Person:Jasper Griffing (13)

Jasper Griffing "The /Mason"/
ABT. 1648 Born in Wales
 ABT. 1670 21-years old in Essex Co., Massachusetts
ABT. 1674 Marblehead, Massachusetts
 ABT . 1675 Came with bride to Southold, Long Island

"Jasper Griffing was born in Wales, in 1648, and probably came to this country when quite young, settling first in Essex County, Mass., where he is mentioned in 1670, and later , in 1674, at Marblehead, Mass., where he married. His wife's name and place of residence are only known through the inscription on her tombstone as 'Hannah, born at Manchester in New England.' The place of her birth was probably Manchester, Mass., a town a few miles east of Marblehead. In 1675 Jasper and Hannah Griffing left the Massachusetts farmland, and took the toilsome journey to the eastern end of Long Island, the territory of the powerful tribe of the Corchaug Indians, where a few English settlers had founded the first English town on Long Island and called it Southold, after their distant home in the Suffolk meadows of England. There Jasper Griffing and his wife founded their homes, reared their fourteen children, lived and died, and there they sleep now, side by side. Jasper Griffing was a mason by trade. A few years after settling at Southold he bought a farm, bordering the harbor and near the landing place. The deed of the farm bears the date of May 2, 1679, and reads as follows: 'Jeremiah Vale, Jr., blacksmith, to Jasper Griffing, of Southold, mason, land, 18 acres, known by ye name of Hallocks Neck, belonging to town, bounded on n. by highway, s. by ye cleft, w. by common.' This was evidently the first farm owned by Jasper Griffing. The boundaries here described still exist, and after the lapse of more than two centuries, this first home-lot of the family may be identified today. The highway is now the main street of Southold village. On the south, the farm extended along Peconic Bay, and the bluff overlooking the narrow beach is still called 'the Cleft.' The western boundary of the farm was Town Harbor Lane, now called Bay Avenue, since Southold began to develop as a summer resort. The southern part of the tract is still a farm. Here, 'at the foot of Town Harbor Lane,' according to the birth certificate of one of his sons, Jasper Griffing built his home. It was doubtless one of the typical farmhouses of eastern Long Island at that period - - a plain house, though possibly more pretentious than many, as an unrecorded deed of transfer, dated June 21, 1718, speaks of it as being built of brick. The house was probably two stories in height, with a 'lean-to,' and a heavy chimney at each end, anchoring it, as it were, against the fierce Atlantic gales. Within were great fireplaces, a narrow flight of stairs twisting around one chimney, and over the mantel the old 'King's arm.' Outside the door leaned the eel spears and clam and oyster tongs, important utensils in a region where corn was the chief article of diet, and clams, oysters and fish formed the only variety. It is hardly possible now to realize the hardships and privations of life in that remote region in the seventeenth century. Jasper Griffing appeared to prosper in his new home, for he steadily added to his property. In 1680 he bought land at Acquaback (the present Acquabogue) and in the Great Swamp, and in 1681 he purchased ten acres 'on ye highway that goeth to ye olde Fielde," and eight acres of 'meadow land and kreekthatch at ye north-west of ye Neck.' In 1680 the first four-rod highway in the town was laid out. It began at Main Street and ran straight to the harbor. It ran from 'ye eastward of Jasper Griffing's land to ye cleft,' and for this land he was allowed 'one and one-half pole of bredthe at the south-east corner of his land, and soe to runn to nothing at ye north-west.