USA > New York > Suffolk County > Shelter Island > Historical papers on Shelter Island and its Presbyterian church, with genealogical tables > Part 2
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The Sachems or chiefs of these four tribes were brothers, the oldest of them being "Yoco," the Shelter Island Sachem. He was the Grand Sachem, and was called "the Sachem of Paumanack," meaning "the land of tribute" or "contributing," as the eastern end of Long Island was termed; derived, as we have seen, from the fact that the Indians in this region paid tribute, first to the Pequoits and afterwards to the English of New England; Indian names, be it remembered, being invariably descriptive of locality and char- acteristics. Our Yoco, however, was not only Grand Sachem of these four tribes, but over all the tribes of Long Island, at least as far west as Hempstead. He thus had ten or fifteen Sachems under him to whom his word was law; the four Sachems of the tribes in this region having taken under their protection all the other tribes as far west as the Rockaways in Hempstead town. This protectorship was agreed upon and confirmed May 29, 1645, by Rockouw, the great Sachem of Cotsjewaninck (Ahaquazuwamminck). See Colon- ial History of New York, Vol. XIV., p. 60, and Plymouth Co- lonial Records, Vol. IX., p. 18. Our Indian Chief Yoco was the principal party in making the various conveyances of land to the English, in the eastern half of Long Island, as the deeds of those early days will show. It was from him that Lion Gardiner pur- chased Gardiner's Island, May 3, 1639. In the deed of conveyance his name is given as "Yovowan" and his wife's as "Aswaw."
But we must return again to our starting point in the year of 1637, for that year is of importance to us, not only as bearing the first reference to this island, but as the year in which the Earl of Sterling, having acquired the whole of Long Island and its adjacent islands, through a grant from the English colony of Plymouth, given upon request of King Charles the First, commissioned one James
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Farrett to be his agent in disposing of this territory, for which ser- vice he was given the privilege of selecting as his own ten thousand of the best acres of the whole domain. With this commission bear- ing date of April 20, 1637, a copy of which can be seen in the Town Clerk's office of Southampton, Mr. Farrett sailed early in 1638. Upon his arrival in the new world he examined the whole of the territory covered by his master's patent; and, as one has well said, "with unerring judgment chose Shelter Island together with its little neighbor, Robbins Island, as his portion," according to the terms of his commission. By virtue of this choice and grant our island was first known among the English as "Mr. Farrett's Island." It is thus referred to in the deed of Southampton drawn up in 1639 or '40, which can be seen in the Southampton Town Clerk's office and is known as "Mr. Farrett's patent." Mr. Farrett, however, did not make this island his home, but simply selected it for his own commercial purposes. He soon disposed of it to a Mr. Stephen Goodyear, a merchant of high standing in the New Haven Colony, who bought it in the early part of 1641, and who shortly after the purchase became Deputy Governor of the New Haven Colony. Some three or four months after purchasing it, Mr. Goodyear sought to dispose of this island to the New Haven Company, as the follow- ing entry, bearing date of August 30, 1641, will show, namely: "Mr. Goodyear propounded his purchase of Mr. Farrett's Island to the town, but it was not accepted." Not being able to dispose of the island, it continued in his possession for ten years, or until 1651, when he sold it to a company of four gentlemen by the names of Thomas Middleton, Thomas Rouse, Nathaniel Sylvester and Constant Sylvester. The amount that these gentlemen paid to Mr. Goodyear for Shelter Island was "sixteen hundred pounds of good merchantable muscovado sugar," or a cash equivalent of from fifty to one hundred dollars.
As the years during which Mr. Goodyear remained the owner of this island are memorable ones in the history of England, the mother country, and the memorable events of that decade bear directly on the settlement of this island by at least one of the four gentlemen who purchased it in 1651, we will tarry a moment to dwell upon this period. As you know, it is the period taken up by the English revolution under Oliver Cromwell, that political upheaval which dethroned King Charles the First and his son and successor, King Charles the Second. It is the period of the Long Parliament. It is
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also the period of the Westminster Assembly, that ecclesiastical body which formulated our Confession of Faith and Catechism. It is the period in which Puritanism and Presbyterianism, after a whole century of oppression, came to the top, and Prelacy and Episco- palianism went to the bottom. Because of this change in public affairs, the exodus of Independants and Puritans which had been going on for upward of twenty years, ceased. So far as the Puritans were concerned, it had lasted twelve years, during which some thirty thousand of these God-fearing men had come to America's shores. Now, however, the King had been checked in his perse- cution. A struggle for supremacy between the King and Parlia- ment had arisen. He endeavored to dissolve his Parliament, but was thwarted and driven into exile; afterwards taken prisoner, tried, condemned and beheaded in 1649. Oliver Cromwell was victorious. The royalists were crushed; and in turn they now sought out an asylum where they might take refuge. Hearing of the success of the Pilgrims and Puritans in this land, they turned their attention to this new world, and so they, like the Pilgrims and Puritans before them, took refuge in America. "Had there been no Oliver Crom- well," says one writer concerning our island, "Had there been no Oliver Cromwell, Shelter Island would have had a very different, and doubtless much more prosaic history," for it was that overthrow of the King by Oliver Cromwell that led the first settlers upon this island to leave England and come to America's shores. You can see then how the events of those years in England influenced the history of Shelter Island.
Then, too, the events that happened on this side of the Atlantic during those years are important to us. For here, too, there was a struggle for supremacy, between the Dutch who had settled about the Hudson River, and the English who had settled in New Eng- land. Both nations contended that Long Island with its adjacent islands belonged to them, and sought to take possession. But as both could not possess it, they at last agreed to divide it between them; the Dutch to take the western half and the English the eastern half; the dividing line to extend across the island from the western boundary of Oyster Bay straight to the ocean. This agreement was signed September 19, 1650, and was sent to England and Hol- land for ratification. England, however, refused to recognize the claim of the Dutch, and the result was a war, in which the Dutch were badly defeated. Such was the condition of things when Mr.
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Goodyear disposed of this island to the four gentlemen already named. This shows us that the causes which led to the settlement of this island were altogether different from those which led to the settlement of New England.
Concerning the four gentlemen who purchased this island, I have been able to gain the following: they were all engaged in the West India sugar industry, perhaps partners in the business. This doubtless accounts for the purchase price of the island being six- teen hundred pounds of good merchantable muscovado sugar, a commodity which Mr. Goodyear, being a merchant, could easily dis- pose of. As Mr. Thomas Middleton is mentioned first, he may have been the oldest. He is spoken of as Captain. Mr. Middleton did not make the island his home. The second of the four gentle- men, Mr. Thomas Rouse, is said to have hailed from the neighbor- hood of Southwold, England, from whence he went to Barbadoes, where he became a wealthy sugar planter and united with the Quakers. The remaining two of the company, Nathaniel and Con- stant Sylvester, were brothers, the sons of Giles Sylvester, of Eng- land. They too had gone to the Barbadoes, and there engaged in the sugar business. Before going, however, to Barbadoes, they emigrated with their father to Holland, where the elder Sylvester passed away. This fact coupled with others to be mentioned would indicate that the Sylvesters were not in sympathy with the Estab- lished Church. Upon the death of the father in Holland, the family, consisting of the widow, four sons, Nathaniel, Constant, Giles and Joshua, and two daughters, moved to Barbadoes, where Nathaniel and Constant at least became prominent merchants, the latter be- ing in time a member of the Governor's Council, and remaining there until his death in 1671. A fifth son, Peter, remained in London.
Nathaniel Sylvester soon changed his place of abode to Shelter Island, being the only one of the four to do so. He was followed later on by two of his brothers, Giles and Joshua, Giles remaining but a few years, after which he returned to England, where he mar- ried and died, while Joshua, after living with his brother a few years moved to Southold. I am told that the name of the vessel in which Nathaniel Sylvester came from the West Indies to Shelter Island was the "Golden Parrot." This was in the year 1652, the year after the purchase of the island from Mr. Goodyear, hence the date of the first white settlement on Shelter Island.
Upon coming here to live Nathaniel Sylvester brought with
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him a young lady in the person of Grissel Brinley, whom he had lately married. This young lady was the daughter of Thomas Brin- ley, Esq., of Datchett, in County Bucks, the parish so well known to the million of readers of Shakespeare's play, "The Merry Wives of Windsor." Her father was auditor under Charles the First and Charles the Second, also keeper of the accounts of the dower of Henrietta Maria, positions implying great friendship of the royal family. In the middle aisle of the church at Datchett, near Windsor, lies a tombstone after English fashion bearing this inscription: "Thomas Brinley, Esq., Auditor General of the Revenues of King Charles I and II. Born in the city of Exon, married Anna Wade of Pettsworth in Sussex, by whom he had five sons and seven daughters. He was born in 1591, died 1661. One of his daughters married Nathaniel Sylvester, Esq. Francis, one of his sons, ac- cepted a grant of land for his father's services and went to New- port, R. I." Because of his friendly offices to the king Mr. Brinley's estate was confiscated and a warrant issued for his arrest. He man- aged, however, to escape to the continent, where he was obliged to live in exile until the death of Oliver Cromwell and the return of Charles the Second to England, when he also returned and died shortly after. During his exile his family had been scattered, his daughter Grissel, at the early age of sixteen, having married Na- thaniel Sylvester in 1652. Upon their marriage the young couple went to America, touching on their way at Barbadoes, where they were handsomely entertained at the home of Mr. Constant Sylvester. After leaving Barbadoes, and while nearing the coast of New Eng- land, they were shipwrecked, losing much of their goods which they had brought with them for their new home on this island. It was indeed an eventful journey, a brave undertaking for the young wife of sixteen. At last they reached this place and began to lay the foundation of a family career that may well be the pride of every Shelter Islander.
They were not long on the island before the Indians disputed their title and made complaint to the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England assembled at Hartford. One of their number, called Checkanoe, appearing before that body on the 2d of September, 1652, to enter a protest, as the following record will show: "Whereas we were informed by Checkanoe, an Indian of Menhansick Island, on behalf of the Indian inhabitants of said island, that they are disturbed in their possession by Captain Mid-
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dleton and his agents, upon pretense of a purchase from Mr. Good- year, of New Haven, who bought the same of one Mr. Forrett, a Scotchman, and by vertue thereof, the said Indians are threatened to be forced off the said island, and to seek an habitation where they can get it; the said Indians deny that they sold the said island to the said Forrett, and that the said Forrett was a poor man, not able to purchase it, but the said Indians gave to said Forrett some part of the said island, and marked it out by some trees; yet never that themselves be deprived of their habitation there, and therefore they desired that the Commissioners (they being their tributaries) to see they have justice in the premises, the Commissioners therefore, in regard the said Mr. Goodyear is not present, and at their court, to hear the complaint of the said Indians, and to satisfy the said Indians if they can, if not to certify the Commissioners at the next meeting, the truth of the promises, that some further order may be taken therein as shall be meet." As a result of this protest Capt. Middleton and his associates had to purchase Shelter Island a second time from the Indians, the deed of which second purchase appears among the records of Easthampton bearing date of Dec. 27th, 1652. Also a confirmatory paper of this second purchase is on file among the Southold Town records, and reads as follows:
"Wee whose names are here underneath subscribed doe hereby testify and declare that Yokee, formerly Sachem of Manhansick Ahaquatawamock, now called Shelter Island, did on the three and twentieth of March, 1652, give full Possession unto Capt. Na- thaniel Silvester and Ensigne John Booth of the aforesaid island of Ahaquatawamock, with all that was belonging to the same. And hee the said Yokee, delivered unto the aforesaid Captaine Nathaniel Silvester and Ensign John Booth one turfe and twige in their hands according to the usual custome of England; after which delivery and full possession given, the said Yokee with all his Indians that were formerly belonging to said island of Ahaquatawamock did freely and willingly depart the aforesaid island, leaving the aforesaid Cap- taine Nathaniel Silvester and Ensigne Booth in full possession of the same. Unto which we Witness our hands the date as above being the 23d of March, 1652.
"JOHN HERBERT of Southold.
"CAPT. ROBERT SEELEY of New Haven.
"DANIEL LANE of New London.
"GILES SILVESTER."
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From the date of this paper it would seem that this transaction took place early in the year of 1652, prior even to the protest lodged with the Commissioners at Hartford, in consequence of which this second purchase from the Indians had to be made. But we need to remember that at that time the year began either after the 10th or with the 25th of March and not on the Ist of January. This made the first part of March to belong to the old year and the latter part to the new year. Hence the date of the above paper, being be- fore the 25th of March, namely, the 23d of March, it belonged to the old year as indicated, 1652, though according to our method it would be 1653. We do not know what was the purchase price of this second sale, but with this sale the Indians agreed among other things to put away all their dogs; these dogs, it may be interesting to know, are believed to have been young wolves which the Indians had caught and trained to do them service, but which in spite of their training continued to be very ravenous, a frequent source of annoyance to the white settlers.
You will notice that in the confirmatory paper just read, it is stated that shortly after the second conveyance the Indians left this Island. If so, they dispersed among the Montauks, Shinnecocks and Corchaugs. Perhaps they scattered because of their Sachem's death, for Yoco, their chief, and the supreme chief of all the Long Island Indians, passed away to the happy hunting grounds in 1653. At least, such is the opinion of certain writers. In the Chronicles of East Hampton, by the late David Gardiner, there is an interesting account of the funeral of our noted Chief Yoco, which reads as follows: "His remains were transported for burial from Shelter Island to Montaukett, where was the burying ground of the Indians. In removing the body, the bearers rested the bier by the side of the road leading from Sag Harbour to Easthampton, near the third mile stone, where a small excavation was made to designate the spot. From that time to the present, more than 190 years, this mem- orial has remained, as fresh, seemingly, as if but lately made. Neither leaf nor stone, nor any other thing, has been suffered to remain in it. The Montauk tribe, though reduced to a beggarly number of some ten or fifteen drunken and degraded beings, have retained to this day the memory of the event, and no one individual of them now passes the spot in his wanderings without removing whatever may have fallen into it. The place is to them holy ground, and the exhi- bition of this pious act does honor to the finest feelings of the human
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heart. The excavation is about 12 inches in depth and 18 inches in diameter, in the form of a mortar." As late as 1845 the Rev. N. S. Prime, author of "An Ecclesiastical History of Long Island," being acquainted with the foregoing fact, examined the place anew and found it in its original form and freshness as above described. When the turnpike between Sag Harbor and Easthampton was laid out about 1860, the spot was plowed up and the sacred memorial of over two hundred years' standing was obliterated. One of Sag Harbor's respected citizens told me this past week, while speaking of this matter, that she remembered very well the very spot, and had seen with her own eyes the reverence that was paid to it by the Indians. She spoke of an Indian in particular, known in Sag Harbor as Stephen Pharaoh, or Talkhouse, who would get down by that spot whenever he passed and clean it out reverently, following the cus- tom of his forefathers. This Indian died in 1882. That spot was known as "Whooping Boys' Hollow," so called because the Indians who bore the body of Yoco gave a parting whoop as they resumed their funeral march.
Before leaving the aborigines of this place, so interesting in their history, I wish to call your attention to another mem- ber of the Manhansett tribe, brother-in-law to Yoco, the chief, an Indian who played a most important part in the various transactions between the English and the Indians, acting as their interpreter and notary public. He has already been mentioned in this paper, for he was the representative of the Manhansett tribe before the com- missioners at Hartford, when the protest was made, upon the strength of which Captain Nathaniel Silvester and his associates had to pay a second time for this island. He is there called "Checkanoe, an Indian of Manhansick Island." Just a year ago Mr. William Wallace Tooker, of Sag Harbor, issued a work en- titled "John Eliot's First Indian Interpreter, Cockenoe-de-Long Island," an exceedingly interesting essay on this very Indian of Shelter Island. I have read and re-read this book with great inter- est, and believe with Mr. Tooker that this "Checkanoe, an Indian of Manhansick Island," was the young Indian who was so helpful to John Eliot, the great apostle to the Indians, both in acquiring the Indian language, in preaching to the Indians, and also in his trans- lation of the Bible into the Algonquian tongue, which was the lan- guage of the Indians. I have not the time to dwell longer upon this unique character, who for nearly fifty years was such an important
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factor in the transactions of the early settlers with the Indians. His memory, however, is honored to this day, his name being given to an island in Long Island Sound, near the mouth of the Saugatuck river, in 1652, called "Cockenoe's Island," and is so designated at the present time on the Coast Survey Chart of the United States. It will pay you to read this book, which can be had from our Public Library. One thing, however, I wish to state, namely: This young Indian's literary ability is an evidence to me that God has made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth. For just as soon as this Indian's mind was brought in contact with in- tellectual training, it readily grasped the knowledge that was sought to be conveyed and responded quickly to every intellectual touch, though it were but the mind of a heathen, offspring of a heathen ancestry that perhaps had never known literary characters. To me it was a surprising evidence of the truth that God is the Creator of us all and that we are all, white and red man, the offspring of a common parent.
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CHAPTER II.
Our first installment of this historical paper closed with the burial of the great Manhansett chief Yoco and a reference to an- other celebrated Manhansett Indian named "Cockenoe." We now turn from the red man to the white man, from the aborigines to the original settlers of this island.
It is said that when Mr. Goodyear, Deputy Governor of New Haven, sold this island, in 1651, to Messrs. Middleton, Rouse and the Sylvester brothers, at least one of the four gentlemen, Captain Nathaniel Sylvester, was on the island or had visited it at the time of the purchase. This gentleman, as we have seen, decided to make the island his home. To that end, in due time, he shipped at least one cargo of building material, together with other articles, send- ing with these goods a force of workmen, who were to prepare a habitation for his coming. He had gone to England, and there early the next year, 1652, married Grissel Brinley, with whom he came to Shelter Island to make it his home. With them there came to America, Francis Brinley, brother of Mrs. Nathaniel Sylvester, who afterwards, according to the inscription on the slab in the aisle of the church at Dachette, received a grant of land in Rhode Island. There was also in the party another bride, sister of Francis Brinley and Mrs. Sylvester, namely, Anne Brinley, who had married Gov. William Coddington of Rhode Island, and finally besides these Giles Sylvester. These first touched at Barbadoes, from whence they sailed in the "Golden Parrot" for Shelter Island, arriving about the middle of 1652; that is, Captain Nathaniel Sylvester and his wife, Giles and Joshua Sylvester, Giles' name, as you will remember, appearing as one of the witnesses of the confirmatory paper of the second purchase of the island by Captain Nathaniel Sylvester and Ensign John Booth from the Indians. Giles is also mentioned in a letter written by Nathaniel Sylvester to Gov. John Winthrop of Connecticut, who lived at that time on Fisher's Island, bearing date of October 10, 1654. Joshua's name appears among the names of the early settlers of Southold in Dr. Whitaker's history of that place. Captain Na- thaniel Sylvester brought with him, besides his wife and brothers, several servants and some slaves from Barbadoes. These, with what workmen were upon the island at their coming, constituted the
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first white settlement. In the course of time the settlement was in- creased by natural results, Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester becoming the parents of a large family of children, the first of which came upon earth about the middle of August, 1654, for in another letter to Mr. Winthrop, of Fisher's Island, bearing date of September 8, 1655, ad- vice is sought in behalf of this baby, who had become ill, in these pathetic words: "Our grief is great to see the child lay in ye sad con- dition and here quite out of ye way of help."
Captain Nathaniel Sylvester became in time the owner of the whole island. We shall have occasion later on to trace this develop- ment in the ownership of our island. Thus far we have had occasion to mention, since the sale in 1651, in turn, the years of 1652, 1653, 1654, 1655. We now come to another interesting period. It is the period of the persecution of the Quakers in New England, beginning in 1656 and lasting till 1661. To us it is a surprising thing, that in this land of ours, persons should have been persecuted even unto death for their religious belief. Yet such is the truth. Persecuted, tortured, scourged and branded with hot irons. Among those who suffered thus was John Rouse, son of Thomas Rouse, one of the four gentlemen who bought this island from Mr. Goodyear. This John Rouse had his ears cut off for being a Quaker. Others were banished from the New England colonies upon pain of death if they returned. Such was the treatment that the New England settlers meted out to the Quakers. The adherents of this sect were looked upon then in about the same light as we look upon anarchists now. It was during these troublous times that this island became indeed a Shelter Island, as many of these persecuted Quakers found an asylum here and were succored by Captain Nathaniel Sylvester and his family.
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