Governor Carteret had deemed it advisable to seek his safety by taking up his residence in Bergen, where on May 28 he convened his council for deliberation. They advised him to go to England, to explain to the Lords Proprietors the situation of the Province, and to have his authority confirmed. This he did, taking with him James Bollen, the secretary of the council, and appointing John Berry deputy-governor in his absence. Their reception by the Proprietors was all that they could have expected or desired. Sir George Carteret sent directions to his son to vacate his usurped authority at once and proceed to Carolina; and the Duke of York wrote to Governor Lovelace, who had succeeded Nicolls in the Province of New York, notifying him, and requiring him to make the same known to the insurgents, that the claims they had advanced would not be recognized by him; and King Charles II. himself sent a missive to Deputy-Governor Berry confirming his authority and commanding obedience to the government of the Lords Proprietors. Other documents from the Proprietors expressed in temperate but decided language their determination to support the rights which had been conferred upon them, and some modifications of the Concessions were made, which circumstances seemed to require, conferring additional powers on the governor and council.
These various documents were published by Deputy-Governor Berry in May, 1673. They served to quiet the previous agitation, and to re-establish his authority. A certain time was allowed the malecontents to comply with the terms of the Proprietors; and the inhabitants of Middletown and Shrewsbury placed themselves in a more favorable position than those of other towns by asking for a suspension of proceedings against them until they could communicate with the authorities in England. This they did, throwing themselves upon their generous forbearance by relinquishing any special privileges they had claimed under the Nicolls patent, receiving individual grants of land in lieu thereof; and thereafter the relations between them and the proprietary government were always harmonious.
The government was resumed by the representatives of the Proprietors without any exhibition of exultation; and further to insure tranquillity and good conduct the deputy-governor and council issued an order with the intent “to prevent deriding, or uttering words of reproach, to any that had been guilty” of the insubordination.
In March, 1673, Charles II., in co-operation with Louis XIV. of France, declared war against Holland; and before the time expired, within which the proffered terms were to be acceded to by the inhabitants, the Dutch were again in possession of the country. The manner in which New Netherland had been subdued by the English prompted a like retaliation, and a squadron of five vessels was at once despatched against New York. The fleet was increased, by captures on the way, to sixteen vessels, conveying sixteen hundred men; and on August 8 possession of the fort was obtained, and for more than a year the authority of the States General was acknowledged. On the one hand, no harshness or disposition to violate the just rights of the inhabitants was manifested; while, on the other, imaginary injuries from the proprietary government led to a ready recognition of what might prove an advantageous change. The natural consequences were harmony and good-will.
The inhabitants generally were confirmed in the possession of their lawfully acquired lands, and placed on an equality, as to privileges, with the Hollanders themselves. Local governments were established for each town, consisting of six schepens, or magistrates, and two deputies toward the constitution of a joint board, for the purpose of nominating three persons for schouts and three for secretaries. From the nominations thus made the council would select three magistrates for each town, and for the six towns collectively a schout and secretary. John Ogden and Samuel Hopkins were severally appointed to these offices on the 1st of September.
On November 18 a code of laws was promulgated “by the schout and magistrates of Achter Kol Assembly, held at Elizabethtown to make laws and orders,” but it does not appear to have been framed with any reference to the English laws in force, which it was intended to subvert. It was singularly mild in the character and extent of the punishments to be inflicted on transgressors, the principal aim of the legislators apparently being the protection of the Province from the demoralizing effects of sensual indulgence and other vicious propensities; but the whole code soon became a nullity, through the abrogation of the authority under which it was enacted.
On Feb. 9, 1674, a treaty of peace was signed at Westminster, the eighth article of which restored the country to the English; and they continued in undisturbed possession from the November following until the war which secured the independence of the United States of America.
On the conclusion of peace the Duke of York obtained from the King a new patent, dated June 29, 1674, similar in its privileges and extent to the first; and on October 30 Edmund Andros arrived with a commission as governor, clothing him with power to take possession of New York and its dependencies, which, in the words of the commission included “all the land from the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay.” On November 9 he issued a proclamation in which he expressly declared that all former grants, privileges, or concessions, and all estates legally possessed by and under His Royal Highness before the late Dutch government, were thereby confirmed, and the possessors by virtue thereof to remain in quiet possession of their rights. King Charles on June 13, prior to the issuing of a new patent by the Duke of York, wrote a circular letter confirming in all respects the title and power of Carteret in East Jersey.
