Page images
PDF
EPUB

DB

EPISCOPAL SEAL OF JOHN TALBOT.

John Talbot

FAC-SIMILE OF HIS SIGNATURE.

PREFACE.

THIS

HIS work is a series of papers, arranged in chronological order, with extracts, notes, and occasional explanations. Headings, where they did not exist, have generally been given, as a kind of introduction to what follows.

The first Parochial Register-a folio, bound in parchmentbegun in 1702, by the Founder of the Parish, and continued, by successive rectors, for a hundred and thirty-four years, is still in possession. The paper is coarse and discolored, but its records are as legible as when they were first made.

From 1720-the year when Mr. Talbot left America, not expecting to return-there are no entries in it until after he ceased to officiate; which leads to the belief that his acts after His consecration, were recorded in a book exclusively his own; and which may possibly be traced among the legal representatives of Thomas Herbert, a son of his wife by a former marriage, in the West Indies.

From 1733, the entries are continuous till 1836, when the rest f the book is left blank, and the next records are found in a new and modern volume, beginning with 1853-thus leaving a hiatus of seventeen years.

With the Minutes of the Vestry, the Parish has not been so ortunate. Three or four Churchmen of Burlington aver, that any years ago, they saw the first book of these; and they

mention two or three things which sustain their assertion; yet Bishop Doane, in an appendix to his sermon, preached at the consecration of old St. Mary's Church, in 1834, alludes to "1784," as the "earliest year to which the records then in possession, extended." The present Minutes reach no further back than 1836-hence, two books, at least, are now wanting.

Regret for these losses is lessened by having copies of letters from the early Missionaries and others, some of which have been taken from the "Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society," printed in 1851; and others, from the Lambeth, Fulham, and S. P. G. MSS., procured in 1836, by the late Rev. Dr. Francis L. Hawks, and kindly furnished by their authorized custodian, the Rev. Dr. William Stevens Perry.

The extracts from Wills-except in two or three instances, where it is otherwise stated-were made from the originals in the Office of the Secretary of State, at Trenton, N. J. The original MS. of the sermon preached at the funeral of Mrs. Talbot, was received from descendants of the Rev. Colin Campbell, by the present rector of St. Mary's, after its absence from Burlington for more than a hundred years!

No further sources of information are named in this preface, because, in every other case, an acknowledgment of its authorship is made with the contribution.

Where the spelling, abbreviations, capitals, punctuation, or lack of it, are extraordinary, it is because the originals have been minutely followed.

The reader will please keep in mind, that up to September, 1752, the legal year began with the 25th of March, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

G. M. H.

ST. MARY'S RECTORY, BURLINGTON, N. J.,

Feast of the Purification, 1876.

HISTORY.

THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT OF BURLINGTON,

"Among other purchasers of the West-Jersey lands," says Samuel Smith, in his "History of the Colony of Nova-Cæsaria, or New Jersey," printed in Burlington, in 1765, "were two companies, one made up of some friends in Yorkshire, (as hinted in the concessions,) the other of some friends in London; who each contracted for considerable shares, for which they had patents. In 1677, commissioners (agreeable to expectation given) were sent by the proprietors, with power to buy the lands of the natives; to inspect the rights of such as claimed property, and to order the lands laid out; and in general to administer the government, pursuant to the concessions: These commissioners were Thomas Olive, Daniel Wills, John Kinsey, John Penford, Joseph Helmsley, Robert Stacy, Benjamin Scott, Richard Guy, and Thomas Foulke. They came in the Kent, Gregory Marlow, master, being the second ship from London, to the western parts: After a tedious passage, they arrived at New-Castle, the 16th of the 6th month, O. S. King Charles the second, in his barge, pleasuring on the Thames, came along side, seeing a great many passengers, and informed whence they were bound, asked if they were all quakers, and gave them his blessing. They landed their passengers, two hundred and thirty in number, about Rackoon creek, where the Swedes had some

scattering habitations; but they were too numerous to be all provided for in houses; some were obliged to lay their beds and furniture in cow stalls, and appartments of that sort."

*

*

"Most of the passengers in this ship were of those called quakers; some of good estates in England. The commissioners had before left them, and were by this time got to a place called Chygoes Island,† (afterwards Burlington) their business being to treat with the Indians about the land there, and to regulate the settlements, having not only the proprietors, but Governor Andros's commission for that purpose.'

[ocr errors]

The two parties agreed to unite in settling a town. "The commissioners employed Noble, a surveyor, who came in the first ship, to divide the spot. After the main street was ascertained, he divided the land on each side into lots; the easternmost among the Yorkshire proprietors, the other among the Londoners: To begin a settlement, ten lots of nine acres each, bounding on the west, were laid out; that done, some passengers from Wickaco, chiefly those concerned in the Yorkshire tenth, arrived the latter end of October. The London commissioners also employed Noble, to divide the part of the island yet unsurveyed, between the ten London proprietors, in the manner beforementioned: The town thus by mutual consent

+ Smith's foot-note says: "From Chygoe, an Indian sachem, who lived there." The Rev. Wm. Allen Johnson, in a lecture delivered at Library Hall, Burlington, February 14th, 1870, says: "Chygoe is not an Indian name, but it is the spelling in English, as near as may be, of the French name Jegon. An assertion, or conjecture, or possibly an imperfectly understood tradition, embodied by that usually careful historian, Samuel Smith, has been blindly copied by all other writers. In his curious suit at Upland Court, against Thomas Wright and Godfrey Hancock, two of the early English settlers of Burlington, Pierre Jegou declares that in 1668 he obtained from Gov. Carteret a grant of land called Leasy Point, lying over against Matinagcom I-land and Burlington, to settle himself there, and build and keep a house of entertainment, for the accommodation of travellers; which he did, and continued there till 1670, when he was plundered and utterly ruined by the Indians, as is well known to all the world (!) but that it hath come to pass, by the arrival of these new comers, called Quackers, out of England, these defendants, Thomas Wright and Godfrey Hancock, have violently entered upon your Plaintiff's said land, and there have, by force, planted corn, mowed ha, made fences, cut timber for houses, etc., notwithstanding that they wer forewarned by your Plaintiff's friend, Henry Jacobs, in the presence of Capt. Edward Cantwell, and afterward by ye Plaintiff summoned before ye Magistrates of Burlington, who making no end of it, the case was removed here before your Worships.' Justice triumphed, and Jegou gained his suit."

« PreviousContinue »