62 The Story of The Bronx 



Archer was unable to repay his various loans from Steen- 

 wyck, though he had until November 24, 1683, to do it in; 

 and the manor thus fell to the mortgagee by foreclosure. 

 By the will of Cornelius Steenwyck and Margaretta, his 

 wife, dated November 20, 1684, in which the former manor- 

 lord is spoken of as "the late John Archer," the whole manor of 

 Fordham is left to the Nether Reformed Dutch Congregation 

 within the city of New York. The manor was preserved 

 intact until 1755, when, by act of the Provincial Assembly, 

 the congregation and minister of the church were permitted 

 to sell the lands. It is stated that through the liberality of 

 Mrs. Steenwyck, who later married Dominie Henricus Sel- 

 wyns, three hundred acres were reserved from the manor 

 and continued in the possession of the Archers. However 

 that may be, the descendants of John Archer lived upon the 

 land for several generations, and one of them, Benjamin 

 Archer, before 1780, had succeeded in recovering a large 

 portion of the original manor, which he held in fee. 



As already stated, the estate of Jonas Bronk came into the 

 possession of Captain Richard Morris in 1670. The Morrises 

 were of Welsh extraction and descended, according to Bolton, 

 from Rys, a companion of Strongbow in his expedition against 

 Ireland, where he performed such prodigies of valor that he 

 was called Maur Rys, or Rys the Great. The Morrises of 

 this period of our history took part in the Civil War in England 

 on the side of the Parliament. The family consisted at the 

 time of the Commonwealth of three brothers: Lewis, a 

 colonel in the army of the Parliament; Richard, a captain 

 in his brother's regiment; and William, who was in the naval 

 service of the Parliament and who was lost at sea. The last's 

 son John received a commission in the navy of the Common- 

 wealth, and was lost at sea off Dover Castle. 



