USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume II > Part 7
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Daniel Pearce made choice of the following associates: Joshua Pearce, John Pike, John Bishop, Henry Jaques and Hugh March, of Newbury, Mass .; Stephen Kent, of Haverhill; Robert Dennis, of Yar- mouth ; and John Smith, of Barnstable, all in New England. These writ- ings were signed, sealed and delivered by Daniel Pearce in Elizabeth- town, and ordered to be recorded by Philip Carteret, Governor of the Province of New Jersey, Dec. 3, 1767.
Daniel Pearce and his associates immediately took possession, and through the efforts of Gov. Carteret a number of other families during the following year came from New England to the new settlement. On
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December 3, 1667, it was ordered that the proposed township be sur- veyed, plots assigned to each settler, and roads marked out. On June 1, 1669, Woodbridge township was created, and on the 16th the charter was granted, giving the general boundaries thus: "On the east side by the Arthur Cull river, otherwise called the Sound that parts Staten Island from the mainland; on the north side by the bounds belonging to Elizabethtown; on the west side by the bounds belonging to New Piscataway; and on the south side by the aforesaid Raritan river." The township was to contain six miles square, "which amounts to 23,040 acres, English measure." The charter provided that sixty families, at least, should be comprised within the township limits, among whom the land should be equally divided by lot, or in such other manner as they themselves might decide. An official record of each man's allotment was to be made, which was to be filed in the secretary's office at Eliza- bethtown, the capital of the Province.
Although the charter went into effect immediately after it was granted, it was not confirmed by the Lords Proprietors, Carteret and Berkeley, until December 7, 1672. The following is the list of free- holders, supposed to be actual settlers, to whom patents were granted in 1670, for different amounts of land, varying from 15 to 512 acres :
Daniel Pearce, Joshua Pearce, John Pike, John Pike, Jr., Robert Den- nis, John Bishop, Henry Jaques, Stephen Kent, Hugh March, and John Smith, millwright (the original associates of Daniel Pearce, who were each granted 240 acres of upland and 40 acres of (salt) meadow, in addi- tion to the regular allotment) ; John Adams, Ephraim Andrews, Thomas Auger, or Alger; Obadiah Ayres, Samuel Baker, or Bacon; Joseph Bradley, John Bishop, Jr., Matthew Bunn, mariner ; Thomas Bloomfield, Thos. Bloomfield, Jr., John Bloomfield, John Conger, John Cromwell, William Compton, John and Samuel Dennis, John Dilly, Hugh Dun, Jonathan Dunham, John French, mason; Rehoboth Gannit, Daniel Grasie, Samuel Haynes, Elisha Ilsley, or Inslee; Henry Jaques, Jr., Ste- phen Kent, Jr., Henry Lessenby, George Little, David Makany, Samuel and Matthew Moore, Benjamin Parker, joiner; Elisha Parker, Daniel Robins, Robert Rogers, Samuel Smith, John Smith, "Scotchman ;" Isaac and Abraham Tappen, John Taylor, blacksmith; Israel Thorne, Robert Vauquellin, or "La Prairie ;" John Watkins, Nathan Webster, John Whitaker and Richard Worth. The following names are also found in the Town Book, but without date : Thomas Adams, John Allen, minister ; John Averill, William Bingley, Jonathan Bishop, James Clawson, or Clarkson : Jonathan Dennis, Hopewell Hull, John Ilsley, John Martin, Thomas Pike and John Trewman.
In July, 1673, a fleet of Dutch vessels captured New York and New Jersey ; but by a treaty of peace between England and Holland in the following year the provinces were restored to England, and Philip Carteret was re-appointed Governor.
In 1677, Governor Carteret bought from the Indians all the lands they owned between Woodbridge and Piscataway townships. It is to
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the credit of New Jersey that not a rod of its territory was wrested from the Indian owners by fraud or violence, a fact of which no other State, not even that of William Penn, can boast. The Indians in and around Woodbridge were chiefly of the Raritan tribe, and Metuchen, of which we first find a record in 1701, is supposed to have derived its name from "Metucheon" (signifying "chief of the Rolling Land"), a Raritan sachem, who is said to have been buried on a farm near that borough.
The first Legislature of the Province met at Elizabethtown (so named in honor of Elizabeth, wife of Sir George Carteret), on May 26, 1668, and was composed of two delegates from each town, Woodbridge being represented by Samuel Moore and Robert Dennis. The second session was held on November 3rd of the same year, and attended by delegates from Newark, Elizabeth, Woodbridge, Bergen, Shrewsbury and Middletown. The latter session was not at all harmonious, and the next meeting did not occur until eight years later. At the first town meeting, January 1, 1669, Samuel was elected town clerk, and filled that office for nearly twenty years.
The General Assembly of the Province met in Woodbridge October 5, 1676, lasting four days, when it was decided that the Governor's salary should be paid in "peas, wheat, or tobacco." A general Thanks- giving Day was ordered, to occur on the second Wednesday of November in each year. Each delegate was allowed three shillings per day. Among the laws passed was one providing that "rowdies be put in the stocks for two hours for swearing, quarrelling, drinking liquor, or singing vain songs, or tunes, on the Sabbath." The fixed charges for "ordinar- ies," or taverns, to furnish a meal was eight pence, and for pasturing a horse six pence a day. The next session of the Assembly was held October 10th, beginning at Woodbridge on that day, and concluding on 19th at Elizabethtown.
The Township Court was established October 19, 1669, with the following officers : President, Lieut. John Pike; Assistant, John Bishop, Sr. In the following March, Thomas Bloomfield and John Martin were appointed grand jurymen "to take notice, enquire into and make due presentment of all, or any kind of misdemeanor in this corporation, and have an oath administered to them for that end." The Court was held in a building on the site where Mrs. F. G. Tisdall's handsome residence now stands, on Rahway avenue. The same house, many years after, became the Presbyterian parsonage, and still later was used as a young ladies' seminary, conducted by the Misses Stevens. The jail was a separate building in the rear. In the year 1675 a stockade of logs was built around the latter, partly as a fortification and also as a place of refuge for the women and children in case of a threatened attack by the Indians. The attack never took place; and, in fact, except for some petty thieving, the red men never seriously annoyed their white neigh-
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bors. On June 6, 1671, the town meeting appointed "two Way Wardens" to attend to the mending of the roads. John Smith, "Scotchman," here- tofore alluded to, was a man of such remarkable integrity that the July town meeting directed that his half-bushel measure should be the stand- ard by which all the freeholders should be governed in buying and selling ; "and all those who buy, or sell, by any other measure, until law makes other provision, shall be accounted villainous to buy, or sell by unjust measures." A great tribute to the man's honesty. May his tribe increase !
In 1675 the General Assembly, which must have been imbued with the prejudice of their English forebears, passed an ordinance providing that if any person, male or female, shall be found to be a witch, he or she shall be put to death. We do not believe that any one was ever executed in our good old commonwealth on such a charge! A great change was made in the government of the Province in July, 1676. Pre- viously Governor Carteret's jurisdiction extended from Staten Island Sound to the Delaware river, and from Cape May to the hills of Bergen. By agreement between the Proprietors, the Province was divided, form- ing the provinces of East and West Jersey. The partition began at Little Egg Harbor (now Ocean county), and was drawn straight across in a northwest direction until it reached the Delaware river. Wood- bridge fell on the east side of the boundary and remained in Carteret's jurisdiction.
In September, 1680, Rev. John Allen, of England, was selected as pastor of the town church, which was built five years before on what was known as the "Kirk Green," near the spot now occupied by the Presbyterian church. He was succeeded in 1686 by Rev. Archibald Riddell, a Scotchman, who ministered until 1689, and was followed by Rev. Samuel Shepard, who was pastor until 1706. In 1707 Rev. Nathan- iel Wade became pastor and acted as such until 1712, when he was authoritatively dismissed from the charge by the Presbytery of Phila- delphia, with which the church had affiliated in 1710. Rev. John Pierson, son of Rev. Abraham Pierson, of Killingworth, Conn., the first president of Yale College, succeeded to the pastorate in 1714, and continued as such until 1754. He died at Hanover, New Jersey, in 1770, in his eighty-first year, having preached the gospel for fifty-six years. The evidence that the church became Presbyterian in 1710 is sustained by the following entry in the Church Book, in which the officers of a Presbyterian form of government are mentioned for the first time: "March 28, 1710. At a church meeting was chosen John Foard, John Pike and Thomas Pike for Ruling Elders in the Church of Christ in Woodbridge." Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, of New York, was pastor for five years, and was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Azel Roe, of Setauket, Long Island, in the autumn of 1763, who continued in the pastorate until his death in 1815, a period of fifty-two years.
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Dr. Roe was the most prominent personality in Presbyterianism of his time in this region, a faithful pastor, and much beloved by the entire community. An excellent portrait and a handsome memorial tablet of him adorn the walls of the present church. The succeeding pastors and their respective terms of service are as follows: Rev. Dr. Henry Mills, 1816-21 ; Rev. William B. Barton, 1821-52; Rev. William M. Martin, 1852-63 ; Rev. George C. Lucas, 1863-73 ; Rev. Dr. J. M. McNulty, 1874-1906; Rev. R. W. Mark, 1907-18; and the present incumbent, Rev. Leonard V. Buschman, who came to the church in 1918. The present Session is as follows : Elders-James P. Prall, J. Edgar Brown, Howard A. Tappen, John E. Breckenridge, Wm. H. Gardner, Benj. B. Walling and Asher F. Randolph. Trustees-J. E. Breckenridge, president ; H. A. Tappen, treasurer ; Benj. B. Walling, parish clerk; S. Barron Brewster, Sherman B. Demarest, Hampton Cutter and Theodore Leber. Deacons -C. Roscoe Chase, William Rowe and Charles Mesick.
The charter was granted by King George II., of England, on Septem- ber 8, 1756, and signed also by Jonathan Belcher, Governor of the Prov- ince, and recorded in the office of the Secretary at Perth Amboy, in Book C of Commission Charters, page 5. The original document is in the possession of the trustees of the church. The present edifice was erected in 1803, and no change has since been made in its outward appearance, except that a large Sabbath school room has been added in the rear. The cemetery is one of the oldest and most interesting in the State. In the great congregation which lie buried there are the remains of many distinguished men and heroic women. The Revolu- tionary heroes, Generals Nathaniel Heard and Clarkson Edgar ; Colonels Samuel Crow and Benjamin Brown; Major Reuben Potter; Captains Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, David Edgar, Matthew Sayers, Ellis Barron and Abraham Tappan ; Lieutenant James Paton, and a great host of the "rank and file," are awaiting in the quiet resting place the sound of the great reveille. Judge Adam Hude, Major Richard Cutter, Captain John Pike, James Parker, the first printer; Drs. John G. Wall and Moses Bloomfield, Justice Henry Freeman, Robert Coddington and David Harriot, are names that appear on the ancient tombstones. There, too, is the grave of Mary, wife of Caleb Campbell, and daughter of Wil- liam and Mary Compton, who died February 15, 1735, the first white child born in Woodbridge.
In 1686, Captain John Pike, Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, Samuel Moore, Jonathan Dunham, and Robert McCleland were appointed a vigilance committee, a proceeding for which we can imagine only two reasons: Either the Piscataway men contemplating another raid on the boundary line between the townships; or disorder was so prevalent that such a measure was necessary for the public safety. Many highways were laid out about this time, notably to Perth Amboy, Rahway, New Brunswick.
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Metuchen and Piscataway. Samuel Moore was licensed by the Cor- poration Court to keep an "ordinary," or inn, in June, 1683, which was probably kept in the old building on the corner of Rahway avenue and Green street. Mr. Moore must have been versatile and active, as we find him filling the following offices at the same time: High sheriff of the county, deputy to the General Assembly, messenger to the House of Deputies, town clerk and collector of the township, and hotel keeper.
Provision for a free public school was made in the early days of the settlement, and was named in the charter in 1669 as an object for the appropriation of public land. The property consisted of one hundred acres, a short distance from Iselin, on the Pennsylvania railroad, and is better known as the "Poor House Farm;" the township have hired the house and land from the trustees of the free school land, and use it as an almshouse. James Fullerton, who came to the township in 1684, taught the first school, located on Cedar brook. John Brown and George Eubanks taught successively for ten years. In 1793 the Woodbridge Academy was built by private subscription, on Rahway avenue, and was removed in 1851 to give place to a public school. The old building is still standing on Main street, near Rahway avenue, and has been con- verted into a tenement.
The first town committee was chosen March 30, 1705, and consisted of Captain John Bishop, Captain Elisha Parker, John Ilsley (Inslee), Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, John Pike, Joseph Rolph and Thomas Pike. They were elected for one year, and to act for the town in all matters except the disposition of land and the raising of money. At this meet- ing permission was given to Elisha Parker to build a grist mill on Papiack (Woodbridge) creek. This was the second mill, the first having been established by Jonathan Dunham in 1670. The old Trinity par- sonage, built of brick brought from Holland, was the residence of Dun- ham and considered at that time the finest house in the settlement.
A great change in the size of Papiack creek has taken place since colonial times. Vessels once rode at anchor in the stream near the site of the former Salamander works, on Rahway avenue. Two hundred years, with the continual deposit of sand from the neighboring clay mines, have choked up the channel and narrowed its width until now it is only a miniature of what it once was. A number of landings for boats were established in 1700 and succeeding years, the principal ones being Pierce's, at the mouth of Papiack creek, where the C. W. Boynton dock is; the "Corn Field" (now Cutter's dock); Cortland, supposed to have been on Smith's creek ; Vouquillen's, nearly opposite Pierce's ; and Bloomfield's, on the west side of the creek, near the upland. It is uncertain whether negro slaves were brought here by the first settlers; but the traffic in slaves began at a very early period. In 1680 there were 120 slaves in the Province, which in 1737 had increased to 3,071 ;
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the Province then including East and West Jersey. From 1700 to 1800, Woodbridge was greatly interested in the traffic, and records of the sales of Africans are frequently found in manuscripts relating to the town. In Gordon's "Gazetteer of New Jersey," page 29, we find a bill of whereby J. Shoball Smith, of Woodbridge, in consideration of the sum of £ 50 conveyed to Samuel Smith, of the same place, one negro woman named Phebe. The general law abolishing slavery was passed in the Province in 1804, and thoroughly enforced in 1846.
From 1738 to 1864 very little progress was made in the township, largely owing to the fact that during that time two wars had been waged between England and France.
A distinguished figure in the township about 1750 was James Parker, a grandson of Elisha Parker, who removed from Staten Island to Wood- bridge about 1675. James was born in 1714, and was an apprentice to William Bradford, the first printer in New York. In 1751 he established an office in Woodbridge-the first printing office in the Province. It is believed that the building stood near the corner of Perth Amboy avenue and Grove street, where the late Dr. S. P. Harned's former residence was located. Parker printed the "Legislative Proceedings" and many other public documents, and in 1758 began to publish the "New American Magazine," the first periodical published in the State. It was published monthly until 1760. In 1755, with John Holt, of New York, he estab- lished a press at New Haven and printed the "Connecticut Gazette," the first newspaper in the State. In 1761 Parker printed Nevill's "Laws of New Jersey," and in 1764 a "Conductor Generalis," intended as a guide to justices of the peace. In 1765 he transported his press to Burlington and printed Samuel Smith's "History of New Jersey." The manuscript of this valuable work is preserved in the library of the Historical Society at Newark, a volume of 574 pages printed in excellent style. Mr. Parker was postmaster of New York for several years, and at the time of his death, July 2, 1770, was comptroller and secretary for the Postal De- partment of the Northern District of the British Colonies. He died at Burlington, and was buried in the Presbyterian cemetery at Woodbridge. The printing office was burned to the ground by a band of Tories during the Revolution.
As early as 1702, George Keith, a disaffected Quaker, was sent out as a missionary by the English Episcopalians. He came to Woodbridge, and in his journal he speaks of his visit thus : "Dec. 30, 1702, preached at Woodbridge in the Independent meeting house, at the desire of Rev. Mr. Shepard and others. After sermon, Mr. Shepard kindly entertained us at his house." Mr. Shepard must have been very liberal-minded, as he was the town preacher, and therefore liable to the jealousy which existed to some extent in that time in every denomination. The town had no other Episcopal missionary until 1711, when Rev. Edward
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Vaughan, responding to the invitation from several men who were dis- satisfied with Rev. Nathaniel Wade, the town preacher, began to visit and minister in the town, preaching in private houses; and finally a congregation of Episcopalians was formed in the above year. From that time until 1716, services were held in private houses, and sometimes in a new church which had been built upon the Green, not far from the Presbyterian church, but which was never finished. Occasional services were held by different clergymen until 1754, when a new church was built, supposed to be on the site of the first, which remained for over one hundred years and was destroyed by fire in 1858. Rev. Robert Mc- Kean took charge of the church in 1764, and was succeeded by Rev. John Preston.
On December 6, 1769, a charter was granted to Trinity Church by King George III., of England, and signed by William Franklin, Governor of the Province, the wardens being Samuel Jaques and Samuel Tingley, and the following vestrymen: David Alston, Thomas Hadden, Joseph Dunham and Ebenezer Forster. During the Revolution the services were abandoned, and in 1777 the church was occasionally used as a soldiers' barracks. Little was done to restore the services until 1810. From that time until 1830 Rev. James M. Chapman occasionally offi- ciated. The following were the succeeding rectors : Rev. William Doug- las, 1830-38; Rev. Frederick Ogilby, 1838-42; Rev. Hamble J. Leacock, 1842; Rev. James M. Chapman (missionary service), 1843-57 ; Rev. E. A. Hoffman, 1858-62; Rev. P. L. Jaques, 1862-69; Rev. R. C. McIlvaine, 1869-72 ; Rev. J. A. Penniman, 1872; Rev. T. Lewis Banister, 1872. The corner-stone of the present church, the third on the same site, was laid July 7, 1860, and consecrated May 20, 1861, by Rt. Rev. Bishop Oden- heimer, of the Diocese of New Jersey. Among those who served as rectors, succeeding Rev. T. Lewis Banister, were Revs. Julian Ingle, Howard E. Thompson, Lewis H. Lighthipe, R. H. Brestell, J. A. Spring- sted, Rev. Scott B. Rathbun and Rev. H. H. Gifford. In the roll of wardens and vestrymen we find the names of Jotham Coddington, George A. Hollister, Lorraine Freeman, Alanson Newton, Thomas Barron, Captain Forbes, William H. Mawbey, Henry W. Holton, James Blood- good, William E. Fink, John B. Osbourne, George C. Hance, William H. Benton, George Lasslett and many others. The present vestrymen are: John H. Love, senior warden; James McKeown, junior warden ; vestrymen-Ivins I. Browne, secretary-treasurer ; James Peoples, Daniel Demarest, Robert Dunn and Mr. Moran ; acting rector, Rev. Walter H. Stowe.
For several years previous to 1669 there was trouble between the Lords Proprietors and the people of the townships. The latter denied that the former had any right to rule, and desired to be brought directly under the Crown. The authority of the Proprietors was set at naught
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and their officers were openly defied; prisoners in their charge were rescued, jails were broken open to effect the release of criminals, and chaos reigned over the Province. The disorder reached its culmina- tion in 1701 to such an extent that the Lords Proprietors wearied of the struggle and in the following year surrendered the government to Queen Anne, who accepted it on April 17, 1702, and henceforth East and West Jersey became one Province and known as New Jersey, Sir Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, being the first Governor, his dominion extending also over New York. The last English governor was Sir William Frank- lin, a son of the great Benjamin Franklin, and had his residence at what is now known as the Westminster Hotel on Kearney avenue, Perth Amboy. On June 17, 1776, Gen. Nathaniel Heard, of Woodbridge. under orders from Samuel Tucker, president of the Provincial Congress, arrested the Governor and, owing to his refusal to give his parole, com- mitted him to the custody of Governor Trunibull, of Connecticut, by whom he was held as a prisoner for two years and four months, when he was exchanged, and ultimately returned to England.
In 1824, when our great Revolutionary ally, Marquis de Lafayette, visited the United States, he was given a public reception, with elaborate ceremonies, on the Green near the residence of Ernest H. Boynton. Professor Stryker made an address, and a large choir, composed of school children and others, sang patriotic songs. The distinguished guest seemed much impressed and pleased with the enthusiastic demonstra- tion, testifying, as it did, to the gratitude and affection of the descendants of those whose independence he had bravely fought to achieve.
Thomas Barron, a native of Woodbridge, and a retired merchant, made a bequest in his will leaving $50,000 to build and maintain a public library in his native town. In 1875 the handsome brownstone building on the corner of Rahway and Carteret avenues, near the Presbyterian church, was completed and dedicated with proper ceremonies. It con- tains a large number of volumes, with newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals, and is altogether an ornament and a great addition to the town. The first trustees were: Dr. John C. Barron (the founder's nephew), Rev. George C. Lucas, pastor of the Presbyterian church, and Dr. Ellis B. Freeman. Succeeding members of the board were: Judge Albert D. Brown, Howard Valentine, William Edgar and Thomas and Ellis Barron. The present board consists of Hampton Cutter, president ; John H. Love, secretary ; James E. Berry, treasurer ; Everitt C. Ensign and S. Barron Brewster, vice-presidents; librarian, Mrs. Percival Logan.
Prior to 1865 the only communication Woodbridge had with the outside world was by walking, riding, driving, and the steamboat that plied between New Brunswick and New York, stopping at points on the Raritan river and Staten Island Sound ; but in the above mentioned year the Pennsylvania railroad built a branch road from Rahway to
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Perth Amboy, with stations at Woodbridge, Avenel and Spa Spring. Before that time the mail was carried from Rahway to Perth Amboy via Woodbridge, by wagon, sleigh or horseback; and the writer remembers seeing the genial face of former Sheriff Convery, of Perth Amboy, who for several years was the mail carrier, appearing in the Woodbridge postoffice, his coat covered with snow, or drenched with rain, after a three and a half mile drive. The postoffice was successively located in the old building on the corner of Rahway avenue and Green street; in Alexander A. Edgar's store, nearly opposite ; in M. A. Brown's drug store, on Main street; in Masonic Hall; and again on Main street. For- mer postmasters were: John E. Barron, H. Barcalow, Alex. A. Edgar, Jeremiah Ten Eyck, Dr. Samuel E. Freeman, Marcus A. Brown, David P. Carpenter, James V. Freeman, Daniel W. Brown, John M. Sutton, Samuel Coddington and John F. Ryan.
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