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 7
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The present act of incorporation was approved February 27th, 1844, by which the government of the city is confided to the following officers, mayor, recorder, three aldermen, six councilmen, clerk, assessor, collector, and treasurer.
The statistics of the population can only be given since 1810, the enumerations prior to that year, giving the number of inhabitants only by counties.
1810 .- White males
358
females
372
All the free persons,
36
Slaves,
49
Total,
815
1820 .- White males,
346
females,
372
50
All other free persons, Slaves,
30
Total,
798
1830 .- White males,
404
females,
400
Free colored,
63
Slaves, ·
12
Total,
. 879
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THE CITY.
1840 .- White males,
587
females,
678
Free colored,
38
Total,
1303
1850 .- White males,
885
66 females,
918
Free colored,
62
Total,
1865
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Chapter IV .- The Citizens.
** * to what straits old Time reduces
Frail man, when paper-even a rag like this
Survives himself-his tomb, and all that's his-
And when his bones are dust, his grave a blank, His station, generation, even his nation
Become a thing, or nothing ! save to rank In chronological commemoration,-
Some dull MS. oblivion long has sank, Or graven stone found in a barrack's station
In digging the foundation of a closet,
May turn his name up as a rare deposit."
AN investigation into the history of Perth Amboy, cannot fail to disclose one characteristic, almost peculiar to itself. Of the families residing within it during the provincial ex- istence of New Jersey, there are but few representatives left, and of the original population, not even one family name re- mains as a memento of the race. Very few, even of those families who, as late as the war of Independence breathed the pure air of the point, and enjoyed the beauties of its situation, are now represented by descendants, who call the place their home. "Old things have passed away," in this respect if in no other, and it may prove not uninteresting to recall from the oblivion which has well nigh covered them a few of those to whom the place may have been indebted for benefits no longer remembered ; nor unprofitable to notice briefly their characters and actions, as vaguely set forth in the unsatisfac- tory records of the past.
Before proceeding, however, with the subject of the chapter, it may as well be remarked that this great change in the popu- lation has arisen from several causes ; but that two were par- ticularly operative-the want of sufficient business to excite the enterprise and occupy the time of the youth of the city,
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and the removal, at the revolution, of a large number of the inhabitants.
The first has been always more or less in force since the settlement of the place, but became so especially on the sub- version of the royal authority in the province ; and the younger members of the different families having changed their resi- dence in consequence of forming connections elsewhere, the family names have become extinct on the death of the parent stocks, and "the place that knew them, knows them no more."1 The second of these causes was the natural result of the success of the American arms. Being the seat of the pro- vincial government-a military post-and the place of resi- dence of the principal officers of the crown, the interests of the lower, as well as of the higher classes, were too intimately con- nected with the cause which added so materially to their business facilities, their means of support, or the pleasures of society, to admit of their remaining neutral in the contest : and we consequently find the place noted for the disaffection of its inhabitants to the views and measures of the colonies. The adoption of the royal cause led, necessarily, to the aban- donment of New Jersey when that cause failed.
The materials for the notices which follow, were gathered from a vast number of sources, and I regret that I have not been able to rescue more, respecting the worthies of past time, from the obscurity which enshrouds their names and genera- tions.
THE GORDON FAMILY.
Among those emigrants from Scotland, who, in 1684, were induced, by the representations and influence of Gover- nor Barclay, and the other Scotch proprietaries, to leave the country of their birth, and seek in the wilds of America that liberty of conscience and quietness of life which were there denied them, one of the most eminent was THOMAS GORDON, of Pitlochie.
1 Of 150 persons on the assessors' books as residents, and most of these taxable, in 1802, the names of only 11
remained in 1832, and probably most of these have before this given place to others.
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He arrived in the province in October, 1684, with his wife Helen, four children, and seven servants. The vessel on board of which they left Scotland had a tempestuous voyage, in which the bowsprit, and all three of the masts, were carried away, and she, for two or three days, left at the mercy of the winds and waves. By the aid of jury-masts, the Capes of Virginia were finally reached in nine weeks after leaving Aber- deen. The passengers, among whom were two brothers of Mr. Gordon, Charles and George, embarked on board of two sloops, and came up the Chesapeake; and thence "partly by land, and partly by water," to Elizabethtown. Another brother, Robert, came to the province about the same time.2 George died in 1686, and the same year Charles returned to England, and died in 1698 :3 of Robert no information has been obtained.
It is presumed that these gentlemen were sons of Sir George Gordon, "Knight Advocate," whose name appears in some of the earliest records of the province in connection with theirs ; and they are styled "brothers to the Laird of Straloch."
I have been informed 4 that Thomas Gordon was personally known to James II., and received from him various honors and advantages, notwithstanding his political opposition.5 This aversion to the acts and policy of James finally became so great that he was induced to leave the Gordon clan in an insurrection consequent upon the troubles of 1680, or there- about : the then Duke of Gordon being nearly related to him. The duke himself, it is said, was saved from attainder, and his property from confiscation at that time by his duchess ;
2 See East Jersey, &c., pp. 313, 319.
3 Whether he died in East Jersey or Scotland does not appear. The letters from him while in the province, given by Scot, are written with vivacity, and show that he esteemed the country highly. Another brother, Dr. John Gordon, of Colliston, Scotland, was liv- ing in October, 1691.
By Mr. L. C. Hamersley, of New York, a descendant.
5 This must have been during the regency of James as Duke of York,
when from motives of policy he endea- vored to conciliate the chief individuals of the different clans, although they might be opposed to him and his re- ligion. In 1666, a Thomas Gordon, "writer in Edinburgh," was appointed Clerk of the Court, commissioned to try those concerned in the rising at Pent- land; and in 1680, the same individual is mentioned as Clerk to the Justice Court; and in 1682, is admitted Clerk to the Judiciary. Could this have been the Thomas Gordon of the text?
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who locked him up in his bedchamber, and prevented his placing himself at the head of his clan when Thomas Gordon presented himself at the castle to resign the command. The unfavorable termination of the insurrection was the immediate cause of Mr. Gordon's emigration.
Mr. Gordon selected his plantation on Cedar Brook, about ten miles west of Amboy, in the vicinity of the present Scotch Plains ;6 and we find him thus writing to a relation at Edin- burgh, under date of February 16th, 1685-6 :-
" Upon the eighteenth day of November I and my Servants came here to the Woods, and eight days thereafter my Wife and Children came also. I put up a Wigwam in twenty-four hours, which served us till we put up a better house; which I made twenty-four foot long, and fifteen foot wide, containing a Hall and Kitchen both in one, and a Chamber and a Study, which we put up pretty well (with Pallissadoes on the sides and Shingles on the roof) against Yuill [Christmas], on which day we entered home to it: and have been ever since, and still are, clearing ground, and making fencing. So that I hope to have as much ground cleared, fenced, ploughed, and planted with Indian corn in the beginning of May (which is the best time for planting it) as will maintain my family the next year, if it please God to prosper it. Robert Fullerton and I are to Joyn for a Plough this Spring, consisting of four Oxen and two Horses; but if the Ground were once broken up, two Oxen and two Horses, or four Oxen alone will serve ; so that the next Spring I intend (God willing) to have a Plough of my own alone. I intend to build a better House and larger, and to make a kitchen of this I am in; which I will hardly get done this Sum- mer, because I resolve to build upon my lot at New Perth. I am settled here in a very pleasant place, upon the side of a brave plain (almost free of woods), and near the water side, so that I might yoke a Plough where I please, were it not for want of Hay to maintain the Cattle, which I hope to get helped the next year, for I have several pieces of Meadow * near me." * * * * 'There are eight of us settled here within half a mile or a mile of another, and about ten miles from the Town of New Perth, or Amboy-point, so that I can go and come in a day, either on foot or horseback." * * *
* " Blessed be God, myself and Wife, and Children, and servants have been, and are still in good health, which God continue." * * * 7
His prayer was not granted. In less than two years thereafter wife and children were all dead, and he was left alone in the land of his adoption. This affliction, in connec- tion with the death of his brother Charles, in 1686, which has been mentioned, must have sorely tried him.
6 The Scotch Plains were so called
from the fact that many of Thomas Gor- don's countrymen accompanied him, and settled in that region.
7 See Scot's Model, in East Jersey, &c., p. 336.
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Mrs. Gordon died in December, 1687, and was buried in the old, or public burying-place. A large flagstone yet marks the spot, bearing the following inscription, in very antiquated characters, with a skull, crossbones, and hour-glass below it : 8 --
AN *ELEGIE *VPON*THE DEATH*OF*THE*TRULY*VER TVOVS *MRS*HELLEN*GORDON SPOVSE*TO*THOMAS*GORDON OF * THE * FAMILIE *OF *STRA LOGH * IN * SCOTLAND * DIED 12* DECEMBER * 1687* AGED#27 YEARS.
CALME*WAS*HER*DEATH WEL*ORDERED*HER*LIFE A*PIOUS*MOTHER AND*A*LOVING*WIFE HER*OFSPRING*SIX* OF*WH-H*4*HERE*DO*LIE THER*SOULS*IN*HEAVEN W ** HERS*DO*REST*ON*HIGH.
The cause of this great mortality is now unknown, but the want of comforts and conveniences which usually attends the settlement of new countries may have had its full influ- ence in producing the painful result. Very little is said any where of the health of Amboy after the settlement was ef- fected, but had such sickness as prevailed in Mr. Gordon's
8 There is a flaw in the stone, which probably, from the position of the small H in the word "which," was there
originally. The last line of the inscrip- tion is almost illegible.
64
THE CITIZENS.
family been at all general, some notice of the fact would have come down to us.
Mr. Gordon became a proprietor before he left Scotland by the purchase of one twentieth of Governor Barclay's right, and after his arrival in the province acquired in various ways addi- tional patents, which placed him among those most deeply in- terested in its soil.
In the year 1692, he was appointed Deputy Secretary and Register for the proprietaries, by William Dorkwra, their chief secretary in London; and the same year was made Clerk of the Court of Common Right, and Register of the Court of Chancery, and one of a commission (with David Mudie and James Dundas) for the trial of small causes, which was established at Amboy. The ensuing year (1693) he was appointed Judge of Probate ; and in 1694, an officer of the customs being thought necessary at Amboy (whose duties were somewhat similar to those of a surveyor in modern times), he received the appointment.9
These honors, however unimportant the offices may have been in the early days of the province, speak well for the re- spect and confidence with which he was regarded by the peo- ple and proprietary government. The estimation in which he was held by the board of proprietors at this time was also manifested by the selection of him in 1695, when desirous to have some trusty person visit England for the purpose of giv- ing the members there particular information respecting the condition and prospects of the province.1º He remained there about three years, and received on his return, or soon after (January 22d, 1698) the appointment of Attorney-general of East Jersey. In December, 1700, he was again invested with
9 He was "to take report of all ves- sels coming into, or belonging to this province ; and to take entries, and give clearances, and to seize all vessels which shall trade (or not duly report) according to the several acts."
10 A copy of the instructions of the proprietors to him when about to em- bark (in the handwriting of Andrew Hamilton, afterwards governor, with the signatures attached) is in the li- brary of the N. Y. Hist. Soc., dated
November, 1695. The"document com- mences with an expression of their confidence in his ability and integrity, which had led them to choose him unanimously to undertake the voyage for the purpose named in the text. Appended to the instructions, but with lines drawn through it, as if omitted from the copy furnished him, is a pas- sage recommending Mr. G. for the office of secretary, as he was willing to do all the public writing gratis.
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the duties of Judge of Probate, a substitute having been ap- pointed during his absence ; and in 1702, Dockwra having been superseded, the proprietors appointed Mr. Gordon their chief Secretary and Register. In addition to these numerous offices of a local character, he represented Amboy and the county of Middlesex in the Provincial Assembly from 1703 to 1709, part of the time acting as speaker. In the last- named year, on the arrival of Governor Hunter, he was ap- pointed one of the Council, and held the same situation under Governor Burnet at the time of his decease. From June, 1710, to March, 1719, he was receiver-general and treasurer of the Province. 11
Mr. Gordon died in 1722, and was buried in the Episco- pal churchyard. The following is a literal translation of the Latin inscription on the stone which marks his place of sepul- ture. The original inscription is much defaced by the hand of time, and a few more years will make it entirely illegible.
"IN HOPE OF A HAPPY RESURRECTION, HERE IS DE- POSITED WHAT IN THOMAS GORDON WAS FOUND MORTAL : WHO, BEING DESCENDED FROM AN ANCIENT FAMILY OF PITLOCHIE, IN SCOTLAND, COULD HAVE GLORIED, HAD THAT BEEN PROPER, # IN HIS EXTRACTION ; YET IN HIM WAS NOT WANTING THAT OF WHICH HE MIGHT JUSTLY BOAST, FOR AS THE SECRETARY OF THE PROVINCE HE EXERTED HIS BEST ABILITIES IN BE- HALF OF THE COUNCILS OF THE STATE ACCEPTABLY TO ALL. DEAR TO HIS RELATIONS, A SINCERE WORSHIPPER OF THE ETERNAL DEITY, HE ENJOYED LIFE, AND DIED WITH RESIG- NATION ON THE 28TH DAY OF APRIL, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1722, IN THE 70TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
" HIS MOURNING CONSORT, WHO ALSO DESIRES TO BE IN- TERRED HERE, HAS CAUSED THIS MONUMENT, SUCH AS IT IS, TO BE SET. HE LIVED AS LONG AS HE DESIRED-AS LONG AS THE FATES APPOINTED-THUS NEITHER WAS LIFE BUR- DENSOME, NOR DEATH BITTER." 12
11 His accounts, as submitted to, and allowed by auditors on his resignation, are in my possession, and are interest- ing from the light they throw upon the finances of the province at that time,
and the evidence they afford of Mr. Gordon's business qualifications.
12 For this translation I am indebted to the Rev. James Chapman, of Perth Amboy.
5
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Too often, the partiality of friends renders the monumen- tal inscription but poor authority for the general character of the dead ; in the present instance, however, we have no cause to doubt the justness of the terms in which his widow has transmitted to us the memory of Thomas Gordon.
He had married previous to his embarkation for England in 1695, Janet, daughter of David Mudie, a merchant of Am- boy, who is mentioned elsewhere in these pages, and in his will alludes to her in very affectionate terms. Mrs. Gordon sur- vived her husband for some years, but whether her request, to have her remains deposited near his grave, was complied with is not known-no stone or other memorial being now visible.
Thus to trace Mr. Gordon's career has required an extent of research disproportioned to the result, perhaps, but having formed a high opinion of his character and abilities, it has been to me sufficient reward to rescue from oblivion some of the incidents in the life of one so intimately connected with the early history of the province.
The confidence which appears to have been placed in Mr. Gordon soon after he became a resident of East Jersey, and throughout the period of the proprietary governments, was continued after the surrender to the Crown ; first, by his being selected to represent his fellow-citizens in the legislature, and afterwards by being appointed a member of the Council to two successive governors, as has been stated. And the selection of him by his fellow-members of the Assembly, to be their presiding officer, is a convincing proof of the respect felt for his character and reputation by those best acquainted with him, as it took place at a time when Lord Cornbury, then governor, was endeavoring to injure him in the estimation of the public by speaking of him in his communications to the assembly (although one of that body) in disparaging terms, styling him "one Thomas Gordon " and accusing him of em- bezzling a portion of the public records : making the accusa- tion as an exculpatory plea for having dispossessed him of the office of register to the proprietors, contrary to the wishes of a majority of the board, and appointed Peter Sonmans to fill
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the vacancy. 13 In February, 1706, Mr. Gordon had several warrants against him issued, and was obliged to give bail- and in May, 1707, was suspended by Lord Cornbury from practising as an attorney at law-and during an adjournment in May, 1708, three days after his election as speaker of the Assembly, he was arrested by virtue of one of his lordship's own warrants, but was admitted to bail ; although Justice Pinhorne refused him a writ of habeas corpus. This persecu- tion ended with the administration of Cornbury, and in De- cember, 1708, Lord Lovelace reinstated him in his practice in the courts."14
Mr. Gordon's generosity to St. Peter's Church, by large donations, elsewhere referred to in this volume, evinced his regard for sacred things, and confirms the encomiums of his widow on his religious sincerity. He left six children.
ANDREW was a captain in Colonel John Parker's regiment, on the frontier, in 1721, and resided at Freehold. On the 5th April, 1723, in order to do away with any legal objections to his father's will, he gener- ously made a declaration of his satisfaction with its tenor, relinquishing all claims to any portion other than that expressly left to him, and con- firming all demises to his brothers and sisters, &c. His grandson and heir-at-law, was John Van Kirk of Cranberry, from which circumstance it is presumed he left no sons.
13 See Smith's N. J., pp. 291, 300, 304, 306, 323, &c., for the messages and answers which passed between the governor and assembly in relation to this and other grievances. As the re- moval of Mr. Gordon constituted one of the principal complaints against Lord Cornbury, the following referen- ces to some of the events connected with it are inserted.
In October, 1704, Lord C. directed Mr. Gordon to deliver all the records to Jeremiah Basse (his private secre- tary, and former governor of the prov- ince), and on the 21st of the same month, Lewis Morris, then president of the board, was directed to write to the governor, and set forth the incon- venience, &c. which would attend obe- dience. On the 25th, as Mr. G. had not complied with the directions given him by the governor, an order was received by him from the governor and council to do so. Nothing further trans- pired, Mr. G. retaining the records, un- til, August 30th, 1705, when Mr. Basse
meeting Mr. G. at Shrewsbury, made a formal demand for their delivery to him, and on Gordon's refusing to give a definite answer as to what he might do when in his office at Amboy, he was committed to the custody of the sheriff, and obliged to give bail in £2,000 for his appearance before the governor and council, in October. He did ap- pear as a representative of the people of Amboy, and, with the committee of the board of proprietors, had a hearing. On the 27th the board of proprietors ordered that a copy of the records should be made under the direction of George Willocks, John Barclay, and Thomas Gordon, and counsel was ap- pointed to attend the governor and council on the 3d December, to insti- tute objections to the commission of Peter Sonmans-who was then substi- tuted by Lord C. instead of Basse, as register. The difficulty lasted during the whole of Cornbury's administra- tion.
14 Stevens' Index.
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THOMAS resided in Monmouth County at the time of his father's death, but afterwards removed to Hunterdon County where he was living as late as 1738. The time of his death is not known, but his descendants are numerous in that quarter of the State.
JOHN is styled " of Amboy," in 1735. His father, the day before his death, gave him half of his plantation on Raritan River, in lieu of all claims upon his estate.15
MARY and EUPHAM (Euphemia), are mentioned in his will, but of their destiny nothing is known.
MARGARET was married twice. Her first husband was a French gen- tleman named Louis Carrée, son of one of the Huguenots who came to America after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was a shipping merchant. They had one child, who died in the West Indies. Mrs. Car- rée subsequently married a Mr. Stelle, by whom she had two children, Thomas Gordon Stelle, who died unmarried, and Margaret, who married Andrew Hamer ley, about 1755. They had five children, William, Louis Carrée, Thomas, Lucretia, and Elizabeth.16
THE JOHNSTONE FAMILY,
In 1684, JAMES, and in 1685, JOHN JOHNSTONE, brothers, arrived in the province from Scotland. The first, settled in Monmouth County, near the present site of Spotswood-to which it is presumed he gave its name, as he had resided in Spotswoode, in Scotland. He is presumed to be the James Johnstone son of John Johnstone, of Ochiltree, whose name appears among the list of fugitives denounced in May, 1684, for having been in arms against the government, or been guilty of "resetting" those who had.17 Scot, in his Model of East Jersey, gives letters from him, 18 stating that he had selected land for a plantation "nine miles from Amboy, and four from Piscataway." His prepossessions, like those of all the early settlers, were strongly in favor of the province, and he evinces a desire to benefit the spiritual interests of the colonists by urging the despatch, as soon as possible, of ministers of the Gospel, promising them "considerable benefices and good estates," and it was to his industry and enterprise the early settlers were indebted for the road between Amboy and Cross-
15 There was a Peter Gordon in Am- boy, in 1737, who may have been a son of John; but the name has long since disappeared from among those of the residents of the old capital.
16 To one of them, Mr. Lewis C.
Hamersley, the author was indebted for the above account of the descend- ants of Margaret Gordon. He was the last survivor, and died Nov. 4, 1853.
17 Wodrow, IV. p. 18.
18 East Jersey, &c. pp. 298, 306, 329.
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wicks, it having been laid out and cleared by him. 19 He died about 1698.
JOHN JOHNSTONE, the head of the Amboy family, has already been named among the company on board the ill-fated " Henry and Francis," that arrived in December, 1685. He was a druggist in Edinburgh, and is designated in Scot's " Model, &c." as one of those to whom applications for passa- ges was to be made "at the sign of the Unicorn."20 He is said by Wodrow to have been married to Eupham Scot before embarcation ; but, while it is probable from the circumstances attendant upon the death of her father, which have been men- tioned,21 that some understanding existed between them as to their future relations, yet the family tradition has been that they were either married on the voyage, or soon after their arrival ; and an old record, the correctness of which there is no reason to question-confirms this last supposition, by giv- ing, as the date of the marriage, April 18th, 1686.
The course of Doctor Johnstone-for he became imme- diately known by that title-under the responsibilities which devolved upon him subsequent to the death of the Laird of Pitlochie and the landing of the emigrants, has been already made the subject of remark, so that it is unnecessary here to advert to it more fully. Fortunate was it that the sole re- maining representative of the enterprising and persevering Scot, possessed in him a kind protector,-one able to sustain her under the trials of the voyage, and the bereavements which enveloped her entrance upon the new world in gloom and uncertainty.
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