JOHN JACOB ASTOR SIGNED LEASE
FOR LAND ONCE BELONGING TO AARON BURR AND TRINITY CHURCH IN NYC ~ WITH AN ADDITIONAL ASTOR AUTOGRAPH ENDORSEMENT
ASTOR, JOHN JACOB. (1763-1848) Fur trader and merchant who was the first multi-millionaire in the United States. Superb and exceedingly scarce Manuscript Document Signed, “John Jacob Astor,” with an additional Autograph Docket in Astor’s hand on the fourth page, signed “J. J. A.” Four pages, tall folio. New York. “1 May 1819.” The document is a lease to Jos. and Moses Beadel for a Charlton Street, NYC property. It reads, in part:
“… by these presents [John Jacob Astor] doth grant bargain and lease demise and set over unto the said party of the second part [Beadel] … all those certain lots or pieces of ground part and parcel of the Farm or pieces of Land in the Eighth (late seventh) Ward of the City of New York, which on the first day of May one thousand seven hundred and ninety seven been granted and dismissed by the Corporation of Trinity Church in the said city unto Aaron Burr … the said Aaron Burr afterwards sold and assigned and conveyed the said party of the first part [John Jacob Astor]. …”
Astor writes [all in his hand writing] on fourth page
“I have agreed to loan Mess Beadel one thousand dollars as soon as they have built a house on these lots which shall have cost $1800 & they are to give me a bond and a mortgage for the amount. J. J. A. 7 May 1819.”
The bulk of Aaron Burr’s dealings with Trinity Church involved the land which the above lease apparently deals with. Known as Richmond Hill, the estate was situated on approximately 26 acres within the Church Farm, and was occupied by George Washington during the Revolutionary War and also by Vice-President John Adams when New York was the federal capital. The property (whose contemporary boundaries are approximately Spring, Greenwich, West Houston, and Varick Streets) was leased to Abraham Mortier, British deputy paymaster, by Trinity in 1767 for a term of 99 years. Burr first leased the property from the Mortier estate in 1794, officially taking over the lease for Richmond Hill in 1797. Suffering from financial difficulties exacerbated by his role in the fatal 1804 duel, Burr was forced finally to relinquish the Richmond Hill property to John Jacob Astor.
Simply a superb Astor item! We can not recall another property deed for Astor linking him to NYC or for that matter to Burr, and thus this represents a truly unique opportunity.
$7500.00
The Onderdonk farm was originally granted to Hendrick Barentz Smidt in 1662. In 1709, Paulus Vander Ende bought the farm and built the house. He was one of the original settlers in Kings County and receved a land grant on Aug. 7, 1686. His son, Frederick, eventually inherited the Ridgewood farm. He simplifeied the spelling of his last name to Van Nanda. He had a daughter, Jane, who in the early 1750s married Moses Beadel, who was born in Hempstead in 1725. When Frederick Van Nanda died in 1769, Moses Beadel and his wife inherited the farm.
Like the early Onderdonks, Moses Beadel was a patriot in the Revolutionary War, enlisting in the First Battalion of the New York Provincial Regiment at the ripe age of 51. His son, also named Moses, enlisted in the Third New York Regiment.