SOUTHOLD TOWN RECORDS COPIED AND EXPLANATORY NOTES ADDED BY J. \VICKHAM CASE. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TOWNS OF SOUTHOLD AND RIVERHEAD. 1882. Co~GJJT, 1882, B'Y rHE TOWNS OF SOUTHOLD AND RIVERHEAD, Nl!:.W \"ORK TOWN CLERK'S CERTIFICATE. This may certify that I have myself compared this printed volume, being essentially a copy of Liber A and of Liber B of the Town Records of Southold, or caused it to be compared, with the original manuscript Records in my office, and that the printed copy is the same as the original, errata excepted, and except also that ab­ stracts have been made of some documents written in exceedingly verbose and technical language; but in all these cases the fact is indicated that abstracts only are printed. These abstracts, however, give all names, dates and boundaries mentioned in the original entries. HENRY W. PRINCE, Town Clerk. SOUTHOLD, March 14, 1882. INTRODUCTION. This Yolume owes its existence, in rart at least, to the growing appreciation of the faith, wisdom and vir­ tue of the founders of the Puritan Towns of New Eng­ land. Southold, in the early years of its history, was one of these civil and religious organizations. These Puritan Towns maintained a large measure of independence and self-government, but they were also united for more general purposes under the several larger jurisdictions of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Con­ necticut, New Haven, etc. The conditions of the full organization of one of these small but self-conscious republics required a body of freemen for its political life and activity, and a church of Christ for its moral and intellectual culture and its religious welfare and fruitfulness. Both the civil and religious departments supported each other. New towns and churches were organized from time to time as the increasing population and the enlarging extent of settlement and cultivation of the soil demanded; but however many and various became the employ­ ments and occupations of the people, the fundamental structure of their civil and religious institutions re- mained the same. · It was the object of the people to found communities that would live and thrive in virtue and piety, free from wrong and oppression, enjoying the prosperity and iv INTRODUCTION. comfort which naturally spring from the observance of biblical and Christian principles. They broke away from the old prescriptions which feudalism and human lordship in church and state had imposed upon the dwellers in England, and they plunged into the vastness and desolation of the wilderness in order to establish political bodies and Christian churches with more free­ dom, equality and justice for the people at large than it was possible for them to gain and enjoy in the land of their birth. They were intelligent, faithful and resolute to accomplish an enterprise which would afford a purer, better and more biblical order of life, manners, legislation and jurisprudence than could be elsewhere attained among mankind in their day and generation. Their wisdom, devotion and courage were not in vain. They possessed indomitable patience, Christian zeal, vigorous industry, and political sagacity; and their virtues were rewarded. If they did not build better than they knew, they constructed institutions far superior to any among their contemporaries; far more excellent than the best which had ever been established in any part of the world ; and the benign influence of these Puritan Towns has become the pervading and most effective element in the political and religious history of the United States. The peculiar spirit that first appeared among men in the Puritan Towns of New England, and which has made the New England character unlike any other human character disclosed to us in the annals of the world, is spreading its influence in the United States, and even beyond. our own country,_with an undecaying vigor, energy and fruitfulness, so that it may be said, in view of the vastness of its persent field of activity, to be surpassing · its greatest achievements in any previous age. It not only obeys the Divine mandate, saying to it: "Go west;" but it also hears the voice of humanity, INTRODUCTI0:--1". V in ignorance and lowliness, in want of thrift and com­ fort, calling to it and saying: " Come south;" and it heeds the plaintive voice. There is an increasing demand, both in America and Europe, for that local self-government which the Puri­ tans established in every church and town of New England. This demand for "Home Rule" is not heard in Ireland only. It finds expression in other lands. It indicates the growing desire of the people for freedom in both church and state. It also manifests the increas­ ing determination of the great body of citizens to im­ prove their condition, as to physical comforts, intellec­ tual culture, moral elevation, industrial activity, and thrift and competence generally. Civilization had made its conquest of Europe by such steps and in the use of such measures, and had in its progress established such institutions as to render it impossible for any human effort or energy, at the time of the settlement of New England, to found in the old world institutions so free, biblical and equal as the Puritan fathers planted on the virgin soil and the wide continent of the new world. Through successive generations, revolutions and re­ forms, Great Britain and France have been advancing towards a position which is, in many of its features, the same that the fathers of New England reached almost at a bound. Representative and responsible govern­ ment ; a change of measures and of men in the adminis­ tration of public affairs according to the judgment of the people; a comprehensive and supreme government for general purposes and measures; a subordinate and economical government for local interests; a quick response to the manifestation of the people's will in all things, and especially in the assessment and collection of taxes ; a faithful discharge of public trusts, not for individual or personal honor or emolument, but for the vi INTRODUCTION. public convenience and welfare; the least regulation and restriction that will afford the greatest good to the greatest num her ; in a word, a government of the peo­ ple, for the people, by the people, in both the political and religious life of mankind, according to the word of God-these are the chief features of the new civilization which the Puritans introduced, planted, and made to thrive on the continent to which they fled from perse­ cution in their native land; on the continent which received them, few in number and suffering from ex­ treme physical weakness; but on the continent where, with unshaken faith, divine patience, heroic courage, and penetrating foresight, they laid the foundations of many generations. They rest from their labors. Their works follow them. The character and purposes of the founders of these Puritan Towns indicate the history which they made while they Ii ved here. They were, first of all, men of Christian faith and devotion. The acorn, from which sprang the mighty oak of our national union, may be seen in the constitution of the United Colonies of New England; and, as the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America is the key to that grandest document of the eighteenth century, so the first lines of the constitution of the United Colonies of New England are characteristic of the spirit and aims of the men who framed those fundamental provisions for the safety, prosperity and usefulness of the Christians and freemen who laid the solid foundations our republic, and who, through their posterity, are perpetuating their benign influence to a greater or less extent in every civilized nation on the earth. There are few state papers, trea­ ties, con.ventions, alliances, or constitutions in our hands from the mind and pen of statesmen in the seven­ teenth century more worthy of the attentive considera­ tion of American citizens than the constitution of the INTRODUCTION, vii United Colonies of New England, adopted on the 19th of May, 1643. The first lines of the constitutional articles of that G nion are these : " Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace." As they were of the same mind, they formed their perpetual union " both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties ')f the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and w~lfare." The utmost care was taken to guard and mr intain the self-existence and the self-gov­ ernment of each of the United Plantations and J urisdic­ tions; but the. general interests and welfare of all were committed and entrusted to the control and protection of the Union. Southold, almost from the settlement of the Town, possessed the advantages of this larger and more com­ prehensive and powerful Union, as well as the fostering care of the government of the colony of New Haven. One of the reasons assigned in the constitutional articles of the Union, as the grounds of its formation, has reference to the disruption of the government of England at that time ; · the great political and religious agitations and upheavals in that country; and the con­ sequent absorption and concentration of the minds and forces of the people there upon their own affairs and interests at home. The great leaders of the people were determined to support and maintain at least the anciF-nt rights and privileges of freeborn Englishmen. Some of the Puri­ tans were furthermore eager and resolute to extend the area of the freedom of the people in both civil and re­ ligious affairs.