As a Royal Province. 1685-1776 79 



until, in 1693, he owned an enormous tract of land extending 

 virtually from Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Harlem River on 

 the south to the Croton River on the north, and between The 

 Bronx and Hudson rivers on the east and west. This tract 

 did not include the Mile Square, nor the tracts sold to Hadden 

 or to Betts and Tippett. 



On June 12, 1693, by royal charter signed by Benjamin 

 Fletcher, "captain-general and governor-in-chief of our 

 province of New York aforesaid," all of Philipse's purchases 

 were formed into the lordship and manor of Philipseborough, 

 or Philipseburgh, with the regular rights of court-baron and 

 court-leet, "together with the advowson and right of patron- 

 age of all and every the church or churches erected or to be 

 erected or established or hereafter to be erected or established 

 within the said manor of Philipseborough." The quit-rent 

 was an annual payment of four pounds current money of the 

 Province upon the feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed 

 Virgin Mary, payable "at our fort at New York." Included 

 in this grant was the island Paparinemo, with the right of 

 building a bridge across the Muscoota, or Spuyten Duyvil 

 Creek, which will be more fully taken up in Chapter VIII. 



Frederick Philipse (the name is also spelt Flypse, Flypsen, 

 Vlypse, and Vlypsen — i.e., the son of Philip) was a native of 

 Friesland in Holland, who came to New Amsterdam before 

 1653, when he was about twenty-one years of age. He worked 

 at his trade of carpenter, but gradually engaged in mercantile 

 pursuits until he became the richest man in the Province and 

 was known in the English days as the "Dutch Millionaire." 

 He made two advantageous marriages, his first wife being 

 Margaret Hardenbroeck, widow of Pietrus Rudolphus De 

 Vries, a wealthy merchant of New Amsterdam, whose business 

 the new Mrs. Philipse continued in her own right with extra- 



