User:Salientmind/sandbox

Pre-Colonial & Colonial Period
The area was originally settled by the native american people after the end of the Ice Age. The area south of the Ronkonkoma Mooraine was known as Unkechaug to the culturally and linguistically related first people of eastern Long Island. Tribal identity was not based off place, but a complex network of relationships. The people of Unkechaug became known Unkechuag themselves. At the time of European contact, they were living in year round agricultural settlements, in wigwams and long houses. They developed methods of long term storage/preservation and discovered the medicinal properties of native plants. By 1607, the English claimed ownership of Patchogue through the Virginia Company. In 1609, the Dutch were the first to physically settle Long Island. Although their settlement was far to the west, they laid claim to all of Long Island. In 1620, Virginia (including Patchogue) was handed off to the Plymouth Colony. In 1659, Lord Stirling was given title to Long Island by Charles I of England. The area that is now Blue Point, Patchogue and East Patchogue was sold to Govenor John Winthrop, JR of Connecticut Colony on June 10th, 1664 by Tobaccus an Unkechaug Sachem.

Tobaccus sold all the land from the nine peninsulas of the Great South Bay northward to the center of Long Island. With the exception of the two easternmost peninsulas, the land was then sold to Humphrey Avery of Preston, CT. In 1758, he auctioned off much of the land, but he was able retain lot # 4, the current center of Patchogue Village. In 1773, the same year as the Boston Tea Party, Patchogue became part of Brookhaven Town by the act of New York provincial legislature.