page_title: Francis Rombouts
section_title: The Rombout Patent
hierarchical_section_title: Francis Rombouts / The Rombout Patent
caption_attribution_description: English: The waterfront at Wappinger
context_page_description: Francis Rombout was the 12th Mayor of New York City, from 1679 to 1680. He was one of three proprietors of the Rombout Patent, and father of pioneering Colonial businesswoman Catheryna Rombout Brett.
context_section_description: The Rombout Patent was a legal instrument issued by King James II of England in 1685 sanctioning the right of Francis Rombouts and his partners Gulian Verplanck and Jacobus Kip to own some 85,000 acres (340 km²) of land they had purchased from Native Americans.  The Patent included most of what is today's southern Dutchess County, New York.
  Rombout, had gone into the fur-trading business with  Verplanck. A license for the pair to purchase an 85,000 acres tract of the Wappinger people land was granted by Governor Thomas Dongan, February 8, 1682.  They were joined in 1683 by Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the first native-born mayor of New York City and patroon of Van Cortlandt Manor in Westchester County, who offered to put up one-third of the money in return for a one-third interest in the parcel. Purchase was completed on August 8, 1683, the $1,250 or so price paid in guns, shot, powder, blankets, wampum, alcohol, cloth and other goods. Before a patent could be issued to the trio, however, Verplanck died, and his widow Henrica married Jacobus Kip. The Rombout Patent was finally granted in 1685 to Verplanck, Rombout, and Stephanus Van Cortlandt on October 17, 1685, with the Verplanck interest passing down through the Kip line.
caption: The Hudson River shore of the Rombout Patent in the town of Wappinger, New York
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