was an early Scotch influence on Manhattan Island, but we cannot trace it authoritatively to the Inclenberg neighborhood prior to the advent of Robert Murray well along in the 18th century. Jamieson's "Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language" mentions the use of Inglin meaning fuel, and the more familiar Ingle, meaning fire. But such a combination with berg, while not impossible, appears improbable.

After considering these and other possibilities and discarding one theory after another, we are of the following opinion, which is held subject to correction by later developments:

In the first place, we believe that when the name Inclaembergh first appeared in the Common Council minutes in 1700 it was a corruption of some earlier form. The records show that it had no settled spelling at that time.

Second, the probabilities are that it was of Dutch origin. This inference is drawn from the persistence of the final syllable "berg" or some phonetic equivalent, the frequent use of that termination in local place names given by the Dutch on Manhattan Island, and the fact that the neighborhood was first settled by a Dutchman.

Third, the indications are that in its early use it was not applied to the hill, but rather to the region or little settlement at its southern and eastern sides. "The bridge that leads across Inclawnbergh" (page 149, ante) and other expressions appear inconsistent with the meaning of a hill. The bridge that led across "Inclawnbergh" appears to have been the bridge first mentioned on page 148 preceding.

Fourth, when the early Dutch names on Manhattan Island were not physically descriptive -- as Zandtberg (Sand Hill), Rondevlysberg (Round Meadow Hill), etc., they were generally place names borrowed from the old country. We are unable to recognize in the name Inclenberg and its known variants a word which physically describes the hill or the locality. We therefore infer that it is a borrowed name.

Fifth, in some parts of the Netherlands, place-names ending in "berg" are numerous. This is noticeably so in the province of Gelderland. Sometimes these names apply to hills. Sometimes they manifestly apply to estates or hamlets, which possibly may be located high enough above the neighboring swamps to entitle

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them to be called "bergs" in the sense of hills, rather than burgs." These bergs oftentimes had poetic names like Sterrenberg (Star Hill), Engelenberg (Angels Hill), etc.* Engelenberg is an estate situated in Gelderland about two miles southwest of Zutphen. On Dezauch's large map of Holland (1790) it is situated much like Kipsbury, on the edge of a marsh, drained by a brook which flows into the Yssel at Zutphen.

The foregoing facts strongly suggest that Inclenberg is a corruption of some such Dutch name as Engelenberg; that it was first applied to the little hamlet on the upland which was adjacent to Murray Hill on the one hand and to the marshes before described on the other; and that in the course of time it became transferred to the hill, to which it is plainly applied on maps of the Revolutionary period.

The name Murray Hill is derived from that of Robert Murray, the wealthy Quaker merchant, whose house stood on the line of Park avenue between 36th and 37th streets, and who had leased an extensive farm on the hill from the city about the middle of the 18th century.

Early Roads and Modern Streets

In order to understand the history of Murray Hill, it is also necessary to describe the location of four roads which existed at the time of the Revolution and which appear on the British Headquarters Map of 1782.

The main longitudinal road of the island at that time was the Post Road, variously called the Boston Post Road, the Eastern Post Road, etc. It ran up from the city by way of the Bowery and Bloomingdale Road to what is now Madison Square, where

Engel (Angel) appears to be a favorite word in this region. At Rhedersteeg, a popular summer resort between Arnheim and Zutphen, is an inn named De Engel. We are also reminded in this connection that Engeltie, the equivalent of Angelica, was a favorite Dutch proper name. Mr. Van Laer, whose opinion we highly respect, does not incline toward our interpretation of Engelenberg. He says that "Engel in Dutch names often refers to the Angles who settled in the country at an early date. He adds that "Eng" may also mean a field or meadow. He does not, however, altogether discountenance the possibility that Inclenberg may be a corruption of Engelenberg or Engelenburg, and calls attention to the appearance of the latter name in the form of Englumborg in the province of Groningen.

it forked, the eastern branch being the Eastern Post Road and the western branch the continuation of the Bloomingdale Road. The Post Road ran northeastward and northward, crossing Third avenue at 44th street, and thence continued by an irregular course to MeGown's Pass and so on to Kingsbridge.

The Bloomingdale Road, leaving the Post Road at 23d street, followed Broadway to 59th street and thence ran approximately along Broadway to Morningside Heights and beyond.

A road, later called the Middle Road, branched off from the Post Road at Fourth avenue and 29th street and ran northward to Fifth avenue and 42d street and north of that point continued as an irregular lane.

From the Middle Road at Fifth avenue and 42d street, a Cross Road ran to the Bloomingdale Road (Broadway) at a point between 43d and 44th streets. On the British map, this road does not appear extended southeast of Fifth avenue and 42d street, but we know from contemporary documents describing events of September 15, 1776, that it did extend to the Post Road which it intersected at 41st street between Third and Lexington avenues. The present southeast corner of Fifth avenue and 42d street lies on the corresponding corner of the Middle Road and the Cross Road, lapping over a little upon the Middle Road.

(There is, however, on the British map, a road or lane connecting the Middle Road and the Post Road, roughly speaking along the line of 38th street, which may have been a mislocation of what should be a continuation of the Cross Road above mentioned.)

Before dealing with the ownership and history of the property at Fifth avenue and 42d street, we will mention further details about the roads and streets. Under an act of 1807, Commissioners were appointed to lay out a system of streets for the city, and, with John Randel, Jr., surveyor, they devised the rectangular system which subsequently obliterated the Post Road, Middle Road and Cross Road. On the Commissioners' map, surveved by Randel in 1809, the Cross Road, running from the Post Road to the Bloomingdale Road, is designated as Steuben street, doubtless in honor of Gen. Steuben. On a later map it is called Low's Lane, after a Mr. Low who owned property in that neighborhood. The

rectangular streets were physically opened gradually after the plan was adopted.

The city acquired the title to the land which it did not previously own in Fifth avenue from 21st to 42d streets in October, 1837, and from 42d to 90th streets in April, 1838. Fifth avenue was graded from 28th to 42d streets in 1844 and from 42d to 59th streets in 1855; and was paved from 30th to 42d streets in 1852 and from 42d to 59th streets in 1856 and 1864.

The city acquired title to the land which it did not previously own in 42d street from Third avenue to Broadway in April, 1833. Forty-second street was graded from Second avenue to Broadway in 1839 and was paved from Fifth to Sixth avenues in 1854 and 1864.

The Middle Road appears on the city maps as late as 1851, but it no longer belonged there because, by a resolution of the Common Council approved July 16, 1847, the conveyance of the bed of the Middle Road to adjacent land owners was authorized upon their paying therefor and a portion of the Middle Road is included in the southeast corner of Fifth avenue and 42d street. Another resolution of April 3, 1848, authorized the granting of the bed of Low's Lane to adjacent owners, and thus the old Cross Road officially disappeared.

Land Ownership on Murray Hill

Murray Hill, as we may now call it, was part of the Common Lands of the city of New York, and up to the year 1700 remained almost a wilderness, except for the settlement of the Kip farm on the east. But in that and the next few years, the city found itself in need of money to meet the expenses of building the new City Hall in Wall street at the head of Broad, and began to lease tracts of land in the vicinity of the hill. These leases multiplied until at the time of the Revolution the hill was nearly, if not entirely, under lease to a comparatively few persons, and was under cultivation. From contemporary documents, we know that one extensive cornfield lay in the angle between the Cross Road on the north and the Post Road on the east. The British Headquarters' map of 1782 shows half a dozen houses at the intersection of the Middle Road and the Cross Road (now Fifth avenue and 42d street), but who occupied them we do not know.

Apparently Murray Hill remained Common Land, under lease, until after the war, and the first conveyances in fee were not until after the Americans had resumed the government of the city. On December 21, 1785, the Common Council voted to have Inchlambergh surveyed and divided up into lots for sale, and on April 19, 1786, Thomas Bridgen Atwood was among the first of the former lessees to propose to purchase the 10 acres which he occupied south of the Cross Road and 12 acres adjoining on the north side, both east of the Middle Road. In June, 1789, the city promised to convey the two parcels to him," but did not actually do so. While Bridgen (or Atwood) had this promise, and on October 1, 1797, he borrowed $20,000 from the Bank of New York and on December 18, 1797, the city conveyed these two parcels to Daniel McCormick, Charles Smith and William Seton as trustees for the security of the debt.

The tract on the south side of the Cross Road, in which we are particularly interested, was "bounded east by the Post or Public Road or highway, on the west by a road laid out through the said Common Lands called the Middle Road, on the southwest by land then of Gilbert C. Willett (now belonging to John Murray), and northeast by another road laid out across the said common lands from the said Post Road to the Bloomingdale Road." It measured 24 chains 30 links along the Cross Road from the Post Road to the Middle Road; 15 chains 58 links along the Middle Road to Murray's land; 18 chains 26 links along Murray's land to the Post Road; and 9 chains 69 links along the Post Road to the place of beginning. (Liber 66, page 241.)

Bridgen having failed to pay the debt, McCormick and his co-trustees sold the tract north of the Cross Road to Isaac Burr, and the eastern part of the tract south of the Cross Road to James Quackenbush or Quackenboss.

The western part of the southern parcel, which includes the southeast corner of Fifth avenue and 42d street, passed from McCormick and his associates by conveyances of which we find no record, to Abraham Bates.

On June 11, 1805, Abraham Bates conveyed to John M. Bradhurst and Moses Field, druggists, for $11,450, the property

* See liber 66 of deeds at page 241, etc.; also Common Council minutes for 1789 in our Annual Report for 1915, pages 781, 816, 817.