History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 6

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 6

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The officers named (Kuyf and Snell) pro- ceeded on their mission, and, returning on the 13th of September to Fort Willem Hendrick, reported to the Dutch Conneil that they had administered the oath of allegiance in the several towns as follows :

" Elizabethtown, 80 men, 76 of whom have taken the oath, the remainder absent.

" New Worck, 86 men, 75 of whom have taken the oath, the remainder absent.

" Woodbridge, 54 men, all of whom have taken the oath except one, who was absent.

" Piseattaway, 43 men, all of whom have taken the oath.

" Middletowne, 60 men, 52 of whom have taken the oath, the remainder absent.

"Schrousbury, 68 men, 38 of whom have taken the oath ; 18 who are Quakers also promised allegiance, and the remainder were absent."

A number of militia officers elected in the several towns were sworn in by Kuyf and Snell, among whom were the following-named : For Middletown, Jonathan Holmes, captain ; John Smith, lieutenant ; and Thomas Whitlock, en- sign. For Shrewsbury, William Newman, eap- tain; John Williamson, lieutenant ; and Nicho- las Browne, ensign.

On the 29th of September " Notiee is this day sent to the magistrates of the town situate at the

Nevesings, near the sea-coast, which they are ordered to publish to their inhabitants that they, on the first arrival of any ship from sea, shall give the Governor the earliest possible informa- tion thereof."

Captain Antony Colve was appointed Gover- nor or Director-General over the reconquered territory of New Netherlands. It does not ap- pear that the people of the Jersey settlements (excepting those holding offices by appointment under the proprietors, Berkeley and Carteret) were at all averse to yielding their allegiance to the Dutch government, and this was especially the ease with the inhabitants of Newark, Eliza- beth and the " Navesink towns," by reason of property considerations, which will be more fully mentioned in another chapter. In the fall of 1673 a plan of government, intended to be per- manent, was devised by Governor Colve, and adopted without dissent, and a eode of general laws was prepared, passed and promulgated (November 18th) " By the Schout and Sehepens of Achter Kol Assembly, held at Elizabethtown to make Laws and Orders." These laws were mild and generally unobjectionable to the peo- ple, but it can hardly be said they ever went into actual operation, for within three months after their promulgation a treaty of peace was coneluded (February 9, 1673-74) between Eng- land and Holland, by which it was provided " that whatever towns or forts have been recip- rocally taken sinee the beginning of the war shall be restored to their former possessors," un- der which provision the territory of New Neth- erlands, ineluding what the Dutch called Aeh- ter Kol (the settlements in East New Jersey), was surrendered by the States of Holland to the crown of England, under which it remained for more than a century, and until the royal rule was closed by the Declaration of Independence. The surrender was made November 10, 1674, by Governor Colve, to Sir Edmund Andros, whom the Duke of York had commissioned as Governor.

The reoeeupation of New Netherlands by the Duteh in 1673 and 1674 raised the question whether the rights of the proprietors under the Duke of York's grant might not thereby have become extinet, and the territory again the prop-

sd inhabitants off ye s towne, a New Nomination shall be made off four Persons off the true Protestant Christian religion, out of which I shal Elect two and Continue one off ye former for Magestrates off yes towne."-Archives, 1st Series, vol. i. p. 134.

1 New Jersey Archives, 1st Series, i p. 130.

THE DUTCH, ENGLISH AND PROPRIETARY RULE IN NEW JERSEY.

erty of the crown by the subsequent surrender. To settle this question in the easiest and most satisfactory way, King Charles made (June 26, 1674) a new grant to the Duke of York of the same territory which had been granted by his letters patent in 1664. Prior to the making of this grant the King had issued his proclama- tion (June 13, 1674) recognizing Sir George Carteret as the sole original proprietor of New Jersey,1 and commanding all persons to yield obedience to the laws and government which had been or might be established by the said Sir George Carteret, "he being seized of the province and the jurisdiction thereof, and hav- ing sole power under us to settle and dispose of the said country as he shall think fit."

The Duke of York, having received the royal grant of 1674, seemed inclined to retain the territory in his own hands, but the King's pro- clamation, above mentioned, left him no choice in the matter, and on the 29th of July follow- ing he released to Sir George Carteret the eastern part of New Cæsarea, in accordance with an arrangement and boundaries agreed on by Sir George and those who had become owners of the undivided half originally of Lord Berkeley. The part thus released by the duke to Sir George was from that time known as East New Jersey. The description of it in the duke's release is as follows :

". . . All that Tract of Land adjacent to New Eng- land, and lying and being to the Westward of Long Island and Manhitas Island, and bounded on the East part by the main Sea and Part by Hudson's River, and extends Southward as far as a certain Creek, called Barnegatt, being about the middle between Sandy Point and Cape May; and Bounded on the West in a straight Line from the said Creek called Barnegat to a Certain Creek in Delaware River, next adjoining to and below a certain Creek in Delaware River called Renkokns Kill, and from thence up the said Delaware River to the Northernmost Branch thereof, which is in forty-one Degrees and forty Minutes of Latitude ; and on the North, crosseth over thence in a straight line to Hudson's River, in forty-one Degrees of Latitude, which said Tract of Land is hereafter to be ealled by the Name or Names of New Caesarea or New Jersey."

The proprietary Governor, Philip Carteret, had returned to England in the summer of

1672, and remained there during all of the Dutch occupation of 1673-74. He was com- missioned Governor of East Jersey by Sir George Carteret, July 31, 1674, only two days after the latter received the duke's release. Governor Carteret returned in the fall of the same year to New Jersey, where, on the 6th of November, he published his commission and in- structions as Governor, together with the duke's release, and the King's proclamation sustaining the proprietary government.

Sir Edmund Andros arrived at New York from England at about the same time, with a commission from the Duke of York as Governor over all the country " from Connecticut River to the Delaware," this bearing date July 1, 1674, ouly a week after the King's new grant to the duke, and four weeks before the date of the release of East Jersey by the duke to Sir George Carteret. These conflicting claims to the Gover- norship of New Jersey eventually resulted in a collision between Andros and Philip Carteret, of which the immediate cause was the question of collection of customs duties in New Jersey on goods intended for consumption within the prov- ince ; Andros insisting on their payment in New York, and being sustained in it by his master, the Duke of. York, who, though friendly to Sir George Carteret, was unwilling to yiekl anything which could inure to the advantage of his New York dominion.

The sale and transfer by Lord John Berkeley of his undivided half of New Jersey, to John Fenwick, on the 18th of March, 1673, has al- ready been mentioned. Edward Byllinge was associated with Fenwick in that purchase, al- though his name did not appear in the transac- tion. On the 10th of February, 1684, Fenwiek and Byllinge sold the Berkeley interest to Wil- liam Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas, -Byllinge, however, still claiming an equitable interest in it after the transfer ; and on the 1st of July, 1676, these parties-viz., Penn, Lawrie, Lucas and Byllinge, together with Sir George Carteret-entered into an agreement which has since been known as the Quintipartite Agreement, and joined in a quintipartite deed, which was exe- cuted on the date above mentioned, and of which the declared object was " to make a Par-

1 Lord Berkeley having sold out his interest to John Fen- wick, March 18, 1673.

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

tition between them of the said Tract of Land," that is to say, the province of New Caesarea, which, by this instrument and the running of the " Province line" named in it, became di- vided into East and West New Jersey.

By this deed Sir George C'arteret released all his claim to the western part to Penn, Lawrie, Lucas and Byllinge, who, in turn, conveyed to him all their right in and claim to the eastern part, which is described in the quintipartite deed as " extending Eastward and Northward along the Sea-Coast and the said River called Hudson's River, from the East side of a certain Place or Harbom lying on the Southern Part of the same Tract of Land, and commonly called or known in a Map of the said Tract of Land by the Name of Little Egg Harbour, to that part of the said River called Hudson's River, which is in Forty-One Degrees of Latitude, being the furthermost Part of the said Tract of Land and Premisses, which is bounded by the said River ; and crossing over from thenee in a strait Line, extending from that Part of Hudson's River, aforesaid, to the North- ernmost Branch or part of the before-mentioned River, called Delaware River, and to the most Northerly Point or Boundary of the said Tract of Land and Premises, so granted by his said Royal Highness, James, Duke of York, imto the said Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, now by the Consent and Agreement of the said Parties to these Presents, called, and agreed to be called, the North Partition Point ; and from thence, that is to say, from the said North Par- tition Point, extending Southward by a strait and direct Line drawn from the said North Partition Southward through the said Tract of Land unto the most Southardly Point of the East side of Little Egg Harbour, aforesaid ; which said most Southardly Point of the East side of Little Egg Harbour is now, by the Con- sent and Agreement of the said Parties to these Presents, called, and agreed to be from hence- forth called, the South Partition Point ; and which said strait and direct Line, drawn from the said North Partition Point thro' the said Tract of Land unto the said South Partition Point, is now, by the Consent and Agreement of the said Parties to these Presents, called,

and agreed to be called, the Line of Parti- tion." 1

Sir George Carteret died in England on the 13th of January, 1679-80, and this event re- moved the only consideration which checked Governor Andros in his determination to seize the government of New Jersey under color of his commission from the Duke of York. The Duke had been more than willing to sustain Andros in his schemes to obtain revenue from New Jersey by enforcing the payment of cus- toms duties at New York on cargoes intended for New Jersey, but the Duke and his Governor were compelled, on account of the King's espe- cial friendship for Sir George, to desist from the execution of this plan during the life of the latter. A very significant passage in reference to this matter is found in a letter from the duke's secretary, Sir John Werden, to Gover- nor Andros,2 dated Angust 31, 1676: " ... I add this much further in relation to Sir George Carteret's Colony of New Jersey ; it is that I have acquainted his Royal Highness with what Mr. Dyre (the collector of customs and revenues for the duke in New York) wrote to me about his little bickerings with Captain Carteret for not letting a present pass, &c. And though small matters are hardly worth notice, especially where Sir George Carteret himself is concerned (for whom the duke hath much es- teem and regard), I do not find that the duke is at all inclined to let go any part of his prerogative which you and your predeces- sors have all along constantly asserted on his behalf; and so, though at present in regard to Sir George Carteret we soften things all we may not to disturb his choler (for, in truth, the passion of his inferior officers so far affects him as to put him on demands which he hath no color or right to), I verily believe that, should his foot chunce to slip, those who succeed him must be content with less civility than we choose to show him on this point, since that we should ex- ercise that just authority His Royal Highness hath, without such reserves, as though but intend- ed as favors, now may, if confirmed, redound too

1 Leaming and Spicer, p. 67.

? Whitehead's " New Jersey."

THE DUTCH, ENGLISH AND PROPRIETARY RULE IN NEW JERSEY.

much to the prejudice of your colony." But the death of Sir George having removed this obstacle, the Duke and his Governor thought their path clear to the accomplishment of their plan for Andros to consolidate New Jersey with New York in one government under Andros.

On the 8th of March, 1679-80, Sir Edmund Andros addressed an official communication to Governor Carteret at Elizabethtown, sending copies of the royal letters patent and his com- mission from the Duke of York, and com- manding him (Carteret) to cease all attempts to exercise governmental power and jurisdiction in New Jersey, and added : "I do acquaint you that, it being necessary for the King's Ser- vice and Welfare of his Majesty's Subjects living or trading in these Parts, that Beacons for Land, or Sea-Marks for Shipping, Sailing in and out, and a Fortification be erected at Sandy Point, I have resolved it accordingly, but having due regard to all Rights or Properties of Land or Soil, shall be ready to pay or give just Satisfac- tion to Mr. Richard Hartshorn, or any assigned to or interested in said Sandy Point or Place, and not Doubting your observance of the above, remain," ete. On the 13th of the same month Andros issned a proclamation warning all offieers under Carteret to desist from the attempt to exercise their functions in East Jersey, and promising oblivion for all past offenses.

Governor Carteret, in a letter dated March 20th, in reply to Andros' communication of the 8th, gave the latter his firm assurance that he | most barbarously and inhumanly and violently should continue to exercise his proper authority halled me out of my Bed, that I have not Words enough sufficiently to express the Cruelty of it ; and indeed I am so disabled by the Bruises and Hurts I then received that I fear I shall hardly be a perfect Man again." as Governor of East New Jersey, and that he should by force, if necessary, oppose the erection of a fort at Sandy Hook, but entreating Andros at the same time to abstain from any act of hos- tility and to leave him undisturbed in the right- ful duties of his office.

Andros had issued a proclamation to convene the East Jersey Assembly on the 7th of April at Elizabethtown. Carteret issued a counter proclamation directing the deputies not to as- semble. At the same time he addressed a com- munication to Andros at New York, warning him ' 27th and 28th of May resulted in his acquittal. to send no more of his emissaries to New Jersey, but he was compelled to give his parole and se- on penalty of having them arrested, tried and | curity to desist from further attempts to exer-

condemned as spies and disturbers of the public peace, and adding : " It was by his Majesty's command that this Government was established, and without the same command shall never be resigned but with our Lives and Fortunes, the people resolving to live and dye with the Name of true Subjects and not Traytors." Andros, however, was determined to convene the As- sembly, if possible, at the stated time, and on the 6th of April he left New York with a large retine and proceeded to Elizabethtown, where, on the 7th, he read his commission to a large concourse of people who were gathered there; but as Governor Carteret was there with one hundred and fifty armed men to prevent the meeting by force, if necessary, Andros was obliged to con- tent himself for that time with the publication of his commission, and he went back to New York without having accomplished his object.

On the 30th of April a party of soldiers went from New York to Elizabethtown with orders from Andros to take Governor Car- teret dead or alive and bring him to New York. These orders they executed in the night-time, and took Carteret to New York, where he was kept in prison five weeks. Concerning this outrage, Governor C'arteret, in a letter addressed to Mr. Coustrier on the 9th of July following, said of Andros that " the Raneor and Malice of his Heart was such that on the 30th day of April last he sent a Party of Soldiers to fetch me away Dead or alive, so that in the Dead Time of the Night broke open my Doors and

At New York, Carteret was brought before the Assizes for trial on the charge that he, " with Force and Arms, riotously and routously, with Captain John Berry, Captain William Sandford and several other persons, hath presumed to ex- Preise Jurisdiction, etc., though forewarned not to do so." The trial, which was held on the

. 30

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

cise jurisdiction in New Jersey nntil able to pro- duce proper warrant for so doing.

Andros issued a second proclamation calling the Assembly of East Jersey to convene at Elizabethtown on the 2d of June, 1680. His journey from New York to that place, on the 1st of June, is thus narrated by his secretary, who was one of the party : " The Governour with the Councill and several of the gents of the Towne to attend him, came from New York about noone in his Sloope, to come to N. Jersey to the Assembly of Deputys to be held the next day at Elizabeth Towne. My Lady Andros came in company, attended with 9 or 10 gentle- women, my wife for one. Coming by C. Palmer's, my lady and Comp'y landed at C. Palmer's and stayed there all night. My Lady &c. came in the morning to Eliz. Towne." 1

The Assembly met on the 2d. The deputies from the Navesink towns were John Bowne (Speaker) and Jonathan Holmes for Middle- town, and Judeth (?) Allen and John Hance for Shrewsbury. Andros addressed the deputies, assuming the powers of Governor, and asking them to remodel the laws of East New Jersey to correspond with those which had been enacted for New York. The Assembly responded by enacting (June 3d), " That all former Laws and acts of Assembly that was made and confirmed by the General Assembly sitting at Elizabeth- town, in the province of New Jersey, in No- vember last, be confirmed for this present year." Andros and his party returned to New York on Saturday, June 5th, came back to Elizabeth- town on Thursday, the 10th, and Andros, hav- ing failed to mould the Assembly to his wishes, dissolved that body on the 12th.

It is unnecessary to enter further into the de- tails of this conflict between Andros and the proprietary government. The matter was sent to England for decision by the Crown, and it was favorable to the Carteret interest. The Duke could not, of course, oppose the wishes of the King, and, therefore, with apparent willing- ness, le (in September, 1680) executed a re- lease of East New Jersey, with all his rights of

property and of government in it, to Sir George Carteret, the grandson and heir of Sir George, the original proprietor. The fact of the execu- tion of this release, and of the Duke's disavowal and disapproval of the proceedings of An- dros in New Jersey, was officially communicated to him at New York, and on the 2d of March, 1680-81, Philip Carteret made proclamation at Elizabethtown of his resumption of the duties and functions of Governor of East New Jersey. Andros was called to England, and on his de- parture left Anthony Brockholst (president of the Council) in charge of affairs at New York. He, on the 26th of July, 1681, addressed a com- munication to Governor Carteret, in which he ignored the right of the latter to exercise author- ity in New Jersey, and required him to desist from doing so until he should exhibit proper warrant, according to his parole, and the orders of the court in New York. To this, Carteret replied that his power and authority to act as Governor were sufficient, and that there was no more reason why he should account to the New York authorities than they to him. This closed the controversy, and Carteret held the Gover- norship of East Jersey until his death, in 1682, during which year an entire change was made in the proprietorship of New Jersey, of which the following account is found in Leam- ing and Spicer's "Grants and Concessions," page 73.

" December 5, 1678, Sir George Carteret made his Will, and Devised to Edward, Earl of Sand- wich, John, Earl of Bath, Bernard Greenville, Sir Thomas Crew, Sir Robert Atkins and Ed- ward Atkins, Esqrs., and their Heirs, among other Lands, all his Plantation of New Jersey. upon Trust and Confidence that they, and the Survivers and Surviver of them, and the Heirs and Executors of the Surviver of them, should make Sale of all the said Premises, and out of the Moneys that should upon such Sale arise pay and discharge Debts, &c., as therein men- tioned.

" February First and Second, 1682, in the Thirty-fourth of King Charles Second, in pursuance of the Trust aforesaid, Dame Eliza- beth Carteret, John, Earl of Bath, Thomas, Lord Crew, Bernard Greenville, Sir Robert At-

1 N. Y. Col. MISS., vol. xxix. p. 105.

THE DUTCH, ENGLISH AND PROPRIETARY RULE IN NEW JERSEY.

kins, Thomas Pocock, and Thomas ('remer, 1 by Lease and Release, conveyed the Eastern Divi- sion of New Jersey aforesaid, in fee Simple, to William Penn, Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groom, Thomas Hart, Richard Mew, Thomas Wilcox, Ambrose Rigg, John Heywood, Hugh Hartshorne, Clement Plumstead and Thomas Cooper ; the Bounds being according to the Quintipartite Deed. The Twelve Pro- prietors agreed that there should be no benefit of Survivorship.

" At Sundry Times in the Year 1682, in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth of King Charles Second. The above Twelve Persons conveyed to Twelve others, viz. : Robert Barclay, Edward Billinge, Robert Turner, James Brain, Arent Sonmans, William Gibson, Gawen Lowry, David Barelay, Thomas Barker, Thomas Varne [Warne], James, Earl of Perth, Robert Gordon and John Drummond," 2 one undivided half of all their interests in the eastern division of the province of New Jersey.

On the 14th of March, 1682-83, the Duke of York executed a deed confirming to these twen- ty-fonr proprietors 3 their above-mentioned pur- chase, and on the 23rd of November following King Charles, by his royal letter to the Gover- nor and Council of the proprietors, + recognized and confirmed to them their right to the soil and government of East New Jersey.

The proprietors appointed one of their num- ber, Robert Barclay, Governor5; Thomas Rud- yard, Deputy Governor, secretary and treasurer ; and Samnel Groome, receiver and surveyor- general. The appointments of the last two were

1 " In the Recital of the Release it appears that the Grant- ors above had conveyed the Premises, among other things, to said Cremer and Pocock, which is the reason of their joining in the Sale. And Edward, Earl of Sandwich, Re- leased all his Estate in the Premises to the other Trustees, before they Sold to the Twelve Proprietors."-Leaming and Spicer.

* Thirteen names are here given instead of twelve. One of them-that of David Barclay-properly belongs with the original twelve, he having become purchaser of the share of Thomas Wilcox.

$ Leaming and Spicer, p. 141-150.

+ Leaming and Spicer, p. 151-152.

5 Ile was appointed Governor for life, though it was not expected that he would reside in America, but rule New Jersey through a Deputy Governor.

dated September 16, 1682, and they both arrived in the province on the 13th of November of the same year. Rudyard appointed as his Council, Lewis Morris (of what soon afterwards became the county of Monmouth), John Berry, John Palmer, William Sandford, Lawrence Andros and Benjamin Price. The first Assembly un- der the government of these proprietors convened at Elizabethtown on the Ist of March, 1682-83. At this session a number of important laws were enacted, among which were those for the reor- ganizing of the judicial department of the gov- ernment, the establishment of courts and the erection of the original counties of East New Jersey,-Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and Mon- mouth,-the latter of which will be mentioned more fully in a succeeding chapter.

Rudyard failed to give satisfaction to the proprietors in his administration, and was sue- ceeded as Deputy Governor by Gawen Lawrie, a Quaker (also one of the twenty-four proprietors), whose commission bore date July 27, 1683. He arrived in the province February in the fol- lowing year, and assumed the office of Governor on the 28th of that month. He brought with him a new code of laws which had been drafted by the proprietors in England, and called " The Fundamental Concessions," differing materially in some respects from the original " Concessions " of Berkeley and Carteret, and designed to change the form of government of the province in many important particulars; and this new plan or constitution the Deputy Governor was directed by the proprietors to take especial care to have immediately placed before the people and fully explained to them, and " as soon as possible he can order it passed in an Assembly, and settle the country accordingly." But Deputy Gover- nor Lawrie did not push these matters as it was expected he would have done. The first session of Assembly in his administration met at Perth Amboy on the 6th of April, 1686, but neither at this nor at an adjourned session held in the the following October were the " Fundamental Concessions " fully agreed to and adopted. By this delay, and by his failure to enforee payment of the heavy arrears of quit-rents, as also by some irregularities in the taking up of lands, and his disregard of his instructions to change his place

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 6

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