374 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



to consider it, and do you go to your own inn and not to bed till you 

 hear from me.' 



"The Colonel retired, and at one o'clock in the morning he received 

 a message that he might go to rest and expect no other answer to carry 

 to the Prince ; for the council of officers had been seeking God, as he 

 had also done, and it was resolved by them all that the King must die. 

 With this unhappy message he returned to Holland again, where he con- 

 tinued in that service for many years, perhaps during the remainder of 

 his life. By a letter dated Nov. H, 1653, from Jongeshall to William, 

 Earl of Nassau, it appears that Col. John Cromwell was then in Hol- 

 land. Through the ill behavior of his wife Abigail, he was — from the 

 most affluent circumstances — reduced to the brink of ruin. By his wife 

 (continues Noble,) Col. Cromwell had a daughter Joan, baptized Sept. 

 28, 1634, and perhaps other children. " a 



In 1686, we find John Cromwell & of the town of Westchester and 

 Mary his wife, selling lands to Thomas Hunt, Sen , of the West Farms. 

 These lands were situated upon Long Neck, afterwards known as Crom- 

 well's Neck, and now styled Castle Hill Neck. 



John Cromwell (the supposed son of Col. John Cromwell,) left issue 

 by his wife Mary, John, from whom the present Oliver Cromwell and 

 Jeremiah of West Farms are descended, and James Cromwell, who was 

 living in 17 17. The latter by his wife Anne Godfrey had two sons, 

 John and James. The oldest son John Cromwell was residing upon the 

 property in Harrison at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, 

 for his name occurs in General Washington's military map of the county, 

 dated 1778, as the occupant of the homestead. The present William 

 Cromwell of Harrison is the grandson of the above named John Crom- 

 well. d 



From an early period, the Thomas family have resided in the eastern 

 part of this town. The first member who purchased land here, was the 

 Hon. John Thomas, son of the Rev. John Thomas, for many years 

 Rector of St. George's church, Hempstead, Long Island (who was 

 ordained deacon and priest by the Bishop of London in 1704 and in- 

 ducted rector Dec. 27, 1704, and had resided in Philadelphia three 

 years as second minister and school master of Christ church in that city 



a Noble's Life of Oliver Cromwell, vol. i, 534-8. 



b John Cromwell (the supposed son of Col. John,) is said to have emigrated from Holland 

 during the time the Dutch held the province. 



c John Cromwell was taken prisoner by the British and conveyed to New York. 



d A singular circumstances (illustrative of the strong family likeness which still exists be- 

 tween the English and American branches,) occurred in the village of Westchester a few years 

 since. Oliver Cromwell, a resident blacksmith of that place, was accosted by a friend, who 

 at the same moment presented him a likeness of the Protector ; the former (unable to read) 

 involuntarily exclaimed as he gazed upon the portrait, " why there is our old blacksmth him- 

 self." 



