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 26
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
From what has been said, it is evident that the colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were included in the great patent last mentioned ; but that becoming void, the crown was at liberty to re-grant the same to others.
.
But it does not appear that any part of those provinces were settled by virtue thereof ; nor indeed was any distinct discovery of them made until many years afterwards. New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, and other lands adjacent, notwithstanding the ancient right of the crown of England, deduced as aforesaid, had two pretenders to them-the Dutch and the Swedes.
The claim the former set up was under color of a discovery made in the year 1609, by Henry Hudson, an Englishman by birth, and commander of a ship called the Half-Moon, fitted out from Holland by the East India company, for the purpose of discovering, by a northwest passage, a nearer way to China.
* Other accounts say the patent was dissolved by the King's proclamation in 1624, and that though a quo warranto was issued against it, no determina- tion followed in the courts of justice.
-
305
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
In this voyage he sailed up to the place now called New York, and up the river, which he called Hudson's river, and returning sometime after to Amsterdam, the Dutch pretended to have pur- chased the chart he had made of the American coast, and having obtained a patent from the states in the year 1614, to trade in New England, they settled in New York, which place they called New Netherland, and kept possession until Sir Sam- uel Argole, governor of Virginia, disputed their title, alleging that the country having been discovered by an Englishman, in right of his master, he could not suffer it to be alienated from the crown without the king's consent. He therefore compelled the Dutch colony to submit to him, and to hold it under the English. Soon after, a new governor coming from Amsterdam, they not only neglected to pay their usual acknowledgment to the governor of Virginia, but in the year 1623, fortified their colony by building several forts : one on the Delaware, (by them called South river), near Gloucester, in New Jersey, which they named Fort Nassau ; a second on Hudson's (the North river), in the province of New York, which they named Fort Orange, and a third on Connecticut river, (by them called Fresh river), which they named the Hirsse of Good Hope.
Having examined into the Dutch claim to this continent, let us look for a moment at that set up by their neighbors, the Swedes.
In the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, in the year 1626, an eminent merchant, William Useling, who had visited this coun- try, on his return gave a glowing description of it, applauded its fruitful and fertile lands as abounding with all the necessaries of life, and by many arguments he endeavored to persuade the Swedes . to settle a colony here. Literally carried away by the glowing descriptions given by Useling, Gustavus issued a procla- mation at Stockholm, exhorting his subjects to contribute to a company associated for the purposes aforesaid.
This company was very soon formed, and called the West India Company, and was confirmed by Gustavus.
In a general convention assembled the year following, large sums of money were raised to carry on the intended settlement, of which the king, the lords of the council, the chief of his barons,
U
306
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
knights, coronets, principal officers in his militia, bishops, clergy, and many of the common people of Sweden, Finland, and Liffland, contributed.
In 1627, the Swedes and Finns accordingly came over hither. Their first landing was at Cape Inlopen (now called Henlopen). Here they were so well pleased with the sight presented, that they called it Paradise Point. Sometime after they purchased of some Indians (but whether of such as had the proper right to convey we are not informed,) the land from Cape Inlopen to the falls of the Delaware, on both sides of the river. These falls laid opposite, or rather on the west of the city of Trenton- hence, what is now the city of Trenton was included in that purchase. The Delaware was called by them New Swedeland stream ; and they made presents to the Indian chiefs in order to obtain peaceable possession of the lands they had already pur- chased.
But the Dutch continuing their pretensions, in 1630, one David Petersz de Vries built a fort within the capes of Delaware, on the west, about two leagues from Cape Cornelius, at what is now called Lewistown, which was then called by the name of Hoarkill.
In 1631, the Swedes also built a fort on the west of Delaware, to which they gave the name of Christeen, the ruins of which are still visible. This fort was erected near Wilmington, from which the name of the noted creek, Christiana, is derived.
A small town was here laid out by Peter Lindstrom, their en- gineer, and here they first settled, but although this settlement was afterwards demolished by the Dutch, yet in 1810, Christiana township, including the village of the same name, numbered 6,698 inhabitants, and in 1820, 8,335 inhabitants.
On an island called Tinicum, sixteen miles above Christiana, and on the Delaware, below the mouth of Darby creek, about six miles below Philadelphia, the Swedes erected another fort, which they called New Gottemburgh.
On the 2d of September, 1655, the Dutch besieged Christiana fort and town, and destroyed New Gottemburgh, together with all the houses that were outside the fort.
From this time till the year 1664, New Sweden and New
307
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
Netherland continued in possession and under government of the Dutch, who had built a city on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of Hudson's river, which they named New Amsterdam, (New York) and the river they sometimes called the Great river. About one hundred and fifty miles up they built a fort, and called it Orange (Albany) ; from thence they drove a profitable trade with the Indians, who came overland as far as from Quebec to deal with them.
The first bounds of New York were Maryland on the south, the main land as far as could be discovered westward, the river of Canada (now St. Lawrence,) northward, and New England eastward.
We have now arrived at that period when, by the grants made, this province was reduced into a much smaller compass.
That province now called New Jersey* was one of these grants set off from New York. It was probably called New Jersey in honor of Sir George Carteret, one of the proprietors, and a Jerseyman.
The Duke of York being seized, did, on the 23d and 24th days of June, 1664, in consideration of a "competent sum of money, grant and convey unto Lord John Berkley, Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret, of Saltrum, in the county of Devon, to their heirs and assigns forever, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, west of Long Island and Manhattan's Island, and bounded on the east by the main sea, a part of Hudson's river ; on the west by the Delaware bay and river, ex- tending southward to the main ocean, as far as Cape May, at the mouth of Delaware bay, and north by the northernmost branch of said bay or river of Delaware, which is in forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, in a straight line to Hudson's river, said tract of land hereafter to be called Nova Caesarea, or New Jersey ; and also all rivers, mines, minerals, woods, fishings, hawkings, huntings, and fowlings ; and all other royalties, profits, commodities, and hereditaments whatsoever to the lands and premises belonging, or in anywise appertaining, with their and
* It is said to have borne for some time the name of New Canary, and afterwards Nova Cæsarea, or New Jersey.
308
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
every of their appurtenances, in as full and ample a manner as the same is granted unto the Duke of York by the before recited letters patent."
Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret, under this first grant, became sole proprietors, and so continued till the province be- came divided in 1676. Sir George Carteret then became the sole proprietor of the eastern division. The county of Bergen was the first settled place. A great many Dutch being already there when the province was first surrendered, remained under the English government. A few Danes were probably concerned in the original settlement of this country, from whence came Bergen, after the capital of Norway.
In 1664, John Bailey, Daniel Denton, and Luke Watson, of Jamaica, Long Island, purchased of certain Indian chiefs, in- habitants of Staten Island, a tract or tracts of land, on part of which the town of Elizabeth now stands, and for which, on their petition, Governor Richard Nicholls granted a deed or patent to John Baker, of New York, John Ogden, of Northampton, John Bailey and Luke Watson, and their associates, dated at Fort James, in New York, the 2d of December. This is what is commonly called the Elizabethtown grant.
Numbers of industrious, reputable farmers, most of whom were English residents of Long Island, fixed their residences about Middletown, from whence, by degrees, they extended their settlements to Freehold and thereabouts.
To Shrewsbury there came many families from New England, and there were very soon four towns in the province, Elizabeth, Newark, Middletown, and Shrewsbury, and these, with the country around, were in a few years plentifully inhabited by the accession of the Scotch ; and many came from England, besides those of the Dutch that remained in the colony.
After Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret had appointed Philip Carteret governor of the colony of New Jersey, they gave him power, by advice of a majority of the council, to grant lands to all such as by the concessions were entitled thereto, and though there is no provision in the concessions for bargaining
309
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
with the Indians,* Governor Carteret, on his arrival, thought it prudent to purchase their rights.
Governor Carteret did not arrive to take charge of the govern- ment till 1665, up to which time the province was under Richard Nicholl's administration, then governor of New York.
Governor Carteret, on his arrival, took up his residence at Elizabethtown, which it is said he named after Elizabeth, wife of Sir George Carteret, his brother.
He invited others to settle in the province, by sending ambas- sadors throughout New England, to which many responded, and soon came and settled, some at Elizabethtown, others at Wood- bridge, Piscataway, and Newark.
Thus the province of East New Jersey increased in settle- ments, and continued to grow until the Dutch invasion in 1673, when they took possession of the country and put a stop to the English government. f
Philip Carteret remained governor till his death in 1682. During his lifetime the general assemblies and supreme courts sat at Elizabethtown.
In 1675, a few passengers arrived from England for West Jersey. One-half of the province at this time belonged to Lord Berkley, while the other half was sold to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge and his assigns.
The same year Fenwick sailed from London in a ship called the Griffith, and landed at a rich and pleasant spot near Dela- ware, which he called Salem, from the peaceable aspect which it bore. He brought his two daughters over with him, besides a number of servants, two of whom, Samuel Hedge and John Adams, afterwards married.
Among the passengers who came with Fenwick, were Edward
* This in 1672 was supplied by particular instructions, directing that the governor and council should purchase all lands from the Indians, and be re- imbursed by the settlers as they made their purchases.
t Governor Andross, of New York, in 16So, undertook to dispute the title of Carteret as governor of New Jersey. He therefore sent an armed force to Elizabethtown, seized and carried him prisoner to New York, on pretence of his commission not being a good one.
310
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
Champness, Edward Wade, Samuel Wade, John Smith and wife, Samuel Nicholls, Richard Guy, Richard Noble, Richard Han- cock, John Pledger, Hipolite Lufever, and John Matlock. These, and others with them, were masters of families. This is the first ship that came to West Jersey, and none followed for nearly two years, owing probably to a difference between Fen- wick and Byllinge. But this difference was settled to the satis- faction of both parties by the good offices of William Penn.
Articles of concession were agreed upon and signed by a number of inhabitants of West Jersey, which was confirmed by a letter dated "London, 26th of 6th Month, 1676." Article Isc described the boundary of the new concession, as follows : " We have divided with Sir George Carteret, and have sealed deeds of partition each to the other, and we have all that side on Delaware river from one end to the other ; the line of parti- tion is from the east side of Little Egg Harbor, straight north, through the country to the utmost branch of Delaware river, with all powers, privileges, and immunities whatsoever ; ours is called New West Jersey ; his is called New East Jersey."
This, with four additional articles relating to the partition of the colony, was signed by Gawen Lawrie, William Penn, Nicholas Lucas, E. Byllinge, John Eldridge, and Edmond Warner.
In 1677, two companies of Quakers, one in Yorkshire and one in London, made purchase of some of the West Jersey lands, and sent out the following commissioners to purchase the lands. of the Indians: Thomas Ollive, Daniel Wills, John Kinsey, John Penford, Joseph Helmsley, Robert Stacy, Benjamin Scott, Richard Guy,* and Thomas Foulke. They fitted out a sailing vessel called the Kent, and landed their passengers, two hundred in number, at Raccoon creek, while the commissioners sailed around to a place they called Chygoes Island, t afterwards Bur- lington.
* Richard Guy came in the first ship; John Kinsey died at Shackamaxon soon after landing; his remains were interred at Burlington, in land appro- priated for a burial ground, but now a street.
t From Chygoe, an Indian sachem who lived there.
311
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
Their first purchase through their Swedish interpreters, Israel Helmes, Peter Rambo, and Lacy Cock, extended from Timber creek to Rancocas creek, and another from Oldman's creek to Timber creek.
After this they got Henric Jacobson Falconbre to be their in- terpreter, and purchased from Rancocas creek to Assunpink .*
These commissioners, by mutual consent, laid out and settled New Beverly, which they afterward called Bridlington, but soon changed it to Burlington. The town was divided into tenths between the London and Yorkshire companies.
It has been asserted that the first settlement of Trenton was called by the Indians Littleworth, in consequence of its liability to be destroyed by a flood in the river. My impression, how- ever, is, that the inhabitants never recognized it as the name of the town. Mahlon Stacy, who was one of the first purchasers of land here, in letters written in 1680, dates them from " the Falls of Delaware." Rev. Dr. Cooley, who is supposed to have been the author of a series of articles published some years ago, and from which articles I have obtained considerable information for this and subsequent chapters, stated that he had seen a deed of two lots lying east of Greene street, between Second street (now State) and the Assanpink, which were described as " being in Littleworth." If the inhabitants ever called any part of Trenton by that name it must have been the lowlands between Front street and the creek, as it is but a few years since that wasflow meadow ground and has been overflowed by freshets within the memory of most of our citizens, and has within a few years been filled up until it has attained its present condition, being made . ground. We are not prepared to dispute its being the name of the town at its earliest settlement, but have grave doubts of such being the fact.
The province of Nova Caesarea, or New Jersey, was included in the original grant made by Charles II. King of England, to his brother James, the Duke of York, on the 20th of March,
* Meaning Stony Creek.
-
312
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
1664,* and in June of the same year, the Duke of York conveyed it to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, jointly. The province was called Nova Cæsarea or New Jersey from the name of the Isle of Jersey, in the English channel, the country of Sir George Carteret.
On the 6th of August, 1680, the Duke of York relinquished by deed his claim of ownership to the province of West New Jersey ; at the same time he reserved the right of government, and accordingly chose Edward Byllinge as governor of that province, and Philip Carteret was chosen governor of East Jersey.
The Quakers of West New Jersey, who were now the proprie- tors, had established a liberal government, and had placed their civil and religious liberties upon a foundation that promised to stand.
William Penn, with eleven associates, some of whom were already concerned in New Jersey, became the purchasers of Carteret's province. The deeds of lease and release (which are yet in existence), were made to the purchasers on the Ist and 2d of February, 1681-2.
The new proprietors proceeded at once to appoint a governor, and their choice for this office fell upon Robert Barclay, of Urie, in Scotland, a member of their own body.
After the London commissioners, who came over in the Kent, had laid out the town of Burlington, on the Delaware river, the Yorkshire commissioners, consisting of Joseph Helmsley, Robert
* Previous to 1752, the year commenced on the 25th of March, conse- quently the time between the Ist day of January and that day was reckoned with the former year, and was usually expressed by a double date An instru- ment, for instance, bearing dlate January 15th, 1640, according to our calendar, would be expressed January 15th, 1639-40; sometimes only 1639. The day of the month by the new style may be ascertained by omitting ten days in the seventeenth century, eleven days in the eighteenth century, and twelve days in the nineteenth century. The alteration was made in England by a statute passed in 1751, to take effect in January, 1752, which authorized the omission of the eleven intermediate days of the calendar-from the 2d to the 14th of that month.
313
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
Stacy and William Emley, chose the purchase from the Assan- pink,* or Falls of the Delaware, to Ancocas or Rancocas creek.
In November of this year, two ships arrived with passengers, the " Willing Mind,"t from London, and the "Fly Boat Martha," from Hull, with one hundred and fourteen passengers, who settled on the Yorkshire tract. In 1678, on the Ioth of December, the " Shield " arrived from Hull.
This was the first ship that had ever ascended the river as far as Burlington.
She moored to a tree, and the next morning after they arrived the passengers went ashore on the ice.} Among the emigrants who came in this vessel were Mahlon Stacy, Thomas Potts, Thomas Lambert, Thomas Neville, and Thomas Wood, with their families ; Godfrey Newbold, John Newbold, and Mr. Barnes, merchant, from Hull, Richard Green, and John Heyers. §
Mahlon Stacy took up a tract of land of eight hundred acres, lying on both sides of the Assanpink, but principally on the north side of the creek. ||
Several of the first emigrants settled on the lowlands at the Falls of the Delaware.
The country in the vicinity of the Assanpink was for some time known as the Falls, or Falls of the Delaware. Mahlon Stacy, in writing to his friends in England, dates his letter from the Falls of the Delaware, in West Jersey, the 26th of the fourth month, 1680.T
In the year 1681, a law was passed to measure the front of the
* This creek is called in the public records, Derwent, St. Pink, Sun Pink, Assunpink, (meaning stony creek, from its gravelly bottom) and Assanpink, its present name
t Some of those who came in this ship settled at Burlington.
Į Gordon, p. 40.
¿ Gordon and Smith's History, p. 109.
|| This tract lay between the old York road (now Greene street) and the Delaware river, and between State and Ferry streets, and extended into what is now Hamilton township on the south side of the creek. Lambert's purchase was south of Ferry street, Trenton.
[ Smith's History, p. 114.'
314
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
river Delaware, from St. Pink to Cape May, in order to divide it into ten proprietaries, each proprietor to have his proportion on the front of the river, and to extend back into the woods, so as to contain sixty-four thousand acres, and each proprietary was to be divided into ten equal parts .*
At this division the first proprietary, or Yorkshire tenth, extended from the Assanpink, where it empties into the Dela- ware, south to the Rancocas creek, in Burlington county, and east into the woods, so as to contain in each proprietary sixty- four thousand acres of land. At that time the main land extended nearly opposite Cox's mill, at the mouth of the Assanpink, so as to include the Island of Sand, or Gravelly Island.
The first survey of twenty-five hundred acres was made in June, 1687, and the addition of twenty-five hundred acres was surveyed in 1689, when the lands were taken up. This tract extended north on the Delaware between three and four miles, and back from the river so as to include about five thousand acres ; and from the northwestern boundary of Hutchinson's land on the Dela- ware, the society tract commenced, containing ten thousand acres surveyed in May, 1699. How far the western boundary of this tract extended northerly on the river is not at present definitely known.
The Hutchinson manor-house was on the farm on which the State Lunatic Asylum now stands, formerly owned by John Titus, Esq. All these lands, with most, if not all, the other tracts, were included in what was, as early as 1699, known as the township of Hopewell, and which was bounded by the Assanpink on the south, by the line of division between East and West Jersey on the east, and by the present boundary of the township of Hopewell on the north.
. At what time this tract of country received the name of Hope- well I am not informed. A part of the plantation belonging to
* Leaming & Spicer, p. 436.
t The ruins of Cox's mill are still standing. It was about thirty by thirty- eight feet, and built of stone.
315
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
the Dean family was deeded by Jonathan Eldridge, of Burling- ton, to Moses Petit, of Hopewell, in the township of Nottingham, in 1695.
In 1683, the general assembly gave to Governor Jennings six hundred acres of land, above the Falls, in consideration of his necessary charges as governor, " when the lands shall have been purchased of the Indians."* This shows that at the commence- ment of the seventeenth century the country above the falls had not been purchased or settled.
Very few settlements had been made in the township at the commencement of the last century, with the exception of those made on the lowlands at the Assanpink, in 1676, and which were totally destroyed by the flood in 1692, already mentioned. After this disaster the buildings which were erected in the vicinity of the Assanpink were built on the south side of the creek.
That spot of ground immediately adjoining the creek on the south was called Kingsbury, afterwards Kensington Hill; but when it became a manufacturing place of some note, the name was again changed to Mill Hill, which name it continued to bear until it was incorporated with Bloomsbury and made the borough of South Trenton, and afterwards the third and fourth wards of Trenton.
Mr. Isaac Watson, who came from Nottingham, England, settled on the place late in the occupancy of Mr. Benjamin Van Schoick, and in 1708 built the house which is still standing. The township of Nottingham was so called from the place in England from whence Mr. Watson came. About the year 1 700, the settlements were commenced by persons who bought the lands from the original proprietors, or persons who had taken up the lands ; and most of the deeds of plantations in the different parts of the township bear date from 1699 to 1710, There was considerable difficulty experienced about the title of lands. Grants of lands had been made at different times to different persons, and when they were surveyed it was found that in some
* Leaming & Spicer, p. 471. .
316
HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY.
cases the same land had been granted to different persons. Some had purchased of those who had taken up the land, whose titles, if they had any, were obtained from the Indians.
Dr. Daniel Cox, being one of the rightful proprietors of the lands in this section of the country, Mr. Thomas Revell was appointed by the purchasers to make such arrangements with Dr. Cox as would secure them in the possession of their land, and from the following it appears that he had attended to the business to their satisfaction :
" August 26th, 1703. We, underwritten, having, at the date of the above, at the house of Ralph Hunt, in Maiden township,* heard read the agreement made the 20th of April, 1703, between Dr. Daniel Cox, Esq., and Thomas Revell, on behalf of the purchasers of the land within Maiden and Hopewell, do hereby declare and signify our full and free assent and consent to the same.
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.