Oloff was a native of the provinc ed to have suppos is and on, in Holland, possessed a good educati gh nothalthou t descen gentle not if been of thoroughly respectable a brief time hm- definite is known of his ancestry. After remaining nted by in'the military service in New Amsterdam, he was .appoi in 1648 to ened resign he which from n, positio official Kieft to he was very suco-age in mercantile and brewing pursuits, wherein <^ He was ^-- ,on acquiring a large fortune. most uninterruptedly from 1655 to the English conquest. At the time of the surrender of the province to Nicolls he was one of the Dutch commissioners to negotiate the terms of the capitulation. Under the English government he continued to be a prominent and influential citizen until his death (April 4, 1684). He married Annetje Lockermans on the 26th of February, 1642, and by her had seven children, VAX CORTLANDT MANOR HOUSE, CROTON. three sons and four daughters.1 Of these children Stephanus, the eldest (born May 7, pro164:?), and Jacobus, the youngest (born July 7, 1658), were theStephgenitors of all the Van Cortlandts of subsequent generations; anus being the founder of the so-called elder Van Cortlandt branch, t- Stephanus, whose history is given in the text; Maria, married Jeremias Van Rensselaer; Johannes, died a bachelor; Sophia, married Andries Teller: Catherina, married, first, John

Dervall, and, second. Frederick Philipse the first; Cornelia, married Brandt Schuyler: and Jacobus, noticed in the text.

PHILTPSES

COKTLAXDTS

of Cortlandt Manor, and Jacobus (who married Eva, stepdaughter of the first Frederick Philipse) the founder of the younger or Yonkers branch. Stephanus, a native-born Dutch-American, received an excellent education under the direction of the scholarly Dutch clergymen of New Amsterdam. He had just become of age when the English fleet, in 10(34, in the name of the British king and of James, Duke of York, demanded and received the submission of New Netherland.