Stephanus Van Cortlandt (1643-1700)

He was born in New York, his father having come to the colony in 1638 with the Dutch West India Company. He continued his father's various and substantial businesses while also being appointed Mayor of New York and Chief Justice of the New York Provincial Supreme Court. After his marriage to Gertrude Schuyler he began acquiring land between the Croton River and Peekskill. In 1697, he received a Royal Patent for the 86,000-acres he had amassed in northern Westchester, between the Hudson River and the Connecticut border, becoming the first (and only) Lord of the Manor of Cortlandt: unlike the Scottish Livingstons, Stephanus followed Dutch tradition and left his estate to be divided equally between his children rather than leaving everything to the eldest son. The house on the Manor of Cortlandt (and his townhouse in New York) was left to his eldest son, but was initially only used for hunting trips and storing furs.