"Sylvester Manor"

 residence, farmhouse, LIGC - Long Island Gold Coast, movie / film / TV location

Nathaniel Sylvester (1610-1680), a Dutch sugar merchant, was the first European settler of Shelter Island in 1652, after buying it from the Manhanset Indians. The folowing year he married Griswell Brinley, daughter of Thomas Brinley, one of the Auditors General of the Revenues for both Charles I and Charles II.) Before they arrived, a substantial house was completed for them on a spot not far from the present Manor House on Gardiner's Creek. Visitors to the manor included prominent Quakers who were being prosecuted throughout the colonies. They found asylum on Shelter Island. The Sylvesters, royalist refugees from Cromwell's England, understood the Quakers' plight. The Sylvesters' social life was centered in Newport where other political refugees loyal to the monarchy had found safety, including Griswell's sister. The monarchy was restored in England, and in 1666, Shelter Island became a Manor. By 1673 Nathaniel owned the entire island. Many island families descended from the Sylvesters, including Dering, Sprague, L'Hommedieu, Havens, and Hudson.

After his death in 1680, his five sons inherited the island and sold off various large parcels, one of which was the present Mashomack Preserve, to William Nicoll of Islip. A grandson, Brinley, replaced the old house with the present manor house in 1733. Other decendents Ezra L'Hommedieu and Thomas Dering, who married Mary Sylvester, were key players in the war of the revolution. Over the years the estate had served as a plantation, a full-functioning farm, and a vacation home. The colonial mansion was added on to in 1830. Later alterations were made by Henry Bacon for Cornelia Horsford.

Since 2008, the 240+acre estate serves as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm called Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, Inc., with 15th generation decedents working there with farm employees. The manor was profiled in the book "The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island" by Mac K. Griswold.

In 2019, the manor was used as a filming location for the Disney+ production "Black is King".

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