In 1695 the colony contained 3,525 church-going families of which 1,754 were Dutch. In New Amsterdam, now known as New York City there were 800 families of which 600 were Dutch. By the year 1700 it is estimated that there were 8,650 Dutch living in America with 6,650 livbing in New York, 1,000 in New Jersey, and another 1,000 living in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Most of the New World was huddled around the area of the Hudson River Valley. About 20 miles north of New York City was a community of Dutch living in an area known as Sleepy Hallow. The Dutch were relatively wealthy compared to the English and French settlers. The most wealthy were large landowners like the Roosevelts and the Van Cortlandts who were sugar refiners and who exercised a feudal system similar to that of Europe in the Middle Ages. They owned the land and tennants bought (rented) acreage f rom them while they continued to hold title to the land and collected taxes from the tennants.

Many of the Dutch settlers lived in such arrangements known as MANORS. Two such manors are featured in early American history were in this region of Westchester County on the Hudson. They were the Philipseburgh Manor and the Van Cortlandt Manor. Both played prominent roles in New York's colonial history and in the American Revolution.

Philipsburgh Manor
"About the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1680, his Royal Majesty of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the faith and crown, was pleased to agree by perogative, consent, and license to grant to the Honorable Lord Fredrick Philipse, to purchase without restriction at a real estate sale, a certain stretch of land and valley lying in Westchester County in America..."