USA > New Jersey > Salem County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 32
USA > New Jersey > Gloucester County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 32
USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 32
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Fenwick, from the time when Lord Berkeley con- veyed to him an interest in the province, had been making exertions to plant a colony in his domains, alidl was now about ready to embark. But he, like Byllinge, was in debt, and to secure his creditors he executed a deed, in the nature of a mortgage, dated July 17, 1675, to two of his principal creditore, John EBridge and Edmund Warner, to secure the payment of his debts. By this deed they had a right to sell lands in Fenwick's ten parts until their claims and those of the other creditor- were paid, and a list of the debts was annexed to the deed. All the lands previously sold by Fenwick were excepted in this deed.6
By what is called the Quintipartite Deed," dated July 1, 1676, a division of New Jersey between the owners was made, by a division line running from Little Egg Harbor to the Delaware River, in latitude forty-one degrees. To Sir George Carteret was as- signed all that portion of New Jersey lying to the cat:tward! of the line, and he in return quit-claimed all that position to the westward of the line to Penn, Laurie, and Lucas. Byllinge al-o joined in the deed,
1 New Jutrey Atchives, vol. i. pp. 3-8.
3 Thill , p. 200. 4 Ibid., P. 210.
& Life of Jutin Fenwick, by John Clements, pp. 21, 22.
" Ilid., ptt. 25, 2%. 7 N. J. Archives, i. pp. 205-219.
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GENERAL HISTORY.
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to show his asseut in the making of a partition by his linge's ched to Penn, Laurie, and Lucas, drew for his ten lot. Nov. 20, 21, 28, 27, 86, 47, 50, 57, 63, and 72. This transaction took place in England, and whether any map of West Jersey showing the loca- tion of the lots was ever made is nuknown. but it is probable that there was not. The drawing had refer- ence to a future actual division of the ground to be made by the surveyors. By the "Concessions and Agreements" it was directed that the land should be divided into one hundred part-, a> occasion should require. First, for expedition, it was to be divided into ten parts, and then the tenths to be divided into ten " proprieties"; and provision was also made for the election of one proprietor or freeholder for each propriety as a member of Assembly.
Fenwick, without any regular survey or allotment, claimed and held the land where he settled as his ten lots, and granted to those who purchased from him deeds for specific numbers of acres out of it. The titles held under him were thus acquired very nearly in accordance with the original intention of the Pro- prietors.
By the Concessions and Agreements, land was given to every settler, for himself and his servants, a defi- nite number of acres for each one, if they came within one, two, or three years, subject to an annual quit-rent, which was very small; these were called " head-lands."
Owing to the difficulty of getting the Proprietors together to transaet their business, they in 1678 re- solved to appoint a Proprietary Council, elected yearly from among themselves. This practice is still kept up, their meetings being held at Burlington. Owners of a thirty-second part of a hundredth have the right of voting and being elected. Only about twenty persons are now known to be Proprietors, who sever- ally own from the thirty-second part of a hundredth to several hundredths.
By the arbitration between Fenwick and Byllinge. and the subsequent convoyances, it appears that West Jersey was to be divided into one hundred parts or shares, each part constituting a full proprietary in- Dividends were declared to each Proprietor, the first one being for five thousand two hundred acres, and in all dividends for thirty-five thousand acres have been made to each share. "These dividends include much more land than is found within the been claimed, and it is not known who are entitled to them."2 terest, of which Fenwick was to have ten. Sales of a considerable number of these undivided shares were made by Penu, Laurie, and Lucas, the trustees of Byllinge, and the purchasers thereby became pro- prictors in common with them. These shares were , limits of West Jersey, but a large number have never set forth in the deeds as the ninetieth parts of ninety- hundredth parts. Sales of portions of shares and of specific quantities of land were made by the owners After the rights to head-lands ceased, and excepting lands the title to which proceed from Fenwick, and some few tracts sold by some of the Proprietors within two or three years of the first settlement, titles to land were and are now acquired as follows : The dividends made to each Proprietor entitled him to take up the quantity of land called for, or so much as he had not as yet appropriated, in any part of the province where he could find land not taken up by any other survey. Deeds for specified number of acres entitled the grantee of asy Proprietor to take of proprietary shares. The former carried with them their due proportion of proprietary rights, the latter only the property in the soil of the land granted. The original intention of the division into one hun- dred parts was to have the land run out into one hun- dred lots, and each proprietor to have a specific lot for each share he held, which he could then dispose of as he pleased. The choice of these lote was to be by casting lots for them, and in pursuance of this Fenwick, soon after the execution of his and Byl-
In the mean time war had broken out between the English and Dutch, in 1672. and a Dutch expedition had retaken New York from the English, but at the conclusion of peace in 1673 it was restored. Doubts being raised whether the former grants were not ab- rogated by the conquest by the Dutch, the king made a new grant to the Duke of York June 29, 1674. The duke delayed confirming his former grants, and through the efforts of Sir Elmund Andros, in whose commission as Governor of New York the duke had also included New Jersey. he endeavored to retain the right of government in New Jersey in himself. But finally the duke entirely relinquished his claim. and Ang. 6, 1680, he executed a new grant to Edward Byllinge, William Penn, Gauen Laurie, Nicholas Lucas, John I'dridge, and Edmund Warner (the last two the mortgagees of Fenwick, for the one-half of New Jersey as divided by the Quintipartite Deed, and which was now named West New Jersey. This grant gave the right of property in ten equal un- divided hundred parts to the use of John Elridge and Edmund Warner, and in ninety undivided hun- dred parts to Penn. Laurie, and Lucas, in trust for Byllinge, and vested all the rights of government in Byllinge alone.1
The settling of the province had meanwhile been progressing. Fenwick, in about a month after ese- cuting the conveyance by way of a mortgage to Edridge and Warner, had sailed with a number of emigrants and commenced a settlement at Salem. In the fall of 1677 the Yorkshire and London Friends commeneed their settlement at Burlington, under titles derived from Penn, Laurie, and Lucas.
1 N. J. Archive«, f. pp. 324-332.
" Elong's Remind-centers of New Jersey, appendix.
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
up the land in like manner. Upon due proof of the valley by the west-northwest side of the north branch title, the Proprietary Council issued a warrant to the 'of the river Cohanzick," and ran up the river to a surveyor-general or his deputy, directing him to sur- ' white-oak tree standing upon the brow of the hill of vey the number of acres mentioned out of any lands , the south side of a branch afterwards called the Upper not covered by other surveys. The surveyor, after Clearing Branch, and now West Branch; then along the south side of the Branch W.N.W. 800 perches to a white-oak tree; then south by cast 1236 perches to a corner; and then E.S.E. 800 perches to the beginning. The west line of the survey ran to the east of a south course about where the read now is that crosses the Shiloh turnpike at Barret's Run, and runs northward by the farms of Adam Minch, where he lived a few years ago, Lawrence Harris, and others. making the survey in such place as the person en- titled chose to have it, made a return to the sur- veyor-general, and he to the Council, and when ap. proved by them it was then recorded, This made a complete title to the specitic tract, his deed giving the owner title, and the survey specifying the particular tract. No surveys were allowed to extend to both sides of a navigable stream. For every one hundred acres called for the owner received a survey for one hundred and five, the five acres being an allowance for roads, For this reason lands for roads were taken for many years withont compensation to the owner.
The large hickory-tree, about three feet in diameter, and supposed to be at least one hundred and fifty years old, which stood in front of the upper house ou the Lawrence Harris place, and which was blown After the death of Byllinge his heirs sold all his : down in the September gale in 1876, was in the west rights, both in the land and government, to Daniel Coxe, who was one of the chief Proprietors, and he by two separate instruments, dated March 4, 169!, conveyed all his interest in the soil and government to the West Jersey Society. I line of this survey. Cornelius Mason seems to have | been ambitious to establish a manor, and retained the title to the whole tract, or if he sold any he re- served quit-rents. At his death it descended to his son, Cornelius Mason, Jr., of London, a merchant Fenwick conveyed all his interest in West Jersey, excepting thereout one hundred and fifty thousand acres, to William Penn, March 23, 1682. Although Edridge and Warner claimed that, by negleet to pay the mortgage given to them by Fenwick, all his rights dealing in hides, pelts, etc., who willed it to his cousin and heir-at-law, Joseph Mason, of Newington Butts. in the county of Surrey, and others; and they by deed dated Nov. 24, 1762, sold the same to Israel Pember- ton, a prominent member of the Society of Friends were forfeited to them, and although this claim was i in Philadelphia. This survey, having been made apparently hell good by the second grant from the ! under Fenwick's title and by John Worledge, the deputy-surveyor of the Salem Tenth, was not re- corded in the surveyor-general's office at Burlington until 1764, after Pemberton became the owner of the ! land. He then laid it before the Council of Propri- etors, who, "being satisfied that it had been made agreeably to the custom of the Salem Tenth," ap- proved it and ordered it to be recorded.
Duke of York in August, 1680, wherein he conveyed to Edridge and Warner, and not to Fenwick, the right to the ten undivided parts of West Jersey, yet Fenwick: strenuously upheld his rights, and was sup- ported therein by eminent legal counsel in London. He continued to dispose of lands during his life, and after his death, in December, 1633, hi- executors, as authorized by his will, also sold large tracts.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
SURVEYS.
BEFORE leaving England, Fenwick conveyed to Jolin Edridge, in May, 1675, ten thousand acres, and to Edmund Warner, in June, 1675, ten thousand aeres, in part payment of the money advanced by them. By virtue of the d'eed, in the nature of a mortgage, made to them by Fenwick, they also sold considerable quantities of land. Warner sold five thousand acres to John Mason, June 10, 1675, which at his death desceuded to his oldest son and heir-at-law, Cornelius Mason. He had the five thousand acres located and surveyed May 30, 1689, and gave it the name of Winchcomb Manor. This survey began "at the bound tree of Robert Hutchinson, standing in a
) Elmer's History of Cumberland County.
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As will be seen, this survey covered what are nou among the most valuable lands in the county, nearly all the Third Ward of Bridgeton and a large part of Upper Hopewell being included in its bounds.
In a few years after Fenwick's death surveys ceased to be made by surveyors authorized by the Salem an- thorities and recorded there, but all purchasers took their titles to the Council of Proprietors at Burling- ton, by whom warrants for surveys were issued, and were returned and recorded there. The Mason sur- vey having been sent to England without being re- corded, other persons laid claim to some of the land. On that part of it which is now the farm of the Cum- berland Nail and Iron Company, on the north side of Jeddy's Pond, "as early as 1697 one Jolin Garrison settled and built a house, and about 1715 built a house of cedar logs near the bridge, in which Benja- min Secley lived."1 Garrison perhaps had some claim to the land under the arrangements of Mason to es- tablish the manor. About 1735, Silas Parvin ob-
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GENERAL HISTORY.
tained possession of the land that had been occupied by Garrison, probably by purchase from him. In 1741 a suit was commenced involving the location of this survey, a jury of view was summoned, and Thomas Miles, of Penn's Neck, the leading surveyor of Salem County, resurveyed the whole Mason tract for this jury of view on Oct. 13 and 14, 1741.
By the original survey the Mason tract began at the upper corner tree of the Hutchinson survey, on the west bank of the Cohansey, and the south line of the Mason and north line of the Hutchinson survey were the same. Where the true corner was seems to have been unknown, and this jury of view fixed the corner of the Mason tract on the west side of the Co- hansey, twenty perches below the bridge over that river, from which the south line of the tract runs westward about where Oal: Street now is.
the place of going over to Richard Hancock's mill," and the north line of the tract tan west-northwest from that corner. This corner tree stood near where now is the brick building used as a machine-shop by Cox & Sons, near the foot of Hampton Street in the city of Bridgeton, and all that part of the Third Ward of Bridgeton south of that line, and the adjoining portion of Hopewell township on the west, are in- eluded within its boundaries. The south line of this survey ran westward up Island Branch Creek, as Cubby's Hollow stream was then called.
This tract was sold after his death by his two daughters and their husbands to Elias Cotting, who sold it off' in smaller tracts. Through some unex- plained error the corner of this survey, and, as a consequence, that of the Mason survey, which joined it on the north, was supposed to be farther up the river, and Cotting conveyed portions of the land
Silas l'arvin, in order to strengthen his claim, bought of Joseph Goldin, Feb. 8. 1746, forty-five acres of un- , north of the true line to purchasers, and himself located land, part of two hundred acres Goldin has . built a good-sized honse near where the line was sup- lnught of John Ogden, who owned one-eighth of a į posed to be. After the corner of the Mason tract proprietary right, which he bought from William . had been fixed at the supposed location of it, twenty Biles, of Bucks County, Pa., in 1709. Under this ' rods below the bridge, the true corner was found. thus leaving a vacancy between this and the Ma-on- Pemberton tract.
right Parvin laid a survey on the land he was in pos- session of, and set up a title in opposition to that of Mason. He built a two-story hip-roofed house ou Ebenezer Miller, who was one of the leading viti- zens of the county, residing at Greenwich, and a sur- veyor, bought of Thomas and Richard Penn, Nov. 5, 1748, five thousand acres of unlocated land. He had a survey made for him by George Trenehard, a deputy surveyor, on the same date, which covered this inter- vening land between the Hutchinson and Mason surveys, and contained four hundred and twenty this land, which stood south of Commerce Street and a little east of Atlantic, about where the back part of the hardware-store of D. Bacon & Son now is, and faced the river and the road, the latter then running ! from the foot of the bridge southwesterly, between the river and the house, up the side of the hill to Broad Street, near the present corner of Franklin Street. Parvin died in February, 1779, and the property , acres. The land included in this survey, extending claimed by him descended to his son Clarence as leir.at-law.
Pemberton, soon after he became possessed of the Mason title, began to sell off trarts to different per- sons, most of whom cleared the land and built upon it. Dr. Jonathan Elmer, in some way not now known, I tract, and Dec. 14, 1759, deeded the remaining por- but probably by conveyance from Clarence Parvin, ; tions within the built-up limits of the city to his son, came into possession of part of the Parvin claim, and Josiah Miller, under whom the titles are now held. in 1783 they made a division between them. Pem- berton brought suit against Parvin in I783, but it was dropped. Clarence Parvin died about 1788, and Pem- berton also about the same time. The land below Ireland's mill-pond was sold by Sheriff Joseph Buck, sand acres, June 13, 1687, to George Hazlewood. and bought by Jonathan Bowen.
Dr. Jonathan Elmer obtained ( probably from Jona- than Bowen) all that portion of the property in Bridge. , ing that portion of Hopewell township abont Bowen-
tou west of Franklin Street and south of Jeddy's Pond, while the present titles to the remainder are held under Bowen.
Among the earliest surveys for lands in this county was one for Robert Hutchinson, who had a survey ! laid for nine hundred and fifty aeree May 27, 1686. , ward to Bowentown. He gave to this tract the name The upper corner of it was a " white-oak on the west : ride of the Cobansey River marked with the letter FI, and standing in the hollow near the river, above
from Oal: Street to the neighborhood of Hampton Street, and running from the river westwind between five hundred and six hundred rods, is among the most valuable in the city. Miller quit-claimed to purchasers under Cotting and sold of parts of the
Robert Hutchinson originally purchased two thou- sand acres of Job Nettleship, son and heir to Viees- simus Nettleship, April 22, 1635, who bought the same of Fenwick in June, 1675. He sold one thou- This tract includes some of the best land in the county, and lay west of Hutchinson's survey, cover- town, the southerly line of the farm of John S. Holaes being the south line of this tract.
Joshua Barkstead's survey covered that portion of Hopewell township south of Hutchinson's and Hlazle- wood's surveys, and running from the Cohansey west- of Arcadia, doubtless hoping, although it might be lacking in the mountains and lovely scenery of its Grecian prototype, yet that those who should be in-
504
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
duced to locate there might find the rural delights and abounding plenty of which that name has become a synonyme.
On June 7. 1675, before leaving England, Fenwick sold to Edmund Duke and Thomas Duke six thousand acres of land, which they conveyed to Edmund Gib- bon, a merehaut, then of New York, but formerly of Benneudon, in the county of Kent, England. He had a survey made for him by Richard Hancock, who had been Fenwick's surveyor-general, Nov. 9, 1682, in two tracts. The larger one, containing four thou- sand five hundred acres, covered nearly all that por- tion of Greenwich township north of the New Jersey Southern Railroad, excepting the upper end of the town of Greenwich, and also included a small corner of Hopewell and a considerable portion of the lower end of Stow Creek township. The east line ran from between the townships of Greenwich and Hopewell. near the head of the stream on which is Sheppard's mill-pond, through Road-town, between the Baptist meeting-house and the cross-roads, to a corner from which the northerly line ran, tiist west along the north line of the farm of David Cook, and then west- southwest through about the middle of the lower part of the township of Stow Creek into the march lying on Stow Creek.
ceased, and now of his son-in-law, Edward II. she; pard. of whom a sketch is given in this war. Leonard died June 19, 1744, aged forty years, mr .: was buried at Greenwich. Nicholas engaged in Us mercantile business in the town of Greenwich. i partnership with Samuel F. Hedge, a great-grand. son of Fenwick. He built a brick house there, which still stands. After the death of his partner. a'rm: 1733, Nicholas Gibbon married his widow, Aau Hedge, and about 1740 removed to Salem, upon the property left to his wife by her father, Alexander Grant. He held the offices of sheriff of the county. surrogate, collector of the port, and colonel of the militia, and died Feb. 2, 1758, aged fifty-five year- and three months.
Dr. James Wass, a London physician, bought of Fenwick, while still in England. July 12, 1675, five Barnegat Hill, a corner in the present division line , thousand acres of land, and in 1694 it was located and surveyed for him by John Worledge, a deputy surveyor, and was resurveyed Oet. 15-18, 1705, by Joshua Barkstead. This survey covered a large por- tion of the upper part of Stow Creek township, and that portion of Ihopewell west of the Masoa survey and north of the farm lately belonging to the e-tate of Elisha Bonham, deceased, on the road leading from where the old Seventh - Day Baptist mocting- ! house at Shiloh stood, in a southerly direction to the Bridgeton and Roadstown road, the southeast corner
The smaller tract, containing fifteen hundred acres, was laid out opposite to this one, on the west side of ; of that farm on the south side of the northwest Stow Creek, in Salem County. Owing to disputes with branch of the Cohansey ( Barrett's Run), being the southeast corner of the survey. Two thousand two hundred acres of this survey, covering the present site of the village of Shiloh, Wass conveyed. Nov. 21, 1705, to Robert Ayres, late of Rhode Island, gen- tleman, one of the early Baptist settlers, the most of whose descendants adhered to that branch of the Baptist denomination which keeps the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. The titles to that por- tion of the survey are held under Ayres. The re- it, July 26, 1700, to Fraueis Gibbon. Francis, by his . maining portion was disposed of in smaller tracts. adjoining owners the traet was resurveyed by Richard Tindall, who succeeded Hancock as surveyor general for Fenwick and his executors, on March 29, 1886, and again on May 8, 1703, by Benjamin Arton, who was the principal surveyor in Salem County after the death of Tindall, in December, 1697, or January, 1698. 'Edmund Gibbon, by his will, Jeft this property to his brother George for his life, and then to Ed- mund Gibbon, younger son of George, who conveyed will, dated Det. 3, 1727, gave it to his kinsmen, Leon- ard Gibbon and his brother, Nicholas Gibbon, wheel-
wright, both of Gravesend, in Kent, sons of Arthur . Fenwick in 1679. It was laid off to him on the south
John Brick bought of Samuel Deeming, of Mary- land, one thousand acres of land, which he bought of side of Gravelly Run (Stow Creek), covering the land where is now the village of Jericho and the sur- rounding country. He put up the dam and erected the mills long known as Brick's mills. afterwards John S. Wood's, and now the Jericho Mills.
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Gibbon, describing it as " all that tract of land called Mount Gibbon, upon the branches of an unknown creek (Stow Creek) near Cohansey, in the province of West New Jersey, in America, to them and their heirs forever ; provided they go and settle upon it. If they do not in three years then to revert to Francis On the east of the Cohansey the West New Jersey Society, as the association of the Proprietors was called, had a ten thousand acre survey run out by John Worledge and John Budd, but the retur! being lost, it was resurveyed in October and Novem- ber, 1716, and found to contain cleven thousand acres. This was called the society's Pamphilin tract. It began at a pine-tree " on the east side of Cohansey River, in the bottom of a little Cove of Marsh, on the Gibbon, my executor, and his heirs forever." Leon- ard and Nicholas both settled on the tract, and built the mill on Newport Creek known as Secley's mill, which remained in the possession of the family until November, 1850, when Isaac MI. Smalley became its owner. They made a division of the tract between them, Oct. 2, 1790. Leonard took the upper part, ou which he built a stone house on the north side of the mill-pond in Stow Creek township. It is still stand- ; South side of a Neck of Land made by the said ing, and was late the residence of Asa R. Horner, de- . Marsh, the River, and the Creek called Fuller's
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505
GENERAL HISTORY.
'rock, near two Miles below Cohan-es Bridge." and ran vast thirteen hundred and four perches, then north thirteen hundred and eighty-four perches, and then west fifteen hundred and thirty perches, to the Co- hansey, and then down the river to the beginning. This beginning-point is near where Pamphilia Spring is, in the cove below Rocap's Run, as Tuller's Creek i- now called. The upper line crosses the Deerfield turnpike above Cornwall's Branch, and crosses the Centreville road near Carll's Corner. It included in its bounds the whole of the Second Ward of the city of Bridgeton, all of the First Ward except the ex- treme eastern end, and a portion of Fairfield and Deerfield townships.
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