Kieft. a.<3 ours, in the usual manner, granted by letters patent, and in virtue of these, p.issessed by those of our nation, as so among others, the land of Jonas Bronck, the lands of the old Verdonck, divided and setlled hy Idi children. andoAsociates'ia various plantations and farms, but who, in the massacre^ were abscoadctl wiih many others, all which are situated here and bordering on our island, only divided by a s.nall creek, which in some places by low water is passable, so as the_v to us the savages declared and solicited them to purchase otlier lands to the east and the west of the IS'orth river, dated 20th June, 1664.^

On the i2tli of March, 1664, the Butch possessions in America were patented to his Royal Highness James Duke of York and Albany, by his brother King Charles II. This grant was immediately followed by a military and naval armament under the command of Colonel Richard Xicolls, which reduced the New Netherlands to the subjection of the English Crown, 27th August, 1664.

One of the articles of capitulation drawn up by the commissioners at the surrender, declared that "all people shall continue free denizens, and shall enjoy their lands, houses and goods, wheresoever they are within this country, and dispose of them as they please.'"

On Sept. 21, 1666, Mary Doughty, widow of the late Adriaen Van der

Donck, and wife of Hugh ©'Neale,*^ in right of her former husband,

*iaimed "all that land upon the maine not far from Westchester, called