USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Old times in old Monmouth > Part 27
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Mrs. Seymour above mentioned, a na- tive of Monmouth, was the mother of Gov. Horatio Seymour, of N. Y., and a niece of Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolu- tion. Col. Ledyard above referred to, was brutally murdered by a renegade New Jer- sey refugee, named Bromfield. After the Americans had surrendered the fort, Bromfield asked who commanded it. The brave Ledyard replied, " I did but you do now," and handed his sword to Bromfield. The villain took it and immediately stabbed Ledyard to the heart.
About the time Col. Forman left for New York, many families of old Mon- mouth emigrated to the western part of that state to what they then termed "the Genesee country."
THE TILTON FAMILY.
Among the twelve original patentees of old Monmouth is found the name of John Tilton, and members of this family were among the first English settlers who loca- ted here. The earliest mention we have found of the Tilton family is in the Lynn, Mass., records which speak of John Tilton and William Tilton as being there in 1640. About the time of their arrival the Puri- tans of New England were much exercised by the advent among them of the Bap- tists and strong efforts were made by the Puritans to get rid of them. At this time in Lynn the most noted, influential per- son among the Baptists was Lady Debo- rah Moodie, afterwards long and favorably
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known among the original settlers of Long Island. 'Among others who were inclined to adhere to the Baptists with Lady Moo- die was Mrs. Tilton, as will be seen by the following extract from the Lynn records of the date of December 12th, 1642. which we give literally with its quaint wording and peculiar orthography :
The Lady Deborah Moodie, Mrs. King, and the wife of John Tilton were present- ed for hooldinge that the baptising of in- fants was noe ordinance of God."
The proceedings against them resulted in their leaving Lynn, and the next year, (1643,) we find mention of Lady Moodie, the Tiltons, William Goulding, Samuel Spicer, and others at Gravesend, Long Is- land, founding the settlement from which afterwards came many persons to Old Monmouth. For a long time, John Til ton was a prominent man at Gravesend, enjoying the respect of the English and the confidence of the Dutch authorities at New York or New Amsterdam as it was then called, and holding officia: positions until the appearance, in 1657, of the Quak- ers among the Gravesend settlers. No sooner did the Quakers begin to promul- gate their views than the Dutch authori- ties issued severe edicts against them and all who harbored "those abominable im- postors, runaways and strolling people called Quakers." The following year John Tilton was fined £12 Flemish money for harboring a Quaker woman. From that time forward both Tilton and his wife seem to have strongly sympathized with the persecuted sect and soon cast their lot among them altogether, which greatly ex- cited the ire of the Dutch and especially of old Governor Peter Stuyvesant. On the 5th of October, 1662, John Tilton and Mary his wife were summoned before the Governor and his council, at New Amster- dam, (New York,) charged with having entertained Quakers and frequenting their conventicles. They were condemned and ordered to leave the province before the 20th of November following, under pain of corporal punishment. It is supposed that through the efforts of Lady Moodie, who had great influence with Governor Stuyvesant, that the sentence was either reversed or changed to the payment of a fine. The following derived from the rec- ord of their trial is a curiosity in these days of religious toleration, especially to Jerseymen whose state has the proud dis- nction of never having allowed religious
persecution within its borders. From the record it appears that
"Goody Tilton, (Mrs. Tilton,) was not so much condemned for assisting at con- venticles as for having, like a sorceress, gone from door to door to lure and seduce the people, yea even young girls, to join the Quakers."
On the 19th of September, 1662, John Tilton was fined, as the record says, for per- mitting Quakers to quake at his house at Gravesend. Many other persons were prosecuted at this time by the Dutch on similar charges, among whom were the Bownes, Spicers, Townsends, Holmeses and others, ancestors of numerous Jersey fam ilies of these names. Some of these fami- lies had been persecuted by the Puritans of New England, to escape which they came to Long Island. Here, being again persecuted by the Dutch, they seem to have determined to seek some place where they could worship God as they pleased .- The lands in Monmouth county impressed them so favorably that the following year (1663) they made large purchases of the Indians, which greatly excited the indig- nation of the Dutch at New Amsterdam, who laid claim to the land asserting that they had bought the best of it of the In- dians ten or twelve years before. The de- tails of the controversy which ensued and the arguments advanced by both sides are too lengthy to introduce in this place .- Suffice it to say that some of the difficul- ties were ended by the conquest of the Dutch by the English the following year. In 1665 John Tilton and eleven associates obtained from Gov. Richard Nicholls the celebrated document known as " the Mon- mouth Patent," which has been published in another chapter, which guaranteed lib- erty of conscience to all settlers.
After the conquest of the Dutch by the English, though we have met with no pos- itive information on the point, yet we are inclined to believe that John Tilton found, by the change, that he could remain at Long Island without molestation, he pre- ferred to end his days there and leave his share in his Monmouth purchases to his children. He died at Gravesend, L. I., in 1688; his wife died a few years before, in 1683. His will dated 15th of 7th month 1687 was recorded at Brooklyn, L. I., April 3d, 1688, in Book of Records Vol. 1, page 108. This will shows he left two sons named John and Thomas, and daughters named Sarah, who married John Painter, Abigail who married - Scott, Esther, who married Samuel Spicer, and Mary,
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who married - Carman. In his will he left a lot of land at Gravesend to his exe- cutors, to be used as a graveyard for them and their successors, and " for all friends of the everlasting truth of the Gospel as occasion serves, forever, to bury there dead therein."
OLD MONMOUTH THE PIONEER OF RELIGIOUS TOLERATION.
Every citizen of old Monmouth has just cause to be proud of the fact that the orig- inal patentees were among the first in America to guarantee toleration to all set- tlers in religious matters. In Rhode Is- land while Roger Williams advocated "a free, full and absolute liberty of con- science " it is charged that Roman Catho- lics were excepted in the charter of 1663. The much vaunted toleration act of Mary- land limited toleration to "all who be lieved in Jesus Christ." William Penn did not arrive in America until October, 1682, nearly eignteen years after the Mon- mouth patentees declared that every set- tler should have FREE LIBERTY OF CON- SCIENCE WITHOUT ANY MOLESTATION OR DIS- TURBANCE WHATSOEVER IN THE WAY OF THEIR WORSHIP.
THE ROGERINE BAPTISTS.
A SINGULAR RELIGIOUS SOCIATY IN OLD MONMOUTH.
About the year 1737 a society of Roger- ine Baptists, or Quaker Baptists as they were then called, located at Waretown, now in Ocean county. From various no- tices of the history of this singular sect and how a society came to be located in Old Monmouth, we extract the following :
This society was founded by John Rog. ers, about 1674. His followers baptized by immersion ; the Lord's supper they admin- istered in the evening with its ancient ap- pendages. They did not believe in the sanctity of the Sabbath; they believed that since the death of Christ all days were holy alike ; they used no medicines nor employed doctors or surgeons ; would not say grace at meals; all prayers to be said mentally except when the spirit of prayer compelled the use of voice ; they said " all unscriptural parts of religious worship are idols," and all good christians should exert themselves against idols, &c. Among the idols they placed the observ .
ance of the Sabbath, Infant baptism, &c. The Sabbath they called the New England idol and the methods they took to demol- ish this idol were as follows: They would on Sundays try to be at some manual la- bor near meeting houses or in the way of people going to and from church. They would take work into meeting houses, the women knitting, the men whittling and making splints for baskets, and every now and then contradicting the preachers .- "This was seeking persecution," says one writer, " and they received plenty of it, in- somuch that the New Englanders left some of them neither liberty, property nor whole skins."
John Rogers, the founder of the sect, who, it is said, was as churlish and contra ry to all men as Diogenes, preached over forty years, and died in 1721. The occa- sion of his death was singular. The small pox was raging terribly in Boston and spread an alarm to all the country around. Rogers was confident that he could mingle with the diseased and that the strength of his faith would preserve him safe from the mortal contagion. Accordingly he was presumptuous enough to travel one hundred miles to Boston to bring his faith to the test : the result was that he caught the contagion, came home and died with it, the disease also spreading in his family and among his neighbors. This event one would think would have somewhat shaken the faith of his followers but on the con- trary it seemed to increase their zeal.
In 1725, a company of Rogerines were taken up on the Sabbath in Norwich, Conn., while on their way from their place of residence to Lebanon ; they were treat. ed with much abuse and many of them whipped in a most unmerciful manner .- This occasioned Gov. Jenks, of Rhode Is- land, to write spiritedly against their per- secutors, and also to condemn the Roger- ines for their provoking, disorderly con- duct.
One family of the Rogerines was named Colver or Culver, (Edward's History spells the name one way and Governor Jenks the other). This family consisted of John Colver and his wife, who were a part of the company which was treated so rudely at Norwich, and five sons and five daughters, who, with their families, made up the the number of twenty-one souls. In the year 1734, this large family removed from New London, Conn., and settled in New Jersey. The first place they pitched upon for a residence, was on the east side of
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Schooley's Mountain, in Morris county .- They continued here about three years and then went in a body to Waretown, then in Monmouth but now in Ocean coun- ty. While here they had their meetings in a school house, and their peculiar man- ner of conducting services was quite a nov- elty to other settlers in the vicinity. As in England, during the meeting the wo- men would be engaged in knitting or sew- ing, and the men in making axe handles, basket splints or engaged in other work, but we hear of no attempt to disturb oth- er societies.
They continued at Waretown about elev- en years, and then went back to Morris county and settled on the west side of the mountain from which they had removed. In 1790 they were reduced to two old per- sons whose names were Thomas Colver and Sarah Mann; but the posterity of John Colver, it is said, is yet quite numer- ous in Morris county. Abraham: Waeir from whom the village of Waretown de- rives its name, tradition says was a mem- ber of the Rogerine Society. When the main body of the society left, he remained behind, and became quite a prominent business man, generally esteemed ; he died in 1768. and his descendants removed to Squan and vicinity near the head of Barnegat bay.
Before concluding this notice of the Rogerines, it should be stated that anoth- er thing in their creed was that it was not necessary to have marriages performed by ministers or legal officers ; they held that it was only necessary for the man and wo- man to exchange vows of marriage to make the ceremony binding, A zealous Rogerine once took to himself a wife in this simple manner, and then to tantalize Governor Saltonstall called on him to in form him they had married themselves without aid of church or state, and that they intended to live together as husband and wife without their sanction. " What," said the Governor, in apparent indignation, " do you take this woman for your wife ?" " Yes, I most certainly do," replied the man. " And do you take this man for your husband ?" said he to the woman. The woman replied in the affirmative. "Then," said the wily old governor, " in the name of the Commonwealth I pronounce you hus- band and wife-whom God hath joined to- gether let no man put asunder ? You are now married according to both law and gospel."
The couple retired much chagrined at the unexpected way the Governor had turned the tables upon them, despite their boasting.
THE WAR OF 1812.
SCENES ON OUR COAST.
During the last war with England the vigilance of the British cruisers on our coast seriously injured the business of New Jersey coasting vessels. Commodore HARDY in his flag ship the " Ramillies," a 74 gun ship, had command of the British blockad- ing vessels on our coast. Most accounts, written and traditional, concede that he was one of the most honorable, high-mind- ed men in the British service, entirely dif- ferent from the infamous Admiral Cock- burn. who commanded the blockading squadron farther south. Commodore Hardy rarely took private property except con- traband of war without offering compensa- tion. Most of the coasters in the southern part of Old Monmouth, along Barnegat bay, were engaged in the lumber business and the stoppage of their trade was seriously felt. Occasionally son e bold fortunate cap. tain would manage to run the blockade and reach New York and be well repaid for his risk, but others who tried the experi- ment or were preparing to, were not quite so fortunate.
On the 31st of March, 1812. Commodore Hardy, in the Ramillies, came close to Bar- negat Inlet and sent in two long barges loaded with armed men after two Ameri- can vessels lying in the inlet waiting a chance to slip out. They first boarded the schooner Greyhound, Capt. Jesse Rogers, of Potters Creek, and attempted to take her out but she grounded and the enemy fired her and both vessel and cargo were burned up. They then set fire to a sloop belonging to Waretown, owned by Captain Jonathan Winner, Hezekiah Soper and Timothy Soper ; this vessel was saved, how- ever, as signals were unexpectedly fired from the ship which caused the barges has- tily to leave for the ship that she might start in pursuit of some vessel seen at sea. As soon as the barges left, the Americans went on board the sloop and extinguished the fire. While the British were in the In- let a party landed on the beach near the present lighthouse and killed some four- teen or fifteen head of cattle belonging to Jeremiah Spragg and John Allen. The owners were away but the British left word
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if they presented their bill to Commodore Hardy he would settleit, but they were too patriotic to do anything that savored of furnishing supplies to the enemy. In some instances on the New Jersey coast where cattle and other things had been taken by Hardy and word left that he would pay for them, the owners thought themselves jus- tifiable in going off to his ship and getting the money, as the supplies were not fur- nished voluntarily but taken by force.
The appearance of the Ramiliies at this ume at Barnegat Inlet created much ex- citement in the villages along the bay .- At Waretown, for fear that the barges might land and commit excesses like those which disgraced the operations of Cock burn, the women and children, and valu- ables easily carried were sent to a hamlet in the woods a few miles west of the place. At Forked River the late Hon. Charles Parker (father of Gov Parker) had just completed a large building for a dwelling, store house, &c., at the upper landing. The roof of this building was crowded with spectators, who, though six or seven miles distant, had a fair view of the ship, burn- ing vessel and movements of the enemy.
At another time the schooner President, Captain Amos Birdsall, of Waretown, bound to New York, was taken by Connio- dore Hardy, who at once commenced tak- ing from the schooner her spars, deck plank, &c. Captain Birdsall had liberty to leave with his crew. in a yawl, whenever he pleas: d, but on account of high winds he was detained a day or two, when he suc- ceeded in getting on board a fishing smack and thus got home. Before he left, his schooner's masts had been sawed into plank by the British.
The sloop Elizabeth, Captain Thomas Bunnell, of Forked River, was captured by barges sent in Barnegat Inlet; she was towed out to sea, but the British shortly af- ter lost her on Long Island. She was owned by William Platt and Thomas Bunnell .- At another time Captain Bunnell was cap- tured by the British and detained some time and then put on board a neutral (Spanish ?) ship and finally reached New York.
The sloop Traveller, Captain Asa Grant, was fired by the British but the fire was extinguished before much damage was done. The sloop Maria and another sloop not remembered were chased ashore near Squan Inlet.
AN AMUSING STRATAGEM.
The noted Commodore Percival, who died a few years ago, familiarly named " Mad Jack Percival," in the early part of his naval career was the hero of an adven- ture on the coast of Monmouth which is thus described by a paper published in New York at the time :
"On Sunday morning, July 4, 1813, the fishing smack Yankee was borrowed by Commodore Lewis, who has command of the American flotilla stationed at Sandy Hook, for the purpose of taking by strata- gem the sloop Eagle, tender to the Poic- tiers 74, cruising off and on Sandy Hook, which succeeded to a charm. A calf, a sheep and a goose were purchased and se- cured on deck. Thirty men, well armed, were secreted in the cabin and forepeak. Thus prepared the Yankee stood out of Mosquito C'ove as if going on a fishing trip to the Banks; three men only being on deck dressed in fisherman's apparel with buff caps on. The Eagle on perceiving the smack immediately gave chase, and after coming up with her and finding she had live stock on board ordered her to go down to the Commodore, then five miles distant. The helmsman of the smack answered " Ay 1 ay, sir !" and apparently put up the helm for that purpose which brought him along- side the Eagle not three yards distant. The watchword Lawrence was then given when the armed men rushed on deck from their hiding places and poured into her a volley of musketry which struck the crew with dismay and drove them so precipitately irto the hold that they had not time to strike the flag. Seeing the enemy's deck clear, Sailing-master Percival, who com- mandéd the expedition, ordered the men to cease from firing ; upon which one of the men came out the hold and struck the Eagle's colors. They had on board a thirty - two pound brass howitzer loaded with can- ister shot, but so sudden was the surprise they had not time to discharge it. The crew of the Eagle consisted of H. Morris. master's mate of the Poictiers. W. Price, midshipman, and Il seamen and marines. Mr. Morris was killed, Mr. Price mortally wounded, and one marine killed, and one wounded. The Eagle with the prisoners ar rived off the Battery in the afternoon and landed the prisoners at Whitehall, amid the shouts and plaudits of thousands of spectators assembled at the Battery to cel- ebrate the anniversary of independence .- Mr. Morris was buried at Sandy Hook with
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military honors. Mr. Price was carried to New York, where on Thursday he died ; and was buried with military ceremonies in St. Paul's churchyard."
A traditionary version of this affair, which we have heard from old citizens, says that Percival wished to make his boat appear as a market boat, that he placed one of his men on a seat close to the bulwark dis- guised as an old Quakerish looking farmer. with broad brimmed hat and long staff in hand, while he looked like an ignorant boor at the wheel and by his answers made the British think he was half-witted. When ordered to drop along side under threat of being fired into, he made a silly reply to the effect " You had better not try it, for Dad's big molasses jug is on deck and if you broke that he would make you sorry for it."
THE LAWRENCE FAMILY.
The Lawrence family claim to be de- scended from Sir Robert Lawrence, of Ash- ton Hall, Lancastershire, England, who went to Palestine during the Crusades with Richard Cœur de Leon, and participated in the siege of St. Jean de Acre, in the year 1119, and was the first to plant the banner of the cross on the battlements of the town for which he was knighted. A grandson of Sir Robert Lawrence, named Sir James Lawrence, married into the Washington family, having been united to Matilda Washington in the reign of Henry III .- General George Washington's half brother Lawrence, was so named on account of his relationship to this family.
The first Lawrences who came to Amer- ica were two brothers, John, aged 17 years, and William, aged 12 years, and also Mary Lawrence, aged nine years, who embarked in the barque Planter, April 2nd, 1635 ; her passengers were chiefly from St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. Another brother named Thomas, came over in 1655, twenty years later. The greater portion of the Lawrences in America are descended from William, the second brother.
Freehold then a wilderness. He repre- sented the county in the provincial Assem- bly in 1708-9. His residence was called Chestnut Grove. He was born in 1666, and died May 27th, 1724. He married Lucy Stout and had children as follows ; sons, Joseph, Elisha and John, and daugh- ters, Hannah, who married Richard Salter, Elizabeth, who married Joseph Salter, Sa- rah, who married John Ember and Rebec- ca, who married a New Yorker named Watson. The second son, Elisha, had a son named John Brown Lawrence, who was the father of the celebrated Commo- dore Lawrence of "Don't give up the ship " fame, and grandfather of Commo- dore Boggs, who so distinguished himself in the Varuna in passing the forts below New Orleans during the late rebellion.
The genealogy of the Lawrence family has been traced out and published with more or less completeness in several works, the most extensive of which is one devo- ted to giving the history and genealogy of the family, published by T. Lawrence, New York, in 1858. In the present article it is impracticable to give the genealogy of all the Lawrences in old Monmouth, but we append that of one branch, meinbers of which were quite noted in the Revolu tionary history of the county as will be seen by reference to sketches of them in chapters previously published.
As above stated, the first, named Elisha, had a son named John, who ran the noted Lawrence's line between East and West Jersey, who was born 1708. This John married Mary, daughter of William Harts- horne, and had children as follows ; John, a physician, who died unmarried ; Helena who married James Holmes, merchant, New York; Lucy, wno married Rev. Hen ry Waddell, of New York, and who was installed pastor of the Episcopal church, at Shrewsbury, in 1788; Elizabeth, who married William LeCompte of Georgia; Mary and Sarah who died single, and Eli- sha, who married Mary Ashfield, of New York, and who was Sheriff of Monmouth county at the breaking out.of the Revolu- tion.
THE HENDRICKSONS.
The first Lawrence who settled within the limits of Old Monmouth, whose name This family is of Dutch origin, and mem- bers of it were among the first whites who came to New Amsterdam, (now New York). Captain Cornelis Hendrickson, (says our account,) was the first navigator who set foot on the soil of Pennsylvania and West Jersey, and probably the first the writer has met with, was Elisha, a son of William. Elisha commenced business as a merchant, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, at Cheesequakes, on the south side of the Raritan, but his store having been pillaged by the crew of a French privateer, he removed to Upper white man who set foot in that part of
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old Monmouth now comprised within the limits of Ocean. About the latter part of 1614 he cruised along the New Jersey coast making explorations in the celebra- ted little yacht "Onrest " (Restless) the first vessel built in New York. He re- turned to Holland, in 1616, to give an ac- count of his discoveries.
Of the Hendricksons who settled in this. country among the first comers, were Rut- ger and Legar, who settled up the Hud- son river at Rensaelters-wyck, 1630; Cor- nelis, who was there in 1642; another Cor- nelis came over in the ship Gilded Beaver and landed at New York in May, 1658 .- Gerrit came from Scrool, in Holland, in. the ship St. Jean Baptiste, and landed May, 1661 Alfred came from Maersen. in the ship " Fox " May, 1662. Hendrick came from Westphalia in the ship Rose- tree, March, 1663.
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