53° HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



" First and before all the right honorable, God-fearing, very wise and 

 prudent, my lady Catharina Philipse, widow of the lord Frederick 

 Philipse, of blessed memory, who have promoted service here in the 

 highest praiseworthy manner." The Dutch church and its vicinity is 

 thus described in the well-known legend of Sleepy Hollow. " The 

 sequestered situation of this church," says the author of the legend, 

 " seems always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. 

 It stands on a knoll surrounded by locust trees and lofty elms, from 

 among which its decent whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like 

 Christian purity, beaming through the shades of retirement. A gentle 

 slope descends from it to a silver sheet of water bordered by high trees, 

 between which peeps may be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. 

 To look upon its grass-grown yard where the sunbeams seem to sleep so 

 quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in 

 peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, along 

 which laves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of fallen 

 trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, not far from the church, 

 was formerly thrown a wooden bridge ; the road that led to it and the 

 bridge itself were thickly shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a 

 gloom about it even in the day time, but occasioned a fearful darkness 

 at night."* 



The second son of the Hon. Frederick Philipse by Joanna Brock- 

 holes, and brother of the last mentioned Col. Frederick, was Philip 

 Philipse, proprietor and devisee intail of the Upper Hight and Patent. 

 He was born in New York A. D. 1724, and married Margaret, daughter of 

 Nathaniel Marston, b who is described as " a worthy woman," and died 

 May 9th, 1768. The following obituary notice appeared in the New 

 York Mercury, for May 16th, 1768: — " Monday last, departed this life 

 at his house in King Street, in this city, Philip Philipse, Esq., in the 



forty-fourth year of his age." His will bears date i768.< r His 



eldest son, Adolph Philipse, was "admitted to King's College in 1758 " d 

 He died without issue in 1785. Frederick, the second son of Philip 

 Philipse, was an officer in the British service, and died in 1829, leaving 

 issue by Mary, (a daughter of his mother's brother, Nathaniel Marston, 

 Jr.,) a daughter, Mary Philipse, who married Samuel Gouverneur and 

 left Frederick Philipse, who assumed the name of Philipse and became 

 proprietor of the Philipstown estate, Putnam County, New York. 



a Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. 



b The arms of Marston as taken from the Philipse MSS. sa. a fess ermine between three 

 crescents ar. a mallet tor difference. Motto— " Decus virtute soli." 

 c Suit, office N. Y. Kec. of Wills No. 26, p. 326. 

 d Kec. of Kings College. 



