The recorded history of the Village of Pelham began with Thomas Pell's June 27, 1654 purchase of 9,166 acres from Native Americans said to be Siwanoys.  The purchase included what we know today as  Pelham, New Rochelle, portions of Bronx County and much of the land east of the Hutchinson River northward to Mamaroneck.   Among the land that he purchased, of course, was all the land that constitutes today's Village of Pelham. 

That fateful day, Thomas Pell and a small band of Englishmen reportedly gathered beneath a giant oak tree along with a Siwanoy named Anhõõke, also known as Wampage, and four other Siwanoy Indians who have been described as “sub-chieftains”.  Wampage was widely believed to have been the murderer of Anne Hutchinson. 

The whereabouts of the original treaty are not known.  Fortunately, though, a copy exists in what is said to be Thomas Pell’s own handwriting (see the image above).  He reportedly created it and forwarded it to relatives in England from whom it has been retrieved and documented. 

It is believed that Thomas Pell never actually lived in what we now know as Pelham.  In late September or early October, 1669, Thomas Pell died in Fairfield, Connecticut.  His sole heir was his nephew John Pell, son of his younger brother, Rev. John Pell, D.D. (1611-1685) who was a professor of mathematics on the Continent, the author of several noted books on scientific subjects and, later, appointed Deacon by the Bishop of London and given the living of Rectory of Fobbing in Essex.

Within twenty years, some would say, "development" began. 

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