USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 14
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houses erected were not mere temporary structures, as on Mauns- sing Island, but solid buildings of wood or stone, some of which have lasted until our own day. They were long, narrow structures, entered from the side, and stood with gable end close upon the road, and huge chimney projecting at the rear. Each dwelling generally contained two rooms on the ground floor-a kitchen and 'best room ' -- with sleeping apartments in the loft."
The original Rye purchases of Disbrow and his associates in 1660 antedated by only one year the purchase of the adjacent Mamaro- neck lands, extending from the Mamaroneck River to the limits of Thomas Pell's Westchester tract. On the 23d of September, 1661, the Indian proprietors, Wappaquewam and Mahatahan (brothers), sold to John Richbell, of Oyster Bay, Long Island, three necks of land, described as follows in the conveyance: "The Eastermost is called Mammaranock Neck, and the Westermost is bounded with
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Mr. Pell's purchase." The three necks later became known as the East, Middle, and West Necks. All the meadows, rivers, and islands thereunto belonging were included in the sale; and it was also specified that Richbell or his assigns might " freely feed cattle or cutt timber twenty miles Northward from the marked Trees of the Necks." As payment, he was to deliver to Wappagnewam, half within about a month and the other half in the following spring, twenty-two coats, one hundred fathom of wampum, twelve shirts, ien pairs of stockings, twenty hands of powder, twelve bars of lead, two firelocks, fifteen hoes, fifteen hatchets, and three kettles. Two shirts and ten shillings in wampum were given in part payment on the day of the transaction. But Richbell was not permitted to enter into undisturbed possession of his fine property. Another English- man of Oyster Bay, one Thomas Revell, in the following month (Oeto) ber, 1661) appeared on the scene and undertook to buy the identical lauds, or a very considerable portion of them. His negotiations were with the same Wappaguewam and certain other Indians, to whom he paid, or engaged to pay, more than Richbell had bound himself for. Out of his rival claim arose a wordy legal dispute, wherein affidavits were filed by various witnesses, one of whom (tes- tifying in Richbell's behalf) was Peter Disbrow, of Manussing Island. From the testimony of Wappaquewam it appears that that chief was overpersuaded by another Indian, Cockoo, to resell the territory to Revell, upon the alluring promise that " he should have a cote," " on which he did it." The burden of the evidence was plainly in favor of Richbell, who, in all the legal proceedings that resulted, triumphed over his opponent.
The Indian Coekoo, who contributed his good offices to the assist- ance of Revell in this enterprise, was none other than the notable Long Island interpreter, Cockonoe, who was John Eliot's first in- structor in the Indian language, and who was a frequent interie- diary between English land purchasers and the native owners of the soil. What is known of the history of this very unique char- acter has been embodied in an interesting monograph by Mr. William Wallace Tooker,1 to whom we are indebted for the article on Indian local names in the second chapter of this volume.
His name appears varionsty in legal documents as Cockoo, Cokoo, and Cockoc-all abbreviations of the correct form, Coekonoc. Eliot, in a letter written in 1649, descriptive of how he learned the Indian longue, relates that he became acquainted while living at Dorchester, Mass,, with a young Long Island Indian, "taken in the Pequott warres," whom he found very ingenious, able to read, and whom : Cockonoe-de-Long Island, New York, 1896.
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he taught to write, " which he quickly learnt." " He was the first," says Eliot, " that I made use of to teach me words and to be my in- terpreter." And at the end of his " Indian Grammar," printed at Cambridge in 1669. Eliot testifies more particularly to the services rendered him by this youth. " By his help," he says, " I translated the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and many texts of Scripture; also I compiled both exhortations and prayers by his help." Cocko- noe attended Eliot for some time in his evangelistie expeditions, and later made his home among the English settlers on Long Island, whom he stood ready at all times to assist in their private dealings with the Indians. When Thomas Revell sought to get the upper hand of Richbell in the purchase THE Tudian Primer of lands in the present Towuship of Mamaroneck, he accordingly brought O R, The way of training up of our Indian Yontb in the good knowledge of Good, in the knowledge ofthe Scrip:une and in an ability to Reade. Cockonoe with him from Long Island, and contided to him full authority in the premises. Cockonoe made large promises to Compofed by J. E. the native owners in Re- vell's behalf, and readily tutteof nich nablunt warth khporkontinanih, wab. kåt indneed them to grant him power of attorney to 15, with watch kummak ki juin- seat howablho weincetupara_ Mama: waffekwhorgin. de. sell the lands to Revell. The understanding was shrewdly planned, but Cambridge, Printed 1667 .. Richbell's claim was too well established to be overcome.
Richbell, unlike Pell in his Westchester purchase, and Disbrow and his com- FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE PRIMER OF 1669. panions in their Rye ven- ture, did not hold himself independent of the Dutch provincial admin- istration. He promptly applied to the government at New Amster- dam for confirmation of his landed rights. Perhaps he was actuated in this step by a prudent desire to avoid the legal complications and annoyances which the settlers at Westchester had experienced, and perhaps he sought to strengthen his case against his competitor Revell by the forms of official recognition. In an elaborately polite
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communication, dated " In New Netherlands, 24th December, 1661," and addressed " To the most noble, great, and respectful lords, the Director-General and Council in New Netherlands," he solicited " most reverently " that letters patent be granted him for his tract, promising not only that all persons settling upon it should similarly crave letters patent from the Dutch authorities for such parcels of land as they should acquire, but also that he would take care to " enforce and instruet them of your Honour's government and will." By a document signed May 6, 1662, Director Stuyvesant complied with his request, stipulating, however, that Richbell and all persons associated with him or settling under him should " present. them- selves before us to take the oath of fidelity and obedience, and also, as other inhabitants are used to, procure a land brief of what they possess."
The bounds of Richbell's patent on the Sound ran from " Mr. Pell's purchase " at the southwest to the Mamaroneck River at the north- Past. The three necks, constituting its water front, are thus de- scribed by the historian of the Manors of Westchester County:
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 Westchester Path was greater than that of the East Neck. The East Neck extended from Mamaroneck River to a small stream called Pipin's Brook, which divided it from the Great Neck, and is the same which now (1886; crosses the Boston Road just east of the house of the late Mr. George Vander- burgh. The North Neck extended from the latter stream westward to the mouth of 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 Stony or Gravelly Brook, which was the cast line of the Manor of Pelham. A heated controversy arose between John Richbell and John Pell (second lord of the Manor), 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 before Governor Lovelace and in the Court of Assizes, the matter was finally settled on the 22d of January, 1671, by an agreement prac- tically dividing the disputed territory between them.
Richbell erected a house on the East Neck, and resided there. In the interior his landed rights, as understood in his deed from the Indians, extended " twenty miles north ward." By letters patent from Governor Lovelace, issued to him October 16, 1668, the whole traet was confirmed to him, " running northward twenty miles into the woods." This tract embraced the present Towns of Mamaroneck, White Plains, and Scarsdale, and most of New Castle. But the en- terprising men of Rye in 1683 bought from the Indians the White Plains tract-a purchase which gave rise to a protracted contention about the ownership of that section. The West and Middle Necks went out of Richbell's possession under mortgage transactions, the principal mortgagee being Cornelius Steenwyck, a wealthy Dutch merchant of New York. Most of the Middle Neck was subsequently
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acquired by the Palmer family (still prominent in the Town of Mamar- oneck). Toward the end of the eighteenth century Peter J. Munro became its principal proprietor, from whom it is called to this day Munro's Neck. Upon it is located the widely known and exclusive summer resort of Larchmont. The East Neck was conveyed by Richbell, immediately after the procurement of his patent from Gov- ornor Lovelace, to his mother-in-law, Margery Parsons, who forth- with deeded it to her daughter Ann, his wife. By her it was sold in 1697 to Colonel Caleb Heathcote, under whom, with its interior extension, it was erected into the Manor of Scarsdale. Heathcote's eldest daughter, Ann, married into the distinguished de Lancey family. As he left no male heir, Ann de Lancey inherited much of the manor property, and the de Lanceys. continuing to have their seat here, gave their name to the locality still called de Lancey's Neck.
John Richbell, the original purchaser of all the lands whose his- tory has thus been briefly traced, was " an Englishman of a Hamp- shire family of Southampton or its neighborhood, who were mer- chants in London, and who had business transactions with the West Indies or New England." He was engaged for a time in commer- cial enterprises in the British West India Islands of Barbadoes, then a prominent center of transatlantic trade. In 1656 he was a mer- chant in Charlestown, Mass. (near Boston). The next year he en- tered into a peculiar private understanding with Thomas Mediford, of Barbadoes, and William Sharpe, of Southampton, England, which is supposed to have afforded the basis for his purchase, four years later, of the Mamaroneck tract. The details of the understanding are not stated in terms in any document that is extant; but its nature can readily be conjectured from the wording of the " Instrne- tions " prepared for him by his associates, dated Barbadoes, Septem- ber 18, 1657. He is advised to inform himself " by sober under- standing men " respecting the seacoast between Connectient and the Dutch settlements, and the islands between Long Island and the main, ascertaining " within what government it is, and of what kinde that government is, whether very strict or very remisse." Having satisfied himself, in these and other particulars, that he " may with security settle there and without offense to any," he is advised to " buy some small Plantation," which, among other ad- vantages, must be " near some navigable Ryver, or at least some safe port or harbour," and " the way to it neither long nor difficult." Hle is next to obtain an indisputable title to the land, to settle there . with his family, and to clear and cultivate it. Precise directions are given him for his agricultural and economic operations, includ.
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ing the following significant ones: " Be sure by the first opportunity to put an acre or two of hemp seed into the ground, of which you may in the winter make a quantity of canvass and cordage for your own use. In the falling and clearing your ground save all your principal timber for pipe stands and clapboard and knee timber." Lastly, he is instructed 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 ns." There can be no doubt that all this was with a view to procuring facilities for contraband traffic. The navigation laws, at that time as through- out the colonial period, were extremely burdensome, and large profits were to be made in evading them. Although no direct evidence ex- ists that the Mamaroneck shores were utilized to this end, we think it highly probable that some illicit trade found its destination there. It is a fact that Richbell's lands, unlike those of Thomas Pell and Disbrow and his associates, were not taken up to any considerable extent by bona fide colonists for many years. Yet he was a poor man, always in debt, and could not afford to let his property lie idle. As late as 1671 a warrant was issued by Governor Lovelace " for ye fetching Mr. John Richbell to town [New York City] a prisoner," wherein it was recited that " John Richbell, of Mamaroneck," was " a prisoner under arrest for debt in this city, from which place he hath absented himself contrary to his engagement." It may hence justly be remarked that, on the other hand, he could hardly have been en- gaged in any very extensive or remunerative " nimble " business.
Before buying the Mamaroneck fract, Richbell had become an in- habitant of Long Island, residing at Oyster Bay. On the 5th of Sep- tember, 1660, he purchased Lloyd's Neck, on that island, for which on December 18, 1665, he obtained a patent from Governor Nicolls. This property he sold one year later for £450. Through his brother, Robert Richbell, a member of the English Council of Trade created by Charles II., he probably received early information of the expe- dition intended for the conquest of New Netherland from the Dutch. After the conquest he made his home at Mamaroneck, where he died July 26, 1684, leaving a widow and three daughters-Elizabeth, Mary, and Ann. Elizabeth, according to Bolton, became " the sec- ond wife of Adam Mott, of Hamstead," and their son, William, was the ancestor of Dr. Valentine Mott, of New York City. Mary Rich- bell married Captain James Mott, of Mamaroneck, who, in an entry in the town records, alludes to " a certain piece of land laying near the salt meadow," " in my home lot or field adjoining to my house," as being the burial place of John Richbell.
CHAPTER VIE
" THE PORTION OF THE NORTH RIDING ON THE MAIN"-PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT AND BEGINNINGS OF THE MANORIAL ESTATES
N the 6th of September, 1664, the City of New Am- sterdam surrendered to an English fleet which had been secretly dispatched across the Atlantic to take possession of the Dutch dominions in America; and soon afterward the fortified places of the Dnich on the Dela- ware and the upper Hudson gave in their allegiance to the new rulers of the land. For many years the whole course of events in New Netherland had been steadily tending to this eventuality. As early as 1650, when the Hartford articles of agreement between Stuy- vesant and the commissioners of the United Colonies of New Eng- land were signed, the Dutch pretensions to territorial ownership on the banks of the Connecticut were abandoned, and the English rights as far west as Greenwich on the Sound and to within ten miles of the Hudson River in the interior were recognized. At the same time, sovereignty on Long Island was formally divided with the English, it being provided in the articles that " upon Long Island a line run from the westernmost part of Oyster Bay, so, and in a straight and direct line, to the sea, shall be the bounds betwixt the English and Duich there, the easterly part to belong to the English and the west- ernmost part to the Dutch." Subsequent developments were uni- formly in the direction of the acquisition by the English of all un- settled intermediate territory. While the Dutch not only made no encroachments upon the sections adjoining the English settlements, but even neglected all systematic occupation of the undeveloped country indisputably belonging to their own sphere, such as the regions north of the Harlem River, the English were constantly ex- tending, by actual seizure and occupation, the limits of their west- ward claims. One after another the Dutch gave up to their rivals every point in dispute. In 1663, after a strenuous endeavor to re- tain the Westchester tract, where they had preserved the forms of jurisdiction since the early days of its colonization by Pell's settlers, they resigned this important vantage ground; and early in 1664,
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forced to an issue on Long Island by the stubborn attitude of the English towns there, they entered into an arrangement by which all controverted matters in that part of their diminishing realms were determined agreeably to the British interests. By this latter transaction the villages of Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, Hempstead, and Gravesend became English. The arrogant general disposition of the English in Connecticut in the closing period of the Dutch rule is described as follows by Stuyvesant in a dispatch to the West India Company, dated November 10, 1663: "They know no New Netherland, nor government of New Netherland, except only the Dutch plantation on the Island of Manhattan. "Tis evident and clear that were Westchester and the five English towns on Long Island surrendered by us to the Colony of Hartford, and what we have justly pos- sessed and settled on Long Island left to us, it would not satisfy them, because it would not be possible to bring them sufficiently to any further arrangement with us by commissioners to be chosen on both sides by the mediation of a third party ; and as in case of dis- agreement they assert, in addition, that they may pos- sess and occupy, in virtue of their unlimited patent, the lands lying vacant and nn- DUTCH COURTSHIP. seitled on both sides of the North River and elsewhere, which would certainly always cause and create new pretensions and disputes, even though the boundary were provisionally settled here." The patent here referred to by Stuyvesant was one granted by Charles Il. on the 23d of April, 1662, to the Colony of Connectient, wherein the westward bonnds of Connecticut were stated to be " the South Sea " -that is, the Pacific Ocean. The southern bounds were likewise fixed at " the Sea "-meaning not the Sound, but the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
March 23, 1664 (n. s.), Charles II. by royal patent vested in his brother, the Duke of York (afterward James II.), the proprietorship of all of New Netherland. The sole semblance of justification of this act was the venerable claim of England to the North American mainland, based upon the discovery of the Cabots in the reign of llenry VIL., nearly a hundred and seventy years before. At the time of the gift to the Duke of York, no state of war existed be- tween England and the Netherlands. Neither was there the plau- sible exeuse of emergency on the ground of any threatening be- havior of the Dutch in America, or even of dangerons differences between the provinces of New Netherland and Connecticut; for, as we have seen, the Dutch had pursued an undeviating course of for- bearanee and submission, and had but recently yielded all for which their English neighbors contended. It was a deed of spoliation pure and simple, and as such has been characterized in varying terms of denunciation by all impartial historians. Four ships of war, car- rying ninety-two guns and abont four hundred and fifty land troops, and commanded by Colonel Richard Nicolls, appeared before New Amsterdam at the end of August, and demanded the surrender of the city. Stuyvesant desired to resist to the last, but was over- borne by the will of the citizens, and on the 6th of September articles of capitulation were signed, which were extremely generous in their provisions, the Dutch being granted full privilege to continue in the enjoyment of their lands and other possessions, as well as liberty of religion and of occupying minor civil offices. Nicolls was installed as governor of the province, which took the name of New York.
One of the first documents which the new authorities had to con- sider was a communication from the " inhabitants of Westchester," reciting, under seven different heads, their local grievances against the Dutch. In this paper no specific remedy was prayed for, and it appears to have been drawn merely to put on record the real and supposed injuries that the settlers had suffered from the New Neth- erland government, and to attract official attention to their commu- nity. O'Callaghan shows that in some of its more serious charges it is distinctly untruthful, suggesting a malignant animus. It con- cluded with the bitter complaint that, because of the conduct of the Dutch, the plantation is at "a low estate," that conduct having operated as "an utter obstruction from the peopling and improv- ing of a hopeful country."
The form of tenure under which New Netherland was granted to the Duke of York by the king was defined in the patent as fol- Iows: "To be holden of us, our heirs, and successors, as of our Manor of Greenwich and our County of Kent, in free and common
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socage, and not in capite, nor by knight service, yielding and ren- dering of and for the same, yearly and every year, forty beaver skins when they shall be demanded, or within ninety days there- after." This meant simply that there was to be no feudal tenure of lands under its provisions (all feudal tenures having, in fact, been abolished throughout English dominions by act of Parliament four years previously), but that the system introdneed should be strictly allodial, patterned, moreover, upon that prevailing in " our Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent," "the object being to give to the new possessions in America the most favorable tenure then known to the English law." The basis of the ancient and effete feudal system was the complete subjection of the vassal to his lord, the vassal being bound to perform military and other per- sonal services and to be judged at law by his lord, and the lord guaranteeing him, in consideration of his fealty, security in the pos- session of his lands and general protection. On the other hand, allo- dial tenure, or " free and common socage," was " a free tenure, the land being a freehold, and the holder a freeman, because he, as well as the 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." Thus in its very origin, English rule in what is now the State of New York had for its basic principle an absolutely free yeomanry. The erection of " manors," presided over by so-called " lords," did not affect in the least this elementary free status; the manors being only larger estates, and their lords wealthy proprietors with cer- tain incidental aristocratic functions and dignities which violated in no manner the principle of perfectly free land tenure.
New York, under this patent from Charles Il., assumed at once the character of a " proprietary province "-that is, a province owned absolutely by the beneficiary, James, Duke of York, and ruled ex- elusively by him through his subordinates, subject to the general laws of England. In this character it continued for nearly twenty- one years (excepting a little more than one year, when it was again under Dutch sway by virtue of reconquest), at the end of that time being merged in the provinces of the crown because of thé acces- sion of James to the throne of England. Richard Nicolls, the duke's first governor, after substituting for the old name of New Nether- land that of New York, proceeded to rename the various parts of the province. He assigned the comprehensive designation of York- shire to the whole district surrounding Manhattan Island, compris-
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
ing Long Island, Staten Island, and the present Westchester County; and, following the local style of old Yorkshire, in England, he sub- divided this district into three so-called " Ridings "-the " East," " West," and " North." The East Riding consisted of the present Suffolk County; the West Riding, of Staten Island, the present Kings County, and the Town of Newtown, in the present Queens County; and the North Riding, of the remainder of the present Queens County, together with the Westchester plantation. The first ofli- cial (as well as popular) name for our county, of more than more local application, was " the portion of the North Riding on the main." But the Long Island jurisdiction extended only to the Bronx, the settlements which lafer sprang up west of that stream being under the government of Harlem and New York City until Westchester County came into existence, in 1683.
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