[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] This embraces all the exterior portions of the county except the section from Croton Bay to the Highlands — that is, the present Town of Cortlandt, — which, as we have indicated, was bought by Stephanus Van Cortlandt in a series of purchases commencing in 1683, and, with its eastward ex-tension to the Connecticut line, together with a tract on the west 164 HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY side of the Hudson River, was erected into the Manor of Cortlandt in 1697.,., j » Stephanus Van Cortlandt was the eldest of the seven children of Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt and Annetje, sister of Govert Locker-mans a very wealthy and distinguished burgher of New Amster-dam' ' His father, Oloff, was a man of note in New Amsterdam and 'New York for forty years. He came to New Netherland m 1638 with Director Kieft, as a soldier in the service of the Dutch West India Company. Oloff was a native of the province of Ltrecht, in Holland, possessed a good education, and is supposed to have been of thoroughly respectable if not gentle descent although noth-hm-definite is known of his ancestry. After remaining a brief time in'the military service in New Amsterdam, he was.appointed by Kieft to official position, from which he resigned in 1648 to en-o-age in mercantile and brewing pursuits, wherein he was very suc-,on acquiring a large fortune. He was ^— <^ most uninterruptedly from 1655 to the Eng-lish conquest.