MySource:Quolla6/Baxter, 1913:11-12, 13

P 11-12 While the English were still lingering under the walls of Fort Amsterdam there were some new arrivals at Manhattan. One of these was a lady who took a prominent part in the settlement of Long Island. Deborah, Lady Moody, was the widow of Sir Henry Moody of Garsden in Wiltshire, a baronet of King James' creation in 1622. She was the daughter of Walter Dunch of Avesbury, a member of Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's time; as was also her uncle at a later date. Lady Moody was a dissenter, and as such she came under the penal laws, by remaining in London for a longer time than was permitted by the laws regarding dissenters. So she, together with her son, the second Sir Henry Moody, left England. At just what time she reached Massachusetts is not known.

May 13, 1640, she was allowed 400 acres of land at Lynn.

In May, 1641, she bought the Swampscott farm of John Humphrey for 1100 pounds.

April 5, 1642, she became a member of the Congregational Church at Salem, Mass.

The same year, 1642, Lady Moody fell under the displeasure of the church by expressing her disbelief in infant baptism.

Dec. 14, 1642. Lady Moody was arraigned by the Quarterly Court for opposing infant baptism.

June 12, 1643. Admonished by the court. The same month Lady Moody with her son, Sir Henry Moody, John Tilton and a few close friends, bade farewell to Massachusetts and sought refuge among the strangers of New Amsterdam.

There had been a treaty of peace signed between Keift and the Indians, but there were still the mutterings of the storm. The Indians were dissatisfied with the treaty, and threatened to break out again. Lady Moody found a number of her countrymen at New Amsterdam. Their property was destroyed by the Indians, and they were undecided what to do. Lady Moody at once took the leadership of the little party, and they consulted together concerning a new and more secure place of refuge. They decided on Long Island, and Governor Keift gave them permission to settle on the southwestern part. They went thither immediately. They named their settlement Gravesend. For security, their houses were built close together in a quadrangle with an open space in the middle, where their cattle were driven at night. Fields were also cleared around them, and other improvements were made. They were none too soon with their arrangements. War again broke out with redoubled fury. Ann Hutchinson, who with her family had been banished from New England and had taken up her residence on what is now Pelham Neck, then called Ann's Hook, Oct. 6, 1643, and her household to the number of eighteen, were slain and their bodies were thrown into barns, and burned, together with the cattle. They next attacked Throckmorton's Neck, just west, and murdered the settlers. Then Gravesend was the next point to stand a siege. Lady Moody, with her forty followers, here held their ground against a furious onslaught of invading Indians, "the same band who a month before had murdered Ann Hutchinson and her household." Dec. 19, 1643. For their brave defence the patent of the land at Gravesend was granted Lady Moody, Sir Henry Moody, Ensign George Baxter and Sergeant Hubbard. Lady Moody, who had so bravely repelled the attacks of the Indians during the war was now complimented by Kieft with a patent granting to herself, Sir Henry Moody, her son, Ensign George Baxter and Sergeant Hubbard, that portion of Long Island, adjoining Coney Island, on which they lived, named by the Dutch "Gravesande."

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June 28, 1647, Stuyvesant's Inauguration. Stuyvesant's first care was to organize his council, which consisted of Van Dincklagen, the vice-director; Van Dyck, the fiscal commissary; Keyser, and Capt. Bryan Newton, besides the experienced La Montagne, who was retained as a counsellor, and Van Tienhoven as provincial secretary. Paulus Leendertsen Vandergrist was appointed equipage master, and Baxter, who had served as English secretary since 1642, was continued in that post, as none of the Company's officers "could tolerably read or write the English language." Governor Stuyvesant and his wife visited Lady Moody soon after his arrival at New Amsterdam, and were much pleased with her. Her home was reported as comfortable, but also adapted for defence, with a fine library, for those days. Lady Moody died some time between the autumn of 1658 and the spring of 1659. Her burial place is unknown. Her son, Sir Henry Moody, went to Virginia and died there.