USA > New York > Suffolk County > Southampton > The early history of Southampton, L. I., New York, with genealogies, 2nd ed. > Part 14
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171
THE INDIANS.
the ground, at regular distances, where he alighted, in three sev- eral leaps from the stone on which he had stood, and then disap- peared.
" They believed in a future state of existence, that their souls would go westward a great distance, and many moons journey, to a place where the spirits of all would reside, and where, in the presence of their great Sawwonnuntow, beyond the setting sun. the brave and the good would exercise themselves in pleasurable singing, in feasting, hunting, and dancing forever. The coward, the traitor, the liar, and the thief, were also there, but the enjoy- ments of the favored Sawwonnuntow only added to the pain of the punishments visited upon the misdeeds of the wicked. Ser- vile labor, so painful to and so much despised by the Indian, was the allotment of the sinful. The making a canoe with a round stone, and the carrying water in a wicker basket were among the perplexing exercises of those who had sacrificed the happiness of their future existence to the will of Mutchesumetooh or the Evil power."
No more hopeless fate than this, the classical student will ob- serve, was awarded by the grim Rhadamanthus to Sisyphus, Tan- talus, or the daughters of Danaus.
In 1641 the General Court passed a law making it penal to sell any instrument of war, namely, guns, powder, bullets, lead, swords or matches to the Indians, and also against selling any liquor to the same. A second law was afterward passed, allowing certain specified parties to trade with them discreetly in these things.
For many years after the settlement the Indians derived their subsistence, like their brethren in other parts of the country. chiefly from hunting and fishing. But gradually adopting the civilized life, for generations past, they have cultivated sufficient land to supply their wants, together with the wealth they have drawn from the adjacent waters. They are now generally pro- vided with comfortable homes, and maintain a school in their midst, and two small churches.
As before stated the first purchase from the Indians was made on December 13, 1640. Then the Quaquanantuck or Quogue pur- chase of which no record appears in the town records. Thirdly,
172
HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON.
Topping's purchase of land west of Quogue, effected April 10, 1662, and finally a re-purchase of the whole town, August 16, 1703, the deeds of all which will be found in the appendix.
The records at Albany* show that the settlers were not with- out apprehensions of violence from their dusky neighbors. July 10, 1675, Governor Andros writes to Governor Winthrop of Con- necticut of a rumor that there was a conspiracy among the Indians of the Atlantic coast, from New England to Delaware bay, to make war on the whites. But in September following he writes again that all the danger is passed. There were general instructions to the magistrates to disarm the Indians of Long Island and the main land of all the guns they had. On page 133 of this same book, Governor Andros writes to Southampton that this was a false report, i. e., of the Indian war, the letter being dated September 8, 1675.
The restlessness of the Indians in regard to the title of the town is illustrated still further in the abstract of an entry in the town records in 1686, as follows :
" At a town meeting held in Southampton the 23d day of November, 1686, it is agreed upon by major vote of the town that Major John Howell shall go to New York about the present affair of making good our title to our lands called into question at Shinnecock, and Henry Ludlam is likewise chosen to wait upon him.
" At the same meeting it is ordered that the patentees concerned in our patent shall make a conveyance of the land held within our township to the persons respectively according to the interest of allotment of hundred and fifties, or fifties when they hold in this town.
" Also there are chosen six men to be a committee in behalf of the men to give Major Howell his instructions and also to attend Colonel Youngs when he comes to hear the Indians acknowledge our deed, and the men so chosen are Mr. Edward Howell, Henry Pierson, Matthew Howell, Thomas Cooper, Obadiah Rogers and Joseph Pierson."
* MSS., State Library. Warrants, Orders, Passes, p. 120.
173
THE INDIANS.
THE CHIEF OF THE SHINNECOCKS.
In 1648 Nowedanah was the chief of the Shinnecock tribe as appears in the deed of sale of the town land of East Hampton.
January 22, 1670-71, Quaquashaug having been elected their chief by the same tribe, was on that day confirmed to be the chief by Governor Francis Lovelace. The same day Cawbutt an Indian was appointed by the same authority constable of the Shinnecock tribe. (Albany Records.)
LEASE OF SHINNECOCK TO THE INDIANS.
In order to settle all disputes which had arisen concerning the title to the land of the town, and quiet the Indians in their ap- prehensions at the disappearance of their hunting grounds, as before stated, a convention of the whites and Indians was held at Southampton, August 16, 1703. In addition to the re-purchase of the town, the whites gave to the Indians the following lease of Shinnecock and the hills :
" This indenture made between the Trustees of the common- alty of the Town of Southamptonin the County of Suffolk and province of New York on Island of Nassau on the one part and Pomguama, Chice, and Manaman and their people belonging to Shinnecock of the other part, witnesseth : That the said Trustees of the Town aforesaid, by and with one full consent and agree- ment for divers good causes them thereunto moving, and one ear of Indian corn annually to be paid to the Trustees of said Town, for the time being, yearly, and every year, upon the first day of November, and for and upon the condition and proviso hereafter expressed, have demised, granted, and to farm letten, and by these presents do demise, grant, let, and let to farm unto the said Pomguama, Chise, Manaman, and their people abovesaid, all that their certain tract of land lying within the bounds of Southamp- ton aforesaid, called by the name of Shinnecock and Sebonac, bounded west by Canoe place, alias Niamng, and bounded south- ward by Shinnecock Bay, and castward by a line running from the head of Shinnecock Creek to the north-west corner of James Cooper's Close, and from thence northwardly to the westward part of Jonathan Raynor's land, at Sebonac old ground, and from
174
HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON.
thence on a direct line to' a place called the warehouse by the: North Bay, and on the north by the said Bay ; meadows, marshes, grass, herbage, feeding and pasturage, timber, stone, and conve- nient highways only excepted, with all and singular the privileges and advantages of plowing and planting, and timber for firing and fencing, and all other conveniences and benefits whatsoever, excepting what before is excepted to the only use and behoof of the said Indians, their heirs and successors, for one thousand years thence next ensuing the date hereof : Provided always the said Indians do not keep nor cause to be kept, any part or parcel of the said land within fence or enclosed from the last of October to the first of April, from year to year, during the whole term afore- said ; and for the full confirmation hereof, the parties have inter- changeably set their hands and seals in Southampton aforesaid, this sixteenth of August, Anno Dom. 1703.
"Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of Stephen Boner, Arthur Davis, Benjamin Marshall, Thomas Stephens, Gersham Culver, John Maltby, Daniel Halsey, Hezekiah Howell, Abraham Howell, Jekamiah Scott Toseph Fordham Josiah Howell, Joseph Howell, Trustees."
Immediately after the above lease is recorded in the town rec- ords the following :
"We, the trustees within named, according to the town's former agreement with the said Indians of Shinnecock, do hereby grant liberty to them and theirs, to cut flags, bulrushes, and such grass as they usually make their mats and houses of, and to dig ground nuts, mowing lands excepted, anywhere in the bounds of the township of Southampton aforesaid, as witnesseth our hands and seals this 16th day of August, 1703.
" Witness :
" Josiah Howell, Abraham Howell, Stephen Bowyer, Arthur Davis, Benjamin Marshall, Joseph Howell, Daniel Halsey, Heze- kiah Howell, John Maltby, Jekamiah Scott, Joseph Fordham, Thomas Stephens, Gersham Culver, Trustees."
Acknowledged same day before John Wheeler, Justice.
175
THE INDIANS.
SALE OF SHINNECOCK HILLS IN 1861.
By a special act of legislature, the Indians, in 1859, were em- powered to sell and did sell to the proprietors, all their rights to the Shinnecock hills which they possessed (or their children were to possess) by the above lease of 1703, in consideration of having in themselves the fee of Shinnecock neck. On February 19, 1861, the hills were sold by the proprietors at public auction, for $6,250, and purchased by a company of Southampton people, chiefly for purposes of pasturage. In the advertisement for the sale occurs the following : " Situated in the central part of said Town, and extending from Peconie Bay on the north, to Shinne- cock Bay on the south, and containing about 3200 acres. The Indian claim and interest in these lands have been recently extin- guished by agreement with the Indians, and by the consent and ratification of the Legislature of the State of New York, so that the title to the property is now undisputed and indisputable. A considerable portion of the land is of good quality, ready for the plough, and susceptible of being converted into fine farms. The remainder is well adapted to sheep and cattle grazing, to which the whole tract has been exclusively devoted for many years."
This same tract was sold in 1881 to parties in Brooklyn who propose to use it as its delightful situation deserves it should be, as summer residences for city people.
176
HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON.
CHAPTER XI.
EARLY CUSTOMS - WHALING - BURYING GROUNDS - MISCELLA- NEOUS.
MANY of the customs and peculiarities of our forefathers have already been noticed in various portions of this work, so that but little remains to say on this point. Like their friends in New England, it appears from the records, that they for a time aban- doned the use of the names of months and days as given in the calendar ; dating an event, e. g., on the 7th day of the week of the 4th month, instead of Saturday, June 4th. This custom originated from conscientious scruples against the use of names of heathen origin.
Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, observing that the vernal equinox occurred during the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, on the 21st of March, but happened on that year on the 10th, by the advice of astronomers caused ten days to be thrown out of the current year between the 4th and 15th of October. He further decreed that the year henceforth should consist of 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes and that every year exactly divisible by 100, excepting those divisible by 400, should not be considered a leap year. This alteration in the calendar was at once accepted in all Catholic countries, but it took longer time to introduce the change into England. In the year 1752, by act of Parliament,* eleven days were dropped between the 2d and 14th of September and the year was to begin on the first of January instead of on the 25th of March as had been the practice. This, the " new style," is now universal among all civilized nations except in Russia, where the " old style " still prevails. In reducing old to new style ten days should be added from 1500 to 1700, and eleven days from 1700 to 1752. Previous to 1752 any day in March was called the 1st, 10th or 30th (as the case might be) of the first month. But as a matter of fact, both in England and
* See Statute 24, Geo. II., ch. 23.
177
EARLY CUSTOMS.
in her American colonies, clerks were slow to adopt the change, and often obstinately persisted for half a century in following the old mode of reckoning. This hesitation caused the use so fre- quent in the old records of such dates as the following : January 16, 1734, or March 16, 1643, in which the lower of the last two figures represents the year according to the present mode, and the upper one, the old style of reckoning.
We often find in the early records following names of the days of the week, dies solis, dies lund, dies Martis, dies Mercurii, dies Jovis, dies Veneris and dies Saturnii, or sometimes dies Sabbati. Although these are Roman names it must not be supposed they belong to the Augustan era. Neither Homer nor Virgil nor their countrymen of the classic age, Greek or Latin, knew of any division of time into weeks. This division was of divine origin and known and practiced by those who had the oracles of God and through them gradually was introduced into other nations. Not until the Roman empire, in the early part of the fourth century, came under the influence of Christianity, in the reign of Constantine, was the week known to the Romans. The French preserve these names yet in their language, while the Teutonic languages preserve the thing but not the precise name. We say Sunday because our Saxon ancestor said Sunnan-Daeg, and the Germans, Sohntag. So also Sax, Monan-Daeg; Ger., Montag ; Eng., Monday. Sax .. Tues-Daeg ; Ger., Dienstag ; Eng., Tues- day. Sax., Woden's or Woodnes Daeg; Ger., Mittwoch or mid- week ; and Eng., Wednesday. Sax., Thorsdaeg or Thures daeg ; Ger., Donnerstag ; Eng., Thursday. Sax, Friga's Daeg; Ger., Freitag; Eng., Friday. Sax., Seater's Daeg; Ger., Sonnabend ; Eng., Saturday. Whence it may be seen that both Latin and Teuton have contributed each a share in our nomenclature. It may be added that the Roman names, dies solis, etc., crept in through the formal diction used in legal proceedings by the Nor- man conquerors and were continued long after they and their descendants learned and used the language of the conquered.
The Sabbath was reckoned to begin at sunset of Saturday, and ended with sunsetting of Sunday.
The autumnal thanksgiving, now customary through the coun- 23
178
HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON.
try, was kept in early times here, as it was in New England, as we have before shown. And that occasional fast days were ob- served, we may infer from an anecdote of some old worthy long departed, who wished a certain fast on account of a long drought, might be deferred one day until he had gathered in some hay that was ready for the barn ! There was some faith at least in the efficacy of prayer.
An interesting question is that of the food and appliances of the table of the colonists of the Puritan period. They raised on the farm Indian corn, wheat (both winter and summer varieties), oats, barley, beans and pease, but no potatoes. This esculent, now so com- mon, came into general use some time afterward, in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The waters abounded in fish, clams and oysters, though the shellfish seem to have been used but spar- ingly. Cows, oxen, goats and sheep were raised in considerable numbers, both for home consumption and for export. At a later period many horses were shipped to the West Indies. Tea and coffee were unknown. * The first coffee house in England was kept by a Jew named Jacobs, in Oxford, 1650. One was opened in London 1652, and the Rainbow Coffee House, near Temple Bar, was in 1657 considered a nuisance to that locality. + In 1671 an Armenian set up a coffee house in Paris, but not meet- ing much encouragement removed to London.
Coffee does not seem to have been known generally in western Europe previous to 1660, except to travelers in the Levant. In 1554 it was introduced into Constantinople from Arabia. It is uncertain when it began to be used in America. Wine, cider, beer and ale, home brewed, milk and water were the only drinks used by the settlers upon the table. In Timb's Curiosities of Lon- don is the following : "The Earl of Arlington in the year 1666 brought from Holland for 60 shillings, the first pound of tea received in England." But a comment on this states that it was known in England as early as 1657. It is mentioned in an act of Parliament 1660. Pepys in his Diary, September 25, 1660, speaks of send- ing out for a " cup of tea (a China drink) of which I had never drunk before."
* Notes and Queries, 4 ser., v. 1, p. 140.
+ Notes and Queries, Ist ser., v. 1, p. 29.
179
EARLY CUSTOMS.
Heavy farm work was done by oxen. The only vehicle in use for a long time was the two-wheeled ox-cart. Men and women traveled on horseback, and when the horse was wanting, on one occasion at least, a bovine was pressed into service. An inhabitant of North Sea in early times rode on the back of his bull to New York to obtain from the colonial Governor a commission of jus- tice of the peace for himself. The bull, it may be supposed, car- ried him safely and pranced in state to the Governor's gate post, since in due time a shout was heard in the town street of South- ampton announcing his return. Waving his commission above his head, as he sat on his horned steed, he said in a loud voice, "Now I'll make Southampton fear and all North Sea tremble!" And yet, as legend hath told, man, bull and commission all failed to produce this effect on the inhabitants.
The transmission of news was only by letter and the last comer. For twenty years after the settlement not a newspaper was yet in existence in the mother country.
June 25, 1647. In an order on the affairs of the town, the word its is used, showing that this pronoun was in use more or less comnon, although it is not to be found in the Bible of King James - our present version. But the apostrophe is never employed with the possessive case of a noun, though the final "s" is so used.
FAIRS IN OLDEN TIME.
In 1692 the Governor of the province together with the colo- nial legislature enacted a law for the establishment of fairs to be held on Long Island at stated intervals.
In Kings county one fair annually was to be held at Flatbush from the second Tuesday of October to the following Friday, both days included.
In Queens county two fairs a year were to be held, both at Jamaica, from the first Tuesday in May to the following Friday, and from the first Tuesday of October to the following Friday.
In Suffolk two fairs were to be held anumnally, one at Sonth- aupton from the first Tuesday of July to the following Friday, one at Southold from the first Tuesday of September to the fol- lowing Friday.
180
HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON.
These were not fairs for the exhibition of the products of the country such as we have in these days, but a reproduction here of the fairs of old England. It was the occasion for everybody to offer for sale whatever he wished to dispose of for money or by way of exchange. These fairs were frequented by peddlers on whom the ladies depended for articles of finery and light silk goods.
The old English custom of having the Yule or Christmas log, was retained in some families, at least, until old-fashioned wide fire-places went out of vogue. This was an unusually large hickory back-log which was cut and selected for this purpose in the woods, and took its place on Christinas morning, though it was not customary, as in England, to preserve the charred remains for lighting the next year's Christmas fire.
Another singular custom prevailed which arose in England from the fact that the bakers there, when they came to supply their customers on Christmas morning, presented to the children little dough-boys fried as "dough-unts." These dough children were to commemorate the anniversary of our Savior's birth. In course of time the customers took the hint and prepared these delicate sweets for their children themselves, and deposited them in the little stockings suspended in the chimney corner for the friendly visits of St. Nicholas.
WHALING SQUADRON.
From various scattered records, it appears that the number of whales that in a year drifted on the coast, have been considerable. How soon the settlers procured boats and tackle for capturing them on the ocean is not known.
This was really the beginning of the enterprise of whale fishing (to use a common but incorrect term) which became in after years of such immense proportions in our country. In 1687* there were fourteen whaling companies of twelve men each in the town of Southampton who reported an estimate of the oil then in their possession, the result probably of the catch of one season.
· MSS., State Library, Albany.
181
EARLY CUSTOMS.
Att Ketchabonac. . . John Jessup & Co.
96 bbls.
Att Quaquanantuck
Thomas Stephens & Co .
264
James Cooper & Co.
144
Att ye Pines 66
. Joseph Pierson & Co.
210
.John Poast & Co .
228
Att Towne
Francis Sayre & Co.
132
66
Att Weepaguge [Wickapogue]
. . Isaac Raynor & Co
48
66
Abraham Howell & Co
36
Att Meacocks
John Cooke & Co.
72
66
Joseph Moore & Co.
120
Att Sagabonick.
Lift Henery Peirson & Co.
276
Robert Norrise & Co.
108
66
James Topping & Co
84
Shamgar Hand & Co
300
Total
2,148 bbls.
66
April 15, 1687, East Hampton reports also 1,456 barrels on hand.
In 1711, on the 18th of April, the total amount of oil on hand in the towns of South and East Hampton was 252 barrels. But it is probable that the greater part of the oil of that season had then been shipped either to New York or London. The records show oil was sometimes shipped at that early day direct from Southampton to London.
There are a few people in this country in favor of a monarch- ical form of government in place of our republic. To such it may be of interest to learn of one of the many thousand inven- tions growing out of a monarchy and necessary to its existence, for those in power to take to themselves under form of law the hard earned substance of the people. As appears in the State records at Albany Governor Robert Hunter in 1711 elaimed and took one-half of the oil and bone of the whales captured by the companies in Southampton licensed by himself. The same year to Richard Wood was granted the sole privilege of claiming the chance whales stranded on the beach, the governor reserving to himself as before one-half of the bone and oil. This burden was only removed by the personal application of Samuel Mulford of East Hampton, as agent for East and Southampton, to the Parlia- ment of Great Britain, as a high court of judicature, in 1715. This business is still followed, as an episode, however, to the daily employment in agricultural pursuits and a few whales are generally taken every year during the winter or early spring, but
182
HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON.
no royal governor now takes half by way of toll to support his dignity.
Considerable attention was also given at an early period, even extending well into the eighteenth century, to catching seals, both along the coast and in more distant regions, where they were found. Denton (History of New York) says a great multitude of seals wintered on Long Island, lying on the meadow bottoms and sand bars near the salt waters. A few were seen and · captured there about 1871.
The following lists are given, copied from the town records :
" March 7, 1644. Yt is ordered by this present Court that yf by the providence of God there shall bee henceforth within the bounds of this plantacon any whale or whales cast vp for the pre- uention of Disorder yt is Consented vnto that there shall be foure Wards in this Towne eleaven persons in each ward. And by lott two of each ward (when any such whale shall be cast vp) shall be imployd for the cutting out of the sayd whale who for their paynes shall have a double share. And every Inhabitant with his child or servant that is above sixteen years of age shall hane in the division of their part an equall proportion provided that such person when yt falls into his ward [be] a sufficient man to be imployed aboute yt.
" And yt is further agreed vpon that there shall be in each ward eleuen versons."
" FFOR YE FIRST WARD."
William Barnes, Geo. Wood, Thomas Cooper, Richard Strat- ton, Job Sayre,. Thomas Burrnett, John White, William Mul- ford, Thomas Halsey, Junr., Thomas Talmage, Senr. & Mr. Johnes.
"FFOR YE SECOND WARD."
Richard Jaques, Thomas Talmage, Junr., Mr. Peirson, Robert Rose, Mr. Gosmer, Thomas Halsey, Senr., Mr. Stanborough, Richard Barrett, Richard Post, Thomas Tomson & Robart Tal- mage.
183
EARLY CUSTOMS.
" FFOR YE THIRD WARD."
Richard Gosmer, Arthur Bostock, Henry Peirson, John Hande, Thomas Hildreth, John Mulford, John Moore, Ellis Cooke, Robert Bond, ffulk Danes (i. e. Davis) & Mr. Howe.
" FFOR YE FOURTH WARD."
John Cooper, Senr. [Tris]trum Hedges, John Cooper, Junr., John Cory, Mr. Howell, Mr. Odell, John Howell, Richard Smith & Thomas Sayre.
SQUADRONS FOR CUTTING UP WHALES THAT MIGHT DRIFT UP UPON THE SHORES. 1653.
FIRST SQUADRON.
THIRD SQUADRON.
Fifties.
3 Mr. Richard Smith
4 Mr. Rainor
3 Mr. Odell
2 John Lum
1 John Jagger
1 Jonas Bowre
2 Joseph Rainer
3 Thomas Halsey
4 John Howell
3 Jonas Wood
1 Barth'l'mew Smith
3 Christopher Foster
1 The Miller [Wm Ludlam,
SECOND SQUADRON.
4 Mr. Howell [Edward, Sen]
2 Mr. Gosmer [John]
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