Duplicity & Fraud
Dorothy meets John Scott of Oyster Bay.
The return of Charles II to the throne of Great Britain marked the beginning of great troubles for Dorothy.
It was on the occasion of a reception for the King at his palace in Whitehall, London, that she was introduced to one John Scott, of Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York,
who claimed to be of the same family of Scot’s-Hall as Dorothy.
He managed to identify some common ancestors, to whose pictures Dorothy thought he bore a striking resemblance.19
He told her sad stories of an unfortunate youth that explained his residence in such an unlikely spot, all of which were designed to gain her confidence.
Plans to emigrate.
In subsequent meetings Scott told her and her husband about some land he claimed to have purchased from the Indians at Oyster Bay,
many hundreds of acres of which he was willing to sell them.
Daniel, planning to go there to live, arranged with him to have two houses built on the land.20
Daniel would then need some cattle, some more land for pasture, and his investments were multiplied.
It appears that Dorothy had become a minister to her own congregation, “Scott's congregation,” who met in a hall in London somewhere near the hermitage,
“near the two great Brew houses.”21
It was her idea to take her congregation of about 120 people and settle on Long Island.22
Investments listed.
In the end Dorothy had entrusted Scott with the whole concerns of her estate,
500£ per year, which they mortgaged paying 2200£ for the following:23
1) 3,109 board feet of lumber purchased from John Leverett, Governor of Boston,
2) 182£ 4s. cash paid for cattle that were on Long Island,
3) a great sum of money in 1663 for a power of attorney to allow Daniel to buy 20,000 acres there, which Scott had purchased from the Indians,24
4) a valuable consideration in 1663 for a deed from Scott for 100 acres of meadow and 15 acres of pasture near the Horseneck on Long Island,
5) so many hundred pounds for 1600 acres of land on Long-Island, 6) 200£ worth of jewelry. Another transaction in 1663 was for ten acres of land in Oyster Bay,
but no consideration is mentioned.25
Education traded for servitude.
More expensive than money was Scott’s failure to keep a number of his additional agreements.
To secure the second item listed above Daniel executed an order on September 15, 1663 to be carried to Long Island by one of the managers of his estates in Kent, Matthew Prior,
to enable him to take possession of the milch cows and wheat at “Sidilicott.”26
On the strength of this document and Scott’s assurance that it was good, Captain John Platt (also a Quaker) agreed to take him and Matthew (and his young family) on board his ship bound for New York.27
The total 40£ cost of passage was never paid.
Included also was a crew of carpenters who were to build two houses in the colony at Oyster Bay.
On this trip to New York Scott took two boys into his charge,
a certain Hallelujah Fisher (probably the son of William Fisher) and Daniel’s only son, Daniel Jr., only eleven years old.
Scott was to educate them as befit their social status.
Once there, however, he sold Hallelujah to servitude to one Thomas Owen of the colony of Maryland and Daniel to servitude to one Herringman in the colony of New Haven, Connecticut.28
The houses were also built, but soon, when the true land owners came around, they had to be demolished and set up elsewhere.
