USA > New York > Westchester County > Little visits to historical points in Westchester County > Part 4
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Wart. In testimony whereof, Ordered, that each of them receive annually out of the public treasury two hundred dollars in specie, or an equivalent in current money of these States, during life, and that the board of war procure for each of them a silver medal, on one side of which shall be a shield with this inscription "Fidelity" and on the other, the following motto "Vincit omor patriae", and forward them to the commander-in-chief, who is requested to present the same, with a copy of this resolution, and the thanks of Congress for their fidelity and the eminent service they have rendered their country.
The State also gave each of the captors a farm.
A remarkable incident is said to have be- fallen the celebrated tulip or whitewood tree under which Andre' was captured. It was struck by lightning on the same day that the intelligence of General Arnold's death arrived at Tarry- town. This tree was a fine specimen of the
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ancient forest, being twenty-six feet in circum- ference, and one hundred and eleven feet in height. It was while passing beneath this tulip tree that Ichabod Crane, in his midnight career toward Sleepy Hollow "suddenly heard a groan, his teeth chattered, and his knees smote against the saddle. It was but the rubbing of one huge branch upon another, as they were swayed about by the breeze."
President Van Buren while journeying through Tarrytown suggested the propriety of placing a monument on this spot to commemor- ate the seizure of Major Andre'.
An association was formed to take charge of the monument and grounds. On Monday July 4, 1853 the corner stone of this monument was laid. Addresses were delivered by Colonel James A. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, and Henry J. Raymond editor of the New York Times. The monument was finally dedicated on the succeeding 7th of October; it was a simple
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tapering monolite of native dolomite.
The side of the monument facing Broadway was finished with a base-relief copied from A. B. Durand's picture showing the search which dis- closed the fatal papers in the spy's boots. This base-relief is the work of Theodore Baur, and was not placed until the monument was remodel- ed. The south side has the following inscription :- On This Spot the 23rd. day of September, 1780, the Spy, Major John Andre Adjutant General of the British Army was captured by John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart, all natives of this County. History has told the rest.
The People of Westchester County, have erected this Monument, as well to commemorate a great Event, and to testify their high estimation of the
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Integrity and Patriotism which rejecting every temptation, rescued the United States from most Imminent peril, by baffling the arts of a Spy, and the plots of a Traitor.
Dedicated October 7th. 1853.
On the north side of the monument is a quotation from the great chief :-
"Their conduct merits our warmest esteem. They have prevented in all probability our suffering one of the severest strokes that could have been meditated against us"-Washington.
The approach to the monument on the west side is artistic in conception and execution.
A citizen of Tarrytown- Mr. John Anderson presented a life size statue of John C. Paulding, said to be correctly delineated, and on September 23, 1880 after the monument had been remodelled and the statue placed upon the apex making the total height 27 feet, and exactly one hundred years after Major Andre' had yielded to the three patriots, the inhabitants of Tarrytown were arous-
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ed in the early morning by the booming of can- non and the ringing of bells, The United States vessel of war Minnesota was anchored near the shore and answered the national salute of Battery C of the 3d United States Artillery which occupi- ed the crest of the hill immediately above the village. The remodelled monument was about to be unveiled. It was computed that nearly sixty thousand people witnessed the celebration. A procession led by General James W. Husted finally arrived at the memorial; addresses were delivered by exGovernor Samuel J. Tilden and Hon. Chauncy M. Depew.
Surprise is sometimes expressed that Pauld- ing invariably has the precedence of his fellow captors, but this is easily accounted for when we remember that he was the only one of the three who could read writing, and therefore he was the leader.
The first newsapper issued in this locality was the Pocantico Gazette, dated September I,
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1846. The present newspapers are the Tarry- town Argus, and the Tarrytown News.
The schools are superior in every respect, Miss G. B. Peck's school elicits special notice.
The Tarrytown trolley road extends through White Plains and Mamaroneck to New York, thus connecting the Hudson with the Sound; it is proposed to build a road through Sleepy Hollow to Ossining.
The New York Central, and the New York and Putnam have attractive stations, with foun- tains, plants and well kept lawns.
As a place of residence Tarrytown has num- erous attractions; its unrivaled location situated as it is on the broadest part of the Tappan Zee, with the beautiful village of Nyack on the oppo- site shore, its partly natural and partly artificial terraces asscending from the Hudson, so that the town occupies the side of the hills, which in many places reach an altitude of five to six hundred feet above the river level, its broad and well
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kept streets, its historical and literary atmosphere, all combine to make the town the home of wealth and inteligence. It would require many pages to give the names of distinguished people who have located here to enjoy the superb scenery and beautiful surroundings. Among those well known are the Goulds, Chief Justice Noah, Rafael Joseffy, Carl Schurz, Minna Irving, C. L. Tiffany, W. G. Webb, John D. and W. H. Rockefeller.
Indeed it is difficult to stop writing of the natural and artificial attractions of Tarrytown, they must be seen to be appreciated.
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THE NEW YORK PUERIL L'SPANY 1
COURLAND
COURLAND
OF
Ducal Arms of Courland.
watchester Ca, N.Y. MEN
Vol. I. APRIL 1902. No. 4
LITTLE VISITS TO HISTORICAL
POINTS IN
WESTCHESTER
COUNTY PART FOUR
BY AN AUTHORITY
THE MANORS OF WESTCHESTER CO.
MAMARONECK, N. Y. PUBLISHED BYTHE RICHBELL PRESS . MC MI I
Copyrighted 1902 J. WALLACE CLAPP.
The Richbell Press . T. Wallace Clapp . Mamaroneck . N. Y.
LITTLE VISITS TO HISTORICAL POINTS IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY
THE MANORS OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
T HE Manor was a very ancient institu- tion in Europe, commencing early in the 9th century and continuing until the close of the 13th century. The Manor was usually an independent government, the Lord of the Manor being a petty king not accountable to any higher authority; by the statue of quia emptores enacted in 1290 the erection of new Manors in Great Britain was forever put to an end.
No grant of a feudal manor in Europe,
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much less in America, ever carried with it a title; the term Lord of a Manor is a technical one, and means simply the owner, or possessor of a: manor-nothing more. Without exception the proprietors of the manors in America were per- fectly plain, untitled gentlemen.
We sometimes hear the expression "to the. manor born," which means born to large estates, and presumedly to refinement and intelligence. The right of Advowson was never in force in America, although the proprietor invariably erected a church, and influenced the tenants of the manor religiously, as well as otherwise; but not being socmen in the full sense of the word, they followed their own religious convictions which were sometimes widely different from those held by the reigning lord or proprietor.
The great original proprietorships in West- chester County were only six in number, as follows :- (1) Cortlandt Manor, the property of Stephanus van Cortlandt, which went, after his
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"death, to his children and was by them preserved intract for many years; (2) Philipseburgh Manor, founded by Frederick Philipse and retained as a whole by the Philipse family until confiscated in Revolutionary times; (3) Fordham Manor estab- lished by John Archer, subsequently forfeited by mortgage indebtedness to Cornelius Steenwyck, and by him and his wife willed to the Neither Dutch Congregation in New York which continued in sole ownership of it until the middle of the 18th century; (4) Morrisania Manor, the old Bronxland built up into a single estate by Colonel Lewis Morris, by him devised to his nephew Lewis Morris the younger, who had the property erected into a manor and whose descendants con- tinued to own it entire for generations; (5) Pelham Manor, originally established under Thomas Pell, its first lord; (6) Scarsdale Manor, the estate of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, which for the most part remained the property of his heirs until sold by partition in 1775.
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MANOR OF CORTLANDT
Ducal Arms :- Arg. a lion rampart, gu: crowned cr, for Cour -- land, charged on the breast with an" escutcheon, on which are placed the arms of the reigning Duke. Supporters, -two lione crowned, or the whole within a mantle lined ermine, sur -- 'mounted with a crown.
Family Arms .- Arg. the wings or erins of a wind-mill, saltier -. ways sa. voided of the field, five estoiles gu. Crest, -ar estoile gu. between two wings elevated arg:
Motto. - Virtus sibi munus.
Stephanus van Cortlandt, the first lord of the Manor of Cortlandt, was the son of the Hon. Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, immediately de- scended from one of the most noble families in Holland, their ancestors having emigrated thither, when deprived of the sovereignty of Courland .*
Courland in Russia, formerly constituted a portion of Lavonia, but was conquered by the Tutonic Knights in 1561. It subsequently became a fief of Poland. After the fall of that *Burke's Gentry
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power it remained for a short time independent under its own Dukes, but in 1795 it was united to Russia .*
In the early part of the 17th century we find the Dukes of Courland engaged in the military service of the United Netherlands. The house of Courland was represented in 1610 by the Right Hon. Steven van Cortlandt father of the previously mentioned Oloff Stevensen van Cort- landt; early in the History of the Dutch occupan- cy of this country he emigrated to New Amster- dam, and was soon after his arrival advanced to the civil department as commissary of cargoes; he continued to hold many offices of trust until the close of the Dutch government in New Nether- land.
Under date of November 16, 1677 van Cortlandt received from Governor Andros a license authorizing him to acquire such lands on the east side of the Hudson River "as have *Schuitzler, La Russia, p. 585
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not yet been purchased of the Indian proprie- tors," "payment whereof to be made publicly at the Fort or City Hall."
He did not begin to avail himself of this privilege however, until six years afterwards, when August 24, 1683 he bought from seven Indians, "in consideration of the sum of twelve pounds and several other merchandise," what is now ' known as Verplanck's Point together with an adjacent tract extending eastward "being at the entering of the Highlands just over against Haverstraw."
Early in the same year, July 13, 1683, van Cortlandt purchased from the Indians a tract of land of about fifteen hundred acres on the west side of the Hudson.
The territory below Verplanck's Point was originally bought from the Indians in part by Cornelius Van Bursun of New Amsterdam, and in part by Governor Dongan. Both Van Bursun's and Dongan's holdings were later sold to van
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Cortlandt.
Thus Stephanus van Cortlandt became the owner of nearly the whole of Westchester Coun- ty along the Hudson, from Croton Bay to the Highlands, and east, twenty miles both north and south, to the Connecticut border. The area of the van Cortlandt Manor in Westchester County was 86,203 acres, and adding that to the tract on the opposite side of the Hudson, aggre- gated 87,703 acres.
On the 17th of June 1697 the whole was established as the Lordship and Manor of Cort- landt, by royal letters patent from Governor Fletcher.
On the 14th of April 1700, the Hon. Stephanus van Cortlandt, son of Oloff Stephanus van Cortlandt, published his last will and testa- ment. The said van Cortlandt died shortly after, leaving eleven children, who by his will became seized in fee of Cortlandt Manor, as tenants in ยท common. These children intermarried with the
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de Peysters, de Lanceys, Beeckmans, Skinners, Bayards, Johnstons and van Rensselaers. In 1730 the aforesaid children and devisees drew up articles of agreement for the division of the Manor. It was not however until November 4, 1734 that a final partition and division of the Manor took place between the surviving children of Stephanus van Cortlandt, when they gave to each other releases in due form of law, the share of each amounting to nearly 8,000 acres. One of the eleven dying soon after, bequeathed his share equally to his brothers and sisters.
The original townships carved out of this Manor were Cortlandt, Yorktown, Stephantown, (now Somers) Salem, (now North Salem) Lewis- boro and a third of Poundridge.
Cortlandt was the largest of the six Manors of Westchester County. The Van Wycks of Ossining, are said to have the partition papers in their possession.
The manor house at the mouth of the
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Croton River, supposed to have been built in 1683, is still standing, in a good state of preserva- tion, and has always been occupied by some member of the van Cortlandt family.
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MANOR OF PHILIPSBURGH
Arms .- az. a demi lion rampart, rising out of a ducal coronet arg, surmounted by a ducal coronet, or. Crest .- a demi lion ram- part rising out of a viscount's coronet arg. surmounted by a ducal coronet, or.
Motto :- Quod tibi vis fieri facias.
In the year 1658 Frederick Philipse emigra- ted from East Friesland to New Netherlands, carrying with him money, plate and jewels. Upon his arrival he purchased a large estate and soon became a wealthy merchant. His oldest son, Frederick Philipse, Jr., born at Bbolswaert, East Friesland, in 1656, became in course of time the first lord of the Manor of Philipsburgh. Freder- ick Philipse, Jr., in his first appearance as purcha- ser of lands in Westchester County, acted as one of three associates, combined to acquire all the land they possibly could on the Hudson River.
By this arrangement he became owner, in 1672, of some 2,900 acres; but this was only an initial venture in a series of land buying transac-
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tions, at least eight in number, which continued over a period of fifteen years, and when complet- ed made him sole owner of the country from Spuyten Duyvil to the Croton River, and from the Hudson to the Bronx. His purchases were as follows :- 1681, confirmed in 1683, the Pro- cantico tract, covering the territory around Tarry- town; 1682, confirmed in 1684, the Bissightick tract, or Irvington; 1682, confirmed in 1684, the Weckquaesgeck tract, or Dobbs Ferry; 1684, confirmed in 1684, the Nepperhan tract, stretch- ing from the north line of the present Yonkers to the extremes of the manor, between the Sawmill and Bronx Rivers; 1685 the equal thirds of his as- sociates 1672 Thomas Delaval and Thomas Lewis in the Upper Yonkers tract; in 1686 the Sint- Sinck tract, or Sing Sing, which had been previous- ly purchased and confirmed by Philip Philipse; in 1687, the, Tappan Meadows, Rockland County, and finally, previous to June 12, 1693, the holdings of Betts, Tibbetts and Haddon in
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the Lower Yonkers tract, together with the island or flat of Papirinemen, now Kingsbridge.
"Frederick Philipse being now vested in the fee simple, the whole territory was by royal charter erected into the lordship and manor of Philipsburgh, to be holden of the king, in free and common soccage, its lord yielding, rendering, and paying therefor, yearly and every year, on the feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the fort in New York, the annual rent of 4{. 12s."# The Royal Charter of Philipsburgh, said to be one of the most elaborate of ancient land deeds, was executed June 12, 1693. Shortly after this he erected a Manor Hall in the upper purchase, and also a fine building in the present Yonkers, called Castle Philipse. Each house required from thirty to fifty servents both black and white. Besides these buildings he erected mills on the Pocantico River, and also the stone church at *Bolton's Westchester, II. 418.
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Sleepy Hollow, now known as the oldest church edifice in Westchester County.
Frederick Philipse by his last will, bearing the date December 9, 1702, devised his lands on the Hudson to Frederick Philipse his grandson, born in Barbadoes, "ye only son of Philip his only son."
These lands continued in the possession of Colonel Frederick Phillipse, until the year 1779, when, having broken his military parole by not returning to Yonkers, they became confiscated to the people of New York State, and were sold and conveyed by Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip van Cortlandt Commissioners of Forfeitures appointed in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of the State passed May 12, 1784, to sixty dif- ferent parties; the largest buyer securing 750 acres.
In the progress of events, Colonel Philipse abandoned his home, and took refuge in the City of New York, and finally embarked for England.
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The manor at that period, 1784, was valued at $3,500,000, but realty had no fixed value. Philipse applied to the British government for compensation and was allowed a little over $300,000. This last lord of the Manor of Philipsburgh died, in Chester, England, in 1785.
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MANOR OF FORDHAM
John Archer purchased in 1667 of Van der Donck and the Indians, several portions of land aggregating 1,253 acres, afterwards known as the Manor of Fordham. John Archer was not only the founder of Fordham, but remained its prin- cipal man and controlling spirit until his death. On May 3, 1669, he received authority from Governor Lovelace to settle sixteen families on the mainland "near the wading place." Between the years 1669 and 1671 he leased various farms about Fordham to tenants; but his financial affairs became involved.
On September 18, 1669, he executed to Cornelius Steenwyck of New Amsterdam a mort- gage of 2,200 guilders; on November 14, 1671, another for 7,000 guilders; and November 24, 1676, for 24,000 guilders. Archer being an ambitious, progressive person obtained from Governor Lovelace a royal patent consolidating
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his landed possessions into one complete property "which was appointed to be an entire and enfran- chised township, manor and place of itself." It included the hamlet of Fordham, and was styled Fordham Manor. Its northern line began not far from the present Kingsbridge, where the Spuyten Duyvil Creek bends due south merging into the Harlem River, and its southern line started from a point on the Harlem below High Bridge; its eastern boundary was the Bronx.
As "acknowledgment and quit rent" for his manorial patent Archer was to pay yearly "twenty bushels of good peas, upon the first day of March when it shall be demanded."
Fordham, already mortgaged two years before its creation, and again mortgaged for a much larger amount on the very day after the issuance of the royal patent, never recovered from the burden of indebtedness that lay upon it. Moreover, at the end of the fifth year of its existence, it became pledged beyond the hope of
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redemption.
In Archer's mortgage of 1676 to Steenwyck, all his rights in the Manor were transferred to the latter, conditioned only upon the proviso that, if, before the 24th of November 1683, he should repay the amount borrowed at six per cent yearly interest, he should re-enter as pro- prietor. The debt was not discharged and Steenwyck took the whole estate as his prop- erty.
By the will of Cornelius Steenwyck and Margaretta his wife drawn November 20, 1684, they devised the Manor to "the Nether Dutch Reformed Congregation in the City of New York." By that congregation it was preserved intact, its lands being leased to various per- sons, until 1755, when an act was passed per- mitting the minister, elders and deacons of the Church to sell the lands.
Archer is said to have been a contentious man, being involved in many legal disputes
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with his tenants and the neighboring landowners. Upon one occasion the mayor's court in New York acting upon a complaint from the people of Fordham, that he had undertaken. to govern them by "rigour and force" and, "had been at several times the occasion of great troubles betwixt the inhabitants of the said town," admon- ish him "to behave himself for the future civilly and quietly, as he will answer for the same at his peril." By the mortgages the Manor was brought under the jurisdiction of Manhattan Island.
Bolton says that 300 acres including the manorial residence were, through the lib- erality of Mrs. Steenwyck, who survived her husband, exempted from the bequest to the Dutch Church, and continued in the possession of the Archers.
Archer suddenly expired in his coach while journeying from the manorial residence to New York City, and was interred "on Tetard Hill, Fordham.
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MANOR OF MORRISANIA.
Arms .- gu. a lion, rampant, reguardant or, quarterly, with three torteaux, arg. Crest .- a castle in flames.
Motto .- Tandem vincitur.
The foundations of the great Morris estate were begun about 1670, when Captain Richard Morris, an English merchant from Barbadoes, purchased, in behalf of himself and his brother Lewis, from Samuel Edsale, the old Bronxland tract, consisting of 500 acres, which about 1639 was granted by the Dutch West India Company to Jonas Bronck. It is an interest- ing fact that this Bronxland tract is now the most thickly populated portion of Westchester County.
On March 25, 1676, Governor Andros issued to him a patent covering not only the original 500 acres of Broncks, but some 1,420 adjoining acres in addition.
He lived on the Bronxland property until
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his death in 1691, occupying a handsome res- idence which was a place of liberal hospitality.
He left no descendants, his sole heir being his nephew Lewis, the only son of his brother Richard. As was the custom of the times Captain, or Colonel, Morris owned a large number of slaves; in his will he records over sixty negroes.
The Colonel was an intimate acquaintance of William Penn, who had great influence over him, and induced Morris to become a Friend; the Colonel retained his Quaker convictions to the last.
The nephew, young Lewis Morris, was a gay youth, and his uncle referred to him in his will with considerable severity, adverting to "his many and great miscarryages and disobedience towards my wife and me, and his causeless absenting him- self from my house, and adhering to and advizing with those of bad life and conversation."
This graceless youth soon proved himself eminently deserving of his fine inheritance.
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Under him the Bronxland estate, and the adjoin- ing 1,420 acres were converted into the Manor of Morrisania, authority was given him to hold a court leet, and court baron, "to exercise jurisdic- tion over all waifs, strays, wrecks, goods or felons happening or being within the manor limits." Lewis Morris obtained letters patent from King William III. on May 8, 1697, erecting the prop- erty into a township to "be holden of the king in free and common soccage, its lord yielding and rendering therefore annually, on the Feast Day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the rent of six shillings." Lewis Morris was a man of strong convictions and had an especial contempt for consequences where duty was at stake; he rose to be one of the most distinguished men of his time in America, holding many pro- minent positions, those of Chief-justice of New York, and Governor of New Jersey; giving his name not only to the Manor, but also to Morris- town, New Jersey, the elder Morris having
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owned about 3,540 acres there. He died May 21, 1746. His successor was Lewis Morris, Jr., the third proprietor and second lord of the Manor of Morrisania. He was the father of Colonel Lewis Morris one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; Gouverneur Morris of the Su- preme Court; Judge Richard Morris successor to John Jay, as Chief-justice; and General Staats Morris of the British Army.
The Town of Morrisania, by act of Legis- lature, March 7, 1788, coincided with the Manor of Morrrisania; by an act passed February 22, 1791 it was annexed to the town of Westchester, from which it was not again severed until Dec- ember 7, 1855, and was finally annexed to New York City in 1874.
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