Footnotes to Long Island History
The Woodhull Story
June 4, 1953
by
Thomas R. Bayles
The first settlement in Brookhaven town at Setauket in 1655 had hardly
been made when additional tracts of land were purchased from the
Indians. In 1657 a large tract at Mastic was purchased, and in 1664 the
settlers purchased a large tract extending from the Great South bay to
the middle of the Island, and they also secured practically all the land
along the North Shore from Old Man’s harbor to Wading River.
The
consideration for this purchase was a coat, a knife, a pair of
stockings, two hoes, two hatchets and two shirts.
In 1675 the
purchase of all the land from Stony Brook to Wading River was confirmed
by the Indian Sachem Gv, and bit by bit all the land included in the
present bounds of the town was turned over to the white settlers by the
Indians. In these deals a variety of coats, stockings, knives, powder
and the like were used to trade with the Indians.
The
principal negotiator in all these transactions was Richard Woodhull, the
leading and most representative citizen of the young town. His
importance, in early affairs of the town, and as the first of the
Woodhulls who have become distinguished in the state and nation through
the years, gives him a significant place in Long Island history.
Richard
Woodhull was a man of varied accomplishments, a practical surveyor, and
a man of undoubted personal courage, a born diplomat and an able
executive, all the qualities which were reproduced in the most famous of
his descendants, General Nathaniel Woodhull, the Long Island hero in the
Revolution.
He was born
in Northamptonshire, England, September 13, 1620, and is supposed to
have come to this country as a young man. His first appearance is at
Southampton about 1644, and he may have come from Lynn, Mass., with the
original company of settlers in 1640.
He appears
to have manifested there the same untiring energy and active interest in
town affairs that made him afterward so conspicuous in the affairs of
Brookhaven town. He was frequently placed on juries, on committees, and
on many important missions. He appears in Brookhaven town 1657 when he
purchased of Wyandanch two necks of meadow land at Mastic for the town.
He was appointed a magistrate for the town by the court at Hartford May
16, 1661, which position he held for many years. He was one of the
patentees of the town in 1666 and again in 1686.
He was
appointed to many offices and acted on many important commissions, one
of the most conspicuous of which was that masterly stroke of diplomacy
by which the title of the town to the whole northern territory was
forever freed from the complication of Indian claims under which it was
liable to fall.
His was a
character which for principles of honor and justice, unselfish motives,
far-seeing discretion, kindliness of manners, and constant zeal in
public service has few superiors among the honored names that grace the
first pages of American history.
Richard
Woodhull died October 17, 1690, and his tombstone in the Setauket
cemetery carries the following inscription.
“Richard
Woodhull, born in Thenford, England, 1620; settled in Setauket 1656,
died Oct. 17, 1690. Every inch a nobleman. Richard, 2nd.
Born 1649. Died 1699. A genuine son of his father.”
“The tombs
of these men destroyed by British soldiers in 1777, a reverent son
restores in 1901.”