This claim rested upon the clause in the Massachusetts charter which expressly guaranteed " all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects of the realm to all Englishmen 'which shall go to and inhabit' Massachusetts, or which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence." The result of the contest was one of those sad episodes in history over which, in this age, it is better to throw the mantle of charity, with devout thankfulness that our lot is cast in better times.

The persecutions of the Quakers in Massachusetts turned the stream that continued to cross the Atlantic, and led to their settlement in Westchester County. That settlement was almost entirely made by the way of Long Island. Very naturally, the Quakers looked to the Dutch for religious toleration. The Puritans themselves had gone to Holland to find religious liberty when they had been compelled to flee from England. Many others besides Friends came to Long Island from Massachusetts to escape the religious restraint there. The first of these, who afterward became connected with Friends, was Lady Deborah Moody. She settled at Lynn, in Massachusetts, iu 1640, and received a grant of four hundred acres of land. Governor Winthrop thus speaks of her in his journal : " In 1643, Lady Moody was in the colony of Massachusetts, a wise and anciently religious woman, and being taken with the error of denying baptism to infants, was dealt withal by many of the elders and others, and admonished by the church of Salem, whereof she was a member, but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, etc., she removed to the Dutch, against the advice of her friends." On the 19th of December, 1645, Governor Kieft, of New Amsterdam, issued a general patent for the town of Gravesend, Long Island, to Lady Deborah Moody, Sir Henry Moody, her son, George Baxter and James Hubbard, their heirs and successors, " to have and enjoy free liberty of conscience, according to the customs and manners of Holland, without molestation." Gravesend was planted entirely by English settlers from Massachusetts, and, unlike the "five Dutch towns," which constituted the rest of Kings County, the records, which are still well preserved, were kept from the commencement of the settlement in the English language.