THE TOWN OF RYE. 



I2Q 



the Dutch had full possession of most of the present county of West- 

 chester, anterior to English purchase and settlement. 



By the provisional treaty of Hartford, in 1650, the boundary line be- 

 tween New England and New Netherlands was to commence upon Long 

 Island, from the westernmost part of the Oyster bay, so, and in a straight 

 and direct line to the sea ; and upon the main land, a line to begin upon 

 the west side of Greenwich bay, being about four miles from Stamford, 

 and so to run a northerly line twenty miles up into the country, and af- 

 ter as it shall be agreed by the two Governments, of the Dutch and of 

 New Haven, provided the said line come not within ten miles of Hud- 

 son river." 



The successors of the Dutch West India Company in 1660, were Pe- 

 ter Disbrow, John Coe, and Thomas Studwell ; " a fourth, John Budd, 

 was associated with them in some of their purchases, and several others 

 joined them in the actual settlement of the place; but the earliest nego- 

 tiations appear to have been conducted in behalf of the three persons 

 we have first named. They were all residents of Greenwich at the time 

 when the first Indian treaty was signed. Their leader was Peter Dis- 

 brow, a young, intelligent, self-reliant man, who seems to have enjoyed 

 the thorough confidence and esteem of his associates. His name inva- 

 riably heads the list of the proprietors. Whenever there was a treaty to 

 be formed or a declaration to be made, Disbrow's services were re- 

 quired."'' 



On the third day of January, 1660, we find Peter Disbrow in treaty 

 with the Indians of Poningoe Neck for the purchase of that tract of land 

 described as follows, " Lyeing on the maine between a certaine place 

 then called Rahonaness to the East and Westchester path to the north 

 and up to a river then called Moaquanes to the west, that is to say all 

 that land lying betweene the aforesaid two rivers then called Penningoe 

 extending from the said path to the north and south to the sea or 

 Sound." 



This first purchase on Poningoe Neck comprised the lower part of 

 the present town of Rye, on the east side of Blind Brook, 



The next purchase of the Indians was for the island they called JlJanus- 

 sing, or Mennewies d about a mile in length, which lies east of Poningoe 



a Hazard's State Papers, vol. ii., 218. 

 b Baird's Hist, of Rye. 



c Land Papers Sec. of States office, Albany, vol. vii., p. 171. "The deed of this purchase 

 has long since disappeared," says Baird. "Itwaslost during thelifetime of Disbrow himself." 

 Town Rec. vol. B. " We have, however, an account of this purchase written some sixty years 

 later that embodies facts relative to it which had doubtless been preserved by tradition." 

 Baird's Hist, of Rye, p 9, note. 



d Minnis denotes an island in the Algonquin. 



