History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 4

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 4

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All these passages answer themselves.

1. They assume that the first lord lived at Tarrytown first and at Yon- kers later. The contrary is known to have been the fact. There was no " first lord " till 1693, and the " first lord " (in that year constituted) is known to have spent his closing years at Tarrytown with his second wife, the two quietly devoting themselves to the founding and directing of Ilie Sleepy llollow Church, which was organized in 1697, and whose house of worship was built in 1699.

2. It is known, that whether the Yonkers house was built in 1682 or not, it really was built during the life of Margaret llardenbroek, who died in 1690 or 1691, two or three years before there was a "first lord." And yet it is affirmed in one of the above passages that in Castle Philipse at Tarrytown, the "first lord " of the manor lived in rugged feudal style until the lower house was built at Yonkers.

3. These passages reveal, what is no doubt true, that Castle Philipse and its "armament" were not built in 1683, but were a later develop- ment (perhaps by or soon after 1693) from a simpler house built in 1683, at the same time with the mill.

of dimensions coincident with the present hall itself. The part of the house they built is of brick brought from Holland. Its architecture is of that mixed Eng- lish and Dutch style known as "Colonial." Its foun- dation, outer walls, beams, rafters, doors and stair- ease are all very heavy, according to the ideas of the times. The eeilings and mantels were richly orna- mented, and the large open fire-places were floored with Holland brick, backed with inscribed iron fire- plates and side-faced with the old Dutch Scripture tiles, each representing some Bible incident.2 If we would conceive of the outside surroundings of the substantial building during the life of the first lord, we must displace all the developments of later years. All around must have retained nearly its absolute primitive wildness. There were still savages about,. and these sometimes indulged in raids upon the whites. It is believed, from evidence gained in near excavations, that there is from the cellar of the house an underground passage to a well, now covered by the roadway of Woodworth Avenue-a passage for es- cape in case of a raid. This suggests another reason for believing that Castle Philipse is a later building than this. That eastle is built with conditions of a fort. Provisions for guns, it is said, may still be seen in its eellar walls. Probably these arrangements for defense there were suggested by the experience of need which residence in this earlier building had de- veloped. But we need speak no further of this house. Margaret Philipse died in 1690 or 1691. Her hus- band, after having been married again, died in 1702. All the children he left behind him, including the adopted daughter, Eva, were hers. They were as fol- lows :

1. Eva Philipse, the adopted daughter, born July 6 and baptized October 3, 1660. She married, May 31, 1691 (May 7th, commonly given, was the date of the

2 Mr. Robert P. Getty has furnished us with the following notes from his own memorandum :

" The main hall of the building is eleven feet wide, its stairs are four feet and its front door, opening south, is eight by four feet. The east and west rooms on the first floor are twenty-three feet four inches by twenty-one feet. The front and rear doors are in two parts, according to the usage of the times. The stone foundation is two feet thick, and the walls above are twenty inches. The south front is built with gneiss stone rubble-work. All openings of doors and windows are trimmed with brick, said to be from Holland. All sills and lintels are of pine or oak wood. All cornices and trimmings inside are wood. The old kitchen, under the west room, is laid with stone (not blue-stone), eighteen inches square. Where these stones were obtained is not known. Many of them are fossiliferous. The floor-beams are oak, nine by eight feet, hewn, three feet apart. The floor-planks were sawn by hand in a saw-pit. The front-door platform and steps are Nyack red sand-stone. All windows on first story have outside shutters, and all windows on second story, inside shutters. In all panelings of doors and windows the mouldings are solid. The hinges, bolts, etc., are ordinary blacksmithi work. The chimney-breasts and hearth-stones are seven feet wide. On each side of cach chimney is a deep closet. Some of the closets have sash fronts, while others have solid doors. Some fronts of chimney- breasts, above the mantels, are paneled and others are carved. In the west room of the second story the fire-place jambs are lined with one hundred and six tiles, five inches square, each one illustrating a passage of Scripture. The iron fire-brick is dated 1760, and has upon it a casting representing Elijah as being fed by the ravens."

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

bans), Jacobus Van Cortlandt (a brother of the second Mrs. Frederick Philipse), who was born July 7, 1658, and died in 1739. The husband in 1699 bought of his father-in-law the fifty aeres alhided to above. This traet formed the nucleus of the large Van Cortlandt estate in Lower Yonkers, now within the city of New York. Jacobus and Eva Van Cortlandt were the an- cestors of the Yonkers (youngest ) branch of the Van Cortlandt family (for an extended account of this branch, see the New York Genealogical and Bio- graphical Record, vol. v. pp. 168-171).

2. Philip Philipse, date of birth not given, but entry of baptism on New York Collegiate Church Records, March 18, 1663. His father owned an estate, called "Spring Head," on the island of Barbadoes, and placed this son upon it. Philip married Maria Sparks, daughter of the Governor of the island. It is sup- posed the marriage took place about 1694. Philip and Maria both died in 1700, leaving but one child,- Frederick,-born at Spring Head but five years be- fore their own death, and seven years before the death of his grandfather, one of whose direct heirs he was to become. Lord Philipse, on the death of his son Philip in 1700, promptly sold the Barbadoes estate, intending thereby to prevent his grandson from re- maining on the island. This end was answered. The boy, however, did not come here, but was sent at onee by his mother's relatives to England, and kept away from the Philipsburgh manor till he was grown up. This circumstance gave a wholly new turn to the church relations of the Philipse line, as will be seen further on.

3. Adolphus Philipse, baptized in New York No- vember 15, 1665; died in 1749 (for biographical sketch of him, see Documents relating to Colonial History of New York, vol. vi. p. 56).

4. Annetje (Anna) Philipse, baptized in New York November 27, 1667. She married Philip French, July 6, 1694. These had a son,-Philip French, Jr. (bap- tized November 27, 1697),-who married Susanna Brockholst in 1720, and they also had through Philip and Susanna a granddaughter .- Susanna French, - who married, about 1745, William Livingston, known between 1776 and 1790 as "the war Governor of New Jersey." And again William Livingston and Susanna French had a daughter,-Sarah Livingston,-who, on the 28th of April, 1774, became the wife of Chief Justice John Jay (for the line of Philip and Anna French, see New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. ix. p. 118, etc.).

5. Rombout Philipse, baptized in New York Jan- mary 19, 1690. He probably died very young, as his name does not appear agam.

Lord Philipse (Ist) left all his real estate in New York City and Bergen County to his two daughters,- Eva Van Cortlandt and AAnna French. The Philips- burgh manor he left in two sections,-one from Dobbs Ferry northward to his son Adolphus, and the other from Dobbs Ferry southward, including Yonkers, to

his grandson Frederick, born in Barbadoes. The manor lay in this divided state forty-seven years. Adolphus, during this period, added to his section a Putnam County traet, thenceforward designated as " the Highland estate." In 1749 he died, unmarried, and his seetion came to his nephew, Frederick, just mentioned. This restored the Philipse manor to its original integrity, not broken again till it fell apart, as later on we shall see, with the reason for it, in 1785.

THE SECOND LORD PHILIPSE .- So then the grand- son of the first lord of the manor became its second lord. Born in Barbadoes and educated in England, he never knew the Reformed (or Holland) Church of his Philipse ancestors, but was trained in and became deeply devoted to the Church of England. We do not know when he came to live on his manor. Per- haps it was about 1719,1 when he married Joanna, a daughter of Governor Anthony Brockholst. He died of consumption July 26, 1751, in his fifty-seventh year, leaving his wife and five of his ten children to survive him. His wife was killed in 1765 by a fall from her carriage on the Highland estate.

The second Lord Philipse was long baron and see- ond judge of the exchequer, and represented Philips- burgh in the Colonial Assembly continuously for twenty-seven years. The testimony is that he was an affectionate father, an indulgent landlord, liberal to the poor, a true patriot and universally venerated. He enlarged his manor-house here in 1745, extending it to the north, changing its front to the east and giving it its imposing array of windows, its two por- ticoes as now seen, and its surmounting balustrade, from within which views of the river and the Pali- sades were commanded. Close under the roof were sleeping-places for some, perhaps all, of the family slaves, more than fifty in number. He also laid out a lawn between the house and the post-road (now Broadway). As for the addition to the house, it copied, in a good degree, the features of the older part. It was built for ages of wear. The evidences of this appear as one inspects and examines the whole as it remains with us to this day.

One of the latest acts of the second lord was to devise a farm east of the Saw-Mill River as a glebe for a Yonkers Church of England and a residence for the rectors of said church. For the building of the church on the site given, he directed his executors to expend four hundred pounds from coming rentals of the manor. Part of the land he designated is that now taken up by our St. John's and Oakland Cemeteries. The church that came into being on the foundation of this bequest was St. John's, on Broadway, the old- est church by many years within the limits of Yonkers. The heirs fulfilled the direction of the will in all re-

1 Bolton in several places puts this marriage in 1726. But, as our list of the children shows, the first three were born respeclively in 1720, 1721 and 1724. Bolton's pedigree of Philipse (opp wite p. 514 of vol. i.) is unreliable as to many of its dates.

YONKERS.

spects, except that they built the church on the site of the present cdifiee. The glebe along the Saw-Mill remained in the possession of the parish almost a hundred years. The rectors lived on it till 1845, when the present rectory, near the church, was built. Wc shall refer to this more fully in connection with our account of the churches of the eity.

As we have said, the second Lord Philipse married, about 1719, Joanna, daughter of Governor Anthony Broekholst. She was born February 15th and bap- tized November 6, 1700. By this marriage there were ten children, as follows :

1. Frederick Phil- ipse, who beeame third lord of the manor. He was nev- er called Lord, how- ever, but always Co- Ionel Philipse. Born September 12th and baptized September 14, 1720. Died at Chester, England, April 30, 1785.

2. Susanna Phil- ipse, born February 2, 1723 ; died in in- faney.

3. Philip Philipse, baptized August 28, 1724; died May 9, 1768. Married Mar- garet Marston and had three sons, - Adolphus, Frederick and Nathaniel. Af- ter Philip's death his widow married the Rev. John Ogilvie, DD., assistant rector of Trinity Church, New York City.

4. Maria Philipse, baptized March 30, 1726 ; died young.

MARY PHILIPSE.

5. Susanna Philipse, baptized September 20, 1727 ; died at Thornbury, England, November, 1822, aged ninety-five years. Married, about 1750, Captain (after- wards Colonel) Beverley Robinson, of New York City, a native of Virginia, born about 1722 and died at Thornbury in 1792. The country residence of Col- onel and Mrs. Robinson was on the east side of the Hudson, a little southeast of Garrison's. It was erected in 1750, and was very celebrated down to the time of the Revolution (for the history of Colonel Robinson and family, which is of great interest, sce Robert Beverley's "History of Virginia ;" Documents relating to Colonial History of New York, vol. viii. p. 806; New York Genealogical and Biographical

Reeord, vol. ix. p. 121; and consult by index Mrs. Lamb's "History of New York City"). Robinson's an- cestors, himself and his children were all very promi- nent. The Robinson estate was eonfiseated in 1779.

6. Mary Philipse, born July 5, 1730; died in Eng- land July 18, 1825, aged ninety-five. Married, July 19, 1758 (Trinity Church record), Colonel Roger Mor- ris, born in England January 28, 1727, and died there September 13, 1794. Their country-seat was that in later years familiarly known as the " Jumel estate," on the high bank of the Harlem River, at One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Street. Like Colonel Robinson, Colonel Morris adhered to the crown at the time of the Revolu- tion, and his estate was confiscated in 1779. Robinson and Morris received from the English govern- ment seventeen thousand pounds. eaeh as a reimburse- ment for their losses in this way. The remains of Colonel and Mrs. Morris are interred at York.

Mary Philipse's history possesses special interest on account of her re- puted beauty and accomplishments, and the effect which, according to the his- torian Sparks, these are said to have had upon Colonel George Washington when lie met her at the city residence of Be- verley Robinson in 1756. The story is now strongly dis- eredited (see New York Genealogical and Biographi- eal Reeord, vol. ix. pp. 122-123; also Documents relating to Colonial Ilistory of New York, vol. viii. p. 590, and consult by index the history of New York by Mrs. Lamb).

7. Margaret Philipse, baptized February 4, 1733; never married ; died in 1752.

8. Anthony Philipsc, baptized July 13, 1735; died young.

9. Joanna Philipse, baptized September 19, 1739; dicd young.

10. Adolph Philipse, baptized March 10, 1742; died young.

THE THIRD LORD (OR "COLONEL") PHILIPSE .--

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Of the second lord's children, the oldest, Frederick, born September 14, 1720, became the third and last lord of the manor. He was a colonel in the militia, and was, in his time and is in written annals, more known as "Colonel" than as " Lord Philipse." He was graduated at King's (now Columbia) College, New York City. He married Elizabeth Rutgers, a widow, daughter of Charles Williams, and had, according to authorities, at least eleven children. It is not neces- sary here for us to attempt to follow these children, as no one of themi ever appears in our county his- tory. Colonel Philipse, like his father, loved the Church of England, and St. John's Church owes much to his fostering care and liberality. He not only carried out his father's directions in setting apart the glebe along the Saw-Mill River road, but he per- sonally gave the two acres on which St. John's Church, Sunday-school chapel and rectory now stand. A shrinking temperament, it is said, kept him back very much from public affairs. Yet he was a member of the Colonial Assembly. On assuming his estate in 1751, he thoroughly refurnished the manor-house, and afterwards maintained a very showy style of liv- ing, of which, however, his wife is said to have been the inspiration. Lady Philipse was very fond of dis- play. An aged lady of Yonkers, remembered by sev- eral still among us, and who knew Mrs. Philipse well, stated that it was her pride to appear on a road, skill- fully reining four jet-black steeds with her own hands. The statement that she was killed by a fall from her carriage seems to have been misplaced. That was, as stated above, the end of the second Lady Philipse.

The manor-house and Manor of Philipsburgh bring over us a spell. This does not grow, however, out of impressions of enormous money value in the buildings or the lands. To appreciate what these were really worth under the Philipses, we have to put back the since increased population, the since expended labor in clearing off forests, shaping farms and roads and planting ornamental and fruit-trees, and the present market, which growth of population and expanding needs have created. All of Philipsburgh that lay within old Colendonck was probably not worth in 1682 fifty cents an acre, and the part of the manor- house built in 1682 did not probably cost beyond twenty-five hundred dollars. Nor does the spell upon us grow out of any impression we have of the amazing liberality of the Philipse family in leaving or giving money to build aud endow a church. We must not measure their liberality by any present standard. It was according to the ideas of their time. When the second Lord Philipse left four hundred pounds for a church building, it was understood that the amount should be mostly levied as a tax upon the tenants of his manor, and paid in cash or in labor. He had a right, under his charter, to levy such tax. His power was almost unlimited. He held criminal court an- nually, both here and at Tarrytown, and he exercised legislative, judicial and executive powers, even to the

extent of sometimes inflicting capital punishment. He had the control of all church matters within his manor and power to levy taxes and collect them by dis- traint. He appointed assessors and collectors and there was no appeal from his acts. What does bring the spell over us is the thought that on this spot, now so free, there could have been such feudal power but little more than a century ago. This mauor, down to 1776, was the domain of potentates who had more personal prerogative and power within their limit than Queen Victoria has to-day within her realm. If our venerable manor hall, if the veuerable horse-chestnut tree that stands near it, if the stream that in 1609 eaine plunging without check over its rocky bed,-if all these could become articulate aud tell us of what used to be in the days of which we have been writing, we should have revealed to us the vastuess of the difference between the feudalism of those days and the widespread freedom we enjoy to- day.

There are associated with our manor hall mauy real historie incidents of interest and many stories which are of doubtful foundation. It entertained within its walls many of the best known historie persons of the colonial period. Washington and some of his generals are said to have passed several days and nights within it about the time of the battle of White Plains, in October, 1776. The southwest room, in the second story, is especially sacred to memory as the general's bed-chamber. To the romantic story of his faseina- tion with Mary Philipse we have already alluded as now discredited. If, however, the incident ever oc- eurred, it is not connected with this house or with the Revolutionary period, but with the city home of Ber- erley Robinson and with the year 1756. Mary Philipse grew up within this house, however, and, on the 19th of January, 1758, was married to Colonel Morris within its walls.

With Colonel Philipse's tenure of the manor came in that series of events which culminated in the out- break of the American Revolution. The subject of this convulsing struggle, as far as it afleeted West- chester County, or is connected with its history, has been treated in a general paper at the beginning of this work. As far as we know, there were no skir- mishes within the town of Yonkers; but, lying as the town did within the " neutral ground," its ridges and valleys were afflicted with raids that did great injury to the homes and property of its people. Our only work here is to bring to a close the history of the Philipse family, as connected with our town, and tell of the collapse, and the changes that accomplished the collapse, of the Philipse manor.

Colonel Philipse declined to espouse the American cause in 1776. The American authorities arrested him after the battle of White Plains and removed him to Hartford. In 1777 he took refuge in New York and afterwards went to England, where he died at Chester April 30, 1785, at nearly sixty-five years of age. He

YONKERS.

was buried in the Cathedral Church of that eity. A tablet, erected in that church to his memory, pays a tribute to his personal qualities, which is, no doubt, eminently just.1 Prepared from the English point of view, however, it refleets severely on what it calls "the late rebellion in North America," and "the usurped Legislature" of this province. What prompted this tombstone attack was that our Legislature, in 1779, had declared Colonel Philipse attainted of treason and his property confiscated to the State. It took this course with many who maintained adherence to the crown. The British government, however, partly re- imbursed these people for their losses, as we have al- ready seen in the cases of Colonels Robinson and Morris. Similarly considerate of Colonel Philipse, it gave him about three hundred thousand dollars. In this way came to an end the Manor of Philipsburgh, and also the American history of the Philipse family, as far as it was eonneeted with Yonkers. Persons who have been interlocked with the family still live in Putnam County, and also in that part of New York City added to it from the town of Yonkers in recent years. For the latter, the Van Cortlandt family, see that part of this history relating to our late town of Kingsbridge. But we have given all that is necessary for any one who wishes to know the general history of Yonkers down to 1783, and here we leave the family of Philipse.

SECTION IV.

Close of the Revolution to Purchase of Lemuel Wells.

(1783-1813.)

Ix 1784 the Legislature of New York directed the appointment of commissioners to sell confiscated es-

1 What we understand to be a fac-simile of the inscription on this tab- let, copied by the late Ethan Flagg, Esq., of Yonkers, during a visit to Chester in 1882, is now in the Yonker's City llall, in the room of the Common Concil "Committee on llistory and Historical Relics." It is a- follows :

" Sacred to the Memory of Frederick Philipse, Efquire, Late of the Province of New York ; A Gentleman in Whom the Various focial domeftic and Religions Virtues were eminently United. The Uniform Rectitude of His conduct commanded the Efteem of others ; Whilft the Benevolence of His Ileart and Gentleness of Ilis Manners secured their Love, firmly attached to Ilis Sovereign and the British Constitution, Ile opposed, at the Hazard of His life, the late Rebellion in North America ; and for this Faithful discharge of Ilis Duty to His King and Country He was Proscribed, and His Estate, one of the Largest in New York, confifcated, by the usurped Legislature of that Province. When the British Troops were withdrawn from New York in 1783 lle quitted A Province to which lle had always been an Ornament and Benefactor, and came to England, leaving all Ilis Property behind Him ; which reverse of Fortune Ile bore with that cahnness, Fortitude and Dignity which had distinguished Him through every former stage of Life.

He was born at New York the 12th day of September in the year 1720; and Died in this Place the 30th day of April, in the Year 1785 Aged 65 Years."

tates. Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Cortlandt were appointed such commissioners for the Philips- burgh Manor, and in 1785 they offered it for sale in tracts which had been mapped out for the purpose. These tracts, as far as they were within the limits of the present city of Yonkers (excluding so much of the former town as was set off as the town of Kings- bridge in 1872), have been mapped and eatalogued with great pains by Mr. Matthew K. Couzens, of our city. His map gives the old tenants of the manor, also those who bought tracts at the sales, with the number of acres they purchased. The old tenants were allowed the preferenee, and many of them availed themselves of it. The names of the pur- chasers and the acres they purchased were as follows : Evert Brown, 312, at the rock "Sigghes," in the northwest corner; Peter Forshee, 170, on the river at Forshee's Landing; Charles Duryea, 29; Abraham Lent, 41, at Hog Hill ; Abraham Odell, 324, on both sides of the Nepperhan, near Hog Hill; Philip Liv- ingston, 31, on the west side of the Nepperhan ; Jacobus Dyckman, 39, just north of the latter ; Andrew Bostwiek, 743, in two lots, adjoining the last, and 81 in three other lots, extending to the Hudson ; Benjamin Fowler, 305; Isaac Ver- milyea, 510, in the northern part; Thomas Sher- wood, 396, between the Sprain and the Grassy Sprain Brooks; Patience Burnett, 173; Jaeob Vermilyea, 221; Isaae and Thomas Smith, 185; Elisha Barton, 135 ; Dennis Lent, 128} ; Caleb Smith, 130; Eleazar Hart, 154; Stephen Sherwood, 24}, near the junction of the Sprain and Grassy Sprain ; Isaae Odell, 144; Fred- erick Underhill, 125; Mary Valentine, 76, at Tucka- hoe; Abigail Sherwood, 125; John Bowne, 156; James Smith, 165; Abijah Hammond, 69; H. Cort- right, -; Thomas Barker, 189; Elnathan Hunt and Nicholas Underhill, 157; Richard Morris, 136; John Lawrence, 175, in two lots, extending from the Hud- son to the Nepperhan ; Henry Odell, 360 ; S. Taylor, 184; Isaac Lawrence, 210; Ward Hunt, 343; Dennis Post, 135, at Post's Hill; Thomas Valentine, 338, at Valentine's Hill; Joseph Oakley, 164; J. Williams, 177 ; Henry Brown, 113; Parsonage lot, 107 ; 2 Jacobus Dyckman, 6; Stephen Oakley, 293 ; Robert Reid, 141; John Lamb, 202; Robert Johnson and Lewis Ogden, 190, at Strawberry Hill; Cornelius P. Low, two lots, at the mouth of the Nepperhan, containing together 3203 acres; David Hunt, 41; Mary Merrill, 143 ; - Archer, 183; Thomas Sherwood, 2; Margery Rieh, 92; Isaac Post, 293; Jacob Post, 313; Elnathan Tay- lor, 99; John Lawrence, 248; William Crawford, 202; Benjamin Oakley, 65; William Hyatt, 89; John Devoe. 136; Frederick Van Cortlandt, 105; Jesse Husted.

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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 4

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