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Southold is a town in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located in the northeastern tip of the county, on the North Fork of Long Island. The population was 20,599 at the 2000 census. The town also contains a hamlet named Southold, which was settled in 1640.
History
Southold was settled in 1640 and in most histories is reported as the first English settlement on Long Island in the future New York State although Lion Gardiner established a manor on Gardiner Island in East Hampton a year earlier in 1639. The Dutch had settled around Albany, New York in 1615 and at Manhattan in 1625.
English Puritans from New Haven Colony in Connecticut settled in Southold on October 21, 1640. Under the leadership of the Reverend John Youngs, with Peter Hallock (after lots were drawn, the first to step ashore), the settlement consisted of the families of Barnabas Horton, John Budd, John Conklin, William Wells, John Tuthill, Thomas Mapes, Richard Terry, Matthias Corwin, Robert Akerly, Zachariah Corey and Isaac Arnold. The land had been purchased in the summer of 1640 from an Indian tribe, the Corchaugs. The Indian name of what became Southold was Yennicott.
Southold was to remain under the jurisdiction of New Haven until 1662, and of the Connecticut Colony until 1674. Both colonies sought to establish the town as a theocracy and a principal difference between the two was that New Haven did not permit other churches to operate while Connecticut allowed freedom of religion.
When the colony of New York was handed over to the Dutch in 1673, the eastern towns, including Southold, East Hampton and Southampton, refused to submit; the Dutch attempted to force the matter by arms, and the colonists of the towns repelled them, with assistance from Connecticut. When New York became English again in 1674, these eastern towns preferred to stay part of Connecticut, and Connecticut agreed, but the government of James, Duke of York forced the matter. Governor Sir Edmund Andros threatened to eliminate the residents' rights to land if they did not yield, which they did by 1676.[1] The Duke of York's intransigence was largely a result of his grudge against Connecticut, as New Haven had hidden three of the judges who sentenced the Duke's father, King Charles I, to death in 1649.
Following the death of Rev. Youngs, the town installed as its second minister a Harvard graduate from Hingham, Massachusetts, Rev. Joshua Hobart, son of Rev. Peter Hobart, the founding minister of Old Ship Church, the nation's oldest church in continuous use.[2] Rev. Joshua Hobart was installed in 1674 and served the town until the day of his death in 1717, when he was 88 years old -- having served Southold for 45 years.[3] Rev. Hobart's brother Josiah was one of the earliest settlers and initial trustees of East Hampton, Long Island, as well as High Sheriff of Suffolk County.[4]
The name Southold is believed by some to be a misspelling of Southwold, which is a coastal town in the corresponding English county of Suffolk. John Youngs was born and brought up in Southwold, Suffolk, England, and perhaps more importantly, Youngs was a member of St. Margaret's Church in Reydon, where he likely assisted the vicar, who also ministered at St Edmunds Church in Southwold, which had been annexed to the Reydon vicarage. "To this St. Margaret's of Reydon it may be supposed that the Rev. John Youngs belonged when he proposed to cross the ocean for Salem in New England," wrote the Rev. Epher Whitaker, pastor of the First Church of Southold and councilor of the Long Island Historical Society in his definitive early study of the town's first century.[5]
Interestingly, on Rev. Youngs' first attempt to leave England, when he tried to board ship in Yarmouth in Norfolk County in 1633, the authorities intervened, refusing passage to the young minister. "This man was forbyden passage by the commissioners," read the English records, "and went not from Yarmouth."[6]
Within the New York town's limits is an area known as Reydon Shores, perhaps a reference to Reydon, England, which is the adjoining village to Southwold in Suffolk County, England, and was the home of John Youngs' wife. An alternative explanation is that the name refers to a "holding" to the South [of New Haven]), from whence the original settlers hailed.
In 1650 the population of Southold was about 180, growing to 880 by 1698. The harbor at Greenport was important in trade, fishing, and whaling because it rarely froze over.
In November 1994, the village of Greenport voted to abolish its police department and turn responsibility for law and order over to the Southold Town Police.
Geography
The town is at the northeastern end of Long Island, New York on a peninsula called the North Fork. The Long Island Sound separates the town from Connecticut. The eastern end of the town, near Orient Point, is north of the Town of Shelter Island, but the town is separated from the South Fork of Long Island by the Great Peconic Bay and the Little Peconic Bay. The western end of the town is the border of the Town of Riverhead. Officially, Robins Island, Plum Island, and Fishers Island are part of Southold township.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 404.5 square miles (1,047.6 kmē), of which, 53.7 square miles (139.1 kmē) of it is land and 350.8 square miles (908.5 kmē) of it (86.72%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census[7] of 2000, there were 20,599 people, 8,461 households, and 5,804 families residing in the town. The population density was 383.5 people per square mile (148.1/kmē). There were 13,769 housing units at an average density of 256.3/sq mi (99.0/kmē). The racial makeup of the town was 93.53% White, 2.91% Black or African American, 0.07% Native American, 0.45% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.51% from other races, and 1.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.77% of the population.
There were 8,461 households out of which 26.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.8% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.4% were non-families. 26.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.90.
In the town the population was spread out with 21.5% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 23.8% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 23.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 93.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $49,898, and the median income for a family was $61,108. Males had a median income of $46,334 versus $31,440 for females. The per capita income for the town was $27,619. About 4.1% of families and 5.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 5.4% of those age 65 or over.
Communities and locations
- Greenport, near the easternmost tip of the mainland.
Hamlets (unincorporated)
- Cutchogue, in the western part of the town, originally a farming village
- East Marion, in the eastern part of the town
- Fishers Island, a hamlet located on Fishers Island
- Laurel, by the western town line
- Mattituck, in the western part of the town, settled in 1680
- New Suffolk, in the southwest part of the town
- Orient, near the eastern tip of the mainland
- Peconic, in the central part of the town, southwest of Southold village
- Southold, the hamlet of Southold, settled in 1640.
Other communities
- Arshamonaque, between Greenport and Southold village
- Bay Haven, on Little Peconic Bay
- Bay View, on Great Hog Neck
- Beixedon Estates
- Cedar Beach on Great Hog Neck, southeast of Bay View
- Cove, The
- Cutchogue Station, north of Cutchogue
- Fleet's Neck, South of Cutchogue
- East Cutchogue, located east of Cutchogue
- Eastwind Shores
- Laughing Water, near Great Hog Neck
- Nassau Farms
- Nassau Point, on Little Hog Neck
- Orient Point, at the eastern tip of the mainland
- Reydon Shores, on Great Hog Neck (named after Reydon in Suffolk, England the birth place of the wife of the Rev. John Youngs).
- Stirling, north of Greenport
- Waterville, north of Matttituck
Islands
Geographic features
- Great Hog Neck, a peninsula into Little Peconic Bay
- Little Hog Neck, a peninsula into Peconic Bay
- Long Beach Bay, a bay near Orient
- Orient Harbor, a bay in the eastern part of the town
- Orient Point, the easternmost tip of the mainland of the north fork of Long Island
State Parks
Transportation
References
- ^ Sketches of Suffolk County, Historical and Descriptive, with a Historical Outline of Long Island, by Richard Mather Bayles, 1874
- ^ History of Southold, L.I., Epher Whitaker, 1881, Press of the Orange Chronicle, Orange, N.J., 1881
- ^ History of Congregationalism, Congregationalism in America, Vol. I, George B. Jewett, Gongregational Publishing Society, Boston, 1880
- ^ AIA Architectural Guide to Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Long Island, American Institute of Architects Long Island Chapter, American Institute of Architects, Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, Published by Courier Dover Publications, 1992, ISBN 0486269469
- ^ Epher Whittaker, History of Southold, L.I.: Its First Century, Epher Whitaker, Printed for the Author, Southold, 1881
- ^ Ibid, page 19
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
External links
Coordinates: 41°03'53?N 72°25'34?W? / ?41.06472, -72.42611
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