History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 11

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 11
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 11

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" Early in the month of August, 1665, the town is stirred by the first exciting event in its history. The ship 'Philip,' having arrived at New York July 29th, now makes her appearance at the Point, or en- trance of the creek on which the town is laid out. She brings Capt. Philip Carteret, a eprightly youth of six and twenty, with a company of emigrants from the Old World. Among them is a French gentleman, Robert Vanqnellin, a surveyor by profession, with his wite. Capt. James Bollen, of New York, slev is of the number. With these come also eighteen men of menial character, of the Jeboring class, possibly a few others, females probably, of whom no special mention is made, some thirty in all.t

" The settlers gather about the landing to receive the new-comers, to Teern who they are, and why their steps are directed hither. Capt. Car- teret presently submits his credentiale to Ogden and his townsmen. He comes accredited with papers from Governor Nicolls, and a Guvernor's commission trom Lord John Berkeley, Baron of Strattou, Somerset County, England. and Sir George Carteret, Knight and Burunet, of Sal- trum, in Deven (both of the Privy Council), to whom the Duke of York had grauted the territory lying to the west of Hudson's River and PHSt of the Delaware, to be known henceforward He Nova Cæsurea, or New Jersey. Mutual explanations follow. The Indian deed is produced end well considered. Governor Nicoll's grant is brought forward and explained.

" The settlers appear to have had a fair understanding with Carteret and his company, and to have procured a conces-ion of their rights and titlee as proprietors of the territory described in their derd. Tradition tells us-nut a very reliable authority when not supported by collateral evidence, as it is in the pre-ent case-that Carteret, being informed of their right to the lands, 'approved of the saDie, and readily and will- ingly coosented to hecuore an associate with them, and went up from the place of his landing with them, carrying a hoe on his shoulder, thereby intimating hie intention of becoming a planter with them,' glad, no doubt, to find so promising a beginning in the settlement of the nn- occupied and unexplored territory over which he was to exercise authority,2

1 ... T. Bill, p 2º,

? Leaming und Spicer, pp 8-11, 26-27. Ans. to E. T. Bill, p. 20.

" Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret were of the court of Charles Il., a monarch of whom Bancroft truly says that his reign 'was not less renierkalle for the rapacity of the courtiers than for the debauchery of the monarch.'3 In the conflict with the Parliamentarians they hed both, being then in the full vigor of their faculties, adhered to the for- tunes of their king, Charles I., and laid their royal master and his profligate sons, Charles and James, under no small obligations to them.

" Berkeley was the youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley. He was boro in 1607, joined the army in the operations against the Scots in 1638, and was knighted (June 27th) the same year. In the Parliamentary war he served as commissary-general for the king, as Governor of Exeter, and general of the royal forces in Devon. After the king'e death he went abroad with the royal family, and in 1652 was made Governor of the Duke of York's household. May 19, 1658, he was created by royal favor Baron Berkeley, of Stratton, and at the Restoration in 1660 he wae sworn of the Privy Council.+

" Carteret was the ellest gun uf Helier Carteret, Deputy Governor of the Isle of Jersey, a descendant of the Lords of Carteret in the Duchy of Normandy, a family of great respectability, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror Philip, ehlest son of Helier Carteret, mar- ried Rachel Paulet and bad sx children, -Philip, Helier, ADuce, Gideon, Rachel, and Judith He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and lived to a great age, Sir Philip. the eldest son of Sir Philip, omarried Anne Dowee and bad eleven children,-Philip, Peyton, Zonch, Gulsun, Frau- cis, Thomas, Edward, Margaret, Anne, Elizabeth, Dowse. Philip, the first born, died in 1662. Elizabeth (for whom this town was named) married her cousin, George Carteret. Her father, Philip, had (as above) three brothers. Helier, the second son of the first S.r Philip, married Elizabeth Dumaresque, and had two children, George and Philip. The latter was born in 1610, and died in 1665.

"George Carteret was born in 1599, married (as above) his cousin Elizabeth, and had three sons and five daughters. His suns were Philip. James, and George, The latter abed unmarried in 1656. Philip, his el . dest son, was knighted June 4, 1670, and killed in a naval battle May 28, 1672. George, the father, entered the navy at an early age. In 1626 he was appointed joint Governor of Jer-ey, and in 1640 comptroller of the royal navy. In 1642 the post of vice-admiral was offered him by Parlia- Dient, but declined in obedience to his royal master. He was knighted May 9, 1646, having rendered the king great service in the supply of ammunition. Withdrawing to his home in Jersey, his house, which he bravely defended as the last stronghold of the monarchy, became an asylum to the Prince of Wal 8 and others of the party. He followed his sovereign to France in 1652, was imprisoned in the Bastile at the instance of Cromwell in 1657, and subsequently Imnished the kingdom. He repaired to Charles at Brussels in 1659, and was one of his escort when received by the city of London in 1660. He was appointed vice- chamberlain and treasurer of the navy, was sworn of the Privy Coun- cil, and in 1661 elected to Parliament for Portsmonth. As early as 1650, when the royal cause appeared quite hopeless, he is said to have obtained the grant of an island in Virginia, and to have fitted ont a ship with all sorts of goods and tools, with many mmussengers. fur the settle- ment of a plantation in the New World. It is thought that the project was abandoned on arcount of the vigilance of the Cromwellian party.5

" The trials through which the two lords had passed during the civil wars, in which circumstances had brought them into great familiarity with the royal brothers, Charles and James, gave them great influence at court after the Restoration. Lucrative offices were awarded them in and about the royal household, and frequent opportunities given of pro- moting their purposes of wealth and aggrandizement. The New World beyond the found was attracting unmerons adventurers, and offering large inducements to colonists. The gifted Winthrop, on the occasion of his visit to England in 1061-62, to procure a new charter for l'on- nectient, had been received with great consideration at court, and by his representations of what had already been accomplished in New England had unwittingly excited the greed of many of the corrupt and wily parasites of the crown. Clarendon, Albemarle, Ashley, Culleton, Car- teret, Craven, and the twu Berkeleys, Lord John and Sir William. handed together and readily obtained in 1663 from the pleasure-loving monarch a grant of the vast territory in America, extending from the thirty -- ixth degree of north latitude to the river Saint Matheo, and from the At-

3 Bancroft's United States, ii. 129.

+ N. Y. Colonial Doc., ii. 599. Collins' Peerege (ed. of 1785), iii. 270- 281

5 New York Colonial Doc., ii. 410. Collins' Peerage (ed. of 1785), iv. 321-28.

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

lantic to the Pacific, as proprietors and lords, with almost absolute authority and the right of assignment or sale,-a must extraordinary grant of power; and all this on the plea of 'being excited with a land- able and pions zeal for the propagation of the gospel' among a 'bar- barone people, who have no knowledge of God,' hypocrites that they were ! 'Avarice,' says Bancroft, ' 16 the vice of declining years; most of the proprietaries were pa-t middle life. They begged the country under pretence of a "pions zeal for the propagation of the gospel," and their eule object was the increase of their own wealth and dignity.'1

" Not satisfied with their share in the lordship of such a vast domain, Berkeley and Carteret were enger to secure for themselves an invest- ment in western lands still more promising if possible. The notorious Capt. Scott, who had created so much disturbance on Long Island and the Main, and of whom Governor Nicolis wrote that he ' was borne to work mischeife as farre as hee is credited or his parte serve him,' had sought of the crown a patent for Long Island ; but not succeeding in his design, aud conceiving that he had been wronged by the Duke of York, is reported to have indu. ed Berkeley and Carteret to secure New Jersey for themselves, knowing, as Nicolle al-o declared, that it was the most valuable portion of the Duke's territory.2

" The two lords readily caught the hait, and the duke, ' for a compe- tent sum of money,' haviog by his patent from the king the right of sale as possession and rule, couveyed, June 24, 1664, the territory now known as New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret 'in as full and ample manner' as it had been conveyed to himself, transferring to these court favorites all his rights, titles, and authority to and over the land in question.

" In the course of the summer, as has been seen, the Dutch were dis- possessed, and the country brought under the sway of the English crown. As soon as tidings came, in the latter part of October, that the conquest was complete, the two lords began their preparations for colonizing their new acquisitions. Guided, probably, by the terms of Winthrop's char- ter, and the concessions subsequently drawn up for the Carolinas, they prepared a plan for the government of the territory (that Carteret had honored with the nanie of his island home), which was completed and signed Feb. 10, 1665, and which they denominated, ' The Concessions and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of New-Caesarea, or New-Jer- sey, tv and with all and every of the adventurers, and all such as shall settle or plant there ;' a document of which it must be adantted that while unich may be said against it and properly, it neverthless contained principles and conveyed privileges far to advance of the age, and much more accordant with democracy than with the imperialism of the Stuarts.3

" Capt. Philip Carteret, & distant relative of Sir George, was more than content to emigrate to the New World and become the Governor of the new territory for the proprietors. His comunssion and letters of instruc- tivo bear the same dato as the concessions. Mr. Robert Vanquellin (Sieur des Prairie), of the city of Caen, in France, receives the same day an appointment as surveyor-general of the province."

On the 8th of September, 1665, Governor Carteret became a landed proprietor, in common with the As- sociates, by the purchase of the third-lot right of John Baily, the deed being as follows :

" Indenture between John Bayles of Jamaica in Yorkshire upon Long Island of the one part and Philip Curteret, Esq", Governor of the Province of New Jersey upon the main land of America of the other part. For and in consideration of a valuable sum to him in hand paid by the said Philip Carteret, the said Bayles hath suld to Philip Carteret all and every ory Lott or Lotte part or parts of a certaine peice of land scituate lying and being on the Maios Continent of America commonly called or known by the Name of Arthur Cull or Emboyle, or what other Name or Numes soever it hath been or now is Called by which said Parcell of Land he the said Jolin Bayles with severall others did Lawfully purchase from the Nativesor Indians as by his said Bill of Sayle from the Indians bearing date the 28th day of October 1664 will more at large appear which was cofirmed by The Right Hon. Col. Richard Nicholl Governor of his Royal Highuess Territoryes in America his Grent bearing date the first day of December, 1664. To have and to hold, &c."4

1 Bancroft'e United States, ii. 130.

2 N. Y. Colonial Doc., iii. 105. Thompson's Long Island, ii. 320-23. 3 See Smith's New Jersey, pp. 512-521. Grants, Concessions, etc., pp. 12~25.

4 E. J. Book of Surveys. A. 1, 2; il. 2, 182.

This interest of Carteret in the plantation was sold by him Feb. 10, 1668, to a new-comer by the name of William Pyles, from Piscataway, N. H. The lots lay on the south side of the creek. Again, in November, 1668, Carteret purchased the third-lot right of Capt. Robert Sealey, deceased, for £45.

The "Concessions and Agreement" proved, upon examination, very acceptable to the people. It was an instrument guaranteeing the utmost liberty of conscience consistent with the preservation of public peace and order in all things pertaining to civil and religious matters, and offering liberal terms to immi- grants who would come and settle in the country. As to government, it committed the work of legisla- tion and taxation to a Legislature, of which the pop- ular branch should be chosen directly by the people. Thus it early established in this favored colony the doctrine for which, a century later, the colonies so strenuously and successfully contended, that repre- sentation should always accompany all demands of taxation on the part of a government, or the govern- ment should be thrown off as a tyranny and a usur- pation to which no free people are bound to sub- mit.

No general government or Legislature for the prov- ince of New Jersey was established under this instru- ment until nearly three years after the arrival of the Governor. His Excellency busied himself chiefly in settiug in order the local affairs of the town which he had chosen as the seat of his government, and in attending to such minor executive duties as seemed to be most urgently demanded. John Ogden was commissioned Oct. 26, 1665, as justice of the peace, and on the 1st of November was appointed one of the . Governor's Council. Capt. Thomas Young was also appointed a member of the Council Feb. 12, 1666. A military company was organized somewhat later for the defense of the town against the Indians. Of this company Luke Watson was made lieutenant and John Woodruff ensign. Watson was also appointed consta- ble of the town.5

Among the many marriage licenses issued by the first Governor of New Jersey the following has been preserved among the East Jersey records. The par- ties were servants who had come over with the Gov- ernor, and afterwards settled on Staten Island. This marriage is thought to have been the first that ever occurred in the Elizabeth Town plantation :

" License of Marriage.

" Whereas I have recd Information of a mutual Interest sad agreement bet wene Daniel Perrin, of Elizabeth Towne, in the province of New Jar- sey, and Maria Thorel, of the same Towne, Spinster, to sulemnize Mariage together, for which they have Requested my Lycense, and there ap ear- ing no Lawfull Impediment for yo Obstruction thereof, These are to Re- quire Yon, or Eyther of You, to Joyne the said Daniel Perrin and Marie Thorel in Matrimony and them to pronounce man and Wife, und to make recondi thereof according to the Lawes in that behalfe provided, for the doing Whereof this shall be to you, or Eyther of yon, a sufficient War-

5 East Jersey Records, iii. 3, 4, 7, 20, 21.

GOVERNMENT OF PHILIP CARTERET.

rant. Given under my hand and grele the Twelft day of february, And 1665, and in the Isth Yeare ot hie Maties Raign King Charles the Second.

"To any of the Justices of the Peace

or Ministers wthin the Government

" PH. CARTERETT.

of the province of New Jarsey.

" These Couple Where Joyned together in

Matrimony the 18 feb., 1666, by me, J. BOLLEN."1

An indenture is on record of the 7th of April, 1666, wherein Robert Gray binds himself as a servant for three years to Luke Watson, the latter to give him, at the end of the term, "a good cowe." This is fol- lowed, on the 7th of the next month (May), with "a Hue and Cry" for a servant belonging to Mr. Luke Watson, who has " lately absented himselfe and runn away from his Master's service." A description of the fugitive is given in these words :

" His name, Robert graij, an Englishman bornd, about 20 yeares of age, a lustij bodied, portely fellow, light brownish haire, very little hairs on his face, a little demij Castor, a gray broad cloth sute the breeches tyed att the knees, and a red coate, besides n light gray graij coulored Serge breeches, and a Snap hansminskell that he hath stollen awaije wtb many other things. It is Supposed that hee is in Company wth one Ruderic Powell, a pitiful fellow, who hatb also absented himselfe and ruun awaij."

First Legislature of New Jersey .- In accord- ance with the provisions of the "Concessions and Agreement," Governor Carteret, premising that " by the infinite goodness, providence, and blessing of Almighty God the province of New Jersey is in a probable way of being populated," issued a procla- mation April 7, 1668, requiring the freeholders in each of the several towns of the province to make choice of two of their number to meet in a General Assembly at Elizabeth Town, May 25, 1668,-

"For the making and constituting such wholesume laws as shall be must needful and necessary for the good government of the said prov- ince, and the maintaining of a religious communion and civil society, one with the other, as becometb Christians, without which it is impos- sible for any Body Politic to prosper or subsist."?

It is almost certain that up to this time the people of New Jersey, with the exception, perhaps, of the Dutch at Bergen, who had a court and a regular ad- ministration of justice, according to the laws of Hol- land, established among them as early as 1661, had lived under " the Duke's Laws," so called, which His Royal Highness had caused to be enacted by an As- sembly convened at Hempstead, Long Island, under a warrant from Governor Nicolls, on the 28th of Feb- ruary, 1665. This code, according to instructions, was " collected out of the several laws then in force in his Majesties American Colonyes and Plantations," but were chiefly such as were in authority in Connecticut, and some of them in the very words of the Connecti- cut code of 1650.3

The first General Assembly of New Jersey convened in accordance with the Governor's warrant at Eliza- beth Town, and was constituted May 26, 1668. Three of the six members of the Council were residents of

the town,-Robert Bond, Robert Vauquellin, and William Pardon ; Bond and Pardon having been ap- pointed, Jan. 2, 1668, and James Bollen, also of the town, being the secretary. The town had chosen John Ogden, Sr., and John Brackett to represent them in the House of Burgesses. The Legislature remained in session five days, and passed several acts or laws, by some denominated " the Elizabeth Town Code of Laws," of which it has been said that "Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system." The laws were few and simple, scarcely worthy the name of a "Code," and were taken in almost every instance and nearly verbatim from the Hempstead Code, or the Connecticut Code of 1650. The Puritan laws, as well as the Puritan manners and customs, prevailed in the new settlement. Every possible precaution was taken to preserve the rights of property, to secure the orderly administration of justice, to regulate the intercourse of the sexes, to restrain the vicious within proper bounds, to make human life as sacred as possible, to prevent disre- spect to parents, drunkenness, and profanity, and to enforce obedience to the constituted authorities.4

As an illustration of the strictness with which, at that early day, they watched over the morals of the rising generation, the following enactment is cited at length :

" For the better preventing disorders and misdemeanors in young persons and others, Be it also enacted by this present General Assembly, that if any person or persons shall be abroad from the usual place of their abode, and found in night-walking, Drinking in any tapp-house, or any other house or place at unreasonable times, after nine of the clock at night, and not about their lawful occasions, or cannot give a good ac- count of their being absent from their own place of abode at that time of the night, if required of them, shall be secured by the Constable or some other officer till the morning, to be brought before a Justice of the Peace or Magistrate, to be examined, and if they cannot give them a satisfactory account of their being out at such unreasonable times, he or they shall be bound over to the next Court, and receive such punishment as the Justice upon the Bench shall see canse to inflict upon them." 5

Provision was made for an annual meeting of the General Assembly on the first Tuesday in November, and for the election of deputies on the 1st of Jan- uary. The rates for the support of government were to be five pounds for each of the towns, to be paid into the hands of Jacob Mollins (Melyen), of Elizabeth Town, in country produce at the following prices :

" Winter wheat at five shillings a bushell ; summer wheat at four shil- lings and sixpence ; pease at three shillings end sixpence; Indian corn at three shillings; rye at four shillings; barley at four shillings ; beef at two pence half-penny ; pork at three pence half-penny a pound."

Capt. Bollen was to receive twenty pounds for his services as secretary. Little time, however, could be given, especially in the planting season, to matters of legislation. The full consideration of these enact- ments was referred by the Governor to the November session, " by reason of the week so near spent, and the

1 E. J. Records, iii. p. 8.

2 Leaming and Spicer's Grants, rtc , p. 15. Hatfield's Elizabeth, p. 124.

. 3 New York Hist. Soc. Coll , i. 307, 428. Thompson'e L. I., i. 131-35. Hildreth's United States, ii. 44-51.

4 Leaming and Spicer's Grants, etc., pp. 77-84. Bancroft's U. States, i. 319.

5 Leaming and Spicer's Grants, etc., p. 80.

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

resolution of some of the company to depart." The Assembly met here again by adjournment on Tues- day, Nov. 3, 1668. Jacob Mollins (Melyen ) appeared among the burgesses in place of John Brackett, who had probably returned to New Haven. Mr. Ogden was appointed "to take cognizance of the country's charge and rates ;" and Mr. Watson, of the town, was appointed, with Mr. Samuel Moore, of Woodbridge, to go to Middletown and Shrewsbury to collect their proportion of the rates levied on the towns. Mr. Melyen was to be one of the committee to treat with the Indians " for the preventing of future damages and wrongs that otherwise may accrue to the towns or inhabitants in reference to horses or cattle that may range up into the country, to the indangering the peace in respect to the Indians." Two men also were appointed "and sent to the Sachem of the Indians that killed the Indian boy at Elizabeth Town to de- mand the murtherer to be surrendered to the Gov- ernor." A few other acts of not much importance were passed, and the Assembly was brought abruptly to an end.1

A radical difference of opinion, which must have been foreseen, between the Governor and the people in respect to the rights of the people and the power of the Legislature was very soon in the course of the session developed. The deputies were disposed to exercise the right of originating measures for the good of the people without previous consultation with the Governor. The latter was jealous of his own prerogative, and sought to prescribe the course to be pursued by the deputies, as he was accustomed to do with the Council, who were creatures of his own will. On the fourth day of the session the deputies therefore sent a message to the Governor and his Council to this effect,-

" Honored Gentlemen,-We finding so many and great inconveniences hy our not setting together, and your apprehensions so different to ours, and your expectations that things must go according to your opinions, though we ses no reasons for, much less warrant from the Concessions, wherefore we think it vain to spend umch time of returning answers by writings that are go exceedingly dilatory, if not fruitle-s and endless, and therefore we think our way rather to break up our meeting, seeing the order of the concessions cannot be attended anto." 2

Carteret received the message on Friday evening, and on the plea that it was "too late to-night to entertain so long a debate," asked them to send two of their number to discuss their differences on Satur- day morning. "If not," he added, "you may do what you please, only we advise you to consider well of your resolutions before you break np." They did * consider well, and so broke up on Saturday, the fifth day of the session.3 Carteret disregarded the ex- press provision of the concessions, and refused to call an Assembly for the next two years, preferring to rule the province at his own pleasure by means of his complaisant Council.

1 Leaming and Spicer's Grants, etc., pp. 81, 85-89.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 11

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224