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contain 11,520 acres, to be one and a half miles in breadth at its northern end, which ran on the west to the Hackensack River and to be twelve miles in length. It comprised within its bounds all there is of the modern county of Hudson, lying east of the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. By this charter, fifteen pounds sterling of English money, seventy-five dollars of modern currency, was to be paid to the Lords Proprietors as a quit rent; all freeholders in the colony, who would swear allegiance to the king of Great Britain and fidelity to the Lords Proprietors, were to be accounted as Freemen, to have a free voice in election and to enjoy all the rights, immunities and privileges granted to the township; two deputies to the Legislature were to be elected from the town; the freeholders were to have power to elect the magistrates who were to be assistants to the president or judge of the court, provided that one of the magistrates should be selected from a particular locality within the colony; the freeholders were also to have power to elect a justice or justices of the peace and military officers; subject, however, to the approval of the governor, by whom they were to be commissioned; the freeholders also were to have power to choose their own minister, and all the inhabitants were to contribute to the support of the minister thus chosen, according to their ability; full liberty of conscience in all religious matters was guarantied, provided that "this liberty granted shall not extend to licentiousness, or the disturbance of others and the public peace;" free trade was allowed; no tax, excise, customs, or any imposition whatever was to be allowed, unless it was assessed for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the government; all rates and assessments relating to the corporation should be raised and levied by these justices and magistrates; provision was made in the charter for the institution by the inhabitants of a court and its proper officers, from whose judgment there should be no appeal, unless the amount recovered was more than five pounds; trial by jury of six or twelve men was required and no citizen should harass any inhabitant of the colony by seeking relief in any court outside of those which might be established by the inhabitants of that colony. These were generous terms and far in advance of the ideas of the times which controlled the governments of Europe.

Bergen is no longer a distinctive locality by itself, its name even is gone, except as it lingers in that of the county, which does not contain a foot of the ground included within the bounds of the locality formerly known as Bergen; or in Bergen Point, or in Bergen Four Corners, which are fast disappearing as names of well known localities.

Some reference, but not enough, has been made to the first settlement of Elizabeth Town. For many years it was the seat of government of New Jersey. The Legislature frequently met there, the governor lived there and it was at one time the most important locality in the province.

The first Europeans who saw the land upon which the town was built were a few of the seamen who were on board the "Half Moon," with Henry Hudson, when he made his memorable visit to New York Bay. It was on Sunday, the 6th of September, 1609, that John Coleman and four others, while prospecting in Newark Bay and in the Kills, came in sight of the mainland of New Jersey. Just, in his narrative, thus described the scene: "Very good riding for ships; and a narrow river to the westward between two islands. The lands were as pleasant with Grape and Flowers and goodly Trees, as euer they had seen and very sweet smells came from them." So, John Coleman and his four fellow seamen must have been the first discoverers of Elizabeth Town. But no serious attempts were made at any settlements on so inviting a spot. The traders who, as early as 1613, built a rude trading post at New Amsterdam, sent their followers into the streams and estuaries on the shores of New Jersey, to establish a trade in peltries with the natives. The Indians, whom John Coleman found on the mainland on Newark Bay, had taken his life and badly wounded one of his companions. This may have deterred the Dutch from visiting the natives in that vicinity, but a large trade in the commodities produced by the aborigines, very soon sprung up between them and the Dutch in other parts of New Jersey very near where Elizabeth Town was afterwards built. The cruelties which, unprovoked, on several occasions the Dutch practiced on the unsuspecting natives prevented the Europeans from making any extended visits into the country. They preferred the protection of the fort and garrison at New Amsterdam. But their greed finally overcame their fear and somewhere about the year 1651 a serious attempt was made to form a colony in the locality seen by Coleman and his associates on that 6th of September. In pursuance of the plan so much favored by the Dutch, of parceling out the country over which they claimed ownership into principalities, or manors, to wealthy Hollanders, grants were made of large extents of land to several persons.

Among the adventurers who had come in 1633 to New Amsterdam, in search of fortune, was Augustine Heerman, a Bohemian. He had,

by his shrewdness and energy, accumulated a fortune and made himself influential in his new home. Cornelis Van Werckhoven, a promi nent officer of the city of Utrecht, had directed his attention to the new land beyond the sea and had resolved to become one of the patroons under the West India Company. Accordingly he notified that company of his intention and a commission was given to Heerman to select the land and to make the purchase. The negotiations were entered into with the owners and a large extent of country adjoining Elizabeth Town, was purchased for the Honorable Cornelis Werckhoven. The description of the land thus bought, as it appears in the deed, is unintelligible to modern readers, as the boundaries are given with Indian names which have long since passed from the memory of man. It is certain, however, that the country conveyed to Werckhoven included the land lying on Raritan River and between that stream and the Passaic and west of Staten Island. But the Utrecht Schepen became too greedy in his desire to monopolize the land in East Jersey; he secured three other grants, one of which was for a tract south of the Raritan, and two on Long Island, and thus excited the jealousy of others equally as greedy as himself and contests arose between Werckhoven and other speculators. The Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company was called upon to settle the controversy and it decided that Werckhoven could only hold one tract at a time. He was obliged to select one from his four grants and to surrender all the others. He selected one of the two made to him for land on Long Island where he founded New Utrecht, which he named after the city of his abode. It is, of course, not within the province of human ken to foresee what would have been the result if the wealthy Dutchman had succeeded in retaining his New Jersey purchase. But in all human probability, it was well that he failed, as the class of immigrants who afterwards colonized Elizabeth Town were entirely dif ferent from those whom the Hollander would undoubtedly have induced to settle there.

In September, 1665, the natives, driven to despair by the constant cruelties of the Dutch, slaughtered the settlers at Pavonia, Hoboken and on Staten Island. This horrible occurrence delayed the settlement of New Jersey by the Hollanders, and the terrified and demoralized settlers fled for refuge to the fort at New Amsterdam, abandoning their property and fleeing for their lives.

About this time, the Protector, Cromwell, died and Charles II was

restored to the throne of his fathers. During Cromwell's time there had been no intermeddling with the colonists in New England, in the management of their governmental affairs, nor had Cromwell, though often solicited to do so, interfered with the Dutch at New Amsterdam, but now that the despotic king, with his leaning towards Rome, was restored, a feeling of fearful anxiety agitated the Puritan communities in New England. They feared that there was no safety for them with Charles as king, so they began to look around them for a new home. A still larger number of those who were strongly imbued with Puritanic modes of belief, and who had remained in England, shared in this feeling of disquietude, and they turned their longing eyes towards the new world with the hope that they might find there a haven of rest. Many of these New England Puritans had passed over the narrow sea which divided their new home from Long Island and had established themselves there. There had been some previous negotiations between them and the Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam, looking toward a settlement in New Jersey in the very land which had been purchased by Werckhoven. But there had been a failure in making any arrangements, as the sturdy Puritans were persistent in making demands which the almost equally sturdy Dutchmen were unwilling to grant. The Englishmen claimed the right to govern themselves, independent of the authorities either at New Amsterdam or in Holland; they also claimed the right to settle their legal controversies in their own courts without appeal to those established in New Netherlands, either as tribunals of original or appellate jurisdiction. They required the Dutch to purchase the land for them from the Indians and to make full conveyance to the associates of the land thus purchased, forever, and they also insisted that they should be allowed to exclude all such from the land they proposed to occupy, as could not pass the scrutiny of their town meetings. The Dutch agreed to all these demands except that of self government. The Puritans, however, were resolute and would not yield this point. The death of Cromwell and the accession of Charles led to a renewal of the negotiations which progressed so far that the matter was sent to "their high mightinesses, the States General," who referred it back to Stuyvesant with the advice to him to insist as long as possible that in certain criminal proceedings the Dutch courts should have jurisdiction exclusive of the Puritan, but that, if it became necessary to secure such desirable immigrants, finally to yield the points, if advisable, in his opinion. The doughty Peter was not

obliged to resort to this diplomacy, for the Puritans withdrew from further negotiations and sought a home elsewhere. In the course of these transactions Robert Treat, afterwards prominent in the settlement of Newark, visited New Amsterdam, with other representatives from the New England colonies. He was received with great honor by the authorities of New Netherlands, and on his return was quite enthusiastic in his praise of the Dutch.

The States General, taking advantage of the situation, in 1661 issued an invitation to "all christian people of tender conscience in England. or elsewhere oppressed, to erect colonies anywhere within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant in the West Indies, between New England and Virginia, in America." A charter for any settlement which might thereafter be made, was prepared, containing the most liberal terms and conditions, which was approved by the Dutch authorities. But the movement which dictated the preparation of this charter did not eventuate in any definite action so far as any settlement under the authority of the Dutch government was concerned. A party of about twenty Englishmen visited the Raritan River, after sailing down the Connecticut, and while there, attempted to buy land from the Indians, but were intercepted by a Dutch force sent out against them, and driven off.

Most of these efforts at negotiation with the Dutch were made by communities in New England, where they were threatened with the abrogation of a law which provided that no one should vote or hold land unless he were a member of a Congregational Church. Efforts were also made by individuals for a settlement in New Netherlands. The letter written by a New England settler, which initiated one of these individual attempts, is so quaint and so unique that it is copied verbatim et literatim. It is addressed to Captain Bryan Newton, one of Stuyvesant's Council:

"Worthy Sir: after my due respects p'sented unto you these few lines ar to request a kindness of you taking you to be my spetiall friend, and know no other like yourselff to intrust in such a Case as this; the thing I dezier and some others with me is this: that you would be pleased to take the first and most sutable oppertunity to speak with the honored governor, deziring him to resolve you in these particulars first, whither or no that place upon the mayne land which is called Arthur Cull be free from any ingagements secondly if free, then whither or no he will be pleased to grant it to a Company of honest men that may

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