USA > New Jersey > Salem County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 1 > Part 5
USA > New Jersey > Gloucester County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 1 > Part 5
USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 1 > Part 5
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purpose Plantagenet wrote and published ' A Descrip- tion of the Province of New Albion,' dedicating it to the officers and members of the company, the writer himself having become a member of the body."
This was written in 1648, and the resources of the province were thus described by him :
"1. Here by bringing good Labourers, and Trades- men, the provident planters may doe well by giving shares or double wages, when each man may earn his five, nay sixe shillings a day in Tobacco, Flaxe, Rice.
"9. Here the Sope and Potashes men paying i England 12d. a bushel and 4d. carriage for ashes, an 20%. a tun for Pot-ashes, may make them at a quart and lesse, and get 8s. a day's work, by cutting, rees ing, and burning whole plains of fern, Brambles, au wilde Vines, being thrice as strong as Wood-ashes.
" 10. Here a ship may goe, and return in tiv moneths laded, and comfortable, see their friend]- making two voyages a year, in a healthy ayre, fr
"2. For here the ship-carpenters ten men a day will build a tun of shipping as in England, which with masts and yards there taken is here, and there | from Enemies and Turks, and get two for one ear
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sen Van Ilpendam, the Dutch commandant, who re- sided on the Delaware at Fort Nassau. and informa- ; tion of what was passing was soon transmitted to the ' director at Fort Amsterdam. Kieft immediately ordered that two vessels should be prepared and dis- patched to the Delaware with orders to visit the Eng- lish and to reduce or disperse the colony. This order was speedily obeyed; the Dutch made an entrance upon the settlement, took possession of the goods, burned the houses, and detained a number of the people as prisoners.
moneths at the market, 100 fish here yeelds fo quintales, there scarce one, and here is fish all :
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Hace; that is, four for one, of that stock, and pro- may not be necessary, as it was never brought into actual operation, but its general character is worthy of notice. It was mild and liberal in temper.
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+ 11. Here the kinde Gentleman that in England : th not live without deep mortgages, suretyship, .am -suits and troubles, may here settle, and avoid il! stapany, and tempting occasions, and live in plenty, and variety of all sorts, hunting Deere, hawking * al, fishing, and many more sports, and sorts of garde, as with dainty fruits; and lay up his spare tents.
" In religious matters the most entire freedom was given. Some fundamental doctrines, as well as eer- tain forms, were to be settled by acts of Parliament : yet dissent was not to be punished. Indeed, all rail- ing against any one on account of religion was deemed an offence, for it was said, ' this argument or persuasion in religious ceremonies or church disci- pline should be acted in mildness, love, charity, and gentle language.' This noble sentiment, carried out as it was to have been into actual practice, gives one of the finest as well as earliest examples of religious toleration known to the world. In regard to this partienlar, full justice has not been done to the law- giver of New Albion. Williams and Calvert have been lauded, and justly lauded, as being the first to remove the shackles of religious intolerance, and
"12. Here the Soldier, and gentleman wanting em- ployment, and not hire to labor, without going to war :.. kil Christians for 5s. a week in the mouth of the waring eannon, or in a siege threatened with famine, andl pestilence: and OFTEN together against a few baked saviages, may like a devout Apostoliqued sol- dier with sword, and the world to civilize, and con- sert them to be his Majesties Lieges, and by trading with them for furs, get his ten shillings a day, and at bome intermixing sport and pleasure, with profit, ! give full liberty to the mind of man in the com- store his Parks with Elks and fallow Deer, are fit to munion it holds with its Great Creator. Williams was doubtless the first to proclaim the principle . that ride, milke or drawe, the first as big as oxen, and bringing three a year, and with five hundred Turkeys : the eivil magistrate has no right to restrain or direct in a flock got by nets, in stalling get his five shil. a ' the conseienees of men.' Calvert followed closely in lay at least."
his track. To these men let honor be given. But they have been represented as standing entirely alone until the appearance of Penn. This is not just or true. Ployden may not have advanced to the same point ; he retained the shadow of a state religion, but he offered the fullest freedom and the fullest pro- teetion to all, and gave his voice in favor of mildness,
"To excite the greater interest a sort of order of brighthood was instituted with a view to enlist per- -ons to go to the province and engage in etforts for the conversion of the natives to the Christian faith. Those who should devote themselves to this service were to be associated under the name and title of .The Albion Knights of the Conversion of the : charity, and love. Though his designs were not suc- Twenty-three Kings.' This title had reference to cessful, though the work he projected fell short of completion, yet he deserves to be ranked with the benefactors of our race, and New Albion is entitled to a higher place in the history of human progress than is often allotted to greater and more fortunate the number of Indian kings supposed to be living and ruling within the province. But all these efforts fell short of their object. The ' three thousand able and trained men' were never enlisted, and no one of the Albion Knights of the Conversion ever arrived at : States.
the field of labor, nor did the Earl Palatine himself or his coadjutor, Plantagenet, find a fit opportunity again to visit the province.
"No collision, nor, indeed, any intercourse, is known to have occurred between the authorities of New Albion and New Netherland. The attack of to no further hostilities.
"What number of persons ever resided in New ! the Dutch upon the settlement at Varcken's Kill led Albion under the Palatine's rule, or what was their condition, is but imperfectly known. A fort called Eriwoneck was erected upon the Delaware, near the mouth of the Pensankin, and this post was held Juring the greater part of the earl's sojourn by a Inall body of men. The New Haven colony was aid to consist of near fifty families, and there were also a few traders from Virginia residing at different places. These companies, together with the people on the Isle of Plowden, or Long Island, made up the population of the Palatine'- province. One of the mianors, called Watcessit, was selected as the prinei-
" After that occurrence, and the retirement of the forces that had been sent from Manhattan, Van Ilpen- dam, the commandant of Fort Nassau, continued at his post, and he was directed by Kieft to take care and preserve dominion, and to defend the honor of the high and mighty States, and of the Honorable West India Company. But however necessary this vigilance may have been to prevent the advancement of others, it was scarcely required toward the Earl Palatine, of Albion. If possessed of any ability, he was little disposed to a hostile movement in oppo- pa! residence of the earl, and this, it may be supposed, sition to the Dutch. In their late aggression the blow was the seat of authority. A plan of government had been aimed at New Haven rather than New Albion, and in addition to this the Ear! was less ap- prehensive as to the principal actors in the move- ment thau as to their accessories. He is reported to was also fully devised; as described by Plantagenet it was different in some respects from that laid down iu the patent. A partienlar notice of its provisions
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HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER, SALEM, AND CUMBERLAND COUNTIES.
have said that 'he would have no misunderstanding with the Dutch, though he was much offended with, and bore a grudge against, the Swedes.'"
In 1660 Charles Il. recovered the throne of his ancestors. Early in his reign circumstances tended to disturb the friendly relations that had subsis- ted between England and Holland. In addition to the European rivalries and jealousies, which tended to weaken the friendship between the two nations, it is believed that Charles II. for once ex- tended his vision beyond the scene of his personal gratifications, and looked with a covetous eye on that portion of the American coast between the English possessions in New England and the south that had been settled and held by the Dutch. In March, 1664, he executed to his brother. the Duke of York and Albany, a charter containing a grant of the reginu between the western bauk of the Connecticut River and the eastern shore of the Delaware. In June of the same year, and before possession had been attempted, the Duke of York conveyed the ter- ritory of New Jersey to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret by an instrument in the following form :
"This Indenture, made the three-and-twentieth day of June, in the sixteenth year of the Raigne of our Sovereign Lord Chales the Second, by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. King, Defender of the Faith, Anno Domine 1664. Between his Royal High- nesy James, Duke of York and Albany, Earl of Ulster, Lord High Ad- miral of England and Ireland, Coustable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Governor of Portsmouth, of the one part, John Lord Berkely, Baron of Strutton, and one of his majesty's most honor- able privy council, and Sir George Carteret. of Satturm, in the County of Devon, knight, and one of his majesty's most honorable privy coun- cil, of the other part, Witneseetb ; that the said James, Duke of York. for and in consideration of the sum of ten shillings of lawful money of England, to him in hand paid, by these presents doth bargiin and sell unto the said John Lord Berkely and Sir George Carteret all that tract of land adjacent to New England, and lying and being to the westward of Long Island. Bounded on the east part by the main sea and part of Hudson River, and hath upon the west Delaware Bay or River, and ex- tendeth south ward to the main ocean, as far as Cape May, at the month of Delaware Bay, and to the northward as far as the northernmost branch of said bay or river of Delaware, which is in forty-one degrees aud forty mioutes of latitude, and worketh over thence in a straight line to HIuilsoo's River, which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of NOVA CESAREA OF NEW JERSEY."
In addition to the consideration of ten shillings an annual rent of " one pepper corn" was to be paid on the day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, if legally demanded. It is said that the name New Jersey was given in compliment to Carteret, who had defended the island of Jersey against the Long Par- liament in the civil wars.
In the latter part of 1664, without any formal decla- ration of war, a small English fleet and some land forces arrived before New Amsterdam, and demanded its surrender, which Governor Stuyvesant, in conse-
necessary, for assistance : but on his arrival Fort Ca- simir was quietly surrendered, and the province cas. under the control of the English by the followir .. stipulations :
"Articles of agreement between the lononrable Sir Robert C'ar knight, on behalf of his majesty of Great Britain, and the BargoDas ters on behalf of themselves and ali the Dutch and Swedes inhalt- on Delaware Bay and Delaware River,
" 1. That all the burgesses and planters will submit themselves to b. majesty without any resistance.
"2. That whoever, or what nation soever, doth submit to his majesty anthority shall be protected in their estates, real and personal, whats ever by his majesty's laws and justice.
"3. That the present magistrates shall be continued in their office and jurisdictions to exercise their civil power as furnierly.
"4. That if any Dutchman or other person sball desire to depart fr ... this river it shall be lawful for him to do so, with his goo-is, within 4 months after the date of these articles.
"5. That the magistrates and all the inhabitants who are included a these articles shall take the oath of allegiance to his majesty.
"6. That all people shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences : church discipline as formerly.
"7. That whosoever shall take an oath is from that time a free tier zen, and shall enjoy all the privileges of trading into any of his Du esty's dominions as freely as any Englishman, and may require a certi: cate for so doing.
"8. That the schout. the burgomaster, sheriff, and other inferior maz istrates shall use and exercise their customary power in alministratie: of justice within their precipets for six months, or until his majesty. pleasure is further koown. Dated October Ist, 1664."
CHAPTER VI.
ENGLISH RÉGIME.
THE's terminated the rule of the Dutch on the Delaware. As before stated, they had done nothing to promote agricultural improvement. All their efforts had been directed towards the protection of the odious monopoly of the West India Company. These efforts had been inefficient, and a door was thu- left open for the clandestine trade of the smuggling adventurer. This trade had been so extensively car. ried on hy the settlers, that while it constituted their chief source of revenue, the profits of legitimate commerce did not pay the expenses of its proseention. When the weak government of the Dutch was sus- ceeded by the more efficient rule of the English, thi- illicit trade was more effectually prevented : and thu- was cut off the chief source of the little business tha: had animated the cheerless lives of the inhabitant -.
Acrelius says, "When the English government commenced all were summoned to New York to re- ceive deeds for the land which they had either taken up or intended to take up. A part of the inhabitants took deeds, others gave themselves no trouble about treme indolence. No agriculture, no trade was pur-
quence of the defenseless state of the place, was com- . the matter. The people lived in great quiet, but ex-
pelled to yield.
Sir Robert Carr was at once ordered to proceed to , sued, more than was necessary to supply their absolute the Delaware and bring into subjection the settlers wants." there. He was instructed to call on the Governor of On the west side of the Delaware the territory was Maryland and all other English in that vicinity, if . under the control of the Duke of York, of whom it
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tendency, and provided for the enjoyment by the people of that freedom to which they had come to consider themselves entitled. Berkeley and Carteret : probably perceived and understood this tendency, and in the fundamental law which they prescribed for their province they recognized the rights and privileges of the people to an extent that had not pre- their own countryman is not to be despised ; who, . viously been done. This fundamental law or consti- knowing their temper well, preseribed a method for keeping them in order, which is severity, and laying auch taxes on them as might not give them liberty to en- tertain any other thoughts but how to discharge them."
tution was entitled " The Concession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New Cars- area, or New Jersey, to and with all and every of the adventurers, and all such as shall settle or plant
Space will not permit a detail of the provisions of this constitution. It provided for the election by the people of a General Assembly, and on this Assein- bly alone was conferred the power of imposing taxes. The Governor and Couneil were by a prohibitory article forbidden to impose, or suffer to be imposed, any tax, custom, subsidy, tollage, assessment, or any other duty whatsoever, upon any color or pretense. Justice was administered by popular tribunals, and an almost unlimited privilege of appeal was given. Entire freedom of conscience was guaranteed to every peaceable citizen.
It has been said of this, it " was truly a constitu- tion, an unalterable, paramount law, prescribing and regulating the duties and powers of the agents of the government, whether legislative, executive, or judi- cial, whilst all the provisions of the instrument of 1776 save three are placed at the will of the Legisla- ture. What more was necessary, save the perpetuity of the laws, to assure the people all the ble-sings of political union ? No laws were in foree, save for one year, without the assent of the Lords Proprietors, But laws which did not infringe their interests would com- monly receive their assent, and, when it was refused. at the worst, the Assembly was compelled to re-enact such laws annually. It was, indeed, a singular com-
Although the first Proprietaries of New Jersey | petition which these Proprietary governments pro- were invested with such ample powers they did not duced, in which despotie sovereigns and speculative legislators were compelled by interest to vie with each other in the production of models of liberty, and in offering to their subjects the most effectual securities against arbitrary government. The eompe- tition was the noble though compulsory sacrifice to the great and divine principle that man in the ag- gregate is competent to promote his own happiness." evince a desire or design to use them improperly ; they were liberal, or sagacious, or both. There had been a long period of agitation in England, during which people had been led to investigate the true principles of civil and religions liberty, and in Amer- ica popular opinion and feeling was still further ad- vaneed. The object of some of the emigrants from the mother-country had been the fuller enjoyment of The executive power was reserved to the Proprie- taries. They sought to attract hither settlers by lib- eral offers of land, as well as by the establishment of a free and popular government. To all persons coming to the province, with a view of settling in it, allotments of land were offered, proportioned to the earliness of their immigration, and to the number of servants or slaves that they kept. They were to main- tain one able-bodied male servant for every hundred acres of land which they held, and to pay a gnit-rent of a half-penny per acre after 1670. These quit-rents eivil liberty and freedom of conscience, and although they had not in every instance carried ont the spirit of the original object, although those who termed themselves exiles for conscience' sake had sought to hold in bondage the consciences of others, and al- though the robe of the Puritan had become red with the blood of the Quaker, the general tendency was toward popular freedom. Discerning minds were able to foresee that permanence was only to be ex- pected in those governments which recognized this
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has been said he "was perhaps the weakest of the weak and unhappy family of the Stuarts." The Gov- ernors of the New York colony were the rulers here, and it is not too much to say that the people had never before been subjected to a more tyrannical government. One of these, Governor Lovelace, said, " As for the poor deluded sort, I think the advice of
The charter granted by Charles the Second to the ' there." Duke of York granted all
"The rents, revenues, and profits of the premises, and all our estate, right, title, and interest therein : and we do further graut noto the said James, the Duke of York, his h. irs, deputies, agents, commissioners, and "signs, full and absolute power and authority to correct, punish, par- don, govern, and rule all such person or persons as shall, from time to time, adventure themselves into any of the parts or places aforesaid, and to establish such laws, orders, and ordinances as may be thought necessary, so that they be not contrary to, but as near as conveniently may be agreeable to the laws, statutes, and government of the realm of England."
The grant from the Duke to Berkeley and Carteret conveyed to them all his rights and powers "in as full and ample a manner" as he had received them ; and thus, says Gordon, " even with the light which had been stricken forth by the extraordinary politi- cal coneussions of the passing century, the allegiance and obedience of freemen were made transferable, and, as if they were serfs, attached to the soil."
After the British revolution of 1688 the ministers of William the Third recognized a hereditary, but not a commercial transmission of governmental powers like these. In the case of New Jersey the evil worked its own remedy. The Proprietaries became greatly multiplied, and governmental functions came to be so inconvenient that they were gladly surrendered to the crown.
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were regarded as the private estate of the Proprietors, just censure of the civilized world for their intoler- and the public expenses were to be defrayed by gen- 1 ance and bigotry, it is probably true of the former eral contribution. These quit-rents were subsequently a source of serious difficulty.
Philip Carteret, a brother of Sir George, was ap- pointed by the Proprietaries first Governor of their province. Before his arrival circumstances arose ! which gave much embarrassment subsequently. Gov- ernor Nicolls, of the province of New York, was not aware of the grant to the Proprietaries, but supposed himself Governor of the entire territory. He took measures to promote the settlement of the colony, and some of the colonists located in New Jersey, and purchased land there from the natives, but Governor Carteret assumed the duties of his office on his ar- rival, and Governor Nicolls reluctantly surrendered the position. The titles that had been thus acquired under the authority of Governor Nicolls, conflicted to some extent, with those granted by the Proprietaries. Privileges had been granted by Nieolls different from those of the Proprietaries' grantees, and the result of the disagreements was an insurrection, which, after a time, led to the retirement of Gov- ernor Carteret. In the controversy which thus arose, : the Duke of York exhibited his characteristic weak and vacillating character.
The first legislative assembly met in 1668. and completed the work of the session in four days.
The reconquest by the Dutch of their old possessions here, and their repossession by the English, are mat- ters of history not especially important in the history of this part of the State. After the restoration of their possessions to the English some doubt arose as to whether the title of the Proprietaries was or was not destroyed by the reconquest, and to settle this doubt the Duke of York executed a new conveyauce, in almost the same terms as the first, and this was af- terward confirmed by the king. Lord Berkeley had disposed of his interest in the province, and this grant was made to Sir George Carteret alone.
During a few years there was much disturbance in the province, arising primarily from the question of jurisdiction, which the weakness and vacillation of the duke tended to perpetuate. The Governors of New Netherland sought to exercise authority, and at the same time the opposition to the payment of quit- rents was another source of serions difficulty ; what was afterwards known as East Jersey was the principal theatre of these disturbances.
Governor Carteret returned from England and re- sumed the exercise of his gubernatorial functions in 1675. Up to this time no settlement had been made in West Jersey under the Duke of York's grant
The sect of Quakers had arisen in England, and they had become the subjects of great persecution and oppression there. This is not the proper place to enter into a discussion concerning the conduct of these people, or of those who persecuted and op- pressed them. While the latter can never escape the
that a portion of them, in the early period of the ex- istence of the sect, did much by their extravagance and fanatieism to provoke the exercise of the odious spirit of intolerance which was then so prevalent. It was said of some of these people, and probably with equal truth and severity, that they rushed with frantic zeal to New England in quest of persecution at the hands of the Puritans, who had before fled from Eng- land in quest of a field for the free exercise of their intolerant spirit. The toleration of their principles was less the object of their desire than the victorious spread of them. " But there were others," say - Gra- hame,1 " of more moderate temper and more enlight- ened piety, who, willing fully to sustain the character of the primitive Christians, justly deemed this char- acter in no way inconsistent with that conduct which was expressly prescribed to the objects of their imi- tation in the divine direction that, when persecuted in one city they should flee to another. Disturbed in their religious assemblies, harassed and impover- ished by fines and imprisonments, and withal contin- ually exposed to a violent removal from their native land, as a consequence of a line of conduct which they held it their duty to pursue, they were led to meditate the advantage of a voluntary expatriation with their families and their substance, and naturally cast their eyes on that transatlantic realm which, notwithstanding the severities once inflicted on some of their brethren in some of its provinees, had aiways presented an asylum to the victims of persecution. Their regards were further directed to this quarter by the number of their fellow sectaries who were now es- tablished in several of the North American States, and the freedom, comfort, and tranquillity which they were reported there to enjoy."
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