Lights for many years were furnished of dip tallow candles. These were made by melting a wash boiler full of tallow, into which six candle-wicks hung on a stick were dipped and hung on a rack to cool. Enough sticks were used so that by the time the last one was dipped the first one was cool enough to dip again, and so the process was continued until the candles had accumulated enough tallow to be of the right size. Whenever the tallow in the boiler began to get low hot water was added to make the tallow float to the top of the boiler. When beeves were killed in the fall the good housewives were careful to dip candles for a whole year's supply. About 1852 camphene began to be used for lights, and in some instances alcohol and some other dangerous compounds. About 1860 the use of kerosene came into family and public lighting, and is still the great illuminant.
In 1777 a real estate ownership of one hundred pounds value was a necessary qualification for a voter who desired to vote for a Governor, Senator and Assemblyman, while only twenty pounds worth of real estate was requisite in order to qualify a person to vote for a representative in Congress. For town officials and resolutions all male citizens were allowed to vote, and this was generally done at town meetings viva voce, or by division to the right and left. A Governor then held office three years and had to be a real estate owner. Senators held office four years and had to be owners of one hundred pounds worth of real estate. Judges were appointed by the Governor and council and held office during good behavior, but were disqualified when sixty years old. They could be removed by the Governor when requested by a two-thirds vote of the legislature. Clergymen were then excluded from holding office, and from the legislature. In 1821 a new State constitution was framed and the property qualifications removed. Ballots were then introduced generally in town elections.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
TOWN OF HAMPTONBURGH.
By Margaret Crawford Jackson.
On March 5, 1703, in the reign of Queen Anne, the Wawayanda patent was signed. The grantors were twelve Indians named Rapingonick, Wawastawa, Moghopuck, Comelawaw, Manawitt, Ariwimack, Rumbout, Clauss, Chonckhass, Chingapaw, Oshaquemonus and Quiliapaw, and among the twelve patentees was Christofer Denn. He was a Frenchman and a carpenter, then living on the eastern shore of Staten Island with his wife, Elizabeth, and a young girl sixteen years of age, Sarah Wells, who had been taken by them as an infant and brought up as their own, although she did not receive their name, nor at their deaths did they mention her in their wills, probably because she had received one hundred acres after her marriage.
Christofer Denn, as his name is spelled by Mr. Eager in his history, or "Denne," as spelled by Mr. Ruttenber, the latter says, was a resident of New York in 1701, and one of the signers of the "Protestant Petition" to William III, in that year. In 1702 his name appears appended to the congratulatory address to Lord Cornbury as one "of the chiefest inhabitants of the City and County on New York." And in 1705 he was one of the signers of a petition by the merchants of that city. He was still a resident of New York in 1722-1723, and it was in that city his wife Elizabeth died. It should be noticed that it is said Denn was a resident of the county of New York, even when not living in the city.
SARAH WELLS.
Around Sarah Wells much of the history of Hamptonburgh is woven. She was born in New Jersey, opposite Staten Island, April 6, 1694, and died April 21, 1796, aged 102 years, leaving 355 living descendants. Her husband was William Bull, an Englishman from Wolverhampton. The family left there for Dublin in February, 1689. At Wolverhampton the church register shows the records of the family back to 900 A. D. The late claim is that William Bull, son of John Bull, and grandson of Josias Bull, of Kingshurst Hall, who emigrated in 1715, settling at Hamptonburgh, Orange County, New York, is identical with the husband of Sarah Wells. But whether Kingshurst Hall is in Wolverhampton we cannot say at this moment. However, the coat-of-arms belonging to the Bulls of Kingshurst Hall has been engraved and virtually accepted by Mr. Ebenezer Bull, of Hamptonburgh, as that of his ancestors.
Christofer Denn's share of 2,000 acres in the Wawayanda patent having been set apart, he visited the location and made friends with the Indians living there. The claim was surveyed by Peter Berian and lay touching the northeasterly bounds of the town lots of the village of Goshen. Its bounds run thus: "Beginning at a stake and stones about east of and ten chains from the dwelling-house of General Abraham Vail in East Division; thence northwesterly along the northeasterly bounds of the Goshen town lots, and until it meets with a line supposed to divide the old counties of Ulster and Orange; thence east along the same to a stake and stones known to be standing near the top of the highland, or mountain above Charles Heard's in Hamptonburgh; thence on a course about thirty-six degrees west to the place of beginning."