History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 9

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 9
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 9

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HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

for the whole province, and the apportionment to the several counties to be as given below,-viz: Bergen Couuty to furnish one battalion of four companies ; Essex County, one battalion of six companies ; Mid- dlesex County, one battalion of six companies ; Mon- mouth County, one.battalion of six companies ; Som- erset County, one battalion of five companies ; Mor- ris County, one battalion of six companies ; Sussex County, one battalion of five companies ; Hunterdon County, one battalion of eight companies ; Burling- ton County, one battalion of five companies ; Glou- cester and Salem Counties, one battalion of seven companies,-four to be furnished by Gloucester and one by Salem ; Cumberland County to furnish three companies, and Cape May County one company, all to act as "independent companies of light infantry and rangers."

Whatever arms and accoutrements were obtained by the county and township committees were directed to be issued to the minute-men in preference to the militia until the former were armed and equipped, the remainder to be used for arming the militia. It was

" Resolved, That this Congress do recommend to the several County Committees in this Colony that they immediately employ gunsmiths to make such a number of arms as they shall judge to be necessary and wanting in their respective Counties; and that in the manufacture of said arme particular attention be paid to the directions of the Continental Congress."

It was also by the Congress

"Ordered, That the several County Committees do appoint one Surgeon to each Regimeut and Battalion belonging to their respective Counties; and certify the name of such Surgeon to the next Congress, or to the Committee of Safety, in order to bis being properly commissioned."

The above mentioned, with the appointment of Philemon Dickinson as brigadier-general, were all the important military measures adopted at this session.

The Congress adjourned on Thursday, August 17th, after a session of seventeen days, its last act prior to ad- journment having been the appointment of Hendrick Fisher, Samuel Tucker, Isaac Pearson, John Hart, Jonathan D. Sergeant, Azariah Dunham, Peter Schenck, Enos Kelsey, Joseph . Borden, Frederick Frelinghuysen, and John Schureman as a Committee of Safety to control public affairs during the recess. Of these eleven members, seven were of the counties of Hunterdon and Somerset.

This was the first Committee of Safety of the pro- vince of New Jersey,-a body which came to be greatly feared by those inimical to the cause of Amer- ica. During the times when the Congress was not in session this committee wielded extraordinary and almost unlimited power.“ It does not appear, how-

* Mr. Charles D. Deshler, In his excellent paper read before the New Brunswick Historical Club at its fifth anniversary, says of this Commit- tee of Sufoty : " In effect it constituted a practical dictatorship, residing not in ono man indeed, but in a majority vote of eleven or more persons, who were appointed by the Provincial Congress from time to time, Its members were invariably choson by the deputice to the Provincial Con- gress from among their own number, and were men upon whom they could rely for courage, prudence, firmness, activity, and sagacity. They exercised, as a committee, all the powers intrusted to or assumed by the

ever, that it became necessary for the committee to exercise this power in any very important public business in the less than seven weeks which inter- vened between its formation and the reassembling of the Provincial Congress, During that interval the sessions of the committee were held at Princeton.

At its August session the Congress of New Jersey had provided for a new election of deputies from the counties of the province by the adoption of the fol- lowing preamble and resolution :

" Whereas, It is highly expedient, at a time when this Province is likely to be involved in all the horrors of a civil war, and when it has become absolutely necessary to increase the burthen of taxes already laid upon the good people of this colony for the just defense of their in- valuable rights and privileges, that the inhabitants thereof should have frequent opportunities of renewing their choice and approbation of the Representatives in Provincial Congress. It is therefore Resolved, That the inhabitants in each county qualified to vote for Representatives in General Assembly do meet together at the places hercinafter mentioned on Thursday, the twenty-first day of September next, and then and there, by plurality of voices, elect and appoint any number not exceed- ing five substantial freeholders as Deputies, with full power to represent such County in Provincial Congress to be held at Trenton, in the County of Hunterdon, on Tuesday, the third day of October next."

The places designated for holding this election in Somerset and Hunterdon Counties were, respectively, " the Court-House in Hillsborough" and " the house. of John Ringo in Amwell." The meetings were ac- cordingly so held at the time specified, and resulted in the election of Hendrick Fisher, Cornelius Vau Muliner, and Ruloffe Van Dyke for Somerset, and Samuel Tucker, John Mehelm, John Hart, Charles Stewart, and Augustine Stevenson for Hunterdon County.

The Provincial Congress of New Jersey, composed of the deputies then recently elected, as mentioned above, convened at Trenton on Tuesday, the 3d of October, 1775. No organization was effected on that day, as but few of the members were present ;; but on

Provincial Congress, save that of legislation. They conducted all the correspondence and conferences with the Continental Congress and Pro- vincial Congresses of the other colonies; they gave orders for the arrest of suspicious or disaffected persons; they tried and acquitted or con- demned to imprisonment or detention men who were charged with dis- affection or neting in concert with, or giving information to, the enemy ; they kept expresses in constant readiness to forward intelligence with all speed; they appropriated public moneys, commissioned officers in the militia or in the corps of minute-men, held prisoners of war, settled con- troversies between officers, civil and military, acted as a Court of Admi- ralty, confiscated the property of those who aided and abetted the publio enemy, took order for the general security of the Province and for its defense, and, in fine, they were the executivo branch of the government, as the representatives of the power and authority of the Provincial Con- gress during its recess. All which they exercised (with an ability and integrity that has never been impeached) till they were suporseded, in October, 1776, by the first Legislatore under tho now State Constitution (adopted July 2, 1776), which invested the Governor and a Council of twenty members with certain powers for a limited time under the title of ' The Governor and Council of Safety.'"

+ "Tuesday, October 3, 1775 .- Several Doputies returned to serve in this Congress for the respective Counties of this Colony assembled ut Trenton, pursuant to the appointment of the lato Provincial Congress.

" Wednesday, October 4, 1775 .- The Congress ngain assembled, and, several other members attending, proceeded to the election of a President and Vice-President. . . . " -- Minutes of the Provincial Congress und Council of Safety, 1775-76, p. 198.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES IN THE REVOLUTION.

the following day the body organized by the election of Samuel Tucker, of Hunterdon, us president, and Henry Fisher, of Somerset County, as vice-president. "John Mchelm, Esquire [of Hunterdon], at the re- quest of Congress, consented to act as Secretary until a Secretary be chosen." On the 5th it was " Re- solved, That William Paterson, Esquire [also of Som- erset ], be appointed Secretary to this Congress ;" but, on the 9th, "Mr. Dunham having informed this Congress that he had seen Mr. Paterson, who had acquainted him that his business and circumstances would by no means admit of his officiating as Secre- tary, the Congress proceeded to the choice of a Seere- tary, when John Carey, Esq. [of Salem], was unani- mously chosen Secretary, and Abraham Clark and Charles Stewart, Esquires, Assistant Secretaries." Thus, of the five principal officers of the Congress (composed of deputies from the thirteen counties of New Jersey ), three were men of Hunterdon and Som- erset. Forty-seven members from the several coun- ties were present during the session.

The Congress, composed of these members so re- cently elected and fresh from among the people, was the first thoroughly representative body which had convened in New Jersey under the Revolutionary order of things. Says Mr. Deshler, in the address be- fore cited,-

" Its powers were peculiar and undefined; . . . there was no limita- tion upon its powers by any instrument thon existing to which its mem- bers or the people of the Province neknowledged fenlty. They conkl und did Imprison, exile, confisente, lay taxes, emit money, exercise power over life and death, call out the militia, and lovy war. . . . The session was a busy, earnest, and Iaborions oue. The minutes of the Congress reveal the revolutionary stato of the Province, the unrest and agitation that prevailed among the people, and the industrious preparation that the patriots wore making for the war that they perceived was soon to roll towards them. The minutes also reveal the steady growth of the democratic principle of equality among the people, counting a man a man whether he owned property or whether he did not. Petitions Howed into the Congress on n multitude of subjects from every county and from nearly every township; from committees, municipal corporations, and individuals. .. . All these petitions received respectful considera- tion, and the action that was taken upon them was dispostonate, wise, Independent, and dignified. Besides the consideration of these petitions, which, na a purely popular body, deriving its power, and even its very existence, from the will of the people, it could not, aml did not, diare- gard, the Congress was engaged in receiving and scrutinizing the reports of the associations and committees that had been formed in the various townships and counties; in corresponding with the Continental Con- gress us to the raising, equipment, organization, footing, payment, Bin forwarding of troops, and with the Congresses and Committees of Safety of other colonies, and the county and township committees of the Prov. ince, on subjecta pertaining to the general welfare; In examining into the state of the finances of the province and estimating the expenditured that would be required for the arming, equipment, and maintenance of the militia, etc., and for carrying on the government ; in preparing ordinances for the regulation of the militia, for raluIng additional troops, for enforcing the former taves and levying new ones, for raising money by the emulsion of bills of credit, and for the apprehension of deserters. Their attention was also largely occupied In examining and dociding upon complaints that were showered upon them denouncing loyalists and sympathizers with Great Britain, and In considering publie and private grievances of overy form and variety."

Among the business transacted by this Congress was the passage, on the 24th of October, of " An Or- dinanee for compelling the payment of the ten thon- sand pound tax from such persons as have refused to

pay their quotas." The resolution levying this tax had been passed at the May session, and the subject had received further attention at the session held in August; notwithstanding which a large amount still remained uncollected,-payment being refused,-for which reason this ordinance was passed, authorizing more stringent measures against delinquents and di- recting the chairman or deputy chairman of any county committee to order the properly authorized persons " to make distress on the goods and chattels" of such delinquents, and to "make sale thereof at public vendue, giving five days' notice thereof by advertisement in such town or county."

But the most important of the measures taken at this session were those which related to the mustering and equipping of the military forces, and to raising the funds necessary for that purpose. One of these (passed October 28th) was " An Ordinance for regu- lating the Militia of New Jersey," which, after re- citing in its preamble that " Whereas, The ordinances of the late Provincial Congress for regulating the Militia of this Colony have been found insufficient to answer the good purposes intended, and it appearing to be essentially necessary that some further regula- tions be adopted at this time of imminent danger," proceeded to adopt and direct such "further regula- tions" as were deemed necessary to accomplish the object for which the previous ordinances had been found insufficient,-viz., the enrollment in the militia of all able-bodied male inhabitants of the province between the ages of sixteen and fifty years (except those whose religious principles forbade them to bear arms), their muster, equipment, and instruction in military tactics under the command of proper officers. It was not materially different from the earlier ordi- nances passed for the same purpose, except that its requirements were more clearly defined, thorough, and peremptory, and that evasion or non-compliance was punished by severer penalties and forfeitures, and these to be rigidly and relentlessly enforced. One of the provisions of the ordinance was to the effect that every man enrolled in the militia " shall with all convenient speed furnish himself with a good musket or firelock and bayonet, sword or tomahawk, a steel ramrod, priming-wire and brush fitted thereto, a car- touch-box to contain twenty-three rounds of car- tridges, twelve flints, and a knapsack, agreeable to the direction of the Continental Congress, under the forfeiture of two shillings for the want of a musket or firelock, and of one shilling for the want of the other above-enumerated articles"; also "that every person directed to be enrolled as above shall, at his place of abode, be provided with one pound of powder and three pounds of bullets of proper size to his musket or firclock."

The following extracts from the minutes of the Congress are given here as having reference to mili- tary matters at that time in Hunterdon and Somerset Counties :

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

October 4th .- " Mr. President laid before the Congress a letter from the Earl of Stirling, inclosing copies of some letters lately written by His Lordship on the subject of his having received a commission of Colonel of a Regiment of Militia [of Somerset County], together with the return of hie Regiment."

October 11th .- " A petition from the Committee of Amwell, praying that the Third Regiment of the Militia of Hunterdon County may con- tinue, but that the commissions of the field-officers be vacated, and that the Captains end subalterne may be allowed to choose field-officers, was read and ordered a second reading.

" A petition from a number of inhabitants of the lower part of Am- well, praying that the Third Regiment in the county of Hunterdon may be united to the First Regiment, commanded by Colonel Smith, Was read and ordered a second rending.

" A petition from the inhabitants of the upper part of Amwell, prny- ing that if any alteration be made in the Third Regiment of the Militia of Hunterdon, the petitionere may be united to the Fourth Regiment and not to the First Regiment, was read and ordered a second reading.

" A petition from Captain Imlay and Captain Gray, praying that the field-officers of the Third Regiment of Militia of Hunterdon may be con- tinued, was read and ordered a second reading."

October 18th .- " Resolved unanimously, That the appointment of field- officers for the Third Regiment of Militia for the county of Hunterdon be confirmed and that the several regiments continue as directed by the late Congress."

October 23d .- "Mr. Fisher, from the committee appointed to examine what matters were referred over to this Congress by the late Provincial Congress or Committee of Safety, reported ; ... and some petitions from the county of Somerset respecting Colonel McDonald'e appointment to the command of the Battalion of minute-men in that county. . . . "

October 28th .- "Ordered, That a commission do issue to John Taylor, Esq., as Second Major of the Fourth Regiment of Militia in Hunterdon County."

The purchase, for the province, of arms, ammuni- tion, camp-equipage, artillery, and other military necessities, and the furnishing of funds for such purchase by the issnance of bills of credit, were provided for by an ordinance passed October 28th,* of which the preamble and most important sections were as follows :

" Whereas, It appears essentially necessary at this time of increasing danger that the inhabitants of this Colony should be furnished with ammunition and other military stores, and that this Colony should be put into some proper poeture of defense:

" It is therefore Resolved and Directed, That Messre. Samnel Tucker, Abraham Hunt, Joseph Ellis, and Alexander Chambere be, and they are hereby, appointed Commissioners for the Western Division ; and that Hendrick Fisher, Azariah Dunham, Abraham Clark, and Samuel Potter be, and they are hereby, appointed Commissioners for the Eastern Di- vision of thie Colony ; which said Commissioners, or the major part of them, are hereby authorized and directed to receive of the Treasurers of this Colony, for the time being, appointed by thie Congress, or citlier of them, all such sum or eums of money ns they shall from time to time find necessary to expend for the nee of this Colony, pursuant to the ree- olutions hereluafter mentioned.

" And it is further Resolved and Directed, That the said commissioners he, and they are hereby, authorized and directed to contract with artificere for, or otherwise purchase, three thousand stand of arms at any price not exceeding Three Pounds Seven Shillings each stand ; and also to purchase ten tons of gunpowder, twenty tone of lead, one thousand car- touch-boxes, at any price not exceeding nine chillinge ench ; a quantity of flints, brushes, priming-wire, and cartridge paper, not exceeding one hundred Pounds in value; two chests of medicine, not exceeding three hundred l'ounds in value ; four hundred tents, with camp-equipage, etc., not exceeding one thousand eight hundred and seventy Pounds in value ; two thioneand blankets, not exceeding fifteen hundred Pounds in value; a number of uxcs, spades, and other intreoching tools, not exceeding three hundred Pounds in value; and a train of artillery, not exceeding five hundred Pounds in value.t

* Minutes of the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, 1775-76, P. 246.

t It was found that the articles named could not be purchased for the

" And it is further Resolved and Directed, That the said Commissioners do supply the troops of this Colony, when called into action in this or any of the neighbouring Colonies, with one month's subsistence, nt one ehil- ling per day per mao, or provisions to that amount if necessary; Pro- vided, That the expense of such enbsistence doth not exceed the eum of one thousand four hundred Pounds in value ; and one month'e pay for the troops of this Colony, when called into actual service; Provided, That the Continental Congress do not make provision for the same ; and provided also that the pay of such troops doth not exceed the sum of four thousand Pounds in value.

" And it is further Resolved and Directed, That the Treasurers of thie Colony be, and they are hereby, required and enjoined to pay to the eaid Commissioners, or to the major part of them, or to their order, all euch eum or sums of money as they may find necessary to expend for the pur- posee aforesaid; and the receipt or receipts from the said Commissioners, or a major part of them, shall be sufficient vouchers and diecharges to the said Treasurers, or either of them, their executors and administra- tors, for all moneys by them paid pursuant to this ordinance.

" And whereas, It is absolutely necessary to provide a fund for defray- ing the above expense, it is therefore Resolved and Directed, That bille of credit to the amount of thirty thousand; Pounds, Proclamation money,¿ be immediately prepared, printed, and made as follows, to wit: Five thousand seven hundred bills, each of the value of three Pounds; six thousand bills, each of the value of one Pound ten Shillings; four thou- and bills, each of the value of fifteen Shillings; and three thousand bills, each of the value of eix shillings ; which bille shall be in the form following, to wit :

"' This bill, by an Ordinance of the Provincial Congrese, shall pass cur- rent in all payments within the Colony of New Jersey for Proclamation Money : Dated the day of 1775,' and shall be impressed with such devices as the inspectors of the press hereinafter appointed shall direct ; and when printed shall be delivered to Hendrick Fisher and Azariah Dunham, Esquires, of the Eastern Division, and to John Hart and John Carey, Esquires, of the Western Division, four of the signers thereof, in equal moieties ; one moiety to be signed by the Treasurer and signers of the Eastern Division, and the other moiety by the Treasurer and signers of the Western Division. .. . "

The succeeding parts of the ordinance provided for the numbering, signing, countersigning, counting, and inspection of the bills, with various other details, all which were laid out and directed with great minute- ness as a safeguard against the possibility of irregu- larity or fraud. And it was further provided by the ordinance that "for the better credit and effectual sinking of the said bills of credit there shall be as- sessed, levied, and raised on the several inhabitants of this colony, their goods and chattels, lands and tenements, the sum of ten thousand pounds annually in every of the years one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, one thousand seven hundred and eighty- five, and one thousand seven hundred and eighty- six"; ... and the apportionment of this annual tax was made identical in the amounts assigned to each

enmis to which the Commissioners were limited; and thereupon, on this 10th of February, 1776, the Congress gave them unlimited authority to purchase, by the following action : " Whereas, By an ordinance of this Congress, paesed nt Trenton the 28th day of October last, the Commis- eioners thorein named and appointed to purchase firearme and military stores were particularly restricted in the price to be paid for said fire- arme, whereby the manufactory thereof hnth heen grently impeded ; for the remedy whereof it is resolved unanimously that the snid Commis- sionere have full power immediately to proceed in contracting for fire- arms upon the best terms in their power, without any limitation or re- striction ; and that thie Congress will in convenient time pass an ordi- unnce for thint purpose."-Minutes Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, 1775-76, pp. 358, 359.

# The amount was raised to fifty thousand pounds by an ordinance passed Feb. 28, 1776.

¿ Proclamation money was reckoned at seven shillings eix pence to the dollar.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES IN THE REVOLUTION.

of the counties with that of the ten thousand pound following resolution,t which was ordered to be imme- tax, before mentioned, levied at the session of the ' diately published in the form of an advertisement,- preceding May. viz. :

The sum of one thousand pounds was voted "to encourage the erection of saltpetre-works in this colony" ; and it was directed that this sum "be ap- propriated to the payment of a bounty of one shilling per pound over and above the market price for any quantity not exceeding twenty thousand weight of good merchantable saltpetre which shall be made and manufactured in this colony on or before the first day of January, 1777 ; Provided, That the Continental Congress shall not offer the like premium for saltpetre manufactured in any of the United Colonies."

The question of the enlistment and organization of two battalions of soldiers in New Jersey for the Con- tinental service was among the business brought be- fore the Congress at this session. It originated in the receipt, on the 13th of October, of a letter from the president of the Continental Congress to the Provin- cial Congress of New Jersey, being as follows :

"PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 12, 1775.

"GENTLEMEN,-Some Inte Intelligence," luid before Congress, seems to render it absolutely necessary, for the protection of our liberties and the safety of our lives, to raise several new battalions, and therefore tho Congress have come into the loclosed resolutions, which I am ordered to transmit to yon. The Congress have the firmest confidence that frou your experienced zenl in this great cause, you will exert your utmost endeavors to carry the said resolutions into execution with all possible expedition.

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History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 9

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170