The Burlington Court Book is full of fascinating cases that shed light on what life was like in early West New Jersey. One of those cases (pp. 75-80) jumped out at me, because it involves the daughter of one of the first proprietors to purchase tracts in Hunterdon County.
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.
When Daniel Coxe began investing in land in the English colonies, he hired explorers and corresponded with them eagerly. He also corresponded with colonial governors and with the principle Indian traders. This activity became more focused in the years after he sold his proprietorship of West New Jersey. It would be fascinating to read these letters; I assume they are tucked away somewhere in England.
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.”
What follows is a list of the more commonly used sources for Hunterdon history and genealogy. This is in addition to archival material to be found in the Hunterdon County Clerk’s Office and the Hunterdon Surrogate’s Court.
Many of these books and pamphlets are out of print and can only be found in libraries. You might find some of them on Google Books, but so far very few have gone online. Some of the Hunterdon sources can be purchased from the Hunterdon County Historical Society. The Hunterdon County Library has a very good list of sources. Use the link to the Library.
If the boy has ever lovingly watched the operation of one of the original sawmills, the old man’s memory will often go fondly back to those boyhood days. Whether they were or were not “the good old days” of which we hear so much, makes no difference at all. They were the days in which sawmills along country roads were almost as common as filling stations are today. And how much more interesting they were, and how much sweeter smelling!
published in The Bridge in 2002
Egbert T. Bush, who wrote many articles on Hunterdon history, wrote in 1929 that at one time, “sawmills along country roads were almost as common as filling stations.”
What a mystery these things are. Whilst looking for something else, I came across this explanation, given by Chief Justice Andrew Kirkpatrick for how they work. See if it makes sense to you:
“The Proprietors of New Jersey are tenants in common of the soil. Their mode of securing the common right is by issuing warrants from time to time to the respective Proprietors, according to their respective and several rights, authorizing them to survey and appropriate in severalty the quantities therein contained. Such warrant does not convey a title to the Proprietor; he had that before. It only authorizes him to sever so much from the common stock, and operates as a release to testify such severance. This is manifestly the case when the Proprietor locates for himself. When, instead of locating for himself, he sells his warrant to another, that other becomes a tenant in common with all the Proprietors pro tanto, and in the same manner he proceeds to convert his common into a several right. It is true that the survey made in pursuance of this warrant must be inspected by the Surveyor-General, approved by the Board, and registered in their books; but all this is for the sake of security, order and regularity only, and is by no means the passing of the title. It proves that the title has passed, but it is not the means of passing it.”
