History of East Hampton, New York
 


Including an Address

Delivered at the Celebration of the Bi-Centennial Anniversary of its Settlement in 1849,

INTRODUCTIONS To the four printed volumes of its Records, with other Historic Material, an Appendix and Genealogical Notes BY HENRY P. HEDGES.

"They haunt your breezy hillsides, green vales and thundering floods, They linger by your gliding streams and mid your moss-draped woods, They sit beside your green old graves in shadow and in sheen, And move among your household gods though voiceless and unseen. Then ye who make your happy homes where once their homes have been, Deem also this your heritage, to keep their memories green, To shield within your heart of hearts, the glorious trust ye hold, And bear unstained the names they bofe, those brave, proud men of old." --Cornelia Huntington.

SAG-HARBOR: J. H. HUNT, PRINTER. 1897.



PREFACE

An address was delivered in 1849, at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the Town of East-Hampton. Introductions were printed with the four volumes of the Town Records. That address forms the first two and the introductions the next four chapters of this book. The writer was advised to revise and re-cast all these. But the address is by age almost historic. That and the Introductions are existing unities hard to transform. The writer is in his eightieth year, with limited activities, and unable to do this work. It must be in this shape and now or never. The last six chapters comprise results of years of thought and study, as the pressure of business and the practice of an arduous profession permitted. The appendix contains material historically invaluable. The genealogy is compiled with care and an aim for exactness more than quantity. The years of toil and historic labor embodied in this book, the experienced alone can know. That it is not more symmetric none more than the writer regrets. It is far below his ideal. For the reasons stated perhaps its criticism should be gentle. To the many friends aiding in this work, whose number prevents special mention, thanks! The history of this town is worthy of the most unremitting toil and the loftiest genius. The memory of our forefathers demands the best their sons can give. Back, far back in the early English settlements of this fair land are found the springs from whence its rich blessings flowed. But for the virtue, the piety, the self denial, the wisdom, the genius of the fathers, this Nation in the largeness of its freedom, the breadth of its education, the universality of its equal rights, the solidity of its unbroken union, the grandeur of its territorial greatness, the march of its beneficent mission, could not have been. As a guiding constellation in the heavens, such thoughts have cheered the labors, softened the cares, dispersed the gloom, inspired the gratitude of the writer in compiling this work. May it inspire like thoughts in the hearts of the living and of coming generations. With that hope it was written. To that high purpose it is dedicated.

H. P. HEDGES.  BRIDGE-HAMPTON, July, 1897.


CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
ADDRESS OF 1849.
Topics Covered within:

The Introduction, The Settlement, The Settlers, Culture of the Soil, Whaling,  The Courts,  Connecticut Laws adopted, The Indians, Growth of the Settlement, Amagansett and Wainscott settled

CHAPTER II
ADDRESS OF 1849 CONTINUED.
Topics Covered within:

Combination and Laws of Connecticut Adopted,  Witchcraft, The Churches, The Ministers,  The Spirit of Freedom, The Petition for Representation in Government,  The Patent of 1686,. Samuel Mulford,  The Revolution,  Capt. John Dayton, Clinton Academy,  Thoughts suggested, Conclusion

CHAPTER III
INTRODUCTION TO VOL. I OF THE TOWN RECORDS, 1649-1680.
Topics Covered within:

Invitation to the Writer, Government a Necessity,  Value of the Records,  The Town Meeting,  Representative Government Denied,The Settlement Extended, Witchcraft, Whaling,  The Title to Lands, The Church,  Lion Gardiner, Character Fixed

CHAPTER IV
INTRODUCTION TO VOL. II OF THE TOWN RECORDS, 1680-1720.
Topics Covered within:

The Growth of the Colony, State of the Church,  The Robber Government of the Province,  The Town Resists their Oppression,  The Address of 1685,  Leisler-Sloughter, Improvement of Lands in Common a Failure,  Whaling, Farming, Shoemaking, The Fort,  The Burying Ground,  Death of Minister James, Rev. Nathaniel Huntting, the Ocean

CHAPTER V
INTRODUCTION TO VOL. III OF THE TOWN RECORDS, 1702-1734.
Topics Covered within:

The Mother Country,  The Plague in London,  The Great Fire of 1666,  The Wars,  Emigration,  The Power of Great Britain Predominates,  Samuel Mulford,  Simplicity of Manners,  Genealogy, Trade, Commerce, Manufactures, The Church, Structure raised in 1717

CHAPTER VI
INTRODUCTION TO VOL. IV OF THE TOWN RECORDS, 1734-1849.
Topics Covered within:

Progress of the Age, Allottment of Lands, Cattle Marks,  Montauk,  Town Legislation,  A Dog Law,  The Revolution,  Old Style Changed, Gardiner's Island Annexed to East-Hampton,  Notices of Ministers Huntting, Buell, Beecher, Phillips, Condit, Eleazer Miller, Nathaniel Gardiner, Thomas Wickham, Jonathan S. Conkling, Abraham Parsons, Abel Huntington, M. D., David Hedges, Jr., Josiah C. Dayton, Samuel Miller, Concluding Remarks

CHAPTER VII
Topics Covered within:

THE INDIANS--Death of the Manhansett Sachem,  Sachem's Hole,  Wyandance Attains Supremacy,  The Montauk Tribe,  Their Number, Wars with Pequots and Narraghansetts,  Navigation,  Wampum,  Religion, Missions, Cockenoe de Long Island, Indian Influence on the Anglo Saxon, Beman Father and Son, Love of War, An Epitaph, The Trustees of the Town of East-Hampton

CHAPTER VIII
Topics Covered within:

The Original Dwellings and their Location, The Later Dwellings and their Surroundings, Progress, Home Manufacture, Economic and Social Life, Literature,  The Galaxy of Mind,. Health,  County of Kent,  Maidstone, Substitutes for Money,  Religion, The Sabbath, Care of Indians, Pity for the Poor

CHAPTER IX
Topics Covered within:

Government Impartial, Prudent, Forest Protected, Combination with Connecticut and New England, Assembly of 1665, Duplicity of the Duke of York, Southampton Disputes the Line, Some Old Lots Located, Emigration, Wealth and Population, The Tea Kettle,  Standpoint for a View

CHAPTER X
Topics Covered within:

The Revolution, p Major Cockeaue,  The Refugees, The Culloden,  Major Andre,  Dr. Gardiner,  Dr. Buell, Population, The Quit Rent,  Shipwrecks, The Storm, The Amistad Case

CHAPTER XI
Topics Covered within:

Three Beechers in One Day, John Howard Payne, Miss Cornelia Huntington, General Training, The Whale Chase

CHAPTER XII
Topics Covered within:
Sag-Harbor



APPENDIX
Indian Deed for East-Hampton, 1648 and Assignment thereof, 1651
Trial of Wyandanch
Oath of Town Officers 
Address at a General Training in June, 1682 
Tax List of East-Hampton, Sept. 8, 1683 
 Montauk Deed, Aug. 1, 1660 
   "                "    Hither End, Feb. 11, 1661 
  "                 "   Abstract, Dec. 1, 1670
  "                 "   The Eastern part, July 26, 1687
  "                 "   Abstract, 1702-3
 Dongan's Patent of the Town, 1686
Letter of Freeholders of Suffolk County asserting rights, etc., 1701
General Association of 1775 
Muster Roll, Capt. Ezekiel Mulford's Company, 1776 
List of Town Officers, 1650 to 1750 
List of Supervisors, 1699 to 1848 
List of Church Members removed, 1696 to 1800 
J. Madison Huntting's Journal, 1841 to 1864 
Facetia 
Soldiers and Seamen who served in the War for the Union 1861-65 from E. Hampton 
Genealogy Of East Hampton Families
Baker Hand The Down Street Osborns
Barnes Hedges Wainscott Osbornes
Chatfield Deacon David Hedges Parsons
Conkling Hedges Family Of Patchogue Schellenger
Dayton Hicks Sherrill
Dimon Huntting Squires
Dominy Miller Stratton
Edwards Andrew Miller of Miller's Place Talmage
Filer Mulford NJ Branch of the Talmage Family
Fithian Murdock Genealogy of the Talmage family
Gardiner Osborn Van Scoy
Additional names of persons or families, transient or resident in East Hampton near the years named
Names of early settlers are not now in East-Hampton