History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 23

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 23

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1 Cruise Tit. VIII., ch. I. ¿ 1., and Tit. XXVIII., ch. I. ¿ 1. 2 Cruise Tit. XXVIII,, ch. 1.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

payment of which the tenant is quieted, or quit, from all other service. They were at once the acknowl- edgmeut of the tenure, the holding, of the lands, from the Sovereign Authority, and the source of a part of its revenue. Aud this is the reason why the success of the American Revolution had no effect what- ever upon quit-reuts, and that they continued payable after it, just as they were before, the State succeeding to the revenue from them formerly enjoyed by the Crown.

The Manor-Grants in the County of Westchester varied a little in the form and terms of the clauses providing for the reservation aud the payment of these quit-rents, and the times of their payment. The clauses were framed in the model of the quaiut old clauses of the ancient Manors of England, of five centuries before. But except this mere resemblance there was nothing "feudal" in them more than in the reservations of rent in a modern lease of a store on Broadway, a farm in the Country, or an opposition Rail Road, or Oil, Company. The quit-rent clauses of the different Manor-Grants in Westchester County are these ;-

Manor of Cortlandt :- " Yielding rendering and paying therefor yearly and every year uuto us, our heirs and successors, at our City of New York, on the feast day of the Annunciation of our Blessed Virgin Mary, the yearly rent of forty shillings current money of our said Province, in lieu and stead of all other rents, services, dues, and demands whatsoever for the afore recited tracts and parcels of land and meadow, Lordship and Manor of Cortlandt and premises,"

Manor of Scarsdale :- " Yielding, rendering, and paying therefor yearly and every year forever at our City of New York, unto us our heirs and successors, or to such officer or officers, as shall from time to time be empowered to receive the same, five pounds cur. rent money of New York, upon the Nativity of our Lord, in lieu and stead of all services, dues, duties, or demands whatsoever."

Manor of Pelham :- Like Scarsdale as far as tlie word " same" inclusive, and then, "twenty shillings, good and lawful money of this province, at the City of New Yorke, on the five and twentyeth day of the month of March, in lieu of all rents, services, and demands whatsoever."

Manor of Morrisania :- " Yielding rendering and paying therefor yearly and every year, on the feast day of the Annunciation of our Blessed Virgin, unto us, our heirs and successors, at our city of New York the annual rent of six shillings, in lieu " etc. " for the said lordship and muanor of Morrisania, and premises."

Manor of Fordham: "Yealding, rendering, and paying yearly and every year unto his Royal High- ness, the Duke of Yorke and his successors, or to such governor, or governors, as from time to time, shall by him be coustituted and appointed, as full acknowl- edgment and quit-rent, twenty bushels of good peas

upon the first day of March, when it shall be de- manded." 1

Manor of Philipsborough : 2 " Yealding, rendering, and paying therefor, yearly, and every year, on the feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at our fort at New York, unto us our heirs and successors, the annual rent of four pounds, twelve shillings current money of our said province, in lieu of all former rents, services, dues, duties, and de- mands for the said Lordship or Manor of Philips- borough and premises."

In the parts of this essay treating of these Manors severally, will be found copies of the official receipts for these quit-rents given by the authorized Crowu officers to whom they were payable. Being so small, they were practically allowed to run for a number of years, aud then paid in a gross sum. Upon Crown Grants all over the province, not Manor-Grants- Patents as they were termed-the quit-rents were usually fixed upou the number of acres included, or estimated to be included in them, at the rate of two shillings and six pence sterling per hundred acres. But though this rate varied in some instances it may be taken as the general rate. Some of them were payable in kind usually in winter wheat. As the Province grew the amount of quit-rents increased and came to be au important part of the public revenue. Several acts of the Legislature from time to time regulated the times and manner of their payment, when they had fallen into arrears, which was a common occurrence, the last of which was in 1762, which also carefully pro- vided for the partition of large estates where they had come into the possession of numerous heirs. But space will not permit of more than this allusion to this legislation.

After the Revolution when the State succeeded to the rights of the Crown, and in 1786, an act was passed providing for the payment of the quit-rents to the State, and permitting the owners of lands subject to them, to commute by paying a sum in gross, upon the receipt of which, the lands were declared free and discharged from then forever. The sum fixed was fourteen shillings in cash for every one shilling of annual quit-rent payable any time be- fore the 1st of May, 1787, in the same State securities receivable in payment for forfeited estates. In the case of those payable in kind they were to be settled for in the method in the book of the Receiver- General of the former Colony, if this could be found, and if not found, then upon principles of equity and good conscience by the State Treasurer. This law was extended from time to time by various special acts. In 1791 one of these acts also changed the pay- ments from the securities mentioned above to gold and silver, at the lower rate of twelve shillings for

1 This was the only Manor-Grant in the County of Westchester issued under the Duke of York as Lord Proprietor.

2 So styled in the Manor-Grant, but usually pronounced "Philipse- burgh."

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

every shilling of quit-rent. The extensions eontinned to be made nearly every year up to 1813, when all payments and commutations were suspended for two years.1 In 1815, the Comptroller was anthorized to sell and commute, on the same terms as before, but in a method specified in the Aet.2 In 1816 and 1817 two more Aets were passed regulating and fixing the whole subjeet and placing it in the hands of the State Comptroller, and under these the quit-rents were gradually commuted until about the year 1823, when Commutation had been made for nearly all the lands subject to them, and the quit-rents became finally ex- tinguished.

Another subjeet requires brief mention in this place. In the account of the old English Manors which has been given before, little or no mention has been made of the Copyhold lands. This was because, eopyhold lands as such did not exist in the New York Manors. The Copyhold Tenure in England grew out of and was simply an enlargement by enstom of the greater firity of the villein holdings of the manors, whiel, as lias been shown, were originally terminable at the will of the Lord. As the custom of permitting the villeins to hold their lands from father to son in- ereased, it finally beeame regulated by the Steward of the Manor forming a Court roll of sueh holdings in the Court-Baron, and for the tenants when a death or other termination of such a tenancy by gift or pur- chase oecnrred, to apply at the Court-Baron, over whieli the Steward, in the absence of the Lord, pre- sided, for an entry of such change in this Court roll, a copy of which was given to the new tenant. From this enstom sueh tenants were ealled "Tenants by copy of Court Roll," and in shorter terms "Copy- holders." As the tenure grew solely out of a eustom of the Manors, it eould only exist in Manors old enough to have a eustom. But as the freeliold Manors of New York, were, as above shown, all New Manors, no eustom of a manor could possibly exist in the Manors in that Province, and consequently there could not be any "Copyholds " or "Copy- holders " therein.

In England at this day, it may be said, that with few exceptions, all the lands of the old manors except the private demesne lands of the Lords, have long sinee become Copyhold lands, and their Tenants Copy holders. Manors there are frequently bought and sold as a whole, and the purehaser succeeds to all the rights, franeliiscs, privileges, and powers of the original Lord of the Manor. In the growth of Eng- land many Manors have become enormously valnable, by the spreading over them of large towns and cities. Hence many rich men have bonght out these old Manors when in the neighborhood of flourishing cities and towns as an investment, or on speculation. The Lords. whether old or new ones are always ready in sueh eases to sell the fce of these Manor lands on

satisfactory terms, which is termed Enfranchising the lands. It will be seen when a town or city has over- grown a Manor and the latter has been divided into lots how very valuable manors in such a condition beeome. The writer personally knew of such an in- stanee in Gloneestershire, where the City of Chelten- ham has spread over the Manor of that name.

A little upwards of twenty years ago, that manor was purchased in the manner just mentioned, and the new Lord issued through his Steward, who was also the Steward of the former Lord, liis proposals for En- franchising the lots in the Manor within that City. A copy of them is here given as an illustration of the nature and working of eopyhold lands in an old Eng- lish Manor, and their advantages and disadvantages, and the method by which they can beeome lands in fee simple. Although no eopyhold lands did exist or could have existed, in New York the matter is of interest in eonneetion with the general subjeet of this essay.

" MANOR OF CHELTENHAM.

Enfranchisement of Copyhold Property.

The Purchase by Robert Sole Lingwood Esquire of the Manor of Cheltenham having been completed, we are requested by hint, as Lord of the Manor, to signify to the Copyholders that every facility will be afforded to those who desire to enfranchise their Copyhold Property, and that the terms on which suel enfran- ehisement may be effected ean be aseertained either through us or by application to Mr. Lingwood.

Whilst very reasonable terms will now be aeeepted to induce the Copyholders to avail themselves of the present opportunity to effect enfranchisements, the Lord of the Manor directs us to inform the Copyhold- ers that he requires all Leases and dealings by the Owners with their Copyhold Tenements to be made in strict conformity with the Aet of Parliament reg- ulating the Customs of the Manor ; and this notifiea- tion is rendered the more necessary because Leases have heretofore frequently been made and executed by Tenants of the Manor in violation of the Custom regulating the mode of leasing, and because a Lease of Copyhold property by the Owner made contrary to the Custom oeeasions an absolute forfeiture to the Lord of the property so leased.

Among the objections to Copyhold property which will be got rid of by Enfranchisement may be enu- merated the following :

1. The risk of forfeiture of the property by reason of ignoranee in granting Leases contrary to the Cus- tom .-

2. The expenee of the perpetually recurring Stewards' fees payable on every occasion of dealing by Sale or Mortgage with the Copyhold property .-

3. The like expenee of Stewards' fees payable on the death of every Owner of Copyhold property, for the admittanee of his heir or devisee .-

4. The expence and inconvenienee, frequently oc-

1 ('h. 232 of Laws of 1×13.

2 Ch. 209 of Laws of 1815.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

casioned, to the Wife of a Copyholder, of having to travel from a distance to make in person a surrender of property sold or mortgaged by her Husband .-

5. The liability to publicity consequent on the sur- render of Copyholds being made in open Court, and the proceedings being recorded on the Court Rolls which are accessible to all the Tenants of the Manor. This is particularly objectionable with reference to Mortgages. -

6. The liability to absolute forfeiture of the prop- erty, if the Owner dig clay or brickearth therefrom, or cut timber, or otherwise commit waste without the previous sanction of the Lord.

Many other grounds might be stated in favor of the Enfranchisement of Copyholds-but the foregoing are some of the more important ; and in Cheltenham, where one-half of the property is Copyhold, nothing need be added to shew the importance of the Copyholders availing themselves of the opportunity now offered to them of immediately enfranchising their property on reasonable terms .-

Cheltenham

W. H GWINNETT,

19 January, 1863.

Steward of the Manor."

One incident of a manor was the right to tithes which sometimes could be acquired by the lords by prescrip- tions. This incident, as the manors of New York were new, was of little value for no prescription conld attach to a new manor. It is singular, however, that in the very first manor erected in Westchester County, that of Fordham, in 1671, provision was made for the pay- ment of a parson when it should have inhabitants. Its Lord, John Archer, and his heirs, were granted the privilege of obliging the inhabitants, when there should be enough of them, to contribute to the maintenance of a minister.1 Had this been done which it never was, the method of contribution would naturally have been by tithcs. As tithes were not known in America, it is perhaps well to explain briefly what they really were. During the first ages of Christianity the clergy were supported by the voluntary offerings of their flocks. But this being a precarious subsistence then, as it is now, the eccle- siastics in every country in Europe, in imitation of the Jewish law, claimed, and in course of time es- tablished, a right to the tenth of all the produce of lands. This right appears to have been fully ad- mitted in England before the Norman Conquest, and acquired the name of tithe from a Saxon word sig- nifying tenth. " Dismes or Titles are an Ecclesias- tical inheritance, collateral to the estate of the land, and of their proper nature due only to Ecclesiastical persons by the ecclesiastical law.2 They were merely a right to the tenth part of the produce of the soil, produce of live stock, and the personal in- dustry of the inhabitants, in return for the benefit the latter derived from the ministry of their spiritual

pastors. They were an application of the Mosaic law to modern exigencies, very similar to certain ap- plications of other parts of that dispensation to their own exigencies by the Puritan settlers of New England, and were like the latter, strictly enforced. Both were simply methods of paying the clergy. They were of various kinds and descriptions varying with the pro- ducts of the soil, but these require no further men- tion here.

Glebe lands, however, were very common in Amer- ica, in New York, and in Westchester County. They were lands given as an endowment by the Lords of Manors, and other large landholders, for the support, or in aid of the support, of Rectors, or other clergy- men, of parishes. The original parishes of West- chester County all had glebes; and so, towards the close of the Colonial era, had the different churches and parishes erected and formed at different places, out of those parishes. Of course, all the original par- ishes as well as the later ones, were parishes and churches of the Church of England, as is shown by their very nomenclature. A nomenclature which the dissenting organizations of all kinds always repud- iated, and never have used, since they severally came into existence during the last three centuries. Like all English parishes these in Westchester County were territorial divisions, each having Church War- dens, Vestrymen, and minor Parish officers.

In addition to their duties and powers relative to the Parish church, its Rector, and the maintenance, of church services in their fullness and propriety, the Wardens and Vestrymen possessed, exercised, and were by law bound to perform, many civil duties, now laid upon, and performed, by Town and County offi- cers, such as the repairs of highways and bridges, maintenance of the poor, the assessing and collection of rates and taxes, and similar local duties, including the preservation of the public peace. They were not, as Church wardens and Vestrymen now are, officers of a purely ecclesiastical organization, but the civil officers of the parishes or territorial organizations of the church of England, as established by law in the County of Westchester. They were elected by all the freeholders resident in their respective parishes, whatever their religious views might be. And before entering upon the duties of their offices, pursuant to a law of the Province passed the 27th day of July 1721, took the following oath annually, which of itself demonstrates their powers in one of the im- portant respects just mentioned :-

" You do Swear on the Holy Evangelist, That you and every of you shall well and truly execute the Duty of an Assessor, and Equally and Impartially assess the several Freeholders and inhabitants, aecord- ing to the value of their respective Estates, in an equal proportion, in every of your respective City, Counties, and Precincts, for which you are chose Vestry-men and according to your best Skill and Knowledge therein. You shall spare no persons for Favour or Affeetion, or

1 Manor Grant of Fordham. II, Bolton, 506, 2d ed., and post.

2 II. D'Avner's Abridgment of Com. Law, 582.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

grieve any person for Hatred or Ill Will .. So Help you God." 1

Their powers and duties of every nature were per- feetly well understood and acknowledged, and their authority obeyed, without hesitation, by the people of Westchester County throughout the Colonial era. Oe- casionally some bitter opponent of the church of England would try to prevent the performance of their legal duties or the legal exercise of their powers, by word, and deed, sometimes with great heat and violence, just, as the dissenting clergy did in matters of the exercise of clerical functions. But their legal rights and duties as parish officers under the laws of the Province were never contested or denied in the Courts of the Province. The People knew them perfeetly and acted accordingly. A remarkable proof of this was furnished in the case of the Parish of Rye, in 1794, eleven years after the peace of 1783, and six years after the first organization of the County into townships, in 1688, which terminated the political existence of the Parishes and the Manors. Certain creditors of the "late Parish of Rye," in that year obtained payment of the debts due them from the various newly organized towns form- erly parts of that Parish, through an Act of the Legis- lature of the State passed for that express purpose. The executors of one of the Creditors sued "Joshua Purdy one of the Church Wardens of the late Parish of Rye " and recovered judgment. Thereupon he and the other creditors laid the case before the Legislat- ure which granted the relief sought by passing the following Act, thus showing the continued and ac- knowledged lawful action of the Parochial officers of the Parish of Rye, under the Ministry Act of 1693, which created the Parish, up to its extinction by the Aet of 1784, repealing that Act, and its subsequent transformation into townships by the Act of 1788. The Act with its interesting preamble, and severe pro- visions for its due enforcement is in these words ;---

An ACT for raising Monies in arrear from the lite Parish of Rye, in the County of Westchester. Passed the 28th of January 1794.

Whereas it hath been represented to the Legisla- ture that a judgment of fourteen pounds damages hath been obtained by the executors of John Law- rence, deceased, against Joshua Purdy, as one of the late Church Wardens of the late Parish of Rye, in the County of Westchester, for monies in arrear to their late testator for keeping and supporting a pauper committed to his care by the said Joshua Purdy, together with the Costs of suit, and that other monies are in arrears from the late parish of Rye to other persons ; Therefore ;

BE IT ENACTED by the People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That it shall and may be lawful for the Supervisors of the said County of Westchester, or the major part of

them, and they are hereby required at their next annual meeting to examine into, and ascertain the amount of the monies so recovered as aforesaid, as also the costs of defending the said suit, and to aseer- tain also the amount of other monies so due from the late Parish of Rye as aforesaid, and to cause the said monies, and also such other sum or sums of money as they shall find to be so due, together with one shil- ling in the pound for collections, and three pence in the pound for the fees of the County Treasurer for re- ceiving and paying the same, to be levied on and raised from the Towns which constitute the said late Parish of Rye, in the same manner as the contingent charges of the said County are usually raised ; which monies when so raised, shall be paid by the Collect- ors respectively, to the Treasurer of the said County on or before the first Tuesday of February in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, who shall pay the same after deducting his fees, to the persons to whom the monies are due: and if any Collector shall refuse or negleet to perform the duty required of him by this act, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty pounds to the Treasurer of the said County to be recovered with costs in any Court having cognizance thereof by an Action of debt in the name of the Treasurer of the said County for the time being, and to be disposed of for the use of the same County in such manner, and for such purposes as the Supervisors of the said County, or the Major part of them shall think proper and direct.2

11.

The Church of England Parochial organization in West Chester County in its relation to the Manors therein.

In England the Boundaries of a Parish and a Manor were often coincident, and in the very earliest times this was generally the case. Later a Manor, of- ten embraced more than one Parish. Sometimes a Parish contained within its limits two or more Manors or parts of Manors, and lands non Manorial. In New York the latter was the case. In the County of West- chester the Parishes erected, in 1693 by an act of the Legislature were, the "Parish of Westchester," and the "Parish of Rye." The former included West- chester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pel- hamn, the latter Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford.3 These divisions were termed the " Preeinets" of these Parishes. The Parish of Westchester included the three Manors of Pelham, Morrisania, and Fordham, with the lower part of Philipseburgh. The "Ten Farms," as Eastchester was originally termed, were separated from the mother Parish and erected on the petition of its people into a Parish by itself in the year 1700, under a special act of the Legislature, "by the name and stile of The Parish of Eastehester in

1 1I. Bradford's Laws, 211 ; I. Liv. & smith, 146.

" Laws of the 17th Session A. D. 1794, p. 5.

3 II. Bradford, 19-20.

100

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

the Connty of Westchester." 1 The "Parish of Rye" included the Manor of Scarsdale, aud the non-man- orial lands of Rye and Bedford.

Later Yonkers was taken from Westchester, and made a Parish by itself. It was the only Parish entirely embraced within the limits of a Manor, being wholly included within the bonndaries of Philipse- burgh as they are described in the Manor-Graut of that Manor. New Rochelle was taken ont of the Manor of Pelham and eventually made a Parish by itself, though it long continued a Precinct of the Parish of Westchester.

These were the Parishes in Westchester Connty, one of the fonr Counties of New York, in which, the Church of England became, under the legal action of the Crown of England in its conqnered Province, the Established Church ; the others being the Counties of New York, Richmond, aud Qneens.

A misconception has existed in relation to the origin and establishment of the Church of England in the part of the territory of New York, comprising the four Counties that have been named. It has been owing mainly to the little attention bestowed on the subject, both by those who are now the successors in belief of the Church of England since the American Revolution, and those of the dissenting ecclesiastical organizatious. The few writers who have referred to the subject at all, have taken for granted, and honestly believed, that no snch establishment ever existed, and, of course, have written in that belief and with that idea. But some attention to the Anthorities, and the then law, bearing upon the subject, will show that the current popular opinion is not as well fonnd- ed as has beeu supposed.

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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 23

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