History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ or any of her party. This is undoubtedly for the reason pointed out by Bolton, that the whole colony was exterminated before purchase could be completed. Indeed, it does not appear that even the formality of procuring written license from the Dutch authorities to settle in the country had yet been observed. The massacre occurred in September of 1643. It is said that an Indian came to Mrs. Hutchinson's home one morning, professing friendship. Finding that the little colony was utterly defenseless, he returned in the evening with a numerous party, which at once proceeded to the business of slaughter. According to tradition, the leader of the murderous Indians was a chief named Wampage, who subsequently called himself "Ann-Hoock," following a frequent custom among the savages, by which a warrior or brave assumed the name of his victim. In 1654, eleven years later, this Wampage, as one of the principal Indian proprietors of the locality, deeded land to Thomas Pell, over the signature of " Ann-Hoock." A portion of the peninsula of Pelham Neck was long known by the names of " Annie's Hoeck " and the " Manor of Ann Hock's Neck." Bolton, referring to various conjectures as to the site of Anne's residence, inclines to the opinion that it was " located on the property of George A. Prevoost, Esq., of Pelham, near the road leading to the Neck, on the old Indian path." The only one of Mrs. Hutchinson's company spared by the attacking party was her youngest daughter, quite a small child, who, after being held in captivity four years, was released through the efforts of the Dutch governor and restored to her friends; but it is said that she " had forgotten her native language, and was unwilling to be taken from the Indians." This girl married a Mr. Cole, of Kingston, in the Narragansett country, and " lived to a considerable age." One of the sons of Anne Hutchinson, who had remained in Boston when his parents and the younger children left there in 1638, became the founder of an important colonial family, numbering among its members the Tory governor Hutchinson, of the Revolution; also a grown-up daughter of Mrs. Hutchinson's married and left descendants in New England.

      In the autumn of 1642, a few months after Anne Hutchinson's first appearance on the banks of the Hutchinson River, the foundations of another notable English settlement on the Sound were laid. John Throckmorton, in behalf of himself and associates (among whom was probably his friend, Thomas Cornell), obtained from the Dutch government a license, dated October 2, 1642, authorizing settlement within three Dutch (twelve English) miles " of Amsterdam." In this license it was recited that " whereas Mr. Throckmorton, with his associates, solicits to settle with thirty-five families within the limits of the jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses, to reside there in peace and enjoy the same privileges as our other subjects, and be favored with the free exercise of their religion," and there being no danger that injury to the interests of the West India Company would result from the proposed settlement, " more so as the English are to settle at a distance of three miles from us," " so it is granted." The locality selected by Throckmorton was Throgg's Neck (so called from his name, corrupted into Throgmorton), and apparently the colony was begun forthwith. By the ensuing spring various improvements had been made, and on July 6, 1643, a land-brief, signed by Director Kieft, " by order of the noble lords, the director and council of New Netherland," was granted to " Jan Throckmorton," comprising " a piece of land (being a portion of Vredeland), containing as follows: Along the East River of New Netherland, extending from the point half a mile, which piece of land aforesaid is surrounded on one side by a little river, and on the other side by a great kill, which river and kill, on high water running, meet each other, surrounding the land." The term " Vredeland " mentioned in the brief (meaning Free Land or Land of Peace) was the general name given by the Dutch to this and adjacent territory along the Sound, which was the chosen place of refuge for persons fleeing from New England for religious reasons.

      John Throckmorton, the patentee, emigrated from Worcester County, England, to the Massachusetts colony, in 1631. He was in Salem as late as 1639; but, embracing the Baptist faith, removed soon afterward to Rhode Island, where he sustained relations of intimacy with Roger Williams. It is well known that Williams came to New Netherland in the winter of 1642-43, in order to obtain passage for Europe on a Dutch vessel, and it is not improbable that Throckmorton accompanied him on his journey to the Dutch settlements from Rhode Island.

      One of Throckmorton's compatriots was Thomas Cornell, who later settled and gave his name to Cornell's Neck, called by the Indians Snakapins. He emigrated to Massachusetts from Essex, England, about 1636; kept an inn in Boston for a time; went to Rhode Island in 1641; and from there came to the Vredeland of New Netherland. On the 26th of July, 1646, he was granted by the Dutch a patent to a " certain piece of land lying on the East River, beginning from the kill of Bronck's land, east-southeast along the river, extending about half a Dutch mile from the river to a little creek over the valley (marsh) which runs back around this land." This patent for Cor nell's Neck was issued at about the same time that the grant to Adrian Van der Donck of what is now Yonkers was made. The Cornell and Van der Donck patents were the first ones of record to lands in Westchester County bestowed by Dutch authority subsequently to the Throckmorton grant of 1643. It is claimed for Thomas Cornell, of Cornell's Neck, that he was the earliest settler in Westchester County whose descendants have been continuously identified with the county to the present day. He was the ancestor of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, and Alonzo B. Cornell, governor of New York. His part in the first settlement of the county has been traced in an interesting and valuable pamphlet from the pen of Governor Cornell. Both Throckmorton and Cornell escaped the murderous fury of the Indians to which Anne Hutchinson fell a victim in the fall of 1643. It is supposed that they were in New Amsterdam at the time with their families, or at all events with some of their children. Certain it is that the infant settlement on Throgg's Neck was not spared. Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, in his " History of New England from 1630 to 1646," says: " They [the Indians] came to Mrs. Hutchinson in way of friendly neighborhood as they had been accustomed, and, taking their opportunity, they killed her and Mr. Collins, her son-in-law, . . . and all her family, and such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornell's families as were at home, in all sixteen, and put their cattle into their barns and burned them." Throckmorton did not return to the Neck to live, or at least did not make that place his permanent abode. In 1652 he disposed definitely of the whole property, conveying it, by virtue of permission petitioned for and obtained from the Dutch director-general, to one Augustine Hermans. From him are descended, according to Bolton, the Throck-Morton's of Middletown, N. J. Cornell, after receiving the grant to Cornell's Neck, erected buildings there, which he occupied until forced for the second time by hostile Indian manifestations to abandon his attempt at residence in the Vredeland. His daughter Sarah testified in September, 1665, that he " was at considerable charges in building, manuring, and planting " on Cornell's Neck, and that after some years he was " driven off the said land by the barbarous violence of the Indians, who burnt his home and goods and destroyed his cattle." This daughter, Sarah, was married in New Amsterdam on the 1st of September, 1643, to Thomas Willett. She inherited Cor nell's Neck from her father, and it remained in the possession of her descendants — the Willetts, of whom several were men of great prominence in our county — for more than a century. Thomas Cornell, after being driven away from Cornell's Neck, returned to Rhode Island, where he died in 1655.

      In the preceding pages we have consecutively traced the several known efforts at settlement along the southeastern shores of Westchester County, from the time of Jonas Bronck's purchase on the Harlem to that of Thomas Cornell's flight from the ruins of his home on Cornell's Neck, covering a period of ten years, more or less. It is a meager and discouraging record. By reference to the map, it will be observed that all these first Westchester settlements were closely contiguous to one another, and embraced a continuous extent of territory. Bronck's patent reached to the mouth of the Bronx River, and was there joined by Cornell's; beyond which, successively, were Throckmorton's grant and the domain occupied by Anne Hutchinson. It is also of interest to note that the upper boundary of the four tracts corresponded almost exactly with the present corporate limits of the City of New York on the Sound.

      CHAPTER V. THE REDOUBTABLE CAPTAIN JOHN UNDERHILL — DR. ADRIAN VAN DER DONCK

      The troubles of the Dutch with the Indians, to which frequent allusion has been made, began in 1641, as the result of a revengeful personal act, capitally illustrating the vindictiveness of the СКАЧАТЬ