History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 72

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

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1 > Part 72

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"In witness whereof, I, ye sª John Reid, have here- unto set my hand & seal in the thirteenth year of Anne by ye grace of God, of Great Britain, France & Ireland, Queen, defender of ye Faith, &c., this Twenty-sixth day of August, Anno Domo. 1714.

"Signed, Sealed & Deliv- ) ered in ye presence of

JOHN REID. [L. S.]

" JOHN HANCE,

" JOHN MORRIS,

" JACOB DENNIS.

" Memorandum this 24th day of November, 1714. The within-named John Reid acknowledged this instrument to be his act & deed, before me, ".THOMAS GORDON."

At the time this deed was executed, John Reid owned ( as before mentioned ) a farm on the northwest side of the old Burlington Path, now the Main Street of Freehold, extending from near the academy lot to the vicinity of the railroad crossing. In order to enhance the val- ue of his property, he conveyed the lot for a nominal consideration, with the absolute condi- tion that the court-house and jail should be built and remain there.

The identity of the present court-house lot with the one conveyed by Reid in 1714 is proved beyond question. The dimensions of the court-house lot, before the additions made a few years ago, correspond with the description in the old deed,-two chains in depth and two in front, making a square. There is no record showing that any other lot in Freehold was ever conveyed to the county authorities, nor is there any tradition that a court-house for the county of Monmouth ever stood on any other site.

The November Sessions of 1714 was the last term of the Monmouth County Court which was held at Middletown. The last term at Shrews- bury was held in August, 1715, at which John Reid was indicted for swearing two profane oaths. Reid having been a leader in the remo- val of the court-house, the indictment was doubtless procured as a means of petty revenge and persecution by the adherents of the party who wished to locate the new building at Mid- dletown.

During the summer of 1715 the first court- house of Monmouth County (a small wooden building with shingled walls ) was built on the lot conveyed by John Reid ( yeoman ), at Free- hold, and the first term of court was held there on the fourth Tuesday in November in that year,-John Reid, Esq., presiding justice.1

There is no doubt (though it is not certainly known) that the jail of 1715 was under one roof with the court-house, as there is no mention in the records of a separate jail building being erected at that time. Nothing definite is known as to the size of the prison or the materials of which it was constructed. It was probably a frame structure, unsubstantial and insecure,

1 " At a Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Freehold, for the county of Monmouth, the Fourth Tuesday of Novem- ber, Anno Domini 1715. Justices present, John Reid, president ; James Ashton, Lawrence Van Hook, Joseph Wardell, Richard Chambers, John Wilson. Attorney- General, Thomas Gordon, Esq. Gideon Crawford, High Sheriff of Monmouth County."

The grand jurors were Peter Wilson (foreman), John Cox, Alexander Doue, Albert Covenhoven, Cornelius Lain, John Giseberson [Giberson], John Van Meter, John Re- mine. Hendrick Werwey, Johannes Smock, Alexander Clark, James Crage [Craig], Johannes Polhemus, Jacob Covenoven, Jolin Hulet, Nathan Allen, William . Jewell, Gawin Watson.

404

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

for in May, 1719, less than four years after it was built, the court ordered "that Luke Wessel and David [illegible] be committed to custody till they find security to bear the sheriff harmless in the repair of the gaol which they broke." Its insufficiency is also shown by the following extracts from the records, viz :

. "Sessions at Freehold, 1722, Nov .- William Nich- ols, Esq., High Sheriff of this County of Monmouth, came into Court, in his proper person, and prayed that his protest for the insufficiency of the gaol might be entered, which, by the Court, is agreed to.

"At a Private Sessions holden at the house of Cor- nelius Thomson, in Freehold, the 11th day of January, 1722, Anno Novo Georgio Regis, &c .: Whereas, one William Hall is, for a misdemeanour, committed to the gaol of this county, in which a prisoner cannot at present have the benefit of a fire, there being no chim- ney in the said gaol, nor is likely one can be built till the weather shall be warmer: Ordered, therefore, that the said William Hall be removed from the said Prison to the shop near thereunto, belonging to the Under- Sheriff."

At the January Sessions of 1723, High Sheriff William Nichols came into court, and again protested the insufficiency and insecurity of the jail, which was agreed to and entered by the court. At that early period it was customary for the sheriff to make such protest when the jail was insecure (and sometimes when it really was not so), to clear himself of the penalty for escape of prisoners, if any such should occur. The protest was entered on the minutes of the court ; and then, if the jail was not repaired and put in good condition, and a prisoner afterwards escaped by reason of the insecurity of the prison, the sheriff was discharged of all liability in the matter.

The court-house and jail built in 1715 re- mained in use twelve years, and were destroyed by fire in December, 1727. In January, 1728, the judges met amid the blackened ruins, opened court, and then adjourned to the house of Wil- liam Nichols, which was one of the small cluster of dwellings that then stood on the site of the present town of Frechold. The minutes of the term then and there held embrace the following, which is the first entry : " At the Court of Sessions and Pleas, held at Freehold, in and for the County of Monmouth, in the month of

January, in the second year of his Majesty's1 Reign [1728], Since the last Courts of Sessions and Pleas held for this county the court-house having been burnt down, Henry Leonard, Esq., one of the Judges of this court, and one of the Justices, &c., with John Throgmorton and William Leeds, Esq., two of the assistants of the said Courts, and also Justices, &c., went to- gether to the spot of ground whereon the old Court-house stood, and there, being attended by the Clerk of the Peace, &c., opened the Courts of Sessions and Pleas, and immediately adjourned the same to the house of William Nichols, Esq."

In 1731 another court-house and jail 2 were built on the same lot, and (as is supposed) on the same part of the grounds. The court- house stood and remained in use by the courts

1 George the Second.

" The ancient document of which the following is a copy is one of the papers formerly of John Lawrence, Esq., and now in possession of Major James S. Yard, of Freehold :.

" At the House of Doct" Nichols, Esq"., On ye 23ª of March, 1730-31, There Met & agreed upon by The Sessors to Raise Money for building a Goal of Monmouth County, by order of The Justices & freeholders for Building yo house, 200 pounds. The assessors' & Collectors' fees, £19 5s. 3d .- overplush, £17 12s.

"The Whole County's Worths Is £18,949 7s.,-at [illeg- ible], Coms to £236 17s. 3d.

" Freehold . £5165 11 0

Upper Freehold 3306 10 0

Shrewsbury 5735 16 0

Middleton 4741 10

Total . £18,949 7 0

" Money Raised to build Ye house . £200 0 0

Fees 19 5 3

£219 5 3

236 17 3

Overplush £17 12

" Each Town Raises

Shrewsbury .

£71 13 10}

Freehold

64 11 43

Middleton.

59 5 43

Upper Freehold . 41 6 72

Total .

£236 17 3

" Assessors : For Middleton, Samuel Holmes.

Shrewsbury,

Jacob Dennis.

freehold, John Henderson.

Upper freehold,

Jno. Lawrence,

" March ye 234, 1730-31."

405

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

for more than three-fourths of a century. Per- sons are yet living who remember its appearance, and they describe it as a frame building, nearly square, having a roof shaped much like that of the old Tennent Church, with a small cupola or steeple in the centre. It was much smaller in size than the court-house which succeeded it, and it also stood nearer the Main Street than the present one. The jail was built under the same roof, occupying the basement and lower story. One of the cells, at least, was in front, as is shown by the minutes of the Board of Freeholders where it is mentioned that in 1798 measures were taken to repair "the front Prison of the Court-House, in the following manner : with iron bars near half-inch thick, and inch and a half wide above, below, and on each side, to be well spiked with ragged spikes ; the bars to be about five and half inches apart ; the door like- wise to be in the same manner barred and spiked, and the windows double grated." At the next meeting of the board the committee re- ported that a part of the iron was prepared, and that they had agreed with a smith to punch the holes, at one cent per hole, and for the spikes to be made and ragged, at seven cents per pound.

The court-house built in 1730 was the one which was made historic by the battle of Mon- mouth. The little hamlet, of not more than a dozen houses, which afterwards became the town of Freehold, but which was then scarcely known, except as Monmouth Court-House, was occupied in the two days and nights preceding the battle by Knyphausen's division of the British army,1 and some of the troops were quartered in the court- house.2 In the night following the battle the

British forces stole away silently and secretly, and retreated with all possible rapidity on the road to Middletown. Early in the morning of the 29th soldiers of General Poor's brigade raised the patriot flag on the stumpy steeple of Monmouth Court-House, and during the day a detachment of his command occupied the little village, which the events of the preceding day had made famous for all time.

With regard to the occupation of the hamlet of Monmouth Court-House by the Americans, after the battle of the 28th of June, tradition again comes in with the statement that the court- house building was used as Washington's head- quarters, whence he issued his congratulatory general orders of the 29th. It is possible that this may be true, but there are many reasons for doubting it. In the first place, his general orders are dated " Headquarters, Freehold," in- stead of "Monmouth Court-House," as they probably would have been had he been located at the village, which was then known by no other name. The name " Freehold" was appli- cable, and at that time frequently given, to other localities within the township, just as Washing- ton several times used the word " Hopewell " in dating his orders and dispatches from the differ- ent points where he made his temporary head- quarters in Hopewell township, of Hunterdon County. For this, as for many other reasons, it appears likely that his headquarters on the 29th of June were established at some point on the field,-not improbably at the Carr house, from which Clinton had retreated in the night follow- ing the battle. Washington made no attempt to follow the retreating British, but remained on the field issuing his orders to the several com- mands, and making his dispositions for the

1 The statement has frequently been made, and generally believed, that the British army reached Monmouth Court- House in the afternoon preceding the battle of June 28th. This is disproved by the diary of Andrew Bell, private secretary to Sir Henry Clinton, which contains the follow- ing : "Friday, June 26 .- General Knyphausen moved to Freehold Town, four miles, where the remainder of the army remained at 10 A.M. 19 miles from Rising Sun; a very warm day ; very tired."

"June 27, Saturday .- The whole army halted here this -

day. A deserter from Washington's army informs that the rebels are extended along our left flank, and are very numerous.

2 A few days previous to the battle of Monmouth the prisoners in Freehold jail, six of whom were under sen-

tence of death, were removed to the jail at Morristown, under charge of Nicholas Van Brunt, who was at the time sheriff of Monmouth County. The following is an extract from the minutes of the State Council of Safety, under date of September 28, 1778 :

" Agreed, that there be paid to Mr Schenck, for the use of Nicholas Van Brunt, sheriff of Monmouth, for his ex- penses in removing the prisoners from the gaol in Mon- mouth County to that of Morris, at the time of the enemy's march through Monmouth, & in fetching back to Mon- mouth those who were there to be executed, as per his account, the sum of £48 6s."

406

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

march. During the forenoon of the 29th the troops were employed in burying the dead, pro- viding for the wounded and preparing for the march, and at five o'clock in the afternoon the commander and his army moved away in the opposite direction from Freehold, and encamped that night at Englishtown.

Another reason for disbelieving the tradition is that the court-house was the most proper and commodious building for hospital purposes that could be found in a circuit of many miles from the battle-ground. The British, in their night retreat from the field of Monmouth, left five officers and more than forty privates (all wounded) in the court-house, to be cared for by the Amer- icans ; and on the following day, by the ad- dition of numbers of wounded from the battle- ground, the old building was filled to its utmost capacity. If Washington had had occasion to make his headquarters in the village (which he had not), he was not a man who would secure his own comfort and convenience at the expense of that of his wounded soldiers.

Not only the court-house, but the old Tennent Church and the Episcopal Church in the village were filled with wounded, of whom many of the most seriously injured remained for a con- siderable time after the departure of the troops, and not a few of them found a final resting- place in the soil of Freehold.1

After having been in use for sixty years, the old court-house of 1730 had become dilapi- dated, and almost unfit to be occupied by the courts. In May, 1791, "Jonathan Rea, Es- quire, presented a protest of the sheriff against the condition of the court-house," accompa- nied by a report of the grand jury, and an order was made by the court respecting the same. At the next meeting of the Board of Freeholders it was ordered that the court-house be repaired and that the lot on which it stood be fenced around with palings six feet high on the front, and with a rail-fence six rails high in the rear.

After the repairing of the court-house, in 1791, it seems to have served for several years without much, if any, complaint ; but soon after the commencement of the present century the erection of a new one began to be advocated among the people. On the 9th of May, 1805, a memorial from the judges, justices and a number of the inhabitants of the county was presented to the board of Freeholders, setting forth that the court-house was in a decaying state and almost unfit for the holding of courts, and praying for a new building. On the same day the board took up the memorial, and unan- imously agreed to build a new court-house, appointing William Lloyd and James Cook a committee to obtain a draught of the intended building, to designate the materials to be used in construction and to advertise for any person who chose to bring in a draught for the inspec- tion of the committee.

On the 2d of October, 1805, it was decided by the board to accept a draught produced by Mr. Holmes ; the size of the building to be forty feet in depth and sixty feet front. On the same day the board agreed with Jacob Holmes & Brother "to do the wooden-work, and with Mr. Murray2 to do the mason-work ; they to employ such men as are capable of doing a sufficient day's work." The building was to be of brick, and the iron-work was done by William H. Bennett. On the 4th of Jan- uary, 1806, it was resolved by the board that " the new court-house is to be set as near the centre of the lot as follows,-that is, between Mr. John Craig's paling fence and the rang- ing line of the surrogate's office; the front of said court-house to be laid five or six feet behind the present old one."

The stone material for the court-house was brought from the State of New York. The

1 On the residence lot of Dr. Throckmorton, at the corner of Main and Throckmorton Streets, workmen employed in digging a cellar, some years ago, found a number of hu- man skeletons, which were undoubtedly those of wounded soldiers who had died in hospital in Freehold. They had evidently been buried together in one grave.

? William Murray (son of Joseph, who was murdered at his home in Middletown by Tory Refugees in the Revolution) superintended and built the cells and other masorry of the building. The substantial nature of his work was shown by the way the walls stood the test of the fire which de- stroyed the building in 1873. The foundation walls, and the front wall of the first story of the present court-house in front of the sheriff's office, the hall and the grand jury room remain the same to-day as when put up by William Murray more than three-fourths of a century ago.

407

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

bricks (except those from the front, which were was held the first Revolutionary meeting in brought from Philadelphia) were burned near the site of the building by Mr. Lippincott. The laborers on the work were paid five shil- lings ("York money ") per day, with a deduction of one shilling per day when the days were short. In May, 1806, there was some disa- greement about the allowance of grog to the work-people, and the Board of Freeholders passed a resolution that the laboring men at work at the court-house should have a quart of rum per week and the boys only a pint a week, to be under charge of the committee. The work on the building appears to have pro- gressed very slowly, for it was not completed until 1808, and was first occupied on the 1st of January, 1809.

The old Revolutionary court-house stood (as has already been shown) entirely to the front of the site of its successor, with a space of a few feet between the rear of the old and the front of the new edifice. Therefore it did not interfere materially with the erection of the latter, and so it stood and was occupied by the courts until they were transferred to the new building, in January, 1809. Soon afterwards the brick, stone and iron of the old building were sold at auction, and the house itself was - also sold in the same way and removed across Main Street to a spot on South Street, in the rear of 'what is now Taylor's Hotel. There it was used for some time as a dwelling, and in 1819 as the printing-office of the Monmouth Star, but was afterwards converted into a barn, and it is said that still later a part of the an- cient frame was worked into the structure of a stable which is still standing on South Street.

It was an ignoble fate for the venerable edifice. In it, courts had been held in the name of two British Kings, before the State of New Jersey had an existence. It had stood and done service through two great wars. It was a quarter of a century old at the time of Brad- dock's defeat on the Monongahela ; and in and around it, at court-time, men discussed the fresh news of the capture of Quebec and the death of Wolfe on the plains of Abraham. In that ancient building the people met to denounce the tyranny of the Stamp Act; there, in June, 1774,

New Jersey, and there the Monmouth commit- tees met when the dread intelligence of blood- shed came from Lexington and Bunker Hill. In the old court-room was announced the sign- ing of the immortal Declaration. Within the same walls the Rev. John Woodhull, of the Tennent Church, preached the funeral sermon of the patriot martyr, Captain Joshua Huddy; and there the glad tidings were read of the treaty of peace that elosed the war of independ- ance. In that historic structure, which had stood there when George Washington was born, the people met to listen to his funeral eulogy. Its name is so inseparably connected with his in history that every school-boy who learns of the deeds of Washington, knows also of the famous old court-house of Monmouth.

Until after the close of the last century no building for a clerk's office had been erected, the clerk having either used a part of the court-house or had his office in his dwelling- house. There had been a clerk who had charge of the records from the establishment of the county and first organization of the courts. The books of conveyances, all of which have been preserved and are in existence to this day, were very few in number until after 1800. There was no need of a surrogate's office, for . the Governor, as surrogate-general of New Jersey, granted letters testamentary and of ad- ministration until the year 1784, when the law was passed providing for the appointment of surrogates in the several counties.

In June, 1799, the first offices in the county of Monmouth built by the public authorities for the use of the clerk and surrogate were or- dered to be constructed. The plan proposed was to build them under one roof, of brick, thirty-eight by sixteen feet in dimensions, to be arched over with brick, and to be made, as far as possible, fire-proof. They were built very nearly on the above plan, but the depth was changed from sixteen to twenty feet. They were completed before 1803, as in January of that year the final account of the building com- mittee was settled. They were located in front of the site of the offices afterwards erected (and

408

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

burned in 1873) near the street, and probably on a line with the old court-house of 1730, which was standing and in use at the time of their erection. They remained until about the year 1851, when (upon the construction of new offices) they were removed to South Street, and there used for some years for business purposes.

The offices of the clerk and surrogate, erected in 1851, were one story high, the surrogate occupying the one nearest the court-house. In 1869 another story was added to both offices, and the building was connected with the court- house, a steeple being built upon it corres- ponding with that on the court-house. On the

the court-room was remodeled, a portico built on the front and the exterior ornamented. Be- fore that time the railing around the bar was circular, the seats for the audience were raised as they receded from the bench, the aisle from the door to the bar was in the middle of the room and the prisoners' dock was just inside the railing of the bar.

About the year 1855 the cells in the court- house were converted into dwelling-rooms for the family, and a jail was built in the rear. One of the basement cells had been in use for a time, in 1825, for banking purposes, by the manager of the Monmouth Bank, then existing in Freehold.

On Thursday, October 30, 1873, between twelve and one o'clock A.M., a fire broke out in the Monmouth Inquirer building (located a little above Court Street, and on the north side of Main, where the fine brick block now stands), and, spreading rapidly in both directions, destroyed the court-house of 1808,-ex- cept the solid walls in front and rear,-together with the jail and the offices of the clerk, sheriff and surrogate. The post-office, Inquirer office, a number of business MONMOUTH COURT-HOUSE OF 1808-1873. places and the fine old dwelling-house of Colonel completion of these improvements the clerk | P. G. Vought were also included in the destruc- took possession of the entire lower story, and tion. The account of the origin and progress of the fire, given by the Inquirer and the Democrat2 in their next issues, was as follows : the office of the surrogate was removed to the upper room. These offices were well arranged, and were regarded as among the most conve- nient to be found in the counties of the State.

"It was shortly after midnight when Mr. William Burrell, bartender of the Union Hotel, was about to

The court-house of 1808-the immediate | go to bed, when, glancing out of his window, he saw

predecessor of the one which now stands on the same site-remained in use and occupation by the courts for nearly sixty-five years. In 1855, after a considerable damage to the interior, re- sulting from a fire kindled by a female prisoner,1

---

was sent to Bordentown for aid, and it was promptly re- sponded to. Two fire-engines and their companies left Bordentown, and reached Freehold at half-past ten A.M., but in the mean time the fire had been subdued.

2 Both the newspapers named were printed from the same form,-that of the Democrat,-which Major Yard 1 The fire, which was discovered at one o'clock A.M., February 2, 1885, was set by Catharine Conner, who was courteously tendered (as also the use of his press) to Colo- nel Applegate, the proprietor of the Inquirer, whose office "serving an eight months' sentence for theft. A dispatch | and material had been destroyed by the fire.

---

...

------

409

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

that the Monmouth Inquirer building, directly opposite, was on fire. He rushed out to give the alarm, and met Mr. Will Sanders, a clerk in General Haight's law-office, which is located in the Inquirer building, and together they hastened across the street with a view of saving the general's books and papers. These per- sons were the first to enter the burning building. Mr. Sanders says that the fire was in the side of the building occupied by the printing-office and had burned through the ceiling of General Haight's office. Colonel Ap- plegute and his son, who were in the office until a late hour, declare that no fire was kept in the front room of the office, that the fire in the back room was nearly out, and that everything was safe when they left. Their opinion is that the fire originated in the law- office, from the gas jet, which, owing to the low ceil- ing, when the lights in town were turned off, caused the flame to play against the ceiling. Another opinion is that the fire originated on the first floor, on the theory that to form so fierce a fire in so short a time it must have commenced at the bottom instead of the top of the building. Of course, in the excitement occasioned by the discovery of the fire, no one thought of observing its nature, with a view of ascertaining its origin, and conjecture is now useless.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 72

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