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GENEALOGY 974.9 N421DAB v.3
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01802 7240
GENEALOGY 974.9 N421DAB V. 3
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
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Unchr H. Patiks July 23, 1908.
-
ARCHIVES
OF THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
SECOND SERIES. Vol. III.
This volume was prepared and edited by authority of the State of New Jersey, at the request of the New Jersey Historical Society, and under the direction of the follow- ing Committee of the Society :
WILLIAM NELSON, GARRET D. W. VROOM, AUSTIN SCOTT, FRANCIS B. LEE, ERNEST C. RICHARDSON.
DOCUMENTS
RELATING TO THE
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
OF THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
VOLUME III.
EXTRACTS FROM AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS RELATING TO NEW JERSEY.
VOL. III. 1779.
EDITED BY WILLIAM NELSON.
TRENTON, N. J. The John L. Murphy Publishing Company, Printers. 1906.
PREFACE. 1136437
As might be expected, the contents of this volume relate principally to the progress of the war of the Revolution. We have extracts from various newspapers, American and Royalist, giving their accounts of current events of the war, naturally biased by their respective view-points and sympathies, but from which the intelligent reader can draw an average balance as to the facts.
The Jersey brigade was winning a name and fame for itself in General John Sullivan's expedition against the Western Indians.
William Alexander, who loved to call himself the "Earl of Stirling," was fighting in the American armies, with the rank of Major-General, while his property was adver- tised to be sold to pay his debts.
We have several vastly differing accounts of the spirited attack by "Light Horse Harry" Lee and his gallant legion of troopers upon the block-house at Powles Hook, in the month of August, 1779. From the official reports, which were accepted by General Washington, with commenda- tions in general orders, it is shown to have been a notable triumph for the American arms. From the British ac- counts, on the contrary, it might be inferred that the vic- tory all lay on that side.
Very little attention is paid in the histories to the suc- cess of the Americans at sea, but these newspaper extracts show that a great many British vessels were captured and brought into New Jersey ports to be condemned and sold as prizes of war. Most of the captures were made by Jer- seymen along the coast.
4
vi
PREFACE.
We have here, also, an account of the reckless blunder- ing which brought on the massacre called the battle of Minisink, July 22d, 1779.
Colonel John G. Simcoe, with his Queen's Light Dra- goons, made a desperate and gallant dash on New Bruns- wick on October 26th, 1779, resulting in his being wounded and captured by the Americans, and with the loss of a large party of his dragoons, the expedition being very much of a failure.
The military announcements, advertisements, orders, &c., bring home to us the fact that New Jersey was essen- tially the war ground of the Revolution.
The number of farms, mills, plantations and houses ad- vertised for sale shows the stress of the times. Neverthe- less, Peter Hulick, staymaker, from New York, thinks the conditions sufficiently propitious to appeal to the ladies of Trenton for their patronage. He soon meets competition in Richard Norris, staymaker, from London, who enters into minute anatomical details regarding his product. Rival and enterprising shopkeepers at Trenton, Elizabeth- town, Chatham and Morristown (Newark merchants do not enter into the competition, perhaps having a prudent fear of attracting the enemy) advertise abundant and varied stocks of goods calculated to attract the fair sex, including pistol lawns, pelongs, green and black ducape, callimancoes of all colors, shalloons, moreens, broadcloths of all shades, blue and brown naps, plain and spotted swanskin, duffel baiges, red and white plains, camblets, marquisates, bar- celona handkerchiefs, black, blue and green drawboys, sarcinett ribbands, Persians, Drumcondriff linen, faggot, and other fabrics of long-forgotten nomenclature.
A curious inconsistency of the times is shown by the patriots struggling for freedom, who, at the same time, advertised negro men, women and children for sale into perpetual slavery.
An aftermath of General Charles Lee's unfortunate con- duct at the Battle of Monmouth is a duel between him and
.
vii
PREFACE.
young Colonel John Laurens, occasioned by Lee's ill-tem- pered allusions to General Washington.
A very important topic connected with the prosecution of the war is the depreciation of the currency, which is dis- cussed at great length by "Caius" (Governor Livingston), who says the colonies had issued millions of paper money before the Revolution, but by 1775 had paid it nearly all off, so that they were all the more ready to enter upon the contest of 1775-83. The enormous resources of the col- onies were thus displayed. "A True Patriot" shows how the evils of paper money might be remedied. "Hard Money" takes up the cudgels in his own behalf, and a "Jersey Farmer" descants on the follies of paper money and the ill consequences of its depreciation, while "Con- tinental Currency" defends himself from numerous at- tacks. Few of these correspondents can present their ideas in less than two or three columns. Some of the commu- nications, although of unconscionable length, often contain excellent ideas and sound reasoning. The writers take themselves very seriously, treating their themes most pon- derously. There is an utter absence of that insouciance and lightness with which modern writers discuss grave questions, and humor is almost never indulged in, although one writer does poke fun at another for considering "whether plants or animals will prosper in one country if transplanted to another."
Meetings were held throughout the State to regulate the prices of labor, produce and manufactures, and it was gen- erally agreed that prices in the summer of 1779 should not be more than fifteen times as great as they had been in 1774. Thus, the price of hay was fixed at £50 per ton; flour, £15 to £19 per hundred; tea, £4 15s .; butter, 15s. per pound; bar iron, at the works, £450 per ton; horse- shoes, £1 15s. per pair, &c.
The spirited correspondence between Governor Living- ston and Sir Henry Clinton, regarding the alleged offer by Clinton of a reward for the capture, dead or alive, of the
viii
PREFACE.
doughty Governor, is here printed in full, together with the angry comments of other correspondents.
We have, also, accounts of various raids by British and Tories on different parts of the State, as on Elizabeth, in February, 1779; the disgraceful affair at Little Egg Har- bour in October, 1778; the raids by Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk and his Fourth Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers on Bergen county, in April, 1779; a considerable party of British, about eight hundred strong, on the vicinity of Red Bank and Shrewsbury, in April, 1779, and another attack, on May 10th, 1779, on Closter, Bergen county. On June 9th a party of refugees from Sandy Hook penetrated as far as Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury. Another party from Staten Island made a raid on Rahway and Woodbridge in July, and in the same month Closter, Bergen county, was again visited by the enemy, who drove off cattle and horses.
Most of these raids were made by the Loyalists, or "New Jersey Volunteers," as they were called, who had enlisted in the British service. Many of them were by private parties of refugees. They were usually noted for the great ferocity of the attacking party and the equal ferocity with which they were followed up by the patriots. We gather from these accounts, as from no other source, some idea of the intense bitterness between the men who adhered to the American cause and their neighbors who took the side of the King. We have here, too, another evidence, and per- haps one of the causes, of this intense feeling in the numer- ous advertisements of the proceedings taken against the Loyalists to confiscate their property and the announce- ments of the sales thereof in all parts of the State. In this and the volume to succeed it will be found the names of something like twelve hundred Loyalists, who were thus adjudged by the courts to be giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and of treasonable practices, and whose property was declared forfeited to the State. Two of the refugees captured in Bergen county were tried for felony, and,
ix
PREFACE.
being convicted, were promptly hanged. They had been ravaging the county-robbing, housebreaking, pocket-pick- ing and horse stealing.
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Barton, of Sussex county, offers twenty dollars bounty to "Gentlemen Volunteers" enlisting in his "Loyal Battalion of New Jersey Volun- teers," for "two years or during this wanton Rebellion." Fifteen years later he was living unmolested in Sussex, and drawing half-pay from the British government.
A remarkable record was that presented by the surgeons in charge of the military hospital at New Brunswick. Out of upwards of fifteen hundred sick, only twenty-two died between November, 1778, and June, 1779.
Notwithstanding the movements of the armies and of various hostile expeditions through New Jersey, the arts of peace and learning were not utterly forgotten. We have a long official notice of the vicissitudes of Princeton Col- lege and Grammar School from January, 1777, when the Battle of Princeton was fought, to April, 1779. Later in the year we have a detailed account of the commencement exercises at Princeton.
The trustees of Queen's College announce that it is fairly established on the banks of the Raritan, sufficiently remote from the headquarters of both armies to be reason- ably safe from war's alarums. By act of the Legislature the faculty and pupils were exempted from military ser- vice.
Advertisements for school teachers are not infrequent. The emphasis laid upon sobriety as a qualification indi- cates that it was too often lacking in the wielders of the rod.
A perennial subject of interest was the clearing out of obstructions in the Passaic river, above Little Falls, in order to drain the Great Meadows.
The production of salt as a home industry was stimu- lated by the war, not always with success. Salt-works on the Jersey coast are advertised for sale, with interesting particulars of their extent and apparatus.
X
PREFACE.
The printer of the New Jersey Gazette frequently takes his readers into his confidence and relates his struggles to maintain his paper and to justify his increase of the price thereof.
The anniversary of the alliance between the United States and France is celebrated at Pluckemin, February 18th, 1779, Washington and Lady Washington and other notables being present on the occasion.
Was it the hardships of war, or the depreciation of the currency, making the troubles of the housekeeper so much greater, that induced so many wives to leave their hus- bands ? John Scott advertises his spouse, and after giving the usual form of notice about not paying her debts, he drops into pathetic poetry on "The Injured Husband." The wife retorts a few weeks later by giving notice that she will not pay any more debts of his contracting, and she sarcastically adds : "His forbidding people to trust me on his account is quite needless, for they never would, except a trifle." Levi Gardner advertises his wife, but she in turn offers "thirty dollars to anyone that will take up said Gardner and secure him in any gaol, so that his wife may have restitution made her," and also agrees that all reason- able charges will be paid. Stimulated by the bereaved Scott's example, William Willis, of Westfield, finds vent for his feelings in some more or less touching verses.
When John Hart died, at Hopewell, a local writer speaks of him as "one of the representatives in the General As- sembly for the county of Hunterdon county, and late Speaker of the House." Not a word about his having signed the Declaration of Independence-the one act on which his fame rests to-day. The epoch-making impor- tance of that event was not realized in 1779.
The exchange of prisoners was the subject of much fric- tion between the armies, of anxiety on the part of the pris- oners and their friends. The discussions on this matter remind us of the similar experiences eighty-four years later.
xi
PREFACE.
Doings at Washington's headquarters at Middlebrook are frequently mentioned. The ambassador from the court of France was received there with joyful acclaim in April, 1779. The minister, elders and deacons of the Dutch church at Raritan presented a handsome address to Wash- ington, to which he graciously responded, in the month of June.
FEBRUARY 10, 1908.
NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS.
To be SOLD by PUBLIC VENDUE.
On Monday the third of January inst. at Col. Westcott's at the Forks of Little Egg-Harbour,
The Schooner FORTUNE, with her tackle, apparel and furniture, per inventory. Also her CARGO, consisting of about three hundred barrels of flour, a quantity of . Indian corn, and a valuable young Negro fellow.
By order of the Court of Admiralty of New-Jersey,1 JOSEPH POTTS, Marshal.
TO BE SOLD.
At the Forks of Little Egg-harbour River, in Gloucester County, State of New-Jersey,
The premises whereon the subscriber now lives, with all the buildings and improvements thereon, to wit: A saw- mill and grist-mill, both remarkable for going fast and supplied with a never-failing stream of water, the mills within one mile and a quarter of a landing, to which vessels of seventy or eighty tons burthen can come, skows carrying seven or eight thousand feet of boards go loaded from the mill; there is a sufficient quantity of pine and cedar timber to supply the saw-mill for a great number of years, and also a great quantity of cedar timber fit for rails near the river side, which may be easily exported to those parts of the country where they will sell to great advantage; there is also on the premises, a dwelling house that will accommodate a large family, a barn, stables, and
1 For an account of the establishment of the Court of Admiralty by the State government, see New Jersey Archives, 2d Series, 1: 300. They were established in the several colonies, by royal orders, in 1761 .- N. J. Archives, 1st Series, 9: 620-621. The judges heid office merely during the pleasure of the king, and were dependent on fees for their compen- sation. See ibid., 323-326, note.
2
NEW JERSEY IN THE REVOLUTION. [1779
out-houses, also a number of houses for workmen and tradesmen, a smiths shop, wet and dry goods stores and indeed every building necessary and convenient for carry- ing on business and trade extensively, for which the situa- tion of the place is exceedingly well calculated both by nature and improvement. Any person inclining to pur- chase, may be more particularly informed by applying to the subscriber on the premises.
ELIJAH CLARK.1
-The Pennsylvania Packet, January 2, 1779.
TRENTON, JANUARY 6
By intelligence from New York we learn, that 20 sail of British vessels, bound to the West Indies, fell down to the Hook, and put to sea about the time the late heavy snow storm came on, during which 14 of them were either drove on shore or foundered at sea.
+ § + The piece signed The impartial American, will be in our next.
THE inconvenience attending the usual mode of taking in or collecting subscriptions for a News-Paper especially in times of publick commotion like the present, have in- duced the Publisher of the NEW JERSEY GAZETTE, upon consideration, to alter the plan upon which he proposed to proceed the ensuing year when the advertisement in number 51 and 52 was given to the publick2. To avoid the
1 Elijah Clark was a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, held in May, June and August, 1775, being one of the Representatives from the county of Gloucester. He was also a member of the convention sitting in Burlington, Trenton and New Brunswick, June to August, 1776. Previous to November 6, 1777, he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Glou- cester militia, resigning his military position to become a member of the Assembly. He married Jane Lardner, a member of the Philadelphia family of that name, and died December 9, 1795. Elijah Clark was a son of Thomas Clark, a settler at Clark's Landing, where the family were among the most conspicuous of the plantation owners of South Jersey.
F. B. L.
2 See New Jersey Archives, 2d Series, 2: 553, 589.
3
NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS.
1779]
necessity of opening accounts against the individual sub- scribers, and the difficulties attending the settlement of numerous arrearages of small sums, he means to pursue the following plan and easy expedient, which will be more certain and cheap to his kind Customers and less em- barrassing to himself.
Every Gentleman who will become a subscriber for twelve papers shall receive two more for his trouble, and so in proportion for a greater number.
The subscription-money to be paid to the Publisher by the persons engaging for the papers at or before the ex- piration of each quarter; and, to enable those to be punc- tual in making their remittances, the individuals who compose each packet are expected to pay by quarterly advances.
The several persons who become Subscribers to the Pub- lisher, will find a proper mode of keeping accounts with those whom they engage for, exemplified in the accounts for the preceding year, which will shortly be sent with the several packets.
The Publisher will be obliged to the several Gentlemen who collected subscriptions for him the preceding year to continue their kind offices for the ensuing on the plan now proposed.
If this mode can be carried into practice, the Publisher agrees to lower the price of the Gazette to a Dollar and a Half by the quarter.
It is hoped the above will meet the approbation of the Publick as being more advantageous in every respect than the other plan of publication. By this means the Paper may be carried on without loss, and the state served by a repository of Intelligence and useful Knowledge highly interesting to all.
As it is of importance to know what preparation ought to be made, and the number of papers which will probably be wanted, it is earnestly requested that all practicable
4
NEW JERSEY IN THE REVOLUTION.
[1779
dispatch may be used in sending in subscriptions agreeably to the above Plan.
The Publisher returns his acknowledgments to the Pub- lick for their great encouragement hitherto given, in this arduous undertaking; and he flatters himself that, with their further assistance, the Plan which he now wishes to prosecute can be readily carried into execution, which, as it will take less time, will enable him to bestow more pains in collecting the most interesting and entertaining Matter for the benefit and amusement of his Readers.
ISAAC COLLINS.
GENTLEMEN who are desirous of compleating the first Volume of the New Jersey Gazette, may be supplied at the Printing Office, in Trenton, with most of the numbers at one Shilling and Three-pence each.1
Timothy Brush, Junior.
Has for SALE at his STORE near the Baptist Meeting- house in Hopewell, the following articles,
Good bohea tea, sugar, alspice, nutmegs, pepper, ginger, indigo, copperas, rosin, brimstone, redwood, allum, chalk, paper, ink-powder, ivory combs, crooked and coarse ditto, pins and needles, scissors, snuffers, razors, Dutch and English almanacks, primers, hob nails, 6d ditto, iron pots, Philadelphia earthen ware, leaf tobacco, plug, pigtail and paper ditto, snuff by the ounce, bottle, pound, dozen or hundred weight, and several other articles.
N. B. He intends to keep a constant supply of the above mentioned articles, as reasonable as the times will admit, for cash or country produce.
Twenty Dollars Reward.
RAN AWAY on the 25th of December last, from the sub- scriber in Bordentown, a Dutch servant LAD, named Henry
1 These were war prices.
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1779]
Heinhaugen : Had on a scarlet coat and crimson waist- coat, leather breeches, yarn stockings, and very indifferent pair of shoes. Whoever secures him in any gaol of this State, shall receive the above reward, and reasonable charges if brought home.
wm GAMBLE
Bordentown, Jan. 5, 1779.
TO BE SOLD, By
G. DUYCKINCK,
at Morristown, New Jersey, DRUGS and MEDICINES, a compleat assortment, viz.
RHUBARB
Oils
Jesuit bark
Powders
Jalap
Roots
Opium
Refines
Aloes Borax
Ointments
Salts
Pills
Manna
Carraway and Anniseed
Antimonial preparations Mercurial ditto
Pink root Mercurial or itch ointment.
Quicksilver
Tartar emetic
PATENT MEDICINES
Aquas
Anderson's pills
Camphor
Bateman's drops
Spanish flies Calomel Cochineal
Balsam of health
Daffy's elixir
Saffron
Francis' female elixir
Castor
Essence of Burgamont
Senna
Ambergrease
Ising glass
Lavender
Sago
Lemons
Magnesia alba
Verlerin
Balsams
Waterdock
Causticks
Elixir Bordana
Conserves
Godfrey's Cordial
Essences Extracts
James's fever powder
Electuaries Elixirs
King's honey water
Locker's pills
Keyfer's pills
Fryer's balsam
Tincture of Golden Rod
5
NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS.
Jesuits drops
Tinctures Spirits Emplastrums Gums
Hooper's pills
Liquid shell
Tartars
6
NEW JERSEY IN THE REVOLUTION.
[1779
# Painters, Limners and Dyers Colours.
White lead
Umber
Red lead
White vitriol
Yellow oker .
Lintseed oil and varnish
Spanish brown
Madder and fustic
Indian red and litharge /
Annetto
Dutch pink
Logwood
Vermilion and Drop lake
Nutgalls of Aleppo
Prussian blue
Tartar
Smelter and Verdegrease
Press papers and allums
¿ Window glass of different sizes, viz., Best London and Bristol crown, 13 by 11, 14 by 12, 15 by 11, 15 by 13, 16 by 10, 20 by 14, 18 by 13, 15 by 18, 21 by 18, 211/2 by 181/2, 251/2 by 1912, 20 by 16, and 17 by 13.
Flint glass ware, viz., Decanters sorted, gallons, half-gallons, quarts, pints and half-pints, wine, cyder and beer glasses, case bottles, doctors specia bottles, &c. &c. China dishes sorted of different patterns and sizes ; japanned wares, servers, waiters, trays and bread-baskets; ma- hogany wares, servers, waiters, trays, tea-boxes, and cruet stands ; a few large looking glasses ; a variety of pictures, maps and paper hangings ; watch trinkets, chains, seals, &c., gilt, silvered and common; jewellers brilliants, stones, ear ring drops and tops, button, buckle and ring stones, garnets, cyphers, &c. &c.
¿ Hat linings ; variety of brass double and single branches ; painted table cloths, hair or matt cloths.
Agroll, Turkey oil stones, grain tin, bismuth, spelter, pummice stone, sandives, crocus martis, aqua fortis, aqua regis, allum ; steel snuffers, snuff-boxes, pewter ink chest, steel pencil cases, thimbles, brass flour and pepper boxes ; burning, reading and sighted glasses ; barbers pinching tongs, shaving powder ; brass mortars and pestels; variety of sleeve buttons ; gold scales, &c. &c. Teeth instruments, crooked scissors, probes, forceps, lancets and lancet cases, glister pipes, spring lancets, steel trusses single and double with foxed pad and bandages.
N. B. Those marked thus # are only sold by way of barter, for any kind of produce for family use.1
Sixty Dollars Reward.
ON the night of the 30th of December last, the house of the subscriber, living at Trenton ferry, was broke open and robbed of ten pounds in hard cash, viz. two guineas, twenty shillings in coppers, and the remainder in small silver, and a sum of continental money unknown; a new beaver hat, men and women's wearing apparel, a quantity of bedding and many other valuable articles. Whoever apprehends the thief, with the money and other articles,
1 Also in The New York Journal and the General Advertiser, Number 1811, February 8, 1779.
7
NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS.
1779]
shall have the above reward, and all reasonable charges paid by me.
James Harkness.
January 5, 1779.
All persons who have any certificates for transporting baggage, forage or wood belonging to the militia, for the state of New Jersey, since the 2d of March, 1778, and under the command of Major General Dickinson,1 or any other commanding officer belonging to the militia, they are hereby desired to bring them to the subscriber, properly authenticated by the commanding officer whom they were under for payment; as it is the Quarter Master General's orders that the subscriber should pay them off .- There- fore the subscriber will attend at Mr. Jonathan Rich- mond's, in Trenton, the 11th, 12th, and 13th of January ; the 15th and 16th at Mr. John Dunham's in Piscataway ; the 19th, 20th and 21st at Morristown; the 26th and 27th at Batsto; the 4th, 5th and 6th of February next at Free- hold Courthouse.
Hugh Runyan,2 D. Q. M. G.
Bristol, January 1, 1779.
1 For sketches of General Dickinson, see New Jersey Archives, 2d Series, 1: 35, 70.
2 Hugh Runyan was doubtless a son or a grandson of either John Runyan or Thomas Runyan, who were among the grantees named in a deed from the West Jersey Society, March 18, 1698-99, to the people of Maidenhead, for a tract of one hundred acres at the falls of the Delaware, to be used for a meeting-house, burying ground and schoolhouse .- N. J. Archives, XXI., 517-518. Hugh Runyan lived at. Lamberton. now a part of the city of Trenton. He was one of the subscribers, in 1769, toward the support of the Presbyterian church in Trenton. "He built one of the few good houses now (1859) standing in Lamberton, lately of the estate of John E. Smith, prob- ably included in fifty acres in Nottingham township, which Runyan con- veyed to Elijah Bond in 1777. I have seen a deed of 1799, in which he conveyed land to his son, Daniel C. Runyan, of Nottingham."-Hist. Pres. Church in Trenton, by John Hall, D.D., New York, 1859, 230, 258. Daniel Coxe, of Trenton, the last of the line, having joined the British at the beginning of the Revolution, his property was confiscated, and on May 4, 1779, John Butler and Joseph Borden, Jr., the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates for Burlington county, sold to Hugh Runyan a planta- tion called the Ferry tract and Dugless tract, containing 496 acres, by John Watson's survey. Three days later Hugh Runyan, of Nottingham
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