USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 34
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 34
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In 1703 and 1704, the New York Provincial Assembly passed acts to improve and establish certain highways, and requiring that the roads and paths leading from county to county, from town to town, and to the settlements within the towns should be 4 rods wide and should be cleared by the several towns in which they lay, so that they would be passable for carts and other vehicles. Some of the existing roads were mere trails and paths and used chiefly for horseback riding-then the common mode of travel. One of the roads affected
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by the acts was the Country Road or "Kings Highway" (now the Middle Country Road and North Country Road or Routes 25 and 25-a), which originally began at the East River at what was later Fulton Street Ferry in Brooklyn and then ran east through Jamaica, Hempstead, Oyster Bay, Huntington and Smithtown, where it splits practically the same as now, running as two roads through the north and north central parts of the Island, crossing Brookhaven and then merging before forking off at the present Riverhead village and end- ing at Southold and East Hampton.
To carry out the terms of the acts, commissioners were appointed for Kings, Queens and Suffolk Counties and among those chosen for Suffolk County was Thomas Helme, a Brookhaven man. In order to comply with the law, the town trustees resolved, 20 April, 1704, that the highways be cleared "with Expedition", and appropriately appointed Thomas Helme to supervise the work, further ordering that such men of the Town who were "Rated in the Queens 13 hun- dred pound Tax shall worke upon the high ways" from one day to six days according to the tax paid. Substitutes were allowed and four squadrons of workers, each under an appointed overseer, were directed to work in turns with the first one beginning early in May, 1704. In late July, some were at work "from the Towne [Setauket] East ward to the horne Taverne" at the former Southold, now River- head town line. Apparently, many of the roads were cleared during that year, 1704.
Eventually, other old paths and roads were cleared and widened; new roads laid out and established and, by 1770, most of the principal roads in the Town, now in use, had been established. Many of these old roads lead to or are around "Town" which was the term fre- quently used to designate Setauket or Brookhaven and which, until after the Revolution, was the only place of any size or importance as well as the seat and centre of the town government.
A curious and unfortunate dispute between the Towns of Brook- haven and Southold began on the 25th of September, 1707, when one John Rogers, described as an "Indigent decipped" and "a poor lame man" was brought and settled at Wading River on Brookhaven terri- tory just east of the creek, and became a town charge. If one will look at a map of Brookhaven Town and at the same time remember that prior to March, 1792, what is now the Town of Riverhead was the western part of the Town of Southold, it will be noticed that the present Brookhaven-Riverhead town line runs north from Peconic River until it reaches the head of the creek at Wading River and then follows along the creek in a northwesterly direction to the Sound. But by the terms of both Governor Nicolls' and Governor Dongan's patents to Brookhaven, the east boundary line of the Town was made a straight line running north all the way from Peconic River to the Sound. This gave Brookhaven a wedge-shaped or triangular tract of land and meadow between the line, the creek and the Sound.
Two days after the arrival of the poor cripple on the tract, the town trustees ordered him carried back to Southold, "the place of his
-
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last Residence". For some reason, he stayed and, beginning with the 8th of October, 1707, and continuing until September, 1709, letters and bills for his care were the cause of a spirited argument between the two Towns.
Southold had long since claimed the tract on which Rogers settled by means of the uncertain, vague words of the description of her western boundary contained in her one and only patent given by Governor Andros in 1676, but as the patent was ten years later than Nicolls' patent to Brookhaven, and as it was "first come: first served" with patents as in other things, she could hardly expect any high court to uphold her pretended claim to the Wading River lands. She now had her chance to get them by means of the poor Rogers fellow, so in June, 1709, the overseers of Southold sent a proposal through James Reeve to the trustees of Brookhaven that if Brookhaven would cede to Southold all its right and title to the land and meadow on the east side of the Wading River creek and also pay £4 not later than the 29th of the following September, that Brookhaven would be acquitted from all the charges of caring for John Rogers. The trus- tees foolishly accepted the proposal; paid the £4, and transferred all this valuable tract to Southold, just to save the cost of caring for one pauper! The trustees have done some foolish things in their long existence, but this deal made with Southold in 1709 is probably the most outstanding one of them all. The tract that they practically gave to Southold comprises the greater part of the present village of Wading River, all of the section now occupied by the fine homes on its Sound Avenue, those along the Sound beach between the avenue and the creek, and all the places on the North Country Road from the creek as far east as the churchyard of the Congregational church.
As for John Rogers, the records of Southold show that he came into that Town from Oyster Bay. He, John Lore and Richard Lore, all of Oyster Bay, on the 4th of November, 1703, bought 5 "first lots" of upland and 85 "first lots" of meadow at Wading River in the place which was claimed to be lying between the Town of Brookhaven and the Town of Southold, paying £100 for them. Please note the price and the claim. Four years later-16 October, 1707-and about three weeks after Rogers had been brought on the property and had become so poor that he was a town charge, Joshua Wells, supposed to be one of the pious men of Southold, bought all of the poor man's one-third interest in all 90 lots of land and meadow, paying him the "enor- mous" sum of 5 shillings! Again note the price. Five shillings in the Yorkshire currency used on Long Island would equal about 621/2 cents in present-day money. As the deeds and prices paid are trans- cribed in the Southold printed town records, anyone can read them and, at the same time, note that Rogers' deed to Wells was not re- corded until 25 February, 1723-4, at which time, Rogers was probably dead. Perhaps when Wells "lavished money so generously" in paying Rogers 5 shillings for the one-third of property costing £100, he used some of the 9 shillings he had charged for carting the timber used for building the east gallery in the Southold meeting house in 1700.
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By July, 1710, a movement had been started to build a new meeting-house to replace the old one built in Mr. Brewster's time and which had apparently become too small, even though the records show that it had been enlarged, seven new seats or pews added and, in 1682, an elaborate pulpit installed. On the 28th of August, 1710, the inhabitants and freeholders voted to build a new meeting-house on the Meeting-house Green but no action seems to have been taken on the vote until May, 1712, when the town trustees ordered that the old meeting-house should be repaired and a new one built, to be paid for partly by subscriptions and partly by a tax levied for the purpose.
When the people could not agree upon the exact site for the new building, a special town-meeting was called which met on the 9th of August, 1714, and decided "that the place where ye newe meteing house should bee Erected-by a providentiall Lot might finaly be Determined". The result of this medieval custom of deciding an issue, was that the new building should be "nere aJoyne to ye old meeting house". The voice of the meeting also was that the new meeting-house should "bee a house to promote & propagate the Honour of Allmity God in ye purity of holy Relegion :&: in quallyte of a presbeterian Meeting House for Ever and No other use". Col. Richard Floyd (the second) was among those at the meeting and gave half an acre of his home lot adjoining the old churchyard and burial ground, stating that it was to be "to ye use & benifit of a publick burying place to ve Towne of Brookhaven". This old cemetery still exists and Col. Floyd's tombstone and grave show that he was buried on the land he donated.
The new meeting-house, like the old one, had no bell and probably had no steeple but as timepieces were rare and costly, the people had to be called when it was meeting time, so a drum was used for the purpose. It has already been told how Obed Seward had been hired in December, 1668, to beat the drum on the meeting-house hill "twise a saboth day", and the same method of calling the congregation was continued in 1723, as is shown by the resolution of the town trustees on the 7th of May, to pay Nathaniel Tooker 30 shillings for "beateing the Drum on ye Lordes Dave and for Swepeing ye meeting house" for that year.
Prior to about the beginning of the second decade of the XVIII Century, the town church institution had been a real community affair and not unlike what we now know as Congregational, though not con- nected in any way with an organized denomination. Early in the century, Presbyterianism sprang up on Long Island as an outgrowth of the Puritanism of the early English settlers; Mr. Phillips, the minister, became identified with the movement and was a member of the first Presbytery of Long Island, "one of the four bodies into which the original Presbytery of Philadelphia resolved itself in 1716 to form the Synod of Philadelphia". Knowing these facts about him, there can be little doubt that he was the leader and was instrumental in having his town parish placed under the care and control of Presbytery.
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We have seen how the townsmen solemnly had voted in 1714 that the new meeting-house should be Presbyterian forever, yet only five years later-4 December, 1719-twenty-nine of them had become so dissatisfied with the change, the loss of their local parish control or the introduction of the definitely defined dogmas so rigidly held by the Presbyterians of that time, that they withdrew and resigned their seats (and financial support) in the meeting-house "soe Longe ass the House shall be & Remaine to the use of thee presteran ministry * *", Among the group were Timothy Brewster and Daniel Brew- ster, sons of the former town minister, the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster; Joseph Phillips, the minister's own son; Richard Woodhull and Selah Strong, two of the most intelligent men in the Town; and twenty-four other prominent men, some of whom were: Samuel Thompson, John Wood, Sr. and Jr., William Jayne, Jacob Longbothum, John Tooker, Sr. and Jr., and William Satterly.
In the meantime, the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" of the Church of England, was doing missionary work under the patronage and influence of the royal governors of the Province and the twenty-nine men with their families who had left the recently "Presbyterianized" town church formed a fertile field for the Society's mission work and they became the nucleus which eventually grew into Caroline Church of Brookhaven.
The town records tell practically nothing about the founding of the church but in 1936, the Rev. R. Thomas Blomquist, then rector of the church, wrote a résumé of its history and the gist of his state- ments is that the Rev. James Wetmore of Yale College, the first missionary of the Society, settled in Setauket in the Winter of 1723, but did not stay long. In 1725, the Rev. Thomas Standard was appointed to the Brookhaven mission and remained until 1727 when a lay reader named Flint Dwight is supposed to have substituted until July, 1729, when the Rev. Alexander Campbell was sent as priest-in- charge. It was under his leadership that the present church building was begun in 1729, and that Queen Caroline, consort of King George II, gave the eucharistic altar vessels in 1730, which the church still has. Previous to this royal gift, the church had been named Christ Church, but in honor of the queen, the name was changed to Caroline Church.
The rector continues: "In 1733, the S.P.G. saw fit to remove the Rev. Alexander Campbell in favor of the Rev. Isaac Browne, whence began the first of the longer pastorates at Caroline Church and under a truly worthy leader-in 1747, he left Setauket for a new charge in Newark". The Rev. James Lyon (or Lyons) followed and was rector until 1767 after which he seems to have remained in Setauket and officiated in an unofficial capacity until near his death, 3 October, 1790.
It is not known where those who left the Presbyterian meeting- house in 1719 met to use the prayer-book service of the Anglican Church, but as the old meeting-house had been ordered to be repaired at the same time that the new building was ordered in 1714, the writer believes that they used the old meeting-house until the present Caroline church was finished early in 1730. The original Caroline
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church building is still standing and though it has undergone many changes, it is probably similar in many details to its original condi- tion, especially since 1939 when a studied effort was made to restore it. It is worth noting that it was built before any settlement had been made in the Colony of Georgia.
We have seen that by 1730 there were two religious groups with their two respective houses of worship in the Town. By 1741, while Rev. Isaac Browne was pastor of Caroline church, those of its mem- bers who were the heirs or the assigns of the old town proprietors- by that time all deceased-became known as "the church party" and claimed their rights to the "parsonage lots", or lands which had been reserved in the various allotments or divisions, for the use and support of the early established town church and its minister. The claim was opposed by "the Presbyterian or dissenting party", as they were called, and a heated dispute followed.
A special town-meeting was called to consider the matter and it was held on the 12th of May, 1741, with both parties well represented. A vote was taken which referred the rival claims to the decision, settlement and award of arbitrators. Those appointed were the Rev. Mr. Browne, William Smith, James Tuthill and Richard Woodhull- two men from each party. Provision was made that if they could not agree, they could choose a fifth person; also, that the award was to be final and to be made by the 12th of October of that year (1741).
It was made and dated the 5th of October, and gave to each party one-half of eighteen "parsonage lots" and "half a Right of all commonage that hereafter may be laid out or allotted in any future
Division or Divisions of undivided lands *
*
*", As the award specified which half of each lot each party should have, either party was free to sell or rent its half without having to resort to any legal means. As far as the writer has been able to ascertain, neither party has ever used, rented or sold any of the awarded lands and, by this time, title to them probably has been lost.
Nearly everyone is familiar with Longfellow's classic poem-story, Evangeline, telling how the French Neutrals of Acadia or Nova Scotia were torn from their homes by British orders; families, friends and lovers often separated, and how all were shipped away and scat- tered from Maine to Georgia. But few are aware that some thirty-six of the unfortunate, helpless people were sent to the sheriff of Suffolk County, Dr. George Muirson of Setauket, for him to assign to the several towns of the County.
About 1938, Miss Kate W. Strong of Setauket found among the old Floyd family papers, the original order which placed ten of those thirty-six in Brookhaven Town. The old document is torn and has a few holes in it, causing some of the words to be missing but enough remains to present the following :
"Pursuant to the Order of His Excellency Sr Charles Hardy In Council of the Sixth Day of May 1756 I have Recd this Day thirty Six Neutral French ten of Which is Alloted for Your township You Are Directed and Required to Receive the Family Alloted to your town And to give Order that they
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be lodged and Furnis[h]ed with provisions; and that No Abuse Or Ill Vsage be offered them And that the Gover- mant May be put to As Little Charge As possible You Are to Vse Your Endeavours to find Employment for the people, So that [they] May be Enabled Wholly Or In part to [mai]ntain themselves And that You keep [* * *] Accounts of the Monies I Shall Remitt [* * *] further Necessary to Expend [an]d transmit the same to [His] Excellency, As Soon After the 25th of this Month As May be In Order to be then provided for by the General Assembly"
May 15 1756 (Signed) GEO MUIRSON Sheriff
To the Majestrates of Brookhaven
In the Calendar of Council Minutes of New York and in the appropriation bill passed by the General Assembly, 1 December, 1756, the information is given that the ten persons sent to Brookhaven were Francis Commo, his wife and eight children and that Col. Richard Floyd was paid £7/6s./1d. for the cost of their support. The fact that the Brookhaven records show that Col. Floyd was elected president of the town trustees and was in that office at the time, gives the reason for his having been paid the money and for his having had the sheriff's order among his family papers.
There is no mention in the town records of the Acadian family in any way but they do refer to "ye Town house called ye French house", which the town trustees gave the use of to a poor man and his family in March, 1767, thus indicating where the French family lived and that by that time they had removed from the Town. The appropriation bills passed by the Assembly from 1756 to 1770 pro- vide for the maintenance of the Acadians and show that some of them were public charges of the Province with some continuing to be living in Suffolk County.
When events were threatening trouble with England and possibly armed resistance to the suppression of American liberties by Parlia- ment, public opinion in Brookhaven was divided. Except for a few prominent families, the greater part of the well-to-do class and some few others, sided entirely with England; others, though loyal to the King, realized the injustices done by Parliament and the King's ministers, but preferred to do nothing; others were undecided, while still others were ready to fight. With such divided opinions, the Town as a whole waited and took no action. Then came the news of the alarming bloodshed events at Boston and public feeling against Eng- land increased. But when the news came that fighting had actually begun in Massachusetts, there was no more hesitating and a "Com- mittee of Brookhaven, Manor of St. George and Patentship of Moriches" met and drew up seven resolutions.
Unfortunately, the minutes and the first four and part of the fifth paragraph of the resolutions are now lost but, at one time, they were available to the late Richard M. Bayles of Middle Island and
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were used by him in his History of Suffolk County, printed in 1882 by W. W. Munsell & Co. There he states that the first meeting was on the 8th of June, 1775, and that it elected a "Committee of Observa- tion" to act for the Town in emergencies. "That committee consisting of sixteen persons, met on the 27th of June, at which meeting there were present John Woodhull, Thomas Helme, John Robinson, Thomas Fanning, Lieutenant William Brewster, Noah Hallock, Joseph Brown, John Woodhull, jr., Nathaniel Roe, jr., Captain Jonathan Baker, Daniel Roe, Samuel Thompson of Brookhaven; William Smith and Jonah Hulse of the manor of St. George, and Josiah Smith of the Moriches patentship. The meeting was at Coram, and after John Woodhull had been appointed chairman and Samuel Thompson clerk the following resolutions, expressive of the bold patriotism which ruled the men of that period, were passed :
"That we express our loyalty to His Majesty King George III., and acknowledge him as our rightful lord and sovereign."
The rest of the resolutions are too long to quote in full, but after the expression of loyalty to the King, they proceed to set forth their grievances, not against him, but against the acts of Parliament. The members of the committee then bind themselves to adhere to the resolutions of the Continental and Provincial Congresses and make an apology for coming so late into congressional measures, explaining that it was because "opposition ran so high heretofore in some part of this Town that an attempt of this Kind would perhaps have answered no valuable purpose but we verily believe the past opposi- tion arose for want of better information in a great measure". They conclude with the promise: "we will Keep a strict watch that no provitions be transported from within the bounds of the District of our Constituants so that Designingly or Actidently to fall into the hands of our Enemies". The entire resolutions were ordered to be published in Mr. Holt's newspaper.
The next meeting of the committee at Coram, 3 August, 1775, resulted in the twelve members representing the Town, Manor of St. George and Patentship of Moriches resolving themselves into one body and directing the clerk, Samuel Thompson of Setauket, to send a list of all who had not signed the Association, to the Provincial Congress in New York. Subsequent meetings were held until the 21st of September, after which there is no record of what transpired until the following spring. This is due to the apparent loss of a number of pages of the minutes.
The town records show that of the seven trustees in office during 1775 and 1776, only three of them-Selah Strong, Elijah Davis and Nathan Rose were actively in favor of the patriot cause, and hence no action against England and the activities of the Loyalists could be expected to be taken by the Town. In fact, the town officials did nothing all during the Revolution to commit the Town in any way in giving aid to either the Whig or Tory parties, and with the one excep- tion of an order by the Tory-controlled board of trustees, 4 August,
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1777, that Jesse Hulse should supply the British soldiers with wood, there is nothing in the town records to as much as suggest that a war with England even was in progress. The trustees held their meet- ings and conducted their routine business as usual, but their meetings were less frequent and much less business was conducted.
Knowing the futility of obtaining any help from the Town, the patriots "convened in one General Assembly or Town Meeting on the 16th of April A. D. 1776 at Corum and there unitedly chose under the Inspection of their old Committee a new Committy of Safety to Superintend their public Concerns, and as their Representatives to act for the year ensuing, which Committee consisted of the following Gentlemen, each of whom being separately chosen by a great Majority of voices, namely : William Smith Esqr, Nathaniel Woodhull Esqr, William Floyd Esqr, Josiah Smith Esqr, John Woodhull Esqr, Selah Strong Esqr, Thomas Helm Esqr, Capt. William Brewster, Capt. Samuel Thompson, Capt. Jona.n Baker, Isaac Overton Esqr, Capt. Nathan Rose, Elijah Davis, Jonah Hulse, Benjamin Havens, Mathew Smith, David Howell, Joseph Brown, John Woodhul jun, Phillips Roe, Nath.l Roe jun, Abraham Woodhull, Selah Strong A.B., Thomas Smith, Humphry Avery, Wessel Sell and Benjamin Woodhull who being nearly all present instantly formed a meeting, and chose John Woodhull Esquire Cheirm[an] and Samuel Thompson Clerk."
The minutes of the newly created "Committee of Safety" (data from which is here presented in print for the first time since they were found in Connecticut in 1898) show that there were frequent meetings held during May and June, 1776-the last one of which there are any minutes extant being on the 25th of June. Ebenezer Dayton of Coram (the same man who was expelled from East Hamp- ton for attending church and giving the people the measles) was appointed clerk in place of Samuel Thompson of Setauket (who later became a doctor and the father of Benjamin F. Thompson, the his- torian). The Committee actually controlled and policed the Town; apprehended persons suspected of giving aid or information to the enemy; brought them to trial, sending some to jail in New York for further trial; admonished others; gave orders to local troops; raised money for military purposes and reported on enemy movements. These old minutes also reveal how some traitors were posing as patriots and at the same time conniving to help the British.
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