Westchester County Clerk

August 11, 2014

WHITE PLAINS, NY: Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni cautions residents to beware of a new telephone scam spreading around the country that has recently emerged in upstate New York. In this scam, victims receive calls from someone impersonating law enforcement or a local county agency official warning that a warrant will go out for their arrest if they fail to make a payment by the end of the business day. “Local and law enforcement government agencies will never call to solicit payment over the phone for a warrant or summons,” stated Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni. This scam has been traced to several out-of-state telemarketing companies.

Clerk Idoni warns residents that if you receive these types of calls asking for payment over the phone, immediately hang up and call the local county or law enforcement agency where the caller claimed to be from to get verification. If you have caller ID on your phone, you may wish to provide the number to that agency. “Never provide your credit card or banking information to a call solicitation over the phone,” Idoni shared. “While you may get a call from a legitimate bill collector on occasion, do not let the scam artist confuse you. We are warning residents to be on alert, as this scam is growing throughout the country.”

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April 14, 2014

Idoni: Lowest first quarter total since 2009, 19.85% below first quarter 2013

WHITE PLAINS, NY: While 2013 mortgage tax revenue was the highest Westchester County had seen since 2008, first quarter revenue figures show that 2014 has gotten off to a slow start with only $2,808,388 collected for the county from January 1^st through March 31^st of this year. The mortgage tax, considered a major county revenue source, has languished in recent years as the national economy and our local real estate market recovered. The first quarter collections are the lowest since 2009, and almost 20% below last year’s first quarter collections. “We are hopeful that the improvement we are seeing in our local real estate market will result in a steady increase in this important revenue source in the second half of the year,” stated Idoni whose office collects mortgage tax for Westchester County.

First Quarter Mortgage Tax Collected (County Portion Only)

The total 2014 mortgage tax for the county is budgeted as $19,826,409, less than half of the $39,836,895 collected in 2005 when the real estate market was at its recent peak. County mortgage tax collected in 2013 totaled $16,997,949.29.

For more information about the Office of the County Clerk, please call (914)995-3080 or visit www.WestchesterClerk.com.

Several Clerks served longer terms of office in the 1700s

WHITE PLAINS, NY: The Westchester County Clerk has served the residents of Westchester for more than three hundred years by maintaining and preserving the official documents and records of the County’s rich history. But what do we know about many of the former officeholders? Four clerks served longer terms in office during a time when New York and Westchester would increasingly become central to the rising tensions in the colonies under strict British Rule. “Westchester County began to take shape during the 1700s and land documents recorded in our office at that time illustrate the county’s substantial growth,” shared the current Westchester County Clerk, Timothy C. Idoni.

Daniel Clark (1711-1722)

Daniel Clark, a Peekskill resident, served for eleven years as Westchester County Clerk from 1711 until 1722. While much is not known about Clerk Clark’s background, the house and tavern owned by John and Eliza Van Tassel was built in Tarrytown during his term. The house and tavern were made famous and used as a model for the home of one of Washington Irving’s main characters Katrina Van Tassel in the literary classic novel, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

William Forster of Westchester and Benjamin Nicoll of Scarsdale both served very long terms in office and Nicoll is believed to have died while still in office. During Forster’s tenure, a group of Quakers settled in what eventually would be known as Chappaqua. In J. Thomas Scharf’s History of Westchester County, New York, he described Clerk Nicoll as a lawyer who was of renown and “great ability”. The town of Lewisboro, formerly known as “Salem,” was formed during his tenure. Nicoll served during the time when the French Indian War, otherwise known as “the Seven Years’ War,” raged. George Washington, our nation’s first President, served as a Major in the British Militia fighting against New France.

John Bartow (1760-1777)

John Bartow served sixteen years as Westchester County Clerk. Bartow, who was born in Westchester in 1715, was the seventh son of Rev. James Bartow. His father bequeathed him sixty acres of land in Barnegat, which is now a township in Ocean County, New Jersey. Bartow was a practicing attorney and served as Surrogate from 1754 until 1761 and county clerk from 1760 until 1777. He never married and later in life took to writing meditations. Bartow also taught school with his brother from 1744 to 1763 and ran a mill business. In 1776, he purchased sixty acres of land in what is now known as Eastchester and sold the land in 1794. Bartow died in 1802. The following is an excerpt from Bartow’s meditations about his service as clerk and the rising tensions between the American Colonies and the British, which culminated in the American Revolutionary War:

“My mother lived with us till she was near eighty years old, when she died, full of faith and love in’ Christ.

Then I followed mill business, and had two publick offices to attend and take care of, until the contest arose between Old England and America. And as I lived between the armies of Great Britain and America, I thought it best to move about fifty miles up in the country, where I continued about a year and returned back to my home, the two armies being separated, but still I lived between the lines with one of my brothers. We lived in great distress for about six years.”

Many of the images highlighted can be found on the County Clerk’s Westchester Records Online portal (WRO) https://wro.westchesterclerk.com. You are also encouraged to come to our office and use the free public viewing terminals to see if the land document you are searching for is recorded in our office and also to view the actual document image. Our office is located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Room 345 in White Plains and open Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Please arrive by 4:30 p.m. You can also view original recorded images of documents at the Westchester County Archives located at 2199 Saw Mill River Road, Elmsford. Please call (914)231-1500 for information on their services and archive collections as well as when they are open to the public.

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A Special Series – The County Clerks of Westchester – Part 2

WHITE PLAINS, NY: Captain John Clapp served as Westchester County Clerk from 1707 until 1711. “With the growth of Westchester County in the early 1700s, the need to keep detailed land records became even more important,” stated current Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni. “County Clerk Clapp’s personal story helps illustrate this need.”

Captain John Clapp, a former sea captain who ran a successful maritime and mercantile business, was born in England in 1649. It was around 1680 when Capt. Clapp arrived in the Americas, settling in Charleston, South Carolina where he owned four properties. He was one of the early landholders after the English established their first permanent settlement in Carolina in 1671.

Capt. Clapp and his family moved north to Flushing in Queens County in 1688 and began acquiring land and property throughout the area and in Manhattan. A loyalist to the British rule of William and Mary, Clapp was witness in 1689 to the rebellion that erupted when a group of New Yorkers led by Jacob Leisler, rebelled and took control of the government. Clapp was asked by fellow loyalists to write a letter of protest against Jacob Leisler and his accomplices, which through the Secretary of State made its way to the British Monarchs, William and Mary. The rebellion was short lived and Leisler was later executed in 1691 after Henry Sloughter was appointed the new Governor by order of the Monarchs William and Mary. Governor Sloughter put in place a government sanctioned by the crown, which included the appointment of Capt. Clapp as clerk of the First Provincial Assembly in New York and of the succeeding Assemblies. Clapp served in this capacity until 1698 and as Clerk issued the 1697 Almanack, the first to be compiled by a resident of New York.

Between 1703 and 1715, Clapp acquired substantial portions of land in northern Westchester. The 1703 Census lists among his household, a wife, children and three slaves. In 1696, the Royal African Trade Company lost its monopoly on the slave trade, which in turn spurred colonists in New England to engage in slave trading for profit. In 1704, Clapp was among the twenty-nine proprietors in a patent granted by Queen Anne, of the township of Bedford. Large tracts of this land were established as manors or patents and the lords of which Clapp was among leased parcels of the land to tenant farmers.

In 1705, Clapp purchased a large tract of land in what became known as Rye Township and in North Castle from Native American inhabitants. Several land purchases by Clapp including three hundred acres purchased in North Castle for his family’s use were recorded. He also held land in Greenwich, Connecticut, which he willed to his adult son, Gilson, upon his death. This image is of the original recorded deed of the 1705 purchase of Rye tract of land from the Lenape, “the people”, of the Algonquin Native Americans.

Capt. Clapp became a well known and respected leader in Westchester and in 1707 was appointed County Clerk. His achievements included conducting the 1710 Census of the County. Capt. Clapp saw an uptick in land sales and the county continued to expand.

Capt. John Clapp, who may have been married up to four times, died before February 18, 1726.

Some of the recorded deeds and wills images highlighted in this series can be found on the County Clerk’s Westchester Records Online portal (WRO) https://wro.westchesterclerk.com. You are also encouraged to come to our office and use the free public viewing terminals to see if the land document you are searching for is recorded in our office and also to view the actual document image. Our office is located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Room 345 in White Plains and open Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Please arrive by 4:30 p.m. You can also view original and recorded images at the Westchester County Archives located at 2199 Saw Mill River Road, Elmsford. Please call (914)231-1500 for information on their services and archive collections as well as when they are open to the public.

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