History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683, Part 60

Author: W.W. Munsell & Co., pub; Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather); Cooper, James B. (James Brown), 1825-; Pelletreau, William S. (William Smith), 1840-1918; Street, Charles R. (Charles Rufus), 1825-1894; Smith, John Lawrence, 1816-1889
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 677

USA > New York > Suffolk County > History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683 > Part 60

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ter (the town mark) and H V N in the margin. (The letter U was then written as we write V now.)

In December 1685 Gov. Dongan made a grant to Judge John Palmer and John Roysee, of New York, of all the lands between Cow Harbor (Northport) and Fresh Pond, bounded south by the road to Smithtown and called Crab Meadow, or by the Indians "Katawamac." This grant was founded on a deed of the premises made the previous October by two Indians, who pretended to have title, to John Palmer, John Roysee and Richard Cornhill, of Flushing. The deed and grant were spread upon the colonial records, and caused the town much anxiety sev- eral years. As the territory was within the Huntington. limits the town denied the validity of the grant. At first the people were disposed to compromise with Judge Palmer by offering to take him in as one of the patentees of the town, but they finally declined to do so and defied his claim. The Dongan patent of 1688 including the premises Palmer seems to have abandoned his claim.

THE PATENT OF 1694.

Benjamin Fletcher, who became governor of the prov . ince December Ist 1693, pursued the same policy as his predecessors in requiring new patents to be taken out by the town. Huntington acquiesced in the demand, and at a town meeting held that year voted to have a new patent; that Captain Thomas Weeks, Lieutenant Wood, John Wickes, Joseph Whitman, John Adams, Thomas Brush and Jonas Wood should have the management of the business, and that those who refused to contribute their share of the expenses should have enough of their lands sold at "an outcry" to meet their share.

This patent was granted October 5th 1694. The ex- pense to the town was £58, being 7s. 9d. to each of the 16472 hundred-pound rights in the town; 83 landowners contributed to this expense.

This patent is of great length, covering 26 folios. The original, written on parchment, is now in the town clerk's office. It recites the other two patents, and sets forth that Joseph Bayly, Thomas Wicks, Jonas Wood, John Wood, John Wicks, Thomas Brush and John Adams, in behalf of themselves and the other inhabitants of Hunt- ington, had petitioned for a grant and for a change of boundaries, and proceeds to grant and confirm unto the above named persons by the name of "the trustees of the freeholders and commonalty of our said town of Huntington, and their successors," as follows:

" All the afore recited tracts and necks of land lying upon our said island of Nassau, within our said county of Suffolk, bounded on the west by a river called and known by the name of Cold Spring, a line running south from the head of the said Cold Spring to the South Sea, and on the north by the sound that runs be- tween our said island of Nassau and the main continent, and on the east by a line running from the west side of a pond called and known by the name of Fresh Pond to the west side of Whitman's dale or hollow, and from thence to a river on the south side of our said island of Nassau, on the east side of a neck called Sampawams, and from the said river running south to the said South Sea; together with all and singular

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

the houses, messuages, tenements, buildings, mills, milldams, fencings, inclosures, gardens, orchards, fields, pastures, feedings, woods, underwoods, trees, timbers, commons or pastures, meadows, marshes, swamps, plains, rivers, rivulets, waters, lakes, ponds, brooks, streams, beaches, quarries, trees, harbors, highways and easements, fishing, fowling, hunting and hawking, mines, minerals (silver and gold mines excepted), and all other franchises, profits, benefits, commodities and hereditaments whatever to the said tracts of land, within the limits and bounds next above mentioned. belonging or in any ways appertaining, or therewithal used, accepted, reputed and taken to belong, or in any- ways appertaining, to all intents and purposes and construction whatsoever; and also all and singular the rents, arrearages of rents, issues and profits of the said tracts of land and premises heretofore due and pay- able; to have and to hold all and singular the before re- cited tracts and necks of land and premises, within the limits and bounds next above mentioned, with their and every of their appurtenances, unto the said Joseph Bayly, Thomas Wicks, Thomas Brush, Jonas Wood, John Wood, John Wicks, and John Adams, trustees of the freeholders and commonalty of our said town of Huntington, and their successors, forever, with the sole license of purchas- ing from the natives any land or meadow within the limits and bounds next aforementioned."

The persons above named were declared to be " the first modern trustees and freeholders," etc., to continue until others were elected and to provide for the annual election of seven trustees. The quit-rent was fixed at forty shillings, to be paid at the city of New York. The most material feature of this patent is the change of boundary by which Fresh Pond was made the east boundary instead of the Nesaquake River.

The first board of trustees under the new patent was elected May 7th 1695. It consisted of Joseph Baily, Justice Wicks, John Wood, Captain Wickes, John Adams, Thomas Brush and Jonas Wood, and John Adams was chosen supervisor. Mr. Adams had been supervisor the previous year and seems to have been the first one elected in Huntington. The first recorded meeting of the trust- tees ever held in this town convened July 12th 1695, and the first business transacted was to declare void an order of commissioners laying out a highway at "Wigwam Swamp," now Cold Spring village.

The change of the eastern boundary made by the Fletcher patent left out of Huntington a large strip of territory between Fresh Pond and Nesaquake River on the north and Sumpwams and Islip on the south. The inhabitants of this territory between the old line and the " confirmation line " were involved in various compli- cations with the other towns, and sought the protection of Huntington. But this town was unwilling to be in- volved in litigation, and at a meeting of the trustees held March 20th 1755 it was agreed: "That all those persons that have this day subscribed to articles among them- selves concerning a trial for a certain piece of upland ly- ing between ye old patent line and the confirmation line, and settling the line between Huntington and Islip and Smithtown, shall have full power and authority to carry on and manage the same without any let, hindrance or molestation of or by said trustees."

It was further agreed that such persons should have all the rights of the town in the premises in controversy, and "shall reap all the benefits they shall gain thereby." The agreement here referred to as being made between these parties, who were about to embark in a lawsuit to recover the lost territory, was dated June 27th 1763 and was signed by 80 of the most influential inhabitants of the town. In it they set forth that they intended to seek to recover the land both north and south of "Winnecom- mac" (the Indian name for Comac). These 80 sub- scribers contributed about {1 each toward carrying on the suit. William Nicoll was their lawyer. The suit was not entirely successful, but the title was settled.

RECORDING WILLS, ETC.

As an aid to those who may seek information contained in wills, letters of administration, inventories and deeds of deceased inhabitants of Huntington, the following is given:

First .- Between about 1653 and 1664, when the Eng- lish took New York from the Dutch, a period of practical town independence, wills were proved, letters of ad- ministration granted and inventories taken under author- ity of the town courts, and a number of them were re- corded in the town book, according to the custom then prevailing in New England. Probably during this period many wills were not recorded anywhere.

Second .- When the duke's laws were put in force, in 1665, wills were required to be proved by the court of sessions, then held at Southampton, and recorded by its clerk, and copies transmitted to the recording office in New York city. A record of the wills so proved and re- corded from about 1665 down to 1692 would naturally be looked for in the records of the court of sessions in the Suffolk county clerk's office. There will be found there what is called " Session Book No. 1," which con- tains the records of the wills of as many as twelve early settlers in Huntington, and also the "Lester Will Book," in two volumes, containing records of the wills of as many as twenty Huntington persons. The dates of the proof of these wills are between 1669 and 1684.

Third .- In 1692, by a change in the law, wills were proved and letters of administration granted before the governor and under his authority, but in the outlying counties, including Suffolk, the court of common pleas was vested with power to take the proofs and certify the same to the governor in New York city. This continued until 1788, when surrogates were appointed. for each county. Under the foregoing laws a record of wills be- tween 1672 and 1784 will be found in the New York city surrogate's office in as many as 29 volumes. The wills of as many as 150 inhabitants of Huntington who died within that period will be found in these books. Since 1784 records of probate of wills and of administra- tion upon estates of deceased inhabitants of Huntington have been recorded in the Suffolk county surrogate's of- fice. The original of "Session Book No. I" above re- ferred to has been lost for a long period of years. Very recently the present efficient clerk of Suffolk county,

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

O. B. Ackerly, who takes a deep interest in perfecting the early records of his office, succeeded in dis- covering its whereabouts and restored it to the county records.

Fourth .- Deeds were from the earliest period of the settlement recorded in the town book provided for that purpose. In 1665 the duke's laws required all deeds to be recorded by the clerk of the court of sessions, and deeds not so recorded were declared void as to all except the grantor. The people of Huntington seem to have disregarded the law, for they continued to record their title papers in the town clerk's office down to about the close of the Revolutionary war, when their deeds began to be recorded by the county clerk. There are now three large volumes of those deeds dating from 1669 to 1800 in the town clerk's office.

NEW COMERS FROM 1664 TO 1720.

The list heretofore given of the earliest settlers of Huntington was confined to those who came here in the first eleven years, ending in 1664 with the victory of the English over the Dutch. Between the last mentioned date and the year 1700, or a little later, about forty new family names, not included in the first list, appear here. About half of these names, having become extinct here, are omitted from the following list, which includes 21 names of families settled here in the period mentioned; the year of coming (as near as it can be given) follows the name:

Edward Bunce, 1684; first located on Eaton's Neck, then at Crab Meadow.

James Battie, 1678.

John Buffett, 1696; of French extraction.

John Bennett, died here in 1684.

Timothy Carll, 1701; he wrote his name "Karll."

Captain Ananias Carll, 1722; probably here earlier; will proved in 1750; a captain of the military. The Carlls are supposed to have come to Huntington from Hempstead in Queens county, and there is a tradition in the family that Ananias was granted lands by the town where the late Gilbert Carll resided, to induce him to come here and take charge of the train bands.

John Carman, 1718.

John Davice, about 1680; came from Setauket; was a brickmaker and a large landowner.

John Gould, 1680; came from Southampton.

Dennis Harte, 1695.

Robert Johnson, 1686; wife's name Mary; had a son Benjamin, then a minor and an apprentice to Thomas Whitson; probably a descendant of Edward Johnson of Canterbury, who with his wife Susan, seven children and three servants left Sandwich, England, for New England in 1637; possibly may be a descendant of William John- son who came with Francis Jarvis to Virginia in the "Primrose" in 1635. The subsequent settlement of the Johnson and Jarvis families in the same locality here, East Neck, favors the latter view. Robert is believed to have been the father of William Johnson of Huntington who died about 1749.

Robert Kellam, 1676; sold his farm at Southampton about this date and moved to Huntington.

Timothy Kelsey, 1667.

Jonathan Lewis; believed to have been the son of John and Sarah Lewis of Tenterden, England, who with one child came in the " Hercules" of Sandwich to New England in 1634; came to Huntington from the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, about 1682, when he bought lands of Thomas Scidmore at Crab Meadow; married Jemima Whitehead, sister of Adam Whitehead; died in 1708.09, leaving children Jonathan, Daniel, Joseph, Rich- ard and John and probably others. The ancestors of the Lewises here are said to have been Huguenots who fled from France on account of religious persecution and first settled in Wales, and from Wales came to America.

David Rusco, soon after 1700; the common ancestor of the family in America is believed to be William Rusco, who with his wife Rebecca and children Sarah, Marie, Samuel and William came from London in the "Inno- cence" to New England in 1635. David came from Southampton and purchased and lived where the late Silas Wood resided, in Huntington village.

Richard Stratton, died here in 1676.

Charles Tappen, 1712.

Samuel Underhill, 1717; came from Queens county.

Philip Udall, 1678; son of Philip Udall of Flushing; came here from Flushing; married Mary Bayle, daughter of Joseph Bayle.

Jonas Valentine, 1689.

Richard White, 1676.

Jacob Waters, 1678.

TAXATION IN 1688.

In 1688 there were eight persons assessed on the rate list at £100 or over, as follows (the pound being then worth $3.88):

Isaac Platt, £122 Ios .; Jonas Wood, £128 4s. 2d .; Thomas Scudder, £109 5s. Iod .; Thomas Fleet, 6147 IOS .; Jonathan Rogers, {132 4s. 2d .; John Sammis, 6104 IOS. 8d .; Joseph Whitman, £100; Epenetus Platt, £213.

The names of those assessed at from £50 to $100 are as follows:

John Wickes, £77 1IS. 2d .; Joseph Bailey, £56 7s. 2d .; Nathan Foster, £51 15s. rod .; Robert Cranfield, £85 6s. 8d .; Stephen Jarvis, 654 Ios. 8d .; Henry Soper, 650; Timothy Conklin, 669; Jonathan Scudder, 683 17s. 8d .; John Ketcham, £57 Is. 8d .; Richard Williams, £80; Samuel Ketcham, 665 Is. 8d .; Jonas Wood, £53 IOS .; Richard Brush, £50 19s. 6d .; Thomas Brush, £43 5s .; Thomas Wickes, £78 14s .; Robert Kellam, 657 14s .; Jeremiah Smith, £53; Edward Bunce, £74 Ios .; John Inkersalle (Ingersoll?), £64 12s. 6d .; Philip Udall, £51 los. 6d.

The following persons were assessed on the same tax list from £25 to £50:

Jonathan Miller, £30 17s. 6d .; Jonathan Jarvis, £12 12S .; Thomas Powell, 540 Tos .; Joseph Wood, £42 18s. 4d .; Thomas Whitson, {25 Ios .; Thomas Higbee, £27 TOS .; James Chichester, $43 12s. 6d .; John Betts, £39 8s. 6d .; James Chichester jr., £34; Samuel Titus,

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

£36 6s .; Abial Titus £43 5s .; John Brush, £43 5S .; James Smith, £38 Ios .; Thomas Scidmore, £28; John Scidmore jr., £29; Jonathan Lewis, £48; William Brotherton, £36 6d .; Robert Arthur, £28 2s. 6 .;

The following were assessed at less than £25 each:

Jonathan Miller, Edward Higbee, William Jarvice, William Barns, Stephen Jarvice jr., John Green, John Adams, Jonathan Adams, Moses Scudder, Jonathan Wood, Richard Davice, John Davice, Benjamin Scudder, Nicholas Smith, widow Corie, Jonathan Harnet, Tim- othy Scudder, Jeremiah Hubart, Jacob Brush, David Chichester, Jonathan Chichester, William Marce, Roger Quint, Thomas Whitehead, John Scidmore, Jeremiah Adams, Jonas Valentine, John Page, John Mathews, Richard Gildersleeve, John Battie, Walter Noakes, Thomas Smith, Samuel Smith, Richard Soper, John Jones, David Scudder.

The estimate on this list of 37 names runs from £3 up to £25, and the total number on the assessment list for 1688 was 84. All of them held more or less of the hundred-pound rights in the lands of the town and were denominated freeholders.

JACOB CONKLIN.

About 1710 an influential person named Jacob Conklin looms up in the town's history as a great landowner and an influential citizen. Many traditionary stories have come down concerning him, but it is difficult at this time to separate fact from fiction.

The town records furnish proof that he was the son of Timothy Conklin, who was a son of John Conklin, the ancestor of all the Conklins on Long Island; but some of his descendants on the south side of the island have denied the relationship and make him their first ancestor in America. Their theory is that he had been impressed into the service of Captain Kidd, the notorious pirate, who about this time was the scourge of the seas, and that, taking advantage of an occasion when Captain Kidd's vessel was anchored in Cold Spring Bay, he escaped from the pirate's service, and, making his way to Half Hollow Hills in this town, located there permanently. This story has the appearance of a romance, but may be true and is not entirely inconsistent with his being the son of Timothy. One thing is certain-he was the possessor of large sums of money, a very rare thing for the period, and he made large purchases of land in the town, princi- pally at Half Hollow Hills, where he resided. He bought a large tract from the town, for which he paid the cash, and the money was divided to the owners of the hun- dreds; very many purchases were also made by him from private persons, all about the same time. He was an in- fluential citizen of the town for many years. Jesse Conk- lin, now of Babylon, is one of his descendants. Jacob Conklin's wife was Hannah, supposed to have been a daughter of Epenetus Platt. Much of the land then owned by Jacob Conklin is now embraced in the large farm of General Casey at West Deer Park.

SMALLPOX HOSPITALS.

About 1771 smallpox prevailed in the town to an alarming extent, and a practice prevailed among the doc-

tors of that period of variolus inoculation, a method said to have been invented by Dr. Timon of Oxford, Eng- land, about 1700. This differed from Dr. Jenner's vac- cine lymph discovered in 1789. Many persons here who had been inoculated died, and the affair created such excitement that the people at a town meeting held in February 1771 made many stringent orders forbidding any person in the town except Doctors Gilbert Potter and Daniel Wiggins inoculating any one; and they were required each to have a house where such inoculated persons were to be confined and quarantined until fully recovered. A penalty of f10 was provided for a vio- lation of this order. Dr. Potter's house for inoculation was at Cold Spring; that of Dr. Wiggins was in the east part of the village of Huntington, on the road to Dix Hills.

REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS IN HUNTINGTON.

We have now brought the history of Huntington down to near the opening of the American Revolution. There had been a long period of peace and quiet so far as this town was concerned, for the old French and Indian war, about the middle of the eighteenth century, had hardly stirred a ripple on the surface of things here, very few having gone from this place to engage in the conquest of Canada. The Indians had nearly all passed away, a few scattered remnants of the tribes living here and there in the households of the people as servants. The popula- tion had greatly increased. The common lands had been . divided to the proprietors and wide fields brought under cultivation, so that farming operations were going on in all parts of the town; the land was cleared, substantial fences were erected and the small rudely constructed houses and barns, with thatched roofs, of the early period had given place to more commodious and better con- structed buildings. Large quantities of wheat, rye, and corn were raised; there were as many as five flour mills in the town in constant operation and the music of saw- mills was heard on many a stream. Stock had greatly increased and the breed had much improved. New York city furnished as ure market to farmers, and, as there was no competition by the great west, good prices were obtained.

As a general thing the expenses at a farm-house were small, for as the family was trained up in habits of fru- gality and industry, and accustomed to live principally on the products of the farm and to wear homemade clothing, the receipts of the farm exceeded the expendi- tures, and wealth had gone on accumulating in a moder- ate but certain degree. In fact, from a handful of pioneers poor in this world's goods, dwelling in log huts around the Town Spot, nightly guarding their families from murderous Indians and enduring every hardship known to border life, the settlement had become strong, populous and prosperous.

We pass over the causes which brought about the American Revolution, except to say that the leading men here had identified themselves several years before the opening of the war with those measures of resistance

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

to the demands of the British government which met the approval of the revolutionary committees and assemblies of the period.

As early as June 21st 1774 Huntington, at a town meeting, put forth what may be termed her declaration of rights in the following resolutions:

" Ist. That every freeman's property is absolutely his own, and no man has a right to take it from him without his consent, expressed either by himself or his represent- atives.

" 2nd. That therefore all taxes and duties imposed on His Majesty's subjects in the American colonies by the authority of Parliament are wholly unconstitutional and a plain violation of the most essential rights of British subjects.

'3d. That the act of Parliament lately passed for shut- ting up the port of Boston, or any other means or device, under color of law, to compel them or any other of His Majesty's American subjects to submit to Parliamentary taxation are subversive of their just and constitutional liberty.

"4th. That we are of opinion that our brethren of Boston are now suffering in the common cause of British America. ,

"5th. That therefore it is the indispensable duty of all colonies to unite in some effectual measures for the re- peal of said act, and every other act of Parliament whereby they are taxed for raising a revenue.

"6th. That it is the opinion of this meeting that the most effectual means for obtaining a speedy repeal of said acts will be to break off all commercial intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland and the English West India colonies.

" 7th. And we hereby declare ourselves ready to enter into these or such other measures as shall be agreed upon by a general congress of all the colonies; and we recom- mend to the general congress to take such measures as shall be most effectual to prevent such goods as are at present in America from being raised to an extravagant price.

"And, lastly, we appoint Colonel Platt Conklin, John Sloss Hobart, Esq., and Thomas Wickes a committee for this town, to act in conjunction with the committees of the other towns in the county, as a general committee for the county, to correspond with the committee of New York.

"ISRAEL WOOD, President."

The committee mentioned in these resolutions met committees from other towns and chose delegates to rep- resent Suffolk county at the general congress or conven- tion. That the people here were as a general thing favor- able to measures for the defense of their rights against the attacks of the British ministry and Parliament is in- ferred from the absence of any record of dissent or op- position at that period. At the same time it is not prob- able that the mass of the people contemplated separation from the mother country, whatever may have been the purpose of the leaders.

The next year (1775) the following persons were elected and acted as a committee on the state of the country: Israel Wood, Stephen Ketcham, Stephen Kel- sey, Henry Scudder and Thomas Brush. It was this year that Patrick St. Clair, governor of Michilimackinac, a prisoner on parole, was sent to Huntington by the Pro- vincial Congress to be taken care of. He was boarded in the house of Captain John Squiers in Huntington.

As it became evident that the British government in- tended to coerce the colonies into submission military organizations were springing up everywhere, and Hunt- ington was not behind in this work. At a meeting at Smithtown, September 5th 1775, for the nomination of field officers for the rst or western regiment of Suffolk, Huntington was represented by John Sloss Hobart, Thomas Wickes, Gilbert Potter, Captain Timothy Carll, Henry Scudder, Stephen Ketcham, Thomas Brush, John Squiers and Ebenezer Platt, and officers were elected as follows: William Floyd, colonel; Gilbert Potter, lieutenant- colonel; Nathan Woodhull, first major; Edward Smith, second major; Philip Roe, adjutant; John Roe jr., quartermaster; Nathaniel Woodhull, brigadier-general.

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