THE DIVISION OF THE PROVINCE.

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the Rancocus. From this it would appear that previous to the time of issuing the patent Berkeley and Carteret had agreed upon a division of the province. It was not, however, until the first of July, 1676, that a formal partition of New Jersey was made between Carteret and the Quaker proprietors, it being effected by a conveyance known as the Quintipartite deed, because of its comprehending Sir George, Penn, Lawrie, Lucas and Billinge. Thenceforth Carteret's share of the province was what has since been known as East Jersey. It embraced all the territory lying east of a line, which, starting at a point on the Atlantic coast, on the east side of Little Egg Harbor inlet, ran northwesterly to a point in the Delaware river a few miles below Minisink island, in Sussex county. This line crossed the Raritan river just west of Somerville, the point being still marked by a surveyor's stone standing by the roadside, on the south bank of the river, nearly opposite a residence built some years ago by John V. Veghte.

CHAPTER IX.

The Twenty-four Proprietors of East New Jersey-George Willocks and the Peapack Patent.

In the year 1679, Sir George Carteret died. By his will he devised his East Jersey property to trustees, empowering them to sell the same for the payment of his debts. For over two years East Jersey government was administered in the name of "The Right Honorable the Lady Elizabeth Carteret, Baroness, Widow, the relict and sole Executrix of the Right Honorable Sir George Carteret, Knight and Baronet, deceased, late Lord Proprietor of the said Province, and Grandmother and Guardian of Sir George Carteret, Baronet, Grandson and Heir of the said Sir George Carteret deceased, the present Lady Proprietrix of the Province aforesaid." In 1682 the trustees, together with the widow as executrix, in consideration of thirty-four hundred pounds, conveyed all of East Jersey to twelve purchasers, William Penn, Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groom,' Thomas Hart, Richard Mew, Thomas Wilcox, Ambrose Rigg, John Haywood, Hugh Hartshorne, Clement Plumsted and Thomas Cooper. They, in their turn, sold one-half of their undivided interests to twelve associates, Robert Barclay, Edward Billinge, Robert Turner, James Brain, Arent Sonmans, William Gibson, Gawen Lawrie, Thomas Barker, Thomas Warne, James, Earl of Perth; Robert Gordon and John Drummond. Thus was constituted the "Twenty-four Proprietors of East New Jersey," an association of land owners that has a corporate and active existence to this day. On the fourteenth of March, 1682, their title was further assured by a confirmatory deed from the Duke of York, giving to the proprietors all necessary powers for establishing a council and managing and govern

ORIGIN OF THE NAME PERTH AMBOY.

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ing their estate or province. We now find that one undivided twenty-fourth part of East New Jersey is by these conveyances as fully and completely vested in each proprietor as if the territory was a farm or a city lot. Each one had full power to alienate the whole or a portion of his interest, or the privilege of locating for himself certain lands which the joint proprietors would secure to him in severalty by a warrant, which acted as a release of the interests of his associates. It also expressed what amount or proportion of his common stock was severed and represented by these located lands.

The "Twenty-Four Proprietors" established their seat of government at Perth Amboy, deriving the name from the Earl of Perth-one of their number-and from Ambo, the English corruption of an Indian word which is generally believed to have meant point. The latter appears variously spelled in early documents; as Ompoge, Emboyle, Amboyle and Ambo. The late Thomas Gordon, of Trenton, considered the derivative of Amboy to be the Indian word Emboli-meaning hollow, like a bowl; so named because of a depression in the ground, a little north of the city. The Scotch word Perth is said to be a corruption of BarrTatha, or the "height on the river Tay." It is on this river that the ancient city of Perth is situated.

The new proprietors modified somewhat the "Concessions and Agreements" of their predecessors, though retaining many of their most important provisions. The liberal feature of offering headlands to settlers, free of cost except quit-rents, was retained and continued in force for a number of years. Very complete descriptions were published in Europe of the advantages that would accrue to adventurers who removed to the province; the manner of the disposition of the lands was explained, and a full account given of the physical condition of the country. In these published descriptions detailed statements were made as to the "goodness and richness of the soil;" that the country was "well stored with deer, conies, wild fowl" and other game; that the "sea-banks were well stored with a variety of fish, such as whales, cod, cole, hake, etc."; and that "the bays and rivers were plentifully stored with sturgeon, great bass and other scale fish, eels and shell fish, such as oysters, etc., in great abundance, and easy to take." Much stress was laid on the fact of there

being safe and convenient harbors, affording excellent opportunities for the export of the products of the province, among which were enumerated whale-fins, bone and oil, and beaver, mink, raccoon and martin skins. After dwelling on the salubrity of the climate, the good temper of the Indians, and the manner and costs of setting out from the old country, the descriptions, or advertisements, closed with the following excellent advice to the prospective emigrants:

All persons inclining unto those parts must know that in their settlement there they will find their exercises. They must have their winter as well as summer. They must labor before they reap; and, till their plantations be cleared (in summer time), they must expect (as in all those countries) the mosquitos, flies, gnats and such like, may in hot and fair weather give them some disturbance where people provide not against them.

The mosquitoes seem to have been early recognized as among the most active of the inhabitants of the new country. This is not the only time they are mentioned by the first settlers. John Johnstone-whose better acquaintance we shall shortly make-in a letter written in 1684, though "mightily well satisfied with the country," could not forbear referring to a little flea that was occasionally blown toward the Raritan from Elizabethtown by an east wind. The distribution abroad of these plans and prospectuses induced a considerable emigration from Europe, especially from Scotland, which country was undergoing at that time great political convulsions. East Jersey is to this day greatly benefited by the Scotch blood that was then transfused into her veins. The unhappy scenes that, just before and after the year 1700, were enacted in the Haymarket of the gray-castled city of Edinburgh, and the hunting of poor refugees through the mists of the bleak Highlands of that grim, sea-beaten land, resulted in the planting among the hills of Somerset of a sturdy stock which speedily developed into the three strong Presbyterian congregations of Bound Brook, Basking Ridge and Lamington; and in many ways the immigrant Scots have contributed to the individual strength and virtue of the people of that county. When East Jersey came under the dominion of the twentyfour proprietors, in 1682, their historian, William A. Whitehead, estimates the total population of the province to have been thirty-five hundred in the towns and about fifteen hundred on the plantations. The towns then existing were as follows:

COLONEL LEWIS MORRIS FOUNDS SHREWSBURY.

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SHREWSBURY, in Monmouth county. The township, embracing thirty thousand acres, had a population of about four hundred, among whom was Colonel Lewis Morris. He was a brother of that Richard Morris, who, flying from England to the province of New York at the time of the Restoration, received a grant in 1661 of three thousand acres on the Harlem river, which he called Morrisania; at his death, Colonel Lewis Morris came from Barbadoes, and assumed the guardianship of Richard's infant son, who in later life became governor of New Jersey. Colonel Morris married for his first wife, Tryntje Staats. His second wife was Tryntje's own niece, Sarah, daughter of Isaac Gouverneur, whose wife, Sarah, was the daughter of Major Abraham Staats of Albany, and an East Indian "Begum" or princess, whom the Major had married in Java. These two marriages brought to Colonel Morris three distinguished sons. By the first, General Lewis Morris who signed the "Declaration ;" by the second, Gouverneur Morris, and General Staats Morris who married the Duchess of Gordon; the acquaintance of this Scotch noblewoman we shall make later in Bedminster. Before the time of the twenty-four proprietors coming into possession of East New Jersey Colonel Lewis Morris had established at Shrewsbury extensive iron-works, which gave occupation to about seventy slaves, in addition to white servants and employees. His grant, under date of 1676, covered thirty-five hundred and forty acres; he named it Tinturn-now called Tinton-after his home in Britain, which was in the vale of Tinturn, in the extreme south of Monmouthshire, Wales. There it was that Theodoric, Christian king of Glamorgan, vanquished the pagan Saxons, though so wounded that he died shortly after the battle, in the near-by parish of Matherne. "This is the vale," writes Gray, "that is the delight of my eyes and the very seat of pleasure." Morris was also instrumental in giving Monmouth county its name, he calling it after the Welsh shire. The name Monmouth is generally accepted as meaning, and shortened from, Monnow-mouth, the English town of Monmouth being situated on a tongue of land at the mouth of the river Monnow.

MIDDLETOWN, covering about the same area as Shrewsbury, contained about five hundred people and many improved plantations.