ID R Figlj1:Lj Lio1umr of Ltrtorlls
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ID�r figlJ1:lJ lIo1umr of ltrtOrllS .ft". 1893--1927 The mission of the Historic Division of the Town Clerk's Office is to preserve and protect tile Town of Southampton's historic Iloldings for generations to come. The few copies that we have of our original editions of tile Hecord Books of the Town of Southampton are now in need of preservation. In addition to preserving our Town's record books, our goal is to provide improved access to those people tllat are interested in exploring the wonderful history of the TowlI of Southampton. Tecllllological developments have allowed us to scan the originals ill order to reprint each volume and also to post tllem on our website offering lIew search capabilities that have not been available ill the past. Hespeetfully yours, Sundy A. Schermeyer, Town Clerk CEBTIF1CATION Slale of New York ) ss.: Co unty of Suffolk ) Offiee of the Town Clerk Soulh>lmillon, New York This is to certify that I, Sundy A. Schermeyer, Clerk of the Town of Southampton. in the said County of Suffolk, State of New York, have eOllll,arcd the original Eighth Book of Records of the Town of Southaml'totl, Lotlg IslOlld, N. Y. dated 1893 held in the Town of Soulhampton's Historic Division and certify Il,al t his is >I correct transcrilJl of said original. IN WITiVESS WHER.EOF, 1 have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said Town this 12th day of June, 2010. �.� SUN[)Y A. SCHEnMEYEIt Clerk of the T"wlI "f S"ulh"'''111011 A Error" of i;i!l�1tnlYll at ",. WOIlltl of &outqamptnn. N. I. LIBER A From 1893 to 1927 Inclusive Transcribed Under Direction Of The Town Board CERTIFICATION Compared with the original records of the Trustees of the town of Southampton. The printed copy is the same as the original, errata excepted. H. D. SLEIGHT Sag Harbor. N. Y.. 1928. This Volume of the Records is transcribed under direction of Edward P. White, Town Clerk, subsequent to a vote of the Town Board, ordering the printing of the Records. It is published at the expense of the Town and by its authority. 1928 Printed By THE HAMPTON PRESS Bridgehampton, N, Y. 1990 PREFACE The Liber A. Southampton Town, includes the High way Records, etc., from *1893 to 1927 inclusive. transcrib ed under direction of the Town Board, and a committee appointed to reproduce such Records. The whole is published at the expense of the town and by its authority, and is official. Great care bOas been exer cised in comparing all the metes and bounds with the record in the Liber; also in comparing the printed proof sheets with the Liber. Some slight inaccuracies may and do appear in spelling, where the text has been changed to make the record more plain, but no compass course or figure has been changed. It is correct and covers such entries in whole or in abstract. EDWARD P. WHITE. Town Cleek Committee. -For hi,hways 1809--1810 see Vol IV, printed Town Records. For highways 1810-1898 .ee Llber D. Town Records. FOREWORD The Liber A, Southampton Town Records, contains releases, dedications and condemnation of lands and records of highways for years 1893 and 1927 inclusive. Great care has been exercised in making the transcripts and abstracts and all copy for the printer has been com pared with the original record; the printer's proofs have also been painstakingly compared word for word, letter for letter, and figure for figure, with the original text. If error has crept in, it has not been for want of supervision and comparison where surveyors' metes and bounds are reproduced. The highways recorded are in all parts of Southamp ton Town. Among some of the larger surveys and record roads are Flanders highway, highways on Shinnecock Hills, North Sea and Towd roads, Quogue Beach, Long and Short Beaches leading to North Haven, Riverhead Quogue road, Shinnecock Bay to Peconic Bay, St. An drew's road, South Beach, Tuckahoe road, etc. Some woodland roads, two rods wide, declared to be record highways from long usage, by the Superintendent of Highways, are : Brook road, Haines' path, Merchant's path, Old Farm road, Sprig Tree path, Toll Gate road, etc. INTRODUCTORY The Liber A, of Southampton Town, records the high ways laid Qut, surveyed and entered as record roads during years 1893-1927 inclusive. It contains a listing of dedi cations of land for highway purposes, releases, condemna tions, award of damages by commissioners. A great part of the Liber A, has been transcribed in whole ; where ab stracts are given, an effort has been made to include all information of value, leaving out only such paragraphs as would he repetitions and legalistic terms well understood tn the form of record entry. When Southampton was first settled, in June, 1640, of course, there were no highways. Such means of passing and repassing were trails used by the Indians. The town lands had heen purchased by Proprietors. They at first set aside "commons." These were very wide highways, as we understand the means of passing today, and they were used for two purposes, to pass and to pasture ; passing highways were also provided, and are quite different from highways and while providing means of ingress to wood lots, meadow lots and beaches and egress therefrom, were distinctive from the individual rights of way that often are incorporated in conveyances of our time. II INTRODUCTORY The purchasers of the Town, i. e., the Proprietors, not only owned all the lands within the limits of the Town Purchase. They owned the highways. This is plainly in di.cated in Town Records. There are many instances where highways have been sold outright, dosed, leased, etc., and provision was made for regulation of the cattle, sheep. horses, hogs and geese that went upon the high ways. The avails from pasturing animals on the highways went to the Proprietor land owners and not, until later years, to the town. It should be borne in mind that Southampton at first had 40 Proprietors ; the number was increased to 51-the highest number. The heirs and as signs of the 51 of course grew in number and, as the years went hy, and the town common lands were divided, there was an increase of those who held "right" in the common, or undivided lands, .and a decrease in the area of the lands remaining to be divided. Where lands were allotted and where highways were laid out through allotted lands, such highways are in a separate class from the highways which had been, or were to be laid out by the Proprietors, as tenants in common, through the common lands owned by the Proprietors associated, and who were managed by the Trustees of the Proprietors chosen at town meeting. Town affairs were also managed by these Town Trustee·s who acted for the town, or freeholders and commonalty, so the duties of the Trustees were dual duties. It was quite well understood that a freeholder of lands he had purchased from the Proprietors, or from an allottee, owned no right in the undivided common land and had no right to pasture the highways, unless he had bought such a "right" when taking up his "freehold." A freeholder could use the high ways for passing. But a freeholder, unless possessed of Proprietor "right," did not share in the avails of the pas turing of highways, neither did he have right to the pro ducts of the waters, within the town, oysters, clams, fish. INTRODUCTORY II! for such rights the Proprietors asserted. The Proprietors leased the highways, they leased the fisheries, they grant ed, sold and leased the mill streams, under certain reserva tions. There was nothing in the town, other than lands they had allotted among themselves, or sold as Proprie tors, or as individuals (after taking up their allotment of lands), to freeholders, but what was owned by the Pro prietors. The Town Records abound with instances to sustain this belief. This condition continued until 1818, when other regulations of lands and waters and beaches were made by the State Legislature. The first regular division of land recorded is called the "Sagaponack division." It was made in 1653. It was "divided and disposed into 41 one hundred and 50£ lot ments." In 1655, January 25, the General Court ordered : "That no inhabitant within the bowndes of this towne shall sell his hawse and land or any part thereof unto any person yt is a forrainer, at any time hence forth except the person bee such as the town do like of." In 1657, at town meeting, "there were chosen five men to lay out the most convenient wayes to certain lands. The wayes laid out to be for perpetuity." This was done to settle a controversy. In first volume of Town Records, (1640--1659). the "plains" are mentioned as "wayes of passing," and also highways of various widths, as well as "cart tracks." In 1659, October 6, the Record informs, to cite but one instance, th<!-t "itwas granted to Mr. Edward Jones to have 6 acres of ground at the end of Thomas Cooper'!! home lot, only a highway six poles betwixt to bee layd out by those the towne shall appoint." IV INTRODUCTORY Divisions of common land were made m 1676, 1677, 1679, 1680, 1687, 1712, 1738, 1745, 1763. The first division of land in the western part of thf' town, (west of Canoe Place) was made in 1673. Followed divisions in 1683, 1686, 1712, 1738, 1763 and the last divi sion (in the Quogue Purchase) was laid out in 1782.