THE TOWN OF WEST FARMS. 45 1 



share and share alike, to his children — Augustine, Surveyor-General of 

 the Province, Isabella, wife of Lewis Morris, Esq.; Mary, Sarah, Mar- 

 garet and John. The other members of the family consisted, in 1698, 

 of one overseer, two white servants, and thirty-three slaves." a 



MANOR OF MORRISANIA. 



This Manor, formerly annexed in 1791 to the ancient Borough town 

 of Westchester was, by an act of the Legislature, in 17 S3, added to New 

 York county. Its name is derived from the Morris family, the first 

 mesne Lords and patentees under the crown; the termination " ania" 

 being in general use in the latter part of the seventeenth century. At 

 the period of the Dutch discover)', it was styled by the aborigines Ran- 

 achque, or Raraque, an appellation which doubtless refers to some ob- 

 ject peculiar to its geographical locality. The Indians appear to have 

 resided principally on the shores of the East and Harlem River. Of this, 

 the extensive " shell beds," which are still to be seen, afforded conclusive 

 evidence. Within a few years several Indian tumuli have been accident- 

 ally opened in the vicinity of Governeur Morris's residence, and found 

 to contain large sized skeletons of the Aborigines. The first grantee 

 under the Mohegan sachems of Ranachque, Shahash, Panazarah, Wana- 

 capun, Kneed, Taquamarke and Awarazawis, was Jonas Bronck ; who 

 in 1639, purchased of them two hundred and fifty morgen of land — 

 about five hundred acres, for which he subsequently obtained a " Grond 

 Brief" from the Dutch authorities. 6 



In 1639 we find the patroon of Bronck 's land leasing a portion of his 

 territory in the following manner : — 



"Appeared before rue, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, Secretary in New Nether- 

 land, in presence of the undersigned witnesses — Mr. Jonas Bronck from one side 

 and Peter Andriessen and Lourent Dayts from the other, who agreed together 

 amicably in the following manner : Said Mr. Bronck shall show to the persons 

 aforesaid a certain lot of land, of which he is proprietor, and which is situated 

 opposite the river and the plain of Manhattan ; in which lot aforesaid they mav 

 cultivate tobacco and maize, upon the express condition that they shall clear and 

 cultivate, every two years, a fresh spot for the raising their tobacco and maize, 



a Documents relating to the Col. Iltsf. of the State of X. Y., vol. iv., p. 847, edited by E B 

 O'Callaghan, M.D. * 



b See Col. Morris's confirmation of Bronck's purchase. •' The land of Bronck was cleared 

 under a kind of co-operative system which benefitted the hardy woodsman as well as the en- 

 terprising proprietor. As his axes felled the trees and his clearings yielded maize, he made 

 both of them utile for men by advancing still further into the wilderness and building mills 

 on the Bronx. Its name now perpetuates his memory. In the Indian raids of 161?,, his settle- 

 ments were desolated "—New York in the Olden Times, by J. Barnitz Bacon, No. 8 Beyond 

 the Harlem.— Sunday Times. 



