CHAPTER VI. A. D. 1666-1669. Government of the Town - Forms of Marriage Licenses - Indentures, and the Hue and Cry for Runaways - Sale of the S. half of the Town - Settlement of Woodbridge and Newark - Traffic in Pipe Staves - Cold Winter-Rev. Abm. Pierson at Newark - Brackett appointed Ass. Surveyor-Newark Boundary prayerfully settled- Great Mortality-"Duke's Laws" — First Legislature of N. Jersey at E. T.-Laws - Second Session - Collision with the Governor-Abrupt Adjournment-Whaling Company- Disputes about Staten Island-Berkeley and Carteret in Trouble-Mortality. GOVERNOR CARTERET appears to have entered upon his administration with a desire to ingratiate himself with the people of the town, which he had chosen as the seat of government. John Ogden was commissioned, Oct. 26, 1665, as Justice of the Peace, and, Nov. 1, appointed one of the governor's Council. Capt. Thomas Young was, also, Feb. 12, 1665, appointed of the Council. A military company was organized, somewhat later, for the defence of the town against the Indians; of which Luke Watson was made Lieutenant, and John Woodruff, Ensign. Watson was, also, made the constable of the town.* The work of planting and building went on rapidly. Carteret had brought over, not only a large company of laborers to aid in subduing the wilderness, but also "several goods of great value, proper for the first planting and settling of New Jersey." Doubtless, it was regarded by the Associates, in their simplicity, as a special providence, that a man of such cultivation, and of resources so ample, with apparently such kind intentions, and so well-disposed to cast in his lot with E. J. Records, III. 8, 4, 7, 20, 21. them, should have been sent over, at this very time, to this very spot. Not apprehending any difficulty from the conflict of opinions and claims, which might grow out of their peculiar relations to each other, the town's people were rather flattered, it may well be thought, at the idea of the distinction to be given to their humble plantation, by having the Governor of the Province as one of their number, and their town made the seat of government.* It is affirmed, and not denied, so far as appears, that the "ship Philip," that brought over the Governor, Having remained about six months in New-Jersey, returned for England; and the year afterwards made another voyage to New-Jersey; and sundry other ships and vessels from time to time, were sent by the Lords Proprietors to New Jersey with people and goods, to encourage the planting and peopling thereof; and, that upon the said Governor Carteret's arrival aforesaid, at Elizabeth Town, he paid to the Indians, with whom the said Bailey, Watson and Denton had bargained for the said lands as aforesaid, the greatest part of the consideration that had been agreed to be paid them. The means of verifying, or of disproving, these statements are not at hand. If the former be true, it accounts, in part for the rapidity with which the town advanced in substantial prosperity. If the latter, also, be true, it furnishes another confirmation of the conjecture, that, at his first coming, the Governor did not presume to call in question the validity of the Indian purchase and of the grant by his predecessor, Gov. Nicolls.t Owing to the loss of the early Records of the town, as already noticed, very few of the incidents of the every-day life of the planters have been preserved. Here and there the pages of the Proprietary Records shed some light on what was passing among them. As an illustration of their mode of contracting marriages, the following may serve as a specimen. It is the first entry of the kind on the Records, and probably the first that occurred in the town. The parties were servants, who had come over with the Governor, and afterwards settled on Staten Island: License of Marriage. Whereas I have reca Information of a mutual Interest and agreement betwene Daniel Perrin of Elizabeth Towne in the province of New Jarsey and Maria Thorel of the same Towne Spinster to solemnize Mariage together for which they have Requested my Lycense and there appearing no Law full Impediment for ye Obstruction thereof These are to Require You or Eyther of you to Joyne the said Daniel Perrin and Marie Thorel in Matrimony and them to pronounce man and Wife, and to make record thereof according to the Lawes in that behalfe provided, for the doing Whereof this shall be to you or Eyther of you a sufficient Warrant. Given under my hand and seale the Twelft day of february An° 1665 and in the 18th Yeare of his Maties Raign King Charles the Second. To any of the Justices of the Peace or Ministers Wthin the Government of the province of New Jarsey Ph Carterett These Couple Where Joyned together in An Indenture is on record, of the 7th of April, 1666, wherein Robert Gray binds himself as a servant for three years to Luke Watson; the latter to give him, at the end of the term, "a good cowe." This is followed, on the 7th of the next month, May, with "a Hue and Cry" for a servant belonging to Mr. Luke Watson, who has "lately absented himselfe and runn away from his Master's service." A description of the fugitive is given in these words: His name Robert graij an Englishman bornd, about 20 yeares of age, a lustij bodied portely fellow, light brownish haire, very little haire on his face, a little demij Castor, a gray broad cloth sute, the breeches tyed att the knees, and a red coate, besides a light graij coulored Serge breeches, and a Snap hansminskel that hee hath stollen awaije wth many other things. It is Supposed that hee is in Company wth one Ruderic Powell, a pittiful fellow, who hath also absented himselfe and runn awaij.t The territory purchased by the Associates of the Indians, and patented by Gov. Nicolls, was evidently ample enough for several towns,-vastly too large to be soon occupied by the original purchasers. The fame of the newly-opened country had reached the most distant parts of New England, and colonists were attracted hither. Some of the people of Newbury, Mass., finding themselves uncomfortably straiten ed for farming lands, sent a deputation to visit these parts, and, if pleased with what they saw and heard, to secure an eligible location for a town. Hospitably entertained on their arrival, and made acquainted, by personal inspection, with that part of the Elizabeth Town patent that lay between the Raritan and Rahway rivers, that had been offered them, on fair terms, by the town, they concluded to purchase it. According to the custom of the times, they applied to Gov. Carteret and received, May 21, 1666, the necessary permit-John Pike, Daniel Pierce, and Abraham Tapping, [Tappan, or Tappin], in behalf of themselves and their Associates--to settle two townships within the bounds specified: for which a deed, duly executed, was given them, December 11, 1666, by Carteret, Ogden, and Watson, representing the Associates of the Town.* It has been affirmed, that, "at the date thereof, no other persons were intitled to what right the said Indian purchase gave, than the said Philip Carteret, John Ogden and Luke Watson." It seems to have been forgotten that both the Indian deed, or "bill of sale," of Oct. 28, 1664, and the Nicolls' patent of Dec. 1, 1664, expressly conveyed the territory to the Grantees and Patentees respectively, "and their Associates," whoever they might be, who thus, severally, became entitled to a right of property in the purchase, as truly as any one of the men described by name. If the Town-Book, in which their early transactions were duly recorded, were now accessible, it would, doubtless, show, that the matter had been submitted to the people in town-meeting, and a vote taken, giving to Carteret, Ogden and Watson, authority to alienate "the one moiety or half part" of their purchased possession. It was sold as such "half part of the said tract of land which was purchased of the Indians." By becoming a party to this transaction, therefore, Carteret again acknowledged the validity of the original purchase and patent.† The consideration, for which this moiety was sold, as ex *E. T. Bill, p. 29. E. J. Records, B. 182. Whitehead's E. Jersey, pp. 41, 2, 183, 4. Whitehead's Perth Amboy, pp. 855. Albany Records, XXII. 85. +E. T. Bill, p. 80. Leaming and Spicer's Grants, Concessions, &c., pp. 670, 1. pressed in the deed, was £80 sterling; a sum more than sufficient, it has been said, to reimburse the people for the original outlay; so much of it as had been advanced by Carteret being returned to him, and the remainder being paid into the common treasury.* The town was originally regarded as extending on the North, to the mouth of the Passaic river; but arrangements were in progress, at this very time, to reduce these limits. Robert Treat, of Milford, who, in Nov. 1661, had, with others, endeavored to come to an agreement with Gov. Stuyvesant, for the settlement of a plantation in these parts, and had failed to secure satisfactory conditions from the Dutch Government, had, some time in the winter of 166%, or in the early spring, been again deputed, with others of his townsmen, to visit this section, and secure land sufficient for a town. On their arrival, they found themselves, at once, among old and valued friends and neighbors-men and women, with whom, at Wethersfield, Milford, New Haven, and Guilford, they had taken sweet counsel together. The Branford people, who were meditating a union with the others in the new plantation, were many of them emigrants from Southampton, from which place and its neighborhood, a large portion of the people of this town had come. This was, evidently, a principal attraction to the new settlers from Connecticut.+ It was not difficult, in such a case, to agree upon terms. The town's people welcomed their old friends, and cheerfully consented to part with that portion of their purchase, which lay on the other side of what has, from that day, and on that account, been called "Bound Brook;" and Carteret agreed. to extinguish the Indian title to the land beyond the town line to the northern bend of the Passaic river. Treat and his associates returned, and made so favorable a report, that about thirty families determined, at once, to remove to New Jersey; and, on the very day, May 21, 1666, that Pierce and his company had arranged for the settlement of Woodbridge. E. T. Bill, p. 29. E. T. Bill, p. 118. Whitehead's E. Jersey, pp. 42-6. Newark Town Records, pp. vi vil., 1-3. Stearns' First Chh., Newark, pp. 10-14. |