Class _Piit Book h 6 Copyright W.^-^ixpy^^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr J William Steward GOULDTOWN A VERY REMARKABLE SETTLEMENT OF ANCIENT DATE STUDIES OF SOME STURDY EXAMPLES OF THE SIMPLE LIFE, TOGETHER WITH SKETCHES OF EARLY COLONIAL HIS- TORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY AND SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND SOME EARLY GENEALOGICAL RECORDS BY WILLIAM STEWARD, A.M., AUTHOR OF " JOHN BLTE," " CHIP," " THE CHILD OF THE ALLEY,' "WALTER GORDON," AND OTHER STORIES AND Rev. THEOPHILUS G. STEWARD, D.D., Chaplain U. S. Armt, Retired AUTHOR OF "genesis REREAD," AND OTHER BOOKS PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 1913 COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY 'WILLIAM AND T. G. STEWARD t/ ©C1.A84794'^ FOREWORD It has long been in mind to prepare and put in book form the oral traditions, as well as such authenticated facts, as could be collected from records and pubKc documents of the remarkable settlement of people of color, which has here been attempted. The study of the three original families herein set forth in this county (Cumberland) and a fourth family connected to a degree with them, of Salem county origin, is a subject of some interest. That it is of more than local interest has been shown by lengthy newspaper articles in many metropolitan journals during the last thirty years. The settlement was made the subject of historical allusion more than three-quarters of a century ago; and while many of those periodical articles have been based upon very insufficient information, the writers having been attracted to the subject by the historical allusions above referred to, they have been of a character in- dicating estimation. To preserve these traditions, records, and histories as well as some of more enlarged interest, is the object here had in view. W. and T. G. S. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Gouldtown; Its Tradition; Its People; Its Gen- eral History 9 II. Fenwick; English History; His Sailing and Landing; His Colony 20 III. Fenwick Colony; Land Grants and Primary Government 35 IV. Copies of Very Ancient Parchment Deeds in Possession of a Bridgeton Attorney 43 V. Gould Traditions; Evidences; Descent; Benja- min Gould's Will 49 VI. The Early Goulds and their Associations; the Pierces and Murrays; the Three Foundation Families 57 VII. Origin of the Pierce, Murray and Cuff Families 62 VIII. Importance of Genealogical Research; Some of THE Original Family Genealogies of Salem AND Cumberland Counties; Compilation of Thomas Shourds 67 IX. Rural Sociological Examples, Suggested in THIS Life of Simplicity 81 X. Gould Genealogies; Probability of Origin of Name of Settlement 88 XI. The Cuffs of Salem; their Probable Origin; THEIR Ultimate Connection with the Gould, Pierce, and Murray Families 113 XII. Genealogical Sketch of John Murray's and David Murray's Families and Some of the Pierce Connections 118 XIII. Family Eugenics and Longevity; the Gould, Pierce and Murray Estates 133 6 6 CONTENTS XIV. Organization of the Church; Early Religious Affiliations of the People 140 XV. The People's Patriotism; Ready to Bear Arms for the Country 154 XVI. Social Life; Some Typical Social Events; Two Golden Weddings; a Social Study 157 XVII. Educational Facilities of the Neighborhood.. 170 XVIII. Some Literary Efforts of Gouldtown Youth Thirty and Fifty Years Ago 180 XIX. A Story in Blank Verse 193 XX. Some Present Real Estate Possessions of the Inhabitants of Gouldtown 211 Index 223 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE William Steward Frontispiece The Village of Gouldtown 10 Lummis-Gouldtown School House 14 Bishop Benjamin F. Lee 18 Judge Lucius Q. C. Elmer 50 Old Stone Church, Fairfield 84 Tamson Cuff 90 Abijah Gould 90 Mrs. Lydia Sheppard 92 James Steward 94 Mrs. Rebecca Steward 94 Anthony Gould 96 Mrs. Sarah Gould 100 Mrs. Hannah Gould 104 Mrs. Sarah Dunn Pierce 108 Jonathan Freeman Pierce 122 Holmes Pierce 122 Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart 126 Gouldtown Graveyard 136 Rev. Ethan Osborn 140 Miss Prudence F. Gould 140 Gouldtown A. M. E. Church 146 Jonathan Gould 146 Rev. T. Gould 150 Group at Gould Family Reunion 158 Steward Family 158 Rev. T. G. Steward 162 Mrs. William Steward 166 Jacob Wright and Wife 166 Absalom Wilson 172 Gouldtown School House 172 Bentley W. Rogers 176 Horace Bishop 176 A Gouldtown Woman and Her Driving Horse 214 Cottage of Stephen S. Steward 214 GOULDTOWN A VERY REMARKABLE SET- TLEMENT OF ANCIENT DATE CHAPTER I. GOULDTOWN; ITS TRADITION; ITS PEOPLE; ITS GENERAL HISTORY. In Judge Lucius Q. C. Elmer's history of Cumber- land County, New Jersey, written in 1865, occurs this statement : " Gouldtown — partly in the Northern part of Fair- field, and partly in Bridgeton Townships — although never more than a settlement of mulattoes, principally bearing the names of Gould and Pierce, scattered over a considerable territory, is of quite ancient date. The tradition is that they are descendants of Fenwick." Judge Elmer, a distinguished Supreme Court Jurist of New Jersey, was the son of General Ebenezer Elmer, who was an officer in the Revolutionary Aj^my, first as an ensign, and shortly after as lieutenant in a company, and later, being a physician, serving as a surgeon ; he served, in all, during the war of the Revolution, a period of seven years and eight months. In 1814, he commanded a brigade of militia called out for the defence of Phila- delphia against the British, and was ever after that known as General Elmer. Judge Elmer was born soon after the close of the Revolution in 1793, and had ample 10 GOULDTOWN opportunity and ability for research in his native county. He died in 1883. Much interest has always been taken in the com- munity of Gouldtown by the neighboring communities, and this was always of a friendly character; in early times because of its traditional descent, and later because of the ethnological features recognizable. General Elmer and his son were accustomed, on Sunday afternoons to meet in a schoolhouse and cate- chize the children of Gouldtown, in the neighborhood, in the years following the Revolution. These children and youth would not all be mulattoes (the term " mulat- toes " is used in this book in its general significance, applying to the people of color of mixed blood) how- ever, for in the community were pure white families — as for instance the Woodruffs, the Luptons, the Fullers, the Seeleys, and the Whites, and others ; traces of whom are to be found only in the farms they left, which were known by their names as the " Fuller Fields," the " White Fields," the " Jay Fields "; the names remain- ing a century or more after their owners had vanished. Only one of these names has been perpetuated in a village, and that of recent date and several miles distant from the original location. This is Woodruffs, about three or four miles northward from Gouldtown. It is a wealthy farming settlement on the line of the Central Railroad, and has a Methodist Church and a school- house and post-office. Gouldtown is comprised in two sections — following the two family names of Gould and Pierce, which were always known by their separate names, Gouldtown and Piercetown, but both known comprehensively as Gould- town. It is remarkable in that it has perpetuated its family name in its locality for nearly two hundred years ; also because it is a community of mulattoes who, The Village of Gouldtown. Sketched bv 16-vear-old Gouldtown School Girl. GENERAL HISTORY 11 I' contrary to the pet theory of some astute ethnological scientists, have perpetuated themselves generation after generation for almost two centuries; remarkable, too, for the known longevity of its people, who do not begm to grow old, as is often said, untU they come to three- score years, and a number of whom have reached the century mark, one of whom (Ebenezer Pierce Bishop) is still Hving, at this writing, who is one hundred and six years old, and one of whom (Mrs. Lydia Gould Sheppard) was buried in the year nineteen hundred and eleven, at the age of one hundred and two, m the Gouldtown Cemetery, and a number of others who are still living at ages between seventy and ninety-five ^^^Kellenberger's Pocket Gazetteer of New Jersey says- " Gouldtown— a post hamlet in Fairfield Town- ship, Cumberland County, three miles southeast of Bridgeton, the county seat, which affords the nearest banking and shipping facilities, and is connected by daily stage (now by trolley cars). Here are two churches and a store. Population one hundred and fifty." Formerly it had a post-office, but, since the opening of a trolley line, that has been abolished for lack of patronage, and its first postmaster, Seneca Bishop, whose mother was a Pierce, was, perhaps, the first colored postmaster in this country. At his death Mordecai C. Pierce was made postmaster; he was suc- ceeded by his widow, Mrs. Anna Gould Pierce, at his death, and she held the position when the office was abolished. The actual village is situated two and a half miles east from Bridgeton, the county seat of the County of Cumberland, but, as Judge Elmer states in his history, it is " scattered over a considerable territory," extending 12 GOULDTOWN in a line of contiguous properties owned by the Goulds and Pierces and their connections from the farm of William C. Gould (inherited from his father, Furman Gould, Jr.), on East Avenue, Bridgeton, eastward to the farm of Stewart Haines Pierce near Carmel (in- herited from his father, Adrian Pierce), a distance of almost seven miles; this long stretch of properties ex- tends in width from one to three miles. Several of the earlier Goulds and Pierces as well as Murrays intermarried with whites, and members of their immediate offspring went away and lost their identity, they and their descendants becoming white ; while, from those who still maintained their identity as people of color, there have come many who have reached dis- tinction, and in whom their native County shows merited pride, as, for instance, a Methodist bishop, a chaplain in the United States regular army, a physician, a lawyer, a distinguished dentist, teachers, writers, journalists; and in the industrial arts, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, painters, carriage builders, woolen spinners and weavers; brickmakers, machinists, engineers, electricians, printers, factory men, sailors, ministers of the Gospel, and farmers; in fact none of its sister villages has produced — taking equality of environment — more or better or more credit- able individualities than has this settlement. Surrounding Bridgeton and from one to seven miles distant are the post towns and villages of Roadstown, Cohansey, Shiloh, Deerfield, Carll's Corner, Wood- ruffs, Fairton, Gouldtown and Bowentown, the two last having no post-offices. The Bridgeton and Millville Traction Company's trolley line passes through Gouldtown, along the beauti- ful Bridgeton and Millville Turnpike; the distance between the two cities, Bridgeton and Millville, is ten GENERAL HISTORY 13 miles, — Gouldtown two and a half miles from the former and seven and a half miles from the latter city, with hourly car traffic connection with each. The settle- ment is an ancient one, the inhabitants tracing their ancestry back to earliest colonial times. The community possesses two churches situated about a mile apart, one a Methodist Episcopal, and the other an African Methodist Episcopal ; the latter being in the village, the former in that part of the neighbor- hood now called Fordsville, the congregation of which is dominated by the Pierce family, while the Goulds are the dominating family in the African Methodist Episco- pal Church. This settlement, comprising all the families and both churches, is important for many reasons other than those before enumerated. That it does not abound in wealth and culture is due in great part to the fixed habits of the people and to the fact that they have been all these years domiciled upon poor, timber-exhausted lands. The same labor, economy, and thrift which they have practised here, employed in homes upon a more productive soil, would long ago have placed many of the industrious, sober, and self-denying families of Gouldtown in circumstances of substantial comfort, if not of affluence. They are not as slothful and back- ward farmers as one might presume from the neglected appearance of too many of their homes and their teams ; but their poor land, coupled with the increased cost of living, compels them to give their attention to pressing necessities, to the neglect of the things which would add to appearances. They are interested in agriculture, close observers, and hard workers; and considering the conditions, obtain from their fields fair crops. They have estates ranging from $1000 to $15,000 or $20,000. As far back as 1860, a large audience assembled to 14 GOULDTOWN listen to a well-prepared paper on agriculture delivered in the Gouldto^\Ti schoolhouse by a young man of the neighborhood, who had not then reached his majority. In that paper he cited methods of cultivation practised in China; dealt with the pulverization of the surface; descanted upon the value of " compost," and spoke of utilizing mud and forest leaves as fertilizing agencies. A half century ago there was a Moral and Mental Improvement Society in Gouldtown, and it was from this society's librarj^ that the youth borrowed and read Dick's Works and by those books was inducted into the primary mysteries of natural philosophy. Many simple experiments were made by the boys of the com- munity after the models given by that interesting writer. This library contained many volumes of standard works. The " Saturday Evening Post " was regularly read by the principal families, as were also some of the early magazines. Such books as the History of England; Burns' Poems; Pilgrim's Progress; Robinson Crusoe; Josephus; Plutarch's Lives, Milton, and Shakespeare, were among those owned and read by the families. Perhaps few books were more highly prized by the devout than Baxter's " Saints' Rest " ; but works of fiction were eagerly read and, we might say, studied, by many inhabitants of Gouldtown two and three genera- tions ago. In my early childhood I heard the " Last Days of Pompeii " discussed by women of Gouldtown. Had they possessed the means and received the en- couragement, several persons of the community would have made commendable progress in literature. Despite their surroundings, the generations that have passed away contained within them several who could be classed as well-read. The principal institutions outside of the family were. Lummis-Gouldtown School House. GENERAL HISTORY 15 and are still, the school and the church. Up to 1860 these both occupied the same building, the circuit preacher getting around once every three or four weeks. In the interval the pulpit was supphed by local preachers, among whom was " Uncle Furman Gould," the first preacher of any kind known among the Goulds. The preaching, both of the circuit preacher and of the local preacher, occupied itself exclusively with the eternal themes of " fleeing the wrath to come,'* and securing a home in heaven. The hardships of poverty, and homes on earth, had no place in their sermons. They had no lessons to give save such as might tend to make the " souls " of their hearers " prosper." The preachers as such had nothing to contribute to aid the people in making their homes more attractive and sani- tary, or their farms more productive. The same with even more emphasis could be said of the school. The Gouldtown school was a typical " Districk " school with its own Board of Trustees. These trustees, three in number, with very little knowl- edge of school books or methods, hired the schoolmaster who, without examination or license, started in on the appointed day to " keep school." These schoolmasters never had one word to say as to the purpose of educa- tion, and never related it, except in " ciphering," to anything in the actual lives of the scholars. They were taught to spell, to read, to write, and to cipher; but were taught nothing on life, conduct, and character — nothing that might aid or inspire youth to advance materially or even intellectually. The idea of the general improve- ment of the student did not seem to be present. It is painful to say, but nevertheless true, that neither the church nor the school as they existed in Gouldtown under the old methods contributed anything directly to the material or moral growth of the conmiunity. 16 GOULDTOWN That the church contributed powerfully indirectly, by the stress it put upon conscious spiritual life, must be admitted; and that the school did the same by its almost mechanical methods of teaching children to read and write; but both failed to enter into, to improve or brighten, the every-day life of the people as they might have done. Nothing that either taught had the slightest bearing upon their most burning question, How to wring a living out of poor land? Their actual situation, crying as it was, called forth no sympathetic response from either church or school. The teachers were almost always white men, and, it must be said, did their best. Nevertheless, the people have held on to their land from generation to generation ; have bought and cleared land ; reared families and developed character. It must be said also that much of the land held by the Gould- towners of to-day is of but little more exchangeable value than it was fifty years ago, though more pro- ductive now than it was then. Thus, instead of rising on a tide of general increase in the values of real estate, their fate, through no fault of their own, has been just the opposite. Instead of an unearned increment en- hancing their holdings, there has fallen to them an un- merited decrement, taking from them as by the stealth of night the modest fortunes they had acquired. The changes in farming and living which have come over the country within recent years, and especially the de- velopment of market gardening, and market farming in the South with the cheap and abundant facilities for transportation, have very seriously affected the Jersey farmer. He has had to make the most thorough re- adjustment of both means and ends. In the early days the average Gouldtown farmer had but the one end in view, namely, to produce enough from his farm to fur- nish food for his family and provender for the stock that GENERAL HISTORY 17 he kept. He managed usually to have tough horses, and fattened his hogs well; but his cattle were of the comparatively milkless wandering " breachy " variety that no one would have to-day. The corn, wheat and oats from his farm coupled with salt hay from the marsh, with potatoes, turnips and cabbage and a little clover hay; a few by-products, with a fair sowing of buckwheat and rye, furnished rations for man and beast and fat- tened the hogs from which an ample supply of well- cured hams, pork and lard was made, and, with many, a fatted beef was annually killed and salted down. In some cases, wool from their own sheep made their cloth- ing, and rags from worn-out clothes were woven into the carpets that covered their floors. Modernism has compelled the farmer of Gouldtown to adopt different aims, and to farm for the market, or rather for the middleman who stands in the market gate. In some cases he raises tomatoes and other articles to be delivered directly to the canners on contract, but often his goods go to the commission man for whose labor and skill the farmer pays on one end, and the consumer on the other. Entering the markets the Jerseyman finds himself, as has been previously inti- mated, in the presence of growers from the South; and their cheaper labor and earlier seasons, again call for readjustment of methods so that his goods may appeal to customers through their quality and appearance. It is to the credit of the Jersey farmer that it can be said he has weathered the storm and has not been crowded out of the markets. Jersey products and poultry hold the highest rank in our great Eastern markets. The people of Gouldtown, especially the Goulds, have never been very ardent lovers of money ; they have rather placed stress upon the development of the social ^-and spiritual nature. Despite their very severe condi- 18 GOULDTOWN tion they have kept up from earliest times those customs of social enjoyment, indoors in winter and outdoors in summer, which have made them famous for generous hospitality. All the instruction which they received for generations both with regard to the work of their fields and the manner of entertaining guests, was that which came down from parent to child by oral tradition, until the coming in of modernism with its Farm and Home Journals and the like; yet they have maintained themselves well socially. Several years ago in the city of Washington an official from New Jersey in a public speech referred to the sterling character of individuals of Gouldtown and of their general good deportment. " I can remember well when a schoolboy there, that there was not a boy in school who swore; and I remember noting at one time there was not a child in school who could not read." [T. G. S.] Few inhabitants of Gouldtown proper, from earliest times, were actually illiterate, although none was highly educated. The following quotation from a recent Bridgeton paper will show in what light the community is regarded by its neighbors. GOULDTOWN HONORED. There is no section of our County more highly honored than is Gouldtown, from which men have gone forth to become widely known and honored. Bishop Benjamin F. Lee was for some time, before he was made a Bishop, President of Wilberforce University at Wilber- force, Ohio, of which he is now a member of the Advisory Board. He is a man of solid piety, an able preacher and highly honored by all who know him, as well as by those of his own church. Another is Theophilus G. Steward, who, for many years was chaplain of the United States Army and now since being on the Bishop Benjamin F. Lee. HU"wtrji »- ai r " -' r- » k > *. !^i -"j i ;x t . - ■ ..■■. ■ ^l^ * • 1 — „- -■..■.-, .j.-.-.-. ■.. ' -..UMgp^^ ' -Jm. ' A'UHllMf 'T^ — ' T" — 'A^MVIVK.VIfi* ■ GENERAL HISTORY 19 retired list, ably fills a professorship at Wilberforce University. He is a preacher of far more than ordinary ability and able to acceptably fill any pulpit in the land. Yet another is Theodore Gould, who is a member of the Philadelphia Conference of his church and for several years has acceptably filled the office of presiding elder. He also is a man of noted piety and of much ability as a preacher. We doubt if there is another section of the County from which three more highly honored and useful men have gone forth. CHAPTER II. FEN WICK ; ENGLISH HISTORY ; HIS SAILING AND LANDING ; HIS COLONY. The restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, was followed by the war with the Dutch during which the King, Charles II, granted to his brother James, Duke of York, all the lands the Dutch had held in America. The grant, as formally stated, included a large portion of the Province of Maine, and the country from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Dela- ware Bay. This grant included Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, all Long Island and the whole of the terri- tory of New Netherland. The next month after the grant was made a fleet of four ships, with a force of three or four hundred men, under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, as the lieutenant-governor of the Duke, sailed from England. With Nicolls were joined as commissioners Sir Robert Carr, Sir George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, with extraordinary powers for settling all difficulties in the New England colonies, as well as to take possession of the Dutch province and reduce its inhabitants to obedience. No sooner was the province fairly in English hands than new names were given to different portions, its boundaries were as far as possible defined, and grants of land were made to Englishmen. That region lying between the Hudson and the Delaware was named Albania, and grants and purchases were made within its boundaries from Sandy Hook to the mouth of the Raritan, and from the Raritan to the Achter Cul, now Newark Bay. But before Nicolls, in the name of the Duke of York, had taken possession of all New Netherland, the Duke, in 20 FENWICK; HIS COLONY 21 anticipation of that event, granted in June, 1664, the whole country, from the Hudson to the Delaware and from latitude 41 ° 40 ' to Cape May, to two favorites of the Court, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. To the new province of New Cesarea, the name of New Jersey was given, in commemoration of Carteret's defence of the Channel Island of Jersey against the forces of the Common- wealth in 1649. Of this grant, however, Nicolls knew nothing till June, 1665, when Captain Philip Carteret arrived as Governor of the new province. There was, of course, no alternative but to re- ceive with courtesy one coming armed with such credentials, though Nicolls represented to the Duke that he had hastily given away the fairest portion of his dominion. A storm had driven Carteret's ship, the Philip, into Chesa- peake Bay, but in July she arrived at New York, and a few days later anchored off the point now known as Elizabethport, New Jersey, and landed her thirty emigrants. At the head of these people, Carteret, with a hoe over his shoulder, marched to the spot he had chosen for a settlement, two or three miles inland, and to which in honor of the Lady Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George Carteret, he gave her name. He found at the point where he and his people landed, four families who had taken possession of lands under the grant which had been made by Nicolls. The newcomers brought with them the title of a new English province, and though more than one settlement had been earlier made by the Dutch on this side of the Bay of New York, this was the actual beginning of the State of New Jersey at Elizabeth. Four years before, the West India Company had discerned and sought to take advantage of the discontent and apprehen- sion felt by so many of the English, both at home and in the colonies, at the restoration of Charles II. The directors invited them to settle on the Raritan, or in its neighborhood, and offered them most favorable terms. Three of the magistrates of New Haven, where this discontent was very general, Matthew Gilbert, the Deputy Governor, Benjamin Fenn, and Robert Treat entered into negotiation with Stuyvesant upon the subject, on 22 GOULDTOWN behalf of some New Haven people, and found no difficulty in getting from the Dutch Governor the promise that a hearty welcome would be given and religious freedom be secured to anj^ Puritan Colony that should plant itself within the Dutch juris- diction. But the English asked also for political independence, and the negotiations were suspended. The question of civil relations Stuyvesant felt must be referred to his superiors at home. Even that concession, he was instructed, the Directors were disposed to make to almost any, provided that Dutch su- premacy was acknowledged in the last appeal. The New Haven people were the most eager to set up anew for themselves when the Winthrop charter brought them within the jurisdiction of Connecticut, and they would, perhaps, had there been time enough, have yielded somewhat in their demands. But while diplomacy hesitated events made no halt. Before any agree- ment could be reached satisfactorj'^ to both parties. New Nether- land ceased to be a Dutch colony, and the Duke of York had granted to its new proprietors the whole region from the Hudson to the Delaware.^ The land granted by the Duke of York to Berkeley was soon after sold by him to John Fenwick, who in turn was obliged to part with nine-tenths of it to Wil- liam Penn, Gauen Laurie, and Nicholas Lucas, to satisfy certain serious obligations, leaving for himself but one-tenth, or " ten-hundredths," as it was called. This John Fenwick was the second son of Sir William Fenwick, Baronet of Northumberland, and had already attained a degree of celebrity. The story of his life as related by John Clements is as follows : He was second son of Sir William Fenwick, Baronet, who represented the County of Northumberland in the last Parliament under the Commonwealth (1659), and one of four brothers, Edward, John, Roger and Ralph. »Scribner's History United States, vol. ii, page 330, et seq. FENWICK; HIS COLONY 23 In 1640 Sir William had his residence at Stanton Hill, of Stanton Manor, in the parish of Horsely, Cumber- land, where he had considerable landed estate. The mother, Elizabeth, was perhaps of one of the border families, and brought to her husband additional proper- ty, increasing his wealth and influence. John was born in 1618, at Stanton Hall, but the day of the month is not known. In 1636 he was styled Knight and Baronet, and five years after that time he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Walter Covert, Knight of Slaughan, Sussex. This lady was mother of his children, and from her came the direct and collateral branches in New Jersey. The family was of Saxon origin, and formed a powerful clan in Northumberland. Their ancient fastness was in the fenny lands about Standfordham, a small town near the Southern boundary of the shire before named. The tower of Fenwick at Widdington, in Northum- berland, near the coast of the North Sea, shows its antiquity in its rude strength and scanty limits similar to those built by the Saxon invaders during the fifth and sixth centuries. This was probably the first seat of the family after their coming over, and whence it may be traced through many of the shires of England. In the ninth year of the reign of Edward III ( 1334) an inquisition was had of New Castle, and Johannes Fenwick was twice appointed Sheriff. During that time it was much enlarged and strengthened, being an im- portant point of protection and defence against the Scotch. In those warlike times this place had no com- mercial importance, but had grown to be one of the largest ports in England. The enmities of former generations have passed away, and what was once a necessary appendage to every town is now visited by the curious to see the means of defence in a barbarous age. In the twelfth century. 24 GOULDTOWN Sir Kobert Fenwick of Northumberland endowed the Abbey of New Minster, in the same shire, with two parts of his villa of Irdington, in Cumberland, thus showing his liberality towards, and his adherence to, the CathoHc Church. John Fenwick having passed through his law studies at Gray's Inn, London (1640), abandoned his pro- fession for a season and accepted an appointment in the Parhamentary Army. His first commission reads as follows: You are hereby ordered and required as Ma j or under Colonel Thomas Barwis in his regiment of cavalry which was raised in the County of Westmoreland to assist the garrison of Carlisle, and to exercise the officers and soldiers under his command according to the discipline of war. And they are hereby re- quired to yield obedience unto you as Major of said regiment. And all this you are authorized unto, until the pleasure of the Parliament of the Lord General be known. Given under my hand and seal at Bernard Castle, 27th day of October, 1640. To John Fenwick, Major, These. O. Cromwell. In the same year he was ordered by the Parliament, with horse and dragoon to relieve Holy Island Castle in Durham. It was besieged by the royal troops and well nigh captured, when he appeared and defeated the enemy. He was an active and efficient officer, having the confidence of the Parliament and the Protector. After the trial and sentence of the King, he was detailed as commander of cavalry, in conjunction with the foot troops under Colonel Hacker, Colonel Hanks, and Lieutenant- Colonel Phayor, to attend the execution. The order ran in this wise: These are therefore to will and require you to see the said sentence executed in the open streets before Whitehall, upon FENWICK; HIS COLONY 25 the morrow, being the thirtieth of tliis instant, month of January, between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon of the same day, with full effect. And these are to require all officers and soldiers and others the good people of this nation of England to be assisting unto you in this service. Given under our hands and seals, etc., etc. This warrant was signed by all the members who sat as judges upon his trial, and the most of whom witnessed the carrying out the sentence. In the dis- charge of this important and delicate duty the most reliable officers and the best disciplined troops were selected, which placed John Fenwick among the first of those in the army about London at that time. The religious status of John Fenwick during this period is doubtful and contradictory. While he was with the army he became a convert to the opinions of George Fox, and by a certificate dated February 11, 1649, he is shown to have been a member of the Inde- pendents, a denomination of Christians more Presby- terian than Quaker. Be that as it may, he eventually adopted the principles and practices of Friends and adhered to them until his death. The narrative goes on to recite what has already been stated as follows: After the restoration, Charles II granted to his brother, James, Duke of York, " All that main land with several islands near New England called New Cesarea or New Jersey in America " and James granted the same lands and premises unto John Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret, Knight and Baronet. Berkeley soon after sold his half of the lands to John Fenwick, and Fenwick, as has been said, was obliged to part with ninety one-himdredths of this land to WiUiam Penn, Gauen Laurie, and Nicholas Lucas, keeping to himself but ten-hundredths of the original purchase. After having relieved himself from his pressing debts he set out to occupy these possessions. 26 GOULDTOWN There was a want of unity in his family, growing out of a second marriage, and so deep rooted was it that his wife was not willing to go with him beyond the sea. His daughters, not realizing the perils incident to the settlement in a new country, but filled with the spirit of adventure and buoyant with the prospect of a change, required no persuasion to follow the lead of their father, and join heartily in the work of breaking up their homes and leaving their native land forever. The parent had infused the children with his notions of success and they were proud to know he was head of such an enterprise ; that his anticipations and promises were not visionary, but would be miore than realized, and that he would in the future be held to be a public benefactor. The letters of his wife, though generally of a business character, show some attachment to him and re- gard for his affairs, which were in much confusion after his departure. No mention is made of the daughters, with whom in all probability the bad blood existed. Her advice to him in his business relations is good, and if followed more closely, would have saved him much vexation. In making preparations for his departure it was decided that " only such articles as were actually necessary to supply the wants of the emigrants could be transported, leaving those of convenience and luxury out of the question. Implements of husbandry, tools for mechanics, material for building, medicines for the sick, and sustenance for the healthy, together with a scanty supply of furniture and household goods, must find a place in the ship. The ship Griffin, Robert Griffith, master, was chartered and brought to London for repairs and to receive the cargo and passengers. An entry made by John Smith in one of the books of record (Salem No. 4) in the office of the Secretary of State, Trenton, N. J., shows part of the persons that came at that time: they were John Fenwick, his three daughters, Elizabeth, Ann, and Priscilla ; John Adams, husband of Elizabeth of Reading, in Berks, weaver. FEN WICK; HIS COLONY 27 and three children; Elizabeth, aged eleven years, Fen- wick, nine years, and Mary, four years; Edward Champneys, husband of Priscilla of Thornbury, Glou- cestershire, joiner, and two children, John and Mary. John Fenwick brought ten servants, Robert Twiner, Gervis Bywater, William Wilkinson, Joseph Worth, Michael Eaton, Elinor Geere, Sarah Hutchins, Ruth Geere, Zachariah Geere, and Ann Parsons. Besides these he was accompanied by Mary White, the faithful nurse of his children, who had lived in his family several years before coming to America. Her attachment for the three daughters showed itself in her resolve to share their good or bad fortune in a strange land. Their father's house was her home, where she had entire charge, and so continued until liis decease. These traits of character were fully appreciated by the Patroon, as he gave her a title in fee for five hundred acres of land, and five days before the date of his will executed a lease to her, as " Mary White, late of the parish of Bromble, in the County of Wilkes, spinster, now of Fenwick Grove," for Fenwick Grove, con- taining three thousand acres ; to continue during her life and the life of her husband, " if any she have when she decease." In his will he makes frequent mention of her name, continuing his liberality and always ex- pressing the utmost confidence in her honesty and up- rightness ^ . . . ' " To say that he [John Fenwick] was not a half brother to Charles II, king of England, would perhaps be assuming too much, although nothing appears to prove the affirmative of this assertion. The gallantries of the king were proverbial; hence the plausibility of the story and which by many came to be accepted as true. If, however, the royal blood colored his veins and infused into his character and disposition the idea of exclusive- ness and authority, so palpable in many of his acts during life, it came from the first and not the last of these monarchs. The chance of such a story being true is too apparent to be denied, but may be accounted for in this wise. The first son of Charles Second, not recognized by law, was 28 GOULDTOWN The effect of the coming of tliis sliip up the Dela- ware is thus described in Clement's Life of John Fen- wick. The account shows that the local political affairs were somewhat mixed. While thus contemplating the development of his enter- prise, a cloud, darker and more portentous than any before, showed itself; and from a direction not altogether unexpected by the chief proprietor or those who had accompanied him across the sea. The coming of a ship into the Delaware River, in 1675, was not an event to pass unnoticed by the Commander at New Castle, who, with the Justices, represented Governor Andros and his council, appointed by the Duke of York under his second patent from the King. The instructions to the Commander were to keep strict watch over the interests of His Royal Highness on both sides of the river, and, if anything should occur, to report at once to the authorities at New York. The ship in question proved to be the Griffin, anchored at Fort Elseborg, with English emigrants from London under the leadership of John Fenwick, who held the title to part of the territory on the Eastern shore, with the right of government derived through John Lord Berkeley and the Duke of York from the King. Further inquiry developed the fact that these people proposed to occupy the land on the Eastern side of the river, and establish a government for themselves under the right before named. This being properly brought to their James, Duke of Monraoutli, beheaded 1685, whose mother was Lucy Walters. James married Anne Scott, heiress of Buccleugh, whose second son married Elizabeth Fenwick, thus connecting the family with the blood royal, but several removes. Nothing short of a careful examination of the family genealogy in England will settle this point, which for the neglect may always remain a mooted question." The above is quoted verbatim from John Clement's Life of John Fenwick. Charles II was born in 1630, at which time John Fenwick was twelve years of age, he having been born in 1618; hence Charles II is eliminated from the ancestry of Fenwick. The remark: "The gallantries of the king were proverbial, etc.," refer to Charles II, and hence have but little bearing upon this question. By "the first" and "last" of these monarchs, the writer evidently means Charles I and Charles II. To be a FENWICK; HIS COLONY 29 knowledge, a court was convened in the fort at New Castle, and after due deliberation it was decided to forward, by express, the necessary information to the authorities at New York, and await orders therefrom. The express was no doubt a, swift- footed Indian, selected for the purpose, who forded the river at the falls (Trenton) and continued by land through the forest to Communipaw ; thence by water to the fort at New Amsterdam, where the message was delivered to his excellency, Governor Andros. The information was received December 5, 1675, and somewhat stirred the bile of the new executive, who held his commission direct and fresh from the Duke of York; and folloTving the spirit and letter of his instructions, covdd not recognize any equal, or superior authority, within the limits of his jurisdiction. The Governor consulted his council, and an order was returned that John Fenwick and his followers be not recognized as having any rights, but be allowed to remain and occupy suitable portions of land under this government. The same express carried the reply, which the Commander at New Castle soon forwarded to John Fenwick and the adventurers and emigrants who were with him; intimating very strongly that they were regarded as intruders and enemies. That the title to the soil of New Jersey and the right of government as well, which was claimed to have passed by the grant from the Duke to Carteret and Berkeley, and under which John Fenwick held, was, by the Dutch conquest rendered inoperative and void ; that the second patent of the King to the Duke restored the half-brother of Charles II, Fenwick would have to be a son of Charles I. Charles I was born in 1600 and hence was eighteen years of age when John Fenwick was born. So far as I have seen there is no trace of relationship existing between him and the mother of Fenwick. John was the second son of Sir William Fenwick, baronet, the brothers being Edward, John, Roger, and Ralph. The testimony of historians generally is to the effect that Charles I was a man of " strict decorum of conduct " ; a man in " his private character of cultivated mind, kind, and of irreproachable life," and that "his personal morality was of the highest." To assume that Fenwick might be the illegitimate son of Charles I because Charles II was dissolute is altogether gratuitous. Besides, if it were so, Fenwick would have become the executioner of his own father, which is preposterous. 30 GOULDTOWN original elements of title and government as by him held in the first patent, and that like grants must come from His Royal Highness, as in the former case, to make any rights good on the Eastern shore of the Delaware River ; that the government, as by Governor Andros and his council administered, was the only legitimate one within the boundaries given in his commis- sion, and that he should expect all persons living therein to submit to the laws or suffer the penalty of transgressing them. To all this the Chief proprietor, as the owner of the terri- tory, made a dignified response, showing whence he derived his title both to soil and government, which he regarded as sufficient and by which he determined to stand or fall. He insisted that his right to establish methods of government and the enact- ment and enforcement of laws, emanated from the same fountain as that of Governor Andros, had the advantage of priority in date, and needed no confirmation or endorsement by Governor Andros as the representative of the Duke of York. That these prerogatives had been before exercised and not questioned by the Crown, and, therefore, had nothing to concede or relinquish touching the demands made by the government at New Amsterdam.^ After two years of wrangling, in which the judg- ment of the courts were at first against Fenwick, the controversy finally subsided, leaving him in control of the land he had purchased and the colony he had founded. His recognized independence dates from the latter part of the year 1677. Thus far he had continued to reside at Fenwick Grove until Salem County was organized, and indeed, until his death, which occurred in December, 1683. Mr. Clements has the following remarks and reflections upon the concluding period of his life: " On the second day of the third month, 1683, John Fenwick was re- turned as a member of the Colonial Assembly from the • Clement's Life of Fenwick. FENWICK; HIS COLONY 31 Salem tenth; but on account of ill health, which con- tinued until his decease, he never sat as a member of that body. In this act is shown the complete absorp- tion of the political rights and franchises, incident to the estate held in the ten lots, by the colonial authori- ties of West New Jersey, and which appears to have been brought about peacefully and for the evident good of all concerned. This end was foreshadowed in the previous signing of the concessions and agreements by very many of the land owners, who held titles from Fen- wick, and who had heretofore given their adherence to his government as established in 1675, but joined their fortunes with the more numerous colony and made common cause in advancing religious and political equality; to be enjoyed by all who ventured across the sea and fixed their homes within the limits of West New Jersey." Here terminated the first form of a representative government established by the people. Rude and ill- defined as it was, suflScient appears to show that only time and occasion were wanting to develop its several parts, and secure to all the blessings to be derived from like institutions. The government established by the owners of the ninety parts was like in substance, but yielded to the people no greater privileges, nor more enlarged rights. This cannot but be interesting to those who care to trace the beginning of our present political institutions, and study the gradual but positive development of a system that has its foundation in the hearts of the people; to discover that no retrograde step had been taken in the fundamental doctrines of private or public rights and that a jealous care had been exercised that none be infringed. The Patroon, in his manner of living, was more pretentious and aristocratic than any of his neighbors. 32 GOULDTOWN His houses at Ivy Point and at Fenwick Grove were well appointed; proving that he had an eye to the creature comforts as well as to dignity and exclusive- ness. The day had not come for wheeled carriages in the Salem tenth, but his stable included good saddle horses, with everything complete for the equestrian. A favorite road animal, " Jack," he makes special mention of in his will, and puts him in care of his trusty servant, Mary White, " who I desire to take care of him and see that he be not wronged as long as he liveth." His education as a cavalry officer in the army of the Com- monwealth now served him, and however much he may have wished to discard the memories of his fighting days, yet in the saddle his grace and confidence as a rider could but be noticed. The library of books at each place he regarded with much interest, and directed their preservation after his decease; and touching his private papers he charges his executors with their care, and especially that they be not taken out of the colony. His agreement with the resident purchasers he wished to have religiously carried out and was anxious that his executors should see to the discharge of every obliga- tion. His plantation at Fenwick Grove had many attractions for him, it being several miles from Ivy Point, where he could enjoy his leisure and look after his farming interests. He was systematic in his business affairs and always knew from his accounts whether a matter in hand was profitable or otherwise. For the day in which he lived, his agricultural operations were extensive and yielded a fair return. He does not appear to have had any slaves, but employed several persons about the estate, the whole being under his general superintendence. In the autumn of 1683, his health failing, he accepted an invitation from his favor- ite daughter, Ann, and placed himself under her care FEN WICK; HIS COLONY 33 at Hedgefield, where he died in December of the same year. Her devotion to him remained the same through all the vicissitudes of his life, and with filial affection she cared for him on his dying bed. Although in the depths of an American forest, and far from the land of his nativity, yet there were those around him in whose veins flowed his own blood, whose sympathies were enlisted for his welfare, but who were soon called upon to mourn his death. In him passed away one of the most remarkable men of his day and generation. His early manhood was spent in the ex- citements and participations of a war that overthrew the govermnent, and well nigh destroyed the nation; while his middle hfe and latter days were occupied in an enlarged philanthropy to benefit his fellow man, by giving scope to his energies, with the certainty of reward to himself, and through him to his descendants; with the title of his land freed from the tenures of the feudal system, and without restraints, save those based in equity and good government. In relation to the final disposition of his remains, he requested in his will that they be interred at Fenwick Grove. For some reason this was not complied with, as he was buried in " Sharp's family burying ground," long since abandoned for that use, and now nearly lost sight of. It is located near the present almshouse property of Salem County, overgrown with briers, and known to but few as the last resting place of the founder of Fenwick Colony. Nearly two centuries have passed away, and not the rudest monument has been placed to show where his bones are laid. Generation after generation of his kin have neglected even to preserve a mound of earth to show his grave, and at this day " no man knoweth the place of his sepulchre." But a more enduring monu- 3 34 GOULDTOWN ment has survived hini. His landed estate is covered with an industrious and happy people, in the enjoyment of free institutions, with no religious or political re- straints ; advanced in agriculture, commerce and manu- factures, and participant in a degree of civilization that has no parallel in the world. In his will, which is a curious and characteristic document, and bears date the seventh day of August, 1683, John Fenwick makes no mention of his wife, who was living in London at the time it was executed, and who appears to have had a separate estate which she used for her own comfort and convenience. This separation produced an indifference toward each other, which ended in a complete estrangement of feeling, and mutual disregard. Neither is there anything to show that she made claim on his estate or received from his executors or devisees any money arising therefrom. Nothing more is known of this relation, the lapse of time having obliterated every tradition in regard to it. CHAPTER III. FEN WICK colony; LAND GRANTS AND PRIMARY GOVERNMENT. The extensive grant of territory made by Charles II, the English king, to his brother, the Duke of York, was by royal charter dated twentieth of March, 1664. Upon the twenty-third of June in the same year, the Duke conveyed a portion of this territory to two other persons — John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The conveyance to these individuals was made by an instrument in form as follows : This indenture, made the three-and-twentieth day of June, in the sixteenth year of the Raigne of our Sovreign Lord Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith — Anno Domini, 1664, between his Royal Highness, James, Duke of York and Albany, Earl of Ulster, Lord High Admiral of Eng- land and Ireland, Constable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Governor of Portsmouth of the one part, John Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton and one of his majesties' most honorable privy Council and Sir George Carteret of Sattrum in the County of Devon, Knight, and one of his majesties' privy Council, of the other part, Witnesseth that said James, Duke of York, for and in consideration of the sum of ten shillings of lawful money of England, to him in hand paid, by these presents doth bargain and sell unto the said John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, and lying and being to the Westward of Long Island, bounded on the East part by the main sea, and part by Hudson's river, and hath upon the West Delaware Bay or river, and extendeth Southward to the main ocean as far as Cape May at the mouth of Delaware Bay, and to the Northward as far as the Northermost branch of said bay 35 36 GOULDTOWN or river of Delaware, which is in forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and worketh over thence in a straight line to Hudson's river, which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of Nova Cesarea, or New Jersey.* Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, thus be- coming the proprietors of New Jersey, formed a consti- tution for the colony, and this was the first constitution of New Jersey. This instrument was entitled, " The concessions and agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the province of New Cesarea or New Jersey, to and with all and every of the new adventurers, and as such as shall settle or plant there." ^ Lord Berkelej^ soon becoming dissatisfied with his adventure, offered his share for sale, and this, as before stated, was purchased by John Fenwick and Edward BylHnge, members of the Society of Friends. The conveyance was executed to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, for the sum of one thousand pounds, and the tract thus purchased was afterward known as West New Jersey. Besides the emigrants before mentioned, who arrived in the ship Griffith with John Fenwick, were also Edward Wade, Samuel Hedge, Samuel Wade, John Smith and wife, Samuel Nichols, Richard Guy, Richard Noble, a surveyor, Richard Hancock, also a surveyor, John Pledyer, Hipolite Lufever, and John Matlock. These came over in this, the first English ship that came to West Jersey and none followed for nearly two years. From this little group descended many, whose families are scattered over this part of the State, but who can now hardly trace their descent back to them. *This appears to be the first instrument in which the bounds of New Jersey are regularly defined. — Historical Collections of New Jersey. " Printed in Salem Records, in N. J. archives from the original parch- ment brought over from Europe by John Fenwick in 1675. LAND GRANTS 37 John JNIatlock is said to have been the son of Abram Matlock, founder of ^latlock College in England, and from him descended the JMatlock families of this and Gloucester Counties. In Gloucester County some of the members still retain the name of Matlock, while in this county the name is spelled Matlack. E. L. Mat- lack, an auctioneer and farmer of Cumberland County, is said to be a lineal descendant. Fenwick and Byllinge, becoming sole proprietors, were styled " Lord Proprietors," and when Fenwick's tenth was set off to him and his connection with Byllinge became dissolved he became " Lord Proprietor " of West New Jersey, and Avas so styled, and the Goulds' tradition a hundred years ago was " We descended from Lord Fenwick." [The writer of this, now over three- score and ten years of age, has heard the words from his grandparents, and other of the Goulds who were born and lived in the close of the eighteenth century.] That there is pretty conclusive ground for giving credence to this tradition, will be shown later. The proprietors, increasing in numbers by purchase of land from trustees under arrangements with William Penn, Gauen Laurie, and Nicholas Lucas, agreed upon a form of government comprising many of the pro- visions of the instrument formed by Berkeley and Carteret, together with others originating with them- selves. This was styled " The concessions and agree- ments of the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants of the province of West New Jersey." An extract from this instrument (Chapter III) reads; That hereafter upon the furthest settlement of the said province, the proprietors and inhabitants, resident upon the said province, shall and may, at or upon the first and twentieth day of the month called March, which shall be In the year, according to the English account, one thousand six hundred and 38 GOULDTOWN eighty; and so thence forward upon the said day, assemble themselves together, in some pubKc place to be ordered and appointed by the Commissioners for the time being, and upon default of such appointment, in such place as they shall see meet, and then and there elect of and amongst themselves, ten honest and able men, fit for government, to officiate and execute the place of commissioners for the year ensuing, and until such time as ten more, for the year then next following shall be elected and appointed; wliich said elections shall be as follows; that is to say, the inhabitants each ten of the one hundred proprietors, shall elect and choose one, and the one hundred proprietors shall be divided into ten divisions or tribes of men. And the said elections shall be made and distinguished by balloting trunks, to avoid noise and confusion, and not by voices, holding up of the hands, or otherwise howsoever, which said commissioners, so yearly to be elected, shall likewise govern and order the affairs of the said province (pro tempore) for the good and welfare of the said people, and according to these our concessions, until such time as the general free assembly shall be elected and deputed in such manner and wise as is here- after expressed and contained.^ The Swedes and Finns had settled in what became Salem and Gloucester Counties long before the arrival of Fenwick, superseding the Dutch, who had largely disappeared from the section. There was, no doubt, a considerable sprinkling of this population occupying the territory before Fenwick arrived. Johnson, in his History, says " The Swedes and Finns arrived in 1627, the Dutch having left the country. In 1631 they built a fort at Finn's Point." Judge Elmer states in his History of Cumberland County, " A few of the New Haven people, who as early as 1641 made a settlement on the creek called by the Dutch Varchen's Kill (now Salem Creek), may have wandered into the limits of •Historical Collections of New Jersey. LAND GRANTS 39 Cumberland, thus becoming the pioneers of the con- siderable number, who about fifty years later came from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island." Fen wick arrived in 1675 in the English ship, " Griffith " bringing with him the persons some of whom have been already named, as follows: "Arriv- ing after a good passage, he landed at a pleasant, rich spot, situated near Delaware, by him called Salem, prob- ably from the peaceable aspect it then bore. He brought with him tliree daughters and many servants; two of whom, Samuel Hedge and John Adams, after- ward married his daughters. The other passengers were Edward Champness, who married Priscilla, Fen wick's third daughter (this name Champness will appear in connection with the Goulds), Edward Wade, Samuel Wade, John Smith and wife, Samuel Nichols, Richard Guy, Richard Noble, Richard Hancock, John Pledger, Hipolite Lefever, and John Matlock. This was the first EngHsh ship which came to West Jersey, and none followed for near two years, owing probably to a differ- ence between Fenwick and Byllinge." — Historical Col- lection of New Jersey. Before the arrival of the second ship from London, the " Kent," Gregory Marlow, master, the constitution or form of government before referred to was made, which was entitled: "The concessions and agreements of the proprietors, freeholders, and inhabitants of the province of West New Jersey." Tliis constitution is witnessed and signed in the following manner, according to " Historical Collections ": In testimony and witness of our consent to and affirmation of these present laws, concessions, and agreements, we, the proprietors, freeholders, and inhabitants of the said province of West New Jersey, whose names are underwritten, have to the same voluntarily and freely set our hands, dated this third day 40 GOULDTOWN of the month, commonly called March, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred seventy-six. — Gawen Lawrie, Wm. Penn, Wm. Euily, Josh. Wright, Wm. Haig, Wm. Peachee, Rich. Matthews, John Harns, Francis Collins, Wm. Kent, Benj. Scot, John Penford, Tho. Lambert, Tho. Hooten, Henry Stacy, Edw. Byllinge, Rich. Smith, Edward Thelthorp, Dan. Wills, Thomas Olive, Tho. Rudgard, WilHam Riddle, Robert Stacy, John Farrington, Wm. Royden, Rich. Mew, Percival Towle, Mahlon Stacy, Tho. Budd, Sam. Jennings, John Lam- bert, Will. Heulings, George Deacon, John Thomson, Edward Bradway, Richard Guy, James Nevell, William Cantwell, Fospe Outstout, Machgijel Baron, Casper Herinow, Turrse Psese, Robert Kemble, John Corneliesse, Gerrat Van Jumne, William Gill Johnson, Mich. Lackerouse, Markus Algus, Evert Aldricks, Hendrick Everson, Jilles Fonieson, Caas Jansen, Paul Doequet, Aert Jansen, John Surige, Tho. Smith, James Pearce, Edw. Webb, John Pledger, Richard Wilkinson, Christe Sanders, Renear Van Horst, William Johnson, Charles Bogler, Samuel Wade, Thomas Woodruff, John Smith, Tho. Pierce, William Warner, Joseph Ware, Isaac Smart, Andrew Thompson, Thomas Kent, Henrj' Jennings, Richard Wortsaw, Christopher White, John Maddocks, John Forrest, James Nickory, William Rumsey, Richard Robinson, Mark Reeve, Thomas Watson, Samuel Nicholson, Daniel Smith, Richard Daniels, William Fenton, William Darine, Robert Zane, Walter Peiterson, Anthony Page, Andrew Bortheson, Wooley Woollison, Anthony Dixon, John Derme, Thomas Benson, John Pain, Richard Brillington, Samuel Lovett, Henry Stubbins, William Willis, George Hazelwood, Roger Pedrick, William Hughes, Van Highst, Hipotas Lefever, William Wilkinson, Andrew Shen- neck, Lanse Comelicus, Samuel Hedge, William Mossier, John Grubb, John Worlidge, Edward Meyer, Thomas Borton, Robert Powel, Thomas Hording, Matthew Allen, Bernard Devenish, Thomas Stokes, Thomas French, Isaac Marriott, John Butcher, George Hutchinson, Thomas Gardner, Thomas Eves, John Borton, John Paine, Eleazer Fenton, Samuel Oldale, William Black, Anthony Woodhouse, Daniel Leeds, John Pancoast, Francis Belwicke, William Luswall, John Snowdon, Richard LAND GRANTS 41 Fenemore, Gruna Jacobson, Thomas Scholey, Thomas Might, Godfrey Hancock, John Petty, Abraham Heulings, John New- boald, John White, John Roberts, John Wood, John Hosling, Thomas Revelh These numerous signatures clearly show that there was a considerable population already in the country, but with regard to the lands of Salem County, if not of the major part of this section of west New Jersey, Fenwick was doubtless the sole proprietor. He made deeds and sold lands in the province, both before and after his arrival in the country. An original parch- ment deed, now in the possession of Orestes Cook, Esq., of Bridgeton, New Jersey, shows that he either executed this deed in England, or else he arrived in America before June, 1675. This deed, a copy of which follows, was written and executed May tenth, sixteen hundred and seventy-five, and it was signed and sealed with Fenwick's own hand and before the witnesses named. This deed was for five hundred acres of land contained in " all that Moyetie or half part of the tract of land called New Cesarea or New Jersey," which Fenwick bought of Lord John Berkeley by " Indenture bear- ing date the eighteenth day of March, sixteen hundred and seventy- three," and conveys the said five hundred acres to Richard Hancock (who became Fenwick's surveyor general at first). This deed does not locate the land sold to Hancock. It is a curious manuscript, beautifully written and well preserved. Out of this tract Richard Hancock sold one hundred acres to John Denn, by deed dated February twelfth, sixteen hundred and eighty-two; this land is located by butts and bounds, as will be seen, and is along Allo- way's Creek. This original parchment is also in the possession of Mr. Cook. 42 GOULDTOWN Both deeds are given in full in Chapter IV. They will probably find their way soon into the Cumberland County Historical Society. There is also still in existence a deed of Fenwick's son-in-law, John Adams, to Samuel Bacon for two hundred and sixty acres of land, in Bacon's Neck, made by Adams in sixteen hundred and eighty- two. This John Adams was the father of Elizabeth Adams, the mother of the original Gould, the founder of Gould- town. He later purchased one thousand acres in AUo- way's. The deed, Fenwick to Hancock, and Hancock to Denn, follows in the next chapter. CHAPTER IV. COPIES OF VERY ANCIENT PARCHMENT DEEDS IN POSSESSION OF A BRIDGETON ATTORNEY. DEED. John Fenwick ^ to \ May 10, 1675. Richard Hancock. J To all people to whom this present writing shall come: John Fenwick, late of Binfields, in the County of Berkshire, within the Kingdom of England, Esquire, and Chief e Proprietor of the Moyetie or half part of the tract of land within the Province of New Cesaria or New Jersey — in America — sendeth greeting. Whereas, the Honorable Jolin Lord Berkeley of Stratton, one of his Majesties most honorable Privy Counsell, by his Indenture bearing date the eighteenth day of March, one thou- sand six hundred seventy and three — did grant, bargain, sell, alien and enfeoff and confirm unto the said John Fenwick, his heirs and assigns forever, all that Moyetie or halfe part of the tract of land called New Cesaria or New Jersey, and also the rivers, rivolets, mines, mineralls, quaries, woods, royalties, proffits, franchises, conditions, comodities and other heredita- ments whatsoever, in the said Indenture, particularly mentioned, as in and by the same rela9on being thereunto had may appear. Now know yee, that for and in consideration of the summ of Sixty Shillings, lawfuU money of England to him, the said John Fenwick in hand paid by Richard Hancock, of Bromley, Neer Bow, in the County of Midd'x, upholsterer at and before the ensealing and delivery hereof, the receipt whereof is hereby assured, bargained and for other diver considerations, him, the said John Fenwick hereunto moving, he, the said John Fenwick, hath granted, bargained, sold, aliened, enfeoffed and confirmed unto the said Richard Hancock and his wife, and the heirs 43 44 GOULDTOWN and assigns of the said Richard Hancock forever, Five Hundred acres of land, to be taken out of, sett forth and surveyed out of all such part of the said tract of land within the Province of New Cesaria or New Jersey, the said John Fenwick hath re- served to him and his heirs forever, hereafter to be called Fen- wick Colony, and alsoe all river, rivolets, mines, mineralls, quarries, woods, proffits, commodities and hereditaments, what- soever, to the said Five Hundred Acres belonging and all the estate right, title, interest, property, claim and demand what- soever of him, the said John Fen^vick, of, in, or to the said five hundred acres, and premises herein before men9oned or intended to be bargained and sold or any part or parcell thereof and the rendition, renditions, remainder and remainders thereof to have and to hold the said Five Hundred acres of land and all and singular the premises herein before men9oned intended to be granted, bargained, sold, aliened, enfeoffed and confirmed, with the appurtenances and every part and parcel thereof, unto the said Richard Hancock and Margaret, his wife, and the heirs and assigns of the said Richard Hancock forever to the only use and behoof of the said Richard Hancock and Margaret, his wife, and the heirs and assigns of the said Richard Hancock forever, yeeilding and paying therefor the yearly rent of ears of indian com on the nine and twentieth day of the seventh month, called September, and the said John Fenwick, for himselfe, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, doth covenant and grant to and with Richard Hancock and Margaret, his wife, and the heirs and assigns of the said Richard Hancock by these presents — that they, the said Richard Hancock and JNIargaret, his wife, and the heirs and assigns of the said Richard Hancock, shall and may hold and enjoy the said Five Hundred acres and premises and receive and have the rents, issues and proffits thereof from time to time without the let, erection or disturb- ance of him the said John Fenwick — John Lord Berkeley — Sir George Cartaret — Knight and Baronet — Chief Proprietor of the other Moyetie of the said tract of land or any or either of them, their or any or either of their heirs or assigns, or of, or by any other person or persons claiming or to claim by, from or under him, them or either of them and for and in respect of ANCIENT DEEDS 45 any right or interests which he or they or any or either of them shall or may have or claim unto said Five Hundred acres of land soe granted as aforesaid, or any part or parcell thereof, and not otherwise freed and dischai-ged or otherwise suffitionly saved harmless of and from all incumbrances whatsoever done or suffered by him, them or any or either of them in the meantime. In •witness •whereof, the said John Fenwick hath hereunto set his hand and seale this tenth day of the third month called May, in the year of our Lord Christ, One thousand six hundred seventy and five and in the twenty-seaventh year of the Reyne of King Charles the second, over England, Scotland, France and Ireland, &c. {Fac simile) BACK. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of us John Elridge, Edward Wade, Edmund Warner, Thomas Anderson, Edward Bradway, Richard Noble. Enrolled in the Register Book of Deeds and conveyances belonging and Fenwick Colony in the Province of New Cesaria or New Jersey in America, in the third month called May, MDCLXXV. GARFIELD. February 12, 1682. DEED. Richard Hancock and ^ Margaret, his wife, to John Denn and Margaret, his wife. To all people to whom this present writing shall come: Richard Hancock of AUoway's Creek, in the Province of West New Jersey, Yeoman, sendeth greeting. 46 GOULDTOWN Whereas, John Fenwick, late one of the Proprietors of the said Province by his Deed Poll, bearing date the tenth day of May, sixteen hundred and seventy-five, did grant, bargain, sell, alien, enfeoffe and confirme unto said Richard Hancock, late of Bromley, County of Midd'x, upholsterer, to five hundred acres of land to be taken, set forth, and surveyed out of that tract of land, which he, the said John Fenwick had referred to him and his heirs forever. Within the said province and also the rivers, rivoletts, woods, quaries, mines, minerals, profitts, commoodies, hereditaments, whatsoever unto the said Five Hundred acres of land belonging in the said deed particularly mentioned as in and by the same relation being had may appeare. Now know yee, that for and in consideration of sum of Five pounds, warrant pay of Delaware River to him, the said Richard Hancock, in hand paid by John Denn, of Allowayes Creeke, at and before the ensealing and delivery thereof, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged and for divers other causes and considerations him, the said Richard Hancock thereunto mov- ing, the said Richard Hancock, hath granted, bargained and sold, aliened and enfeoffed, and confirmed unto the said John Denn and Margaret, his wife, and to the heirs and assignes of the said John Denn forever, one hundred acres of land, part and parcel of the said five hundred acres, butted and bounded as followeth, (viz) Beginning at a great Tree standing neere Munmouth River, alis Alloway's Creeke aforesaid, mark't with R. U. K. and J. S. from thence by North and by East upon a Strait lyne and by the markt trees that leads to a tree with J. D. three hundred and twenty pearches ; from thence upon a straite line West and by North to a tree markd J. D. fifty pearches; from thence South by West by the marked treese that leeads to the middle of the highway or lane the parte of the plantations and so downe the midle of the highway to the said creek or riverside, three hundred and twenty pearches, from thence Easterly up the said Creeke or river to the first mentioned tree fifty pearches, within the bounds are contained one hundred acres of fast land, marish and swamp, be it more or lesse as by a certificate and in the hand of the said Richard Hancock, bearing date eighth day of February, last appear. ANCIENT DEEDS 47 And all the house, improvement, woods, rivers, creeks, quaries, mines, mineralls, profitts, commodities, and hereditaments what- soever, to the said one hundred acres belonging and all the estate, right, title, interest, property, claime and demand what- soever of the said Richard Hancock and Margret, his wife, of, in, or to the said one hundred acres of land and premises herein before mentioned or intended to be granted, bargained, sold, aliened, enfeofed and confirmed, any part or parcel thereof. And the rever9on, rever9ons, remainder and remainders thereof to have and to hold the said one hundred acres of land, house, improvement, woods, rivers, creeks, quaries, mines, minerals, profitts, comodities, and hereditaments, thereunto belonging herein and hereby granted, bargained, sold, aliened, enfeofi^ed and confirmed every part and parcel thereof unto him the said John Denn and Magret his wife, and to the heirs and assignes, of him, the said John Denn forever, to the only use and behoofe of him, the said John Denn and Margret, his wife, their heires and assigns forever, yeilding and paying therefor yearly and every yeare unto the said Richard Hancock, his heires and assignes, the yearely rent of one eare of indian come on the nine and twentieth day of September, if demanded, and the said Richard Hancock, for himself e, and Margret, his wife, and for his heires and assignes, doth covenant and grant to and with the said John Denn and Margret, his wife, by these presents, that he, the said John Denn and Margret, his wife, and the heires and assignes of the said John Denn, shall and may hold and enjoy the said one hundred acres of land and premises, and receive and take the rents, issues and proffits thereof from time to time without the let, erection or disturbance of him, the said Richard Hancock and Margret, his wife, and the said John Fenwick or any or either of them, their or any or either of their heires or assignes or of any other person or persons, claiming or to claime by or under him, them or any or either of them for or in respect of any right, title or interest, which they or any or either of them shall or may have or claime upon, or to the said one hundred acres of land, house, improvements and premises so granted aforesaid, or any part or parcel thereof freed and discharged or otherwise well and sufficiently saved 48 GOULDTOWN harmless of and from all incumbrances whatsoever, done or suffered by him, them or any or either of them in meantime. In "witness whereof ^ the said Richard Hancock for himself and for Magaret, his late wife, deceased, hath hereunto set his hand and seals, this twelfth day of February, sixteen hundred and eighty-two. Signed Richard Hancock. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of James Nevill \ y CoMtt's. Edward Wade, j ENDORSED John Denn*s deed for 100 acres from Rich*d Hancock. This deed indicates the location of Hancock's five hundred acres conveyed by the first deed. CHAPTER V. GOULD traditions; evidences; descent; benjamin Gould's will. Extract from Fenwick's will: " Item, I do except against Elizabeth Adams of having any ye leaste part of my estate, unless the Lord open her eyes to see her abominable transgression against him, me and her good father, by giving her true repentance, and forsaking yt Black yt hath been ye ruin of her, and becoming penitent for her sins; upon yt condition only I do will and require my executors to settle five hundred acres of land upon her." (Lucius Q. C. Elmer, History of Cumberland County, N. J., 1869.) Judge Elmer was born in 1793 and died in 1883; he was the son of General Ebenezer Elmer, who was born in 1752 and died in 1843; he was the youth who accompanied his father. General Elmer, on Sunday afternoons to the little school house in Gouldtown which was also used as a church, in which the Goulds, Pierces, and Murrays, mulattoes, and Woodruffs, Westcotts, Seeleys, Batemans, and Fullers, white, held religious worship. The house is still standing, though moved to another locality. The children were cate- chized here; and Judge Elmer has often related how he once asked Othniel Murray, one of the small boys, what was the first thing he did when he arose in the morning, and the boy replied, " I go to my traps." The expected answer was an allusion to his morning devotions. In Evarts and Peck's " History of Salem, Cumber- land, and Gloucester Counties," published a few years ago, a sketch of Gouldtown appears which says : 4 49 50 GOULDTOWN Gouldtown is a settlement of colored people, many of them nearly white, about three miles east of Bridgeton. The families there mostly bear the names of Pierce and Gould. Some of them are active, industrious farmers, and have accumulated con- siderable property. A tradition believed by many is, that they are descended from Elizabeth Adams, the granddaughter of Fenwick — who directed in his will that his executors settle five hundred acres of land upon her on conditions stated. Fen- wick made his will and died in 1683. The tradition among the inhabitants of Gouldtown is that Elizabeth married Gould from whom they descended and that the five hundred acres of land was settled upon her and they inherited it. From these statements it will be seen that a per- sistent and well spread " tradition " prevailed that the Goulds were descendants of Fenwick. John Adams who had married Elizabeth Fenwick had a daughter Elizabeth, who was eleven years old at the time of the arrival of the family in Jersey and who consequently was nineteen years old at the time Fenwick made his will excepting against her having any share of his property unless she should repent of her sins and forsake " that Black that hath been the ruin of her." Johnson's History of Fenwick's Colony, written in ^1835, and published in 1839, says: "Among the numerous troubles and vexations which assailed Fen- wick, none appear to have distressed him more than the base and abandoned conduct of his granddaughter, Elizabeth Adams, who had attached herself to a citizen of color. By his will he deprives her of any share in his estate, ' unless the Lord open her eyes to see her abominable transgression against him, me and her good father, by giving her true repentance and forsak- ing that Black which hath been the ruin of her and be- coming penitent for her sins.' From this illicit con- r Judge Lucirs Q. C. Elmer. TRADITIONS; DESCENT 51 nection has sprung the famUies of the Goulds at a settle- ment called Gouldtown, in Cumberland County." Later, tliis same historian in a memoir of John Fen- wick wrote: " Elizabeth Adams had formed a connec- tion with a negro man whose name was Gould." ^ This John and Elizabeth Adams continued to live in what is now Cumberland County after the death of Fenwick; but the historians give no further mention of Elizabeth Gould, if indeed she ever took the name of Gould. Jolin and Elizabeth Adams possessed land in what is now Bacon's Neck in Cumberland County acquired through John Fenwick and in the year before the death of the latter, sold two hundred and sixty acres to Samuel Bacon, a Quaker and seaman from Wood- bridge, New Jersey; hence the name Bacon's Neck. The deed for this property is still in existence among the papers of the late Mrs. Kate Knight and now in the possession of Ephraim J. Cook, of Port Norris, N. J. John Adams appears to have been unable to write, as all the public documents signed by him are by " his mark." Then Elizabeth Adams, senior, according to this will, was living in 1682, although John Clements supposes she had died before her father's will was made in 1683. This supposition is based upon the fact that she is not mentioned in the will and that the devises therein made are directly to her children. John Adams died in 1700. The name of the Gould whom Elizabeth married is not known, nor is the date of her death, or the place where she is buried. We have the record of only one son, and of him we have but two authentic records. In the oldest register of the Gouldto^vn graveyard the spot is marked where is laid away the remains of, 'R. G. Johnson, Memoir of John Fenwick, in New Jersey Hist. Soc. Publ., 1849. 52 GOULDTOWN " Benjamin Gould and Ann, his wife." Swedes and Finns had been settled in some parts of what is now Salem and Gloucester Counties before Fenwick's arrival, and this Benjamin Gould's wife, Ann, was a Finn. The following is his will. The name is spelled Gold, Goold and Gould, in the records. WILL OF BENJAMIN GOULD. SECRETASY OF STATe's OFFICE, TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, BOOK 18 OF WIL,L,S, PAGE 516. In the Name of God, Amen, the ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord, 1T77. I, Benjamin Gold, of Fairfield, in the County of Cumber- land and in the State of New Jersey, yeoman, being sick and weak in body, but of perfect mind and memory, blessed be God therefor, calling unto mind the Mortallity of my body and know- ing that it is appointed unto all men once to die do make and ordain this my last will, that is to say, principally and first of all give and recommend my soul into the hands of God, who gave it and for my body I recommend it to the Earth to be buried in a Christianlike and decent manner at the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the general Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God and as touching such worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life I give, devise and dispose of in the following manner and form: Imprimis : It is my will and I do order that in the first place all my just debts and funeral charges be paid and satisfied in some convenient time after my decease by my executors. Item: I give, and bequeath unto my well beloved wife, Ann Gold, the one-third part of all my moveable estate to her and her heirs forever and also the third part of the profits of my plantation on which I now dwell at the West end of my land. Item: I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Sarah Goold, one small feather bed to her and her heirs forever. TRADITIONS; DESCENT 53 Item: I give and bequeath unto my eldest son, Anthiony Goold, the sum of Fifteen pounds to be paid to him out of my moveable estate to him and to his heirs forever, and I do order that a Vendue shall be made of all my moveable estate and when my debts are paid out of it and my wife has got her thirds out of it as aforesaid, the remainder of my moveable estate to be equally divided between my two sons, Samuel Goold and Abijah Goold. Item: I give and bequeath unto my two sons, Samuel Goold and Abijah Goold One hundred and thirty-six acres of my land on the East end to be equally divided between them. I give it to them and to their heirs forever. Item: I give and bequeath unto my youngest son, Elisha Goold, all the remainder of my land to him and his heirs for- ever. And I do constitute make and ordain Thomas Joslin with James Hood my only and sole executors of this my last will and testament and do hereby utterly disallow revise and disallow all and every other former testaments, wills, legacies and executors ratifying this and no other to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written. Benjamin Goold. (Seal) Witnesses James Sayre, Joshua White, her Anna X Sayre. mark. The date of probate is not given, but the preceding was proven June 27, 1777. The account of the execu- tors was approved February 13, 1779 (Book 22, page 69). It amounted to £ 148 5 s., personal. Anthony Gould left a will (Book 40, page 508), dated June 23, 1803. Witnesses, Jeremiah Smith, Abner Smith. It directs all property to be sold^ — ^to daughter Phebe Gould $6. Remainder to be divided between two daughters, Christiana and Martha. Jona- 54 GOULDTOWN than Bowen, Executor, and guardian of daughters, Christiana and Martha until they are eighteen. Will proved September 27, 1803. Anthony Gould was Benjamin's oldest son. From these four sons, mentioned in the above will, descended all the Goulds of Gouldtown, and from them the place derived its name. When Benjamin Gould, the founder of Gouldtown, grew up, it is quite probable there were no girls of his own color with whom he could associate had he desired to do so; that he had brothers and sisters to grow to maturity has not been established, but the tradition handed down through his sons is that his parents had five children, one of whom was a son named Le\d; all the others died young, and all trace of Levi was' lost before the death of Benjamin. It was held that Le\d was older than Benjamin. Benjamin married a Finn, whose name was Ann; he got none of the Fenwick land, nor any of the lands of his mother's father, John Adams, so far as can be learned. There were other descendants of both Fenwick and Adams, for Samuel Hedge and Edward Champness, as well as John Adams, married daughters of Fenwick. Judge Elmer, in his history of Cumberland County says: "Benjamin Champneys (thus he spells the name) a descendant of Fenwick, studied with Ebenezer Elmer in 1793, and, after a few voyages at sea, married a daughter of Colonel Potter, and settled as a physician in Bridgeton. He was much esteemed, but died young in 1814." The " Widow Champneys," mother of the Dr. Champneys mentioned, kept the Pole Tavern, one of the ancient landmarks of South Jersey; Dr. Champ- neys was her son. Colonel Potter's sons, whose sister TRADITIONS; DESCENT 55 Dr. Champneys married, kept a general store in Bridge- ton, at which the Goulds, as well as the general pubhc, dealt. One of the sons of a member of the firm has often repeated this little incident as showing that the claimed descent of the Goulds from Fenwick was known then as the common and undisputed tradition. He said that Dr. Champneys was connected with the store, and among those who had become indebted to the store was Benjamin Gould, second, the grandson of the founder of Gouldtown. Tliis Benjamin Gould was a dealer in cord-wood and hoop-poles, to a considerable extent. The firm sued him for the amount of an indebtedness which he had contracted with them. This made him, Gould, very angry, and he hastened to the store in great wrath that he should be treated with such indignity. After he had given vent to his feelings and had cooled off so he could be talked to in a pacific manner. Dr. Champneys said: " Well, Benjamin, we knew it was a mean thing to do, and we hated to do it, but we need money very badly and we've got to sue people to get it in, and we didn't know who to begin on ; so we thought we would begin on our own relations first, then other people wouldn't mind it so much." The explanation was entirely satisfactory and the account was settled. This incident was told to the writer by the son of the member of the firm alluded to, who, at the time of relating, was the acknowledged historiographer of local events and traditions, and a rehable local genealogist. The Benjamin Gould, second, was the grandfather of the writer; he was born in 1779, or two years after the death of his grandfather, Benjamin, first, and was, at the time of this incident, about thirty years old. He was the son of Abijah Gk)uld, who died in 1806, who was born about 1730 or 1735. 56 GOULDTOWN Benjamin Gould, the founder, was born between 1700 and 1705; his mother, Elizabeth Adams Gould, being then a little more than thirty-five years of age. Comparatively nothing is known of his early life; it is believed that he was the youngest of the five chil- dren. He must have been a hardy man of thrift, and a man much nearer white than mulatto, as indicated by his descendants. His will shows that he had accumu- lated considerable property, which is still in the hands of his descendants, who have added to it. The in- ventory of his personal property, consisting of cattle, sheep, oxen and the like, aggregated £ 148 5 s., which was quite a sum for those days. His will left <£ 15 to his oldest son, Anthony. Why this was so does not appear, unless it was because he con- sidered him already provided for, or had previously helped him, for all records in the County Clerk's Office show that Anthony Gould owned property on the road from Bridgetown to Beaver Dam, or Maurice River Bridge, which he had purchased from John Page, by deed bearing date 1767. Benjamin Gould had three other sons and one daughter ; the other sons, as given in the will, and whose descendants are all easily traced, were Samuel, Abijah and Elisha; the daughter, Sarah, died unmarried, shortly after the death of her father. The early life of these four boys was not altogether monotonous, they had plenty of companions among the hardy woodmen of those times, for the country was forest-covered, the principal source of industry being the cutting and haul- ing of logs, rails for fencing, cord-wood and timber. CHAPTER VI. THE EARLY GOULDS AND THEIR ASSOCLiTIONS ; THE PIERCES AND MURRAYS; THE THREE FOUNDA- TION FAMILIES. In " Historical Collections of New Jersey," it is related that Fenwick made three purchases from the Indians of the lands included in the tract out of which Salem and Cumberland Counties were made; the first and second purchases included all the country between the Cohansey and Salem creeks, and the third purchase included all which lay between the Cohansey and Maurice River. These purchases were made in the years 1675 and 1676. " Emigrants were now arriving and Fenwick, having become sole proprietor of thi"^ large tract of country, which he called Fenwick's colony sales were rapidly made of large, as well as small tracts ot land, and so continued until his death." The foUowing is extracted " From the First General Order, as agreed upon by Fenwick and the first purchasers": ^ And as for the settling of the town of New Salem, it is like- wise ordered that the town be divided by a street; that the Southeast side be for the purchasers, who are to take their lots of sixteen acres as they come to take them up and plant them, as they happen to join to the lots of the purchasers resident, who are to hold their present plantations, and all of them to be accounted as part of their purchases, and the other part, on the North and by East and by South is to be disposed of by the chief proprietor for the encouragement of trade; he also giving, for the good of the town in general, the field or marsh that lieth between the town and Goodchild's plantation; ... and lastly, we do leave all other things 57 58 GOULDTOWN concerning the setting forth and surveying the said purchases unto the chief proprietor, to order as he sees fit. Signed accordingly, the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month, sixteen hundred and seventy-six. Fen WICK. Edward Wade, John Smith, Richard Noble, Samuel Nichol- son, John Adams, Hypolite Lefevre, Edward Champness, Richard Whitacar, William Malston, Robert Wade. John Fenwick held much the same relation to this section of New Jersey — especially to Salem and Salem County — as William Penn did to Philadelphia and that portion of Pennsylvania. We have now to do mainly with the lines of the three families whose names are mentioned in the opening chapter of this book. The beginning of the Gould family has been outlined sufficiently now to introduce the beginning of the two other families already named — - the Pierces and the Murrays. The Pierces were next in point of early intelligence and importance to the Goulds. Benjamin Gould and his four sons showed considerable broad-mindedness, and intelligence, as will appear in further detail; they accumulated property, and maintained a life of inde- pendence, self-reliance, and manhood for the times in which they lived and the naturally poor soil and country which they inhabited. The white people who inhabited the contiguous localities fared no better than they, and those of them who achieved any greater success in life than did the Goulds of those early days, changed their locality before changing their mode of living. Before the material advancement in life and standing of these families now detailed, the entire country between what is now Bridgeton and Millville, had been surveyed and cut up into smaller holdings. FOUNDATION FAMILIES 59 Judge Elmer's history shows that Richard Hancock who was Fenwick's first Surveyor-General, came to what IS now called Bridgeton in 1686 and erected a sawmiU on the stream then called and ever since known as Mill Creek, which runs along by the Dix wrapper factory and IS the outlet of East Lake and the Indian Field Run. This land, covered, as it then was, with heavy cedar, pme, and oak timber, was included in an eleven- thousand-acre survey, located about this time for the West Jersey Society. This Society was formed bv several large proprietors living partly in London and partly m the provinces. Probably Hancock obtained title to his holdings from them, says Judge Elmer Continuing he says: " It does not appear that he ever lived here, his residence being at the place in Salem County named after him Hancock's Bridge, where there still remain some of his descendants." From Hancock's sawmill much lumber was sawed up and sent away— for Thomas, a historian, states, says Judge Elmer, " a goodly store of lumber went out of the Cohansey to Philadelphia." Writing of the eleven-thousand-acre survey, before mentioned, and as appears in Elmer's History, the records show that " on the east side of the Cohansey a large tract of eleven thousand acres was surveyed by Worlidge and Budd for the West Jersey Society in 1686, and this was resurveyed and recorded in 1716. East of that tract a large survey was made for the heirs of William Penn, which extended to the Maurice River. It has been asserted that the holdings of Benjamin Gould and his compatriots came originally from the West Jersey Society out of this eleven-thou- sand-acre survey. Elmer's History declares: " It may be safely said that four-fifths of the land included in Cum- berland County was covered by surveys before 1700." 60 GOULDTOWN The first proprietors of the land within the bounds of what is now Cumberland County were principally Friends; but few of the actual settlers, however, were Friends; these people being mostly confined to Green- wich, and later, a few on Maurice River, about Buck- shutem and vicinity and finally about where Millville now is. It requires some stretch of imagination to under- stand how those hardy people, those pioneers and early settlers, made a living, — yet those who are now ad- vanced to near the fourscore mark of their years can form a pretty good conception of their modes of life, as they gathered it from the traditions and conversa- tions, jokes, anecdotes, and pleasantries of their own grandsires and granddames. The grandsires would tell about their daily life in clearing their lands, burning the logs or hauling them to the sawmill with their oxen; about sowing the rye for the rye bread, or the flax to grow their own clothing; instruct how to pull the flax, heckle it, spin it into thread and weave it into coarse tow cloth; how some raised sheep, sheared the wool, spun it, and had it woven into the coarse " linsey- woolsey " cloth, from which the granddames could make the heavy warm clothing of " homespun " and " bobin- ette." They would tell also of the leather breeches of calfskin and the under jackets made of deerskin; and of splint chairs, home-made, bottomed with the deerskin, the splint brooms with which they swept the floors of their humble homes, many of them mere cabins; the " noggins " and the " piggins " with which to measure small commodities; some would tell how they reaped the grain with the sickle, walking their oxen over it, treading out the grain on the threshing floors to winnow out afterward in the winds. All these things I have heard related, and so have FOUNDATION FAMILIES 61 s' you, who have lived your threescore and ten years in Cumberland County. Such as this was the hardy and independent life of the early inhabitants of Gouldtown. The great forests fell beneath the strokes of their axes ; the logs were hauled to the sawmill and the cord- wood to the landings on the Cohansey River, whence they were taken in vessels either as lumber or cord-wood to Phila- delphia ; or the wood was burned to charcoal and taken to Philadelphia and New York, in those early days. There was but little charcoal, however, shipped from the land- ings on the Cohansey; most of this commodity was hauled to the landings on the Maurice River and shipped to New York, as that was the better market. There were landings on the Cohansey known as " The Bridge," afterward called " Cohansey Bridge " — now Bridgeton. " Free Landing," a point between the Dailey farm and the Donaghay farm, and also at " Bumbridge " — now Fairton. Hundreds and thou- sands of cords of wood were hauled from the country east of the Cohansey to those shipping-points and freighted to Philadelphia. The ring of the woodman's axe was heard all winter long through the forests, and the year around teams, both of oxen and horses, were seen upon all the roads leading from the forests to the river- docks. The people who did all this work were not all Goulds, Pierces, and Murrays, but there were Garrisons, Elmers, Clarks, Woodruffs, Batemans, Lummises, Facemires, Pages, Steelings and hosts of others, whose names are still prominent among their descendants in this county. CHAPTER VII. ORIGIN OF THE PIERCE, MURRAY, AND CUFF FAMILIES. Tradition says that the Pierces originated from two mulattoes who were brought here in a vessel from the West Indies, with which the Colony had early trade, vessels from the West Indies arriving at Greenwich and also coming up as far as to what is now Bridgeton. These two men were Richard and Anthony Pierce, brothers. It was the custom in those early days for the landowners to pay the passage of immigrants who came to this country and were unable themselves to pay, and those immigrants would be indentured to the land- owners for a term of years, or if they were females, the landowners might make wives of them.^ Anthony and Richard Pierce paid the passage of two Dutch women, sisters, from Holland; their names were Marie and Hannah Van Aca. The last name speedily degenerated into Wanaca, and was made the Christian name of a son of one of them. From these descended all the Pierces of Gouldtown. They came to the colony of West New Jersey before the middle of the eighteenth century. The Murrays originated in Cape May; they claim an Indian ancestry. The first Murray of whom there is trace in the vicinity of the earliest settlements of Gouldtown, was Othniel Murray. He claimed to be a Lenapee or Siconessee Indian, and came from Cape * Professor Kalm, writing from Rancocas, N. J., December 18, 1743, relative to the powers of a clergyman respecting the performance of the marriage ceremony, said: "He cannot marry such strangers as have bound themselves to serve a certain number of years in order to pay their passage from Europe, without the consent of their masters." — New Jersey Archives. 62 FAMILY ORIGINS 63 May County. The Lenapees resided in the locality of Cohansey (or Bridgeton) and had quite a settlement at what became known as the Indian Fields, at a run still known as the Indian Field Run. This Othniel Murray married Katharine (last name unknown), a Swede. They had five children, three sons and two daughters, Mark Murray, David Murray, and John Murray, and Mary Murray and Dorcas Murray. From these descended all the Murrays of Gouldtown. We have now outlined the three chief families of Gouldtown, viz.: Benjamin Gould and Ann, his wife (they had Elizabeth and Benjamin, Jr., who difed young). Their other children were Sarah, Anthony,' Samuel, Abijah, and Elisha; Sarah died unmarried. Anthony Pierce and Marie (Mary) had many children; their sons were Menon Pierce, Richard Pierce, Anthony Pierce, Jr., Jesse Pierce, 1st, John Pierce, Benjamin Pierce, and Wanaca Pierce, and two daughters, Hannah Pierce and Elizabeth Pierce. Richard Pierce, Sr., and Hannah, had but one son, Adam Pierce, but they had four daughters, viz.: Mary, Rhumah, Hannah, and Elizabeth. These four families — the childi'cn of Benjamin and Ann Gould, the children of Anthony and Mary Van Aca Pierce, the children of Richard and Hannah Van Aca Pierce, and the children of Othniel and Katharine Murray, rapidly intermarried before the Revolution. They also intermarried with white people. ^ Benjamin Gould's oldest son, Anthony Gould, married Phoebe Lummis, a white girl — one of the Lummises, before named. Her father is believed to have been James Lummis. Benjamin Gould's second son, Samuel Gould, married Rhumah Pierce, daughter of Richard and Hannah Pierce. Benjamin Gould's third son, Abijah Gould, married Hannah Pierce, 64 GOULDTOWN daughter of Richard and Hannah Pierce. Anthony Pierce's daughter, Elizabeth Pierce, married Josiah Hicks, of Gloucester. Benjamin Gould's fourth son, Elisha Gould, married Elizabeth Pierce, daughter of Richard and Hannah Pierce. Hannah Pierce, born in 1767, married Reuben Cuff, of Salem, the minister. These all lived in colonial times ; Adam Pierce, the only son of Richard and Hannah Pierce, and Richard Pierce, Jr., and Anthony Pierce, Jr., served in the Revolution- ary War; they were Revolutionary pensioners until their deaths, between 1836 and 1850, at a great age. One of the sons of Othniel Murray and Katharine, his wife, was also a soldier of the Revolution and was a deserter. It is told of him that an officer from Gen- eral Joseph Bloomfield's command came after him, and he refused to go. The officer drew his sword and said: " I demand for the last time that you go with me and return to your company; will you go? " Young Mur- ray saw determination in the officer's attitude and he reluctantly replied, " I will go." He retm-ned to the army and served till the end of the war. Wanaca Pierce, son of Anthony and Mary Van Aca Pierce, married Mary Murray, daughter of Othniel and Katharine Murray. Adam Pierce, son of Richard and Hannah Van Aca Pierce, married Mary Murray's sister, Dorcas Murray. In the early days the settlements, Gouldtown and Piercetown, were somewhat like those of the Jews and Samaritans about which we read in the New Testament. Each settlement had its own church, its own school- house, and its own family and social customs. The differences in appearance, in manners, in pronunciation and in their general habits and views were marked ; and there was no small degree of antipathy or at least FAMILY ORIGINS 65 mutual disregard existing between the two races. Happily with the blending of the schools and the general advance of intelligence, much of this mutual disregard has passed away and the people are now much nearer unification. Not to go at length into particulars, we may re- mark that m the early times the Pierces exhibited greater fondness for flowers, for bright colors in dress, aaid for music than did the Goulds. They cared less for home, were more given to hunting and fishing and evmced greater ove for amusement. .While among the Pierces the old time " fiddle " survived and frolics were held m some far-away cabin of a home where men and women performed some kind of dance, during the same period there was not a musical instrument or musician among the Goulds. It is doubtful if there was a Gould of Gouldtown who could dance a step. Many of the Pierces also had fine musical voices and good ear for music, while the Goulds were markedly detective in both respects. The Pierces were more devoted to working in the Zh^X^^n V^' T''^''' ^''""^ 1^^^ f°^ farming; while the Goulds m the earliest times manifested strong interest towards farming, raising hogs and seeurin| good horses In manners the Goulds were usually brusque or blunt ; the Pierces suave and plausible. w,>I '^ T..'' '*™"S'' ^'^'^^ '" ^'^«' i» ghosts, in witches and " conjurors " among the Pierces than among the Goulds, to be traced to their Dutch oricrin m part; the Goulds, however, were not entirely f?ee from these superstitions. But the great regard for the moon and the deviation of the wind in relation to sow- ing and planting was usually found coupled more with 66 GOULDTOWN The Pierces and Murrays had more of the elements which go to make musicians, poets, orators, and singers, than the Goulds. The congregation wliich assembled in Piercetown, a century or more ago, would produce much better singing and was much more eloquent in speech and prayer than the congregation in Gouldtown. The older Pierces and Murrays could sing, making melody with their voices, while the older Goulds could not. Indeed one of the earliest circuit preachers who came to Gouldtown reported that there was not a man there who could sing " Praise God from whom all blessings flow ! " The Goulds ranked well in sturdy and steady-going ways. They knew how to work from year's end to year's end. They were persevering and frugal, with a commendable zeal for learning. What they lacked of the showy talents they more than compensated for in the homely virtues. The Goulds of the early generations, as well as the Murrays, were fair-skinned, with blue eyes and light hair. The Pierces were darker complexioned with black hair and black eyes. The young women were noted for their good looks and regular features. The CufF family origin will be given later. It properly belongs to Salem County. CHAPTER VIII. IMPORTANCE OF GENEALOGICAI. RESEARCH ; SOME OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILY GENEALOGIES OF SALEM AND CUMBERLAND COUNTIES ; COMPILATION OF THOMAS SHOURDS. TiHE "Magazine of American History" says: " The growing interest in ancestry indicates that Americans are fast coming to believe that it is of some consequence to know from whom they are descended. Long lines of ancestry are revealed in every person. Pride in ancestry deserves encouragement. One can- not know too much about himself. Genealogy is the most fascinating branch of history." The late Thomas Shourds, historian of Salem County, nearly forty years ago compiled a long line of Salem and Cumberland County genealogj'', which well deserves to be put in permanent form. With that end in view, a portion is given here, wliich relates to some of the most prominent families in Cumberland County. It embraces the Sheppard family, from which came the first Mayor of Bridgeton, the Bacons of Bacon's Neck, the Wheatons of Greenwich, the Mulfords, the Bate- mans, the Holmeses, and many more. He wrote; The Sheppard family is the most numerous of any, except- ing the Thompsons, in the ancient County of Salem. There were three brothers, David, Thomas and John Sheppard; they came from Tipperary, Ireland. On their arrival in America they resided for a short time at Shrewsbury, East Jersey. In 1683 they settled in what is now Cumberland County, on the south side of the Cohansey, it being a neck of land bounded on the north by the Cohansey River, on the south by a small creek, called Back Creek. It is not improbable that they gave 67 68 GOULDTOWN it the name of Shrewsbury Neck, after the township in East Jersey where they first settled. The Sheppard family, I have no doubt, were English; their name implies as much. The Shep- pards were members of the Baptist Church of Cleagh Keaton, in the County of Tipperary, Ireland. They were also among the few persons that organized the First Cohansey Baptist Church, in 1690, at Shrewsbury Neck. David Sheppard's first purchase was fifty acres of land of Captain William Dare; he afterward purchased one hundred and fifty acres, on which he lived and died. I have no doubt he became the owner of a large quantity of land in the Neck. The Sheppard, Westcott and Reeves families, during the last (eighteenth) century and the fore part of the present (nineteenth), were the principal owners of Back and Shrewsbury Neck. David Sheppard, Sr., agreeably to the most authentic account, had six children: David, bom 1690; John, Joseph, Enoch, Hannah, and Elizabeth Sheppard. Hannah married a young man named Gillman. She died in 1722, leaving one son, David Gillman. John, the son of David Sheppard, Sr., died about the year 1719, without issue, leaving his property to his brothers and sisters. David, the eldest son of David Sheppard, the emigrant, was born about the year 1690, and inherited the homestead property of his father, in Back Neck. He married in 1719. The children of David Sheppard, Jr., and his wife, Sarah Sheppard, were Philip, bom 1720 ; Ephraim, bora 1722 ; David, 1724 ; Joseph, 1727, and Phoebe Sheppard. Philip, the eldest, inherited a large landed estate in Back Neck, on which he resided. The property is now owned by one of the heirs of the late Ephraim Mulford. Philip was twice married ; his first wife was Mary, his second Sarah Bennett. He was considered one of the largest and most successful farmers in that neighbor- hood. Tradition has it that he was the first, in that section, that owned a covered wagon. I do not suppose that it was an elliptic spring carriage, but plain as it was, I have no doubt it was considered by the inhabitants a great innovation. It was then the custom to travel on horseback. Philip died January 5, 1797, aged seventy-seven, leaving a large real and personal estate to liis children. His widow, Sarah Sheppard, married GENEALOGIES 69 John Remington, in 1801. Philip was buried in the Baptist cemetery, near Sheppard's mill ; he was a deacon in the church and was considered one of the most prominent citizens in that section of Cumberland County. The inventory of his personal property at the time of his death amounted to £580 6s. His children by his first wife, Mary, were Amos, Hannah, Mary and Naomi Sheppard. By his second wife, Sarah B. Sheppard, Ichabod, Henry, Phoebe, and WiUiam Sheppard. Ephraim, the son of David Sheppard, Jr., born 1722, was married three times. His first wife was Kesiah Kelsey; his second was Sarah Dennis; third, Rebecca Barrett. He lived in Hopewell Town- ship, on the road from Bowentown to Readstown, and was owner of a large landed estate in that section, leaving at his death large farms to all four of his sons, all adjoining one another on the straight road from Bridgeton to Readstown. He was a highly respected citizen, and like his brother Philip, was one of the deacons of Cohansey church. He died May 8, 1783, aged sixty years, and was buried in the Baptist yard adjoining the church, near Sheppard's mill, by the side of his wife, Sarah Dennis, who died 1st mo. 21st, 1777. She died in her fifty-first year. His third wife, Rebecca Barrett, survived him twenty years. She was buried at Shiloh, being a Seventh- day Baptist. Ephraim had ten children, all by his second wife, Sarah Dennis. The oldest was Joel, bom 1748, Abner, bom' May, 1750; James, born December 25, 1752; Hannah, and Rachel. Phoebe married Wade Barker, who was the grandson of Samuel Wade, Jr., of Alloway's Creek. She died young, leaving no issue. Wade was buried in the old Baptist yard at Mill Hollow, near Salem. Sarah, Elizabeth, and Hope Shep- pard, who afterward married Reuel Sayres, were the other chil- dren. Sayres subsequently moved to the State of Ohio. Eph- raim's youngest child was Ephraim Sheppard. David, the son of David Sheppard, Jr., was born in the year 1724. He married Temperance Sheppard, daughter of Jonadab and Phoebe Sheppard. They lived in the Township of Downe, Cumberland County. He was a member of Cohansey church, as was also his wife, and both became constituent members of the Dividing Creek Baptist Church at its constitution, May 30, 1761; at 70 GOULDTOWN that time he became deacon of the church and afterward a colleague of the pastor, Samuel Heaton. David Sheppard died June 18, 1774, aged fifty years ; his widow subsequently married a man by the name of Lore. She was bom in 1731 and died July 28, 1796, aged sixty-five years ; she and her first husband, David Sheppard, were buried at Dividing Creek Baptist grave- yard. The following are the names of David and Temperance Sheppard's children; Hosea, David, Owen, Jonadab, Tabitha, Temperance and Mary Sheppard. Joseph the son of David Sheppard, Jr., was boi*n in 1727; he married a Sayre. They lived in Back Neck and owned a large quantity of good land, which he left to his children. I have been informed that most, if not all, of said land has now passed out of their possession. He also left a large per- sonal estate for that time, amounting to £647 12s. He and his wife were members of the Cohansey church. It seems he was a prominent man in that section. He was chosen December 22, 1774, one of the committee of safety for the County of Cumber- land, to carry into effect the resolution of the Continental Con- gress, and on whose hands rested the supreme authority after the war commenced, until the formation of the new State Govern- ment gave an organized power in New Jersey. He died 1st mo. 8th, 1782, aged fifty-four years, and was buried on his own farm in an old family burying ground, now long disused. His wife, Mary Sayres Sheppard, was buried in the same yard. She died in 1819, aged fifty-eight years; their daughter, Lydia, also lies there; all three of them have tombstones at the head of their graves. This family graveyard is an exception to the general rule. It was the practice in the early settlement of Fenwick's colony, to have family burying grounds, but the plough has passed over nearly all of them, so no man knoweth where many of our ancestors lay. I have been informed that the ancient Swedish family, the Sinnicksons, cleared their old family graveyard during last year, in Obisquahasett, and their intentions are to keep it in good order — a noble deed. Dr. George B. Wood has likewise recently caused to be erected a monument to his great-grandfather, Richard Wood, who died in 1759, in the family graveyard in Stoe Creek Township, GENEALOGIES 71 County of Cumberland. Joseph Sheppard, the year before his death, built a large brick house on his property, and died soon afterwards ; the house is stiU standing, and the place is now owned by that enterprising citizen, Richard Laning, the son of John Laning. The following are the names of Joseph Shep- pard's children; David, bom 1758; Lydia, 1760; Ruth, Isaac, Mary, and Lucy Sheppard. Lucy, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Sheppard, born November, 1773, married Isaac, son of Isaac and Judith Wheaton, in 1792; Isaac was born September, 1769. By that connection there were seven children— Joseph, the eldest, bom m 1795, died March 3, 1871, never married. Their second son, Providence Ludlam Wheaton, bom April 21, 1798, died 3d mo. 1st, 1867— his wife was Ruth Foster— they had one son, Andrew Evan Wheaton, who resides at Greenwich with his mother, Mary Sheppard Wheaton. The eldest daughter of Isaac and Lucy S. Wheaton was born November 20, 1799; she was the second wife of Henry Mulford. Their three oldest children were Anna Maria, Hannah, and Isaac W. Mulford. William Wheaton, the son of Isaac and Lucy Wheaton, was born April 18, 1801, is living in Hopewell Township, and has a large family of chil- dren. Isaac Wheaton bora February 26, 1803, died July 6, 1846, leaving no children. Hannah, the daughter of Isaac and Lucy S. Wheaton, born in 1805, married in 1823 Gabriel Davis Hall, of Bacon's Neck, son of Ebenezer Hall. Gabriel and his wife had several children. She died August 31, 1849. Amos, the son of Philip Sheppard, bom about 1750, subsequently married Hannah Westcott, and died in 1788, at middle age; his widow married John Mulford. Josiah, the eldest son of Amos and Hannah W. Sheppard, born September 14, 1778, his wife was Charlotte Westcott, daughter of Henry and Jane Harris Westcott. He died October 4, 1850. His son, Henry, was bom June 3, 1808, married and lives in Stone Creek Town- ship, near Jericho ; they have a family of children. Jane, the daughter of Josiah, born in 1811 and died a young woman in 1828. Hannah, the daughter of Josiah and Charlotte W. Shep- pard, born 10th mo. 23rd, 1813, married Ephraim Glaspey; they have a family of children, and reside near the city of 72 GOULDTOWN Bridgeton. Harriet, the fourth child of Josiah and Charlotte W. Sheppard, bom February 19, 1816, married James Shep- pard Kelsay in 1837; they have seven children. Martha, the daughter of Amos and Hannah W. Sheppard, bom in 1780, subsequently married Charles Westcott, of Sayre's Neck, Cumberland County. She and her husband afterward moved to Covington, Kentucky, where she died in the winter of 1868, having children. Hannah, daughter of Philip and Mary Shep- pard, married Ephraim Shaw; they had three children, Harvey, Mary and Lydia. Lydia, the youngest, in 1810, married Henry Whitaker. They reside at Millville and have a large family of children, most of whom are married. Mary, daughter of Philip and Mary Sheppard, never married, and died May 17, 1799, aged about fifty years. Naomi, daughter of Philip, married William Conner; they had three children, Abigail, the eldest, born August 31, 1754, married Thomas Brooks in 1789; they had ten children. Thomas died September, 1829, and his widow, Abigail Brooks, died August 19, 1841, aged seventy-seven years. Prudence, born 1766, whose first husband was James Sheppard, son of Ehas and Susanna Sheppard (James was a nephew of Mark Shep- pard, who was one of the first of the Sheppard family that became a member of the Society of Friends). Prudence had one child by her first husband, James Sheppard, which died in infancy. Her second husband was William Johnson, William and Prudence Johnson had eight children. She died 9th mo. 5th, 1869; her last husband, William Johnson, died 2nd mo. 17th, 1831. Ichabod, son of Philip and Sarah Bennett Shep- pard, born December 11, 1769, married Ruth Sheppard, daughter of Joel and Hannah Jenkins Sheppard (Joel was a cousin to Ichabod, being the son of Ephraim Sheppard). Ichabod and his wife had two children, Phoebe and Naomi. Ichabod died April 22, 1799, and his widow, Ruth Sheppard, married David Bateman, a minister in the Baptist denomina- tion; they had three sons, Isaac, Daniel and David Bateman. Ruth, their mother, departed this life July 29, 1806. Soon after that event, David Bateman and his three sons, Isaac, Daniel and David, removed to Ohio. Phoebe, daughter of GENEALOGIES 73 Ichabod and Ruth Sheppard, married on March 28, 1819, John Reeves. There were two children by that connection — one daughter living at this time in the city of Bridgeton, and a son residing near Shiloh. Naomi, second daughter of Ichabod and Ruth Sheppard, born September 17, 1800, and in 1817 she married Jonathan Young, who was afterward drowned at sea; they had five children, all of whom died young, excepting Lewis Young, who is a resident of Bridgeton and was the old Court Crier. Harvey, son of Philip and Sarah B. Sheppard, married in 1797 Hannah Smith of Greenwich, daughter of Isaac and Cynthia Smith; he had one daughter, Hannah, by his first marriage. She married in 1818 John Test, the son of Francis Test, Jr. John and his second wife, Hannah S. Test, removed to Indiana. He studied law, and was elected to Congress during Andrew Jackson's administration. He was an uncle to Joseph Test, who resides in Salem. The wife of Harvey Sheppard, 2d, was Ruth Ogden, daughter of Elmer and Charlotte Ogden, of Fairfield Township ; they had three children, Philip, Abbie and Ruth. The wife of Harvey Sheppard, 3rd, was Amelia Davis, of Shiloh; he and his last wife went West in 1818. Phoebe, daughter of Philip Sheppard, married Joseph Newcomb, they lived in Back Neck, and had two children, Joseph and Sarah S. Newcomb. William, son of Philip Sheppard, born November 29, 1778, married in 1802 Matilda Westcott, daughter of Henry and Jane Harris Westcott; they had six children, Ichabod, William, Sarah, Harris, Phoebe, and Elmer Ogden Sheppard. Joel, son of Ephraim and Sarah Dennis Sheppard, bom in 1748, married Hannah Jenkins, who was born in 1749 and died in 1807; she left seven children, Dennis, Ruth, Sarah, Lydia, Amy, Elizabeth and Reuben Sheppard. Joel's second wife was Letitia Platts, widow of David Platts and daughter of David Gillman ; they had no issue. His third wife was Sarah Davis, of Shiloh; they had no children. Joel was a deacon in the old Cohansey Church, and was a large farmer, living in Hopewell Township, and was a prominent citizen. Dennis, son of Joel and Hannah Sheppard, married a young woman by the name of Ayres. They moved to one of the Western States in 1817. 74 GOULDTOWN Ruth, daughter of Joel Sheppard, married Ichabod, son of Philip and a cousin of her father. Sarah, daughter of Joel and Hannah J. Sheppard, bom 1774, married in 1799 Samuel Bond Davis, son of Elnathan and Susanna Bond Davis. Elnathan was the greatest surveyor in his generation in this section of the State for many years after the Revolution. The late Josiah Harrison, of Salem, who died aged over ninety years, who was a surveyor in his early life, told me a short time previous to his death that he regarded Elnathan Davis as captain general of the surveyors of Salem and Cumberland Counties. Samuel B. and Sarah Davis had several children, one of whom, Jarmin A. Davis, lives in Shiloh, and is a Justice of the Peace. Lydia Sheppard, daughter of Joel, married in 1804 Oswell Ay res; they had children but they are all deceased. Amy, daughter of Joel and Hannah Sheppard, bom February 15, 1780, in 1803 married Oliver Harris, son of Robert Harris. Oliver and Amy Harris had four children — Hosea, Hannah S., Mary, and Eliza. The latter was bom October 14, 1808, and in 1826 married Hezekiah Johnson ; they moved to Oregon and are still living. One of their children is Franklin Johnson, D.D., pastor of a Baptist church at Newark, N. J. He is the author of several commentaries on the International Sunday- school Lessons, now in general use. Samuel, another son of Oliver and Amy Harris, born November 24, 1813. Elizabeth, daughter of Joel and Hannah Sheppard, in 1805 married Eli Beveman. Soon after their marriage, they moved to Highland County, Ohio ; they had issue. Reuben, son of Joel and Hannah Sheppard, married Elizabeth W. Dare, Reuben and his wife moved to Ohio in 1817 ; they had one son, William Alfred Sheppard, who was a physician at New Vienna, Clinton County, Ohio. He died in 1871, leaving children; Henry A. Sheppard is a lawyer at Hillsboro, Ohio; Abner, second son of Ephraim and Sarah Dennis Sheppard, born May 28, 1750 ; his first wife was Mary Dowdney, who died about fifteen months after their marriage, leaving one child. Abner's second wife was Ruth PauUin; she died 1797. His third wife was Mary McGear, widow of John McGear; she died in 1809, and his fourth wife was Elizabeth Fithian. Abner was a farmer, and lived in Hope- GENEALOGIES 75 well township the greater part of his life. At the time of the American Revolution he was in the militia, and was in Colonel Hand's regiment at the fight of Quinton's Bridge and took part in the battle ; he died March 2, 1824. The following are the names of his children: Mary, Ephraim (who died young), Henry, Temperance, Phoebe, Prudence, Delanah, Lafayette, Ruth, Mary, and Ephraim Elmer Sheppard. James Sheppard, the son of Ephraim and Sarah Dennis Sheppard, was bom December 25, 1752. His first wife was Hannah Brooks, whom he married January 23, 1774; she died in 1777. His second wife was Keziah Barber; they were married in 1778. She died June 11, 1824 and James, her husband, June 8, 1825. He was a deacon in Cohansey Baptist Church, a farmer and a large landowner in Hopewell Township, and had an excellent char- acter for uprightness in his dealings with his fellowmen, and was greatly respected by all who knew him. He had eleven children. The children of James and Hannah B. Sheppard were David and Phoebe Sheppard, and by his second wife, Keziah Barber Sheppard, Hannah, Rachel, Mary, Joseph, William, Prudence, Rebecca and Phoebe. Most of those children lived to grow up and marry. William, the son of James Sheppard, born July, 1785, married, March 3, 1808, Ann Husted, daughter of Henry and Ann Sheppard Husted, of Shrewsbury Neck. William was an ordained minister of the Baptist denomination, but never had charge of a church. He was a farmer, and preached as he had opportunity. They had thirteen children. Hannah, the daughter of Ephraim and Sarah Sheppard, born about 1754, married Daniel Moore; she died in 1784. Rachel, another daughter, bom in 1761, married James Sayre, who was wounded at the massacre at Hancock's Bridge in 1778. Ephraim, son of Ephraim and Sarah, moved to Salem, and married Elizabeth, widow of John Challis, and mother of John and James Challis ; (the latter afterward became an ordained minister among the Baptists). Elizabeth Milbank, mother of these children, was bom at Waltham, England, May 2, 1770. Ephraim and his wife, Elizabeth M. Sheppard, had one daughter, Mary W., bom in 1809. 76 GOULDTOWN David, son of Joseph and Mary Sheppard, born 1758, married in 1783, Phoebe, daughter of Providence and Sarah Ludlam; she died in 1799, leaving six children. Sarah, the eldest child, married in 1803, William S. Walker, a resident of Upper Alloway's Creek, Salem County ; they had three children. Phoebe Walker, their eldest daughter, married Thomas Bilder- back, of Allowaystown ; they left children. William Sheppard, a son, married Ann Stow, and lived on the homestead farm until his death; since that event his widow and his daughters have resided in Salem. Charles H. Walker owns and resides upon the homestead farm. Joseph, the son of David and Phoebe L. Sheppard, born January 9, 1786, was elected pastor of the First Baptist Church at Salem, in 1809, and was pastor of said church until 1829, and then removed to Mount Holly, where he continued as pastor seven years, but his health failing him, he resigned his pastoral charge and moved to Camden. He never took another pastoral charge, but preached occasionally when health permitted; he died in Camden in 1838, in the fifty-second year of his age. His wife was Hannah F. Budd ; they had four children, Mary, Phoebe Ann, Hannah and Josephine Sheppard ; they all married but Hannah. Phoebe Ann lived in the State of Georgia. Josephine lived in Washington, D. C, but died about two months since. David Sheppard's second wife was Miriam Smith, widow of Isaac Smith; she died in 1815, and David in 1827. He was a deacon of Cohansey Church, and was a prominent citizen. For many years he lived on the homestead farm in Fairfield Township, but in later years he moved to Bridgeton, and built a large brick mansion on the west side of Cohansey, where his son, Isaac A. Sheppard, lived and died. The dwelling is now known as Ivy Hall Seminary for ladies. Providence Ludlam, son of David Sheppard, born February 21, 1788, married Mary Letson, of New Brunswick, New Jer- sey. One of their children, Ebenezer L. Sheppard, lives in Pittsgrove Township, and is a member and clerk of the Pitts- grove Baptist Church. He has recently written and published a historical sketch of that church. William and David Ludlam were twin sons of David Sheppard, and were bom June, 1790. GENEALOGIES 77 William died in 1823 and never married. David, his brother, studied for a physician, but died suddenly about the time he was ready to commence the practice of his profession. Ercurious, the son of David, married Martha Lupadius, of New Brunswick. She is still living, but Ercurious is deceased. He left two children, Mary and Martha. Ebenezer, the son of David, born July 23, 1798, died June, 1814. Mary, the daughter of David and Miriam Sheppard, his second wife, married in 1824 Jonathan J. Haun; they had two children, Maria and Mary Haun. The latter married Joseph Moore, homoeopathic physician, of Bridgeton; she died in 1860. Isaac A. Sheppard, son of David, born in 1806, man-ied, 1st of April, 1828, Jane H. Bennett ; she died 1839, aged thirty- five years. Isaac's second wife was Hannah B. McLean, whom he married in 1841, but she only lived a little over a year. His third wife was Margaret E. Little, who is still living; they were married in 1850. Isaac A. Sheppard died suddenly in his office in 1863, having been found sitting dead in his chair. He was a deacon of the First Baptist Church of Bridgeton. His oldest son, Isaac A., born in 1829, died April 11, 1832. Jane B., daughter of Isaac A. Sheppard, born in 1821, married, in 1868, Horatio J. Mulford, the eldest son of the late Henry Mulford, of Bridgeton. Horatio, with his brother, Isaac W., and his sisters, were the originators and principal benefactors of the South Jersey Institute, a school for both sexes, located in Bridgeton. The cost of the building has been estimated at $60,000. It has a fine corps of teachers, and has been in operation four years, during which time it has established a reputation equal to the best educational institutions in the country. Horatio's wife, Jane Mulford, like her father, died suddenly, and was found dead sitting in her chair, on the evening of February 9, 1874. She was a woman of great usefulness in the church and in the community, and her loss was deeply felt by all. She left one child, a son, Horatio Jones Mulford, bom 1869. There were eight other children of Isaac A. Sheppard's, Miriam, Theodore, Francis, Charles, Eliza- beth, Frank, Frederick, and Lillian, widow of Mayor Smalley. Isaac, son of Joseph and Mary Sheppard, bom in 1776, 78 GOULDTOWN married Surali, daughter of Jercniiali Bennett ; she died in 1797. Isaae's second wife was Jane Harris Westcott, the widow of Henry Westcott, and daughter of Ephraim and Jane Harris, of Fairfitld Township. His third wife was Abigail B, Husted, widow of Henry Husted, and daughter of Ichabod Bishop. Isaac Sheppard died Decemlxn- 16, 1815. He had five children: Isaac, the eldest, never niarrieil ; Henry, the second son of Isasic and Sarah Sheppard, niarrietl, March 27, 1811, Eunice Westcott. Soon after their marriage they moved to one of the Western States, and Henry died there. His widow returned to her native State and died in 1808. They had a family of children. Sarah, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Sheppard, born November 23, 1797, married, !March 17, 1819, Elmer Ogden ; they live in Greenwich, and have several chil- di-cn. Ephraim, the son of Isaac and Jane H. Sheppard, bom August 15, 1801, married, in 1819, Jane, daughter of Jehiel and Mary Westcott; she died in 1823. His second wife was Mary, daughter of Jolm and Mary B. Westcott, of Fairfield; she died in 1842, and Ephraim Sheppard died July 9, 1848. His children by his first wife were Ephraim, the eldest, who went West, and died there; and Elias Sheppard, who died young. Mary Jane, daughter of Ephraim and Mary Shep- pard, married Charles Campbell. Isaac Alpine Sheppard, son of Ephraim and ]Mary Sheppard, went to Philadelphia to live, and subsequently was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for several sessions. Isaac is the head of the great stove firm of J. A. Sheppard & Company. Joseph, the son of Ephraim Sheppard, married Sarah Flanagan, of Sculltown; they now live in Camden County, between Haddonfield and Camden. Henry, son of Abner and Ruth Sheppard, was born in 1787, and married, the first of December, 1815, Margaret Lummis; she died in 1817. Henry's second wife was Sarah B. Ogden, widow of John B. Ogden. They were married in March, 1819; she died in 1858. and her husband, Henry Sheppard, in July, 1867. He was a hatter, and followed the business many years in Bridgeton, where he settled early in life. He was postmaster for several years in that town. All his children were by his second wife, Sarah B. Ogden. Jane Buck, daughter of GENEALOGIES 79 Henry and Sarah B. Sheppard, born December 11, 1819, married in 1840, to Lorenzo Fisler Lee; he died July 17, 1848, leaving a widow and four children. Henry Sheppard, Jr., bom November 8, 1821, married April 3, 1845, Rhoda S. Nixon, daughter of Jeremiah Nixon. A short time after their marriage they moved to Springfield, Green County, Missouri; and he has prospered there. For many years he and his brother, Charles, did the leading mercantile business of the place, but both have now retired from active business. Henry commanded one of the regiments of the militia of the State and was out several times during the Rebellion. That part of the State suffered much from the war. They have six chil- dren, Francis, Henry, John Nixon, Mary Thompson and Margaret Sheppard. Charles, son of Henry and Sarah Shep- pard, born September 5, 1823, married November 5, 1856, Lucy Dow, daughter of Ira and Mary Dow, of East Hard- wick, Vermont. Charles and his family are living at Spring- field, Mo. ; he being cashier of Green County National Bank. There are three more children of Henry Sheppard, Sr., Sarah, Margaret, and Joseph Ogden, who I believe reside in Bridgeton. Joseph is a physician, and during the Rebellion for a time served as a surgeon in the arm}-. Ephraim Elmer, son of Abner and Mary Sheppard, born October 2, 1804, married in May, 1828, Jane Ehzabeth Dare, daughter of David and Rebecca Fithian Dare. They resided near Bridgeton. Ephraim was elected Clerk of the County of Cumberland in 1852, and served to 1857. He was appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for said County in 1853, and reappointed in 1868, and was elected Mayor of Bridgeton in the spring of 1873. His term expired in 1876. Ephraim and his wife had eight children. Ephraim Elmer, Jr., born March 19, 1830, married in April, 1856, Linder^illa Maxon Bonham, daughter of Hezekiah Bonham, of Shiloh. They have had seven chil- dren, four of whom are living. They reside at Elmer, Salem County. Ehzabeth R. Sheppard, bom April 6, 1832, married in 1850 George W. Elwell. They live in Bridgeton, and have one son, Albert Sheppard, bom March 17, 1853, who is a druggist in Philadelphia. Ruth N. Sheppard, daughter of 80 GOULDTOWN Ephraim, bom December 21, 1834, is not married. David Dare Sheppard, son of Ephraim, bom 1836, married October 18, Cornelia Albertson, daughter of Amos Buzby, of Piles- grove. He was in the dry goods business in Bridgeton until 1870, when he moved to Springfield, Mo., and went into business with his brother, William Sheppard. John Caldwell Calhoun, son of Ephraim Sheppard, born in 1840, married in 1861, Jane Elizabeth Smith, of Philadelphia, and resides in that city. William E. Sheppard, son of Ephraim, born February 28, 1842, married, March 18, 1869, Josephine M. Trull, daughter of Nathaniel Trull, of North Tewksbury, Mass. They moved to Springfield, Mo., in the fall of 1866, and he is in business with his brother, David Sheppard. Enoch Fithian Sheppard, son of Ephraim, born August 21, 1844, died is 1846. Charles E.,^ son of Ephraim and Jane Elizabeth Sheppard, born November 1, 1846. He is a lawyer and resides in Bridgeton. •At this day (1913) nearly everybody in Cumberland County knows Charles E. Sheppard, the lawyer, so prominently connected with the prosecution of violators of the law regarding the sale of intoxicants. CHAPTER IX. RURAL SOCIOLOGICAL EXAMPLES, SUGGESTED IN THIS LIFE OF SIMPLICITY. John Murray, son of Othniel Murray and Kath- erine Murray, was born in 1751, or twenty-six years before the death of Benjamin Gould, 1st. His wife, TIabitha Lupton, a white woman, was born in 1763. They lived neighbors to Benjamin and Ann Gould. John Murray died in 1853, at the age of one hundred and two years, and his wife Tabitha died November, 1859, aged ninety-six years. The writer of this wa;s born in 1840 and is the grandson of Benjamin Gould, 2nd, and great-grandson of Abijah Gould, 1st, and great-great-grandson of Benjamin Gould, 1st. I have been many a time to the home of John and Tabitha Murray, when a boy; it was but a mile from the home of my great-great-grandfather. I was but thirteen years old at the time of the death of John Murray, and nineteen when Tabitha Murray died. Their great grandson, Eli Gould, became the husband of my sister Mary. The four sons of Benjamin Gould were associates of John Murray and his brothers and sisters in their boyhood and early manhood days. Elisha Gould, youngest son of Benjamin, was born in 1755, but he died in 1804, aged forty-nine years. The other sons of Benjamin, as well as Sarah, the daughter, were much older than Elisha. Anthony Gould was the oldest; then came Samuel, and Abijah. The sons and daughters of Anthony and Richard Pierce were also companions of the sons of Benjamin Gould. 6 81 82 GOULDTOWN It is not hard to see how the tradition of Goulds, as well as the Pierces, could be handed down by even John Murray, who hved during the last twenty-six years of Benjamin Gould 's life, and well into the early lives of his descendants, as well as those of the Pierces. As I have related, I have seen John Murray and been to his house many, many times ; he was a brusque, eccentric old man, and had had both feet cut off. His farm was infested with sand burrs and working in his fields in his bare feet, he got the burrs in his feet, gangrene ensued, and both of his feet were amputated. He used to put himself in the third person much when talking and he " swore a little " in his general conversation. In those days surgeons did not use anaesthetics in their operations, and it was related of Mm-ray when Dr. Jonathan Elmer was cutting off his feet, that the patient became impatient and blurted out in anger to the doctor, " Hum, damn, if John had his old saw, I'd 'a' had them legs cut off long ago." I have myself seen him sitting in his doorway in the sunshine; this was his favorite place when the weather suited him. He would sit there and mark by the shadows cast in the doorway (marking on the bare floor) the ascension and descension of the sun diu'ing the seasons ; and also note the progression and retrogression of the moon, and the progress of the stars. As a little boy, I thought it a rare treat to go to see " Uncle Johnnie and Aunt Tabitha." She was a gentle, lovable old lady; and while I had heard stories of how " Uncle Johnnie " would fire his crutches across the house at Aunt Tabitha when angry, I never saw anything of the kind. He, like others of Gouldtown, owned a large body of salt marsh along the bay and river shores, where they would mow and gather the salt hay for their cattle, RURAL EXAMPLES 83 oxen, and horses, and haul it the ten or twelve miles to their homes. It was the custom for those of Gouldtown to go upon the marshes on Monday and remain day and night until Saturday, where they would mow " shallop " loads of the salt hay and stack it up to haul home in the winter time. It was related of John Murray that he would go with his sons and the other men down to the marshes, where all would work in common, helping each other get the hay, each having his own body of marsh. Mur- ray would stay upon the wagons and " load " the hay as the men would pitch it up to him, and when driven up to the stacking place, he would pitch it off the wagon. One time his ox team was proceeding to the hay- stack with a load of hay, when a savage bull, roaming over the marsh, made attempt to attack the ox team. The old man seized his pitchfork and hurled it into the animal's flank; the bull, in torture, dashed away across the marsh, the pitchfork finally falling from the beast. " Hum, damn," his favorite expletive, " Hum, damn, John made him fly! " he cried out to the men in glee. A study of the rural sociology of the times of this generation would be no less interesting, surely, than their ethnology; in the blood of these was the Celtic, Teutonic, African and Indian, with sundry subdivisions, as shown in the pure English, Dutch, and local admixtures. The Quaker solidity and quiet dispositions inherited by the Goulds may be traced to this day; the Dutch superstitions are still apparent in the Pierces; and the Indian love of " firewater " has been ever noticeable in the Murrays. The Goulds were never addicted to excessive use of liquor, while the Pierces and Murrays were more liberal in its indulgence. 84 GOULDTOWN These branches had all large families; how they managed to support them is an interesting question; and yet they lived in comfort and in happiness, as com- pared to much that is seen in rural life nowadays. Money was an almost unknown commodity in those days and yet property was accumulated. Reared in the woods, as we look at it in these days, those people were almost " children of the forest " ; they cut down the forests and made their farms; they populated the wilds and made a living. The times from the marriage of Benjamin and Ann Gould, about 1725, to that of their death in 1777, were not as prosper- ous as they were in localities westward from the Co- hansey; the march of population had hardly proceeded from Salem across the Cohansey and northward from New England town; what population there was had been pushed out, as it were, from among those of the early settlers who had been at Greenwich, crossed the Cohansey at that place and stretched outward into Fair- field, Shrewsbury Neck, and about New England town. There were no schools in Gouldtown yet; there were, however, some sources for getting information; some of the Gould children learned to read and write. Anthony Gould, oldest son of Benjamin Gould, could write — for, to a deed made by him in 1802 for a piece of property he had purchased in 1767, he had signed: " At'ty Gould," abbreviating his name with his own hand. Fancy a gathering of the young people of the names of Gould, Pierce, Murray, Lummis, Mullica, Gates, Hand, and others, known to have populated that section of territory, and imagine, if possible, their occupations and recreations. Their nearest church was the " Old Stone Church " at New England cross-roads; they went to this church Old Stone Church, Fairfield. RURAL EXAMPLES 85 when they went anywhere to meeting, and in its adjoin- ing cemetery some of them were afterward buried; probably they went to " meeting " there once or twice a year. It may have been oftener. Socially, they met in apple-cuttings, quiltings, and hog killings and beef killings. A favorite gathering with them was the " chopping frolic," where the men would show their prowess in felling and " logging " into cord-wood the primeval trees. These " chopping frolics " were attended with hard cider, or apple-jack drinking; while the wives and sisters of the choppers would gather at the home for whose benefit the chop- ping was made, have a quilting and spinning party, all to be topped off towards night with a big supper and plenty of doughnuts and pies. I have been told that these wood-choppers would vie with each other to be first at the chopping in the woods in the morning and often by noon the long tiers of wood would be ranked up, and the laughing choppers would wend their way to the homestead, where a substantial dinner would await them. In such cases the afternoon would be given over to sport and " waiting on the women." The boys and young men would have jumping, running and wrestling matches, and have as much of a good time as do the boys of the present day. Such are the pictures which have been handed down by my ancestors. Drunkenness was not countenanced, and the man who got too much apple-jack lost his respectability. How did these old men support their families? Benjamin Gould with his sons, Anthony, Samuel, Abijah, and Elisha, together with the daughter, Sarah — all these children born between 1730 and 1755, — and the many sons and daughters of Anthony Pierce: Menon, Richard, Jesse, Benjamin, John, Anthony, and Wanaca, together with the two daughters, Hannah and 86 GOIXDTOWN Elizabeth; and the son of Richard Pierce, Adam, and the four daughters, Mary, Rliuniah, Hannah and Eliza- beth; and the three sons and two daughters of Othniel JSIurray: Othniel, Jr., David and John (whose name begins this chapter), and daughters: Mary (Polly) and Dorcas, all born and mostly grown up before the Revolutionary War. Their home life as handed dovsii in oral tradition is a study. The high price of food aiid clotliiiiCT may have been felt by them then, as by us now, but a study of their habits and resources does not make » it appear so. Take for instance, the crop-gathering time — the haying before alluded to, when the wife and daughters would bake up the great loaves of rye bread in the ovens, and the huge pies, and boil the '' chunks " of fat pork and the big pot of vegetables, and bake the molasses cake with which to put up a supply of food for the men-folks to take to the marsh the next week to last them from 3Ionday to Saturday — but tliis is all over with, when the time for gathering in the fall crops arrives. The cabbage, potatoes, turnips, apples and pumpkins are gathered and stored; the apples are buried in the apple-hole in the ground; the potatoes and turnips are buried in the same way; the cabbages are put in the cabbage-house ; a sort of shack made over an excavation a couple of feet deep, and eight or ten feet long, over which tent-like poles are placed, covered over with cornstalks and trash, and then all covered with earth, making an A-shaped shelter, open at the south end, and tightly closed everj^where else. In this the cabbages are stowed away, the door closed up temporarily, and ever}i:hing is safe within for winter use. The rye and wheat have been stacked up or put in the barns, to be threshed out with flail in the winter. The fatted hogs are killed and the supply of pork RITIAL EX.\MPLES 87 salted down; a fat beef slaughtered, and the beef " corned '"' ; and the family now has no fear of a shortage of rations during the winter. As for fresh food, the woods abound with deer, squirrels, rabbits, coons, 'pos- sums, quail, and plieasant, which are shot or trapped, at pleasiu"e. There were no game laws. Fuel is no object of worry: it is had for the labor of chopping and hauling from their own grounds ; and the big fire-place uses up a large quantity during the cold weather. The great back-log, which has been hauled up to the door of the " cottage " — generally a log " cottage " at that — is ready to be put in place : a log chain is extended through the house from front door to back door, a voke of oxen hitched to one end of the chain while the other end is fastened to the log; skids and round sticks for rollers are placed, and the word given: " WTioa-haw, Buck and Berry, Gee up, gee — whoa! '' and the log is hauled by the oxen into the house, where it is now rolled into the back of the great fire- place. ETer\i:hing is thus readv for the winter's cnming-. All that remains to do thereafter is to cut and haul logs and cord-wood to the landings for the spring shipments. Such was mostly the family life of the early inhabitants of Gouldtown. The women folk kept up their portion, in spinning, knitting, and making the garments for the household. CHAPTER X. GOULD genealogies; probability of origin of name OF THE SETTLEMENT. When Goiildtown was first given its name does not yet definitely appear. It was called " Gouldtown, an ancient settlement " many years ago, and records show that it was called " Gouldtown " when Bridgeton was called " Bridgetown " or *' The Bridge " ; old records, before 1800, make mention of " on the road from Gould- town to Bumbridge " — meaning what is now Fairton. A chronicle of the Gould families just before and just following the Revolutionary War discloses good grounds for calling the settlement " Gouldtown " dur- ing that period. The New Jersey archives at Trenton attempt to give the record, among other things, of the marriages in the State in colonial times, and in the times immedi- ately following the close of the war of the Revolution; but the reports are woefully inadequate, or else they are not published in those archives. Among the few dozen marriages recorded from Cumberland County is noted that of Anthony Gould and Phoebe Lummis, dated May 16, 1781. This is the first and only Gould, of Gouldtown, whose marriage is thus recorded. Anthony Gould must have been well advanced in years at this time — though not an old man. He was the oldest living son of Benjamin and Ann Gould, and their youngest son, Elisha, born in 1755, was twenty- six years old at the time of his brother Anthony's mar- riage, but Anthonj'^ was a man and had bought and owned land at least fourteen years before this, as is to be seen in the record of a deed he made to Jacob Steel- 88 ORIGIN OF NAME 89 ing in 1802, the year before his death. This deed was made April 10, 1802, between Anthony Gould and Jacob Steeling, and recites the sale by Gould to Steel- ing of twenty-eight and a quarter acres of land for $113: "Beginning at a red oak corner standing by the present highway leading from Bridgetown to the Beaver dam or Maurice River bridge; thence . . . binding on (other) land of Anthony Gould to a black oak corner standing in the line between David Seeley and said Gould . . . containing twenty-eight and a quarter acres of land, be the same more or less, which lot or piece of land the said Anthony Gould purchased of John Page and Thomas Gentry as by Page's deed, dated the fifth day of November, 1767; as by Gentry's deed dated November the thirtieth day, 1796, recourse thereto being had may more at large appear." Anthony Gould had 34^ acres besides, which was sold by Jonathan Bowen, his executor. There is no record of the date of Anthony's birth, but it must have been about 1735, for Benjamin iand Ann were married and had two children before Anthony, as has been already shown. Ajithony sold this land in 1802; his wife had previously died; he signed the deed by his own hand " At'ty Gould." He died in 1803, leaving a will which was proved September 27, 1803. He left three daughters, Phoebe, Martha (transcribed in the record in Trenton " Ma- thila ") and Christiana, or " Kitty " as she was known. The settlement was called Gouldtown before this, and as the venerable Judge Elmer, then a lad of ten years, said " is of quite ancient date." Martha was the youngest. Phoebe was over eighteen years old at the time her father made his will, for by his will Jonathan Bowen, who i^esided at the Beaver Dam, was made guardian for Christiana and Martha only. These girls 90 GOULDTOWN were very fair, and Phoebe shortly after her father's death went to Philadelphia, where she married a man who became mayor of that city, and she no doubt be- came the mother of children whose descendants have become distinguished. She, of course, lost her identity. Christiana married first her cousin, Charles Gould, son of her youngest uncle, Elisha Gould, and they had three sons, Daniel Gould, Aaron Gould, and Anthony Gould, 2nd. Daniel Gould was the oldest, and in early man- hood, went to Massachusetts (returning to Gouldtown but once, which was in 1852 or 1853) , losing his identity as colored. Aaron was born in 1810, and died in 1894, aged eighty-four years. AnthoRy was born in 1813 and died in 1891, aged seventy-eight years. After the birth of these three sons, Charles, the husband and father, died; a few years later, the widow, " Kitty," married Fm'man Gould, another cousin of hers, the son of Abijah Gould, 1st, her father's brother. They had five sons and two daughters. The sons were Jonathan Gould, Furman Gould, Jr., Alfred Gould, Theophilus Gould, and Charles Gould. Theophilus died a young man. Of the daughters, Martha and Christiana, the last is the only one now living and she is nearly ninety years of age. Samuel Gould, the son of the Founder of Gould- town, married Rhumah, second daughter of Richard and Mary Pierce. They had one son, Samuel, Jr., and two daughters, Hannah, and Anna. Anna became the last wife of Rev. Reuben Cufi*. Samuel, Jr., married his cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of his uncle, Elisha, and had one son, Samuel, 3rd. Samuel, 2nd died early in life, and his widow, Elizabeth, married Daniel Siro, son of Simon Siro and Mary Pierce, oldest daughter of Richard and Mary Pierce. Samuel, 3rd, when a young man, went to Pittsburgh, Tamson Cuff, Daughter of Benjamin and Phoebe Gould. Abijah Gould, Son of Benjamin Gould, and Grand- son of Abijah Gould I. ORIGIN OF NAME 91 then counted to be in the far west, and all trace of him was lost. Daniel and Elizabeth Siro had one son, Andrew. Then Daniel died and Elizabeth was again left a widow. Hannah Gould went to Philadelphia, where she married an East India sailor, named Charles Gonzales Smith. They had two children, Ann Smith and another who died an infant, and was buried at Gould- town. The husband, Smith, was lost at sea. She after- wards became the wife of Thomas Wester. Andrew Siro went to New Bedford, and became a whaler, makinor manv vovaores to the northern seas. He came home annually until 1854, since when nothing was ever heard from him and it is supposed he perished at sea. He never married, so far as known. Abijah Gould, second son of the founder, married Hannah, born in 1756, the tliird daughter of Richard and Mary Pierce. They had five sons and one daughter, Sarah: she never married and died a young woman. The sons were Benjamin Gould, 2nd, born in 1779, Richard Gould, born in 1783, Abijah Gould, Jr., Leonard Gould and Furman Gould, the youngest. Samuel Gould, the third son of the founder, sailed in the privateer schooner, " Governor Livingston," which was built at Cohansey, and sailed in 1780. She made one successful trip, when Gould seems to have tired of the sailor life and left her. On her second trip she was captured by the British. Benjamin Gould, 2nd, married Phoebe Bowen, of Salem County, who was born in 1788. Their living descendants in 1910 are given in pages succeeding. Their children, nine in number, were Oliver, Tamson, Lydia, Jane, Abijah, Sarah, Rebecca, Phoebe, and Prudence. Benjamin Gould died in 1851, aged seventy-two years; his widow, Phoebe, died in 1877, aged eighty- 92 GOULDTOWN nine years. Oliver Gould married Rhuhamah, the daughter of Mordecai CufF, of Salem. They had a number of children, all of whom are now dead, except one, the youngest son, Abijah, 4th. The oldest son, Benjamin Gould, 3rd, went to Boston when a young man, and nothing was heard from him after the first year or two after he went away. Tamson Gould married William Cox, an Indian half-breed. They resided on a farm in Dutch Neck; and William Cox was the first dairyman to sell milk in Bridgeton. They had three sons, William, Jr., Isaac, and Levi. William, Jr., ran away and went to sea, and the last ever heard from him was a letter mailed from the Golden Gate, California. Isaac also, after growing up " followed the water " for several years, went to Europe at the outbreak of the Civil War and became a blockade runner, carrying English goods into the Southern States. Levi also went to sea and finally became boatswain on a ship trading between Liverpool and China. He died suddenly on his vessel's deck in Liver- pool. His effects were sent home to his mother, then a widow for the second time, and residing in Philadelphia. William and Tamson Cox had also four daughters, Mary, Hannah, Phoebe, and Caroline; the last died a little girl, and William Cox, the husband and father, died. When the children were all grown, Tamson again married — this time she married Reuben CufF of Salem, son of the minister; they resided on a large farm in Salem County, and kept a big dairy. Mrs. Cuff was noted for her fine cheeses. This Reuben Cuff died in a few years (they had no children) and Mrs. Cuff re- moved to Philadelphia, where she became housekeeper for two Quaker women with whom she spent the rest of her fife. She died in 1877, in her own house in Gould- town, which she had built, her death occurring three Mrs. Lydia Sheppard, Daughter of Benjamin and Phoebe Gould, Who Lived to be 102 Years Old. and Was the Head of Her Son's Household Till the Last Day of Her Life. ORIGIN OF NAME 93 days before the death of her mother, which was on May twenty-sixth of that year at the old Gould homestead. None of Tamson's sons ever married so far as known; the oldest daughter, Mary, married Thomas Almond, a barber, who removed from Philadelphia to Bridgeton, where he carried on the business for several j^ears. He died in Philadelphia; they had two daughters, Caroline and Phoebe (Mrs. White), the latter still living as is also her widowed mother, both residing together in Philadelphia. Caroline is dead, one daughter surviving her. Mrs. White has no chil- dren. Hannah Cox married Charles Wilson, of Salem, who engaged in tenant farming, but died in a few years; they had no children. Hannah then married Hiram Cuff, a cousin of her first husband who was also a Salem County farmer, residing as tenant farmer on a three- hundred acre farm for many years; they had no children and Hannah died in 1907. Phoebe Cox married Thomas W. Almond, of Phila- delphia, a relative of her sister Mary's husband; he was an undertaker. He died suddenly and his widow and son, Wilham, succeeded to the business. Phoebe in a few years also died suddenly, and the son, William, and his son, succeeded to the business. William died two years ago, and now his widow and their son succeed to the same undertaking business in Philadelphia. Lydia Gould, born October 22, 1809, the third daughter of Benjamin and Phoebe Gould, married David Sheppard, of Port Ehzabeth; they made their home in Millville. There were born to them Tamson, who married Joseph Wilson of Salem, she died in 1874, age thirty-five, leaving no children; Thomas, still residing in MillviUe; Sarah, wife of B. F. Pierce of Fairton, and David, born two weeks after his father died. David died about six years ago, aged sixty-two 94 GOULDTOWN years, leaving no cliildren. Lydia, the mother, died in November, 1911, a short time after she had passed the one hundred and second anniversary of her birth. Thomas has two sons and one daughter. Sarah has six daughters and one son. Jane Gould married Daniel Webster, and they had many children, all of whom are dead but one son, Charles. The father, Daniel, died many years ago, and the mother, Jane, died in 1868, aged fifty-six years. Abijah Gould, 3rd, married Emily Gould, daughter of Jesse Gould; they had three children, Elizabeth, Josephine, and Dr. Jesse Gould, of Philadelphia. Abijah died in 1892, aged seventy-seven. His wife had died a few years before. Sarah Gould married Abel Lee; they had six chil- dren; three daughters and three sons, B. F. Lee (Bishop Lee) , William Cox Lee, and Abel Lee. The daughters are Elizabeth, Jane, and Isabel. Abel Lee, the father, died in 1852, his widow, Sarah, died a few years ago, over ninety years of age. Two sons, William and Abel, are dead. Rebecca Gould, born May 2, 1820, married James Steward in 1838; they also had three sons and three daughters, all still living. They are Margaret, William, Mary, Theophilus, Alice, and Stephen. Rebecca died three weeks after the death of her mother, Phoebe, and sister Tamson, in 1877. Tamson's house was but a few hundred yards from the home of her sister, Rebecca Steward, while the aged mother's home was nearly two miles from both. Mrs. Steward, dividing her time between the bedside of her mother at one extreme, and that of her sister at the other, was prostrated after the double funeral, and died three weeks after, aged fifty- seven years. James Steward was a man of sterling character, and James Steward. Taken when Visiting His Daughter, Mrs. Felts, in Wilmington. Delaware. Mrs. Rebecca Steward, Daughter of Benjamin and Phoebe Gould, Wife of James Steward, and Mother of the Steward Group of Three Sons and Three Daughters. ORIGIN OF NAME 95 of more than average intelligence, as was also his wife. He was a bound boy, indentured to a man named Reeves, in Back Neck, who ill-treated him so much that he ran away from him before he was nine years old, and went to live with Elijah Gould, the father of Rev. Theodore Gould. His parents had gone to Santa Domingo in the Bowyer expedition of 1824, leaving him with Mr. Gould, his only remaining relative here being a little dead sister lying in the Gouldtown graveyard. It was learned that his parents engaged in coffee- growing in Santa Domingo, but in a few years no more was ever heard from them. James Steward, the husband and father, died in May, 1892, aged seventy-seven years and three days. He was a mechanic and had been employed in the works of the Cumberland Nail and Iron Company fifty-one years. The last thirty-five years he had been foreman of the sheet-iron mill. Phoebe Gould the next to the youngest daughter, married Nathan Gould, son of Abijah Gould, Jr., 2nd. They resided opposite where is now the reservoir on the Bridgeton and Millville Turnpike, on the farm now owned by George T. Pearce. They had three sons and two daughters. Two sons, Joseph and Clarence, are still hving, and Nancy, the youngest daughter, wife of George W. Gould, still lives, residing in Atlantic City. The other daughter, Amanda, wife of Edward Cruise, is dead. The last daughter of Benjamin and Phoebe Gould, Miss Prudence F. Gould, ex-schoolteacher, and dressmaker for aU the neighborhood, beloved by every one, dwells now at the old homestead where she was born, and which she owns — that land bequeathed by Benjamin Gould, 1st, to his son Abijah Gould, 1st, who was the grandfather of Miss Prudence. 96 GOULDTOWN Richard Gould, second son of Abijah Gould 1st, married Charlotte Gould, daughter of Elisha Gould. They had five sons and three daughters. Richard Gould was born in 1783 and died in 1855, aged seventy- two years. His wife, Charlotte, was born in 1786 and died in 1876, aged ninety years. Their sons were Norton, Andrew, Elijah, Robert and Richard, Jr. The daughters were Rhumah, Sarah and Hannah. Norton died in 1892, aged seventy-eight years, and left a number of descendants, one of whom is Mrs. Ruth Tudas, of Bridgeton. Andrew Gould left a number of descendants; his two sons, Charles and Robert, reside in Bridgeton. His wife was Ann Smith, daughter of Hannah Gould and Charles Gonzales Smith, the East Indiaman. Robert Gould, the third son, went to Canada, where he resided several years, and afterwards returned to Michigan, where he probably died. Richard, Jr., died in Salem; his wife was Martha Emery of Salem. They left a number of children. Rhumah Gould married John Hammond. They had a number of chil- dren, some of whom still survive. Hannah Gould married William Jones. They had no children. Some of John Hammond's and Rhumah's children reside in Bridgeton, and two sons, Charles and Arthur, reside somewhere in the far West; Arthur at Saginaw, Michigan. Furman Gould's children were Jonathan Gould, Furman Gould, Jr., Alfred Gould, Charles Gould, and Theophilus Gould. Furman's first wife, the mother of these boj'-s, and two daughters, Martha and Christiana, was Christiana or " Kitty," the widow of Charles Gould, son of Elisha Gould. TJiough " Kitty " was the mother of ten children, three by her first husband and seven by Furman, she died in 1841 at the age of thirty-seven years. Furman Gould, Sr., became the first local Anthony Gould. ORIGIN OF NAME 97 preacher of Gouldtown. He died in 1855, aged sixty- nine years. His stepchildren were Daniel Gould, who went to Massachusetts, Aaron Gould, and Anthony Gould, 2nd. Aaron Gould married Catherine Pierce daughter of Wanaca Pierce, 1st. They had four chil- dren, Timothy, still living; Thomas, dead; Lvdia Ann the wife of Job CufF, of Hancock's Bridge, and Aaron Paul, still living. Catherine died in 1887, aged seventy- six years. Aaron died in 1894, aged eighty-four years. Anthony Gould, 2nd, born in 1813, married Almeda daughter of Jesse Pierce and Christina Stoms, a Dutch woman from Salem County. (It is said Anthony re- sembled his grandfather Anthony, 1st.) They left numerous descendants, a grandson being Anthony Pierce, the well-known electrician and foreman of electrical wiring for the Bridgeton and MHlville Trac- tion Company. The children of Anthony and Almeda Gould were Phoebe, William, Elizabeth, Christina, Christiana, and Almeda; the oldest, Phoebe, and the youngest, Almeda, still survive; all the others are dead. Phoebe is now nearing her eightieth birthday. Wil- liam was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, and died two years ago. Phoebe married Francis L. Pierce of Canton, who is dead. They had four daughters, Prudence, wife of Charles H. Pierce, engineer at the Ferracute Machine Works; Marietta, wife of Robert Pierce; Dorothy, Avife of Rev. Alex. W. Pierce, and Phoebe Jane, wife of Fenwick Wright. These last have a musical family, who unite in orchestral perform- ances by string or wind instruments. The sons of Francis L. and Phoebe Gould Pierce, are Anthony, the electrician, Francis, Jr., a barber, at Bristol, Pa. ; A^os, also a barber at CoatesviUe, Pa., and Harold, a hotel chef, now at Commercial Hotel, Bridgeton. William Gould married Hannah Caroline Gould, 98 GOULDTOWN daughter of Elisha Gould, Jr. They had two daughters, Luella, wife of John Coombs, and Melissa, wife of George CufF, of Salem County. William and his wife are both dead. Elizabeth Gould married Archibald Cuff, Jr. They have two sons and one daughter living. The sons are Edmund and Reuben, both married, and the daughter is Fanny, wife of Luther D. Gould, a former corporal in the Tenth Cavalry, U. S. Army, who served among the Indians and in Cuba, where he figured in rescuing Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Rider regi- ment of Volunteers at Las Guasimas, Cuba. Christina Gould married Robert Dunn; they had two daughters, Estella and Almeda. Both Robert Dunn and his wife have passed away. Estella married Rev. Burgoyne Cuff, 2nd. He died early, leaving no children. After the death of her mother, with whom she resided many years after the decease of her father and her husband, Estella married Howard Stewart. They own a farm in Gouldtown upon which they reside, and have no children. Almeda Gould, the other daughter' of Robert and Christina Dunn, married Joseph Gould, grandson of Rev. Furman Gould, who resides on the farm where once his grandfather lived. They have several children. Christiana Gould married Mordecai Pierce, a black- smith of Canton, N. J. They had two sons, Belford, at present a blacksmith in Bridgeton, and Warner K., a member of the Board of Education of Fairfield Town- ship. Christiana died early, and Mordecai later married Anna, daughter of Jonathan Gould. Tjhey had two sons and two daughters, Mordecai, Sylvester, Lucette and Madge. Sylvester, a cigar-maker, died a young man; Mordecai resides in Pennsylvania; Lucette is principal of the Gouldtown public school, and Madge ORIGIN OF NAME 99 is a student in the Bridgeton High School. Anna, the mother, was the postmistress at Gouldtown until the post-office there was abolished. The wife of Anthony Gould, 2nd, Almeda, died in 184<4, aged thirty- three years. Many years after this he remarried — his oldest daughter, Phoebe, having been his housekeeper all these years, and characterized as the " Little Mother " of the family by the whole neighborhood. Anthony Gould at this time married Harriet Gould Cuff, daughter of Leonard Gould, and widow of Ephraim Cuff. There were born to them Anthony Gould, 3rd, Preston Gould, Harriet, Cynthia, and Ida. Only Preston and Ida survive. Anthony Gould died in 1891, aged seventy-eight years; Harriet Gould, his widow, in 1895, aged seventy- two years. She left children by her former husband Ephraim Cuff: three sons, Quinton Cuff, Lambert Cuff and Theodore Cuff; the last now dead. Quinton resides in Chester, Pa., and Lambert in Gouldtown. Furman Gould, Sr., the Furman Gould of whom we have spoken, was something of a blusterer in his early days. During the war of 1812, it is told he, to- gether with a man named David Cams, were chartered to take a four-horse load of commissary stores down to Cape May for the garrison located there. One of the lead horses, belonging to Gould, had the name of " Spaddle Ham " on account of being spotted on his rump. A British ship had got too far in shore at Cape May, where she grounded when the tide went out. As the commissary team was approaching the island, the man-o'-war fired a broadside from her port guns. The shot, of course, went way inland. " By Goose, Dave" (his favorite swear-word), "by Goose, that sounds wus'n thunder," said Gould, with some agitation. Driving on a little further, the ship blazed 100 GOULDTOWN away with another broadside. This time the shot cut off the tops and branches of trees all around them. " Hold on, Furm; stop, I must get out o' here! " cried out David in terror. " Peddee— whoa, come about here, Spaddle Ham!" yelled Furm to his horses, and with lines and whip he brought the team to a right-about- face: and they tell to this day that Furm Gould and Dave Cams ran their horses from Cape May to Dennis- ville before they stopped them. Whether this tale is true or not, it is a fact that Furman Gould was given by the United States Government a quarter section of land (160 acres) in the State of Illinois, for serving in the war of 1812. This land was sold in 1855 to Henry Gould, who had gone to Illinois the year before. Furman Gould, Jr., married Hester Cuff, sister of Jonathan Gould's wife. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. The two sons, Albert and William C. Gould survive; of the two daughters. Prudence, who became the wife of Stephen S. Steward, died in 1890, aged forty-two years; Martha, the second, went to Illinois, with an uncle and aunt, lost her identity of color, married a wealthy farmer, and has an interest- ing family of distinguished westerners. Furman Gould, Jr., died in 1883 aged sixty-six years; his widow, Hester Gould, passed away in 1893, aged seventy-two years. Jonathan Gould married Hannah Ann Cuff, the daughter of William Cuff, of Salem, son of Rev. Reuben Cuff. They had three children, Lorenzo F. Gould, Hannah Ann, wife of Rev. Jeremiah H. Pierce, and Anna Rebecca, wife of Mordecai C. Pierce. These three are all living and have numerous children. Jona- than Gould the father died in 1893, aged seventy-seven; his widow, Hannah Ann, died a few years ago aged over eighty. /.-mv i, Alfred Gould married Sarah, a daughter of l.li,]ah Mrs. Sarah Gould, Widow of Alfred Gould and Sister of Rev. Theodore Gould. ORIGIN OF NAME 101 and Hannah Murray Gould. Tlhey had three children, Eugene Gould, Mary E. Gould and Alice Gould. Alice died of typhoid fever after graduating from the Second Ward public school, Bridgeton, and teaching school in Gouldtown. She was a young woman of high accom- plishment. Eugene and Mary are still living on their old homestead, a rich and beautiful farm, both unmar- ried, with their widowed mother, now in her ninetieth year. She is a sister of Rev. Theodore Gould, who is long past his eighty-second birthday. Alfred Gould died in 1902, aged eighty years. He was born May 13, 1822. Charles Gould, the youngest son of Furman Gould, Sr., married Susan, the daughter of Abijah Gould, 2nd. They had a number of children, most of whom still live. Joseph, the second of their sons, resides at the old homestead of his father, which was also the home of his grandfather and a part of the original Gould tract; he is a thrifty farmer, and has an interesting family. His wife was Almeda, daughter of Robert and Christina Gould Dunn. Martha Gould, oldest daughter of Fur- man and " Kitty " Gould, married Elmer, oldest son of Abijah Gould, 2nd, and had several children, most of whom are dead. Elmer died in 1866. Furman, 3rd, their son, went West before the war of the Rebellion; lost his identity of color, became a thrifty farmer and at last lost himself to all his people in the East. Christiana Gould, the remaining daughter of Furman Gould, Sr., married Menon Pierce, 3rd, and is still living in Gouldtown. They never had any children. Menon, who was a carpenter, died in ( ) . This dis- poses of the immediate descendants of Furman and " Kitty " Gould; and " Kitty " and Charles Gould. Abijah Gould, 2nd, married Rachel Hicks, daughter of Josiah Hicks and Elizabeth Pierce; they resided on 102 GOULDTOWN a part of the patrimony of his father, Abijah Gould, 1st, who had received it by will from Benjamin Gould, 1st. The house was located on the Buckshutem road, and is now owned by Joseph Gould, a grandson of Abijah Gould, 2nd. They had five sons and four daughters. The sons were Elmer, Nathan, Mason Mulford, Joseph and Moses ; the daughters were Elizabeth, Maria, Susan and Caroline. Elmer married Martha Gould (as shown on another page). Elizabeth (Betsy), married Adam Pierce, 3rd, and Maria married Smith Gould, as has been also shown, and Caroline, the youngest, married Timothy Gould, son of Aaron Gould. Caroline is dead, but her husband survives. They had two sons and two daughters, who are still living here. Susan married Charles Gould, as appears on another page. Nathan Gould married Phoebe, daughter of Benjamin Gould, 2nd ; they are both dead, but two sons and one daughter remain. Their names are Joseph Gould, Clarence Gould, residing in Gouldtown, and Nancy, wife of George W. Gould, with a home in Atlantic City. Mason Mulford Gould married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard and Amelia Pierce, who lived on the road to Roads- town, owning the farm now owned by Gottleib Gos- man. They had seven daughters but no son. The daughters are all living and married, excepting one, the wife of E. P. Wilson, of PleasantviUe, N. J. She died several years ago. Joseph died as a young man; Moses married Elizabeth, daughter of Adrian Pierce. Both are dead. Their only son, Mitchell H. Gould, is their sole survivor; Mitchell Gould has only one daughter, the wife of Smith Gould, Jr., of Bridgeton. Leonard Gould, the youngest son of Abijah and Hannah Pierce Gould, married Almeda, daughter of John and Tabitha Murray. They also resided on a ORIGIN OF NAME 103 sixty-acre patrimony of the original Gould estate, just south from the farms of his brothers Benjamin and Furman and eastward and adjoining that of his other brother, Abijah, and southeast from his brother Richard Gould. They had three sons, Jeremiah Gould, Clayton Gould and Ephraim Gould. Clayton is still living, a very old man— of ninety-one. They also had six daughters, Eliza Ann, Rachel, Emeline, Mary, Harriet, and Clara. Harriet became the second wife of Anthony Gould, 2nd, as already shown. Jeremiah married Louisa, daughter of Richard and Amelia Murray Pierce; Clayton married Harriet Pierce, daughter of Anthony and Sarah Jones Pierce; Ephraim went away and married among colored people; Eliza Ann became the second wife of Daniel Lee of Salem, and had several sons, among them being Benjamin F. Lee of Flemington, N. J.; Rachel married Jonathan Cuff, and resided on a farm in Salem County; her hus- band died many years ago, and she resides with one of her sons on a large farm in Salem County. She is now eighty-eight years of age. Mary married Francis Cuff, of Salem; he was a son of Archibald and Lydia Gould Cuff. They were always successful Salem County tenant farmers residing on large, weU-stocked farms among Quakers. They had a numerous family, and both are now dead. Emeline married Reuben Pierce, Jr., son of Reuben Pierce and Ann Cuff Pierce —they resided in the city of Salem, and had one child, but all three are dead. Clara married Jacob Coombs, and has always resided in Gouldtown. Jacob Coombs* mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Pierce, 2nd, his father was William Coombs, a Philadelphian! Jacob and Clara Coombs had several children. Jacob died suddenly about two years ago, over eighty years of age. Clara, his widow, is living. 104 GOULDTOWN The youngest son of Benjamin Gould, 1st, was Elisha Gould, who, as has been already shown, married Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Richard and Hannah Van Aca Pierce. Elisha was born in 1755, and Eliza- beth, who died in 1836, was a few years younger, being born about 1760. Their children were Pierce Gould, born 1785; Charlotte, 1786; Elisha, 1788; Elijah, 1790; Jesse, 1792; Elizabeth, 1794; Sarah, 1795. Pierce Gould married Sarah Murray, widow of Menon Pierce, 2nd, who had one child, Maurice, who, when he grew up, went to Mount Plolly. This Sarah was the daughter of John and Tabitha Murray. Pierce Gould and his wife, Sarah, had children, Elizabeth, Caroline, Augustus, Fanny, and Frederick. The latter is the only one alive. Elizabeth married Charles Cato, of Salem ; they had but one child, Elizabeth, still living in Bridgeton, but who never married. Caroline married Robert Pierce, son of Jesse Pierce and Christina Stoms Pierce, and they had two children; one of whom survives and is the second wife of the aged Clayton Gould. Her first hus- band was Isaac Wood, a white man residing on a farm on the road from Indian Fields to Rosenhayn. Fanny married Elijah Gould, 2nd, son of Richard Gould, and had two daughters, Julia and Malvena. Julia married Andrew Pierce of Salem, and Malvena married Abijah Gould, 4th, now residing in Gouldtown; he is the only survivor of the family of his father, Oliver Gould, son of Benjamin Gould, 2nd. Charlotte Gould, oldest daughter of Elisha Gould, married Richard Gould, as has been already related. Elisha Gould, 2nd, married Mary CufF, and their descendants have already been detailed in part, but it is well to say here that the present Smith Gould, the barber in Bridgeton, who is the only son of Smith Mns. Hannah Ooi'i,i>, Widow of Klijiili (iouhl, an