Coxe and His Whale Fisheries
One of the subjects Daniel Coxe was particularly interested in was the whaling industry. This interest may have been sparked twenty-two years before he became governor.
Burlington County
West New Jersey, 1688
The Courts Carry On
After a long digression to write about the life of Dr. Daniel Coxe before he became governor of West New Jersey in 1687, I am returning to my chronology to study the events of 1688 et seq., beginning with the Burlington Court session of February 1688, in which the list of those present began with “Daniell Coxe Esq. Governour.”
West New Jersey, 1686
Straws in the Wind
In 1686, there were a few events that boded ill for West New Jersey.
The Declaration of Indulgence, which James II issued in March (or April), was James’ attempt to get the Protestant English accustomed to having Catholics and dissident Protestants more visible in daily life. It granted amnesty to those imprisoned under laws against the practice of these religions. Following this, James granted many commissions to Catholics in the army. Seems like a good thing, but it was also a good example of how James misread his subjects, who truly feared that a strong Catholic sovereign like James might turn their country into an appendage of Catholic France.
West New Jersey, 1685
The New King
On February 2, 1684, Charles II, only 54 years old, suffered a stroke. Perhaps he might have survived it, but given the medical practices of the day, he was doomed to die, which he did four days later. His brother James was now King of England.
West New Jersey – 1683
Edward Byllinge As West New Jersey’s First Governor
Just to review, in 1680, James Duke of York, with prodding from William Penn, agreed to confirm the 1664 grant of West New Jersey to John Lord Berkeley. This, along with a special deed, confirmed the grant to Edward Byllinge, Berkeley’s successor. Byllinge thereby claimed the governorship of the colony, even though there was no provision for the position of Governor in the Concessions & Agreements.1
West New Jersey, 1682
The Irish Tenth
During the winter, the Irish Quakers who had arrived at West New Jersey in September 1681, were given shelter in Salem. When spring 1682 arrived, they set to work building their own settlement. The location they chose was a site opposite what would soon be Philadelphia. They laid out their own Tenth, running from Timber Creek to Pennsauken Creek, and established a town center called Newton. The original site of Newton was in the present-day city of Camden.
Life in West New Jersey, 1680
This post is another side trip in my journey through Hunterdon history by way of Samuel Green. While looking through the Delaware Papers by Charles T. Gehring, I happened upon some interesting items dating to 1680.
West New Jersey in 1681
Well, it looks as if I can’t get more than one year’s worth of information in a single post. Can’t help it—the times were just too interesting.
Edmund Andros
In January 1680/81, Gov. Andros, who had been carrying out the wishes of his patron, James Duke of York, was recalled to England to answer charges of financial corruption. His heavy-handed tactics, especially in East New Jersey, had made him a liability to James, who was having problems of his own. Andros returned home in May 1681, but instead of imprisonment, he was knighted, after the charges were dropped in December 1681.
West New Jersey – 1680
Who Governs?
While Mahlon Stacy was enjoying the fruitful new land he and his fellow Quakers had settled in, a time bomb was ticking, set off by a poorly spelled letter written in Sept. 1679 by the Attorney General in England, Sir John Werden,1, which concluded with this: Quaere?
Postscript to WNJ
Sorry for the delay. Got waylaid by a virus.
I was thinking about that cold winter when the ‘Shield’ arrived in the Delaware River and the passengers walked to land over ice, and then, thinking about how Mahlon Stacy wrote about the bountiful life in the Yorkshire Tenth. It was a little surprising that he did not mention the chilly weather. Of course, Stacy intended his letter to be reread to English Quakers who were debating whether or not to make the trip to America, so he put the best face of things.