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Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group
All five parts are available as a single pdf for download below 
Created by Gilbert Tauber, member of the planning committee of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group THE PEOPLING OF BLOOMINGDALE The Syndicate’s Grant At the time of the English conquest of the New Netherlands in 1664, there was no European settlement in the area that is now the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The Dutch West India Company had made no permanent grants of land along the East River north of Turtle Bay (about the present 47th St.) and no grants along the Hudson River north of the Great Kill, the broad creek that flowed into the Hudson near the foot of the present 42nd St.[1], [2] On October 3, 1667, eight days before his revised grant to the freeholders of New Harlem, Governor Richard Nicolls conveyed a large tract north of the Great Kill to a syndicate of five men: Johannes van Brugh, Thomas Hall, John Vigne, Egbert Wouters, and Jacob Leenderts van der Grift. The tract stretched along the Hudson from the Great Kill northward 13,200 feet and back into the woods for a distance of 4,125 feet, containing in all 1,300 acres or a little more than two square miles.[3] This was the first and largest of several grants that conveyed Bloomingdale into private ownership. (See map on following page None of the syndicate’s five members planned to spend much time behind a plow. All were wealthy or at least well off. Most had held public offices under the Dutch or English or both. Most had ties of business, blood, or marriage to some of the most powerful people in the colony. Van Brugh was a wealthy brewer.[1] Jean Vigne, also a brewer, was the stepson of Stuyvesant’s agent Jan Jansen Damen and the brother-in-law of Cornelis van Tienhoven, once the powerful secretary of the Dutch West India Company.[2] Thomas Hall and his fellow Englishman George Holmes were brought to New Amsterdam as prisoners in 1635 after a failed attempt by Virginia to seize a Dutch outpost on the Delaware. They were the first Englishmen in the colony. The two eventually became trusted agents of van Twiller; managed his plantations, and later became wealthy landowners in their own right. Wouters, also a planter, was a curator (trustee) of the Damen estate[3] and, after Van Twiller’s death, leased the former Director’s plantation from his Van Rensselaer cousins. Van der Grift was the brother of Paulus Leendertsen van der Grift, a skipper whom Stuyvesant, in 1647, had appointed to the lucrative post of Equipage Master of the West India Company’s ships. A later complaint to the authorities in Amsterdam noted that though Paulus “has small wages, he has built a better dwelling-house here than anybody else.”[4] If any of these men did more than just hold their new properties for resale, the labor of clearing, tilling, and tending would be done almost entirely by tenant farmers, hired hands, indentured servants, and slaves. The five partners divided up the land among themselves. Van Brugh, whom Stokes notes was by far the richest of the partners, received the most desirable parcel, 150 acres directly along the north side of the Great Kill. Jan Vigne received another 150 acres immediately north of the van Brugh tract. The remaining 1,000 acres was divided into ten lots, which were then distributed equally among the five men. Each lot bordered the Hudson for about 1,000 feet and extended inland for about eight tenths of a mile. If numbered from south to north, the ten lots were assigned as follows: Lots 1 and 2 went to Jacob Leendertsen van der Grift, who almost immediately sold them to Isaac Bedlow.[5] Lots 3 and 4 went to Thomas Hall and Lots 5 and 6 to Johannes van Brugh. The last four were divided between Egbert Wouters and Jan Vigne. It is not certain whether 7 and 8 went to Wouters and 9 and 10 went to Vigne or vice versa. Either way, Lots 7 and 8 were also soon sold either to Thomas Hall, who died in 1669, or possibly to his widow Anne Medford Hall The grant to the five partners in the syndicate comprised all of Manhattan’s West Side from about 42nd Street to 89th Street and extended inland to an irregular boundary between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. [6] The Bedlow Grant On February 13, 1668, Nicolls made a second grant, immediately north of the syndicate’s 1,300-acres, to Isaac Bedlow. [7] Bedlow’s grant of about 400 acres ran from 89th to 107th Streets. It was centered on a sheltered cove that, a century later, would be known as Stryker’s Bay[8] Isaac Bedlow was a merchant and a very successful speculator in land, as well as a city alderman. His numerous holdings, at one time or another, included Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island) and a large chunk of the Bronx. Says Stokes, “For more than 20 years after 1668 the records are silent about the Bedlow patent.” Bedlow died in February 1673. Shrewd as he was in his business dealings, he neglected to make a will, thus burdening his widow and children with years of litigation. A commission was appointed to audit and supervise his accounts. His widow Elizabeth was appointed administratrix on August 9, 1675. It took 13 more years until she was able to sell the Bloomingdale tract. The eventual buyer was Theunis Ides (or Idens) van Huyse, of whom I will write more below. Footnotes for Part 2 can be read by clicking the "Read More" to the right. Footnotes for Part 2
[1] Documents such as deeds and wills were not consistently recorded. The new English administration was still getting a grip on a population that was predominantly Dutch speaking. In addition, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1673, New York was recaptured and was again under Dutch rule until late in 1674. [2] Stokes, op. cit. Vol. VI, p. 171. [3] Ibid., Vol VI, p. 106. [4] Van Cortlandt’s wife was the stepdaughter of Frederick Phillipse, and through her he became the owner of what is now Van Cortlandt Park. [5] Stokes, op. cit. Vol VI, p. 106. (6] Stokes, op. cit. Vol. VI: p. 86. [7] Stokes, op. cit. Vol. VI: p..139. [8] Stokes, op. cit. Vol. VI, pp.139-140.
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