The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 124

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220

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erty still remains. The Coles are a numerous family, and although many have emigrated, there still remains many of the name within the town- ship. It is upon a portion of the Coles tract that St. Mary's Church, the first Episcopal Church in West Jersey, was erected about the year 1703, and it still remains in a good state of preservation. The history of this ancient edifice is deserving of a more extended notice, and will be found in another chapter.

One of the earliest settlers in what is now Dela- ware township was Thomas Howell, who, although not of the Dublin colony, yet, in 1675, purchased part of a share of the propriety in West Jersey of Benjamin Bartlett, whose wife, Gracia, was a daughter of Edward Byllinge. Howell resided in Staffordshire, England. He came to this country and located a tract of six hundred and fifty acres of land, in 1682, on the north side of Coopers Creek, in Waterford (now Delaware) township, which "included what is generally known as the Jacob Troth farm on the east, and extended down that stream nearly one mile, and back into the woods about the same distance." Upon this tract, which he called "Christianity," he built a house, in which he lived the short time he was in the settlement. The next year, 1683, he, with Samuel Coles, represented the territory which a few years later became Waterford township, and, with Mark Newbie and others from Newton township, repre- sented the Third (or Irish) Tenth in the Legisla- ture of the State. The house in which he lived is supposed to have been near the creek, on the Bar- ton farm. He located other lands in Gloucester County, which soon after passed to others, as he died in 1687. Before his death he conveyed one hundred acres of the land on Coopers Creek to Richard Wright (whose son John married Eliza- beth Champion). He settled upon it and left it to his son John, who, in 1691 and 1693, purchased other lands of the Howell survey and adjoining land, later owned by John Champion, his father- in-law. His family consisted of his wife, three sons-Samuel, Daniel (married Hannah Lakin, in 1686) and Mordecai-and three daughters,- Priscilla (married Robert Stiles), Marion (married Henry Johnson) and Catharine. His children were born in England, and his wife, Catharine, did not come to this country during his life-time, but, in 1693, was a resident of Philadelphia. Samuel, the eldest son, remained in England, Daniel came into possession of the homestead, and in 1687, the year of his father's death, he sold to Mordecai two hundred and fifty acres of land, with the build- ings, on Coopers Creek. In 1688 he conveyed one

hundred acres of the homestead to Moses Lakin, probably a brother of his wife, and, in 1690, sixty acres of the same tract to Josiah Appleton, adjoining other lands of John and Richard Appleton, at a place then called "Appletown," a little village entire- ly lost. In 1691 Daniel moved from Coopers Creek to a place near Philadelphia, which he called Hartsfield, and after a short residence removed to Stacy's Mills, at the falls of the Delaware, around which the city of Trenton was afterwards built. He hecame, with Mahlon Stacy, one of the first and most active residents of that now thriving city.

Mordecai Howell, son of Thomas, was one of the witnesses in the controversy between the Penns and Lord Baltimore. He says he came to America in 1682, and ascended the Delaware River in com- pany with the ship that brought William Penn, in November, 1682. After his father's death, in 1687, he returned to England and resided there three years. The ancestral home at Tamworth, in Staf- fordshire, in the division of the estate, was left to Daniel, who subsequently passed it to his brother, Mordecai, who retained it. He returned to this country in 1690, and lived on the homestead prop- erty on Coopers Creek. In 1697 he sold it to Henry Franklin, a bricklayer, of New York, who did not move to the place, but, May 13, 1700, sold it to John Champion, of Long Island, who settled upon it. The farm contained three hundred and thirty acres and was named "Livewell," probably changed from "Christianity " by Mordecai Howell, who resided there several years. In 1687 Thomas Howell, the father, erected a dam on Coopers Creek, probably with a view of building a mill. He was indicted by the grand jury for obstructing the stream, and abandoned the work. His son Mordecai, a few years later, built a saw-mill at the mouth of a small branch that emptied into Coop- ers Creek. This mill in time came to John Cham- pion, and was in use many years. He became largely interested in real estate in Gloucester Coun- ty, and, in 1702, bought of Henry Treadway the Lovejoy survey, an account of which will be found in the history of Haddonfield borough. Lovejoy was a blacksmith, and a tract of land now in Del- aware township, on the north side of Coopers Creek, where the Salem road crossed that creek, which he obtained for his services from the Richard Mathews estate, was named by him "Uxbridge," probably from a town of that name in Middlesex, England. Mordecai Howell located a tract of fifty acres of land adjoining and below the present Evans mill. It does not appear that he was ever married, and that about 1706 he removed to Chester County, Pa.

719

THE TOWNSHIP OF DELAWARE.

The widow of Thomas Howell, in 1693, then a resident of Philadelphia, conveyed to Henry Johnson (who about that time married her daugh- ter Marian) eighty eight acres of land, on which he settled, and where for a generation his family also resided.

Gabriel Thomas, writing in 1698, says of Robert Stiles, who married Priscilla Howell: " The trade of Gloucester County consists chiefly in pitch, tar and rosin, the latter of which is made by Robert Stiles, an excellent artist in that sort of work, for he delivers it as clear as any gum arabick."

He settled on the north side of the south branch of Pensaukin Creek on land now owned by Samuel Roberts, where he died in 1728, leaving two sons, Robert and Ephraim, from whom the family of that name descend. Thomas Howell by will bequeathed to Priscilla one hundred acres of the homestead property, which herself and husband, in 1690, conveyed to Mordecai.

William Cooper was the first settler of the name at Coopers Point (now Camden), of whom a full ac- count will be found in the early settlement of that city. In the latter part of his life he conveyed all his land at Pyne or Coopers Point to his sons and retired to a tract of land containing four hundred and twenty-nine acres, which he located in 1685, it being in the township of Waterford) now Dela- ware), where he built a house and about 1708 moved to the place.

A part of the house is still standing, being a portion of the homestead of Benjamin B. Cooper, and afterwards the property of Ralph V. M. Cooper (deceased). To this house he removed, but not long to remain, as he died in 1710. The funeral party went on boats down Coopers Creek to the river, thence to Newton Creek and up the latter to the old grave-yard. William Cooper left a large family and his descendants still hold some of the original estate in the city of Camden, which has followed the blood of the first owners from genera- tion to generation for nearly two hundred years. Alexander Cooper and his son, Richard M., lineal descendants, are the only ones of the name now residing in the township, although not upon these lands.

William Cooper, in 1687, located five hundred and seventy-two acres of land, now in Delaware township. This came to his son Joseph and later to his grandson Joseph. He had a daughter Mary, who married Jacob Howell. She died young, but left two daughters, Hannah and Mary ; the former married John Wharton, and the latter, in 1762, married Benjamin Swett. They lived upon these lands, which in old records are designated as the

Wharton and Swett tracts. The Wharton farm includes the farm now owned by Mrs. Abby C. Shinn, widow of Charles H. Shinn, On this farm stands an old house, built prior to 1728, at which time it was occupied by George Ervin, a tenant of Joseph Cooper.

Other farms on the original survey are owned by Charles H. and Robert T. Hurff, Edward W. Coffin, Montgomery Stafford and others. Benja- min Swett, to whose wife part of this survey de- scended, built a saw-mill on a stream running through it, and his son, Joseph C. Swett, subse- quently built a grist-mill on the same site. This was carried away by a freshet, and another erected, which was burned a few years since.

Daniel Cooper, the youngest son of Daniel (the son of William), settled on a tract of land, in 1728, on the south side of the north branch of Coopers Creek. This was a survey of five hundred acres made by William Cooper in 1687, and is now di- vided into several valuable farms. The dwelling of Daniel Cooper was on the plantation formerly owned and occupied by William Horten, deceased. In the old titles Daniel is called a "drover," which calling he perhaps connected with his farm- ing operations and derived some profit therefrom.

In connection with the Cooper family, it might not be out of place to call attention to the har- mony which seems to have always prevailed be- tween the early settlers of Gloucester County and their Indian neighbors. There are no traditionary tales of night attacks, wars, massacres and pillage, as are found in the histories of almost all the other colonies; this is attributable, no doubt, in a great measure, to the settlers being largely composed of the Society of Friends, whose peaceful propensi- ties soon won the confidence of these children of the forest, and their treaties, like that of Penn, were never broken. It is a singular coincidence that, as the Coopers settled among the Indians of the county, so the last of the aborigines died upon the land of the Coopers, on the farm lately owned by Benjamin D. Cooper, in Delaware township. This Indian was well-known to many of the pres- ent generation, and was found dead in an old hay barrack, one morning in December, where he had no doubt sought to spend the night after one of his drunken revelries. He was buried in a corner of an apple orchard, on the farm which ever after- ward and still is known as the Indian Orchard. This grave is in a good state of preservation.1 It is located near a corner to the lands now owned by

1 The writer of this sketch, in company with a colored boy by the name of Josephi M. Johnsou, remounded the grave on Thanksgiving Day, 1884.

720

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Samuel Coles, Geo. W. Moore and the heirs of Sarah A. C. Lee (formerly Cooper).

The family of Champions were at Hempstead, L. I., in 1673, where John and Thomas and their families resided. On the 13th of May, 1700, Henry Franklin conveyed to John Champion, of Hempstead, L. I., a tract of three hundred acres of land on the north side of Coopers Creek, in Waterford township (now Delaware), to which place he removed. Part of this estate is what is now known as the Barton farm, and upon which stood the residence of John Champion; this was near where one of the roads crossed Coopers Creek in going from Burlington to Philadelphia. The difficulty of getting travelers across the creek led to the establishment of a ferry, a license for which was granted by the grand jury of Gloucester County, and the charges fixed.

The coming of John Champion to West Jersey was, no doubt, caused by his daughter Elizabeth marrying John Wright, a son of Richard Wright, who had purchased land there of Thomas Howell. In 1691 and 1693 the son John increased his possessions hy purchasing adjoining tracts from Thomas Howell's heirs. In 1718 John Champion divided his landed estate between his sons Rob- ert and Nathaniel, by a line running from the creek into the woods, and made each a deed dated April 24th. His other children were Thomas and Phobe. He died in 1727. Robert Champion had one son, Peter, who, in 1740, married Hannah Thackara ; she deceased and he married Ann Ellis, a daughter of William, a son of Simeon Ellis, in 1746, by whom he had one son, Joseph. Peter Champion died in 1748, and his widow, Ann, married John Stokes, and after his demise she married Samuel Murrell, 1761. By each marriage she had children. Joseph Champion, the issue of the second marriage of Peter, married Rachel Collins, a daughter of Samuel Collins and Rosanna (Stokes), in 1771. By this marriage he had three sons-Samuel C., William C. and Joseph-and a daughter, Mary. Rachel Champion died January 7, 1783, when her youngest child, Joseph C., was but two weeks old. Joseph married Rachel Brown, of Springfield, Burlington County, in the spring of 1784. By this marriage he had three sons and one daughter. Ann Ellis, the wife of Peter Cham- pion, inherited a tract of land on both sides of the Moorestown and Haddonfield road, now owned by the heirs of William Morris Cooper and Samuel M. Heulings, a lineal descendant of Simeon Ellis, through the Murrells on his mother's side. Joseph C. Champion, the son of Joseph Champion, married Sarah Burrough, daughter of

John Burrough, in 1809. His children were Ann W., who married Joseph Ellis; Chalkley Collins, who married Christiana Geading, of Philadelphia, and died in 1866; William Cooper, married Rebecca F., daughter of Benjamin Howey (he died in 1879) ; Elizabeth R., married George G. Hatch in 1836 (he died in 1842, leaving her with three children ; the oldest one, Charles, was a soldier in the Union army during the entire War of the Rebellion); John B., married Keturah Heulings in 1850 (he died in 1884, without issue); Mary M., married William Yard, of Philadelphia, in 1852 (he died in 1862, no issue) ; Benjamin M., married Mary Ann, the daughter of General William Irick, of Burlington County ; Joseph, died single in 1829; Emily, died young; Samuel C. Champion, a twin brother of Richard B. Champion, never married; Richard B. married Mary G. Kay, in 1855. He has three children-Marietta K., Sarah J. and Isaac K .- who reside in Camden. The name is now extinct in the township. Joseph C. Champion died January 28, 1847 ; his widow, Sarah Champion, died July 12, 1860. Samuel C. was a hlacksmith, and plied his calling at Coles- town, on the property lately the residence of George T. Risdon, but now owned by Watson Ivins, adjoining the farm of Thomas Roberts.

Francis Collins, of whom a full account will be found in Haddon township, where he resided, soon after his settlement, in 1682, located five hundred acres of land fronting on the north side of Coopers Creek, in what is now Delaware township, a part of which he afterwards conveyed to his son Francis, who, in 1718, sold it to Jacob Horner. It is now the estate of William C. Wood. Francis Collins, the father, in 1720, conveyed two hundred acres of the tract to Samuel Shivers, a part of which is yet in the family name.

Francis Collins also located land north of Coopers Creek, as the first purchase of John Kay was land from Francis Collins, which he afterward sold to Simeon Ellis, and embraced the farm of Samuel C. Cooper, now occupied by Jesse L. Anderson, in Delaware township, and in 1689 Thomas Shackle bought land of Francis Collins a little north of Ellisburg, which became the property of John Burrough in 1735, and is now owned by Amos E. Kaighn. In 1691 Simeon Ellis purchased two hundred acres of land from Francis Collins, which lay upon both sides of the King's Highway, and was a part of a tract of eight hundred acres conveyed in 1687 to Samuel Jen- nings and Robert Dimsdale (the latter his son-in- law), as trustees for his daughter Margaret, and a part of which became the property of Margaret

721

THE TOWNSHIP OF DELAWARE.

Hugg (a daughter of Francis Collins), who sold the same to Simeon Ellis in 1695. It included the town of Ellisburg and several surrounding farms. In 1705 William Matlack purchased two hundred acres of land of Francis Collins, in Waterford township, near the White Horse Tavern, lying on both sides of the south branch of Coopers Creek. In 1691 Thomas Atkinson purchased a large tract of land of Francis Collins, in Waterford (now Delaware) township, on Coopers Creek, of which he sold Ed- ward Burrough one hundred and seven acres in 1693.

The Burroughs 1 were among the first members of the Society of Friends, and came from War- wickshire, England, where they suffered in com- mon with others of their religious belief, prominent among whom was Edward Burrough, of Underbar- row, the defender and expounder of the doctrines of the Society of Friends, and who preached these doctrines to the people, he and a companion (Francis Howgill) being the first Friends to visit London. In 1654 he was mobbed in the city of Bristol for preaching to the people, and cast into prison in Ireland for a like offence, and finally banished from the island. After Charles the Sec- ond came to the throne he obtained a personal in- terview with the King, and procured an order from him to prevent the persecution of Friends in New England, which order the Friends in London for- warded by a ship that they had chartered specially for that purpose at the expense of three hundred pounds. Edward Burrough again visited Bristol in 1662 and held several meetings there, and when bidding adieu to the Friends he said : "I am going up to London again to lay down my life for the Gospel, and suffer amongst Friends in that place." He accordingly visited London, and while preach- ing to the people at a meeting at the Bull and Mouth, he was arrested and cast into Newgate Prison, where many Friends were then confined. This was about the last of the Third Month ; his case was several times before the courts, and he was finally fined and ordered to lay in prison until the fine was paid. The payment of a fine for such a cause being contrary to his religious belief, he preferred to suffer, rather than yield his principles. The pestilential air of the prison soon preyed

1 The name Borrough, in books on heraldry, is recorded as Burg, and De Bourg was the family name of William the Conqueror's father, and it is from a brother of William the Conqueror that a branch of the family claim direct descent. Whether these claims are strictly true will probably never be ascertained, but it is evident that the family was a numerous one in Englaod at a very early day. The present record of the family extends hack to the beginning of the seven- teenth century, when they came prominently before the people as the followers of George Fox and expounders of the doctrines of the Society of Friends.

upon his health, and, although young and of robust physique, he sickened and died in Newcastle Prison Twelfth Month 14, 1662, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. There is no record of his being mar- ried or of his ever coming to America.

John Burrough was born in the year 1626, and was imprisoned in Buckinghamshire in 1660, and Joseph Burrough suffered the same injustice in Essex during the same year. The son and daugh- ter of William Burrough were maltreated in War- wickshire while on their way to Banbury Meeting. These facts are mentioned to show that the family was numerous in England and mostly Friends. They soon after came to America and settled on Long Island, where John Burrough is first men- tioned as being assessed there in September, 1675. Between that date and 1689 John, Jeremiah, Jo- seph and Edward Burrough were all located on Long Island. In 1688 John Burrough came to Gloucester County, N. J., and located near Timber Creek. In 1693 Edward Burrough located a tract in Delaware township (then Waterford) which em- braced the farm now owned by Joseph K. Hillman. He remained only a few years, when it is thought he removed to Salem. This tract of land was held by those of the family name for many years, and until Elizabeth Burrough, a daughter of John, married Samuel Matlack, whose descendants still hold portions of the land. Samuel Burrough, a son of John, was born in 1650, and was the third person of that name that came into Old Glouces- ter County. He is first noticed at the little town of Pensaukin. On November 16, 1698, he pur- chased three hundred acres of land from Joseph Heritage, in Waterford township. He first mar- ried Hannah Taylor, a daughter of John Taylor, and afterwards married Hannah Roberts, daugh- ter of John and Sarah Roberts, on the 27th day of the Tenth Month, 1699. They had nine children. Samuel, the oldest, was born Ninth Month 28, 1701, and in 1723 married Ann Gray, a daughter of Rich- ard and Joanna Gray. In 1703 his father pur- chased the farm of Richard Bromly, containing two hundred acres of land, and it was upon this farm and in the dwelling erected by Richard Bromly, that Samuel Burrough and Ann Gray removed soon after their marriage. This farm is now owned by Charles Collins and the house above-mentioned was torn down in 1845. Samuel and Ann had nine children. Joseph, the fifth child, erected the house, in 1761, now owned by Edward Burrough, on a part of the Richard Bromly tract adjoining the homestead. Joseph married, first, Mary Pine; second, Kesiah Parr (widow of Samuel Parr) and whose maiden-name was Aaronson ; third, Lydia

722

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Strech, another widow, whose maiden-name was Tomlinson. He had one son, William, by the first wife and two sons, Joseph and Reuben, by the second wife. Joseph married Martha Davis, a daughter of David and Martha Davis, in 1792, and succeeded his father in the occupancy of the house he built in 1761. They had seven children. Joseph Aaronson Burrough, the fourth child, was born Ninth Month 9, 1802. In 1824 he married Anna Lippincott, daughter of Samuel and Anna Lippincott, of Evesham, by whom he had seven children. Samuel L. Burrough, being the oldest, still owns, and his only son, Joseph A. Burrough, now occupies a portion of the old homestead tract. The house in which he dwells, by a singular coin- cidence, was built by his grandfather, after whom he was named, in 1861, just one hundred years af- ter that built by the first Joseph, from whom it has regularly descended. The present dwelling of Samuel L. Burrough, erected in 1885, stands on a part of the old Spicer tract, acquired from the Rudderows by his father. Joseph A. Burrough, after the death of his first wife, married Mary H., another daughter of Samuel and Anna Lippin- cott, being a sister of his first wife, for which of- fence they were both disowned from membership with the Society of Friends. By this wife were born to him six children, only two of whom lived to attain their majority,-Edward, who married Emily Collins, a lineal descendant of Francis Collins, and Mary L., who married Henry Troth, neither of whom have any descendants. Edward Burrough still owns and occupies the farm and dwelling erected by his ancestors in 1761, being the fifth generation to whom it has descended. This farm was surrounded by heavy timber, with the exception of one field, which bordered on the King's Highway, leading from Camden to Mount Holly, and during the Revolutionary period was resorted to by the American army as a pasturage for their cattle during the occupancy of Philadel- phia by the British. This farm was selected for that purpose on account of its being so surrounded by timber as to afford a hiding-place from the pa- trols that were sent out by Lord Howe to destroy the American supplies, and has ever since borne the name of Woodland Farm. The British were evi- dently informed that cattle were in this vicinity, and a detachment was sent out to capture them, who fortunately took the road to Medford and thus missed their prize, for they were immediately driven to Cumberland County, and were, no doubt, a part of the stores over which the action at Greenwich Point was fought. During the period of the battle at Red Bank the kitchen of this old

homestead was made the rendezvous of the Amer- ican scouts, and, notwithstanding the religious principles of the occupants, these scouts seemed to find no fault or objection to the reception that always awaited them, and many interesting anec- dotes have been handed down to succeeding gen- erations. These members of the Burrough family and David A. Burrough, another lineal descend- ant, being a son of David Davis Burrough, a younger brother of Joseph Aaronson Burrough, and who resides on the farm acquired by Joseph Burrough from his wife, Martha Davis, are all of the name now residing in Delaware township. The family is by no means extinct, members of it being located in nearly every county in West Jer- sey, and are found in Pennsylvania, Maryland and other States.

Much of the land owned by the Burroughs in Delaware township was covered by dense forests of large oak timber and large quantities of ship and building lumber were cut and sawed on the es- tate at a saw-mill built by Joseph Burrough, on the farm now owned by Edward Burrough. The loca- tion of this mill was near the Pensaukin Creek, at the junction of two small streams that flow through the farm, which at that time were a never-failing source of power. This mill was burnt down during the early part of the present century, and was re- built by his son Joseph, who had inherited that part of the estate, and cut much fine lumber. Iu 1816 a cyclone passed through a portion of his tim- ber, on the land now owned by the heirs of Joseph C. Stoy (deceased). The track of the cyclone was not over one hundred yards in width. The timber uprooted by the storm consisted of large white oaks, which were sold to the ship-yards in Philadelphia. Among the trees uprooted was a white oak just the shape of a ship's keel and seventy-four feet long; it was hewed in the woods and drawn to Coopers Creek by seventeen horses, under the management of Jacob Troth, where it was floated down the creek to Philadelphia and used as the keel of the United States sloop-of-war." Seventy- Four," from which circumstance the vessel was named. The value of the wood and lumber at that day was greater than at present, a proof of which is evident from the fact that the cord-wood ent from the tops of these blown-down white oaks was sold at the landing on Coopers Creek for twelve hundred dollars. In 1836 a severe rain-storm ou- curred, which so flooded the streams that nearly every mill-dam in the township was destroyed, among them the dam of the pond above referred to,which has never been rebuilt, although much of the dam is still standing, and in a good state of

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 124

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220