On this property stands the celebrated " Spy Oak," so named from the fact that a spy found prowling around the American camp, swung for his crime, from one of its largest branches -- tradition says it was the limb that once overhung the road, but has been cut short, upon which he died -- much legendary lore is associated with this ancient denizen of the forest, which has reached the huge dimensions of feet in circumference. Many superstitious persons would raLher go a mile out of their way than pass this dreaded tree, beneath which the dead soldier was buried; especially as the ghost has never been laid lo their certain knowledge.

Further south lies the Ferris property, which has been held by the Ij family of that name for five generations. The Ferris's were originally from Leicestershire, England, and dccendcd from the houst; of Feriers,

a S;e Ilowell'd SrAt3 Trials, vol. .xiv.

4l6 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

Ferrerr, Ferries or Ferris, the first member of v/hich (in England) was Henrj- cle Feriers, the sot: of Gualchelme de Feriers, master of the House of the Duke of Normandy, who obtained of the Conquerer, large grants of land in the counties of Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. From Gualchelme de Feriers,'' descend, the Ferrers of Groby, who bore for their paternal coat of arms "gu. seven mascles or. a canton erm; while their Westchester decendants carried, gu. a fleur de lis or., a canton erm, with a crescent for difference. Jeffrey Ferfiger or Ferris, of : Watertown, Massachusetts, was admitted a freeman, A.D. 1635.* From thence he removed to Weathersfield, in 1658, and nmst have been residing at Fairfield, in Connecticut, according to the following extract taken from the Probate Records. -- "Order of the Courts of Probate, Fairfield, on estate of Jeffrey Fferris, relative to marriage contract with his deceased wife Susanna, by which he agreed to pay certain legacies to children of Robert Lockwood, deceased," " according to the administration entered in Courte, 20th October, 1658, &c.<= At an early period, John Ferris, removed hither from Fairfield, and became one of the ten proprietors of Throckmorton's neck.