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Founders of the town of Southampton
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Southold, Southampton, and East Hampton
New Netherland Institute - Eastern Long Island
In 1640, a group of "straitened" English pioneers left the town of Lynn in the Massachusetts Bay colony in search of land and a better life. They thought they had found it when they reached a pleasant cove on the northwestern coast of Long Island (believed to be the site of the present-day city of Oyster Bay). As far as they knew, this land fell under the patent of the English Lord Stirling, and so they entered into an agreement with the aristocrat's agent for them to found a community. What they didn't understand was that the Dutch claimed the whole of Long Island, and when news of their settlement made its way back to New Amsterdam, the director, Willem Kieft, sent a contingent of soldiers to the spot. After an altercation, the Dutch imprisoned some of the Englishmen, convincing the settlers to try another place. They moved further east, and established a community, which they named Southold-the first European settlement of what would become Suffolk County. Soon other English villages-Southampton and East Hampton-sprang up, and the English takeover of eastern Long Island was under way.
The town was founded in 1640, when settlers from Lynn, Massachusetts established residence on lands obtained from local Shinnecock Indian Nation.[3] The first settlers included eight men, one woman, and a boy who came ashore at Conscience Point. These men were Thomas Halsey, Edward Howell, Edmond Farrington, Allen Bread, Edmund Needham, Abraham Pierson the Elder, Thomas Sayre, Josiah Stanborough, George Welbe, Henry Walton and Job Sayre. [3] By July 7, 1640, they had determined the town boundaries. During the next few years (1640–43), Southampton gained another 43 families.
References
- Town of Southampton - Historic Division The Town of Southampton, New York State’s first English colony, traces its history to 1640, when a small group of settlers from Lynn, Massachusetts, set out to form their own settlement. Eastern Long Island was then inhabited by Native Americans; on its westerly end where the settlers first landed, it was claimed by the Dutch. Finding a spot to stake out their claim to “eight miles square of land” was therefore far from easy, but after exploring the southern coastline of Long Island Sound, the settlers discovered a secluded harbor now known as North Sea Harbor. It is there that the Lynn colonists finally made landfall at a place later called Conscience Point, and founded a settlement they named Southampton. The Town of Southampton is proud to be New York State’s first English colony.
- Town Records Book 1 (PDF) “The First Book of Records of the Town of Southampton with other Ancient Documents of Historic Value.” John H. Hunt, Printer, Sag Harbor, New York 1874. More than a book of records, William S. Pelletreau's first volume of "ancient documents" contains the transcriptions of Indian deeds, patents, and other legal documents that defined the boundaries and internal governance of the original settlement. Beginning with The Disposall of the Vessell dating from 1639, the book progresses through the election of town officers, land exchanges and disputes, Indian affairs and many other legal and social matters. It concludes with land transactions of the 1660s.
- 3. “Indian Deed of December 13, 1640”