Shelter Island’s Nicolls Patent: A primer

The original Nicolls Patent is in the ornate formal style and language common to handwritten legal documents in 17th-century colonial America. At the time of the patent, Shelter Island was still also known by its Indian name, here written as “Manhansucke Ahaqatzuwamock.”

The early history of Shelter Island as an English possession onLong Island’s East End begins slightly earlier than the usuallyrecognized date of 1652. While that is the date of NathanielSylvester’s arrival on the Island with his bride following hishoneymoon shipwreck, he was not its first proprietor of Europeanorigin.

James I of England had granted the English Colony of Plymouth anenormous swath of land from the Gulf of St. Lawrence southward,including the lower Hudson Valley and Long Island, in 1620. In1637, the colony, at the urging of Charles I, who had by thenacceded to the English throne, granted Long Island and its adjacentislands to the Scots poet and statesman William Alexander, Earl ofStirling. He designated fellow Scotsman James Farrett as his agentto “inspect and dispose of this property, according to RalphDuvall’s 1932 “History of Shelter Island.

In 1638, Farrett visited the lands conveyed to Alexander, andclaimed Robbins Island and what is now Shelter Island “for the tenthousand acres that had been offered him for his services as agent.He invoked his agency powers to sell Shelter Island to one StephenGoodyear in 1641, and for the next 10 years it was known as “Mr.Goodyear’s Island.

Goodyear was a merchant, and deputy colonial governor of NewHaven, but there is no indication that he had any interest in theIsland other than as an investment. In 1651, he arranged for thesale of Shelter Island to Thomas Middleton, Thomas Rouse, NathanielSylvester and his brother Constant; the four men were active in thesugar trade on the British island of Barbados.

Following the restoration of the English throne to Charles II,management of the colonies in America was granted to the Duke ofYork, the king’s brother James (later to become James II). In turn,Richard Nicolls was named governor under the Duke. This is theNicolls of the Nicolls patents – of which there were many.

“Letters patent historically are open letters from a sovereignauthority either granting or confirming rights to particularindividuals. During the tenure of Richard Nicolls as governor, heissued such letters with reference to several separate and distincttracts of land on the East End.

A Google search on “Nicolls Patent generally turns up referencesto patents that do not specifically relate to Shelter Island.However, Laury Dowd, Shelter Island’s town attorney, was able toprovide us with a copy of an original manuscript dated May 31, 1666and titled “A Confirmation of Shelter Island Graunted unto ConstantSilvester and Nathaniell Silvester. In the usual tortuous formallanguage of the day, it describes:

“¦ a Certaine Island Scituate laying and being ina Certaine Bite Bay or Arme of the Seas which runneth betweene theLands belonging to y townes of East Hampton Southampton andSouth=Hold in the East Riding of Yorkshire upon Long Island by theIndians formerly called Manhansucke Ahaqatzuwamock and now commonlyknown by the name of Shelter Island ¦ [which has]come into the hands of Constant Silvester of the Island ofBarbadoes Esqr, And Nathaniell Silvester, now inhabiting andresiding in Shelter Island.

The document then proceeds to:

“¦ confirm unto the said Constant Silvester andNathaniell Silvester their heirs anda…¸igns the said Island heretoforecalled Manhansucke Ahaqatzuwamock and now known as Shelter IslandTogether with all the Lands Soyles Woods Meadows Pastures MarshesLakes Waters Fishings Hawking Hunting and Fowling and all otherProffitts Commodities Emoluments and Hereditaments to the saidIsland belonging with their and every of their Appurtenances and ofevery Part and Parcell thereof.

Despite the absence at the time of any formal town government,Nicolls directed that:

“¦ the said Island and premises now is &forever hereafter shall bee held deemed reputed taken and bee anIntire Infranchised Township Mannor & place of itselfe.

A relatively recent reference to this patent is in the recordsof the Town of Shelter Island, in the form of a county court order,also provided to us by Ms. Dowd, the town attorney. By its date,June 24, 1919, obviously hundreds of deeds and title conveyanceshad intervened with respect to the grants to the Sylvesters’ heirsand assigns. By deed, evidently acting in behalf of the by-thenwidely dispersed descendants of the original patentees, John S. andEtta V. Howe of Riverhead conveyed the patent rights to the watersof Shelter Island to the Town of Shelter Island, specifying thosewaters as:

“¦ the lands under the waters of Dering’s Bay orHarbor including Chase’s Creek and the other creeks and baysadjoining thereto; the lands under the waters of Coeckles Bay orHarbor including so much of Congdon’s Creek as lies outside of andbeyond the part thereof found vested in individual defendants inseveralty; the lands under the waters of West Neck Harbor includingthe West Neck Creek, West Neck Bay, Menantic Creek, Tuthill’s Creekand the other creeks and bays adjoining thereto, and also the landsunder the waters of Crab Creek.

The deed also specifies the jurisdiction of the town withrespect to:

¦ the right to fish from boats on and in the saidwaters over said strip including the right to fish for flat fish inthe method known as fyke fishing and to dredge for escallops andincluding the right to prevent others not residents of the Town ofShelter Island from so fishing in said strip, but not to includethe right to plant or harvest oysters nor dig for clams therein norengage in any fishing operations requiring appliances attached toor operated from the shore or tending to lead to trespass on theshore¦ .

There is a substantial legal record of upholding patent rightsfor other Long Island communities couched in similar or evenidentical language to that of the Sylvesters’ 1666 patent fromGovernor Nicolls. It is on that basis that Shelter Island, and itscompanion towns on the East End, have challenged the recent attemptby the state of New York to require fishing licenses in our waters.Our role in that effort is clearly more than that of going alongfor the ride; we have our own particular history of duly grantedsovereign rights in the matter.