Memorial of the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1620-1920; a record of the Pilgrim descendants who early in its history settled in Cape May County, and some of their children throughout the several states of the union at the present time (1921)
Copyright, 1921; ALBERT R. HAND, Publisher Cape May, N. J. May 7, 1921 Printed and Published by: ALBERT R. HAND, Cape May, N. J.
Extracted by: Laverne Tornow
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By the theory of the English law of the 17th century, the discoveries of the Cabots gave to the British Crown the title to all the lands on the eastern coast of North America, the Dutch claims upon the Hudson and the Delaware never being expressly recognized by the British government. In 1606 the London Plymouth Companies acquired a patent to the territory now included in New Jersey, in which zone either company might claim land, although neither affected or attempted to erect permanent colonization. In 1634, King Charles I granted New Albion, including the territory of New Jersey, to Sir Edmund Ployden, but no permanent settlement was accomplished. The first separation of the land of New Jersey from the English crown was on March 12, 1664, (when Charles II granted to his brother James, Duke of York, certain territories in New England and Long Island "lying and being toward the west of Cape Cod," and all the mainland from the west bank of the Connecticut to the east side Delaware Bay. All this territory was to be held in free and common socage as of the manor of East Greenwich, subject to the annual rent of 40 beaver skins should they be demanded. The Duke never came into actual possession of his lands, and while the Dutch were still in possession, executed, on June 23 and 24, 1664, deeds of lease and release to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret by which they acquired "all that tract of land lying and being to the westward of Long Island and Manhitas Island, and bounded on the east part by the main sea and part by Hudson's river, and hath upon the West Delaware Bay or River and to the northward as far as the northermost branch of the said Bay or River of Delaware, which is 41 degrees 40 minutes of latitude, and crosseth over thence in a straight line to Hudson's River in 41 degrees of latitude, which said tract of land is
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hereafter to be called by the name or names of Nova Cesarea or New Jersey. (Columbia University Studies in History, Economies and Public Law, Vol. XXX, The Province of New Jersey, Edwin P. Tanner, Ph. D.)
Through the reconquest of the Dutch and the subsequent return of the territory to the British crown, the title again fell into the hands of the king and was again granted to his brother, the Duke of York, including the land of New Jersey. (Leaming and Spicer - Grants and Concessions). In the meantime Berkeley had sold his interest in New Jersey to two members of the Society of Friends, John Fenwick and Edward Byllenge, for the sum of 1,000 pounds. Carteret received a new conveyance to a portion of the former province of New Jersey, including all the land north of a line drawn from Barnegat to a certain creek on the Delaware next below Rankokas Creek, giving Carteret more than one half of the territory which was again called New Jersey. Both Fenwick and Byllenge lost control, through debt, of the land acquired by them, the interest of the Society of Friends being cared for by William Penn and other friends associated with him.
Carteret then consented to a new division of the province, a line beginning at Little Egg Harbor and running to a point on the Delaware in 41 degrees north latitude having been settled upon as a boundary between the two portions, now called East and West Jersey. The document effecting this division was signed by Carteret and four representatives of the Quakers' interests, and is called the Quintipartite Deed.
Through the powerful influence of William Penn, the doubtful title of the Quaker settlement was finally established by a definite grant from the Duke of York, who thereby relinquished title to the entire territory of New Jersey.
The beginning of proprietary rights in West Jersey, in which division our interest from this time centers, was in March, 1676, when by the "Concessions" a definite arrangement was made by which these rights could be obtained (New Jersey Archives, first series. Vol. I, p. 241, and Columbia Uni-
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versity studies in History, etc., quoted above.) The entire province of West Jersey was divided into 100 equal parts to be known as "properties," and these were to be grouped into ten larger divisions known as "tentlis. " Repeated divisions and subdivisions of properties followed - the interests of tbe Quakers predominating, until the time of the death of Byllenge in 1687, when four years later his entire holdings passed by purchase into the hands of Dr. Daniel Coxe, who had been physician to the Queen of Charles II and also to Anne. "He was an energetic and ambitious man whose object at this time was apparently to imitate the achievements of William Penn," (Columbia University Studies in History, etc., vol. XXX, p. 16). Dr. Coxe's ambition went to the extent of claiming full jurisdiction over the whole extent of West Jersey, and on September 5, 1687, he wrote to the proprietors stating that though the concessions might be binding upon others, he had been assured upon the highest legal authority, they were in no way binding upon him. Further, he declared that his power of government was as absolute as that of Penn over Pennsylvania, that he had assumed the title of governor, and would exercise its duties with diligence. Dr. Beesley says of Dr. Coxe and his holdings: - "In April, May, and June, 1691, John Worlidge and John Budd, from Burlington, came down the bay in a vessel, and laid a number of proprietary rights, commencing at Cohansey, and so on to Cape May. They set off the larger portion of this county, consisting of 95,000 acres, to Dr. Daniel Coxe, of London, who had large proprietary rights in West Jersey. This was the first actual proprietary survey made in the county. In the copy of the original draft of these surveys, and of the county of Cape May, made by David Jaraeison, in 1713, from another made by Lewis IMorris, in 1706, (which draft is now in my possession, and was presented by William Griffith, Esq., of Burlington, to Thomas Beesley, of Cape May, in 1812,) Egg Island, near the mouth of IMauriee River, is laid off to Thomas Budd, for three hundred acres. Since this survey was made,
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the attrition of the waters has destroyed almost every vestige of it scarcely enough remaining to mark the spot of its former magnitude. Upon this map likewise is laid doiwn Cape May Town, at Town Bank on the Bayshore, the residence of the whalers, consisting of a number of dwellings and a short distance above it we find Dr. Coxe's Hall, with a spire, on Coxhall Creek, a name yet retained by the inhabitants. As no other buildings or improvements are noted on this map, than those above mentioned, it is to be presumed that there were few, if any, existing except them, at this day. The only attraction then was the whale fishery; and the small town of fifteen or twenty houses marked upon this map, upon the shore of Town Bank, in close contiguity, would lead us to infer that those adventurous spirits, who came for that purpose, preferred in the way of their profession to be near each other, and to make common stock in the operations of harpooning, in which, according to Thomas, they seemed to be eminently successful."
Dr. Coxe was a speculator to large extent in colonial land claims, but his attempted operations did not find sympathy in West Jersey. His claim to governmental control over the province met with opposition, and he decided to withdraw from the undertaking in that territory, and in 1691 sold out the greater part of his interest to a company known as the West Jersey Society. By deeds of lease and release, about 20 properties in West Jersey, together with interests in East Jersey and Pennsylvania and New England, passed over to tlie new investors in consideration of 4800 pounds. Sir Thomas Lane was its first president, Edmund Harrison its vice-president, and Robert Hackshaw treasurer. The purpose of the Society as stated in the articles of agreement was "our mutual benefit, profit, and advantage" and "the better and more orderly managing and improving of the said hereditary government, lands and tenements." The stock was divided into 1600 equal shares, and the holder of two of these was entitled to the privilege of voting at the annual meeting for the
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election of officers. The actual business management rested in the hands of a committee, which had power to sell and dispose of all lands. The operations of the Society were directed from London, and the Quakers were no longer a controlling majority (Columbia University Studies in History, etc., vol. XXX, pages 17, 18).
From this time the new settlers were able to obtain title to the land necessary for the development of the slowly increasing community.
"This sale," says Dr. Beesley, who makes the consideration 9,000 pounds and the date the 20th of January, 1692, opened a new era for the people of Cape May. As no land titles had been obtained under the old regime of the proprietors, except five conveyances from George Taylor, as agent for Dr. Coxe, the West Jersey Society became the medium through which they could select and locate the choice of the lands, at prices corresponding with the means and wishes of the purchaser."
From Trenton and Cape May records Dr. Beesley gathered the following lists of purchasers of land, mostly previous to 1696, some few (of Dr. Coxe) as early as 1689:
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The list is of the greatest genealogical interest, and the continuation of the same family names in the County to the present time is remarkable a" contrasted with some parts of the County of Plymouth of the Pilgrims, where in many towns the names of the first comers have entirely disappeared. These persons had settled in the County previous to 1700, and the same authority (Dr. Beesley) gives an additional list of those who at that date were residing in the County, many of whom had acquired land by secondary purchase :
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It is quite possible we have in these lists New England ancestors of hitherto unsuspected interest. Whether "Lubbard Gilberson" is a corruption of some New England name which appears early in the history of Plymouth County, or whether the name Raynor is of the same family as that of the Plymouth pastor, are matters of speculation which we have not place to consider. Jacob Spicer's son of the same name married first Judith Hughes and second Deborah Hand, widow of Christopher Leaming, who was the son of Thomas and the Hannah Whilldin mentioned below. In the second list, Thomas Leamyeng (Leaming) married Hannah Whilldin* (Hannah Gorham^, Desire Howland^, John Howland, the Pilgrim), and had a family of seven children, from whom many in Cape May County are descended.
A John Garlick married Phebe Leaming, daughter of Thomas, and the name "Isaeer Crafford (Crawford) appears among the grandchildren of Joseph Whilldin the second.
The first settlement waa on the bay, and was called Cape May Town, the site of which, Dr. Beesley says, with adjoin-
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ing land, has been washed away by the attrition of the water Aaron, Learning the second gives a description of the first village, beginning with an account of his family,
"My father's father, Christopher Learning, was an Englishman, and came to America in 1670, and landed near or at Boston ; thence to East Hampton. There he lived till about the year 1691, and then leaving his family at Long Island, he came himself to Cape May, which, at that time, was a new county, and beginning to settle very fast, and seemed to promise good advantages to the adventurers. Here he went to whaling in the proper season, and at other times worked at the cooper's trade, which was his occupation, and good at this time by reason of the great number of ,whales caught in those days, made the demand and pay for casks certain. He died of a pleurisie in 1696. His remains were interred at a place called Cape May Town, was situated next above now New England Town Creek, and contained about thirteen houses; but, on the failure of the whale fishery in Delaware Bay, it dwindled into common farms, and the graveyard is on the plantation now owned by Ebenezer Newton. At the first settlement of the county, the chief whaling was in Delaware Bay, and that occasioned the town to be built there, but there has not been one house in that town since my remembrance. In 1734 I saw the graves; Samuel Eldredge showed them to me. They were then about fifty rods from the Bay, and the sand was blown to them. The town was between them and the water. There were some signs of the ruins of houses."
It is probable the first graves were not marked by stones, and the first village of the settlers of Cape May has long been swallowed up by the encroaching sea.
Before the death of the last survivor of the Pilgrim band descendants of the Mayflower had built homes and established themselves in Cape May County. Mrs. Mary Allerton Cushman,
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the last of the Pilgrims, died in 1699, at the age of 90. She was the wife of Elder Thomas CushmaQ, the second of the succeeding ruling elders of the Pilgrim Church, namely, Elder Brewster, Elder Cushman, Elder Faunce, the office becoming extinct in the Pilgrim Church with the death of the last named in 1745, aged 99. Mary Allerton, afterward Mrs. Cushman, was eleven years of age when the Mayflower came to anchor in Plymouth Harbor. Her memory reached back to the first steps in the proposed migration from Holland, and she lived to see the union with Massachusetts Bay in 1692, when the Pilgrim Colony came to an end. By 1685 descendants of the Mayflower were settled on the coast of Maine and in Connecticut. Hannah Garham,. the granddaughter of John Howland with her husband, Joseph Whilldin, had settled in Cape May by 1690, and it is probable this was the most distant point colonized (in part) by Pilgrim descendants at this time.
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