History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 96

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840

USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 96
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 96

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DAvin, d. 3d Sept. 1765, a. 60. John, d. 25th Apr. 1788, a. 73. David, the natronomer, was from one of these. Stephen, was b. 4th Jnly, 1716; w. 1785 n. ch. Jonas, Aaron, Daniel, and Abigail Alling ; wi. Juanna.

MISCELLANEOUS. - Thomas Young ; Pequanuk ; w. 1769, n. ch. Arthur, Thomas, Morgan, Daniel, David, Margaret, Eliz., Phehe, Thankful, Mary, and Hannah. John Young, Morris Co., w. 1775 n. ch. Israel. Jonathan, Isaiah, Benjamin, Juhn. Grover, Sylvanus, Sarah, Tomper- ance, and Experience. Joseph Younge, Hanover ; w. 1789 n. ch. Gro- ver, John, and Katurah Marsh.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

CITY OF NEWARK.1 (Continued. )

llistorical Account of the Circumstances Leading to and Connected with the Pioneer Settlement of Newark-Indian Bill of Sale to the Newark Men-Indian Deed of Sale and Confirmation to the Town of Newark -Dred from the Proprietors-Proprietors' Record of Warrant and Survey-Pioneer Town Patent or Charter-Pioncer Boundaries of ye Ancient Township of Newark.

IT was in the spring of 1666 that two or more dim- inutive vessels, after carefully passing from the harbor of New York through the Kill van Kull, into what is now known as Newark Bay, were to be seen ascend- ing the Passaic as tide and wind permitted. Neither history nor tradition has preserved the names of these small craft ; and we are uninformed as to the precise day of their arrival, but attendant circumstances indicate that it was in the beginning of May, ohl style.

1 Compiled from an historical address delivered by the late William .\ Whitehead, on the occasion of the bi-centennial celebration of the settle- ment of Newark in May, 1-66.

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CITY OF NEWARK.

These vessels brought to New Jersey a small com- pany of adventurous spirits, men of enterprise and industry, of intelligence and integrity, experienced in the management of public affairs,-tiod-fearing men. And women, too, were there, simple in their tastes and pursuits, loving and enduring, to whom it was home wherever the interests of fathers or husbands called them. The whole, a company associated and bound together less by the ties of nationality and consan- gu, ity than by, to them, the stronger chain of a com- mon religious faith, and a common sentiment of civil liberty to be enjoyed in subordination to that faith.

But leaving there vessels and their interesting freight for awhile, let us review the circumstances which preceded and led to their arrival.

Although more than half a century had rolled away since the discovery of the country by Hudson, yet, strange as it may seem to us in these days of progress and indefinite expansion, the settlements of the Dutch in what is now Eastern New Jersey were con- fined to the peninsula between the river that bears the discoverer's name and the Hackensack ; for, although we have recorded evidence of one attempt at a settle- ment somewhere within Newark Bay in the year 1643,1 yet the project was abandoned the ensuing year iu consequence of the hostility of the Indians, and never resumed .? Consequently all the lands west of the Hackensack River, Newark Bay, and the sound between Staten Island and the main were unappro- priated by Europeans down to 1665.

There had been several inquiries made, in relation to the privileges that might be expected by those who should renew the attempt to effect a settlement in " Achter Col," as the Dutch at New Amsterdam then called this region, from its lying back of, or beyond the bay, south of Manhattan Island ; but even these feeble indications of enterprise were not manifested until near the close of the Dutch domination. Thus in February (15th) and April (29th), 1661, a secret appli- cation from " a company of honest men," so called, of Huntington, L. 1., for liberty " to sit downe ther to make a plantation," was responded to on the 21st of June, by permission from the Dutch authorities for them to visit and examine the lands prior to entering into any agreement for their occupancy ; 3 but we have no information of any further proceedings in connection with the contemplated undertaking.

Later in the same year, however, another applica- tion was made from another quarter, which may be considered as the first step towards effecting the settle- ment here.

What is now the State of Connecticut consisted then of two colonies, Connecticut and New Haven, The former comprised the settlements at the mouth and on the banks of the Connecticut River; the latter

included not only New Haven, proper but also the towns of Milford, Branford, Guilford, and Stamford in its vicinity, and the town of Southold, on Long Island; but, of the two, Connecticut was the more prosperous.4 When it is remembered that it was in New Haven that the regicides Whalley and Goffe were so cordially received and carefully concealed and guarded,5 the announcement that republican views were in the ascendant in the colony will occasion no surprise ; neither will the kindred facts that the restoration of Charles II. to the throne of England, in 1660, was exceedingly obnoxious to many of its people, and that, although they brought themselves to acknowledge him formally on the 21st of August, 1661, " to be the lawful King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and all other territories thereto belong- ing," great apprehensions of its effect upon the finure of the colony were excited and bitter dissen- sions aroused by the event."

It was under these circumstances that the attention of some of the most prominent men of the New Ilaven colony was turned to the propriety of seeking without delay, a location elsewhere more favorable to the exercise and dissemination of the civil and relig- ious privileges they cherished than might be looked for under monarchieal and hierarchical rule. Although it has been said that the most strongly developed characteristic of the Englishman of that day- jealousy of the Dutch-blazed with peculiar malig- nity in New England,7 yet the colonists of New Haven, as they cast their eyes over the continent in search of the asylum they desired, were not prevented by any feelings of the kind which they may have cherished from recognizing that within the domain of their neighbors on the south, and beneath the folds of Holland's standard of red, white and blue,- prophetic colors,-were both the land and the privi- leges they coveted.

On the 8th of November, 1661, Matthew Gilbert, Deputy Governor of the colony of New Haven, wrote from Milford to Governor Stuyvesant, at New Amsterdam, informing him that, "a Companie of Considerable that came into new N. E. that they might serve God with a pure conscience and enjoy such liberties & prineledges, both Ciuill and Eccle- siasticall, as might best advantage unto, and strengthen them in the end and worke aforesaid, web also, through the mercy of God, they have enjoyed for more than twentie yeares together ; and the lord haueing blessed them whh posterities so that their numbers are encreased, & they being desirous to p'uide for their posterities so as their outward comfortable subsistence and their soulles welfare might, in the use of sutable means thorough the blessing of the Almighty, be attained,"-that this

1X. Y. Dutch MISS. at Albany, rot. tv. pp. 127, 128. " [bid, vol. il, pp. 86, 87 ; tv, p. 234.

·N. Y. Dutch MISS., vol. ix, pp. 369, 643.

4 Palfrey'a "New England," Il. p. 376.

" Trumbull's " Connecticut," t. pp. 242-246. Stiles' Regicides, etc. " Trumbull, l'alfrey, etc.

1 Brodhead's Commemorative Oration, pp. 19-21.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

company, having been encouraged so to do by the courtesy extended by the Governor to persons appointed to visit "some adjacent parts " on a pre- vious occasion, had appointed a committee of four of their most prominent men, at the head of which was Robert Treat, to confer with him relative to the terms upon which they might " begin to plant," and thereafter secure additions in those who might wish to join them "for the enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ Jesus in the Congregational way," and secure "all other means of comfort and subordina- tion thereunto." In behalf, therefore, of the com- mittee, sundry propositions were submitted, for which, as they were from "true men and noe spies," a careful consideration was solicited with a view to a return of a definite answer to each. (See corres- pondence and propositions on the subject in Chapter XXXIII.)

These propositions were favorably received by the Director-General and his Council, and on the 28th of November a formal answer to them, in part, was agreed to. Treat and his associates were informed that, so far as related to the religious privileges and liberties asked for, no objections were entertained, "because," it was said, "there is no difference in the fundamental point of the worship of God betwixt these [the churches of the New Netherland] and the churches of New England, but only in the ruling of the same;" and "because in our native country, and also here, was never practiced restraint of consciences." Nor were any impediments that we would think of very serious magnitude thrown in the way of a con- cession of the other rights for which they had stipu- lated. The only modifications suggested were the requisition of an oath of fidelity to the government from all the inhabitants, the reservation for them of the right of appeal to the high court, and the prior approval of officers and magistrates; double nomina- tions to be made from among themselves, and the selection left to the Director General and his Council.1 Yet these restrictions, affecting as they did their free, unbiased choice of officers and the reservation of the right of appeal from the decision of their courts, were unpalatable, and for some months the projected emi- gration to the New Netherland appears to have slum- bered.

The condition of things in the New Haven colony, however, was growing more and more unsatisfactory. The colony of Connecticut, through the personal in- fluence and active agency of John Winthrop, Jr., its Governor, had obtained in April, 1662, a royal charter, the territorial limits of which were made to include New Haven, without the knowledge and contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants .? This naturally excited great Jissatisfaction, but there were also peculiar fea- tures in the instrument itself, and anticipated evils

from a junction with Connecticut, which prompted a determined resistance to the loss of identity which the recognition of the charter involved. Connec- ticut admitted to the privileges of freemen all its in- habitants, whether church members or not, while New Haven had always confined those privileges to those who were content to enjoy them only "in the Congre- gational way." This fact alone tended to render submission to the charter impossible on the part of many, and there were also theological differences which were in the way of union.3

Again, therefore, were the thoughts and inclina- tions of the discontented turned southward. Robert Treat, this time attended by Philip Groves and John Gregory, towards the close of 1662 or the beginning of 1663, approached the Dutch authorities, reviving their former propositions and soliciting a more favorable response than before received to those of which modifications had been suggested. After several conferences with Stuyvesant and his Council, Gregory, who had remained behind to learn the result, was made the bearer of their decision under date of March 11, 1663. They softened in some par- ticulars their former requisition as to the extent of the appeals to be allowed from the town's tribunals, but still they insisted upon a retention of the right, as well as on their approval of magistrates, " as a token of an acknowledgment to a higher authority."+

It is probable that the neighbors of those contem- plating emigration did what they could to embarrass these negotiations.3 Certain it is that welearn nothing more of them until, under date of June 29, 1663, Treat (who may have had some intimation of their reception) inquired by letter about the instructions which Gov- ernor Stuyvesant might have received from his su- periors in Holland in relation thereto. These had been communicated by the directors of the West India Company under date of March 26, 1663, and evince an earnest desire that the projected settle- ment might be made, "especially as it might serve as a bulwark against the savages on the Raritan and Minisink." They expressed a wish that the punish- ments for crimes differing from those common to the laws of the Fatherland should only be put in force by the settlers against their own countrymen,-a point which the Governor was directed not to give up as long as it was tenable, it being of "too high import- ance; " but, say they, "if the object in view is not obtainable without the sacrifice, then your honor is authorized to treat with the English'on such terms as in your opinion are best adapted to promote the wel- fare of our State and its subjects."6 Stuyvesant found the proposed restriction untenable, and aban- doned it, and, in answer to Treat's letter, under dateof 20th July, notified him of the renewal of the conces-

1 N Y Col. Miss vol. i p :09.

" Palfrey, il. p 640. Trumbull, 1. 249 Lambert's " X Haven," 3).

3 stearns' " Hint. Fint Church," pp. 3-5. N. Y. Col. MSS., vol. x pp. 73. 147. 5 Treat's Letter, N Y., Cot. MISS x., Part II., p. 231. 6 \ \. fol. MISS., wol. xv. p. 7.

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CITY OF NEWARK.

sions granted two years previously, as to their first two struggling. Opposition longer was useless, its con- propositions respecting their religious privileges, and tinuance impolitie and hazardous. The Milford pen- ple, led by Treat, at last acknowledged the authority of Connecticut, and influential individuals in other towns also severed their connection with New Haven, rendering it, eventually, a comparatively easy task to unite it with Connecticut, which was amicably ef- freted on the Ist of May, 1665;3 but Branford, inflex- ible in principle and firm in purpose, would have "neither part nor lot " in the matter, and rejected, as a community, the alliance.' that, as to their third requisition, they would be al- lowed free choice of their magistrates, but those chosen should be annually presented for confirmation and to renew their oaths. Their local laws, "being found to concur with the Holy Scriptures, should be confirmed," and their permanent laws should be bind- ing upon all persons dwelling among them ; that no appeal should be allowed in criminal matters where parties were convicted on their own confession; "but in dark and dubious matters, especially in witch- craft," sentences of death should not be put in execu- tion without the approval of the Director-General and his Council ; in civil matters the right of appeal to apply only to cases involving more than one hundred pounds. Their other stipulations were unqualifiedly granted, excepting that no inhabitants should be ad- mitted but such as should take the oath of fidelity and be acceptable to the Dutch authorities.1 It must be no- ticed that throughout all these negotiations there was no wavering from their first enunciated principles on the part of Treat and his associates, Having de- termined upon what, in their estimation, was essential, having fixed upon a standard of right, there was no room for concessions on their part; and it is remark- able that they should have succeeded in procuring such favorable responses to their proposed terms, when it is considered what well-founded apprehen- sions were then entertained in the New Netherland of the ultimate result of the aggressions of their Eng- lish neighbors. It can only be accounted for by sup- posing that the republican sentiments of the appli- cants and their deep-seated aversion to the rule of Charles were known, and allowed to modify the feel- ings with which the colonies of New England generally were regarded. But, notwithstanding all that was conceded to them, still did they linger. It was a difficult thing to sever ties which a quarter of a century had woven, connecting them with the rocks and hills, and streams, and meadows with which they were so familiar ; but the attractions of neither land nor countrymen could withstand the inthnences at work to effect the separation. The dissensions be- tween the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven had seriously affected the previously-waning prosper- ity of the latter. Deeply in debt, disaffection with the government prevalent, the stated salaries of its officers, even, unpaid through inability to collect the taxes, a crisis in its affairs was certainly at hand.2 Still, the majority of its people resisted the union with Connecticut, until it was announced that the New Netherland had been granted by Charles II. to the Duke of York. That event indicated in the future an unbroken ascendency, in all the colonies, of the prin- ciples of government against which they had been

It was under these varying political relations and surrounded by these trying social vicissitudes, aggra- vating the ordinary labors and deprivations ever in- cidental to the condition of pioneers in a new land, that the future settlers of Newark were educated for their work, their training under such circumstances eliciting qualifications which enabled them so suc- cessfully to combat with the discouragements which they so often encountered : and hence the propriety of this reference to their previous experience.

It does not come within the scope of this sketch to discuss the circumstances which led to the forcible subversion of the Dutch authority in the New Neth- erland, and the establishment of the English under the letters patent of Charles II to his brother; but it was an event which impressed peculiar and ever- enduring characteristics upon the future of the dis- trict of country west of the Hudson. The news of the transfer reached Connecticut before Treat and his companions had fully resolved to leave, and the change likely to be wrought by the substitution of the monarchical system of England for the more liberal institutions of Holland seems to have operated to postpone the step to a still later period ; the dueal coronet worn by the King's grantee and his religious faith did not promise anything specially favorable for the spread of republican principles and religions liberty, and it was, doubtless, with no slight disappoint- ment that the plans thought of and discussed for two years and more were abandoned. But soon came rumors that other parties had secured the possession of the tract to which their attention had been di- rected ; and shortly after the arrangement was per- fected which, contrary to the will of many, united New Haven and t'onnectient, special messengers ar- rived with the authorized tidings that beyond the Hudson was at least a secure refuge from oppression, an open field for the widest cultivation of their cher- ished principles, both in theory and practice.

On the 23d and 24th of June, 1664, only a few months subsequent to his reception of the letters patent from the King, and before the country had been conquered by the English fleet sent to put him in possession, the Duke of York transferred what now constitutes New Jersey to Lords Berkley and

I N. Y. Po1. MISS., vot. x., Part 11, pp. 231, 237.

" Trumbull, i. p. 263; l'alfrey, il. pp. 534, 551.

3 lanulwert, p. 32. Trumbull. I. p. 276

4 Trumbull, 1. p 277

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

C'arteret. The two courtiers placed in this important relation to the province were doubtless led to look to its acquisition from being already interested in the settlement of Carolina, for which they, in conjunction with other prominent persons to whom Charles II. was personally attached, had the year before obtained a grant directly from the crown, and their intimate as- sociations with the Duke of York rendered its ae- quisition easy. Sir John Berkley, Baron of Stratton, had been the governor of the duke in his youth, and in subsequent years had been intimately associated with him, officially and otherwise, retaining great in- Huence over him, notwithstanding mental weakness and doubtful integrity. Sir George Carteret had been a firm adherent of Charles II .- as Berkley had been also-and at the restoration was placed in several im- portant positions. He was ever an intimate compan- ion of his brother, and both he and Berkley were con- nected with the Admiralty Board, at the head of which was the duke. They thu- enjoyed peculiar facilities for influencing him, which they seem to have employed for their pecuniary benefit in the manner indicated.

Philip Carteret, a relative of Sir George, having been appointed Governor, arrived from England in AAugust, 1665, on board the ship " Philip." On reaching New York he was informed that the duke's governor, Nicolls, before receiving intelligence of the transfer of New Jersey to Berkley and C'arteret, had granted to a company from Long Island a tract of land beyond Achter Col, and that they had already entered upou its possession. Thitherward, therefore, did Carteret turn the prow of his vessel, and found four families established at what is now Elizabeth, and took up his residence there with them.

Without delay the Governor dispatched the mes- sengers to New England who have been alluded to, to make known the fact that the fertile soil and salubri- ous climate of New Jersey, united with civil and . Elizabethtown, at whose suggestion they determined religious privileges nowhere excelled, invited immi- upon a location on the Passaic. It is said that a formal agreement, comprising fifteen articles, was en- tered into after a full discussion of the provisions of the " concessions," but the document is lost. The precise time of this interview is not known, but cir- cumstanees indicate that it took place in the autumn ur carly winter of 1665. gration. It was natural that the people of Milford, whose attention had been so long directed to the attractions which this district of country presented, should be led to listen readily to the terms of the "concessions" containing the stipulations and guar- antes of the Proprietors, by which they hoped to secure the settlement of their province. "Conces- sions !" how much there is in the word indicative of Iwuming and Spicer, p. 406. the change which time has wrought in the relations + Palfrey's "N. Engl'd," i. p. 600; N. H. Col. Rec., pp. 57, 106 ; Win- 3 Bancroft's " United States. " throp ii. pp. 75, 91 ; Hazard's State Papers ii. pp. 127, 102-195. of the governed and the governors of this, our western continent ! then the people received and enjoyed what was conceded by those in power ; now those in power exercise such authority as may be conferred upon them by the people and no more. Yet these "con- cessions," as well as those which confirmed to the people of West Jersey the privileges they enjoyed, were of such a character, as has been very justly remarked of the charter of Carolina,1 "that it must strike

every reflecting mind with surprise to behold a regu- lar system of civil and religious freedom thus estab- lished as the basis of the provincial institutions by the same statesmen who, in the parent country, had framed the intolerant act of uniformity, and were executing its provisions with the most relentless severity." But in New Jersey, as was said by Penu and his col- leagues, a foundation was laid "for after-ages to understand their liberty as men and Christians, that they may not be brought in bondage but by their own consent ; for we put the power in the people." And how significant that clause in the carly laws of West Jersey, " that each member of the Assembly be allowed one shilling per day during the time of the sitting of the Assembly, that thereby he may be known to be the servant of the people!"? It has been suggested that "avarice paid its homage to freedom "3 by the adoption of such liberal institutions as were most likely to promote the settlement of their province. Were this the case, or that a conviction of what were the rights of manhood had at last effected an entrance into the minds of Charles' courtiers, certain it is that popular freedom to an extent then little known in the world was guaranteed to the settlers of New Jersey by Berkley and Carteret.

A committee, consisting of Robert Treat and one or two other prominent men of Milford, was dispatched to New Jersey to satisfy the community that the pic- ture presented did not derive its charms from the skillful tinting of avarice or craft. Unsuccessful at- tempts had been made, at different times, to plant an offshoot of the New Haven colony on the banks of the Delaware,' and it seems that the Milford com- mittee first turned their steps thither with the view of selecting a site near the present Burlington.5 But not being pleased with what they saw in West Jer- sey, they returned and visited Governor Carteret, at

S This fact is stated in a MS. " Examination of the ('laim of the New- ark People" in my possession, written, it is presumed, about 1746, by Elisha Parker, one of the Proprietors' connsel, who, in his margin, states, ". This uppeure from Governor Carteret's Letter and Mrm. Book." Jaows Alexander, in a letter to Elisha Parker, in my possession, dated Nov. 22, 1744, MayH, " [ am in great hopes that the books discovered by Mr. Ogilen may give us a much clearer light into the proceedlinge about Elizabethtown in Carteret's time than what we have, and, therefore, very probably, wo may receive from them munterluls for sundry Amendments to the Eliza- beth Town bill, and for that reason it should be delayed till these materials are well considered." This is thought to refer, in part, to the book above alluded to. Would that it were now extant I

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 96

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 840

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840