USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Early Dutch Settlers of Monmouth County, New Jersey > Part 10
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break down in public, and cry like a child, while attempting to console the members of a family lately bereaved by death. The writer heard him in the pulpit a short time before his decease. The one idea which ran like a thread through his discourse, was that the mystery of life was as great as the mystery of death, and that both were controlled by the Creator. That the highest wisdom as well as practical judgment in everyday life, dictated en- tire trust or faith in the Creator, who did all things well, and had promised that "At evening time it should be fight." I cannot recall his words which seemed prophetic of the end so soon to come to him, when he lay cold and still in his parsonage at Middletown.t His ideas, however, were identical with those expressed in the following verses:
"We know not what it is, Dear, this sleep so deep and still ;
The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheeks so pale and chill :
The lids that will not lift again, though we may call and call ;
The strange white solitude of peace, that settles over all.
We know not what it means, Dear, this des- olate heart pain,
The dread to take our daily way, and walk in it again,
We know not to what sphere, the loved who leave us, go.
But this we know, our loved and lost, if they should come this day --
Should come and ask us "What is life ?" Not one of us could say.
Life is a mystery, as deep as ever death can be :
Yet, oh! how sweet it is to us this life we live and see.
Then might they say-those vanished ones, and blessed is the thought ;
"So Death is sweet to us, Beloved, though we may tell yon naught ;
We may not tell it to the Quick, this mystery of Death-
Ye may not tell us if ye would, the mystery of Breath."
The child, who enters Life, comes not with knowledge or intent,
So those who enter Death, must go as little children sent ;
Nothing is known-but I believe that God is overhead,
And as life is to the living, so death is to the Dead."
#Rev. Luther I. VanDorn was sixty-two years old when called as pastor of the Middle- town Dutch church. It was through his re- quest that the new parsonage was erected on the opposite side of the street from the church edifice, and he was the first pastor to occupy it. In October, 1876, he was suddenly called away and his wife followed him February 25, 1881. Both are interred in Fairview ceme- tery. It was his wish to end his days and be buried in Monmonth county, for here his fore- fathers had lived, and numerous kinsmen sleep their last sleep beneath the soil of this county, and so it was.
SOME ACCOUNT OF LEWIS MORRIS AND HIS DOINGS IN MONMOUTH COUNTY.
The names of Jacob VanDorn, Daniel Hendrickson and Arie, Aure or Adrian Bennett appear prominently on the first records of the First Dutch church of Monmouth, not only as the organ- izers and first communicants in 1709, but as the deacons and elders, at this time or a few years after. The fact that Daniel Hendrickson had served as sheriff of this county, and had also con- ducted religious services among his own people, prior to the coming of Joseph Morgan as a regular pastor, would indicate that he was a trusted leader of the Dutch settlers, and a man in whose good judgment and integrity they confided.
There is, however, another record, which, if facts therein stated are really facts, casts an ugly stain, not only on their characters as professing chris- tians, but as ordinary law abiding cit- izens.
The minutes of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the years 1700 and 1701 now in the Mon- mouth county clerk's office, contain en- tries not only accusing Jacob VanDorn and Arie (Adrian) Bennett as has here- tofore been stated, but also accusing Daniel Hendrickson with refusing to serve as grand juror, defiance of the judges to their faces, or, as the record has it, open contempt and misbehavior in court. These men, also as residents of the old township of Middletown, and members of the militia, and from their sympathies and associations, are fur- ther implicated in the general charge against the citizens of this township of breaking up by violence, a court which convened at Middletown village March 25, 170I, making prisoners of Andrew Hamilton, the governor of New Jersey, Thomas Gordon, the attorney general, Lewis Morris, president of the council, and presiding judge of the Monmouth courts, together with the associate judges and the county officers, and keeping them under guard at Middle- town four days. During this time there was no head to the government of New Jersey, and no officers to administer the law in Monmouth county. That all
these outrageous and rebellious acts were committed for the sole purpose of releasing a pirate, one of Capt. Kidd's men, from the custody of this court.
John Johnstone, a Scotchman, who a' few years before had been presiding judge of the Monmouth courts, and who was a zealous partizan of Governor Andrew Hamilton, wrote the following letter the next day:
March 26, 1701.
To the Council of New Jersey :
Honorable Gentlemen .- Yesterday Governor Hamilton, with four of the justices of this county, met at Middletown, for holding the Court of Sessions, as appointed by the acts of assembly of this province, when they had opened court, and begun the trial of one, who confessed himself, one of Kidd's men, several of the people of Middletown, who for that pur- pose, had appointed a training of the militia, and being in arms, came into the house where the court was sitting and forcibly rescued the prisoner. The governor and justices commend- ed the sheriff and constables to keep the peace, and in the souffle two of the foremost of the fellows were s'ightly wounded. There being seventy or eighty men, and the governor and justices, without force, they were by this mul- titude made prisoners, and are by them, kept under strict guards. This is not a thing which happened by accident. but by design. For some considerable time past there, some of the ringleaders kept, as 1 am informed, a pirate in their houses, and threatened any that would offer to seize him. Gentlemen, I thought it my duty to inform you of this, and to beg your assistance to help the settling our peace or to take the government upon you until his maj- esty's pleasure be known.
I am, your honors, most humble servant, JOHN JOHNSTONE. Monmouth, East Jersey, March 26, 1701.
The gravamen of the accusation in Dr. Johnstone's letter, as well as that in the court record of this occurrence, is that the Middletown people were associated and in sympathy with sea robbers, and committed all this high handed ruffianism to aid a pirate to escape from the faithful officers of the law, whom they illtreated and impris- oned, while the criminal was set at lib- erty.
Lewis Morris, soon after, in a com- munication to the Lords of Trade in
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EARLY DUTCH SETTLERS OF MONMOUTH.
England, makes the same charge: That the wicked people of Middletown were guilty of rank rebellion, for the pur- pose of delivering a pirate from the clutches of the law. It was very com- mon in that age for the politicians and others interested, to accuse the high officials of the American provinces on the Atlantic coast and the West Indies. of harboring or protecting pirates and illegal traders and sharing in their plunder. Sec Vol. II N. J. Arch., pages 150-55, 277-89, and 358-62.
The following is from a communica- tion of Edward Randolph to authorities in England dated March 24, 1701, (the day before the outbreak at Middletown village). Speaking of East Jersey and West Jersey he writes "They are all in confusion for want of government, and humbly pray to be taken under his majesty's immediate protection and government. They likewise receive and harhor pirates." t
The ideas are very similar in all these communications and records and looks like concerted action. The Ran- dolph letter is dated one day before and the Johnstone letter one day after the Middletown people captured the gov- ernor and his officers; but as it re- quired some six weeks for a sailing vessel to reach England in that day. it was easy to antedate a letter two or three days, and then perhaps it might be a week or two before it could be sent.
Lewis Morris that same spring went to England, and carried with him a certified copy of the record from the minutes now in our elerk's office. It was a well settled maxim of the Eng- lish law, that the facts set out in a court record must be accepted as true. Morris, therefore, calculated that his charge against the people of Middle- town would be received as true by the government in England, and he would also be on hand to influence their ac- tion. He must have felt keenly the indignities to which he had been sub- jected, for he was a very proud and egotistical man. The excitement and feeling which prevailed at the Peace meeting in Middletown some hundred and sixty odd years later, was tame alongside of this attack on the gover- nor of the province and the officers of the county.
We find Lewis Morris of Tinton Falls in London the following summer. He sends a communication to the Lords of Trade dated at London, August 4, 1701. Among other matters he writes:
+Vol. Il N. J. Arch., page 360.
"Their endeavors had the effect they pro- posed as appears by the several records (No. I, 2, 3, 4, 5) now laid before your Lordships. And to consummate the work so well begun and successfully carried on, they did on the 25th of March, 1701, rescue a pyrate, one of Kidd's crew, from the bar, seize the governor and justices as by record No. 6, does more at large appear."
This "record No. 6," was a certified copy from the minutes of the sessions of Monmouth county, of the court held at Middletown village March 25, 1701. which had been written up after their four days captivity at Middletown had ended, under supervision of Hamilton and Morris. Morris further writes:
"I have laid before your Lordships the truth of fact, as your Lordships, by comparing the names of the petitioners of East Jersey with the names in the records of the several riots committed in the province, will find these riots to be made by those persons who are now your petitioners. Especially, that remarkable riot, or rather rebellion, committed on the 25th of March, and by record No. 6 appears, which I now lay before your Lordships as a complaint, and beg those persons may have an exemplary punishment."
We thus see that Lewis Morris not only took the trouble of making a voy- age to England, but used all his ability to bring the heavy hand of the English government on the Middletown people as rebels and abettors of piracy. He persisted with indefatigable malice in his efforts to punish them, even after Queen Anne, in her instructions to Lord Cornbury, had enjoined him to let the old quarrels and fights between the proprietors and people die out unnot- iced. $ Also see Morris' letter of Sept- ember 29th, 1702, pages 504-5-6, Vol. II N. J. Archives. The vindicative feel- ings shown by him would indicate that there is some truth in the traditions of this uprising at Middletown, that after Lewis Morris was taken prisoner, he was tied to the whipping post in front of the block house, with a bunch of rods fastened on his back.
Lewis Morris had also grossly libeled the people of this part of Monmouth in a letter written to the Bishop of Lon- don, who was a man of influence with the English government, and by virtue of his office in the Church, a member of the House of Lords. This letter is pub- lished in full on pages 8 and 9 of Whitehead's eulogy of Lewis Morris, entitled "Papers of Governor Lewis Morris."
§Vol. II N. J. Arch., p. 508, section 6; Vol. III N. J. Arch., p. 71.
52
EARLY DUTCH SETTLERS OF MONMOUTH.
"Middletown was settled from New York and New England. It is a large township. There is no such thing as a church or religion amongst them. They are, perhaps, the most ignorant and wicked people in the world. Their meetings on Sunday are at the public house, when they get their fill of rum and go to fighting and running of races."
Capt. Andrew Bowne, a Baptist, to- gether with many others of this sect, had met for religious services for many years previous to this time. Richard Hartshorne, a consistent Quaker, and others of this belief, are all included in this sweeping condemnation. So are Garret and Jan Schenck, Peter Wyckoff, Daniel Hendrickson, Jacob VanDorn and the Couwenhovens, who had all brought over from Long Island to Mon- mouth, their brass clasped Dutch Bibles, and tried to follow in everyday life the teachings therein. Some of these old Bibles are yet in existence and the pages show by the wear, that they were in everyday use for many years, or until the Dutch tongue was lost by their descendants.
The first pioneer settlers of Mon- mouth from Rhode Island and Grave- send, were men and women who had been persecuted and driven out of New England, because of their conscientious adherence to Baptist and Quaker con- victions. It is true that many of them were dead at this time, but their chil- dren had become men and women and tried to follow in their footsteps. Knowing all this, Lewis Morris rep- resented to the great Prelate of the Church of England, that they were the most degraded and evil-minded of all the inhabitants of this earth, and of course would naturally associate with cut-throats and robbers, and oppose such a godly and good churchman as Lewis Morris.
This charge of abetting pirates to es- cape from the officers of the law was a most serious one. Piracy was a high crime and punishable by English law with death on the scaffold. Capt. Kidd had been arrested only a short time before. Assisting a man accused of being a "Red Seaman," as they then called pirates, to escape was to become an accessory to the crime, and liable to same penalty. To break up a court and imprison the judges, who repre- sented the King of England, was rank rebellion and an unpardonable crime like treason.
In view of these dark and evil accu- sations against the pioneer settlers of the old township of Middletown, whose descendants are now found among the most respectable citizens of this county
and state, and in nearly all the other states of our union, it becomes impor- tant to understand the characters and interests and feelings of the leaders of the contending parties and factions of that time.
Only in this way can we ascertain whether these charges are true, or only trumped up for political ends or .0 gratify private vengeance. It is also a very interesting and important period in our colonial history, for it ended the Proprietary government and brought about a new era in our history.
When the last of the perfidious and false-hearted Stuarts was kicked out of England, and the Dutch king of "Glorious Memory" ascended the throne the principles of religious toleration which had long prevailed in the repub- lic of Holland, together with personal liberty, were established for the first time in England and her colonies, by constitutional law. It was the great revolution of 1688, the most important era in English history.
The commercial interests of Holland had long demanded the suppression of piracy, and the interests of the great merchants of England, whose commerce was then next to the Netherlands, de- manded it for the same cause. William of Orange used all his power in this direction, and caused laws to be enact- ed by the English Parliament of the most severe character against this crime.
In obedience to these laws and the earnest efforts of William of Orange to enforce them, the Lords of Trade sent the following order to the New Jersey proprietors and their officials in control of the provincial government: "That no Pirate or Sea-Robber be anywhere sheltered or entertained under the sev- crest penalties." This order was dated "February 9th, 1696-7 |." some three years before "Moses Butterworth," one of Captain Kidd's men, came to New Jersey. .
At this period, and for many years thereafter, merchant vessels bound for distant seas were manned and armed like men-of-war, for there was often more fighting than trading. The waters of the East Indies and the China and Malay coasts swarmed with ferocious and savage pirates. No ship in those far-off waters was safe from capture unless well armed and manned with a large crew of fighting men.
Morocco, Algiers, and other barbar- ous powers on the northern coast of
| Vol. II, N. J. Archives, p. 134-136.
53
EARLY DUTCH SETTLERS OF MONMOUTH.
Africa had long made piracy a business. The capture and enslavement of white Christians was a legitimate and profit- able enterprise, according to their code of morals.
The Netherland republic had for a long time previous to the landing of their Stadtholder and his Dutch troops at Torbay, tried to suppress these sea- robbers of the Mediterranean, while Charles II of England had encouraged and aided them to injure the commerce of Holland.
After 1688. under the rule of the Dutch king, common sense and com- mon honesty began to guide the policy of the English government for the first time, since great Cromwell's death. The maritime nations of Europe, jealous of each other, and rivals in commercial colonization, were in this age almost constantly at war, and privateers were used to prey on each other's merchant ships. These privateers and armed merchant vessels when in the Pacific or Indian oceans, or along the Amer- ican Atlantic coast, did not hesitate to attack and capture vessels of another nation, even when at peace, if they thought the spoils warranted the risk. News in those days traveled slowly. and even if such atrocities were heard of from the other side of the world, witnesses to the facts would be lack - Ing for "Dead men tell no tales."
The American coast, particularly the Spanish Main, as called, was a lavorite cruising ground for these half-pirates and half-privateers or armed illegal trading ships. Under the strong and resolute guidance of the Dutch king from the vantage ground of the Eng- lish throne, the old policy of the Hol- land republic was thoroughly and en- ergetically supported by England, to root out and exterminate these pests of trade and commerce" The readers of colonial history will remember how common it was in this age to accuse colonial officers with harbouring pir-
f. Capt. Kidd, at this date (1701), was in prison in England awaiting trial for piracy. The English people were all agog over the thousand rumors about his horrible crimes on the high seas. His conviction and execution was a foregone conclusion. The commercial interests of England demanded a victim to serve as an example or "scare-crow" to intim- idate the sea rovers who infested the ocean. Capt. William Kidd happened to be the first one who put in an appearance at the wrong time for himself. At an earlier day when the Stuarts ruled or at a later day he would have been welcomed as a hero, like Jamison when he got back to England from his piratical ex- pedition against the Dutch farmers of the Transvaal.
ates and sharing in their plunder. The charge was easily made if the pirate ships happened by chance or design to run into some bay or harbor, whether the governor knew it or not; so if a pirate crew or part of them slipped into New York or Philadelphia to spend their gold in wild orgies or carousels, the blame would be cast on the gover- nor of harboring them, even if he had ro knowledge of it. This charge was readily believed in England, for had they not been dumping their vaga- bonds, thieves and adventurers into the American colonies for many years, and what better could be expected? To disprove such complaints and charges required an expensive and long voyage across the Atlantic ocean, with wit- nesses and legal delays and expensive lawyers to fee. Finding how credulous the English government was in enter- taining and acting on these accusa- tions, and how fatal it was to the polit- ical life of a colonial governor or other officer, it soon became a favorite wea- pon of the politicians or office seekers of that time, to make this charge of "harboring and entertaining pirates" when they wanted to "down" some ob- noxious officer, or get his place for themselves or friends. This same charge was made against Governor Andrew Hamilton to the Lords of Trade under date of May 20, 1702, by William Dockware and Peter Sonmans, as fol- lows:
"His (Hamilton) encouraging and protecting pirates and receiving money from them, particularly Merick and Elson, two of Averries' crew, who to- gether with several others, lived under his government unmolested 'till after- ward seized by his successor, (Basse) and by him delivered to the governor of New York ** **
Under date May 2, 1700, Governor Hamilton writes as follows:
Since my arrival (December, 1699), I have taken four pirates into custody that came from Madagascar. Their
names are James How. Nicholas Churchill, Robert Hickman and John Eldridge. Eldridge's treasure is in the hands of Col. Quarry of Philadelphia. If the other three have any, it is hid in the woods, or elsewhere, for there is none to be found about them. How is a sensible man, and I presume if he is promised a pardon, can make consid- erable discoveries. 1 shall, pursuant to His Majesty's orders to my Lord Bellomont, (governor of New York with admiralty jurisdiction) deliver up to
1 N. J. Archives, Vol. II. p. 471.
5-4
EARLY DUTCH SETTLERS OF MONMOUTH.
his Excellency the before named per- sons and what treasure I can at any time discover, belonging to them or any such people, who, I am sensible are a pest among mankind.
Your Most Humble Servant,
ANDREW HAMILTON, May, 1700.
This letter proves that Hamilton knew that the courts of New Jersey had no jurisdiction over this crime. Only admiralty courts could try offen- ces committed on the high seas like piracy, and the governor of New York was vice admiral and there was admir- alty court in that province. For this reason the New Jersey officials were ordered to send all pirates taken in this province to Bellomont, the New York governor. This is just what Hamilton writes he will do, and this was his only duty in the premises. The county courts of Monmouth had no more jurisdiction over piracy or other crimes committed outside of its terri- tory, than they have today. Only crim- inal offences committed within the county boundaries can be tried in the county courts.
Besides, Hamilton resided at Bur- lington, in Burlington county, and any examination to see if there was prob- able cause to believe him guilty and so hold him, could have been taken before a justice of that place. In the above four cases Hamilton does not bind any of the four men to appear before the high court of Common Right at Perth Amboy or any of the county courts of sessions. Neither does he take any ex- amination before a justice or himself. but writes that in pursuance of King William's orders he will deliver up the four pirates to Governor Bellomont of New York. This was all he was re- quired to do and all he could do in such cases.
How then, can we explain his action
at Middletown village in the case of Moses Butterworth, Capt. Kidd's man, as he admitted?
If he confessed his guilt there was no necessity for any examination to ascer- tain if there was probable cause to de- prive him of his liberty. And why bind over a "self-confessed pirate" to ap- pear before a county court at a remote place in the woods, as Middletown vil- lage was then situated, when it could just as well have been done before Hamilton himself at Burlington.
His duty at the most in such crimes was merely that of a committing mag- istrate. And what necessity was there for Hamilton as governor to preside formally at the remote courts of Mon- mouth, when Lewis Morris or Capt. Samuel Leonard, two of his council, were fully capable of transacting all the court business. All these questions can be answered, and the old settlers of Middletown, like Daniel Hendrick- son, Jacob VanDorn, William Hen- dricks, and others cleared of this accu- sation that they broke up a court to rescue a "Pyrate" and were "the most ignorant and wicked people in the world."
This "pirate business" was a device or scheme of Lewis Morris, Hamilton, Leonard and others to throw blame on their political opponents, and put them in false position, or "hole," as modern politicians call it. They also wanted to hide the real issues involved, and particularly such questions as would cause the proprietors to lose the right of government over New Jersey. This pirate, Moses Butterworth, was "a good enough Morgan" for their purposes, but like all other frauds and deceptions they overreached themselves, when they put on record that he was a "self confessed pirate" and when this court had no jurisdiction either to try or punish him, even if he had been "Bloody Blackbeard" in person.
SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF LEWIS MORRIS OF MONMOUTH AND ELSEWHERE.
Andrew Hamilton had served as gov- ernor of New Jersey from 1692 to 1697. when he was superseded by Jeremiah Basse, an Englishman. The proprie- tors wrote from England that Hamilton was dismissed, not for any fault, but because all Scotchmen were debarred by a late act of parliament, from hold- ing offices of trust or profit in an Eng- lish colony.
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