Early History of the Underhill House

By Barbara Shay MacDonald

Since I first saw the old Dutch house at 1020 Post Road on an April morning 35 years ago, I have tried to discover its early history. Although it was authenticated as an early Dutch farmhouse by a Dutch architectural historian, and built as early as 1687, the house does not appear in any land records until Webb's 1774 map of Scarsdale. Recently, I decided to make a map of early 18th-century Post Road landowners by using deeds from Helen Hultz's book Scarsdale Story, A Heritage History. While I was doing so, some pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall together. Using the map, the facts from wills and land deeds and Norman MacDonald's book Chronicle of a Westchester Farm, the McCord Farm at Ossining, 1750-1937, I was able to write this story. In the last quarter of the 17^th century, a tenant farmer from Philipsburg Manor came across the Manor boundary at the Bronx River, and built a small two-story house, the first in Scarsdale, near the Indian trail leading from New York to Canada, now known as Route 22, or (he Post Road. The site had a deep freshwater spring in the front yard.

When Caleb Heathcote wanted to found the Manor of Scarsdale/ much of Westchester was already taken. His first purchase, in 1698, from Anne Richbell, gave him the right to buy from the Indians a clear title to part of her land, that was called, even then, "Ye Fox Meadows". He purchased more land in Mamaroneck and applied for a patent from the King of England, creating the manor of Scarsdale. It was officially granted on March 21,1701;

thus Lord Heathcote became the owner of the Dutch house. In 1717, Heathcote sold a 124-acre parcel of land to three Fowler brothers, including William Fowler, who bought the 7%-acre gore on the east side of the Post Road.

In 1729, Abraham Hyatt of Eastchester, son-in-law of John Tompkins, who had been left the land by his father Edmund Tompkins, sold 100 acres of land to Thomas Madden "of ye Fox Meadows". The land included houses, barns, orchards, gardens and fences. The , previous month, Hadden had bought 40 acres on the , east side of the road from William Fowler of Rye, | including, I believe, the Dutch house. Three years later, \ in 1732, a final purchase of 25 acres from his northerly

I neighbor, Joshua Tompkins, completed his 165-acre farm. His two sons and daughter were just children, and he must surely have needed some strong workers to {help on the farm.

Now begins my conjecture that will put James McCord and his two sons into the Dutch house. Almost 30 years later, whenTom Hadden lay dying, it was James's son John McCord who would witness the signing of the will.

James McCord, age 44, arrived at Morrisania in 1732. He brought his sons John (15) and Samuel (12) with him, leaving his wife Sarah, who was also his first cousin, and their five-year-old daughter Mary, at home in County Tyrone, Ireland. There is no evidence of any McCord land ownership in Westchester in the ensuing 18 years. I believe that James and his sons came to Fox Meadow to work for Tom Hadden, and that they more than likely lived in the Dutch house as tenants. Seven years later, when Mary, Sarah and Sarah's two brothers came to America, they went directly to Fox Meadows. In studying the map of the landowners in Fox Meadow, one can see that the land was owned by families who would remain for generations; there really is no other place in Fox Meadow where the McCords could have lived except in the Dutch house.

The children of these families would marry the children of their neighbors. There were seven Tompkins brothers alone who owned the land originally purchased by their father Edmund. In future years, Tom Hadden's daughter Abigail would marry a Tompkins, and James McCord's daughter Mary would marry John Fisher (see map). (Oddly enough, their daughter Sarah, bom in 1754, went on to marry her first cousin Robert, son of John McCord, the witness of the will.)

John married Jane Roberts in 1748 and began to search for a farm on the Philipsburg Manor. When he obtained a lease from Frederick Philips in 1750 for a 225-acre farm m Ossining, he left Scarsdale. As a boy in Ireland, he had begun the blacksmith trade, and more than likely was a blacksmith for Hadden, so when he bought the farm, he built a smithy on the property. He must have maintained his relationship with Hadden, since he returned to Scarsdale to witness the will 11 years later.

I had another reason for writing this article: to open a small window on slavery in the Manor near the end of the Colonial period. Scarsdale's first census in 1712 listed 15 residents, seven of whom were slaves. By 1740, the entire manor had a population of 255. John would eventually take the seven black Hadden children (who had been bom to Hadden and his slave Rose) to Ossining, and teach the boys the trade of blacksmith, as requested by their father. What happened to their mother Rose is not known. Here is part of the Thomas Hadden will, dated February 19,1761, witnessed by John McCord, and probated on March 4, 1761:

"I give to Mary Werns and to my wench Rose the use and Profit of my house and lot of land lying at the North End of my farm...........and the said Werns and the wench is to have the use of it six years after my Decease.

"also I give to Mary Werns and to the Wench Rose a Cow and ten bushel of wheat and a baril of Meat.

"also I give to my wench Rose her bed and her wearing cloaths and a Mare that was give to her and a great Bason and a mug that was her owne

"also it is my Desire and I give to my Negro Children the bedding that is theirn or that they sleep on also all their wearing cloaths

"likewise I give to my Wench Rose the sum of twenty five pounds good and Lawfull money

"likewise I give to two of my Negro Boys that is to Frances and Robert the sum of twenty ive pounds Each of good and Lawfull money

"Likewise I give to my Negro children Amos Lazerus Dennes Jacob and Elenor the sum of twenty five pounds to each of them in good and Lawfull money

"And the money that I give to my Negro children I order my Executors to put it out to Interest and for them to have the Interest of it as my Executors shall see they stand in need of it

"Also it is my Desire that ye ten sheep which my tiro older Negro boys hath of their own and are put out to rent that my Executors do sell them soon after my Decease and put ye money to Interest as the money above for them

"Likewise there is six sheep that belongs to three of my Negro boys Amos Lazerus and ]acob which I give them and I order my Executors to sell soon after my Decease and the money to be put to interest for them

"Also it is my Will and Desire that at my Decease all of my Negroes be Exempted ffrom Slavery and I give them all free from anybodys claiming them as Servants

"Also I order my Executors at their Discretion to bind my Negro children out to Trades as soone as may be thought by my Executors they are fit

"Also to take care that they are learnt to read"

Thomas Hadden ordered his Executors to sell his real and Personal Estate. He bequeathed £400 to his son John Hadden, £100 to his son Joseph Hadden, £100 to his daughter Abigail Tompkins, and, to his brother John, £10. The remainder of his money was to be put to interest for his Wife as long as she remained his widow.

Thomas's son, John Hadden of New York, sold the 150 acres in 1762 for £1200; then the name Hadden dropped from Scarsdale records. In April of 1764, the Varian family bought the property. Today the Hadden home, known as Wayside Cottage, is owned by the Village of Scarsdale, and the Junior League has been its custodian since 1953. It is not recorded when or from whom Benjamin Underbill bought the Dutch house across the road, but we know that he is inscribed as the owner of the house on the 1774 Charles Webb map. He tripled the size of the little cottage by adding a wing, and some years later after the Revolution, he attached a springhouse that was on the property. This is the house that I bought and lived in for over 32 years.