Welcome to Van Cortlandt House
Overview of the History of the Site
Frederick, James, & Augustus Van Cortlandt
Note: The house may seem dark to you when you first walk through the door. This is because there are special shades on the windows to help protect the furniture, fabrics, and paintings from being damaged by sunlight. If you wait for a minute or two in the entrance hall, your eyes should adjust. There are green Windsor chairs throughout the house which are there for you to sit in. You are also welcomed to sit on the window seat on the second-floor stair hall.
Please note that where direct quotes from historic documents are included here, we have chosen to use the original wording. This may include words which are now considered offensive. If you have more questions after your tour, we recommend you visit our website www.vchm.org or contact the staff via email to: [email protected].
Photographic Policy: You are welcome to take photographs inside Van Cortlandt House for your own personal use. Please use caution when attempting to take “selfies”, especially if using a selfie-stick.
Professional or commercial photographers must contact the Museum before using images for of the house for commercial purposes or to request special access. Contact information for the museum can be found on our website: www.vchm.org.
Bathrooms are in the Welcome Center in the Caretaker’s Cottage where you received this booklet.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VanCortlandtHouseMuseum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VCHMNYC
Instagram: http://instagram.com/vchmnyc
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/vancortlandt/
When posting to social media we ask that you please use our hashtag #vchmnyc.
Overview of the History of the Site
This section provides a brief look at the history of the people who lived and worked within the walls of this house between 1748 and 1823. These years are selected as a period of significance from a much longer history that started in 1690 when Jacobus Van Cortlandt purchased the first piece of land in what later became Van Cortlandt Park. The history of the Van Cortlandt Family in this location ends in 1886 when the 6th generation of the family sold the land to the City of New York to be made into a park. This booklet also mostly refers to life inside the house itself and not on the plantation. Sadly, there isn’t a lot of written sources of first-hand information that survives about the family or others living and working on the plantation. This doesn’t mean, however, that the staff of Van Cortlandt House will not keep researching and working with other organizations to further our knowledge about family, enslaved peoples, and the history of this land.
The story of the Van Cortlandt family in America begins in 1638 when Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland. Oloff was an employee and officer of the Dutch West India Company. Oloff was eventually considered one of the wealthiest men in New York having made his money as a merchant, brewer, money lender, and in shipping. Near the end of the 17th century, Jacobus, the youngest of Oloff’s seven children, made his first purchase of land of what would eventually become a large and profitable wheat plantation. While Jacobus may not have lived on his plantation, he did have enslaved people (both Africans and Native Americans) working here growing wheat, making improvements to the land, building barns, two mills, and building the dam that turned Tibbett’s Brook into a lake.
The first record of enslaved people living and working on the Van Cortlandt’s plantation is The 1698 Census of Fordham and Adjacent Places, a transcript of this entry can be found in the back of this booklet. This census lists enslaved people owned by Jacobus that were living and working on his land. All we have is a list of names without any mention of the specific work they did. In addition to the enslaved people listed in the census, Jacobus Van Cortlandt was also known to have owned Andrew Saxton. Saxton, a cooper by trade, may have been a worker on the Yonkers plantation or at Jacobus’ brewery in New Amsterdam on Brouwer Straet or Brewer Street. (This street was later given a new name by the British in 1695 and still exists today as Stone Street). We know about Saxton from the advertisement Jacobus placed in the New York Gazette on September 17th, 1733 after he ran away in August. (You can find this advertisement and a transcript at the back of this booklet.) It didn’t really matter whether Saxton was an enslaved worker on the Yonkers plantation or at the Manhattan brewery. His job as cooper or barrel maker made possible the storage and transportation of flour or beer being made by Saxton’s fellow workers.
Frederick Van Cortlandt
After the death of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, the plantation was inherited by his only son Frederick. The next record of enslaved people on the Van Cortlandt’s plantation comes after Jacobus’ death in 1739. In his will Jacobus leaves the plantation as well as slaves to his only son Frederick. Frederick and his family; wife Francis; sons James, Frederick, and Augustus; and daughters Anne and Eve, were documented as living on the plantation by 1748. In his will Frederick notes “I am now about finishing a large stone dwelling House on the Plantation on which I now live”. This house, present day Van Cortlandt House Museum, was not finished before Frederick died in early 1749 so it passed to his eldest son James with a provision that Frederick’s wife and James’ mother, Francis, may live in the house for the rest of her life or until she remarries. James’ young sisters Anne 14, and Eva 13 were also granted the right to live in the house until they married. Frederick’s will also lists enslaved people, one or more he may have inherited from his father.
James, son of Frederick
James Van Cortlandt not only inherited an unfinished house; he also inherited the successful provisioning plantation established by his grandfather Jacobus. James not only supervised the operation of his plantation and milling operations, he also continued his family’s involvement in local government. James served more than once as Supervisor of the Precinct of Yonkers and as its Commissioner of Highways. During the Revolutionary War, James served as a member of the Committee of Safety and the Westchester County Militia. He died in 1781 leaving his property to be divided equally between his brothers Augustus and Frederick and his sisters Anne Van Cortlandt Van Horne and Eve Van Cortlandt White. James’ wife Elizabeth was left his house and lot and water lot west of Broadway in Manhattan for her use for the rest of her life. Although James’ will does not list any enslaved people, in order to continue operation of the plantation and mills, James would have, as had his grandfather and father before him, relied on the labor of enslaved people. James’ will was written on March 23, 1781, just 8 days before his death and may not include detailed bequests because of his age or illness.
Augustus, brother of James, son of Frederick
Before inheriting his family’s, plantation from his brother James, Augustus Van Cortlandt had been living in lower Manhattan. He had studied law under his Uncle John Chambers and was admitted to the bar. Augustus held the important position of Common Clerk of the City of New York for 32 years between 1751 and 1783. It was in this capacity that Augustus, in the summer of 1775, received a request from the New York Provincial Congress, a revolutionary provisional government formed by colonists in 1775, to safeguard the public records of the City of New York due to the “alarming state of public affairs”. As an employee of the British government, Augustus must have felt conflicted about this request. Augustus first hid the records in a cellar under the garden of his residence in Manhattan near 11 Broadway, but later transferred the records to the family’s plantation, which was then owned by his brother James. To make this move look less suspicious, Augustus made the trip to his brother James’ Lower Yonkers plantation with the excuse of paying a visit to his elderly mother. The records were hidden in the family burial vault established under the terms of their father Frederick Van Cortlandt’s will which had been built on the hill overlooking the house, today’s Vault Hill. The city records remained on the plantation until 1784 when Augustus was ordered to turn them over to the newly appointed clerk of the City and County of New York.
In addition to Claus, the negro boy, inherited from his father Frederick, Augustus was likely to have inherited the enslaved people living and working on the plantation from his brother James. Frederick had also inherited two enslaved people from his Aunt Anne Van Cortlandt Chambers in 1774. They were a Negro wench Dinah, and Robbins.
During the Revolutionary War, the House and plantation were considered neutral ground with George Washington and British and Hessian officers using it as a temporary Headquarters. In November of 1783 Washington returned to Van Cortlandt House where he stayed the night, before starting his march into New York for the formal hand-over from the British as troops, Loyalist refugees, and emancipated enslaved people left Manhattan.
Enslaved People and Van Cortlandt House
While walking through Van Cortlandt House on your self-guided tour, consider that there would be no house were it not for the labor of enslaved people. While Frederick Van Cortlandt is credited as the builder of the house or having built the house, it is more accurate to say that he had the house built. In 1748 Frederick and his family were already living elsewhere on the plantation although the exact location is unknown. He would have taken an active role in designing the house and overseeing the construction, but it is most unlikely that Frederick, at nearly 50 years of age, was not moving fieldstones or hewing timbers as his house was being built.
Even after the family moved in to the house, sometime after 1750, they would have relied on the work of enslaved people for cooking, cleaning, laundry, and other aspects of daily life such as bringing water in and out of the house and keeping fireplaces supplied with wood and clear of ashes. Keeping the house warm took a tremendous amount of labor. A household in a northern colony like New York used an average of 35 cords of wood per year. A cord of wood is a neatly stacked pile measuring 8 feet long by 4 feet high and wide. The more fireplaces in a house, the more firewood used. Van Cortlandt House had above the average number of fireplaces with 7 exclusively for heating and at least one more for cooking and possibly another dedicated to heating water for laundry and bathing. This number of fireplaces could easily have doubled the family’s consumption of wood to 70 cords per year. Every piece of firewood started as a tree that had to be felled, cut into manageable pieces, stacked to dry, moved closer to the house, and then brought into the house. This one task is representative of the many tasks that would have been performed by enslaved people day in and day out at Van Cortlandt House.
Please note that where direct quotes from historic documents are included here, we have chosen to use the original wording. This may include words which are now considered offensive. If you have more questions after your tour, we recommend you visit our website www.vchm.org or contact the staff via email to: [email protected].
Photographic Policy: You are welcome to take photographs inside Van Cortlandt House for your own personal use. Please use caution when attempting to take “selfies”, especially if using a selfie-stick.
Professional or commercial photographers must contact the Museum before using images for of the house for commercial purposes or to request special access. Contact information for the museum can be found on our website: www.vchm.org.
Bathrooms are in the Welcome Center in the Caretaker’s Cottage where you received this booklet.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VanCortlandtHouseMuseum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VCHMNYC
Instagram: http://instagram.com/vchmnyc
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/vancortlandt/
When posting to social media we ask that you please use our hashtag #vchmnyc.
Overview of the History of the Site
This section provides a brief look at the history of the people who lived and worked within the walls of this house between 1748 and 1823. These years are selected as a period of significance from a much longer history that started in 1690 when Jacobus Van Cortlandt purchased the first piece of land in what later became Van Cortlandt Park. The history of the Van Cortlandt Family in this location ends in 1886 when the 6th generation of the family sold the land to the City of New York to be made into a park. This booklet also mostly refers to life inside the house itself and not on the plantation. Sadly, there isn’t a lot of written sources of first-hand information that survives about the family or others living and working on the plantation. This doesn’t mean, however, that the staff of Van Cortlandt House will not keep researching and working with other organizations to further our knowledge about family, enslaved peoples, and the history of this land.
The story of the Van Cortlandt family in America begins in 1638 when Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland. Oloff was an employee and officer of the Dutch West India Company. Oloff was eventually considered one of the wealthiest men in New York having made his money as a merchant, brewer, money lender, and in shipping. Near the end of the 17th century, Jacobus, the youngest of Oloff’s seven children, made his first purchase of land of what would eventually become a large and profitable wheat plantation. While Jacobus may not have lived on his plantation, he did have enslaved people (both Africans and Native Americans) working here growing wheat, making improvements to the land, building barns, two mills, and building the dam that turned Tibbett’s Brook into a lake.
The first record of enslaved people living and working on the Van Cortlandt’s plantation is The 1698 Census of Fordham and Adjacent Places, a transcript of this entry can be found in the back of this booklet. This census lists enslaved people owned by Jacobus that were living and working on his land. All we have is a list of names without any mention of the specific work they did. In addition to the enslaved people listed in the census, Jacobus Van Cortlandt was also known to have owned Andrew Saxton. Saxton, a cooper by trade, may have been a worker on the Yonkers plantation or at Jacobus’ brewery in New Amsterdam on Brouwer Straet or Brewer Street. (This street was later given a new name by the British in 1695 and still exists today as Stone Street). We know about Saxton from the advertisement Jacobus placed in the New York Gazette on September 17th, 1733 after he ran away in August. (You can find this advertisement and a transcript at the back of this booklet.) It didn’t really matter whether Saxton was an enslaved worker on the Yonkers plantation or at the Manhattan brewery. His job as cooper or barrel maker made possible the storage and transportation of flour or beer being made by Saxton’s fellow workers.
Frederick Van Cortlandt
After the death of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, the plantation was inherited by his only son Frederick. The next record of enslaved people on the Van Cortlandt’s plantation comes after Jacobus’ death in 1739. In his will Jacobus leaves the plantation as well as slaves to his only son Frederick. Frederick and his family; wife Francis; sons James, Frederick, and Augustus; and daughters Anne and Eve, were documented as living on the plantation by 1748. In his will Frederick notes “I am now about finishing a large stone dwelling House on the Plantation on which I now live”. This house, present day Van Cortlandt House Museum, was not finished before Frederick died in early 1749 so it passed to his eldest son James with a provision that Frederick’s wife and James’ mother, Francis, may live in the house for the rest of her life or until she remarries. James’ young sisters Anne 14, and Eva 13 were also granted the right to live in the house until they married. Frederick’s will also lists enslaved people, one or more he may have inherited from his father.
James, son of Frederick
James Van Cortlandt not only inherited an unfinished house; he also inherited the successful provisioning plantation established by his grandfather Jacobus. James not only supervised the operation of his plantation and milling operations, he also continued his family’s involvement in local government. James served more than once as Supervisor of the Precinct of Yonkers and as its Commissioner of Highways. During the Revolutionary War, James served as a member of the Committee of Safety and the Westchester County Militia. He died in 1781 leaving his property to be divided equally between his brothers Augustus and Frederick and his sisters Anne Van Cortlandt Van Horne and Eve Van Cortlandt White. James’ wife Elizabeth was left his house and lot and water lot west of Broadway in Manhattan for her use for the rest of her life. Although James’ will does not list any enslaved people, in order to continue operation of the plantation and mills, James would have, as had his grandfather and father before him, relied on the labor of enslaved people. James’ will was written on March 23, 1781, just 8 days before his death and may not include detailed bequests because of his age or illness.
Augustus, brother of James, son of Frederick
Before inheriting his family’s, plantation from his brother James, Augustus Van Cortlandt had been living in lower Manhattan. He had studied law under his Uncle John Chambers and was admitted to the bar. Augustus held the important position of Common Clerk of the City of New York for 32 years between 1751 and 1783. It was in this capacity that Augustus, in the summer of 1775, received a request from the New York Provincial Congress, a revolutionary provisional government formed by colonists in 1775, to safeguard the public records of the City of New York due to the “alarming state of public affairs”. As an employee of the British government, Augustus must have felt conflicted about this request. Augustus first hid the records in a cellar under the garden of his residence in Manhattan near 11 Broadway, but later transferred the records to the family’s plantation, which was then owned by his brother James. To make this move look less suspicious, Augustus made the trip to his brother James’ Lower Yonkers plantation with the excuse of paying a visit to his elderly mother. The records were hidden in the family burial vault established under the terms of their father Frederick Van Cortlandt’s will which had been built on the hill overlooking the house, today’s Vault Hill. The city records remained on the plantation until 1784 when Augustus was ordered to turn them over to the newly appointed clerk of the City and County of New York.
In addition to Claus, the negro boy, inherited from his father Frederick, Augustus was likely to have inherited the enslaved people living and working on the plantation from his brother James. Frederick had also inherited two enslaved people from his Aunt Anne Van Cortlandt Chambers in 1774. They were a Negro wench Dinah, and Robbins.
During the Revolutionary War, the House and plantation were considered neutral ground with George Washington and British and Hessian officers using it as a temporary Headquarters. In November of 1783 Washington returned to Van Cortlandt House where he stayed the night, before starting his march into New York for the formal hand-over from the British as troops, Loyalist refugees, and emancipated enslaved people left Manhattan.
Enslaved People and Van Cortlandt House
While walking through Van Cortlandt House on your self-guided tour, consider that there would be no house were it not for the labor of enslaved people. While Frederick Van Cortlandt is credited as the builder of the house or having built the house, it is more accurate to say that he had the house built. In 1748 Frederick and his family were already living elsewhere on the plantation although the exact location is unknown. He would have taken an active role in designing the house and overseeing the construction, but it is most unlikely that Frederick, at nearly 50 years of age, was not moving fieldstones or hewing timbers as his house was being built.
Even after the family moved in to the house, sometime after 1750, they would have relied on the work of enslaved people for cooking, cleaning, laundry, and other aspects of daily life such as bringing water in and out of the house and keeping fireplaces supplied with wood and clear of ashes. Keeping the house warm took a tremendous amount of labor. A household in a northern colony like New York used an average of 35 cords of wood per year. A cord of wood is a neatly stacked pile measuring 8 feet long by 4 feet high and wide. The more fireplaces in a house, the more firewood used. Van Cortlandt House had above the average number of fireplaces with 7 exclusively for heating and at least one more for cooking and possibly another dedicated to heating water for laundry and bathing. This number of fireplaces could easily have doubled the family’s consumption of wood to 70 cords per year. Every piece of firewood started as a tree that had to be felled, cut into manageable pieces, stacked to dry, moved closer to the house, and then brought into the house. This one task is representative of the many tasks that would have been performed by enslaved people day in and day out at Van Cortlandt House.