the balance of their lives, 1814 and 1808, respectively. Oldstone In 1760, Van Cortlandt may have built another home, Oldstone (28 Bear Mountain Bridge Road, Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567), a magnificent estate on a bluff upon Anthony's Nose overlooking the far-reaching river and Peekskill Bay. The 29-acre property overlooks a bend in the Hudson and an eagle sanctuary. Because of its strategic location on the eastern banks of the old Hudson River, Oldstone was commissioned by the United States Military and used as a military outpost during The Revolutionary War. The accompanying graphics show the proximity of the Upper Manor House to Van Cortlandt's home, Oldstone, on the buff of Anthony's Nose, overlooking the site where the Fort Independence Hotel once stood. Below the hotel site, the industrial area shown overlays where Fort Independence stood in 1777. Another graphic shows the location of his several homes: Oldstone, Upper Manor House, Pound Ridge and Van Cortlandt Manor at Croton. Pound Ridge During the 1700s, the Boutonville area of Pound Ridge found itself at the center of a 50-year land dispute concerning overlapping grants to the Stephanus Van Cortlandt Manor grant and to the Stamford patentees. After a lengthy legal battle, clear title to the 3,000 acres was finally given to Van Cortlandt heirs in 1788. Most of this land is now part of the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. Sometime after that, Pierre Van Cortlandt built a home there as well. In 1815, Samuel Piatt (Peatt) (1773–1850) purchased seven acres and an existing house from Pierre's son, Gen. Philip Van Cortlandt. This home, since demolished, was on what now is Honey Hollow Road. The farmland in the Pound Ridge and Lewisboro sections (Ward Pound Ridge Reservation) were part of the Van Cortlandt Manor lands that were divided into "great lots" of about 3,000 acres each. These lots were further divided into 300-acre farms. Kip-Beekman Mansion In 1726, Col. Henry Beekman, Jr., who was married to Gertrude Van Cortlandt, Van Cortlandt's aunt, became the owner, through an exchange of property, of the Kip House, near the river in Rhinebeck, and moved into it. He greatly enlarged it, and became his mansion when he became a resident there. From 1777 to 1780, Van Cortlandt leased this home after his family had evacuated from Croton and then Peekskill. Following the death of Col. Henry Beekman on January 3, 1776, his daughter, Margaret Beekman, by his