Horton Genealogy: or Chronicles of the Descendants of Barnabas Horton, of Southold, L. I., 1640.Horton, Geo. F. (George Firman)
History
Horton Genealogy: or Chronicles of the Descendants of Barnabas Horton, of Southold, L. I., 1640.
Horton, Geo. F. (George Firman)
Horton family
We give BARNABAS HORTON as the _Preface_ and Introduction to this
little volume of Chronicles. He was probably the son of Joseph
Horton, of Leicestershire, England, and born in the little hamlet of
Mousely of that shire. Of his history before he came to America very
little is known. He came over in the ship "_Swallow_" in 1633-38.
He landed at Hampton, Mass. How long he remained at Hampton is not
known. But in 1640 we find him with his wife and two children in New
Haven, Conn., in company with the Rev. John Youngs, William Welles,
Esq., Peter Hallock, John Tuthill, Richard Terry, Thomas Mapes,
Matthias Corwin, Robert Ackerly, Jacob Corey, John Conklin, Isaac
Arnold, and John Budd, and on the 21st day of Oct., 1640, assisted
by the venerable Rev. John Davenport and Gov. Eaton, they organized
themselves into a Congregational Church, and sailed to the east end
of Long Island, now Southold. They had all been members of Puritan
churches in England, and all had families with them except Peter
Hallock. They doubtless had been on the island previous to this time
and looked out their homes. On nearing the shore they cast lots to
decide who should first set foot on the land. The lot fell on Peter
Hallock, and the place where he stepped upon the land has ever since
been known as Hallock's Landing.
On coming ashore, they all knelt down and engaged in prayer, Peter
Hallock leading, as had been determined by the lot. These were the
first persons of any civilized nation that had ever attempted to
settle on the east end of Long Island. _See Griffin's Journal._
Barnabas Horton was a man of deep-toned piety, and a warm advocate
of civil and religious freedom. He was one of the most prominent and
influential men of Southold. He was for many years a magistrate, and
several times a member of the General Court at New Haven and Harford.
He built the first framed dwelling-house ever erected on the east of
Long Island, and that house is still (1875) standing and occupied. It
is a shingle-house, that is, shingles are used for weather-boards,
and the sides have never been reshingled, and the roof but once,
according to the statement of Jonathan Goldsmith Horton, the last
Horton occupant of the old house.
It is said that Barnabas Horton I. was large in stature, and of a
ruddy complexion, and of fine social qualities.
His tombstone is of English blue marble, five feet long and about
three feet wide. It is placed horizontally over the grave. The stone
was re-lettered about fifty or sixty years ago by Jonathan G. Horton.
It is elevated about eighteen inches from the ground, on a good stone
base. The original base was of brick, but it had all crumbled down
many years ago. The present base was put under the stone at the time
it was re-lettered by Jonathan G. Horton.
The inscription surrounds the border of the stone, and reads as
follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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