USA > New Jersey > Scheyichbi and the strand : or, early days along the Delaware ; with an account of recent events at Sea Grove ; containing sketches of the romantic adventures of the pioneer colonists ; the wonderful origin of American society and civilization > Part 8
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Cape May County was instituted the 12th of November, 1692. There were five members of Assembly allowed it; the next year a quarterly court, for cases not exceeding twenty pounds, was decreed by the Assembly of New Jersey. The first court was held at " Ports- mouth" (Cape May Town, or Town Bank), on the 20th of March, 1693. The Grand Jury having been charged, found "it necessary that a road be laid out, most convenient for the King and county ; and," said they, " so far as one county goeth, we are willing to clear a road for travelers to pass," as if the guardians of the county saw, prophetically, how much their district was to owe its future growth and prosperity to the appreciative health- or pleasure-seeking traveler. The tax levied in 1693 was forty pounds sterling, with the considerate proviso that pro- duce should be taken at "money price" in payment. One of the first acts of the court was an order that "no one shall sell liquor without a license," the traffic and use of rum having already, as usual, been the cause of much trouble.
Of the settlers at Cape May in 1685, and of those who came for some fifteen years after, the majority were attracted by the whale fishery in the bay of Delaware. It is shown by reliable records, that whaling was the business of Christopher " Leamyeng" and his son Thomas, of Cæsar Hoskins, Samuel Mathews, Jonathan Osborne, Nathaniel Short, Cornelius Skellinks, Henry Stites, Thomas Hand and his sons John and George, John and Caleb Carman, John Shaw, Thomas Miller, William Stillwell, Humphrey Hewes, William Mason, John Richardson, Ebene- zer Swain, Henry Young, and many others. In looking over the colonial records of New Haven, in the first years of its existence, the reader meets most of these family names, and the Long Island whale- men were of the same stock. The same names are found to-day on the books of New England ships; they are people of Newport, of
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LAND TITLES AND NATURAL PRIVILEGES.
Nantucket, of New Bedford, and New London ; the world had no such dauntless mariners as the whalemen of New England and Cape May.
The purchase of the rights of Dr. Coxe being made in 1692, the West Jersey Society, as proprietors, to prevent confusion, nominated Andrew Hamilton, the former deputy of Governor Barclay, to be Gov- ernor. The people at large acquiesced, and the General Assembly of New Jersey passed an act to cure all defects in law and practice. The law officers of the crown, however, refused their sanction to such legis- lation, and the lords of trade claimed New Jersey as a royal province. The basis of government continued unsettled, and, in 1702, the New Jersey proprietors surrendering their claim of jurisdiction, as has been noted, continued to hold their lands under the Royal Governor, Edward Hyde, the weak, yet arrogant, "Lord Cornbury."
Much of the difficulty in establishing government in New Jersey arose from the factious opposition of parties who wished to avoid the payment of quitrents, and prevent adverse decisions against their in- sufficient invalid land titles. Not altogether wrong in equity, perhaps, these persons still evaded the courts, and by their interested captious- ness defeated the plans of moderate men, did wrong to their neighbors, and kept the province in a chaotic state, until it lost its charter, and passed under the shadow of arbitrary power. In Cape May County there was little dispute about titles to land; Coxe held most of the soil, though but five sales were made by his agent George Taylor. The West Jersey Society continued the sale of lands for sixty-four years, and by 1756 had disposed of most of their estate. Doctor Johnson, of Perth Amboy, was the principal agent of the Society at the time, and Jacob Spicer (2d), in a negotiation in which the wine-bottle is said to have betrayed Johnson into forgetfulness of his employers' interests, bought the remainder for the insufficient sum of £300; at his death, Johnson, seemingly conscious of his unfaithfulness, left the Society a thousand pounds conscience-money.
By English feudal law the West Jersey Society became, through their purchase from Coxe, invested with a monopoly of the natural privi- leges of Cape May: none could legally fish or hunt without their con- sent; the deeds given by the Society did not convey these natural privileges, and much anxiety was felt about the matter in time, al- though the Society prohibited none from oysters, fish, or game. An organization was created in 1752 to secure the natural privileges for public use, but delay occurring, Spicer forestalled their action by his jolly bargain with Doctor Johnson, and by so doing provoked a quarrel with his neighbors, which was discussed in a public meeting at the Presbyterian meeting-house, March 26th, 1761. The following June, Spicer,who never sought to prevent his neighbors from using " the natural privileges," offered to sell his whole landed estate in the county, excepting his farm at Cold Spring Neck, and the natural
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privileges, except a right for his family in the same, to the people of the county for £7000, but his offer was declined. "I was willing," wrote he, "to please the people, and at the same time do my posterity justice, and steer clear of reflection."
It must have been an unpleasant affair for Spicer to be at variance with the people whose representative he had been for seventeen years. An active man of exemplary habits and comprehensive mind, Spicer was twenty-one years in the assembly, being first elected in 1744: he was appointed by the legislature one of the commission which met in 1758 at Crosswicks, and then at Easton, to extinguish by special treaty the Indian title to lands in the State. By the work of this convention New Jersey gained the title of "the great doer of justice" from the Delaware tribe of the Lenni Lenape.
Jacob Spicer (2d) dying in 1765, his son Jacob conveyed the natural privileges to a corporation organized by the legislature; thus feudal rights were recognized; besides, an East Jersey court gave a decision in favor of the rights of the proprietors ; an appeal was taken, however, to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the verdict below reversed, and the State made the proprietor of the privileges of the water for the use of the whole people. Thus the last trace of feu- dalism disappeared, and the visitor enjoys the sports of Cape May, thoughtless of the "natural privileges" about which so much un- availing pother was made so long ago.
§ The earliest historical settlement in Cape May County was that of the whalemen at " Town Bank," a bluff the visitor at Sea Grove can see, as part of an unequaled view, from the observatory over the Pavilion. From the tower Town Bank is the highest ground in sight, lying some four miles away due north, and on the shore of the bay. Before 1700, most of the land taken up was in that vicinity. The marine taste and habits of the people coming afterwards are attested by the fact that they settled altogether along the bay or sea, heedless of the quality of the soil.
It is only within the last generation that the inland portions of West Jersey have attracted the attention its resources justify ; the unexampled growth of such a town as Vineland, within less than a score of years, is an indication of the results of enterprise in that region; still, the Jersey shore will have its share of residents, especially in summer, for reasons which are palpable to all who observe them from one of the beautiful sail-boats, which the tourist always finds near Sea Grove, " well kept, ataunto, spruce, and gay," awaiting his pleasure.
The waters of Cape May are magnificent for varied sailing. The sounds are as smooth and placid as a garden pool; there the most timid may venture, cruising without a fear, yet the sea breeze sweeps across them, damp with the spray of the adjoining breakers, and the voyage may be extended all the day.
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OLD-TIME TRAVEL AND COMMERCE.
For the many " not afraid in a boat," the bay and roadstead are a safe and free expanse of pleasant waters; while those who love the breeze, the blilow, and the spray, in all their ocean sublimity, have before them the broad Altantic, clear of reef or island for three thousand miles to " the far-off Azores," and beyond for hundreds of leagues to Lisbon, Portugal, and old Spain.
As late as 1706, the only routes from Cape May to Burlington were by the river, and over bridle-paths which led hither and thither across and through the forests, swamps, and marshes. Thomas Chalkley, an English Friend, rode from Cohansey to Cape May, 2nd month, 1726, " through a miry, boggy way, in which we saw no house for about forty miles, except at the ferry ;" "that night," says his journal, " we got to Richard Townsend's, at Cape May, where we were kindly received." At Townsend's, at Rebecca Garretson's, at John Page's, at Aaron Leam- ing's, Chalkley held satisfactory meetings; he stopped two nights with his wife's brother, Jacob Spicer, and journeyed to Egg Harbor. "We swam our horses," wrote he, " over Egg Harbor River, and went over ourselves in canoes." The difficulties of travel may have been one reason why the people of Cape May chose Peter Fretwell, a Quaker resident of Burlington, to represent them in the assembly in 1702, and for twelve years after ; it seems a strange proceeding any way, but all New Jersey was full of odd political devices in the early days.
As early as 1698, Richard Harvo, of Cape May, owned a sloop; and in 1705, Captain Jacob Spicer sailed the sloop Adventure of sixteen tons, John and Richard Townsend, owners, as a packet between Cape May, Philadelphia, and Burlington, under a license from Lord Corn- bury. In 1706, another sloop, named the Necessity, was built and owned at Cape May by Dennis Lynch, from which time the marine increased until in fifty years there were numerous small vessels trading from Cape May County to Oyster Bay, Long Island, to Rhode Island and Connecticut, and to Philadelphia. The vessels going east generally carried lumber, while oysters and produce of various kinds found a market up the river. Jacob Spicer (2d) owned a vessel he sent to the West Indies, and he shipped much corn taken by him in barter for gen- eral merchandise. In 1750, the Delaware pilot-boats were pinked stern boats, sharp at both ends; a usual size was twenty-seven feet keel and eleven feet beam; the "pinkie" was the lineal progeny of the " whale boat," and, when in familiar hands, one of the stanchest craft that ever rode a wave.
It is easy to imagine the slow but yet actual improvement in the means of transportation around and from Cape May; but it was not until 1852 that change amounting to a revolution took place in the means of travel. In that year Captain Wilmon Whilldin put the first steamboat on the route between Cape May and Philadelphia. Though regarded almost as a miracle, the boat was a modest craft compared to .
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those which glide along the Delaware now ; " the longest day in June" was almost too brief for her to make the trip from the Cape to the city, running "between sun and sun." But other boats were soon put on the route, which reduced the time of travel while enlarging the accom- modation. There are few finer trips than that down the lovely Dela- ware; the land disappears at last as the mid-waters of the bay are crossed, and Sea Grove comes in view, often from a deck that reels merrily beneath the feet of the voyager. For those to whom even the bracing air of the bay has no charms, unless inhaled from the shore, there has been provided another line of travel.
The West Jersey Railroad was completed to Cape May in 1866, and since then each year has added to the excellence of the road itself, while the time consumed in the journey has been reduced to the minimum consistent with safety. Cars of the most complete construction and luxurious finish are run, including Woodruff's Silver Palace Drawing- room Coaches, and a degree of care and courtesy is evinced by all en- gaged in train-service, which render the journey of only two hours and a half or less from Philadelphia to the "City by the Sea" as pleasant as human skill can make it.
Unfavorable as the country above Cape May was for travel, there was one circumstance of the early days which tended to make transit by water an occasion for apprehension, and rendered the worst " miry, boggy way" preferable to a route whereon the voyager had reason to look under every strange sail for the sinister visage of the sea-robber and pirate! The sixteenth century was an age of piracy, and as late as 1721 the Delaware was the scene of captures by the highwaymen of the ocean. Owing to its lack of naval and military strength, and to the reluctance of the Quakers to hang rascals, Philadelphia was a favorite place with Blackbeard and others of his kind, and the Dela- ware was chosen as a resort for repairs by many an outlaw vessel. In 1731, five men were hung as pirates, which was about the end of a bad bloody business in this part of the world. The pirates are said to have infested Sea Grove, and buried much money there, after which much digging and conjuring has been done, even in recent years.
Although most of the early inhabitants of Cape May were sea- faring men, the Swedes among them were an agricultural people, and in time circumstances compelled the general cultivation of the soil. The colonies, near the close of the sixteenth century, were governed by the English lords of trade; every effort was made to prohibit manufactures and commerce in America. Still, whatever the wrongs of government, the natural resources of Cape May saved the settle- ment there from want. Parliament could not legislate the fish out of the Delaware, no lord of trade ever ate such oysters as fairly obstructed the sounds, no English park had half the game which swarmed in the woods and swamps, there was an abundance of wonderfully quick,
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AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY.
fertile soil, easy of cultivation, and the sun never shone, even on an English king, as it beamed on the gardens and cornfields which, year by year, grew ever wider and still wider.
The primitive manufactures of Cape May, aside from lumber, were of a domestic nature, and were much encouraged by Jacob Spicer (2d); there was hardly anything that he would not take in exchange for goods. He advertised to receive, at the same time, a variety of produce, from a drove of cattle or sheep, "a thousand pounds of woolen stockings" for the army, or "a large quantity of mittens," to " a clam-shell formed in wampum, a yarn-thrum, a goose-quill, a horse- hair, a hog's-bristle, or a grain of mustard-seed, being," said he, " greatly desirous to encourage industry, as it is one of the most prin- cipal expedients, under the favor of Heaven, that can revive our droop- ing circumstances at this time of uncommon, but great and general burden." This was in 1756, during the French and Indian War,-the conflict wherein the colonists learned to " organize victory," and gained the confidence which made possible the triumph of the Revolution.
Cape May was fortunate in her early sons. Jacob Spicer (2d) was a statesman, a merchant, an economist; a man without conceit, he required in his own family the same reasonable diligence and thrift he recommended to others. There were twelve persons in his household, and such was his minutely systematic way of business that from his books and writings may be learned, even now, the details of their life. In Jacob Spicer's own house, under the superintendence of a tailor, tailoress, and shoemaker, the apparel of his family was made. The sons of this legislator and jurist were taught to cobble shoes, the · girls to make clothing and knit. The Spicer boys, in 1757, were pro- vided with " 24 lbs. gray skin, @ 25d. per lb." to make them breeches and vests. This was deer-skin, and some of it was worn with the hair on. For the girls there was a provision of " striped linnen" and " lin- sey ;" there was "a cloth vest" for one of the boys, and a "tammy quilt for Judith." Spicer estimated the girls to knit yearly, besides the other work they had to do, two hundred and twenty pairs of mittens, taking forty-four pounds of wool, to be spun by a hired woman in his house, in forty-four days. The mittens were worth " 16d." (thirty-two cents) a pair at Cape May when finished, but sold at double the money at " York" and Albany. In one way and another, the premises of the Hon. Jacob Spicer must have been a lively place. Teetotalism had not been heard of at Cape May then, and under the head of " wets," the master of the house charges his family with using " 52 gal. rum, 10 do. wine, and 2 bbls. cyder." As a merchant and magistrate, Spicer probably entertained many, and, in the unquestioned manner of his time, took care to " welcome the coming, speed the parting, guest."
The patient author, as he delves among these prosaic records of the past in the magnificent Centennial year of grace, 1876, remembers the
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scandals of his day, and pauses to heave a sigh, not for the leather breeches, linsey-woolsey, woolen mittens, rum and cider, of the Spicers, but for more of the conscientious good sense which made virtue, diligence, and economy the height of fashion, public spirit the pride of the citizen, and inflexible integrity the historical glory of the merchant and magistrate !
But with all the usefulness and sterling worth of Jacob Spicer (2d) notwithstanding he was for twenty-one years-nearly half his days- an officer and representative of his neighbors, still Aaron Leaming (2d), was the man the people of Cape May especially delighted to honor. He served them as their representative for thirty years : well educated for the times, of great natural good sense, very industrious, and, withal, somewhat aristocratic, no man was ever more highly honored by the county, and none, perhaps, better deserved the regard and confidence of his constituents. Neither Leaming nor Spicer were place-hunters, dependent upon local prejudice for recognition. Serving as colleagues in the assembly for a score of years or more, their ability and fidelity were made manifest, and together they were selected by the legisla- ture for the responsible work of compiling the laws of the State. This they completed to the satisfaction of the public, and "Leaming and Spicer's Collection" is, to-day, a respected authority in New Jersey. Leaming was a great speculator in land, and yet found time to write copious " Memoirs," which remain a faithful transcript of the times in which he lived. Born in 1716, the son of Aaron Leamyeng, from Connecticut, a man who had worked his way against adverse circum- stances to superior knowledge, large possessions, a Quaker faith, and public respect, Aaron Leaming (2d) maintained the honor of his family, filled with credit and dignity the important position assigned him, and died, much regretted, in 1783.
The Leamings, Goldens, Spicers, Stites, Stillwells, Willetts, Ludlams, Causons, Hands, Townsends, Youngs, Swains, Hughes, Garretsons, Hubbards, Mackeys, Godfreys, Reeves, and Weldons, Whilldens, or Whilldins, with others, were among the early and principal settlers of Cape May.
While history records the virtues of the early sons of the Cape, their prominence in seamanship, in commerce, in the halls of legislation, what shall be said of the women of the place and time ? Theirs may have been a less conspicuous position, but many of them were of that class whose " children rise up and call them blessed ;" diverse, yet equal, in domestic life they were accomplished in all good works, nor are we left without evidence of a bright intelligence, in many cases, to more endear them. Very early, the Quakers did much in West Jersey to modify and elevate the estimate of woman. In the library of Sarah Hall, of Salem and Alloway's Creek, Aaron Leaming the elder, as a boy, " very poor, helpless, and friendless," read law; the aged Quaker
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THE MITTEN ARTICLE.
lady being herself "an eminent lawyer for those times." The student may fumble in vain among the dry leaves of court records, account books, and scattered memoranda, for the chronicle of great deeds by the mothers of Cape May ; but while " like sire like son" has become a proverb, do we not know that the mother is equally the parent of the child, and that the men who have done honor to their native county learned, like Washington, their noblest lessons beside a mother's knee?
In an estimate of the resources, income, and expenditure of Cape May County, for 1758, made by Jacob Spicer (2nd), there is credit given the county for production of the " mitten article," to the value of five hundred pounds sterling. The manner in which the mitten trade, which, as thus appears, was quite a reward to the female industry of the County, was encouraged, is related in the following letter from Dr. Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, dated Passy, July 26th, 1748, “ on the benefits and evils of luxury :"
" The skipper of the shallop, employed between Cape May and Phila- delphia, had done us some service, for which he refused to be paid. My wife understanding he had a daughter, sent her a present of a new fashioned cap. Three years afterward, this skipper being at my house with an old farmer of Cape May, his passenger, he mentioned the cap and how much his daughter had been pleased with it; 'but,' said he, 'it proved a dear cap to our congregation.' How so? 'When my daugh- ter appeared with it at meeting, it was so much admired that all the girls resolved to get such caps from Philadelphia, and my wife and I computed that the whole would not have cost less than one hundred pounds.' 'True,' said the farmer, 'but you do not tell all the story. I think the cap was nevertheless an advantage to us, for it was the first thing that put our girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale at Phila- delphia, that they might have wherewithal to buy caps and ribbons there, and you know that that industry has continued, and is likely to continue and increase to a much greater value, and answer better pur- poses.' Upon the whole I was more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since not only the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but Philadelphians by the supply of warm mittens."
The old times were trying times; hardly were the pioneers of Cape May settled in comparative comfort, before the entire country was plunged in the horrors of the French and Indian wars. Surrounded by the faithful Lenni Lenape, Cape May had no experience of the ruthless barbarities which were suffered elsewhere, but for many a year no one could tell when some French cruiser or Spanish privateer would break into the Delaware, and retaliate upon its defenseless shores the outrages Argall had imposed upon the French Acadians in 1613. New Jersey always cheerfully and with alacrity met the requisitions upon her for men and means; while the soldiers of Cape May faced a cruel foe, Jacob Spicer rallied the people to increased industry ; " to meet the great
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demands of the time," he demanded " a thousand pounds of stockings," " for our men in the field ;" faster than ever rolled the spinning-wheel, faster still flew the needles; even before the Revolution Cape May evinced a patriotic courage.
On the Ist of November, 1775, Jacob Spicer called a public meeting, " to do something for the country," but had to record his chagrin that only James Whillden, Jeremiah Hand, Thomas Leaming, and John Leonard attended. It was the era of doubt; the magic word, INDE- PENDENCE, had not yet been uttered at Philadelphia,-the more honor to the ready few. Cape May sent Jesse Hand to Burlington as member of the Provincial Congress in 1775 and 1776. On the 21st of June, in the latter year, that body decided upon the formation of a new State Government. Hand was also a member of Council in 1779, and for three years afterward. Jesse Hand, Jacob Eldridge, and Matthew Whillden were the delegates sent from Cape May to attend the Con- vention at Trenton, on the second Tuesday of December, 1787, to ratify the Constitution of the United States; this was done by a unanimous vote on the 19th of the month, when the members of the Convention marched in solemn procession to the Court-House, where the act of ratification was publicly read. New Jersey was the third State to ratify the Constitution of the United States. By the Legislature of New Jersey Jesse Hand was made a member of the Committee of Public Safety, a most responsible and arduous position, but no one of those who served the cause of Independence, in a civil capacity, deserved better of his country.
Cape May has been noted for generations, as from natural causes, one of the best of beaches; the same peculiarities constitute it one of the most delightful driving places imaginable. Unequaled by nature, the beach road has been extended along shore, over Poverty Beach, away past the magnificent Cape May Lighthouse, past the beautiful cottages and comfortable hotels of Sea Grove, beyond the United States Signal Station, around the point, and for a perfect mile up the Delaware to the steamboat landing; from thence the straight inland road runs for three miles, over the turnpike, into Cape May City. Wherever the start be made, the seven miles round brings the rider to his door again. Hoof or wheel, it is the same good road, and all the way the ocean or the bay is constantly in view, and the surf can scarcely stir unheard.
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