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1
SKETCH
OF THE
EARLY HISTORY
OF
1 CAPE MAY COUNTY,
TO ACCOMPANY THE
Geological Report of the State of Het Hersen
FOR SAID COUNTY.
BY MAURICE BEESLEY, M. D.
TRENTON : PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE TRUE AMERICAN. 1857.
C
Nº
149
Y
DURATE.
S.ALOFSEN,
1
SKETCH
OF THE /
EARLY HISTORY
OF
CAPE MAY COUNTY,
TO ACCOMPANY THE
Geological Report of the State of New Jersey
FOR SAID COUNTY.
BY MAURICE BEESLEY, M. D.
TRENTON : PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE TRUE AMERICAN.
1857.
B.A
BINDING NUMBER OF 1900. )
2564
SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF CAPE MAY.
BY MAURICE BEESLEY, M. D.
THE difficulties to be encountered in making a historical sketch of the County of Cape May, are perhaps as great, if not greater, than will be found in any other county of our State. Isolated as it was in early times from the upper districts of the Province, and with a sparse population, we find no material to consult, except a meagre court record; hence the inquirer is compelled to seek from musty manuscripts and books in other places, a goodly portion of the little that has escaped oblivion, in the vista of years gone by, and that little must necessarily be made up of scraps and fragments which owe their interest, if any they have, more to their intrinsic worth, than to the skill bestowed upon their arrangement.
Order cannot come out of chaos ; and any attempt to make a con- nected history, with the resources at hand, would end in disappoint- ment. Being partially surrounded by water, without a roadstead or harbor to invite the hardy pioneers who first visited the Delaware, to sojourn and rest upon her shores, she was passed by to more inviting regions, on its waters above, where ships could find refuge from wind's and storms ; and man, in his inherent thirst for dominion and power, could secure the virgin soil of the country, in extent
160
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
and proportions, and upon terms so inconsiderable, as to fill up the full measure of his desires, and gratify his ambitious and venture- some propensities.
After the most careful investigation and patient research in the State and County archives, and the early as well as the more recent chronicles of our past history, we find no data to prove that Cape May was positively inhabited until the year 1685, when Caleb Carman was appointed, by the Legislature, a justice of the peace, and Jona- than Pine, constable .*
These were independent appointments, as Cape May was not under the jurisdiction of the Salem Tenth. This simple fact, how- ever, that the appointment of a justice and constable for the place, was necessary, goes to prove that there were inhabitants here at this time ; yet whence they came, in what number, or how long they had sojourned, are inquiries that will most probably ever remain in mystery and doubt. Fenwick made his entry into "New Salem," in 1675, and soon after extinguished the Indian title from the Dela- ware to Prince Maurice River .; He made no claim and exercised no dominion over Cape May ; and we have nothing to show at the time of his arrival, that the country from Salem to the sea-shore was other than one primeval and unbroken forest, with ample na- tural productions by sea and land, to make it the happy home of the red man, where he could roam, free and unmolested, in the enjoyment of privileges and blessings, which the strong arm of destiny soon usurped and converted to ulterior purposes.
Gordon, in his history of New Jersey, says : "Emigrants from New Haven settled on the left shores of the Delaware so early as 1640, some of whose descendants may probably be found in Salem, Cum- berland, and Cape May counties."
As far as regards Cape May, we have no tradition of any such settlement. History tells us that Hudson, in the Half-Moon, en- tered the Delaware Bay, the 28th August, 1609, "but finding the
* Leaming & Spicer's collection.
+ Johnson's Salem, p. 13.
161
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY,
water shoal, and the channel impeded by bars of sand, he did not venture to explore it."
On the 5th of May, 1630, "a purchase of sixteen miles square, was made at Cape May, for Samuel Godyn and Samuel Bloemart, of nine resident Chiefs. This tract was purchased by Peter Heyser, Skipper of the ship Whale, and Giles Coster, commissary. It was probably the first purchase of the natives within the limits of New Jersey ; at least it is the first upon record, and was made for and in behalf of the Dutch West India Company."*
The renowned Capt. Cornelius Jacobese Mey, visited our shores, and explored Delaware Bay in 1623, and to him the County of Cape May is indebted for a name. He built Fort Nassau, at Timber Creek, the site of which is now unknown.t
David Pieterson de Vries was the next pioneer to the New World. He entered Delaware Bay in 1631, and first landed at Hoorekill, near Cape Henlopen. He left a colony there; but on his re- turn the succeeding year, found they had been massacred by the savages. "Finding the whale fishery unsuccessful, he hastened his departure, and, with the other colonists, proceeded to Holland by the way of Fort Amsterdam," (New York). Thus, says Gordon, " at the expiration of twenty years from the discovery of the Delaware by Hudson, not a single European remained upon its shores." De Vries, in his journal, says, " March 29th, 1633, found that our peo- ple has caught seven whales ; we could have done more if we had good harpoons, for they had struck seventeen fish and only saved seven."
" An immense flight of wild pigeons in April, obscuring the sky. The 14th, sailed over to Cape May, where the coast trended E. N. E. and S. W. Came at evening to the mouth of Egg Harbor; found between Cape May and Egg Harbor a slight sand beach, full of small, low sand hills. Egg Harbor is a little river or kill, and in- side the land is broken, and within the bay are several small is- * Mulford's N. J. p. 58 ; & Gordon. + Mickle's Reminiscenees. 11
162
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
lands. Somewhere further up, in the same direction, is a beautiful high wood." This was probably Somer's or Beesley's Point, clothed in its primitive growth of timber.
About 1641, Cape May was again purchased by Swedish agents, a short time before the arrival of the Swedish governor, Printz, at Tinicum. This conveyance included all lands from Cape May to Narriticon, or Raccoon Creek .*
Campanius, a Swedish minister, who resided in New Sweden, on the banks of the Delaware, from the year 1642 to 48, says, page 46, " Cape May lies in latitude 38° 30'. To the south of it, there are three sand banks, parallel to each other, and it is not safe to sail between them. The safest course is to steer between them and Cape May, between Cape May and Cape Henlopen." But for this account, these sand-banks could only have existed in the imagina- tion, as there have been none there within the memory of man.
Johnson in his sketch of Salem, says: "The Baptist church at Cape May took its origin from a vessel which put in there from England, in 1675." He evidently obtained this from "Benedict's History of the Baptists," who makes the same assertion, viz : "The founda- tion of this church was laid in the year 1675, when a company of emigrants arrived from England, some of whom settled at Cape May. Amongst these were two Baptists, George Taylor and Philip Hill."
It is most likely, as Mr. Benedict gives us no references for the above statements, that an error has been made in the date, as no record of the church here is to be found prior to 1711; and, as before stated, no fact to prove that our county was inhabited until 1685.
The first will and inventory on file in the Secretary's office, at Trenton, from Cape May, is that of John Story, dated the 28th of the ninth month, 1687. He was a Friend, and left his personal estate, amounting to £110, to his wife, having no heirs. The next
* Mickle, p. 83.
--
163
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
were those of Abraham Weston, November 24th, 1687, and John Briggs, in 1690. In April, May, and June, 1691, John Worlidge and John Budd, from Burlington, came down the bay in a vessel,* and laid a number of proprietary rights, commencing at Cohansey, and so on to Cape May. They set off the larger proportion of this county, consisting of 95,000 acres, to Dr. Daniel Coxe, of London, who had large proprietary rights in West Jersey. This was the first actual proprietary survey made in the county. In the copy of the ori- ginal draft of these surveys, and of the county of Cape May, made by David Jameison, in 1713, from another made by Lewis Morris, in 1706, (which draft is now in my possession, and was presented by William Griffith, Esq., of Burlington, to Thomas Beesley, of Cape May, in 1812,) Egg Island, near the mouth of Maurice River, is laid off to Thomas Budd, for three hundred acres. Since this survey was made, the attrition of the waters has destroyed almost every vestige of it-scarcely enough remaining to mark the spot of its former magnitude. Upon this map likewise is laid down Cape May Town, at Town Bank on the Bay shore, the residence of the whalers, consisting of a number of dwellings ; and a short distance above it we find Dr. Coxe's Hall, with a spire, on Coxehall Creek, a name yet retained by the inhabitants. As no other build- ings or improvements are noted upon this map, than those above mentioned, it is to be presumed there were but few, if any, existing except them, at this day. The only attraction then was the whale fishery ; and the small town of fifteen or twenty houses marked upon this map, upon the shore of Town Bank in close contiguity, would lead us to infer that those adventurous spirits, who came for that purpose, preferred in the way of their profession to be near each other, and to make common stock in their operations of harpoon- ing, in which, according to Thomas and others, they seemed to be eminently successful.
"Dr. Coxe, in his capacity as proprietor, continued to be ac-
* J. Townsend's Manuscript.
164
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
tively concerned in the management of business anterior to the surrender ; extensive purchases of land were made by him of the natives, and these agreements were assented to by the Council of Proprietors. These several purchases of the natives were made and dated, respectively, on the 30th March, 30th April, and 16th May, 1688. They were laid in the southern part of the province, including part of the present counties of Cumberland and Cape May. Either disheartened by the difficulties he had experienced, or tempted by an offer that would cover the disbursements he had made, Coxe resolved upon a sale of the whole of his interest in this province. He accordingly made an agreement, in the year 1691, with a body composed of forty-eight persons, designated by the name of the ' West Jersey Society.' To this company, on the 20th January, 1692, the whole of the claim of Dr. Coxe, both as to government and property, was conveyed, he receiving therefor the sum of £9000."* This sale opened a new era to the people of Cape May. As no land titles had been obtained under the old regime of the proprietors, except five conveyances from George Taylor, t as agent for Dr. Coxe, the West Jersey Society became a medium through which they could select and locate the choice of the lands, at prices corresponding with the means and wishes of the purchaser.
The society, through their agents appointed in the county, con- tinued to make sales of land during a period of sixty-four years of their having possession ; at the end of which time, in 1756, having conveyed a large proportion of their interest, they sold the balance to Jacob Spicer the second, for £300. The title is now nearly extinct.
It has been handed down, that Spicer obtained the grant for the proprietary right in Cape May, of Dr. Johnson, agent of the So- ciety at Perth Amboy, at a time when the influence of the wine bottle had usurped the place of reason, or he could not have ob- tained it for so inconsiderable a sum as three hundred pounds ; and
* Mulford, 264, 6.
+ Cape May Records.
165
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
that the Doctor, sensible he had betrayed the trust reposed in him, left the society at his death a thousand pounds as a salvo.
As history throws no light on the original occupiers of the soil, conjecture only can be consulted on the subject. It would seem probable, in as much as many of the old Swedish names, as recorded in Campanius, from Rudman, are still to be found in Cumberland and Cape May, that some of the veritable Swedes of Tinicum or Christiana might have strayed, or have been driven to our shores. When the Dutch governor, Stuyvesant, ascended the Delaware in 1654, with his seven ships and seven hundred men, and subjected the Swedes to his dominion, it would be easy to imagine, in their mortification and chagrin at a defeat so bloodless and unexpected, that many of them should fly from the arbitrary sway of their rulers, and seek an asylum where they could be free to act for them- selves, without restraint or coercion from the stubbornness of myn- heer, whose victory, though easily obtained, was permanent, as the provincial power of New Sweden had perished for ever.
Master Evelin's letter in Plantagenet's New Albion,* dated 1648, says : " I thought good to write unto you my knowledge, and first to describe to you the north side of Delaware unto Hudson's River, in Sir Edmund's patent called New Albion, which lieth between New England and Maryland, and that ocean sea. I take it to be about 160 miles. I find some broken land, isles and inlets, and many small isles at Eg Bay ; but going to Delaware Bay by Cape May, which is twenty-four miles at most, and is, I understand, very well set out and printed in Captain Powell's map of New England, done as is told me by a draft I gave to Mr. Daniel, the plotmaster, which he Edmund saith you have at home: on that north side (of Cape May) about five miles within is a port or rode for any ships, called the Nook, and within liveth the king of Kechemeches, having, as I suppose, about fifty men. I do account all these Indians to be eight hundred, and are in several factions and war against the Sar-
* Philadelphia Library.
166
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
quehanncoks, and are all extreame fearful of a gun, naked and un - armed against our shot, swords and pikes. I had some bickering with some of them, and they are of so little esteem that I durst with fifteen men sit down or trade in despite of them. I saw there an infinite quantity of bustards, swans, geese and fowl, covering the shores, as within the like multitude of pigeons and store of turkeys, of which I tried one to weigh forty and six pounds. There is much variety and plenty of delicate fresh and sea fish and shell- fish, and whales and grampus, elks, deere that bring three young at a time."
He further says, " Twelve hundred Indians under the Raritan kings, on the south side next to Hudson's River, and those come down to the ocean about Little Eg Bay, and Sandy Barnegate, and about the South Cape two small Kings of forty men a piece called Tirans and Tiascons."
It would seem from the above description given by Master Eve- lin, that he actually visited this part of the country at that early day, and made the circuit of Cape May.
The name of Egg Bay has been perpetuated with but little vari- ation, and the many small isles that he speaks of, yet stand there in testimony of his having seen them as stated, in propria persona.
Now where it was the king of Kechemeches with his fifty men held forth, it would be difficult to ascertain : it might have been at Town Bank, or Fishing Creek, or further up the cove or "nook," as he was pleased to call it. Master Evelin must certainly have the credit of being the first white man that explored the interior, as far as the seaboard, and his name should be perpetuated as the king of pioneers. His account of the great abundance and variety of fowl and fish seems within the range of probability, and the story of the turkey that weighed forty-six pounds, would have less of the " couleur de rose" were it not qualified in the same para- graph, with "deere that bring forth three young at a time." And what a sight it must have been to see the woods and plains teeming
167
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
with wild animals, the shores and waters with fowl in every variety, where they had existed unharmed and unmolested through an un- known period of years ; and the magnificent forest, the stately and towering cedar swamp, untouched by the axe of the despoiler, all reveling in the beauties of Nature in her pristine state, the reali- ties of which the imagination, only, can convey an impression, or give a foretaste of the charms and novelties of those primeval times.
Gabriel Thomas, in his history of West Jersey in 1698, gives us the following particulars, viz : " Prince Maurice River is where the Swedes used to kill the geese in great numbers for their feathers (only), leaving their carcasses behind them. Cohansey River, by which they send great store of cedar to Philadelphia city. Great Egg Harbor (up which a ship of two or three hundred tons may sail), which runs by the back part of the country into the main sea ; I call it back, because the first improvements made by the Christians was Delaware river-side. This place is noted for good store of corn, horses, cows, sheep, hogs; the lands thereabouts being much im- proved and built upon. Little Egg Harbor Creek, which takes their names from the great abundance of Eggs which the swans, geese, ducks, and other wild fowls of those rivers lay thereabouts. The commodities of Cape May County are oyl and whalebone, of which they make prodigious quantities every year ; having mightily ad- vanced that great fishery, taking great numbers of whales yearly. This county, for the general part of it, is extraordinary good and proper for the raising of all sorts of cattell, very plentiful here, as cows, horses, sheep, and hogs, &c. Likewise, it is well stored with fruits which make very good and pleasant liquors, such as neigh- bouring country before mentioned affords."
Oldmixon, 1708, says : " The tract of land between this (Cape May) and Little Egg Harbor, which divides East and West New Jersey, goes by the name of Cape May County. Here are several stragling houses on this neck of land, the chief of which is Cox's
168
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Hall ; but there's yet no Town. Most of the inhabitants are fisher- men, there being a whalery at the mouth of the Bay, on this as well as the opposite shore."
Cape May County, by an Act of Assembly on the 12th day of November, 1692, was instituted as follows, viz: "Whereas, this Province hath formerly been divided into three counties for the better regulation thereof ; and whereas Cape May (being a place well situated for trade) begins to increase to a considerable number of families; and there being no greater encouragement to the settle- ment of a place than that there be established therein an order by government, and justice duly administered : Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council, and Representatives in this present As- sembly met and assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from henceforth Cape May shall be, and is hereby appointed a County, the bounds whereof to begin at the utmost flowing of the tide in Prince Maurice River, being about twenty miles from the mouth of said river, and then by a line running easterly to the most northerly point of Great Egg Harbor, and from thence southerly along by the sea to the point of Cape May ; thence around Cape May, and up Maurice River to the first point mentioned ; and that there be nominated and appointed such and so many justices and other officers, as at present may be necessary for keeping the peace, and trying of small causes under forty shillings. In which circum- stance the same county shall remain until it shall appear they are capable of being erected into a County Court; and in case of any action, whether civil or criminal, the same to be heard and deter- mined at the quarterly sessions in Salem County, with liberty for the Justices of the County of Cape May, in conjunction with the Justices of Salem County, in every such action in judgment to sit, and with them to determine the same."
The time and place of holding the county elections were likewise directed, and the number of representatives that each was entitled to : Burlington to have 20, Gloucester 20, Salem 10, and Cape
169
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
May 5 members. Cape May continued to have five members until the time of the surrender in 1702, except in the year 1697, when she was reduced to one representative. No record, however, of the names of the members previous to 1702 has come to light.
Act of Oct. 3d, 1693: " Whereas it has been found expedient to erect Cape May into a County, the bounds whereof at the last ses- sion of this Assembly have been ascertained; and conceiving it also reasonable the inhabitants thereof shall partake of what privilidges (under their circumstances) they are capable of, with the rest of the counties in this Province, and having (upon enquiry) received satis- faction that there is a sufficient number of inhabitants within the said county to keep and hold a County Court, in smaller matters relating to civil causes : Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, and Representatives in Assembly met and assembled, and by au- thority thereof, that the inhabitants of the County of Cape May shall and may keep and hold four county courts yearly, viz : on the third Tuesday of December, 3d March, 3d June, and 3d of September ; all which courts the Justices commissioned, and to be commissioned in the said county, shall and may hear and try, according to law, all civil actions within the said county under the sum of £20." All above the sum of £20 were still to be tried at Salem.
The same Assembly passed the following, viz :
" Whereas the whaling in Delaware Bay has been in so great & measure invaded by strangers and foreigners, that the greatest part of oyl and bone received and got by that employ, hath been exported out of the Province to the great detriment thereof : Be it enacted, that any one killing a whale or whales in Delaware Bay, or on its shores, to pay the value of 71% of the oyl to the governor of the Province."
In 1697 all restriction was removed from the courts in civil cases, and the same immunities and privileges were granted as were en- joyed by the courts within the several counties of the Province.
In the same year, May 12, 1697, " An Act for a road to and from Cape May" was passed.
170
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
" Whereas the inhabitants of Cape May County do represent themselves as under extreme hardship for want of a road from Cape May, through their county to Cohansey, in order to their repair to Burlington to attend the public service; Be it enacted by the Governor, &c., that George Taylor and John Crafford, be commis- sioners appointed to lay out a road from Cape May the most conve- nient to lead to Burlington, between this and the 10th day of Sep- tember next."
It was ordered likewise that the expense be borne by the inhabit- ants of Cape May until such time as those lands through which the road goes are settled. This road, so important to the convenience and travel of the people of the county, was not finished till 1707. Prior to this the county was completely isolated from the upper districts of the State by the extensive bed of cedar swamps and marshes stretching from the head-waters of Cedar Swamp Creek to the head-waters of Dennis Creek, and no communication could have been held with Cohansey or Burlington except by the waters of the Delaware, or by horse-paths through the swamps that consti- tuted the barrier.
By the Act of the 21st January, 1710,* the county of Cape May was reduced to its present bounds, viz : "Beginning at the mouth of a small creek on the west side of Stipson's Island, called Jecak's Creek; thence up the same as high as the tide floweth; thence along the bounds of Salem County to the southernmost main branch of Great Egg Harbor River ; thence down the said river to the sea ; thence along the sea-coast to Delaware Bay, and so up the said Bay to the place of beginning."
It seems the inhabitants on the western side of Maurice River, the Cape May boundary, were without any legal control until 1707,1 when an act was passed annexing the inhabitants between the river Tweed, now Back Creek (being the lower bounds of Salem County), and the bounds of Cape May County to Salem County,
* Patterson's Laws.
Smith's N. J.
171
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
putting them under its jurisdiction. The act of 1710 extends Salem County, and curtails Cape May County, to Stipson's Island, or West Creek.
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