BouxDAEY. -- The northern boundary line of Westchester County, as it is at present marked, was fixed at the time the county was erected November 1, 1683, and at the same time Long Island Sound was designated as the southern boundary, and the Hudson River a.s the western boundary. The line between New York and Connecticut has for more than two centuries been a matter of dispute between the two States, and consequently the Eastern boundary line only has a history to be traced.

In the times of the Dutch possession of New York, the question of boundary between that province and the colony of Connecticut arose. It grew out of the conflicting charters granted by the Dutch and English governments. The States-General of Holland on October 11, 1G14, gave a three years' monopoly of trade between Virginia and New France, from fortieth to forty-fifth degrees of north latitude to the United Company of Merchants. This same year a trading port was established by Christiiensen on Castle Island south of Albany. June 3, 1621, the Dutch West India Company was chartered with the exclusive privilege of traffic and planting colonies on the coast of America from the Straits of Magellan to the remotest north. Under this charter settlements were made by the Dutch in what was then called New Netherland. In 1632 the arms of the States-General were erected at Kierit's Hoeck (now Saybrook), at the mouth of the Connecticut, which had been discovered by Adriaen Block in 1()14, and called the Freshwater. The river had been periodically and exclusively visited by the Dutch traders for many years. Van Twiller, in 1633, purchased from the Indians an extensive tract of land, called the Connittelsock, lying on the west bank of the river and sixty miles from its mouth. At this point was established a trading post, called "The House of Good Hope." November 3, 1()20, King James I. incorporated "The Council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering and governing New England in America" (commonly called the Plymouth Company).