HoLLicK : Old Cubberly House at New Dorp "Ji 



The following communication, also received yesterday, is a 

 gratifying indication of the interest in our local history which 

 this gift has aroused : 



225 West 136th St., New York City. 

 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences, 



Gentlemen: Having read with much interest the account in the 

 Herald of the deeding by Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton of the 

 " Cubberly Cottage " at New Dorp to the Staten Island Associa- 

 tion of Arts and Sciences, it is thought that perhaps a few facts 

 regarding the former owners of the property might be of interest. 

 For three generations, prior to 1769 and until 1841, the Cubberley 

 family were owners and with their black slaves were residents 

 of this property near the "Elm Tree Light," and known as 

 "The Cedars." It remained in their possession until the death 

 of Isaac Cubberley, who was born, I believe, in the old house, 

 on March 17, 1761, and died there on August 22, 1841. When 

 a division of the estate was made " The Cedars " was sold. 



The first Cubberley living there was Isaac, who came from 

 New Jersey, it is said, as a young man, and married Ann 

 Journeay, of the Huguenot family of that name residing on 

 Staten Island. A list of communicants of St. Andrew's Church 

 at Richmond, on Easter Sunday, March 26, 1769, contains the 

 names of Isaac Cuberle and his Avife. According to Professor 

 Ellwood P. Cubberley, of Stanford University, California, the 

 family came from Gloucestershire, England, and he visited the 

 " remnants of their old manor house of Cubberley, not far from 

 Cheltenham." He found that the family name was originally 

 Berkeley, and "that under that name the family record occurs 

 in Domesday Book. The family held a number of places, one 

 of which was known as the Cubberley (or Cobberley) House 

 and certain sons of the family continually lived there." " From 

 John Berkeley of Cubberley to John of Cubberley the name got 

 changed, and then to John Cubberley, which name became fixed 

 before the time of Charles First." The Cubberleys became Dis- 

 senters, and many male members fled to France and Holland, 

 afterward some coming to this country. 



A number of large volumes in the public library at 42d St., 

 entitled The Lives of the Berkeleys, give an account of this in- 

 fluential but turbulent family, and The Transactions of the 

 Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vol. 17, pp. 



