Historic Pelham: John Pell of the Manor of Pelham Helped Settle the 1683 Border Dispute Between the Province of New York and the Colony of Connecticut

John Pell arrived in Boston in 1670 and quickly made his way to the Colony of Connecticut to claim his inheritance from his deceased uncle, Thomas Pell, of the Manor of Pelham. Unlike his uncle, John Pell moved to the Manor of Pelham to live there permanently. It is believed he lived temporarily in a farmhouse built by his uncle on today’s Rodman’s Neck until he completed construction of his own Manor House near the location of today’s Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum.

In very short order John Pell became a notable citizen and a respected Justice of the Peace and member of the General Court of Assizes in the Province of New York. When Pell first arrived on the scene from England, however, the Province of New York and the Colony of Connecticut already had been embroiled in a boundary dispute for decades. That boundary dispute erupted yet again in 1683. Provincial Governor Thomas Dongan selected John Pell of the Manor of Pelham and a handful of others to serve as New York's commissioners to settle that dispute.

Border Tensions Between New Netherlands and the English Colonies

During the time the Dutch controlled New Netherland (including New Amsterdam on the Island of Manhattan), there were disputes over the border between New Netherlands and the Colony of Connecticut and other English colonies. With English settlers pressing southwestward toward Manhattan and Dutch-sanctioned settlers pressing northeastward into areas including today’s Throggs Neck and Yonkers, in 1650, Dutch Director-General of New Netherlands, Petrus Stuyvesant, traveled to Hartford to negotiate a border with the governor of the Colony of Connecticut, Edward Hopkins.

Stuyvesant essentially traded Connecticut land claims (the New Netherland claim encompassed the full length of the Connecticut River and as far east as Narragansett Bay) in order to get a clear boundary on Long Island. Stuyvesant and Hopkins agreed on a Connecticut line fifty Dutch miles west of the mouth of the Connecticut River. On Long Island, a line would be drawn south from the westernmost point of Oyster Bay, through modern Nassau County. Although the Dutch West India Company approved the treaty, the English royal authorities never ratified it. Thus, the border remained in question and the so-called “Treaty of Hartford” remained a source of tension between the Dutch and English for many years.

Efforts in 1664 to Settle the New York – Connecticut Boundary

In 1664, England took control of New Netherland from the Dutch. Even before that, English settlers in Connecticut and those in the New York region were battling over the boundary that would separate the two colonies. King Charles II of England sent Richard Nicolls to serve as Governor of the Province of New York and to lead a group of royal commissioners sent with him to “end unneighborly and unbrotherly contentions” regarding the border between New York and Connecticut. The Commissioners met with the then-Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, John Winthrop, and a group of Connecticut commissioners.

In December, 1664, colonial authorities announced an agreement to place the boundary line running north-northwest at the mouth of the Mamaroneck River. Long Island, however, was placed entirely within the Province of New York. The new line on the mainland, however, was well west of the line that would have been established by the Treaty of Hartford had that treaty been ratified by English royal authorities.

The Dutch Retake New York, Lose It, and Governor Edmund Andros Arrives

For a short time in 1673, the Dutch retook New York. Because the 1664 agreement had actually added large swaths of land to Connecticut on the mainland up the Hudson River, Connecticut did not want the 1650 line proposed by the Treaty of Hartford to govern. For a short period, Connecticut resisted any suggestion by the Dutch that the 1650 line governed the boundary between Dutch-controlled lands and Connecticut.

In early 1674, however, Dutch and English authorities signed the Treaty of Westminster that, among other things, returned New Netherland to the English. Governor Edmund Andros arrived in New York in 1674 with a new royal patent for the Province of New York claiming all lands up to the Connecticut River – well within the Colony of Connecticut as denoted by the line agreed to by the commissioners as announced in December, 1664. Thereafter:

“Gov. Andros showed a markedly aggressive tack in his negotiations with Connecticut. In May 1675, Andros sent a letter asking for land west of the Connecticut River under the Duke's new patent. When Gov. Winthrop objected, Andros sent a representative in June to demand Connecticut's submission, threatening to send soldiers against any rebellion. During this time of high tensions between the colonies, King Philip's War broke out in 1675. Andros attempted to use this to consolidate lands under the Duke's [new] patent [that granted lands all the way to the Connecticut River to New York]. At the start of the war, Andros sent troops to Fort Saybrook, nominally to defend. However, Winthrop's troops arrived first, and held the fort themselves. Andros requested that Winthrop temporarily relinquish Connecticut's claim to the area in order to strengthen the united defense.”

Source: “Border Disputes Between New York and Connecticut” in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia (visited Jun. 25, 2016).

New Governor Thomas Dongan Arrives in 1683 and Settles the Matter – Again

In 1683, a new Governor arrived in the Province of New York. He was Thomas Dongan. One of Governor Dongan’s first official acts was to move to try to settle the border dispute with Connecticut – again. It was during this time that Justice of the Peace John Pell of the Manor of Pelham became involved.

During the autumn of 1683, likely at the urging of Governor Thomas Dongan, Justice John Pell issued a warrant requiring constables of Rye, Greenwich, and Stamford to appear before the General Court of Assizes in New York in October. During that court session, Governor Dongan pled to the court that Connecticut had violated the 1664 agreement. He also issued a letter to Governor Robert Treat of the Colony of Connecticut warning that “If you do not submitt to let us have all the land within twenty miles of Hudson’s River, I must claime as far as the Duke’s Pattent goes; which is to the River Connecticut. There is land enough for us all, and I love not to do my neighbors ill offices.”

Source: "GOVERNOR DONGAN TO GOVERNOR TREAT" in Trumbull, J. Hammond, ed., The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut May, 1678 – June, 1689; With Notes and an Appendix Comprising Such Documents from the State Archives, and Other Sources, as Illustrate the History of the Colony During the Administration of Sir Edmund Andros, pp. 329-30 (Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Co., 1859).

Representatives of the two colonies agreed to a new border similar to the one that exists today, placing the settlement of Rye in New York and the settlements of Greenwich and Stamford in Connecticut. The Province of New York appointed a commission of four respected citizens, one of whom was a surveyor, to survey and place the new line. Those commissioners were John Pell of the Manor of Pelham, John Youngs, Robert Vauqellin, and Phillip Welles (the surveyor). The Colony of Connecticut, in turn, appointed a commission to join the New York Commission consisting of Major Nathan Gold, Captain Jonathan Sellick, Ensign Daniel Sherman, and Mr. John Harriman (a surveyor).

On Wednesday, October 4, 1684, the commissioners of the two colonies met in Stamford. According to a report filed by the New York Commissioners the following February (February 23^rd):

“Wee went to Lions Point on ye east side of Birom River and from ye mouth of sd River where itt falls into ye Sea, we measured up the said River and found itt to be one mile and halfe and twenty rodds, bearing North halfe Easterly, and so came to a great Rock stone at ye Wading Place, where the road cutts ye sd River, and from thence directed our course North North West, six miles and a halfe, and there marked DRCC [In the form of a diamond with “D” containing a hooked line through it at the top and then, in clockwise order: “R” “C” and “C”] three white oake trees as in the margeant; thence directed our course West and by North seven miles and one hundred and twenty rodds, which brought us to ye Northernmost end of a Reach of Hudson’s River, which bears as we judged South and by West a quarter Westerly, and North and by East a quarter Easterly, which above-said line falls upon the sd Reach about Three miles above Frederick Philips upper Mills over against Tapan, and ye said River bearing North as to itts generall course upwards, we conclude the above mentioned West and by North line to be the shortest from sd Three marked Trees to Hudson’s River, and having unanimously concluded that part of the Sound from Lions Point Easterly to beare East North East, we did from said Trees at eight mile distance run a parallel to the Sound, vizt. East North East twelve miles, and still continued ye said Twelve Mile line East North East one mile and sixtyfour rodds, which then gave twenty miles from Hudson’s River, and is eight miles North North West from ye Sound. Then finding the Oblong of twelve miles East North East and eight miles North North West did deminish sixty one thousand foure hundred and forty acres from ye twenty miles from Hudson’s River, we added to ye abovesaid twenty miles upon ye East North East line, three hundred and five rodds more, to run at yt additional breadth, parallel to Hudson’s River, till it meets with the Mathethusetts Line, which we demed one hundred miles distant from our eight mile line, which severall courses, with theire destances, together with the three hundred and five rodds added, doe clearly appear in ye Platt by the surveyers drawne and hereunto annexed; which addition of three hundred and five rodds we refer for itts confirmation and ratification to the two Governments from whence we are imployed; and that the above written is a true report of our proceedings, we have this tenth day of October, one thousand six hundred eighty and foure, subscribed our names in Standford.”

Source: See full text of report and citation below.

Though John Pell and his colleagues did their part to settle the boundary lines, disputes over the line between New York and Connecticut continued for nearly another hundred years – long after the death of John Pell of the Manor of Pelham.

Portrait of John Pell.

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

Diagram Depicting New York and Connecticut Border

Disputes Between 1636 and 1776. Source:

“Border Disputes Between New York and Connecticut” in

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia (visited Jun. 25, 2016).

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

* * * * *

“REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS AND SURVEYORS, FOR LAYING OUT THE LINE BETWEEN CONNECTICUT AND NEW YORK.

[Col. Boundaries, II. 46.]

Pursuant to a Commission from the Right Hon ble Thomas Dongan, Governour Generall of all his Royall Highnesses Territories in America, &c., bearing the date the 26^th day of September, 1684.* [Footnote “*” reads: “* Doc. Relating to the Hist. of N. York, III. 356.”]

Wee underwritten did upon the first Wednesday of this instant October meet, at ye towne of Stanford, Major Nathan Gold, Capt. Jonathan Sellick, Ensigne Daniel Sherman, Mr. John Harriman † Surveyor commissionated at a Generall Court held att Hartford, as by theire comission they produced bearing date May the eighth, 1684, doth fully appeare. [Footnote “†” reads: “† Mr. John Harriman, (grad. H. C. 1667,) had previously been employed by the General Court to make observations for determining the Colony’s north bounds, and the correction of Woodward & Saffery’s line. See p. 33 ante.”]

Wee went to Lions Point on ye east side of Birom River and from ye mouth of sd River where itt falls into ye Sea, we measured up the said River and found itt to be one mile and halfe and twenty rodds, bearing North halfe Easterly, and so came to a great Rock stone at ye Wading Place, where the road cutts ye sd River, and from thence directed our course North North West, six miles and a halfe, and there marked DRCC [In the form of a diamond with “D” containing a hooked line through it at the top and then, in clockwise order: “R” “C” and “C”] three white oake trees as in the margeant; thence directed our course West and by North seven miles and one hundred and twenty rodds, which brought us to ye Northernmost end of a Reach of Hudson’s River, which bears as we judged South and by West a quarter Westerly, and North and by East a quarter Easterly, which above-said line falls upon the sd Reach about Three miles above Frederick Philips upper Mills over against Tapan, and ye said River bearing North as to itts generall course upwards, we conclude the above mentioned West and by North line to be the shortest from sd Three marked Trees to Hudson’s River, and having unanimously concluded that part of the Sound from Lions Point Easterly to beare East North East, we did from said Trees at eight mile distance run a parallel to the Sound, vizt. East North East twelve miles, and still continued ye said Twelve Mile line East North East one mile and sixtyfour rodds, which then gave twenty miles from Hudson’s River, and is eight miles North North West from ye Sound. Then finding the Oblong of twelve miles East North East and eight miles North North West did deminish sixty one thousand foure hundred and forty acres from ye twenty miles from Hudson’s River, we added to ye abovesaid twenty miles upon ye East North East line, three hundred and five rodds more, to run at yt additional breadth, parallel to Hudson’s River, till it meets with the Mathethusetts Line, which we demed one hundred miles distant from our eight mile line, which severall courses, with theire destances, together with the three hundred and five rodds added, doe clearly appear in ye Platt by the surveyers drawne and hereunto annexed; which addition of three hundred and five rodds we refer for itts confirmation and ratification to the two Governments from whence we are imployed; and that the above written is a true report of our proceedings, we have this tenth day of October, one thousand six hundred eighty and foure, subscribed our names in Standford.

JOHN YOUNGS

JOHN PELL

ROBERT VAUQELLIN

PHILLIP WELLES Surv r. * [Footnote “*” reads “* The names of ‘Nathan Gold, Jonathan Sellick, Daniel Sherman and John Herriman, Commr’s for Connecticut,’ are also subscribed to this report, -- as published in the Report of the New York commissioners, (1857) App. O. p. 118.”]

Millford, February the 23d, 1684-5. The Report made by the within mentioned persons is this day assented unto, and ratified by us; & it is ordered that it be recorded in the books of Record for both Governments, as witnesse o r [our] hands.

[Signed] Tho: Dongan

[Signed] Robert Treat

Witnesses.

J. PALMER

J. SPRAGGE

JOHN YOUNGS

NATHAN GOLD

WM JONES

JOHN ALLYN

JOHN NASH

WILLIAM PITKIN.”

Source: Trumbull, J. Hammond, ed., The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut May, 1678 – June, 1689; With Notes and an Appendix Comprising Such Documents from the State Archives, and Other Sources, as Illustrate the History of the Colony During the Administration of Sir Edmund Andros, pp. 337-39 (Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Co., 1859).