Scope and Contents

The bulk of these records relate to Hezekiah Pierrepont's real estate holdings and transactions within the Village and City of Brooklyn, especially Brooklyn Heights. Included are an extensive number of legal documents, such as property conveyances, deeds, wills, indentures, mortgages, and leases. A bound volume of abstracts is in the series. A second set of abstracts are found in a volume originally used for recording bills receivable and payable of an unknown firm for 1788-1789; these bills include transactions with Gouverneur and Robert Morris, among others. There are real estate title searches dated after Hezekiah's death (1838-1854) and so were probably initiated by his son, Henry, as executor of the estate. Related documents include manuscript maps and correspondence. In addition to the Pierreponts, among the surnames appearing frequently in the legal documents are Benson, Brinckerhoff, DeBevoise, Jackson, Packer, Perry, Remsen, Tredwell, Van Wagenen, and Woortman.

The series holds substantial documentation of the Pierrepont House at One Pierrepont Place, particularly invoices for construction labor and material. Documents in the series also refer to agreements concerning the opening (e.g., Remsen) and closing (Moser) of streets, a party wall, and land for the Church of the Pilgrims and other churches.

There are several manuscript maps of the Pierrepont distillery, Pierrepont property in Brooklyn, and the waterfront docks, including Whitehall slip in Manhattan. There is a large sketch of the Pierrepont Stores building.

The series also includes a deed for property in Redfield Township, Oswego County, NY, for Ellen I. Minor (daughter of Hezekiah B. Pierpont). The property was apparently part of Hezekiah Pierpont's estate settlement. It also includes a broadside advertising the sale of "canal lands" in Jefferson County, New York (1823).