" In the name of God, Amen, I, Stephen Dc Lancey, a reader of divine service of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Beeckmantown, in the county of Dutchess, and State of New York, esquire, and first principally I do commit my precious immortal, and never-dying soul into the hands of my most merciful Creator, whose I am and whom I desire to serve in the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,Who giveth life and health and all things ; hoping, trusting, and relying only on the most meritorious satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ, before whose dreadful tribunal I and all mankind must appear and give a strict account of all their works, whether they be good or whether they are evil, and Who, I trust and am persuaded, shed His most precious blood on the altar of the cross for my eternal salvation, &c, &c. In conclusion, he desires his body may be buried under the chancel of the church at Beeckmantown, unless his brother should order otherwise,'' &c.°

John Peter De Lancey, by his last will, dated the 28th of January, 1823, devised all his farms and lands at North Salem, in fee (subject to the leases of the same) to his three daughters, Elizabeth Caroline, Martha' Arabella and Susan Augusta De Lancey, wife of James Fenimore Cooper, Esq. From them, their father, or their uncle, Stephen De Lancey, the title, to all the lands in this town, except in the "oblong," is derived. Prior to 1731, that part of the township of Salem called " North Salem," consisted only of a tract of land about four miles square, the same being a part of Courtland's Manor. Subsequently that portion of the oblong lying east of it, was also included in the township of North Salem, thus