[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] On the 17th of June, 1G9T, the whole was established as the Lordship and Manor of Cortlandt, bv royal letters patent from Governor Fletcher, a quit-rent of " forty shillings current money " to be paid annually to the governor " on the feast day of Annunciation of our Blessed Virgin Mary," " in lieu and stead of all other rents, services, dues, duties, and demands whatsoever." Tan Cortlandt died at the early age of fifty-seven, three years and one-half after the issuance of this manor :.rant. Judging from the well-known character of the man, it may readily be believed, in the words of the historian of the " Manors of Westchester County," that " had he lived to be seventy-five or eighty years old, like so very many of his descendants in every generation, instead of dying at fifty-seven, leaving a large family, mostly minors, it is probable that he would have left his manor as flourishing and as populous in proportion as that of Eensselaerswyck at the same date " The great distance of Cortlandt Manor from New York City and its surrounding settlements, as well as its difficulty of access from the country immediately below on account of the obstruction pre-sented by the Croton, delayed for many years the occupation of its lands-and so meagre was its population that it was notuntil 1734 that the Manor of Cortlandt availed itself of the privilege conferred in the orant of sending a representative to the general assembly.