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NOTE 54. The Development of West New Jersey

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Volume 1, Chapter 54, The Development of West New Jersey

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Despite the Quaker control of East New Jersey from 1682 on and the eager plans of Robert Barclay,

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that colony was never in any sense a Quaker settlement.

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The preponderance of Scots that emigrated there in the 1680s

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were Presbyterians fleeing from persecution rather than Quakers.

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The same was not true, however, of West New Jersey.

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West New Jersey was far more sparsely populated in the 1670s than its sister colony.

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There were no previously existing Puritan settlements, as in East New Jersey.

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We've seen that John Fenwick, a part proprietor of West New Jersey,

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New Jersey founded the settlement of Salem and began to act as the virtual dictator and

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feudal owner of the colony. Fenwick was arrested in late 1676 for usurping the government of

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the colony and was convicted and fined in New York. At this time, the joint proprietors

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of West New Jersey, all Quakers, were Edward Billinge, William Penn, Gawin Larry and Nicholas

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by Nicholas Lucas, and Fenwick's small share was transferred to two of his creditors.

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In March 1677, the proprietors issued the Concessions and Agreements, a document written

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largely by Edward Billinge, who was assisted by William Penn. It was signed by all the

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proprietors and freeholders of the colony. The Concessions and Agreements established

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a Frame of Government for West New Jersey. This was a highly liberal document, especially

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for a proprietary decree, that guaranteed no taxation save by consent of the people.

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We put the power in the people. A representative assembly, trial by jury, full religious liberty,

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no persons to be called into question or molested for conscience under any pretext whatever,

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and No Imprisonment for Debt.

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Penn in 1675 had urged the liberal program of civil freedom, liberty of conscience, and trial by jury.

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But the veteran libertarian here was Edward Billinge.

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In 1659, Billinge, in A Might of Affection, had called for, among other liberal demands,

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Freedom for All Christians, No Coercion in Religious Matters, No Imprisonment for Debt

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or Execution for Theft. Billinger's views were in turn deeply influenced by the libertarian

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Leveller movement, which had earlier been prominent during England's Civil War. Another

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remarkable feature of the concessions and agreements was that, in keeping with the Levellers

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and Billinges, Hostility to Feudalism, it reserved virtually no governmental powers to the proprietors.

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This was a refreshing contrast to the usual practice of grabbing as much power as was

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feasible. The West New Jersey Assembly was to be elected by all freeholders, by the unusual

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institution of secret ballot, and was to be empowered to create courts and levy taxes.

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All legislation required a two-thirds vote of the assembly, thus assuring a greater consensus

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for legislation than under mere majority rule. Furthermore, the colony was to be fully self-governing,

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with all executive power in the hands of ten commissioners appointed by the assembly. Judges

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and constables were to be elected by popular vote rather than appointed. There were other

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There are unusually libertarian features of this constitution.

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Except for treason, felony and murder, the plaintiff had full power to forgive, pardon

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or remit punishment, thus placing the decision to prosecute and punish for a crime in the

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hands of the original victim rather than in the remotely concerned government.

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for Theft did not consist in paying a supposed debt to a mythical society by languishing

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unproductively in prison at taxpayers' expense. Instead, it consisted in making restitution

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to the victim for the crime and in working off this debt to the specific injured party.

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Furthermore, the beginnings of excellent long-standing white-Indian relations in the colony were

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were assured by the provision that any Indian claim of injury would go to a jury of six

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whites and six Indians. In keeping with the old leveler opposition to feudalism, there

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was no provision for reserving land to proprietors. The shares of the proprietary were widened

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to a hundred and the lands offered for sale. A head-right system for wide distribution

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of Land was instituted to induce settlement with 70 acres granted to the first settler

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plus an extra 50 to 70 acres for each servant brought over. Later settlers were to receive

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40 acres and 20 to 30 for each servant. Fortunately, there were few indentured servants in the

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colony and therefore the land distribution was closer than usual to libertarian homestead

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Allocation of New Lands to First Settlers The unit farm was generally of medium size.

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The lands divided among the proprietors, however, were sold to speculators and therefore remained

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in large units until sold by them to the actual settlers.

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This transfer of land to the settlers was fortunately rapid, however, as the proprietors

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Propietors and speculators eager for quick returns subdivided the land into small 100

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to 200 acre plots to ensure rapid sale. Another concession to feudalism and land monopoly

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was the requirement of a quit rent, ranging from a half penny to one penny per acre.

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The proprietors quickly organized a Quaker settlement in 1677 at Burlington in West New

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of New Jersey. However, self-government under the concessions and agreements was not to

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be established readily. Governor Andros of New York, who had arrested Fenwick for assuming

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governmental powers in West New Jersey, now asserted his right to govern the territory

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from his Newcastle bailiwick and to subject it to Newcastle constables in courts. Furthermore,

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Andrews insisted that all ships trading with West New Jersey had to pay the New York Customs

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levy at Newcastle. West New Jersey's protests against this levy were to no avail. Andrews

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did benefit the West New Jersey citizens, however, by remitting quit rents for three

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years to encourage settlement. But even as Governor Andrews was imposing his rule over

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For West New Jersey, John Fenwick, in 1678, began to make trouble again. For his own purposes,

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he protested Andros's rule and grandiosely threatened to dispossess any West New Jerseyian

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paying a tax to Newcastle and Andros. By 1683, the rather remote Fenwick threat to the colony

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was ended as his proprietary shares were deeded to William Penn.

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As noted in late 1680, the Duke of York, beset by political troubles at home, ended the Andros

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threat to the Jerseys by recalling the New York governor and positively reaffirming the

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proprietary rule of the East and West Jersey.

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For West Jersey, this confirmation, of course, included the right to trade without paying

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and the hated customs duties to Newcastle.

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The Duke also was influenced in his decision by the desire at this time to placate powerful

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friends like William Penn.

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Despite Andros's rule, the West Jersey Quakers had already been able to rule themselves in

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remarkably libertarian ways.

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For example, the settlers found that they had little need for courts.

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The Quakers settled their disputes out of court, voluntarily, through informal mediators.

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This simple, direct, peaceful, rapid, highly efficient, and purely voluntary method of

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settling disputes was embodied in the phrase Jersey Justice, which stemmed from Thomas

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Olive's practice of mediating disputes while plowing in the fields.

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Thus, in the entire year of 1680, there were only two or three court actions in the whole

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colony. The people of West New Jersey were not, however, destined to enjoy the rights

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and liberties of the concessions and agreements unmolested or undiluted, for in confirming

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the proprietary rule of West New Jersey, the Duke of York took it in his head to grant

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and the sole right of government in the colony to Edward Billinge, who thus became by far

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the most important proprietor.

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Alas, the behavior of Edward Billinge is yet another illustration of the heady whine of

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power corrupting the principles of liberty.

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For no sooner did Billinge obtain the sole right to govern than he brazenly proclaimed

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and himself Governor of West New Jersey, thus repudiating the essence of his own libertarian

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concessions. Billings appointed Samuel Jennings as Deputy Governor. Jennings would be his

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resident agent. Thus, when the Democratic General Assembly of West New Jersey first

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met in late 1681, a cloud hung over it. The promise of self-government was now much diluted

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Now much diluted by a proprietary governor.

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Elected Speaker of the Assembly was the highly popular Thomas Olive.

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Girded for action, the Assembly induced Jennings to agree to ten fundamental propositions,

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which in essence reconfirmed the rights and liberties of the beloved concessions and agreements.

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The propositions included these guarantees, yearly assemblies,

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No laws instituted by the Deputy Governor alone. No dissolution of the Assembly by the Governor.

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The sole right of the Assembly to raise taxes and armies and to declare war.

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Election of all public officers by the Assembly for one year, rather than appointment by the Governor.

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All taxes to last for only one year. And religious freedom for all.

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Even those principles of criminal law emphasizing restitution to the victim of theft were reinstituted.

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And indicative of the liberalism of Jennings and Billings, Jennings agreed to these provisions without consulting the governor.

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With Jennings and the assembly working harmoniously, no feudal manners were erected in West New Jersey.

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A 500-acre maximum of land grants discouraged the arbitrary accumulation of large estates,

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and the competition for settlers led the government to make the quit rents negligible.

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The consequence of West New Jersey land policy then was an approach toward the libertarian

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homesteading principle, with land being sold at the relatively cheap rate of five to ten

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pounds per hundred acres.

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A struggle now ensued between the angered Edward Billinge, who refused to recognize

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the agreement, and the people of West New Jersey, led now by Samuel Jennings, who was

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in thorough accord with the liberties granted in the original concessions. Finally, in 1683,

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on hearing rumors that Billinge was coming to Jersey to take the reins of command personally,

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The assembly elected Jennings as governor and elected a council to help him. The colony was now totally self-governing.

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The assembly then reproclaimed the original concessions as the colony's fundamental law with this addition.

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It provided for amendments to the concessions by a six-seventh vote of the assembly.

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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.

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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.

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Billinge then appointed John Skeen as deputy governor. In late 1685, Skeen formally took over the government and fired most of the magistrates.

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The assembly, however, overwhelmingly rejected a new charter proposed by Billinge.

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By now, Edward Billinge was not only the sole governor but also the largest proprietor of West New Jersey,

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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.

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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.