USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 32
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 32
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gave him another hundred acres near the west line of the Town, 12 June, 1701.
It was during his time that "severall rude actions hapened in owr Church by reason of the people not being duely seated which is much to the dishonour of God & the discourdgment of vetue" in con- sequence of which, the town trustees ordered at their meeting, 6 August, 1703, just how every one was to be seated according to civil rank, sex and money contributed. Those householders who sub- scribed 40 shillings per year and made the first payment within a month toward the minister's salary, were to sit at the table "but noe wimmen are to sett there Except Collnl Smiths Lady"; the president of the trustees was directed to sit with the other six trustees in the right hand seat under the pulpit-one of the old high pulpits of the period-and the town clerk on the left with the resident justices of the peace. Some pews were to have the men who contributed different amounts and the other pews to be for their wives, some of whom were to sit according to their age! Pew No. 7 was for young men; No. 8 for boys; No. 9 for ministers' widows and wives; Nos. 15 and 16 for girls and No. 17 free for anyone, while the alley was for maids whose parents gave 2s/6d. Capt. Thomas Clarke and Joseph Tooker, both of whom were town trustees, were appointed to see that the seating regulation was carried out. Strange as this may seem to us, today, it was not an uncommon thing for the people of over two or three hundred years ago to have to sit in churches and meeting-houses according to rank, sex, wealth and social position except, possibly, among the Friends or Quakers who were a more simple, democratic and congenial sect.
We must now return to Mr. Brewster's time and review some of the other important events which occurred in the Town. When he came, tradition states that he preached in the open and on "The Green" using a rock (since removed) about 75 feet northwest of the present Presbyterian church, for his pulpit, but as the part of Scott's Hall which became part of his house had the unusual height, for a one-story building, of 12-foot studs, there can be little doubt but that Mr. Brewster used it as the first meeting-house from 1666 to 1669. With the arrival of new settlers who had come into the Town and who were given home lots in Newtown at what is, undoubtedly, now East Setauket and South Setauket, the building of a regular meeting- house became necessary and the site selected was about where the present Presbyterian church now stands. This is evidenced by the vote of the town meeting, 6 December, 1668, directing that Obed Seward was to beat the drum twice each Sabbath Day "in convenient tyme" upon the meeting-house hill and to keep both the cords and heads of the drum in repair, for which. the Town agreed to pay him in sugar corn.
Some time late in 1668 or early in 1669, Nathaniel Norton, son of George Norton, a carpenter of Salem, Mass., who had settled in the Town, agreed to build a meeting-house with frame 26 feet broad and 30 feet long "and 10 foote betwixt Joynts to be sett vp in the yere 1669 fitted for clapboard and shingle", and this became the first
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regular meeting-house and continued in use until 1714. It is shown on Robert Rider's map of the western half of Long Island, made in 1670, and now owned by the New-York Historical Society. Mr. Brew- ster's house was used also for town business and court was held there at least once that we know of, in April, 1669-probably much to his inconvenience-but now that the Town was getting larger and meetings and courts becoming more frequent, the town meeting of the 2nd of February, 1671-2, voted to build a regular town house for secular meetings, 28 feet square.
Whether or not this so-called "meeting-house" or town house was built, whether the plan was changed or whether the building was sold or burned down, we do not know but on the 10th of January, 1672-3, Nathaniel Norton contracted to build a town house or meeting place, 26 feet long, 22 feet wide with 10-foot studs-the frame to be ready for clapboards and shingles by the 25th of the following May, and the building to have a "double lefe dore". It was used as a town house, and probably school, for many years and, though referred to as the "meeting-house", it appears to have been distinct from the religious meeting-house built in 1669.
There are four "orders and constatutions" entered in the first book of Brookhaven town records and stated to have been made by authority of the Town on the 8th of June, 1674, which are notable, as they were in addition to the austere Duke's Laws then in force and show the Puritan character of the early Brookhaven townsmen. These town laws forbid young people to profane the Lord's Day by discoursing about vain things or running horses in races in the streets. They prohibit young men and maidens from being out of their fathers' or masters' houses after nine o'clock at night under penalty of a fine and whatever other punishment the court might order, and, because God had been dishonored, much precious time been misspent and men impoverished by drinking in the ordinary (public drinking place) and in private houses, they impose a fine of five shillings for any transgressor who should sit drinking over two hours, and the man of the house, a similar fine for allowing him to do so. Strangers were excepted.
The first regular schoolteacher mentioned in the town records was Robert Rider who was given a home lot, 8 August, 1678, and engaged to teach the children of the Town for £30 per year, to be paid by the parents or masters, in pork, wheat and Indian corn and a load of firewood, cut and delivered, for each attending pupil. The next year-2 December, 1679-it was voted to secure Thomas Webb "for to teach children to reade and wriete and cast account". He seems to have taught for a year and then, 27 December, 1680, Edward French of Hempstead signed a three-year contract to begin school on the first of the following June, to teach children "to Reade write and sipher"-the Town agreeing to build a convenient schoolhouse and fence the schoolyard but requiring him to maintain the fence. Evi- dently, boys could be as destructive then as now. In payment, he
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was given a three-acre lot and a yearly salary to be raised by tax of twelve shillings for each allotment or accommodation in the Town and, in addition, each scholar was to contribute a load of firewood.
The records indicate that the next teacher-schoolmaster as he was called-was Francis Williamson, whom five of the trustees were empowered to hire and pay £10 per year, by vote of the town-meeting, 13 July, 1687, with the children's parents to pay an additional £20. There is no record of any other town teacher until the 12th of July, 1704, when John Gray was given permission to keep school in the meeting-house, provided he clean it every Saturday and make good any damage done by the pupils. This seems to indicate that the schoolhouse which the Town had agreed to build for Edward French before June, 1681, had either been disposed of, or, possibly, burned down and that Mr. Gray was acting as a private teacher. No new schoolhouse was built until after the 6th of October, 1718, when the trustees appropriated £38 for the purpose, and before the 6th of May, 1719, when Col. Henry Smith reported that the building had cost but £36/16s/9d.
The two most important, historic and valuable documents ever given to the Town were its two patents or charters. The first of these was given by Col. Richard Nicolls, Governor-General of the Province of New York and is dated 7 March, 1666, Old Style, or 17 March, 1667, according to the present New Style calendar. The patent releases to the Town all the title of the Duke whose ownership was acquired in March, 1664, by means of the grant from his brother, King Charles II. The patent officially establishes the name of the Town as "Brooke-Haven" and recites that it had heretofore been known as Setaulcott; that it was in the tenure or occupation of several freeholders and inhabitants by lawful purchase [from the Indians] and a competent number of families settled thereupon, and, for a confirmation unto these freeholders and inhabitants he, the Governor, by virtue of his commission and authority given to him by His Royal Highness, James Duke of York and Albany, ratifies, confirms and grants unto John Tooker, Daniel Lane, Richard Woodhull, Henry Perring and John Jenner (who were then the elected Constable and Overseers of the Town) as patentees, for and on behalf of themselves and the freeholders and inhabitants of the Town, all that tract of land already purchased or which might afterwards be purchased, between the east line of Smithtown and the head of Red Creek at Wading River and from the Sound to the Ocean, including all havens, harbors, creeks, lands, meadows, waters, rivers and lakes, together with fishing, hawking, hunting and fowling, and also all the privileges belonging to a town within the government. After specifying that the name, "Brooke-Haven", should be continued and used on all legal documents and records, the patent concludes by requiring that there shall be paid by the Town such duties and acknowledgments as were or might be established by the laws of the Provincial Government. The original document, beautifully written and signed and sealed by the Governor, Richard Nicolls and his secretary, Matthias Nicolls,
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is now framed and kept in the fireproof vault of the town clerk's office at Patchogue.
The second patent was given by Governor Thomas Dongan and is dated 27 December, 1686, Old Style (6 January, 1687, New Style). It is written on three sheets of parchment and is now protected in a glass-covered frame and kept with the first patent in the town clerk's office vault. It is the more important of the two patents but is a mass of legal phrases and repetitions. It confirms all that was granted by the first patent and, in addition, gives extensive and municipal powers to the Town. It establishes seven trustees who are to be elected annually, the first of whom elected is to be the president. It also requires that a clerk, constable and two assessors shall be elected each year and it provides for an official town seal and the raising of money by taxes; gives the trustees authority to sell or dispose of the proprietary and other lands of the Town, as agents of the freeholders; gives all town lands in trust to the trustees; makes them the govern- ing board of the Town, and as "one body corporate and politique" capable of making rules and regulations and "to plead and be im- pleaded, defend or be defended" in law. The trustees instituted and established by the patent are to be known as "The Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the Town of Brookhaven" and are to have succession forever.
These trustees took the place of the constable and overseers who had formerly acted as the executive town officers, but the powers conferred by the patent to the trustees were far more extensive and delegated to them, as elected representatives, many of the prerogatives of the townsmen formerly expressed in the town-meetings and changed the government of the Town from a pure democracy to a representa- tive government. The town-meeting continued, however, for more than two centuries as the mode of election and continued to make its voice and power felt in influencing the actions of the trustees.
Southampton, East Hampton and Brookhaven each had a patent given to them by Governor Dongan in December, 1686, and each had trustees established with identical powers and duties. The late Judge Henry P. Hedges of East Hampton in writing about his Town's patent, remarks that "The pith of the whole regarding title * * * deter- mines the sense and meaning of the instrument. Thus the proprietors obtained from the Governor a patent which confirmed their title to all the unallotted lands in the Town as purchasers thereof, in proportion to their several contributions of purchase money." The Judge is, of course, referring to the so-called town or common land which was owned by the proprietors of the Town as tenants-in-common and which the patent gives to the trustees to hold in trust, to sell or other- wise dispose of, or to divide among the proprietors as they think proper. This subject is so little understood by the average person and even by some present-day town officials, that it seems necessary to take enough space for an explanation of how such ownership was acquired.
When the several lands of the Indians were bought, the pur- chasers joined by each contributing his part toward the purchase
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price which usually consisted of hoes, needles, beads, powder and other things that the Indians liked. Thus, if it cost £10 to buy a tract of land and there were twenty buyers, each one would give as his share, half a pound (ten shillings) and he would therefore own one- twentieth part as a tenant-in-common of the land or tract so bought. Sometimes, a few would give twice or three times the amount and, hence, they would own two or three times as much as their associates. If one could give but half the amount of the others, he would own but half a share. Such men were known as "half-right men" and the term occurs frequently in the early town records. The greater part of the Town of Brookhaven was acquired by this group purchase method and the shareholders were known as the proprietors-each being in reality a stockholder. The shares were known as "rights" and often as "accommodations". Some of the Indian lands were bought by different groups of varying numbers, with the result that a man might live at Setauket, the main settlement, and have a right or accommodation in that section of the Town but not in another or vice versa. In the early years of the settlement, various sales were made of these shares by men who decided to sell out and leave the Town; also, as an inducement to attract desirable newcomers, such as blacksmiths, weavers, millers and skilled mechanics, as well as the settled town ministers, the townsmen would vote to give or sell a share in the Town and this would entitle the recipient to a right or half a right, as the case might be, and he would therefore own his share in the undivided lands or commons with the privilege of pastur- ing or letting sheep, hogs, cattle and horses run at large upon them, subject to certain regulations.
When any of these various common lands was divided, which they were eventually, the trustees would have them laid out into lots according to the number of original shareholders; each lot was num- bered and a drawing would be made on the Setauket Green or at the meeting-house. Whatever number a man drew-or his eldest son or heir in case he were dead-he would get the lot with the correspond- ing number. In this way, practically all of the town, or common, undivided lands were disposed of during the various allotments or divisions made during a period of about 120 years. Some few, scat- tered, small pieces of lands and practically all of the bays, harbors and ponds are still undivided and held in trust by the successors of the original trustees. It is to the freeholders' or proprietors' accom- modations, shares or rights in the undivided, common lands that the second patent refers when the trustees are styled "the trustees of the freeholders".
There is no mention in the patent of a supervisor or town jus- tices of the peace as both offices had been already created, as strictly county ones, before it was given. The office of supervisor had been established at the time when the eight original counties of New York were formed on the 1st of November, 1683, and when the old court district of the East Riding of Yorkshire had been changed to Suffolk County.
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In not quite two months after that event, Brookhaven elected Andrew Gibb on the last of December "to meate the men of naibering townes to Sattle [make] the county Raete". Therefore, he became the first acting supervisor from Brookhaven. On the 30th of the next October, Thomas Helme was chosen to go to Southampton "to ackt with the Rest of the countty comitty for the good of our towne" and on the 4th of November, 1685, he was again chosen-this time to go to Southold to settle the county tax rate. The town-meeting of 6 November, 1695, voted to send Lieut. Richard Floyd "to Southamp- ton to SuperVise the County Charge & carry in the Charge of this Towne", and the regular annual town-meeting election, 5 May, 1696, selected Daniel Brewster as its first actually mentioned supervisor. The office as it exists now, with the supervisor as the head official of the Town as well as its representative on the County Board, was not in existence until long after the Revolution and is the work of the State Legislature through several pieces of legislation.
The president of the trustees exercised practically all the duties and functions of a modern supervisor in town affairs and the trustees held all the powers, and more too, than the present-day Town Board. Also, in those days, there was more home rule and less interference in town affairs than now is allowed by either the State or Federal governments.
Justices of the peace were appointed by the governor and being officers of the Crown, were styled "His Majesty's Justices". They were county and not town magistrates and assisted and sat on the bench with the first judge of the county court. This gave them more prestige than is enjoyed by their modern town successors but they had in nowise any legislative powers or control in the town govern- ment as do the justices of today.
Both the Nicolls and Dongan patents leave the boundaries of the southwest and southeast sections of the Town incomplete and indefi- nite. This was due to both sections not being owned by the Town. The southwest one was the privately owned Winthrop tract which was conveyed to Governor John Winthrop of Connecticut by Tobac- cus, the Unkechaug Sachem, 10 June, 1664, as has been previously stated. Governor Winthrop died in 1676, and his eldest son and heir, Maj. John Winthrop, obtained a patent for the property from Gov- ernor Edmund Andros of New York, dated 29 March, 1680. The whole patentship was held in the Winthrop family and its nine necks of land were rented out and managed by local Long Island agents.
In 1749, John Still Winthrop sold Francis' and Moger's Necks- the two easternmost ones which now comprise most of East Patchogue -to Thomas Strong and John Brewster, both of Setauket, and, in 1752, he sold the remaining seven necks to Humphrey Avery of Pres- ton, Connecticut. Avery got permission from the General Assembly to dispose of his purchase by a lottery which was conducted in June, 1758. The lottery was such a financial success that he was able to buy back Blue Point Neck and Pine Neck in East Patchogue where his descendants still carry on the family name.
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The lottery opened up a section which grew rapidly and now contains Blue Point and Patchogue-the latter being the largest village in Suffolk County. By act of the General Assembly, 6 Febru- ary, 1773, the whole of Winthrop Patentship was annexed to and became a part of the Town of Brookhaven.
The southeastern part of the Town has a more complex history but, because of its importance, some space must be taken to explain it. The first purchase in the section was made by the Town through Richard Woodhull from Wiandance, Sachem of Montauk, and Weneco- heage, "Sachem of Connecticut River", for the consideration of some coats, hoes, hatchets, needles, muxes (brad-awls), powder, stockings, shirts, a trooper's coat, knives and a gun, and got in exchange, a conveyance for "two great Necks of Meadow lying from a River called Connecticut and So to a River called Weganthotok". The deed is dated 20 July, 1657, or a little over two years after the settlement was first made at Setauket. One of the so-called necks of meadow is at Noccomock lying on the east side of Connecticut River, south of Montauk Highway and the railroad track and opposite the southern part of South Haven or Yamphanke Neck and Brookhaven village or Fire Place Neck. The other "neck" of meadow lies partly in Unke- chaug and includes all or a large part of the meadow section of the other necks in the Mastic peninsula bordering the Bay from Smith's Point to Mastic River and in what is now known as Old Mastic and the modern development of Mastic Beach.
After the meadows had been bought, some undisclosed dispute seems to have arisen with the Indians concerning the possession or occupation of the meadows, and the Indians refused to give them up. After negotiations had failed and as a last resort, the Town resolved on the 22nd of August, 1671, that John Tooker, Henry Perring, John Bayles and Samuel Dayton should "goe and vew the meadow at vnkechaege and treate with [the] sacham about the purchas of the medows they caring some likers with them to the Indiens vpon the townes acount". Perhaps the "likers" were not potent enough or perhaps there was not enough left to be effective by the time the four men had made the long, slow journey from Setauket to Unke- chaug, but at any rate, the negotiations failed again and it was not until Governor Francis Lovelace arranged the purchase for the Town that we find a town meeting, 4 June, 1672, directing Messrs. Woodhull, Bayles, Perring and Tooker to get "the goods that is to pay the Indians for the medow that the governor bought for vs". We do not know what the goods were but they were probably the usual trinkets and utensils mentioned in other Indian deeds. The purchase of the items was arranged for by each man paying according to his own right or allotment, either in pork, pease or wheat at current market price. Even with this easy method, it appears to have taken until the 17th of September, 1674, when the Town delegated Henry Perring and Samuel Dayton to "goe to the South to the sachem tobakes to gett him to sett his hand to a bill of saele for the south medowes". The deed was finally obtained; is dated 19 September, 1674, and bears the mark of the Sachem Tobaccus, with several other Indians' names
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as witnesses. It conveys the identical properties as the deed of 1657 but in these words: "all the mowable land whether hier land or lower that lieth betweene a River called conitticut to a sarten River called Mastic" with "liberty to sett vp houses and yards-to winter [cattle] in vpon the vpland"; also, the right of free egress and regress to and from the same. The original deed is filed with the other ancient docu- ments in the vault of the Town Clerk's office and is endorsed, "Tobac- cus Deed for the New purchas Meddows att South"-the term, "The New Purchase", being what they came to be known very soon after they had been bought with so much difficulty. Their value today is questionable but in the past, they not only produced a great amount of salt hay which was carted across the Island to the Setauket settle- ment but they also afforded good summer pasturage, until within recent years, for young cattle before they had reached the milk- producing age. They were to Brookhaven what Montauk was to East Hampton.
There are several large tracts and necks of upland in the Mastic peninsula none of which were bought by the Town but were bought by Brookhaven men. Beginning at the west and forming the east end of the Great South Bay, is Sebomack Neck with Smith's Point at its southern extremity, and the Noccomock meadows at its northwestern base. Next east is Unkechaug Neck which was the residence of the sachems and most of the Unkechaug Indians. These two necks, except the meadows in the New Purchase, were acquired by Col. William (Tangier) Smith in 1692, but more about that later.
East of Unkechaug Neck lies John's, Mattamogue and Patter- squash Necks, the latter of which was seized from its Indian owner by the Court of Sessions because of his failure to pay a fine and court charges for some misdemeanor. The court sold it to John Jennings of Southampton who, in turn, sold it for £19 to Richard Floyd, 24 March, 1683-4. The other two-John's and Mattamogue Necks-Floyd bought from the Sachem Tobaccus and then obtained a patent dated 6 January, 1686-7, from Governor Dongan, for the whole tract which included 500 acres of upland, but not the meadows of the New Pur- chase. Through some error or carelessness, the patent is recorded in Albany to Richard Lloyd instead of Floyd. The property descended in the Floyd family to Richard Floyd IV, the Loyalist, who lost it by confiscation soon after the close of the Revolution because of his adherence and aid to the English cause. It was bought by his brother, Benjamin Floyd of Setauket, 5 August, 1784, from the Commissioner of Forfeitures, for £3112 and he sold it, 26 December, 1787, for £2750 to Dr. Daniel Robert in whose family it remained for 125 years. Richard Floyd IV was a first cousin of General William Floyd, the Patriot, and died a refugee in Mangerville, St. John, New Brunswick, in 1791. He was married to Arabella. daughter of Hon. David Jones and, through his son, David, became the ancestor of the Floyd-Jones family of Nassau County.
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