Brett, Madam Catharyna, Homestead

About this property

The Madam Brett Homestead is an early-18th-century home located in the city of Beacon, New York, United States. It is the oldest standing building in southern Dutchess County and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. It is also listed on the NYS Independence Trail. Catheryna Rombout Brett (1687–1764) was the daughter of Helena Teller Bogardus Van Ball Rombout and Francis Rombout. Helena Teller was the daughter of William Teller, of Albany, one of the original patent holders of the area around Schenectady. Francis Rombout served as a lieutenant during Stuyvesants' expedition against New Sweden. In partnership with Gulyne Verplank, Rombout became a successful merchant fur-trader, and in 1679, Mayor of New York. In 1683, Rombout and Verplanck purchased about 85,000 acres (34,000 ha) from the Wappinger native Indians. The purchased was confirmed October 17, 1685, as the royal Rombout Patent issued by King James II to Francis Rombout, Jacobus Kipp (who married the widowed Henrica Verplank) and Stephanus Van Courtland. The original document is on display at the Homestead. Francis Rombout died in 1691, leaving his estate to his only surviving heir, Catheryna. In November 1703, at the age of sixteen, Catheryna Rombout married Roger Brett, who had arrived in the New World with Lord Cornbury, governor of New York. Brett was a well-respected lieutenant in the British Royal Navy. After their marriage, the Bretts moved into the Rombout family home, which consisted of a large house and spacious grounds on lower Broadway, not far from the present site of Trinity Church on Broadway. Roger Brett was a vestryman of Trinity Church from 1703 to 1706. About 1708, the Rombout Patent was partitioned: the Van Cortlandt family was allotted substantially all the land lying along both banks of what was called Wappinger Creek; the middle portion fell to the heirs of Gulian Verplanck, and the lower part along Fishkill, fell to the Bretts. Catheryna inherited around 28,000 acres (11,000 ha). The homestead, which during the 19th century was referred to as the "Teller House", is now named for Catheryna Rombout Brett, who was the first to develop the patent by selling property. After the death of Catheryna's mother, the couple mortgaged the manor house in New York and moved to the wilderness of southern Dutchess County. The home was built around 1709 or shortly thereafter. Roger Brett drowned in the Hudson River, leaving Catheryna a widow at age 31 with the surviving three of her four sons. The homestead is notable as the residence of this woman who as a widow organized with twenty-one men the first produce cooperative in the Hudson River highlands. The homestead was subsequently occupied by her descendants until 1954, spanning a total of seven generations.

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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