In the latter manor many farms were originally leased to tenants on ninety-nineyears leases, and in some instances they have remained in the families of the same lords and the same tenants during that entire term, and upon its expiration then sold in fee. One of these farms which descended to the writer, had been divided into four parcels by the original tenant in the manner above mentioned. And ten years ago, when the niuety-nine years' lease had expired, two portions of it were still in the hands of the great-grandchildren of the first tenant. The right to purchase, though there was no obligation to do so,the term having exi)ired, was offered to them. But not wishing to profit by it, the fee was sold at public auction, and bought by an adjoining neighbor, who some years before had acquired the fee, or " soil right " of his own farm in the same way.

The quit-rents, payable to the sovereign authority, whether the Crown, or, after the Revolution, the State of New York, from all Manors, as well as the Great Patents and Small Patents, granted by the Grown, were incidents of all the Manors, as well as of the other Crown grants of eveiy kind. The term itself is derived from the Latin ' quietus redditu.o,' and signifies a rent reserved in grants of land, by the

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

payment of which the tenant is quieted, or quit, from all other service. They were at once the acknowledgment of the tenure, the holding, of the lands, from the Sovereign Authority, and the source of a part of its revenue. And this is the reason why the success of the American Revolution had no effect whatever upon quit-rents, and that they continued payable after it, just as they were before, the State succeeding to the revenue from them formerly enjoyed by the Crown.