Here we have the Halsey House Historic Structure Report from 2014 that was done by Robert Hefner with research by Rosanne Barons. This is an extremely important document that I refer to more than most other things in our museum. With a place as old as the Halsey House and having as much history tied to it as it does, it can be a bit hard to keep memorized. Which is why I am glad we have a copy of this sitting in the Halsey House that I can review before any tour that I give.
Also for anyone out there who is a big architecture nerd, this is a great resource for you. This document does a great job at laying out the history of the families that lived in the home, but it does an event better job at getting into the nitty gritty of how this building was put together. Once you read through this if you want to come see the Halsey House in person, just give us a call at (631) 283-2494 and we can see about setting up a tour!
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Halsey House
South Main Street, Southampton, N.Y.
Historic Structure Report
Prepared for:
Southampton History Museum
Prepared by:
Robert Hefner
With research by Rosanne Barons
February 2014
***citations will be marked in brackets after the sentence where the reference takes place and will be marked in red in lieu of proper footnotes not being possible in this digital format***
Introduction
The Southampton Colonial Society undertook a project to install new three-foot shingles on the Halsey House in 1999. Nathan Tuttle was the contractor and he was assisted by Gary Tuttle. This writer supervised the work. Upon removing shingles, it became apparent that areas of the timber frame were severely deteriorated. The Society expanded the scope of work to include making necessary repairs to the timber frame. All of the existing sheathing was removed to inspect and repair the frame. By the fall of 2000, the frame was repaired and the new shingles installed. Realizing that seeing the entire frame was an opportunity to learn more about the Halsey House, the Society made documenting the timber frame part of the project. This resulted in a trove of data in the form of photographs, measured drawings and field notes. Jeff Heatley took large- format photographs of the exposed frame.
The purpose of this historic structure report is to organize that data and to use it, along with research of historic documents, to better understand the Halsey House. The result is a narrative of the Halsey House that attempts to reconcile the physical evidence of the timber frame with the written evidence of historic documents. Analysis of all the available data suggests that Thomas Halsey Jr. built the original house to face south between 1678 and 1688 and that his son, Captain Isaac Halsey, turned the house to face Main Street and extensively remodeled it between 1720 and 1740. Although this is a reasoned narrative, it is conjectural and questions remain. The timber frame is complicated and the historic record is incomplete, especially for the important 1720-1740 period.
Opportunities remain to learn more about the Halsey House. Fragments observed in 2000, but left in the wall cavities, along with pieces of the early house that undoubtedly are hidden in ceilings and interior walls, if accessed and studied in the future, may yield important information. While an attempt by the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory in 2003 to date timbers of the Halsey House was not successful, this technology may yet identify a certain date of construction. Documents may be discovered that will shed more light on the history of the Halsey House.
Halsey House History
Summary History of the Halsey House
There is sufficient documentation to confirm that the Halsey House stands on what was the home lot of Thomas Halsey Sr. from the 1650s to 1678. The home lot was then owned by Thomas Halsey Jr. from 1678 to 1688 and by Captain Isaac Halsey from 1689 to at least 1746.
The 1677 will of Thomas Halsey Sr. describes his house as having a "porch chamber," which would have been the upper room of a two-story enclosed porch projecting from the chimney bay and containing the front entrance on the first floor. Physical evidence shows that the Halsey House did not have a porch or porch chamber and, therefore, is not the house of Thomas Halsey Sr.
Thomas Halsey Jr. inherited his father's Main Street home lot and house in 1678. In Thomas Halsey Jr.’s will of 1688 he gave "unto my wife Mary Dureing the time of her widowhood the one halfe of my new house that I built at the towne namly The west Leantoo and halfe the north Leantoo and halfe the sellar." A house built by an Englishman on eastern Long Island in the seventeenth century with a west lean-to and a north lean-to would have faced south and had a rear lean-to extending to the north and a lean-to built against the west gable end.
Physical evidence in the frame of the Halsey House indicates that, if the original house faced south, then it did have a rear lean-to on the north wall and lean-to on the west gable wall. Presuming a south orientation, we can conclude that the Halsey House is the "new house" described by Thomas Halsey Jr. in his will. This "new house" was built between 1678 and 1688. There is no known event during this period that would suggest a particular year. Rather than repeat the period of construction as being "between 1678 and 1688," this report refers to the middle of this period for the short-hand attributed date of ca. 1683.
Drawing 4 is a conjectural restoration of the original floor plan of Thomas Halsey Jr.'s house. Today, only the frame of the hall and hall chamber and some framing of the chimney bay remain intact.
If the house were built with its present orientation facing east toward Main Street, the original rear lean-to would have been to the west and the original gable-end lean-to would have been to the south. This supposition presents two serious problems. First, this would not be the house of Thomas Halsey Jr. Second, a lean-to built on the south wall, cutting off sunlight from the upper room, would be illogical in the building tradition that Southampton's settlers were part of. There is no precedent for a south lean-to in seventeenth-century Long Island or New England. If the house were built with its present orientation, the two principal rooms, the hall and hall chamber, would have had windows in the east and north walls and no south light. Southampton's tradition of facing houses to the south was noted by George Rogers Howell in 1866: "The houses were usually two stories in front, always facing south...so invariable was the custom of building their houses with the south, that one of unusual antiquity demolished only a few years since, was so erected on the south side of an east and west street with the kitchen actually fronting on the street" [George Rogers Howell, The Early History of Southampton, L. I., (New York: J. N. Hallock, 1866), p. 98.] [this house faced south while the kitchen in the lean-to faced north toward the street]. In his study of the early houses of Massachusetts Bay, Abbott Lowell Cummings observed that "Where open space permitted, the builder and client preferred a sunny, southern exposure. Among a total of 125 houses where the original orientation has been noted, ninety-eight face more or less due south. Of the remainder, all but two or three are located in compact towns or in urban situations, though even here, the house was often sited on its lot to face south with the gable end turned toward the street." [Abbott Lowell Cummings, The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), pp. 38, 39.]
This report proceeds from the reasonable conclusions that this is Thomas Halsey Jr.'s house and that he built it facing south. Captain Isaac Halsey inherited his father's Main Street home lot and house in 1689. Evidence in the timber frame suggests that between about 1720 and about 1740, Isaac Halsey undertook an extensive remodeling. First he took off the roof frame, demolished the north lean-to, demolished the west lean-to and removed most of the framing of the chimney bay. Isaac Halsey retained only the two-story, nearly cubic frame (18' wide x 18' deep x 16' high) of the hall and hall chamber (Drawing 15). This report assumes that Captain Isaac Halsey revolved this small box frame to face east toward Main Street. He then rebuilt the chimney- bay, added a two-story south addition, built a larger rear lean-to and covered the whole with a new roof. This report attributes the short- hand date of c. 1730 to this conjectural remodeling by Captain Isaac Halsey.
Thomas Halsey Jr. had a house at Mecox, where his farm was based, and a house "at towne", the Halsey House. Captain Isaac Halsey acquired more and more land at Onuck and Potunk (Westhampton Beach) until that area become the center of his livestock farm. We assume that Onuck became Isaac Halsey's primary residence and that he retained the Main Street house to also have a residence in town.
During the late eighteenth-century, the Halsey House was again remodeled. Casement windows were replaced with plank-frame windows having up-and-down sash and the interior was modernized with plaster ceilings and fielded paneling on the walls. A renovation by Arthur J. Peabody, of about 1900, included raising the house by 18" and removing most of the earlier interior woodwork as well as removing exterior doors and windows. At this time, the house was expanded with large two-story additions to the north and west. The restoration undertaken by the Southampton Colonial Society in 1960 then removed most of the ca. 1900 fabric. The historic significance of the Halsey House is now embodied in its timber frame. As it stands today, with the ca. 1730 saltbox form facing Main Street, this is the house of Captain Isaac Halsey which incorporates an important part of the frame of the house of Thomas Halsey Jr. Drawings 1 and 2 illustrate the evolution of the Halsey House as presented in this report.
Southampton Historians and The Halsey House
George Rogers Howell's 1866 The Early History of Southampton, L.I. was the first publication to connect the Halsey House to an early resident: “We will add some statements communicated to the author, concerning the residences during the better half of the last century, by Mr. Charles Pelletreau, now deceased...South of Mr. Nicholas White lived Hugh Raynor, and James his son lived in the present residence of Mr. White.” [George Rogers Howell, The Early History of Southampton, L. I., (New York: J. N. Hallock, 1866), p. 157.] Thomas Nicholas White lived in the Halsey House from 1839 to 1886. Charles Pelletreau (1791-1863) was 21 years old in 1812 when James Raynor sold the Halsey House to Elias Pelletreau Jr., and then moved to Cazanovia, New York. Charles Pelletreau was a reliable source for this information.
William S. Pelletreau, who began editing and publishing the Southampton Town Records in 1874, was the first historian to link Thomas Halsey Sr. with the Halsey House. Pelletreau placed a footnote to the 1657 mention of "Tho. Halsey Sen his house" stating that this was "The present residence of Nicholas White." [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 1, p. 153.] By tracing deeds, wills and references in the Town Records, William S. Pelletreau had determined that the Halsey House stood on what had been Thomas Halsey Sr.'s home lot. Mr. Pelletreau made the assumption that the Halsey House was where Thomas Halsey Sr. was living in 1657. This footnote is the root of the legend that enveloped the Halsey House when it was purchased by the Southampton Colonial Society in 1958.
James Truslow Adams wrote about the Halsey House more than forty years after William S. Pelletreau first connected the Halsey House to Thomas Halsey Sr. Adams wrote in his 1918 History of the Town of Southampton: "Other old houses in Southampton village were the Hollyhocks (the old Isaac Halsey house) toward the south end of Main ., now the oldest house standing,..." [James Truslow Adams, History of the Town of Southampton, (Bridgehampton: Hampton Press, 1918), p. 112.]
Evolution of the Thomas Halsey Sr. Home Lot
The South Main Street home lot of Thomas Halsey Sr. was passed on to Thomas Halsey Jr. and then to his sons Isaac Halsey and Jonathan Halsey. Three documents allow us to fix the location of Thomas Halsey Sr.'s home lot: the 1688 will of Thomas Halsey Jr.; a 1691 exchange of land between Isaac Halsey and Jonathan Halsey; and a 1732 transaction between Nehemiah Howell and Nathaniel Howell for the lot to the north. These records describe: a four-acre Howell home lot between Horse Mill Lane to the north and the Halsey lot to the south; the six-acre home lot of Thomas Halsey Sr. extending south from the Howell lot; and Thomas Halsey Jr. acquiring the adjoining three-acre lot to the south, extending the home lot to nine acres. Beginning with Horse Mill Lane, and calculating the four-acre Howell lot to the south, and then calculating the six-acre Thomas Halsey home lot south of the Howell lot, we can identify the land associated with the Halsey House. Drawing 3 illustrates the Thomas Halsey Sr. home lot.
In his will, which he signed on June 28, 1677, Thomas Halsey Sr. left his home lot and house to his oldest son, Thomas Halsey Jr., "I do give and bequeath unto my sonne Thomas my house & housing and home lott..." [Southampton History Museum collection.] Thomas Halsey Jr., in his will dated August 3, 1688, divided his home lot between his sons Isaac and Jonathan:
I give unto my Son Isaac Halsey four Acres of the Home lott at Towne yt was my father Halseys to begin on the north side of the Lott and also the other halfe of the new House that Standeth upon the Said lott and the other halfe of the Said House after the time is Expired that my wife is to have in (it) …
I give to my son Jonathan Halsey the home lot at towne that I bought of mr wodhull and a third part of the home Lott that was my fathers my w(ife) Enjoying one acre and a halfe of the abovesd Lott dureing her Life as is before menconed
From this we learn that Thomas Halsey Sr.'s home lot contained six acres: four acres given to Isaac plus the one third, which would be two acres, given to Jonathan. Isaac's four acres were to the north and Jonathan's two acres were to the south adjoining the Woodhull lot.
A few years after his father died, Jonathan Halsey deeded his portion of the Main Street home lot to Isaac in exchange for other land:
Jonathan Halsey sells to his brother Isaac Halsey all his part of the home lot at Town that was his grand father Halsey's, being about 5 acres that is in the lot that was Mr. Woodhull's and 1/3 of the other lot adjoining, as given him by his father's will. [Records of the Town of Southampton, v. 5, p. 275. The published text is "1/2 of the other lot", which may be an error of transcription.]
This exchange documents the lot which Thomas Halsey Jr. purchased from Richard Woodhull as containing three acres (five acres less the two acres of Thomas Halsey Sr.'s lot) and verifies that the Woodhull lot adjoined Thomas Halsey Sr.'s lot to the south.
The location of Thomas Halsey Sr.'s lot on Main Street is fixed by a 1732 deed for the Howell lot adjoining the Halsey lot to the north:
Nehemiah Howell of Maidenhead, New Jersey, sells to Nathaniel Howell, a home lot, 4 acres, bounded north by a lane that goes down to ye Town pond, east by Town street, south by Capt. Isaac Halsey, west by the Town Pond... [Records of the Town of Southampton, v. 6, p. 174.]
The lane to Town Pond is Horse Mill Lane, described by William S. Pelletreau in 1915 as being north of the lot "now owned by Mr. J. Lawrence McKeever." Drawing 3 shows the four-acre McKeever lot on the 1916 Hyde Atlas of Suffolk County and the narrow lot of Miss Julia A. Wilson to the north, part of which was Horse Mill Lane. The Wilson and McKeever lots correspond to lots on the current Suffolk County Tax Map as shown on Drawing 3. This provides the basis for laying out the six-acre home lot of Thomas Halsey Sr. and the nine-acre home lot of Thomas Halsey Jr. as an overlay on the current tax map and on the 1916 Atlas. The Halsey House stands on the northerly four-acre portion of the home lot that Thomas Halsey Jr. gave to Isaac Halsey.
As described above, Isaac Halsey reconstituted his father's nine acre home lot when he acquired his brother's five-acre share in 1691. Then in 1695, Isaac sold the southerly 2 1/2 acres of his home lot to Richard Howell:
(Abstract) Richard Howell sells to Isaac Halsey 2 1/2 acres in little plain...in exchange Isaac Halsey gives 2 1/2 acres bounded N by said Isaac's home lot, S. by home lot of Jonathan Raynor, W by Town pond, E by main street. Nov. 8, 1695.
Richard Howell sells to his son Josiah, the 2 1/2 acres mentioned above same date. [Records of the Town of Southampton, v. 2, pp. 326,327.]
This transaction left Isaac Halsey with a 6 1/2 acre home lot of about the same configuration as that of Thomas Halsey Sr.'s lot. There is no known subsequent change to the Halsey home lot through Isaac's ownership. The last record of Isaac Halsey owning the home lot is in a 1746 deed for the Howell lot to the north.
Jeddediah Howell sells to rev. Sylvanus White, a home lot of 5 acres, bounded south by lot of Isaac Halsey, north by Horse Mill Lane, east by Main Street, West by Town Pond. 1746. [Records of theTown of Southampton, v. 6, p. 207. The reference to a five-acreHowell home lot is difficult to explain, unless the transcription is in error. The McKeever lot and the subdivision of the McKeever lot as shown on the Suffolk County Tax Map amount to 4.1acres.]
In 1697 Josiah Howell sold to Jonathan Raynor half of the 2 1/2 acres he had purchased from Isaac Halsey:
Josiah Howell sells to Jonathan Raynor "one half of my Home Lot which I formerly had of Isaac Halsey, and am now possessed of, lying and being at ye south end of said Southampton town, which half is to be taken off the south side joining to the land of said Raynor. The whole lot is bounded, north by Isaac Halsey, south by said Jonathan Raynor, west by ye Town Pond, east by the main street of Southampton." June 12, 1697. [Records of the Town of Southampton, v. 6, p. 138.]
Jonathan Raynor owned all the land on the west side of Main Street from Thomas Halsey Jr.'s nine-acre home lot south to what was called the "Smith Lot," which was a five-acre lot adjoining what is now Gin Lane. A 1742 deed documents the Raynor lot adjoining the "Smith Lot" to the north:
(Abstract) Nathaniel Howell sells to Joseph Foster a messuage of land commonly called Smiths Lot at ye south end of ye town street bounded S by a lane called Smiths lane, E by town street W by town pond N by land of Jonathan Raynor deceased 5 acres. March 28, 1742. [Records of the Town of Southampton, v. 3, p. 36.]
In his will, dated January 31, 1741, Jonathan Raynor left to his son Hugh "all my Buildings in Town and all my home lot on the west side of the Street." [Liber of Wills 14, pp. 29-31, Suffolk County Surrogate's Court.]
By 1800 Hugh Raynor's son, James Raynor, owned the Halsey House. When Hugh Raynor died in 1802, James inherited the Raynor home lot and merged in with the Halsey lot to create a twenty-acre parcel. [At some time a Raynor acquired the 1 1/4 acre parcel between Halsey and Raynor that Josiah Howell owned in 1697.] In 1812 James Raynor sold this twenty-acre parcel with the Halsey House to Elias Pelletreau:
James Raynor and wife Phebe, sold to Elias Pelletreau, A lot with house and two barns, 20 acres, bounded east by Main street of Southampton, north by Doctor Henry White, south by Thomas Jessup, west by Town Pond. August 28, 1812. [Records of the Town of Southampton, v. 6, p. 234.]
Henry White owned the Howell lot to the north of the Halsey lot and Thomas Jessup owned the "Smith Lot" south of the Raynor property.
Maltby Pelletreau, who had inherited the parcel from his father, transferred the twenty acres in 1833 to a group of four men (Daniel Fordham, James Scott, Isaac Sayre, Jr. and Henry Reeves):
All that certain Tract or parcel of Land with all the buildings thereon situated lying and being in the Town of Southampton aforesaid and Bounded East by Southampton Street North by Land of Sylvanus Raynor South by Silvanus Howell and West by the Town Pond Containing twenty acres... [Deed, Maltby Pelletreau and Jane Pelletreau to Daniel Fordham, James Scott, Isaac Sayre, Jr.and Henry Reeves, April 26, 1833. Deed Liber P, Book of deeds Asst Clerk, pp.179-180, Suffolk County Clerk's Office.]
In 1839 this group (now consisting of Henry and Emily Reeve, Isaac and Eliza Sayre, Jesse Reeves and Gilbert and Fanny Carll) sold the twenty-acre parcel to Oliver White:
All that certain tract of land situated in the town of Southampton in the Parish of Southampton and bounded as follows North by Silvanus Raynor, East by the Town Street, South by Silvanus Howell and West by the Town Pond, containing twenty acres. [Deed, Henry and Emily Reeve, Isaac and Eliza Sayre, Jesse Reeves and Gilbert and Fanny Carll to Oliver White, May 7, 1839. Deed Liber 258, pp. 55-57, Suffolk County Clerk's Office.]
Thomas Nicholas White inherited the land when his father, Oliver White, died in 1842.
Thomas N. White and Nancy R. White sold a 2 1/4 acre parcel containing the Halsey House to Arthur J. Peabody on August 3, 1886. [Thomas N. and Nancy White to Arthur J. Peabody, August 3, 1886. Deed Liber 297, pp. 257-258. Suffolk County Clerk's Office.] In 1958, John Tillotson Wainwright III, Arthur Peabody's great- grandson, sold the Halsey House on a .7 acre parcel to the Southampton Colonial Society.
* * * * *
In the above account, the first reference to the South Main Street home lot of Thomas Halsey Sr. occurs in his will of 1677. Earlier references to a Thomas Halsey Sr. home lot and to another lot, previously interpreted as being the South Main Street home lot, are discussed here.
The first mention of a "home lot" for Thomas Halsey is this entry of April 10, 1651:
Upon the 10th day of Aprill 1651 John Kelly had a whome lott of 3 acres of land fronting against the whome lott of Thomas Halsey granted unto him upon conditions that yf the saide John Kelly doe not personally * * the same that the saide land with the housing * * with any other material as fencing, shall fall into the townes hands, they paying him his expence on the same, as men indifferently chosen by the said Kelly and the town shall judge it as his leaving to be worth. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 1, p. 47.]
John Kelly sold this lot to Bartholemew Smith a few months later:
At a towne meeting held upon the 3d of August 1651 by the inhabitants of this towne it was granted that Bartholemew Smith, shall have and enjoy the whome lot lying about the house or seller which he bought of John Kelly. [Records: TownofSouthampton, v. 1, p. 79.]
There is no indication that the Thomas Halsey home lot that bordered that of John Kelly and then Bartholemew Smith is the Main Street lot on which the Halsey House stands.
A 1659 reference to a Thomas Halsey home lot may or may not be the same as that which adjoined Batholemew Smith in 1651:
May 25, 1659. John Ould field acknowledgeth that he hath sould unto Ellis Cook his home lot lieing betwixt Thomas Halseys Sen. and Thomas Cooper... [Records: Town ofSouthampton, v.1, p. 138.]
In his will of 1677, Thomas Halsey gave his son Daniel "the home loot that I booht of Mr: Smith." The 1678 inventory of his estate values "Smiths Lott" at £25. This second home lot of Thomas Halsey Sr. may be the same as the mystery lots referred to above.
An entry in the Town Records of December 12, 1647 has been cited as the grant of Thomas Halsey's Main Street home lot:
It is ordered that Thomas Halsey shall have his afore mentioned three acres of his fourty eight, laid out sixteen poles in breadth, and whereas there is a highway eight poles wide to bee between the said lot and the pond neere adioyneing, the towne doe give way to the said Tho. Halsey to inclose to the pond the said breadth of sixteen poles, but if hereafter the said inclosure of that pt of the highway becomes preiudical to the towne in the eyes of the major pt thereof, that then the said pt of the highway soe inclosed shall return to its former nature. [Records:TownofSouthampton, v.1, p. 44.]
In 1683 this parcel was owned by Thomas Halsey's son Isaac:
At a meeting of the Inhabitants or freeholders of the towne upon a training day, it is put to vote concerning laying open the highway long since upon sufferance enclosed by Thomas Halsey deceased and is now in the possession of his son Isaac Halsey lying by the pond side at the lower end of his 3 acre close, whereupon the general voate passed that the said highway shall be thrown open to the comon for the townes use and more especially for Mr. Whiting to goe to his land. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 2, p.279.]
This parcel is not the Main Street home lot. It is the "three eakers lying at the Toune Ponnd" that Thomas Halsey Sr. left to his son Isaac in his will of 1677. This is Isaac Halsey (1628-1725), Captain Isaac Halsey's uncle.
Thomas Halsey Sr.
owned the home lot on which the Halsey House stands from the 1650s to 1678
Thomas Halsey Sr. (1592-1678) sailed from England for America in 1638 making a brief stay at Lynn, Massachusetts, before joining with others to establish a new plantation at Southampton. Halsey had left Kempston, Bedfordshire, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their five children. Thomas Halsey was 46 years old when he arrived in Massachusetts, Elizabeth was 34, Thomas Jr. was 13, Isaac was 9, Daniel was 8 and their daughter Elizabeth was 4 years old.
The proprietors signed articles of agreement in Lynn in March 1639 and by 1640 had settled at Southampton. The story of the land on which the Halsey House stands begins about 1648 when the home lots at Old Town began to be abandoned and a new settlement along Main Street was established. William S. Pelletreau wrote that town records show proprietors living on Main Street by 1649. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 8, p. 435.]
The first mention of Thomas Halsey living on Main Street occurs in an entry in the records of May 4, 1657 ordering residents at the south end to assemble at the home of Thomas Halsey if an alarm were sounded: "all from (the meetinghouse) to the southend of the towne repaire to about Tho, Halseys Sen his house..." [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 1, p. 153.]
A list of inhabitants transcribed by William S. Pelletreau, and attributed by him to the year 1657, names the following living on the west side of Main Street:
38. Mr. ffordham
39. Joseph ffordham
40. Mr. John Howell
41. Tho. Halsey
42. Jon Raynor [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 1, p. 32.]
William S. Pelletreau identifies the home lots of Robert Fordham, Joseph Fordham, John Howell, Thomas Halsey and Jonathan Raynor lying in this order, north to south, on the west side of Main Street. The analysis in the previous section of this report also demonstrates that Thomas Halsey Sr.’s home lot lay between the Howell and Raynor lots.
According to Halsey family genealogies, Elizabeth Halsey, Thomas's wife, died about 1649. His marriage to Ann Johns in 1660 is documented in the town records:
This present writing witnesseth that I Thomas Halsey of Southampton in Conecticut, Husbandman, doe take Ann jones the wife of Edward Jones lately deceased in marriage contract to bee my espoused wife, without consideration of, or in relation to any of the lands goods or chattels that were in the possession of or any way properly belonging to the aforesaid Edward Jones. And doe hereby disclaime renounce and abandon all claime, right, title and Interest in them, and to them. And this my act and deed I publish proclaim and give notice to all ye world especially to those whome it doth or may concerne. Whereof I have set my hand this 25 of July 1660, THOMAS HALSEY [Records:Town of Southampton, v. 2, p.213.]
In his will, which he signed on June 28, 1677, Thomas Halsey Sr. left his house and Main Street home lot to Thomas Halsey Jr.:
I do give and bequeath unto my sonne Thomas my house & housing and home lott and ye Beech loot, & the little plaine Clooase, and the litel Clooase on the Southside of Mr: Rainers Commonly called Troublesome, & the Cloase at ye Millneck Comonly knowne by the name of Peters Clooase; and I Doe give my Sonn Thomas the loot that I had this last Devission at Meecokes: & the table in the parler, & the fife Joynt Stooles: & the bedsted & curtins in the poorch chamber. [Southampton History Museum collection.]
Thomas Halsey Sr. left his wife "one woolen Wheele: & one llinan Wheele, and my little iron poot, and a yelow rugg, and one white Dutch Blanket. and foore bushells of wheat to bee paid yearly as long as Shee liveth: the first to be paid within one Moonth; and foore ewe sheep." He did not stipulate her use of his house and it may be that she retained ownership of Edward John's house further up the street. Thomas Halsey Sr. died on August 27, 1678.
While the will of Thomas Halsey Sr. documents his ownership of the lot on which the Halsey House stands, it also tells us that his house does not survive. Thomas gave to Thomas Jr. "the table in the parler, & the fife Joynt Stooles: & the bedsted & curtins in the poorch chamber." Abbott Lowell Cummings describes the porch as a feature of some seventeenth-century houses in Massachusetts:
The projecting porch was but a spatial extension of the chimney bay beyond the front plane of the house...There was very little deviation from a standard formula for a projecting porch...Characteristic dimensions are laid down in a contract of 1657 by which John Norman, a house carpenter of Manchester, agreed to build a parsonage in Beverly, thirty-eight feet long and seventeen feet wide, "with a porch of eight foote square and Jetted over one foot each way." [Abbott Lowell Cummings, The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), p.36.]
The term "jetted over" meant that the second story of the porch overhung the first story. Abbott Lowell Cummings illustrated the two- story porch with an engraving of the 1670 Brigham house of Boston which was demolished in 1824 (see below). The porch of the 1690 Spencer-Pierce-Little House of Newbury, Massachusetts, built of brick, may be the only New England example to survive (see below).
[Image of engraving from James Henry Stark, Antique Views of Ye Towne of Boston, (Boston: McIndoe Brooks, 1882) p. 75. GoogleBooks.]
In the "porch chamber" of Thomas Halsey Sr.'s house was the "bedsted & curtins" that he left to Thomas Halsey Jr. New England estate inventories document other porch chambers used as bedrooms. The 1718 inventory of the estate of Col. Nicholas Page of Rumney Marsh, Massachusetts, includes
Porch Chamber
1 Small Bed and Callico Curtains 1 blanket 1 pair pillows 1 small looking glass 2 old chairs [Abbot Lowell Cummings, ed., Rural Household Inventories, 1675-1775, (Boston: SPNEA, 1964), p. 97.]
The 1686 inventory of the estate of Captain Jethro Furber of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, lists a "Porch Chamber that contained his best bedstead, clothing and books" and in the 1717 inventory of the estate of Joseph Chase of Hampton, New Hampshire, "the appraisers listed a small bedroom in the ‘Porch Chamber’ ”. [Richard Candee, "First Period Architecture in Maine and New Hampshire: The Evidence of Probate Inventories," in Early American Probate Inventories, Peter Benes, ed., (Boston: Boston University, 1987), pp. 109, 114.]
The timber frame of the Halsey House contains no evidence of a two- story porch projecting from the chimney bay on the front wall. There are no mortises in the chimney bay posts or in the plate to accept framing for a porch. The saucers for wattle-and-daub on the south face of post 2 indicate that this was an exterior wall, not an interior wall within a porch (see Drawing 5). The fact that the Halsey House did not have a two-story porch, with a "porch chamber," means that this is not the house of Thomas Halsey Sr.
THOMAS HALSEY Jr.
built the Halsey House ca. 1683
Thomas Halsey Jr. (1626-1688) married Mary Barrett about 1651, when he was 25 years old. Mary was born in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, the same town where Thomas's mother was born. Thomas and Mary Halsey had twelve children: Mary (born 1654); Elizabeth (born 1655); Josiah (born 1657); Sarah (born 1658); Isaac (born 1660); David (born 1663); Hannah (born 1665) Jeremiah (born 1667); Jonathan (born 1669); Phoebe (born 1671); Abigail (born 1673) and Nathaniel (born 1675).
The 1657 list of inhabitants includes Thomas Halsey Jr. among the "Eastern Men," indicating that he was living at Mecox by this time. Thomas Halsey Jr. inherited from his father two Water Mill properties: "the Cloase at ye Millneck Commonly knowne as Peeters Clooase" and "the loot that I had this last Devission at Meecokes." Thomas Halsey Jr. may have moved to Mecox to tend livestock on his father's land and then acquired additional land there for himself. The town meeting held on February 20, 1659 "granted to Thomas Halsey Jun upon his request to the town that he shall have for his propriety, and the towne do give unto him all that quantity of land more or less belonging unto the towne lying within his fence at the place comonly called Cobs pound." [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 2, p. 208. The name Cobs pound originated from an early use as an enclosure for horses.] He expanded his Cobs pound property with a transaction dated May 1, 1663: "John Woodruff Sen sells to Thomas Halsey Jr his 100 lb lot in mill neck, over against the piece of land called Cobs pound..." [Records:TownofSouthampton, v. 2, p.221.] and he chose his division of 1665 to be "50 acres adjoyning ye reare of his lot at Cobs pound, 8 acres at his land in mill neck." [Records:TownofSouthampton, v. 1, p.150.] The meadows of Mecox Bay and the adjoining upland became the base of Thomas Halsey Jr.'s farm, undoubtedly focused on raising livestock. The December 28, 1688 inventory of Thomas Halsey Jr.'s estate lists 2 horses, 12 oxen, 57 cattle, 84 sheep, 23 swine, wheat, hay, oats, Indian Corn, 3 barrels of beef and 3 barrels of pork. [Inventory of the estate of Thomas Halsey Jr., December 28, 1688, Southampton Historical Museum collection.] Cobs pound was the west side of Mecox Bay where Cobb Road and Cobb Island are today. Although he had worked on expanding his lands in Water Mill, Thomas Halsey Jr. also owned meadow, pasture and arable land at the Village of Southampton, Shinnecock, Quoque and Westhampton Beach.
Upon the death of his father in 1678, Thomas Halsey Jr. inherited the Main Street house and home lot. At that time, Thomas Halsey Jr. was 52 years old and Mary, his wife, was 51. Their twelve children ranged in age from 3 to 21 with six between the ages of 3 and 15. Having a second residence in town may have been beneficial for schooling and for church. The Main Street house may also have been used when Thomas or his older sons were farming their lands west of Water Mill.
The will of Thomas Halsey Jr., which he signed on August 3, 1688, is the most important document relating to the Halsey House. Because Thomas Halsey wrote "I doe give unto my wife Mary Dureing the time of her widowhood the one halfe of my new house that I built at the towne namly The west Leantoo and halfe the north Leantoo and halfe the sellar", we know that he had recently built the house, that it faced south and that it had a rear lean-to on the north wall and a lean-to on the west gable-end.
For Thomas Halsey Jr. to build this new house, his father's house must have been lost. One would suspect that it burned down. The frame of Thomas Halsey Jr.'s house incorporates a recycled timber that was heavily charred when part of an earlier building. Thomas Halsey Jr. built the Halsey House between 1678, when he inherited the home lot, and 1688, when he wrote his will. This report takes the middle of this range of years for the short-hand attributed date of ca. 1683.
Thomas Halsey Jr. left his South Main Street home lot and the new house he built on it to his second son, Isaac Halsey:
I give unto my Son Isaac Halsey four Acres of the Home lott at Towne yt was my father Halseys to begin on the north side of the Lott and also the other halfe of the new House that Standeth upon the Said lott and the other halfe of the Said House after the time is Expired that my wife is to have in it... [Will of Isaac Halsey, January 10, 1752, Southampton Historical Society Collection.]
The exact date that Thomas Halsey Jr. died is not known, but his will was proved on January 16, 1689. Mary Halsey may have elected to live at Cobs pound, rather than Main Street, as Thomas had given her his house there along with "the neck of land at Cobs pound" and "the Eagles Nest close at Mecox" for her use during her life. The 1696 "Estimate of Town of Southampton" lists "Mrs Mary Halsey and her son Nathaniel" as a family unit. Nathaniel Halsey was her youngest child and was only fourteen years old when his father died. Nathaniel was to inherit the house and home lot at Cobs pound, "the neck called cobs pound and the Close called the Eagles nest.." In her will, Mary Halsey wrote that her fifteen cattle and her money were "in ye hands of my son Nathaniel Halsey." We can surmise that Mary Halsey continued to live in the Water Mill house rather than in the Main Street house and that Isaac Halsey had use of all of the Halsey House from 1689. Mary Halsey died in 1699 and Nathaniel, then aged 24, had possession of the Water Mill house and home lot.
CAPTAIN ISAAC HALSEY
owned the Halsey House from 1689 to ca. 1746 and remodeled it ca. 1730
In his will of August 3, 1688, Thomas Halsey Jr. provided for his wife and divided his two houses and his vast lands between his sons, with Isaac Halsey receiving the Main Street house. He left a substantial cash legacy only to Isaac Halsey:
I do give unto my Son Isaac Halsey fourty Six pounds to be payd in Cattle at ye Rate of Contry paye as they Shall be prized by men this he shall Receive of my Executrix if he Live to Returne from albany if not Shee may keep it in her owne hands and doe with it as Shee Sees Cause...
Isaac Halsey (1660-1757) was a Corporal in Lieutenant Peter Schuyler's troop in the Albany Expedition from October 1687 to August 1688:
Petition. Peter Schuyler for his pay as Lieutenant of horse from October 5, 1687 to August 1, 1688 in Captain George Lockharts troop in the Albany Expedition at 9 shillings per diem
£135.9.0
pay of servand at 13d per diem 16.16.1
36 duffel coats for ye troopes att 20s £36.00.00
£188.5.4
List of men belonging to the troop which had blue diffels coats Each one att 20 sh P coat £36. Edw'd Graham Quart'r Mast'r
Tho. Hix
Doct'r John Botler
Isaac Halsey Corp'll
John Hatton Corp'll
English Smith
George Lagan
Jesse Kip
John Thorne
William Bloodgood
Isaac Clifton
Cornelius Viele
Henry ffenton
Charles Douty
Joseph Wickam
John Cornelisse
Barrent Janse Herek
Abram Heegman
Hendrik Brower
Rich's Stockton
Tho. Masiall
John Wooley
John Seres
Jonathan Haughton
Erin Davis
John Cornish
Roger Barton
Tho. Winne
Tho. Midgerly
Gabrill Spring
John Tuder Jun'r
Tho. Clancy
George May
Jhanis Titus
Hendrickse Gerretse
Benjamin fforce
[Second Annual Report of the State Historian of the State of New York, (Albany and New York: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., State Printers, 1897), pp. 395-396.Google Books.]
The long conflict between the English, with their allies the Iroquois, and the French for control of the fur trade flared in June 1687 when a French expedition from Montreal under Governor Denonville attacked and destroyed the largest Seneca village at Ganondagan, in western New York. In September 1687 a force of 3,000 marched from Montreal down the Richelieu River destroying Iroquois villages and crops and inciting retaliation from the Iroquois against the French. In August 1687 New York Governor Thomas Dongan left Manhattan for Albany where he "found the inhabitants of that place in considerable alarm owing to the fact that the destruction of that place and Schenectady was threatened by the French..." Dongan assembled a company of soldiers, the Albany Expedition, among whom was Corporal Isaac Halsey of Southampton. Governor Dongan described the defenses in 1687:
At Albany there is a Fort made of pine trees, fifteen foot high, and foot over, with Batterys and conveniences made for men to walk about, where are nine guns, small arms for forty men, four Barrils of powder with great and small shot in proportion. The Timber and Boards being rotten were renewed this year. In my opinion it were better that the fort were built up of Stone and Lime which will not be double the charge of this years repair, which yet will not last above 6 or 7 years before it will require the like again, whereas on the contrary, were it built of Lime and Stone it may bee for more easily maintained. And truly its very necessary to have a Fort there, it being a frontier place both to the Indians and French." [Information in this paragraph from History of the County of Albany, N.Y. from 1609 to 1886, (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co., 1886), p. 384.
The cost of securing the frontier was so great that the New York Council "passed an act to raise £2555 in the several counties at a fixed rate; the same to be paid at the custom-house in New-York before November, 1688." [The Memorial History of the City of New-York, James Grant Wilson, ed., (New York: New-York History Company, 1892), pp.431-434.]
We can assume that Corporal Isaac Halsey's tour in Albany was the same as that of his Lieutenant, Peter Schuyler, that is from October 5, 1687 to August 1, 1688. Isaac must have volunteered for the Albany Expedition. The list of officers and soldiers in Schuyler's troop includes only a few family names found in Suffolk County at that time. This was a troop of men from throughout New York. That Isaac Halsey was an officer of this troop gives us an idea of his personality and abilities.
We assume that Peter Schuyler's troop was stationed at Fort Frederick at Albany to defend the city. Whether they sojourned further into the frontier is not known. Certainly Isaac Halsey met Governor Thomas Dongan who was at Albany through the winter of 1678-1688. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Peter Schuyler, became the first Mayor of Albany following this commission.
Isaac Halsey was at the New York City custom house in November 1688 when he paid Southampton's assessment for the Albany Expedition to Matthew Plowman, Collector and Receiver General of New York:
Received this 21 day of November 1688 of Mr. Isaac Halsey the sum of one hundred twenty nine pounds, 13 shillings and seven pence half penny, for the assessment of the county of Suffolk. I say received for the towne of Southampton New York
MATH PLOWMAN
This money above said was payed towards the Defraying of the charge of the souldiers keeping at Albany the last year. [George Louis Beer, The Old Colonial System, 1660-1754, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912), vol.1, p.352. Google Books and Records:Town of Southampton, v. 2, p.34.]
Isaac Halsey remained a member of the Southampton militia. In 1700 he is ensign of a Southampton company in the Regiment of Militia for Suffolk County. [The Documentary History of the State of New York, (Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1849), v. 1, p.358. Google Books.] Captain Isaac Halsey is listed as commanding a Southampton company of forty men in the 1715 muster roll of the Suffolk County Regiment. [James Truslow Adams, History of the Town of Southampton, (Bridgehampton: Hampton Press, 1918), p. 308.]
Isaac Halsey was in Southampton when his father died in December 1688. Isaac inherited the home lot and house on South Main Street, two lots of farmland near Main Street, a lot at Scuttle Hole, meadow at Onuck, meadow at Asops Stalk, a meadow at Short Neck (the last three are in Quoque and Westhampton Beach), a full share of commonage, and meadow at Shinnecock.
Isaac Halsey married Mary Abigail Howell on November 28, 1689. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 2, p. 244.] She was the daughter of John and Susannah Howell who lived next door to the north of the Halsey House. Isaac and Mary lived in the Main Street house that Thomas Halsey Jr. had built less than ten years earlier. Isaac Halsey is described as "Isaac Halsey, south end," in the town records of 1695 and the "Estimate of Town of Southampton" dated September 11, 1696 lists "Isaac Halsey South end." [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 5, p. 79 and v. 2, pp. 361-362.] "A list of ye Inhabitants of ye Towne of Southampton" from 1698 names families in geographic order. The family of Isaac and Mary Halsey, with children Ephriam, Mehitabel and Mary, are listed between the families of Jonathan Raynor and Nathaniel Howell, conclusively documenting their home as the Halsey House. [George Rogers Howell, The Early History of Southampton, L. I., (Albany, Weed, Parsons and Company, 1887), pp. 34-37.]
Isaac and Mary Abigail Halsey had children Mehitabel (1690- ), Ephraim (ca. 1691 - 1764) and Isaac (1693-1725). The child named Mary in the 1698 list is not recorded in any genealogies. Isaac Halsey married Hannah Stratton of East Hampton on December 19, 1699.
Isaac and Hannah had one child, Timothy (1703-1723). On July 14, 1736 Isaac married Mary Hudson (1664-1758), widow of Robert Hudson of East Hampton. When Mary Abigail Halsey and Hannah Halsey died is not known.
While Isaac was living in his Main Street house, he began to expand the holdings he had inherited to the west, particularly in Onuck Neck and Potunk Neck (now Westhampton Beach). In 1689 he was granted, for five pounds, "all the remainder of the upland at Onunck neck..." [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 2, p. 305] On August 4, 1698 Isaac Halsey granted Richard Howell Sr. two £50 allotments in Ketchabonack neck for two £50 allotments in Potunk neck and on August 9, 1698 he purchased from Matthew Howell one £50 allotment at Potunk neck and one £50 allotment at Ogden's Neck. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 6, pp. 2,3.]
Extending even further west, in 1716 Captain Isaac Halsey purchased from Major William Smith a vast tract of about 10,000 acres, which became known as Halsey's Manor.49 The eastern boundary of Halsey's Manor was the Southampton town line, the northern boundary was the Peconic River, the western boundary was on a line extending from the Forge River at Moriches northerly to the Peconic River, and the southern boundary was the Moriches patentship. Halsey's Manor contained primarily pine barrens (much of which remains undeveloped today) and did not include the valuable necks of land and meadows on Moriches Bay. Isaac Halsey immediately set about trading part of Halsey's Manor for additional land adjoining his farm at Potunk and Onuck as evidenced by this entry in the Town Records later that year:
Whereas Isaac Halsey hath bought of Major Wm Smith a tract of land of about twelve thousand acres, and many of ye towne being desirous to have a part of ye said land, and Isaac Halsey being willing to give one third of said land for about one hundred and twenty acres of land joining to his land at Potunk and Oneck... [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 5, p 172.]
In 1738 Isaac Halsey, John Howell, Stephen Herrick and the surveyor Nathaniel Dominy laid out a highway across the necks of the Quaganantuck Purchase (Westhampton Beach, Quioque and Quoque). The description included:
a passing highway of four pole wide across great wonnonch neck to potunk, northward of Isaac Halsey's House, then an highway across potunk adjoining to the fences as they now stand, of five poles wide and so to continue to the corner of Jonathan Rayners orchard by his house in Ketchaboneck... [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 3, p. 117.]
Wonunk Neck, or Onuck Neck, is between Beaver Dam Creek and Moneybogue Bay. Potunk Neck extends from Moneybogue Bay to Aspatuck Creek. Today this is Westhampton Beach (the earlier names live on in Oneck Lane, Potunk Lane and Potunk Point). William S. Pelletreau wrote of Wonunk Neck, where Isaac Halsey's house stood in 1738:
West of Potunk are the two necks known in our early records as Wonunk and Little Wonunk, the name having been changed to Onuck, as it is now called. A large part of these necks was drawn by Thomas Halsey. Isaac Halsey purchased additional land and had a house here by 1738. By his will he left to his son, Ephraim Halsey, the use of all his lands, meadows and buildings, during his life, with reversion to his grandsons, Cornelius and Sylvanus. The two necks are almost entirely owned by his descendants. Ephraim Halsey died August 20, 1764, aged 71. Cornelius Halsey died April 19, 1782, aged 61. On the site of the house built by the original settler, stands the residence of the late Dennis K. Halsey, who died November 15, 1901, aged 76. The late Isaac C. Halsey and Edwin C. Halsey, both well known and respected citizens, owned large tracts of the ancestral heritage. [William S. Pelletreau, A History of Long Island, (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1905), v. 2, pp. 339,340.]
The 1873 Beers Atlas shows a number of Halseys living at Onuck and also illustrates the extensive meadows that remained at that time on Moriches Bay and Moneybogue Bay.
Pelletreau further wrote of the necks of meadow on Shinnecock Bay and Moriches Bay:
In the earliest times it was customary for persons who owned lots or meadows in the western part of the town to build small houses on the upland nearby. In these houses they lived during the haying season, when meadow hay was cut and stacked. In the early part of the winter they would drive their cattle to these places and fodder them on the hay, the person attending the stock living in the houses until spring. This explains the mention of houses long before there was any actual settlement. [Pelletreau, p. 341.]
Was Isaac Halsey's house on Wonunk Neck, mentioned in the 1738 highway description, this type of seasonal shelter or a more substantial year-round residence? Considering that this was the center of his farm, certainly devoted to raising livestock, we could expect Isaac Halsey to be living here, just as his father lived at Mecox where his land holdings were concentrated. It appears that Jonathan Raynor, who had an orchard by his house at Ketchabonack in 1738, must have had a year- round residence. The fact that land was set aside for a parsonage at Beaver Dam in 1742 and that a church was built there about 1750 suggests a developing year-round community. [The History of the Westhampton Presbyterian Church, 1742-1976, privately printed, 1976. p.5.]
Joshua Hempstead, of New London, recorded a visit to the area in his diary. Hempstead spent the night of July 21, 1749 at Moriches and set out the next day heading east "thro a barren pine Country, 6 or 7 mile I came to a mill where was one Eph Halsey a grinding, who after a Small Salutation took a horse & Rid with to kitchaboneck a few houses about a mile." [Diary of Joshua Hempstead, 1711-1758, (New London: New London County Historical Society, 1901), p. 532. Google Books.] Ephraim Halsey's grist mill was at Beaver Dam, at the west boundary of the Halsey's Onuck Neck. Certainly Ephraim Halsey was living at Onuck at this time with his wife Martha and some of their seven children.
It is logical to assume that Isaac Halsey's house at Wonunk, mentioned in the 1738 highway description, was a year-round house and his primary residence. With the vast lands he owned at Onuck and Potunk and, in comparison, the little land he had at Southampton Village, it is logical that by a certain time he would be living primarily at Onuck.
Isaac Halsey remained the owner of the Halsey House in 1746 as documented by a transaction for the Howell lot to the north:
Jeddediah Howell sells to Rev. Sylvanus White, a home lot of 5 acres bounded south by lot of Isaac Halsey, north by Horse Mill Lane, east by Main Street, west by Town Pond. 1746. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 6, p. 207.]
The will of Isaac Halsey, which he signed on January 10, 1752, mentions only one house:
I give to my beloved wife Mary Hallsey twenty pounds in money to be paid to her by my executors two years after my decease if she shall be then living but if she die before that time then it is not to be paid and I also give her the use and improvement of the west room in my now dwelling house for the term of six months after my decease and no longer And I also give her one hundred weight of good pork and one hundred weight of good Beef and I also give her one milch Cow and pasture for her for six months after my decease and the cow to be fetched and drove seasonally in pasture and also give her six bushel of good wheat and six bushel of Indian corn and three loads of firewood and all the Butter and Cheese in the house that is of her making. 3rd I give to my son Ephraim all the use and improvement of all my Lands Meadows and Buildings which I have at Onuck and that during his natural life and no longer I also give him twenty shillings in money and if my son Ephraim die before his Wife that now is then she shall have the use and improvement of one half of the lands and meadows and Buildings which I have at Onock so long as she lives my sons widow and bares his name and no longer. 4th I give and bequest to my Grandson Cornelius Hallsey and to his heirs and assigns forever all my lands and meadow in pine neck and also I give him all my Lands Meadows Building Buildings and Commonage which is Eastward tiana and red brick to the East bounds of the Town which is his and his heirs and assigns forever and I also give him all my Lands, Meadows Buildings which I have at Potunk including the land in the upper Division lying against it and my three easternmost fifties in the new Division lying against Onuck and one fifty of land in Quioqe in the upper division and also one half of my manor land and one half of my Commonage westward of tianah which shall all be to him his heirs and assigns forever. 5th I give to my Grand son Silvanus Halsey all my lands Meadow and Buildings which I have at Speonk and also all my lands meadows and Buildings which I have at Onuck including the upper division lying against the neck excepting the three fifties given to his Brother and I also give him one half of my manor land and also one half of my Commonage westward of tianah and two thirds of a lot of land in Quioqe all which lands meadows Buildings and rights to Lands and meadows which I have here given to my Grandson Sylvanus Hallsey I give it to him his heirs and assigns forever... [Will of Isaac Halsey, January 10, 1752, Southampton History Museum collection.]
Isaac Halsey does not say where his "now house" is. He gives Ephraim the use of his buildings at Onuck for his lifetime, with ownership going to his grandson Sylvanus. Isaac Halsey's grandson Cornelius received all buildings at Potunk and all buildings east of Tianna. If Isaac Halsey still owned the Halsey House in 1757, it would have been inherited by Cornelius Halsey. In his will, signed November 2, 1779, Cornelius Halsey left to his son Timothy "my now dwelling house at Potunk" and left to his son William "my dwelling house, barn, and outhouses that standeth on Onouck Neck." [Will of Cornelius Halsey, November 2, 1779, Southampton History Museum collection.]
This report attributes the major eighteenth-century transformation of the Halsey House to Captain Isaac Halsey. After demolishing the north lean-to, the west lean-to and the roof of Thomas Halsey Jr.'s house, the remaining two-story frame of the hall and hall chamber was revolved from facing south to facing east toward Main Street. A new two-story addition was built south of the chimney and a new rear lean-to was constructed. The result was a fashionable saltbox house facing the street, with a center chimney and possibly a kitchen in the new large rear lean-to. Architectural features of this remodeling, presented in the next section of this report, suggest that this work occurred between about 1720 and about 1740. The remodeling is assigned the date c. 1730 in this report. In 1720 Isaac Halsey was 60 years old. We do not know if Hannah Stratton, whom he married in 1699, was living in 1720. Isaac's son Ephraim married in 1714. During this period, the only known event in Captain Isaac Halsey's life that may have prompted him to remodel his father's house was his marriage to Mary Hudson on July 14, 1736. When they married, Isaac Halsey was 76 years old and Mary Hudson was 72. Isaac Halsey was the owner during the period when this transformation of the Halsey House likely occurred, but his age and his apparent life at Onuck make it difficult to imagine a reason for the work. Little is known about Isaac Halsey during the period from 1720 to his death in 1757. It is not certain that he was living in Onuck when he died, and this is important. If the "now house" he refers to in his will was the Halsey House, then he had not revolved it or even necessarily remodeled it. That he gave his wife the "use and improvement of the west room in my now dwelling house" means that his house faced south.
HALLOCK FAMILY
possibly owned the Halsey House from ca. 1750 to ca. 1800
Following the reference to Captain Isaac Halsey owning the Halsey House in 1746, the record is silent until a 1770 survey of Main Street appears in the Southampton Town Records:
...Then from S-E corner of Thomas Jessups Smith lot square across to Hugh Raynors S-W corner the road is 6 1/2 rods wide. Then across from Hugh Raynors gap the road is 5 1/2 rods wide. Then from the S-W corner of Nathan Jaggers lot across to Hallocks house the road is 6 rods wide, wanting 3 feet. Then across the street or highway from the S-W corner of Joseph Howells lot to Silas Howells lot it is 5 1/2 rods wide. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 3, p. 267]
The editor, William S. Pelletreau, wrote in a footnote that "Hallocks house is now house of Tho. Nicoll White," referring to the Halsey House.
The 1776 Southampton census includes a William Hallock living east of Watermill, but no Hallock living west of Watermill. [Records: Town of Southampton, v. 3, Appendix.] The 1790 Federal Census places a William Hallock in the South Main Street neighborhood:
Stephen Rhainer
Obediah Howell
John Green
Wm Hallock
HannahBruster
Nathan Jagger
Joseph Marshall
John Howell
Adonijah Rhainer
Ezekiel Howell
Thomas Jessup
Thomas Jessup Jr.
David Ellis
Stephen Bishop
David Mackie
Sylvanus Howell
Henry Weight
Hallock family genealogies do not agree about a William Hallock living in Southampton. Charles Hallock in his 1906 Hallock-Holyoke Pedigree included:
William Hallock, born in Southampton, L.I., 1730, died Goshen, Mass., Oct, 21, 1815, at the age of 85, was in the army of the Revolution with his sons Moses and Jeremiah. They enlisted in 1779, and served in New Jersey, Moses one term and Jeremiah two terms. At the battle of Ticonderoga their father was a comrade of Capt. T.P. Lyman's grandfather, who captured a Queen Anne musket from a Hessian. The weapon bears the Tower mark, and is now in the possession of -----Packard, son-in-law of Widow Lyman, at Goshen. [Charles Hallock, Hallock-Holyoke Pedigree, (Amherst, MA: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 1906), p. 41]
Lucius H. Hallock, in his 1926 A Hallock genealogy, includes a William Hallock (1741-1794) who was born in Southold, had a wife named Miriam and died in Aquebogue:
William and Miriam appear to have lived first in Southampton, L.I. They soon moved to Old Aquebogue and spent the remainder of their lives there. Their graves are in the Jamesport cemetery.......... This William is sometimes spoken of as "William of Southampton." Charles Hallock mistakes him for William, the father of Rev. Moses and Rev. Jeremiah. [62 Lucius H. Hallock in his 1926 A Hallock genealogy : an attempt to tabulate and set in order the numerous descendants of Peter Hallock who landed at Southold, Long Island, N.Y.,(Riverhead: Lee Publishing Co., 1928), longislandsurnames.com.]
There is no certainty about the Hallock who may have been living in the Halsey House in 1770 or the William Hallock who may have been in the Halsey House when the 1790 Federal census was taken.
There is an intriguing connection between Captain Isaac Halsey and the Hallock family. Sybil Hudson, the daughter of Mary Hudson, whom Isaac married in 1736, married Peter Hallock in East Hampton in 1734. [Nathan Grier Park, The Ancestry of Rev. Nathan Grier Parke & his wife Ann Elizabeth Gildersleeve, (Privately printed, 1959), pp.113-115).] A Frederick Hallock appears as a Southampton trustee in the town records in 1818. Frederick Hallock was born in 1760, married Hannah Tuthill, and died in Quoque in 1853. According to the family genealogy cited below, his parents are unknown. Frederick and Hannah had ten children, among whom were Hannah Hudson Hallock (1795- 1886) and Elizabeth Hudson Hallock (1806-1899). [Hallock genealogy of longislandsurnames.com, which cites Lucius H. Hallock A Hallock genealogy as a source.] There may or may not be any connection between the Peter Hallock (who married Sibyl Hudson, Capt. Isaac Halsey's stepdaughter), William Hallock (who appears to be living in the Halsey House in 1790) and Frederick Hallock (who had two daughters with Hudson as their middle names). Captain Isaac Halsey gave 2,500 acres of Halsey's Manor to his stepson Timothy Hudson (1706- ), who in 1741 sold 500 acres to James Smith "in any part except the mill that Hudson built." [William S. Pelletreau, A History of Long Island, (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1905), v. 2, p. 257.] Captain Isaac Halsey might have given the Halsey House to Sybil and Peter Hallock. This could help explain why Isaac allowed his wife, Sybil's mother, to stay in his house for only six months after his death. By giving the Halsey House to her daughter, Isaac may have already provided another place for Mary to live.