- Thomas Pell
"Dates may not be entirely accurate in this article due to disagreements between sources.Thomas Pell (1608 - 1669) was a
physician who was famous for buying the area known as Pelham, Westchester, New York, as well as land that now includes the eastern Bronx and southern Westchester County. He founded the town of Westchester at the head of navigation onWestchester creek in 1654. [http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/Bronxhistorychron.html] He is recorded as travelling fromFairfield ,England to North America to attempt to set up new colonies. He was the brother of the mathematicianJohn Pell and uncle ofSir John Pell , first Lord of the Manor of Pelham. The Pell family lived in this area until the Revolutionary War and has remained prominent to the present, with family members including U.S. AmbassadorHerbert Pell and U.S. SenatorClaiborne Pell .Records state that he bought this from
Chief Wampage from theSiwanoy Indian Tribe that owned it onJune 27 ,1654 . It has been indicated the alternative dates,November 11 orNovember 14 1654, are incorrect [http://www.bartowpellmansionmuseum.org/pages/350oaks.html] . It has been said that Pell "named his acreage Pelham in honor of his tutor Pelham Burton" [http://www.townofpelham.com/townhistorian/] .Pell was legally challenged by the Dutch courts who considered the "English were trespassing on Dutch territory" [http://www.pelhamny.com/history/index2.html] . This dispute was finally resolved by Pell in September 1664 when the British Navy, supported by a militia invasion force comprised largely of City Island colonists and led by Pell himself, entered the then
New Amsterdam and forced the Dutch Governor of New NetherlandsPeter Stuyvesant to surrender.External links
*http://www.pelhamny.com/history/index2.html
* [http://www.historicpelham.com/ Historic Pelham Site]
* [http://historicpelham.blogspot.com/ Historic Pelham Daily Blog]
* [http://www.townofpelham.com/townhistorian/ History of the town of Pelham]
* [http://www.bartowpellmansionmuseum.org/ Website of the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum]
* [http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/ Bronx County Historical Society]
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