History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 40

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140

USA > New Jersey > Sussex County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 40
USA > New Jersey > Warren County > History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 40

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* The net to provide the saladdinats of Survey with bread corn was purged in 1750.

+ Sve Allison's " Law," follo st.

I See Julio 13 of the freebalders' records; " Ordered that Nathaniel Pettit, Kaq., do collect juut of the Two lunahed promnils due to the Treas. urer of this Provine which is outstanding and ste for the mme Hf Het paid belote the that day of August next." Dated May 11, Io". g Iundli. ted.

tlees and Frechellers for raising in mies for the Conniy's tre, saying by John De Hart, Attorney at Law, In open Court that it was a power they were not invested with.

" At said Court a notification for the Justices and Freeholdere to meet on the 18th of June next, advertised and signed by Timothy Symme (only ) by order of the Court ; whereas the unnal method of advertising is to be signed by three Majkabates. The Board then paying attention to the above notification, met and proceeded to business a few overpred which would not go Contrary to Law ) though illegally called, overert the business which was done agreeally to Law, at thefr Annual Meeting.

" In the Interim wodne of the debts were ordered to be juild, which wald paid by Edward Dunlop and the same permis, by the best bound; the lourd] hus it in their power to Call for the same anin a decatal tinte."

" March 14, 1783 .~ Andered. That the sum of fourteen paul fifteen shillings be allowed Copt. James Bonnell for seventeen das . In going ex- press from Minisink to Prince Town with a Petition for the Assembly there sitting from the Frontiets Inhabitants (178) to get a Company of Levles raised for their protection against the savages."

" Ordered, That the sum of two hundred pounds be allowed Elwand Dunlap County Collector For setting and arranging the accounts of the County previous to his being Conury Collector."

" July 20, 1785-Ordered, That the sum of eight pounds fifteen shit. lings and ten peace In allowed Col. Mark Thompson for Collecting the several Aressors Duplicates and for Carrying them to the Assembly at Mount Holly."

The following was the "Quota of Sussex, settled Feb. 22, 1789," of the £100,000 tax :

New tun ..

900

Hardwick

Wantage

5012 17

Manstich.

Know lton.

= = =

Oxfundl.

KHI ()

Greenwich

Suudiston.

Wallpack

Muntiene

Tutul, fres included

8138

Fees antltructed

387

Quota of Sussex

1.1

Paid the Trensitsrl

5107

Balance due.

2342 10 4

CHAPTER III.

THE BOUNDARY-LINE CONTROVERSY.

1 .- A GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY.

THE county of Sussex was without a settled north- ern boundary until 1772, the line between the prov- inces of New Jersey and New York not having been definitely determined prior to that date. The dispute about the boundary and the respective claims under New York and New Jersey patents involved the right to a considerable strip of country-two hundred and ten thousand acres-in the northern part of New Jersey which was awarded to New York in the final settle- ment. There probably never would have been any very serious difficulty about the boundary line had not certain patentees of the Minisink and Waway- nnda patents been disposed to stretch their claims over a portion of Northwestern New Jersey, and to

The sense of the paragraph is not very clear, but Its purport serum to te that some of the taxpayers, on account of the informality of pro- ceelings, were requin I to joy their taxes over again.

156

SUSSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

regard them as "floating patents," to be located according to the will or fancy of the holders. This greed to extend their patents over a part of New Jer- sey and to appropriate the lands of neighboring set- tlers led, first, to serious contentions, resulting fre- quently in open violence between the two sections upon the borders of the territory in question, and, secondly, to a befogging of the boundary line be- tween the provinces, which was originally clear and well defined.

II .- THE ORIGINAL BOUNDARY.

The original boundary between New York and New Jersey extended from the Hudson River to the Dela- ware in a direct line to the most northwardly branch of the Delaware, at a point on that river in latitude forty-one degrees and forty minutes, or, as was always understood, to Cochecton, or Station Point .* This point was fixed as the true termination of the bound- ary line on the Delaware by royal commissioners and by the surveyors-general of both provinces, in pursu- ance of a joint act of the two legislatures, in 1719, and the "Tripartite Deed" and accompanying maps were drawn up and deposited in the archives of the respective provinces as a solemn voucher to the set- tlement. So well established was this fact that it was recognized in all subsequent deeds of conveyance and maps of the country. There is in the possession of many persons, probably, in this county, a map of the middle colonies of Great Britain in America, pub- lished in Philadelphia by Lewis Evans in 1755, in which the boundary line referred to, from the Hudson to the Delaware, is run directly to Cochecton or Sta- tion Point, whereby the whole Minisink patent and a large portion of the Wawayanda grant are appor- tioned to New Jersey. In addition to this, the same line was reaffirmed by royal patent in the erec- tion of Montague from Walpack in 1759, when the northernmost limit of the township was expressly fixed at Cochecton or Station Point. Moreover, deeds are recorded in which conveyances were made in that section by the Jersey proprietors.t

Nothing further was needed to establish the right- ful claim of the New Jersey people to that portion of their territory which became the subject of long dis- pute, litigation, and conflict, amounting nearly to a civil war, and which was finally, through the in- triguing avarice of designing landholders, wrested from them and given to a neighboring colony. The history of this conflict forms a long and excited chapter in both the annals of Sussex and those of the adjoining county of Orange, N. Y.

III .- CONFLICTING LAND-CLAIMS.

The conflict of the settlers upon and near the di- vision line between New Jersey and New York began to develop itself as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century. In November, 1700, according to the "Journal of the Colonial Assembly of New York," the attention of the Governor was called to the subject, and it was recommended that measures should be taken to have the partition line defined. No decisive action, however, appears to have been taken at that time, and the people were left to fight their own battles, unassisted by any government or local municipal aid, until immediately after the erec- tion of the county of Sussex. That event developed a new phase in the conflict. The people of Sussex, who had always been disposed to maintain their rights even when trespassed upon by superior num- bers, now saw in the extension of civil authority over their long-neglected region a means for the redress of their grievances, and the county officials sympathized strongly with the popular feeling. The arrest and imprisonment of several of the intruders who had cov- ered New Jersey rights with New York land-grants soon followed, giving unmistakable evidence that further aggression would not be tolerated. The effect of this action upon the New York authorities may be judged of to some extent by the following extract from the minutes of the General Assembly of that province :

" April 24, 1754 .- The Hon. James D. Lancey, Esq., Lient .- Governor, communicated as follows:

" GENTLEMEN,-The division line between this Government and the Province of New Jersey not being settled hins given rise to great tumults and disorders among the people of Orange County and the adjacent In- habitants of New Jersey, und may produce worse evils unless prevented by timely care. Nothing can answer this purpose so effectually, I think, as the fixing of'a temporary line of peace between ns until llis Majesty's pleasure shall be known in the matter. Governor Belcher assures me of his sincere desire that amicable and conciliatory measures may be fallen upon by the Governments to make the borders ensy, and I have proposed to him the running of such a line conformably to the opinion of Ilis Majesty's Conneil, signified in the report to me, which I shall order to be luidt belore yon ; and if it receive yumur approbation, I shall forthwith appoint Commissioners for the running of such line of peace, and apply tu that Goverment to do the like ou their part."

That the authorities of Sussex County made it warm for the Orange County intruders about this time may be inferred from the following paragraphs extracted from the report made to the New York Assembly on Oct. 29, 1754. Of course, due allowance must be made for the local and party coloring. The extracts read :

" That the prople of New Jersey have from time to time, for a con- siderable time past, collected themselves in large bodies, and with vid- lence have arrested divers of Ilis Majesty's subjects, holding lands under this Province, to the northward of said hanals, and have taken posses slun of their lands, and do now forcibly hold the same.

" That the Government of New Jersey Inth, within a few years past, erected a new county called Sussex, a great part of which they have ex- teuded many miles northward of the bounds aforosnitl.

" That Justices of the Peace nud other officers Inve been, and are from time to time, appointed in the snid county, and do from time to time ex- ereise authority and jurisdiction over the persons and possessions of a great number of His Majesty's subjects, holling their lands umler und juiy ing submission to the Government of this colony.

* In the grant of New Jersey by His Royal Highness James, Duke of Yink and Allminy, June 23, 1664, to Lord Berkeley nud Sir George Cur- teret, the northern boundary is described : " to the northward ns far as the northernmost brunch of the raid bay or river of Delaware, which is in forty-one deg:ces and forty minutes of Intitude, nud worketh over thence in a straight line to Huds m'a River."

t See Chapter VII, on the " Paitl ji Line between East un | West Jersey," pp. 41-19, in this work.

157

THE BOUNDARY-LINE CONTROVERSY.

" That in consequence of the exercise of such authority nod jurisdic- tion, His Majesty's Justices of the Prare and other anbordinate officers und ministers In aud for Orange County have been frequently beaten, Insulted, nud preventod in the execution of their respective ofllces, taken prisoners, and carried into parts of New Jersey remote from their habi- tations and the opportunity of being relieved, and have been thrown In- to jail and hell to excessive bail, and prosecuted by Indictments, and that others of HHis Majesty's subjects belonging to Orange County have also niet with similar treatpient.

" That the people of New Jersey have also, from time to time, and as often as they are alle, possessed themselves of the varant lands of Orange County.

" That they frequently beset the houses of His Majesty's subjects in Orange County by night, and attempted to seize and tako prisoners such of His Majesty's subjecta, and are encouraged to do this by the offer of 1 .. rgo rewards made to them, and are also actually kept In my lor that purpose by the proprietors of Eust New Jersey.

". That the commissioners of highways for the said now county have Indl ont a new highway through Minisink aforemnhl, which now, by the nlove-mentioned onluet of the people of New Jersey, is almost, If not entirely, reduced tu subjection to the government of New Jersey.

" That the jmiblic officers of New Jersey assess amt raise taxes npm the people dwelling to the Northward of said bounds, by which means many have been prevented from paying their proportion of the taxes of Orange County for more than a year past. Some of them have been obliged tu desert their processions and retiro in the Northwarilly parts of Orange County, while a few, more resulnte than the rest, are reduced to the ne- cessity of convorting their dwellings Into places of defense, und go armed for fear of some sudden attack.

"That though the Committee could produce many instances of this kind, they confine themselves tu one which happened vory lately. Thomas De Key, Colonel of the Militia nud Justice of the Peace for Orange Ionty, whose plantations are claimed by the people of New Jersey to be within the aforesaid now County, though he, and those under whom he claims, have held them and been settlet upon them under New York nigh fifty years, finding himself extremely vexed, dis- turbed, and disquieted by the people of New Jersey, went to James Mexamler, Esq. one of His Majesty's Council for this Province, and also for New Jersey Province, and who is one of the Proprietors of the Fast- urn Division of New Jersey, of great interest there, aud esteemed one of the most active persons among theas, to endeavor to come to sobie agree- ment with him, in order that he might remnin qniet until the line was finally settled. But the sid Alexander refused to consent to buything of that kind," unless the sald De Key wonbl agree to hold his lands under New Jersey, become a derreynin, and fight, as he expressed it, for Now Jersey against New York people; and tobt him at the same time if he would do so he should neither want money nor commissions, and if he Would not do so, he should be dispossessed of his plantations. This Col. De Key refusing to comply with, some short time after a number of armed men from New Jersey came to the house of the said Col. De Key, who, observing them approwh in such manner, shut himself up in his house. On which they ilrow up before bin dur aud some of them cocked thelr guna nud presented them towards the wiwlow where Col. De Key stood, sweating they would shoot him through the heart, that they would starve him out and burn the house over his head ; und if man, woman, or child attempted to escape, they would shoot them down ; that they Ind strength onongh to tako all Goshen, and would ilo it in time. How- ever, they then withdrew without further violence, undl npon their de- parturo one of them said to Col. Do Key, 'Take care of yourself, for wo will have you yet. '"

This report was considered on Nov. 8, 1754, and a resolution passed to lay the same before His Honor Lieut .- Governor De Lancey, with the request that he would exercise jurisdiction over the disputed territory till His Majesty should be pleased to declare his pleasure with respect to the further jurisdiction of this province. Col. Beekman and Capt. Winne, the com- mittee, reported that they had laid the report before

the lieutenant-governor, who was pleased to say that " Ile would consider thereof, and lay the same before His Majesty's Council."

Thus the controversy remained till February, 1756, when a new memorial was presented to the House by the proprietors of the Minisink and Wawayanda patents, dated Feb. 10, 1756, which was ordered to be printed. This memorial was very long, and contained a legal argument upon the points in dispute. We have not learned what lawyer furnished the sophistry by which "to make the worse appear the better reason" in this famous report. It certainly went before the king and his Privy Council in such a shape as to mystify and befog the ancient boundaries, and the learned author was probably well rewarded by the Minisink and Wawayanda patentees.

"The acts of violence," says Mr. Edsall, "which were committed under this boundary dispute, are re- membered only in part, and it would be quite as well were they all forgotten. The uecounts we have of them all come through New York sources, and in- variably represent the New Jersey claimants as the aggressors. If this be true, New York, in the final settlement of the matter, managed to turn the blows which her citizens received to quite profitable account, for she certainly obtained about one thousand acres of land for every New Yorker who was thrashed, even though the number thus flogged by the 'Jersey Blues' be set down at full two hundred."

We give only another statement touching this mat- ter, from the New York point of view :

" Maj. Swartwont resided on the lands in dispute. Some of the Jersey claimants were watching for an opportunity to enter his house and get possession before he couhl procure help from his neighbors. lle was aware of it, and, to counteract the attempt and repel the invaders, kept a number of guns ready loaded in his house, with some additional men to work his farm and lend assistance in case of emer- gency. He was a bold, resolute man, and feared by those who wished to dispossess him. Notwithstand- ing his precautions, it appears that at a certain time, in the year 1730, his family were expelled and his goods removed out of the house, and possession taken by the intruders. This was in his absence and while his wife was confined to her bed by the birth of a child, and it caused her death.

" In order to reinstate the major, assistance was procured from Goshen, which, with the neighbor-, concluded to go secretly and lay in ambush on a hill in a piece of woods near the major's house, that Peter Gumaer should go to the house and discover the situ- ation of the enemy, and when the opportunity became favorable for them to enter the house, then to go into the orchard and throw up an apple as a signal for the party to come on. After the party had ambushed themselves and the opportunity became favorable, Gumaer left the house, went into the orchard, and threw up an apple, whereupon the party rushed into

* James Alexander Ind a very good reason for refusing. Ho, as snr- veyor-general of both East and West Jersey, had been one of the pin- cipal officers of the Crown in fixing the north station-point, in 1719, and he very well know that the Jersey people had justice on their sile.

158

SUSSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

the house, expelled the inmates and reinstated the major.

"The occupants, now fearing that they might be taken by surprise, managed to have a spy among the Jersey claimants, at some twenty miles' distance, through whom, from time to time, they received in- formation of all the projects of the Jersey elaimants. . . . The last struggle between the parties was to cap- ture and imprison the major and Johannes West- brook, both of whom lived on the battle-ground. Any open effort to capture the major was known to be environed with great difficulty, and the Jerseymen undertook to effect it on the Sabbath at the door of the Machackemack church. This was between the years 1764 and 1767, while Rev. Thomas Romeyn was the pastor. To accomplish it they had collected a strong party, who came armed with clubs on the day appointed and surrounded the church. After the ser- vices were ended and the major and Capt. Westbrook had gone out, they were captured and made prisoners after a harsh rough-and-tumble struggle. The major was taken and confined in the Jersey prison, from which, however, he was soon released."*

The probability is that the authorities of Sussex did not recognize the legality or propriety of such proceedings, and so gave the captured and imprisoned major a speedy release.

IV .- SETTLEMENT OF THE BOUNDARY LINE.

The remaining branch of this subject is the settle- ment of the boundary line. As already intimated, the great difficulty in the way of a speedy and amic- able adjustment of the controversy was the desire and purpose on the part of certain elaimants under the Minisink and Wawayanda patents to effeet a settle- ment in favor of their claims. This, by delay and intrigue with government officials, and by obscuring and confusing the original boundaries, they finally succeeded in accomplishing only in part. The people of New Jersey, although protesting against any alter- ation of the original bounds of the province, were anxious and ready for a settlement, and were willing to co-operate with New York in the adoption of any fair measure for the adjustment of the difficulty. This is proved by the fact that, in October, 1748, an act for running and ascertaining the line between the provinces passed the Assembly of New Jersey and was laid before the Assembly of New York for their objections, if any were to be made. Before the House had acted upon it the inhabitants of Orange County, all along the line, got up a petition against the act, and presented it to the House, desiring to be heard by counsel. This was granted, and on Oct. 28, 1748, the petitioners were heard by counsel against the New Jersey act. On the 29th the House considered the objection against the act, and

" Rewolred, That they were strong and well grounded; that the peti- tlouers fake measures, if they seo fit, to oppose it; and that the Speaker

* Enger's " IHistory of Orange County," pp. 378, 379.

transmit their objections to Mr. Charles, Agent for the Colony in Grout Britain, with directions to oppose said Act when it shall be transmitted for His Majesty's royal assent."

Mr. Charles wrote back to know whether the ex- penses of opposing the law were to be borne by in- dividuals or by the public, whereupon the House resolved that they be paid by the publie. Thus New York had a powerful lobbyist before the Crown to influence the decision against New Jersey, backed up by tbe publie treasury of that colony, while New Jersey had no agent to defend her rightful claim. It is a matter of history that during this time, and for many years afterwards, the authorities of the general government of New Jersey were strangely inactive respecting their interests involved in the dis- pute. "New Jersey unfortunately dozed over her rights, while New York was wide awake."+ It lias been stated that if the General Assembly of the province had followed up the initial proceedings with half the boldness and discrimination which characterized the officials of Sussex County, New Jersey might have been the gainer in a large extent of territory unjustly shorn from her northern border.

"The county of Sussex had been organized barely eleven months before the New York Assembly had an elaborate report drawn up, giving its own version of the boundary difficulties and artfully setting forth the facts so as to exonerate its own citizens and throw all the odium of all the breaches of the peace upon the persons who held their lands by virtue of New Jersey grants." In this report, after befogging the case as much as possible in reference to what stream might be regarded "the most northwardly branch of the Delaware," or what part of that river is in latitude "forty-one degrees and forty minutes," the "main consideration upon which New York rested her elaim is acknowledged to have been the location of the Minisink and Wawayanda patents, both of which had their boundaries so imperfectly deseribed that the holders thereof treated them as ' floating patents,' to be run out with a gum-elastie chain, and accordingly located them to suit their fancy, caring little low distances were stretebed so long as their very flexible consciences did not recoil before the magnitude of their own greediness. The southward bounds of the lands thus located the report assumes to be the rightful boundary between the two provinces, and takes it for granted that the Jersey settlers, who were remote from the seat of their colonial government, isolated, and practically with- out any representative in the Provincial Assembly, and who, consequently, were compelled to submit to what they could not prevent, concurred in so regard- ing it. But this was not, and could not, be true. Even in the final settlement of the controversy, when New York obtained all that the commissioners could with the least approach to deceney award her, her

t Centennial Address, by Benjamin B. Edsall, Esq.

159

SUSSEX COUNTY CIVIL LIST.

line did not come down as far south as the boundary of these famous patents."*

The New York report was transmitted to England and laid before His Majesty's council. While it was pending, the authorities of Sussex County persevered in extending their jurisdiction over portions of the disputed territory, and with such success that the New York Assembly, in June, 1762, received a petition in which it was stated that "the Precinct of Minisink had been wholly wrested from the Colony of New York, and is now subject to the Government of New Jersey." Therefore the New York Assembly passed an act submitting the dispute to such commissioners as the Crown of Great Britain might be pleased to ap- point ; and the Assembly of New Jersey concurred in the same by the passage of an act, Feb. 23, 1764, set- ting forth that, "by reason of the unsettled state of the limits of the two colonies, not only the extent of their respective jurisdictions remains uncertain, and the due and regular administration of government in both colonies is by that means impeded, but also fre- quent and dangerous riots have been occasioned and are still likely to arise between the borderers, as well concerning the extent of the respective jurisdictions as the property of the soil, to the great disturbance of the public peace and the manifest discouragement of His Majesty's subjects in the settlement and improve- ment of that part of the country."

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History of Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, with Illustration and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 40

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1140

Author: Snell, James P; Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1140