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History of Orange County
Towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh and Chester
Page 36
Greycourt.-This name was applied to the old Cromline house and the locality around it, and is still applied to the meadows in the vicinity. The etymology of this name was a real stumbling block for a longtime, and we went hunting and fishing in all directions to find the solution. Determined to succeed, we struck a drag net over the county, and thrust our historical pump into every fountain of local knowledge in possession of the aged, where we supposed it was snugly deposited. Still no one could give a reason or solve the difficulty. We pressed the physician to answer our inquiry we asked the farmer to stop his plough and solve our doubts; we begged of the mechanic, for pity's sake, to cease his labor and assign a reason, and still the enquiry was fruitless. We then addressed the aged residents of the locality, and learned judges who had worn the ermine for many years, born and nurtured on the spot, and questioned them with the astuteness of the legal profession. We next went down to the bar and took counsel of its intelligent members, and their conclusion was the case was desperate. We thought it marvellous and passing strange, that there should be a name so odd and unaccountable in the very heart of the intelligent county of Orange, and known every where; and yet the tradition be lost and unknown by its citizens. Though the matter was, small and insignificant, about which a sensible man, having any thing else to do, would not bestow a second thought; yet it troubled us like an evil genius, haunted us night and day, and as a last resort we concluded to offer a reward, thinking its magnitude would produce the lost aged object of our search. Reader, we actually offered to bestow a copy of our paper-and by this time; if you have carefully perused its pages, you know its value-to any person who would furnish the true etymology of “Greycourt! ” Will you believe it? we had not the pleasure to bestow the volume!
The answers to our enquiries were various and unsatisfactory: some said in honest truth they did not know-others, that it had always been known by that name and that ought to be satisfactory. Others said the name was “Greycoat,” and came from the peculiar color of the grass on the meadows, which was grey like a coat; while others affirmed that an old man, by the name of St. John, who lived in the vicinity, called it Greycoat, after a place he came from in England. This looked like approximation to the fact, and withal quite probable, and the only objection we had to it was, that the name was English, that St. John was a Frenchman, and not in the county till near half a century after the place bore the name.
It is now sufficient to remark, that by the merest accident in the world, we were placed in possession of the following facts: The reader will recollect that the “Greycourt” house was erected in 1716, and that it soon became a public inn, as all the early locations were. At that day the king was held in great respect by the settlers, and they proved it by exhibiting his royal arms in different ways. They were painted on the signboard of this inn, and as the Greycourt creek was the outlet of Goosepond, both being in the vicinity of the Cromline house, the keeper placed the image of that favorite and beautiful bird beside the arms of royalty. There she hung, as true to nature, as paint, and brush could make it-a perfect similitude of life. The bird almost breathed and flapped her wings to escape confinement, and revisit her kindred on the glassy surface of the lake. Unfortunately, the pigments of that day were like the prints of this, not standing colors; and the beautiful white goose soon became old and marvellously grey. Till this time the house was known as the Cromline house.
At that early day there were persons who assumed a knowledge of the fine arts, and had not much to do, but spend their time, money and opinions freely at the inn, like the true bred loafers of our day, and they began to try their wit and fling their gibes, not only at the faded colors of the bird, but at the arms of royalty. At last they came out boldly, and said that the king's coat of arms was gray-in-other words it was a “gray coat” of arms.
This house and the neighborhood around went by this name till shortly after the war of the Revolution, when it became changed to-“Grey Court.”
The incident which changed it was as follows: The Cheescocks', and Wawayanda patents adjoined each other, but the former was the oldest. In a dispute about their respective locations, it became necessary to establish the boundaries of Cheescocks' first, for where that ended, Wawayanda began. There was a tribunal agreed upon by the parties to settle the question, and the court held its sessions at the “Grey coat,” which were continued for several weeks.- The exact year we do not know, but it was when De Witt Clinton, Peter Bull of Hamptonburgh and William Mulliner, Esq., of New Windsor, were young men; for they, with the whole country side for many miles round, were present. So long did the trial last and the court continue its sessions, that it became a common answer, from all going towards Greycoat, to the inquiry, “Where are you going?”- “To the Grey Court.” By common consent, the community transferred a part of the odium to the court, which had previously been bestowed upon the sign, and by it intended to say, that the court was as durable and fixed at the place, as the grey goose was on the sign. From that time to this, the place has been known by “Greycourt” in all public and private writings. This case is very similar to some of the English etymologies, and may be relied on as accurate.
The Greycourt meadows, above referred to, are principally within this town, and make an area of live hundred acres of peat, of several feet deep. At some places they are bottomless, as far as tested by the piles of the N. Y. and Erie Rail Road, and probably cover up ponds and lakes beneath.-There are meadows in Europe, which have been cultivated for centuries, which have been recently found to be only the external coverings of lakes and ponds of water.
August 16, 1825. Amzi Roe, a young man residing near the village of Chester, was killed by lightning. He had just finished topping oft a stack of hay when a shower came up. To keep clear of the rain, he laid down as nearly under the side of the stack as possible, when the fluid, attracted by the heat of the hay, no doubt, struck the stack, and made its way to the young man.
1828. Anthony Davis died, aged 61.