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Saturday, October 17th, 2026

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Commentary: Colonial-era land grants still impact Long Island sportsmen

Even today, the terms of a 340-year-old colonial land grant still help to determine who might hunt and fish, and who must be licensed to fish, on some parts of Long Island. (Stock photo)

In 1686, Thomas Dongan, “Capt. Generall Governor in Chiefe and Vice Admirall in and over the Province of Newyorke and Territoryes Depending thereon in America,” executed a patent granting the Trustees and freeholders of the newly created Town of Southampton, on what we now call Long Island, the right to certain lands and to the “fishing hawking hunting and fowling” that might take place thereon.
Nearly 350 years have passed. The American Revolution gave birth to a new nation. But Southampton still relies on the Dongan Patent to deny out-of-town hunters and anglers full access to its natural resources.

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