" Sealed, signed and delivered in the presents of us "
Corneilass
the marku of
his marke
Shapham
.Joshua Kuapp
Cokenseko
the marke of
(>ruwai.mm
Motepeatehou
Kewctoham
Koawanoh
John Odell
BIoahpoat<h
his marke
Patthunk
Ifohornis
Sotonge
owhorawas
orauiaimah."
"ThisbiUof .sille is acknowledged by the granters to be their acfct " and deed before me in Rye the day and yere aboue written.
" Joseph Hokton
" Coniissioneer,"
This purchase was immediately followed by the actual occupation of the uewly-actjuired territory, though not without opposition ; for the Rye people were met by the claims of Johii Richbell, who, ia
WHITE
10(10, had purchased from an Indian three necks of land lying ix'lween Stony IJrook and Araniaroncck | River. Richhcli's pureliase had been confirmed by the Dutch government of New Amsterdam in ltiG2, and subsequently, in 16G8, together " with the land lying north twenty miles into the woods," by the government of New York, so far as the lands were included in the i)rovince of New York. Hence historians generally have regarded the Rye people as mere squatters, without right or title to the soil of the White Plains, and indebted, finally, to the kindness of Colonel Caleb Ileathcotc, the grantee of the Kichbcll title, for undisturbed possession of this goodly torritor}'. If we pause here to make a careful examination of the grounds upon which the respective claims to these lands by the rival purchasers, and by New Amsterdam and New England, were based, we shall find that this commonly accepted idea is erroneous.