USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of Trenton, New Jersey : the record of its early settlement and corporate progress. > Part 9
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The first publie building in Trenton was the County Jail. This was undoubtedly located upon land owned by William Trent, who gave the property to the county. The year in which the jail
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THE CITY OF TRENTON.
was built was probably 1721, and stood upon the same spot where the Trenton Bank now stands. It was a two-story building erected of grey sandstone, with stuccoed front. The cells were in the lower story. The upper story was used as a court-room, the entrance to which was by a number of stone steps erected on the outside of the building and surrounded in later times by an iron railing. It is said that the steps extended from the gutter, and persons going into the court-room were compelled to ascend from the street. Pedestrians going up and down the street passed directly under these steps. The steps were afterward removed from the street and placed crosswise upon the front of the building, commencing from either corner, on the north and south sides of it, and meeting at the top, in the center of the building, forming a pyramid, so that anyone going into the court-room could ascend either from the north or south of it. Subsequently these steps were removed and placed inside the building.
Trenton, during the next twenty years, grew with spirit under the impetus of being a shire town. By 1745 there were nearly a hundred houses in the place. The flourishing condition in which the town appears to have been at that time, and its advantageous location for business, led the inhabitants to anticipate its rapidly-increasing growth and prosperity. Presuming that material advantages would accrue through an act of incorporation by the Crown, conferring borough privileges, in the nineteenth year of the reign of George II., Governor Lewis Morris and a number of the inhabitants of this district of country sent a petition to the King.
The city of Burlington had already been incorporated, which was an additional incentive to such a course. Trenton was at this period using strenuous endeavors to control all the upper river trade and to centralize all the agricultural life of lower Hunterdon county within her limits. Such was the influence of Trenton's friends at court that the borough charter was granted without many attendant difficulties, so usual in such case. This is rather remarkable, particularly at a period when Great Britain did practically nothing to foster independent economic action on the part of the inhabitants of any of her trans-Atlantic Colonies.
TRENTON'S COLONIAL CHARTER, SEPTEMBER 6TH, 1745, TO APRIL 9TH, 1750.
By virtue of the "Humble petition " of King George the Second's "loving Subjects the prin- cipal Inhabitants of the township of Trenton in the County of Hunterdon, a Royal charter of Incorporation " was granted in the nineteenth year of His Majesty's reign (1745). Therein, with certain "powers, Privileges, Immunities and Jurisdictions," the "Infant Settlement was made a free Borough Town."
The petition recited that Trenton was situated at the head of navigation, with a large and fruitful country adjacent thereto, and these facts in all probability would tend to render Trenton a place of trade and importance.
The charter of incorporation creates a body politic consisting of a "Chief Burgess, Recorder, Burgesses and Commonality of the Borough Town of Trenton," with powers of perpetual succession. This corporation had the usual common-law powers of suing and being sued in all causes and courts ; purchasing realty, as well as goods and chattels, within or without the Province, and dis- posal of the same, having a common seal, altering the same at pleasure. The town bounds are thus described : "Begins at the mouth of Crosswicks Creek and runs from thence up said Creek to the mouth of a creek known by the name of Doctor's Creek, then up said Doctor's Creek to the line formerly run by George Keith between East and West Jersey, then along the said line, Including Maidenhead and Hopewell, to the line between Hopewell and Amwell, then along the Several lines Between Hopewell and Amwell to Delaware River and so down the said river to the place of Begin- ning." Provision was made for one Chief Burgess and Recorder, twelve Burgesses, sixteen Common Councilmen, one Marshal, one Common Clerk, one Treasurer and eight Constables. Thomas Cadwalader was appointed by the charter to act as Chief Burgess until the second of December next ensuing after the granting of the charter. It was further provided that he or one of the twelve Burgesses should succeed to the office. Nathaniel Ware was appointed as Recorder during his natural life, except, as was also true of Chief Burgess Cadwalader, he shall resign or misbehave. The Burgesses appointed were Thomas Cadwalader, William Morris, Joseph Warrell, Daniel Coxe, Andrew Smith, Alexander Lockhart, David Martin, Robert Pearson, Andrew Reed,
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Theophilus Phillipse, Joseph De Cou, Samuel Hunt and Reuben Armitage, who were to serve for life. The Common Councilmen, also appointed for life, were Joseph Paxton, Theophilus Severns, Benjamin Biles, Jasper Smith, Cornelius Ringo, Jonathan Stout, Jonathan Waters, Thomas Bur- rows (Burroughs), Jr., George Ely, John Hunt, John Dagworthy, Jr., Joseph Phillips, John Welling, William Plaskett, Daniel Lanning and Benjamin Green.
David Martin, then Sheriff of the county of Hunterdon, was appointed as Borough Marshal so long as his shrievalty term should continue. Anthony White was appointed "Town Clerk and ('lerk of the Court and Courts of the said Borough Town" during good behavior. Andrew Reed was selected as Treasurer ; Robert Taylor, William Pearson, William Sprowls, John Abbott, Mathew Baker, Abner Phillipse, Vineent Runyon and Jonathan Hunt as Constables, until their successors should be elected. Within three days after the publication of the royal charter the officers above named were instructed to take the oaths of allegiance, abjuration and supremacy, and subscribe the test or deelaration as was directed by the acts of Parliament. Succession in office of the above corporation was provided in that upon the second day of December of each year the Chief Burgess, Burgesses, Recorder and Common Councilmen assemble in "some convenient room or place * * * and shall proceed to nominate, Elect and Choose one Chief Burgess " from the twelve, one Marshal, one Common Clerk (unless the County Clerk of Hunterdon shall refuse to serve), one Treasurer and eight Constables for one year ensuing. If the Chief Burgess died or was removed the office fell upon the Recorder, who in fourteen days thereafter was instructed to summon the Burgesses and Common Council, and " then and there by plurality of votes Nominate Elect and Choose one of the twelve Burgesses to be Chief Burgess." If from any cause the Recorder failed to call the Burgesses, the "eldest or first-named Burgess " should assume the duty. If Common Councilmen died or were removed, the "Several ffreeholders and House Keepers of the said Bor- ough Town, which have been before that time duly admitted and sworn ffrcemen, * * * shall meet the said Chief Burgess and recorder or one of them in some Convenient room or place, * * * shall then and there by plurality of votes nominate Elect and Choose such fitt and Dis-
creet person " as Councilman. The successors of the Marshal, Common Clerk, Treasurer and Constables were elected by the Burgesses.
The Burgesses and Common Council had power " to make Constitute ordain and Establish such and so many good and reasonable laws Constitutions Decrees and orders in writing and scaled with their Public Seal" declaring and explaining "how and in what manner the said Chief Burgess recorder, Burgesses and Common Council men and all and Singular other officers ministers mer- chants Artificers Tradesmen ffreeholders and ffreemen respectively Inhabiting and residing in the said Borough Town shall at all times and places act and perform and behave themselves in their several offices, ffunctions misteries, Trades and Businesses within the said Borough Town and the Liberties, precincts and bounds of the same, ffor the further Common good publick utility and good government." The governing body were instructed to impose "mulets and Amerements upon the Breakers of such laws and ordinances so made." It was further provided that every Monday, Thursday and Saturday in the year should be Market Days, as well as two fairs, one from the third Wednesday in April until the following Friday (inclusive), and the other on the third Wednesday in October as continuing as before. Then was to be had the "Selling and Buying of all and all manner of Horses Mares, Colts, Cows, Calves Steers Hoggs Sheep and all other Cattle or any other goods wares and merchandizes," subject to rules and regulations as may be imposed by the Bur- gesses and Council. Ex officio, the Chief Burgess, Burgesses and Recorders were Justices of the Peace. The Chief Burgess, Recorder and at least three Burgesses, the Town Clerk, Marshal and Constables were empowered to hold a quarterly court of record to inquire "into all manner of ffelonies, Crimes and offences not Capital," and to "hear try and Determine all petit Larcenies, Routs Riots and unlawful assemblys and all other Crimes and offences whatsoever" whercof the punishment did not extend to loss of life and member. Fines could be laid in such cases. On view and in open court nuisances and encroachments in the streets and highways of the borough were to be removed and amended by this Burgess Court. A similar court of a civil nature was created, with cognizance of all actions (except "ejectioni ffirme and all real actions where the ffree- hold may come in Dispute"). The corporation of the borough of Trenton were empowered "to Erect Build maintain and Support such Goal prison Court House Work House and House of Cor-
rection, one or more, * as they shall see occasion." Until the jails and other publie
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buildings were erected, the County Jail and Court House was to be used. There the Burgess Courts were to be held and there the Justiees were to "punish Correct and Sett to Work all Vaga- bonds, Runaway Servants and other Stroling and Disorderly persons." The Chief Burgess and Recorder were to take "recognizanee of Debts within the said Borough Town according to the Statute of Merchants and of Acton Burnel." The Chief Burgess was also to appoint a Clerk of the Market, "who shall have assize and assay of Bread Ale Wine Beer Wood Weights and measures,' as well as a "Keeper of the work house and house of eorreetion, a eryer, whiper and all other inferiour and subordinate officers." The corporation was to yield and pay to the royal treasury the sum of £3 proclamation money.
The document thus eoneludes : "Witness our said Trusty and well beloved Lewis Morris Esqr our said Captain General and Governor in chief in and over our said provinee of Nova Caesarea or New Jersey and Territories thereon depending in America and vice Admiral in the same ce at Kingsbury the Sixth day of September in the nineteenth year of our Reign."
[Loeo Sigilli Majoris Provce Nova Cæsarca]
Jos. Warrell, Attorney-General, indorsed the charter with his legal approval.
Upon the twenty-third day of December, in the twenty-third year of the reign of King George II., the corporation of the "ffree Burrough Town" of Trenton, in an instrument, surrendered their "divers Liberties, priviledges Immunitys and Franchises." Although the members of the corporation retained "a Just Senee of Gratitude for the Person and Memory of his late Excellency, Lewis Morris Esqr for the favour they are Satisfyed he Intended to confer upon them," yet, by experienee, it was found that it did not answer the salutary purpose intended. Upon the other hand, the charter was "found very prejudicial to the Interest and trade" of Trenton. The Burgesses and Common Council yielded to the Crown the eharter of incorporation, with all its liberties and privileges, together with their pretenees and elaims to the exercise or administration of powers thereby conferred. Theophilus Severns, on the seventh day of April, 1750, appeared before John Coxe, one of the Council for New Jersey, and ecrtified to the seal of the corporation. Governor Beleher, in Burlington city, on the ninth of April, in the twenty-third year of George II., accepted the "Instrument of Surrender of the Charter for Incorporating the Burrough Town of Trenton * * * in behalf of his Most Sacred Majesty."
Notification of the surrender of this charter was printed in the "Pennsylvania Gazette," April 12th, 1750, to the end that all persons should be saved "Trouble and Attendanee upon the Fairs, which will not be held as usual."
These fairs were mentioned in the "Pennsylvania Journal" of October 3d, 1745, and in the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of April 3d, 1746, April 17th, 1748, and October 13th, 1748. They were all advertised in the following form :
The "Pennsylvania Gazette" of 1746 announees that upon April 16th, Wednesday, of that year "at the Borough Town of Trenton * * will be held and kept a FAIR for selling * and buying all manner of Horses, Mares, Colts, Cows, Calves, Steers, Hogs Sheep and all other Cattle Goods Wares and Merehandize whatsoever." The fair was to last until the following Friday night. This was pursuant to the eharter.
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CHAPTER XI.
THE CORPORATE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF TRENTON. THE CHARTER OF 1792.
TRENTON'S CONDITION IN 1790-AABORTIVE ATTEMPTS TO ORGANIZE A CITY GOVERNMENT-THE CHARTER IS GRANTED AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS-EARLY STREETS-THOSE WHO FIRST HELD OFFICE-THE CITY SEAL-TRENTON OUTGROWING HER VILLAGE LIFE-CONDITIONS OF THE TIMES.
PON the surrender of the first Charter of the Borough Town of Trenton, the lack of success of the plan deterred all future efforts until the close of the American Revolution. Indeed, the preparations for the future confliet, and the struggle for independence, precluded all action toward this end. A new generation of men, whose minds had been stimulated by war, was needed to accomplish great results. Although Trenton proper was north of the Assanpink ercek, and consequently in Hunterdon county, nevertheless the genesis of the town is to be found in the Bur- lington county establishments. In passing it is of interest to remember that the spot of ground immediately adjoining the creek on the south was called Kings- bury, afterward Kensington Hill ; but when it became a manufacturing plaec of some note, the name was again changed to Mill Hill, which name it continued to bear until it was incorporated with Bloomsbury and made the borough of South Trenton.
The charter of 1792, which is the beginning of the present municipal history of the city of Trenton, was in fact the outgrowth of a series of agitations upon the subject. The sympathies which existed between the citizens north and south of the Assanpink creek led them to present a petition to the House of Assembly upon the twentieth of August, 1784, nearly a deeade before a charter was finally granted. This petition was accompanied by a bill entitled "An act for ereeting part of the township of Nottingham, in the county of Burlington, and part of the township of Tren- ton, in the county of Hunterdon, into a city, and for incorporating the same by the name of the city of Trenton, and for declaring the same a free city and port, for the term of twenty-five years."
This bill passed the House on Tuesday, November 15th, 1785, and on Thursday, the twenty- second of February, 1786, the act was rejected by the Couneil.
At this time Lamberton, which was a part of the township of Nottingham, had beeome a thriv- ing town. As early as 1759, Robert Lettis Hooper, in view of prospective river trade, had laid out lots 60 by 181, for a town. His village began on the Delaware at Trenton ferry, running as the road runs to the grist mills opposite Trenton, thence down the stream of the mills to the Delaware, thence down the river to the ferry, being the head of navigation, "where there is a considerable trade extended from the city of Philadelphia, and great parts of the counties of Hunterdon, Morris, Middlesex, Somerset, and Bucks, in Pennsylvania, deliver their produee," and rafts of timber, staves, &e., come from 120 miles up the river.
This property was offered for sale or for a lease of 60 years. Robert Lettis Hooper, in March,
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1765, again offered for sale his Lamberton property, about half a mile below the ferry near Trenton, with utensils for curing herring and sturgeon.
Although this project of incorporating the settlements on the north and south banks of the Assanpink was unsuccessful, Lamberton afterward became a port of entry, and has since so remained.
In a couple of years, or upon March 2d, 1786, a petition from sundry inhabitants of the town- ships of Nottingham and Trenton was presented to the House, "praying that a part of the township of Trenton and a part of the township of Nottingham may have the benefit of a corporation, with the power of making by-laws for their internal police and government ; " whereupon leave was given them to present a bill agreeably to the prayer of their petition.
Saturday, March 4th, 1786, a petition from sundry inhabitants of the township of Nottingham was presented to the House, praying that if a charter of incorporation should be given to the inhabitants of Trenton, the township of Nottingham may not be included, which was read and referred.
The attempts to incorporate the city of Trenton now were directed to consolidate the inhabit- ants north of the Assanpink. The other efforts failed presumably upon the ground that a town upon both sides of the creek would necessarily have to be located in two counties. To relieve this difficulty, upon May 23d, 1792, a petition from the inhabitants of Hopewell, Maidenhead and Trenton, in the county of Hunterdon, was read, asking that a law might be passed for incorporating a borough, to consist of the said townships, for the purpose of holding courts and establishing a gaol and Court House within the said borough.
This was indeed a city in extenso, and had the defects of the colonial charter, in that the borough town limits would embrace too much territory and so become unwieldy. The plan then devised was much more feasible, that of cutting Trenton township into two parts. So far as can be ascertained, the lines of the township were, in general, as laid down by the court order of 1719.
Trenton was in 1792 a town of good size. Well supplied with mills, with taverns, a town on the stage route, a large river and back-country trade, spacious homes of influential citizens, and recently brought into national prominence as a projected capital of the United States, the applicant for corporate honors was deemed worthy of legislative assistance. In the town the streets were as follows :
Queen (now Broad) street commenced at the north end of the town, at a junction with King street, and ran due south to the bridge over the Assanpink, at Trent's mills. Front street com- menced in Queen, a few rods north of the Assanpink bridge in Broad street, and extended west to the Masonic lodge. Here the River road commenced and ran up Willow street to Potts' tanyard ; thence west, through Quarry street, by Rutherford's and Colonel Dickinson's places, in a northwest course, and through Birmingham to the Bear tavern. Second street (State street) commenced at Chambers' corner, at Willow street (now corner of State and Willow), and ran east, to the old iron works, crossing King and Queen streets. King (now Warren) street commenced on the Penning- ton road and ran, in a southerly direction, by the old Court House and jail (now Trenton Bank), to Front street. It then merged into the Bloomsbury road fording the Assunpink.
The great center of all the upper country trade at this time was the "Five Points," where, in fact, the battle of Trenton commenced and where the monument commemorative thereof now stands. Here were united the Princeton road and the Pennington road with what are now Broad and War- ren streets. The Brunswick pike, now the property of the Pennsylvania railroad, and which also forms a part of this distributive system, was not then in existence. It may be incidentally men- tioned that upon the fourteenth of November, 1804, the Trenton and New Brunswick Turnpike Company was chartered, the corporators being James Ewing, Joshua Wright, John Neilson, James Schureman and Thomas Hill.
The road was to be four rods wide from Trenton to New Brunswick, and they were to give security to the Governor to pay the subscription money received by them to the Treasurer of the company. The subscriptions were two thousand shares, of $100 each, $5 to be paid on each share at the time of subscribing.
Upon the south the Bloomsbury road and the extensions of Broad street reached the planta- tions of Burlington county.
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The inhabitants of Trenton having petitioned the Legislature, a bill to incorporate a part of the township of Trenton was taken up on the first of June, 1792, and postponed. It passed the House, however, on the fifth of November of that year; Council amended the act on the twelfth of the same month, and it was finally passed upon the thirteenth. One of the facts which led to the passage of the bill is said to have been the inability of Trenton under a township government to quell local disturbances. In the spring of 1792 a small mob had eaused disorder near the Methodist meeting- house. This gave the authorities much trouble, and in consequence thereof the act of June 1st, 1792, entitled "An aet to preserve order and decency in places of worship," was passed. This was one of the first outbreaks against the Methodists ever known in the State of New Jersey.
November 13th, 1792, the city of Trenton was formed from a part of the township of Trenton, with the following boundaries : "Beginning at the mouth of Assanpink ereck and running up the same to Bernard Hanlen's mill dam [old Millham]; from thence along the road to the line between Trenton and Maidenhead ; thence along the said line to the road leading from Trenton to Maiden- head ; thence on a straight line to the northwest corner of a lot late of David Brearley, deceased ; thence on a straight line to the northwest corner of the land of Lambert Cadwalader, whereon he now lives ; thence down the western line thereof to the river Delaware ; thenee down the same to the mouth of the Assanpink."
December 21st, 1792, the officers who had been appointed by the Legislature held their first meeting. They were Moore Furman, Mayor ; Aaron D. Woodruff, Reeorder ; Samuel W. Stockton, Abraham Hunt and Alexander Chambers, Aldermen ; Charles Axford, Abraham G. Claypole, William Tindall, Bernard Hanlen and Aaron Howell, Assistants, and Pontius D. Stelle.
According to the late John O. Raum, these officials had the following residence :
Moore Furman was a grandfather to the late Captain William E. Hunt, of this city. He had charge of the Commissary Department of the American army during the Revolution in 1776. He lived in the State Street House, in State street ; his office was a one-story brick building, and stood on the same spot which the Chancery building oceupied, now the site of the Trust and Safe Deposit Company.
Aaron D. Woodruff resided on the corner of Broad and Hanover streets, in the house creeted by Thomas Tindall, in 1740. He was for many years Attorney-General of the State, which office he filled at the time of his death.
Samuel W. Stockton lived in the mansion-house in Front street. While going to Philadelphia, in company with his son, in his own carriage, he saw in the neighborhood of Bristol some very fine cherries, and in an effort to get them from the trees he fell, and so injured his skull that he died in a few days from the effects of it.
Abraham Hunt kept a store in that row of brick buildings in Warren street commencing at the corner of State street, the site of the Masonie Temple. He resided in the northern part of the building. The front entrance to his house was on Warren street.
Alexander Chambers was also a merchant. His residenee and store was on the northeast eorner of State and Willow streets.
Charles Axford lived in a stone house south of the feeder of the Delaware and Raritan eanal, in Warren street. The house was torn down at the time of digging the feeder of the canal.
Abraham G. Claypole lived in a mansion in Warren street.
William Tindall lived in a frame house on the east side of Warren street ; the building was removed to the opposite side of the street at the time the feeder was made.
Bernard Hanlen lived in the stone house near Millham, opposite what was formerly Pratt & Howell's flouring mills.
Aaron Howell lived in a frame house which stood on the lot in Warren street ; it was after- ward removed around into Perry street, on the lot now occupied by the Trinity M. E. Church. Howell, son of Aaron, built the house south of it, now owned by Dr. David Warman.
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