Fauconnier Patent facts for kids
The Fauconnier Patent was a special land grant from the King of England in 1705. It was given for land in what is now Dutchess County, New York. This patent was one of fourteen large land grants given between 1685 and 1706. These grants together made up all of the historic Dutchess County. Until 1812, this area also included today's Putnam County, New York.
The first ten land grants, given between 1685 and 1697, covered most of the Hudson River shoreline in the original county. Three of these, the Rombouts, the Great Nine Partners, and Philipse Patents, stretched far inland. The eleventh grant, called Cuyler (1697), was the first to be completely inland. The Fauconnier Patent (1705) was the twelfth and finished covering the Hudson River shoreline. The last two grants, Beekman (1705) and the Little Nine Partners (1706), claimed the remaining lands further from the river.
How the Fauconnier Patent Started
Around 1695, a man named Henry Pawling asked for a royal land grant. He thought it was for about 6,000 acres of land. This land was on the east side of the Hudson River in the northern part of what is now Hyde Park, New York. Pawling died in 1696. The land grant, known today as the Pawling-Staats Patent, was then given to his wife on May 11, 1696.
After Pawling's death, people realized there was much more land around his patent than they first thought. A new survey was done. This survey found an extra 4,000 acres to the south of the original plot. In 1704, a group of five men, including Peter Fauconnier, asked Sir Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury. He was the Governor of the Province of New York. They wanted this extra land.
A patent for this land was given on April 18, 1705. This area stretched from the Hudson River east to the Crum Elbow Creek. It includes much of today's town of Hyde Park. The five partners each received one-fifth of this land. Peter Fauconnier received a valuable part of the land right on the river. This area later became known as the Vanderbilt Estate.
The Partners Who Got the Land
Five partners applied for the land grant that is now called the "Fauconnier Patent." These men were Jacob Regnier, Peter Fauconnier, Benjamin Ask, Barne Cosens, and John Persons.
We know some interesting details about Peter Fauconnier (1659-1745). He was a Huguenot, which means he was a French Protestant. Like many others, he had to leave France in 1685. This happened after the Edict of Nantes was canceled. He worked in different jobs for Queen Anne. In 1702, he became Secretary to Lord Cornbury. No big changes were made to the land during this time. However, it seems Fauconnier was the first person to name the area 'Hyde Park'. He probably did this to honor Lord Cornbury, whose full name was Sir Edward Hyde.
Peter Fauconnier also became one of the three Commissioners for collecting money for the Province of New York. Later, he became the Surveyor General for the Province. People say he used this position to help him get more land grants. He did end up owning parts of several other patents in the area. These included the Minnisinck and Little Nine Partners patents.
When Fauconnier died on April 10, 1745, his daughter, Magdalene Fauconnier Valleau, inherited his share of the Fauconnier patent. In 1740, Fauconnier's granddaughter, Suzanne Vallaeu, married a young doctor from New Jersey named John Bard.
Six years later, John Bard moved to New York. By 1764, he had inherited most of the Fauconnier family's share of the original land grant. By then, he was a leading local doctor and the first president of the New York Medical Society. Dr. Bard was very active. He started to buy back parts of the land that Fauconnier had sold earlier. This way, he put the original land tract back together.
According to the U.S. National Park Service at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site:
With this large property, Dr. John Bard planned to stop being a doctor. He wanted to turn the Hyde Park estate into a working farm and country home. His son, Samuel, was 22 and studying medicine. He was eager to help his father plan the grounds. He even offered to have a plan drawn in Scotland. However, there are no records that such a plan was ever made. Dr. John Bard's estate at Hyde Park was not developed as much as his son had hoped.
Unlike the people who owned the land after him, Dr. John Bard did not seem very interested in the beautiful views of the Hudson River. He mostly saw the river as a way to move goods and supplies. Soon after 1764, he started a farm on what is now the east side of the Albany Post Road. This farm had a farmhouse, a barn, and an orchard with 500 to 600 apple trees. It also had meadows and higher land. He also had three places on the Hudson River where boats could land.
Dr. Bard seemed to have money problems. In 1768, he put the entire property up for sale. He did not sell all of it then. But over the next thirty years, he sold about 1,500 acres out of the original 3,600. He also gave up the idea of retiring to country life for a while. In 1772, he returned and built a house near his farm. Financial losses from investing in mining and iron works made Dr. Bard go back to being a doctor in New York City after the American Revolution. There, he worked with his son, Dr. Samuel Bard. In 1798, at 83 years old, he returned to Hyde Park. He died there in 1799.
