USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 15
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CRANE, Jasper,
Founder of an Important Family.
Jasper Crane, the first of his name so far as we know to set foot in the new world, was born probably about 1605, somewhere near Bradley Plain, Hampshire, England, died in Newark, New Jersey, in 1681. His aunt was Margaret Crane who married Samuel Huntington, whose child, Jasper's cousin, Margaret Huntington, married, May 2, 1592, John, son of Edward and Margaret (Wilson) Ogden, and whose daughter, Elizabeth Huntington, Margaret's sister. married Richard Ogden, the brother of John Ogden, who married Margaret, and the father of John Ogden, the emigrant to Southhampton and Elizabethtown. Jas- per Crane's own daughter, Hannah, mar- ried Thomas, son of Margaret and Simon Huntington, a brother of Samuel and Mar- garet (Crane) Huntington.
June 4, 1639, Jasper Crane, who was one of the original settlers of the New Haven colony, was present at the meeting held in Mr. Newman's barn, and signed the first agreement of all the free planters. He took the oath of fidelity at the organization of the government, together with Campfield, Pennington, Governor Eaton, and others; . and in 1644 he was "freed from watching and trayning in his own person because of his weakness, but to find some one for his turn." With Robert Treat he was a mem- ber of the general court, and for many years he was a magistrate. In 1651 he was in- terested in a bog ore furance at East Ha- ven ; and in 1652 he removed to Branford, where he was elected a magistrate in 1658, having held the office of deputy for some years previous to that date.
A tradition with regard to Jasper is that he came to Massachusetts Bay in the ship "Arabella," with Governor Winthrop. Whether he came from parents occupying high or middle stations in life can hardly be determined by the records. He was as- suredly one of the staunch and active men
among the first settlers of the New Haven colony as well as one of the fathers of the new settlement in New Jersey. With Cap- tain Robert Treat, he seems to have had a large share of the weight of responsibility of that young colony upon his shoulders, and its success greatly at heart. It is said that he did not go with the first company to "Milford," as the new "town upon Passaick river," was at first called; but he did sign the first articles of "fundamental agree- ment" in 1665, his name being the first among the list of signers, not only to the articles agreed upon October 30, 1666, be- tween the Branford and Milford companies of settlers, but also January 20, 1667, on the list of signers and church members of the first church at Newark, where he be- came one of the most influential and prom- inent men, second only to Robert Treat and Sergeant John Ward. Jasper Crane and Robert Treat were the first two magis- trates of the town.
It is said, and is most probably true, that the cause of Jasper Crane's coming to New- ark was his dissatisfaction at the New Ha- ven colony's becoming united with the Con- necticut colony, but his governoring incen- tive most likely was that which animated the majority of the settlers, namely, the de- sire to hold and practice their own relig- ious opinions in peace and the wish to es- cape swearing allegiance to the English crown, now that Charles II. had been re- stored. Jasper Crane was a surveyor and a merchant, as well as a magistrate, and with Mr. Myles he laid out most of the New Haven town plot, located grants, es- tablished division lines, and settled disputed titles. He is also said to have been the steward of the Rev. John Davenport's prop- erty in 1639. In March, 1641, he received for himself a grant of one hundred acres of land in the East Meadows. He was one of the New Haven company concerned in the settlement of the Delaware river in 1642, who were so roughly handled by the Dutch. In 1643 his estate was voted at
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¿480, with three persons in his family, him- self; his wife, and his son; John. In 1644- 45 he received a grant of sixteen acres of upland situated in East Haven, upon which he built a house and in which his son Joseph was born. It was also while residing at this place that he engaged in trade as a mer- chant; but not being satisfied with the lo- cation, he sold it, September 7, 1652, and became one of the first planters of Bran- ford, Connecticut, which was just then be- ing instituted as a new settlement by fam- ilies from Wethersfield under the leadership of Mr. Swaine, and a number of other fam- ilies from Southampton, Long Island, the flock of the Rev. Abraham Pierson.
In 1667 the first church of Newark was founded and a building erected. The sec- ond meeting house was built about 1714 or 1716; while the third was erected between 1787 and 1791. The people of Bloomfield, Orange and Montclair communed with the Newark church until about 1716. In fact, for considerably more than a hundred years after the founding of Newark, the crest of the First Mountain was the western bound- ary of the town, and until the year 1806 the town of Newark was divided into three wards: Newark ward, Orange ward, and Bloomfield ward. In 1806 Orange became a separate town, and six years later Bloom- field ward became the town of Bloomfield This part of Newark took in the territory from the Passaic on the east to the crest of the First Mountain on the West, and as this section was so thoroughly occupied by the descendants of Jasper Crane it was at
a very early date called Cranetown. Jasper Crane was also one of the purchasers of the "Kingsland Farms," an immense estate near Newark, now known as Belleville. The exact date when Jasper Crane took leave of Branford has not yet been definitely fixed. In the spring of 1666 the people of Bran- ford, becoming dissatisfied with respect to the union of the New Haven and the Con- necticut colonies, more particularly because
the right of suffrage was to be granted to the inhabitants who were not members of the church, resolved at once to remove to New Jersey, as their agents, who had been sent thither, had come back, bringing most favorable reports of the new country. In October, after adopting a code of laws for their own government, the Rev. Abraham11 Pierson, with a portion of his congregation, left Branford for their future home, New- ark, New Jersey. Apparently Jasper Crane was not one of their contingent; because although he was one of the twenty-three original signers of the first contract in 1665, he was still active in the public affairs of Branford, and held the office of assistant magistrate during the years 1666-67. Janu- ary 30, 1667, however, he headed the list of signers to a new covenant, and disposing of his property at Branford he that year took up his permanent home at Newark and became very prominent in all the transac- tions of the town, especially during the first fourteen years of its growth and de- velopment. He was the first president of the town court, and for several years the first on the list of the deputies to the gen- eral assembly of New Jersey. At the draw- ing of the home lots, February 6, 1667, Jas- per Crane's lot was number 49, while num- ber 40 fell to Deliverance Crane, and num- ber 62, to John Crane, these two being Jas- per's eldest sons.
At the town meeting of Newark, held January, 1668, Jasper Crane and Robert Treat were chosen magistrates for the year ensuing, and also deputies of burgesses for the same year to the general assembly. From January, 1668, until his death Jasper Crane was now with Sergeant John Ward, the first citizen of the town, as Robert Treat, who was among other things the first recorder or town clerk for Newark, returned in 1671 to Connecticut, where la- ter on he became for several years the gov- vernor of that colony. May 20, 1668, Jas- per Crane was one of the committee who signed the agreement fixing the dividing
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line between the town of Newark and Eliz- abethtown. July 28, 1669, together with Robert Treat, he was chosen by the town to take the first opportunity "to go to 'York' to advise with Colonel Lovelace concerning our standing. Whether we are designed to be a part of the Duke's Colony or not, and about the neck, and liberty of purchas- ing lands up the river, that the town would petition for." In January, 1669, he was re- elected magistrate for the town and deputy for the general assembly "if there shall be any." He and Robert Treat were chosen the same year as the moderators of the town meetings for the year ensuing; and January 2, 1670, they were once more chos- en as magistrates and deputies, Jasper Crane serving annually in that capacity un- til 1674. At the town meeting of February 20, 1670, it was voted that the governor be requested to confirm Jasper Crane and Rob- ert Treat as magistrates or justices of the peace. The same honors were conferred in 1671, and in addition it was voted, Janu- ary 22, of that same year, that "every man should bring his half bushel to Henry Lyon & Joseph Waters and have it tried and seal- ed when made fit with Mr. Crane's which for the present is the standard." Dur- ing 1672 Jasper Crane was one of the com- mittee to see to the burning of the woods ; and May 13, 1672, he and Lieutenant Swaine were chosen representatives of the town to consult with other "representatives of the country to order Matters for the safety of the Country." June 17, 1672, he was once again chosen magistrate and also elected "President of the Quarterly Court to be held in Newark to begin September next;" while the following February 28, it was granted that "Mr. Crane having Liquors for Six Shillings a Gallon and One Shilling and Six Pence a Quart, they pay- ing Wheat for it hath Liberty to sell Liquors in the Town till the Country Order alter it." In the one hundred acre grant of lands drawn for by lot, May 26, 1773. Jasper Crane drew number 10, he being
the first to draw, while Deliverance Crane drew number 32, and John Crane number 01.
July 1, 1673, "It was Voted and agree by the General and universal Consent and Vote of all our People that there should; be an Address by way of Petition sent to the Lords Proprietors of this Province int the removing of the Grievances incumbent and obtaining of what may be necessary for the Good of the Province and of this Plantation-in testimony of our Consent hereto and of our agreement ; what neces- sary Charge shall arise hereupon we will defray by way of rate proportionably to the number of those who join in the sd Peti- tion. Mr Crane Mr Bond Mr Swain Mr Kitchell and Henry Lyon are Chosen a Committee to consider with the messenger: from the other Towns about sending a Peti- tion to England." Five days later, the same committee, with the exception that John Ward, the Turner, takes the place of Mr. Swain, "are chosen to agree with Mr Del- evall about Money to send a Messenger to England; and as they did agree with him it should be paid by the Town."
August 4, 1673, Jasper Crane, Robert Bond, Lieutenant Samuel Swaine and Ser- geant John Ward were chosen deputies "to. agree with the Generals at N. Orange to have a priviledged County between the Two Rivers Passaic and Araritine or with as many as will join with us and if none wil join with us upon that account then to de- sire what may be necessary for us in our Town." The following week, August 12. Jasper Crane was again chosen magistrate. and three weeks later, September 6, 1673. he and Thomas Johnston form the commit- tee to carry the town's petition in regard to the purchasing of the "Neck" to the gener- als at Orange, and to treat with them in re- gard to terms. September 16, Thomas John- son's place on the committee was taken by Robert Bond and Sergeant John Ward. Oc- tober 13. 1673, John Ward the turner and John Catlin are chosen to go to New
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Orange to buy Kingsland's part of the "Neck" as cheap as they can and about two weeks later, October 25, "Mr Crane Mr Molyns and Mr Hopkins are chosen to see after Confirmation of the Neck and to sue for further Easment in Respect to Pay;" while "Mr John Ogden Mr Jasper Crane Mr Jacob Molynes Mr Samuel Hopkins Mr John Ward Mr Abraham Pierson, Sen- ior and Stephen Freeman are chosen to take the Pattent in their Names in the Towne's Behalf and to give Security for the Payment of the Purchase." Finally, November 17, 1673, "Captain Swain is chosen to be joined with Mr Crane to sue fir Easment in Respect of Payment for the Neck and what is else needful concerning that Matter." On June 29, 1674, the town re- solved that "there shall be a Petition sent to the Governor and Council for the obtain- ing a Confirmation of our bought and paid for Lands according to the Generals prom- ise;" and Jasper Crane and "Mr Pierson Junr were chosen to cary the petition and obtain its confirmation at New Orange."
August 10, 1674, Jasper Crane was once more chosen magistrate; but he was now becoming quite advanced in years and the important and exacting services required of him by the town must have proved a heavy tax upon his strength, for he now drops out of political office, while his sons, John, Az- ariah, and Jasper, Jr., begin to fall in and take his place. February 19, 1678, the town having discovered that many of the settlers had taken up lands contrary to a town agreement, Jasper Crane stated at the town meeting that he would lay down all lands so taken if others would do the same, and March 10, following he with Robert Dal- glish and his son Jasper Crane, Jr., was chosen to lay out Samuel Potter's lot again. So far as the public records of Newark show this was Jasper Crane's last official act. "Judging from the entries in the Newark town records, we should say that, next to Robert Treat, Jasper Crane was the most
prominent figure in the early settlement of that town." After Treat returned to Con- necticut, Jasper's name comes first in the filling by popular vote of the highest and most responsible positions of public trust in the community. The strength of his hold on the confidence of the people is clearly manifested by their returning him annually for so many years to the various positions which he held, and the continuing him therein until the infirmities of age unfitted him for further public service. The family name and traits of character were, however, appreciated, for no sooner does the name of Jasper Crane, Jr., disappear from the records of the town's proceedings than the names of three of his sons are brought into prominence, John, Azariah, and Jasper, Jr., falling heir not only to their father's public responsibilities but also to the trust and con- fidence which placed those duties on their shoulders.
August 25, 1675, there was patented to Jasper Crane in Newark one hundred and sixty-eight acres of land as follows: "a House lot 14 acres 17 acres, being his first division on Great Neck; II acres being in part for his second division on said Neck; 6 acres on said Neck ; 4 acres at the bottom of the Neck; 20 acres for second division by Two Mile Brook; 20 acres for his third division by the head of Mile Brook; 20 acres for his third division at the head of the branch of Second river; 14 acres of meadow for his first division at Great Is- land; 12 acres for his second division by the Great Pond; 14 acres for his proportion of bogs ; 5 acres of meadow near the Great Island; I acre of meadow at Beef Point ; 4 acres of meadow near Wheeler's Point, yealding one half penny lawful money of England, or in such pay as the country doth produce at merchant's price for every one of the said acres, the first payment to begin the 25th of March, which was in the year 1670." These lands were taken up and occupied some time prior to the date of the
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patents. May 1, 1675, Jasper seems to have been granted another warrant for one hun- dred and three acres in Newark.
August 24, 1670, the town made an agreement with Robert Treat and Sergeant Richard Harrison, to "build and maintain a sufficient corn-mill upon the brook called Mill Brook." They were given the sole privilege of this brook, with all the town grists and all the stone within the town lim- its suitable for millstones, all the timber that was prepared by Joseph Horton for the mill, and two days' work of every man and woman "that holds an allottment in the town," and all the lands formerly granted to Joseph Horton. They were to hold this land as their own so long as they held and maintained the mill; but they were not to dispose of the mill without the consent of the town. The town was also to give thir- ty pounds in good wheat, pork, beef, or one- fourth in good Indian corn, at such prices as would enable them to exchange it for or procure iron, millstones, or the workman's wages, etc. "Winter wheat five shillings per bushel; summer wheat 4s. 5d; pork 3d per 1b; beef 2d; Indian corn 2s. 6d per bushel." When Robert Treat was about to return to Connecticut, Jasper Crane assumed his por- tion of the contract.
Jasper Crane's descendants have been very numerous. One branch of them located westward of Newark, and about five or six miles distant from the town, and called the place of their abode Cranetown. Some of them took up their residence four miles to the southiward of Newark at and near Eliz- abethtown. And from these three points. Newark, Cranetown and Elizabethtown, the family pressed their way further west- ward, crossing the Passaic river and settling in Morris county. "They were all remarkable for frugality, honesty and piety, and were mostly Presbyterians. It has been said by one, not a member of the family. 'no more respectable people, no better citi- zens, are found in our communities than those who bear the Crane blood in them.' "
WARD, Lawrence,
Father of Four Revolutionary War Soliders
As their names indicates, the Wards owe their origin to the old vikings who made themselves masters not only of the sea but also of much of Europe. When Williani the Norman came into England he had Wards among the lists of his "noble cap- tains," and there were other Wards among the descendants of the old sea kings who fought against him at Hastings. Later on. among the banners of the stalwart Anglo- Saxon men who fought in the Crusades, not the least renowned was that of de la Warde, or de Wardes; "he beareth arms: azure, a cross patonce or, a mullet for dif- ference; crest : a saracen's head affrontée, couped below the shoulders, proper ; motto: Sub cruce salus-salvation is beneath the cross." In 1173 William de la Warde ap- pears in Chester, and from that time on his family and descendants increased in wealth and importance until eleven or twelve gen- erations later William Ward, of Dudley castle, was created the first earl of Derby. The family spread out through Stafford- shire, Warwickshire and Northampton- shire, until Robert Warde, of Hougli- ton Parva, in the last-named county, married Isabel or Sybil Stapley, of Dunchurch, county Warwick. Among their issue was a son James, who mar- ried Alice Fawkes or Faulks, and had a son Stepheu, who married Joice or Joyce Traford, of Leicestershire, and by her be- came the father of the famous Sergeant John Ward, sometimes called John Ward Sr., of Wethersfield, Branford and Newark, and progenitor of a large and illustrious branch of New Jersey men.
Tradition tells us that about the time Ste- phen Ward's widow and children emigrat- ed to New England, there came over also a brother of Stephen's and three of his first cousins, Lawrence, George and Isabel Ward. This brother is said to have been the Andrew Ward who was in Watertown
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in 1634, in Wethersfield the next year, and finally settled in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1641. The father of the three first cousins just mentioned is progenitor of that branch of the Branford-Newark Wards in which we are at present interested.
Lawrence and George Ward, ship car- penters, came to this country with their sister and took the oath of fidelity and signed the fundamental agreement of the New Haven colony in 1639. Seven years later they and their sister Isabel removed to Branford, which had been settled in 1643 by a company from Wethersfield, among whom was Sergeant John Ward, already referred to, and the congregation of Rev. Abraham Pierson, from Southampton, Long Island. About this time Isabel Ward, whose only son by her first marriage was afterwards known as John Catlin, or Catling, of Newark and Deerfield, whither he removed before 1684, married a second time, her husband being Joseph Baldwin, of Milford, whose sons were later among the emigrants to Newark, although he himself removed in 1663 to Hadley, Massachusetts. Her two brothers, especially Lawrence Ward, became active and prominent in the affairs of their new home. After the res- toration of Charles I. to the English throne, the regicides, Whalley and Goffe, were ex- cepted from the act of indemnity, escaping arrest they fled to America, where they liv- ed in retirement, hiding in New Haven and other towns of the Connecticut river val- ley. The home government made strenu- ous efforts to arrest them even here, but they were always defeated by the concealed and dissembled opposition of the colonists. At one time Mica Tompkins hid the regicides when the chase was warm, "giving them aid and comfort : his girls not aware that angels were in the basement;" and Lawrence Ward, who had been impressed by the colonial representatives of the home government to make the search at Milford, performed his task so successfully that the authorities deemed and reported that he had
made a most thorough search without find- ing them. Lawrence Ward was chosen in 1665-66 as representative of Branford town in the New Haven colonial assembly, and from that time on he becomes one of the leading spirits and dominating characters of the community, not only in Branford. but later on, when they had built thein- selves a final habitation and resting place in their new ark of refuge on the bank of the Passaic. Here Lawrence Ward became second in importance only to Robert Treat and Rev. Abraham Pierson, leaders respect- tively of the Milford and Guilford-Bran- ford contingents of the Newark colony. When he died, in 1669 or 1670, Lawrence Ward, in addition to his other public offices and posts, was the first deacon of the "church after the congregational way," which he had done so much to establish in its new home; and although he left no chil- dren, his widow Elizabeth, often referred to in the old records as "the Widow Ward," enjoyed for many years the love and respect of those whom her husband had served.
George Ward appears either to have re- mained in Branford, or, as is more probable, to have died there before the emigration. leaving sons John and Josiah, both of whom came with their uncle Lawrence to Newark, and became prominent in town affairs and progenitors of numerous gifted descen- dants. Josiah married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Samuel Swaine, who in 1668 was Newark's representative in the assem- bly of East Jersey. She is said to have been the first person on shore at the landing of the pilgrims on the Passaic; she bore her husband one son, Samuel, who married and had eight children who reached maturity and left record; and when her husband died, shortly after their arrival at Newark, she became wife of David Ogden, of Elizabethtown, through whom she became mother of another illustrious line. To John Ward, the other son of George, of Bran- ford, we shall now refer.
At this period, what is now the State of
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Connecticut, consisted of two colonies. Connecticut and New Haven, the former comprising the settlements at the mouth and on the banks of the Connecticut river, and the latter including not only New Ha- ven proper but also the towns of Milford, Branford, Guilford and Stamford, in its vicinity, and the town of Southold, Long Island. In the last mentioned colony re- publican views were greatly in the ascend- ant, and although on August 21, 1661. the towns acknowledged formally that Charles II. was "lawful King of Great Britain. France and Ireland, and all other territories thereto belonging," bitter dissensions were aroused by his restoration and great appre- hensions were felt as to the effect of that event on the future of the colony. In con- sequence of all this, some of the most prom- inent men in the New Haven colony seri- ously debated the advisability of establish -. ing a new home elsewhere more favorable to the exercise and dissemination of the civil and religious liberties they cherished : and the first to carry this design into effect was a company of men from Milford, with Robert Treat at their head, who after nego- tiations first with the Dutch authorities of New Netherlands at Albany and later with Governor Philip Carteret of New Jersey and the Indian owners, procured land, May 21, 1666, for their new settlement on tlie banks of the Passaic, at what is now the site of the city of Newark. Meanwhile the 'men of Branford, under the leadership of their pastor, Rev. Abraham Pierson, had been making negotiations with the Milford people in order to join in their undertaking, and October 30, 1666, twenty-three Bran- ford families subscribed the terms of agree- ment and came to the new settlement where, though not so numerous as the forty- one signers from Milford, their more per- fect organization as a church enabled them, the later comers, to change the name of the place from Milford to Newark, after the place where their pastor liad received his early training. By becoming one of this
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