"blacks" furnishes a sufficient supply to the states north of Maryland....few servants are kept for show, owing to every person being of some ostensible profession. For instance I know only one professed "Gentleman", i.e. idle, unoccupied person of fortune in Philadelphia. Their time is not yet to come". In this, Cooper, of course, was using the term "gentleman" in a narrow and strict sense as used in England up to that time, and evidently did not take into account the several Lords of the Manor in Maryland, Virginia and New York, who were as much at home in London as they were on their extensive plantations in America. In 1755 Joseph II, along with Robert Ogden, Thomas Clark, Jonathan Crane, and a half dozen others, was listed among many freeholders in Essex County as an "esquire", -- a title emanating perhaps from his office of Justice of the County Court, which office incidentally he may not have filled to the complete satisfaction of the Crown; for the Government in one official communication expressed its displeasure for his alleged negligence in the case of certain seamen who were deserters from the English vessel, "Ferret". * It was this year of 1755 that General Braddock, the first British general to lead a campaign of any size into a wild region, -- with George Washington as one of his Aides -- was defeated by the French, in Western Pennsylvania. There was no doubt that now England was taking full notice of the importance of her American colonies; it was just ten years since the King, in recognition of extraordinary service rendered, had knighted, for the first time a native of one of the American colonies; William Pepperell. It was indeed in the two decades, 1743-1763, that marked the end of a simple provincial existence and the beginning of wealth, prosperity and a great future for the "American" people. It was within these two decades that William Pitt sent American and British troops to break the power of the French on the Ohio river, and thus, with the conquest of Canada, assuring a great western and northern country to the English-speaking people. Many Americans George Washington as one notable example -- were, within these two decades, to receive thereby a training in the art of war without which they may not have been able to have won their later independence. And as for England, with a national debt more than doubled by the American exploits, the question of taxes was soon to be a real problem - And it was in this era that American provincial society began to embrace, for the first time, gentlemen of leisure with means to satisfy their aspirations. A great many of the landmarks of future days -- dwellings and public See Appendix 40 buildings date from that time; and Mt. Vernon, the home of Washington, was then beginning to take on its manorial dignity. In the so-called French and Indian Wars of the period none of the immediate family of Joseph Morse II were of military age, but many of his New England relatives served in the King's army, and not a few of his cousins enlisted in the Foot troops and Horse companies recruited from within the boundaries of Elizabethtowne. At Governor's Island in New York was stationed the Royal American regiment, recruited in a large part from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, and which had been with Wolfe when Canada was gained for the British Crown. This Royal American Regiment still survives; and eventually became the King's Royal Rifle Corp, 60th foot, of which the King of England is the Commander in Chief. Over two hundred years after its organization in America, in a great World War (1918), it was to fight side by side with American regiments from the same vicinity from which it had originally sprung. There was little doubt that the English colonies of North America, north and south, during the two decades before the American Revolution were a most happy community. It was almost a perfect England overseas; and Elizabethtowne was to be called "the handsomest town in New Jersey". Joseph II, and his family and relatives and friends, as did so many of the county gentry in New Jersey and elsewhere, lived a happy life of plenty in their comfortable houses surrounded by fertile fields and meadows, and pleasant neighbors. They drank their tea, read the meagre literature available, sent their children to schools, and were waited on by their faithful negro slaves. In New Jersey the rigors of Puritanism had been considerably modulated by contact with the Dutch, Scots and the Quaker, as well as with some French Huguenots, such as were the Trembly family of Rawack Neck. That the tidewater plantations of New Jersey never reached the magnificence of those in Virginia was perhaps but an accident due to the crops and the fertility of the soil. There was no James River tobacco to be grown on the banks of the Raritan. But deep down there was nevertheless a marked difference -- even from the beginning -- between the two sections. New Jersey did not offer to the Cavaliers who flocked to America after the Civil War in England, the cheap lands or the gayer life that was to be found further South. And Philadelphia and New York obscured much of the otherwise normal social development of the Jersey countryside.* It was truly a middle colony. In real culture and See Appendix 41 See Appendix 42 education however, the average Jersey man was far ahead of his brothers south of the Potomac; indeed he was far ahead of his brothers at home in England. For in England, as late as the quarter century preceding the American Revolution to judge from a survey of a typical English country parish -- more than half of the population could not write. - The merchants and planters in British America were reaping the reward of the labors of their forefathers. In both the North and the South great mansions were now to be seen, recently built, and replacing the more modest structures of their ancestors, No doubt the greatest wealth was to be found in Virginia and Maryland, although in the Middle Colonies and in New England many elegant buildings were erected. As a rule these houses copied the architecture of England. It was in this decade that Joseph II's brother, Amos, built his large dwelling the most outstanding in that community designed after the Philadelphia Quaker manner. With front and rear of exposed brick, and massive chimneys, it commanded a site on the old plantation a half mile west of Joseph's dwelling, and joined to it, was the old Dutch cottage of early years. This "new" house was well fitted with paneled closets and window bases, a graceful stairway, and flowery papered walls. The thick brick walls and partitions extended throughout the height of the house. Throughout Colonial America in that time there was also great changes in the furniture and utensils of the household, and Silver in place of pewter, and china dishes were becoming prevalent. The more massive furniture of early days was slowly replaced by the more delicate pieces of the new era. Even the drinking habits were effecting a definite change. The less delicate grog or rum was taking second place to the more expensive and less crude drinks, such as claret and other wine. Despite the religious revivals of the period the younger generation were not far behind in their participation in the growing prosperity of the colonies. Ice-skating, originally a utilization of transportation, became a means of pleasure to the youngfolks. This form of winter sport was directly learned from the Dutch, and the mill-pond at Joseph II's mill was not an uncommon site for such activities. Here the younger members of the household, and of the families in the neighborhood would gather in cold winter afternoons to skate, and to spend the intervals by great bonfires on the bank. The Taverns of the day like the night clubs of two centuries later -- were of two kinds; the respectable and the boisterous. In New Jersey it was popular for the young people to arrange sleigh rides which ended at one of the Taverns of the time sometimes six to twelve miles distant, where dancing or "frolicks" was commonly indulged in. Even the church in Elizabethtowne was not entirely |