Editing Port Jefferson, New York (section)

===Colonial and precolonial history===
[[File:John Roe House in Port Jefferson, New York.jpg|thumb|left|c.1682 home of John Roe, the first settler in lower Port Jefferson]]

The original settlers of the [[Brookhaven, New York|Town of Brookhaven]], based in the neighboring hamlet of [[Setauket, New York|Setauket]], bought a tract of land from the Setalcott Indians in 1655. The deed included the area of contemporary Port Jefferson along with all other lands along the [[North Shore (Long Island)|North Shore]] from the [[Nissequogue River]] eastward to Mount Misery Point.<ref name="portjeffguide">{{cite web|url=http://portjeffguide.com/aboutus.cfm|title=About PortJeff – The History of Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York|website=portjeffguide.com|access-date=February 10, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128091546/http://portjeffguide.com/aboutus.cfm| archive-date=January 28, 2010}}</ref>

Port Jefferson's original name was ''Sowaysset'', a Native American term for either "place of small pines" or "where water opens.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EhTtlVLnykIC&q=sowassett+pines&pg=PA246|title=The Indian Place-Names on Long Island and Islands Adjacent, with Their Probable Significations|author=Tooker William Wallace|date=August 2009|pages=246–247|publisher=BiblioBazaar |isbn=9781113546456|access-date=February 10, 2010}}</ref>

The first known home within the present village boundaries was erected in the early 1660s by [[Captain John Scott]], an important leader in Long Island's early history. This house, named Egerton, was a grand abode on the western end of Mount Sinai Harbor at Mount Misery Neck.<ref name="Barstow">{{cite book|last=Barstow|first=Belle|title=Setauket, Alias Brookhaven|pages=110–291}}</ref> The first settler in Port Jefferson's current downtown was an [[Irish people|Irish]] Protestant shoemaker from [[Queens]] named John Roe, who built his still-standing home in 1682. It remained a small community of five homes through the 18th century, and was renamed to "Drowned Meadow" in 1682.<ref name="portjeffguide"/>

Local lore has it that the pirate [[Captain Kidd]] rendezvoused in the harbor on his way to bury treasure at [[Gardiners Island]].<ref name="Pelletreau">{{cite book| title=A History of Long Island: from its settlement to the present time, Volume II| url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924026113914| author=Pelletreau, William S| pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924026113914/page/n286 273]–275|year=1905}}</ref> Another legend is that: during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], naval commander [[John Paul Jones]] had a ship fitted here.<ref name="Pelletreau" /> However, there is no factual support for these assertions, and the historical works quoted do not present them as definitive facts. John Paul Jones's career in particular is well documented, and there are no accounts of him visiting the village, which was under British control during the time he served as a commanding officer.