USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Millstone in Monmouth County > Historical discourse on occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Reformed Dutch Church of Millstone > Part 2
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line, for six and a quarter miles, to a point directly west of Blawenburg, and thence east and south-east, border- ing on Dr. Greenland's land to the Millstone River, near Rocky Hill, and thence down the river a mile and a half, to the previous river grants (Benthall, etc.), and so along the southerly and westerly sides of these, and the lands of Royce, until it struck the Raritan, following which river and the South Branch, and winding around a couple of plantations previously ceded to Hooper# and Bennett, his bounds re- turned to Clover Hill, the place of beginning. Thus, our township began to be ceded about 1683, and all its lands had been actually taken up by individuals or companies by 1693, and the same was true of Montgomery township on the south, and of Bridgewater on the north, at least to the
East and West Jersey six and a quarter miles, to the corner of William Penn's land, thence east one and a half miles and five chains, east-south- east two and a half miles and five chains, to north corner of Henry Greenland's land, thence east by south along his line to Millstone River, down said river one and a half miles, to upper corner of Walter Benthall's land, thence opposite to the foot of Rocky Hills, thence west- north-west two and three-quarter miles and two chains, north-north-east three and three-quarter miles and three chains, east-south-east one mile and eighteen chains, west by north one and three-eight miles, to south- east corner of Thomas Cooper's land, west by north one mile and ten chains, north by east two and a half miles and nine chains, to Raritan River, up said River one-half mile and five chains, to corner of Dan. Hooper's land, around which, south-west by south and north-west by west, to the South Branch, up said Branch to the lower corner of Robt. Bennett's land, thence south-east by east two miles, less six chains, south-west by west one mile and six chains, thence west-south-west to place of beginning, containing 23,000 acres .- Deed in possession of Peter A. Voorhees, Esq., of Six Mile Run.
t Dan Hooper received 640 acres on Feb. 17th, 1692, beginning at the junction of North and South Branches, running down the river about half a mile, and up the South Branch about two miles.
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Blue Hills, if not farther. The Millstone Valley began to be permanently settled about 1690, 176 years ago .*
Respecting the present Franklin township on the east (not including the Raritan lots before referred to,) there seem to be conflicting grants.t While Wm. Dockwra owned an im- mense tract, extending more than two miles along the Mill- stone, yet in or before the year 1700, John Harrison, of Flushing, Long Island, purchased of the Indians # directly, a tract west of the Raritan lots, and apparently running back to the Millstone River, reaching nearly to Griggstown, on the river, and a little beyond Six Mile Run on the south-east. It embraced about 27 square miles. By or before the year 1700, therefore, all the neighboring territory was in the hands of Europeans. Royce and Sonmans, in the west, and Harrison and Dockwra, in the east, were among the first great landholders of the territory of our present congrega- tion.
But the Government of New York was at this time administered by Governors appointed by the Crown, and was quite oppressive.§ The same was also true of New
In the charter of the Church of Hillsborough, it is stated that the people of this place represent "That their ancestors and predecessors have been inhabitants of the township of Hillsborough and places adja- cent, from the first Christian settlement of the colony."
t For further particulars, see Early Records at New Brunswick, p. 272.
# The Indian titles and those of the proprietors often conflicted. Royce is represented as a troublesome man, because he incited the peo- ple to hold their lands by the Indian titles alone .- Whitehead's East Jersey, p. 224.
Yet it is also known that Dockwra sold portions of Franklin township afterward .- Papers of Jacob Wyckoff, of Middlebush.
Some of his grants had been located here.
§ Riker's Newtown, pp. 101, 137, and the historical authorities gene- rally.
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England. East Jersey was governed in a totally different manner. It was comparatively a free State. The twenty- four proprietors failed not to disseminate information, not only concerning the climate and soil of Jersey, but also con- cerning the freedom of its government, which had been increased under their rule. The Dutch * around New York had always been dissatisfied with the encroachments of the English, since the conquest, not only politically, but also in their church affairs, the Church of England having been established by law. Many of them took advantage, there- fore, of this opportunity to change their residence. Dutch companies and individuals soon began to buy tracts of vari- ous sizes of the original purchasers. Scotch and English emigrants also, who were exposed to not a little persecution from the national church at home, by the ship-load, arrived at Amboy, and penetrated up the Raritan.+
In 1742, (Feb. 28,) Clement Plumstead gave 2,000 acres of his land, including part of the territory of the present vil- lage of Millstone, to William Plumstead. Its northern bound was Peace Brook, and it extended up the river to Mr. Barker's land. In 1752, (May 1st,) Wm. Plumstead sold 246 acres of this plot, on the south of the Amwell road, to Christian Van Doren, for £740, and he three years later sold the same to his son, John Van Doren, for £100. Mr.
* The first Dutch on the Raritan came about 1683, and settled proba- bly near its mouth .- See Whitehead's East Jersey, pp. 289, 294.
t The town of Piscataway received a charter in 1666 (Whitehead's Amboy, p. 401) ; and as early as 1680 there were some English planta- tions on the Raritan, below New Brunswick. Thomas Lawrence, a banker in New York, had 3,000 acres. Also at Raritan Landing, set- tlements had begun in this year (Whitehead's East Jersey, p. 92, 272). The last day of August, 1683, was set apart to meet the Indians and buy the lands at the head of the Raritan .- Smith.
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Plumstead* had previously sold the strip between the Am- well road and Peace Brook, to Benjamin Thompson, while Lawrence Van Cleef had bought (also previously), to the south and west, of what now became the Van Doren tract. Henry Vanderveer had purchased to the west of Thompson.
Early in the century, Mr. Dockwra had sold on the banks of the Raritan and Millstone, 2,000 acres to John Covers and John Brocars ; + 1,800 acres to Van Wickland Bohoart, 400 to Thomas Purcell, 460 to Richard Davis, and 800 to Evert Van Wickland .¿ He also sold a tract of 400 acres up the Raritan, to Grotes Beekman and Evert Van Wickle, of New York.§
In 1701 John Harrison sold a portion of his tract to a Dutch company, consisting of Peter Cortelyou, Stoffel Pro- basco, Theodore Polhemus, Hendrick Lott, Hendrick Hen- dricks, Jacques Cortelyou, and Dennis Tunis, all of Long
* Plumstead's land began at the mouth of Peace Brook, running along said brook, west-north-west, 124 chains, south-south-west, 126, east- south-east 206 chains, to Millstone River, opposite to Reverdie Brook, and down the Millstone to the mouth of Peace Brook, leaving Barker on the south, Reneer Veghte on the west, and Powelson and John Post on the northi.
t He was probably the ancestor of the Scotch Brokaws in this coun- try. The French Huguenot Brokaw family originally wrote their name Brogaw (see Riker), and in France, Broucard. Bourgon Broucard came to America in 1675. He was born in 1645, and married Catherine Le Febre. IIe left five sons and three daughters; Isaac (born 1676,) re- mained on Long Island, while John (born 1678), Jacob (born 1680), Peter (born 1682), and Abraham (born 1684), removed to Somerset County, early in the last century.
# These sales of Dockwra were furnished by Mr. Wm. A. Whitehead, from MSS. in his possession.
§ Trenton deeds in Secretary's office (I think). This last tract was bounded south-east by Cover's and Brogaw's land ; east and west by
1
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Island .* They divided their plot into twelve equal lots, and in 1703, Cor. Wyckoff,t of Long Island, joined the party, purchasing lot No. 5 (1,200 acres), being in part the farm now owned by Mr. Jacob Wyckoff, of Middlebush. It then extended back to the Millstone. Still later, in 1723, Christian Van Doren (before mentioned,) purchased# nearly a square mile to the north of the present Middlebush church, running back to the Raritan and Millstone lots, already laid out. He came from Monmouth, whither the stream of Dutch emigration from Long Island had first set.
The sales of Jolin Royce are involved in considerable perplexity, on account of conflicting grants, and human dis- honesty. § Royce's patent originally took in, as we have seen, a square of land between the Millstone and the Rari-
Dockwra's ; south by land formerly owned by Stacklius; and north by Rich. Davis' and Evert Van Wickle's land.
* Papers of Jacob Wyckoff. The next tract south, John Harrison sold to Thos. Cardale, William Creed, Sam. Dean, Jona Wood and Sam. Smith, in 1702, and Cardale sold his share to John Berrien in 1703 .- Early Rec. at New Brunswick, p. 272.
t He sold to his son John 300 acres for £200, who built a log house, where Sam Garretson now lives. John's son, Cornelius, was the first child born in Middlebush, and succeeded his father on this tract, dying in 1795 .- Ralph Voorhees.
The ancestor of the Wyckoff family came to this country in 1636 (Pieter Claesz Wyckoff), and settled at Flatlands. He married Grietje Van Ness, and his sons were Claes, Hendrick, Cornelius, John, Gerrit, Martin and Peter. (Riker's Newtown, p. 324.) This Cornelius is proba- bly the one who bought land at Middlebush, in 1703.
# He appears to have purchased of Dockwra, from certain documents in possession of Jacob Wyckoff, of Middlebush. It is also said that the Van Dorens came to Monmouth direct from Holland.
§ Concerning Royce's dishonesty, see Whitehead's East Jersey, p. 224. But Mr. Hamilton's references to the situation of the neighbors, upon whom Royce encroached, do not seem to be in harmony with well- known facts of their location.
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tan, and extended from the covered bridge south and south- west for two miles, and thence east to the Millstone. But Mr. Royce fraudulently obtained another patent, still re- taining his old, which extended his possessions three miles further up the Raritan, and to Peace Brook, in this village, (the brook flowing under the arch bridge,) encroaching greatly on Mr. Plumstead, on the south, and on Mr. Cooper on the west. While he originally received less than five square miles in 1685, in 1693 he leased about eight square miles of land for 1,000 years to Charles Winder," for £206, with the privilege of redeeming it in three years. This he never did, but still continued to dispose of the lands, and the executors of both parties, after their deaths, claimed the same territory. In 1702, John Coevers (or Coevert,) bought 2,500 acres of Royce and Dockwra, on the Millstone and Royce's Brook ; while in 1703, Andrew Coeymans, of Al- bany, bought 500 acres of Royce, it being stipulated in the deed that that tract especially should henceforth be called Roycefield.+ This is the present district of that name.
Royce died in 170S, and his executors sold 1470 acres of his land to the east of Roycefield, and between the Raritan and
* Early Rec. at New Brunswick, p. 197. Though called a lease, it seems to have been of the nature of a mortgage.
t Royce was now living at Piscataway. This deed is dated June 2d, and the tract was sold for £80. Beginning at a small maple tree, at the mouth of a small stream of water, in a gully, by Ed. Drinkwater's land, then south ninety-one chains, west forty-eight chains, north 123 chains, north 3º west, twenty-three chains to the Raritan ; then by said river west, six chains twenty-five links, south 3º east twenty-three chains, east six chains twenty-five links, to a walnut-tree, thence cast by meadow land, formerly sold by Royce to Graham, and so to the place of beginning .- Parchment Deed, Amboy.
(These bearings are not altogether consistent, though copied correctly from the deed.)
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Millstone Rivers and Royce's Brook, (to be henceforth known by the name of Royston,") to Philip Hedman, for less than five dollars an acre; and four years later (1712) Hedman sold the same tract to Michael Van Vechty + and his asso- ciates, viz., Volkerse, Post, Allen, Wortman, Tunison, An- driese, and Van Nest. ¿ But this land, as well as the adjoining tract to the south, was now also claimed by the executors of Winder; and this Dutch company, hav- ing come in some way into possession of £500 of Royce's estate, from whom the land had been honestly purchased, with this money leased the two tracts § of Winder's execu- tors for the yet unexpired term of Winder's lease-viz., 979
Royce's executors were John Borron, John Harrison and Mary Crawley ; besides the streams, on their sides, Royston is described as having the lands of John Van Dine and Ananias Allen, on the west. (Coeymans had probably sold a part of Roycefield to these. Hedman paid in all £1,350. Royce's will was written in 1706 .- Early Records at New Brunswick, p. 174.
t Early Rec. N. B., p. 179. This Michael Van Vechty is not the one still remembered by some of the old people, but an ancestor of his. He also owned land on the north of the Raritan.
¿ A law was passed in 1694 to raise a tax of £150 in the province, and Peter Van Nest was appointed for Somerset. But the sparseness of population at this time is shown in that Somerset's proportion was only £4 16s Gd. While the other counties had their several towns, Somerset could not specify a single one. (Laws of State.) Rev. Ry- nier Van Nest (son of Peter,) was born in 1738, near the Raritan, and received the early part of his education nnder Rev. John Frelinghuy- sen. He was licensed in 1760 .- Riker's Newtown, p. 242.
§ The tract leased by Royce to Winder in 1693, and now claimed by Winder's executors, and bought a second time by Van Vechty, is thus described : Beginning at the west end of an island in Raritan River, formerly owned by John Robinson, deceased, then south by west along Thomas Cooper's land, three miles, thence in a direct line to the head of a stream, now agreed to be called Peace Brook, being the north bound
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years-binding themselves mutually to make up the £500, if Royce's heirs should ever recover it. Thus were the titles of Van Vechty & Co. made perfect. In 1703, therefore, the Dutch came into Roycefield, and in 1712 into Royston, a name now forgotten by the inhabitants of Harmony Plains.
On June 1st, 1702, John Covers bought of John Royce 512 acres of meadow land on Millstone River, then in the county of Middlesex. On March 6th, 1711, Covers sold this tract to William Post for $300 .* The central portion of Peter Sonman's great tract of 23,000 acres in the west of this and the next township south, was sold to seventeen Dutch settlers in 1710.+ The north-eastern corner of this
of Clement Plumstead's land, thence down said Brook to Millstone River, and down the Millstone four miles to the Raritan, and up the Raritan six and a half-miles to the place of beginning (excluding Gra- ham's meadows, 250 acres). Winder died in 1710, and George Willocks was his executor. He gave a quit claim to Van Vechty & Co. for £555. Early Rec. New Brunswick, pp. 192, 197. * Early Records at New Brunswick, p. 160. On June 10th, 1702, Thomas Cooper, of London, by his attorneys, Richard Hartshorne and Richard Salter, sold 2,000 acres on the south side of the Raritan, to Peter De Munt, for £380; beginning at a gully on said river, opposite the upper end of a great island (being also Royce's pretended bounds), thence south by west three miles (less ten chains), thence west by north one mile ten chains, thence north by east two and three quarter miles (less two chains), to Raritan River, and along said river to place of be- ginning .- Early Record at New Brunswick, p. 171.
t On June 10th. This is known as the 9,000 acre, or the Harlingen tract. It embraces a large section of Montgomery and Hillsborough townships, and contained 8,939 acres. The names of the parties were Octavio Conraats, Ab. Wendell, merchant, Adrian Hooghlandt, Isaac Governeur, all of city of New York; Anna Volkers, widow, of King's County, Long Island ; Henry Hegeman, Francis Van Lewen, Wm. Beekman, all of Queen's County, Long Island ; Joseph Hegeman,
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tract reached to the present farm of Adrian Merrill, from thence running west near to what is now Wood's tavern, and thence south-west in a straight line to Rock Mills, abont seven miles ; while its eastern bound went in a straight line from said Adrian Merrill's farm, striking and following the present road, which is on that line, to the present farm of Theodore Wyckoff, and thence across to the old Harlingen Cemetery, and thence south-west and west to Rock Mills. Among these seventeen purchasers, we find the names of Veghte, Cortelyou, Van Duyn, Van Dike, Beekman, and Hooglandt. Thus came the Dutch into the western half of our present township .*
This great immigration and settlement of this portion of New Jersey, began under the proprietors; but while it was progressing, they were induced by certain embarrassments which they experienced, to surrender their charter to the crown. This took place in 1702, and from that time till the Revolution, New Jersey was under royal governors, being
Hendrick Veghte, Cor. Van Duyn, Wouten Van Pelt, Ort Van Pelt, all of King's County, L. I. ; Direk Volkers, of New Jersey ; Peter Cor- telyon, Jacob Van Dyke, Claas Volkertse, all of King's County, L. I. Bounded as follows :- Beginning at the south corner of land of William Plumstead, being one and a half miles and four chains from Millstone River (by what is now the new Amwell road) thence sonth-south- west two and three-quarter miles and eight chains, west-north-west one mile eighteen chains, south-south-west two and three-quarter miles and seven chains, west three and a half miles and three chains, to the par- tition line between East and West Jersey, thence north 14° west thirty chains, north 53° east seven miles and twenty chains, east one mile and seventeen chains, to place of beginning, having lands of Plumstead, Barker, Hart and Benthall on the east, and the division line and other lands of Peter Sonman on the west. * The Staats family settled on the farm now owned by Peter P. Staats about 1730-40 .- Peter P. Staats.
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1
at times united to New York. Many Dutch families for many years afterward, however, continued to remove to this part of New Jersey, and to purchase lands of their for- mer relatives, as well as from the English settlers, until in time, it became almost altogetlier in possession of the Dutch .* But it is plainly impracticable to trace this any further in detail.
We now turn, after this perhaps too long introduction, to the ecclesiastical history proper.
Churches and religious privileges did not by any means keep pace with the population. t Yet there was a constant call among the people of all this State, for religious teachers. All denominations were equally tole- rated. The first minister in the State was Rev. Ab. Pierson, of Newark, in 1666, a Presbyterian, and a church was organized there the next year.
The country about Amboy and Elizabeth were very early supplied to some extent, as before the year 1700, Fletcher and Riddle, and Airsdale and Allen, and Drake and Harri- son, and Shepherd, # had labored in that field, besides some missionary Episcopalian efforts. §
The first Dutch minister in this State, was the Rev. Guil- liam Bertholf, who preached for thirty years at Hackensack and Aquacononck, beginning in 1694; | and in 1709, the
* In the charter of the five Collegiate Dutch churches in 1753, it is represented that the Dutch are now very numerous in these localities, and constantly increasing.
t See Whitehead's East Jersey, pp. 294, 302, 330, and his History of Perth Amboy, p. 383.
# Whitehead's Amboy, pp. 28, 212, 371, 384, 404.
§ Whitehead's Amboy, pp. 209-212. Whitehead's East Jersey, p. 169.
" The church of Hackensack was founded in 1686, but the Dutch church of Bergen is the oldest in the State, having been founded in 1660. The first Dutch minister in America was Jonas Michaelius, in
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Dutch churches in Monmouth county, which had been earlier settled, obtained the services of Rev. Joseph Morgan, who labored there for twenty-two years. These two in New Jersey, and never more at one time than two in New York city, and two on Long Island (and at one period from 1702-1705, these four were reduced to one), constituted all the Dutch ministers around New York city or in New Jersey, being never more than six at one time ; and indeed, before the arrival of Frelinghuysen, in 1720, in these parts, there had never been more than seven Dutch ministers at the same time in America. How little divine service could these then distant settlements enjoy ! *
The church of Millstone is, indeed, one of the younger Dutch churches in this section of the State, and it would be a comparatively easy task simply to take up her history from the organization ; but such a plan would leave much of the ecclesiastical history of the families now on our terri- tory, in an obscurity, always unpleasant to the thoughtful student, who is not satisfied with a work partially per- formed. A brief reference to the neighboring churches, which for more than half a century the inhabitants of the Millstone Valley attended, and with some of which they
1628. The settlers procured ministers from Classis of Amsterdam, in Holland, through the West India Co.
Taylor's Annals of Classis of Bergen, p. 174. Col. His. N. Y., vol. ii., pp. 759-770.
Gualterus Dubois labored in New York from 1699 to 1751 ; Ber- nardus Freeman, on Long Island, from 1705 to 1741 ; Vicentius Anto- nides, also on Long Island, being colleague with the former, from 1705 to 1744; and Henricus Boel, in New York, as colleague with Dubois from 1713 to 1754. These were the only Dutch ministers, in the vicinity of New York, in the first quarter of the last century, and from these, and the two in Jersey, all the help must have come.
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several times conjointly called a pastor, will surely not be deemed inappropriate .*
About 1699, Rev. Guilliam Bertholf, the only Dutch minister then in New Jersey, organized the church of Raritan. The place of worship stood at first and until the Revolution, just over the Raritan, near the residence of the late Mr. Dunn. But in 1703, we find also a church organi- zation, and probably a building, at Three Mile Run, where the old grave-yard yet remains ; for in that year, we find a list of persons subscribing to the amount of £10 16s. and 6d. to pay the expenses of a minister from Holland. These were familiest who had settled on the Harrison tract, and on the Raritan lots, and some few from beyond the Mill- stone. But no pastor could be procured till 1720, when Rev. T. J. Frelinghuysen arrived. But in the meantime (1717 }), the little church of Three Mile Run, sent out two colonies, establishing from itself the churches of New Brunswick and Six Mile Run. And about the same time, or a little after, a Dutch church was organized at the
* The large correspondence of the Classis of Amsterdam, in Holland,, with the Dutch churches in this country, will no doubt throw con- siderable light upon the history of all these early churches. It will soon be accessible to the public.
See Mints. of Gen. Syn. for 1866, p. 112.
+ Their names were - Hegeman, Tunis Quick, Hend. Emens, Thos. Cort, Jac. Probasco, Neclas Wyckoff, - avi L. Draver, Mic. L. Moore, John Schedemeun, Nec. Van Dike, John Van Houten, Wil. Bennet, Folkert Van Nostrand, Jac. Bennet, Hend. Fanger, Ab. Bennet, Cor. Peterson, Philip Folkerson, Geo. Anderson, Stobel Probasco, Isaac Le Priere, Simon Van Wicklen, Cobes Banat, Garret Cotman, Lucas Coevert, Brogun Coevert, Wil. Van Duin, Dennis Van Duin, John Folkerson, Jost. Banat.
# Possibly Six Mile Run was organized as early as 1710. I am told there was a letter published in the " Christian Intelligencer" some years ago, stating such a fact, derived from some records in Bucks Ccui.ty, Pa .; but I have not seen it.
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Branches of the Raritan, called the church of North Branch, and which, in 1738, was removed to Readington.
Thus by the year 1720, there were no less than five Dutch churches on the Raritan and its branches, plainly showing that in the twenty years preceding, there had been a large immigration of Dutch from New York and Long Island. A Mr. Alexander, in writing to ex-Governor Hunter, in 1730, says that the road from Brunswick to the Delaware is lined with white fences, and comfortable look- ing farm-houses ; whereas, in 1715, when he traveled that road before, there were only four or five houses between the Raritan and the Delaware. The country was then, how- ever, as we have already seen, and as the list for Three Mile Run proves, more thickly settled back in Franklin township, and along the Raritan. Do. Frelinghuysen lived a little west of Three Mile Run, proving probably that the main part of his people lived in that vicinity, and his grave is pointed out in that locality to this day, though without a stone to mark the spot .*
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