. a Deputy Gov'no' under you to serve in the said Prov ince during yo' necessary absence & no longer. Given in · London under our hands and the Publick Seale of the Province of West New Jersey this Nineteenth day of August Anno Dom: 1699 And in the Eleaventh yeare of the Reign of our Sov'eigne Lord William the Third by ye Grace of God King of England Scotland ffrance & Ireland defend' of the ffaith &c. Lords of Trade to the Earl of Bellomont on New Jersey Matters. [From New York Col. Docts., Vol. IV, p. 546.] To the Right Honourable the Earl of Bellomont Captain Generall & Governor in Cheif &c. Or to the Commander in Cheif of Majesty's Province of New Yorke, for the time being. My Lord * * * * [Extract.] We told you in our letter of the 5th of January last the reason of our suspending awhile any report about the Propietors of East New Jersey's pretended right to a port at Perth Amboy; and shall now explain to you a little more fully how that matter stands. The Proprietors of that Province thinking it seems they might have some advantage by complain ing of your Lordship's seizure of the Ship Hester, petitioned his Majesty upon that subject, which petition of theirs being read in Council of the 9th of March last was by his Majesty referred unto our consideration; and we therefore send you here enclosed a copy of it with the Order of Council thereupon. Whilst we had that matter under consideration, those Proprietors laid before us also other memorials in which they offered some conditions, in order to compromise the dispute; but such as we did no ways think it for his Majesty's service to accept of. And therefore upon the 18th of April last we laid before his Majesty another Representation upon that subject. By that you will perceive the use we made of their proposal of a tryal about the Port of Perth Amboy, by bringing their right of gov ernment in to the same question: a matter in which they are very tender, as being sensible of the weakness of their title. And we therefore thought it best to joyn both together. Thereupon after long delays and after haveing in vain indeavoured in the name of the Proprietors of West New Jersey (who are for the most part the same persons) to draw us into a snare by desiring our opinions for the approbation of M' Hamilton to be Governor of West New Jersey, that so allowance of the one, might have been an argument for the other because their title to both is one and the same; they have in the end laid before us certain proposalls for the surrender of East New Jersey upon certain conditions. But we have not yet thorowly considered the same. However there appearing to us several obvious exceptions against what they propose, and great difficulties in settling the matter to their satisfaction and without prejudice to his Majesty's right and to the interest of the Province of New Yorke; we are apt to think that business may hang yet some time longer in suspence. And therefore we send you here inclosed the copy of their said proposalls and desire your observations there upon, how far any of them will be advantageous or disadvantageous to the Province of New Yorke. But in the meanwhile we can offer to your Lordship no other rule for your conduct towards those Provinces both of East and West New Jersey than what his Majesty has already given you. In your letter of the first of July 1698 beginning with the dispute you had with M Bass about the Jerseys, you mention two pirates sent for from thence, which for want of proof against them you had admitted to bail; and two others that you had sent for from Connecticut and Rhode Island; upon which you desire directions what to doe with them, and more particularly whether to send them or others in the like case to England or no, especially when you have not evidence there sufficient to convict them. This we have in part answered already by our letter of the 25th of October last, and we now further add that we can conceive nothing more proper to be done in order to their conviction, than by threats and promises to some that are apparently guilty, to induce them to give evidence against their accomplices. But as for sending or not sending them home (upon which we cannot of ourselves make any determination) we expect shortly some order of the Lords Justices in Council upon a Representation that we laid before them the 10th of this month on occasion of some pirates set on shoare in Pennsylvania and West New Jersey by a New York ship called the Nassau, commanded by one Shelly; which business we hope will in the end produce some regulation for the conduct of all his Majesty's Governors in the Plantations in the like cases * * * * Your Lordships most humble servants Whitehall Signed August the 21st 1699. PH: MEADOWS Account of the Inhabitants of West Jersey in 1699 [From P. R. O. B. T., New Jersey Vol. 1, B 7.] Account of the Inhabitants of West New Jersey, Presented to the as taken in the Year 1699. Board by M Dockwra. Daniel Leeds in his Almanack for the Year 1701, in the Page of Nov gives the following acc! In Sep 1699. The Freeholders in West Jersey were computed as follows NOTE. The Quakers are more numerous in Burlington County than all the other Countys. Salem County has two to one for Gloster and 58 over Tho the Quakers will have the latter double the Number in the Assembly to that of Salem; Contrary to Justice and Equity. Wherefore Salem will not Send Members till they have equall with Gloster They paying double the Tax and more than Gloster. Secretary Popple to William Dockwra, inquiring as to the operation of the Act against fraud &c. in East & West Jersey, and in whose hands are their respective Governments. St. [From P. R. O. B. T. Proprieties, Vol. 26, p 124.] r To Wm Dockwra Esq 1 The Lds Com" for Trade & Plantations being required to represent to his Majesty in Councill how far the late Act for preventing Frauds & regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade, past here in the 7th & 8th years of his Maj's Reign has been complyed with, in relation to his Majesty's Allowance and Approbation of the Gov's of Proprieties in the Plantations; Their Lords have commanded me to desire you to inform them what has been done in that matter by the Proprietors of East & West New Jersey respectively And further to let them know how the Government of each of those provinces now stands, and in whose hands the Administration thereof at present lies I am &c Whitehall Octob' the 25th 1699 W. P. William Dockwra to Secretary Popple in answer to the foregoing. [From P. R. O. B. T., Proprieties, Vol. 4 D 20.] L're from M Dockwra excusing his not yet answer ing y 2 L'res lately writ him abt E. & W. New Jersey. Sir I have recd yor of the date hereof taking notice of 1 Another letter of a similar purport was written to Mr. Dockwra on Nov. 14th; this not having received any attention.-ED. |