Volume 1, Chapter 53, Turmoil in East New Jersey, 1678-1686
When Governor Edmund Andros returned in 1678 from his trip to England, he had decided that
he had a mandate for sovereignty under the Duke of York over East New Jersey and West
of New Jersey. The latent explosiveness of two contradictory charters for New Jersey
had now erupted. In March 1680, Andros seized ships going to Elizabeth that had not paid
customs fees in New York. He ordered Governor Philip Cotteret of East New Jersey to cease
exercising jurisdiction and all the inhabitants to bow to his own authority as governor. Andros's
This action was clearly stimulated by Cotterett's permitting all ships to trade freely in East
New Jersey without paying customs duties in New York.
In short, Andrus's aggressive actions were partly motivated by an attempt to secure a
monopoly of trade for the New York port.
Cotterett replied forthrightly that East New Jersey was subject to the proprietorship of
of Sir George Cotterett and that East New Jersey would defend itself as best it could
against any force by Andros. When the New York Council ordered the New Jersey towns
to send representatives to a meeting at Woodbridge on April 7, the alarmed Cotterett countermanded
the order and warned that he would arrest any emissaries of Andros as subversive spies
In May, Andros issued a warrant for the arrest of Philip Carteret and a few of his leading
By His Majesty's command that this government was established, and without the same command,
we shall never be resigned, but with our lives and fortunes, the people resolving to live
and die with the name of true subjects and not traitors.
In May, Andros issued a warrant for the arrest of Philip Carteret and a few of his leading
councillors for having presumed to assume and exercise authority and jurisdiction over
with the King's Subjects
Cotterett was seized, beaten, and tried before the New York Court of Assises. He defended
himself vigorously and protested a court where the accuser, jailer, and judge were one.
The jury, however, upset Andros's imperialist plans by acquitting Cotterett, a verdict they
thrice persisted in, even under severe pressure from Andros.
The court, however, ordered Cotterett to cease jurisdiction, and Andros and his council went
to Elizabethtown to meet the deputies from Jersey. Edmund Andros had now assumed the
governorship of East New Jersey. Addressing the meeting of the deputies in June 1680,
he told them he forgave their trespasses against authority and suggested that they put the
The assembly demanded that it be called annually, but Andros and his council retorted that an
assembly could be called whenever Andros deemed it necessary. The assembly also asked Andros
to confirm the privileges granted in the concessions and agreements, but the governor dismissed
When the assembly kept pressing its request for confirmation of New Jersey liberties and
provisions for regular meetings, Andros and his council preemptorily dissolved the New
Jersey representative body. Philip Cotterett, not able to muster force against his powerful
neighbor, was now in a doubly weak position. Sir George Cotterett had died, and his grandson
One in heir, Sir George, did not have the old proprietor's influence at court.
But resistance appeared among the people of New Jersey.
In the July meeting at Woodbridge, the freeholders refused to obey Andros' order to nominate
local magistrates for his approval.
They insisted instead that their charter gave them the right to choose their own magistrates.
A month later, Samuel Moore signed a further refusal by Woodbridge to obey the order, and
Samuel Dennis refused Andros's appointment as court clerk.
Moore was arrested and tried before Andros in the New York court.
Upon recanting this error and promising good behavior, Moore was released.
Two Jerseyites were also arrested for speaking words tending to disturb the peace.
A transient surveyor, William Taylor, denounced Andros in the council as rogues and traitors
and said that he would not be governed by such men. Taylor was arrested and, after recanting,
dismissed on good behavior by Andros in his council. A laborer, John Curtis, arrested
for similar seditious remarks, broke bail and disappeared.
By late 1680, however, the Duke of York's political position in England had deteriorated,
and he was anxious to avoid making further enemies at home.
In November, the Duke informed Andros that the Jerseys were to be governed by their proprietors.
Andros was shortly recalled as governor and returned to England.
The Andros menace removed, Philip Cotterett, in early 1681, jubilantly countermanded Andros's
usurpations and ordered the citizens of New Jersey to ignore the courts that New York
had intended to operate there. But in his joy, Cotterett grew cocky and began to assert
his authority aggressively, internally and externally.
Externally, Carteret suddenly laid claim to Staten Island and ordered its citizens to
obey him rather than New York.
This question remained in the hands of the Duke of York.
Meanwhile, Carteret faced far greater troubles at home.
The Assembly, with the former anti-Andros seditionist John Curtis, a member, met in
in October and took the opportunity to have a new regime to urge reaffirmation of the
original concessions of 1665 without the oppressive amendments of the declarations of 1672 and
1674. These amendments had shifted many powers from the assembly to the appointed executive
and had deprived the people of many of their liberties.
Cotterette's old troubles with the people now resumed. Cotterette and his council bitterly
attacked the assembly for its presumption. Once again, the lower house threw down the
gauntlet, declaring that the inhabitants of New Jersey were not obliged to conform to
these later declarations and instructions. The New Jersey rebellion was now in full bloom
against Cotterette. The council now insisted that the deputies pay the governor's salary
and also the past incurred quitterance to the proprietor, a request met with only scorn
by the assembly. After several furious interchanges, the governor and council dissolved the assembly
at the suggestion of Councilor Robert Vickers. To protest this disillusion, Edward Slater,
deputy from the Piscataway, called a protest meeting that was invaded by two council members,
Henry Greenland and Robert Vickers. The counselors accused Slater of sedition and of rendering
Carteret and his government odious in the eyes and hearts of the people. They also accused
Slater of trying to stir up mutiny, insurrection and open rebellion. Greenland and Vickers
promptly had Slater arrested. They then tried Slater in their capacities as justices of
of the Peace, and convicted him on their own testimony.
This court was conducted on no legal grounds, yet the two judges sentenced Slater to a six-month
term in prison. Vickers now urged Carteret to take full control of the colony by ignoring
the requirement that the assembly establish the courts and by creating his own prerogative
of Courts instead. New Jersey was now back to the appointed courts and the despotism
of the 1666 through 73 era. Meanwhile, however, a great change in the government of East New
Jersey was underway. The estate of Sir George Carteret sold the proprietorship of East New
Jersey at auction in February 1682 to a group of twelve men, eleven of them quaint.
Quakers, headed by the eminent William Penn, for 3,400 pounds. In August, the Twelve expanded
the partnership to 24, including 10 more Quakers, and this patent was reconfirmed by the Duke
of York the following March. Thus, by the end of 1682, Quakers, though still periodically
in England, owned the colonies of East New Jersey, West New Jersey, and the extensive
new territory on the west bank of the upper Delaware known as Pennsylvania, granted by
King Charles II to William Penn in March 1681. However, with Quakers already settled
In West New Jersey and prepared to pour into Pennsylvania, East New Jersey was not a likely
field for Quaker settlement. There were Quaker groups at Shrewsbury and Middletown, but most
other Jersey towns were ardently Puritan. With the English Quakers immigrating to Pennsylvania
and West New Jersey, the leading role in East New Jersey was taken by the Scots among the
Proprietors, particularly by young Robert Barclay and his prominent non-Quaker relatives,
the Arch-Royalist James Drummond, Earl of Percy, and his brother, John Drummond, the
Viscount Melfort. An eminent Quaker, Barclay was a close friend of the Duke of York and
was appointed Governor of East New Jersey in the fall of 1682. Barclay immediately began
and to organize Scottish settlements in East New Jersey and to remodel the government of
the colony. Many leading Scots were induced to buy fractional proprietorships in the colony.
Eventually, Scots formed a majority of the proprietary ownership. The proprietors appointed
the prominent English Quaker lawyer, Thomas Rudyard, one of the proprietors and a close
Rudyard arrived in Jersey to take office in November of 1682. The proprietors instructed Rudyard to convey to the Jersey citizens the welcome news of the confirming of their rights granted to them by the concessions of 1665.
The proprietors adopted the fundamental constitutions, a highly complex and overblown constitution
for the colony, which would have granted great powers to themselves, voting by proxy in the
East New Jersey Council.
But the fundamental constitutions was never put into effect, not only because it was rejected
by the Assembly, but also because it was even turned down by the Deputy Governor and his
Council.
The assembly called into being again met frequently during Governor Rudyard's rule in 1683.
All sides were determined to be conciliatory and to undo the influence of the despotic
Carteret clique.
As a result, the court proceedings since late 1681 were voided and the leaders of the Carteret
clique, Robert Vickers, who had been Secretary of the Colony, Henry Greenland, Samuel Edsel
and Robert Vauquelin, former Surveyor General, were debarred from all public office.
Edward Slater now took the opportunity to sue Vickers for trespass, false arrest, and
imprisonment. He collected 45 pounds in damages. Vickers was also convicted of keeping fraudulent
records and was fined and imprisoned until payment of the fine. But despite the harmony
In the colony of Council and Assembly, in ridding the colony of the influence of the
Cotterett clique, divisions between deputies and ruling council again emerged and deepened
during 1683. The deputies urged the right of each town to adopt local ordinances without
being subject to veto by the governor and council, and the similar right to impose local
Taxes. Furthermore, Middletown and Shrewsbury again raised the question of the old nickels
patents and claimed that by these they were exempt from paying quit rents to the new proprietors.
Roger and the Council rejected these claims and considerable friction developed over them.
The towns and the deputies also vainly objected to the continuation of the compulsory militia,
A provision of the Declaration of 1672. In each case, as before, the deputies assumed the role of libertarian opposition to the existing regime.
However, the assembly did create a regular judicial system. The law code continued the Puritan outlawing of such deviations as stage plays, games, dances, drunkenness, and profaning the Sabbath.
Here the Anglican Council played a more liberal role than did the Puritan deputies. The Council
reduced the penalty for not attending church services. The Council also declared itself
for liberty of conscience and against compulsory worship.
By the end of 1683, Governor Rudyard had incurred the displeasure of the proprietors, largely
because Rudyard and the Council, eager to attract settlers to East New Jersey, failed
to adhere to the clause in the concessions reserving one-seventh of the lands to the
proprietors. Samuel Groom, one of the Quaker proprietors, had been sent out with Rudyard
to serve under him as Surveyor General of the colony. Groom now insisted on the land
Reservation, and was quickly dismissed by Rudyard. Rudyard's firing of groom led to
his own dismissal and replacement toward the end of 1683 by the Quaker, Gawin, Larry, lately
become one of the proprietors. By the end of 1684, enough of the proprietors, particularly
the Scots, had immigrated to East New Jersey that the governing proprietor's interest in
in the colony, especially in land matters, was transferred to the fourteen resident proprietors,
forming the Board of Proprietors of East New Jersey.
The Board was empowered to deal with all matters concerning proprietary land, land claims, collecting
quit rents, boundaries and so forth. The resident proprietors ratified the laws of the Rudyard
Assembly, but added what the assembly had refused to pass, exemption of the pacifist
Quakers from military service.
The biggest problem of the Larry administration was an attempt to collect feudal quit rents
from the settlers in behalf of the proprietors.
Larry was originally instructed by the impatient proprietors to collect the quit rents.
In late 1684, the proprietors instructed Larry and the resident proprietors to make an end
of all controversies over land titles and quit rents. Specifically, they arrogantly
declared their absolute refusal to recognize any of the old nickels patents or to commute
any of their quit rents, even including the arrears.
Wrangling between the Larry administration and the various towns lasted a year and a
In 1684, all East New Jersey towns except Bergen were still claiming exemption from
all quit rents on the ground that their old nickels land patents or Indian purchases were
superior to the proprietary claim.
Moreover, many settlers avoided payment of quitterance by not officially patenting their lands.
The old Navsink towns of Middletown and Shrewsbury also claimed the full right to make their
own laws and elect their officers under the Nichols patents and the Nichols promulgated
Dukes laws, but now forgotten by the East New Jersey Governors.
Over against this permanent state of quasi-rebellion, Larry was supposed to persuade the six towns
of the colony that the nickels patents, or Indian lands or governmental patents, were
invalid, and that all landowners must pay the quit rents due since their inception in
1670. The new proprietary program of strict enforcement of quit rents was bound to create
Fierced Opposition in the Colony. The first crackdown was imposed in late 1684 on John
Barry of Bergen, who was a revered old settler, an agent of William Penn in East Jersey, a
counselor, and a former deputy governor. Barry was opposed to enforcing quit rents and had
never paid any due on his own extensive lands. He countered by dramatically challenging the
The validity of the Court of Common Right, the new Supreme Court of the colony, founded
during the Rudyard regime. The court fined Barry for contempt, and Barry's refusal to
pay finally caused his imprisonment in early 1685. By now, Barry had become the leader
of the colony's resistance to quit rents, and the outcome of the Barry case would greatly
influenced the path of opposition. The Board of Proprietors in one of its first acts backed
up Larry, determined on no abatement of quit rents and took up the prosecution of Barry.
Barry finally yielded. However, when the Board commuted his back quit rents of over 116 pounds
for £116 to £70. During this time, negotiations began with the Napsink towns of Middletown
and Shrewsbury. The men of these towns, headed by the Quaker Richard Hartshorn, steadfastly
refused to pay quit rents, and Laurie and the board of proprietors began to seize the
This forced the Napsink towns to yield by mid 1685. No agreement, however, was concluded with Piscataway, Newark or Elizabethtown, although some individual owners in the last town took out their patents to land titles, thus following the lead of Napsink.
On the other hand, Woodbridge surrendered to the proprietary in the spring, following the lead of former Provincial Treasurer Samuel Moore, who capitulated after having vowed to pay no quid rents whatever.
Larry and the Council finally, in April 1686, called the Assembly in decession to demand an increase in taxes, largely for the expenses of the Secretary and the Council.
The deputies incisively replied that they saw no reason why the people should be forced to pay for the expenses of officers whom they had no power to select.
In the fall of 1686, Governor Larry was removed, the proprietors being disgruntled with what
they believed to be Larry's, as well as Rudger's, before him, lack of zeal in reserving land
to the proprietors. Larry had also shown a lack of interest in obtaining a high price
in the sale of land to the settlers. The proprietors censured Larry's granting himself a large
and the large tract of unused land at a cheap price, and his failure to push for approval of the fundamental constitutions.
Larry was succeeded as governor by the Scot, Neil Campbell.
In the fall meeting of the Assembly, Lord Campbell tried once again to insist that it increase taxes.
Speaker Richard Hartshorn defiantly spoke for the deputies when he bluntly declared
The failure of New York's attempt to assume power over East Jersey created a gaping hole in New York's attempted port monopoly.
Monopoly. Smuggling was also rampant in East Jersey and New Yorkers kept agitating for
forcible annexation of that colony. The merchants desired to secure their monopoly and the New
York farmers and rural elements were envious of Jersey's freedom of trade. These grievances
culminated in 1678 when a royal order made Perth Amboy, the newly built capital of East
New Jersey, an approved port of entry, an act which accelerated the migration of merchants
and other citizens from New York to New Jersey.