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<\/a>In 1835, the village was described in more detail:<\/p>\n
The VILLAGE OF CLINTON is situate on the great Turnpike Road leading from Easton to New Brunswick; the stage road from Belvidere to Trenton passes through it. Clinton is situate 17 miles from Easton, 28 from New Brunswick, 20 miles from Bound Brook on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and 10 from Flemington. The contemplated Elizabeth Town, Somerville and Belvidere Rail Road passes through it. \u2013 18 stages pass through Clinton weekly. \u2013 The Water Power at Clinton is surpassed by but few places in the state: the surrounding country is very fertile and pleasant, and the great natural advantages it possesses for trade must in time render it a place of consequence.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As described in the previous post (The Town of Clinton Is Born<\/a>), John W. Bray could see that this location was ripe for development, and used all his skills to talk Taylor into purchasing the tract. As part of his argument, he had a plan for financing this endeavor. Taylor wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cto raise funds to defray their expenses he [J. W. Bray] proposed indorsing the notes of the firm & getting them discounted at a bank, which as the money was to be laid out on my own property I readily consented to do. There commenced the system of indorsements and such was my confidence in him that at that time I kept no account of the number or amount of the notes indorsed.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019ve never been very good at understanding the system of promissory notes that was used in the early 19th<\/span>\u00a0century, but it appears to me that Bray was having Taylor sign over to the banks and other creditors notes for moneys loaned by A. S. Taylor to Bray & Taylor, in exchange for an amount of cash that was less than the value of the notes. What a mistake! (If someone can come up with a better explanation, please add it to the comments section.)<\/p>\n
When A. S. Taylor referred to \u201cthe firm,\u201d he meant the partnership of his son John B. Taylor with John W. Bray. Back in 1828 when Bray was persuading A. S. Taylor to invest in the Clinton property, he also persuaded him to advance John B. Taylor the sum of $3,800, to purchase half of J. W. Bray\u2019s \u2018stock of goods,\u2019 which would allow Bray to take John B. Taylor in as a partner. The elder Taylor later wrote that the money \u201cwent into the firm and has been dissipated.\u201d And somehow it was A. S. Taylor who was made liable for the debts of \u201cthe firm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, John W. Bray appeared to be prospering and was very active in politics and civic affairs. In 1830, John W. Bray was chosen to serve on the Lebanon Twp. school committee and to be Commissioner of Deeds. And in 1831, he was named to a committee to promote the creation of a Hunterdon County Railroad.<\/p>\n
The earliest mention of him I found in the Hunterdon Gazette was the edition of July 14, 1825, when the 37-year-old Bray raised a toast for the Fourth of July dinner held in Lebanon Township. The editor wrote that \u201cThis toast was unfortunately mislaid\u2014is believed the scope of it was as follows: the State of New Jersey \u201cmay her natural advantages, of water Powers, &c. &c. render her to the U. States, what the great manufacturing towns Birmingham and Manchester are to great Britain.\u201d The paper identified him as John W. Bray, Esq., even though he was not a practicing attorney.<\/p>\n
His toast shows clearly that his interests were with those merchants and businessmen who subscribed to the \u201cAmerican System\u201d of John Q. Adams and Henry Clay. But in politics, Bray was a supporter of Andrew Jackson. That changed after Jackson was elected in 1828. On September 3, 1832, the Hunterdon branch of the National Republicans, forerunners of the Whig political party, held their convention in Flemington, at which they nominated their ticket for Council\u2014Oliver W. Ogden; and for Assembly\u2014David Johnson, William Roscoe, John Burlen, Leonard Bowman, and John W. Bray.3<\/a><\/sup> Only one of these candidates merited notice:<\/p>\n
\nCol. Bray is in extensive business at Clinton, a flourishing manufacturing village in this county, and has heretofore been a Jacksonman of influence and activity, but the late measures of the government have induced him to secede from the party, in company with his neighbor and friend, the President of the last Jackson State Convention, and many others in this and other parts of the State. Our friends are much encouraged with the prospect of success.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Instead of Esq., he was now \u201cCol.\u201d Bray, a title he earned from his service in the Hunterdon Militia. That \u201cneighbor and friend\u201d was Asa C. Dunham, who was secretary of the Jackson Convention in 1829, and in 1832 \u201cPresident of the last Convention.\u201d In 1831, Dunham and Bray were participants in a meeting called to organize a petition to the legislature to create a new railroad to run from Clinton to Somerville; Dunham was chair of the meeting and Bray was secretary. Bray was a railroad enthusiast. In 1833, he joined with Nathaniel Saxton, Garret D. Wall, Oliver W. Ogden, John Kinney, Jr. and Thomas Salter to promote the creation of the \u201cNorth Western Rail Road,\u201d and to sell stock in the new company.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
Despite the town\u2019s attractiveness, prosperity proved to be as elusive for Bray & Taylor as it had been for David McKinney and Daniel and Ralph Hunt, the original merchants of Hunt\u2019s Mills. After four years had passed, Taylor became desirous to know what his debts amounted to. Bray reassured him that everything was fine, but Taylor began to have his doubts when banks began communicating with him.<\/p>\n
Taylor wrote in his memorandum that he did not know how his money had been spent, for \u201calthough I lived but four miles from him [at Solitude House in High Bridge] I have never been on the property [Clinton] but once \u201cwhen passing through it, \u201con the occasion of a funeral.\u201d As an example of what was going on, Bray had built a second store house in town, representing to Taylor that it would cost $1,000. But the days of cost overruns had already begun, and the store ended up costing $4,000, according to Taylor. J. W. Bray claimed the building was worth $5,000, but when it was sold on behalf of Taylor\u2019s creditors, it only brought in $2,080.<\/p>\n
Taylor wrote that back in 1828, when Bray persuaded him to set up his son John B. Taylor in a partnership with Bray, it was for the benefit of the family. Taylor and Bray were brothers-in-law. The family connection was strengthened on March 29, 1830, when Archibald Taylor\u2019s son John Bray Taylor married John W. Bray\u2019s daughter Susan Adeline Bray.5<\/a><\/sup> But after Taylor became suspicious about Bray\u2019s dealings, he concluded \u201cthat in all this apparent anxiety for my interest [and] in the interest of my family there was deep design on his part.\u201d As Taylor wrote in 1835:<\/p>\n
\nI had known him [John W. Bray] for many years before leasing him the Clinton property and had been led to consider him a man of integrity and honor. This with his apparent capacity for business the nearness of our family connexion & his [illegible] profesion of friendship gained him my entire confidence and esteem, and he acquired almost unlimited influence over me From this period I date the gradual decay & final ruin of my Estate. It began with the purchase of the Clinton property.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In 1830, Bray & Taylor sold their store business to a partnership consisting of Taylor\u2019s other son, George W. Taylor, and his soon-to-be son-in-law James R. Dunham. (Dunham married Taylor\u2019s daughter, Sarah Ann Taylor, in 1833.) In 1834, Bray & Taylor \u201cabandoned the mill business\u201d to Dunham & Taylor.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
Several times Archibald Taylor asked Bray for an accurate accounting of their liabilities. Bray was always very reassuring and optimistic, but never gave Taylor an actual report. By 1832 the cost of improvements to the Clinton property made by Bray & Taylor came to $18,800. Yet Taylor was still not suspicious. He trustingly paid the bills and did not ask for any vouchers or receipts.<\/p>\n
After giving my own bond & mortgage to the Easton Bank & taking up their paper to the amount of $18,800 for these improvements which I considered my own debt & which form no part of the claims above stated I found I was yet liable for J. W. Bray to the Easton bank on other paper to the amount of $3000 & for other [illegible] at other places. A few months afterwards I required of him a statement of my liabilities for them. He enumerated to me various sums due at the Easton Bank, the bank in New Brunswick and I think a small note or two in the Bank in New York & the debts due to Elizabeth Johnson, Clement Bonnell, Anderson Johnes and the Estate of William Johnson making an aggregate amount at that time of\u00a0about $10,000 and gave me his word that these confirmed all my liabilities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gradually Taylor became aware of even more debts outstanding.<\/p>\n
\nAbout two years prior to the failure of Bray & Taylor I began to keep a memorandum of notes signed or indorsed for them but even then did not alert me as by the artful management of J. W. Bray of the notes got for renewals my liabilities were increased.<\/p>\n
Upon my remonstrating with him [Bray] for his want of candor he excused himself with the upmost coolness and reiterated the assurances that now I was acquainted with all my liabilities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n