Manors in New York (Part One)

One of the unique aspects of New York history was the existence of manors as political and judicial units in the colonial era.

A manor in New York was created by a patent from the governor to a single individual (or two related individuals) who already owned the property in question, with some extra rights granted, principally local autonomy.

These rights were only vaguely defined in the grants made in the period 1664-1667, then somewhat better defined in the grants made 1667-1682. Starting with Gov. Dongan's administration (1682-1688), all manorial grants included court leet (criminal and administrative jurisdiction) and court baron (civil jurisdiction); some included advowson (the power to nominate a minister), and the largest manorial grants included a seat in the General Assembly.

Nevertheless, there is practically no evidence that these manorial courts were held or that advowson was exercised. Because the territories given by Charles II to his brother James, Duke of York, in 1664 apparently included the islands between Cape Cod and Cape May (except Block Island), a few of the grants below are in present-day Massachusetts or Rhode Island.

Many large landowners never petitioned for a manorial grant, and almost all manor holders owned other properties outside their manor. As a result, works on New York colonial landholdings and on landlord-tenant relations have treated manorial and non-manorial estates together.

The principal recent work on this subject is Sung Bok Kim, Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York: Manorial Society, 1664-1775 (1978). The frontispiece to that book is a map of the manors. [Other maps have been published; see, for example, Roderick H. Blackburn and Ruth Piwonka, Remembrance of Patria (Albany: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1988), pp. 64-65 [N.Y. G 55.54].]

Any additions and corrections to the list below would be appreciated, particularly regarding "location of papers," "published papers," and [works on] "tenants/residents."

The author wishes to thank Timothy Field Beard, Peter R. Christoph, Field Horne, Gordon L. Remington, Jos van der Linde, and The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America for help with this article, and Marey L. Bailey for her research in the Land Patents.

Prior to the British conquest of New York in 1664, the Dutch had granted patroonships which were comparable to manors. However, only one of these, Rensselaerswyck, was still in existence in 1664. And in the 18th century, the French government granted seigneuries along Lake Champlain and Lake George that were within the bounds of present-day New York.

Source Abbreviations Used in this Article

Numbers in square brackets are the call numbers of the NYG&B Library

Manors

Part one of this article contains manors of New York, listed alphabetically by name. This article contains manors that begin with the letters A-O. For manors beginning with the letters P-Z, please see part two of this article. 

BENTLEY 

Granted to Christopher BILLOPP (ca. 1638-1726), Captain, Royal Navy

• SIZE/LOCATION: 3,165 acres on the southern tip of Staten Island (Charles Farmar Billopp, A History of Thomas and Anne Billopp Farmar And Some of Their Descendants in America [New York: Grafton Press, 1907] p. 23) [G F 2295]

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 6 May 1687 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordship and Mannor of Bentley"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 6:229-234 (Land Patents 6:230-234)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Field Horne, The Conference House: A History of the Billopp Manor House(Staten Island, N.Y.: The Conference House Association, 1990) [not at NYG&B]; Minor Manors pp. 16-30; Eberlein pp. 295-303

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Billopp, above; Ira K. Morris, Morris's Memorial History of Staten Island, New York, 2 vols. (New York: Memorial Publishing Company, 1898-1900) 1:135-151 [N.Y. Co. R414.11]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

CASSILTOWN

Granted to John PALMER (ca. 1631-after 1689), Judge of Admiralty for New York, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the Dominion of New England

• SIZE/LOCATION: a tract on Staten Island in the former towns of Castleton and Northfield, perhaps about 25,000 acres (Ira K. Morris, Morris's Memorial History of Staten Island, New York, 2 vols. [New York: Memorial Publishing Company, 1898] 1:104 n. 1; Peter R. Christoph, ed. The Dongan Papers 1683-1688: Part 2.... [New York Historical Manuscripts: Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1996] p. xxii [N.Y. G 55.2 v.35])

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 31 March 1687 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforward be called the Lordship and Mannor of Cassiltown"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 6:198-202 (Land Patents 6:197-202)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Minor Manors p. 15; Eberlein pp. 276-279

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Paul M. Hamlin, Jr. and Charles E. Baker, Supreme Court of Judicature of the Province of New York 1691-1704 (New York: Collections of The New-York Historical Society, 1952) pp. 20-21, 424-425 [N.Y. G 10 v.78]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: Cassiltown was conveyed by John Palmer to Gov. Dongan on 16 April 1687 which suggests that John Palmer had acted as a "straw man" for this transaction (compare to MARTHA'S VINEYARD). Cassiltown or Castletown was the name of the Dongan family seat in Ireland. The best account of the Dongan family is Thomas P. Dungan, John Dongan of Dublin: An Elizabethan Gentleman and His Family (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1996) [G D 7175].   

CORTLANDT

Granted to Stephanus VAN CORTLANDT (1643-1700), Mayor of New York City, Secretary of the Province of New York, Chief Justice of the Province of New York

• SIZE/LOCATION: 86,000 acres in the northern part of Westchester County (French p. 698 n. 1)

• MAPS: Landlord and Tenant pp. 71, 183; De Lancey, between pp.140-141

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 17 June 1697 by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher ("henceforth be called the Lordship and Mannour of Cortlandt"); transcript of original grant in De Lancey pp. 116-118 and Land Patents Transcriptions 7:145-149 (Land Patents 7:165-170)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson, and an assembly seat (to be effective twenty years after the grant; see Landlord and Tenant pp. 70, 116)

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Sung Bok Kim, "The Manor of Cortlandt and Its Tenants, 1697-1783," Ph.D. diss., Michigan State Univ., 1966 [microfilm 62.2]; De Lancey pp. 115-141

• LOCATION OF PAPERS: see Landlord and Tenant pp. 424-426

• PUBLISHED PAPERS: see Landlord and Tenant pp. 421-424; Kim, "Manor of Cortlandt," above; Jacob Judd, ed. Van Cortlandt Family Papers [1748-1848], 4 vols. (Tarrytown, N.Y.: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, 1976-81) [G V 2796]

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: L. Effingham de Forest, The Van Cortlandt Family (New York: Historical Publication Society, 1930) [G V 2797]; William J. Hoffman, "An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent: Van Cortlandt," Record 66 (1935):269-280

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: Stephanus Van Cortlandt owned many properties, one of which has been erroneously referred to as a manor; see Miss Sarah D. Gardiner, The Sagtikos Manor 1697 (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication 26, 1935) [N.Y. G 51]. The grant of Sagtikos on the south shore of Long Island by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher makes no mention of manors or manorial rights, but merely uses the standard language of freehold ownership: "in free and common soccage as of our Manor of East Greenwich in our County of Kent."   

EATON 

Granted to Richard BRYAN (ca. 1626-1689) and his son, Alexander BRYAN (ca. 1652-1701), both merchants of Milford, Connecticut

• SIZE/LOCATION: 1,500 acres on present-day Eaton's Neck in the Town of Huntington, Suffolk County

• MAP: Mary Voyse and Sydney Bevin, History of Eaton's Neck, Long Island, Together with Its Geological Background (n.p., 1955) map facing p. 1 (see also pp. 38-40) [not at NYG&B]

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 23 August 1686 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("be called the lordship and Mannour of Eaton"); transcript of original grant in Charles R. Street, Huntington Town Records, Including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y., 3 vols., rev.ed. (Huntington, N.Y.: by the town, 1954-58) 1:451-456 [N.Y. L 921.6 (1887 ed.)], and Land Patents Transcriptions 5:508-513 (Land Patents 5:508-513)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Voyse and Bevin, above; Eberlein p. 127

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEES AND FAMILY: Herbert F. Seversmith, Colonial Families of Long Island, New York and Connecticut, 5 vols. (Washington, D.C.: by the author, 1939-58) 1:445-480, [L.I. G 26]; Lillian Lounsberry (Miner) Selleck, One Branch of the Miner Family (New Haven: Donald Lines Jacobus, 1928) pp. 81-86 [G M 6666]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

FISHERS ISLAND 

Granted to John WINTHROP, Jr. (1605-1676), Governor of Connecticut

• SIZE/LOCATION: a 4,000-acre island at the mouth of Long Island Sound, part of the present-day Town of Southold, Suffolk County (French p. 639)

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 28 March 1668 by Gov. Richard Nicholls ("be an Intire Enfranchised Towneship Mannor & Place of itself"); transcript of original grant in Rev. Melancthon Lloyd Woolsey, The Winthrop Manor of Fishers Island (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication 14, 1927) pp. 24-25 [N.Y. G 51], and Land Patents Transcriptions 3:5-7 (Land Patents 3:5-7)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy (Landlord and Tenant pp. 12-13)

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Henry L. Ferguson, Fishers Island, N.Y. 1614-1925 (New York: privately printed, 1925) pp. 17-20 [not at NYG&B]; Woolsey, above; Eberlein pp. 68-73

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Lawrence Shaw Mayo, The Winthrop Family in America (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1948) [G W 7376]; Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995) 3:2038-2042 [New Eng. G 2.61]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: There are documents indicating the sons of John Winthrop, Jr. applied in or before 1698 to have their property in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, made into the Manor of Groton Hall; however, no grant was ever issued (Woolsey, above, at pp. 11, 26).   

FLETCHERDON

Granted to John EVANS, Captain, Royal Navy

• SIZE/LOCATION: an indeterminate grant of 300,000 acres in present-day Orange and Ulster counties (Landlord and Tenant p. 80)

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 20 September 1694 by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher ("henceforth be called the Lordship or Mannor of Fletcherdone"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 6:450-455 (Land Patents 6:461-467)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Dwight Akers, Outposts of History in Orange County (Washington, N.Y.: Blooming Grove Chapter D.A.R., 1937) pp. 5-20 [N.Y. Co. OR1.21]; Olde Ulster 2 (1906):322-323 [N.Y. Co. UL7.9]; Minor Manors p. 16; Landlord and Tenant pp. 67-69 n. 96

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Landlord and Tenant pp. 67, 72-73 TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: The grant was revoked by a law passed 16 May 1699 under Gov. Bellomont (Landlord and Tenant pp. 80-81).   

FORDHAM 

Granted to John ARCHER (ca. 1633-1684), merchant

• SIZE/LOCATION: 3,900 acres in present-day Bronx County (Harry C.W. Mellick, The Manor of Fordham and Its Founder [New York: Fordham University Press, 1950] p. 72) [N.Y. Co. W522.15]

• MAPS: Mellick, above, between pp. 72-73, 120-121, 134-135

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 13 November 1671 by Gov. Francis Lovelace (the Mannor of Fordham to "be an Intire Enfranchised Towneship Mannor & Place of itself"); transcript of original grant in Mellick, above, pp. 70-72, De Lancey pp. 159-160, and Land Patents Transcriptions 4:79-82 (Land Patents 4:83-85) Fordham's own court was added by Gov. Lovelace's grant of 10 or 20 April 1673, calling it the Mannor of Fordham (Landlord and Tenant p. 16; Mellick, above, pp. 80-81; General Entries 1:532-533)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy in 1671; the right to hold a court in 1673 (Landlord and Tenant pp. 15-17)

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Mellick, above; Minor Manors pp. 5-6

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Mellick, above, pp. 167-176; Harry C.W. Mellick, "Descendants of John Archer of Fordham," typescript, 1951, at NYG&B [G AR 23jn]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: On 14 November 1671, the day after Gov. Lovelace's grant, John Archer mortgaged the Manor of Fordham to Cornelis Van Steenwyck by a bargain and sale deed to take effect 14 November 1683. The mortgage apparently was not paid, and Fordham passed to Van Steenwyck. His widow married the Rev. Henricus Selyns, and they conveyed Fordham to the New York Reformed Dutch Church on 1 January 1695 (Mellick, Manor of Fordham, above, pp. 74-77, 104-107, 111, 118-119).   

FOX HALL 

Granted to Thomas CHAMBERS ( -1694)

• SIZE/LOCATION: 330 acres north of Kingston, Ulster County (Landlord and Tenant p. 15; Minor Manorspp. 14-15)

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 16 October 1672 by Gov. Francis Lovelace ("to be known by the name of the Mannor of Fox Hall . . . an entire enfranchized Mannor of it selfe"); transcript of original grant in Olde Ulster 2 (1906):103-104 [N.Y. Co. UL7.9] (reprinted in Minor Manors at p. 14) and General Entries 1:511-512 28 October 1686 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordship and Mannor of Foxhall"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 5:581-591 (Land Patents 5:582-592)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy in 1672 (Landlord and Tenant pp. 15-16); court leet, court baron, advowson in 1686

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: "The Erection of Foxhall Manor,"Olde Ulster 2 (1906):97-104, reprinted in Minor Manors pp. 10-15

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY; Gustave Anjou, Ulster County, N.Y. Probate Records . . . , 2 vols. (New York: by the author, 1906; reprinted as 1 vol., Rhinebeck, N.Y.: Palatine Transcripts, 1980) 2:107-108 [N.Y. Co. UL7.62]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: Thomas Chambers died childless in 1694 and left the manor to his stepson, Abraham Van Gaasbeek, later Abraham Gaasbeek Chambers (Anjou, above, 2:107-108; New York Co. Wills 8:239; Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York, 17 vols. [New York: Collections of The New-York Historical Society for 1892-1908] 2:122-123 [N.Y. G 10]). For the Van Gaasbeek family see Cornelius H. Van Gaasbeek, Jr. "Dominie Laurentius Van Gaasbeek and His Descendants," Record25 (1894):28-35, 56-66.   

GARDINER'S ISLAND

Granted to David GARDINER (1636-1689)

• SIZE/LOCATION: a 3,300-acre island between the North and South Forks of eastern Long Island, now part of the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County (French p. 635 n. 3)

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 5 October 1665 by Gov. Richard Nicholls (shall be "onely accountable to the Governour"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 1:22-23 (Land Patents 1:49-52) 11 September 1686 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordshipp and Mannor of Gardiner's Island"); transcript of original grant in David Gardiner, Chronicles of the Town of Easthampton, County of Suffolk, New York (New York: Bowne & Co., 1871) pp. 117-118 [N.Y. L EA77.5], and Land Patents Transcriptions 5:552-558 (Land Patents 5:552-558)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy in 1665 (Landlord and Tenant pp. 12-13); court leet, court baron, advowson in 1686

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Landlord and Tenant pp. 31, 37-38; Sarah Gardiner Tyler, The Gardiner Manor(New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication 3, 1916) [N.Y. G 51]; Eberlein pp. 27-46

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Curtiss C. Gardiner, Lion Gardiner and His Descendants (St. Louis: A. Whipple, 1890) [G G 169]; John Lion Gardiner, The Gardiners of Gardiner's Island (East Hampton, N.Y.: Jonathan T. Gardiner, 1927) [G G 168]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: Gardiner's Island is the only manor in New York still owned entirely by descendants of the original grantee.  

KINGSFIELD

Granted to Nicholas BAYARD (1644-ca.1709), Mayor of New York City, Secretary of the Province of New York

• SIZE/LOCATION: a tract of indeterminate size 24 miles northwest of Schenectady

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 12 December 1695 by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher ("henceforth be called the Lordship or Mannour of Kingsfeild"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 7:1-4 (Land Patents 7:1-4)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Landlord and Tenant pp. 67-69, 76

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Edwin R. Purple, Contributions to the History of Ancient Families of New Amsterdam and New York (New York: privately printed, 1881) pp. 111-114 [N.Y.C. G 33]; William J. Hoffman, "An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent," Record 65 (1934):345-349; 72 (1941):310-311.

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

• COMMENTS: The grant was revoked by a law passed 16 May 1699 under Gov. Bellomont (Landlord and Tenant pp. 80-81).   

LIVINGSTON 

Granted to Robert LIVINGSTON (1654-1728), Secretary of Indian Affairs, Speaker of the General Assembly

• SIZE/LOCATION: 160,000 acres in present-day Columbia County (French† pp. 241-242; Landlord and Tenant p. 27)

• MAPS: Landlord and Tenant p. 40; Edwin Brockholst Livingston, The Livingstons of Livingston Manor(New York: by the author, 1910; reprinted Milwaukee, Wis.: Curtis House, 1998) pp. 110-111 [G L 7633 1998]; Edmund B. O'Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New-York, 4 vols. (Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1849-51) facing 3:690 [N.Y. G 22]

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 22 July 1686 from Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordshipp and Mannor of Livingston"); transcript of original grant in O'Callaghan, above, 3:622-628 and Land Patents Transcriptions 5:491-499 (Land Patents 5:491-498) 1 October 1715 confirmatory grant from Gov. Robert Hunter clarifying boundaries, confirming privileges, and granting an assembly seat (Landlord and Tenantpp. 99-100); transcript of original grant in O'Callaghan, above, 3:690-702; original grant in Land Patents 8:113-127

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson in 1686; an assembly seat in 1715

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Thomas Hunt, A Historical Sketch of the Town of Clermont (Hudson, N.Y.: The Hudson Press, 1928, reprinted Rhinebeck, N.Y.: Palatine Transcripts, 1984) [N.Y. L C597]; Ruth Piwonka, A Portrait of Livingston Manor, 1686-1850 (Clermont, N.Y.: Friends of Clermont, 1986) [not at NYG&B]

• LOCATION OF PAPERS: see Landlord and Tenant pp. 426-427; Livingston-Redmond Papers now in the Gilder Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library [microfilm made previously]

• PUBLISHED PAPERS: O'Callaghan, above, 3:609-841

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Livingston, above; Florence Van Rensselaer, The Livingston Family in America and Its Scottish Origins (New York: by the author, 1949) [G L 76331]; Lawrence H. Leder, Robert Livingston, 1654-1728, and the Politics of Colonial New York (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1961) [N.Y. G 154]; Richard T. Wiles and Andrea K. Zimmerman, eds. The Livingston Legacy: Three Centuries of American History (Annandale, N.Y.: Bard College Office of Publications, 1987) [G L 76332]; Cynthia A. Kierner, Traders and Gentlefolk: The Livingstons of New York, 1675-1790 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992) [G L 7637]; Howland Davis and Arthur Kelly, comps., A Livingston Genealogical Register (Clermont, N.Y.: Friends of Clermont, 1995) [G L 7636]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS: Arthur C.M. Kelly, Settlers and Residents [of Germantown/Clermont/Livingston], 3 vols. (Rhinebeck, N.Y.: Kinship, 1973-89) [N.Y. L G317.3, C597.1, L762.9]   

MARTHA'S VINEYARD

Granted to Matthew MAYHEW (1648-1710), Lord of the Manor of Tisbury (see TISBURY)

• SIZE/LOCATION: the 64,000-acre island of Martha's Vineyard [also called Martin's Vineyard in the 17th century], plus the Elizabeth Islands and the Island of Noman's Land (totaling 7,000 acres) (Charles Edward Banks, The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, in Three Volumes, 3 vols. [Boston: George H. Dean, 1911] 1:17 [MASS. L M361.5])

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 25 April 1685 by Gov. Thomas Dongan (the island of Martin's Vineyard plus the Elizabeth Islands and the Island of Noman's Land "into one Lordship or Mannor of Martins Vineyard"); transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 5:186-189 (Land Patents 5:56-60)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Banks, above, 1:174-177

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Banks, above, 2:Edgartown:79-84; 3:298-328

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS: Banks, above, vol. 3

• COMMENTS: Matthew Mayhew clearly did not own all the property granted; most of what he did own probably was part of the Manor of Tisbury (see TISBURY). On 12 May 1685 Matthew Mayhew conveyed the "Manor of Martin's Vineyard" back to Gov. Dongan (compare to CASSILTOWN) with the exception of certain tracts to be kept by Mayhew or which had already been sold to others; these tracts actually comprised most of the manor (Banks, above, 1:175-177). In 1691 Martha's Vineyard was transferred to Massachusetts.   

MARTIN'S VINEYARD

see MARTHA'S VINEYARD   

MORRISANIA

Granted to Lewis MORRIS (1671-1746), Chief Justice of the Province of New York, Governor of New Jersey

• SIZE/LOCATION: 1,920 acres in present-day Bronx County (Landlord and Tenant p. 81)

• MAP:

• DATE(S) OF GRANT: 6 May 1697 by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher ("the Mannour or Lordship of Morrisania"); transcript of original grant in De Lancey pp. 157-159 and Land Patents Transcriptions 7:63-67 (Land Patents 7:64-70)

• RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

• PUBLISHED HISTORY: Lucy D. Akerly, The Morris Manor (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 4, 1916) [N.Y. G 51]

• LOCATION OF PAPERS:

• PUBLISHED PAPERS:

• GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Edward F. De Lancey, "Original Family Records, Morris of Morrisania, Westchester Co., New York," Record 7(1876):16-18; John E. Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany: Data Relating to the Settlement and Settlers of New York and New Jersey, 5 vols. (New York: n.p., 1903-32; reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) 4:14-34 [N.J. G 32]; Elizabeth Morris Lefferts, Descendants of Lewis Morris of Morrisania . . . . (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1907) [G M 8335 oversize]; Kathryn M. Wilkinson, Some Descendants of Richard Morris and Sarah Pole of Morrisania With Many Collateral Lineages (Milwaukee, Wis.: privately printed, 1966) [G M 8336]; Eugene R. Sheridan, Lewis Morris, 1671-1746: A Study in Early American Politics (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1981) [N.J. G 44.1]; Samuel Stelle Smith, Lewis Morris, Anglo-American Statesman (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1983) [not at NYG&B]

• TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

This article contains manors that begin with the letters A-O. For manors beginning with the letters P-Z, please see part two of this article. 

by Henry B. Hoff, CG, FASG, FGBS

Originally published in The NYG&B Newsletter, Fall 1999 and Winter 2000

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