Bonnell, Saxton & The Vote in 1807

County House, Part Two, Chapter 11. It is 1807. Alexander Bonnell has been owner of the County Tavern in Flemington for ten years. In that time, he has rebuilt his tavern, his stables and sheds after the devastating tornado of 1804, and he has made his tavern the go-to location for leaders of the Jeffersonian Republicans of Hunterdon County.

It was probably sometime before 1807 that Bonnell put up his sign for the County tavern. His license for that year stated that he ran the “County Tavern” at Flemington.

Bonnell was a person of stature in Flemington in 1807. He was often named to make inventories of estates and witnessed wills.

But trouble is brewing.

The War of 1812 looms on the horizon. The newspapers are regularly filled with reports of British outrages against American ships at sea and on the western (i.e., Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York) frontier. There is much talk in the newspapers of the “impending war,” and newspaper editors proclaim, “Not a Cent for Tribute.”

Despite these ominous signs, Bonnell was buying up properties next to his tavern and creating smaller lots out of his 5-acre tavern lot. Proximity to the courthouse made Bonnell’s property very attractive for a couple of prominent attorneys: Nathaniel Saxton and Samuel L. Southard.

Bonnell’s real estate

In February 1807, Bonnell bought a 3-acre woodlot for $150 from Isaac & Margarette Hill bordering Matthias Smith and the road to Flemington. (Smith’s property was mentioned in Chapter 9, Howell’s Ferry Road.) And in March 1807, he bought a tract of 32.17 acres on the northwest side of Flemington from Samuel Taylor, property that had been sold to Taylor by Thomas & Esther Lowrey in 1802. In April 1807, Bonnell and wife Catharine sold part of the land bought from Barnet Crise in 1797, a lot of 7.2 acres, to William French for $40; also, a 2-acre lot out of the same property to Paul Cool.¹

Another property purchased by Alexander Bonnell in 1807 was a tract of 43 acres for which Bonnell paid $2,267.27 to John & Mary Phillips of Maidenhead.²

It was the remainder of the Phillips tract (as described in Chapter Ten). This property was on the west side of the old Howell’s Ferry Road, bordering Bonnell’s tavern lot, and included what is known today as “Fleming Castle” on Bonnell Street. Judging by the price, there were some valuable improvements on this property—undoubtedly the old house and its outbuildings.

Dennis Bertland, in his report titled “Fleming Castle,” wrote that

He [Bonnell] probably purchased the two lots subdivided from the Stockton farm as an investment, as well as to provide hay and pasture for his tavern and own use. Record of Bonnell’s yearly sale of several hundred pounds of beef to Flemington resident Asher Atkinson between 1811 and 1816 suggests that he was raising cattle on his Flemington land or perhaps received beef as part of a rental agreement with a farmer.³

Bonnell’s final real estate transaction in 1807 was on July 23^rd, when he sold to Joseph Gray of Amwell for $170.80 a part of the Taylor property that he had purchased the previous March.⁴

Politics in 1807

In the early 1800s, the Hunterdon Republicans were regularly meeting at Bonnell’s tavern in Flemington for their nominating conventions. But not in September 1806. That year was again as crowded as 1803 was, when over 300 people showed up and the meeting had to be moved to the courthouse.

The next year, The True American of September 14, 1807 described the Republican meeting as taking place in Flemington on September 5th but did not specify whether it was at Bonnell’s tavern or at the courthouse. Its resolutions were not very specific, other than to support “the present Administration of the General Government,” i.e., the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Candidates for Council, Assembly, Sheriff and Coroners were chosen. There was no complaint about how the campaigns were conducted.

When “the 31^st anniversary of American Independence” was celebrated in Flemington on July 4, 1807,

“The Declaration was read by George C. Maxwell, Esq. . . . at two o’clock a numerous company sat down to an elegant dinner at Mr Alexander Bonnell’s, Col. Nathan Price being chosen President and Capt. William Geary Vice President.”⁵

Seventeen toasts were given including two that presaged the coming War of 1812:

No. 12. May that spirit of just indignation excited by the cowardly and deliberate murder of our fellow citizens on board the Chesapeake, by the savage tyranny of the faithless British ships of war, in the mouth of our own harbours, continue to burn in the heart of every American, until our government have obtained redress or avenged the bloody deed. –3 cheers.

No. 13. The state of Ohio, by the energy displayed in giving a mortal blow to Burr’s conspiracy, has done honor to herself, and deserves the gratitude of every faithful citizen.

And one that recognized the support that women gave to the success of the Revolution:

No. 17. The fair daughters of Columbia; inspired by them, her warriors are invincible. —3 cheers.

Between the election of 1802 and 1807, there was growing anger by both Federalists and Republicans over how voters were being recruited, especially when either of the parties feared it might be losing the vote.

I have written about the election of 1802, and how James J. Wilson, owner of The True American, published complaints about how the Federalists got extra voters by:

collecting votes in the street, receiving votes by proxy, and taking the votes of Aliens, of persons under age, of non-residents, of married women, of paupers supported by the town, of blacks not possessing the property required by law, and of actual slaves;⁶

The results of the 1807 were published in The True American on Oct 26, 1807, and Republicans once again captured the Assembly, the Council and the Governorship. The editor concluded:

The foregoing statement may be relied on as correct, being taken from an official copy. It proves, what we have often asserted, that the county of Hunterdon is decidedly Republican—the whole Republican Ticket, for Council and Assembly, Sheriff and Coroners, being elected by a weighty majority.⁷

The Election Bill

Once the Republican majority in the Legislature was established, they set to work fixing a problem that did not need fixing. On November 10^th, 1807, the Assembly was presented with a “list of business referred or remaining unfinished at the last sitting.” It included:

5. A bill supplementary to the act to regulate the election of members of the legislative council, and general assembly, &c.”

This proposed legislation was referred to as “The Election Bill.” Its official name was “A Supplement to the act entitled ‘An act to regulate the election of members of the legislative council and general assembly, sheriff and coroners in this state,’ passed at Trenton, the twenty-second day of February one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven.” It was designed to explicitly limit who was allowed to vote, unlike the original New Jersey Constitution of 1776, which reads:

That all Inhabitants [my emphasis] of this Colony of full Age, who are worth Fifty Pounds proclamation Money clear Estate in the same, & have resided within the County in which they claim a Vote for twelve Months immediately preceding the Election, shall be entitled to vote for Representatives in Council & Assembly; and also for all other publick Officers that shall be elected by the People of the County at Large.

New Jersey declared independence from Great Britain and adopted a Constitution on July 2, 1776. Two days later, the Colonies jointly declared independence.

New Jersey’s 1776 Constitution was remarkable, as it was the only one of the new States (former colonies) to give the suffrage to “all Inhabitants” owning property, not just the white males. As Matthew Wills wrote, “Other state constitutions drafted between 1776 and 1777 specified voters as “male person,” “male inhabitant,” “man,” “freeman,” “white male inhabitants,” and “free white man.””⁸

When I first learned that women could vote in New Jersey during the last years of the 18^th century, I, like many others, thought that the authors of the 1776 NJ Constitution were simply assuming that  “all Inhabitants” referred to white males, that it was taken for granted that it did not include women and people of color.

However, it is likely that the wording was intended to include all persons owning property.

While New Jersey was drafting its Constitution, a British invasion of the colony seemed likely. Declaring independence from Great Britain was a daring move. The support of all its residents, every able-bodied person was needed to defend the state from the invading British army.

By asking so much of New Jersey residents, including its women, the representatives to the Provincial Congress felt those residents were owed something in return. The argument made was that all people who owned property and resided in a colony that was to become a state deserved the right to vote in elections.

There is no document that explicitly supports that theory. But a lot of newspapers at the time praised the efforts of women who supported the local militias and the Continental Army, as well as helped to undermine the invading British army.⁹

Researchers wanted to find out if women really did vote in New Jersey. They have scoured archival documents of every sort looking for evidence that women actually voted before 1807, and they managed to find proof of that in voter lists from five counties. Only five, and none of them was Hunterdon County. Somewhere out there, there might be a record of voters from one of Hunterdon’s townships, but as yet it has not been found.¹⁰

I think it likely that Hunterdon County women voted in state-wide elections before 1807, and would not be surprised to learn that Catharine Mattison Bonnell (Alexander’s wife) was one of those who did.

When it came time for the New Jersey Legislature to consider ‘The Election Law,’ one person stood up to defend it. He was one of the members of a committee named to incorporate amendments and report out a final version, Dr. Lewis Condict of Morris County. On November 23^rd, The True American took the unusual step of publishing its version of Dr. Condict’s entire speech. He declared that:

. . . no man could suppose the framers of the constitution intended under the term “all inhabitants” to include married women, negro slaves, and aliens of every description, as entitled to the right of suffrage. Such a supposition would be an absurdity—would be an impeachment of their understandings, and a perversion of reason. [my emphasis]¹¹

Clearly Dr. Condict subscribed to the theory held by many historians thereafter about the intentions of the framers. The crux of the matter, as far as Dr. Condict was concerned, was the phrase “all inhabitants.” He claimed:

The term “all inhabitants” cannot be admitted in its utmost latitude. It must have some limits. Unrestricted, it would include

1^st Free white males            married & single
2d Free white females       married & single
3d Free male blacks            married & single
4^th Free female blacks        married & single
5^th Negro slaves, male and female, married and single
6^th Aliens, male and female, married and single, black or white, bond or free.

This list was meant to horrify his audience. On November 24, 1807, The Sentinel [sic] of Freedom, Newark, reported that the law passed the House 31 to 5, “and was carried to council,” where a small amendment was made. The House agreed to it and on January 3, 1808, it became law. (The full text of the Election Law was printed in full in The True American on December 14, 1807.)

From then on, more than half of the electorate, women, blacks and aliens, stayed home on election day, until the time came for “all Inhabitants” to regain their rights to citizenship. For women, that did not happen until August 18, 1920, when the last state necessary to ratify the 19^th amendment, Tennessee, voted yes.

1808, Nathaniel Saxton

Returning to tavernkeeper Alexander Bonnell, he bought and sold many more properties after 1807, but there were two in particular that came out of his old tavern lot: one to Nathaniel Saxton in 1808 and another to Samuel L. Southard in 1812. (Southard will appear in Chapter 12 of this series.)

I have written about Nathaniel Saxton many times previously, but always with a focus on his property at Raven Rock, which he named “Saxtonville.” There he invested in land, a mill, a tavern house as well as a woolen manufactory in Bucks Co.¹²

My focus here will be on Saxton’s connection with Flemington, and more particularly, the property he acquired from Alexander and Catharine Bonnell in 1808.

But first a look at how Saxton came to Flemington:

Nathaniel (Natty) Saxton was born in Hopewell Township on December 30, 1777, in the midst of the Revolution, to Charles Saxton and Elizabeth Pelton. In 1792, the Saxton family moved to Shamokin Twp., PA. In 1795, when Nathaniel was 18, he chose to return to New Jersey and study law in Flemington under the tutelage of Lucius W. Stockton, Esq., himself a young man who had just become clerk to the Hunterdon Board of Freeholders.¹³

While studying law, Saxton served as Stockton’s deputy clerk, a position that gave him the opportunity to become acquainted with other lawyers and also with surveyors, an occupation Saxton added to his legal profession. James P. Snell, in his History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, described Saxton this way:

Nathaniel Saxton . . . appears to have been an indefatigable student and worker, for he not only served for years as a deputy in the county clerk’s office of Hunterdon, but at the same time studied and practiced surveying, and as a student entered upon the legal profession.¹⁴

When Peter I. Clark delivered Saxton’s eulogy to the opening of the Hunterdon Circuit Court in 1850, a committee was named to draft the sense of the court with several resolutions, among them:

He [Saxton] commenced the study of the law in this County, about the year 1795, with Lucius W. Stockton, Esq., who was at that time Clerk of the County. He continued with him during the term of his Clerkship, when the office was bestowed upon the late Ralph Hunt, Esq., during whose term the entire work and duties of the office were discharged by him [Saxton].¹⁵

Ralph Hunt’s term as County Clerk ran from 1805 to 1809.

Saxton was admitted to the Bar in 1804. By 1805, he had also established himself as a surveyor, managing to get several prominent Flemington residents to subscribe to a proposed road survey, as described in my previous article, Politics, A Storm & A Sign.

In 1808, Saxton was admitted as a Counselor at Law, which permitted him to appear before the NJ Supreme Court and the Chancery Court as well as the Court of Common Pleas.

The Flemington Lot

Saxton purchased a property from Alexander & Catherine Bonnell on August 20, 1808, located adjacent to the courthouse. It was a lot of 5 acres for which he paid $400. Part of this lot was taken out of the original tavern lot of 6.25 acres, and the rest was taken from land purchased by Bonnell from John & Mary Phillips (as described in Chapter Ten). It bordered the courthouse “or prison yard” and the road to Howell’s Ferry.¹⁶

On November 5, 1808, Saxton mortgaged the 5 acres in Flemington plus an 8-acre lot in Kingwood to David Johnes for $500.¹⁷

This was the second time Saxton had mortgaged property to David Johnes. In 1806, he mortgaged land along the South Branch of the Raritan River to Johnes for $600. That property was only 3.5 acres, but contained a grist mill, saw mill and fulling mill that Saxton had purchased in 1804, well before turning his attention to Bull’s Island.¹⁸

The next year (1809), Saxton advertised the Kingwood lot for sale, along with six one-acre lots in Flemington, “near the Baptist Meeting House, Flemington, on the road leading to New Brunswick.”¹⁹

These lots must have been located on or near Church Street. But they were never purchased by Saxton. Perhaps he was advertising them on someone else’s behalf. He also advertised a 25-acre tract with a house on it and an adjoining 45-acre tract, the two being “well calculated for grass, a considerable part now in with clover and timothy, and are about half a mile distant from the Court House.”

I have been wondering where Saxton was living during these early years in Flemington. Deeds do not answer that question, leading me to think that Saxton might have been renting a room with someone else, perhaps with Alexander Bonnell, given that Bonnell had sold him that 5-acre lot next to the courthouse.

On April 10, 1810, he mortgaged four lots, again to David Johnes, for $500, including again the 5-acre lot in Flemington and the 8 acres in Kingwood. Other lots were the 45 acres he had advertised in 1809, plus 15 acres along Bull’s Creek, at Raven Rock.²⁰

In May 1811, Saxton sold the 5-acre lot he had purchased from the Bonnells, along with an 18+ acre lot he had purchased from the estate of Samuel Yard, dec’d in January 1808, to Neal Hart of Flemington for $1,450. Hart was the owner of today’s Union Hotel.²¹

The five-acre lot was described as bordering the Court house or Prison Yard, land of William & John Maxwell, the road leading to Howell’s ferry, and land of Alexander Bonnell.

In Sept 1811, Saxton bought a 1.05-acre lot located across the street from the Surrogate’s office and in December 1811 sold it to Neal Hart, bordering other property Saxton had already sold to Hart.²²

This sample of properties bought and sold by Nathaniel Saxton demonstrates his lifelong inclination to invest in real estate. During the years 1807-1810, Saxton bought and sold 20 properties. In 1811, six more properties were recorded for him.

In his book, Reminiscences of the Bench and the Bar, Lucius Q. C. Elmer wrote of Nathaniel Saxton:

Although not brilliant as an advocate, he was noted as a sound, reasoning counselor. He was far more successful in the legal arena than he was in his own private affairs; continually buying and accumulating property, he seldom sold. He was in his later years much embarrassed thereby . . .

By 1811 Saxton was spending his time at Saxtonville. Based on properties Saxton bought and sold, it appears that it was not until 1824 that Saxton returned to Flemington.

*                 *                 *

Chapter 12 will concern the next significant person to purchase a property carved out of the old tavern lot: Samuel L. Southard.