Thomas Powell

Thomas Powell (1641–1721/22) was a landowner in the middle section of Long Island in the Province of New York during the colonial period of American history. He secured the land transaction known as the Bethpage Purchase with local native tribes on Long Island.

Early life Powell was born in August or October 1641. or in Connecticut.

Until 1664, Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau County and Suffolk County, between the Dutch in the west and Connecticut claiming the east. The Dutch did grant an English settlement in Hempstead (now in Nassau), but drove settlers from Oyster Bay as part of a boundary dispute. In 1664, all of Long Island became part of the Province of New York within the Shire of York. Present-day Suffolk County was the East Riding of Yorkshire, while present-day Queens and Nassau were just part of the larger North Riding. In 1683, Yorkshire was dissolved and Suffolk County and Queens County were established. (Nassau County was not formed until 1899, when it split from Queens County.)

Land purchases In 1686, Governor Thomas Dongan of New York urged the Town of Huntington to complete the purchase from the local Native Americans of any lands not already purchased. Powell, who had substantial holdings of land in Huntington, was chosen by the town to offer to buy more lands from the Native Americans.

The Bethpage Purchase was a 1687 land transaction in which Powell bought more than (about 10,000 acres) in central Long Island, New York for £140 (English pounds sterling) from local Native Americans in the United States tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue. It is approximately east to west and north to south. This land covers both sides of the present-day border between Nassau and Suffolk counties all or parts of present-day Bethpage, Farmingdale, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, Plainview, and South Farmingdale (all in Nassau), and East Farmingdale and Melville (both in Suffolk). Nassau County was not a separate county until 1899, and was, at the time of the purchase, part of Queens County. Most of the Bethpage Purchase is in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau. The portions in Suffolk were all then within the Town of Huntington. In 1872, the Town of Huntington was subdivided, and East Farmingdale became part of the Town of Babylon.

Almost eight years later, on October 18, 1695, Mawmee (alias Serewanos), William Chepy, Seurushung, and Wamussum made their marks on the sheepskin deed for the purchase. The deed, which recognizes Powell had already been in possession of part of the land for more than seven years, is recorded in the Queens County Clerks office, and in it, the Native Americans reserved the right to pick berries and hunt on the property sold. By 1700, very little of Long Island had not been purchased from the Native Americans by the English colonists, and townships controlled whatever land had not already been distributed.

Later life and legacy Powell and his first wife Abigail Wood had eight children, including another Thomas Powell (1665–1731), the fourth Thomas Powell. Most sources, when mentioning where Powell himself resided, state Westbury. Powell sold pieces of Bethphage to other Quaker farmers. His sons did live in the Bethpage Purchase.