USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the early settlement and progress of Cumberland County, New Jersey and of the currency of this and the adjoining colonies. > Part 12
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Besides the white congregations, there are two places of worship occupied by the colored persons, one at Springtown and one at Piercetown, who are supplied by circuit riders appointed by a colored presiding elder, there being, by a late arrangement, two distinct districts of colored preachers who belong to the General Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These two societies have about 80 members.
The Methodist Protestant church originated about the year 1828.
9
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Soon after they built a meeting-house at Cedarville, which, how- ever, after a few years, was sold, and belongs now to the New School Presbyterians. In 1847 a society was organized in the old school- house called " Friendship," on the road leading to Centreville ; sub- sequently a new building was put up there and it is now connected with Bridgeton, where a house was erected on Laurel Street in 1861. The members of the two number about 160. There are also small societies and places for preaching at Newport, Port Norris, Millville and Cassaboom, a few miles northeast of that place. There are about 120 members in these societies, making the whole number about 280 members.
The first African Methodist Episcopal church in this county was formed at Springtown in 1817, and the members then and for some time afterwards were commonly called Allenites, from the name of their first bishop, who resided in Philadelphia. Their first small church was burned and was replaced in 1838 by the present edifice of stone. This society has now 126 members.
At Gouldtown a society was formed in 1820, and after a few years the school-house in which they worshipped until recently, which was built originally by Presbyterians at a place about a mile and a half northeast of its present location, was presented to them and moved. The existing neat edifice was built in 1861; the number of members is 85.
A society was formed at Port Elizabeth in 1836, a meeting-house built in 1838, and there are now 19 members. The society in Backneck, Fairfield Township, was formed in 1838, built a house in 1850, and has now 12 members.
The Bridgeton society was formed in 1854, and the next year erected their meeting house in the southwestern part of the town. There are now 92 members, of which about 27 have been added recently. A society was formed at Millville in 1864, which is taking measures to erect a house, numbering now 16 members. It will be thus seen that the colored race, depressed as they are by many discouraging circumstances, have the gospel preached to them, and have about as many church members in proportion to their numbers, as the more fortunate whites.
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CURRENCY OF NEW JERSEY.
CHAPTER VI.
CURRENCY OF NEW JERSEY.
THE character and amount of the money circulating in a com- munity is always an important element in determining its true con - dition. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to ascertain what were the facts of the case a few centuries back in any part of the civi- lized world, and this difficulty is not diminished, but is greatly increased, when we inquire into the situation of a new settled coun- try. None of the historians of the American colonies seem to have given much attention to this subject, so that they afford us but little information in regard to it. All accounts, however, agree in show- ing that money was very scarce during the first century after their settlement. The money of account, as soon as the Dutch govern- ment was relinquished, was universally the same as that in Eng- land, namely, pounds, shillings, and pence. A limited amount of English coin, brought over by the immigrants, and a few Spanish and Portuguese gold coins were in circulation, but the most com- mon coins were the " pieces of eight," as the Spanish milled dollars were called, and their subdivisions into halves, quarters, and eighths. It appears by some proceedings of the Assembly of Penn- sylvania that pewter and lead coins were used for small change in 1698, and there is some reason to believe that a small leaden coin was used at a somewhat earlier period in New York. Gold and silver coins cut into parts were resorted to, and were a source of much inconvenience and loss up to the period of the Revolution, and since.
All the coins in use, it would seem, passed in the colonies at a higher rate than their actual value in England and elsewhere. They would naturally pass for something above the rate of foreign exchange which varied at different places and times. But legis- lators in those days, as well as some now, supposed that the value of coins or other money might be arbitrarily established by law. The Assembly of West Jersey, by an act passed in 1681, declared
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that old England money should advance in country pay, viz: The shilling to eighteen pence, and other English coins proportionably, and a New England shilling to fourteen pence, but they declared the next year that this act should be null and void. In 1693 the same Assembly, after reciting that it had been found very incon- venient that money in the province hath differed in value from the same coin current of our neighboring province of Pennsylvania, to prevent which inconveniency for the future, it was enacted that all pillar Mexico and "Sivil" pieces of eight, of twelve pennyweight, should pass current for six shillings; thirteen pennyweights, six shillings and two pence, and so on, advancing in nearly the same proportion up to seventeen pennyweights for seven shillings, smaller pieces in proportion ; all "dog dollars"* at six shillings. In 1686 the Assembly of East Jersey passed an act establishing the value of a piece of eight, weighing fourteen pennyweights, at six shil- lings, and other coins in that proportion, but it was repealed in less than a year. The two governments were surrendered to the crown in 1702, and the value of money, so far as a law could regulate it, was established by Queen Anne's proclamation. There is reason to believe that in 1700, or within a few years after that date, the ordinary rate of the piece of eight, weighing not less than seven- teen pennyweights, was in Boston six shillings, in New York eight shillings, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania seven shillings six- pence, and in Maryland four shillings sixpence.
This variance was much complained of by the English mer- chants, so that in 1704 Queen Anne issued a proclamation for set- tling and ascertaining the currency rates of foreign coins in the American plantations. After reciting the inconveniences occasioned by the different rates of the coin, and that the officers of the mint had laid before her a table of the value of the several foreign coins which actually pass in payment in the plantations, according to the weight and assays thereof, viz., Seville pieces of eight, old plate, seventeen pennyweights, twelve grains, four shillings and sixpence; Mexican and pillar pieces of eight, and the " old rix dollars of the empire," the same value; and various other enume- rated coins at a value stated, according to their weight and fine-
* Dog dollars were Dutch thalers, which had on them a figure intended to repre- sent a lion, but more resembling a dog, and hence were popularly called dog dollars.
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ness. She declares, by the advice of her council, that after the first of January next. no Seville, pillar, or Mexican pieces of eight, though of the full weight of seventeen pennyweights and a half, shall be passed or taken in the colonies or plantations at above the rate of six shillings per piece, and other silver coins in the same proportion. A few years later these same provisions were em- braced in an act of Parliament, but the proclamation was referred to as fixing the standard up to the Revolution.
Bills of credit were afterward issued by this standard, each de- nomination being stated to be of the value of a specified number of ounces, pennyweights, and grains of plate, six shilling bills, the equivalents of pieces of eight or dollars, being of the value of seventeen pennyweights and twelve grains of plate ; the word plate being apparently used as equivalent to coin.
When, and how pieces of eight, came to be commonly called dollars, does not distinctly appear. The name was derived from Germany, there called thaler, in Denmark daler, and early trans- lated in England, into dollar. The German reicht thaler was of the same value originally as the Spanish piece of eight reals, a real being the unit of the Spanish money of account. The Spanish and Mexican pieces of eight, the coin most in use, were probably soon spoken of as dollars. The first mention of them that has been discovered, occurs in the sixth volume of the Records of the Province of Rhode Island, where, in 1758, the pay of some troops ordered to be raised, is stated in dollars, and this designation is repeated in subsequent years. In 1763 a petition was presented to the legislature of Pennsylvania, from which it appears that a person living in Maryland had given his bond to a Philadelphia trader, for the payment of a sum of money in "Spanish dollars." There is no reason to doubt that this designation was in common use at an earlier date than these records indicate, and it is certain that in Philadelphia and elsewhere, a "Spanish milled dollar" was the standard of value until after the new coinage by the Federal government.
Several of the colonies established mints for themselves. In Massachusetts, shillings, sixpence, and threepence, were coined as early as 1652, by a reduction of weight, made to be of two pence in the shilling less value than the English coin, but expected to pass for the same. Maryland issued some silver coins in 1662, and cop- per half pennies were coined in Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey,
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besides a few penny and two penny pieces. The British Crown stopped all this coinage except that of copper.
The laws of Great Britain and the provincial acts punishing counterfeiters of coin, applied only to gold and silver coins, so that copper coins were frequently made by private individuals. One Mark Newbie was an early immigrant who settled in Gloucester County, and was a member of the Assembly and councillor in West Jersey. A law in that province, passed in 1682, provided that Mark Newbie's half pence, called Patrick's half pence, should pass for a half pence, current pay of this province. A large number of them had been coined in Ireland, and he continued the coinage in New Jersey. A report to the New York Assembly in 1787, states that various kinds of copper coins were in circulation of very different intrinsic values, viz : a few genuine British half pence, a number of Irish half pence, a very great number of very inferior and lighter half pence, called Birmingham coppers, made there, and imported in casks, and, lately introduced, a very considerable number of coppers of the kind that are made in New Jersey, many. of them below the proper weight of the Jersey coppers.
American traders, especially in the Middle States, were as much dissatisfied with Queen Anne's proclamation, as the English mer- chants were with the colonial rates. Gov. Cornbury suspended its operation in New York, and the other colonies practically disre- garded it. In fact it appeared then, as it is well known now, that no proclamation or statute can prevent the sale of coin for what it is worth for the purposes of trade, be that more or less than the legal rates. In 1708 the legislature of New York passed a law fixing the value of silver coins at eight shillings per ounce troy ; but, notwithstanding the law and proclamation, the dollar weighing seventeen and a quarter pennyweights passed for eight shillings, and with some immaterial fluctuations this remained the current rate.
Such, indeed, was the scarcity of coin that there was a great call in the colonies for the issue of paper money, the doing of which was resisted by the British Board of Trade, to which all questions relating to the currency were commonly referred by the crown. It was only on special emergencies, that the governors, who were restrained by stringent instructions, would sanction them. The first act passed in New Jersey was in 1709, and authorized the issue of bills to the amount of three thousand pounds, for his majesty's
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service, some of which remained in circulation six or eight years, but were sunk by being paid in for taxes. In 1716 an act passed for the currency of bills of credit to the amount of eleven thousand six hundred and seventy-five ounces of plate, or about four thou- sand pounds proclamation money, which were soon paid in and redeemed.
After much controversy between the Assembly and Governor Burnet, the former refusing to provide for the support of the government, unless bills of credit were allowed, an agreement was come to in 1723, by which, as the governor wrote to Lord Carteret, the Assembly "provided for ten years to come for supporting the government, in order to obtain paper money, which their necessities made inevitable." This act authorized the issuing of forty thou- sand pounds in bills of various denominations, from three pounds down to a shilling. The preamble makes a long recital of the hardships of his majesty's good subjects within this colony, and states that though they had enough of the bills of credit of the neighboring provinces, yet to pay the small taxes for the support of the government, they have been obliged to cut down and pay in their plate (including, as is believed, silver coin), ear-rings and other jewels. Four thousand pounds of these bills were directed to be paid to the Treasurers of East and West Jersey, for the re- demption of old bills of credit and other purposes. The rest were put into the hands of loan commissioners in each county, who lent the money on mortgage of real estate, and on deposits of plate, at an interest of five per cent. per annum, for periods not exceeding twelve years. The bills were made a legal tender, and heavy penalties were denounced against those refusing them on a sale of lands or goods; and a stay of execution was provided for, until the bills had been six weeks in the hands of the commissioners All the bills were to be redeemed and cancelled within twelve years.
Subsequent laws provided for other issues, amounting in all, pre- vious to the Revolution, to about six hundred thousand pounds. The last act, which was passed in 1774, was not assented to by Governor Franklin until an interval of ten years had withdrawn most of the previous issues from circulation, and not without great difficulty. The bills under this last act bore date March 26th, 1776, and constituted the principal part of the circulation of the State at the commencement of the war. Had the loan system, which had been adopted about the same time in Pennsylvania with
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signal success, been rigidly adhered to, the bills would probably have never depreciated, and would have been easily redeemed. But some of the acts authorized bills for the expense of the war with France and other exigencies, and these were only redeemable by taxes which often bore hard on the resources of the colony. Many of the laws proposed by the Assembly were refused the assent of the governor, without which no act could pass, and some that were assented to by him, the crown refused to sanction. It is said by Gordon, in his History of New Jersey, that at one time these bills were at a discount of sixteen per cent. in exchange for the bills of New York, and contracts in East Jersey were therefore commonly based on New York currency. Ebelin, a German his- torian, whose work has not been translated, states, in reference to New Jersey, "Paper money was first issued in 1709 ; it had a double value; that which circulated in East Jersey had the New York value, and in the western part of the State it was the same as in Pennsylvania. In the former, the guinea was valued at one pound fifteen shillings ; in the latter, one pound fourteen shillings. This paper money circulated in New York as well as in Pennsylvania, therefore debts could be paid with it in either province." Accord- ing to this statement, New Jersey bills passed for a higher rate in York than in Philadelphia. And this is corroborated by the cor- respondence of Gov. Morris, who also several times mentions the difficulty he had in negotiating bills of exchange on London, for want of a sufficient quantity of currency in specie or in bills to supply the ordinary necessities of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He says, bills for one hundred pounds sterling sold for sixty per cent. in 1741, which was the most he could get in Jersey money. It may be, however, that at one time the New Jersey bills were at a discount in both cities. In 1760 an act was passed authorizing the Treasurers (for until after the Revolution there were always two) to receive the taxes in money as it should pass in the western division of the colony ; and in 1769 an act was passed reciting that 347,500 pounds in bills had been struck for the use of the crown in the last war against France, and that the sum of one hun- dred and ninety thousand pounds remained due, therefore directing this amount to be levied in proportionate taxes yearly till 1783, the payment to be made in money as it now passes in the western division of the colony. As the bills were all proclamation money and receivable for taxes in all parts of the State, this provision
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must have been applicable to payments in coin, requiring them to be received at the rate of seven shillings sixpence to the dollar, and not at the rate of eight shillings.
The bills of 1709 were in the form following, viz : "This inden- ted bill of - shillings, due from the colony of New Jersey to the possessor thereof, shall be in value equal to money, and shall be accordingly accepted by the Treasurer of this colony, for the time being, in all public payments, and for any fund at any time in the Treasury. Dated New Jersey the 1st of July, 1709. Byorder of the Lieutenant-Governor, Council and General Assembly of the said Colony." They were signed by four persons named in the law, or any three of them.
The bills authorized by the act of 1723 differed from those before issued. They commenced, " This indented bill of ounces of plate due, &c." Three pounds were declared equal to eight ounces fifteen pennyweights of plate, and one shilling equal to two penny- weights twenty-two grains of plate, and others in the same propor- tion. Afterwards the form was, " This bill by law shall pass cur- rent in New Jersey for ounce pennyweights and grains of plate."
The bills issued by virtue of the act of 1774 were of the follow- ing form: " This bill of one shilling proclamation, is emitted by a law of the colony of New Jersey passed in the fourteenth year of the reign of his Majesty King George the third. Dated March 26, 1776," and were signed by any two of seven persons named.
The bills of 1780 were as follows, viz: "The possessor of this Bill shall be paid - Spanish milled dollars by the 31st day of December, 1786, with interest of like money, at the rate of five per centum per annum, &c.," and had an indorsement that the United States insured the payment.
The bills issued pursuant to the act of 1781 were of the following form : "State of New Jersey. This bill shall pass current for
agreebly to an act of the legislature of this State passed January 9, 1781.77
All the varieties were printed on coarse paper, with common type and various devices including, previous to 1780, the arms of Great Britain, and were easily counterfeited, which the penalty of death was found ineffectual to prevent.
The market price of silver in Philadelphia, which until within the last century was a more important emporium of trade and had
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more capital than New York, and, therefore, gave its law in this matter to the greater part of this State, is stated to have been per ounce from 1700 to 1739 various rates from 6s. 10d. to Ss. 9d. The full weight of a dollar, according to Queen Anne's proclamation, was 17% penny weights; but the provincial usage, finally sanctioned by law, was to reckon it at 174 pennyweights. If 17} penny- weights were worth 7s. and 6d., an ounce was worth something over Ss. 8d. Most of the dollars in circulation did not weigh more than 17 pennyweights.
Paper money was issued in Massachusetts as early as 1690; in New York and New Jersey 1709; and in Pennsylvania in 1723; but the subject was a constant source of controversy with the govern- ment in Great Britain. The lieutenant-governor of New York wrote to the Duke of New Castle in 1740, that the proclamation and act of Parliament were not enforced; paper bills are the only money circulating in New York. In 1746 Alexander and Morris wrote to the duke, that the officers of the government of New Jer- sey had been without any support or salaries to enable them to execute their offices ever since September, 1744, which they con- ceived was chiefly occasioned by the council and late governor's refusal to pass an act for making forty thousand pounds in bills of credit, which was at several times, passed by the Assembly, and often refused by the council or governor, because they conceived it would tend greatly to the destruction of the properties of the people of New Jersey and of all his Majesty's subjects, and because at that time the frauds and abuses of paper money in the planta- tions were under the consideration of the British Parliament.
In 1743, Gov. Lewis Morris, of New Jersey, wrote to Gov. Shir- ley, "Our paper bills being to be destroyed at stated times every year, and the interest to be paid in that specie every year, makes it necessary for the borrowers to have them, and if they have them not, to give an extraordinary price for them. The mercantile folks in York and Pennsylvania, and those that keep money in Jersey, have found their account in this. One effect has been that those in Y. and P. choose to be paid for what they sell rather in Jersey currency than their own; a second that the Jersey people rather choose their own currency than that of their neighbors ; and as N. Y. and Pennsylvania cannot well manage their trade without the help of Jersey, so they must have in many cases Jersey currency to its nominal value, with respect to New York, it being now
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between 12 or 13 per cent. better than that, and likely to rise higher. But with respect to gold and silver its real value is much short of its nominal value, and probably always will be so while it is in the power of merchants to put what value they think proper upon gold and silver. In a Pennsylvania Gazette of Sept. 1742, the merchants of Philadelphia, to the amount of seventy five, pub- lished at what rates they will take gold and silver, and after men- tioning at what prices they will take gold (which not being fixed by act of Parliament they may perhaps have the liberty of doing), they set the value of French crowns and Spanish milled pieces of 8, at 7s. 6d. and all good coined Spanish silver at 8s. 6d. the ounce. Tho' I believe by the merchants' private agreement amongst them- selves, they have always done the same thing since the existence of a paper currency, yet I do not remember so public an instance of defying an act of Parliament."
The amount of bills issued in Pennsylvania was never excessive. The greatest amount in actual circulation was about 1759, when it was stated to be 185,000 pounds. The early notes and indeed all that were issued up to the Revolution, maintained their credit very well, and but for the expense of the war they would have been redeemed at par. In 1753 a struggle began between the Assembly and the Governor which lasted many years. In 1775, Governor Morris, son of Lewis Morris, states in an angry mes- sage to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, "I said the act of the 6th of Queen Anne for ascertaining the rates of foreign coins in America was shamefully slighted and disregarded in this province, and I say so still. It is known to you and every one that Spanish pieces of eight, do now and for a number years have passed and been current at 7s. 6d., when that act requires that they should pass for six shillings only ; and that other coins are current nearly in the same proportion ; from whence it appears that though you call your paper bills, money according to Queen Anne's procla- mation, it is really not so, but twenty-five per cent. worse."
In 1764 the Board of Trade in London made a report to the Crown, in which they assigned six reasons for restraining the emis- sions of paper bills of credit in America, as a legal tender, one of which was that an act of Parliament restraining and regulating the practice in New England had a good effect. Dr. Franklin, who was then the agent in London for Pennsylvania and New Jersey, pub- lished a paper, entitled remarks and facts relative to the American
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