History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 150

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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. II > Part 150

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The original purchasers were Peter Disbrow, John Coe and Thomas Stedwell. A fourth, Johu Budd, was associated with them in some of their purchases, and several others joined them in the actual settle- ment of the place; but the earliest negotiations appear to have been conducted in behalf of the three persons named. They were all residents of Greenwich when the first Indian treaty was signed. Their leader was Peter Disbrow, a young, intelligent, self-reliant man. Early in the year 1660 Disbrow was in treaty with the Indians of Peningo Neck for the purchase of that tract. The deed of purchase was lost during Dis- brow's own life-time. The petition of the people of Rye in 1720, for a patent from the crown, gives an account of this purchase, in which it is stated that Disbrow acted by authority from the colony of Con- necticut (under whose government the township of Rye then lay), and that, on the 3d of January, 1660, he purchased " from the then Native Indian Proprie- tors a Certain Tract of Land lyeing ou the maine be- tween a sertaine place then called Rahonaness to the East and to the West Chester Path to the North and

1 On Wednesday morning, March 31, 1886, the steamer "Capilol "'ity, formerly known as the " City of Hartford," was wrecked on the rock known as Black Tom, off Parsonage Point. The "Capital City " WANA vessel two hundred and fifty feet in length and forly feet beam. ller capacity was one thousand tour hundred tous.

"CHRISMERE." RESIDENCE OF ALEXANDER TAYLOR, JR. RYE NECK, N. Y.

645

RYE.

up to a River then called Moaquanes to the West, That is to say all the Land lying betweene the afore- said Two Rivers then called Peningoe Extending from the Said Path to the North and South to the Sea or Sound." We have no means of determining where the transaction took place, but, not improbably, it may have been effected at the Indian village that stood near the lower end of the beach.

This first purchase on Peningo Neck comprised the lower part of the present town of Rye, on the cast side of Blind Brook. From the extreme end of the peninsula proper, or Brown's Point, the tract extended as far north as the present village of Port Chester. A line of marked trees from east to west was the boundary of this tract, beginning a little below Park's Mill, where a branch of Blind Brook empties into that stream, and running in a south- easterly direction to Byram River. Nearly six months elapsed before any further steps were taken. The purchasers had no intention of settling as yet upon the main. But east of Peningo Neck, separated from it only by a narrow channel, lay an island about a mile in length, called by the Indians Manussing. It appears not to have been included in the first pur- chase. On the 29th day of June, 1660, Peter Disbrow, John Coe and Thomas Stedwell concluded a treaty by which it was acquired from the Indian proprietors, Shanarockwell (sagamore), Maowhobo, Cokensekoo and others. The land thus transferred is described as being " near unto the main land which is called in the Indian name Peningo." Besides the island, which the purchasers were "quietly to enjoy from any mo- lestation of us or any other Indians," the settlers were ceded the right to feed their cattle upon the main land, called Peningo, without molestation, and take what " timbers or trees " they might require for their use. The consideration paid was" Eight cotes and Seven Shirts and fiftene fathom of wompone."

By the two treaties the settlers acquired the lower half of the present territory of the town, between Blind Brook and the Sound or Byram River, together with the adjoining island of Manussing. Nearly a year later they bought the land lying farther north, between the same streams. This purchase included considerably more than the present territory of the town. The deed is dated May 22, 1661. The three purchases completed the territory of Rye on the east side of Blind Brook. Indeed, they took in also a part of the town of Greenwich,-the tract of land between the present State line and Byrani River,-and the claim of Rye to this territory subsequently caused no little trouble between the two towns. Attention was next directed to the lands lying west of Blind Brook, a much more extensive and important field, from the fact that expansion in that direction was restricted only by the dangers and difficulties of peopling a wilderness, whereas on the east the settlers were liable to encroach upon their neighbors of Greenwich. Within ii .- 56

little more than a year after the last purchase east of Blind Brook they bought from the Indians the lands on the west side of that stream extending to Mama- roneck River and beyond. Upon these purchases the town of Rye subsequently founded its claim to the territory now known as Rye Neck, and to the present townships of Harrison and the White Plains.

In these transactions John Budd replaces Peter Disbrow as the principal agent. On the 8th of No- vember, 1661, he purchased the tract called by the Indians Apawamis, and by the white men Budd's Neck. This tract was bounded on the east by Blind Bropk and on the west by the little stream whose Indian name was Pockcotessewake, since known as Stony Brook or Beaver Meadow Branch. Northward it extended as far as the Westchester Path and southward to the sea. The land thus described constitutes now the southwestern part of the town. It has always formed a part of the territory of Rye, but, unlike the former purchases, it was claimed by a single proprietor, John Budd, and for a period of nearly sixty years was held under a distinct patent. A second deed, executed a few days later, transferred to Budd the Indian title to the islands in the Sound near the purchased territory, known as the Hen and Pine Islands and the Scotch Caps.

Shortly after, Budd purchased the West Neck, or the tract of land adjoining Budd's Neck proper, and lying between Stony Brook and Mamaroneck River. Still another purchase was made in the following summer, on the 2d day of June, 1662, by John Budd in company with Disbrow, Coe and Stadwell or Stedwell, the original purchasers. It is the first occasion upon which these four names appear to- gether. The settlers now bought the tract of land above the Westchester Path and west of Blind Brook or directly north of Budd's Neck. This was the ter- ritory of the present town of Harrison-a territory owned by the proprietors of Rye, but wrested from the town some forty years later.

It will be observed that the settlers paid the Indians for the land thus secured, not in a few worthless trinkets, but in clothing and weapons, the Indian currency. For Budd's Neck the patentee paid "Eightie pounds Sterling," and for the Harrison tract twenty pounds sterling.

The time occupied in effecting the different pur- chases was about two years and a half. Meantime the three original purchasers, who were living at Green- wich when the first two treaties were made, had come down with some others to the little island of Manussing, near the mouth of Byram River, and were already preparing to cross over to the main. They had acquired the title to a very considerable prop- erty. The southern part of it alone comprised the tract of land between Byram River and Mamaroneck River, while to the north it extended twenty milcs, and to the northwest an indefinite distance. These boundaries included, besides the area now covered by

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

the towns of Rye and Harrison, much of the towns of North Castle and Bedford in New York and of Green- wich in Connecticut, whilst in a northwesterly diree- tion the territory elaimed was absolutely without a fixed limit. As the frontier town of Connecticut, Rye long cherished pretensions to the whole region as far as the Hudson.

While the dealings with the natives were in prog- ress the settlement on Manussing Island was com- meneed. It is impossible to fix the exact date, but it must have been in the summer or fall of 1660. Disbrow and his companions were still living at Greenwich when the deed of June 29, 1660, was concluded. The next deed, May 22, 1661, mentions " the bounds of Hastings on the south," showing that the lands previously bought had received a name, and implying that they were already occupied. It is unlikely that the settlers would delay their coming after securing an eligible site, and it may be pre- sumed that they arrived in July or August, 1660. It was but an hour's sail from Greenwich, and they eame undoubtedly in boats, as they could thus trans- port their families and household goods much more readily than by the Indian paths through the forest and across the ford from Peningo Neck.

On Manussing Island the settlers were within easy reach of assistance from Greenwich in ease of attack, and could reach that place in a very short time if they found it necessary to retreat. They were not likely to be notieed by the Dutch, though their island lay within the line designated by the last treaty. From their savage neighbors they would be compara- tively safe, and here, while completing their acquisi- tions on the mainland, they could gradually strengthen themselves and prepare to extend the sphere of their operations. The island itself was an inviting spot.

It lay on the eastern side of Peningo Neck, only separated from it by a narrow ereek. Westward, a broad expanse of sedge land, or salt meadow, inter- vened, almost hiding the channel in its winding course, and seeming to connect the island with the main. On the other side, toward the sea, a wide beach bordered its entire length. An Indian village had formerly stood on the southern part of the island ; perhaps some of the deserted wigwams yet remained ; and the upland, like the salt meadows, presented that appearance of cultivation which drew the white man to the places that had been improved in some measure by the natives before his eoming.

Looking southward, the planters had in prospect an almost unbroken wilderness. The only spot between them and New Amsterdam where Europeans had yet attempted to establish themselves was a point of land, ten miles below, known to the Dutch as Ann's Hook. Here, eighteen years before, the famous Mother Hutchinson had been slain by the Indians. in one of their risings upon the Dutch. This point had since been bought by Thomas Pell, of Fairfield, who was now endeavoring, under authority of Connecticut,

to form a settlement there, in spite of Governor Stuyvesaut's remonstrances. Aeross the Sound, which is here about five miles wide, the shores of Long Island were already in great part possessed by the English. Hempstead, I just opposite; Oyster Bay and Huntington, to the east, had been settled some years before ; the first with the consent of the Dutch themselves, the other two under patent from the New Haven eolony. It was at Hempstead Harbor, directly across the Souud, that the dividing line, agreed upon in 1650, between the Duteh possessions on Long Island and those of the English terminated.

Mannssing Islaud 2 comprises about one hundred acres of upland, with as many more of sedge or salt meadow. The first business of the settlers was to apportion the land among themselves and erect some temporary habitations. A home-lot of two or three acres was assigned to each. These lots were probably contiguous to each other, and the houses built upon them soon presented the appearance of a small village. The first houses built were nothing better than log cabins. The timber was cut on Peningo Neek. More comfortable dwellings soon replaced these, the materials being brought down from the older settlements.

The island village took the name of Hastings. There is no reason to doubt that it was so ealled after the famous seaport on the English Channel. And it is fair to infer that some one at least of the settlers came front Sussex, in England. Part of the mainland received this appellation, together with the island. "The bounds of Hastings " extended, we have seen, about as far north on Peningo Neck as the present village of Port Chester. But some time elapsed be- fore any improvements were attempted in this diree- tion. For two or three years certainly the planters confined themselves to their insular home.

The three purchasers of the island, Disbrow, Coe and Studwell, were soou joined by other adventurers, if, indeed, they were not necompanied by them at the outset. The following are the names of all the plant- ers of whom we have any record as belonging to the island settlement :

Peler Disbrow.

John Brondish.

John Coe. Frederick Harminson.

Thomas Studwell

Thomas Applela.

lohn Budd.

Philip Galpin.

William Odell.

George Clere.

Richard Vow les.

John Jackson.

Samuel Alling.

Waller Lancaster.

Robert Hudson.

1 The most distant point of land to be seen from Manusing Island, looking up the Sound, is Eaton's Neck. West of this point is Hunting- ton Bay. Oyster Bay is the next inlet ; and nearer still is Hempstead Harbor.

2 Traces of several dwellings have been found on the southern part of The island, where they appear to have formed a cluster, a few rods apart. The summer-house on Mrs. William P. Van Rensselaer's grounds indienles about The spot where Ilils llItle village stood. Fifty or sixty years ago The walls of a small stone house were still to be seen at this end of The island, perhaps a part of the ancient house of Richard Vowles.

"MAPLE TERRACE." RESIDENCE OF FRANCIS S. SMITH, DADT SURCTED N V

RYE.

647

Two other names, which are undecipherable, stand connected with these, making seventeen in all. The last three do not appear until the third year of the settlement. The others may not improbably have been associated with it from the first.

Eight of these names are permanently counected with the history of our settlement. The other seven, in the list given above, were but transient members of the plantation. Their names soon disappear from its records. Of Samuel Alling, Thomas Applebe and Frederick Harminson we know scarcely anything. Robert Hudson was living at Rye some years later. George Clere remained long enough to obtain a home- lot in the new village, on the main. John Jackson and Walter Lancaster removed to the town of East Chester, New York, of which place the latter became one of the proprietors and leading men.

With perhaps one exception, the settlers were Eng- lishmen by birth, and doubtless, also, Puritans in faith. They were, most of them, the sous of men who had sought refuge on these shores, among the earliest companies of emigrants to New England. There are grounds for believing that they were men capable of appreciating the benefits and obligations of civil freedom. Some of them at least were men of religious principle and conviction.

The earliest document that has come down to us from these times is a declaration of their purposes and desires, drawn up about two years after the com- meucement of the enterprise. The Restoration had just occurred in Great Britain. On the accession of Charles the Second to the throne it was expected that the American colonies would profess their alle- giance in the usual form of an address and petition. The colonies were somewhat slow to do this. Con- necticut, however, was the first to offer these profes- sions of submission. The address of the General Court at Hartford to the King was ordered to be drawn up on the 14th of March, 1661. It had prob- ably come to the knowledge of the settlers at Hast- ings. They unite in expressing their concurrence in that address ; and they also take the opportunity to define their true position as those who, though dwelling in the wilderness, " remote from other places," are loth to be viewed as ontlaws. And while pro- claiming their revereuce for constituted authority, they reserve their rights of conscience and private judgment. They will yield subjection only to "whole- some laws, that are just and righteous, according to God and our capableness to receive."

"HASTING, July 26 1662

"Know all men whom this may concern that [we the] inhabitants of Minnnssing Island whose n[ames are here] vnder writtne, do declare vnto all the true [th] we came not hither to live withovt government as pr[etended,] and therfore doe proclayme Charles the Second ovr lawful lord and king : and doe voluntaryly submit our selves and all ovr lands that we have bought of the English aud Iudians : vnder his grations protection : and do expect according to his grations declaration : unto all his subjects which we are and desiore to be subject to all his holsom lawes that are just and Righteous according to God and our capableness to receive : where uuto we due subscribe.

* * *

* *

PETER DISBROW, JOHN COF,

" The mark of SAMUELL ALLING,

The mark of THOMAS STEDWILL,

The mark of WILLIAM ODELLE.

" The mark of ROBERT HUTSONE, JOHN BRONDISH,

" The mark of FREDERICK HARMINSONE,

"The mark of THOMAS APLEBE. "

It would appear from the language of this docu- ment that some suspicion had been cast upon the enterprise. The motive of these planters in going beyond the limits of previous settlements had been impugned. Hence their declaration that they "came not hither to live without government." There is evidence, too, that they felt themselves in danger from lawless and disorderly men, who were but too ready to join a new adventure; for at the same time with the above statement the settlers drew up the following compact, which they signed in the same manner :

" We do agree that for our land bought on the mayu land, called in the Indian Peningoe, aud in English the Biaram land, lying between the aforesaid Biaram river and the Blind brook, bounded east and west with these two rivers, and on the north with Westchester path, and on the south with the sea, for a plantation, and the name of the towu to be called Hastings.

" And now lastly we have jointly agreed that he that will subscribe to these orders, here is land for him, and he that doth refuse to subscribe hereunto we have no land for him. HASTINGS, July 26, 1662. The planters hands to these orders.

ROBERT HUTSON, JOHN BRONDISII,

SAMUEL ALLIN, FREDERICK HARMINSON

THOMAS APPLEBE.

" August 11, 1662. These orders made by the purchasers of the land with our names.

" PETER DISBROW, JOHN COE,

THOMAS STEDWELL,

WILLIAM ODELL .. "

While thus endeavoring to maintain good order in their little commonwealth, the settlers were anxious, as they had good reason to be, about their political situation. Great uneasiness was now felt throughout New England regarding the designs of Great Britain. The King, whose restoration the colonics reluctantly proclaimed, was thought to be not a little inclined to curtail the liberties of his subjects across the sea, and to repress the spirit of independence for which they were already becoming noted. Connecticut, however, by the skillful management of its agent, the celebrated John Winthrop, had obtained a royal charter confer- ring most valuable privileges: constituting that colony, in fact, a self-governing State, and reaffirm- ing its claims to a wide extent of territory. The General Court at Hartford hastened to apprisc tlie towns, and require their submission to the new order of things. Notice even was sent, to Governor Stuy- vesant's great displeasure, as far as Oostdorp, or West- chester village, in New Netherland, where Connecti- cut men had settled some years before under grants from the Dutch. The Hartford government informed them that by the terms of the new charter they were included in the colony limits, and enjoined

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

upon them, "at their peril," to send deputies to the next meeting of the Court. Perhaps it was the very same messenger, riding "post haste " to the Duteh village, who turued aside from his course along the Westehester Path, as he reached Peningo Neek, and came down to the little island settlement with the good news .of the eharter. At all events, a inessage of like import reached the inhabitants of Hastings, and they gladly took steps to place themselves at once under the protection of the colony, and seek the rights and privileges of a fully constituted town. A meeting was called, and Riehard Vowles was chosen to go to Fairfield, and there be qualified as eonstable for the plantation. Shortly after, the settlers addressed the following letter to the General Court :

" FROM HASTING THE 1 MTH 26: 1663.

" MUCH HONNOREn SIRES, -Wee the inhabitance of the towne of Hast- ing whose names are heer vnder writne : being seted upon a small tract of land lying betwixt Grinwich and Westchester : which land wee have bought with our money . the which : wee understand doth lye within your patant : and where as you have allredy required our subiection : as his majesties subiects, which we did willingly and redily imbrace and according to your desiour : we sent a man to Fairfield, who have there takne the oathe of a Constable: we have now made choyse of our nayghbar John Bnd for a deputi and sent him up to your Corte to act for ns as hee shall see good ; it is our desiour: to have [some] settled way of government amongst ns : and therfore we do crave so innch favor at the hands of the honnorable Cort : that whether they do make ns a constable or aney other offesere that they would give him povr to grant a warrant in case of need because we be som what re- mote from other places : thus leaving it to yovr wise and judicions con- wideration we remayn yours to command :

. " PETER DISBROW " RICHARD FFOWLES " GEORGE ('LERE " PILLIF GALPINE " JOHN COE

" WILLIAMI ODELL

" JOHN BRONDIG

"JOHN JAGSON

" THOMAS STEDWELL his mark

" This is ouer desier In the name of the Rest. 1

" WALTER LANCASTER his mark."

The modest request of the men of Hastings was granted, after some delay. At the session of the Gen- cral Conrt in Hartford, on the 8th of October, 1663,-

"Ln' John Bnd" makes his appearance, and "is ap- poynted Commissioner for the Town of Hastings, and is inuested with Magistratieall power within the limits of that Town." Moreover, " Rieh : Vowles is appoynted Constable for the town of Hastings, and Mr. Bud is to give him his oath."

Connecticut at the same time reasserted its claim to the territory west of this place, the General Court declaring that "all the land between West Chester and Stamford doth belong to the Colony of Connecticut."

Budd and Vowles had both been admitted, the year before, to the privileges of freemen ; the former as an inhabitant of Southold, and the latter as an in- habitant of Greenwich. Perhaps Hastings, which had not yet been recognized as a plantation, was at that date considered to lie within the bounds of the latter town.

The little village now rejoieed in something like a well-ordered social state. It had a magistrate " com- missionated to grant warrants," and also in case of need "to marry persons." It had a grave and discreet eonstable, with full power to apprehend . . .

"Such as are ouertaken with drinke, swearing, Sab- boath breaking, slighting of the ordinanees, lying, vagrant persons, or any other that shall offend in any of these."

With these safeguards and immunities, the settlers remained for auother year or two upon their island. Meanwhile, however, eertain ehanges had been going on, betokening the removal of somc, at least, of the inhabitants from the island to the main. On the 28th of April, 1663, the four purehasers- Disbrow, Coe, Stedwell and Budd-by a deed of sale eonveyed the island, together with the land on the main, to the following planters: Samnel Allen, Richard Vowles, Philip Galpin, Thomas Applebe, William Odell, John Brondig and John Coe. Ae- eording to the terms of this transfer, the planters were to pay forty shillings a lot, in cattle or eorn, between the above date aud the month of January. ensuing.

SETTLEMENT ON THE MAINLAND-THE VILLAGE OF RYE .- It was not until two or three years after their arrival that the settlers made an attempt to oeenpy the mainland opposite Manussing Island. About 1664 the colony was joined by several new families. The names of Thomas and Hachaliah Browne, George Lane, George Kuiffen, Stephen Sherwood and Timothy Knap first appear about this time. In September of the same year New Amster- dam was surrendered to the English, who soon made themselves masters of the entire pro- vinee. Those who had hesitated to set- tle on the territory claimed by the Dutch now eame forward. Among them, no doubt, were the families LAND GATE, RYE, ENGLAND. referred to. There was no room for the new-eomers on the island, and so they were given lands on the coast. The first houses were built at no great distance from the ford at the southern end of Manussing Island. Hachaliah Browne-according to a family tradition-built his first house on the bank which overlooks the beach, in a field now belonging to the heirs of the late New- berry Halsted. Others settled near by. "Burying Hill," an elevated point of land beautifully sitnated at the eastern extremity of the beach, was doubtless occupied very early as a building spot. These houses formed a suburb, so to speak, of the village on the island. In later years the island was known

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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. II, Part 150

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286