The old Dutch Church records state that in the absence ol a minister Jan Ecker was appointed to conduct the funeral service "in a Christian manner, and that he walk before the procession to the grave." Jan Acker was one of the Deacons chosen at the organization of the old Dutch Church, 1697, and served as Elder 1702-4. The old survey of the Post Road, date 1723, indicates that the residence of Jan Ecker was north-east from the corner of present Broadway and Bedford Road, the road passing on the east side of the house, it being the place afterwards occupied by Cornelius Jones.

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I he Van 1 assel Family.

To tell the story of Phil ipse Manor'without a sketch of the Van Tassel Family would be like leaving Hamlet out of the play. They were one of the most numerous and conspicuous families oftheManorial period, and were the very impersonation of some of its most marked characteristics. The blood of Thor was in their veins and their struggle for freedom in Friesland had made them veritable sons of Mars. Whereever a Van Tassel waved his gonfalon it was the signal for an onset against the enemy, and in the border warfare that waged with such fierceness on this Manor during the Revolution they were ever in the fore front.

Jan Cornelius Van Tassel was the first of that name, known to have come to New Netherland. Among the first settlers to locate upon Philipse Manor, were John, Jacob and Cornelius Van Tassel, sons ol the first mentioned. They were the 38th, 53d and 73d persons whose names appear upon the roll of members of the old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. Dirck, the son of Cornelius, was the 25th person baptised previous to 1699. In 1723 lie married at the church in Hackensack, N.