The "Kingsbury patent," embracing a territory about six and a half miles square, the same which is now comprehended in the town of Kingsbury, was granted on the 11th of May, 1762, to James Bradshaw, of New Milford, Conn., and twenty-two associates, mostly from the same State; these being Daniel Taylor, Nathaniel Taylor, Samuel Brownson, Comfort Star, John Warner, Kent Wright, Abel Wright, Benjamin Seelye, Preserved Porter, Ebenezer Seelye, Gideon Noble, Thomas Noble, Partridge Thatcher, Daniel Bostwick, Samuel Canfield, Isaac Hitchcock, John Prindle, Benjamin Wildman, Jonathan Hitchcock, John Hitchcock, Amos Northup, and Israel Camp. All these lands, comprising more than twenty-six thousand acres, were divided into lots, numbers--commencing on the south line--from 1 to 93, and these were allotted among the several owners, excepting No. 93,--covering the limits of the present corporation of Sandy Hill,--which included the entire river frontage, and on this account was held in common by the patentees.

   Into this wilderness tract, which was for years known generally as "Bradshaw's township," the first to enter was Bradshaw himself, who came in 1763, and made preparations for settlement, but did not remove his family hither until 1765. The next one who came is supposed to have been Oliver Colvin, Sr., who settled in the north part of the town. The third settler in Kingsbury and the first at Sandy Hill was Albert Baker, who, in the year 1768, came here from New York City, bringing his young wife and their two sons, Albert and Charles, aged respectively three years and three months, locating in this humble dwelling upon the site now occupied by the residence of Hiram Allen, near those noble falls of the Hudson which have since borne his name, and upon which he then constructed a short wing dam (all that was necessary on such a fall) and built a saw-mill, this being the first wheel turned by waterpower in the town of Kingsbury. His son Caleb, born a year of two later, was the first white child born in the town.

   About the same time came Michael Hufnogel, also from New York, and for a time occupied the house with Mr. Baker, whose business partner he was for several years. He afterwards built a house near where Mr. Wait now lives, but this was burnt before the Revolution. Other settlers who followed very soon after were Samuel Brownson (original patentee), Joseph Smith, Thomas Grant, Benjamin Underhill, Solomon King, Henry Franklin, William Smith, Sylvanus Dillingham, Ennis Graham, George Wray, Moses Smith, John Moss, Timothy Harris, Moses Harris, Gilbert Harris, Nehemiah Seelye, John Griffith, John Munroe, Leonard Deklyn, Amos McKeney, Asa Richardson, Samuel Sherwood, Andrew Sherwood, Samuel Sherwood, Jr., John Phillips, Adam Wint, Samuel Harris, Adiel Sherwood, and the Jones family, which consisted of a widow and her six sons--John, Jonathan, Dunham, Daniel, David and Solomon.

   This family, of which John Jones appears to have been the head, settled in the northwest part of the township, near the present village of Patten's Mills, and afterwards became widely known, not only on account of their pronounced toryism, but still more from the fact that the fifth son, David, was the affianced lover of Jane McCrea, with whom he probably became acquainted in Leamington, N.J., from which place both their families had emigrated. He, with another brother, afterwards held commissions in Jessup's Loyalist Battalion, under Burgoyne, and both he and Daniel became proprietors of lands on Bond's creek, about one mile southeast of Moss street. John Moss settled at Moss street, and gave the name to the locality. Samuel Harris married a daughter of Hufnogel, and settled at Moss street. Timothy Harris purchased lot No. 28 of the survey, and small lot No. 9, adjoining No. 93, and he also leased from the proprietors a tract of twenty-seven acres, being a part of No. 93, and bounding upon the river; but we are uncertain upon which he first settled. John Griffith located and made improvements on lot No. 62 (Wood Creek, below and near Smith's Basin), and this land and improvements he sold to John Munroe on the 13th of June, 1772, for one hundred and fifty pounds.

   In the "Survey of Washington County" by Asa Fitch, M.D., the doctor remarks that he was able to gather but few definite particulars concerning the first settlement of the town of Kingsbury, and such has also been our experience,--a fact which is chiefly due to the destruction of records and the disorganization and depopulation of the town which resulted from Burgoyne's invasion, and the still more desolating one led by Carleton in 1780.

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