This group of land deeds and bills of sale date back to the 1700s. Though worn and, in some cases, marked up by previous owners, these documents are legible and provide fodder for discussion on the lineage of Long Island families. The two top documents bear the names of "Hildreth," a prominent Long Island family. The smaller document is a 1791 deed for land sold by David Hildreth to James White of Southampton. The bottom document is a 1783 deed for a tract of "woodland" in Southampton sold by Noah Hildreth to Captain William Havens. James White is listed as a witness. A study of Hildreth family genealogy reveals that David and Noah Hildreth were likely brothers, sons of James and Martha Hildreth and great-great-grandsons of Thomas Hildreth, who emigrated from England in 1635 and arrived on Long Island in 1640. It is from this branch of Hildreths that the Hildreth Department Store, the oldest family owned and operated department store in the United States, was founded in 1842.

These papers are part of the Special Collections library at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville and can be accessed by students pursuing the new master’s degree concentration in Special Collections & Rare Books through C.W. Post’s Palmer School of Library and Information Science.