Manors in New York (Part Two)

Author

This article is a continuation of Manors in New York (Part 1). It contains notable manors of New York, organized alphabetically by name. This article contains those beginning with P-Z. 

 

PELHAM

Granted in 1666 to Dr. Thomas PELL (1613-1669) and in 1687 to his nephew, John PELL (1644-after 1719)

  • SIZE/LOCATION: 9,166 acres, partly within present-day Bronx County, partly within the Town of Pelham, Westchester County (French pp. 698 n. 1, 704 n. 12)

  • MAP:

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 6 October 1666 by Gov. Richard Nicholls (a patent for Thomas Pell's property to be "an entire enfranchised township and manor"); transcript of original grant in Pelliana new series, 1:1 (Sept. 1962) pp. 61-63 [G P 3642] and Land Patents Transcriptions 1:53-55 (Land Patents 1:74-77) 20 October 1687 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordship and Mannor of Pelham"); transcript of original grant in De Lancey pp. 156-157 and Land Patents Transcriptions 6:293-299 (Land Patents 6:306-313)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy in 1666 (Landlord and Tenant pp. 12-13); court leet, court baron, advowson in 1687

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Captain Howland Pell, The Pell Manor (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 5, 1917) [N.Y. G 51]; Pelliana. See also Gordon L. Remington, "Robert2 Huestis of Westchester County: His Ancestry and Descendants," Record 129 (1998):1-12 at 1-12, 97-108, 191-206, 260-261, 276-284 at 277-279; 130 (1999):54-60.

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS: in private hands (see Remington, above, at 129:4)

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS: Pelliana

  • GRANTEE(S) AND FAMILY: Christy Hawes Bond, Gateway Families: Ancestors and Descendants of Richard Simrall Hawes, III and Marie Christy Johnson (Concord, Mass.; by the author, 1994) pp. 318-319, 357-358, 396-397, 431 [G H 3123]. The two "possible daughters" of John Pell are identified in Remington at 129:7-12, 277-279 (Elizabeth) and 129:9n (Tamar/Ithamaria)

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

 

PHILIPSBURGH

Granted to Frederick PHILIPSE (1627-1702), merchant

  • SIZE/LOCATION: 92,000 acres in southern Westchester County along the Hudson River (Landlord and Tenant pp. 68-69; French p. 698 n. 1)

  • MAP: Landlord and Tenant p. 68; De Lancey, between pp. 160f-161

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 12 June 1693 by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher ("into a Lordship or Manor of Phillipsborrough"); transcript of original grant in De Lancey pp. 160-160f and Land Patent Transcriptions 6:396-415 (Land Patents 6:409-429)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Landlord and Tenant, passim; Edward Hagaman Hall, Philipse Manor Hall at Yonkers, N.Y. (New York: American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1912) [N.Y. L Y80.2]

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS: see Landlord and Tenant, pp. 425, 427-428, principally Historic Hudson Valley [Philipsburg Manor, Tarrytown, N.Y.]

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS: "The Town Book of the Manor of Philipsburgh," Record 59(1928):203-213; F.J. Sypher, "Rent Roll of Col. Frederick Philipse's Estate (Philipse Manor) 1776-1784," 108(1977):74-78; Field Horne, "The Philipsburg Manor Rent Roll of 1760," 110(1979):102-104

  • 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. 119-124 [N.Y.C. G 33]; Hall, above, pp. 37-44; William J. Hoffman, "Philipse Family Record," Record 72(1941):53-54; Field Horne, "The Friesland Ancestry of Frederick Philipse," 109 (1978):201-204; Henry B. Hoff, "Identity of Eva (Philipse) Van Cortlandt," 124 (1993):153-155; C.R. Schrick, "The Philipse Jewel: A Legend Is Born," de Halve Maen 67 (1994):30-36 [N.Y. G 125.4]

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS: Grenville C. Mackenzie, "The Families of the Colonial Town of Philipsburgh, Westchester County, N.Y.," 4 vols., typescript, n.d., at NYG&B [MS., LOCALITY SHELF 2 (T1.1)] (families listed in Newsletter 5 [1994]:20)   

 

PLUM ISLAND 

Granted to Samuel WYLLYS (1631-1709), of Hartford

  • SIZE/LOCATION: 820 acres, consisting of two islands off the end of the North Fork of Long Island, Plum Island and Great Gull Island (French p. 639)

  • MAP:

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 2 April 1675 by Gov. Edmund Andros ("an entire and enfranchized mannor and place of itself"); transcript of original grant is in Land Patents Transcriptions 4:94-95 (Land Patents 4:97-98)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: J. Wickham Case, ed. Southold Town Records, 2 vols. (New York: S.W. Green's Son, 1882-84) 2: 537-540 [N.Y. L SO88.5]; Montgomery Schuyler, Notes on the Patroonships, Manors and Seigneuries in Colonial Times (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 31, 1953) p. 20 [N.Y. G 51]; Eberlein pp. 74-75

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS:

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS:

  • GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Lemuel A. Welles, "Sketch of Gov. George Wyllys," in Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, vol. 21 (Hartford: by the society, 1924) pp. xix-xl at xxxvi- xxxvii [CONN. G 7]; Miss Mary K. Talcott, "The Wyllys Family of Connecticut," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 37(1883):33-37

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

 

PRUDENCE ISLAND

Granted to John PAINE (1632-1675), merchant of Boston

  • SIZE/LOCATION: a 4,160-acre island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island ("Property Map, Town of Portsmouth," prepared by the James W. Sewall Company, Old Town, Maine [n.d., perhaps ca.1950], at the Newport Historical Society)

  • MAP:

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 25 July 1672 by Gov. Francis Lovelace ("to be called & known by the Name of Sophy Manor . . . the said Mannor of Sophy. . . ."; however, the name Prudence Island was used in all other documents); transcript of original grant in Albert W. Paine, Paine Genealogy, Ipswich Branch(Bangor, Me.: O.F. Knowles & Co., 1881) pp. 82-84 [G P 1662], and Land Patents Transcriptions 4:82-83 (Land Patents 4:86-88) 1 August 1672 by Gov. Francis Lovelace (no mention of manor but John Paine effectively given absolute power over the island, reporting only to the governor); transcript of original grant in Paine, above, at pp. 84-88 and Land Patents Transcriptions 4:84-88 (Land Patents 4:88-90)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy (Landlord and Tenant p. 14)

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Minor Manors pp. 6-10

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS:

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS:

  • GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Paine, above, pp. 78-92; G. Andrews Moriarty, Jr. "Genealogical Gleanings in England V: Payne," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 79(1925):82-84 (ancestry); John B. Carney and Gale Ion Harris, "Thrice-Widowed Hannah Paine of Boston: The Widow Eliot, Fayerweather, and Clark," ibid. 146(1992):377-382

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS:

  • COMMENTS: These grants of authority over Prudence Island were not recognized by Rhode Island. John Paine was soon arrested and tried, and eventually gave up his claim to Prudence Island.   

 

QUEENS VILLAGE

Granted to Henry LLOYD (1685-1763), merchant of Boston

  • SIZE/LOCATION: about 2,900 acres, comprised of two non-contiguous parcels: (1) present-day Lloyd's Neck [2,849 acres] in the Town of Huntington, Suffolk County [until 1886 Lloyd's Neck was part of the Town of Oyster Bay, Queens (now Nassau) County]; and (2) Fort Neck which is in present-day Massapequa in the Town of Oyster Bay (French p. 551)

  • MAPS: Kenneth Scott and Susan E. Klaffky, A History of the Joseph Lloyd Manor House (Setauket, N.Y.: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1976) pp. 10-11, 24-25, 32-33 [N.Y. L H921.12]

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 18 March 1685 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordship and Mannor of Queens Village"); transcript of original grant in Rev. Melancthon Lloyd Woolsey, The Lloyd Manor of Queens Village (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 13, 1925) pp. 10-12 [N.Y. G 51]; Dorothy C. Barck, ed. Papers of the Lloyd Family of the Manor of Queens Village, Lloyd's Neck, Long Island, New York 1654-1826, 2 vols. (New York: Collections of The New-York Historical Society for 1926-27) [N.Y. G 10]; and Land Patents Transcriptions 5:310-316 (Land Patents 5:196-204)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet [court baron apparently omitted inadvertently]

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Scott and Klaffky, above; Eberlein pp. 119-126

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS: The New-York Historical Society; Brooklyn Historical Society (see Rosalie Fellows Bailey, "The Account Books of Henry Lloyd of the Manor of Queens Village," Journal of Long Island History 2[1962]:26-49 [L.I. G 23])

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS: Barck, above

  • GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Barck, above, 2:878-903; G.D. Squibb, ed. The Visitation of Somerset and the City of Bristol, 1627 (London: Publications of The Harleian Society, new series, vol. 11, 1992) p. 32 (ancestry) [ENG. G 1.2]

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

 

RENSSELAERSWYCK

Confirmatory grants were made in 1664 and 1665 to Jeremias VAN RENSSELAER (1632-1674), Director of Rensselaerswyck. There was a grant in 1685 to his son and his nephew, both named Kiliaen; the nephew died childless in 1687, and the son received a consolidating grant in 1704.

  • SIZE/LOCATION: over a million acres in present-day Albany, Rensselaer and Columbia counties MAPS: Landlord and Tenant pp. 37, 320, 351, 413-414; Florence Christoph, Upstate New York In the 1760s: Tax Lists and Selected Militia Rolls in Old Albany County 1760-1768 (Camden, Me.: Picton Press, 1992) pp. 44-47 [N.Y. CO. AL13.61]

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 18 October 1664 and 12 October 1665 by Gov. Richard Nicholls confirming the Van Rensselaer family's possession of Rensselaerswyck (Landlord and Tenant p. 11; General Entries1:54-55). 4 November 1685 by Gov. Thomas Dongan ("henceforth be called the Lordshipp and Mannor of Ranslaerswyck"), reciting the 1664 and 1665 grants; transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 5:228-235 (Land Patents 5:102-110) 20 May 1704 by Gov. Cornbury consolidating title in Kiliaen van Rensselaer, son of Jeremias; transcript of original grant in Land Patents Transcriptions 7:237-246 (Land Patents 7:274-287)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron, advowson, and an assembly seat in 1685

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: S.G. Nissenson, The Patroon's Domain (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937) [N.Y. L AL13.22]

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS: see Landlord and Tenant pp. 426-428, principally New York State Library

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS: A.J.F. van Laer, trans. Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1908) [N.Y. L AL13.2]; A.J.F. van Laer, trans. Correspondence of Jeremias van Rensselaer, 1651-1674 (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1932) [N.Y. L AL13.23]; A.J.F. van Laer, trans. Correspondence of Maria van Rensselaer, 1669-1689 (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1935) [N.Y. L AL13.24]; calendar of "Van Rensselaer Manor Papers," published in The Capital, vols. 1-10 [N.Y. CO. AL13.04] (also "Van Rensselaer Manor Papers," typescript, ca.1990, at Family History Library; includes inventory not in The Capital)

  • GRANTEES AND FAMILY: Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, The Van Rensselaer Manor, 2nd ed. (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 21, 1929) [N.Y. G 51]; Florence Van Rensselaer, The Van Rensselaers in Holland and America (New York: American Historical Co., 1956) [G V 3535]; William J. Hoffman, "An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent: Van Rensselaer," Record 71(1940):71:129-136, 266-271, 345-353; William J. Hoffman, "The Older Generations of the Van Rensselaer Family," The American Genealogist 28(1952):178-188; 29 (1953):25-29

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS: Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, "Names of Settlers in Rensselaerswyck from 1630 to 1646," in his History of New Netherland; or New York under the Dutch, 2 vols. (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1845-48) at 1:433-441 [N.Y. G 23]; A.J.F. van Laer, "Settlers of Rensselaerwyck," in his Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, above, at pp. 805-846 [both have been reprinted, most recently in Carl Boyer 3rd, comp. Ship Passenger Lists: New York and New Jersey (1600-1825) (Newhall, Cal., by the compiler, 1978, reprinted Santa Clarita, Cal., by the compiler, 1996) [CS 68 S53]]; Jonathan Pearson, Contributions for the Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient County of Albany from 1630 to 1800 (Albany: J. Munsell, 1872; reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976) [N.Y. CO. AL13.01]

  • COMMENTS: Rensselaerswyck had been granted as a patroonship in 1630.   

 

ST. GEORGE

Granted to Col. William SMITH (1655-1705), Chief Justice of the Province of New York, Acting Governor of the Province of New York

  • SIZE/LOCATION: roughly 64,000 acres, all within the present-day Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, comprised of two non-contiguous parcels: (1) a neck of land (now Strong's Neck) in present-day Setauket on the North Shore; and (2) most of the southeastern portion of the Town of Brookhaven [the manor appears to have been roughly 40% of Brookhaven, based on the map cited below, and Brookhaven is 160,000 acres (Records, Town of Brookhaven up to 1800, as Compiled by the Town Clerk [Patchogue, N.Y.: Office of the Advance, 1880] p. 219 [N.Y. L B791.6 v.1])] MAP: Ruth Tangier Smith, M.D. and Henry Bainbridge Hoff, The Tangier Smith Family: Descendants of Colonel William Smith of the Manor of St. George, Long Island, New York (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 34, 1978) p. v [G SM 6832]

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 9 October 1693 by Gov. Benjamin Fletcher ("to be called the Lordshipp and mannour of St. George's") and 9 June 1697 ("mannour of St. George," adding more property to the 1693 grant); transcripts of original grants are in Smith and Hoff, at pp. 67-71; Records, Town of Brookhaven, above, pp. 77-83, 89-91; and Land Patents Transcriptions 6:421-427; 7:95-98 (Land Patents 6:433-439; 7:106-110)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron (both grants)

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Rev. Howard Duffield, The Tangier Smith Manor of St. George (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 8, 1921) [N.Y. G 51]; History of Suffolk County, New York . . . . (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co., 1882) Brookhaven:24-28 [N.Y. CO. SU29.3]; Eberlein pp. 84-106 LOCATION OF PAPERS: in possession of the Trustees of the Manor of St. George, Mastic, N.Y.; microfilms of some papers in the Main Library, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, N.Y.

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS:

  • GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Smith and Hoff, above

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

 

SCARSDALE

Granted to Caleb HEATHCOTE (1666-1721), Mayor of New York City

  • SIZE/LOCATION: approximately 11,500 acres in Westchester County, including the present-day Town of Scarsdale (French p. 698 n. 1; De Lancey p. 141 gives approximate square miles)

  • MAP: De Lancey, facing p. 141

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 21 March 1701/02 by Lieut.-Gov. John Nanfan ("henceforth be called the Lordship and Mannor off Scarsdale"); transcript of original grant in De Lancey pp. 141-143; Dixon Ryan Fox, Caleb Heathcote, Gentleman Colonist . . . . (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926) pp. 287-291 [CT 275 H423 F69]; and Land Patents Transcriptions 7:195-198 (Land Patents 7:226-229)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: court leet, court baron

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: De Lancey pp. 141-156; Charles B. Wheeler, The Heathcote Manor of Scarsdale (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 11, 1923) [N.Y. G 51]; Landlord and Tenant p. 97 n. 29; Richard M. Lederer, Jr. "The Date of the Patent for The Lordship and Manor of Scarsdale," The Westchester Historian 63:3 (Summer 1987):86-88 [N.Y. CO. W522.6]

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS:

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS:

  • GRANTEE AND FAMILY: Fox, above; Evelyn D. Heathcote, An Account of Some of the Families Bearing the Name of Heathcote . . . . (Winchester, Hants: Warren & Son, 1899) pp. 75-77 [not at NYG&B]

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS:   

 

SHELTER ISLAND 

Granted to Nathaniel SYLVESTER (ca.1620-1680) and his brother, Constant SYLVESTER (ca.1615-1671), merchant of London and Barbados

  • SIZE/LOCATION: an 8,000-acre island between the North and South Forks of eastern Long Island, comprising the present-day Town of Shelter Island, Suffolk County (French p. 637)

  • MAP:

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 31 May 1666 (a patent for the island to be as an "Intire infranchized Towneship, Mannor and place of itself") by Gov. Richard Nicolls; transcript of original grant in Cornelia Horsford, The Manor of Shelter Island (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 25, 1934) at pp. 9-10 [N.Y. G 51], and Land Patents Transcriptions 1:47- 50 (Land Patents 1:65-68)

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

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Horsford, above; Rev. Jacob E. Mallmann, Historical Papers on Shelter Island and Its Presbyterian Church (New York: by the author, 1899) [N.Y. L Sh45]; Landlord and Tenant p. 92 n. 9; Eberlein pp. 58-67

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS:

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS:

  • GRANTEES AND FAMILY: Henry B. Hoff, "The Sylvester Family of Shelter Island,"Record 125(1994):13-18, 88-93, 218; 126 (1995):246

  • TENANTS/RESIDENTS: Mallmann, above   

 

SOPHY 

See PRUDENCE ISLAND   

 

TISBURY

Granted to Thomas MAYHEW (1593-1682) and his grandson, Matthew MAYHEW (1648-1710)

  • SIZE/LOCATION: various parcels of land on the island of Martha's Vineyard, described in Charles Edward Banks, The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, in Three Volumes, 3 vols. (Boston: George H. Dean, 1911) 2:Chilmark:20 [MASS. L M361.5]

  • MAP:

  • DATE(S) OF GRANT: 8 July 1671 by Gov. Francis Lovelace ("to be called & knowne by the name of Tysbury Manor" . . . the said Manor of Tisbury shall . . . bee an Entire Enfranchized Mannor of itselfe. . . ."); transcript of original grant in Banks, above, 2:Chilmark:18-19; Ida M. Wightman, The Mayhew Manor of Tisbury (New York: The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, Publication No. 10, 1921) pp. 31-33 [N.Y. G 51]; and Land Patents Transcriptions 4:73-75 (Land Patents 4:78-79)

  • RIGHTS GRANTED: local autonomy (Landlord and Tenant p. 14)

  • PUBLISHED HISTORY: Banks, above, 2:Chilmark:17-26; Wightman, above; Eberlein pp.78-83

  • LOCATION OF PAPERS:

  • PUBLISHED PAPERS:

  • GRANTEES AND FAMILY: Banks, above, 2:Edgartown:79-84; 3:298-328; Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995) 2:1243-1246 [NEW ENG. G 2.61]; Wightman, above

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

  • COMMENTS: See MARTHA'S VINEYARD for related information. On 7 November 1674 Tristram Coffin and Matthew Mayhew petitioned Gov. Andros regarding whether they had the right to erect a "manor court" on Nantucket (Peter R. Christoph and Florence A. Christoph, eds. The Andros Papers, 1674-1680, 3 vols. [New York Historical Manuscripts: Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989-91] 1:11-12 [N.Y. G 55.2 v.24])