Hiker, the historian of Harlem, states that in the original records of that villag e ids name occasionally appears in connection with Fordhani and s imilar matters, and that it is invariably written "Jan Arcer." It is supposed by Riker and others that he came from Amsterdam, Ilo Hand, and that marrying in this country an Englishwoman, and livi ng in an English-speaking settlement, he ultimately anglicized his original Dutch name into John Archer. His purchase in 1667 from Doughty o f lands below Kingsbridge was but one step toward the final acquire meiit of a handsome estate. Ml this property, with the comprising (Bolton says) 1,253 acres, exception of the hundred odd acres sol< 1 to him by Doughty, was bought from the Indians. There still survives the record of an Indian deed to him of Territory running from Papirinemen down to a point on the Harlem, and extending to the Bronx. This pur-

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KINGSBRIDGE.1

chase, which made him the sole owner probably as far south as High Bridge, was effected on the 2Sth of September, 1669, the consideration given by him to the Indians being " 13 coats of Duffels, one-halfe anchor of Runie, 2 cans of Brandy, wine with several other small matters to ye value of 60 guilders wampum." The lands which he bought from Doughty in L66T, and other adjacent lands which he possessed, were leased by him in twenty and twenty-four acre parcels to such persons as would clear and cultivate them, and accordingly became occupied in 1668-69 by a number of former Harlem residents. A little settlement sprang up which, says Edsall in his "History of Kingsbridge," was located " on the upland just across the meadow from Papirinemen." The place, from being near the " fording place," was called Fordhani. " It had the countenance and protection of 1 The