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General, or his order, shall not be subject to any review, re-survey or alteration of bounders, on what pretence soever by any of us, or by any officer or minister under us."

"III. They are to take care that no man, if his cattle stray, range or graze on any ground within the said Province, not actually appropriated or set out to particular persons, shall be lyable to pay any trespass for the same, to us, our heirs or executors: PROVIDED, that custom of commons be not thereby pretended to, nor any person hindered from taking up, and appropriating any lands so grazed upon: And that no person doth purposely suffer his cattle to graze on such lands.

"AND THAT THE PLANTING OF THE SAID PROVINCE MAY BE THE MORE SPEEDILY PROMOTED."

"I. We do hereby grant unto all persons who have already adventured to said Province of New Caesarea or New Jersey, or shall transport themselves, or servants, before the first day of January, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixtyfive, these following proportions, viz.: To every freeman that shall go with the first Governor, from the port where he embarques, or shall meet him at the rendezvous he appoints, for the settlement of a plantation there, arm'd with a good musket, bore twelve bullets to the pound, with ten pounds of powder, and twenty pounds of bullets with bandiliers and match convenient, and with six months provision for his own person arriving there, one hundred and fifty acres of land English measure; and for every able servant that he shall carry with him, arm'd and provided as aforesaid, and arriving there, the like quantity of one hundred and fifty acres English measure: And whosoever shall send servants at that time, shall have for every able man servant he or she shall send, armed and provided as aforesaid, and arrive there, the like quantity of one hundred and fifty acres; And for every weaker servant, or slave, male or female, exceeding the age of fourteen years, which any one shall send or carry, arriving there, seventy five acres of land: And for every Christian servant, exceeding the age aforesaid, after the expiration of their time of service, seventy five acres of land for their own use."

"II. ITEM. To every master or mistress that shall go before the first day of January, which shall be in the year one thousand six hundred sixty-five; one hundred and twenty acres of land. And for every able man servant, that he or she shall carry or send, arm'd and provided as aforesaid, and arriving within the time aforesaid, the like quantity of

one hundred and twenty acres of land: And for every weaker servant or slave, male or female, exceeding the age of fourteen years, arriving there, sixty acres of land: And to every Christian servant to their own use and behoof sixty acres of land."

"HI. ITEM. To every free man and free woman that shall arrive in the said Province, arm'd and provided as aforesaid, within the second year, from the first day of January 1665 to the first day of January one thousand six hundred sixty-six, with an intention to plant, ninety acres of land English measure: And for every man servant that he or she shall carry or send, armed and provided as aforesaid, ninety acres of land of like measure."

"IV. ITEM. For every weaker servant or slave, aged as aforesaid, that shall be so carried or sent thither within the second year, as aforesaid, forty five acres of land of like measure: And to every Christian servant that shall arrive the second year, forty five acres of land of like measure, after the expiration of his or their time of service, for their own use and behoof."

"AND THAT THE LANDS MAY BE THE MORE REGULARLY LAID OUT AND ALL PERSONS THE BETTER ASCERTAIN'D OF THEIR TITLE AND POSSESSION.” "III. ITEM. We do also grant convenient proportions of land for highways and for streets, not exceeding one hundred foot in breadth in cities, towns and villages, &c. and for churches, forts, wharfs, kays, harbours and for publick houses; and to each parish for the use of their ministers two hundred acres, in such places as the General Assembly shall appoint.'

“IV. ITEM. The Governor is to take notice, that all such lands laid out for the uses and purposes aforesaid in the next preceding article, shall be free and exempt from all rents, taxes and other charges and duties whatsoever, payable to us, our heirs or assigns.”

"V. ITEM. That in laying out lands for cities, towns, vilages, boroughs, or other hamblets, the said lands be divided into seven. parts: one seventh part whereof to be by lot laid out for us, and the rest divided to such as shall be willing to build thereon, they paying after the rate of one penny or half-penny per acre (according to the value of the land) yearly to us, as for their other lands as aforesaid: which said lands in cities, towns, &c. is to be assured to each possessor by the same way and instrument as is before mentioned."

VI. ITEM. That all rules relating to the building of each street, or quantity of ground to be allotted to each house within the said re

spective cities, boroughs and towns, be wholly left by act as aforesaid, to the wisdom and discretion of the General Assembly."

"VII. ITEM. That the inhabitants of the said Province have free passage thro' or by any seas, bounds, creeks, rivers or rivulets, &c. in the said Province, thro' or by which they must necessarily pass to come from the main ocean to any part of the Province aforesaid.”

"VIII. Lastly. It shall be lawful for the representatives of the Freeholders, to make any address to the Lords touching the Governor and Council, or any of them, or concerning any grievances whatsoever, or for anything they shall desire, without the consent of the Governor and Council or any of them. GIVEN under our seal of our said Province the tenth day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty and four."

"JOHN BERKELEY." "G. CARTERET."

Philip Carteret was the first governor of New Jersey and arrived in 1665, landing at Elizabeth Town, where he found four families already located. While the Dutch ruled in New Netherlands, there was only one governor for the two provinces of New York and New Jersey; in fact, both colonies were then included under the general name of New Netherlands. Carteret brought with him thirty immigrants from England, who, with the four families already there, founded that ancient and venerable town, which at one time was the capital of the province and afterwards became famous in the history of New Jersey. It was named after Lady Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George Carteret, whose name is often mentioned after her husband's death, and is associated with some important events in the future history of the colony. Elizabeth Town has grown from the four houses which formed the settiement when Philip Carteret first saw it, to a city of more than forty-five thousand inhabitants and is now called Elizabeth.

New Jersey was now an independent province, with all the appliances, so far as fertility of soil, salubrity of climate and convenience of position were concerned, for sustaining a large population. It had rulers who were vested with almost royal authority, who had appointed a governor to whom they had delegated a portion of that authority, and he had assumed the reins of government, It had a constitution of great liberality, fully guaranteeing the rights of the colonists and securing their most sacred liberties; it was thus enabled to exercise all the functions of civil authority; but it did not possess all the requisites of a

well equipped and organized state. It had an executive, a chief magistrate called a governor; but it had no legislature, nor any judiciary. Its inhabitants were few in number and found in spots, few and far between, within its borders, and the wants of these inhabitants were commensurate with the paucity of their numbers. They were fighting the stern battle of life for mere existence, with their utmost efforts gaining only a bare subsistence for themselves and their families. The time was coming, and in the near future, when all the component parts of the machinery of government would be needed, but that time was not yet at hand. The people were not yet in a condition that required the protection of a popular legislature; they had little time in that dawn of the history of the State to seek litigation for securing their rights and redressing their wrongs. The process of providing legislation and a judiciary must grow with the growth of the people and the process was necessarily slow and tedious. By the "grants and concessions" a legislature made up of representatives of the people and elected by them; and of the governor and his council, to be composed of six or more, not exceeding twelve, selected by him, was to be organized. It should have power "to make and enact all such laws, acts and constitutions as shall be necessary for the well government of the said province," provided they were consonant to reason, and “as near as may be conveniently agreeable to the laws and customs of his Majesty's kingdom of England;" and also provided they were not against the interests of the Lords Proprietors, or their concessions and "especially that they were not repugnant to the article for liberty of conscience." But there was none from whom might then be selected either the legislators for the people, nor the council for the governor, nor were there litigants for any courts which might be organized. Few of the colonists, perhaps none, were fitted by education or mental training for the important duties connected with legislatures and councils. The kind of men to fill these positions had not yet been attracted to the new colony, either by the hope of political advancement or of securing worldly gain, or of obtaining religious tolerance; or by any of those inducements which impel adventurous spirits or men of advanced ideas to seek new climes and untried conditions.

Newark had not yet received its immigration of stern, earnest, substantial Puritans from Connecticut. Perth Amboy was still to be settled; it did not exist, not even on paper; there were no commercial marts, with bright-eyed, keen, bustling merchants, intent upon trade;

no busy workshops, noisy with the hum of industrious workmen; no pushing, thriving manufacturing towns, where artisan and mechanic. congregated and all was energy and life; there was no commerce then; there were no manufactures. There were a few Hollanders and with them some Norwegians who had crept over from New Amsterdam, when the Dutch ruled New Netherlands; some Dutch, some English and some Swedes had gone into the southern end of New Jersey; that was all—a mere fringe of population. How came those four families at Elizabeth Town which Governor Carteret found there, and to which he added thirty immigrants, when he landed? It will be remembered that Colonel Nicolls had been appointed governor by the Duke of York over the whole country described in the grant from Charles. He did not know, nor had he heard of the conveyance to Berkeley and Carteret until long after it was made, and until he learned of it, he supposed that his authority extended, as governor, over the whole country given to York. It was his duty to his royal master, as well as his own interest, to use his best endeavor to settle the land. To this end, and while believing himself to be such governor and vested with full authority to do so, he had made some grants of land in New Jersey to actual settlers, among them to these four families at Elizabeth Town. Governor Carteret did not disturb them; it was not for the interest of his superiors, nor of himself, that he should do so.

The plan of subdividing the domain granted to the duke into smaller principalities did not meet with the approval of Governor Nicolls; he remonstrated with his royal master for depriving him of what he considered a vested right and for separating one part of his province from the other; he attempted to show him the loss he had sustained, comparing the fertility of the soil of New Jersey with that of New York and praising the number and size of the rivers in the former province; foreseeing what might result if such a separation should be practically carried out, he predicted the result to the duke and to his grantees; the duke would reap no benefit from the grant from the king; his grantees would never be able to settle their part of the country to their satisfaction nor to receive any return commensurate with their expectations, and they would involve themselves and their heirs in irretrievable ruin by the amount of expense they would find absolutely necessary in providing for the future needs of their province. Of course all these remonstrances were then made too late; the conveyance was already made; Berkeley and Carteret were in actual possession and Nicolls must surrender.

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