USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The history of Newark, New Jersey : being a narrative of its rise and progress, from the settlement in May, 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut to the present time, including a sketch of the press of Newark, from 1791 to 1878 > Part 3
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JOHN CATLING,
JOHN JOHNSON,
his THOMAS L. LYON.
mark.
The four Scriptural references in the foregoing are as follows :-
"Take ye wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you."-DEUT. 1 : 13.
"Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of
17
THE MILFORD SIGNERS.
truth, hating covetousness : and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens."-EXODUS 18 : 21.
" Thou shalt in anywise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose : one from among thy brethren shalt thou set King over thee; thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother."-DEUT. 17 : 15.
' And their nobles shall be of themselves and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them."-JER. 30: 2I.
On the principle, perhaps, that the last shall be first and the first last, it was not till the 24th of June, 1667, that the primal settlers, those from Milford, signed the "Fundamental Agreements " above transcribed. The Milford signers to this early Declaration of Independence, as it may not inaptly be termed, were :
ROBERT TREAT,
JONA. TOMPKINS,
OBADIAH BRUEN,
GEO. DAY,
MATTHEW CAMFIELD,
THOMAS JOHNSON,
SAMUEL KITCHELL,
JOHN CURTIS,
JEREMIAH PECKE,
EPHRAIM BURWELL,
MICHAEL TOMPKINS, STEPHEN FREEMAN,
his
HENRY LYON,
ROBERT R DENISON, mark NATHANIEL WHEELER,
JOHN BROWNE,
ZACHARIA BURWELL,
JOHN ROGERS,
WILLIAM CAMPE,
STEPHEN DAVIS, EDWARD RIGGS, ROBERT KITCHELL,
JOSEPH WALTERS,
ROBERT DALGLISH,
HANS ALBERS,
J. B. BROOKS, mark his
HUGH ROBERTS,
ROBERT V. LYMENS, mark
MARTIN TICHENOR,
his FRANCIS F. LINLE, mark
JOHN BROWNE, JR.,
JONA. SEARGEANT,
DANIEL TICHENOR,
AZARIAH CRANE,
JOHN BAULDWIN, SEN., JOHN BAULDWIN, JR.,
SAMUEL LYON, JOSEPH RIGGS,
STEPHEN BOND.
It may occur to the reader that there appears to be a strong dash of what is sometimes thoughtlessly or sneeringly called the old Puritan blue-light selfishness in Newark's first charter, as set forth above. Granted, that the instrument of self-government excluded from a share in that government those who were not of " one heart and one mind " with the settlers in church matters ; but the judicious, before rendering judgment on the charter work of the Fathers of the town, likewise upon the Fathers themselves, will consider the times, the manners, the people, the place and the circumstances generally surrounding the settlers and the settlement. These being properly and justly considered, it seems scarcely possible that anything but praise, yes, high praise, can righteously be given the patriarchs of "our towne on Passaick." They came hither from Connecticut
THOM. MORRIS,
EPH'M PENNINGTON,
18
PROTOTYPES OF TRUE REPUBLICAN SELF-GOVERNMENT.
.
" with malice towards none, with charity for all." They planted for themselves and their posterities, not for the strangers that might come within their gates. In providing for self-government, they drew fundamental precepts from the inspired Word; and who that can put himself in their place will say the provision was not complete? One thing there is upon which all must agree. There was nothing false, nothing pharisaical about the Puritan settlers. They were brave and honest enough to say exactly what they meant and what they desired. Judged by their recorded declara. tions, there was no Joseph Surface, no Uriah Heep, no Pecksniff amongst them; nor was there an olive branch in their words, with a sword in their hearts. They left no door open for one to come in and afterwards to be civilly, socially, or politically crucified secretly, because of conscience sake.
Standing imaginatively before these men of 1666, would it not be well for us of two centuries later to pause and consider whether we have any real cause to boast about our progress, our advancement, our enlightenment and our broad and cultivated Christian charity? When we examine their honesty of word, their purity of conscience, their innate love of the right, according to their light, surely we of the present age may wisely and prudently clip the wings of our vanity, cease our boasting, step a few paces to the rear, and meekly uncover in presence of these typical lovers of civil and religious liberty-these prototypes of true republican self-governors !
While, as we have seen, the first settlers planned their township government with an eye mainly to their own views and desires, it is nevertheless clear that they anticipated accessions of strangers to their community. Wherefore they embodied in their "Fundamental Agreements " the following equitable and characteristic provisions :
" Item, it is agreed upon that in case any shall come into us or rise up amongst us that shall willingly or willfully disturb us in our Peace and Settlements, and especially that would subvert us from the Religion and Worship of God, and cannot or will not keep their opinions to themselves, or be reclaimed after due time and means of conviction and reclaiming hath been used ; it is unanimously agreed upon and consented unto, as a Fundamental Agreement and Order that all [such] persons so ill-disposed and affected, shall, after notice given thein from the town, quietly depart the Place seasonably, the Town allowing them valuable consideration for their Lands or Houses as indifferent men shall price them, or else leave them to make the best of them to any Man the Township shall approve of."
How NEWARK came by its name is a subject of deep interest. The first impulse of the first settlers-the Milford people-was to call the new settlement Milford, and Milford it was called until the
19
THE NAME, NEWARK-PIERSON'S OBJECT.
arrival of the Branford people. Then, upon a formal organization of the town government, Milford was dropped and NEWARK sub- stituted. The substitute appears to have been agreed upon in honor of Rev. ABRAHAM PIERSON, the first Pastoral Shepherd of the place, who came from Newark-on-Trent to the Western World, and who, although second on the list of the Branford emigrants, was second to none in the esteem and reverence of the entire community. The original etymology, as Dr. Stearns explains, was not NEW-ARK, as some have supposed, but NEW-WORK. It was written New-Work and New-Worke by Robert Treat and other early settlers. It is so written in the old "Towne Book" still preserved. Here it may appropriately be added that the Newark to which we owe our name, and which was the home and laboring field of the distinguished and godly Pierson, dates its establishment somewhere about the year 1105. There a royal castle was built. It was known as the " New-Work." In it died, in 1216, King John of Runnymede memory. Newark-on-Trent is now, in its 773d year, a town of some 12,000 inhabitants. In the respect of population, if in no other, what a contrast the Newark-on-Passaic offers now to the Newark-on-Trent !
In drawing this chapter to a close-a chapter fully reviewing the settlement, the causes leading thereto, the seeking and the finding of a place where civil and religious liberty could be fully enjoyed, and the men, manners, times and prevalent characteristics of the period revolving around 1666, together with the names and character of the founders of Newark-it remains but to be said that, as regards community self-government, Utopia was as nearly realized as before or since. A government was established in the wilderness the fundamental principles of which were drawn from the Mosaic Law. The history of Newark in 1666 and for some time after, was simply a repetition of the history of " God's chosen people " away down the centuries before the coming of the Messiah, back even to the days of the Pharaohs. Cotton Mather, speaking of Pastor Pierson and his object in founding a settlement at Southampton, long prior to the establishment of Newark, said he (Pierson) tried to "make it become what Paradise was called, an Island of the Innocent !" The same aim and object that carried the reverend Pierson to Southampton, brought him and his flock to Newark. That the ideal was not realized in either place is no evidence that
-
20
LAST ATTEMPT OF MOSAIC GOVERNMENT.
it was not as nearly approached here as the weakness of human nature has permitted anywhere.
It may be added, in conclusion, that the idea elaborated in the foregoing pages, that of founding and permanently establishing a community of Christians whose whole rule and governance would be purely biblical in principle, and religiously exclusive in fact, was probably last attempted here in Newark.
CHAPTER II.
1667 TO 1684.
Leading Forefathers-Interesting Incidents and Anecdotes-Robert Treat, the Chief of the Founders-His Civil and Military Character-Jane Tapp's Witty Matrimonial Hint- Rev. Abraham Pierson, the First Pastor-Cotton Mather on Pierson's Eloquence- The First of the Newark Cranes-Micah Tompkins and the Judges of Charles I .- How the Tompkins Girls Serenaded Angels Unawares-Newark a Law unto Itself-The Pre- fix " Mr." as a Social Distinction-Casting Lots for " Home Lotts"-The First Presby- terian Church and its Establishment-First Meeting House-The Bible, the Bayonet and the Indians-Burgesses Neglecting their Public Responsibilities-Gratifying Results of Fair Dealing with the Aborigines-Breaking Down the "Iron Bedstead Rule"- Newark's First Schoolmaster-" Loving Agreements"-The "Hill Sanctified by Prayer" -Proprietary Troubles with the People -- Strong Early Tribute to Newark's Honor and Integrity-The Dutch Conquest in 1673-" Under which King, Bezonian ? ' - Commentary of a " Canny " Scot to " Cusing ' John in 1784.
IN the preceding chapter the reader is given what is intended to l be a just and impartial general idea of the settlement and the settlers. It is now proposed to enter the field of personalities-to show more fully and particularly what manner of men they were who laid the foundations of Newark ; who organized, guided and governed it during the infancy of its existence; also, what character of community they formed and established.
While it is not to be denied that Abraham Pierson was the Abraham, indeed, of the brave little band of " exiles for conscience sake," the evidence is conclusive that the leader of the leaders, the captain of the heroic company, was ROBERT TREAT. Although Rev. Dr. Stearns, with natural love and reverence for his own holy profession, gives priority of consideration to Pastor Pierson, he nevertheless speaks of Treat as " the flower and pride of the whole company." This Treat was, beyond doubt. He was born in England. As early as 1640 he was at Milford, Connecticut, filling the position of town clerk. Early in life he developed decided capacity for leadership, both in civil and military matters. As we have already seen, he was the avant-courier of the emigrants: the leading selector of Newark as a place of settlement, and the guide hither of
3
-
22
THE CHIEF FOUNDER OF NEWARK.
the Milford people. In establishing and laying out the town he was among the most active and energetic. More than any other settler he is justly entitled to be remembered as THE FOUNDER OF NEWARK. During its first years he served the town as clerk and magistrate, likewise as its deputy in the early New Jersey Assembly. To none more than to Treat is the Newark of to-day indebted for the natural beauty of its location, the order of its original plan, and the width and attractiveness of its leading thorough- fares, more especially Broad street. He remained in Newark after its settlement only some six years, returning to Connecticut in 1672. It seems likely that his old New England associates induced his return on the ground of his ability to fill a larger field of useful- ness in the mother colony. Be that as it may, we find that upon his return he was chosen to the magistracy of the Province, and that in 1675 " Major Treat was dismissed from the church of Christ at Newark," and commended to the church at Milford. In evidence of the esteem in which he was held by his fellow settlers of Newark, the town records tell that when the town was parcelled into lots, he was given first choice by universal consent, and, besides, two extra acres or lots in recognition of his services in negotiating for the settlement. In Connecticut he became more than ever a man of mark. Besides taking a commanding military position in early colonial Indian warfare, Treat served the Colony for thirty-two years as Deputy Governor and Governor. It is traditionally related that at the " Battle of Bloody Brook," between the Indians and the Colonists, Major Treat commanded the latter, and behaved heroic- ally. It is said that in the action : "He that commanded-our forces then and now us, (the Colonial Legislature,) made no less than seventeen fair shots at the enemy, and was thereby as oft a mark for them." It is added, on the same authority, that he received a ball through his hat-brim, and was the last man to leave the fort at dusk the evening of the day of battle. When Sir Edmund Andros attempted to wrest from Connecticut her original charter, and the people suddenly extinguished the lights in the Assembly Cham- ber, so that Captain Wadsworth might be enabled to slip out and secrete the almost sacred document-as he did in the Charter Oak- Governor Treat was in the chair. As Governor he was elected annually from 1683 until 1698. He died July 12, 1710, full of years and honors. He was in his 85th year. Trumbull, the Connecticut
23
WITTY JANE TAPP-THE TREATS.
historian, justly says of this remarkable man: "Few men have sustained a fairer character or rendered the public more important services. He was an excellent military officer ; a man of singular courage and resolution, tempered with caution and prudence. His administration of government was with wisdom, firmness and integ. rity. He was esteemed, courageous, wise and pious. He was exceedingly beloved and venerated by the people in general, and especially by his neighbors at Milford where he resided." He was twice married, his first wife being Jane Tapp, a daughter of one of the " seven pillars " of the Milford church. Like brave men gener- erally, Treat appears to have been exceedingly timid and backward in the presence of the fair sex. That is to say, he was extremely backward in coming to the main point-a proposal of marriage. There is good authority for saying that once, while familiarly danc- ing his future wife on his knee, as was permissable by their disparity of age and long intimacy, the damsel brought her lover to a prompt decision by the suggestive expostulation : "Robert, be still that ; I had rather be Treatted than trotted."
Gov. Treat left Newark a rich legacy in the persons of several estimable children. His son John, who married Sarah Tichenor, was a Justice of the Peace under Cornbury ; represented Essex County in the Assembly when it was necessary that members should, along with other requirements, own 1,000 acres of land or £500 in personal estate; was, in 1712, Presiding Judge of the local Court ; and, in 1731, held the military title of major, like his distin- guished father. The Governor's daughter Mary became the wife of Deacon Azariah Crane, who left his " silver bole" to be used by "the church in Newark forever," and who appears to have outlived all the original settlers. Governor Treat's " home-lott " was occupied by his daughter's descendants until the beginning of the present cen- tury. On a portion of it now stands a noble monument not only to Robert Treat but to all the original settlers-the First Presbyterian Church of Newark. Though the name of Treat is extinct in Newark, and almost entirely so in the State of New Jersey, the Governor's descendants are numerous and representative of the best citizenship and highest reputation. In New England and the West the Treats number not a few distinguished men in public as well as in private life.
Rev. ABRAHAM PIERSON, the spiritual shepherd of the flock, appears to have been a man of God, in the truest sense of the
24
THE FIRST PASTOR.
term. He was a native of Yorkshire, England, was a graduate of Cambridge (in 1632), was " ordained episcopally," as it is said, and preached in the town of Newark, England, some years before he left the Old for the New World. He arrived in Boston in the year 1639, and joined the church there. A year later he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at Lynn. Four years after- wards he removed to Branford, where was organized the church of which he was pastor twenty three years, until his removal to Newark with the Branford settlers, in the Fall of 1666. Mr. Pierson, while at Branford, was distinguished as a zealous and successful missionary among the New England Indians. The better to carry on the work of christianizing the "children of the forest," he acquired a knowledge of their language, and compiled for their advantage a catechism in the Indian tongue. This work was printed in 1660, at a cost of £40. Mr. Pierson's missionary labors were under the auspices of the Commissioners for the New England Colonies, organized at New Haven, in 1643, in conjunction with a Society in England to promote Christianity in New England. For his services, Mr. Pierson received from the Mission Society a yearly salary, graded periodically from £15 to £20, then £30, and, for some unknown reason, then back to £15. The work of his life was mainly accomplished before Newark was settled, though the "Godly-learned man," as Governor Winthrop, his friend and admirer, called him, did his full measure of work for his Master and his fellow-men during the evening portion of his life in Newark. In the nature of the primal government of Newark-a perfect union of church and state-the pastor was the nominal, if not the actual, ruler in temporal as well as spiritual concerns. While, no doubt, he exercised strong influence in matters not strictly spiritual, it nevertheless nowhere appears that he administered his dual office otherwise than to continue increasingly the love and affection his people bore him. That he was a man of decided ability as a preacher, is manifest from what Cotton Mather says. "'Tis reported by Pliny," writes Mather, "but perhaps 'tis but a Plinyism, that there is a fish called Lucerna, whose tongue doth shine like a torch. If it be a fable, yet let the tongue of a minister be the moral of that fable. Now, such an illuminating tongue was that of our' Pierson. Wherever he came he shone." It is evident, also, that Mr. Pierson was a studious as well as a prudent man. He had a
25
DEATH OF PASTOR PIERSON.
library of 440 volumes-an exceedingly large one for his period and the place and circumstances of his abode. His estate was valued, when he came to Newark, at £644, some £16 less than that of Robert Treat's, the man of largest substance among the settlers. At the time of Mr. Pierson's death his estate was worth about £822. A solid mark of the esteem in which he was held was the generosity of his treatment by the settlers. Upon his arrival in Newark-the cost of his transportation from Branford being borne by the people-he was allotted, together with his proportion of land in common with the other settlers, eighty pounds to erect a house-a sum at that time sufficient to pay for building a residence of more than ordinary elegance and accommodations. He was also given the cost of "digging and finishing of his well." His salary was £80, annually. As already stated, Mr. Pierson was far advanced in years in 1666. Six years later, according to a vote of the town taken in meeting held March 4th, 1672, it was agreed to call in an assistant pastor, the choice falling on Mr. Abraham Pierson, junior, the pious and talented son of the first pastor. A short time prior to this, the elder Pierson began setting his house in order for the final removal to an abode not made with hands. He made his will August 10th, 1671, and breathed his last just seven years later, lacking one day, on August 9th, 1678, leaving behind him " the character of a pious and prudent man-a true child of Abraham-and now safely lodged in Abraham's bosom." The exact place of his sepulchre, like the exact place of his birth, is unknown. It may here be remarked that some years ago, the late Samuel H. Congar, the indefatigable Newark genealogist, informed the author that the venerable Pierson was buried in a portion of the "Old Burying Ground," just in the rear of what is now a fire engine house, the sacred spot being occupied by the city as a stable for its fire department horses! It is to be sincerely hoped, for the sake of common decency, the respect the living owe the illustrious dead, and the honor and credit of Newark, that Mr. Congar was in error-that the memory of the earliest pastoral shepherd is spared this sort of monumental desecration, and posterity the odium of such shameful neglect.
JASPER CRANE appears to have borne to the Branford people the same relation that Robert Treat bore to those of Milford. He, too,
26
THE FOREFATHER OF THE CRANES.
was brave, wise, energetic and born to leadership. He was an original settler of New Haven, and a leading member of the church there as in Newark, the church there being also the state, and the state the church. In both places he rendered conspicuous services. In Newark he served as magistrate and president of the town court. He also served with Treat as Deputy from Essex County to the Provincial Assembly, being first on the list during the first five or' six years of its existence. Before "planting" in Newark, Crane had already aided in establishing several settlements elsewhere, and, . hence, was accredited with a spirit akin to restlessness. In 1651, in company with William Tuttle and others, he tried to establish a settlement somewhere on the Delaware, the main object being, as he said, that " the gospel might have been published to the nations, and much good done, not only to the Colonies at present, but to posterity." The attempt failed, however, because-as Crane declared-of the "injustice and violence of the Dutch." The records of the town show that Mr. Crane held a controlling influence in its affairs throughout the first fourteen years of its settlement. His descendants continue to exercise a marked though quiet influence by their worth, character and numbers, not alone in this but in other New Jersey communities. Mr. Crane's " home-lott" included the ground which now represents the northeast corner of High and Market streets, and upon which is now in course of erection a beautiful Episcopal church-St. Paul's-a singular monumental coincidence with the noble use to which part of Treat's " home-lott " has been put.
SAMUEL SWAINE, MICAH TOMPKINS (not Michael, as appears in the " Fundamental Agreements " signatures,) RICHARD LAURENCE and LAURENCE WARD were likewise men of mark among the settlers. Swaine, who was one of the Branford founders, came from London, England, in the " Elizabeth and Anne," in 1635, and was distinguished among the Newark settlers, as being constantly chosen as an alternate, or "third man," to represent the county in the Assembly. Frequently he represented the community instead of Jasper Crane, who appears to have been of a rather delicate consti- tution. Swaine was a millwright by trade, and built the mill located near the "Stone Bridge," which gave Mill Creek its name, and which long furnished the people of Newark with the entirety of their breadstuffs. Like Treat, Swaine was possessed of a decided
27
TOMPKINS AND KING CHARLES'S JUDGES.
martial taste, and filled the position of lieutenant. Upon Treat's return to Connecticut, Lieutenant Swaine was promoted to the captaincy-the command of the Newark forces. This was in 1673. Tompkins and Laurence both occupied the posts of deacons in the church. It was Tompkins who secreted, sheltered and succored Major-Generals Goffe and Whalley, the regicide judges, upon their flight from England, after the beheading of Charles I. At first they found lodgment in the wilderness, but subsequently took up quarters in the house of Mr. Tompkins, right in the heart of Milford. Here, in absolute concealment, remained for two years the men who had dared to consign to the block the head of Charles, the tyrant. They did not so much as enter the orchard adjoining the house. Mr. Treat is said to have been in the secret. Not so even some members of the Tompkins family. The house was a two-story building, some twenty feet square. The lower room was built with. a stone wall and was set apart as a store room. The room above was constructed of wood and was used as a work-room by the family. The latter, it is recorded, used to spin in the room above, ignorant of the presence below of the judges. During the period of secretion, there was brought from England, as it is related, a ballad satirizing those who had participated prominently in the trial and execution of the king, including Goffe and Whalley. A Mil- ford maiden of decidedly musical tastes learned to sing it, and used sometimes to entertain the Tompkins family with the satirical song while spinning in the room overhead the one occupied by the two judges. They heard it, and were so amused, even though they were themselves sharply satirized, that they frequently requested Mr. Tompkins to set the girls singing the ballad. "The girls," as our authority for the anecdote relates, "knew nothing of the matter, being ignorant of the innocent device, and little thought that they were serenading angels."
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