THE TOWN OF CORTLANDT. 1 87 



of the navigator, — Henry Hudson sailed and anchored the "Half-Moon" 

 at sunset on Sunday, the ist of October, 1609, O. S., or about seventy- 

 five years before the manor-house was built. 



As we have previously shown, when Stephanus Van Cortlandt became 

 full proprietor of the grand domain, it was erected into the Lordship and 

 Manor of Cortlandt, by royal charter, bearing the date of June 17, 1697. 

 That charter, written on parchment, and preserved at the manor-house, 

 with the circular tin box containing the crumpled royal seal, has upon it 

 a well engraved portrait of the royal grantor, King William III, of Eng- 

 land, &c. 



Tradition says that for the purpose of surveying the lands to be inclu- 

 ded in the royal charter of 1697, Stephanus Van Cortlandt started from 

 the Croton in a per-i-auger, having on board a party of surveyors, ac- 

 companied by several Indians, who were designed to act as pioneers ; 

 proceeding up the Hudson, they disembarked at St. Anthony's Nose 

 where the Indians were immediately started on a day's walk, or journey, 

 as they termed it, into the wilderness (20 English miles) to mark the 

 northern and eastern boundaries of the eighty-three thousand acres to be 

 included in the grand domain. Van Cortlandt and some of the party 

 remaining on St. Anthony's Nose near the red cedar tree which was to 

 mark the north-west corner of Cortlandt manor, and the southernmost 

 bounds of Adolph Philips's patent, and now marks the dividing lines 

 between Westchester and Putnam counties. 



The manor-house is distinguished not only for its antiquity, but for 

 the character of its tenantry, guests, and its scenes. Its earlier owners 

 were notable men in the annals of the Province and State of New York. 

 Doubtless at the table, there sat most of the Provincial Governors, from 

 Hunter and Ingolsby down to Colden, at the kindling of the Revolu- 

 tion, with whom the Van Cortlandt's sympathized. The career of Leis- 

 ler had drawn party lines very distinctly, and some of the governors 

 could not have been welcome at the manor-house. After the Revolu- 

 tion such staunch patriots were ever welcome, as Governor George Clin- 

 ton (whose daughter was the wife of Gen. Pierre Van Cortlandt,) Gen. 

 Schuyler, Robert Livingston, John Jay and others. "Citizen" Genet) 

 who also married a daughter of Clinton, was frequently there, and also 

 distinguished travelers from abroad. Colonel Brant, the Mohawk chief, 

 dined there once under peculiar circumstances. One Sunday, while at- 

 tending divine service in a little church near Croton, Col. Van Cort- 

 landt saw a well dressed Indian leaning upon a window sill listening to 

 the sermon. On learning that it was Brant, who was stopping at a tav- 

 ern near by, he sent an invitation to the chief to come and dine with 



