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 19
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As advancement and prosperity were thought in those days, to follow the presence of such a functionary, some anx- iety appears to have been felt by the good people of Amboy,
42 N. Y. Mercury, 1760. The pre- sentation of addresses, &c., systema- tically followed of course. The Cor- poration of Elizabethtown appeared on the 7th (J. Woodruff, Mayor), recom- mending to his favorable regards " the free borough and town of Elizabeth." The Governor, fond of eating and drinking, gave them a public enter- tainment. On the 8th he left Amboy for Burlington. At New Brunswick he received the Corporation of that place (James Hude, Mayor), and on his arrival at Princeton, attended by Chief Justice Morris and several other gentlemen of distinction, he was intro- duced into Nassau Hall, by the Presi- dent and Tutors. Addresses were
made, consigning the institution to his care and patronage, having been founded by one and countenanced by another of his predecessors, and he was invited to attend the next exami- nation. It is stated that he was " com- plimented" by the two youngest of the Senior Class in Latin and English orations-but nothing is said of any response by him. After his return to Amboy he received (15th) official visits from the Judges and other judi- cial functionaries of Middlesex County, with the ever attendant addresses, and (26th) from S. Cooke, T. B. Chandler, and Robert Mckean, on behalf of the Clergymen of the Church of England.
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that the Governor should select the metropolis of East Jersey as the place of his permanent abode. Consequently, when the city authorities waited upon him with their " humble address " two days after his arrival, they promised, should he choose Amboy for his residence, to do all in their power to make it agreeable. To this he answered, that " after so obliging an invitation, he knew of nothing to deter him, having the recol- lection of many happy moments passed there in a private station to induce him." The time of this previous visit has not been ascertained.
Governor Boone met the Assembly of the Province for the first time on the 30th October, having, as he expressed himself in a letter at the time to Horatio Gates (afterwards General), "been married a good while without consummation." "So much the worse for me," he adds, "one should with a woman or an Assembly take advantage of the first impressions." 43
His opening address was well expressed, but he seems to have had nothing of special interest to communicate, save- what to him was probably an important fact-that the Support Bill had expired some time before. He informed the Assembly -indicating certainly no skill as a seer when the events of fol- lowing years are remembered-that "there never was a reign when the hands of government might be strengthened with more security to the people, nor ever times more auspicious for reposing confidence and banishing jealousy from their bosoms.' At this and at two succeeding short sessions (March and June following)-the business of which related, almost exclusively, to the raising and equipping the Provincial troops-the Gov- ernor and the Representatives of the people were on the most harmonious terms ; but again, whatever of a beneficial ten- dency this concert of action might have produced, was thwarted by a change in the administration.
On the 18th June it was announced in New York that Governor Boone had been, on the 14th April preceding, appointed to the chief authority in South Carolina, and that he was to be succeeded in New Jersey by Josiah Hardy.
18 Gates' Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Library.
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Nothing has been discovered in the matters of legislation during Governor Boone's brief term, upon which to base an enlightened estimate of his qualifications, or from which to gather information respecting his political sentiments ; 44 we must, therefore, take the addresses presented to him on leav- ing the province as proof, in the absence of something more definite, that his capacity for business, character and disposi- tion, were such as to attach the people to him.
The Assembly's last address, presented July 7th, 1761, thus concludes :-
" If common report may be credited, this is likely to be our last ad- dress to your Excellency. Unsolicited by any applications, it may be unexpected, yet permit us to remark, that as we have asked nothing of you unbecoming his Majesty's Representatives to grant, you have refused us nothing we have asked. If it is honorable to distinguish an adminis- tration, not only unsullied but publicly kind and benevolent, such an administration as yours demands our grateful acknowledgments. The shortness of the time you have been among us is an objection not in our power to remedy. On your successor, therefore, must remain our hopes ; whom we shall be happy to find equally succeeding to our wishes."
The Corporation of Amboy, the day before the arrival of his successor, thus addressed him :
"It has ever been the custom to address Governors on their first arri- val, to enumerate their virtues and good qualities, and to extol their abili- ties for government, and oftentimes upon no better foundation than the authority of common fame; hence it too often happens, that, upon a better acquaintance, they are ready to unsay all they said and to show the greater joy, upon a change or removal. But with respect to you, sir, every day has given us fresh proofs of your Excellency's abilities and up- right intentions, and demands our sincerest acknowledgments. No selfish or lucrative schemes have appeared in your conduct, or sullied your admin- istration ; on the contrary, all your measures have been dictated by generous and benevolent principles, and your Excellency, in public life,
44 There is a proclamation of his which may be noticed, being his sec- ond official act made public in the newspapers of the day-the first being a proclamation of a day of thanksgiv- ing on 24th October, for successes in Canada. It forbids any person filling the office of schoolmaster in the prov- ince after that year without first ob- taining a license from him, to be issued only upon a certificate of approbation from two magistrates, and the magis- trates are enjoined to be fully satisfied that the applicants for such certificates
were of good character, loyal princi- ples, and professed protestants. No law has been discovered under which the Governor could have acted in issu- ing this proclamation, but it does not appear to have excited any particular notice. In the time of Charles II. in- structions were given the Provincial Governors that no one was to be per- mitted to teach without license from the Bishop of London [Humphries' Hist. Acc't, p. 8], but I am not aware that any similar instructions were given subsequently.
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has maintained that good character you so justly and universally acquired in private." 45
Such language from the authorities of the place where he resided-his personal associates and neighbors-must be con- sidered indicative of more than common feelings of satisfaction.
Governer Boone was present on the arrival and installation of his successor, and did not sail from New York for his new government until December 3d. He arrived and entered upon his duties in South Carolina early in January, 1762, and re- mained there as governor until May, 1764, when he left for England, being recalled in consequence of differences with his Assembly.46 As early as November, 1763, William Smith, subsequently the historian of New York, writing to Gates, says :-
"Boone continues still to be, what he is to all whom he favors with his friendship, a faithful correspondent. The same steadiness is maintained, though the government have hitherto declined a determination of the con- troversy between him and his Assembly. I fear the cowardly expedient of removing the Governor disliked by his people, whether for good or bad reasons." Again, on the 9th March, 1764, he writes: "I hear the Trade [the Board of Trade and Plantations] intend to disavow Boone's contest with a proud and licentious Assembly.47 I prophesied early that he would
45 N. Y. Gazette. The Council also present for the use of St. Philip's presented an address on the 29th, the day Gov. Hardy arrived.
46 The N. Y. Mercury of June 18th, 1764, has the following notice of the departure under the Charleston head : "May 16th. On Friday last (11th), his Excellency Thomas Boone, Esq., Governor in Chief of this Province, went on board the barge belonging to His Majesty's ship Escorte, command- ed by Thomas Foley, Esq., which car- ried him over the bar, where he em- barked on board the ship Dorset, Chris- topher Chisman master, and sailed the same evening for England. His Ex- cellency was attended to the water side by His Honor the Lieutenant-gover- nor, the members of His Majesty's Honorable Council, &c., and at his setting off was saluted by the guns in the forts, bastions and ramparts of Charleston. His Excellency was like. wise saluted on his passing the garri- son of Fort Johnson."
It is announced under the Charles- ton head of February 27th, 1762, that the Governor " made a very handsome
Church, at the same time that he gave the service of St. Michaels.'" The service consisted of two large tankards, one chalice, one paten, and one large alms plate. See Dalcho's Church of S. C., p. 188.
Gates' Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Library. Dunlap in his History of New York refers to this letter in a note to page 41, Vol. II., and on page 412, Vol. I .; but overlooking the fact that Boone had been transferred to South Carolina, thinks the Assembly referred to was that of New Jersey.
In this same letter Smith, who was a stanch and bitter royalist, thus alludes to changes which had recently occurred in New Jersey : "Unhappy Jersey has lost her best ornament" [referring to the death of Chief Jus- tice Morris ]. " Franklin has put Charles Read in his place upon the bench, and filled up Read's with one John Berrian, a babbling country sur- veyor, not fit to be a deputy to any sheriff in England. Oh! how far is Astræa fled! See the mischief of de-
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be removed. 'Tis rare that a minister cares for more than the mainten- ance of peace on his own terms. But if the provinces are to have a change of Governors when they please, why not name the man they like at once." * *
* " Presuming upon the cowardice of the Ministry, the Carolinians persist in their obstinate refusal to act with Mr. Boone. I had a letter from him of February 1st, in which he says they refuse to make any defence against the incursions of the Creeks, though their borders are a field of blood."
It is remarkable that two successive Governors-Bernard and Boone-should have gone from New Jersey, where they were apparently entirely acceptable to all classes, to other gov- ernments where their administrations were condemned, and whence they were both obliged to depart in disfavor with the people.
Mr. Boone, after his return to England, received an appoint- ment as Commissioner of the Customs, which he held for several years. When in New Jersey he was unmarried, but afterward, at the South, selected a lady for his companion who, it is presumed, was a native of South Carolina. In one of his letters to Gates, dated in 1767, he facetiously remarks : " I hope to have an opportunity of presenting my Yamasee Squaw to Mrs. Gates, and the papooses when a little more civilized." And in a previous letter, when thanking Mr. and Mrs. Gates for kind invitations, he says : " It is impossible that a poor woman who has been cooped up like a chicken for many
spising Cromwell's maxim 'pay well and hang well.' For want of salary no man asks for the second post in the province and it falls into the hands of a Where is the spirit of dignity that seeks to support the weight and honor of government ? Cesar's wife was to be not only inno- cent but free from suspicion. The Pro-consul of New Jersey differs from the Roman Emperor. Forgive me this severity. I confess myself so much influenced by vulgar prejudice that I do not think any man ought to be employed in the great offices whom the people deride, even though it be without reason. I pity but would not promote the sufferers. I would give him alms rather than high preferment. And with these thoughts I am a little angry at the Jersey successions. Frank- lin after Boone. After Morris, Read. Patience, kind heavens ! You see how
broad my slander is. The first error is on your side of the water." * * [Then follows the passage given in the text relative to Boone, and he adds, ] * We are a great garden, con- stant cultivation will keep down the weeds ; remember they were planted by Liberty and Religion near a hun- dred years ago. There are strong roots that will soon despise the gardener's ut- most strength. When Great Britain loses the power to regulate these de- pendencies, I think 'tis clear she will have no other left. And among the means to preserve all, give us Gover- nors and Judges of spirit and abilities, and support them with courage and steadiness." That " power " was lost sooner than the writer of the letter anticipated-and he closed his eyes in Canada long after " these dependen- cies " were independent.
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years should at once plunge into an ocean of company. On this account we have declined invitations from our friends and relations." 48
Mr. Boone's letters are not remarkable as literary produc- tions ; they are written in a lively, free manner, and contain very distinct intimations of a life conformed to the fashionable follies and dissipations of the day ; and the fact that his asso- ciates appear to have been officers of the British Army, and others, whose careers were of that character, fully confirm the presumption that there was nothing in his course of life at variance with their tastes and sentiments. Of his talents we have little on which to base an opinion. They are alluded to in some of the addresses made to him while in New Jersey, as being of a high order, but with what precise truth history states not. It is probable, however, that his attractive quali- ties were more of the heart than the head, and his affability and agreeable manners appear to have closely attached to him many both in New York and New Jersey, whose letters to him, after his removal, evince a warm interest in his happiness and welfare.
In September, 1805, he resigned his office of Commis- sioner of the Customs, and retired to Lee Place, Kent.
In 1771, his first wife having died or been divorced,49 he married a Mrs. Ponnereau of South Carolina, who died at his residence in Kent in April, 1812. The time of his own death has not been ascertained.
The New Jersey Historical Society possess a memento of the Governor in four bound volumes, of valuable pamphlets on American affairs, collected by him, and which have his name
48 He says also in one of his letters that he was about making a consider- able purchase in Georgia, where Mrs. Boone's brother resided.
49 I say " or divorced," for one of his letters, written in 1775-in which he refers to " a separation " which would probably take place, in which a friend "M." [ Monkton ?] was concerned- contains the following otherwise un- explainable passage : " To separate for the sake of forming a new connection
is like escaping from the Marshalsea to throw one's self into Newgate. This from you ? I think I hear you say. Yes. Honor and inclination deter- mined me to a plan of life which I dis- approved and knew the inconvenience of, and the same reasons have not lost their force, but in all probability may never come in question again. It is one thing to contract a new habit- another to persist in an old."
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in each written by his own hand. They show that his interest in America continued long after his permanent establishment' in England.
JOSIAH HARDY.
Of Governor Hardy very little information has been ob- tained. The first intimation we have of his existence, is the announcement in the public papers of his appointment on the 14th April, 1761, to succeed Governor Boone, and it does not appear, that he had had any connection previously with the colonies.
The N. Y. Gazette of October 22d, 1761, announces the arrival of His Majesty's Ship Alcide, of 64 guns, having among her passengers "His Excellency, Josiah Hardy, Gov- ernor of New Jersey, with his wife and family ; " and on the 29th, about 12 o'clock, he landed at Elizabethtown Point on his way to Amboy. He was received on his landing by Gov- ernor Boone, Lord Stirling,50 the members of the Council and some of the chief gentlemen and magistrates of the Borough of Elizabethtown, and the troops of Capt's Terrill and Parker were put in requisition, as they had been for his predecessor, to escort him to the seat of government.
At Amboy, in addition to the authorities of the city, they were met by "Capt. Johnston's Company of Militia, under arms,"-a feature which had not entered into the programme of previous receptions,-and he proceeded at once to the court-house and proclaimed his commission. The ensuing day the Corporation presented their address, after which the Governor left for Burlington. 51 The celerity of his move- ments indicates no small measure of promptness in the Gov- ernor's character, and the answers to the various addresses
60 Lord Stirling was a fellow pas- senger with him in the " Alcide." The N. Y. Gazette of Nov. 5th, con- tains the addresses and answers at length-others followed of course. On the 13th Nov. the Clergy of the Church of England presented theirs, signed by T. B. Chandler, Robt. McKean, An- drew Morton, Isaac Brown, Colin
Campbell and Samuel Cooke. The answer, like all the others, was very brief and almost identical with one re- turned to the delegates from the Dutch Reformed Assembly which adopted an address at New Brunswick, October 8th, but which was not presented until Dec. 1st, at Amboy.
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presented to him show him to have been a man of few words ; " all of them being very brief, and directly to the point. As a fair specimen the following is given, being his answer to the Trustees of the College of New Jersey, who presented their address Sept. 29th, 1762.
" Gentlemen, I heartily thank you for your address. It will be at all times a particular satisfaction to me to give you every assistance in my power in promoting the prosperity of this useful seminary of learning. "JOSIAH HARDY."
The Governor met the Assembly on the 30th November, 1761, and in March, April, and September, 1762 ; but there is nothing in the legislation that ensued, or in the public docu- ments of the time indicative of his character or acquirements ; and in February following (1763) he gave place to William Franklin-the last of the Colonial Governors.
The brief duration of Gov. Hardy's administration was ap- parently owing to some difference which grew up between him and his superiors in England, relative to the appointment of Judges which led to his recall, but he seems to have won the regard of the people of the province.
The corporation of New Brunswick, when addressing Gov- ernor Franklin, state that in the course of his short adminis- tration, his predecessor had " acquired universal esteem," and the authorities of Amboy, it is said, respectfully bade him farewell, expressing their estimation of the just regard he had displayed for the interests of New Jersey. He did not sail from New York until the 20th September, 1763, and Smith, the Provincial historian, says he was afterward appointed Consul at Cadiz.
Excepting the announcement that his wife and family were with him on his arrival, I have discovered no notice of them.
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WILLIAM FRANKLIN.
Dr. Franklin, identified with so much that is interesting in the history of America, had one son. That son, WILLIAM FRANKLIN, was Governor of New Jersey at the period when, through the blessing of Providence upon earnest self-devoting efforts, our country was happily enabled to throw off the op- pressive burdens which the short-sighted policy of England's rulers would have fastened upon her, and assumed 'among the nations of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled her.'
William Franklin was born in the Province of Pennsylva- nia, in 1731-but of his youth little is known. He early showed a marked predilection for books, which his father of course encouraged ; but with advancing years the quiet walks of an academic life appear to have lost their charms in some mea- sure, and a disposition was manifested by him to seek employ- ment in the stirring pursuits of a military career. Disap- pointed in an attempt made to connect himself clandestinely with a privateer fitting out at Philadelphia,52 he was subse- quently gratified by the receipt of a commission in the Penn- sylvania forces, and served in one or more campaigns on the northern frontier before he was of age, rising from a subordinate station to the rank of Captain. This expedition is alluded to by his father as being, in one respect, of no service to him. " Will"-says the Doctor, writing in 1750-"is now nine- teen years of age, a tall proper youth, and much of a beau. He acquired a habit of idleness in the expedition, but begins of late to apply himself to business, and I hope will become an industrious man. He imagined his father had got enough for him, but I have assured him that I intend to spend what little I have myself, if it please God that I live long enough ; and as he by no means wants acuteness, he can see by my going on, that I mean to be as good as my word." 53
On his return to Philadelphia young Franklin seems to have become, in a great degree, the companion and assistant of his father in his various scientific and professional pursuits, and subsequently himself entered into official life. From
52 Franklin's Writings, Vol. VII. p. 12. 53 Franklin's Writings Vol. VII. p. 42.
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1754 to 1756 he acted as Comptroller of the General Post- office, then under the management of Dr. Franklin, and in January, 1755-then holding in addition the Clerkship of the Provincial Assembly-he accompanied the troops that were sent under the command of the Doctor to build forts on the frontiers of Pennsylvania ; and in June, 1757, his father hav- ing been appointed Colonial Agent at London, he sailed with him for Europe.
William Strahan, his father's friend, a man of talents and discrimination, thus alludes to him in a letter written shortly after his arrival in England :
" Your son"-he is writing to Mrs. Franklin-" I really think one of the prettiest young gentlemen I ever knew from America. He seems to me to have a solidity of judgment, not very often to be met with in one of his years. This, with the daily opportunity he has of improving himself in the com- pany of his father, who is at the same time his friend, his brother, his intimate and easy companion, affords an agree- able prospect, that your husband's virtues and usefulness to his country may be prolonged beyond the date of his own life." 54
Young Franklin entered upon the study of the law in the middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1758.55 He travelled with his father through England, Scotland, Flanders and Holland, and appears to have profited, as regards both mental and personal attainments, by the advantages which a visit to those countries under such favorable circumstances naturally afforded. Courted as was the society of his father by men of the highest literary and scientific acquirements, he could not but imbibe in such a circle a taste for similar pursuits, and we consequently find that when the Univer- sity of Oxford in 1762 conferred upon the father, for his great proficiency in the natural sciences, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, the son was thought worthy of that of Master of Arts for having distinguished himself in the same branches of knowledge.56
p. 158.
56 The New York Mercury of July 12th, 1762, thus announces this occur- rence : - " Oxford, April 30th. Dr.
54 Franklin's Writings, Vol. VII. Franklin, eminent for his many extra- ordinary improvements in electrical experiments, was presented by this 55 Ibid p. 170. University to the honorary degree of Doctor in Civil Law. At the same time his son, who has also dis-
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It was in this year (August 1762) he was appointed through the influence of Lord Bute, and without any solicita- tion on the part of his father,57 Governor of New Jersey ; pre- viously undergoing, it is said, a close examination by Lord Halifax, Minister of American Affairs ; 58 deemed advisable perhaps on account of his colonial birth and youth, he at that time being only thirty years of age.
There were some persons who regarded this promotion of Mr. Franklin as an event deeply to be deprecated, and inti- mations are met with to the effect that it was only through the secrecy observed by those concerned in obtaining the com- mission that remonstrance was not made and steps taken to counteract what was pronounced a dishonor and disgrace to the country.59 But I have failed to discover any deficiency in the abilities of Governor Franklin when compared with his predecessors, or any peculiarity in his political or private cha- racter that justifies the severity of these strictures. On the contrary the circumstances, above narrated, under which the appointment was made, are highly creditable to him-evincing as they do a confidence in his capacity for the office, and in his fidelity to the government, which was not wont to be reposed in those of colonial birth, unless some cogent reasons of policy prompted thereto, or strong claims to the preferment were pre- sented ;- and it is certain that the endeavors made to preju- dice the people of New Jersey against their new Governor did not prevent his gathering around him, as members of his Council, gentlemen of the highest respectability and standing in the Province. It is not probable that such would have been the case had his talents and character been calculated only to entail misfortune on the people over whom he was placed.60
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