Post by Okwes on Jul 15, 2007 16:03:44 GMT -5
The Tale A Crumbling Wall Would Tell
Montauk Indians, rape, robbery, and more
By Russell Drumm
(03/08/2007) Montauk has a wall made of stones. It’s low to the ground, overgrown, and has been interrupted in many places since it was built in the early 1670s. If it could talk, it would tell how it came to be after Nangenutch, a Montaukett Indian, was accused of raping John Miller’s wife, Mary, in the kitchen of her house on Newtown Lane in East Hampton in 1668.
The wall would say it owed what’s left of its crumbling existence to Will, as Nangenutch was known, and to three Englishmen who recognized an opportunity when they saw it, or, rather, when they made it.
The alleged crime led to the first trial of a capital offense to be held in the young New York colony. It also resulted in three of East Hampton’s most prominent citizens offering to “buy” from the Indians a large chunk of Montauk land whose boundaries would be defined in part by the wall. That was an offer the Montauketts could hardly refuse, given dealings that appeared shady even by the standards of the day.
What remains of the stone wall was once the northern boundary of what came to be called the “nine-score-acre purchase” of 1670. Evidence that the wall is tied to the trial of Nangenutch and the resulting land deal is not direct. However, boundary descriptions in the old deed, plus a reference in it to a fence, make it a good bet, according to William Walsh of Montauk, a surveyor.
The wall, or fence, ran from the south end of Fort Pond to the south end of Lake Montauk. Toward the sea from it lay the approximately 900-acre tract, whose southern boundary was the ocean. The property extended from today’s downtown Montauk east to Ditch Plain. Sections of the wall can be seen from Essex Street just past the skateboard park and also deep in the brambles near Stepping Stones Pond.
John Strong, an author and professor emeritus of history at Long Island University, is considered an authority on the Montauketts and their relationship to English settlers. Using Colonial records, he pieced together the story of Nangenutch, Mary Miller, and the 108-acre purchase. It was published in the journal Ethnohistory in 1994.
Mr. Strong was able to deduce that Nangenutch was a servant bonded to the family of Richard and Remembrance Shaw of East Hampton. On the day of the alleged rape he was returning with a sack of grain from the village mill when he met John and Mary Miller.
He carried a message from Mr. Miller’s brother asking him to go to the house of Richard Shaw, his neighbor. In the meantime, Nangenutch suggested that Mrs. Miller see him to her house to show him where to put the grain.
“Sometime later, Richard’s wife, Remembrance, saw Mary approaching and walked out to meet her,” Mr. Strong wrote. Mrs. Miller knelt down before Mrs. Shaw. Remembrance Shaw asked her what was wrong. She later testified that Mrs. Miller told her “it was soe bad she dearst not tell.” Mrs. Miller asked her neighbor where Nangenutch was, she said, because he had abused her.
“Mary told Remembrance that after Will (Nangenutch) put down the bag of grain, he grabbed her, dragged her down on the floor, and put his hand over her mouth,” Mr. Strong wrote. “Mary said she pleaded with Will to stop and promised that she would not tell anyone what he did if he would let her go. Will agreed and left the house. Mary then went out, shut the door, and walked to the Shaw house.”
The following day, Mrs. Miller reported the episode to John Mulford, the constable, telling him that Will had grabbed her and “committed the act of uncleanness upon her body. . . .”
Mulford brought Nangenutch to New York City, accompanied by the Millers, to stand trial before the court of assizes, whose members included the royal governor, Richard Nicholls. Under questioning, the Montaukett man confessed to having had relations with Mrs. Miller.
Mr. Miller was called to prosecute the charge against Nangenutch for “having not the fear of God,” asserting that, “instigated by the devil [he] most wickedly and feloniously did committ a rape upon the body of Mary the wife of John Miller.”
Mr. Strong said that transcripts of court testimony, which still exist, were graphic enough to have been sold as pornography in the years following the trial.
Despite Nangenutch’s previous admission, as well as incriminating testimony from two other East Hampton women who said the Montaukett had made advances toward them, Nangenutch pleaded not guilty. In the end, the court did not find him guilty of rape, a hanging offense.
It seems there were inconsistencies in Mrs. Miller’s account, and no signs that force had been used, a legal requirement of the charge. The court left open the possibility that Mrs. Miller had encouraged Nangenutch, but decided “that all Indians may bee deterred to attempt the like upon any Christians hereafter.”
So Nangenutch was sentenced to be whipped and to be held in a jail near South Street until he could be sold into slavery. Money from the sale would be used to defray court costs. Before the sentence could be carried out, however, what were supposedly four Montauketts broke Nangenutch out of jail.
Mr. Strong suggests that this could only have been an inside job. He points out that the Montaukett tribe was split at the time between members who wanted to accommodate the English, and those who did not. The latter group was so incensed at the severe ruling in the rape case that they contacted the Niantic tribe of southern New England, the Montauketts’ longtime enemy.
Rumors spread among the English settlers that the Montauketts would unite with other tribes against them, and Mr. Strong believes that the settlers themselves may have orchestrated the jail break to mollify the Montauketts.
In any case, neither Nangenutch nor those who had sprung him were arrested. And, despite an order that he not return to East Hampton, it seems that he did.
Governor Nicholls took diplomatic action to thwart any conspiracy that might have been brewing among the tribes, and the Montauketts repledged their loyalty to the East Hampton settlers. “The declaration of loyalty was witnessed, not surprisingly, by John Mulford, and the Reverend Thomas James,” Mr. Strong wrote.
“Not surprisingly” because, since Nangenutch had not been sold into slavery, the court had passed on the debt for outstanding court costs to the Montaukett tribe as a whole. The tribe could not come up with the entire 40 pounds, so John Mulford and the Rev. Thomas James, along with Jeremiah Conkling, another leading citizen, put up a bond. In effect, the three partners bought the Indians’ debt.
The colonists suggested that the tribe take care of its debt by selling them a section of prime grazing land in Montauk.
In addition to being the justice of the peace, Mulford also served on the Commission of Indian Affairs, which had been established by Governor Nicholls in 1666 for the “well management of all affairs between the English and the Indyans.” At least on paper, Indians were to have been treated no differently than “Christians” under the law.
Meanwhile, Mulford, James, and Conkling suggested that the tribe take care of its debt by selling them a section of prime grazing land in Montauk. With no alternative, the tribe agreed, and a deed was prepared.
It specified that, “if ever hereafter the aforementioned John Mulford, Thomas James, Jeremiah Conkling, or their successors, shall see cause to fence in the said land, the Indians are to fence in or bear the charge of one half, and they the other half. . . .”
A year later, in February of 1671, New York’s new governor, Francis Lovelace, who oversaw all land sales between settlers and Indians, informed Mulford that he continued to receive objections to the sale from Montauk’s “proprietors,” or the share-holders in the use of Montauk’s common lands. The proprietors were worried that they were being cut off from valuable pasturage.
Besides which, the proprietors argued, the purchase of land from the Indians had been, since 1666, the province of the township, and could no longer be transacted privately. Mulford’s obvious conflict of interest, as a member of the Commission of Indian Affairs, was recognized. Of course, it was also Mulford, as justice of the peace, who had brought the case against Nangenutch in the first place.
As a result of the proprietors’ complaints, the three entrepreneurs agreed to relinquish to the fledgling township — not to the Indians — the Montauk property. In exchange, they received “nine score” — 108 — acres of prime farmland in Amagansett.
Montauk Indians, rape, robbery, and more
By Russell Drumm
(03/08/2007) Montauk has a wall made of stones. It’s low to the ground, overgrown, and has been interrupted in many places since it was built in the early 1670s. If it could talk, it would tell how it came to be after Nangenutch, a Montaukett Indian, was accused of raping John Miller’s wife, Mary, in the kitchen of her house on Newtown Lane in East Hampton in 1668.
The wall would say it owed what’s left of its crumbling existence to Will, as Nangenutch was known, and to three Englishmen who recognized an opportunity when they saw it, or, rather, when they made it.
The alleged crime led to the first trial of a capital offense to be held in the young New York colony. It also resulted in three of East Hampton’s most prominent citizens offering to “buy” from the Indians a large chunk of Montauk land whose boundaries would be defined in part by the wall. That was an offer the Montauketts could hardly refuse, given dealings that appeared shady even by the standards of the day.
What remains of the stone wall was once the northern boundary of what came to be called the “nine-score-acre purchase” of 1670. Evidence that the wall is tied to the trial of Nangenutch and the resulting land deal is not direct. However, boundary descriptions in the old deed, plus a reference in it to a fence, make it a good bet, according to William Walsh of Montauk, a surveyor.
The wall, or fence, ran from the south end of Fort Pond to the south end of Lake Montauk. Toward the sea from it lay the approximately 900-acre tract, whose southern boundary was the ocean. The property extended from today’s downtown Montauk east to Ditch Plain. Sections of the wall can be seen from Essex Street just past the skateboard park and also deep in the brambles near Stepping Stones Pond.
John Strong, an author and professor emeritus of history at Long Island University, is considered an authority on the Montauketts and their relationship to English settlers. Using Colonial records, he pieced together the story of Nangenutch, Mary Miller, and the 108-acre purchase. It was published in the journal Ethnohistory in 1994.
Mr. Strong was able to deduce that Nangenutch was a servant bonded to the family of Richard and Remembrance Shaw of East Hampton. On the day of the alleged rape he was returning with a sack of grain from the village mill when he met John and Mary Miller.
He carried a message from Mr. Miller’s brother asking him to go to the house of Richard Shaw, his neighbor. In the meantime, Nangenutch suggested that Mrs. Miller see him to her house to show him where to put the grain.
“Sometime later, Richard’s wife, Remembrance, saw Mary approaching and walked out to meet her,” Mr. Strong wrote. Mrs. Miller knelt down before Mrs. Shaw. Remembrance Shaw asked her what was wrong. She later testified that Mrs. Miller told her “it was soe bad she dearst not tell.” Mrs. Miller asked her neighbor where Nangenutch was, she said, because he had abused her.
“Mary told Remembrance that after Will (Nangenutch) put down the bag of grain, he grabbed her, dragged her down on the floor, and put his hand over her mouth,” Mr. Strong wrote. “Mary said she pleaded with Will to stop and promised that she would not tell anyone what he did if he would let her go. Will agreed and left the house. Mary then went out, shut the door, and walked to the Shaw house.”
The following day, Mrs. Miller reported the episode to John Mulford, the constable, telling him that Will had grabbed her and “committed the act of uncleanness upon her body. . . .”
Mulford brought Nangenutch to New York City, accompanied by the Millers, to stand trial before the court of assizes, whose members included the royal governor, Richard Nicholls. Under questioning, the Montaukett man confessed to having had relations with Mrs. Miller.
Mr. Miller was called to prosecute the charge against Nangenutch for “having not the fear of God,” asserting that, “instigated by the devil [he] most wickedly and feloniously did committ a rape upon the body of Mary the wife of John Miller.”
Mr. Strong said that transcripts of court testimony, which still exist, were graphic enough to have been sold as pornography in the years following the trial.
Despite Nangenutch’s previous admission, as well as incriminating testimony from two other East Hampton women who said the Montaukett had made advances toward them, Nangenutch pleaded not guilty. In the end, the court did not find him guilty of rape, a hanging offense.
It seems there were inconsistencies in Mrs. Miller’s account, and no signs that force had been used, a legal requirement of the charge. The court left open the possibility that Mrs. Miller had encouraged Nangenutch, but decided “that all Indians may bee deterred to attempt the like upon any Christians hereafter.”
So Nangenutch was sentenced to be whipped and to be held in a jail near South Street until he could be sold into slavery. Money from the sale would be used to defray court costs. Before the sentence could be carried out, however, what were supposedly four Montauketts broke Nangenutch out of jail.
Mr. Strong suggests that this could only have been an inside job. He points out that the Montaukett tribe was split at the time between members who wanted to accommodate the English, and those who did not. The latter group was so incensed at the severe ruling in the rape case that they contacted the Niantic tribe of southern New England, the Montauketts’ longtime enemy.
Rumors spread among the English settlers that the Montauketts would unite with other tribes against them, and Mr. Strong believes that the settlers themselves may have orchestrated the jail break to mollify the Montauketts.
In any case, neither Nangenutch nor those who had sprung him were arrested. And, despite an order that he not return to East Hampton, it seems that he did.
Governor Nicholls took diplomatic action to thwart any conspiracy that might have been brewing among the tribes, and the Montauketts repledged their loyalty to the East Hampton settlers. “The declaration of loyalty was witnessed, not surprisingly, by John Mulford, and the Reverend Thomas James,” Mr. Strong wrote.
“Not surprisingly” because, since Nangenutch had not been sold into slavery, the court had passed on the debt for outstanding court costs to the Montaukett tribe as a whole. The tribe could not come up with the entire 40 pounds, so John Mulford and the Rev. Thomas James, along with Jeremiah Conkling, another leading citizen, put up a bond. In effect, the three partners bought the Indians’ debt.
The colonists suggested that the tribe take care of its debt by selling them a section of prime grazing land in Montauk.
In addition to being the justice of the peace, Mulford also served on the Commission of Indian Affairs, which had been established by Governor Nicholls in 1666 for the “well management of all affairs between the English and the Indyans.” At least on paper, Indians were to have been treated no differently than “Christians” under the law.
Meanwhile, Mulford, James, and Conkling suggested that the tribe take care of its debt by selling them a section of prime grazing land in Montauk. With no alternative, the tribe agreed, and a deed was prepared.
It specified that, “if ever hereafter the aforementioned John Mulford, Thomas James, Jeremiah Conkling, or their successors, shall see cause to fence in the said land, the Indians are to fence in or bear the charge of one half, and they the other half. . . .”
A year later, in February of 1671, New York’s new governor, Francis Lovelace, who oversaw all land sales between settlers and Indians, informed Mulford that he continued to receive objections to the sale from Montauk’s “proprietors,” or the share-holders in the use of Montauk’s common lands. The proprietors were worried that they were being cut off from valuable pasturage.
Besides which, the proprietors argued, the purchase of land from the Indians had been, since 1666, the province of the township, and could no longer be transacted privately. Mulford’s obvious conflict of interest, as a member of the Commission of Indian Affairs, was recognized. Of course, it was also Mulford, as justice of the peace, who had brought the case against Nangenutch in the first place.
As a result of the proprietors’ complaints, the three entrepreneurs agreed to relinquish to the fledgling township — not to the Indians — the Montauk property. In exchange, they received “nine score” — 108 — acres of prime farmland in Amagansett.