The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 6

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

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EARLY HISTORY OF OLD GLOUCESTER.

some neighbor. A vagrant negro, having been brought into court September 1, 1701, by the sheriff, whose charges amounted to £9 8s., the negro was ordered to be sold for two years to any one who would pay the charges, his master having the privilege of reclaiming him by making the THE STOCKS. same disburse- ment. .

The stocks, the pillory and the whipping- post were used in Colonial days for the punishment of criminals on various occasions. They were doubtless brought into use under the authority of the old Gloncester courts. The punishment by the pil- lory was severe and ex- cruciating, the criminal being placed in a stand- ing position. It was not uncommon for men to swoon under the pain of the pillory or the stocks.

The system by which assisted immigrants per- formed service in return 3= for the payment of their * THE PILLORY. passage-money to this country was in full force, as appears in this minute of the court's proceedings of March 2,1701 :

" Griffith Morgan makes complaint agst a Ser- vant woman of her deserting of his Service ye 1st of Instant. The servant appearing and alledging that her passage was paid in Scotland, she came from, and that she was not any servant; upon which ye sd Griffith produces an order of Chester Court, in Pensilvania, for her service of five years to one E. Evan, &c., and his assignment to ye sd Griffith. Whereupon ye Bench order that ye sd Servant perform her time of Servitude, according to ye sd assignment."

The township and county boundaries were

determined in 1761, Richard Matlack, Henry Wood, John Hinchman, Wm. Davis, James Whiteall, Joshua Lord, Francis Bat- ten and Jacob Spicer having been appointed by the Board of Freeholders, on May 13th, to have the work done. They employed as surveyor Samuel Clement to run the line, and his completed work was sub- mitted to the board at the September meet- ing. In 1764 Surveyor Thomas Denny ran and marked the lines between Gloucester and Salem Counties. He was, himself, a member of the commission charged with the undertaking, his associates being Francis Battin and George Flanigau. In the fol- lowing year the arms belonging to the couuty were, by order of the justices and freeholders, divided into four equal lots and delivered to John Hinchman, John Mickle, Samuel Harrison, John Hider, Alexander Randall, George Flanigan, Michael Fisher and John Sparks, who, pursuant to instruc- tions, sold them and turned the proceeds into the county treasury.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS .- A jail was built at Gloucester in 1689. (See history of Glou- cester City). Courts . were held in taverns and private houses until 1696, when a court-house and jail as one building was erected, which, with additions and repairs, was used until 1786, when it was destroyed by fire, and a majority of the Board of Free- holders voted in favor of erecting new structures instead of repairing the old ones, and agreed to petition the General Assembly for an act to erect new buildings at such a place as shall be designated by a majority of the people of the county at an election to be held for that purpose.

WOODBURY BECOMES THE COUNTY-SEAT. -Notwithstanding that there is no recorded evidence of the matter, it is a generally ac- cepted belief that the election was held, that the people voted to locate the new building at Woodbury, and that this decision transferred the county-scat from Gloucester to that town.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

On August 3, 1786, James Brown, John Jessop and Samuel Hugg were constituted "to agree with the workmen and purchase materials for the building of the gaol and court-house at Woodbury," and a tax of £108 6s. 8d. was ordered to defray the ex- pense. At the meeting of the board, on Sep- tember 29, 1786, the board accepted John Bispham's offer of a lot at Woodbury, and James Wilkins, John Wilkins and Joseph Reeves were appointed a committee to survey the lot and receive the deed, for which they were anthorized to pay fifty pounds. When the managers' accounts were finally passed, on June 18, 1790, it was found that the cost of the court-house and jail had been more than twelve thousand dollars. The interior of the house is now very much like what it was when first built. The stone columns, steps, etc., in front were added many years ago, and the steeple and belfry have been more than once rebuilt.

Joshua L. Howell, Phineas Lord, John Blackwood, John Brick, John E. Hopkins and John Thorn were commissioned, on No- vember 24, 1797, to buy a lot at Woodbury and erect a building for the keeping of the records removed from Gloucester. This structure has been occupied since 1820 as the surrogate's office, while the building then erected for the surrogate has been made the clerk's office.

Woodbury, the seat of justice of Glouces- ter County since its removal from the town of Gloucester, in 1787, and the place where the law was dispensed to the citizens of what is Camden County, previous to its erection in 1844, is located at the head of navigation on Woodbury Creek, and was probably settled as early as 1681. Richard Wood took up land a mile farther down the creek in that year, and some time between then and 1684 his brother made a home on the present site of the town. The Woods came from some one of the many towns in England named Bury, and hence the derivation of the name

of the new settlement.1 In 1688 four hun- dred and thirty-two acres of land on Wood- bury Creek were surveyed for Jonathan Wood. From that date until the War of the Revolution the place is destitute of any history that has been preserved, but the inci- dents of the military movements in 1777 in the neighborhood go to show that it must then have had a population of two hundred or more. During the winter of 1777, Lord Cornwallis had his headquarters in the resi- dence now occupied by the family of the late Amos Campbell, and the doors and cup- boards still bear the marks of the British bayonets used in forcing them open. In 1815 the town had grown so as to require four tav- erns for the local and traveling trade ; it had also seven merchants and three physicians and there were seventy-one dwellings. Among the leading citizens then were James Roe, John C. Smallwood, John M. Watson, John Mickle, Robert K. Matlack, Thomas Jefferson Cade and Benjamin P. Howell. The oldest dwelling-house now standing is the Joseph Franklin residence, which was built in the early part of the eighteenth cen-

1 " It seems the little colony soon became short of provisions and none being nearer than Burlington, the male colonists started off in canoes for that place to ob- tain some. A storm prevented their return as soon as expected, -the provisions left for the women were ex- hausted, -- and the poor creatures, overwhelmed with grief, looked for nothing but starvation in a strange land with none of their kindred near to soothe their dying moments. Thus they were grouped together at the bend of the creek, watching with tearful eyes the flowing tide and listening in vain for the sound of the returning paddles, when an Indian woman appeared on the opposite bank, saw they were in trouble and stopped. By their signs she understood their wants and then disappeared in the shade of the forest. In an hour or two (for she had gone several miles) she returned loaded with venison and corn bread. These she placed on a long piece of bark and, walking a good way to tideward, set it afloat and gave it a push across. It came to where the white women were and its contents saved their lives ; for their husbands returned not for such a length of time that but for her, starvation would have been inevitable."-New Jersey Historical Collec- tions.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

tury. Woodbury was incorporated as a bor- ough in 1854 and as a city in 1870. In- cluded in the old organizations of citizens were the Fox Hunting Club, established in 1776 ; the Library Company, instituted in 1794 ; and the Whirligig Society, which was organized in 1809 " with authority to sup- press all riots and whirligig all gamblers, showmen and such characters as are com-, monly called Fair Plays." The Friends erected a meeting-house in 1715 or 1716, and the Presbyterians had a log church in 1721. The Methodist Episcopal Society was organ- ized in 1803 and the African Methodist Episcopal in 1817.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

ALTHOUGH New Jersey was at no time seriously threatened by the war which Eng- land waged with the French and their In- dian allies in North America, and wliich may be said to have virtually begun in 1749, and continued until the utter defeat of the French and the treaty of peace in 1763, the meagre information which has been preserved of her action demonstrates that she was in no wise backward to obey the calls for troops to serve against the common foe.1

1 One of the scanty references to this epoch is con- tained in Wickes' " History of Medicine in New Jersey," which says : " We date a positive advance in medicine in New Jersey from the French and English War. . .. New Jersey raised a complement of 1000 men, built barracks at Burlington, Trenton, New Brunswick, Amboy and Elizabethtown, each for the accommodation of 300 men. It maintained this complement for the years 1758, '59 and '60, and in the two succeeding years furnished 600, besides men and officers for gar- rison duty. These popular measures furnished the school much needed for training a soldiery to be avail- able for the defence of American liberty a decade after- ward, and for the training of medical men no less. The physicians who were commissioned as surgeons and surgeons' mates, being brought into association with the British officers, were led to know their inferiority,

The conflicting territorial claims of England and France on the American continent, the long-standing animosity of the two people, and the competition between the French and English frontiersmen on the upper tribu- taries of the Ohio River explain the out- break of the war. In 1746 New Jersey was required to furnish five hundred men for service under the English flag, and in response six hundred and sixty offered themselves for enlistment. Again, in 1755, the Assembly resolved to raise and equip a battalion of five hundred men, and an excess presented themselves for enlistment. When the enemy reached the country west of the Delaware, New Jersey received many refugees who had been driven out from their homes, while her wealthy citizens bore a large part of the expense in raising troops to defend the western border. It is said that one thousand were sent from the colony after the surren- der of Castle William, on the southern shore of Lake George, and three thousand more were put in readiness to march should occa- sion require. During 1758, 1759 and 1760 the colony kept her complement full of one thousand men in the field, and in 1761-62 six hundred, besides a company of sixty-four for garrison duty during the latter year. The annual expense of this military estab- lishment is represented at forty thousand ponnds.2

We are not allowed to suppose that any considerable proportion of these troops came from the Camden vicinage, or even that old Gloucester County was largely represented in the ranks. A hundred and thirty years ago Southern and Western Jersey was too sparsely populated to be of great value as a

and were stimulated to improve their opportunities of practice and of intercourse with their more cultivated compeers."

2 Cushing's " History of Gloucester County." Mul- ford's History says : "New Jersey had raised, at different periods, near £300,000, and for a great part of the time had maintained a force of 1000 men, be- sides particular hodies for special services."

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

recruiting ground ; and, moreover, more than half the people were Friends and forbidden by their religious principles to engage in warfare. In and around Haddonfield linger traditions of the departure of a small squad or two, to join the forces at the front, but the very names of these volunteers have perished, and if any of them distinguished themselves in the combat against the French and their savage allies, they have passed to the roll of unsung heroes.

CHAPTER VII.

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

IN the War of the Revolution New Jersey bore a conspicuous and honorable part, and the county of Gloucester, of which Camden Connty then formed a part, is fertile in his- torical associations of that eventful period. A faithful effort has been made to portray them in the succeeding pages of this chapter and weave around them every interest which their importance demands, as well as to show the relation of the State and county to that ever memorable war. Gloucester County furnished a large number of soldiers who joined the patriot army, participated in nu- merous battles and won many brilliant achievements.

CAUSES OF THE WAR .- The colony of New Jersey shared with her sister colonies that devotion to the crown at the termination of the French and Indian War which William Griffith has so lucidly described in his " His- torical Notes of the American Colonies and Revolution."1

1 This is a rare and invaluable book. It was designed by the author as an introduction to his " Law Regis- ter," but he died before its completion. It was pub- lished by his executors in 1836, and after it was printed some controversy arose between the persons concerned, in consequence of which the entire edition, with the exception of six copies, was destroyed. One of those saved is in the possession of Judge John Clem-

" At the close of the war (of 1756) between Great Britain and France, terminated by the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, the British Colonies .of North America were attached to the mother-country by every tie which could add strength to the con- nection ; by the sympathies of a common extrac- tion and history and the more endearing affections andsolicitudes which flowed from domestic affini- ties and private interests, encircling and blessing all. . The recent war, so glorious to both in its prosecution and results, so peculiarly Ameri- can in its origin and objects, and in which they co-operated in so many ardnous military enter- prises, had inspired mutual respect and a warmth of attachment unfelt before; there was a confi-

INDEPENDENCE BELL.

dence also reposed by the colonies in the affec- tionate disposition and mighty power of the mother-country, unrestrained by any fear or jeal- ousy : - George III., then in the third year of his reign, by the splendor of the British arms in all quarters, the extension and security which war had given to his realms and by his vast military and naval superiority, with an extent of manufactures and commerce unequaled, was universally deemed the most powerful monarch at that time in Europe, and highly popular in all his dominions.

"This flattering scene, however, was soon to be changed; those sentiments and interests which, if

ent, of Haddonfield, by whose kind permission the use of the work was accorded to the writer.

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

cultivated, might have long (though not always) retained the colonies a part of the British empire, were suddenly extinguished by the folly and ar- rogance of British ministers : men ignorant of human nature, and in government, and deaf to admonition and experience-fortunate indeed for America and mankind !- but affording a solemn lesson to every people who repose a blind confidence in the talents or virtues of particular men, however popular or whatever be their pre- tensions.

" The triumphs of the war and the promised blessings of peace and concord were at once for- gotten and lost in sordid views to revenue-views equally hostile to justice and to policy. Not satisfied with the monopoly of the whole product of American industry and trade, expended for her manufactures and articles of consumption, in- creasing beyond calculation, silently pouring. millions into the lap of England, her infatuated ministers resolved to force upon the colonies a system of internal taxation, limited only by the will of a British Parliament, prescribing its objects, its extent, continuance and means of collection, without the consent or participation of millions of British subjects doomed to bear the burden and the disgrace. No choice was proffered but submission or resistance, and the colonies did not hesitate; they resolved that no power on earth should wrest from them property and the fruits of their toil and industry without their consent. This was the origin of the most extraordinary revolution on record, and upon this issue did the contest turn."

The colonists claimed that to them, as well as to any other subjects of the crown, be- longed immunity from all taxation, except such as they might assent to, either directly or by the representatives they had chosen, and the people of West Jersey had stood upon this ground in resisting the attempt of Governor Andros to impose custom duties upon the commerce of the Delaware as early as 1680. But first the crown and then Parliament insisted upon the power to tax the colonies as they pleased, and they made the cost of the war with France a special pretext for enforcing this claim, because, as the ministry argued, the war had been of American origin, and in its prosecution the mother-country had accumulated an enor-

mous debt for the protection of her domains on this side of the Atlantic. The enact- ment of a duty on stamps was carried in Parliament March 22, 1765, and William Coxe was appointed the collector of New Jersey. Massachusetts proposed a Congress of Commissioners from all the colonies, to meet for consultation in New York on the first Tuesday of October. The New Jersey Assembly received the Massachusetts circular June 20, 1765. William Franklin,1 the Governor, was in so much the opposite of his patriotic father as to be a firm ally of the crown, and he influenced the House, which was on the eve of adjournment, to return a hasty and ambignous answer, which gave rise to a sharp correspondence between the Governor and House. He contended that the House had taken the Massachusetts pro- posal into " deliberate consideration," and had " unanimously resolved against connect- ing on that occasion." The House declared (July 27, 1776) that the Speaker agreed to send members to the intended Congress, but that he changed his mind upon some advice that was given to him, and that this sudden change of opinion displeased many

' William Franklin was a natural son of Dr. Ben- jamin Franklin, and was born about the year 1730. His father had but one other son, Francis Folger, who died when a little more than four years old. William was carefully educated, aided his father in his philo- sophical experiments, and through his influence was at an early age appointed clerk of the Assembly of Penn- sylvania, and postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1756, when he was about twenty years of age, his father was appointed the agent for Pennsylvania (and afterwards of New Jersey) in England, and the son had leave from the Assembly to resign his office of clerk that he might accompany him to London. Upon his arrival there he entered the Middle Temple to prepare himself for practice as a lawyer in Philadelphia, and was in due time called to be a barrister. Afterwards he received from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

In 1762, having ingratiated himself with Lord Bute, then the principal favorite of the King, through his influence, without the solicitation of his father, he was appointed Governor of the province of New Jersey, an office then much sought for.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

of the House, who, seeing the matter dropped, were indifferent to it. But they said that the letter of the House was not such as the Governor represented it, and that if the strong expressions mentioned were used, an alteration must have been made, and they intimated that Governor Franklin had been instrumental in making it.

The Legislative Assembly considered their action, and at a convention called at Am- boy by the Speaker they chose Joseph Ogden, Hendrick Fisher and Joseph Borden delegates to the Congress, which met in New York at the appointed time and formulated the memorable petitions to the King and Parliament that were a warning of the com- ing uprising. When the Assembly recon- vened in November, it approved the action of the Congress, and the House declared that as the Stamp Act was utterly subversive of privileges inherent in and originally secured by grants and concessions from the crown of Great Britain to the people of the colony, they considered it a duty to themselves, their con- stituents and posterity to leave a record of their resolves upon the journal.

Stamp Officer Coxe resigned, declaring that he would never act under the law, and organizations of the "Sons of Liberty " were formed, who bound themselves to march to any part of the continent at their own ex- pense to support the British Constitution in America, by which opposition to the stamp tax was meant. As the use of all but stamp paper was forbidden in legal transactions, a. period of much confusion ensued, during which the courts were closed and business almost suspended ; but in February, 1766, a meeting of the members of the Jersey bar at New Brunswick resolved to continue their practice regardless of the statute; the public offices and the courts were reopened and the people resnmed the transaction of affairs. When the General Assembly met in June, the members were officially informed by the Governor of the repeal of the obnoxious act,

and they joined in an address to the King and Parliament expressing gratitude for tlie abrogation of an "impolitic law."

Whatever hopes might have been enter- tained that this concession meant future just dealing with the colonies were doomed to disappointment. The repeal of the Stamp Act had been accomplished by an affirma- tion of the right of Great Britain to bind the colonies in all AMERICA cases whatever, and the government soon A II SHI LIOS INOH proceeded to act on OT QVI MAL 0 that assumption. In- creased numbers of EINS ENCE. British soldiers were quartered npon the IN CSM people, who were re- quired to furnish BRITISH STAMP. them with fuel, bed- ding, candles, small beer, rum, etc. When the requisition was laid before the New Jer- sey Assembly, in June, 1766, the House directed that provision be made according to the former laws of the colony, and then in- formed the Governor that they looked upon the act for quartering soldiers in America to be virtually as much an act for laying taxes as the Stamp Act. It was followed in 1767 by the enactments levying duties on imports of glass, paper, paste-board, white and red lead, painters' colors and tea into the colonial ports, and authorizing the King to appoint in America commissioners who should have entire charge of the customs and the laws relating to trade.

Massachusetts again led the column of resistance, and her circular letter was pre- sented to the New Jersey House April 15, 1768. The House made a suitable reply and also adopted a respectful address against taxation without representation. On Decem- ber 6, 1769, it passed resolutions condemn- ing the threat of the royal authorities to transport to England for trial persons ac-

THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

cused of crimes in the colonies, and also approved the resolution of the merchants to cease to import British merchandise until the offensive duties were repealed. The duties, except that on tea, were repealed in 1770, but this by no means satisfied the Americans.

On February 8, 1774, the Assembly of New Jersey resolved "that a Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry be appointed to obtain the most early and authentic intelli- gence of all acts and resolutions of the Brit- ish Parliament, or the proceedings of admin- istration, that may have any relation to, or may affect the liberties and privileges of His Majesty's subjects in the British colonies in America, and to keep up and maintain a correspondence with our sister colonies, re- specting these important considerations; and that they occasionally lay their proceedings before the House." The committee named in the resolution were James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, Hendrick Fisher, Samuel Tucker, John Wetherill, Robert Friend Price, John Hinchman, John Mehelm and Edward Tay- lor. The Gloucester County members were Messrs. Price and Hinchman. Governor Franklin strove to minimize the significance of this action. "I was in hopes," he wrote to Lord Dartmouth on May 31st, "that the Assembly of this Province would not have gone into the measure; for though they met on the 10th of November, yet they avoided taking the matter into consideration, though frequently urged by some of the members, until the 8th of February, and then I believe they would not have gone into it but that the Assembly of New York had just before resolved to appoint such a committee, and they did not choose to appear singular."

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 6

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