Hog Neck

 

The settlement of North Haven dates back to 1665, and was settled partly by colonists from Shelter Island and partly by colonists from Southampton. The earliest recorded reference to Hog Neck, as the area was first called by settlers, was in 1641 when it shows up in Southampton town records. That reference records an order to residents on the east side of Hog Neck to fence in their property to guard against the danger of “cattle and hogs astray.” The Hog Neck peninsula was inhabited by Manhasset Indians for hundreds of years before settlers arrived. On Oct. 3, 1665, the Indians sold Hog Neck to Southampton officials known as freeholders, “forever reserving liberty of hunting and fishing and fowling.” By 1680 Hog Neck had been laid out into 47 lots, which were distributed by a lottery. The next year roads were laid out and permanent English settlements began to spring up. In earlier years, Hog Neck had been used primarily as pasture. While the first two and a half centuries of habitation by settlers was marked mostly by agricultural uses, there were also several industries, including fishing and production of salt through evaporation, a process that continued to the Civil War. Hog Neck was renamed North Haven in 1842.