Would there be any likelihood that someone who went back and forth between Southold and Huntington and whose family members owned land in Oyster Bay in the time period of 1665 might be considered to be "of Flushing" by someone of Southold and Rye, NY when drawing up a deed in what is now Westchester County?  What would be the furthest point east that someone might be considered "of Flushing" at that time?  Could someone who owned property, or resided with a family member who owned property, in Hempstead possibly be considered "of Flushing"?

Honor

>>> [log in to unmask] 03/30/02 12:02AM >>>
Those of you not familiar with the Dongan Patent may be interested to learn
that when NY State became a state, its constitution acknowledged all
contracts and agreements made between the Crown and the New York colonials
before Oct. 1775. When the federal Constitution was written, it included
recognition and upholding of pre-Revolutionary War contracts, etc. That
includes the Dongan Patent which gave its grantees full right to govern,
fish, hunt, purchase land, etc.

Dongan granted Patents to other than colonial New York but, to my knowledge,
until Brookhaven's most recent news, only one person has pursued and is
pursuing in court the rights granted by the the State and federal
Constitutions. That person is a commercial fisherman.

Pre-Revolutionary contracts have held up in federal courts during the last
180 years.

If anyone knows of other instances (in NY or outside it) in which early
contracts and patents were held to be viable when challenged, I would like
to hear about them.

Nancy Hyden Woodward


on 3/28/02 1:04 PM, Walter Greenspan at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Today's NEWSDAY has a news analysis column (the first 5 paragraphs, as well
> as the URL for the complete article, appear after my name) about the Town of
> Brookhaven lawsuit to overturn the referendum that approved the creation of
> councilmanic districts for town board members.
>
> The town will argue in its lawsuit that the new configuration of board
> membership under the election rules approved by the public on Jan. 22 would
> not conform to the terms of King James II's trusteeships as granted to the
> trustees in 1686 by the king's governor, Thomas Dongan.
>

> Copyright (c) 2002, Newsday, Inc.
>
> This article originally appeared at:
> http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/ny-livit282643327mar28.column