Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey

STATE OF NEW JERSEY FITZGERALD & GOSSON West Ena. x^^^.a Street, SOÊR'ÎLLE, .V. J. N. B. BICHAHDSON, GROCERIES AND PROVISIONr West End. Main Street, SOMERl/ILLE, f^. J, r ^(?^ Sfeabe ©i jêw JeFêy. MUNUSL ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH SESSION ^^"^^^ ^^âRY NEW j: 185 W. ^^t^ £.Lreet Trei COPYRIGHT SECURED. TRENTON, N. J.: Compiled fkom Official Documents and Careful Reseakch, by FITZGERALD & GOSSON, Legislative Reporters. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1883, by THOMAS F. FITZGERALD AND LOUIS C. GOSSON, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. >§®=" The newspaper press are welcome to use such parts of the work as they may desire, on giving credit therefor to the Manual. INTRODUCTORY THE INIanual of the One Hundred and Eighth Session of the Legislature of New Jersey is, we trust, an improvement on preceding volumes. We have honestly striven every year to make each succeeding book sujê- rior to all others, and hope, ere long, to present a work which will take rank with the best of its kind published in the United States. To do this we need a continuance of the support heretofore given us, and the official assist- ance of the Legislature. We are confident that this little hand-book, furnished at the small cost of one dollar a volume, is indispensable to every legislator, State official and others, who can, at a moment's notice, refer to it for information of any sort connected with the politics and affairs of State. The vast amount of data, compiled in such a remarkably concise manner, is the result of careful research of official documents; and the sketches of the Governor, members of the Judiciary, Congressmen, members of the Legislature, and State officers, are authentic. The accuracy and reliability of our labors have already been favorably passed upon, and, without saying more, we will conclude by thanking our patrons for their liberal support, and the State officers and heads of departments who have so kindly aided us in the com- pilation of our little volume. Gratefully, THE COMPILERS. January 8th, 1884. MAC CRELLISH & QUIGLEY, GENERAL BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, No. i6 E. STATE STREET, TRENTON, N. J. •1884 ; HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY In 1606, King James of England granted a new patent for Virginia (ignoring that of Sir Walter Raleigh, dated in 1584), in which was included the territory now known as the New England States and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The possession of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the adjacent lands was claimed respectively by the Dutch and Swedes. The former built Fort Nassau, on the Delaware, near Gloucester Fort Orange, on the Hudson, near Albany ; and the Hirsse of Good Hope, on the Connecticut. Disputes as to the rightful possession of territory continued for years, until the early summer of 1664, when Charles H. sold to John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret " all that tract of land adjacent to New England, and lying and being to the westward of Long Island ; bounded on the east part by the main sea and part by the Hudson river, and hath, upon the west Delaware bay or river, and ex- tendeth southward to the main ocean as far as Cape May, at the mouth of Delaware bay, and to the northward as far as the northermost branch of said bay or river of Dela- ware, which is forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and worketh over thence in a straight line to Hudson river, which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name, or names, of Nova CvESAREA or New Jersey." The name was given in honor of Carteret, on account of his gallant defence of the Island of Jersey, at the time he was Governor of the island. This grant regarded the Dutch as intruders, and Berkeley and Carteret not only became rulers, but acquired the right to transfer the privilege to others. Measures were speedily devised for peopling and govern- ing the country. The proprietors published a constitu- tion, dated February loth, 1664, by which the government of the province was to be exercised by a Governor and Council and General Assembly. The Governor was to receive his appointment from the proprietors ; the Coun- cil was to be selected by the Governor, who might make 8 MANUAL OF THE LEGISLATURE choice of six Councillors, at least (or twelve, at most), or any even number between six and twelve. On the same day that the instrument of government was signed, Philip Carteret, a brother of one of the proprietors, received a commission as Governor of New Jersey. He landed at Elizabeth in August, 1665. The precise date of the first settlements in New Jersey is not known, though it is believed that the Danes or Norwegians, who crossed the Atlantic with the Dutch colonists, began a settlement at Bergen about the year 1624. Ten years previous an attempt was made to form a settlement at Jersey City. In 1623, the Dutch West India Company sent out a ship under the command of Capt. Cornelius Jacobse Mey, who entered the Delaware bay and gave his name to its northern cape, and, sailing up the river to Gloucester, built Fort Nassau, which may be considered the first permanent settlement of the State. Upon the arrival of Governor Carteret, he entered at once upon a vigorous discharge of his duties. A large number of settlers flocked thither, and at an early period the executive authority of the province was established by the appointment of a Council, composed of Captain Nicholas Varlett, Daniel Pierce, Robert Bond, Samuel Edsall, Robert Vanquellen and William Pardon. James BoUen was appointed Secretary of the province. The first Legislative Assembly in the history of New Jersey met at Elizabethtown on the 26th of May, 1668. The session lasted four days, and was characterized by harmony and strict attention to the business for which the Burgesses and Representatives were summoned by Governor Carteret. It may be noted that this Assembly passed laws by which twelve distinct offenses were made punishable with death. The Assembly adjourned sine die, and seven years elapsed before another convened. The capture of New York by the Dutch, July 30th, 1673, was followed by the subjection of the surrounding coun- tiy, including the province of New Jersey. The whole of the territory, however, swung back to the possession of the English crown, by the treaty of peace with Hol- land on the 9th of February, 1674. The second General Assembly began its session on the 5th of November, 1675. Eight members of Council, including the Governor, were present, and fourteen Representatives appeared from the towns. Laws were enacted. looking to the proper mihtary defence of the OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY. 9 province, for the institution of regular courts, and for the assessment of taxes. A code of capital laws was also adopted, similar in its provisions to that passed in 1668. On the i8th of March, 1673, Lord Berkeley, one of the original proprietors of New Jersey, disposed of his right and interest in the province to John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, members of the Society of Quakers, or Friends, who paid the sum of one thousand pounds for the same. John Fenwick received the conveyance in trust for Edward Byllinge, and a dispute, as to the terms having arisen, William -Penn was called in as arbitrator. He gave one-tenth of the province and a considerable sum of money to Fenwick and the remainder of the territory was adjudged to be the property of Byllinge. A permanent settlement was made at Salem, in June, 1675. Owing to the continued disputations and dissensions, a division of the territory of the province was agreed upon. By this "Indenture Quintipartite," dated July ist, 1676, the line of division was made to extend across the province, from Little Egg Harbor, to a point in the Delaware river in forty-one degrees of north latitude. These divisions were known respectively as East and West Jersey, until the charters of both were surrendered, and the two portions included together under a Royal government. By the retercession of New Jersey to Great Britain by the treaty of 1674, the question arose whether the title returned to the proprietors or to the King. To avoid all difficulty, the King recognized the claim of Carteret, and made a new grant to the Duke of York, who also exe- cuted a fresh conveyance to Carteret, covering, however, only a part of the original territory of New Jersey. But before making this conveyance, the Duke included- the province in a commission given to Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of New York, who refused to recognize the authority, as Governor, of Philip Carteret, arrested all magistrates who would not submit to his own jurisdiction, and finally, on April 30th, 1680, carried Carteret himself prisoner to New York. The Duke was finally prevailed upon to acknowledge the claims of the proprietors, and in 1 68 1, the government of Andros came to an end. West Jersey, in February, 1682, was purchased by WilHam Penn and eleven other Quakers. The first Gov- ernor under the new proprietors was Robert Barclay, a Scotchman, and one of the twelve purchasers, under whom the country became an asylum for the oppressed 10 MANUAL OF THE LEGISLATURE members of his creed, and for a time enjoyed great pros- perity. But the number of proprietors, the frequent sub- divisions and transfers of shares, and various other difficulties in the way of good government, soon involved the province in trouble, and in 1702, the proprietors surrendered the rights of government to the Crown.

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