even Massachusetts had been brought to submission, offered no resistance to Andros, but quietly yielded to his authority. Until the English revolution of 1688, and the consequent downfall of Andros, New Hampshire remained under the dominion of the royal governor. But when he was seized and imprisoned by the citizens of Boston, the people of the northern towns also rose in rebellion and reasserted their freedom. A general assembly was convened at Portsmouth in the spring of 1690, and an ordinance was at once passed reannexing New Hampshire to Massachusetts. But in August of 1692 this action was annulled by the English government, and the two provinces were a second time separated against the protests of the people. In 1698, when the earl of Bellomont came out as royal governor of New York, his commission was made to include both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. For a period of forty-two years the two provinces, though retaining their separate legislative assemblies, continued under the authority of a common executive. Not until 1741 was a final separation effected between the colonies north and south of the Merrimac. Meanwhile, the heirs of Mason, embarrassed with delays and vexed by opposing claimants, had sold to Samuel Allen, of London, their title to New Hampshire. To him, in 1691, the old Masonian patent was transferred. His son-in-law, named Usher, a land speculator of Boston, was appointed deputy governor. The new proprietor made a long and futile effort to enforce his claim to the lands of the province, but was everywhere resisted. Lawsuits were begun in the colonial courts, but no judgments could be obtained against the occupants of lands; all efforts to drive the farmers into the payment of rents or the surrender of their homes were unavailing. For many years the history of New Hampshire contains little else than a record of strife and contention. Finally, Allen died; and in 1715, after a struggle of a quarter of a century, his heirs abandoned their claim in despair. A few years afterward one of the descendants of Mason discovered that the deed which his kinsmen had made to Allen was defective. The original Masonian patent was accordingly revived, and a last effort was made to secure possession of the province, but was all in vain. The colonial government had now grown strong enough to defend the rights of its people, and the younger Masons were obliged to abandon their pretensions. In the final adjustment of this long-standing difficulty the colonial authorities allowed the validity of the Masonian patent as to the unoccupied portions of the territory, and the heirs made a formal surrender of their claims to all the rest. Of all the New England colonies, New Hampshire suffered most from the French and Indian Wars. Her settlements were feeble, and her territory most exposed to savage invasion. In the last year of King Philip's War the suffering along the frontier of the province was very great. Again, in the wars of William, Anne and George, the villages of the northern colony were visited with devastation and ruin. But in the intervals of peace the spirits of the people revived, and the hardy settlers returned to their wasted farms to begin anew the struggle of life. Out of these conflicts and trials came that sturdy and resolute race of pioneers who bore such a heroic part in the greater contests of after years. Such is the story of the planting, progress, and development of New England. Hither had come, in the beginning, a people of sober habits, frugal lives, and lofty purposes. Before their imagination was one vision-the vision of freedom. And freedom to the men who laid the foundations of civilization in New England meant the breaking off of every species of thralldom. These people came to the New World to stay. They voluntarily chose the wilderness with its forests, and snows, and savages. For forests, and snows, and savages were better than luxury with despotism. In Virginia as late as the middle of the eighteenth century many of the planters still looked fondly across the ocean and spoke of England as their "home." Not so with the people whose hamlets were scattered from the Penobscot to the Housatonic. With them the humble cabin in the frozen woods under the desolate sky of winter was a cheerful and sunny "home"-if only FREEDOM was written on the threshold. THE CHAPTER XXIV. NEW JERSEY. HE colonial history of New Jersey properly begins with the founding of Elizabethtown, in 1664. As early as 1618 a feeble trading station had been established at Bergen, west of the Hudson; but forty years elapsed before permanent dwellings were built in that neighborhood. In 1623 the block-house, called Fort Nassau, was erected at the mouth of Timber Creek, on the Delaware; after a few months' occupancy, May and his companions abandoned the place and returned to New Amsterdam. Six years later the southern part of the present State of New Jersey was granted to Godyn and Blomaert, two of the Dutch patroons; but no settlement was made. In 1634 there was not a single European living between Delaware Bay and the fortieth degree of latitude. In 1651 a considerable district, including the site of Elizabethtown, was purchased by Augustine Herman; but still no colony was planted. Seven years afterwards a larger grant, embracing the old trading house at Bergen, was made; and in 1663 a company of Puritans, living on Long Island, obtained permission of Governor Stuyvesant to settle on the banks of the Raritan; but no settlement was effected until after the conquest. All the territory of New Jersey was included in the grant made by King Charles to his brother the duke of York. Two months before the conquest of New Netherland by the English, that portion of the duke's province lying between the Hudson and the Delaware, extending as far north as forty-one degrees and forty minutes, was assigned by the proprietor to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. These noblemen were already proprietors of Carolina; but they had adhered to the king's cause during the civil war in England, and were now rewarded with a second American province. Almost immediately after the conquest another company of Puritans made application to Governor Nicolls, and received an extensive grant of land on Newark Bay. The Indian titles were honorably purchased; in the following October a village was begun and named Elizabethtown, in honor of Lady Carteret. In August of 1665, Philip Carteret, son of Sir George, arrived as governor of the province. At first he was violently opposed by Nicolls of New York, who refused to believe that the duke had divided his territory. But Carteret was armed with a commission, and could not be prevented from taking possession of the new settlements below the Hudson. Elizabethtown was made the capital of the colony; other immigrants arrived from Long Island and settled on the banks of the Passaic; Newark was founded; flourishing hamlets appeared on the shores of the bay as far south as Sandy Hook. In honor of Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the Isle of Jersey, in the English Channel, his American domain was named NEW JERSEY. Experience had taught the proprietors wisdom; they had learned that freedom is essential to the prosperity of a colony, and that liberal concessions to the people are better than great outlays of money. Berkeley and Carteret, though royalists themselves, provided for their new State an excellent constitution. Person and property were put under the protection of law. The government was made to consist of a governor, a council and a popular legislative assembly. There should be no taxation unless levied by the representatives of the people. Difference of opinion should be respected, and freedom of conscience guaranteed to every citizen. The proprietors reserved to themselves only the right of annulling objectionable acts of the assembly and of appointing the governor and colonial judges. The lands of the province were distributed to the settlers for a quit-rent of a half penny per acre, not to be paid until 1670. In 1668 the first general assembly convened at Elizabethtown. Nearly all the representatives were Puritans, and the laws and customs of New England were thus early impressed on the legislation of the colony. Affairs went well until 1670, when the half-penny quit-rents were due to the proprietors. The colonists, in the mean time, had purchased their lands of the Indians, and also of Governor Nicolls of New York, who still claimed New Jersey as a part of his province. To the settlers, therefore, it seemed that their titles to their farms were good without further payment to Philip Carteret or anybody else. The collection of the rents was accordingly resisted; and the colony became a scene first of strife and then of revolution. In May of 1672 the colonial assembly convened and deposed the governor from office. James Carteret, another son of Sir George, was chosen governor, and Philip returned to England. In 1673 the Dutch succeeded in retaking New York from the English. For a few months the old province of New Netherland, including the country as far south as the Delaware, was restored to Holland. But in the next year the whole territory was re-ceded by the states-general to England. The duke of York now received from his brother, the king, a second patent for the country between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and at the same time confirmed his former grant of New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret. Then, in utter disregard of the rights of the two proprietors, the duke appointed Sir Edmund Andros as royal governor of the whole province. Carteret determined to defend his claim against the authority of Andros; but Lord Berkeley, disgusted with the duke's vacillation and dishonesty, sold his interest in New Jersey to John Fenwick, to be held in trust for Edward Byllinge. NEW YORK In 1675, Philip Carteret returned to America and resumed the government of the province from which he had been expelled. Andros opposed him in every act; claimed New Jersey as a part of his own dominions; kept the colony in an uproar; compelled the ships which came a-trading with the new settlements to pay tribute at New York; and finally arrested Carteret and brought him to his own capital for trial. Meanwhile, Byllinge became embarrassed with debt, and was forced to make an assignment of his property. Gawen Laurie, Nicholas Lucas and William Penn were appointed trustees, and to them Byllinge's interest in New Jersey was assigned for the benefit of his creditors. Schuylkill B New Yo Bergeno Newarko Raritank "New Brunswick Trenton Newark Bro Sandy Middletow WEST ware River Philadelphi Wilmington Dovers ewCastle Salem Camden R SEY Burlington Lattle Egg Har Shrewsbury OCEAN 40 The assignees were Quakers. Here, then, was an opportunity to establish another asylum for the persecuted, and to found a commonwealth of Friends. Penn and his associates at once applied to Sir George Carteret for a division of the province. That nobleman was both willing and anxious to enter into an arrangement by which his own half of the territory could be freed from all encumbrance. It was accordingly agreed to divide New Jersey so that Carteret's district should be separated MILES 10 LANTIC -80 -41 |