(New York)



Henrietta was  formed in Township XII, Range VII of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.


After 1786 Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts together purchased 6,000,000 acres. They then "cleared title' to the land held by Iroquois. In 1790 Robert Morris sent William Temple Franklin (Benjamin Franklin's son) to England to interest buyers for  land in western NY.  Sir William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, England, was the major investor. A deed recorded in 1791 lists Charles Wiliamson and James Wadsworth as purchasers of Township XII, Range VII. which was the Town of Henrietta. Sir William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, England, died in 1805 and his daughter heir Henrietta Pulteney, for whom the town was named, died in 1808. 


Henrietta, part of Northfield Ontario County when it was first settledbecame a town in 1818.   Previous names for the area were the "West woods of Pittsford" and "West-town". The Town of Henrietta today is bordered on the east by towns of Pittsford and Mendon, on the west by the Genesee River,  south by town of Rush, and on the north by Brighton. 


Land speculation and natural resource possession were the motivations of early land ownership in America. Even though New York state was inhabited by Europeans as early as 1614, western NY including  the local area, was not safe for settlement due to 1) disease-harboring swampy land along the Genesee River,  and 2) fighting during the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War ,  and the War of 1812.                


The Town of Henrietta is located in  south central  Monroe County on the Genesee River. Water source was important for farmers and settlers for drinking, for livestock, transportation and water power.


Reference-Henrietta Heritage by Eleanor C. Kalsbeck, 1977.