USA > New Jersey > Historical collections of the state of New Jersey : containing a general collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc. relating to its history and antiquities, with geographical desciptions of every township in the state. > Part 4
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. Jenings, William Hibes, Samuel Lovett, John Woolston, William Woodmancy, Christopher Saunders, and Robert Powell. John Wilkinson and William Perkins were likewise, with their families, passengers ; but, dying on the passage, the latter were exposed to additional hardships, which were however moderated by the care of their fellow-passengers. Perkins was early in life convinced of the principles of those called Quakers, and lived well in Leices- tershire ; but seeing an account of the country, wrote by Richard Hartshorne, and forming views of advantage to his family, though in his fifty-second year, he, with his wife, four children, and some servants, embarked in this ship. Among the latter was one Mar- shall, a carpenter, particularly serviceable in fitting up habitations for the new-comers ; but it being late in the fall when they arrived, the winter was much spent before the work was begun. In the
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interim they lived in wigwams, built after the manner of the In- dians. Indian corn and venison, supplied by the Indians, was their chief food. These people were not then much corrupted with strong liquors, but generally very friendly and helpful to the Eng- lish ; notwithstanding, it was thought endeavors had been used to make them otherwise, by insinuations that the English sold them the small-pox in their matchcoats. This distemper was among them, and a company getting together to consult about it, one of their chiefs said, 'In my grandfather's time the small-pox came ; in my father's time the small-pox came ; and now in my time the small-pox is come.' Then, stretching his hands toward the skies, he said, ' It came from thence.' To this the rest assented.
" Having traced this ship's company into winter-quarters, the next in course is the Willing Mind, John Newcomb commander : she arrived from London in November, and dropped anchor at Elsing- burgh-brought about sixty or seventy passengers. Some settled at Salem; others at Burlington. Among the former were James Nevill, Henry Salter, and George Deacon, with their families. In this year, also, arrived the 'Flie-boat Martha,' of Burlington, (Yorkshire)-sailed from Hull the latter end of summer, with one hundred and fourteen passengers, designed to settle the Yorkshire tenth. Some masters of families, in this ship, were Thomas Wright, William Goforth, John Lynam, Edward Season, William Black, Richard Dungworth, George Miles, William Wood, Thomas Schooley, Richard Harrison, Thomas Hooten, Samuel Taylor, Marmaduke Horsman, William Oxley, William Ley, and Nathaniel Luke; the families of Robert Stacy, and Samuel Odas; and Thomas Ellis and John Batts, servants,* sent by George Hutchin- son, also came in this ship. Twenty of the passengers, perhaps more, were living forty-five years afterward."-Smith's Hist. N. J.
The following, extracted from a letter from Mahlon Stacy, one of the first settlers of New Jersey, to his brother Revell, and some others, is descriptive of West Jersey at this period. It is dated the 26th of the 4th month, 1680 :
" But now a word or two of those strange reports you have of us and our country : I affirm they are not true, and fear they were spoke from a spirit of envy. It is a coun- try that produceth all things for the support and sustenance of man, in a plentiful man- ner; if it were not so, I should be ashamed of what I have before written. But I can stand, having truth on my side, against and before the face of all gainsayers and evil spies. I have travelled through most of the places that are settled, and some that are not ; and in every place I find the country very apt to answer the expectation of the diligent. I have seen orchards laden with fruit to admiration, their very limbs torn to pieces with the weight, and most delicious to the taste, and lovely to behold. I have seen an apple-tree from a pippin-kernel yield a barrel of curious cyder ; and peaches in such plenty that some people took their carts a peach-gathering : I could not but smile at the conceit of it. They are a very delicate fruit, and hang almost like our onions that
* Many that came servants succeeded better than some that brought estates : the first, inured to industry, and the ways of the country, became wealthy ; while the others, obliged to spend what they had in the difficulties of first improvements, and others living too much on their original stock, for want of sufficient care to improve their estates, have, in many instances, dwindled to indigency and want.
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are tied on ropes. I have seen and known, this summer, forty bushels of bold wheat of one bushel sown ; and many more such instances I could bring, which would be too tedious here to mention. We have, from the time called May until Michaelmas, great store of very good wild fruits, as strawberries, cranberries, and hurtleberries, which are like our bilberries in England, but far sweeter : they are very wholesome fruits. The cranberries are much like cherries for color and bigness, which may be kept till fruit come in again; an excellent sauce is made of them for venison, turkeys, and other great fowl; and they are better to make tarts than either gooseberries or cherries. We have them brought to our houses by the Indians, in great plenty. My brother Robert had as many cherries this year as would have loaded several carts. It is my judgment, by what I have observed, that fruit-trees in this country destroy themselves by the very weight of their fruit. As for venison and fowls, we have great plenty : we have brought home to our houses, by the Indians, seven or eight fat bucks of a day, and sometimes put by as many, having no occasion for them. And fish, in their season, are very plenteous. My cousin Revell and I, with some of my men, went last third month into the river to catch herrings; for at that time they came in great shoals into the shallows. We had neither rod nor net, but, after the Indian fashion, made a round pinfold, about two yards over, and a foot high, but left a gap for the fish to go in at ; and made a bush to lay in the gap to keep the fish in ; and when that was done, we took two long birches and tied their tops together, and went about a stone's cast above our said pinfold : then hauling these birch boughs down the stream, where we drove thousands before us, but so many got into our trap as it would hold. And then we began to haul them on shore, as fast as three or four of us could, by two or three at a time; and after this manner, in half an hour, we could have filled a three-bushel sack of as good and large herrings as ever I saw. And as to beef and pork, here is great plenty of it, and cheap ; and also good sheep. The common grass of this country feeds beef very fat : I have killed two this year, and therefore I have reason to know it. Besides, I have seen this fall, in Bur- lington, killed eight or nine fat oxen and cows, on a market day, and all very fat. And though I speak of herrings only, lest any should think we have little other sorts, we have great plenty of most sorts of fish that ever I saw in England, besides several other sorts that are not known there-as rocks, catfish, shads. sheep's heads, sturgeons; and fowls plenty-as ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, partridges, and many other sorts that I can- not remember, and would be too tedious to mention. Indeed the country, take it as a wilderness, is a brave country ; though no place will please all. But some will be ready to say, he writes of conveniences, but not of inconveniences. In answer to those, I honestly declare, there is some barren land, as (I suppose) there is in most places of the world, and more wood than some would have upon their lands ; neither will the country produce corn without labor, nor cattle be got without something to buy them, nor bread with idleness-else it would be a brave country indeed. And I question not but all then would give it a good word. For my part, I like it so well I never had the least thought of returning to England, except on the account of trade. MAHLON STACY."
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In a letter to William Cook of Sheffield, and others, Stacy wrote thus :
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" This is a most brave place ; whatever envy or evil spies may speak of it, I could wish you all here. Burlington will be a place of trade quickly ; for here is way for trade : I, with eight more, last winter, bought a good ketch of fifty tons, freighted her out at our own charge, and sent her to Barbados, and so to sail to Saltertugas, to take in part of her lading in salt, and the rest in Barbados goods as she came back ; which said voyage she hath accomplished very well, and now rides before Burlington, discharging her lad- ing, and so to go to the West Indies again. And we intend to freight her out with our own corn. We have wanted nothing since we came hither but the company of our good friends and acquaintance. All our people are very well, and in a hopeful way to live much better than ever they did; and not only so, but to provide well for their posterity. They improve their lands, and have good crops ; and if our friends and countrymen come, they will find better reception than we had by far at first, before the country was settled as now it is. I know not one among the people that desires to be in England again- I mean since settled. I wonder at our Yorkshire people, that they had rather live in servitude, and work hard all the year, and not be three-pence the better at the year's end, than stir out of the chimney-corner, and transport themselves to a place where, with the like pains, in two or three years they might know better things.
I never repented my coming hither, nor yet remembered thy arguments and outcry against New Jersey with regret. I live as well to my content, and in as great plenty as ever I did; and in a far more likely way to get an estate. Though I hear some have
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thought I was too large in my former, I affirm it to be true ; having seen more with mine eyes, in this time since, than ever yet I wrote of. MAHLON STACY.
"From the Falls of Delaware, in West New Jersey, the 26th of the 4th month, 1680."
"Sir George Carteret, sole proprietor of East Jersey, dying in 1679, by will, ordered that province to be sold, to pay his debts ; which was done accordingly, by his widow and executors, by in- denture of lease and release, bearing date the 1st and 2d of Feb- ruary, 1681-82, to William Penn, Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groome, Thomas Hart, Richard Mew, Thomas Wilcox, of London, (goldsmith,) Ambrose Rigg, John Haywood, Hugh Harts- horne, Clement Plumsted, and Thomas Cooper, their heirs and as- signs ; who were thence called the twelve proprietors. They, being together so seized, in this year published an account of their coun- try, a fresh project for a town, and method of disposing of their lands." The following items are extracts from the account re- ferred to above :
"Second. The conveniency of situation, temperature of air, and fertility of soil is such, that there are no less than seven considerable towns, viz : Shrewsbury, Middletown, Bergen, Newark, Elizabethtown, Woodbridge, and Piscataway ; which are well inhabited by a sober and industrious people, who have necessary provisions for themselves and fam- ilies, and for the comfortable entertainment of strangers and travellers. And this colony is experimentally found generally to agree with English constitutions."
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"Fourth. For fishery, the sea-banks there are very well stored with variety of fish- for not only such as are profitable for transportation, but such also as are fit for food there; as whales, cod-fish, cole and hake-fish, large mackerel, and also many other sorts of flat and small fish. The bay also, and Hudson's river, are plentifully stored with sturgeon, great bass, and other scale-fish, eels, and shell-fish, as oysters, &c., in great plenty, and easy to take." * * * * *
"Seventh. The land or soil (as in other places) varies in goodness and richness ; but generally fertile, and with much smaller labor than in England. It produceth plentiful crops of all sorts of English grain, besides Indian corn, which the English planters find not only to be of vast increase, but very wholesome and good in its use; it also produ- ceth good flax and hemp, which they now spin and manufacture into linen cloth. There is sufficient meadow and marsh to their uplands ; and the very barrens there, as they are called, are not like some in England, but produce grass fit for grazing cattle in summer season.
" Eighth. The country is well stored with wild deer, conies, and wild fowl of several sorts, as turkeys, pigeons, partridges, plover, quails, wild swans, geese, ducks, &c., in great plenty. It produceth variety of good and delicious fruits, as grapes, plums, mul- berries ; and also apricots, peaches, pears, apples, quinces, watermelons, &c., which are here in England planted in orchards and gardens. These, as also many other fruits, which come not to perfection in England, are the more natural product of this country. " Ninth. There is also already great store of horses, cows, hogs, and some sheep, which may be bought at reasonable prices, with English moneys or English commodities, or man's labor, where money and goods are wanting.
"Tenth. What sort of mines or minerals are in the bowels of the earth, after. time must produce, the inhabitants not having yet employed themselves in search thereof ; but there is already a smelting furnace and forge set up in this colony, where is made good iron, which is of great benefit to the country.
" Eleventh. It is exceedingly well furnished with safe and convenient harbors for ship- ping, which are of great advantage to that country ; and affords already, for exportation, great plenty of horses, and also beef, pork, pipe-staves, boards, bread, flour, wheat, bur- ley, rye, Indian corn, butter and cheese, which they export for Barbadoes, Jamaica, .Ne- vis, and other adjacent islands ; as also to Portugal, Spain, the Canaries, &c. Their whale-oil and whale-fins, beaver, mink, raccoon, and marten-skins, (which this country produceth,) they transport to England."
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"Thirteenth. The Indian natives in this country are but few, comparative to the neighboring colonies ; and those that are there are so far from being formidable or inju- rious to the planters and inhabitants, that they are really serviceable and advantageous to the English-not only in hunting and taking the deer, and other wild ereatures, and catching of fish and fowl fit for food, in their seasons, but in the killing and destroying of bears, wolves, foxes, and other vermin and peltry, whose skins and furs they bring the English, and sell at less priee than the value of time an Englishman must spend to take them."
* " As for passage to this provinee, ships are going hence the whole year about, as well * *
in winter as suminer, Sandy Hook bay being never frozen. The usual priee is five pounds per head, as well inasters or servants, who are above ten years of age; all under ten years, and not children at the breast, pay fifty shillings : sucking children pay nothing. Carriage of goods is usually forty shillings per ton, and sometimes less, as we ean agree. The cheapest and chiefest time of the year for passage is from midsummer till the latter end of September, when many Virginia and Maryland ships are going out of England into those parts ; and such who take then their voyage, arrive usually in good time to plant eorn sufficient for next summer.
" The goods to be carried there are, first, for people's own use ; all sorts of apparel and household stuff; and also utensils for husbandry and building : secondly, linen and wool- len eloths and stuffs, fitting for apparel, &c., which are fit for merchandise and truck there in the country, and that to good advantage for the importer-of which further ac. count will be given to the inquirer.
" Lastly. Although this country, by reason of its being already considerably inhabited, may afford many convenienees to strangers, of which unpeopled countries are destitute, as lodging, vietualling, &c., yet all persons inclining unto those parts must know that, in their settlement there, they will find their exercises. They must have their winter, as well as summer. They must labor before they reap; and, till their plantations be cleared, (in summer time,) they must expect (as in all those countries) the mosquitos, flies, gnats, and such like, may, in hot and fair weather, give them some disturbance, where people provide not against them-which, as land is eleared, are less troublesome."
The plan and proposals of the twelve proprietors became quite popular, particulary among the Scotch, many of whom came over and settled in East Jersey. "The twelve proprietors did not long hold the province to themselves, but, by particular deeds, took each a partner: their names were James, (Earl of Perth,) John Drum- mond, Robert Barclay, Robert Gordon, Aarent Sonmans, Gawen Lawrie, Edward Byllinge, James Braine, William Gibson, Thomas Barker, Robert Turner, and Thomas Warne. These, with the other twelve, were called the twenty-four proprietors : to them the Duke of York made a fresh grant of East. New Jersey, bearing date the 14th of March, 1682."
At this period there were "supposed to be about seven hundred families settled in the towns of East Jersey, which, reckoning five to a family, were three thousand and five hundred inhabitants ; be- sides the out plantations, which were thought to contain half as many more." Philip Carteret continued governor of East Jersey after the " quinty partite" division, till about the year 1681 .* The sessions of the assembly were mostly held at Elizabethtown, occa- sionally at Woodbridge, and once or more at Middletown and Pis- cataway.
* His salary was generally £50 a year, paid in country produec, at priees fixed by law ; and sometimes four shillings a day besides, to defray his charges while a sessions was held. The wages of the couneil and assembly, during their sitting in legislation, was to each member three shillings a day. The rates for public charges were levicd at two shillings per head for every male above fourteen years old.
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" Some of the first laws, as published by the legislature at Eliz- abethtown, were, in substance : That persons resisting authority should be punished at the discretion of the court; that men, from sixteen to sixty years of age, should provide themselves with arms, on penalty of one shilling for the first week's neglect, and two for every week after ; that for burglary, or highway robbery, the first offence, burning in the hand, the second, in the forehead-in both to make restitution-and for the third offence, death. For stealing, the first offence, treble restitution, and the like for the second and third offence, with such increase of punishment as the court saw cause, even to death, if the party appeared incorrigible ; but if not, and unable to make restitution, they were to be sold for satisfac- tion, or to receive corporal punishment. That conspiracies, or at- tacks upon towns or forts, should be death ; that undutiful children, smiting or cursing their father or mother, except provoked there- unto for self-preservation, upon complaint of, and proof from their parents, or either of them, should be punished with death; that in case of adultery, the party to be divorced, corporally punished, or banished, or either or all of them, as the court should judge proper ; that for night-walking and revelling, after the hour of nine, the parties to be secured by the constable, or other officer, till morning, and then, not giving a satisfactory account to the magistrate, to be bound over to the next court, and there receive such punishment as should be inflicted. That the meeting of the assembly should be always on the first Tuesday in November, yearly, and oftener if the governor and council thought necessary ; and that they should fix the governor's salary-the deputies of each town to be chosen on the first of January, according to the concessions. Any deputy absenting himself, at such times, was to be fined forty shillings for every day's absence. That thirty pounds should be levied for pro- vincial charges-i. e., £5 to be paid by each town, in winter-wheat, at five shillings a bushel, summer-wheat at four and six-pence. peas at three shillings and six-pence, Indian corn at three shillings. rve at four shillings, barley at four shillings, beef at two-pence half- penny per pound, and pork at three-pence half-penny. That no son, daughter, maid, or servant, should marry without the consent of his or their parents, masters, or overseers, without being three times published in some public meeting or kirk, near the party's abode, or notice being set up in writing at some public house near where they lived, for fourteen days before ; then to be solemnized by some approved minister, justice, or chief officer, who, on penalty of twenty pounds, and to be put out of office, were to marry none who had not followed those directions."
Among the new proprietors of East Jersey was Robert Barclay, of Urie, a Scottish gentleman, who had adopted the sentiments of the Friends or Quakers, and was the author of the celebrated " Apology" in their defence. By the unanimous choice of his colleagues, he was appointed for life first governor of East Jersey, under the new administration, with dispensation from personal residence, and
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authority to nominate his deputy. Thomas Rudyard was appointed deputy-governor, and arrived at his government about the begin- ning of 1683. He was superseded, however, at the close of the year, by Gawen Lawrie, also of London, who had been one of Byllinge's trustees for West Jersey. The successor of Lawrie was Lord Niel Campbell, who was succeeded by Alexander Hamilton, Esq.
About the year 1680, West Jersey, by the accession of many settlers, became somewhat populous. Samuel Jennings, having received a commission from Byllinge as deputy-governor, came over to West Jersey, called an assembly, and with them agreed upon a constitution of government, on the 25th of November, 1681. From this period, yearly assemblies were held, courts established in different places, and justice was administered in due course of law. The successors of Jennings in the administration of the gov- ernment were Thomas Olive, John Skeine, William Welsh, Daniel Cox, and Andrew Hamilton, who continued governor till the pro- prietary charter was surrendered to the crown.
"The year 1686 seems to have been a dangerous one in East Jersey, if the law then passed against wearing swords was prop- erly founded. According to that, several persons had received abuses, and were put in great fear from quarrels and challenges : to prevent it for the future, none, by word or message, were to make a challenge, upon pain of six months' imprisonment, without bail or mainprize, and a ten-pound fine. Whoever accepted or concealed the challenge was also to forfeit ten pounds. No person was to wear any pocket-pistols, skeins, stilladers, daggers, or dirks, or other unusual weapons, upon pain of five pounds' forfeiture for the first offence, and for the second to be committed, and on con- viction imprisoned for six months ; and moreover to pay a fine of ten pounds. No planter was to go armed with sword, pistol, or dagger, upon penalty of five pounds. Officers, civil and military, soldiers in service, and strangers travelling upon lawful occasions, were excepted. This law, for any thing that appears, is yet in force.
" The settlers, in both West Jersey and Pennsylvania, about the year 1687, were put to difficulties on account of food ; their crops having in great part failed. Several families had already spent their last, and were forced to subsist on what was spared by such of their neighbors as were better provided. These were few in proportion to the mouths to be filled. Some nigh the rivers had lived weeks upon fish : others were forced to put up with herbs ; but unexpectedly to many arrived a vessel from New England to Philadelphia, laden with corn, which proved an agreeable supply. This vessel meeting with a good market, others soon followed; so that the settlers were not afterward exposed to the like necessity for want of food."
The year 1701 was a memorable era in the history of New Jer- sey, on account of the disturbances and confusions that violently
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agitated the minds of the people. Each province had many and different proprietors, who promoted separate and intervening schemes and interests. To promote particular purposes, one party would have the choice and management of the governor, while another refused any but of their own nomination ; and a third objected to proposals from either. Discord prevailed, and every expedient to restore order, union, and regularity proved unsuccess- ful. The disorders in East Jersey made such an impression on the minds of many of the people, that they readily hearkened to over- tures made for a surrender of the proprietary government. A con- siderable part of West Jersey was also, for similar reasons, dis- posed to a resignation. The proprietors, weary of contending with each other, and with the people, drew up an instrument, whereby they surrendered their right of government to the crown, which was accepted by Queen Anne on the 17th of April, 1702.
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