USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the city of Trenton, New Jersey : embracing a period of nearly two hundred years, commencing in 1676, the first settlement of the town, and extending up to the present time, with official records of the population, extent of the town at different periods, its manufactories, church history, and fire department > Part 5
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On the 6th of August, 1680, the Duke of York relinquished by deed his claim of ownership to the province of West New Jersey ; at the ame time he reserved the right of government, and accordingly chose Edward Billinge as governor of that province, and Fh.lip Carteret was chosen governor of East Jersey.
The Quakers of West New Jersey, who were now the proprie- tors, had established a liberal government, and had placed
* Previous to 1752, the year commenced on the 25th of March, conse- quently the time between the Ist day of January and that day was reckoned with the former year, and was usually expressed by a double date. An instru- ment, for instance, bearing date January 15th, 1640, according to our calendar, would be expressed January 15th, 1639-40; sometimes only 1639. The day of the month by the new style may be ascertained by omitting ten days in the seventeenth century, eleven days in the eighteenth century, and twelve days in the nineteenth century. The alteration was made in England by a statute passed in 1751, to take effect in January, 1752, which authorized the omission of the eleven intermediate days of the calendar-from the 2d to the 14th of that month.
D*
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
their civil and religious liberties upon a foundation that promised to stand.
William Penn, with eleven associates, some of whom were already concerned in New Jersey, became the purchasers of Carteret's province. The deeds of lease and release (which are yet in existence), were made to the purchasers on the Ist and 2d of February, 1681-2.
The new proprietors proceeded at once to appoint a governor, and their choice for this office fell upon Robert Barclay, of Urie, in Scotland, a member of their own body.
After the London commissioners, who came over in the Kent, had laid out the town of Burlington, on the Delaware river, the Yorkshire commissioners, consisting of Joseph Helmsley, Robert Stacy, and William Emley, chose the purchase from the Assan- pink,* or Falls of the Delaware, to Ancocas or Rancocas creek.
In November of this year, two ships arrived with passengers, the "Willing Mind,"; from London, and the "Fly Boat Martha," from Hull, with one hundred and fourteen passengers, who settled on the Yorkshire tract. In 1678, on the 10th of December, the "Shield" arrived from Hull.
This was the first ship that had ever ascended the river as far as Burlington.
She moored to a tree, and the next morning after they arrived the passengers went ashore on the ice .¿ Among the emigrants who came in this vessel were Mahlon Stacy, Thomas Potts, Thomas Lambert,§ Thomas Newell, and Thomas Wood, with their families ; Godfrey Newbold, John Newbold, and Mr. Barnes, merchant, from Hull, Richard Green, and John Heyers. ||
* This creek is called in the public records, Derwent, St. Pink, Sun Pink, Assunpink, (meaning stony creek, from its gravelly bottom) and Assanpink, its present name.
+ Some of those who came in this ship settled at Burlington.
į Gordon, p. 40.
¿ Thomas Lambert purchased and settled at Lamberton, and from him the place derives its name. These three persons will figure largely in the history of Trenton. .
|| Gordon and Smith's History, p. 109.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
Mahlon Stacy took up a tract of land of eight hundred acres, lying on both sides of the Assanpink, but principally on the north side of the creek .*
Several of the first emigrants settled on the lowlands at the Falls of the Delaware.
The country in the vicinity of the Assanpink was for some time known as the Falls, or Falls of the Delaware. Mahlon Stacy, in writing to his friends in England, dates his letter from the Falls of the Delaware, in West Jersey, the 26th of the fourth month, 1680.1
He lived in a log house near the residence of Edward H. Stokes, Esq.
This year (1680) Mahlon Stacy completed his grist mill, which he built with hewn logs, on the south bank of the Assan- pink creek, in Kingsbury (now Broad) street, on the same spot where the large paper mill owned by Henry McCall, Esq., now stands. This mill was built but one and a half stories high, with a gable facing the street. Judge William Trent purchased it about the year 1690, and rebuilt it of stone, two stories high. William Trent, the first Chief Justice of New Jersey, died on the 25th of December, 1724. He was several years a member, and part of the time speaker of the house of assembly; and being a large trader at Trenton, when the place was laid out for a town, it took its name from him. He had been also speaker of the assembly of Pennsylvania, and bore the character of a gen- tleman. He died in Philadelphia.}
About the same year that Mahlon Stacy built his grist mill on the Assanpink, Mr. Thomas Ollive built and completed a grist mill on his plantation, on Rancocas creek. These two mills were the only ones which supplied the country for miles around, and for several years after were the only ones in New Jersey.
In the year 1681, a law was passed to measure the front of the river Delaware, from St. Pink to Cape May, in order to divide
* This tract lay between the old York road (now Greene street) and the Delaware river, and between State and Ferry streets, and extended into what is now Hamilton township on the south side of the creek. Lambert's purchase was south of Ferry street.
+ Smith's History, p. 114.
į Smith's History, p. 419.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
it into ten proprietaries, each proprietor to have his proportion on the front of the river, and to extend back into the woods, so as to contain sixty-four thousand acres, and each proprietary was to be divided into ten equal parts .*
At this division the first proprietary, or Yorkshire tenth, extended from the Assanpink, where it empties into the Dela- ware, west of the Warren street bridge, south to the Rancocas creek, in Burlington county, and east into the woods, so as to contain in each proprietary sixty-four thousand acres of land. At that time the main land extended nearly opposite Cox's mill, t at the mouth of the Assanpink, so as to include the Island of Sand, or Gravelly Island. And even within the memory of some of our oldest inhabitants, crops of wheat and corn have been raised on these lowlands, now covered with water.
The name of Littlewortht was given to the lands lying on the north of the Assanpink, and belonging to Mr. Stacy's purchase.
We were informed by the late Rev. Dr. Cooley that there is a map in the secretary of state's office of two lots lying east of Greene street, between Second street (now State) and the creek, "being in Littleworth."§
It is not known to how large an extent of country this term applied, but it is supposed by some persons that the settlement mentioned above was at the south end of the village of Lam- berton ; but in the absence of authentic records to substantiate the supposition, the name of Littleworth is not mentioned in any known writing which relates to property in that place. But I am inclined to the belief that if known to the inhabitants by this name at all, it took in all the lands south of Second (now State) street, north of the Assanpink creek, and east of the Delaware river, while others suppose it to have meant only the
* Leaming & Spicer, p. 436.
¿ The ruins of Cox's mill are still standing, a short distance south of the paper mill late Gaunt & Derrickson's. It was about thirty by thirty-eight feet, and built of stone.
į Smith's New Jersey.
¿ These are the only records we are able to find to substantiate the name.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
tract of country in the immediate vicinity of the Assanpink creek, west of Greene street.
The land which lay north of Mahlon Stacy's eight hundred acre tract on the Delaware, was taken up by Nathaniel Petit, and is at present part of what was known a few years back as the Rutherford estate. Adjoining this tract were the lands of Peter Fretwell, William Spencer, and Joshua Ely, now owned by E. J. C. Atterbury, Esq., (late the Dickinson estate), General Thomas Cadwallader, the children of the late Mr. John Dean, the property of Henry McCall, Esq., and formerly Robert McCall, Esq., the latter of which was part of the Rutherford estate, and the former part of the Dean property. The Dean property was purchased of Joshua Ely by Mr. John Dean, in January, 1709, and was part of Hutchinson's manor.
From the northwest corner of the Dickinson farm (or Mr. Spencer's land, now Mr. Atterbury's), on the river, commenced Thomas Hutchinson's manor, above mentioned.
The first survey of twenty-five hundred acres was in June, 1687, and the addition of twenty-five hundred acres was surveyed in 1689, when the lands were taken up. This tract extended north on the Delaware between three and four miles, and back from the river so as to include about five thousand acres; and from the northwestern boundary of Hutchinson's land on the Dela- ware, the society tract commenced, containing ten thousand acres, surveyed in May, 1699. How far the western boundary of this tract extended northerly on the river is not at present definitely known.
The Hutchinson manor-house was on the farm on which the State Lunatic Asylum now stands, formerly owned by John Titus, Esq. All these lands, with most, if not all, the other tracts, were included in what was, as early as 1699, known as the township of Hopewell, and which was bounded by the Assanpink on the south, by the line of division between East and West Jersey on the east, and by the present boundary of the township of Hopewell on the north.
At what time this tract of country received the name of Hope- well I am not informed. A part of the plantation belonging to the Dean family was deeded by Jonathan Eldredge, of Burling-
1
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
ton, to Moses Petit, of Hopewell, in the township of Nottingham, in 1695.
In 1683, the general assembly gave to Governor Jennings six hundred acres of land, above the Falls, in consideration of his necessary charges as governor, " when the lands shall have been purchased of the Indians."* This shows that at the commence- ment of the seventeenth century the country above the falls had not been purchased or settled.
Very few settlements had been made in the township at the
7 commencement of the last century, with the exception of those made on the lowlands above the Assanpink, in 1676, and which were totally destroyed by the flood in 1692, already mentioned. After this disaster the buildings which were erected in the vicinity of the Assanpink were built on the south side of the creek.
That spot of ground immediately adjoining the creek on the south was called Kingsbury, afterwards Kensington Hill; but when it became a manufacturing place 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.
There are yet standing some of the old buildings erected at the opening of the nineteenth century, among which we may mention the house at the corner of Broad and Second streets, late the property of John Pearson, deceased ; the Eagle Tavern, on the corner of Broad and Ferry streets; a stone house in Broad street, on the west side, south of Market street, belonging to George James, where Daniel Fenton at one time kept a book- store ; a frame house in the same street, nearly opposite the latter, lately owned by Miss Catherine Riley ; a stone house belonging to Mrs. Jane Kite, and now occupied as a looking- glass and picture-frame store, on the east side of Broad street, north of Market street ; a frame house nearly opposite, belonging to the German Lutheran Church, and occupied as a parsonage by Rev. George F. Gardiner, formerly belonging to the heirs of Captain Alexander Douglass, deceased, a revolutionary patriot,
* Leaming & Spicer, p. 471.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
and noted as the place where General Washington held a council of war on the evening of the 2d of January, 1777, at which time they resolved to surprise the enemy by falling on their rear; the stone house near the corner of Broad and Factory streets, late the property of Daniel Lodor, deceased, which, in the year 1850, he converted into two stores, and put in brick fronts. These buildings were erected by George Bright, a baker, in the year 1756, who, at the same time, erected a stone bake- house directly opposite his residence, which was a few years since taken down. It was located between the paper mill and the building now standing on the south of it. On the end of the bakery was a grey stone tablet, bearing the inscription, G. B., 1756. This same tablet can now be seen embedded in the wall of the large paper mill belonging to Henry McCall, Esq., about the centre of the front of the building.
Mr. Thomas Lambert settled at Lambertstown about the year 1679, and from him the place took its name.
Mr. Isaac Watson, who came from Nottingham, England, settled on the place late in the occupancy of Mr. Benjamin Van Schoick, and in 1708 built the house which is still standing. The township of Nottingham was so called from the place in England from whence Mr. Watson came. About the year 1700, the settlements were commenced by persons who bought the lands from the original proprietors, or persons who had taken up the lands ; and most of the deeds of plantations in the different parts of the township bear date from 1699 to 1710. There was considerable difficulty experienced about the title of lands. Grants of land had been made at different times to different persons, and when they were surveyed it was found that in some cases the same land had been granted to different persons. Some had purchased of those who had taken up the land, whose titles, if they had any, were obtained from the Indians.
Dr. Daniel Cox, being one of the rightful proprietors of the lands in this section of the country, Mr. Thomas Revell was appointed by the purchasers to make such arrangements with Dr. Cox as would secure them in the possession of their land, and from the following it appears that he had attended to the business to their satisfaction :
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
" August 26th, 1703. We, underwritten, having, at the date of the above, at the house of Ralph Hunt, in Maiden township, heard read the agreement made the 20th of April, 1703, between Dr. Daniel Cox, Esq., and Thomas Revell, on behalf of the purchasers of the land within Maiden and Hopewell, do hereby declare and signify our full and free assent and consent to the same.
"In testimony thereof have thereto set our hands the day and year above.
" JOSHUA ANDERSON, WILLIAM GREEN,
RALPH and SAMUEL HUNT, JOHN BURROUGHS,
JOHN BANBRIDGE, ISAAC and JOSEPH REEDER,
JONATHAN DAVIS, THEOPHILUS PHILLIPS,
ROBERT and JOHN LANNING, and others."*
Notwithstanding the care which the first settlers took to secure good titles for their lands, many of them afterwards had to buy the second time or relinquish them ; and several did give up the lands, with the improvements they had made, and settle in other parts of the country, rather than pay for them again.
:: The provincial legislature, in 1694, enacted that the inhabi- tants above the St. Pink, or Derwent (Assanpink), in the province, should belong to Burlington.t
In May, 1701, Andrew Heath and William Spencer were appointed assessors of the township of Hopewell, and Nathaniel Petit, collector. These persons lived near the Falls, except Mr. Heath, who lived on the farm now owned by Mr. Joseph B. Anderson.
From the year 1700, the settlement of the township was increased by persons from Long Island, East Jersey, and other parts. Messrs. Daniel Howell, Ebenezer Prout, Isaac Reeder, John Burroughs, Charles Clark, Richard Scudder, Robert Lan- ning, Jacob and John Reeder, William Reed, Simon Sacket, John Deane, John and Abiel Davis, Jonathan Davis, and others,
* Book of Deeds A A A, p. 8, in secretary of state's office.
+ Leaming & Spicer, p. 532.
į Leaming & Spicer, p. 583.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
settled in what is now Ewing, as appears from their deeds and family records ; and in April, 1703, Mr. John Hutchinson (only son and heir of Thomas Hutchinson, who died intestate), con- veyed a lot of land to the inhabitants of Hopewell as a place of burial. The instrument conveying the lands is as follows, and may be found on page 114, A A A, folio 105, at the secretary of state's office, Trenton :
" John Hutchinson, of Hopewell, county of Burlington, &c., to Andrew Heath, Richard Ayre, Abiel Davis, and Zebulon Haston,* of the same county, &c., hath granted to the said Andrew Heath, &c., a piece of land ; on the easterly side of the highway leading between the house of the said John Hutchinson and Andrew Heath, &c., containing two acres, in trust for the inhabitants of the said township of Hopewell and their succes- sors, inhabiting and dwelling within the said township, forever, for the public and common use and benefit of the whole town- ship, for the erecting and building a public meeting-house thereon, and also for a place of burial, and for no other use, intent, or purpose whatsoever."
This probably was the first house built for public worship in the township of Hopewell and for Trenton, and, as far as we can ascertain, the first in the state, except that of the Quakers. It was occupied by the Episcopalians until their church was built in Trenton, and occasionally for many years afterwards. A portion of the foun lation is still standing, and in it the stone which consecrates the memory of Samuel Tucker, president of the second provincial congress of New Jersey, and state treasurer, as well as that of his wife, and several prominent citizens of Trenton of that day.
* Zebulon Haston lived on the place owned by the late Amos Reeder, which was bought by Isaac Reeder in 1707, of Mr. Haston.
+ This lot has, with'n the last twenty-five years, been sold by the trustees of the Episcopal Church in Trenton to Ralph Lanning, and lies on an eminence about thirty rods northeast from his dwelling, and north of the State Lunatic Asylum.
E
CHAPTER V.
The places of public worship-Friends-Episcopalian-Presby- terian-First houses in Trenton-William Trent's purchase- Boundaries of Burlington-Creation of Hunterdon County- Mrs. Penelope Stout shipwrecked and attacked and badly wounded by the Indians-Her recovery and descendants-First Courts in Hunterdon-Where held-First Judges-Grand Juries, etc .- High Sheriff's complaint of the Jail-Trial of the Rev. John Rowland for theft, and of Rev. William Tennent for perjury.
T HE first settlements were made about the year 1676, at the Falls of the Delaware, by the Friends, and occupied both sides of the river.
Those on the New Jersey side, besides those already men- tioned on the lowlands at the mouth of the Assanpink, were on the plains, south of the Assanpink, where Messrs. Norton and Lalor's farms, and Mill Hill and Lamberton were formerly situated. Gordon in his history, quoting from Kalm, says : "Trenton is a long, narrow town, situate some distance from the Delaware, on a sandy plain."
This description certainly cannot apply to that part of Trenton north of the creek, or Trenton proper, and there is no land in the neighborhood of the city which will answer this description except that south of the Assanpink, mentioned above.
There was a burying ground on the top of the hill at the extreme southern boundary of Trenton now incorporated in the Riverview cemetery. This place of burial belonged to the Friends, and in it repose the remains of some of the first settlers of this section of country ; the author himself can trace back to several of his ancestry who repose in this ancient place of burial. At a visit to this grave-yard some years since, I found the
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
western end, next to the river, fenced in and ploughed up, while the eastern side was thrown open as a commons, and the mounds covering the remains of the ancestors of some of our own inhabi- tants were exposed to the ravages of cattle, and such mischievous persons as from time to time assemble there and desecrate the last resting place of the dead. This sacred spot has now been taken under the care of the Riverview Cemetery Company, and the graves are properly looked after and preserved, though suitable monuments have not yet, but we hope soon will be erected, to consecrate the memory of the illustrious dead who repose there. Chief Justice Henry W. Green a few years since purchased a plot of ground there for the burial of those who lost their lives in defence of their country in the recent rebellion. This ground was deeded by Mr. Green to the city, but we are grieved to say that no steps have yet been taken to have so sacred a spot properly cared for. The act was praiseworthy on the part of the donor, and no citizen of Trenton could possibly object to having the lot properly fenced and cared for. Con- gress at their last session voted Post No. 8, Grand Army of the Republic, of this city, eight condemned cannon as posts for fencing in the lot, and a few hundred dollars appropriated by common council would complete the work. When this is done, we learn Mr. Green is prepared to place a suitable monument in the lot. The lot is thirty by one hundred and thirty feet ; about fifty Union soldiers are buried there.
The place of burial first mentioned was laid out about the year 1700. In the centre of the yard is a soapstone tablet about six feet long by two feet wide, bearing date 1712, the time when the old Presbyterian Church was founded. And although that building was not erected till 1726, yet all traces of it are now entirely obliterated, while the graves of those buried in the old grave-yard still remain a relic "of the times to which the memory of man runneth not."
The tablet is completely covered with inscriptions, but it is impossible to decipher them in consequence of their having been so much defaced. I have no doubt there is much upon them which would be of great interest to our readers ; but, like many of the ancient arts, I fear they are entirely lost to us.
.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
South of this tablet, I saw another of white marble, apparently Pennsylvania marble. This stone bears a simple inscription in the following words: "In memory of John Bainbridge, who died 1732, aged seventy-five. He was a gentleman of great merit, having the confidence of the people ; he was called to fill many important offices in the colony." The name of John was spelt with "I," and in Bainbridge, the first "i" was crowded out and placed above the line.
This ground is filled with graves, the prominence of which are in a good state of preservation, nearly all of them having head and foot-stones composed of brown and gray sandstone, but the two above mentioned are the only ones containing inscriptions. I have been informed that the grounds, before they were purchased by the cemetery company, belonged to the Friends of Cross- wicks. It was probably the first, and for many years their only place of burial in this vicinity, and served the country for miles around. I have heard it asserted that this was used as a burial ground by the Friends who lived as far down the river as Bur- lington, and that their dead were brought up the Delaware in canoes ; but I can hardly credit this, as the Friends had a burial ground at Burlington as early as 1677, some twenty-three years before this ground was laid out for that purpose.
The Friends who had left England, on account of the perse- cution raised against them for their religion, sought an asylum on the peaceful shores of the Delaware, where they have, undis- turbed, enjoyed the privileges of religious, as well as civil free- dom. For many years they had no public buildings for worship, but their meetings were held in private houses.
" Governor William Penn, who, in the year 1683, issued an order for the establishment of a post-office, requested Phineas Pemberton carefully to publish the information on the meeting- house door, that is, on the door of the private house in which the Society of Friends were accustomed to meet. It was usual for Friends settled about the Falls (or Fallsington, in Bucks county), to assemble at the houses of William Yardley, James Harrison, Phineas Pemberton, William Biles, and William Beakes. For the meeting-house at the Falls was not built till 1690, nor the one at Burlington till 1696, nor the one at Bristol till 1710."*
* Friends' Miscellany, vol. vii., p. 29.
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HISTORY OF TRENTON.
The meeting-house in Trenton city was built in 1739. This date was formerly on the building, but when it was repaired, in 1838, in rough-casting it they covered the date completely over, which certainly was an error on their part, as it should have been left as a monument, to designate a period prior to the struggle for American independence.
The building is located on the corner of Hanover and Mont- gomery streets. It has been occupied for the same purpose since its erection up to the present time. The door of the entrance to this meeting-house was on the south side of it, facing Hanover street, and directly'over the door was the inscription above men- tioned.
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