USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey : from its earliest settlement to the present time : including a brief historical account of the first discoveries and settlement of the country, Vol. I > Part 25
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presented to the governor before the granting thereof, and the others to clear themselves by oath or certificate .*
"That every apprentice and servant that shall depart and absent themselves from their masters or dames, without leave first obtained, shall be judged by the court to double the time of such their absence, by future service over and above other damages and costs which master and dame shall sustain by such unlawful departure.
"Any one having been proved to have transported, or to have contrived the transportation of any such apprentice or servant, shall be fined five pounds, and all such damages as the court shall judge, and that the master or dame can make appear, and if not able, to be left to the judgment of the court.
"Every inhabitant that shall harbor or entertain any such apprentice or servant, and knowing that he hath absented himself from his service, upon proof thereof, shall forfeit to the master or dame, ten shillings for every day's entertainment or concealment, and if not able to satisfy, then to be liable to the judgment of the court.
* The following is a copy of a certificate given by Governor Franklin :
. By His Excellency William Franklin, Esq., Captain-General and Governor in Chief and over His Majesty's Province of New Jersey, and Territories thereon depending in America.
To any minister or justice of the peace :
WHEREAS, by a mutual Purpose of Marriage between Samuel Opdyke, of the Township of Amwell, and County of Hunterdon, of the one Party, and Susannah Robertson, of the same place of the other Party, of which they have desired my License, and have given Bond, upon condition that neither of them have any lawful Let or Impediment, Pre-Contract, Affinity, or Consanguinity, to their being joined in the Holy Bands of Matrimony. These are therefore to authorize and impower you to join the said Samuel Opdyke and Susannah Robertson in the Holy Bands of Matrimony, and then to pronounce them Man and Wife.
GIVEN under my Hand and the Prerogative Seal, at Burlington, the Seventh
Day of December, in the Sixteenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of GOD of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Annoque Domini One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five.
Entered in the Registry of the Prerogative Office.
Wy. FRANKLIN.
.
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"Concerning that beastly vice, drunkenness, it is hereby enacted, that if any person be found to be drunk, he shall pay one shilling fine for the first time, two shillings for the second, and for the third time, and for every time after two shillings and six- pence ; and such as have nothing to pay, shall suffer corporal pun- ishment, and for those that are unruly and disturbers of the peace, they shall be put in the stocks until they are sober, or during the pleasure of the officer-in-chief in the place where he is drunk."
This session of the assembly was commenced on the 26th and ended on the 30th of May, 1668.
The next session was held at Elizabethtown, on Tuesday, the 3d of November, 1668, at which an act was passed requiring "all the soldiers in every town of the province, from sixteen years old to sixty, to train or be mustered at least four days in the year, and oftener if the chief military officer in the place see it needful, viz., two days in the spring and two days in the autumn, and that there shall be at least ten days between each training day; any chief officer constituted and commissioned for that · purpose, wittingly or willfully neglecting the same, shall forfeit for every day's neglect, twenty shillings to the public and every soldier five shillings, and for a half a day, two shillings and six- pence, and for late coming, one shilling.'
Every town within the province was to have a brand-mark for their horses, to distinguish the horses of one town from another ; besides which every one was to have and mark his horse or horses with his own particular brand-mark ; also, that every town shall have a horn brand-mark, for all cattle from three years old and upward. It was required that there should be an officer appointed . by the governor in each town to brand and record every particu- lar man's brand, and the age of each of them, as near as he could, with the color and all observable marks it had before the brand- ing, whether on the ear or elsewhere, with the year and day of the month when branded, and to receive from the owner six- pence for each horse, mare, or colt so branded and recorded ; and every one neglecting to have them branded was to be fined ten shillings for every default.
The horses and cattle were to be branded with the same letter in each town ; that of Bergen, with the letter B; Newark, with
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N; Elizabethtown, with E; Woodbridge, with W ; Middletown, with M ; Shrewsbury, with S; Delaware, with D; Piscataqua, with P.
The brand was to be fixed on the right buttock of horses, and on the right horn of cattle; the brander to have for cattle, two- pence per head. The sale of horses of all kinds was to be recorded in the town book within ten days after the sale, and the recorder was to receive three-pence per head for every such sale, under a penalty of forty shillings for every default.
Every town was required to provide an ordinary for the relief and entertainment of strangers, the keeper of which was to have a license from the secretary, and oblige himself to make sufficient provision of meat, drink, and lodging for strangers; and for neglect in any of the towns, they were to forfeit forty shillings fine to the country for every month's default after publication hereof.
All persons were prohibited receiving or buying any cattle whatsoever of any Indian or Indians, whether swine, neat cattle, or horses, under the penalty of ten pounds.
December 2d, 1675, it was enacted "that whosoever shall profane the Lord's Day, otherwise called Sunday, by any kind of servile work, unlawful recreations, or unnecessary travels on that day, not falling within the compass of works of mercy or necessity, either willfully or through careless neglect, shall be punished by fine, imprisonment, or corporally, according to the nature of the offence, at the judgment of the court, justice or justices where the offence is committed."
Any person falling under the fine of a penal law, no officer was allowed to lay restraint upon his or their arms or ammuni- tions, plow-irons or chains, horses or cattle, as being so necessary to their livelihood.
Blacksmiths, locksmiths, or any other persons were forbidden to make, mend, or any way repair any Indian gun or guns, upon the penalty of paying for the first offence, after conviction, the sum of twenty shillings, and for the second offence, forty shillings, and for the third offence, to double the whole, and so to continue, which fines to be one-half to the informer, and the other half to the public use. ,
April 6th, 1676, an act was passed requiring all weights and
1
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measures to be sealed, according to the standard of England, and for dry measure, according to Winchester measure.
It was also ordered that the freeholders in every town choose a packer, to see that all meat in barrels for sale be good and merchantable, and well packed and salted, and to contain thirty- two gallons, and put his mark upon the cask or barrel, and to have for his pains of packing and marking of every such barrel, eight-pence.
All leather was to pass under the hand of a sealer, and be approved by him, under a penalty of four-pence per hide.
At a meeting of the general assembly, held at Woodbridge, October 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1676, it was enacted that there be a "day of public thanksgiving, set apart throughout the whole province, to give God the glory and praise for the signal demonstration of His mercy and favor towards us in this colony, in the preserving and continuing our peace in the midst of wars round about us, together with many other mercies which we are sensible of, which call aloud for our acknowledgment and thanks- giving to the Lord, and oblige us to live to His praise, and in His fear always."
The laws of the general assembly were in force only one year, and consequently at each yearly session the same laws had to be re-enacted, otherwise they lost their vitality.
The salary of the governor was fixed, in the year 1675, at fifty pounds per year, and five shillings was allowed him for a seal. In 1676, the governor was allowed four shillings a day for travel- ing expenses, the council and deputies, three shillings each per day, traveling expenses, and to continue during the time of their sitting.
In 1679, the salary of the governor was fixed at two shillings per head for every male within the province from fourteen years · old and upwards.
A day of thanksgiving was appointed for "next Wednesday come three weeks: that will be the 26th of this instant, No- vember." -
In 1681, a law was passed forbidding the sale of rum, brandy, wine, cider, strong beer, or any other intoxicating liquor to the
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Indians, under the penalty of twenty pounds for the first offence, and to be doubled for every offence after.
Robert Barclay was appointed governor of East New Jersey for life, July 17th, 1683, and Gawen Lawrie, deputy governor, not exceeding seven years, commission dated July 27th, 1683.
Jeremiah Basse was appointed governor, April 14th, 1698.
The sessions of the general assembly and the courts were held at Elizabethtown up to the 6th day of April, 1686, and all the public records were kept there up to that time, when they were, by act of the general assembly, removed to the town of Amboy Perth, in the county of Middlesex, afterwards called New Perth. The courts were afterwards ordered to be held alternately at the town of Amboy Perth, Piscataway, and Woodbridge.
On the 28th of September, 1692, the legislature finding the act imposing a fine on persons selling liquors to the Indians was ineffectual to prevent that traffic, enacted that the penalty should be " for the first offence, five lashes on the bare back, for the second offence, ten lashes on the bare back, for the third, fifteen, for the fourth, twenty, and so many and no more for every such offence thereafter, to be inflicted by order of the court."
In 1692, an act was passed authorizing the division of the several counties into townships, tribes, or divisions.
In 1693, an act was passed to establish schoolmasters within the province, " for the cultivation of learning and good manners, and for the good and benefit of mankind, which hath hitherto been much neglected within this province."
In 1695, an act was passed regulating schools, in which each town was to choose three men yearly, who were "to appoint and agree with a schoolmaster, and to nominate and appoint the most convenient place or places where the school shall be kept from time to time, that as near as may be the whole inhabitants may have the benefit thereof."
Concessions and agreements of the proprietors, freeholders, and inhabitants of the province of West New Jersey were made on the 25th day of March, 16So, confirming the contract and agreement made on the 2d day of March, 1676, by William Penn, Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas, unto Thomas Hutch-
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inson, Thomas Pearson, Joseph Helmsley, George Hutchinson, and Mahlon Stacy.
Samuel Jennings was deputy governor in 1681, from the 25th of September, and was appointed governor the 14th of Novem- ber, 1681.
The laws of the province of West Jersey were almost precisely the same as those of East Jersey.
The general assembly held their sessions at Burlington.
The courts were held alternately at Burlington and Salem, they being the most populous towns in the province.
In 1682, the legislature granted authority for the erection of public markets for the accommodation of the people; the first market day was to be held at Burlington, to begin and take place the seventh day of the eighth month next ensuing, and at Salem, the seventeenth day of the same month.
"The Seventh day, commonly called Saturday, weekly and every week, shall be the market day at Burlington, to be held there in the place formerly set forth for the market place ; and that the market for corn shall begin at the eleventh hour in the morning.
"That the Third day, called Tuesday, weekly and every week, shall be the market at Salem, to be held before the town landing, formerly appointed there for the market place, and that the market for corn shall begin at the eleventh hour in the morning."
For the encouraging learning, and for the better education of youth, it was enacted that the island called Matinicunk, late in the possession of Robert Stacy, with all and every the appur- tenances, was given to remain for the use of the town of Bur- lington for the maintaining of a school for the education of youth within the said town.
In 1683, the assembly gave to Thomas Budd and Francis Collins one thousand acres of land (parts of the land to be pur- chased of the Indians above the falls), for the building of a market-house and court-house at Burlington
Samuel Jennings was, by the free election and vote of the assembly sitting at Burlington, chosen governor of the province on the IIth of March, 1683. His previous appointment was by
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the lords proprietors. The assembly gave him six hundred acres of land, to be had and taken up above the falls (after the pur- chase thereof was made from the Indians), with three years' time to settle the same. *
The first representatives of West Jersey were Thomas Ollive, (speaker), Mahlon Stacy, Joshua Wright, John Lambert, Thomas Lambert, t William Emley, Godfrey Hancock, Daniel Leeds, Thomas Wright, Samuel Borden, { Robert Stacy, Thomas Budd, Daniel Wills, Thomas Gardner; John Cripps, John White, John Chaffen, Bernard Devenish, Isaac Meriott, William Peachee, William Cooper, Mark Newbie, Thomas Chackeray, Robert Zame, Samuel Neville, Richard Guy, Marke Reeves, Richard Hancock, John Smith, John Pledger, Edward Wade, George Deacon, Samuel Hedge, Andrew Thompson, Thomas Revell, (clerk).
At the session held at Burlington, July 7th, 1683, it was re- solved and unanimously agreed upon by the assembly, that the governor be chairman or speaker, and that he sit as one of the assembly, together with the council, and the chairman to have two votes, or a double vote.
On the 20th day of March, 1684, Thomas Ollive was chosen governor.
September 25th, 1685, John Skene was chosen deputy gov- ernor.
November 3d, 1692, Andrew Hamilton was chosen governor.
Previous to 1693, West Jersey had been divided into three counties, Burlington, Salem, and Falls, and these were sub- divided into ten-tenths.
At the session of May 12th, 1696, a bill was passed, called a qualifying bill, requiring officers who were not free to take an oath, to sign the following declaration of fidelity and profession of the Christian faith :
"I, A. B., do sincerely promise and solemnly declare, that
* All the lands in New Jersey were purchased from the Indians, and none were taken except by purchase.
t From whom Lamberton was named.
# From whom Bordentown took its name.
£
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will be true and faithful to William, King of England, and the government of this province of West New Jersey ; and I do solemnly profess and declare, that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and renounce, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and position, that princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, may be de- prived or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I also declare, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have, any power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spirit- ual, within this realm."
THE CHRISTIAN BELIEF.
"I, A. B., profess faith in GOD, the Father, and in JESUS CHRIST, his Eternal Son, the true GOD, and in the Holy Spirit, one GOD blessed forever more; and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by Divine Inspiration."
The tax ordered at this session to be raised for the payment and discharge of the provincial debt was one penny per acre of land cleared, improved, and fenced, meadow only excepted ; six- pence upon every hundred acres surveyed and unimproved land ; six-pence per head upon all neat cattle from one year old and upwards ; twelve-pence per head upon every horse and mare one year old and upwards ; six-pence per head for every hog or swine that any person should sell, convey, or dispose of, living or dead ; one penny per head for every sheep ; and also all per- sons keeping or owning negroes should pay for every negro of ten years of age and upwards, two shillings and six-pence. Those refusing to pay, or giving in a false account, or concealing and not giving in a negro, were to be fined six shillings; for every head of such beast not given in, ten shillings ; for every acre of land improved, two-pence ; and for every hundred acres of land unimproved, nine-pence.
Previous to 1694, each tenth chose ten representatives for the provincial assembly, making one hundred representatives in all, which was according to the concessions of the lords proprietors.
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After the year 1694, they were chosen by counties. Burlington county comprised two-tenths ; Gloucester county, two-tenths ; and Salem county, one-tenth. Burlington county had twenty members ; Gloucester county, twenty ; Salem, ten ; and Cape May, five.
In the year 1696 this number was considered superfluous, and the representation was made, for Burlington, ten ; Gloucester, ten ; Salem, five; and Cape May, three; making in all twenty- eight members.
In the year 1700, the assembly enacted, " that any person or persons that shall break into any house, out-house, or barn, in the day-time or in the night, and shall steal any goods or mer- chandize to the value of one shilling or upwards, upon being convicted thereof, shall (besides making the restitution of four- fold), for the first offence, receive thirty-nine stripes upon the bare back, and being convicted a second time, shall have burnt with a hot iron upon his, her, or their forehead, a Roman T, added to the above punishment, and being convicted a third time, shall be burned with a hot iron in the cheek with the Roman letter T, suffer a twelve months' close imprisonment, and be kept to hard labor, only having a sufficiency of diet, and corrected by being whipt with thirty-nine stripes on the bare back once in every month during the said term of one year."
After the first offence, if the offender begged transportation, the judge or justice of the Supreme Court was to allow it to him or her. After being transported, in case they returned within seven years, they were to be apprehended, and not only make restitution four-fold, but to receive thirty-nine stripes, and be branded with the Roman letter T on the forehead.
At the session of May 12th, 1701, the law reducing the repre- sentatives to twenty-eight was repealed, and the old law allowing them fifty-five re-enacted
On the 15th day of April, 1702, the proprietors of the provinces of East and West Jersey surrendered to Queen Anne all the powers and authorities in them vested in said provinces, previous application having been made to that end August 12th, 1701.
This surrender was signed by twenty-five of the proprietors of
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East Jersey, and by thirty-two of West Jersey. The surrender was accepted by the Queen, at the Court of St. James, the 17th day of April, 1702, before the final articles of surrender could have reached England.
On the 16th day of November, 1702, Lord Cornbury (Edward Hyde) was appointed governor of the consolidated province .*
The assembly was ordered to sit alternately at Perth Amboy and Burlington, and to consist of twenty-four representatives, to be chosen, two by the inhabitants, householders of the city or town of Perth Amboy ; two by the inhabitants, householders of the city and town of Burlington ; ten by the freeholders of East New Jersey, and ten by the freeholders of West New Jersey.
* His commission bears date December 5th, 1702.
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CHAPTER XIV.
1680-1786.
New Jersey-When set off from New York-Extent of East and West Jersey-First Purchases-Consideration paid for lands -First settlement at Burlington-Flood at Delaware Falls- Religious Institutions-Places of public worship-First coutrs in Trenton-United States government offices removed to Trenton.
A LTHOUGH the English had very early made the discovery of North America, a considerable time elapsed before any advantages accrued. Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584, was the first Englishman who attempted to plant a colony in it .*
In this year he obtained a patent from Queen Elizabeth, for him and his heirs, to discover and possess forever, under the crown of England, all such countries and land as were not then possessed by any Christian prince, or inhabited by any Christian people. This was the first patent granted to Sir Walter Raleigh. Encouraged by this grant, Raleigh and other partners, at divers times, fitted out ships, and settled a colony at Roanore, t in Vir- ginia; but, notwithstanding various attempts, they met with
* That is, a regular colony under grants. Sir Armigell Wadd, of Yorkshire, a clerk of the Council of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and author of a book of Travels, was the first Englishman that made discoveries in America. [II. Walpole's Anecdotes of Printing, vol. ii, Catalogue of Engravers, pp. IS, 19.]
+ Now Roanoke, in Virginia. At that time the country was divided into but two great divisions; the first or southern division was granted to the Lon- don company, and the second or northern division, to the Plymouth company. The portion of territory to which the name of Virginia was given, extended rom the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. [Mulford's History, p. 26.]
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such discouragements that no great improvements were made until sometime afterwards.
In the year 1606, King James, without any regard to Raleigh's right, granted a new patent of Virginia, in which was included New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Mary- land. From Queen Elizabeth's time to the time of this patent, the whole country bore the name of Virginia, which was given it by Raleigh, in honor of the virgin queen of England, as some say, though others claim that it took its rise from the fact of its never having been settled before-being virgin soil.
The patentees were Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, (clerk), Edward Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanham, and Raleigh Gilbert, Esqs., William Parker, George Popham,* and others. The extent of the land granted was from thirty-four to forty-five degrees north latitude, with all the islands lying within one hundred miles of the coast. Two distinct col- onies were to be planted by virtue of this patent, and the prop- erty invested in two different bodies of adventurers, the first to belong to Somers, Hakluyt, and Wingfield, under title of the London adventurers, or the London company, and was to reach from thirty-four to forty-one degrees, with all lands, woods mines, minerals, &c.
The other colony was to reach from the end of the first, to forty-five degrees ; granting the same privileges to Hanham, Gilbert, Parker, and Popham, under the name of the Plymouth company, with liberty to both companies to take as many part- ners as they pleased ; forbidding others to plant within those colonies without their license ; only reserving the fifth-part of all gold and silver mines, and the fifteenth-part of copper, to the use of the crown.
The London company, by virtue of this grant, fitted out sev- eral ships, with artificers of every kind, and all things requisite for a new settlement, which sailed for America, and planted a colony there, but in the year 1623, there were so many com- plaints made of bad management, that on inquiry, a quo war- ranto was issued against the patent, and after a trial had in the
* Lord Chief Justice of England.
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King's bench, it was declared forfeited ;* after which Virginia remained for a long time under the immediate direction of the crown.
In the year the patent was granted, the Plymouth company also attempted to make a settlement, but with no great success until about the year 1620, when they sent fresh recruits from England, under the command of Captain Standish, who arrived at Cape Cod, in the latitude of forty-two degrees, and having turned the Cape, found a commodious harbor, opposite the point at the mouth of the bay, at the entry of which were two islands well stocked with wood. Here they built a town which they called Plymouth. About this time, the colonies in New England were much augmented by multitudes of dissenters, who, think- ing this a good opportunity of enjoying liberty of conscience, offered their services to the Plymouth company, and the grand patent being delivered up to the King, particular patents were granted to the Lord Musgrave, the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Carlisle, the Lord Edward Gorges, and new colonies were planted in divers places on this continent.
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