mm. Book .iiSio. •Fv^^ Srifi CELEBEATION OF THE Jpi4^^t.^^^^i^t J|ii{ij5eua)t| OF THE NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 1683-1883. ^^ed J\,2!*^^g' Trenton, N. J. NAAR, DAY & NAAR, PlUNTIOUS TO THE HoUSE 01-' AsSEMIUA CELEBEATION OF THE M etieiiiid ^iiti^^rsitri OF THE NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 1683-1883. TRENTf)N, N. J. NAAR, DAY & NAAR, Pkinters to the Housk 01' Assembly. 1883. . / Ob Bi-Centennial Celebration NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. The one hundred and seventh legislature of the State of New Jersey, opened on the 9th day of January, 1883. On Tuesday January 16th, the following resolution was offered by Hon. Geo. T. Cranmer, of Ocean Co., and adopted. Whereas, in the year 1682, East New Jersey was purchased by proprietors from whom is derived all titles to land in this section of the State ; and whereas, the first regular session of a Legislature consisting of two branches after and under that pur- chase commenced March 1, 1683; therefore Be it resolved, Senate concurring that a joint committee, con- sisting of three members of the Senate and three members of the House of Assembly, be appointed to consider the propriety of commemorating the Bi-Centennial of this event by suitable his- torical addresses relating to the past history of the New Jersey Legislature, and by such other proceedings as they may deem appropriate. In pursuance of the resolution Speaker O'Connor appointed the following committee: James H. Neighbour, of Morris Co. William Hill, of Essex Co. George T. Cranmer, of Ocean Co. The Senate also appointed a committee consisting of— ^ Isaac T. Nichols, of Cumberland Co. Abraham V. Schenck, of Middlesex Co. John Carpenter, Jr., of Hunterdon Co. 4 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF On the 19th of February, 1883, a report was made to the House from the committee appointed upon the celebration of the anni- versary of the Bi-Ceniennial Le^^islature of New Jersey, that, in the opinion of the committee, the event was of sufficient interest and historic importance to warrant the celebration, and recom- mending the continuing of the committee, with power to carry out their arrangements for the celebration. Which recommendation was adopted. The Committee invited Hons. Edwin Salter, of Ocean county, a member of the Legislatures of 1857, 1858, 1859 (Speaker) and 1863, and Hon. Charles D. Deshler, of New Brunswick, to pre- pare and deliver addresses on the occasion. Both gentlemen accepted the invitation. The press throughout the State was requested to circulate the following notice — The present Legislature, by a joint committee, duly appointed for that purpose, has decided to commemorate a Bi-centennial at the State House, in the City of Trenton, on the 1st. of March next, and all ex-members and ex-State officials are requested to send their address to J. H. Neighbour, Esq., either at Dover or Trenton, N. J. In response to the foregoing notice, the committee sent out over nine hundred of the following invitations — 1683. 1883. Coat-of-Arms] BI-CENTENNIAL [Coat-of-Arms. New Jersey Legislature. Trenton, N. J. Feb. 1,1883. Whereas, the first regular session of a Legislature in East New Jersey, under the Proprietors, commenced at Elizabeth, on the first day of March, A. D., 1683 : And whereas, the present Legislature, by concurrent resolu- tion, has appointed a joint committee of the Senate and of the House of Assembly, to take proceedings for commemorating its Bi-Centennial, by suitable historical addresses and other appro- ])riate exercises ; And whereas, it has been decided to hold a Bi-Ceutennial at NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 5 the State House, in Trenton, at the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday, March 1, 1883, the committee take pleasure in extending a special invitation to all ex-members of the State Legislature, and to all former and present State officials. You are therefore requested to be present and take part in the proposed commemoraiion. Senate Committee, House Committee, Isaac T. Nichols, James H. Neighbour, Of Cumberland, Of Morris, Abraham V. Schenck, William Hill, Of Middlesex, Of Essex, John Carpenter, Jr., George T. Cranmer, Of Hunterdon, Of Ocean. On the morning of March first, by request of the Committee, the Trenton papers gave the order of exercises, as follows — Legislative Bi-Centennial. The Programme of This Afternoon's Exercises. This afternoon the exercises commemorative of the two hun- dredth anniversary of the New Jersey Legislature will be held, at Taylor Opera House. Admission will be by ticket, which can be procured of the committee. Doors will be open at half past one o'clock, and ushers will be in attendance to escort ticket holders, ex-members and invited guests to seats in the dress circle and parquette. The Senators and members of the As- sembly will occup}'^ seats on the stage. The exercises, which will commence at two o'clock, will con- sist of the following programme. Prayer by Rev. Dr. Hall, of Trenton, music by Winkler's «• Seventh Regiment (N G. N. J.) Band ; address by Hon. Edwin Salter, of Ocean county ; music by the German American Sing- ing Society, of Newark; address by Hon. Charles D. Deshler, of New Brunswick ; music by the German American Singing So- 6 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF ciety, of Newark ; music by Winkler's Seventh (N. G. N. J.) Band. The German American Singing Society, of Newark, will have forty-eight voices, under the direction of August Shi3effenberger. It will sing the "Centennial Hymn," composed R. J. White. Tlie hymn is printed on a neat card, which will be presented as a souvenir to members and officers, etc., by the Society. This evening Governor Ludlow will hold a reception at the State House from 8 to II o'clock, at which music will be fur- nished by Prof. Petermann's orchestra. [Slip from True American.] New Jersey's Legislative Bi-Centennial. A re-union of the state's legislators. The Merribers of the Present and Survivors of Past Legislators Unite to Celebrate the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Event; Interesting Exercises at Tailor Opera House; Recep- tion by Governor Ludlow at the State Capitol. Taylor Opera House, Thursday afternoon, presented an ani- mated appearance, and was filled with a most attentive audience, which was composed of citizens from every part of the State. Under direction of Quartermaster-General Perrine, the front of the gjiller}' was decorated by festoons of flags, with a shield bear- ing the Stars and Stripes over each gas bracket. National and State flags hung from the proscenium boxes. On the stage were seated the members of both branches of the Legislature and State officers. The proscenium box on the bft contained Gover- nor Ludlow, ex-Governors Parker and Ward, and State Treas- urer Wright; in the one on tlie right were ex-Governor Price, Chancellor Runyon, and other gentlemen. The ex-senators, assemblymen, and State offlcers were seated in the parquet, and almost every seat was occupied, so that nearly four hundred of the former legislators of the State responded to the invitation to be present. Winkler's Seventh Regiment (N. G. N. J.) Band occupied the centre of the gallery, the remainder of which, and NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 7 t le dress circle down stairs, was provided for citizens who were fortunate enough to hold tickets of admission. The members of the Legislature met at the State Capitol at half-past one o'clock, and marched in a body, headed by Presi- dent of the Senate Gardner, and Speaker of the Assembly O'Con- ner, through State and Greene streets, to the Opera House. Shortl}'^ after two o'clock the Legislature arrived and took seats upon the stage. Hon, James H. Neighbour, the chairman of the committee which had charge of the arrangements of the celebration, came forward, and stated that in the absence of the President of the Senate, who was unable to be present, the Speaker of the House of Assembly would preside. Speaker O'Connor then took the chair and called the assem- blage to order. Rev. S. M. Studdiford, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, offered prayer. Speaker O'Connor said that he had been requested by the members of the press, to ask the ex-members who were present, to write their names and the years of service on cards, which would be collected by the pages during the music. This was done, and the following are the names of those WHO WERE PRESENT. David Neighbour, 1838; Nathan T. Stratton, 1843; William Paterson, 1843; M. F. Carman, 1848; John T. Nixon, 1848, (Speaker 1849); Henry H. Voorhis, 1848, 1849; Samuel H. Hunt, 1848, 1849, 1850 ; David Van Fleet, 1848, 1849 ; James Bishop, 1849, 1850; Thomas Hay, 1850, 1851; John F. Hage- man, 1850, 1851 ; Smith Bilanback, 1851 ; Benjamin C. Taber, 1851, 1852; Josephus Shann, 1852, 1853, 1875; Andrew Man Sickle, 1852, 1853; Charles Allen, 1852, 1867; Elijah L. Hen- drickson, 1853; Jesse H. Diverty. 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858 ; John M. Board, 1855, 1880; John P. Rittenhouse, 1856, 1857; J. M. Voorhees, 1856, 1857; Moses P. Smith, 1857; John H. Horn, 1858, 1859; Jeptha Abbott, 1858, 1859, 1860; Robert Aitken, 1859; David Mulford, 1860, 1861; George A. Halsey, 1861, 1862; William P. Tatem, 1861, 1862, 1863 ; E. P. Emson, 1862, 1870, Senator 1878, 1879, 1880; Edward W. Scudder, 1863, 8 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF 1864, 1865, (President of Senate 1865) ; Silas Young, 1863, 1864 ; Joseph L. Reeves, 1863, 1864, 1865 ; Samuel Tatem, 1864 ; Abrani 0. Coriell, 1865, 1866; J. M. Scovel, 1866; Richard H. Wilson, 1866, 1867; Noah D. Taylor, 1866, 1867, 1868; William W. Clark, 1866, 1870; Elias Doughty, 1867 ; Peter A. Voorhees, 1867; Baltes Piekel, 1867, 186S; John J. Bergen, 1868, 1869, 1870; Thomas C. Pearce, 1868; John Dwyer, 1868, 1870; Theo- dore Probasco, 1868, 1869, 1870; William W. Hawkins, 1869, 1870; John Kugler, 1870, 1871 ; Ferdinand Blancke, 1870, 1871, 1876; J. G. Hill, 1870, 1871, 1872; Samuel Hopkins, 1870 to 1876; Levi French, 1870, 1875; John C. Belden, 1871, 1872, 1873; John Dickinson, 1871; Charles C. Groscup, 1871, 1872; William A. Ripley, 1871; Henry J. Trick, 1871 to 1873; Smith Hewitt, 1872; Samuel Wilde, 1872, 1873; Cornelius Lydecker, 1872 to 1875; W. H. Iszard, 1873, 1874; Samuel T. Smith, 1874 to 1876; Joseph H. Voorhees, 1875, 1876, 1877; James Bird, 1875. 1876; Robert S. Hutchinson, 1876; Alex. Jacobus, 1876 1878; L. H. Atchley, 1876, 1877; D.niel L. Piatt. 1876; E. H. Drake, 1876; William Carpenter, 1876; P. Con very, 1877, 1878; Lawrence Lock, 1877, 1878; William Budd Deacon, 1878 to 1882; Andrew J. Rider, 1878; Peter Cramer, 1878 to 1881; E. H. Crane, 1878, 1879; J. C. Jackson, 1879, 1880; Richard A. Donnelly, 1879, 1880; J. H. Bruere, 1879, 1880; John T. Dunn, 1879, 1880, 1881, Speaker, 1882; George Craft, 1880. 1881; Henry C. Herr, 1880, 1881, 1882; E. Bosenbury, 1880 to 1882; Thomas Lawrence, 1880 to 1882; Oscar Lindsley. 1881, 1882; Wm. C. Johnson, 1881, 1882; John F. Babcock (Secretary of Senate), 1871 to 1874; John D. Rue, Rev. Dr. Ham- mill, C. A. Felsh, Cornelius Beach, John L. Oakey, Robert Moore, Thos. S. R. Brown, Andrew Smith Reeves, Henry Britton, S. R. Husleton, D. B. Wyckoff, Joseph C. Magee, John Ringleman, D. H. Banghart, Ezra Budd Marter, W. H. Bell, Wm. Henry Hendrickson, Edmund L. Joy, James L. Hays, Andrew Jackson Smith, Levi D. Jarrard, Robert G. Miller, Emmor Reeves, David A. Bell. Beiijainin Griggs, D. P. Van Dorn, S. B. Oviatt (ex- Speaker), Jacob Hi[)p, J. N. Ramsay, John P. Rittenhouse, Char- les Ladow, Isaiah W. Richman, W. R. Lippincott, George D. Horner, Stejjheu Martin. NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 9 [Slip from the Daily State Gazette.] The Bi-Centennial. paying tribute to the memories of legislators long since DEAD. Taylor Opera House Filled with Distinguished Jerseymen—The Cele- bration a Grand Success. Even the committee of Senators and Assemblymen that worked so energetically to make the Legislative Bi-Centennial celebration a success, did not anticipate for their labors as bril- liant a result as was actually achieved. Never in its history, perhaps has Taylor Opera House held a more distinguished gathering of men than was seated within its walls Thursday afternoon. Besides these, fully fifteen hundred other persons were present, and every seat in the house seemed occupied. Flags and bunting about the private boxes and balcony intensified the feeling of patriotism that pervaded the entire affiiir. In one of the boxes were seated Governor Ludlow, ex-Governors Mar- cus L. Ward and .Joel Parker, and State Treasurer Wright, and in another ex-Governor Rodman M. Price, Chancellor Runyon, ex-Senator Laird and Charles Wills. Scattered throughout the auditorium, in addition to scores of gentlemen of local promi- nence in various parts of the State, were ex-Congressman George A. Halsey, Major George N. Halstead, Professor George H. Cook, ex-Speakers Oviatt and Dunn, ex-Senators Samuel Smith, of Sussex ; Lydecker, of Bergen ; Bosenbury, of Hunter- don, and Irick, Reeves, Cramer, Abbett, Hopkins, Noah Taylor, Lawrence, Banghart, Thompson and Horner; Adjutant General Stryker, Clerk in Chancery Duryee, Comptroller Anderson, ex- Congressman Wildrick, William A. Whitehead, Judges Scu-lder, Paterson, Kirk, Nixon ; General Grubb, United States Marshal Deacon, John F. Babcock, Rev. J. Y. Dobbins, President Mar- gerum of the Common Council, Col. James M. Scovel, Dr. Bodine, ex-Assemblymen Ringleman, Crane, Jacobus and Dominie Rob- inson ; A. f. Smith and ex-Congressman Stratton. The members of the present Legislature were seated on the stage. 10 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF MEMBERS OF THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OP EAST NEW JERSEY, UXDER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TWENTY-FOUR PROPRIETORS, MARCH ], 1683. The division of East New Jersey into counties was not made until March 13th, 1683, when an act was passed creating the counties of Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth. The House of Deputies at this session was composed of two members from each of the towns as named below, who met at Elizabeth- town, and subscribed the oath of allegiance, March 1, 1683, as stated in the minutes of the Council, pages 29-30, which " oatli of subscription" was returned to the Council the 22d of the same month. Council. Thomas Rudyard, Deputy Governor and Proprietor. William Penn, "I t^ . . Samuel Groome. r^^P"^^^^«- Colonel Lewis Morris. Captain John Berry. Captain John Palmer. Captain William Sandford. Lawrence Andriessen. Benjamin Price. Messenger of Council, George Jewell. Deputies. Captain John Bowne, Speaker, Middletown. Richard Hartshorne, Middletown. Joseph Parker, Shrewsbury. John Hance, Shrewsbury. John Curtis, Newark. Thomas Johnson, Newark. • Henry Lyon, Elizabethtown. Benjamin Parkhurst, Elizabethtown. Samuel Moore, Woodbridge. Samuel Dennis, Woodbridge. John Gillman, Piscataqua. Edward Slater, Piscatacpia. Elias Michiolson, Bergen. Mathews Cornells, Bergen. Clerk of Deputies, Isaac Whitehead. NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 11 HON. MR. Salter's address. Mr. Neighbour stated that Mr. Salter's health was such that he was unable to be present, and that the address which he had prepared would be read by Senator Isaac T. Nichols, of Cum- berland. Address By Hon. Edwin Salter, of Ocean County. THE FIRST settlers OF NEW JERSEY THE PIONEERS OF TRUE toleration. In the General Assembly which met at Elizabethtown two hundred years ago, the most noted historical person named as being present during the first week of the session, was William Penn, who had arrived in America the October previous. The most prominent claims for the respect and esteem of the American people put fortli in behalf of William Penn, are be- cause of his dealing justly with the Indians and for establish- ing religious toleration. No Jerseyman would wish to lessen the honor awarded him for his course in these matters, but he certainly was not the foremost in either of them. When Wil- liam Penn sat ii: that Council at Elizabethtown two centuries ago, the other branch of the Provincial Legislature was presided over by Captain John Bowne, who had, with eleven associates, in East Jersey set the example in both of these matters, seven- teen years before Penn came to America. About the year 16G5, William Penn, then a young lawyer and a man of the world, went to Ireland on business relating to an estate of his father's. Wliile there, as a soldier, he took part in the siege of Carrickfergus and was so well pleased with himself and with his military exploits, that lie caused himself to be painted in military costume. This is said to be the only genuine por- trait of the great "Apostle of Peace." That same year, while he was in arms in Ireland, Captain John Bowne and his asso- ciates had obtained the noted Monmouth Patent, dated April 8th, 1665, for lands in East Jersey, and before attempting to settle upon it they honorably and honestly bought every foot of the land of the Indians, the records of which purchase are still preserved in the Court House at Freehold. And it may be added, in the course of time, as needed, every foot of land in New Jersey was honorably bought of the Indians and paid for to their full satisfaction. In regard to religious toleration. Captain John Bowne and his associates declared in their patent that all settlers should have 12 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF " Free liberty of conscience, without any molestation or disturbance whatsoever in the way of their worship." Two months before tliib patent was trpanted, Berkley and Carteret had issued their " Concessions and Agreements " with all who might settle in any part of New Jersey, in which the same principle was declared only more at length, for the whole state. They declared " That no person qualified as aforesaid (owning allegiance to the King) within the said province, shall be anyways molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any difference ol oi)inion or practice in matters of religious concernments, who do not actually disturb the civil peace of said province ; but that all and every such person and persons may from time to time and at all times, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their judgments and consciences in matters of religion throughout the said province, they beiiaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentious- ness nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others ; any law, statute or clause contained or to be contained, usage or custom, of this realm of England to the contrary notwithstand- ing." {Leamivg ct Spicer, p. 14-) In the agreement between Carteret and others of Elizabeth- town, for settling two townships, made December, 1666, and in the Woodbridge charter of June, 1669, liberty of conscience ac- cording to the forgoing concessions, was guaranteed to all who should settle in Piscataqua and Woodbridge. The foregoing unequivocal declarations in favor of unre- stricted religious toleration were substantially adopted by Con- gress over a century later, and it is only necessary to recall the so-called toleration acts of the other States which claim pre- eminence in this matter and compare them with these declara- tions, to show that the first settlers of New Jersey were foremost in establishing that " Free liberty of conscience without any molestation whatever," which is now guaranteed tl)roughout the great American Republic. In Rhode Lshind, while Roger Williams favored " a free, full and absolute liberty of conscience," and the charter of Charles II. affirmed the same princi{)le, yet that colony enacted that " All men professing Christianity and of competent estates, and of civil conversation, who acknowledge and are obedient to tlie civil magistrate, though of different judgments in religious affairs (Roman Catholics only excepted), shall be admitted free- men and shall have liberty to choose and be chosen officers in the colony both civil and military." It is true that modern Rhode Island writers have expressed the opinion that the wonls "Catholics only excepted " were not in the original enactment but had been subsequently interpolated and they give plausible, if not entirely satisfactory reasons. But leaving that point in abeyance, the fact yet remains that non-professors of NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 13 Christianity, among whom would be Jews, were excepted. Per- sons not having competent estates were also excepted, and the continuance of this exception down until quite modern times resulted in a noted so-called " rebellion," well remembered by many now living. On the other hand, in New Jersey, the Mon- mouth Patent left the selection of officials to "the major part of the inhabitants." In regard to Quakers in Rhode Island, the toleration extended to them was not so unrestricted as in New Jersey, for the General Assembly of that colony endeavored to compel them to bear arms, which was contrary to the dictates of their conscience in an important point in their religious faith. The General Assembly of Rhode Island declared that — " In case they, the said Quakers, which are here or who shall arise or come among us, do refuse to subject themselves to all duties aforesaid, as training, watching and such other engage- ments as other members of civil societies, for the preservation of the same in justice and peace; then we determine, yea, and we resolve to take and make use of the first opportunity to inform our agent resident in England that he may humbly present the matter," etc. They wished, they said, no damage to the princi- ple of freedom of conscience, but at the same time, their demand of the Quakers that they should train, in other words, perform military duty, was certainly an effort to compel them to act con- trary to the dictates of their conscience in an essential part of their religious belief. This effort to compel them " to train," may account for the fact that many members of that sect who liad been persecuted in Massachusetts and had sought refuge in Rhode Island, did not become freemen there but only made a temporary stay, and when the Monmouth Patent was granted, they came to that county with the original settlers. Here, from the outstart they were allowed all the privileges enjoyed by other settlers, some of their number being elected as deputies to frame laws, and to other offices, at the first election as well as at subsequent elections. They were not required "to train," against their conscientious convictions. Besides which it may be added, that our first settlers conducted themselves so justly and friendly towards the Indians, that they had little or no oc- casion to train for fear of them. Maryland is another state, the founders of which have de- servedly received commendation for the advanced steps taken by them in the matter of toleration. But their declarations on this point were not so unequivocal and unrestricted as those by first settlers of New Jersey. The charter to Lord Baltimore in 1632, was written in Latin and this fact caused many to look upon it with distrust. All that it contained in relation to toleration was a proviso of which the commonly accepted translation is — " No construction be made thereof whereby God's holy and 14 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF truly Christian religion should receive any prejudice or dimi- nution." Some Protestant writt^rs considered this equivocal, as Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, like his father before him, was intensely devoted to the interests of his faith and considered his, the only truly Christian religion. Some Catholic writers have contended, that the commonly ac- cej)ted translation of the words of the ciiarter on this point, was not literally correct. Brantz Mayer in his "Calvert and Penn," thougl)t it should read "God's holy rights and the true Christian religion." S. F. Streeterin his "Maryland, two hundred years ago," says it should be "The holy service of God and the true Chris- tian religion." George Lynn-Lachlan Davis in his " Day Star of American Freedom," gives the translation "The most sacred things of God and the true Christian religion." These different translations, it will be seen, do not materially vary in meaning, and all leave the question of deciding what was prejudicial to the true Christian religion, to the dominant power in the State. In New England, the Puritans considered the preachings and teachings of Baptists, Antinomians, and Quakers as prejudicial to what they believed to be the true Christian religion and so persecuted or prosecuted all who ditfered with them. In Mary- land, it is gratifying to know that the friends of the early settlers contend that there was no persecution for difference in religious views; and they earnestly protest against the insinuations that Calvert and his friends were actuated by considerations of a selfish sort, such as the fear of offending the Protestant King of England, at one time and the adherents of tiie commonwealth subsequently, as the real secret of their policy. In 1630, Mary- land passed an act declaring that " The Holy Church within this province shall have all her rights and privileges." And in 1640 another act declaring that " Tiie Holy Church within this province shall have and enjoy all her rights, liberties and fran- chises wholly and without blemish." The Governor, or Lieutenant as he was called, and all the members of the colonial council were bound by oath "To defend and maintain the Roman Catholic religion, in the full and free exercise thereof." Freedom in its fullest sense, was secured only to believers in Christianty. This excluded Jews and non-professors of Christianity generally ; and under a law of the province a Quaker was required to take off his hat in Court or go to the whipj>ing post. Some Catholic writers say, however, that they do not know of any " })ractical case of whipi)ing " for this ollence, {Day btar p. 6'^-4.) In defending the Maryland laws in regard to the protection of "The true Christian religion," Mr. Davis, in his Day iStar of Freedom says : "Toleration in its widest .sense or in the most strictly logical acceptation, exists only in a State founded upon naked atheism." NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 15 To this assertion, the citizens of New Jersey can well take exception. The first settlers of this State granted unrestricted toleration, and no one acquainted with their history will assert that they favored atheism, or that the result of their toleration has tended to the spread of atheism, more than in other States where tolera- tion was not as unrestricted as in New Jersey. In Pennsylvania the act relating to toleration was enacted December 1682, over seventeen years after the principle liad been established in East Jersey, and then it was not so unre- stricted. It declared that — " No person now or at anytime hereafter living in this prov- ince, who shall confess and acknowledge Almighty God to be the Creator, upholder and ruler of the world, and that professeth him or herself obliged in consciense to live peaceably and justly under the civil government, shall in anywise be molested or prejudiced for his or her conscientious persuasion or practice." And in regard to persons holding office, it was enacted — " That all officers and persons commissionated and employed in the service of the government of this province, and all mem- bers and deputies elected to serve in the assembly thereof, and all that have a right to elect such deputies, shall be such as pro- fess and declare they believe in Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and Savior of the world." {Hazard's Annals, pages 620-1) This was establishing a government under which only what have been termed " orthodox christians " could hold office or vote for law-makers. The Quakers in West Jersey were more liberal than their brethren in Pennsylvania, for their earliest declaration on this subject, dated November, 1681, was — "That liberty of conscience in matters of faith and worship towards God, shall be granted to all people within the province aforesaid, who shall live peaceably and quietly therein; and that none of the free people of said province shall be rendered uncapable of office in respect of their faith and worship." {Learn- ing and Spicer, page 4^5.) It is worthy of note that the declaration of principle in regard to toleration as contained in Berkley and Carteret's Concessions, and in the Monmouth Patent in 1665, and as guaranteed in West Jersey in 1681, was substantially adopted by our National Congress over a hundred years later in one of the earliest acts passed by that body. In the celebrated " Ordinance for the gov- ernment of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio," enacted 1787, it was ordained and declared that — "No person demeaning himself in a i)eaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of wor- ship or religious sentiments in said territory." Thus the unequivocal principle of toleration first adopted by 16 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF the early settlers of New Jersey, was eventually adopted by " the United States in Congress assembled," and today is a funda- mental principle upon which is based the government of this great nation. Believers in the Roman Catholic faith were rarely found among our early settlers, and we naturally feel an interest in endeavoring to ascertain what course would be pursued with them b}' a people so tolerant towards other sects as were the first settlers of our State, especially as Catholics at that time were charged with "mixing religion and politics" (to use a modern phrase,) by desiring to overturn the Protestant supremacy in England. It is gratifying to find that among our first settlers there was a disposition to treat Catholics with the same toleration shown to other sects. One of the first members of that faith to locate in New Jersey was William Douglass. He was elected from Bergen as a member of the Assembly, which met June 2d, 1080. He refused, at first, to take the usual oath of allegiance, stating that he was a Reman Catholic; but being informed that it was not the oath of supremacy, he offered to take it, and was admit- ted. It is true that a week or so subsequent to his admission, the following action was taken — " The deputies finding occasion to purge themselves of such a member as cannot be allowed by law. namely, William Doug- lass, the aforesaid member upon examination, owning himself to be a Roman Catholic, we have proceeded so to do and further desire your honor to issue out your warrant to the town of Ber- gen for a new choice for one to supply his place." It would seem to be the case that after the deputies had ad- mitted Mr. Douglas-, their tittention had been called to the laws of England in regard to oaths required of persons taking office, the nature and forms of which may be seen by reference to the printed " Minutes of the Governcr and Council, 1682-1703," pages 243-5, which oaths Mr. Douglass would not take, as to do so would be an actual renunciation and denunciation of the Catholic faith. Though Mr. Douglass was debarred by English laws from sitting as a member because of his faith, yet the significant facts remain that a constituency of first settlers of New Jersey elected a Roman Catholic, knowing him to be such, to the Legislature, and that the members of the Assembly, knowing him to be a Catholic, admitted him without hesitation. (N. J. Archives, vol. 1, pages 305-ol^.) If Rhode Island presents Roger Williams, and Maryland pre- sents Cecil Calvert, to be honored by the American peoj)le because of their course in regard to toleration ; if Pennsyl- vania holds up its founders for respect because they dealt justly NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 17 with the Indians and grantee] partial toleration, surely Jersey- men may be permitted to honor the first settlers of their own State, who without any parade or boasting, set an example for Penn years before he came to America, and established tolera- tion more unequivocal and unrestricted than in either of the States named. The declarations in East and West Jersey in regard to free liberty of conscience, are especially noteworthy, because they came from men who had witnessed the evils of intolerance in other places, and very many of them had themselves been vic- tims of persecution for conscience safe. Hence they determined to establish and did establish, local governments where no per- son could be molested on account of his religious belief. New Jersey appears to have been pre-eminently a refuge from persecution. Among early settlers who had been persecuted in other places were Baptists, Antinomians, Quakers from New England, Scotland and England, and Scotch Presb3'terians. New Englanders never weary of telling us of the sufferings of the Pilgrim Fathers, and every forefathers' day, delight to meet and honor their memory. Rhode Islanders have made the per- secutions and banishments of Roger Williams and his friends familiar to every reader of our country's history. Pennsylva- nians are mindful that the persecutions of William Penn and his fellow Quakers shall not be forgotten. But how seldom are mentioned the persecutions which had been endured by first settlers of East and West Jersey ! NEW JERSEY A REFUGE FROM PERSECUTION. Among the members of the West Jersey Assembly which met at Burlington two hundred years ago, were several who had been the victims of intolerance in England. Thomas Olive, the speaker of that assembly, and John Woolston, had been im- prisoned in Northampton gaol. Dr. Daniel Wills had been three times in prison for holding quaker meetings at his house. Richard Guy and Richard Hancock had been imprisoned in York Castle. William Peachy had been tried at Bristol and sentenced to banishment for attending " meetings." John Cripps had been sentenced to twelve days imprisonment for not taking off his hat when the Lord Mayor passed into Guildhall. The foregoing were members of the West Jersey Assembly, 1682-3; and very many others of the first settlers there had been simi- larly persecuted. The memory of these men was duly honored at the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Burling- ton, December 6th, 1877, and eloquent tributes paid to them in the oration of the lamented Henry Armitt Brown. Among the first settlers of East Jersey, were many who had also been the victims of intolerance elsewhere, and brief notices 2 18 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF of some of the most prominent among them, will serve to show why it was that they established here a government where dif- ference in religious sentiments should not be considered a crime, and where all peaceable and orderly citizens should be guaranteed free liberty of conscience. Rev, Obadiah Holmes, one of the twelve Monmouth patentees, in 1639 lived at Salem, Massachusetts, where he was engaged with Lawrence Southwick and Annanias Conklin, (descendants of both of whom also came to New Jersey,) in the manufacture of glass, probably about the first, if not the first, in that business in this country. Mr. Holmes joined the Baptists, for which he was indicted in 1650. The following is a copy of the record of the Court of proceedings before Governor Bradford. The name of the noted Captain Miles Standish here appears with others: — " At a general court holden at New Plymouth, the second of October, 1650, before William Bradford, gentleman, Governor; Thomas Prince, William Collyare, Captain Miles Standish, Tim- othy Hetherly, William Thomas, John Allen, gentlemen, assist- ants, (and a house of deputies). Presentment by the Grand Inquest. October second, 1650. Wee whose names are here underwritten, being the Grand Inquest, doe present to the court, John Hazell, Mr. Edward Smith and his wife, Obadiah Holmes, Joseph Tory and his wife, and the wife of James Man, William Deuell and his wife, of the town of Rehoboth, for the confining of a meeting u{)on tiie Lord's day from house to house, contrary to the order of this Court enacted June 12th, 1650. THOMAS ROBINSON, HENRY TOMSON, etc., to the number of 14." The following year, July 31st, 1651, Obadiah Holmes and John Clarke were arrested and brought before a court of which the noted Governor Endicott was then president. Both were sentenced to pay a fine of £30, or be publicly whipped. Clarke's fine was paid, but Obadiah Holmes, although abundantly able to pay the fine, refused to do it as he deemed it would be an acknowledgment of error and "he chose rather to suffer than to deny his Lord." He was kept in prison until the September following, when lie was severely whipped in public in Boston with a three corded whif) thirty lashes. He subsequently removed to Middletown, near Newport, on the island of Rhode Island. From him de- scends numerous families of the name in New Jersey and other states. Edward Smith and William Deuell or Dcvill indicted with NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 19 him in 1650, also went to Rhode Island and subsequently aided in establishing the settlements in Monmouth. John Tilton, another of the twelve Monmouth Patentees, when he first came from England, located at Lynn, Massachusetts. His wife was a Baptist and in December 1642, she was indicted for " Holdinge that tlie baptism of infants was no ordinance of God." They left Massachusetts with Lady Deborah Moody and other Baptists and settled at Gravesend, Long Island. Here again they were made to suffer for conscience sake. In 1658, he was fined by the Dutch authorities for allowing a Quaker wo- man to stop at his house. In September 1662, he was fined for "Permitting Quakers to quake at his house." In October of the same year himself and wife were summoned before Governor Stuyvesant and Council at New Amsterdam, now New York, charged with having entertained Quakers and frequenting their conventicles. They were condemned and ordered to leave the province before the 20th day of November following, under pain of corporeal punishment. It is supposed that through the efforts of Lady Moody, who had great influence with the Dutch Gover- nor, the sentence was either reversed, or changed to the pay- ment of a fine. Nicholas Davis, another patentee, is supposed to be the same named as a freeman at Barnstable, Massachusetts, 1643. When the Quakers began preaching their doctrines he joined them and in April, 1659, he was prosecuted for his faith, and in July of the same year he came near becoming a martyr to it as he was sentenced to death with Mary Dyer, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson who were hung in Boston, but he was set at liberty September 14th, 1659, and banished. He went to Newport, R. I., where he lived when the Monmouth Patent was granted. Mary Dyer, the unfortunate Quaker woman who was sen- tenced to death with Nicholas Davis, was hung in Boston the following year for her zeal in endeavoring to spread her faith. Her son, Henry Dyer, came to Monmouth among the first settlers. James Hubbard, William Goulding and probably John Bowne, ail named among the twelve Monmouth Patentees, had been compelled to leave Massachusetts because of their sympathy with the Baptists. Samuel Spicer, of Gravesend, L. I., another of the twelve patentees, was a victim of persecution for his Quaker principles by the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam ; his mother also was severely dealt with for the same cause. The Dutch Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, was required to take oath that he would " Maintain the Reformed religion in conformity to the word and the decrees of the Synod of Dordrecht and not to tolerate any otner sect." {Thompson's L. l, Vol. ^, p. 293). 20 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF For being Quakers or showing sympathy for them, at one time lie arrested and imprisoned William Reape, whose name subse- quently appears as one of the twelve Monmouth Patentees, John Tilton and his wife, Edward Wharton, who had previously been imprisoned, and severely whipped in Massachusetts, for his Quakerism, and Joseph Nicholson, John Liddel, Alice Ambrose, Mary Tompkins and Jane Millard, and after keeping them in jail for ten days, the Governor put them in a ship (except Tilton and his wife) and sent them off. The name of William Reape, the jiatentee, subsequently appears at Newport, R. L, where he was a merchant. He came to Monmouth among the original settlers, Edward Wharton, who had been a victim of intolerance both in Massachusetts and on Long Island, aided in establishing the h^ettlement of Monmouth by buying land, but he finally returned to New England. CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK's DESCENDANTS IN NEW JERSEY. Nathaniel Sylvester, another of the twelve patentees, was a Quaker and principal owner of Shelter Island, near the east end of Long Island. Though he was a patentee and paid for a share of land, he did not himself settle in Monmouth, but it was ])robably through him that descendants of Cassandra South- wick, celebrated in Whittier's beautiful ballad, came to New Jer- !?ey. The good Quaker poet, in the ballad, has taken a "poet's license," in changing a name. No such event as that described ever happened to Cassandra Southwick, but it did substantially happen to her daughter, Provided Southwick, who subsequently married Samuel Gaskell, and from Cassandra Southwick and iier daughter, Provided Gaskell, the real heroine of the ballad, descend South wicks and Gaskells or Gaskins, of New Jersey. Cassandra Southwick was the wife of Lawrence Southwick, who is named with Obadiah Holmes and Annaniah Conklin in connection with establishing glass works at Salem, Mass., 1639. When, about 165G, the Quakers began preaching their doctrines, Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, both then well along in years, became converts and zealous advocates of Quaker princi- jtles. For this they were frequently and most cruelly punished and finally banished. They found refuge with Nathaniel Syl- vester, the Monmouth patentee, at Shelter Island. As they were an aged couple, the severity of their punishments un- cen driven away, and whenever, after that, a .Jerscyman visitt-d I'liiiadelphia he was liable to be sainted with the exclamation, "Yon have got a king among yon ; you must be forciijner.i !" NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 25 tlements. The- first place to which the}'' went was Eastern Penn- sylvania; from thence some went farther west, others to Mary- land, Virginia, particularly to the Valley of Virginia, to the Carolinas, Georgia, and in the course of years to almost every Sourthern and Western State. That these emigrants favorably remembered from whence they came is shown by the number of places named for the county and State. Among the first settlers of tile Valley of Virginia, who began to locate there about 1732, were Formans, Taylors, Stocktons, Throckmortons, Van Meters, Pattersons, Vances, Aliens, Willets or Willis, Larues, Lucas' and others of familiar New Jersey names. Fourteen or fifteen Bap- tist families from New Jersey settled near Gerardstown, and there were also many Scotch Presbyterians from New Jersey, among whom were Crawfords, McDowells, Stuarts, Alexanders, Kerrs, Browns and Cummings. Members of these families eventually passed into the Carolinas, Kentucky and elsewhere, and descendants of some became noted not only in the localties or States where they settled, but in the annals of the nation. Among those of Scotch origin may be named William H. Craw- ford, of Georgia, once a United States Senator from that State and also a Presidential candidate, and General Leslie Combs, of Kentucky. Another man still more noted in the history of the nation, who descended from early settlers of New Jersey and whose an- cestors went to Eastern Pennsylvania and thence to the Valley ot Virginia, was the late President Abraham Lincoln, one of whose ancestors was John Bovvne, Speaker of the House of Assembly, two hundred years ago. A few years ago. Judge George C. Beek- man, in looking over ancient records in the Court House, at Freehold, found frequent mention of the name of Mordecai Lin- coln, and he sup[iosed it was possible that this man migiit be the ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, as he went to Eastern Pennsyl- vania, and the late President said that according to a tradition in his family his ancestors came from thence. But in his life time he could trace his ancestry no farther back than to iiis grandfather, Abraham, who originally lived in Rockingham county, in the Valley of Virginia. Within the last two or three months it has been definitely ascertained that Judge Beekman's supposition was correct. A relative of the Lincoln family, Mr. Samuel Shackford, of Cook county, Illinois, has been most inde- fatigable in efforts to trace back the ancestry of the late President by visits to and searches in records in Kentucky, the Valley of Virginia and Eastern Pennsylvania. He found that the great grandfather of the late President was named John, who came from Eastern Pennsylvania, where his father, a Mordecai Lin- coln, had settled. Mr. Shackford gained the impression that Mordecai and his son John came from New Jersey, and about two months ago he wrote to persons he supposed familiar with 26 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF old records here, inquiring if there was any mention of a Mor- decai and his sou John in ancient New Jersey records. The records in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton fur- nislied the desired information. In that office is the record of a deed dated November 8th, 1748, in Book H, p 437, from John Lincohi, who describes himself as son and heir of Mordecai Lincoln, late of Caernaven township, Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, formerly of New Jersey, for lands in Middlesex county, New Jersey. By reference to a previous record in the same Book p. 150, it is found that this was the same land deeded to Mordecai Lincoln, of Monmouth county, February 12th, 1720. Thus after patient researches, running through some twenty-five years, records are discovered in the State House which enable tliose interested, to trace the late President's ancestry in an un- broken chain back to New Jersey, and thence to the first comer from England. As the genealogy of President Lincoln has never been pub- lished in full, because it was not until so recently that the miss- ing links in the chain were discovered, it may he briefly given here. The founder of the family was Samuel Lincoln, who came from Norwich. England, to Massachusetts. He had a son, Mor- decai the first, who in turn had sous, Mordecai the second and Abraham, both of whom came to New Jersey. Both subse- que!itly moved to Eastern Pennsylvania. Mordecai the second had a sou, John, born in New Jersey, who moved to the valley of Virginia and had a son named Abraham, who in turn had a son Thomas, who was father of the late President Abraham Lincoln. The descendants of the early settlers of New Jersey, in their migrations to other States, it may be presumed, carried with them the liberal principles of government on which our State was founded. Our ancestors had hardly erected shelters for themselves before they established the church and the school. In addition to unrestricted religious toleration, they established the principle of equality of all men before the law. Said the founders of West Jersey : " We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as Christians and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent. For we tut the POWER IN THE PEOPLE." After generations did understand it and the foremost man of his day only reiterated their sentiment when he advocated " A government of the people, by the people, for the people." The founders of West Jersey further declared : ■' We, the Governor and proprietors, freeholders and inhabit- ants of West Jersey, by mutual consent and agreement, for the prevention of innovations and oppressions either upon us or our NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 27 posterity, and for the preservation of the peace and tranquillity of the same ; and that all may be encouraged to go on cheer- fully in their several places, we do make and constitute these, our agreements, to be as fundamentals to us and our posterity, etc." It is remarkable to note how similar to the above, is the Pre- amble to our National Constitution adopted one hundred and six years later. It says: " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- terity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States." The fundamental principles upon which the government of our nation is based, are, that just governments should be derived from the people, and that liberty of conscience should be guaranteed to all. It is a striking testimony to the wisdom of the first settlers of New Jerse}' that their sentiments and almost their very words on these subjects were eventually adopted by the nation. Are we not then, as Jerseymen, justifiable in honoring the memory of the wise, just. God-fearing founders of our State, who were first and foremost in proclaiming and establishing these principles, which are now the corner stone of the great American Republic?* After which the American Singing Society, of Newark, sang two hymns, one of which was " The Centennial Hymn," followed by an address from the Hon. Charles D. Deshler, of New Bruns- wick. Address by Hon. Charles D. Deshler, of New Brunswick. ]^Ir. President, gentlemen of the Senate and House of Assembly, la- dies and gentlemen : It is something more than an empty sentiment that prompts men of all ages and countries to dwell upon the beginnings of their life as a people, and to commemorate the institutions which their ancestors founded. For no man can be deeply interested in studying the history of the formative periods of the common- wealth of which he is a member who is not moved by a feeling of patriotism, nor can he be greatly concerned in recalling the memor}'^ of his ancestors if he have not an honorable pride in their character, and be not animated by a lively desire for the perpetuation of the institutions which they transmitted. *For " Notes" accompanying Mr. Salter's address, see Appendix, page 4^. 28 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF In truth, the revival of the memor}'- of the early da3's of a country or commonwealth, whether informal and occasional, or on fixed commemorative seasons, at the instance of public bodies, such as that which now brings us together, and the study of the institutions which were then laid with great toil, with inadequate means, and under most unpropitious circumstances, must be a perpetual incitement to the men of after-times to vigilantly guard and reverently preserve the political rights and privileges, and to more highly prize the social blessings, which have been be- queathed to them. Men are greatly prone, while they uncon- sciously enjoy essential privileges and blessings that seem as common to them as the natural benisons, light, and air, and water, to forget that these wei-e not their heritage by the bounty of nature, but that they were evolved through slow and painful processes by the toil, the energy, the patience, the intelligence, and the wise foresight of man, and tiiat what was thus slowly and painfully built up and establislied can only be preserved and augmented by the continued loyal, honest, unselfish, and patriotic exertions of other men. Therefore, when the honorable, the Senate and General As- sembly of our State — justly mindful of the debt which the present owes to the past, and wisely conceiving that to revive the memory of the past was also to awaken a fuller and deeper sense of re- sponsibility for the present — paused in the midst of their labors, and invited their fellow citizens to join them in celebrating the legislative birthday of the commonwealth, and in recalling tiie agency of the Jerseymen of 1683 in giving form and direction to the mind and purposes of the then infant colon}', it was not the indulgence merely of a graceful sentiment, but was em- phatically the performance of a pious and patriotic duty, calcu- lated to exert a definite, a practical, and a wholesome influence upon the character, the aims, the aspirations and the public and private spirit of the Jerseymen of to-day. Following the line of thought whicii I have thus suggested, I invite your attention to a cursory general view of the province and people of New Jersey prior to and including the vear of our Lord 1083. On the 12th of March, IGGl, Charles the Second of England, in virtue of the alleged sovereignty acquired by the Crown, through the discovery of this part of the Coniinent in 1408, by Sebastian Cabot, an English navigator, sailing under tlie Eng- lish flag, granted to his brother James, then Duke of York, l)ut afterward King of England, all those territories extending along the sea coast, from New Scotland, as it was then styled, but now known as Nova Scotia, to the east side of Delaware bay and river. The indenture conveyed to James and his legal succes- sors, not only the lands, mij^.erals, waters, forests and wild animals of these territories, but also the right and power to NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 29 nominate, make, constitute, ordain and confirm, and likewise to revoke, disciiarge, change and alter, the governors, officers and viinisters thereof, as he thought fit and needful; and further, the right and power to make, ordain and establish, and to abro- gate, revoke or change, all manner of orders, laws, directions, instructions, forms and ceremonies of government and magistracy, not contrary to the laws and statutes of England, that he might think fit and necessary for the government of the same. And a few months later, on the 24th of June, of the same year, the Duke of York, by an indenture of that date, sold and assigned to John, Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Car- teret, of Saltrum, in the county of Devon, all that portion of the land conveyed to him by Charles IL, " lying and being to the westward of Long Island and Manhitas Island, and 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 norther- most branch of the said bay or river of Delaware, which is forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and crosseth over thence in a strait line to Hudson's river in forty-one degrees of latitude ; which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of New Ceesaria or New Jersey^' This indenture is a document of great historical significance to Jerseymen. It was the revival and first practical assertion of the long dormant title of the English Crown to the sove- reignty' and ownership of the territory, from the Hudson to the Delaware, that had been hitherto occupied by the Dutch as a part of their Colony of New Netherlands, a title, we pause to say, which it had not been convenient for the English govern- ment to assert during the foreign wars and complications, and the domestic dissensions and civil wars that had rocked Eng- land to its foundations in the preceding years of the century, but which was now promptly and effectively enforced in the month of August following, by the display of overpowering force at New Amsterdam, and the surrender of New Nether- lands to the English a month later. By this instrument New Jersey was converted from a Dutch into an English colony ; was given the name it still bears and cherishes; was, for the first, constituted a geographical unit with the definite prescribed boundaries that exist, with slight modifications at this day ; and it was the real source and starting point of our political organization and existence as a State, modelled on the popular liberties of England instead of on the aristocratic liberties of Holland. Previous to this, under the Dutch rule, the province had no prescribed boundaries, no distinct existence, and no vitalizing and conterminous political or institutional organization. For 30 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF during the entire period of the Dutch ascendancy, from 1618 to 1664, the interior of New Jersey was almost wholly unoccupied by white men. The Dutch loved trade better than adventure. They had little of the restless energy and daring spirit of the pioneer. For the most part, they were content to settle down placidly and gregariously in their settlements along the Hudson and on the Delaware. And, beyond an occasional spot upon which some of their more enterprising companions had estab- lished themselves, the entire district between the two rivers, and indeed, the province at large, was in the undisturbed possession of the Indians, wiiose enmity they had managed thoroughly to arouse. On the Hudson, they had gathered in sufficient num- bers to found a petty town on Bergen Neck, which they styled Bergentown ; and .the plantations on both sides of the Neck, as far as Hackensack, were under its jurisdiction, and were all com- prised under the tith; of the " Towne of Bergen." A part of this tract, being the portion lying on the North River, including Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), and extending to the marslies north and south, was bought of the Indians by Michael Pauw, in July and November, 1630. Another portion, extending from Newark Bay northward to Tappan, and including the Valley of the Hackensack, was bought of the Indians by Myndert Van Horst, in 1641; and in that year he established a colony, with its headquarters about five or six hundred paces from the vil- lage of the Hackensack Indians. This was the germ of the town of Hackensack. In 1651, " courts of justice " had been estab- lished at "Hopating," near Hackensack. In 1658, Governor Stuyvesant — " Hard-Koppig Piet" — bought that part of Bergen from the Indians, which extended from " the great rock above Wiehacken to the Kill von KuU." Before this, however, as early as 1640, that section had been already occupied by some settlers, especially at the town of Bergen; and the settlements at Com- munipaw, Paulus Hook, and Hoboken were made still earlier, from 1630 to 1636. By 1661, Bergen had become quite a thriving village, and in that year it was erected into a distinct municipality, with a charter from the government of New Neth- erlands, empowering it to hold courts, and ornamenting it with such civil dignitaries as a "sellout," or sheriff, and three magis- trates, who united the functions of burgesses and justices. This was the earliest municipal organization in New Jersey. Turning now from the Hudson to tiie Delaware, let us trace the early settlements there under the Dutch rule. The vicinity of Salem was probably the first spot in West Jersey visited by white men. Hendiick Pludson had anchored the Half-Moon in Delaware Bay, in 1009, but did not land. In 1616, Cornelius Hendricksen sailed from Manhattan, and explored the " iSouth River," as the Delaware was styled by the Dutch, first landing at the mouth of Salem Creek, and afterward continuing up the NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. ' 31 river to its confluence with the Schuylkill. In 1G21, the West India Company projected a settlement on the Delaware, and the expedition again landed at, or near the site of Salem, from whence its commander, Cornells Jacobse May (after whom Cape May was named), led a party to Sassackon, or Timmer Kill (now Timber Creek), near the present town of Gloucester, and established a colony and built a fort* there in 1623. Among the original settlers who composed this little colony were four Dutch couples, who had been married on shipboard, during their voyage from Holland to Nev>^ Amsterdam, and who, soon after their arrival at the infant metropolis, had been sent from there in a vessel, with eight others, by order of the Dutch gov- ernor, to assist in forming this settlement. Other parties fol- lowed, under the direction of the West India Company, till 1629, when the colony was scattered and the settlements de- stroyed by the Indians. Still another attempt was made soon after to establish a settlement at Fort Nassau, but the settlers were all massacred or made captive by the Indians, and their houses burned. And in 1632, discouraged by their ill-fortune, the Dutch, for the tinie, abandoned their efforts to plant a colony here. It is probable that in the following 3'ear, not a single European remained on the Delaware, below Trenton or Burling- ton, save those who were Indian captives. The years 1637 and 1638 were the era of the Swedish attempt at colonization in West Jersey. In the former year they landed at Cape Henlopen, and purchased, or alleged that they had purchased, the soil from the Indians, from the Capes of the Delaware to the falls at Sanlii- kans, or Trenton. Between 1637 and 1654, they had planted several settlements on the east side of the Delaware, extending from Cape May to Burlington, the earliest and most important being at the mouth of Salem Creek, some three and a half miles from the site of Salem, where they built Fort Helsingborg. Late in 1640, or early in 1641, an English colony of sixty per- sons, from New Haven, settled near this point, and maintained themselves for several years, but were broken up and driven away by the Swedes and Dutch combined, partially in 1642, and finally in 1648, by which time the Dutch had again succeeded in establishing a few scattered settlements along the Delaware. Besides these setilements of the Dutch on the Hudson, and of the Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, prior to 1664, there were several interesting instances of exceptional adventuresomeness by Dutchmen, in whom the instincts of the pioneer were more largely developed than in the great body of their compatriots. One of these, which was projected at a very early day, is so largely invested with the element of romance, so completely en- vironed with an atmosphere of legend and mystery, and so sug- *Fort Nassau. 32 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF gestive of dramatic incident and vicissitude, as to excite surprise that it has not been made tiie groundwork of a historical novel by some one among our native authors. About the year 1632, a number of Dutch miners gathere 1 from some Indians, who were visiting New Amsterdam and had become garrulous over the fire- water with which they were plied, that at a remote spot in the territory across the Hudson rich ores were to be found ; and also extracted from them a description of the a[)pearance of this spot and tolerably clear directions as to its bearings and how to reach it. Animated by the hope of gain combined with the spirit of adventure these bold fellows furtively left New Amsterdam with their families, and striking and following the old "Minisink Path " pierced the ** everlasting hills " of Sussex and Morris counties, penetrated the trackless forest wilds that then overspread the northern part of the province, and reached the spot that had been revealed to them. It lay near Minisink Island, on the Delaware, partly in the present limits of New Jersey and partly in Pennsylvania. Here they opened mines, which, as tlie re- mains testify to this day, were on a scale^ of great magnitude. To conceal the treasure they had discovered from the envious eyes of others, and to ensure the harvest which they anticipated from it for themselves, they so covertly and adroitly disposed of the fruit of their labors and kept up their needful supplies, and managed so completely to bury themselves in the wilderness, that they became lost, not only to the sight, but to the memory even of their quondam companions at New Amsterdam. Tradi- tion savs that for more than a hundred years these voluntary exiles toiled in the mines they had opened, holding no direct communication with the outer world, their numbers yearly growing fewer and fewer, until at last all had vanished from the scene, and with them the history of the episode and the secrets they had discovered. Such, then, was the state of the province when it changed hands from the Dutch to the English, in 1064. A few small settlements fringed the Hudson for ten or fifteen miles opposite New Amsterdam, and Delaware river and bay from Cape May to Trenton. But the whole interior was unsettled and unex- plored. Its soil remained virgin, and its mighty forests unshorn of their primeval majesty. The land lay silent and buried in mystery. Silent! save for the song of the birds, the fitful cry of the wild beasts, the music of breeze and brook and river in sum- mer, the roar of torrent and tempest in winter, the everlasting boom of tlie ocean, the hum of the insect world, and all the other multitudincnis voices of nature, interrupted now and anon by the whoop of the Indian. The entire population numbered less than five hundred souls. The distant and feeble settlements were held loosely together by two roads which traversed the province, and were more especiall}' designed to keep the com- NEW JERSEY LEGISLATUR!E. 33 munications open between the forts on tlie North River and on the Delaware, and the infrequent intercourse between the dis- tant settlements was maintained by means of letters and pack- ages carried from tribe to tribe by Indian runners. With the change from the Dutch to the English rule came a change from torpor to activity, from stagnation to quick vitality, from helpless inertia to energetic progress and development. Promptly after the execution of the grant by the king to the Duke of York, Governor Nicolls, of New York, who was igno- rant of the subsequent conveyance of New Jersey by the Duke to Berkeley and Carteret, no notification of it having reached him till several months later, and who understood that both New York and New Jersey lay within his jurisdiction, extended invitations of a most liberal kind to settlers ; and very soon the attention of enterprising men of the English race, in New Eng- land and on Long Island, was directed to this province. On the 28th of October, 1664, he gave permission to three persons on Long Island to buy from the Indians all that territory bounded on the south and east by the Raritan and the Kills, and extend- ing westward into the country twice the length of its breadth, north and south, comprising the district within which now lie Newark, Elizabeth, Rahway, Plainfield, Piscataway, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy, and in December of that year he confirmed the purchase: in the meantime settlers having already begun to flock in at various points. As early as December, 1663, a party of men of English ancestry, from Long Island, had visited Rari- tan bay and river, for the purpose of buying lands from the Neversink and Raritan Indians, and their visit resulted in a grant of lands from Governor Nicolls, on the 18th of April, 1665, to " certain of the inhabitants of Gcavesend on Long Island," which comprised the County of Monmouth, as it was first described and bounded. This grant was the justly cele- brated " Monmouth Patent," and by its terms the patentees, twelve in number, and their successors were to be " free from all rents, customs, excise, tax or lev}' whatsoever" for seven years, and were empowered to build towns and villages in such places as they thought most convenient, provided they were not "too far distant and scattering from one another." They were also guaranteed "free liberty of conscience, without any molestation or disturbance whatsoever, in their way of worship," and were authorized to select, by a majority vote, five or seven "of the ablest and discreetest inhabitants," who should have power to make their municipal laws, and hold certain courts. The first settlements under this patent were at Shrewsbury and Middle- town, Meanwhile the Proprietors, Berkeley and Carteret, were busily engaged in preparing for the government, organization, and set- tlement of the Province. Their first act was to draft and sign a 3 34 BI CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF constitution, which was remarkably liberal and even popular in its character, and which they entitled "The Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of New Jersey, to and with all and every of the adventurers, and all such as shall settle and plant there." By this constitution the government of the pro- vince was confided to a governor, a council chosen by the gover- nor, and an assembly of twelve to be chosen annually by the freemen of the province. To the governor and council were re- served the power to appoint and remove all officers, to exercise a general supervision over courts and executors of the laws, and to lay out the lands ; but they were restricted from the imposi- tion of any tax upon the people not authorized by the assembly. The assembly was empowered to pass laws for the government of the province (subject to the approval of the governor), to levy taxes, build forts, raise militia, suppress rebellion, make war, naturalize aliens, and apportion lands to settlers. Provision was made for laying out towns and boroughs ; and, to invite settlers, especially planters and farmers, every freeman (the word free- man being here synonymous with freeholder) who should em- bark with, or meet the first governor on his arrival in the colon}', provided with a good musket of prescribed bore, and a designa- ted supply of powder and bullets, together with six months pro- visions, was promised one hundred and fifty acres of land, and as much more for every man servant or slave he brought with him similarly provided. In addition to these inducements seventy- five acres of land were promised for every female over fourteen years of age who should accompany each settler, and as many more to ever}' Christian servant on the expiration of his term of service. To those arriving later, if before January J6G5-G, one liundred and twenty acres were promised, if master or mistress, or able man servant or slave; and weaker servants, male or female, were to receive sixty acres. Those coming during the third year were promised three-fourths, and those coming during the fourth year one-half of these quantities. And all freemen set- tling here and becoming peaceful citizens were guaranteed free- dom of judgment, of conscience, and of worship, and security of person and property. By these '' Concessions " of the proprietors, and the patents and charters for lands executed thereunder by Governor Carteret on his arrival, and also by the invitations extended and the grants previously made by Gov. NicoUs — not stopping here to consider the conflicts of jurisdiction and title that ensued — a powerful impetus was given to the settlement of the province. Men of the Anglo-Saxon race, endowed with active brains and vigorous bodies, flowed in from New England, Long Island and the mother country, with a small infusion from Scotland and France. Towns and viUages si)rang up, farmers clustered into neighbor- hoods, churches and mills were erected, and in a few years it NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 35 was deemed necessary to call the representatives of the people together. On the 26th of May 1668, a General Assembly for the entire province was convened at Elizabethtown, with deputies present from Bergen, Elizabethtown, Newark, Woodbridge, Middletown and Shrewsbury ; and at its subsequent session in November there were also present deputies representing Dela- ware River. Save for subsequent events that severed the chain of continuity, this Assembly of May 26th, 1()68, which witnessed the first conflict in New Jersey between the executive and the representatives of the people, and which inaugurated the first code of civil and criminal law in our commonwealth, would have been the lineal ancestor of our present legislature. But, five years later, in 1673, the Dutch reconquered New Jersey; and although the English regained possession in 1674, the change of sovereignty and mastership was supposed to have impaired the validity of the grant by Charles II. to the Duke of York, which, of course, carried with it the Duke's release to Berkeley and Carteret. In consequence, a new conveyance was made to Carteret, in 1675, for East Jersey only; while, William Penn and his associates, having become the owners of Berkeley's share of the lands granted in the original conveyance, a deed was given to them for West Jersey, and they assumed its government and proprietorship. Numerous and intricate complications ensued, and although several separate meetings of Assembly were held in each of the sections, the}^ were tainted with irregularity, be- cause of the defective titles and the constant conflicts of their respective proprietaries. It was not until East Jersey and West Jersey were brought under a common proprietorship, by ihe sale of East Jersey to William Penn and others, by the heirs of Car- teret, and the execution of a new, and a far more full and ex- plicit release from the Duke of York to twenty-four proprietors, of whom William Penn was one, that an Assembly was con- vened at Elizabethtown on ihe first day of March, 1683, which may be said to have had a regular .uccession until the present day. The enactments of the General Assemblies, earlier than that of March 1, 1683, are an exceedingly interesting subject of study, for the illustrations they afford of the moral, social, religious and political characteristics of the people of the province, in the interval from 1664 to 1683. And if we institute a comparison between those that were made by the West Jersey Assemblies and those made by the East Jersey Assemblies, the latter are the sufferers in all that relates to civil and religious liberty and an enlightened humanity. The people of East Jersey, as fairly represented by their deputies, manifested a more restless energy and a higher degree of intellectual activity than those of West Jersey. But, taking their hue partly from the Puritans of New England, partly 36 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF from their royalist proprietors, and partly from the tenor of English law and the dominant temper of the thought and action of the Englislimen of that day, they were intolerant of all who differed from themselves in matters of religion, and were imbued with a sombreness and an austerity that were reflected in the severit}'^ of their penal codes. They elevated comparatively light offences into crimes whose punishment was truly draconian, and they often shock the moral sense by their conversion of things innocent, except in their own gloomy and austere imaginations, or that were of inferior atrocity, into capital crimes whose penalty was death. With a strong desire fur equifcv and justice in all that relates to dealings between man and man, and a readiness to assert, and a resolute deter- mination to maintain, what they believed to be their rights, nowhere, except in their perennial conflicts with the executive power, do they seem to have had any large conception of popu- lar liberty. In West Jersey, however, where the proprietors represented those in England who were laboring for toleration, for liberty of conscience, for alleviation of human woe and dis- tress, and who were animated by a lively sympath}' for popular rights, a very different temper prevailed. In 1675, the West Jersey proprietors had made the golden announcement, far in advance of the age: ''We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as Christians and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage save by their own consent ; for we put the power in the people" And in conformity with this annunciation of a constitution of government more popular than any then existing or even dreamed of elsewhere, it was decreed in the very first law passed by the General Free Assem- bly of West Jersey that " no man or number of men hath any power over conscience," and that " no person shall at any time, in any ways, or on any pretence, be called in question, or in the least punished or hurt, for any opinion in religion." It was also decreed that the deputies to the General Assembly should be chosen, not by the co ifused way of cries and voices, but by the balloting box ; that every man was to be capable of choosing and being chosen ; that the deputies were to be instructed by, and were to obey the instructions of their electors; that if the deputy were disobedient or unfaithful, he could be questioned before the Legislature by any one of his electors; that in order "that he may be known as the servant of the people," one shilling was to be paid the deputy daily by his constituents in satisfaction of his trouble and outlay ; that no one should be imprisoned for debt; and that the penalty'- of death should be inflicted for murder only. Thus, while, in East Jersey, the chief features of the harsh codes of England and New England — multiplying capital crimes, and even punishing witchcraft with death — were transferred to their statutes by its early legislators, NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 37 tocrether with many other asperities of the civil and criminal law of England ; and while they could be excited to an invin- cible iealousy of the executive and his council, but yet be forcreiful of many fundamental principles of personal and nublic liberty, in West Jersey the huvs were mild, punish- ments were bloodless, the stocks and the whippmg-post were unknown, liberty was common as air, and the influence of the people upon the government and the laws was immediate and ''''The enlfctments of the General Assembly, of March 1st. 1683, while preserving, in their general lines, the austerity and sev- erity of those of the earlier assemblies of East Jersey, still dis- close a decided amelioration in numerous essential particulars. The ca])ital crimes punishable with death under the earlier codes twelve in number, were now reduced more than one-halt. Amono- those struck off from the sanguinary list, and indeed erased entirelv from the statute book was that of being «' found to be a witch, either male or female ; while some others of darker hue were assigned to the category of minor crimes with lighter penalties than before. There is also a perceptible, diminution in the number of specified offences, and a decided mitigation of the severity of penalties generally But while this general amelioration of the laws is visible, the lines were drawn with even greater strictness, and heavier penalties were de- nounced against delinquencies of a moral and religious nature, such as "the beastly vice of drunkenness," "profaning the Lord's day," and "profanely taking God's name i" yain by cursing and swearing"; and, for the first, imprisonment for debt became a part of the statute. One very curious and touching feature of the bill, embodying the laws of the province, adopted by this assemblv, was the provision that "wnoever shall attlict the widow or fatherless shall be punished by the judges accord- ing to the nature of the transgression;" and another provision of the same bill, luminous with humanity and instinct with the sentiment of justice for such as were too feeble to protect them- selves, was one for the alleviation of the condition of apprentices and those who were in servitude, and assuring them their tree- dom in due time.* Li addition to its other labors, which were * " No- white servant," says this provision, " whether male or female, if 17 years of nc.e wLn bound or bought, shall serve above four years from the time of his arrival hSe and then be free ; ln\ if thev be under 17 years of age, not to serve until thev norted against his or their consent, to any place out ot this proMnce, an l at tie ex .ir- ition of his or their service, his or their master, or mistress, or agent shall fur- S tlHfoe id ervlnt or ser;ants, and each of them respectively with two sui s o ap are1 Tnit^ble for a servant, one good fallin. ax, a good hoe, -."<\7«" bushe of loo?l Indiin corn .... If a man or woman maim, or smite the eye of his iHr mai'; rervrt, being a white servant, so that it perish or --/« oiU ',e to^.h of his or their man or maid servant, such servant shall go free, if master, or mis 38 BI CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF in the highest degree creditable to the manliness, sense of jus- tice, intelligence and forecast of its members, this assembly first definitely divided the province into counties, provided for the yearly appointment of a sheriff and deputy-sheriff for each, erected courts for the trial of small causes in every town, and county courts in each of tiie counties, established a court of com- mon rights for the whole province, and started into operation the entire machinery of our civil and })olitical organization, so that it reached the humblest citizen, touched every ramification of society, and gave security to every man for the protection of his person, and the enjoyment of his lawful rights and property. When we contemplate the men of those days we are prone to judee them as if their light and environments were the same as our own. We forget that allowances are due them because of the times in which they lived and the inferior opportunities and advantages they enjoyed. Let it be remembered always in judging their acts and motives, that they lived in a land that was new and for the most part unexplored ; that society was rude and unformed ; that they were separated from each other by wide and roadless tracts, and as yet formed a mere thread of civiliza- tion between the coast and tlie unpenetrated and to them impene- trable hills, and swamps, and forests of the interior; that instead of the railroads and highways whose network now intersects the state at every point, rendering communication and intercourse easy, there were then but two highways traversing the state from east to west, and a few straggling and hastil}' improvised country roads connecting neighboring settlements; that the now mighty city of New York had then less than four thousand inhabitants,* while Philadelphia was yet to be built, having been founded less than a year before; that the poj)ulation of the province itself was less than seven thousand, of whom about five thousand were in East Jersey and two thousand in West Jersey ; and that the men of that day, few as the}' were in number, and poor in purse how- ever rich they might be in hope and lavish of toil, were co!i- fronted by physical difficulties and embarrassments which might well have discouraged ef!brt and have exhausted all their powers of mind and body; but, in spite of which they solidly laid the broad foundations of our social and civil fabric, and originated and put in operation a body of law, which with all its imper- fections, was dominated by keen intelligence, sound judgment, and a wise adaptedness to the needs, the temper, and the spirit of the times and society in which they lived. Nor were these trefls, or siKfut, initnoderately correct their HervaiitH, tliey sliall lie piinislied for tlie same by tlie next seHHions of" tlie county court All masters or niistresses liavinj^ negro niiiveH, sliall allow them siiflicient accommodation of viclLaln and clothing. *In 1604 tlie population of New York was about 1,500, in 1(573 about 2000, in 1678 about oOOO, and in IGSli about 3,'JOO. NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE. 39 physical and social difficulties all that they had to encounter. If their means of inter-communication were few and rude, their means for moral and intellectual culture and intercourse were still fewer. There were few churches and no school houses. There was no post office and no newspaper. There was no printing press — the only one then in America being at Cambridge in Massachusetts, Bradford's press not having been set up in Phila- delphia till two years later. The publication of books and pamphlets in this country was not merely discouraged but was prohibited ; and even in England the publications were few and far between. The English Bible, the book which of all others lias exerted the profoundest and most beneficent influence upon mankind, and upon the people of the Anglo-Saxon race in especial, had been translated less than seventy-five years ; and as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was not yet founded, few copies had reached America, nor were they much more plentiful in England. John Milton's Paradise Lost was published in 1666, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in 1060, and Dryden and Sir Isa;ic Newton were at the zenith of their fame, but it is doubtful if there were a hundred copies of the works of all these illustrious men combined, in this countr}' in 1683, and the great Elizabethan poets, with Shakespeare at their head, were yet more scarce. Nor is this all. Modern literature and modern science and art were unborn. All the great poets, philosophers, theologians, his- torians, wits, essayists and scholars who have illumined the world by their writings; all the great orators, sages, statesmen, heroes, and patriots, who have adorned it and inspired it by their example for two hundred years, were unborn, or as yet, undeveloped. Chemistry, medicine, all the physical sciences were in their infancy. Tiie powers and applications of coal and steam and electricity were undiscovered. And yet the men of the Assembly of 1683, with their few books, their simple learn- ing, their ignorance of the great practical sciences, their lack of all the tools and appliances of knowledge, which we are accus- tomed to deem indispensable, wrought well and worthily, and tlieir work lives after them, stamped indelibly upon our laws and institutions, and upon the social character of our people. And now, if we ask ourselves, how it was that such plain men, haviiig at their command means so inadequate, made so lasting an impression upon the State, and so indelibly stamped their characteristics upon its people, the answer is not far to seek ; and if we, of this generation, would have our works live after us as their works live after them, we shall lay it to heart. It was because the}' were earnest men, sharp in temper and with wills not easily shaken, but yet gifted with that most valuable and practical of all kinds of wisdom, sterling common sense. It was because, even where they most erred, they strove after a 40 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. lofty moral ideal. It was because they had strong convictions, and were true to them. It was because they were honest men, who dealt justly, if sharply, with one another. It was because they were clean-handed and clean-minded men, who hated lying, and fraud, and knavery, and all manner of iniquity with an invincible hatred, and were determined to stamp them out. It was because they were single-minded men, who did the work that came to their hands with all their might. And, above all, it was because they were men who feared God, and sought to build up a commonwealth which should beiramedin conformity with His laws, as they understood them. THE governor's RECEPTION. In the evening, from eight to eleven o'clock. Governor Ludlow held a reception in the Executive department at the State Capi- tol. The Senat'^rs, Assemblymen, State officers. Judiciary, and a large number of the citizens of the State and Trenton were present, and paid their respects to His Excellency. Prof. Peter- man n's orchestra was in attendance and furnished excellent music during the levee. The celebration was a very enjoyable and interesting one, and the manner in which it was carried out is highly creditable to the committee of arrangements. APPENDIX. The following "Notes" accompany Mr. Salter's address. They were preparedly that gentleman with considerable labor and trouble, and are published herewith as an appendix to his ad- dress : President Lincoln's Ancestry. The founder of the family was Samuel Lincoln, who came from Norwich, England, to Massachusetts; he had a son, Mor- decai 1st, of Hingham ; he in turn had sons, Mordecai 2d, born April 24, 1686 ; Abraham, born January 13, 1689 ; Isaac, born October 21, 1691, and a daughter, Sarah, born July 29, -l 694, as stated in Savage's Genealogical Dictionary. Mordecai 2d and Abraham moved to Monmouth county, N J-, where the hrst- named married a granddaughter of Captain John Bowne and his oldest son, born in Monmouth, was named John. About 1720 the Lincolns moved to Eastern Pennsylvania, where Mor- decai's first wife died, and where he married again. He died at Amity, Pa., and his will, dated February 23d, 1735, and proven June 7th, 1736, mentions wife Mary, and children John ihomas, Hannah,Mary,Ann, Sarah, Mordecai (born 1730). and ' a pros- pective child." Tlie latter proved a boy, and was named Abra- liam, who subsequentlv married Ann Boone, a cousin ot Daniel Boone. John Lincoln, the eldest son, with some of his neigh- bors, moved to Rockingham county, Virginia; he had sons, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas and John. John 1st died at Harrisonburg, Va. His oldest son, Abraham who was grand- father of President Lincoln, married Mary Shipley, of North Carolina, and had children Mordecai, Josiah, Thomas, Mary and Nancv About 1780-2 he moved to Kentucky with his brother Thomas. In the spring of 1784 Abraham, while planting in a field, was killed by an Indian. His son Thomas (President Lin- coln's father), who was then about six years old, was witli the father in the field, and the Indian tried to capture him, but was shot and killed by Mordecai, the oldest brother of the boy. Thomas Lincoln had only one son, Abraham, who became Pres- ident of the United States. 42 APPENDIX. Capt. John Bowne's Last Words. Judj^e George C. Beekman, of Freehold, states that the follow- ing is a copy of an old paper found among the private papers of an old Monmouth county family: "Some words of Advice and Council spoken by Capt. John Bowne to his children, as he lay on his death bed, January ve 3rd 16S|. " There is no way in the world for a man to obtain felicity in this world or in the world to come, but to take heed to the ways of the Lord and to put his trust in Him, who deals faithfully and truly with all men; for he knocks at the doors of your hearts and calls you to come and buy, without money and with- out price. *' My desire is, that in all actions of Meum and Tuum, you deal not deceitfully, but plain hearted with all men, and remem- ber that your dying Father left it with you for your instruction, that when trust is with your honor to preserve it. And in all contracts and bargains that you make violate not your promise, and you will have praise. Let your Mother be your counsellor in all matters of difference, and go not to lawyers, but ask her counsel first. If at any time, any of you have an advantage of a poor man at law, O pursue it not, but rather forgive him if he hath done you wrong, and if you do so, you will have help of the law of God and of his people. Give not away to youthful jollities and sports, but improve your leisure time in the service of God. Let no good man be dealt churlishly by you but enter- tain when they come to your house. But if a vicious, wicked man come, give him meat and drink to refresh him and let him j)ass by your doors. It has been many times in my thoughts, that for a man to marry a wife and have children, and never take care to instruct them, but leave them worse than the beasts of the field, so that if a man ask concerning the things of God, they know not what it means, this is a very sad thing. But if we can season our hearts so as to desire the Lord to assist us he will help us and not fly from us." Capt. Bowne continued as Speaker of the House of Dejiuties until December, 1G83, and it is probable he was taken ill l)elore the close of the month. He must have died shortly after giving the above " words of advice," as May 27th of the same year (1G84) there was executed an article of agreement signed by Lydia Bowne, as his widow and executrix, by which the estate was divided between the widow, his sons .John and Obadiah Bowne, Gershom Mott, and daughters Deborah, Sarah, and Catharine. APPENDIX. 43 PLACES WITH NEW JERSEY NAMES. The following are names of places in other States which may have been given by persons of New Jersey origin : Jersey Shore, Lycoming Co., Pa, Jersey Mills, Lycoming Co., Pa. Jerseytown, Columbia Co., Pa. Jerseyville, Jersey Co., 111. Jersey, Marion Co., Ind. Jersey, Oakland Co., Mich. Jersey, Licking Co., Ohio. There are postoffices named Monmouth in Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine and Oregon. Postoffices named Trenton are in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michi- gan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Caro- lina, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin. In thirteen States are postoffices named Newark. In about twenty States are Burlingtons, but some of these may be in com- pliment to the Vermont town of the same name. First Settlers of Monmouth County. The Monmoutli Patent was granted April 8th, 1665. Between that date and 1670, the persons named below had settled in the county, or aided in its settlement by paying for shares of land bought of the Indians. The place from whence each is known or supposed to have come is given as far as ascertained. Many of those from Rhode Island and Long Island can be traced back to Massachusetts. George Allen, Mass. George Chutte, R, I. John Allen, R. I. *Walter Clarke, R. L Christopher Allmey, R. I. Thomas Clifton, R. I. Job Allmey, R. I. *\Vm. Coddington, R I, Stephen Arnold, R. I. *Joshua Coggeshall, R. I. James Ashton, R. I. *John Coggesliall, R. I. John Bird. Edward Cole, R. I. Joseph Boyer. Jacob Cole. Benjamin Borden, R. I. Joseph Coleman. Richard Borden, R. I. John Cook, R. I. John Bowne, L. I. William Compton, L. I. Gexrard Bowne, L. I. John Conklin, L. I. *Francis Brindley, R. I. Thomas Cox, L. I. Nicholas Brown, R. I. John Cox, L. I. Abraham Brown, R. I. Edward Crome. *Henry Bull, R. I. *Nicholas Davis, R. I. *Robert Carr, R. I. Richard Davis, R. I. Wm. Cheeseman. William Deuell, R, I. 44 APPENDIX. Benjamin Deuell, R. I. Thomas Dungan, R. I. Roger Ellis and Son, R. I. Peter Easson (Easton), R. I. Daniel Estell. Gideon Freeborn, R. I. Annias Gauntt, R. I. *Zachary Gauntt, R. I. Israel Gauntt, R. I. Richard Gibbons, L. I. William Gilford, Mass. William Goulding, L. I. *Daniel Gould, R. I. Ralph Gouldsmith. James Grover, Sr., L. I. James Grover, Jr.. L. I. John Hall. John Hance, Wales (?) John Haundell. Thomas Hart. John Hav.es. John Havens, R I. Robert Hazard, R. I. James Heard. Richard Hartshorne, England. Tobias Haudson. Samuel Holliman(Holman),R.I. Obadiah Holmes, R. I. Jonathan Holmes, R. I. John Horabin. Joseph Iluit. Randall Huet, Sr. Randall Huet, Jr. George Hulett, R. I. Richard James, R. I. William James, R. I. *John Jenkins, Mass. Robert Jones, N. Y. John Jobs. Gabriel Kirk. Edmund Laletra. William Lawrence, L. I. William Lay ton, R. I. James Leonard, R. I. Henry Lippett, R. I. Richard Lip{)encott, L. I. Bariholomew Lij)})encott. L.I. Mark Lucur (Luker), R. I. Francis Masters. Lewis Mattux, R. I. Richard Moor. Thomas Moor, L. I. George Mount. William Newman. Anthony Page. Joseph Parker. Peter Parker. Henry Percy. Edward Pattison, R. I. Thomas Potter, R. L William Reape, R. I. Richard Richardson, R. I. John Ruckman, L. I. Richard Sadler. Barth. Shamgungue. William Shaberly, Barbadoes (?) Thomas Shaddock, R. I. Samuel Shaddock, R. I. William Shattock, R. I. William Shearman, R. I. John Slocum, R. I. *Nathaniel Sylvester, L. I. Richard Sissell. Edward Smith, R. L John Smith, R. I. Samuel Spicer, L. I. Robert Story. Richard Stout, L. I. John Stout, L. I. Edward Tartt. Robert Taylor, R. I. John Tomson. John Throckmorton, R. I. Job Throckmorton, R. I. * Ed ward Thurston, R. I. John Tilton, L. I. Peter Tilton. L. I. Nathaniel Tomkins. John Townseiid, L. I. John Wall, L. I. Walter Wall, L. I. Thomas Wansick. Marmaduke Ward. Eliakim Wardel, R. L George Webb. *Edward VVluirton, Mass. APPENDIX. 45 Robert West, Sr., R. I. Thomas Winterton. Robert West, Jr , R. I, John Wood. Bartholomew West, R, I. Emanuel Woolley, R. I. Tiiomas Whitlock, L. I. Thomas Wright. John Wilson. Notices of Members of the General Assembly, 1683. Thomas Rudyard, Deputy Governor. — The twenty-four pro- prietors selected Robert Barclay, the celebrated Quaker writer, as Govornor of the Province of East Jersey, with permission to remain in England. Governor Barclay appointed as his Deputy Thomas Rudyard, September 16th, 1682. His commission as Secretary and Register is given in New Jersey Archives vol. 1, p. 376. References to his commission as Deputy are made in Learning and Spicer, p. 166, and in New Jersey Analytical Index, p. 9. Rudyard arrived here from England, November 13th, 1682. He took his oaths as Secretary and Register Decem- ber 1st, 1682, and on the 10th of tiie same month he appointed his Council, as named in the Minutes of the Governor and Council 1682, before whom he was sworn into office as Deputy Governor December 20tb. Thomas Rudyard was originally from the town of Rudyard, in Staffordshire, but at the time of his appointment was a resi- dent of London. His legal attainments were thought to be of a high order, and it was probably from his connection with the trial of William Penn and William Mead, in 1670, for acting contrary to the provisions of the Conventicle Act, that made him acquainted with the East Jersey project. He took an active interest in promoting the views of the twenty-four proprietors, and his house in George Yard, Lombard street, became the depository of their papers, maps, &c., for the information of inquirers. *Tlie persons thus marked did not settle in the county, but paid for shares of land which they may have transferred to others. Henry Bull, William Coddington, Walter Clarke and .John Coggeshall were governors of Rhode Island ; Francis Brindley was a governor's assistant, judge, &c.; Joshua Coggeshall was governor's assistant, &c ; Edward Thurston, a deputy— all of Rhode Island. Nicholas Davis, the patentee, was drowned about 1672. Robert Carr sold his share to Giles Slocum, of Newport, for his son John Slocum, who settled on it. Zachary Gauntt, of New- port, sold his share to his brother Annias. 46 APPENDIX. The trial of William Penn and William Mead, with which Rndyard was connected, took place at Old Bailey, September 1st, 1670. Thev and others, to the number of 800, on the 14th of August preceding, " unlawfully and tumultuously did assemble and congregate themselves together to the disturbance of the peace." The Quakers being kept out of their meeting houses, went in the streets before them, and William Penn and others "did take upon themselves to speak " to them. Rudyard him- self, in the June preceding, had been subjected to several indict- ments in the same Court, prompted by his skilful defence of clients suffering from arbitrary proceedings of the authorities, and on one occasion his house was broken open in the dead of night and he apprehended "as a person suspected and dis- afJected to the peace of the kingdom." (Wiiitel)ead's East Jer- sey, pp. 164-5; New Jersey Archives, vol. 1, p. 376) Rudyard did not long retain his position as Deputy Governor. Gawen Lawrie, was appointed his successor by commission dated London, July, 1683, but he did not arrive in the province until the beginning of the following year, his commission being read in Council February 28th, 1684, as stated in the Minutes of the Council (page 100.) Rudyard retained the office of Secre- tary and Register until the close of 1685, when he left the province and went to Barbadoes. In Rudyard's letter of May 3rd, 1683, he describes the people of New Jersey thus: "They are generally a sober, ])rofessing people, wise in their generation, courteous in their behaviour, and respectful to us in office among them." William Pknn was one of the twelve purchasers of East Jer- sey' at the sale in 1(582, the particulars of which were given in the able address of Hon A. Q. Keasbey, entitled "The Bi-Cen- tennial of the Purchase of East Jersey by the Proprietors." de- livered before the New Jersey Historical Society, January 19th, 1882. Mr. Keasbey said : "On the first of February, 1682, the deed was made and de- livered, and twelve land speculators, headed by William Penn, became the sole owners in fee of all this fair domain, and from them must be traced the title to every lot and parcel of land which changes owners in East Jersey. And the direct successors of Penn and his eleven associates — still an organizerl body, with active managing olficers — own every acre of land which they have not sold, and every purchaser who wants to buy can now make his bargain with them, as purchasers did two hundred years iigo." During the course of the j'ear (1682) the twelve owners of the tract forming East Jersey conveyed one-half their interest to twelve others, to hold with them as tenants in common, and thus was formed the body of Twenty-Four Proprietors. William Penn came to America the same year, and landed at New Castle, Del- APPENDIX. 47 aware, October 27th. In November he went to New York, "to pay his duty to the Duke of York by visiting his province." He returned from this duty toward the end of the same month. Deputy Governor Rudyard,in a letter dated May 3d, 1683, says : " William Penn took a view of the land this last month when here, and said he had never seen such before in his life." In the Minutes of the Governor and Council, March, 1683, he is named as being present in the Council from the first to the sixth of the month, inclusive. Samuel Groome came to East Jersey in November, 1682, ac- companying Deputy Governor Rudyard, as Surveyor and Re- ceiver General. He is styled "mariner of Stepney," and is first mentioned, in connection with America, as being in command of a vessel of his own, that was in some port in Maryland, 1676. His touching at West Jersey on his way back to England, was probably the cause of his becoming connected with the East Jerse}' Proprietors. His letters preserved in " Scots Model," in- dicate that he was much pleased with the province. He died in 1683, leaving in the stocks at Perth Amboy, unfinished, the first vessel known to have been built in Eas't Jersey. His proprietary right was transferred to William Dockwra in July of the same year. (N. J. Archieves, Vol. 1, p. 527.) Col. Lewis Morris was originally from Monmouthshire, Eng- land, and there inherited the paternal estate of Tintern. He raised a troop of horse for parliament, for which Charles the First confiscated his estate. In return for his losses Cromwell subsequently indemnified him. He early embraced Cromwell's cause, and having signalized himself on several occasions so as to win Cromwell's regard, he was selected in 1654 to proceed to the West Indies with an expedition intended to secure the mastery of these seas. While there he received a Colonel's com- mission, and was second in command upon the attack on Ja- maica. Having a nephew settled at Barbadoes, he was induced to purchase an estate on that island. And not deeming it ad- visable to return to England after the restoration, he subse- quently became part owner of the Island of St. Lucia, and took up his abode permanently in the West Indies, remaining there until the death of his brother Richard in New York, when he came on about 1673. (Boltons History West Chester Co. N. Y.) Mr. Whitehead in his history of East Jersey says that Ct)l. Morris had granted to him Oct. 25th, 1676, 3,540 acres of land in old Shrewsbury township, to which he gave the name of Tintern, afterwards corrupted to Tinton, after his paternal estate in Mon- mouthshire, England. In 1680 it is said he had here " iron mills, his manor, and divers other buildings for his servants and dependants. " Col. Morris is named as being present in the council until Aug. 16, 1683. In February of the following year the minutes 48 APPENDIX. state that Col. Lewis Morris "being mostly absent and living in New York," and Capt. Palmer and Laurens Andriessen not able to attend, others were selected in their places. Monmouth county owes its name to Col. Lewis Morris. It was given in an act passed March 13th, 1683, at which time three other counties, Essex, Bergen and Middlesex, were established. Capt. John Palmer lived on Staten Island. When Governor Andros left New York, in 1680, to meet the Assembly of New Jersey, his wife. Lady Andros, with nine or ten gentlewomen, acconipanied him, and at Capt. Palmer's they stayed all night; from this it would seem that his dwelling must have been of con- siderable pretensions for that day. He was a])pointed by Dei)uty Governor Rudyard as a member of his Council in December, 1682. When Deputy Governor Gawen Lawrie arrived to suc- ceed Rudyard, he presented his commission before the Council February 28th, 1684; there were then only three members pre- sent, viz., Majors Sandford,and Berry and Benjamin Price. The new Deputy Governor stated that "Captain Palmer of the late Council, by reason of his public employ in the Province of New York, desired a discharge from the service of the Board." And as Col. Morris and Laurens Andriessen also did not attend, he named others in their place. (Minutes Council, pages 100-1.) Captain William Sandford came from the West Indies, July 4th, 1668; he was granted all the meadows and upland lying south of a line drawn from the Hackensack to the Passaic, seven miles north of their intersection, comprising 5,308 acres of up- land, and 10,000 acres of meadow, for £20 per annum ; and on the twentieth of the same month he purchased the Indian title for the same. He was appointed by Governor Piiilip Carteret as one of his Council, 1675; also by Deputy Governor Rudyard to the same po.sition, 1682, and by Deputy Governor Lawrie in 1683, and until 1686. He was commissioned as Major of the militia for Essex County, December, 1683. His plantation was considered within the jurisdiction of Newark. He died 161)2. Captain John Berry in June 16(59, witii associates, received a grant of land adjoining Captain Sandford's extending north " six miles into the country ;" lie had also a grant for land on the Hudson, north of Hoboken. Wlien Carteret left for I^iighind in 1672, Capt. Berry, was appointed by him as Deputy Governor in his absence and continued as such during the brief rule of the Dutch, and the following year. He was commissioned as Major of the militia, December 1683, for the county of Bergen. He con- tinued to be one of the Cou cil under different administrations until 1()'.)2, when it is presumed he died. He is supposed to have come originally from Connecticut. LouRENS Andriessen, whose name in the minutes of the Council is given as Lawrence Anderson, and in New Jersey Archives as Andries, Anders, Andrus, &c., was a native of Hoi- APPENDIX. 49 • stein in Denmark, and came to tliis country in the summer of 1655. His name first appears in tiie records of New Amsterdam, (New York,) June 29th, 1656, in a deed for a lot on Broad street. Shortly after the settlement of Bergen he purchased a tract of land in what is now Greenville. He was a man of more than ordinary ability for his times, and soon acquired great influence with his neighbors. He was a member of the Council for several years, being first appointed March 1672; in that year he signed his name as one of the Council, and it will be seen by the fac simile in Whitehead's East Jersey, page 299, 2d edition, that he gave it as Andress. He sometimes added after his name "Van Boskerck," and his descendants assumed the name of Van Bus- kirk, and are now numerous in Hudson county. He helcl various public positions and died in 1694. A sketch of this famil}' is given in Winfield's History of Hudson county. Benjamin Price was one of the first associates of Elizabeth- town, to which place became from East Hampton, Long Island. He was much respected and held various public positions, such as justice, deput}^ member of Council, &c. He lived to an ad- vanced age, dying between 1705 and 1712. His name is fre- quently mentioned in ancient records of Elizabethtown, as may be seen by reference to Hatfield's history of that place. Captain John Bowne came to Middletown, N. J., from Graves- end, L. I. He was one of the twelve men named in the noted Monmouth Patent of 1665. He was one of the original settlers of Middletown, and one of the founders of the Baptist church there — the oldest of that society in the State. Until his death in the early part of 1684, he seems to have been the most prom- inent citizen of the county, esteemed for his integrity and ability. He appeared as a deputy to the first assembly in Carteret's time, which met May 26th, 1668, the members of the lower house then being cklled "burgesses." He was deputy again 1675, after Phillip Carteret's return from England; and in the first legisla- ture under the Twenty-four Proprietors, 1683, he was a member and Speaker, and acted until the December following. He held other positions of trust. March 12, 1677, a commission was is- sued to him as President of the Court to hold a court at Middle- town. In December, 1683, shortly before his last illness, he was appointed Major of the militia of Monmouth county. He died in the early part of 1684. Richard Hartshorne was a Quaker of good reputation and benevolent dispo.sition, who was said to be " brother to Hugh Hartshorne, the upholsterer in London," by George Fox, in his journal, 1672. He came to this country in September, 1669, and located at the Highlands, where descendants have since lived. In an affidavit made by him in 1716 he says he was 75 years of age, by which it would appear he was born about 1641, and about 28 years old when he came here. He was named for High 50 APPENDIX. • Sheriff of Monmoutli county in 1G83, but declined the office. He held various positions of trust in the county; was deputy sev- eral years, and Speaker 1686, a member of the Council 1684- 98-9, etc. In the Minutes of the General Assembly, pages 122- 3, it is stated that Gov. Dongan, of New York, issued a writ ad- dressed to the authorities of New Jersey ordering the arrest of Richard Hartshorne, then Speaker, and that he be taken to New York for trial, which the Council refused to execute. What was the offence charged against Hartshorne is not stated. Joseph Parker was an original settler and associate patentee of Monmouth. He filled various positions of trust; was Justice or Judge of the Court 1676-9, commissioner to lay out high- ways, deputy, etc., and died about 1685. In the Minutes of 1683, pages 62-4, is a statement of matters of difference between the proprietors and council on one hand, and Joseph Parker, John Bowne and Richard Hartshorne on the other, relating to the disputes between the first settlers of Monmouth, who claimed their titles under the Patent granted by Col. Nichols, 1665, and akso by purchase of the Indians. The settlers had held their land by what they considered valid titles, had built houses, mills, established farms, etc . and they made determined resist- ance to what they considered the unreasonable demands and aggressions of the proprietors and their agents, and their opposi- tion continued until it occasionally broke out in forcible resist- ance to the proprietors' government. In 1701 the people of Monmouth seized the Governor and Justices, Attorney General and Clerk of the Court, and kept them prisoners from March 25th to March 29th. The j^eople concerned in this affair were of the most honest, respected class in the county; the}'^ considered their rights trampled ui)on by the proprietors and would not yield them without an earnest contest. These disputes between the first settlers and the pro- prietors, was one cause of so many persons leaving New Jersey end settling in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In fa6t the ques- tion of the legal rights and claims of the proprietors, after a lapse of two hundred years, yet remains unsettled in some par- ticulars, as suits are now in courts in this State contesting some of their claim.s. John Hance was one of the original settlers of Shrewsbury. He is named as a deputy and overseer at a court held at Port- land Point, December 28, 1669. He held various positions in the county, among which was justice and that of " schej)en," to which he was apj)ointed by the Dutch, during their brief rule, in 1673. It is said that he c