USA > New Jersey > Cape May County > The history of Cape May County, New Jersey : from the aboriginal times to the present day > Part 4
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THE SETTLERS AND THEIR NEW HOMES.
resolved upon a sale of the whole of his interest in this prov- ince. He accordingly made an agreement, in the year 1691, with a body composed of forty-eight persons, desig- nated by the name of the "West Jersey Society." To this company, on the 20th of January, 1692, the whole of the claim of Dr. Coxe, both as to government and to nearly all the property, was conveyed, he receiving therefor the sum of foooo. The remaining portions of the property passed under his will to his son, Colonel Daniel Coxe, who came to Burlington in 1709 and resided there. This sale opened a new era to the people of Cape May. As no land titles had been obtained under the old regime of the proprietors, ex- cept five conveyances from George Taylor, as agent for Dr. Coxe, the West Jersey Society became a medium through which they could select and locate the choice of the lands, at prices corresponding with the means and wishes of the purchaser.
The society, through their agents appointed in the county, continued to make sales of land during a period of sixty- four years of their having possession.
During the year 1691, the whaling interest having be- come large, and the purchase of land in Cape May having become a more easy matter, a large number of persons came from New Haven and Long Island to settle permanently. Cape May Town sprang up on the bay shore, for the ac- commodation of the whalers, where quite a business was done. This is considered to be the first town built in the county. Among the settlers were Christopher Leaming and his son, Thomas Caesar Hoskins, Samuel Matthews, Jonathan Osborne, Nathan Short, Cornelius Shellinks (now Schellinger), Henry Stites, Thomas Hand and his sons, John and George; Ebenezer Swain and Henry Young, John and Caleb Carman, John Shaw, Thomas Miller, Wil- liam Stillwell, Humphrey Hewes, William Mason and John Richardson.
Christopher Leamyeng (now Leaming), and a brother who died on the passage, left England for America about 1670. In 1674 he married Esther Burnet, the daughter of Aaron Burnet, of Sag Harbor, East Hampton, L. I. He came to Cape May in 1691, took up 204 acres in 1694 and
44
HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
died at the house of Shangar Hand, Cape May county, OIz May 3, 1695. His wife, Esther, died at East Hampton, L. I., November 5, 1714. Christopher, Ist, and Esther B. Leaming, had seven children, the most of whom were mi -- nors at the time of their father's death. Their names were: Thomas, Ist, Jane, Hannah, Christopher, 2d, Aaron, Ist, Jeremialı, 2d, and Elizabeth. Two of these daughters and the son, Jeremiah, 2d, settled in New England, as Thomas, Ist, the oldest son, says in his memoirs: "In August 22, 1715, I took my journey to Long Island and there I sold a piece of land for a hundred and twenty pounds. And from thence I went to New England to see my two sisters and brother." Thomas Leaming, Ist, the eldest son of Christo- pher, Ist, and Esther B. Leaming, was born in South Hamp- ton, L. I., July 9, 1674. He came to Cape May in 1692, set- tled on his own farm in 1699, married June 18, 1701, when 25; years of age, Hannah Whilldin, the daughter of Joseph Whill- din, the elder, in her 18th year, and in October, 1706, Samuel. Matthews took from him a horse worth £7 and sold it be- cause he, as a zealous Quaker, refused to perform military duty. He died December 31, 1723, aged 49 years.
Jacob Spicer was another settler who came to Cape May about 1691, and became prominent. He was the second. son of Samuel and Esther Spicer, of Gravesend, L. I., and the grandson of Thomas and Michael Spicer, who were- New England Puritans. He was born January 20, 1668, removed from Long Island to Cape May, and died April 17, 1741, aged 73 years. His wife was, perhaps, Sarah Spicer. She was born in 1677 and died July 25, 1742, aged 65 years, and her tombstone is the oldest in the Cold Spring- Church Cemetery. Spicer's remains lie on the Vincent Miller homestead, in Cold Spring. The inscription on his tombstone commemorates a father and son who occupied prominent stations in society in their day:
"In memory of Col. Jacob Spicer, who died April 17? 1741, aged 73 years-
"Death, thou hast conquered me, I, by thy darts am slain, But Christ shall conquer thee, And I shall rise again."
45
THE SETTLERS AND THEIR NEW HOMES.
John Persons, Ist, was an Englishman. He came to .America and settled at East Hampton, Long Island. He married Mrs. Elizabeth Garlick. Her maiden name was Hardie. As Mrs. Garlick, she was charged in 1657 with witchcraft, was tried at East Hampton, on Long Island, and acquitted. John and Elizabeth Persons had a daughter named Lydia, born at East Hampton, L. I., April 10, 1680. In July, 1691, they all came to Cape May county, and Mr. Persons bought a plantation about four miles below the present Court House, and settled on it in September, 1691. He died and was buried there in January, 1695.
John Persons, 2d, of Lower Cold Spring settlement, an Englishman, and probably a nephew of John Persons, Ist, .came also from Long Island to Cape May about 1691. The earliest notice had of him is in reference to "ear marks" that he had publicly recorded, for the safety of his stock running at large, in 1693. He purchased 315 acres of land of Dr. Coxe, or of the West Jersey Society as early as 1696. Next we learn that he was one of the thirty-two persons to whom, as original trustees, Rev. John Bradner conveyed in perpetuity his estate in Cold Spring in 1718 for the use of the pastor of the Presbyterian church there. The last time we find him on his sick and dying bed, December 4, 1732, making his will, leaving his wife, Elizabeth, her proper share, and dividing the real estate between his two sons, John Parsons, 3d, and Robert Parsons, Ist, and appointing his wife and their eldest son, John, his executors, but died be- fore he could have it properly executed.
The following is from the manuscript of Thomas Leam- ing, one of the early pioneers, who died in 1723, aged 49 years :
"In July, 1674, I was born in Southampton, on Long Is- land. When I was eighteen years of age (1692) I came to Cape May, and that winter had a sore of the fever and flux. The next summer I went to Philadelphia with my father, Christopher, who was lame with a withered hand, which held him till his death. The winter following I went a whaling, and we got eight whales, and five of them we drove to the Hoarkills, and we went there to cut them up, and stayed a month. The Ist day of May we came home to
46
HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Cape May, and my father was very sick, and the third day, 1695, departed this life at the house of Shamgar Hand. Then I went to Long Island, stayed that summer, and in the win- ter I went a whaling again, and got an old cow and a calf. In 1696 I went to whaling again and made a great voyage, and in 1697 I worked for John Reeves all summer, and in the winter went to whaling again. In 1698 worked for John Crawford and on my own land, and that winter had a sore fit of sickness at Henry Stites', and in the year 1700 I lived at my own plantation and worked for Peter Corson. I was married in 1701, and 1703 went to Cohansie and fetched brother Aaron. In 1706 I built my house. Samuel Mat- thews took a horse from me worth £7 because I could not train. In 1707 we made the county road."
Leaming was a strict Quaker at that time. The record of the Ludlams is contemporaneous with the growth of Cape May, the earliest records of the county showing this family to be among the first settlers.
The Ludlam name belongs to Yorkshire, England, where for many years the family had precedence. Anthony Lud- lam, progenitor of the race in America, came from Eng- land in the earliest days, and by 1640 had become a mem- ber of the whaling colony in Southampton, Long Island.
Joseph, son of the New England settler, came to Cape May about 1692, attracted hither by the whaling, then be- ing developed at Town Bank and Barnegat. Settling on the division line between Dennis and Upper, he purchased Ludlam's Beach, now Sea Isle City, and stocked it with cattle, the descendants of which survived until about 1875. He acquired 500 acres in Dennis Neck, paying £163 for his purchase.
Arthur Cresse came from Long Island about this time 1 also. John Stillwell came about the same time from there.
By an act of the Assembly November 12, 1692, Cape May county was regularly instituted, as follows:
"Whereas, this province hath formerly been divided into three counties for the better regulation thereof: and whereas Cape May (being a place well situated for trade) begins to increase to a considerable number of families; and there be- ing no greater encouragement to the settlement of a place
47
THE SETTLERS AND THEIR NEW HOMES.
than that there be established therein an order by govern- ment, and justice duly administered: Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives in this pres- ent Assembly met and assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from henceforth Cape May shall be, and is hereby appointed a county, the bounds whereof to begin at the utmost flowing of the tide in Prince Maurice River, be- ing about twenty miles from the mouth of said river, and then by a line running easterly to the most northerly point of Great Egg Harbor, and from thence southerly along by the sea to the point of Cape May; thence around Cape May, and up Maurice River to the first point mentioned; and that there be nominated and appointed such and so many justices and other officers as at present may be necessary for keeping the peace and trying of smaller causes under forty shillings. In which circumstances the same county shall remain until it shall appear that they are capable of being erected into a County Court; and in case of any ac- tion, whether civil or criminal, the same to be heard and determined at the quarterly sessions in Salem county, with liberty for the Justices of the County of Cape May, in con- junction with the Justices of Salem County, in every such action in judgment to sit, and with them to determine the same."
The time and place of holding the county elections were likewise directed, and the number of representatives that each was entitled to: Burlington to have 20; Gloucester, 20; Salem and Cape May, 5 members. Cape May continued to have five members until the time of the surrender in 1702, except in the year 1697, when she was reduced to one rep- resentative. No record, however, of the names of the men- bers previous to 1702 has come to light.
The first town meeting for public business was held at the house of Benjamin Godfrey, on the 7th of February, 1692. "The commissions for Justices and Sheriff were pro- claimed and George Taylor was appointed clerk." The first suit on record is for assault and battery-"Oliver John- son against John Carman." The second, John Jarvis, is accused by George Taylor of helping the Indians to rum. A document is found reading in this wise:
48
HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
"Wm. Johnson's testimony against John Jarvis for help- ing ye Indians to rum being accused thereof by George Taylor. Deponent attesteth that several days after the above sd laws were published at Cape May, he came into ye house of ye sd Jarvis and found Indians drinking rum and one of ye sd Indians gave of ye rum to ye sd Johnson and he drank of it with yn1. The sd Jarvis refusing to clear him- self by his oath according to law is convicted."
The explanation of this last phrase is that there was a law which cleared a man of an accusation against him if he took an oath that it was false. "Ye" should be read the; "sd," said, and "ym," him.
As early as 1693 a ferry was established at Beesley's Point, over Great Egg Harbor river; a proof there must have been inhabitants upon both sides of the river at that early period. The rates were one shilling for passengers, two penny a bushel for grain, four penny each for sheep or hogs, one shilling for cattle per head and one shilling for every single person.
The following is a specimen of the manner of tying the matrimonial knot in olden times:
"These may certify that on the fifteenth day of February, 1693, then and there came before me, Henry Stites and Han- nah Garlick, and did each take the other to be man and · wife, according to the law of this province. being lawfully published according to order, as witness their hands the day and year above said.
"HENRY STITES. "HANNAH GARLICK.
"SAMUEL CROWELL, Justice.
"Witnesses-John Carman, Jonathan Pine, John Shaw, Jonathan Osborne, Caleb Carman, Shamgar Hand, Ruth Dayton, William Harwood, Jacob Spicer, Ezekiel Eldredge, Timothy Brandith."
At the court held at Portsmouth (Town Bank or Cape May Town) on the 20th of March, 1693, previously men- tioned, which is the first of which we have any record, the following officers were present, viz .: Justices-John Wol- redge, Jeremiah Bass, John Jarvis, Joseph Houlden and Samuel Crowel. Sheriff-Timothy Brandreth. Clerk-
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THE SETTLERS AND THEIR NEW HOMES.
«George Taylor. Grand Jury-Shamgar Hand, Thomas Hand, William Goulden, Samuel Matthews, John Town- send, William Whitlock, Jacob Dayton. Oliver Johnson, Christopher Leayeman, Arthur Cresse, Ezekiel Eldredge, William Jacocks, John Carman, Jonathan Pine, Caleb Car- aman, John Reeves and Jonathan Foreman.
"A rule of Court passed, the grand jury shall have their dinner allowed them at the county charge."
"Their charge being given them, the grand jury find it necessary that a road be laid out, most convenient for the Ting and county, and so far as one county goeth, we are willing to clear a road for travelers to pass." "John Town- send and Arthur Cresse appointed Assessors; Timothy Brandreth, Collector; Shamgar Hand, Treasurer; Samuel Matthews and William Johnson, Supervisors of the Road; and John Somers for Egg Harbor. At same Court John Somers was appointed Constable for Great Egg Harbor." A record of the same court reads:
"The grand jury, upon complaint made by Elizabeth Crafford, and we have taken it into consideration, and we And that no fariner ought to rate ale or other strong drink to ye inhabitants of Cape May, except they have a lysence for so doing. So the court orders that no person shall sell Liquor without a lysence, and that 40 Pounds be raised by tax to defray expenses, with a proviso that produce should De taken at 'money price' in payment." The above ap- pointment by the Court of John Somers for Supervisor of the Roads and Constable for Great Egg Harbor, confirms the opinion advanced by Mickle that the county of Glou- cester did not originally reach to the ocean, and that the inhabitants of the seaboard, or Great Egg Harbor, were tinder the jurisdiction of Cape May. The act of 1694, how- ever, made them dependent upon Gloucester, and that of E710 extended the county of Gloucester to the ocean.
Another act relating to the county courts in Cape May was that of October 3. 1693, which reads: "Whereas, it has been found expedient to erect Cape May into a county, the bounds whereof at the last session of this Assembly have teen ascertained; and conceiving it also reasonable the in- Habitants thereof shall partake of what privileges (under
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
their circumstances) they are capable of, with the rest of the counties in this Province, and having (upon enquiry) received satisfaction that there is a sufficient number of int- habitants within the said county to keep and hold a County Court, in smaller matters relating to civil causes: Be it en- acted by the Governor, Council, and Representatives in Assembly met and assembled, and by authority thereof. that the inhabitants of the county of Cape May shall and may keep and hold four county courts yearly, viz: on the third Tuesday of December, 3d March, 3d June, and 3d of September: all which courts the Justices commissioned. and to be commissioned in the said county, shall and may hear and try, according to law, all civil actions within the said county under the sum of £20." All above £2o were still to be tried at Salem.
The same Assembly passed the following, viz:
"Whereas the whaling in Delaware Bay has been in so great a measure invaded by strangers and foreigners, that the greatest part of ovl and bone received and got by that employ, hath been exported out of the Province to the great detriment thereof: Be it enacted, that any one killing a whale or whales in Delaware Bay, or on its shores, to pay the value of 1-10 of the oyl and bone to the Governor of the Province." Another act of the same Assembly em- powered justices to issue warrants to constables for raising taxes specified in a concomitant law, albeit that there was yet no court in Cape May, the said court not being estab- lished for two months or until December.
The Assembly by act of May 12, 1694, made a new boun- dary line for the county, as "the bounds of the said county were not distinctly enough described." The starting place. twenty miles up Maurice river, remained the same, but its termination was at the "middlemost great river that run- neth into the bay of Great Egg Harbour, so far as the tide flows up the same and thence down the said river into the said bay." This "middlemost great river" has been taken to be Tuckahoe, which is probably correct. The residents of Egg Harbour were by this act put into Gloucester county (now Atlantic). On the same date the Assembly passed the act requiring that the freeholders should meet
THE SETTLERS AND THEIR NEW HOMES.
yearly in "the town of Cape May," on the 6th of February, to choose five "good and sufficient men to serve in the Gen- eral Assembly."
After the West Jersey Society was formed in 1692 the set- tlers were able to get titles to their lands. The earliest. deeds on the books of the society are three granted in April, 1694, to William Dixon, William Whitlock and Christopher Leamyeng. In the next year thirty more " deeds were recorded. In the latter year Jeremiah Basse was the agent of the West Jersey Society, and as a speci- men of the indentures of those days and the bargains made between the agents and land owners, the following extract of an indenture of April 20th, 1695, is given:
"The said Arthur Cresse his Heirs and assigns shall yearly and every year pay or cause to be paid to the said Jeremiah Basse on account of the said Society the 24th day of December to fat Hens or capons at Coxe Hall as a Chief or quit Rent due and payable to the Society as Lords of Manor of Coxe Hall."
In this same year the Assembly, on May 12, appointed the following officials for Cape May: Joseph Houlding. Samuel Crowell, John Jervis and Shamger Hand, Justices: John Townsend, Sheriff; Timothy Brandereth, Clerk and Recorder, and Samuel Mathews, Coroner.
In 1696 Governor Andrew Hamilton appointed George Taylor his agent to collect the one-tenth of the "oyl" and whale bone due to Governor of the province, and also to look after wrecks which might come on the shore. Tay- lor's commission reads as follows:
"Andrew Hamilton, Esq .. Governor of the Province of East and West Jersey to all whome these p'sents may come- send Greeting Know ye that by virtue of the powers com'eted to Me I have Nominated Comishoned and ap- pointed and Doe by these p'sents Comishonte and apponte George Taylor of Cape May, gent, My lawful Deputy and Attorney to take into his possession all wrecks or Drift whales or other Royall fish that shall be Driven on Shore any where upon the Coste of Cape May Egg harbour or within Dillawer River as far as Burlington or any wrecks floating near the Coaste and to Despose of the same accord-
HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
ing to his Deschreshon and to accounte to mie for the Same as allso to make inquirey into any wreckes heare to fore Driven on shore or whales or whalebone or other Royall fish and make Demand of the Same into his Cus- tody for my use paying Resonable salvage for the same and in Case of Refusall, to present for the same, acquittance and Descharges to give and Generally to Doo all and every other lawfull thing conserning the p'mises ass I might doo Myselfe before the making hereof.
"Witness:
"Tho. Revelle.
"AND. HAMILTON, "Oct. 3. 1696."
"John Taylor.
In May, 1696, the Assembly made a new set of Justices, appointing Samuel Crowell, John Jervis, Shamgar Hand and George Taylor. In the next year two additional Jus- tices were appointed, they being Jacob Dayton and Wil- liam Goulding. Ezekiel Eldridge was made Sheriff to succeed John Townsend.
The following named persons purchased of the agents of Dr. Coxe and the West Jersey Society, mostly previous to 1696, some few as early as 1689, the number of acres at- +- tached to their respective names, viz: Christopher Leamy- eng 204, Willianı Jacoks 340, Abigail Pine 200, Humphrey Hughes 206, Samuel Matthews 175, Jonathan Osborne 110, Nathaniel Short 200, Caesar Hoskins 250, Shamgar Hand 700, Joseph Weldon (Whilldin) 150. Joseph Houlding 200, Dorothy Hewitt 340, Thomas Hand 400, John Taylor 220, John Curwith 55, John Shaw, 2 surveys, 315, Timothy Brandreth 110, John Crawford 380, Ezekiel Eldridge 90, Oliver Russel 170, Samuel Crowell 226, John Carman 250, Thomas Gandy 50. Caleb Carman 250, William Mason 150, Henry Stites 200, Cornelius Skellinks 134, John Richardson 124, Arthur Cresse 350, Peter Corson 400, John Corson 300, John Townsend 640, William Golden and Rem. Gar- retson 1016, William Johnson 436, John Page 125, John Parsons 315. William Smith 130, George Taylor 175, Den- nis Lynch 300, William Whitlock 500, Jacob Spicer, 2 sur- veys, 1000, Benjamin Godfrey 210, Randal Hewit 140, Elizabeth Carman 300, John Reeves 100, Benjamin Hand 373. James Stanfield 100.
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THE SETTLERS AND THEIR NEW HOMES.
Some few of the above locations were made on the sea- shore; but the larger proportion of them in the lower part of the county. In addition to those who located land previous to 1700, the following-named persons had resided, and were then residing in the county, many of whom pos- sessed land by secondary purchase:
Thomas Leamyeng, Alexander Humphries, John Briggs, Abraham Hand, Shamgar Hand, Jr., Benjamin Hand, Jr., Daniel Johnson, Oliver Johnson. William Harwood, Jacob Dayton, Richard Haroo, Jonathan Crossle, William Lake, Theirs Raynor, Thomas Matthews, William Stillwell, John Cresse, Morris Raynor, Joshua Howell, Arthur Cresse, Jr., William Blackburry, Daniel Carman, Joseph Knight. John Stillwell, John Else, John Steele. Thomas Hand, Joseph Ludlam, Sr., Anthony Ludlam, Jonathan Pine, John Wol- redge, John Jervis, Jonathan Foreman, Thomas Goodwin, Jonathan High, Edward Howell, George Crawford, Joseph Badcock, William Dean, Richard Jones, John Howell, Thomas Stanford, George Noble, John Wolly, Peter Cart- wright, Abraham Smith, John Hubard, Thomas Miller, Robert Crosby, John Fish, Lubbart Gilberson, Edward Marshall, James Cresse, William Simpkins, Thomas Good- win, Thomas Clifton, Joshua Carman, William Duboldy, James Marshall, John Baily, William Richardson, Thomas Foster, Thomas Hewit, George Taylor, Jr., John Dennis, Isaac Hand, Daniel Hand, Jeremiah Hand, Joseph Hand, Thomas Bancroft, Edward Summis, Henry Gray, Abraham Weston. Thomas Going, Jonathan Edmunds, Nicholas. Martineau, John Garlick, Samuel Matthews, Jr., William Shaw, Robert French, Jeremiah Miller, William Sharwood, Zebulon Sharp, John Story, Richard Townsend. Robert Townsend.
William Sharwood was a fore parent of the famous Chief Justice George Sharswood, of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Beesley (1857) says of the early pioneers of the coun- tv:
"Joseph Ludlam was here in 1692, and made purchases of land on the seaside, at Ludlam's Run, upon which he af- terwards resided: and likewise purchased, in 1720, of Jacob Spicer, a large tract in Dennis' Neck. He left four sons:
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HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Anthony (who settled upon the South Dennis property, which is yet owned in part by his descendants), Joseph, Isaac and Samuel, from whom all the Ludlams of the county have descended. He died in 1761, aged eighty-six years.
"Jonathan Swain and Richard Swain, of Long Island, were here in 1706, and soon after their father, Ebenezer Swain, came to Cape May, and followed whaling, Jonathan being a cooper for them. Their immediate descendants were Zebulon, 1721; Elemuel, 1724; Reuben, who died in the epidemic of 1713, and Silas, 1733. There was a Captain Silas Swain in 1778, from whom has descended Joshua Swain, recently deceased, who held many important trusts in the county, as sheriff, member of the Legislature nine years, and a member of the convention to draft the new Constitution in 1843.
"Henry Young came about the year 1713. He served the county as judge of the court for many years, and was a member of the Legislature ten years. Judge Young was an extensive landholder, deputy surveyor, and was judge of the court from 1722 till his death in 1768. He was surrogate from 1743 to 1768. He was a surveyor and a scrivener, and no one, of those times, was more highly respected, or acted a more prominent and useful part. All of the name now in the county have descended from him.
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