Adolph Philipse, moreover, was never an intense partisan; and his long-continued service as speaker of the assembly is sufficient testimony to the general fairness and acceptability of his political disposition. He always adhered to the simple religious faith in which he had been brought up, that of the Dutch Reformed Church, although the Church of England increasingly claimed the attachment of the rich, powerful, and ambitious; and it occasioned grievous regret to the Episcopalians that a man of his prominence should be so conspicu-

\INT

JOHNS

EPISCOPAL

CHURCH,

YONKERS.

ously unidentified with "the" Church. His public character has been summed up in words of unqualified approval by the eminent patriot and statesman, John Jay. " He was," says Jay, " a man of superior talents, well educated, sedate, highly respected, and popular. Except that he was penurious, I have heard nothing to his disadvantage." Frederick Philipse, 2d, co-heir with his uncle Adolph under the will of the first lord of the manor, was born on the Island of Barbadoes in 1G95. His parents were Philip, eldest son of Frederick and Margaret Philipse, and Maria, daughter of Governor Sparks, of Barbadoes. Philip Philipse, born in New York City in 1663, went to

ARISTOCRATIC

FAMILIES

Barbadoes to reside on an estate of his father's called Spring Head. Frederick was the only child, and was left an orphan at the age of five. His grandfather, who was still living, thereupon sold the Barbadoes property, and the boy was sent to England to be reared by his mother's people. There he remained until his early manhood, enjoying every educational and social advantage which wealth and distinguished connections could give. Although from these associations he derived marked aristocratic predilections, which, in turn, were inbred in his children, and became the cause of their undoing in the evil days of the Revolution, his character, as thus formed, was that of an accomplished and amiable gentleman, quite free from corrupt and arrogant traits.