THE TOWN OF WEST FARMS. 503 



as the present excitement shall pass away I will hold myself ready not only to 

 produce the soldier, but also to appear in person to answer for my own conduct; 

 but in the existing state of sentiment in the city of Baltimore, I think it your 

 duty to sustain the federal military, and to strengthen their hands instead of 

 endeavoring to strike them down. I have the honor to be very respectfully, 

 Your Obedient Servant, 



(Signed,) W. W. MORRIS, 



Major 4th U- S. Artillery, 

 Comd'<r the Post. 



MANOR OF FORDHAM. 



The name of this town is of Saxon origin, compounded of f00J*fr 

 a (ford) and I) it lit (mansion.) and was derived from the parish of the 

 same name in Norfolk, England. Fordham was originally included in 

 the township of West Chester, but subsequently formed a portion of 

 West Farms, and now belongs to Northern New York. 



Its early Indian proprietors appear to have been the Sachems Fec- 

 quemeck, Rechgawac and Packanariens, who sold the lands of Kekes- 

 /uik, bordering the Harlem River to the Dutch West India Company, 

 Anno Domini, 1639. In 1646, we find the whole of Fordham as well 

 as the Yoncker's land (then called Colen Donck,) in the possession of 

 Adrian van der Donck, whose widow Mary conveyed them to her brother 

 Elias Doughty. The following sales appear under the hands of the latter 

 in 1666-67 : — 



"Know all men, by these presents, that I, Elias Doughty, of Flushing, do 

 sell unto Mr. John Areher, of Westchester b his heirs and assignees, fourscore 

 acres of land and thirty acres of meadow, lying and being betwixt Brothers 

 Ricer and the watering place at the end of the Island of Manhatans; and if the 

 land be not fit to cleare for the plow or hoe, this land is to lye together; and if there 

 be not all such land together as there should, or if there should happen eight or 

 ten acres of land that is not for such use, then the said Archer is to have it -with 

 the rest ; and he shall have equal right privilege in the commons as any other man 

 shall have within that Patent that hath no more arable land ; and the meadow is 



a Verstegan, in his "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence" says in foord, not only sundry 

 of our ancient English surnames herein end, but some also so seem to do which are Of French 

 or Norman race— but this growcth by the not rightly distinguishing between foord and fort ; 

 the first being a mere English termination, denoteth as yet we retain in memory a foord or 

 water passage. The other coming from the French, denoteth a place of strength by nature, 

 as '• Jtoch/ort," the "strong Rack," Ac. 



b See Laws of N. Y. 1S73, for annexation act since amended. 



