In one of his papers he states that before 1649 he built a sawmill on the estate, besides laying out a farm and plantation; and that, having chosen Spuyten Duyvil as his place of residence, he had begun to build there and to place the soil under cultivation. His sawmill was located at the mouth of the Nepperhan Kiver, and from its presence that stream was called by the Dutch " De Zaag Kill," whence comes its present popular name of the Sawmill River. Van der Donck's plantation, " a flat, with some convenient meadows about it," was located about a mile above Kingsbridge, near where the Van Cortlandt mansion now stands. " On the flat just behind the present grove of locusts, north of the old mill, he built his bouwerie, or farmhouse, with his plantingfield on the plain, extending to the southerly end of Vault Hill." It is not probable that Van der Donck lived for any considerable time upon his lands in our county. He was a man of prominence in Fort Amsterdam, was its first lawyer, and soon became busied with its local affairs in a public-spirited manner, which led to his embroilment in contentions with the ruling authorities, and, in that connection, to his departure for Europe and protracted absence there. In the spring of 1G49 he was selected a member of the advisory council of the " Nine Men," a body chosen by the popular voice to assist in the general government. In this capacity he at once took strong ground against the tyrannical conduct of the new director, Stuyvesant, and, in behalf of the Nine, drew up a memorial, or remonstrance, reciting the abuses under which the people of New NethStuyvesant at first treated this action of his counsuffered. erland cilors with arbitrary vindictiveness, and caused Van der Donck to be arrested and imprisoned.