5°8 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



The above purchase, (together with other sales, from the Indians,) 

 was confirmed to Philipse by his Excellency, Thomas Dongan, Gov- 

 ernor of the Province, on the 23d of December, 1684. The whole were 

 subsequently included within the Royal Patent of Philipsburgh. From 

 the Indian grants and royal patents, we proceed to give our readers a 

 brief account of the Philipse family, collected from the best authorities 

 and original manuscripts still extant. 



Frederick Philipse or (as the name was spelt at that early period) 

 Vreedryk or Vrederyck Felypsen, was a native of Bohemia,* while others 

 say of Bolswert or-Bolsward, in West or East Friesland, Holland, a small 

 town near Wiewerd, where he was born, A.D. 1626. His father was 

 the Honorable Viscount Felyps, of Bohemia, who sprang from the 

 ancient Viscounts of that name and country. c 



The early members of this family took an active part in favor of the 

 Reformers, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague; and even after the 

 burning of the former in 141 5 they still adhered, like the rest of his 

 followers, to their master's doctrines, and engaged with John Zioka, a 

 Bohemian knight, in 1420 (who put himself at the head of the Hussites) 

 in throwing off the despotic yoke of Sigismund who had treated some 

 of their brethren in the most barbarous manner. For their religious 

 opinions the Felyps suffered severely both in person and property, being 

 finally compelled to fly, for better security, to Bolsward in East Fries- 

 land.^ From MSS. in the hand-writing of the late Hon. John Jay (him- 

 self a descendant of Eva Philipse, while his wife, Sarah Livingston, was 

 a grand-daughter of Annetye Philipse) we learn "that the first ancestor of 

 this family who settled in this country was Frederick Flypson, and that 

 he was a native of Bohemia, where his family, being Protestants, were 

 persecuted. His mother, becoming a widow, was constrained to quit 

 Bohemia with him and her other children.' She fled to Holland with 

 what little property she could save from the wreck of their estate. The 

 amount of that little not admitting her to provide better for Frederick, 

 she bound him to a carpenter, and he became an excellent workman. 



a Mem. of Pliilipse family, from MSS. in hand-writing of John Jay. Miscellaneous works 

 by Gen. De Peyster, p. 117. 



b Mem. of Long Island Hist. Soc. voL I., Journal of a voyage to New York in 16T41-6S0, 

 Brooklyn, 1867. 



c The noble descent of this ancient family is not only based on tradition, but amply estab- 

 lished by their coat armor, which was borne by them long before the modern assumption of 

 arms, when imposition in this respect was well nigh impossible, and when, if had been prac- 

 ticable, no Buch parvenu opinions existed with regard to their value. Let those who differ 

 from us prove anything to the contrary.— [Editor.] In the Hall of Records, Amsterdam, Hol- 

 land, is registered the following coat of arms belonging to the Philipse family : " Az a demi 

 lion rampant, rising out of a ducal coronet ar, surmounted by a ducal coronet or." The crest 

 as borne both by the English and American families is " a demi lion rampant rising out of 

 a Viscount's coronet ar, Burmounted by a ducal coronet or." 



d Burke's iii.-t. of Landed Gentry 01 Great Britain. 



e TniB partly agrees with a statement made by Miss Susan Robinson in the Philipse MSS. 

 that Frederick, who lirst came to this country had an only brother named Adolphus. 



