General Notes

William Odell the ancestor, younger son of an English baronial family, fled to America in about 1637 after his family had made the mistake of siding with Lady Jane Grey against Mary--Queen of Scots. From Concord in 1644 he went to Fairfield, Conn, where he died in 1676. Some of his sons stayed in Connecticut and founded the New England line. His oldest son, William, was one of the 15 men who founded Rye in 1662. The later Williams was also one of the original purchasers of White Plains. His inclusion in both groups indicates that he was a respected man of wealth. A "Goodie Odell", presumably his mother, is recorded as one of the judges in Fairfield in a witchcraft trial, according to Frederick Haacker of New York, whose hobby for years has been tracing the genealogy of the Odell family of which his wife is a member. Of the sons of William of Rye, Samuel inherited the Rye estates and stayed there. His daughter Sarah Married John Archer, son of the last Lord of Fordham Manor. Her brother John moved to Fordham when he was twenty-two, died in 1735. This John of Fordham is the ancestor of the Odell families to be found in Yonkers today as well as of most of the "Tarrytown Odells" who were descended from John's grandson, Jonathan, of Revolutionary War fame. On August 18, 1670, Margaret, wife of Frederick Philipse, bought land at Yonkers which was formerly in possession of Andriaan Vander Donck, the Jonge Heer (from which Yonkers got its name), for 300, on behalf of her husband and Thomas Lewis, mariner, from Elias Doughty, the brother of widow Vander Donck. It included 300 acres and one half the River Nepperham with milling priviliges. Doughty sold various parcels of land, including one to John Archer, which was erected into the Manor of Fordham.