village and town (township), Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S. It is a northern residential suburb of New York City. The site was settled in 1701, following its purchase by Caleb Heathcote, who received a royal edict from William III for the Manor of Scarsdale, so named for Heathcote's home district in Derbyshire, England. During the American Revolution, British general Sir William Howe (Howe, William Howe, 5th Viscount) made his headquarters at the Jonathan Griffin Farmhouse before the Battle of White Plains (October 1776). James Fenimore Cooper (Cooper, James Fenimore) was living there when he wrote the novel The Spy (1821), his first literary success. The village was incorporated in 1915 and the town (organized 1788) became coterminous with it. Area 7 square miles (17 square km). Pop. (1990) 16,987; (2000) 17,823.