TABLE OF CONTENTS Early American History and Explorations From The Webber Family in Holland and the Geneal- ogy Thereof Pertaining to the Royal Ancestry Claimed by This Family. Descent from the Royal Line of Anneke Jans Bogardus. Birth and First Marriage of Anneke Webber. The Webber Fam.. ily in America and Their Estates on Manhattan The Reputed Webber Fortune in Holland. Par- ticulars Pertaining Thereto as Regards the Locat- CHAPTER FOUR Anneke Jans Bogardus. First Anneke Webber. Later Anneke Jansen. Children by First Marriage. Grandchildren in Part. Second Marriage of Anneke Jansen to Dominie Everardus Bogardus. Children by Second Marriage. Grandchildren in Part. Will of Anneke Jans Bogardus. Real Estate Owned by Her. CHAPTER FIVE The Capture of New Amsterdam by the British in 1664. Important Articles of Capitulation. Confirmation to the Heirs of Anneke Jans Bogardus by the English Governor Nicolls of the 62 Acre Farm. Confirmation to Heirs of the 130 Acre Farm. Death of Cornelius Bogardus the First. Alleged Conveyance from the Heirs in 1670 to Governor Francis Lovelace. Vital Statistics Regarding the 62 Acre Farm, Leases, etc. Lease of 62 Acre Farm by Governor Lovelace. CHAPTER SIX Recapture of Manhattan Island and New York City by Dutch in 1673. Proclamations Thereafter. Territory Returned to England Through Treaty With Holland in 1674. Proclamations Thereafter. Instructions from Duke of York Regarding Confiscation of Estate of Francis Lovelace. Bogardus Lands Confiscated It Was Claimed. Proclamations and Treaties Regarding Title to Bogardus Lands. BOGARDUS COLONIAL ESTATE 13 CHAPTER SEVEN Founding of Trinity Church in New York City in 1693. The Charter of Incorporation of 1697. The Queen Anne Grant of 1705. Statistics Pertaining Thereto. Annulling Act of the King in 1699. Annulling Act of Queen Anne in 1708. Her Confirming Act of the King's Act of 1699. Queen Anne Grant a Lease in Perpetuity. Declared Null and Void by Land Office Commissioners. CHAPTER EIGHT Further Vital Statistics Concerning Queen Anne Grant. Letter of Instructions from Queen's Secretary in 1714. Will of Petrus Bogardus. Acts and Efforts for Confirmation of Grant After 1705. CHAPTER NINE Litigations Against Trinity Church. The Humbert Trial. The Bogardus Trial. 99 Year Lease. 83 Year Lease. CHAPTER TEN Later Litigations Against Those Investigating the Title of the Corporation. Trial Against Fonda. Trial Against Attorney W. T. Gridley, of New York City and His Disbarment from the Practice of Law. Conclusions. Appendices. The World's Richest Church. CHAPTER ONE EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY FROM 1609 to 1637 The Island of Manhattan, now New York City, derived its name from the Indian name, Manhattas. The island is triangular in shape, and it is of about 22,000 acres in extent, and it guards the gateway of our western hemisphere. This territory was first sighted by a Florentine navigator named Verrazani, and spelled by some historians as Verrazano. This explorer was commissioned and equipped by Frances the First, and he entered the lower bay of what is now the Bay of New York, in 1524, and he named the country that he saw at that time, as New France, evidently in honor of the mother country of his patron and benefactor. Previous to this, however, Sebastian Cabot, an Italian by birth, but in the service of Henry VII of England, had explored the Atlantic coast from Florida to Labrador, or vice-versa, and the expedition of this explorer gave to England a prior claim to the same country seen by Verrazani, and this claim was physically manifested when, in 1664, the British caused the surrender of New Amsterdam, |