USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 17
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After Archer, none of these purchasers except Philipse require special mention, all the others having been ordinary farming men, who, while good citizens and substantial promoters of the progress of settlement, left little impress upon the development of the country. Tibbetts came from Flushing, Long Island. Betts had lived for a number of years in Westchester, where he served as one of Stuyve- sant's magistrates, and later was a patenter of the town under the English patent. Tibbetts, Hadden, and Betts, as settlers outside the limits of Fordham, had various disputes with the authorities of that place, and especially with Archer, the lord of the manor. Being summoned to assist in the building of the "causeway " from the ferry terminal to the firm land, they objected, representing to the governor that this improvement would be of less value to them than a bridge across the Bronx on the road to Eastchester, to whose construction they promised to devote themselves if exeused from contributing to the other work. The governor sagaciously decided that both enterprises should be carried through, and directed that
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Tibbetts, Betts, and Hadden should first join the Fordham people in making the causeway, after which an equivalent amount of help should be given by the townsmen toward the building of the Bronx bridge. The latter structure was completed in due time, being pro- vided with a gate on the Eastchester side to prevent the " Hoggs " from coming over. All the lands north of Archer's line, with the sole exception of the Mile Square, were eventually absorbed in the great Philipse purchase; and accordingly by JJune 12, 1693, the date on which the royal charter for the Manor of Philipseburgh was is- sued, the independent holdings of Hadden, Betts, and Tibbetts had been completely extinguished. Such of their former proprietors, or their descendants, who continued to live on the lands, remained not as owners but as tenants of the Philipses. Even the so-called island of Papirinemen1 ( now Kingsbridge), where the ferry from Manhattan Island terminated, became a part of the manorial lands. The south- ern section of the ohl Van der Donck patroonship, embracing the parcels originally bought from Doughty by Betts, Tibbetts, and Had- den, was called the Lower Yonkers, the residue, which embraced more than three-fourths of the whole, being known as the Upper Yonkers.
Frederick Philipse, in his first appearance as a purchaser of lands in this county, acted only as one of three associates, who combined to acquire all that was left of the Van der Donck grant after the first sales of it to various persons, each of the three agreeing to take an equal third of the property. By this arrangement he became seized in 1672 of some twenty-nine hundred acres in the Upper Yonkers-certainly a large proprietorship, very much larger than either the Archer or the Morris patents. But this was only the initial venture in a series of land-buying transactions, at least eight in number, which continued over a period of fifteen years, and, when completed, made him sole owner of the country from Spuyten Duyvil to the Croton River and from the Hudson to the Bronx. He bought additional lands successively as follows: 1681 (confirmed in 1683), the Pocantico tract, covering the territory around Tarrytown; 1682 (confirmed in 1684), the Bissightick traet, or Irvington; 1682 (con- firmed in 1684), the Weekquaesgeck tract, or Dobbs Ferry; 1684 (con- firmed in 1684), the Nepperhan tract, stretching from the north line of the present Yonkers to the extreme northern limits of the manor, between the Sawmill and Bronx Rivers; 1685, the equal thirds of his
' In ancient times the Spusten Duyvil Creck at Kingsbridge, while identical with the pres- ent channel, formed at high tide another (hongh shallow) tideway; and the land in- closed between the main channel and this tide-
way was the so-called Island of Papirinemeu, where Verveclen's ferry terminated. It was across the shallow tideway that the " cause- way " was built before the days of the King's Bridge.
وجدية
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associates of 1672, Thomas Delaval and Thomas Lewis, in the Upper Yonkers tract; 1686, the Sint-Sinck tract, or Sing Sing, which had previously been purchased by and confirmed to his son, Philip Phil- ipse; 1687, the " Tappan Meadows " (Rockland County); and finally, at a date or dates now indeterminate, but previously to June 12, 1693, the holdings of Betts, Tibbetts, and Hadden in the Lower Yonkers tract, together with the island or dat of Papirinemen. This vast region, whose individual parts had been separately confirmed to him as purchased, was vested in him as a whole by Governor Fletcher on the 12th of June, 1693. The document is one of the most elab- orate of ancient land deeds. Besides confirming him in the owner- ship, it erects the estate into a manor called Philipseburgh or Phil- ipseborough, and also confers upon Philipse the privilege of build- ing a bridge across Spusten Duyvil Creek at Papirinemen, on the line of the then existing ferry, and authorizes him, in recompense for his expenses in that enterprise, to collect, for his own behoof, fares from all persons using the bridge.
Although along the Hudson the lands of Philipse reached as far north as Croton Bay, their limits in the interior were considerably farther sonth, not being above the headwaters of the Bronx River; and thus the northern boundary of his property, as finally converted into the Manor of Philipseburgh, was a southeast line from the mouth of the Croton to the sources of the Bronx. At its northwest corner it touched the estate of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the brother of his second wife-an estate which also (1697) became one of the great manors, called Cortlandi Manor, running east from Croton Bay to the Connecticut line, and including, besides almost the whole of the northern part of Westchester County, a tract on the west bank of the Hudson. Van Cortlandt's purchases did not begin until 1683, about three years after Philipse had entered actively upon his land-absorb- ing operations.
In addition to his various purchases in this county, Philipse bought of white people, in 1687, the Tappan salt meadows lying opposite Irvington and Dobbs Ferry in the present County of Rockland, a comparatively small but finely situated tract, which was incorpor- ated in the manor grant of June 12, 1693, and always remained a part of the hereditary manor.
The ancestors of Frederick Philipse are said to have been Hussites of Bohemia, who, driven from their home by religious persecution, emigrated to Friesland, one of the provinces of the United Nether- lands. There his father, Frederick, married Margaret Dacres, snp- posed to have been a lady of good family from the parish of Daere. in England. The son was born in Bolsward, Friesland, in 1626, and.
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according to Bolton, came to New Netherland some time previously to 1653, in which year he was appointed one of the appraisers of the house and lot of Augustine Heermans, in New Amsterdam. His sur name in Dutch was variously written Flypse, Flypsen, Vlypse, Vlyp- sen (meaning the son of Philip), which was anglieized into Philipse (pronounced Phillips). Whether he came to this country in the pos- session of any comfortable amount of means is unknown; but it is certain that as a young man in New Amsterdam he began life in a humble capacity, working at the trade of carpenter. But soon (m- barking in commerce, and developing great shrewdness and money- getting ability, his fortunes rapidly improved. He made large profits from transactions with the Indians and from the shipping business, and, having the tact and address to place himself on good terms with the government, he enjoyed from an early period val- able special favors. From Stuyvesant he received grants to desir- able lands on Manhattan Island. There is little if any doubt that he was engaged in the slave trade and also in contraband and piratical traffic. Final- ly, at the age of thirty- six, in 1662, he con- tracted a very advan- tageous marriage, es- ponsing Margaret Har- denbroek De Vries, the daughter of Adolf Har- denbroek and widow of Pietries Rudolphus De Vries, a wealthy Now Amsterdam merchant. This lady proved to be hardly less energetic and resourceful than Philipse himself, and, PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE, YONKERS. retaining the manage-
ment of her own affairs, added not a little to the growing wealth of the family. She continued the business of her first husband, and made frequent voyages to and from Holland on the vessels which she owned, acting as supercargo. In the well-known " Journal of a Voyage to New York and Tour in Several of the American Colonies in 1679-80," by Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter (published by the Long Island Historical Society), the writers, who erossed on one of her ships, make various allusions to her business characteristics, which, while by no means complimentary, give an excellent idea of
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ber extreme carefulness of her private interests. " The English mate, who afterward became captain," these narrators say, " was very close. but was compelled to be much closer, in order to please Margaret. · It is not to be told what miserable people Margaret and Jan (her man) were, and especially their excessive covetousness.
. Margaret and her husband would not have a suitable boat for the ship built in Falmouth, but it must be done in New York, where timber was a little cheaper. . . A girl attempt- ing to rinse out the ship's mop let it fall overboard, whereupon the captain put the ship immediately to the wind and launched the jolly- boat, into which two sailors placed themselves at the risk of their lives in order to recover a miserable swab, which was not worth six cents. As the waves were running high, there was no chance of getting it, for we could not see it from the ship. Yet the whole voyage must be delayed, three seamen be sent roving at the risk of their lives, and we, with all the rest, must work fruitlessly for an hour and a half, and all that merely to satisfy and please the miserable covetousness of Margaret."
Within a comparatively few years after his marriage to Margaret, Frederick Philipse had become by far the wealthiest man in New York. During the Dutch interregmmm, in 1674, his possessions were valned by commissioners appointed by Governor Colve at 80,000 guil- ders, an amount which, though large for the times, was small com- pared with the wealth that he ultimately amassed. In 1692, Mar. garet having died, he married for his second wife Catherina, daughter of Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt and widow of John Dervall-an- other fine alliance from the substantial point of view. His commer- cial and financial operations continually grew in magnitude and profitableness. He was the largest trader with the Five Nations at Albany, sent ships to both the East and West Indies, imported slaves from Africa, and, besides enjoying the profits of irregular commerce, shared, as has been with good reason alleged, in the gains of piratical cruises. All the time he maintained his former judicious relations with the government. He was a member of the governor's comeil for twenty years, extending from the administration of An- dros to that of Bellomont. Ho resigned from the council in 1698. in anticipation of his removal by the home government in England, which followed, in fact, not long after. This removal was the ro- sult of satisfactory evidence that he was interested in the piratical East Indian trade, having its rendezvous in Madagascar-evidence upon which a number of New York citizens had based a petition, praying that "Frederick Philips, whose great concerns in illegal trade are not only the subject of common fame, but are fully and
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particularly proved by depositions," " be removed from his place in the council." He died in 1702. His children, four in number- Philip, Adolphus, Annetje, and Rombout,-were all by his first wife. Philip and Rombout died before himself (the latter probably in child- hood), and he accordingly divided the manor between his grandson, Frederick (Philip's son), and his son Adolphus, the former taking the section from Dobbs Ferry southward, and the latter the remainder. Frederick, the grandson, succeeded to the title of lord of the manor; and his eldest son, Frederick, was not only the third lord, but in- herited the whole original estate (Adolphus Philipse having died without issue). Under Frederick, the third lord, the manor con- tinned to exist in its integrity until the Revolution, when, in conse- quence of his being a Tory partisan. and his removing himself to the British lines, the whole property was confiscated, to be sub-divided and sold in due time by the State commissioners of forfeiture. Annetje Philipse, the daughter of Frederick, the first lord of the manor, mar- ried Philip French, and left descendants who intermarried with prom- inent patriotic families, including the Brockholsts, Livingstons, and Jays. The first Frederick Philipse also had an adopted daughter, Eva (child of his wife Margaret by her first husband), who married the eminent New York merchant, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, a brother of Catherina, the second wife of Frederick Philipse the first. Jaco- bus Van Cortlandt bought fifty acres from his father-in-law in the Lower Yonkers tract, which formed the nucleus of the historic Van Cortlandt estate in the present Borough of the Bronx (whence the names of Van Cortlandt Lake and Van Cortlandt Park).
Frederick Philipsc, the original proprietor, with whose history alone we are concerned in this portion of our narrative, not long after beginning the systematic upbuilding of his great estate, took steps toward erecting two residences upon it, one on the banks of the Nepperhan, not far from the site of Van der Donek's mill, and the other on the Pocantico, near Tarrytown, in the present Town of Mount Pleasant. At what period the Yonkers residence, which later became the " Manor House " of the Philipses, was begun is a ques- tion that has never been settled satisfactorily, although it has in- volved some very animated controversy. The date 1682 was ac- cepied at the time when the " Manor House " became the City Hall of Yonkers; but it is sturdily maintained by respectable authorities on the early history of Philipseburgh Manor that the dwelling did not have its beginning until many years later. The time of the erection of the Pocantico honse, styled " Castle Philipse," is like- wise unknown. Ultimately the " Manor House " at Yonkers became the principal seat of the family, much excelling the Pocantico house
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in architectural pretensions; but of the two dwellings as originally built, the latter was undoubtedly the finer, a fact of which sulli- cient evidence is afforded by the circumstance that it was the pre- ferred habitation of the proprietor after the procurement of the mna- norial patent. The selection of the Yonkers site for one of the resi- dences was undoubtedly determined by the existence there of Van der Donck's mill and the conspicuous natural advantages of the locality. The other, being intended as the family seat for the dis- tant northern section of the property, was naturally located on the most important stream falling into the Hudson in that section, the Pocantico River.
Opinions differ as to whether Philipse had a predecessor on the Pocantico as on the Nepperhan. Although in the former quarter his proprietorship was the earliest of legal record, the question whether private settlers boasting no legal pretensions had not ar- rived there before his purchase is, of course, a fair one. Bolton finds no evidence of any such ancient occupancy. The Rev. Dr. David Cole, in his "History of Yonkers," written in 1886, discussing the subject of the two Philipse houses, makes no allusion to possible settlements at or near Tarrytown antedating Philipse's appearance, or to the pre-existence of a mill there, simply remarking that he chose the banks of the Pocantico " as a site for a new mill." More- over, in the same connection, speculating with regard to the period at which Philipse established himself in his residence on the Po- cantico, Dr. Cole concludes that it was not until after the death of his first wife, Margaret, in 1690 or 1691. Yet in his historical discourse delivered at the third centennial of the old Dutch Church of Tar- rytown, October 11, 1897, Dr. Cole, after fixing upon 1683 as the year when Philipse removed to the Tarrytown dwelling, says that he found there, at that early date, "a small community already gathered." Already, he informs us, there was upon the Pocantico " a mill site like the Van der Donek site of Youkers," which already had upon it " a simple dwelling for the miller," upon whose foundations Castle Philipse was built. Continuing, Dr. Cole says that " around were farmers who brought to the mill their grain to be ground and their logs to be sawed. They (the Philipses) found the old graveyard, as old as the settlement, with regard to which I have no difficulty in accepting Mr. Irving's belief that it had been started as early as 1645, and that it had in it three graves by 1650, and fifty by 1675, and one hundred and eighty by 1700." 1 According to this changed
1 Apropos of the question of the antiquity of the graveyard, see the statement by Benjamin 1. Cornell. superintendent of the Sleepy Hol- low Cemetery, In Seharf, Il., 293. Mr. Cornell adopts the date 1645 as that of the earliest
Interments, and his opinion Is apparently con- curred In by the author of Scharf's article on the Town of Mount Pleasant. the late Rev. John A. Todd.
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view of Dr. Cole's, Tarrytown and the country round about belong to the oldest settled localities of the county. Of course the fact of the presence of a mill before the coming of Philipse would lend color to the belief that settlers in some numbers had been there and in that vicinity for a period of years. This much is certain: that a mill, whether an old one established by some enterprising pioncer whose name is unknown to ns, or a new one built by Philipse, was in operation on the Pocantico from the time that Castle Philipse was erected by the proprietor. The Yonkers and Tarrytown mills were styled by Philipse, respectively, the Lower Mills and the Upper Mills.
The residence on the Nepperhan at Yonkers was very substan- tially built, " the bricks, and indeed all the building materials," says Mrs. Lamb, " being imported from Holland at what was then es- teemed a prodigal expenditure. The great massive door, which still swings in the center of the sonthern front, was manufactured in Holland and imported by the first Lady Philipse in one of her own ships." Only the southern front of the structure was built by the first Frederick. Here he lived for a time with his wife Margaret; at least during the summer seasons. Traces of an underground pass- age, apparently leading from the Manor House, were recently dis- covered by some workmen engaged in making excavations in Vonk- ors; and it has been surmised that this was a secret means of exit for the ocenpants of the dwelling, connecting probably with a neigh- boring blockhonse, to be used in case of an Indian raid. In 1882, two hundred years after the presumed erection of the original build- ing, the Manor House, renamed Manor Hall, after having been put in a state of permanent preservation, was formally dedicated to the nses of the City of Yonkers as a municipal building.
Castle Philipse, on the Poeantico, was also very substantially built,1 and possessed a feature entirely lacking in the Manor House, being carefully fortified to resist attack. Its walls were pierced with
1 Mr. William F. Minnerly, well known in Tarrytown as a builder, states that in 1864 he was employed to make some alterations in the old (Pocantico) Manor House. One was in taking down the chimney, which was very large. In the second story he found that a room about four fort square had been built in the chimney, to be used as a smoke-house for smoking meat. The number of bricks in this chimney was a marvel. They bad all been Imight from Holland, and landed on the north shore of the Porantico, very near the old mill. one of the prominent objects on the manor. The portion of the chimney taken down was relaid with the bricks, five feet breast, sixteen
inches deep, to the same height as before, and a new partition built, fifteen fret long and nine feet high. The remainder of the bricks that came out of the chimney-for, strange to say, there was a remainder, and a large one, tuo-Mr. Minnerly honght, and with them he filled in a new house, twenty-two fret front by twenty-eight feet deep and two stories high. and found them amply sufficient for the pur- pose. The bricks were so hard that when the masons who did the work wished to cut them they were obliged to use a hatchet. In size. each brick was an inch and a quarter thick. three and one-half inches wide, and seven inches long .- Scharf, ii., 309.
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port and loop holes for cannon and musketry. The difference be- tween the two residences in this respect is convincing proof that dur- ing the last twenty years of the seventeenth century, while the lower portion of the county had become practically secure against Indian depredations, the middle section was still deemed somewhat unsafe. The building of Castle Philipse was followed quickly by the advent of tenants, and in a comparatively few years quite a number of farming people had secured homes as far north as Tarrytown and beyond. The progress made toward the general settlement of the lands of that locality was so encouraging that Philipse deemed him- self under obligations to provide the people with facilities for re- ligious worship. To this worthy deed he was prompted by his first wife, Margaret; and his second wife, Catherina, also took a deep in- terest in the matter. The result was the building of the Dutch Reformed Church of Sleepy Hollow, one of the most noted of old religious edifices in America. From certain circumstances Dr. Cole, in the centennial address already referred to, feels justified in ex- pressing the conviction that the erection of the church was com- meneed by Philipse as early as 1684. He points out that its bell was cast to order in 1685-" proof positive," he declares, " that the building had already been begun." But according to the only au- thentie records in existence, it was not until 1697 that the church organization was effected and a minister, Rev. Gniliam Bertholf, summoned. The tablet over the door of the church states that it was built in 1699, but this tablet was probably not put up until within comparatively recent years, and it records the accepted date of the completion of the structure, making no mention of the time at which it was begun. Philipse was a worshipper within its walls, and he was buried in a vault beneath it, which was prepared ex- pressly for his family. His decided preference for the Porantico house as his permanent place of residence is illustrated by his selec- tion of the Pocantico instead of the Nepperhan settlement as the location for the church building.
We have now traced the early history of the various original land patents and grants along the shore line of Westchester County, ex- tending from the mouth of the Byram River on the Sound to the Hudson, with incidental accounts of the principal patentees or grantees and of the settlements established. This embraces all the exterior portions of the county except the section from Croton Bay to the Highlands-that is, the present Town of Cortlandt, -- which, as we have indicated, was bought by Stephanus Van Cortlandt in a series of purchases commencing in 1683, and, with its eastward ex- tension to the Connecticut line, together with a tract on the west
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side of the Hudson River, was erected into the Manor of Cortlandt in 1697.
Stephanus Van Cortlandt was the eldest of the seven children of Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt and Annetje, sister of Govert Locker- mans, a very wealthy and distinguished burgher of New Amster- dam. His father, Oloff, was a man of note in New Amsterdam and New York for forty years. He came to New Netherland in 1638, with Director Kieft, as a soldier in the service of the Dutch West India Company. Oloff was a native of the province of Utrecht, in Holland, possessed a good education, and is supposed to have been of thoroughly respectable if not gentle descent, although noth- ing definite is known of his ancestry. After remaining a brief time in the military service in New Amsterdam, he was appointed by Kieft to official position, from which he resigned in 1648 to en- gage in mercantile and brewing pursuits, wherein he was very suc- cessful, soon acquiring a large fortune. He was burgomaster (mayor) of New Amsterdam al- most uninterruptedly from 1655 to the Eng- lish conquest. At the time of the surrender of the province to Nicolls he was one of the Dutch commissioners to nego- tiate the terms of the capitulation. Under the English government he continued to be a prom- inent and influential citizen until his death (April 4, 1684). He mar- ried Annetje Locker- YAN COURTLANDT mans on the 26th of MANOR !! C HOUSE. February, 1612, and by VAN CORTLANDT MANOR HOUSE, CROTON. her had seven children, three sons and four
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