and friends of the Bill, Jonathan Belcher, a famous old Puritan, of Boston, Mass., was entrusted with the executive functions, and entered upon his office as Governor of NewJersey, in August, 1747. Before the Answer to the Bill could be printed, Gov. Belcher became a resident of this town, and immediately identified himself with the First Presbyterian church and congregation, with which, and its branches in the back country, the defendants in the Bill were nearly all connected. The sympathies of Gov. Belcher, therefore, would, most naturally, be given to the Presbyterian party, for such, in fact, the defendants were. Owing to these or other similar reasons, Gov. Belcher seems not to have adjudicated the case; Alexander, who had the principal management of the Bill, died, April 2, 1756. Murray died, April 2, 1757, before the death of Gov. Belcher. The French War succeeded. Then came the Stamp Act Excitement, followed by the Revolution. No place was found for the E. Town Bill, and it fell by its own weight. Such was the end of this famous struggle, continued for a whole century, and resulting in the vindication of the original purchasers of the soil, and the defeat of their opponents.

Other matters, in the meantime, engaged the attention of the people, for the moment. JOSEPH BONNEL, Esq., the first Mayor of the Borough, at the close of the winter of 1743, was removed by death. He lived in the neighborhood of Connecticut Farms, where, in the graveyard of the Presbyterian Church, his remains were buried. A monument was erected over his grave with this Inscription:

Who knew him living must lament him dead,
Whose corpse beneath this Verdant Turf is laid.
Bonnel, in Private Life, in Public Trust,
Was Wise and Kind, was Generous and Just.

In Virtue's rigid Path unmoved he trod,

To Self Impartial, pious to his God.

Religion's Patron, and a Patriot True,

A general Good, and private blessing too.

What Bonnel was, and what his Virtues were,

The Resurrection day will best declare.

Joseph Bonnel, Esq., deceased March y° 14, 1747-8, in yo 63d year of

his age.

He was repeatedly chosen, from 1716 to 1743, to represent the town in the General Assembly. In 1738, he was chosen Speaker, and the same year appointed Second Judge of the Supreme Court.

In 1748, the Lottery mania infected all classes of the community. Not less than eight different schemes, for raising money for public purposes in New Jersey, were advertised in the papers of New York and Philadelphia. Two of them related entirely to this town. The first was called "the Elizabeth-Town Raway Lottery." The object was "To raise a Sum of Money [£1050] for building a Parsonage-House," at Rahway. It consisted "of 1500 Tickets at 14s. each." The prizes were £60, and £40, one each; 3, of £20; 4, of £17; 5, of £10; 10, of £7; 20, of £5; 60, of £2. 10. 0, and 200, of £1. 8. 0. It was drawn at Rahway, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 2 and 3, 1748, "under the Care and Management of John Ross, Esq., Thomas Clark, Esq., Jonathan Freeman, Elifelet Frazee, Stephen Burrows and Josiah Terrill." *

A similar "Scheme of a Lottery in Turkey, in Elizabeth Town," was advertised, Aug. 8, 1748, "to raise a sum of Money [£152. 5. 0.] for building a Parsonage-House, consisting of 1450 Tickets at 14s. each." The highest prize was £30: "The Drawing to commence on or before the first Tuesday in November next, at the House of Benjamin Pettit, Esq; in Turkey, if filled by that Time, under the Care and Management of Messrs. Benjamin Pettit, David Day, Elnathan Cory, John Badgley, Nathaniel Davis and Josiah Broadwell." +

To such an extent was society demoralized by this pernicious custom, that the Legislature of the Province, near the close of the year, Dec. 16, 1748, passed a stringent act against Lotteries and all other kinds of gambling; prefixing to the Act the following admirable Preamble:

Whereas Lotteries, playing of Cards and Dice, and other Gaming for Lucre of Gain, are become of late frequent and common within this Colony, *N. Y. Weekly Post Boy, Nos. 273, 4, 8, 288, 290.

N. Y. Weekly Post Boy, No. 290.

whereby many Persons have unjustly gained to themselves great Sums of Money from unwary Persons, as well as Children and Servants, tending to the manifest Corruption of Youth, and the Ruin and Impoverishment of many poor Families: And whereas such pernicious Practices and Desire of unlawful Gain may not only give frequent Opportunities to evil-minded Persons to cheat and defraud divers of the honest Inhabitants of this Colony, but may in Time, if not prevented, ruin the Credit thereof, and be a Hindrance to Trade and Industry, and a great Temptation to Vice, Idleness and Immorality, and consequently against the common Good, Welfare and Peace of his Majesty's Government: Wherefore, &c. *

The law, however, was evaded by drawing the lotteries in a neighboring province, though the tickets were sold and purchased in this province.

The celebrated Swedish Naturalist, Prof. Kalm, in his Botanical Explorations of these provinces, visited this part of the country in 1748. On his way from Philadelphia to New York, he tarried here a night and was gone in the morning. He came to New Brunswick, at noon on Saturday, the 29th of October, and proceeded north the same afternoon. After passing the forks of the road, eight miles this side of New Brunswick, at "Fairfield," he says:

The country now made a charming appearance; some parts being high, others forming vallies, and all of them well-cultivated. From the hills you had a prospect of houses, farms, gardens, cornfields, forests, lakes, islands, roads, and pastures. In most of the places where we traveled this day the colour of the ground was reddish. I make no doubt, but there were strata of the before-mentioned red linestone under it. Sometimes the ground looked very like a cinnabar ore.

WOOD-BRIDGE is a small village in a plain, consisting of a few houses: we stopped here to rest our horses a little. The houses were most of them built of boards; the walls had a covering of shingles on the outside; these shingles were round at one end, and all of a length in each row: some of the houses had an Italian roof, but the greatest part had roofs with pediments; most of them were covered with shingles. In most places we met with wells, and buckets to draw up the water.

ELIZABETH-TOWN is a small town about twenty English miles distant from New Brunswick: we arrived there immediately after sun-setting. Its houses are mostly scattered, but well-built, and generally of boards, with a roof of shingles, and walls covered with the same. There were likewise some stone buildings. A little rivulet passes through the town

Allinson's Laws of N. J., p. 187.

from west to east; it is almost reduced to nothing when the water ebbs away, but with the full tide they can bring up small yachts. Here were two fine churches, each of which made a much better appearance than any one in Philadelphia. That belonging to the people of the church of England was built of bricks, had a steeple with bells, and a balustrade round it, from which there was a prospect of the country. The meetinghouse of the presbyterians was built of wood, but had both a steeple and bells, and was, like the other houses, covered with shingles. The town house made likewise a good appearance, and had a spire with a bell. The banks of the river were red, from the reddish limestone; both in and about the town were many gardens and orchards; and it might truly be said, that Elizabeth-town was situated in a garden, the ground hereabouts being even and well-cultivated.

At night we took up our lodgings at Elizabeth-town Point, an inn, about two English miles distant from the town, and the last house on this road belonging to New Jersey. The man who had taken the lease of it, together with that of the ferry near it, told us that he paid a hundred and ten pounds of Pennsylvania currency to the owner.

Oct. 30th. We were ready to proceed on our journey at sun-rising. Near the inn where we had passed the night, we were to cross a river, and we were brought over, together with our horses, in a wretched halfrotten ferry. The country was low on both sides of the river, and consisted of meadows. But there was no other hay to be got, than such as commonly grows in swampy grounds; for as the tide comes up in this river, these low plains were sometimes overflowed when the water was high. The people hereabouts are said to be troubled in summer with immense swarms of gnats or musquetoes, which sting them and their cattle. This was ascribed to the low swampy meadows, on which these insects deposit their eggs, which are afterwards hatched by the heat.*

An exciting incident occurred in 1750, which deeply stirred the growing, though yet latent, hostility to British domination. It is best related in the words of the weekly chronicler of that period:

N. York, June 11, 1750.-Thursday last [7th] as Col. William Rickets of Elizabeth Town, with his Wife and Family were going home from this City in his own Boat, accompanied by some of his Friends, they unfortunately left the Burgee flying at their Mast Head; and on their coming abreast of his Majesty's Ship Greyhound, then lying in the North River, a Gun was fired from on board her; but they not apprehending it to be at them, took no Notice of it, on which a second directly followed; and the Shot passing through the Boat's Mainsail, struck a young Woman, Nurse

Peter Kalm's Travels in North Am., I. 181-3.

to one of Col. Ricket's Children, in the Head, and killed her on the Spot; she had the Child in her Arms, which happily received no Hurt. The Boat on this immediately put back to this City. And the Coroner's Inquest being summon'd, and Evidences on both Sides examin'd, they brought it in Wilful Murder. *

The name of the nurse was Elizabeth Stibben; it turned out, that "she expired a few hours afterwards." The Greyhound was a Ship of War, under the command of Capt. Robert Roddam, a son-in-law of George Clinton, Governor of the Province of New York. The Captain was on shore at the time, having left the vessel in charge of Lieut. John How, by whom the swivel gun was pointed. The gun was fired by James Park, the Gunner's Mate. Col. Wm. Rickets was the son of Capt. Wm. Rickets, dec, of New York. Clinton speaks of him, as "a hot headed rash young man :" in other words, probably, a young man of spirit, little inclined to bow down to the British officials of the day, and, like a multitude of other such young Americans, exceedingly galled by the lordly exactions of their imported rulers. Clinton says, that he had passed the Greyhound the day before without lowering his pendant, and, before leaving the city wharf, on his return, had declared that he would do it again in spite of the man-of-war. The affair took place "between Nutten [Governor's] Island and the great Battery."

The democratic party, of which Chief Justice Delancy was the head, took advantage of the sad event, to bring the administration into disrepute, and awaken popular indignation against the despotism by which the people were oppressed. Delancy imprisoned the Gunner's Mate for Murder; and a Habeas Corpus, demanded by Capt. Roddam, was refused by Bradley, the Attorney General. Lieut. How was sent "home" for trial, while Parks was kept in prison at New York, as late as July 27th. How his case terminated does not appear. The indignation and excitement of Ricketts' townsmen, of course, was intense. Much of it was smothered, only to break forth, in due time, with greatly-increased power.†

*N. Y. Weekly Post Boy, No. 886.

↑ N. Y. Col. Doemts., VI. 571-6; 553–6. N. J. Hist. Soc. Coll. IV. 64.