Turning to the records we were able to identify this energetic patriot without trouble, although in the process he dwindled from a "captain" to a "sergeant," and even held the latter title on a rather uncertain tenure, having been once "reduced." Indeed, his military record ends (shall we confess it?) with the rather compromising word, "deserted." But what of that? This flesh-and-blood progenitor is much more to our liking than any starched and laced dignitary of the imagination. And while history saith not concerning the knee buckles, that he was ready with his fists seems altogether probable in the light of his subsequent career. His title of "captain" was acquired at sea. He commanded a craft in the waters of Long Island, where he met an untimely death--through "foul play," says that old gossip Tradition, whose tongue we dare not trust. Features of mystery still remain, and if we knew all, it is possible that we could lay claim to a picturesque pirate--a most desirable addition to any family line, and especially so if he escaped hanging. Much as we delighted in this liberty-loving individual, the reader will understand that we thought well to look backward for a more sober character to maintain the family dignity. We found several who filled the rôle of quiet respectability to perfection, and thus reached the emigrant-founder of the line, a gentleman who drew our special affections by the extreme littleness of his greatness and the romantic character of his surroundings. He was of French Huguenot descent, a weaver by trade, and possessed of a "frame for a dwelling house ... twenty foot in length and sixteen foot in bredth," and other realty in the shape of an acre of woodland and an acre of upland "lying in a place called Hog-Neck," bounded by "a cove west" and "ye Goose Creek north." What distinctions! Not every one can boast such a progenitor, a wielder of loom and shuttle on the lordly promontory of Hog-Neck, where the gentle waters of Goose Creek flow into the sea, near the ancient town of Southold. We could not doubt that such a character had other claims to distinction; and sure enough, the achievement of having loitered in this world for ninety-six and one-half years is carved upon his tombstone in the old cemetery where he rests beside a third wife, who herself attained to ninety-two summers! Peace be to their ashes! We can almost see this famous ancestor, the patriarch of the village, toiling down its long street under the weight of the honor of his many years, responding to the greetings of man, woman and child with a cheery nod and a pleasant French accent. We would not have one single feature changed in order to place him upon a higher pedestal.