" Know all men by these presents, that I, Stephanus van Cortlandt, of the city of New York, merchant, being distempered in body, but of good, sound and firm memory, praised be Almighty God therefor, do make, ))ublish, and declare ; this my last will and testament, (this 14th day of April, in the yeai* of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, one thousand and seven hundred, in the twelfth year of the reign of our sovereign lord William the Third, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, defender of the faith, (fcc.,) in manner and form following, that is to say, I bequeath my soul into the hands of the Almighty God, my heavenly Father, from whom I received it, and by whom of his mere

a MS. Vol. City Rec.

b Moulton's Sketch of New Orange.

c O'Callaghan's Hist. N. N. 212.

54 HISTORY OF THE

grace I trust to be saved and received into His eternal rest, through the merits of my dear Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ. My body, in hopes of a joyful resurrection, I commit to the earth, to be buried in such decent manner and form as my executrix hereafter named, shall think fit and convenient," (Sec.

Touchinor the distribution of what real estate it hath pleased God to endow me withal in this world, I devise to my eldest son Johannes van Gortlandt :

" All that neck and parcel of land on the east side of the Hudson River, at the entering of the highlands over against a certain place called Haverstraw, which is known to the Indians by the name of Meanagh, (Verplanck's Point,) separated from my other lands known to the Indians by the name of Appamaghpogh, by a certain creek called Meanagh, and bounded on the other side by the creek that runs between my land and the land of Richard Abramse and others, together with the rneadows that lie on said neck : to have and to hold said neck of land and premises, with their appurtenances, to the said Johannes, my son, his heirs and assigns forever.