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acquired by this process: A warrant, signed by the Governor and a majority of the Council, was delivered to the surveyor-general, who surveyed the land, made his return in writing, showing his survey and a description of the property; both warrant and return were recorded by the register. If there were no objection to the warrant, it was then issued, signed by the Governor and his Council, authenticated by the great seal of the province and this warrant was then recorded and the title to the land was perfected. This was the process in East Jersey; no patents were issued in West Jersey.

CHAPTER V.

CONTENTS.

Legislation Vested in Governor and Council and Deputies; Freemen; General Assembly; Legislature, Two Bodies; Acts Must be Approved by Both Bodies; Gov. Carteret Published Proclamation for Meeting of Legislature; First Legislature Met May 26, 1668; Six Townships Represented; Bergen, its Settlement and History; Patroons; Patroon Van Rensselaer; Michael Paauw; Harsimus; Elizabeth Town; Augustine Heerman; Cornelius Werckhoven; Negotiations between Dutch and Puritans of New England; Robert Treat; Company of Royal Adventurers Trading with Africa; Robert Vauquellin; Four Families from Jamaica; Philip Carteret Governor of New Jersey; Carteret Acknowledges Title Granted by Gov. Nicholls; Carteret and his Immigrants did not Settle Elizabeth Town; Associates of the Four Families from Jamaica; Names of Associates; First Lot, Second Lot and Third Lot Rights; Town Meetings; John Ogden, jr., Jacob Mollins, Deputies to First Legislature from Elizabeth Town; Newark; Division of Land in Newark; The Principal Streets; William Campe; Relation of the People of Newark to the Church; Jasper Crane and Robert Treat First Deputies from Newark to the Legislature; John Bailey, Daniel Denton, Luke Watson and their Associates; Daniel Pierce; Woodbridge; Piscataway; Conveyance to Daniel Pierce; John Bishop, Robert Dennis, Deputies from Woodbridge; Charter to Woodbridge; Piscataway; Second Baptist Church in New Jersey; Middletown; Romantic Incident Connected with its Settlement; Legislation Exercised by the Patentees of the Monmouth Patent and Deputies Chosen by Middletown, Shrewsbury and Portland Poynt; First Legislature in New Jersey; James Grover, John Bound, Richard Hartshorne; Shrewsbury; Action of Middletown on Legislature which Met at Elizabeth Town May, 1668; Delegates from Middletown and Shrewsbury Refuse to Take the Oath of Allegiance and are Dismissed.

By the "Grants and Concessions" made by Berkeley and Carteret the power of legislation in New Jersey was vested in the Governor and

his Council and twelve deputies, or representatives, to be chosen from amongst themselves by such of the inhabitants of the Province as were "Freemen," or their agents. The Governor's Council, selected by him, was to be composed of "six at least, or twelve at most, or any even number between six and twelve, with whose advice and consent, or with at least three of the six, or four of a greater number, all being summoned, he is to govern according to limitations." The Governor, Councillors and Assemblymen were obliged "to swear or subscribe in a book to be provided for that purpose, that they will bear true allegiance to the King of England, his heirs and successors; and that they will be faithful to the interests of the Lords Proprietors of the said Province and their heirs, executors and assigns; and endeavor the peace and welfare of the said Province; and that they will truly and faithfully discharge their respective trust in their resepective offices, and do equal justice to all men according to their best skill and judgment without corruption, favor or affection." Those who were, or might become subjects of the king of England, and swear or subscribe allegiance to him and faithfulness to the Lords Proprietors were called "Freemen" and were admitted to plant, could hold land and vote.

The Governor and his Council and the twelve deputies or representatives, when assembled in their legislative capacity, were to be called the General Assembly and were granted the fullest powers of legislation possible. In some respects, those powers were most minutely defined; but they were generally authorized by the grants and concessions to enact and pass all such "laws, acts and constitutions as shall be necessary for the well government of the said Province and them to repeal," with certain provisos already mentioned. This form of the legislative body, composed of Governor, Council and Assembly, obtained during the whole of the colonial times in New Jersey and until the Constitution of July 2, 1776, was adopted by the provincial Congress. Although the Governor and his Council and the Deputies were together called the General Assembly, yet the Legislature was composed of two distinct bodies, who met and deliberated apart, and in separate rooms; the Governor and his Council composing one body, and the Deputies. another. The several acts were submitted to these two bodies separately; any statute passed by the Deputies or Burgesses, as they are called in the record of the laws, was presented to the other body, and all statutes enacted by the Governor and his Council must be approved by the Deputies. There did not seem at first to be any regular rule or

custom requiring a formal approbation by a re-enactment of a law when thus presented by one body to the other, but, apparently, it was necessary for the full validity of a law that it should, in some way, receive such sanction as would show consent.

On the 7th of April, 1668, a little less than three years after his arrival, Governor Carteret issued a proclamation, of which, as it is the first of the kind ever promulgated in New Jersey and assumes an important bearing upon the legislative history of that State, a full copy is given: "Whereas, by the infinite goodness, providence, and blessing of Almighty God, this Province of New Jersey is in a probable way of being populated; there being a considerable number of families already settled in several parts of the same, and many more that in a short time are to come and place themselves under this government; for the better propagating and encouragement thereof, I have thought fit, with the advice of my Council, to appoint a General Assembly to begin the 25th day of May ensuing the date hereof, for the making and constituting such wholesome laws as shall be most needful and necessary for the good government of the said province, and the maintaining of a religious communion, and civil society, one with the other, as becometh Christians, without which it is impossible for any Body Politic to prosper or subsist."

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"Wherefore these are in the Lords Proprietors names to will and require all the freeholders belonging to to make choice and appoint two able men that are freeholders, and dwellers within the said limits, to be your Burgesses and Representatives for you, and they being empowered by you are to make their personal appearance at Elizabethtown, the 25th day of May next as aforesaid, and there to join with me your Governor and my Council to advise in the management of the affairs that are needful and necessary for the orderly and well governing of the said province:- Hereof you may not fail, as you and every of you will answer your contempt to the contrary. Given under the seal of the Province the seventh day of April, 1668, and in the 20th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. PH. CARTERET."

This proclamation was issued in pursuance of the Grants and Concessions which provided that until the Colonies should be divided into "Parishes, Divisions, Tribes and other Distinctions" twelve Deputies or Representatives should be chosen to "join with the Governor and

Council" in making laws. But so soon as those divisions were made, then the voters were to meet annually on the first day of January and choose "Freeholders" for each respective Division, to be Deputies or Representatives of the same. This first meeting of any legislature in New Jersey, called according to Governor Carteret's proclamation for May 25th, but which did not meet until the 26th day of May, 1668, was held at Elizabeth Town and continued in session just four days, until the 30th of May. There were present the Governor, Philip Carteret, six members of his Council and ten delegates, two from each of the following named towns: Bergen, Elizabeth Town, Newark, "upon Pishawack River," Woodbridge, and Middletown. Piscataway very early assumed some prominence in the colony, but does not seem to have attained such importance at the time of this first meeting of the Legislature in New Jersey as to be entitled to representation. Shrewsbury had no delegates from its own citizens, but was represented by those from Middletown. There were as yet no counties nor other territorial divisions of the colony and there could have been no legislation providing for the number of representatives, dependent upon the population nor the places from which they should be sent. The delegates forming the popular branch of the Legislature represented such towns as were generally recognized as inhabited localities, whose citizens were so numerous and whose interests were so important that they ought be represented in the law-making body of the province. There were no objections made to the representatives, at this first meeting, nor to the mode of election, nor to the numbers. Just how those elections were conducted in the different localities, or what was the method of voting, is unknown, except in the case of Newark. The records of that town give the information that the delegates were appointed at a regular town meeting by the votes of the inhabitants of the town assembled at that meeting.

The Grants and Concessions, as has already been stated, provided that the persons entitled to vote for their delegates should be "Freemen." It is quite evident from these facts that there could have been only six towns in the whole province which were of such size and importance that they considered themselves, and were acknowledged by all, as entitled to representation in this first legislature. These six towns were Bergen, Newark, Elizabeth Town, Middletown, Woodbridge and Shrewsbury.

Bergen was settled, as has been learned, by the Dutch, and the name

of one of the first delegates from that town unmistakably proves his Dutch origin; the other bore a French name, Bayard, but he was a descendant of a Huguenot who had gone to Holland at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The history of the settlement of Newark has been already given somewhat in detail, but the other towns have been simply mentioned. The origin of Bergen has been referred to, but not in such amplitude as it deserves. It is now within the bounds of the present county of Hudson. The limits of the original grant were quite indefinite, but the first settlement was very compact and small, being for several years simply a trading post where merchants from New Amsterdam resorted to trade with the natives for game, peltry and such commodities as the aborigines might carry thither for barter. This, undoubtedly, was the original method by which trading was carried on between the natives and the European merchants.

There has been much speculation indulged in by historians as to the date of the first settlement at Bergen; that date cannot be accurately determined, indeed, it is doubtful whether it can be approximated. It is almost impossible to fix definitely the precise time, even as to the year, when Europeans first established themselves as permanent settlers in any particular locality in New Jersey, except, perhaps, in the case of Newark, where the town records have been so well preserved that it can be determined beyond a peradventure, even as to the month and year when the immigrants from Connecticut landed at "our town on the Passaic."

It is not probable that the merchants who built the stockade at Bergen only for the purpose of trading with the aborgines, carried their wives and families there at the first.

The date of 1616 is the earliest which is given for the first settlement of Bergen, and that is very doubtful, although several historians fix it as the correct time; they are not able, or, perhaps, it had better be said, they do not give any authority for the assertion. Henry Hudson discovered the Hudson River in 1609. In 1611 the Dutch began trading with the Indians, but they made no permanent settlements and it was not until 1623 that the pioneer colony consisting of thirty families sailed from Holland and made a permanent lodgment on Manhattan Island. Posts had been established on the river for the purpose of trading with the savages, but nothing more. Bergen was, undoubtedly, the first European settlement in New Jersey, but it originated in

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