SECOND SERIES. 
 
 Vol. VII. 1883. No. 3 
 
 Trenton, January 18th, 1883. 
 
 The Society held its thirty-eighth annual meeting in the 
 Supreme Court room, in the State House, the Rev. Samuel 
 M. Hamill, D. D., President, being- chair. 
 President Hon. John T. Ntxox being also present. 
 
 The minutes of the last meeting were read by the Record- 
 ing Secretary, and approved. 
 
 The Corresponding Secretary submitted the letters 
 received since the last meeting, many of them of much inter- 
 est. Some he read, and of others he gave a brief statement 
 of their contents, and of the answers returned. Messrs. E. J. 
 Anderson, Samuel C. Brown and Oliver P. Steves, of Tren- 
 ton: Livingston Rutherfurd, Alfred Ely and Anthony Q. 
 Keasbey, of Newark; M. T. Endicott, of May’s Landing; Rev. 
 Oliver Crane, of Morristown, accepted their elections as Resi- 
 lient Members. Rev. Frederick T. Brown, of Manascpian, 
 declined. Hons. Justin S. Morrill, United States Senator 
 from Vermont ; Samuel A. Green, Mayor of Boston; John 
 Ward Dean, of Boston, and Bishop Cortlandt Whitehead, of 
 
118 V .*•. IN TKENTON. 
 
 • •••••••:/::-:: : 
 
 PittsbJirglj, acknowledged and accepted the Honorary Mem- 
 berslifpV* Conferred. p$bi;££&i£ Messrs. John K. Allen, of 
 Lansing jjlftht; JdrpQtfrp S* Cfonover, of Geneva, H. Y., and 
 F. A. Baldwin,* ©f .Ajflffttiwn, made inquiries after their an- 
 cestry connected with the early history of the State. Mr. 
 Lewis S. Patrick, of Marinette, Wisconsin, inquired after 
 the Ludington family, and Mr. L. C. Draper, of Wisconsin, 
 about Samuel and Joshua Vail, at one time of Morristown. 
 Communications from forty-one historical and other literary 
 institutions acknowledged the receipt of the Society’s publi- 
 cations. Hon. Phineas Jones, M. C., tendered his services in 
 obtaining public documents. The Astor Library, Hew York; 
 H. S. Department of the Interior; Brooklyn Library; Edison 
 Light Company; Rev. J. F. Tuttle, D. D., of Indianapolis, 
 111.; Morristown Jerseyman ; Messrs. Fowler & Lummis 
 transmitted donations for the Library. The Maryland His- 
 torical Society solicited books and papers referring to that 
 State, to be deposited in its library. Miss Anna M. Wood- 
 hull and Mr. W. W. Evans wrote respecting the publication of 
 the memoir of General White, by the former, and the Histori- 
 cal Society of Pennsylvania made inquiries after the character 
 and extent of the MSS. of Samuel Smith, the historian, which 
 are in the Society’s Library. J. E. Stillwell, M. D., of Hew 
 York, made inquiries after the portrait of Aaron Burr in the 
 Society’s possession. John Ward Dean, Librarian of Hew 
 England Historical and Genealogical Society, of Boston, 
 transmitted information relative to a proposed issue of a work 
 on “English Records, and Hew England Families.” Elias 
 M. Bliss, Corresponding Secretary of the Bennington Histori- 
 cal Society, wrote, requesting the aid of the Society to secure 
 the passage of a bill before Congress appropriating money 
 toward the erection of memorials of the Revolution. Mr. 
 Helson, the Recording Secretary of the Society, transmitted 
 a copy of the inscription on the tombstone of the father of 
 Robert Erskine, identified with the early mining operations in 
 the northern part of the State, which he had found in Dry- 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 119 
 
 burgh Abbey. Mr. W m. H. Holmes,* of the National Museum, 
 Washington, inquired after the manufacture of Indian Wam- 
 pum in New Jersey. A. D. Schenck, of the 2d Artillery, 
 United States Army, gave the parentage of Catharine Van 
 Brugh, the wife of the Rev. William Tennent. Edwin 
 Salter, of Washington, advocated the celebration of the ap- 
 proaching bi-centennial of the New Jersey Legislature, and 
 various communications from different gentlemen related to 
 miscellaneous subjects. The extent of the correspondence 
 indicated the estimation in which the operations and pro- 
 ceedings of the Society are held. 
 
 The Treasurer made a report of the receipts and expen- 
 ditures on account of the different funds of the Society; the 
 balance of cash available for general expenses being $1,781.20. 
 
 The Executive Committee reported that on this occasion 
 they had nothing of a special nature to present, and regretted 
 that they could not announce such improvements in the con- 
 dition of the Society as would have resulted had their appeals 
 made in previous reports been favorably considered. The 
 Committee on the Library, in their report, would show that 
 their exertions to carry out the wishes of the Society by the 
 formation of a permanent fund, whence to meet certain 
 expenditures, had not been successful, and it remains for 
 the members to decide upon the propriety of further pros- 
 ecuting their plans in that direction. The Library has 
 received many valuable contributions during the year, from 
 individuals and kindred institutions; but the funds on hand 
 have not admitted of the purchase of many volumes that 
 were desirable to supply vacancies. 
 
 The Committee left the subject of the Finances to the 
 careful consideration of the members, as a matter in which 
 all should be interested. “ It would seem to be obligatory,” 
 said the Committee, “upon all connected with the Society to 
 use their influence in every way likely to insure greater use- 
 fulness, and especially by adding to the number of its mem- 
 
 bz-nso 
 
120 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTOlL 
 
 hers,” and in this connection they are led to quote the advice 
 of the Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D., proffered to the founders 
 of the Society in 1845: “Search for men who are never idle; 
 who love labor; and above all, who love to labor for the public 
 good;'' the venerable divine concluding his advice to those 
 who love the cause the Society was intended to subserve, not 
 to rely too much upon others, “but be ever on the watch to 
 do all they can themselves, as if they were the only members/’ 
 
 The Committee, on Publications reported the issue of 
 another number of the “ Proceedings,” since the last meeting; 
 being No. 2 of Volume VII, Second Series, bringing the 
 printed records down to the present time. 
 
 The Committee on the Library reported that “the 
 Donations to the Library received since the May meeting, 
 from societies and individuals, have been eighty- two bound 
 volumes, one hundred and seventy-nine pamphlets and twenty- 
 three manuscripts, many of them of much interest; but the 
 number is not as large as the Committee have had the pleasure 
 to acknowledge on previous occasions. It was proposed, 
 when the Society was formed, that there should be one mem- 
 ber, at least, elected from each county who should feel it to 
 be his duty, as well as his pleasure, to secure, by every means 
 in his power, books and papers referring to the history of 
 such counties, to be deposited in the Library of the Society. 
 It is desirable to have such a course pursued now. 
 
 “ The Committee regret that they cannot make as favorable 
 a report of the condition of the Library Fund as the needs 
 of the Society render desirable. The circular which they 
 reported at the last meeting, and which met the approval of 
 the Society, was generally distributed among the members, 
 but the responses received were far short of the expectations 
 reasonably entertained, both as to the number of subscribers 
 and the amount contributed. 
 
 “ All the subscriptions for the year were paid, and there 
 remained available for 1883 only $175; the result of seven 
 subscriptions unexpired. The Committee await the instruc- 
 
MEETING iN TRENTON. 
 
 121 
 
 tions of the Society as ‘to continuing their exertions in this or 
 any other plan, to secure the very desirable object in view. 
 There seems to be no good reason why the New Jersey His- 
 torical Society should not meet with success in securing a 
 small endowment, when kindred institutions in other States 
 are furnished with buildings, and money sufficient to advance 
 their efforts, through the abundant liberality of individuals.” 
 
 On motion of Mr. W. A. Whitehead, it was 
 
 Resolved, That the Committee on the Library be requested to continue 
 their exertions to secure an increase of the Library Fund in any way they 
 may think advisable. 
 
 The Committee on Colonial Documents reported that 
 since the last meeting two more volumes of the Archives 
 (Vol. V and VI) had been printed. These included all the 
 documents it was thought proper to preserve in this form, of 
 dates down to 1747. They submitted a copy of their letter 
 to Governor Ludlow, informing him of the progress made, 
 and asking for his influence in obtaining further appropria- 
 tions from the Legislature, the work in which they were 
 engaged being for the State. In this connection it should be 
 stated that the Hon. Bennington F. Randolph, of Jersey City, 
 had written to the Secretary: “It is important to urge the 
 continued publication by the State, of the historical materials 
 which have been collected by gentlemen who have bestowed 
 much time, care and labor in their preparation. The expense 
 is not great. The State can as well afford to finish the publi- 
 cation now as at any future time. The materials proposed 
 for publication will shed light and afford information, bear- 
 ing on private titles to real estate, on questions connected 
 with State domain, State boundary and State and local gov- 
 ernment and authority.” 
 
 The Committee on Nominations reported the names of 
 gentlemen that had been referred to them, with a recommend- 
 ation that they should be elected. , They were then balloted 
 for and elected. 
 
122 
 
 meeting in trexton. 
 
 ^Hfmbrrs (Gcctrrt sjJanuarjj is, iS83. 
 
 RESIDENT MEMBERS. 
 
 Peter Ballantine, 
 
 Amzi Dodd, 
 
 Rev. Edward H. Camp, 
 
 E. L. B. Godfrey, M.D., 
 John S. Irick, 
 
 George H. Lambert, 
 Theodore Macknet, - 
 John R. McPherson, 
 Nathan S. Roe, - 
 A. Pennington Whitehead, 
 
 Newark. 
 
 - Newark. 
 Newark. 
 
 - Camden. 
 Vincentown. 
 
 - Newark. 
 Newark. 
 
 - Jersey City. 
 Filmore, Monmouth Co. 
 
 Newark. 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBERS. 
 
 William Bross, ----- Chicago, III. 
 Grover Cleveland, - - - Albany, N. Y. 
 
 HONORARY MEMBERS. 
 
 Hamilton Fish, ----- New York. 
 Horace Porter, ------ New York. 
 
 The President announced the Standing Committees for the 
 ensuing year, as follows: 
 
 Finances — Joseph N. Tuttle, L. Spencer Goble, Charles 
 E. Young, Elias N. Miller, James D. Orton. 
 
 Publications — W. A. Whitehead, S. H. Pennington, M.D., 
 John Hall, D.D., Joseph N. Tuttle, George W. Atherton. 
 
 Library — Stephen Wickes, M.D., Robert F. Ballantine, 
 W. A. Whitehead, Frederick W. Ricord, Aaron Lloyd. 
 
 Statistics — N. Norris Halsted, F. W. Jackson, Arthur 
 Ward, M.D., William Nelson, William S. Stryker. 
 
 On Nominations — William Nelson, Rev. Robert B. Camp- 
 field, Garret D. AY. Vroom. 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 123 
 
 On motion of Mr. R. Wayne Parker, it was 
 
 Resolved, That it be referred to the Committee on the Publication of 
 Colonial Documents, to inquire as to the character of the documents relat- 
 ing to our colonial history, to which Mr. Benjamin F. Stevens has lately 
 obtained access in England, with power to take such measures, in their 
 discretion, as will tend to secure copies of such of them as may refer to the 
 State of New Jersey. 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this Society it is highly important that 
 a complete copy of all documents in the English record offices, relating to 
 all the American colonies should be accessible in America, and that a 
 committee of three be appointed by the Chair to urge upon the United 
 States authorities such action as will obtain such copies for the Congres- 
 sional Library, and if possible, cause the same to be printed. 
 
 The President appointed R. W. Parker, John T. Nixon 
 and Marcus L. Ward as the committee authorized in the last 
 resolution. 
 
 Referring to a bill before Congress for the purposes named, 
 brought specially to the notice of the Secretary by the Ben- 
 nington Historical Society, Mr. Whitehead offered the 
 following resolutions which were adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That the New Jersey Historical Society has observed with 
 great satisfaction, the action of the United States Congress, in aiding 
 associations in the erection of monuments to commemorate the battles 
 of the American Revolution, and earnestly hopes that such favorable 
 legislation may be had in future that all important fields, where the blood 
 of our patriot fathers was heroically consecrated to bring this nation into 
 existence, may be marked by appropriate monuments, and that like legis- 
 lation may be had to aid associations designed to preserve memorials of 
 other important events during that period. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded to the 
 Senators and Representatives of New Jersey. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Allinson read to the Society a communica- 
 tion from the Department of the Interior, which he had 
 received, relative to the emigration from New Jersey, of 
 certain Delaware Indians, natives of the State; for which the 
 thanks of the Society were returned to Mr. Allinson, and the 
 document referred to the Committee on Publications. 
 
124 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 The President haying appointed Messrs. Dr. C. L. Pearson, 
 J. H. Stewart and Rev. A. H. Brown a committee to nominate 
 officers for the ensuing year, they reported the following 
 gentlemen, who were thereupon elected: 
 
 President — Samuel M. Hamill, D.D., Lawrenceville. 
 
 Vice-Presidents— John T. Nixon, Trenton; John Clement, 
 Haddonfield; Samuel H. Pennington, M.D., Newark. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary — Wm A. Whitehead, Newark. 
 
 Recording Secretary — Wm. Nelson, Paterson. 
 
 Treasurer and Librarian — Fred. W. Ricord, Newark. 
 
 Executive Committee — Marcus L. Ward, Newark; Rev. 
 George S. Mott, D.D., Flemington; Samuel Allinson, Yard- 
 ville; N. Norris Halsted, Kearny; Joel Parker, Freehold; 
 Joseph N. Tuttle, Newark; John F. Hageman, Princeton; 
 David A. Depue, Newark; Nathaniel Niles, Madison. 
 
 Rev. Allen H. Brown presented the manuscript of an 
 “Oration on the Death of George Washington, by the Rev. 
 Abijah Davis, delivered at Cold Spring, Cape May County, New 
 Jersey, 1799,” to be deposited in the Library of the Society. 
 
 Mr. Lewis Gasson presented a copy of “Post-Bellum 
 Campaigns, 1881-1882.” 
 
 A paper was then read by Mr. R. Wayne Parker, of 
 Newark, on “ Money and Taxes in East New Jersey,” which 
 was listened to with much interest. 
 
 On motion of Rev. Dr. Mott, the thanks of the Society 
 were tendered to Mr. Parker, and he was requested to furnish 
 a copy for the archives of the Society. 
 
 After some remarks from Samuel H. Hunt, Rev. Dr. Mott 
 and the Corresponding Secretary, upon the advantages 
 likely to be gained by the erection of a building for the 
 Society, the subject was referred to the Executive Committee 
 for consideration. 
 
 The Society then adjourned, to meet in Newark on the 
 third Thursday of May next. 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 125 
 
 imitations to tUc pbwry ami (i'abiuct, 
 
 Announced January 18th, 1883. 
 
 From Authors — John K. Allen: Personal Sanitary Responsi- 
 bilities. — Rev. C. D, Bradlee , D. D ., of Boston: Poem at 
 the Floral Festival of the Sunday School at Harrison 
 Square, Boston. — W. Earl Cass: New Jersey Weather Re- 
 view’. — J. J. DeArmas , St. Domingo: Las Cenizas de Chris- 
 tobal Colon. — E. J. Donnell: Slavery and Protection. — 
 Franklin P. Rice: Worcester Town Records from 1775 to 
 1783. — Leicis Richards: Sketch of the Descendants of Owen 
 Richards. — G. D. Scull: The Evelyns in America. — Gen. 
 Philip H. Sheridan: Record of Engagements with Hostile 
 Indians within the Military Division of the Missouri, from 
 1868 to 1882. — Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle , D. D.: Annals of 
 Morris County, New Jersey; Semi-Centennial Collections 
 of Morris County. 
 
 From United States Department of Agriculture: Report upon 
 the Condition of Winter Grain, and Condition of Farm 
 Animals of the United States, April and May, 1882; Flor- 
 ida, its Climate, Soil, Productions, etc. ; Report upon the 
 Acreage and Condition of Cotton, and of all Cereals, 1882 ; 
 Reports upon the Area and Condition of Corn, Cotton, 
 Small Grains, Sorghum, Tobacco, etc., 1882; Silos and 
 Ensilage; Report of Commissioner of Agriculture for the 
 year 1882; Report upon the Product and Price of Principal 
 Crops of 1882; also Freight Rates, etc. 
 
 From United States Bureau of Education: Circulars of In- 
 formation of the Bureau of Education, No. 6, 1881, Nos. 1, 
 2 and 3, 1882; Instructions in Moral and Civil Government; 
 Pedagogic Congress of Spain; Natural Science in Secondary 
 Schools. 
 
 18 
 
126 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 From United States Department of the Interior: Of the 45th 
 Congress, 2d Session, Senate Documents, No. 12; Report 
 on Coast Survey; Of the 46th Congress, 2d Session, Senate 
 Executive Documents, Vols. 1 and 5; Miscellaneous Docu- 
 ments, Yols. 1 and 2; House Executive Documents, Yols. 1, 3, 
 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 21, 22, 24; Reports of Committees, 
 Yols. 1 to 5; Of the 46th Congress, 3d Session, Senate 
 Journal; Executive Documents, Yols. 1 and 3; Reports of 
 Committees, Yols. 1 and 2; Journal of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, Yol. 1; Executive Documents, Yols. 13 and 20 
 to 27; Reports of Committees, Yols. 1 and 2; Official Reg- 
 ister of the United States; List of Congressional Documents 
 from the 20th to 46th Congress inclusive; United States 
 Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, by J. W. Powell, Yol. 4; Report of Census of 1860 
 on Agriculture; also on Mortality and Miscellaneous Sta- 
 tistics. 
 
 From United States Patent Office: Official Gazette of the 
 Patent Office, Yol. 21, Nos. 19 to 26; Yol. 22, Nos. 1 to 24; 
 Alphabetical Lists of Patentees, and Inventions for the half- 
 year ending December, 1881, also for the half-year ending 
 June, 1882. 
 
 From United States Bureau of Statistics: Quarterly Reports 
 of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, relative to Exports, 
 Imports, Immigration, and Navigation of the United States 
 for 1881 and 1882. 
 
 From United States War Department: Catalogue of the War 
 Department Library; Annual Report of the Adjutant Gen- 
 eral to the General of the Army, 1882; Report to the Sec- 
 retary of War, 1882; Itinerary of the Army of the Potomac 
 and co-operating forces, in the Gettysburg Campaign, in 
 1863. 
 
 From United States Coast and Geodetic Survey: Report of 
 the Superintendent, showing the progress during the fiscal 
 year ending with June, 187S; Appendix to Report for 
 1880; Report for the year 1879. 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 127 
 
 From Smithsonian Institution: Report of the Board of Re- 
 gents for 1863, 1864 and 1875; First Annual Report of the 
 Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
 Institution, 1881. 
 
 From Societies . — American Antiquarian Society: Proceed- 
 ings of the same, April 26, 1882. — American Museum of 
 Natural History: Report of 1882; Bulletin No. 1. — Ameri- 
 can Philosophical Society: Proceedings of,Vol. XX, No. 3. — 
 Astor Library: Memoirs, etc., of Thomas Moore, 8 vols. — 
 Brooklyn Library: Analytical and Classical Catalogue of. — 
 Cayuga County , N. Y., Historical Society: Collections of, 
 No. 2. — Delaware Historical Society: Memoirs of John M. 
 Clayton, by Joseph P. Comegysr — Essex Institute: Histor- 
 ical Collections, Yol. XIX, Nos. 1 to 6; Bulletin of the 
 same, Vol. XIV, Nos. 1 to 6. — Illinois Association of Sons 
 of Vermont: Annual Reports of. — Long Island Historical 
 Society: Proceedings of, May 9, 1882 .—Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society: Collections of, Yol. VIII, 5th Series. — 
 Minnesota Academy of Natural Science: Bulletin of, Vol. 
 II, Nos. 2 and 3. — Mitchell Library , of Glasgoiv: Report 
 on, 1882. — Neiv England Historical and Genealogical So- 
 ciety: Memorial Biographies, Yol. II; Historical and Gen- 
 ealogical Register, Yol. XXXVI, Nos. 143, 144 and 145. — 
 New Bedford Public Library: Report of Trustees, 1881. — 
 New York Bible Society: Annual Report of, 1882. — New 
 York Historical Society: Collections for the Year 1878. — 
 Neiv York Genealogical and Biographical Society: Genea- 
 logical and Biographical Record, Yol. XIII, Nos. 3 and. 4. — 
 New York Mercantile Library: Annual Report, 1882. — 
 Pennsylvania Historical Society: The Pennsylvania Maga- 
 zine of History and Biography, Yol.YI, Nos. 2 and 3; The 
 Remains of William Penn. — Pennsylvania and Neiv Jersey 
 Genealogical Association: Our Ancestors. Yol. I, No. 1. — 
 Philadelphia Mercantile Library: Bulletin, Yol. I, No. 1. — 
 Philadelphia Library Company: Bulletin, New Series, No. 
 10. — Royal Historical Society of Canada: List of Members 
 
128 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 and Minutes of the Proceedings of May, 1882. — Royal His- 
 torical Society of London: Transactions of, Vol. X. — Royal 
 University of Norway: Kong Christiern den Forstes 
 Norske Historic; Kong Karl XIV, Johan; Myntfundet 
 fra Graeslid i Thydalen, and several other pamphlets. — 
 Virginia Historical Society: The Official Letters of Alex- 
 ander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of 
 Virginia; Proceedings of 1882. — Wyoming Historical and 
 Genealogical Society: Proceedings of, for 1882. 
 
 From Colleges. — Princeton College: Catalogus eorum qui 
 munera et officia gesserunt quique alicujus gradus laurea 
 donati sunt in. — Yale College: Some Statements concerning 
 the late Progress and present Condition of the University; 
 Obituary Record of the Graduates of Yale College during 
 the year ending June, 1882; In Memoriam, Joseph E. 
 Shepperd; Catalogue of the Officers and Students for 
 1882-83. 
 
 From State of Massachusetts: Acts and Resolves of the Prov- 
 ince of the Massachusetts Bay, Vol. IV. 
 
 From City of Boston: Report of the Trustees of the City 
 Hospital of Boston; Report of the Board of Health for 
 1881-82; Fortieth Anniversary of the Election of Washing- 
 ton P. Gregg as Clerk of the Common Council of Boston, 
 
 1882. x 
 
 From City of Newark: Annual Message of Mayor Lang, with 
 Reports of City Officers for 1882. 
 
 From John K. Allen: The Force Value of Foods; Report of 
 the Superintendent of the Poor, etc., of Michigan, and 
 other pamphlets. 
 
 From George W. Barber: Report of Northwestern Branch 
 of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. 
 
 From Rev . C. D. Bradlee , D. D.: Sermon at Installation of 
 the Rev. T. Starr King; View of Boston Storage Ware- 
 houses; Report of City Hospital, Boston; Thanksgiving 
 Proclamation. 
 
 From Ernest E. Coe: The Education and Employment of 
 Women, by J. E. Butler, with miscellaneous pamphlets. 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 129 
 
 From George S. Conover : Twenty- two old Manuscript Deeds, 
 and other papers relating to Monmouth County, N. J. 
 
 From J. B. Davis: Minutes of the 59th Annual Session of 
 the Synod of New Jersey, 1882. 
 
 From Daniel Draper: Abstracts of Registers from Self-Record- 
 ing Instruments, at New York Meteorological Observatory; 
 Annual Tables for 1881. 
 
 From Rev . John Ewing: Historical Sketch of Presbyterian 
 Church, Clinton,) N. J. 
 
 From Hon. S. A. Green, M. D., of Boston: Catalogues of 
 Annual Fair of New England Manufacturers’ and Mechan- 
 ics’ Institution; Reply of E. P. Alexander to Railroad Com- 
 mission of Alabama; Report of News Boys’ Reading-room, 
 Boston. 
 
 From Prof. W. Hasbrouck : Reports of New Jersey State 
 Normal School for L879, 1880 and 1881. 
 
 From E. Q. Keasbey: The New Jersey Law Journal. 
 
 From George A. Mayhew: A Genealogical Dictionary of the 
 First Settlers of New England, by James Savage, 4 Yols, 
 8vo. 
 
 From Francis J . Meeker: Report of the Underwriters’ Pro- 
 tective Association, of Newark, N. J., for 1882; Memorial 
 Services in honor of J ames A. Garfield, held at Sea, on the 
 Steamship Scythia, Sept. 26, 1881. 
 
 From William Nelson: History of Bergen and Passaic Coun- 
 ties, N. J. ; Summary of the Laws of New Jersey in relation 
 to Public Bridges; Report of the Committee on Finance of 
 Chosen Freeholders of Passaic County, N. J.; Proceedings 
 of the Board of Freeholders of Passaic County, for the year 
 ending May, 1881; Parting Words to Broadway Reformed 
 Church, of Paterson, by Rev. Wm. H. Clark; American 
 Journal of Letters; Census of Paterson, N. J., 1827-32; 
 Annual Report of the City Officers of the City of Paterson 
 for the year ending March 20, 1882. 
 
 From Rev. S. D. Peet: American Antiquarian and Oriental 
 Journal, Vol. IV, No. 4. 
 
130 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 From Charles G. Rockivood: Quarter-Millennial Anniversary 
 of Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of New York. 
 
 From Edwin Salter : Memorial Services and Notices of 
 George W. Salter. 
 
 From E. Tejera : Restos de Colon. 
 
 From B. W. Throckmorton: Copy of a Letter from General 
 Washington to Governor Wharton, Lancaster Pa., on Pub- 
 lic Service, April 5, 1778. 
 
 From Rev. Joseph Y. Tuttle , D. D Hand-book of Mormon- 
 ism; Address at 10th Anniversary of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, of Salt Lake City; Semi-Centennial Week at 
 Wabash College, 1882; Semi-Centennial of Hopewell 
 Church, Indiana; In Memoriam, Samuel Orr of Evansville, 
 Indiana; In Memoriam, Philo Parker Jewett, LL. D. ; 
 First Annual Report of the Society of the 87th Indiana 
 Volunteer Infantry. 
 
 From, Wm. P. Vail , M. Dr The Moon Hoax, by Richard 
 Adams Locke. 
 
 From Stephen Wickes , M. D.: Report of the Case of Presi- 
 dent Garfield, with Account of the Autopsy, by D. W. 
 Bliss, M. D. 
 
 From General J. G. Wilson , of New York: Copy of a Letter 
 from George Washington to Lieutenant-Colonel White, 
 October 8, 1781, from the Original in possession of General 
 Wilson. 
 
 From Unknown: Manuscript Account between the United 
 States and Silas Crane, Collector of the District of Little 
 Egg Harbor, New Jersey, from 1805 to 1826; The Univer- 
 sity of the South, an Address by its Vice-Chancellor, Rev. 
 T. Hodgson; Address by Hon. Andrew J. Bartholomew at 
 the Reunion of the Descendants of Lieutenant Wm. Bar- 
 tholomew, 1882; Address at the Centennial Celebration of 
 the Settlement of Breckenridge County, Kentucky, by W. 
 C. P. Breckenridge. 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 131 
 
 from and IJapm Submitted 
 
 Letter from Hon . Justin S. Morrill , United States Senator 
 from Vermont. 
 
 Washington, D. C., May 27, 1882. 
 Dear Sir — Your note of the 19th inst., and the diploma, 
 showing* that I had been elected an Honorary Member of the 
 New Jersey Historical Society, have been received and highly 
 appreciated. The history of your State is of rare interest, 
 and is decorated with the fame of many distinguished men. 
 
 Please convey my thanks to your associates for the honor 
 conferred, and I am. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 JUSTIN S. MORRILL. 
 
 W. A. Whitehead, Esq., 
 
 Cor. Sec., N. J. Historical Society. 
 
 Letter from Hon. Samuel A. Green . 
 
 Mayor’s Office, { 
 
 City Hall, Boston, May 22, 1882. f 
 
 W. A. Whitehead, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the New 
 Jersey Historical Society : 
 
 Dear Sir — Your letter of the 19th inst., informing me of 
 my election as an Honorary Member of the New Jersey His- 
 torical Society, and the copy of the Constitution and By-laws 
 of the Society, were duly received this morning. It gives me 
 great pleasure to accept the membership, and I feel highly 
 honored by it. I trust that you will call on me for any 
 service which the acceptance implies. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 SAMUEL A. GREEK. 
 
132 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 Letter from John Ward Dean, Esq. 
 
 Society’s House, ) 
 
 18 Somerset Street, Boston Mass., > 
 Saturday, May 27, 1882. ) 
 
 W. A. Whitehead, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the New 
 Jersey Historical Society : 
 
 Dear Sir — Yours of the 19th inst., informing me of my 
 election as an Honorary Member of the New Jersey Historical 
 Society, has been received. Please convey to the Society my 
 acceptance of said membership, and my hearty thanks for the 
 high honor done me. It gives me much satisfaction to be 
 connected with a society that has done so much for the pres- 
 ervation of the history of our common country, and whose 
 roll of members embraces so many names celebrated in history, 
 science, literature and statesmanship. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 JOHN WARD DEAN. 
 
 Letter from Right Rev. Cortlandt Whitehead. 
 
 Bishop’s House, j 
 
 274 Ridsre Avenue, Allegheny, Pa., > 
 May 23, 1882. ‘ 1 
 
 Mr. W. A. Whitehead, Corresponding Secretary, etc. 
 
 Dear Sir — Your letter of the 19th inst., notifying me of 
 my election as an Honorary Member of the New Jersey His- 
 torical Society is received. 
 
 I accept the honor with thanks, and shall be happy to serve 
 the Society in any way possible. I have received also copy of 
 Constitution and By-laws, and certificate of membership, for 
 which please accept my thanks. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 CORTLANDT WHITEHEAD. 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 133 
 
 Communication from the United States Department of the 
 Interior . to Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen — relating 
 to certain Delaivare Indians, presented and read by Hr. 
 Samuel Allinson, of Yardville.* 
 
 Department of the Interior, \ 
 Office of Indian Affairs, j- 
 
 Washington, D. C., March 3, 1875. ) 
 
 Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 letter of the 18th ultimo, transmitting one from Samuel 
 Allinson, dated Yardville, New Jersey, February 15, 1875, in 
 which he sets forth that certain Delaware Indians, natives, of 
 New Jersey, emigrated to New York, and affiliated with the 
 Stockbridge Indians in 1802; that the united tribes, in 1824, 
 removed west to a tract of country bought from the Meno- 
 monee Indians on Fox river, and requesting information as 
 to the time they left Green Bay, in Wisconsin, to what point 
 they removed, and if they still hold their tribal relation. 
 
 The band of Delaware Indians referred to by Mr. Allinson, 
 as having joined the Stockbridge Indians in New York, were 
 confederated and enrolled with the Stockbridge and Munsee 
 Indians, when they removed to Green Bay from their home 
 on White river in Indiana. 
 
 During the strife between the citizen and Indian parties of 
 the various tribes at Green Bay, which culminated in 1838, a 
 portion of this confederated band (consisting of Stockbridges, 
 Munsees and Delawares) memorialized the authorities at 
 Washington for permission to remove west of the Mississippi 
 river. 
 
 The sixth article of the treaty concluded third of Septem- 
 ber, 1839, with the Stockbridge and Munsee Indians, provides 
 “ that whenever those, who are desirous of emigrating, shall 
 signify their wish to that effect, the United States will defray 
 the expenses of their removal west of the Mississippi, and 
 
 *This document is referred to in Mr. Allinsoii’s paper on the New 
 Jersey Indians, read before the Society, January 21st, 1875. 
 
 19 
 
134 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 furnish them with subsistence for one year after their arrival 
 at their new homes.” Hon. T. Hartley Crawford. Commis- 
 sioner of Indian Affairs, in his annual report, dated Novem- 
 ber 28, 1840, states, that “regardless of all preparation for 
 their transportation and subsistence; not aware (or, if they 
 were, indifferent about it), whether the President and Senate 
 would confirm the treaty, we find sixty-nine souls of the 
 Stockbridges, and one hundred and five of the Munsees and 
 Delawares, under the chief, Thomas T. Hendricks, of the 
 former, in the month of November, moving off from their old 
 residences to the southwest of Missouri, with as little cere- 
 mony as if they were changing their camp in the prairie or 
 forest. * * * * The Department was informed that six 
 
 more would emigrate last spring; and although not officially 
 advised of their arrival west, it is taken for granted they are 
 now there.” 
 
 Richard W. Cummins, United States Indian Agent, in a 
 letter to Major D. D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian 
 Affairs, St, Louis, Mo., dated Fort Leavenworth, September 
 12, 1842, reports: “This little band of Stockbridges, by 
 permission, settled on the Delaware lands near the Missouri 
 river, and about seven miles below Fort Leavenworth, some 
 time in February, 1840. Since that time they have built for 
 themselves a number of neat log cabins, I think the neatest 
 hewn logs and the neatest raised log cabins I ever have seen. 
 They have opened several small farms, and have this year 
 raised more Indian corn than they will need for their own 
 use. * * * The Christian Indians came with and, at the 
 
 same time the Stockbridges did, settled among the Delawares; 
 they built comfortable little cabins, and made small farms.” 
 
 In reply to office instructions issued August 9th, 1842, 
 Agent Cummins reports of Stockbridges and Munsees, and 
 Munsees and Delawares removed west of the Mississippi, one 
 hundred and eighty souls removed during the year, making- 
 present western population removed two hundred and seventy- 
 eight, leaving three hundred and twenty souls of these tribes 
 
MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 135 
 
 yet remaining east of tlie Mississippi. Daniel Miller, United 
 States Indian Agent for Fort Leavenworth Agency, under 
 date October 1st, 1843, reports that “the Munsees live among 
 the Delawares, and may he property included with that tribe.” 
 The Delawares here referred to are those who originally emi- 
 grated from the lower parts of Pennsylvania and the adjacent 
 parts of New Jersey, and were the primitive inhabitants 
 of that country, to the State of Ohio, but sold their coun- 
 try at the treaty of St. Mary’s, in 1818.” [See American 
 Arcliceologia , page 271; and Report of Rev. Jedediah Morse 
 to the Secretary of War, on Indian Affairs, page 90.] 
 
 The Stockbridges and Munsees began to decline from the 
 year 1848. Superintendent D. D. Mitchell, in a report dated 
 October 13th, 1849, stated that the Stockbridge and Munsee 
 or Christian Indians have resided, since 1840, on lands be- 
 longing to the Delawares, which they are unwilling longer to 
 permit without compensation. “Measures should betaken 
 to provide them with lands of their own. A few sections 
 would suffice and could be purchased at a very reasonable 
 rate. It would be better to purchase from the Delawares, so 
 as to leave these small industrious bands in possession of the 
 houses and lands they now occupy and which they have very 
 considerably improved.” 
 
 Thomas Mosley, Jr., United States Agent for the Kansas 
 Agency, in a letter to Col. D. D. Mitchell, Superintendent of 
 Indian Affairs, dated September 1, 1852, reports: “A few 
 Stockbridge Indians still residing in the Delaware country, 
 the number reduced to some eighteen or twenty — but three 
 men grown among them. The Delawares are opposed to their 
 living on their lands, as they are considered by them g bad. 
 worthless set of people; and the chiefs of the Delaware tribe 
 have on several occasions asked me to inform the United 
 States Government that they wished them removed to their 
 own tribe, wherever they might be located.” [This is the 
 last report given of the remnant of the band residing in 
 Kansas, and the probabilities are that they either returned to 
 
136 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
 the. tribe in Wisconsin or became extinct.] “ The Munsee 
 and Christian Indians are yet residing on the lands of the 
 Wyandots [purchased from the Delawares by an agreement 
 made December 14th, 1843, ratified July 25th, 1848,] as they 
 have done for the last six or eight years, but the Wyandots 
 have given them recently to understand that they must leave 
 during the ensuing fall and winter. * * * These Indians 
 
 are in rather a destitute condition as regards a home. It 
 would be a great act of kindness on the part of the Govern- 
 ment to assign them a home that they could call their own.” 
 Superintendent Francis Huebschman, under date of Septem- 
 ber 18th, 1854, referring to the tribe in Sliowano County, 
 Wisconsin, reports as follows: “The Stockbridges seem to 
 consist of the remnants of the Mahikennek tribe, with acces- 
 sions, by adoption, by purchase of interests in their lands, or 
 otherwise, of remnants of the Narragansett, Pequot, Penob- 
 scot and Delaware tribes or bands of Indians, an admixture 
 of some Avhite and some African blood, and of some persons 
 who seem to be of pure European and others of pure African 
 extraction. Their present number is about three hundred 
 and sixty.” The Munsees, in a treaty with the Delawares, 
 secured a tract of four sections, which they afterward sold in 
 1857, to A. J. Isacks. These Indians, by virtue of the treaty 
 made and concluded July 16th, 1850, with the Swan Creek 
 and Black River Chippewas and the Munsee or Christian In- 
 dians, were confederated with the said Chippewas, and in the 
 annual report dated November 30th, 1860, Commissioner 
 Greenwood states that forty acres of land each have been al- 
 lotted to eighty-four members of the united bands of Swan 
 Creek and Black River Chippewas and Christian or Munsee 
 Indians of Kansas, who have no power of alienation, but 
 merely hold the lands by certificates of allotments issued by 
 this Bureau. These leases are within the Chippewa Reserva- 
 tion in Franklin County, Kansas. 
 
 From the foregoing extracts I am led to conclude that the 
 Delaware Indians referred to in Mr. Allin son’s letter removed 
 
Meeting i N Trenton* 
 
 137 
 
 With the Stockbridges and Munsee^, .with, whm.n.’they confed- 
 erated, west of the Mississippi kj/ 4 8^0/ ‘living their homes 
 in November, 1839, and reaching their 4eetinatiori in Kansas 
 in February, 1840; that : beijoirie extinct;- so far as 
 
 refers to those who confectera£ed, .with 7Jiq* t Stdckbridges of 
 Kansas; that but few, if any, ^eipkin^jweF’wiflr the Stock- 
 bridges in Showano County, Wisconsin, or with the Munsees 
 or Chippewas in Franklin County, Kansas. 
 
 The communication of Mr. Allinson is herewith returned. 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 EDW. P. SMITH, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 
 Hon. F. T. Frelinghuysen, U. S. Senate . 
 
TREASURER’S REPORT. 
 
 138 
 
 MEETING IN TRENTON. 
 
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MEETING IN TRENTON. 139 
 
 ASSETS. 
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE. 
 
 1883. 
 
 Jan. 13, Property on Bank street $8,000 00 
 
 Books and furniture 7,000 00 
 
 Total real and personal estate $15,000 00 
 
 BARRON FUND. 
 
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 “ Newark “ “ 429 25 
 
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 Total Life Members’ Fund $1,632 69 
 
 AVAILABLE FOR CURRENT EXPENSES. 
 
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 “ Newark Banking Company... 427 52 
 
 Total 1,781 20 
 
 Total amount of assets. . . $23,434 38 
 
\ 
 
 » 
 
 TAXES AND MONEY 
 
 IN 
 
 ✓ 
 
 NEW JERSEY 
 
 BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 BY R. WAYNE PARKER. 
 
 A Paper read before the New Jersey Historical 
 Society , January 18 th y 1883. 
 

 
 
 paxt ■ 
 
 
TAXES AND MONEY IN NEW JERSEY. 
 
 It is as hard to realize the infancy of a State, as for a grown 
 man to think of himself as a child; to go back to the time 
 when powers were untrained and habits unformed, and to 
 believe in his childish griefs, quarrels, hopes and fears, w*eak- 
 ness and dependence. So, too, in the affairs of a State, it 
 is hard to look back to the days when New Jersey was an 
 almost unbroken forest, with a few inhabitants busy at whal- 
 ing, tar making, oystering, lumbering, or plain and simple 
 farming; when our cities were hamlets, our roads mere trails; 
 our industries confined to those of the simplest country life; 
 when our Governors w T ere mostly men sent from a distant land, 
 months away in point of communication; when those Gover- 
 nors, in consequence, were entirely out of sympathy with the 
 Quakers, Independents and Dutch Protestants that formed 
 most of our population, and whose jealousies of King and 
 Bishop were as fierce as the wrongs and contempt which they 
 had had to endure; when these jealousies and hatreds, amid 
 new and unsettled colonial governments and land-titles, 
 caused unceasing quarrel; when settlements were confined to 
 the sea coast, when French and Indians made constant advances 
 on the north and west, and when the connection of the Colo- 
 nies with the home country was endangered in England 
 itself by the strifes of Jacobites and Hanoverians. 
 
 But the child is the father of the man, and even in this in- 
 fant Colony can be discerned the growth of the industries that 
 now make the State chief for her size and population in indus- 
 
144 
 
 TAXES AX'D MONEY IN NEW JERSEY 
 
 trial energy. Yet such progress is hard to put into history. 
 We find reams of documents as to quarrels and riots, which, like 
 waves of the sea, made much disturbance, but interfered 
 little with the unseen ocean-currents of industry, of which 
 little record remains. Even the statutes are incomplete. 
 Some of the originals are lost. There is a single copy in the 
 State Library, but that is defective. Much information is to 
 be found in the English records and correspondence as kept 
 by the Lords of Trade and Plantations. A copy of such of 
 these records as referred to New Jersey, or seemed so to do, is 
 contained in some twenty volumes of MSS. in the State 
 Library, and selections are now being published. But in all 
 these materials we find little that is definite as to the condi- 
 tion of the people, except what can be deduced from colonial 
 finances and taxes. Figures are dry work, but it is from 
 figures only that we can read the romance of astronomy, 
 with its wondrous circles and cycles; and from figures only 
 can we trace the more wondrous and dark circles of human 
 progress. 
 
 England is now the commercial power of the globe, but she 
 was far from that when this State was settled. Her colonies 
 were young in the time of Charles II, while those of Spain 
 were old and flourishing. Holland was her more than suc- 
 cessful rival in war and peace, sending fleets even into the 
 Thames, and driving her navy from the seas. The East India 
 Company were a small corporation. Her manufactures were 
 contemptible. The Kingdom was impoverished by late civil 
 wars, and broken by factions. 
 
 Her finances were in awful disorder. The Crown took 
 presents from France, who then under Louis NIV was the 
 leading power of the Continent. The great credit system of 
 the National Debt and the Bank of England did not yet exist. 
 Spain controlled the gold and silver of theworld, and silver 
 was still the chief metal. The English Government was 
 bankrupt. It had confiscated the merchants’ funds in its 
 hands, and repudiated its seamen’s wages. Fire and plague 
 
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 145 
 
 had crippled London. The coin had been clipped and muti- 
 lated till it was often one-half or one-third its true value. 
 
 Macaulay has graphically described the brave and terrible 
 measure by which the coinage was reformed in England under 
 William III, and by which all the old clipped coin was ordered 
 out of circulation, and new milled pieces introduced. He has 
 described, too, the consequent distress, difficulty and absence 
 of all circulating medium, and the relief which finally ensued 
 from the new coin. But in the Colonies no such relief was 
 felt. The few shillings that they had could not be called 
 in immediately. Besides, here, as in the rest of the world, the 
 money in use was not so often the English shilling as the 
 dollar, which, under the various names of “ Pieces of Eight,” 
 “Mexican Pieces,” “ Portugals,” “Peruvian Pieces,” etc., 
 was the money of all Europe, and so continued until the 
 French Revolution. But for the debasement of the hard 
 dollar in Germany, Spain and Portugal, and its consequently 
 uncertain value, it would now have been the coin of the com- 
 mercial world, and was, therefore, selected by the framers of 
 our Constitution. It is since their day that France and Ger- 
 many have abandoned the debased rix-dollars (worth eighty 
 cents in Bremen, and but a few cents in Portugal), to intro- 
 duce the franc and mark. 
 
 But about the year 1700, in the reign of Queen Anne, the 
 dollar was the coin of the Colonies, exchangeable for shillings 
 at various rates, not, however, as now, for a little over four 
 shillings, but for six, eight and ten; the shilling not having 
 a real currency here, and being clipped, or otherwise muti- 
 lated and useless for foreign trade. 
 
 It would have done much perhaps for England if she had 
 made herself one with her Colonies by introducing here the 
 milled shilling and sterling money. But that seemed too 
 radical a measure for the weaker spirits who followed the 
 great William. Accordingly, the foundation of a separate 
 provincial coinage was laid, by a proclamation of Queen Anne, 
 in which our present silver dollar of seventeen pennyweights 
 
146 
 
 TAXES AKD MONEY IN NEW JERSEY 
 
 and a fraction of silver, under seven or eight different names, 
 was ordered to be taken at four shillings and six pence, and 
 no more, under heavy penalties. By this proclamation, 
 however, no real effect was produced. The dollar in silver 
 usually passed for at least six shillings, so that the shilling 
 was equal to sixteen and two-third cents, the pound to three 
 and one-third dollars, and the penny to a little under two 
 cents. Thus the Colonies were made in trade a foreign 
 country from England. 
 
 Of any money, however, there was little in the infant State. 
 It is hard to realize how weak and small we were for a 
 century and a half after the settlement of New Englancj., and 
 for fifty years after that emigration thence of 1660-1680, 
 which gave us the nucleus of our population. In 1673, West 
 Jersey sold for £1,000. Land was plenty, and (1677) seventy 
 acres apiece were given to emigrants. Two pence a year per 
 acre was the usual quit-rent in West Jersey for the best land. 
 Of any money, they had little. Indians were paid in wampum 
 or goods. Between themselves, the Colonists used “ leaver ” 
 pay (New Jersey Archives, 1685, p. 504), otherwise called 
 “country” pay, and £10 in such pay, or say $30, would clear 
 a servant of four years’ service. Taxes during a hundred 
 years could always be paid in wheat at a small deduction from 
 its price in New York or Philadelphia. 
 
 The population was small and exclusively devoted to trap- 
 ping,, lumbering and farming: for lumber, furs and a little 
 wheat were its only staples. In 1701 West Jersey had 832 
 freeholders. The whole State had about 16,000 inhabitants. 
 The growth was constant until at the Revolution there were 
 about 120,000. But there were no great centres as now. In 
 1726 there were about 30,000 people, of whom Monmouth 
 had 4,400; Middlesex, Essex, Burlington, Hunterdon and 
 Salem between 3,000 and 4,000 each; Somerset, 1,800; and 
 Cape May, 654. The relative population of these counties 
 was much the same up to the Revolution, though Hunterdon 
 was the growing county, raising in 1766, out of a tax-levy of 
 
Before the revolution. 
 
 147 
 
 £15.000, oyer £2.000; while Burlington and Monmouth iappear 
 for £1,600 odd; Middlesex and Somerset for £1,300; Essex 
 and Gloucester for £1,100; Salem and Morris for £1,000; 
 Bergen, including the now great cities of Hudson county, 
 for £996; Cumberland, £578 and Cape May, £250. 
 
 It was thus a scattered farming population, richest where 
 the land was best. The rest of the country was waste. In 
 1705 the woods are full of wild horses, and horse hunting is 
 in vogue (Archives, IV., 79). Our “Swinefield ” road in our 
 own county, tells of the old practice of driving swine and 
 cattle in the fall to the woods and meadows of the Great 
 Piece. The Statute-books of that day are full of acts against 
 letting horses run at large, and one curious act concerning 
 rams survives to this day. Only one-fifth of East Jersey lands 
 was located in 1770. In the returns of the Governors to 
 the Lords of Trade it is reiterated again and again that 
 there were no manufactures and no trade except through New 
 York and Philadelphia. A few iron mines were opened. 
 Some potash was made on trial. But the staples reported are 
 always the same — lumber, tar and wheat. 
 
 Nor was it a very productive population, measured by the 
 returns of commerce. The sugar and tobacco Colonies did a 
 large trade, and were highly prized by England. In 1718, 
 the Plantation exports to England were estimated at £1,000,- 
 000; of which New York sent only £27,000 and New Eng- 
 land, £41,000, while St. Christopher sent £88,000; Virginia 
 and Maryland, £317,000; Jamaica and Barbadoes together, 
 £595,000. The imports were in like proportion and amounted 
 to £700,000. The difference of £300,000 went to rich planta- 
 tion owners in England, and the Lords of Trade represent to 
 the King, as deductions from this table, that “the sugar and 
 tobacco Colonies are of greatest advantage, ;and deserve most 
 regard. The others are most populous, produce more of 
 what England does, and are capable of subsisting without 
 any dependence on it.” Besides, “ they supply the sugar 
 Colonies with provisions and manufactures which England 
 
148 
 
 taxes And money in new Jersey 
 
 had formerly the advantage of furnishing them, and carry 
 back sugar and other produce, which is consumed there, and 
 the benefit is lost ” The proportions of trade are now a hun- 
 dred-fold reversed, and why? Because, though little trade 
 came to New York or New Jersey, or went from them, they 
 had a wealth that statisticiaus and Lords of Trade are wont 
 to pass over, even in our day — a people who tilled their own 
 fields, sat at their own firesides, and doubled in number every 
 twenty-five years. The far-seeing patriot will never be 
 deceived by mere figures as to manufacture and trade. He 
 will look at the homes and the men. 
 
 But these people had very little money- Like all agricul- 
 tural populations, they were in debt. Money goes where it 
 can be turned over and over, not to the woods and fields. 
 Again and again we find complaint of the lack of money, even 
 to make exchanges, banks and capital to lend on mortgage, 
 or invest, were wanting. 
 
 Even the humblest home products were made under the 
 constant and jealous inspection of the Lords of Trade and 
 the Governors, who were required to prevent traffic in linen 
 or woolen goods made in the Colonies, and to close all rolling 
 or slitting mills, and forges with trip-hammers for carrying 
 iron beyond the state of the pig or the bloom. The Gover- 
 nor actually had to report the homespun of Somerset; for 
 which he apologizes, saying that a few sheep must be kept 
 for good farming, and that the home-made garments really 
 cost more but employed the otherwise idle hands. Indeed, 
 the Colonists needed little money. With game, oysters and 
 fish, free range for cattle, plenty of skins for the universal 
 leather breeches, and wool for homespun, they lived comfort- 
 ably so long as they could keep clear of taxes. 
 
 Those they did keep clear of. We taxed mortals hardly 
 understand the seeming suddenness of the stand taken by 
 our forefathers against British taxation. We submit to in- 
 novations and tyrannies enough, — to elevated railroads, un- 
 derground boilers, electric light wires charged with death- 
 currents, taxes and assessments. It generally takes time and 
 
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION". 
 
 149 
 
 some good reason for the whole community to wake to a 
 
 grievance. We understand the Colonial resistance to taxes 
 © 
 
 better when we find that “ no taxation ” had been the people’s 
 war-cry for fifty years before the Revolution. 
 
 Yet these taxes were very small. The whole expenses of 
 Colonial Covernment rose slowly from £1,000, in 1702, to 
 £3,000, in 1770, or from $3,300 to $10,000. In 1883, with a 
 population only ten times as large, we pay one hundred times 
 as much for State Government and as much more for School 
 Tax, and this for the State Tax alone, which in most places 
 is a tithe of those city and county taxes of which our forefa- 
 thers had none. Per capita, we pay from fifty to one thou- 
 sand times as much as they did. Of course, this shows in- 
 creased wealth as well as increased taxation. But by the 
 value of property, their tax was very small, as we shall see. 
 At most it was the same percentage on the income of im- 
 proved lands as we now pay on the value of all lands. 
 
 The real cause of their jealousy of taxation was that, of 
 the whole amount raised, about half went to the Governor or 
 in rent of his house, and that the Governor was often a for- 
 eigner, and always, or almost always, the centre of a clique 
 who were odious to the people. He was at best more tole- 
 rated than liked. Colonial government by a favorite of the 
 Crown or of the London trade management, — who was al- 
 ways looking to England for promotion, while he haughtily 
 
 requested support for his high mightiness from the people 
 
 \ 
 
 here, and at the bidding of his patrons negatived the most 
 desired laws, — such government had the advantage of rousing 
 a jealousy and vigilance which were probably more conducive 
 to true freedom than what we now call popular institutions. 
 Certainly, the Governor had no sinecure. Depending for 
 office on the favor of distant English monopolists and grand- 
 ees, who sent him the most intricate instructions, and looking 
 for his support to a Provincial Assembly who knew their own 
 affairs much better than he, and were determined to have 
 their way, the best Governors (such men as Burnet, Belcher 
 21 
 
150 
 
 TAXES ANl) MONEY IN NEW JERSEY 
 
 and Bernard) got along by ceaseless attentions and flattery 
 to both parties, while pressing on each the need of mutual 
 concession. Under the unpopular Governors, whether lordly 
 dare-devils, like Cornbury, or ambitious and self-willed men, 
 like Morris, gifted with temper and uncontrol, letters poured 
 over to London by every vessel, with charges and counter- 
 charges, reproofs, suggestions, defences and suspicions, until 
 the little provincial capital boiled as only a little tea-pot can. 
 A better system to promote jealousies than the colonial 
 could hardly be devised. Communications were regularly 
 ordered to be made to the Lords of Trade, but every member 
 of the Governor’s Council was instructed to write directly 
 and secretly to the Secretary on matters of State; and all 
 quarrels in a province became, or were thought matters of 
 State, if not high treason. Communication was so irregular 
 (the monthly packet-boats to New York and to the West 
 Indies not being established until 1755), that it became ab- 
 solutely necessary to have friends at Court; and at last the 
 Assembly spent about one-quarter of the tax levy in paying a 
 London agent to represent them before the Lords of Trade 
 and the Council. Governor Cosby suspended Lewis Morris 
 as Chief Justice for alleged tyranny over the Bar, inattention 
 to duty and drinking. But Morris went to England, got the 
 Governor’s action reversed, claimed the Presidency of the 
 Council on the Governor’s sudden death, and actually got the 
 appointment as Governor in his room. No wonder that the 
 appropriation bill for the support of such a government was 
 the battle of each year, and that the question of taxation by 
 the Crown become a vexed boundary, on which the whole 
 country-side would rally. 
 
 The taxes, as we have seen, were little enough — $3,300 to 
 $10,000 a year; half to the Government, $500 to $1,000 to 
 the Chief Justice, something to the second Judge, Clerk of 
 Council, Doorkeepers and Clerk of Assembly, and $250 for 
 printing. The Assemblymen received half a dollar a day 
 and some mileage. The Council had only the honor of the 
 
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 151 
 
 position. Accounts were simple enough. The Assembly 
 were their own comptrollers, and copies of the accounts went 
 to the many records of the English Rolls Office, where they 
 are indexed, recorded and filed in oblivion to this day. There 
 only can we find our New' Jersey history or a complete copy 
 of our own laws. 
 
 The supply bills of the time are curious reading, and all 
 on a model very different from modern tax laws. Each bill 
 grants a supply for Government, never for over a few years, 
 generally one or two. It fixes salaries and quotas for each 
 county, and names county assessors and treasurers. It 
 then orders rates to be assessed within certain limits, in the 
 discretion of the assessors. For instance, the Act of 1756, 
 
 raising £3,000, orders rates of- 
 
 1 — 30 shillings on householders. 
 
 4 — 80 shillings on ferries. 
 
 2—40 “ 
 
 on merchants. 
 
 4—15 “ 
 
 on trading sloops. 
 
 5—80 “ 
 
 on saw-mills. 
 
 G “ 
 
 on cartmen. 
 
 4—80 “ 
 
 on grist-mills. 
 
 4 “ 
 
 on laboring men. 
 
 4—40 “ 
 
 on fulling-mills. 
 
 1 “ 
 
 on a bought servant 
 
 30—70 “ 
 
 on furnaces. 
 
 9 “ 
 
 on a coach. 
 
 7—35 ‘ ‘ 
 
 on forges. 
 
 3 “ 
 
 on a chaise. 
 
 75 “ 
 
 on glass-houses. 
 
 1 “ 
 
 on a chair. 
 
 120 
 
 on molasses stills. 
 
 ! £1— £2 
 
 on peddlers. 
 
 The rest of the quota is ordered to be raised by pro rata 
 assessment in the county, on cattle (valued at 25 shillings a 
 head), on sheep (at 3 shillings a head), and on all tracts of 
 land of which a part is improved or cultivated, valuing such 
 tracts within sums fixed for each county, the lowest lawful 
 assessment being £8, or say $27, for one hundred acres, and 
 the highest, £40, or say $133, per hundred acres. The usual 
 valuation, even in 1770, was about $60 to $70 for a hundred 
 acres of improved land, which Governor Franklin states was 
 not much more than the rental value at that time. Beyond 
 this, there was no tax except work on the roads and bridges, 
 of which there were very few. 
 
 In practical wisdom we have much to learn from our ances- 
 
152 
 
 TAXES AND MONEY IN NEW JERSEY 
 
 tors as to taxation, though we may teach them as to currency 
 and credit. They taxed visibles only, on which the tax was 
 certain to be assessed. They taxed improved property only, 
 from which the tax could readily be collected, by distraint or 
 otherwise. Such a tax fell lightly on the community, because 
 the yearly value of the land would always pay the tax. They 
 recognized the truth that a certain tax on any one lcind of 
 property is a tax on all property. We try to tax uncertain- 
 ties and invisibles, rights, credits, book accounts and unpro- 
 ductive speculative property, and in consequence sharpers 
 dodge our taxes and land-sharks buy up tax titles, while 
 honest folk are forced to pay for other people, and if poor 
 and unable to advance the money assessed on unproductive 
 property, have to submit to endless interest, forfeitures and 
 penalties. If the old system did nothing else, it got the 
 taxes in, instead of postponing them, as we do, borrowing 
 meanwhile. 
 
 In seven years after the surrender of the Crown in 1709, 
 there came a sudden call for an expedition against the French 
 in Canada, and New Jersey, as ever, was at the front, with a 
 vote of £3,000, to be raised on bills of credit. These were 
 to be receivable for taxes, to be sunk in a few years by tax 
 levy, and meanwhile to be a legal tender. Bonded debt, pay- 
 able in long time, with interest, was then unknown, or, 1 1 
 least, uncommon. Kings usually borrowed of the Jews or 
 issued paper money, and the Colony took the latter course. 
 In 1714 we find the Assembly waking to protective measures, 
 and they lay a duty on slaves, in order to encourage white 
 immigration, and an export duty on wheat, to benefit flouring 
 mills. But as they waked to a sense of their commerce, so 
 did England, and in 1721, when Governor Burnet is commis- 
 sioned, he is specially ordered to sign no act for paper money 
 except for support of Government, without a clause suspend- 
 ing its operation till approved by the King, to keep a monop- 
 oly of trade to English ships, and to allow no furs or copper 
 ore to go to any place but England. 
 
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 153 
 
 Meanwhile, with improvement came a strong demand for 
 more circulating medium. There seems to have been a real 
 dearth of silver at the time. England’s new trade in the 
 East Indies drew money there, while the neighboring States 
 of Pennsylvania and New York had adopted bills of credit, 
 which were legal tender with them but not in New Jersejq 
 and there was really no money to pay taxes, etc., since 
 the produce of New Jersey sold only for bills of the neigh- 
 boring States. Accordingly, an act was passed to allow the 
 issue of £40,000 of paper money. 
 
 The terms of this issue (as of all the ante-Revolutionary bills 
 issued in time of peace) were somewhat peculiar. A loan 
 commission was incorporated by the act in each county, and 
 the proportion of the issue belonging to that county was to 
 be lent by them at five per cent, interest on good first 
 mortgage security, payable in sixteen years, in equal annual 
 installments, the installments of the first eight years being 
 lent out again. Thus the Government was more than sup- 
 ported on the interest , while the principal was to be used as 
 it fell due, to cancel the bills of credit. If honestly managed, 
 the whole fund was soundly secured, and the bills would be 
 kept in good standing. Thus the State did not borrow 
 money at all, and a good currency for internal affairs and a 
 sound system of loans on mortgage, at reasonable interest, 
 were at once obtained. Much to the credit of our State, its 
 bills, unlike the Continental currency, were always honestly 
 sunk when due. 
 
 The evils of the system were more remote, but were those 
 incident to any inflexible legislative system of banking: 
 namely, that if continued, there was danger of over-issue, 
 such as had reduced the value of New England currency, so 
 that a guinea was worth £5; while on the other hand, if the 
 bills were sunk, the calling in of the loans would cause 
 distress. The system honestly carried out would probably 
 have been unobjectionable, if there had been grafted upon it 
 the device discovered and adopted by modern bankers, of main- 
 
154 
 
 TAYES AND MONEY IN NEW JERSEY 
 
 taining a coin reserve, which, if kept up continually to a pro- 
 portion — often a small proportion — of the bills issued, will of 
 itself avail for specie payment, and indicate by its decrease 
 whether the issue is too large for the natural trade of the 
 country, for which alone paper money is adapted. 
 
 Faulty though the measure was, however, it was at first a 
 benefit. It gave a sound circulating medium. It established 
 a bank at which enterprising men, able to furnish good 
 security in property, could raise money at fair interest for 
 further ventures. Besides, it supported the Government for 
 our frugal forefathers without expense or taxation; and this 
 made the measure none the less popular, we may be sure, 
 with an Assembly that, under the property qualifications of 
 the day, was composed entirely of large freeholders. 
 
 But this last fact introduced a curious and new element of 
 strength into the ever- recurring contest about supplies. In 
 course of years, as the principal of the loan was called in, and 
 the bills canceled according to law, the interest of the balance 
 became insufficient for the support of Government, while the 
 Colony was distressed by the forced reduction of the loans. 
 Money became scarce, and new taxation became unpopular 
 just when it became necessary. Lands fell in value, and the 
 cry went up for a new issue of loans. But by this time the 
 Lords of Trade had determined that no more acts for the 
 issue of bills of credit should be passed. In some States, not 
 in ours, they had fallen greatly in value, and the English 
 merchants insisted that they would not be paid in depreciated 
 paper. The Colonists were as obstinately determined that 
 their sole banking and credit system should not be destroyed, 
 and refused supplies by taxation unless a bill of credit act 
 should be passed at the same time. The resident Governors 
 usually stood by the Colonists, but dared not disobey instruc- 
 tions, and the records are full of correspondence on the sub- 
 ject, and of petitions and arguments made before the English 
 authorities by the agents of the Colonies. Colonial jealousy 
 of the land-tax grew with that of the Lords of Trade to bills 
 
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 155 
 
 of credit. As early as 1729, Governor Montgomerie was 
 ordered to force a repeal in New York of the application of 
 the interest on loans to the support of Government, and found 
 it impossible. 
 
 In 1733, so much of the old issue in New Jersey had been 
 called in that a new act for £40,000 more was passed, but 
 though urged by the Governor was not approved for two years. 
 
 In 1737, Lewis Morris became Governor, coming into office 
 after having had a bitter contest with the Assembly while 
 Chief Justice, and determined to carry out the English 
 instructions against further issue of bills of credit. In 1744, 
 an Act of Parliament passed prohibiting any such new issue 
 in New England, where the currency had fallen most in 
 value, and the analogy of this act was pleaded by the Crown 
 in New Jersey. The result was such a bitter fight between 
 the legislature and Governor Morris that all supplies were 
 refused by the Assembly for four years. 
 
 It is obvious that this question was not one of mere taxa- 
 tion, although the battle was always over the supply bill, and 
 the people were thus taught, year by year, to regard the ques- 
 tion of taxation for the support of English Government as a 
 vital issue. The real grievance was the sudden iron-bound 
 reduction of the whole credit system of the Colony. 
 
 Had England remained at peace, a few years might possibly 
 have settled the whole question. There would have been 
 great distress, but the loans would have been paid, the bills 
 canceled, taxes established for the support of Government, 
 and then England might have imposed her excise without 
 much difficulty. But it was not so to be. The struggles against 
 the French and Indians into which the Colonies were drawn, 
 rendered necessary a new issue of currency, and reopened the 
 whole question of support by taxes as against support by 
 interest paid to the Governmental bank. As early as 1746, 
 expeditions were fitted out for the West Indies and Canada 
 by use of the interest on outstanding loans, and of the bills 
 kept for exchange of torn currency. In the next year, Gov- 
 
156 
 
 TAXES A ND MONEY IN NEW JERSEY 
 
 ernor Belcher took office, and though he did his best to recon- 
 cile the conflicting parties, the Colony was inflexible as ever 
 for a new loan. The amount outstanding did not supply 
 interest enough to support the Government. The Colonists 
 refused to tax themselves for that support in addition to the 
 expenses of the war, which amounted to £15,402. 
 
 A proclamation under instructions closing all iron mills 
 aggravated the contest. Only a small part of the expenses of 
 the expeditions was paid by England, and in 1754 the Colony 
 stoutly refused all supplies unless they were allowed to loan 
 £60,000. 
 
 The Lords of Trade consented on condition that the bills 
 should not be made a legal tender, which the Assembly thought 
 would make them useless. Legislation came to a dead lock. 
 Petition after petition was sent, representing the care with 
 which the State credit had been maintained. But with the 
 outbreak of the French War in 1755-6, the contest ceased. 
 The Colonists agreed that the bills should only be a legal 
 tender to the State, and the tide of currency was let loose, 
 both for war expenses and for loans. In 1755-7, £82,500 
 were issued; by 1758, £155,151, and by the close of the war, 
 £347,500! 
 
 The Colony went gallantly and enthusiastically into the 
 war and the defence of her more exposed neighbors. Her 
 population was largely Quaker in origin, but non-resistance 
 was a dying doctrine and destined wholly to fade away in the 
 sorrows of the Revolution. It is a digression pardonable 
 to State pride to refer to the ^records as to the mustering, 
 equipment and good service of her troops, and especially to a 
 letter of Governor Belcher reciting that from a population of 
 75,000, of all ages, including perhaps 15,000 men, reduced by 
 the capture at Louisburgh, or in Canada, of two detachments 
 of 500 each, few of whom had returned from French prisons 
 to their native soil, the Colony had nevertheless sent out 1,000 
 more men by 1759, thoroughly clothed and equipped, and in a 
 state of efficiency and supply that made them equal to 1,500 
 
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 157 
 
 from other States, and had raised in two years £140,000 for 
 the service, “a large sum for a community that has no foreign 
 trade.” From that day to the Centennial at Yorktown we 
 have been proud of our militia and their fighting qualities. 
 
 Our aid was especially needed in New York, our then 
 weaker neighbor, with a population of only 55,000, scattered 
 along the Hudson and Mohawk; and it was generously given. 
 But after the war the reaction came. Taxes were unsparingly 
 imposed to the amount of £15,000 a year, to sink the bills of 
 credit, and by 1766 the debt had been reduced to about 
 £190,000. 
 
 Then the ever-recurring question came up, whether the 
 people in time of distress should be forced to pay off the loans 
 on their farms, or whether new bills should be lent out as 
 before. In the last case the Government would be supported 
 by interest. In the first, taxes only could be relied on, lands 
 being depreciated in price to half their value by the calling 
 in of mortgages. 
 
 If England had then assumed even her own share of the 
 expenses of the war, the question of separation might not 
 have arisen. Instead of that, she tried to tax the Colonies. 
 In 1771, the question came up flatly whether New Jersey 
 would tax herself to support regiments of the line here. She 
 refused. The States united, and the Revolution came with 
 its storms of war and woe. 
 
 Taxes and money are a dry subject. But it has been inter- 
 esting to discover that the Revolutionary motto, “ No taxation 
 without representation,” was not anew cry, but an old griev- 
 ance kept alive from generation to generation by its curious 
 alliance with the struggle as to State banking and loans and 
 all the evils of money legislation. On the other hand, we can 
 look back at that Utopia when men were not under the tyranny 
 of municipal assessments and debts; while we may congratu- 
 late ourselves in the possession of a sounder system of banking 
 and credit, and that our politics, if less pure, are at least 
 less bitterly earnest than those of our forefathers. 
 
 22