Brookhaven Town
was settled in Setauket in 1655, and the small community thrived as
the years went by.
Land was cleared
and planted, buildings were erected, grist mills constructed, and
the town government more clearly developed. The increase of the
population through outsiders coming in was slow, as Brookhaven Town,
like her sister towns was an exclusive community.
The rules
regarding the buying of land by anyone not already a freeholder of
the town were clearly defined. On March 16, 1664, the inhabitants
of this town passed the following resolution at their town meeting.
“To the end that the town be not spoiled or impoverished it is
ordered that no accommodations shall be sold piece meal, but entire,
without the consent of the Overseers and Constable, and that no
person be admitted to be an inhabitant in this town without the
consent of the Constable and Overseers or the major part thereof.”
Prospective
citizens evidently had to appear before the town meeting with their
credentials and be thoroughly examined before they could buy land.
So at a town meeting held on April 2, 1672 it was decided that “Mr.
Alcock is accepted as a townsman upon condition that he bring a
letter of recommendation of his good behavior.” Even then they were
bound by certain restrictions. John Thomas of Rye was accepted as
an inhabitant of the town in 1671 and allowed to buy land provided
he promise that “he will not sell, let nor give his accommodations,
nor any part of it to any buy whom the major part of the town shall
assent to and willing to take in as inhabitants, and if he shall
sell, let or give, contrary to the major part of the town, then he
shall forfeit all his land to the town.”
Two important men
in the early life of the town were Richard Woodhull and Richard
Floyd.
Mr. Woodhull was a
leader among the pioneers of Brookhaven and was born in Thenford,
Northamptonshire, England and left the country on account of
political trouble shortly before the restoration of Charles II to
the throne, and coming to the new colonies in America, settled in
Jamaica, Long Island. He did not remain there long but soon after
1655 joined the young settlement at Brookhaven. Mr. Woodhull’s
ability soon made him a leader in this community. He was made the
representative of the town in a general court which convened in
Hartford, Conn, and in 1666 was appointed justice of the Court of
Assizes, and seven years later he was commissioned a magistrate of
Brookhaven. His name appears on a great many of the early documents
of the town, and he was appointed to numerous offices and acted on
many important commissions. One of his outstanding accomplishments
was a masterly stroke of diplomacy by which the title of the town on
the northern part was forever freed from the complication of Indian
claims.
The other
important figure in the early life of Brookhaven Town was Richard
Floyd, whose descendants played such an important part in the life
of the South Haven Presbyterian Church. He was born in
Brocknockshire, Wales, about 1620, and because of a strong desire to
worship as he pleased without being called a “dissenter”, came to
Brookhaven. He bought up land as fast as he could and was soon
recognized as a leader by being made a local magistrate and colonel
of the militia.