John and Mary (King) Scudder: Religious Nonconformists and
Pioneers of Four Towns at Long Island
© 2021 by Margery Boyden, Scudder Association Foundation Historian,
For Scudder Association Foundation. All rights reserved
Continued from volume 3, no. 2, Spring 2021
It was a time of religious and political turmoil when John Scudder grew up in western Kent, England, between the power centers of British political and ecclesiastical might, at London and Canterbury. John Scudder was the nephew of one of the most widely known Christian authors and reform-minded ministers in England, Rev. Henry Scudder.[2] To highlight conditions in England that brought the Scudder family to America, there is an extensive biography of Rev. Henry1 Scudder in this author’s recent book, From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty.[3] What John2 learned from this family relationship, and encountered in the continuing religious turmoil at Salem, Massachusetts after his immigration, placed John2 in strategic places “to observe key figures in the struggle for basic religious and civil rights in both countries” during those turbulent times.[4] From Conscience to Liberty offers supplemental reading about family, societal and religious issues encountered by Scudders and other families during their lives in the Old World and New England prior to their settlements at Long Island. Suppression of religious rights, including persecution by authorities of some of John2 and Mary2 (King) Scudder’s family members and neighbors in several localities where they lived, was a factor in why John2 and Mary Scudder’s life history covers nearly 3700 miles, an impressive number when one considers the logistics of travel in the 17th century.
To understand persons from the past one must view them from the cultural perspective in which they lived. If persons were immigrants, there is much to learn by asking, “Who were they? and Why did they come?” Who were their associates?” “What persons or outside influences and events shaped their life’s story?” Looking for answers to these questions is an interesting way to learn history. David McCullough said, “If we love the blessings of a society that welcomes free speech, freedom of religion, and…freedom to think for ourselves—then surely we ought to know how it came to be. Who was responsible? What did they do? How much… did they suffer?”[5] It is instructive to view through their own perspective as much as possible the events and people that shaped their lives. It may reveal qualities observed in subsequent generations. Stories of some descendants of John2 and Mary Scudder in this issue answer these questions. Were similar characteristics passed down through generations or forged by having to face similar challenges?
As recounted in the Spring 2021 Journal, John2 Scudder was a teenager when he immigrated with his parents Thomas (T) and Elizabeth Scudder,[6] the nearly 3300 miles from Horton Kirby, Kent, England to Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, to a town and colony less than ten years old. Like some of his Scudder relatives and his wife’s family, John2’s history reveals his own nonconformist tendencies that may explain his frequent relocations.”[7] John2’s family arrived at Salem about ten years after the founding of the town. If viewed in his historical and geographical context, John2 also may be appropriately defined as a pioneer when, by 1652, John2 Scudder and his wife Mary2 (King) Scudder, and John2’s brothers Thomas2 and Henry2, moved the 150 plus miles from Salem to Southold, Long Island when Southold was also barely a decade old.[8]
Rev. John Youngs had founded Southold in 1640, under the purchase agreement by New Haven Colony when its leaders bought the land from the Cochaug Indians in the 1630s.[10] In A History of Long Island, author Rev. Nathaniel Scudder Prime claims Southold was the first town settled on Long Island,[11] suggesting that the English settlement of Long Island was still in a rudimentary state when Scudders arrived, requiring pioneering ingenuity, skills and temperament.
Aside from the ongoing debate with Southampton for the honor of being first, a more accurate claim is that Southold is considered by many as the “first town on Long Island settled by Englishmen,” since Dutch settlers had been purchasing farms on Long Island before 1640. For example, New Netherlander Pietro1 Alberti, the father of John2 Scudder’s future son-in-law, John2 Alburtus, contracted in 1639 for farmland along the waterfront of the East River, near the present–day site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, then called the Wallabout or “Bay of the Foreigners.”[12] “Bay of Foreigners” was fitting since Pietro1 was the only Italian in the colony.[13]
Curiously, by June 1660, John2 and Mary Scudder would travel the additional 90 miles from Southold to Huntington to Maspeth, in Dutch New Netherland, where he would settle his family about three and a half miles from the original Alberti farm. Early Long Island accounts suggest that the terrain was so thick with brush and brambles that making that trip may would have been easier by water rather than by land. A study of the terrain and other hazards in the conditions in which they placed themselves suggests that each of John2s new starts would have been grueling.
Map of territory Covered from Southold to Maspeth as per John2 and Mary Scudder’s Migrations
John2 and Mary Scudder and John2’s two brothers, Thomas2 and Henry2, were among the first English settlers of Long Island close to within the first decade, scattered along the ninety-mile-long expanse of mostly wilderness territory, certainly qualifying them to be called pioneers. John2 Scudder also became one of the adherents of a new religion that was brought to America in 1657 by traveling ministers of the Society of Friends. Considering the persecution and discrimination that these early converts faced, this too was a pioneering challenge. To understand John2 Scudder, requires a knowledge of his social and historical context. While this article covers only highlights of his history, for those who want the whole story, it can be read in connection with a deeper, more detailed look at the histories of John2’s and Mary’s birth families and their own nuclear family up to 1660, available in this author’s From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty, 1526–1664. Fully footnoted, this work documents Scudders and other early settlers of Long Island of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds and how this diversity challenged their interactions but also offered opportunity to develop greater liberty for all. This article’s briefer summary only scratches the surface with geographical and historical data to support the argument that John2 and Mary2 Scudder were pioneers in the traditional sense of the word but were also among the many common, every–day 17th century Long Islanders who contributed to the rise of religious liberty.
In A Sketch of the First Settlement of the Several Towns on Long Island, Silas Wood asserts that the Dutch towns of Breucklen and Amersfort (Brooklyn and Flatlands) received their first grants in 1636,[15] four years before Southold was settled. Southampton also disputes Southold’s claim of being the first English town. In his History of Southold, Rev. Epher Whitaker spends eight pages comparing the records for both Southold and Southampton and concludes that Southold deserves the honor, but it is a tight contest.[16] Of course, Whitaker was on Southold’s side on this contest of opinions so Southold agrees. It is Southampton that disagrees with Whitaker’s conclusion. In 1654, John2 Scudder sold his Southold land with its house and improvements in 1654.[17] To put conditions in perspective, when John2 Scudder and his brothers arrived at Long Island by 1652, with some others from Salem,[18] to join Rev. Youngs settlement, there were only six small English villages on Long Island: Southold, Southampton, Hempstead, Gravesend and Flushing and Easthampton, plus Gardiner’s Island for Lion Gardner’s family and an outpost at Shelter Island that became Nathaniel Sylvester’s family’ home[19] and there were three small Dutch villages on the western edge of Long Island.
Distance from Southold to Setauket, Google Maps
Having been at Southold, Long Island for only about three years, on April 15, 1655, John2 Scudder’s name appears with a few other men, on the deed of purchase of Setauket, forty miles to the west of Southold. The purchase was from natives led by the Sachem Warawakmy.[20] The name Setauket comes from the Setalcott tribal name. Wording suggests John2’s purchase was made on behalf of the town of Southold. No record states that John2 resided at Setauket, but he was part of the pioneering effort to begin the settlement.
John2’s brothers had been selling their Southold land from 1656 at Southold[21] but may not have moved their families until the end of 1657[22] as shown by each having a child born at Southold in 1657.[23] Having sold his Southold land in 1654, it is possible that John2 went earlier to prepare for the others to follow. By 1658, John2, Thomas2, Jr. and Henry2 Scudder and Henry2’s father-in-law, Jeffrey1 Estey, were at Huntington. To protect their interests, Richard Holbrook, Robert Williams and Daniel1 Whitehead were first purchasers at Huntington in 1653 while settling themselves at nearby Oyster Bay. This, however, came under dispute. It was the Second purchase at Huntington in 1656[24] that attracted Scudders and others from Southold to gather at Huntington by 1658.[25] Estey died at Huntington by January 4, 1659, naming his son-in-law, Henry Skodar, as executor of his will and devising his Huntington land to Henry2’s son Jonathan3, which proves Scudders were at Huntington before this date.[26] Their father Thomas1 Scudder had made his will in 1657 and died before the probate in 1658, near the time that Thomas1’s three sons were settling at Huntington. Their mother, Mrs. Elizabeth ___? Scudder, remained at Salem with her daughter Elizabeth2 (Scudder) Bartholomew until her death in 1665.[27]
Settled in the northern portion, between Cold Spring Harbor and Northport, by late 1659, John2 and Mary made what seems a somewhat extraordinary decision. Although John2 retained land at Huntington,[28] he and Mary chose to leave John2’s brothers, Thomas2, Jr. and Henry2 at Huntington and to depart from the English jurisdiction of the island, to move to the New Netherland colony, a foreign government, under the Dutch West India Company. They settled at Maspeth which was part of a village called Middelburgh. This settlement was renamed Newtown after the English took over the territory in 1664 and renamed the province New York.
Western Moves from Setauket to Huntington to English Kills at Maspeth, Google Maps
Maspeth, called Mespat in its 1641 patent, had been destroyed in 1643/4 by Willem Kieft’s tragic “Indian War.”[29] In 1652, a new influx of New England Calvinists, joined with survivors trying to salvage their land to make a community at Middelburgh, New Netherland, now in Queens county. Males in the town who qualified to be taxed for the Indian rate list, included Dutch, a few Native Americans and the majority of the town from New England.[30]
There were at this time about thirteen Indian tribes inhabiting Long Island,[31] far outnumbering the English and Continental European settlers at the time. In 2020, this same expanse of real estate of Long Island from the eastern to western ends had a population of 2.9 million people.
Every relocation required great expenditures of personal labor and presented significant hazards while commencing these towns in a primitive wilderness. Early Long Island town records remind of obstacles as they noted town taxes collected to pay bounties to residents for killing wolves.[32] It is difficult to relate to the physical effort involved with each move as they were the first English settlers to build their homes, to make other improvements, and to plant crops with each of these purchases, all without infrastructure we take for granted. They had to live off of what they produced or could barter, perhaps even from John2’s skill as a currier that was cited in the article about him in the previous issue of the Journal.[33] It is a rather puzzling decision they made to leave John2’s brothers and to settle under the jurisdiction of a foreign government. It is also noteworthy that the new location they chose had been totally destroyed in 1643 and only in serious process of recovery since 1652. The first attempt to settle the place occurred when the Mespat patent was granted to Rev. Francis Doughty and his partner Richard1 Smith of Rhode Island,[34] who in 1641 brought a group of persons who had collected at Rhode Island, many of whom had suffered religious discrimination and persecution or feared it would occur.[35]
After the destruction of Mespat in 1643, another raid by natives in November 1655 laid waste the nearby Breucklen farms of Pietro1 Alberti and his deceased father-in-law Jan1 Manje and others. Of course, this would have had a devastating effect on John2 and Mary’s future son-in-law John2 Alburtus (Pietro1), and his entire neighborhood, less than five years before John2 and Mary Scudder moved and settled nearby at the English Kills in Maspeth. By then Maspeth was a neighborhood in Middelburgh which would later become Newtown, an area now in Queens.
Google Map of Maspeth to the Brooklyn Navy Yard where the Alburtus farm was located
This diagram of John2 Scudder’s family illustrates his relationship to his parents, his siblings, his five children and includes his future son-in-law John2 Alburtus, husband of daughter Elizabeth3.
Pietro1 Alburti, the father of John2 Alburtus, John2 and Mary Scudder’s future son-in-law, was memorialized in a monument as the first Italian to settle in New York. The Italian American community in New York has designated June 2nd as “Alberti Day” in commemoration of the day he arrived in New Amsterdam in 1635. This marker to honor Pietro1 Alberti is placed in Battery Park.[37] Details of his unique story are in From Conscience to Liberty, so it is not included here.[38]
Pietro Alberti Marker in Battery Park
The situation that led to the death of John2 Alburtus’s parents at Breucklen in 1655, shortly after Middelburgh (and Maspeth) had begun to rise from the ashes of 1643, according to Munsell’s History of Queens County was an outgrowth of a prior political conflict. Although not the best documented history available, this summary of Newtown’s history gives the flavor of hazards John2 and Mary Scudder were willing to risk by their final move to the English Kills:
Scarcely were the people of Middleburg seated in their new homes when news was received that war had broken out between the mother countries England and Holland. Director Stuyvesant, in pursuance of instructions from his superiors, agreed with the adjacent Indian tribes in case of trouble with his neighbors of New England. Jealousies of many years standing existed between the English colonies of Connecticut and New Haven and the Dutch of New Netherland. Complaints of mutual aggression had passed between the respective governments, and each regarded the other with feelings far from friendly. It soon became rumored abroad that the Dutch government had formed a league with the Indians for the destruction of all the English. The report flew through the English towns on Long Island, which, though under the government of New Netherland, were made to believe that they were to be included in the general slaughter.[39]
Munsell states that the residents at Middelburg in 1652, wishing to avert a repeat of the 1643 tragedy at Maspeth, then fled to Stamford, Connecticut until after a treaty of peace was agreed upon between England and Holland. A summary of events that follows implies that an unintended consequence to Stuyvesant’s earlier agreement with natives may have played a role:
In 1655, Director Stuyvesant being absent on an expedition against the Swedes on the Delaware, a horde of armed Indians landed at New Amsterdam, and began to break into houses for plunder. Driven back by the soldiers and armed citizens, they fell upon the unprotected Dutch farmers in the vicinity, many of whom were slain and others taken into captivity. They, therefore, formed a village on ‘Smith’s Island,’ at the English Kills.
The inhabitants had other ills to contend with in the wild animals that infested their forests, wolves proving especially annoying, preying upon flocks and herds. To check this evil a bounty was offered for wolves killed within the town.[40]
The devastating raid in 1655 at Brooklyn, that decimated his neighborhood, left John2 Alburtus an orphan at age 12, and, as the eldest, responsible to look after his four surviving siblings. Even these hazards did not seem to deter John2 and Mary Scudder from moving to the English Kills at Maspeth, only 3.5 miles away from the original Alburtus farm.
Google Map of the English Kills to the Brooklyn Navy Yard where Pietro1 Alburtus’s farm was
So, questions arise. “Why so many moves in rapid succession, especially if one considers the great effort entailed and why there, at Maspeth, considering the recent devastation?”
Even with the few records available for John2 and Mary Scudder after they arrived at Maspeth, some possible motives emerge. If one considers economics first, perhaps the rebuilding of Maspeth presented opportunity, especially if the town needed someone who knew how to work with leather. However, no reference to his occupation at Maspeth was found. From the Massachusetts records we know that while he was at Salem, John2 Scudder was a currier. As a currier, John2 would have taken the hides from the tanner and specialized in the dressing and the finishing of the leather to prepare it for the saddle-maker or the shoemaker or other craftsmen to produce a finished product so it was an important trade for the economy and supplies of these towns.[41] If he continued as a currier at Newtown, it makes his decision to move more puzzling. It would have seemed more natural to have stayed and worked in Huntington with his brother Thomas2 Scudder, who was a tanner. In due time, Thomas2’s “tanning mills faced the water in the area now called Tanyard Lane” where leather was cured.[42] It seems problematic to conclude that John2 Scudder left Huntington for economic reasons when the brothers might have partnered in the leather industry. While Thomas2 substantially increased his properties in Huntington to 1000 acres, John2 seemed content at Maspeth with a more modest economic operation.
Map of Early Newtown, Long. Island
Although we do not know the reason, there must have been some compelling motivation for John2 Scudder to give up his proximity to his siblings when he moved to Maspeth Kills. The worth of his brother Thomas2’s estate at death suggests Huntington had plenty of opportunity.
On 4 June 1660, from James Reilly, John2 and Mary Scudder purchased land in New Netherland at Maspeth Kills, nigh Middelburgh, called Newtown after 1664. The transcription of this transaction from Newtown records is:
The next phase of the transaction is continued on the following page of the town minutes:
This graphic shows the area today.
From Google Maps
“Matchpeacke Keells” refers to Maspeth Kills, also known as the English Kills. “Kills” is a Dutch word that means “body of water.’ Most often refers to a creek but can also refer to a tidal inlet or river or riverbed or water channel. Records imply that John2 Scudder was located at the Maspeth Kills and then near the head of Newtown Creek. This map from Annals of Newtown identifies the locations of the Old Scudder House between the Old Alburtus House to its left (near Mt. Calvary Cemetery). The location of the Richard1 Betts property was to the right, where the Jewish Cemetery is which continues to maintain the Betts Family Cemetery.
Map by James Riker, Jr. in Annals of Newtown, foldout
Another record describes that John2’s property was on the western border with Bushwick, it being westward of John Scudder’s land “where Bushwick’s claim began.”[46]
Were There Persons Already at Middelburgh that Might Have Influenced Scudders’ Decision about This Surprising Move?
Religious Perspectives to Consider
Were there persons already in place who might have attracted them to move? When the English took over in 1664, Middelburgh had been settled primarily by English Calvinists from New England, along with some Dutch already in place. It was briefly called Hastings before it was made part of the larger Newtown that includes what is now Elmhurst.
One of these early Calvinist founders of the settlement of Middelburgh, later Newtown, was Richard1 Betts who had moved from Ipswich, Massachusetts before 1656 to Long Island with his wife Joanna2 Chamberlain, (Rev. Robert1). Joanna2 was John2 Scudder’s step cousin. She was the daughter of John2’s aunt who had first married his uncle John1 Scudder who died at Strood, Kent in 1626. Joanna2 (Chamberlain) Betts was the daughter of Elizabeth1 (Stoughton) (Scudder) Chamberlain and her second husband Rev. Robert Chamberlain.[47] John2’s first cousin, Elizabeth2 (Scudder) Lathrop, was only a year old when her father died. She and Joanna2 Chamberlain were half-sisters and only about five years apart in age making it very likely they had grown up with a close sisterly relationship.[48] Mrs. Betts’ influence on the Scudders’ decision to go to Maspeth, seems less likely for why would John2 and Mary Scudder trade their family associations with their own siblings for John2’s first cousin’s half-sibling’s daughter and her husband?
However, nine years later, John2 and Mary’s son, John3 Scudder, married by license 20 April 1669, his step “second cousin,” Joanna2 Betts, daughter of Richard1 Betts and Joanna2 Chamberlain.[49] Joanna2 Betts was born in 1649 at Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts the same county where John2 Scudder’s family resided in at Salem. After the death of her second husband Rev. Robert1 Chamberlain, Elizabeth1 (Stoughton) (Scudder) Chamberlain immigrated to Massachusetts with her daughter Elizabeth2 Scudder (who married Samuel2 Lathrop),[50] Joanna2 Chamberlain and her son Samuel2 Chamberlain. They were briefly at Boston, then Barnstable and then Ipswich before Mrs. Chamberlain died at Ipswich before 30 March 1647, date of probate of her small estate. Her son Samuel2 died before 1 March 1649 as shown by his probate. With Joanna2 Chamberlain thus left alone without any other kin except her half-sister Elizabeth2 (Scudder) Lathrop, 100 miles away at Barnstable, and her step-uncle Thomas1 Scudder (T), living in the same county where Joanna2 Chamberlain was, it gave opportunity for Joanna Chamberlain to associate with her Scudder stepfamily before and after she married Richard1 Betts, although these two towns in Essex county are 14 miles apart. When John2 and Mary Scudder left for Long Island, their son John3 would have been near seven years of age and Joanna2 Betts only aged two or three, so it is unlikely any future marriage had been planned. It is not known whether that Scudder extended family relationship was any factor in John2 and Mary Scudder’s decision to move to Middelburgh where the Betts were, but it is worth mentioning.
At least four other persons at Middelburgh had lived in locations where John2 and Mary Scudder had lived prior to their moving to Middelburgh. These were John1 Burroughs who had lived at Salem, Massachusetts prior to Middelburgh.[51] Also, there were John2 Ketcham and Edward1 Stevenson and Thomas1 Stevenson, all of whom were at Southold earlier with John2 and Mary Scudder. Former Huntington neighbor, Content3 Titus, also came to Newtown but probably after John2 and Mary. His Huntington land bordered the land of John2 Scudder’s first cousin, Jonathan2 Scudder,[52] son of Henry1 Scudder. Their brother Abel3 Titus married Henry1 Scudder’s daughter Rebecca3 Scudder.[53] John2 and Mary Scudder’s son Samuel3 Scudder, married as his second wife, Phebe3 Titus, the niece of Content2 and Abiel2 Titus, daughter of their Quaker brother Edmund2 Titus. [Samuel Scudder, b. 1643, Grandson of Thomas Scudder (T) by His Son John]. No record suggested any of these people recruited John2 and Mary Scudder, but the ties are worth mentioning. There is another possibility to explore:
Was Scudders’ Move to Maspeth/Middelburgh/Newtown for Religious Reasons?
John2 and Mary Scudder have left no diary to explain their reasons for their last move but a review of the town and court records in which they appear suggests the possibility that they may have moved to Maspeth for religious reasons. They settled in a neighborhood of early Quaker converts noted for their zeal. Several historical records leave evidence soon thereafter that John2 and Mary were affiliated in some degree with the Society of Friends that had its beginning in America and Long Island in 1657 with the arrival of the first Quaker missionaries less than three years before John2 and Mary Scudder moved to Maspeth.[54] Huntington records of this time period show it was a less than ideal place for members of the Society of Friends.
The records of Newtown, later kept by the English, of which Maspeth is a part, show that the Stevensons and Graves families were Quakers.[55] Some of those who preceded the Scudders at Middelburgh were Thomas1 and Edward1 Stevenson who had been previously their neighbors at Southold[56] when John2 and Mary Scudder lived there. The Stevensons were not brothers, and were documented as sons of different fathers, but were contemporaries closely related to each other.[57] In 1670, Edward1 Stevenson’s widow Anne married 2) William1 Graves. Anne Graves of Newtown made her last will and testament on 31 December 1670, leaving legacies to her daughters Elizabeth Everitt and Abigail Denton and her Bible to her cousin Thomas Stevenson.[58] The wills of William1 Graves and his son John2 Graves each left a legacy to Mary2 [King] Scudder, wife of John2 Scudder.[59] According to George McCracken in The American Genealogist, volume 33, William1 Graves’ daughter Sarah md. John3 Alburtus, son of John2 Alburtus (Pietro1) and Elizabeth3 (Scudder) Alburtus, who was the daughter of John2 and Mary Scudder.[60] McCracken gives valuable data not easily found elsewhere, but he does speculate about two women connected to the Graves family that he wonders if they were John2 Scudder’s other daughters. There are no primary sources for these speculations. It seems best to save that discussion until there is more positive evidence, there already being negative evidence also.
These images of the abstracts of the will of John Graves, w. d. 11 July 1670, and abstract of the will of William Graves dated 13 July 1679, and confirm that John2 Graves did give his father his land unless his sister Hannah2 Graves survived him. Some have interpreted that John2 Graves also had a sister-in-law named Hannah, widow of his unnamed deceased Graves brother. Otherwise, if a daughter of William1 Graves, how would her name be Hannah2 Graves since William1 and John2 Graves both declared she had children? Were two different Hannahs being discussed— a daughter and a daughter-in-law? or only one Hannah?
There was a family connection because Sarah Graves, daughter of William Graves married John3 Alburtus (John2, Pietro1). Three pieces of evidence prior to 1670 are relevant to the John2 Scudder family’s Quaker involvement and will be briefly mentioned here but the remainder will await the next installment of John2 and Mary’s history in our next issue.
John1 and Mary (King) Scudder and Religious Nonconformity Issues
From the viewpoint of most Massachusetts Independent/Congregational ministers and theocratic civil authorities, John2 Scudder’s wife, Mary2 (King) Scudder, was from a religiously unorthodox family. Her father William1 King was one of the followers of the famous Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson who is credited with being one of the main persons from the 17th century to influence the ultimate rise of religious liberty in America.
Anne Hutchinson on Trial[62]
William1 King was one of the 75 males whose guns were confiscated in 1637 by Massachusetts civil authorities for being followers of Hutchinson,[63] not because of any crime. As Thomas Bicknell shows in “Rhode Island: Boston the Preparatory School for Aquidneck,” these were not rabble-rousers, but most of those on the list were members of the Boston Church in good standing and. in 1636, six among those named on the punished list were on the 10-person Board of Selectmen of Boston. In 1637, these “fathers of the town” had a majority of one who were followers of Hutchinson. In addition, William Coddington, a member of the General Court from 1630–1638 and Colonial Treasurer for three years was also among her followers. Bicknell writes, “Mr. Coddington was a public officer in the Colony for more than eight years, filling the most responsible offices, by the choice of the people and the General Court.”[64]
Two chapters in From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty,[65] give part of the history of Anne1 (Marbury) Hutchinson that is pertinent to Long Island settlers that she impacted, including Scudders. Chapter 8 chronicles the involvement of William1 King, Mary Scudder’s father, with Hutchinson’s group and how a substantial segment of Boston’s elite followed Hutchinson to Rhode Island. With the help of Roger1 Williams, founder of Providence Colony,[66] William1 and Anne1 (Marbury) Hutchinson and William1 Coddington with others founded Rhode Island Colony. Some of those who went to Rhode Island had a direct connection to the scenario that brought about the original settling of Maspeth. The Mespat patent granted to Rev. Francis1 Doughty and his partner Richard1 Smith was the impetus for them to lead a contingent from Rhode Island to Long Island to settle the very spot that John2 and Mary Scudder went to a decade later after the first effort to settle there had been destroyed. For the motivation some had to go to Mespat, see “The Rise and Demise of Mespat,” chapter 12. The intersections of these people from Massachusetts and Rhode Island who converged at Long Island had an influence on attitudes developing among many early Long Island settlers. Hutchinson’s teachings about listening to the “immediate” voice that speaks to one’s spirit made some of her former disciples open for harvest by Quaker missionaries and their message to listen to “the inner light” of the spirit. This seems to have included John2 and Mary2 (King) Scudder and other King family members.
These chapters show how John2 and Mary personally observed some events important to America’s development in their world at large that offered little or no religious liberty. Other chapters pertain to the Dutch religious and social environment that pertained not only to John2 and Mary’s children and neighbors but to their Alburtus grandchildren.[67]
Religious Influences and Interesting Social Intersection
There is also an Anne1 (Marbury) Hutchinson connection to cousins of John2 Scudder of Long Island. Elizabeth2 (Scudder) Lathrop, immigrant ancestress of the Scudder (E) line, and to her brother John2 Scudder (J) (John1) who is the progenitor of the Scudder (J) line. Among Anne1 Hutchinson’s original supporters in March of 1637 were Thomas1 Ewer, with whom John2 Scudder (J) of Barnstable traveled to America [68] and Thomas1 Ewer’s father-in-law William1 Learned, the father of Sarah2 (Learned) Ewer. After she became a widow, Sarah (Learned) Ewer married Thomas2 Lothrop,[69] son of Rev. John1 Lothrop and brother of Samuel2 Lathrop, husband of Elizabeth2 Scudder (E).[70] Anne1 (Marbury) Hutchinson had sympathizers among the Scudder extended family or their relatives. This is not to imply that Rev. John1 Lothrop was an Anne Hutchinson admirer, but he was known to be more liberally minded and respectful of his congregants’ beliefs. Ewer and Learned had their names removed from the March 1637 Hutchinson sympathizer list so did not have their arms distrained (confiscated).
After the death of her father William1 King, Mary2’s mother, Mrs. Dorothy (unknown) King and all but two of her children moved to Long Island a few years before her son William2 King spent time in the old jail at Boston in 1659–1660 because he was a Quaker. William2 King, and other Friends who had been neighbors of Scudders at Salem, had reason to protest the mistreatment of Quakers, including the deaths of four of them who were hung on Boston Common between 1659–1661. One of these martyred was Mary1 (Barrett) Dyer, the wife of William1 Dyer, lieutenant governor of Rhode Island. It was this same Mary1 Dyer, who had dared to arise and accompany Anne1 Hutchinson, the religious pioneer, out of the building after Anne1 was sentenced to banishment a little over twenty years earlier. Mary1 Dyer and other Quakers hung, William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson and William Leddra, were among William2 King’s fellow prisoners. King escaped the noose but was severely whipped on several occasions. Word undoubtedly got to Long Island when another of their cellmates, Mary2 Wright (Peter1) of Oyster Bay returned, one account suggesting with the help of John1 Richbell of Oyster Bay.
Among other cellmates of William2 King there were some members of the family of Katherine1 (Marbury) Scott, younger sister of Anne1 (Marbury) Hutchinson whose family was among first Quaker converts to the Society of Friends in Rhode Island. They had been taught by their future son-in-law Christopher1 Holder, who was one of the first Quakers incarcerated at Boston, making their decision understandable to go to Boston in protest.[71]
There were other cellmates of more immediate interest to Scudder family history, children of Lawrence1 Southwick. Southwick was a partner to John1 and Ananias1 Conklin in the glass business at Salem, Massachusetts, along with Rev. Obadiah1 Holmes who was banished from Massachusetts in 1645 for his Baptist beliefs and was later horribly physically abused by Massachusetts authorities in 1651 for daring to return to Massachusetts to give Christian service to an elderly blind man at his request.[72]
The Conklin brothers were among the company from Salem who removed with Scudders to Southold and this author proposes that severe religious discrimination and mistreatment of Holmes and other neighbors for their Baptist beliefs, may have been a motivating factor for their decision to leave Salem and move to eastern Long Island. John1 Conklin did not sell his land at Salem until after Southwick’s children were adequately cared for, apparently they having had some privileges with his land keeping them safe from having the land being confiscated by authorities, protected because Conklin was not a Quaker.[73] John1 Conklin I’s grandson, John3 Conklin III, married Sarah3 Scudder, daughter of John2’s brother Thomas2 Scudder.[74] John2 and Mary’s daughter, Elizabeth3 (Scudder) Alburtus, and their granddaughter Elizabeth3 (Alburtus) Stewart would have later associations with Rev. Obadiah1 Holmes’ children in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Close connections to friends and relatives of various denominations who suffered for conscience sake, people among John2 and Mary Scudder’s network of friends and neighbors, cannot be overlooked as a possible factor in their decisions to move so frequently.
John2 openly showed his own nonconformist Quaker commitment on October 3rd and 4th of 1665 when he appeared as a witness before the Court of Assizes in New York.[75] As a witness for the plaintiff in the trial of John Richbell vs. the Town of Huntington, John2 Scudder was “not sworn” in court as was the language used to refer to Quakers. They affirmed their veracity but not with a formal oath because for Quakers, oaths were reserved only between a person and God. The case was about who had the earliest claim to Horse Neck, Richbell or the town of Huntington.
Richard Woodhull, sworn in Court says, he accompanied Samuel Andrews and Daniel Whitehead to Shelter Island, where the Grand Sachem met them and confirmed the same, and that returning home, he met one John Gosby of Huntington, who said he was employed by the town to purchase the said Neck of Land of the Sachem, for their town, but hearing of the said confirmation, he said he was come too late, and so returned homeward. John Scudder (not sworn) declares in court, that he being then an inhabitant of the town of Huntington, knoweth that Mr. John Gosby was employed by them, and that he returned with the answer that he was too late.[76]
(The jury of the court found for the defendant, the town of Huntington. After appeal, the decision was reversed.[77] After two hundred years Horse Neck was annexed to Huntington.)
While it is impossible to absolutely prove that John2 and Mary Scudder moved to Maspeth for religious reasons, it appears a more likely explanation for making this unusual decision than other possibilities explored. Additional records show active Quaker involvement among some of Mary2 (King) Scudder’s King siblings at Southold and by children of John2 and Mary (King) Scudder at Newtown. These will be considered in a continuation of the story about their family in the next issue. It appears that the heritage passed down by John2 and Mary (King) Scudder to at least some of their posterity included their pioneering streak and a propensity for strong and active religious commitment that might include a willingness to investigate a new religion as this ancestral couple did.
In the next generations, John2 and Mary’s posterity began to spread early from New York to mid-Atlantic states like New Jersey and Delaware. Later, some of John’s progeny were among first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley and parts of the south. Some were pioneers who helped to found towns in the Midwest. An impressive number were Revolutionary War soldiers in New Jersey, and some were religious exiles who pioneered their way to the Rocky Mountains to settle in Utah, Arizona and Nevada. Like John2 and Mary Scudder, many of their posterity were faith-driven people, trusting in God, willing to work hard, willing to personally plow new ground or to blaze new trails in wilderness environments or even to pioneer in social or religious causes. Some of them made it into books about American history. There are a great many interesting people in America who are no longer surnamed Scudder but because they are Scudder descendants through female Scudder family lines, they too should be remembered in our Journal. This Summer/Fall 2021 issue of the Journal includes biographies of some of their faith-filled, strong and resilient pioneering Stewart and Udall posterity who descend through their daughter Elizabeth3 (Scudder) Alburtus as diagrammed near the beginning of this article.
To be continued
Next issue: Some of John2 and Mary (King) Scudder’s Notable Revolutionary War Descendants
(Elizabeth Scudder Alburtus, Daughter of John and Mary King Scudder)
[2] “The Three Sons of Henry Scudder, Yeoman of Horton Kirby, Kent: A Season of Political Upheaval with Effects on Life Circumstances of Each Son,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, volume 1, no. 2, (June 2019), https://scudder.org/the-three-sons/. Article has relationship diagram and discusses wills that prove the relationships. Transcriptions of the wills are printed in vol. 1, nos. 1 and 2, (April and June 2019).
[3] Margery Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty, 1526–1664, v. 1, (published by the author, October 2020). For an in-depth biography of Rev. Henry1 Scudder in his family and religious and political contexts, see Part A, Chapter 2, “The Power of the Word and the Scudder Family of Kent, England,” 39–41, 53–56; Chapter 3, “Revealing the Early Grass Roots Puritan Mind, Heart and Heritage Through Experiences Had by Rev. Henry1 Scudder and His Extended Family,” 57–74; Chapter 4, “The Early Life and Times and Career of Rev. Henry1 Scudder et al.,” 75–104; Chapter 7, 145–146; Chapter 17, “Rev. Henry1 Scudder and the Westminster Assembly of Divines at London: Some Nuggets from the Concurrent British Fight for Religious and Civil Liberties,” 345–354; Chapter 18, 355–378; Part B, Chapter 33, “End of an Era: End of Puritan Rule in England, End of New Netherland, Deaths of Rev. Henry1 Scudder of England and Thomas1 Scudder of Salem,: 675–684; Appendix I, “English Ancestry of the Puritan Scudder Immigrants to America,”i–vii, ix–xii, xiv; and Appendix III, “Brief Biographies of Rev. Scudder’s Sons-in-law Richard Russell and Thomas Jacob,” li–lvi.
[4] Margery Boyden and Clive Connor, “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Mass: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 3, no. 2, (Spring 2021).
[5] Margery Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty, 1526–1664, v. 1, Part A, 26.. A future volume will add more generations to the history of the same families from 1660–1800. See also Part A, chapters 1–4, about the birth family of John2 Scudder in England, chapters 7-8 and 20 about John2’s family and Chapter 11, “A French/Belgian/Italian ‘Dutch’ Family, Typical of Diversity at Early Long Island,” is a more detailed history of the Alburtus family and also Part B, Chapter 20 that gives details of the Scudder brothers’ settlement at Southold, Long Island, more about the Kings and other historical data about Southold and their subsequent move to Huntington. Part B, Chapter 33, Appendix I and III, Chapter Outline and Index give additional Scudder data. This nonfiction narrative cultural history tells the story using town, court, church and other records of Long Island and a review of local histories, scholarly journals and family histories, compared for accuracy or discrepancies. While it is a story that places families and individuals in their social and broader historical contexts, it is fully footnoted and intended also as a reference work for historians, local historians and family historians about featured families for the first several decades at Long Island. Of interest to Scudders, it includes a Scudder family chart on pages 54–55, transcriptions of family wills and many recent updates from professional journal articles that correct many old errors, conflicting data and fiction still commonly circulated online. A volume II, 1660–1800, will tell more of the story about John2 and Mary Scudder and their posterity and about John2’s brothers’ families of Huntington. A more detailed description of this book, and list of other featured early Long Island families is available at https://scudder.org/product/from-conscience-to-liberty/.
6 “Thomas Scudder, b. 1587, Ancestor of the American Scudder (T) Line, Left England Amid Turmoil, Contention and a Little Bit of Mystery,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 2, no. 1, (Spring 2020), https://scudder.org/thomas-scudder-t-line/; “Thomas Scudder Did Not Marry Elizabeth Lowers! She Was Another Man’s Wife!” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, volume 1, no. 3, (December 2019), https://scudder.org/correction-2-thomas-scudder-elizabeth-lowers/. .
[7] Boyden and Connor, “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Massachusetts: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, volume 3, no. 2, (Spring 2021). See also other articles that pertain to John2 Scudder’s history in previous issues, including articles about his parents.
[8] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty, 1526–1664, v. 1, Part B, Chapter 20, ”More Chose to Leave the Persecuting Atmosphere of Massachusetts Bay: Scudders Migrated from Salem with Others to Join Long Island’s First Puritans,” 395–422.
[9] “Historic Structures of Southold Town,” Arts and Architecture Quarterly, April 6, 2015, https://aaqeastend.com/contents/southold-historic-structures-in-process-10-10-15/
[10] Antonia Booth, “A Brief Account of Southold’s History,” Town of Southold, New York website, https://www.southoldtownny.gov/159/History-of-Southold
[11] Nathaniel Scudder Prime, A History of Long Island: from its first settlement by Europeans to the year 1845, with special reference to its ecclesiastical concerns, (New York: R. Carter, 1845), 131.
[12] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part A, 267.
[13] For a more detailed discussion of pertinent Dutch claims and English claims and the order of towns commenced on Long Island, see Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part A Chapter 11, and Part B, Chapter 20, that gives details of the Scudder brothers’ settlement at Southold, Long Island and other historical data about Southold and their move to Huntington. Also see page 529. The latter cites Silas Wood, A Sketch of the First Settlement of the Several Towns on Long Island, 13.
[14] Google Maps.
[15] Silas Wood, A Sketch of the First Settlement of the Several Towns on Long Island, (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Alden Spooner, 1828, new edition), 13.
[16] Rev. Epher Whitaker, History of Southold, L. I., its first century, (Orange, N.J.: Press of the Orange Chronicle, 1881), 36–43.
[17] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, 399, citing J. Wickham Case, Southold Town Records, v. 1, (By order of the Towns of Southold and Riverhead, 1882), 29.
[18] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part B, 397–402.
[19] “History of Shelter Island,” Shelter Island Town website, https://www.shelterislandtown.us/history-of-shelter-island.
[20] Records, Town of Brookhaven, Up to 1800, as Compiled by the Town Clerk, (Patchogue, N.Y.: Printed at the office of the “Advance,” 1880), 1–2. For a more detailed explanation of the purchase of Setauket, see Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part B, 412–415.
[21] For a more detailed explanation of the interesting characteristics of Southold’s founders, and of John2 Scudder’s land sales at Southold, Long Island with source citations, and those of his brothers, see Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part B, 405–411.
[22] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part B, 409–411.
[23] Thomas2 Scudder’s son Isaac was recorded on Southold records as born on 20 October 1657 and Henry2’s son Jonathan was recorded as born on 31 January 1657 in J. Wickham Case, Southold Town Records, v. 1, (copied from the original and explanatory notes by JWC, Printed by the order of the towns of Southold and Riverhead, 1882), 463, taken from page 116 of the town records.
[24] “Timeline of Huntington History,” Town of Huntington website, https://www.huntingtonny.gov/filestorage/13747/99540/16499/Timeline_of_Huntington_History.pdf.
[25] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part B, 417.
[26] For documenting John2 Scudder’s residence at Huntington before his move to Newtown, see Charles R. Street, Huntington Town Records, including Babylon, Long Island, v. 1, (Huntington, N.Y: by the town, 1887), 75. Caution, on page 29 Street repeats a frequently recirculating error about the place of origin of the Scudder family in England and mistakes the relationship of Thomas1 Scudder (T) and his family to Rev. Henry1 Scudder that has been published correctly by Scudder Association publications for many decades and again in recent articles in the Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, 2019-2020. Rev. Henry1 Scudder was the brother of John2 Scudder’s father Thomas1 (T), and not Thomas’s father. This is documented by three wills. They are the will of Rev. Henry1 Scudder and the will of their father, HenryA Scudder, Yeoman of Horton Kirby, Kent and their uncle WilliamA Scudder of Darenth.
[27] D. B. Scudder, “Scudder Family in America: The Beginnings,” Scudder Searches, Scudder Association, volume I, no. 2, (Summer 1989), 6–7. This article has the basics and source citations, but the Scudder Association historians later updated some of the information as new sources were found. The more recent version and documented citations are in “Thomas Scudder, b. 1587, Ancestor of the American Scudder (T) Line, Left England Amid Turmoil, Contention and a Little Bit of Mystery,” Scudder Family Historical and Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 2, no. 1, (Spring 2020),https://scudder.org/thomas-scudder-t-line/. And “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Mass.: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, (Spring 2021), https://scudder.org/john-scudder-son-of-thomas-scudder-t-of-horton-kirby-kent-and-salem-ma/. And Jane Fletcher Fiske, “A New England Immigrant Kinship Network,” The American Genealogist, volume 72, (1997): 292–293.
[28] “Scudder Family in America: The Beginnings,” Scudder Searches, 9–10.
[29] For historical context about first settlers under the Mespat patent and the destruction of Mespat, see Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, Chapter 9, “Outcasts and Scapegoats to Rhode Island: Pioneers for Liberty of Conscience, especially pages 207–212, and Chapter 12, “The Rise and Demise of Mespat,” 285–296.
[30] James Riker, Jr., Annals of Newtown, (New York: D. Fanshaw, (1852), 19–21, 26–27, 43. Page 43 has the 1656 “Indian Rate” tax list that serves as Middelburgh’s first census. However, there is a caution about Mr. Riker’s account because he conflates two different unrelated Richard Smiths, one from Rhode Island who returned to Rhode Island and Richard Smith of Southampton and Smithtown, Long Island, both of whom did live as contemporaries for a while at Long Island. These men had different wills and family members and are discussed and distinctly separated in Conscience to Liberty. Differences are addressed in the text and in the index. It was Richard1 Smith of Rhode Island for whom Smith’s Island at Maspeth was named. The other one was Richard1 Smith of Southampton, Setuaket and Smithtown.
[31] Thomas R. Bayles, “Thirteen Indian Tribes Once Inhabited Long Island,” Longwood Central School District, Middle Island, New York, 11953, http://longwood.k12.ny.us/community/longwood_journey/hamlets/middle_island/footnotes_to_long_island_history/book_10/thirteen_indian_tribes_once_inhabited_long_island This is a fascinating article to enlarge one’s perspective about early inhabitants of Long Island beyond immigrant settlers.
[32] Town Minutes of Newtown, 1656–1688, Transcriptions of Early Town Records of New York, The Historical Records Survey, (New York City, N.Y.: June 1940), v. 1, 41.
[33] Boyden and Connor, “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Mass: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal,” volume 3, no. 2, (Spring 2021), https://scudder.org/john-scudder-son-of-thomas-scudder-t-of-horton-kirby-kent-and-salem-ma/.
[34] Caution: Do not confuse this Richard1 Smith of Narragansett, R. I., with Richard1 Smith as many sources do, including James Riker, Jr.’s Annals of Newtown. They overlapped for a time on Long Island but their wills and those of their children clearly distinguish that they were not the same and not related. Each Richard1 Smith is treated separately in From Conscience to Liberty. See Index and chapter outlines for page numbers. A third, different and unrelated Richard Smith from Wethersfield, CT is also distinguished from the other two. Sources that have confused these individuals is another good reason why a variety of sources must be consulted before jumping to conclusions based on similar names. All three had some ties to Long Island.
[35] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, Chapter 12, “The Rise and Demise of Mespat, Long Island, 1641–1643” contains a detailed history of this earlier attempt, the reasons for it and its destruction as a consequence of Director-general William Kieft’s infamous “Indian War.” The rebuilding began in about 1652 but there is no list of occupants until 1656 when a Town Rate List gives names.
[36] Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts, v. 2, Births, (Salem, Ma.: Published by the Essex Institute, 1918), 273. Abbreviation C.R.1 refers to church record, First Church. The dates are old style dating when the year begins March 25th. The months have often been wrongly interpreted and in old style dating mean that Elizabeth was the youngest, baptized on 18 March 1649/50 (old-style dating.) Old-style dating begins the new year officially on March 25th, but March is considered the first month. The Salem First Church states 18: 1 m: 1649 which means Elizabeth3 was thus baptized on 18 March 1649/50 rather than on January 18, 1649 as numerous sources have inaccurately interpreted, making her the youngest of John2 and Mary’s children. She therefore was baptized 7 months after Hanna was baptized 19 August 1649 (19: 6 m: 1649; Hannah was baptized about 14 months after Mary on 11 June 1648 (4 m: 1648). Image of the transcription is provided below. See also Massachusetts Vital Records, https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Salem/Images/SalemV2_B273.shtml.
[37] “In Honor of Peter Caesar Alberti, First Italian to arrive in New Amsterdam, June 2, 1635,” HMdb.org, The Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=145884. Chapter Eleven in From Conscience to Liberty, gives a detailed history of Pietro1 Alberti that also discusses the monuments and the myths, including the “pictures” attributed to Pietro1 Alberti that circulate on the Internet, pages 250–252. Defying truth and logic, even this HMdb web page, displays a portrait dlaimed to be Alberti but instead displays a portrait of the Italian explorer Giovanni Verrazano as an older, grey-bearded man. Pietro1 Alberti was never a grey-bearded old man since he died at about age forty-five when his land and property were destroyed. One would hardly expect such a portrait for an obscure tobacco farmer in early New Netherland, let alone one that died as a much younger man.
[38] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, Chapter Eleven, “A French/Belgian/Italian “Dutch” Family, Typical of Diversity at Early Long Island,” 249–284.
[39] “Newtown,” in W. W. Munsell, History of Queens County, New York, with illustrations, portraits, & sketches of prominent families and individuals, https://archive.org/details/historyofqueensc00newy/page/330/mode/2up. The author credits James Riker, Jr and Annals of Newtown as the source for much of his summary.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Boyden and Connor, “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Massachusetts: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island.”
[42] D. B. Scudder, “Scudder Family in America: The Beginnings, Scudder Searches, Scudder Association, volume I, no. 2, (Summer 1989), 13.
[43] “Map of Newtown, Long Island, New York Public Library Digital Collections, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/d0a42070-0dbb-0131-617f-58d385a7b928. Designed to exhibit the localities referred to in the Annals of Newtown by James Riker (published by James Riker, Jr.).
[44] Town Minutes of Newtown, v. 1, 27. Described in the instrument as “Mashpeack Kells” [Maspeth Kills] John2 Scudder’s property was near a head of Newtown Creek. The old town of Newtown is now considered as the neighborhood of Elmhurst in the borough of Queens. but John’s property would have been more on the southwestern edge of Maspeth near Newtown Creek.
[45] Town Minutes of Newtown, v. 1, 28.
[46] Riker, 115.
[47] “Elizabeth Scudder, wife of Samuel Lathrop: Early Life of Elizabeth (Scudder) Lathrop, Ancestress of the Scudder (E) Line,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 2, no. 2, (Fall 2020), https://scudder.org/elizabeth-scudder-born-1625-biography/.
[48] Ibid.
[49] https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2CL-8M56?from=lynx1UIV8&treeref=L6L1-Z5T.
[50] “Elizabeth Scudder, wife of Samuel Lathrop: Early Life of Elizabeth (Scudder) Lathrop, Ancestress of the Scudder (E) Line,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, volume 2, no. 2, (Fall 2020).
[51] James Riker, Jr., “Burroughs Family” in Annals of Newtown, L. I, 383–385.
[52] Rufus B. Langhans, Huntington/Babylon Land Deeds, 1663–1797, v, 1, (N.Y.: Huntington Town Historian, 1985), 17–18.
[53] “Scudder Family in America: The Beginnings,” Scudder Searches, 13.
[54] A more complete history about the Quaker traveling ministers, or missionaries, and their arrival and activities at New Netherland and how that pertains to these families may be found in Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, chapters 28 and 29.
[55] Natalie Naylor, “The People Called Quakers,” Records of Long Island Friends, 1671–1703, (Interlaken, N.Y.: Empire State Books, 2001). See both indexes, “Cox’s Index to Minutes” and “Index to Introductions and Appendices.”
[56] See Epher Whitaker’s list of early settlers of Southold, v. 1, 45–47. List is also revised and included in Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, 400–402. John Scudder’s expanding connection to Stevensons is referred to on page 422.
[57] John R. Stevenson, Thomas Stevenson of London and his descendants, (Flemington, N. J.: Hiram Edmund Deats, 1902). Thomas1 Stevenson, wife Mary Bernard and their family are treated on pages 7–19; pages 131–132 for Edward Stevenson and his wife Ann ___? who md. 2) William Graves.
[58] “Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate’s Office, City of New York,” New York Historical Society for the year 1892, (New York: Printed for the Society, 1893), v. 1, 1665–1707, In the Appendix, page 467. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067949784&view=1up&seq=491&skin=2021.
[59] Stevenson, 131; “Long Island Wills and Death Notes,” www.longislandgenealogy.com/death.html
[60] George E. McCracken, “William Graves of Newtown, Long Island,” The American Genealogist, volume 33, (1957), 36–44.
[61] Wills of John Graves and William Graves, “Abstracts of Wills of file in the surrogate’s office, City of New York, Liber 1,” Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year, 1892, (New York: Printed for the Society, 1893), 53–54.
[62] Edwin Austin Abbey, “Anne Hutchinson on Trial,” 1901, Wikimedia Commons, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anne_Hutchinson_on_Trial.jpg. Public domain. The file comes from http://www.jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Edwin_Austin_Abbey/Anne_Hutchinson_on_Trial.htm and includes a brief summary of Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson’s life.
[63] John Adams Vinson, `The Antinomian Controversy of 1637,” Reprinted from The Congregational Quarterly, 1873,
[64] Thomas Bicknell, “Rhode Island: Boston the Preparatory School for Aquidneck,” Americana, volume 12, (January 1918–December 1918): 319.
[65] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, Chapter 8, “Anne Hutchinson’s Influence on Early Settlers of Massachusetts and its Spread to Many Rhode Island and Long Island Families, including Kings and Underhills,” Chapter 9, “Outcasts and Scapegoats to Rhode-Island: Pioneers for ‘Liberty of Conscience.’”
[66] From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, Chapter 6, “Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Williams: Dreams for an American Zion Meet Diversity; both men had notable influence upon English Families that Settled Long Island” and Chapter 9, “Outcasts and Scapegoats to Rhode-Island: Pioneers for ‘Liberty of Conscience.’”
[67] From Conscience to Liberty, Chapter 10, “New Netherland’s Earliest Settlers: Who Were They? and Why Did They Come?” Chapter 11, “A French/Belgian/Italian ‘Dutch’ Family, Typical of Diversity at Early Long Island.”
[68] Thomas Ewer in “Early Life and Times of John Scudder (J), b. 1618, Strood, Kent, England, 1635 Immigrant to New England, Later Known as John Scudder of Barnstable” and “The Trail of Clues to John Scudder,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, volume 2, no. 1, (Spring 2020).
[69] Thomas Lothrop, son of John Lothrop in E. B. Huntington, A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in This Country….” (Ridgefield, Ct.: for Mrs. Julia M. Huntington, 1884), 38, https://archive.org/details/agenealogicalme00huntgoog/page/n51/mode/2up. Also Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal articles cited in endnotes 66 and 67.
[70] From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, Chapter 8, “Anne Hutchinson’s Influence on Early Settlers of Massachusetts and its Spread to Many Rhode Island and Long Island Families, including Kings and Underhills” and Part B, “Appendix 1, “English Ancestry of the Puritan Scudder Immigrants to America,” xii–xxiv.
“Harriet Wadsworth (Lathrop) Winslow: the Third ‘Scudder’ Cousin on the Indus,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 1, no. 2, (June 2019), https://scudder.org/harriet-wadsworth/.
“Samuel Lathrop and Elizabeth (Scudder) Lathrop of Barnstable, New London and Norwich,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 1, no. 3, (December 2019), https://scudder.org/samuel-elizabeth/
“Elizabeth Scudder, wife of Samuel Lathrop: Early Life of Elizabeth Scudder) Lathrop, Ancestress of the Scudder (E) Line,”
Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 2, no. 2, (Fall 2020).
And articles in endnote 66.
[71] From Conscience to Liberty, Part B, Chapter 30, “The Boston Quaker Martyrs: More Clashes of Colonial American Conscience.”
[72] From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, Chapter 19, “No Civil Power Has the Right to Thrust Its Hand or Its Mace Between a Man and His Maker.”
[73] From Conscience to Liberty, Part B, Chapter 20, “More Chose to Leave the Persecuting Atmosphere of Massachusetts Bay: Scudder Migrated from Salem with Others to Join Long Island’s First Puritans.”
[74] “Scudder Family in America: The Beginnings,” Scudder Searches,” 13.
[75] Charles R. Street, Huntington Town Records, including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y., 1653–1688, (Transcribed, compiled and published by authority and at the expense of the two towns, 1887), 75.
[76] Ibid.
[77] Street, 74–80.
Recent Comments