494 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



border the property on the south and west. Some distance west of the 

 dwelling house, surrounded by orchards, is the family cemetery of the 

 de Lanceys. This spot was appropriated by John Peter de Lancey, as 

 a cemetery for the remains of the de Lancey family, and for that purpose 

 devised to his son William Heathcote de Lancey, in trust forever, &c. 

 &c; the family vault beneath Trinity church New York, not having been 

 used since 1776. 



Here repose the mortal remains of 



JOHN PETER DE LANCEY, ELIZABETH DE LANCEY, 



born in the City of New York. wife of 



15 July, 1753, JOHN PETER DE LANCEY, 



died at Mamaroneck born 8 August, 1758, 



31 January, 1828. died 7 May, 1S20. 



THOMAS JAMES DE LANCEY, 



born 



August 12-, 1789, 



died Dec'r. 28th, 1822. 



Besides other memorials, to various members of the family. 



The adjoining estate upon the east is Nelson Hill. This property 

 formerly belonged to the Nelson family; Polycarpus Nelson having 

 purchased it of Henry Penoyer, 1725. 



Polycarpus died in 1738, leaving three sons — Polycarpus, Edward and 

 Maharshalaskbar. The name of the latter is supposed to have been 

 derived from his maternal ancestor Akabashka, one of the Indian witness- 

 es to the sale of John Harrison in 1695. 



The two younger brothers devised their rights to Polycarpus. The 

 property has since passed through the Horton, Kyer, Bailey, and Stanley 

 families, to Benjamin M. Brown, Esq., whose heirs sold it to Andrew 

 Wilson, from whom the house and garden was purchased by the present 

 owner Matthias Banta, Esq., and the rest of it by various parties. 



The house occupies a beautiful situation on the slope of the hill over- 

 looking the Sound and Mamaroneck bay. This place is remarkable for 

 a very distant echo, the true object of which appears to be the opposite 

 residence of Heathcote Hill. In the still dewy evenings of summer 

 when the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, every word 

 spoken in the neighboring house is plainly re-echoed from the northern 

 bank. " Echo (says White) has always been so amusing to the imagina- 

 tion, that the poets have personified her ; and, in their hands, she has 

 been the occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest 



