In testimony whereof, we have caused the great seal of our said Province to be hereunto affixed: witness our said trusty and well-beloved Colonel Benjamin Fletch-

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

er, our said Captain General and Governor-in-chief of our Province of New York and the territories depending thereon in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, our Lieutenant and Commander in-chief of the militia and of all the forces by sea and land within our Colony of Connecticut, and of all the forts and places of strength within the same, in council at our fort in New York, the 17th day of June, in the ninth year of our reign, Anno Domini, 1G9T. Benjamin Fletcher, by his Excellency's commaud. David Jamison, Secretary-"

The following receipt for manorial quit-rent is endorsed, on the Royal Patent:

Received in quality, as Receiver General of this Province, this 1 6th day of August, 1720, of Mrs. Gertrude Van Cortlandt, executrix of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, deceased, the sum of eight pounds proclamation money in full of quit-rents, for all the lands lying within the Manor of Cortlandt, to the 25th day of March last, pursuant to the within patent, as witness my hand. J. BYERLY, Collector.

Stephanus Van Cortlandt, first lord of the Manor of Cortlandt, was the son of the Hon. Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt, immediately descended from one of the most noble families in Holland, their ancestors having emigrated thither, when deprived of the sovereignty of Cortlandt. b

The orthography of the surname is properly Corte-landt; the first syllable Corte or Korte, meaning in the Dutch language short;6 the second, landt, (land) literally the short land, a term expressing the peculiar form of the ancient Duchy of Courland in Russia.