This rustic little hamlet on Little Peconic Bay is the birthplace of Southampton Town, which claims to be the state’s first English colony. In June, 1640, the first 10 town founders, who came from Lynn, Mass., landed at or close to what was from that time known as Conscience Point. They quickly migrated south about six miles to a spot near the ocean to make the town’s first settlement. But by 1650, according to town records, 321 acres of what is now North Sea were given to six families. They first called it Feversham, and later Northampton, after places in England, before it became North Sea.
Some histories say that a year before the founders arrived, Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts scouted the Long Island north shore by ship for likely settlement spots but liked North Sea because it had a small natural harbor surrounded by accessible meadows and woods. And it didn’t hurt that a nearby encampment of Shinnecock Indians was said to be friendly.
