The people of the town other than the three offered to help build the bridge over the Bronx "after ye causey shall first be finisht " as the causeway would be a difficult job the governor, finding that the proposition of the three townsmen tended to greater expedition in both works, ordered that the three persons would first join the rest of the town of Fordham in making the causeway, and that afterwards they all should join in making a convenient bridge over the Bronx. The latter was to be provided with a gate on the East Chester side, so as to keep the " Hoggs " from coming over, and the people of Fordham, in consideration of their assistance, were to have the right of passing over the ferry free of charge, so long as Johannes Verveelen or his assigns enjoyed the ferry under the foregoing agreement. We may safely conclude that this order in Council was the first legislation ever made as to Williams' Bridge. The caw^tey or causeway must have been somewhere near the present route of the depot road to King's Bridge. The Farmers' Bridge is of later date, and the destruction of everything in the neighborhood by the retreating Americans and the British during the Revolution changed the whole aspect at Fordham or King's Bridge.

On May 3, 1669, Governor Lovelace gave leave to John Archer to settle sixteen families on the mainland, " near the wading-place," and ordained that whatever agreements Archer should make with the inhabitants as to their proportions of improvable lands and hamlets, he would confirm, but postjioned prescribing the limits of the settlement until he had made a visit to the place, and then he promised a patent for their further assurance.