It being evident that the grant of the Duke of York to Sir George Carteret in July, 1674, had not made an equitable division of the Province between him and the assigns of Sir John Berkeley, the Duke induced Sir George to relinquish that grant, and another deed of division was executed on July 1, 1676, known as the Quintipartite Deed, making the dividing line to run from Little Egg Harbor to what was called the northernmost branch of the Delaware River, in 41° 40´ north latitude; and from that time the measures adopted by the Proprietors of the two provinces to advance the interests of their respective portions were enforced separately and independently of each other.
The trustees of Byllynge effected sales of land to two companies of Friends, one from Yorkshire and the other from London; and in 1677 commissioners were sent out with power to purchase lands of the natives, to lay out the various patents that might be issued, and otherwise administer the government. The ship “Kent” was sent over with two hundred and thirty passengers, and after a long passage she arrived in the Delaware in August (1677), and the following month a settlement was made on the site of the present Burlington.
The commissioners came in the “Kent,” which, on her way to the Delaware, anchored at Sandy Hook. Thence the commissioners proceeded to New York to inform Governor Andros of their intentions; and, although they failed to secure an absolute surrender of his authority over their lands, he promised them his aid in getting their rights acknowledged, they in the mean time acting as magistrates under him, and being permitted to carry out the views of the Proprietors. During the following months of 1677, and in 1678, several hundred more immigrants arrived and located themselves on the Yorkshire and London tracts, or tenths as they were called.
The settlers of West Jersey, as a body, were too intelligent for them to remain long without an established form of government, and on March 3, 1677, a code of laws was adopted under the title of “The Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of the Province of West Jersey.” It was drawn up, as is presumed, by William Penn and his immediate coadjutors, as his name heads the list of signers, of whom there were one hundred and fifty-one. The chief or executive authority was by these Concessions lodged in the hands of commissioners to be appointed by the then Proprietors, and their provisions cannot but meet with general approval. This code is to be considered as the first example of Quaker legislation, and is marked by great liberality. The framers, as a proprietary body, retained no authority exclusively to themselves, but placed all power in the hands of the people. The document was to be read at the beginning and close of each general assembly; and, that all might know its provisions, four times in a year it was to be read in a solemn manner in every hall of justice in the Province.
The settlers on Fenwicke’s tenth did not participate in the privileges of these Concessions. On returning to the Province, after his confinement in New York, Fenwicke proceeded to make choice of officers for his colony, demanding in the name of the King the submission of the people, and directly afterward issued a proclamation in which he—as “Lord and Chief Proprietor of the said Province [West Jersey], and in particular Fenwicke’s colony within the same”—required all persons to appear before him within one month and show their orders or warrants for “their pretended titles,” assuming an independent authority entirely at variance with the proprietary directions.
The commissioners of the Byllynge tenths, however, do not appear to have made any attempt to interfere with him, confining their authority to the limits of their own well defined tracts; but if Fenwicke escaped annoyance from his near neighbors he was not so fortunate in his relations with his former persecutor, Andros, as he is represented as being, not long after his return, again at Newcastle under arrest, waiting for some opportunity to be sent again to New York.
Although, as has been stated, general quietude prevailed in East Jersey for some years after Carteret’s return from England, yet it must be considered as resulting less from the desire of the people to co-operate with him, than from the want of leaders willing to guide and uphold them in ultra proceedings. The exaction of customs in New York, by direction of the representatives of the Duke of York, operated more to the annoyance of the inhabitants on the Delaware than to those in the eastern portion of the Province, and it was with great anxiety that the adventurers to West Jersey regarded the course of Andros in relation thereto; but in East Jersey, the proximity to New York rendered a direct trade with foreign lands less necessary. Andros steadily opposed all projects of the Governor to render East Jersey more independent of New York, and the death of Sir George Carteret in January, 1680, seems to have inspired him with fresh vigor in asserting the claims of the Duke of York. Recalling to mind that New Jersey was within the limits of his jurisdiction according to his commission, he addressed a letter to Governor Carteret in March, 1679/80, informing him that, being advised of his acting without legal authority to the great disturbance of His Majesty’s subjects, he required him to cease exercising any authority whatever within the limits of the Duke of York’s patent, unless his lawful power so to do was first recorded in New York. To this unlooked for and unwarranted communication, Governor Carteret replied on March 20, two days after its receipt, informing his indignant correspondent that after consultation with his council he and they were prepared to defend themselves and families against any and all aggressions, having a perfect conviction of the validity of the authority they exercised. Before this letter was received by Andros, or even written, he had issued a proclamation abrogating the government of Carteret and requiring all persons to submit to the King’s authority as embodied in himself. Emissaries were despatched to East Jersey to undermine the authority of Carteret, and every other means adopted to estrange the people from their adhesion to the Proprietary government.
On April 7 Andros, accompanied by his council, presented himself at Elizabethtown, and Carteret, finding that they were unattended by any military force, dismissed a body of one hundred and fifty men gathered for his defence; and, receiving his visitors with civility, a mutual exposition was made of their respective claims to the government of East Jersey. The conference ended as it had begun. Andros having now, as he said, performed his duty by fully presenting his authority and demanding the government in behalf of His Majesty, cautioned them against refusal. “Then we went to dinner,” says Carteret in his account of the interview, “and that done we accompanied him to the ship, and so parted.”
Carteret’s hospitality, however, was lost upon Andros. On April 30 a party of soldiers, sent by him, dragged the Governor from his bed and carried him to New York, bruised and maltreated, where he was kept in prison until May 27, when a special court was convened for his trial for having “persisted and riotously and routously endeavored to maintain the exercise of jurisdiction and government over His Majesty’s subjects within the bounds of His Majesty’s letters-patent to His Royal Highness.”
Carteret boldly maintained his independence under these trying circumstances. He fully acknowledged before the court his refusal to surrender his government to Andros without the special command of the King, submitted the various documents bearing upon the subject, and protested against the jurisdiction of a court where his accuser and imprisoner was also his judge.