The village and the picturesque harbor that separates it from Shelter Island Heights were named after Thomas Dering, a prominent Boston merchant who married Mary Sylvester of Shelter Island’s founding family on March 9, 1756. Dering became the town’s second supervisor and went on to become a prominent member of the new nation’s Congress, a supporter of the Declaration of Independence and member of the convention that forged New York’s first state constitution.
