[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] Throughout the colonial period tenant farming continued to be the prevailing system of rural economy outside of the few settlements and tracts which from the start were independ-ent of the manor grants — a system which, however, did not operate to the disadvantage of population in the manor lands. Upon this point de Lancey, the historian of the manors, says : " It will give a correct idea of the great extent and thoroughness of the manorial settlement of Westchester County, as well as the satisfactory nature of that method of settlement to its inhabitants, although a surprise, probably, to many readers, when it is stated that in the year 1769 one-third of the population of the county lived on the two manors of Cortlandt and Philipseburgh alone. The manors of Fordham, Mor-risania, Pelham, and Scarsdale, lying nearer to the City of New York than these two, and more accessible than either, save only the lower end of Philipseburgh, were, if anything, much more settled. It is safe to say that upward of five-eighths of the people of West-chester County in 1769 were inhabitants of the six manors. " The distinguishing characteristics of the manors demand notice here, although our space does not permit any elaborate treatment of this particular subject.1 First, it should be understood that the manors, one and all, were only ordinary landed estates, granted to