THE TOWN OF WHITE PLAINS. 537 



England, and claimed to have bought of the Indians in 1660 his right to 

 these lands ; was confirmed in 1662 by the authorities of New Nether- 

 land, and in 1668 by the government of New York. Mr. Richbell's 

 patent gave him possession of the 'three necks' bounded on the east by 

 Mamaroneck river, and on the west by Stony brook, together with the 

 land lying north of these bounds ' twenty miles in the woods.' This con- 

 flicted with the foregoing deed. As Rye was the border town of Con- 

 necticut they conceived that their bounds extended westward as far as 

 the western line of that colony. This was ' a line drawn from the east 

 side of Mamaroneck river, north northwest to the line of Massachusetts.' 

 Negotiations were now pending between Connecticut and New York for 

 a more satisfactory settlement of that boundary. And on the twenty- 

 eighth of November, 16S3, the two governments agreed upon a line to 

 begin at the mouth of Byram river. Meanwhile, doubtless anticipating 

 this decision, the inhabitants of Rye on the twenty-second day of 

 November, only six days before the date of that agreement, concluded a 

 treaty with the Indian proprietors of the White Plains for the purchase 

 of that tract. They described it as ' lying within the town bounds 

 of Rye.' 



Mr. Richbell was not inclined to yield his claim, which he had now 

 held for twenty-three years. On the twelfth of March, 1684, he peti- 

 tioned the Governor, Colonel Dongan, on the subject : ' Having a desire 

 to dispose of some quantity of said land which is called the White 

 Plains ' and which was comprehended in his patent ' to severall persons 

 to settle thereon with themselves and familyes ' he is ' wholly obstructed 

 and hindered by Rye men,' who have ' made a great disturbance amongst 

 them and pretends a right to the same.' He cannot therefore dispose of 

 any part of these lands until the Governor ' will be pleased to grant an 

 order to clear the same.'" This complaint came before the council at 

 Fort James on the seventeenth of March, 1684, and the inhabitants of 

 Rye or some to be deputed by them for that purpose, were summoned 

 to show cause at the next Court of Assizes in Westchester County, why 

 the said lands do not of right belong and appertain to John Richbell. 



The dispute appears to have remained unsettled ; for Richbell died 

 soon after this, July 26th, i684, & and the greater part of his lands — includ- 

 ing all the northern portion — came into the possession of the Hon. Caleb 

 Heathcote. [n 1701 Col. Heathcote obtained a comfirmation of his 

 rights to the Richbell estate by purchasing again from the Indians the 

 ' necks ' formally known as East and Great Neck, now called Orienta 



a Land papers, Aibany. Vol. li., 30. Quoted by Mr. Balrd's IUsiory of Eye. 

 b See Westchester Co. Records Lib. A, page 34, 



