Table Of Content

^ ^. ^.'^ .^ .qJ ,^- ^ vT^^:^,:..^«'--^s . o^^ '„, X* ^0 ^^ ^ Oo v f> * 8 . A -4- \-<=>^ V, c^^^^ .\^ c<. o . . -* ^0 '// ;-*--'" O- -6 "^ 'V •>', M 'i'. * » .xx^^ %^ » O, ^ ., ^ .^' .^x^ vOo. "'^^ x^^ ,.^ .0 oX' ,N^ Xi, N%X-' '^-r %.^ '^-'-. ,'"^ ,0 -0- s ^rcmive:s New State of Jersey, FIRST SERIES. XXIII. Vol. This volume was prepared and edited by authority of the State of New Jersey, at the request of the New Jersey Historical Society, and under the direction of the following Committee of the Society. William Nelson, Garret D. VV. Vroom, Austin Scott, Francis B. Lee, Ernest C. Richardson. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE COLONIAL HISTORY New State of Jersey, VOIAJIMK XXIIT. Calendar of New Jersey Wills, VOL. 1670--1730. I. Edited, with an Introductory Note on the Early Testamentary Laws and Customs of New Jersey, By WILLIAM NELSON. i PATERSON, N. J.: ThsPkessPrintingandPublishingCo,,269Main Street. I90I. Collected set. ^y ' NOV 7I«04 <1/f <J DEC 16 1904 D.ofD, 3 i PREFACE. New For an intimate revelation of social conditions in Jer- sey during the first sixty-five years of English supremacy it would be difficult to imagine a volume richer in material than this. From about i6So it was the general practice to deposit wills with the Provincial Secretaries, by whom they were filed — — or recorded usually both, together with Inventories of es- tates, accounts of executors and administrators, and other papers pertaining to such matters, and many odd documents — having no apparent relation thereto as ante-nuptial contracts, marriage licenses, and the like. These records were brought together in 1790 or shortly thereafter, in the ofiice of the Sec- retary of State at Trenton, where they are now carefully ar- ranged and preserved. With the progress of time the wills and inventories show the increase in wealth of the colonists, at first particularly in lands and cattle later, in those possessions which indicate the acquisition oflux;uries. A " muscatoes curtain " and a " mus- keternett" were obviously necessaries. But from the first — there are mentions ofrelics ofold-country dignities in the ar- ticles ofgold and silver, seals, jewelry (including a diamond ring), watches, swords, an " agate hilted rapier," a " skeene," doubtless derived from some Highland ancestor, "armor," "artillery," and other valued belongings. In some scores of cases a Bible is bequeathed, not infrequently in Dutch or in French. Other volumes are very often mentioned, mostly re- ligious or theological works, with occasional lists of books on law and medicine, the collections being sometimes dignified as libraries, or as a " lyberary "or " libruary." An amber neck- lace, a sure protection against witchcraft, especially for children, was naturally prized and so were the few looking ; VI PREFACE. glasses in the colony. The silver plate usually included punch bowls, but in one instance this popular vessel was of lignum vit£e. Among the importations by the wealthy, or the curios picked up by seafaring men, were the " Chappay Cabbonite," (a Japanese cabinet?), the "Turkey worsted chair covers," thecoral and bells to amuse some infant, the " berrey buttons," china dishes and Spanish tables. The " peas-porridge taw- ney-cloth," the " printed leather breeches," the silk gloves, the broadcloth, the " men's stomachers," the " corblina hats," the " a Larrum" clock, and the *' pott hangers with the flower de luce in them," were also doubtless of foreign workmanship. The people readily adopted Indian bows and arrows and knives, and also, alas, made slaves ofthe harmless aborigines. There are pleasant glimpses of generosity onthe part of the testators, as where they remember a faithful apprentice or ser- vant, or give freedom to a slave. In about thirty wills provis- ion is made for the building or repair of churches or Friends' meeting-houses, or for the poor, or for burying-grounds, and half-a-dozen bequests are made for schools. The need of edu- cation was painfully appreciated by some ofthese will-makers, who, even when " fol of pain ofBodey," were anxious to pro- mote the " scowling" oftheir children, whom they wished to have taught " to read and wright true Inglish," or "to larn to Read rite & Sifer," to which end they gave their " Holy and soly" " ckcketere" " pour and athorate and strink" to collect all debts, including those " Dangerously dew," or " dangros depts," or both " sperate and desperate," warning them at the same time not to pay " extorsinat" claims of the " Curirgen" in the testator's last '' vSixnis," or of other creditors, in order to save enough to pay the " Lagoses," especially those in re- membrance of " meaney kineneses" on the partofa " dafter," " Cester," '" cussin," " cinsman," or other " aire." Many a family romance and many a tragedy is hinted at in — these musty old documents as where Captain William Sand- ford in his lastwill declares that the mother ofhis children was made his wife on board a vessel in the Surinam river many a long year before. Stories there are offamily estrangements, of runaway marriages, of wayward children, of disinherited sons