CHAPTER X 



HUNT'S POINT 



Colonial and Revolutionary Days — The Story of Joseph Rodman Drake — A 

 Visit to "God's Little Acre." 



NE by one the old landmarks of The Bronx are disap- 

 pearing. The few that have been preserved are worth 

 more than a casual inspection. There are few places 

 in the Borough about which cluster so many interest- 

 ing and historical reminiscences of the Colonial and 

 Revolutionary periods as the Hunt's Point section. A few years 

 ago, there were many of these early landmarks standing, but the 

 region is changing rapidly ; the old sites giving way to bright, new 

 bricks and mortar. 



On April 25, 1666, Edward Jessup and John Richardson ob- 

 tained from Governor Nicolls a patent for certain lands, now 

 known as the West Farms Patent; they having previously, on 

 March 12, 1663, purchased the Indian rights. These lands lay 

 along the west bank of the Bronx River, bounding "to the midst of 

 the said river" running from the Fordham line south to the Sea 

 or East River, and westerly to a little brook called Sackwrahung, 

 or Bungay Creek, which ran along about where Intervale Avenue 

 is now located. 



On obtaining possession of this patented land, Jessup and 

 Richardson set aside two home plots, each consisting of thirty 

 acres of upland and eight acres of meadow. These were located 

 on the old Hunt's Point Road just south of the present Lafayette 

 Avenue. The Dickey and Spofford properties on the east of the 

 old road, include within their bounds Richardson's thirty acres 

 and most of the two meadow parcels. This home-lot vested, in 

 1679, in Gabriel Leggett, thru his wife Elizabeth, a daughter 

 of Richardson, and remained in a branch of the Leggett family 

 down to 1836. It was known as Barretto's Point. 



Historians give but meagre information regarding John Rich- 

 ardson, but speak of Edward Jessup as a most remarkable man, 



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