By 1640 the Town had grown and dissension began to upset some of the first arrivals. Rev. DENTON and a group of followers, decided to move on and arrangements were made with New Haven Colony for a section of land called Ripowan about 40 miles west of the shore of Long Island Sound. 

      A couple of small rivers entered the Sound at this point and a deal for 269 acres was made.  Payment was to be 33 pounds sterling, to be paid in produce.  Robert COE and Andrew WARD handled the details and in the spring of 1640 a score or so of males from Wethersfield arrived, set up their tents, and started once again to lay out a new home, Stamford, with an initial count of 29 families.

      The first objective was to locate a spot, preferably on higher ground, for their meeting house.  It would have to be big enough for the whole community to worship.  It would also have to be strong and surrounded with a stockade fence because it would also be their fort.  Indians were not completely docile.

      This would be the center of the village.  Nearby an area was set aside for pasture of their livestock.  Roads were laid out in various directions from this center point depending on terrain.

      A wharf was needed immediately because most everything and everyone traveled by water.  A spot for a mill and dam was chosen as was a spot for a community garden in which would be grown Indian corn, peas, flax and rye.

      Each Proprietor received a couple of acres of land for a home spot and would later get several acres of woodland and a portion of shoreline for salt hay for winter livestock feeding.  The terrain, such as hills, swamps, and shore line etc. had to be considered.

      Rev. DENTON would get a share and a house as would the Captain they would hire to train their militia to protect the colony.

      A house would be one small room with a fireplace at one end for cooking and heat.  Later another room could be added behind the fireplace.  A strong door and a small window opening was needed.

      Almost at once, the first mill washed out and Thurston RAYNOR was appointed to see to the building of a new one; also he was one of the 5 men chosen to handle town affairs.  He was appointed to the dignified office of Constable with responsibility to settle all disputes and keep the peace; also he became a Magistrate and represented the town at New Haven.

      Of course, being Puritans. no work was allowed on Sunday.  One must be in church part of the day.  A pastor, usually well educated, had a great deal of influence over his flock and fines were in order if one transgressed.

      Most of these newcomers were probably workers in various trades who would buy or be assigned a town spot. Someone with money might buy a share from one of the Proprietors, but no new shares would be issued unless additional acreage was bought surrounding the village and a new Proprietorship established for its acquisition.  

      Money was to be made by shipping farm products, skins or wood, etc.  With this, one could buy tools, livestock, seeds or whatever supplies were available.  Most transactions were by barter.  Prices of commodities, like a bushel of rye, or corn, or a cord of wood, were set by the community so that accounts could be settled fairly.  The pastor, the Captain, the teacher etc., would usually be paid in commodities.

      Markets for the goods produced were usually New Haven and Boston. 
The building of Stamford was barely underway when in 1643 the Rev. DENTON closed a deal with the Dutch in New York to settle on Long Island.  The area was a 10 mile wide strip from the Sound to the Ocean, covering what in now North and South Hempstead towns.  Up until this time the English had been driven out if they ventured into Dutch territory.

      In the spring of 1644 co-leaders, Rev. DENTON, Matthew MITCHELL and Thurston RAYNOR, with 23 Stamford families, moved across the Sound.  At least 11 of these were part of the original Stamford group, of three years before.

      They came ashore in Hempstead Harbor in the Glen Cove and Port Washington areas.  There were lots of hilly woodlands, fertile farmlands and towards the South, the vast, treeless area that became known as the Hempstead Plains.  Parts of this remained common lands used only for pasture for a couple of hundred years.

      Beyond the plains was more farm and woodland and then the Great South Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

      Thurston and family stayed here a couple of years, until once again, he was on the move.  This time he moved a hundred miles east to the new settlement of Southampton.

      His nephew, Edward, now having reached the age of 21, elected to stay in Hempstead, and eventually established his home in "South Woods", which later became Raynor South and then Raynortown, until in the middle of the nineteenth century it became Freeport.

      It must have been quite an experience for a ten year old orphan to leave England and by the age of 21 to have crossed the ocean and participated in the founding of three villages in a dangerous and uncharted wilderness in a strange new world.