Setauket Village Green Battlefield

History: Located at 5 Caroline Avenue Setauket, New York, Setauket Village Green was mostly used as meeting place. In 1655 the town built a rudimentary church and hired their first minister Rev. Nathaniel Brewster. Grandson of Elder William Brewster, one of the original pilgrims who landed in Plymouth Massachusetts with the Mayflower. Nathaniel was the first Native to graduate from Harvard University in 1642. According to legend, Nathaniel had preached his first sermon from a big rock still located on the green. The townspeople gifted him with a house ordained with glass windows (unusual for the times) and property. First white (mostly British) settlers arrived in Setauket in the middle of the 17th century. With a strong religious background coming from New England. One of the towns records comes from a diary mentioning a Quaker meeting at this location. This site was once the site of many of the towns houses because it centered around the towns meeting place and two churches that did not get along Setauket Presbyterian Church and Caroline Church (Christ’s church). Parishioners began going to Caroline Church after Setauket Presbyterian church became occupied by British soldiers and fortified under the command of Colonel Richard Hewitt from Hempstead Long Island. The British occupation was brutal. Taking up stay in homes, without consent, and the rape and murder of colonists that supported the revolution. On the night of August 21st1777 Samuel Parsons and 500 troops marched across the sound and gave the British loyalists a chance to surrender, which they had refused. Parsons then led his men to Patriot Rock, located across from Frank Melville Park, they set up a line and began firing upon the church and a small battle ensued injuring 4 militia and killing 1. While the British reports aren’t available, the injuries were reported to be low. Parsons fearing the British troops along the shore would hear the commotion, he abandoned the battle. Taking with them few supplies, such as blankets and about a dozen horses. While the injured were taken to Caroline Church. Setauket Village Green is one of the sites of the Washington spy trail led by Benjamin Tallmadge and helped by Anna Strong, Benjamin Woodhull, son of Rev. Richard Woodhull, Caleb Brewster and more. The site is now a beautiful small grass triangle surrounded by roads and is used now as a place for people to take advantage of sunny afternoons and has a few memorials for soldiers.

Haunted History: People have reported hearing sounds of people talking, and people have also claimed to have gotten touched while on the green when no one else is there. There have also been claims of smelling gunpowder and hearing the sounds of musket and cannon fire on the grounds.