Yonkers and the Mile Square constituted a township within the great manor of Philipsburgh, until the year 1779, Avhen the manor was confiscated and conveyed to the people of this State, A.D. 1788, the present township was independently organized.^ Thirty years after the Dutch discovery of the New Netherlands, A.D. 1639, we find the Dutch West India Company purchasing lands in this town of the native Indian sachems : --

" Appeared before me, Cornells Tan Tienhoven, Secretary of the New Netberlaiidi!, Frequemeck, Rechgawac. Packanuicns, owners of Kekeshick. which they *Ji(l freely convey, cede, ice, &.C., to the behoof of the General Incorporated West India Company, which Hc3 over against the flats of tlie Island of Manliates, mostly east and west, beginning at the source of said kill till over against the

a Bi-nson'a 51 um. of N. T.

i* Act passed (til Marcli, ITSS. Rev. Stat, vol. iii. 2S6.

576 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

high hill of the flat lands-- to -wit, by the great kill, together -svith all the rights, estate and title to them, the graatees, &c., ifcc. lu teslixiiony of the truth of which, this is subscribei by witaesacs. Done 3d of August, 1639, at pVjrt Amsterdam, in New Netherland,"

C0RyELIU3 Yax dek IIotken". > Datidt Pietteksen de Ykies,; as witnesses, In presence of me, '

CoEXELis Van TiExnoTEX, Secretary.'"

How long the Dutch West India Company held the lands of Kekeshick, does not appear; but about the year A. D. 1646, we find the Indian sachem, Tacharew, granting lands in this town to Adrian Van der Donck.^ In this sale the town is called Ncpperhaem^ an Indian name frequently applied to the village. Eighty years later we find it varied to JVeJ>^erah,'^t\\e. proper Indian orthography of which is evidently Nap-pecha-mack, rendered literally tlie rapid laafer settlement, thus graphically expressing the situation of tlie Mohegan village, at the mouth of the Neperah, or rapid waters. « In the deep seclusion of the ancient forests that once bordered this beautiful stream, were located other Indian villages, some of the sites of which tradition has preserved to us; one of these occupied the eastern edge of Boar Hill.