Fordham, formerly a village of Westchester county, New York, U.S.A., and now a part of New York City. It lies on the mainland, along the eastern bank of the Harlem river, E. of the northern end of Manhattan Island. It is the seat of Fordham University (Roman Catholic), founded in 1841 as St John’s College, and since 1846 conducted by the Society of Jesus. In 1907 the institution was rechartered as Fordham University, and now includes St John’s College high school and grammar school, St John’s College, the Fordham University medical school (all in Fordham), and the Fordham University law school (42 Broadway, New York City). In 1907-1908 the university had 96 instructors and (exclusive of 364 students in the high school) 236 students, of whom 105 were in St John’s College, 31 in the medical school, and 100 in the law school. In Fordham still stands the house in which Edgar Allan Poe lived from 1844 to 1849 and in which he wrote “Annabel Lee,” “Ulalume,” &c.
The hamlet of Fordham was established in 1669 by Jan Arcer (a Dutchman, who called himself “John Archer” after coming to America), who in that year received permission from Francis Lovelace, colonial governor of New York, to settle sixteen families on the mainland close by a fording-place of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, near where that stream enters the Harlem river. Between 1655 and 1671 Archer bought from the Indians the tract of land lying between Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem river on the east and the Bronx river on the west, and extending from the hamlet of Fordham to what is now High Bridge. In 1671 Governor Lovelace erected this tract into the manor of Fordham. In 1846 it was included with Morrisania in the township of West Farms; and in 1872 with part of the township of Yonkers was erected into the township of Kingsbridge, which in 1874 was annexed to the city of New York, and in 1898 became a part of the borough of the Bronx, New York City.
