USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 30
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ANDROS, Sir Edmund,
Colonial Governor.
Sir Edmund Andros was born on the Island of Guernsey, December 6, 1637. He was brought up as a page in the English Royal family, served during its exile in the army of Prince Henry of Nassau, and was attached to the household of the Princess Palatine, grandmother of George I. After the restoration he gained some distinction in the war against the Dutch, and in 1672. having meanwhile married an heiress, was made major of a regiment of dragoons. This was the highest promotion he had renched before he came to New York as the
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ـتالمبا
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● احكـ
SIR EDMUND ANDROS
CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY
Duke of York's lieutenant in 1674, except that the proprietors of Carolina had com- prehended him in their scheme by making him a landgrave, with an endowment of four baronies of 12,000 acres of land each, with four castles in Spain.
Andros took possession of New York when it finally fell into the hands of the English after its short reoccupation by the Dutch. He began his administration by laying claim to a part of the territory of Connecticut on behalf of the Duke of York, but it was not allowed. In King Philip's War he was charged by the New England colonists with indifference to their (langer, and it was even alleged that he al- lowed the Indians to obtain their ammuni- tion from Albany, but in August, 1676, he sent a force to Remaquis (in the present State of Maine) to build and occupy a fort, and the officer in command entered in com- munication with the neighboring Indians and procured the release of fifteen English captives. In 1680 he was found laying claim for his master, the Duke of York, to Fisher's Island, off New London Harbor, which claim was also resisted by the Con- necticut authorities. In January, 1681, An- dros went back to England and was suc- ceeded by Thomas Dongan in August. 1683. But Andros returned to America, landing at Boston on December 20, 1686, and bear- ing with him a royal commission for the government of all New England. He was now "Governor-in-Chief." to put into prac- tice, as opportunity should serve, the theory of rules by which King James II. of Eng- land became owner of all the land in New England, and might, if it pleased him, oust all the holders from property which their families had acquired at great cost and hardship, and had peaceably possessed for nearly sixty years.
Andros had received the honor of knight- hood in England, and had risen to the com- mand of a regiment in the royal army. He forthwith demanded the surrender of the Rhode Island charter, which had been giv-
en him. He also instituted at Boston the worship of the Church of England, fright - ening the sexton of the "Old South Meet- ing House" into opening the doors and ringing the bell, so that Episcopal worship was afterwards held there on Sundays and other holidays of the church, at hours when the building was not occupied by the regu- lar congregation. It was moreover charged against him that he or his officials corrupted juries, that taxes were arbitrarily imposed upon the people, and a demand made up- on the landholders that they take out new patents for tlfe ownership of their lands. Quit rents were insisted on for the confir- mation of land titles. Portions of the com- mon lands of towns were also enclosed, and given to friends of the governor. Andros browbeat his council, and exercised the same despotic government in the district of Maine, which was included in his commis- sion, as in that of Massachusetts. The New Hampshire colony and that of Rhode Island submitted with little or no resistance. He next assumed the government of Con- necticut, and the story of the non-surrender of her charter, and of its being hidden in the "Charter-Oak" at Hartford, which was long current, is now regarded as apocryphal by the best historians. His assumption con- solidated New England under one despot- ism. The Governor resumed his attacks on ancient laws and vested rights in Massa- chusetts, and when he returned to Boston speedily entered upon the business of va- cating the prior land bills. Writs of in- trusion were served on some of the most considerable of those persons who did not come forward to buy new land patents. The Governor built a fort on Fort Hill, commanding the harbor, and felt that the great features of his administration were satisfactorily settled.
It was at this time (June, 1688) that he received from James II. another commis. sion, which made him Governor of all the English possessions on the mainland of America, except Pennsylvania, Delaware,
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Maryland and Niagara. and extended the territory and dominion of New England southward, taking in New York and the Jerseys. Governor Andros at once went south to take possession. Meanwhile the Rev. Increase Mather, minister of the Sec ond Church at Boston. and president of Harvard College, having gotten away from America in disguise, was in England pre- senting colonial complaints against Andros to the King, and had been well received by James, who was then courting Dissenters, although no decided measures of relief were promised him. Meanwhile Governor Andros led an abortive military expedition into Maine, 1688, to chastise recalcitrant Indians, and by its ill success increased his unpopularity. When the news of the Prince of Orange's arrival in England to overthrow King James reached Boston (April, 1689), Andros saw such threaten ing signs in the local political atmosphere that he at once withdrew within the walls of Fort Hill. And well he might, for the colonists were now in earnest. On April 18th the townspeople assembled, deposed him from his governorship, and imprisoned him with fifty of his followers. On June 27th, Andros with several others was im- peached before a Colonial Council by the newly formed house of deputies, and was denied admission to bail. In November following, the new ministry in England sent an order to Boston for the forwarding of Andros to Great Britain. There the colonists made their charges against him, but he was not tried, the American agents singularly enough declining to sign the statement of grievances which was prepar- ed for them by their legal counsel. Andros and his fellow culprits were therefore set free.
In 1692 he was again in America, .his time as royal governor of Virginia, where for six years he had a remarkably pro ;- perous administration, encouraging manu- factures and cotton culture, and with oth- ers laying the foundation of William and
Mary College, which, next to Harvard Uni- versity, is the oldest seat of learning in the United States. Commissary Blair (1656- [743), its first president and the highest ecclesiastical officer in Virginia, became in- volved in controversy with Andros, whom he called an enemy to religion, the churchı and the college. Charges were preferred against him, and he was finally removed, but was made governor of the Island of Guernsey in 1704. This position he occu- pied for two years, and then took up his residence in London, England, where he died February 24, 1714.
MacWHORTER, Rev. Alexander,
Eminent Divine and Patriot.
Rev. Alexander MacWhorter, D. D., an eminent Presbyterian divine, was born in Newcastle county, Delaware, July 15, 1734, and graduated from the New Jersey Col- lege in 1757. His father, Hugh MacWhor- ter, was a native of Ireland.
In 1759, Rev. Alexander MacWhorter settled near Newark, New Jersey; and from 1764 to 1766 was employed by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia in a mission to North Carolina. In 1775 he was sent by Congress to the western counties of North Carolina, to persuade the numer- ous royalists of that State to adopt the pa- triot cause, and aid in resisting the growing tyranny of the mother country. Near the close of 1776 he hastened to the army en- camped on the Pennsylvania shore, oppo- site Trenton, to consult concerning the protection of New Jersey, and was pres- ent at the council of war which advised the passage of the Delaware, and the surprise of the Hessian troops. In 1778, at the so- licitation of General Knox, he accepted the chaplaincy of his artillery brigade, and en- joyed friendly relations with Washington during the few month that he held this of- fice. In 1779 he accepted a pastorate and the presidency of Charlotte Academy, in Meck- lenburg county, North Carolina; but the
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المدرجـ
then Machorter
CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY
place being captured by Cornwallis, he lost his library and furniture, and, fearing further attacks, was recalled, and finally reinstalled at Newark, New Jersey. In 1788 he was a prominent factor in the set- tlement of the confession of faith, and the formation of the constitution of the Pres- byterian church of the United States. He was for thirty-five years a trustee of the College of New Jersey; and after the burning of the college buildings in 1802, the collection of funds for a new edifice was chiefly due to his influence and personal solicitations in New England. In 1800 he published a "Century Sermon," describing the settlement and progress of the town of Newark, New Jersey, and its environs; and in 1803 a collection of sermons in two oc- tavo volumes.
His deep religious impression began to influence him strongly when sixteen years of age; and after being ordained in 1759 he was a minister of the First Presbyterian Church, with slight interruptions, for a pe- riod extending nearly over a half century. He possessed a vigorous and sound intel- lect, and was respected for the extent of his learning, and his earnest piety as a minis- ter. His wife, Mary (Cumming) Mac Whorter, was a sister of Rev. A. Cumming, of Boston, Massachusetts. In the "History of Newark," by Dr. Stearn, is found a full account of his life and labors, as patriot and pastor, through the troublous days of the struggle for independence down to the time of his decease. After a career of re- markable usefulness, and experiences of a varied and suggestive nature, he died at Newark, New Jersey, July 20, 1807.
WILLIAMSON, Isaac H.,
Distinguished Jurist, Governor.
Of this distinguished man, Elmer says in his "Reminiscences of New Jersey," that he "was one of the most thoroughbred law- yers that ever adorned the bar of New Jer- sey. His learning was almost entirely the
learning essential to a great lawyer, which of course was by no means confined to the mere technical details of the profession. He was a diligent reader of history; but during his busy professional life he did not allow his mind to be diverted by what is termed light literature, and he altogether abstained from any active participation in mere party politics. He was an able and very successful advocate, and when made Chancellor, became a great equity judge."
Mr. Williamson was born in Elizabeth- town, in 1767. He studied law with his brother, Matthias Williamson, then and for many years one of the leading lawyers of the State. In 1791 he was licensed as an attorney, in 1796 as a counsellor, and in 1804 as a sergeant-at-law. Although in early life he was numbered amongst the Federalists, he was not in sympathy with them in their violent opposition to the war against Great Britain in 1812, and this led to his entrance upon the political arena. He had attracted the admiring attention of the Democrats, who in 1815, without his know !- edge, nominated him for the Assembly, from Essex county, and his election fol- lowed. In 1817 he was elected Governor, to succeed Governor Dickerson, who was that year elected to the United States Sen- ate, and he occupied the position so use- fully and honorably that he was re- elected every year for twelve years. In 1831 and 1832 he was elected a member of the Council (now the Senate), and it was generally conceded that in the latter year, had he only consented to the use of his name, he would have succeeded the lamented Ewing as Chief Justice. In 1844 he was chosen a member of the convention called to frame a new State constitution, of which he was unanimously elected presi- dent, no other candidate being named. For some time he presided over the deliberations of that body with marked ability, but his health gave way, and he was obliged to dis- continue his attendance, and finally resigned the presidency. Shortly afterward (July
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10, 1844), he died, in Elizabethtown, at the age of seventy-seven years.
His judicial services were of conspicuous usefulness. Prior to his entering upon the duties of Chancellor and Judge of the Pre- rogative Court, these courts were of com- parative unimportance. A case of moment was occasionally prosecuted in them, but the practice was very loose, and was under- stood by very few members of the bar. Chancellor Williamson applied himself dili- gently, making himself thoroughly acquaint- ed with the practice of the English courts of equity (after which, in theory, at least, the chancery proceedings in New Jersey were modeled), and in 1822 prepared and adopted rules that greatly facilitated and simplified procedures. Through the aid of his skill and learning, and dignified by his administration of its peculiar functions, the court came to be held in high repute and from that time has continued to be a most important branch of the judiciary system of the commonwealth.
HAINES, Daniel,
Lawyer, Governor, Jurist.
Daniel Haines, was born in New York City, January 6, 1801, son of Elias Haines, a well known and successful merchant of New York, and grandson of Stephen Haines, who, with his sons, was distin- guished during the War of the Revolution for patriotic zeal and active service, and who were at one time held prisoners in New York in the "Old Sugar House."
He received his education in a private school in New York, at an academy in Elizabethtown, and at Princeton College, from which he was graduated in 1820. He studied law at Newton, with his uncle, Judge Thomas C. Ryerson ; was licensed as an attorney in 1823, as a counsellor in 1826, and was made a sergeant-at-law in 1837. In 1824 he settled at Hamburg, Sus- sex county, where he thereafter resided. Mr. Haines was active in what was known
as the "broad seal war" in 1839, being a member of the council, and one of the board of canvassers who resisted the gov- ernor in giving certificates of election to the Whig candidates. In the debates which occurred in the legislature and council he took a prominent part, and through these his ability was recognized and he was brought forward as a leader. In 1843 lie was elected Governor of the State. In that position he devoted himself particularly to advancing the cause of education and to the proposed changes in the constitution of the State, and while in office proclaimed the new constitution. He was re-elected in 1847 by a respectable majority, although the legislature was of the opposite political party.
When his gubernatorial term had ex- pired in 1851, Governor Haines returned to the practice of law. His learning and legal acumen were recognized as of the highest order, and his services were demanded in several important suits at law, notably the several Goodyear patents for vulcanizing India rubber, in which case he was asso- ciated with Daniel Webster in the defense. In 1852 he was chosen a judge of the Su- preme Court of the State, being a member er officio of the Court of Errors and Ap- peals. For several years he presided in the Newark Circuit, considered the most difficult and important in the State, and he left the bench in 1861, greatly respected by the bar. From 1870 to 1876 he was a mem- ber of several judicial commissions relat- ing to State boundaries. He was a very religious man, a member of the Presby- terian church, and for many years a ruling elder. He was one of the committee on the reunion of the branches of the churchi. North and South, and aided materially in accomplishing the result. He was also prominent as a member of the General .1 -- sembly, and of the American Bible Society. In 1845 he was appointed one of the com- missioners to select the site for the State Lunatic Asylum, established near Trenton,
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Daniel Haines
John J. Blair
CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY
New Jersey, and was a member of the first board of managers of that institution. Later he was one of the managers of the local Home for Disabled Soldiers, and a trustee of the State Reform School for ju- venile delinquents. He was greatly inter- ested in prison reform, and frequently acted on commissions appointed by the State to investigate the condition of State prisons, besides being one of the commis- sioners appointed by Governor Randoiph in 1870 to represent New Jersey in the Na- tional Prison Reform Congress, held at Cincinnati. He was vice-president of the National Prison Reform Association, and one of the committee that met in London in 1872 to organize an International Con- gress on Prison Discipline.
At the time of his death he was the old- est trustee of Princeton College. Governor Haines died in Hamburg, Sussex county, New Jersey, January 26, 1877.
BLAIR, John I.,
Ironmaster, Railroad Magnate.
The Blair family of New Jersey had its ancestral home for many centuries in the northern part of Perthshire, Scotland, where for six centuries or more it held an honored place in the annals of that country, many of its members winning a worldwide fame. Among these should be mentioned Rev. Dr. Hugh Blair, the distinguished rhetori- cian; Lieutenant Blair, R. N., after whom is named one of the best harbors in Asia ; and Rev. Robert Blair, Jr., the poet. The Blairs were zealous covenanters, and at different times members of various branches emigrated to this country, and became dis- tinguished in early American colonial his- tory as eminent divines and educationists. Among the first of these were the two brothers, Rev. Samuel and Rev. John Blair, who emigrated about 1720 and became prominently identified with the history of Presbyterian institutions in this country. Both were early trustees of the College of
New Jersey, and the Rev. Samuel Blair, after teaching a classical school at Nesh- aminy and preceding Dr. Witherspoon, serv- ing for a year as acting president of the college, became vice-president of the Col- lege of New Jersey, and the first professor or theology of Princeton Theological Sem- inary. His brother declined an election as president of the college in favor of Dr. Witherspoon. Elizabeth Blair, sister of these two, married Rev. Robert Smith, D. D., for many years the Presbyterian pas- tor at Pequea, Pennsylvania, and became the mother of Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, seventh president of Princeton College, and grandmother of Mrs. T. W. Pintard, Mrs. Thomas Callender, Mrs. D. C. Salomans, and Mrs. Joseph Cabell Breckenridge, the mother of Hon. John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, vice-president of the United States in 1856, and the defeated opponent of Lincoln in the presidential campaign of 1860.
Two cousins of the above mentioned clergymen, the sons of a Samuel Blair, and curiously enough bearing the same names, John and Samuel, also emigrated to America between 1730 and 1740, and settled in what was then Greenwich township, Sussex coun- ty, New Jersey. Samuel Blair married a daugliter of Dr. Shippen, of Philadelphia, and settled on property belonging to his wife at Scott's Mountain. His brother, John Blair, was born in 1718, and died May 20, 1798. He was a man of great force of character ; engaged in local preaching, taught school and became the owner of much land near Scott's Mountain, and of the Beaver Brook land of about 500 acres between Hope and Belvidere. He married Mary Hazlett, born about 1735, died January IS, 1819. Children so far as known: John, Samuel, Robert, James, referred to below ; William, married Rachel Brands.
James Blair, son of John and Mary (Hazlett) Blair, was born on Scott's Moun- tain, New Jersey, August 5, 1769, and died at Beaver Brook, New Jersey, August 5,
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1816. He married Rachel, daughter of John Insley, of Greenwich township, New Jersey, who was born about 1777, and died August 23, 1857, aged eighty years. Chil- dren: Samuel, Mary, William, John Ins- ley, referred to below ; Robert, James, Cath- arine, D. Bartley, Elizabeth, Jacob M.
John Insley Blair, son of James and Rachel (Insley) Blair, was born near Foul Rift, on the Delaware river, about three miles below Belvidere, New Jersey, August 22, 1802, and died December 2, 1899. Until he was eleven years of age he lived on his father's farm and attended in winter the neighboring district school. He then en- tered the store of his cousin, Judge Blair, of Hope, New Jersey, where he remained about three years learning the mercantile business, until the sudden death of his father called him back to the farm to be the main- stay of his mother. Shortly afterwards, still continuing to manage the farm, he returned to Hope and entered the store of Squire James Dewitt, where he busied himself learning the forms and proceedings of law, the method of collecting debts, compromis- ing suits, the drawing of legal papers, and familiarizing himself with a practical knowl- edge of business life. In 1819 he located at Gravel Hill (now Blairstown), New Jer- sey, where in connection with his cousin, Mr. John Blair, he established a general country store. Two years later this partner- ship was dissolved and Mr. Blair continued the business by himself. He remained here for forty years, attending closely to busi- ness and constantly extending his trade, es- tablishing branch stores at Marksboro, Paulina, Huntsville and Johnsonburg, in some of which his brothers were associated -James, Jacob M. and Robert, and his brother-in-law, Aaron H. Kelsey, as well as Mr. John M. Fair, all of them success- ful merchants, were partners.
During this long period of mercantile life Mr. Blair was constantly enlarging his business connections and unconsciously lay- ing the foundations of his future extensive
and far-reaching business life. He was largely interested in flour mills, the manu- facture of cotton, in the general produce ot the country around, and wholesaled a great many goods to other stores, and was post- master at Blairstown for many years. It is not surprising that the growing business relations of Mr. Blair to the general com- mercial world should gradually have drawn him into intimate business relations with some of the largest enterprises of the coun- try. His acquaintance with Colonel George W. Scranton and Seldon T. Scranton com- menced as early as 1833 or 1834, when he assisted these gentlemen to lease the mines at Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, which had been operated before the Revolutionary War. Circumstances made it necessary for both to remove to Slocum's Hollow (now Scranton), Pennsylvania, where on Octo- ber I, 1846, was organized the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company, of whose mills Mr. Blair was one of the pro- prietors, the others being the Scran- ton brothers, William E. Dodge, An- son G. Phelps, Roswell Sprague, L. L. Sturges, Dater and Miller, and George Buckley. From that day, when these men of strength laid the foundations of Scranton and set in operation the furnaces and the railroad mills there, until now, they have continued to be among the largest and most successful works of their kind in the coun- try. The same company bought and re- built the road from Owego to Ithaca, New York, and opened it for business on De- cember 18, 1849. In 1850 and 1851, they built the road from Scranton to Great Bend, then called the Legget's Gap railroad, which was opened for business in October, 1851, thus securing by means of their New York and Erie connection an outlet for their coal and iron. In the fall of 1852 Mr. Blair and Colonel Scranton had a conference of sev- eral days length at Scranton, during which a plan was formed to separate the Legget's Gap, or western division of their road, from the iron company, and consolidate the for-
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mer with a new company to be organized which was to construct a road to the Dela- ware river. The latter was called the Cobb's Gap railroad. At the suggestion of Mr. Blair the appropriate and characteristic des- ignation of the "Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad" was given to the consoli- dated road. Mr. Blair located and procured the right of way for the road, and the line, including the Warren road, with its Dela- ware river bridge, the Voss Gap tunnel, and a temporary track through Van Ness Gap, was opened for business May 16, 1856. The Warren road and the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western railroad now own the Morris & Essex railroad, which having been doubled tracked and improved as to the grades and curves, and almost entirely re- built by the purchasers, is doing a business such as was never dreamt of by its projec- tors. It is a part of a chain of roads nearly. seven hundred miles long, operated by one company, reaching from New York City to Lake Ontario, with branches to various points in New York and Pennsylvania, the combined capital and cost of which was probably one hundred millions of dollars, and which transports nearly four hundred millions of tons of coal every year.
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