Collections of the New York Historical Society

ABSTRACTS OF WILLS ON FILE IN THE SURROGATE'S OEFICE, CITY OF NEW YORK , VOL. IV. 1744-1753. WITH LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION GRANTED 1745—1753.

Captain Jeckomiah Scott was the son of Captain John Scott, who figures so extensively in the early history of the Long Island towns. His mother was Deborah Raynor, daughter of Thurston Raynor. John Scott eventually deserted his wife and left the country. The Governor appointed her brother, Joseph Raynor, and Richard Howell, to collect what they could of his property, for the benefit of his wife and family.

I have information that Thurston Raynor had a daughter Deborah who married a John Scott she was born 1648.

John Scott, Scoundrel

A Southampton tax official passes himself off as owner of nearly one-third of Long Island

By Molly McCarthy | Staff Writer

Long Island -- like the rest of the New World -- was a land of opportunity. And one of the most flamboyant of those pioneering opportunists was John Scott.

Though Scott lived less than 10 years here, his escapades proved so legendary that he is almost always immortalized in history books as Capt. John Scott of Long Island. By the age of 30, Scott claimed to own nearly a third of the Island and persuaded fellow English settlers to call him their president.

Historians have other names for him -- rogue, rascal, adventurer and swindler. Today, he'd be called a con artist.

Born in England in 1634, Scott was sent to the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a boy during the fallout of his mother country's civil war. After an apprenticeship with a Quaker family, he went to sea and acquired the respectable title of captain. In 1654, Scott arrived in Southampton, where he tried just about any occupation that would earn him the capital to buy land. He was a blacksmith, whaler, fur trader and sea merchant. Soon, he was making real estate deals with the famous sachem, Wyandanch, whom he referred to in a land deed as an ancient and great friend.

In 1658, Scott -- by now a town tax commissioner of Southampton -- set up house on land he purchased along the southern shore of Peconic Bay, where North Sea is today. After a flurry of negotiations with the Indians and settlers, the would-be land tycoon claimed to own parts of what now encompasses the Town of Brookhaven in addition to holdings in Hempstead, Quogue, Southampton, East Hampton and Huntington.

But his new property wealth was in jeopardy. If the Dutch who had settled the western end of Long Island won their claim to the rest, his holdings would be lost. He also had to worry about whether Connecticut or another colony would claim it. Connecticut Gov. John Winthrop had long insisted that his colony's charter included Long Island.

So, in 1660, the English settlers sent Capt. John Scott to the court of Charles II to make a case for an independent colony. Little did they know that Scott would be making a case for himself.

In England, Scott secured the right introductions, bought elegant clothes and donned a light-colored curling wig in the fashion of the day. A contemporary described Scott's appearance:

A proper well-sett man in a great light coulered Periwigg, rough-visaged, haveing large haire on his eyebrows, hollow eyde, a little squintain or a cast with his Eye, full faced about ye cheekes, with a Black hatt & in a streight boddyed coate cloath colour with silver lace behind.

To assure an audience with the king, Scott claimed to be a Scott of Scot's Hall in Kent. Though many historians later doubted his claim, Dorothea Scott, the heiress to Scot's Hall, was so charmed by the man that she vouched for his lineage and later gave him 2,000 pounds for what she believed to be 20,000 acres along the southern shore of Long Island.

Dorothea never saw the money again, not to mention the land, which was never Scott's to sell.

In his plea to Charles II, Scott asked for no less than to be appointed governor of Long Island. And, even though the king was said to approve of the idea, the request was denied by the king's Council of Foreign Plantations. Nevertheless, the rumor had already spread across the sea that Scott had been named governor.

Upon his return, Scott met with Connecticut officials and agreed to head an expedition to push the Dutch off Long Island and annex it to Connecticut. Then he huddled with representatives of the English towns on Long Island and persuaded them to elect him president until the Duke of York, or His Majesty could establish a government among them.

With these conflicting loyalties to Connecticut and Long Island, Scott assembled some men and rode into New Netherlands to confront the Dutch. This country you inhabit is unjustly occupied by your leaders, he shouted to Dutch settlers. It belongs to the king of England and not to the Dutch. If you acknowledge his Brittanic majesty's sovereignty you will be permitted to remain in your homes. Otherwise you will be forced to leave.

In requesting a meeting with the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, Scott signed his missive, President John Scott. Stuyvesant, who had heard rumors that Scott had been appointed governor of a new English colony, eventually agreed to the meeting.

Back in Connecticut, Winthrop got word of Scott's actions, and immediately called for his arrest. Among the charges were forgery, sedition, treason and profanation of God's Holy Day.

A band of Winthrop's men sailed to Scott's newly established estate in Setauket, which the captain had named Scot's Hall after the great English manor. They took him to jail in Hartford. Scott's arrest did draw protests from many settlers, who still believed he had their best interests at heart.

After three months in prison, Scott escaped, returning to his estate.

He did not stay long. In February, 1665, after the duke of York established his government in New York, Scott was asked to produce a deed verifying his claim to 20 miles square in the heart of Long Island -- probably much of Brookhaven.

He didn't come up with the document. Instead, he skipped Long Island and headed for Barbados. His estate was sold, and his family left destitute.

Capt. John Scott of Long Island never returned.

North Sea: The First Step

Mary Cumming

One of North Sea’s most notorious early residents was Captain John Scott, an entrepreneur or, as East Hampton historian Sherrill Foster prefers to describe him, “a wheeler and dealer.” Wherever, he went, Scott left a trail of the swindled and cheated. He even traveled to London, where he tried to con King Charles II. Actually, Scott began life in England, but was banished for bad behavior as a youth, landing in Salem where he became a bound boy to a Quaker family. In 1654, he went to sea, became a buccaneer, accumulated a fortune and began acquiring huge tracts of land, including considerable acreage in North Sea.

North Sea, at the time, was arguably something of a wheeler-dealer’s paradise with land ripe for acquisition and a port that promised excellent opportunities for trade. Also on site and available was Deborah Raynor, the granddaughter of wealthy Thurston Raynor, whom Scott wooed and wed in 1658. While she raised their two children on their “manor” at North Sea, the captain himself was rarely at home. He was too busy selling land he didn’t own, appropriating land owned by others, making dubious deals and promoting himself as president of Long Island.

When at last he was thrown in jail in Hartford, Deborah visited with a rope and helped him escape, after which he took off for Barbados, leaving her and their children to soldier on in North Sea. In 1681, having lived long without him, Deborah obtained a divorce and married Charles Sturmey; a North Sea man of reliable rectitude who died 10 years later, freeing Deborah to make the move to Barbados, where she rejoined her first husband.

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I have a Captain John SCOTT - He was born 1632 in county
Kent England - he died after 1696 in England - He was a
scoundrel for sure!!

He married 2 May 1660 at Southampton, Suffolk, Long Island, New York TO: Deborah RAYNOR not sure of her birth date, say about 1646 at Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut she died aft 21 Dec 1691 at Southampton, Suffolk, Long Island, New York - Deborah was the d/o Thurston RAYNOR and Martha WOOD -

Captain John and Deborah [RAYNOR] SCOTT were my 10th great grandparents -

They had one child, a son Jackiomiah SCOTT born 1663 at Southampton, Suffolk, Long Island, New York he died 9 March 1739 there - he married there abt 1688 TO: Mary JACKSON born 1678 at Hempstead - she died bef 26 Aug 1724 at Southampton - she was the d/o Capt. John JACKSON and Elizabeth SEAMANS

Captain John SCOTT who figures so extensively in the early history of the Long Island towns. John SCOTT eventually deserted his wife Deborah and son Jackomiah and left the country, returning to England where he died.

The Gov. appointed her brother Joseph RAYNOR and her bro-in-law Richard HOWELL, to collect what they could of his property, for the benefit of his wife and son. This is on record in one of the books of deeds in the Town Clerks office, Southampton, Suffolk, Long Island, New York, a copy of a letter written by John SCOTT to his son Jackomiah, who was the only child. Jackomiah SCOTT married Mary, the d/o Captain/Colonel John JACKSON, of Queens; another daughter Patience JACKSON md Joshua BARNS of Southampton.

Captain Jackomiah SCOTT purchased the homestead of his brother-in-law Joshua BARNS, in Southampton, where on 22 March 1706, he was living there, at the time of his death. This is now the homestead of William S. PELLETREAU.. The tombstone of Captain Jackomiah SCOTT, is in the burying ground at Southampton..it says:

JACKOMIAH SCOTT DIED MARCH 9 1749 AGE 86 YEARS

More about Captain John SCOTT -

There was a desperate appeal from the Villagers of Long Island And it was... [The below was scanned by John HAGAMAN...taken from 480 NEW-YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS.]

Remonstrance of Delegates from the Dutch Towns on Long Island, via: Amesfoort, Breuckelen, Utrecht and Boswyck to the Director- General and Council. Omitted, being duplicate of Document , supra p 374:

Before me, Pelgrom KLOCK, by the right Honorable the Director- General and Council admitted a Notary Public., residing in the village of Midwout, in New Netherland, and the undernamed witnesses, appeared Willem JACOBSEN, actual Schepen, aged 47 years and Jan HANSEN, aged abt 27 years, both neighbors and inhabitants of the village of Midwout, both known to me, who hereby depose and testify by their manly trouth in favor and for the sake of justice, on the requisition and request of Mr. Adriaen HEGEMAN, Sherrif, dweling in the village of Midwout, by and in the presnce of Jan SNEDECKER and Hendrick JORISSEN, Schepens here, that is true and truthful -

That on Friday, the 11th of January past, they, the deponents, have seen Captain John SCHOT, an Englishman, come into their, the desponents' village above named, with a troop of English horse and foot, making a great upriar, with colors flying, drums sounding, so that they, the attestants, looked on in wonder, not knoing wht it meant. And afterwards the deponents have seen the above named John SCHOT standing in front of the above named Sheriff's door with uncovered head and hat in hand, who stood and blew out the English like a mountebank. Not having been able to understand him thoroughly, furter the deponents say not; but will, if necessary and required confirm all that precedes by oath.

Thus done and executed in the village of Midwout, in New Netherland, in presence of Jan SNEDECKER and Hendrick JORISSEN, Schepens aforesaid, witness on the 15th of January 1664, who both had signed the original minute remaining with me, beside this copy.

[signed] Willem JACOBSEN VAN BOERUM, Jan HANSEN Louis JANSEN 0 his mark; Jan SNEDECKER, Hendrick JOORISSEN.. lower stood agrees, quod attestor. [signed] Pelgrom KLOCK

So much for my 10th great grandfather Captain John 1) SCOTT !!

Wilma Fleming Haynes

wilmahaynes@direcway.com or wilmahaynes@direcpc.com

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SCOTT/2004-09/1095269360