History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 3

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

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SECTION III.

Colonial and Revolutionary Period.

(1664-1783.)

The length of this new period was one hundred and ninetecn years. It began almost without practical shock to the people of New Netherland. The English noted their strong points, and especially the happy effects of their business integrity. Colonel Nicolls, appointed first English Governor, promptly assured the ten thousand settlers of the extensive province that established rights and usages should be respected. He kept his word, and though few more Hollanders came to America after 1664, yet most of those already here and having business interests remained. On the 8th of October, 1666, Governor Nicolls, on her appli- cation, gave to Mrs. O'Neal a new patent, confirming her in the possession of Colendonck. In two sales, October 30, 1666, and May 16, 1667, she sold it to her brother, Elias Doughty. Doughty disposed of it through four successive sales. First, September 18, 1667, he sold to John Archer of Westchester, the ex- treme southern portion of it, four years after taken into the Manor of Fordham. And then he sold, before 1670, what was called Lower Yonkers, to William Betts, George Tibbetts and Joseph Hadley ; in 1670, one square mile on the Bronx River (still known as " Mile Square ") to Francis French, Ebenczer Jones and John Westcott ; and on the 29th of November, 1672, all the rest, kuown as Upper Yonkers, in equal

thirds, to Thomas Delaval, Thomas Lewis and Fred- erick Philipse. This is the introduction to Yonkers of Frederick Philipse, afterwards first lord of the his- toric Manor of Philipsburgh. He bought his first land here in November, 1672.

Before proceeding to the history of the Philipses, we may stop to think of the condition of Colendonck in 1672, as to settlers. Great difficulties must have attended the early adoption of it for homes. Proba- bly not many white residents were here when Mrs. O'Neal finally sold her estate.1 We have spoken, however, of Van Der Donek's mill. The operatives employed in it must have lived in its vicinity. There is a tradition, though we do not know of any historic basis for it, that he had built a house of Holland brick on the rising ground on or near the site of our Manor (or City) Hall. Probably there were a few farmers here and there located over the manor. The settlement on Manhattan Island, a small community on the New Jersey shore, a few families at Nyack and Haverstraw, and the family of Jonas Bronck on the east side of the present county, were the nearest white neighbors. Of the Indians, there were probably a large number. In addition to the village around the bend and at the mouth of the Nepperhan, there was another at Riverdale, and still another at Spuyten Duyvil. Of course it was for the interest of the few whites to maintain friendly rela- tions with the Indians, and in their attempts to do so they succeeded with but few exceptions. It is said that Van Der Donck and his white settlers always treated them with good faith and kindness, and the natural result of this was that they kept their friend- ship to the end.

ACQUISITIONS OF LAND BY PHILIPSE. - And now we must become clear, as far as we can, npon the successive land grants to and purchases of Philipse, and their dates. They began, as we have seen, with November, 1672, and went on at least to 1687. On the 12th of January, 1693, he had confirmed to him, by royal charter from William and Mary, all the land (with the exception of the "Mile Square " and the tract sold by Doughty to John Archer in 1677, and which is believed to have included the Island of Pa- perinemen, hereinafter described) between the Bronx and the Hudson from the Croton River to the south- ern boundary of old Colendonck, and besides this, the Tappan salt meadows west of the river. This immensc territory was all acquired between 1672 and 1687, through grants and purchases. Sometimes a purchase was made from the Indians, and a Governor's confirma- tion obtained later, and sometimes a Governor's grant was obtained first and the purchase effected after- wards. There are cven cases of three or four steps with a single piece of land, viz., a grant from a Gov-

1 Of all Westchester County thirty years later than this, the reports of the Church of England's "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts " say, "There were computed to be in it not above two thousand souls in the year 1702,"

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ernor, a purehase from the Indians, a confirmation by the Governor and a subsequent quit-elaim from the Indians. In speaking of the acquisition of a piece, sometimes the date of one of these steps is given, and sometimes the date of another. This oeeasions confu- sion, where it is overlooked. On the 23d of December, 1684, Governor Dongan confirmed to Philipse all the parcels he had acquired to that date. The royal charter gives many of the dates of grants and pur- chases, and twice it has the date of a confirmation. But upon some dates it is silent. The pieces of land lying between the Hudson and Saw-Mill Rivers cen- tered about the mouths or lay along the courses of small streams emptying into the Hudson at various points between the Kitchawan (Croton) River on the north, and Paperinemen (Spuyten Duyvil) on the south. They took their names, as tracts, from these streams, and so were known as " The Siutsinck traet," " The Poeantieo tract," "The Bissightiek tract," ete. The land between the Saw-Mill and Bronx Rivers, from the north line of Yonkers to the northernmost boundary of the subsequent Philipsburgh Manor, was purchased in one piece. Taking the tracts in geo- graphical order from the north, those fronting on the Hudson and going back to the Saw-Mill River only were the Sintsinek (Sing Sing) tract, the Pocantico (Tarrytown) tract, the Bissightick (Irvington) tract, the Weckquaskeck (Dobbs Ferry) tract, the Upper Yonkers and Lower Yonkers tracts, while that begin- ning from the upper line of Yonkers and embraeing all land between the Saw-Mill and Bronx, all the way up to the Croton River, was the Nepperhan tract. Having thus given all these tracts in their geograph- ical order, we shall now speak of them more fully, and in the order of their acquisition.

1. The Upper Yonkers tract, containing seven thousand seven hundred and eight aeres, bounded on the north by the rivulet Mackaekassin and the great stone (a stone still lying on the Hudson River bank and marking the point from which our northern Yon- kers boundary starts eastward), on the east by the Bronx and the land of Francis French & Co., on the south by land of William Betts, George Tibbetts and Thomas Hadley, and on the west by the Hudson River. A patent for this " Upper Yonkers " was ob- tained from Governor Dongan by John Delaval (son and heir of the original purchaser, Thomas Delaval), Frederick Philipse aud Geertje Lewis (executrix of Thomas Lewis), February 19, 1685. Philipse bonght the share of Delaval August 27, 1685, and that of the heirs of Lewis June 12, 1686. So by the last date he had possessed himself of all Upper Yonkers.

2. The Pocantico tract was granted to him by Gov- ernor Andros April 1, 1680, bought from the Indians April 23, 1681, and confirmed by Dongan December 23, 1684. All the dates are from the charter. Bolton (vol. i. p. 506) gives Andros' grant. He also has the Indian deed, but gives its date as December 10, 1681. There may have been this difference of time between

the date of the purchase and that of the convey- ance.

3. The Bissightick tract, purchased from the Indiaus April 8, 1682, and confirmed by Dongan December 23, 1684. Dates from charter.

4. The Weckquaskeck tract, bought of the Indians September 6, 1682, and confirmed by Dongau Deecm- ber 23, 1684. Dates from charter.

5. The Nepperhan tract, bought of the Indians May 7, 1684, and confirmed by Dongan December 23, 1684. Bolton gives the deed twiee. The first time (i. p. 270) he ealls it "The Deed of Neppiran," and the second time (i. p. 507) " The Deed of Weckquaskeck." The tract lay along the Saw-Mill River and was Weckquaskeek territory. He gives the date of the deed as June 5, 1684. The difference between May 7th, as given above, and June 5th, is agaiu without doubt that of the interval between the purchase and the conveyance.

6. The Sintsinck tract. This was granted, rati- fied and confirmed to Philipse by Dongan ou the 11th of November, 1686. Date from charter. It had, however, been bought of the Indians by Philipse August 24, 1685, and confirmed by Dongan to his son Philip Philipse, January 12, 1686. The charter re- cites that Philip reconveyed it to his father, which accounts for the fact that in the following November it was confirmed to him the second time (Bolton, vol. ii. pp. 2, 3).

7. The Tappan Meadows,1 confirmed to Philipse by Dongan June 27, 1687. Date from charter, which also states that Philipse had bought the meadows from George Lockhart and Janet, his wife, February 20, 1685.

8. The Lower Yonkerstract. The particulars of the purchase of this tract we cannot find. It is ineluded in the grant of the great charter of June 12, 1693. It embraced the island of Paperinemen, or Paperinemo, the flat beginning at the bridge at Kingsbridge, extend- ing northward to Cortland Station on the New York City and Northeru Railroad, aud eneircled by Tib- bett's Brook on the west, Spuyten Duyvil on the south and a then existing water passage on the east, which is now elosed by an alluvial deposit. In apply- ing for his charter, Philipse especially asked for a grant of this flat, together with the right to erect a bridge over the Spuyten Duyvil ferry and to take toll from all passengers and droves of eattle to pass

1 In answer to inquiries, we state here that the name "Tappan," as applied to the locality on the west side of the river, has nothing in com- mon with the family name "Tappan," so familiar to the people of New York and New England. Rev. John Heckewelder, n Moravian mission - nry among the Pennsylvania Indians a century ago, says it Is a corrup- tion of the Delaware Indian word "Thuphane, " or "Tuphanne," meaning " cold stream." A tribe of the name existed in 1609, upon the ground now called Tappan. The Dutch enlled the expansion of the river between Irvington and Piermont " Tappaan Zee." It is still called "Tappan Bay." The Tappan tribe, like the other tribes, were driven westward. Representatives from it appeared at Tappan within the last fifty years, drawn to the spot by traditions retalned among them of the place as thelr early home.

YONKERS.

over it. The flat was granted to him, and also the right he asked for, and the family retained both as long as the Philipse Manor continued. Uneertainty, how- ever, hangs over its acquisition by Philipse. Some have thought it really belonged to the land conveyed to John Areher by Elias Doughty in 1667 ; that the heirs of Areher, finding that Philipse's charter inelu- ded it, ealled his title in question ; and that the diffi- culty was adjusted by Philipse through some lease ar- rangement, the terms of which were faithfully observed during the continuanee of the Philipse Manor, so that the question was never renewed. Be this as it may, it is at least certain that no purchase of the traet by Philipse ean now be traeed.

In this way the immense Manor of Philipsburgh grew up and was finally confirmed. From the whole property the royal grantors only required an annual tax of four pounds and twelve shillings, to be paid at Fort Amsterdam. The only sale, as far as we know, ever made from it by Mr. Philipse, was that of fifty aeres, known as George's Point, to his son-in-law, Ja- eobus Van Cortlandt, October 16, 1699.1

Meanwhile, November 1, 1683, the county of West- chester, one of New York's ten original eounties, liad been set off. No ehange was made in the limits of this eounty till January 1, 1874, when the old towns of Morrisania and West Farms and the then newly- ereated town of Kingsbridge were set off to the eity and county of New York.

THE PHILIPSE FAMILY .- With Yonkers the Phil- ipse family and property were controllingly identified from 1672 to the outbreak of the American Revolu- tion. Information respeeting the family origin and history must therefore be given.

It is said to have been originally a noble family of Bohemia. The spelling of the name was " F-e-l-y-p-s-e." Felypse (in full Felypsen)-Eng. Philipse (Phil- ipsen), means "son of Philip." The family had left Bohemia for Friesland, one of the Holland provinces. At what date is not known. Tradition conneets tlie step with religious persecution as its eause. Bolton (i. p. 508) says the members of this family who first took it were the widow of Right Honorable Viseount Philipse and her ehildren.2 Among the latter was

1 Bolton has two references to these fifty acres (ii. p. 587). First, he states that Joseph Hadley sold them to Matthias Buckhout, February 22, 1670, and Bnckhont sold them to Philipse, January 22, 1694. 'But we bave noticed that they had been already confirmed to Philipse in the charter of 1693. Then, again, he gives ns an Indian deed for the same fifty acres to Jacobus Van Cortlandt and others, bearing date August, 1701, although the property had then already been owned by the parties named for years. The explanation of this apparent confusion has been anticipated. First, the grant was given, then the purchase had to be effected, and finally, in 1701, some question as to original title being raised, a fresh quit-claim deed from the Indians was obtained. The ne- cessity for this last step seems to have arisen again and again in the early days.

2 It is said that the earlier generations had been Hussites, and that their descendants continued firm in the faith. The famous " Thirty Years' War," which broke out in 1618, and afterwards involved the peace of all Western Europe, started in Bohemia. The Bohemians rose for lib- erty, and this opened the conflict. The wildlest persecutions followed.

Frederick Philipse, father of the first lord of this manor. This Frederick, soon after the settling in Friesland, married Margaret Dacres. It is said that he had a brother Adolphus. This is probable, as the name Adolphus eomes in again and again in later generations. Margaret Daeres is said to have been of the parish of Daere, in England. We have no ac- count of her immediate family ; but we are told that the parish has a baronial castle, the ancient seat of the barons of Acre, the exploits of one of whose anees- tors as a erusader at Aere, in Palestine, obtained for the family this name. Frederick Philipse and Mar- garet Daeres, bringing with them their son Frederick (no other ehild appears in their American history), are sometimes said to have come to New York in 1658. But Valentine's "History of New York City " (p. 317) has the son on a New York tax-list in 1655, and Bol- ton says he was named as an appraiser of New York property in 1653. He also says it is asserted and not improbable, that he came over with Stuyvesant in 1647. If so, he was twenty-one years old when he first saw Ameriea. It is now said that he began his life in this country poor, though there is also an oppo- site tradition. He had learned the carpenter's trade in Holland, and for a time followed it here. We are told that he worked on the old Dutch church in the fort. By great industry and taet, however, and with remarkable good fortune, he rose rapidly, left his trade and became a wonderfully successful merehant.3 He first married, in 1662, Margaret Hardenbroek, widow of the riell Pieter Rudolphus De Vries, with one ehild, Maria De Vries, whom he adopted, and who is known in history as Eva Philipse.4 Mrs. Margaret Philipse, a woman of rare energy, always reserved to

At least thirty-six thousand Bohemian families sought refuge in Saxony, Sweden, Poland, Holland, etc. (See Art. " Bohemia," in Appleton's En- cycloparlia). Probably it was during this proceeding, in or soon after 1618, that the honorable lady above named fled, taking her children and whatever she could carry with her of her property to Friesland (not East Friesland, as has been said). It is certain that she did not settle there before 1618, and also that she was there before 1626, as her son Frederick, father of the first lord of the Philipsburgh Manor, bad mar- ried before that, and her grandson was born in Friesland in that year.

3 Whether he began here with or without means, it is certain that his large future fortune grew, first, out of his own mercantile shrewdness in home trade with the Indians and in shipping trade with the East and West Indies ; secondly, out of Governor Stuyvesant's grants to him of New York City lots; thirdly, ont of his marriages ; and lastly, out of the favor he enjoyed with the English Governors and government, which gained for him at last the grant of the great Manor of Philipsburgh. Of course, when we speak of his wealth, we speak comparatively only, ac- cording to the wealth of his time. All he had was not to be compared, as to absolute amount, with what we call princely wealth to-day.

4 The New York Collegiate ('hurch Record has the baptism of this child. Sbe is entered as " Maria." Some have thought this a mistake of the entry clerk. Others have suggested that there may have been both a " Maria " and an " Eva " De Vries, and that Maria had died. But this would he to suppose Eva left unbaptized, as no Eva is on the baptismal record. It is known that the name of the widowed grandmother of Fred- erick Philipse, who originally left Bohemia for Friesland, was Eva. We venture the suggestion that when Philipse, upon his marriage with the widow Margaret De Vries, adopted her only child " Maria " as his own, he may have required her name to be changed to " Eva " to perpetuate the name of one whose history and memory must have been to him very denr.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

herself the management of her own fortune, even to the extent of purchasing ships, and sailing in them as her own supereargo. Yet she always cherished her hus- band's business interests. But he himself soon became a wealthy man in his own right. In 1674 already he was rated at eighty thousand guilders, which was far beyond the fortune of any other person in the city. His first wife having died in 1690 or 1691, he married, November 30, 1692, Catharina Van Cortlandt, daugh- ter of Oloff' Stevensen Van Cortlandt, and widow of the late wealthy merchant, John Dervall. She brought him two fortunes, one from her former husband and another from her father. All these estates and all his own acemulations besides eame to him before the Manor of Philipsburgh was confirmed to him in 1693. At his death in 1702, he owned, in addition to this manor, his former New York City residence on Stone Street, between Whitehall and Broad, besides other property in eity mortgages and real estate, and also a place in Bergen County, N. J. He was known as " The Duteh Millionaire." He was a New York City Common Coun- eihan more than twenty years, under all the colonial Gov- ernors from Sir Ed- mund Andros (1674) to the Earl of Bello- mont (1698). Hle was intimate with all the leading men of the colony in church and State, and was historically connected with eve- ry important New York event of his time. He wasa man of commanding per- sonality. After he became lord of this manor his power was baronial, and though he ruled with consid- eration, he was still imperious in his will and made himself felt as a lord. During his mercantile life his extensive and complicated relations gave him wonder- ful opportunities and exposed him to extraordinary temptations. Complicity with piracy, smuggling and the slave trade were persistently charged upon him, and strong efforts were made to throw him out of the Common Council and bring about the confiscation of his great estate. These matters are rehearsed in our colonial history. Through real personal merit, how- ever, together with his high family associations and the power of his wealth, he had become a man of al- most unlimited inthrence, and continued to hold this influence to the end of his life. From 1693 to his death, November 6, 1702, he lived in Castle Philipse,

formed Church of Sleepy Hollow, which still stands. In the communion of that church he died. The fol- lowing entry by his widow is from her family Bible :

" Anno 1702, the 6th of November, Sunday night at ten o'clock, my husband, Frederick Philipse, died, and lies buried in the church yard in the manor named Philipsborough."

His will is dated November 26, 1700. It was ad- mitted to probate Deeember 9, 1702. His widow sur- vived him at least down to 1730, as her will is dated January 30th of that year.

" MANOR HOUSE."-We cannot pass the life of the first Lord Frederiek Philipse without taking up the subjeet of this aneient relie, now owned by the eity of Yonkers and used by it as a city hall. The first Lord Philipse never saw more than the south end of it. It is claimed that this south end was built in 1682. Mrs. Lamb assumes that this was so. Whether she rests her assumption on any other support than Bolton's statement that it is reported to have been built in that year, we do not know.

MANOR HOUSE AND SURROUNDINGS IN 1812.

Mrs. Lamb has another statement (we know not from whenee it comes), which, if it be eor- reet, gives it strong probability. It is that the first Mrs. Philipse (Margaret Hardenbroek; had the south front door of the house made in Holland and brought over in one of her own ships in 1681. Then the house must have been built about the same time. At any rate, this identifies it with the first Mrs. Philipse, showing that it was built before 1691, when at latest she died. And it shows that she was taking pride in the building, as if she meant it for her own residence, and not for a mere tenement- house. Probably nothing can be proved, but let us suggest a theory ;-

It is claimed both that the south part of this building was ereeted in 1682, and that part of Castle Philipse at Tarrytown was ereeted in 1683. If it be asked why two manor houses were erected, we answer,-Neither of these two houses was built for a manor-house. Mr. Philipse owned one-third of Upper Yonkers (his one-third no doubt included the site of our city hall and the adjacent mill started by Van Der Donck) from 1672, ten years before the date claimed for the Yonkers building, at Tarrytown. In 1699, perhaps at the prompting of 'and he owned the Pocantico site from 1680, three his wife, Catharina Van Cortlandt, he built the Re- "years before the date claimed for the Tarrytown

YONKERS.

building.1 Now Mr. Philipse was not a "lord " in 1682 or 1683, nor for many years later, but simply a plain merehant intent on business. He bought this site in 1672, as the site of Van Der Donek's mill, long established, and he secured the Pocantico site in 1680, as a site for a new mill. And he built the two houses here and at Tarrytown, not for manor-houses, but for plain country residenees with the mills. He often wrote of the two sites as "The Upper Mills " and " The Lower Mills," and our theory is, that the house here, near the old Van Der Donek mill site, was built by him in 1682 for his own personal residence, and that he and his first wife lived in it till the death of the latter, in 1690 or 1691. One reason for this belief is, that this already cleared spot offered the strongest im- mediate attractions for residenee. Another is, that even for years before 1682, Philipse had an actual bus- iness going on here, and it would be natural for him to settle in the vicinity of it. And a third is, that for several years after 1682, Philipse's business must have ealled him almost daily to the city. Ten miles less of drive (his quickest mode of traveling then) would be a great consideration. And still a fourth is, that more money and care were evidently put upon this building at Yonkers than on the one at Tarrytown, as if this were intended to be the better and more serviceable house.

What Mr. and Mrs. Philipse built of this house, as we now have it, only reached from the south front to the south side of the present east and west hall. Ex- amination of the framing beneath this hall gives ill- dication that the spaee it occupies was, previous to the addition of 1745, taken up with an outside portico

1 Bolton has three passages on this subject :-

In vol. i. pp. 510, 511, he says, " Upon the east bank of the Pocantico Philipse built his first manorial residence, which, on account of its great strength and armament, was called Castle l'hilipse. There the first lord of the manor lived in rugged feudal style until the lower house was built at Yonkers."

In vol. i. p. 531, speaking of Castle Philipse, he says,-" The western end of the building is evidently the remains of a much older edifice, prob- ably coeval with the erection of a mill in 1683."

In vol. ii. p. 632, speaking of our Yonkers manor-house, he says,- " The present front was erected in 1743. The rear is reported to have been built soon after the Philipse family purchased here in 1682, although the favorite residence at first appears to have been Castle Philipse, in Sleepy Hollow."

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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 3

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