[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] At sucb times an opportu-nity has been afforded to look into the crypt below, and it is said that there are, or were, coffins there bearing dates as far back as between 1650 and 1660. In an-swer to his inquiry, the writer has been favored with a statement by Mrs. Pierre Van Cortlandt, mistress of the Van Cortlandt Manor-House at Croton Land-ing, which is of peculiar interest in connection with this inquiry. Referring to a statement made by •See accountuf Wolfert'e BWJt umlvr Greenburgh. General Van Cortlandt, father of her late husband, Col. Van Cortlandt, she says: " When General Pierre Van Cortlandt was living, he told me that there were several coffins under the church bearing old dates, and, as near as I can recall it, one which lie saw of a child, covered with green cloth or baize, and the date in brass-headed nails, somewhere among the fifties," — that is, between 1650 and 1660. This fact, about which there can be no question, lends support to the idea of earlier dates generally than those so often accepted without examination, and even without thought. It is true, the stone tablet built into the wall on what is now the front, or west end of the church, men-