A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 17

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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During the British occupation of Long Isl- and General Floyd's farm was seized by the British and his family sought refuge in Con- necticut. The property was stripped by sol- diers of all its attractiveness, fields were deso- lated, trees uprooted and fences burned, and

the house itself plundered and rendered un- inhabitable. He was absent from the island for some six years, and was amazed, on his. return, at the havoc which was wrought and which was everywhere apparent. In 1784 he purchased a tract of land at Delta, Western township, Oneida county, where he removed with his family in 1803, and he continued to reside there in fairly affluent circumstances until his death, August 4, 1821. Floyd town- ship in Oneida county was named in his honor.

Having thus traced the career of the most eminent member of the Floyd family, the one who secured by his patriotism an undying place in the general history of the country, we may now revert to the original family and trace its descent to our own times. The eldest son of the second Richard also bore that nanie. He was born December 29, 1703, and, like his father, became colonel of the Suffolk militia and a Judge of the Common Pleas. He mar- ried a daughter of Colonel Samuel Hutchin- son, of Southold. On his death, April 21, 1771, he was succeeded in his estate by his son Richard (fourth of the name), who was born in 1736. Richard also succeeded to the colo- nelcy and the Judgeship so long held in the

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

family, and soon acquired a reputation for his lavish hospitality, while his kindly, affable manner and many fine social qualities won him devoted friends among all classes. He enter- tained Governor Tryon and his staff as if they were princes, on at least one occasion; his doors were always open to the red-coated mili- tary, and unfortunately for himself he threw in his lot with the British when the crisis broke, without any attempt to hide his sentiments or disguise his position. He was too honest a man to do either. As a result his estate was declared confiscated and after the peace of 1783, when the Continentals could enforce their act of attainder, he was compelled to leave the country and removed to Canada. He settled at Maujerville, New Brunswick, and there resided until his death, June 30, 1791. He had married September 26, 1758, Arabella, daughter of David Jones, of Fort Neck, Queens county, Judge of the Supreme Court of New York and author of a "History of New York During the Revolutionary War." By her he had a family of two daughters,- Elizabeth and Ann,-and a son,-David Rich- ard. Judge Jones entailed his estate at Fort Neck to his son, and failing him or his heirs to the heirs of his daughter Arabella, Mrs. Floyd, on condition that the latter should as- sume the name of Jones. In due time David Richard Floyd succeeded to the property. In terms of the succession David Richard as- sumed the surname of Floyd-Jones, by which the descendants of the senior branch of the Floyd family have since been known, the legis- lature having confirmed the change in 1788. David Richard married Sarah, daughter of Henry Onderdonck, and died February 10, 1826, leaving two sons,-Thomas Floyd-Jones and Henry Floyd-Jones. Thomas was born in 1788.

He died in 1851. His eldest son, David

Richard Floyd-Jones, born in 1813, was a member of the New York Assembly in 1841, 1842 and 1843, and served in the State Senate from 1844 to 1847. In 1861 he was elected Secretary of State, and Lieutenant-Governor in 1863-4. He was in every way an estima- ble and useful citizen, and his death, January 8, 1871, called forth expressions of regret from all classes in the community. His brother, William Floyd-Jones, was born at Fort Neck March 10, 1815. Preferring a commercial ca- reer, he entered the establishment of Tredwell, Kissam & Co., New York, in which he became a partner in 1837. In 1851 he retired from business life, having acquired a large share of the property held by his father, and devoted himself to agriculture, hunting and fishing. He married in 1847 Caroline A., daughter of| Robert Blackwell, merchant, New York, and granddaughter of James Blackwell, owner of Blackwell's Island. By her he had a family of five sons and three daughters. Another brother, Elbert Floyd-Jones, represented Queens for several years in the State Assem- bly. Henry Floyd-Jones, an uncle of the three last named, and second son of Thomas Floyd- Jones, was born in 1792, and served in the Assembly in 1829. He was a State Senator and a member for years of the old Court of Errors. He was also, like his brother, a Brig- adier-General of militia. The family of Rich- ard Floyd is found all over Long Island, hon- ored, respected and beloved by all the people.

These three names ;- Gardiner, Smith and Floyd,-must suffice as fairly representative of the old families of Suffolk county, and we may now seek some representative in the ancient county of Queens, Queens before it lost so much of its identity in metropolitan greatness or divested itself of much of its ter- ritory in the creation of the modern county of Nassau.

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

THE LLOYDS-THE JONES FAMILY-THE RECORD OF A BIT OF BROOKLYN REAL ESTATE -THE RAPALYES-THE LIVINGSTONS-PIERREPONT, LEFFERTS AND OTHER HOLDINGS.

A NOTHER capital illustration of the manner in which lands were ac- quired in the earliest days of Euro- pean settlements is presented to us in the history of the Lloyd family, whose name is geographically preserved by Lloyd's Neck (called by the Indians Caumsett) a point of land projecting into the Sound be- tween Cold Spring and Huntington. The Neck, comprising about 3,000 acres, was bought September 20, 1654, from Ratiocan, then Sagamore of Cow Harbor, by Samuel Mayo, Daniel Whitehead and Peter Wright, all Oyster Bay settlers. The price paid was three coats, three shirts, two cuttoes, three hatchets, three hoes, two fathoms of wam- pum, six knives, two pairs of stockings and two pairs of shoes, worth possibly about $50.

In 1658 the three Oyster Bay speculators sold the land to Samuel Andrews, who took the precaution of getting his deed endorsed or confirmed by Wyandanch, the Chief of the Montauks. Two years later Andrews died, and the property was sold to John Richbill, who in turn sold it for £450, October 16, 1666, to Nathaniel Sylvester, Thomas Hart and Latimer Sampson, who further strength- ened their title by getting a patent from Gov- ernor Nicolls in the following year. In 1668 Sylvester gave up his share to his partners, although why or for what consideration is not clear. Sampson bequeathed his share to Griz-

zell Sylvester, who married James Floyd, of Boston. In 1679 Floyd bought Hart's share from that pioneer's executors and so acquired possession of the entire property. He retained it, probably for purely speculative purposes, hoping to benefit by a "rise," until his death, in 1693, when he bequeathed it to his sons. One of these, Henry, took up his residence on the property in 17II, and gradually bought up the interest of his co-heirs until the whole estate passed into his hands, and he may be regarded as the founder of the family in Long Island. In 1685 the property had been erected into a manor and given the name of Queens Village, and that title it retained until 1790, when the New York Legislature wisely re- fused to continue the manorial privilege, or, for very evident reasons, to sanction its mon- archical name. Henry Lloyd was born at Boston November 28, 1685, and died March 10, 1763. In 1708 he married Rebecca, daugh- ter of John Nelson, of Boston, by whom he had a family of ten children. He bequeathed the Lloyd's Neck property to his four surviv- ing sons,-Henry, Jolın, James and Joseph. The eldest, Henry, was a Tory in the Revolu- tionary struggle, and his share in the property was forfeited by the act of attainder. It was afterward purchased from the Commissioners by his brother John, who then became the head of the Long Island family. His other brother, James, threw in his lot with New England,

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

becoming a physician in Boston, where he died in 1809, leaving, among other children, a son, James, who became a United States Senator from Massachusetts. The youngest son of the founder of the family, Joseph, died at Hart- ford in 1780.

John Lloyd, who may be regarded as the successor to his father at the head of the family' having bought the forfeited share of his elder brother, was born February 19, 1711, and mar- ried Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, of Dos Oris. They had three daugh- ters and two sons. Of the former, Abigail be- came the wife of Dr. James Cogswell, a well known New York physician and philanthro- pist, while Sarah married the Hon. James Hill- house, United States Senator from Connecti- cut, and became the mother of James Hill- house, whose name is a brilliant one in the literary history of the Nutmeg State as tlie author of "Percy's Masque" and other dramas and poems. Zachary Macaulay, the father of the British historian and essayist, spoke of him as "the most accomplished young man" with whom he was acquainted.

John Lloyd threw in his lot with the Con- tinental forces during the Revolution, and as a result his property was sadly molested all through the occupation of Long Island by the British. They erected a fort on it, cut down its many beautiful trees, destroyed its buildings and carried away their contents. The pres- ence of the fort introduced more than once into the erstwhile prosperous and smiling acres the miseries of actual war. In 1781 an attempt was made to capture it by a small force under the command of the Baron De Angley, but the effort failed mainly on ac- count of the poorly equipped condition of the attacking party. It was also constantly menaced by the whale-boat rovers. Of the sons of John Lloyd and Sarah Woolsey, Henry, the eldest, died unmarried. John, who succeeded to the family honors and estates, served as a Commissariat in the Patriot army with fidelity and distinction. When peace was declared he settled down at Lloyd's Neck and

began the task of obliterating the damages and savings of war, to which he successfully de- voted the remainder of his life. He was of- fered by Governor Jay the office of Judge of Queens County, but declined, preferring the freedom and privacy of his fields. He mar- ried Amelia, daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer White, of Danbury, Connecticut, and died in 1792, at the early age of forty-seven years, leaving one son, John Nelson Lloyd, and a daughter, Angelina, to whom he bequeathed most of his property. John continued to re- side on the Neck, as it is popularly called lo- cally, until his death in 1849. Angelina mar- ried George W. Strong, a well known New York lawyer.

None of the name of Lloyd now occupies the Neck, and all traces of its manorial great- ness has disappeared in the smaller farms into which it is divided. But around are hundreds of the descendants of the old family, and many of the residents, though bearing different names on account of their descent through some "daughter of the house," can trace their pedigree right back to the original of the fam- ily-Henry Lloyd.

So far as mingling in public affairs was concerned the Jones family, of Oyster Bay, occupy a much more prominent place in the story of Long Island than their one-time neighbors, the Lloyds.

The founder of the family, so far as Long Island is concerned, was Thomas Jones, who is generally held to have been born in Stra- bane, Ulster county, Ireland, in 1665. The name is a purely Welsh one, and if Thomas was not born in that country he could hardly have been more than one degree removed from its soil ; so the family ought to be regarded as a Welsh, rather than an Irish one, as is com- monly the way in which it is described by local historians. Thomas Jones, unlike most Ulstermen, ranged himself on the side of the Catholic King, James II, of Great Britain, fought under that monarch's flag at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, at the desperate battle at Aghrim in 1691, and took part in the de-

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

fence of Limerick in the same year under the heroic Sarsfield. Soon after Limerick capit- ulated he escaped to France, and seems to have become a seaman, for Edward F. De Lancy tells us "he embarked early in 1692 un- der one of the numerous letters of marque to participate in the Revolution, and was present at the great earthquake of Jamaica July 7, 1692, and in that year came to Long Island." Thompson says: "Coming to America, he brought with him a commission from the King to cruise against Spanish property, the two nations being then at war, which he doubtless did not fail to apply to his own advantage as opportunity offered." Thompson is hardly to be even compared with De Lancey as an au- thority, but it will be seen that both speak rather vaguely, neither presenting the same closeness of statement we would expect in a genealogical reference. The truth is, the whole story of Jones' Irish career is unreliable and untrustworthy, very possibly because its real details were purposely hidden from us by him- self or others.

He settled first in Rhode Island, where he married Freelove, daughter of Henry Town- send, and received with her as a marriage gift from her father a tract of land at Fort Neck, at "the confluence of the Massapeaqua River with what is now called South Oyster Bay, on the south side of Long Island." Thompson also says: "After his settlement here he en- gaged largely in boat whaling along shore, which at that period and before was practiced extensively upon the whole south coast of the island. For this purpose he gave employment to a great number of natives, whose services were procured at a very cheap rate." What- ever his occupation, he certainly prospered, for he steadily increased his lands by purchase, from the natives mainly, until he held some 6,000 acres. On March 2, 1699, he was ad- mitted one of the freeholders under the Oyster Bay patent, and during the same year erected for his dwelling the first brick house seen in that section. Many honors came to him. He was appointed High Sheriff of Queens County

October 14, 1704, and received a commission as major in the local militia. Governor Hun- ter, in 1710, gave him the appointment of "Ranger General of Nassau [Long] Island," and that office gave him a practical monopoly of the fishing industry of the shores of the island except the water front of the county of Kings, and also to the use of all land within the same limits which had not then been sold or deeded away. Such a man was indeed a potentate, but his sway appears to have been a gentle and honorable one, and he certainly did what he could to advance the interests of the great territory committed to his care. He died at Fort Neck December 13, 1713, and in accordance with his often expressed wish his remains were interred amid the ruins of an old Indian fort on his property. He left three sons and four daughters. Of the latter, Mar- garet married Ezekiel Smith, Sarah became the wife of Gerardus Clowes, Elizabeth wed- ded John Mitchell, and the youngest, Free- love, married Jacob Smith. Of the sons, David succeeded to the paternal estate, by virtue of an entail, which settled the greater portion on heirs male, Thomas died, unmar- ried, and of William we will speak again.

David Jones was born at Little Neck Sep- tember 16, 1699, and was educated for the legal profession. He practiced law in New York City for some years, and in 1734 was appointed Judge for Queens County. In 1737 he was elected a member of the Colonial As- sembly and so continued until 1758, having been Speaker of that body for thirteen years. He left the Assembly when he was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court, from which he retired in 1773. The remainder of his quiet but useful life was spent at Fort Neck, and he died there October II, 1775. He was a man of considerable force of character. "On one occasion," says Thompson, "he had the firmness to order the doors of the Assembly closed against the Governor until a bill, then under discussion, could be passed and which his Excellency had determined to prevent by an immediate prorogation. During his whole

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

life, and in every situation, Judge David Jones was the unyielding advocate of the rights of the people against every species of royal en- croachment, and no man participated more largely of the public confidence and respect." He managed to change the entail by which he held the estate and deeded it to his son, Thomas, with the succession to his daughter Arabella, and so the property ultimately passed to her eldest son.

Thomas Jones was born at Fort Neck, April 30, 1731, was graduated at Yale in 1750, studied law and was admitted to practice in New York in 1755. For many years he was attorney for King's College. He married Anna De Lancey, daughter of Chief Justice James De Lancey, Lieutenant Governor of New York, and it was probably the influences thrown around him by this marriage which led to his becoming so openly identified with Tory- ism in the Revolution. In 1776 he became Royal Recorder of New York, and continued to hold that office until 1773, when he suc- ceeded to the seat on the supreme court then resigned by his father. . On June 27, 1776, when the Patriots were in control of New York, Jones was arrested under a warrant issued by Congress and was liberated on pa- role, but on August II he was again arrested and taken to Connecticut. He was again pa- roled and went to his home at Fort Neck. On November 6, 1779, a party of Continentals made a dash at his house and robbed it of much of its contents, carrying him off as a prisoner to Connecticut. In April, the follow- ing year, he was exchanged for General Silli- man. He then sold off as much of his prop- erty as he could and went to England. When peace was proclaimed he found himself under. the ban of the Act of Attainder and so he remained in England, living in quiet retire- ment at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, until his death, July 25, 1792. He left no children, and thus ended the senior branch of the family of the founder.

William, the third son of founder Thomas, was born April 25, 1708. Although destined

for the legal profession, he engaged in farm- ing on a piece of property bequeathed him by his father, and passed through life in a quiet and unassuming manner, taking no part in the exciting events of his times and wrestling suc- cessfully with the problem of winning a liv- ing for himself and those dependent upon him from the soil until his death, in 1779. He married Phœbe, daughter of Captain John Jackson, of an old Hempstead family, and by her had a family of sixteen children, fourteen of whom-David, Samuel, William, Thomas, Gilbert, John, Walter, Richard, Hallet, Free- love, Elizabeth, Margaret, Phœbe and Sarah- grew up, married and had families ; so that to pursue this genealogy in detail would of itself occupy a volume. We must therefore refer to those mainly who won additional honors for the family name.

First among these was Samuel, son of William, who was born July 26, 1734. His first purpose in life was to become a sailor, and he made several voyages to Europe in mer- chant vessels. But he became tired of the drudgery, and, more in keeping with the wish- es of his family, was educated for the legal pro- fession, studying law in the office of Chief Jus- tice William Smith, the historian, who after- ward went to Canada, refusing to recognize the new order of things after the Revolution, and there became again Chief Justice. Sam- uel Jones, his legal pupil, did not, fortunately. imbibe any of his political views, but his posi- tion compelled him to walk discreetly during those troublesome times. His sympathies, how- ever, were all on the side of the Revolution. and when the time came for him to declare himself he showed no half-heartedness. He threw himself into the politics of the young Republic and became an ardent Federalist. He soon built up a lucrative practice and his of- fice developed many noteworthy pupils. His legal reputation continued to increase as the years passed on, until he was recognized as the leader of the New York bar, and held many positions of honor in the community, serving in the State Assembly several times. He was

93.

SOME OLD FAMILIES IN QUEENS AND KINGS.

a member of the Convention at Poughkeepsie which in 1788 adopted the Constitution of the United States. In the following year he was appointed Recorder of New York, and held that office until 1797, when he was succeeded by Chancellor Kent. In 1796 he drew up the bill creating the office of Comptroller of the city of New York, and when the office was created he was appointed to it and so continued for three years, when he retired to his seat at West Neck, Long Island, where he lived a life of pleasant retire- ment, devoting himself mainly to his library and to literary pursuits. He died there No- vember 21, 1819.

He left five sons, William, Samuel, Elbert, Thomas and David. The first named resided at Cold Springs and held the rank of major in the local militia. He had a son, Samuel William, who studied law in the office of his uncle Samuel, and settled in Schenectady, of which city he was mayor for many years be- fore his death, in 1855. Samuel Jones' second son, named after him, fully maintained the family honors in the legal profession in New York. He was born May 26, 1769, and after he was graduated at Columbia College entered the law office of his father, where he had as a fellow student De Witt Clinton. As soon as he was admitted to practice he threw himself into the political arena, and this, coupled with his own brilliant attainments as a lawyer, soon won for him a recognized place among the leaders of the local bar. In 1812, 1813 and 1814 he was a member of the Assembly, and in 1823 was appointed to the office once so worthily held by his father, of Recorder of New York City. In 1826 he was made Chan- cellor of the State, and two years later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York City, retaining that dignified office until 1847, when he occupied a seat in the State Supreme Court. In 1849 he retired from the bench and resumed practice at the bar, and so continued until within a few weeks of his death at Cold Spring, August 9, 1853, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

His younger brother, David, born at West Neck, November 3, 1777, after he was grad- uated at Columbia College, also entered the legal profession. For several years he was secretary to Governor Jay, and for some half a century was one of the most conspicuous and influential members of the New York bar. He was for the greater part of his professional life one of the trustees and the legal adviser of Columbia, and took the deepest interest in the progress of that seat of learning. Like most of his family, he was a devoted adherent of the Protestant Episcopal church, and was par- ticularly active in furthering the development of its General Theological Seminary. He never cared about holding elective office, and although often solicited to enter the public service he declined, except in orie instance when, more on account of family sentiment than anything else, he accepted the Judgeship of Queens county. A capital sketch of his career was written (1849) by his son, Will- iam Alfred Jones, who was born at New York June 26, 1817. Although educated for the bar, William A. Jones never entered into practice and devoted his life to literature. From 1851 until 1867 he was librarian of Co- lumbia College, and soon after retiring from that position he removed to Norwich, Co11- necticut. He was the author of "Literary Studies," two volumes (1847), "Essays on Books and Authors" (1849), "Characters and Criticisms," two volumes (1857), and several other works. In 1863 he delivered an address on "Long Island" before the Long Island His- torical Society.

We may now take up another branch of the numerous family of William Jones and Phœbe Jackson, that of their sixth son, John. He was born on his father's farm June 27, 1755. In 1779 he married Hannah, daughter of John Hewlett, of Cold Spring, and settled on a farm which he bought from his father-in- law. There he prospered and had a family of ten children :

William H., born October 14, 1780, mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Hewlett.

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

Walter, born in 1783, was killed accident- ally when six years of age.

John H., born May 18, 1785, married Lor- retta, daughter of Divine Hewlett.

Sarah, born July 22, 1787, not married.

Mary T., born June 4, 1790, not married.

Walter Restored, born April 15, 1793, not married.

Phœbe J., born December 13, 1795, married Charles Hewlett.

Elizabeth H., born December 9, 1798, mar- ried Jacob Hewlett.

Joshua T., born July 10, 1801, not mar- ried.

Charles H., born November 6, 1804, mar- ried Eliza G. Gardiner.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 17

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188