Guide to the Land Patent. Hardenburgh and others. Index to deeds, great lots, and subdivisions. Nicholas Elmendorf

Biographical History

What has become known as the "Great Patent" was granted to Johannes Hardenbergh (b. 1670, Albany, N.Y.) and his associates. In time, it became known as the Hardenbergh Patent and included all the western part of Ulster County, N.Y. as constituted on April 20, 1708, the date of the gra made by Governor Edward Hyde Cornbury as agent of Queen Anne. The patent contained about two million acres, approximately the area of the Rhode Island and Delaware, and for years, the patent was litigation in the courts. Assassination and bloodshed are part of its history. In 1790, it became necessa for the State Assembly to appoint Charles Tappen and James Cockburn to survey the acreage, place stone monuments every two miles, and divide the land into forty-three lots for identification. Part of the patent was within the New York counties of Orange, Delaware, Greene, and Sullivan. "The Manu of the Reformed Church," reports, "Sir Johannes Hardenbergh was Knighted by Queen Ann [sic], on the recommendation of the Duke of Marlborough, for gallantry at the decisive battle of Blenhe With the order of Knighthood he also received the patent which bears his name." However, Johannes Hardenbergh was a merchant in Kingston (Ulster County), N.Y. in 1704, and he never signe his name in any way that ever indicated knighthood. Hardenbergh was one of seven partners (Leonard Lewis, Philip Rokely, William Nottingham, Benjamin Faneuil, Peter Fauconier, and Robert Lurting) and is thought that this vast tract never made any of the heirs very wealthy. (Source: Andrew S. Hickey,The Story of Kingston New York: Stratford House, (1952).