USA > New Jersey > Union County > Elizabeth > History of Elizabeth, New Jersey : including the early history of Union County > Part 21
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The invasion of the country of the Five Nations by the French from Canada, about this time, was filling the land with alarm. It gave occasion to a call of the General Assembly, to meet May 14, 1688, at Amboy, and for an assessment of a penny on the pound, for the service of his Majesty against the French ; to be paid in Wheat, at 4s. and Indian Corn, 2s. a bushel ; Butter, 6d. ; Pork, 22d. ; Beef, 2d., and Tobacco, 2}d. a pound ; Land to be rated at £10. a hundred acres ; Oxen of 4 year old or more, £4; Cows of 3 years old or more, £3; Cattle of 3 years old £3, of two years old, £2, and yearlings, £1; Horses, of 3 years old or more, £3, two years old, £2, of one year, £1; and swine of one year old or more, 10s. a head. Benjamin Price, who, after the decease of John Og- den, seems to have been the leading man of the town, was appointed Assessor for this place.t
Dongan, the Governor of New York, in almost every dis- patch to the authorities at home, was insisting on the neces- sity of including the Jerseys under the jurisdiction of New York: "There is an absolute necessity," he said, Feb. 22, 1687, " those Provinces and that of Connecticutt bee annexed." The Mayor and Council of New York, also, in an Address to the King, March 2, 1687, insisted on " the absolute necessity there is that those adjacent parts of Connecticut, East and West Jersey, Pensilvania, should be united to the Province of New York." James required no urging. He was de- termined to reduce his American Provinces to his sovereign will, and to consolidate them under one rule. Sir Edmund Andros had already been commissioned, and sent over, as Capt. General of all New England, and was eagerly prose- cuting the work of subverting the liberties of the elder com-
* Whitehead's E. J., pp. 118, 9, 120.
t Leaming and Spicer, pp. 306-7.
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monwealths in the land of the Puritans-filling those orderly communities with apprehension and terror.
At length, the decree went forth, Ap. 7, 1688, and the two Jerseys and New York were united with New England, under the rule of Andros, to be governed by the same royal pleasure, that for three years had been grinding the liberties of Britain to powder, the whole to be henceforth known as "New England." Writing from N. York, Oct. 4, 1688, Andros says, "I arrived here the eleventh of August past, when His Majesties Letters Pattents being published, received this place, as alsoe East New Jersey the fifteenth, and West New Jersey the eighteenth following." "I have since settled all officers Civill and Military ;- to their great satisfaction," says Capt. Francis Nicholson, whom he had appointed Lieut. Governor. The E. Jersey Proprietors in Great Britain had been compelled, immediately after the decree of consolidation, in April, 1688, to surrender their right of jurisdiction .*
Secretary Randolph writes from New York, Oct. S, 16SS, (after giving an account of the transactions there), as follows :
From thence His Excellence with severall of the Councill set forward for East Jarsey and arriving at Elizabeth Town belonging to that Province, on Wednesday following [15th] His Maties Commission was ther published and also the proclamation for continuing the revennue and civill and mili- tary officers till further order. They all shewed their great satisfaction in being under His Matles immediate Govt.
It appears, therefore, that this town was still regarded as the capital of the Province. The " satisfaction," to which both Nicholson and Randolph allude, so different from what was witnessed at Boston, Hartford, and elsewhere, and from the manifestations here in 1680, when Andros arrested Car- teret, and usurped the government of the town, may have been entirely superficial, and limited to the few recent comers, who gloried in the measures of James II. But it is quite probable, that it was a real and general satisfaction, to be rid, at length, of the Proprietary government, of which they had had such an unhappy experience ; hoping, as they did, that
* N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 392, 425, 536-49, 53, 4. Grahame's U. States, I. 256-61
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their rights would be much better maintained " under his Maties immediate Govt." *
Col. Hamilton, as well as the other officers, was retained in power as the deputy of Andros, administering the gov- ernment as before, but without respect to the instructions of Barclay or the Council of Proprietors. Personally he seems not to have been objectionable to the people, but quite other- wise. He was intelligent, judicious, resolute, and courteous, possessing qualities both of mind and heart that had secured for him the confidence of all classes.
Early in the following year, Feb. 1688, information was received of the landing of William, the Prince of Orange, on the British Coast; and, in rapid succession, of the flight and dethronement of James, the triumphant progress of William, and the grant of the crown to him and the Lady Mary, his wife. The agitation here, as well as everywhere in the Colo- nies, was intense and profound. Andros, it was soon learned, had been degraded and imprisoned by the outraged Puritans of Massachusetts Bay. Capt. Leisler, backed by the rougher elements of the populace, had seized the fort, and ousted the authorities, at New York. So closely was this town, even then, connected, socially and commercially with the neighboring city, that these events deeply affected the peace of the com- munity. Some few openly sided with Leisler. Of the Com- mittee of Safety, to whom, June 28, 1689, was intrusted the sole jurisdiction of the Province of N. York, two were of the. County of Essex, N. J. The utmost efforts were put forth, by the faction in power, to obtain the support of the towns in E. Jersey-to overthrow the old governments, and set up their own, but without success ; the people here resolving to maintain the existing government, until they received orders from the new authorities at home. A messenger was sent, by the Leisler party, to proclaim William and Mary at Am- boy, who was drowned on his return at Staten Island, and was buried at N. York, in great state. Col. Hamilton, whose wife was extremely sick of a fever, was prevented from taking her to N. York, for fear of violence to his person, be -
* N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 567.
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cause he had arrested some of Leisler's agents. Armed men were sent hither, from N. York, to hunt for so-called popish refugees. For many months the town was thus kept in a state of much disturbance and anxiety .*
Some of the inhabitants adhered tenaciously to the fallen dynasty, and resisted all innovation. Many, also, of the same party fled hither from New York, where their lives were no longer safe. They were mostly men of high social standing, and great personal influence. A Jacobite party was thus formed in the town, which served, of course, greatly to in- crease the ferment. The Quakers, in sympathy with William Penn (between whom and James II. a peculiar intimacy had grown up), were classed with. this party. Leisler and his Council, writing, Jan. 7, 1689-90, to Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury, use this language :-
Many resort to our Neighbours of East Jersey and Pensilvania being many Quakers in these parts, who (: without abusing them :) encourage if not outdo the Roman Catholiques and most of our Calamities and divi- sions are truly indebted to them, covering their pernicious practices by their blind scruples, and impudent interpretations, depending still upon and asserting Mr. Pen to be a person of undoubted sincerity : in the mean time they advance the Interest of K. James and say that all commissions are good to this day Colonel Townly with others committing riot upon our Justices bordering next to them, owning none save King James, openly drinking his health ette which we hope in due time to subdue. Most of the suspected are fled into the next colony amongst the Quakers.
Leisler writes again, Mar. 31, 1690, to the Bishop, as fol- lows :-
The raging spirit of malice obstructs us much in the neighboring Colony of East Jersey, whither our Chief adversarys fly for sanctuary and are embraced-Coll : Townly one Mr Emott an Attorney and some more of their principall members asserting that the Throne of England is not vacant, for that whilst King James was in France he remained in his owne dominions being annexed to the Crowne, with many other wicked, petu- lant and rebellious Notions and Assertions.
Mayor Van Cortlandt, writing, May 19, 1690, to Sir Ed- mund Andros, says :-
Coll : Hamilton, Townly, Capt" Bourne, Pinhorne and others off New
* N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 597, 609, 13, 17, 43, S, 60.
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Jarsay Gentlemen, dare not come in town; Govr Dongan was confined in his house att Hemstede, but is gone to New Yersay. Mr. Plowman [Collector of N. York, and a papist] had about sixty barrels of porke and beefe in Elizabeth towne for which Capt" Leisler sent about 100 men and tooke it by force .*
Among the depositions respecting the Riots, sworn before "Peter D. Lanoy" [Delancy], Mayor, Feb. 27, 1683, was one by Thomas Masters, bricklayer, aged about 50 years, who declared,-
That he was in East Jersey at the house of James Emott coming from New York was saluted by his wife and asked him from whence he came : whereupon the said Emott replyed, he came from New Yorke, had been on board the ship the Beaver, and had taken before Father Smith the oath of Allegiance to be true to the King; his wife asked what King; he the said Emott answered King James, wch the Depont declared was past in March last.t
Gov. Hamilton left the country for England, late in May, 1690. He presided over the Council of Proprietors at Am- boy, May 20th, and signed a warrant for a survey, May 22. "I understand," says Cortlandt, May 19, 1690, " Coll : Hamil- ton intends to goe for England." It would seem that he left no substitute; and no other dignitary ventured to assume the direction of provincial affairs. An interregnum, consequently ensued, during which the people of the respective towns were left to manage their own affairs by their local officers. In a memorial of a subsequent date, complaint is made to the king, by those holding under the Nicolls' Grants, that "from the latter end of June, 1689, till about the latter end of Au- gust, 1692," they were left " without any government." This would indicate that, from the transpiring of the accession of William and Mary to the throne, Col. Hamilton had ceased to be regarded, except by the Jacobite party, as the Governor of the Province. He was really nothing more than Presi- dent of the Proprietary Board, his authority as Deputy Gov- ernor having lapsed with the fall of Andros and his royal master.#
* N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 656, 7, 701, 16, 17. t N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 747. # E. J. Records, O., 34-40. N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 718. Smith's History of N. Jersey,
p. 558. E. T. Bill, p. 124. Bancroft's U. States, III. 47.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
Robert Barclay, for the last eight years of his life the nominal Governor of East Jersey, died, October 3, 1690. Hamilton, having fallen into the hands of the French, (with whom the English were then at war), and been detained a captive, had now arrived out, and laid before his fellow-Pro- prietors abroad the state of affairs in East Jersey. Taking advantage of the anarchy abroad and the confusion at home, they determined to re-assume the jurisdiction, wrested from them, and yielded by nominal cession, in April, 1688; and, therefore, proceeded to elect a governor in Barclay's place. They chose John Tatham [Tatem], a West Jerseyman, who, about the same time, was appointed by Gov. Coxe, of West Jersey, his deputy ; but, " being a Jacobite, and as such by principle disqualified, him the Assembly rejected." For the same reason, doubtless, the people of East Jersey " scrupled to obey " him. They then requested Col. Joseph Dudley to take the place .*
He had been sent a prisoner to England in February, 1690, and returned to N. York, at the close of the year, having previously received a provisional appointment mentioned by Gov. Sloughter of N. York. It is possible, that Slough- ter took some oversight of the Province of East Jersey, inasmuch as among the "persons of approved Loyalty and Integrity," whom he recommended, March 27, 1691, as mem- bers of his Council, was Richard Townley of this place, an adherent, as has been seen, of the Stuart dynasty. Sloughter died, July 23, 1691.+
At length, the governorship was given, March 25, 1692, to Col. Hamilton, then at London, who arrived with Gov. Fletcher, of N. York, August 30, and was peaceably received by the people. They acquiesced in his government, by send- ing deputies to an Assembly that convened, by warrant from Hamilton, at Amboy, Sept. 28, 1692, to take measures to aid the Province of New York against invasion by the French.+
* Whitehead's E. J., pp. 120, 180. Smith's N. J., pp. 291, 2. E. T. BIII, p. 124. N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 761.
1 Moore's Governors of N. Plym. and Mass. Bay, pp. 890-402 N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 364, 543, 768. Whitehead's E. J., p. 131. Smith's N. York, I. 105.
# Whitehead's E. J., pp. 153, 4. N. Y. Col. Docints., III. S38-40, 7. Leaming and Spicer 812.
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Isaac Whitehead, of this town, was appointed, Sept. 16, 1692, High Sheriff of the County of Essex; Isaac Whitehead and Benjamin Price, Jr., Oct. 10, Justices of the Peace for E. Town ; Henry Norris and John Lyon, Nov. 2, Deputies to the Assembly ; Georgs Jewell, Dec. 3, County Clerk ; Isaac Whitehead, Benjamin Price, Jr., and John Lyon, Jr., Jan. 29, Judges of Small Causes ; and, Feb. 21, Isaac White- head, Lieutenant, and Daniel Price, Ensign, of the E. Town Company of Foot. Isaac Whitehead, who seems to have been in high favor with Hamilton, was, also, appointed, Ap. 1, 1693, Coroner for Essex Co. ; and, Nov. 4, 1693, Captain of the Foot Company, Daniel Price being appointed, at the same time, Lieutenant, and John Lyon, Ensign. Richard Townley, also, had been appointed, March 7, 1693, a mem- ber of Gov. Fletcher's Council, of the Province of New York. Mrs. Townley had a large estate on Long Island .*
At the meeting of the Assembly, in October, 1693, an Act was passed defining the bounds of the respective townships of the Province, in which, for the first time, the territory of this town is described by legislative authority :
The Township of Elizabeth-Town, shall include all the Land from the mouth of Raway River West to Woodbridge-Stake, and from thence Westerly along the Line of the County to the Partition Line of the Prov- ince, and from the mouth of the said Raway River, up the Sound to the mouth of the Bound-Creek, and from thence to the Bound-Hill, from thence North-west to the Partition Line of the Province.t
The territory thus defined embraced the whole of the present Union County, and considerable portions of Somerset, Hunterdon, Morris, Warren and Sussex Counties, including Morristown, Stanhope, Schooley's Mountain, and Newton,- according to Keith's Partition Line, then understood to be the true dividing line between East and West Jersey. The township was thus extended beyond the western bounds of the Indian Purchase, which at no point was more than 34 miles from Newark Bay, or double the distance from the mouth of the Raritan to the mouth of the Passaic rivers.}
* E. J. Records, C. 151-207. N. Y.' Col. Docmts., III., 818.
t Leaming and Spicer, p. 329.
# Gordon's N. J. 71-5.
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John Harriman [Rev.] and Jonas Wood were appointed, Nov. 3, 1693, Deputies, and again in 1694. Benjamin Og- den received, Oct. 10, 1694, the appointment of Sheriff; Ephraim Price, Jan. 15, 1693, Ensign ; and John Woodruff, Jan. 29, Judge of Small Causes .*
A period of great suspense and anxiety commenced soon after the return of Gov. Hamilton. During the long con- troversy respecting the land titles of the town, no regular judicial investigation of the points at issue had been under- taken-no decision reached. But now that the Proprietors have resumed their jurisdiction, and seem to be quietly seat- ed in the government of the Province, they determine to bring the matter into the courts; confident that, as the courts are mostly under their control, judges and juries both, the case will be decided in their favor, and the planters be compelled to pay the arrearages of Quit Rents from 1670, or be dispossessed of their plantations with all the improve- ments put upon them. The Fullerton brothers, Thomas, Robert and James, came to the Province in 1684, and settled on Cedar Brook, on the plot, bought by Gov. Lawrie of the Indians, but previously claimed by the E. Town people un- der the Nicolls Grant. Jeffry Jones, one of the E. T. Asso- ciates, had, by conveyance from Lawrie, come into possession of land there, on which James Fullerton (schoolmaster at Woodbridge, in 1689) had settled ; "upon which the said Jeoffrey Jones did enter and oust him." This was in 1693. Fullerton, in Sept. of that year, brought an action of trespass and ejectment against Jones, and issue was joined. The case came to trial in the Court of Common Pleas at Perth Amboy, in May 1695. The whole merits of the case were brought out before the Judges and Jury, on both sides. The events were then recent; the documentary evidence was ample, and well preserved; the first E. Town Book was in the hands of Samuel Whitehead, the Town Clerk, and was perfectly accessible. So that the facts were fully before the Court, or within their reach.
A special verdict was agreed upon, but the jury gave a * E. J. Records, C. 212, 225, 231.
16
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general verdict for Jones. The Court, however, pronounced judgment, May 14, on the special verdict against Jones ; who thereupon appealed the case to the King in Council. In the Court at Kensington, both parties again were fully heard, Wm. Nicoll, Esq., being Attorney for Jones. The Committee of the Privy Council, Lord Chief Justice Holt, Sir Philip Williamson, and Sir Henry Goodrich, offered their Opinion to his Majesty in Council, that the judgment be re- versed ; and his Majesty in Council, February 25, 1696, re- versed and repealed the said judgment, and, also, declared all issues thereupon null and void. Nicoll afterwards de- clared on oath, that, in the Council,
The sole dispute was, Whether Col. Richard Nicholls, as Governor un- der the King of England, in those parts, might not grant Licence to any of the Subjects of England, to purchase Lands from the native Pagans ? and if, upon such Licence and Purchase, the English Subjects should gain a Property in the Lands so bought ? all which was resolved in the Af- firmative, and the Judgment given to the Contrary, accordingly reversed .*
WILLIAM NICOLL, Jones' Attorney, was a lawyer of great prominence at New York, the son of Matthias, first Secretary under Gov. Nicolls. In 1687, he received the appointment of Attorney General of N. York. He opposed Leisler in 1689, and was severely treated as a Jacobite. He was a member of the Council under Govs. Sloughter and Fletcher, whose policy he sustained. Early in November, 1695, he was appointed an Agent of the Province to proceed to Eng- land, to present an Address and a Memorial to the King. On the voyage, he was captured, in January 1695, near the Scilly Islands, and kept a prisoner at Brest, in France, till the month of April. Jones, it seems, took advantage of this mission, to employ him to manage the appeal before the King in Council. As Nicoll was shortly after admitted an Associate of E. Town, with a third-lot right, and as he never became a resident, but retained his domicile, first in Queens, and then in Suffolk, Counties on Long Island, it is thought that this third-lot right was given him by the town for his services, and the Associates made common cause with Jones
* E. T. Bill, pp. 120, 2. Ans. to do., pp. 30, 1. Leaming and Spicer, p. 690.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
in the defence of his title, involving, as it did, the title of every one of them to their purchased possessions .*
These judicial proceedings served to kindle anew the old animosity between the town and the Proprietors, and neces- sitated a more complete organization of the planters. A large proportion of the original settlers had either died or left the town. A new generation had taken their place, heirs or assigns of the old pioneers, and fully prepared to maintain their inherited rights. It was determined to make from these a considerable addition to the number of the Asso- ciates. Of this transaction, the only extant record is found in the Town Book, under date of June 7, 1735, in the hand- writing of Caleb Jefferys, Town Clerk, at that time, as follows :-
Be it always Remembered that Those whose Names are underwritten were admitted associates according to thire Lot Rights anexed to Each of there names and ought to have Been Enteared In page the third of This Book all which is menifastly known By Living Testamony amongst us and Doth allso appear By an Instrument made In the year one Thousand six hundred Ninety and five
The Associates admitted as abouesd were as followeth (viz) Joseph willson fi e Lott Right henry Norris foure Lott Right and to Each a third Lott Right peter Nue Henry Lyon and to Each a second Lott Right in the same premisses Jeffery Jones John Miles Samuel Barnet John Littel Samuel Winance Joseph meeker Joseph Sayers Robert Morss and Moses Thompson and to Each a first Lott Right in the same permisses- Nathaniel Bonell, Sen' Stephen Crane John arskin Joshua Clark Thomas Moore Daniel Dehart John meeker : a Loott & a half Roger Lambert George pack, John Ogden Stephen osborne Joseph osborn George Ross Nathaniel Tuttel Isaac hetfeild Jonas wood a Lot Right and a half and to a first Lot Right Samuel Sayes peter morss Benjamin Bond a Lot Right and a half, and to a first Lot Right marry Johnson, John Woodruff, william miller, John parker, Josiah Stanbrough, Henry martain, John pope Benjamin meeker a half Lot Right one Lot Right was Entered in page ye 3 of this Book, and to a first Lot Right Joseph ffrazey Richard mattuk and Jonathan Ogden a first Lot Right and one Entered In page the 3 of This Book which maks two in the Second Taken in of the associates Richard Clarke Senor Deceased a second Lott Right william Cramer Senor-a Second Lott Right.
N. Y. Col. Docmts., III. 709; IV. 159, 171, 509.
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On pages 2d and 3d of the same Book is the following entry :-
" In the Yeare of our Lord one thousand Six Hundred and Ninty-Nine, At a Town-Meeting (in Elizabeth Town) of the sd Associates and those Holding under them or Some of them were admitted as Associates with . them in the afforesd Premisses, all those Persons whose Names are here- inafter next mentioned (viz.) William Looker, a Second Lott-Right, Benjamin Wade Ditto, John Harriman Ditto, William Nicholls, a third Lot-Right, and to first Lot-Rights, William Brown, Ephraim Clarke, Obediah Sale, Jonathan Ogden, Samuel Carter, Jeremiah Crane, Joseph Whitehead, Samuel Whitehead, David Woodruff, Benjamin Meeker, Mordecai Burnet, Nathanael Whitehead, William Miller, Joseph Lyon, John Thompson, John Harriman, Jur, Ebenezer Lyon, John Woodruff, Abraham Hetfield, Robert Woolley, William Hill, William Cramer, Denis Morris, John Megie, Benjamin Lyon, John Osborne, Joseph Wood- 1uff, Thomas Darling, William Strayhearne, Andrew Craig, John Johnson, Nathaniel Lyon, Joseph Hallsy, Benjamin Ogden, Jno. Alling, Jacob Mitchell, Samuel Willis, Andrew Hamton, George Thorp, John Pearce, Samuel Oliver, Samuel Clarke, John Gould, Richard Clarke, John Clarke, and Cornelius Hetfield. And since Capt Ebenezer Willson, a second Lot- Right.
In these lists, several of the original Associates are named as having obtained an addition to their lot-rights. The children of the old planters are largely represented ; in some cases, two, three, four, or five sons taking the place of the father. Ten new-comers are found in the list of 1695, and twenty, in that of 1699; the most of whom became per- manent residents and founders of families. In addition to these, were found among the residents a considerable number of persons, who had attached themselves to the Proprietary party or were themselves Proprietors, whose lands were located chiefly on the lower Rahway river and its branches, that section being then included within the territory of the town.
Daniel Price was appointed, May 3, 1697, Captain of the Train-Bands : William Brown and Ephraim Price, Lieu- tenants ; and Richard Baker and Samuel Oliver, Ensigns. John Woodruff (son of the old planter) received, May 30, the appointment of High-Sheriff of Essex Co .; John Harriman [Rev.] and Andrew Hampton, Dec. 1, 1698, were chosen
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Deputies ; Robert Smith (the first of the name in the town) became, Dec. 26, 1699, High-Sheriff; and, Feb. 15, 1699- 1700, George Jewell, County Clerk .*
The period, immediately subsequent to the decision of the Jones' case in 1695, was one of much confusion and excite- ment. Great indignation, of course, was manifested by the town party against the Proprietors and their anomalous government. Restive as they had been under it from the first, they could no longer restrain the expression of their dissatisfaction. The reversal by the King and his Council, in 1697, of the adverse judgment of 1695, confirming, as it did, unquestionably, the validity of their titles, emboldened them still more in their opposition to Proprietary rule, and in the determination to be rid of it, and come under the immediate government of the King, whom they had learned to trust.
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