Montauk's Proprietors – 1600 to 1691
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Montauk’s Proprietors – 1600 to 1691 September 5th 2002 ood evening. My name is Bob Ficalora, and I thank you for coming tonight. This is the third lecture in a five-week series intended to share my research G pertaining to the powerful nature of our rights, liberties and privileges as property owners or residents of Montauk. The first lecture was delivered on August 22nd entitled “Genesis of Liberty – 1492 to 1691” in which I described the feudal origins of private property and the development of jurisdictions and liberties at law that evolved dialectically with them. This covered colonial patents in general and the Dongan patent specifically. The second lecture of August 29th was entitled “Defense of Liberty – 1691 to 1791”. The contentious republican rebellion of the 1680s and the first convening of the Assembly of the Royal Province of New York in 1691 were covered with emphasis on the arrest of Jacob Leisler. In its first law (Chapter 1 of the Laws of 1691) New York surrendered to Royal Authority and in its second law (Chapter 2) received a royal guarantee of the enforceability of the patents and charters to bodies politic previously issued. I emphasize that as a result, the Dongan patent is not only protected by our state and federal Constitutions, but by the laws of the State of New York as well. This lecture, entitled “Montauk’s proprietors – 1600 to 1924” will cover the purchases from the Indians by the proprietors using contracts that remain enforceable today, to the efforts of the Proprietors of Montauk to protect their rights through those contracts and the Dongan Patent up to their defeat in 1924. This presentation is in lecture format, so I ask that all questions be held until the end. 1 Bob Ficalora, 2002 I was asked to discuss my discoveries pertaining to the tribes’ aboriginal condition so I will touch upon it briefly now. In 1600 there were no European claims to land in northeastern America. There had been a patent issued to Sir Walter Raleigh for the Virginia colony, but attempts at settlement had failed – at least once due to suspected Indian attack. So what existed here in Montauk and Long Island? By all accounts there remained a healthy and thriving native community. In the eighteenth year of his reign, in 1620, king James I granted letters patent known as the Charter of New England. A petition had been made by some of his “well disposed subjects” for the purpose of establishing plantations in America. He notes the success an earlier colony, that I think was Virginia, and having made them “…one distinct and entire body by themselves, giving unto them their distinct Lymitts and Bounds, and have upon their like humble request, granted unto them divers Liberties, Priveliges, Enlargements and Immunityes, as in and by our severall Letters-Patents it doth and may more at large appears.” The king then goes on to consider the petition for letters patent for the lands at New England and goes on to write: “And for asmuch as We have been certainly given to understand divers of our good Subjects, that have for these many Years past frequented those Coasts and Territoryes, between the Degrees of Fourty and Fourty-Eight, that there is noe other the Subjects of any Christian King or State, by any Authority of their Soveraignes, Lords, or Princes, actually in Possession of any of the said lands and Precincts, whereby any Right, Claim, Interest, or Title may, might or ought by that Meanes accrue, belong, or appertaine unto them, or any of them. OK, so the land had been visited and was unclaimed by any European power but it then goes on to say. And also for that We have been further given certainly to knowe, that within these late years there hath been by God’s Visitation reigned a wonderfull Plague, together with many horrible Slaughters, and Murders, committed amoungst the Savages and brutish People there, heretofore 2 Bob Ficalora, 2002 inhabiting, in a Manner to the utter Destruction, Devastacion, and Depopulacion of that whole Territorye, so that there is not left for many Leagues together in a Manner, any that doe claime or challenge any Kind of Interests therein, nor any other Superiour Lord or Soveraigne to make Claim hereto, whereby We in our Judgment are persuaded and satisfied that the appointed Time is come in which Almighty God in his Goodness and Bountie towards us and our People, hath thought fitt and determined, that those large and goodly territories, deserted as it were by their naturall Inhabitants, should be possessed and enjoyed by such of our Subjects and People as heretofore have and hereafter shall by his Mercie and Favour, and by his Powerfull Arme, be directed and conducted hither.” Anthropologists believe that at the time Christopher Columbus arrived that the population of First Peoples was many times the population of Europe. The above charter was made almost one hundred and thirty (130) years after Columbus arrived and almost fifty years after the first charter was issued to Sir Walter Raleigh for Virginia. It is evident that the reason for the slowness of the conquest of America was that it had been heavily populated by the Indians, but was now depopulated and open for settlement. The tribes of Long Island and Connecticut up through Massachusetts and Canada were of the Algonquin language group. Although there were many dialects that had evolved, they were able to communicate among each other much, I suppose, as we can communicate with a true Alabama good ol’ boy in the South. When Long Island was first settled, thirteen tribes or groups of Indians inhabited it. On the east end of the Island there were the Shinnecock, Manhasset and the Montaukett. I use the name “Montaukett” because it has appeared in older documents and the use of syllables is more consistent with other Algonquin words. I note also that “Montauk” was referred to as “Montaukut” in official correspondence from Easthampton to Governor Leisler on March 10, 1690. 3 Bob Ficalora, 2002 The Montaukett are reputed to have been the most influential or “warlike” tribe on Long Island. Montaukut was very much a holy place among them and the most prized wampum (made of seashell beads) came from Montauk. Wyandanch, the sachem of the Montauks, was established (apparently by his friend Lion Gardener) as the grand sachem of the tribes on Long Island and his signature was somehow deemed to required on all deeds to land in addition to that of the local sachem. A deed to Smithtown conveyed by Wyandanch to Lion Gardiner was issued in 1659. It was at that time occupied by the Nesaquake Indians. Wyandanch seems to have been the friend of the white men always and he made the relations with the Indians of Long Island peaceful and harmonious. Wyandanch refused to enter into any conspiracy with the hostile tribes from across the sound, and always maintained a friendly attitude towards the white settlers. His people are now gone, and his body rests sadly in an unmarked grave in Montauk. I will digress a moment to discuss Wampum, an artifact known for its use as money in the first settlements – but was more than that. Wampum has highly prized by the Indians for more than its beauty, although that was prized too. What is little known is that wampum was used, by the Iroquois at least, as story beads used to keep oral histories. The women kept the history by using Wampum as story beads to teach their daughters across generations. Benjamin Franklin told how the Iroquois were able to give complete circumstantial and legal articulation of treaties and agreements that were almost a century old without a written language. The Iroquois, however, were not Algonquins like the Montaukett. The Iroquois were a town dwelling confederation of tribes with extensive lands under cultivation. The Montaukett, on the other hand, were a more nomadic tribe living upon abundant hunting, fishing and shell fishing and, later at least, the cultivation of corn. While the Iroquois are more famous for the development of their civilization, it is said that the Montaukett were of equivalent stature and bearing. 4 Bob Ficalora, 2002 They moved freely about Long Island both on foot and canoe. They were a tall long-legged people who could walk with great strides. Stephen Talkhouse, also known as Steven Pharaoh, is said to have walked to Brooklyn in a day. He was among the last legally recognized full-blood Montauketts, and I will talk more about him later in this lecture. The first English settlers on Long Island arrived in what is now Southampton from Lynne, Massachusetts in 1640. Their right to acquire lands of the Indians was granted by a patent from James Farrett, the Deputy of the Earl of Sterling, Secretary of the Kingdom of Scotland. The Earl had previously received a charter for the entirety of Long Island. John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay, settled the patent for the Earl and Theophilous Eaton, the Governor of the colony of New Haven, witnessed it. The Farrett Patent expressly reserved trade with the Indians to the Earle of Sterling and forbade trades for Wampum. It then established that the recipients were the only men capable of purchasing the lands laid out in the patent from the Indians. Shortly thereafter, on December 13th, 1640, the first purchase of the lands of Southampton was made of the Indians. In that document a reservation was established for the Indians to “break up ground for their own use” on the west side of “Shinecock plaine”.