S., or about seventyfive years before the manor-house was built.

As we have previously shown, when Stephanus Van Cortlandt became full proprietor of the grand domain, it was erected into the Lordship and Manor of Cortlandt, by royal charter, bearing the date of June 17, 1697. That charter, written on parchment, and preserved at the manor-house, with the circular tin box containing the crumpled royal seal, has upon it a well engraved portrait of the royal grantor, King William III, of England, &c.

Tradition says that for the purpose of surveying the lands to be included in the royal charter of 1697, Stephanus Van Cortlandt started from the Croton in a per-i-auger, having on board a party of surveyors, accompanied by several Indians, who were designed to act as pioneers ; proceeding up the Hudson, they disembarked at St. Anthony's Nose where the Indians were immediately started on a day's walk, or journey, as they termed it, into the wilderness (20 English miles) to mark the northern and eastern boundaries of the eighty-three thousand acres to be included in the grand domain. Van Cortlandt and some of the party remaining on St. Anthony's Nose near the red cedar tree which was to mark the north-west corner of Cortlandt manor, and the southernmost bounds of Adolph Philips's patent, and now marks the dividing lines between Westchester and Putnam counties.

The manor-house is distinguished not only for its antiquity, but for the character of its tenantry, guests, and its scenes. Its earlier owners were notable men in the annals of the Province and State of New York. Doubtless at the table, there sat most of the Provincial Governors, from Hunter and Ingolsby down to Colden, at the kindling of the Revolution, with whom the Van Cortlandt's sympathized. The career of Leisler had drawn party lines very distinctly, and some of the governors could not have been welcome at the manor-house.