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                                                                                                                        August 2007

 The Minthorns of Long Island and Westchester County

In 1641, a small group of dissenters from the dominant church in Watertown, Massachusetts and later Wethersfield, Connecticut, created a new community in Stamford.  It had close ties with New Haven, formed a few years earlier by other Puritan dissenters.  With another schism soon after, a part of the Stamford group, led by their pastor Richard Denton, bought land from the Indians opposite Stamford on Long Island and moved there in the spring of 1644.  A patent to the Stamford immigrants issued by the Dutch in that year, gave land from Hempstead Harbor to Martin Garretsen’s Bay.  This included the later towns of Hempstead and Huntington.  About the same time, families from New Haven started the colonies of Southampton and Southold on eastern Long Island.   Some of the earliest families to settle around Warwick in Orange County, were from Stamford, to be followed shortly after by families from Hempstead, Huntington, Southampton and Southold.  So, in a sense, these were all people from Connecticut, by way of Long Island.

A patent in 1645 to the town of Flushing extended eastward as far as Martin Garrentsen’s Bay.  Flushing, although in undisputed Dutch territory, was first settled in that year by a band of English planters who had lived in Holland.  They called their settlement Vlissingen, after the town of Vlissing in Zealand.  Later, it appears that some of these English planters moved on to Southampton.[1]   Still, without further evidence, I assume that the Long Island Minthorns were a different family from those in NYC.

The first Richard Minthorne recorded in Long Island was in Southampton 14 Jan 1672/3 when he was sued for slander by John Tompson of Setauket and had to make an apology.  The next case was that of John Beswick who also apologized to Tompson stating that "I was never banished from Stamford as he was, which I acknowledge that I know noe such thing of him to my owne knowledge".[2] This suggests that Richard Minthorne and John Beswick may have lived in Stamford as Tompson had. If so, they would probably have been landless laborers or servants as they never appeared in the land records of Stamford or Southampton.  Richard was still in Southampton 19 May 1677 when he appeared in a list of debtors to the estate of Stephen Coppock.[3] Richard next appeared in the 1698 census of Southampton along with a Sarah Minthorne, probably his wife.  

In the 1698 census at Hempstead was another Richard Minthorne, perhaps the son of the first one. He first appears in the town records of Hempstead in 1680 when he bought 6 acres which he made over to John March in consideration of 90 poles of fencing. He was recorded in the town records again in 1682, 1683 and 1 Apr 1684 when the town granted him a home lot.  On 1 Apr 1686 he was made constable by the Hempstead Town Meeting.[4] The last time he appears is in the census of Hempstead when he is living with wife Sarah and children Richard and Martha.

There is also record of a Hannah Minthorne, born 1683 in Huntington, died 24 Aug 1754 in same, married 4 May 1729 in Huntington to Isaac Brush.[5]  It was his second marriage and might have been hers too, in which case she would not have been born a Minthorn.  Her date of birth suggests that her first husband could have been either William or Richard.  She seems to have been the mother of Hannah Minthorne who m John Thurston in 1735[6] and might also have been the mother of our John Minthorn, below, and another Richard Minthorne who witnessed a deed at Babylon, Huntington, 5 Mar 1736-37. 

Richard Minthorne Jr. received his earmark at Hempstead in 1710.  He was probably the younger Richard Minthorne in the Hempstead 1698 census, and if the earmark was recorded when he turned 21, he would have been born about 1689.  There was a Richard Minthorne in the Oyster Bay militia in 1715.[7]

William Minthorne obtained his earmark in Hempstead in 1705 suggesting he was a brother of Richard above.  He witnessed deeds at Hempstead 3 May 1705, 26 Dec 1705 and 4 Jun 1706.  He then drops from the records.  He might have gone to New Jersey and been the progenitor of the Minthorns there. 

Now we come to the John Minthorn of our interest who was b ca 1705, perhaps the eldest son of Richard Minthorn and Sarah of Hempstead.  The reason for this belief is that a John Minthorn of Hempstead sold the deceased Richard Minthorn’s land in Hempstead 12 Aug 1731, describing himself as the true sole and lawful owner.  Witnesses were Richard Ellison and Daniel Denton. 

There is a power of attorney, 21 Mar 1733, from Benjamin Smith of Hempstead to Samuel Tredwell, to sue on bond from John Minthorne to said Smith.[8]  As Samuel Tredwell had been born in Hempstead and moved to Rye, the implication is that this John Minthorne had also moved from Hempstead to Rye.    

A John Minthorn married Abigail Bailey/Bayles, b ca 1712 in Rye, Westchester Co, dau of Nathaniel Bailey and Ruth Galpin.  John Minthorn died sometime before 1740 because Nathaniel Bayley of Rye in his will referred to Abigail as a widow.[9]    They had three children: Nathaniel, who married Hannah Grant,  Abigail, who married John Edsall, and John, who married Christian Poppino. 

The Baileys descended from French Huguenots; the immigrant was Nicholas Bailey/Baillee/Baylis, born in England who arrived with three sons: Nicholas, John and Elias.  The latter two went to Long Island where they had many descendants, including some in Hempstead.  Nicholas was in the New Haven Colony in 1644 but about 1655 had to leave when his wife was accused of witchcraft.  He ended up in Westchester where he was a magistrate in 1659-1662.  In 1689 he deeded his house and land to a daughter and her husband, on condition they care for him and his wife; the deed was witnessed by his younger cousins, Elias and Jonathan Bailey of Long Island.  His line continued in Westchester through his son Nathan and Nathan’s son Nathaniel, to Nathaniel’s daughter Abigail, who married John Minthorn.[10] 

Abigail Bailey’s brothers, Nathan and Nehemiah moved to Orange County as did her sister Jane Bailey Harker with her husband Joseph Harker.  When Joseph wrote his will in 1756,[11] his witnesses (all in Florida/Warwick) were John Minthorne, son of his wife’s sister; Richard Edsall, whose brother married John Minthorn’s sister, and Richard Johnson, married to Sarah Poppino, sister of John Minthorn’s wife.  Richard Edsall was executor.  There were other Baileys in Florida/Warwick who descended from the Long Island cousins.

While Captain John Minthorn of Bellvale/Warwick was the son of John Minthorn and Abigail Bailey and not any of the other fathers who have been cited by DAR applicants and other recent researchers, it is not certain that he had Long Island antecedents.  As suggested at the end of my article on the Minthorn Family of NYC, he may descend from Philip Minthorne, progenitor of that line.

Some DAR applications refer to a John Minthorn 1720 – 1807 who was chairman of the Committee of Safety and Observation of Orange County, who lived and died in Bellvale, and was married to Susannah Rogers.[12]  There was such a couple as you will see below but they were younger.  I think the old guy was a figment of a DAR applicant’s imagination. In that case the Committee Chairman would doubtless be our John Minthorn, b ca 1738, below.