Perth Amboy. Its original Settlement and Prospects. Governor William Franklin In succeeding pages I shall endeavor to impart to my readers some of the pleasures and profits of this Southern journey, extended, after leaving my horse and wagon at Camden, in South Carolina, to nearly fourteen hundred miles further. I left New York at three o'clock in the afternoon in the steam-boat Transport, of the Camden and Amboy Rail-road Company. We passed out at the Narrows at four o'clock between Forts Hamilton and La Fayette, and, traversing Raritan Bay, on the southeast side of Staten Island, reached South Amboy at twilight, where I remained until morning. This little village is situated upon the bay, at the mouth of the Raritan, and is the terminus of the rail-way from Philadelphia. On the north side of the Raritan is Perth Amboy,' a pleasant place, a port of entry, and a locality of considerable historic interest. It is about twenty-five miles from New York, and ten from New Brunswick; the latter lies at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Raritan. Upon this point the first proprietors of New Jersey intended to build a city. "If the Lord permit," they said, in their published account of the beauty and fertility of that region, "we intend, with all convenient speed, to erect and build our principal town, which, by reason of situation, must, in all probability, be the most considerable for merchandise, trade, and fishing in those parts. It is designed to be placed upon a neck or point of land called Ambo Point, lying on Raritan River, and pointing to Sandy Hook Bay, and near adjacent to the place where ships in that great harbor commonly ride at anchor." It was called "a sweet, wholesome, and delightful place;" and William Penn said, on taking a view of the land, "I have never seen such before in my life." The town was laid out into one hundred and fifty lots, many buildings were erected, and for a time it was the commercial rival of New York. A city charter was obtained for it in 1718. William Eier was the first mayor, and James Alexander-the father of Lord Stirling, of the Continental army-was the first recorder. Barracks for soldiers were built there in 1758-9, and were first occupied by the English troops on their return from Havana in 1761. Perth Amboy was the place of residence of Governor Franklin when the Revolution broke out, and was the scene of many stirring events during that war. It was in posses 1 This point, when first mentioned in the East Jersey records, bears the Indian name of Ompage, of which Ambo or Amboy is a corruption. The white settlement there was for some time called Perth, in honor of the Earl of Perth, one of the proprietors; but the name of Ambo was so often mentioned, that at last it was called Perth Amboy. 2 William Franklin, the royal governor of New Jersey, was the only son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He was born in 1731. He was postmaster of Philadelphia for a short time, and served as clerk of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania. He was a captain in the French and Indian war, and fought bravely, under Abercrombie, at Ticonderoga. He visited England, with his father, toward the close of the war. In Scotland he became acquainted with the Earl of Bute, who recommended him to Lord Fairfax. That nobleman appointed him governor of New Jersey, and for a time he was very popular with the people. He was a decided monarchist, and from the beginning of the disputes with Great Britain he took sides against his father. He involved himself in quarrels with the Legislature of New Jersey, and the people became very hostile to him before the close of his administration in 1776. On the 23d of May of that year, the first Provincial Congress of New Jersey commenced their session at Trenton, and the royal government soon afterward ceased to exist. A constitution was adopted in July, 1776. William Livingston was elected governor in place of Franklin, and that deposed servant of royalty, declared by the Congress of New Jersey to be an enemy to liberty, was seized in his own house at Perth Amboy, and conveyed a prisoner to Windham, Connecticut, at which place, and also in Litchfield jail, he was confined for some time. [See p. 436, vol. i.] When Sir Henry Clinton took chief command in America in 1778, Governor Franklin was exchanged for some American prisoners, and released. He went to New York, where he served for a short period as president of the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists. In West's picture of the Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain, in the year 1783, Governor Franklin is a prominent personage represented. A copy of this picture will be found in another part of this work. Franklin went to England at the close of the war, where he resided until his death in November, 1813, enjoying a pension of $4000 per annum. He and his father were reconciled in 1784, after an alienation of ten years. The doctor, however, could not forget his political delinquency. In his will, after devising to his son all the books and papers of his in possession of the governor, and also all debts standing against him on his account-books, he says, "The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leavng him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of."* Governor Franklin's wife died in 1778. * Sparks's Life of Franklin, 599. Dunlap's Recollection of military Affairs at Perth Amboy. Journey to Crosswicks. Missionary Operations there sion of the British much of the time; and one of the many pictures of life of varied hue there presented, is given by William Dunlap (who was born there), in his History of the Arts of Design. "Here were centered," he says, "in addition to those cantoned in the place, all those troops] drawn in from the Delaware, Princeton, and Brunswick; and the flower and pick of the army, English, Scotch, and German, who had at that time been brought in from Rhode Island. Here was to be seen a party of forty-second Highlanders, in national costume, and there a regiment of Hessians, their dress and arms a perfect contrast to the first. The slaves of Anspach and Waldeck were there-the first somber as night, the second gaudy as noon. Here dashed by a party of the seventeenth dragoons, and The trim, neat, and graceful English grenadier; the careless and half-savage Highlander, with his flowing robes and naked knees, and the immovably stiff German, could hardly be taken for parts of one army. Here might be seen soldiers driving in cattle, and others guarding wagons loaded with household furniture, instead of the hay and oats they had been sent for. there scampered a party of Yagers. 1848. "The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which transplanted the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into the hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps, and the heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of the evils and the soul-stirring scenes of war. These lessons, and others more disgusting, were my sources of instruction in the winter of 1776-7.”1 November 23, I left Amboy for Trenton, by the way of Crosswicks, before sunrise the next morning. The air was clear and frosty; the pools by the road side were skimmed with ice, and fields and fences were white with hoar frost. The deep sand of the road made the traveling heavy, yet, before the sun was fairly up, my strong horse had taken me half the way to Spottswood, ten miles distant. I passed through Spottswood, Old Bridge, Hightstown, and Cranberry, to Allentown, twenty-eight miles from Amboy, where I dined. These villages have a neat and thrifty appearance. Over the level, sandy country through which the road passes, extensive peach orchards are spread out, covering hundreds of acres. Crosswicks, the scene of some stirring events in the Revolution, is situated upon a ridge on the left bank of Crosswicks Creek, four miles from Allentown, and the same distance from the Delaware River. The creek is in a deep ravine, here spanned by a fine latticed bridge, erected upon the site of the old one of the Revolution. It was settled by the Quakers in 1681, and was a place of sufficient importance in colonial times to be once a meeting-place of the Provincial Assembly. Among the Indians at Crossweeksung, Brainerd and Tennant labored successfully, and the influence of the Quakers upon that tribe was sensibly felt. Here a small detachment of the American army was stationed after the first engagement at Trenton, where the Hessians were captured; and here one division of the British troops, marching from Philadelphia toward Monmouth, in June, 1778, were pretty severely handled by a party of Americans. The troops of the enemy marched in three divisions from Philadelphia: one by Mount Holly, one through Columbus, and the third by Bordentown, on the Delaware, near the mouth of Crosswicks Creek. Near the latter place was a draw-bridge, and as the British attempted to repair it for the purpose of crossing, the militia regiments of Colonels Frelinghuysen, Van Dyke, and Webster, stationed near, rushed 1748. 2 just before his release from imprisonment. On a monumental tablet in St. Paul's Church, New York, it is inscribed that, "compelled to part from the husband she loved, and at length despairing of the soothing hope of his return, she sunk of accumulated distresses," &c. His son, William Temple Franklin, who edited his grandfather's works, died at Paris in May, 1823. 1 History of the Arts of Design, vol. ii. ? This name is derived from the Indian appellation of the place, Crossweeksung, signifying a separation. The creek separates into two branches not far from the village. 3 In less than one year after Brainerd commenced preaching among them, he baptized no less than se”. enty-seven persons, of whom thirty-eight were adults.-Allen's Amer. Biog. Hist. Dictionary. Frederic Frelinghuysen was the son of Reverend John Frelinghuysen, of Raritan, New Jersey. He Skirmish at Crosswicks. The Friends' Meeting-house. Mrs. Idell. Bordentown. upon them, killed four and wounded several. The enemy left the bridge at Bordentown, and, marching up to Crosswicks, attempted to repair the bridge there, which the Americans had almost destroyed.' The alert provincials were ready to receive them; and from their station on the Woodwardsville side of the creek, they poured upon the Britons volleys of musketry, which, with a well-aimed shot occasionally from an old six-pounder, effectually kept them at bay. Being re-enforced the next day, the enemy repaired the bridge, crossed it, and pursued their march toward Allentown. During the skirmish, one of the cannon-balls fired by the Americans struck the north wall of the meeting-house and lodged therein, where it remained until the building was repaired a few years ago. The hole made by the ball is yet visible; the dark spot between the sills of the two upper windows, on the right of the picture, marks the place. The American troops at Crosswicks, after the battle of Trenton, used the meeting-house for barracks; yet, unlike the British soldiers who occupied churches for a similar purpose, they neither defaced the building, nor disturbed the society in their public religious duties. Every Wednesday and Sunday the soldiers withdrew, the benches were properly arranged, and worship was held as usual. During my brief tarry of an hour and a half at Crosswicks, I visited the venerable Mrs. Idell, who was eighty-three years old. She clearly remembered the advent of the Americans there, after the battle of Trenton. She lived with her brother, two or three miles from the meeting-house. Twelve American officers, on horseback, took possession of his house while himself and family were in meeting. The parlor was filled with equestrian accouterments, and she and two other children " almost lost their wits by fright." The old lady was strong in mind but feeble in body when I saw her, yet she was able to sit in their plain old house of worship every meeting-day. I left Crosswicks at four o'clock, and arrived at Trenton at sunset. It was a pleasant drive of eight miles through a fertile country; the well-filled barns and barracks, and the numerous haystacks, denoting bountiful harvests. I passed a little northward of Bordentown, and had an occasional glimpse of its spires above the brown tree-tops. As we may not, in the course of our journey, approach so near this pleasant village again, let us slacken our pace a little as we go over the crown of the hill, from whence the vane of the Episcopal church is visible, and consider its Revolutionary history. Bordentown is "a city upon a hill," and "can not be hid." It is at the elbow of the Delaware River, seven miles below Trenton, and from the brow of the eminence on which it stands there is an extensive view of that noble stream and the surrounding country. It derives its name from Joseph Borden, an early settler. Here both the Americans and British had military stores; and hither both parties, at different times, dispatched small detachments to surprise and capture, or destroy them. Here a strong body of Hessians, under graduated at Princeton in 1770, and when the Revolution broke out he entered the military service of his country. He was a captain of a militia company at the battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776, and, it is said, was the man who shot Colonel Rall, the commander of the Hessians. He was afterward promoted to the rank of colonel, which office he held during the war. He was a member of the old Congress, and, under the administration of Washington, was a senator from New Jersey. He was for a number of years one of the trustees of Princeton College. He died in April, 1804, aged about fifty-two years. Theodore Frelinghuysen, late United States senator from New Jersey, and Chancellor of the University of New York, is his son. 1 An American named Clevenger, who had cut away the last sleeper of the bridge when the enemy approached, was shot in the back of the head and killed while retreating. He was the only man whom the Americans lost in the skirmish. This view is from the shed in the yard, looking southeast. The building stands in the center of a large square, is of imported brick, and very spacious. The Quakers were numerous in this vicinity in the time of the Revolution, and a large number of the present inhabitants are members of that sect. Revolutionary Events at Bordentown. Joseph Bonaparte. General Dickinson. Trenton. One of the several ex Count Donop, was stationed at the time of the battle at Trenton. peditions sent out from Philadelphia by the enemy, in the spring of 1778, was for the purpose of destroying vessels which were lying in Barnes's and Crosswicks Creeks at this place. Six or seven hundred troops left Philadelphia about ten in the evening on the 7th of May, and went up the Delaware in a flotilla consisting of two row-galleys, three other armed vessels, and twenty-four flat-bottomed boats. They had fair winds for ten miles of the way,' when a calm ensued, and they were obliged to row the remainder of the distance. They expected to reach Bordentown and perform their destructive work before dawn, but they did not arrive there until late in the forenoon. Before landing, they burned two frigates at the White Hills, a little below the village, and afterward destroyed several smaller vessels. They landed without much opposition, burned the residence of Joseph Borden, committed some petty malicious trespasses, and then re-embarked. The next day they proceeded up the river as far as Bile's Island, intending to make a descent upon Trenton; but General Dickinson,' and the troops under his command, gave them such a warm reception, that they hastily turned their prows southward. On their way down they landed at Colonel Kirkbride's farm, on the Pennsylvania side, burned his buildings, and seized considerable property. A party of militia, whom General Dickinson sent down the river, succeeded in capturing a sloop which the enemy had filled with plunder, and took prisoners six men who were on board. The marauders returned to Philadelphia with very little booty, and not a particle of glory.' At Bordentown, from 1816 until 1842, Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-king of Spain, and brother of Napoleon, resided. His park and grounds comprised about fifteen hundred acres of land, which his taste and well-directed expenditure of money redeemed from almost barrenness, and made beautiful. His mansion was enriched with the most exquisite works of art in painting and sculpture, for the gratification of himself and friends; and while he was ever willing to display these for the pleasure of the poor, his hand was open to their wants. The sun was vailed, at its setting, when I arrived at Trenton,' by an ominous red vapor that betokened a storm. True to the " sign," the morning following was lowery, and a chilly east wind made sketching in the open air any thing but pleasant. I was busy with my pencil until the rain began to fall at noon. At two o'clock the sun peeped out for a moment, and smiled so pleasantly (yet deceptively) that I ordered my horse, and, accompa The distance from Philadelphia to Bordentown is twenty-six miles. 2 Philemon Dickinson was a gallant officer of the Revolution. He was a Whig of the truest dye, and entered the Revolutionary army at the outset of the contest. Although possessed of an ample fortune, he cheerfully hazarded it for the good of his country, preferring poverty with liberty, to wealth with slavery. He was at the head of the Jersey militia in the battle of Monmouth, where he displayed the greatest brav ery. He was a member of Congress from his state after the establishment of the present Federal government, and in various civil and military stations he discharged his duty faithfully. Twelve years of the latter part of his life were passed in domestic retirement at his seat near Trenton, where he died on the 4th of February, 1809, at the age of sixty-eight years. 3 Howe, in the Historical Collections of New Jersey, page 101, records one or two incidents of this incursion which were related to him by a person who was a resident there at the time. He said the British officers dined at the house of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who, with his family, was absent at the time. A young lady, eighteen years old, named Mary Comely, provided the dinner for them. While they were dining, she was informed that the soldiers were robbing the houses of her mother and grandmother, on the opposite side of the street. She went in, and stealthily cut a piece from the skirt of one of the soldiers' coats. This she handed to the commander, and by it he detected the thief. By this means the property of her relations and some neighbors was restored. A Whig, in order to save his property, slew a sheep, and made a good dinner for the soldiers; but, before the meal was ready, the bugle sounded for the troops to form in line. The dinner was partaken of by Colonel Baylor and his light horse, who arrived toward evening. Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, situated upon the east bank of the Delaware, at the Falls, thirty miles from Philadelphia. The first settlements were made by Quakers, on both sides of the river, about 1679. The region in the vicinity of the Falls was called by the Delaware Indians, Sankhican, a name sig. nifying gun or firelock, from the circumstance that a tribe of Mohawks, who used guns, occupied that spot. A purchase of a large tract of land lying on both sides of the Assanpink was made by Colonel William Trent, of Philadelphia, in 1714, and from him Trent Town or Trenton derives its name. Long Bridge. M'Conkey's Ferry, where Washington crossed the Delaware. Capture of Forts Washington and Lee. nied by the Honorable G. W. Smyth, of Belvidere, started for M Conkey's Ferry (now Tay. lorsville), eight miles above Trenton, the place where "On Christmas day, in seventy-six, Our gallant troops, with bayonets fixed, To Trenton marched away," and, with Washington, crossed the Delaware, on the memorable night of that festival. We had ridden scarcely a mile before the rain came pattering down upon our wagon-top, and when we returned at evening the storm had increased in violence to that of a drenching summer shower. The road passes along the bank of the Delaware, and on a bright summer day it must be one of the pleasantest drives imaginable. There are several beautiful country-seats on the way, with grounds tastefully laid out and shaded. Two miles from Trenton is the State Lunatic Asylum, an immense building, having nine quadrangles, and presenting a front of four hundred and eighty feet. The feeder for the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the artificial channel made along the river bank for the production of water power at Trenton, are crossed and paralleled by the road all the way to Yardleyville, between which and Taylorsville the great dam constructed to supply these streams stretches across the Delaware. Taylorsville is on the Pennsylvania side, at M Conkey's Ferry. A we shall consider presently. Mr. Taylor, an old resident of the place, pointed out the spot, on each side of the river, where a log-house stood at the time. The one on the Pennsylvania side was upon the site of the Temperance House, in Taylorsville; that upon the Jersey shore was exactly at the end of the bridge. It was very dark when we reached Trenton in the midst of the storm. With the feelings of the silly mortal who thought a brook would soon run dry because the stream was so swift, I hoped for a bright morning because the rain came down deluge-like. Let us turn from the present and commune an hour with the past. October 28, Fort Washington, on the east bank of the Hudson, near New York city, fell into the hands of the enemy on the 16th of November, 1776, and the garrison of nearly three thousand men became prisoners of war. The skirmish at White Plains had recently occurred, and Washington, penetrating the design of the enemy to pass into New 1776. Jersey and march to the capture of Philadelphia, had already crossed the Hudson with the main body of the American army, after securing some positions on the east bank, between Kingsbridge and the Highlands. He encamped at Hackensack, in the rear of Fort Lee where General Greene was in command. Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson at Dobbs's Ferry, with six thousand men, on the 20th, and landing at Closter, a mile and a November, half from English Neighborhood, proceeded to attack Fort Lee. The garrison made a hasty retreat, and joined the main army at Hackensack, five miles distant. All the baggage and military stores at Fort Lee fell into the hands of the enemy. It was an easy conquest. for Cornwallis; and had he followed up this successful beginning with energy, 1776. |