Volume 1, Chapter 54, The Development of West New Jersey
Despite the Quaker control of East New Jersey from 1682 on and the eager plans of Robert Barclay,
that colony was never in any sense a Quaker settlement.
The preponderance of Scots that emigrated there in the 1680s
were Presbyterians fleeing from persecution rather than Quakers.
The same was not true, however, of West New Jersey.
West New Jersey was far more sparsely populated in the 1670s than its sister colony.
There were no previously existing Puritan settlements, as in East New Jersey.
We've seen that John Fenwick, a part proprietor of West New Jersey,
New Jersey founded the settlement of Salem and began to act as the virtual dictator and
feudal owner of the colony. Fenwick was arrested in late 1676 for usurping the government of
the colony and was convicted and fined in New York. At this time, the joint proprietors
of West New Jersey, all Quakers, were Edward Billinge, William Penn, Gawin Larry and Nicholas
by Nicholas Lucas, and Fenwick's small share was transferred to two of his creditors.
In March 1677, the proprietors issued the Concessions and Agreements, a document written
largely by Edward Billinge, who was assisted by William Penn. It was signed by all the
proprietors and freeholders of the colony. The Concessions and Agreements established
a Frame of Government for West New Jersey. This was a highly liberal document, especially
for a proprietary decree, that guaranteed no taxation save by consent of the people.
We put the power in the people. A representative assembly, trial by jury, full religious liberty,
no persons to be called into question or molested for conscience under any pretext whatever,
and No Imprisonment for Debt.
Penn in 1675 had urged the liberal program of civil freedom, liberty of conscience, and trial by jury.
But the veteran libertarian here was Edward Billinge.
In 1659, Billinge, in A Might of Affection, had called for, among other liberal demands,
Freedom for All Christians, No Coercion in Religious Matters, No Imprisonment for Debt
or Execution for Theft. Billinger's views were in turn deeply influenced by the libertarian
Leveller movement, which had earlier been prominent during England's Civil War. Another
remarkable feature of the concessions and agreements was that, in keeping with the Levellers
and Billinges, Hostility to Feudalism, it reserved virtually no governmental powers to the proprietors.
This was a refreshing contrast to the usual practice of grabbing as much power as was
feasible. The West New Jersey Assembly was to be elected by all freeholders, by the unusual
institution of secret ballot, and was to be empowered to create courts and levy taxes.
All legislation required a two-thirds vote of the assembly, thus assuring a greater consensus
for legislation than under mere majority rule. Furthermore, the colony was to be fully self-governing,
with all executive power in the hands of ten commissioners appointed by the assembly. Judges
and constables were to be elected by popular vote rather than appointed. There were other
There are unusually libertarian features of this constitution.
Except for treason, felony and murder, the plaintiff had full power to forgive, pardon
or remit punishment, thus placing the decision to prosecute and punish for a crime in the
hands of the original victim rather than in the remotely concerned government.
for Theft did not consist in paying a supposed debt to a mythical society by languishing
unproductively in prison at taxpayers' expense. Instead, it consisted in making restitution
to the victim for the crime and in working off this debt to the specific injured party.
Furthermore, the beginnings of excellent long-standing white-Indian relations in the colony were
were assured by the provision that any Indian claim of injury would go to a jury of six
whites and six Indians. In keeping with the old leveler opposition to feudalism, there
was no provision for reserving land to proprietors. The shares of the proprietary were widened
to a hundred and the lands offered for sale. A head-right system for wide distribution
of Land was instituted to induce settlement with 70 acres granted to the first settler
plus an extra 50 to 70 acres for each servant brought over. Later settlers were to receive
40 acres and 20 to 30 for each servant. Fortunately, there were few indentured servants in the
colony and therefore the land distribution was closer than usual to libertarian homestead
Allocation of New Lands to First Settlers The unit farm was generally of medium size.
The lands divided among the proprietors, however, were sold to speculators and therefore remained
in large units until sold by them to the actual settlers.
This transfer of land to the settlers was fortunately rapid, however, as the proprietors
Propietors and speculators eager for quick returns subdivided the land into small 100
to 200 acre plots to ensure rapid sale. Another concession to feudalism and land monopoly
was the requirement of a quit rent, ranging from a half penny to one penny per acre.
The proprietors quickly organized a Quaker settlement in 1677 at Burlington in West New
of New Jersey. However, self-government under the concessions and agreements was not to
be established readily. Governor Andros of New York, who had arrested Fenwick for assuming
governmental powers in West New Jersey, now asserted his right to govern the territory
from his Newcastle bailiwick and to subject it to Newcastle constables in courts. Furthermore,
Andrews insisted that all ships trading with West New Jersey had to pay the New York Customs
levy at Newcastle. West New Jersey's protests against this levy were to no avail. Andrews
did benefit the West New Jersey citizens, however, by remitting quit rents for three
years to encourage settlement. But even as Governor Andrews was imposing his rule over
For West New Jersey, John Fenwick, in 1678, began to make trouble again. For his own purposes,
he protested Andros's rule and grandiosely threatened to dispossess any West New Jerseyian
paying a tax to Newcastle and Andros. By 1683, the rather remote Fenwick threat to the colony
was ended as his proprietary shares were deeded to William Penn.
As noted in late 1680, the Duke of York, beset by political troubles at home, ended the Andros
threat to the Jerseys by recalling the New York governor and positively reaffirming the
proprietary rule of the East and West Jersey.
For West Jersey, this confirmation, of course, included the right to trade without paying
and the hated customs duties to Newcastle.
The Duke also was influenced in his decision by the desire at this time to placate powerful
friends like William Penn.
Despite Andros's rule, the West Jersey Quakers had already been able to rule themselves in
remarkably libertarian ways.
For example, the settlers found that they had little need for courts.
The Quakers settled their disputes out of court, voluntarily, through informal mediators.
This simple, direct, peaceful, rapid, highly efficient, and purely voluntary method of
settling disputes was embodied in the phrase Jersey Justice, which stemmed from Thomas
Olive's practice of mediating disputes while plowing in the fields.
Thus, in the entire year of 1680, there were only two or three court actions in the whole
colony. The people of West New Jersey were not, however, destined to enjoy the rights
and liberties of the concessions and agreements unmolested or undiluted, for in confirming
the proprietary rule of West New Jersey, the Duke of York took it in his head to grant
and the sole right of government in the colony to Edward Billinge, who thus became by far
the most important proprietor.
Alas, the behavior of Edward Billinge is yet another illustration of the heady whine of
power corrupting the principles of liberty.
For no sooner did Billinge obtain the sole right to govern than he brazenly proclaimed
and himself Governor of West New Jersey, thus repudiating the essence of his own libertarian
concessions. Billings appointed Samuel Jennings as Deputy Governor. Jennings would be his
resident agent. Thus, when the Democratic General Assembly of West New Jersey first
met in late 1681, a cloud hung over it. The promise of self-government was now much diluted
Now much diluted by a proprietary governor.
Elected Speaker of the Assembly was the highly popular Thomas Olive.
Girded for action, the Assembly induced Jennings to agree to ten fundamental propositions,
which in essence reconfirmed the rights and liberties of the beloved concessions and agreements.
The propositions included these guarantees, yearly assemblies,
No laws instituted by the Deputy Governor alone. No dissolution of the Assembly by the Governor.
The sole right of the Assembly to raise taxes and armies and to declare war.
Election of all public officers by the Assembly for one year, rather than appointment by the Governor.
All taxes to last for only one year. And religious freedom for all.
Even those principles of criminal law emphasizing restitution to the victim of theft were reinstituted.
And indicative of the liberalism of Jennings and Billings, Jennings agreed to these provisions without consulting the governor.
With Jennings and the assembly working harmoniously, no feudal manners were erected in West New Jersey.
A 500-acre maximum of land grants discouraged the arbitrary accumulation of large estates,
and the competition for settlers led the government to make the quit rents negligible.
The consequence of West New Jersey land policy then was an approach toward the libertarian
homesteading principle, with land being sold at the relatively cheap rate of five to ten
pounds per hundred acres.
A struggle now ensued between the angered Edward Billinge, who refused to recognize
the agreement, and the people of West New Jersey, led now by Samuel Jennings, who was
in thorough accord with the liberties granted in the original concessions. Finally, in 1683,
on hearing rumors that Billinge was coming to Jersey to take the reins of command personally,
The assembly elected Jennings as governor and elected a council to help him. The colony was now totally self-governing.
The assembly then reproclaimed the original concessions as the colony's fundamental law with this addition.
It provided for amendments to the concessions by a six-seventh vote of the assembly.
No amendment was to be permitted to weaken liberty of conscience, procedural protections such as the laws of evidence in trials or guarantees of trial by jury.
Billinge's reaction was to have his sole right to govern immediately reconfirmed by the Crown and then to submit the dispute to a Quaker Arbitration Board of 14 who decided for Billinge on the peculiar ground that it was impossible to divide the right to govern into many parties.
Billinge then appointed John Skeen as deputy governor. In late 1685, Skeen formally took over the government and fired most of the magistrates.
The assembly, however, overwhelmingly rejected a new charter proposed by Billinge.
By now, Edward Billinge was not only the sole governor but also the largest proprietor of West New Jersey,
Holding 20 shares of the more than 100. During 1687, the resident proprietors of the colony, like their counterparts in East New Jersey, established a council of proprietors of West New Jersey to decide on use and disposal of proprietary lands.
Before his death at the turn of 1687, Billinge sold all of his rights to Dr. Daniel Cox, the English court physician and non-quaker who announced his repudiation of the concessions.