Philipse Patent

Map of Philipse Patent (showing the Oblong and Gore)
Breakneck Ridge is one of the most scenic features of the Hudson Highlands on the Patent's western extreme along the Hudson River

The Philipse Patent was a large tract of land purchased by Adolphus Philipse, a wealthy landowner of Dutch descent in the Province of New York, which became today's Putnam County.

Bought from two Dutch traders and Royally sanctioned as the Highland Patent in 1697, it encompassed some 250 square miles spanning from the Hudson River to the then Connecticut Colony along the northern Westchester County border. It was divided in 1754 among heirs but remained in the Philipse family until seized during the American Revolution. The Commissioners of Forfeitures auctioned it in parcels, without compensation to its prior owners.

Purchase

Adolphus Philipse (1665-1749), son of Frederick, first Lord of the Manor of Philipsborough

Adolphus was the second son of Frederick Philipse, the first Lord of the Manor of Philipsborough, a Dutch immigrant to North America of Bohemian heritage who had risen to become one of the greatest landholders in the New Netherlands.

In 1697 he Philipse purchased a tract of land from Dutch traders Lambert Dortlandt and Jan Sybrandt, who had bought it a few years before from several Wiccopee chiefs. This became known as the Highland Patent,[1] and extended approximately 13 miles along the east shore of the Hudson River, from Annsville Creek to the Fish Kill, and eastward some 20 or so miles to the border of the Colony of Connecticut, including Pollopel Island in the Hudson.[2][3]

Shortly after purchasing it, Philipse, whose residence was the Philipse Manor Hall near Tarrytown, and who maintained only a bachelor shooting lodge on Lake Mahopac in the Highland Patent, opened the tract to tenant settlers. Thus began a policy that lasted throughout his lifetime and his heirs' so long as they owned the land,[2] to rent rather than sell, a practice which led to stunted growth for two and a half centuries to come.

Inheritance

Map of Philipsburg Manor with current borders overlaid on the property

Upon Frederick's death in 1702, Adolphus inherited a partial share of the Manor's lands,[2] which then amounted to over 80 square miles and encompassed the bulk of today's lower Westchester County. The title and balance of the lands passed to his nephew, Frederick Philipse II, whose father Philip, elder brother of Adolphus, had predeceased Frederick I.

Division

Adolphus Philipse died in 1750 (Smith, 1749), with the Highland Patent passing to Frederick II, his only heir-at-law. Upon Frederick II's death in 1751, the Manor went to his son Frederick Philipse III, while the Patent was divided among four of Frederick II's offspring: son Philip Philipse, and daughters, Susannah (wife of Beverley Robinson), Mary (wife of Col. Roger Morris), and Margaret, who died intestate.

By terms of her father's will Margaret's portion was then equally divided among her brother and sisters. After a 1751 survey, the tract was geographically divided into nine Lots as seen in the preserved undated pen and ink map (bearing a survey date as late as 1771): three on the river, three in the interior, and three on the eastern border abutting the Oblong. Each of the three heirs inherited a lot in each division.[4][5]

Seizure

John Jacob Astor purchased the rights to Mary Philipse's share of the Patent in 1809

Frederick was a Loyalist during the American Revolution. As such, he was attained by the Provincial Congress of New York in 1779 and his Manor and other lands in today's Westchester County were seized.[6] Several months later their sale was ordered.[7]

Philipse family holdings belonging to other members, principally the Highland Patent, were also seized by the Commissioners of Forfeitures. Sale was withheld during the war, as its outcome was uncertain, confiscated lands had been pledged as collateral against monies borrowed by the provisional government to finance the conflict,[8] and tenants lobbied for the right of preemptive purchase of leased land.[9]

Sale proceeded after the Revolution ended. In spite of assurances of restitution in the 1783 Treaty of Paris signed with the British,[10] and the enormous sum raised – the better part of a quarter of a million pounds Sterling[11] – New York's Provisional Congress reneged and no compensation was forthcoming.[12]

Several thousand acres of the Philipse estate went to the tenant farmers who worked on the land.[13] In all, the lands were divided up into almost 200 different parcels, with the bulk of the holdings going to Dutch New York businessman Henry Beekman.

In 1787, a British court decided that the inheritance rights of heirs to property that was confiscated by the Americans during the American Revolution was recoverable. Under this decision, John Jacob Astor I purchased the reversionary rights to the Philipse lands in 1809 from the heirs of Roger Morris (husband of Mary Philipse) for £20,000. After Mary Philipse Morris died in 1825, Astor attempted to collect rents on the lands, but the new “owners,” who had purchased from the lands from the NY Commission of Forfeiture, refused to pay, and Astor tried to evict them. A compromise was reached in 1828 when NY State compensated Astor for the reversionary rights in the amount of $500,000.[14][15]

Incorporation

East Branch Reservoir in the town of Southeast

The Highland Patent had been incorporated into Dutchess County in 1737,[16] where it was known as the "South Precinct." In 1806 a very small portion north of the Hudson Highlands by the mouth of Fishkill Creek was split off to from Philipstown (which had been established in 1788 out of the westernmost three and part of a fourth parcel of the Philipse Patent) and given to the Town of Fishkill.[17] In 1812 the balance of the Philipse Patent was separated from Dutchess County and became today's Putnam County.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Historical and Genealogical Record Dutchess and Putnam Counties New York, Press of the A. V. Haight Co., Poughkeepsie, New York, 1912; pp. 62-79 "Adolph Philipse having thus acquired the title from the original owners, proceeded at once to take the necessary steps for obtaining a patent for his lands, and presented a petition to Benjamin Fletcher, who was then governor of the Province of New York, which was granted June 17, 1697. While the Indian deed to Dorlandt and Sebring and the subsequent transfers only conveyed the land extending back from the Hudson River to a marked tree on the line of the Rombout Patent, or "Land of Cortlandt and Company," the patent of Governor Fletcher conveyed all the land between the river and the boundary line between New York and Connecticut. To confirm his title to this additional tract Adolph Philipse obtained a new Indian deed in 1702."
  2. 1 2 3 Philipse Family Adolphus Philipse, (The Patent)
  3. 1 2 Smith, Philip Henry, General History of Putnam County: From 1609 to 1876, inclusive, published by the author, Pawling, NY, 1877, p. 44
  4. ↑ Pelletreau, William, S, History of Putnam County, New York – With Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men, W.W. Preston & Company, Philadelphia, 1886 https://archive.org/details/historyofputnamc00pell History of Putnam County, New York
  5. ↑ French's Gazetteer of the State of New York (1860): “The Philipses Patent… divided among the remaining three [children] Philip… Susannah married to Beverly Robinson, and Mary married to Col. Roger Morris. On the 7th of Feb 1754, the patent was divided into 9 lots: 3, each 4 mi. square, bordering upon the Hudson and denominated ‘water lots;’ 3, each 4 mi. wide by 12 long, extending N. and S. across the patent, and denominated ‘long lots;’ 3, each 4 mi. square, upon the E. border denominated ‘back lots.’ Philip, Susannah and Mary Philipse each owned one of each kind of lots.
  6. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture “An Act for the forfeiture and sale of the estates of those who have adhered to the enemies of this state” was passed by the Provincial Congress on October 22, 1779. The law seized the land of fifty-nine loyalists, and, if they were found guilty of loyalism, banished them from the State of New York upon penalty of “death without benefit of Clergy.”(5) Among those attainted was Frederick Philipse, owner of the Manor of Philipsburg, the largest tract of land in Westchester County.(6) Also on October 22, 1779, writes historian Vivienne L. Ratner, “the Governor was authorized to appoint Commissioners of Forfeitures to dispose of the confiscated estates,” with tenant farmers, “who had leased…and improved the land,” given first priority to purchase their tracts."
  7. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture “A law passed on March 10, 1780, called for the immediate sale of portions of the forfeited lands to pay for apparel and provisions needed by the troops.(8) On March 18, 1780, the United States Congress passed an Act which mandated the issuance of new currency, backed by the credit of the states to which the bills were allotted. Each state was to pay off one-sixth of the bills annually. On June 15, 1780, the New York legislature reserved the larger of the forfeited estates, including that of Frederick Philipse, as collateral for the redemption of the bills issued by New York in pursuance of the act of Congress of March 18, 1780. The Commissioners of Forfeitures, however, were not permitted to sell any of the mortgaged lands until further instructions from the Provincial Congress."
  8. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture "Sales of the estates set aside on June 15, 1780, and of other forfeited lands were authorized by the state legislature on October 7, 1780. The Governor was to appoint commissioners to sell forfeited lands for gold, silver, or Congressional bills of credit, in order to pay off one-sixth the bills issued in pursuance of the act of Congress of March 18, 1780. These early transactions were not conducted by the Commissioners of Forfeitures, but rather by “commissioners of specie” who bridged the gap between the Commissioners of Sequestration and the Commissioners of Forfeitures. The majority of the forfeited estates, however, were not disposed of until after the conclusion of the war."
  9. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture "On March 31, 1781, the right of tenants to preemption of purchase of their farms was again affirmed and the procedure for such sales further described. An act of the Provincial Congress on April 14, 1782, mandated that none of the seized lands in the Southern District was to be sold 'until the further order of the legislature.'"
  10. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture "'Article V of the peace treaty signed by Britain and the United States in Paris on September 3, 1783, insists on 'the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects” and to noncombatant loyalists. Tories who fought the United States were to be given one year to reclaim their property and leave the country. Payments were to be made to loyalists whose estates had already been sold. Article VI prohibited any future confiscations."
  11. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture "The Commissioners of Forfeitures ceased operation on September 1, 1788, by an act of March 21, 1788. They had sold nearly all the tracts of land entrusted to them, raising large amounts of revenue for the state of New York. Philipse Manor alone brought in ?234,170 18 s.
  12. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture "Many citizens of New York, however, still harbored strong resentment against the loyalists, leading the Provincial Congress to effectively nullify the Treaty of Paris of 1783 by an act of May 12, 1784."
  13. ↑ Description of the Abstract of Sales, Commissioners of Forfeiture "These farmers were not poor as one might expect. A combination of advantageous economic and geographic circumstances ensured that few Westchester County farmers had financial problems; many were well-to-do and some agricultural families were quite wealthy.(15) When tenant farmers could not afford or did not wish to purchase their lands, the tracts were sold to wealthy landowners, Revolutionary leaders, and businessmen from New York City.(16) Most of the buyers of confiscated estates were men. The only women to buy tracts of forfeited estates in the Southern District were either widows or administratrices of estates, or were pooling their resources with male family members to purchase a tract of land."
  14. ↑ Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site website:
  15. ↑ French's Gazetteer of the State of New York (1860): "In 1809, John Jacob Astor bought the interest of the heirs of Morris for this property for f20,000" and brought suit against the State. "The State to protect those who held title from the Commissioners of Forfeiture, passed a law, April 16, 1827, directing 5 suits to be prosecuted to judgment in the Circuit Court of New York for review and final decision. If against the defendants, the State agreed to pay $450,000 in 5 per cent stock, redeemable at pleasure; and if the decision included improvements that had been made by occupants, $250,000 more. Three suits were tried, each resulting in favor of Astor; upon which the comptroller was, by act of April 5, 1832, directed to issue stock for the full amount, with costs. The amount issued was $561,500. Few suits have been tried in the State involving larger interests to greater numbers, or which were argued with more ability, than this."
  16. ↑ Seven Hills Lake history: "In 1737, the Colonial Assembly designated the Philipse Patent as the South Precinct of Dutchess County, and the Philipses began leasing farms to immigrants from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island and lower Westchester."
  17. ↑ Putnam County Online: Boundary Changes
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