The land had been purchased in 1648 by the governors of Connecticut Colony and New Haven Colony from the Montauk Indians, in large part for small drills to make wampum, their traditional industry; hunting and fishing rights were retained. It was then sold for about £30 to settlers, some from Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts, who had not found room for their herds in Massachusetts Bay Colony. The original name for the village was Maidstone, from a village in Kent some of the settlers may have come from. Each original settler was allotted a village lot of several acres and rights in common to surrounding lands which were regulated by the town government. The area was transferred to the jurisdiction of New York in 1664.