USA > New Jersey > The Catholic Church in New Jersey > Part 3
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Once in the hands of a new master, the life of the redemp- tioner was more distasteful than that of a slave. Some owners recognized that their tenure over the life and liberty of the redemp- tioner was brief and uncertain, and, moved by selfish impulses, cruelly overworked their bondsmen. As a result, the redemptioner often performed more degrading work than a slave, and was treated with greater severity. Under such circumstances escapes were frequent, the advertisements in the newspapers described with great particularity the personal appearance and dress of the fugitive. Rewards, usually proportioned to the length of years the redemptioner had to serve, were offered, and from time to time notices appeared in the public prints advising those inter- ested that redemptioners had been taken up and were held in the common jails awaiting proper proofs of ownership.
In the mutations of fortune the position of master and redemp- tioner was occasionally reversed. Upon completing his time a redemptioner would obtain possession of land, and, by successful ventures, become a proprietor. His sons would marry the daugh- ters of his former master, and families in the State trace their genealogies to such alliances. Nor was it uncommon for the redemptioner to secure a position in after-life as one of his Maj- esty's justices, although he seldom aspired to a seat in the House of Assembly, or hoped for a place in council.
These redemptioners were made up of the Irish, the Scotch,
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and some from the German Palatinate, who were offered for sale at the docks of Philadelphia, Egg Harbor City, and elsewhere at from sixty to eighty dollars each, as late as in 1831. This trade introduced a new word into our language-"kidnapper." Of it Bailey, in his dictionary, has this to say: "Kid, formerly one trepanned " (i.e., entrapped) "by kidnappers; now, one who is bound apprentice here (England) in order to be transported to the English colonies in America." Kidnapper, a person who makes it his business to decoy either children or young persons, to send them to the English plantations in America (Historical Magazine, N. Y., June 1871, 399).
The lowest and most degraded engaged in this infamous traffic, and one of them, Capt. William Cunningham, before suffering the death penalty he so richly deserved for his many and fiendish crimes, made a confession, a part of which is :
"In the year 1792 we removed to Newry, where I commenced the profession of scowbanker, which is that of enticing the me- chanics and country people to ship themselves for America, on promise of great advantage, and then artfully getting an indenture upon them in consequence of which, on their arrival in America, they are sold or obliged to serve a term of years for their passage " (Principles and Acts of the Revolution, H. Niles, Baltimore, 1822, p. 274).
"When the Irish emigrants landed on the shores of Virginia, the laws against Catholics obliged them to embark again and set sail for Montserrat, in the West Indies, long known as an Irish colony. Sir George Calvert, also, was excluded from the native State of Washington because he was a Catholic, and for that rea- son founded his colony of Maryland. But amid their persecu- tions some Jesuit Fathers sought to extend around the succours of religion, for some Catholics were even then to be found in Vir- ginia, chiefly as slaves or indentured apprentices-Irish men and women, torn from their native land and sold into foreign bondage. After the struggle of 1541, and the Protestant triumph which en- sued, the Irish Catholics were relentlessly banished, and the State documents of Cromwell's time enable us to reckon from fifty to one hundred thousand forcibly transported to America. The ma- jority were given to the Barbadoes and Jamaica, but a great num- ber of women and children were also sold in Virginia, the men having been pressed into the Protector's navy. In 1652 the com- missaries of the Commonwealth ordered 'Irish women to be sold to merchants and shipped to Virginia,' and these unfortunate fe-
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males, reduced to the condition of slavery as African negroes, sunk in great numbers under the labors imposed upon them by their masters * (De Courcey-Shea's History, p. 158).
The hatred of the Virginia colonists toward Catholics was in- tense, and laws were passed by which no Catholic could hold office, or vote, or keep arms, or own a horse, or even be a witness in any cause, civil or criminal. Papists were driven out of the colony, or out of the fold; and when the Irish emigrants landed on its shores their reception was so hostile that they re-embarked for Montserrat, in the West Indies.
The laws enacted by the first proprietors held out such induce- ments that it was to the interests of shipmasters to bring over as many, and of the colonists to buy as many redemptioners as their means would permit, as it meant for them larger concessions of territory. "We do hereby grant unto all persons who have al- ready adventured to the said Province of Nova Caesarea, or shall transport themselves, 150 acres of land, English measure; and for every able servant he shall carry with him 150 acres; and for every weaker servant or slave, male or female, exceeding the age of fourteen years, seventy-five acres of land; and for every Chris- tian servant, exceeding the age aforesaid, after the expiration of their time of service, seventy-five acres of land for their own use (The Concessions and Agreements of the Lord Proprietors of the Province of Nova Caesarea)."
In the press of the middle of the eighteenth century may be found curious advertisements for such redemptioners who would from time to time take French leave.
Forty Sillings Reward Little Britain Township,
Lancaster County, June, 1769.
Between the Sixth and Seventh day,
Mary Nowland ran away ; Her age I know not but appears
To be at least full twenty years;
The same religion with the Pope. Penn. Gazette, Fune 29, 1769. Sept. 4, 1769.
The Morning of this very day, My servant, John Stoge ran away, He came from Limerick the last fall, He's five feet seven inches tall. 2
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He reads very well and writes a good hand, And arithmetic does well understand, As he can well use the scrivener's tool, He will incline to teach a school.
Penn. Gazette, Sept. 28, 1769.
About three thousand Alsatians came to Pennsylvania by invi- tation of the proprietors in 1682, who, says their historian, "while they were building their homes dwelt in caves and rude huts."
Many of them settled at Haycock on the banks of the Dela- ware, and kept the faith alive across the river in West Jersey. Their descendants found their way as far north as New Bruns- wick, and, unlike many offshoots of sturdy Catholic stock, are still loyal to the religion of their forefathers, and among them to-day are the Witts, Hunridges, and others.
A great deal of stress and an exaggerated importance has been laid by non-Catholic writers on the numbers of Huguenots who came to this country after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 1685, and some claim that as many as half a million were driven from France, and most of them found shelter, refuge, and a wel- come in the colonies from Nova Scotia to Florida.
"Weiss," says Gilmary Shea, "exaggerates beyond all limits the importance of that immigration, and draws an imaginary sketch of the influence exercised on America, by the French Huguenots, in agriculture, literature, politics, arts, sciences, civil- ization, and so forth. We shall be much more in truth's domain when we affirm that the French Catholic families, driven from the West Indies by the frightful consequences of the revolution, and who came to seek peace and liberty in the United States, far ex- ceeded in number the Protestant immigration of the previous cen- tury. Nay, more: Misfortune having purified their faith, these Creoles were distinguished for their attachment to religion, and often became models of American congregations. Without count- ing Martinique and Guadeloupe, the French part of San Domingo contained, in 1793, forty thousand whites. All emigrated to escape being massacred by the blacks. Many mulattoes followed them, and of this mass of emigrants a great part settled in the United States" (De Courcey-Shea's History of Catholics in United States, p. 74). Now and then in some martial achieve- ment, or by the betrayal of some racial weakness, or an outburst of genius and learning-for which the Celt has ever thirsted, and, possessing, has ever been eager to impart to others-there flashes
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forth from the gloom a name, unmistakably indicative of the na- tionality and religion of its bearer. Perchance it is a pursuit, or an exploit, mayhap, the result of a perverted morality, but always a pointer, fixing our attention on the many-sided character of the sons of Erin, whether in commercial enterprises or in the ar- rested development of the better part of his nature, when deprived of the help and aid of religion.
Shortly before the outbreak of the Revolution, Brant and his savages were devastating the settlements in what are now the counties of Warren and Sussex with fire and tomahawk. The hardy pioneers rallied together in common defence, and, armed with their muskets, marched forth to meet the cruel foe; and, near the water of the Minisink, the fierce conflict raged long and doubtful, till at last the Indians fled, leaving on the field many of their dead and wounded. The settlers, too, suffered severely, and among the slain was one Thomas Dunn.
We read again that Christopher Beekman, son of Col. Ger- ardus Beekman, one of Leisler's council-all of whom were pro- nounced guilty of treason, their estates forfeited, and themselves sentenced to be hung-a large land-owner in Somerset County, was united by marriage to Maria Delaney, in New York, January 28th, 1704. Of their eight children four were daughters-Cor- nelia, Magdalene, Maria, and Katherine.
As one rides from Pluckamin toward Somerville there stands an old house near a brook, built in 1756, by Squire Laferty, and known in the old surveys as the "Laferty House." Laferty was an Irish emigrant who lived there with his wife and their daugh- ter Ruth, a handsome girl, but of questionable morals. A fellow- countryman and former friend of the squire once called on him, and was guilty of the heinous offence of wearing his hat in pres- ence of the august upholder of the law. The squire commanded him to remove it. "You gray lampreen," retorted the incensed visitor, "to command me thus! You roasted praties many a time by my fireside when you had no hearth of your own."
Ruth, his daughter, brought sorrow to the family, when the wild, dissolute offspring of an illicit union-handsome and way- ward as his mother-was the first and, to 1873, the only white man ever executed in Somerset County.
The jail. a rickety affair, was in charge of one O'Brien, over six feet tall, a strapping, bold, and fearless man from Virginia.
In this neighborhood lived also at that time John McBride, who came from Ireland late in the eighteenth century, and settled
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in Lamington; and an "old " Mr. Boylen kept a store in Pluck- amin. Others there were connected with tragedies to which, perhaps, they had been driven by their cruel taskmasters.
In 1750 Daniel O'Brien, "who," according to the N. Y. Ga- sette Review in the Weekly Post Boy, "put up at Mr. John Thompson's at the Thistle and Crown, known by the name of 'Scotch Johnney's,' gives notice to 'Gentlemen and Ladies' that he conducts a Stage boat . .. if Wind and Weather permit " from New York to Amboy and thence by stage to Bordentown, where another stage boat runs to Philadelphia. The rates are the same as between New Brunswick and Trenton and "the roads gener- ally drier " (Lee, i., 233).
The broad liberality of the Friends tolerated the presence of Roman Catholics in West Jersey. Among the French servants of Dr. Daniel Coxe, at Cape May, earlier than 1700, there were probably many Catholics.
" It has not been clearly demonstrated that John Tatham, about whose title to the governorship of West Jersey there was dispute, was not a Catholic. Certain it is that his library, which over- looked his famous garden in Burlington, contained books of Cath- olic theology, a rare circumstance, indeed, considering that two centuries had elapsed since any library of a theological partisan was filled with volumes dealing only with one side of the question " (Lee, iii., 319). Tatham, whose name, it appears, was an alias for John Gray, was not only Dr. Coxe's agent, but the owner of lands in Neshanning, Pa. Griffin, in his Researches, says: "We are now satisfied that 'John Gray ye R. C.' was John Tatham whose career was so fully told in October, 1888 (July, 1890, p. 109)."
Of his title to be considered one of the governors of New Jer- sey, an excellent authority says : "So averse were the opponents of the proprietors to the re-establishment of their authority, that for a time the public sentiment was in favor of a continuance of this state of comparatively imperfect organization as a govern- ment. For, on the arrival of Hamilton in England and the death of Governor Barclay, October 3d, 1690, the proprietors appointed John Tatham to be their governor, and subsequently, in 1691, Col. Joseph Dudley, but both nominees the people scrupled to obey, on what ground is not stated (W. A. Whitehead, Coll. N. J. Hist. Soc., i., 2d rev. ed., p. 185).
To Tatham belongs the credit of initiating the pottery indus- try, as he built the first pottery on this side of the Atlantic.
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The inventory of his effects includes, among other things: "Church Plate," I handle cup, I small plate, I box £10. 12; I small case, £1. 2. 6; I universal dial; I round armed silver cruci- fix; I plate of St. Dominique, I small silver box with reliques, I wooden cross with image of Christ, £1. 12. In his library were: " Pontifical Rome," Sir Thomas More's works, "Liturgy of Ye Mass," "Faith Vindicated," "Theologia Naturalis," "No Cross, No Crown," "Consideration of Ye Council of Trent," "Necessity of the Church of God," "Bibli Vulgati," "A Survey of Ye New Religion," "The Following of Christ," "Theologia Moralis," " Office of Ye Blessed Virgin" in French, "A Mass of Pious Thoughts," "Ambrosia Officia," "Defence of Catholic Faith." There were four hundred and seventy-eight volumes by actual count, mostly with Latin titles, treating of church discipline, com- mentaries on the Scripture, law, logic, theology, controversy, his- tory, medicine, music, astronomy, and kindred subjects.
The spirit of intolerance outlined in the Instructions of Queen Anne was not soon allayed; and the so-called Negro Plot of 1741 gave the fanatics an opportunity to show their spleen against the Catholic Church, and to accentuate how criminally unjust even educated men may be when they permit themselves to be swayed by passion and bigotry. All this is evident in the trial and con- viction of John Ury, about whose priestly character there has been much contention. Despite the opinion of Bishop Bayley to the contrary, it seems to be about certain that he was a Catholic priest.
John Ury, a priest, began teaching school in Burlington, N. J., June 18th, 1739, and remained there twelve months. After a while he went to New York, engaged again in teaching, and received his board gratis (Horsemanden's Account of Negro Plot, 1744). During his stay it appears that he celebrated Mass pri- vately in his room, first locking the door to ensure privacy. There is also evidence that he administered infant baptism. In April, 1741, he was engaged to teach school by John Campbell, and resided with him. In Campbell's house he had a private room, in which Father Ury had erected a temporary altar, and in it he gathered a number of persons, to whom he preached, and for whom, no doubt, he offered the holy Sacrifice; but he was ever careful not to expose himself to the severe legal penalties by appearing in the garb of a priest or noisily exercising his priestly office. He lived in so much obscurity, his conduct was so blame-
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less, and his deportment 'so humble, that he escaped censure, although he was known to not a few as a Catholic priest. The so-called Negro Plot, in 1741, enkindled the passions of the mul- titude and gave rise "to confusion and alarm, to folly, frenzy, and injustice, which scarcely has a parallel in this or any other country " (American Colonial Trials, Peleg W. Chandler, Boston, 1844). The result of this delusion was the hanging of four whites, the burning of eleven and the hanging of eighteen negroes, and the transportation to the West Indies to be sold as slaves of fifty.
The examinations and trial had gone on for three months without any attempt to connect Father Ury with the plot. On the flimsiest kind of testimony, all the accused, together with John Ury, whose principal offence was his "being a priest, made by the authority of the pretended See of Rome "-" the heinous- ness of this prisoner's offences, and of the Popish religion in gen- eral"-were condemned, and Ury was hanged.
Campbell, who wrote the Life and Times of Archbishop Car- roll, is of the opinion that Ury was a Catholic priest, but Bishop Bayley differs from him and thinks that he was a non-juror (Hist. C. C. on Island of N. Y., p. 46) ..
In the centennial sermon preached by Father Clarke at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, the preacher stated Mass had been celebrated in the City of Brotherly Love as early as 1686, but there is no evidence that any chapel was built there prior to 1733, when its Catholic population amounted to forty persons. The summer of 1732 was very hot, and the winter of 1732-33 very severe. In the spring of 1733 Father Greaton, who had been visiting the Catholics of Philadelphia as early as 1720, was sent to build a chapel and take up his permanent residence within its limits. Although the land was bought from John Dixon and his wife Mary, there is no other name than that of "Mary" on the legal transfer from the original patent in 1701-02; and thus it happened that the first Catholic church in Philadelphia was erected on Mary's land, and placed under the patronage of St. Joseph.
A certain Jacob Duche gives the following pen description of the chapel: Mr. Harding was so obliging as to invite nfy friend, the merchant, and myself to spend an hour with him in his little Carthusian cell, as he called it. This small apartment adjoins an old Gothic chapel, and together with another opposite to it (which is occupied by an assistant German priest, viz., Father Farmer) forms a kind of porch, through which you enter the chapel (January. 14th, 1772).
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Father Greaton's congregation was made up of twenty-two Irish and the rest Germans. This good priest labored among his little flock, with occasional assistance from Maryland, until 1741, when the Rev. Henry Neale arrived from Maryland in the month of March, having been prevented from coming earlier by the deep snows of the winter. He found the good repute of the Catholics somewhat exaggerated, yet "the congregation a growing one "; but that one priest was as yet sufficient, an assistant being needed
OLD ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. " Whence radiated the living streams of grace " (page 23).
for the country Catholics, some of whom lived sixty miles away. They "were very poor and most of them are servants or poor tradesmen."
St. Joseph's was the first parish house of Catholicity in Penn- sylvania, New Jersey, and New York for at least fourscore years. This was the centre whence radiated the living streams of grace to wherever a faithful child of the Church was found, and by its faithful, saintly priests was fostered and nourished the little mus- tard seed now grown into so noble and stately a tree. The old church is a shrine worthy of our veneration, for underneath its altars are buried the earthly remains of those "who sowed in
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tears, that we might reap with joy." Father Greaton remained at his lonely post until 1750. His successor, the Rev. Robert Harding, came to this country from England in 1732. When he arrived in Philadelphia, August, 1749, it was a city of two thou- sand homes.
· Father Harding "is the first priest to have visited New Jersey, whose labors could not have been prior to 1762" (De Courcey- Shea). This is hardly accurate, for we have seen that other priests had visited and exercised their sacred ministry in Eliza- bethtown and Woodbridge at the close of the seventeenth cen- tury, and very likely at a much later period. Father Harding died September 2d, 1772, in the seventieth year of his age, and is buried under the altar of St. Mary's.
The priest of that venerable sanctuary most closely identified with Catholicity in New Jersey was the Rev. Ferdinand Farmer, whose family name was Steinmeyer. This truly apostolic man and devoted and indefatigable missionary was born at Swabia, Germany, October 13th, 1720. He entered the Company of Jesus at Landerperge, September 26th, 1743, and was selected for the China Mission; but the "finger of God " intervened and the young priest was sent to this country. No picture of him is ex- tant; but we are told that he was "of slender form, having a countenance mild, gentle, and bearing an expression almost seraphic."
It appears that he arrived in Philadelphia in 1758, and from that time until he was called to his reward, August 17th, 1786, he was untiring in his labors for the salvation of souls.
Every spring and every autumn saw him starting off on his journey along the Delaware River, across country to Long Pond (now Greenwood Lake), Mount Hope, Macopin, New York City, Basking Ridge, Trenton, and Salem.
While good Father Farmer was one of the first apostles who spent himself in carrying the comforts of religion to the little com- munities scattered over New Jersey, he was by no means the first missionary priest, nor, after his death, were the Catholics totally abandoned. The names of these zealous, godly men are blotted out with their heroic deeds, but they are graven in the Book of Life. It is nigh impossible for us to realize the perils, discom- forts, and risks they encountered in their journeyings.
The roads, at best, were only paths and Indian trails, of which one led from Philadelphia to Delaware Falls, now Trenton, north- easterly to Indian's Ferry, now New Brunswick, thence to Eliza-
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FATHER FARMER.
One of " these men of God, sometimes on horseback, . . . trudging through the forests . . . welcomed as an angel sent from God " (page 26).
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bethtown, where wayfarers were carried by boat to New York. From a point near Rahway another trail, starting from Navesink, on the Shrewsbury River, led to Minisink Island, in the extreme north, in the Delaware River. In West Jersey a road extended from Trenton to Crosswicks, thence to Burlington, to Trenton, to Salem, and later to Cohanzy Bridge, now Bridgeton. But be- tween New Brunswick and Trenton lay a narrow waste of thirty miles of country, which, owing to the unpleasant relations between the two sections, remained for a long time a barrier which barred communication. Through this wilderness was an Indian trail, along or near which the Legislature of 1795 ordered a road to be constructed. Picture, then, these men of God, sometimes on horseback, sometimes afoot, with their sack strapped across their back, containing the altar-stone, vestments, chalice, and wine for the Sacrifice, trudging through the forests, over mountains, cross- ing streams and rivers in the rude "dugouts," picking their way through the swamps, at times wet to the skin by the tempests which overtook them, again almost prostrated by the intolerable heats, resting under the shelter of the trees or in some rude cabin, perhaps of one hostile to their faith, or in the humble home of an exiled child of the Church, who welcomed them as an angel sent from God. "I remember," said Bishop McQuaid, "one of my visits to Franklin Furnace. While driving along the wretched road I remarked a dilapidated stone house, and, hearing the noise of my buggy, a woman came to the door. I greeted her, as I always did those I met, and I suspected from her accent that she was Irish. I soon learned that she was both Irish and a Catholic and that she kept boarders. There were three rooms in the house-a kitchen, and two others which served as bedrooms. After I saw that my horse was cared for, I asked if she could accommo- date me for the night. She showed me a room in which were two beds, and pointing to one she informed me that I could sleep in it, and her sister and herself would sleep in the other. For supper we had some soggy bread. Afterward I heard confessions, and then went to the bed assigned to me; but the odors were too much for me, and I returned to the kitchen, saying that I would read my office. I was a long time at that office, and meanwhile the tallow-dip was growing smaller. A thought flashed across my mind. I went out to my buggy, and, wrapping myself in the horse-blankets, passed the night tolerably well. Morning came, bright and early, I heard more confessions, began Mass, preached a sermon, as I always did, rubbing it into them that though iso-
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