History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
It is set, however, with a number of good houses "and e.xcellent farms." -- Ibid, iii., 487.-- Of the County, as a wliole, he wrote thus : " It is universally settled, so far as the nature of tlie ground " will admit ; and is almost merely a collection of Farms."-- /fctii, iii., 4*9.
We have resorted, also, to our own recollections of Westchester-oounty, which extend far beyond that day when the quiel and the morals of the County were first distiirbed by the rush of a train of railioad.cars and the screeching of a locomotive, within its territory.
* In the Autumn of 17C1», it was stated in the Assembly that the Manors of Philips<!borongh and Cortlandt, exclusive cif all other portions uf the County, contained "one-third of the people m tlie County ; " but the number of Freeholders was somewhat increased, during the later Colonial period, as it was the practice of the greater numberof the Proprietors to sell the fee-simple, whenever it was applied for. -- Edicard F. de Lancey to Htnry B. Dawson.
5 An instance of the permanence of occupation, by tenants on the Jlanors, is seen in the Ciise of the .\njevines, thus referred to by Mr. Bolton : " Under the Heathcotes and De Laiiceys, the Anjeviues held "the large farm," [in Scarsdale,} "bearing their name, now owned by "Alexander M. Bnien, M.D., for four Generations." -- History of Westchester Comi^i/, second edition, ii., 231.
.\lthough the Manors of Livingston and Rensselaerwyck and the Scott and Blenheim and Duanesbnrg and Clark and Kortright and Uanleiiburg and Desbro&.ses and Livingston and Montgomery and .Vrmstrong and Banyar and Hunter andOvering and Lewis and Verplanck and other Patents were not in Westchester-connty, the relations of landlord and tenant were the same, unless in the rentals, in all ; and they were the same iis those which generally prevailed on the Manors and other largo estates, in Westchester-connty.