USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 17
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Christopher Leamyeng (Leaming), pro- genitor of Aaron Leaming before mention- ed, about 1760 came from England to Long Island, where he married Esther Burnet. In 1691 he located in Cape May, New Jer- sey, and there took up land. His son Aaron embraced the faith of the Friends, acquired considerable property, and became a man of position and influence, serving as justice of the peace, clerk and assemblyman. He mar- ried Lydia Shaw.
Aaron Leaming (2d), eldest of the four children of Aaron Leaming ( Ist). was born in 1715. He became one of the most im- portant figures of liis day. While he was a prime factor in all the efforts attending the development of his particular region, he is principally remembered for his mon- umental work as an annalist and compila- tor, as hereinbefore narrated. He died Au- gust 28, 1780, in the sixty-ninth year of his
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age. Upon the monument over his grave in the old family burying ground in Middle township, Cape May county, was chiseled the following inscription :
Beneath this stone here lies a name That once had titles, honor, wealth and fame. How loved, how honored, now avails thee not, To whom related, or by whom begot; A heap of dust remains alone of thee; 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.
It is reasonable to infer that this verse was from his own pen, moved by his own innate modesty and entire freedom from personal vanity. Certain it is that his eminently useful and distinguished service in behalf of the people and State would not permit one who had known him to inscribe sentiments so far inferior to the tribute he well deserved. For of him Dr. Maurice Beesley truthfully wrote: "No man ever received greater honors from the county, and none, perhaps, better deserved them."
Jacob Spicer (2d), the colleague of Leam- ing, was a son of Jacob Spicer (Ist), who came about 1691 from Gravesend, Long Island, to Cape May; he was of Puritan parentage. He was liberally educated, be- came a busy man of affairs, and for twenty years a member of the Assembly. He was scrupulously methodical in noting all his financial transactions, and his journals are a marvel of minute information-a pen pic- ture of the daily life of the people about him. His labors as an annalist and com- pilator, in association with his friend Leam- ing, have been already noted. He was twice married; first to Judith Hughes, and after her death to Deborah Hand Leaming, widow of Christopher Leaming. In his will he displayed the same extreme carefulness which marked his everyday life, and the long document of thirty-nine manuscript pages, carefully penned, is noteworthy as the most elaborate and voluminous testa- mentary document ever recorded in the State. In this he made liberal bequests to all the various religious bodies in the neigh- borhood, and it also contained his com-
plaint that he had been unjustly treated, vilely defamed, and grossly abused by the populace. This lengthy paper he directed should be read in public in the Baptist meet- ing house ; and he also provided that a ser- monlike address should be printed in pam- phlet form and distributed. Upon his tomb- stone was inscribed :
If aught that's good and great could save, Spicer had never seen the grave.
The reproach in which Spicer was held by some of the people, as referred to in his will, was presumably based upon some of his land transactions. For more than sixty years the Coxe lands had been marketed through an agent of the West Jersey So- ciety, and these had been exhausted, save what were known as vacant lands with "natural privileges" in the adjacent sounds and bays. Leaming and Spicer were both desirious of possessing these vacant lands, and they were rivals in their efforts, no matter how cordially they had been allied together in public affairs, but Spicer drove a successful bargain, and became the own- er. Concerning this transaction Dr. Bees- ley says :
It has been handed down that Spicer obtained the grant for the proprietary right in Cape May, of Dr. Johnson, agent of the society at Perth Amboy, at a time when the influence of the wine bottle had usurped the place of reason; or he could not have obtained it for so inconsiderable a sum as three hundred pounds; and that the Doctor, sensible that he had betrayed the trust reposed in him, left the society at his death a thousand pounds as a salvo.
COLLINS, Isaac,
Founder of First New Jersey Newspaper.
This very useful man was born in Dela - ware, February 16, 1746, son of an Eng- lishman who had come to this country. Having served an apprenticeship to a print- er, he worked for a time as journeyman in Philadelphia. In 1770 he located in Bur- lington, New Jersey, being appointed col-
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onial printer under the crown, and the next year began the publication of an almanac, which he continued for many years. On December 5, 1777, he began the publication of a newspaper, the first in New Jersey, es- tablished to counteract the influence of the "New York Royal Gazette," published by Rivington. Subsequently he removed to Trenton, and continued the "Trenton Ga- zette" (except during a five months suspen- sion in 1783), until November, 1786, when he discontinued it. He was not only pub- lisher but actual editor, and his journal held a commanding influence, through his own editorial utterances and the correspond- ence of Governor Livingston, which con- tinued as long as the paper was in existence. So important was it to the patriot cause, that in 1777 the Legislature exempted his workmen from militia service. He was an early and staunch defender of the liberty of the press, and under circumstances which stamp his conduct as wonderfully courage- ous, considering the times. Being called upon by the Legislative Council to divulge the name of a writer who had contributed an article which was held by that body to be offensive, Collins replied, "in any other case not incompatible with my conscience or the good of my country, I shall be happy to oblige you."
Collins was also an industrious book pub- lisher. Among the most important works from his press were Sewel's "History of the Quakers," of nearly a thousand pages, of which he issued two thousand copies : and Ramsey's "History of South Carolina," in two volumes, and his "New Testament." His latest and greatest undertaking and most monumental work, however. was his octavo "Family Bible," of nearly a thou- sand pages, followed by "Ostervald's Prac- tical Observations," of under two hundred pages, the latter being furnished to special subscribers only. His undertaking was deemed so problematical that remarkable efforts were made for its encouragement- a resolution of recommendation was pro-
cured from Congress, and, on solicitation, similar action was taken by the Synods of New York and New Jersey and by the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian church. The work of printing was conducted with the most conscientious care. It was proof read eleven different times, the last revision being by Collins' daughter, Rebecca. An edition of five thousand came from the press in 1791, and so free from errors that "it became at once the standard for all critical appeal, when the English translation alone was concerned."
Meanwhile Collins was an indefatigable laborer and influential leader in the largest of community affairs. He was among the prime movers in the organization of the Trenton School Company, and the establish- ment of its academy, and his public spirit was manifested in his refusing to take ad- vantage of his privileges as a stockholder by accepting free tuition for his nine chil- dren who were there educated. In 1796 he removed to New York, but returned in 1808 to Burlington, where he died, March 21, 1817. He married Rachel Budd, a grand- daughter of Mahlon Stacy, and they reared a most remarkable family. Of their four- teen children, all lived to upwards of fifty years except one who died in infancy. All, like their parents, were Friends in religion. The eldest daughter became the wife ot Stephen Grellet, a Quaker minister and missionary, formerly a Roman Catholic, and a member of the bodyguard of Louis XVI. of France. The sons all followed in their father's footsteps, as printers and publish- ers. In 1848 the descendants of Isaac Col- lins printed for private distribution a mod- est but exhaustive narrative of his exceed- ingly useful career.
COXE, Daniel,
Early Jurist and Statesman.
A man of immaculate character, a jurist of more than ordinary ability, and a charac- ter altogether admirable, it has been said of
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Judge Daniel Coxe that "had his labors ceased here, he would have deserved the grateful remembrance of those of New Jer- sey who are now reaping the benefit of his good works;" and adds, "it may be said he has laid the whole American nation under obligations of gratitude to him, for it was he who first formulated the scheme of con- federation which, a full half century later, was, in but a slightly modified formi, used to bind together the United States."
He was born in 1664, probably in Bur- lington, New Jersey, a son of Dr. Daniel Coxe, of London, England, the greatest col- onial proprietor of West Jersey. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and displayed such a proficiency in his profession that Governor Robert Hunter appointed him to the Provincial Council, and in 1734 he was made an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
His most enduring work was outside his profession, and was characterized by re- markable foresight, placing him far in ad- vance of the peers of his day. He publish- ed in London, in 1722, a volume entitled, "A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisane, with a large and curious preface, demonstrating the right of the English to that country, and the unjust manner of the French usurping it. their prodigious increase there, etc., and the inevitable danger our other colonies on the
. continent will be exposed to if not timely prevented" in the "curious preface" (as he terms it), he suggests a remedy :
"The only expedient I can at present think of or shall presume to mention (with the utmost deference to His Majesty and His Ministers) to help and obviate these absurdities and inconven- iences, and apply a remedy to them, is that all the colonies appertaining to the crown of Great Britain on the northern continent of America, be united under a legal, regular and firm establish- ment, over which it is proposed a lieutenant or supreme governor may be constituted and ap- pointed to preside on the spot, to whom the gov- ernors of each colony shall be subordinate. It is
further humbly proposed that two deputies shall be annually elected by the council and assembly of each province, who are to be in the nature of a great council of general convention of the estates of the colonies; and by the order, con- sent or approbation of the lieutenant or gover- nor-general. shall meet together, consult and ad- vise for the good of the whole, settle and ap- point particular quotas or proportions of monies, men, provisions, etc., that each respective gov- erament is to raise for their mutual defense and safety, as well as, if necessary, for offence an invasion of their enemies; in all which cases the governor-general or lieutenant is to have a nega- tive; but not- to enact anything without their concurrence, or that of a majority of them. The quota or proportion as above allotted and charged on each colony, may nevertheless be levied and raised by its own assembly in such manner as they shall judge most easy and convenient and the circumstances of their affairs will permit. A coalition or Union (italicized by editor) of this nature, tempered with and grounded on prudence, moderation and justice, and a gener- ous encouragement given to the labor, industry and good management of all sorts and conditions of persons inhabiting or any ways concerned or interested in the several colonies above men- tioned, will in all probability lay a sure and last- ing foundation of dominion, strength and trade, sufficient not only to secure and promote the prosperity of the plantations, but to revive and greatly increase the late flourishing state and con- dition of Great Britain, and thereby render it once more the envy and admiration of its neigh- bors. . . . So, if the English colonies in Amer- ica were consolidated as one body, and joined in one common interest, as they are under one Gracious Sovereign, and with united forces were ready and willing to act in concert and assist each other, they would be better enabled to provide for and defend themselves against any trouble- some neighbor or bold invader. For union and concord increase and establish strength and pow- er, whilst division and discord have the con- trary effects."
Grahame, in his "Colonial History," says : "In this plan we behold the germ of that more celebrated though less original project which was again ineffectually recommended by an American statesman in 1754, and which not many years after was actually embraced by his countrymen. But the more proper verdict upon the great part played by Judge Coxe in forwarding the cause of
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a compact government, is that expressed by Chief Justice Field, in his "Provincial Courts of New Jersey :"
"It was in fact the very plan which was recom- mended by Dr. Franklin to the convention at Al- bany in 1754, for the purpose of forming a league with the Six Nations, and concerting measures for united operations against the en- croachments of the French. This plan of Dr. Franklin's has been much talked of as 'the Al- bany Plan of Union;' figures largely in all our histories, and is thought to have been one of those grand and original conceptions for which he was so famous. And yet it was little more than a transcript of the design sketched by Daniel Coxe, many years before, and which would seem to have originated with him. To him, therefore, a citizen of New Jersey, belongs the credit of it, and the truth of history requires that from him it should no longer be witliheld."
Judge Coxe died April 25, 1739. It is curious to note that Judge Coxe, in common with the best informed men of his day, was as innocent with respect of geographicat knowledge as he was well equipped in phil- osophy. In his volume, to which reference is made above, he claimed that there was "an easy communication between the Mis- sissippi river and the South Sea, which lay between America and China, by means of several large rivers and lakes, with the ex- ception of about a half-day's land car- riage." His work received much attention in Great Britain, and, as was the intention. attracted many emigrants to America.
WINDS, William,
Revolutionary Soldier.
Of General William Winds it was said by an early biographer. that his wealth as a land holder and his natural force of char- acter gave him great influence in the com- munity ; besides, he was so chivalric in his bravery, so decided in his views, and withal there was in him such a blending of courage with great physical powers, that his fellow- citizens naturally turned to him in times when ordinary gifts were insufficient to
meet the emergencies which were constantly arising.
Born in 1727 or 1728, in Southhold, Long Island, he came to New Jersey in his youth, and bought a part of the Burroughs land on Pigeon Hill, Morris county. After improv- ing it somewhat, he found his title defective, and disposed of such right as he had, then purchasing a tract near Dover, which was his home the remainder of his life. He held a minor commission with New Jersey troops raised for the French war, and an incident of the movement toward Canada gave him high place in the popular esteem. The commander showing timidity in the face of the enemy, Winds reproached him, assumed the command, and brought away his men with credit. In 1758 he was com- missioned lieutenant under the crown, of a New Jersey battalion. During his early service his conduct towards prisoners taken was so humane, that many came home with him, and become permanent residents of New Jersey, among them one Cubbey, to whom he gave a home lot, and who was his servant many years. He was made a jus- tice of the peace under the king, but not- withstanding the position he occupied, which would seem to compel his acquiescence in the British policies, he was so opposed to the stamp act that to avoid the use of stamped paper he substituted white birch bark. He joincd the Presbyterian church in Rocka- way and was liberal in its support, "al- though it must. be acknowledged that his warm imperious temper betrayed him into some extravagances scarcely consistent with his profession. Yet at times he led in prayer ; his voice was usually low and gentle until he began to plcad for the cause of American freedom, when his voice be- came explosive, and his utterance was stentorophonic."
His Revolutionary service begins with his being commissioncd licutenant-colonel of the First New Jersey Battalion, by Con- gress, November 7, 1775, he having been elected thereto at its organization the pre-
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vious October 28. He set to work vigor- ously to purchase arms for his command. During the Assembly and Governor Frank- lin imbroglio he was in command of a small body of troops at Perth Amboy, under Lord Stirling. In 1776, in January, he scoured Staten Island and several Long Is- land villages in search of Tories. March 7, of the same year, he was made colonel, the commission being accompanied by a flattering letter from John Hancock, and he marched his regiment toward Canada, reaching the town of Sorel. In November he left Ticonderoga, and joined Washing- ton. March 4, 1777, he was elected brig- adier-general of New Jersey militia. Dur- ing the following summer he was stationed on the Hudson river, to aid in preventing a junction of the British forces under Bur- goyne and Clinton. In 1778 he saw active service about Elizabethtown and Hacken- sack, and afterward guarded the Passaic and other streams, attacking and defeating the enemy on various occasions. In 1779 he resigned his commission on account of some animadversions upon his conduct at Monmouth, yet did not entirely desert the cause. He is credited with soldierly be- havior in the battle of Springfield, and, on the occasion of Lafayette making an ex- pedition against New York. Winds, in com- mand of a detachment. won the praise of the general for aid given in forwarding his supply trains, and the words "His (Winds') voice vied with the tempest as he cheered and directed his men."
In 1788, General Winds was a member of the New Jersey Convention which rati- fied the constitution of the United States. He died October 12, 1789, from dropsy. He was one of the most unique characters of his day. Petulant and imperious, yet was he warm hearted; of boundless generosity to the poor and distressed. As a magistrate. lie dispensed justice in modes more con- sonant with military than with civil law, setting at naught all technicalities, and re- lying upon his own ideas of equity.
SCHUREMAN, James,
Patriot Soldier, Public Official.
The story of Senator James Schureman reads, to him whose lot has fallen upon quieter times, like a page of romance, and he is prone to turn from the perusal back to the prosaic facts of everyday experience with a feeling very like envy for the brave old times, the stirring scenes and hair- breadth adventures, there recorded. It is well to remember, however, that even the most romantic- episodes, translated into the terms of actuality, have for the actor much of the prosaic quality we dislike, that like mountains, appearing soft and blue in the distance, they often take on the most harsh and inhospitable character when close at hand, and that to poor Schureman, languish- ing in the British prison in New York and only saved from actual starvation by the pity of a stranger, the experience must have seemed bitter and sordid indeed.
Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in pre-revolutionary times, his youth fell upon those days when popular feeling was grow- ing more and more intense, preparatory to breaking out into the great flame of indig- nation which wrought such momentous changes in the history of the world. It is difficult for us to imagine how such a uni- versal wave of feeling operated upon the minds and imaginations of men, particularly in the case of ardent natures such as Schure- man's. This may well be illustrated by a story told of him on the eve of hostilities. He was, it seems, a private in a company of militia which had been formed in his neigh- borhood, and which in that crisis had been called upon to enlist. On this occasion their captain addressed them urging all to join the Continental army then in formation, but for some cause the spirit of fear pos- sessed them, and not one could be induced to volunteer, observing which, young Schureman started from the ranks and ad- dressed his fellows in such moving and im- passioned terms that a sudden reaction took
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place, the majority at once pledged them- selves for the war, and a company was formed on the spot, which was sent to Long Island, where it did effective service against the enemy. Some time later Schure- man, while near his native town, New Brunswick, was captured by a party of British soldiers and confined temporarily in the guard house near the town. Here his misfortune was mitigated somewhat by the kindly interest of Mrs. Van Deusen, who supplied him with wholesome and nutritious food instead of the usual poor fare of the patriot prisoners. At length he was trans- ferred with one George Thompson, a friend and the constant companion of his captivity, to the prison at New York. It seemed as though Providence were looking out for the welfare of the young prisoners of war, for by some means they were enabled to en- gage the sympathies of one Philip Kissack, a Tory, who supplied them with money with which to purchase food, and thus saved them from the most extreme privations, if not from starvation itself. The two were not, however, content merely to supply their immediate physical needs, but laid their plans carefully to escape. At length, though whether it was with the same Tory money is not known, they were able to purchase some liquor which they offered as a gift to their guards, whom they had already bribed to give them the freedom of the prison yard. With the liquor they mixed a quantity of laudanum and, when this had taken effect, they mined beneath the prison wall and escaped to the upper part of the city. After numerous difficulties, they managed to se- cure a small fishing boat and a single oar, with which they crossed the Hudson river and laboriously made their way to Morris- town, where they were welcomed by the members of their company.
Schureman was a man of parts, and his qualities included statesmanship as well as those of a soldier. He was member of the Continental Congress in 1786-87, and rep- resented New Jersey in the lower house of
the United States Congress in 1789-91. In 1797 the Legislature of the State sent him to the Senate, in which he held his seat for two years. He afterwards became mayor of New Brunswick, and still later was again elected to the House of Representatives, 1813-15. He died in New Brunswick, Janu- ary 23, 1824.
POOR, Gen. Enoch,
Distinguished Revolutionary Officer.
Not a native of New Jersey, General Enoch Poor has a leading place in its his- tory, by reason of his brilliant military ser- vice within its borders during the Revolu- tionary War, and his subsequent residence in Hackensack, where his memory is com- memorated by a fine monument over his grave.
He was born in Andover, Massachusetts, June 21, 1736. He was educated in his native place, thence removing to Exeter, New Hampshire, where he was in business at the time of the battle of Lexington. He was placed in command of three regiments formed under the authority of the Assem- bly, and after the British had evacuated Bos- ton he was sent with his command to New York. Later he formed part of Arnold's expedition to Canada. On the return, the patriot troops were assembled at Crown Point, which was fortified under the direc- tions of Poor, who was then a colonel. The works were soon afterward evacuated, against the strenuous protest of General John Stark, who was earnestly supported in the matter by Colonel Poor. Promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, Poor held an important command in the Saratoga cam- paign against Burgoyne. At the battle of Stillwater his brigade is credited with un- usual bravery, losing two-thirds of the en- tire American loss in killed and wounded, while at Saratoga it led the advance. Sub- sequently General Poor joined Washington in Pennsylvania, and shared the honors of the Jersey campaign and the sufferings of
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