History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 35

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 35

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Relation being thereunto had will more fully & at large appeare. Butt now soe it is may it please your honor and the honoble Couneell haveing a Desire to dispose of some Quautity of said Land which is Called the Whiteplaines and is mençoned within said Pattent to Severall Persons whose names 1 are Sub- seribed to a writeing hereunto annexed for the better Improvemt. And manureing the same & to Settle thereon with themselves and familyes is wholly Ob- structed and liinda by Ryemen haveing made a greate Disturbanceamongst them and Pretends a right to the Same therefore Cannot dispose of any part or p'cell thereof till your honor will be pleased to grant an Order to Cleare the Same.

Therefore humbly pray and beseech your honor and the honoble Couneell that you will bee pleased to take the Premises into your serious consideration and grant an order to Cleare the same Accordingly Desire- ing only the privlidges as farr as his Pattent doth Extend. And shall pray &e John Rielibell.

This petition came up for hearing before the Gov- ernor on the 17th of March 1684, and the people of Rye were summoned to show cause at the next Conrt of Assize why John Richbell was not the true owner of the lands in question. But before the next Court sat, Richbell passed from earth, his death oceurring on the 26th day of July 1684. He left his widow Ann and three daughters, Elizabeth, second wife of Adam Mott, of Hempstead, Mary, the wife of Capt. James Mott and Anne, the wife of John Emerson, of Maryland, his only children him surviving. The Rye claim however did not die, but remained a source of annoyance to his widow. In 1694 the mat- ter eame to a head. Mrs. Richbell served the follow- ing Protest upon the Rye people at a town meeting, and subsequently began a suit at law to test the question.

PROTEST OF MRS. RICHBELL AGAINST RYE.2

" To all Xtinn People to whome this present Protest

1 These names do not appear upon the record at Albany.

" From the original in the writer's possession. It is recorded in Lib. A West. Co. Records, 168.

150

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

shall Come Greeting : Know yee that whereas I Ann Richbell of Momorronock in the County of West- chest' in the province and Colony of New yorke the Widdow and Relict of Jnº. Richbell Esq"., Deceased Am Credebly Informed that Humphry Underhill and severall other persons belongeing to the Towne of Rye have made a forcable Entry: and are further proceeding in the Like Manuer Upon and into Sever- all parcells and Tracts of Land within the pattent Right of me the said Anne Richbell as may and dos Appeare by the Grand Pattent Granted uuder the hand and Seale of Coll Frances Lovelace the then Gev- ernor of this Province : it Coutrary to ye Peace of their Majties & Therefore know Yee yt I Anu Richbell of Momorronock aforesaid being the true & Absolute Owner of the said Tracts or parcells of Laud doe Protest Against & forbidd any Person whatsoever for making any forcable Eutry upon the same or any part or parcell thereof and likewise do warne and desire all such persons that have already made such forceable entry thereon or upon any part or parcell of the said Pattent as aforesaid that they expell and forthwith remove therefrom, and further do protest agt the Register of the County and doe forbid him at his perrill not to enter any of their privite agreem.'s or writing in the Records of the County iu presence of James Mott Justice of the peace and Benjamin Collier Esq' High Sheriff of the said County: In Consideration whereof I doe hereby obleidge myselfe and my heirs Execut's and Administrators firmly by these pesents : to Indemnifie and Keepe harmless the said Register concerning ye Premises aforesaid In wittness whereof I have hereunto put my hand and seale this twenty sixth day of February in the sixth year of their Majties Reignc Annoqe Domj 1692 Ac- knowledged before us by the above Ann Richbell to be her Act & deed the day aud date above written.

Ann Richbell L.S.

James Mott Justis Pece.

Joseph Lee Pub. Note.

This Instrum was Read at a publick Towne meeting at ye Towne house of Rye the day and date above written, and their Answer was if they did not meddle or make with any Lands that belongs to Mrs Richbells Patent But at the same Time they was makeing a Generall Agreemt to Lay out and devide a parcell of Land the said MI's Richbell Layeth Clame Too by virty of her said Pattent.

Test Joseph Lee th Comitt. Westchest'."

This Instrumt is Recorded in the Records of the County of Westchest' in Booke Nº B. Foleo, 168 : 169.

The suit referred to was tried at the theu County town of Westchester in December 1696 and resulted in favor of Mrs. Richbell. The following is the verdict, which is printed from a copy certified by the Court clerk at the time, now in the writer's possession.

It is believed to be the only Westchester County Court document of the kind of the seventeenth century which has come dowu regularly to a present represen- tative in interest of one of the parties to the original action. Its form being somewhat different from that now used, and showing the names of the Judges, Ju- rors, and Counsel, and the summary of the evidence, gives it great and curious interest.

Verdict for Mrs. Richbell.

" Westchester

Countys Ss. Att a Court of Pleas held at Westchester for the said County Dec. ye 3rd, & fourth in the Eight year of his Majestie's Reigne, Annoqe Domj. 1696.

Present

The Honoble James Graham, Judge, John Pell, John Hunt, Wm Barnes, Thos Pinkney, Esq™s.

Maddam Richbell by Peter Chock Atturney Read the Pattent & Joynte 1 &c.

Upou which the Jury was Impanneld & Swore, viz.

Edmª. Ward

Thomas Bedient

Jno. Bayly Robt. Hustice Jun™

Gabriell Leggatt Ww Davenport

Joseph Hunt, Sene John Barrett

Thomas Baxter Roger Barton

Charles Vincent

Thomas Shuite

Mr. Underhill Reads an ord' about the Line betweene this Province and Canniddecott and Pleads the Land in question not withiu this Governmt but iu Canniddecott.

Mr. Peter Cock 2 Pleads that Joseph Lee 3 might be swore to give what Report he cann about the Surveigh of the now Surveyor Generall, who upon oath, saith, that he begun his Survey at or about Momoronock Bridge : 4 and soe Runn up by the River till till he Came where Umphry Underhill Lives, who made opposition with Gunns, Stones, &c. and soe went no further.

(vert.)

The Pattent with the rest of Papers needfull Given to the Jury, and the Sherrife Sworne to Keepe them from fire and candles &c. untill they bringe in their verdict,

viz.

The Jury find that Momorronack River is the bounds of Richbells Pattent \ here the ffresh water ffals iuto the salt in said River, and from thence a northerly line into the woods : aud if the Tenn' in Possession be on the West side of said Line then wee find for the plaintive, otherwise for the Defendant.

Joseph Lee, Cl."

It would have been of more interest still at this

1 Jointure.

2 So in the original.

3 The County Register, and also Clerk of the Court.

+ The original bridge, which was some distance north of the present bridge, the location of which was only made in 1800, by the Westchester Turnpike Company under their charter of that year.

151

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

day, had it given the exact location of the premises for which the suit was brought. It is believed to have been the land of one Hunt, son-in-law of Under- hill, who lived above and adjoining him on the upper part of Mamaroneck River; but this is only a sur- mise.

This decision finally established the east boundary of Riehbells Patent and settled the legal as well as ae- tual direction of both the east and the west boundary lines of that Patent. In the next century two con- troversies arose regarding the location of the dividing line between the east and the Middle Necks of Richbell's Patent, one in 1731 and the other in 1768, both of which were decided in favor of the Proprietors of the Manor of Scarsdale, which included the East Neck, the particulars of which belong more appropri- ately to the history of Mamaroneck as a town under the Act of 1788.

We now turn to Colonel Heathcote's title to the part of the Manor which he obtained directly from the Indians. This was the portion between Hutch- iuson's River and the Bronx, bordering to the south on the Eastchester Patent, now a part of the town of Scarsdale, a tract which in the Colony days bore, and to a certain extent still bears, the local name of " The Fox Meadows." It is thus described in the Indian deed from Patthunke, Beopo, Cohawney, and Wapetuck to Colonel Heathcote, " To begin on the west side at southermost end of a ridge known by the name of Richbell's or Horse- Ridge at a great Rock and so to run a north-northwest line to Broncks's River, and on the eastermost side from Mamaroneck River, and from the head thereof to Broncks's River." 1

Nearly a year later, another deed was executed to Colonel Heathcote by three of the above named In- dians, Pathunke, Wapetuck, and Beopo, for that part of the land lying between the above tract and the Eastchester Patent line in which it is thus described, " butted and bounded as followeth Eastwardly by the marked trees or westermost bounds of a certain tract of Land sold by the said Beopo Patthunke Wapetuck & Cohawncy to the said Heathcote bearing date the thirtieth day of March one thousand seven hundred and one, northwardly by Bronxe's River Sonthwarcly and Westwardly by Henry Fowler's purchase and otliers."" Thirty years afterward, in the first of the two suits above alluded to instituted by the then propri- etors of the Manor of Scarsdale against one Quimby for trespass, Henry Fowler gave the following account of the circumstances of this purchase of Colonel Heatlı- cote, in the form of an affidavit ;- " Memorandum that on ye Sixth day of May 1731 in the fourth year of his Majesties Reign Aunoq. Dom. 1731, Henery ffowler Sent of Eastchester in ye County of West- eliester and Collony of New York, yeoman, of full age Being sworne on ye Holly Evangelist of Almighty

God, Saith ;- that about the time Coll. Caleb Heatlı- eot was lying out the purchase which is commonly ealled the fox meadow purchase, Coll. Heathcott Desired said Henery Fowler, this Deponent, to show him said Coll. Heathicott the bounds of the Indian purchase, that the said Henery ffowler this Deponent had purchased of the Indians Ann Hook, Woupa- topas, &c. for himself and others his neighbours . this Deponent further saith that Coll. Heathcott fur- ther said to him, I have purchased a tract of Land of the Heathen Joyning to your bounds ; this Deponent further saith that he went along with Coll. Heathcott and showed him his bounds of the land he had pur- chased of the Heathens for himself and neighbours, which was from the Head of Hutchinsons River a straight course to Brunksis River to a marked tree, which Coll. Heathcott acknowledged to be his Bounds of his Indian Purchase, and this Deponent further Saith that he hath no claim to any parts of the lands in ye Indian purchase or lands therein contained which the said Henery ffowler purchased for himself and neighbours adjoining to Coll. Heathcotts; and that he Doth not now Declare this truth either in hopes of loss or gain, or through any fear, or in hopes of gaining any favour or affection of any person what- soever, and further this Deponent saith not.

Henery ffowler.

This Deponent being about Seventy four years of age was sworn before me ye date aforesaid.

Sworn before me one of his Majesties Justices of the peace for Westchester County.

Jolın Ward, Justice.3

In 1696, the year before Colonel Heathcote pur- chased from her the Mamaroneck lands, he obtained from Mrs. Richbell her written consent to his getting the usual deeds of Confirmation4 from the then Indians of the neighborhood for the lands formerly bought from Wappaquewam and other Indians by her hus- band John Richbell. The above deeds seem also to have been obtained to remove any possible elaim to the Fox meadows from any parties whatever whether In- dians or whites. He also obtained on the eleventh of June 1701 from the same Indians Patthunke, Beo- po, and Wapetuck a similar deed of confirmation for Richbells Mamaroneck two miles tract.5

In the course of the same year and the next he ob- tained, with others in interest, similar Indian deeds of Confirmation for all the lands in the great "West," " Middle" and " East Patents" which together cov- ercd all the county between the Manors of Cortlandt on the north, Philipsburgh on the west, Scarsdale on the south, and the Connecticut line on the east,

1 From the original deed dated 30 March 1700-1.

" Original deed in the writer's possession dated 24 Feb. 1701-2.

3 From an ancient copy of the original in the writer's possession.

4 Before explained in this essay.

5 West. Co. Records Lib. D 52.

152

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

a short account of which will be given in another connection.

At the time of his purchase from Mrs. Ann Rich- bell of the entire estate and rights in her Mamaro- neck and Scarsdale lands, in 1697, Colonel Heathcote was residing at Westchester, which the year before, through his influence, had been created a Borough- Town, with all its municipal privileges of a Mayor and Aldermen and Assistants, and the additional one of a representative of its own in the Assembly of the Province,1 its charter, by which he was named its first Mayor, bearing date April 16th, 1696. He was a merchant in New York, where he also had a town residence, and a member of the Council of the Prov- ince. He had been a property holder in both West- chester and Eastchester, from about the time of his coming from England to New York, which was in 1691. Being a man of education and means and of affable manners, he took a prominent part in the af- fairs of both settlements. and, in accordance with the popular wish, was appointed Colonel of the Military of the whole County. Hence the title of "Colonel," by which he was ever afterwards known, and spoken of, notwithstanding the many higher and more dis- tinguished positions and appointments he afterwards held, one of which was the judgeship of Common Pleas of the County, which he filled at the same time he was colonel of its militia.

Succeeding to all the Richbell estate in the East Neck, including the proprietary rights in the town- ship tract of Mamaroneck, after obtaining the Indian confirmations and other deeds for the lands, and ac- quiring those from the head of Hutchinson's River to the Bronx, he had the whole erected into the Manor of Scarsdale under the Manor Grant above set forth in 1701.

Upon an eminence at the head of Mamaroneck harbor, overlooking the two beautiful peninsulas forming its eastern and western sides, the blue waters of the wide Sound into which it opens, and the distant hills of Long Island, called from him to this day, "Heathcote Hill," Colonel Heathcote erected a large double brick Manor-House in the English style of that period, with all the usual offices and outbuild- ings, with the purely American addition, however, of negro quarters, in consonance with the laws, habits, and customs of that day. Here he dwelt during the remainder of his life.

The people then living at Mamaroneck were very few. One of the first movements of Colonel Heathcote was to obtain the confirmation dced from the then Indian chiefs for Richbell's two-mile town- ship tract above referred to. This instrument, dated June 11th, 1701, not quite three months after he ob- tained his Manor-Grant of Scarsdale, gives us the names of the then owners of the tract which was di-

vided into eight house or home lots. It is executed by two Indian chiefs, Patthunk and Wapetuck, and confirms the tract " unto Collon.el Caleb Heathcote, Capt. James Mott, William Penoir,2 John Williams, Henry Disbrough, Alice Hatfield, John Disbrough and Benjamin Disbrough.3" Henry Disbrough's deed from John and Ann Richbell, of 16th of February, 1676,4 for his eighth part gives us the precise bound- aries of this tract, which it terms "Mammaroneck limmits," " being in length two miles and in Breadth one mile a half and Twenty-cight rods." 5 The object was to show that no difficulty with the natives might be apprehended by persons desirous of settling at Mamaroneck. Colonel Heathcote established a grist mill on the Mamaroneck River near the original bridge crossed by the "old Westchester Path," and a saw mill high up on that river, now the site of the present Mamaroneck Water Works, upon which site there continued to be a mill of some kind until it was bought two years ago to establish those works. He made leases at different points throughout the Manor, but did not sell in fee many farms, though always ready and willing to do so, the whole number of the deeds for the latter on record being only thirteen during the twenty-three years or thereabout which elapsed between his purchase from Mr. Richbell and his death. Some of these farms, however, were of great extent. He did not establish as far as now known any Manor Courts under his right to do so. The population was so scant, and the Manor like all others in the county, being subject to the judicial pro- visions of the Provincial Legislative acts, there was really no occasion for them. He personally attended to all dutics, and inatters, connected with his Manor and his Tenants, never having appointed any Steward of the Manor. Papers still in existence show that his Tenants were in the habit of coming to him for aid and counsel in their most private affairs, especially in the settlement of family disputes, and he was often called upon to draw their wills. But space will not permit mention of incidents and facts of only per- sonal or local interest, or of details of his general management of the Manor, or his agricultural management of his demesne lands, which included besides those attached to his Manor House the whole of that portion of the East Neck below the old West- chester Path now called De Lancey's Neck.

Colonel Heathcote died very suddenly in the city of New York from a stroke of apoplexy on the 28th of February, 1720-21. In the Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury of March 11, 1721, is a letter from New York, under date of March 6th, which says, " On the 28th day of February last, died the Honorable Caleb Heathcote, Surveyor-General of His Majesty's

1 It and Schenectady were the only "Borough-Towns" erected in the Province of New York. Both were perfect examples of the old English Borough-Towns in every respect.

2 Penoyer was really this name.

3 Ancient copy in the writer's possession. Rec. Lib. C, West. Co., p. 52.

4 Lib. A, 33, West. Co. Rec.

6 The length was north and south, and the breadth east and west.

Caleb Heathcote

Reproduced from the Engraving from the Original Painting in possession of the Rt. Rev. W. H. De Lancey, Bishop of Western New York.

153

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

Customs for the Eastern District of North America,1 Judge of the Court of Admiralty for the Provinces of New York and New Jersey and Connecticut, one of His Majesty's Council for the Province of New York, and brother of Sir Gilbert Heathcote of London.

"He was a gentleman of rare qualities, excellent temper, and virtuous life and conversation, and his loss lamented by all that knew him, which on the day of his death, went about doing good in procuring a charitable subscription in which he made great progress." He was buried in his " family burial- place " in Trinity church yard, where his widow and three of his children who died young are also buried. His grave was in the church yard, almost beneath the southwest window of the second Trinity Church.2 His widow Martha survived him till August 18th, 1736, when she died, and was buried in the same place the evening of the next day.3 She was the daughter of Colonel William Smith, of St. George's Manor, Long Island, Chief Justice and President of the Council of New York. He had previously been Governor of Tangiers, in Africa, while it was an appanage of the British crown, where his daughter, Martha Heatlicote, was born on the 11th of September, 1681.

Colonel Caleb Heathcote was the sixth son of Gil- bert Heathcote, Mayor of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, by his wife, Anne Chase Dickens. He was born in his Father's house in that city, still standing, in 1665. He was the sixth of seven sons who lived to maturity-Gilbert, John, Samuel, Josiah, William, Caleb and George. Of these, who all became suc- cessful merchants in England and foreign countries, three-John, William and George-died unmarried, the latter at sea in 1678, in his thirtieth year. Josiah's family line became extinet in August, 1811, while the families of Gilbert, Samuel and Caleb con- tinue to this day, but the latter only in the female line. Gilbert, the eldest, was Lord Mayor of Lon- dou, Member of Parliament, one of the founders and the first Governor of the Bank of England, knighted by Queen Anne, and created a Baronet in 1732 by George HI. His grandson of the same name was raised to the Peerage in 1856, as Baron Aveland, of Aveland, in the County of Lincoln, and his great grandson is the present Lord Great Chamberlain of England. Samuel, the third son, who made a large fortune at Dantzie, was the aneestor of the Heath- cotes, Baronets, of Hursley Park, in the County of Hampshire ; his son William having been created a Baronet in 1733, and his great grandson was the late

Right Honorable Sir William Heathcote, Bart., of the Privy Council, late Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford, the pupil and warm friend of the poet Keble, whom he preferred to the Rectorship of Hursley, which will ever be as famous as that of George Herbert at Bemerton, and father of Sir Wil- liam Heathcote, the sixth and present Baronet.

Caleb, the sixth son, left six children-Gilbert and William and four daughters : Anne, Mary, Martha and Elizabeth. Three of these-William, Mary and Elizabeth-died young. Gilbert, while a youth of twenty, eo mpleting his education in England under the care of his Unele Gilbert, took the small pox and died, and is buried in that city. Anne, the eldest daughter, married James de Lancey (born 1703, died 1760), eldest surviving son of Etienne-in Eng- lish Stephen-de Lancey, the first of that family in America, subsequently Chief Justice and Governor of the Province of New York, of whom the late Rt. Rev. William Heatheote de Lancey (born 1797, died 1865) was the eldest surviving grandson, and the father of the writer of this essay. Martha, the only other child of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, who came to ma- turity, married Lewis Johnston, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and left two sons-John L. and Heath- cote-and two daughters-Anne and Margaret. The line of Heathcote Johnston is now extinet, and that of John L., it is said, is now extinet in the males. Anne married William Burnet, son of Governor Bur- net of New York, and grandson of the famous Bishop Burnet of King William's and Queen Anne's day, but this line is also extinet. Margaret, the other daugh- ter of Martha Heathcote Johnston, married Bowes Read, a prominent and distinguished publie man of New Jersey, and her grandson was the late Rt. Rev. Charles P. MeIlvaine, Bishop of Ohio, who has many deseendants.

The Father of Colonel Heathcote, Gilbert the Mayor of Chesterfield, was a Roundhead in the English Civil War, and served with eredit in the Army of the Par- liament against King Charles the First. He died in 1690 and lies in the burial place of the Heathcotes on the north side of the altar rails, in the ancient Parish Church of Chesterfield, the erueiform church 600 years old, with the central twisted spire 230 feet high and 14 feet out of the perpendicular, yet per- fectly secure, which, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is a puzzle whether it was or was not so erected origi- nally. Against the wall of the chancel arch is a very handsome mural monument in the ornamented style of the 16th century, erected jointly by all his sons to his memory bearing this inscription ;

At the foot of this here lieth, in hopes of a blessed resurrection, the body of Gilbert Heathcote late of this town, Gentleman, who departed this life tlie 24th April, 1690, in the 69th year of liis age.

1 The commission appointing him to this office is in the writer's pos- session. It is an enormous parchment document dated, 1715.

2 This fact was told the writer by his Father, the Rt. Rev. William H. De Lancey, who was told it and shown the place by his father, John Peter De Lancey, of Mamaroneck, a grandson of Colonel Heathcote. All stones were destroyed when the First Trinity was burned, Sept. 15, 1776.

8 New York Gazette, No. 564, of 23 Aug., 1736.

154

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

By his wife Ann,

daughter of Mr George Dickens of this town he had eight sons and one daughter, viz. Gilbert, John, Samuel, Elizabeth, Josiah, William Caleb, George, and Thomas ;

of which Elizabeth and Thomas died in their infancy; but he had the particular blessing to see all the rest Merchants adventurers, either in England or in foreign parts. This was erected by his sons, as well to testify their gratitude, as to perpetuate the Memory of the best of fathers. Here also lieth interred the body of Ann, his said wife, who departed this life the 29th of November, 1705 in the 76th year of her age.

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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 35

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