History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900

The various quit-rents exacted were, for the Manor of Pelham, as originally patented to Thomas Pell, " one lamb on the first day of May (if the lamb shall be demanded) "; for Pelham, as repatented to John Pell, "twenty shillings, good and lawful money of this province, at the City of New York, on the five and twentieth day of March"; for Fordham, " twenty bushels of good peas, upon the first day of March, when it shall be demanded"; for Philipseburgh, "on the feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, . . . the annual rent of four pounds twelve shillings current money of our said province"; for Morrisania, "on the feast day of the Annunciation of our Blessed Virgin, . . . the annual rent of six shillings"; for Cortlandt, " on the feast day of our Blessed Virgin Mary, the yearly rent of forty shillings, current money of our said province"; and for Scarsdale, " five pounds current money of New York, upon the nativity of our Lord." Appended to most of the quit-rent leases was the significant statement that the prescribed payment was to be "in lieu of all rents, services, and demands whatever," apparently inserted to emphasize the well-understood fact that the manor grants were strictly in the line of public policy, and were in no way intended to become a source of revenue to the government.

The importance of the manorial proprietorships in Westchester County, in their relations to its political and social character and to its eventful history for a hundred years, can not be overestimated. All the founders of the six manors were men of forceful traits, native ability, and wide influence. With a single exception,1 they left their estates, entirely undiminished and unimpaired, either to children or to immediate kinsmen, who in turn, by their personal characters and In consequence i John Archer, of Fordham. of financial complications, his manor did not remain in his family.