We’ve spoken about this before, but I continue to be fascinated by the contrast between many in the first generation of European settlers in America and their sons of the second generation.
The concept was first presented to me by Richard Barons, longtime Executive Director of the East Hampton Historical Society. He spoke about this hunger for additional land that existed in that second generation, along with a wanderlust (generally speaking) in order to enrich themselves. Unlike many of their fathers who viewed acquisition of land to build a community of saints, economic rewards of this life because their focus. According to Nathaniel Philbrick, Governor Bradford predicted it would be “the ruin of New England.”
We can certainly see this contrast with our family. Once settled in New Haven Colony, Ralph lived there until about 1650, when he moved the family to East Hampton. Then, only to remain there until moving close to Samuel a couple of years before his own death.
On the other hand, Sam was constantly moving, so much so that it becomes difficult to account for all the years of movement, before finally settling down on Dayton’s Neck, at South (Brookhaven/Bellport).
Dayton Ancestry 