In 1652 he was about to return io his colonie, and had already embarked his wife, mother, brother and sister, with an ample stock of goods, when the West India Company prevented his departure.' During his detention he got word that some " land-greedy " persons were squatting on his lands. He appealed to the company to protect his possession of the " flat and meadows ;" also tor leave to return to them, which was withheld until 1653. In the summer of that year he sailed for Nieuw Netherland, arriving in the autumn, and repaired to his boicerie. He did not long survive his return, dying in 1654 or 1655. The latter was the year of the Indian massacre, when all the surviving settlers about Nieuw Amsterdam fled to the fort for protection. It is probable that Van der Donck's bowerie was deserted and destroyed. In August, Stuyvesant granted to a Cornelis Van der Donck a parcel of about fifty morgens, on the north side of Manhattan Island, " by the savages called Muscoote, or a flat {anders een vlacte)" and as much meadow or hay land as was given to other boweries. This may have referred to the late Dr. Van der Donck's bowerie, but no further mention has been found of the grantee or his connection with this tract.

After the patroon's death his widow joined her father, the Rev. Francis Doughty, in "the Virginias," where she became the wife of Hugh O'Neale, of Patuxcnt, Maryland.

The province had jjassed under English rule, and nearly ten years had elapsed since the death of her first husband before Mrr. O'Xeale took any steps to reclaim the Yonkers estate. On the 2l8t of September, 16i56, she and O'Neale went before Governor NicoU and his Council, accompanied by several Indians, who had formerly owned the lands.