However, the manor was preserved as such until the death of the last " lord," Joseph Pell, in 1776; and the Pells in their various branches were always a numerous and respectable family, contracting advantageous marital alliances in both the male and female lines. The principal person of the Pell name in later colonial and Revolutionary times was Philip Pell, a conscientious, able, and prominent patriot, who represented the State of New York in the continental congress of 1788, served as judge-advocate of the American army, and after the war was sheriff of the county, his son, Philip Pell, Jr., serving for many years as surrogate. A family of very notable importance in political activity and representative character for many years -- rivaling, indeed, the Morrises, Philipses, de Lanceys, and Van Cortlandts -- was the ancient Willett family of Cornell's Neck on the Sound. The plantation of Cornell's Neck, identical with the present (Mason's Point, was granted to Thomas Cornell, a former colonist of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, by the Dutch director, Kieft, in 1040. This was the third PELL ARMS. recorded land grant in point of time within the borders of what subsequently became Westchester Comity, being antedated only by the grants to Jonas Bronck of Bronxland and to John Throckmorton and associates of Throgg's Neck. From Thomas Cornell the estate passed successively to his widow, to his two daughters, Sarah ami Rebecca, aiid to his grandson, William Willett, son of his eldest daughter, Sarah, by her first husband, Thomas Willett. William Willett (born 1644) ir, 1667 obtained from the first English governor, Nicolls, a new patent to Cornell's Neck. He made his abode there, apparently, soon afterward, ami lived in quid enjoyment of his handsome property until his death, in 1701. He was one of the first aldermen of the borough Town of West Chester.