History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 49

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 49
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 49

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The coming of this company to Elizabeth has in - creased the population several thousands and its busi - ness by many thousand dollars, annually distributed by the company to their employés. The cost of this gigantic enterprise was three million dollars.

The officers of the company are: President, Edward Clark; Vice-President, George K. Mckenzie; Secre- tary, A. F. Sterling ; Treasurer, William F. Proctor ; Directors, Edward Clark, George R. Mckenzie, A. F. Sterling, William F. Proctor, Hugh Cheyne, and Leb- bius B. Miller; Superintendent, Lebbius B. Miller. The principal office of the company is at No. 34 Union Square, New York.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE CITY OF ELIZABETH .- ( ''ontinned.)

First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth .- This church is very ancient, dating back to the first settle- ment of Elizabeth Town by the original Associates. It was probably the first English church of the Puri- tan type founded in New Jersey, and there were

A "town-house" was among the first necessities of every Puritan community, where the government was carried on largely by the voice of the people expressed in town-meeting. They had no ideas of consecrated buildings, in which it would be sacrilege to do honest business on the week-days; for they met and voted with the same conscientiousness with which they wor- shiped. Hence one house answered both purposes. The " town-house" was also the " meeting-house," not only used by common consent for the transaction of the town business on week-days, but for Christian worship on Sundays. Religion being a part of the every-day life of the community, and the conservator of its social order and stability, every Puritan parish was the whole town, and all were under obligation to support the minister and to aid in the other expenses of the church to the extent of their means. Such was. the earliest mode of supporting religion in New Eng- land, by a tax levied on the property of the whole community. The people usually met and agreed upon the minister and his salary in town-meeting, and when they built a house for him or dismissed him they usually pursued the same course. The parson- age or the parsonage farm was generally owned by the town, and set off for that purpose by the common pro - prietors.

It is quite probable that a similar state of things prevailed at first in the Elizabeth Town colony. Men-

very few even of the Reformed Dutch Churches which , tion is made of the " town-house" as early as June, 1671. Pardon, in his testimony in the Michell case, says that "on the 19th of June, 1671, he was at a meeting of several inhabitants of this town who were met together at the town-house." Mr. Hatfield thinks it quite probable that the first General Assembly

preceded it. John Ogden, one of the founders of this town, had, about twenty years before coming | here, erected the old stone church in the Dutch fort at New Amsterdam, and a church of the same order had been established in the old town of Bergen, west of the Hudson. This last, so far as we have any | of the province convened in this town-house, May

196

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

26, 1668, and that it had been then standing for at least two years. The same building is probably re- ferred to as " the public Meeting-House of Elizabeth Town" in the act of 1682, requiring the county courts to meet here twice a year. As early as Feb. 19, 1666, the inhabitants held a meeting, at which the whole town was present, and sixty-five men took the oath of allegiance and fidelity. The house had most likely been built before this date, and might easily have been, as John Ogden could have furnished lumber from his saw-mill, put up at the bridge soon after his coming.

The lot on which the house was built included the present burying-ground of the First Presbyterian Church, extending on the west to the river, and com- prising about eight acres.

Provision was made by the Associates for a town lot for the minister, who was to have a third-lot right in it. In the records of surveys it is occasionally re- ferred to as the " parsonage lot."

The Associates provided for a minister of the town on their first setting out to form a colony. The Rev. Thomas James, pastor of the church of East Hamp- ton, L. I., had been chosen their minister, and had consented to cast in his lot with them, but was persuaded by those of his people who remained to abandon the undertaking. It is not to be supposed, however, that no religious meetings were held in the infant community ; such a people could not long forego that privilege, and when not conducting their own meetings, in a social way they may have been minis- tered to occasionally by visiting pastors from their old homes. The Rev. Mr. Pierson, former pastor of some of the Associates, removed to Newark, Oct. 1, 1667, and it is not unlikely that he may have previously visited the Elizabeth Town colony, and in that man- ner became interested in the region of country which he chose for his future home.

REV. JEREMIAH PECK .- The first pastor of this church, the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, was the eldest son of Deacon William Peck, of New Haven. He was born near London, England, in 1622 or 1623, and came to America with his father in the ship " Hector," arriving in Boston June 26, 1637. Deacon Peck re- moved to New Haven with his family in 1639, and became one of the founders of that town. Jeremiah graduated at Harvard College in 1654. He became a teacher, and at Guilford, Conn., married Johannah, daughter of Robert Kitchell, Nov. 12, 1656. In the records of the colony of New Haven, June 28, 1660, appears the following entry :

" It was agreed that Mr Pecke, now at Guilford, ahould ba achoola- master, and that it should bagin in October next, when hia half yeare axpires there ; he ia to keepa ye achoola, to teach the echollers Lattine, Greek, and IIebrew, and fitt them for the Colledga; and for the salary, ba knowes tha alowanca fro the colony is 40l a yaare and for further treaties they must leave it to New haven, where the schoola is; and for further orders concerning the schoola and well carrying it on, the elders will consider of soma against the court of magistratea in October next, when thinga aa there is causa may be further considered."

Mr. Peck accepted the appointment, and returned to his old home in October, 1660, a house and a plot of land being also allowed him. He appears to have remained in this situation but a short time, for Sept. 25, 1661, we find him engaging as a minister in Say- brook, to receive a settlement of £100 in lands in fee, and £55 in house and lot, to revert to the town if he removed within five years; his salary to be £60 a year, · to be paid in two firkins of butter, and the rest in corn and flesh at current prices; his maintenance to be, if necessary, increased. The manner in which his preaching was regarded at Saybrook may be inferred from the following letter addressed to his parisli- ioners :

" Anno Domini 63 feb. 2 Respected and loving ffrienda the Inhab- itanta and planters of Seabroke I understand and that from divers that there is much Dissatisfaction with Reference to myselfe in respect to my proceeding in the Ministry at least to a settlement and that there are desires in many to provide themselves with a more able Help : I do freely leava myself to the providence of God and the Thots of his people: and so far as I am any wayes concerned herein I doe leave the Towne wholly to their own Liberty to provida for themselves as God ahall direct: and with respect to laying asida the futura Term of years expressed in the Covenant as also of laying ma aside from an Eoiployment of ao great a concernment I do desire that these Things may be duly considered and dealt tendarly in that I may not be rendered useless in future service for God : altho I am unworthy to ba improved ao I am yours in what I may as God shall please to direct and enable." 1

The people of Saybrook, notwithstanding this feel- ing, appear to have dealt very fairly with their min- ister, keeping him nearly three years longer, "giving him full possession of his accommodation," and pur- chasing it of him for his successor. His services with them closed on the 30th of January, 1666. Return- ing to Guilford, where he found his father-in-law and many other friends and many of the people of Beau- ford, with Rev. Mr. Pierson, talking about a removal to New Jersey, he concluded to embark with them, and came to Newark in the autumn of 1666 or in the spring of 1667. It is supposed that he served that town in the ministry until the arrival of Mr. Pier- son, Oct. 1, 1667, and then came to Elizabeth Town, where he was engaged both as a preacher and teacher.

He became a freeholder of the town as early as 1668, as the house-lot of Capt. Robert Seeley, deceased, is de- scribed, Nov. 2, 1668, as lying " between the Parson- age Lot and Jeremiah Pecks." He had an allotment of one hundred and eighty acres with a third-lot right. Says Rev. Dr. Hatfield, "In the absence of all evi- dence to the contrary, it is safe to conclude that Mr. Jeremiah Peck came to this town as early as 1668, on invitation of the people, to serve them in the ministry of the gospel, and that he is to be regarded as the first pastor of the church in this place."

In 1672 he became, with others, a purchaser from the Indians of a tract of land in the western part of the present town of Greenwich, Conn. In the autumn of 1678 he accepted an invitation to settle with them in the ministry, and remained there until 1690, when he settled at Waterbury, Conn., where he remained

1 E. J. Recorda, ii. 98.

197

THE CITY OF ELIZABETH.

until his death, which occurred June 7, 1699, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

REV. SETH FLETCHER -. The second minister of the town was the Rev. Seth Fletcher. After the removal of Mr. Peck, at the close of 1678, there is nothing on record to show that any minister had become a per- manent resident of the town until the summer of 1680, when Mr. Fletcher was employed to preach. We condense the following sketch of Mr. Fletcher from Dr. Hatfield's "History of Elizabeth":

He was the son of Robert Fletcher, of Concord, Mass., who died April 3, 1677, aged eighty-five. Mr. Fletcher made a profession of religion at Hampton, N. H., in early life, under the preaching of the Rev. Timothy Dalton, with whom he studied for the min- istry. He married, previous to 1655, at Portsmouth, N. H., Mary, the only daughter of Maj. Bryan Pen- dleton, a man of considerable property and distinc- tion. Their only child inherited, at his grandfather's death, in 1681, the homestead at Winter Harbor, Me. As early as 1655, Mr. Fletcher became the minister of Wells, Me., but, owing mainly to the laxness of his views on the Sabbath, he was dismissed in October, 1660. From this time until the breaking out of the Indian war, in 1675, he resided at Saco, Me., supply- ing the pulpit, except for short intervals, from year to year.

Retiring with his father-in-law from the exposed frontiers, he tarried a while at Salem, Mass., where he preached occasionally for the Rev. John Higgin- son, at whose instance, in 1676, he visited the towns on the east end of Long Island. Fordham, of South- ampton, had died in 1674, and had been succeeded until 1676 by John Harriman. He had now re- turned to New Haven, and Mr. Fletcher was employed as his successor.1

Mr. Fletcher remained at Southampton about four years (1676-80), at the expiration of which time he was induced to remove and become the minister of this town, in the summer or autumn of 1680. Of his ministry here the only memorial is a letter to Mr. Increase Mather, of Boston, dated " Elizabeth Towne, March 25, 1681." It is a document of great interest, and the earliest ecclesiastical memorial of the town. It presents some facts not otherwise known :

" Rev. Sir,-You may please to call to mind that since I saw you in March (or Aprell) the year past, I wrott a Letter to you bearing date May 28, 1680, and another before that, May 10, 1680, That upon May 10 (espec- ially) being about Mr. Gershom Ifobart's 16s. 6d. which he is indebted to mee, and Mr. Trapp's Exposition from Romansto the end of the Bible (in quarto.) I never heard from you since what hath been done with it. I am now more remote and so the more to seeke cash. New York uot being such a place for the production of money as Boston is. Be pleased therefore to acquaint Mr. Bateolan at the draw bridge foote what you have done, or like to doe, ur are inclined to doe about it. I have been munch molested with Quakers here since I came. New ones comeing in one after another. Upon February last past upon the motion of two of the sect, one of which two is a schulemr to some children in the towne

1 Savage's Gen. Dict., ii. 173-74. Allen's Am. Biog Dict., Art. Stuw. Greenleaf's Sketches, p. 53. Folsom's Saco and Biddeford, pp. 130-36. Felt's New England, ii. 173, 249, 392. Mass. Records, iv. 426, 434.

(by nation a Scott, by name John Usquehart), by former profession (as fame makes known to mee) a Popish Priest. A scholler he doth profeses himselfe to be, and I find that he hath the Latine tongue. The businesse of that day was for mee to maintain an Assertion viz. That a Quaker liv- ing and dyeing as & Quaker (without repentance) must find out & oew gospell, which might aford them hope of salvation, for what God hath revealed in his holy word there was no salvation for them in their im- penitent condition. I open the terms Explicated by way of distinction of seducers and seduced and so their sins, and likewise what God ex- pected from the one and the other sort, which being done (although: there were four or five more Quakers in the throng, yet none appearing in the cause but the echoller aforesaid aod & Chirurgeon) I demanded of them what they had to say against my Explanation. Instead of speaking per- tinently the schuller (whom I understand had been at the University four or five years) begins to tell the people a story of Moses, Ezra, Habac- cuk their being Quakers. Whereupon having the people on account of the business of the day 1 proceeded to six severall Arguments by which to make good my Assertion, viz. That a Quaker living and dyeing as a Quaker (without repentance) according to what God hath revealed in his word, he could not be saved I in every argument demanded what part of the Arguments they would deny but instead of anewer there was rail- ing and threatening mee that my destruction was nigh at hand. To prove the Minor I continually produced their owne authors and several things out of their Rabbie's books, which so exceedingly gauled them that theo they set themselves to Humming, singing, reeling their heads and bodies (Antique like) whereby both to disturb mee and take off the people from attending to what I had to say for the maintaining the Assertion. Since that (I heare) I must ere long be proved to be a minister of Christ, and they have attempted to raise ss great a party at Road Island and Delle- way Bay against mee as they can. Nay more they say England and their friends there shall beare of it and in speciall Will. Penn, whom I men- tioned once and bot once and then but in my 4th argument, Namely his denyall of Christ being a distinct person without ns form his book eo- titled Counterfeit Christian p. 77. As for news about Comoioowealth affairs I saw & Proclamation of the old Governor forbideing upon Perill the graunting any obedience to those in present power, promiseing open courts shortly. The proclamation was put up here at our meeting house upon Sabbath morn March 1680-1, but before morning exercise taken down, and the day after. sent to York. What the issue will be God (in time) will discover. Sir ao further to iolarge I take leave committing you to the keeper of Israel, remaineing yours to serve you io the Lord. " I saw Mr. Abraham Person in health upon Thursday morning March 9 at his own house and the next day Mr. Allen (in health also) at my house."

Mr. Fletcher's death occurred in August, 1682. He appears to have been a man of vigorous thought, of scholarly attainments, and of much zeal for the truth, though at one time somewhat lax on the doctrine of the Sabbath. Possibly his controversies with the Quakers in these parts may have led him to enter- tain more orthodox views on that subject. He was probably nearly sixty years old at the time of his decease. The children of his son Pendleton (who died a captive among the Indians in 1698) settled in the vicinity of Wells and Saco, Me.2

REV. JOHN HARRIMAN .- From the death of Rev. Seth Fletcher in August, 1682, for about five years the town was without a settled minister. Indeed, such a dearth of ministers was there at this period that "within all the province of East Jersey there was no settled preacher except Mr. Pierson at Newark." John Allen was at Woodbridge, but had ceased to supply the pulpit. Watson in 1684 speaks of the "Deacon Meetings," so called, which were resorted to at that time, saying, " And now the people they meet together every Sabbath day, and Read and Pray and sing Psalms in their Meeting-houses."

2 E. J. Records, iv. 14. Folsom's Saco, pp. 130-36.

198

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

Rev. John Harriman was called in 1687. He was appointed on the part of Connecticut. In occupations of this kind he was probably employed for a year or two, when his steps were directed hither, possibly by Vauquellin himself. He had many old friends here, as also had the Southampton people. It is not strange, therefore, that his name should have been suggested and a desire expressed to hear him. He was installed the pastor of this church, most probably Sept. 30, a native of New Haven, and an associate in his boy- hood of many of the younger members of the Eliza- beth Town colony. He was the only son of John and Elizabeth Harriman, of New Haven, and " was trained from childhood under the eye of that rigid old Puritan, the Rev. Jobn Davenport, by whom he had been baptized. The old pastor finding him apt to learn encouraged him to seek, and his father to | 1687, as appears from the following memorandum in give him a liberal education. In his thirteenth year he came under the instruction of his townsman, Mr. Jeremiah Peck, at that time principal of the New Haven grammar school, and afterwards the first pastor at Elizabeth Town, as already noticed. At the age of fifteen young Harriman was sent to college at Cambridge, Mass., to be educated under the super- vision of the Rev. Charles Chauncey. He graduated in 1667, in the same class with Gershom Hobart, and one year in advance of Abraham Pierson, Jr., and John Prudden.

After his graduation Mr. Harriman returned to New Haven and taught the Hopkins grammar school for several years, being also occasionally employed as a preacher at New Haven, East Haven, and Wal- lingford. During the lifetime of the Rev. Mr. Street he had probably preached for him occasionally at New Haven, and at his death, April 22, 1674, he was frequently called upon to supply the vacant pulpit. In the latter part of that year, or the early part of the next, he went over to Southampton to preach as a candidate for the pulpit made vacant by the decease (1674) of the Rev. Robert Fordham. He accepted a call from the town, and was put in possession of the parsonage " upon terms ye towne and he hath agreed on," April 12, 1675. Early in 1676 he returned to New Haven, and in July of that year became the stated supply of the pulpit in his native town, He continued there until 1682, preaching most of the time; but the people were divided between him and Mr. Joseph Taylor, who preached a part of the time from 1676 to 1679, and was then settled at South- ampton.

In 1682, Mr. Harriman received a call to East Haven. The next year they resolved to build a house for the minister, for which they subscribed one hun- dred and four pounds and ten shillings, besides the salary of fifty pounds a year which they agreed to pay him, but the parsonage was not built, and he re- mained with them but a short time longer.

In October, 1684, he was associated with Robert Vauquellin in running the boundary line between New York and Connecticut, having been appointed surveyor for this purpose by the General Court at Hartford, May 8, 1684. It is probable, therefore, that he had been previously employed, and perhaps for years, occasionally as a practical surveyor. Vau- quellin had long been so employed in East Jersey, and it is not likely that in an affair of so much im- portance any but the most skillful surveyor would be

his ledger, under date of Nov. 1, 1694 : " we Reckoned & my 7th year payd weh ended 7 br 30th last pceeding this date." All his reckonings with his parishioners are from the same date. Governor Laurie lived a few days only after his coming. The Quaker rule had ceased a year before, and the Scotch were now in power. Lord Campbell had returned home, but Hamilton, his deputy, was also Scotch, and doubtless a Presbyterian.

Mr. Harriman married, as early as 1673, Hannah, a daughter of Richard Bryan, of Milford, Conn. She was born in 1654, and her twin-sister, Mary, was mar- ried (1) to John Maltby, of New Haven, and (2) to a Mr. Howell, of Long Island, probably Edward, of Southampton. Another sister, Frances, was married to Joseph Treat, of Milford, and yet another, Sarah, married (1) Samuel Fitch, aud (2) Mungo Nisbett, whose name appears in his old ledger. Mr. Bryan, as his father had been before him, was the richest man in Milford. Six children had been born to Mr. Har- riman when he came, in his fortieth year, to this town. John was his eldest son (born 1674), and, like his father, became eminent as a land surveyor. Sam- uel was born June 25, 1676 ; Ann, July 5, 1678 ; Mary, in 1680; Leonard, in 1683; and Richard, in 1685. Three sons were born to him here. His family having increased since his settlement, and his salary being only sixty pounds a year, he applied in 1692 to the proprietors for a grant of land, in consideration, also, of his having "expended large sums in purchasing and improving." He received a grant of one hun- dred acres.1

He was evidently a man of great exactness, a trait of character greatly promoted by his occasional prac- tice of the art of surveying. Soon after his entering on the pastoral work here he opened an account with every one of the subscribers to his support, noting carefully the amount of the subscription and the times of payment, specifying by whom and to whom, in many cases, the sum was paid, whether in cash or otherwise, whether in merchandise or services ren- dered. These accounts were kept in two books, the first covering the period from 1687 to 1693, the second from 1694 to 1705. The first of these books is lost, the second is preserved, having been presented to Rev. John McDowell, some sixty years since, by Mr.

1 Savage, i. 281-82; ii. 358. Bacon's New Haven, pp. 158-60, 310. Howell's Sonthampton, pp. 104-5, 132. Whitehead's E. J., p. 168. E. J. Records. Dodd's E. Haven Register, pp. 60-61. N. Y. Col. Docmts., iv. 630-32.

199

THE CITY OF ELIZABETH.

William Harriman, the grandson of the old pastor. Several particulars of much interest, illustrative of the town history, have been gathered from this ven- erable and well-preserved folio. A list of subscribers to his support in the year 1694 is here given, in the order in which their accounts are entered :

£ s. d.

John Nuee .. ...

3 0

William Strabern

6 0

0 Willian Oliver. 5 0

Sanınel Oliver. 6 0

William Oliver, Jr ..

Joshua Clarke 0

John Osborne.

Richard Baker. 0

Derrick Baker.

Henry Harrise

6 0

The number of the names is ninety-nine, not in- cluding Widow Mary Hatfield, mentioned with her son Cornelius, and Widow Mary Thompson, with her son John. Of the three sons of Mrs. Hatfield, Cor- nelius subscribed ten shillings, Abraham ten shil- lings, and Isaac fifteen shillings.

At the town-meeting held Jan. 18, 1697, the follow- ing additional subscribers were enrolled :

£ s. d.

Samuel Sayer.

0 6 0

John Erskin ...

Samuel Whitehead .. 0

Benjamin Bond ..

Francis Sayer ... 0

3 0

William Parent

6 0

John Boardman ....

Samnel Millar

The following were added (all but the last two) at the town-meeting March 11, 1701 :

£ . s. d.

Jobo Alling ...

0 6 0

Isaac Bunnell.

0 15 0

Thomas Clarke. 0

Jonathan Hinds .. 0

Capt. Daniel Price.

15 0

John Price ...

0 Joseph Ogden 6

Sanınel Wood ..

Ephraim Clarke.

Samuel Clarke.

John Winans ...

Widow Mary Bond

Joseph Whitehead

10 =

Richard Clarke.

10 0

Nathaniel Whitehead.

Thomas Lee ...

10 0

Jeoffrey Jones

10 (

Mr. Joseph Wilson.

Samuel Trotter.

5 0

Joseph Meaker

Nicholas Baker.

10 0

Abraham Baker

Obadiah Sales.

15 0

John Ross ..

0 10 0

John Meaker

Veal, 112 to 2d. Ib.

Whale oil, 28. 10d. jer.

Beef, do. do. du.

Raccoon skins, 18. 6d. each.

Pork, 21/2 to 3d. "

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 49

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