History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 16

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth county, New Jersey > Part 16

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).

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 vett 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 ye 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 age 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- C'rafford, John, 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- Case, William, Cook, Stephen, 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- Schanek, 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,

Drinnmond, Gawen,

Allen, Ephraim,

Davison, William,

Allen, Jedediah,

Dyckman, Hugh,

Adam, Alexander,

Edwards, Abiah,

Baker, John,

Estill, William,

Barclay, John,

Estill, Thomas,

Barnes, Richard,

Emly, Peter,

Blackman, Bryan,

Fullerton, James,

Brown, Abraham,

Forman, Alexander,

Bray, John,

Gordon, Augustus, Gardner, Richard.

Bennett, Arian,

Gifford, Hananiah,

Goodbody, William,

Bryan, Morgan,

Gibbons, Mordecai,

Boel, Thomas,

Guyberson, John,

Compton, Cornelius,

Hankinson, Thomas,

Hewitt, Thomas,

Cheeseman, William,

Ilarbert, Thomas,

Cheeseman, William, Jr.,

Hick, Benjamin,

Chamberlain, Adam,

Ilamilton, Robert,

Harbert, Francis,>

Crafford, John, Jr.,

Hilborn, Thomas,

Cannon, Patrick,

Hendrickson, Hendriek,

Hendrickson,8 Daniel,

Curliss, George,

Hewlett, Samuel,

Cook, Benjamin,

Hoge, William,

Child, Samuel,

Ingram, Thomas,

Cammock, Nathaniel,

Jobs, George,

sworn into that office at Fort Willem Hendrick, September 1st, 1673.

3 The first Dutch sheriff of Monmouth County.

1 Lewis Morris.

2 That of Hugh Dyekman, 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

Allen, Caleb,

Eaton, Thomas,

Brown, Abraham, Jr.,

Bennett, Jeremiah,

Compton, Richard, Cottrell, Eleazer,

Hopping, Samuel,

Harbert, Daniel,

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND TITLES.

Jackson, Franeis, Jennings, John, James, Robert, Jeffrey, Francis, Johnston, John, Jollis, Peter,

Stout, Richard, Jr.,

Stout, Peter,

Skelton, Robert, Seott, William, Starkey, John, Sarah, Nicholas, Stevens, Nicholas, Schanek, John,

Laing, William, Leeds, William,

Leonard, Capt. Samuel, Leonard, John,

Lippitt, Moses,

Lawrence, John,

Lawrence, Elisha,

Taylor, Edward,

Lippincott, Remembrance, Marsh, Henry,

Usselton, Francis,

Masters, Clement,

Usselton, Thomas,

Merling, James,

Van Dorn, Jacob,

Mott, Gershom,

Vaughan, .John,

Morford, Thomas,

Vickard, Thomas, Whitlock, William,

Merrill, William,

West, John,

Melvin, James,

West, Stephen,

Oung, Isaac,

West, Joseph,

Potter, Ephraim,

West, William,

Pintard, Anthony,

Williams, Edward,

Pattison, Robert,

Williams, William,

Redford, Samuel,

Williams, John,

Reed, James,

Warne, Thomas,

Renshall, Thomas,

Wall, Garrett,

Stillwell, Jeremiah,

Worth, William,

Slocum, Nathaniel,

Webley, Thomas,

Snawsell, Thomas,

White, Samuel,

Winter, William.

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

Woolley, William, Woolley, John,

Stout, Benjamin,

Whitlock, John,

Stout, James,

Worthley, John,

Stout, Jonathan,

Wilson, Peter,

Stout, Richard,

Willett, Samuel,

The Hollanders in MonmouthI 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 Island 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 sneh a stock have descended the people of Monmouth who bear the names of Schanck, Smock, Statesir, Stryker, Suydam, Spader, Sut- phen, Lefferts, Leffertsen, Hver, Quackenbush, Polhemus, Conover, Vandeveer, Barkalow and Barrieklo, 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, Ilageman, Honce, Ten Eyck, Luyster, Van Kirk, Van Sickelin or Sickles, Van Dyke, Van Brunt, Van Dorn, Van Mater, Van Schoick, Van Deventer, Van (leaf, 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." 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- teristies of this class are happily described by Edmund C. Stedman, in his poem called ' Alice of Monmouth,' by the following lines:

. Ilendrick Van Ghelt, of Monmouth Shore. llis 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 llon. G. C. Beekman, of Freehold.

Schanck, Garret,

Sharp, Thomas, Thomson, Cornelius,

Tueker, John,

Trewax, Jacob,

Morford, John,

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 erackled 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 byterians from New Jersey, among whom were Illinois, and elsewhere ; and wherever they Crawfords, MeDowells, Stuarts, Alexanders, Kerrs, Browns and Cummingses. Many of these families eventually passed into the Carolinas, Kentucky and elsewhere, and descendants of some became noted not only in the localities or 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 States where they settled, but in the annals of 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. 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. AAnother 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

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 provinees and States, and made for themselves new homes in the valleys of the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the Shenandoah and the Kanawha. " Among the first settlers of the Valley of Vir- ginia, who began to locate there about 1732," says the Hon. Edwin Salter,1 "were Formans, Taylors, Stocktons, Throckmortons, Van Me- ters, Pattersons, Vanees, Allens, Willets (or Willis), Larues, Lucases and others of familiar New Jersey names. Fourteen or fifteen Baptist families from this region settled near Gerards- town, and there were also many Scotch Pres-

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

' 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.'

1 In an address delivered at the celebration of the hi- eentennial anniversary of the New Jersey Legislature in 1883.

2 " A few years ago Judge Beekman, in looking over ancient records in the court-house at Freehold, found fre- quent mention of the name of Mordceai Lincoln, and he supposed it was possible that this man might be the an- cestor of Abraham Lincoln, as he went to Eastern Penn- sylvania, and it was said by the late President that, according to a tradition in his family, his ancestors came from thence, but in his lifetime he could trace his ancestry no farther back than to his grandfather, Abraham, who originally lived in Rockingham County, in the Valley of Virginia. Recently it has been definitely ascertained that Judge Beekman's supposition was correct. A relative of the Lincoln family, Mr. Samnel Shackford, of Cook County, Illinois, has been most indefatigable in efforts to trace searches in records in Kentucky, the Valley of Virginia and Eastern Pennsylvania. He found that the great-grand- father of the late President was named John, who came

"Some of the oldest citizens of the county can remember how well these lines describe certain characteristics of several farmers of Monmonth who were famous in the early part of the present century,-men like Joseph H. Van | back the ancestry of the late President by visits to and Mater, Col. Barnes Smock, Hendrick Schanck, Capt. John Schanck, Capt. Daniel Hendrickson, 'Farmer' Jacob Con- over and others."-Hon. G. C. Brekman.

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 | to Kentucky with his brother Thomas. In the Massachusets ; he had a son, Mordecai (1st), of 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." Hingham ; he in turn had sons,-Mordecai (2d), born April 24, 1686 ; Abraham, born January 18, 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 CHAPTER VII. 23, 1735, and proven June 7, 1736, men- THE PROVINCIAL REVOLT. tions his wife, Mary, and children,-John, Thomas, Hannah, Mary, Ann, Sarah, Morde- eai (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. Mr. 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 11, 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 Sulter's Address.

coln, married Mary Shipley, of North Carolina, and had children,-Mordecai, JJosiah, Thomas Mary and Nancy. About 1780-82 he moved

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 Nieolls-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 Monmonth and Essex, and it was in these eounties 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

Overseers

Shem Arnold

James Ashton

Deputies

For Portland Point

Henry Percy Richard Richardson James Bowne

Officers for Shrewsbury on Narumsiek

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 Depnties 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 Monmonth took in the Provin- cial Revolt.

The first Assembly under the proprietors convened at Elizabethtown in May, 1668, and it appears by the proceedings that James Gro- ver and John Bowne claimed to be deputies for Middletown and Shrewsbury, and took the oath. This was always construed as an ac- knowledgment by the towns 'of the right of the proprietors, not only to the government, but also to the soil. It appears, however, by the town-book of Middletown, that the inhabitants at the next town-meeting hastened to repudiate Grover and Bowne, and to deny that they were ever chosen representatives. This is an import- ant fact, for their participation in the proceed- ings of the first Assembly at Elizabethtown, and voting for the rates to be levied, was made a strong point against the patentees in the con-

2 The question which agitated the inhabitants of Middle- town and Shrewsbury was one of title to their lands. The same question affected other portions of the province, and produced such dissatisfaction and disorder that the pro- prietors finally were obliged to surrender the government. The grant from the Duke of York to Berkeley and Car- teret was prior to that from Nicolls to the patentees, but at the date of the Monmouth patent neither Nicolls nor the patentees had notice of the Duke's grant. Nicolls had authority to grant, and promised the patent to those who should settle in Middletown and Shrewsbury, if they would first extinguish the Indian title. This they did, received their patent, and had it recorded previons to notice that the Duke had conveyed to the proprietors. From these conflicting titles proceeded the trouble and contention that followed. The proprietors insisted not only upon the right of government over the inhabitants of the towns of Mon- mouth, but also claimed title to the soil, and demanded taxes and quit-rents. The inhabitants of Middletown and Shrewsbury would have consented to submit to the govern- ment of the proprietors, but denied their title to the lands included in the patent from Nicolls.

THE PROVINCIAL REVOLT.

troversy that followed, and was taken by the Assembly as an acknowledgment of the pro- prietors' title. The entry in the town-book is as follows : "October 28, 1668 .- In a legall towne-meeting, it was ordered that this follow- ing declaration shall bee sent by the Deputies to the General Assembly : Wee, the freeholders, for the satisfaction of the Governour and Coun- sell declare, that whereas certaine men, (by name) James Grover and John Bowne, appear- ing as Deputies to act in the countrey's behalfe ; this wee declare, that the men were not Legally chosen, according to summons, it being nott published in any part of the countrey till the night before, being the 24th of May. The in- habitants being maney and setled neere twenty miles distance, could nott be ghathered to- ghether as above said; yet it appears that some few to whom the summons first came made choyce of them unknown to the major part of the countrey, who had noe hand in the choyce, nor knew not of their going till they were gone ; and this wee declare to the Governour and Counsell, conceiving under correction : that we ; are not at all obliged to stand to their acting, the choyce being soe illegal, being fearefull to act anything that might infringe or violate any of the liberties and privileges of our pattent ; and this is our result, that we desire our Depu- ties to present to the Governour and Counsell for their satisfaction, that it was neither contempt nor obstinacy, nor willfull on our parts, that the choyce was not legall according to the summons .; Testis. James Grover, Town Clarke."

From the above it will be seen that while they denied the legality of the election of

At the May session of 1668 a law had been Grover and Bowne, they were not unwilling to passed by the Elizabethtown Assembly levying elect deputies in a legal manner, provided (as a tax of five pounds on each town. The towns it appears afterwards) their representatives of Middletown and Shrewsbury refused to pay should not be obliged to take an oath that , this rate because the Nicolls patent exempted would compromise their patent. From the town-book it appears that neither Grover nor Bowne had been chosen, as there is no entry to that effect. Neither had Shrewsbury sent dele- gates to Elizabethtown, but the Middletown men had assumed to act for Shrewsbury.

The town-meeting of October 28, 1668, also passed the following: "The inhabitants, taking into consideration the liberties and privileges

granted by pattent, and fearing to have their Deputies any way involved under any oath, engagement or subscription whereby any pre- judice or infringement may come upon the liberties and privileges thereof, doe hereby order and enact, and by these presents it is ordered and enacted, That this following proviso shall be presented to the Governor and Counsel, de- siring to have it inserted either in the oatlı, en- gagement or subscription, viz .: provided that noe law, or act or command wet is or may bee made, acted or commanded, may any way be forceible against the liberties and privileges of your patent. It is further ordered that if the Governour and Counsell please not to admitt of the proviso in the oath, engagement or submis- sion, that then the Deputies shall refuse either to engage, promise or subscribe." This action amounted to open rebellion.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 16

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co. Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148