Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "Untitled manuscript map of Great Nine Partners Patent in Dutchess County, New York" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1740. Prior to European settlement, the lands that make up Hyde Park today were part of the homeland of the Wappinger Indians who may have used the lands as hunting grounds and for agriculture. During Dutch settlement in the Hudson Valleybeginning in the seventeenth-century, Europeans forced out the Native Americans and granted large tracts of land for settlement and speculation. Bellefield, and the neighboring Roosevelt property to the south, are both located on what was known as the Great Nine Partners Patent. That land grant was made in 1697 by Benjamin Fletcher, Governor fo the Colony of New York, to a partnership comprised of nine men headed by Col. Caleb Heathcote. The company soon began to refer to themselves as the Great Nine Partners. The land grant included the east bank of the Hudson River, just north of Poughkeepsie extending six miles. From the Hudson River, the land extended east to the boundary dividing the New York and Connecticut colonies. The grant included 149,000 acres and occupied approximately the middle one-third of Dutchess County. The land and the income generated from lumber and fur were open to all nine partners equally. With no roads yet established, the only means of moving such products to market in New York City was by boat on the Hudson River. To guaranteed each partner equal access, the river frontage was divided into nine equal-sized lots. These "water lots" were numbered consecutively from one to nine, running south to north, and measured 660 yards wide along the Hudson. Water lot six fell to William Creed and would eventually become the location of Bellefield to the north, and Springwood (the Roosevelt estate) to the south. The north half passed through several owners between 1740 and 1751. The first resident owner was Charles Crooke, Sr. In 1793, Crooke's son sold a portion of the lot, 175 acres bounded by the Hudson on the west and the present Albany Post Road on the east, to Jacob Bush. Bush sold the property in 1795 to Judge John Johnston. Judge John Johnston |
Last updated: February 14, 2023