292 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



successful and highly respected merchant of the city of New York, com- 

 manding universal esteem for his' probity. He died in the year 1807, 

 leaving five sons and three daughters. The eldest son was William 

 Irving, a merchant of New York. He was distinguished as a gentle- 

 men of literary taste, and was concerned with his brother, Washington 

 Irving, and Mr. J. K. Paulding, in writing Salmagundi. He was also a 

 member of Congress in 1812, and died in 1821. The second son was 

 Peter Irving, M. D., who died in 1837. The third son was Ebenezer 

 Irving, Esq., late proprietor of Sunny Side, the father of the Rev. Pierre 

 Paris Irving, Rev. Theodore Irving, William, Sanders, and of Edgar 

 Irving, and the ladies who now occupy the homestead. The fourth son 

 was John Treat Irving, Esq., a member of the bar, and for many 

 years before his death, (which took place in 1835,) first judge of 

 the city and county of New York. The youngest son was the late 

 Hon. Washington Irving, whose literary fame will hand his name down 

 to the remotest posterity. This distinguished and noble man was born 

 in New York on the 3d of April, 1783 and died at Sunny Side, Novem- 

 ber 28th, 1859. Beside all his literary labors, he was, for several years, 

 Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain. He was, also, for many 

 years a warden of Christ church, Tarrytown ; and, on several occasions, 

 served as a lay-delegate to the Diocesan Convention. His remains 

 repose beside those of his father and mother in the Mount Pleasant 

 cemetery, upon the slope of the hill just north of the old Dutch church 

 of Sleepy Hollow: "near the sunniest of the slope, where a grove of 

 oak and yew trees commences to crown the hill, is the burial-place of 

 the Irving family. It is a large, square lot, bounded by a low fence and 

 a thickly-grown evergreen hedge. Near the centre is a row of five 

 graves, while a few feet distant is another row of five more graves, all 

 marking the resting places of deceased members of the Irving family." 

 Between these two rows, and connecting them in one continuous row, is 

 the grave of the illustrious and beloved Washington Irving, which is 

 marked by a plain white marble slab, bearing the following inscription : 



WASHINGTON, 



Son of William and Sarah S. Irving, 



died 



Nov. 28, 1859. 



Aged 76 years, 7 mo. and 25 days. 



Immediately north of Van Tassel house is the residence of the late 

 Philip R. Paulding, Esq., now know as the estate of the late Geo. Merrit, 

 delightfully seated on a bold bank of the Hudson ; it commands, from 



