VIEWPOINT: Conscience Point: Vital to the History of Southampton

By Sarah Kautz

Many are asking why the Conscience Point Historic Site is so vitally important to the history of the Town of Southampton that its natural beauty should be protected from commercial use [“Eviction Notice Sparks a Split Between Venerable Museum and Shellfish Group,” 27east.com, November 20].

Conscience Point, privately owned by the Southampton History Museum, is regarded as the place where Southampton’s first English settlers landed on June 12, 1640, an event celebrated as Founders Day, or the anniversary of the founding of Southampton. The Conscience Point Historic Site is prominently featured on the official seals of the village and town of Southampton.

Dubbed “the Plymouth Rock of Southampton” by renowned local historian William S. Pelletreau (1840-1918), the Conscience Point Historic Site and Nature Walk has been owned and protected by the Southampton History Museum since 1910. Encompassing about 4.5 acres of spectacular waterfront, Conscience Point is a hook-shaped peninsula in the center of North Sea Harbor.

Like Plymouth Rock, we do not know of any 17th century records that link Conscience Point with the actual landing of Puritan settlers. Nevertheless, the 1731 deed shows that people living in Southampton called this place Conscience Point.

The name also strongly suggests an association with old stories told by generations of Southampton residents about a Puritan woman who landed on the shore of North Sea Harbor so long ago. Most interestingly, the 1731 deed that mentions Conscience Point predates the earliest known record of Plymouth Rock by a decade. So perhaps Plymouth Rock may be called “the Conscience Point of Plymouth”?

The Southampton History Museum nominated Conscience Point as a town landmark in 2001, and it was designated by the Town Board in 2003. The nomination form explains that the museum had recently rehabilitated the area by replacing an asphalt roadway to the point with a crushed-shell pedestrian path, which remains at the site today, noting:

“The property was landscaped with native materials and plants more nearly reflective of its original character … pristine in appearance today [i.e. 2001], [it] is a reminder of the settlement of the town of Southampton and the importance of North Sea Harbor to the development of the town. Looking west from the [Conscience Point Historic Site and Nature Walk] across the harbor to [the Conscience Point National Wildlife Refuge], a viewer gets a sense of the original character of the harbor.”

Conscience Point’s role in local history and culture is reflected in its name. The earliest known written evidence of a place called Conscience Point appears in a Southampton Town deed dated June 23, 1731. This deed was identified by William S. Pelletreau, who initiated efforts to transcribe and publish local historic records during his tenure as Southampton Town clerk.

The deed was published in 1878 in the fourth volume of historic Southampton Town records with a notation by Pelletreau that reads: “Conscience Point is on the west side of North Sea Creek, and little north of Mr. Jeremiah Reeves’s landing. If the old story is true, this may be called the Plymouth Rock of Southampton. Tradition states that the first settlers landed on this point, and that one of the women, as she stepped on shore, exclaimed, ‘For conscience’ sake, I’m on dry land once more!’ This [folklore] tradition … is of considerable antiquity to our knowledge, hence the name Conscience Point.”

Since becoming the owners and stewards of the Conscience Point Historic Site in 1910, the Southampton History Museum has protected it as a vital reminder of the contributions of the North Sea community to the wider development of the town and village.

Indeed, the founding trustees of the Southampton History Museum valued Conscience Point so highly that they decided to incorporate as a nonprofit organization in 1910 to purchase the property from Charles W. Reeves (1846–1923), a former Southampton Town Trustee whose family owned the land for generations. (Learn more about this momentous decision in articles published by The Southampton Press in 1910.)

The museum hosted the 375th anniversary of the landing at Conscience Point in partnership with Southampton Town and the Shinnecock Nation on June 13, 2015. Festivities included a recreation of Shinnecock life before the arrival of European settlers in 1640, narrated by Shinnecock elder Elizabeth Thunderbird Haile.

The Southampton History Museum looks forward to commemorating the 400th anniversary of this momentous event at the Conscience Point Historic Site and Nature Walk with our partners and community in 2040.

In many ways, Conscience Point is not only a “first step” for the founding of Southampton but also for the founding of the Southampton History Museum. Today, the Southampton History Museum continues the work begun by our organization’s founders to preserve and protect Conscience Point for generations to come.

You can read more about the fascinating story of Conscience Point in “North Sea: The First Step” (2007) by Mary Cummings, the Southampton History Museum’s archivist and Archives and Research Center manager.

Sarah Kautz is executive director of the Southampton History Museum.