These were originally laid out in parallel narrow strips, containing each from fifty to sixty acres, and distinguished from the southern, by the name of the eastern and western divisions. Many of the early settlers had double lots, and some from eight to ten, amounting to four or five hundred acres in all.

The southern division of the town was also laid out in a similar manner, the lots running frum the south side of the Boston turnpike to the Sound. Among the descendants of the ancient

• Stedman's Hiitory of the American war.

b This seat was formerly occupied by Jacob Leisler's mill, while the neck on the eaat waa called Leisler's neck.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 441

proprietors, who still occupy the original strips or farms, may be enumerated, in the west division, the Contants,^ the Drakes, who represent the Parcots,i> the Badeaiis,c and the Secors. In the east division are the Bonnetts,d Sonlices,e Secors,^ and Scurmans.g In the southern, the Guions, Le Counts, Rhinelanders and FJandreausJ'

The farm of Mr. Nehemiah Purdy, in the eastern division, formerly belonged to the notorious Thomas Paine, having been conveyed to the latter by the State government for services he had rendered the country during her struggle for indcpnndence. This remarkable man was the son of a Quaker, a stay-maker by trade, and was born at I'hetford, Norfolk, England, in 1737. His mother was the daughter of an attorney, herself a member of the Church of England. In her religious principles the son appears to have been educated, for we find lie was confirmed at the usual age by the Bishop of jNorwich, After leaving school, (at the early age of thirteen,) Paine embraced his father's trade as a stay-maker, in which ho continued five years. He next ventured on a sea-faring life.