Proprietors of West Jersey to Governor Fletcher. [From N. Y. Col. Docts, Vol. III., p. 838.1 LONDON primo June 1692. SIR D' Coxe having sold us his interest in West Jersey and together with the land the hereditary government thereof; and understanding their Majesties have conferred upon you the governm1 of New Yorke: doe think ourselves obliged to congratulate y' accession to that honble imploy. and account ourselves happy in having soe good a neighbour whose prudence and integrity will we are perswaded secure us from apprehensions of those mean artifices [that] have been employed by preceeding Governors or their ministers to incroach upon our just right and legall privileges. Sir wee shall realye manifest our respects to your Excellency upon acc' of your personal virtues and pay all due reference to the carrecter their Majesties have given you, which all persons who have the hapiness to know you assure themselves and others you will worthily sustain. We have ordered all persons under our jvrisdiction to be assisting to you in promoting the com'on defence in case of general danger; which happening to be soe extraordinary as to call for your personal assistance into our Province, wee have given orders that during your stay there you have the chief co'mand of all our militia And as we believe all the North Continent in America under their Majesties most auspicious government will be benefitted by the happy influences of your good conduct in warr, and administration of justice in time of peace: so we promise ourselves in perticular as being your more immediate neighbours your friendly assistance and advice We are Sir your Excellency's most obedient sarvants ᎡᎢ ᎻᎪᏟᏦᏚᎻᎪᎳ MORD. ABBOTT W WIGHTMAN EDM. HARRISON JOHN TURIN DAN. COXE JAMES ST JOHN Indorsed. The copy of a letter from the Proprietors of West Jersey in America to Coll. Fletcher received at Deal the 7th June 1692. Recd from Coll. Fletcher from Deal 9 June 1692, with a letter wherein he says he had recd the original by the hands of the Govern' of New Jersey. Proprietors of East Jersey to the Board of Trade. [From N. Y. Col. Docts, Vol. III., p. 838.] THE PROPRIETORS OF EAST JERSEY having in obedience to your Lordships co'mand met and considered what force they can raise for defence of their Province and how far they can assist New Yorke in case of an invasion do humbly represent to your LoPPS That they have sent Instructions to the Governo' of their Province to raise the Militia forthwith, to take care that they have good arms and ammunition, to exercise them often, and to be always in a readiness to guard the sea coasts, and other places of the Province exposed to their enemies. That they will endeavour and have reco'mended it to the Generall Assembly and inhabitants of their Province, that in case New Yorke shall be invaded by the French, such part of the Militia of East Jersey shall be sent to the assistance of New Yorke as can be spared without exposing East Jersey to a descent of the French by sea, to which by its situation upon large navigable rivers, it lyes very open; but the said Governour and Proprietors, being advised by their Councell that they have no power by law to compell any of their Militia to march out of the Province of East Jersey: dare not engage for any certain Quota to assist New Yorke, lest they should be answerable for all the ill consequences that may attend the disappointment of such an undertaking. DAN. COXE By the Consent and Order of the other Proprietors [June 1692] Commission from the Members of the West Jersey Society in England, to Jeremiah Basse' as their Agent. [From West Jersey Records in Secretary of State's Office, Trenton, Liber. B p 301.] St Thomas Lane Knt Edward Harrison Esq and the Rest of the Com'ittee for the West New Jersey Society. To our Trusty and welbeloved Jeremiah Basse Gentleman. Greeting. We reposing especiall Trust and Confidence in the fidelity prudence knowledge and Provident Circum 1 What was the precise position held at this time by Mr. Basse is not known. Some years previously he had been an Anabaptist mininter. How long he remained in New Jersey after receiving this commission is uncertain, but on the 15th of July 1697, he being then in England, he was appointed Governor of both East and West New Jersey, but did not reach the Provinces until the Spring of 1698. Many of the leading mən, particularly in East Jersey, were opposed to Governor Jon Brake spection of you the said Jeremiah Basse have made constituted and ordained and by these p'esents doe make Constitute and ordaine you to be our Agent in West Jersey aforesaid To take up Lands there To inspect & direct ye selling & buying of our Goods and to Act observe & doe to the best of your power all such other matters as concerne your respective employm's as aforesaid And we doe hereby com'and you all our ffactors & Servants in West Jersey aforesaid to give you the said Jeremiah Basse due Respects as to our Agent doth appertaine. And you are to observe & followe all such orders & directions as you already have or hereafter shall from time to time receive from us or any ffive of us. In Witness whereof wee have caused our Common Seal to be hereunto affixed this fourth day of June Anno Domini 1692-And in the fourth yeare of the Reigne of our Sov'aigne Lord & Lady William & Mary by the Grace of God King & Queene of England Scotland ffrance & Ireland Defenders of the ffaith &c : LOCUS Thos: Lane John Jurin Rob: Michel Basse for various reasons; and, on the appointment of Andrew Hamilton, in 1699 he returned to England, and came not again to New Jersey until 1703, when he received the appointment of Secretary to Lord Cornbury and partook of the obloquy of his Lordship's administration. The House of Assembly, in 1710, openly accused him to Governor Hamilton of malversation in office, he then being not only Secretary of the Province, but also Clerk of the Council and Prothonotary of of the Supreme Court. In 1712, he became Surveyor of the Customs at Burlington. In 1716, he was elected a Representative from Cape May County, of which he was then a resident, and, in 1719, was Attorney General of the Province, indicating the possession of greater popularity. Succeeding documents exhibit very clearly his character and attainments, and his influence for good or ill in the administration of his official duties. His relations to the Baptists appear to have been given up, and during his residence in Burlington, he became much interested in St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Church. He died in 1725, leaving a widow, two daughters, (Katherine and Ann), and one son, Burchfield. Katherine married Robert Talbot, son of the Rev. John Talbot, the minister of the parish.-East Jersey Under the, Prop. Govts., 2d Edt.-Hill's History of the Church in Burlington.-Records of Governor and Council of East Jersey, 1682-1703. ED. Instructions to the Deputy Governor of West Jersey. [From the New Jersey Col. Docts., Vol. III, p 839.] Instructions from the Govern and Propriets of West Jersey to their Deputy Governour concerning the Militia of that Province1. WHEREAS the security of our said Province in this time of war depends next to the Providence of Almighty God upon a well regulated Militia and an union with the neighbour Colonies for their mutual defence against a common enemy in case of an invasion made upon any of them. 1 You are are therefore as soone as these Instructions arrive forthwith to raise the militia of our Province to take care they have good arms and ammunition, and to exercise them often, that they may be expert at the use of their arms, and be ready to march at your summons. 2 That when an invasion of any neighbour Colony shall require assistance from our Province, you shall take care to send a number of our militia proportionable to the assistance sent by any neighbour Colony, and to retain such number of our militia at home as may be sufficient to preserve our own Province in case of a descent made upon it by sea, to which by its scituation upon navigable rivers it lyes much exposed. 3 That when any part of our Militia march into a neighbour Province in case of any invasion you co'mand them yourself, or put them under the immediate command of some other Officers, inhabitants of West Jersey, subject to the Govern' of the Province Similar instructions, mutatis mutandis were given by the Proprietors of East Jersey to Colonel Andrew Hamilton, their Governor there.-J. R. Brodhead.] |