On the twelfdi of March, 16S4, he peti- , tioned the Governor, Colonel Dongan, on the subject: ' Having a desire to dispose of some quantity of said land which is called the AVhite Plains ' and which was comprehended in his patent 'to severall persons to settle thereon with themselves and familyes ' he is ' wholly obstructed and hindered by Rye men,' who have 'made a great disturbance amongst them and pretends a right to the same.' He cannot therefore dispose of any part of these lands until the Governor ' will be pleased to grant an order to clear the same.'" This complaint came before the council at Fort James on the seventeenth of March, 1684, and the inhabitants of Rye or some to be deputed by them for that purpose, were summoned to show cause at the next Court of Assizes in Westchester County, why the said lands do not of right belong and appertain to John Richbell.

The dispute appears to have remained unsettled ; for Richbell died soon after this, July 26th, 1684,^ and the greater part of his lands -- including all the northern portion -- came into the possession of the Hon. Caleb Heathcote. In 1701 Col. Heathcote obtained a comfirmation of his rights to the Richbell estate by purchasing again from the Indians the . 'rtecks' formally known as East and Great Neck, now called Orlenta

a L.iiid piipprs, Aibanv. Vol. li.. :;o. QiintPd hy Mr. JUial's li'.siiiry of Uye. b See Wcstclioster Co. Itcconis Lib. A, pa^o B4,