William Floyd, sole Long Islander to sign the Declaration of Independence, gets a day named after him

William Floyd has a parkway named after him.

His statue welcomes drivers on that parkway as they enter the Mastic-Shirley area.

And a school district bears the name of Long Island's only signer of the Declaration of Independence.

But Floyd had never had a day named in his honor.

Until Wednesday, when Suffolk officials declared the county's inaugural "William Floyd Day" during a ceremony at the Mastic Beach high school named for the landowner and delegate to the Continental Congress.

The day honoring Floyd — whose Old Mastic estate is less than two miles from the school — will be celebrated every year on Dec. 17, the day he was born in 1734.

Officials announced the honor as they launched efforts to celebrate the 250th anniversary next year of the Declaration's signing on July 4, 1776. 

"There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, including four from New York State," County Executive Edward P. Romaine said during the ceremony. "Only one came from Long Island.

"Without his courage, without his commitment, we would not be an independent nation today."

Floyd was a prominent Suffolk and Brookhaven Town resident whose 4,400-acre estate extended from his house in what is now Mastic Beach as far north as present-day Upton. The house remained in the family until 1975, when Floyd's descendants sold it to the National Park Service.

 The house is normally open for visitors but is currently closed as it undergoes a multiyear renovation, officials said. 

Wednesday's ceremony — which included a birthday cake and a rendition of "Happy Birthday" from the William Floyd High School choir — highlighted what officials said was Floyd's heroism.

Floyd had left a comfortable life for the risky career move of joining a rebellion led by firebrands like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who fiercely advocated for America's secession from Great Britain. 

"Signing the Declaration of Independence, they were putting their lives at stake,” Natalie A. Naylor, professor emeritus of history at Hofstra University, said Tuesday in a phone interview. Floyd's estate was ransacked by the British, forcing his family to flee Long Island.

 "They took lots of stuff," Naylor said. "His wife Hannah becomes a refugee in Connecticut, where she died. She was only 41 years old.” 

Floyd, however, was a slave owner who became the object of protest in 2020 when activists demanded the removal of his statue at the intersection of William Floyd Parkway and Montauk Highway.

Monique Fitzgerald, of Bellport, who participated in the protest, said Wednesday that although slavery was common — and legal in New York — in Floyd's time,  is doesn’t justify naming a day for him. 

"There needs to be more discernment on who we honor and how we rectify the wrongs of this country,” said Fitzgerald, economic justice and campaign director for the Long Island Progressive Coalition. "He helped to colonize the area, and there’s no mention of the first nations that were here before him. ... If we are going to tell history, we have to tell all of it.”

Romaine, in an interview after the ceremony, said he chose to focus on Floyd's patriotism and "his courage" in helping Americans break free of the British.

 "I'm not happy that he was a slave owner," Romaine, a former social studies teacher, said, "but happy that he stepped up and fought for our independence." 

Floyd's Mastic Beach house is one of the few belonging to a Continental Congress delegate that still stands, historians say.

There is a second Floyd home in upstate Westernville, where Floyd moved about 1803 and where he died on Aug. 4, 1821. He was 86.

The house in Westernville — north of Rome — is privately owned and generally not open to the public , though its owners, Russ and Jackie Marriott, have held Christmas parties there. 

Russ Marriott, 78, a dentist, said in a phone interview he admires Floyd as "a consummate politician" who was esteemed by his peers.

"This was someone who dedicated 50 years of his life to public service," said Marriott, who has visited the Mastic Beach estate while researching Floyd's life. "He didn’t aspire to a higher calling. He was very happy working as a committee person.”// 

Despite the prominent position of Floyd's signature on the Declaration — two inches to the right of John Hancock's — Floyd likely had very little role in its composition, Naylor, of Hofstra, said.

But she said the designation of a day in Floyd's honor was well-deserved, even if all he did was apply his ornate signature to one of the United States' foundational documents.

"He served in the Continental Congress, he served in the U.S. Congress, he served in the New York [State] Senate," she said. "His career was pretty extensive.”