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Richard \r. l lunrer HUNTER RESEARCH I'Ht·:stDt·:,\T lau C. Burrow \ tu: PHESIDE\T LONGBRIDGE FARM South Brunswick Township Middlsex County, New Jersey Prepared by: adine Sergejeff Damon Tvaryanas and Richard Hunter Prepared/or: The Township of South Brunswick Funding in part has been provided by the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission/Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the ew Jersey Historical Commission, a Division of Cultural Affairs in the Department of State. MARCH 2002 Hunter Research. Inc. Historical Resource Consultants 120 "'('st St ate Street. Trenton. NJ 08608-1185 609/695-0122 6091()95-0147 Fax ('-III" iI "ddrpss: [email protected] www. hururrrescarrh .r-om r- TABLE OF CONTENTS page Table of Contents i List of Figures, Plates and Tables .i A. INTRODUCTION 1 B. HISTORY 1 C. THE SITE 20 D. REFERENCES 24 List of Figures Figure I. Map Showing Early 18th-Century Land Divisions. 1929 2 Figure 2. Dalley, J. A Map of the Road from Trenton to Amboy. 1745 .4 Figure 3. Bancker, G. A Map of the Road from Trenton to Amboy. 1762 6 Figure 4. Faden, W. Province of New Jersey Divided into East and West Commonly Called the Jerseys. 1777 9 Figure 5. Randel, J. A Map Shewing the Route of a Canal Connecting the Waters of the Delaware with those of the Raritan. 1816 12 Figure 6. Otley, J. and J. W. Keily. Map of Middlesex County. 1850 15 Figure 7. Walling, H.F. Map of Middlesex County. 1861 16 Figure 8. Everts and Stewart. Combination Atlas Map of Middlesex County. 1876 17 Figure 9. Map of the Route of the Camden and Amboy Branch Railroad from Trenton to Dean's Pond. 1863 18 Figure 10. Detailed Location of Project Area 19 Figure 11. Tax Parcel Map Showing the Focus of Longbridge Farm 21 List of Plates Plate 1. View of Rowland/Mershon House 22 List of Tables Table I. Longbridge Farm: Sequence of Ownership 14 -------------------- - -- - LONGBRIDGE FARM SOUTH BRUNSWICK TOWNSHIP, MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY A. Introduction B. History The 18th-century plantation of Longbridge Farm, The colonial plantation of Longbridge Farm was orig- established in the 1730s by the wealthy Philadelphia inally contained within a 15,600-acre tract purchased merchant, Thomas Lawrence, was one of a small by Peter Sonmans from the East Jersey Proprietors in number of elite colonial farming operations in central 1693 in what was then the recently formed Middlesex New Jersey that combined a substantial acreage with County. Sonmans' vast parcel of undeveloped land a large slave population in a manner more often found extended upstream from the Raritan River along both in the southern colonies. The plantation was the scene sides of what is today known as Lawrence Brook of an overnight encampment of General Washington's almost as far south as Kingston (Figure 1). This Continental army on June 25/26, 1778, a couple of parcel included most of modern day South Brunswick nights before the Battle of Monmouth. Although its Township and parts of other adjoining municipalities. acreage was reduced over time, the farm flourished It was from the upper end of Sonmans' tract that, in well into the 19th century and was later in the hands 1733, 800 acres were carved out and sold to Thomas of the locally prominent Rowland and Mershon fami- Lawrence, forming the basis for what shortly became lies. Today, the site of Longbridge Farm is subsumed known as Longbridge Farm (East Jersey Deeds E:53 within the railroad-based village of Monmouth and E2:68). Lawrence also owned other blocks of Junction and displays few upstanding features from land downstream along the brook that has historically the colonial era. has been identified by his family's name, including a tract at its mouth that was apparently acquired in 1689 This brief historical study was commissioned by the by an older Thomas Lawrence, baker of New York Township of South Brunswick as an outgrowth of the (possibly the father of the Thomas Lawrence who is ongoing township-wide cultural resource survey being identified with Longbridge Farm) (East Jersey conducted by Hunter Research, Inc. of Trenton. Long Proprietors Records, Deed Book 5 D:87-88). the subject of unsubstantiated rumor and speculation, Longbridge Farm has been greatly in need of system- Thomas Lawrence of Longbridge Farm was born in atic archival research and historic landscape analysis. 1689 in New York. In 1719, he married Rachel The following report presents an outline history of the Longfield at Raritan, New Jersey, but by the early property drawn from primary documents followed by I720s, he had relocated to Philadelphia and begun a a provisional assessment of the core of the plantation successful career as a merchant. Lawrence quickly site within the context of the present-day landscape. rose to take his place among the Quaker City's cultural and mercantile elite. He was a subscriber to the Dancing Assembly, an exclusive aristocratic group formed by Philadelphia's most prominent families; a member of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, the first sport-fishing club in the colonies; and Junior Warden Page 1 "tI ::I: III C CO Z CD -oj I\) m ::0 ::0 m C/I »m ::0 o ::I: Z o Figure 1. Millstone and Raritan River Valley, Lots South of New Brunswick. Map Showing Early 18th- Century Land Divisions. 1929. Scale 1 inch: 10,000 feet (approximately). Approximate location of Longbridge Farm circled. LONGBRIDGE FARM: HISTORY AND LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS of Christ Church (Keith 1883:435-436). Lawrence's Longbridge Farm appears by name on several colonial financial interests were diverse and reached as far as and federal era maps of the South Brunswick area. Barbados in the West Indies and Lisbon, the capital of The plantation derived its name from the bridge that Portugal. One of his letter books, from 1725, states carried the forerunner of present-day Ridge Road over that he had "a fine new ship called the Sarah L. Lawrence Brook. The earliest known cartographic Lawrence" which was plying between places as far depiction of Longbridge Farm occurs on John afield as Jamaica, South Carolina and Holland. He Dalley's A Map of the Road from Trenton to Amboy, traded in a diverse stock of commodities and sundries, surveyed in 1745. Dalley, a native of Kingston and including tobacco, molasses, flour and Indian com thus quite familiar with the local landscape, produced (Thomas Lawrence Papers 1689-1754). By 1730, a this map at the behest of James Alexander, Surveyor partnership had been formed between Lawrence and General of the Province of New Jersey, probably in an Edward Shippen, another wealthy and influential effort to clarify land ownership and municipal and Philadelphia merchant, to take part in the lucrative fur county definition along the Kings Highway. At least trade (Keith 1883:436-38). two original copies of the Dalley map are known to be in existence, both held by the New York Historical Thomas Lawrence was perhaps best known for his Society. Although there are some slight differences in civic and political activities. In 1722, he was elected how the lettering is executed on these two versions of a Common Councilman of the City of Philadelphia the map, only one copy is reproduced here (Figure 2). and two years later was chosen an Alderman. In 1728, he qualified for a seat in the Provincial Council. He On this copy of the Dalley map, the text denoting the also presided as Judge of the County Court and served site of "Longbridge Farm belonging to Thos on the State House Committee. In 1736 and 1737, Lawrance, Esq" is positioned between "Heatcot's Lawrence was sent by the Provincial Council to Brook" (Heathcote Brook) and the course of a road Lancaster County in order to address the eviction of that approximates the alignment of today's Ridge settlers in the Susquehanna Valley, and in 1745, he Road. The annotation pertains primarily to a stylized was delegated as one of the Commissioners from block of three contiguous buildings, lying just west of Pennsylvania charged with deliberating on land and a fictitious confluence of Lawrence Brook and trade issues with the Six Indian Nations of the Heathcote Brook, but its placement may also be taken Iroquois League at Albany. In 1747, he was appointed as an indication that the plantation acreage extended Lieutenant-Colonel of the Associated Regiment of west and downstream along Heathcote Brook to the Foot for Philadelphia. This position had been offered north of present-day Ridge Road. In reality, Lawrence to Benjamin Franklin, who declined to accept it, Brook and Heathcote Brook did not converge in the suggesting Lawrence in his place because of his more manner shown on the Dalley map, although the extensive military experience. Lawrence served terms Longbridge Farm property did straddle the headwaters as Mayor of Philadelphia in 1727, 1728, 1734, 1749 of both drainages, which rise in an area of ill-defined and 1753. He was serving his final term in 1754, wetland that wraps around to the north, east and south when he passed away from "a fit of sickness." of the settlement of Monmouth Junction. Then, as Thomas Lawrence's obituary notice recorded "the now, Lawrence Brook flowed northeast to the Raritan death of so able and diligent a magistrate as a public River, while Heathcote Brook (also known histori- loss" (Keith 1883:36-38). cally as Opposite Brook, because of its unusual direc- tion of flow contrary to most other nearby creeks) drained west into the Millstone River at Kingston. Page 3 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. ••• '~ '•.. Figure 2. Dalley, 1.
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