The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 4

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

USA > New Jersey > Camden County > The history of Camden county, New Jersey > Part 4

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1633 De Vries found the Indians in pos- session of the post. The Walloons, whom they had placed there, had returned to Manhattan, (New York), having been taken off by one of the vessels which the Dutch annually sent around from New York Bay. Van Twiller,

1 Dr. Mulford's " History of New Jersey " makes it appear that about the time of Hendrick's voyage to the Delaware, Mey made a similar trip from New Amster- dam, and then named the Cape, but there is no evidence that he landed at any point, and he certainly made no attempt to found a settlement.

2 See history of Gloucester City.

then the Governor of the New Netherlands, restored the fort and was accused of incur- ring extravagaut expenses in this reconstrue- tion. The Dutch made some use of it for trading purposes notil 1650 or 1651, when they concluded that it was too far up the river to be of much value and so destroyed the stockades and buildings, Van Twiller ordering Commissary Arent Corssen to select the site for another structure on the river. In 1635 it was attacked by the English, who failed to capture it from its vigorous Dutch defenders. The Swedes repeatedly denied that the Dutch had any fort on the Delaware in 1638, but against their assertions can be

DAVID PIETERSEN DE VRIES.

placed the Dutch accounts of expenditure for the maintenance of Fort Nassan charged for that year in the West India Company's books. There was certainly enough of a garrison iu the fort to report at once and pro- test against the Swedish settlement at Chris- tiana in April, 1638. Four years later the garrison consisted of twenty men and the fort was continually occupied thenceforward until the Dutch destroyed it.

The exact site of this historic place is not determinable and the original Indian name of the spot cannot be given, but among the tribes who surrounded it were the Arwames, who hunted game and took fish where are now the towns and farms of Camden County.

The claims of the Hollanders upon West

EARLY COLONIAL HISTORY.

New Jersey was weakened because they had more important business to attend to. The fur trade of the Delaware had dwindled into insignificance in comparison with the splen- did spoils of conquest upon the sea and in South America. The West India Company in two years paid a dividend of fifty per cent. from the capture by its ships, which were duly commissioned as men-of-war, of Spanish silver-laden galleons. It was the era of Dutch supremacy on the ocean ; the era also in which the canny and brave Hol- landers invaded South America and, after the capture of Bahia and Pernambuco, in Bra- zil, aspired to the conquest of the whole continent. The neglect to cultivate the field open to them on the Delaware brought about very momentous consequences, one of which was no less than the entrance of the Swedes. William Usselincx, the founder of the company, was one of its very few mem- bers who did not lose sight of the rich op- portunities on the Delaware in the successes of Dutch victories elsewhere .. He made a failure in endeavoring to bring his business associates to his way of thinking, and in 1624 he abandoned them, and, transferring his field of endeavor to Stockholm, inspired that wise statesman, King Gustavus Adol- phus, of Sweden, with the idea of forming a Swedish West India Company.

Yet all the sagacity did not depart from Holland when Usselincx went to visit the Swedish King. John De Laet, Killian Van Rensselaer, Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blom- maert and other rich merchants of Amster- dam had received word from Isaac De Ra- sieres, secretary to Peter Minuet, predecessor of Van Twiller as Governor of the New Netherlands, that while the Dutch were being compelled, through fear of the Indians, to concentrate at New Amsterdam (New York), there was a chance for a vast land speculation on the Zuydt River. They se- cured from the States-General a feudal con- stitution, which gave them great privileges of

land acquisition outside of Manhattan Island, and they formed an agreement by which Godyn and Blommaert became the proprie- tors of a tract of land thirty-two miles long and two miles deep, " from Cape Henlopeu to the mouth of a river." They took into partnership David Pietersen De Vries, and in 1631 sent Captain Heyes to the Delaware in the ship " Walrus." The latter established on the Horekill Creek, where the town of Lewes now stands, a colony called Swannen- dael (the Valley of Swans), and constructed Fort Oplandt for their protection. Heyes placed Gilliss Hossett in command, and then, crossing to the Jersey shore, bought from ten chiefs there, on behalf of the Godyn and Blommaert syndicate, a block of terri- tory extending twelve miles northward along the bay from Cape May, and the same dis- tance inlaud. In May, 1632, De Vries was ready to set sail from the Texel for the Del- aware, when the news was brought him that the garrison of Fort Oplandt, some thirty men, had been massacred by the Indians. Arriving off Swannendael in the following December, he found it utterly destroyed, and the remains of men and cattle mingled with the charred fragments of the block-house and palisade. He was told that an Indian chief had stolen the Dutch coat-of-arms, erected in front of the fort; that, to appease the whites, the Indians had brought them the head of the robber, and that the tribe, of which he was a member, had slaughtered the colonists in revenge. De Vries' journal demonstrates that he placed no confidence in this story, but explained the massacre by attributing to the Dutch shocking perfidy aud cruelty in their dealings with the Indians, and in the treatment of their squaws, that had provoked the latter to inflict a fearful punishment.1

De Vries accepted this melancholy and

1 According to Acrelius and Onderdonck, the garri- son remaining in Fort Nassau were also massacred by the Indians when they slaughtered the people at Fort Oplandt.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

sanguinary event as terminating for the time being all schemes of colonization on the Del- aware, but he did what he could to restore confidence by negotiating the first treaty of peace ever concluded with the Indians and propitiating them with gifts. Trading with them for furs as he advanced, he, on Jannary 10, 1633, cast anchor on the bar of Jacques Eylandt (Windmill Island), opposite where the city of Camden is now built. For manch of the winter his ship was held in the river by the ice, and when released, in March, he ran down the coast to Virginia, and then re- turning to the Delaware, embarked his com- patriots along its shores and turned the prow of his vessel homeward. Thus was relin- quished the Dutch enterprise of colonization on this stream, and Indian possession of it remained unbroken until the Swedes came, in 1638, except for the occasional occupancy of Fort Nassan by trading parties who came south ward from Manhattan. There remained nothing to show for the ambitions efforts of the West India Company except what little profit had been made in the trade in furs.

THE SWEDES .- Upon the settlement of the Swedes at Tinicum, under Governor John Printz, a few families crossed to the east side of the river and made a settlement called Elfsburg, now in Elsinboro' township, Salem County. Another settlement was inade on Raccoon Creek, in Gloucester Coun- ty, where now the village of Swedesboro' stands. This settlement became the chief post on the east side of the Delaware. It grew and prospered, and its people purchased titles to the lands of the proprietors under the grant to the Duke of York. A few families of Swedes also settled at the mouth of Woodbury Creek, but they remained there only a few years.

In the limits of what is now Camden County a few Swedes settled and remained for a short time at Fort Eriwomac, after its abandonment by the adherents of Sir Ed- mund Ployden, and from that time to the

occupancy of the territory under the grant to the Duke of York, March 12, 1664, it remained in the possession of the Indians. A few Swedes remained in the lower part of Gloucester County.

THE ENGLISH .- The occupancy of West Jersey by the English was under Sir Edmund Ployden, who, June 21, 1634, received a let- ter from Charles I., King of England, for all that territory lying between New Eng- land and Maryland. In this, as in most early grants, no regard was paid to previous claims, and in 1664 it was entirely ignored by the King in the grant to the Duke of York.

The government of the territory under the grant to Ployden was vested in him, and he styled it the province of New Albion. Some of his friends, among whom were Cap- tain Young, Robert Evelyn and thirteen traders, left England soon after the grant was obtained, and sailed for the new territory. They came up the Delaware River and landed at the mouth of Pensaukin Creek (now in Stockton township, Camden County), where were living a few families of Indians under a chief by the name of Eriwomac. At this place a fort was built, which was named Fort Eriwomac, where the settlers remained four years, expecting that Ployden would send over to them a colony of settlers. In the meantime he formed a government in England to take possession of the province. A colony, in 1636, sailed up the Delaware River about sixty miles, to near what is now the town of Salem, and settled there.

A number of " Knights and Gentlemen " chose Beauchamp Plantagenet to select a site for them to establish a colony in New Albion, and they were combined with Ploy- den to raise the energies of the latter's com- pany. To excite the greater interest, an order of knighthood was instituted, which should have for one of its objects the con- version of the Indians to Christianity. Their title was "The Albion Knights of the Con-

EARLY COLONIAL HISTORY.

version of the Twenty-three Kings," the designation having reference to the number of Indian chiefs supposed to exercise sway in the province. But this ambitious project came to naught, and Ployden and Plantagenet made no second visit to the Palatinate, as New Albion was officially styled. Their operations are by no means clearly recorded, but what is positively known of them in- vests them with a fascination for students of the secrets of history.

The settlers at Fort Eriwomac became disheartened in waiting for the earl, and after four years abandoned the fort and settled above and below it,1 along the shores of the Delaware.

Evelyn soon returned to England and wrote a glowing account of the country, urging the earl to visit the country and take with him "three hundred men or more, as there is no doubt but that he may doe very well and grow rich." Plantagenet laid ont the territory on the banks of the Delaware into manors and named them Watcessit. The manor embracing what is now Salem County was chosen and set apart for the earl. It was described by Plantag- enet as being on " the Manteses plain, which Master Evelyn voncheth to be twenty miles broad and thirty long, and fifty miles washed by two fair navigable rivers, of three hundred thousand acres fit to plow and sow corn, tobacco, flax and rice, the four staples of Albion." Three miles from Watcessit lay the domain of Lady Barbara, Baroness of Richneck, adjoining Cotton River (Alloway's Creek), " so named of six hundred pound of cotton wilde on tree grow- ing." The historian of Albion added that this property was "of twenty- four miles compasse, of wood, huge timber trees, and two feet black monld, much desired by the Virginians to plant tobacco." The earl came to the manor in 1641 and remained

here with him, and they " marched, lodged and cabinned together among the Indians" for seven years. When he published his book, in 1648, it was with the object of furthering a project for the emigration of the "viscounts, barons, baronets, knights, gentlemen, merchants, adventurers and planters of the hopeful colony," who had bound themselves in England to settle three thousand able, trained men in the Palatine's domain. But they failed to fulfill their con- tracts, perhaps because in the convulsions at home that were forerunners of the execution of Charles I. and the establishment of the Protectorate under Cromwell, enterprises in the New World were dwarfed out of sight. Nothing more is known of Ployden and New Albion, for a new class of contestants was about to fill the stage.

NEW JERSEY ESTABLISHED .- The Duke of York, on casting about for court favorites high in rank and wealth to whom to assign some fractions of the territorial succession made him by the crown, selected Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, to whom he convey- ed the land specified as follows :

"This indenture made the three and twentieth day of June, in the sixteenth year of the Raigne of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the faith-Anno Domine 1664. Between his Royal Highness James Duke of York and Albany, Earl of Ulster, Lord High Admiral of Eugland and Ireland, Constable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Governor of Portsmouth of the one part ; John Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and one of his Majestie's most honorable Privy Council ; and Sir George Carteret of Sattrum, in the county of Devon, Knight, and one of his Majestie's most honorable Privy Council, of the other part, Wit- nesseth that said James Duke of York, for and in consideration of the sum of ten shillings of lawful money of England, to him in hand paid, by these presents doth bargain and sell unto the said John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, and lying and being to the westward of Long Island : Bound- ed on the east part by the main sea, and part by Hudson's River, and hath upon the west Delaware

1 See history of Stockton township.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Bay or River, and extendeth southward to the main ocean as far as Cape May, at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, and to the northward as far as the northernmost branch of said Bay or River of Delaware, which is in forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and worketh over thence a straight line to Hudson's River-which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of Nova Caesarea or New Jersey."

The name was given in honor of Sir George Carteret, who in 1649 was Governor of the Isle of Jersey, and had made a most gallant defense of it for the Royalists. He was treasurer of the navy and vice-chamber- lain of the King's household under the Restoration. Being detected in pecnlation, he was eventually expelled from the House of Commons in 1669.

The grant to Berkeley and Carteret was a conveyance of the powers of government as well as of the rights of property, and they thus became rulers as well as owners of the country. On February 10, 1664, they issued the first Constitution of New Jersey, which continued in force until the province was di- vided, in 1676. It was entitled “ The Con- cession and Agreement of the Lords Propri- etors of the Province of New Caesarea or New Jersey to and with all and every of the ad- venturers and all such as shall settle or plant there." It provided for a government com- posed of a Governor and Council and General Assembly. The Governor was ap- pointed by the Proprietors and he selected six Councillors at least or twelve at most, or any even number between six and twelve. These constituted the General Assembly, with the addition of a representative body to be chosen by the people, as follows : So soon as the proprietors' commission should be re- ceived in the province, a writ should be is- sued by the Governor for the election of twelve deputies by such inhabitants as were freemen or the chief agents of others. But so soon as parishes or other divisions of the province should be made, the inhabitants or freeholders of the several divisions should by

writ meet on each 1st of January and choose freeholders for each respective division, to be deputies or representatives of the same, which body of representatives, or a major part of them, should, with the Governor and the Council, compose the General Assembly. Of the general scope of the form of govern- ment thus set up, Dr. Mulford, in his " His- tory of New Jersey," says, --

" It embodied many of the principles which be- long to the most liberal institutions. It gave entire exemption to the people from all taxation, except such as their representatives should as- sent to, and as a further security of property, it gave to the Assembly the full control over all the expenditures of government. Freedom of conscience and worship was secured to every one who should conduct himself as a peaceable citi- zen. The lands of the province were distributed to the settlers for a quit-rent of half a penny per acre, not to be paid until 1670. Justice was to be administered by tribunals erected under popular authority, and an additional security against the arbitrary exercise of power was given by the con- cession of an unlimited privilege of appeal or pe- tition. . . . By the increase of numbers in the representative branch of the General Assembly the popular element would have finally acquired a degree of strength that must have given it a con- trolling influence, but the actual working of the plan did not entirely agree with its general the- ory."

Simultaneously with signing the " Conces- sions," the proprietors appointed Philip Cart- eret, a brother of Sir George, Governor of New Jersey, and in August, 1665, he landed at a place to which he gave the name of Elizabeth, in honor of his sister-in-law, Lady Carteret. This was the first perma- nent settlement in the province. He found trouble on his hands at the moment of his arrival. Colonel Nicholls, who had been placed in charge of affairs at New York by the Duke of York, had already exerted au- thority over New Jersey, which he had named Albania, and under his plan of settle- ment, parties had acquired from the Indians titles to the Elizabethtown tract and the Monmouth patent, which later was the foun-

EARLY COLONIAL HISTORY.

dation of Middletown and Shrewsbury. He entertained exalted notions of what he might accomplish in " Albania " and argued flu- ently with the duke for the revocation of the Berkeley and Carteret grant, and while he was compelled to surrender New Jersey, he sowed the seeds of ultimate dissension and confu- sion, but he could not prevent Philip Carteret

NEW YORK

PENNSYLVANIA

DELAWARE RIVER

EAST

PASSAIC R.

' HUDSON RIVER

NEW YORK

NEWARKO

NEWARK

BROOK

DEL

NEWBRUNSWICKO

AWARE RIVER

SANDY HD

O! TRENTON

O BURLINGTON

-40

PHILADELPHIA

jo/

CAMDEN

WILMINGTON

NEW CASTLE

DELA W

SALEM

RSEY

TTLEEGE NAR.

LOOVERO

NV300 OIINK7

-39

WARE BA

MILES Q 20 30

70 80 80 100

BOUNDARY MAP OF EAST AND WEST JERSEY.

from taking possession of the new settlement. Elizabethtown was made the capital of the colony ; Newark was founded ; flourishing hamlets appeared on the shores of the bay as far south as Sandy Hook.

From July 30, 1673, to February 9, 1674, New Jersey was again in the possession of the Dutch, in consequence of the surrender of New York to the Dutch fleet. They had just put a government in Achter Kol, as

they named the province, on a working basis when the treaty of peace between England and Holland restored the country to the former. King Charles II. issued a new patent to the Duke of York, covering the same territory as that of 1663, and the duke executed a new conveyance to Sir George Carteret, Lord Berkeley having, on March 18, 1673, sold the whole of his right and title to the province. But just previous to making the deed to Carteret, the duke gave a com- mission to Edmund Andros as Governor of the whole country from "the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Dela- ware Bay;" and this duplicity of the

ERO

STICE

WILLIAM PENN'S COAT OF ARMS.

duke's, the exactions of Andros and the sale made by Berkeley gave rise to much trouble. Carteret defended his claim against Andros, but Berkeley sold his interest in New Jersey to John Fenwick, to be held in trust for Edward Byllynge.

Philip Carteret, in 1671, resumed the gov- ernment of the province. He was opposed in every act by Andros, who kept the colony in an uproar. Carteret was finally arrested and taken to New York for trial. In the mean time Byllinge made an assignment of his property to William Penn, Gawen Laurie and Nicholas Lucas, who were prominent mem- bers of the Society of Friends in England.

WES

RARITAN R.

SCHUYLKILL R.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Penn and his associates applied to Sir George Carteret and secured assent for a division of New Jersey so that the interests of the Friends and that of Carteret would be separate. The line of division was drawn from the south- ern point of land on the east side of Little Egg Harbor to a point on the Delaware in the latitude of forty-one degrees and forty minutes. The part east of the line remained to Sir George Carteret as sole proprietor and was named " East New Jersey." The part lying between the line and the Delaware was called " West New Jersey " and passed under the control of William Penn and his associ- ates.

GOVERNORS OF NEW JERSEY -- Chrono- logical List.

GOVERNORS OF EAST JERSEY.

Philip Carteret. 1665 to 1681

Robert Berkeley 1682 to 1685

Thomas Rudyard, Deputy-Gov. 1683

Gawen Lawrie. 1683

Lord Niel Campbell 1685

Andrew Hamilton. 1692 to 1697

Jeremiah Basse. 1698 to 1699

GOVERNORS OF WEST JERSEY.

Samuel Jennings, Deputy 1681

Thomas Oliver, Governor. 1684 to 1685

John Skein, Deputy 1685 to 1687

William Welsh, Deputy. 1686

Daniel Coxe. 1687

Andrew Hamilton 1692 to 1697

Jeremiah Basse, Deputy 1697 to 1699

Andrew Hamilton, Governor 1699 till surrender to the Crown in 1702.

EAST AND WEST JERSEY UNITED.

Lord John Cornbury, Gov 1703 to 1708

John Lovelace (died in office) 1708

Lichard Ingolsby, Lieut .- Gov 1709 to 1710

Gen. Andrew Hunter 1710 to 1720 William Burnet. 1720 to 1727

John Montgomery 1728 to 1731

Lewis Morris. 1731 to 1732

William Crosby 1732 to 1736

John Hamilton 1736 to 1738

The above were also Governors of New York at the same time.

SEPARATE FROM NEW YORK.

Lewis Morris. 1738 to 1746

John Hamilton 1746 to 1747

Jonathan Belcher. 1747 to 1757

John Reading 1757 to 1758

Francis Barnard.

1758 to 1760'

Thomas Boone. 1760 to 1761

Thomas Hardy. 1761 to 1763

William Franklin 1763 to 1766

REVOLUTIONARY AND STATE GOVERNMENT.

William Livingston. 1776.to 1790.

William Patterson 1790 to 1792

Richard Howell 1792 to 1801

John Lambert, Vice-Pres. of Council 1802 to 1803 Joseph Bloomfield 1803 to 1812

Aaron Ogden 1812 to 1813

William S. Pennington 1813 to 1815

Mahlon Dickerson

1815 to 1817

Isaac H. Williamson 1817 to 1829

Garret D. Wall (declined) 1829

Peter D. Vroom. 1829 to 1832

Samuel Southard 1832 to Feb., 1833 Elias P. Seeley 1833 to 1834

Peter D. Vroom 1835 to 1836

Philemon Dickerson 1836 to 1837

William Pennington 1837 to 1843

Daniel Haines. 1843 to 1844

UNDER NEW CONSTITUTION.

Charles C. Stratton 1845 to 1848

Daniel Haines. 1848 to 1851

George F. Fort. 1851 to 1854

Rodman M. Price

1854 to 1857

William A. Newell

1857 to 1860

Charles S. Olden

1860 to 1863

Joel Parker. 1863 to 1866

Marcus L. Ward. 1866 to 1868

Theodore F. Randolph. 1869 to 1872

Joel Parker. 1872 to 1875

Joseph D. Bedle. 1875 to 1878

Gen. George B. McClellan 1878 to 1881

George C. Ludlow. 1881 to 1884

Leon Abbett 1884 to 1887

CHAPTER IV.

THE FRIENDS IN WEST JERSEY.

NEARLY all of the people who lived on the territory now embraced within the county of Camden and of the most part of West Jersey, for one hundred years after the first settlement was made, were members of the Society of

SHY

games.

(THE DUKE OF YORK-JAMES II.)

(SIR GEORGE CARTARET.)

Jokerkley (SIR JOHN BERKELEY, PROPR.

S Gov. P. CARTERET.

Etneros

(SIR EDMUND ANDROS.)

To: Kyllinga

(EDWARD BYLLYNGE, PROPR.)

The Crington (THOMAS CODRINGTON, PROPR.)

Ferratow.

(EDWARD HYDE, LORD VISCOUNT CORNBURY.)

Barclay

(Gov. ROBERT BARCLAY.)

Nall Gangbell (LORD NEILL CAMPBELL.)

Robert Saugroth

(ROBERT VAUQUELLIN, PROPR.)

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Friends. They were the representative people of the western division of the colony and for many years controlled the Legislative Assembly. Their history in this province, as well as in that of Pennsylvania, is franght with much interest and instruction.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, OR QUAKERS, arose in England about the middle of the sev- enteenth century, a time of considerable reli- gious excitement, when the honest-hearted were aroused by the general prevalence of vice and immorality in which the King and court were butexamples. The term Quaker (i.e., Trembler) was first used in 1650, and was given to the Friends in derision by Justice Bennet, of Derby, because George Fox, the founder of the society, bade him and his companions to tremble at the word of the Lord. Its appli- cation was further induced by the fact that some of the early preachers and others trem- bled violently when under strong religious exercise. They even accepted the name Quaker, so far as to style themselves "the people called Quakers " in all official docu- ments intended for publication to the world at large. The early form of marriage cer- tificates contained the expression " the people of God called Quakers," but in 1734 the Yearly Meeting for Pennsylvania and New Jersey agreed " that ye words ' of God' and 'called Quakers' be left out of that form for the future." In 1806 the expression was changed to the " religious society of Friends." Some of their principal characteristics, as differing from other professing Christians, was in opposition to all wars, oaths and a paid ministry, or grace of God, which is given to every man as a guide to salvation. George Fox says, moreover, "When the Lord sent me forth into the world, he forbade me to put off my hat to any one, high or low, and I was required to thee and thou all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small, and this made the sex and professions to rage, but the Lord's power carried me over all to His glory, and many

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 4

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