Frederick Philipse

Who was Frederick Philipse?

Frederick Philipse, Lord of Philipse Manor, was a Dutch immigrant to North America of Bohemian heritage who rose to become one of the greatest landholders in the New Netherlands. He owned owned the vast stretch of land spanning from Spuyten Duyvil Creek in the Bronx to the Croton River, the bulk of modern Westchester County.

When the British took over the Dutch colony Philipse pledged his allegiance to the Crown and was rewarded with a title and manorship. Serving later on the Governor's executive council, he was subsequently banned from government office for conducting a slave trade into New York.

His descendants acquired substantial land north of modern Westchester sanctioned as the royal Philipse Patent. Stripped from the family after the Revolution for their Tory sympathies, it became today's Putnam County.