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REMINISCENCES 



OP 



OLD GLOUCESTER: 



OR 



INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



COUNTIES OF GLOUCESTER. ATLANTIC AND CAMDEN. 

NEW JERSEY. 



The spacious Delaware through future song^ 
Shall roll in graceful majesty along ; 
Each grove and mountain shall be sacred made 
As now are Cooper's hill and Windsor's shade. 

Poems of Nathaniel Evans, p. 120. 



x^'/:. 



BY ISAAC MICKLE, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

Published by Townsend Ward, 

No. 45 South Fourth St, 
1845. 



-^ \^\ 



A^^' 



CURTS, PRINTER, PHOENIX OFFICE, CAMDEN, N. J. 



PREFACE, 



The author of the following pages has attempted little more than to collect, and present at one 
view, those recorded items relating to his native county which he found scattered through the 
writings of nearly an hundred men. He has been careful in copying these items to cite his au- 
thorities, and the detection, therefore, of any errors in this part of his work will cost the reader but 
little trouble. Such errors it has been the author's careful study to avoid ; and he flatters himself 
that he has in a great measure succeeded. 

But twenty reasons forbid him to express the same confidence with reference to those incidents 
gathered from oral testimony which are now for the first time presented to the public. He has 
rarely found two legends of the same event to agree in all material points, and has been obliged 
therefore to apply his own judgment to the evidence, and make as near an approximatiorx to the 
truth, as, under all the circumstances, he could. If any one should detect inaccuracies in conclu- 
sions thus formed, the author will gladly brook his animadversion, if it only be attended with infor- 
mation which may lead to a more correct version in a subsequent edition. 

An acknowledgement is due to many gentlemen who have contributed material for this brochure' 
The author begs leave in particular to refer to the kindness of his Excellency Charles C. Strattom 
of Swedesboro', to J. Fennimore Cooper, Esq., of Cooperstown, N. Y., to the late Joseph Hugg, 
Esq., of Burlington county, to Mr. Lemuel H. Davis, of Camden, and to Doctor Saunders, of Wood- 
bury, from each of whom much valuable information was derived relating to the Revolutionary 
history of Gloucester county. 

As for the style of these sketches, a sufficient apology will be found in the fact that they were 
intended originally merely for publication in the columns of a newspaper. Their appearance ia 
this form is the result of a suggestion from some of the author's friends, that they would thus bet- 
ter answer the end for which they were written, to wit. the awakening of the people of old Glouces- 
ter to an interest in their local history. This has been too long a neglected subject ; yet it is one 
to the study of which pride, patriotism and good sense alike impel us. It is one much better 
worth mastering than any of the fables and we might add, than half the realities which the young 
are sent to college to learn. True knowledge, as true charity, begins at home ; and he commences 
the fabric of his education at the summit instead of tlie base, who neglects the history of his very home 
to get from poets, or less truthful orators and historians, a precise knowledge of places and things 
which most likely never existed — or which if they did exist, it were better we had never heard of. 
Should these Reminiscences put any young son of Gloucester upon the true path to knowledge, 
and give him a desire to learn more of the eventful story of his native soil, the author's labsrs will 
have been requited. 

Camden, ^. J., Dec, 1844. 



REMINISCENCES 



OF 



OLD GLOUCESTER. 



CHAPTER L 

THE LOCALITIES OF THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES 
ON THE EAST BANK OF THE DELAWARE. 

Wide stretching from these shores — 
■A people savage from remoleat time, 
A huge, neglecied empire — 

Thomson's Winter, 951. 

The accounts that have been preserved 
of the Indians Uving upon the Delaware 
at the arrival of the Europeans, are for 
the most part locked up either in very 
rare books or inlanj^uaj^es which few only 
can understand. Enough of them how- 
ever is accessible to inform us of the 
names, numbers and precise localities of 
all the considerable tribes, and even to 
give us a full idea of their manners and 
customs, and their religious and political 
peculiarities. 

The aborigines of New Jersey be- 
longed to the great family of the Dela- 
wares, or as they called themselves, the 
Lenni-Lennape, or First People.--' Of 
all the rivers in their wide domains the 
Delaware was their favorite. They hon- 
ored it with the name of Lennape -Whit- 
tuck or stream of the Lennape ; and on 
its eastern side above the great bend, at 
a place which was called Chichohacki or 
the Tumbling Banks, from the frefjuent 

• History of the Delaware and Iroquois Indians, 
Phil., 1832, p. 22. 

B 



caving in of the shores, "a large Indian 
town," says the legend recorded by 
Moulton,^' "had been for many years to- 
gether where the great chief had re- 
sided." The country over which this 
chief had the name of ruling was called 
Scheyichbi, and nearly tallied in extent 
with the present limits of our State. 

Of the relative situation of the various 
tribes on the eastern bank of the Dela- 
ware, De Laet and Master Evelin have 
left us very definite accounts. From the 
former| we learn that on the smaller ri- 
ver which empties into the Delaware 
Bay a little below the Delaware, now 
called Maurice River, the Sevvaposees 

*Yutes' and Moulton's New York, I, p. 225. 
The town was on the site of Trenton. 

t Nevus Orbis, Lib. III. Chap. 12. The follow- 
ing-islhe account in theorig'inii! : "Quurn pleni- 
or hujus fluminis [the Delaware-] notitia ad nos 
nondum pervenerit, plura de iilo dicere superse- 
deo. Hoc unum addo, varias nationes Barbaro- 
rum ripas illius accolere et interiores regiones pos- 
sidcre. Ad minorem amneni qui in sinum egre- 
dilur paulum infra majoris Jluvii fauces, dpg-unt 
Sewaposii : statiin intra majoris fauces, ad dex- 
tram quidem Siconessii, ad sinistram autem Min- 
quasy; ulterius ascendcntibus obvii fiunt Narati- 
cong-y, Mantaesy, Armewamexy, qui omnes ad 
dextram ripam juxla viinores amnes qm in majus 
flumcn iufluimt, accoluut en ordiiie quern cxpres- 
sirnus ; reinotiores a ripasiint i\Iseroahkon{,ry, Atn- 
akaraongky, Remkokes, Minquosy sive Machoer- 
eritini, Atsayongy : omnium rcmolissimi M.illi- 
kongy et Saakikancs." 



« 



THE KRKCTION OV 



dwelt. Just above the outlet of the Del- 
aware on the rij^ht, about Cohansey, 
Mere the Siconesses, opposite to whom 
on the western shore lived the Min- 
quas. Ascenihnfj liulher, he met tlie 
Naraticons upon tlie Racoon,''^ the Man- 
teses on JVlantua Creek, and the Arme- 
wainexes on Timber Creek. Further up 
the river he mentions the Ma'roahkon«;s, 
the Amaronj^s, the Rancocas, the Min- 
quose(^s or Macha>rentinees, the Atsions, 
the Matiikongees and Sanhigans ; all 
which tribes resided between Timber 
Creek and the falls of Trenton, and 
doubtless in the very order in which the 
careful Do Laet has named them. 

In Master Evelin's letterf several of 
the same clans are mentioned, aud their 
number of warriors respectively given. 
He enumerates the Kechemeches, a tribe 
near Cape May, v.' ho mustered fifty men; 
the Siconesses ; the Manteses, who had a 
hundred bowmen; and tlieir eqtially po- 
tent neighbors who dwelt upon the Aso- 
roches. Next to him, on the Peusaukin, 
lived Eriwoneck, the kiii^ of forty men ; 
and hero our author says the new Albion 
colony, of which he was one, sat down. 
Five miles above, on the stream still bear- 
ing the name of its first masters, dwelt 
the king of Ramcock with a hundred 
men ; and four miles higher, about the site 
of Burlington, was the king of Axion 
with two hundred. The last tribe were 
more numerous than any of tlie others, 
and extended from the Assicunk to Mul- 
lica River, one of the branches of which 
still retains the narae of Atsion.:]: 

To avoid any apparent inconsistency 
in the accounts of De Laet and Evelin, 
\ve must remember that the former al- 
ways gives the name of the people, while 
the latter sometimes gives the name of 
the place, or its kings. Thus Evelin 
speaks of the river of Asoroches, or Coop- 
er's Creek, the tribe inhabiting which 
De Laet calls Mieroahkongs. Thus 

* Vide Lindstrom's map. 

t Beanchainp Pl;inta^'cnet's New Albion, writ- 
ten in 1018, page '20. 

t A tribe calked the Yacomansliagkings lived, 
it seems by Thomas' map, somcwiiere in tlie inte- 
rior of old Gloucester county ; but it is not men- 
Hiionod Oy any other autlior. 



too the former mentions Eriwonec, a 
king on Pensnukin, whose tribe accord- 
ing to the latter, called themselves Ama- 



rongs. 



From this pompous catalogue of clans, 
one might suppose that the eastern bank 
of the Delaware teemed with many thou- 
sand savages ; but such was not the case. 
Master Evelin, who wrote in the lifth 
decade of the seventeenth century, says : 
"I doe account all the Indians to be eight 
hundred;" and Oldmixou''- in 170S com- 
putes that they had been reduced to one 
((uarter of that number; which estimates 
are probably very near the truth. 

Many details, illustrating the appear- 
ance, institutions, and customs of the 
above named tribes are met with in the 
old Dutch, Swedish and English histo- 
rians of the Delaware. These being mat- 
ters of some interest, will form the sub- 
ject of a future chapter. 



CHAPTER n. 

THE ERECTION OF FORT NASSAU. 

S»tU est iDamabilc regnum 
Achpcxisie f cmet ! 

Ovid, Met. XIK 79. 

The planting of colonies in a strange 
land, where an untamed nature and a 
race of untameable men conspire to olfer 
opposition, is no easy work. The ad- 
venturers in such an enterprise must pos- 
sess much hardiness to undertake it, and 
nothing but the g^reatest caution and de- 
termination can secure its permanent suc- 
cess. 

The Europeans who settled upon the 
shores of the Delaware underwent ma- 
ny trials, and Civilization more than once 
abandoned her new home, as if hopeless 
of obtaining a foot-hold against the per- 
ils that surrounded her. Some of her pi- 
oncers were animated by a desire for 
gain, and others by a love for novelty — 
passions too weak to lead to any diffi- 
cult achievement. It was not, therefore, 
until the advent of a third people, prompt- 
ed by an invincible attachment to liber- 
ty, that the refinements of the Christian 

* British Empire in America, I. p. 141. 



FOKT NASSAU. 



world took firm root in tlie soil of West 
Jersey. Of the empires of these three 
nations, so far as they have any interest 
to the denizens of old Gloucester, we 
shall speak in order ; and firstly of the 
Dutch. 

The earliest settlement in this country 
— the earliest indeed upon the eastern 
bank of the Delaware — was made by 
Captain Cornelius Jacobese Mey, sailinj^ 
in the employ of the second West India 
Company of Holland. To this company 
the fStates General had in 1621"" granted 
an immense tract of territory upon the 
seaboard of America, which they claimed 
)>y virtue of the occupancy of Henry 
Hudson, an Englishman bearing tlieir 
Hag, and the first European who landed 
upon our shores. 

Captain Mey brought with him a num- 
ber of persons, and all the necessary 
means for building a colony. f He en- 
tered Delaware Bay, as historians with 
wonderful unanimity are agreed, in 1623, 
and gave his name to the Jersey cape. 
As the place for his settlement he fixed 
upon Hermaomissing:}; at tlie mouth of 
the iSassackon, the most noi'therly branch 
of Gloucester River, or Timber Creek, 
as the English afterwards called it "from 
the great quanlities of curious tim.ber," 
says old Gabriel Thomas, "which they 
gend in great floats to Philadelphia." \\ 
Here he built a fort of logs, and named it 
Nassau, in honor of a town in the circle 
of the Upper Rhine in Germany. This 
fortification doubtless seemed formidable 
to the Indians, who beheld with seeming 
indilFerence the felling of their ancient 
forests and the upturning of their useless 
fields. The peace thus built upon the 
fears of the natives was much strength- 
ened by a mutual love for barter: for 
where each party believes he is ciieat- 
ing the other, there is no danger that 
commerce will be interrupted. 

How long Mey occupied Fort Nassau, 
or what was the cause of his departure, 

* Macauley's History of New York, II. p. 285, 
t Gordon's New Jersey, p. 7. 
t Clay's Annals of" the Swedes on the Delaware, 
p. 16. 
§ History of West Jersey, p. 28. 



history and legend tell us not. We only 
know that the next ship that was sent up 
the Delaware found tlie post in the pos- 
session of the savages, and the country 
entirely deserted by the Europeans. "- 
The captain, wherever he steered, bore 
with him the esteem of the natives, who 
long contrasted his good conduct with the 
cruelties and wrongs of his successors, 
and wished either that he had never come 
among them or that he had staid forever. 

The second essay of the Dutch to ef- 
fect an establishment on the Zuydt Riv- 
ier (as they called the Delaware, in con- 
tradistinction to the North River) was 
made under David Pieterson De Vries, 
who am/ed in 1631, eight years after the 
erection of Fort Nassau, bringing with 
him a colony of thirty-four persons and 
the proper impkments for the raising of 
icbacco and grain, and the carrying on 
of whale and seal fisheries.| His first 
landing at Hoornekill, on the west side 
of the bay, was marked b}^ a gross out- 
rage upon the feelings and rights of the 
hitherto friendly Indians ; and Osset who 
acted as duputy during a visit of De Vries 
to his father land, soon after forced the 
natives to bring him the head of one of 
their number, for having removed the 
arms of the States General, which as a 
badge of Dutch dominion, had been set 
aloft upon a column. ± These wrongs 
provoked the red man's anger, and Os- 
set and all his companions were murder- 
ed in a brutal and treacherous manner. 
It is probable that some of the colonists 
had possession at that time of the im- 
provements on the Sassackon : and if so, 
they shared the same fate with their more 
sea-wtird brethren. 

Thus, tv/o hundred and twenty-one 
years ago, was established the first em- 
pire of the Dutch on the Delaware. Old 
Gloucester has the honor of having been 
selected as the site of their capital, and 
the scene of the first essay to settle and 
civilize West Jersey. But alas for the 
changes of time ! not even the locality 
of the once liimous Nassau is now pre- 

*Gordon, p. 9. 

t Clay's Annals, p. 12; and Gordon, ubi snpra. 

t Gordon, p. 10. 



4 



THE STRATEGY OF THK TIMMEUK-ILL. 



cisi^iy known.* Wo are told it was at 
Gloucestor Point, t and that, I'roin the 
elevation of" the land and the narrowness 
of the river, is certainly the most likely 
j)lace in the vicinity of the Sassackon. 
Perhaps centuries hence some delver 
into the bowels of tiie earth will strike 
amon^ the hrokiMi pipe-stems of Myn- 
heer, and reveal to the world the lonjj 
forgotten spot. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE STRATKGY OF TIIE TlMMKKKilJ,, AND 
THE UEPAKTUKE OF DE VIUES. 

— sn:\kr<; arc in the iinsonis of (heir race: 
AikI tliiMijli llipv belli willi us a IVicmlly lalt, 
Tlic hollow [ifaie-Ircp fill Ixiu.itli (litii lomnhank I 
CampuELL, Gei: of ly^j. 1. xvi. 

The satiric Byroii."[: thouj^ht it ridicu- 
lous that a man with the christening^ of 
Ainos Cottle should attempt to make po- 
etry; and some of our readers who join 
wiihthe noble rake in his contempt for 
familiar names, miji;;ht laugh at the preten- 
sions of Cot)per's Creek to any thing of 
historic dignity. To avoid, then, giving 
oirence to such Ihstidiousears, and at the 
same time to preserve the character of a 
faithful chronicler, we call the incident 
we are about to relate, the strategy of the 
Timmerkill ; that having been the name of 
the stream in (juestion in the time of De 
Vries,(^ and, indeed, (as appears from 
the map drawn by Nicolas Visscherus) 
for many years afterwards. || And now 
for the incident itself, which shows at 
once in the stron«r(;st liiiht the worst and 
best traits of the Indian character. 

Upon the return of De Vries from 
llolUmd in December, 1632, he "found 
no signs of the colony he ejqiected to 
meet, save their sculls and bones strewed 

* New .Tersey Historical Collections by Barber 
and !Iowe, p. I2l)7. 

+ See .Mr. Rudman's account of Nassau, Clay's 
Annals, p. 1.^. 

; b^nfjlish Bards and Scotch Reviewers, v. 393. 

M'ordon (ciiing- Dc Vries' Journal) p. 10. 

I! In l.indstroni's Map, drawn in 1655, Coop- 
er's CrccU is called Miorte-kilcn — bj' which name 
or hy lliat ofDeer Occk it is always dcsijijnaled 
in Swedish authors. — See Duponeeau, in I'rcf. to 
(^'aiupaiiius, a, and Cain^Janius, p. -IS. 



over the face of the ground."* Tho 
tremblins: natives confessed the massa- 
ere of Osset and his companions, and 
feigned great penitence for the act. 
Preferring to pardon where it was dan- 
gerous to punish, and being, moreover, 
iilmost out of provisions, he formed 
another treaty, and stipulated for a sup- 
l)ly of venison and corn. Under the pre- 
text of fulfilling their engagement, but 
still animated by a deadly hate of tho 
ravishers of their wives, the Indians de- 
coyed the Admiral from the renowned 
Nassau, where probably the negociation 
had been concluded, and persuaded him 
to enter with his vessel and crew into 
the said Timmerkill, representing them- 
selves to have copious stores of proven- 
der upon that stream, which he could 
readily ship. 

The unsuspecting Dutchman accord- 
ingly pre])ared to ascend the creek; tho 
wish of the natives probably being to 
get him as far as the bluff which we 
now call Ward's Mount, where the bank 
rises abruptly on the south side to a 
considerable height, while the channel 
opposite is partially filled with rocks 
tliat hav<^ become detached and rolled 
down. The wily Indians having ground- 
ed the little lugger at this ])lace, could 
from the impending hill have assailed 
her at gnnit advantage ; and indeed so 
they might if she had grounded in any 
other part of the stream. 

But asking for bread and getting a 
stone, was not quite the luck of the 
Dutchmen ; for an Indian girl came on 
board of the vessel secretly ere it had 
r(\ached the fatal place, and laid bare 
the designs of her countrymen, who 
she said had lately murdered the crew 
of one vessel up the Timmerkill, and 
now meant to add the slaughter of 
another. Thus the wide world over, 
do we find gentle woman laboring to 
counteract the cruelties of man — pre- 
venting if she may, the l)low tliat iui- 
pends, or if it must fall, blunting its 
edge, and averting itsefl'ects, regardless 
of the risk to herself. This nameless 
heroine perilled her life to save Dc Vries. 

* Clay's Annals, p. 13. 



THE ADVENT OK THE SWEJUES. 



Had her kind office been discovered by 
her tribe, she would doubtless have 
suffered the worst tortures which their 
resentmeut could have suj^{(ested. Iler 
jjenerous bravery in the cause of mercy 
does much to alleviate the dark traits 
in the character of the Indian, and she 
deserves to be remembered forever, as 
an ornament to her sex and her race.'-' 

Thus put upon his ^uard the Admiral 
immediately returned to head-quarters 
at the mouth of the Sassackon ; ]>ut here 
the designs of the enemy had been 
fully cari-ied out. Expecting of course 
that De Vries and his comrades would 
be duly despatched in the upper creek, 
they had already assailed, carried, and 
begun to pillage the evacuated fort. In 
the midst of their exulting dance, the 
admiral hove in sight — not floating with- 
out his scalp upon the tide — but main- 
taining his upright on the deck of his 
lugger, and near a dire swivel which 
never perhaps till that day had received 
a swabbing. The Indians were at first 
somewhat disconcerted, but they soon 
surrounded him in their canoes, and lifty 
of their warriors boarded the vessel. — 
Now it is a part of Dutch philosophy to 
try the mildest means first; and true to 
this principle. Admiral De Vries did not 
employ the swivel aforesaid against his 
savage invaders, but told them tliat 
Manitou, their great spirit had revealed 
their treachery; and then suggested to 
them the propriety of withdrawing, be- 
fore the same Manitou should direct the 
use of the big thunder. They immedi- 
ately followed his advice ; and this 
bloodless capture and reprisal in the 
waters of Gloucester certainly constitute 
the first if not the most illustrious naval 
engagement of which we have any certain 
details, in the Niew Nederlands of the 
South River. 

Another treaty was soon nilvr made, 
notwithstanding the I'unic faith of the 
Arniewamexes — for so we have seen the 
tribe on Timber Creek was called — and 
the Admiral again smoked his pipe in 

* A well written talc, founded on this circum- 
stance, and called, we think, " Yacouta, a legend of 
VVest Jersey," was published ahoul a ycat ago la 
Miss Leshu's Magazine. 



peace behind the logs of famed Nassau. 
He probably felt, however, that he held 
his scalp in tenancy at sufferance ; for he 
soon left the Delaware with all his 
colonists and implements, and true to 
Holland economy took back with him to 
the father-land even the bricks he had 
brought out wherewithal to build houses ; 
and with him departed forever the un- 
disputed eui|)ire of the States General 
over the country of which we are 
treating. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ADVENT OF THE SWEDES, AND ACCES- 
SION OF JOHN I. 

— ignota in veste reporlat 
Advtuisse virus. 

ViRG. JEn. VII. 167. 

The second people who settled upon 
the Delaware were the Swedes; and their 
advent has been fixed, by several histo- 
rians who have followed the cureless 
Campanius,-"- as far back as 1G31 or even 
1627. t But Campanius says himself J 
that the Dutch had abandoned the coun- 
try entirely when the Swedes came, and 
we have seen that the fort on the Sas- 
sackon was occupied down to 1633, 
Moreover as Clay\3 observes, it is admit- 
ted on all hands that the first Swedish 
fort was built in the reign of Christina 
after whom it was named, and we know 
she was not crowned for some time after 
1631. It may have been however that a 
few straggling Swedes found their way 
to the Delaware during the empire of 
the D(.itch ; and that thus Campanius was. 
misled. 

From the departure of De Vries in 
1633, the Dutch occasionally camo 
around to Fort Nassau to trade with the 
Indians, but it does not appear that they 
endeavored or even wished to maintain 
a colony on the Delaware. Prcsumirijg 
more, we imagine, upon this want of oc- 

* Page 79. 

t Holmes' Annals, I. p. 242; Smith's New Jer- 
sey, p. 22; Johnson's Salem, p. 7; Alucauley'sj 
New York, 11. pfSOS. 

t r'age (IS. 

§.'\iiiials of the Swedes on the Delaware, p. id. 



r> 



rUK ADVKNT DK THK SWKPKS. 



ninrmrv tlian tlio cession of tho Duloli 
rii^lit i>t' uliirli Cnmpjinins sponks,* \\\o 
Swtulos uml(M' MtMunvt' in U);>St built dio 
I'ort !uul town of Cliristiaiia, near whore 
\N ilininjitcni now j;(:uu1s. jiiuI htiil tlio 
touiulationofihoompiiv ot Now Swodoii. 
'I lu>so now oouiors found Nassau in ru- 
ins — "uttorly (lostrovod l>v tlio Indians" 
says Cainpanius,:}: "and all who were 
ihortMn nnudtM-o(l or (h"i\on away." It 
was rt^lniilt, howovor, by its oldniastors, 
(^who soon roiurnod to watch tho intru- 
do rs upon ihoir ri';lits) and iig-un^l in ii;o 
rovohitions of after da vs. 

Nt>r was tlie renovation of Nassau the 
1 nly inrriu<;en'.ent upon tiie possession of 
t'ne Swedt^s. A company orEnj::lisb.!nen 
from New lUiveu, scttUnl in lii U^\ on 
the site o\' Salem, and bejran with Sax- 
on detennination to establish a col(.>ny. 
And thus four nations, speaking: four dis- 
tinct lani::uap^s, enjoyed for a time tho 
banks oi' the Delawi^re in conmion, and 
lived in peace with each other. 

Tho Swedisli star however was in tho 
ascendant. The colony at Christiann 
increaseil rapidly in stivaj;h, end bepai 
to exercise the superiority which it felt 
(iver Itscotenanis. In UvWjI JohnPrintz, 
John 1. of Tinicum, armed with a royal 
(Conmiission as Covernor, came out from 
f?weden, and superceded Peter lloUen- 
<^are (the successor o! Menewe) in tho 
direction of aiVuirs.*; From tliis epoch 
we must date the establishment of tho 
tirst civili/ed <xovern!uent on tb.e South 
Kiver; the Dutch and nnerlish having 
onjoytHl a return of Ovid's g-olden ajre, 
in which "erani sine iudice tuti,"-''^* un- 
less indeed the lofrend be true, that com- 
mander iienewe had doled out justice to 
the men of Nassiuift ""til a quarn^Iwith 
his subjects compelled hint to fly to Hol- 
land, and afterwards led him to espouse 
-the interests of Sweden. 

Befow the arrival of John 1. the 
Swedish a^ients had purchased of the 

t AcrcUiis, citrJ by Cl;»v p. \9. t^ordon. p. 11. 
t Ubi supra. " ^ Oluy's Annals, p. 2',>, 

|] l«tem, p. 50 ; Gonlon, p. lo. 
1i Clay's AiiiKils, p. 17. ** .Motainor., I. ver.93. 
+tOi:iv's Anniiis, j>. IG; and sec Macaalcy's 
Kow York, II. p. ','^6. 



Indians all tho land from (^ipo INiay to 
H:ico(m, in order to circumviMJt the Kn«:^- 
lish scpiatters at Salem; and his sub- 
Majesty was instructed to procure their 
removal b\' lair means, or to unite them 
with his colony."'-" Hut persuasion lail- 
inji: to induce tho Fin<;lislnnen to leave 
their improveuuMits, tlu> Swedes and 
Dutch united and expelled them by 
fo^ct^•t and Jolin 1. iuunediately built 
Fort Klsinborj:: at tho mouth of Salem 
Creek to prevent the exiles from return- 
inji-.j: This place, however, heiu};- in the 
neijihborhood of low marshes, wasnmch 
infested wiih juusqnitoes, prodijiious 
swarms of which attacked the jiarrison 
uutl forceil them to retreat. The fort 
from this circiujistnnco was nicknamed 
Myjr^enborji-. that is to say Musciuitoo 
Fort ; and it was demolished by tho 
Swedes themselvesi^S after Stuyvesant, 
with more leniency than its t'onner as- 
sailants had nrade it a bloodless prize. 

The capital of New- Sweden waslixed 
on Tinicum (or Temiekonji,- as the abori- 
jiincs called it") a well knowji island op- 
posite the shore of Cireenwich Township, 
which is now a township itself, and ji 
famous one from a pleasantry currtMit 
about election time amonj; Pennsylvania 
politicians. II Here John 1. built Fort New 
Cottenbor"-. *'He also caused to be built 
thert>" says his nunute chronicler,'" "a 
mansion f*u" hhnself and his family, which 
was very handsome. There was like- 
wise a fine orchard, a pletisure house 
and other conveniences. He called it 
Print/ Hall. On this island the princi- 
pal inhabitants had their dwellings and 
plantations." 

John 1. governed the destinies of the 
Swedeland Stream for ten years, and it 
seems with a pretty Isigh hand. His tirst 
act was in violation of his instructions 
from the crown of Sweden, and in his 
whole reign he atlecied indeiiendence of 
tlio mother government, and was more 

»Clay"s Annals, p. Oi>. 
t iMacaulcy's New York, II. p. 3oI. 
t Gorden's New Jer^iey, p. 14. 
^Canipaniiis, p. !?0. 

IP'Tinieniu is hoard from — give up I" Tlie 
plsco polls uKiut twenty voles. 
^ CuuijMuius, p. 70. 



I 



OF NKW SWEDKN IN THE DAYS OF ITS GLOKY. 



despotic at Tiniciim than Giistavus at 
Stockholm. It is rolutodlliut Ix; forbadu 
many ernij^rants to land, and tliat in re- 
turning to Sweden some of tiiem per- 
ished; and of tliose who did disembark 
a cliief part were kept in slavery, em- 
ployed in dij^j^ing the earth, tlirowing- up 
trenches, and erecting fortifications. '-'<• 
In fact the villenage of the middle ages 
was introduced in unmitigated severity, 
and th<! first king of I'inicum seems to 
have been incUncd neitlier by nature or 
education to attempt the improvement of 
such a state of things. His tyranny made 
him excessively un})opuhir, and his abdi- 
cation in lC).y2 was hailed witli joy 
throughout New Sweden. f 



CHAPTER V. 

OF NEW SWEDEN IN THE DAYS OF ITS GLORY. 

— — ncrhani in after days 

Thpy'll learn to love your name; 
And many a deed thall wake in praiti*, 

That loog bath ilepl in lilanic. 

JMoohe'm Ode, "}ftep on." 

Notwithstanding the unauspicious tem- 
per of John I. New Sweden during his 
reign reached a condition far too respect- 
able to be dismissed with a mere alluf:iori. 
On both sides of the Swedeland stream, 
and on several of its islands, were con- 
siderable settlem(!nts, which, between 
the joint tributes of the old mother coun- 
try and of the new county mothers in- 
creased with amazing rapidity,! and 
seemed to argue for the yellow cross of 
the Northmen a firm establishment in the 
woods of the newer world. 

On the west side of the Swedeland 
Stream, the most southern town was 
Christina Hamn, at the condtience of the 
Brandywine and Christiana Creeks ; 
next was Finland, a settlement of bond 
Fins and Laps; and then came Upland, 
where now Chester stands, famous, if we 
may believe the insinuation of a roman- 
cer, ('^ for the inquisitiveness of its people. 

*Campanius, p. 73. TCIny's Annals, p. 25. 

t The peculiar fitness of the Swedish iii;itrons 
for a new country is celebrated by William Penn. 
Clarkson I, p. 3(11). 

^ Sec Print?, flail, a novel in 2 vol)"., by .Mr. Gal- 
lagher; Phil. 183J. Vol. II. p. llfJ. 



At Passayunk, which was a crown gift to 
Swen Schute, was Fort Korsholm; and 
at Manayunk on the Schuylkill there was 
another fortress, froiri a description of 
which we can form some idea of the mil- 
itary architecture of tlie day. It was "a 
handsome fort" says Campanius-'" "built 
of logs, filled up with sand and stones, 
and surrounded with palisades cut very 
sharp at the top." 

Upon the island of Tinicum, as we 
have said before, was the great capital 
New Gottenborg, the residence of all the 
Johns, and the intended Stockholm of the 
nev/ world. On a peninsula a little north 
of Upland lived the black bearded Olof 
Stille and some other Swedish freemen 
who had much dealing with the Indians. 
On Manathann or Cherry Island near 
Fort Christiana was a manufactory of 
tubs and boats, carried on by two Dutch- 
men, renegades probably from Nassau, 
and some Swedes, And at Karakong, 
a creek now unknown, was the Gover- 
nor's mill, the first that ever clattered 
upon the Delaware. 

On the Jersey side of the river, the 
most southern settlement of which we 
have any certain account, v/as lillfsborg, 
at Fort Point in Elsinboro' township, 
Salem County,f or as the Indians called 
it, Wootsessung-sing. Tlie next was at 
a promontory opposite Reedy Island, 
which still retains the name of Fins' 
Point, v/here probably resided only Fins 
and Laps, who were kept in slav(!ry, 
and had a particular spot appointed to 
them apart from the freemen.:]; On the 
Racoon in Gloucester County where now 
Swedesborough stands, a town was built 
at a very early day, and became the chief 
post on the east of the Swedeland 
Stream. In addition to these it is highly 
probable that the settlement called by 
Campanius Chin3essing(\ was also upon 
the eastern bank in Burlington County, 
about Cinnaminson ; for although Dupon- 
ceau has concluded that Chinsessing 
and the modern Kingsessing in Philadel- 
phia County are one and the same, it is 

* Page 80. t Johnson's Salem, p. 7. 

ICiiinp.inius, p. 73. 

§0r Sineesingh. Uescrip. of New Sweden, p. 48, 



8 



OF NEW SWEDEN IN THE DAYS OF 1T8 GLORY. 



to }yc observed that J .indstrom has marked 
no place on the western side of the river 
which sounds at all like that name, while 
he has marked a creek on the eastern 
side next but one above the Hiorte-Kilen 
or Cooper's Creek, Sincessinj2:h; in con- 
firmation whereof we may add that the 
stream next above Pensaukin is to this 
day called Swedes' Branch.^- Campan- 
ius leaves us in darkness as to the precise 
locality of Chincessing, but he has told 
usf that it was "not properly a fort, but 
f5ubstantial log houses built of good strong 
hard hickory, two stories high, which 
was sufficient to secure the people from 
the Indians;" and he adds "in that set- 
tlement there dwelt five free men who 
eultivated the land and lived very well." 
Of the number of people inhabiting the 
Swedeland Stream in the palmy days of 
the Swedish empire we have no certain 
information. We know however^: that 
in the next generation after the conquest 
by Stuyvesant, that is in 1693, there were 
about a thousand who still retained the 
Swedish language and customs. When 
we remember that a double subjugation 
must have driven many back to Sweden, 
and that by intermarriage with the Dutch 
^nd English, many others lost their na- 
tionality, we may fairly account that the 
population of New Sweden at her fall 
was not far from the same number. 

The government established by Printz 
was in effect a monarchy, regulated only 
in name by the power of the crown at 
home ; which, though it professed to in- 
struct, was too weak by reason of its dis- 
tance to compel, and therefore too wise 
to insist on, compliance. We have seen^ 
one instance of the boldness of his sub- 
Majesty John I. in sending back cargoes 
of convicts whom the government at 
home had transported to the Swedeland 
Stream And this is by no means the 
only case in which the will of Tinicum 
overruled that of Stockholm. 

* Idem 80, and Duponceau's note ibidem. See 
Gordnn's large map of New Jersey. 
tPiigeSl. 
t From tlie census preserved in Campanius, p. 

164. 
§ Ante, Chap. IV. 



The Swedish settlements on the Del- 
aware were managed to a certain extent 
by a Navigation Company,-'^' divisible at 
least in name from the government of 
Sweden itself, though hardly to be sepa- 
rared in any thing else. From this joint- 
direction arose one of the four estates 
recognized among the people of New 
Sweden. First was the Governor, su- 
preme in political matters ; secondly, the 
company's servants who were employed 
in various capacities in the private econ- 
omy of the new empire ; thirdly, the prin- 
cipal men or freemen, who came over to 
better their fortunes, and might locate 
and build where they pleased, and return 
home whenever they wished ; and fourth- 
ly, were vagabonds, malefactors, and the 
victims of Sweden's triumphs in war ; 
who were held in strict slavery, and were 
employed in all the base services of pure 
villenage, apart from the better classes, 
and confined to particular spots of land, 
which they dare not leave except upon 
the bidding of their masters.f This 
condition, abject though it was, the vag- 
abonds aforesaid doubtless preferred to 
the fate they would have met had they 
remained in Europe. 

Of the details of the government of 
Tinicum no very full account has reached 
us. One fact has however been pre- 
served, and we record it merely to show 
the lovers of the unique how much they 
have lost by the remissness of New 
Sweden's chroniclers : the Secretary of 
State received eight rix dollars per 
month, and the gubernatorial barber ten. J 
A civil list, the symmetry of which re- 
minds of Jack Falstaff"'s tavern bill— 
"Item, sack, live and eight pence; item, 
bread, halfpenny."^ 

When John I. abdicated in 1652, it was 
in favor of his son-in-law, John Pape- 
goya, or as historic dignity requires us to 
call him, John II. He two years after 
resigned his sceptre to John Risingh.the 
last of the vice-roys of Tinicum ; who, 
accompanied by Lindstrom the engineer, 

*Gordon, p. 13. 

t Campanius, Book II. chap. vii. 

t Gordon, a hi supra. 

§ Shalispoare, I King Henry IV, ii. 4. 



WHAT THB SWEDES SAW UPON THE DELAWARE. 



9 



had come out as commissioner, soon after 
the abdication and departure ofPrintz/'^ 
How Ichabod was written on the doors 
of New Sweden, and what John HI. did 
to sustain the waning glory of his realm, 
will presently appear. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WHAT THE SWEDES SAW UPON THE DELA- 
WARE. 

Credat Judaeus Apella; 



I ego. 



HOR. Brund. llO. 



The Swedes of the Delaware, natu- 
rally superstitious, and having their taste 
for the monstrous heightened by really 
meeting with much that their philosophy 
had never dreamed of before, discovered 
many things in their new home, which 
we of later days inhabiting the same 
country have never even heard of. Some 
of these jDrodigies are gravely recorded 
by pastor Campanius and others, and it 
may be amusing to select a few of them 
to show what a wonderful place New 
Sweden must have seemed to be, and 
how little truth will sometimes, even in 
pious and good writers, give rise to a 
great deal of falsehood. 

And firstly, said Camjianius testifies 
that at Kag-Kisizachens, or at Oklman's 
Creek, (so called by us after the Dutch 
name Alderman's Kilen) all plants grew 
luxuriantly, particularly tobacco ;t and it 
was considered a healthier place than Oit- 
sessingh, or Elfsborg, on Salem Creek, 
From Oldman's Creek to Memirako, 
otherwise Naraticon, or Racoon Creek, 
he says "there are several islands, which 
are nothing else but marshes, such as we 
have in our lakes in Sweden; they pro- 
duce a great quantity of rushes, grow- 
ing together with strong thick roots, so 
that a man may walk upon them, sinking 
deep however in mud and water. In 
these marshes there grows a kind of root, 
which the Swedes call hog's turnep; 
they look and taste much like the Jeru- 

* Clay's Annals, p. 25. 

t "The tobacco is excellent upon the river Del- 
j-ware." Blome, p. 87. 
C 



salem artichoke : the Indians feed upon 
them when their bread and meat fail. 
On these roots the swine feed all the 
winter, and grow very fat upon them." 

From Racoon to Makle's (or Mantua) 
Creek, he avers, "there grows a great . 
quantity of walnuts, chestnuts, peaches, 
cypresses, mulberries, fish-trees, and 
many other rare trees to which no names 
can be given, as they are not found any 
whei'e else but on this river." Below 
Timber Creek, and in the woods above, 
there is said to have been a great num- 
ber of white, brown, blue and red grapes ; 
and Deer Creek, now Cooper's Creek, 
was famous for peach trees, and the 
sweet-smelling sassafras tree. From 
Aquikanasra, or Potty's Island, to Sin- 
cessingh, the place probably now called 
Cinnaminson, "the land" continues the 
author "is high, and not well suited for 
cultivation. In this place grows ihejish- 
tree, which resembles box-wood, and 
smells like raw fish. It cannot he split; 
but if a fire be lighted around it with some 
other kind ofioood, it mells away. Here 
at Sincessingh the Rennappi Indians 
catch tortoises, sturgeons, and other' 
kinds of fish." It would puzzls the Pea 
Shore men, we imagine, to find one of 
these wonderful trees now, notwith- 
standing the Swedish parson so une- 
quivocally asserts their existence. 

Somewhere between Qu;nkoringh, 
now Kinkora, and Rancocas, tuere was 
believed to be a silver mine; and "at Wa- 
rentapecka Creek, more to the south, 
there is a place in the middle of the creek 
that never fi-eezes, and where swans are 
seen at all times." This Warentapecka 
and the modern Pensaukin are doubtless 
the same, except in the peculiarities here 
attributed to them. 

Thus much for the river shore of our 
county. "As for the interior," writes 
the same author in language worthy of 
an Irishman, ''nothing is known about it 
except that it is believed to be a continent : 
the Swedes have no intercourse with any 
of the savages but the black and ivhite 
Mengwees, and these know nothing ex- 
cept that as far as they have gone into 
the interior the country is inhabited by 
other wild nations of various races." 



10 



TIIB WAH3 OF THli DUTCH AND SWEDES. 



But the wonders of New Sweden did 
not stop atiish-trees and white and black 
Indians. T!ie Delaware was alive with 
whales, sharks, sea-spiders and tarm- 
lisks ; and its shores "with a large and 
horrible serpent which is called a rattle 
snake, which has a head" adds our eye- 
witness author "like that of a dog, and 
can bite off a man's leg as clear as if it 
had been liewn doivn ivith cm axe!" The 
skins of these snakes were supposed to 
have a peculiar medicinal property, and 
were much sought by the Indian women 
in pregnancy, 

The sea-spiders — great numbers of 
which were driven ashore by the south 
winds at Spinnel's Udd, or Spider's 
Point, now Bombay Hook — are described 
as being "as large as tortoises; and like 
them they have houses over them of a 
kind of yellow horn. They have many 
feet, and tlieir tails are Jialf an ell long, 
and made like a three-edged saiv, tvith 
■u'JiicJi the hardest trees may be sawed 
down." In which exaggerated account it 
is easy to recognize the well known 
shell-fish called the king-crab. 

The tarm-ftsk Campanius deposeth 
"hath no head, and is like a smooth rope, 
one-quarter of a yard in lengh, and four 
fingers thick, and somewhat bowed in 
the middle. At each of the four corners 
there runs out a small bowel three yards 
long, and thick as coarse twine. With 
two of these bowels they suck in their 
food, and with the two others eject it from 
them. They can put out these bowels 
at pleasure and draw them in again, so 
that they are entirely concealed; by 
which means they can move their bodies 
about as they like, which is truly won- 
derful to look upon. They ere enclosed 
in a house or shell of brown horn," 
There was also a kind offish with great 
long teeth, called by the Indians manitto , 
that is, spirit or devil; which "plunged 
very deep into the water and spouted it 
up like a whale." The author says this 
manitto-fish Avas only seen in one partic- 
ular spot of the Delaware ; and it were 
useless to hint that both it and the tarm- 
fisk have now left our waters entirely. 

Many more strange things are related 
by the early toppgraphers and geogra- 



phers of this part of New Jersey; but 
here we end our digression, referring 
the curious to those writers themselves, 
wherein such oddities will more at large 
appear. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WARS OF THE DUTCH AND SWEDES. 



—nulla cadavera calcent ! 

Juvenal, Sat. XF. 60. 

We have seen that the Dutch, as if to 
play the dog in the manger, had returned 
to their deserted dominions very soon 
after the Swedes began to settle them, 
and that the two nations had formed an 
offensive alliance against the English. 
This feeling of friendship did not last a 
great while — the allies quarrelled — and 
a war ensued, the most singular in one 
repect, at least, of any ever recorded. 

Of this sad rupture it is said the fort at 
the mouth of Salem Creek, or Mosquitoe 
Fort, was the remote cause. Campani- 
us-==- testifies that this place "was mounted 
with cannon, and when the Swedes came 
in from Sweden with their ships these 
guns were fired to welcome them." It 
is objected! however that a less innocent 
use was found for the Myggenborg batte- 
ry, and that the Swedes therewith forced 
the Dutch ships passing up to Fort Nas- 
sau humbly to strike their flags; which, 
if true, was justified by the prior inso- 
lence of the Dutchmen at Nassau, who 
had claimed to 'stop Swedish vessels 
from visiting WlcacoaandChinsessing.;}: 
Yet the retaliation offered by the Elfs- 
borgers being somewhat abstract. Myn- 
heer might have forgotten or forgiven it, 
but for other events which occurred 
sometime afterwards, and made war in- 
evitable. 

The Dutch in 16.51 erected Fort Cas- 
imer on the site of New_Castle, within 

* Pa^e 80. 

t Smith's New Jersey, p. 23; from a MS. en- 
titled A hrirf account of New Netherland, in Hans 
Sloan's collection. 

tSee Gordon, p. 14; and instructions to Gover- 
nor Printz, Clay's Annul?, p. 22. 



I 

i 



THE WARS OP THE DUTCH AND SWEDES. 



11 



four miles of Christina itself, "inthe land 
of the Swedes" says Campanius,"" "and 
in spite of various protestations of our 
governor." This John III. took in high 
dud<^eon, and in 16.54 he formally de- 
manded a surrender of the post. After 
duly smoking the summons over, the 
Dutchmen arrived at the conclusion that 
they hardly knew whether to comply 
or not, and so things remained in statu 
quo. Thereupon the governor seized it, 
but whether by force or fraud historians 
are not agreed. Tlie Swedes say it was 
taken by storm — the Dutch, by treache- 
ry;t the latter alleging that John III. and 
an army of thirty men came into the fort 
as guests, and then mastered it and 
obliged the conquered garrison to swear 
allegiance to Queen Christiana. At all 
events it was taken somehow; and the 
engineer Lindstrora having improved its 
fortifications, it was thereafter called 
Trinity Fort. And thus old Nassau be- 
came the only vestige of das neue Neder- 
landt on South River; it being garrisoned 
by twenty Dutchmen, who do not seem to 
have suffered with their brethren at 
Sandhocken the misfortunes of war. 

In the course of time — for news will 
travel even in Dutch ships — all these 
transactions on the Delaware reached 
the ears of the great Peter Stuyvesant, 
who lived at Manaates, "a clever little 
town" says CampaniusJ "which went on 
increasing every day, and was a fine 
commercial place where goods were 
bought and sold, as in old Holland;" 
which clever little town is now known by 
the name olNew York. Stuyvesant was 
governor of all Dutch America; and vi- 
gilamly did he watch and valiantly de- 
fend the rising empire of the States Gen- 
eral in the New Netherlands. Yet his 
valor did not lack the better part — discre- 
tion ; for he was wont to smoke a matter 
over sundry times before he decided upon 
I it once. This precaution however he 
omitted when he heard of the fall of Fort 
Casimer. On that occasion he concluded 



« Page 82. 

t Compare Campanius, p. 82, and Macauley's 
New York, n. .351. 
t Ubi supra. 



immediately, and his conclusion was for 
war, avenging war ! 

Accordingly at the end of August 16.5.5, 
with seven ships and six or seven hun- 
dred men, he appeared on the Delaware, 
and proceeded to desolate the happy 
realm of John III. In narrating this fa- 
mous expedition the immortal Knicker- 
bocker has done more than justice to the 
victors ; so we as a feeble offset v/ill follow 
the accounts of the vanquished, prefer- 
ring, if we must err at all, to err in favor 
of the unfortunate. And moreover some 
there are who boldly say that Deidrick 
Knickerbocker as a historian is worthy 
of no dependence at all, whereas John 
Campanius of Stockholm was a grave 
parson, not to be suspected either of a 
suggestion of falsehood, or a suppres- 
sion of the truth. There are two rea- 
sons therefore for following the latter in- 
stead of the former of these writers. 

In the first place then it appears that 
Stuyvesant came upon the Swedes una- 
wares: John III. having settled the Cas- 
imer affair with him months before, and 
the two nations being entirely at peace, 
so far as the invaded people knew or 
believed. Herein Stuyvesant outraged 
the universal law of nations, for even Zee 
Pentor, the sachem of the Armewaraexes, 
would not attack the Minquas until he 
had declared war by leaving a bloody 
club upon their shores. -■■ 

The first landing of the Dutch was by 
night at Elfsborg, where "they made 
prisoners of the i'ree inhabitants." The 
next day they crossed over to Fort 
Trinity, which the commandant, Swen 
Schute, tenant in capite of Passyunk, 
"partly by threats and partly by persua- 
sion" treacherously gave up.f The 
Swedish officers were left under arrest, 
and the common soldiers taken on board 
the victorious lleet. On the second of 



*The Timber Creek Indians were at war with 
the Minquas on the Ciiristina in 1633. DeVries 
says in liis Journal that tiie sachem of the former 
tribe at that time was named Zee Puntor. See 
Pierre DuSimitre's MSS. in the Piiiladelphia Li- 
brary. 

t The strength of Fort Trinity was four four- 
teen pounders, five swivels and some small arms. 
Smith's New York, p. 6; Holmes' Annals, I. p. 3:)6. 



12 



THE RESTORATION OF THE DUTCH POWER, 



September, Christina was invested, but 
capitulated without a serious resistance ; 
and Stuyvesant, fhished with success, 
immediately proceeded to assail New 
Gottenborjj^, on Tinicum — the very eye 
of New Sweden, and the seat perhaps of 
more splendor and politeness than even 
New Amsterdam itself. 

John III. makinjj- a bold stand for his 
capitol, the invincible Peter landed a 
force and laid waste the plantations 
without the fort, killed the cattle, and 
plundered the outpost Swedes for four- 
teen days. Every eflbrt was made to 
reduce the stubborn place — except the 
use of arms; for, although Campanius 
says the fortress was surrendered at last 
"for want of men and ammunition," it 
seems that the latter was an article en- 
tirely superfluous to both sides ; it never 
having been questioned that all the fa- 
mous battles of which we are writing 
were decided in the following manner. 
Taking it for granted that the most nu- 
merous party would con(]uer at all events 
if they fought, they also took the fighting 
for granted, and solved the problem of 
victory by an e([uation of noses. After 
some diplomacy, this philosophical ap- 
peal to arithmetic instead of the cartridge 
_box was consented to by John III. — the 
Swedes were outcounted by the seven 
hundred Dutchmen — and the standard of 
the States General waved in bloodless 
triumph over the ramparts of Tinicum ! 

I'iie terms of these surrenders were 
as honorable to the Swedes as the means 
of procuring them were novel. The pro- 

})erty of the crown and company was to 
)e restored, and to this end it was in- 
ventoried. Such being the case, and not 
a drop of blood having been shed in the 
whole war, we cannot marvel at the lev- 
ity with which the Swedes evacuated 
their capitol : "with their arms, with fly- 
ing colors, lighted matches, drums beat- 
inji-, andlifes playing. "The officers and 
principal people were taken captives to 
New Amsterdam — the common people 
received the yoke — and thus .after a 
Swedish empire of seventeen years, the 
Dutch were again lords of a country 
which in the language of Kieft had been 
ujany years in their possession, "above 



and below studded with forts, and sealed 
with their blood.""^ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RESTORATION OF THE DUTCH POWER, 
AND FINAL DESTRUCTION OF FORT NAS- 
SAU. 

errat Iont;e mea qnldem sententia 
Qui iinperiuiu crcdal t;iaviiis esse aut stnbilius 
Vi quod fit, quaui illud quiid amicilia adjuni;itur. 
Terknce, Add. i. i. 40. 

Great was the satisfaction of old Nas- 
sau when she heard of the surrender of 
Tinicum, and found herself by indubita- 
ble right again the queen of the Dela- 
ware ; and still greater was it when the 
triumphant Stuyvesant entered her por- 
tals to participate in the jokes, smokes, 
and congratulations which naturally fol- 
lowed his brilliant campaign ! 

A government was immediately estab- 
lished by the conquerer over his newly 
recovered territory, to be administered 
by a deputy cafled a vice director; who 
was invested with power to grant lands 
by patent, to decide disputes, and in 
general "to see that the republic receive 
no detriment." The first lieutenant was 
named Johannes Paul Jaccjiiet ; the sec- 
ond, Peter Aldricks; the third, Hinoiossa; 
and the fourth and last William Beek- 
man.f These functionaries resided some- 
times at Tinicum, sometimes atNewAm- 
stel, and sometimes at Fort Nassau, ac- 
cording to the exigencies of the realm ; 
that is to say, wherever their presence 
was most required, there they were sure 
not to be found. The constant quarrels 
however between the Swedes and the 
Dutch made mere business than the vice 
directors could possibly elude; and so, 
as the next preferable alternative, the 
worthy judges made it a point always to 
discover the right to be on the side of 
their countrymen, and to pass sentence 
accordingly; by which rule of decision 
that conflict of precedents so trouble- 
some in other systems of judicature, waa 
wisely avoided. 

» Iliizard's Penn. Register, Vol. IV. p. 22. 



AND FINAL DESTRUCTION OP FORT NASSAU. 



IS 



During their second empire the Dutch 
added a few houses under the walls of 
the fort at Gloucester, and the whole 
was honored with the name of the town 
of Nassau.* Other houses were also 
built along the river shore for some miles 
above and below the town; the inhabi- 
tants trusting to the reduced numbers and 
subdued spirit of the Indians for that 
peace which they had formerly secured 
only by seeming ever prepared for war. 
The natives however had not forgotten 
the affair of the Hoorne Kill ; and the 
failure of their attempt to repay their 
wrongs by murdering De Vries on the 
Timmerkill, only increased their hatred 
of Mynheer, and induced them to hug 
the hope of vengeance still closer to their 
hearts. 

This feeling led them, after the fall of 
New Sweden, much further than they 
were encouraged to go by the tame ex- 
ample of the Swedes themselves. They 
fell upon the new comers — did them 
great injury, and retaliated upon some 
Dutch women who fell into their hands, 
the violence which their own mothers 
had suffered at the Hoorne Kill. "As 
the Dutch" says Campanius.-f following 
the account of Peter Lindstrom "did 
not quickly turn upon them, but rather 
sought to quiet the Swedes, the Indians 
took them by surprise, and destroyed 
their town and habitations to the ground." 
Although the historian does not clearly 
signify what Dutch town it was upon 
which the savages thus fell, there is no 
doubt it was the town of Nassau. For 
firstly Campanius, after mentioning the 
rebuilding of that post in the time of Go- 
vernor Printz,J says expressly that the 
Indians destroyed it again; secondly, 
the Dutch had no other town on the Del- 
aware save New Amstel, which we know 
was never destroyed ; and thirdly, from 
the epoch of which we are speaking 
nothing is again heard either of the fort 
or the town of Nassau, except as things 
which had ceased to be. 

* Watson's Historic tales of the Olden Time, p. 
14 ; and Du Simitre's MSS. 

tPage 117. 

t Ante, p. 6; and Description of New Sweden, 
p. S2. 



The revenge of the Indians was not 
visited solely upon the settlement at 
Gloucester, but several of the houses 
which dotted the east bank of the river 
in the neighborhood of that place were 
assailed at the same time, and the inhab- 
itants at least in some instances mur- 
dered. The remains of one .of these 
outposts, built in part of sturdy square 
bricks, such as are made only in Holland, 
were visible a few years ago at a point a 
short distance north of Newton Creek. 
Among the ruins, there were pipe stems 
in abundance, charred wood, and glass, 
many colored from the effects of fire. 
Amidst these were found a small copper 
Swedish coin of the reign of Charles X.,* 
and an insepult human skeleton, the skull 
of which was pierced in the back part 
as if v/ith a bullet; the whole revealing 
with dreadful certainty one of those tales 
of horror and blood with which ancient 
times were too familiar to think them 
worthy even of being recorded. 

During the directorship of Jacc[uet and 
his suceesTsors, the Swedes seem to have, 
occasioned but little trouble, though a 
reasonable suspicion of their allegiance- 
was doubtless the cause of the Dutch- 
men's forgiving the frequent outrages of 
the natives. The latter people and the' 
Swedes entertained a mutual hatred or 
their new masters, which cemented their 
former alliance and gave room for no 
idle fears in the breasts of the repre- 
sentatives of Peter the Great of Manaa- 
tes. The Swedes seemed disposed how-^ 
ever to use their influence over the Indi- 
ans only for good; and in their laudable 
endeavors they were assisted by the 
government of Sweden itself, which sent 
out books, priests, and money for the pro- 
pagation of the Ciiristian religion among^ 
their pagan friends. 

But stable though every thing else be 
that is Dutch, Dutch fortune is as fickle 
as any other — "varium et mutabile sem- 
per!" That people had committed a 
great outrage upon the Swedes, in view 
whereof Campanius recordsf with evi- 
dent satisfaction the brief triumph which 

* Who ascended the throne in 1654. 
t Page 97. 



14 



THE APPEARANCE, CUSTOMS, CHARACTEU AND lNSTITL'TiON3 



they themselves were suiTered to enjoy. 
In the course of a decade, Indians, Dutch 
and Swedes were all brouj^ht hi subordi- 
nation to the English. The two last na- 
tions hated each other too heartily to 
have any ill feelinj:; left for Charles 11. of 
En<2:land. They became j:i^ood subjects, 
and thus, we dismiss them. But u\)on 
the Indians, who were swept into obli- 
vion by the third wave of civilization 
which broke upon the shores of the Del- 
aware, a former promise requires us yet 
to bestow a more particular notice. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE APPEARANCE, CUSTOMS, CHARACTER, 
AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE INDIANS UPON 
TUE DELAWARE. 



>:niaU tlio l)lis5 Ihnt sense alone bestows, 

Ami sensual liliss is all the nation knows; 
In /loritl l)eauty groves and litlils appear; 
Man seems the oa\y growlli that dwiiulles here. 

Goldsmith's Traveller. 



In the followinp^ description of the first 
masters of the Delaware we shall mainly 
follow the accounts left us by William 
Penn"" and Gabriel Thomas, who had 
much intercourse with the sava'i;;es on 
both sides of the river, and seem to have 
observed well and to have recorded 
faithfully all that was remarkable in their 
social, political or moral condition. We 
shall not however nejjlect what others 
have w ritten of a people who must be to 
us the most interesting;' portion of an in- 
terest! n<j; race; but shall gather from 
whatever quarter we may those facts 
which w'ill throw" any lij^ht upon their ap- 
pearance, customs, character and institu- 
tions. And tirsdy, of their appearance: 

I. "Of])erson" says Thomas,! with 
particular reference to the Indians about 
the then villa2:e of Philadelphia, "they are 
ordinarily tall, strai;::ht, well turned and 
true proportioned — their tread stronj^ 
and clever — "generally walking with a 
lofty chin — of complexion black, but by 
design. Gipsie-like, greasing themselves 

* In a letter dated August 16th 1683, Blome's 
Present Stale, vtc. p. 85. 

+ History of Peiisilvania, p. 46. 



with bear's fat clarified, and using no 
defence against the injuries of the sun 
and weather, their skins fail not to be 
swarthy. Their eyes are small and 
black.'-" They have comely faces, some 
of their noses having a rise like the 
Roman." But Campanius tells usf that 
the men had broad faces, flat noses, 
large lips and short broad teeth ; which 
features added to a head flattened by be- 
ing tied to a board during infancy would 
seem to show that Thomas was by no 
means fastidious in his ideas of comeli- 
ness. Both writers concur however in 
their opinion of the other sex. "The 
women," deposeth the Swede, "are ra- 
ther handsome, with round faces, high 
breasts, and bodies straight and plump." 
These sutTered their hair to grow to its 
full length, and generally to hang loosely 
down their back; but the men only left 
enough to answer their enemies in case 
of emergency as a scalping handle. The 
common warriors had one tuft upon the 
top of the head, but the sakimas by way 
of distinction had two, which we're plait- 
ed. "They w'ill not sutler their beards 
to grow," says the first historian of West 
Jersey,:]; "for they will pluck the hair off 
with their own fingers as soon as they 
can get hold of it, holding it a great de- 
formity to have a beard." The process 
of tattooing was imknown to the Dela- 
ware tribes; but they stained their faces, 
arms, and bodies with fantastic daubs of 
various colors, among which a black 
paint, said to have been found upon 
the sea shore«^\ generally predominated. 
These colors were changed however ac- 
cording to the feelings of the individual; 
entire black, the universal sign of grief, 
was used for a wiiole year after the fu- 
neral of a friend; and a coat of red fol- 
lowed a marriage, a successful scalping 
party, or any other occasion for joy. 
The observant historian|| records that 
the women were exceedingly particular 

* " Not unlike a streigflit looked Jew," adds 
Penn, (upon whose description Thomas seems to 
have drawn liberally.) Blome, p. 96. 

tPage 116. 

\ Thomas, p. 4. 

§ Campanius, ubi supra. 

II Idem, p. 119. 



OF THE INDIANS UPON TIIE DELAWARE. 



15 



in bettering the complexion whicii nature 
f^ave them, as if his readers would not 
have taken the fact for granted. 

When these simple people dressed at 
all"'-' they wore square mantles made of 
the skin of some animal, generally the 
deer. These they wrapped about their 
bodies with the hair inwards in winter 
and outwards in summer, binding them 
at the waist with a sash of the same 
adorned with feathers. Their legs and 
feet were covered with casings of like 
material. These three articles consti- 
tuted the whole of their serviceable ap- 
parel. For the sake of ornament they 
wore neclaces of wampum (beads made 
from the pearly part of oyster shells) or 
strings of hawks' claws. A warrior of 
much reputation could also afford a neck- 
lace of enemies' thumbs cut off after bat- 
tle, and strung together to commemorate 
his prowess.f Upon their heads they 
wore a crown of feathers and variegated 
snake-skins, to which after the opening 
of traffic with the Europeans they added 
1/ureau-knobs, brass buttons, and divers 
(liher trinkets for which they could divine 
no other use. Having improved some- 
what in absurdity by their intercourse 
with the whites, they began to affect ear- 
rings of tin or copper, and many a broad 
acre of their hunting ground did they 
part with for such captivating baubles. 
They admired and coveted the gay co- 
lors of the European dress exceedingly; 
and it is likely that these feelings towards 
the jackets worn by the Virginia people 
who explored the Delaware in 1633 had 
no little share in causing them to be mur- 
dered, as we have before hinted upon 
the Timmerkill.:]: They never however 

*See Evelin's Letter, in Plantagenet, p. 20; 
Campanius, Book III. Chap, iii.; and Hennepin's 
Continuation, &,c. p. 79. 

t Cumpanius, p. 1 19. 

t Ante, Chap. III. De Vries, after his desertion 
of Fort Nassau, stopped at Virginia, where the gov- 
ernor told iiirn that "a small sloop with seven or 
eight men was sent to Delaware Bay in Septem- 
ber 1G33, to see whether there was any river; but 
they were not returned, and he could not tell wheth- 
er they were lost or not. I told him that we had 
seen Indians in the South River wiih English jack- 
ets on, and that we understood by an Indian wo- 
man (who bid us be upon our guard) that the In- 
dians had runaway with an English sloop in which 



adopted the tight dress of their civilized 
visiters — their greatest improvement be- 
ing the substitution of square pieces of 
cloth, or shaggy woolen blankets called 
duffels, for their deer skins, and tasseled 
caps for their variegated crowns. 

11. It has been remarked by an exact ob- 
server of the mcm7icrs of the Indians^''' 
that they ate just as often as they were 
hungry; which generally happened once 
in the morning and once in the afternoon. 
Their viands consisted chielly of venison, 
birds and fish ; which latter they shot 
upon the meadows at the reflux of the 
tide.f They also ate bear's meat, using 
the oil for butter. Of vegetables they 
had beans and peas ; and Daniel Pasto- 
rius (a German quaker of Germantown, 
who wrote a book olten mentioned by 
Campanius):[: testifies that he has seen 
them repast with great delight on a pom- 
pion boiled in water without any kind of 
seasoning:. But their staff of liie was 
maize. (\ This being crushed in a hollow 
stone and moistened with water, they 
made into small cakes which were rolled 
up in corn-leaves and baked in the ashes. 
These cakes, mixed with tobacco juice, 
were eaten in tramp and ambush to pre- 
vent hunger and quench thirst. || Some- 
times they beat iht^iv corn and boiled it 
in water; which dish we have adopted, 
and with it the Indian name liom'me. All 
these dishes were eaten without salt, 
which it seems the savages only used, 
if they knew it at all, as an antepileptic.lf 
Campanius says'-''-" that it "can be easily 
proved" that the tribes on the Delaware 
were cannibals, and he relates an inci- 

were seven or eight Englishmen. 'This must be 
our people,' saitli he, 'otherwise they would have 
come home long ago.' " De Vries' Journal, trans- 
lated in Du Simitre's MSS. Phil. Lib. No. 1413, 
quarto, p. 23. 

* Campanius, p. 121. t Ibidem, t Page 124, 

§"Pra2cipnuni illorum alimentum Maizium" is 
the language of De Laet, Lib. III. Chap. xi. "e quo 
liba qnoedam panum inslur coquunt ; pisces, aves 
atque ferina." 

II This notion of the virtue of tobacco has been 
adopted by some of the whites ; but the scientific 
consider it ?^s merely imaginary. See Dr. Wil- 
lick's Cyelnpsedia, \n vcrl). Tobncco, 

IT See Hist, of Del. and Iroq. Indians, p. 72. 

** Page 122. See Hennepin's Continuation of 
the New Discovery, p. 92. 



16 



THE APPEARANCE, CUSTOMS, CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS 



dent on the authority of his fatlier, of a 
Swede who had shared with the Indi- 
ans a sumptuous entertainmont of broiled, 
boiled aud hashed meat, which made 
liim sick, and which he afterwards 
learned was tlie lleshof a captive wh6m 
his hosts had taken in war. But as 
Thomas mentions no such thing, we dis- 
card it as a sheer fabrication. This ve- 
ritable author however testilies that such 
as they were, the repasts of the Indians 
were well cooked by the industrious 
squaws.^-- The earth M'as their table as 
well as their bed: "stretched upon the 
ground" says De Laetf "or upon strewn 
rushes they take their food as well as 
their sleep." Their sumptuary furniture 
consisted of calabash ladles, muscle- 
shell spoons, and oak leaf saucers, which 
were only serviceable from the fact that 
some articles entirely defied the clutch 
of the fingers. These independent sons 
of the forest aped no good manners even 
to suit extraordinary occasions. If they 
ate at the house of a Christian they in- 
sisted on mounting the table and there 
enjoying their host's hospitality in a cross 
legged, tailor-like posture. | 

"Their houses" says Thomas^\ "are 
mats or barks of trees set on poles, barn- 
like, not higher than a man; so, not ex- 
posed to winds. They he upon reeds or 
grass. In travel they lodge about a great 
lire, with the mantle of duflels they wear 
wrapped about them, and a few boughs 
stuck around them." The wigwams in 
West Jersey were for the most part roofed 
with chestnut bark sewed together with 
strings slit from mai/e stalks; and they 
were close and warm, insomuch that no 
rain could penetrate them.|| The mats 
enclosing the sides were made of corn- 
leaves. Their huts were often large 
enough for several families;^ sometimes 



* History of West Jersey, p. 5. 

tLib. 111. Chap, xi.: "liunii strati, aut super 
storeas junceas, soninum pariter alque cibum 
capiiint." 

t Campanius, p. 12o, from Pastorius. 

§ History of Pensilvania, p. 49. 

II West Jersey, p. 5. 

T Ue Iiaet, who wrote in tlie time of De Vries, 
says, ubi supra :" fixas seiles habeunt domicilia- 
que et Ugnis furni efligic, corticibus arborum do- 



built square with oven-like tops, but gen- 
erally conical with a centre-pole, around 
which was an opening for the escape of 
smoke.'"' From this pole or from the roof, 
they affixed a beam or hook to support — 
their only utensil save calabashes, earth- 
en basins and cedar ladles — a kettle, un- 
der which a fire Mas kept together by a 
rude hearth of stones. Around this they 
spread their corn-leaf mats, to answer at 
once for beds, tables and chairs. Most 
houses had two doors, which were open- 
ed or shut according to the requirements 
of wind or weather. In time of war the 
wigwams of the whole tribe were built 
together and surrounded with pahsades,! 
and these fortifications sometintes ripen- 
ed into towns. The largest Indian vil- 
lage on the east bank of the Deleware 
was that already mentioned^ in the land 
of the Sanhigans, on the site of Trenton; 
south of which, at Mechansia Sippus, 
probably about Bordentown, was anoth- 
er whereto the Swedes resoi'tedfor corn 
aud other provisions.^ A considerable 
village of Indians was also seated at the 
mouth of the Timmerkill, at Cooper's 
Point,! "where" sa3-s the Hon. Richard 
Peters, in a letter to Roberts Vaux, 'ma- 
ny itnplements and utensils indicating a 
settlement had been frequently found :" 
some of which are preserved in Peale's 
Museum.^ And it is likely that the bu- 
rial groimds which have been discovered 
upon so many of our creeks, denote in 
almost every instance the site of some an- 
cient town. 

As soon as a child was born, it was 
dipped in the river, especially in cold 
weather,'*''* for the purpose of initiating 
it into the ruggednesss of savage life; 
and this treatment was repeated when- 
ever the father happened to be in an ill 
humor. The pappooses when very young 

super contecta, adeo capacia ut pluribus jfamiliis 
sutficiant." 

* Campanius, p. 123. 

tSee the cut facing Campanius, p. 122. 

t Ante, Ciiap. 1.; and Campunins, p. 82. 

^ Ibidem ; and see the note by Mr. Dupon- 
ceau. 

II Barker's Sketches of the Primitive Settle- 
ments on the Delaware, p. 52. 

IT See Trans. Penn. His. Society, Vol. I. p. 87. 

*• Thomas' Hist. Pcnsil., p. 48. 



OF THE INDIANS UPON THE DBLAWARB. 



17 



were tied to a board which could conve- 
niently be swimi;^ at the mother's back, 
or from the limb of a tree. At nine 
months they generally found their feet, 
and shortly afterwards every one could 
swim. As soon as they comprehended 
the meaning of words they be^an to 
acquire the little their fathers knew : 
such as the weather sio;ns given by the 
moon; the virtues of herbs; what kinds 
of wood soonest produce fire by friction ; 
the difference in the growth of trees, 
which might enable them to tell the north 
from the south when traveling at night; 
the manner of making flint or fish-bone 
arrow heads and stone hatchets ; of con- 
triving tackle for angling; of burning out 
canoes ; hewing bowls ; baking clay ves- 
sels, in which to boil their meat; and the 
art of plaiting mats, ropes and baskets of 
wild hemp, or splits of trees; and of coin- 
ing wampum. They were also taught to 
obey the immemorial customs of their 
fathers ; such as to perfume and paint the 
corses of the dead, and bury them in a 
sitting posture, together with their arms, 
utensils and some money; to kill the rat- 
tle-snake that gave no warning, but to 
spare that which did; not to eat the hol- 
low of the thigh of any thing killed; to 
interrupt no one while speaking; and to 
walk, when going in companies, one after 
another, or, as we still call it, in Indian 
file. 

In sickness, so long as there was any 
hope, the people were very attentive to 
each other; but they considered it vain 
trouble to take care of desperate cases. 
Their chief remedies were roots and 
herbs, with the various qualities of which 
they were much better acquainted than 
we are. Of these they generally made 
a decoction in spring water, while using 
which they abstained from meat altoge- 
ther, or only ate that of the female. Al- 
ways impatient to recover, or to die, if 
treatment with herbs failed to produce 
an effect they shut themselves up in a 
close cabin, where they were steamed 
by the sprinkling of water upon red hot 
stones; after which they were hurried to 
the nearest creek and therein immersed. 
A system of quackery attended with the 
same results among its savage inventoi"s 



as among us of the present day who have 
adopted it; for Smith yjlainly intimates 
that it generally killed its subjects, not- 
withstanding their hardy natures. ■*•" They 
supposed that convulsions were caused 
by necromancy, of which their doctors 
professed to be perfect masters. They 
could bewitch all save those who ate salt ; 
and could remove spells by a process of 
powwowing, somewhat similar to that 
used in animal magnetism. f 

The boys among the tribes on the Del- 
aware fished till fifteen, before they as- 
sumed the bow and arrow; after which, 
as soon as they had evidenced their 
manhood by the return to their father's 
wigwam of a certain number of skins, 
they were allowed to marry whichever 
girl they could of those who wore crowns 
of red or blue baysj as an advertisement 
of willingness. The male generally took 
his first wife when he had reached six- 
teen ; and the females put on the "adver- 
tisement," as Penn calls it, at the age of 
sixteen, but they remained with their 
mothers for some time after marriage, 
continuing- to assist her in hoeinjr the 
ground, bearing burdens, grinding corn, 
and the like occupations. The ceremony 
of marriage in West Jersey, according to 
Smith's account^, was simple but signifi- 
cant. In the presence of the relatives the 
man gave a bone to his intended, and she 
proffered him an ear of maize, meaning 
thereby that the husband was to pro- 
vide meat and the wife bread. From 
the era of marriage, hunting and fishing 
were their business, and war their 
amusement. If they survived the latter, 
their hardy education, active pursuits 
and simple diet generally prolon]*ed their 
life to three score and ten or four score 
years; and when at last they took their 
departure to the spirit land, they felt 
happy in believing that their deeds would 
be rehearsed around many a council fire 
of their descendants, and that wherever 
their children went, their bones would 
accompany them, their graves be pre- 

* See Historical Coiled ions of N. Jersey, p. 53, 
+ Hist, of Dei. and Iroq. Indians, p. 7ii. 
t Penii's letter, in Blome, p. 99; Smith, in New 
Jeiscy Hist. Col., p.. 5.3 ; and Tliotnaf, ubi supra. 
^ Hist. Col. of N. Jersey, p. 51. 



18 



THB APPBAHAXCR, CUSTOMS, onAO-VCTEIl ANll INSTITITTIONS 



servod, and Iheir niemory fondly cher- 
ished, though their names might not lx> 
breathed.--' 

in. Tliis tender regard wliicli tlie In- 
dians hud for their de])arte({ lVi(Muls, is 
but one of the many admirable traits 
which adorned their clioractcr before it 
vas cornipttHl by intercourse witli the 
Enro])eans. Bravery, generosity, lirm- 
iiess and an indomitable love for hberty 
vere virtues ^hich tlie tribes on the 
Delaware shared with their whole race ; 
but \n shrewdness, integrity, depth of 
love, and susceptibility to the iiner 
feelings of liuman nature they were far 
aliead of their brethren. Campaniust 
pronounces them "the most sensible na- 
tion in all America;" and William Penn 
saysj "Jle will deserve the name of wise 
that outwits them in any treaty about a 
thing they understand."" Yet they were 
ptraight-i'orward in their mode oV man- 
aging alVairs. and despised bad faith so 
heartily that Thonias\) says of the West 
Jersey savages: "If any'go from their 
lirst oiler or bargain with liiem it will be 
ver}- diilicult for that party to get any 
dealings M-iih them any more, or to have 
any further converse with them." The 
sanie autlior,|| after attributing to the In- 
dian women of West Jersey the qualities 
o( neatness, cleanliness, 'iiulustry and 
ingenuity, crowns all by saying, "Their 
young maids are naturally very modest 
and shame-faced; and their young wo- 
men when newly married are very nice 
and shy, and will nor suller the men to 
talk of any immodest or lascivious mat- 
ters." 

In itself, each tribe was an example of 
harmony and love.f If one received a 
present, it often begged acceptance at the 
hands of all his clansmen, and returmul 
at last to his own a double gift. Even 
after the lessons of selfishness taught 

• Thomas' West Jersey, pp. 3 nnd G. The 
praves were usually dug; by the old women ; nnd 
in curly times the Helawarcs were buried in baric 
cottins. After death a person's name was never 
nifntinned. Hist, of Del. and Iron. Indians, pp. 
IIT) and 116. 

t Page 115. t Hlome. p. 103. 

^ West Jersey, p. fi. || Pugc Cu 

"ff Canipanius, p. IIS. 



them by the Europeans, they retained the 
traits of liberality and hospitality in ati 
eminent degree.-" They spoke little, but 
fervently, el(^gantly,t and what is more, 
strictly to the purpost>: whence the}' al- 
ways considered it impertinent to be 
ask(>d twice their judgment about one 
thing..-j: Their contempt for verbosity is 
iljustrated by the Swedish professor, 
Kalm, who j)aid a visit to ids country- 
men on the Delaware about a century 
ago. He tells us\^\ that on one occasion 
an Indian coming into the Swedish 
church at liacoon during a sermon, 
looked about him, and after hearkening 
awhile to the preacher, exclaimed — 
"Here is a great deal of prattle and non- 
sense, but neither brandy nor cyder!" 
and went out again. [| Remarkable for 
e(|uanimity in all things, these people 
avoided on the one hand the boisterous 
mirth, and on the other the moping gloom 
of their Christian visiters. Subject to no 
wants thenis(>lves which the earth, the 
woods and the rivers, their ever open 
store-houses, could not readily supply, 
they wondered at their civilized neigh- 
bors for })roviding for the future as if 
they were to live I'orever. AVe say that 
they wondered at it; because even their 
perception of so great an absurdity as 
the sacrifice of happiness itself to obtain 
the doubtful means of happiness, could 
not melt them into a jesting hmnor. 
They never indulged in jokes or ridicule, 
but despised alike the levity of a smile 
and the weakness of a tear. 

IV. We have already said that the 
Delawares claimed for themselves the 
title of Original People. According to 
their universally received legend, they : 
had in remote times lived about the Mis- 



*"If three or four of them come into a Chris- 
tian's House, and the master of it happen to give 
one of them victnals and none to the rest, lie will 
divide it into et-inal sliares amon^ them; and they 
are also very kind and eivil to any of the Chris- 
tians, tor 1 niyselfhave had vietua'ls eut by them 
in their eabiiis before tlicy look any for thcnj- 
sslvcs." Tliomas' West Jersey, p. 4. 

t Blome, \\ 103. t Thomss, ubi supra. 

^ Kalm's Travels, Vol. II. p. IIH. 

II From this anecdote it is lii<r|ilv probable arose 
the proverb "All talk and no cider," which is 
so current in West Jersey. 






OF TIIK INDIAKaUPON TUB I>KLAWAKK. 



I 'J 



fiissippi, whcnco thoy foii'^4it their way 
throii^rh opposinj^ iribos, to tlio vu<;a.rit 
huntiiifr '//onnda aloiij^ the Atlantic sr-a- 
hoard.-**^ Here, exemj)t for a lonjr period 
Irorn serious wars, anrl opposed to all in- 
novation Crorn a vain pride in their own 
anticpiity, they retained their institutions 
iinalten;d from a^e to a^e. Of these 
institutions, whether social, political, or 
reiij^ious, it is now our purpose to take 
a brief view, bej^inninj^ with tlv^ social 
compacts of lanj^uage, rnarria'je and pro- 
perty. 

" The various tribes of the Delaware 
nation spoke different dialects; but the 
variances were seldom so {.^reat as to 
forhid intorcornrnunication. De Laet has 
preservedf a vocabulary of the ton'^ue 
usfid by the Sanhijrans, or Fire Workers, 
about the falls of 'I'renton ; and Campan- 
iiis another, J of that used about linicum, 
which in many words precisely coincide. 
Accordinj^ to Thomas,*) the I.enna])pi 
language was sweet, lofty and senten- 
tious — one Avord servinj: for three in 
Pln}rlish; and William Penn saysjj that 
no ton^ruo spoken in Europe could sur- 
pass it in melody and jrrandeur of accent 
and emphasis; to prove which he cites, 
amon;^ other illustrations, the name of 
the Kancocas and of Tamane, a chief 
who died on Pea Shore, a mile or so 
above Cooper's Point. Like other Indi- 
ans the Delawares counted by tens ; and 
th(!y could jro in this manner up to thou- 
Fands, without pointing to their hair, the 
sand or the stars to show that they had 
lost themselves in the infinite ; as their 
less cultivated neighbors were ',(ener;dly 
oblii^ed to do when they had reached 
four or five tens. It has been said^ that 
the eighteenth letter of our alphabet was 
nf;ver pronounced by the Americans ; but 
this notion is controverted by innumera- 
ble Indian names which still exist, and 

* This legend receives great support from the 
fact that the great father of waters bears a name 
compounded of two I.cnnappi wordn ; Lamaaes, 
fish, and Sippuiting, river. See Campanius, pp. 
148 and 149. 

+ N'ovua Orbis, p. 75. } Book I V. 

(j Hist. West Jersey, p. 7; and of Pens!!., p. 47. 

H In the IcUer of A us. 16lh 1B8.3. 

^ Sec the note from Smith in New Jersey Hist. 
Coll., p. 52. 



by the dialects 8pf)ken by the western 
tribes at the present day, who certainly 
do articulate it, tiiou;^h with the same 
harsh aspiration that marked the Greek 
r/io. (Jampanius has endeavored to de- 
duce the Lennappi lanj^ua^fo from the 
Hebrew; but the learned Dnponceau con- 
siders tlie attempt a complotrj failure,"'''' 
not even worth translatintr. Jlad he said 
it was a lanffuatre founded on nature and 
often cnrryin'^ its sijrnification in its very 
sound, I he would probably have been 
nearf;r the truth. 

As to the institution of marriaf^e amonj; 
the tribes on the Delaware, suffice it to 
say that bijramy, though allowed, was sel- 
dom practised.! Except, perhaps, the 
sakimas, they had but one wife at a time ; 
but her they assumed the rijrht of repu- 
diating: whenever they saw fit. W hen 
this ri^ht was exercised, it was the law 
in West Jersey that if the parties left 
chilflren they themselves should choose 
which parent they should follow; but if 
they disaj^reed, the father was to decide 
the matter. The Indian wife however 
had too lofty a conception of the nup- 
tial tie, to j^ive her husband just cause for 
spiirninjr her, or to retaliate upon him 
when unjustly spurned. Of this William 
Penn has left us an alfectinj^ proof. ''A 
traj^ical incident" says he<) "fell out 
since I came into the country. A kinj^'s 
daughter, thinkinj^ herself slighted by 
her husband in suffering another woman 

• See the translator's remark", in Campanius p. 
115. Closer analogies than those upon wliich iho 
Swede depended for the estahlifhment of his 
tl^ry mi^rht hn found to prove the Delawares to 
hWt derived their language from the Greckn, the 
Romans or even the Siixons. 'i'hus an ingenious 
philologist might easily show that the Indian 
word for breast or chest, tkorai, comes like our 
thorax from the Greek b'x^-ji; and chichrj the Len- 
nappi for soul, could with equal ease be proved to 
be only a corruption of the Greek 4">i». From 
the Latin punis we might derive the lucWau pane, 
bread, and from the Saxon /tocr/, deer, the Indian 
fiarlo, which means the same thing. These 
instances .'show how ridiculous is the attempt lo 
trace the origin of any language by rneru acci- 
dental coincidences. 

f How expressive, for instance, of the lively 
chirp of the tit is its Indian name rpiinkipiink, 
and how significant of the harsh icrearn of llie 
goosi; (he word cnhaak. 

1 Campanius, l.JG. <i Blomc, p. 91. 



20 



THE APPEARANCE, CUSTOMS, CITARACTER AND INSTITUTTONS 



to lie down between them, rose up, went 
out, phickt a root out of the ground, 
and eat it; upon which she immediately 
died I" 

The third instittition which we shall 
notice, that of property, marks a hij^her 
state of association than is implied by 
either of the compacts of which we have 
just spoken. No people can exist long 
without language and marriage ; but they 
may exist a great while without learning 
the advantages of an exclusive, inviola- 
ble, transmissable right of property in 
the soil. Yet such a property the Indi- 
ans on the Delaware undoubtedly knew. 
Each tribe held a determinate tract of 
land, generally lying between two creeks, 
to which they had as perfect a title as 
to the very duffels they wore. In the 
summer they frequented the river shore 
of the country, for the purpose of fish- 
ing; and in the winter retired to the 
headwaters of their creeks to take deer 
and other game; but their temporary 
desertion of either part was never re- 
garded by themselves or others as a 
waiver of their right. As the title of a 
whole tribe to a certain territory was thus 
acknowledged against all the world, so 
individuals sometimes acquired by build- 
ing and culture an equally indefeasible 
right to particular spots, against their 
own clansmen; and the wigwam and 
corn-field, on the death of their owner, 
appear to have been subject to descent 
or devise as completely as with any peo- 
ple in the world. As for property in 
chattels, so highly was it venerated that 
if an Indian found a piece of venison ia 
the woods, he would not touch it, thouj^ 
never so hungry, unless he saw by cer- 
tain signs that it had been left there for 
the use of the public. They had inven- 
ted, it is well known, an universal re- 
presentation of property, called wani- 
pum, which we have before described. 
The value of this wampum was regulated 
by its color. In New Sweden, a white 
bead was worth the sixth of a stiver; a 
redone, the third; and a brown one still 
more. In wholesale transactions a fath- 
om of wampum passed current for five 
Dutch sruild^rs. They always carried a 
string of money about their necks, and 



generally left this world with a bribe for 
the next. Their mode of testing the 
standard of wampum was to rub the 
whole string upon their noses ; consider- 
ing it good if they found it to glide 
smoothly, but condemning it if other- 
wise.'"' 

With reference to the political institu- 
tions of the tribes on the Delaware there 
is a difference of opinion among the au- 
thors upon Avhom we depend. De Laet 
intimatesf that they had no form of go- 
vernment save a patriarchy: William 
Penn, Thomas and others| agree that 
each tribe had an hereditary monarchy; 
while Lewis Evans is very positive that 
they were strict republicans. "The pol- 
troons" says the latter writen^ "picked 
up in America by several colonies, and 
sent over to England for Indian kings, 
and there publicly carest as men of 
consequence, would induce one to think 
that our savages had monarchial govern- 
ments; but nothing is so opposite to the 
truth and fact. They are all republicans 
in the strictest sense. Every nation has 
a general council, whither deputies are 
sent from every village ; and, by a major- 
ity of votes, every thing is determined 
there." We can fully credit this de- 
scription of the national government of 
the Indians without rejecting the testi- 
mony either of De Laet or Penn; for 
each nation was divided into tribes, 
and each tribe into lamilies; so that the 
Indians might have been, and doubtless 
were, subject to a threefold government. 
Firstly — 

" by nature erown'd, each Patriarch sate 



King, priest, and parent of his growing state;"|I 
and upon him fell the duty of settling 

• Campanius, p. 13Q. 

+ Liber III. chap. 11. " Nulla ipsis politEe for. 
ma proBtcrquam quod prsefcctos suos habeant quos 
Safjainos vocaiit qui fere sunt fumiiiarum princi- 
pes; nam raro cognationis nnius limites exce- 
dunt." 

t See Penn's Icltcr above referred to; Thomas' 
Pennsil., p. 50 ; Smith, quoted in Mis. Col. p. 64 ; 
andt^Iauipanius, p. 133. 

() 111 a letter to Rich. Peters, dated 1743* Du 
Simitre's MSS., No. 965 Phil. Lib. 

II Pope's Essay on Man, v. 215. 



OF THB INDIANS UPOIf THE DELAWARE. 



21 



the disputes, and defending the rights of 
his immediate household. Next was the 
Sakima, who decided disputes involving 
different families, led the whole tribe in 
battle, and acted as their spokesman in 
council. This office was hereditary, but 
in a peculiar manner; for to the present 
king succeeded firstly his brother ex 
parte materna; nextly, the sons of his 
sister, or if there were none of these, 
the sons of his sister's daughters; the 
Salic law and the law of primogeniture 
prevailing in all cases. When a quarrel 
with a foreign people or some other na- 
tional matter made a confederation of all 
the tribes necessary, a general council 
was held, of deputies from the different 
villages. In general this council only 
decided the question of war or peace, 
leaving each tribe to support the decree 
if it was for war, under what chief and 
with what number of men they pleased; 
but sometimes a Great Chief was chosen 
to command the united forces. 

In time of peace the duty of govern- 
ing among the savages was by no means 
an onerous one; the chiefs suffered their 
subjects in most cases to enforce the law 
of retaliation as they saw fit. This 
Evans observes; yet he tells us that when 
the ruler did interpose his authority over 
his fierce subjects, "no officer on earth 
is more strictly obeyed — so strone: are 
they inuuencedby the principle of doing 
their duty." And to the same effect 
writes Penn:"-' " 'Tis admirable to con- 
sider how powerful the kings are, and 
how they move by the breath of the peo- 
ple;" which mutuality of respect our 
great author himself sought to secure in 
the political relations of the government 
he had founded. t 

The savages of whom we are speak- 
ing had few laws defining and protecting 
their natural, political or social rights. 

*BIome, p. 102. 

+ "To support power in reverence with the peo- 
ple, and to secure the people from the abuse of 
power, that they may be free by their just ohe- 
diance, nnd tlie magistrates honorable by their just 
administration, are the preat ends of all gfovern- 
menls." Pcnn'e Discourbc, preliminary to iiis 
Concessions. 



When therefore any individual felt him- 
self wronged he generally retaliated 
upon the offender; "each one," accord- 
ing to Evans "being judge and execu- 
tioner in his own case."* If however 
the lex talionis was waived, immemorial 
custom had in some instances provided a. 
fixed compensation for the injury done. 
"Even murder" says Smith| "might be 
atoned for by feasts and presents of wam- 
pum ; the price of a woman killed being 
double, and the reason because she bred 
children, which men could not do;" in 
which mode of atonement th«y resem- 
bled the Germans as described by Ta- 
citus. J The conduct of one tribe to- 
wards another was also regulated by 
the simple law of nature ; or, in case that 
was supposed to be infringed, by the law 
of retaliation. When however a treaty 
hadj been made and ratified by the in- 
terchange of belts of wampum, they ad- 
hered honorably to its terms; of which 
a curious instance is found in the case of 
the Delaware nation, who, in a confer- 
ence with the Iroquois, negotiated them- 
selves into the character of women, and 
bore their humiliation for a long time 
without complaint. () 

On public occasions "the king" say* 
Penn|| "sits in the middle of a half moon 
and hath his council ; the old and wise 
on each hand, and behind them at a lit- 
tle distance sit the younger fry in the 
same figure." If the business on hand 
was the making of a treaty, each orator 
stood up before the opposite king, and 
closed every period with a present of 
wampum, to be retained as a perpetual 
Aiemorial of his stipulations. II After 

* In the letter above cited. 

t Hist, of N. Jersey. See Barber (t Howe, p. 55, 

t De Mor. Ger., XII. s. 12. "Equorum et pe- 
corum numero convicti mulctanlur." One of 
the most sinj^fular laws of the Indians was that 
rcfjuirinjr each man whose wife had died, to make 
an offering to her kindred for atonement, and lib- 
ety to marry again. Blonie, p. 91. 

6 De VViU Clinton's Address, 181], p. 52. 

11 Blome, p. 102. 

^ See De Vries' account of his treaty with the 
Mantcses and other tribes before Fort Nassau, on 
theSlhofJan. 1 f;.32. New York Hist. Coll., 
New Ser. I. p. 263. 



83 



THB APPBARANCB, ETC. OP THE WDlABia UPON THE DBLAWARB. 



the terms were settled upon, the whole 
treaty was confirmed by passing around 
the calumet, out of which each one pres- 
ent took a whiif. 

Of the relif^ion of the Indians, an ex- 
clamation of De Laet would persuade us 
there was little to be said : "NuUus ipsis 
religionis sensus, nulla Dei veneratio !" 
Yet their irrelij^ion arose not from the 
want of a belief in a God, (for they had 
an Horitt 31anitto to whom they as- 
cribed all perfection) but from a notion, 
as Van Der Donck testifies, ■^=' that God 
himself "takes no concern in the com- 
mon affairs of the world ; nor does he 
meddle with the same, except that he 
has ordered the devil to take care of 
those matters." The Devil, or 3Io- 
nunckiis Manitto, the deprecation of 
whose wrath was the main object of their 
worship, they began to believe in later 
days was made only for the white peo- 
ple; of which doctrine we are told they 
all highly approved.! This evil spirit, 
according to their belief, inflicted all the 
harm of which he was capable in life. 
They had an idea of heaven, but not of 
hell. To "safer worlds in depths of 
woods embraced" they hoped all good 
Indians were suffered after death to go ; 
while the wicked portion were kept at 
a distance, and only allowed to look 
upon the pleasures which the others en- 
joyed. 

The West Jersey tribes endeavored to 
conceal their Devil adoration as much as 
possible from the whites; J but Penn ap- 
pears to have observed closely the man- 
ner in which it was performed. "Their 
worship" says he^ "consists of two 
parts ; sacrifice, and canticle. Their 
sacrifice is their first fruits — the first and 
fattest buck they kill goes to the fire,|| 
where he is all burnt with a mournful 
ditty of him that performs the ceremony, 

• In his New Netherlands, New York Hist. 
Coll., Second Series I. p. 216. 

t Hist. Del. and Iroq. Ind., p. 65. 

X Smith in Barber and Howe, p. 55.) 

k Blome, p. 101. 

II These sacrifices were made on an altar of 
twelve stones. Thom.ns' Pensil., p. 2; Campanius 
p. 140 ; Thomaa' West Jcree^i p. 2. 



but with such marvellous fervency and 
labor of body that he will even sweat to 
a foam." They broke no bones of the 
animals they eat, but gathered them up 
and buried them very carefully in a heap; 
and these bones in the time of Smith 
were often ploughed up.* "The other 
part of their cantico" continues Penn 
is performed by round dances, sometimes 
words, sometimes songs, then shouts; 
two being in the middle, that begin, and 
by singing and drumming on a board di- 
rect the chorus.f Their postures in the 
dance are very antick and differing, but 
all keep measure. This is done with 
equal earnestness and labor, but with 
great appearance of joy." 

Once a year, at the gathering of the 
maize crop, they had semi-religious and 
semi-social festivals, to which all were 
free to come who could pay a small sum 
of wampum. At one of these entertain- 
ments which Penn attended, they served 
up twenty bucks, with hot cakes com- 
pounded of new corn, wheat and beans 
to correspond. After eating these they 
fell, as was usual after the performance 
of every great feat, to dancing; J which 
doubtless the author of "No Cross, no 
Crown," thought quite a superfluity,^ 
even in savages. 

Naturally incredulous, and prejudiced 
against every thing Christian by the early 

* See Smith, ubi sup. 

+ The only musical instruments used by the sa- 
vages were the tamborine here mentioned, and 
pipes made of reed. De Vries mentions the lat- 
ter in his account of the str.ile<Ty of the Timmer- 
kill. On the 6th Jan. 1632 (old style) he "weighed 
anchor, and lay before the Tinjmerkill prepared 
fully to see what the Indians intended to do. A 
parcel of them now approached the boat, offering' 
some skins of beavers, entering as many as forty- 
two or forty-three into the yacht. Some of them 
beiran to play on reeds, so as to give no suspicion ; 
but we being only seven in the yacht, were on 
our guard; and when wc judged that it was high 
enough we ordered them all on shore or we would 
fire at them." New York Hist. Coll., New Ser. 
Vol. I. p. 253. 

t Blome, p. 101. 

§ Penn, in his No Cross, no Crown, 1669, p. 86, 
quotes with approbation this remark from some 
old author : "As many paces as a man mnketh in 
dancing, so many paces doth he make to go to 
hell." 



raS ALOIOK KNIQHTS 09 TBB ODNTGHfllOM. 



frkud and tyranny of the Dutch, the In- 
dians ot" the Delaware could never be 
induced to relinquish their Devil-wor- 
ship, and adopt the religion of Christ. 
They were far more stubbornly attached 
to their idolatry than some of the north- 
ern Americans; for so easily did the lat- 
ter fall into the fashion of Christianity, 
that Father Hennepin has devoted one 
entire chapter of his book^'" to "the great 
difficulty met with in keeping the salva- 
ges from praying by rote." The tribes 
under our notice, upon the contrary, al- 
ways scorned even a seeming compliance 
with the forms of Christian worship. 
They laughed at the idea of a heaven in 
which men were neither to eat nor drink ; 
and politeness only restrained them from 
insulting the missionaries, who told them 
of miracles.f Yet the engineer Lind- 
strom has recorded a legend prevalent 
among the savages on the Delaware, 
which seems to prove conclusively that 
they had heard of the Messiah long be- 
fore the Columbian discovery^ and im- 
memorable authorities warrant us in 
believing that similar legends obtained 
throughout the chief part of the new 
world. 

Such is an imperfect sketch of the 
race once inhabiting the banks of the 
Delaware. In tracing their origin the 
learned are confounded; in contemplat- 
ing their end the hardiest might melt to 



tears. 



The brief glimmer of light which 



has fallen on their history, shows us 
much that is worthy of admiration, and 
but few faults for which their European 
oppressors are not responsible. Yet 
the philosopher will recognise in the 
vicissitudes of which they have been the 
subject, the hand of an all wise Provi- 
dence still working for the greatest ag- 
gregate good of mankind. 



* Chap. XIV. of the Continuation, &.c. 
' + "If a miracle is related to liave been performed 
in confirmation of any proposition advanced, 'lis 
nothing but their mere good breeding will make 
them civil ; for they truly take it, you do but try 
their credulity with swingers." Evan's Letter in 
Du Simitre's MSS. 

jSce Lindstrom's Description in French in tho 
Lib. of Am. Piiil. See, No. 173; and Campaniu!«, 
p. 139. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE ALBION KNIGHTS OF THE CONVERSIOPT. 



Ilium in Italiam portiins. 

VlRO.^n. 4 86. 



It must not be inferred from the silence 
of the foregoing chapters respecting the 
English, that they had passively beheld 
the intrusions of the Dutch and Swedes 
upon the banks of the Delaware. Our 
ancestors had never acknowledged that 
the discovery of Delaware Bay by Hud- 
son (although that event clearly preceded 
the voyage of Lord De La War)^- gave 
the Dutch any shadow of right against 
the possession which John and Sebastian 
Cabot took of the whole country from 
Newfoundland to Florida, as early as 
1.597, in the name of Henry VII., king^ 
of England. And for the Swedish claim, 
which had no decent pretext at all to 
support it, they entertained even less 
regard than for the pretensions of the 
States of Holland. 

Between 1606 and 1623 the soil of 
New Jersey had been repeatedly granted 
by the English crown. To wit : in the year 
first mentioned, the South Virginia or 
London Company obtained their patent 
for the land between the thirty-fourth 
and forty-first degrees of north latitude ; 
a part of which was by carelessness also 
given about the same time to the Ply- 
mouth Company, whose charter author 
vied the occupancy of any land betwee» 
the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees.f 
All our state, except a triangle whose 
apex was near the junction of New Jer- 
sey with New York on the Hudson, was 
thus subject to two claims, the validity 
of which must be determined by the re- 
lation in point of time of the conflicting 
grants. In 1609, by a new charter to 
the Virginia Company, the southern grant 
was reduced to a belt extending two 
hundred miles north and south from Point 
Comfort; and in 1620 the great grant 

« Douglas' Summary, Vol. II. p. 390; DuSim- 
itre's MSS., Phil. Lib. No. 1413 quarto; and Joel's 
Journal, New York Hist. Col., New Ser. I. p. 320. 

+ See Goodrich's United Slutefl, p. 45. 



34 



TOB ALBIO:!^ KNIGHTS OF TRK CONVEIWION. 



was made to Lenox and Gorges of the 
land between tiie fortieth and fortv- 
eio:htli deo:rees of latitude. *'From this 
^rant by patent under the g^reat seal from 
kin]? James of blessed memory" says 
Hubbard* "all other cl)arts and jz^rants 
ol" land from Pemmaquin to Delaware 
Bay alon{^ the sea coast derive their 
pedigree." Hut this is not strictly true ; 
for the fortieth degree of north latitude, 
which bounded this grant on the south, 
crosses the Debiware three miles above 
Philadelphia ; so that for some years after 
1&20, a part of the land afterwards form- 
ing old Gloucester lay in New England, 
anda part, together with all south Jersey, 
without it. The last portion had, by the 
restriction in the Virginia charter just re- 
ferred to, reverted in 1609 to the crown 
«f England; where it remained unaffected 
by the grant of Maryland in 16-23 to Cal- 
vert Lord Baltimore, and inidisjiosed of 
until about 163!, f when Charles 1. made 
the grant to Sir Eomund Ployuen, of 
which we are now to speak. 




KARL PLOYDKN. 

[Copied from Plantugenel's New Albion.] 

Of this gentleman, in whose history, 
as he was the iirst Englishman who set- 
tled in New Jersey, no particular would 
^ack interest, but little is known, except 
that he was of aji ancient family, w'ho 
derived their name from their bravery 
in resisting the Danes, -J that he had 
served king James I. in Ireland, and that 
he was a rank monarchist. Forseeing: 



* Narrative of Troubles with the Indians, 1676. 
p. 2. 

t Barclay's Skefclics, p. 53. 
t Plantugenut, p. 14. 



probably the storm which was brooding 
over England, and anxious to provide an 
escape from the terrors it denounced 
against all friends of royalty, he peti- 
tioned Charles 1., and procured a tract 
of land in America, of whose limits we 
can only premise with safety that they 
embraced all of the territory' now com- 
prised within New Jersey, (regardless of 
the prior grant of a large portion thereof 
to tiie New England Company) all of 
Delaware, and parts ol Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, and New York.^^' By the liberal 
charter which Ployden procured from his 
sympathetic monarch, lie was invested 
with the title of Earl Palatine, which drew 
alter it very great privileges to the gran- 
tee; for Bracton, "the ancientest of 
lawyers," as Plantagenet calls him, de- 
fines an Earl Palatine to be one who lias 
regal power in all things save allegiance 
to the king.f This earldom in the wil- 
derness was called New Albion ; and 
steps were soon taken to people it by 
those who feared the terrible crisis which 
was appn>aching in the affairs of their 
mother England. 

The foremost ofthose who fled from the 
fierce spirit of democracy which beg-an 
to rock the throne of Charles ere lie had 
fairly seated himself upon it, was a cer- 
tain Beauchanip Plantagenet ; who had 
descended from the royal house which 
had given England her three first Ed- 
wards. This man listened with utter 
dismay to the republican nomenclature 
which had begun to prevail, such as 
"cavalleers, independents, round heads, 
and inalignants," which he describes as 
"new names and terms like an unknown 
language, unheard of in all the globe as 
far as ourantipodes.":j: And seeing the 
storm more likely to increase than to calm 
he consulted with seven knights, his kin- 
dred and neighbors, who like himself 
sought TO escape from evils they could 
not avert. The recent grant to Ploy- 
den just met their wishes and suited their 
tastes ; for from the omnipotence of the 

• Barclay's Sketches ubi supra, and Plantage- 
net, p. 26. 

t Bracton, p. 62; Plantafrenef, p. 10. 
t In his Dedication, p. 3 of New Alb. 



THE ALBION KNIGHTS OF THE COWTERSIOtf . 



S6 



Palatine they hoped to become lords at 
least in the new world, whereas if they 
stayed in England, they plainly saw that 
even the humbler title of knights could 
no longer tickle their ears. 

It was agreed therefore to send Plan- 
tagenet, as being "the oldest and l;oldest 
traveler," to visit all parts of Sir Ed- 
mund's vast tract, and to select the best 
place for the eight knights and gentle- 
men themselves, a hundred servants, and 
twenty of their old tenants and their 
families; and he was instructed to follow 
Cato's rules of colonization, to wit: to 
secure a pure air, a fresh navigable river 
and a rich country. Under ther^e direc- 
tions Plantagenet fixed upon the Dela- 
ware, "just midway" as he describes it* 
"between Virginia, too hot and aguish 
with the blasted rains, on one side, and 
the cold New-England on the other." 
This trip took place in 1636. Our voy- 
ager only ascended the Delaware sixty 
miles, and did not therefore meet with 
his countrymen, who had already come 
from Virginia, and built a fort at the 
mouth of the Pensaukin, where they 
were then actually residing in patient 
expectation of the golden reign of Ploy- 
den himself. 

These settlers were Captain Young, 
his nephew, the famous Robert Evelin, 
and thirteen other traders, who arrived 
in 163:3, and seated themselves in the 
country of the Amarongs, after whose Sa- 
kima, Eriwoneck, they named their first 
fort. At this post, the exact site of 
which is now lost, Evelin and his uncle 
kept up a trade with the Indians,f for 
four years. Soon after the expiration of 
which time, that is in 1637, it was occu- 
pied by I^ogot, a Swede and a pioneer 
of Mencwc's colony; who, by proclaim- 
ing a gold mine in the neighborhood, 

«P;iffe6. 

t We learn from Evelin's letter that the tribes 
on tlie eastof tlie Delaware n'cre at that time "in 
several factions and wars ajjainst the Sasqiielian- 
nocks,"' who resided in Pennsylvania. He de- 
eeribcs tliein as "extream fearfull of a gun, na- 
kidiind unarmed apainst our short swoid.-! and 
picks," and adds : " I h:id some bickerinjr with 
Ihein, but tlicy are of so little esteem, as I durst, 
with fifteen men sit down or trade in despight of 
them." Plantagenet, p. 20. 



drew several more to him, and laid th© 
foundation of Sincessingh, of which wo 
have before spoken.-'- Eriwoneck was 
only possessed by the English from 1633 
to 1637; for Evelin in the latter year, 
tired of waiting for Sir Edmimd's per- 
sonal advent, journied to England, where 
he wrote his letter to Madam Ployden, 
urging her husband to bring with him to 
the country he so glowingly describes, 
"three hundred men or more, as there 
is no doubt but that he may doe very 
well and grow rich." 

In 1637, almost simultaneously with the 
publication of Evelin's letter, appeared 
the first part of Plantagenet's account 
of New Albion,! giving a general de- 
scription of the country, and calculated 
to induce the Earl to hasten his scheme 
v/ith all diligence. Accordingly a splen- 
did palatinate was projected — the banks 
of the Delaware were set off into ma- 
nors — all the earl's children received 
titles — and a chivalric order was in- 
stituted under the imposing name of 
The Mbion Knights of the conversion 
of the twenty -three Kings. The first 
of these manors, called Watcessit, the 
earl reserved for himself. It was situ- 
ated about the site of Salem, at the 
southern end of what Plantagenet calls 



•The Swedes who settled on the Pensaukin 
were, according to Plantagenet, (p. 17) instigated 
by the Dutch. He also says that the gold mine 
which the Swedes used as a bait, was a poor af- 
fair : fifty shillings charges only producing nine 
thillings gold, for which reason it "was of Cap. 
tain Young that tried it, slighted." Yet in tho 
ina|)s of Ogilby and Du Sitnitrc a gold niirie was 
actually located soniewhero about the R.iiicocas. 
Barker's Sketches, p. 55. Tiie Swedish settle- 
ment at Eriwoneck had eighteen inhabitants in 
the time of Evelin, but when Cainpanius wrote 
(if his Chincessing and Lindstrom's Sincessingli 
are one and the same) it had been reduced to live 
freemen, wh^), rotvvithstaiiding the fallacious 
hopes of diggins" gold, " lived very well," Ante, 
p. 7. The four years which Master Evelin stayed 
in Fort Eriwoneck are easily determined by the 
data we have; for the Dutch had left the Dela- 
ware before he came, and the Swedes did not ar. 
rive till after he wont; but the Dutch left in Jan- 
uiirv 1633, (new style) and the Swedish pioneera 
in 1637. 

+A second part of this curious book, cmbodfi 
ing Evelin's letter, was issued in ]64'2, and tha 
whole as now extant in 1048. See p. 6. 



26 



THE ALBION KNIGHTS OF THE OONYEBSIOfl. 



"the Manteses plain, which Master Ev- 
elin voucheth to be twenty miles broad 
and thirty lon^, and fifty miles washed 
by two fair navigable rivers; of three 
hundred thousand acres fit to plow and 
sow all corn, tobacco, and flax and rice, 
the four staples of Albion." Three 
miles as was estimated from AVatcessit 
lay the domain of "I.ady Barbara, Ba- 
roness of Richneck, the mirror of wit and 
beauty," adjoinin^^ Cotton River, (now 
Alloway's Creek) "so named of six hun- 
dred pound of cotton wilde on tree grow- 
ing" says our historian; who further sets 
forth the value of the seat awarded to the 
Karl's favorite daughter, by adding- that 
it was of "twenty-four miles compasse, 
of wood, huge timber trees, and two feet 
black mould, much desired by the Vir- 
ginians to plant tobacco."""' The manor 
of Kildorpy, at the falls of Trenton, was 
unappropriated. Bolalmanack, or Bel- 
vedere, on the Chesapeake shore of 
Delaware State, was given to Plantage- 
net under the Lord's seal, as a reward 
for his pains in exploring the country. 

How far this scheme was realized we 
cannot tell. It is said that the New-Ha- 
ven settlers at Salem were visited by 
Master Miles, who swore their officers 
to fealty to the Palatine before their ex- 
pulsion by the Dutch and Swedes f 
The Earl himself, sometime before 1611, 
came to New Albion, and lie and the 
roval Plantagenet "marched, lodged and 
cabinned together among tiie Ir.dians" 
for seven years; during which time the 
second part of our author's book W'as 
published to induce the emigration of the 
''vieounts, barons, baronets, knights, 
gentlemen, merchants, adventurers and 
planters ot the hopeful colony," who had 
bound themselves in England to settle 
three thousand able, trained men in the 
Palatine's domain. The times however 
were too full of excitement at home for 
this agreement to be fulfilled — even the 
Knights of the Conversion concluded at 
last to hazard the dangers of republi- 
canism, rather than tlie bufletings of the 
ocean ; and few, if any of them, redeemed 

* Barker's Skelches, pp. 20 and 55 ; and Plan- 
tagenet pp. 23 and 8. 
t Plantagenet, p. 7. 



their pledge to Ployden by joining him in 
his new earldom. Having studied mi- 
nutely the character and peculiarities of 
his twenty-three kings, finding that Wat- 
cessit iiad fallen, anddisgusted with the 
treachery of the men he liad loaded with 
titles and promises, he returned to Eng- 
land with his faithful Plantagenet, who 
however resolved to make still another 
effort to stock the country with subjects 
for his master. Accordingly the book oa 
New Albion was revamped and sent forth 
in IG IS ; but in vain. In the whirlwind 
that had now seized the popular mind, 
more eloquent pens than Plantagenet's 
M'ere unheeded. As for his, it suc- 
ceeded eifectually in writing New Albion 
into utter oblivion for nearly two centu- 
ries ! 

We cannot treat the Knights of the 
Conversion so cavalierly as to pass them 
by without yet further notice. This 
goodly band, composed originally of 
Plantagenet and the seven persons with 
whom he conferred, partook strongly 
of the fantastic spirit wliich marked their 
Hudibrastic age. Whatever selfish mo- 
tive might have influenced them in real- 
ity in their organization, they professed 
to have at heart only a desire for the 
conversion of the twenty three Indian 
tribes living within the limits of Sir Ed- 
mund's grant. Hence, upon the badge 
of their order we find their own and 
Ployden's arms supported by the right 
hand of an Indian kneeling, around 
which are twenty -two crowned heads : 
the whole being encircled by the legend 

DOCEBO INIQUOS VIAS TUAS, ET IMPII AD 

TE coNVEKTENTUR. The kuights* device 
was a band holding a crown upon the 
point of a dagger, above an open bible ; 
and the Palatine's arms, two flowers upon 
the points of an indented belt, with the 
legend Virtus beat sic suos.-?" ) 

* ?ce the cuts of the knights' badgfe and of the 
Albion medal (of the two sides ot which our cuts 
are copies) in Plnntag-cnet, p. 2. Not bciiiy siiillcd 
in the phraseolojfy ot" iicruldry ourselves, we copy 
froiii our royal author an ex[)!ai!ation of" the two 
coats of arms, represented upon the said medal. — 
Ploydcn's lie describes as 

True viiliie mounted aloft on honour high, 
In a serene conscieuce as clear as skie ; 

While the knights' double duty of supporting the 



THE ALBION KNIGHTS OF THB CONVERSION. 



27 




ployden's arms. 
[Copied from Plaritagenet's New Albion.] 

Of the mode intended to be pursued 
bv these Knij^hts in proselyting the In- 
dians, PJantagenet has left us a hint, for 
he tells US"- that any g-entleman who 
was out of employ and not bent to labor 
might come to New Albion «'and live 
like a devout apostolique soldier ivith 
the sword and the icord to civilize and 
convert them to be his majesty's lieges, 
and by trading with them for furs, get 
his ten shillings a day," which he thought 
much better than contracting with the 
government at home "to kill Christians 
for five shillings a week." 

But notwithstanding the *'aposto!ic 
blows and knocks" which the Knights of 
the Conversion thus meditated for the 
good of their red brother's souls, the 
I earl himself intended no such logic for 
j his English subjects. He meant by an 
act of his parliament to require an ob- 
servance of some of the fundamental 
creeds, but there was to be "no perse- 
cution to any dissenting, and to all such 
as the Walloons free chapels." The 
government he had projected was, ex- 
cepting his own exorbitant powers, as 
liberal as his church. Its officers were 
"the Lord head governor, a deputy go- 
vernor, secretary of estate or seal keep- 
61-, and twelve of the councell of state or 

Palatine's power and the relig-ion of Christ is set 
fortl) quite as clearly in the device itself as in the 
folowing explication thereof: 

All power OD life and death, (he sword and crown 
On Gospel's trulhs shine honour and renown. 

The " Virtus beat sic suos" was the legend of 
the Palatine. 
*Page 31. 



upper house ; and these or five of them 
were also a court of chancer3\" His lower 
house consisted of thirty burghers freely 
chosen, who were to meet the lords in 
Parliament annually on the tenth of No- 
vember to legislate for the palatinate. 
Any lawsuit under forty shillings, or one 
hundred pounds of tobacco in value, was 
to be "ended by the next justice at one 
shilling charge." The jurisdiction of 
the county courts, consisting of four jus- 
tices, and meeting every two months, 
began at ten pounds sterling or fifteen 
hundred weight of tobacco; and the costs 
of no case tried herein were to exceed 
four shillings. Appeals lay from these 
courts first to chancery and then to par- 
liament; and our author concludes his 
exposition of the earl's judiciary by say- 
ing; "Here are.no jeofails nor demur- 
ers ; but a summary hearing and a sheriff 
and clerk of court with small fees, end 
all for the most part in a iew words."-"- 

After the expulsion or dispersion of 
the New Albion subjects (as Plantagenet 
claims the settlers on Varcken's Kill in 
1612 to have been) the land embraced 
in their purchase of the Indians was the 
cause of much controversy between the 
Butch governor of New Amsterdam, and 
the commissioners of the United colonies 
of New England. On the nineteenth of 
September, 1650, all difficulties were ap- 
parently removed by a treaty concluded 
at Hartford between Stuyvesant and the 
said commissioners, by which it was 
agreed "to leave both parties in statu 
quo privs, to plead and improve their 
just enterests at Delaware, for planting 
or trading as they shall see cause. "f Ac- 
cordingly in the spring of 1651, the New 
Haven men attempted to effect another 
settlement upon the Turner purchse, and 
fifty people actually started for the Dela- 
ware with that intent. Stopping how- 
ever at New Amsterdam with a friendly 
letter from Governor Eaton to Governoi» 
Stuyvesant, they were arrested by that 
treacherous Dutchman and compelled to 
promise that they would return home. 
Stuyvesant moreover wrote a letter to the 

« Pag:e 28, 

t Hazard's Penn. Register, Vol. I. p. 18. 



S8 



THE GRAlfT TO THE DUKE OF YORK, 



governor of New Haven, threatening^ to 
resist any English encroachment on the 
South River, even to blood. The claim 
thus summarily disposed of was never re- 
vived. The Swedes or Dutch held the 
country for thirteen years, at the end of 
which time the great charter of Charles 
swallowed up all former grants, and 
opened the source from which we must 
deduce, in law if not in morals, all the 
present land titles upon the seaboardof 
the middle states."' 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE GRANT TO THE DUKE OF YORK, AND 
THE CONQUEST BY CARR. 

Do right unto this princely Duke of York, 
Or I will fill the house with armed men, 
And o'er the chair ol slate where now he sits, 
Write up his title with usurjiine; blood! 

bilAKSPEABE, King Henry IF. part 3. 

On the twelfth of March IGGlf 
Charles, with a view it is said of pro- 
voking a war with the States of Holland, :j; 
made a charter to his brother the Duke 
of York, afterwards James H., for two 
tracts of land in America; the second of 
which extended from the west side of 
the Connecticut to the eastern shore of 
the Delaware, and was to be held of the 
King and his successors "as of the man- 
ner of East Greenwich in the county of 
Kent, in free and common socage, and 
not in capite or by knight service. "ij^ 
For these two tracts and the absolute 
right of government over both, his royal 
Highness covenanted to pay forty beaver 
skins yearly within ninety days after 
demand. 



* Before 1G51 we lenrn from the " Beschriving^ 
van Virginia, New Netiierlancis, &c.," clmp. I. of 
Duponceau's translation, that "the Eng:lish had at 
several times tried to get the river." But tlie col- 
ftiiy at Ponsaukin under Ployden's grant, and that 
on Salem Creek in 1G42 are the only known at- 
tempts by that nation to settle the east bank of the 
Delaware prior to the grant to the Duke of York. 

+ Learning and Spiccr, p. 8. 

t Gordon's New Jersey, p. 20. 

§ This clause was doubtless introduced in con- 
sequence of the late statute 12 Car. II, abolishing 
the feudal tenures, and turning them into free and 
wommon socage. 2 Black. Comm. Chap v. 



In pursuance probably of an under- 
standing entered into before he was 
himself infeoffed, the Duke, on the 
twenty-third and twenty-fourth of June 
following,'-" by deeds of lease and release 
conveyed that portion of his tract now 
constituting our state, to two assiduous 
attendants at his brother's court: John 
Lord Berkley, baron of Stratton, and Sir 
George Carteret of Saltrum in the county 
of Devon, Knight; to the latter of whom, 
in consideration of his good service to 
the Stuarts in defending the island of 
Jersey against the Long Parliament, the 
lessor did the honor of directing the 
country to be called New Jersey. "All 
rivers, mines, minerals, woods, fishing, 
hawking, hunting and fowling and all 
other royalties" were demised, with the 
land for the consideration of ten shil- 
lings and the yearly reddendum of one 
pepper-corn to be paid on the day of the 
nativity of St. John the Baptist if legally 
exacted, and the release which perfect- 
ed the fee in Berkley and Carteret 
reserved a rent-seek of " seventy nobles 
of lav>'ful money of England, if the same 
shall be lawfully demanded at or in the 
Inner Temple Hal!, London at the feast 
of St. Michael the Arch-angel." In 
these conveyances nothing is expressed 
concerning the right of government; but 
the proprietors construing the duke s 
words most strongly against himself, 
seem to have considered that right as 
clearly vested in them as the title to 
whales and sturgeons, or any other 
branch of the royal prerogative. f 

Sir Robert Carr having been sent out , 
with three ships and six hundred men in | 
the fall succeeding these alienations, vis- 
ited the Delaware, and after the outlay of 
two barrels of powder and twenty shot, 
took political attornment of the Dutch j 
and Swedish residents at Racoon, El- 
sinborg and elsewhere upon the Jersey 
shore. An agreement was concluded be- 
tween the parties on the first of October 
stipulating for the burghers and planters 

* Smith's New Jersey, p. 49. 

tThe originals of these two deeds are now in , 
the Surveyor General's office at Burlington, and 1 
are signed with a simple James, in au autograph 
remarkable for its boldaess and grace. 



I 



AND THE CONQUEST BY CARR. 



sd 



security in their persons and estates, the 
continuance of most of their old magis- 
trates in office, and the privilege of re- 
turning to Europe within six months, or 
free denizenship and liberty of conscience 
if they remained. For some time after 
this event, the Dutch and Swedes resid- 
ing upon the Delaware were subject to 
the government of Sir John Carr, Dep- 
uty of Nicholls, assisted by a council of 
the old inhabitants, to wit : Hans Block, 
Israel Helmes, Peter Rambo, Peter Cock 
and ex-director Peter Aldrick. Three 
of this council, Helmes, Rambo and Cock 
afterwards figured on the grand jiiries of 
old Gloucester County;-'' and Rambo's 
son of the same name had the honor of 
entertaining the learned Kalm during his 
visit to Racoon in 1748. f 

The Dutch could not tamely see their 
New Netherlands appropriated by their 
hated foe of York. I A war with England 
ensued, which was ended in July 16(37, 
by the treaty of Breda, ^'hereby each 
party was allowed to retain whatever it 
had acquired from the other. This war 
did not 'in any wise alter the circum- 
stances of the country under our consi- 
deration ; but somewhat more than a year 
after the renewal of hostilities in March 
1672, between the restless Chai'les and 
his phlegmatic neighbors, the banks of 
the Delaware became again the property 
of the Dutch by actual conquest , and the 
renowned Peter Aldrick, who appears 
to have been willing to serve any master, 
was made commandant thereof under An- 
thony Colve, the governor general over 
New York, (now again New Netherlands) 
and its dependencies.^ The Dutch do- 
minion lasted just long enough to puzzle 
the English lawyers as to the validity of 
the grants to and from the Duke of York; 
for by the treaty of Westminster, con- 
cluded on the twenty-eighth of February 
in the same year,|| the whole country was 

* Woodbury Recordf;, book A ofCourt Minutes. 

t Kwlrn's Travels Vol. I. p. 334. 

t Acrclius, New York Hist. C^oll. new. ser. Vol. 
I. p. 426. See Hume's Hist, of England, London 
ed. 1824, p. 7G9. 

§Acrel., ubi supra. 

II Gordon, p. 30, dates this treaty in 1674; but 
Mr. Johnson is right when he says in his Hist of 



restored to Charles, and vested in him, 
it was thought, de novo and free of all in- 
cumbrances. 

On the tenth of February 1664, eleven 
months after the royal charter, the two 
Lords Proprietors published their Grants 
and Concessions, the first constitution of 
New Jersey, and, as the term is now 
understood in American politics, the first 
constitution in the world. But although 
this code was framed on principles which 
the historian justly applauds, ■'■' the set- 
tling of the province, especially along 
the Delaware, went on slowly for some 
years after its promulgation. The dis- 
appointed Berkley, therefore, on the 
eighteenth of March, 1673, dissolved 
the joint tenancy between himself and 
Carteret, by selling his undivided share 
for one thousand poimds, to John Fen- 
wicke, of Binfield, in the county of 
Berks, in trust for Edward Billinge.| It 
is probable that an understanding was 
had between the two proprietors that the 
Pensaukin should be the western di- 
viding point of their respective moities; 
for the king, in order to cure any legal 
defect arising from the Dutch reconquest, 
having on the twenty-ninth day of jfune, 
1674, made a second grant to his bro- 
ther, the latter just a month afterwards 
reconveyed to Cai^teret, in severalty, all 
that part of New Jersey lying north of a 
line extending from Barnegat "to a cer- 
tain creek in Delaware River next adjoin- 
ing to and below a certain creek in Del- 
aware River, called Renkokus Kill. J 

By a conveyance perfected on the tenth 
of February, 1674, Fenwick and his ces- 
tui que trust assigned nine undivided 
tenth parts of West Jersey to William 

Salem, p. 9, that it was in 1G73; February beinjof 
until late in the la.st century the last instead of the 
second month of the twelve. The common year 
ran from the first, and the legal year from the 
25lh of March ; the liislorical year sometimes be- 
ginning from Jariu;iry. See Leiuning and Spicer, 
p. 74. An oversiglit of this fact has ltd Mr. 
Gordon, p. 24, to sugjjest that Berkely .nnd Carte- 
ret published their Concessions while New Jersey 
actually bclonired to the crown ! 

* Gordon's New Jersey, p. 79. 

I Learning and Spicer, pp. 50 and 64; and 
Smith's New Jersey, p. 97. 

t Learning and Spicer, p. 47. 



so 



TOE grat«:t to Tns duke of tork. 



Penn, Gawn Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas, 
in trust for the creditors of Hillinn^e; tlio 
reniainiii<? lontli brin;^ reserved to Fen- 
wick hiiiisolf. This remainder was soon 
afterwards leased for a thousaini jears to 
Eldridg-e and Warner, who were allowed 
to sell so much of the land demised as 
would reimburse them a sum of money 
which they had advanced to Fenwick. 
Under this power the lessees sold to 
Penn, Lawrie and Lucas ;dl of the les- 
sor's rijiht and tide, foreprizin^ onlytlie 
claims of a (e\v persons who in 1G7.5 had 
settled on Fenwick's tenth under deeds 
from him prior to the lease.-" 

Tiius the province of West Jersey 
came wholly into the hands of Billinjio 
(whose right was merely equitable) and 
liis three trustees and creditors whom 
we have above nauied. DisreiL'-ardinjr 
alike the threats and the complaints of 
Fenwick, these four proprietors on the 
third of March, 1676, proinul<2:ated their 
Concessions for West Jersey, which were 
agreed to by most or all of the freehold- 
ors and inhabitants, Dutch, Swedish and 
English, of whom one hundred and forty 
se\en signed with the proprietors this 
bond of union, and became thenceforth 
■one people. t 

A new line having been fixed upon be- 
■tween East and ^^'est Jersey by the quin- 
tipatite deed made on the lirst of July 
■1676 by Carteret and the four Vv'est Jer 
^ey proprietors, the latter were ready to 
-carry into effect that clause of their con- 
cessions J which required the province to 



• The conveyance by Fenwick's lessees was 
de ostensibly for the purpose of enabling; Penn 



made ostensibly tor the purpos ^ 

to eftoct a partition with Carteret; but in a re- 
monstrance from Fenwick dated at " Fenwick's 
Ivy, the r2th of (lie first month, commonly called 
March. 1678-9," he dircclly accuses Penn and the 
rest with having conspired toofether to clicai him 
out of his whole estate I See Johnson's Salem, p. 
US ct seq. We might readily settle this point if 
we knew the sum Fenwick had borrowed, and the 
-sum for whidi his tenth was sold. 

t These Concessions (writlen in text in a parch- 
ment book) are still preserved in Burlington, as is 
also the great quintipartite deed, which covers two 
sheep skins '. There are several other interesting 
and valuable instruments in the surveyor's oflice 
in that city, from one or two of which some Van- 
dal has cut Penn's signature. 

I Chap. I. 



be laid off into ten precincts, each em- 
bracing ten proprietaries or actions. 
The tenths were not really laid off how- 
ever until after the fourteenth day of 
January, 1631 ; at which time the com- 
missioners ordered tiie surveyor to mea- 
sure the front of the river Delaware 
from Assunpink to Cape May, into ten 
proportionable parts, running each tenth 
"so far btick into the woods" as to give 
it an area of sixty-four thousand acres. 
Tlie first and second tenth extended 
"from the river Derwent, formerly ctdled 
Sinipink, on the nortli, to the river Crap- 
"\vell, or Pensaukin, on the South," and 
the third and fourth tenths reached from 
the "said river called Crapwell, on the 
north, to the river Berkley, formerly 
called Old Man's Creek on the south ;" 
and out of these two precincts (firstly by 
the voluntary i^ct of the people them- 
selves, and afterwards by a law of the 
W"est Jersey General Assembly, was j 
formed the County of which we are 
writing. 

After the execution of the quintipar- 
tite deed, Billinge and his three trustees 
recei\ed John Eldridge and Edmund 
Warner into the nuuibcr of proprietors, 
by reconveying to them in fee the share 
formerly belonging to Fenwick; and on | 
the sixth' of August, 16S0,-"- the duke of . 
York made a second grant of the soil of 
West Jersey to these persons; from 
whom either mediately or immediately 
are derived all regular titles to lands in 
the said province unlocated before that 
time. The mode of appropriating un- 
occupied tracts as prescribed by the con- 
cessions of Bcrkely and Carteret,t and 
continued by subsequent laws down to 
16S7 without material alteration, was as 
follows: The adventurer having pitched 
upon his site, procured from the propri- 
etary government a warrant directingthe 
surveyor general to run oil" and mark a 
specific number of acres; and this war 
rant, endorsed by the surveyor with the 
date of the siu'vey, was returned to the 
register's office and recorded, where- 
upon by precipe from the government the 

* Learning and Spicer, p. 412. 
tldem, p. 20, el seq. 



THE THIRD AND FOURTH PRECINCTS PURCHASED OF THE INDIANS. 



31 



register issued a patent, which being were resurveyed to them under the West 
countersigned by the Govenor and some Jersey concessions; to which, as we 

have before observed, many Dutch and 



of the Council, created an indefeasible 
title in the patentee. '-' Until 1G7S the 
quantity of land which an individual 
might take up was regulated by his 
number of servants and his celerity in 
removing to the province; and each lo- 
cator was obliged on pain of escheat to 



Swedes voluutarilj' became parties. One 
of the Swedish purchases, made by Go- 
vernor Printz himself, in 10 16, extended 
from the llacoon to Mantua's Hook, 
where the Swedish arms were set aloft 
as a caution to Andries Huddie, Jost von 



keep on every himdred acres covered by dcm Boyandh, and all other trespassing 



his warrant two able men servants or 
three weaker servants. The fees thus 
acquired were subject to a ground rent 
varying from a hali'-penny to a penny 
and a lialf per acre, payable to the Gen- 
eral Proprietors. In 1687, on accomit 
of fre(|uent alienations and transfers, 
these Proprietors had became too nume- 
rous to conduct their business in their 
former democratic manner; and accord- 
ingly a Proprietary Council was selected 
on the fourteenth of February in that 
year to manage all matters relating to 
unseated lands. This council, the ghost 
of the once potent proprietary govern- 
ment of West Jersey, has survived two 
revolutions, though there has long been 
but little real necessity for its continuance. 
Its jurisdiction in matters connected with 
vacant lands has been recognized by 
conq^aratively late statutes o!'this state ;f 
one of which, and to the anti(iuarian the 
most important, provides for the sale 
keeping of the valuable documents to 
which we have before referred. 

In grantinji: warrants the General Pro- 
prietors of West Jersey, who, notwith- 
standing Fen^vjck's complaints, were 
upright and honest men, seem to have 
admitted the possession of the Dutch 
and Swedes to have given them a pra- 
emption right. All of these people at 
the commencement of the English go- 
vernment were summoned to New York 
by Andross, to take deeds in the Duke's 
name, at a rent of a bushel of wheat for 
a hiuidred acres; and some of them, 
Acrelius says.l actually complied. Whe- 
ther they rested upon this title or upon 
purchases from the natives, their tracts 



* Gordon, p. 65, et seq. 
t miner's Digrest, p. 548. 
X New York Hist. Coll., new ser. Vol. I. p, 
ct &eq. 



427, 



Dutchmen.'-" Soon after this it is proba- 
ble that six of the Dutchf interested in 
the settlement at Nassau bought in trust 
for the West India Company all the land 
from the north bound of the above pur- 
chase to the Rankokas, as a retaliation 
on Printz; so that in reality the Indian 
title to the soil of Old Gloucester had 
been entirely extinguished before the ar- 
rival of the English. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE THIRD AND FOURTH PRECINCTS PVR- 
CHASED OF THE INDIANS AND SETTLED. 



What nation will jou find whose nnnals prove 
So rich an int'rest in Alnli^lll)' love; 
WIktc dwell lliny now, wlii.ie dwelt in ancient day 
A people planted, waler'd, Ijjest, .ii lliev.' 

Gowper's Expostulation. 

Owing to the differences between Bil- 
linge and FenwickJ no ship followed to 
West Jersey for two years after the set- 

•" * Hiiddie and Uoyandh were then officers of 
Fort Nassau, in whicii responsihie posl they suc- 
ceeded one Jan Janson U|)pendatn, who was 
coniinis.sary in 1612. See Acrelius, New York 
Mist. Coil, new ser. vol. 1, p. 41.3. 'J'he reason of 
Governor Printz's making this purehase was as 
follows: In the year above stated one 'J'hoinas 
Broeri catne wilh permission froni Sluyvesant to 
establish himself at .Mjintua's Mook, opposite Tin- 
ieuin. Printz corisentcd on roiidilion that Broeri 
would become a Swedish subject. This was re- 
fused ; whereupon the governor, " discovering' the 
designs of the l^ntch," says the hislorian, " bought 
the land himself." Acrelius ut sup. p. 411. 

iViz: Simon Rulh, Cornelius Marizen, Peter 
Ilermnnson, Ai, dries Hnddie, Alexander Boycr, 
and Divid Davids. See Acnlins, ubi supra, 
There is no reason for believing with the editor of 
the nevv scries of the New York Hist. Coll. that 
the Tenekong mentioned by the Sv.'cde in the ac- 
count of Ibis purchase was not the Tinicuni oppo.; 
site Mantua's Creek. 

} Smith's New Jersey, p. 79. 



32 



THE TiriRD AIVD FOVKTn PKECirOCTS 



tlement of Salem; but Pomi liavin<:: at 
lenjrrh pacitiod these parties, vijiorous 
measiirt^s be^i^-an to be taken to or<iani/o 
the provincial jjovernnient accordiiij; to 
the Concessions. 'Vhc coininissioners 
provided bv (he tirst chapter of that code 
sailed from London in the ship Kent. 
Gretiory Marlow master, and arrived at 
New Castle, then the Enj;lish capital of 
the Delaware, on the sixteenth of Au- 
gust, 1676.'- 

Besides the cooimissioners there came 
/ in the Kent two hundred and thirty pas- 
sengers, mostly (piakers of <iOod estates 
in Ku^laiul, who, it is a fact worth no- 
licins:, lU'd from their native land to 
avoid tile itlentical princi])les which their 
predecessors under Ployden had souj:;ht 
to secure. They were ill pleased at a 
return front republicanism to monarchy, 
and from liberal toltM-ation to a religion 
jirescribed by law and pronuil^i'ated by 
lire, dun«:eons, and tiie sword. Their 
minds had been enlarged by the free 
spirit ol' inquiry which preceded the 
great revolution, and couUl not again be 
compress(>d into the narrowness of ac- 
know ledgin;j; the di\ine ri<rht of kings 
either in matters of church or of stale. 
^^ bile others therefore of more plastic 
teuiper tiirew up at the restoration the 
same caps with which they had hailed 
the bleeding head of Charles I., these 
qitakers sought an asylum in the western 
world, where they might nourish their 
deep-rooted hatreil for the jnigeantry of 
monarchs, and the hy[)ocrisy of priests.f 
h was lui secret to Cliarles 11. that the 
followers of Fox etitertained and avowed 
the most latitudinarian doctrines of go- 
vernment and church polity; yet while tlie 
KtMit lay in the Thames, that sceptred 
harleipnn, who was pleasuring in his 
barge, came along side, asked if the pas- 
sengers were Quakers and where they 

* Idem, p. !13. These commissioners wore 
Thon);is 0!ivo, D^inicl Wiljj,-, John Kinsoy, John 
Penloid. .Joseph Uohjisley, Robert Stacy, Ht-nju- 
mill Scott, Uichard (niv and Tliomas Fonllxe. 
Guv had come out with Fenwick in thcGrilViih in 
1675. and Kinsey died ul ShaeKamaxon (now Ken- 
Finjrton) soon after his arrival, and iioiv lies in- 
terred 111 one of (he streets of Buriinjjlon. 

t Junius, letter xxxv. 



were bound, and gave them his bless- 
ing.^- "This last circumstance," it has 
been observed, "may seem somewhat 
extraordinary, when we rellect that at the 
very time it took place, thousands of 
the Quakers were suftering throughout 
Charles' dominions; but it was in char- 
acter with the monarch. Ever smooth 
and specious in his exterior, but in heart 
deceptive and corrupt, his character was 
a gilded cheat. Vet perhaps a blessing 
fr(>m him was better than a mal(>diction; 
and if aught of advantage was conferred, 
let us not be ungrateful."! 

The Kent landed her passengers at the 
mouth of the Racoon Creek, where the 
Swedes had left a few scatterin<r habita- 
tions. These not being sullicient to 
accommodate them all, some took pos- 
session of cow-stalls, and apartments of 
that sort, until other edifices could bo 
built. From U'atson's description of the 
Swedish houses in the olden time, it 
seems there was little choice between 
them and the stalls. Each mansion con- 
sisted of but one room, with a door so 
low as to require those entering to stoop, 
and no windows save loop holes with 
sliding boards or isinglass dead-lights; 
their chimneys, in one corner, were of 
grey sandstone, adjoining to which was 
an oven; and the cracks between the 
logs of which the house was built were 
lilled with clay. J These dwellings had 
been aliandoned by the concentration of 
the Swedes at the now obliterated vil- 
lage of Repaapo,\\ or at the ancient town 
of Hacoou, now called Swedesborough ; 
and it is j)robable from the description 
that they had been originally built liy the 
servile Finns, and Laps who tilled the 
gVound. 

On the second of March, 1676, Billinge's 
trustees sold to live considerable persons 
in the comity of Vork,!| "certain privi- 

•Smith's Now Jersey, p. 93. 

+ .MS. I.eeture on '• Tlie Setlk'ments on l!ie 
Delaware," dehvered by Dr. Isaac, S. Alulford l>e- 
fore the Cunulen Washington Library Co., Feb. 
9th, 1810. 

} Annals ef riiiladelphia, p. 470, ed. oflSSO. 

^ Kalm's Trawls, Vol.11, p. 168. 

II Viz: Thos. llntchinson. Thomas Pearson, Jo. 
sr-ph Helmslcy, George Hutchinson nod Mahion 
Stacy. 



PUHCnASKD OF TUB INDIANS. 



85 



Ui^fiH for a town to be built, whereby they 
have liberty to choose their own rnaj^is- 
tratos and officers for execulinj^ laws ac- 
cordiniT to the Concessions, within the 
f^aid town.-'" This contract was ratified 
by the Concessions which followed in loi^r 
diiys afterwards; and the Yorkshire men 
were thereby allowed the first choice of 
the tenths into which the province was 
to be divided ; tlie second choice bein;^ 
reserved to any other company v/ho 
should purchase ten proprieties or ac- 
tions. Immediately afterwards, a com- 
pany of Friends in London purchased a 
patent for another tenth; the commis- 
sionf!rs app(jinted by the Proprietors be- 
inj( di\ided into two committees, who 
were respectively to fix upon the tenth 
to he occupied by the two companies. — 
JOhnley, Hehnsley and Stacy, on behaif 
ol the Yorkshire men, immediately alter 
their arrival in 1G77, chose from the falls 
of Delaware down ; whde PenlonJ, Ol- 
ive, Wills and Scott chose for tin; Lon- 
don men the country about Arwames, or 
Gloucester Point The commissioners 
were also authorized to buy the ri^ht of 
the Indians, which the latter were vf ry 
ready to sell aj^ain, notwithstandinji' their 
former barj^ains with the Dutch and the 
Swedes. Accordiiii^ly, havinjj procured 
Israel llelmes, Peter Hambo and Lacy 
Cock from the Swedes as interpreters, 
all the land between the falls and Old- 
man's creek was barjrained for, thoii;jh 
the Indians seem to have stood seized to 
the use of the Enj^lish for some time af- 
terwards, on account of delay in the forth- 
coming of the consideration.f 

The first purchase was made, accord- 
in;^ to the minute of the deed in the of- 
fice of the Secretaryof State in Trenton, J 
on the tenth of September 1677, of "Kat- 
amas, Sekappio, Peanto alias Enequeto, 
and Rennowii^hwan, Indian Sarkamark- 
oes," of the land lyin;^ between the mid- 
streams of Rancocas and Timber creeks, 
and bounded on the east by a rij^ht line 
drawn between the uppermost head of 
each stream. The consideration stipu- 
lated by the commissioners was literally 

• Learning; andSpiccr, p. 384. 
t Smith's New Jersev, p. 95. 
t l.iljer B of Deed., No. 1 p. 4. 



as follows : "fTorty six fladome of duf- ' 
fels, thirty blankits, one hundred and fifty 
pounds of powder, thirty jjunns, two 
jjundred fladome of wam|)um, tliir;y ket- 
tles, thirty axes, thirty small howes, 
thirty auls, thirty needles, thirty lookin^^ 
{^^lasses, thirty [laire of stockinj^s, seavf:n 
anchors cif hrandij, thirty knives, thirty 
barres of lead, thirty-six rin;;rs, thirty 
Jtwd'a harpH, thirty combs, thirty brace- 
lets, thirty bells, thirty tobacco ton^s. 
thirty paire of sissors, twelve tobacco 
boxes, thirty fllints, Icnnf; pewlnr spoon- 
J'utl.-i of paint, one hundred flish hooka 
and one j^rosse of pipes." This hard 
barjrain was witnessed by Thomas Wat- 
son and three Swedes: Andrew Swan- 
son, Swan Swanson and Lacy Swan- 
son. 

Seventeen days afterwards (on the 
twenty-seventh of September) a deed 
was made to the commissioners'' by the 
Indian chiefs Mohocksey, Tetamchro 
aid Apperinj^es, for the land "betweea 
the midstream of Oldman's Creek to the 
southward, and the midstn.-am of Tim- 
ber (jreek to the northward, and bounded 
to the eastward by a riji^ht lyne extended 
alon;^ the countery from the uppermost 
head of Oldman's Creek to the upper- 
most h'ad of Timber Creek, for the con- 
sideration of thirty match-coats, twenty 
j(uns, thirl ij kettks and one ({r/;at one, 
tliiriy paire of hose, twenty ffadome of 
duflels, thirty petticoats, thirty Indian 
axes, thirty narrow howes, thirty barres 
of lead, fifteen small barrels of powder, 
seaventy knives, sixty paiie of tobacco 
ton^^s, sixty sissors, sixty tinshaw lookino^ 
{^'asses, seaventy combs, one hundred 
and twenty aul blades, one hundred and 
twenty flish hooks, tivo grasps of red 
paint, one hundred and twenty needles, 
sixty tobacco boxes, one hundred and 
twenty pipes, two hundred bells, on^ 
hundred Jewe's harps, and six anchors 
of rum." And this conveyance was ex- 
ecuted before Robert Wade, James 
Saunderland, James Yesteven, Samuel 
Lovett and Henry Reynolds.! 

Commissioner Olive bavin? bought 

• KinRcy's name appears inthia indenture, bat 
not in the former. 

I Sla.te Rerordd, ubi •»ipr«. 



34 



TDK ORIGIN OF OLD QLOUCKSTBR. 



•cm© cattle of the Swedes,-* sent out 
servants to cut hay, and was proccedinoj 
immediately to make a settlement lor the 
London people at Arwames; but the 
Yorkshire men, not likin;:; so wide a sepa- 
ration between themselves and their com- 
panions, proposed that the two compa- 
nies should unite and establish a tt)wn. 
Beinn; promised very favorable thin<2;s, 
the Londoners consented, and Burlinjj^- 
ton was accordinjjly laid out, and lor 
some time enjoyed in connnon ; but the 
Yorkshire men, with proverbial astute- 
ness, manajred to allot to their allies the 
eastern part of the town, and reserve tiie 
most pleasant for themselves.f 

From 1(377 emijrrants continued to pour 
into West Jersey from various parts of 
Enjrland, to enjoy the wise and liberal 
g^overnment established upon the Con- 
cessions. This }2:overnment was admin- 
istered from ll37G to lOSO, by counnis- 
sioners appointed by the Proprietors in 
En<;land. After the twenty-lifth &.\y of 
J^larch, 16S0, the people in each tenth 
were to elect one commissioner yearly, 
until a General Assembly could be cho- 
sen. In IGSl, Jenning:s, the deputy of 
Billinge, whom the Proin-ietors had 
made Governor, called an assembly, 
which, on account of the tribes or tenths 
not yet being set apart, was elected by 
the province at large. In May of the 
following year, such partition having 
been made, the Assembly, among many 
other statutes passed during a session of 
only four days, J enacted that each tenth 
as it was peopled should send ten dele- 
gates. On the second of ^lay, 1083, 
the first assembly thus chosen, began to 
sit: the third or Irish tenth (from Pens- 
aukin to Timber Creek) being repre- 
sented by William Cooper, Mark New- 
bie, Henry Stacy, PVancis Collins, Sam- 
uel Cole, Thomas Ilowell and William 
Bate — only seven persons; while the 

* Smith's New Jersey, p. 98 ; and Kalm's Tra- 
vels Vol. II. p. 110. 

+ Smith, ubi s^iiprn. 

i Learn, and Spicer, p, 4i'2. A special st-ssitm 
of the same assembly, called by the Gi)vcrnor on 
the 25lh orSc|)lrmber, JGSO, oi)ly lasted two days, 
in which time they panned ten laws I I^cam. and 
3«pi«., p. 453. 



fourtli tenth, from Timber Creek to Old- 
man's Creek had no delegate at all, on 
account nrobablv of its vet containing 
only Dutch and l^wedes, who took no 
interest in matterb of government. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ORIGIN OF OLP GI.OUCKSTER — ITS PUB- 
LIC BUILDINGS — THE ERECTION OF AT- 
L.VNTIO AND CAMDEN. 

A rily liiiilt with such prnpilioiis rays 
Will sliuul lo si'e oli4 walls anil h.i|i(>y itsys; 
But ki»m!oins, cities, inrit in eve? y stale 
Are suli]Oct to vici<silUiU's ot" fate; 
All enviiiu-! cloml may slmle tlie sinilMig morn, 
Thoui;h t'ates oi'daiii the beanun^^ suit's return. 
Jacoo Taylor's Horoscope uf PhiiadelpKia, 

In ]\Iay, 1652,^'^ the province having 
become quite populous, the Assembly 
divided it into two jurisdictions, or coun- 
ties, to each of which they assigned a 
court of quarter sessions, a sheriff and 
a clerk or recorder. The jurisdictions 
took their names from the only two towns 
then built in West Jersey, to wit : Bur- 
lington and Salem. The inconvenience 
to which the concentration of the public 
business at these distant places must have 
subjected the people of the third and 
fourth precincts is obvious; and we can- 
not wonder that our sturdy ftn-efathers 
seized upon the first opportunity oflered 
by disturbances in the provincial govern- 
ment, to administer a remedv for them- 
selves. 

On the twenty-fifth of November, 
1665, the Assembly met, but adjourned 
the same day on account of the sharp- 
ness of the season. f It did not convene 
again until the third of November, 1693; 
the province being in the mean while in 
great confusion, from the attempt made 
by liillinge to assume the government 
entirely into his own hands. 

Soon after this state of things began, 
on the twenty-sixth day of May, 108(3, 
the proprietors, freeholders and inhabi- 
tants, generally of the territory lying 
between tlie Pensaukin and Oidman's 
Creek, met at Arwames and formed what 
may be termed a county Constitution. 

• Learning and Spicer, p. 447. 
tldcm, p. 503. 



TnC TOWW OF GLOUCiSTKR. 



This curious instrument, comprising in 
all but ten short paragraphs, not only 
regulated the marking of hogs and other 
cattle — a precaution to which the ab- 
sence of fences in those primitive days 
gave considerable importance— but erect- 
ed the two precincts into a county, or- 
dained a regular court, provided officers 
similar to those already employed in the 
jurisdictions of Salem and Burlington, 
and prescribed the minutiaj of legal 
pra9tice.''' This was the origin of Old 
Gloucester — the only county in New 
Jersey that can deduce its existence from 
a direct and positive compact between 
her inhabitants. 

"It would seem," a historian remarks 
in commenting upon this unique paper,! 

*Thc following is a literal copy of this Con- 
Btitution. as it is recnrcied in Book A sub initio of 
Court Minutes at Woodbury: 

Gloucester, ye 28lh May, 1686. 

By the Propryctorn, Freeholders and Inhabi- 
tunts of the Third and Fourth Tenths (alias coun- 
ty of Glouceste) then Agreed as followelh : 

Imprimis — That a Court be hdd for llie Juris- 
diction and l^irnits of the af)resaid Terllh^^ or 
County, one fyme at Avwainus alias Gloucester, 
and another tyme at Red Batik. 

Iiem — That Uiere be fower courtes for the Ju 
ri."diction aforesaid held in one year at ye days 
and times hercafier mentioned viz: upon the first 
day of the first Month, upon ye first day of ye 
fourth monlh, on the first day of tlie seventh month 
and upon ye first day of the tenth month. 

Item — Th.it tlie first Court shall be hdd at 
Glouc<'ster aforesaid upon the first day of Seplem- 
ber nev^. 

Item — That all warrants and sumfins shall be 
drawne by the Clarke of the Courle and sijrned by 
the J iisiice and soc delivered to tiie Sheriff or his 
» Deputy to Fxecute. 

Item — Tiiat the bodyc of each warrant etc. 
sliiill contayiie or intimate the n;itijre of the action. 

Iler.i — That a coppy of the Declaration be giv- 
en alon<; with ye warrant by the Gierke of the 
Court, that soe tlie t>efenr!arit may have the long- 
er tyme to considder the same and prepare liis an- 
swer. 

Item — That all sumons, warrants, etc. shall be 
served and Declarations given at least ten days 
before the Court. 

Ilern — That the SherifFc shall give the Jury 
Bunimons six diys b(fire the court be held on 
which they are toapfiear. 

Item — That all persons within ye Jurisdiction 
aforesaid bring into the next courte ye mark of 
their Hoggs and other Callell, in order to be ap- 
proved and Recorded. 

f Gordon's Gaz. tit. Gloucester. 



"that the inhabitants of the county 
deemed themselves a body politic, a de- 
mocratic commonwealth, with full pow- 
ers of legislation." And that such was 
their opinion even after the resettling of 
the provincial government in 1692, will 
abundantly appear by the extracts from 
the county records which we shall give 
in the next chapter. The courts and 
grand juries which sat at Red Bank and 
Arvvames would have bsen formidable 
tribunals indeed, but for the stern integ- 
rity with which they exercised their ex- 
orbitant authority. We must confess, 
however, that the justices, who were 
elected by the people under the forty- 
first chapter of the Concessions, seem to 
have been too complaisant to the juries 
grand and petit, under their direction. 
Whether it be a verdict turninjr a free- 
man into a slave, ''■ or a presentment lay 
ing the most considerable tax,t the wor- 
thy clerk has but one footing up: "To 
all which ye Bench assents," 

The government of the state of Glou- 
cester, having now a name, of course 
wanted the other essential of respecta- 
bility, "a local habitation," This was 
fixed "by the joyntt consent of the pro- 
prietors," who during the interreicnum 
in the provincial government fixed ev- 
ery thing, at Arwames. A splendid city, 
reaching from the Quinquorenning or 
Newton Creek to the Sassackon or Lit- 
tle Timber Creek — with ten streets run- 
ning east and west, and two north and 
south, and with a fainous Market place 
three chains sf|uare — was laid out by 
ThoiTias Sharp in 16S9. The whole plot 
was divided into ten equal shares, to 
correspond with the number of proprie- 
ties ; and on the east side, in conformity 
with the good old notions of the father- 
land, a space was consecrated to the 
gambols of the school-boys of future 
ages, under the name of Town Bounds. f 

It did not escape the observation of the 
ever vigilant gfrandjury that the exijren- 
cies of the public required, in addition 
to the said Market Place and Town 

* Minutes for Dec. Term, at Red Bank, l&^'Z. 
t S« e Justices' and Freeholders' Minutes, 13tii 
Feb. 1704. 

{ Vide draft on the following pag*. 



fO 



TOT TOWN OF OLOUCHiTKR. 





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The iaiiU and bv\auip btiuiigint: lo Jutm Uea<iing. 



rUBLlC BUILDING*. 



57 



Bounds, a jail wherein to lock up the 
unruly. And therefore, at a court held 
in the new town on the second day of 
December, 16S9, they did in due form 
"Present ye County of Gloucester for 
their not erecting' a common goale for 
the seciiriug of prisoners;" whereupon, 
the clerk tells us "Daniel Reading un- 
dertakes to build a goale or logg-house 
of lifteen or sixteen foot S(!uare, provided 
he may have one lott of I^and conveyed 
to him and his heirs forever; and ye sd 
house to serve for a prison till ye County 
makes a common geole, or until ye sd 
logge house shall with age be destroyed 
or made insufficient for that purpose. 
And Wm. Royden undertakes to convey 
ye lott, he being paid three pounds for 
the same at or before ye next courte.-" 
The place thus provided answered as 
a gaol imtil December, 169.5, when it 
was "ordered that a prison be with all 
convenient expedition built, sixteen feet 
long, twelve feet wide in the clear, and 
eight loot high; to be made of loggs, 
with a floor of loggs, above and below 
covered with cedar shingles, and a par- 
tition in the middle."! The courts had 
hitherto been held at taverns or at pri- 
vate houses; but on the first of June, 
1696, the preceding^ order was remodel- 
led, so as to require "a prison of twenty 
foot long and sixteen wide, of a sufficient 
heighth and strength, made of loggs, to 
he erected and biiilded in Gloucester — 
with a Court House over the same of a 
convenient height and largeness, co- 
vered ol" and with cedar shingles, well 
and workmanlike to be made, and with 
all convenient expedition finished — Mat- 
thew Medcalfe and John Reading to be 
overseers or agents to lett the same or 
see the said buildings done and per- 
formed in manner aforesaid, they to have 
money for carrying on of the said work 
of the last county tax." On the fifth of 
October, ITOS, we tind the following 
record: "We, the Grand Jury for the 
County of Gloucester, being mett toge- 
ther at Gloucester to concider of the 
present imergancies of the same, doe 

* Woodbury Records, book A of Court Minutes. 
tHist. Coll. of New Jersey, p. 209. 



consider itt necessary that an addition 
be made to the Prison and Courtt House 
in manner following, viz. That it joyne 
to the south end of the ould one, to be 
made of stone and brick, twelve foot in 
the cleare, and two story high, with a 
stack of chimneys joyning to the ould 
house. And that itt be uniform from ye 
foundation lo the Court House." 

To carry on this improvement the 
grand jury levied a tax of one shilling 
upon every hundred acres of land, one 
shilling for every horse and mare over 
three years old, sixpence per head for 
neat cattle, two pence for each sheep, 
three shillings for each freeman in ser- 
vice, and three shillings for each negro 
over twelve years old, "to be paid ia 
current silver money or corn, or any 
other country produce at money price, 
to be delivered and brought in to the 
County treasurer at his dwelling house.'* 
Our ancestors however bad begun to ^et 
proud, and did not therefore remain long^ 
satisfied with their public buildings, even 
as improved. On "the fifth of the se- 
cond month called April" 171.5, the jus 
tices and Freeholders concluded to build 
a goal "iwenly four foot long in the 
cleare, and the wall in the full height 
from the foundation nine foot high and 
two foot thick, well done with good mor- 
tar of lime and sand. And to lay the 
upper and under floors with the planks 
of the old prison, to make a good roof 
to it, and necessary doors and windows. 
And to remove the court house where 
the new prison is to stand, and to re- 
payve the same as shall be needfull.'-" 
The new county capitol was finished in 
1719, but failing (rom some cause or other 
to please the justices and freeholders, 
they ordered it in December of that year 
"to be pulled down to ye lower floor, 
and rebuilt upon the same foundation 
with good fresh lime and sand." We 
find about this time the following entry 
upon the Clerk's Book of the county le- 
S^islature: "It is agreed by this meeting 
that a payor of substantial stocks be 

* The old court house and prison was sold in 
March 1719, to William Harrison for eight 
pounds. 



ss 



THE ERECTION OF ATLANTIC AND CAMDEW. 



erected near the prison with a post at 
each end, well fixed and fastened with 
a hand cuff iron att one of them for a 
whipping-post." In 1736 the board or- 
dered a yard, a watch-house, a work- 
shop, and a pump to be added to the 
public property; and these we believe 
are the last material improvements made 
to the lof:;§i:-h.oi(se, which has led us into 
so long a digression. ■'■" 

In 1692 the statute erecting Cape 
May into a county indirectly sanctioned 
the irregular proceedings of the Glouces- 
ter men in associating themselves toge- 
ther, by reciting that the province had 
"been formerly divided into three coun- 
ties."! In the same year the boundaries 
of Gloucester were partially defined, by 
a law making Pensaukin the division line 
between it and Burlington; but there be- 
ing "a great inconveniency seen in that 
act," it was repealed by its framers at 
their next session/}; 1'hus the matter 
rested until 1694, when two laws were 
passed relating to Gloucester: thefirst^ 
enacting "that the two distinctions or di- 
visions heretofore called the Third and 
Fourth Tenths be and is hereby laid into 
one county, named, and from henceforth 
to be called, The County of Glouces- 
ter; the limits whereof bounded with 
the aforesaid river called Crapwell, (for- 
merly called Penisawkin) on the north, 
and the River Berkley, (formerly called 

* The court house at Gloucester appears never 
•to have been m.irle very comlorlalile, lor so late as 
Dec. 19lh, 1721, we fi.id tiie filluwiiig miniilc: — 
•'Prnclainaiion being- niacie, tiieCi.urt, of Common 
Pleas is adjiiiirnt'd nolo Uie house of Mary Spey 
by rmsori of t/ie cold." Meeting as the worthy 
jusliee.s often did at six o'clock in (he nuiriiinjf, 
it. is Of) wonder that they complained of the frost. 
See Hook B of Court ininuf.es. 

1- Oldmi.xoti, writing- in 1708, says of West 
Jersey: '• II is not divided into slirres as East. Jer- 
sey is; Iho' Dr. Cox wlien he was Proi)rietiiry 
.ordered seven counties to be laid out, as Cape 
May ("bounty, Salliam (\)unty, Gloucester County, 
etc., l)ut his successors did not g-o on with the pro- 
ject." Atrain he says '- ihc trncl of l.ind between 
Cape M'iV atid Little Egj; Harbour goes t>y the 
name of C-ipo May County; but we do not under- 
stand that tlierc is any other division of this pro- 
vince honored with the name of county." Brit- 
ish Empire in America, Vol. I. 138. 

t Learning and Spicer, pp. 509, 513, &c. 
« Idem, p. 530. 



Oldman's Creek) on the south." It 
was probably intended that the eastern 
boundary of this county should be a right 
line drawn from the head-waters of 
Pensaukin to the head-waters of Cld- 
man's Creek. We are sure at least that 
Gloucester did not reach originally to 
the ocean; for the second law,-''- passed 
in the above year, is in the following 
words: "Forasmuch as there are some 
families settled upon Egg Harbour, and 
of right ought to be under some jurisdic- 
tion, be it enactedbythe authority afore- 
said that the inhabitants of the said Egg 
Harbour shall be and belong to the juris- 
diction of Gloucester to all intents and 
purposes, till such time as they shall be 
capable, by a competent number of in- 
habitants, to be erected into a county, 
any former act to the contrary notwith- 
standing." The Egg Harbour country 
continued in this dependent state until 
1710, t when another law was made in- 
corporating it with Gloucester. An 
hundred and twenty-seven years after- 
Avards the people on the seaboard 
thought they "had a competent number 
of inhabitants" to be set off as a separate 
county, and accordingly Atlantic was 
erected in 1837. On the diirteenth day 
of March, 1844, the new county of Cam- 
den was erected, partly to accommodate 
the fast sv/elling population of the north 
and north-western townships, and part- 
ly to secure to West .Jersey her just share 
of influence in the state government. 

As an antiquarian, who does not re- 
gret — who would not have prevented — 
these repeated mutilations of old Glou- 
cester's territory ? But let us remember 
that public convenience and public jus- 
tice are considerations paramount to any 
idle feeling like tiiis. Let us shov/ that 
the mere interposition of metaphysical 
lines can never divide those whose hearts 
the common sufferings and the coinmon 
joys of a centurj' and a half have united. 
The people of Atlantic and Camden — 
the daughters of Old Gloucester — still 
claim the glory of her name as in part 
their own — still hope from her the return 
of a mother's affections; and he who 

* Idem, p. 535. 

t Allison's Laws, p. 11. 



EXTRAC rS FROM THE MINUTES OP THE COUNTr COURT. 



S9 



would deny that glory or disappoint that 
hope is unworthy of his birth in a county 
80 ancient and so favored. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE 
COUNTY COURT, AND OF THE BOARD OF 
JUSTICES AND FREEHOLDERS. 



-laptam co^nomine gentem 



Hort'-r amare focos, arctnique atluleie tectis. 
Jainqtie ic.ie sicco pubdiiclas liUure piippcsj 
Conmibiis arvisque novis operata juveiUusj 
Jura domosque dabam. 

VlRG. ^n. ///. 133. 



The following' extracts, while they 
show conclusively that our ancestors of 
the county of Gloucester deemed them- 
selves, for some time after the constitu- 
tion of Arwames, an independent go- 
vernment, with power to prescribe pun- 
ishments, levy taxes, fix boundaries and 
do many other acts equally sovereign — 
also throw much light upon the moral 
and physical condition of the early Eng- 
lish settlers. 

At a Court held at Red Bank on the 
tenth of December, 1686, "Andrew Wil- 
kie was brought to ye bar, and the In- 
dictment against him for fiellony being 
read, he pleaded guilty in manner and 
form." Yet a jury "was empannelled, 
and attested upon his Triall and true 
deliverance to make between our Lord 
the King and the prisoner at the bar, etc. 

"Verdict — The jury bi'ought in An- 
drew Wilke the prisoner. Guilty in the 
manner and form, and that ye said pris- 
oner ought to make pay to the prosecu- 
tor the sum of sixteen pounds. 

"Sentence — The Bench appoints that 
ye said Wilkie shall pay ye aforesaid 
sixteen pounds by way of servitude, viz : 
if he will be bound by Indenture to ye 
prosecutor, then to serve him ye terme 
of four years, but if he condiscended 
not thereto then ye court awarded that 
he should be a servant and soe abide the 
terme of five years, and to be accommo- 
dated in the tyme of his servitude by his 
master with meat, drink, cloaths, wash- 
ing and lodging according to ye ciiMome 



of ye County, and fitt for such a ser- 
vant." 

The felony of which Wilkie was thus 
doubly convicted was stealing goods of 
Denis Lins; and the sentence therefore 
was in accordance with the provincial law 
of 16S1, which requires thieves to render 
four fold restitution, "or be made work 
for so long time as the nature of the of- 
fence shall require."" We have been 
unable however to find either law or 
custom to authorize the following step, 
which was taken at a court held at 
Gloucester, on the first of December, 
1693: 

" The grand jury present William 
Lovejoy, for that contrary to the order 
and advice of the Bench he doth frequent 
the house of Ann Penstone, and lodge 
there, none being in ye house but he and 
ye said Ann with the bastard child. 
William Lovejoy solemnly promises to 
appear at the next court to be held at 
Gloucester, and to be of very good be- 
haviour during the same time." 

The first Court held under the consti- 
tution of Arwames was in September, 
16S6. The justices then present on the 
Bench were Francis C(i!lins, Thomas 
Thackera, and John Wc)d. The jury 
list returned by the sherirl contained the 
nam.es of William Hunt, William Bate, 
William Albertson, William Lovejoy, 
Henry Wood, Jonathan Wood, John 
Hugge, James Atkinson, Thomas Sharp, 
Thomas Chaunders, George Goldsmith, 
John Ladde, Daniel Reading John Ithel, 
John Bethell, Thomas Matthews, Wil 
liam Dalboe, Anthony N'eilson, John Mat- 
son, Thomas Bull, John Taylor, Wil^ 
liam Salisbury, Matthew Medcalfe and 
William Cooper. At this term, "upon 
ye complaynt of Rebecca Hammond 
against her late master Robert Zane for 
want of necessary apparell, as alsoe his 
failure in some covenants that he was 
obliged by his indenture to perform — it 
was ordered yt ye said Rob. Zane, be- 
fore ye first day of ninth mon'Ji next 
should finde and give to ye said Rebecka 
Hammond apparell to the valine of three 

* Leam. and Spic, p. 434 ; Gab, Thomas in pra 
face to West Jersey. 



40 



KXTRAOrrS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COUNTT >. OURT. 



pounds, seven shillings and six pence, 
and alsoe fifty acres of Icmd to licr and 
Iter hcira forever; and in case ye sd Rob. 
sJiall di'dike this order, then to stand to 
and abide by ye act of Jlsscmbly in the 
like case provided. Whereupon ye sd 
Rob. Zane did at last declare that he 
would comply with ye aforesaid order 
and answer ye same." 

The last clause of the county constitu- 
tion, relating to hogs, not having been 
obeyed by the people, the clerk was or- 
dered at tiiis court "to warne in tliose 
who had made default, to hisowne howse, 
and there take account and register their 
markes." Accordingly each ciiizen who 
owned any of those animals cut their 
ears according to fancy, and returned a 
draft to Clerk Sharp. These were scru- 
pulously copied, and form a fantastic por- 
tion of the county records. To kill a 
marked hog, even though its owner 
was unknown, was a misdemeanor 
against the peace and dignity of the 
county, and as such was punished by fine 
to the public use."" 

On the first of March, 1691, one John 
Richards was found guilty of perjury, 
and senter.ced by the jury "to pay twenty 

Sounds fine or stand in ye pillory one 
our. To which ye bench assents, and 
ye prisoner chusing to stand in ye pillo- 
ry, they award and order the same to be 
in Gloucester on ye tweith day of April 
next, between ye hours often in ye morn- 
ing and four in ye afternoon, and conde- 
scend to take his owne bond for his ap- 
pearance at that tyme under ye penalty 
and fortification of fifty pounds." 

At September Term, 1690, two bur- 
glars having been convicted, were sen- 
tenced to be "burnt to the bone" in the 
hand with the letter T, or sold for five 
years in the West Indies: the thieves 
chose the latter. 

The subjoined extract affords a strong 
instance of the independence claimed by 
the county during the disturbances in the 

fjrovincial government. She and Bur- 
ington seem to have considered the sub- 

• See Minutes of Court nt Red Bank, Dec. 
Term, 16SG, where three of the most respectable 
men in the county were fined respectively twelve 
ten and esvcn Bhillings for thus offendinjf. 



ject of county boundaries as one entirely 
within the scope of county legislation. 
"x'Yt a court held at Gloucester, on ye 
first day of 4th mo., 16S9, the grand 
jury having inlbrmation that the persons 
formerly ajijointed by ye propryetors for 
fixing ye line of division between ye 
counties of Burlington and Gloucester, 
have agreed upon a course that shall de- 
termine ye same. Doe in pursuance 
thereof order that upon ye seventeenth 
day of this instant ye said lines hall be run, 
and that Thomas Sharp shall be surveyor 
for ye doing thereof. That John Walker^ 
and John Heritage shall mark ye trees, 
an dtbat Francis Collins, Richard Heri- 
tage, John Key, and John Wills be ap- 
pointed to see yt the same be duly per- 
formed and done. And also that it's 
judged convenient that ye people in Bur- 
lington County may have advice hereof 
that they may appear to see that affair 
completed if they please. To all which 
ye Bench assents, and order the pro- 
cedure thereof in manner above said." 
Two years before the above proceed- 
ings was had, the Burlington men had * 
offended those of Gloucester by holding 
pleas of crimes belonging to the juris-; 
diction of Arwames. The officers who 
had contributed to this insult were 
promptly dealt with. At a court held at 
Gloucesteron the first of December 1687, 
"The grand jury present John Wood and 
Will Warner for conveying forth of this 
county two prisoners thereof, namely, 
Henry Treadway and Mary Driner ibr 
their tryall at Burlington Court, contrary 
to the rights and privileges of this county, 
and to the perverting of justice, &'c. The 
Bench orders this ])resentment to be re- 
ferred to the next court, at which tyme , 
3^e sd John Wood is ordered to appear.",* 
At the next court "'Jhe presentment of 
the grand jury of the last court ag^uinst 
John Wood for the conyeying of Henry 
Treadway and Mary Driner, two noto- 
rious delinquents forth of this county, 
^'c, to the destroying of ye county's 
privileges, &"c., being road, the said John 
Wood speaketh as followeth: Since I i 
understand that this county hath taken 
offence at and with m}' proceedings con- 
cerning Henry Treadway and Mary Dri- 



EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COUNTY COUKT. 



il 



Yjer, I am heartily sorry that I ever 
gave them that cause of offence. Ffor- 
asmiich as I desi{^ned noe prejudice 
against the county nor any therein, but 
that it was my ij^norance that occationed 
the same, I doe desire the sd county 
would he pleased to remit and pass by 
ye same." 

The fbllowinj^is a copy of the first tax 
act passed by the Grand Jury, or as we 
mi^ht call it, the Legislature, of the 
county, 

"Gloucester, firstof second mo., 1G87: 
The Courte dissolved, but the Grande 
Jury having something under considera- 
tion that required a longer tyme to de- 
liberate thereof, they now adjourned till 
the fourteenth day of the same month, at 
which time appearing they agreed and 
ordered as followeth; 

"Thatforthe public use and concerne 
of the County of Gloucester there should 
be a tax levyed and raised upon the in- 
habitants thereof in manner following — 

"That every owner or possessor of 
lande shall pay for every hundred acres 
of lande that shall be possessed, taken up 
or surveyed, the sum of one shilling. 
And that every person keeping Catieil 
within the sd county of Gloucester, 
whether oxen, horses or cowes, being 
two years of age, shall pay for every head 
of such cattell the sum of two pence. 
And alsoe that all free men having neither 
lande nor cattell shall pay the sum of two 
pence. And alsoe that all men having 
neither lande or cattell, being sixteen 
years of age, shall pay for their owne 
heads one shilling a piece, 

"The assessors appointed for the tax- 
ing of every man's estate as aforesaid 
are Richard Heritage, .lohn Key, Thomas 
Sharpe, Andrew Robeson, jun., and An- 
thony Neilson, whoe are to meet together 
on or before the twentieth day of the 
third month next, in order to assess and 
leavy the said tax. 

"The treasurers appointed are Henry 
Wood and Anthony Neilson, to whom ev- 
ery person concerned shall bringe in their 
several taxations by or before the twenty- 
ninth day of September next, either in 
silver money or in come at the prices fol- 
lowing, viz: 

a 



s. d. s. d. 

Wheat at 4 Gates at 2 
Rye 3 Indian Peas .5 

Barley 3 Buckwheat 2 6 

Indian Corne 2 6 
And in case any person shall refuse or 
neglect to bring in their tax as aforesaid, 
it shall be lawful! to distriene upon them 
for double the vallue with all such 
charges that shall accrue for or by reason 
of distress soe made, and any one that 
findes himself wronged shall repaire to 
the next justice, who hath power tore- 
dress their agrievances. And the Trea- 
surers are hereby ordered to have for 
their recieveing and disposall of the pay 
two shillings in the pound. 

"And that this tax when recieved shall 
not be disposed on but by the consent, 
knowledge, and appointment or aproba- 
tion of the Grand Jury for the tyme be- 
ing. 

"This was seen and approved on the 
fourteenth day of April, by the Justices 
aforesaid, and soe the Jury was dis- 
charged." 

The Grand Jury continued to levy 
taxes of its own accord until 1694, when 
the Assembly vested the power in a quo- 
rum of the County Justices, "with the 
advice, concurrence and assistance of 
the Grand Jury."--' In 1713 the prerog- 
ative passed by statute to the Justices 
and Chosen Freeholders,! with whom it 
continued to reside until the organization , 
of the Board of Freeholders upon its 
present footing on the thirteenth of Feb- 
ruary, 179S.J On the eleventh of De- 
cember, 1733, we find upon the minutes 
of the Board then legislating for the 
county the subjoined act: "The justices < 
and freeholders have appointed George s 
Ward and Constantino Wood to be man- 
agers to repair Timber Crick Bridge; 
and also that fifty pounds shall be raised ' 
to defray the charge of the said repair, 
and for and towards other county charges, g 
in manner following, viz: Single men „ 
one shilling and six pence each ; servants i 
four pence each. Mei'chants as follow- ' 

* Lonm. and Spic, p. 52S. 

t Feb. 28th, Allison's Lavvi, p. 14. 

$ Pattereon's Laws, p. 265. 



4'i 



EXTRACTS FROiM THE MINUTES OF THE COUNTY COURT. 



eth, viz : John Brown of Gloucester ten 
shillinj^s, Sarah Norris five, Timothy 
Matlack ten, Michael Fisher five, C. 
Taylor ten. Mills as followeth, viz : 
Bennet's mill four shillin^^s, Cole's mill 
four, Child's mill four. Key's mill four, 
Andrew Ware's mill two, Richard Chees- 
man's mill three, George Ward's mill 
five, Griffith's mill one and six pence, I. 
Cousen's mill two, Israel Ward's mill two, 
S. Shiver's mill four, Somers' mill three, 
Stileman's mill one and six pence, Fish- 
er's mill four, Breache's mill two. Ta- 
'bfinis as followeth, viz : T. Perrywebb's 
ten shillings, Medcalf's ten, W^heeldon's 
ten, Griffith's one, Sarah Bull's two, E. 
Ellison's five. Tateni's ferry seven and 
six pence, Gerrard's seven, Taylor's ten, 
Medcalf's ferry twelve." We learn 
from a similar act passed in 1750 that 
there were then in the county fourteen 
stores and shops, twenty-seven mills, 
five ferries, and over twenty-five ta- 
verns. 

The first ferry licensed by the county 
court was one from Gloucester to Phila- 
delphia in 16SS.-"- On the first of Jan- 
uary says Clerk Sharp, "It is proposed to 
ye bench yt a ferry is very needfull and 
much wanted f'om Jarsey to Philadel- 
phia, and yt William Roy don's house is 
looked upon as a place convenient for, 
and the said William Roydon a person 
suitable for that employment; and there- 
fore an order desired from ye Bench that 
a ferry may be fixed, He. 1 o which ye 
B^nch assents, and refers to ye Grand 
Jury to methodize ye same, and fixjhe 
rates thereof." 

In 1693 proposals were made for a 
ferry over Timber Creek; but this and 
the one before established across the 
Delaware seem to have gone down before 
1695; for under the date of June the first 
of that year we read as follows: 

"The Grand Jury consenteth to and 
presenteth the proposals of Daniel Coop- 
er for keeping a ferryf over the river to 
Philadelphia at the prices following, that 

* See Barber and Howe's New Jereey, p. 209. 
The dates in this book are not always to be de- 
pended on. 

tThis 18 the middle Ferry now called English's 
Ferry. 



is to say: For a man and horse, one shilling 
and six pence ; for a single horse or cow, 
one shilling and three pence ; for a single 
man, ten pence ; and when ten or more, 
six pence per head; and six pence per 
head for sheep, calf's, or huggs. To 
which ye bench assents. 

"The Grand Jury consenteth to and 
presenteth ye proposals of John Read- 
ing for keeping a ferry over Giocester 
River, and from Giocester to Wickaco at 
ye prices following, That is to say, for 
a single man and horse, two shillings and 
six pence, and lour shillings per head for 
more than one horse or cow, He. and 
one shilling and six pence lor a single 
man, and one shilling per head when 
more than one from Gloucester to Wick- 
acoe. And five pence per head for 
horses, cov/s, &"c., and two pence per 
head for man without horses or cattell 
over Giocester River. To all which ye 
Bench assents." 

On the first of December, 1702, the 
first regular ferry over Cooper's Creek 
was established at ihe foot of School- 
house Lane. "J(^in Champion," says the 
clerk, "makes great complaint of his great 
charge in setting people over Cooper's 
Creek at his house; whereupon ye Grand 
Jury propose that in case ye sd John 
Champion will find sufficient conveni- 
ences to putt people over at all seasons, 
the said Champion may take for ferriage 
as follows, viz: For two persons to- 
gether two pence per head, for one sin- 
gle person three pence, and for a man 
and a horse five pence. To which ye 
Bench assents." 

It will be observed that no mention is 
made in any of these regulations of car- 
riages. Such refinements were not in- 
troduced generally, even in Philadelphia, 
until the revolution."--' In West Jersey 
most journeys were performed on horse- 
back; and the marriage portion of the 
daughters of the most wealthy men gen- 
erally consisted of a cow and a side-sad- 
dle. Wheeled vehicles indeed would 
have been of but httle use in a country 
where roads were yet full of trees, and 
where streams had but few if any bridges. 

» Du Simitre's MSS. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COUNTY COURT, 



43 



Funerals were frequently attended in 
boats; and a hi<j:hly respectable gentle- 
man, late of Camden,'- distinctly remem- 
bered a burial of the kind which took 
place in his boyhood. The deceased 
lived upon Cooper's Creek near the head; 
his coffin was placed in' a barge, and 
rowed around to the old ground upon 
Newton Creek, followed by several 
other boats containing the family and 
friends. 

In 1701 occurred the first murder in 
the county of Gloucester. It seems 
from the record that it was a case of 
infanticide ; but what was done with 
the guilty mother is not very clear. 
The cause was tried at Gloucester by 
Lord Cornburv in person :\ and on the 
nineteenth of December we find the fol- 
lowing minute : "We, the Grand Jury for 
the County of Gloucester doe order 
eighteen pence to by twelve bushels of 
charcoal for the prisoner, and two pounds 
and two shillings to by three match coats 
for the prisoner's use so long as shea 
hath occasion for it, and then to be re- 
served for the county's use. We allow 
seven shillings and six pence to the Clerk 
for five warrants to the Collector to ga- 
ther the above tax. We further allow 
Matthew Medcalfe twelve shillings and 
six pence for defraying the Lord Corn- 
bury's retinue's expenses when he was 
lately at Gloucester; and six shillings to 
John Siddon for a coffin for the mur- 
thered child, and six shillings more we 
allow him by discount of his old tax in 
the year 1691, for bringing the Justices 
and Coroner to Gloster. We also allow 
eight pounds twelve shillings and four 
pence for defraying the Lord Cornbury's 
and his attendance's expenses when he 
was lately at Gloucester. ";{: 

The clerk was required, among a 
thousand other duties,^ to keep a regis- 



* Richard M. Cooper, E>q. 

tG'vcriior Hniiloke held the Glniiresler Court 
in March and Dtccinber Terms, 16J2, and Sep- 
t' nibrr, 16^4. (iov. Jfremiah Bass pre>ided at 
S'pieiiiber Term, 1698; and Gov. Andrew Hain- 
iJion in March, 1 7UU. 

t Justices' and Freeholders' Minutes, Book A. 

i A comparison of the multifarioue duties of 



try of the marriages and births happening 
in the county. The following are true 
copies of some of these records : — 

The t/nrtec7ith of ye first month, anno 
16S7. Samuel Taylor and Elizabeth 
Ward now then married together accord- 
ing to the good and laudable rules and 
laws of the Province of West Jarsey in 
that case made, before Francis Collins, 
one of ye King's Magistrates for ye Coun- 
ty of Gloucester, and in the presence of 
John Richards. Phillis Richards, James 
Warde, Thomas Thackera, John Hugge, 
George Gold'imith, Jonathan Wood. ^c. 
John Reading, Recorder, 

Province of IVcst Jersey. 

John Burroughs, the son of John Bur- 
roughs and Jane his wife, of Glocester 
River, in ye County of Glocester, was 
born ye fourteenth day of March, Anno, 
16S7. Entr. pr. me, 

John Reading, Re, 
Testis, 
John Ashbrook, 

The si-xteenth of November, anno, 
1697. This may certify whom it may con- 
cern that I, George Ward, of ye Towne 
of Upton, and County of Gloucester, 
and Hannah W^aynwright of Woodbe ry 
Creek, have been Published according to 
Law, and nothing appearing contrary in 
any wise to hinder them, they have pro- 
ceeded at a public place appointed tor 
that purpose as followeth: Ye said ' 
Georg;e standing up and taking ye cd 
Hannah by ye hand, Saith as followeth : 
I, George Ward, in ye presence of God 
and this Assembly, Take Hannah Wayn- 
wright to be my Wife, promising to be a ^ 
loueing Husband vntill Death sepperate ; g 
and She ye sd Hannah in like manner 
saith — I, Hannah Waynwright, in ya 
presence of God and this Assembly take « 
George Ward to be my husband, promis- 



the poor Recorder with his slim fees induced '< 
Clerk f^harp to perpetrate the fallowing' distich, ^ 
whi.-:h we find in the Book containing the Mar- '< 
riages and Births:— " 

i( 
The Clerk's Office of thii County I ihink I miy Proclaim, 
Will Dot al Preteai the Uwaer of itc Load with mtich Gain. 

T. S. 



4i 



KXTRACTS FROM TlIK RHNUTES OF THE COUNTY COURT. 



ing to be a Loueing Fl'aithfull Wife till 
Death seppcrate. hi, 

George x Ward. 

mark, 
her 

Hannah x Waynwrigiit. 

mark. 

Persons present were 

John Brown, Israel Ward, William 
Ward, John 'ratimi, Thomas Gibson, 
Isaac Wood, Charles Crossthwait, 
John Ashhrook, Tiionias Bull, James 
Whitall, yanuioll Tayler, John Kuno, 
Elizabeth Talum and Susannah Wayn- 
wright. 

December ye .first, anno 1697. The 
■\viihin cortilicate was ordered to be re- 
corded By Tiio. Gardiner, 

Ji(stice. 
December Stit, 1697. Entr. Exam, and 
Recorded pr me, 

John Reading, Rec. 
Testis, JoI/71 Readln£>\ 
The subjoined miscellaneous extracts 
are by no means devoid of interest. 

"At a Court held at Red Rank on the 
tenth of ye tenth Month, 1GS6, the Grand 
Jury present the neglect of Majiistrates 
for theire not makinj^ a full Bench on ye 
first day of this instant, for which cause 
ye Court was yn adjourned till this pre- 
sent tenth day." 

"At ye Court held ht Gloucester (for 
A-e jurisdiction thereof ) on ye first day 
of ye fourth month, anno 1686, Divers 
Complaints being made to ye Grand Jury 
of ye great loss and damage which the 
County sutlers by reason of wolves, they, 
with ye concurrence of ye Bench, to en- 
courage ye destroying of them, doe or- 
der ye soverall Treasurers within this 
county to pay ten shillings for every 
Wolfe's head to them brought forth of ye 
effects of ye County tax, and ye clerk is 
ordered to write papers to publish ye 
same." 

At a court held at Gloucester on the 
first of December, 1701, the jrrand jury 
presented "Thomas Wills of Gloucester 
for selling beer by wine measure ; and 
allso that John Roe and George I^aw- 
rence be paid for two wolfe's heads by 
them killed. To which ye Bench as- 
sents." 

On the fifteenth of January, 1736, the 



justices and freeholders ordered "Abra- 
ham Chatten to receive ten shillings for 
treating the workmen at building the 
work or watch house, and that John 
Kaighn receive I'orty shillings for treating 
the said workmen." 

We conclude the present chapter with 
the following ordinance, which shows 
how our fathers were wont to live "a 
hundred years ago or more." 

JN ORDINANCE, 

Of the rates of Liquors and of Eatables 

for ]\/an, and Provender and Pasture 

for Horses, to be open' d and kept by all 

the Public House Keepers, Inn Keepers, 

or Tavern Keepers in the County of 

Gloucester for the folloiving year — as 

fbllowith, viz: 

s. d. 

Every Pint of Madera Wine, 1 

Every Quart Bowl of Punch made of 
Loaf Sugar and good Hum and ffresh 
Lmies, 

Every like Bowl of Punch made with 
Lin.e .luice, 

Every Quart of Mirabo made of Musco- 
vado 8uirar, 

Every Quart of Metheslin, 

Every Quart of Cyder Royal, 

Every Quart ot Eiia Punch, 

Every Quatiof Milk Punch, 

Every Quart ol Cyder Irom 1st of Sep- 
tember to Isi ol' .lan'y, 3 
From the 1st ofJan'y to 1st of Sep'r, 4 

Every Quart of" Strong Beer, 4 

Every Jdl of Brandy, 

Every .lill of oiher Cordial Drams, 

Every Jill of Rum, 

\ And so in piopordnn for jrrcater I 
) or sniiiller quanliliesofcnch sort. (^ 

Every Breaklast of Tea, Coflee, or 
Chocolate, S 

Eveiy Breakfast of other victuals, 6 

Every Hot Dinner or Supper provided 
for a siiiizle person, wiih a pitu of 
strong Beer or Cyder, 1 

Every Hot Dinner or Supper for a Com- 
pany, wi;h a quart of Strong Beer or 
Cyder each, 1 

Every Cold Dinner or Supper, with a 
pint of Stron^r Beer or Cyder each, 8 

Every Night's Lodging — each Person, 3 

HORSES, &c. 
Stabling every horse each night, and 

Ctoper h'dij erioitgh, S 

Stabling each Night, and other Hay 

enough, 6 



I 


6 


1 


4 





8 


I 








8 


2 








8 



THE ERKCTION OF THE JIX ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS. 45 

Every night's Pasture for a Horse, 6 fourth that of Deptforri, or, as it was 
Every two quaits of Oats, or other originally spelled, Deadford. In 1708, 
Cirain, 3 -we also tind mention made of the town- 
Adopted at tlie Court of General Se.s- ship ofEj^j^ HarLour, or New Weymouth, 
sions and County Court, ^c, held at 'I'he Grand Jury in appointin»^ officers 
Gloucester the eighth June, Ann. Dom. for this distant and independent territory 
1742. was clearly guilty of usurpation ; but the 

Egg Harbour people made no resistance,, 
and, as we have seen,^'' in two years af- 

CHAPTER XIV. terwards an act of Assembly healed all 

defects l;y a law annexing them to the 

THE ERECTION OF THE SIX ORIGINAL TOWN- jurisdiction of the county of Gloucester. 

SHIPS, AND HEREIN OF WATEKFOuu. It is our piirpose now to give a short 

sketch o( each oftbe^e six ancient consta- 

Bomf books arc lies frae end (o end, blewicks, noting down whatover mav bc 

And lome trreat lies were iievei uciiJi'd. i , .. • <• i 

* ^* , * * supposed to possess any tbin^r of value 

Bui Mi iini I am eaiin (o leii OT interest to the people of Old Glouces- 

I, ju.t a. .rue's ,^.c {;i;;;;-';,|;'ii tor, or whatever may contribute to nour- 

BvunH' Death atldDr. HorrJ>ook. ish in them that curiosity in the annals 

of their homesteads, which is at once a 

On the first of June, 1695, the follow- proof of patriotism and of intelligence, 

ing minute occurs upon the records of And firstly of Waterford. 

the court of Gloucester County: "'I'lie This township derives its name from a 

Grand Jury return and present that fishing town on the Barrow, in Ireland.! 

whereas there was a law made ye last It was settled at an early period by the 

assembly for dividing of ye counties into Coles, Eliises, Kays, Spicers, Morgans, 

particular townships, I'herefore they Champions, Heritages, and other fami- 

agree and order that from Pensoakin, lies which are still extant. The first lo- 

alias Cropwell River, to the lowermost cations were made upon Cooper's Creek, 

branch of Cooper's Creek sliall be one and in the neighborhood of Colestown, 

constabulary or township; and from ye where was established the first Episco- 

said branch of Cooper's Creek to ye palean church in the county. It was in 

southerly branch of Newton Creek, bor- this church that the Rev. Nathaniel 

dering Glocester, shall be another con- Evans, the friend of Godfrey, and the 

Btablewick or township; and from ye only poet we believe who has ever sung 

said Newton Creek branch to ye lower- of Old Gloucester, used to preach. Th-s 

most branch of Glocester Hiver shall be jrentleinan was born in Philadelphia in 

another constablewick or township; and 1742 — took the degree of A. M. in the 

from ye said branch of Glocester River to college of his native city — went to Eng- 

Great Mantoe's Creek shall be another land soon afterwards, and was admitted 

township; and from Great Mantoe's into holy orriers by Dr. Terrick, iJishop 

Creek to Barclay River another towin- of London. He returned to Philadel- 

ship. And for the year ensuing is nom- phia in December, 176.5, and immediately 

inated Edward Burroughs constable in entered upon the duties of a mission in 

ye upper township ; Jeremiah Bate con- Gloucester, New Jersey. He closed his 

stable in Newton I'ownship, and William blameless life on the twenty ninth of Oc- 

Bate and Thomas Sharpe for regulating tober, 1767. "He published a volume of 

and laying forth of highways; EliasHugg poems," says Mr. Wharton, :j: "in 1770, 

constable in Glocester Township; and most of which may be read now with 

William Chester for ye next below, called pleasure. If not remarkable for energy 

, and Jacob Cozens for Green- or originality, the vivida vis animi, 

wicli To all which ye F'>ench assents." ^ 

The first of these lownsbips soon re- ^ ^^^e Brnn', Vol. VI. p. 800. 

eeived the name of Waterlord; and the tP«nn. Register, Vol. vi. p 147. 



46 



WATERFORD TOWNSHIP. 



they are smooth and polished, and indi- 
cate the possession of a refined taste 
and lively imagination." 

The river front of Waterford is, for mid- 
Jersey, quite picturesque; the land being 
high, and butting boldly upon the water. 
At Pea Shore — which the fish-trees of 
Campanius has made classic ground — 
stands the Pleasure House of the "Tam- 
many Fishing Company," where parties 
frequently resort during the summer from 
~ " its origin 



Philadelphia. 

in that old English 



The club had 

social feeling which 
so strongly marked the generation of our 
grandfathers. It was instituted before 
tlie Revolution, and still exists, we be- 
lieve, in full vigor. The name was taken 
from Tamane, a great Delaware chief, 
who is said to have died somewhere in 
the neighborhood of the club's castle. 
This is perhaps mere fancy. "The fame 
of this great man," says Heckwelder,- 
extended even among the whites, who 
fabricated numerous legends respecting 
him, which I never heard, however, from 
the mouth of an Indian, and therefore 
believe to be labulous. In the revolu- 
tionary war his enthusiastic admirers 
dubbed him a saint, and he was estab- 
lished under the name of St. Tammany, 
the patron saint of America. His name 
was inserted in some calenders, and 
his festival celebrated on the first day of 
May in every year.-j- On that day a nu- 
merous society of his votaries walked 
together in procession through the streets 
of Philadelphia, their hats decorated 
with bucks' tails, and proceeded to a 
handsome rural place out of town, which 
they called the Wigwam ; where, after a 
lo7iii talk or Indian speech had been de- 
livered, and the calumet of peace and 
friendship had been duly smoked, they 
spent the day in festivity and mirth. Af- 
ter dinner Indian dances wei'e performed 
on the green in front of the Wigwam, the 
calumet was again smoked, and the com- 
pany separated." This Tamane was in 
Philadelphia in 1694, and delivered a 



• Hist. Aec. in Trans, of the Tlist. an'l Lit. 
Comni. of the Am. Phil. Soc, Vol. I. p. 298. 

+ See Mem. of Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, 
p. 42. 



speech before Markham and the other 
magnates of the new city;-' after which 
we hear no more of him in history. f 

The people of Waterford were in the 
Revolution staunch whigs, and as such 
was particularly obnoxious to the British. 
While the latter occupied Haddonfield 
in 1778, most of the houses north of 
Cooper's Creek were searched and 
sacked by the foragers. One morning a 
British officer went to the dwelling of 
the Champions and demanded the best 
horse the farm could afford. A young 
unbroken steed was brought out and 
saddled — the officer mounted and drove 
a little piece to a pond which intercepted 
the lane. The colt here became unruly, 
and the officer was thrown into the 
muddy pool. As a revenge fer spoiling 
his uniform, he commanded his men to 
rob the house, and then took a plough 
horse and rode away. 

A worthy old gentleman, near Ellis', 
having a good deal of specie which he 
was anxious to save from some Hessians, 
who also rendezvoused at Haddonfield, 
undertook to buiy it. For this purpose 
he went out at midnight, taking with 
him, unfortunately, a lantern to guide 
him. Having deposited his treasure he 
returned boms; but the next morning in 
passing the spot, lo! he beheld his gold 
was gone. The whole country was un- 
der strict surveillance day and night. 
The old man's lamp had betrayed him to 
the spies who were lurking about, and 
they had dug up his pot almost as soon 
as he had concealed it. 

All's fair, however, in war, and it was 
seldom that the enemy got ahead of the 
Yankee boys in sharp dealing. A Wa- 
terford man hearing that some British 
who were stationed at Mount Holly were 
in need of flour, started off with ten bags 

*Soe Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Vol. I. 
p. 410. 

t A forest but recently felled between Oamden 
and F'eltervllle was called, ns long as it stood, 
bv a name but liitle corrupted from Tum/irie's 
Wiio(h. So great was Tamane's fame amongr 
the Dclawares that when ihey wished to flatttr a 
great while man they g-ave hiiri the appfllation of 
T.immatiy. Col. George Mnrg-an, of Princeton, 
was thus honored in 1776 by the Delawares ia 
the far west. 



INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWTON. 



47 



on a speculation. The officer opened 
each sack, took out a handful of the 
flour, pronounced it good, and paid a 
handsome price. The speculator was 
moving off. "Stop," said the officer, 
"you're leaving your bags." "You need 
not empty them," said the countryman, 
"I'll throw the bags in for the sake of 
the cause." When the contents came to 
be emptied it was discovered that there 
was only a small portion of flour upon 
the top — the rest being saw dust ! 

It was related to the Cooper family 
when they first arrived in West Jersey, 
by Indians who were themselves eye- 
witnesses, that a great canoe-fight had 
taken place upon the Delaware opposite 
Waterford. The adverse lines reached 
entirely across the river, and the engage- 
ment lasted many hours and was very 
bloody. This was doubtless in the wiir 
mentioned by De Vries and Master £v- 
elin. The contending parties were the 
Iroquois and the Delawares; the former 
endeavoring probably to acquire, and the 
latter to retain the mastery of the Len- 
nape Whittuck. 

The township of Waterford preserved 
its integrity longer than any other of the 
original constablewicks. tlntil the set- 
ting ofT of Delaware by an act of the last 
legislature, it reached from the river to 
Atsion. The only considerable town in 
either the old or the new division is 
Long-a-coming; of the origin of which 
outlandish name our worthy friend Henry 
Howe of New Haven, has somewhere 
picked up the following account: "One 
hundred years since, more or less, on the 
noon of a hot summer's day, two fatigued 
and thirsty pedestrians were toiling 
through the pine forests of this sandy 
region. They had been for several hours 
in momentary expectation of coming to a 
spring, where they might, like true teto- 
tallersand on all fours, slake their burn- 
ing thirst and then repose their weary 
limbs ; but no cool bubbling fountain over- 
flowing with Nature's pure beverage, 
greeted their aching vision. Thirsty 
and weary nigh unto faintness they were 
about to despair, when a beautiful spring 
came in view, shaded by pendant boughs, 
and decked around with woodland flow 



ers. Hastily throwing aside their packs, 
they bounded to the spot, exclaiming 
•Here we are at last, though lons^ a com- 
in£r.' And such, says tradition, was the 
origin of this place."'" 

The Waterlbrd men and the Burling- 
t";iians had a warm dispute about 1692, 
as to w'l! ether the south or the north 
branch r, the Pensaukin should be the 
couniv line. A law was passed! l^yi^^n 
the line up the creek to the forks — up 
the southerly branch to the king's road — 
up said road to the northerly branch — up 
to the head of the same, and thence due 
south-east "to the utmost boundaries of 
the counties." This made the Glouces- 
ter men liable to the entire cost of the 
southerly bridge, instead of the half. 
They remonstrated — the law was re- 
pealed, and the southern branch became, 
as before and ever since, the boundary. 
The men in Waterford appear always to 
have had considerable spirit. They con- 
trived, when in 1770 a bridge was need- 
ed across Cooper's Creek at Spicer's 
Ferry, on the neiv road from Burlinjjton, 
to make the two Coopers' Ferries in 
Newton pay one tenth of the expense, 
and Burlington county three hundred 
pounds of the balance ;l while all Water- 
ford east of the King's Road was ex- 
pressly exempted. 

CHAPTER XV. 

INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWTON- 

Oh! wond'rous days of o'd romance, 

How pleasant di> ye sepm; 
For sunlit hours in summer bowers. 

For winter nights a theme! 

HowiTT's Tomb of St. George.- 

Of the first settlement of Newton 
Township, old Thomas Sharp has left us 
a quaint account. "Let it be remem- 

* Historical and Descriptive Letters in the New 
Haven Herald, No. II. 

+ Learn, and Spicer, p. 513. 

{See Act of Assembly, Allison's Laws, p. 229. 
The old King's Road between Buriinffion and 
Salem, laid out by act of assembly in 1681, was 
that leadinjr through Colestown, Ellisburg and 
Haddonfield. It probably crossed the Rancocas 
near the park of Gov. Franklin. See Leam. and 
Spicer, p. 427. 



IS 



INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWTON, 



)ered," says he, "it having wrought 
ipon ye minds of some friends that dwelt 
n Ireland, but such as formerly came 
hither from Enj^Iand; and a pre^^sure 
lavins: laid njon tliem for some years 
vhich they could not o;ett from under 
he weight of until they g:ave upp to 
eave their friends and relations tliere, 
ogether with a comfortable sulisistence, 
transport themselves and famelys into 
his wilderness part of America, and 
hereby expose themselves to difficulties, 
,vhich, if they could have been easy 
vhere they were, in all probability 
nig^ht never had been met with; and in 
)rder thereunto, sent from Dublin in 
reland, to one Thomas Lurtin, a friend 
n London, commander of a pink, who 
iccordingly came, and made an agree- 
nent with him to transport them and 
heir famelys into New Jersey, viz : 
Wiark New by-- and famely, Thomas 
rhackara and famely, William Bate and 
iamely. George Goldsmith, an old man, 
md Thomas Sharp a younjj^man, but no 
iamelys; and whilst the ship abode in 
3ublin harbor provideing for the voy- 
i^e, said Thomas Lurtin was taken so 
II that he could not perform ye same, so 
hat his mate, John Da^^er, undertook it. 
\nd upon the nineteenth day of Septem- 
)er, in the year of our Lord, 16S1, we 
sett saile from the place aforesaid, ^nd 
hrou^h the good providence of God 
owards us, we arrived at Elsinburjr, in 
he county of Salem, upon the 19th day 
)f November followinj^, where we were 
veil entertained at the houses of the 
riiompsons, who came from Ireland 
ibout four years before, who by their 
ndustry, were arrived to a very g-ood 
iej2;ree of Living', and from thence we 
vent to Salem, where were several 
louses yt were vacant of persons who 
lad left the town to settle in ye country, 
A^hich served to accommodate them for 

* This Newby brougflit with him a jjreat num. 
)er of Iristi hHlf-penny pieces, wliich the Assein- 
)ly in May, 1682, in:ide a legal tender under ihe 
imount tjf five shilling's. — Le.uning and Spicer, 
). 415. Tiny were called Piil rick's half-pence. 
^J^evvby lived on the farm now owned by that snc- 
lessful collectur of coins, Joseph B. Cooper, Esq., 
n Newton, where manyof tiie-.Patrick half-pence 
lave been ploughed up. 



ye winter, and having thus settled down 
tiieir famelys, and the winter proving 
moderate, we at Wickacoa, among us, 
purchased a boate of the Swansons, and 
so went to l-i'irlington to the commis- 
s'onors, of whom we obtained a warrant 
of ye surveyor general, which then was 
Daniel Leeds; and after some consid- 
erable search to and fro in that then 
was called the third of Irish tenth, we 
at last pitched upon the place now 
called Newton, which was before the 
settlement of Philadelphia; and then 
applied to sd surveyor, who came and 
laid it out for us; and the next spring, 
being the beginning of the year 16S2, 
we all removed from Salem together 
with Robert Zane, that had been set- 
tled there, who came along from Ireland 
with the Thompsons before hinted, and 
having expectation of our coming only 
bought a lott in Salem town, upon the 
which he seated himself nntill our com- 
ing, whose propriatery right and ours 
being of the same nature, could not then 
take it up in Fenwick's Tenth, and so 
began our settlement; and although we 
were at times pretty hard bestead, hav- 
ing all our provisions as far as Salem to 
fetch by water, yett, through the mercy 
and kindness of God, we were preserved 
in health and from any extream difficul- 
ties. And immediately there was a 
meeting sett up and kept at the house of 
Mark Newby, and, in a short time, it 
grew and increased, unto which William 
Cooper and famely, that lived at' the 
Poynte resorted, and sometimes the 
meeting was kept at his house, who had 
been settled some time before. 

"Zeall and fervency of spirit was what, 
in some degree, at that time abounded 
among Friends, in commemoration of our 
prosperous success and eminent preser- 
vation, boath in our coming over the 
great deep, as allso that whereas we 
Avere but few at that time, and the Indi- 
ans many, whereby itt putt a dread upon 
our spirits, considering they were a sal- 
vage people ; but ye Lord, who hath the 
hearts of all in his hands, turned them 
so as to be serviceable to us, and very 
loving and kinde ; which cannot l>e 
otherwise accounted for. And that the 



IXCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY QF NKWTON. 



AD 



r\innrr j^enoratlon may consider tluit the 
■sottleinent of this coimtrv was dinicted 
iipou an iaijailse by the spiritts ol' Crod's 
people, not so much for their ease and 
truu(pidity, but rather for the posterity 
yt sliould he aller, and tliat the wilder- 
ness beiu- planted with a good seed, 
nii<,Wit grow and increase to the satisfhc- 
tion of the good husbandman. But in- 
stead thereof, if for wheat it should briu" 
forth tiires, the end of the good hus" 
bandinan will he frustrate, and they 
themselves will suffer loss. ■ This narra- 
tion J have thought good and retpiisite 
to leave behind, as having had know- 
letlge of tilings from the beginnin'^" 

HADUOXFfELD VILLAGE. 

The oldest village in Newton is IIad- 
noNFiELD, which was founded by Eliza- 
l)ethHaddon about 1702. This woman- 
daughter of John and Elizabeth Had- 
<Ion, friends of J.ondon, was born in the 
year 16S2. "Her parents gave her a 
liberal education. They havino- an es- 
tate in lands in this province, proposed 
coming over to settle; and in order 
thereto seat persons over to make suita- 
ble preparations for their reception ; but 
they being prevented from coming,' this 
our friend, with her father's consent, 
came over, and fixed her habitation 
where lie proposed if he had come, she 
i>eing then about twenty years of age in 
a single state of life, and exemplary 
therein, in the year 1702 she was mar- 
ried to our worthy friend John Estau°-h 
who settled with her where she then 
dwelt, the place being called Haddon- 
held in allusion to her maiden name. 
Ihere they lived together near forty 
years. exce])t in that space her several 
times crossing the sea to Europe to visit 
her aged parents."^;- This lady was an 
eminent member of the society of Friends 
and was 'clerk to the woman's meetin- 
near fifty years," says the memorialist"; 
"greatly to satisfaction." In 1713 she 
bnilt a mansion house of bricks and 
boards brought from England. This was 
destroyed by fire some two years ago. 

Being situated immediately upoV? the 
King's Road which led from Burlington 

* Collection of Memorials, Phil. 1787, p. 210. 

n 



to Salem, I.Iafldonfield soon beuame a 
place of considerable note. In the Re- 
volution it was tempo lariiy the capital of 
the confederacy; Congress having sat 
there, according to the Historical Collec- 
tions,- in the house built by Matthias 
Aspden, for soine, weeks, during which 
time the members btkarded about aitioii"- 
the inliabitants. We have been unable'^ 
after diligent search, to find any proof 
lor the fact in the jiublished minuCea of 
the Congress itself; but the legend has 
long been believed, and is sanctioned by 
the fact that some state papers in the 
year 1778 bear date from this place. 

Several interesting incidents conaijcted 
with Haddonlield have already found 
their way into print; but many survive 
only in the memories of a few aged peo- 
ple. The almost miraculous escape of 
Mii,Ks Sagk forms the favorite theme of 
every Old Gloucester soldier. Miles 
was in the dragoon service, and a braver 
trooper never lived. On one occasion, ^ 
while Haddonfield was occupied by El- 
lis' regiment, to which our hero belonged, 
he, in company with one Hen Haines,' 
was ordered to reconnoitre the euerny,' 
who lay near Gloucester Point. Sage' 
having lost his companion, reached The 
Point and learned that the British had 
already moved for Haddonfield, intend- 
ing a surprise upon the Americans. He 
turned his licet and faitliful mare, and 
dashed off" through the darkness of the 
night, for the camp.. Driving on through 
Newton Creek, and over ditches and 
hedges with the speed of the wind, he 
reached the village and stopped before 
Col. Ellis' (|uarters to give the alarm. It 
was needless, for the house was already 
filled with British officers. He mounted 
again without having been discovered, 
and galloped off to find his retreating 
countrymen. Near the eastern extrenr ' 
ity of the town the enemy were drawn 
up in three ranks. Through two ranks/ 
the trooper charged successfully; but at 
the third his mare fell, and left him at the 
mercy of his fbes. They surrounded 

* Pdg:e 220. Tlie Provincial Cotiffrcs.s or Le- ' 
g-islatiire of New Jersey, we are told by Captain 
C:ooper, once sat in Haddonfield ; t>ut he douhn 
whether the Contiueulal Con^jress ever met there 



50 



INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWTON. 



him, and pierced him with no less than 
thirteen bayonet wounds! A Scotch of- 
ficer here interposed, and had him car- 
ried to the village inn, where he was put 
under the care of some women.* One of 
these beseeching him to remember hea- 
ven, he exclaimed, "Why Martha, I mean 
to give the enemy- thirteen rounds yet." 
He lived to tell his grandchildren of his 
fearful adventure,! and, we have no 
doubt, to remember heaven too. 

At the end of February, 1778, Col. 
Stirling and the Queen's Ranger's, Ma- 
jor Simcoe, were stationed at Haddon- 
field for the purpose of annoying Gen. 
Wayne, who was collecting cattle in 
South Jersey. Col. Stirling reached 
Haddonfield early in the morning, and 
occupied the ground in front of the vil- 
lage, with the left upon Cooper's Creek. 
"A circumstance happened here," says 
the officer of the Queen's Rangers, J 
"which, though not unusual in Jlmerica, 
and in the rebel mode qf tvarfare, it is 
presumed is singular elsewhere." As 
Major Simcoe was on horseback in con- 
versation with Lieut. Whitlock, and near 
the out sentinels, a riHe was tired, and 
the ball grazed between them. Ihe 
ground they were on being higher than 
the opposite bank, the man who had fired 
Was plainly seen running off. Lieut. 
Whitlock with the sentinels pursued him, 
and the guard followed incase of neces- 
sity, the piquets occupying their place. 
The man was turned by Mr. Whitlock 
and intercepted, and taken by the sen- 
tinels. On being questioned how he 
presumed to fire in such a manner, he 
answered that he had frequently fired at 
the Hessians, who a few weeks ago had 
been there, and thought he might as well 
do so again* "As he lived within half 
a mile of the spot,'* continues Simcoe, 
•'had he not been taken and the patroles 
pushed the next day, they would have 
found him, it is probable, employed in 
his household matters, and strenuously 
denying that he either possessed or had 

• One of these women was the mother of Gov. 
Stratton. 

tSee a communication in the Woodbury Con- 
stitution, by Mr. RcdHcId, dated Jan. 20tli, 1844. 

X Simcoe't) Military Journal, p. 39. 



fired a gun. He was sent prisoner to 
Philadelphia." This specimen of rebel 
effrontery induced Major Simcoe to dou- 
ble his guard, and to recommend partic- 
ular alertness. He never felt safe among 
the Gloucester boys, after the coolness 
exhibited by our nameless Haddonfield 



ranger. 



After staying for some days at Had- 
donfield, and making valiant assaults 
upon some tar barrels ip Timber Creek, 
and some rum casks on the Egg Harbor 
road,"^" the Forty-Second and the Rangers 
got wind that Mad Anthony was on his 
way from Mount Holly to attack them. 
Simcoe pretends that, to secure the in- 
habitants of the village, he wished to ad- 
vance to a favorable position about two 
miles from Haddonfield, and lay in am- 
bush for the enemy. Stirling however 
thought it prudent to retire within the 
lines at Cooper's Ferry, and Simcoe, 
notwithstanding his professed readiness 
to fight, led the retreat. "The night," 
says he,t "was uncommonly severe, and 
a cold sleet I'ell the whole way from 
Haddonfield to the ferry, where the 
troops arrived late, and the ground be- 
ing occupied by barns and forage, they 
were necessitated to pass the coldest 
night they ever felt without fire." 

The next day a sharp skirmish ensued 
between the Spicer's Ferry Bridge over 
Cooper's Creek, and the place where 
the Camden Academy now stands. Fifty 
men, picked out from the Forty Second 
and the Rangers, having been sent three 
or four miles up the direct road to Had- 
donfield for some remaining forage, 
were met by Wayne's cavalry, and forced 
to retreat back to the ferry. The Ame- 
ricans followed up to the very cordon of 
the enemy. The British were drawn 
up in the following order : the Forty- 
Second upon the right. Col. Markham 
in the centre, and the Queen's Rangers 
upon the left, with their left flank resting 
upon Cooper's Creek. Capt. Kerr and 
Lieut. Wickham were in the meanwhile 
embarking with their men to Philadel- 
phia; and as the Americans seemed dis- 
posed only to reconnoitre. Col. Mark- 



« Id. p. 41. 



t Page 43. 



INCIDENTS IN THE HlSTORt OP NEWTON. 



51 



ham's detachment and the horses also 
started across the river. Just then a 
barn within the cordon was iired, and 
the Ajnericans, taking this as Simcoe 
supposes for an evidence that only a few 
stragglers were left upon the eastern 
shore, drove in the piquets. .The Forty- 
second moved forward in line, and the 
Rangers in column by companies, the 
sailors drawing on some three pound 
cannons. A few Americans appearing 
upon the Waterford side of Cooper's 
Creek, Capt. Armstrong, with a com- 
pany of Grenadiers was ordered forward 
to line a dyke on this side to watch them. 
Upon the right, in the neighborhood of 
the Academy,and the Hicksite meeting, a 
heavy fire was kept up by the Forty- 
Second upon the main body of the Ame- 
ricans, who were in the woods along the 
Haddonfield road. The Rangers upon 
the left towards the creek only had to 
oppose a few scattered cavalry who 
were reconnoitering. As Simcoe ad- 
vanced rapidly «'to gain an eminence in 
front which he conceived to be a strong 
advantageous position,"^:- the cavalry re- 
tired to the woods, except one officer, 
who reined back his horso and facing 
the Rangers as they dashed on, slowly 
waved his sword for his attendants to 
retreat. The English light infantry came 
within fifty yards of him, when one of 
them called out, "You are a brave fel- 
low, but you must go away." The un- 
daunted officer paying no attention to the 
warning, one McGill, afterward^ a quar- 
ter-master, was ordered to fire at him. 
He did so, and wounded the horse ; but 
the rider was unscathed, and soon joined 
liis comrades in the woods a little way 
off. And who, think you, that bold rider 
was ? It was Count Pulaski, the ar- 
dent Pole, who had left his native land 
and braved the billows of a thousand 
leagues to pour out his blood in the cause 
of universal liberty. It was the opinion 
of Simcoe that if the Huzzars had not 
been sent to Philadelphia before the 
skirmish, Pulaski would have been taken 
or killed on this occasion; but the 

Page 45. This eminence was doubtless the 
ridpe at the hamlet of Dofrvvoodtown, half way 
between Sixth Street, in Camden, and the creek. 



haughty hireling forgot that there it a 
just God who watches over and defends 
those who have consecrated themselves 
to a holy cause. In this affray, although 
the English outnumbered the Americans 
ten to one, all the loss appears to have 
fallen upon the right side. Several of 
the Rangers were wounded, and Ser- 
geant McPherson of the grenadiers was 
killed. A cannonading was kept up 
from the eminence which Simcoe had 
occupied, upon some of the Americans 
who were removing the plank from 
Cooper's Creek bridge. This was done 
to amuse the English sailors, but it 
proved to be a very harmless pastime, 
for none of the Americans were wound- 
ed. This skirmish occurred on the first 
of March, 1778. 

During the French Revolution, Louis 
Phillippe, the present king of the French, 
it has been said and believed, taught a 
school in the village of Haddonfield. 
One of the Redmans a few years ago 
addressed a letter to the king, inquiring 
if such were the case, and his Most 
Christian Majesty very promptly re- 
turned the following answer, from which 
it appears that the story had this much 
of truth in it, and this much only, that 
His Majesty did actually dine once in 
the place : 

St. Cloud, 26th August, 1837. 

Sir— I have received your kind letter of 
the sixteenth of June last, and I readily 
comply with your request to answer in my 
hand your obliging inquiries. 

During my residence in the United Slates, 
I never went by any other name than Or- 
leans. I have known Mr. Peter Guerrier, 
in Philadelphia, and later in Havana; but 
since that time, in 1799, I have never heard 
of him, and I am totally ignorant of what 
may have been his fate. 1 cannot believe 
that he ever ajtempted to pass himself for 
me; but of this I am certain, that I never 
assumed his name, nor ever attempted to, 
pass myself off for him.^ 

I believe I never went to Haddonfield, but 
I am positive that I never lodged or boarded; 
thei# at your father's house or any other. It 
is now so long — about forty years—since I; 
was in Philadelphia, that my recollections, 
are become confused ; but 1 believe I dined 
there once in comj)any with a luetober of 
the Society of Priends, whojse name was> 



5U 



■=1KC1DENTS IN THE lUSTOKY OF NEWTON. 



Redman, at tlie house of another member 
of the same ^ociely, wl)use name was I 
believe John Elliott, and to whom I had 
beep introduced by Mr. Gurrier. 

1 ref;rel to be unable to give you more 
complete infortnation in answer to your in- 
quiries, and I must add ihat 1 highly value 
the favorable opinion entertained of me in 
the United States, and I thank you for hav- 
ing expressed it in so gratifying a manner, 
aad>80 gratifying to my feelings. 
1 remain dear sir, 

youi sincere friend. 

LOUIS PHILIPPE. 

•lohn Evans Redman, Esq., Philada. 

Tlie orij^inal of this letter is written 
in u bold, Howinj^ and plain hand. 
The seal is a simple crown, with the 
kin;^'8 initials in old En;2;lis!h text letter. 
Of tho Peter Guerrier mentioned by 
Louis Phillippe, we {gather the follow- 
ing particulars from a communication in 
the Saturday Chronicle, Philadelphia,'^ 
written by an old resident of Haddon- 
field: He was a royalist who left his na- 
tive land in the early part of the French 
Revolution, and souj^^-ht an asiyltun at St. 
Domino^o. On the s;ervile insurrection 
in that island in 1795 ho (led to Pbihidel- 
phia, where, poor and friendless, he was 
discovered by the philanthropic Joseph 
Sansom, who recommended him to the 
people of lladdon/ield as a schoolmaster. 
Guerrier taught a French School in that 
village for several months, in the winter 
of 179.5 and spring of 1796; and after- 
wards he was clerk to Wetherill atid 
Sons, druggists, in Philadelphia. In 
1797 he left Philadelphia, and went, it 
appears, to Havana. His grave and 
gentlemanly bearing, added to a certain 
mysteriousness which hung over his 
character, easily led people to mistake 
him for the Duke of Orleans, whose exile 
in America was by no means a secret. 

We have seen that a Friend's Meet- 
ing was first set up in Glottcester in 16S2, 
at the house of Mark Newbie. It ap- 
pears from a passage in Smith's Penn- 
sylvaniaf that Newbie and the othejvpi- 
oneers who settled upon the third tenth, 
"surveyed their land in common together 

• Nov. 25ili, 1837. 

+ Chap. 111. Penn. Reg. Vol. VLf), 163. 



■ft spring 
nature ol a 



wames. 

ans being found 



in one tract, and in the follow in{ 
laid out some lots in the 
small town upon Newton Creek, and built 
some accommodations." This epheme- 
ral village was probably called Newtown, 
in contradistinction to the old town at Ar- 
TJie fears respecting the Indi- 
ill grounded, the town 
was soon abandoned. But in 1684 a 
public meeting house was erected on its 
site, and the old grave-yard belonging to 
that primitive church still serves to mprk 
out the spot. "Before that," continues 
Smith, "many Friends being settled, 
some by the river's side, some on the 
other side of Cooper's Creek, and some 
at Woodberry Creek, these joined and 
with the permission of Burlington Friends 
set up a monthly meeting for the good 
government of their religious afTairs; and 
sometime after, Friends at Salem and 
they increasing in number, joined and 
made up one quarterly meeting." In 
1720 the first Haddonfield meeting-house 
was erected, where the present one 
stands; and about 1809 the Friends in 
West Newton established near the Cam- 
den line that now called the Newton 
Meeting House; a building which, plain 
and unpretending as it is, will long be 
hallowed in the afl'ections of Friends by 
the recollection of Richard JoitDAN. 
This man — for many years a very emi- 
nent preacher — was born at Elizabeth, 
in the county of Norfolk, in Virginia, on 
the nineteenth of December, 17.56, of 
honest Quaker parents. After his mar- 
riage with Pharaby Knox, bis father, 
who was a slave holder, oflered him 
some slaves to help him work. ''My 
mind" says he,-'" "for several years be- 
fore had been so thoroughly impressed 
with a belief that it was not right to 
keep them as slaves, that I modestly de- 
clined accepting them." His father, ir- 
ritated at this, cut him oflf with a dollar, 
and this same was all he ever received 
i'rom a considerable patrimony. He be- 
gan to preach soon after his marriage, 
and vvas actively engaged in the min- 
istry, anfl in works of philanlhropy up 
to his death. Early in February, ISOO, 

* Journal, Phil. 18^0, p. VJ. 



INCIDENTS IN THB UI8T0RY OF NEWTON. 



5S 



he saile<l for Europe, "where," says the 
testimony of his flock, "he experienced 
many remarkable preservations and si;?- 
nal interpositions ofDivine Providence." 
Calling with some others of his religious 
society at the office of the Burgher of 
Amsterdam, to exhibit their passports, 
they were at iirst refused admittance, 
until they had taken off their hats. I'his 
compliance they refused to yield, and 
their firmness linally triumphed. "We 
went on our way,'* says Jordan,^-' "re- 
joicing that we had been enabled to bear 
this testimony on behalf of Truth and 
Friends." 

After his return from Europe he felt 
called upon to reside some time m Con- 
necticut. He moved to Hartford in 1804. 
In 1809, "being satisfied," says the tes- 
timony, "that it would be right for him 
to leave those parts and again change 
his residence," he removed to Newton. 
Here he passed the remainder of his 
days; enforcing by his own example the 
pure life to which he exhorted others. 
His mind was strong and original, and 
his manners marked with a pleasant dig- 
nity which, while it raised him above the 
contempt of Al, made him repulsive to 
none. At times in his sermons he poured 
forth a strong native eloquence, which - 
carried the feelings and convinced the 
judgment of every one who heard him. 
Inflexible in what he believed to be the 
ancient faith of the church, innovators 
met at his hands with no quarters.! He 
died on the thirteenth of October, 1825, 
at his hiuiible residence ne:ir the Meet- 
ing; J leaving to the charitable institu- 
tions of Orthodox Quakerism most of the 
fortune which his industry had amassed, 
and to his brethren at large a name and 
a reputation in which all may rejoice. 



« Idem, p. 103. 

-I- "The Friend," Vol. 1. p. 212. 

t The .lordan residence is slill standing, and is 
now occupied by Gcorije Roseman. An excellent 
drawing of it was made some years ago, by Mr. 
Mason. This was eng;raved and afterwards sent 
lo C.jiina, where it was copied u on tea scUs, and 
other articles of China-ware. The pielitre n)ay 
now l)C met with at fiiihlic tables, in harFicr slinps, 
and in crockeiy oloies from one end uf the iiiiion 
to tiie other. 



C.A.MDEN CITY. 

The town of Camden having been in- 
corporated into a city upon the thirteenth 
of February, 1828,-''- it was found advis- 
able soon after to sever it entirely from^ 
Newton, and give it separate township 
capacities, and Camden was therefore 
established as a constablewick on the 
twenty-eighth of November, ISSl.f A» 
we have lately seen, this citygtive name 
to the second county born from the 
womb of Old Gloucester, and attained 
to the dignity of a shire-town; an honor, 
by the by, which some of her neighbors 
threaten shall be of brief duration. Be 
this as it may, a town which has risen to 
distinction so fast deserves a particular 
notice in the history of old mother New- 
ton. 

The land embraced in Camden town- 
ship was located at three several times 
by as many different persons. The old- 
est appropriation was of the tract reach- 
ins: from Little Newton Creek about to 
Line Street, in Fetterville. On the 
fourth and fifth of July, 1678, Billinge 
and trustees granted this tract, being 
two sevenths of a propriety, to Samuel 
Norris. On the twentieth and twenty- 
first days of September, 1686, Norris 
conveyed a portion of his location to 
Robert Turner, who, on the fourteenth 
of December, 1696, sold this, with some 
other land, making in all four hundred, 
and fifty-tive acres, to John Kaighn, from 
whom Kaighn's Point derives its name. 
The second location in respect to anti- 
quity, was of the land lying between- 
Cooper's' Street and Cooper's Point. 
This was made in 1679 by William Coop- 
er, a worthy and eminent member of the 
society of Friends, who emigrated from 
Cole's Hill in the- parish of Amiersham. 
Hereford County, England. He built a 
mansion on a high bank above Clooper's 
Point, called by him Pyne Point, from a 
dense pine forest which then grew there. :j| 
This gentleman took up other considera-' 
ble tracts of land in Gloucester County, 

* 2 [larrison's Laws, p. 164. 

t Idem, p. 307. 

J The remains of this house were visible a few 
years ago, but they have now washed into the ri- 
ver. 



54 



INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWTON. 



most of which yet remain in the posses- 
sion of his family. He was a distin- 
guished man in our early provincial his- 
tory; having- held a seat for many years 
in the Legislative Council, and been con- 
nected with almost every important mea- 
sure of his times. William Royden, 
having by a third location made on the 
twentieth of September, 1681, appro- 
priated the land between Cooper's street 
and Kaighn's line. Cooper of Pyne 
Point in the next year bought out his in- 
terest, and further secured himself by 
getting an Indian deed guaranteeing the 
possession of Pyne Point and adjacencies 
against all other Indians. This deed is 
signed by Tallaca, the resident chief, and 
witnessed by several of his tribe. 

For many years the Ferry House and 
Mansion at the Point, the Middle Ferry 
at the fbot of Cooper Street, and four or 
five ferrymen's houses constituted the 
whole of Camden. Towards the mid- 
dle of the last century, another Ferry hav- 
ing been set up at the foot of Federal 
Street, and a few more humble buildings 
having been erected along the shore, 
Camden, as contradistinguished from 
Cooper's Point, began to be dignified 
with the name of Phickemin — possibly, 
though we would not like to say proba- 
bly, from a singular Indian custom ob- 
served hereabouts at the birth of chil- 
dren"- 

A few years before the Revolution, Ja- 
cob Cooper, a descendant of him of Pyne 
Point, to whom had fallen the land be- 
tween Cooper and about Market Streets,! 

* Ante, p. IG. The name of Pluekemin seems 
never to have obtained very generally. It was 
only used by the people back in the country, and 
by them only occasionally. 

t Jacob Cooper on the 29d of April, 1776, gave 
to Charles Lyon, Nathaniel Falconer, William 
Moulder, and Nicholas Hicks, and to the survivor 
in fee, the lots on Plum St., at the north-west cor- 
»iers of Fifth and Sixth Streets, in trust for the 
Inhabitants of the town to erect places of pub- 
lic worship, and make a grave yard. The lot on 
Fifth Street has been sometimes used as a ceme- 
tery; but as any church erected under the trust 
niusl of necessity be open to all kinds of preach- 
ing, none has been erected. Tiie lots upon which 
■tlie'Acudeniy stands was a donation from the Hart- 
ley family some years alter Cooper's gift. The 
Academy v.'us built by subscription, and is owned 



projected the original town plot of Cam- 
den, which embraced Cooper's and Mar- 
ket Streets running" east and west, and 
King, Queen, Whitehall, Cherry, Cedar, 
and Pine running norih and south.* 
Early in the present century Joshua 
Cooper laid out Plum Street, and relaid 
the Lower Ferry road, to which he 
gave the name of Federal Street, The 
street along which the Amboy Railway 
is now located was laid out by Edward 
Sharp, an active but visionary inhabitant 
of the village; who, in 1819, con- 
ceived the plan of throwing a bridge from 
Camden to Smith's Island, and actually 
procured a charter from the legislature of 
New Jersey for that purpose.f The street 
which he laid out was intended as the 
starting place for his bridge, and was 
hence named The Bridge Avenue. The 
newer part of the city. South Camden, 
was laid out by Richard Fetters in 
1833, upon land formerly owned by the 
Kaighns. 

This goodly city— whose rapid ad- 
vancement seems to excite the jealousy 
of some of the country villages — is al- 
most exclusively the growth of the nine- 
teenth century. There are those yet 
alive — not old men either — who remem- 
ber when many a tempting cherry-tree 
still lined her roads — when a nail fac- 
tory stood in the middle of. Whitehall 
Street above the market place — and 
when truant boys used to dig for the 

by the peoislc in the old town of Camden— that is 
those living between Cooper Street and an un- 
marked line about half way between Market and 
Plum Streets. 

* King Street was changed by the Council af- 
ter Camden was incorporated, into Front Street — 
Queen into Second Street, Whitehall into Third, 
and so on, in the order above named. The name 
Camden was given by Jacob Cooper in his origi- 
nal map of the town, in compliment, it has been 
supposed (Mulford's Lecture) to an eminent Eng- 
lish nobleman who strongly favored the cause of 
the Americans in the parliamentary struggles 
which preceded the Revolution. There is, how- 
ever, a town called Campden in Gloucestershire, 
England, which might have suggested the name in 
question to Cooper's mind. However this be, the 
title did not seem to attach very readily; for we 
generally find the place generally called The Fer- 
ries, or Cooper's Ferry, until after the last war. 

tThis Charter was passed Jan. 26th, 1819. 



rNCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWTOW. 



5i 



pirate's moneywhere now are busy tho- 
roughfares and long rows of seemly 
houses. Up the road leading from Coop- 
er's Ferry, the great and good Washing- 
ton used to ride, when President, to 
muse upon the eventful scenes through 
which he bad passed, and to breathe, 
perhaps, in solitude his grateful ac- 
knowledgements to God for his country's 
salvation.* Along the river bank where 
now are enacting all the scenes of busy 
life, less than half a century ago Matthew 
Carey and the notorious Cobbett met for 
mortal combat.t as in an out of the way 
place where no intruders would be likely 
to disturb their proceedings. We our- 
self have seen schooners tack upon the 
very spot where this pamphlet was 
printed, and have many a time skated 
over land now measured and sold by 
scrupulous feet and inches. 

*The last time President Washington took his 
accustomed morning ride up tJiis road — early in 
1797 — a Hessian who had deserted at the battle of 
Trentjn, named Henry Dheets, chanced to meet 
him near the ferry. " We were unloading some 
wood near the ferry," says our informant, a worthy 
old gentleman yet resident in Camden, "when 
Washington, entirely unattended, rode slowly 
past. I knew him, and bowed, as did the Hes- 
sian also. Washington returned the acknow- 
ledgement with his accustomed politeness, and 
was passing on, when Dheets addressed him : " I 
tink I has seen your face before — vat ish your 
name?" The General drew up his beautiful gray, 
and bowing to the man, replied, " My name is 
George Washington." Half frightened out of 
liis wits, the poor Dutchman exclaimed " Oh mine 
Gott ! I vish I vas unter te ice — I vish I vas un- 
ter te ice !" Washington kindly assured him that 
1)6 had done no harm — rode a short distance up 
the road to the row of mulberry trees which you 
doubtless remember — and sat there some time in 
his saddle, looking over the remains of the works 
which the British army had thrown up during 
the war. He then turned his horse, rnde slowly 
past us again, and crossed the river. This is the 
last time he ever visited New Jersey, as he re- 
tired to Mount Vernon soon afterwards." To 
Americans, no incident, however trifling, in the 
life of Washington will, we trust, prove uninter- 
esting. 

tThc duel between these two persons arose 
from a newspaper war in Philadelphia. It is said 
to have occurred about the silo of Fetterville, or 
South Camden. Cobbett's first fire broke Carey's 
leg, and Ifift him with that limp which the pub- 
lic cannot fail to remember. See Carey's Auto- 
biagraphy in Alkiuson^s Casket. 



Some of the reminiscences belonging 
properly to this city have been already 
noticed. There is fortunately no such 
dearth of material as to force us to rake 
up events which every true son of Old 
Gloucester desires to forget.-*-- 

We have heretofore alluded to the be- 
lief that treasures had been buried by 
pirates in the olden time in the vicinity 
of Camden. The tradition is said to have 
had its origin from the fact that a mys- 
terious vessel, with a savage looking 
crew, came up the Delaware, while 
Philadelphia was still a village, and an- 
chored oif Pyne Point, where she re- 
mained for a few days, and again put to 
sea. Kidd and Blackboard had long 
swept the ocean with a broom of fire, and 
at the time- in question the whole Amer- 
ican sea-board was rife with tales of their 
exploits. The stranger brig which paid 
this flying visit to the Delaware was by 
many set down as piratical ; and from 
that time to the present money digging 
at Cooper's Point has been a favorite 
employment for the superstitious. Wat- 
son, the delectable annalist of Philadel- 
phia, has preserved one anecdote upon 
this subject, which is worth mentioning: 

About 1760, a wag in Philadelphia, 
'yclept Col. Thomas Forest, wishing to 
play off a prank upon a Dutch tailor, 
who was a firm believer in the pirate 
stories of the times, wrote what pur- 
ported to be the confession of one John 
Hendricks, executed at Tyburn for pi- ' 
racy, in wliich it was stated that he had 
buried a chest and pot of money at Coop- 
er's Point. Having smoked the parch 
ment so as to make it look ancient, For- 
est showed it to the tailor, who immedi- 
ately procured a printer and professor of 
the Black art, named Ambruster, to con- 
jure the ghost of the pirate to give up 

* A minute account of the Heberton tragedy 
in 1843 was appended to the sketch of Camden 
in Barber and Howe's Hist. Coll. of New Jersey, 
in such a manner as to render the Reminiscent 
responsible for it. We feel it due to ourself tc 
state that we had nothing whatever to do with' 
the insertion of that part of the sketch; which, by 
the by, (he publishers [iromptly suppressed in their 
second and subsequent editions, at our reque»-t. 
Hist. Coll., p. 205; and the American Eagle for 
May 4th, 1844. 



56 



INCICENTS IK THE HISTORY OF KFAVTON. 



the treasure. On a nij^ht appointed. Fo- 
rest and his friends who were in the joke, 
met at a tavern, where every arran;i;e- 
ment for the conjuration had been made. 
Being seated around the table, Arabrus- 
ter shuffled and readout cards, on which 
were the names of the New Testament 
Saints, until he supposed the spell was 
complete. At the words, "John Hen- 
dricks du verfluchter cum heraus,"^'' the 
puUy reeled, a closet opened, and out 
caine John Hendricks, one of Forest's 
companions, disguised in all the giiastli- 
ness of ghosthood ! Ambruster, terrified 
at the success of his spell, left the premi- 
ses with commendable despatch, accom- 
panied by the no less frightened tailor. 
The appearance of the pirate, however, 
the conjurer assured liis friends, author- 
ized him to take up the money; and a 
night was therefore fixed upon to visit the 
Point, in search of the two stones be- 
tween which the parchment directed 
them to look for the buried pot. When 
the night came, the tailor, the conjurer, 
and others who were in the secret, 
crossed the river, and, following the in- 
junctions of the confession, arrived at the 
scene of action, and commenced digging. 
In due time they reached the pot ; but, 
just as they struck it, two negroes, ar- 
rayed like imps, appeared and scared 
them off. At the second attempt they 
were assaulted by cats tied two and 
two, with whizzing lire-works attached 
to their tails, and making hideous noises; 
all which passed for enchantment with the 
tailor and Ambruster. But the pot was 
at last taken up and removed in triumph 
to Philadelphia Wharf. Here, while 
getting it out of the boat, Forest con- 
trived to let it fall into the river, and with 
it went the tailor, who manifested no 
mind to let go so precious a treasure. 
I'he pot was lost— but the poor Dutchman 
got safely out, to reproach Forest with 
the mishap. He and Ambruster behoved 
for years that Forest had recovered the 
pot himself, and was enriched thereby; 
and they actually sued out k writ of trea- 
sure trove against him, which they only 
abandoned on the whole trick being dis- 

* "Come out, John Hendricks, tliou a(:cursc:d 1" 



f 



covered to them.* We have heard in 
later times of less elaborate but e(iually 
ludicrous pranks upon money-diggers at 
the Point; but our rvpace forbids us to 
narrate them. 

Upon the shore of the cove above the 
Point the immortal Franklin once passed 
a Saturday night in October in rather an 
uncomfortable manner. He had started 
from Burlington in an open boat to work 
his passage to Philadelphia; but dark- > 
ness overtaking them, and the weather '^ 
being very foggy, they became bewil- 
dered. At last 'they made the shore, 
and, stealing some pickets, built .a fire, 
which kept them warm until morning. 
When the day made they found they 
were in Cooper's Creek. This was the 
night before the Doctor's famous landing 
at^^Market Street Wharf, when he de- 
scribes himself as covered with dirt, with 
his pockets filled with shirts and stock- 
ing's, and with only one Dutch dollar to 
bless himself withal. In this plight, eat- 
\n"- from a roll which he carried under 
his arm, he first saw Miss Read, after- 
wards his wife— and in this plight, bat- 
in"- the roll, he entered the old Market 
Street Friends' Meeting House— the first 
house he entered, and the first house, he 
tells us, in which he slept, in Philadel- 
phia.! 

In the Revolution, after the British 
had taken Philadelphia, Cooper's Point 
was foimd a convenient out-post, and 
was used us such until the evacuation. 
The first encampment made there was 
by General Abercrombie, who after- 
wards fell at the battle of Alexandria, 
in Egypt. His head Quarters were in 
the house now belonging to Joseph W. 
Cooper, Es([. The tpfarters of the For- 
ty-Third Regiment, Col. Shaw, and 



several Highland and Hessian 



regi- 



ments were at the Middle Ferry House, 
or English's. The British lines reached 
from the Point down the Delaware nearly 
to Market Street— thence up to the site 
of the present Academy, and thence 
about north-east across to Cooper's 

* Watson's Annals of Pliiladclpliia, new cd. Vol. 
I, p. 268. 

j Fiaiikliirs Autobiograpliy, p. 35. 



1NT10KN rs IN THE HUTORY OF .NEWTON. 



57 



Creek. The remnlns of their redoubts 
were visible until a lew years ag^o. 
Property inside of the lines' was safe, 
but the people outside were continually 
plundered by the Hessians. 

After the occupation of Philadelphia 
by the British land forces, they placed 
batteries along the river. From these 
they used to play upon the American 
militiamen seen loitering upon the Jersey 
shore. On one occasion a ball from one 
of their batteries struck a rain-cask from 
which a lady, an ancestor of my inform- 
ant,^' was taking water. When the 
British fleet arrived, the men of war an- 
chored in the west channel ; and the con- 
voys and tenders, numbering a hundred 
or more, in tiie eastern, between Wind- 
mill Island and the Jersey shore. The 
officers of the former often exercised 
their guns with full cartridges, and a 
great many balls have been found a mile 
or two back from the river in Newton 
Township, which were doubtless thus 
thrown away. 

While the enemy lay at the Point they 
were often annoyed by the Americans. 
In'March, 177S, soon after the retreat of 
Simcoe from Haddoufield, and the skir- 
mish which we have already noticed, 
Pulaski, with a considerable body of 
continental troopers came close under the 
British lines to reconnoitre. The enemy 
anticipating his approach, placed an am- 
bush upon both sides of the road leading 
from the bridge to the Middle Ferry, in the 
neighborhood of the present Friends' 
meeting house, under the command of Col, 
Shaw. As Pulaski approached, a good 
way in advance of his men, a staunch 
Whig, William West, who was aware of 
the design, mounted a log and waved his 
hat as a signal for retreat. Pulaski took 
the hint, hastily wheeled his men, and 
•aved them from slaughter. About the 
same time a hot fight took place at 
Cooper's Creek bridge, where the Eng. 
lish surprised a party of militiamen. Se- 
veral of the latter were killed and the 



• We nre much indebJcd to William D. Cooper, 
E^q., ot Camden, who has contributed several in- 
teresting facts in the early history of the township 
now under coosider&tion. 



rest captured. Most of tlie Gloucester 
fighting men enlisted early in the war, 
and were marched to Fort Washington, 
where they were taken and confined on 
board of the Jersey prison ship, through 
the horrors of which but few ever lived 
to return home. Most of the minute- 
men therefore who annoyed the British 
in the neighborhood of Philadelphia were 
very young. They fought bravely and 
sold their lives whenever they were 
overpowered, as dearly as possible. 

Among the American rangers who 
distinguished themselves in forays in , 
the west end of Newton, none were 
more eminent than John Stokes and 
David Kinsey, or, as he was generally 
called, Taph Bennett. Stokes was a 
man of unconquerable energy, and some 
of his feats equal anything told of Jas- 
per or Mac Donald. He was continually 
hanging upon the lines of the enemy, 
and was in hourly danger of his life. 
His courage and activity however could 
relieve him from any dilemma. He lived 
through the war to tell of his "hair 
breadth escapes" at many a social party. 
Taph was a kindred spirit. Like Stokes 
he had pinked many an Englishman, 
who dreamed not of a rebel's being 
within ten leagues; and it is said he 
generally cut off his foeman's thumb to 
evidence his prowess to his comrades! 
They were familiar to the whole encamp 
ment at Camden, and the bare names of 
Jack and Taph would give the poor Hes- 
sians a lively idea of the world to come. 
Towards the close of the war, after 
Congress had returned to Philadelphia, 
the colors captured with Burgoyne at 
Saratoga were displayed in their Hall. 
The British, being anxious to recover 
their lost honors, employed a refugee to ■ 
steal them. He came on from New York, : 
and was concealed for three days in a 1 
stack of corn stalks just above the Middle > 
Ferry. But Congress, hearing of the 1 
scheme, removed the colors to aplace of 
safety, and thus defeated the plot. v 

The people of Camden have ever been 
sturdy friends of their country. As such I* 
they deeply resented the disgrace which '' 
Aaron Burr, by his supposed south- ^ 
western plot had cast upon New Jersey. 



*9 



THB TOWNSHIf OF GLOUCESTER. 



After Burr's acquittal in 1804, when he 
first set foot upon the shore of his native 
State, he was met by a crowd whose in- 
dignation led them to inexcusable ex- 
cesses. At the Ferry at which he crossed 
to Camden, he deliberately produced 
from his holster a brace of pistols, and 
cocked them to be ready for the menacing 
town's people. At Cooper's Creek 
bridge he passed under a board upon 
which in huge letters was printed the 
word Traitor! The cue here given 
was followed throughout his journey; 
but it is with no feelings of pleasure that 
we record such insults to one whom — 
whatever were his deserts — the law of 
the land had pronounced innocent. 

Of late years Camden has pursued the 
"even tenor of her way," with little.jper- 
haps, in her history as a city to interest, 
but with nothing, we believe, over which 
she has occasion to blush. A few years 
more, and the humble Pluckemin of other 
days will rank as the second city in our 
state ! 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE TOWNSHIP OF GLOUCESTER. 

Proceed — nor quit the tales, which, limply told 
Could c^er so well mj aniwering bosom piercej 

Proceed — in forceful lounds and color nold, 
The nitive legends of thy land rehearse. 

Collins, Ode on the SupcrstUiom of the Highland!. 

The name of Gloucester is borrowed 
from a cathedral-town on the bank of the 
Severn, in the west of England, whence 
emigrated some of the earliest settlers 
in West Jersey. The word itself is 
from the Celtic, glaw caer, which signi- 
fies Handsome City.* It first attached, 
upon the banks of the Delaware, to the 
town projected by Olive ; then to the 
county, and lastly, to the township of 
which we are now to speak. 

The Township of Gloucester — the 
third of the six erected by the Grand 
Jury in 1695 — originally extended to the 
Delaware. The town of Gloucester 
however soon began to affect the right 
to choose its own constable, to have its 
representatives in the board of Justices 

• .Mahc Brnn, Vol. VI. p. 748. 



and Freeholders, and do all other things 
which it belongs to a township to do. In 
fact it became, by prescription, a con- 
stablewick, to all intents and purposes ; 
and the legislature in 1798,* by a gene- 
ral act incorporating the^townships of the 
State, acknowledged it as such. On the 
fifteenth of November, 1831, f this town- 
ship of Gloucestertown and a portion of 
Gloucester township were laid together, 
and the whole received the name of Union. 

THE TOWN OF GLOUCESTER. 

Of the TOWN OF Gloucester — the 
centre of interest in this township — we 
have spoken somewhat before ; but much 
yet remains to be said of that ancient 
place. Here stood the ever renowned 
Nassau, the first Christian settlement in 
West Jersey; here, the beaux and belles 
of the lusty village of Philadelphia used 
to congregate for pleasure ; here, the 
Fox Hunters, emulous of the customs of 
the fatherland, used to mix the huge 
wassail after a successful chase ; and 
here in later days the great Lafayette 
met the foes of ireedom, and rebuked 
their insolence. Such a spot cannot be 
written of too much ! 

The precise locality of Fort Nassau 
is, as we have already hinted, a matter 
of much debate among antiquarians. 
The best opinion seems to be that it was 
situated immediately upon the river at 
the southern extremity of the high land 
butting upon the meadows north of the 
mouth of Timber Creek. J That position 

» Feb. 21st : Rev. Laws, p. 332. We can find 
no statute creating' the townsh i p of Gloucester, but 
it is said that there v^as an act for that |-urpo.se 
which is now lost. In March, 1705, the city of 
Gloucester had overseers of the poor and of tlie 
highways, independent of Gloucester township. 
At March Term, 1712, we find that William 
Harrison was appointed by the court, constable 
for Gloucester town, in place of John Siddons, 
who was probably the first constable of the njw 
township. The lost law is said by Michael Fish, 
er, Esq. to have been of a much more recent dale ; 
so that the supposition in the text, that the town 
became a township by prescription, seems un- 
avoidable. 

t 2 Harrison's Laws, p. 364. 

t " Du temps du Governeur Jean Print/," says 
Lindstrom, in his dcKcription of New Sweden, 
Lib. Am. Pliil. Soc. Philada., No. 173, AISS., " lea 



o 

a. 



o 
B 



<6 

TO 

3 
o 

O 



3- 

2 

c 
o 
(ft 

V) 

•-» 

TO 

*^ 

o 

5" 

o 

c 



@ 



O 




60 



THE TOWNSHIP OF CLOrCKSTBR. 



would have stn.ick the eye of an engi- 
neer ; inasmuch as a fortress thus situ- 
ated could have commanded both the ri- 
ver and creek, while it would have been 
greatly secured from the attacks of the 
Indians by the low marshy land which 
surrounded it upon all sides but the 
north. Some of the cabins which con- 
stituted the town of Nassau, are sup- 
posed with much reason to have stood 
near the mouth of the Sassackon. Re- 
mains of buildings have been discovered 
upon the east bank of that stream ; and 
a peculiar little blue flower which the 
farmers call the Dutch Jloiver, still grows 
thereabouts.'-*^ 

We have no very exact description of 
this famous fortress, and cannot there- 
fore tell much about its dimensions, 
strength, or appearance. The first fort, 
that erected by May in 1623, was proba- 
bly a very rude pile of logs, just sufficient 
to serve as a breastwork. This having 
been destroyed by the Indians, another 
fort was buiit in 1642, when the Dutch 
returned to watch their rivals, the 
Swedes.! The latter fort Barker sup- 
poses was built with some style — its ar- 
chitect being Herr Ilendrick Christi- 
aanse, the builder of Fort Amsterdam.^ 
Although Lindstrom says very posi- 
tively, in speaking of this post, that Go- 
vernor Printz chased the Hollanders out 
of it,^ we believe that it was never oc- 
cupied by any but the Dutch. During 



Hollandois ont dans la Nouvelle Belgique con- 
Btruits une fortresse nomee Fort Nassau ; mais le 
Governeur Printz les en chasse. Les sauvages 
demoUissoient enfine ce fort la. La riviere est ici 
bien profonde." The last sentence would hardly 
have been added if, as it has been suggested, the 
fort was not immediately upon the river, but some 
distance up Timber Creek. 

* By a singular mistake upon the part perhaps 
of Gabriel Thomas' engraver, a Dutch Fort is 
placed upon his map at some distance above 
Gloucester, at the mouth of what seems to be in. 
tended for Cooper's Creek. The map is a great 
curiosity, but it is very far from being accurate. 

+ We are fortunate enough to own the copy of 
Holmes' Annals which belonged to the late M. 
I Duponceau. It contains some MSS. annotationB 
, by that profound scholar, which we have found of 
great service. Upon the authority of these notes 
we date the rebuilding of Fort Nassau in 1649. 
I Barker's Sketches, p. 15. 
§ Supra, note. 



the palmiest days of New Sweden. Nas- 
sau continued to be an imperium in im- 
perio, its commissioners never showing a 
disposition to render fealty to the lords 
of Tinicum. 

A report dated at Fort Nassau on the 
seventh of September 1648, gives us a 
striking instance of the spirit with which 
the men of that redoubtable place re- 
sented the slights and insults of their 
powerful neighbors, the Swedes. On 
the evening of the seoond day of April 
in the year above named, says Com- 
missary Huddie, a vessel undertook 
to pass up by Fort Nassau without 
showing her colors. She was fired 
over twice by Huddle's command, but 
not heaving to, eight men were sent in a 
barge in pursuit of her. The wind be- 
ing fresh and fair, the vessel outsailed 
the rowers and got off. In two or three 
days Huddie learned that she was 
the Swedish barque— the state vessel of. 
John I. of Tinicum. When she came 
down the river again she showed her 
colors ; but Claert Huygen, her skipper, 
on being questioned by Huddie as to his 
former neglect, answered very con- 
temptuously "that if he had known that 
this would have come into considera- 
tion, he would have been sorry not to 
have given more cause for offence." 
Such a reply even Dutch phlegm could 
not put up with. Huddie immediately 
sent a letter to Printz, complaining of 
his skipper's conduct — much diplomacy 
thereupon ensued between the courts of 
Tinicum and Nassau — and the whole 
matter was at length compromised by 
Stuyvesant's cannon, in the manner we 
have before related.^' 

Were we to dwell on the massacre of 
the garrison at Nassau by the Indians.f 
the curious treaty which they soon after 
concluded with De Vries on board his 
vessel before the fortj— the terrible ar- 
mada which Commissary Jan Janson 
Uppendam fitted out therefrom in 1642 



» New York Hist. Coll., New Series, Vol. I., 

P-437. , ^ , 

+ Acrelius and Vanderdonck agree thai the 

rocn in Nassau were murdered when the lower 

fort was destroyed. Id. p. 409. 
J Idem, p- 253. 



^clu.J;lkl]i.'- and the hundred ofher in- 
I'^^'esting and important topics in the 
eventful history of Fort JSassau. our 
pamphlet Mould become a book, ^nd a 

U^ iZr^' '^'^': f ^ ^^"^ P^«« «" then 

onger famous ior fulminating proclama- 

vS '".^''""'^ commissaries and 
Ims v.l y^^'^t'f^^^ters, with cocked 

Mt.>,velvetdoublets,andgoIdlaced vests 
tl'ere came a race of drab-colored sur- 
veyors and town Jot speculators, who 

ht'ion. T' '^ ^^"^^^" ^^id the foun! 
dations of a city intended to be the 
queen of the Delaware.! 

The specious alliance sought bv the 
^ orkshire men at BurJington't did Zi 
^'|.;r retard the progress'of tiie town o 
Gioucester. Old Gabriel Thomas, wri 
ingin 1668 says: "There is Glouc;sTer. 
town which IS a very fine and pleasant 

fuht' . .^ ''"" ^'"'^^ ^^"h summer 
friuts, as cherries, mulberries and straw- 

'rom Philadelphia in the wherries to eat 
^irawbernes and cream; within si^it o 
N^hich city It ,s sweetly situated bein- 
^buut three miles distant from thence "l? 

,j!!'TA'''''''"^ ^^" years afterwards, 
"^ivs . Gloucester is a good town an.f 

gave name to a county, "it contain; one 

Arwames, which, according to Linds mm ' 
he name of one of the branches of TmbcrCreer 
On h.s map this stream is correctly epre?ented 
Znf'^l "T''" '^' n^ost southern of Sh 

rtTS.-c^.::;^^it7o?^t:n"^-« 

were applied to Timber Creek gene al,; S^! 
-eems that the natives called the main ,tr^;rTe 
tamekanchz. The names of Arwam and ^e 
koke have sometimes been mistaken for the In 
d.an designation of Gloucester Point Th"' 

brxnch. W„t Jersej., p 9. ^ Arwan.es 

'Ante, p. 31. HVe,t Jersey, p, J g. 



T.'iK TOM SSmv OF GI.OUCtSTKR. 



61 

hundred houses, and the country about 
in the last century also give this town 
buSg^"^^^" ^- ^'- ^--^^ of -ts 
n.rin"u7M ^' Gloucester a chalybeate 

^h a rI^ ^' ^'^ ''"'^"^ of Philadel- 
pnia. between the voune- nennl^ ui > 

^^:\-"-cted by ^le'ffrSuc:. d 
sfrawberries and cream, and the older 
iry who sought health Lt the S,a he 
ancient hotels at the point used^ t'o be 
lively enougn.:j: Occasionally, too. du 

l-e been on^t^^^:^;:^^^^^;^^^^ 
Gloucester, however, has faded before the br.J) t 'r 

n'o'tt'orf it!"? r." P-^'-'-do'rs;;.!! 
"ui resiore its lost honors Tli» <• n 
stanzas are from F,-.,,'t> *^ following 

P- 126 which book, we may remark M ivi ' 

THK 

MORNING INVITATION 

TO TWO yot;|G ladies at th« 

GLOUCESTER SPRING. 

Sequester'd from the city's noise 
Its tumults and fantastic jnyr- 

Fair nymphs a.,d svv;i ins retire 
Hherc Delaware's far nJlin^r; 
iVhue^tic winds by GloVter's side? 

Whose shades new joy« inspire. 



There innocence and mirth resort. ^ 
And round ,ts banks the graces suorf 

Young love, delight and joy '^^'*' 
Br.ght blushing health unlocks his snrin.« 
Each grove around its fragrance flmT^'* 

With sweets that never cloy. ^ ' 

Soon as from out the orient maio, 

i he sun ascends the etherial plain. 

Bepearhng ev'ry Jawn ; ^ ' 
VV.id warbling wood.notes floit around 
While echo doubles ev'ry sound. • 

To hail the gladsome dawn. 

Now Celia with thy doe rise, 

Ye fair unlock those radiant eye., 

Nor more the pillow press; 

^•'"•^"'^^"dtasletheverna bJis. 
Romantic drcam<i anH ,'^'^"*' ""*•• 
"^'*'"^ and Bleep difsmies, 

>ew joys your aense .hall bless. 



I- 
). 

S 



i„E ToWK.iiir of or,oi-T.E»rEB 



63 

,i„ff the lasliii.irablo sfiisou, lli« P™""; 

dol,^ to a,te,.d tho --"•"',;„^' t "^ 

(;iouc.ester Point, kept bv ^^ lUuuu ti «^^. 
I'came qu.te celebrated ^J^^ 
vous of the Gloucester l''>>^-\^""^^"-^^^^ ' 
This association ^vas tormed i" ^^^^^W^^^"^^;. 
1766 bv twenty seven -entlemen ot 

plJilidelphia, -V,""%::n"t;^^ 
ioined bv several Jerseynieii. Anunv 
ff luter\vere the ^^allant Capt. Jume 
S:^ Cooler of Haddonfield. who .sstdl 

Whether along tlic velvet preen, 

Adorning all the sylvan xccne, 

Tliu fair incline to stray , 
^Vherc lofty trees o'crshade the wa^e, 

And Zcphvrs leave their secret cave, 
Along the streams to play. 

There lovely views the »rtt)rr crown, 

XV ."ds.nJdows, ships, yon t.p.ry town. 

Where wit and beauty rcign; 
Where Cloe and fair Celiascharn-. 

Fill many a vouth with love s alarm^, 
Sweetplea^urc.mix'dwUhpam. 

Or whether o'er the fields we trip, 

At v^n salubrious t fount to s>p, 

Immur'd in darksome shade , 
Ar.uJwh.,se sides 11 m«?noi.',«'bloo,^i, 
Whose s.Wer blossoms deck the gloom. 

And scent the spicy glade. 

These are A-ora's rural --^^;— ^.^^^^^^^ 
Fresh dew-drops, floweis anu {,' 

Perfume the balmy air ; 
Kise then and greet the new-born day, 
Rise, fair ones, jom the Imnetslaj, 
And Nature's pleasures share. 

So -liall gay health your cheeks adorn, 
Wnh bhfshes sweeter than the morn. 

\nd fresh as early day ; 
And then, that Glo'ster is the place. 

To add to beauty's hr.ghtest grace. 
The world around shall say. 



♦ Philadelphia. 
* Del.w!>re. 
. Tl.e ch.lvhe.U .prins near Gloucester. 



„live Caut Para'-el Wliilall. Col. He»- 
to, (d Jo»hv,. Ho«dl of Fancy 11. , 

;;,rurfie;a. for action b..,,j,g a o„,.^ 

ill es troin C aniden, or ai hk i^ . 

wo or three iniles trom ^). o^^^^" > " 
Deptford, at Chew's Land.nu^Hlaa 

xvood.owt.. Heston's ^l^f^r;, t on tl^ 
Glassboro'. and 'Ihomsot. s Po t on the 
Dehware. The kennel ot the Ciuo 
wS^askeptatthePointbv anold 

ne7ro named N'atty, contained m -b 
uvlntv two excellent dogs, whose na * 
e eloquent and enthusiastic meinoru l- 
lst ot the Chib has with due solemnity 

^Xirl^'the revolution, nianv. in fact 

niJ^r^he members ot ^^^^^ ^^ . 
in their country's service, ^he assocu 

'ctpa■>,^ caused it to la,,g«.^-n^^. - 

^:^.^ofth:":;:rr,hat.tytave-i,oe„ 

mans oi mtu s^ „t^A tiip rross- 

^-^hfchasV. generally lasted only tor a 
tew hours: but once. ml. ^-R^-^;; 
earned the pack n lull cry 
It was a point ot honor not to gi^^, iip, 
unrthe'bushwas taken: after ^^^^^^^^ 
there ensued a banquet at ^u^^ N 
'vhereat he who was tlrst m at the death 
l"s for the time bein- the ion Ihe 
Glou ester farmers, who suftered tmich 
^, those days from the great number ol 
foxes with which the county still abound^ 
S were always glad to hear the sound 

» See Memoirs of Gloucester Fox Huatnig 

Club, by a Member. F'^i^.^^^^^^tr'/.J y farmer. 

' ''tS S:X7:i^^^^^ by 'plungmg 
Ztt ttVs after a fox which had broken 
through the ice. Memoirs, .Vc. p. Ji. 



TflR TOWNSHIP ON GLOUCESTKR. 



63 



of the lionis and hounds. From the tenth 
ol October to the tenth of April, the Club 
liad the entire freedom of iheir fields 
and woods, and often on catching the 
music of the iipproachinjz^pack, the sturdy 
husbandman bridled his best horse, and 
joined the merry dashinj^^ train, drinking,- 
as deep as any tlie excitement of the 
royal sport. 







JdNAS CATTELL. 



[From the Memoir.^ of the Gloucester Fox Hunt- 
ing Club.] 

There were many disting-uished men 
connected with the Gloucester Club; 
l)ut none is more deserving immortality 
than Jonas Catteli.! For twenty years 
this worthy fellow was -rand guide and 
\vhipper-in to the Hunters, " always at 
his post," says the memorialist, " whe- 
ther at setting out with the company 
Jfading off, at fault, or at the death.'' 
>Vhile all the rest rode, he travelled on 
loot with his gun and tomakawk, and 
was always on hand for any emero-ency 
before half the riders came insight! 
His physical strength and activity were 
almost incredible'. When about my 
years of age he ran a foot race from 
Mount Holly to Woodbury with an In- 
dian runner of great celebrity, and came 
off victor. About the same time he won 
a wager by going on foot from ^Vood- 
bury to Cape Island in one day, deliver- 
ing a letter, and returning in" the SBmo 



manner, with an answer, on the day 
following. He accomplished tliis extra- 
ordinary feat with easn, and was willing 
to repeat it the same week, on the same 
terms.-"- 

In the half century during which the 
Club was in existence, the foxes were 
pretty well routed from the county. 
Once in a great while we still hear of 
one being taken in the interior, where 
nature still reigns in her undisturbed 
wilderness. But the day is near at 
hand when the fox, like the bear, the 
M'olf and the buffalo, which once in- 
habited our woods, Mill be heard of no 
more. The brood of the Gloucester ken- 
nel—which at the dissolution of the 
Club, was divided among the the sport- 
ing farmers in the neighborhood—will 
last much longer than the mischievous 
tribe of Reynard. . 

•^On the evening of the twenty-fifth of N\ 
November, 1777, a spirited affair took 
place on the King-'s Road between Big 
and J>ittle Timber Creeks. LordCorn- 
wallis, with about four thousand men 
and abundant military stores, had been 
encamped at the Pofnt, but was about 
moving across the Delaware. General 
Greene, with a considerable body of 
Americans lay at Haddonlield, and kept 
a close watch upon Cornwallis. Lafay- 
ette, who had not 'yet recovered from a 
wound received some time before, volun- 
teered to reconnoitre the British, and 
attack them if it seemed advisable. In 
observing the position of the enemy, 
he ventured out upon the sandy pen- 
insula south of the outlet of timber 
creek — very near the hostile lines. He 
was discovered, and a detachment of 
dragoons were sent off to intercept hiin. 

* In 1830, when Mr. Clay drew the likeness of 
Catfeli from which the above cut ivS roughly co- 
pied, he was engaged in fisiiing at Clark 's^fishery. 
We saw him at the meeting lield in Woodbury, 
in Mrirch last, to remonstrate against the setting 
offofCamdon county- He is still alive and hearty, 
and is very fond ol" telling stories of his hunting* 
days and anecdotes of the leading men in the 
Gloucester Club. He doeP not know how old he 
is, i)ut thinks he is not far from ninety. The 
author of (he Memoir from which we have drawn 
most of the fncts in the text, says he was cnlipled 
by the Club in 1796, but does not give his age tit 
that time. 



I- 
>. 



CI 



THE i TOWNSHIP OF GLOUCESTKR. 



His guide seeing this, became very much 
friglftened but soon collected himselt, 
and showed the gallant Frenchman a 
back path which led him beyond the 
reach of the horsemen before they had 
advanced to the bridge. He passed un- 
injured withih musket shot of an outpost, 
and joined his detachment. 

" After having spent the most part ot 
the day," says Lafayette, "in making 
myself well acquainted with the certain- 
ly of the enemy's motions, I came pret- 
ty late into the Gloucester road between 
the two creeks. I had ten light horse, 
almost one hundred and fifty riflemen 
and two pickets of militia. Colonel Ar- 
maud, Colonel Laumoy and Chovehers 
Duplessis and Gimat were the French- 
men with me. A scout of my men un- 
der Duplessis went to ascertain how 
near to Gloucester were the enemy's 
first pickets, and they found at the dis- 
tance of two miles and a half from that 
place, a strong post of three hundred 
and fifty Hessians, with field pieces, and 
they engaged immediately. As my lit- 
tle reconnoitering party were all in fane 
spirits, I supported them. We pushed 
the Hessians more than half a mile froni 
the place where their main body had 
been, and we made them run very fast. 
British reinforcements came twice to 
them but very far from recovering their 
ground, they always retreated. The 
darkness of the night prevented us from 
pursuing our advantage. After standing 
on the ground we had gained, I ordered 
them to return very slowly to Haddon- 
tield. 1 take great pleasure in letting 
you know that the conduct of our sol- 
diers was above all praise. 1 never saw 
men so merry, so spirited, and so desir- 
ous to go on to the enemy, whatever 
force thev might have, as that small par- 
ty in thisUttle fight.':* It was on this oc- 
casion that Morgan's riflemen drew trom 
Lafayette the notable compliment, "I 
found them even above their reputation. 
The^e brave fellows were commanded 
bv Lieut. Col. Butler. The Americans 
had only one man killed and six wound- 
ed The British had twenty killed, 



many more wounded, and lost about 
twenty prisoners.-^ - 

While Mad Anthony-as old Wayne 
was generally called— was posted at 
Haddonfield, 'in the month of lebruary, 
177S, some of his men went down to 
Gloucester to reconnointre the British 
who lav there in considerable numbers. 
They were discovered and pursued by 
a superior force. A running fight en- 
sued which lasted nearly from the Point 
to the American cordon, but the British 
suffered much the greater loss. Ihe 
most prominent man in this action on he 
American side was Col. Lllis, of the 
Gloucester county miUtia. boon alter 
this the whole encampment at Glouces- 
ter moved upon Wayne by night, mtend- 
in- to surprise him; but he was too 
wFde awake for them, and was gone be- 
fore they got there. It was on this oc- 
casion that Miles Sage was entrapped 
and bayonetted. , 

About this time the houses of several 
staunch Whigs in Gloucester township 



r 



-, . »LHtert,n Washington, Spark's Writing? of 
'<^^'Bsh^IlJJ^oll, V'jl. V. p. 171. 



were burnt, and among them the man- 
sions of the Huggs and Harrisons, the 
first on Timber Creek, near the Bridge 
and the other nearer the Point. Ihai 
the Hugg's should have been obnoxious 
to the British, was no more than natural, 
for that family gave two officers and 
several privates to the revolutionary ar- 
mies, and its very women were uncon- 
querable patriots. On one occasion some 
En-lishmen coming to the residence ot 
Cof. Joseph Hugg. began to throw a 
hatchet at the poultry in the yard. Ihe 
matron cameforth.-and gave the intruders 
a rebuke worthy of a Spartan mother 
-Do you," said she, - call yourselves 
officers, and come thus to rob undefend- 
ed premises ? 1 have sons who are in 
Washington's army. They are gentle- 
men, and not such puppies as you. u 
is no wonder, we repeat, that after this. 
Col. Abercombie should have burnt the 
house and with it a large quantity of ha^ 
in the rick.j 

» Idem ; and Gordon's New Jersey, p. 255. 

tThis incident is from a MS. sent us some 
,i„,e «50 by nn e.toem.d friend, who wa. weH 
vrr.ed in all the revolutionary history of old 

Glourestpr. 



TfiK tOWNSrilP OF Dl-rT>-')RD. 



65 



Many other iiicideiils of skirrnislies, 
escapes and adventures are related as 
having' occurred in the iiei5:rhhorbood of 
Gloucester in the Revohition ; but we 
find that to gather anything like a satis- 
factory account of them is now im- 
possible. The time for gleaning tra- 
ditionary histoirettes of that age is, 
we fear, very nearly past. The oral 
•legends of a much later period are often 
flatly Hbsurd, or very si/spicious. The 
deficient memories of the narrators, if 
they v/erethehiselves eyewitnesses, and 
the natural accession of which marvel- 
lous stories are the subject at every re- 
petition, make us very cautious in re- 
peating here any but those incidents 
which were recorded at the proper time 
and by respectable auli)oriiies. 

After the removal of the public busi- 
ness from Gloucester, that to\vn began 
speedily to decline. Instead of the hun- 
dred houses which it contained at the 
beginnin- of the last century, we all re- 
member it when it hardly had a dozen. 
Ihe old court-house, whicli stood on the 
.Market Square, was burnt down,--- the 
M(:4|ket Square itself was turned imo 
garden ground; the streets were ploughed 
up; and desolation sat everywhere upon 
the once thriving city. Goyernors no 
longer made it their residence— fashion 
MO longer drew thither its votaries, 
Now and then, perhaps, a traveller cross 
Jng at the ferry stopped for an hour to 
indulge in recollections of the past— ij) 
quote snatches from the Deserted Villa-^e, 
and draw a morul having particular re- 
ference to speculations in \vater-lots. 
But even such visiters were scarce ! 

Like the fabled phoenix, Gloucester 
seems now about to arise from her ashes 
more beautiful than ever! The exten- 
sive factories in course of erection, or 
in contemplation there, will make her 
vet— just what the ghost of Thomas 
Sharp would dance to see — one of the 
most busy and populous towns in West 
Jersey. So mote it be ! 

The villages in the original township 
of Gloucester— Chew's Landing and 



KUickwoodtown— .-Hid the hamlets of 
Mount Ephraim, Clementon, Tansboro,' 
and New Freedom are s/nall and com- 
paratively of recent origin. Thero is 
but little connected with either worthy of 
note. 



CHAPTER XVIJ. 

THK TOWNSHIP OF DKPTJ'ORD. 

T'ir^m hurrijA lielU: 
Dicmn acie-, acCu<ijiit aniuiis in iuiieii r<-irrt. 
VilKi. .Jin.VU.iu 

The country nbout Woodbury Creok. 
according U) Gid.riel Thomas' man, was 
originally called by the English the 
Towusinp of Bethiem; but this name 
soon passed into oblivion, and instead of 
it our ancestors adopted that of Dept- 
FORD, from a little town in Kcntshire, 
England, where Peter the Great of Rus- 
sia served his apprenticeship to the art 
of shipbuilding. - 

VILLAGE OF WOODfiKJlRY. 

. The oldest village in this township is 
"\V oodbury; or, as it should be spelled. 
\\ooj)BKRi{v, whiili takes its name from' 
the faniily of Woods who caiao from 
P»erry, in Lancashire, England, in J 68-1. 
i?!chard Vv^ood, the first settler upon 
Woodbury Creek, ca.me out with the ear- 
liest emigrants to Philadelphia. Leav. 
ing his family in that town, he got a ca- 
noe and paddled two or tliree miles u^ . 
the Piscozackasingz-Kil until he came 
to a likely place for an habitation. Hav- 
ing conciliated the friendship and as- 
sistance of the Indians, he erected a 
rude house, and in less than one week 
he and his family were living therein as 
comfortably as circumstances would al- '. 
low. A brother arrived shortly, after, j 
and, settling a little higher up thestream' 
founded the capital of old Gloucester i 
County.t If Thomas' map be worthy 



•Many valuable records were burnt in ihiir 



••Malte Brun, Vol. VI. p. 751. ' 
t Mulford's Lecture. We find in the Sanev. 

or General's office at Burlington, Book B of Sur. •'" 

vevs, that 432 acres of land on Woodburj Cresk *" 

were surveyed to Jonathnn Wood on the 13th of ^ 

Pcccmhcr, 1683. One hundred aerts on fheeam^ ' 
sreck, lud been purvejed the year before to V\'jl. 



ftfi 



THR TOWNSniP OF DEPTiOlXl*. 



oldopoudeDefi, this uedlementwas made 
upon the north bank of tho creek, pro- 
bably about the sito of the hamlet of Flip- 
penttown, or tho old Ward Burying 
Ground.'"' 

Before tho Woods had been joined in 
their settlement by any other families, all 
the men belonging to tlie little colony 
were obliged upon some occasion to go 
to Burlington, Dating their absence, 
which was prolonged by a storm, the 
ti^omen became short of provisions, and 
in great distress paid frequent visits to 
the bank of the crock to look for their 
husbands' return. An Indian squaw up- 
on the opposite shore observing their 
Rolicltude, and understanding by their 
signs that thoy wore in need of food, 
started off through the forest for her 
cabin, and in an hour or two returned 
with some venison and corn-bread. 
Putting these on a long bark iloat, she 
pushed them across to where the white 
women were. As the husbands of the 
latter did not return for a considerable 
time afterwards, nothing but the oppor- 
tune assistance of this kind hearted sav- 
age saved the worthy matrons from 
starvation. Verily, Woman deserves 
the compliment which Barker pays her, 
when, in speaking of the young huntress 
who saved De Vrit s on the Timmerkill, 
he exclaims, "Her native wilderness 
cannot always render her wild, nor a 
life of savage association deprive her of 
her innate softness !"t 

After the public buildings at Glouces- 
ter were burnt in 17S7, Woodbury was 
made the shire-town of the county, by a 
vote of the people. From that time un- 
til it was overtaken and surpassed by 
Camden, it continued to be the most 
considerable town in Gloucester County. 
The present court-house and jail were 
then erected, and were regarded as a 
great improvement upon the old affairs 
at Gloucester. Upon the steeple of the 
eourt- house, the freeholders contem- 

Jiam HijTffins. There is no record of tho earlier 
locations— Book A of Surveys havinsj disappear- 
ed, we believe, in some mysterioup manner from 
the Sarveyor'n office many years ago. 

+ Bsrkei-'i Sketclics, p-'lP. 

•SwCiiey's M'^j' if New Jersey, n»6. 



plated to place a large Indian ae a vane; 
but some one, not liking such vanities,, 
is said to have stolen the Indian, and 
kept it for a long time secreted. At 
length it came to light, and was first set 
up on Governor Stratton's old mill at 
Swedesboro', and afterwards mounted 
upon a pole in the neighborhood of 
Sharptown; where it still serves in its^ 
veerings and shiftings as an emblem of* 
the mutability of human affairs. Tho 
story is trilling, but be it remembered, 
the very object of this book is — 

Angualis addere rebus honorem. 

In lS25the old public buildings having 
become very much dilapidated, the Grand 
Jury presented them as insufficient, 
and an Act of Assembly was procured 
for submitting the question to the people 
where the new buildings, if any, should 
bo put. As soon as Camden was found 
to be a competitor for the honor, the 
worthy denizens of Woodbury disco- 
vered that the old buildings were quite 
good enough, or at least might be made 
so with very little expense. The Wood- 
bury interest prevailing in the Board of 
Freeholders, a new Clerk's office was 
built with all despatch, the Court House 
was somehow patched up, and a deal of 
money spent thereupon, with the design 
of outgeneraling Camden. Such tactics 
could not fail of success. The thrifty 
fishermen upon the seaside, not relish- 
iiig the idea of throwing away this mo- 
ney, voted when the election came for 
Woodbury, and so the Court House was 
retained there by a majority rising eight 
hundred. The pamphlets and placards 
which were the ammunition of this 
Court House war, savor strongly of the 
jealousy which still exists between the 
two towns. 

In the winter of 1777, I-ord Cornwal- 
lis had his head-quarters in this village, 
in the house now occupied by Amos 
Campbell, Esq., on the east side of the 
main street. During his stay, some of 
his men having seized a valuable cow 
belonging to an ardent Whig in the 
neighborhood, his lordship was waited 
ou by the owner, who requested a re- 
stoTation of his property. Cornwallii 



TiltL TOWNSarP OF DKM-Foft*. 



aBked luni as to his political principles. 
The sturdy patriot tried to evade the quo8- 
tjon, but at lon;,4lj— cow or no cow— the 
truth would out. His lordship, admiring 
the man's independence soon returned 
him his animal.-* 

Captain Jamks Lawrence was in his 
youth a schoolboy at the Academy in 
this village ; having begun the stud'v of 
navigation with Samuel Webster. Be- 
fore this he had entered as a student at 
law in the ol!ice of iiis brother John 
Lawrence, who was an eminent prac> 
titioner at the Gloucester bar. The 
young hero, not arguing much pleasure 
irora a peep into Vortescue's gloomy vis- 
ta—the lucubrationcs viginti annoiwn— 
left his law books in about two years 
fcramore congenial life.f Here 'also, 
bTEPHEN Decatur went to school his 
home being in the West family, at the 
Buck Tavern. A gentleman who knew 
both Decatur and Lawrence very well 
has given us an anecdote of the former 
which is worth recording .- In 1 793 when 
the yellow fever raged in Philadelphia 
It was found that some persons, to avoid 
doing quarantine had escaped from in- 
fected ships at the Lazaretto, landed 
upon the Jersey shore, and so got up to 
the city. To prevent this infraction of 
the laws, a company of young men living 
about Woodbury was formed to guard the 
Deptford shore. Decatur and our in- 
formant both joined this corps; and on 
one occasion being on duty the same 
iiight, the latter as Captain and the 
former as private, Decatur was stationed 
at Red Bank. At midnight all the look- 
outs below the creek were relieved as 
was understood beforehand; but poor 
Decatur was entirely forgotten and left 
in service until morning. He remained 
manfully at his post until the return 6f 
day, but visited his neglected Captain 
when next he saw him with a hearty 
round of sailor's b!essing.| 



*t. 



Except wheo tho se^sious of Iha eoua- 
ty courts galvaniisQ AVoodbury into 
something like life, it is by no means a 
place in which lovers of novelty and ex- 
citement would be induced to tarry. Yet 
It has pervading it, as a compensatioa 
for its monotony, a quiet rural beauty to 
which even a lawyer cannot be insemi- 
ble, as the following verses will show ; 

WOODBURY— .A SONNET. 

A little vill embowor'd round with trees, 

Where Heaven's delicious ether seema niar« 

sweet 
Than in the heated city : There the feet 
Of uummer trip more liohtly, and the breeie 
Sings softer songs, the birds more an»'ron» lay* 
Troll mid the leaves of heaven-kissinjj elms- 
Till beauty like a g:URh ofmii>iic whelms 
Tlie languid soul that yearns to sing its praise. 
There may be brighter spots beneath the sun, 
But none so calm in beauty, none so still 
With heaven's own quiet; and I stand and flit 
My soul's full cup till it doth overflow 
With loveliness and light, and I bow dowa 
To thee, as to a shrine, serenest town I* 

The land upon the river shore of 
Deptford township, seems to have becR 
taken up at an early day. In 16S8 a 
trart of near five hundred acres at Cork 
Cove, above Red Bank, was surveyed 
to John Ladd. The Ward, Chaunders, 
C"OY Saunders,) Higgins, Tatem and 
Whitall families, all of which are still 
extant, located in this vicinity, or iu other 
eligible places in the township about th« 
same time. 

RED BANK. 

By the Constitution of Arwames, we 
have seen. Red Bank was made an al- 
ternate capital of the State of Glouces- 
ter. Courts were held there two or 
three times in the years 1686 and 1687, 



• Parber and Kowe, p. 208. 

T Biography of Lawrence. Phila. 1813. n 12 • 
Analectic .Mag. 1813. Vol. IJ. p. 129. ' ^ ' ' 

;Tho last lime our informant saw Lawience 

was just at the opening of the late war, at Eng. 

• F^-i^y. Caraden. Ho remarked with much 

wtrrnth, in alluaion to tho affair of the Leopard 



and Chesapeake, "I shall never sleep Bound an- 1 
til that stain is washed from the Cheaapeake'« 
decks." Soon afterwards his own blood maiU * 
the expiation he prayed for ! J 

•Tliis sonnet was written by Honry B. Hirst 
a young Philadelphia lawyer, when reporting fw 
the city press the trial of Mercer, in April. 1841. 
The unexceptionable taste of the Camden Mail , 
having pronounced it worthy of original inacr. ;" 
tion, we feel justified in copying it here. At all » 
events, aince local poetry is somewhat like wine, ' ^ 
whatever the Bcnrtct may be pn le, i<i posterity it 
will be eurious, 



es 



THfi TOWNSHIP OF DErTKORD. 



at the Tavern probably which had been 
set up near the niouih of iho Piscozac- 
ka8ihj;z-kil, or, as the Woods very ex- 
cusably named it, Woodbury Creek. 
Why the positive reinitiation of the Con- 
stitution was broken we know noi ; but 
the town of Gloucester soon hecanie the 
exclusive metropolis of the county. 

But Red Bank derives little of its ce 
lebrity from the fact of its beings a decay- 
ed capital ! Its name has not run^ 
throughout Christendom for any judicial 
antics of which it niv^iht h;i,ve been the 
iicene in the seventeenth century, but 
tor one of the most brilhant buttles — we 
eay it wiUiput fear of contradiction — in 
our whole Revolution. 

Fort Mercer which had been erected 
here to support the left of the upper 
chevaux-de-frize, sunk in 1776, to pre- 
vent the ascension of the British ileet, 
was originally desig^ned for a garrison 
of twelve or fifteen hundred men. When 
Greene took possession of the works, 
having but three hundred men, he adopt- 
ed the suggestion of M. de Manduit, an 
experienced French engineer, and threw 
out a large part of the fortification on 
the north, reducing it to a pentagonal 
redoubt of convenient size. A rampart 
of earth raised to the height of the cor- 
don, a fosse and an aliattis irj front of 
the fosse constituted the whole strength 
of the post. The battery numbered four- 
leen pieces of artillery of small calibre.'^'' 

Late in the afternoon of the twenty- 
first of October, 1777. Count Donop with 
a detachment of about twenty-iive hun 
dred Hessians crossed the Delaware at 
< /ooper's Point to dislodge Greene and 
tiie little handfull of republicans who 
defended this redoubt. Owing to the 
precaution of the Americans in destroy- 
ins; the lower bridges on the imerven- 
ing streamsf, the Count passed through 
Haddonfield and down the Clement's 
Bridge road to the attack. He pressed 
several persons whom be found along 

"Travels of Marquis tie Chiistellux, London, 
«(i. Vol. I. p. 561, et fcq. The Marquis visited Red 
Bank with Lafayette, Miinduit and several other 
di'tiiigfuibhed Frenchmen in 1780. His account 
ef ihe w.irlt,.*, the action, etc. is the best extant. 
t W afd'* Luttor, Uhi. Venn. Rv.g. Vi.l. Ill.n.181 . 



the route into his service as pilots, 
amoni' whom was a negro belonging to ^ 
the Cooper family, called Old Mitch, ^ 
who was at work by the Cooper's Creek 
Bridge. A negro named Dick, belong- 
ing to the gallant Col. EUis, and an in- 
I'amous white scoundrel named Mcll- 
vaine volunteered their assistance as 
guides. At the bar of the Haddonfield 
tavern, these two lo_val fellows were ve- 
ry loud in their abuse of the American 
cause ; but their insolence as we shall 
see was soon repaid. 

On the morningof the twenty-second, 
the Hessians appeared.«.t the edge of a 
forest north of the fort, almost within 
cannon shot thereof. Halting here to 
rest from the march, Donop sent an ofii- 
cer with a drummer to command Greene 
to surrender. " King George," said the 
officer, " directs his rebellious subjects 
to lay down their arms, and promises 
no quarter if a battle is risked." At 
which Greene deptitized a man to mount 
the parapet and return the laconic re- 
ply : " W^e'll see King George damned 
first — we want no quarter!" The inter- 
view here terminated, and the ofiicer re- 
ttirned to the Hessian camp.^-" 

At four o'clock in the a/ternoon Do- 
nop opened a heavy cannonade from 
a l)attery which he had erected to the 
north-eastward : and at the same time 
the British ships from below the che- 
vaux-de-frize began to thunder upon the 
little fort. Most of the balls from the 
latter I'ell too low, and entered the bluff 
beneath the works. After cannonad- 
ing for a short time, the Hessians ad- 
vanced to the first entrenchment. Find- 
ing this abandoned, they shouted Vic- 
toria ! — waved their hats, and rushed in- 
to the deserted area before the redoubt; 
the little drummer before mentioned, . 
heading the onslaught with a hvely march. 
When the first of the assailants had 
come up to the very abattis and were en- 
deavoring to cut away the branches, the 
Americans opened a terrible fire of 
musketry iti front and flank. Death rode 
in every volley. So near were the Hes- 

* MSS. Notes of a Rcptunji^rnarian, /Jcncj me. 



THE TOWNSHIP OF DEPTFORB. 



69 



siuns to the caponiere or looped trench 
which flanked the enemy when they set 
upon the main fort, that the wads were 
blown entirely through their bodies. 
Tlie officers leading' the attack, fought 
bravely. Again and again they rallied 
their men and brought them to the charge. 
They were mowed down like grass, and 
fell in heaps among the boughs of the 
abattisand into the fosse. In the thick- 
est of the tight Donop was easily dis- 
tinguished by the marks of his order and 
his handsome figure ; but even his ex- 
ample availed nothing. His men re- 
pulsed from the redoubt in front, made 
an attack upon the escarpment on the 
west, but the fire from the American 
gallies drove them back here also with 
great loss; and at last, they flew in much 
disorder to the wood, leaving among 
many other slain the saucy drummer and 
his officer. 

Another column made a simultaneous 
attack upon the south, and in the tech- 
nical lanjjnage of a soldier, "passed 
the abattis, traversed the fosse and 
mounted the berm;"-" but they were re- 
pulsed at the fraises, and all retreated 
save twenty, who were standing on the 
berm against the shelvings of the para- 
pet, under and out of the way of the 
guns, whence they v>'ere afraid to move. 
These were captured by M. de Man- 
duit, who had sallied from the fort to 
repair some palisades. This brave 
Frenchman making another sortie in a 
few minutes afterwards to repair the 
southern abattis, heard a voice from 
among the heaps of the dead and dying, 
exclaim in English, "Whoever you are, 
draw me hence." This was Count Do- 
nop. M. de Manduit caused him to be 
carried into the fort. His hip was bro- 
ken, but the wound was not at first con- 
sidered as mortal. The victorious Amer- 
icans, remembering the insolent mes- 
sagre which their captive had sent them 
a few hours before, could not withhold 
marks of exultation. 

" Well — is it determined," they asked 
aloud, "to give no quarter?" 

• ChasMlnx, Vol. I. p. ^63. 



"I ajn in your hands," replied Do- 
nop ; "you may revenge yourselves." ' 

M. de Manduit enjoining the men in 
broken English to be generous towards 
their bleeding and humbled prisoner, the 
latter said to him, *' You appear to be a 
foreigner, sir; who are you ?" 

" A French officer," answered Man- 
duit. 

"Jesuis content," exclaimed the Count 
in French, "je nieurs entre les mains de 
I'h onneur meme.' '''"' 

Donop was taken first to the Whitall 
house, just below the fort, but was after- 
terwards removed to the residence of 
the Lowes, south of Woodbury Creek, 
He died three days after the battle, say- 
ing to M. de Manduit in his last mo- 
ments, "It is finishing a noble career 
early ; but 1 die the victim of my ambi- 
tion and of the avarice of ray sove- 
reign."! I'o Col. Clymer he made the 
remarkable remark-: "See here Colonel, 
see in me the vanity of all human pride! 
1 have shone in all the courts of Eu- 
rope, and now 1 am dying here on the 
banks of the Delaware in the house of 
an obscure Quaker."^ 

The Hessians retreated hastily to- 
wards Cooper's Ferry. The main body 
went by way of Clement's Bridge, some 
by way of Blackwocdtown, and some it 
is said by Chew's Landing, near where 
they were met by a company of farmer's 
boys and held at bay for some time. 
This detachment had with them a brass 
cannon which they are supposed to have 
thrown into the creek somewhere near 
the Landing. Dick and McIIvaine, the 
guides, having been taken prisoners by 
the Americans, were immediately hung 

* " I am satisfied — I die in the very hands of 
Honor 1" 

t Ihidem. 

t Weems, in Life of Washington, Chap. IX. 
The legs of prose being altogether loo tardy for 
this eccentric writer he frequently invokes tho 
wings of poetry to help him over an extraordina- 
ry occurrence. In describing the battle of Red 
Bank, he breaks into versification as follows: 

" Heaps on heaps, the slaughter'd Hessians lie; 
Brave Greene beholds them with a tearful eye; 
Far now from home and from their native shore 
They sleep in death and hear of war no more." 



19 



■UiSi TOWH««ir OF BSPTFORB. 



within the fort for divers outraj^es which 
they had committed. Old Mitch, the 
other pilot, lived until recently to tell to 
groupes of admiring Camden boys how 
lerribly he was scared in this memora' 
ble tight. Resolved not to bear arms 
against his country, and being afraid to 
run away, he got behind a hay-rick 
when the battle began, and lay there flat 
on his belly until it was over. " But 
Lord, massa!" he used to exclaim in 
narrating the circumstance, " I guess I 
shuk, as de dam cannon ball came plow- 
in' along de ground and flingin' de san' 
in my face ; and arter de Auguster 
blow'd up I tought for half an hour I 
was dead weder or no !" 

The respected friend to whose MSS. 
notes we have before acknowledged our 
indebtedness, tells us that of the men 
under Col. Greene in this action many 
were blacks and mulattos. He was in 
the fort on the morning of the twenty- 
third of October, while the garrison 
were burying the slain, and cannot be 
mistaken as to the point, ITis account 
of the loss agrees with that contained in 
Ward's letter to Washington,'- to wit: 
upon the American side, from Greene's 
regiment, two sergeants, one fifer and 
four privates killed, one sergeant and 
two privates wounded , and one captain 
who was reconnoitering, taken prisoner; 
from Angel's regiment, one captain, 
three sergeants, three rank and file kill- 
ed, and one ensign, one sergeant and 
fifteen privates wounded; and from Capt. 
Duplessis' company ,two privates wound- 
ed. The Hessians lost lieutenant Col. 
Mingerode, three captains, four lieuten- 
ants, and near seventy privates killed, 
and Baron Donop, his Brigade Major, 
a captain, lieutenant and upwards of 
seventy non-commissioned officers and 
privates wounded and prisoners. Other 
accounts make the loss of the Hessians 
much greater ; but as the action only 
lasted forty minutes, it is probable that 
this is not "far from the truth. Several 
of the Americans were killed by the 

•Hnz, Penn. Rej, Vol. Ill, iibi supra; and 
see Vol. I. p. 347 of llie same work and Leo't 
Memoirs of the War, Vol. I. p. 25 et 6«q. 



bursting of on© of their cannon, tho frag- 
ments of which are yet in the neighbor- 
hood, - • J • 

The Hessian slain were buried in 
front of the fosse, south of the fort. The 
wounded were carried to Philadelphia 
by Manduit, and exchanged. Count Do- 
nop was interred near the spot where 
he fell," and a stone placed over him. 
with the inscription "Here lies buried 
Count Donop." The epitaph has ceas- 
ed to be true— all that was left of the 
poor Hessian having been dug up and 
scattered about as relics.t We doubt 
not that the Philadelphians who resort 
to this place in great numbers in the 
summer, began this outrage ; but candor 
compels us to own that some Jerseymou 
have been guilty of exhibiting canes, the 
heads of which are set with teeth taken 
from the Count's jaw! ^ . 

The anecdote of dame Ann Whitall. 
which the compiler of the Collections^ 
seems inclined to doubt, is so well au- 
thenticated that we cannot but believe 
it. The attack upon the fort commenced 
while this woman, the mistress of the 
first house on the river bank below Do- 
nop's grave, was busied in spinning. 
Presently, a shot from the Augusta or 
Merlin, whizzing through tho hall, ad- 
monished her of her danger. She there- 
upon took her wheel into the cellar and 
actually continued her spinning through- 
out the afternoon. The house was used 
as a hospital after the action, and its 
floors are said still to show traces of the 
pools of blood which flowed from the 
wounded soldiers-H This anecdote is 
certainly much more credible than on© 
which Com. Barney mentions in con- 

» Inscrip. on Red Bank Monuoient. 

+ The last time we were at Red Bank, Donop's 
head.*fone was between two cart-riits and almotit 
overgrown with grass. The inscription on lh« 
Btone is now entirely worn away. 

t Page 212. 

II It seems that Manduit could not comprehend 
the peace doctrines of the Quakers. Because 
Mr, Whitall would not doff his straight coat, 
shoulder a musket and go into the fort, the 
Frenchman jumped at the conclusion that ho 
•' was a little of a Tory," and ordered his barn to 
lorn down and his orchard destroyed. See Cha«. 
tell'jx, ubi iup. 



THB TOWXBHIP OF DErTKORD. 



71 



Election with this action. One of the 
enemy's ^allies had a hrass eij^hteen 
pounder, which told at every fire. The 
Americans on board the gun boats " soon 
became so well acquainted with the 
ubort sharp sound of her explosion," 
says the Commodore, "that whenever 
it was heard, some one would cry 
out, Galley-shot ! and this served as a 
Jiind of watch-word, at which all bands 
would lie down."-"- Dodj^ing a con- 
non-ball — especially after the report — 
ie by no means an ordinary feat! 

As soon as the British had forced the 
■chevaux-de-frize, Fort Mercer was aban- 
doned and began to fall into decay. 
On the anniversary of the battle in 1829 
a neat monument was erected upon the 
spot by a number of the New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania volunteers, which the Phi- 
ladelphians have characteristically mu- 
tilated, by striking- out the name of New 
Jersey from the inscription. The le- 
gend upon the monument modestly gives 
Greene one hundred men more than he 
seems to have had, and makes the num- 
ber of Hessiams five hundred too low. 

The following notice of a visit to Red 
Bank by one whom the Reminiscent is 
proud in being able to call his friend, is 
too eloquent to be omitted : " The line 
of the embankment at Fort Mercer is 
yet plainly seen ; and the place is now, 
as in the hour of our country's peril, cov- 
ered with a gloomy pine forest through 
whose branches the wind sighs dismal- 
ly as if chanting a requiem for the spir- 
its of the departed brave. Towards the 
dose of a fine afternoon I visited the 
battle-ground. Here and there a sail 
dotted the Delaware, which lay calmly 
before me. A few solitary fishermen 
were pursuing their accustomed avoca- 
tions upon the shore below the bank, 
and it seemed as if this secluded spot 
had ever been the abode of peace. I 
lingered until the shades of evening be- 
gan to darken the distant landscape and 
enshroud the forest in gloom. The fish- 
ermen had gathered their nets and re- 

• Barney's Memoirs, by hi« daughter, Boston, 
1535, p. 61. 



tired to their humble homes; and I wa« 
left alone, with no companion but my 
thoughts, and nothing to disturb save 
the gentle rippling of the waves upon 
the smooth pebbly beach. With reflec- 
tions suggested by the occasion, I was 
slowly departing when the distant roll 
ofa drum from Fort Mifflin, summoning 
the soldiers to evening parade, remind- 
ed me that war's dreadful trade was not 
yet over— that the time had not yet 
come ' when the lion and the lamb should 
lie down together,' and all nations 
dwell in peace."-' 

On the seventeenth day of February, 
1936, the new township of Washing- 
ton was set off from the east end of 
Deptford; but the interior of our coun- 
ty, having been settled at a comparitive- 
ly modern date, has as yet no history. At 
the time of the Revolution, the country 
for a considerable chstance on both sides 
of the ridge which divides the Atlantic 
from the Delaware streams had very 
few^ inhabitants, and these were mostly 
temporary residents who soughtamidst 
the barrens a refuge from the perils of 
the war. The legendary lore of these 
sparsely settled regions consists princi- 
pally in tales of superstition which are 
not worth collecting, much less recording. 
The village of Squankum, the largest 
in Washington township, has been built 
since 1800, at which time we are told- 
" there were but four or five houses 
within sound of the conch-shell. "f A 
year or two ago the place was thought 
to have become worthy of a more re- 
spectable name; so the inhabitants in 
town-meeting solemnly substituted Wil- 
liamstown for tlie Indian, Squankum. 
The hamlet at the Buck Tavern under- 
went a few years ago a similar improve- 
ment; the people thereof abolishing the 
venerable name of the Buck, and sub- 
stituting that of Westvillc. When the 
Admonessonites will slough the present 
title of their demi-ville, or what better 
name they will select, we know not. 

• Henry Howe's Historical and Descriptive 
Letter? in (he New Haven Herald. No. II. 
T Hist. Coll. of New Jersey, p. 222, 



73 



GREENWICH TOWNSHIP. 



CHAPTER XVlll. 

THE TOWNSHIP OF GREENWICH. 

Sav why does man, while lo hb opening sisht 
Ea'ch shrub nreseius a source of chaslc ileligtit, 
And nature bids for him her treasures liow, 
Aud eives to him alone his bliss lo know- 
Why does he pant for Vice's dsa.lly ch.rms, 
Aod clasp the siren Pleasure lo hi. aruis." 

p KlUKB WHITE'S Clifl^n Grove. 

The TOWNSHIP OF GREENWICH IS by 
some months the most ancient township 
in Gloucester county : for we find upon 
the minutes of the County CoUrt, under 
date of the first of March, 1694, the fol- 
lowing note : " The inhabitants between 
Great Mantoes Creek and Barclay Ri- 
ver, request yt ye same division be made 
and laid into a township, henceforth to 
be called by ye name of ye Township ot 
Greenwich ; ' and yt ye same be so re- 
corded. To which ye Bench assents 
and order ye same to be done."-='- 

The country about the Racoon and 
the Repaupo, having been settled by the 
Swedes— hundreds of whom still resided 
there when the English arrived— the 
township of Greenwich was for some 
years by far tiie most populous of the 
six into which the county was m 169o 
divided. In the seventeenth century 
most of the magnates of this part ot old 
Gloucester bore such titles as Erick 
Cock, Hermanns Helme, John Rambo, 
and Mens Lock. The Swedish lan- 
gua'>'e religion and customs were rigid- 
ly conserved for a long time ; and even 
to this day many traces of the Swedish 
origin of the people of Greenwich are 
observable. 



THB PARISH OF RACOON, NOW SWEDES- 
BORO'. 

At what time the Swedes founded the 
village of Racoon we are unable to tell 
with precision. A settlement is marked 
there on I>indstrom's map, as it is loiind 
in the original Swedish copy of Campa- 
nius, and this map was made in 16.54. 
Unless preceded, therefore, by the town 
of Nassau, Racoon is the most ancient 
village in our county, 

• Woodbury Records, Book A Court Minute*. 



It is fortunate for us— and for all who 
like us feel an interest in the annals ot 
their homesteads— that Kalm made the 
village of Racoon his residence tor a 
considerable time during his visit to this 
continent near a century ago. Although 
the main business of that distinguished 
man was an exploration of the botanical 
productions of New Sweden, he has lett 
us many facts concerning the original 
settlers here, which cannot, we are sure, 
prove uninteresting. 

The first visit of Kalm to Racoon was 
begun on the twentieth o[ November 
174S. He crossed at Gloucester, where 
he mentions that passengers from 1 enn- 
sylvania were obliged to patronize tne 
ferry kept by Pennsylvanians,and those 
from Jersey that kept by Jerseymen. 
His iourney through our county gave lun 
but little to admire. At and about Glou- 
cester he observed a grcMt abundance ot 
lir-trees : but after he left this place, he 
found nothing whatever to marvel at— 
except very sandv roads. He tells us he 
saw "single farm houses scattered in tiio 
country, and in one place only" he adds 
«'we sJw a small village. The country was 
vet more covered with forests than culti- 
vated, and we were for the greatest 
part always in a wood."-^^" 1 ho small vil- 
lage he mentions was W oodbury. 

'rhe county then as now abounded 
with pine trees, which Kalm describes 
as being good for nothing but the pro- 
duction of tar; which article; together 
with pitch and rosin seems to have been 
anions old Gloucester's earliest staples.f 
He afterwards tells us however that 
cattle are very partial in summer to the 
shade of the pine, and suggests that the 
resinous exhalations from that tree are 
wholesome and beneilcial to them. He a - 
so saw many of the spoon-trees, (or fe.al- 
mialatifolia, as Linnauis named it in hon- 
or of his friend, our traveller) of which 
the Indians residing hereabouts used to 



* Vol. I. p. 333. ^ . „ r, 

t"The trade in Gloucester County,' says Ga- 
briel Thomas, West Jersey , p. 39, " consists chief- 
Iv in pitch tar and rosin; the latter ot which i9 
made by Robert Style.-, an excellent artii^t in that 
^ort of work, for ho delivers it as clear as nnj 
gum Arabick." 



•TtEEXWICH TOWKSHir. 



T» 



mako their «poom and trowels. We 
cali this tree the Lowland Laiirei; and 
the marvellous properties which Kalm 
has attributed to it, it no doubt possesses. 
Of the Sassafras which ^rew every- 
where in great abundance, the abori- 
gines, he tells us, used to make bowls; 
the Swedes used its root in brewing, 
applied its juice as a cure for dropsy, 
used it in decoction as a rinse for ves- 
Bels in which they kept brandy and ci- 
der,and made their bed posts of it, to keep 
away the bu<^s ! The bark of the Chest- 
nut-oak was used by the Indians, as a 
Swede named Ramho told Kalm, for 
dyin^ leather red ; and the Swedes pro- 
bably used it for the same purpose. The 
fruit of the Persimmon tree ^ave to the 
first inhabitants of Greenwich a very 
curious and palatable liquor, which is 
now, we believe, never made. They 
also distilled brandy from it by a very 
simple process. Porfipions, or Crock- 
nacks, as the Swedes called them. 
Squashes and Calabashes are also men- 
tioned by our traveller, as havinj? been 
procured from the Indians, and culti- 
vated by the Swedes for household pur- 
poses. The pompions and squashes 
they ate— the latter being served up on 
the edge of the dish, around the meat. 
Of the calabashes they made in those 
primitive days, not only ladles and bowls, 
but plates for the table. In Holly-leaves.' 
dried and bruised in a mortar, they found 
a cure for the pleurisy; which tferriblo 
disease in 1728 swept away nearly all 
the Swedes in the numerous settlement 
at Penn's Neck, where it broke out again 
with increased violence just before our 
author's visit. The ague, too. in the 
olden time was a much more dangerous 
enemy than no\r. Against this, the 
Swedes employed with various success, 
the Jesuit's bark,the root of the Tulip tree 
and of the Dogwood, the yellow bark of 
the Peach tree, the leaves of the Potentil- 
al reptans, and several other indigenous 
preparations which thev adopted from 
the Indians As an antifebrile they 
sometimes tied whisps of Mullein, or In- 
dian tobacco around their arms and feet.* 

' Tke iner*aM of f«Teri w» Mid by the uM 



The root of tho Bay-trw* they n»^d ns s 
remedy for the tooth acho, which "h»]l 
of a' diseases," as Hums calls it, the 
Swedes brought upon themselves in con- 
sequence of the belief that nothing was 
good unless eaten as fast as it came from 
the fire.^ 

The earliest inhabitants of Racoon 
lived in a very humble manner. Thpy 
had neither tea, coffee, chocolate nor 
sugar, and were too poor to buy any in- 
toxicating drinks, or vessels to distil 
them in. The first settlers drank at ta- 
ble as a substitute for tea, a decoction of 
sassafras; and even in 1749 they mixed 
the tea they then used "with all sorts of 
Jiorbs," says Kalm, "so that it no longer 
deserves the name of tea."t For a lon°' 
time they continued to make their can* 
dles and soap from bay berry bushes. 
Their buck-wheat cakes, which were a 
standard dish, were baked in a fryino-- 
pan. or on a stone. The men wore caps, 
breeches, and vests of the skin of vari- 
ous animals. The women wore jackets 
and petticoats of the same material. 
Their beds, except the sheets, were 
composed of the skins of wolves, bears, 
panthers, and other beasts with which 
our woods once abounded. They made 
their own leather for shoes, and other 
articles, dying it red with Chestnut bark, 
or the moss of a certain tree not now 
known; or black, with a preparation of 
the common field Sorrel. 

Poor as was the condition of tho 
Swedes, far worse was that of the ser 
vile Bmlanders. Instead of shoes theso 
wretches were content with mocassins 
of skins rudely sewed together, and for 
dishes for their tables, they scooped out 
the knobs of the Ash tree as the Siberians 
now do. The Indians of New Sweden, 
we are told, used to boil their meat in a 
vessel of burnt pot stone, mixed with 
grains of quartz— two of them holding it 

Swedes to be owing to the loss of many odorife- 
rous plants, which once grew in New Sweden ^ 
and which the cattle hnd extirpated, Kalm. VoL 
I. p. 371. 

* See Profcsior Kalm*.<« grave didsertntion na 
the loss of teeth which the Racoonites and oth«>«- 
Europeans on the hanljtof the D-!8wiir« «a(Fef«l 
Vol. I. pp. 360— 3W. 

♦ Ibid, p. J:0. 



74 



©REENWICH TOMN'SHIP. 



over the fire until their victuals were 
done. The Finns of New Sweden were 
poor enouj^h and lazy enouj:;h too, to 
have done their cooking in the same 
manner." 

Among the customs mentioned by 
Kalm, as peculiar to the early Swedes 
of Racoon and other Swedish settle- 
ments upon the banks of the Delaware, 
there is one which, we trust, we will 
be excused for adverting to. When a 
man died in such circumstances that his 
widow could not pay his debts, if she 
had an offer of a second husband, she 
was obliged to marry hin» en chemise. In 
this plight, on her wedding-day, she 
went out of her former house to that of 
her new spouse, v.'ho met her half way 
with a full suit of clothes, which he pre- 
sented to her, saying he only lent them; 
"lest,'^ says Kahn, "if he had said he 
gave theni, the creditors of the first hus- 
band should come and take them from 
her."t If this be a fair sample of the 
civilization of New Sweden, we can 
readily believe what the learned Profes- 
sor hints, "that the Swedes were already 
half Indians when the English arrived." 
In March, 1749, the professor paid a 
visit to Nils Gustafson, who lived near 
Racoon. This man had seen nearly a 
century— had carried much timber to 
Philadelphia when that city was first un- 
dertaken—yet had a vigorous frame and 
a good memory. Kalm (juestioned him 
particularly as to the origin of the do- 
mestic animals then in West Jersey, and 
was told by Gustafson that the English 
got their 'horses, cows, oxen, sheep, 
ho°-s, geese and ducks from the Swedes, 
wIk) iiad brought them over from Sweden. 
We also owe to the Swedesthe first seed 
of many of our most valuable fruits and 
herbs, and of our wheat, rye, barley and 
oats. Peach trees were in the olden 
time very numerous ; but where the 
Swedes got them Gustafson could not 
tell. In his infancy the Indians had ma- 
ny little maize plantations, but did not 
take much care of them; preferring to 
live upon the fruits of the chase, or upon 
different troots or whortleberries. The 

•Ibid, Vol. II. p. 94 and 11. \ld. Vol. II. p. 30. 



savages had no agricultural implement 
before the Swedes came, but a stone 
hatchet. With this they peeled the large 
trees when they bad lost their sa'p, so 
they would die; and the little trees they 
pulled out by the roots, 'i'he field thus 
opened to the sun v/as dug up with 
sharp branches or pickets, and the maize 
was then sown. In the winter they kept 
their corn in holes under ground. Af- 
ter the Swedes came, and began to cul- 
tivate apple and peach trees, the Indi- 
ans often stole tije fruit. Sometimes too 
they stole their hogs as they ran wild in 
the woods, and these they taught to fol- 
low tiiem familiarly. The only domes- 
tic animals which the Indians had on the 
arrival of the Europeans were a species 
of little dogs. Being very fond of milk, 
for which they were dependent upon the 
Swedes, the "savao:es made an artificial 
liquor very like it, by pounding tire dried 
kernels ofwalnuts and hickory nuts, and 
mixing the flour with water. In hue 
and sweetness this liquor much resem- 
bled milk. 

According to Gustaf:^on, the Indians 
about Racoon used to worship a certain 
red spotted snake as a deity. Walking 
once with one of the red men, the old 
Swede met one of these snakes, and 
took a stick to kill it; but the Indian 
begged him not to touch it, as he adored 
it. This only confirmed the pious Gus- 
tafson's resolution, and he killed the 
{.make, at the risk, of being himself 
scalped. During the youth of this old 
man, the Indians used sometimes to an- 
noy the Swedish colonists. They killed 
several of the men and stole some of the 
children. On one occasion they scalped 
ix little girl; who survived, got a husband, 
(thanks perhaps to a wig,) and had many 
children. Once some strange savages 
attempted to kill the mother of Nils, but 
she was too stout for them. 

Until the Enghsh arrived, the Swedes 
used to bathe regularly every Saturday. 
Christmas they celebrated with various 
games, and by serving up certain pecu- 
liar dishes at'table, as was usual in old 
Sweden. When Gustafson was a boy 
there were two Swedish smiths at Ra- 
coon, who made excellent knives, scythes 



CREKNWICH TOWXSI!!?. 



T5 



and hatchets, like the Swedish ones. 
Then also they made their cart and wag- 
on wheels bv sawing- thick horizontal 
sections out of Liquid-amber trees ; but 
when the English came they began to use 
spokes and felloes ; the iirst made of 
White-oak and the latter of the Spanish 
oak. Horses, he remembered, used 
sometimes to run wild in the woods ; and 
in his boyhood one cow gave as much 
milk as four did in later days, owing to 
the great abundance of good grass which 
they used to have. 

All this, and much more did old Gus- 
tafson tell his learned visiter ; but here 
we must stoD. He who is curious as to 
the natural history of New Sweden, or 
desires to know more of the manners and 
customs of the first parishoners of Ra- 
coon, will do well to read the first and 
second volumes of Kalm's Travels for 
himself. Nothing in nature was too mi- 
nute for the observiition of that enthusi- 
astic lover of science, and nothing in the 
annals of his countrymen upon the banks 
of the Delaware too humble to be re- 
corded. Blessed, thrice blessed, was 
Racoon, in finding such an historian ! 

At what time the first Swedish church 
was built at Racoon, or who were its 
earlier pastors, we do not know. From 
1706 to 1787 the following clergymen 
are m.entioned as having officiated 
therein. Jonas Asiren, Abraham I.ide- 
nius, Petrus Tranberg, Andreas Wind- 
rufwa, John Sandin, Erick Unander, 
John Lidenius, John Wvcksell, and Nich- 
olas Collili, the translator of the work 
left by Acrelius. Most of these gentle- 
men were sent out by tlie mother-church 
in Sweden, and soruo of them were men 
of fine talents; They preached in the 
Swedish language to a mixed audience 
of Swedes, Finns, and Indians, but to 
little efl'ect, it would seem from an anec- 
dote before given, ■•'■ so far as the natives 
were concerned- The history of this 
church, as it is the most ancient by many 
years of any in West Jersey, would be 
valuable. Nothing can be gathered con- 
cerning it, prior to the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. The old parish re- 



* Ante, p. J8. 



cords yet preserved there, are, we are 
told, by no means devoid of interest; 
but they refer to a period much later than 
tiic antiquarian could wish. We only 
know that the ancient temple which was 
taken down in 1784 was built of cedar 
logs, and stood near the site of the pre 
sent Episcopal Church, In 1765 the 
congregation about Racoon were incor- 
porated under the name of "The Swed- 
ish Evangelical Lutheran Church," and 
to the petition of the associators are ap- 
pended many Swedish names still ex- 
tasit in Gloucester county.'-- 

The town of Swedesboro' has had its 
ups and downs, like most of the other 
villages we have noticed. When the 
nationality of the Swedes was broken 
up by the inroads of the English, the 
feeling which before led them to cluster 
together departed. Repaapo vanished 
from existence, and Racoon nearly 
shared the same fate. Towards the end 
of the last century it contained but a 
dozen log dwellings, and a school house, 
tavern and parsonage built in the same 
manner. Some houses were burnt here 
by the British in the Revolution, and the 
furniture and bedding of Col. Brown 
were destroyed by them in a bon-fire, in 
the road. Of late years however, the 
town has reached a prosperity which it 
never attained even in the best days of 
^New' Sweden. As the most ancient of 
the villages yet standing in West Jersey, 
many a traveler will turn from his way 
to visit it and to recal its humble, yet 
pleasant and edifying stories, of another 
people and another time. 

MULLICA HILL. 

The village of Mullica Hill takes 
its name from Eric Molica, by birth a 
Swede, who came here when a young 
man, and purchased a large tract of land 
about the site of the town.f He lived to 
the age of one hundred years, and had 

*See Clay's Annals, passim, Hist. Coll. of New 
Jersey, 223 et aeq. and Acrelius passim. 

t Watson's Annals, Vol. II, p. 231 ; Clay's An- 
nals, p. 141; and Hisl.ColI.of New Jersey, p. 216. 
The latter work states that Mx>lica'8 dwelling 
ftood on the North pide of the Racoon, in or neftx 
the orchard of .Mr. Joseph Doran. 



71 •HBBNWICH TOWNBHir. 

a family of eig^it persons in 1693, when Billinge, as the eite of a future town, and 
the census of New Sweden was taken, received the name of the proprietor. 
The name of Mullica Hill was at first The striking advantages of Billing's 
given only to that portion of the village Port as a military post, were ovsjlooked 
north of the Racoon; the southern part by neither side in the Revolution,* An 
having been named Spicerville, from extensive fort was begun here by the 
Jacob Spicer, (one of the compilers of Americans in 177G, to support the left of 
the valuable book of Provincial Laws the lower chevaux de frize, but wa» 
which we have so often cited) who came never entirely finished. It was however 
from East Jersey early in the eighteenth occupied by a small garrison when the 
eentury, and settled just south of the Roebuck and other forerunners to Lord 
creek. In the olden time Mullica Hill, Howe's fleet arrived in the Delaware in 
like all other towns of a Swedish October, 1777. Captain Hammond of 
derivation, was merely a settlement of the vesel just named, seeing the absolute 
farmers. The origin of these farm-vil- necessity of forcing a passage, promised 
lages wasa fear of the Indians; but they General Howe, to rahv the chevaux de 
were probably held together long after frize, if he could be saved from annoy- 
tlie Indians ceased to be a cause of alarm, ance from the Jersey shore. Accordingly 
by the gossipping propensities of the Howe detached two regiments, who 
Swedish matrons. 13eing removed from crossed at Chester, under the command 
the seat of the war, Mullica Hill has few of Col. Stirling, and marched with al! 
if any Revolutionary reminiscences of in- haste to attack the Billing's Port fort in 
terest. Owing however to the strong rear. The Americans being greatly in- 
Swedish traits yet marking the character ferior In number, spiked their artillerj^', 
of the people, the neighborhood abounds burnt the barracks and retreated. Soon 
in curious traditions and superstitions, after this, Lord Cornwallis took post at 
which an abler pen than ours, wo trust, Billing's Port with a heavy force, under 
will soon give to the world.* orders to make a second attack upon 

Fort Mercer. But his lordship found a 

-,-,,-„„,.„ „„„^ Cannae wherever he stopped ! He was 

BILLINO 8 PORT. , . • ,i / 

80 slow m moving, m the present case, 
Next in interest to the two chief towns that Washington had time to detach 
of Greenwhich township, is Billing's General Greene for the support of his 
Port, which is the Roder Udden of the namesake who commanded the threat- 
Swedes, or the " Mantua's Hook oppo- ened post. The American reinforcement 
site Tinicum" where Broen wished to started from Burlington ; but General 
set up the arms of the States General, Greene hearing that Cornwallis had be- 
adversely to the Swedish empire.f We come greatly superior to him in numbers 
have strong suspicions notwithstanding by a reinforcement front New York, 
the respectable authority of Barker, that changed his intention of giving battle, 
"the Manteses Plain" whereon Earl immediately after which Red Bank with 
Ployden projected the manor of Watces- its guns and stores, was abandonedt to 
sit, for his own august residence, was the British, and dismantled. 
no other than this same Billing's Port.J In the late war Billing's Port again 
Be this as it may, the place we know bristled with bayonets; an encampment 
was marked out in the time of Edward of the South Jersey troops having been 

made there under the direction of Gen- 

• n..r f,\^r,A .r,A .^j,„„i™ .« w.,.. II rals Gaines and Elmer. An expedition 

"Our friend and schoolmate vVirxiAM H. /-,. , ,^ ^, . , . i-, ■ ■ , 

Smowden, of Mullica Hill, has in coniempl.ition °^^®'^* outfrom this place against a British 

a History of West Jersey, for whinh he lias for tender which had been frequently seen 

ytars been collecting material. To him we owe 

the «u?c«stion which gave rise to these Remini- „ , ^!?f "^l Washingrion. Vol. V. pp. 77. 84 and 

fcenoei^ ^°'- ''^' "^^T; Simcoe's Jour. pp. 15.3, 236. 

* A.». . •91 ^.- ♦ A . •* + ^«' ^"0, New Haven, 1840, Vol. II. p. 4S, 

t Ante, p. 31, «•». JAnte, p. 25. 52 etc r * 



•MKKWICB TOWN«nir. 



In the bay and river, is the subject of 
much merriment amongthe Billing's Port 
campaigners. A schooner was chartered 
and manned with forty or (illy raw lands- 
men, apd a sea captain in the dragoons 
selected as conmianding officer, with in- 
structions to drive off the saucy tender. 
When the schooner got into the bay the 
•weather was so rough, that all her force 
save the captain and two or three other 
initiated sailors, were obliged to go un- 
der hatches, where they soon became 
very sick, and entirely hors du combat. 
}n this plight the captain spied the ten- 
der, and with genuine Yankee impu- 
dence, gave chase. The tender crowded 
canvass and put to sea, though her 
barge's crew could undoubtedly have 
taken the schooner in a very few minutes. 

THE LANDING PLACE. 

At the mouth of the Racoon, we have 
seen, our forefathers, the first permanent 
settlers of West Jersey, first landed. The 
exact spot of their debarkation might, we 
imagine, be determined upon an exami- 
nation of the place, and if so it would 
possess to us quite as much interest as 
any point in our county. " This spot," 
it has been well said, "will ever he 
connected with recollections the most 
interesting to us, and which it becomes 
us to cherish. We labor with patient 
perseverance to trace the streams of the 
ancient world, and become familiar with, . 
every torrent and every brook. W^e 
visit in fancy the borders of the Eurotas!, 
and linger by the side of the golden 
Hermus. All this is well; but we must 
riot suffer the scenes in our own story to 
be forgotten. Jiet every spot be notod, 
that it may not be said in after times, 
Jin ungrateful generation per^nittcd the 
memory of their fathers to perish. Or 
if we are prompted by no filial feelings 
towards the actors, we can not be in- 
sensible of the movement here made. 
The advent of these pilgrims — small 
as was their number — was of more 
consequence to the interests of humanity 
than most of the brilliant achievements of 
martial hosts. Of the many battles that 
have been fought, of the many warriors 
who hav* fig^ured upon the field of con- 



quest, how few have left a lasting influ- 
ence for good ! The victory of to-day 
is lost on the morrow, and both victors 
and vanquished sink together into utter 
forgetfulness. But here a feeble band, 
without art or arms, with no standard 
but the olive branch, laid the foundation 
of a work which we trust will stand 
forever; and not only ourselves but our 
descendants through all generations 
shall look back to that spot and that 
hour, with increasing feelings of grati- 
tude and affection. "■'^ As yet no sculp- 
tured marble adorns our Delaware Ply- 
mouth, but to the sneerer every true 
friend of man can exclaim — Circumspice ! 
Of the several small villages which 
have arisen in comparatively late days 
in this township, it is unnecessary to 
speak. None of them can become inter- 



esting 



to the antiquarian, so long as 



Racoon and Molica's Hill, and the Man- 
teses Plain and tlie Landing Place are 
known. Let us then in conclusion see 
in what manner old wide -belted Green- 
wich has been chopped into divers sub- 
divisions, by the irreverent utilitarianism 
of modern times. 

As this township at first extended from 
Mantua Creek to Oldman's, it was soon 
felt by the inhabitants in the lower part - 
to be advisable to set up for themselves. 
Their spontaneous election of overseers 
and nomination perhaps of a constable, 
ratified at first by the County Court and 
afterwards by the Colonial Legisla- 
ture, gave rise about 1750 to the township • 
of Woolwich.t This latter took its nam*^ ' 
from a town on the Thames, famous for 
its naval school, as the mother-township, 
Greewich, did from the English naval 
asylum, from the observatory of which 
all Christendom reckons the meridian 
of longitude. The termination, wich,\% 
from the Saxon ivic, signifying a place 
on the shore,X or more properly, says 
Jacobs, a village.'^ 

* Mulford's Lecture, MSS. 

+ At April Term, 1767, the present name first 
occurs — Francis Batten and William Kay having 
been then appointed "Surveyors for the new town, 
ship of Woolwich." But for many years befor« 
this Woolwich had been called Lower Greenwich 
ond had « constable of its own. 

t 1 Co, Id. 4. i Ruffhead'B Jacobt, lei, W, 



7< 



8 » 



EGO HAKBOR OR NKW WAYMOUTH. 



4 

In 1820^ the township of franklin 
was erected from parts of Greenwich 
knd Woolwich; and by the last L<egisla- 
"ure — an application having been made 
Tor a new township to be erected out of 
•Woolwich, to be called Harrison — a law 
was passed creating the township of 
Spicer. This name was given in honor 
of Jacob Spicer, whom we have before 
mentioned. 



CHAPTER 

THE TOWNSHIP OF EGG HARBOR OR NEW 
WAYMOUTH ; AND HEREIN OF THE FIVE 
TOWNSHIPS OF ATLANTIC. 

gf nus c]u;uni sumus, experieiisque lahoruui ; 



Et documeiita tlauius 

Ovid, Met. Lib. I. p. 4i4. 

We have already seen that wljen the 
people upon the sea-board of old Glou- 
cester county first had tithing officers 
assigned them by the Grand Jury, which 
was about 1708, their township was 
called Egg Harbor or New WTAVMouTii.t 
This township undoubtedly com])rised 
all the present county of Atlantic, by far 
the greater part of which was then en- 
tirely unsubdued. When the population 
began to increase and spread along the 
) shore, a new township was found neces- 
sary, and Galloway was therefore cre- 
ated, in the same manner it seems pro- 
bable that Gloucestertown and Wool- 
jvich had been created some years be- 
^re — namely, by the voluntary act of 
ba\ P^^opie themselves, in the first in- 
tVince, with the subsequent sanction of 
•le County Court and the final appro- 
bation of the Colonial Legislature. 
The first time that Galloway is men- 
tioned in the county records is in March, 
1775, when the court allotted to her and 
to Egg Harbor two constable each. Her 
name does not appear in the laws of the 
Colony prior to the general act of incor- 
poration in 179S; and her origin therefore 
we must set down as lost in antiquity. 
Her name is probably taken from a tongue 
of land in Solway Frith, Scotland, called 
Galloway Mull. 

• On tbe27lli of January, Rev. Laws, p. 661. 
+ Ante. p. 45. 



The alias. New Waytnouth, by which 
the township of Egg Harbor was some- 
times called, seems to have been drop- 
ped early in the last century. Hut 
when on the twelith of February HBS'*^ 
Egg Harbor was divided, this old name 
was in part revived — the new township 
being dubbed Weymouth. Hamilton 
was erected from Egg Harbor and Wey- 
mouth on the fifth of February 1813,t 
and Mullicafrom Galloway on the twen- 
ty-first of February 1838. | In the pre- 
sent work, as the reader will have seen, 
■^.ve merely mention the subdivisions of 
tjhe six townships erected in 169.5 or 
very scon afterwards, as matters of his- 
tory. When we speak of the township 
of Greenwich we mean the primitive 
Qrcenwich, which included the present 
i<^)v/nship of that name, as well as Wool- 
Wich, Franklin and Spicer; and when 
wie speak of the township of Egg Har 
bor or New Waymouth, we mean to 
eimbrace ail the five townships now 
foiWing Atlantic county. 

The name of Eyer Haven or Egg 
Hai^'bor, was given to the large port 
iipo^n the sea-board of our county 
i'rotrii the fact that the early jiavigators 
found there an immense quantity of sea- 
bird eggs. 11 With this Gabriel Thom- 
as* testimony fully agrees. The latter 
writer in enumerating the streams of 
W^sst Jersey, mentions " Great Egg 
Harbor River, up which a ship of two 
or three hundred tuns may sail, which 
rum? by the back part of the county into 
the main sea — I call it back part, be- 
cause the first improvements made by 
Chrie'tians was Delaware River-side; 
this place is noted for good store of 
corn, horses, cows, sheep, hogs, etc., 
the lands thereabouts being much im- 
proved and built upon; and Little Egg 
Plarbor Creek which take their names 
from the great abundance of eggs which 
the swans, geese, ducks and other wild 
fowls on those rivers lay thereabouts."^ 



* Paterson's Laws, p. 264. t Rev. Laws, p. 559. 
t Pamph. p. 95. 

II De Laef, Noviiff Orbis, p. 76: "Ovorum \e\ 
etiam sinuum portum voca.nt nostratos." 
§ West Jersey, p. 27. 



sea HARBOR OR NEW WAYMOUTH. 



This description, like most that 
Thomas Avrote, has a high tinge of the 
coteur de rose. At least good old John 
Fothergill who travelled through Egg 
Harbor township early in 1722, seems 
not to have found the advanced state of 
civilization and improvement which we 
might expect from what his predecessor 
tells us. He speaks of taking a "journey 
through the desarts" from Chesterfield, 
in Burlington, to Little Egg Harbor, 
Here, at the house of Gervas Farrar he 
held a meeting " and had a prett}'^ good 
time in the extending of the love of truth 
to the ]toor people thereaway." The 
next day he "travelled part by land and 
through dismal marshes, and part by 
water in canoes to Great E^^^ Harbor," 
where, he tells us, he held another meet- 
ing, "among some poor dark people that 
came thither." After holding a third 
meeting for the edification of the natives, 
at one John Scull's, he started oyer "a 
great river" to Cape May, but was near- 
ly drovrned in the crossing.'- Whether 
the Capemen held out encouragement 
for the worthy preacher to stay longer 
with them than he did in Egg H^^rbor, 
we do not know; but certain it is the 
sturdy i^ihabitants of the latter region 
have never been over fond of long ser- 
mons of any kind. They are hardy, 
brave, industrious and honest; but like 
the Indian at" the Racoon Church, "a 
great deal of prattle and nonsense" with- 
out either brandy or cider to wash it 
down, they cannot endure. 

In the Revolution, the Refugees of 
South Jersey, Delaware and Maryland 
were continually passing to and from 
New York, and other northern points, 
by way of Egg Harbor. These trouble- 
some strangers did infinite mischief to 
the property of the shore men, who were 
generally good Whigs; but on some oc- 
casions the tables were turned and the 
Refugees got their full deserts. Early 
in September, 1782, Capt. Douglas, with 
some of the Gloucester militia attacked 
a boat containing eighteen Refugees, of 
whom fourteen were killed.f Several 

• Fothergill's Journal, first ed. p. 102. 

■\ State Gazette, in New Jersey Hist. Coll. p. 69. 



other e(|ually severe retaliations are rt 
corded. ■ ' 

Towards the close of the war, sorae'j 
people at Egg Harbor and others furtherl 
up in the interior, got to carrying on a* 
considerable trad© with the British in 
New York. The Refugees often camt 
there in large bodies and committee 
great depredations on the people ; anc 
the troops taken at the capture of Lord| 
Cornwallis, who were cantoned in Vir-' 
ginia, frequently escaped in small parties, 
and by concealing themselves in the 
woods in the day and only travelling by 
night, by the assistance of guides and 
fridnds whom they found on their way, 
got to Ei^!^ Harbor and from thence to 
New York. To prevent ail this, Capt. 
John Davis was sejit with a company of 
men to Egg Harbor. On one occasior 
his lieutenant, Benjamin Bates, witl 
Richard Powell, a private, called at a 
house where Davis had been informed, 
over night, that two Refugee officers 
were lodging. Bates got to the house 
before any of the family had risen except 
two girls, who were making a fire in the 
kitchen. He inquired if there were any 
persons in the house beside the family, 
and was answered "none, except two 
men from up in the country." He bade 
the girls show him where they were, 
which they did. In passing through a 
room separating the kitchen from the 
bed-room, he saw two pistols lying on a 
table. Knocking at the door, he was at 
iirst refused admittance; but finding hit ix' 
determined to enter, the two Refugee -^ 
finally let him in. They refused to tel 
their names, but were afterwards found 
to be William Giberson and Henry Lane, 
Refugee lieutenants, the former a noto- 
rious rascal who had committed many 
outrages, and killed one or two Ameri- 
cans m cold blood. On their way to the 
quarters of Davis' company, Giberson 
called Bates' attention to something he 
pretended to see at a distance ; and 
while Bates was looking in that direc- 
tion Giberson started in another, and 
being a very fast runner, although Bates 
fired his musquet at him, he made his 
escape. Davis on being informed of 
what had happened, told Bates to try 



««« nAnB»R OR KBW WATMOBTS. 



^ again the next night. Accordingly tho 

next night he went to the same house. 

' While in the act of opening the door he 

heard the chck of a musket cock, behind 

a large tree within a few feet of him, 

I and turning around, saw Giberson just 

' taking aim at him. He dropped on his 

\ knees and the ball cut the rim of his hat. 

S Giberson started to run, but before he 

: had got many rods Bates gave him a 

1 load of buck-sliot which broke his leg. 

He was well guarded until he could be 

removed with Lane to Burlington goal, 

from which however he soon made his 

r escape and went to New York.-- Giber- 

Ison was a large man, of almost incredible 

strength and activity. It is said that at 

a running jump he could clear the top of 

jUn ordinary Egg Harbor wagon, but 

jince the MSS. \vhich we are i'ollowing 

Uo not mention the fact, we think it 

may well be doubted.t 

About the time of Giberson's capture, 
Davis was informed of a party of twenty- 
one British troops who had escaped 
from the cantonment in Virginia, and 
arrived upon the Egg Harbor shore. 
Knowing where they would embark, he 
secreted himself with nineteen men near 
where the boat lay, which was to take 
them off to the vessel, and there waited 
their approach. When they came, a 
very warm contest ensued, hand to hand 
and foot to foot. Davis and his men 
, were completely victorious — having 
'^ illed or taken prisoner every English- 
^jjl-van. "What I here give" run our 
vUSS. "is part from my own knowledge 
^*and part from such sources as I tiiink 
may be relied on." Of the locality of 
these incidents the MSS. say nothing 
definite ; but we have no doubt that a 
little inquiry of that worthy personage, 
"the oldest inhabitant," would fix the 
very spot where they occurred. 

During the war, Elijah Clark and 
Richard Westcott, Esqs,, built at their 

* MSS. of a Septuagenarian penes me. 

i There was, a few years ngo, a woman named 
Giberson, living in Salem county, who could 
stand in one hogshead an-d witlioat using her 
hands, jump into another hogshead standing by 
its tide, with til ease. 



own expense, a small fort at tho Fox 
Burrows, on Chestnut Neck, " near the 
port of Little Egg Harbor," and bought 
for it a number of ct.nnon for the defence 
of said port. While the Revolutionary 
Lejjislature was in session at Haddon- 
field, in September, 1777, the two 
branches passed a resolution for paying 
Clark and Westcott four hundred and 
thirty pounds, one shilling and three 
pence for this fort;-" which, we are 
told, was at one time defended by fifteen 
hundred of the shore men, who, upon 
the enemy ascending the river in great 
force in barges, evacuated it.f Tho 
good people of Chestnut Neck ought to 
mark the site of this old redoubt, that 
future ages may know it. 

may's landing. 

May's Landing, the shire town of 
Atlantic county, takes its name from 
George May, who settled there in 1710, 
and opened a store for the supply of 
wood vessels, putting into the Great 
Egg Harbor. His house, a gambrel 
roofed building, a story and a half in 
heighth, stood until 1S30, on the north 
bank of the river, a few rods above, the 
mouth of Babcock's Creek. Col. West- 
cott, one of the builders of the fort at the 
Fox Burrows, moved from the Forks of 
Little Egg/ Harbor to Mays Landing, 
after the close of the war, and died 
some twenty years ago, at the ripe age 
of one hundred and two. The oldet 
church in May's Landing was built by 
the Baptists in 1782, and formerly this 
congregation and the Methodists used 
to worship in the same temple. Among 
other improvements which have marked 
the village since it became a shire town, 
is a neat Presbyterian Church, situated 
near the Court House, amid the primal 
forest trees. 

In the latter part of 1813, the sloop 
New Jersey, from this village, manned 
by Capt. Barton and two hands, was 
taken by a British armed schooner off 
Cape May. A young middy, and two 

♦ See Votca and Proceedings of LegisIatiTe 
Council, 1777, p. 103. 

t N«w Jersey Hist. Coll., p. M, 



OBLITERATED VILLAOES. 



81 



Englishmen and an Irishman were put 
on board the Jersey, with orders to fol- 
low the schooner. But three Yankees 
are not to be beaten by such poor odds 
as this ! Barton and his men soon re- 
covered the sloop and run her in at 
Somers' Point, with the middy and his 
three assistants as prisoners. The first 
was confined awhile and then exchanged 
— and of the latter, the Englishmen soon 
went to work in the neighborhood, and 
the Irishman enlisted on board of one of 
Jefferson's gun-boats and fought bravely 
for the "gridiron."""' 

The other villages in the township 
under consideration have nothing but 
outlandish names, to recommend them 
to notice. Yet there is little in this. 
Any civil man can stop at Wrangleboro' 
without quarelling, and any honest one 
pass through Bargaintown without being 
cheated; which is not the case, we 
ween, at some other places which have 
far less ominous titles. The towns 
situated near the sea, are peopled by 
hardy fishermen and bay-men. The 
shore-road upon the sea side, which 
connects Somers' with Leeds' Points, 
runs through an almost continuous set- 
tlement of tishermen-farmers, whose neat 
white houses present a very pretty 
view I'rom vessels a league or two at 
sea. 

Hamilton, Weymouth, Pennypot, Pleas- 
ant Mills, Atsion, and Gloucester are 
furnace or factory villages generally im- 
mured in the forest, and containing {'ew 
inhabitants except those engaged in 
manufacturing, and their families. They 
are all of modern origin, and of them 
therefore we have nothing to say. 



CHAPTER XX. 

OBLITERATED VILLAGES. 

Near yonder (horn, thai lifts its h^ad on hi^h 
Where once the sign post canght the passing eye, 
Low lies (hat hi<ii*e were mil-brnwn diauglits in5pired, 
Where sray-beiird miclh anil smiling toil ri'lii'd, 
Where villace statesmen lalk'd with looks profound, 
Aud new* much older ll>an their ale went lOunH. 

GoLrsMiTHsDe;(rt£d Vi.lege. 

Although but two centuries have rolled 



away since the blows of the white man's 
axe first resounded upon the banks of 
the Delaware, we do not lack evidence 
of Time's rude work, in the way of ruined 
villages. Where is Dorchester, once 
the queen of Prince Maurice River? She 
flickers, but only flickers, like a dying 
taper. And where is Antioch, which 
once stood south of the Cohansey? Swept 
from existence, and her very name un- 
heard of! 

In old Gloucester, there are several 
decayed, towns of some of which it is 
impossible to fix even the site. The 
first is 

THE VILLAGE OF REPAAPO. 

Our knowledge of this place is derived 
solely from Kalm, who visited it from 
Racoon on the fifth of May, 1749, and 
returned the same evening. ** Early 
this morning," says he,- " I went to 
Repaapo, luliich is a great village, whose 
farms ly all scattered. It-was inhabited 
merely by Swedes, and not a single 
Englishman or people of any other na- 
tion lived in it. Therefore they have 
preserved their native Swedish tongue, 
and mixed but few English words with 
it. The intention of my journey was 
partly to see the place, and to collect 
plants and other natural curiosities there; 
and partly to find the places where the 
White Cedar, or Cupressus Thyoides 
grows." Of this White Cedar, he tells 
us •* many of the houses in Repaapo 
were made."t It grew in abundance in 
the swamps about the village. Bullfrogs 
also seem to have abounded there, and 
Kalm, who had never heard them before, 
took their roaring at first for the bellow- 
ing of " a bad goring bull." He relates 
a curious race between a young Indian 
and one of these bullfrogs, which was 
once run to decide a bet made by some 
Swedes. B}' a very odd application of 
a coal of fire, the frog was made to beat 
bis competitor, J although the latter could 
himself almost keep up with the best 
horse. 

Where this viflage of Repaapo was 
located, we can form something like a 



* Id. p. 69. 



• Vol. II, p. 168, t Id. p. 175. X Id. p. 173. 



u 



•BLITKRATI» VTLLAOEI. 



j!;ues9. The description of the country 
tbout it, the mention of its "dykes," and 
its nearness to Racoon, are confirmatory 
of the supposition to which its name 
naturally leads. It must have been upon 
Repaupo Creek, near the river; though 
we are not aware that the traditions of 
the vicinity have preserved even the 
name of this — the last vestige of New 
Sweden. 

NEW-TOWN. 

We have before said upon the au- 
thority of Smith, ■=^' that Newby and the 
other first English settlers in |Nevvton 
laid out a town upon Newton Creek, 
where the Old Burying Ground is, and 
built there a small village. This was in 
1682, alter Gloucester had been founded; 
so that the village was properly called 
New-TOWN. From this town, the creek 
and township took their name. Although 
Newby and his friends scattered over 
the country, as soon as they found that 
the Indians were not at all dangerous, 
in consequence of which New-town soon 
decayed, yet we iind it still accounted 
a town by Thomas in 1()98, and by the 
clerk of the county at a much later period. 
The former mentions " Newton River 
that runs by Newtonf and the latter, 
we believe, dockets a license granted 
to some one to keep a tavern " near 
New-town." Some traces of the primi- 
tive Meeting House erected here in 
1634, and the now weed-choked and 
neglected cemetery are all that remains 
of the once respectable village. 

THE TOWN OF UPTON. 

The third decayed town of our county 
is Upton — "the town of Upton on GIo- 
cester River" — of which the earliest 
Woodbury records frequently make men- 
tion. It is supposed by some to have 
been located at the place where the 
King's Road crossed Little Timber 
Creek, or Little Gloucester River; and 
by others at the place where the said 
road struck Big Timber Creek, a short 
distance above the present truss bridge, 
upon the north bank of the stream. The 

• Ant«, p. 5!J. i Wtst Jer»f y, p. 2?. 



remains of a tavern were visible until a 
few years ago, at the spot designated 
upon Little Timber Creek, and there are 
traditions of there having been other 
houses there. This, Michael Fisher, Esq. 
thinks was the spot, George Ward, 
Edward Williams, Isaac Pearson, John 
Brown, John Euno and several other of 
the principal men of Gloucester county 
resided, in the seventeenth century, at 
Upton. 

towns upon the sea-coast. 

In the Revolution there was a con- 
siderable settlement at the Forks of 
Little Egg Harbor river which went to 
decay before it had received a name. It 
contained some thirty houses, and was 
inhabited by adventurers engaged in 
" running goods" when Philadelphia 
was in posession of the British, Priva- 
teering vessels frequently ascended the 
Mullica to land their cargoes. The 
goods were discharged with great se- 
crecy and despatch and carried up the 
country in wagons apparently filled with 
clams, fish or wood. 

There was, it seems, another village, 
on Chestnut Neck, between the Mullica 
and Nacote Creek, where the Foxbur- 
rows Fort stood. It contained some 
store-houses, which were burnt by the 
British when the Zebra and other ves- 
sels broke up the American privateer 
rendevous at Tuckerton.-'' 

On Great Egg Harbor Bay, in Glou- 
cester count}^ according to Scott, there 
was formerly a town called Egg Harbor, 
the inhabitants of which exported large 
quantities of pine.t As this writer lived 
in Philadelphia, and compiled his work 
with a great deal of care, we have no 
doubt there was a village of this name ; 
but where it stood or into what it has 
been changed we are unable to tell. 

Such, such are the works of time ! 
Six of our villages, all of them once re- 
spectable and some of them "great" and 
populous, have forever passed away. 
Two centuries more, and who knows 
but that it may be questioned whether 

• New Jersey Hist. Coll. pp. 6«, 109, etc. 
+ Universal Gazctcer, Vol. IT, let. E. 



KATVRA-L HUTOHr, FOBIIl. REMAINS, KTC. 



ftS 



Woodbury or Haddonfield ever existed ? 

Tempus! edax rerum tuque invLdiosa vetustas 
Oiiiniii dcstruitis! 



CHAPTER XXI. 

NOTES UPON THE NATURAL HISTORY, TO- 
POGRAPHY AND FOSSIL ANTIQUITIES OF 
THK COUNTY OF GLOUCRSTKK. 

Agricola, iucurvo terrarn molilu-i arato, 
E.\^3a invcniet 3cahr;v roI)i::ine ni!a 
* ♦ * « » 

Grandiaque efibssis mirabitur ossa septilchris. 

VlRG. Georg I. 494. 

Professor Kalm on one occasion called 
together " tiie oldest Swedes in the 
parish of Racoon," to question them 
upon divers topics in the natural history 
and topography of that part of New 
.Sweden. This interesting meeting seems 
to have been attended by Maons Keen, 
a septuagenarian, who had children, 
grand-children and great-grand-children 
forty-five"*-' — by Aoke Helm, still more 
aged, whose father came over with 
Governor Printz — by Peter Rambo, 
sixty years old — by Sven Laock (or 
Lock), William Cobb, and another 
Swede named King, who were each 
above fifty — and though last, not least, 
by Eric Ragnilson, the churchwarden 
of Racoon, at whose house probably the 
council met.f As no mention is made of 
Nils Gastafson upon this occasion, we 
may take it for granted that his lumbago, 
or some other cause prevented him from 
walking into the village. 

The whole council agreed in asserting 
that whenever a well was dug in the 
neighborhood of Racoon, they always 
found at the depth of twenty or thirty 
feet, great numbers of clam and oyster 
shells. In many places reeds and rushes 
had been found ahnost entirely unde- 
cayed; and on one occasion a hank of 
flax, duly tied together and in perfect 
preservation, was brought up from a 
depth of more than twenty feet. "Can 
it be supposed" asks Kalm, "that past 
ages have seen a nation here so early 

* K3lm'3 Travels, Vol. 11, p. 4. 
t Id. Vol. I, p. 3!3, eitfq. 



acquainted with the use of flax ? I would 
rather abide by the opinion that iho 
American Y)\ants Lin um Firginianum or 
Antirrli'mttm Cwiadense or other similar' 
ones have been taken for flax."^' Char- 
coal, firebrands, great branches, blocks, 
and Indian trowels, had often been found 
very deep in the ground. One of King's 
relatives, who lived eight miles from the 
Delaware on a hill near a rivalut, dis- 
covered in digging a well, at the depth 
of forty feet, a great number of shells, 
reeds and broken branches.f Peter 
Rambo testified that in several places at 
Racoon people had met deep in the 
ground vast quantities of muscles and 
other marine animals, and logs of wood, 
some putrified and others burnt. A 
huge spoon and bricks had also been 
dug up there. Maons Keen had found 
at the depth of forty feet, a great piece 
of chestnut wood, roots and stalks of 
reeds, and clayey earth with a saline 
taste. Sven La(jck and William Cobb 
confirmed all these facts; and stated 
farther, ihat "on making a dyke some 
years before, along the river on which 
the church at Racoon stands, and for 
this purpose cutting through a bank, it 
was found quite full of oyster shells, 
though the place is above an hundred 
and twenty miles from the nearest sea- 
shore. These men and all the inhabi- 
tants of Racoon" continues Kalm, "con- 
cluded from this circumstance (of their 
own accord and without being led to the 
thought) that this tract of land was a 
part of the sea many years ago." 

It is stated in an old work of very 
good authority! ^'^^^ ^'^^ bones of a huge 
carnivorous animal had been discovered 
by a negro who was digging a ditch 
three or four feet deep in a meadow 
near the Delaware, in Gloucester county. 
A part of these bones were sent to Phila- 
delphia as curiosities. Shark's teeth, it 
is said, have been found, in a marl bed 
north of Cooper's Creek, about one mile 
from the Delaware, and fossil crocodiles 
have been discovered in many parts of 

• Id. p. 358, + Id. p. 353. et sf.q. 

t Wintcrbatham'f America, Vol. II, p. 363, 
lit «d. 



^r 



NATimAL mSTORT, FOSSIL REMAINS, ETC 



West Jersey. These phenomena, which 
are ahiiost too well known to be men- 
tioned, persuade us that the solemn con- 
clusion of the Racoonites above set forth 
was not erroneous. '•'■ 

As to the dwindling of the streams in 
New Sweden, our philosopher has left 
us some very curious and very positive 
information. Kin^, one of the old Swedes 
of the council, was well convinced that 
the little lakes, brooks, springs and 
rivers had much less water than when 
he was a boy. He could mention several 
lakes on which in his youth the Swedes 
used to sail in large boats even in the 
hottest summer, which had since entire- 
ly dried up. Aoke Helm knew several 
places in the Delaware, where the 
Swedes used to go in boats in his boy- 
hood, which had since been changed 
into islands. Peter Rambo conceded 
that many lakes had been dried up; but 
he thought there was still as much water 
in the rivers as there had ever been.f 

The same Maons Keen above named, 
and several other old Swedish residents, 
told Kalm repeatedly that when the 
Swedes made their tirst settlement at 
Helsingburg, in Salem county, they 

* Rog^cr's Geoloffical Survey, Final Report, p. 
277; and see First Report, p. 78, el seq. See also, 
Mease's Picture, etc. p. IG. 

t There was in the olden time a lake jibout 
half a nuie south-east of the County Court House 
in the city of Camden, which was much frequented 
by wild geese and ducks. Allliough the bed of 
this lake is now cultivated, there are those who 
remember when it contained several feet of water 
throughout the year. It was called Ly the Cam- 
den boys " the Play Pond." An old painting 
made by a Philadelphia artist before the sur- 
rounding forest was felled, represents this pond 
as having been quite picturesque. The fall of 
the waters, not only of our inland ponds, but of 
the creeks (and of course of the river with which 
they connect) is a well established phenomenon. 
A geological examination of the high banks 
which almost invariably distinguish the south 
sides of the creeks of West Jer.«ey will show the 
old water mark to be some feet above the present 
river-level. Upon the north ^ides of the creeks 
in Gloucester county the upland generally slopes 
gradually towards the stream, so that the edge of 
the recent meadow alluvion can be plainly traced. 
And this line, it is believed, will always be found 
considerably above the present high water mark 
of the Delaware. See upon this subject De War- 
yille'8 Travels, p. 341. 



found at the depth of twenty feet some 
ancient wells inclosed with brick walls. 
These remains when discovered were 
on the fast last, but the river had after- 
wards so encroached upon the shore at 
that place that Kalm could not make an 
examination of them for himself. Sub- 
sequently to this discovery the Svr edes 
in digging new wells at some distance 
from the former, found broken earthen 
vessels and whole good bricks. From 
these facts the learned Professor con- 
cluded that in very remote times a com- 
pany of Europeans had been carried 
hither by storm — had burnt bricks and 
made a colony — but afterwards amalga- 
mated with the natives, or were killed 
by them. The Indians knew of these 
wells, and their tradition gave them a 
date long before the expedition of Co- 
lumbus."-" 

When the Swedes arrived upon the 
Delaware they found the surface of the 
country covered with all sorts of marine 
shells. Good grass came everywhere 
in great abundance, and grew to the 
height of a man;! for the soil, though 
not so miraculous as Peter Lindstrom 
would have us believe, was upon the 
top really very rich from the vegetable 
decompositions of centuries. J 

The same cause which has given so 
different an aspect to the face of our 
country, has also wrought a very percep- 
tible change in the climate. This effect 
becoming in turn a cause, will produce 
other changes in the vegetable produc- 
tions of the soil, at which future natural- 
ists will doubtless be amazed. So severe 
was the winter of 1697-8, that Nils 
Gustafson brought many wagon loads of 
hay across the river on the ice from 
Wilmington, and horses and sledges 
crossed even much lower down. Isaac 
Norris, of Philadelphia, told Kalm that 
in his father's days the Delaware was 

* Kalm's Travel's, Vol. II, p. 31. 

t Id. pp. 110, 129; and Campanius, p* 163. 

t Campanius, p. 163, cites Lindstrom as saying 
that " in New Sweden the soil has this peculiar 
property, that one may sow rye in it and reap 
wheat." But the French MS. copy of Lind- 
strom's work contains, we believe, no such false- 
hood. 



TOPeftRAPHT OP THE DELAWARE. 



65 



generally frozen over from the middle 
of November until the beginning of 
March, old style. The snow and rain 
fell in greater quantities, and the winters 
were much more uniform in former years 
than when Kalm was at Racoon. Most 
of the ancient people agreed however 
in telling him that the spring came later 
then than in the olden time. The Swedes 
used to have a proverb, Pask bitida, 
Pask sent, altid gras — that is, Come 
Easter soon or late, we always then 
have grass. But this, as Kalm suggests, 
proves rather the extirpation of certain 
early grasses than a retrograde of the 
climate. The want of constancy which 
began to be observed in the weather 
after the Europeans had been here for 
some time was the reason, our Professor 
thought, why the people had become so 
much less robust and healthy than their 
ancestors. If so, we trust that when 
the heat from millions of hearths and the 
felling of the immense forests to the 
westward and northward shall have 
given to the climate of West Jersey the 
mildness and uniformity of that of cen- 
tral Spain, we shall begin to have less 
occasion for doctors. 

Among the animals which used to in- 
habit this region, but which like the In- 
dians, have fled at the approach of civili- 
zation, are Buffalos, Wolves, Panthers, 
Bears, Otters and Beavers -"^ A Wolf- 
bounty was set up by the county of 
Gloucester in 16S6; and the colonial 
statute 7 Annae Regin. cap. XV, f ap- 
plying to the whole province, gave a 
premium of fifteen shillings to every 
white man who killed a wolf or panther, 
and eight shillings to every Indian ; and 
half these sums respectively for every 
wolf or panther whelp. The same law 

* Plantagcnet, p. 19, and Vanderdonck, ut. 
Bup. p. 166, mention Buffalos and Beavers among 
the animals of this part of America, though the 
latter says the Buffalos "keep towards the south- 
west, where few people po." The same writer 
says the Indians of the New Netherlands some- 
times brought Lion-skins to the Christians for 
sale ; but his Lions were doubtless Cougars or 
Painters. See Thomas, West Jersey, p. 23. 

t Ante. p. 44. And see the Anonymous Com- 
pilation of New Jersey Laws from the Surrender, 
•tc, 1732. p, 13. 



gave a bounty of three pence for every 
Crow, Hawk and Woodpecker.and three 
pence a dozen for Blackbirds, or as the 
Swedes called them, Maizethieves. But 
for the speedy repeal of these bounties, 
those birds would no doubt have been 
as thoroughly banished from New Jersey, 
as they were by the same means from 
New England."'-' 

That Delaware Bay and the coast of 
New Jersey once abounded with Whales, 
appears from indubitable authority. Van- 
derdonck says they were in his time 
frequently stranded and cut up by the 
Dutch, though that people had then no 
regular whale iishery.f Lambrechtsen 
says, the seas adjoining the New Neth- 
erlands were once "rich in cod-tish, 
tunnys and whales ;"J and Pierre du 
Cimitiere in his valuable MSS. mentions 
that a large whale once came up nearly 
to Philadelphia. The Cape May men, 
according to quaint old Gabrial Thomas, 
made in ancient times, "prodigious nay 
vast quantities every year," of oil and 
whalebone; " having mightily advanced 
that great fishery, and taking great 
numbers of whales." j] 

But " hereof" as our master Coke 
was wont to say, " this taste must suf- 
fice." The student who wishes to go 
to the bottom of the natural history of 
the banks of the Delaware, must read 
at large not only the books to which we 
have referred him, but many other pon- 
derous tomes written in no less than five 



languages. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

OF jacque's island, and othek curious 

PARTICULARS IN THE TOPOGRAPHY OF 
THE RIVER DELAWARE IN FRONT OF OLD 
GLOUCESTER. 

It seems to be pretty clear that the 

» Kalm, on the authority of Dr. Franklin, Vol. 
11, p. 78. 

t Page 176. The colony at Fort Nassau un- 
der De Vries, as we have seen, had prepared 
themselves for the whale and seal fisheries. Ante 
p. 3. 

I New York Hist. Coll., new series. Vol. I. p. 88 

II West Jersey, p. 23; and see Extracts from 
Thomas Learning's MSS. in New Jeriey Hist. 
Coll. p. 124. 



IW 



ToPOeSAI'IIT OF TIIS »H:.A\VAJl«. 



land upon which Camden is built was 
once an island. De ^'ries and the early 
Dutch at all events took it lor such, and 
j^ave it the name of Jacquess Eylandt, 
v/hich the circumspect Dk Ciniitiere 
adopted in his improved map of (he 
Delavv'are." It is evident, too, as well 
i'vom Lindstrom's chart entitled Nova 
Sifecia hodU dicta Pennsyloania, as Crom 
his written desci-iption oi'the topography 
of the river shore at and above Glouces- 
ter Point, that he and the Swedes con- 
sidered the land bt^tween Newton and 
Cooper's Creeks to have been insulated 
by a connection between those two 
sireams. The island thus formed — which 
was by much the larj^est of any in the 
Delaware — was called by the Swedes 
after the Indian name, Aquikanasra.t 

The veracity of these old ji^eo^^raphers 
may be doubted by some, but to us their 
statements contain nothing that seems 
improbable. Indeed, the land which 
thsy called Jacques Eylandt is even now 
a peninsula, and we do not know but 
that if the dams and dykes on Cooper's 
and Newton Creeks were removed; so 

" See De Vries .Toiirnal, ul snpe anfr, p. 254, 
jiifi Corker's Sketolips, p. 52. Du l^inlilre'!< inup, 
ivhicli Barker refers to, is not now In be found. 

t Upin Lindstrom's map the Delaware is re- 
f)resenled as dividing ji)st above (ilnucesler into 
[wa branrjies, and tlie more eastern branch after 
inakitisr an almost sernicirctilar curve into the 
country and receivinjr in its courpp the Qiiinkor- 
^Huing; or Newton (Ireek and the ISiorle Kileni or 
['iioper's ("reek,rfjoins the western channel, ne.irly 
opposite the place on the Pennsylvania sliore 
iKirked Furkmliind. The followiiiir extract from 
F>inrl-tronrs Description, in the Library of the 
A.]n. Phil. Soc, No. \1'A, affords no inconsiderable 
-ui)port to onr view of what he meant to represent 
;»pon his map: " Des Tekokc [Timber Creek] a 
[^uinkoring [the Qiiinkorenning or Newton 
Jreek] il y a iin {rrarid cap; mais le pays est plain 
3l ras. Lcs longucs basses d'line ile sitiiee au 
roillieu de la riviere ct coiiverte de Rytflachls 
which the translator explains by ' plain ou cani- 
l)agne des roseaox'] empfchent lcs vaisseaux d' 
ipprocher." This lose-covered island could have 
r>een no other the fast land in Newton and Carn- 
ien townships, and the long flats — " lonjrues 
>asses" — which prevented the approach of vessels 
DO other than the present Windfoill Island and 
'>ard, which as we shall preasantly see, wereonee 
ied to the Jersey nhore at Cooper's Point, and 
extended much furlher down tlie liver tliun the}' 
.^0 now. 



that the water might rise upon their 
meadows and adjacent lowlands to the 
river level, the connection would be yet 
restored. For, as many of our readers 
know, the north branch of Newton 
(Jreek heads within a few yards of 
Cooper's Creek, while the strip of in- 
tervening land, (although constantly fill- 
ing up in dry windy weather) is yet 
quite low, some feet, perhaps, below the 
high-watermark in the Delaware. What 
is there, then, to forbid the supposition, 
that while all streams continued to be, 
as we have seen they once were, much 
fuller than now, there was a connection 
between these two creeks at this point ? 
We could much sooner believe that the 
Graef Ernest River, as the Dutch called 
this now partially dry channel, was once 
the passage for a very heavy body of 
water, than that Dutch, Swedish and 
English geographers should have united 
in mistaking a peninsula for an island."" 
But there are other arguments in 
favor of the existence of the Graef 
Ernest passage, which it may be inter- 
esting to a portion of our readers at 
least, to advert to. Thus we know that 
Windmill Island was once attached to 
the Jersey shore at Cooper's Point, and 
used to be bared at low water, so that 
persons could — and probably often did 
— carry their grists on foot from Jersey 
to be ground at John Harding's wind- 
mill, which stood on the island opposite 
the end of Chestnut street. We have a 
copy of a letter before us from William 
Brown to Thomas Penn, in the hand- 
writing of Richard Peters, then Secre- 
tary to the Honorable Proprietors of 
Pennsylvania, dated October twentieth, 
1761, in which Brown by wa}^ of crying 
down the island, so that he could buy it 
upon better terms, says: "I am now 
willing to offer two hundred and fifty 
pounds for the whole rather than take 
the proposed lease of one half for ninety- 

* Vanderdonck, in his map, represents! the 
Timnierkill and Newton Creek as falling near 
Joffrther into a bay or cove which runs up into 
the county; but he does not mark Jacque's Ey- 
landf, nor any other island in the whole river. 
Offilhy's map agrees with Vanderdonck's in fhi», 
a<t in most other point*. 



TOPOORAPHT OF THS DELAV^'AHE. 



»7 



nine years, payinj^ the acknovvled°;nient 
of ■ one shilling sterlinji: per year; tlio' 
John Kinsey in his life time advised nio 
to get a Jersey right for it — as there had 
been great strife with the Jersey people 
about the grass, tho' they tell me where 



the grass 



grew 



then it's gone, and 



gathered in this place, and as that was 
not called an island when our worthy 
proprietor bought the islands in the 
river witli the lower counties — whicii I 
accordingly did; and as a Jerseyman 
inform'd me, he could or did when a 
boy, wade all the way from Cooper's 
Point to it, and now it's very shoal and 
stony all the way over, so that they 
claini'd the right to it, 'til I bought it of 
a Jersey proprietor; nevertheless as our 
proprietors claim it, I am willing to pay 
for it, if I can have the whole for what I 
dare venture to give." There are those 
yet alive who remember when the re- 
mains of trees wei'e standing for some 
distance out in the river below Cooper's 
Point, which seems to show that Brown's 
statement is by no means extravagant. 
Indeed we think it by no means improba- 
ble that where the channel now runs 
between Camden and the island, was 
once a marsh which the tide sometimes 
left partially if not entirely bare. But 
whether this have been so or not, it is 
evident that as long as the eastern chan- 
nel was so shoal as to be fordable, the 
vast volume of water ebbing from above 
must have passed between Windmill 
Island and the Pennsylvania shore. The 
efl'ect of such an abrupt narrowing of 
the river channel immediately below the 
mouth of Cooper's Creek, must manifest- 
ly have contributed greatly to force that 
stream to seek, for a portion of its 
waters, a more direct and more easy 
outlet by way of the Graef Ernest. We 
do not claim that this outlet was ever 
very deep; but if we can show that even 
one drop of water from Cooper's Creek 
ever found its way into the Delaware by 
the mouth of Newton Creek, then we 
shall have succeeded in proving the ex- 
istence of the Island of Roses, and in 
vindicating the venerable Lindstrom from 
ilio doubts and sneers of the ignorant. 
With reference to Pettj-'s Island, to 



which (since Jacques Eyiandt no longer 
exists,) the name of Aquikanasra seems 
le£:itimatelv to survive, we meet 'AJth 
nothing m the ancient geographers of 
the Delaware worth noting. It proba- 
bly had no rose-fields to attract the ad- 
miration of I/mdstrom, and in respect 
to she it was insignificant along side of 
the Island of Jacques. Its modern his- 
tory can be soon told : It took its name 
from a gentleman who located it under 
a patent from Pennsylvania, to which 
iSiate it originally belonged, by the rule 
of the common law — it being west of the 
Ji/um medium aqua. Windmill Island 
by the same rule belonged clearly to 
Jersey, but for some reason which does 
not appear, the Convention between 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, concluded 
on the twenty-sixth of xApril, 17S.3, trans- 
ferred Potty's Island (or Petly's Islands, 
as the old laws usually call it,) to New- 
Jersey, and Windmill Island to Pennsyl- 
vania. The former was immediately 
annexed, contrary to the general rule of 
proximity, to Newton township.- When 
Catnden township was erected, by some 
stu])id oversight Potty's Island was for- 
gotten and left out of the bill. 

Upon the east side of this island near 
; its southern end, lie the remains of Paul 
) Jones' famous ship, the Alliance., This 
vessel was built at Salisbury, Massachu- 
setts, and was laun-hed just after our 
treaty of amity with France, in honor of 
which event she received her name. 
She bore the terrible flag of Jones in 
several engagements, among which that 
off Scarborough Head, England, was of "f 
itself enough to immortalize her.f After 
the war she made one voyage we believe, 
as a mercljantman, and was then laid up, 
where relique seeking posterity could 
readily chip her to ])ieces. "Nor," ex- 
claims the patriotic McClure, " shall she 
lie forgotten while the victories won are 
worth the recollection, or this pen lives 
to record her memory.":j: 

* Rev. Laws, p. 5S. 

t Coopcr'a Navul History, Vol. I, p. 150, and 
189 et seq. 

t See MfClnrc's Survey of (hp Delaware be- 
tween riusttr htk! Hichirond, etc., p. 33, 



88 



TOPOORAPHT OF THB »ELAWARB. 



Windmill Island contained a few years 
ago a memento almost as valuable as the 
wreck of the Alliance — we mean the 
hulk of the vessel which in 1815 brought 
out the glad tidings of the treaty of 
Ghent. Being old and unfit for further 
service, she was purchased by the Smith 
family who had located the north part of 
the island, and having been hauled out 
opposite the foot of Chestnut street, was 
converted into a pleasure house. When 
the workmen were digging the canal a 
little south of the site of this Old Mes- 
senger of Peace, one of them found at 
a considerable distance below the sur- 
face, a brass button, having upon it the 
figure of a pig, and the inscription "No 
tithes." This seems to show the truth 
of Brown's complaint in the letter above 
cited, that "this mud barr is continually 
shifting and changing in one part or 
other." Since the button in question 
dropped from its owner's coat, the allu- 
vion had increased there tour or five 
feet. Uj;on Hill's map, made in 1809, it 
appears that between Vine street and 
the Navy Yard there were seven inde- 
pendent bars or islands, separated by 
passages, one o( which, the remains 
whereof are yet visible opposite Spruce 
street, contained for many years, it is 
said, three fathoms water at low-tide. 
Mr, McClure has mentioned instances 
in which these channels have moved a 
considerable distance or altogether van- 
ished in the course of a day.'-^' There 
seems to be now a uniform decrease of 
the fast land of this island at the south 
and an increase to the northward.f 

• Survey of the Delaware from Chester, etc., 
p. 3.^. 

t In a map made in 1777 by Mr. Scull, then 
Surveyor of Philadelphia, ihe VVindinill bar is re- 
.presented as joining 1 lie Jersey shore at the point 
just above Cooper's Ferry. The fiist land of this 
island, il is well known, used to run some distance 
below tiie Swedes' Church, nnd 'it was upon its 
bar, opposite the present Navy Yard, that the 
American frigate Delaware was grounded on the 
seventeenth of November, 1777, and taken by 
the British. All the gallies and gun boats 
which had cooperated with Smith and Greene, at 
Fort Mifflin and Red Bank, passed up the Jersey 
■channel on the night of the sixteenth, and got 
«afely to Bordcntown. Barneys Memoireg, p. 



Further down the river many changes 
have taken place within the last half 
century. Thus Gibbet Island, which 
once lay opposite the mouth of the 
Schuylkill, has been — like some of Pet- 
ty's Islands — entirely swept away; and 
its fragments now form a considerable 
flat, some distance below where the 
island itself was located. Bush Island 
opposite Red Bank, has also disap- 
peared, and the ground upon which it 
stood is now an irregular bar. Upon 
the other hand, there are now great 
shoals and banks where there used to 
be a good depth of water; thus after the 
sinking of Davis' Pier or Fort Gaines, 
opposite Fort Mifflin, during the Revolu- 
tion, a bar speedily formed below it, 
more than a mile in length, and to the 
great injury of navigation. Between 
Tinnicum Island and the Jersey shore a 
small shoal was formed around a sunken 
pilot boat; and a much larger one gath- 
ered about the British frigate Augusta, 
in a few years after her loss. In 1812 
Little League Island, north of League 
Island proper, emerged from the river, 
and continued for some time indepen- 
dent; but the alluvion has now united 
the two together. At the upper end of 
Hog Island, the alluvion accumulated so 
fast, that about 1820 the proprietors en- 
closed fifty acres of land over which 
large sloops used to sail a few years be- 
fore. Between this Island and the 
Pennsylvania shore thex'e was in the 
Revolution, a channel so deep that a 
large British frigate ascended it to at- 
tack Fort Mifflin in the rear; but by 1820 
it had so filled up that deserters from 
that post could ford it and thus get away. 
Many other such changes as these are 
mentioned in David McClure's pamphlet 
and in Hill's Circular Map. 



61. Opposite the Swedes' Church at Wicacoa 
there is a rock famous for pcrch-tishing. It was 
here that the frigate Philadelphia struck and filled 
some time before her fatal cruise to the Medi- 
terranean. In the olden time Windmill Island 
was used as a gibbttting place for pirates. Early 
in the present century three mutineers who had 
killed a part of a crew, but were captured through 
the instrumentality of a large dog, were hung op. 
posite Fine Street 



FORMER NAMES OF PLACES. 



St 



The wrecks of the frigate Merlin and 
of the Augusta, sixty-four, lie near the 
mouth of Mantua Creek— the former just 
below the creek and quite near the shore. 
These vessels were part of the British 
fleet with which the American gallies 
under Hazelwood, had so warm and 
glorious an engagement on the morning 
of the tvventy -third of October, 1777. 
The Merlin having run aground in escap- 
ing from the gallies, was burnt by her 
crew, and the Augusta took fire by 
accident and blew up. As this hap- 
pened on the day after the battle of 
•Red Bank, "old Mitch's" veracity may 
well be questioned." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE INDIAN, DUTCH, SWEDISH AND OLD 
ENGLISH NAMES OF THE CREEKS, AND 
PROMINENT POINTS ALONG THE DELA- 
WARE. 

It is important, in order to avoid con- 
fusion, in reading the ancient historians 
and geographers of the Delaware, to 
remember that many localities have four 
or five different names, owing to the 
petty jealousy and bad taste of the 
Dutch, Swedes and English, each of 
which people insisted upon displacing 
the euphonious titles of the Indians and 
applying its own new-fangled designa- 
tions. 

Oldman's Creek, the south bound of 
Gloucester county, was called by the 
Indians Kag-Kiksizachens-sippiis^r^sipr 
pus being in the Delaware language the 
word for river or creek. The Dutch 
and Swedes called it Aldermcin's^kilen ; 
kit in Dutch and kilen in Swedish mean- 
ing the same as sippus. The early 
English settlers named it Berkley River 
in honor of the Proprietor Lord Berkley, 
but it is often spelled in old laws. BarX'- 
ley. Finally the present name came in 
vogue, it bemg a translation of the Dutch 
name. Alderman's Kilen. 

The Racoon takes its title from the 
powerful tribe of Naraticon Indiana 

* Hazlewood's Ledor to Washinaton, Pcnn. 
Reg. Vol. Ill, p. 181. Ante, p, 70. 

N 



who once resided there— -;?«7r<7f icon being 
the Indian name, it seems, for the now 
canonized animal, the racoon, which 
Kalm tells us formerly abounded in great 
nutnbers in that part of the country. The 
Indian name for this creek was Nara- 
ticons-sippus or 3femirako, which neith- 
er the Dutch nor Swedes seem to have 
altered. 

The Repaupo, according to Lind- 

stroms' map, was called by the aborigines 

Wivenski Sackoey -sippus, and probably 

took its present title from the Swedish 

town of Repaapo. 

Great and Little Mantua Creeks are 
named. Smith tells us, from the native 
word mania, which signifies a frog.-*'- 
The Indian tribe which resided here, and 
which had a branch about Burlington, ic 
often mentioned in old writers: De Vries 
calls them •' Indians of the Roodehoek 
or Mantes," De Laet the Manta^sy, 
and Plantagenet the Manteses. Thev 
were a bloody people, and had doubtless 
had a hand in the Graef Ernest tragedy, 
inasmuch as De Vrics tells us that some 
of them boarded his yacht in the Timmer- 
kill, with the very jackets on, which the 
murdered Virginians had worn. The 
Swedish name for Great Mantua Creek 
was Makles-ki/kn. The Roodehoek 
mentioned by De Vries was Billings- 
port; hock being the Dutch for point or 
hook. The Swedes called this place 
Roder-udden, the latter word bearing the 
same signification in Swedeish as7iQ<?/t 
in the Dutch. 

The original name of Woodbury 
Creek was Piscozackasing, upon which 
neither the Dutch nor Swedes attempted 
any other improvement than the custo- 
mary addition of kyl. It received its 
present English title from the town of 
Woodbury. 

Timber Creek, as we have before 
seen, was called indiscriminately, by the 
Dutch and Swedes, Tetamekanchz-kil, 
Jirwanies, Tehokevind Sassackon, though 
in strictness, each of those Indians names 
applied to a particular branch.f The 
names Gloucester River and Bi^ and 
Little Timber Creek came in use very 

* His!. N.J,, p. 136. t.Ante, p. 61. 



to 



TUB POLITICIANS AND SOLDIERS OF OLD GLOUCESTER. 



ioon after the permanent settlement of 
the English. Gloucester Point was 
called originally Tekaacho or Herma- 
omissing, and was justly considered 
when the creeks above and below it 
were open, "un grand cap." Howell's 
Cove, below Timber Creek, was called 
by the first English, Cork Cove, and 
nfterwards Ladde's Cove. 

The Indian name of Newton Crefk 
was Quinquorenning ; but the Dutch 
called so much of it, and of Cooper's 
Creek, as was regarded as forming the 
east channel around Jacques Island, the 
Graef Ernest, or Count Ernest River, in 
honor of a celebrated German prince of 
the seventeenth century. The point 
north of Newton Creek is called in Hill's 
Map, Walnut Point. 

Cooper's Creek was perhaps called 
by the Indians Asoroches or Jisomochcs. 
The Dutch named it the Timmcr-kill; 
and the Swedes the Hiorte-kilen, irom 
harto, the Indian name for deer. In 
the French copy of Lindstrom's Map, it 
is called Riviere des c-erfs, that is Deer 
River, by which name it is also once or 
twice spoken of by Campanins. After 
the settlement of William Cooper at 
Pyne Point, now Cooper's Point, the 
neighboring stream took his name. 

The Penshaukin is proba])ly the TVa- 
reptapecka of the Indians; for Campanius 
after speaking of the Rankoques, men- 
tions Warantapecka as lying " more to 
the south." De Laet speaks of visiting 
a fine creek, upwards of a Dutch mile 
above Jacques Eylandt, the country upon 
which was "fine and covered with an 
abundant growth of vines," and he 
named it therefore, H^yns;aerVs kill, or 
Vine Creek. This we think was the 
same as the Warentapecka. Upon Van- 
derdonck's map there is an Indian town 
on the north bank of this stream, called 
Mispennirk, and the stream itself, or the 
point at its mouth, is marked Pr>n/f)iens 
hoek. When William Penn arrived, 
this name was most likely corrupted out 
of complin)ent to him, into Pcnsoakev. 
It was also called by the early English, 
Crapivell or CropivcU River. 

It may not be amiss to observe that 
waMiev or mej: seems to have been the 



patrial, and ong, onck or karonck the 
usual trilninary affix of the Indian lan- 
guage. Thus upon ^'^anderdonck's map 
the country between the Timmerkill and 
Pruymenhock is called Ermomex, the 
the king of which, twenty years before 
Vanderdonck's time, was also called by 
Plantagenet, Eriivomeck or Eriivoneck. 
In the same map an Indian town upon 
the south side of Timber Creek, a little 
way south-east of t' Fort Nassou is 
marked Jir7}ie Wamea: — the last two syl- 
lables evidently forming an independent 
word. The tribe inhabiting Ermomex! 
was called, according to Vanderdonck, 
the Ama-Caronck, or in De Laet's La- 
tin, Jlma-Kciroaongy, and the Cooper's 
Creek tribe, called by De Laet the 
Mceroahkongy is named by Vander- 
donck the Moitoam-Kwonck. 

About the Delaware, almost all the 
Indian names — the euphon}' of which 
Penn so much admired — have been abol- 
ished, or improved, as the spirit of the 
age will have it, by gross corruptions. 
But several branches of the Mullicaand 
the Great Egghai'bor j'et retain their pri- 
mitive titles. The significance of these 
names is lost, biit their fine sound yet 
remains to plead against the vandalism 
of those who would destroy them. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE politicians AND SOLDIERS OF OLD 
GLOUCESTER. 

AVhal constiditps a State ? 
Not high raisi'd liatllemiTits or lahoured mound 

Thick walls, or moated gafp — 
Not cities proud witli spijcs and turrets crown'd, 

* No — nifii, high ininded MEN'. * * * 

Men who their duties know, 

Rut know their right'*, and knoiving dare maintain; 
Prerent the long aim'd Idow, 

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain: 
These constitutes a State. 

Sir William Jones, from Alcaut. 

We have had occasion to mention in 
the preceding pages, several incidents 
which illustrate the sturdy attachment 
of the first English settlers in West 
Jersej', to those just and liberal princi- 
ples which caused their exile from the 
mother count^3^ The political history 
of those settlers and theij.' immediate 
descendants is a subject of which the 



THE POUTICIANS AN» flOLDIERS OF OLD GLOUCESTER. 



91 



ablest pen might not be ashamed. The 
material is abundant and rich, and fornis 
a mine which should long ago have been 
ajjpropriated by a Griffith or an Ewing. 

When this neglected field is explored, 
if Impartially be the lamp-bearer, we 
are sure that old Gloucester will be 
found to have given to the councils of 
our state and the armies and navies of 
our nation, men than whom none better 
understood the true principles of liberty, 
or knowing, more bravely defended 
them. For a long time Gloucester was 
peopled almost exclusively by Friends ; 
by men who had themselves felt the 
political thraldom of the mother country, 
or by those who remembered well their 
father's recitals of the wrongs which 
drove them into the wilderness. Tliey 
guarded therefore with a jealous eye 
those admirable Concessions upon which 
the government of West Jersey was 
based; and, after the union of the two 
provinces in 1702, watched with unceas- 
ing vigilance every attempt made by the 
East Jersey Calvinists to despoil the laws 
of the colony of that peaceful and lenient 
spirit which had preeminently distin- 
guished the western code. 

A consistent hatred of militia-bills, and 

"all quality, 
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war," 

formed a prominent trait in the character 
of the early men — and wo may add of 
the early women too — of Gloucester. In 
109.5 the Recorder, John Reading, after- 
wards President of the Council, having 
so far forgotten his original Quakerism 
as to accept a militay comnnssion oi 
some kind from the Governor, employed 
a driunmer, who on one occasion had 
the audacity to visit the tavern kept by 
Mathew Medcalfe, at Gloucester town. 
This worthy host not seeing the use of 
music, and not feeling disposed to tole- 
rate such vanities about his premises, 
called his wife Dorothy to his assistance 
and mcontinently broke the heads both 
of drum and drummer ; for which being 
indicted he made no defence, but prompt- 
ly paid his penalty, content with having 
borne some testimony against the prac' 
tice of war. The defendant in this in- 



dictment was for many year3 one of the 
most prominent men in the county.* 

The representatives of Gloucester 
county in the General Assembly always 
firmly resisted the attempts of the East 
Jersey colonels and majors to fasten 
upon the colony a militia system in time 
of peace. Prior to the French war this 
subject became in New Jersey one of 
such warm interest, that both parties 
betook themselves to pampheteering. In 
one of the works elicited in this wordy 
contest, it is urged as a potent reason 
against the establishment of a militia 
system, that "six shillings of every 
honest man's property in the province 
except those above sixty, is subject year 
ly to the humors or prejudices of any 
low-lived pragmatical fellow that can 
get dubbed a sergeant."t All the abuse 
of the East Jersey champions failed to 
drive the Friends from Gloucester into 
a support of this step, until the necessi- 
ties of the war absolutely required the 
organization of a military force. 

But it was not only in questions of 
conscience that the ancient men of our 
shire carried a stiiT neck. They were 
imbued with a county pride, which 
brooked no insult and forgave no wrong. 
\n 1742, one John Jones, a lawyer, a 
deputy of Joseph Warrell, Esq., the 
Attorney General, prosecuted some cri- 
minal to conviction in the Gloucester 
court; whereupon he demanded his fees 
of the Board of Justices and Freeholders, 
who referred him to his employer, telling 
him the county had not asked for his 
services. Jones threatened to take out 

* On the second of September, 1695. the fol. 
lowinor niiniite is made by the Clerk of the County 
Court: "The Crand Jury return and find a bill 
against Mattiievv Medcalfe and Dorothy, his wife, 
for a breach of the Kinj/'s peace, and contemptu- 
ously asi^auitine: of a drummer under ye com- 
mand of John Reading:, and breaking of ye drum. 
The said Malhew confesseth ye matter of ffact 
both as to himself and in ye behalf of his wife, 
and leaves ye same to ye consideration and mercy 
of ye Bench. The Bench after consideration 
award the said Matthew to pay as n fine jt sum 
of twenty shillings, with costs of suite." 

+ See the pamphlet entitled " Diulog-ae b«tweea 
two genii jmen of New York, fflating to the pub- 
lic affairs of New Jersey," p. 5. 



93 



THB POLITICIANS AN0 SOLDIERS OF OLD GLOUCESTER. 



a mandamus to compel them to pay, at 
which the worthy Freeholders took lire, 
and immediately char<?ed the deputy 
before the Assembly with trying- to ex- 
tort money from them against law. They 
pressed their plaint with such vigor, that 
Jones was forthwith arrested by the 
Speaker's warrant and brought before 
the House, Here he humbly promised 
not to do the like again, and was dis- 
missed; but as he had criminated the 
King's Attorney as the instigator of his 
offence, Mr. Warrell was also arrested. 
His story was, that what he had done 
was b}^ the importunity of Jones; but 
" since he was informed that it was the 
opinion of the House that such demands 
were not allowable" he asked pardon 
of the county and colony, and was dis- 
missed from custody .^=" This case, which 
was in reality Gloucester county versus 
the crown of England — for the Attorney 
General was a crown officer — also caus- 
ed a pamphet war, which was con- 
ducted with considerable ability on both 
sides. The Assembly was assailed for 
lis action in the premises in a pamphet 
entitled "Extracts from the minutes, etc., 
to which are added some Notes and 
Observations," a reply whereto speedi- 
ly followed under the caption of " The 
Note maker noted and the Observer ob- 
served upon; by a true Lover of English 
liberty; 1743." The first was probably 
Written by Jones himself, and the other 
by some of old Gloucester's indignant 
freeholders. In this little affair we see 
a strong tinge of the spirit which thirty 
years afterwards led to the Revolution; 
and we hazard but little in saying that 
the same jealousy of the royal power in 
all its modifications always distinguished 
the people of Gloucester county. 

The first Legislature of independent 
New Jersey during its session at Had- 
donfield, in the month of September, 
1777, found itself surrounded by true 
friends of liberty, who gave all its acts 

* "Extracts from the minutes and votes of the 
House of Assembly oftlie Colony of New Jersey 
met in General Asseml>ly at Burlington, 16lh 
October, 1742; tn which are added some notes 
and iibfervatione." Printed by Benjamin Franklin, 
1743. i>.i:,. 



a prompt and hearty support. It was 
here, during the darkest hour of the 
Revolution, that the two Houses by 
unanimously expunging the word "colo- 
ny" and substituting "state" in public 
writs and commissions, wiped out the 
last vestige of our servitude. It was here 
too that that Committee of Safety was 
established, which afterwards proved of 
such signal service. The member of 
Council for Gloucester during this ses- 
sion, was John Cooper, who attended 
regularly at Haddonfield but did not fol- 
low to Princeton, whither the Legisla- 
ture adjourned on the twenty-fourth of 
September. His Excellency William 
Livingston, and Messrs. Sinnickson, 
Cox, Condict, Symmes, Hand, Scudder 
and Paterson were regular in their at- 
tendance. The joint-meetings were held 
while the two Houses continued at Had- 
donfield, at Thomas Smith's, and Joint 
Committees generally met at Hugh 
Creighton's or Samuel Kinnard's.""" 

The most prominent military charac- 
ters of the county of Gloucester at the 
commencement of the war of the Revo- 
lution, were Colonels Joseph Ellis, Jo- 
siah Hillman, Joseph Hugg and Robert 
Brown; Major William Ellis; Captains 
Samuel Hugg, John Stokes and John 
Davis. Col. Ellis had commanded a 
company in Canada In the French war, 
but on the opening of the issue between 
the mother county and her colonies, he 
resigned the commission he held of the 
King, and was made a colonel in the 
Gloucester militia. He was in the battle 
of Monmouth, and several other engage- 
ments, in all of which he fought bravely. 
Col. Hillman was esteemed a good of- 
ficer, and saw much hard service. Col. 
Hugg was appointed Commissary of Pur- 
chans for West Jersey, at an early stage 
of the war, and in that capacity did 
much for the cause. He was in the bat- 
tles of Germantown, Shorthills and Mon- 
mouth ; and when the British crossed 
from Philadelphia to New York, he was 
detailed to drive away the stock along 
their line of march, in performing which 

*See Votes and Proceeding's of Council of 1777, 
p.lOl , el scq. Hugh Creighton was the gfrand-nitlier 
uITtoV. Striitfon. lie kej>i a hotel in Huddonficld. 



•THE P01JTICIAN8 AND SOLDIERS OF OLD QLOUCESTER. 



93 



duty he had many narrow escapes from 
the enemy's light horse. Col. Brown 
lived at Swedesboro', and his regiment 
was chiefly employed in preventing the 
enemy from landing from their ships, 
and restraining the excursions of the 
Refugees from Billingsport. Major El- 
lis was taken prisoner early in the war, 
and kept for a long time upon Long 
Island. Captain Samuel Hugg and Fred- 
erick Frelinghuysen were appointed 
by an act of the Legislature to com- 
mand the two first companies of Artillery 
raised in New Jersey, Hugg in the west- 
ern and Frelinghuysen in the eastern 
division. The former soon raised his 
company, and in it were a number of 
young men of fortunes and the first 
families in the state, the Westcoats, El- 
mers, Seeleys and others, men who af- 
terwards occupied distinguished posts 
in the local and national governments. 
This company was at the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton. When the Roe- 
buck, forty-four, was engaged in pro- 
tecting the operations against the che- 
vaux de frize at Billingsport, Hugg's 
artillerists threw up a small breast-work 
upon the Jersey shore, and fought her 
during a whole day ; but unfortunately 
their first sergeant, William Ellis, was 
killed by a cannon ball which took off 
both his legs above the knees. This 
Ellis was an Englishman, and had been 
for several years a recruiting officer for 
the British service, in Philadelphia. He 
joined the American cause early — like 
his namesake, was a very brave man — 
and died much regretted by his com- 
panions in arms. Captain Stokes, whose 
prowess in the neighborhood of the 
British camp at Camden we have before 
alluded to,-'' commanded a company of 
mere boys made up from some of the 
best families in Gloucester county. 
These fellows were at the battle of 
Monmouth, but Col. Hillman sent them 
to the rear to guard the baggage. Stokes 
was often heard to say afterwards, that 
he " never saw so mad a set of young- 
sters" as these were on being assigned 
so safe a post. They cried with rage 

« Ante, p. 57. 



at being stationed there, after having 
marched so far to see what fighting 
was."' Two, and we believe only two, 
of the soldiers whom Gloucester gave 
to the Revolution, are now residents of 
this county, namely, Capt. James B. 
Cooper, of Haddonfield, and John 
Mapes, (or John Mapes " of Long 
street," as he sometimes writes himself) 
both of whom were members of Lee's 
Legion. Cooper entered the army when 
quite a boy, and his name is honorably 
mentioned in some of the histories of the 
tirae.t Long, very long, may it be, be- 
fore either he or his compatriot will 
want an epitaph ! 

In our war with Tripoli and in the 
late war with England, some of the best 
and bravest sailors in our navy were 
sons of Gloucester county. Who, that 
is not culpably ignorant of the history of 
his country, has not heard of the name 
of Capt. Richard Somers ? This chival- 
ric sailor was the son of Col. Richard 
Somers, an officer of the Revolution. 
He was born at Somers' Point, about 
the year 1778, was educated at Burling- 
ton, but took to the sea when very young. 
He joined the American navy in its in- 
fancy, where he soon became distin- 
guished by his courage, and his thorough 
seamanship. In 1804 he was in the 
Mediterranean, captain of the Nautilus, 
under Commodore Preble. The opera- 
tions of the fleet before Tripoli having 
been prolonged a great while to little 
purpose, a master stroke was devised 
to cripple the enemies gallies, and 
hasten the Bashaw's will to capitulate. 
With this view, the ketch Intrepid was 
prepared as an infernal, to be sent into 
the harbor among the Tripolitan vessels, 
and there exploded. To navigate a 
machine to the crew of which an acci- 
dental spark or a shot from the enemy 
was certain destruction, required no or- 
dinary degree of courage. But though 
others shrank back, Somers volunteered 

« These farts are from the MSS. of a Scpfuge- 
narian before oiled. The writer knew all tlie 
men, of whom he speaks personally and intimately. 

+ See Garden's Anecdotes of the American 
Revolution. 



94 



CONCLUSION. 



for the adventure, and with a picked 
crew, on a proper night, embarked in 
tlie infernal for tlie liarbor. For a few 
minutes the breathless Americans peered 
with intense, unsatisiied curiosity into 
the deep darkness which had swallowed 
the adventurous vessel. Then shells and 
shot started from the alarmed battery of 
the town, and swept in every direction. 
A fierce light rested for a moment upon 
the wave, and with the tenfold darkness 
that returned, came a terrific concussion 
which made the ships in the offing quake 
from their trucks their keels. It was 
evident that the ketch had prematurely 
exploded, and that Somers and his crew 
had been blown to a thousand atoms ! It 
was understood upon the departure of 
the infernal from the fleet that in no 
event was her cargo of powder to fall 
into the hands of the Tripolitans. 
Somers was known to be a man capable 
of any sacrifice for the glory of the ser- 
vice and the welfare of his country; and 
it was therefore believed by Preble (and 
is still believed upon every foretop and 
quarter-deck of our navy) that being 
discovered and in danger of being taken, 
he ordered the match to be applied to 
the magazine, and died with his com- 
rades, to keep I'rom the enemy the means 
of prolonging the war.^" 

Were we to dwell upon the biogra- 
phies of all the distinguished sons of old 
Gloucester, where would we find — what 
we fear the reader already anticipates 
with pleasure — the end of our book ? 
One has risen from a poor Eggharbor 
fisher-boy to be the second only among 
the millionaires of America. Another, 
left at an early age an orphan and friend- 
less, becomes celebrated as the most 
eloquent man at the most powerful bar 
in the Union. A third receives for the 
first time, directly at the hands of the 
people, the office of Governor of New 
Jersey. And, many, in distant states, by 
the manner in which they discharge high 
and responsible posts, reflect honor upon 
the shire that jrave them birth. 



* Cooper's Naval ?Iist<>ry, Vol. II, p. 75, etc., 
and see the Sketches of Somers, by the same 
author, in Graham's Magazine, October, 1842. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CONCLUSION. 

No need to lurn the page as if 'twere lead 
Or flini; aside the voluuie till lo-niorrow ! 

Be cheer'd — tis ended — and I will not borrow, 
To try thv patience more, one anecdote 

From Baitholine, or Perinskiold, or Snorro. 

Scott's Harold the Dauntless. 

To him who has felt sufficient interest 
in our desultory sketches to have fol- 
lowed us thus far, no apology will be 
necessary for introducing, in conclusion, 
a short notice of some of the books from 
which we have gleaned our materials. 
Something of the biography of every 
writer, something of the occasion of his 
work and of the time and circumstances 
of its publication, and of the manner in 
which it was I'eceived by his cotempo- 
raries, is requisite to be known, to enable 
the reader to understand well and esti- 
mate properly what he peruses. And 
who has not felt the additional pleasure 
which such scraps of information impart 
to his reading .'' Who, for instance, does 
not devour Rasselas with increased de- 
light, after learning that Johnson wrote 
it in less than a week to raise money to 
pay the funeral expenses of his mother? 
or Caisar's Commentaries with more in- 
terest, after learning how narrowly they 
escaped destruction in the bay of Alex- 
andria.'' We see no reason why such 
extrinsic facts as serve to explain or to 
render pleasing to the student, the event- 
ful story of his native land, should be of 
less importance than the very contents 
of the books from which it has hitherto 
been our object to extract the essence. 

The most ancient historian in whose 
pages we find any thing definite in rela- 
tion to the east bank of the Delaware, is 
John de Laet, a native of Antwerp, but 
a resident of Leyden; who was a very 
learned man, and by far more precise 
and accurate than any of his successors 
who undertook to enumerate the Indian 
tribes of West Jersey. This may appear 
singular, since De Laet was never in 
America himself, but wrote altogether 
from hearsay. When we remember, 
however, that he was intimately ac- 
quainted with Captain De Vries, and 



CONCLUSION. 



95 



had also enjoyed the advantage of read- 
ing the MS. journals of Hendrick Hud- 
son, Adrien Block, Capt. May, and per- 
haps other very early voyagers to the 
New Netherlands, we will not wonder 
at the remarkable accuracy with which 
he has written of that country. He was 
an enthusiastic student in the new field 
of science which the discovery of Ame- 
rica had opened to the savans of Europe; 
and was at one time engaged in a con- 
troversy with Grotius upon the origin 
of the Indian race. But his chief work 
was his " New World or a Description 
of the West Indies," which was first 
published in Dutch, black-letter, folio, 
from the famous press of the Elzevirs, 
in Leyden, in the year 1625. This edi 
tion, though it appeared but two years 
after Captain May had built Fort Nassau, 
contains some very accurate information 
concerning the South River. In IQ33, 
soon after the visit of De Vries to Hol- 
land, a new edition was published at the 
same press, in Latin, in which was in- 
corporated much new matter collected 
by subsequent traders to Fort Nassau, 
together with a map entitled Nova An- 
glia, Novum Belgium et Virginia, which 
is, we believe, the first chart of the 
Delaware now extant. With this edition 
the student of the history of West Jersey 
should begin his labors. The eleventh 
and twelfth chapters of the third book 
contain a description of the Indian tribes 
from Cape May to the Falls of Trenton, 
than which, we venture the assertion, 
no subsequent account can compare in 
succintness, clearness and intrinsic evi- 
dence of truth. De Laet died in 1649, 
having enjoyed the pleasure of seeing 
his "New World" acquire a high repu- 
tation among readers of three languages. 
This book, especially in the l^atin, al- 
ways commands an extravagant price 
among the literati of Europe, on ac- 
count of the great beauty of theElzevir 
type. A translation of the part relating 
to the New Netherlands has been pub- 
lished, in the first volume of the New 
Series of the New York Historical Col- 
lections, which in a measure atones for 
the extreme scarcity of the orio:inal. 
Next to De Laet comes the royal 



Beauchamp Plant age net, whose 
" Description of the Province of New 
Albion, and a Direction for Adventurers 
with small stock to get two for one and 
good Land freely," was made up in 1648, 
of two pamphlets which had appeared 
in 1637 and 1643. Of the history of 
Plantagenet we have already told all 
we know. His book has been ridiculed 
by some as a mere fabrication,* but the 
best opinion isjthat, though very careless- 
ly written, it is really what it professes to 
be, to wit: the result of an actual resi- 
dence, by certain English settlers under 
the grant to Ployden, during the inter- 
regnum between the Dutch and Swedish 
empires, upon the banks of the Dela- 
ware. But one printed copy of this 
most singular work is believed now to 
exist; and that is very much worn and 
deface d.f 

Perhaps we should rank the " Des- 
cription of New Sweden," by Campa- 
Nius, as the third book in point, of anti 
quity, which treats particularly of the 
banks of the Delaware ; for although it 
was not printed until after several other 
works had appeared upon that ponion 
of history, yet the material was collected 
by Thomas Campanius and Peter Lind- 
Strom or Lindhestrom, of whom the for- 
mer came out with Governor Printz, in 
1642, and the latter with Ciovernor Ri- 
singh, shortly after. This Campanius, 
it will be remembered, \ras a Swedish 
clergyman, who lived in New Sweden 
for six years. He was born at Stock- 
holm, (whence he is sometimes called 
Thomas Campanius Holm,) on the fif- 
teenth of August, 1601. He went 
through his studies with much credit, 
after which he was employed many 
years as preceptor in the Orphan's 
House, in his native city. After his re- 
turn home in 1648, he was made first 
preacher of the Swedish Admii'alty, 
and subsequently had the cure of souls 

* See the pnprr by Mr. Pennington, in Vol. 
VI. of the Memoirs of the Penn. Hist. Society. 

t This copy is in the Philadelphia Library. 
Thinking it a pity that so rare a work should 
pt-rish, vvc some time ago took an exact trans, 
cript of it on parchment paper, from which a re 
print may at Buiiie liiuc be made. 



96 



CONCLUSION. 



at Frost Hultz and Herenwys in Upland. 
Here he completed a translation of Lu- 
ther's Catechism into the Indian lan- 
^ua^e, which was printed at Stockholm 
in 1696, and sent out to New Sweden. 
He died on the seventeenth of Septem- 
ber, 16S3; and was buried in the church 
of Frost Hultz, where the choir erected 
to his memory a handsome monument. 
The notes which he had collected dur- 
ing his residence at Tinicum, were ed- 
ited by his grandson, also named 
Thomas Campanius Holm. This com- 
pilation, called "NyaSwerige" in the 
Swedish, was printed at Stockholm in 
1702. It has been made accessible to 
English readers by Mr. Duponceau's 
translation, which was undertaken at the 
suggestion of the Pennsylvania Histori- 
cal Society. A small copy of Lind- 
strom's Map of the Delaware, drawn in 
1654 or 1655, accompanies the work, 
and a written relation by the same au- 
thor is often referred to. A French 
translation of these Lindstrom MSS. 
was procured from the archives of the 
Swedisii Government at Stockholm, by 
Capt. William Jones, and is preserved 
in the library of the American Philiso- 
phical Society, as is also a twenty-seven 
inch copy from the original Lindstrom 
Chart, called Ardcnna Novce Svecice 
Carta nud dess Rivicrs, etc., which 
was destroyed at the conflagration of 
the Royal Palace at Stockholm, in 1697. 
In addition to the notes of his grand- 
father, the verbal accounts of his father 
(who was also some time in New Swe- 
den) and the MSS. of Lindstrom, the 
editor of Nya Swerige seems to have 
had access to a book written by Francis 
Daniel Pastorius, a Dutch Quaker and 
magistrate, who lived at Germantown, 
and to several of the letters written by 
William Penn after the founding of 
; Philadelphia. But he has so jumbled 
' matters together that his meaning is of- 
' ten obscure, and he is so fond of the mar- 
I vellous that he seems sometimes only to 
I amuse himself by writing fables. Yet, 
'« we owe to him many undoubted facts 
.' which we could gather no where else, 
g The next of our historians and geogra- 
8 phere is Adrian Vax der Donck, who 



took at the Leyden University, the im- 
posing degree of Beyder Recliten Doc- 
toor, which means Doctor of both Civil 
and Canon Law. He enjoys the dis- 
tinction of having been the first lawyer 
in the New Netherlands, and the first 
Sheriffof the Colony of Rensselaerwyck. 
He came out in 1642; and in 1650, he, 
with others, signed the remonstrance 
called Vertoogli van Niew Nederlandt, 
etc., which was printed at the Hague, 
and which was the nest-egg perhaps of 
that excellent " Description of the New 
Netherlands," to which we would com- 
mend every assiduous student of our 
early history. The first edition of this 
work was printed about 1653; the second 
and the one from which Mr. .Tohnson of 
Brooklyn has made his translation, bears 
the imprint of Evert Nieuwenhof, Am- 
sterdam, 1656. Van der Donck was a 
learned man — but preferred his vernacu- 
lar Dutch to the Latin, in order perhaps 
to draw the more settlers to a colony in 
whose prosperity he was so deeply nter- 
ested. His few errors are upon the ex- 
cusable side. Instead of stocking the 
new country, like Campanius, with night- 
ingales, prophetic grass, miraculous 
fish-trees, and the like, he introduces, 
lions, and some other ornaments quite 
as little seductive. His map, of the New 
Netherlands, which bears date 1656, is 
as far as the Delaware is concerned, 
remarkably correct, and seems to have 
been the foundation of Ogilby's and 
other subsequent charts. 

In 1655, were published in Dutch, at 
Alckmaer, North Holland, at the press 
of Simon Cornelis Brekgeest, the "Brief 
historical and journalized notes of seve- 
ral voyages to the four quarters of the 
Globe, etc., by David Pieterszen de 
Vries, Master of Artillery to the Most 
Honorable Lords, the Committee Coun- 
cil of the States of West Vriesland and 
the North Quarter." This was the same 
De Vries who figured so conspicuously 
in the history of Fort Nassau. That 
portion of his work which Mr. Troost 
has translated into English for the New 
York Historical Society, and other frag- 
ments which we found among the MSS. 
of Pierre du Cimitiere, have been of 



CONCLUSION. 



97 



much service to us. De Vries was (rom 
Hoorn, a port in North Holland famous 
as a nursery of good seamen. He was 
an expert navigator, and wrote with 
much clearness and precision. He was 
concerned with his friends De Laet and 
Van Rensselaer in planting colonies in 
the New Netherlands, but seems not to 
have run into the common error ot inter- 
ested authors, setting ofif the country in 

false colors. 

The rare little book by Gabriel 
Thomas, called "An Historical and Ge- 
ographical account of the Province and 
County of Pennsylvania and ot West 
New Jersey, in America," was prmted 
at London, in 169S. The author was a 
Quaker, who came over in the barali 
and John, the first ship that sailed from 
En-land to Penn's province after it re- 
ceived the name of Pennsylvania. He 
lived in Philadelphia about fifteen years. 
He tells us that he saw the first cellar 
in that city when it was digging tor the 
Governor, William Penn. He is very 
particular to reassure us that what he de- 
livers "is indisputably true," as he was 
an eye witness to it all. In the preface 
to his West Jersey, he encourages ''the 
idle, the sloathful and the vcL-^abonds ot 
En-land, Scotland and Ireland to hasten 
thither" instead of "lingering out their 
days so miserably poor and halt starved, 
or whippiniT, burning and hanging Jor 
viUainies,they will have little temptation, 
nay, or inclination to perpetrate here. 
This work is now very scarce, and com- 
mands a high price, . 

Peter Kalm. whose "Travels in 
North America" have been so otten 
cited in the preceding pages, was born 
in 1715 in Ostro Bothnia, Sweden. 
■•From 174S to 1751, he was engaged in 
making a botanical exploration of North 
America. He hustened, as soon as he 
arrived, to visit his countrymen in Glou- 
cester county, and spent some months 
among them, in investigating the natural 
history of New Sweden. Alter his re- 
turn home, he was made protessor ot 
Botanv in the University of Abo, where 
he died in 1779. He was the intimate 
' friend of the great T^innaus, and was 
himself a very distinguished naturalist. 
o 



Besides his Travels in America, which 
xvere translated and published m Eng- 
land in 1770, he left more than eiglity 
dissertations upon various subjects con- 
cerning the commerce, agriculture and 
manufactures of Sweden.-" 

In 1795 the Rev. Israel Acrelius 
published at Stockholm a "Description 
of the present and former state ot the 



Swedish congregations in New Swe 
den " which was translated by Nicholas 
Collin, D. D., formerly pastor of tlie 
Swedish Church at Racoon. Acrelius 
officiated for several years at the church 
at Christina, Delaware, and was Provost 
of the Swedish clergy, of what had once 
been New Sweden. He returned to old 
Sweden in 1756, and resumed the pas- 
torship of Fellingsbro, where he lived 
when his Description was published. 
Duponcean regarded this as a work ot 
hi-h authority, and often quotes it in his 
notes to Campanius. The translation 
by Collin is said to be very imperfect ; 
but still it forms a very valuable addition 
to our local history. 

Pierre du Cimitiere or Simitiere 
(sometimes corrupted into Simitre) was 
born at Geneva, Switzerland. He came 
to Philadelphia several years before the 
Revolution, and resided there until after 
that event. He was a portrait painter 
by profession, and a very good artist, 
but seems to have cared Uttie for domes- 
tic happiness or the exercise of political 
ri-hts for he was never married or 
naturalized. Feeling, a deep interest in 
the neglected history of his adopted 
country he collected a vast amount ot 
local facts, upon which every American 
writer can draw with profit. Upon his 
decease all of his MSS. were deposited 
in the Philadelphia Library, where they 
yet remain, to chide the remissness ot 
those who are "natives, and to the man- 
or born." 

The Marquis de Chastellux was a 
French nobleman, who with Lafayette 
visited our county soon after the close 
of the war of liberty. His " Travels," 
which were translated into English afjout 
1786, have a peculiar value to the reader 

» Davenports D'^t. Biog. tit. Kalm. 



03 



OONCLUSIOW. 



of West Jersey history, as containing a 
precise and intelligible account of most 
of the Revolutionary battles fought along 
the Delaware. 

John Peter Brissot de Warville, 
another Frenchman who visited Phila- 
delphia and the neighboring places in 
1788, wrote a book of " New Travels," 
which is a kind of comment upon the 
work by Chastellux. Brissot was the 
son of a pastry-cook, and was born near 
Chartres, in 1757. He was a rank re- 
publican, and one of the prime movers 
in the French Revolution. After being 
two or three times an editor, and once 
imprisoned in the Bastile for libel, he 
came to America. Returning to France, 
in 1789, he plunged again into the stor- 
my sea of politics, and was at last, in 
1793, sent to the scaffold by Robespierre, 
who headed the opposite and then tri- 
umphant faction. Brissot was a promi- 
nent man in the I^egislative Assembly of 
1791 and in the Convention; and his in- 
trigues it is said, succeeded in bringing 
about the war between France, Austria 
and Great Britain.^' 

Lastly, among those foreigners to 
whom we owe much of the information, 
whatever it may be, transmitted in this 
pamphlet, is the late Peter Stephen 
DuPONCEAu, a native of the romantic isle 
of Rhe, off Larochelle, in France. This 
gentleman came to America, when a 
young man, and settled in Philadelphia, 
where he afterwards became distin- 
guished as a lawyer, but still more dis- 
tinguished as a patron of our local his- 
tory. He was a man of very extensive 
literary acquirements, and a patient in- 
vestigator of every subject to which he 
turned his attention. The members of 
I the Historical Society, over which he 
' presided so acceptably, and all who care 
^ for the annals of their homesteads will 
J, long cherish for his memory a warm re- 
u gard. 

1- A tribute is due to that obscure but 

'' meritorious native geographer, Jojm 

Hill, of Darby, Pennsylvania, who pub- 

i \ 

5i( • See Durivage's Cyclop, and Davenport, tit. 
he Brissot. 



lished in 1800 a circular chart, called 
«• Hill's Record and Historical Map of 
Philadelphia and Environs," which cost 
him eight or nine years work. This 
chart is a minute representation, admi 
rably drawn from actual survey, of the 
country as it then was, within a circle 
described with a radius of ten miles, 
about the centre-hydrant in Philadelphia. 
Within this space, as well in Gloucester 
county as in Pennsylvania, most of the 
family estates then subsisting are laid 
down, with the number of acres, the 
name of each property, and the year of 
its location. Poor Hill continued his 
labors after his map was first published, 
hoping that the patronage extended to it 
would warrant another and improved 
edition ; but sometime before his death, 
finding this hope sadly fallacious, he 
abandoned the idea and gave to our 
grand-father his own copy, upon which 
his contemplated additions were marked. 
Like our friend Howe, in more recent 
days, Hill took his knapsack upon his 
back, and went into the byways as well 
as highways, in search of information, 
calling at every house, and inquiring of 
every passenger, until he reached the 
bottom of the matter he had in hand. 

Of the ninety-six men whose writings, 
gentle reader, we have carefully ran- 
sacked for thy amusement, or it may be, 
thy instruction, of these few we have 
thought it best to make special mention. 
For, as in writing the history of Glou- 
cester county, we have sought to give 
thee not those facts which any school- 
book or newspaper could tell thee, but 
rather those which are curious and by 
the ignorant, incredible ; so in speaking 
of the historians of our good County, we 
introduce to thee not thorough acquain- 
tances, such as Smith and Gordon, but 
those ancient worthies who hide them- 
selves in the corners of libraries and the 
lofts of houses. It is these whom we 
have invoked to tell thee stories of thy 
native land. Question them soundly; for 
they can give thee much that we have 
not even hinted. Remember them well; 
for it is at home that true knowledge 
ever begins. 



THE END. 



ERRATA. 



The following errors occur in part only of the edition: — 
Page 3, 1st col. 7th line from top, for country read county. 

7, " " 25th " " " " unauspirious read inau$piciott$. 

8, 2d " 24th " " " " dare read dared. 

15, " " 17lh •• •» " " Daniel Pastoriua read Francis Daniel Pa$toriu$. 
20, Ist " 10th from bottom, for representation read representative. 
23, 2d " 18th from top, for 1S97 read 1497. 

25, " " (note,) 5 lines from bottom before "in 1637" suppljr arrived. 
40, " *• 26th from top, for proceedings read proceeding. 
46, Ist " 8th " " " has read have. 
54, 2d " (note,) 3d from bottom, dele one "generally." 
55, " " 3d from top, for noticd read noticed. 
58,1st" Ist " " " 1804 read 1807. 

61, " " 22d " " " 1668 " 1698. 

62, " " (note,) the two last lines, "The Gloucester Spring," etc., belong at the head of the note 
(t) on page 61, second column. 

€6, the two notes at the foot of the first column are transposed. 

67, 1st col., last line of the text, for blessing read blessings, 

68, ct sequentibus, for Manduit read Mauduit. 
83, 2d col., 10th from top, for riwalut read rivulet. 
66, 1st col., note, 8th line from bottom, after "other" insert than. 




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