USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > First church in Newark : historical discourses, relating to the First Presbyterian church in Newark; originally delivered to the congregation of that church during the month of January, 1851 > Part 5
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effect : Town meetings may be called by offences had to be passed more than once, the townsmen, and 24 hours shall be ac- so prevailing was the disposition to be de- linquent. (Town Records, pp. 9, 36, 50, 59, 98, 114.) counted legal warning. "The drum is to be beaten twice in fair weather; the first drum is to be beaten as far as Sergeant * Not "Dividend," as it has been called subsequently. The word seems to have been coined from the Latin dividens, and means dividing. The line there drawn was called "the divident line," and the hill, for the same reason, the "Divident Hill." Dividend would carry a different meaning, and is not used in the Record. See Newark Town Records, p. 8. Harrison's gate, and the second at the meeting house about half an hour after, at which time every planter shall be at the place of meeting to answer to his name." The fines imposed were six-pence for tar- diness, fifteen shillings for a half day's absence, half a crown for a whole day, and two shillings for going away before the meeting was dismissed. Absence for any part of the day incurred the loss of a man's vote. This order was renewed with great unanimity in 1680, 1683 and and 1690. But acts of indemnity for past
+ Answer to Bill in Chancery, p. 47- If any spot in this vicinity deserves a monument it is the "little round hill called Divident Hill," where the pious fathers of Newark and Elizabethtown made and
41
PRESERVATION OF ORDER.
chivalrous magistrate should have thought the work done "in so loving and solemn a manner" that the boundary then and there set ought never to be re- moved; although, alas for human frailty, we find the same boundary made the subject of less loving alterca- tion many years afterwards.
For the preservation of internal order, the measures which these worthy men employed, seem to have been strict, yet not severe. A single man, of approved character, was appointed to keep an ordinary, or public house "for the entertainment of travelers and stran- gers,"* and he alone was allowed to retail ardent
solemnized "THEIR LOVING AGREEMENT." The pagans of classic days would have been sure to erect there a splendid temple of Concord. The following beautiful lines by Mrs. E. C. KINNEY, wife of Hon. Wm. B. Kinney, American Chargé d'affaires at Turin, are a worthy tribute :
Pause here, O Muse ! that Fancy's eye May trace the footprints still Of men that, centuries gone by, With prayer ordained this hill : As lifts the misty veil of years, Such visions here arise As when the glorious Past appears Before enchanted eyes.
I see from midst the faithful few Whose deeds yet live sublime- Whose guileless spirits, brave, as true, Are models 'for all time,'
A group upon this height convened- In solemn prayer they stand- Men, on whose sturdy wisdom leaned The settlers of our land.
In mutual love the line they trace That will their homes divide, And ever mark the chosen place That prayer hath sanctified : And here it stands-a temple old, Which crumbling Time still braves ; Though ages have their cycles rolled Above those patriots' graves.
As Christ transfigured on the height The three beheld with awe, And near his radiant form, in white, The ancient prophets saw ;
So, on this summit I behold With beatific sight, Once more our praying sires of old, As spirits clothed in light.
A halo crowns the sacred hill, And thence glad voices raise
A song that doth the concave fill- Their prayers are turned to praise ! Art may not for these saints of old The marble urn invent ;
Yet here the Future shall behold Their Heaven-built monument.
* The first person designated to this office was Henry Lyon, the town Treas- urer, who, at the town meeting in Jan'y, 1668-9, is recorded as having been chosen, and directed " to prepare for it as soon as he can." Two years later, "the town chose Thomas Johnson" for the keeper of the ordinary, "and prohibited all others from selling any strong liquors by retail under a gallon, unless in case of necessity, and that by license from the town magis- trate." Again, two years after this, it is on record, that "Mr. Crane having liquors for six shillings a gallon, and 1s. 6d. a quart, they paying wheat for it, hath lib- erty to sell liquors in the town till the country order alter it." Such was the old "license law" and its operation in the town of Newark in Puritan times. A still stricter law was enacted by the Asembly in 1668, but its authority had probably ex- pired. Newark Town Records.
42
PRESERVATION OF ORDER.
spirits except by a special license. To secure the settlement against the annoyance of evil-minded per- sons, who might be disposed to intrude upon it, it was determined, among the original agreements on the basis of which the lands were taken up, that whoever should desire to become a settler must, if a stranger, bring a certificate of good character "from the chief of the place" whence he came, and then be received into the community by a vote of the town. Nor was any land allowed to be alienated, except in case of in- heritance, without the town's consent. Hence we find in their early proceedings, repeated notices of permis- sion given to individuals to purchase real estate of such and such persons. And should lands be sold contrary to this regulation the sale was void, and the land, not confiscated to the town's use, but returned into their hands, "they paying the owner or possessor of it valua- able consideration as indifferent men shall appraise it."* "To prevent the disorderly meeting of young persons at unseasonable times," a law was made that no master of a family should allow such meetings on his premises in the
* Newark Town Records, pp. 3, 5, &c. or otherwise, sell, give nor any way alien- This may serve to account for an order ate or pass on lease, or let any house or house lot, or any part or parcel of them, or any land of what kind or quality soever to any such person; nor shall any planter or inheriter permit any such person or persons so coming and resorting, to stay or abide above one montlı, without license from those the town shall appoint for that purpose, under the penalty of five pounds for every such defect, besides all damages that may grow by such entertainment." Town Records, p. 84. The whole race de- nominated loafers, it seems, used to find very stringent in its aspect, which was passed by the town in the year 1681, when the settlement began to be troubled with undesirable visitors. It is as follows: "To prevent sundry inconveniences which may grow to this town of Newark, by the inconsiderate receiving and entertaining of strangers among us, it is voted that henceforward no planter belonging to us, or within our bounds or limits, receive or entertain any man or woman, of what age or quality soever, coming or resorting to us, to settle upon their land; nor shall little quarter in "our town upon Passaic any person that hath been received as a river," in the days of the Puritans. planter among us by right of inheritance
43
SCHOOL-QUIT RENTS.
night after nine o'clock, "extraordinary occasions ex- cepted," nor under any circumstances should he permit such persons "to spend their time, money or provis- ions inordinately, in drinking, gaming and such like," nor in "any carriage, conference or council which tends to corrupt one another." The penalty for transgress- ing this law was to be "such fines as the authorities shall see fit."
The first school law enacted in the Province, was in the year 1693. But long before this, as early as 1676, " the schoolmaster was abroad" here, and the town's men authorized by vote to perfect the bargain with him on condition that he "do his faithful, honest and true endeavor," to teach the children or servants read- ing, writing and arithmetic .*
In the management of their relations with the Pro- prietors, the people of this town appear to have acted with great discretion and fidelity. When the time ap- proached for the first payment of the annual quit-rents, some of the settlements were in great commotion-the claims of the Proprietors were denied, and the arrival of the 25th of March, 1670, "caused the suppressed passions of those inimical to the existing government, to break forth at once in decided and violent opposi- tion."+ But no such scenes took place on the banks of the Passaic. The Governor fearing, perhaps, there might be some reluctance, wrote to the people here
* Newark Town Records, p. 64. In 1671 we find a notice that "Richard -," probably either Richard Fletcher or Rich- ard Hore, who seems to have had the mis- fortune afterwards, of becoming the first pauper in the settlement, " is admitted as
a freeholder on condition of setting his name to our agreements, and he hath promised to set about learning to read, which was an encouragement to them herein." p. 37.
t Whitehead, p. 54.
44
CIVIL AND DIVINE RIGHTS.
more than a month before the payment became due. Their prompt reply, spiced it may be with a little just indignation at being even suspected, and showing suf- ficient resolution to defend their own rights from arbi- trary encroachments, while they freely yielded all that belonged to others, deserves special notice as a speci- men of character. It is on record* that "the Gover- nor's writing was read, and after some debate upon it, they agreed as follows : 'After all due salutations, pre- sented by the constable, to our worshipful Governor, we, the inhabitants and freeholders of the town of Newark, do, by him, make returns to the said Gover- nor's writing, as followeth, viz .: That they do hold and possess their lands and rights in the said town, both by a civil and a divine right, as by their legal purchase and articles doth and may show.'"+ That is to say, they had acquired a divine right by a fair pur- chase from the natives, to whom in their esteem, God
* Newark Town Records, p. 27.
+ It has been inferred, from the fact that the people made so much of their Indi- an titles, that they were disposed to disown those given by the Proprietors, and repu- diate their own corresponding obligations. Nothing could be further from the truth, as far as respects the people of Newark. Their Indian titles they regarded as the basis of their moral rights, and kept them carefully to be filed in at the court of Heaven. But their titles from the Pro- prietors, both before and after they took patents, were preserved by them as the basis of their civil rights, in virtue of which they claimed of the Proprietary Government protection and defence against the pretensions of all other civil- ized claimants. "The Puritans and the lawyers," says Mr. Bancroft, " differed widely on the subject of real estate in the
New World." But, however that may have been, the Newark Puritans were de- termined to maintain no controversy of doubtful issue with either the lawyers or their own private consciences ; and with a magnanimity scarce paralleled except among their brethren of the same noble race, both purchased of the Indians, pay- ing them to their full satisfaction, and took legal titles from the Proprietary claimants, discharging promptly and cheerfully their whole demand for every inch of land of which they claimed to be owners. This is what I understand by the words "you assuring them to us," and the demand repeatedly made by them to be protected in the peaceable enjoyment of "our right and title to the land we bought of the heathen." Town Records, pp. 27, 101.
45
QUIT-RENTS PAID PROMPTLY.
had given a just claim to this country, and a civil right by an agreement with the Lords Proprietors, by whom they claimed to be defended in the peaceable posses- sion of what they had so acquired. "And as for the payment of the half-penny per acre for all our allotted lands," they add, " according to our articles, and inter- pretations of them, you assuring them [the lands] to us, we are ready, when the time comes, to perform our duty to the Lords or their assigns." Accordingly, when the time came, or rather the day previous, a vote was passed that every man bring in to the ap- pointed receivers, "his just share and proportion of wheat for his lands;" and that on "the next day," the 25th of March, 1770, the day fixed by the Concessions, the said receivers "should carry it to Elizabethtown, and make a tender of it to the Governor upon the ac- count of the Lords Proprietors' rent."* Year by year,
* Town Records, p. 29. That individ- uals in the community may have been de- linquent or tardy in their discharge of pe- cuniary obligations is very likely ; but how far it is possible to fix such a charge upon the people of Newark, as a community, let the following extracts from the Town Records tell. Quit-rents first became due March 25, 1670.
"Town meeting, March 24, 1669-70, it was by their joint vote agreed that Henry Lyon [the treasurer] and Thomas Johnson [the constable] should take and receive every man's just share and proportion of wheat for his land, the summer wheat at 4s. per bushel, and winter wheat at 5s., according to the order and time prefixed to them, to bring it to Johnson's house before the day be over; or else if they fail they are to double the quantity; which corn the said Lyon and Johnson are to-morrow to carry to Elizabethtown and make a ten- whether the Governor would accept the der thereof to the Governor upon the ac- count of the Lords Proprietors' rent for
the lands we make use of ACCORDING TO ARTICLES March 25, 1670."-pp. 28-9.
" Town meeting, 20 March, 1670-1. Item -It was agreed that Henry Lyon and Thomas Johnson shall go to our Governor in behalf of the town and make a tender to him in good wheat for the payment of their half penny per acre to him for the Lords Proprietors in like manner as they did the last year, at the day appointed, in case he will accept of the same. That then they are fully empowered to give notice by the warners of the town for every one to bring in his proportion of corn to the constable's house the morning of the day appointed, by seven or eight o'clock, that they may send it to their Governor and take a discharge of him for the same; and they are at least to bring in as much as they did last year, and more if they [the officers] see cause." N. B .- The doubt seems to have been quit-rents in wheat, as they had no money. -p. 33.
46
LAW AND ORDER.
through all that early period, and notwithstanding what was done to the contrary elsewhere, this order was regularly renewed ; and it is no small compliment to the town, that the Proprietors, three quarters of a century after, make the declaration that so far as they know, neither they nor their predecessors, "from the first settlement of the Province to this day, ever had any controversy in law or equity with the people of Newark."*
The early settlers of Newark were eminently a law- loving and law-abiding people. When they arrived, no laws had been established in the Province. There- fore we found them re-establishing, for a temporary purpose, those which had been in force in the old col- ony, and covenanting one with another to submit cheerfully to the authority of such magistrates as should be chosen from among themselves. It was well that they made this agreement, for in the stormy and unsettled times which ensued, they would have been left almost without government but for this voluntary civil compact, on which they found occasion more than once to throw themselves back.+
The orders for the two years following the above will be quoted on another page: They are equally strict. After that, the Dutch came into power, and the Proprie- tary rights were suspended.
* Appendix to Bill in Chancery, p. 36.
+ An instance of this sort occurs und er date of Jan. 2, 1670-1, during the period in which Governor Philip Carteret was struggling vainly to govern the people without an Assembly; the laws enacted in 1668 having expired by limitation, un- less they had been formally confirmed by the Proprietors in England, of which I am not aware that there is any evidence. The record is, "We renew all of our sol-
emn agreement to submit to law and au- thority among ourselves, till it be settled in the Province. Its record, fol. 3." [It is recorded, p. 3.] Town Records, p. 32. Another instance equally noticeable oc- curs March 25, 1689-90, a few months after the Deputy-Governor " Hamilton left East Jersey for Europe, in August, 1689, and the inhabitants were left to the guar- dianship of their county and town officers from that time until 1692." (Whitehead, p. 129.) It is as follows : "It is voted that there shall be a committee chosen to order all affairs in as prudent a way as they can, for the safety and preservation of our- selves, wives, children and estates, accord-
47
DISSATISFACTION WITH THE GOVERNMENT.
But though gifted with more than an ordinary skill in governing themselves, we find in their proceedings, little evidence of a reluctance to submit to higher authority when legally established. It has been al- leged indeed, that once, in the year 1672, their repre- sentatives united with those of other towns in an illegal General Assembly, which deposed the Gover- nor, appointed another in his stead, and took the reins of government into their own hands .* It may be so. Yet I must crave the privilege to doubt whether the true spirit of that transaction has been fully under- stood. The reason ordinarily assigned for it is an un- willingness on the part of the people to pay the quit- rents. But it is capable of proof that no such motives could have actuated the people of Newark; since, at the beginning of that very year, the town distinctly recognized the obligation, and made provision for the payment; and at the close of it, in view of the ap- proaching pay-day, gave a peremptory order that the whole should be seasonably collected, and authorized
ing to the capacity we are in. Mr. Ward, Receiver General, and others, and obliged Mr. Johnson, Azariah Crane, William Camp, Edward Ball and John Brown are chosen to join with those in military ca- pacity." Town Records, p. 114.
* Bill in Chancery, pp. 67, 68. “It ap- pears that in the year 1672, not only the inhabitants of Elizabethtown, but also those of Newark, Woodbridge and Piscat- away did, contrary to the very agreements upon which they had settled and were ad- mitted inhabitants, pretend to the right both of soil and government, by Nichols's grant aforesaid, and by their own author- ity elected James Carteret, son of Sir George Carteret as their President and Governor, imprisoned the Secretary and
Governor Carteret to fly to England to com- plain of these proceedings," &c. "They, with the inhabitants of sundry other towns, prevailed on James Carteret, a weak and dissolute youth, son of Sir George Carteret, one of the Proprietors, to assume upon him the actual exercise of the government of New Jersey, as by their election, who not only pretended that title to the government, but also as Proprietor by grant of his father to him," &c. p. 35. See also an address to Berk- ley and Carteret by the Council in 1672. E. J. Records. Graham, p. 466. White- ead, pp. 55, 56.
48
ALLEGED RESISTANCE.
the constable to distrain for the amount in case any persons should prove themselves delinquent .*
Dissatisfaction with the course of the Proprietary Government we often find in them. Probably both they and the neighboring settlements had more occa- sion for it than can now be proved. Their petitions for redress of grievances, and their negociations for the security of what they deemed their just rights are to be seen all along the history of their procedure. But of resistance to lawful authority in its lawful exer- cise, I find no satisfactory evidence.
As the transaction in question may be thought to affect the character of some of the leading men of the community at that time, I may be justified in giving it a more extended consideration than would otherwise be suitable to an ecclesiastical narrative. The allega- tion referred to, it must be observed, rests chiefly on the authority of the Proprietary party, while it is per- emptorily denied by their opponents,t and it is agreed I believe, on all hands, that no little obscurity hangs over the whole matter.
* Newark Town Records, pp. 39, 41, 45. must distrain for it." In the month of Under date of Nov. 14, 1671, it is recorded May following, the disturbances above al- luded to took place. Under date of Jan. 31, 1672-3, it is recorded as follows ; “It was agreed and voted that the rate for the half-penny an acre shall be brought in to the constable's house, by the third day of Feb- ruary next; and in case it be not brought in by or on that day, the constable shall have liberty to distrain for it, and those that are the occasion of it shall bear all the charges about it." as follows: "Concerning rates it was agreed that all rates that shall be levied this present year, (except the Lord rent and the surveying of land) should be made and levied by persons," &c .-- and concerning the Lords' rent and surveying of lands, the charges thereof should be levied by lands only." Further on, under the same date, we find the following: "The rates made for the town were read and published; and it is agreed, that every man should pay in his proportion to the treasurer, between this and the 10th of Feb- ruary next, or else the constable by order
t See Answer to the Bill in Chancery, pp. 24-5. "And these defendants further answering do deny that they, or those un- der whom they claim, did ever apply to
49
GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
The circumstances, as far as I can gather them, seem to be nearly as follows: The Concessions had secured to the people the privilege of an annual Gen- eral Assembly, with power to appoint its own time and place of meeting, and adjourn its sessions from time to time, " as they should think convenient."* But before the close of the first meeting, the Governor and Council came into collision with the representatives, on the question whether the two branches should sit together or in separate chambers,t a question not set- tled in the terms of the Concessions, but by a very natural construction, determinable in favor of the peo- ple's views .¿ On this dispute the Assembly was broken up, with an implied threat on the part of the Govern- ment, that the people would get the worst of the bargain. And so it proved. For the Governor and Council seem to have taken the responsibility after this, of governing the country for the most part with- out a General Assembly.§ Meanwhile, suspicions were
James Carteret, in the Bill mentioned, to prevail on him to assume the powers of government, as in and by the said bill of complaint is, as they believe most untruly suggested."
* The privilege of an annual General Assembly, was one of the chief safeguards of the people's rights, and probably one of the chief inducements for the settlers to remove hither from New England. Its first session was held fifteen years in ad- vance of any similar body in New York ; where the notions of the Governor re- specting taxation, &c., are a sufficient il- lustration of the value of such a provision. (See Bancroft, vol. ii, p. 321, 1st ed.)
+ The representatives complained also that the Concessions were not observed on the part of the Governor and Council. "And therefore," say they, "we think our
way rather to break up our meeting, see- ing the order of the Concessions cannot be attended to." Grants and Concessions, p. 90. Whitehead, p. 190.
# The requirement that the Governor should preside in the Assembly, seems to imply that there was to be but one body. So does the manner of stating the required quorum. (Grants and Conces- sions, p. 15.)
§ It has been stated that no Assembly met after this for seven years. This must be a mistake. Smith states (Hist. New Jersey, pp. 69, 70,) that an extra- ordinary Council was held in New York in Sept. 1671, between the Governors of New York and New Jersey and others, in relation 'to some depredations by the In- dians, in which, among other measures for chastising the offenders, it was agreed
4
50
ARBITRARY RULE.
afloat that the Governor was strengthening himself against the people, by secretly accumulating arms in his own possession, and weakening their strength by interfering with the training of their militia .* There is no doubt that the people feared their liberties and rights were exposed to peril. And what was to be done ? The laws enacted in 1668 had probably ex- pired by limitation; and there were now no laws rightfully established in the Province.+ Meanwhile questions of exciting interest were agitating the minds of the people in some parts of the Province, and prompting to rebellion and violence. The Governor, struggling to maintain authority without law, was re- sorting to a variety of expedients, erecting courts by his own arbitrary mandates, or what is the same in ef- fect, extending the jurisdiction of existing local courts in violation of the express provisions of the Conces- sions .¿ The people who had come hither and em- barked their dearest interests in the settlement of the
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