Fanning and said : ' I find our business here must terminate, for nothing can be effected in this place, so we will return;' which they did by taking a short and hasty farewell, and embarked on board the sloop and returned to New York. This was in the year 1774.""

The patriot suffered for his principles during the war that ensued. His wife, Joanna Livingston, fled before the invading British to Livingston's manor. The house was plundered. Even carved wainscoting was carried away, and made to grace a mansion in New York; and the Dutch tiles around a fireplace were taken out and used as dining plates.

Gov. Van Cortlandt died in 1814, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His son, Philip, who was a distinguished officer in the Continental army during the War for Independence, was the last heir of the entail. He kept up the hospitalities of the mansion until his death, in 1831 ; when the estate passed into the possession of its present owner, Col. Pierre Van Cortlandt (son of Philip's third brother, Gen. Pierre Van Cortlandt), who inherited it from his uncle. This gentleman married Catharine, daughter of the late eminent Dr. Theodrick Romeyn Beck, of Albany. He became the first proprietor of the estate in fee simple. Like their predecessors, he and his accomplished wife dispense a refined hospitality to friends and strangers.

The Manor house contains interesting pictures, manuscripts and relicts of the past. There may be seen full-length portraits of the earlier Van Cortlandts in their younger days -- one representing John Van Cortlandt as a boy of about twelve years of age, dressed in a long blue coat reaching to the knees, with large cuffs turned up to the elbows, knee breeches, scarlet stockings, high shoes and silver buckles, his right hand resting on a stag.