USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > Perth Amboy > Contributions to the early history of Perth Amboy and adjoining country : with sketches of men and events in New Jersey during the provincial era > Part 18
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29 Hutchinson II. p. 32.
30 III. p. 75.
.
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Although the governor still retained his personal attrac- tions, and continued entirely free from any imputations of seeking his own pecuniary aggrandizement-loving money only for the pleasure its disbursement afforded, living gene- rously and to the full extent of his income-and shutting the door of office without scruple to all of an immoral or unfair character-yet his intercourse with his Assembly was not har- monious. His instructions were positive as to the manner in which the government should be supported, and he was inflex- ible in requiring conformity to them. It was the policy of the mother country to render the representatives of the royal authority in the colonies more independent of the people, by securing to them their stipends by virtue of permanent acts, rather than by yearly appropriations which were so liable to be granted or withheld, according to the degree of favor with which the governor chanced to be regarded at the time, and on this subject Governor Burnet and his Assembly found themselves at variance. The difficulty lay less in the amount of his salary, than in the manner in which it should be raised, but the principle of independence31 was thought to be involved, and the governor, therefore, intrenched himself under the pro- tection of his instructions, and the Assembly were willing to abide the result of time and opportunity. This was the main cause of dissension between the two, but the frankness and freedom from all disguise which marked the governor, led him to disregard policy, and by the too general proscription of his opponents, and rewarding of his adherents, he contributed to the causes of difference.
His adminstration, however, was of short duration. On the 31st August, 1729, he was taken ill after exposure on a fishing excursion to Watertown pond, and not adopting proper remedial measures, fever succeeded, which terminated his life September 7th, 1729.32
31 Writing to a friend in New Jer- sey under date of May 31st, 1729,- when the Assembly of that Province was agitating the question of a gov- ernment independent of New York- he says : "I am not sorry the Jersey people have shown themselves. This
general humour of independency in all colonies will awake the government the sooner."
32 His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Price from Ecclesias- tes ii. 17.
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RESIDENT GOVERNORS.
"The world,"-wrote James Alexander,-"loses one of the best of men, and I in particular, a most sincere friend, and one to whom I lay un- der the greatest obligations. He was a man who, bating warmth, was almost without a fault, and that by degrees he became nearer and nearer master of, and in time, had he lived, would probably have been entirely so."
Governor Burnet was large in stature, combining with his frank manners a dignified demeanor, and possessing a coun- tenance in which intelligence, amiability and good humor were conjoined. A portrait of him hangs in the senate chamber, at Boston, and the likeness which faces this imperfect biog- raphy is from one of two miniature sketches in my possession, by John Watson. He left four children. His eldest son, Gil- bert, by his first wife, a lively youth of fifteen, at the time of his father's death, went to England, being well provided for through his maternal grandfather. His daughter (Mary) and two sons (William and Thomas), the children of his second wife, were brought to New York, 33 but I know nothing of their subse- quent career, excepting that Mary became the wife of Colonel William Browne, of Boston, and left two infant daughters.
COLONEL JOHN MONTGOMERIE, who succeeded Mr. Burnet, died in 1731, and WILLIAM COSBY, his successor, also died, in 1736, but neither of them, so far as I can learn, had any thing like a fixed residence in Amboy. On the death of the latter, the government of New Jersey devolved upon JOHN ANDERSON, then President of Council, but he too died, in less than three weeks after his assumption of the chief authority, 34 and was succeeded by the next oldest Councillor.
JOHN HAMILTON.
This gentleman was the son of Andrew Hamilton, Gov- ernor under the proprietaries, and is the only descendant of whom any knowledge has been obtained. Whether born in America or Scotland, is uncertain,
33 Letter of James Alexander in Esq., President of his Majesty's Coun- Rutherfurd Collection.
34 The following obituary is from a newspaper of the time :- " Perth Am- boy, March 30th, 1736. On Sunday last (March 27th) died here in the 71st year of his age, after a short indispo- sition, the Honorable John Anderson
cil, and Commander in Chief of this Province of New Jersey, which sta- tion he held but 18 days. He was a gentleman of the strictest honor and integrity, justly valued and lamented by all his acquaintances."
From an Original Sketch by John Watson in the possession
L Of W.A. Whitehead.
WILLIAM BURNET. Governor of New York and New Jersey .. 1720 -1728.
LITH. OF SARDNY & CO N. Y.
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RESIDENT GOVERNORS.
He appears first in public life as one of Gov. Hunter's Council, in 1713, and continued to hold a seat at the board during the succeeding administrations of Burnet, Montgomerie and Cosby, so that he was in some measure prepared by his experience as a Councillor, to enter upon the more extended sphere of duty so unexpectedly opened to him. He was ap- pointed in 1735 an associate Judge of the Provincial Supreme Court, but it is doubtful if he ever served in that capacity, for Mr. Anderson died on the 27th March, 1736, and on the 31st, the proclamation of Mr. Hamilton was issued, con- firming in office the incumbents of all civil and military posts in the province ; and he continued to administer the government-acceptably to the people, we may believe, in the absence of any testimony to the contrary-until the summer of 1738, when he was relieved by the arrival of a commission appointing Lewis Morris Governor of New Jersey, apart from New York. Governor Morris resided most of his time near Trenton. He died in 1746, and again did Mr. Hamilton be- come invested with the chief authority ; but he had for a long time been very infirm, and before the year closed, he also died :- being succeeded by the next oldest Councillor, JOHN READING.
To. Mr., or, as he was most generally designated, Colonel Hamilton, the colonies were indebted for the first scheme for the establishment of Post Offices in America, for which he obtained a patent from the Crown about the year 1694 ; but subsequently, for an adequate remuneration, reconveyed it to the government.
He resided in, and it is thought, built the house now known at Amboy as the "Lewis Place," the residence of Mrs. A. Woodruff, beautifully situated, overlooking the broad bay formed by the junction of the Raritan and the sound with Sandy Hook inlet. Tradition represents him as possessing a high and overbearing temper, which, in connection with do- mestic trials, rendered his declining years, invalid as he was, a period of great distress and unhappiness.
Colonel Hamilton's remains were interred in the burial- ground, then used, lying north of the present Brighton House,
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RESIDENT GOVERNORS.
but time has long since obliterated every indication of the spot. A memorial of him, however, existed until recently in an old fashioned eight-day clock, once his, which continued to mark with accuracy the passage of the hours in the old Parker mansion at Amboy.
JONATHAN BELCHER arrived as Governor in 1747, landing at Amboy early in the morning of August 8th, having come in his barge from Sandy Hook ; the voyage across the Atlantic having been made in the Scarborough Man-of-War. Although apparently well pleased with Amboy, yet Elizabethtown of- fered greater attractions, and he made that place his residence, and died there in 1757.
FRANCIS BERNARD.
This gentleman succeeded Governor Belcher in the admin- istration of the affairs of New Jersey. He was descended from a respectable family, had been educated at Oxford, and was engaged in the profession of the law at the time of his ap- pointment, being a proctor or solicitor at Doctors Commons in London. He landed at Perth Amboy on Wednesday, June 14th, 1758, from "His Majesty's ship the Terrible."-on board of which he had come as passenger, having with him his wife and family ; and as the papers of the day furnish a more particular account of his reception in the province than is given of that of any of his predecessors, it may be well to portray the form and ceremony that in those days "did hedge about a Governor."
On the second day after his arrival, attended by the mem- bers of his Council, the Mayor, and other authorities of the city, the Governor proceeded to the town hall and published his commission in the usual mode, by causing it to be read aloud in the presence and hearing of the assembled multi- tude. He then received the compliments of a great number of persons of distinction who had come thither to witness the august ceremony which placed once more over them a repre- sentative of Majesty, and the day closed with various suitable demonstrations of joy.
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RESIDENT GOVERNORS.
The ensuing day the Corporation of the City waited upon him, and, by Samuel Nevill, Esq., the Mayor, presented him with the usual complimentary address, and the example was followed on the same day by the Corporation of Elizabeth- town ;- the Governor returning satisfactory replies to both, and assuring Mr. Nevill, that he should " embrace every op- portunity to show his regard for the city of Perth Amboy."
A few days were allowed the Governor to recruit after his voyage, but Burlington sharing with Amboy the honors of government, it was necessary that his commission should there be proclaimed in the same manner. He started therefore from Amboy on the 21st June, escorted by most of the inhabitants of note, and on his arrival at New Bruns- wick was received by the city authorities, James Hude, the Mayor, presenting their written address-a verbal re- ception in those days being equivalent to none at all. Here he staid the night, proceeding the next morning to Princeton. Notice of his coming had sufficiently preceded him to allow of some preparation by the Trustees for his introduction into Nassau Hall. He was conducted through the building, shown the curiosities, and was then honored by an oration from one of the students in Latin, to which, we are told, " his Excellency returned an elegant and polite Latin answer extempore : " an undertaking which few, if any, of his predecessors or successors would have ventured upon. It speaks well for the ready abi- lities of the Governor, although, as the effort has not come down to us, we must trust to the record for the faithfulness of the encomiums bestowed upon it. After receiving and re- plying to an address from the Trustees, the Governor proceeded on to Burlington, arriving there the same day, and again ex- perienced the gratification of having " his knowledge in the law, justice, and candor," eulogized by the Corporation. The minister and vestry of the Church added their congratula- tions : 35- the procession was formed, and on its arrival at the court house the commission was again published.
Such were some of the attentions received by Gov. Ber-
35 The ministers of the Church of dress to him on the 30th, after his re- England, as a body, presented an ad- turn to Amboy.
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nard during this his first " progress " through the Province, and if the impression made upon him was favorable, he had the satisfaction to know that it was reciprocated on the part of those he was sent to govern. They had the unusual sight presented them of a Governor meeting his Legislature without saying a word about his own compensation, and the senti- ments he did express in his opening speech to the Assembly, were calculated to increase the prepossessions in his favor al- ready entertained.
"The excellency of the English constitution," said he " consists in a due balance of its several powers. For my part I cannot more certainly recommend myself to my Royal Master, than by preserving the rights and privileges of his people, nor can you more effectually serve the people than by supporting the power and authority of the crown." * *
* "I came among you with a heart entirely devoted to the service of the coun- try, the care of which must now become my sole business, and I trust that my assiduity and integrity will most properly recommend me to your good opinion." * * * " And may the great God, on whom we must all depend for success in our undertakings, so direct our counsels that they may be most conducive to that supreme of all laws, the public safety."
He had already given an earnest of the active interest he was disposed to take in the welfare of the Province, by going to Philadelphia to confer with General Forbes and Governor Denny in relation to measures for the prevention of Indian ag- gressions, which for some time previous had been seriously felt upon the frontiers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
His exertions led to the general council held with the dif- ferent tribes at Easton in October of the same year (the record of which is preserved at length in Smith's History of the Province), which resulted in quieting all claims and causes of complaint on the part of the Indians, to the great advan- tage of New Jersey. In all these negotiations Governor Ber- nard bore a prominent part, exhibiting a knowledge of the Indian character, and of the mode of conducting business with them, rather remarkable, when the short time he had been in the country is considered. For the tact and energy he dis- played in these matters alone, he merits a conspicuous niche in the gallery of New Jersey Governors, and greater considera- tion than he has heretofore received at the hands of our his- torians.
With the political events of Governor Bernard's adminis-
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tration this sketch has nothing to do. He continued to exercise the chief authority until the beginning of the year 1760, when he was transferred by the royal command to the province of Massachusetts Bay. Addressing the Assembly for the last time in March of that year, he said :-
" I do assure you that I shall leave this province with regret. Your good disposition towards his Majesty's government, and your kind accept- ance of my services, had given me the fairest prospect of an easy and creditable administration. I had flattered myself that I might have done lasting service to this province, in assisting to compose the differences that still prevail in it, to remove the few fears and jealousies, if any, that now remain, to rectify the little errors in policy which have inadvertently crept into the administration, and above all, to establish a perfect har- mony in the general government, upon the surest foundation, an exact balance of the several political powers which compose it."
There can be no doubt of the advantage New Jersey would have derived from a longer continuance of Mr. Bernard as Governor, and the Assembly in their answer appear to have been aware of his merits :-
"Your Excellency's leaving this government (say they), we esteem as a public loss, having in our minds anticipated the happiness we had the greatest probability of enjoying under your administration. Your know- ledge in the profession you exercised antecedent to his Majesty's appoint- ment of you to preside here, flattered us with hopes of a speedy and equi- table decision in the only litigation of consequence which exists in the colony [an allusion to the land question, involving the titles and rights of the Proprietors], and your general conduct, will remain gratefully im- pressed on the minds of the people, who will ever consider themselves in a manner interested in your future ease and happiness." 36
His whole course had certainly met the warm approbation of the people of New Jersey. He had exhibited a talent for business, an activity in the performance of his duties, and a desire to conform himself to the interests of those over whom he had been placed, which exalted him greatly in the estima- tion of all who had the good of the province at heart. His official connection with it, however, was now closed, and so soon as his new commission arrived (about the 1st of July), he started for his government of Massachusetts Bay ; destined to be far less agreeable to him than the one he was leaving. To form a clearer conception of his character, let us follow him to Massachusetts.
86 New American Magazine
.
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RESIDENT GOVERNORS.
Two parties had long divided that colony, one endeavoring to curtail the authority of the crown officers, the other to strengthen it, and Governor Bernard was very soon classed with the latter, as might naturally have been expected. Two or three years, however, passed away without the occur- rence of any great matter of difference between him and the representatives of the people, but on the passage of the stamp act all the crown officers became doubly obnoxious, and con- stant collisions ensued. The Governor is accused of having exhibited an arbitrary disposition, hostile to the freedom which was enjoyed in New England, and it is very certain that he supported the measures of the British Ministry with all his ability. He enjoyed, in consequence, the favor of the King, who evinced his regard by conferring on him the baronetcy of Nettleham, in Lincolnshire, and by refusing to act upon a petition for his removal, forwarded by the people of the colony. The opposition, however, becoming so great that a longer con- tinuance in office could only cause him anxiety and distress, he applied for and obtained leave of absence, and bid farewell to America in August, 1769.37
Elliott, in his Biographical Dictionary, says of Governor Bernard, "such men never have those friendships which give a charm to social life," and that "he was not calculated to gain the affections of the people ;" but we have seen that a different result attended his residence in New Jersey, where high and low regretted his departure, and where his successor had him held out as a pattern for his imitation. He also states that "members of his own household " afforded amuse- ment by most ridiculous representations of his parsimony and domestic meanness ; but the character of this testimony, com- ing, as it very probably did, from those who had expected honors or emoluments from their connection with the Gover-
37 Elliot mentions some doggerel po- etry which was current during his ad- ministration in Massachusetts, ending with the lines,
" And if such men are by God appointed, The devil might be the Lord's anointed,"
which were very properly condemned
by his Council as scandalous and blas- phemous. The following chorus to an ode sung at Princeton College, in 1759, affords a marked contrast :
" We sing great George upon the throne, And Amherst great in arms:
While Bernard, in their milder forms, Makes the royal virtues known."
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nor's family, should lead us to adopt it with caution. From traditions current in the old provincial capital there is reason to believe that the Governor was not particularly attentive to the happiness of individuals in his family, but he certainly exhibited far less anxiety about his pecuniary affairs, his salary and perquisites, while in New Jersey, than most of his prede- cessors had done ; and his liberality to Harvard College, men- tioned by Elliott, is also at variance with this reported penuri- ous disposition. To those faults, however, if he had them, were found many counterbalancing good qualities. The only serious charge that can be brought against him is his having too strenuously upheld the presumed prerogatives of the sover- eign from whom his own authority was derived, and in that it may be doubted if he did aught that was not sanctioned by sincere convictions of duty on his part.
His character is thus summed up by Elliott :-
"He was sober and temperate, and had fine talents for conversation if the subject pleased him. He had an extensive knowledge of books, and memory so strong as to be able to refer to particular passages with greater facility than most men of erudition. He would sometimes boast that he could repeat the whole of the plays of Shakspeare. He was a friend of literature and interested himself greatly in favor of Harvard College, when Harvard Hall with the library and philosophic apparatus were destroyed by fire ; after which he presented to it a considerable part of his own pri- vate library. The building which now bears the name of Harvard is a specimen of his taste in architecture.38 * *
* He was a believer in the principles of Christianity, the effect of study as well as of education, and was regular in his attendance upon public worship; attached to the Church
*
of England, but no bigot," * * when in the country attending service at the nearest Congregational Church."
After he had been in Massachusetts a short time, the Assembly gave him-either as a testimonial of regard or as a bribe to secure his influence-a grant of the Island of Mount Desert. This, however, was subsequently claimed by a French family ; and in consequence, or from the confiscation of Ber- nard's estate in 1778, became lost to his family ; but his eldest son, who remained in America and adopted the colonial cause, becoming much reduced in his circumstances, the legislature
38 The Trustees of Princeton Col- shown himself a friend of that institu- lege, in their address to Governor tion, but in what way is not stated. Boone, spoke of Bernard as having
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granted to him two townships on the Kennebec in lieu of the island, and he held them as late as 1805.39 This son, known subsequently as Sir John Bernard, was rated as Adjutant in the New Jersey Regiment raised in 1759, and placed under the orders of the gallant Colonel Schuyler for service on the north- ern frontier. He was an eccentric character, and, by some, thought to be deranged by the misfortunes to which he and his family were subjected by the revolution. After the war he took up his abode a few miles from Eastport, in a hut built by himself, where, with an unbroken wilderness around him, he lived a solitary life with no companion but his dog. He sub- sequently changed his quarters, and was much about Bos- ton. Later in life he appears to have been more settled in his mind, and held offices under the British Crown at Barbadoes and St. Vincent, and died somewhere in the West Indies in 1809. He was succeeded in his title by his brother Thomas, who went to England with his father-married a lady of for- tune-became identified with many benevolent institutions- and died an L.L.D. in 1818.40
Governor Bernard wrote several Greek and Latin elegies, which were printed in 1761, and after his return to England he published several pamphlets on American law and policy.
While in New Jersey his residence was the old Johnstone mansion at Amboy, which stood about half way between the "Long Ferry " and "Sandy Point," but which has entirely disappeared from view.
THOMAS BOONE.
THOMAS BOONE, appointed to succeed Governor Bernard, 41 reached Amboy by land from New York on Thursday, July 3d, 1760. He had been detained some time in the latter city waiting for his commission, which had been issued the Novem- ber previous, having arrived there from Charleston, S. C. What office he had held at the south, if any, is not known.
39 Mrs. Warren's American War.
40 Sabine's Royalists.
41 He was appointed, Nov. 27th, 1759. Bernard succeeding Thomas
Pownal in Massachusetts, who took the place of Wm. H Middleton in South Carolina. Mr. Middleton was trans- ferred to the government of Jamaica
1
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RESIDENT GOVERNORS.
He had been previously a resident of New Jersey, but of his parentage no certain information has been obtained ; it seems probable, however, that he was the son of Thomas Boone, Esq., of the county of Kent, who died in the year 1749 ; and related in some way to two or three of the name who held important trusts under the Crown-one of them, George Boone, being Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales in 1740.
The Governor was escorted on his way through the county of Essex by a troop of horse commanded by Captain Terrill of Elizabethtown, and through the county of Middlesex by a troop under the command of Captain Parker of Woodbridge. On his approach to Amboy he was met by the Mayor and offi- cers of the Corporation, and conducted by them into the city.
The ensuing day the oath of office was administered, and then, preceded by the Corporation, and attended by his Ma- jesty's Council, he walked in procession to the City Hall, where his commission was published with the usual formalities. An elegant entertainment was subsequently spread for the assem- bled company, at the expense of the Governor, and the day closed with illuminations and other demonstrations of joy- " usual upon such occasions," says the record,-now no longer occurring within the precincts of the old capital.42
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