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amongst such and so many of the creditors as shall within the time aforesaid, come in and prove the justness of his and their debt, before three or more of the magistrates of the said Province, who in the meantime, upon just ground and suspicion of the parties absconding, and complaint of any of the creditors, shall be and are hereby impowered to secure such goods and estate within the said Province for the use and intent aforesaid; and that such goods and estate at the next court after the same shall be secured, and the time before limited shall be expired, shall be then called forfeit to the creditors, and the same appraised and disposed of as aforesaid; and the overplus (if any be) to be returned to the owner thereof."

"Strangers and foreigners" desiring a warrant of arrest against any inhabitant of the province, were required to file security, "double the value of the debt or damages laid and pretended to prosecute his or their suit against such person or persons so arrested, that if it shall happen that such strangers or foreigners, who shall arrest any inhabitant or freeholders aforesaid, and shall not either prosecute his action, or if he shall prosecute, and it shall happen, that he or they shall be cast, and upon the same shall make his or their escape, by which means the defendant may be deprived of having his reparation upon him or them, that then such defendant may have his action against such sureties as aforesaid." If any clerk, empowered to issue the writ or warrant of arrest, should fail to take such security, he was made liable by the same act, to pay the defendant damages to be recovered by way of action "at common law." This act was passed by the Legislature of East New Jersey in 1682.

In the same year the same Legislature provided that no conveyance of the estate of a married woman should be valid unless the deed was acknowledged by her in the court of common right, on a secret examination, to have been executed by her freely without threats or compulsion from her husband.

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In 1682, the Legislature of East New Jersey enacted a law entitled A bill for the General Laws of the Province of East New Jersey." This act took cognizance of all civil and criminal matters which, at the time, seemed to affect the rights of the citizen. A few extracts from the act, will give an idea of its scope: "If a man borrow aught of his neighbor, and it be hurt or die, the owner thereof not being with it, the borrower shall make it good, but, if the owner be with it, he shall not make it good, if it be an hired thing, it came for his hire."

"Whoever shall afflict the widow or fatherless, shall be punished by the judges according to the nature of the transgression.'

"That in all courts, all persons of all perswasions, may freely appear in their own way and according to their own manner, and their personally plead their own cause, if unable by their friends or attorneys."

"All process and proceedings on all courts of record within this province, should be as short as the case will bear, and in English."

“All tryals shall be upon the verdict of twelve men, and as near as may be, peers or equals, and of the neighborhood where the fact arises. In cases capital or criminal, there shall be a grand inquest who shall first present the offence, and then, twelve men of the neighborhood to try the offender after his plea to the indictment, reasonable challenges shall be allowed to every person offender."

"Fees in all courts shall be moderate, and hung up in tables in every court, and whoever shall be found guilty of extortion, shall be punished by the judges."

"The estates of murtherers, after debts paid, shall go one third part to the next of kin to the sufferer, and the remainder to the next of kinn to the criminal."

"That all wills in writing, attested by two credible witnesses, shall be of the same force to convey lands, as other conveyance being registered in the Secretaries office within this Province, within forty days. after the testators death."

"If a man or woman, maim, or smite the eye of his or their man or maid servant, being a white servant, so that it perish or smite out the tooth of his or their man or maid servant, such servant shall go free; if master or mistress, or agent to such, immoderately correct their servants, they shall be punished for the same by the next sessions of the county court, where the fact arises or doth appear.”

"That according to the good example of the premitive Christians, and for the ease of the creation, every first day of the week, called the Lord's day, people shall abstain from their common daily labour, that they may the better dispose themselves to worship God according to their understanding."

"That if any man shall absent himself or run out of this Province with another man's wife, (without her husbands consent) and after return hither, he and she so offending, and being lawfully convict thereof, shall each of them receive ten lashes upon their bare back. The

husband of such woman, may, after the expiration of six months, from the time of her going away, and unlawfully absenting herself, be ipso facto released from the obligations of marriage, and at liberty to marry another woman, and the former offending wife shall absolutely forfeit and leave all her claim to her said husbands estate, real and personal, and every part and parcel thereof; and her said husband, shall not be obliged to pay any debts contracted by her, after her absenting herself as aforesaid."

Ten years afterwards, the Legislature repealed the last part of this act permitting the husband to marry again, after the expiration of six months.

The twenty-four Proprietors of East New Jersey, by their fundamental constitution, provided for public registries for deeds in each county and declared that all grants of land, except leases for three years and under, not registered within three years, to be void.

The Proprietors of West New Jersey in their "Concessions and Agreements," "concluded and ordained" that there should be kept at London, in England, and within the Province of New Jersey, a "register,

"and that all deeds, evidences and conveyances of land in the said Province of New West Jersey, that shall be executed in Eng land, may also be there registered; and once every year, the register of the said deeds and conveyances, so registered, shall be duly transmitted, under the hands of the register and three Proprietors, unto the commissioners in New West Jersey, to be enroled in the publick register of the said Province."

Very full details were given as to the manner in which this register should be kept and as to the documents which might be recorded.

In 1695 the Legislature of West New Jersey enacted "An Act for the Recording of Deeds." By this statute it was provided "that all deeds and conveyances already made, or to be made, whereby any land is or shall be purchased, held, or claimed within any part of this Province, shall be brought to the respective clerk of each county, there by him to be duly entered and recorded if such deeds and conveyances are not recorded already." A penalty of twenty shillings was to be paid by any person who should not record his deed, already made, within six months from the publication of the law and all deeds, after such publication, were required to be recorded within six months after their execution, under the same penalty, unless the parties live beyond the seas or in foreign parts, in which case, two years were allowed for the re

cording, after the publication of the law, or after the execution of the deed, as the case might be.

These references and quotations show, so far as regards the civil laws, a great similarity in the legislation of the two provinces, but, in all criminal laws, there is a marked distinction. The law makers of East New Jersey were stern and severe in the penalties they imposed. Thirteen different offences, according to the code established by them, were punishable by death. In West New Jersey, not a single crime, according to its laws, was subject to this extreme penalty. There was a marked mildness in West Jersey legislation. Crimes were mentioned; even capital offences, but, the punishment to be meted out to the of fenders, in many cases was left to the discretion of the courts, in others, to the mercy and clemency of twelve men, selected from the vicinity. where the offence was committed, or the criminal lived, and who were supposed to be so familiar with the circumstances as to be better able than all others to judge of the crime and any extenuating circumstances, and so, to impose a proper penalty.

There was one act, however, which relieved the laws of East New Jersey from their extreme severity and where that province, in its wisdom and far reaching thoughtfulness for the future prosperity of the inhabitants and their posterity excelled West New Jersey. It was passed in 1693 and was entitled "An Act for establishing Schoolmasters within this Province."

"WHEREAS the cultivating of learning and good manners tends greatly to the good and benefit of mankind, which hath hitherto been much neglected within this Province. Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council and Deputies in General Assembly now met and assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the inhabitants of any town within this Province, shall and may by warrant from a justice of the peace of that county when they think fit and convenient, meet together and make choice of three more men of the said town, to make a rate for the salary and maintaining of a schoolmaster within the said town, for so long time as they think fit: and the consent and agreement of the major part of the inhabitants of the said town, shall bind and oblige the remaining part of the inhabitants of the said town, to satisfy and pay their shares and proportion of the said rate; and in case of refusal or non payment, distress to be made upon the goods and chattles of such person or persons so refusing or not paying, by the constable of said town, by virtue of a warrant from a justice of the

peace of that county; and the distress so taken to be sold at a publick vendue, and the overplus, if any be after payment of the said rate and charges, to be returned to the owner."

The settlers from New England in New Jersey, made it their first care, wherever they settled, to provide for the religious wants of their communities, by the erection of meeting houses and the settlement of ministers of the Gospel. Their next care was to build school houses and employ teachers, and it is doubtless due to the predominance of this spirit, that this act was passed.

CHAPTER VII.

CONTENTS.

York Claims Right to Impost Duties; Claim Resisted; Correspondence between York's Private Secretary and Andros; Commissioners of West Jersey Protest against York's Claim; The Duke Consults with Sir William, Jones; Jones Decides against the Claim; The Duke Directs Deed of Confirmation, or Release, to be Prepared; Deed Executed to William Penn and Associates, Releasing the Claim ; Condition of Affairs in New Jersey Prior to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century; Weakness of Proprietary Government; The Earl of Perth and Lord Campbell; Written Protest of Commissioners against the Claim to Impost Duties; Inducements to the Proprietors to Surrender the Government; Negotiations for Surrender with William and Mary; "Memorial" from Proprietors of East Jersey to Council of Trade; Conditions upon Which Surrender Would be Made; Answer to Memorial;" United Petition from Both Proprietors to the Lords Justices; Perth Amboy, Its Advantages as a Port of Entry; Reply of Proprietors to the Answer of Council of Trade; Joint Memorial of Proprietors to King; Opinion of Board of Trade on the Question of Surrender; In 1702 Anne Becomes Queen; Surrender, 15th of April, 1702; Accepted by the Queen; Cornbury Becomes Governor and the Two Provinces Consolidated; Consequences of Surrender; "Grants and Concessions" and "Concessions and Agreements" Cease to Have Any Force; "Instructions" to Cornbury; Their Character; Quotations from Them; Comparison between "Instructions" and the "Grants and Concessions"; Sketch of Lord Cornbury; he is Removed in 1708.

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The right of the Proprietors of both the provinces to governmental authority was severely contested. At first, when the colony was so sparsely settled that it was of no particular interest to any one to question the right, it was quietly acquiesced in; but, as soon as the inhabitants increased in number and the settlements assumed the form

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