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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
When the Governor's first assembly met at Elizabethtown in 1668 with
delegates from that village and from Bergen, Newark, Middletown, and
Shrewsbury, it became clear that New England Puritanism was dominant
in the settled part of the Colony. Swearing, drunkenness, and fornication
were made penal offenses and the child over 16 who cursed or smote at
parents might incur the death penalty. The government operated under
"The Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors," which Carteret had brought from England in 1665. This document, which may be
termed New Jersey's first constitution, contained a particularly emphatic
guarantee of religious liberty, no doubt motivated by the Proprietors' desire to promote rapid settlement.
The smoldering controversy over the dual land grants broke out in the
assembly. Many settlers held that their grants from Nicolls and deeds of
purchase from the Indians gave valid titles to their land, and that the Proprietors did not have the right of government. Barred from the assembly
for this stand, a number of delegates formed the basis of an Anti-Proprietary party which in 167o refused to pay quitrents to the Proprietors. The revolt spread and in 1672 five of the seven settlements -- Newark, Elizabethtown, Woodbridge, Piscataqua, and Bergen --held a
revolutionary assembly at Elizabethtown. They deposed Philip Carteret as
Governor and elected as "president" James Carteret, dissolute son of Sir
George. With the settlers insisting that the Duke's lease to the Proprietors
did not convey governing power, Philip Carteret hastened to England to
lay the matter before the Proprietors, that they might be able to present
their case. The King upheld the rights of Berkeley and Carteret against
the grants of Nicolls.
A sudden attack by Holland temporarily swept aside these technical
wrangles. In 1673 a Dutch fleet arrived at Staten Island and regained a
portion of Holland's New World holdings, including New Jersey-but
only until 1674, when the territory was restored to England by the Treaty
of Westminster. Legally the province had thus reverted to the Crown, and
Charles II regranted it to the Duke of York who in turn reconveyed the
eastern part to Sir George Carteret. Philip Carteret returned as Governor
in November 1674; four counties (Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth) were created, and a system of courts and grand juries was established.
If eastern New Jersey seemed on the point of extricating itself from the
snarls of conflicting claims, western New Jersey was just beginning an
even more confused career. Before the King issued the charter of renewal
to York, Berkeley in 1674 turned over his proprietary rights to John Fenwick in trust for Edward Byllynge. Immediately these two Quakers quarreled over their shares, and in 1676 William Penn arbitrated the case by
awarding nine-tenths to Byllynge and one-tenth to Fenwick. Byllynge,
however, became insolvent, and Penn, Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas
were appointed trustees for his creditors. Because this action involved
New Jersey lands, it happened indirectly that William Penn's first Quaker
colony was West Jersey.
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