History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 180

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 180

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In the year 1609, Henry Hudson, an English navi- gator in the employ of the Dutch East India Com- pany, undertook a voyage in the "Half-Moon," to seek a westward passage to China, and in September entered what is now known as New York Bay. In 1613, a Dutch trading establishment, consisting of five houses, under the superintendence of Hendrick Cor- stiaensen, was set up, but received a serious cheek when Captain Argall, of the Virginia colony, touched at the island and forced Corstiaensen and his associ- ates to submit to the King of England, and to agrec to pay tribute, in token of their dependence on the English crown.

In 1614 the States-General of the United Nether- lands, for the purpose of encouraging exploration and settlement, offered a four years' monopoly of trade with newly-discovered lands. A company of mer- chants, under the title of "The United New Nether- land Company," forming a partnership-not a corpo- ration -availed themselves of the privilege, and erected the first rude fort on Manhattan Island. At the termination of the four years the charter of this company expired and was never renewed.1

The next step, in order of time, was the settlement of Plymouth, in 1620, under thic original patent of New England, which embraced all that part of North America between the fortieth and forty-cighth de-

grees of north latitude, and extending " from sea to sea ;" that is, as far south as Philadelphia and as far north as Quebee, and in breadth from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This grant was absolute and ex- elusive. Without the permission of the Plymouth Council,no ship might sail into any harbor from New- foundland to the latitude of Philadelphia; and not an emigrant might place his foot upon the soil. It was under this grant that four and twenty families landed from the " Mayflower," on Plymouth Rock, in December, 1620, and established a settlement, from which is dated the planting of New England.2

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was in- corporated for a period of twenty years, with privilege to traffic and plant colonies on the coast of Africa. from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and on the coast of America from the Straits of Ma- gellan to the remotest north; thns lightly did the lit- the nation of merchants make gifts of continents, However, intelligence being received in England that preparations were making to send vessels to America, King James I. directed his ambassador at the Hague to urge npon the States-General the ne- cessity of preventing their subjects from settling in parts north of Virginia, and distinctly asserting the illegality of making any settlements on this conti- nent.3 The ambassador was assured that the Dutch had planted no colony there, and intended to plant none. Notwithstanding these assurances, the Dutch West India Company, in 1626, purchased of the In- dians, for the sum of twenty-four dollars, the Island of Manhattan, and built thereon Fort Amsterdam.

This attempt at a permanent settlement drew from Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, an earnest assertion of the right of the English to the country now oceu- pied by the Dutch, and an intimation that force might be used to maintain the British claim. The directors in Holland thereupon obtained from Charles I. an order in Council, by which all the ports in the king- doms and territories of the British King were thrown open to all Dutch vessels trading to or from New Netherland.+

Until the year 1629 the Dutch had done nothing to advance a settlement ; a few servants of the company, connected with the trading posts, were the only Dutch inhabitants of New Netherland ; and not a foot of soil had been reclaimed save the little that supplied the wants of the few persons attached to the three forts. During this year, however, a charter with special privileges was granted to all such members of the company as should settle any colony in New Nether- land, and settlements were made on the Hudson River and at Cape Henlopen.5

During the years 1628, 1629 and 1630 thousands of English Puritans settled in Massachusetts. On March

2 1 Bancroft, U. S., 272; 1 Trumbull, 546 ; 1 Hazard, 103-108.

3 1 O'Callaghan's " New Netherland," 95.

4 1 O'Callaghan, 109.

5 1 O'Callaghan, 110.

1 2 Bancroft, U. S., 272.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

19, 1631, Robert, Earl of Warwick, president of the Council of the Plymouth Company, granted unto Lord Say and Seal and sixteen others, and to their heirs and assigns and associates forever, " All that part of New England which lies west from Narragansett River a hundred and twenty miles on the sea coast and from thence in latitude and breadth aforesaid to the South Sea." This grant extends from Point Judith to New York, and from thence in a west linc to the South Sca (Pacific Ocean) ; and if we take Nar- ragansett River in its whole length, this tract will ex- tend as far north as Worcester.1

The patents to Connecticut, Georgia, South Caro- lina and Virginia have the same westerly extension, and were so regarded by the English Kings, and acted upon in treaties between Great Britain and France and Spain. It was by this construction of the patents and charters of the American colonies that the Western Territories, as far as the Mississippi, were ceded to the United States by the peace with Great Britain ; and it was by virtue of the same con- struction of the patents that Congress, in 1788, pro- cured a formal surrender of the unappropriated West- ern lands from the States above named,-Connecti- cut, however, reserving a tract in Ohio, bounded on the south by the forty-first degree of north latitude and on the north by the Connecticut line, containing three million six hundred and sixty-seven thousand acres.2

In March, 1632, a Dutch ship was forced, by stress of weather, into the port of Plymouth, and was seized on a charge of having traded and obtained her cargo in countries subject to His Britannic Majesty. Out of this scizure grew the first sharp controversy between the English King and the States-General regarding their respective rights and claims in America-a con- troversy meriting special attention. The Dutch, in a carefully prepared deduction of their title, declared that after the North River was discovered in 1609 by subjects of their High Mightinesses, and visited by some of their citizens in 1610 and following years, a grant was made in 1615, to some of their subjects, of the trade to that country, and a small fort and garrison established there, which remained until the charter granted to the West India Company, which included these as well as other countries ; that the grant of His Britannic Majesty to his subjects under the name of New England included the land between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees ; and the grant to Virginia included the country between the thirty- seventh and thirty-ninth degrees, leaving one hun- dred miles from one to the other, so that the Dutch limits should be from the thirty-ninth to the forty- first parallel, between which degrees it was not known the English had any designs, and which the subjects of their High Mightinesses obtained, partly

by trcaty with the proprietors of the soil, and partly by purchase.

This vindication of the company's rights was pre- sented to Charles I., and a formal reply on the part of His Majesty was soon afterward made, in support of the British claims to the countries in North America of which the West India Company then had possession.

" The Dutch demand restitution " (say the Lords Commissioners of England) " of a certain ship seized at Plymouth on return from a certain plantation hy them usurped, north of Virginia, which they allege they acquired from the natives of those countries. It is denied that the savages were possessed of those countries so as to bo able to dispose of them, or that they were parties to the said pretended sale. And as regards the allegation that the natives have their ahode round about them, the truth is, the English surround them on all sides, as they have very well discovered. But more than this ; the rights belonging to his majesty's subjects in that country are justified by first discovery, occupa. tion and possession, and by charters aud letters patent obtained from our .sovereigns, who, for these purposes, were the true and legitimate pro- prietors there, where the Lords, the States have not assumed to them- selves such pretension, and have not granted any charter to their sub- jects, conveying in itself any title or power to them. Which was proved in the year 1621, when the late King directed his ambassador to urge upon their Lordships, the States-General, to prevent the departure of certain vessels which were preparing to proceed to the aforesaid country, and to forbid their subjects to settle in that plantation ; for their answer was that they knew nothing of said enterprise. That any who will sub- mit themselves to his majesty's government, as his majesty's subjects, may settle there ; that if they do not consent, his majesty's interest will not permit him to allow them to usurp and encroach upon one of his colonies, which he has great cause to cherish and maintain in its integrity.

" By these replies to the aforesaid complaints, their Lordships, the States-General, will understand how little ground they have to enter on their neighbor's territory in defiance of any alienation thereof by his majesty."

The vessel was subsequently released ; but her de- tention had accomplished the end the government had in view, which was to assert a title that undis- puted possession might possibly impair.

The condition of New Netherland in the year 1638,3 when Governor Kieft arrived, was but a step removed from its primitive state of wilderness. It was unin- habited save by a few traders and clerks, and, except for half a dozen farms around Fort Amsterdam and an equal number about Fort Orange, was wholly un- cultivated. No towns or villages had been planted, and of the few settlers introduced by the company, the greater part had returned, leaving a few isolated traders in the solitary forts which served only as a rendezvous for lazy Indians. Had the Dutch filled the land with an energetic and determined race, seck- ing to build houses and churches and to found com- monwealths, as the English were doing, they might have stemmed the tide of New England encroach- ment, which, a few years later, washed against the very shores of Manhattan Island. During the next year, 1639, there were considerable accessions to the number of actual settlers in New Amsterdam, but up to that time the history of New Netherland was merely the day journal of a trading company.

In 1640 the advance guard of New England

1 Trumbull's Conn., 13.

2 Trumbull, 14.

3 1 O'Callaghan, 177.

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pioneers had pushed westward to Byram River, and soon organized a church and a township, and devot- ing themselves heartily to their agricultural and do- mestic duties, created happy homes, and laughed at Dutch claims not backed up by actual possession. The possibility of annoyance, both by land and sea, to the unguarded towns along the Sound, and the dread, on the part of the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, of greater quarrels than they could singly manage, brought about the formation of the New England Confederacy in 1643, said by John Quincy Adams to have been " the model and proto- type of the North American Confederacy of 1774." At the first meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonists, in September, 1643, one of the most urgent items of business was to answer a letter from Governor Kieft desiring an explicit declaration of the policy to be pursued in relation to the Dutch claims in Connecticut. The opportunity was welcomed, and an answer drawn up asserting the justice of the Eng- lish claims. By the time, this answer reached Kieft, however, his rashness and the greed of the Dutch traders had brought on an Indian war, the violence of which left the Dutch neither time nor strength for other aggressive movements while the reins of govern- ment remained in Kieft's hands.

In May, 1647, Kieft was deposed and the govern- ment passed into the hands of Peter Stuyvesant, who soon found occasion for showing the spirit in which he proposed to administer his office. He secretly seized a ship from Holland trading in the harbor of New Haven, on the ground that the Dutch jurisdic- tion, by right of discovery, included New Haven within the limits of New Netherland, and therefore customs duties on the cargo should be paid to the Dutch Governor. This unexpected insult led to a voluminous correspondence, conducted on the part of Governor Eaton with such unanswerable reasoning as to compel Stuyvesant to deny any intentional wrong.

In 1650 an attempt was made by the English col- onies and the Dutch to settle the boundary line be- tween them. A conditional agreement 1 was entered into, subject to ratification by England and Holland, whereby the dividing linc was to begin on the west side of Greenwich Bay 2 and run twenty miles into the country,-Greenwich to be under the government of the Dutch. This agreement, however, was never con- firmed, and a subsequent declaration of war between the mother countries created a more hostile feeling between the Dutch and English on this side of the Atlantic, which continued until the conclusion of peace, in 1654.

Prior to this time, in 1642, a few families from Massachusetts, under the leadership of John Throck- morton, settled on Throgg's Neck, and that remark-

able woman, Anne Hutchinson, with her family, set- tled on Hutchinson's River, in what is now Pelham. In 1643 the Hutchinson family was entirely swept away by the Indians in their retaliatory war with the Dutch, and a part only of Throckmorton's colony survived. These, with the exception of Thomas Cor- nell and the Mondys, all New England people, were the only persons who attempted settlements east of the Bronx River until 1654, when Thomas Pell, act- ing under special authority from Connecticut, pur- chased of the Indians the land which embraces the present town of Westchester, and obtained a grant of the territory 3 bearing date the 14th day of November.

In 16524 the West India Company had instructed Stuyvesant to engage the Indians in his cause against the New England colonies, but the friendship of the Narragansetts for the Puritans could not be shaken. " I am poor," said Mixam, one of the sachems, " but no presents of goods or of guns or of powder and shot shall draw me into a conspiracy against my friends, the English." In this year the Dutch ambassadors opened negotiations in London in reference to the American colonies and the settlement of the bound- ary question, but the English persistently claimed the territory from Virginia to Newfoundland; the con- sideration of the subject was deferred, and the oppor- tunity to secure a ratification of the Hartford treaty of 1650 was forever lost.5

Again, in 1654,6 the States-General, feeling that the encroaching disposition and superior numbers of the English rendered their North American possessions insecure, instructed their ambassadors at London to negotiate a boundary line. But this effort, like those which had preceded it, proved unsuccessful, and throughout the protectorate7 England declared the Dutch to be intruders. During the next four years 8 a good understanding was maintained between the Dutch and their New England neighbors,-the Dutch, as the weaker party, being very careful not to give offense.

The situation was substantially unchanged, when, in April 1662, John Winthrop obtained from King Charles II. a charter for the colony of Connectient,9 confirming the whole of the country granted by Charles 1. to the Earl of Warwick, and conferring many powers not included in former charters.10 Winthrop, the new Governor of Connecticut, now gave notice to Director Stuyvesant that he must not trouble any of His Majesty's subjects within the limits of the new patent; Westchester (Orsdorp) was advised that it was included within the colony of Connecticut, and Stuyvesant, on the 15th of Novem- ber, 1663,11 wrote to Hartford, consenting that West-

1 2 O'Callaghan, 153.

2 2 O'Callaghan, 153.

3 2 Bolton, 263. 6 2 O'Callaghan, 202. 6 2 ()'Callaghan, 277.

4 2 Bancroft, 295,

7 2 0'Callaghan, 342. 8 2 0'V'allaghan, 402. 9 3 New Haven llist. Soc. Papers, 441 ; Trumbull, 259. 10 2 O'Callaghan, 455. 11 2 O'Callaghan, 505.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

chester be annexed to Connecticut. Thus, one after another, the Dutch abandoned cvery point their enemies assailed; the Connecticut River had been given up, and now Westehester and shortly afterward Long Island were relinquished.

On March 22, 1664,1 Charles II. granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the whole of Long Island and all the country in the possession of the Dutch. To secure the conquest of the distriet in question, the

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JHenry Carpenter Civil Engineer

Duke of York organized an expedition to take pos- session of the country, and appointed Richard Niehols his Deputy Governor, with authority to estab- lish and maintain his government and to settle boundaries. In the latter part of August 2 the ships carrying the Governor and his forces anchored near Fort Amsterdam; on the 29th Nichols sent to the fort a summons to surrender, and on Monday morn- ing, September 8th, the Dutch marched out of the fort

and the English marched in. Fort Amsterdam was named Fort James, New Netherland became New York, and a few days later Fort Orange, having also surrendered, received the name of Albany ; and the Dutch sway in America was at au end.

On the 30th of the following November the bound- ary between New York and Connecticut was settled as follows: "We also order and deelare that the Creek or River ealled Mamaroneck, which is reputed to be about twelve miles to the east of Westchester, and a line drawn from the East point or side where the fresh water falls into the salt at high-water mark, North-Northwest to the line of Massachusetts, be the Westward bounds of the said Colony of Connecticut, and all plantations lying Eastward of that Creek 3 and line to be under the government of Connecticut." This north-northwest line from the mouth of Mama- roneek River continued to be the eastern boundary of New York; and the White Plains were thereby in- eluded in the province of Connecticut.

Resuming the consideration of title, we find that the Indian deed to John Riehbell, purported to eon- vey three neeks of land, and included most of the present town of Mamaroneck. The deed was as fol- lows :

" I, Wompoquenm, together with my brother Mahatahan, being the right owners of three necks of land, lying and being bonnded on the east side with Mamaroneck, and on the west side with stony river, which parts tbe said lands from Mr. Pell's purchase ; now these are to certify to all and Everyone whom it may concern, that I, Wompoquem, did by myself, and in behalf of my aforesaid brother Mahatahan, firmly bar- gain and sell to Mr. John Richbell, of Oyster Bay, to him and bis heirs forever, the above-mentioned three necks of land, together with all other privileges thereunto belonging, six weeks before I sold it to Mr. Revell (l'ell) and did mark out the bounds, and gave Mr. Richbell pos- session of said land, and did receive part of my pay in hand, as witness my hand.

" The mark O of WOPOQUEUM. " Witness, JACOB YOUGH, CATHARINE YOUGH." 4

From the time of Richbell's purehase down to October 16, 1668, he was engaged in a constant dis- pute with Thomas Pell in regard to the boundaries of their respective purchases. This difficulty having finally been settled, a patent of the last-mentioned date was issued by Governor Lovelace to Richbell, wherein the land granted is described as follows:

" Whereas there is a certain parcel or tract of land within this govern- ment, upon the main, contained in three necks, of which the Eastermost is bounded with a small river, called Mamaroneck river, being also the east bounds or limits of this government upon the main, and the wester- most, with the gravelly or stoney brook or river, which makes the east limits of the land, known by the name of Mr. Pell's purchase. Having to the South the Sound and running northward from the marked trees upon the said neck, twenty miles into the woods, which said parcel of land, &c., &c."

It will be noticed that the Indians sold to John Richbell only three neeks of land, their sale and con- veyance not ineluding the "twenty miles into the woods," which seems to have gotten into the Rich- bell patent without the pre-requisite of purchase from the original proprietors.

12 O'Callaghan, 516. 2 2 Bryant, 262.

3 Boundaries of the State of New York, 25.

4 Westchester Records A, page 238.

GREENBURCH

SCARSDALE

MAMAR ONECK

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WHITE PLAINS.

However, the lands granted by this patent were "within this government " (New York), and the patent did not attempt to, and of course, could not convey lands in the colony of Connecticut, or beyond the boundary line which ran from the mouth of Mamaroneck River north-northwest.

By deed dated April 23, 1669, John Richbell con- veyed to John Ryder, as trustee for Ann Richbell, his wife,-

" All that certain parcel or tract of land, where ho now lives, called the East Neck, and to begin at the westward part thereof at a certain creek lying, being and adjacent, by and betwixt the neck of land com- monly called the Great Neck and the East Neck, and so to run enstward as far as Mamaroneck river, including therein betwixt the two lines all the land as well north into the woods above Westchester path, twenty miles, as tho land below the path, south and towards the river, &c." 1

Next in order of time was the purchase of the White Plains from the Indian proprietors by the inhabitants of the town of Rye. The deed, set forth in full above, bears date November 22, 1684. That the purchase was followed by actual oceupation is shown by the fact that Mr. Richbell, in a petition to Governor Dongan, dated March 12, 1683, prays the Governor " to graut an order to clear the same "-i. e. the White Plains. The inhabitants of Rye werc ac- cordingly summoned to show eause at the next Court of Assize in Westchester County " why the said lauds do not of right belong to John Richbell." 2 It does not appear how the suit was determined; certainly not in favor of Richbell's claim, as the possession of the land by the Rye people seems from that time to have been uninterrupted and their right un- questioned.

By a decd dated December 23, 1697, acknowledged March 22, 1698, Ann Richbell, widow of John Rich- bell, conveys all her estate and rights in and to the East Neck and twenty miles north into the woods, to Caleb Heathcote, of Westchester.3 This conveyance recites the deed from John Richbell to John Ryner in trust for Anu Richbell, above referred to. It is by virtuc of these conveyances that Caleb Heathcote be- came seized of the lands embraced in his patent granted in 1702.

By the close of the year 1697 White Plains had already, in a measure, become settled ; the street now known as Broadway was laid out, and home-lots upon it built upon. The east part of the house which late- ly stood north of the residence of W. R. Brown, Esq., was then standing, and occupied by Samuel Odell. +

On the 2d day of August 1699, the Indians of Mamaroneck presented a petition 5 to Governor Nan- fan, setting forth that their nation had soll several parcels of land to John Pell, Esq., and to Mr. Rich- bell, deceased, for which they had never received the satisfaction promised them, although for these many

years they had looked for the same; "but the said persons have and do refuse to satisfy your petition- ers, and have more land than ever was sold to them," and praying that " Jolin Pell and the heirs of Rich- bell may be ordered to satisfy your petitioners, and that they may have no more land than was ever sok unto them." What action, if any, was had upon this petition does not appear, and we hear no more of claims by the Indians.

Soon after this time Colonel Heathcote petitioned the Governor and Council, praying that the title to his lands might be confirmed, and the same erected into a manor, by the name of the Manor of Sears- dale; whereupon the Lieutenant Governor, Nanfan, and Council, directed a writ to issue to the high- sheriff of Westchester County, to inquire what dam- age such patent could be. The writ was issued, with a proviso, that it

" Shall not give the said Colonel lleathcote any further title than that which he already hath to the land called White Plains, which is in dis- pute between tho said Caleb lleathcote and the inhabitants of the town of Rye. The sheriff returned that the 'jurors found there is no damage to thio King or his subjects in erecting the manor aforesaid, except the White l'lains, which aro in dispute and contest between said Caleb lleath- cote and the town of Rye, and excepting James Mott and the rest of the purchasers of Mammroneck, which have land within the patent of Rich- bel].' ""

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 180

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354