the respective interests of Fenwicke and Byllynge in the western
portion of the province, and they chose William Penn, a new
member of the Society of Friends, as arbitrator. To Byllynge
Penn awarded nine-tenths of the territory and to Fenwicke
one-tenth. Financial embarrassments a short time afterward
caused Byllynge to assign his shares in trust for his creditors
to three Quakers, William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas
Lucas. Later they acquired control of Fenwicke’s share also.
In 1675 Fenwicke with his family and a company of settlers
reached the Delaware in the ship “Griffith” from London, and
on the eastern shore they formed a settlement to which they gave
the name of Salem. This was the first permanent English
settlement in this part of New Jersey. Refusing to recognize
Fenwicke’s jurisdiction, Governor Andros of New York attempted
to secure his peaceful recognition of the duke’s authority, and,
failing in this, he sent a military force into this district in
December 1676 and made Fenwicke a prisoner. In January,
however, he was released on his promise not to act in a public
capacity until he should receive further authority. Meanwhile
the trustees of Byllynge were seeking a division of the province
more to their advantage and, Sir George Carteret having been
persuaded by the duke of York to surrender his grant of July
1674, the so-called “quintipartite deed” was executed on the
1st of July 1676. This instrument defined the interests of
Carteret, Penn, Lawrie, Lucas and Byllynge, by fixing a line of
partition from Little Egg Harbor to a point on the Delaware
river, in 41° 40′ N. lat., and by assigning the province east of
this line (East Jersey) to Carteret and the province west of this
line (West Jersey), about five-eighths of the whole, to the Quaker
associates. The Quakers’ title to West Jersey, however, still bore
the cloud resulting from the Dutch conquest, and the duke of
York had desired to recover all of his original grant to Berkeley
and Carteret ever since Governor Nicolls had protested against it.
But at this time his own right to the crown of England was
threatened with the Exclusion Bill, and under these conditions
instead of pressing his case against the Quakers he not only
permitted it to be decided against him but in August 1680
confirmed their title by a new deed.
A very liberal frame of government for West Jersey, drafted presumably by William Penn, and entitled “the Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders and Inhabitants of West Jersey in America,” was adopted in March 1677. This vested the principal powers of government in an assembly of one hundred members, who were to be chosen annually and to be subject to instructions from their constituents. In the intervals between sessions of the assembly, affairs were to be managed by ten commissioners chosen by that body. Religious toleration was assured. In August 1677 the ship “Kent” arrived in the Delaware, with 230 Quakers from London and Yorkshire. These founded a settlement, which became the modern Burlington, and in the next few months several hundred more colonists arrived. But the new colony was never actually governed under “the Concessions and Agreements”; for from the beginning until the first assembly was called in November 1681 its affairs were managed by commissioners named by the proprietors and when in 1680 the duke of York confirmed the title to the land to Byllynge and his associates he conveyed the right to govern to Byllynge alone. Although he was one of the signers of “the Concessions and Agreements” Byllynge now commissioned Samuel Jennings as governor of the province, and the other proprietors acquiesced, appointing Byllynge governor and permitting Jennings to serve as his deputy. Jennings immediately called the first assembly, and this body passed a number of fundamental laws which provided for a governor and council, but were in other respects much like the clauses relating to government in “the Concessions and Agreements.” When, as if to test his authority, Byllynge, in 1682–1683, removed Jennings who had been a popular governor, the assembly, by the advice of William Penn, passed a series of resolutions in the form of a protest, and in 1684 two agents were sent to England to negotiate with Byllynge. There the dispute was finally submitted for arbitration to George Fox and other Quakers, and they decided that, as the government of the province was legally vested in Byllynge by the duke’s conveyance to him, he had the right to name the deputy governor. Fenwicke, after his release by Andros, endeavoured to re-establish a government at Salem with himself as “Lord and Chief Proprietor” of West Jersey, but the duke’s officers further contested his claims and in 1682 Penn effected a peaceful settlement with him.
In East Jersey, after the return of Governor Carteret, there was a period of quiet, until the death of Sir George Carteret in 1680 gave the zealous Andros another chance to further the supposed interests of his ducal master. Claiming jurisdiction over New Jersey by the terms of his commission, he issued a proclamation in March 1680 ordering Philip Carteret and his “pretended” officers to cease exercising jurisdiction within the duke’s dominions unless he could show warrant. To this Carteret made a spirited reply, and on the 30th of April a detachment of soldiers dragged the governor of East Jersey from his bed and carried him prisoner to New York. Here he was confined for four weeks, and was released only on his promise not to exercise any authority until the matter could be referred to England for adjudication. When the assembly of East Jersey met in June, Andros appeared before it as governor and recommended such measures as he deemed advisable, but the deputies refused to pass them. In England, too, his conduct was disavowed, and he was called home to answer charges that had been preferred against him. Philip Carteret reassumed the duties of his office, but his administration, now that Andros was no longer feared, was again marked by much friction with the assembly. Sir George Carteret had bequeathed his province to eight trustees, who were to administer it for the benefit of his creditors, and for the next two years the government was conducted in the name of his widow and executrix, Lady Elizabeth. Early in 1682, after several unsuccessful attempts to effect a sale by other means, the province was offered for sale at public auction, and was purchased by William Penn and eleven associates for £3400. Later each of these twelve sold one-half of his share to another associate, thus making twenty-four proprietors; and on the 14th of March the duke of York confirmed the sale, and gave them all the powers necessary for governing the province. Robert Barclay, one of the proprietors, was chosen governor for life, with the privilege of performing his duties by deputy, and as his deputy he sent over Thomas Rudyard. In 1683 Rudyard was succeeded by Gawen Lawrie, who brought over with him a curious frame of government entitled “the Fundamental Constitutions.” This instrument, which was designed to replace the Concessions, provided for the government of the province by a governor chosen by the proprietors, a common council consisting of the proprietors or their proxies together with 12 freemen, and a great council consisting of the proprietors or their proxies together with 144 freemen chosen by a mixed system of elections and the casting of lots. But the new system was to apply only to those who, in return for the greater privileges which it was alleged to ensure, would agree to a resurvey of their lands, arrange to pay quit-rents and provide for the permanent support of the government, and as Governor Lawrie found the colonists generally unwilling to make the exchange on the proposed terms, he discreetly refrained from any attempt to put the Fundamental Constitutions in operation and thereby avoided the confusion which must have resulted from two sets of laws. The government of the twenty-four proprietors, however, was liberal. Recognizing the necessity of some one in the province with full power “to do all things that may contribute to the good and advancement of the same,” they directed the appointment of the American Board of Proprietors—a body of men identified with the province, who with the deputy-governor were to look after the proprietary interests in such matters as the approval of legislation and the granting of lands, and thereby prevent the delay caused by the transmission of such matters to England for approval. In 1686 another effort was made to put the Fundamental Constitutions in force, but when the deputies and the council rejected the instrument, the proprietors did not force the matter. In 1686 Perth Amboy,
