[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] He was born in 1683. He was a merchant in New York, and has been described as " a man 272 HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY of clear head, of good abilities, and possessed of great deci-sion of character." From 1730 until his death (1746) he was a member of the gubernatorial council. His eldest son, Stephen, died young, leaving a son, Philip, who succeeded as the next head of the family. But this second Philip, preferring a military life, entered the British army, in which he had a long career, fighting against Amer-ican freedom in the Revolution.1 His uncle Pierre (youngest son of the first Philip and grandson of Stephanas) ultimately became the lead-ing member of the Van Cortlandt family resident on the manor. Pierre Van Cortlandt's is one of the great names of Westchester County, second, indeed, to none in all the illustrious and noble ar-ray. This is not the place for a particular account of his career, which, in its more distinctive features, is connected with the events of the Revolutionary and subsequent periods. When those events come to be treated we shall see that in the almost balanced condition of sentiment in this country at the time of the Revolution, his was probably the determining influence. Others led the political hosts for independence, but Van Cortlandt's support, calmly and unpre-tendingly given, though with all resoluteness and conviction, was a factor that counted for quite as much as the activities of the agita-tors.