Frederick Philipse

Frederick Philipse (1626 – December 23, 1702) was a Dutch-born landowner, merchant, and slave trader. In some early records, his first name is also spelled Vredrick and Vredryk; he spelled his last name three different ways, sometimes in the same document, such as his own last will—Flypsen, Flypse, and Flipse.

The first lord of the Manor of Philipseborough (the original spelling, used in the 1693 royal charter, would be later changed to Philipsburg) and patriarch of the Philipse family, he immigrated to North America from Friesland. Philipse arrived in America as early as 1653. In 1662, he married Margaret Hardenbroeck, a wealthy and driven widow. By associating and collaborating with respectable merchants and prominent political figures on one hand and criminal elements—including pirates and slave traders—on the other, the Philipses built a massive fortune.

Beginning in 1672 Philipse and some partners started acquiring land in what was to become lower Westchester County, New York. When the English took over the Dutch colony in 1674, Philipse pledged his allegiance to England and was rewarded with manorship for his holdings, which ultimately grew to some 81 mi² (210 km²). Serving later on the governor's executive council, he was subsequently banned from government office for conducting a slave trade into New York.

Upon his death, Philipse was one of the greatest landholders in the Province of New York. He owned the vast stretch of land spanning from Spuyten Duyvil Creek in the Bronx (then in lower Westchester County), to the Croton River. He was regarded by some as the richest man in the colony. His son Adolphus acquired substantial land north of modern Westchester sanctioned as the royal Philipse Patent. Stripped from the family after the Revolution for their Tory sympathies, the some 250 mi² (650 km²) tract became the present-day Putnam County, New York.