USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 16
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13
VIEW OF KINGSBRIDGE.1
chase, which made him the sole owner probably as far south as High Bridge, was effected on the 28th of September, 1669, the con- sideration given by him to the Indians being . 13 coats of Duffels, one-halfe anchor of Rame, 2 cans of Brandy, wine with several other small matters to ve valne of 60 guilders wampum." The lands which he bought from Doughty in 1667, and other adjacent lands which he possessed, were leased by him in twenty and twenty-four acre par- vels to such persons as would clear and cultivate them, and accord- ingly became ocenpied in 1668-69 by a number of former Harlem residents.
A little settlement sprang up which, says Edsall in his " History of Kingsbridge," was located " on the upland just across the meadow from Papirinemen." The place, from being near the " fording place," was called Fordham. " It had the countenance and protection of
: The building shown in the ent was Macomb's tidemill. It was blown down in 1856.
146
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
the governor, being in a convenient place for the relief of strangers, it being the road for passengers to go to and from the main, as well as for mutual intercourse with the neighboring colony. The village consisted of about a dozen houses in an extended line along the base of Tetard's Hill, crossed at the middle by the . old Westchester Path ' (Boston Post Road), leading up over the hill toward Connecticut. No traces of these old habitations remain." Of course the reader will not confound the Fordham of Poe's Cottage (now a station on the New York and Harlem Railroad with this ancient community on Spusten Duyvil Creek.
The people settled at Fordham and thereabouts on both shores felt sorely aggrieved at the diversion of eastern travel from its nai- ural route across the wading place to the ferry at Harlem. The assumption exercised by the Harlem ferryman and his fellow-towns- men in fencing in the ford so as to protect the ferry monopoly was much resented by them, and they threw down the fence and claimed the right to cross at pleasure. Finally, in 1669, the controversy was settled by the transfer of the ferry to their locality. John Ver- veelen was continned in charge, operated the line until his death, and was succeeded by his son, Daniel, who was still ferryman at the time of the creation of the King's Bridge (1694). The chler Verveelen, upon assuming his new functions, received " the Island. or neck of land, Papirinemen " for his use, where he was " required to provide a dwelling house furnished with three or four good beds for the entertainment of strangers; also provisions at all seasons for them, their horses and cattle, with stabling and stalling; also a suf- ficient and able boat to transfer passengers and cattle on all occa- sions. He was charged with one-third the expense of a causeway built across the meadow from Papirinemen to Fordham. It is note- worthy that about the time when the Fordham ferry was put in op- eration the Albany and Boston Post Roads were projected and their construction begun.
In the contract made with Verveelen for taking charge of the ferry, its location was fixed " at the place commonly called Spusten Duyvil, between Manhattan Island and the new village called Ford- ham." This name Spusten Duyvil, now restricted to the point of confluence of the Hudson River and Spusten Duyvil Creek, was, says Edsall, originally " applied to a strip on the Manhattan Island side of the wading place, then to the crossing itself, and finally to the neck, which still retains it." 1
L There has always been controversy as to the derivation and original significance of the eurious name Spusten Duyvil. The editor of this History requested an opinion on the sub-
jort from the Rev. Dr. Cole, on well-known Westekester authority on the Dutch perlod and Dutch names, The following is Dr. Cole's reply :
147
FORDHAM MANOR
The village of Fordham, like that of Harlem, had its dependence upon the mayor's court of New York, although causes involving less than to could be locally disposed of there.
John Archer was not only the founder of Fordham, but remained its principal man and controlling spirit until his death. On May 3, 1669, he received authority from Governor Lovelace to settle sixteen families on the mainland " near the wading place." In the period 1669-71 he leased various farms about Fordham to tenants. But his private affairs, like those of Richbell of Mamaroneck, had become in- volved, and, like Richbell, he sought relief by mortgaging lands to the Dutch merchant, Cornelius Steenwyck. On September 18, 1669, he executed to Steenwyck a mortgage for 2,200 guilders; ou Novem- ber 14, 1671, another for 7,000 guilders; and on November 24, 1676, a third for 24,000 guilders, the last mentioned being payable in seven year's.
Meanwhile, however, despite his financial complications, Archer obtained from Governor Lovelace a royal patent consolidating his landed possessions into one complete property, which was appointed to be " an entire and enfranchised township, manor, and place of itself." It included the hamlet of Fordham, and was styled Ford- ham Manor, being the second in point of time among the six manors of Westchester County. Next to the Manor of Morrisania, which em- braced all the mainland directly south of it, it was the smallest. lis northern line began not far from the present Kingsbridge, where the Spusten Duyvil Creek bends due south, merging into the Har-
My Dear Mr. Shonuurd
of course the popular notion of " Spusten Imyvll ' comes from Irving's New York tHook \'11 .. Chapter vit.), with which we are both familiar. If you have the book at band, nutice his spelling-" en sjdjt den doyvil." It is not " spust." Imit " spijt." I do not know how much of a Imteh scholar Irving was, but as an original for " in spite of the devil " his spell- Ing (" spijt ") Is corrert.
" Spijt " and " spuyt," in the Dutch, are wholly different words. " Spijt " is an emo- tlou, as sorrow, grief, displeasure, vexation. rte. Our English word " spite," with all its milder aml more Intense definitions, merts it
is very different. Our words " spout." " spit " ilant .. " sputare "). meaning to throw out or betch forth, are Its equiva- louts.
In the phrase of which you speak as sng. gested by some one. viz .: " point of the dry- 11s." the word is confounded with another and si11 wholly different Teutonie root, which is neither " spijt " nor " spuyt." but " spit " or " splts." We have this in our English word
" spit." a sharp pale or point on which wr im- paulo. We use this Instrument in our cooking processes.
The only matter to be derided with our phrase is how it was originally spelled. Was It Spijt den Duyvil. or Spusten Duyvil? If It were the latter, It meant " Spouting Devil." and could mean nothing else. It might have been suggested by an energetle or bolling spring in the vicinity, This would turn en. firely on a question of fart. Was there such a lowval spring? Sre a footnote of Dr. Thomas H. Edsall, on page 7IS of Vol. 1. of Scharf's History. He suggests that It may have ro- ferred to a strong dashing of the thles at cor- tain Umes upon the bar at the entrance to the strait. We do not know on what historie fact the name rests, and so we can not know whether the original root was " spijt " or " spust." Of course, Irving's fun dorfde4 nothing. It may. however, have rested on some Tradition which has not come down to ns.
Yours as ever, very cordially.
DAVID COLE. Yonkers, February 26. 1900.
148
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
lem River; and its sonthern started from a point on the Harlem below ligh Bridge. Its eastern boundary was the Bronx. As "acknowl- edgment and quit rent " for his manorial patent, Archer was to pay yearly " twenty bushels of good peas, upon the first day of March, when it shall be demanded."
The history of Fordham Manor is brief. Already mortgaged in part two years before its creation, and again mortgaged for a much larger amount on the very day after the issuance of the royal patent, it never recovered from the burden of indebtedness thus laid upon it. Moreover, at the end of the fifth year of its existence, it became pledged beyond the hope of redemption. In Archer's mortgage of 1676 to Steenwyck, all his rights in the manor were transferred to the latter, conditioned only upon the proviso that if before the 24th of November, 1683, he should repay the amount borrowed, at six per cent. yearly interest, he should re-enter as proprietor. The debt was not dis- charged, and Steenwyck took the whole estate as his property. By the will of Cornelius Steenwyck and his wife, Mar- garetta, drawn November 20, 1684, they devised the manor without any reser- vations to " the Nether Dutch Reformed Congregation within the City of New York." By that congregation it was preserved intact (its lands being leased to various persons) until 1755, when an act was passed permitting the minister, elders, and deacons of the church to sell CORNELIU'S STEENWYCK. the lands.
John Archer, the patentee and lord of the manor, is referred to in the will of the Steenwycks as " the late John Archer," and there- fore nmust have died some time before November 20, 1684, the date which that document bears. " It is said (we quote from Bolton) that he suddenly expired in his coach while journeying from his manorial residence to New York City, and was interred on Tetard Hill." He was a contentious man, being involved in many legal disputes with his tenants and neighboring land owners. Upon one occasion the mayor's court in New York, acting upon a complaint from the people of Fordham that he had undertaken to govern them by " rigour and force," and had " been at several times the occasion of great troubles betwixt the inhabitants of the said town," ad-
149
FORDHAM MANOR
monished him " to behave himself for the future civilly and quietly, as he will answer for the same at his peril." He held the office of sheriff of New York City. His son, John, inherited what was left of his property. To quote again from Bolton, it is said that three hundred acres upon which stood the old manorial residence were, through the liberality of Mrs. Steenwyck (who survived her hus- band), exempted from the bequest to the Dutch Church, and con- tinned in the possession of the Archers. At all events, members of the family continued to reside upon their ancestral lands, and in the eighteenth century Benjamin Archer, a direct descendant of the first John, owned in fee a considerable section of the old manor. The progeny of John Archer in Westchester County at the present time are mimerons.
Although the settlers in Fordham Manor were brought under the jurisdiction of Manhattan Island, its lands owed their development mainly to the activity of men belonging to the ancient Town of Westchester; and it is with the history of Westchester town that this old manorial patent will always be associated. Indeed, the limits of the Town (township) of Westchester as originally created by the legislature of the State of New York embraced atl the ter- ritory of Fordham and also of Morrisania Manor. Out of West- chester township, as thus first established, was subsequently (1846) carved the new Township of West Farms, which included both Ford- ham and Morrisania Manors; and West Farms was in turn sub- divided, the lower section of it being erected (1855) into another township, called Morrisania, whose bounds coincided generally with those of the historic Morrisania Manor, having for their northern limit a line beginning on the Harlem River near the High Bridge; and finally, in 1872, the Township of Kingsbridge was organized, con- sisting of all the former Township of Yonkers lying south of the south- erly line of the City of Yonkers. This township included the whole
of the original Manor of Fordham. The three names-Fordham, West Farms, and Morrisania-are all of seventeenth century origin ; and the three localities, as individual parts of the original Township of Westchester, came into existence within the same general period of time. Having given in brief the history of the village and Manor of Fordham, it is proper to notice its neighboring and associated lo- calities of West Farms and Morrisania before turning our attention again to other portions of the county.
The West Farms tract, like that of the " Ten Farms," or East- chester, never attained to manorial dignity. It was a strip along the Bronx River, extending to the vicinity of what is still known as West Farms village (now a part of the City of New York). By
150
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
a deed dated " West Chester, March the 12th, 1663," this strip was sold by nine Indians to Edward Jessup and John Richardson, of Westchester, who on the 25th of April, 1666, were confirmed in its proprietorship by royal letters patent from Governor Nicolls, each being allotted one-half of the whole. Jessup's half, after his death, came into the possession of Thomas Hunt, of Westchester, and Rich- ardson's was inherited by his three married daughters, one of whom was the wife of Gabriel Leggett, progenitor of the West Farms Leg- getts, and the other the wife of JJoseph Hadley, of the Yonkers. The whole patent was originally divided into twelve parcels, collectively styled " The West Farms," a name descriptive of its local relation to Westchester, by whose citizens it was opened up and upon whose government it depended. Between the West Farms patent and the lands of the Morrises, at the southwest, lay a strip whose owner- ship was long in controversy, and which hence was called " the de- batable ground."
The foundations of the great Morris estate were begun about 1670, when Captain Richard Morris, an English merchant from Barbadoes, purchased, in behalf of himself and his brother Lewis, from Sammel Edsall, the old Bronxland tract. This was the identical land, con- sisting of some five hundred aeres, which about 1639 was granted by the Dutch West India Company to Jonas Bronek, the first known settler in Westchester County. After Bronck's death, it was owned by his widow and her second husband, the noted Arendt van Curler (or Corlaer), from whom it passed through several proprietors to Samuel Edsall, a beaver-maker in New Amsterdam. Edsall's pur- chase was made on the 224 day of October, 1664, almost immedi- ately after the conquest of New Netherland by the English; and he promptly took out a patent for it from Governor Nicolls. The Nicolls patent describes it as "a certaine tract or parcel of land formerly in the tenure or occupation of Jonas Bronek's, commonly called by the indians by the name of Ranackque, and by the Eng- lish Bronck's land, lying and being on the maine to the east and over against Harlem town, having a certain small creek or Kill which runs between the north east part of it and Little Barnes Island, near Hellgate, and so goes into the East River, and a greater creek or river which divides it from Manhattan Island, containing about 500 acres or 250 margon of land." It is an interesting his- torical reminiscence that this Bronxland tract, now the most thickly populated portion of the old County of Westchester, was not only the first locality within our borders to be settled under the Dutch, but was also the object of the first private purchase made under the English.
151
THE MORRIS PURCHASE
The brothers Richard and Lewis Morris, who became owners of Bronxland by purchase from Edsall in 1670, were descended from an ancient Welsh family of Monmouthshire. Lewis inherited the paternal estate of Tintern in that county, which was confiscated by Charles I. because of his connection with the Parliament party, in whose service he fought as commander of a troop of horse. For the loss thus suffered he was later indemnified by Cromwell. Emi- grating to Barbadoes, he bought a splendid property on that island. He took part in the successful English expedition against Jamaica, having received from Cromwell the commission of colonel. Adopt- ing the principles of the Quakers, he became a leading member of that sect, and entertained George Fox upon his visit to Barbadoes in 1671.
Richard Morris, a younger brother of Lewis, fought with him in support of the Parliament, being a captain in his regiment. lle followed him to Barbadoes after the Restoration, and there mar- ried Sarah Pole, a wealthy lady. The attention of the brothers was attracted to New York as a place offering favorable opportunities for enterprise, and it was decided that Richard should remove to that quarter and buy a large landed property. Articles of agree- ment were entered into between the brothers, providing that " if either of them should die without issue, the survivor, or issue of the survivor, if any, should take the estate." By an instrument dated August 10, 1670, Captain Richard Morris, who is styled " a merchant of New York," and Colonel Lewis Morris, " a merchant of Barbadoes," jointly purchased from Edsall the tive hundred Bronx- land acres. Here Richard made his home with his young wife and a number of negro slaves whom he had brought from the West Indies. Both Richard and Sarah Morris died in the fall of 1672, leaving an infant son, Lewis Morris the younger.
Information being sent to Colonel Lewis Morris of the decease of his brother, he came to New York in 1673 to look after the in- terests of the estate. Meantime the province had been recaptured by the Dutch, and the new governor, Anthony Colve, finding that "Colonel Morris, being a citizen of Barbadoes, was not, under the terms of the capitulation, entitled to the same liberal terms as British subjects of Virginia or Connecticut," and " also that the in- fant owned only one-third of the estate and the unele two-thirds." resolved upon the confiscation of the latter's two-thirds. Noyer- theless, the unele managed to arrange matters advantageously with the Dutch officials, and was not only appointed administrator of Richard's estate and guardian of the infant, but was finally . granted the entire estate, buildings, and materials thereon, on a valuation to
152
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
be made by impartial appraisers for the benefit of the minor child, but Colve . appropriated . (due regard being had, of course, to the infant's interests) all the fat cattle, such as oxen, cows, and hogs."
The elder Lewis Morris, having thus brought about a tolerably satisfactory adjustment of the matter, returned to Barbadoes to close up his private interests. This accomplished, he came to New York again in 1675, with the resolve of making it his permanent home. During his absence the English had resumed the govern- ment of the country. On March 25, 1676, Governor Andros issued to him a patent covering not only the original five hundred acres of Bronck, but some 1,420 adjoining acres in addition. The word- ing of this important patent, in its description of the property, is as follows: " Whereas, Colonel Lewis Morris of the Island of Barba- does, hath long enjoyed, and by patent stands possest, of a certain plantation and tract of land, lying and being upon the maine, over against the town of Harlem, commonly called Bronck's land, the same containing about five hundred acres or two hundred and fifty morgen of land, besides the meadow thereunto annexed or adjoin- ing, called and bounded as in the original Dutch ground brief and patent of confirmation is set forth; and the said Colonel Morris having made good improvement upon the said land, and there lying lands adjacent to him not included in any patent or grants, which land the said Colonel Morris doth desire for further improvement, this said land and addition being bounded from his own house over against Harlem, running up Harlem river to Daniel Turner's land, and so along his said land northward to John Archer's line [Ford- ham Manor], and from thence stretching east to the land of John Richardson and Thomas thuint [West Farms pateni], and thence along the Sound about southwest, through Bronck's kill to the said Colonel Morris his house, the additional land containing taccord- ing to the survey thereof) the quantity of fourteen hundred, and the whole, one thousand, nine hundred and twenty acres." In con- sideration of this grant Colonel Morris was to pay " yearly and every vear, as a quit-rent to his royal highness, five bushels of good winter wheat." The land of Daniel Turner, mentioned in the patent, was a narrow strip of about eighty acres extending along the Harlem River just below Fordham Manor. Turner was one of the original patentees of Harlem, and was one of the first men of that village to compete with the Westchester people in acquiring lands beyond the Bronx.
Colonel Morris, to render his title to the whole estate absolutely invulnerable, took the precaution of obtaining a deed from the In- dians, dated February 7, 1685. Of course this formality was not
153
THE MORRIS PURCHASE
necessary as to the portion of the property which formerly belonged to Edsall, and he had in view simply to secure himself beyond all possibility of legal dispute in the possession of the additional lands granted to him by Andros.
In the same year that the patent for Bronxland and its adjacent territory was issued, Colonel Morris bought a very extensive tract in East Jersey, to which he gave the name of Tinteru and Mon- mouth, after his ancestral seat in the old country. His New Jer- sey property amounted to abont 3,500 acres. Thus, besides found- ing one of the principal hereditary domains of Westchester County, he was among the earliest of large landed proprietors in New Jer- sey, where also he selected what has since become a very conspicu- ons and valuable section. He lived on his Bronxland property until his death, in 1691, occupying a handsome residence, which even in those early colonial times was a place of liberal hospitality. He was a prominent man in the province, sustaining intimate relations with Governor Andros and other celebrated official characters, and from 1683 to 1686 was a member of Governor Dongan's council. Dur- ing his lifetime, although possessing abundant means and enjoy- ing the distinction of aristocratie birth and antecedents, no steps were taken to erect the estate into a manor. He was twice mar- ried, but left no descendants, his sole heir being his nephew, Lewis, the only son of his brother, Richard. The value of Colonel Morris's personal property, etc., exclusive of his real estate, as appraised by Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard, John Pell, and William Richardson, was estimated at above £4,000. Among the chattels enumerated in the inventory were the following:
NEGROES.
22 man negroes at 20 1
440
=
0
11 women at 15 1.
165
0
0
6 boys at 15 1.
90
()
0
2 garles at 12 1.
24
0
0
25 children at 5 1.
125
0
0
844 0
In the will of Colonel Morris appears this interesting item: "1 give and bequeathe unto my honored friend, William Penn, my negro man Yaff, provided said Penn shall come to dwell in America." Re- ferring to this bequest at a meeting of Friends in Philadelphia in 1700, Penn said: " As I am now fairly established here in America, 1 may readily obtain the servant by mentioning the affair to my young friend, Lewis Morris; although a concern hath laid upon my mind for some time regarding the negroes, and I almost determined to give my own blacks their freedom. For I feel that the poor cap-
154
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
tured Africans, like other human beings, have natural rights, which can not be withheld from them withont great injustice." Upon the same occasion Penn spoke of his long and familiar acquaintance with Colonel Morris, which intimacy, he said, had its influence in in- ducing him (Morris), although many years older, to become a Friend. Colonel Morris retained his Quaker convictions to the last, and in his will provided for the payment of annuities to the meeting of Friends at Shrewsbury, N. J., and the meeting in the province of New York. To his nephew and heir, young Lewis Morris, he refers in the will with considerable severity, adverting to " his many and great miscarryages and disobedience toward me and my wife, and his causeless absenting himself from my house, and adhering to and advizeing with those of bad life and conversation." This graceless youth soon proved himself, however, eminently deserving of his fine inheritance. Under him the Bronxland estate was converted into the Manor of Morrisania in 1697. He rose to be one of the most distinguished men of his times in America, holding, among other prominent positions, those of chief-justice of New York and governor of New Jersey.
CHAPTER VIII
THE PHILIPSES AND TIIE VAN CORTLANDTS
E have seen that the old patroonship of Colen Donck, after being confirmed by Governor Nicolls in 1666 to Van der Donck's widow and her second husband, Hugh O'Neale, was conveyed by them to Mrs. O'Neale's brother, Elias Doughty, and by him sold in parcels to a number of purchasers. The southermost portion was bought by John Archer, and, with other land adjoining, was erceted, under his proprietorship, into the Lordship and Manor of Fordham in 1671. North of Archer's purchase was a tract of about two thousand acres, sold to William Betts and George Tibbetts, which stretched from the Hudson River to the Bronx, forming a parallelogram. Other purchasers were John Hadden, who bought some three hundred and twenty acres on both sides of Tippett's Brook just north of the present Van Cortlandt Lake, and Francis French and associates, who were the original owners of the " Mile Square" in the present City of Yonkers. Finally, all the remainder of the Yonkers land, aggregating 7,708 acres, was disposed of by Doughty, November 29, 1672, in equal thirds, to Thomas Delaval, Thomas Lewis, and Frederick Philipse.
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