The land now known as the hamlet of Essex was originally inhabited by Kitchawanks, part of the Mohegan tribe, who called the land Amapaugh,   meaning “fresh water fish.” This land was located in the eastern segment of an 83,000-acre tract that King William III of England granted to   Stephanus Van Cortland of New York City in 1697. The part of Van Cortland Manor that ultimately became Essex and Yorktown was known as   the Eastern District.

  Settlement in the Essex area began after Van Cortlandt’s death in 1700 and the final partition of his estate in 1734. Early European settlers included   tenants and freeholders from neighboring areas, among them English, Dutch, French Huguenots and Quakers. It wasn’t until March 7, 1848, when   the first town meeting was held at an inn, owned by Benjamin Green, that the hamlet’s name of Essex was established to honor Dr. Nathaniel Essex,   a local physician and surgeon who would also serve as the town’s first Supervisor. A memorial at his estate, now the site of Essex Academy, was   erected in his honor in 1948.

  In the mid 19th century, Essex, contained hat factories, carriage factories, three hotels, two general stores, an iron mine, a milk factory, and a   schoolhouse operated by the Christian Brothers. There was a constant stream of goods and passengers to large markets and cities through the   village. Though primarily agricultural, the rural economy also supported a varied population of weavers, preachers, merchants, cabinetmakers,   doctors, lawyers, teachers and servants. A good system of roads was maintained and some operated as commercial “toll roads.” The railroad,   developed in the 1840s, Essex established a station that would shift the hamlet away from agriculture toward commercial good.

  Industries continued to thrive, with grist, paper, saw and clothing mills operating in the area. Between 1890 and 1910, the Croton and Muscoot   Rivers were flooded to create the New York City Reservoir system thereby changing the local landscape considerably. In the 1920s small lake   communities began to spring up as vacation havens for summer visitors and farmers’ guests. These lake communities became larger and firmly   established, eventually evolving from seasonal to year-round neighborhoods we now know as Lake Lincolndale, Lake Shenorock, and Breakstone   Lake. Following World War II, the rural countryside of Essex continued attracting “weekenders”, many from New York City who became more   mobile because of the proliferation of automobile travel.