History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 17

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974

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Pitlochie, who was himself a "vexed Pres- byterian," being now in contemplation of a set- tlement in the colony of East Jersey and in want of laborers or bondmen for the culture of his lands, petitioned the Council for a con-

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND TITLES.

signment of these tender-conscienced men, and nearly a hundred who had been condemned to banishment were at once "gifted" to him. He freighted a New Castle ship to carry them, and the vessel sailed from Leith Roads [September 5, 1685], carrying. also with her cargo "dy- vours and broken men," besides the Covenant- ers. It was a most disastrous voyage. Partly, perhaps, because of the reduced, sickly state of most of the prisoners at starting, but more through a deficiency of healthful food and the want of air and comfort, a violent fever broke out in the ship before she had cleared Land's End. It soon assumed a malignant type, and scarcely an individual on board escaped it. The whole crew, except the captain and boat- swain, died. Pitlochie himself, and his wife, also, died. Three or four dead were thrown overboard every day. Notwithstanding this raging sickness, much severity was used towards the prisoners at sea by the master of the ship and others. Those under deck were not al- lowed to worship by themselves; and when they were engaged in it, the captain would throw down great planks of timber upon them to disturb them, and sometimes to the danger of their lives. Fifteen long weeks were spent at sea before the prison-ship arrived at her destination; and in that time seventy had per- ished. The remainder were so reduced in strength as to be scarcely able to go ashore. The people at the place where they landed (Perth Amboy), not having the gospel among them, were indifferent to the fate of the Scot- tish Presbyterians; but at a place a few miles inland, where there was a minister and congre- gation, they were received with great kindness. They then became the subjects of a singular litigation ; a Mr. Johnston, the son-in-law and heir1 of Pitlochie, suing them for their value as bond-servants. A jury found that there was

no indenture between Pitlochie and them, but that they were shipped against their will; there- fore Mr. Johnston had no control over them.

At the time when these distressed people - were landed at Perth Amboy, John Reid was living there; and being a Quaker, and taking an interest in his suffering countrymen, he prob- ably advised and assisted them to leave Amboy and go to the settlement of the Friends at To- panemus, which was doubtless the "place a few miles inland, where there was a minister and congregation," and where they were induced to remain as settlers, by reason of the "great kindness" which they received, and also by the attractiveness of the country. A few years later a Presbyterian Church was formed, and a house of worship erected about two miles north of the old Quaker Meeting-house at Topanemus. This was the first Presbyterian Church edifice built in Monmouth County, and one of the first two or three in the province of New Jersey. Not a vestige of the old building now remains; but its site may still be known by a slight depression on a vacant spot in the "Old Scotch Burying-Ground," in Marlbor- ough township.

Between the Scotch and the English settlers in Monmouth County (as in other parts of the province) there sprang up a mutual jealousy and dislike, which became intensified into some- thing very much akin to hatred. The cause of this cannot, at this time, be clearly understood, but its existence-which, in no small degree, aggravated the disorders which disturbed the peace of the province in the last part of the seventeenth and the earlier years of the eigh- teenth century-is clearly shown in the records of that time, from which a few pertinent ex- tracts are here given.

In a letter by Col. Robert Quary to the Lords of Trade, dated June 16, 1703, he said : " The contests of West Jersey have always been betwixt the Quakers and her majesty's subjects who are no Quakers. . . . The contest in East Jersey is of a different nature, -whether the Country shall be a Scotch settle- ment or an English settlement. The Scotch have had for many years the advantage of a Scotch Governour, Colonel Andrew Hamilton.

-- -

" That this should read " one of the heirs," etc., is shown by the following extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Council at Perth Amboy, October 30, 1686, viz. : "James Scott, sonn of George Scott, of picklorkey [Pitlochie], late of the Kingdom of Scotland, Deceased, came before this Councill, being a Minor, and made choyse of m" John Johnstone and m' George Willox to bee his Guardians,- who were admitted accordingly."

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

But it is the expectation of all that his Excel- lency, My Lord Cornbury, will reconcile all these differences." That expectation, however, was not verified.

In a memorial of that time, by Edward Ran- dolph (N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ii. p. 122), he said : " Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a Scotchman, is the Gov' of those Provinces. Appointed by the Proprietors to lease out their Lands and receive their Quit-Rents. Heis a great favourer of the Scotch Traders, his Countrymen."

The proprietors of East Jersey, in a memorial to the Lords of Trade, asking for the appoint- ment of Peter Sonmans as councillor in place of Lewis Morris, said : " Yet some of the un- ruly Scots and those of their faction (abetted by their Ring-leader1) in New Jersey, who are the correspondents and informers of the Me- , morialists here against the Lord Cornbury, op- posed Mr. Sonmans' commission there, etc."

Col. Robert Quary, in another letter to the Lords of Trade, in reference to New Jersey af- fairs, dated December 20, 1703, said : " The Eastern Division hath been for a long time in the hands of a very few Scotch, the head of web party is now Coll. Morris; the whole Number of them are not at most above Twenty, and yett they have always, by the Advantage of a Scotch Governour, carryed it with a high hand agt the rest of the Inhabitants, tho' more than a thou- sand in Number, and yo greatest part of them Menn of Substance and Sence. The hardships they have received from this small number of Scotch have so prejudiced the whole country agt them that it is Impossible to reconcile it (It must be a work of time)."

The first settlements of Dutch people in Mon- mouth County were made several years later than those of the Scotch, and a full quarter of a cen- tury after the first of the English pioneers came to locate on their lands patented from Governor Nicolls. With (so far as is known) only a sin- gle exception,2 there were no Dutch settlers in

the county prior to 1690, and very few before 1695 ; and not until two or three years after the latter date (excepting in the case above- mentioned) do names of that nationality- Schanck, Hendrickson, Guybertson and Van Dorn-appear in the records as jurymen or oth- erwise. Following is given a list of settlers in Monmouth County prior to the year 1700, addi- tional to those given in a preceding chapter of patentees, associates and other inhabitants within the Monmouth purchase in the year 1670. It is not claimed that the list which follows is any- thing like a complete one of people who had located in Monmouth between the last-named year and 1700; in fact, it is not at all likely that it embraces more than one-fourth part of the names of the settlers who came within that period, but, as far as it goes, it is a correct one, having been gathered entirely from lists of jury- men and other matters of official record, viz. :

Ashton, William,

Dennis, Samuel,

Applegate, Daniel,

Dorsett, James,

Allen, Judah,

Dennis, Charles,

Allen, Elisha,

Allen, Ephraim,

Allen, Jedediah,

Dyekman, Hugh,

Eaton, Thomas,

Adam, Alexander,

Edwards, Abiah,

Baker, John, Barclay, John,

Estill, Thomas,

Barnes, Richard,

Blackman, Bryan,

Brown, Abraham,

Brown, Abraham, Jr.,

Gordon, Augustus,

Gardner, Richard,

Gifford, Hananiah,

Bennett, Jeremiah,

Goodbody, William,

Bryan, Morgan,

Gibbons, Mordecai,

Boel, Thomas,

Guyberson, John,

Compton, Cornelius,

Hankinson, Thomas,

Compton, Richard,

Hewitt, Thomas,

Cottrell, Eleazer,

Hopping, Samuel,

Cheeseman, William,

Harbert, Thomas,

Cheeseman, William, Jr.,

Hick, Benjamin,

Hamilton, Robert,

Crafford, John,

Harbert, Francis,

Crafford, John, Jr.,

Hilborn, Thomas,

Cook, Stephen,

Harbert, Daniel,

Cannon, Patrick,

Hendrickson, Hendrick,

Case, William,

Hendrickson,3 Daniel,

Curliss, George,

Hewlett, Samuel,

Cook, Benjamin,

Hoge, William,

Child, Samuel,

Ingram, Thomas,

Cammoek, Nathaniel,

Jobs, George,

sworn into that office at Fort Willem Hendrick. September Ist, 1673.

* The first Dateh sheriff of Monmouth County.

1 Lewis Morris.

? That of Hugh Dyckman, of Shrewsbury, who, at the time of the reoccupation of the New Netherlands by the Dutch under Governor Colve, was chosen one of the "sche- pens," and, with Eliakim Wardell and John Hance, was

Drummond, Gawen,

Davison, William,

Allen, Caleb,

Estill, William,

Emly, Peter, Fullerton, James,

Forman, Alexander,

Bray, John,

Bennett, Arian,

Chamberlain, Adam,

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND TITLES.

Jackson, Francis,

Stout, Richard, Jr.,

Jennings, John, James, Robert, Jeffrey, Francis, Johnston, John, : Jollis, Peter,

Laing, William, Leeds, William, Leonard, Capt. Samuel, Leonard, John,

Lippitt, Moses, Lawrence, John, Lawrence, Elisha,

Lippincott, Remembrance,

. Marsh, Henry,

Usselton, Francis,

Usselton, Thomas,

Van Dorn, Jacob,

Vaughan, John,

Vickard, Thomas,

Whitlock, William,

West, John, West, Stephen, West, Joseph,

Potter, Ephraim,

West, William,

Pintard, Anthony,

Williams, Edward,

Pattison, Robert, Redford, Samuel,

Williams, William, Williams, John,

Reed, James,

Warne, Thomas, Wall, Garrett,

Renshall, Thomas, Stillwell, Jeremiah, Slocum, Nathaniel, Snawsell, Thomas,

Worth, William, Webley, Thomas, White, Samuel,

Winter, William,

Shrieve, Caleb, Stout, William, Stout, David,

Woolley, William, Woolley, John,

Whitlock, John,

Stout, Benjamin, Stout, James,

Worthley, John,

Stout, Jonathan,

Wilson, Peter,

Stout, Richard,

Willett, Samuel,

The Hollanders in Monmouth1 came in the first place from New York and the western towns of Long Island, principally between 1690 and 1720. Since then there has been some influx of them from Middlesex and Somerset Counties of this State. The original settlers were generally the younger sons, and left the crowded homesteads of their fathers on Long I-land to make new ones for themselves. Agri- culture was their chief business, and the owner- ship of a large unincumbered farm, with a sub- stantial house, large, well-filled barns and good stock, their highest desire. As farmers they had and have no superiors. As citizens they were, and have ever been, conservative and

peaceable, more ready to do than to talk of what they do, and, with very few exceptions, true to the cause of liberty and free institutions. They were the descendants of the only people who were free when they colonized New York and New Jersey, and were the only original Republicans and Democrats of America. Dur- ing the Revolution they were the principal sufferers from the depredations of the Tories in Monmouth and the ravages of the British army in its march through the county.

From such a stock have descended the people of Monmouth who bear the names of Schanck, Smock, Statesir, Stryker, Suydam, Spader, Sut- phen, Lefferts, Leffertsen, Hyer, Quackenbush, Polhemus, Conover, Vandeveer, Barkalow and Barricklo, Antonides, Wyckoff, Hoff and Hoff- man, Beekman, Neafie or Nevius, Hendricks and Hendrickson, Probasco, Terhune, Cortel- you, Gulick, Teunis, Denise, Bergen, Brincker- hoff, Remsen, Du Bois, Voorhees, Vredenburgh, Vought, Veghte, Truax, Schuyler, Hageman, Honce, Ten Eyck, Luyster, Van Kirk, Van Sickelin or Sickles, Van Dyke, Van Brunt, Van Dorn, Van Mater, Van Schoick, Van Deventer, Van Cleaf, Van Hise, Van Pelt and others of the "Van" prefix.

It was by the ancestors of many of these people that the old, substantial farm-houses, still seen here and there in parts of this county, were built, with roofs running almost to the ground and projecting over both in front and rear, and under them the "stoep;" the out- buildings large and massive and often painted red. The old Dutch farmers of Monmouth delighted in large barns, well filled, and with their stock, including negro' slaves, sleek, fat and contented.2 Their hospitality was as solid

2 "There were also [among the early Dutch settlers in Monmouth ] a few large land-owners, with numerous slaves, who lived like kings on their farms. The leading charac- teristics of this class are happily described by Edmund C. Stedman, in his poem called ' Alice of Monmouth,' by the following lines :

' Hendrick Van Ghelt, of Monmouth Shore, His fame still rings the county o'er. The stock he raised, the stallion he rode, The fertile acres his farmers sowed, The dinners he gave ; the yacht which lay At his fishing dock in the Lower Bay;

' This and the three succeeding paragraphs, relative to the Dutch settlers in Monmouth County, are from the pen of Hon. G. C. Beekman, of Freehold.

Stout, Peter, Skelton, Robert, Scott, William, Starkey, John, Sarah, Nicholas, Stevens, Nicholas, Schanck, John, Schanck, Garret, Sharp, Thomas, Thomson, Cornelius, Tucker, John, Taylor, Edward, Trewax, Jacob,

Masters, Clement, Merling, James, . Mott, Gershom, Morford, Thomas, Morford, John, Merrill, William, Melvin, James, Oung, Isaac,

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

and wide as the great doors which led into their dwellings, and the open fire-place and hearth, on which blazed and crackled a load of wood at a time.

In the same way and for the same purpose that the younger sons of the Dutch farmers of Long Island left their homesteads to make homes for themselves in New Jersey, the younger members of the families of their descendants have, at different periods, emigrated from Mon- mouth County and settled in some of the counties of Eastern Pennsylvania, along the Mohawk River in New York, in the Miami Valley in Ohio, in the Jersey settlement in Illinois, and elsewhere; and wherever they have gone, the same industry, energy, honesty and hospitality have ever characterized them. Of those who remained on the lands where their , ancestors first settled, almost two centuries ago, it may be said that through that long period they and their descendants have so continually intermarried with those of the English, Scotch, and other settlers that the blood of the Bata- vians now flows through the veins of a large proportion of the permanent residents of Mon- mouth County.

With regard to the English and Scotch people who preceded the Dutch as settlers in this region, history records a similar migration in later years. From Monmouth County, which -had afforded an asylum for these victims of religious perse- cution in Europe and New England, many of

their descendants removed to other provins and States, and made for themselves new home- in the valleys of the Delaware, the Susquehanna the Potomac, the Shenandoah and the Kanawha " Among the first settlers of the Valley of Vit- ginia, who began to locate there about 1732." says the Hon. Edwin Salter,1 "were Forman- Taylors, Stocktons, Throckmortons, Van M. . ters, Pattersons, Vances, Allens, Willets (7 Willis), Larues, Lucases and others of familiar New Jersey names. Fourteen or fifteen Baptist families from this region settled near Gerard -. town, and there were also many Scotch Pre- byterians from New Jersey, among whom were Crawfords, -McDowells, Stuarts, Alexander-, Kerrs, Browns and Cummingses. Many of the- families eventually passed into the Carolina -. Kentucky and elsewhere, and descendants of some became noted not only in the localities or States where they settled, but in the annals of the nation. Among those of Scotch origin may be named William H. Crawford, of Georgia. once a United States Senator from that State. and also a Presidential candidate, and General Leslie Combs, of Kentucky. Another man still more noted in the history of the nation, who descended from early settlers of New Jersey. and whose ancestors went from Monmouth County to Eastern Pennsylvania, and thence to the Valley of Virginia, was President Abraham Lincoln,2 one of whose ancestors was John

The suits which he waged thro' many a year For a rood of land behind bis pier. Of this the chronicles yet remain From Navesink Heights to Freehold Plain,

1 In an address delivered at the celebration of the bi- centennial anniversary of the New Jersey Legislature ... 1883.

2 " A few years ago Judge Beekman, in looking over ancient records in the court-house at Freehold, found fre- 'The Shrewsbury people in autumn help Their sandy topland with marl and kelp, And their peach and apple orchards fill The gurgling vats of the cross-road mill. They tell, as each twirls his tavern-can, Wonderful tales of that staunch old man, And they boast of the draught they have tasted and smelt, 'Tis good as the still of Hendrick Van Ghelt.' quent mention of the name of Mordecai Lincoln, and !it supposed it was possible that this man might be the a . cestor of Abraham Lincoln, as he went to Eastern Pent. sylvania, and it was said by the late President tla! according to a tradition in his family, his ancestors can: e from thence, but in his lifetime he could trace his ance-tt! no farther back than to his grandfather, Abraham, w originally lived in Rockingham County, in the Valley Virginia. Recently it has been definitely ascertained tv "Some of the oldest citizens of the county can remember . how well these lines describe certain characteristics of several farmers of Monmouth who were famous in the early Judge Beekman's supposition was correct. A relative ' the Lincoln family, Mr. Samuel Shackford, of Cook County Illinois, has been most indefatigable in efforts to trace part of the present century,-men like Joseph H. Van | back the ancestry of the late President by visits to an! Mater, Col. Barnes Smock, Hendrick Schanck, Capt. John Schanck, Capt. Daniel Hendrickson, 'Farmer' Jacob Con- over and others."-Hon. G. C. Beekman.

searches in records in Kentucky, the Valley of Virgin .. and Eastern Pennsylvania. He found that the great-grin 1 father of the late President was named John, who can.e

THE PROVINCIAL REVOLT.

Bowne, of Monmouth, Speaker of the House of Assembly more than two hundred years ago.

"The founder of the family was Samuel Lincoln, who came from Norwich, England, to Massachusets ; he had a son, Mordecai (1st), of Hingham ; he in turn had sons,-Mordecai (2d), born April 24, 1686 ; Abraham, born January 13, 1689 ; Isaac, born October 21, 1691,-and . a daughter, Sarah, born July 29, 1694, as stated in Savage's 'Genealogical Dictionary.' Mordecai (2d) and Abraham moved to Mon- mouth County, N. J., where the first named married a granddaughter of Capt. John Bowne, and his oldest son, born in Monmouth, was named John. About 1720 the Lincolns moved to Eastern Pennsylvania, where Mordecai's first wife died, and there he married again. He died at Amity, Pa., and his will, dated February 23, 1735, and proven June 7, 1736, men- tions his wife, Mary, and children,-John, Thomas, Hannah, Mary, Ann, Sarah, Morde- cai (born 1730) and a ' prospective child.' The latter proved a boy and was named Abraham, who subsequently married Ann Boone, a cousin of Daniel Boone. John Lincoln, the eldest son, with some of his neighbors, moved to Rock- ingham County, Va .; he had sons, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas and John. John, (1st) died at Harrisonburg, Va. His oldest son, Abra- ham, who was grandfather of President Lin-

from Eastern Pennsylvania, where his father, a Mordecai Lincoln, had settled. MIr. Shackford gained the impression that Mordecai and his son John came from New Jersey, and therefore he wrote to persons whom he supposed familiar with old records here, inquiring if there was any mention of a Mordecai Lincoln and his son John in ancient New Jersey records. The records in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton furnished the desired information. In that office is the record of a deed, dated November 8, 1748 (in Book H, p. 437), from John Lincoln, who describes himself as son and heir of Mordecai Lincoln, late of Caer- narvon Township, Lancaster County, Pa., formerly of New Jersey, for lands in Middlesex County, New Jersey. By reference to a previous record in the same book (page 150) it is found that this was the same land deeded to Mordecai Lincoln, of Monmouth County. February 12, 1720. Thus, after patient researches, running through some twenty-five years, records are discovered in the State House which enable those interested to trace the late President's an- cestry in an unbroken chain back to New Jersey, and thence to the first comer from England."-Hon. Edwin Salter's Address.

coln, married Mary Shipley, of North Carolina, and had children,-Mordecai, Josiah, Thomas Mary and Nancy. About 1780-82 he moved to Kentucky with his brother Thomas. In the spring of 1784, Abraham, while planting in a field, was killed by an Indian. His son, Thomas (President Lincoln's father), who was then about six years old, was with his father in the field, and the Indian tried to capture him, but was shot and killed by Mordecai, the old- est brother of the boy. Thomas Lincoln had only one son, Abraham, who became President of the United States."

CHAPTER VII.

THE PROVINCIAL REVOLT.

THE Provincial Revolt, or (less properly) Provincial Revolution, is the term which has frequently been applied to a series of disorders which occurred in East New Jersey in the pe- riod extending from the first English settle- ments in 1664 to the time of the proprietary surrender of the government to the British crown, and even afterwards (to some extent) nearly to the opening of the war of independ- ence. These disorders were principally the results of a determined resistance to the pro- prietors' claim of ownership of the soil, and, (in a less degree) of opposition to their right of government. In those parts of the province where the settlers had purchased their lands. from the Indians, and-having subsequently fortified themselves by patents of the same lands from Governor Nicolls-had taken peace- able possession, established farms, and built houses and mills, they regarded their titles as good and valid, and were disposed to hold them against all proprietary claims of ownership, even to the extent of open resistance to the government. This was particularly the case in Monmouth and Essex, and it was in these counties that the spirit of resistance was most obstinate and aggressive.

In June, 1667, a Legislature, composed of deputies from Middletown, Shrewsbury and

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Portland Point, convened at Portland Point, adja- cent to the Highlands of Navesink. This, the first Legislature that assembled in New Jersey, was called under authority conferred by the Nicolls patent, and it met nearly a year be- fore Governor Carteret, his Council and the representatives of the other towns of the prov- ince assembled at Elizabethtown. This Assem-

bly of the Monmouth settlers continued to meet at Portland Point, as a body distinct from, and independent of, the proprietors' government, for some years. The records of this Legislature have been preserved. It appears to have been a law-making body, a court and a board of land proprietors combined, and was designated in its proceedings as "The General Assembly of the Patentees and Deputies." 1

Besides this representative body, the people of each town had its distinct local government. This was a pure democracy, all proceedings affecting the interests of each particular town being had before the people assembled in town- meeting by a vira-roce vote. The first town-

1 The proceedings of the General Assembly that con- vened at Portland Point is preserved in one of the old books in the Monmouth County clerk's office. The record of the first meeting opens thus: "At a General Assembly the 12th of December, 1667. Officers chosen by the in- habitants of Middletown, on Newasunk neck, and established by oath at this present Assembly or Court held this day and year above written.

Officers for Middletown Richard Gibbons Constable Jonathan Hulms William Lawrence Shem Arnold

Overseers

James Ashton

Deputies

For Portland Point

Henry Percy . Richard Richardson James Bowne

Officers for Shrewsbury on Narumsick Peter Parker Constable

Edward Patterson Eliakim Wardell

Overseers and

Barth West

Deputies."

Then follows this entry as a heading :

"The several acts or orders enacted at this present Assembly upon the proof presented by the inhabitants to the Patentees and Deputies are in order set down, viz." Here follow the acts passed upon a variety of subjects.

book of one of these communities is in exist- ence. The first record is in 1667, and it continues almost to the year 1700, embracing interesting matter which has never been published, with reference to the controversy which agitated the province for many years, and concerning which so little has heretofore been known. As this protracted controversy produced a change of government, in the surrender to the crown,2 the information here obtained is important in a historical point of view, to show the part the early settlers of Monmouth took in the Provin- cial Revolt.

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 17

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 974

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974