[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] a measure, been prepared for the occupation of the Connecticut colonists, who found these shores com-paratively denuded of the forest, ami in some localities under a tolerable degree of cultivation. The original purchasers were Peter Disbrow, John Coe and Thomas Stedwell. A fourth, John Budd, was associated with them in some of their purchases, and several others joined them in the actual settle-ment of the place; but the earliest negotiations appear to have been conducted in behalf of the three persons named. They were all residents of Greenwich when the first Indian treaty was signed. Their leader was Peter Disbrow, a young, intelligent, self-reliant man. Early in the year 1660 Disbrow was in treaty with the Indians of Peningo Neck for the purchase of that tract. The deed of purchase was lost during Dis-brow's own life-time. The petition of the people of Rye in 1 720, for a patent from the crown, gives an account of this purchase, in which it is stated that Disbrow acted by authority from the colony of Con-necticut (under whose government the township of Rye then lay), and that, on the 3d of January, 1660, he purchased "from the then Native Indian Proprie-tors a Certain Tract of Land lycing on the limine be-