the newly created port of East Jersey, became its seat of government.
After his accession to the throne in 1685, James II. showed an unyielding determination to annul the privileges of the colonies, and to unite New York, New Jersey and the New England colonies under a single government. In order, therefore, to save their rights in the soil, the proprietors of East and West Jersey offered to surrender their claims to jurisdiction, and to this arrangement the king consented. Andros, previously appointed viceroy of New England, thereupon received a new commission extending his authority over New York and the Jerseys, and in August 1688 he formally annexed these provinces to the Dominion of New England. The seizure of Andros by the people of Boston in April 1689, following the news of the revolt in England against James II., gave the Jersey proprietors an opportunity to resume their rights, but the proprietary governments regained their former footing very slowly. The proprietors were widely separated—some being in America, some in England and others in Scotland—and unity of action was impracticable. For three years there was little or no government in the Jerseys, beyond the measures taken by local officers for preserving the peace.
In 1692 an important change occurred in the administrative system through the appointment of Andrew Hamilton (d. 1703) as governor of both East and West Jersey. In 1697 a faction opposed to Hamilton secured his removal and the appointment of their partisan, Jeremiah Basse. The opposition in the two colonies to Basse became so formidable that he was removed in 1699 and Hamilton was reappointed. Certain disaffected elements thereupon refused to recognize his authority, on the ground that his appointment had not received the required approval of the crown, and for a time the condition of the provinces bordered on anarchy. These disorders, and especially complaints against the Jerseys as centres of illegal trade, were brought to the attention of King William and his lawyers contended that as only the king could convey powers of government those exercised by the Jersey proprietors, derived as they were from the duke of York, were without sufficient warrant. Moreover, the inhabitants sent petitions to England, praying that they might be placed under the direct control of the crown. The proprietors of East Jersey had already offered to surrender their jurisdiction, in return for certain concessions by the royal government, but no action had been taken. In 1701 the proprietors of both provinces made another proposal, which was accepted, and in April 1702 all rights of jurisdiction were transferred to the crown, while the rights to the soil remained in the proprietors. The provinces of East and West Jersey were then united under a government similar to that of the other royal provinces. Until 1738 the governor of New York was also governor of New Jersey; after that date each colony had its own governor. The legislature met alternately at Burlington and Perth Amboy, until 1790, when Trenton was selected as the capital of the state.
The next four decades were years of development disturbed, however, by friction between the assembly and the royal governors, and by bitter disputes, accompanied by much rioting, with the proprietors concerning land-titles (1744–1749). Independence of the absentee landlords was again claimed by virtue of the grants made by Nicolls nearly a century before. Agriculture at this time was the main pursuit. The climate was more temperate and the soil more fertile than that of New England; but there were similar small farms and no marked tendencies towards the plantation system of the southern colonies. Slavery had been introduced by the Dutch and Swedes, and from the time of the earliest English occupation had been legally recognized. East Jersey had a fugitive slave law as early as 1675. With the exception of laying an import duty no legislative effort was made—nor is it likely that any would have been allowed by the crown—to restrict the importation of slaves during the colonial period. In addition to African and Indian slaves there was the class known as “redemptioners,” or term slaves, consisting of indented servants, who bound themselves to their masters before leaving the mother country, and “free willers,” who allowed themselves to be sold after reaching America, in order to reimburse the ship captain for the cost of their passage. Between East and West Jersey certain political and religious differences developed. The former, settled largely by people from New England and Long Island, was dominated by Puritans; the latter by Quakers. In East Jersey, as in New England, the township became a vigorous element of local government; in West Jersey the county became the unit. Important events in the period of royal government were the preaching of George Whitefield in 1739 and the following years, and the chartering of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1746, and of Queen’s (now Rutgers) College in 1766. The colony gave many proofs of its loyalty to the mother country: it furnished three companies of troops for Admiral Vernon’s unfortunate expedition against Cartagena in 1741; in King George’s War it raised £2000 for supplies, furnished troops for the capture of Louisburg and sent over six hundred men to Albany; and in the French and Indian (or Seven Years’) War its militia participated in the capture of both Quebec and Havana. Against England the colony had fewer grievances than did some of its more commercial neighbours, but the Stamp Act and the subsequent efforts to tax tea aroused great opposition. In 1774 occurred the “Greenwich Tea Party.”[1]
The last colonial assembly of New Jersey met in November 1775. From the 26th of May to the 2nd of July 1776 the second provincial congress met at Burlington, Trenton and New Brunswick and for a time became the supreme governing power. By its orders the royal governor, William Franklin (the natural son of Benjamin Franklin) was arrested and deported to Connecticut, where he remained a prisoner for two years, until exchanged and taken to New York under British protection. Following the recommendation of the Continental Congress, that the colonies should create independent governments, the provincial congress also drafted a provincial constitution, which, without being submitted to the people, was published on the 3rd of July 1776; it contained the stipulation that “if a reconciliation between Great Britain and these colonies should take place, and the latter be taken again under the protection of the crown of Britain, this charter shall be null and void—otherwise to remain firm and inviolable.” On the 20th of September 1777 it was amended by the New Jersey legislature, the words “state” and “states” being substituted for the words “colony” (or “province”) and “colonies.” The state furnished a full quota for the Continental army, but the divided sentiment of the people is shown by the fact that six battalions of loyalists were also organized. Tories were active in New Jersey throughout the struggle; among them were bands known as “Pine Robbers,” who hid in the pines or along the dunes by day and made their raids at night. In the state were fought some of the most important engagements of the war. When Washington, in the autumn of 1776, was no longer able to hold the lower Hudson he retreated across New Jersey to the Delaware near Trenton and seizing every boat for miles up the river he placed his dispirited troops on the opposite side and left the pursuing army no means of crossing. With about 2500 men he recrossed the Delaware on the night of the 25th of December, surprised three regiments of Hessians at Trenton the next morning, and took 1000 prisoners and 1000 stands of arms. In a series of movements following up this success he outgeneraled the British commander, Lord Cornwallis, and on the 3rd of January 1776, defeated a detachment of his army at Princeton (q.v.). The American army then went into winter quarters at Morristown, while a part of the British army wintered at New Brunswick. To protect the
- ↑ Greenwich then had some importance as a port on Cohansey Creek on the lower Delaware. In the summer of 1774 the captain of the ship “Greyhound,” bound for Philadelphia with a cargo of tea, on account of the state of opinion in that city, put in at Greenwich and stored his tea there in a cellar. It remained undisturbed till the night of the 22nd of November, when a band of about 40 men dressed as Indians, in imitation of the Boston party, broke into the cellar and made a bonfire of the tea. All attempts to punish the offenders were futile.
