WEBVTT NOTE 63. The Unification of the Jerseys 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.800 Volume 1, Chapter 63, The Unification of the Jerseys 2 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:14.240 During the crisis years of the Glorious Revolution, both the jerseys at last rested peaceful and 3 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:20.600 content. The dominion bureaucracy had gone, and the respective sets of proprietors did 4 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:27.720 not dare to stir, lest their grants be revoked by the Crown. The dominion bureaucracy had 5 00:00:27.720 --> 00:00:34.040 had gone, and the respective sets of proprietors did not dare to stir, lest their grants be 6 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:40.240 revoked by the Crown. They therefore decided not to impose any rule until the smoke had 7 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:46.800 cleared. Government in both colonies was local and purely minimal. Dr. Daniel Cox, court 8 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:52.920 physician and non-Quaker, had, before the onset of the Dominion, bought from Edward 9 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:59.360 Billing, the sole right to govern West New Jersey as well as the largest proprietary share 10 00:00:59.360 --> 00:01:06.400 in that colony. He also held a much smaller share of the East New Jersey proprietorship. 11 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:12.440 Cox fought hard and successfully to prevent the lords of trade from annulling the charters 12 00:01:12.440 --> 00:01:18.760 of the two Jerseys or from amalgamating them into New York and thereby converting them 13 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:28.000 In the spring of 1692, Cox sold all his rights and titles in the Jerseys to a group of non-Quaker 14 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:37.040 businessmen, the West New Jersey Society, for £9,800. The Society was owned by holders 15 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:45.760 of 1,600 shares of stock, issued at £10 each. Originally, the Society had 48 stockholders, 16 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:52.800 The most prominent being Sir Thomas Lane, who was to serve also as Lord Mayor of London. 17 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:57.840 We have already noted that the proprietors of East New Jersey had chosen the Scot, Andrew 18 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:05.880 Hamilton, to be Deputy Governor in 1687. After the dominion was imposed in 1688, Hamilton 19 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:13.040 returned to England and both the Jerseys remained without a central government until 1692. In 20 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:18.360 In that year, however, with the proprietor ships at least temporarily saved, both of 21 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:21.720 the Jerseys appointed Hamilton to be governor. 22 00:02:21.720 --> 00:02:25.760 The first step toward unity of the two Jerseys had begun. 23 00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:31.320 Hamilton took up his post in the far wealthier and more populous East New Jersey, of which 24 00:02:31.320 --> 00:02:38.000 Perth Amboy was the capital, and appointed Edward Hunlock to be his deputy in West New 25 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.680 Jersey. 26 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:44.420 With the return of central and proprietary government came the return of turmoil and 27 00:02:44.420 --> 00:02:50.900 conflict in the jerseys. Hamilton's guiding instruction was to begin once again to enforce 28 00:02:50.900 --> 00:02:57.800 collections of the hated feudal quittrant. Fearful of attempts to submerge the jerseys 29 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:04.820 into New York, East New Jersey now made particular efforts to aid New York in attempting to prosecute 30 00:03:04.820 --> 00:03:10.260 the War Against New France, and New York's Governor Fletcher expressed his gratitude 31 00:03:10.260 --> 00:03:17.260 to Hamilton for the 400 pounds and the 65 men supplied. Despite the fact that the proprietors 32 00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:25.340 of both colonies had been Quakers, the ethnic composition of the two Jerseys differed greatly. 33 00:03:26.140 --> 00:03:33.140 East New Jersey was heterogeneous, comprising Dutch, Puritans from New England, and Scotsmen. 34 00:03:33.140 --> 00:03:40.260 The Scots were mostly Presbyterians, not Quakers, despite the fact of Quaker proprietorship 35 00:03:40.260 --> 00:03:43.220 during the years of their migration. 36 00:03:43.220 --> 00:03:49.480 West New Jersey, on the other hand, was a poor, sparsely inhabited, predominantly Quaker 37 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:51.900 colony. 38 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:57.060 Despite the differences, Governor Hamilton had no difficulty in persuading the supposedly 39 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:03.240 The early pacifist Quaker Assembly of West New Jersey to join that of the East in voting 40 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:10.240 ample funds to help New York in the French War. As early as the year before, the West 41 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.860 Jersey Assembly had resolved that while the people of the colony could not bear arms or 42 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:22.860 participate in war, they could help defend the province, and in 1693 they voted 300 pounds 43 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:32.860 Hamilton voted £300 for the war effort. Paradoxically, Hamilton met the only resistance to his war plans in non-Quaker East New Jersey. 44 00:04:32.860 --> 00:04:43.860 Hamilton wanted the colony to supply 30 soldiers for the war, but Speaker William Lawrence of the East Jersey Assembly forced him to cut the supply to 20. 45 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:51.860 However, £430 were raised for the war effort, more than matching the contribution of the year before. 46 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:57.860 Even so, Hamilton wrote apologetically to Fletcher that volunteers could not be raised, 47 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:01.860 and that he could only raise troops to send to New York in case of invasion, 48 00:05:01.860 --> 00:05:06.860 and then only on condition that they would return as soon as the campaign was over. 49 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:13.860 Under Hamilton's aegis, the powers of the local governments over the people were greatly strengthened. 50 00:05:13.860 --> 00:05:20.860 The counties were now authorized to levy taxes, to repay debts and to maintain jails. 51 00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:27.600 The levies and appropriations were to be raised by the county judges, meeting with representatives 52 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:29.680 of each town in the county. 53 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:34.960 The townships were also authorized to impose the maintenance of government schools on all 54 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:40.000 taxpayers of the town, even on those opposing the idea. 55 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.000 Also the term of conscripted militiamen was lengthened. 56 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:51.040 Hamilton ran into trouble in 1694 trying to persuade the assembly to increase taxes in 57 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:56.340 order to pay salaries to himself and other government officials. 58 00:05:56.340 --> 00:06:01.100 On the other hand, the Council vetoed the bill passed by the deputies raising their 59 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:07.280 own salaries, the Council pointing out that its members remained unpaid. 60 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:12.200 The quit-rent problem came to a head in 1695. 61 00:06:12.200 --> 00:06:19.000 Dr. Richard Hartshorn was the leader of the popular opposition to Hamilton and his council. 62 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:23.880 Conflicts continued in succeeding years over Hamilton's demands for regular levying of 63 00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:30.520 revenue for the government, as well as enforcement of the quit rent. Once again, Elizabeth Town, 64 00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:37.280 joined by Newton and Shrewsbury, was in the forefront of the opposition. The landlords 65 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:42.200 When the courts took the quit-rent cases to the courts, and after the juries, in the words 66 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:49.620 of the proprietors, being all planters, gave a general verdict against their proprietors, 67 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:54.160 the judges arrogantly reversed the jury's decisions. 68 00:06:54.160 --> 00:07:00.180 On appeal of the cases to England, the claims of the proprietors were, years later, rejected 69 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:01.920 by the Crown. 70 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:07.540 The proprietary claim to quitterance had been finally rejected. 71 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:14.480 As soon as the first of these cases had been so decided by the Crown in 1697, 65 citizens 72 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:21.220 of Elizabethtown immediately petitioned the King for an end to the tyrannical proprietary 73 00:07:21.220 --> 00:07:27.800 government that persisted in exacting tribute for lands rightfully theirs. 74 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:34.520 At about this time, however, a grave new threat arose to plague the owners of landed property 75 00:07:34.520 --> 00:07:36.400 in East Jersey. 76 00:07:36.400 --> 00:07:43.520 An English court decided, on a technicality, that the land titles confirmed by former Governor 77 00:07:43.520 --> 00:07:51.520 Cotterett had only been valid for life rather than in fee simple for perpetuity. 78 00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:57.780 Hamilton now offered to reconfirm the absolute land titles, but only at the price of paying 79 00:07:57.780 --> 00:08:09.420 In 1697, Andrew Hamilton was removed as governor in both jerseys. Under the general interpretation 80 00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:16.340 of the Navigation Act of 1696, all Scotsmen were removed from positions of public trust 81 00:08:16.340 --> 00:08:22.900 in the colonies. Hamilton was, therefore, replaced as governor of both jerseys by the 82 00:08:22.900 --> 00:08:31.180 The former Baptist minister, Jeremiah Boss, who assumed his new post in early 1698. Boss, 83 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:36.740 even before his appointment, had come to be thoroughly hated in West New Jersey and the 84 00:08:36.740 --> 00:08:43.320 other colonies. He had earned this ire as a former agent of Dr. Cox and the West New 85 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:51.500 Jersey Society and as an opponent of the colonies' violations of the navigation laws. The arch-tory 86 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:56.960 Inventory and inveterate enemy of the colonies, Edward Randolph, had come to the conclusion 87 00:08:56.960 --> 00:09:02.140 that Scotsmen were particularly active as smugglers and merchants. 88 00:09:02.140 --> 00:09:08.460 He therefore inserted a clause into the Navigation Act of 1696 to keep them out of public office 89 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:10.380 in the colonies. 90 00:09:10.380 --> 00:09:15.980 Bass was known as one of Randolph's clique of prerogative men, and he schemed at London 91 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:21.840 to use the clause to oust Hamilton and obtain the post for himself. 92 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:29.020 At first, conflict between Baas and the people of East New Jersey was not widespread or intense. 93 00:09:29.020 --> 00:09:34.400 The people and the proprietary were jointly engaged in another chapter of continual struggle 94 00:09:34.400 --> 00:09:41.020 with New York, winning for Perth Amboy the right to be a free port, unhindered by New 95 00:09:41.020 --> 00:09:43.560 York regulations. 96 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:49.200 Using the external dispute as a method of mobilizing support, Baas managed to induce 97 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:56.560 the assembly in the spring of 1699 to increase taxes sharply, with new taxes being levied 98 00:09:56.560 --> 00:09:59.840 on a wide variety of property. 99 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:05.360 The new tax burdens stirred up widespread opposition in East New Jersey. 100 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:10.800 A Newark town meeting denounced the tax and warned that there was no guarantee that the 101 00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:13.840 The money would be used for the announced purposes. 102 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:18.760 Anyway, there was clearly no danger of invasion from New York. 103 00:10:18.760 --> 00:10:26.240 The Newark meeting resolved unanimously not to pay the new tax and to resist its collection. 104 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:31.720 Led by young Louis Morris II, a counselor and merchant, later Chief Justice of New York 105 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:39.120 and Governor of New Jersey, the towns of Newark, Elizabethtown, Perth-Amboy and Freehold joined 106 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:45.560 to protest to the proprietors against the rule of Boss. They also specifically attacked 107 00:10:45.560 --> 00:10:52.640 a resolution of the lower house of the assembly praising the Boss administration. Morris indeed 108 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:58.400 had challenged Boss's rule from the beginning, denying the authority of the Boss-appointed 109 00:10:58.400 --> 00:11:05.680 court. Fined for contempt, Morris managed to escape from prison. He continued relentlessly 110 00:11:05.680 --> 00:11:11.940 to Challenge the Basis of Proprietary Rule, such rule, he asserted, was by persons who 111 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:19.480 really have not the right to govern. He also denounced the quit-rent as an unjust tax upon 112 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:22.280 us and our heirs forever. 113 00:11:22.280 --> 00:11:29.080 Morris was now, in April 1699, charged by the Council with seditious assembly, with 114 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:36.280 with intent to subvert the laws and with malicious and reproachful words against Governor Boss. 115 00:11:36.280 --> 00:11:43.700 In May, a grand jury indicted Morris, along with Surveyor General George Willex and Secretary 116 00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:50.480 Thomas Gordon, for stirring up opposition in the towns to the taxes levied in March. 117 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:56.980 The next day, a large group from Elizabethtown attacked the jail holding Morris and the others 118 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:02.540 and Freed the Eminent Prisoners. Among the leaders of this revolutionary attack were 119 00:12:02.540 --> 00:12:09.340 such well-known citizens as Justice Benjamin Price, Isaac Whitehead and Jonathan Ogden 120 00:12:09.340 --> 00:12:16.660 Jr. By this time, Boss had left for England to discuss the dispute with New York. Andrew 121 00:12:16.660 --> 00:12:24.140 Bowne now ruled as Deputy Governor. Shortly after their coerced release from prison, Morris 122 00:12:24.140 --> 00:12:30.460 Thomas and Willex called on the council to yield, and send an armed sloop against Perth 123 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:35.100 Amboy, firing guns by way of defiance to the government. 124 00:12:35.100 --> 00:12:40.980 Bowne and the assembly decided to order the suppression of the insurrection in the province, 125 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:46.540 but the assembly realized that virtually the whole province opposed the new taxes, and 126 00:12:46.540 --> 00:12:51.460 the bulk of its members walked out in protest against them. 127 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:56.220 The only placid Bergen County was not in a state of rebellion. 128 00:12:56.220 --> 00:13:01.980 With this kind of opposition in the assembly, reinforced by the proprietor's decision to 129 00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:08.460 appoint the revolutionary Thomas Gordon as Attorney General of the colony, Bound did nothing 130 00:13:08.460 --> 00:13:13.260 to enforce the Tax Act or to suppress the insurrection. 131 00:13:13.260 --> 00:13:18.440 Morris's rebellion had succeeded, for soon after Boss returned from England in the summer 132 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:25.560 In the year of 1699, Andrew Hamilton was reappointed governor of the Jerseys. Scotsmen, it was 133 00:13:25.560 --> 00:13:33.240 now ruled, were able to hold office in the colonies, and the proprietors seized the opportunity 134 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:40.960 to reappoint Hamilton and end the calamitous regime of Baths. If Governor Baths precipitated 135 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:46.920 conflict and oppression in East New Jersey, his rule over the Quaker colony of West New 136 00:13:46.920 --> 00:13:54.000 New Jersey was a veritable reign of terror. Hamilton had left West New Jersey alone. As 137 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:00.680 a result, the Quakers' largely libertarian society was not confronted, as in previous 138 00:14:00.680 --> 00:14:07.880 years, with the threat of proprietary despotism. As soon as Baas took power, however, he imposed 139 00:14:07.880 --> 00:14:15.380 a program of reactionary change upon the colony. Virtually his first act was to oust the previous 140 00:14:15.380 --> 00:14:23.260 and the Judges, and to fill their post with his friends and favorites, almost all non-Quakers. 141 00:14:23.260 --> 00:14:28.940 The Quaker lower house tried to oppose Bass's accession to power, whereupon he promptly 142 00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:35.540 began to throw them into prison. Peter Fretwell, former treasurer of the colony, was jailed 143 00:14:35.540 --> 00:14:41.700 by Bass for not acknowledging the government. Furthermore, the great leader of the liberal 144 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:46.860 General Forces in West New Jersey, Speaker of the House Samuel Jennings, was arrested 145 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:53.180 in the spring of 1699 for saying that Bosse's commission as governor was illegal, and for 146 00:14:53.180 --> 00:14:59.580 slandering one of Bosse's appointed councillors as a papist. Three of the new councillors 147 00:14:59.580 --> 00:15:05.820 indeed published a book denouncing Jennings as the key to the seditious opposition. They 148 00:15:05.820 --> 00:15:11.020 wrote, Samuel Jennings, being the leading man of that party, now sings his old song 149 00:15:11.020 --> 00:15:16.640 over again, and affirms the government to be in the people, thereby encouraging and 150 00:15:16.640 --> 00:15:23.180 exciting the people to rebellion against the present governor and other their lawful rulers 151 00:15:23.180 --> 00:15:27.940 to the great obstruction of the peace and property of the province. 152 00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:32.820 Fretwell and Thomas Gardner, furthermore, were indicted for setting the province in 153 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:37.580 a flame, but they refused to appear for their trial. 154 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:43.240 and did indeed burst forth in Salem, where the government was resisted and the boss appointed 155 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:49.260 magistrates expelled from the town. But the governor sent in fifty soldiers and was able 156 00:15:49.260 --> 00:15:54.740 to suppress the rebellion. Boss found, however, that he could not suppress the voices of his 157 00:15:54.740 --> 00:16:02.700 opposition. Samuel Jennings undaunted not only organized a giant anti-boss petition but also 158 00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:25.700 Andrew Hamilton returned as governor in December 1699, only to find both colonies in a state of outright rebellion. 159 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:35.300 In West New Jersey, the Bas-Puppet Council was unceremoniously removed, and the revolutionary leaders returned to their posts. 160 00:16:35.300 --> 00:16:41.700 Jennings to Speaker of the House, Fretwell to Treasurer, Gardner became King's Attorney. 161 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:53.300 But both Jerseys were now in the midst of a revolutionary situation, and a mere change of governors was no longer enough to appease the popular opposition. 162 00:16:53.300 --> 00:16:59.740 The spark for the rebellion in both colonies was the increase in taxes, and a mere change 163 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:04.660 of personnel would not be enough to relieve the situation. 164 00:17:04.660 --> 00:17:11.020 To Louis Morris and the people of East New Jersey, only the liquidation of the proprietorship 165 00:17:11.020 --> 00:17:13.640 would suffice to end the rebellion. 166 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:18.780 The proprietors were indeed negotiating with the Crown for surrender of their right to 167 00:17:18.780 --> 00:17:22.460 govern, though not of their land claims. 168 00:17:22.460 --> 00:17:28.300 However, proprietary government continued in the meanwhile until the Crown's decision 169 00:17:28.300 --> 00:17:30.260 should be made. 170 00:17:30.260 --> 00:17:32.800 But the revolution roared on. 171 00:17:32.800 --> 00:17:39.700 In March 1700, justices of the Middlesex County Court, all counselors, were barred from the 172 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:46.300 courtroom by a rebellious crowd led by Edward Slater, one of the main leaders of the rebellion 173 00:17:46.300 --> 00:17:50.900 against Cotterette, nearly twenty years before. 174 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:57.060 A week later, Samuel Carter, leading an angry crowd, denounced the proceedings of the Essex 175 00:17:57.060 --> 00:18:03.400 County Court and the court-ordered Carter, arrested for contempt, which may, if not timely 176 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:09.380 prevented, turn to a convulsion in government to the ruin of the colony. 177 00:18:09.380 --> 00:18:14.500 It may be noted that the crowd supporting Carter included such prominent citizens as 178 00:18:14.500 --> 00:18:18.400 Justice Benjamin Price, a former counselor. 179 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:25.080 By July, however, Lewis Morris had betrayed the revolution he had led, and now shifted 180 00:18:25.080 --> 00:18:32.800 vigorously to the other side. Returning to the council as Hamilton's appointee for president, 181 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:38.720 Morris wanted everyone to submit to the governor. Soon Morris had an opportunity to betray his 182 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:45.440 own neighbors in Monmouth County. The newly appointed sheriff, the Scotsman John Stewart, 183 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:52.160 was on a rampage in the county, jailing rebels. Friends of those about to be arrested thereupon 184 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:58.620 attacked Stewart and forced him to flee. Learning of a plan to free one of the captured men, 185 00:18:58.620 --> 00:19:04.040 Morris informed Hamilton, who appeared with an armed troop and then demanded the surrender 186 00:19:04.040 --> 00:19:09.800 of two of the opposition leaders, Richard Salter and John Bray. But the free men of 187 00:19:09.800 --> 00:19:15.720 of Monmouth County by now numbered 6 to 1 against Hamilton and Morris, aroused a hundred 188 00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:23.160 citizens of Middletown armed with clubs, marched to confront the governor's force. A compromise 189 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:28.520 averted an armed clash when the prisoners agreed to put up bail as security for good 190 00:19:28.520 --> 00:19:34.840 behavior. The renegade Morris had been given the task of suppressing the rebellion and 191 00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:40.840 and his unpopularity was assured when he threatened to drench the colony in the blood of the 192 00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:44.040 rebels who did not yield. 193 00:19:44.040 --> 00:19:51.200 With Morris ordered to seize Salter and Bray, Monmouth, Middlesex and Essex counties conferred 194 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:53.880 to decide their next move. 195 00:19:53.880 --> 00:20:00.480 They decided to resist Morris's power and to seize, arrest and incarcerate Hamilton, 196 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:18.640 A grand jury of Monmouth County soon indicted sixteen men, including Salter and Bray, for 197 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:26.400 riotous assembly and assault of Sheriff Stewart. But the rebels remained undaunted. In September 198 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:32.720 The Essex County Court at Newark had its proceedings interrupted by Samuel Carter, who challenged 199 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:38.960 the authority of the court. The constable ordered to seize the prisoner was himself assaulted 200 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:46.200 by the rebels. The rebels also assaulted Councilor William Sandford, the president of the court. 201 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:52.400 The rebels were led by Carter and Thomas Johnson, a long-time high official in the colony and 202 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:58.520 The Leader of the Rebellion under Carteret. Two days later a large group of horsemen arrived 203 00:20:58.520 --> 00:21:05.160 from Elizabethtown to demand of the Essex County judges the freeing of one of the prisoners, 204 00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:12.480 Joseph Parmiter. Led by Samuel Carter and Samuel Whitehead, the rebels on being refused 205 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:18.920 seized the sheriff and forced him to free Parmiter. Soon afterward in retaliation two 206 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:27.400 Two grand juries indicted eighty-five Elizabethtown men for joining in the insurrectionary action. 207 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:32.920 The revolutionaries countered by signing an Elizabethtown petition to the king against 208 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:39.680 the proprietors. In it they attacked the quit rent, which was being exacted even after the 209 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:46.220 royal courts had disallowed it, and they asked the crown to replace the proprietary with 210 00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:48.100 The Royal Governor 211 00:21:48.100 --> 00:21:54.380 Leading the opposition to the Proprietary in the Assembly, which convened in May 1700, 212 00:21:54.380 --> 00:21:56.820 was Councilor John Royce. 213 00:21:56.820 --> 00:22:01.220 The Councilor held an old nickels patent for his lands. 214 00:22:01.220 --> 00:22:08.020 This fact jeopardized the lands and subjected it to quit rent exactions so long as the Proprietary 215 00:22:08.020 --> 00:22:09.660 continued. 216 00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:15.420 Hamilton convened the Assembly, but only to try to get a tax bill passed. 217 00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:20.940 He soon saw that there was no chance of success. Moreover, he saw the danger of the Assembly 218 00:22:20.940 --> 00:22:27.940 approving the anti-proprietary position. Therefore, Hamilton made haste to dissolve the Assembly. 219 00:22:27.940 --> 00:22:36.220 But the East New Jersey Petition helped galvanize the Board of Trade to annul the Jersey Proprietary. 220 00:22:36.220 --> 00:22:42.860 The East New Jersey Proprietary tried to stem the tide by its answer to the petition sent 221 00:22:42.860 --> 00:22:49.980 to the Crown in December. The answer, trenchantly, attacked the colonial resistance to payment 222 00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:56.780 of quit-rants as a logical prelude to denial of the royal power itself. It concluded that 223 00:22:56.780 --> 00:23:03.100 the settlers viewed themselves as the absolute owners of the soil, and hence entitled to 224 00:23:03.100 --> 00:23:09.220 an independent government of their own. The proprietors darkly charged that the rebels 225 00:23:09.220 --> 00:23:16.220 were merely a few factious and mutinous people impatient of any government. 226 00:23:16.220 --> 00:23:23.100 The following March 1701, the pattern of revolt against the proprietary courts continued. 227 00:23:23.100 --> 00:23:28.500 As the Monmouth Court, headed by Governor Hamilton, was examining an accused smuggler 228 00:23:28.500 --> 00:23:35.180 named Moses Butterworth, Samuel Willett, an innkeeper, challenged the authority of the 229 00:23:35.180 --> 00:23:36.380 court. 230 00:23:36.380 --> 00:23:49.380 charged into the court with the company of 50 militiamen. A battle ensued between the police on one side and the militiamen in the crowd, led by Benjamin Price and Richard Borden on the other. 231 00:23:49.380 --> 00:23:57.380 The rebels proceeded to free Butterworth and to seize the justices, the attorney general and the other officers of the court. 232 00:23:57.380 --> 00:23:58.820 Court. 233 00:23:58.820 --> 00:24:04.700 The next day the court, with Samuel Leonard presiding, was able to reassert its authority 234 00:24:04.700 --> 00:24:12.020 despite a challenge by Eliza Catterall, who refused to serve on the compulsory jury, and 235 00:24:12.020 --> 00:24:19.900 the refusal of the former court clerk, James Bolan, to surrender the court records. 236 00:24:19.900 --> 00:24:26.020 The court quickly seized, convicted and fined all those denying its authority and refusing 237 00:24:26.020 --> 00:24:46.260 In May 1701, Hamilton and the Council petitioned the King to order the people of East New Jersey 238 00:24:46.260 --> 00:24:52.620 to obey the proprietary government. Hamilton complained that, since he had not yet received 239 00:24:52.620 --> 00:25:00.060 official approbation of the Crown, the licentious past of the people, who look on all government 240 00:25:00.060 --> 00:25:06.780 to be a yoke, had repudiated his authority in all of his actions. As a result, he pointed 241 00:25:06.780 --> 00:25:13.580 out, the reins of government are cut in pieces, and the people run into anarchy and confusion. 242 00:25:13.580 --> 00:25:18.440 But Hamilton was soon to find that the Council was hardly more tractable than the House of 243 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:25.080 of Deputies. First, in late 1700, George Willocks, deputy for the proprietors, led 244 00:25:25.080 --> 00:25:33.400 a revolt against the leading proprietor, William Dachra, the proprietor's executive secretary. 245 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:38.760 The Council stalled hearings on Willocks' charges of corruption and injustice against 246 00:25:38.760 --> 00:25:45.840 Dachra, but it finally consented to a hearing the following August. Willocks charged Dachra 247 00:25:45.840 --> 00:25:53.000 with usurpation of governmental rule, levying arbitrary fines on local landowners, voiding 248 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.100 good land titles, and demanding bribes for settling land claims. 249 00:25:59.100 --> 00:26:05.800 Backed by the deputy secretary and six resident proprietors, the council turned against Dachra, 250 00:26:05.800 --> 00:26:11.000 and the board of resident proprietors finally removed him from his post. 251 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:16.560 But the DACRA problem was purely internal to the ruling oligarchy of proprietors and 252 00:26:16.560 --> 00:26:18.480 their favorites. 253 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:24.120 Also internal but far more challenging to the existing regime was a sudden move by former 254 00:26:24.120 --> 00:26:34.080 Governor Andrew Bound at the council meeting in June 1701 to claim the post of governor. 255 00:26:34.080 --> 00:26:40.360 Bound declared that the proprietors had appointed him, but he was challenged by the resident 256 00:26:40.360 --> 00:27:00.360 Bound's claim was also backed by William Dockra, who was evidently taking the opportunity to try to oust a regime that had already turned against him. 257 00:27:00.360 --> 00:27:11.080 Louis Morris, now agent of the resident proprietors, decided that the best course would be to abolish 258 00:27:11.080 --> 00:27:17.920 the weak and confused proprietary rule and to replace it with a royal government headed 259 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:19.960 by Hamilton. 260 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:26.120 In that way, Hamilton and the ruling oligarchy in East New Jersey could end the permanent 261 00:27:26.120 --> 00:27:33.040 Rebellion, and entrenched themselves in power, backed by the might and prestige of the royal 262 00:27:33.040 --> 00:27:40.840 government. As rebellion settled into a permanent state, the Tory advisors of the colonies began 263 00:27:40.840 --> 00:27:48.160 to offer their solutions. Edward Randolph, in February 1701, advocated not only the end 264 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:54.880 and Proprietary Government, though not of its land claims, but also the annihilation 265 00:27:54.880 --> 00:28:01.920 of the Jerseys. Randolph urged that East New Jersey be annexed to New York and West 266 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:10.480 New Jersey to Pennsylvania. In the meanwhile, all is in confusion for want of government. 267 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:16.840 Andrew Bowne also moved in again, hoping to have his post restored. He called for drastic 268 00:28:16.840 --> 00:28:23.200 Enforcement of the Generally Violated Navigation Acts, Bound suggested amalgamating the jerseys 269 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:29.500 with Delaware as part of Pennsylvania. The proprietors themselves, indeed, were rapidly 270 00:28:29.500 --> 00:28:35.680 becoming reconciled to the end of their rule, and they submitted a memorial to the Crown 271 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:43.040 outlining the conditions for voluntary surrender of their governmental rights. The petition, 272 00:28:43.040 --> 00:28:48.980 Incidentally, was jointly submitted by the proprietors of East New Jersey and West New 273 00:28:48.980 --> 00:28:50.680 Jersey. 274 00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:57.000 The final surrender by the proprietors and the acceptance by the Crown were accomplished 275 00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:00.240 in mid-April 1702. 276 00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:07.360 The Crown decided to grant some, but not all, of the proprietor's original conditions. 277 00:29:07.360 --> 00:29:14.540 Every rights to the soil were reconfirmed along with the quit rents due. All land titles 278 00:29:14.540 --> 00:29:20.960 issued by the proprietors were confirmed. The governor was instructed to forbid any tax 279 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:29.120 on unimproved, that is arbitrarily granted lands, thus greatly aiding the land engrossing 280 00:29:29.120 --> 00:29:35.600 pursued by the proprietors. Another important privilege granted to the proprietors was a 281 00:29:35.600 --> 00:29:42.540 monopoly of all purchase of land from the Indians. This gratuity, in effect, made vague 282 00:29:42.540 --> 00:29:49.540 and arbitrary land grants to the existing landed proprietors. After April 1702, then, 283 00:29:50.340 --> 00:29:57.340 the proprietary government was no more. Both jerseys were now united into one New Jersey, 284 00:29:57.960 --> 00:30:04.960 a royal colony. Andrew Hamilton had had no easier time in West New Jersey. The Reverend 285 00:30:05.600 --> 00:30:09.400 The Revolutionary State had continued in that colony as well. 286 00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:15.880 To a greater extent than in the East, the focal point of resistance was taxation. 287 00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:21.440 The unique element in West New Jersey was that a high-tax program had been instituted 288 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:26.460 by an alliance of Hamilton with the Quaker-dominated house. 289 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:34.080 By 1701, a general refusal to pay taxes pervaded the colony, a refusal which included the threat 290 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:40.920 of Violence Against the Hated Tax Collectors. As in East New Jersey, the rebels refused 291 00:30:40.920 --> 00:30:49.480 to pay the courts security for good behavior. In March, nearly 80 people rioted in Burlington, 292 00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:55.080 broke into prison, and released two men who had refused to put up security for failing 293 00:30:55.080 --> 00:31:02.280 to pay taxes. Furthermore, Quaker imposition of high taxes seemed inconsistent with Quaker 294 00:31:02.280 --> 00:31:09.280 The Proprietor's were anxious to have Andrew Hamilton appointed royal governor of the United New Jersey, but this was one privilege they were not to receive. 295 00:31:09.280 --> 00:31:16.280 The Crown's appointed counsel, Andrew Hamilton, was a senior of the Proprietor's, and he was a very well-educated man. 296 00:31:16.280 --> 00:31:20.280 The Proprietor's were very well-educated, and he was a very well-educated man. 297 00:31:20.280 --> 00:31:25.280 The Proprietor's were very well-educated, and he was a very well-educated man. 298 00:31:25.280 --> 00:31:36.280 The Crown's appointed counsel for the new colony included six officials from each Jersey, 299 00:31:36.280 --> 00:31:42.000 largely taken from the oligarchal leadership of the two former colonies. 300 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:48.280 Counselor Louis Morris was designated acting governor by the Crown in June 1702, pending 301 00:31:48.280 --> 00:31:49.880 a final appointment. 302 00:31:49.880 --> 00:31:56.840 Finally, toward the end of the year, the Crown made New York's Governor, Lord Cornberry, 303 00:31:56.840 --> 00:32:01.920 Governor of New Jersey as well. Cornberry assumed his post in July of the following 304 00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:08.360 year. The Crown decided to alternate meetings of the Unified General Assembly between the 305 00:32:08.360 --> 00:32:14.960 respective capitals of Perth-am-Boy and Burlington. The House of Representatives was to consist 306 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:21.040 of 12 representatives from each of the two former divisions, two appeased to be sent 307 00:32:21.040 --> 00:32:28.040 by the two capital cities. Thus the structure of New Jersey was now similar to that of the 308 00:32:28.040 --> 00:32:35.460 other royal colonies, an appointed governor and council, and elected lower house. Appeals 309 00:32:35.460 --> 00:32:41.120 could be made to the king in major judicial cases. The Crown accepted the proprietor's 310 00:32:41.120 --> 00:32:47.360 Lewis Morris Request for High Minimum Voting Requirements. Voters had to own at least 311 00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:56.360 100 acres and representatives 1,000 acres. Lewis Morris had warned that without the latter 312 00:32:56.360 --> 00:33:02.440 requirement those persons of best estate and the proprietor's interest would be at the 313 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:09.600 disposal of the tag, rag and rascality. In short, the property qualification was a method 314 00:33:09.600 --> 00:33:16.000 of Attempting to Secure Control of Even the Assembly by the Proprietors. In addition, 315 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:22.080 the people lost the right to have a regular annual assembly. The rights to call and dissolve 316 00:33:22.080 --> 00:33:27.720 the legislature and to appoint judges and courts were lodged in the royal governors, 317 00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:33.200 but the crucial rights, those of levying taxes for support of the government, remained with 318 00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:41.200 of the Assembly. Also granted were more worthwhile requests of the proprietors, for example, 319 00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:46.960 permitting Quakers to avoid taking an oath of office. Religious liberty was also granted 320 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:53.020 to every one but Roman Catholics, continuing the East New Jersey policy passed under the 321 00:33:53.020 --> 00:34:00.240 Law of Rights and Privileges of 1698. But this provision was a mixed blessing. From 322 00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:06.200 From the time of the original concessions, at the outset of the colonies, both jerseys 323 00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:12.520 had enjoyed extensive religious liberty. By its discrimination, the new proviso was a 324 00:34:12.520 --> 00:34:18.960 setback for the Catholics. On the other hand, there was an advance in another direction. 325 00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:25.360 The law of 1698 had eliminated the power of the assembly to establish ministers, but now 326 00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:31.440 Separation of Church and State, without which there can be no full religious liberty, was 327 00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:34.520 decreed for the colony as a whole. 328 00:34:34.520 --> 00:34:41.120 The important exception was a proprietary grant to each township of 200 acres of government 329 00:34:41.120 --> 00:34:43.880 land for support of a minister. 330 00:34:43.880 --> 00:34:50.520 This feature enabled some of the Puritan towns in New Jersey to keep an established church. 331 00:34:50.520 --> 00:34:56.680 As to the proprietor's request to make Perth Amboy and Burlington free ports without harassment 332 00:34:56.680 --> 00:35:03.800 from New York, the Crown suggested that this would be granted only if the New Jersey Assembly 333 00:35:03.800 --> 00:35:11.800 raised its customs duties and regulations to equal New York's, thus ending embarrassing 334 00:35:11.800 --> 00:35:18.200 free competition with the highly taxed and regulated port of New York and increasing 335 00:35:18.200 --> 00:35:31.200 Lewis Morris tried to use the new accession of royal power as well as his leading role in the colony to establish the Anglican Church. 336 00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:43.200 As early as 1697, he tried to pass such a bill, but it was defeated by the combined efforts of Richard Hartzhorn, Quaker, and Andrew Brown, Baptist. 337 00:35:43.200 --> 00:35:51.200 One of Morris's main reasons for wanting the proprietors ousted was to further the project of an Anglican establishment. 338 00:35:51.200 --> 00:36:00.200 But the royal government would not establish a religion that was very weak in the colony, indeed weak everywhere north of Maryland. 339 00:36:00.200 --> 00:36:06.200 The lack of a bishop resident in the colony also handicapped the growth of Anglicanism. 340 00:36:06.200 --> 00:36:12.600 Anglicanism. For example, it was difficult for one aspiring to the Anglican ministry to 341 00:36:12.600 --> 00:36:19.620 be ordained. Either a bishop had to come from England to perform the ceremony, and few chose 342 00:36:19.620 --> 00:36:25.240 to come, or the would-be priest had to travel to England. 343 00:36:25.240 --> 00:36:31.160 What happened, incidentally, to the ultrapuritan settlement at Newark that was founded by the 344 00:36:31.160 --> 00:36:36.260 by the former New Haven minister Abraham Pearson in 1667. 345 00:36:36.260 --> 00:36:44.960 Newark continued at first as a rigorously Puritan township, but Pearson died in 1678 346 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:49.960 and was succeeded by his son, Rev. Abraham Pearson Jr. 347 00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:55.560 Typical of the Puritan ministry throughout New England, New York and New Jersey, the 348 00:36:55.560 --> 00:37:01.040 younger Pearson was drifting strongly toward Presbyterianism. 349 00:37:01.040 --> 00:37:09.220 As a result, Newark ended its established church in 1687 and threw Pearson's salary open to 350 00:37:09.220 --> 00:37:16.720 voluntary subscription. Pearson was thereby obliged to move elsewhere. The ultra-theocratic 351 00:37:16.720 --> 00:37:24.680 experiment at Newark had collapsed. Thus, New Jersey took its place after 1702 as a 352 00:37:24.680 --> 00:37:31.680 There was a northern royal colony with appointed governor and council and a popularly elected assembly. 353 00:37:31.680 --> 00:37:39.680 Proprietary tyranny and attempts to impose taxes, quit rents and arbitrary land allocations ceased. 354 00:37:39.680 --> 00:37:49.680 But royal government, in alliance with the land claims of the proprietary, continued the power of the old oligarchy. 355 00:37:49.680 --> 00:37:54.880 Also ended forcibly were the several years of successful rebellion in New Jersey. 356 00:37:54.880 --> 00:38:02.640 The colony continued to be relatively individualistic, however, and to enjoy religious liberty and diversity.