History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 187

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 187

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

After the patroon's death his widow joined her father, the Rev. Francis Doughty, in "the Virgin- ias," where she became the wife of Hugh O'Neale, of Patuxent, Maryland.

The province had passed under English rule, and nearly ten years had clapsed since the death of her first husband before Mrs. O'Neale took any steps to reclaim the Yonkers estate. Ou the 21st of Septent- ber, 1666, she and O'Neale went before Governor Nicoll and his Council, accompanied by several In- dians, who had formerly owned the lands. The latter made acknowledgment of their sales to the late pa- troon,2 and on the Stli of October a grant of the whole estate was made to O'Neale and wife. On the 30tli they assigned their patent to Elias Doughty, of Flushing, L. I., a brother of Mrs. O'Nealc, probably for convenience of sale, on account of their residing at a distance.

The first to purchase from Doughty was John Archer, or Jan Arcer, as he signed his name. He was

the son of Jan Aarsen, from Nieuwhoff, who was nick- named by the Dutch Koop-al (buy-all), and the son was known as Jan Koop-al, the younger. He had long resided at Oost Dorp (now Westchester). In March and September, 1667, he bought about one hundred and twenty acres of upland and thirty acres of meadow, near the "wading-place." On the up- land, just across the meadow from Paparinamin, he founded the village of Fordham. It had the counte- nance and protection of the Governor, being "in a " convenient place for the relief of strangers, it being " the road for passengers to go to and fro the maine, " as well as for mutual intercourse with the neighbor- " ing colony." The village consisted of about a dozen houses iu an extended line, along the base of Tetard's Hill, crossed at the middle by the "old Westchester path " (Albany post road), leading up over the hill towards Connecticut. No traces of these old habita- tions remain. Two years later Archer acquired all the land southerly to High Bridge, lying between the Harlem and Bronx, which was erected into his Manor of Fordham in 1671. The north line of this ancient manor from the Harlem to the Bronx, being the south line of the O'Neale patent,3 became one of the south- erly boundaries of the town of King's Bridge. Archer lived and ruled at Fordham in frequent contention with his tenants and neighbors until his death, in 1684. During the Dutch re-occupation, in 1673-74, his government was suspended, and the inhabitants of Fordham nominated their own magistrates ; but on the return of the English, in the latter year, Archer resumed his sway. In 1679 he was sheriff of New York. At his death the manor was so heavily mort- gaged to the wealthy Dutchman, Cornelis Steenwyck, that his heirs could not redeem it. By Steenwyck's will it was devised to the "Nether Dutch Reformed Congregation," in New York, for the support of their minister.

William Betts and George Tippett, his son-in-law, next purchased from Doughty (deed, July 6, 1668), about two thousand acres, extending across from the Hudson to the Bronx, south of an east and west line which went along the north side of " Van der Donck's planting-field." This line struck the Hudson about

1 Van der Donck had so well accomplished his mission on behalf of the oppressed commonalty as to procure from the States General their mandate, recalling Stuyvesant to Holland, of which he was made the bearer. But the States being on the eve of war with England, and need- ing the assistance of the rich and powerful West India Company, the latter was euabled to not only procure the revocation of Stuyvesant's re- call, but to detain its bearer in Holland.

2 Of " a certain parcel of laud upon the maine, not farre from West- " chester, commonly called ye Younckers Land." They declared its bounds to be " from a place called Macackesin at ye north, so to come to Neperan "and to ye Kill Sorquupp, then to Maskota and Pappereneman to ye sonth "aud crosse ye countrey to ye eastward of Bronckx his River and " Land."

3 Notwithstanding the patent for the Manor of Fordham recited that it was part of the land "granted in the Grand Patent to Hugh O'Nea'e & Mary, his wife ; " also that " purchase was made thereof by Jolin Archer from Elyas Doughty, who was invested in their interest, as also of the Indyan Proprietors, &c.," it is impossible, by any interpretation of the boundaries in the O'Neale Patent to make them extend below the north line of the manor. There is no record of any deed from Doughty to Archer of land south of that line. The writer is of opinion that Archer, conniving with the Governor or Secretary Nicoll, advanced this claim of title through Van der Donck's successors, in order to forestall claims to the tract which might have beeu otherwise established, Such claims were preferred early iu the following century by Quimby against the Dutch Church, which then owued it, and about 1750 a brief on behalf of the church in an ejectment suit sets out with a recital of a copy of an unrecorded deed from Doughty to Archer, on which, however, counsel was not instructed to rely. The only proper basis of Archer's title was his purchase from the "Indyan Proprietors."

Historical Sketch Map OF

KINGS BRIDGE 1645 - 1783 Compiled by Thomas Henry Edsall.

Scale 2,000 feet to an inch.

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747

KING'S BRIDGE.

three hundred feet south of Thorn's dock, and the Bronx about five hundred feet south of the Yonkers city line, and the purchase included all south of it, ex- cepting Paparinamin, for which Tippett received a sep- arate "deed of gift " from Doughty. It included "that piece where formerly the old Van der Donck's house stood," and what are now Spuyten Duyvil, Hudson Park, Mosholu, Van Cortlandt's, Olaff Park, Wood- lawn Heights and Woodlawn Cemetery. Betts and Tippett obtained from Governor Lovelace, February 20, 1671, a patent which contained a proviso that it should no way prejudice " the New towne of fford- liam," nor what had been done by his order towards its settlement.

Mr. Betts was an Englishman, and by trade a turn- er. He was at Scituate, Mass., in 1635, four years after which he married Alice, a "maiden of the Bay," who bore him several children. With his minister, Lothrop, he removed to Barnstable, and thence came to Connecticut. In 1662 he lived at Oost Dorp, where he was a magistrate by appointment of Stuyvesant. He was named as a patentee in the English patent for the town of Westchester, granted in 1668. The same year he removed to his new plantation in the Yonkers, and the next year became overseer of the court at Fordham. He died in 1675, survived by his wife, Alice, sons, Samuel, Hopestill and John, a danghter, Mehitable, wife of George Tippett, and a grandsou, John Barrett, son of a deceased daughter, Hannah, who had married Samuel Barrett, of West- chester. Descendants of the name of Betts con- tinued to own portions of the ancestral acres until the early part of this century.

Mr. Tippett was at Flushing in August, 1667, when he gave iu his name to the Governor "to be ready to serve his Majesty " on all occasions. While he lived in the Yonkers the swine of the New Harlem people used to run at large at the upper end of Manhattan Island, and sometimes straying across the wading- place at low tide, failed to return. Tippett would be charged with their detention and the whole community hauled into court as witnesses. Tippett's "ear-mark " for his own swine was said to be " the cutting of their ears so close that any other marks might be cut off by it." Mr. Tippett died intestate in 1675, survived by his wife, Mehitable (afterward married to Lewis Vit- rey and Samuel Hitchcock), a son George, perhaps a son Henry, and a daughter Mehitable (who was mar- ried first to Joseph Hadley and second to John Concklin). Descendants of his name held portions of the estate until the Revolutionary War.

".Tippett's Hill" was the name of Spuyten Duyvil Neck during the same period,1 and the princi- pal stream of the Yonkers has always been called after him, although corrupted into "Tibbits" in recent times.

John Hadden 2 made the next purchase from Doughty. His dced of June 7, 1668, antedates that of Betts and Tippett, but bounds on land already sold to them. It conveys thrce parcels aggregating tlirce hundred and twenty acres, lying directly north of Van der Donck's planting field and extending across from thic Albany post road to the road to Mile Square. Thic Van Cortlandt estate now includes the whole of it. For two hundred acres Hadden gave a horse and for the remainder five pounds! In Decem- ber, 1668, Betts sold to Hadden twenty-four acres adjoining his "house in the old field."

Mr. Hadden was a carpenter by trade. He settled in the Yonkers with his sons-in-law, George Cleving- er and William Smith, and in 1672 he was made over- seer of the village of Fordham. His sons-in-law dy- ing a few years later, Mr. Hadden sold out and re- turned to Westchester, where he and his descendants were respected citizens.

Doughty next sold the remainder of the O'Neale patent (excepting " Mile Square," already disposed of) to Thomas Delavall, Fredryk Flypsen and Thomas Lewis.3 It was conveyed to them November 9, 1672, by purchase from Delavall, and the heirs of Lewis, Flyp- sen subsequently acquired their interests. The tract

contained about eight thousand acres. Riverdale, Mount St. Vincent and a part of Woodlawn Heights are located on the southerly part of this purchase.

Mr. Flypsen was a carpenter by trade. He came to Nieuw Amsterdam in Stuyvesant's time, uuder an engagement with the West India Company for five years, during which time he worked on the forts at Nieuw Amsterdam and Esopus. He married, in 1662, Margaret Hardenbrook, widow of Peter Rudolphus de Vries, a successful trader. Margaret was also en- gaged in trade, which she continued after this mar- riage, going to and from Holland as supercargo of her own vessels, in one of which, the " Charles," she brought over the Labadists, in 1679. By her " for- tune, thrift and enterprise" and his exertions, Mr. Flypsen became the richest man in the colony. After the death of Margaret he married, in 1692, Catherine Van Cortlandt, widow of John Dervall and daughter of Olaf Stevenszen Van Cortlandt, by whom he received further additions to his wealth. Mr. Flypsen purchased other large tracts of land in Westchester County. In 1693 he procured the erec- tion of the whole into the Manor of Phillipsburgh, in which the "island Paparinamin " was included. The old manor-house is now the city hall in Yonkers. For twenty years Mr. Flypsen was a member of the

" In early records and MISS. this name is sometimes written "Heddy," " Hedger," etc.

3 This was probably the sale for which Mrs. O'Neale " received a good part of her payment in horses and mares," with which she was abont tu " return home into Maryland, ye place of hier abode ; " but hearing re- port of a prohibition against importing horses to that colony, she pro- cured a letter to its Governor from Governor Lovelace, of New York, asking a dispensation from the rigor of the late order in her case so as to permit her to dispose of her horses in Maryland to her best advantage.

1 Known after the Revolution and until recently as " Berrien's Neck," after an owner who married Dorcas Tippett, a great-great-granddaughter of the first George.

748

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Council. He died iu 1702, aged seventy-six, survived by a son Adolphus, a daughter Annetje, wife of Philip French, an adopted daughter Eva, wife of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, and a grandson Frederick (son of his deceased son Frederick,) to whom he devised the Yonkers plantation.

THE FERRY .- Soon after the village of Fordham was settled the people of New Harlem tried to divert eastern travel from the wading-place to the new ferry they had sct up between New Harlem and Bronx-land. They obstructed the banks at Spuyten Duyvil1 with fences, but travelers threw them down and still crossed at the ancient ford without paying toll. In the sum- mer of 1669 the ferry was removed to Spuyteu Duyvil, " a nearer and more couvenient passage to and from the island and the Maine, " and Johannes Verveelen was made ferryman. There was allotted to his use the "island or neck of land Paparinamin, " where he was required to provide a dwelling-house furnished with three or four good beds for the entertainment of strangers ; also provisions at all seasons for them, their horses and cattle, with stabling and stalling; also a sufficient and able boat to transport passengers, horses and cattle on all occasions.2 A causeway was also required to be built across the meadow from Paparin- amin to Fordham, of which Verveelen was to bear one-third of the expense and Fordham the remain- der. Archer called on Betts, Tippett and Hadden to help him build his share of the "causey." They de- murred, being more interested in having a bridge made over the Bronx to East Chester. The dispute came before the Governor, who decided that Betts, Tippett and Hadden should first aid with the cause- way, 3 and then the Fordham people should help them build the bridge. For so doing the ferry was made free to Betts, Tippett and Haddeu. Verveelen kept the ferry many years and was succeeded by his son Daniel, who was ferryman until the erection of the King's Bridge.

1 This curious appellation, whose origin has never been satisfactorily explained, seems to have been applied to a strip of shore on the Manhat- tan Island side of the wading-place, then to the crossing itself and the creek leading therefrom to the Hudson, and finally to the neck which still retains it. It means "spouting devil," and may have arisen from sume peculiar upburst of water as the tide rushed over the reef which obstructs the channel at that point. Mr. Riker has ingeniously sng- gested the outpour from the guns of the " Half-Moon ;" also the gushing spring under Cock Hill; but the explanation in Irving's quaint and humor- ous legend of the ' Trumpeter' will ever meet with popular acceptance.

2 " YE FERRYMAN-IIIS RATES.

" For lodging any person, 8 pence per night, in case they have a bed with sheets ; and without sheets, 2 pence in silver.

" For transportation of any person, 1 penny silver.

" For transportation of a man and horse, 7 pence in silver.

" For a single horse, 6 pence.

" For a turn with his boat, for 2 horses, 10 pence ; and for any more 4 pence apiece ; and if they be driven over, half as much.

" For single cattle, as much asa horse.

" For a boat loading of cattle, as he hath for horses.

" For droves of cattle to be driven over, and opening ye gates, 2 pence p. piece.

" For feeding of cattle, 3 pence in silver.

" For feeding a horse one day or night with hay or grasse, 6 pence."

3 This causeway was on the line of the present McComb Street.

During the last quarter of the seventeenth century the Betts, Tippett and Hadden families, and those who had iutermarried with them, and their retainers and servants composed all the population of the Yonk- ers outside of Fordham and Paparinamiu. Their homes were grouped about a mile north of Fordham, where they had a " good and strong block-house."+ During King Philip's War, in 1775, there were fears of an Indian outbreak in this colony. Archer summoned Betts, Tippett and Hadden to aid him iu the fortifi- cation and defense of Fordham. They remonstrated before Governor Andros that they should not "bee bound to leave their houses and goods and to please the humours of the said Mr. Archer, thereby perhaps to lose all what they have." The Governor excused them from work on the defenses of Fordham, but he warned them to "be vigilant at their own place and keep watch upon all occasions."

THE KING'S BRIDGE .- The increasing travel between New York and " the Maine " demanded a bridge in place of the ferry. As early as 1680 the Council of Governor Andros had ordered " Spiting Devil " to be viewed with reference to a bridge there. A bill to erect one was introduced in the Assembly in 1691. The next year Governor Fletcher recommended its construction by the city of New York, but the mu- nicipal authorities were deterred from the undertak- ing by the "great expense." In January, 1693, Fred- ryek Flypsen offered to build one at his own expense, if he could have certain " easy and reasonable toles." 5 In June the franchise was granted to Mr. Flypsen for ninety-nine years. The bridge was to be twenty-four feet wide, and to be free for all the King's forces, and was to be named the " King's Bridge." It was built during the year, a few rods east of the present one.6 It had a draw for the passage of such craft as navi- gated the Harlem and a gate, set up at the end, where the keeper received the tolls.7 A public-house was kept open at the north side for the " eutertainment of strangers." The bridge was owned by Mr. Flypsen's grandson and great-grandson, in succession, until it was forfeited by the latter, Colonel Frederick Phil- lipse, because of his adhesion to the crown in the war of independence.

During the first half of the eighteenth century the Yonkers was sparsely peopled. Jacobus Van Cortlandt bought a plot of fifty acres, known as "George's Point," 8 from Mr. Flypsen, in 1699, and

+ They probably stood in the neighborhood of the present Van Cort- landt mansion.

5 To wit : "1 penny for each head of neat cattell ; 2 pens for each "mann and horse, and 12 pens for each score of lioggs and sheep that " shall pass the said brige ; and 9 pens for every boat, vessell or canoo " that shall pass the said brige, and cause the sanie to be drawne up."

6 The removal to its present site was made pursnant to an act of As- sembly passed in 1713 at the petition of Flypsen's grandson, Frederick Phillipse, then a minor.

7 Madame Knight, crossing December, 1704, en route to Boston, was charged three pence "for passing over with a horse."

8 So called after George Tippett (2d), who conveyed it in 1691, to his brother-in-law, Joseph Hadley. He sold to Matthias Buckout, who con- veyed to Mr. Flypseu.

749

KING'S BRIDGE.

added to it several hundred acres while he lived, forming the bulk of the present Van Cortlandt estate. He made a mill-pond by damming up the Tippett's Brook, and set up a grist and saw-mill. In 1704 there were about twenty families in the Yonkers. The Betts and Tippett families partitioned their tract in 1717, and gradually sold it off to new settlers. Agri- culture was the chief industry, and the farms were noted for choice fruits and fine breeds of cattle. Produce was carried to market in periaugers. Stone quarrying was engaged in before the middle of the century.

The main highways were the Albany and Boston post roads-the former opened to the Saw-kill about 1669, and the latter opcued on the line of the Old Westchester Path to East Chester about 1671. The travel by land was almost wholly on horseback. The common roads were very poor. The mail to Albany was carried by foot-post. That to Boston was taken by post-riders onee in three weeks, which time was shortened in 1731 to once a fortnight. The stage- coach to Boston began running in 1772.

THE FREE BRIDGE .- The King's Bridge was unpop- ular because of its tolls ; also its barrier gate, which made the belated traveler furious as he shouted to awaken the drowsy gate-keeper several rods away. A popular subscription was started in 1756 for building a free bridge. Benjamin Palmer1 headed the movement, and when enough was subscribed, he attempted to build it where the first bridge had stood. Colonel Phillipse, who owned the shore on Paparinamin, naturally objected. Palmer had to go farther down the Harlem. He interested with him Jacob Dyck- man, on the island, and Thomas Vermilye, on the Westchester side, and they began the work from land of the former to that of the latter. Colonel Phillipse, " because he kuew it would stop his bridge from tak- ing tolls," tried to prevent its construction. Twice in one year he caused Palmer's impressment "as a soldier to go to Canada," which compelled him to employ and pay for substitutes. But in spite of oppo- sition the structure was completed at the close of 1758. It was opened with a grand barbecue on New Year's Day, 1759, and hundreds of people attended from New York City and Westchester County, and " rejoiced greatly."2 A new road was built to connect the bridge with the Albany and Boston roads, and for a time all travel ceased across the King's Bridge. Colouel Phillipse's bridge-keeper finding his occupa-

tion gone, threw up his lease, and the proprietor had to advertise for a new tenant. It is probable that attempts to collect tolls were abandoned soon after- wards.

In 1763 the Rev. John Peter Tetard purchased from Petrus Vermilye a farın of sixty acres, near King's Bridge, lying on the old Boston road, to which he removed about three years later. In 1772 he opened there a French boarding-school, probably the first in New York, where, besides French, he taught " the most useful sciences, such as geography, the doctrine of the spheres, ancient and modern history, etc." The house was destroyed during the Revolution. The old stone archway yet standing near its site is variously called " Dourinie Tetard's Wine Cellar," the old " powder magazine," the " old bakery," etc., but its real purpose is unknown.3

Across the Boston road from Tetard's farm was one of about seventy-five aeres, which Richard Montgomery purchased and occupied in 1772, pursuant to his long- cherished wish to leave the service and engage in husbandry.4 His house stood on the brow of the hill, ucar the Boston road, and there he lived until his marriage to Janet Livingston and removal to another farm he had puchased near Rhinebeck.6 The King's Bridge farm was devised to his sister Sarah, Viscountess Ranelagh, by the will found by Arnold among his papers at Quebec, a few days after his untimely death. Fort Independence was erected on this farm, a few hundred yards north of the house which, with the out-buildings, orchards, fences, etc., was com- pletely destroyed during the Revolution.

THE REVOLUTION .- The inhabitants of the Yonk- ers were generally opposed to all efforts of the British ministry to establish arbitrary government iu the colonies. Colonel Phillipse sided with the crown and tried to control his tenauts. At their head, he was present at the meeting held at the White Plains, April 11, 1775, to appoint deputies to a conven- tion; but he declined "to have anything to do with deputies or congresses." After protesting against " such illegal and unconstitutional proceedings," he led off his followers. Colonel James Van Cortlandt

3 Dominie Tetard was born in Switzerland about 1721; graduated from University of Lausanne and received ordination abont 1752 ; soon after was pastor of French Church, Charleston, S. C .; came to New York 1756 ; married Frances, daughter of Robert Ellison ; became assistant pastor of Church dn St. Esprit, taking charge 1764-66, until a new minister could be engaged in Europe. After his removal to King's Bridge he used to preach in Fordham Dutch Church. lle was commissioned July 6, 1775, " French interpreter to General Schuyler and chaplain to the troops in the Colonie," with pay of major, and went with General Montgomery to Canada. lle served as chaplain during the war, and on the reorganiza- tion of Columbia College, in 1784, was made professor of French, and so continned until his death, December 6, 1787, in his sixty-sixth year.

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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 187

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