Thomas Tobey (recorded also as Toby, Tobye, Tobe and Tobie in the town and colonial records), came at an early date to Sandwich in Plymouth colony, Massachusetts. The town was settled by ten men of Saugus (afterward Lynn), in the spring of 1637; but we have few items of town proceedings for a long time, the earliest pages of the old book being lost.
The statement has been made by a number of per- sons that 'I Thomas Tobey came from England to Long Island early in the seventeenth century and remained there till about 1640, when he came to Plymouth Colony and settled at Sandwich." But I find no evidence whatever that this is correct. Indeed there were removals of settlers from Sandwich and other Massachusetts towns to Long Island. Rev. William Leverich, minister of Sandwich at an early day, removed to Oyster Bay, L. I., in 1658. But all probabilities are against the legend that Thomas Tobey or any other man of his period, having resided on Long Island, migrated eastward to Sandwich!