The Philipse Patent was a British royal patent for a large tract of land on the east bank of the Hudson River about 50 miles north of New York City. It was purchased in 1697 by Adolphus Philipse, a wealthy landowner of Dutch descent in the Province of New York, and in time became today's Putnam County.
Philipse bought the roughly tract from two Dutch traders who had purchased it from "Wiccopee chiefs" of the Wappinger native American people. The parcel received a land patent from the British Crown on 13 August 1702.Philipse-Gouverneur family papers, 1653-1874, Summary Information, Call No.: MS#0994, Columbia University Libraries
Originally known as the Highland Patent, it spanned from the Hudson to the then Connecticut Colony along today's northern Westchester County border.
In 1731 it was incorporated into Dutchess County, and divided in 1754 among three Philipse heirs. It remained in the Loyalist Philipse family until seized in 1779 during the Revolution. The Commissioners of Forfeiture of the Revolutionary Province of New York auctioned it in parcels, without compensation to its prior owners. In spite of a provision requiring restitution in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, it never was made. In 1812, the southern part of Dutchess County, including all of what had been the Phillipse Patent, was spun off into a newly created Putnam County.
History
Background
The first step to establishing rights to real estate at the time was to apply to the colonial government for a license to purchase a tract of land from local Native American inhabitants. Natives typically had notions of communal sharing of land resources and did not understand that by such sales the buyers intended to acquire the right to exclude the native sellers from all access to the land. As a result of disagreements, and at times violence, arising from differences between the way Dutch settlers and local indigenous tribes in present-day New York understood their relationship with land and subsequent rights of ownership, the local Dutch government required settlers to obtain a license, granting a particular settler the right to negotiate land transactions with natives over a determined land area. Ideally, only upon securing a deed from the land with the consent of local natives would the settlers be granted a land patent to the property.
Purchase On December 2, 1680, Dutch traders Lambert Dorlandt and Jan Sybrant (Seberinge) applied to the New York colonial government for a license to purchase land in present-day Putnam County. According to local historians, Dortlandt and Sybrant "obtained a license... in October [of] 1687 permitting their purchase of a deed from the Native Americans then living in what is now Philipstown." Eventually, on July 15, 1691, Dortlandt and Sybrant secured from the local Wapppinger leaders a deed to a 15,000-acre tract of the "low lands" along the eastern bank of the Hudson River from the peak on Anthony's Nose to Pollepel Island, and east to a marked tree. The original boundaries of this tract appear to contain roughly half of modern-day Phillipstown, NY, including Garrison, Cold Spring, and Nelsonville. However, Dortlandt and Sybrant did not then themselves obtain a land patent from the Governor, instead, in 1697 they sold their deed (as signed by native leaders) to Adolphus Philipse, a wealthy merchant,William Pelletreau, "History of Putnam County," (Interlaken, New York: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1975), pp. 10-12 who subsequently settled the land.
Adolphus was the second son of Frederick Philipse, the first Lord of the Manor of Philipsborough (later, the common spelling would change to "Philipsburg"), a Dutch immigrant to North America of Bohemian heritage who had risen to become one of the greatest landholders in New Netherland.Historical and Genealogical Record Dutchess and Putnam Counties New York, Press of the A. V. Haight Co., Poughkeepsie, New York, 1912; pp. 62-79 "Adolphus Philipse having thus acquired the title from the original owners, proceeded at once to take the necessary steps for obtaining a patent for his lands, and presented a petition to Benjamin Fletcher, who was then governor of the Province of New York, which was granted June 17, 1697. While the Indian deed to Dorlandt and Sebring and the subsequent transfers only conveyed the land extending back from the Hudson River to a marked tree on the line of the Rombout Patent, or "Land of Cortlandt and Company," the patent of Governor Fletcher conveyed all the land between the river and the boundary line between New York and Connecticut. To confirm his title to this additional tract Adolphus Philipse obtained a new Indian deed in 1702."
Shortly after purchasing it, Adolphus Philipse, whose residence was the Castle Philipse near North Tarrytown (now, Sleepy Hollow, New York), and who maintained only a bachelor shooting lodge on Lake Mahopac in the Highland Patent, opened the tract to tenant settlers. Thus began a policy that lasted throughout his lifetime and his heirs' so long as they owned the land,Philipse Family Adolphus Philipse, (The Patent) to rent rather than sell, a practice which led to stunted growth for two and a half centuries to come.
A surveying error during the establishment of the border between the provinces of New York and the Connecticut Colony resulted in a portion of a disputed tract known as The Oblong spanning the entire eastern border of the Patent. The proper boundaries were not resolved until a land swap between the then U.S. states late in the 18th century.
Inheritance Upon Frederick's death in 1702, Adolphus inherited a partial share of the Manor's lands, which then amounted to over 80 square miles and encompassed the bulk of today's lower Westchester County. The title and balance of the lands passed to his nephew, Frederick Philipse II, whose father Philip, elder brother of Adolphus, had predeceased Frederick I.
Division Adolphus Philipse died in 1750 (Smith, 1749), with his share of the Manor and the Highland Patent he had acquired on his own passing to Frederick II, his only heir-at-law. Upon Frederick II's death in 1751, the Manor went to his son Frederick Philipse III, while the Patent was divided among four of Frederick II's offspring: son Philip, and daughters, Susannah (wife of Beverley Robinson), Mary (wife of Col. Roger Morris), and Margaret, who died intestate.
By terms of her father's will Margaret's portion was then equally divided among her brother and sisters. Based upon a 1751 survey, the tract was geographically divided on the 7th of Feb 1754 into nine Lots as seen in the preserved undated pen and ink map: three on the river, three in the interior, and three on the eastern border abutting The Oblong. Each of the three heirs inherited a lot in each division.Pelletreau, William, S, History of Putnam County, New York – With Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men, W.W. Preston & Company, Philadelphia, 1886 https://archive.org/details/historyofputnamc00pell History of Putnam County, New YorkFrench's Gazetteer of the State of New York (1860): “The Philipses Patent… divided among the remaining three [children] Philip… Susannah married to Beverly Robinson, and Mary married to Col. Roger Morris. On the 7th of Feb 1754, the patent was divided into 9 lots: 3, each 4 mi. square, bordering upon the Hudson and denominated ‘water lots;’ 3, each 4 mi. wide by 12 long, extending N. and S. across the patent, and denominated ‘long lots;’ 3, each 4 mi. square, upon the E. border denominated ‘back lots.’ Philip, Susannah and Mary Philipse each owned one of each kind of lots.
Tenant uprising Tenants in the Philipse Patent joined others throughout the Province of New York in rising against their landlords beginning in the early 1760s."The Colonial Period of Putnam County: The South Precinct of Dutchess County: The Great Rebellion of 1766", Pamela Ricciardi Paschke, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, June 4, 2019 This reached a peak in 1766, when a tenant in the northeast of Mary Philipse's center parcel, William Prendergast,Who claimed he had received a perpetual lease to his lands directly from the Wappinger Indians in return for an annual tribute in crops, cattle, and time. "The Heroine of Quaker Hill, Part I", Robert Reilly, Pawling Town Historian, The Pawling Record, July 18, 2018 fomented a small army of 2,000 men to forcibly wrest freedom from paying rent on the lands they occupied. It marched on New York City, where it petitioned the colonial Governor Sir Henry Moore to intercede, who refused, and – seemingly – defused the unrest."The Heroine of Quaker Hill, Part II", Robert Reilly, Pawling Town Historian, The Pawling Record, August 19, 2018
The landlords, however, incited by the uprising, pressured Moore to dispatch 300 soldiers north to restore order, defeat the rebels, and capture their leader. Royal grenadiers were dispatched from Poughkeepsie, and, after skirmishes en route, resulting in several dead on each side, engaged Prendergast and 50 of his men at the Oblong Meeting HouseA log church. New York State Historic Markers, "Settler's Revolt", Historic Patterson, New York in the Gore, earning their surrender. Ultimately, Prendergast was tried in New York City, convicted of treason, and sentenced to be hanged.
He was to be executed on September 28, 1766.“The prisoner shall be led back to the place whence he came, and from thence shall be drawn on a hurdle to the place for execution, and then shall be hanged by the neck, and then shall be cut down alive, and his entrails and privy members shall be cut from his body, and shall be burned in his sight, and his head shall be cut off, and his body shall be divided in four parts, and shall be disposed of at the King’s pleasure.” (trial record) "The Heroine of Quaker Hill, Part III - The Trial of the Century", Robert Reilly, Pawling Town Historian, The Pawling Record, September 14, 2018 However, with the aid of the presiding judge, Chief Justice Daniel Horsmanden, Pendergast's wife, Mehetibel Wing Pendergast, was able to persuade Governor Moore to seek a king's pardon."The Heroine of Quaker Hill, Part IV - The Ride for His Life", Robert Reilly, Pawling Town Historian, The Pawling Record, September 14, 2018 It was granted by His Majesty George III, in the belief that clemency would have a more beneficial effect in quelling the dispute and restoring respect for authority among the citizenry than punishment.In response to Moore's petition the Earl of Shelburne wrote to the Governor on December 11, 1766 on King George III's behalf: "I have laid before the King your letter of the 11th of October, recommending William Prendergast, who was sentenced to death for treasonous practices and riots committed in Dutchess County, to the Royal Mercy, and His Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant him this pardon, relying that this instance of His Royal clemency will have a better effect in recalling these mistaken people to their duty than the most rigorous punishment." - "The Heroine of Quaker Hill, Part V - Happily Ever After", Robert Reilly, Pawling Town Historian, The Pawling Record, October 26, 2018
Seizure