William Floyd was born in the old
homestead at Mastic December 17, 1734, and the oldest part of
the house was built by his father Nicoll Floyd in 1724. His
early education was limited, but he possessed a native ability
which enabled him to take over the management of the large
estate after the death of his father in 1752. He became an
officer in the militia at an early age, and was advanced from
time to time until he reached the rank of major general.
He was elected
to a seat in the Continental Congress in 1774, which he held
until 1782. He was one of those who urged the adoption of the
Declaration of Independence, and was one of the signers of that
historic document.
During this
period the British troops were in possession of Long Island, and
they had taken over his beautiful 4,000 acre estate at Mastic,
and he with Mrs. Floyd and their family were forced to leave the
Island and seek refuge in Connecticut. Mrs. Floyd died from
hardship during this period, and in 1783 he returned with his
children and began the slow work of repairing his home and
estate, which had suffered great damage at the hands of the
British soldiers. He married again, this time to Joanna,
daughter of Benejah Strong of Setauket.
General Floyd
was a representative in the first Congress which met in New York
March 4, 1789, when George Washington was elected president.
He was a
public spirited man and was engaged in many activities, one of
which was helping found Clinton Academy at East Hampton. His
life at this period was that of a typical country squire, and
his home was always open to his friends, and soon became a
gathering place for distinguished men of that day. Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison stayed with him in 1791, during
their joint visits to study the Indians at Mastic and their
language. About 200 of the 300 or so words of the Unkechaug
Indians with their English meaning were taken down and are
preserved in the Pennypacker collection in the East Hampton
Library.
A story had
been handed down about the two attractive daughters of Gen.
Floyd; that James Madison fell madly in love with Catherine,
and she accepted his proposal of marriage. However, in the
meantime, she fell in love with the more romantic Dr. Samuel
Clarkson of Philadelphia a Presbyterian minister. She wrote
Madison a letter of dismissal, which deeply disappointed him.
The tradition goes on to say that Thomas Jefferson fell in love
with Kitty’s beautiful sister, but she refused his proposal of
marriage.
William Floyd
never seemed to tire of clearing large tracts of land, and
shortly after his return to Mastic in 1783, he began to buy land
along the Mohawk river in Westernville, N.Y., and by 1803 had
constructed a house similar to the one his father had built in
Mastic, and in the last months of that year moved his family to
his new home.
It seems
strange that he should have left the old homestead at Mastic at
the age of 69 and started life anew in another part of the
state. It may have been that he felt his son Nicoll, who had
seven children, needed all the room in the ancestral home. So
in his new home on the banks of the Mohawk River he lived until
his death on August 4th 1821, active to the last.
Thus came to
an end the life of this native Long Islander, whose name will
ever hold an honored place in the history of the United States.