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Continental Congress was shutting the door against any possible hope of reconciliation with the mother country, there were some patriots in New Jersey who were dreaming of peace.

There is an interesting incident connected with the last article of the Constitution, which, it is hoped, will relieve the members, or some of them, at least, from the imputation of want of courageous patriotism. That article received opposition, when it came up for final action, and was not passed without some discussion. Just at the close of the meetThere were only twenty five

ing a motion was made to reconsider it.

of the sixty-five members present; one-third of them voted for the reconsideration and the article stood.

CHAPTER IX.

CONTENTS.

Thirteen Counties in 1776; First Mention; Four County Courts; Four Counties in East Jersey created in 1682,-Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth; Boundary Lines; Counties might be divided into Townships; Defects in Description of Lines; Attempts to Remedy Defects; In 1693, Counties in East Jersey Divided into Townships; Somerset County, Boundary of; Tenths; Representatives from, not from Counties; Officers Appointed for Tenths, not for Counties; Courts at Burlington and Salem; Cape May, its Boundary, Change in; Line Between Burlington and Gloucester Changed; Burlington; Salem; Cape May; Bounds of Bergen, Essex, Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth; Line Between Burlington and Gloucester; Assanpink, Pensauquin and Old Man's Creeks; Salem; Cape May; Jecak's or West Creek; Nine Counties in New Jersey at Time of the Surrender. Partition Line between East and West Jersey; Keith Line; Act of 1719 Providing for Running Partition Line; Lawrence Line; Suit Settling which the Proper Line; Cornelius vs. Giberson; Hunterdon; Hunterdon, Boundary of; Boundary Line between Somerset, Middlesex, and Monmouth; Morris County, Boundary of; Part of Essex annexed to Somerset; Cumberland, Boundary of; Townships in Cumberland; Somerset and Morris; Sussex County, Boundary of; Legislature Passes Act Allowing Counties to Change their Boundary Lines; Electors in Morris, Cumberland and Sussex Allowed to vote in their own County; Each Allowed two Representatives; Thirteen Counties in New Jersey in 1776; Townships made Corporations; Wards and Precincts; Boundary Lines of Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth, Salem, Cumberland; Cape May Defined; Warren, Bounds of; Camden, Bounds of; Ocean, Bounds of; Now 21 Counties in the State.

Whatever may have been the defects of the Constitution of 1776, and

they were many and glaring, the people of New Jersey lived under it and thrived for nearly seventy years. The country became prosperous, increasing in wealth and population, in resources and in every appliance necessary to make a great commonwealth. It became and is, one of the influential States of the Republic.

Intimate relations between the Judiciary and the Legislature were created by this new organic law; there was room for fraud, opportu nity for corruption, but, to the eternal glory of New Jersey, it can be truthfully said that the judges of the court have always been above suspicion, and have achieved reputations for ability, for wisdom and for perfect integrity, which have made her honored and respected by all. The opinions of her jurists have been admired and quoted, not only by the courts of her sister States, but also, by those of England. The administration of Justice in New Jersey has been a synonym for perfect equity and impartial rectitude.

The Constitution of 1776 was a creation of the past; it has accom. plished its work, and its power for good, or for evil, has ceased. For fifty years and more, the State has been acting under a new constitution, and it is therefore deemed proper not to further discuss the merits or demerits of the old one.

In 1776 when the Colony of New Jersey assumed the duties and the responsibilities of statehood, there were thirteen counties within the province, erected by colonial legislation. The first mention of counties in the public records of the colony is to be found in an act passed November 13, 1675, by the Assembly of the whole province, held at Elizabeth Town, but that mention is exceedingly indefinite. The preamble to the section where this mention appears, recites this: "Having taken into serious consideration the great Change that hath been occasioned by a Necessity of keeping Courts within this Province, as also the Necessity that Courts of Justice be maintained and upheld amongst us, which said courts may go under the Denomination of County Courts." Therefore it was enacted "that there be two of the aforesaid Courts kept in the year in each respective County, viz. Bergen and the adjacent Plantations about them, to be a County and to have two Courts in a Year, whose Sessions shall be the first Tuesday in September; Elizabeth Town and Newark to make a County and have two Courts in a Year, whose Sessions shall be the first Tuesday in March and third Tuesday in September; Woodbridge and Piscataqua to be a County and to have two Courts, the first of them the

third Tuesday in March and the second Tuesday in September. The two Towns of Nevysink to make a County, their Sessions to be the last Tuesday in March and first Tuesday in September.

There is no mention prior to this, of any county; there certainly had been none created by a direct act of the Legislature. It would have been very difficult in the then unsettled state of the country, with such an extent of land entirely uninhabited, to have laid out counties by exact boundary lines. In truth, an examination of the act to which reference has just been made, will show that there had been no counties definitely established prior to that time, and that the word "County" in the act, wherever it occurs, is merely tentative, used simply to describe generally some locality within which the courts. shall be held, and not to define any particular municipality. It will be noticed that in the preamble, it is recited that the courts "may go under denomination of County courts," not that they shall be tribunals of justice for any particular county. It does not appear that distinctive names are given to any of these counties, as they are called, in the act. But, at the session of the Legislature for East Jersey, held March, 1682, at Elizabeth Town, four counties were created and named Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth, their boundary lines being thus defined: Bergen to contain "all the settlements between Hudson's River and Hackensack River, beginning at Constable's Hook and so to extend to the uppermost bound of the Province."

Constable's Hook is now the extreme southern end of Hudson County. A very erroneous idea has obtained of the meaning of this name, "Constable." The original designation of the locality was a Dutch word, "Konstapel," which, when properly translated into English, would be "Gunner's," so that the real signification of the name is Gunner's Point.

This description covers what is now Hudson County and a narrow strip of land lying north, not commensurate with the modern county of Bergen.

"Essex and the County thereof, to contain all the settlements between the west side of Hackensack River and the parting line between Woodbridge and Elizabeth Town and so to extend westward and northward to the utmost bounds of the Province." This included all of the present counties of Essex, Union, Passaic, a large part of Bergen and a part of Somerset. Had not New Jersey been divided into the east and west divisions, it would have included the whole of Morris and Sussex and large parts of Hunterdon and Somerset.

"Middlesex County to begin from the parting line between Essex County and Woodbridge line, containing Woodbridge and Piscataway and all the Plantations on both sides the Raritan River as far as Chesquake Harbor Eastward, extending South West to the utmost bounds. of the Province." This is a most indefinite description, but, undoubtedly covers much more territory than is included in the bounds of the modern county as now defined. "Chesquake Harbor" is now known as Cheesequake, which designates a small stream flowing from near Jacksonville, in the county, into Raritan Bay, a few miles south of Amboy.

"Monmouth County to begin at the Westward bounds of Middlesex County, containing Middletown and Shrewsbury, and to extend Westward, Southward and Northward to the utmost bounds of the Province."

The Legislature undoubtedly intended to carve these counties out of the territory belonging to East Jersey and to have included all that territory. It could have done no more; it ought have done no less. But the descriptions were so indefinite that subsequent legislation was required to describe more correctly the boundaries of these and other counties so as to prevent confusion and a conflict of civil and criminal jurisdiction. Many difficulties were experienced from this want of correctness. Officers were unable to perform their duties properly, not knowing the exact boundary lines. In 1692, the Legislature of East Jersey held at Perth Amboy, attempted to remedy the evil.

An act passed in 1692, referred to above, and entitled "An act for dividing each county into Townships" provides for the division of the counties created by the act of 1682, without mentioning any names, into "Townships, Tribes or Divisions by certain Bounds and Limits." It authorized the inhabitants at a county meeting "to be appointed for that end by Warrant from two Justices of the Peace or one of the Quo rum to set and ascertain the Limits and Bounds of each and so many Towns or Divisions as they or a Committee chosen by them the said meeting shall see meet." No Towns which had been chartered could be interfered with and when the counties were better settled and inhabited other subdivisions might be made. The act required that a report of any subdivisions made by virtue thereof should be recorded in the public records of the province before the 21st of October, 1692. Whether any such report was ever made or not, cannot now be ascertained.

At the meeting of the Legislature held at Perth Amboy, on the 12th

day of October, 1693, an act was passed with the same title as that of the preceding year, which enacted that the four counties of Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth should be divided into townships, defining their bounds and giving them names. Like the other, it had a provision in it that there might be other divisions, as the counties became more settled.

On the 14th of May, 1688, the county of Somerset was created by an act of the Legislature which then met for East Jersey, at Perth Amboy. It was the third act passed at that session and was entitled "An act for dividing the County of Middlesex into two counties." The preamble recited the reason for its passage in this manner: "Forasmuch as the uppermost Part of Rariton River is settled by persons whom (sic) in their Husbandry and manuring their land, forced upon quite different ways and methods from the other Farmers and Inhabitants of the County of Middlesex because of the frequent Floods that carry away their Fences on their Meadows the only arable Land they have and so by consequence their interest is divided from the other Inhabitants of said County." It was therefore enacted that the "said uppermost Part of the Rariton, beginning at the mouth of the Bound Brook, where it empties itself into the Rariton River and to run up the said Brook, to the meeting of the said Bound Brook with the Green Brook, and from the said meeting to run upon a North West line into the Hills and upon the South West side of Rariton to begin at a small Brook, where it empties itself into the Rariton, about seventy chains below the Bound Brook and from thence to run upon a South West Line to the uttermost line of the Province, be divided from the said County of Middlesex and hereafter to be deemed taken and be a County of this Province; and that the same County be called the County of Somerset."

This is all there is of the act which created the County of Somerset and, according to the notions of modern times, it is a most primitive method of organizing so important a body politic as a County. The act was a simple declaration that an extent of country, very uncertainly described, was to be a county; that was all-nothing more. It required after legislation to remedy the defect and, in process of time, that legislation came, as indeed it was absolutely necessary.

At a meeting of the Legislature of West Jersey, held November 3rd, 1685, an act was passed with this preamble: "Whereas this Province hath been formerly divided into three Counties for the better regulation thereof." A critical examination of all accessible public records, in

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