To the death of Stephanus van Cortlandt so shortly after the erection of his lands into a Manor, is probably to be ascribed the fact, that there are no records to show whether he ever organized his Manorial Courts. The probability is, from the then sparseness of the inhabitants, that he did not. Nor before his death, was there sufficient time to have introduced very many new settlers. We know however that all the privileges and franchises of the Manor, general and political, were enjoyed by his heirs, or their assigns during the whole Colonial era.

It will be remembered, that, by the terms of the surrender of New Netherland to the English under Nicolls in 1664, and afterwards under the j)rovisions of the treaty of Breda in 1667, the Roman-Dutch law of inheritance was guaranteed to the new Netherland colonists. Hence it was, that when Stephanus Van Cortlandt died on the 25th of November, 1700, his will made on the 14th of the preceding April, was found to be in accordance with that law, and not with the law of England. Very ample and honorable provisions was made for his wife, both, in case she wished to marry again, or in case she did not, the latter of which proved to be the case, although she outlived her husband nearly four and twenty years. The peninsula of Verplanck's Point was devised to his eldest son Johannes, and all the rest of his property of all kinds was divided equally among all his surviving children, eleven in number, including Johannes. The devise of Verplanck's Point was all that Johannes received in addition to the others in virtue of his being the eldest son.^ Had it not been for the terms of surrender and the treaty this eminently just will could not have been made, nor could the action under it which the widow and children adopted, have been taken.