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CORTELYOU MANOR HOUSE
FROM WHICH A WOMAN SIGNALLED WITH A RED PETTICOAT FOR THE BRITISH TO LAND
Jacques CORTELYOU was the founder of New Utrecht; and his stone
house so graphically described in a "Journal of a Voyage to New York
in 1679-80," by Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, stood in what was then
known as Nyack and is now Fort Hamilton. Jacques CORTELYOU came to this
country from Utrecht in 1652. Seven years before his arrival the West
India Company gave the Indians six coats, six kettles, six axes,
six chisels, six small looking-glasses, twelve knives, and
twelve combs for all the land from Gowanus to Coney Island, including
what is now New Utrecht. Comelis VAN WERCKHOVEN, for whose children
Jacques was tutor, received from the West India Company the first
patent of Fort Hamilton. After attempting to plant a settlement there,
he returned to the old country, leaving as agent CORTELYOU, who in
1657 received permission to layout the town of New Utrecht,
named in honor of the birthplace of Cornelis VAN WERCKHOVEN.
Dankers and Sluyter in the Journal speak of CORTELYOU in commendable terms.
They say: "Jacques is a man advanced in years. He was born in Utrecht,
but of French parents, as you could readily discover from his actions,
looks and language. He had studied philosophy in his youth, and
spoke Latin and good French. He was a mathematician and sworn land-surveyor.
He had also formerly learned several sciences, and had some knowledge of medicine. . . .
We went looking around the country and toward evening came to the village
of New Utrecht, so named by him. This village was burned down some time ago,
with everything about it, including the house of this man, which was
almost an half an hour distant from it.
.. . . It was now almost rebuilt, and many good stone houses were erected,
of which Jacques's was one, where we returned by another road to spend the
night. After supper, we went to sleep in the barn, upon some straw spread
with sheep-skins, in the midst of the continual grunting of hogs, squealing
of pigs, bleating and coughing of sheep, barking of dogs, crowing of cocks,
cackling of hens, and, especially, a goodly quantity of fleas and vermin . ..
and all this with an open barn door, through which a fresh northwest wind
was blowing. Though we could not sleep, we could not complain, inasmuch as
we had the same quarters and kind of bed that their son usually had, who
had now on our arrival crept in the straw behind us."
When the British landed on Long Island, three houses stood where
Fort Hamilton now stands, the CORTELYOU house, which was on the
south side of the reservation, the BENNET house, and the stone
house of Denyse DENYSE. Tradition says that, when the British
ships-of-war were riding in the bay, a CORTELYOU woman, Tory in
sympathy, carefully watching her opportunity, signalled with a red
petticoat to the British the best time for them to land. The soldiers,
more than fifteen thousand strong, swarmed the Bath shore
August 22, 1776, on land owned by Captain Adrian VAN BRUNT and
Isaac CORTELYOU, the latter a direct descendant of Jacques of Nyack
(Fort Hamilton) fame. They say that American officers took possession
of the house before the enemy came, and that, as fast as Lord Howe's
men marched across the beach, the Patriots picked them off. Hessians,
however, soon gained the field, and Lord Howe and his staff made the
CORTELYOU house their headquarters for about a month.
Catherine, the daughter of Simon, then owner. of the estate, loved
a young British officer, who in a straightforward way. asked the father's
permission to marry her. The wrath of Simon CORTELYOU blazed high, and
the officer was told to vacate the premises, while Catherine was shut
away from all communication with the outside world. The lovers waited,
and on a clear moonlight night a horseman appeared beneath the window
of the imprisoned girl. Low whispers followed, and Catherine, hastily
throwing a scarf over her head, carefully crept from her window. Softly
the elopers ran to the bay, where a boat was waiting. Behind them rushed
frantic members of the family, who had been awakened. Gun-barrels gleamed
in the night. When the pursuers reached the shore, only the soft plash of
oars told them that Catherine was out of reach. The report of a gun awoke
echoes in the glorious night, followed by a woman's cry--and silence. They
say that on the morrow a tiny slipper was found embedded in the sands
on the shore. Catherine CORTELYOU and her husband returned later to
the old home to beg forgiveness, only to be greeted by bitter,
angry words. On the very beach over which the night before he had
carried his slender betrothed in their flight, the young officer
shot himself and Catherine CORTELYOU became mad.
Throughout the War of the Revolution the CORTELYOU house was the
target for both British and Patriots. It is related that men sent by
Lord Stirling, the American officer, captured at New Utrecht Simon
and Jacques CORTELYOU, "two famous Tories in the enemies' lines, and
specie and other property to the amount of $5,000."
"The prisoners," continues Onderdonk, "are on parole at Brunswick, and
are to be exchanged for two citizens of Jersey, in captivity with the enemy."
Captain MARRENER, a patriot officer, took Simon CORTELYOU of New Utrecht
to New Brunswick as a return for his uncivil conduct to the American
prisoners and kept CORTELYOU's silver tankard and several other articles.
About. a decade ago the house was burned.
De Sille House, Where Woodhull died of Wounds
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