Footnotes to Long Island History
date
Early Days in Brookhaven
by
Thomas R. Bayles
As soon as the original purchase of land from the Indians had been
made at Setauket in 1655, and this had been divided into lots or
“accommodations” among the settlers, and rights assigned to each to the
lands held in common, these pioneers began to explore the neighborhood.
They discovered that on
the south shore of the island were large meadows of salt hay and grass
which could be harvested for their cattle. So in 1657 tow large tracts
of meadow land were purchased from the Unkechaug Indians by Richard
Woodhull, acting for the town. One of these was at Noccomock, a region
on the eastern back of the Connecticut river, and one in the southern
part of Mastic, along the bay front.
The
deed to these meadows, the second earliest recorded, is dated July 20,
1657. The price paid was the usual assortment of coasts, axes, guns,
powder, lead and knives, gathered from the settlers who hoped to use the
land.
Evidently the Unkechaug’s were displeased with the deal for their land,
which had been transacted by Wyandanch, sachem of the Montauk tribe, who
was also the grand sachem of all the Long Island tribes, or groups, as
they are sometimes called. At a town meeting on August 22, 1671, a
committee was appointed to go to the Indians and settle the dispute, and
was instructed to carry “som likers with them to the Indians upon the
Town’s account.” The committee was successful, and in 1674 the same
land was repurchased from Tobaccus, the new sachem of the Unkechaugs,
and now the Town of Brookhaven owned “all the mowable meadow land,
whether higher land or lower, that lieth between a river called
Connecticut to another river called Mastic.” This was called the “New
Purchase.”
During these years other tracts of land were purchased from the
Indians, and one that is interesting in this part of the town is the
“old Purchase at South,” which included parts of the communities now
known as South Haven, Brookhaven, and Bellport. This purchase was made
from Tobaccus on June 10, 1664. The consideration given was four coats,
and 6 pounds 10 shillings in cash (16.25). The
ÂÂÂÂÂ_________________________________original deed and the receipt for
payment are still preserved among the old papers in the Brookhaven Town
Hall at Patchogue. The small settlement thrived as the years went by.
Land was cleared and planted, buildings were erected, grist mills
constructed, and the town government more clearly developed. The
increase in the population of the town from outside was slow, as
Brookhaven, like her sister towns, was an exclusive community. The
rules regarding the guying of land by anyone not already a freeholder of
Brookhaven were clearly defined. The following regulation was passed at
a town meeting on March 28, 1664. “To the end that the town be not
spoiled or impoverished it is ordered that no accommodations shall be
sold piece-meal, but entire, without the consent of the Overseers and
Constable, and that no person be admitted to be an inhabitant in this
town with out the consent of the Constable and Overseers, or the major
part thereof.”
Prospective settlers evidently had to appear before the town meeting
with their credentials and be examined before they could buy land. On
April 2, 1672, at a town meeting, it was decided that “Mr. Alcock is
accepted as a townsman upon condition he bring a letter of
recommendation or certificate of his good behaviour.”..John Thomas of
Rye as accepted as an inhabitant in 1671, and allowed to buy land
provided he promised that “he will not sell, let, nor give his
accommodations, nor any part of it to any but whom the major part of
the town shall assent to and willing to take in as inhabitants.” If he
disobeyed this order he was to forfeit all his land to the town.
Those early settlers made every effort to see that no undesirable
persons came into the town and took up land here.