So, here is the item that caught my attention. It was dated April 12, 1680 and was a petition by the residents of Crewcorne to the Governor (who was still Edmund Andros) for relief. Here is the text, with all its wonderful spelling aberrations, and blanks from illegibility:<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the Worthy Governor of new York
\nWhereas wee the Inhabitants of the new seated Towne nere the falls of Delloware (called Crewcorne) findeing our selves agreived by the Indians when drunck, Insomuch that we be and have been in great danger of our Lives, of houses burning of our goods Stealeing and of our Wives and children a Frighting, Insomuch that wee are affeared to go about our Lawfull occasions, least when wee come home we [. . .] finde them and our concernes damnifyed. These things considered we doe humbly and Jointly desire that the selling [. . .] and other strong liquors to the Indians may be wholly suppressed which if done we shall live peaceable.
\n[signed] Willi Biles, Rich Regway, Samuel Field, John Akarman, Robt [Lucas], Robt Scholey, Tho: Scholey, Danial Brinson, William Cooper, George Browne.
\n\u201cMr. Gilbert Wheelers house broake open by Indians and Peter Aldrix Mans house on The Island and another hou[s] [signed] Gilbert Wheeler
\n\u201cHoskins drowned
\n\u201cEstate att Burlington\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is well known that Indians had no tolerance for alcohol, which was provided to them by the English. This petition does tell us something of the difficulties these early settlers were confronting and their uneasiness with living so close to a people they understood so poorly. However, their only complaint about the Indians seems to be their behavior when drunk. Otherwise, things were \u201cpeaceable.\u201d<\/p>\n
On May 17, 1680, William Biles, the constable of Crewcorne, sent a note to Gov. Andros stating that according to the warrant that Gov. Andros issued on April 20th, he summoned Gilbert Wheeler and Barnet Keerce to appear before the Governor in New York. (I do not have information on what Gov. Andros decided, but I expect he fined Wheeler and Keerce.) William Biles also had the residents gather to choose some commissioners, presumably to provide some sort of local government. Those commissioners were George Browne, Robert Scooly [sic], Robert Lucas, and Samuel Field [sic]. Biles reported that things had been quiet since April and \u201cthe people heare are very well satisfied with what thee hath done in order to Keepe them quiet.\u201d I suspect that Biles was appointed constable by Gov. Andros, and his order to have residents chose commissioners probably also came from Andros.<\/p>\n
The quiet that Biles boasted of did not last. On September 13, 1680, the residents again complained \u201cunwillingly\u201d to the Governor about the sale of liquor to the Indians, but this time they complained explicitly about Gilbert Wheeler, who would \u201cnot be restrained from selling of strong liquor to the Indians.\u201d And it is Wheeler I am interested in because he was one of the earliest to purchase land in what became Delaware Township, Hunterdon County. The Crewcorne residents complained that he<\/p>\n
\u201centertains the Indians at his house by great numbers, and sells it [liquor] to them by both great and small measures, which sometimes they carry a little distance from his house and makes them selves drunck with it, Then they revill and fight together, and then they com furiously and break our fences and steales our corne, and breaks our windows and dores and carryes away our goods, and worryed 3 of our chatle [cattle] in one day with their dogs, which oppression if it continue will force some of us from our Plantations, we being very weake at the present for resistance and ignorant of their Lingo whereby we can not appease them when they are mad with drinck.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
McNealy wrote that Wheeler, a London fruit merchant, was the first person to set up a ferry across the Delaware, and also a tavern for the travelers\u2019 comfort. It was probably from this tavern that Indians got access to liquor.<\/p>\n
Gilbert Wheeler of London arrived in New Jersey in 1679 aboard the Jacob and Mary, with his wife Martha and children William, Brian and Martha. He also brought servants Charles Thompson, Robert Benson, and Katharine Knight. Although he had property in Bucks County, PA, he also had proprietary shares in West New Jersey, as he was one of the proprietors who conveyed acreage to Thomas Budd in 1687.<\/p>\n
The petitioners of 1680 asked that the sale of liquor to Indians be \u201cwholly suppressed amongst us.\u201d They were a little frustrated because William Biles had given them all sorts of reassurances after their first petition, but it turned out that he too was interested in selling liquor to Indians. It must have been a fairly lucrative business to make these men willing to endure the anger of their neighbors and the destruction of property that resulted.<\/p>\n
A question I cannot answer with certainty at this time is what the Indians paid for their liquor. It must have been something like corn or some other product they could offer, like furs.<\/p>\n
As for Gilbert Wheeler, he did not mend his ways. At the Burlington Court in August 1682 (pg. 9), Gov. Jennings and the Commissioners heard the case of Gilbert Wheeler defendant for selling Rum etc. He was found guilty and fined \u00a35.<\/p>\n
In 1688, Wheeler appeared again in Burlington Court charged in an \u201cAction of Trover\u201d * but a case could not be made against him and was dismissed.