* The family mansion of the Kips, a strong house built of brick imported from Holland, remained near the corner of Second Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, until July, 1850, when it was taken down. A pear-tree near, planted in 1700, bore fruit the present season. The house was built in 1641 by Samuel Kip, who was secretary of the council of New Netherlands, and at the time of its destruction was probably the oldest edifice in the State of New York. The sketch here given is from a painting in possession of the Reverend W. Ingraham Kip, D.D., of Albany, and gives its appearance at the time of the Revolution. The Kip family are among the oldest in this state. Ruloff de Kype (anglicized to Kip after the English took possession of New Netherlands) was the first of the name found in history. He was a native of Bretagne, and was a warm partisan of the Guises in the civil wars between Protestants and Papists in the sixteenth century. On the defeat of his party, he fled to the Low Countries. He afterward joined the army of the Duke of Anjou, and fell in battle near Jarnac. He was buried in a church there, where an altar-tomb was erected to his memory bearing his coat of arms. * His son Ruloff became a Protestant, and settled in Amsterdam. His grandson, Henry, (born in 1576) became an active member of the "Company of Foreign Countries," whieh was organized in 1588 for the purpose of exploring a northeast passage to the Indies. In 1635 he eame to America with his family, but soon returned to Holland. His sons remained, bought large tracts of land, and were active in publie affairs. One of them (Henry) was a member of the first popular Assembly in New Netherlands (see page 783), and married a daughter of De Sille, the attorney general. His brother Jacob bought the land at Kip's Bay, and a third son, Isaac, owned the property which is now the City Hall Park. Nassau Street was called Kip Street. In 1686 one of the family purchased the tract where the village of Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, now stands. It was called "the manor of Kipsburg." A part of this was sold to Henry Beekman, by whose grand-daughter, the mother of Chancellor Livingston, it passed into the Livingston family. At the opening of the Revolution, the Kip family were divided in polities; some held royal commissions, others were stanch Whigs. The proprietors of the Kip's Bay property were strong Whigs, but one of them, Samuel, was induced by Colonel Delancey to take the loyal side. He raised a company of cavalry, principally from his own tenants, joined Delancey, and was active in West Chester county, where, in a skirmish in 1781, he was severely wounded. He lived several years after the war, and suffered great loss of property by confiscation. For several years after the British took possession of York Island, Kip's house was used as head-quarters by officers. There Colonel Williams, of the 80th regiment, was quartered in 1780, and on the day when Andre left the city to meet Arnold, Williams gave a dinner to Sir Henry Clinton and his staff. André was there and shared in the socialities of the hour. It was his last dinner in New York. Such is well authenticated tradition.—See Holgate's American Genealogies, page 109.
* The device was a shield. On one side, occupying a moiety, was a cross. The other moiety was quartered by a strip of gold; above were two griffins, and below an open mailed hand. There were two crests, a game-cock, and a demi-griffin holding a cross: the legend, "Vestigia nulla retrorsum."
Landing of the British.—General De Heister.
CHAPTER XXXI.
"In the year seventy-six came the two noble brothers.
With an army and fleet fit to conquer a world;
And Cornwallis, and Rawdon, and Tarleton, and others—