The office of town
clerk was established by the patent given for Brookhaven Town by
Gov. Thomas Dongan in 1686.
Previous to that
time there were four known “recorders,” who were, Richard Woodhull,
Roger Barton, John Tooker and Thomas Helme. The first town clerk
was Andrew Gibb, who was appointed by the town trustees at their
first meeting in January 1687, and served until May of that year
when Thomas Helme was elected. He was succeeded by John Jenner, who
was elected in 1688, and in May 1689 Timothy Brewster was elected.
He was a son of the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, first minister of the
old “town church” in Setauket, and served until 1711, when his
brother, Daniel, was elected and held the office until 1737, when
Daniel Smith was elected and held the office for many years until
1775. Mr. Smith was succeeded by his two sons, Amos Smith who
served during the dark days of the Revolution, and Elijah Smith, who
served from 1783 to 1789. The newly-established State Legislature
had changed the annual town meeting elections from the first Tuesday
in May to the first Tuesday in April, and elections were held on
this date up to the present century.
All of these men
lived in Setauket, which was the mother settlement of Brookhaven
Town and the only one of any size until about the time of the
Revolution, when the settlement at Mt. Sinai, South Haven, Coram,
Patchogue, and the Moriches section began to grow. It had been an
understanding up to this time that the town clerk’s office was to be
held in the home of the clerk, so the office was located in Setauket
for over a century until Isssc Hulse of Coram was elected in 1789
and probably used the “front parlor” of his home for an office. Now
Coram, for the first time, had the town clerk’s office, and this was
the first of many moves in the years to follow.
In 1801, Appolos
Wetmore of Setauket was elected, so back the office went to Setauket
for a year. In 1802, Mr. Hulse was re-elected, so it returned to
Coram again until 1807, when Mordecai Homan of Middle Island was
elected and the office went to Middle Island for 41 years with Mr.
Homan as clerk. In 1848, Benjamin T. Hutchinson of Middle Island
was elected to the office and in 1850 Samuel A. Hawkins of New
Village, (Centereach) was elected and held the office in that
village until 1859, when Lewis R. Overton of Coram took over for one
year and returned the office to Coram. In 1860, Benjamin T.
Huchinson was again elected and the office returned to Middle
Island, where it remained until the death of Mr. Hutchinson in
1877. His son, Henry P. Hutchinson, was elected and held the office
until 1890, when Roswell Davis of Yaphank was elected and the office
moved to Yaphank where it remained until 1901, with the exception of
one year, which was 1891, when it went back to Coram with Daniel R.
Davis as clerk. In 1896, Edmunds F. Hawkins of Yaphank succeeded
Roswell Davis and moved the office down the street to his general
store, where it remained until George L. Chichester of Patchogue was
elected in 1901 and the office was moved to Patchogue where it
remained since that.
It is no wonder
that the old town records were in such a confused condition years
ago after being moved from village to village so many times.
Finally, conditions got so bad that the town officials engaged a man
who was familiar with the records to arrange them and put them in
shape so that they could be easily searched.
The office of town clerk was
located in Middle Island for over 75 years, the longest time of any
village in the town. Benjamin T. Hutchinson was also one of the
first postmasters in Middle Island, which was the first post office
established in Brookhaven Town in 1796.