Atlas of Rockleigh 

1745 Map of Geo. Lockhart Patent

1745 Lockhart Patent

Lockhart and Tappan Patents

Province Boundaries, 1668-1774

1876 Harrington Twp

1891 Rockland County

1943 Rockleigh

1989 Rockleigh

George Lockhart Patent 
drawn in 1745 by Philip Ver Planck
at the request of John and Resolvert Nagels 

          The Lockhart Patent was granted by the province of New Jersey. The track from Snedens Landing [1] on the Hudson River wound up the palisades through the hamlet of Rockland as Closter Road when traveling south or Snedens Landing Road when traveling north. The track connected the farms of "Old Closter" with the Hudson and by river sloops to markets down river. 

       "By the request of Resolvert Nagel and John Nagel have surveyed a Tract of Land Sectuate lying and being in Orange County on he West Side of Hudsons River which said Trackt of Land was formerly Confirmed to one George Lockhart and is now belonging to Henry Ludlow and Mary his Wife &c.

    "Beginning at the north side of Barent Nagel and so running northerly as the Road still goes to the house of Henry Ludlow [the Big House], and along the south side of the house, so still running as the Road goes down to Robert Sneden, so at the south side of the house and on down to the Landing place free for all persons to load and unload...."

Book A, Orangetown Records, April 30, 1745

Alice M. Haagensen: Palisades & Snedens Landing, p170, Pilgrimage Publishing, Tarrytown, NY, 1986.

1. The Oak Tree Markt with Letter L &^c

2. Henry Ludlows House

3. Henry Ludlows Griss Mill

4. Gabl Ludlow

5. Mouth of Tappan river or Creek

6. A Passage cut thro the Meadow and now Wholy Used to go up the Creek

7. Sneedings house the fferry

8. A heap of stones

9. The lands in Question proposed by Barent Jansen

10. The Lands in question proposed by Jacob Vallentine

11. The Lands in Question proposed by William Verdon

12. John Nagels houses

13. Resolvert Nagels houses

          Access to Tappan Town was along the Spar Kill on Sparkill Road (now Central Avenue). Kings Highway (Tappan Road in Northvale) is shown running north and south between Closter and Tappan Town. 

          Also shown is the Spar Kill (Tappan Slote) which formed the north boundary of the Lockhart Patent as far as the South Branch of the Sparkill. The location of the John Nagels farmstead [12] on the east side of Closter Road suggests that the farmstead on the west side of the road within the southern portion of the Patent is that of Abraham A. Haring.

Facsimile map made by James S. Haring, 1876, 
  in the collection of the Palisades Free Library, 
Palisades, NY 

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           Lockhart and Tappan Patents superimposed on current map. (North to right). Most of that portion of the Lockhart Patent which fell within New Jersey after the 1769-1774 Boundary Settlement comprises present day Rockleigh, NJ, then called "Old Closter" or "Rockland".

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*Wilfred Blanch Talman, "How Things Began...in Rockland County and Places Nearby"
Rockland County Historical Society, 1977. 

         The top parallel line is the Gov. Dongan & Gov. Laurie Agreement of 1684 that met the Hudson at the mouth of the Tappan [Sparkill] Creek,  placing the entire Lockhart Patent in the Province of New Jersey. 

         The middle parallel line is the random line of Wells & Robinson of 1686 which included all of the Lockhart and Vervalen, Tappan and Kakiat Patents in New York Province. 

         The bottom parallel line is the New York "Pretense" Line of 1700-1719 which was so far south to include Tenafly. 

         The heavier, slightly off parallel line is the "Final Line" marked in 1774 and Agreed upon Oct. 7th, 1779. The final boundary split the "Rockland Neighborhood" and Tappan Town, but resulted in Harrington Township. The portion of Rockland that lay within New York State became Palisades; the portion within New Jersey continued to be called Rockland, NJ.

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           The "Rockland Neighborhood" also known as "Old Closter" is shown as an unincorporated portion of Harrington Township tucked beneath the NY-NJ State Line in this 1876 map.  

          On Snedens Landing Road landowners include (N to S): J. Moore (East), Mrs M.A. Cooper (West),  L. Conklin (East), Jos DuBois (West), L. Moore (East), Newton Sneden (East), S. Beasley (West), Mrs. C.A. Sneden (East), J.D. Conklin (East), B. Sloat (West), Jenkins Sloat (West), Saw Mill (East), Jacob Haring (West).  

          On Central Road landowners include: Jas. W. Gowdy (East),  Thos. Warker (West).  

          On Closter Road landowners include: Moses J. Taylor (West), Nich. Haring (West), Gilbert & Knapp (East), Dr F. Morris (West).

Original map hangs in the Council Chamber of Rockleigh Borough Hall 

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1891 Map of Rockland County

1891 map of Rockland County that includes a portion of Harington Township. 

Labeled are Closter Road, including Piermont Road - south and Snedens Landing Road, and Central Road (Piermont Road - north.

           This 1891 map of Rockland County shows landowners in adjacent Rockland, Harrington Township, NJ. Note the track from the Rockland Neighborhood to the "colored church" in Skunk Hollow, a community of freed slaves.

          On Snedens Landing Road landowners include (N to S): J. Moore (E), Mrs Cooper (W),  L. Conklin (E), C. DuBois (W), J. Moore (E), N. Sneden (E),  S. Beasley (W), S. Smith (W), Mrs. C. Sneden (E) [misplaced], S. Smith (W), L.B. Snedecker [misplaced, should be L.B. Sneden], J. Sloat (E), J. Sloat (W), Saw Mill (E), J.N. Haring (W). 

          On Central Road (Piermont - north) landowners include: Jas. W. Gowdy (E),  J. Earley (W), H.G. Torrey (W).  

          On Closter Road (Piermont- south) landowners include: J. Sloat (W), J. Vervelen (W), M. Sneden (E), Nich. Haring (W), Gilbert & Knapp (E), Dr F. Morris (W).

F.W. Beers, Atlas of the Hudson River Valley, Section 6:  Rockland County. (New York, 1891)

Scale 1:50,000

In 1958, the St Joseph's Village Orphanage opened on 80 acres. Commercial development began during the 1960's with the development of the Rockleigh Office & Technical Park - one of the first planned commercial parks in New Jersey. In the 1989 maps, the black structures were surveyed in the mid 1960s and the purple structures are the result of an updated survey in the late 1970s. The intervening decade produced a four-fold increase of Office and Technical space.  With 2-acre residential zoning, the number of dwellings has increased modestly to about 65.

Scale 1:24,000

          This 1989 Map of Rockleigh Borough shows the community to be about two-fifths residential (mostly National Historic District), one fifth office-technical, one-fifth  public golf course, and one-fifth protected open space.

Written and compiled by E. W. April, 2002