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History of Orange County
Towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh and Chester
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There is a little confusion as to the manner in which these grants were made; but it appears that on the 10th of July, 1721, the persons interested in this portion of the patent, to wit: John Everett, John Carpenter, John Gale, William Ludlum, Nathaniel Higby, John Carpenter, jr., G. McNish, James Sandys, Thomas Watson, Hope Rodes, John Holly, James Jackson, Isaac Finch, Solomon Carpenter, John Bears, Michael Dunning, Samuel Seely, John Nichols, William Jackson, Alexander Moore, John Knapp, Samuel Webb, John Alsop and Richard Halsted made a deed in trust to John Yelverton of Goshen; among other things, reciting that the owners of Wawayanda had lately made a conveyance to John Everett and Samuel Clows one-sixth part of all said lands, to the intent that a township should be taken up and laid out, and ten acres for highways and for settling a minister, etc.;-that a township had been laid out and three tracts surveyed, one of 70 acres, one of 61 acres and one of 9 acres;- that the first two were for a parsonage and the latter for a burying place, and to build a minister's house and school house as the town should order; and that he was to execute a deed to such persons as a majority of the inhabitants of said town should direct, etc.
This deed, we believe, was not executed by Yelverton in his life, but was by his son after his death.
There has been a diversity of opinion for many years past, as to the rightful jurisdiction over the grounds around the Presbyterian Church, whether the same was in the inhabitants of the town, or in the trustees of the church. In 1833 the town appointed H. G. Wisner, A. S. Benton, D. P. Farrand, John J. Smith and Benjamin Gardner a committee, to examine the question of jurisdiction. We have examined their report, and think they made a pretty strong case for the authority claimed by the town. Whether the question has ever been finally settled we are not informed. We have no opinion about it, and only state it as a curious old fact.
The proprietors laid out the village of Goshen by running a broad street or avenue, nearly north and south through the plot, some half a mile in length, and then by laying off four lots of eighty acres each, on the east and west sides of it. The church and academy lots were at the south end of the street, and we believe the present erections designate the locations of the several and respective grants. At what time or how long after the date of the patent this was executed we are not informed, but was before 1721. The records were burned up many years since, which probably contained the evidence of the transaction. We must be permitted to say, that we do not admire the wisdom of those gentlemen in locating the village on a meadow soil, while abundance of fine dry land was in the immediate vicinity, at the south east and south west of the present plot; The village, most probably, was laid out within a few years after the date of the patent, for, as it was procured for speculating purposes, the owners would soon accomplish every thing which they deemed necessary in their judgment to place the lands fairly in market, and render them saleable. It was between 1703, the date of the patent, and 1714, for we have seen deeds for lots in the village plot on record, dated as early as the latter period.
The Old Township.
In addition to laying out the site of a village, the patentees at or about the same time, we suppose, laid out on the patent an oblong square, lying north west and south east, of several miles in extent, and known on the old maps as “Goshen Township." The village of Goshen is in the north west part of this oblong square. This was probably laid out under an idea that in time it would constitute a political division of the county of that dimension, would be soonest settled, and most compactly populated. But in process of time and settlement, when the divisions of the county were made into Precincts under the colonial laws, and afterwards into towns, subsequent to the Declaration of Independence, this town plot was found to be too small in dimensions, and we question if the lines or boundaries of it are known to day by the inhabitants of the town, it never having been used for any political or beneficial purpose.
Settlement of Parent by Christopher Denn.
As previously remarked, the magnitude of the patent was evidence that it was procured for speculation, and that no sales, or very few, were made for several years after its date, and we now observe that no settlements were made upon it till as late as 1712. It is true, as we are informed by written memoranda, that the Surveyors who ran it out and divided it up into lots for their accommodation and those in their service, erected log cabins or temporary huts in three or four places on the patent; yet these could not in any point of view be considered early settlements, as they were constructed for a specific and temporary object, and not with a view of location and permanent residence. And here we are somewhat inclined to suggest that the covered spring discovered on the lands of David M. Westcott, Esq., in the village of Goshen, a few years since, may have been dug out and stoned up within one of these temporary erections, by the original surveyors, for their safety and convenience. Such a spring was needed by them, and in a place too where it and they would be safe from molestation by the natives, by whom they were surrounded on every side. This work of running out the patent and subdividing it, even into large lots, if done on the spot, as doubtless a great portion of it was, took them a long time, perhaps one or more years, depending on the number employed. But be the suggestion true or false, we will recur to the finding of this spring in another part of our paper, as we have other theories about it, and in the mean time proceed with our narrative.
Nothing having been realized by the patentees by way of sale and speculation from 1703 to 1712, the whole being a forlorn hope in that respect, and some of the patentees having lived out their means by feeding on hope deferred for nine long years of expectations, their pecuniary prospects had become somewhat desperate, and a crisis arrived when something of a definite and public character must be done to effect the ulterior objects of the patentees. This condition and state of things, though gloomy and cheerless in the prospects of the patentees, was really the most interesting period in the history of the patent settlement, as the reader will find, for it introduces him, directly to the acquaintance of Mr. Christopher Denn and Madam Elizabeth Denn his wife, persons of some distinction and notoriety in the early settlement of the patent, and still held in grateful remembrance by thousands in that portion of the county.
Christopher Denn was one of the patentees of Wawayanda and other patents, and by occupation a carpenter. On the Journal of the General Assembly we find the following proceedings
“Oct. 15, 1708--Mr. Sebring complaining that Christopher Den had seized his boat he generally comes in to this city from his own house, knowing him to be a member of this house, and in the hearing of several members told him “he was glad to hear it was a boat belonging to a member of this house.”
“Resolved. That the same is a breach of privilege and a great contempt, of this house."
Mr. Sebring was a member from Kings county, Long Island, and for some reason which does not appear on the Journal, Denn seized his boat and on the complaint was taken in custody by the Sergeant at Arms, brought up and on asking the pardon of the house and saying that he did not intend to insult it, was discharged from custody on paying the fees of his capture and detention.
In Assembly, June 18, 1714.-Resolved, That there be allowed and paid (among others) to Christopher Denne £100.”
The nature of the claim is not stated.
It would seem from these extracts that Mr. Denn was an individual of some consideration at that day. At this time he lived in the city of New York, but when he removed there we do not know. At the date of the patent, and for some years after he resided on Staten Island; but the nature of his business, perhaps that of contract builder, and his interest with that of others in the sale of their lands, may have induced him to remove to the city at an early day. The office for land sales was a central point, to which all the interests of the parties tended to concentration, and we find Mr. Denn residing there from 1708 to 1712.
In the memoranda previously referred to, there is an intimation that about at the date of the latter period, Denn had lived up his means, but whether by mismanagement or otherwise does not appear, and that it was imperative upon him to do something to increase his pecuniary ability, or want, with the energy and velocity of an armed man, might soon overtake him. Enterprise or starvation were before him, and he was under the necessity of making an election, and he wisely chose the former.
A settlement on the patent of some one individual, by way of open example and inducement to others, had been a great “desideratum” with the company for several years. The desperate condition of Denn and the interest of the company, fortunately wrought together in harmony in the matter, and designated him as the desired and proper person to try the experiment of pushing his fortune in the wilderness of Wawayanda, amidst the beasts of prey and surrounded by the red men of the forest.