Scarsdale, village and town (township),Westchester county, southeasternNew York, U.S. It is a northern residential suburb ofNew York City. The site was settled in 1701, following its purchase by Caleb Heathcote, who received a royal edict fromWilliam III for the Manor of Scarsdale, so named for Heathcote’s home district inDerbyshire, England. During theAmerican Revolution, British general SirWilliam Howe made his headquarters at the Jonathan Griffin Farmhouse before theBattle of White Plains (October 1776).James Fenimore Cooper was living there when he wrote the novelThe Spy (1821), his first literary success. The village was incorporated in 1915 and the town (organized 1788) becamecoterminous with it. Area 7 square miles (17 square km). Pop. (2000) 17,823; (2010) 17,166.