History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 32

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 32

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Town of Cortlandt.

Acres.

All the Front Lots.

14,333

South Lot No. 1. 2,225

North Lot No. 1 4,095

No. 1, South of Croton

562

No. 2, South of Croton.

586

§ of No. 3. 300

Tellers Point ..

300

Parsonage Point.

100

Ph. V. Planck (Verplancks Point). 915

Yorktown. 23,416

N. Lot No. 2 2,78

N. Lot No. 3 2,908

N. Lot No. 4.

2,864

S. Lot No. 2. 2,995

S. Lot No. 3. 2,904

S. Lot No. 4. 3,712

All the Lots South of Croton River 7,128

24 Lots taken off' for Cortlandt Town. 1,484

5,644

23,811

Somers Town. Acres.

N. Lot No. 5. 2,811

N. Lot No. 6. 3,168

N. Lot No. 7. 3,696

About a third of N. Lot No. 8 1,232

S. Lot No. 5 2,982

S. Lot No. 6 2,760

Half of S. Lot No. 7. 1,330

17,979

North Salem.

3 of N. Lot No. 8 2,464

N. Lot No. 9. 3,696

N. Lot No. 10 3,273

9.433

South Salem.

3 of S. Lot No. 7 1,330

S. Lot No. 9. 3,696

S. Lot No. 10 3,273

9,433

Poundridge, Stone Hills. 1

About .

3,000

Town of Cortlandt. .23,416

Yorktown 23,811

Somerstown 17,979

North Sal 9,433

South Salem.

9,857

Poundridge, Stone Hills 3,000

87,496

Recapitulation.

Share of

Acres.

quit rent.

Town of Cortlandt. 23,416.

$137.00

Yorktown. 23,811 138.00

Somers Town. 17,979. 103.00

North Salem. 9,433 54.00

South Salem. 9,857. 57.00

Poundridge, Stone Hills .. 3,000. 17.00

$506.00

Philip von Cortlandt the third son of Stephanus, born the 9th of August 1683, was a man of clear head, of good abilities, and possessed of great decision of character. He was a merchant in New Amsterdam, and like his father took an active part in public affairs. In June 1729 he was recommended to the King for appointment as a Councillor of the Province by Governor Montgomerie in place of Lewis Morris jr. The appointment was made the 3d of February 1730, he took his seat in April of the same year, and continued in the Council until his death on the 21st of August 1746, when he was succeeded by Edward

1 This is the common name of the northern part of this Town.

137

TIIE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

Holland through the recommendation of Governor Clinton. HIe was a prominent member of the Com- mission on the part of New York, in the case of the Colony of Connecticut and the Mohegan Indians. His wife was Catharine daughter of Abraham de Peyster to whom he was married in 1710.1 He left him sur- viving, six children, five sons and one daughter, Catharine, who was killed by the bursting of a can- non on the Battery while watching the firing of a salute in honor of the King's birth day June 4th 1738, in her 13th year. By the death of his elder brothers, Johannes who left only a daughter, Ger- trude, the wife of Philip Verplanck, and Oloff, or Oliver, who died a bachelor, Philip became the head of the Van Cortlandt family. His five sons were Stephen, Abraham, Philip, John, and Pierre. Of the five, Abraham, Philip, and John, all died unmarried.

'ephen the eldest who succeeded his father as the . said of the family, was born the 26th of October 1710, married, in 1738, Mary Walton Rieketts, and died the 17th of October 1756, leaving two sons Philip and William Ricketts, Van Cortlandt. Philip the elder, the fourth head of the family born 10th November 1739, preferring a military life, entered the British Army, in which he served many years, dying on the 1st of May, 1814, in his 75th year. He is buried in Hailsham Church where a mural monument is ereeted to his memory. He married on Aug 2d, 1762, Catharine, daughter of Jacob Ogden of New Jersey. They had the large number of 23 children (several being twins) of whom twelve lived to grow up, five being sons and seven daughters. The former all became officers in the British Regular Army. They were

1. Philip

2. and Stephen j twins, b. 30 July 1766, the latter died young, the former married Mary Addison and died, having had one son, George W., who died young.

3. Jacob Ogden von Cortlandt, Captain 23d Fusiliers, killed in Spain in 1811, leaving issue.

4. Henry Clinton van Cortlandt, Lt. Col. 31st Foot, died a bachelor.

5. Arthur Auchmuty van Cortland, Capt. 45th Foot -

died a bachelor in India.

The daughters were, 1. Mary Ricketts, married Jolin M. Anderson ; 2. Elizabeth, married William Taylor, Lord Chief Justice of Jamaica, and left one son, Col- ouel Pringle Taylor of Pennington; 3. Catharine, twin with Mrs. Taylor, married Dr. William Gourlay of Kincraig Scotland; 4. Margaret Hughes, married O. Elliott-Elliott of Berkshire and died without issue ; 5. Gertrude married, Admiral Sir Edward Buller and left issue ; 2 6. Sarah Ogden van Cortlandt, died

single ; 7. Charlotte, married Gen. Sir Jolm Fraser; 8. Sophia married Sir Wm. Howe Mulcaster R. N.

The second son of Philip, William Ricketts van Cortlandt, born the 12th of March 1742, married Elizabeth Kortright, and had two sons, the eldest of his own name, who married 1st Miss Stevens, and 2ndly Miss Cornell, and Philip, who married Mary Bunker, and one daughter Eliza, married to her cousin Mr. William Ricketts. Descendants of William Rick- etts van Cortlandt still own and dwell upon portions of the property that fell to his Grandfather Philip van Cortlandt at the division of the Manor in 1732-33.

Pierre van Cortlandt, the youngest son of Philip the third son of Steplianus, born the 10th of January 1721, and who died the 1st of May, 1814, in conse- quence of the deaths in early manhood of his brothers Abraham, Philip, and John, unmarried, and of the death in 1756, of his eldest brother Stephen, and the absenee in the army of his nephew Philip, Stephen's eldest son, became early and elosely identified with the affairs of the manor and the interests of his rela- tives therein. Marrying Joanna a daughter of Gil- bert Livingston he naturally leaned to political side of his wife's family in the party contests anterior to the opening of the American Revolution. He was the representative of the Manor in the Colony As- sembly from 1768 to 1775, and unlike his nephew, Philip, the head of the family, he took the American side in the Revolution. He was a member of the Provincial Convention, the Council of Safety, and the Provincial Congress; and upon the organization of the State Government in 1777, was chosen Lieuten- ant Governor of New York, and served as such till 1795. In 1787 he was President of the Con- vention which formed the Constitution of the United States. He had four sons Philip, Gilbert, Stephen, and Pierre, and four daughters, Catharine the wife of Theodosius P. van Wyck, Cornelia, wife of Gerard G. Beekman, Anne wife of Philip S. van Rensselaer, so long the Mayor of Albany, at which city she died in 1855 at the age of 89 years, and Gertrude who died, a child in her eleventh year in December 1766. Of the four sons, two, Gilbert, and Stephen, died in early life unmarried. The eldest was the celebrated Colo- nel Philip van Cortlandt of the Revolution, who at its close was made a Brigadier General, and died a bachelor Nov. 21st 1831. To him the portion of the Manor containing the Manor House descended, and there he lived all the latter part of his life. Upon his death it passed to his youngest brother Major- Gen1 Pierre van Cortlandt. The latter was born the 29th of August, 1762, and died in 1848. He married 1st in 1801, Catharine, a daughter of Governor George Clinton, by whom he had no issue, and 2nd Anne Stevenson, of Albany. He was all his life a resident

February, 1824, Lt. Col. James Drummond Elphinstone, when he assimned the name of Buller before Elphinstone. She died 26 Feb. 1815, leaving four sous and four daughters, the eldest of which sous William Buller Fuller Elphinstone R. N. is the 15th and present Baron Elphinstone.

1 C'ul. list. N. Y. V, and VI.

" Lady Buller's ouly surviving daughter, Anna Maria, married, 25th of 11

138

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

of the Manor, and one of the most prominent men of Westchester, and its representative in Congress. By his second wife he had one child, a son, the late Colo- nel Pierre van Cortlandt, who died only on the eleventh of July 1884, leaving him surviving, his widow, Catherine, eldest daughter of the late eminent Theodrick Romeyn Beck, M.D., of Albany, one son, Mr. James Stevenson van Cortlandt, and two daughters, Catharine, the wife of the Rev. John Rutherfurd Matbews, and Miss Anne Stevenson van Cortlandt. The Manor House and adjoining estate is still the home of Col. Pierre van Cortlandt's widow and chil- dren, having continued in the family and name of Stephanus van Cortlandt since 1683, a little upwards of two hundred years.

The necessarily very brief sketches of the van Cortlandts in this essay are only intended as an out- line, to show the general descent of the elder branch of the van Cortlandt family, the van Cortlandts of the Manor of Cortlandt.

The nature, origin, and existence of the Quitrent, payable from the Crown granted lands, to the Colon- ial, and, subsequently, to the State, Government of New York, have already been explained.1 Those for which the Manor of Cortlandt, and all the prior grants within its limits were liable were paid at inter- vals, but in full, till their final extinction by commu- tation under the acts of the Legislature, and the ac- tion of the state government of New York as late as 1823.

In the case of the Manor of Cortlandt the first pay- ments of its quitrent, were receipted for by the King- Receiver-General and Collector, on the back of the Manor-Grant itself, which has been already described. This course was unusual and was owing probably to the early death of its first lord and the careful atten- tion of his widow and executrix. The receipts for sin- ilar payments being generally given on separate pas pers. These receipts are four in number, and cover from 1697, the date of the Manor Grant to 1732,-the date of the first division-thirty-five years, and are as follows :

1st Endorsement.

" Received this 29th March A D 1716 of Mrs Ger- truyd van-Cortlandt the sum of Twenty-eight Pounds, Proclammation money in full of Quit-rent for the Lands Lying in the within Pattent, untill the 25th day of this instant month of March as witness my hand

T. Byerley Coll".

2nd Endorsement.

Received (In Quality as Receiver-Generall of this province) this 16 August 1720 of Mrs Geertruydt Van Cortlandt Executrix of Stephanus Van Cortlandt de- ceased, the Sum of Eight pounds proclamation mon- cy. In full of Quitrents for all the Lands Lying within the Mannor of Cortlandt, to the 25 of March

Last Pursuant to the within Pattent as wittness my hand

T. Byerley Coll".

3ª Endorsement.

Received of Phillip Cortland Esq' for account of Mrs Geertruydt Van Cortland two pounds proc1. mon- ey in full for one years quitt rent to the 25 of March last for the lands mentioned in the within Instru- ment. Wittness my hand this 29 day of June 1721

T. Byerley Coll".

4th Endorsement.

Received of the heirs of Coll. Stephanus Van Cort- landt, by the hands of Samuell Bayard Esq" Thirty- two pounds procln money which together with thirty- eight pounds like money Received by Mr Byerley is in full for His Majestys quitrent from June 1697 to the 17 of last witness my hand Novr 7th 1732

Archª Kennedy Rec" Gen1.

Thomas Byerly the Receiver General and Collector whose bold signature appears to these receipts, arrived in New York on the 29th of July 1703,2 and was a prominent official in New York and New Jersey, of both which Provinces he was of the Governor's Coun- cil. He died in 1725, and was succeeded as Receiver- General in New York by Archibald Kennedy, who signs the last of the above receipts, in 1726.

Subsequent to the divisions of 1732-33 among the heirs, the quit rents were paid proportionably by the different owners. During the Revolutionary war and after it nothing seems to have been paid, till the state Comptroller advertised to sell the lands to pay the arrears under a State law. The following correspond- ence with, and memoranda of, General Philip Van Cortlandt will show how the quit rents were settled.

" Mamaroneck November 7, 1815

Sir

In a conversation I had with Judge Purdy a few days since, I understood from him that you had gone to Albany to ascertain if the quit-rents now demand- ed for the Manor of Cortlandt had not already been paid, if not on what part of the Manor those now de- manded were due, and how the different proprietors arc to proceed in estimating their respective propor- tions. As I am interested in a part of the Manor, I will thank you for any information you can give me on this subject. I hope you will excuse the trouble I give you, and believe me, Sir

Respectfully Yours

J. P. deLancey 3

General Philip Van Cortlandt.

Manor House Nov. 29 1815

Dear Sir

On my return from Albany I was favored with yours of the 7th, and am happy to inform you that

2 IV. Col. Ilist., 1066.

3 MS. Letter. Mr. John Peter de Lancey, of Mamaroneck, the writer of this letter succeeded to the unsold portion of the Manor lands

1 Part 10, of this essay, ante pp. 95, 96.

139

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

I have settled and paid up all the Q. Rent of the Manor of Cortlandt and also commuted for all future Q. R. in such manner as not to be obliged to eall on any of the Proprietors. Neither will any tax be neces- sary. So that you may Henceforward rest perfectly contented. There remained some undivided land which was soll to accomplish it.

I am with great respect

Yours Ph. V. Cortlandt.1

Mr. J. P. deLancey

Mamaroneck.

The following letter and certificate written by Gen. Philip Van Cortlandt explains fully this matter of the Quit Rents.

" The Comptroller is requested as soon as conven- ient to make out what amount of Quit Reut is due from the Manor of Cortlandt Pattent, which includes in its bounds, the Pattents granted to Stephen V. Cortlandt for lands on both sides of the Hudson, Dated March 16, 1685-John Knight, dated March 24 1686-and Hugh MeGregory dated the 2d of April 1690-which became the property of the said Stephen Van Cortlandt, and no Q. Rent from them is ex- pected to be paid as by the words expressed in the said Mannor Pattent, which is dated the 17th of June 1697, will appear.

" Of this a part to be sold-see below.

" A patent granted to Tennis DeKey and others al- tho within the said Manor was not the property of Said Stephen Cortlandt, and is subject to Q. Rent. " This was mentioned to the Comptroller, and it was requested of him to wait a few days and the money should be paid. This the Comptroller must have for- got when the same was sold to Mr. Lawrence who is very willing to give up the same if agreeable to the Comptroller.

"This is to be paid and commuted for.

" There is auother small Patent granted to Tennis Dekey, Sybont Ilarchie and Jacobus Harchie which is also included in the Manor and is subject to pay Q. Reut.

" Of this a part to be sold.

"There is abont eighty acres called Parson's Point, which was left by the Proprietors of the Manor Inn- divided and now is in the possession of the Dutch Minister-and if sold a title can be obtained, which can not be done withont. Further information will be given by the Comptroller's.

Humble Seryt Ph. V. Cortlandt."

" I do hereby certify that it appears from papers in my possession, that when the Manor of Cortlandt was divided in about the year 1732-there was left a piece of land said to contain abont eighty, or a hundred

acres, which I have always understood was originally intended by the Proprietors for a Parsonage, and which was not divided among the Heirs, although they all held an nndivided right therein. After the Revolutionary War I obtained possession thereof and put the Dutch Reformed Congregation in possession. As they cannot obtain a complete title from the Heirs, I want it sold for the benefit of the said church, or as much thereof as will pay the Quit Rent now due from the said Manor of Cortlandt.

Ph. v. Cortlandt.2

Parson's Point is bounded on the West and South by Hudson's River, and on the East and North by Divided lands of said Manor of Cortlandt."

At the time of the first divisions of the Manor there were settlers upon all the lots more or less. The lots were divided up into farms averaging 250 acres in some parts of the Manor and 200 aeres in others. Each farm numbered, and leased as " Farm No .-- , in Great Lot No .- ," and when described the ten- ants name was generally added, thus "and in pos- session of so and so." By 1750, the whole Manor had become populated, as appears by the list of farms and tenants names in the accounts still extant rendered to many of the heirs and their representatives. A very few farms here and there had been sold in fce. About 1770, as the tenauts had prospered and their families increased, they began to acquire the " soil right " as they termed it by purchase from the landlords. The Revolution checked this movement entirely for the time being, nor was it till 1787 or 8 that it began again. But from that time it progressed continually, so that by 1847, there were only about 2500 or 3000 acres of "leased land," exclusive of the estate belonging to Gen. Pierre Van Cortlandt, left throughout the Manor. Of this about 1200 acres divided into five farms are, at this moment, still held, in the Great Lot, No. 6, south of Croton, by descendants of the heir to whom that lot fell at the original division. In Nine cases out of ten the tenants themselves acquired the fee of their own farms. And the result has been that in every town- ship in the Manor, very many of the descendants of the original tenants still live, as owners in fee, upon the same lands which their ancestors originally took mpon leases, and thus have held them for four, five, and sometimes six generations.

In all the townships there are a few instances where dishonest persons have by trick and ehicanery acquired farms, by a series of "squattings " and fraudulent transfers and so-called sales of leases. But as a body the old tenants dealt honestly and squarely with the owners.

Some of the leases it may be said, provided for a partial payment of the rent fixed, in kind, as in wheat, in two or four fat fowls, and in so many

of his brother, Stephen de Lancey, in the town of North Salem. The latter died in 1795 without issue.

J MS. Letter.

2 Original MS.

140

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

" days work with carriage and horses," meaning not " a carriage " in our sense of the word to-day, but a day's work with wagon and team. This latter was Often spoken and written of as a "day's riding." These were all originally introdueed as an easy way for the tenants in those times when there was very little money in the country to pay a part of the rents re- served in the leases, which as a rule ran from one or two, to ten pounds a year, New York eurreney. Dur- ing the latter part of the last century, especially after the Revolution, the landlords and tenants made between themselves a private commutation, in money, for these rents in kind.

The Manor as far as the personal dignity of the Lord of the Manor was eoneerned, ended with the death of Stephanus Van Cortlandt in November, 1700. In all other respeets manorial, parochial' eivil, and political, it continued intaet, until its final termination by being divided up into townships under the Aet organizing the State into Townships in 1788.

The topography of the Manor is very remarkable, and very beautiful. The valley of the Croton lies al- most whol y within its limits. The northernmost branches of that River rising in Putnam County and the easternmost, in Connecticut, each receiving in its course many small affluents, meet near its eentre, and form the main stream of the Croton, which falls into the Hudson on the south side of the striking peninsu- la of Teller's, or Croton, Point. Five or six small streams, the largest of which, is "John Peaks Creek," now Peekskill (kill being the Dutch word for ereek) also fall into the Hudson. These streams form deep sinuous valleys between the high, roeky hills through which they foree their way to "The Great River of the Mountains. They take their rise in the range of hills dividing the valley of the Croton from that of the Hudson, which run nearly parallel to the latter at a distance to the east of it about three or four miles. From the eastern slopes of these hills to the Connecticut line extends the valley of the Croton proper, broken by lesser ranges of wooded hills, and high fertile ridges, into numerous smaller valleys, through which run perpetually, elear and winding streams. Notwithstanding this fair region has been the abode of a numerous and thriving population for more than a century and a half, it still possesses exten- sive forests, and roeky, wooded hills, amid which glist- en, like diamonds, numbers of small transparent lakes. So many are they that only a few of the larger are to be found upon the Maps. This region so remarkably wooded and watered, formerly abounded in beaver, all kinds of deer, and the ever present foes of the lat- ter, wolves. Many are the provincial statutes offering bouuties for the destruction of the latter. The beaver lived on the streams and in the forests of Core- landt till early in this century, the last having been killed near Lake Waeeabue in 1837. To this day one beautiful branch of the Croton bears the name of

" The Beaver Dam," and a high wooded ridge, not far from it is still ealled, "The Deer's Delight." There are two points, from which the greater part of this splendid region ean be looked down upon almost as a whole. The first is "Knapp's Hill," or "Louns- berry Hill," just over the Manor line in Bedford, which was used as a military station of observation during the Revolution. The second, and the finer, is Prospeet Mount in the eastern part of North Salem. It is just within the " Oblong," and though a part of North Salem sinee 1731, was not originally within the Manor. From its summit looking west the eye ranges over the whole twenty miles in length of the Manor of Cortlandt, the view being only terminated by the Roekland Mountains across the Hudson. The depression in which the latter lies is distinetly seen. Immediately in front of the spectator spreads the rich and affluent valley of the Titieus, the "Mughti- tieoos" of the Indians, the eastern branch of the Croton, bounded on each side by high, irregular forest elad hills, the silver stream winding and gleaming through green smiling meadows till it falls into the Croton itself five miles away. Beyond it are seen the rich, rolling, fertile lands of Somers and York- town, the foot hills of the Highlands their northern boundary. And further still the fair heights of the eastern bank of the Hudson and above them the lofty High Tor upou its western side. No more splendid seene ean be looked upon in America, than to witness from this Mount the setting of the sun on a elear summer evening. The whole twenty miles of the Manor, hill, valley, river, and forest, glowing in the most brilliant radiauee beneath the deep red tints of a gorgeous sky, and then as the great luminary, tinting their peaks with gold, sinks behind the blue Roekland Mountains, the whole suddenly blotted out in a deep purplish sombre gloom.

Upon the lower slopes of the height stands the old home of the Keelers, now the residence of Hobart Keeler, the fourth or fifth in a direet line who for a eentury and a half have always dwelt there. And yet it is so high, that from his dining room windows on a elear day, High Tor and the other Roekland mountains are plainly visible.

In the southeastern part of the Manor is a range of heights trending from northwest to southeast dividing the valley of the Croton from that of Long Island Sound, in which rise st reams running south- erly to the Sound the chief of which are the Myanos, now known as the Mianus, and the Arınonek, or By- ram River. Thus within the Manor are three distinet water-sheds, two carrying their waters into the Hud- son, and one into the sound.

The origin of the name of the river, the great natural feature of the Manor, the waters of which supply the great eity of New York by means of a magnificent aqueduet without a rival in Aneient or Modern times, is not certainly known. Different theories have been and are held upon this subjeet. What is

CORTLANDT MANOR MAP.

PREPARED EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK.

Exphmmfon,

Sarkaan

Nº

Nº4.

Nº 1

N°

.10 יא

Anf& Johnson. י'א

Ander w Julıninn,

Gıd Başkanı,

Jutr. . Schuvit.

Maryare Bayard.

Phú Cortlandt.

Andrew Johnson.

M' Malin.

John Schuyler.

Nº DehuLy.

of fle there of the theme by the shiwe walk - tinghi.

Puuby cartlendt.

Nº4

שיא

Nº 9.

Nº 10

M' Dulinery

p Veplank

M' Skinner

Surphen Constandt

Suphan Partlandı,

Gerirys Deskmen.

Margaret Bayand.

M' Skompet

x Milin

N.s

Pháp Cơn'mdi.

BED FORD,

Township

Nº 1

Nº 7.

EXPLANATION.

1. Kightewauk Creek or Groatan's River.

2. Tellers Point.

3. The Old Mill Stream.

4. Parson's Point.

5. The Neck of Land belonging to Philip Verplank.

6. Eighteen hundred Acres, now belonging to Herenlas Lent, &c.

7. Magrigaries Creek.

8. John Peek's Creek.

9. Three hundred Acres of Land belonging to John Krankhyte.

Io. Antonye's Nose.

11. Salsburge's Island and Meadow.

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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 32

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