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                    HENRY DISBROW

     We have already assumed that the two boys, Peter and
Henry Disbrow (Desborough) who grew up fatherless in Rox-
bury, Massachusetts, are the same Peter and Henry Disbrough
who have now appeared here on the border of New York.
Henry in 1659 was living at Oyster Bay and, assuming he
was born in 1633 is now 26 years old.  Presumably he came
there from Greenwich where Peter is at the moment still
living, but as to where either of them had been since
1653 when last they appeared on the Roxbury record, how
they got to Greenwich, and how long they had been there
- all this is as yet a blank.  The fact that Henry oper-
ated a ferry across the Sound which is five or six miles
wide at this point shows he was well acquainted with and
probably owned a shallop and that he doubtless got there
with all his goods and chattels loaded comfortably upon
such a craft rather than by following the still danger-
ous overland trail.  Indeed, from that day till very re-
cently, every Disbrow in our direct line seems at some
time in his career to have been connected with the water
and there was no doubt a long line of these sloops which
wound up finally with the Thorne, the Jersey Blue, and
the John Travers, as we shall later see.
     How long this partnership between Henry and Peter
lasted is not clear.  Two years later we find Peter dwell-
ing in his new home on Manussing Island (also then known
ass "Disbroe's Island") when a certain John Richbell ar-
rived from Barbados via Boston and, on September 23rd,
1661, purchased from the local Indians a tract of land
called Mamaroneck.  Shortly thereafter the same Indians
sold the same land to one Revell and the resulting law-
suit which finally established Richbell's ownership,
makes interesting reading.  However, what immediately
concerns us is that, according to the testimony of var-
ious witnesses, the transaction took place at Peter's

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                    HENRY DISBROW

house.  Incidentally, the price paid for Mamaroneck was -

          On Sept. 23rd, when the Deed was signed
                   Two Shirts
                   10 shillings in Wampum

          And then, on a later date,
                   Twenty two Coates
                   One hundred fathom Wampum
                   Twelve Shirts
                   Ten paire Stockings
                   Twenty Hands Powder
                   Twelve Barres Lead
                   Two Fyrelockes
                   Fifteene Hoes
                   Fifteene Hatchetts
                   Three Kettles

     Henry Disbrow is mentioned as being present at
these transactions.  Obviously, from the Court records
of land transfers, he was still living at Oyster Bay but
just about to move to Hempstead.  Another witness was Ed-
ward Griffen, also of Oyster Bay.  He had a daughter Mary
of whom we shall hear more when we come to our next in
line, Benjamin.
     Just when Henry first came to Oyster Bay is not
clear since the Town Clerk's record, prior to 1659, has
now become illegible from neglect and the inroads of
long departed mice, but from then on, we are able to fol-
low his career in some detail, albeit haltingly, from
various scraps in the Ancyent Booke.
December, 19 Day, 1660 - Henery Disbrowe have taken up
foure acores of planting landes butting agaynst a round
hill on the Northe end and lying on the East side of
John Dickenson & bounding on the same swamp lying on the
West side of nicholas wright.
February 1st, 1661. - It is this day ordered by the
Towne that every Townesman shall bring in all their dews
for wolfe killing Agaynst the next towne meeting unto
antony wright, it being three shillings a wolfe.

                        23


                    HENRY DISBROW
16th September 1661 - In an agreement about a Mill to be
built and operated by Hennery Townsend, our Henry signs
his name "Hennery Disbrowe" but it is a copy and may be
the town clerk's own idea of spelling.
     Later in 1661 Henry sells his home in Oyster Bay and
moves to "Mad nans Neck" in Hempstead proper, for we now
find the following -
     "Bee Itt knowne to whom itt may Consarne yt I, henry
disbrough, have sould my house and land and medow, with
all other apurtenences thereunto belonging, to John Dick-
enson sen'r, sould and alienated from me and mine for
Ever and, in Consideration of ye fore sayd Agrement, I
acknowledge my selfe to be fully satesfyed to my Content,
ye two words have and John dickenson is Interlined.
     Whereunto I have sett my hand this 14th of november
1661.
                                   henry disbrowe."
                       * * *

RECORDS OF HEMPSTEAD, Jamaica 1896 - Published by the
Town.
1663 - Henry Disbrowe, having killed a Woolfe ye 28th of
this present May, there is due to him from the Towne 25 s.
(Presumably our Henry already had a credit to his account
or else the bounty had skyrocketed since '61.)

7th Day of December 1663 - Caleb Carman doth make over to
Henry Desbroe a Cetayne Neck of meddow land lying below
ye Mill....; and I doe acknowledge that I have received
of him, ye s'd Henry, full payment and satisfaction for
same.

  In 1664 New Amsterdam surrendered to the fleet sent
out by the Duke of York; henceforth the City and Province
are known as New York.

June ye 15, 1665 - hope washburn: one mare received of
Henery Dessbraw this day; Collared gray with a sliett in


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                    HENRY DISBROW
ye ner eare, branded on ye bottack with "G"; aged 5 yrs.

     The brand "G" was the brand of all stock originat-
ing in Hempstead.  Note too, that if the spelling of Hen-
ry's name was phonetic, they must still be pronouncing it
"Desborough" or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
June 21st, 1669 - Complainte was brought in Hempstead
Towne against Henry Disbrowe and wyfe Margaret of Madnan's
Neck.  Samuel Messenger testifyeth that in ye Winter when
Snowe was upon the ground, being at hinery Disborow's,
Mr. Stricklan's Grand Childe that lives with ye sayde
Disborowe ffell into ye Mill Dam up to ye middle, and
his Master and Dame Neither offered to shift him but
lett hin goe in his wett shirt att night; and, since be-
ing there, ye Childe being come from Cow Keeping and
some way his Wescotte being a little torn, shee kickt and
beat him for itt and sayd shee never see such a Bastard.
And this Testimonie taken upon Oath before Mr. daniell
Denton.
     At a Court held att Hempstead by the justis peace,
ye Constable and overseers this 3rd July 1669.  "The Evi-
dence of Barnard Smith" -  This Deponent testifyeth that
hee heard richard Combes say that hee struke down the
Child several times going and, if it were to doe, he
will doe itt agayne.
     "John Curtis saith - that Margaret saith that A sar-
vant has more Libertie to stryke than a border; he further
saith that all the time he lived in ye house, soe farr as
he see, hee could not tell but the Childe was well used;
further ye John Curtis saith that as Consarning Stryking
Down ye boy 3 severall times going, Richard Combes said
that if itt were to doe Agayne he would Doe itt agayne."
(*** Hempstead Public Records, page 370).
     It is odd how, after the lapse of centuries, little,
apparently unrelated facts can be found to dove-tail - al-

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                    HENRY DISBROW

though I am well aware that, in over enthusiastic hands,
two and two can be made to appear like 22 rather than a
humble 4.  It does seem reasonably clear, however, that
in the above choice morsel we have a definite clue to
Henry's origin.  Let us summarize the few facts we already
know and see what sort of vague picture they suggest.
     This Strickland boy incident shows us that, when
Nicholas married Elizabeth, widow of Thwaite Strickland,
in 1669 Henry, in that same year, has been made the
guardian of one of her four children.  If one were of the
imaginative type, which I, of course, am not, one might
go so far as to infer that, while old Nicholas was only
too eager to get the children of his predecessor out
from under foot, (at least during the honeymoon) Henry's
wife Margaret so far disapproved of this late marriage
that she did openly and publicly cast doubts upon the mo-
ral integrity of the new Mistress Disbrowe.  On the other
hand, in 17th Century Hempstead just as in Australia to-
day, bastard may have been practically a term of endear-
ment.  But such exercise of the imagination is what I
mean by putting two and two together and getting 22.
quite disregarding such speculations, however, the known
facts definitely imply a probable close blood relationship.
But enough of such mental Juggling; let us proceed with
the Record.
     At the time of this Strickland episode, Henry was
still living at Hempstead.  His oldest son, Henry, was al-
ready born and the second boy, Benjamin, was about to
put in his appearance in 1672, the year old Peter Stuyve-
sant died.  Somewhere between 1669 and 1673, however, the
family moved to Mamaroneck for in that latter year we find
an interesting entry.
     On August 9th 1673 a Dutch fleet under Evertsen re-
took New York and held it until February 19th 1674 when
the Treaty of Westminster ceded it back to the British

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                    HENRY DISBROW

Crown.  During the flurry of excitement in that summer of
'73 we find in the British Archives - "An exact account
of all the proceedings of the military officers of Fort
James (The Battery) from ye 28th July 1673 to the sur-
render of the Fort....Seeing ships in the Bay under
sail and suspecting them to be enemies, sent a warrant to
Mr. Desborough of Mamaroneck with letters to his Honour
to press horse and man to Hartford and there...etc., etc."
which definitely locates our family in that July of 1673.
Not only that, but we see how, over a century before the
midnight ride of Paul Revere through that April night in
1775, Henry Disbrow galloped "pressing horse and man"
over the summer wilderness trails of Westchester and Con-
necticut nearly a hundred miles to Hartford, spreading
the alarm and calling out the train bands.  What is even
more noteworthy, Henry actually reached hiss destination
and accomplished his mission - which is more than Revere
did.  Unfortunately there was no Longfellow to immortal-
ize your ancestor's much greater and equally dramatic
feat and so it lies buried in the thickening mists of
nearly forgotten history.
     As to his move to Mamaroneck, it seems probable
that Henry had for the last few years been acting as
agent and factor in Westchester County for Colonel Caleb
Heathecote who was a large landowner here.  The present
town of Heathcote was named for him.  His name appears
again and again coupled with Henry's and with the Disbrow
family for years.  An interesting side-light is that
somewhere around the turn of the century he was Lord May-
or of New York in the same year that his brother was
Lord Mayor of London.
     However, the first Mamaroneck purchase of which we
know is in 1676.  In 1670 Richbell had set aside eight
House Lotts in the new settlement, fronting on the West-

                        27


                    HENRY DISBROW

chester Path or old Indian overland trail to Narragansett
Bay.  On February 16th 1676 Richbell sold Lot #4 to Hen-
ry Disbrowe - "Twenty & a half rods wide fronting on the
Westchester Path and the same in the rear; by 80 rods on
each side in depth, running northwesterly."  This lot was
subject to the reservation of an annual payment of one
bushell of winter wheat, or the value thereof, on the 1st
of each March, and one day's work at harvest time to the
Proprietor, and to a covenant that it could not be sold
without approval of the Richbell estate.  Here, in the
following year, Henry built himself a house.
     In 1885 Scharf, in his "History of Westchester County"
says -
     "There still stands upon the southern part of the
`House Lott' of Henry Disbrow the identical home he built
there in 1677.  It faced the harbor, its side toward the
present Union Avenue which at this place is built upon the
old Westchester Path.  It is built of rough hewn timbers
and the coarse stone of the country even to the chimney
above the roof.  The siding has been renewed but always
in the same style.  The old house has well born its 209
years but,  in the course of things, cannot last much
longer."
     The fear Scharf expressed was quite justified.  Com-
stock in his "Old Roads from the Heart of New York" says -
     "Mamaroneck's most picturesque relic is the Disbrow
Chimney - a mere pile of stones standing on the lawn of
what is known as the old Stringer residence.  The house
itself burned around the turn of the Century and this
chimney is the oldest historic relic in all Westchester
County.  A few years ago the great fireplace and the
closets on each side of the stonework could be distin-
guished, but so rapidly is the masonry crumbling that it
now appears almost shapeless, smothered in vines and su-

                        28


                    HENRY DISBROW
mach.  In one of the large closets beside it, tradition
has it that Harvey Birch, hero of James Fennimore Coop-
er's novel "The Spy," hid when he was being pursued.  I
might add that Cooper's interest in the old house stem-
med from the fact that it was here, under its ancient
roof, that he was married on January 1st, 1811."
     And here, till the day of his death in 1698, Henry
dwelt with his wife Margaret and his three boys, Henry
Jr., Benjamin, and John.  And it was here that our an-
cestor Benjamin spent his boyhood and early youth.
     There are a last few entries.  In 1681 Henry Dis-
browe of Mamaroneck mortgaged all his lands in Long Is-
land; thereafter all records of Henry seem confined to
Westchester County.
     In Colonial days the law of primogeniture was still
in effect so Henry Jr. would naturally inherit the Mamar-
oneck homestead and the main properties.  As early as
December 20th 1682 all the Long Island properties were
settled on him although, as we shall see, he was still
living in Mamaroneck as late as 1707.  What a Christmas
present!
     But with neither Henry nor John are we particularly
concerned.  Our progenitor was the boy who was born in
1672 and whose head-stone now lies immediately in front
of the entry to the Old Tennent Church right here in Mon-
mouth County, namely

                   Benjamin Disbrow

                        29

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