USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 29
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Notwithstanding the complete partition of the estate, the " Lord- ship and Mannour " of Cortlandt, as erected by letters patent from Governor Fletcher in 1697, did not in any respect lose its original identity or the peculiar privileges bestowed upon it by the terms of that grant. It continued to be a distinet political division, and, in- deed, was separated from the remainder of Westchester County in an even more formal way than any of the other manors, since it en- joyed the exceptional right of sending its own exclusive representa- tive to the provincial assembly. It was not until 1788. under the régime of the State of New York, when Westchester County was divided into townships, that Cortlandt Manor ceased to exist.
The apportionment to this manor of a separate assembly repre- sentative was conditioned upon the proviso that no such repro- sentative should be chosen until the year 1717. In point of fact, the manor did not elect its first delegate to the assembly until 1734. Philip Verplanck was then chosen. Early in his career in that body he brought in a bill directing that "one supervisor, one treasurer, i wo assessors, and one collector " should be elected annually by the people of the manor, which was passed. In 1756, on account of in- creasing population, the election of two constables was anthorized -- one for the portion of the manor near the Hudson River and the other for the interior sections. In 1768 the number of constables was increased to three. Ryck's Patent (Peekskill acquired in 1770 the privilege of choosing its own local officers independently of the manor, although the inhabitants of this settlement still joined with the people of the manor in electing the member of assembly. Ver- planck represented Cortlandt Manor for the remarkable period of thirty-four years, his successor being Pierre Van Cortlandt, who served during the remainder of the colonial era.
After the death of Johannes and Oliver, the first and second sons of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Philip Van Cortlandt, the third son, became the head of the family. He was born in 1683. He was a merchant in New York, and has been described as "a man
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of clear head, of good abilities, and possessed of great deci- sion of character." From 1730 until his death (1746) he was a member of the gubernatorial council. His eldest son, Stephen, died vonng, leaving a son, Philip, who succeeded as the next head of the family. But this second Philip, preferring a military life, entered the British army, in which he had a long career, fighting against Amer- ican freedom in the Revolution.1 His uncle Pierre (youngest son of the first Philip and grandson of Stephanus) ultimately became the lead- ing member of the Van Cortlandt family resident on the manor.
Pierre Van Cortlandt's is one of the great names of Westchester County, second, indeed, to none in all the illustrious and noble ar- ray. This is not the place for a particular account of his career, which, in its more distinctive features, is connected with the events of the Revolutionary and subsequent periods. When those events come to be treated we shall see that in the almost balanced condition of sentiment in this country at the time of the Revolution, his was probably the determining influence. Others led the political hosts for independence, but Van Cortlandt's support, calmly and mpre- lendingly given, though with all resoluteness and conviction, was a factor that counted for quite as much as the activities of the agita- tors. Not an old man, and yet arrived at an age of gravity: not a politician in the common sense, but well experienced in public af- Fairs and having a reputation for great judicionsness and virtuous love of truth and right; the head of a family as reputable and as highly and widely connected as any in the province, his example was of inestimable moral value to a cause which, in this county at least, had little need for vehement and aggressive advocates, but much for courageous upholders from among the dignified and con- servative classes of society. His services to the patriot movement began in the colonial assembly, of which he was a member, and from that time until after the organization of the government of the United States he was one of the most earnest, useful, and prominent promoters of political independence and stable republican institu- tions. His private life was identified almost exclusively with West- chester County. Born on the 10th of January, 1712. he lived on the manor from boyhood, taking an active part at an early age in the family interests. His father, Philip, bequeathed to him "all that
1 HIr was the ancestor of the English branch of the Van Cortlandts the " eldest " branch. At the termination of the war. he Went to England to reside, and died at Hailsham, in 1814. He had twenty-three children, twelve of whom reached maturity, the sons all attaining high rank in the British army and the daugh-
ters marrying into the best English and Scotch families. The present Lord Elphinstone. one of the Queen's lords in waiting, is a great- grandson of Colonel Van Cortlandt. of the English branch no male descendant of the name is living .- The Tan Cortlandt Family, hy Jrs. Pierre E. Van Cortlandt, Scharf, ii., 128.
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my house and farm or loti of land,-being the east town loft from Teller's Point extending all along Croton River, together with the Ferry House and ferry thereunto belonging." He married Joanna, daughter of Gilbert Livingston and granddaughter of Robert, the first lord of Livingston Manor; and in September, 1799, he made the manor house his permanent place of abode. There were born all of his children, four sons and three daughters, of whom Philip, the distin- guished General Philip Van Cortlandt of the Revolutionary army, was the eldest. Those were palmy days for the old manor house. Cad- wallader Colden, writing to his wife in 1753, said: " I have had a very pleasant ride from Fishkill to Van Cortlandt, where I lodged, passing easily through the mountains. Young Pierre and his charm- ing wife keep up the hospitality of the house equal to his late father." His time was largely devoted to caring for the interests of the numer- ous Van Cortlandt heirs in connection with the manor lands-a very responsible business, involving many delicate matters. He died in the manor house on the 1st of May, 1814, being aged more than ninety- three years. He lies buried in the cemetery of the Van Cortlandts. The following is the inscription on his tomb:
" Mark the perfect man and behold the upright ; for the end of that man is peace."
In memory of the Honorable Pierre Van Cortlandt, late Lieutenant-Governor of the State of New York, and President of the Convention that formed the Constitution thereof during the Revolutionary war with Great Britain. He departed this life on the first day of May, 1814, in the ninety-fourth year of his age.
Hle was a patriot of the first order, zealous to the last for the Liberties of his Country. A man of exemplary Virtues ; kind as a neighbor, fond and indulgent as a Parent-An honest man, over the friend of the Poor.
Respeeted and beloved, the simplicity of his private life was that of an ancient Patriarch. lle died a bright witness of that perfect Love which casts out the fear of Death, putting his trust in the Living God, and with full assurance of Salvation in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, retaining his recollection to the last and calling upon his Saviour to take him to himself.
The " Yonkers branch " of the Van Cortlandts, founded by the New York merchant, Jacobus Van Cortlandt (a younger son of Oloff Stey- ense Van Cortlandt), who married Eva, stepdaughter of the first Fred- erick Philipse, was throughout the colonial era a flourishing race. Jacobus purchased from his father-in-law, Philipse, in 1699, fifty acres, to which he later added several hundred acres more. He promptly began to improve his estate. About 1700 he dammed Tippet's Brook, thus creating the present Van Cortlandt Lake; and probably not long afterward he erected below the dam the Van Cortlandt mill, which until as recent a date as 1889 (when it came into the posses- sion of the City of New Yorki continued to grind corn for the neighbor- ing farmers. Jacobus in his will bequeathed to his only son, Fred- erick Van Cortlandt, his farm, " situate, lying, and being in a place
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IHISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
commonly called and known by the name of Little or Lower Yonck- ers." Frederick (born in 1698) married Francina, daughter of Au- gostus and Anna Maria (Bayard) Jay, whereby his descendants he- came of kin to Chief Justice John Jay. It was under Frederick's pro- prietorship that the Van Cortlandt mansion now in the custody of the Colonial Dames-a dwelling which rivals the Philipse Manor house at Yonkers as a specimen of high-class colonial architecture, and, like the latter, is still in a state of perfect preservation-was con- structed.
The Van Cortlandt Mansion ( we quote from the interesting descriptive pamphlet pub- lished by its present custodians ) is built of rubble stone, with brick trimmings about the windows. It is unpretentions in appearance, yet possessing a stateliness all its own, which grows upon the visitor. It was erected in 1748 by Frederick Van Cortlandt-a stone on the southwest corner bears the date-and possesses within and without many peculiarities of the last century. . The style of architecture of the house is essentially Dutch. The old Dutch builders were thorough masters of their trade, and put up a structure which is as strong to-day as when New York was a colony. All the windows on the front are surmounted by curious corbels, with faces grave or gay, satyrs or humans, but cach different From the other. Felix Oldboy innocently asked if they were portraits of the Van Cortlandts, and the owner replied, " Yes, and that the particularly solemn one was taken after he had spent a night with the boys." The window sills are wide and solidly built into the thick stone walls, as was the fashion of the time, and vary sonwewhat in form in the second story. The side ball and the dining-room, with the rooms above, belong to an addition built a year or two later than the main house, and the " lean-to" is an addition of this eentury.
Frederick Van Cortlandt and his wife, Francina, had six children, of whom Jacobus, the eldest (born March 3, 1727), became the pro- prietor of the " Little Yonkers" estate after the father's death, in 1750. This Jacobus (third proprietor) anglicized his name to James; he was the highly respected and prominent Colonel James Van Cort- landt of the Revolution. Though an undoubted patriot, and resi- dent within the British lines, he was not disturbed by the enemy in his possessions, and, indeed, so great was the respect in which his character was held, was able frequently to exercise powerful influ- ence with the British authorities in New York in behalf of his dis- tressed countrymen. He died in 1800 without issue, whereupon the " Little Yonkers " estate passed to his brother, Augustus; and after the death of the latter the principal portion of it (including the man- sion) was held, until its purchase by the City of New York, in the family of his daughter Anna, who married Henry White, the White heirs of Augustus assuming the name of Van Cortlandt agreeably to a requirement of his will.
The Manor of Pelham, having been reduced to one-third its original dimensions in consequence of the sale in 1689 by John Pell (second lord) of six thousand acres to the Huguenots of New Rochelle, never subsequently to that time enjoyed very conspicuous rank among the great original landed estates of Westchester County. Moreover, the
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successors of John Pell in its " lordship " did not compare in intlu- ence or publie activity with the descendants of the founders of Mor- risania, Philipseburgh, Van Cortlandt, and Scarsdale Manors; and the roll of members of the colonial assembly from Westchester County during the eighteenth century does not contain the name of a single Pell. However, the manor was preserved as sneh until the death of the last " lord," Joseph Pell, in 1776; and the Pells in their varions branches were always a numerous and respectable family, contracting advantageous marital alliances in both the male and female lines. The principal person of the Pell name in later colonial and Revolutionary times was Philip Pell. a conscientious, able, and prominent patriot, who represented the State of New York in the con- tinental congress of 1788, served as judge-advocate of the American army, and after the war was sheriff of the county, his son, Philip Pell, JJr., serving for many years as surrogate.
A family of very notable importance in political activity and rep- resentative character for many years-rival- ing, indeed, the Morrises, Philipses, de Lan- ceys, and Van Cortlandis-was the ancient Willett family of Cornell's Neck on the Sound. The plantation of Cornell's Neck, identical with the present Clason's Point, was granted to Thomas Cornell, a former colonist of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, by the Dutch di- rector, Kieft, in 1646. This was the third recorded land grant in point of time with- PELL ARMS. in the borders of what subsequently be- came Westchester County, being antedated only by the grants to Jonas Bronck of Bronxland and to John Throckmorton and asso- ciates of Throgg's Neck. From Thomas Cornell the estate passed successively to his widow, to his two daughters. Sarah and Re- becca, and to his grandson, William Willett, son of his eldest daughter, Sarah, by her first husband, Thomas Willett. William Willett (born 1644) in 1667 obtained from the first English governor, Nicolls, a new patent to Cornell's Neck. He made his abode there, apparently, soon afterward, and lived in quiet enjoyment of his hand- some property until his death, in 1701. He was one of the first alder- men of the borough Town of Westchester. Having no descendants-in fact, he never married-he left Cornell's Neck to his younger brother, the noted Colonel Thomas Willett, of Flushing. The latter at once (March 28, 1701) conveyed it to his eldest son, William, expressing among his reasons for that aet his desire for " the advancement and preferment of yo " said son. The " advancement and preferment " of
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the second William Willett transpired immediately; for in the same year he was elected a delegate from Westchester County to the provincial assembly, in which capacity he served almost contin- nonsly until his death (1733). This is a circumstance of peculiar consequence when it is remembered that Cornell's Neck was com- prised within the limits of the borough Town of Westchester, which regularly elected a deputy of its own to the assembly. William Willett must have been a particularly forceful character to have commanded the suffrages of the county for a generation, notwith- standing his residence in the exceptionally favored borough town. He was thoroughly identified with the popular party. We have seen in a previous chapter that when the great issue of the abuse of the governor's prerog- ative arose, and a test of popular sentiment was instituted by causing the deposed Chief Justice Morris to stand for the as- sembly, William Wil- lett resigned his seat in that body to afford opportunity for the desired test; and also that he was one of the most zealous of Mor- ris's partisans at the OLD DUTCH CHURCH, FORDHAM, famous electoral con- test on the East- chester Green. In addition to his distinguished career in the as- sembly, he was the successor of Caleb Heathcote (1721) as county judge of Westchester County and colonel of the Westchester County militia. Ilis eldest son, William Willett, 3d, also sat in the as- sembly for the county (1738), and was appointed colonel of the militia. This third William's brother, Gilbert Willett, was sheriff of the county from 1723 to 1727, and represented Westchester Bor- ough in the assembly from 1728 to his death, in 1732. The two brothers were joint proprietors of Cornell's Neck, which in the next generation became the exclusive property of Gilbert's son, Isaac Wil- lett, after whose death it was owned by his widow, finally being dis- tributed amongst various heirs.
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CHAPTER XIV
FROM THE STAMP ACT TO THE LAST SESSION OF THE COLONIAL ASSEMBLY
IIE theory and practice of colonial self-government were of no sudden development in the Province of New York. Still less were they the result of mere observation and imitation of bold examples set by the people of other British colonies in America. In the earliest days of English rule, the people of New York were not only ready for any measure of self-government that might be granted to them, but were eager and aggressive in demand- ing the privileges of free men. Under the proprietary rule of that despotie prince, James, Duke of York, after nearly twenty years of exclusively personal administration through his gubernatorial rep- resentative, the province was, in 1683, conceded a certain share in the government by the erection of a legislative assembly. The very first act passed by that body was a proposed " Charter of Liberties and Privileges granted by his Royal Highness to the Inhabitants of New York and its dependencies," which was entirely in the line of popular participation in the direction of affairs and popular limita- tion of the functions of the executive. The Duke of York considered the manifestations of the assembly of 1683 so inconsistent with his notions of essentially prerogative government for the province that the New York legislature was never again convened while he re- tained authority, either during the remainder of the proprietary pe- riod or during his reign as king of England. The liberty-desiring people of the province harbored no kindly feeling for James as pro- prietor or James as sovereign, and when the news arrived of the Revolution of 1688 and the accession under liberal auspices of Will- iam, Prince of Orange, they hailed it with joy, treated James's lieu- tenant-governor, Nicholson, with seant courtesy, and finally expelled him from his post and organized a temporary government of their own which had all the character and effect of a purely repub- lican régime, although without the slightest taint or suspicion of anarchy. And this popular government of 1689-91, while originat- ing in force, was in no sense a military institution. The chiefs of the training-bands, who were responsible for it in the first instance, immediately summoned a popular assembly, which appointed a strict- ly civil council of safety. By the will of the general governing body
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established with so much courage yet decorum, Jacob Leisler took the principal charge of affairs. The whole policy of Leisler and his associates was that of conscientions republican rulers, who, it is true, held the government in trust for the new king of England, but held it as constituted representatives of the people, whose will, pend- ing the detinite expression of the will of the lawful sovereign, they deemed paramount. In a vital public emergency, with which they were quite competent to deal if they had chosen, they preferred to leave the matter to the people, and accordingly called a new legis- lative assembly. Regarding the existing government of the City of New York as unadapted to the changed order of things, they did not, however, presume to reorganize it by the use of appointive powers, but ordered a popular election for the choice of a new mayor and aldermen. The spirit and transactions of the Leisler period afford convincing evidence of Jacobfester the very early pre- paredness of the peo- ple of New York for political independence, and also of their per- fect capacity for its orderly and creditable exercise. There is no better established fact than this in American colonial history.
After the restitution of the provincial assembly as a permanent parliament by William 11. in 1691, the people ardenily availed them- selves of the resources provided by that body for defending such rights as they possessed against royal invasion, for harassing arbi- trary or objectionable governors, and for gradually asserting the broad principle of American liberty. The government of the province was modeled upon that of England, with important differences. The assembly corresponded to the house of commons, to which, as a representative elective body of the people at large, it bore a perfect similiinde. The council took the place of both the house of lords and the ministerial cabinet, being in theory partly a higher chamber and partly a body of executive advisers. Hi was in practice wholly subservient to the governor, since its members were appointable and removable by the home government in England, subject singly to his recommendation. By the entire absence of a " government of the day," executive power was concentrated in the hands of the governor, who, unless a man of exceptionally virtuons and moderate character (which seldom happened), was therefore under strong temptation to regard himself as a ruler to whom uncommon individual authority
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belonged in the natural order of things. But this condition operated powerfully to make of the assembly not merely a counterpoise in the government, but an irreconcilable antagonistic force. As there was no established ministry responsible to the assembly and capable of reversal by it on the merits of administrative acts and policies, the assembly was not a highly organized and nicely related depart- ment in a carefully adjusted scheme of government, but stood with great formality on an independent footing. The result was that, in- stead of being a co-operative factor in the business of managing the province, it held itself in an attitude of confirmed reserve toward the executive. It was a substantial repetition of the feud between the parliament and the king, with the difference that, while that un- happy fend in the mother country endured for only a brief compara- tive period, its simulacrum in New York covered the entire time of the existence of the province.
To the New York assembly, as to the British house of commons, was reserved the exclusive right to originate money bills, which, moreover, were unamendable by the council. This power was early appreciated by the people as their great safeguard against effectual tyranny, and in the case of every governor of unacceptable behavior they enforced it with unsparing rigidity. Holding the purse-strings, they could exceedingly embarrass the haughtiest governor, and, in fact, there was a perpetual irritation between the executive and the legislature on the subject of grants of supplies. Governor after gov- ernor was sent over from England with express instructions to cor- rect these exasperating practices, but dismal failure resulted in every instance. To such a pitch had the resolute spirit of the colonists reached after sixty years of representative government, that upon the arrival of the royal Governor Osborn, in 1753, he was greeted by the city corporation with an address in which was expressed the signifi- cant expectation that he would be as "averse from countenaneing as we from brooking any infringements of our inestimable liberties." It happened that Osborn had been particularly directed by the British government to enrb the aggressive tendencies of the colonists. He was a man of peculiarly sensitive soul, and the use of such terms in an official address of welcome from the capital of the province over which he was to rule greatly disturbed him. Inquiring of some of the principal men about the general political conditions, he was told of the extreme obstinacy of the assembly, notably in the mat- ter of voting supplies-an obstinaey from which it would never re- cede one step, however commanded, wheedled, or threatened. It was well established at the time that Governor Osborn's sensational sui- cide was due to despondeney over the gloomy prospect thus held
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before him. A tragical episode of another kind, the "battle of Golden Hill," New York City (January 19 and 20, 1770), resulting in the shedding of the first blood of the Revolution, is directly trace- able to the grim policy of the New York provincial assembly in re- lation to money grants. The assembly had persistently refused to provide certain articles, such as beer and cider, for the use of the British garrison quartered in New York City, and this conduct had greatly incensed the soldiery, who had borne themselves toward the populace of the city with a particularly swaggering demeanor, be- sides committing overt acts of serious offensiveness. Hence arose extreme bad feeling, terminating in the Golden Hill affair. It was also as a consequence of the assembly's course in the controversy about supplies for the troops that the extraordinary act of parlia- ment suspending the business of the New York assembly on the ground of insubordination was passed (October, 1767). This act was " for restraining and prohibiting the governor, conneil, and house of representatives of the Province of New York, until provision shall have been made for furnishing the king's troops with all the neces- saries required by law, from passing or assenting to any act of as- sembly, vote, or resolution for any other purpose."
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