Before the Revolution, the trustees of Brookhaven town seem to have
given but little attention to their claims upon the waters and
shores over which their patent gave them jurisdiction. At the same
time the South Bay proprietors had much difficulty in enforcing
their claims to that water and its bottom. Under the agreements made
in 1767 and 1790, the management of the south side bays fell to the
trustees, and they have since continued to exercise that power.
The business of
oystering in the South bay had gained considerable importance, as
shown by the order passed by the trustees on July 4, 1785, that not
more than 200 cargoes of oysters should be carried from the bay
between that time and the next town election.
The boats
carrying oysters out of the town were required by the same order to
obtain permits, the price of which was fixed at 24 shillings. In
November of the same year the order was amended to make the charge
two pence for every tub of oysters taken. This price also applied to
clams taken. Fishing with a net was also forbidden without a permit,
and a fine of 40 shillings was ordered for the violation of either
of these provisions.
On April 7,
1788, the trustees passed a regulation requiring every vessel taking
oysters from the south bay to be measured, and a fee of 1 shilling 6
pence for each ton of the vessel’s capacity charged, to be paid in
advance. At this time it was ordered that no fishing with a net
should be allowed and that no one except residents of the town
should take oysters and clams.
About this time
the trustees adopted the practice of leasing or selling the
privilege of fishing in the bays on an annual basis. On June 11,
1789, this right, covering all the bay west of Smith’s point, was
sold to Elijah Chichester for 24 pounds. The rights of the
inhabitants of the town to catch fish for their own use were
reserved. The fine for taking oysters from the town without a permit
was raised to five pounds in 1792.
In 1794 the
question of oystering and other bay privileges was a matter of
considerable public discussion, and the trustees submitted it to the
vote of the people in town meeting.
The vote showed the people were opposed to hiring out
the fishing or allowing oysters to be taken out of the town “by any
person or persons whatsoever,” In the following October this
arrangement had proven so unsatisfactory that a special town meeting
was called and the matter was again placed in the hands of the
trustees to handle. They have ever since continued to exercise this
authority and regulations similar to those already mentioned were
frequently enacted, confirmed or amended.
In 1795 the trustees decided that their authority
extended to the drawing of seines upon the ocean shore of the beach,
and accordingly they placed restrictions upon that privilege the
same as upon the bay fishery.
The privilege of “fowling” on the bogs and marshes of
the bay was also within the trustees’ authority, and that privilege
was sold to some individual for the year. In 1799 this right was
sold by the trustees to William Albeen for $42.50. This did not
affect the right of the inhabitants from shooting for their own use.
These claims of the trustees upÂon the fowling privilege were
exercised for many years and as late as 1852 the gunning privilege
of the West bay was leased for three years to John Homan for $7.50 a
year, for three years.
The right of fishing for
market was sold from year to year to individuals and in 1801 Elijah
Chichester purchased this privilege for that year for $100. About
this time horse fish were taken in quantifies for manure and it was
forbidden by the trustees under a fine of $10. In 1852 the fishing
right in the West bay was sold for $50, for a term of three years.
Among the
earliest records of leasing ground for laying down oysters is a
grant dated January 3, 1800, in which the trustees gave to Daniel
Smith of Setauket the right to lay down oysters on a tract of bottom
in Drown Meadow bay.