<jo HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



R, west of the aforesaid creek which lyes by said Stephanus Van Cortlandt's 

 land, including all the meadows both fresh and salt within said bounds contain- 

 ing in all 1800 acres, or thereabouts, together with all, and all manner of rivers, 

 rivulets, runs, streams, waters, feedings, pastures, woods, underwoods, trees, 

 swamps, moors, marshes, meadows, easments, profits and commodities, fishing, 

 fowling, hunting and hawking, and all other appurtenances whatsoever, to the 

 said tract or parcel of land within the bounds and limits, aforesaid belonging, or 

 in any wise appertaining to have and to hold, the said tract or parcel of land, 

 and all and singular other the premises unto the said Teunis Dekay, &c. , their 

 heirs and assigns for ever, to their sole and only proper use, benefit and behoof, 

 of them the said Tenuis Dekay, &c, and their heirs and assigns forever to be 

 holdeu in free and common soccage according to the tenure of East Greenwich 

 in the County of Kent in his majesties kingdom of England, yielding, rendering, 

 and paying therefor, every year, for the use of our Sovereign Lord the King's 

 majesty, his heirs or successors in such affair or affairs, as by him or them 

 shall be appointed to receive the same, ten bushels of good winter merchantable 

 wheat, yearly, on the five and twentieth day of March, at the city of New York. 

 And for the better preserving the title of the above recited parcel of land and 

 premises. I have caused these presents to be entered in the secretary's office, of 

 this province. Given under my hand and sealed with the seal of the province 

 at Fort James in New York, the 23d day of December, A. D., 1685. « 



Thomas Doxgan. 



The above patent, commonly called " Ryck's Patent," passed by pur- 

 chase to Hercules Lent, as appears by certain releases, the first bearing 

 date 20th of April, 17 15, wherein Jacob Abramsen, of ye upper Yonckers 

 one of the original patentees, for the consideration of ^"150, confirms 

 Hercules Lent, yeoman, in all his right, title and interest in ye patent 

 called Ryck Abramsen's Patent. b 



The Rikers or Rycke's Lents and Krankheyts " were of common 

 origin in Germany and located at a very remote period in Lower Saxony 

 where they enjoyed a state of allodial independence, at that day regarded 

 as constituting nobility. They there possessed the estate, or manor of 

 Rycken, from which they took their name, then written Von Rycken, 

 indicating its territorial derivation." " Hans Von Rycken, the lord of 

 the manor, and a valiant knight with his cousin, Melchior Von Rycken, 

 who lived in Holland, took part in the first crusade to the Holy Land, 

 in 1096, heading 800 crusaders in the army. of Walter the Penniless. 

 Melchior lived to return, but Hans perished in that ill-fated expedition." 

 " In time the descendants of Melchior Van Rycken extended themselves 

 from Holland to the region of the Rhine and into Switzerland." " In 

 the Spanish war Capt. Jacob Simons de Rycke, a wealthy corn merchant 

 of Amsterdam, and a warm partizan of the Prince of Orange, dis- 



a Alb. Book of Pat. Lib. &. fol. 114 to HI, Co. Rec Lib. I. p. 145. 

 b Co. Rec, Lib., E., 157. 



