USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Celebration of the bi-centennial anniversary of the New Jersey legislatue, 1683-1883 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
In defending the Maryland laws in regard to the protection of " The true Christian religion." Mr. Davis, in his Day Star of Freedom says :
" Toleration in its widest sense or in the most strictly logical acceptation, exists only in a State founded upon naked atheism."
15
NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE.
To this assertion, the citizens of New Jersey can well take exception.
The first settlers of this State granted unrestricted toleration, and no one acquainted with their history will assert that they favored atheism, or that the result of their toleration has tended to the spread of atheism, more than in other States where tolera- tion was not as unrestricted as in New Jersey.
In Pennsylvania the act relating to toleration was enacted December 1682, over seventeen years after the principle had been established in East Jersey, and then it was not so unre- stricted. It declared that-
" No person now or at anytime hereafter living in this prov- ince, who shall confess and acknowledge Almighty God to be the Creator, upholder and ruler of the world, and that professeth him or herself obliged in consciense to live peaceably and justly under the civil government, shall in anywise be molested or prejudiced for his or her conscientious persuasion or practice."
And in regard to persons holding office, it was enacted-
" That all officers and persons commissionated and employed in the service of the government of this province, and all mem- bers and deputies elected to serve in the assembly thereof, and all that have a right to elect such deputies, shall be such as pro- fess and declare they believe in Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and Savior of the world." (Hazard's Annals, pages 620-1)
This was establishing a government under which only what have been termed "orthodox christians" could hold office or vote for law-makers.
The Quakers in West Jersey were more liberal than their brethren in Pennsylvania, for their earliest declaration on this subject, dated November, 1681, was-
"That liberty of conscience in matters of faith and worship towards God, shall be granted to all people within the province aforesaid, who shall live peaceably and quietly therein; and that none of the free people of said province shall be rendered uncapable of office in respect of their faith and worship." (Leam- ing and Spicer, page 425.)
It is worthy of note that the declaration of principle in regard to toleration as contained in Berkley and Carteret's Concessions, and in the Monmouth Patent in 1665, and as guaranteed in West Jersey in 1681, was substantially adopted by our National Congress over a hundred years later in one of the earliest acts passed by that body. In the celebrated " Ordinance for the gov- ernment of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio," enacted 1787, it was ordained and declared that-
" No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of wor- ship or religious sentiments in said territory."
Thus the unequivocal principle of toleration first adopted by
16
BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF
the early settlers of New Jersey, was eventually adopted by " the United States in Congress assembled," and to-day is a funda- mental principle upon which is based the government of this great nation.
Believers in the Roman Catholic faith were rarely found among our early settlers, and we naturally feel an interest in endeavoring to ascertain what course would be pursued with them by a people so tolerant towards other sects as were the first settlers of our State, especially as Catholics at that time were charged with " mixing religion and politics " (to use a modern phrase,) by desiring to overturn the Protestant supremacy in England.
It is gratifying to find that among our first settlers there was a disposition to treat Catholics with the same toleration shown to other sects. One of the first members of that faith to locate in New Jersey was William Douglass. He was elected from Bergen as a member of the Assembly, which met June 2d, 1680. He refused, at first, to take the usual oath of allegiance, stating that he was a Roman Catholic; but being informed that it was not the oath of supremacy, he offered to take it, and was admit- ted. It is true that a week or so subsequent to his admission, the following action was taken-
" The deputies finding occasion to purge themselves of such a member as cannot be allowed by law, namely, William Doug- lass, the aforesaid member upon examination, owning himself to be a Roman Catholic, we have proceeded so to do and further desire your honor to issue out your warrant to the town of Ber- gen for a new choice for one to supply his place."
It would seem to be the case that after the deputies had ad- mitted Mr. Douglas-, their attention had been called to the laws of England in regard to oaths required of persons taking office, the nature and forms of which may be seen by reference to the printed "Minutes of the Governor and Council, 1682-1703," pages 243-5, which oaths Mr. Douglass would not take, as to do so would be an actual renunciation and denunciation of the Catholic faith. Though Mr. Douglass was debarred by English laws from sitting as a member because of his faith, yet the significant facts remain that a constituency of first settlers of New Jersey elected a Roman Catholic, knowing him to be such, to the Legislature, and that the members of the Assembly, knowing him to be a Catholic, admitted him without hesitation. (N. J. Archives, vol. 1, pages 305-312.)
If Rhode Island presents Roger Williams, and Maryland pre- sents Cecil Calvert, to be honored by the American people because of their course in regard to toleration ; if Pennsyl- vania holds up its founders for respect because they dealt justly
.
17
NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE.
with the Indians and granted partial toleration, surely Jersey- men may be permitted to honor the first settlers of their own State, who without any parade or boasting, set an example for Penn years before he came to America, and established tolera- tion more unequivocal and unrestricted than in either of the States named.
The declarations in East and West Jersey in regard to free liberty of conscience, are especially noteworthy, because they came from men who had witnessed the evils of intolerance in other places, and very many of them had themselves been vic- tims of persecution for conscience safe. Hence they determined to establish and did establish, local governments where no per- son could be molested on account of his religious belief.
New Jersey appears to have been pre-eminently a refuge from persecution. Among early settlers who had been persecuted in other places were Baptists, Antinomians, Quakers from New England, Scotland and England, and Scotch Presbyterians.
New Englanders never weary of telling us of the sufferings of the Pilgrim Fathers, and every forefathers' day, delight to meet and honor their memory. Rhode Islanders have made the per- secutions and banishments of Roger Williams and his friends familiar to every reader of our country s history. Pennsylva- nians are mindful that the persecutions of William Penn and his fellow Quakers shall not be forgotten. But how seldom are mentioned the persecutions which had been endured by first settlers of East and West Jersey !
NEW JERSEY A REFUGE FROM PERSECUTION.
Among the members of the West Jersey Assembly which met at Burlington two hundred years ago, were several who had been the victims of intolerance in England. Thomas Olive, the speaker of that assembly, and John Woolston, had been im- prisoned in Northampton gaol. Dr. Daniel Wills had been three times in prison for holding quaker meetings at his house. Richard Guy and Richard Hancock had been imprisoned in York Castle. William Peachy had been tried at Bristol and sentenced to banishment for attending " meetings." John Cripps had been sentenced to twelve days imprisonment for not taking off his hat when the Lord Mayor passed into Guildhall. The foregoing were members of the West Jersey Assembly, 1682-3; and very many others of the first settlers there had been simi- larly persecuted. The memory of these men was duly honored at the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Burling- ton, December 6th, 1877, and eloquent tributes paid to them in the oration of the lamented Henry Armitt Brown.
Among the first settlers of East Jersey, were many who had also been the victims of intolerance elsewhere, and brief notices 2
18
BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF
of some of the most prominent among them, will serve to show why it was that they established here a government where dif- ference in religious sentiments should not be considered a crime, and where all peaceable and orderly citizens should be guaranteed free liberty of conscience.
Rev. Obadiah Holmes, one of the twelve Monmouth patentees, in 1639 lived at Salem, Massachusetts, where he was engaged with Lawrence Southwick and Annanias Conklin, ( descendants of both of whom also came to New Jersey,) in the manufacture of glass, probably about the first, if not the first, in that business in this country. Mr. Holmes joined the Baptists, for which he was indicted in 1650. The following is a copy of the record of the Court of proceedings before Governor Bradford. The name of the noted Captain Miles Standish here appears with others :- " At a general court holden at New Plymouth, the second of October, 1650, before William Bradford, gentleman, Governor; Thomas Prince, William Collyare, Captain Miles Standish, Tim- othy Hetherly, William Thomas, John Allen, gentlemen, assist- ants, ( and a house of deputies).
Presentment by the Grand Inquest. October second, 1650.
Wee whose names are here underwritten, being the Grand Inquest, doe present to the court, John Hazell, Mr. Edward Smith and his wife, Obadiah Holmes, Joseph Tory and his wife, and the wife of James Man, William Deuell and his wife, of the town of Rehoboth, for the contining of a meeting upon the Lord's day from house to house, contrary to the order of this Court enacted June 12th, 1650.
THOMAS ROBINSON,- HENRY TOMSON, - etc., to the number of 14."
The following year, July 31st, 1651, Obadiah Holmes and Jolin Clarke were arrested and brought before a court of which the noted Governor Endicott was then president. Both were sentenced to pay a fine of £30, or be publicly whipped. Clarke's fine was paid, but Obadiah Holmes, although abundantly able to pay the fine, refused to do it as he deemed it would be an acknowledginent of error and "he chose rather to suffer than to deny his Lord." He was kept in prison until the September following, when he was severely whipped in public in Boston with a three corded whip thirty lashes. He subsequently removed to Middletown, near Newport, on the island of Rhode Island. From him de- scends numerous families of the name in New Jersey and other states.
Edward Smith and William Deuell or Devill indicted with
19
NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE.
him in 1650, also went to Rhode Island and subsequently aided in establishing the settlements in Monmouth.
John Tilton, another of the twelve Monmouth Patentees, when he first came from England, located at Lynn, Massachusetts. His wife was a Baptist and in December 1642, she was indicted for " Holdinge that the baptism of infants was no ordinance of God." They left Massachusetts with Lady Deborah Moody and other Baptists and settled at Gravesend, Long Island. Here again they were made to suffer for conscience sake. In 1658, he was fined by the Dutch authorities for allowing a Quaker wo- man to stop at his house. In September 1662, he was fined for " Permitting Quakers to quake at his house." In October of the same year himself and wife were summoned before Governor Stuyvesant and Council at New Amsterdam, now New York, charged with having entertained Quakers and frequenting their conventicles. They were condemned and ordered to leave the province before the 20th day of November following, under pain of corporeal punishment. It is supposed that through the efforts of Lady Moody, who had great influence with the Dutch Gover- nor, the sentence was either reversed, or changed to the pay- ment of a fine.
Nicholas Davis, another patentee, is supposed to be the same named as a freeman at Barnstable, Massachusetts, 1643. When the Quakers began preaching their doctrines he joined them and in April, 1659, he was prosecuted for his faith, and in July of the same year he came near becoming a martyr to it as he was sentenced to death with Mary Dyer, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson who were hung in Boston, but he was set at liberty September 14th, 1659, and banished. He went to Newport, R. I., where he lived when the Monmouth Patent was granted.
Mary Dyer, the unfortunate Quaker woman who was sen- tenced to death with Nicholas Davis, was hung in Boston the following year for her zeal in endeavoring to spread her faith. Her son, Henry Dyer, came to Monmouth among the first settlers.
James Hubbard, William Goulding and probably John Bowne, all named among the twelve Monmouth Patentees, had been compelled to leave Massachusetts because of their sympathy with the Baptists.
Samuel Spicer, of Gravesend, L. I., another of the twelve patentees, was a victim of persecution for his Quaker principles by the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam ; his mother also was severely dealt with for the same cause. The Dutch Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, was required to take oath that he would " Maintain the Reformed religion in conformity to the word and the decrees of the Synod of Dordrecht and not to tolerate any other sect." (Thompson's L. I., Vol. 2, p. 293).
20
BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF
For being Quakers or showing sympathy for them, at one time he arrested and imprisoned William Reape, whose name subse- quently appears as one of the twelve Monmouth Patentees, John Tilton and his wife, Edward Wharton, who had previously been imprisoned, and severely whipped in Massachusetts, for his Quakerism, and Joseph Nicholson, John Liddel, Alice Ambrose, Mary Tompkins and Jane Millard, and after keeping them in jail for ten days, the Governor put them in a ship (except Tilton and his wife) and sent them off. The name of William Reape, the patentee, subsequently appears at Newport, R. I., where he was a merchant. He came to Monmouth among the original settlers. Edward Wharton, who had been a victim of intolerance both in Massachusetts and on Long Island, aided in establishing the settlement of Monmouth by buying land, but he finally returned to New England.
CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK'S DESCENDANTS IN NEW JERSEY,
Nathaniel Sylvester, another of the twelve patentees, was a Quaker and principal owner of Shelter Island, near the east end of Long Island. Though he was a patentee and paid for a share of land, he did not himself settle in Monmouth, but it was probably through him that descendants of Cassandra South- wick, celebrated in Whittier's beautiful ballad, came to New Jer- sey. The good Quaker poet, in the ballad, has taken a " poet's license," in changing a name. No such event as that described ever happened to Cassandra Southwick, but it did substantially happen to her daughter, Provided Southwick, who subsequently married Samuel Gaskell, and from Cassandra Southwick and her daughter, Provided Gaskell, the real heroine of the ballad, descend Southwicks and Gaskells or Gaskins, of New Jersey.
Cassandra Southwick was the wife of Lawrence Southwick, who is named with Obadiah Holmes and Annaniah Conklin in connection with establishing glass works at Salem, Mass., 1639. When, about 1656, the Quakers began preaching their doctrines, Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, both then well along in years, became converts and zealous advocates of Quaker princi- ples. For this they were frequently and most cruelly punished and finally banished. They found refuge with Nathaniel Syl- vester, the Monmouth patentee, at Shelter Island. As they were an aged couple, the severity of their punishments un- doubtedly hastened their end, and they died at Shelter Island within three days of each other. His will was dated July 10, 1659, and proven the following year. He left children, Josiah, John, Daniel, Mary, Provided and Delivered. Some of these also suffered severe persecution. Josiah was cruelly punished with his parents and also banished, but he soon returned and subsequently went to England with two other Quakers named
21
NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE.
Samuel Shattock and Nicholas Phelps, to endeavor to obtain some amelioration of the condition of the Quakers in New Eng- land, and they were so successful that they returned with the King's order that thereafter Quakers should not be tried in New England, but must be sent to England for trial. The conse- quence of this was, that after that, Quakers were rarely molested except by vexatious fines. Daniel Southwick, another son of Cassandra, and her two daughters, Mary and Provided, were also severely punished for their adherence to the Quakers. At one time, Mary, who had married a man named Trask, was im- prisoned, and her sister Provided went to visit her, and was asked if she was a Quaker. She answered that she " was one of the called," for which she was punished. At another time, Provided and her brother Daniel were arrested for not attend- ing church ordinances, for which they were fined £10, which they could not or would not pay. She was then about' twenty years old. The proceedings which followed were the founda- tion of Whittier's well-known ballad. On their refusing to pay the fine, the Court issued the following order :
" Whereas, Daniel Southwick and Provided Southwick, son and daughter of Lawrence Southwick, absenting themselves from the public ordinances, have been fined by the Court of Salem, and they pretending they have no estates, and refusing to work, the Court, upon perusal of a law which was made on account of debts, in answer to what should be done for the satis- faction of the fine, resolves that the Treasurers of the several counties shall be empowered to sell said persons to any of the English name in Virginia or Barbadoes to answer said find.
EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary of General Court, Boston."
An attempt to carry out this order was made by Edward Bat- ter, one of the treasures, "to get the booty," as Bishop says in that ancient Quaker work called "New England Judged ;" and he farther adds :
" He sought for a passage to send them to Barbadoes for sale, but none were willing to take or carry them. And a certain master of a ship, to put the thing off, pretended that they would spoil the ship's company. To which Batter replied, "Oh, you need not fear them, for they are poor harmless creatures, and will not hurt anybody." " Will they not so ?" replied the ship master, "and would you make slaves of such harmless crea- tures ?" Thus Batter, maugre his wicked intent, the winter be- ing at hand, sent them home, again to shift for themselves till he could get a convenient opportunity to send them away."
But he seems not to have interferred with them again. Pro- vided Southwick, shortly afterwards, married Samuel Gaskell.
22
BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF
The first of the Gaskell family in America was Edward, who was a shipwright at Salem, Mass., 1639. The name, originally, was Gascoyne, indicating Hugenot origin. It was next called Gas- kins and finally Gaskell. It is given all three ways in New England records, and in an affidavit signed by Provided and her husband, copied in the New England Historic Genealogical Register, Vol. XVII., it is given both Gaskin and Gaskell in the same paper. The change from Gascoyne to Gaskell is hardly so great as that in the name of another New Jersey family of Hu- quenot origin, the Dobbins. This name was, originally, D'Au- bigne, which the English or Americans corrupted to Dawbeens, and finally to Dobbins.
Edward Gaskell had a son Samuel, who married Provided Southwick, Oct. 20, 1662, and the names of the following child- ren have been preserved-
Samuel, born November 11, 1665,
Edward, " October 23, 1667,
Hannah, ", January 2, 1669,
Provided, " April 12, 1672.
In March, 1701, the names of Edward Gaskell and Josiah Southwick appear at Mount Holly as purchasers of the mill there, and from their names, and the names of their children, it is evident they were of Cassandra Southwick's family. In a list of inhabitants of Northampton township, Burlington county, 1709, published in an early volume of proceedings of N. J. His- torical Society, are the following names-
Gaskell: Edward Gaskell, aged 46; Hannah, 33; Joseph, 14; Zerubabel, 11; Provided, 9; Samuel, 6; Hannah, 4; Broad, 3; Jaseph Gaskell, 30; Rebecca, 23; Mary, 3; Jacob, 1.
Southwick: Josiah, 52; Elizabeth, 36; Ruth, 14; Josiah, 11; James, 9; Maham, 1.
The Edward Gaskell named as one of the purchasers of the Mount Holly Mill, 1701, was probably, the son of Pro- vided Southwick Gaskell, the real heroine of the events described in Whittier's ballad, and the Josiah Southwick, a brother's son. A number of the personal friends of the Southwicks in New England had been compelled to seek refuge from persucution in Rhode Island and elsewhere, and finally came to New Jersey, and as Nathaniel Sylvester, with whom their parents found refuge, did not settle on his share of land in Monmouth, he may have transferred his claim to his Quaker friends. Several years later, when the Quakers settled in West Jersey, some of the members of that sect in Monmouth went over and joined them. It is worthy of mention that descendants of Governor Endicott, who is charged in the ballad of Cassandra Southwick with being a party to their persecution, now live in the same county and vicinity. Joseph Endicott, a grandson of the governor, came to Burlington county, 1698, and his descendants and the descend-
23
NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE.
ants of Cassandra Southwick have long been neighbors, and not improbably have intermarried.
William Shattock, an associate patentee of Monmouth, was a friend of the Southwicks in New England ; he was a native of Boston, and for joining the Quakers was cruellv whipped, im- prisoned, and finally banished. He came to Monmouth with the first settlers, and a few years later passed over into Burling- ton with others of his faith. His daughter Hannah married Restore Lippencott, an honored name in the annals of Burling- ton. Richard Lippencott, the father of Restore, and ancestor of the Lippencotts in the United States, was in Boston about the time of the first persecutions of the Baptists and Antinomians, and was so displeased with intolerance there that he returned to England. He subsequently came to Monmouth with the first settlers, and was an associate patentee.
Eliakim Wardell, an associate patentee and original settler of Monmouth, had lived near Hampton, N. H. His wife became an early convert to the Quakers, and both husband and wife were cruelly whipped and otherwise punished. They sought refuge, probably first in Rhode Island, and finally in Mon- mouth.
George Allen, Peter Gauntt and Richard Kirby, of Sandwich, Mass., and William Gifford, ancestors of numerous families of the respective names in New Jersey, suffered severely by fines and vexatious suits for their adherence to the Quaker faith. George Allen, William Gifford and the sons of Peter Gauntt were among the original purchasers of land in Monmouth.
Beside the Baptists and Quakers, there was another sect, known as Antinomians, which felt the effect of New England intoler- ance. Their chief leaders were Rev. Mr. Wheelwright and the noted Anna Hutchinson. The members of this sect were dis- armed and disfranchised about 1637, and it was they who chiefly settled in the island of Rhode Island, on which are the towns of Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth. From thence came an- cestors of many well known New Jersey families, among whom may be named Bordens, Havens, Potters, Motts, Jeffries, Wilburs, Browns, Laytons, Vaughns, Spicers, Davis', Wests, Cotterells, Burtons, Shearmans, Slocums, Woolleys, Smiths, Walls, War- dells, Carrs, and one branch of the Parker family. Members of some of these families early embraced the Quaker faith.
While the refugee Antinomians mainly settled on the island of Rhode Island, the banished Baptists generally at first settled at Providence. Among the earliest settlers of that place with Roger Williams were John Throckmorton, who came from Eng- land in the same ship with Roger Williams, Thomas James, William Arnold, Edward Cole and Ezekiel Holliman, or Hol- inan, as the name is now generally given. Throckmorton and
24
BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF
Cole, and members of the families of the others named, aided in establishing the settlement in Monmouth.
When Roger Williams first went to explore the country now called Rhode Island he took with him a man named John Smith, and three others. John and Edward Smith left Massachusetts because of intolerance to Baptists. They aided in settling Mon- mouth, and the first schoolmaster there was John Smith. The first settlers were favorable to the education of all classes, and it is quite certain they had no sympathy with the sentiments of the governor of Virginia at that time. Berkley, the royal gov- ernor of Virginia in 1671, said : "Thank God, there are no free schools in this province, nor printing press ; and I hope we shall not have for these hundred years !"
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.