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him and substantiate their charges. The Governor complied with this request, appointed a time and place, but Ingoldsby and his faction evaded any appearance whatever, and nothing came of the action of the Legislature. The session of the Assembly continued until the 30th of June, when it adjourned until the last day of November, to meet at Burlington.

It was at this meeting that the scheme of issuing paper money, in the name of the province, was first introduced.

War had been declared in 1702 between England and France and it was still raging with great virulence. France had firmly established herself through her colonies, in the country north of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, now known as Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Her possession of these countries had been acknowledged by Great Britain, as early as 1632. In this way an active and determined foe had become a near neighbor of New England and was enabled to strike its opponent through her colonies. Frequent incursions had been made by France upon the provinces near her borders. One of them had penetrated as far as the Merrimac River and had destroyed Haverhill, then quite a flourishing village. The colonists had applied to the mother country for relief and the English ministry had determined to send an expedition into Canada, composed of troops raised from the colonies, supported by a naval armament. New Jersey was among those called upon to contribute both men and money in aid of the proposed expedition. The number of men called for was two hundred and fifty and the amount of money was £3,000. The men could be easily obtained, but the province was in no condition to raise so large an amount of money, so the plan of issuing bills of credit was adopted. This plan met with some violent opposition, but it was so guarded and the rights of those who invested in the bills of credit. issued by the colony were so well protected that there was no loss. In less than fifty years this paper currency had either been redeemed or had entirely disappeared.

The Assembly was adjourned until November, 1709. At this session two important and significant acts were passed, one of which provided that all members of the Assembly must be residents of the part of the province which they represented, and the other, conflicting with the "Instructions" to Cornbury which directed that the sessions of the Legislature should be held alternately at Perth Amboy and Burlington, provided that all sessions should convene at Burlington. The records

do not show whether this action was unanimous, or whether it passed by the vote of a majority. It is altogether probable, however, that it passed through the influence of the greater number of representatives from West Jersey.

The high hopes which had been entertained of the success of the new administration based upon the excellent disposition of Lord Lovelace and the happy manner in which he had entered upon the discharge of his duties in the administration of the affairs of the colony were doomed to bitter disappointment. He died after an illness of a few days, during the session of the Legislature subsequent to the passage of some of the important laws introduced, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Ingoldsby. This man was almost as unpopular as Cornbury, of whom he had been a rather unscrupulous partisan. In connection with the Council, he had written a letter to the Queen attacking the Assembly for its action in the controversy with the Governor. That letter was in no respect a credit to its framers. It was violent and scurrilous and seems to have received no credit at the hands of Queen Anne. He did not remain long in office and was superseded, for a time, by William Pinhorne, who by virtue of seniority was entitled to act as Governor. He was one of the most unpopular men in the whole Council, but was soon succeeded by General Robert Hunter, who reached the province on the 14th of June, 1710, being appointed Governor General of the two provinces, New York and New Jersey. Hunter was a Scotchman and early in life had been apprenticed to an apothecary, but deserting that profession, ran away from his master, entered the army and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. He was a man of excellent natural parts, of fine address and great personal beauty, and married Lady Hay, a noble gentle-woman, by means of which marriage he secured a position amongst the gentry of England, which led to his future preferment. He was appointed, in 1707, Governor of Virginia, but on his voyage to that colony was captured by the French and carried to France. He was released and almost immediately afterwards appointed to succeed Lord Lovelace. Being a man of literary tastes, he had secured the friendship of Swift, Addison and other literati. He never overcame the impressions of his boyhood and carried with him into the social sphere to which he was introduced by his marriage, a slight dash of vulgarity, but his manners were otherwise pleasing, and while he was not a man of great ability or profound intellect, he managed to conduct the affairs of the two provinces

during the ten years of his administration with credit to himself and benefit to the colonists. He ruled in unbroken harmony and showed great shrewdness in evading any contests with the legislatures of his two colonies. He met the Assembly of New Jersey for the first time on the 6th of December, 1710. His address was frank and soldierly and seemed to be acceptable to the Assembly who received it in the same. spirit with which it was delivered

This Assembly was composed of representatives from the towns of Burlington, Salem and Perth Amboy and the Counties of Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, Cape May, Middlesex, Essex, Bergen, Monmouth and Somerset, twenty-four delegates in all, two from each town and county. Lewis Morris had become a member of the Council. He had for his associate Councillors such men as William Pinhorne, Daniel Coxe, Roger Mompesson, Peter Sonmans, Thomas Gordon, Thomas Gardiner, Elisha Parker and Col. Robert Quarry. Lewis Morris afterwards became Governor of New Jersey; Daniel Coxe had been Governor; Roger Mompessen, Chief Justice; William Pinhorne, Associate Justice; Sonmans, Gordon, Parker and Gardiner were prominent officially and otherwise. Parker was the ancestor of the distinguished family of that name which gave James Parker to the State and his illustrious son, Cortlandt, to the bar of New Jersey, and Quarry was a member of the Councils of four other States besides New Jersey. There was no lack of talent in either house; some of the most prominent men in the province had been sent as delegates to that Assembly.

The answer to the Governor's speech was peculiar; it was brief and conciliatory in tone, couched in the usual verbiage in which similar productions, at that time, were prepared, but dealt in generalities, declared nothing definite, except fidelity and gratitude to the Queen and sorrow for the death of Lovelace, and promised nothing. It seemed, judging by the present methods of criticism, as if the Assembly were feeling its way with the new Governor, was fearful of committing itself to any prescribed line of conduct, or giving Hunter any opportunity to bind its future action by any rash promises. The Governor and the Assembly, however, acted in concert, and the delegates soon found that he was their best friend and was ever ready to act for the best interest of their constituents. But the Council had many discordant elements although there were such distinguished citizens among its members. It antagonized both the other branches of the Legislature, the executive and the representatives of the people; its action was

factious and it appeared as if it were fully determined to obstruct legislation.

It will be noticed that up to this time the Assembly had been composed of delegates from towns and from the two divisions, East and West Jersey; but now, representation by counties appears. The first Assembly in New Jersey met in May, 1668, at Elizabeth Town and was composed of representatives from six towns. At the adjourned session in November of the same year delegates also appeared from an indefinitely described locality, or part of the province, called “Delaware River." Just where this locality was situated is left to conjecture. No representative afterwards appeared from any district in the colony, so called. The Assemblies which met both before and after the division were made up of representatives from the different towns, until the surrender to Queen Anne in 1702.

By the "Instructions," which contained the only organic law known from the time of the surrender until the Constitution was adopted by the Provincial Congress, on July 2, 1776, it was directed that the Assembly should be composed of twenty-four representatives, chosen as follows: Two from Perth Amboy, two from Burlington, ten from East Jersey and ten from West Jersey; and the "Instructions" were imperative. It was also ordered that this number of representatives should not be enlarged or diminished, or the manner of electing them altered otherwise than by "an act or acts of the General Assembly there (sic) and confirmed by the approbation of us our Heirs and Successors."

At the time of the surrender, there were at least ten towns in the province of enough importance to be represented in the Legislature. Six of these had already sent delegates to that body. These ten towns were Bergen, Newark, Elizabeth Town, Perth Amboy, Woodbridge, Shrewsbury, Middletown, Piscataway, Burlington and Salem.

Salem was once called Ferken's Creek, and an attempt was made to settle it in 1641, by some English families, sixty persons in all. The Swedes then had the control of the Southern part of New Jersey, but they were disposed to treat these immigrants in such a manner as to secure their allegiance. The Swedish Governor, Printz, who came to New Jersey in 1642, was directed "to act kindly and faithfully toward them." In 1654, the Swedes surrendered to the Dutch, who, in turn, in 1664, yielded to the English. What became of this English immigration in 1641, cannot be ascertained. John Fenwick, in 1673, obtained a large grant of South Jersey land, and in 1675, settled at Salem,

with his associates.

So charmed was he with its peaceful appearance

that he gave this name to the locality.

Fenwick came there with his two married daughters, their husbands and families and an unmarried daughter. He brought ten servants with him and one of his sons-in-law, three. The next year, ten persons apparently heads of families, signed an agreement as to the disposition of the land. In 1682 the town was made a port of entry, and in 1695 it was incorporated with a Chief Magistrate called a Burgess, who was authorized to hold a court with a jurisdiction of causes in which the claims did not exceed forty shillings. In 1693 the officers of the town, elected by the people, were a. Burgess, a Recorder, a Bailiff and a Surveyor of Highways. So that, in 1702, Salem must have been a town of considerable size and importance.

Freehold, now the County seat of Monmouth County, was not known by that name until near the middle of the eighteenth century and it is doubtful whether it had any existence at all as a distinctive settlement, at the time of the surrender. It is proper, probably, to date its beginning from the year 1735, when the county courts first began to hold their sessions there. It was then called Monmouth Court House. 1 It certainly had no claims to representation in the Legislature, in 1702. Shrewsbury and Middletown were at that time both important localities in what was afterward known as Monmouth County. They had each their representatives in the first and some of the subsequent Legislatures, but were not recognized by the Queen in her Instructions" to Cornbury, as to the formation of the Assembly.

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It will be noticed that in these Instructions" no counties nor any of the ten important towns save Perth Amboy and Burlington were mentioned.

Burlington was, at first, called New Beverley, then Bridlington and afterwards, Burlington; it was settled in 1676 by two companies of Quakers or Friends, one from Yorkshire and the other from London, in England. It was incorporated by the Colonial Legislature, in 1693, and patented by George II, in 1734; after the Revolution, in 1784, it was again incorporated. It was, at one time, the Capital of West Jersey and the records of the Proprietors of that part of the colony are still to be found in that city. The element represented by the Quakers,

1 On a map appearing in the recent work of Professor Fiske on the American Revolution, showing the operations of the war, during the year 1776, Freehold is not named, but that locality is called Monmouth Court House.

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