[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] to practice in his native country. His standing at home may be inferred from the fact that the Patroon Van Rensselaer selected him and brought him to this country to become sheriff of Rensselaerwyck. He came late in 1641, and held that office for the next five years. It is not surprising, however, that a man of his intelligence and fine culture, and of no mean monetary resources, became ambitious for a manor of his own. On the 22d of October, 1645, he married Mary, daughter of Rev. Francis Doughty, a rich Long Island patroon, and soon afterwards, drawn by his new relatives, and driven by troubles in his Rensselaer-wyck experience,1 came to live in New Amsterdam. He was not long in perceiving the charms and advan-tages of the lower Weckquaskeck region, and when he applied to the West India Company for it, the company being under obligations to him for money loaned and services rendered, readily granted his application, only binding him to pay the In-dians for any parts of the ground which they had not already released to the company itself. The deed of the tract granted to Van Der Donck called the tract " Nepperhaem." The Hollanders sometimes