Olaf was then elected Schepen at a salary of two hundred fifty guilders ; sent to Esopus, up the Hudson, to make a treaty with the Indians; then to Connecticut to fix the boundary line; then out to Jamaica to treat with the English who demanded Long Island. Olaf was the burgomaster of New York when the English fleet arrived, and one of six who met with the English to agree upon Manhattan's surrender. "Old Burgomaster Van Cortlandt" ruled New York as much after the English took it as he had under the Dutch. He had grown wealthy and in 1642 had married Annetje Loockermans, the sister of Govert Loockermans who had come from Holland with the great Van Twiller. Two sons were born to them--Stephanus and Jacobus. Stephanus Van Cortlandt was born in what is now Stone Street, Manhattan, on May 7, 1643 and was baptized three days later in the Old Dutch Church in the Fort of New Amsterdam. He married Gertrude Schuyler, the daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler of Albany on September 10, 1671. Jacobus, his younger brother, married Eva Philipse and was the founder of the Yonkers branch of the Van Cortlandt family. His wife's father was Frederick Philipse, first lord of the Manor of Philipseburgh which was assembled tract by tract from 1672 to 1693 and established as a manor by June 12, 1693.

While this was being done, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was moving fast to establish an empire of his own. He was twenty-one when the English fleet took New Amsterdam. His father's career inspired him ; and at the age of thirty-four, six years after his marriage, he was elected mayor of New York. He must have succeeded beyond question for it is recorded in history that the public life of Stephanus Van Cortlandt was "undoubtedly the first brilliant career that any native of New York ever ran." It is interesting to learn that this man was not only mayor of New York, but that he and Nicholas Bayard drafted the