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Auction: 317 - The Collector's Series
Lot: 1002

Rombout Patent; City of Beacon, Town of Fishkill, NY; Verplanck, Gulian (1698-1751); Mary and Ann Verplanck. Transcript of an Indenture between Mary & Ann Verplanck and "Guilliam Verplanck", concerning a certain tract of land "above the Highlands on the Eastward of Hudsons River in Dutchess County which tract of land was patented to Francis Rombout". Five and two-third pages, folio, bound at top by a slate blue ribbon, June 13, 1730. At the end of the document is a note dated Nov. 17, 1838 written and signed by Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary, State of New York that he has "compared the preceding with a certain Indenture as of record in this office in book of Deeds No. 12 page 270 and do certify that the same is a correct transcript therefore & of the whole of said Indenture…" Blind paper seal affixed to left of his notations. "Release of Mary & Ann Verplanck to Guillam Verplanck A.D. 1730" on verso. Very Fine; accompanied by a draft of a map made by Phillip Verplanck of what appears to be the Rombout Patent, showing three lots bound to the south by the Wappinger Creek. Dotted with five tiny houses and a "Wigwam". Large tears along two folds, two dogearred corners. Good. In 1682, a Flanders-born Huguenot merchant from New York, Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplanck (1637-1684; son of Abraham Isaac Verplanck) jointly filed petitions for a land grant and permission to buy a fertile tract of land from the Wappinger Indians on the east bank of the Hudson, extending from Fishkill almost to Poughkeepsie. It is said that Rombout bargained for "all the land he could see", then craftily climbed to the top of Mount Beacon to increase his view. In 1683, Rombout, Verplanck and partner Stephanus Van Cortlandt bought some 85,000 acres for roughly $1,200 in goods.
The purchase was licensed by Provincial Governor Dongan, and the grant confirmed in 1685 after the accession of James II. It came to be known as the Rombout Patent. In 1703, Rombout's daughter, Catheryna married a young British naval lieutenant, Roger Brett, who had accompanied his friend, the eccentric Lord Cornbury when he was sent to govern New York. In 1708, the Bretts settled on the Rombout Patent in Lot Number one. Catheryna showed herself to be a resourceful and indomitable pioneer in developing the land left to her by her father. Her homestead, the "Madame Brett House", still stands, a historic landmark, at the intersection of Teller and Van Nydeck Avenues in the City of Beacon. [2]