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April 28th, 1814, in the eighty-third year of her age. This Walter resided at Castleton Corners. The old manor house which he occupied for a long time, and in which he died in 1855, is still standing. It was a building of considerable pretensions in its time. Walter had a distillery at the springs near Eckstein brewery; he also possessed a large farm at that place. It was part of the estate of Governor Dongan. He was in the ninety-fourth year of his age at the time of his death; his wife, Abigail Simonson Dongan, died on March 1st, 1850, in her eighty-second year. Their graves are located near the south-west corner of the Church of the Ascension, West New Brighton.

Walter and Abigail Dongan had five sons-Edward, Thomas, Walter Richard and Gilbert; also, six daughters-Elizabeth, who married Peter Laforge; Johanne, who married Charles Wood; Cornelia, who married Richard Toombs; Sarah, Abigail and Ruth. Johanne Dongan Wood had five children-John, Ezekiel, Walter Dongan, Joseph and Johanne Stevenson. Of these, Walter Dongan Wood and Catharine S., his wife, had four children-Moses V. N., (deceased), Mrs. A. E. Pullen, Mrs. E. Deming and J. Walter Wood, M.D.

Elizabeth Dongan married Peter Laforge, and had nine children. Anne E., her daughter, married Adam Alston; they had one child, Sarah, wife of Mulford D. Simonson. Henrietta, the second daughter, married Abram Brittain; their children were Frank, Jeanette, wife of James Crabtree; Mary, wife of Victor Theband, Henry, Helen and Anne. Amelia married James Egbert; their children were Pauline Walz, Alice and Herbert. Catharine married Jacob Lynn. Josephine married Aquilla Christopher; their children were Edith and Frank, deceased. Gertrude never married. Peter married Jennie Bodine; their children were George, Vincent, Herbert, and Effie. Celia, the youngest daughter, married Albert E. Ferre; their children were Joseph B. and Gertrude I. Byron died unmarried.

Cornelia, daughter of Walter Dongan, married Richard Toombs; their children were Andrew, William, Richard and Maria. Their son Andrew's children were Cornelia, who maried Richard Watters; Effie, who married Edward B. Hutchinson; Maria, who married William Rogers, Walter and Andrew.

The family is scattered throughout the country, and several branch. es of it remain upon Staten Island. None of the original estate is in possession of the descendants as heirs; but a number reside upon the old "Dongan patent" in West New Brighton, either as tenants or owners of the residences which they occupy.

We now return to the old Dongan manor house and take up the direct line in which the estate was held until it passed out of the possession of the family: Thomas Dongan was the eldest son of Walter, the nephew of Governor Thomas Dongan; his first wife was Rachel, and she died April 25th, 1748, aged twenty-four years. She had one daughter, who died December 22d, 1749, aged three years. Both wife

and daughter are buried in the old Moravian Cemetery. Thomas afterward married Magdalen, the eldest daughter of Rev. Richard Charlton, rector of St. Andrew's Church, of Richmond. By her he had a son, John Charlton Dongan. Thomas Dongan was a vestryman of Trinity Church, New York, from 1748 to 1759. In order to adjust the claims upon him to which his young half-brother, Edward V., was entitled, he, on the 15th of April, 1757, gave a mortgage to John Harriman and Sarah, his wife, (the step-mother of Thomas, she being the late widow of his father), "on various tracts of land lying in the manor of Castletown, adjoining each other, and then being in the possession of tenants, to secure the payment of £40 a year till Edward Vaughn should reach his majority, and the payment of £1,000 when that time arrived."

In consideration of these payments, "Edward Vaughn should relinquish all claim against the said Thomas or the estate of the late Walter Dongan." The aggregate extent of land covered by this instrument was about seven hundred acres. The will of Thomas Dongan bears date March 8th, 1765, and it appointed Magdalen, his wife, sole executrix. It bequeathed to his son, John Charlton Dongan, all his estate, and in case of his death, while in his minority, the estate was to go to his mother, and to her heirs forever. There is no record of his death.

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RICHARD LOVELACE.

John Charlton Dongan, son of Thomas, and grandson of Walter, the nephew of the Governor, was educated for a lawyer, and was admitted to the bar May 6th, 1791. He became a man of prominence. He represented Castleton in the Board of Supervisors in 1785, and was in the State Assembly in 1787-88-89. He was a prominent leader of the Schuyler (Federal) party in 1788-9, and served on several prominent Assembly committees. His law office was at 25 Courtlandt street, New York City, in 1795. He possessed considerable property on State street, New York City, (in addition to the estate on Staten Island, which then comprised about six hundred acres), all of which he inherited from his father.

John Charlton Dongan is said to have been a very honorable man; but being a free liver" he fell into careless habits and descended the scale of respectable standing and financial advantage until he reached the lowest extreme." His wife was Patience Moore, of Newtown, Long Island, a sister of Benjamin Moore, of that place. It is said that she was of little advantage to him, being herself a partner in his failings. They had two children, Thomas Charles Bradish, who

died November 25th, 1789, and John Charlton, Jr., who died October 23d, 1791, in the sixth year of his age. The State street property was sold and the proceeds lost in speculation. He then became involved and, about 1795, sold the old Manor house on Staten Island, together with the accompanying estate, to his brother-in-law, John McVicker, whose wife was a sister to his wife. He then sold off all the stock and movables belonging to the estate, and the sale returned about $10,000. He and his wife, it is said, agreed to put this in bank and live on the proceeds. She soon returned to her own family, the Moores, at Newtown; but he continued to sink still deeper in intemperance, and finally accepted the position of a sergeant of marines and went to sea on a man-of-war, in 1798 or 1799. He was familiarly known as "Jack" Dongan. When his financial resources were finally exhausted and his health was broken down, he became a public charge. He had a god-mother in Jamaica, West Indies, and when she learned of his sad condition, sent him money with which to pay his passage, and he went thither to enjoy her generous hospitality. He died there a short time afterward.

The landed estate of the Dongans had been constantly growing smaller. John McVicker occupied the famous old house as a country seat from 1795 to 1802, when he sold it to Alexander McComb. MeVicker was a prominent and useful man. He constructed a canal, two miles long, from Fresh pond to the mill, took a personal interest in many public enterprises on the Island, and helped Cornelius Vanderbilt (afterward the famous old "Commodore ") to funds with which to procure a piragua and dock at Factoryville, (now West New Brighton).

McComb sold the estate to John Bodine, Jr., and he to his father. The latter sold it to Judge Ogden Edwards, (grand son of the eminent divine of that name, and cousin to Colonel Aaron Burr). Judge Edwards belonged to the Supreme Court bench at the time. While he resided in the famous old Dongan house he entertained many noted personages. He beautified the house considerably, and the grounds surrounding it were delightfully arranged with drives, trees and shrubbery. It was even more royal in its appointments than when the royal governor reigned there supreme. But when the great financial panic of "the thirties" excited the country, it dealt a blow to the "Lord of the manor," and by force of circumstances the property reverted to its former owner-John Bodine, Jr. Judge Edwards then moved into the old stone dwelling, still standing, at the junction of the Clove road and Columbia street, West New Brighton, now familiarly known as the Scott homestead.

The next occupant of the Dongan house was Jacob Bodine, (son of John, Jr.), who disposed of it to his brother-in-law, Jacob Post, and he to C. Willis Windsor, the husband of Mrs. Post's sister. It then passed to J. H. Williamson, whose widow married Albert Bodine, in whose

possession it was at the time of its destruction, on Christmas, 1878. For many years the charred ruins of the historic homestead marked the spot; but to-day all that is left to tell its proud story is here and there a majestic tree that once shaded the favored dwellers in the old manor. Truly, one who honors the relics of the past-those historic links that bind the dim past to the busy present-cannot witness their destruction without regret and sorrow. And so the old house, like the generations it sheltered in the long ago, lives only in tradition and story.

CHAPTER XIV.

RICHMOND COUNTY.

ANY changes took place shortly after the arrival of Governor Thomas Dongan, in 1683. One of these was the establishment of four counties-New York, Kings, Queens and Richmond. These were organized to take the place of the "ridings," as the courts then established were called. The assembly, over which Governor Dongan presided, passed an "Act to divide this province and dependencies into Shires and Counties," on November 1st, 1683, and contained the following in reference to Staten Island:

"The County of Richmond to conteyne all Staten Island, Shutter's Island, and the islands of meadow on the west side thereof."

There were about two hundred families on Staten Island at that time, exclusive of Indians, of whom it is thought there were two thousand. Immediately after the organization of the county it was allowed two representatives in the colonial assembly. In 1684, one year later, for the first time, a county tax was imposed, which amounted to fifteen pounds.

Stony Brook was selected as the site for the County Seat. It was then the chief settlement of Staten Island, and contained beside a court house and jail a Waldensian church, a fort, a trading depot where the Indians exchanged furs for food and other articles with the settlers, and a number of plain cottages, built principally in the Dutch style of architecture.

The Court House and County Jail were located in a small, onestory structure containing two rooms. One, built of roughly-hewn logs, filled in with clay and shell-lime, served as the County Jail. The only door to it was built of rough boards, hung on raw-hide hinges, and opened outward. A window, about a foot square, which the prisoners could regulate for their own comfort by filling in with

1 There is no record that the offices were filled until 1691, when the county was represented by John Dally and Lambert Dorland. Ellis Duxbury was elected the same year, probably to serve an unexpired term, and remained in office until 1698.

2 The village of Stony Brook derived its name from a small rivulet, which takes its source from two chains of ponds, located respectively on the lands of Robert Jones, near the old Black Horse Tavern, and the other on

the Anthony Johnson property, between the Amboy and Richmond roads, west of New Dorp. A short distance below the ponds the two chains join, and running in a southerly direction cross the Amboy road at the sharp bend, and run thence in a southerly direction to the lower bay. Here was located the village which was the county seat from 1683 to 1729. In consequence of the destruction of trees along its course Stony Brook is now dry a great portion of the year.

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