direction, or at the connivance, of the government of Connecticut, which sought to extend settlement as far as possible into the disputed border terri- tory. Later, as Pell's purchase became sub-divided, separate local names were given to its several parts, the name of Westchester being retained for that portion only where the original settlements had been established. Thus it came that the company making the first considerable sub-purchase within the Pell tract conferred the name of Eastchester upon their lands, which immediately adjoined West- chester town at the east. The settlers in Westchester were not ex- terminated or driven away, like those on Hutchinson's River and Throgg's and Cornell's Necks; and, though interfered with by the Dutch, held their ground permanently. Westchester was therefore the earliest enduring English settlement west of Connecticut. This
1 In 1650 the Dutch Governor Stuyvesant complained to the New England commissioners of the English encroachments upon " Gost- dorp" -as Westchester was called by the Dutch. It is hardly likely that the English
Then resident there were survivors of Throck- morton's settlement of 1642-3, since Throckmor- ton and his colonists had the express sanction of the Dutch government.
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SETTLEMENT OF WESTCHESTER TOWN
was remembered when, in 1683, under English rule, the erection of regularly organized counties was undertaken: and accordingly the name Westchester was selected as the one most suitable for the county next above Manhattan Island.
It is certain that English settlers had begun to arrive in West- chester before the execution of Pell's deed from the Indians (Novem- ber 14, 1654); for on the 5th of November, 1654, nine days before that expention, it was resolved at a meeting of the director-general and council of New Netherland that " Whereas a few English are begin- ning a settlement at no great distance from our outposts, on lands long since bought and paid for, near Vredeland," an interdict be sent to them, forbidding them to proceed farther, and commanding them to abandon that spot. Pell, in the law suit which he brought in 1665 against the heir of Thomas Cornell to recover Cornell's Neck, stated that in buying the Westchester tract he had license from the governor and council of Connecticut, " who took notice of this land to be under their government," and "ordered magistratical power to be exercised at Westchester." The colonial records of Connect- ient show that such license was in fact granted to him in 1663. This sanction, issued nine years after his original purchase, was probably procured by him with a view to a second and confirmatory purchase. Whether the first settlers came to Westchester as the result of any direct instigation on the part of the Connectient officials can not be determined; but it is probable that the latter were fully cognizant of their enterprise, and promoted it by some sort of encouragement. Certainly the Westchester pioneers made no false pretenses, and sought no favors from the Dutch, but boldly announced themselves as English colonists. One of their first aets was to nail to a tree the arms of the Parliament of England.
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