Sylvester, Nathaniel, 1610-1680

Sylvester Manor and its grounds are located on Shelter Island, a small island situated between the north and south forks of eastern Long Island. The island was inhabited by Montauk Indians until its settlement by the first European settlers in 1652, Nathaniel (Nathaniell in most records) and Grissell (also recorded Grizzell) Sylvester. Shelter Island was settled following its purchase by a group of four merchants, Nathaniel Sylvester, his brother Constant Sylvester, and Thomas Middleton and Thomas Rouse. The four owned a sugar plantation in Barbados and purchased Shelter Island to use as a provisioning plantation to supply timber, food, and other goods to Barbados, where such materials were scarce or land was exclusively used to grow valuable sugar cane. In 1652, Nathaniel Sylvester and his wife Grissell Brinley, moved to Shelter Island, creating the property that would later bear their family name.

The Manor remained in the Sylvester family for two further generations before passing to Mary Sylvester (Nathaniel’s great-great granddaughter) and her husband Thomas Dering, The Manor then remained in the prominent Dering family for another two generations before debt finally forced the sale of the property. Dering records do not appear in any number in the Archive. The property was purchased from the Derings in 1827 by Samuel Smith Gardiner, a Suffolk County and New York attorney who had married into a different branch of Sylvester descendents.

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