I told them that their argument might pass with such as knew nothing of the matter, but that I knew better; for that to my certain knowledge they might have had a patent had they not rejected it; and that it was so far from being done in haste or in the dark, that not a boy in the whole Town, nor almost in the County, but must have heard of it ; and that I must always be a witness against them, not only of the many messages they have had from the Government about it, but likewise from myself " * * * * " I told them as to the last purchase wherein I was concerned, if that gave them any dissatisfaction, that I would not only quit my claim, but use my interest in getting them any part of it they should desire. Their answer was, they valued not that; it was Harrison's Patent that was their ruin."*

* iT. Col. Hist. G27.

5 Vol. xii. p. 36 of the Col. Mss. in Sec. of State's office, Albany. It is printed in Baird's Hist, of Rye, p. 100.

MAMARONECK.

Some five years after the granting of the West Patent to Robert Walter and his associates in 1701, the southern part of it on the Byram River was, in derogation of their rights, granted to Anne Bridges and four others of the town of Rye. The West Patentees remained quietly in possession however of all their territory. About twenty-three years after the issuing of the West Patent, and about two after Colonel Heathcote's death, a suit in ejectment was brought, by the persons named in the Bridges grant of 1705-6 against Robert Walter and other owners of the West Patent. The resisons for it are now unknown as the latter had never been disturbed in the possession of their lands by any-body.