USA > New Jersey > Cape May County > Sketch of the early history of Cape May county, to accompany the geological report of the State of New Jersey for said county > Part 2
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The first town meeting for public business was held at the house of Benjamin Godfrey, on the 7th of February, 1692 .* "The com- missions for Justices and Sheriff were proclaimed, and George Taylor was appointed clerk." The first suit on record is for assault and battery; "Oliver Johnson against John Carman." The second, John Jarvis is accused by George Taylor of helping the Indians to rum. "William Johnson deposeth and saith, that he came into the house of the said Jarvis, and he found Indians drinking rum, and one of the said Indians gave of the said rum to the said Johnson, and he drank of it with them. " The said Jarvis refusing to clear himself, was convicted."
As early as 1692,f a ferry was established by law, over Great Egg Harbor River, at the place now called Beesley's Point, a proof there must have been inhabitants upon both sides of the river, and contiguous to it at that period.
The original settlers, or those who were here previous to the year 1700, were principally attracted (as the authors heretofore quoted sufficiently corroborate) by the inducements held out by the whale fishery ; and Long Island supplied the principal proportion of those who came prior to that time. The names of those who were known to be whalers,¿ were Christopher Leamyeng and his son Thomas, Cæsar Hoskins, Samuel Matthews, 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 Ma- son, John Richardson, Ebenezer Swain, Henry Young; and no doubt many others.
The jaw-bone of a whale, ten feet long, was recently found a few rods from the shore at Town Bank, by Thomas P. Hughes, the pro-
* Cape May Records.
+ Leaming & Spicer's Collection.
# Secretary's office, Trenton & Cape May records.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
prietor, partly imbedded in the sand, which has probably lain there since the time of the whalers.
First Court.
At a Court held at Portsmouth (supposed to be Town Bank or Cape May Town) on the 20th March, 1693, which is the first of which we have any record, the following officers were present, viz :- Justices-John Wolredge, Jeremiah Bass," John Jervis, Jo- seph Houlden, and Samuel Crowel. Sheriff-Timothy Brandreth. Clerk-George Taylor. Grand Jury-Shamgar Hand, Thomas Hand, William Goulden, Samuel Matthews, John Townsend, Wil- liam Whitlock, Jacob Dayton, Oliver Johnson, Christopher Leayeman, Arthur Cresse, Ezekiel Eldredge, William Jacocks, John Carman, Jonathan Pine, Caleb Carman, John Reeves, and Jonathan Foreman.
" A rule of Court passed, the grand jury shall have their dinner allowed them at the county charge ;" a rule that would seem reason- able at the present day, when grand jurors have to pay their own bills and serve the county gratis.
" Their charge being given them, the grand jury find it necessary that a road be laid out, most convenient for the king and county, and so far as one county goeth, we are willing to clear a road for travelers to pass." "John Townsend and Arthur Cresse appointed Assessors ; Timothy Brandreth, Collector ; Shamgar Hand, Trea- surer ; Samuel Matthews and William Johnson, Supervisors of the Road ; and John Somers for Egg Harbor. At same Court, John Somers was appointed Constable for Great Egg Harbor." "The Court likewise orders that no person shall sell liquor without a license, and that £40 be raised by tax to defray expenses, with a proviso that produce should be taken at 'money price' in payment." The above appointment by the Court of John Somers for Supervisor
This is supposed to be the same Jeremiah Bass who was agent for the West Jersey Society in 1694 and 5, for Cape May, at which time he resided at Cohansey, and next year at Burlington ; was appointed governor of the State in 1698, and departed for England in 1699. [Mulford, 261.] A Jeremiah Bass figured at Salem from 1710 to 1716, as an attorney ; and a member of the Legislature from Cape May, from 1717 to 1723 : but whether the same, or a relative, is uncertain.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
of the roads and Constable for Great Egg Harbor, confirms the opinion advanced by Mickle (page 38) that the County of Glouces- ter did not originally reach to the ocean, and that the inhabitants of the seaboard, or Great Egg Harbor, were under the jurisdiction of Cape May. The act of 1694, however, made them dependent upon Gloucester, and that of 1710 extended the County of Glouces- ter to the ocean. A passage from Oldmixon, 1708, heretofore quoted, that Cape May County extended to Little Egg Harbor at that time, is evidently incorrect.
The following named persons purchased of the Agents of Dr. Cox and the West Jersey Society, mostly previous to 1696, some few as early as 1689, the number of acres attached to their respective names, viz :-*
Acres.
Acres.
Christopher Leamyeng, 204
William Jacoks,. 340
Henry Stites, 200 -
Abigail Pine, 200
Cornelius Skellinks, 134
Humphrey Hughes,
206
John Richardson, 124
Samuel Matthews, 175
Arthur Cresse, 350
Jonathan Osborne, 110
Peter Causon,.
400
John Causon, .
300
John Townsend, 640
Shamgar Hand,. 700
Wm. Golden & Rem Garretson, .. 1016
Joseph Weldon, (Whilldin). 150
Joseph Houlding, 200
Dorothy Hewit, 340
Thomas Hand, 400
John Taylor,
220
John Curwith, 55
John Shaw, 2 surveys, 315
Timothy Brandreth, 110
John Crawford,
380
Benjamin Godfrey,
210
Ezekiel Eldridge, 90
Oliver Russel, 170
Samuel Crowell, 226
John Carman,. 250
Thomas Gandy
50
Caleb Carman,.
250
William Johnson, .
436
John Page, .
125
John Parsons,
315
William Smith,
130
George Taylor,
175
Dennis Lynch,
300
William Whitlock,
500
Jacob Spicer, 2 surveys, 1000
Randal Hewit,
140
Elizabeth Carman,
300
John Reeves,
100
Benjamin IIand,
373
James Stanfield,
100
Trenton & Cape May Records.
William Mason, 150
Nathaniel Short, 200
Cæsar Hoskins,
250
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Some few of the above locations were made on the sea-shore ; but the larger proportion of them in the lower part of the county. In addition to those who located land previous to 1700, on the fore- going page, the following-named persons had resided, and were then residing in the county, many of whom possessed land by secondary purchase .*
Thomas Leamyeng
Thomas Hand
Alexander Humphries
Joseph Ludlam, Sen. Anthony Ludlam
John Briggs
Abraham Hand
Jonathan Pine
Shamgar Hand, Jr.
John Wolredge
Benjamin Hand, Jr.
John Jervis
Daniel Johnson
Jonathan Foreman
Oliver Johnson
Thomas Goodwin
William Harwood
Jonathan High
Jacob Dayton
Edward Howell
Richard Haroo
George Crawford
Jonathan Crossle
Joseph Badcock -
William Lake
William Dean
Theirs Raynor
Richard Jones
Thomas Matthews
John Howell
William Stillwell
Thomas Stanford
John Cresse
George Noble
Morris Raynor
John Wolly
Joshua Howell
Peter Cartwright
Arthur Cresse, Jr.
Abraham Smith
William Blackburry
John Hubard
Daniel Carman
Thomas Miller
Joseph Knight
Robert Crosby
John Stillwell
John Fish
John Else
Lubbart Gilberson
John Steele
Edward Marshall
* State and County Records.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
James Cresse
Thomas Bancroft
William Simpkins
Edward Summis
Thomas Goodwin
Henry Gray
Thomas Clifton
Abraham Weston
Joshua Carman
Thomas Going
William Duboldy
Jonathan Edmunds
James Marshall
Nicholas Martineau
John Baily
John Garlick
William Richardson
Samuel Matthews, Jr.
Thomas Foster
William Shaw
Thomas Hewit
Robert French
George Taylor, Jr.
Jeremiah Miller
John Dennis
Zebulon Sharp
Isaac Hand
William Sharwood
Daniel Hand
John Story
Jeremiah Hand
Richard Townsend
Joseph Hand
Robert Townsend
The following is from the manuscript of Thomas Leaming, one of the early pioneers, who died in 1723, aged 49 years.
"In July, 1674, I was born in Southampton on Long Island. When I was eighteen years of age (1692) I came to Cape May, and that winter had a sore fit of the fever and flux. The next summer I went to Philadelphia with my father Christopher, who was lame with a withered hand, which held him till his death. The winter following, I went a whaling, and we got eight whales; and five of them we drove to the Hoarkills, and we went there to cut them up, and staid a month. The 1st day of May we came home to Cape May, and my father was very sick, and the third day, 1695, de- parted this life at the house of Shamgar Hand. Then I went to Long Island, staid that summer, and in the winter I went a whaling again, and got an old cow and a calf. In 1696, I went to whaling again, and made a great voyage ; and in 1697, I worked for John Reeves all summer, and in the winter, went to whaling again. In
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
1698, worked for John Crawford and on my own land; and that winter had a sore fit of sickness at Henry Stites'; and in the year 1700, I lived at my own plantation and worked for Peter Corson. I was married in 1701; and 1703 I went to Cohansie, and fetched brother Aaron. In 1706, I built my house. Samuel Matthews took a horse from me worth £7, because I could not train. In 1707, we made the county road."
According to the same author, in the winter of 1713-14, the county came near being depopulated "by a grievous sickness," which carried off between forty and fifty of the inhabitants. "The disease came on with pain in the side, breast, and sometimes in the back, navel, tooth, eye, hand, feet, legs, or ear." Amongst the victims were Nicholas Stillwell, Arthur Cresses, Sen. and Jr., Reu- ben Swain, Richard Smith, Samuel Garretson, Cornelius Hand, Joseph Hewit, William Shaw," John Reeves, Richard Fortesque, John Stillwell, James Garretson, Return Hand, John Foreman, Jedediah Hughes, John Matthews, Daniel Wells, and over twenty others." It can scarcely be conjectured from the above recital of symptoms, what the true character of the disease could have been. It was a severe retribution in a population of some two or three hundred ; and Providence alone, who saw proper to afflict, can solve the mystery.
From second Aaron Leaming's manuscript :----
" My father's father, Christopher Leaming, was an Englishman, and came to America in 1670, and landed near or at Boston ; thence to East Hampton. There he lived till about the year 1691, and then leaving his family at Long Island, he came himself to Cape May, which, at that time, was a new county, and beginning to settle very fast, and seemed to promise good advantages to the adven- turers. Here he went to whaling in the proper season, and at other times worked at the cooper's trade, which was his occupation, and good at the time by reason of the great number of whales caught in
* Aaron Leaming first, afterward married his widow.
177
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
those days, made the demand and pay for casks certain. He died of a pleurisie in 1696. His remains were interred at the place called Cape May Town, was situated next above now New England Town Creek, and contained about thirteen houses; but, on the failure of the whale fishery in Delaware Bay, it dwindled into com- mon farms, and the grave-yard is on the plantation now owned by Ebenezer Newton. At the first settlement of the county, the chief whaling was in Delaware Bay, and that occasioned the town to be built there ; but there has not been one house in that town since my remembrance. In 1734 I saw the graves; Samuel Eldredge showed them to me. They were then about fifty rods from the Bay, and the sand was blown to them. The town was between them and the water. There were then some signs of the ruin of the houses. I never saw any East India tea till 1735. It was the Presbyterian parsons, the followers of Whitefield, that brought it into use at Cape May, about the year 1744-5-6; and now it im- poverisheth the country."
" Aaron Leaming (the first), of the County of Cape May, departed- this life at Philadelphia, of a pleurisie, on the 20th June, 1746, about five o'clock in the afternoon. He was born at Sag, near East- hampton, on Long Island, Oct. 12th, 1687, being the son of Chris- topher Leamyeng (as he spelt his name), an Englishman, and Hester his wife, whose maiden name was Burnet, and was born in New England. Christopher Leamyeng owned a lot at Easthampton, but he came to Cape May, being a cooper, and stayed several years and worked at his trade; and about 1695-6 he died at Cape May, and his land fell to Thomas Leamyeng, his eldest son ; the rest was left poor."
Aaron Leaming was bound to Collins, a shoemaker in Connecticut, but did not serve his time out, and came into the Jerseys at about sixteen years of age, very poor, helpless, and friendless : embraced the Quaker religion, lived a time at Salem, came to Cape May while yet a boy (in 1703), settled at Goshen, raised cattle, bought a 12
178
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
shallop and went by water, gathered a considerable estate, but more knowledge than money. The 12th day of October, 1714, married Lydia Shaw, widow of William Shaw,* and daughter of John Par- sons. By her he had four children, Aaron, Jeremiah, Matthias, and Elizabeth. He was first a justice of the peace at Cape May. In 1723 he was made Clerk of Cape May; and in October, 1727, he was chosen assemblyman, and served in that post till July, 1744. He was universally confessed to have had a superior knowledge; he amassed large possessions, and did more for his children than any Cape May man has ever done. He left a clear estate, and was buried in the church-yard in Philadelphia. At Salem and Alloway's Creek he became acquainted with Sarah Hall, an aged Quaker lady, mother of Clement Hall. She herself was an eminent lawyer for those times, and had a large collection of books, and very rich, and took delight in my father on account of his sprightly wit and genius, and his uncommon fondness for the law, which he read in her library, though a boy, and very small of his age (for he was a little man), and could not write; for the Presbyterians of New England had taken no other care of his education than to send him to meeting."
Aaron Leaming, the author of the foregoing manuscript relating to his father and grandfather, was one of the most prominent and influential men the county ever produced. The family lost nothing in caste through him. He was a heavy land operator, and a member of the Legislature for thirty years. From the manuscript he left behind him, which is quite voluminous, it would appear he was a man of great industry and much natural good sense, well educated for the times, and withal a little tinged with aristocracy ; a trait of character not exceptionable under the royal prerogative. No man ever received greater honors from the county, and none, per- haps, better deserved them. The Legislature selected him, and Jacob Spicer second of our county, to compile the laws of the State,
* William Shaw died in the epidemic of 1713.
1
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
known as " Leaming and Spicer's Collection," a trust they executed to the satisfaction of the State and the people. He was born in 1716, and died in 1780.
Another of the early settlers was William Golden. He emigrated to Cape May in or about 1691. He was an Irishman, and espoused the cause of James against William and Mary, and fought as an officer in the battle of the Boyne, in 1690. As he soon after came to America, he was most likely one of those stubborn Jacobite Catholics that William, in his clemency, gave permission to flee the country, or abide the just indignation of the Protestant authority for the part he took in said battle to promote its downfall. He, with Rem Garretson, located 1,016 acres of land at Egg Harbor, now Beesley's Point. He was one of the justices of the Court, and occupied other prominent stations. He died about 1715, leaving but few descendants ; one of whom, his great grandson, Rem G. Golding, now past eighty years old, lives near the first and original location, and has in his possession at the present time the sword with which his ancestor fought, and the epaulette which he wore at the battle of the Boyne.
Benedict, in his history of the Baptists, says of Nathaniel Jen- kins, who was a Baptist minister, and a member of the Legislature from 1723 to 1733, he " became the pastor of the church in Cape May in 1712. Mr. Jenkins was a Welchman, born in Cardigan- shire in 1678, arrived in America in 1710, and two years after settled at Cape May. He was a man of good parts, and tolerable education, and quitted himself with honor in the Loan office whereof he was trustee, and also in the Assembly, particularly in 1721 (3 ?), when a bill was brought in to punish such as denied the doctrine of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, &c. In opposition to which Mr. Jenkins stood up, and with the warmth and accent of a Welchman said: 'I believe the doctrines in question as much as the promoter of that ill-designed bill, but will never consent to oppose the opposers with law, or with
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
any weapon save that of argument.' Accordingly the bill was sup- pressed, to the great mortification of those who wanted to raise in New Jersey the spirit which so raged in New England."
Col. Jacob Spicer was in the county as early as 1691. He was a member of the Legislature fourteen years, from 1709 to 1723, and Surrogate from 1723 to 1741; and for many years a justice of the Court. It is believed he came over with William Penn, and settled in the upper part of Gloucester a while previous to coming here .* Born in 1668; died, 1741.
His son, Jacob Spicer, deserves a more particular notice. He was born in 1716. We have nothing to guide us in relation to his early days, or until he became a member of the Legislature in 1744, which station he occupied for a period of twenty-one years ; the first in connection with Henry Young, Esq., and afterwards, until his demise, with Aaron Leaming (second) Esq. ; being almost a moiety of the time he lived. He bore a prominent part in the pro- ceedings and business of the House, as the journals of those days fully prove, and received the appointment in connection with Aaron Leaming second to revise the laws of the State ; and "Leaming and Spicer's Collection," the result of their labor, is well known at this day as a faithful exposition of the statutes.f He was a man of exemplary habits, strong and vigorous imagination, and strictly faithful in his business relations with his fellow-men, being punc- tilious to the uttermost farthing, as his diary and accounts fully attest. He carried system into all the ramifications of business ; nothing too small to escape the scrutiny of his active mind, nothing so large that it did not intuitively embrace. He married Judith Hughes, daughter of Humphrey Hughes, Esq., who died in 1747; and in 1751 he married Deborah Leaming, widow of Christopher
* J. Townsend's manuscript.
+ I am more particular to reiterate the fact of his being concerned with Aaron Leaming in the work of compiling the laws, as Mickle, in his Reminiscences, claims the credit of it for Jacob Spicer, of Mullica Hill ; which is no doubt an error, as I have the most indubi- table evidence to the contrary.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Leaming. The written marriage agreement which he entered into with the said Deborah Leaming, before consummating matrimony, is indicative of much sound sense and discriminating judgment. In 1756 he purchased the interest of the "West Jersey Society" in the County of Cape May, constituting what has since been known as the. Vacant Right. In 1762 he made his will of thirty-nine pages, the most lengthy and elaborate testamentary document on record in this or perhaps any other State. He left four children, Sarah, Sylvia, Judith, and Jacob; and it would be curious and in- teresting to trace their descendants down to the present day, whose goodly numbers, on the side of the daughter, are still mostly in the home and county of their ancestor; yet, upon the male side, the name of Spicer has nearly run out, and will soon, in this county, be among the things that were. He died in 1765, aged about forty- nine years, and was buried by the side of his father, in his family ground at Cold Spring; a spot now overgrown with large forest timber.
Henry Stites, ancestor of all in the county of that name, came to the county about or in the year 1691. He located two hundred acres of l'and, including the place now belonging to the heirs of Eli Townsend. He made his mark, yet he afterwards acquired the art of writing, and was justice of the court for a long series of years, being noted such in 1746. He left a son Richard, who resided at Cape Island, and he a son John, from whom the Lower Township Stites' have descended. His son Isaiah, who died in 1767, and from whom the Stites' of the Upper, and part of the Middle Township have de- scended, lived on the places now occupied by his grandsons John and Townsend Stites, at Beesley's Point. The Middle Township Stites', below the Court House, are descendants of Benjamin Stites, who was probably a brother of Henry, and was in the county in 1705.
Nicholas Stillwell, who was a member of the Legislature from 1769 to 1771, was a son of John Stillwell, of Town Bank. He
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
purchased, in 1748, of Joseph Golden, the plantation at Beesley's Point, now owned by Capt. John S. Chattin. After his death, in 1772, the place fell to his son, Capt. Nicholas Stillwell, who after- wards sold to Thomas Borden, who sold, in 1803, to Thomas Bees- ley, who resided on the premises until 1816, and on an adjoining property until his death in 1849.
Capt. Nicholas Stillwell, son of the above, was an efficient officer of the Revolution. Capt. Moses Griffing, who married Sarah, a sister of Capt. Stillwell, was taken prisoner by the British towards the close of the war, and placed in the famous, or rather infamous New Jersey prison ship; that undying stigma upon the name and. fame of Britain, where the dying, the dead, the famished and famish- ing, were promiscuously huddled together. A truthful, yet romantic story could be told of his young wife, who, upon hearing of his un- fortunate imprisonment, true to her plighted vows, and actuated by a heroism which woman's love only can inspire, resolved to visit him and solicit his release, though one hundred miles distant through woods and wilds, marauders and tories, or die in the attempt. She made the camp of Washington in her route, who put under her charge a British officer of equal rank with her husband. She reached New York in safety, and after a long and painful suspense Sir Henry Clinton yielded to her importunities; her husband was exchanged, and both made happy .*
John Willets was the son of Hope Willets, and was born here in 1688, married Martha Corson in 1716, left three sons, Isaac, James, and Jacob. He was Judge of the Court many years, a member of the Legislature in 1743, and was living in 1763.
Among those who deserve a passing notice as one of Cape May's favorite sons, was Nicholas Willets, a grandson of John. In 1802 he took up the profession of surveying, which he practiced with great success, and obtained the confidence and respect of all who knew him, by the sprightly and urbane deportment which he ever
,
* Letter from Jared Griffing to Dr. R. Willets, 1834
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
manifested, together with stern integrity and strict impartiality in his various business relations with his fellow man. It will be seen he was a member of the Legislature nine years, and closed a life of general usefulness in the year 1825, aged about fifty-six years.
These biographical sketches of the pioneers of Cape May, might be extended much further, if the space allotted to the purpose would permit. I must therefore close with the following notices :-
Joseph Ludlam was here in 1692, and made purchases of land on the sea-side, at Ludlam's Run, upon which he afterwards resided; and likewise purchased, in 1720, of Jacob Spicer, a large tract in Dennis's Neck. He left four sons : Anthony (who settled upon the South Dennis property, which is yet owned in part by his descend- ants), Joseph, Isaac, and Samuel, from whom all the Ludlams of the county have descended. He died in 1761, aged eighty-six years .*
John and Peter Corson came about the same time, 1692. The second generation was Peter, Jr., John, Jr., Christian, and Jacob. Peter represented the county in the Assembly in 1707. This family, all of whom are descendants of Peter and John, numbered in the county, at the census of 1850, 295 souls ; 253 of whom belong to the Upper Township, 6 to Dennis, 26 to the Middle, and 10 to the Lower Township.
The Hand family was well represented amongst the early settlers, there being eleven persons of that name previous to 1700.
John Townsend, the ancestor of all of that name now in the county, and of many in Philadelphia and elsewhere, came from Long Island by way of Egg Harbor, in or previous to 1691. He traveled down the sea-shore until he found a spot to suit him, where he cleared land, built a cabin and a grist-mill, and in 1696 located six hundred and fifty acres of land. Capt. Thompson Vangilder now owns the mill site, and a part of the adjacent property, for- merly John Townsend's, upon which he resides. He left three sons, Richard, Robert, and Sylvanus. He was sheriff of the county five
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