[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] ilow few can reach those years of time, Which here are numbered to our view, Since death calls most while in their prime, And leaves behind so aged few." In this connection it may be remarked that this same John Hempstead was, by trade, a builder, and erected the first house in Maiden Lane, New York, owning and occupying the same for some years. Afterwards the heirs and devisees of Stephen Van Cortlandt sub-divided and disposed of their various tracts of land to parties whose descendants still oc-cupy the same. Out of the immense tract comprising the present four towns of the northern tier, which comprised the Van Cortlandt manor and for which a quit rental of forty shillings per annum was paid, about eleven hundred acres remain in the possession of the Van Cortlandt family. This land is situated in the southern central part of the town of Somers and has been leased to resident farmers for the past seventy years. On the 4th of June, 1760, Samuel Bayard grante d to Hachaliah Brown, of Rye, "all that tract of land being in the northernmost part of the Mattor of Cort-landt, bounded North by the dividing line of Dutch-ess and Westchester, to the line of Phillips' upper patent. West by lot of Andrew Johnston, South by bounds of Samuel Brown, and East by Croton river." In the year 1762 Andrew Johnson again conveyed to Hachaliah Brown " all that lot of land situate, lying and being in lot No. 6, East range, and being part of North lot No.