a The legislature of Connecticut, (says the historian Trumbull,) determining to secure as far as possible the lands within the limits of their charter, authorized one Thomas Pell to purchase of the Indian proprietors all that tract between Westchester and Hudson's river, and the waters which made the Manhadoes an Island ; and resolved that it should be added to Westchester, 1G63. -- Trumbull's Hist, of Connecticut, 273.

b Alb. Assize Rec. p. 15.

c Col. Thomas Willett was the son of the Hon. Thonias Willett, first mayor of the city of New York, in 1GC5,

156 HISTORY OF THE

of land contained within a neck, commonly called and known by the name of CorneWs neck^ bounded on the west by a certain rivulet that runs to the black rock, and so into Bronx's river."* From William WiUett, the neck passed to his brother Thomas Willett, who conveyed the same to his son William Willett. The latter was the father of Isaac AVillett, Esq., high sheriff of this county in 173S.i^ Cornell's neck is now owned by the families of Ludlow, Clason, and Beach.

Prior to 1647 we have seen that " Vredeland," (W^estchester) was settled under grants from the Dutch. But, about this period, a number of Puritans from Connecticut must have commenced a settlement, for, at a meeting of the New England commissioners, and Governor Stuyvesant, on the 19th of September, 1650, the latter complained of the English encroachments upon Westchester, and asserted that the " West India Company of Amsterdam, had bought and paid for the lands in question, of the right proprietors, the native Americans, before any other nation either bought or pretended right thereunto; he also affirmed he had proof of the first Dutch purchase."" Under the apprehension that the English settlements might be connected with the claim of jurisdiction, it was determined (by the Dutch) to remonstrate against it.