The grants made to the Patroons were not interfered with. Adriaen Van der Donck died in 1655, leaving to his wife the colony of Yonkers. She subsequently married Hugh O'Neal e. In 1666, Governor Nichols granted a patent to Hugh O'Neale and Mary, his wife, confirming the rights of Van der Donck. There were a number of subsequent transfers of the title to these lands, until they became vested in Frederick Philipse, and a royal charter confirming the same was

I granted in 1693. Frederick Philipse was from East Friesland, in Holland, and had emigrated to New

I Amsterdam at an early day, becoming a successful merchant there. He purchased land of the Indians north of Y^onkers in 1681, 1682 and 1684, including the jjresent township of Greenburgh. In 1680 and 1684 he purchased portions of the township of Mount Pleasant, and in 1685 he purchased the lauds of the present township of Ossining. Thus the great tract of the Philipse manor was brought into an individual ownership.

North of the Croton River the Indians sold lands to a number of parties at various dates. The titles to the most of these lands were afterward secured by Stephanus Van Cortlandt, and were confirmed to him by royal charter in 1697. The Van Courtlandt manor, containing eighty-three thousand acres of land, was thus established, and was held by feudal tenure, requiring an annual payment to the crown.'

Under the fostering care of the Philipse and Van Courtlandt families, the settlement of the lands along the Hudson rapidly progressed. English families mingled with the Dutch to a considerable extent, but the Holland emigrants greatly, outnumbered them, so that, in the people and their habits, customs and character, the settlements along the Hudson were active with the occupations and reflected the quiet scenes of the homes that had been left behind the dykes that inclosed the mouths of the Rhine and shut out the Nortli Sea.