Wolferts Roost and Miscellanies | Page 7

Washington Irving
inroad into this neighborhood and founded
a colony called Westchester, or, as the ancient Dutch records term it,
Vest Dorp, in the right of one Thomas Pell, who pretended to have
purchased the whole surrounding country of the Indians, and stood
ready to argue their claims before any tribunal of Christendom.
This happened during the chivalrous reign of Peter Stuyvesant, and it
roused the ire of that gunpowder old hero; who, without waiting to
discuss claims and titles, pounced at once upon the nest of nefarious
squatters, carried off twenty-five of them in chains to the Manhattoes,
nor did he stay his hand, nor give rest to his wooden leg, until he had
driven every Yankee back into the bounds of Connecticut, or obliged
him to acknowledge allegiance to their High Mightinesses. He then
established certain out-posts, far in the Indian country, to keep an eye
over these debateable lands; one of these border-holds was the Roost,
being accessible from New Amsterdam by water, and easily kept
supplied. The Yankees, however, had too great a hankering after this
delectable region to give it up entirely. Some remained and swore
allegiance to the Manhattoes; but, while they kept this open semblance
of fealty, they went to work secretly and vigorously to intermarry and
multiply, and by these nefarious means, artfully propagated themselves
into possession of a wide tract of those open, arable parts of
Westchester county, lying along the Sound, where their descendants
may be found at the present day; while the mountainous regions along
the Hudson, with the valleys of the Neperan and the Pocantico, are
tenaciously held by the lineal descendants of the Copperheads.
* * * * *
The chronicle of the venerable Diedrich here goes on to relate how that,
shortly after the above-mentioned events, the whole province of the

New Netherlands 'was subjugated by the British; how that Wolfert
Acker, one of the wrangling councillors of Peter Stuyvesant, retired in
dudgeon to this fastness in the wilderness, determining to enjoy "lust in
rust" for the remainder of his days, whence the place first received its
name of Wolfert's Roost. As these and sundry other matters have been
laid before the public in a preceding article, I shall pass them over, and
resume the chronicle where it treats of matters not hitherto recorded:
Like many men who retire from a worrying world, says DIEDRICH
KNICKERBOCKER, to enjoy quiet in the country, Wolfert Acker soon
found himself up to the ears in trouble. He had a termagant wife at
home, and there was what is profanely called "the deuce to pay,"
abroad. The recent irruption of the Yankees into the bounds of the New
Netherlands, had left behind it a doleful pestilence, such as is apt to
follow the steps of invading armies. This was the deadly plague of
witchcraft, which had long been prevalent to the eastward. The malady
broke out at Vest Dorp, and threatened to spread throughout the
country. The Dutch burghers along the Hudson, from Yonkers to
Sleepy Hollow, hastened to nail horseshoes to their doors, which have
ever been found of sovereign virtue to repel this awful visitation. This
is the origin of the horse-shoes which may still be seen nailed to the
doors of barns and farmhouses, in various parts of this sage and
sober-thoughted region.
The evil, however, bore hard upon the Roost; partly, perhaps, from its
having in old times been subject to supernatural influences, during the
sway of the Wizard Sachem; but it has always, in fact, been considered
a fated mansion. The unlucky Wolfert had no rest day nor night. When
the weather was quiet all over the country, the wind would howl and
whistle round his roof; witches would ride and whirl upon his
weathercocks, and scream down his chimneys. His cows gave bloody
milk, and his horses broke bounds, and scampered into the woods.
There were not wanting evil tongues to whisper that Wolfert's
termagant wife had some tampering with the enemy; and that she even
attended a witches' Sabbath in Sleepy Hollow; nay, a neighbor, who
lived hard by, declared that he saw her harnessing a rampant
broom-stick, and about to ride to the meeting; though others presume it

was merely flourished in the course of one of her curtain lectures, to
give energy and emphasis to a period. Certain it is, that Wolfert Acker
nailed a horse-shoe to the front door, during one of her nocturnal
excursions, to prevent her return; but as she re-entered the house
without any difficulty, it is probable she was not so much of a witch as
she was represented. [Footnote: HISTORICAL NOTE.--The annexed
extracts from the early colonial records, relate to the irruption of
witchcraft into Westchester county, as mentioned in the chronicle:
"JULY 7, l670.--Katharine Harryson, accused of witchcraft
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