of Brooklyn. All persons of importance in this region were driven into exile, only slaves and servants remained. Not even the farms could be tilled. From all this you can imagine the hardships that the people of this island had to endure during these eventful years. As a sample of what they had to endure, I give you this extract bearing date of Sept. 15th, 1781: "On the evening of the 15th the British ransacked the house of Nicoll Havens on Shelter Island, took two fowling pieces, a silver hilted sword, a silver mounted hanger, some tea, &c. At Capt. James Havens' they took a watch, coat, fowling piece, &c. Then they went to widow Payne's, insulted the inmates of the house and threatened to burn it, made them produce a silver tankard, linen, a watch, a coat, and a fowling piece, &c." No wonder that at the close of the war, as the enemy's fleet departed, the people of this place assembled on the hills at Prospect and held a jubilee over their departure. One of the enemy's vessels, the Culloden, ran ashore on the east point of Fort Pond and became a total loss, the accident resulting from a blinding snowstorm that set in just as the squadron was rounding Gardiner's Point. Because of this, that point is designated as "Culloden's Point" on all charts to this day. Dr. Woodworth, in his dedicatory sermon preached upon the dedication of the present church building, in 1817, speaking of this period, said: "The calamities and disastrous connections of the Revolutionary war were here experienced in great weight. The destruction of property, though great, was by no means the worst evil. The demoralizing effects were much more to be deplored. The public means of grace were suspended; the Sabbath of the Lord profaned, and that sense of God and the claims of serious religion, which rested but too lightly on the public mind, now seemed to be wholly erased. Vice in its various forms prevailed and failed not to produce its legitimate effects." Such in part were the vicissitudes of this people. But it was not in vain. The cause for which it had all been born, was not only worthy of it, but had gloriously triumphed. At the close of the war the Legislature of New York passed on April 6th, 1784, a law governing the incorporation of religious societies, by the selection of a Board of Trustees, who should have charge of the temporalities and discharge such other duties as are therein stated. On that same day Shelter Island held its Town meeting, the first one after the war, and after selecting its officers, appointed a committee, consisting of Sylvester Dering and Jonathan N. Havens, to "inquire into and take charge of the monnies left by Brinley Sylvester, Esq., toward the support of the Gospel on Shelter Island and make report thereof to the Inhabitants of the Island." The next year a special meeting was called of the inhabitants of the Society of Shelter Island for the 26th of April, when the Church Society was duly organized, as the following record will show: "These are to certify that a meeting of the Inhabitants of the Society of Shelter Island, held on the 26th day of April, 1785, legally named agreeable to a Law of this State to Enable all Religious Denominations to choose Trustees to take charge of their Temporalities, by the name and stile of Trustees of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Township of Shelter Island, the following Persons were chosen Trustees: MEMORANDUM, that on this third day of May, 1785, personally appeared before me James Havens and Jonathan N. Havens, of Shelter Island, Inspectors of the Election, held at said Island on the 26th day of April, 1785, for the purpose of choosing Trustees to take charge of their temporalities, and acknowledged that Jonathan N. Havens, Sylvester Dering and William Bowditch were duly elected as Trustees for said Island, agreeably to this Certificate, and finding no material error therein do allow it to be recorded. THOS. YOUNGS, Judge. Recorded this 18th day of June, 1785, in Suffolk County Register for recording the names of the persons elected to serve as Trustees for Religious Denominations in Lib. A, page 4. Per E. L'HOMMEDIEU, Clke. The above is the first entry in the records of this society. After it comes another, which tells us the order in which the members of the Board served the society: SUFFOLK COUNTY, ss. At a meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Town of Shelter Island on the 25th Day of April, 1786, The Trustees of said Island provided according to the Law of this State Intitled ("an Act for Improving Religious Societies throughout this State") to draw Lots for their Numbers, which were as follows: William Bowditch, No. 1. They then Proceeded to the choice of a Trustee in the place of the one that by Law then became vacant, when William Bowditch was re-chosen. The first inventory made by the Trustees according to law was made the 16th of March, 1789, and is as follows: AN INVENTORY OF ALL THE ESTATE, BOTH REAL AND PERSONAL, BELONGING TO THE CONGREGATION AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF THE TOWN of Shelter ISLAND, TAKEN ON THE 16TH OF MARCH, 1789. Real Estate. [None] PERSONAL ESTATE. I State Certificate of 50: 0: 0, GERARD BAUCKER, Treas. 50 GERARD BAUCKER, Treas. 28 I State Certificate for interest of GERARD BAUCKER, Treas. 1 Bond against Jno. Franks of 9 10 19 11 ANNUAL REVINEW. 58 The society was now duly incorporated by the selection of these three men as trustees. One of them was the Supervisor of the Town; I refer to Jonathan N. Havens, a great-grandson of the first George Havens and a man of note; perhaps the greatest man native to this soil. He was the son of Nicoll Havens and Sarah Fosdick, his first wife, while Nicoll Havens was the son of Jonathan Havens and Catherine Nicoll. The subject of this sketch, Jonathan Nicoll Havens, thus bore the given name of his father and grandfather. He was born on the 18th of June, 1757. In 1773 he entered Yale College, at the age of sixteen, and graduated with honor in 1777. While in College he was president of the Linonian Society, from which it may be inferred that he was not inattentive to the uses of public speaking and composition. After graduating he returned to his home on this island, where he became partly engaged in agricultural pursuits. His principal occupation, however, was of a literary kind, the pursuit of the higher branches of learning. Several years were thus passed in retirement, seclusion and study. So engrossed was he at times in thought that he was unconscious of persons or things about him, as the following incident will show. A certain Major Jessup, of Southampton, a personal friend of Mr. Jonathan Nicoll Havens, while on a visit to Shelter Island one day, made a call on Mr. Havens, who saluted him as he entered the house, but immediately returned to his studies, forgetting altogether of his visitor, who after staying a long time departed without notice. On the day after he called again, in company with Mr. Sylvester Dering, and in conversation related the circumstance of his call on the day previous, upon which Mr. Havens assured him that he had felt unaware of his visit, so deeply had he been absorbed by the subject of his inquiry. Upon the death of his father, also a man of great prominence and highly esteemed, Jonathan N. Havens was chosen Clerk of the Town. This office his father had held from 1759, except during the period of the Revolution, to the time of his death, in 1783. His father also, with the office of Town Clerk, held the office of Supervisor for seven years before the beginning of the war, and at its close in the spring of the year in which he died, was again elected to both offices. Now the son, at a special meeting held Dec. 4th, 1783, is chosen to succeed his father as Town Clerk, and with this office begins a public career which gained for him a great name in the annals of his country. He continued to serve as Town Clerk until 1787, when he was chosen Supervisor, which office he discharged until 1793. In the meantime his ability had been spread abroad, so that in 1786 he was elected an Assemblyman from Suffolk County, to which office he was re-elected for ten consecutive years. In this body he became distinguished for his integrity and ability as a statesman. Among other important positions he was chairman of the committee which originated the law establishing public schools in the State of New York. Then, too, he was a member of the State Convention which met at Poughkeepsie on June 17, 1788, and adopted the Constitution of the United States. He was also elected a Justice of the Peace of the County of Suffolk in 1795. After his ten years of service in the Assembly of the State, he was chosen a United States Representative, being elected a member of the Fourth Congress, in which body he served until his death, in 1799, at the early age of 42. His death was a great shock to the community and to all who knew him. Thompson says: "He was not only a man of extraordinary abilities, but was distinguished likewise for industry and promptitude in everything which he undertook. The death of such a man at the age of 40 years (it should be 42) could not be otherwise felt than a subject of general regret with all who knew his worth." He was buried in the South churchyard, and over his remains was raised a tablet that bears this high eulogy: “Erected to the memory of Jonathan Nicoll Havens, Esq., Representative in the Congress of the United States. He was esteemed by a numerous acquaintance as a man of superior talent aud erudition, a philosopher, statesman and patriot, and died greatly lamented Oct. 25th, 1799, in the 42 yr. of his age." As Shelter Island can with pride point to her first supervisor, the Hon. William Nicoll, so can this religious corporation point with equal satisfaction to her first selected Trustee, the Hon. Jonathan Nicoll Havens. Mr. Havens belonged to a distinguished family. One of his sisters, Esther Sarah Havens, married General Sylvester Dering, the second trustee, of whom we shall have occasion to speak later. Another sister, Mary Catherine, married the Hon. Ezra L'Hommedieu, also a noted statesman for more than thirty years, born in Southold, and considered by Dr. Epher Whitaker "the foremost of all the men who have lived all their life from birth to death in that noted town." A brother of Jonathan Nicoll Havens, named Rensselaer Havens, became a distinguished merchant, financier and patriot in New York City. He, with another gentleman, fitted out a vessel and presented it to the government during the war of 1812. While in Yale College Mr. Jonathan Nicoll Havens wrote the following letter, which is here given because of its interest in many ways, among them the parental respect it displays, the inconvenience of travel in those days, the use of the pillow case, etc., etc. "Honored Sir: "New Haven, March 29th, 1774. "I take this opportunity by Mr. Hathoway to write you a few lines. By Cpt. Moses Sawyer, who came with him, I understand you are troubled with boils, for which am sorry, but am glad to hear the rest of the family are all well. I have not heard from you since my last, which I sent by Uncle Mumford when he was hear upon the |