History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 70

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 70

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ting at Burlington, as is certified by the Speaker's warrant.

" JOHN WILLIAMS, " THOMAS WHITE,

" WILLIAM LAWRENCE,

" WILLIAM HARTSHORNE,

" JOHN OKESON,

" ZEBULON CLAYTON,

"OBADIAH BOWNE,

"ANTHONY WOODWARD, Quorum,

"GEORGE ALLEN."

But the prison, of which the plan and speci- fieations are here so fully set forth, was never built. After the material had been collected at the spot, it was determined to build a court- house in connection with the jail, and to hold eourt only in one place in the county. This caused a change of location. A number of sites were mentioned and viewed, but after some years of' contention, the location was fixed at Freehold. The following entries in the min- utes of the court give the different actions taken in determining the site:

" And whereas the aforesaid act of the Assembly provides that the persons so chosen as aforesaid, with three of the justices, as aforesaid, one whereof being of the Quorum, shall meet together at such times and places as the Major part shall appoint, and agree "New Jersey, Monmouth, ss. "March 12th, 1710-11. "By virtue of an Act passed in General Assembly, A.D. 1709, entitled an Act for building and repairing 1of Gaols and Court-llouses within this Province, John Reid, John Anderson and Samuel Dennis, Jus- tices of the Peace for said County, also David John- son and Peter Wilson, chosen for Freehold, William Lawrence and William Hartshorne, for Middletown, John West and Joseph Wardell, for Shrewsbury, did meet at the house of Thomas Forman, and discoursed concerning a Gaol and Court-House. It was argued that Middletown, where they have made some prepa- rations for building a Gaol, is a place very inconve- nient, being at a corner of the County. Some would have it in Shrewsbury, as being nearer the middle. and hath better accommodations; others, to have it in Freehold, somewhere near John Okeson's, the nearest of all to the middle of the good land and whole inhabitants of the County. Said Lawrence upon such sum or sums of Money as shall be needful for the building of Gaols or Court-Flouses, and shall also agree on such other sum and sums of Money as shall be needful for defraying and paying of necessary charges for the County for that year, and to what uses the same shall be applied, and also to appoint assessors and collectors and managers to see such works as they shall appoint to be performed. We do therefore appoint that one hundred and sixty pounds current money of this Province shall be raised and collected off this County of Monmouth for the use and uses aforesaid, and do nominate James Bollen, William Lawrence, Junior, and Amos White to be assessors, and Joseph Cox, of Middletown, collector, to assess, levy and collect the aforesaid sum; the aforesaid assessors to meet and assess the same on or before the twenty-fifth of .July next, and to assess and levy the aforesaid tax in the same method and man- ner as the four thousand pounds tax in Lord Corn- each of them give in a true list of their estates, real and personal, except such things as are not rateable | levied by virtue of said act, and there is no law as yet by that act by the fifteenth of July next, and to be paid to the Collector by the first day of December next, and do also appoint Richard Stout, Moses Lipit, Hugh Hartshorne, all of Middletown, to be managers to build the said Prison-house, and that the aforesaid collector do pay for the aforesaid work to the said managers, as they shall have need, for the said work, and that he also do pay to the Representatives of this County so much as is due to them for their last sit-

bury's time was laid, and that the inhabitants do | and Hartshorne said they would not consent to an- other place, for it was began, and part of the money to allow it. It was alleged by the rest that it was better for the County to lose that little charge they had been at about it ; nay, if the whole were finished, better lose it all, than always suffer so much by that inconvenient situation in respect to the inhabitants. In the meantime it was concluded by the under sub- scribers that a stop be put to the building of the Gaot at Middletown until the next sitting of the Assembly, where the bill which passed the house of

402

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Representatives last session may pass into an Act en- joining the building of the Gaol and Court-House together, and that near the middle of the Inhabitants of the whole County. We do, therefore, accordingly forbid the Assessors, the Collectors, the managers and the workmen to proceed any further in assessing, col- lecting, preparing or building the said Gaol at Mid- dletown, until the determination of the next Assem- bly.

" Shrewsbury.

" Freehold.

" JOHN WEST,

" DAVID JOHNSTON,

" JOSEPH WARDELL.

" PETER WILSON,

" JOHN REID,

"JOHN ANDERSON,

"SAM'L DENNIS,

" Justices."

In 1718 an act was passed by the Legisla- ture to build and repair gaols and court-houses in the counties of the province. By virtue of this act, the justices and freeholders met on the 8th of March, 1714, at Shrewsbury, and "unanimously appointed William Leeds, Jr., Gabriel Steele and John Campbell assessors, and John Wall collector." And, by a vote of mine to seven, they appointed John Eaton, Edmund Lafetra and Henry Allen "mana- gers for the ensuing year, to agree with work- men and see the work done; that is, the Court- House and Gaol built as 'twas agreed and ap- pointed by all the Justices and all the Free- holders, and signed by their hands the 26th of August last, pursuant to act of General As- sembly."

The record and certification of these appoint- ments was signed by Safety Grover, Joseph Parker, James Grover, Jr., Henry Allen, Anthony Pintard, Joseph Wardell and Richard Chambers, justices. But the men whose appoint- ment as managers was declared,-viz .: Eaton, Lafetra and Allen,-were the ones who received the minority of votes (seven against nine, for Henry Leonard, James Wilson and Peter Wil- son). This, of course, was not submitted to, and the aid of the Attorney-General was in- voked to obtain an injunction against John Eaton (the founder of Eatontown) and others, to prevent them from interfering with the bnikl- ing of the gaol and court-house. The entry in the minutes relating to this is as follows:

that he is informed his Majesty's service in building of a gaol and Court-House of this County is greatly hindered and obstructed by John Eaton, Edmund Lafetra and Henry Allen, who pretend themselves to be managers for building said gaol and Court-House ; for, although those gentlemen are no legal managers, yet the very pretense which they make, though with- out ground or reason, hath greatly hindered his majesty's and the Country's Service; and to take off those pretences and excuses of obstructing his Majes- ty's Service for the future, I desire, in the Majesty's behalf, that they may be forbid and prohibited med- ling as Managers any manner of ways whatsoever for the future, and that the other Gentlemen, to wit: Henry Leonard, James Wilson and Peter Wilson, who are the true and legal managers, be confirmed and en- couraged to proceed in his Majesty's service, in the execution of their office in building said gaol and Court-House in the place where the law requires it to be done. The Court, having considered the above motion of Mr. Attorney-General, do approve and allow of the motion, and have ordered, and do hereby order, that the said John Eaton, Edmund Lafetra and Henry Allen be forbid and prohibited acting or med- dling as managers any manner of way in the said Gaol and Court-House for the future, and they are hereby forbidden and prohibited accordingly; and it is further ordered by the Court, that Henry Leonard, James Wilson and Peter Wilson, who are the true and legal Managers, do proceed in the building the said Gaol and Court-House in such place and manner as the law directs; and ordered that the Clerk serve the said John Eaton, Edmund Lafetra and Henry Allen forthwith each of them with a copy of this order."

On the 26th of August, 1714, a deed was made by John Reid, of Frechold township, yeoman, to John Reid, Esquire, and other justices and " Gents" (a body of men then acting collectively, with the same powers as the present Board of Chosen Freeholders), a lot of land in Freehold as a site for the then proposed court-house and jail, it being the same lot on which the court- house, prison and sheriff's residence now stand. This old deed being a document of peculiar in- terest to people of Monmouth County, an exact copy of it is here given,-

" JOHN REID To JOHN REID, JOHN ANDERSON, & ye Rest. Know all men by These Pres- ents, that I, John Reid, sou of James Reid, deceased, of Free- hold, in ye county of Monmouth & Province of New Jersey, yeoman, for and in consideration of the sum of thirty shillings, current money of ye Province, by me re- ceived of Jolin Reid, John Anderson, Anthony

"Sessions, Shrewsbury, May, 1715 .- Ou motion of Mr. Gordon, Attorney-General of our Lord, the King, [ Pintard, Jeremiah Stillwell, James Ashton, Henry

403

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

Leonard, David Johnston, John Wilson, Joseph Wardel, Richard Chambers, Esq'rs, JJames Wilson, Cornelius Tomson, George Allen, John Throckmor- ton, William Lawrence, William Hartshorne, Gents, wherewith I am well satisfied & contented, have aliened, bargained and sold, and by these presents do alien, grant, bargain and sell unto ye above-named Esqrs. and Gents, their Heirs and assigns : All that tract of land running from ye north east corner of my dwelling-house to ye rode southerly & along ye road Easterly two chains, & then Northerly and westerly to ye place where it began upon ye square, with all ye profits and appurtenances thereunto belonging, and all ye right, title, interest, claim and demand what- soever, of nie yesª John Reid of, into, or out of ye same or any part thereof, as fully & amply to all intents and purposes as ye same was granted and assured to me (amongst other tracts) by a Deed of Thomas Combs, bearing date the - day of 1714. To Have and to Hold ye sd tract of land and premises, with ye appurtenances unto them, the said above named, John Reid, John Anderson, Anthony Pintard, Jeremiah Stillwell, James Ashton, Henry Leonard, David Johnston, John Wilson, Joseph Wardel, Richard Chambers, Estrs., James Wilson, Cornelius Tomson, George Allen, John Throckmor- ton, William Lawrence, William Hartshorne, Gents, their heirs and assigns, to ye only use & intent, & to no other use nor intent whatsoever, but to ye use of ye County of Monmouth, for ye building of a Court- House & Goal for her majesty's service forever.

" In witness whereof, 1, ye sd 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- ). JOHN REID, [L. s.] ered in ye presence of " 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- ne 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 Frechold 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 oath>. Reid having been a leader in the rento- 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- hokl, and the first term of court was held there on the fourth Tuesday in November in that vear,-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, nusubstantial 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 Ilook, Joseph Wardell, Richard Chambers, John Wilson. Attorney- General, Thomas Gordon, Esq. Gideon Crawford, High Sheriff of Monmouth County."

The grand jurors were l'eter 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, John 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 eame 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 elear 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 Freehold. 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, &e., with John Throgmorton and William Leeds, Esq., two of the assistants of the said Courts, and also Justices, &e., 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 jail2 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.

2 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 ye 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], Comis to £236 17s. 3d.

" Freehold . £5165 11 0

Upper Freehold 3306 10 0

Shrewsbury 5735 16 0

Middleton

4741 10 0

Total .

£18,949

" Money Raised to build Ye house .

£200 0 0

Fees .

19 5 3

€219

236 17 3

Overplush

£17 12

" Each Town Raises

Shrewsbury

€71 18 10}

Freehohl

64 11

Middleton.

59 5 43

Upper Freehold .

41 6 74

Total .

£236 17 3

" Assessors : For Middleton. Samuel Holmes.

Shrewsbury,

Jacob Dennis.

freehold,

John Henderson.

Upper freehold,

Jno. Lawrence,

" March ye 23d, 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 rent 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 historie by the battle of Mon- month. 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

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 previons to the battle of Monmouth the prisoners in Freehold jail, six of whom were under sen-

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- honse building was used as Washington's head- quarters, whence he issned 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 "Monmonth 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 " Frechold" 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 lune 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

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 Schenek, 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 wouldl 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.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 70

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