[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] Although in the former quarter his proprietorship was the earliest of legal record, the question whether private settlers boasting no legal pretensions had not ar-rived there before his purchase is, of course, a fair one. Bolton finds no evidence of any such ancient occupancy. The Rev. Dr. David Cole, in his " History of Yonkers," written in 18S6, discussing the subject of the two Philipse houses, makes no allusion to possible settlements at or near Tarrytown antedating Philipse's appearance, or to the pre-existence of a mill there, simply remarking that he chose the banks of the Pocantico " as a site for a new mill." More over, in the same connection, speculating with regard to the period at which Philipse established himself in his residence on the Po-cantico, Dr. Tole concludes that it was not until after the death ot his first wife, Margaret, in 1000 or 1091. Yet in his historical discourse delivered at the third centennial of the old Dutch Church of Tar-rytown, October 11, 1807, Dr. Cole, after fixing upon 10S3 as the year when Philipse removed to the Tarrytown dwelling, says that he found there, at that earlv date, "a small community already gathered." Already, he informs us, there was upon the Pocantico " a mill site like the Van der Donck site of Yronkers," which already had upon it " a simple dwelling for the miller," upon whose foundations Castle Philipse was built. ' Continuing, Dr.