USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 28
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
ticoes as now seen, and its surrounding balustrade, from which views of the river and the Palisades are commanded."
About the time of his return to America to claim his inheritance, young Frederick was married to Joanna, daughter of Lieutenant- Governor Anthony Brockholst, who also had been tenderly reared in England. During the first few years of his residence on his estate he took no part in public life. But from the time of his first election to the assembly, in 1726, until his death, in 1751, he was constantly in official position. His career in the assembly was not specially note- worthy. Despite the rivalry of the Morrises, who stood for political views radically opposed to his own, his seat in the assembly seems never to have been imperiled. It was an understood thing in West- chester County for more than half a century that one of the county members should always be a Philipse. Ile was appointed by Gover- nor Montgomerie on June 24, 1731, third judge of the Supreme Court of the province, and on August 21, 1733, by the removal of Morris from the chief justiceship and the elevation of de Lancey to that office, he became second judge, continuing as such until his death. Hle was also, from 1735 until his death, judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of Westchester County.
In opposing Chief Justice Morris and siding with de Lancey upon the question of the legality of the Court of Chancery appointed to try the Van Dam case, Frederick Philipse followed the natural bent of his sympathies. It is related in Governor Cosby's official letter to the home government concerning Morris's famous decision that Jus- tice Philipse, in common with JJustice de Lancey, heard " with aston- ishment " the abrupt declaration by the chief justice that the Court of Chancery was not a legal tribunal; and this no doubt was a quite faithful representation of his mental attitude on that trying occa- sion. Whatever may be thought of the conduct of the ambitious de Lancey, Philipse's action was unmistakably ingenuous. It probably nover occurred to him to doubt the perfect regularity and sufficiency of a court which had been set over the people at the discretion of the king's governor and his advisers. Philipse's career on the bench. excepting in this single case, was uneventful and wholly acceptable. After the Van Dam decision the Supreme Court was dominated by the individuality of de Lanevy, as it had previously been by that of Morris, and the function of a second judge was not an onerous one. Judge Philipse is described in an official communication from the council to the English government as "a very worthy gentleman of plentiful fortune and good education."
On his manor- or rather his section of the manor, for it was only during the last two years of his life, after the death of his uncle
263
THE ARISTOCRATIC FAMILIES
Adolph, that he enjoyed possession of the whole property-he ruled with much appreciation of his proprietary dignity and corresponding observance of ceremony, but to the uniform satisfaction of his ten- anis. He displayed none of the puffed-up characteristics of the par- venue lord, but was kind, approachable, moderate, and good to the poor. He presided in person over the manorial court. The inhab- itants of the estate, except his immediate household, continued to be tenant farmers. He is said to have had tifty family servants, of whom thirty were whites and twenty were negro slaves. Ile was a devoted member of the Church of England, and was the founder of Saint John's Episcopal Church of Yonkers. But it was not until after his death that that church had its beginning; during his life he was content at such times of the year as he resided in the Manor House to worship at the family altar, his tenants being under the mis- sionary care of the Parish of Westchester. The first Church of Eng- land minister established at Westchester whose duties included visi- tations of the Yonkers portion of Philipseburgh Manor was the Rev. Mr. Bartow. He died in 1726. " As often as he could," says a con- temporaneous church writer, " he visited Yonkers. A large congre- gation, chiefly of Dutch people, came to hear him. There was no church built here, so they assembled for divine worship at the house of Mr. Joseph Bebits, and sometimes in a barn when empty." That. this unsatisfactory condition of things was permitted by the second lord to continue throughout his lifetime, although meanwhile he made the most elaborate expenditures upon his manorial mansion and grounds, must be set down positively to his discredit. When, finally, by his will he directed his executors to expend £400 for the erection of a church, he took care to specify that the money should come out of the rentals from the tenants. He donated. however, a farm, with residence and outbuildings, lying east of the Sawmill River, as a glebe for the minister. The church was promptly built (1752-53) by his heir.
He died in 1751. He had ten children, of whom only four-Fred- erick, Philip, Susanna, and Mary-grew to maturity. Frederick was the third and last lord of the manor; Philip died in 1768, leaving three children; and Susanna and Mary, as already noted, married, respectively, Colonel Beverly Robinson and Major Roger Morris. This Mary was the celebrated Mary Philipse for whom George Wash- ington, according to some of his biographers, formed in his youth a romantic attachment.
The Manor of Scarsdale, patented to Colonel Caleb Heathcote in 1701, had only a nominal continuance after his death (1721). He left no male heir to take a personal interest in the development of the
264
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
property as one of the great family estates of Westchester County, and thus Scarsdale never ranked with the other manors. It was pre- served intact, however, under the joint proprietorship of Heath- cole's two daughters, until just before the Revolution, when its lands were disposed of to various persons by partition sale. Its progress in population, although very slow at first, was ultimately about the same as that of the ordinary rural sections of the county. The vil- lage of Mamaroneck, fying within its borders, but not belonging to the manorial estate, enjoyed steady but slow growth as one of the old communities on the Sound.
Heathcote's daughters, Ann and Martha, married, respectively, James de Lancey, of New York City, and Dr. Lewis Johnston, of Perth Amboy, N. J. Of these two men, the latter requires no special notice in our pages; but de Lan- cey has more than ordinary claims upon our at- tention. This remarkable man, besides being the son-in-law of Heathcote, was a grandson of Stepha- nus Van Cortlandt, the founder of Van Cortlandt Maner, and therefore may be regarded as one of West chester's sons. As the husband of Ann Heath- DE LANCEY ARMS. cote he became a large Westchester County land owner. The de Lancey family of the county, de. seended in part from him and in part from his brother Peter. is one to which mcommon historical interest attaches.
Ilis father, Stephen de Lancey, a descendant in the Huguenot branch of an ancient and noble French house, fled from France after the revocation of the Ediet of Nantes, and in 1686 arrived in New York with a capital of £300. Embarking in mercantile pursuits, he soon amassed wealth and gained a very influential position, not only in the commercial community of New York, but in the government. He was a member of the general assembly for many years, was a vestryman of Trinity Church in New York, and was noted for his public-spirited interest in the concerns of the city. He was a warm friend of the Huguenots of New Rochelle. In 1700 he married Ann, second daughter of Stephanus Van Cortiandt. James de Lancey, the future chief justice and governor, was their eldest son, born in New York City, November 27, 1703.
James was educated at the University of Cambridge, England. In 1729 he was appointed a member of the governor's council, succeed- ing John Barberie, who was his uncle by marriage. in 1731 he was made an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1733, at the age of thirty, was promoted to the chief justiceship. Whatever may have been the determining reasons for his support of Governor Cosby
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THE ARISTOCRATIC FAMILIES
and antagonism of Chief Justice Morris in the Van Dam case, he unhesitatingly followed to its logical conclusion the course that he adopted upon that occasion. Of a very proud nature, he deeply ro- sented the assumption by the other side of superior virtue and superior regard for liberty and law. Morris was a man of positive traits, and by the exercise of unquestioned judicial authority had grown dieta- torial in his old age. Incensed at the attitude of his young associate justices, both of whom were still in their thirties, he did not hesitate to make known his personal views of their conduct. " On the day after the Van Dam decision," writes Governor Cosby to the Duke of Newcastle, " the chief justice, coming to court, told those two judges, openly and publicly npon the bench before a umnerons audience, that their reasons for their opinion were mean, weak, and futile; that they were only his assistants, giving them to understand that their opin- ions, or rather judgments, were of no signification." One can imagine how the haughty spirit of de Lancey must have chafed under such lan- guage. Although the quarrel resulted in the dismissal of Morris and his own appointment to the vacated office, he had to suffer for two years the humiliation of extreme mupopularity and of utter failure to compel acceptation for his official orders and rulings in the further developments of the controversy. The grand jury, de- spite his strennous and repeated application, refused to indiet Zenger, and on the final trial of that arch-libeler the jury in the case con- templuonsly scorned the urgent instructions given them by the chief justice to find against the aceused, and instantly rendered a verdict of not guilty amid the rapturous applanse of the assembled populace.
But after the subsidence of the passions of that exciting period, the real worth of de Laneey's character became by degrees appreciated. Strong-willed and ambitions, he was yet a man of perfeet honesty and openness, free from all meanness and low craft and servility to the great. To the manliest of personal qualities he added brilliant abil- ities, an extraordinary capacity for public affairs, and an affability and grace of manner which made him an object of general admira- tion and affection. During the administration of the royal Governor Clinton, father of Sir Heury Clinton, he severed his connections with the " court party " and was consequently regarded with seant favor by the executive and his adherents. He was appointed to the office of lieutenant-governor by the proper anthority in England, but ('lin- ton revengefully withheld the commission for six years, delivering it to him only upon the eve of his own permanent retirement. This happened in October, 1753, when the newly appointed governor, Sir Danvers Osborn, arrived. A very few days later Osborn committed suicide, and de Lancey thus became acting governor. He held the po-
266
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
sition until 1755, serving so acceptably that when another vacancy occurred in 1757 the home government permitted him to practically succeed to the full dignity of governor, having decided to make no new appointment to the place during his lifetime. Thus de Lancey was the first native American to serve regularly as governor of the Province of New York, as his grandfather, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, was the first to hold the office of mayor of New York City. He died on the 30th of July, 1760, being at that time both governor and chief justice of New York.
Governor de Laneey had three sons who grew up-James, Stephen, and John Peter. James was prominent politically after his father's death until the Revolution, and then became a Tory; he married a daughter of Chief Justice William Allen, of Pennsylvania; two of his sons were officers in the British military and naval service. Stephen received from his father as a gift what is now the Town of North Salem in this county (which came to the elder de Lancey as his share in the Manor of Cortlandt). It was under his land sales that that town was settled. He built a large double dwelling, later con- verted into the North Salem Academy, where many distinguished men (including Governor Daniel D. Tompkins and Chancellor Kent) have been educated. John Peter was the ancestor of the Mamaroneck de Lanceys. He received a military education in England, and fought on the British side in the Revolution, but after the war retired from the army and returned to America, taking up his residence on the lleathcote estates on Scarsdale Manor, which he inherited from his mother, and where he built the dwelling still known as Heathcote Hill. He married Elizabeth Floyd, daughter of Colonel Richard Floyd, of Long Island, and among his children were Bishop William Heathcote de Lancey, of Western New York, and Susan Angusta de Lancey, who married James Fenimore Cooper.
A young brother of Governor de Lancey, Peter, was politically prominent in Westchester County, and left a numerous family, sev- eral of whom became noted or made advantageous marital alliances. He lived at West Farms and was known as " Peter of the Mills." He represented the borough Town of Westchester in the assembly from 1750 to 1768. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Governor Cadwalla- der Colden. Among his children were John, who sat in the assembly for Westchester Borough from 1768 to 1775, and was high sheriff of the county in 1769-70; James, high sheriff from 1770 to 1777, the famous colonel of the Westchester Light Horse (British), who after the Revolution lived and died a refugee in Nova Scotia: and Oliver, of West Farms, a lieutenant in the British navy, who resigned his com-
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R
os
DIEU E
By the Honourable JAMES DE LANGEY, Efq;
His Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief, in and over the Province of New-York, and the Territories depending thereon in America.
A Proclamation.
W HEREAS it appears, That certain Perfons refiding on du near the Eaftern Borders of this Provinc, have entered into a Combination to difpoffers Robert Langfon, jun. Efq; Proprietor of the Manar of Lwing flon, within this Province, and the Tenants holding Mader him, of the Lands comprifed within the aid Manor, under Pretence of Title from the Governmentof the Mafarbufetts Bay, as alfo of an Indian Parchafe lately made by the faid Perfons ; altho' tis moft notorous that the faid Manor hath, 'til very larel been peaceably held und enjoyed by the faid Robert Livingon, and his Anceftors, for Seventy Years lit pat. Five Years before the Chinnen Visage
worth www.histi; upon Which only 's conceived the faid Government can legally fofind their Claim. Notwithftanding which clear and manife? Right on the Part of this Govern- ment, the faid Perfons, not content with their former Intrufions on His Majefty's Lands w thisthe fame, firft began to carry their Defigns into Execution, by cndea pouring to corrupt and turn Mr. Living ffon's own Fenand againft him, in which they fo far fucceeded, that feveral Perfons, who 'til within a few Years held Lands as T'enants under and paid their Rents to him, now keep Poffeffion of the Lands in Defrance of, and fet up a pretended Right againft him, under the Government of the Mafachufetts Bay, 300 the aforementioned Indian Putchafe ; by which illegal Proceedings, fupported with force, the Courfe of fuffice hath been obftructed, the Lives of feveal of his Majefty's Subjects loft, and private Property in ringeu and greatly injured. And Whereas Thirty One of fuch evil finded Perfons, in order to profecute their unjuft Defigns, ou the 7th Day of Muy laft, armed and riotoully affembled themselves to Tackhanick, at the House of Jonathan Darbie, which fand or the Diftance of not more than Eighteen Miles from Hudfon's Rive, among whom were the faid Jonathan Darbie, allo Follunes Reefe, Hendrick Brufie, Fofeph Vangelder, and bis Brother, faid of be Andries Vangelder, Samuel Taylor, Ebenezer Taylor, Ind Andries J. Reef, and being to riotoully affembled, were commanded to difperfe by the Deputy Sheriff of the County, in the Prefence of one of His Majesty's Judices of the Peace, two Conftables, and other Perfons who came thither with the faid Robot Living flon, to fupprefs the Riot, and difperfe the Rioters ; four only of whom went off, the others fhutting themfelves up in the fid Darby's Houfe, in which there were Loop Holes, fired through the fame, and before they difperfed, feveral were wounded on both Sides, one of whom died in about an Hour thereafter, and another fome Time after, of the Wounds they then received. IN Orde therefore to put a Stop as much as may be to Proceedings, the Conferences whereof have already been fatal to fome, and which? if not timely prevented, may ftill be productive of the worft Evils to thets ; and to eftablifh and keep up Peace and a good Unda ftandIng among the Borderers, till this unhappy Controverfy thall be fe fed in a legal Courfe : I HAVE thought fit, with the Adrice of His Majefty's Councd, to ifue this Proclamation, Hereby in L'ts Majefty's Name, ftrictly enjoining all His Majesty's good Subjects in this Province, to for- bear and refrain from fuch violent angunjuft Proceedings, as every Inftance of that Nature will punithed with the utmoft Rigour of the Law, AND that the Offended before named may be brought to Juftice, the Sheriff's of the Counties of Albany and Dutchefs and all other Officers therein, are hedby commanded and required to apprehend the faid Jonathan Darbie, Johannes Reife, Hendrick Brufie, Joseph Vangelder, Samuel Ta ar, Ebenezer Taylor, and Andries y. Rees, and all and every of their Affociates, who fhali appear to have been aiding or abettiler the faid Offenders in the Riot aforefaid ; and them and every of them to keep, or caufe to be committed. in fafe Cuftody, in the @junty Goal, until delivered by due Courfe of Law : Anden like Manner, to apprehend and keep in fafe Cuftody all and every ofer Perfon and Perfons who fhall hereafter be guilty of ich riotous and illegal Practices. And all His Majesty's Subject: in the faid Counties of Albany and Dutchefs, are to give due Alittlence to the faid Sheriffs within their refpective Counties, who are hereby powered and required, if neceffary, to fuminon the Puffe, fu whole Power of the County, fur putting the Premifes ir Execution.
GIVEN under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Fort-George, in the City of New- York, the Eightb Day of June, One Thoufand Sien Hundred and Fifty Seven, in the Thirtieth Year de the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Second, by the Grace of GOD, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and fo forb.
By His Honour's Command, Gw. Bamyar, Dep. Secy
JAMES DE LANCEY.
GOD Save the KING.
PROCLAMATION SIGNED BY DE LANCEY.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
mission rather than fight against his native land, and, returning to this country, spent the remainder of his life at Westchester.
Another brother of Governor de Lancey, Oliver, was a conspicuous figure in public life until the end of the colonial regime, although never connected with Westchester County. In the Revolution he was the British commander of the Department of Long Island, and raised three regiments, known as " De Lancey's Battalion," of which he was brigadier-general. His descendants contracted brilliant mar- riages with English families.
Governor de Lancey had two sisters-Susan, who married Admiral Sir Peter Warren, and Anne, who became the wife of John Watts, Sr., whose son became county judge of Westchester County.
The de Lancey family, as a whole, was emphatically pro-British in the American struggle for independence, and contributed many brave officers to the armies of the king. In this latter respect the de Lanceys contrast with the Philipses, who, while Tory to the heart's core, were not fighters, and kept themselves at a safe distance from the scenes of carnage. Yet an element of the de Lanceys belonged to the patriot side, and leading members of the family who took up arms for Great Britain became reconciled to the situation after the recognition of independence, and made themselves acceptable citi- zeus of the republic. The family has always since been honorably connected with Westchester County.
The Manor of Cortlandi, devised by Stephanus Van Cortlandt at his death, in 1700, to his eleven surviving children in equal shares (except that his eldest son, JJohannes, received, in addition to his equal portion, what is now Verplanck's Point on the Hudson, a tract of some twenty-five hundred acres), remained undivided for many years. The family was a very united one. The widow of Stephanus, Gertrude Schuyler, ontlived her husband twenty-three years, and it was tacitly agreed that during her lifetime nothing should be done toward splitting up the estate. Meanwhile one of the eleven heirs, Oliver, died childless, willing his interest to his brothers and sisters. The manor thenceforth, until its final dismemberment, comprised ten proprietary interests. Although after the death of Stephanns there was always a recognized "head" of the Van Cortlandi family, there was never a second "lord" of the manor.
Johannes, the eldest son of Stephanus, died at a comparatively early age, leaving one child, Gertrude, who married Philip Ver- planck, a descendant of one of the early Dutch settlers of New Am- sterdam1 and a man of varied abilities. Among his accomplishments
1 Abraham Isaacson Verplanck, or Planck. He was one of the instigators of the Dutch war of retaliation against the Indians (1643-1645).
Verplanck's Point was named for Philip Ver-
planck, who has descendants still living In this county. The Verplaneks of Fishkill-on-the- Hudson belong to another branch of the family.
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THE ARISTOCRATIC FAMILIES
was an expert knowledge of surveying. By articles of agreement en- tered into by the Van Cortlandt heirs in November, 1730, Philip Verplanck was appointed to survey and lay out the manor into thirty lots. This commission was duly executed, although Verplanck's sur- vey was contined to the portion of the manor north of the Croton River. The lots were soon afterward conveyed to the several parties in interest by partition deeds, appraisals of value having been made by Daniel and Samuel Purdy, who were specially selected for that purpose. The following table shows the number of acres and their estimated value at this time (1733) apportioned for each share:
NAMES.
ACRES.
VALUES IN NEW YORK
MONEY.
Philip Verplanck 1
6,831
£973
Margaret Bayard?
7,398
948
Stephen de Lancey3
7,377
999
Philip Van Cortlandt
6,648
975
Stephen Van Cortlandt
6,894
972
John Miln+ ..
7,714
988
Gertrude Beekman5
8,062
912
William Skinner®
8,163
951
Andrew Johnston?
9,023
889
John Schuyler, Jr. 4
7,364
1,018
75,474
£9,625
! Grandson of Johannes Van Cortlandt.
5 JEnsband of Gertrude Van Cortlandt.
" Husband of Elizabeth Van cortlandt.
7 Husband of Catherine Van Cortlandt.
s Husband of Cornelia Van Cortlandt.
Thus in 1733 all of Westchester County north of the Croton River, and between that stream and the Connecticut line, having an aggre- gate area of over seventy-tive thousand acres, was appraised for the paltry sum of $48,000. This territory now includes the Towns of Cortlandt, Yorktown, Somers, North Salem, Lewisboro, and a portion of Poundridge, whose combined taxable value amounts to not a few millions.
In 1753 the manor lands south of the Croton River were divided. The heirs-at-law, entering into enjoyment of their individual proper- ties as partitioned to them, gradually leased the lands to settlers or sold them in fee. The subsequent history of the whole great Van Cortlandt estate, from the proprietary point of view, is well repro- sented by that of the share which fell to young Stephen de Lancey, the son of the chief justice-a share, as already mentioned, embracing nearly all of the present Town of North Salem. We quote from Mr. Edward Floyd de Lancey's " History of the Manors ":
Chief Justice de Laneey in 1744 conveyed them (his Cortlandt Manor lots), as a gift, to his second son, Stephen, Stephen a few years later began their settlement, and brought in
2 Margaret Van Cortlandt, wife of Colonel Samuel Bayard.
3 Husband of Ann Van Cortlandt.
' Second husband of Maria Van Cortlandt.
VIEW FROM ABOVE PEEKSKILL, LOOKING SOUTH AND WEST.
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THE ARISTOCRATIC FAMILIES
many farmers and some mechames. The whole tract was laid out into Tarms, rectangular in shape. of two hundred acres each as a rule. These were leased for long terms of years at low rents, the highest not being more than $10 and the lowest about $2 or 93. The rent rolls and map showed the farms, which were all numbered, the tenants' names, and the rent payable by each. It was always understood that the tenants might buy " the soil right," as the fee was termed, at any time the parties could agree upon price. In practice, however. the tenants did not begin to apply for the fee till about the time of the Revolution, and then but rarely. After that event more were sold to applicants, but many farms continued in the families of the tenants till late in this century. The last, which had descended to himself and the widow of a deceased brother, the writer sold in 1875, after the expiration of a lease for ninety-nine years. The same system of leasing ont their lots in farms was carried out by all the other owners of the manor lands. Some sold the fee of their lands at an early day to relatives, who thus increased their holdings. Others retained them.
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