Civil History - Affairs of the
Township during the Civil War - List of Officials - Mills - Early
Settlers - The Howells, Coopers, Champions, Collins, Burroughs,
Ellis, Heritages, Kays, Matlacks, Shivers, Stokeses, Davises,
Frenches and others - Old Houses - Ellisburg - Batesville.
CIVIL HISTORY. - The township of Delaware
was originally a part of Waterford township. An effort was made in
1838 to erect a township from the west end of that township. At a
meeting of citizens December 12th in that year notice was given that
application would be made to the Legislature at the then present
session for a township to be made from the territory so described.
It does not appear that the application was made until five years
later, when, on the 28th of February, 1844, an act was passed by the
Legislature, and was approved, by which all that portion of
Waterford township lying north of the road running from Clementon to
the Burlington County line, near the grist-mill known as Hopkins’
mill (now owned by Charles E. Matlack), and extending to the
Delaware River, embracing all the territory between Coopers Creek
and the Pensaukin (which constitutes the dividing line between the
counties of Burlington and Camden, then Gloucester), was set off and
designated as the township of Delaware. The first town-meeting of
the inhabitants of the township of Delaware was held in the
town-house, at Ellisburg, on the 13th day of March, 1844. John Coles
was elected moderator and Mahlon M. Coles (his son) clerk. The
report of the committee of the township of Waterford was read and
approved, after which a series of resolutions were passed, embracing
the following points of business:
"Resolved, That
the sum of seven hundred dollars be raised for township purposes.
That the fees of the township committee be seventy-five cents per
day. That the overseer of the highways be paid two dollars and
twenty-five cents for plowing and machinery; one dollar and
seventy-five cents per day for two horses, wagon and driver; one
dollar and twenty-five cents per day for one horse, cart and driver;
and laborers seventy-five cents per day; and all work on the roads
must be done between the first day of April and the first day of
October. That all moneys derived from surplus revenue be
appropriated for the purpose of education in the township. That all
moneys received from dog-tax be appropriated to pay for sheep killed
by dogs. That the constable be paid twenty-five cents for his
services and the township physicians ten dollars each. That the
inhabitants of the township shall vote by ballot, unless otherwise
ordered by said Inhabitants. That the town-meetings be held at the
town-house in Ellisburg, and the election on the first day at the
Union School-house, and on the second day at the townhouse."
The following officers were then duly elected for
the ensuing year, viz.: Judge of Election, Josiah Ellis; Assessor,
Evan C. Smith; Chosen Freeholders, Jacob Troth, Joseph Kay, Jr.;
Surveyors of Highways, Joseph H. Ellis, Aaron Moore; Township
Committee, Joseph K. Lippincott, Samuel T. Coles, Joseph A.
Burrough, Isaac Adams, Alexander Cooper; Commissioners of Appeals,
Joseph H. Coles, Charles Beck, Adam B. Evaul; Overseers of Highways,
Job Coles, William E. Matlack, Richard Shivers, Joshua Stone, Reuben
Roberts; Constable, John Lawrence; Overseers of the Poor, George
Haines, Jacob H. Fowler, Joshua Stone; School Committee, Benjamin W.
Cooper, Joseph A. Burrough, Joseph C. Stafford; Pound-Keepers,
Joseph Ellis, Jonathan Fetters; Township Physicians, Charles D.
Hendry, M.D., Richard N. Cooper, M.D.
The practice of holding elections in two places
and on different days seems to have been abandoned by a resolution
passed at the next town-meeting, in March, 1845, which has never
been rescinded, and which directs that all elections be held in the
town-house at Ellisburg. It is evident that at this meeting the
township committee was instructed to meet with the township
committee of Waterford and effect a division of the debts and assets
of the townships, as the following Article of Agreement between the
committees of the townships of Delaware and Waterford is recorded in
the records of the township:
AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE COMMITTEES
OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF DELAWARE AND WATERFORD.
In pursuance ot an Act of the Legislature,
Entitled An Act to establish a New Township, in the County of
Gloucester, to be called the township of Delaware. We, the
undersigned, being the township committees of the said townships of
Delaware and Waterford, having met the eighteenth day of March,
1844, at the house of Joseph Ellis, and having proceeded to
ascertain the proportion of tax assessed in each part of the
township of Waterford, that now constitutes the townships of
Delaware and Waterford do find that one-fourth part of the tax,
assessed as aforesaid, was assessed in that part that now is the
township of Waterford, and three fourths in that part that now is
the township of Delaware, and we do find and ascertain that there is
on hand, in cash, the sum of two hundred and eighty-six and
twenty-eight one-hundredths dollars, and there is a pound built for
impounding cattle of the value of twenty dollars, and there is two
township grave-yards, both in the township of Delaware, and with
their fences valued at thirty-six dollars, and a plough of the value
of ten dollars; also a Town-House, built by the inhabitants of
Ellisburg and vicinity, towards which the township of Waterford
contributed two hundred dollars, amounting together to the sum of
five hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-eight cents,
three-fourths of which, being four hundred and fourteen dollars and
thirty one cents, belongs to the township of Delaware, and one
hundred and thirty-eight dollars and seven cents, being one-fourth
part, belongs to the township of Waterford. And we do find a Bond
accompanied by a Mortgage against John Rogers for the sum of one
hundred and sixty dollars, with interest; there is also unpaid on
the Tax warrants of the past and preceding years the sum of ten
hundred and forty-nine dollars and twenty-four cents, which, when
collected, or such parts, thereof as can be collected, is to be
divided as before mentioned, viz. three-fourths to the township of
Delaware, and one-fourth to the township of Waterford. There are
also tax warrants in the hands of Caleb Nixon, former Constable, on
which a part may probably be collected. Such sums as may be
collected hereafter to be divided in the same proportion as before
stated. The cash on hand was this day divided in the above
proportions, and the moneys that may be hereafter collected are to
be divided as above, after the township Of Waterford deducts the sum
of sixty-six dollars and fifty cents - its share of the property -
all of which now being in the township of Delaware.
Committee of the township of Delaware.
"Alexander Cooper.
Joseph A. Burrough.
Joseph K. Lippincott.
Samuel T. Coles.
Committee of the township of Waterford.
Joseph Porter.
Richard Stafford.
Job Kirkbride.
Seth Cain.
John S. Peacock.
"MAHLON M. COLES, Town Clerk.
"March 18, 1844."
As will be noticed by reference to the settlement
between this township and the mother township of Waterford, mention
is made of the township’s interest in the school-house at Ellisburg.
Over the door of the school-house is a semicircular marble slab
bearing the inscription: "Ellisburg School and Waterford
Town-House." This, it seems, the people wished changed so as to bear
the name of the new township, and at the town-meeting in 1848, which
passed the resolutions relating to Petty’s Island, the following
resolution was also adopted:
"Resolved, That whereas the name
of Waterford is placed on the marble slab in front of the Town
House, that the same be erased and Delaware inserted in place
thereof, and that a suitable person be appointed to employ a marble
mason to do the same, provided the cost does not exceed the sum of
fifteen dollars, to be paid out of the funds of the township of
Delaware."
Joseph Ellis was appointed to have the work done.
But whether the sum appropriated was too small or whether a suitable
man could not be found to do the work does not appear, but from some
cause there was nothing further done in the matter, and the same
stone, bearing the original inscription, is still in its place, and
is respected as a souvenir of past relations with Waterford
township.
Prior to the division of Delaware township there
appears to have been a great reluctance on the part of the officers
elected to accept their offices, as special town-meetings were held
in 1847, 1853 and 1854 to elect officers to fill vacancies
occasioned by refusals to serve and neglect to qualify.
AFFAIRS OF THE WAR PERIOD. - When the War
of the Rebellion broke out the people of Delaware township were not
slow to respond to their country’s call, and goodly numbers of her
sons volunteered their services in response to the several calls for
troops, and it can be said to her credit that her quotas were always
promptly filled and none of her citizens were compelled to enter the
service as drafted ones, although a number of them can show
notifications of being drafted. The first action taken by the
township was at a special town-meeting called expressly for that
purpose on August 27, 1862, at which Joseph A. Burrough was elected
chairman and Joseph H. Fowler clerk. The following resolutions were
adopted: "Whereas, The inhabitants of Delaware Township
having met at a special town-meeting to manifest their patriotism to
their country and to facilitate volunteering, Resolved, That
the Town Committee of Delaware township be and are hereby authorized
to borrow Three Thousand Dollars to be appropriated as a Bounty in
sums of seventy-five dollars to each person that has or may
volunteer in the nine months’ service, and is accredited to Delaware
township. Resolved, That the township committee pay the
Bounty as soon as the volunteers are mustered into the United States
Service."
At the next annual town-meeting an assessment of
fifteen hundred dollars was ordered to be levied towards paying off
this debt.
On the 13th of August, 1863, another special
town-meeting was held, at which it was "Resolved, To raise
Twenty-Seven hundred dollars by taxation to pay a bounty of One
hundred and fifty dollars each to eighteen men, who shall be
enlisted to fill the quota of the township, as soon as they are
mustered into the United States, Service."
Another special town-meeting was held on November
28, 1863, and the township committee was ordered to borrow four
thousand dollars and to pay volunteers to fill the township quota
under the present call for troops, and Joseph C. Stafford was
appointed to go to Trenton to secure the necessary legislation to
make the township raise the money.
Another special town-meeting was held April 30,
1864. It was "Resolved, That the township committee are
authorized to borrow such sum or sums of money as shall be necessary
to pay the Bounty required to fill the quota, said loan or sums to
be paid when there shall be sufficient funds in the Collector’s
hands to pay the same." At the same town-meeting a tax of five
dollars per head was levied upon every male tax-payer in the
township.
On July 13, 1864, another special town-meeting was
held, at which it was "Resolved, That the township Committee
have the Authority to get volunteers and to borrow money to
pay the same."
Another special town-meeting was held October 4,
1864, at which the action of the meeting in July was confirmed, and
the sum of ten thousand dollars was ordered to be raised and a
special tax of ten dollars per head was levied upon all male
citizens above the age of twenty years, and that the tax be
collected within thirty days.
Another special town-meeting was held January 2,
1865, at which Asa R. Lippincott was appointed chairman and Elwood
H. Fowler secretary, and the following preamble and resolutions were
adopted: "Whereas, The inhabitants of the township of
Delaware having met in special town-meeting, in order to fill the
quota of the township and relieve the inhabitants from a draft, and
the quota not having been assigned; Therefore Resolved, That
such persons as this meeting shall designate are here by authorized
to loan such sums of money as shall be necessary to pay volunteers
to fill quota, and that the loans so ordered shall not be redeemable
until after the first of November, 1865, when such loans of money
shall be paid; that the amount necessary to pay said loans be
assessed and collected at the same time and in the same manner as
the county and township taxes are raised."
At the annual town-meeting held March 8, 1865, the
action of the special town-meetings was approved, and the sum of
twenty-five thousand dollars was ordered to be raised to aid, in
paying off the debt. In 1866 the sum of twenty thousand dollars was
appropriated to pay off the debt, and in 1867 five thousand dollars
was ordered to be raised for a like purpose, which so reduced the
debt that only small amounts were raised in addition to the usual
appropriations. These practically extinguished the entire debt in
three years after the close of the war. During this exciting period,
and the hurry incident to enlisting and paying volunteers, the
handling of such unusual amounts of money and the limited time often
experienced in getting the money and paying it away, a discrepancy
of about sixteen hundred dollars was found to exist in the accounts,
and, after a year spent in trying to solve the mystery, the
inhabitants, in annual town-meeting, resolved to assume the debt as
it was, and exonerated the township committee from all blame.
Throughout the whole proceedings incident to aiding the government
in subduing the Rebellion, the people of this township evinced a
determined and patriotic zeal to stand by the Union; liberal
bounties were always paid volunteers, and money freely voted, and at
all times in unlimited amounts. Taxes were promptly levied and
collected, which enabled the township not only to fill its quotas of
volunteers for every call, and, in some instances, in advance of the
calls, but also to extinguish its war debt within the same decade in
which it was contracted. Since the extinguishing of the war debt the
affairs of the township have been judiciously and economically
administered, and no bonded debt contracted until the building of a
new town-house, in 1885, when the sum of two thousand dollars was
ordered borrowed to complete the structure.
At the forty-second annual town-meeting, held
March 10, 1885, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:
"Whereas, The present
accommodations of the township of Delaware, now enjoyed in the town
and school-house, greatly interfere with the public school; and
Whereas, The trustees of Ellisburg School District have offered
to pay to the township of Delaware a sum of money equivalent to the
value of the township interest in the present building; and
Whereas, William Graff, a land-owner, adjoining the school
property, has offered to donate a sufficient amount of land to build
a hall for township purposes; therefore be it Resolved, That
the proposition of William Graff to donate a lot of land sufficient
to build a town hall, not less than sixty feet in front, and the
same depth as the present school-lot, be accepted.
"Resolved, That a committee of
three be appointed, who are hereby directed to proceed and secure a
good and sufficient title to the land thus donated, and that as soon
as the same shall be secured and the money raised, that they shall
proceed to build a hall for the township on said lot, in such manner
and of such material as in their judgment shall be to the best
interest of the township, and that the sum of one thousand dollars
be raised especially for that purpose."
The committee appointed to do the work were
William Graff, Isaac W. Coles and Edward S. Huston, with Alfred
Hillman, Samuel L. Bürrough and John A. Meredith, of the township
committee, who completed the present building in time for the
general fall election to be held therein.
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Judges of Election.
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Josiah Ellis
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From 1844 to 1848
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Charles Knight
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From 1848 to 1851
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1851 to 1852
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Thomas P. Clement
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From 1852 to 1853
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Charles Knight
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From 1853 to 1854
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Thomas P. Clements
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From 1854 to 1859
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1859 to 1863
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John C. Shreeve
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From 1863 to 1864
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Benjamin M. Champion
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From 1864 to 1865
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John G. Peak
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From 1865 to 1866
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David D. Burrough
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From 1866 to 1868
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Thomas R. Blackwood
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From 1868 to 1870
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Isaac W. Coles
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From 1870 to 1886
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Town Clerks.
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Mahlon M. Coles
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From 1844 to 1847
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John Rudderow
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From 1847 to 1849
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Josiah H. Ellis
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From 1849 to 1853
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1853 to 1854
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George W. Armstrong
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From 1854 to 1855
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Asa P. Homer
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From 1855 to 1856
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Elwood H. Fowler
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From 1856 to 1857
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Samuel B. Githens
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From 1857 to 1860
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Joseph H. Fowler
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From 1860 to 1864
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Blanchard B. H. Archer
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From 1864 to 1865
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William C. Wood
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From 1865 to 1867
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Edward Burrough
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From 1867 to 1879
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Enoch C. Roberts
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From 1879 to 1881
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Joseph K. Hillman
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From 1881 to 1882
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Clayton Stafford
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From 1882 to 1886
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Assessors.
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1844 to 1849
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John Rudderow
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From 1849 to 1854
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1854 to 1855
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Theodore W. Rogers
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From 1855 to 1860
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Samuel B. Githens
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From 1860 to 1864
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1864 to 1867
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Isaac P. Lippincott
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From 1867 to 1868
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Joseph H. Fowler
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From 1868 to 1878
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William D. Coles
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From 1878 to 1886
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Collectors.
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George T. Risdon
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From 1844 to 1851
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Asa P. Horner
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From 1851 to 1855
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Joel Horner
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From 1855 to 1859
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Elwood H. Fowler
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From 1859 to 1870
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John T. Coles
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From 1870 to 1877
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Edward S. Huston
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From 1877 to 1886
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Township Committee.
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Alexander Cooper
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From 1844 to 1849
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Joseph A. Burrough
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From 1844 to 1845
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Joseph K. Lippincott
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From 1844 to 1849
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Samuel T. Coles
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From 1844 to 1849
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Isaac Adams
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From 1844 to 1846
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Charles Knight
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From 1845 to 1849
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Adam B. Evaul
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From 1846 to 1849
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John H. Lippincott
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From 1849 to 1852
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Thomas P. Clement
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From 1849 to 1854
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William Horner
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From 1849 to 1850
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William E. Matlack
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From 1849 to 1854
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Joseph H. Coles
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From 1849 to 1851
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Joseph A. Burrough
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From 1850 to 1854
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Isaac M. Kay
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From 1851 to 1853
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Joseph C. Stafford
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From 1852 to 1854
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Joseph F. Kay
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From 1853 to 1855
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Samuel E. Clement
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From 1854 to 1855
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William Horner
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From 1854 to 1855
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Isaac Browning
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From 1854 to 1858
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John H. Lippincott
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From 1854 to 1855
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Asa P. Horner
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From 1855 to 1866
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Asa R. Lippincott
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From 1855 to 1862
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Thomas Evans, Jr.
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From 1855 to 1858
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Evan C. Smith
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From 1855 to 1856
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Benjamin Horner
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From 1856 to 1859
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Joseph C. Stafford
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From 1856 to 1867
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William Carter
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From 1858 to 1859
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Job B. Kay
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From 1858 to 1861.
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Joseph A. Burrough
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From 1859 to 1863
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Isaac W. Nicholson
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From 1859 to 1869
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Mordecai W. Haines
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From 1861 to 1862
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Joseph H. Fowler
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From 1862 to 1864
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Samuel S. Haines
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From 1862 to 1869
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Enoch Roberts
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From 1863 to 1867
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William D. Coles
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From 1864 to 1876
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Joseph H. Coles
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From 1867 to 1869
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Joseph F. Kay
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From 1867 to 1872
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Samuel L. Burrough
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From 1869 to 1874
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Asa R. Lippincott
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From 1869 to 1875
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John H. Wilkins
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From 1869 to 1872
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Alfred Hillman
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From 1872 to 1886
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Leonard Snowden
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From 1872 to 1874
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Joseph Hinchman, Jr.
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From 1874 to 1879
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Abel Hillman
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From 1874 to 1877
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Joseph G. Evans
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From 1875 to 1877
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Samuel L. Burrough
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From 1876 to 1881
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William D. Coles
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From 1877 to 1878
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Charles E. Matlack
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From 1877 to 1879
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John T. Coles
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From 1878 to 1879
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Abel Hillman
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From 1879 to 1882
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William Graff
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From 1881 to 1883
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John A. Meredith
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From 1882 to 1886
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Samuel L. Burrough
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From 1883 to 1886
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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. - The
irregularities of the boundaries of this township bring it near the
boroughs of Merchantville and Haddonfield, in this county, and the
villages of Marlton, Fellowship and Moorestown, in Burlington
County. While it contains only two small villages and but one church
- that of St. Mary’s, at Colestown, being the oldest Episcopal
Church in West Jersey - and a Baptist Chapel, recently erected in
Ellisburg, which constitute the religious institutions of the
township, and there are but three school buildings in the township;
yet, notwithstanding this seeming scarcity of churches and schools,
there is no community in the county that enjoys better facilities in
these respects, owing to those in adjoining townships and whose
school districts and parishes embrace large tracts in this township.
The general character of the township is that of a prosperous
agricultural community, composed of an intelligent, honest,
economical and industrious class of citizens. The soil is that of a
sandy loam, although nearly every variety of the soils of West
Jersey are to be found within its limits. To a greater or less
extent, nearly every branch of agriculture is pursued; grain and
grass, stock, truck, fruit and dairy-farming are largely carried on
and its products and value of its lands compare favorably with any
in the State, being well watered and drained by numerous live
streams, tributaries of the two creeks forming its boundaries. The
inhabitants of this township have always regarded a good system of
highways essential to the welfare of the people, and since the
formation of the township, expend annually the greater portion of
the township taxes upon the highways.
MILLS. - The manufactures are chiefly
composed of grist-mills and carriage-making shops. Of the former
there are at present three in operation, with two or three vacant
sites awaiting development. The mill now known as Leconey’s Mill
situated in the northwestern past of the township, on the Church
road, about half a mile west of Colestown Cemetery, was built by
Reuben Roberts in the year 1838, who several years after sold it to
Richard Leconey, the present prosperous and respected owner. It has
long been noted for the superior quality of the flour manufactured
in it. Charles Matlack’s mill, in the eastern part, was formerly
known as Hopkins’ Mill, and is still in good repair and doing
considerable business. It was built by John Sparks near the close of
the last century. A few years ago one of the largest and best
grist-mills, situated in the southern part of the township, and
known as Peterson’s Mill, was burned down, and although the
foundations of a new building have been erected, the site still
remains vacant. Stevenson’s Mill, near Ellisburg, was at an early
day in a flourishing condition, but has been abandoned for the past
decade and is fast going to decay. The most flourishing of all the
establishments of the kind in the township is the mill of J.G. Evans
& Co., on Coopers Creek, near the borough of Haddonfield, familiarly
known as Evans’ Mill. This mill was erected by Isaac Kay, in 1779,
who, by will, left it to his son Joseph. It later passed to Mathias
Kay, and in 1819 the property was purchased by Thomas Evans, by whom
it was rebuilt and enlarged in 1839, and greatly improved by the
introduction of modern machinery. Thomas Evans dying in 1849, left
the mill by will to his son, Josiah B. Evans. He, with progressive
ideas, had it thoroughly altered and changed and was assisted by
Solomon Matlack, a first-class millwright, whom Mr. Evans took in
with him as one-third partner.
Josiah Evans died in 1869, leaving the property to
his children, who now own it, and the business is carried on by the
son, Joseph G. Evans, who is ably assisted by Reuben Stiles. In all
these years the flour was made by the old-fashioned millstones, but
in 1883 it was changed into a roller-mill and supplied with the
Stevens rolls and many other improvements. Recently they added the
Four-Reel Bolting Chest, manufactured by J.M. Latimer & Co. The mill
has a capacity of seventy barrels per each twenty-four hours.
For an account of the Kay Mill prior to 1779, see
the history of the borough of Haddonfield.
In 1870 the population of the township was sixteen
hundred and twenty-five, and in the census of 1880 it is put down at
fourteen hundred and eighty-one, showing a decrease in ten years of
one hundred and forty-four.
EARLY SETTLERS.- The country comprising the
township of Delaware was settled about the latter part of the
seventeenth century, and many of the people who made this their home
were followers of William Penn, and the Society of Friends claimed,
perhaps, the greater portion of the inhabitants. Among those who
appear to have made an early settlement, and whose names appear on
the township records, are the Bateses, Burroughs, Coleses, Coopers,
Collins, Davises, Ellises, Gills, Heritages, Haineses, Kays,
Matlacks, Champions and Shivers, and their descendants, still
bearing these names, are numbered among the present inhabitants.
Samuel Coles came from Coles Hill, Hertfordshire, England, and
located a tract of five hundred acres of land on the north side of
Coopers Creek, fronting on the river. This survey, according to
"Early Settlers of Newton," bears date Third Month 13, 1682. Being a
neighbor of William Cooper at Coles Hill was, no doubt, the cause of
his locating near him in America, as William Cooper at that time
lived on the opposite side of the creek, in the midst of an Indian
village. These Indian neighbors informed Coles that there was better
land farther back from the river; he determined to verify these
statements, and finding them correct, he, in 1685, purchased of
Jeremiah Richards a tract of over one thousand acres, which,
although unbroken forest, he called New Orchard. This tract is now
known as Colestown, and embraces many valuable farms, and much of
the land still remains in the direct and collateral branches of the
family. Samuel Coles was a member of the Legislature in 1683 and
1685, and was one of the commissioners appointed to locate the
boundary line between Burlington and Gloucester Counties. He
returned to England a few years later, and died at Barbadoes, on his
return voyage to America. He had, but two children, Samuel and
Sarah; the former inherited the whole of the real estate, and
occupied the same until his death, in 1728. The old house, built by
the first Samuel, was standing a few years since; it was built of
logs, one story high, and had but two windows; it has been used for
various purposes, and is located in the farm-yard of Joseph H.
Coles, at Colestown, a lineal descendant from the first Samuel
Coles, and in whom the title of the property still remains. The
Coles are a numerous family, and although many have emigrated, there
still remains many of the name within the township. It is upon a
portion of the Coles tract that St. Mary’s Church, the first
Episcopal Church in West Jersey, was erected about the year 1703,
and it still remains in a good state of preservation. The history of
this ancient edifice is deserving of a more extended notice, and
will be found in another chapter.
One of the earliest settlers in what is now
Delaware township was Thomas Howell, who, although not of the Dublin
colony, yet, in 1675, purchased part of a share of the propriety in
West Jersey of Benjamin Bartlett, whose wife, Gracia, was a daughter
of Edward Byllinge. Howell resided in Staffordshire, England. He
came to this country and located a tract of six hundred and fifty
acres of land, in 1682, on the north side of Coopers Creek, in
Waterford (now Delaware) township, which "included what is generally
known as the Jacob Troth farm on the east, and extended down that
stream nearly one mile, and back into the woods about the same
distance." Upon this tract, which he called "Christianity," he built
a house, in which he lived the short time he was in the settlement.
The next year, 1683, he, with Samuel Coles, represented the
territory which a few years later became Waterford township, and,
with Mark Newbie and others from Newton township, represented the
Third (or Irish) Tenth in the Legislature of the State. The house in
which he lived is supposed to have been near the creek, on the
Barton farm. He located other lands in Gloucester County, which soon
after passed to others, as he died in 1687. Before his death he
conveyed one hundred acres of the land on Coopers Creek to Richard
Wright (whose son John married Elizabeth Champion). He settled upon
it and left it to his son John, who, in 1691 and 1693, purchased
other lands of the Howell survey and adjoining land, later owned by
John Champion, his father-in-law. His family consisted of his wife,
three sons - Samuel, Daniel (married Hannah Lakin, in 1686) and
Mordecai - and three daughters, - Priscilla (married Robert Stiles),
Marion (married Henry Johnson) and Catharine. His children were born
in England, and his wife, Catharine, did not come to this country
during, his life-time, but, in 1693, was a resident of Philadelphia.
Samuel, the eldest son, remained in England. Daniel came into
possession of the homestead, and in 1687, the year of his father’s
death, he sold to Mordecai two hundred and fifty acres of land, with
the buildings, on Coopers Creek. In 1688 he conveyed one hundred
acres of the homestead to Moses Lakin, probably a brother of his
wife, and, in 1690, sixty acres of the same tract to Josiah
Appleton, adjoining other lands of John and Richard Appleton, at a
place then called "Appletown," a little village entirely lost. In
1691 Daniel moved from Coopers Creek to a place near Philadelphia,
which he called Hartsfield, and after a short residence removed to
Stacy’s Mills, at the falls of the Delaware, around which the city
of Trenton was afterwards built. He became, with Mahlon Stacy, one
of the first and most active residents of that now thriving city.
Mordecai Howell, son of Thomas, was one of the
witnesses in the controversy between the Penns and Lord Baltimore.
He says he came to America in 1682, and ascended the Delaware River
in company with the ship that brought William Penn, in November,
1682. After his father’s death, in 1687, he returned to England and
resided there three years. The ancestral home at Tamworth, in
Staffordshire, in the division of the estate, was left to Daniel,
who subsequently passed it to his brother, Mordecai, who retained
it. He returned to this country in 1690, and lived on the homestead
property on Coopers Creek. In 1697 he sold it to Henry Franklin, a
bricklayer, of New York, who did not move to the place, but, May 13,
1700, sold it to John Champion, of Long Island, who settled upon it.
The farm contained three hundred and thirty acres and was named
"Livewell," probably changed from "Christianity" by Mordecai Howell,
who resided there several years. In 1687 Thomas Howell, the father,
erected a dam on Coopers Creek, probably with a view of building a
mill. He was indicted by the grand jury for obstructing the stream,
and abandoned the work. His son Mordecai, a few years later, built a
saw-mill at the mouth of a small branch that emptied into Coopers
Creek. This mill in time came to John Champion, and was in use many
years. He became largely interested in real estate in Gloucester
County, and, in 1702, bought of Henry Treadway the Lovejoy survey,
an account of which will be found in the history of Haddonfield
borough. Lovejoy was a blacksmith, and a tract of land now in
Delaware township, on the north side of Coopers Creek, where the
Salem road crossed that creek, which he obtained for his services
from the Richard Mathews estate, was named by him "Uxbridge,"
probably from a town of that name in Middlesex, England. Mordecai
Howell located a tract of fifty acres of land adjoining and below
the present Evans mill. It does not appear that he was ever married,
and that about 1706 he removed to Chester County, Pa.
The widow of Thomas Howell, in 1693, then a
resident of Philadelphia, conveyed to Henry Johnson (who about that
time married her daughter Marian) eighty eight acres of land, on
which he settled, and where for a generation his family also
resided.
Gabriel Thomas, writing in 1698, says of Robert
Stiles, who married Priscilla Howell: "The trade of Gloucester
County consists chiefly in pitch, tar and rosin, the latter of which
is made by Robert Stiles, an excellent artist in that sort of work,
for he delivers it as clear as any gum arabick."
He settled on the north side of the south branch
of Pensaukin Creek on land now owned by Samuel Roberts, where he
died in 1728, leaving two sons, Robert and Ephraim, from whom the
family of that name descend. Thomas Howell by will bequeathed to
Priscilla one hundred acres of the homestead property, which herself
and husband, in 1690, conveyed to Mordecai.
William Cooper was the first settler of the name
at Coopers Point (now Camden), of whom a full account will be found
in the early settlement of that city. In the latter part of his life
he conveyed all his land at Pyne or Coopers Point to his sons and
retired to a tract of land containing four hundred and twenty-nine
acres, which he located in 1685, it being in the township of
Waterford (now Delaware), where he built a house and about 1708
moved to the place.
A part of the house is still standing, being a
portion of the homestead of Benjamin B. Cooper, and afterwards the
property of Ralph V.M. Cooper (deceased). To this house he removed,
but not long to remain, as he died in 1710. The funeral party went
on boats down Coopers Creek to the river, thence to Newton Creek and
up the latter to the old grave-yard. William Cooper left a large
family and his descendants still hold some of the original estate in
the city of Camden, which has followed the blood of the first owners
from generation to generation for nearly two hundred years.
Alexander Cooper and his son, Richard M., lineal descendants, are
the only ones of the name now residing in the township, although not
upon these lands.
William Cooper, in 1687, located five hundred and
seventy-two acres of land, now in Delaware township. This came to
his son Joseph and later to his grandson Joseph. He had a daughter
Mary, who married Jacob Howell. She died young, but left two
daughters, Hannah and Mary; the former married John Wharton, and the
latter, in 1762, married Benjamin Swett. They lived upon these
lands, which in old records are designated as the Wharton and Swett
tracts. The Wharton farm includes the farm now owned by Mrs. Abby C.
Shinn, widow of Charles H. Shinn. On this farm stands an old house,
built prior to 1728, at which time it was occupied by George Ervin,
a tenant of Joseph Cooper.
Other farms on the original survey are owned by
Charles H. and Robert T. Hurff, Edward W. Coffin, Montgomery
Stafford and others. Benjamin Swett, to whose wife part of this
survey descended, built a saw-mill on a stream running through it,
and his son, Joseph C. Swett, subsequently built a grist-mill on the
same site. This was carried away by a freshet, and another erected,
which was burned a few years since.
Daniel Cooper, the youngest son of Daniel (the son
of William), settled on a tract of land, in 1728, on the south side
of the north branch of Coopers Creek. This was a survey of five
hundred acres made by William Cooper in 1687, and is now divided
into several valuable farms. The dwelling of Daniel Cooper was on
the plantation formerly owned and occupied by William Horten,
deceased. In the old titles Daniel is called a "drover," which
calling he perhaps connected with his farming operations and derived
some profit therefrom.
In connection with the Cooper family, it might not
be out of place to call attention to the harmony which seems to have
always prevailed between the early settlers of Gloucester County and
their Indian neighbors. There are no traditionary tales of night
attacks, wars, massacres and pillage, as are found in the histories
of almost all the other colonies; this is attributable, no doubt, in
a great measure, to the settlers being largely composed of the
Society of Friends, whose peaceful propensities soon won the
confidence of these children of the forest, and their treaties, like
that of Penn, were never broken. It is a singular coincidence that,
as the Coopers settled among the Indians of the county, so the last
of the aborigines died upon the land of the Coopers, on the farm
lately owned by Benjamin D. Cooper, in Delaware township. This
Indian was well-known to many of the present generation, and was
found dead in an old hay barrack, one morning in December, where he
had no doubt sought to spend the night after one of his drunken
revelries. He was buried in a corner of an apple orchard, on the
farm which ever afterward and still is known as the Indian Orchard.
This grave is in a good state of preservation.** It is located near
a corner to the lands now owned by Samuel Coles, Geo. W. Moore and
the heirs of Sarah A.C. Lee (formerly Cooper).
The family of Champions were at Hempstead, L.I.,
in 1673, where John and Thomas and their families resided. On the
13th of May, 1700, Henry Franklin conveyed to John Champion, of
Hempstead, L.I., a tract of three hundred acres of land on the north
side of Coopers Creek, in Waterford township (now Delaware), to
which place he removed. Part of this estate is what is now known as
the Barton farm, and upon which stood the residence of John
Champion; this was near where one of the roads, crossed Coopers
Creek in going from Burlington to Philadelphia. The difficulty of
getting travelers across the creek led to the establishment of a
ferry, a license for which was granted by the grand jury of
Gloucester County, and the charges fixed.
The coming of John Champion to West Jersey was, no
doubt, caused by his daughter Elizabeth marrying John Wright, a son
of Richard Wright, who had purchased land there of Thomas Howell. In
1691 and 1693 the son John increased his possessions by purchasing
adjoining tracts from Thomas Howell’s heirs. In 1718 John Champion
divided his landed estate between his sons Robert and Nathaniel, by
a line running from the creek into the woods, and made each a deed
dated April 24th. His other children were Thomas and Phoebe. He died
in 1727. Robert Champion had one son, Peter, who, in 1740, married
Hannah Thackara; she deceased and he married Ann Ellis, a daughter
of William, a son of Simeon Ellis, in 1746, by whom he had one son,
Joseph. Peter Champion died in 1748, and his widow, Ann, married
John Stokes, and after his demise she married Samuel Murrell, 1761.
By each marriage she had children. Joseph Champion, the issue of the
second marriage of Peter, married, Rachel Collins, a daughter of
Samuel Collins and Rosanna (Stokes), in 1771. By this marriage he
had three sons - Samuel C., William C. and Joseph - and a daughter,
Mary. Rachel Champion died January 7, 1783, when her youngest child,
Joseph C., was but two weeks old. Joseph married Rachel Brown, of
Springfield, Burlington County, in the spring of 1784. By this
marriage he had three sons and one daughter. Ann Ellis, the wife of
Peter Champion, inherited a tract of land on both sides of the
Moorestown and Haddonfield road, now owned by the heirs of William
Morris Cooper and Samuel M. Heulings, a lineal descendant of Simeon
Ellis, through the Murrells on his mother’s side. Joseph C.
Champion, the son of Joseph Champion, married Sarah Burrough,
daughter of John Burrough, in 1809. His children were Ann W., who
married Joseph Ellis; Chalkley Collins, who married Christian a
Geading, of Philadelphia, and died in 1866; William Cooper, married
Rebecca F., daughter of Benjamin Howey (he died in 1879); Elizabeth
R., married George G. Hatch in 1836 (he died in 1842, leaving her
with three children; the oldest one, Charles, was a soldier in the
Union army during the entire War of the Rebellion); John B., married
Keturah Heulings in 1850 (he died in 1884, without issue); Mary M.,
married William Yard, of Philadelphia, in 1852 (he died in 1862, no
issue); Benjamin M., married Mary Ann, the daughter of General
William Irick, of Burlington County; Joseph, died single in 1829;
Emily, died young; Samuel C. Champion, a twin brother of Richard B.
Champion, never married; Richard B. married Mary G. Kay, in 1855. He
has three children - Marietta K., Sarah J. and Isaac K. - who reside
in Camden. The name is now extinct in the township. Joseph C.
Champion died January 28, 1847; his widow, Sarah Champion, died July
12, 1860. Samuel C. was a blacksmith, and plied his calling at
Colestown, on the property lately the residence of George T. Risdon,
but now owned by Watson Ivins, adjoining the farm of Thomas Roberts.
Francis Collins, of whom a full account will be
found in Haddon township, where he resided, soon after his
settlement, in 1682, located five hundred acres of land fronting on
the north side of Coopers Creek, in what is now Delaware township, a
part of which he afterwards conveyed to his son Francis, who, in
1718, sold it to Jacob Horner. It is now the estate of William C.
Wood. Francis Collins, the father, in 1720, conveyed two hundred
acres of the tract to Samuel Shivers, a part of which is yet in the
family name.
Francis Collins also located land north of Coopers
Creek, as the first purchase of John Kay was land from Francis
Collins, which he afterward sold to Simeon Ellis, and embraced the
farm of Samuel C. Cooper, now occupied by Jesse L. Anderson, in
Delaware township, and in 1689 Thomas Shackle bought land of Francis
Collins a little north of Ellisburg, which became the property of
John Burrough in 1735, and is now owned by Amos E. Kaighn. In 1691
Simeon Ellis purchased two hundred acres of land from Francis
Collins, which lay upon both sides of the King’s Highway, and was a
part of a tract of eight hundred acres conveyed in 1687 to Samuel
Jennings and Robert Dimsdale (the latter his son-in-law), as
trustees for his daughter Margaret, and a part of which became the
property of Margaret Hugg (a daughter of Francis Collins), who sold
the same to Simeon Ellis in 1695. It included the town of Ellisburg
and several surrounding farms. In 1705 William Matlack purchased two
hundred acres of land of Francis Collins, in Waterford township,
near the White Horse Tavern, lying on both sides of the south branch
of Coopers Creek. In 1691 Thomas Atkinson purchased a large tract of
land of Francis Collins, in Waterford (now Delaware) township, on
Coopers Creek, of which he sold Edward Burrough one hundred and
seven acres in 1693.
The Burroughs*** were among the first members of
the Society of Friends, and came from Warwickshire, England, where
they suffered in common with others of their religious belief,
prominent among whom was Edward Burrough, of Underbarrow, the
defender and expounder of the doctrines of the Society of Friends,
and who preached these doctrines to the people, he and a companion
(Francis Howgill) being the first Friends to visit London. In 1654
he was mobbed in the city of Bristol for preaching to the people,
and cast into prison in Ireland for a like offence, and finally
banished from the island. After Charles the Second came to the
throne he obtained a personal interview with the King, and procured
an order from him to prevent the persecution of Friends in New
England, which order the Friends in London forwarded by a ship that
they had chartered specially for that purpose at the expense of
three hundred pounds. Edward Burrough again visited Bristol in 1662
and held several meetings there, and when bidding adieu to the
Friends he said: "I am going up to London again to lay down my life
for the Gospel, and suffer amongst Friends in that place." He
accordingly visited London, and while preaching to the people at a
meeting at the Bull and Mouth, he was arrested and cast into Newgate
Prison, where many Friends were then confined. This was about the
last of the Third Month; his case was several times before the
courts, and he was finally fined and ordered to lay in prison until
the fine was paid. The payment of a fine for such a cause being
contrary to his religious belief, he preferred to suffer, rather
than yield his principles. The pestilential air of the prison soon
preyed upon his health, and, although young and of robust physique,
he sickened and died in Newcastle Prison Twelfth Month 14, 1662, in
the twenty-ninth year of his age. There is no record of his being
married or of his ever coming to America.
John Burrough was born in the year 1626, and was
imprisoned in Buckinghamshire in 1660, and Joseph Burrough suffered
the same injustice in Essex during the same year. The son and
daughter of William Burrough were maltreated in Warwickshire while
on their way to Banbury Meeting. These facts are mentioned to show
that the family was numerous in England and mostly Friends. They
soon after came to America and settled on Long Island, where John
Burrough is first mentioned as being assessed there in September,
1675. Between that date and 1689 John, Jeremiah, Joseph and Edward
Burrough were all located on Long Island. In 1688 John Burrough came
to Gloucester County, N.J., and located near Timber Creek. In 1693
Edward Burrough located a tract in Delaware township (then
Waterford) which embraced the farm now owned by Joseph K. Hillman.
He remained only a few years, when it is thought he removed to
Salem. This tract of land was held by those of the family name for
many years, and until Elizabeth Burrough, a daughter of John,
married Samuel Matlack, whose descendants still hold portions of the
land. Samuel Burrough, a son of John, was born in 1650, and was the
third person of that name that came into Old Gloucester County. He
is first noticed at the little town of Pensaukin. On November 16,
1698, he purchased three hundred acres of land from Joseph Heritage,
in Waterford township. He first married Hannah Taylor, a daughter of
John Taylor, and afterwards married Hannah Roberts, daughter of John
and Sarah Roberts, on the 27th day of the Tenth Month, 1699. They
had nine children. Samuel, the oldest, was born Ninth Month 28,
1701, and in 1723 married Ann Gray, a daughter of Richard and Joanna
Gray. In 1703 his father purchased the farm of Richard Bromly,
containing two hundred acres of land, and it was upon this farm and
in the dwelling erected by Richard Bromly, that Samuel Burrough and
Ann Gray removed soon after their marriage. This farm is now owned
by Charles Collins and the house above-mentioned was torn down in
1845. Samuel and Ann had nine children. Joseph, the fifth child,
erected the house, in 1761, now owned by Edward Burrough, on a part
of the Richard Bromly tract adjoining the homestead. Joseph married,
first, Mary Pine; second, Kesiah Parr (widow of Samuel Parr) and
whose maiden-name was Aronson; third, Lydia Strech, another widow,
whose maiden-name was Tomlinson. He had one son, William, by the
first wife and two sons, Joseph and Reuben, by the second wife.
Joseph married Martha Davis, a daughter of David and Martha Davis,
in 1792, and succeeded his father in the occupancy of the house he
built in 1761. They had seven children. Joseph Aaronson Burrough,
the fourth child, was born Ninth Month 9, 1802. In 1824 he married
Anna Lippincott, daughter of Samuel and Anna Lippincott, of Evesham,
by whom he had seven children. Samuel L. Burrough, being the oldest,
still owns, and his only son, Joseph A. Burrough, now occupies a
portion of the old homestead tract. The house in which he dwells, by
a singular coincidence, was built by his grandfather, after whom he
was named, in 1861, just one hundred years after that built by the
first Joseph, from whom it has regularly descended. The present
dwelling of Samuel L. Burrough, erected in 1885, stands on a part of
the old Spicer tract, acquired from the Rudderows by his father.
Joseph A. Burrough, after the death of his first wife, married Mary
H., another daughter of Samuel and Anna Lippincott, being a sister
of his first wife, for which offence they were both disowned from
membership with the Society of Friends. By this wife were born to
him six children, only two of whom lived to attain their majority, -
Edward, who married Emily Collins, a lineal descendant of Francis
Collins, and Mary L., who married Henry Troth, neither of whom have
any descendants. Edward Burrough still owns and occupies the farm
and dwelling erected by his ancestors in 1761, being the fifth
generation to whom it has descended. This farm was surrounded by
heavy timber, with the exception of one field, which bordered on the
King’s Highway, leading from Camden to Mount Holly, and during the
Revolutionary period was resorted to by the American army as a
pasturage for their cattle during the occupancy of Philadelphia by
the British. This farm was selected for that purpose on account of
its being so surrounded by timber as to afford a hiding-place from
the patrols that were sent out by Lord Howe to destroy the American
supplies, and has ever since borne the name of Woodland Farm. The
British were evidently informed that cattle were in this vicinity,
and a detachment was sent out to capture them, who fortunately took
the road to Medford and thus missed their prize, for they were
immediately driven to Cumberland County, and were, no doubt, a part
of the stores over which the action at Greenwich Point was fought.
During the period of the battle at Red Bank the kitchen of this old
homestead was made the rendezvous of the American scouts, and,
notwithstanding the religious principles of the occupants, these
scouts seemed to find no fault or objection to the reception that
always awaited them, and many interesting anecdotes have been handed
down to succeeding generations. These members of the Burrough family
and David A. Burrough, another lineal descendant, being a son of
David Davis Burrough, a younger brother of Joseph Aaronson Burrough,
and who resides on the farm acquired by Joseph Burrough from his
wife, Martha Davis, are all of the name now residing in Delaware
township. The family is by no means extinct, members of it being
located in nearly every county in West Jersey, and are found in
Pennsylvania, Maryland and other States.
Much of the land owned by the Burroughs in
Delaware township was covered by dense forests of large oak timber
and large quantities of ship and building lumber were cut and sawed
on the estate at a saw-mill built by Joseph Burrough, on the farm
now owned by Edward Burrough. The location of this mill was near the
Pensaukin Creek, at the junction of two small streams that flow
through the farm, which at that time were a never-failing source of
power. This mill was burnt down during the early part of the present
century, and was rebuilt by his son Joseph, who had inherited that
part of the estate, and cut much fine lumber. In 1816 a cyclone
passed through a portion of his timber, on the land now owned by the
heirs of Joseph C. Stoy (deceased). The track of the cyclone was not
over one hundred yards in width. The timber uprooted by the storm
consisted of large white oaks, which were sold to the ship-yards in
Philadelphia. Among the trees uprooted was a white oak just the
shape of a ship’s keel and seventy-four feet long; it was hewed in
the woods and drawn to Coopers Creek by seventeen horses, under the
management of Jacob Troth, where it was floated down the creek to
Philadelphia and used as the keel of the United States sloop-of-war
"SeventyFour," from which circumstance the vessel was named. The
value of the wood and lumber at that day was greater than at
present, a proof of which is evident from the fact that the
cord-wood cut from the tops of these blown-down white oaks was sold
at the landing on Coopers Creek for twelve hundred dollars. In 1836
a severe rain-storm occurred, which so flooded the streams that
nearly every mill-dam in the township was destroyed, among them the
dam of the pond above referred to, which has never been rebuilt,
although much of the dam is still standing, and in a good state of
preservation. A short time previous to the breaking of the dam the
mill was destroyed by fire. The calamities occurring so near
together, and the inroads made in these primeval forests, no doubt
caused the site to be abandoned for mill purposes.
The Ellises came from Yorkshire, England, in 1680
or 1683, and settled in Springfield, in Burlington County. Simeon
Ellis purchased land in Waterford township, on the north side of the
north branch of Coopers Creek, of Francis Collins, in 1691, but the
place of his nativity is unknown. He built his log cabin on a
portion near the stream, on the farm now owned by Samuel Lippincott,
and occupied by Samuel H. Griscom, and named the place Springwell.
In 1695 Simeon Ellis bought four hundred acres of land of Margaret
Hugg, adjoining his first purchase. This Margaret was a daughter of
Francis Collins. These first purchases of Simeon Ellis included the
land now occupied by the village of Ellisburg, in Delaware township.
He purchased other tracts of land in the vicinity, some of which
include the farms of John Ballenger and others on the south side of
the stream, and other portions are now owned by William Graff, Logan
Paul and Joseph K. Lippincott, Jr. He was a member of the Society of
Friends, and was one of those who made up the assemblages at John
Kay’s or Thomas Shackle’s houses. He died in 1715, dividing his
property among his children, seven in number. Simeon, the fourth
son, acquired that portion now embracing the village of Ellisburg.
He died in 1773, leaving six children, - Isaac, who married Mary
Shivers, a daughter of Samuel Shivers; Benjamin, who married Sarah
Bates; William, who married Amy Matlack; John, who married Priscilla
Peterson (widow); Sarah, who married William Duyre; and Simeon, who
married a Bates, sister to Benjamin’s wife. Isaac settled that
portion of the homestead including the village of Ellisburg, and
died there, leaving several children, - Isaac, Rebecca and Simeon.
Isaac married Sarah Hillman in 1785, and always lived near
Ellisburg, on his father’s homestead. About the year 1795 the
Evesham road, now Marlton turnpike, was laid, crossing the
Haddonfield and Moorestown road nearly at right angles, and it was
at this crossing that Isaac Ellis erected a hotel, a part of which
is still standing. He had three sons by his first wife, - Simeon,
Isaac and Josiah, - and also two daughters, Martha and Hannah. His
second wife was Ann Zane, by whom he had one son, Joseph Ellis, the
present owner of the hotel, and the oldest resident in the place,
being eighty years of age, to whom most of this property descended.
He died in 1828. Joseph Ellis married Ann W. Champion, the eldest
child of Joseph C. Champion, who still remains the companion of his
declining years. Notwithstanding his advanced age, he is still
active and participates in nearly all the public meetings held in
the township, and possesses a mind well-stored with the traditions
of the neighborhood and his ancestors. Joseph and Ann W. Ellis have
four daughters remaining, out of a family of eight children, -
Martha Ann, who married James Wills; Sarah, who married Samuel M.
Hulings; Elizabeth, who married George C. Kay; and Hannah, who
remains single - all of whom reside in the township.
The pioneers of this family shared, with their
neighbors, the privations of the Revolutionary period, and many
interesting anecdotes are told concerning their adventures. At one
time the Indians encamped at Oxfords Landing, at the junction of the
north and south branches of Coopers Creek, came to the house of
Isaac Ellis to borrow fire; the farmer was engaged threshing
buckwheat in the barn at the time, and directed them to the big
fire-place in his kitchen for the coals desired; having secured a
large brand, they started for home, but evidently desiring to return
thanks for the favor, proceeded into the barn with the lighted
torch, where Friend Ellis was threshing; his surprise and anxiety
can well be imagined, and it took considerable jabbering to convince
his dusky neighbors of the danger they were subjecting him to; but
happily no damage resulted. He continued to live on friendly terms
with these people as long as they remained in the neighborhood.
During the movements of the British through New
Jersey, about the time of the battle of Red Bank, they were informed
by a Tory named Wines that there was a considerable number of cattle
on the Ellis and Kay farms, which they were not long in securing.
They drove them towards Moorestown, and when passing the residence
now occupied by David A. Burrough, a weaver who was there at the
time came out from behind the house and shook his frock, which
frightened the cattle and they stampeded down a lane known as Fore
Lane and then into the deer-park woods, from which the British
failed to extricate them, and consequently the cattle, in a day or
two, returned home. At the close of the war the Tory Wines fled to
Nova Scotia, but returned, after an absence of many years, to be
indignantly received by all who knew him. It is from these families
that the town of Ellisburg was founded, and the present Joseph Ellis
is a descendant, and at one time owned a large tract of land in and
adjoining the town. Mr. Ellis is now one of the oldest and most
respected of the inhabitants, and will ever be remembered with
kindness by all who knew him.
After the death of Peter Champion, Ann Ellis (his
widow) married John Stokes, by whom she had two sons, who settled in
Virginia. By Samuel Murrell she had two children, - Samuel, who
married a Chambers, and had daughters; Ann E. Murrell, who married
Batheuel M. Heulings, who inherited the farm whereon her son, Samuel
M. Heulings, now resides, from her half-brother, being a part of the
tract Simeon Ellis gave to his son William, and has since remained
in the blood, although passing out of the name. Ann E. Heulings
(late Murrell) was left a widow in 1845, with ten children, five of
whom at this writing are deceased. Her two sons, Batheuel and Abram,
were soldiers during the entire War of the Rebellion. They were both
in the Union army, and Batheuel was severely wounded at the battle
of Gettysburg by a musket-ball which passed clear through him, from
the effects of which he finally died several years after the close
of the war.
The Gills were relations of Elizabeth Estaugh, and
no doubt came to America under her patronsge, and at one time owned
and resided on a valuable tract of land in this township (see
Haddonfield borough). The first grant of land made by John Haddon to
John Gill was in 1714, for two hundred and sixty acres, situated on
both sides of the Haddonfield and Berlin road, and near the head of
the stream known as Swett’s Mill stream, - the land now owned by
Joseph C. Stafford and others. At the time of this conveyance John
Gill resided on this tract. Prior to 1739 this tract came into the
possession of Bartholomew Horner and remained in that name until the
close of the century, but has long since passed entirely out of the
name and blood. It is from these early owners that Horner’s Hill
School no doubt received its name. John Gill afterward resided
nearer Haddonfield, on the premises now owned by Griffith. On this
property near the junction of the two branches of Coopers Creek, was
a landing known as Axfords Landing, a place where considerable
business was transacted, it being the highest landing on the stream,
but its exact location at this time is unknown. John Gill married
Mary Heritage in 1718, and died in 1749, leaving two children,- John
and Hannah, - who, after their marriage, resided outside the limits
of this township, and from whom the Gills now residents of Haddon
and Centre townships are lineal descendants. Much of the lands
formerly owned by the Gills still remain in the family name.
The Haineses settled in the eastern portion of the
township, contemporary with the families previously mentioned, on
the farm now owned by Mrs. Dr. E.B. Woolston, near Cropwell, and
John H. Lippincott, both lineal descendants. They soon became
connected with the Lippincotts, who settled adjoining plantations in
Burlington County, and founded the Friends’ Meeting-house at
Cropwell, of which religious society both families were members. The
Haineses soon began to migrate and seek other employment, and at
present the name is almost extinct in the township, although many of
the females married and settled in the adjoining counties, and to
whose descendants the properties above mentioned have descended.
Richard Heritage was one of the proprietors of the
town of Gloucester when it was laid out, in 1686. He owned lots in
the original town, and was one of the signers of the memorandum made
by the proprietors as to the division of lots. He was the first who
bore the name in West Jersey, and came from Warwickahire, England.
He purchased rights of Edward Byllinge and his trustees in 1684, and
made a location of land on the north side of Pensaukin Creek, in
Burlington County, and called the place "Hatten New Garden." He
purchased other rights and located other lands in this township. He
died in 1702, without a will, and most of his land passed to his
heir-at-law, his eldest son, John. In 1705 he sold to William
Matlack one thousand acres of land in Waterford township. John
married Sarah Slocumn in 1706. To his son Joseph he conveyed
considerable land. Much of this land he sold. It lay on both sides
of the creek and now embraces several valuable farms. Samuel
Burrough purchased a part of this tract in 1698. Joseph Heritage
died in 1756, leaving six children, - Richard, who married Sarah
Whitall and Sarah Tindall; Joseph, who married Ruth Haines;
Benjamin, who married Keziah Matlack; John, who married Sarah Hugg;
Mary, who married John Gill and John Thorne; and Hannah, who married
Mr. Rogers.
It was from Joseph Heritage and his children that
many of the early settlers purchased land, and, although the family
appears to have been a large one, yet the name is now unknown among
the residents of the township, although some remain within the
present limits of Waterford township and still hold a small portion
of the land.
The Kays came from Yorkshire, England, about 1683.
Many of them were Friends, and, consequently, suffered persecution
at the hands of those in authority, in the shape of fines and
imprisonments. At the Court of Quarter Sessions held at Wakefield,
in Yorkshire, in 1661, John Kay, Baronet, was the presiding judge,
and committed sixty Quakers to prison. Ten years after, John Kay was
fined for attending Friends’ Meeting, at York, in the same shire. It
is possible that the latter was the same person as the former, and
that while the committing magistrate he became convinced of the
truth of the doctrines preached by George Fox, laid aside his title
and suffered with the Friends in person and estate. Whether this was
the same John Kay that purchased land in this neighborhood in 1684
is not definitely known, but such is supposed to be the case. This
first purchase is now a part of the farm of Samuel C. Cooper, now
occupied by Jesse L. Anderson, about a mile east of Ellisburg. The
tract embraced the farm of Isaac M. Kay, on the opposite side of the
creek, and which has regularly descended to the present owner, who
is a lineal descendant of John Kay.(4*) There is a tradition that
John Kay first lived in a cave on the hill-side near the creek, but
the location of the place is unknown, although the story is not
improbable. In 1685 a religious meeting was established at the house
of John Kay, by consent of Burlington Friends, in connection with
one of a similar character held at the house of Timothy Hancock, at
Pensaukin, on alternate First Days. These meetings were continued
until 1707. During this period several marriages took place, the
last one recorded being that of Benjamin Thackara and Mary Cooper,
in 1707. These meetings were attended by Friends from Evesham (Mount
Laurel) and Marlton, and serve to show how strongly these people
were attached to their principles, and what difficulties they were
willing to overcome in order to observe the requirements of the
society. In this connection it may be proper to mention that another
meeting was held at the house of Thomas Shackle, from 1695 to 1721,
when John Estaugh gave the ground for a meeting-house at
Haddonfield. The house of Thomas shackle stood upon the farm now
owned by Amos E. Kaighn, a lineal descendant of John Kaighn, who
located near Kaighns Point in 1696. In 1735 the farm became the
property of John Burrough, who most probably built the brick part of
the house, still standing, in the year 1736. John Kay located
several tracts of land near his first purchase, fronting generally
on the north branch of Coopers Creek. In 1710 he purchased the
mansion-house and corn-mill, on the north side of Coopers Creek, now
belonging to the estate of Josiah B. Evans (deceased). This
corn-mill was built by Thomas Kindall, in 1697, and stood some
distance below the dam. The remains of the race may yet be seen, but
the site of the mill is obliterated. He died in 1742, a wealthy man,
leaving a large landed estate, most of which has passed out of the
name, until the only part of the original tract that has remained
continuously in possession of the family is the farm of Joseph F.
Kay, which has descended through the blood for nearly two hundred
years, no deed ever having been made for the same.
The Matlacks came from a small village in
Nottinghamshire, England. William Matlack came in the first boat
that came up the Delaware, and was the first person to put his foot
upon the shore where Burlington now stands; this was about the year
1677. In 1682 he married Mary Hancock, and removed to a tract of
land between the north and south branches of Pensaukin Creek, in
Chester township. In 1701 William Matlack purchased of Richard
Heritage a tract of one thousand acres of land, now part in
Waterford and part in Delaware townships, Camden County. In 1705
John Matlack purchased two hundred acres of land of Francis Collins,
in Waterford township, and in 1708 he married Hannah Horner, and
settled upon his purchase. A part of this estate is now owned by the
heirs of John Wilkins, and the old house stood a short distance from
the handsome residence of the present owners. In 1714 William
Matlack gave his son George five hundred acres of land, a part of
that purchased from the Heritages. In 1717 he purchased two hundred
acres of land, upon which his son Richard settled in 1721. This
tract lies in Delaware township and upon it is located the old
Matlack burying-ground. Richard died in 1748 and was the second
person buried there. In 1779 the estate passed out of the name to
William Todd, and was subsequently bought by Richard M. Cooper,
father of Alexander Cooper, the present owner, who, as before
stated, is a lineal descendant of William Cooper, the first settler
of Camden. The Matlacks are a numerous family and are mostly
Friends. Some of the name still reside within the township and
others in Chester township, in Burlington County. William Ellis (a
son of Simeon) married Amy Matlack, one of the descendants in a
direct line, and who, thereby, became owners of part of the estate.
Levi (a son of William and Amy) became the owner, and his grandson,
Charles E. Ellis, is the possessor of and resides on the estate.
William and Amy settled on the land, and the house they occupied is
still standing.
John Shivers appears as the first settler of the
name in these parts, and purchased a tract of land in Delaware
township, of Mordecai Howell, in 1692, upon which he erected a
dwelling. He died in 1716, and his widow, Sarah Shivers, was
appointed administratrix. In 1720 she purchased an adjoining tract
of land, which extended the estate east of the mill-pond. The
dwelling on the farm now belonging to the estate of Richard Shivers,
deceased, is thought to be the spot where John Shivers erected his
first house, and doubtless some of the material in the present
edifice was taken from the old. John Shivers dying intestate, there
is some doubt as to the exact number of his children, although they
are supposed to be as follows: Samuel, who married Mary Deacon;
John, who married Mary Clement; Mary, who married Thomas Bates;
Hannah, who married John Matlack; and Josiah, who married Ann Bates.
In 1720 Samuel purchased two hundred acres of land from Francis
Collins, and the following year he conveyed his interest in his
father’s estate to his brother John, who remained on the old farm
and whose descendants still occupy portions of the original tract
represented in the farms now occupied by Richard Levis Shivers and
William A. Shivers, the descendants mentioned.
At one period the house in which John Shivers, the
second, lived was kept as an inn, and was no doubt a favorite
resort. John Shivers acquired several other tracts of land in this
and the adjoining townships. He had three sons, - Isaac, Samuel and
John. The latter resided in Salem County, and Charles P. Shivers,
his son, lives at Swedesboro’. Samuel had three sons, - John G.
Shivers, who resided in Haddonfield, and whose sons, Charles Hendry
Shivers, an allopathic physician, and Samuel Shivers, a bricklayer,
still reside in the borough; Joseph C. Shivers resided at Marlton,
Burlington County, and his descendants still reside in that
vicinity, excepting Bowman H. Shivers, who is a homoeopathic
physician and resides in Haddonfield; Bowman was the third son.
Isaac Shivers, the son of John Shivers, the
second, was born September 16, 1773, and acquired the homestead
estate, which, in turn, descended to his children and grandchildren,
Richard Levis Shivers and William A. Shivers, who reside thereon. In
1837 Isaac Shivers removed to Haddonfield, but returned again to his
farm in 1842, but in 1847 he again removed to Haddonfield, where he
died October 19, 1872, having attained the advanced age of
ninety-nine years and one month. He was buried in Colestown
Cemetery. his children were as follows: Sarah, born May 1, 1805, and
remained single; Joseph Levis, born January 7, 1807, married
Henrietta Hendry, a daughter of Dr. Bowman Hendry, of Haddonfield,
and had four children, - Bowman H., Isaac, Elizabeth and William M.;
Anna, born October 4, 1808, and remained single; Richard, born
November 21, 1810, married Mary Troth, a daughter of Jacob Troth,
and had five children, - Susan, Richard L., Isaac, Anna E. and
Sallie N.; Charles, born July 7, 1814, married Martha Harker, and
had three children, - William A., Charles and Ella; Jehu, born March
17, 1821, married Mary Ann Hillman, and had four children, - Alfred
H., Edward H., Frank W. and Jehu H.; Benjamin, born January 27,
1823, married Harriet D. Hartley, and had five children, - Mary,
Eliza, Thomas H., D. Lewis and Maria; David, born August 13, 1826,
married Julia Cloud, and had six children, - Cora, Nellie, Walter,
Larenia C., Clifford and Clara. Many of these descendants of Isaac
Shivers now reside in Camden City and others in Virginia. Those
remaining in the township are Richard Levis Shivers, on the old
homestead, and William A. Shivers, on another portion of the
original tract.
The Stokeses came from London about the year 1698
and settled in Burlington County. In 1709 Thomas Stokes (whose
father settled in Burlington County) purchased three hundred acres
of land of John Kay, now in Delaware township, the larger part of
which tract is now owned by Mark Ballinger and the heirs of Jacob
Anderson, Nathan M. Lippincott and Daniel Hillman (deceased). This
land extends on both sides of the north branch of Coopers Creek, and
is some of the best and most productive land in the township. He
settled on this tract, and his house was located near the present
residence of Mark Ballinger. In 1696 Samuel Harrison located about
eight hundred acres of land on the south side of the north branch of
Coopers Creek. This consisted of four several and adjoining surveys,
now included in the farms of Eliza A. Hillman, Joseph K. Lippincott,
the heirs of Jacob Anderson, Aquilla and Alfred Hillman (formerly
Stokes), John Craig and others. He resided on this tract for several
years, but the place where his house stood is not known. Samuel
Harrison was a mariner, a brother of William and Sarah Bull, who
settled at Gloucester soon after it was made a town. This land
descended to his son William, who sold it in tracts to various
persons. It was in the midst of an Indian neighborhood, which
extended from the north branch southerly nearly to the south branch.
Thomas Sharp, a surveyor, in 1686, in describing a tract of land,
spoke of a water-course known as the Peterson’s mill-stream as "the
same as the Indian King liveth on," Judging from the settlements of
the first emigrants, the residence of the king spoken of is believed
to have been on the farm now owned by the heirs of Joseph H. Ellis.
That this tract was occupied by a numerous tribe
of aborigines is beyond a doubt, as their implements of stone have
been found on nearly all these farms. Nathan M. Lippincott, during
his life, took a pride in preserving those found upon his farm. A
large sycamore-tree, standing in his door-yard, was adorned with
these rude implements of the children of the forest, among which
could be found tomahawks of different sizes, pestles with which they
ground their corn, arrow-heads and other articles, all fashioned out
of stone, of a kind which is not found in this section, and
corresponding with similar implements found in other sections of
West Jersey. There is evidence that this Indian settlement was an
extensive one. Within the memory of some of the present inhabitants
a few of these eked out a miserable existence on the part of the
land formerly owned by Thomas Stokes, near the residence of Aquilla
Hillman and brother (who are lineal descendants of the Stokeses), on
the lands of Mrs. Dr. E.B. Woolston, in Delaware township. Near the
Cropwell Meeting-house there lived, during the first quarter of the
present century, an Indian woman by the name of Nancy, and a man by
the name of Josh Te Kaylere, or Tekaler, who were well known
throughout the neighborhood.
Probably the last of this tribe was an Indian by
the name of Joel, who followed basket-making, and, although he
preferred to live in his cabin in the woods, dressed and conducted
himself in imitation of his white neighbors; yet in many ways he
followed the customs of his ancestors. This man was well known to
the present residents of Marlton, Burlington County, and is
distinctly remembered by the writer. He died about thirty years ago
near Taunton.
Thomas Shroud, in his "History of Fenwick Colony,
Salem County," says "that John Davis emigrated from Wales and
settled on Long Island. He married Dorothea Hogbin, an English woman
of large wealth. He belonged to the sect called Singing Quakers,
worshipped daily on a stump and was very pious and consistent. He
lived to the extreme old age of one hundred years. A number of years
before his death, about 1705, he moved with his family to
Pilesgrove, Salem County, N.J., near where Woodstown is now located.
His eldest son, Isaac, came to New Jersey first. John also came soon
after with his family. The latter and all his family subsequently
became members of Friends’ Meeting."
Joseph A. Burrough, in a genealogical record of
the Burrough family, made in 1850, and who was a lineal descendant
on his mother’s side, says the Davises came from Montgomeryshire,
England, where Richard Davis, a felt-maker, lived, who died First
Month 22, 1703, aged seventy-three years. Tacy Davis, his wife, a
native of Welchpool, from London, died Third Month 1, 1705. They
were both ministers in the Society of Friends. Richard was a
recommended minister for forty-five years. Their son, John Davis,
and his wife, Joanna, came to America and settled at Woodstown,
Salem County, N.J. They had a son David, who married Dorothea
Causins, who was born in England Eleventh Month 19, 1693, and had
two sons, - Jacob, who remained at Woodstown, and whose descendants
are now to be found in that vicinity, and David, who married Martha
Cole. They had seven children, - Mary, Joseph, Jacob, Samuel C.,
David, Martha and Benjamin. Martha married Joseph Burrough in 1792;
Mary married William Rogers; Joseph married Mary Haines, daughter of
Nathan Haines; David married Mary Haines, daughter of John Haines;
Jacob married Elizabeth Coulson; Samuel C.; Benjamin remained
single.
Samuel C. Davis acquired through his mother about
eight hundred acres in the eastern part of the township, which was a
part of the original Samuel Coles estate, and owned and resided in
the house now owned by Joseph O. Cuthbert. He seems to have
maintained a lordly estate, a large part of which he inclosed with a
high picket fence and established a deer-park, which is remembered
by persons now living, and which included most of the land now owned
by Joseph O. and Allen Cuthbert. This park fence was so constructed
as to admit the deer from the outside, but to prevent their egress,
and at certain seasons tame does with bells on were liberated and
sent into the forest, and upon their return many a stately buck
accompanied them within the inclosure only to find himself a
prisoner. The Davises also acquired other property, as the farm now
occupied by David A. Burrough was acquired by his grandfather,
Joseph Burrough, as his wife’s legacy from her father, and it was
upon this farm that the last elk in West Jersey was slaughtered, the
horns of which are now in the possession of Edward Burrough, another
of the descendants. The Davises were a numerous family, some going
into Burlington and other counties, until the name is now
unrepresented in the township.
Charles French, a son of Charles French, owned and
occupied a large tract of land in the easterly part of this
township, whereon stood a gristmill. A large portion of this tract
is now occupied by Albertson Lippincott, but the mill has been taken
down. It is bounded by the county line, the south branch of
Pensaukin Creek, from which stream the pond was raised. Charles
French was a progressive man, and his specialty was "straight
roads," and he was the terror of all the old fogies in this region,
who were willing to let well enough alone. Many amusing
anecdotes are told of him in this connection. One of his neighbors
was so aggrieved by having new roads cut through his lands and
timber that he sold out to get clear, as he said, of "French’s
straight roads." He purchased another tract of land near
Blackwoodtown, and, as he thought, entirely beyond the reach of his
old enemy. Things went smoothly for several years, but one day the
old man found Charles French, Anthony Warrick, John Hyder, John
Clement (as surveyor) and others standing in his door-yard
prospecting for a line whereon to place a straight road going toward
Blackwoodtown. After some talk he concluded to accept the situation,
and admitted the impossibility of getting away from the progress of
things in general and Charles French in particular. On another
occasion, when the opponents of a road were hotly pressing the
advocates, and were likely to defeat the improvement, he, to keep
with the surveyors, left his horse and carriage in the woods. The
proposed road was several miles long, and in the excitement Charles
French forgot his horse and carriage and rode home with one of his
neighbors. After supper the woolly head of Bob, his old servant, was
seen in the door-way. He said, "Boss, whar’s de hoss and wagon?"
After some reflection the old gentleman told old Bob where he left
them hitched in the woods, to which place the colored man resorted
and found everything safe, but the horse restive and cold. He was an
extensive dealer in ship stuff and heavy lumber, supplying
Philadelphia builders with their keels and largest pieces. His teams
were of the best, and his drivers and axemen would relate many
incidents of his energy and resources when fast in the swamps, with
wagons broken, horses mired and men discouraged. In his later years
he removed to Moorestown, where he died at a ripe old age, respected
by all who knew him.
William Bates, who was one of the colony that
settled Newton in 1682, before his death, which occurred in 1700,
purchased land in Delaware township, which was left to his son.
William, who married an Indian girl and settled upon the land now
owned by Joseph C. Browning. His descendants were numerous, and some
of them still reside in the township, in the village of Batesville.
The foregoing sketch of the early settlers of
Delaware township may not include all of the original families, but
enough has been shown to locate the first settlers on most of the
lands embraced within the present limits.
OLD HOUSES. - The most conclusive evidence
of the early settlement of the township by well-to-do people is the
character and the substantiality of the early residences, many of
which are still in a good state of preservation. Among them are
those of Amos E. Kaighn, built in 1736; Hannah Lippincott’s, 1742,
built by Thomas and Letitia Thorn; J. Ogden Cuthbert’s, 1742, built
by Samuel and Martha Coles; Edward Burrough’s, 1761, built by Jos.
Burrough.
This township being peculiarly an agricultural
one, many of the farms are known by names which in many instances
have been handed down from generation to generation. Among those
familiarly known are the following:
Brookfield Farm, owned and occupied by Isaac W.
Nicholson.
Cherry Hill Farm, owned and occupied by heirs of
Abram Browning.
Cooperfield Farm, owned and occupied by Amos B.
Kaighn.
Cedar Grove Farm, owned and occupied by Samuel L.
Burrough.
Murrell Farm, owned and occupied by Samuel M.
Heulings.
Woodland Farm, owned and occupied by Edward
Burrough.
Pleasant Valley Farm, owned and occupied by Joseph
Hinchman.
Woodbine Farm, owned and occupied by William C.
Wood.
Locust Grove Farm, owned and occupied by Elwood
Evans.
Deer Park Farm, owned and occupied by Joseph O.
Cuthbert.
Green Lawn Farm, owned and occupied by Elwood
Rockhill.
Thorndale Farm, owned by Hannah D. Lippincott and
occupied by her son, William T. Lippincott.
New Orchard Farm, owned and occupied by Joseph H.
Coles.
Hickory Hill Farm, owned and occupied by George W.
Moore, Alexander Cooper and Edward W. Coffin.
Locust Hill Farm, owned and occupied by Aquilla
Hiliman and brother.
ELLISBURG. - The originators of the hamlet
of Ellisburg may be traced to the days when a mania for straight
roads pervaded the land, when the old crooked and indirect highways
were being abandoned and the people were seeking a better and
quicker means of traveling. The new road from Evesham to Camden
crossed the land of Isaac Ellis, and soon after the road from
Moorestown to Haddonfield was laid and found to intersect the
before-named highway on the land of the said owner. This at once
became a public place, and a tavern, blacksmith-shop and some
dwellings were soon erected there and the surrounding property
advanced in value. It is in the midst of a good agricultural
neighborhood, and the descendents of many of the old families occupy
the ancestral acres still. The old Burlington and Salem road passed
a short distance to the east of the town and crossed the north
branch of Coopers Creek about half a mile above the present bridge.
This old bridge had its tradition, for Dr. Tommy, the only physician
of that day in the neighborhood, in returning home one night after
visiting a patient at the tavern at Haddonfield, missed his footing
as he was crossing the bridge, and was drowned. His body was found
the next morning, but the place was "haunted" ever after that time,
and Dr. Tommy’s ghost was often seen by those passing, especially if
they had indulged in the "hot toddy" as furnished by the landlord of
the hostelry before named. Some of the oldest and most influential
people of the county lived in this neighborhood. Benjamin Burrough
owned and lived where William Graff now resides; Edward Collins
owned the Logan Paul plantation and lived there; Charles Ellis owned
the land late Job B. Kay’s, and lived near the creek; Samuel Ellis
and Isaac Ellis occupied land near by; and Samuel Kay, Mathias Kay,
and John Kay lived higher up the creek; and Benjamin B. Cooper,
always an active and progressive man, occupied the old Cooper
homestead, west of the Ellis land. John Coles, Samuel Coles and
others had farms father north, but were considered neighborhood
folks, and were always at funerals, harvest and hog-killings.
The village is located at the intersection of the
Moorestown and Haddonfield road and the Camden and Marlton turnpike,
near the centre of the township, on a part of the land embraced in
the first purchase of Simeon Ellis from Margaret Hugg, a daughter of
Francis Collins. Simeon died in 1773, and left this tract to his son
Isaac, who first settled here and built part of the present
tavern-house. Before the days of railroading this hostelry did a
thriving business, being a place of resort for drovers and
stock-dealers, which at times made it a sort of bazar for the
farmers of the surrounding country, and thousands of cattle, sheep
and horses have been sold from the stable and yards attached to the
hotel. In 1831 the township of Waterford and the school district
united in erecting a building for school purposes, in which the
town-meetings and elections were also held until 1885. In the spring
of that year William Graff, a near-by resident farmer, who has
acquired most of the Ellis farm, which was formerly attached to the
hotel, donated a lot of land adjoining the school property to the
township of Delaware, upon which to erect a Town Hall. This offer
was accepted, and the present building erected during the year, and
finished in time to hold the annual fall election in it. Mr. Graff
also donated another lot adjoining the Town-House lot to the Baptist
Sunday-school of Haddonfield, provided, they established a
Sunday-school and built a chapel thereon, which offer was also
accepted, and the present neat edifice erected. The old school-house
still stands on the land donated by the present Joseph Ellis in
1831, and although raised to the dignity of a two-story building and
a graded school, and equipped with modern school furniture, the old
foundations still remain, and the marble slabs over the doorway and
in the end of the building bear evidence of its former use. The
hotel building is still kept as an inn and tavern, yet much of its
former glory has departed. The post-office is located in the store
of Thomas Rexon, which is the only mercantile establishment in the
place. The carriage and blacksmith-works of William Heaney are new
buildings and are doing a thriving trade. Joseph Ellis is the only
person of the name still residing in the village. He is the son of
Isaac Ellis, and a great-grandson of Simeon, who died in 1773. He is
now nearly four-score years of age, yet possesses a memory still
fresh and vigorous and replete with many interesting episodes of his
early manhood. He kept the hotel for a number of years, and
afterwards directed the operations of his farm. He married Nancy, a
daughter of Joseph Champion, who is still the companion of his
advanced years. His remaining children are all daughters, - Martha,
who married James Wills; Sarah, who married Samuel M.
Heulings; Elizabeth, who married George C. Kay; and Hannah, who
remains single. His son, Joseph C. Ellis, died in 1885, leaving one
child to bear the name.
A school-house was located upon the farm now owned
by Samuel M. Heulings, as early as April 18, 1775, known as
Murrell’s School, but has long since been lost sight of by the
present inhabitants. It was no doubt the forerunner of the Ellisburg
School, which was built by subscription. The land upon which this
building stood is not mentioned in the annals, although the date of
the subscription is Fourth Month 16, 1806. The following were the
subscribers: Samuel Ellis, Charles Collins, Isaac Cooper, Elizabeth
Kay, Samuel Kay, Benjamin Burrough, Mahlon Matlack, Joseph Griffith,
Samuel C. Davis, Ruben Burrough, John Cole, Isaac Luallen, Isaac
Ellis, Abel Nicholson, Edward Collins, Mathias Kay, Samuel Murrell,
George Marambach, Charles Ellis, Joseph Champion, Benjamin Cooper,
James Zane and Samuel Thene.
The post-office was established November 5, 1852,
since which time the succession of postmasters, with the dates of
their appointment, has been as follows:
Elwood H. Fowler, appointed November 5, 1852.
Simeon B. Ellis, appointed May 4, 1854.
(Discontinued February 25, 1855; re-established
April 14, 1856.)
Elwood H. Fowler, appointed April 14, 1856.
Joseph Ellis, appointed August 19, 1867.
(Discontinued February 10, 1868; re-established
August 25, 1871.)
Joseph C. Ellis, appointed August 25, 1871.
William Graff, appointed October 29, 1872.
Thomas Rexon, the present incumbent, appointed
September 21, 1874.
BATESVILLE. - The village of Batesville,
situated on the western central border of the township, is the
natural overflow of the borough of Haddonfield and is named after
William Bates, who owned considerable property in that vicinity,
laid out the land in lots and built the house at the junction of the
Milford and Berlin roads, now kept as a hotel by his grandson,
Robert Bates. The population of this village in 1870 numbered
eighty-six, and since that time no distinct census of its
inhabitants has been taken, although there is an evident increase in
its population. Stores, blacksmith and wheelwright-shops have all
been located in the place, but as the abilities of the proprietors
increased they soon removed to Haddonfield or other localities. The
growth of this place is caused by home-seeking citizens who enjoy
the ownership of a quiet rural home where they can rear their
families and enjoy the rewards of their toil in a peaceful and moral
community.
COLESTOWN. - In the eastern part of the
township, and about a mile east of St. Mary’s Church, is Old
Colestown proper. But little remains to show what constituted the
business of the place. The location is on the farms of Thomas
Roberts, Joseph C. Haines and the property of Watson Ivins. The
attraction of the locality was a mineral spring with an unfailing
supply of water. The owner of this stream had the water analyzed and
the record of the analysis was cut in letters on a marble slab and
set up beside the spring for all to read. The owner is supposed to
have been Allenson Giffins, who built a hotel or sanitarium, which
was known as the Fountain Hotel, and was the resort of numbers of
invalids and became quite famous in its day. This spring is located
on the farm of Joseph C. Haines, but has become so filled up as to
be difficult to find.
The Fountain Hotel property finally passed into
the possession of Joseph Roberts, and was acquired by his son Isaac,
who used it as a residence for several years, and his daughter
Susanna, the wife of the present William D. Coles, was born in the
old hotel. About thirty-eight years ago Isaac Roberts moved the
frame part of the building to the farm now owned by Joseph C.
Haines, and with the brick and stone constructed the front of the
present farm-house, while the original frame constitutes the
remainder of this building and is now a substantial, modern edifice.
The marble slab that stood by the spring was
removed by Joseph C. Haines, the present owner, and does service as
a door-step at his residence, near Lumberton, Burlington County.
Allenson Giffins or his ancestors at one time kept
a tan-yard near the hotel, but it has long since disappeared;
although portions of its remains are at times discovered by the
plowman. In late years Joseph Roberts owned a saw-mill near the
hotel and its location is still discernible. Although the former
prosperity of the place has long since departed, the location is
beautiful in its quiet seclusion, and if the mineral spring ever
again comes into prominence its old-time popularity can easily be
revived.
ST. MARY’S CHURCH. - In the eastern central
part of the township, on a portion of the Samuel Coles estate, near
the intersection of the Church and Moorestown and Haddonfield public
roads, stands St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church, known as the
Colestown Church. The history of this ancient edifice dates back
into the beginning of the eighteenth century, and by some writers it
is claimed that it grew out of the controversy of George Keith,
which separated many Friends from the religious doctrines as laid
down by George Fox. George Keith, in his journal, says that "on
September 15, 1703, I preached at the house of William Heulings in
West Jersey." As this house was but a short distance from where the
church was built, it is accepted as the beginning of St. Mary’s
Church at Colestown. John Rudderow, who came from England about
1680, and settled in Burlington County, near the Pensaukin Creek,
died in 1729, and left ten pounds by his will towards the building
of "a church in that place (to be convenient hereaway)" in that
neighborhood.
A few years later another incident is related by
Abigail Rudderow, widow of William Rudderow, a grandson of the first
John (above mentioned). She was the daughter of Thomas and Rebecca
Spicer, and always resided in the neighborhood. She says, "At nine
years of age I was baptized at the church (which at that time was
being built, the roof being on and weather-boarding up as high as
the window-sills), by Dr. Jenny. The ground had been previously
consecrated by Dr. Jenny, from Philadelphia." This lady was of
remarkable intelligence and memory, and was conversant with the
doings of that region of country. She was born in 1742, lived to be
eighty-three years of age and left a large number of descendants;
her baptism occurred in 1751, and the circumstances attending it
fixed themselves so indelibly upon her memory that it is safe to
assert, upon her authority, that the edifice was erected during that
and the following year. The building erected in 1751 or 1752 was
repaired in 1825, without any change as to the interior arrangement,
and again in 1866 the building was repaired by the liberality of a
few of the descendants of the original families and the residents of
the surrounding country, and its original features carefully
preserved. The high pulpit, the small, narrow chancel, the
galleries, with their high-backed wooden benches, and the boxed-in
seats of the choir all remain in their original simplicity, a
monument of the economy of past generations.
The Rev. Robert Jenny, A.M., came to New York as
chaplain in the royal army stationed in that city. In 1722 he was
chosen rector of the church at Rye, New York, and subsequently came
to Philadelphia, and was made rector of Christ Church, a position he
held until he died, in 1762, aged seventy-five years.
There is no continuous record of the ministers
who, at various times, supplied the church, and such as are here
mentioned seemed to act in the capacity of missionaries, the church
standing in a thinly-settled neighborhood (at that time) and being
several miles from any town. William Sturgeon, the assistant of Dr.
Jenny, visited the people once each month while the house was in
progress of erection. Nathaniel Evans, a young man of good education
and good talent, had charge of St. Mary’s and the church at
Gloucester. He resided with his parents at Haddonfield, and preached
for six years. He died October 29, 1767, aged twenty-five years. An
interval of five years now occurred, when Robert Blackwell was
selected, November 19, 1772. He also resided in Haddonfield, and
during the Revolutionary War was chaplain in the army, which again
left the church without regular service. Henry Miller, of
Philadelphia, was his successor; he was soon followed by Rev. John
Wade, who died in 1799. His remains were interred in front of the
main entrance to the church, the stone that marks his grave at this
day being buried beneath the soil. Samuel Sprague, who lived in
Mount Holly, occasionally preached here. Andrew Fowler next
followed. After him came Levi Heath, of Burlington, and Samuel
Pussey, who caused much trouble in the church and proved to be an
impostor; and then in succession came Daniel Hogbee, in 1807, and
Richard Hall, who preached there in 1811.
The grounds belonging to the church embrace about
three acres. At the time of the selection of the site there was no
public road from what is now Merchantville to Evesham (formerly
called Green Tree), and when the present road was laid it cut off a
corner of the church property, from which fact the road was ever
after called the Church road and is so recorded. The church stands
on the south side of the road and nearly all the lands belonging to
it have been occupied as a grave-yard since the erection of the
church. The yard is almost full, and but few interments are now made
within its limits, which fact, in some degree, led to the
organization of the Colestown Cemetery, whose grounds surround it on
three sides and under whose management and care the property
remains. The oldest legible stone now standing in the yard is that
of Philip Wallace, aged eighty-two, who was buried there in 1746.
The tomb of his wife, Mary Wallace, aged eighty years, is dated the
same year. This aged couple were among the earliest settlers and
were Friends until the Keithian controversy. In 1760, Humphrey Day
and Jane, his wife, were buried here, aged respectively seventy-five
and sixty-five years. Elias Toy was interred here in 1762, aged
forty-seven.
Many of the rude, rough monuments erected here to
mark the resting place of friends and families have yielded to time
and exposure, showing at this date only parts of letters and figures
from which nothing can be deciphered; although those a few
generations later are fairly well preserved and include on them some
striking epitaphs, of which the following are notable specimens.
JACOB BROWNING.
Died Oct. 22d, 1794 Aged 41 Years
Farewell my dear and loving wife
My children and my friends
Here I take up my new abode
Where life it hath no end."
"CATHARINE BROWNING
Widow of George Browning for 17 Years 1 Month and 1 week, who
departed this life, March 26th, A.D. 1793, aged 62 Years
Stop dear friends as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so must you be
Prepare for death to follow me."
"Sacred to the Memory of
GEORGE BROWNING who departed this life April 11, 1835.
As a husband -affectionate and Kind
As a father - Indulgent and Careful
As a neighbor - Obliging and Peaceable
As a Citizen - Useful, honest and upright."
"HANNAH, wife of Benjamin Van Leer Died June 13,
1766.
Transitory world farewell
Jesus Calls with him to dwell."
Other ancient graves are numerous, among them
Samuel Browning, died November 25, 1806; Sarah Ogden Browning (his
daughter), died 1794; John, son of Isaac Jones, died November 13,
1774, aged eighteen years; J. Githens,, 1772; Robert Fr. Price, died
September 18, 1776; Mary Fr. Price, died July 14, 1787; George
Hannold, died January 25, 1782; another rude stone near these two
last bears the simple inscription, cut in an unskilled hand, "W.B. -
1777 D.B. - 1775."
On the opposite side of the road, and on the small
portion of the church property cut off when the Church road was laid
out, stands an aged white oak, the only monumental witness of the
transactions of the past ages, and under whose shade the worshippers
in this edifice have lingered to exchange a kindly greeting ere they
separated to their distant homes. Along the King’s Highway the
contending forces in the Revolutionary struggle passed to and fro,
and many stirring incidents took place in its vicinity, and in this
ancient edifice the British officers under the standard of St.
George listened to their chaplains, while resting on their march to
meet their foe. And, in turn, also did the American commanders
receive the benediction of their chaplains or the minister in charge
as they paused in their pursuit of the enemy of their liberties and
independence. It is a current tradition that the great Washington
also attended service in this building several times during the war,
and laying aside his sword, knelt at the little chancel and partook
of the Holy Communion, after the rector had proclaimed "peace on
earth and good will to men."
It is not known who constituted the choir during,
the periods of regular service in the church; the last person
remembered to have filled that position was John Fairlamb, an old
resident of the neighborhood.
The size of this ancient edifice is thirty-four by
thirty feet. The height to the eves is fourteen feet. The roof is of
shingles. The main entrance is at the side and has double doors.
Single doors are at each end of the building, and one window on
first floor, with two in each end on the second story or galleries.
A narrow window on each side of the chancel and two windows front
and two back furnish abundant light. Probably the most noteworthy
object of the interior is the stove. It was made in England; the
exact date cannot be made out, but the figures seventeen and
something resembling a six is clearly visible; it is of cast-iron,
in three cylinders of unequal size set one upon another, with a door
in the centre one, and three short legs under the lower one. To the
casual observer it appears like a coal-stove, but the contrary is
the case - it is a wood-stove. The fuel is set perpendicularly in
it, the draft is perfect and its heating powers, notwithstanding its
advanced age, are sufficient for the building in the coldest
weather. The features of the interior are in good preservation, and
in style and durability are characteristic of the age when the
church was constructed.
The communion service is now in possession Of
Trinity Church, Moorestown, and consists of two pieces, a paten
and a chalice, both of solid silver, and the paten, or plate, in
particular is very heavy; the chalice has engraved on its foot "St.
Mary’s Church, Colestown," and the same inscription is inscribed on
the bottom of the paten; but instead of having been engraved it
appears to have been scratched very carefully by some prudent church
officer. When Trinity Parish, the child of St. Mary’s, was
established at Moorestown, these consecrated vessels came by right
of inheritance into possession of the new church, and apart from
their sacred character, they are treasured for their associations
with the past. The Bible was presented to this church by Mrs. Dr.
Jenny, the wife of its first rector, (so far as known), in 1752, and
was published in London in 1682. The book, although somewhat abused
of late years, is now in the possession of Jacob Stokes Cole, of
Haddon township, by whom it is carefully preserved and cherished for
its associations. The church service, above alluded to, is reported
to have been presented by Queen Anne to her loyal subjects at
Colestown, in America, but the difference between the death of the
Queen, in 1714, and our earliest data concerning the building of the
church, in 1752 - a period of thirty-eight years - renders it
impossible to assert this report with any degree of correctness,
although it is highly probable that the service came from England,
and was perhaps the gift of some official, either of church or
state.
The residents of this section of West Jersey who
made up the congregation of St. Mary’s Church were not free from the
personal prejudices and preferences that in nearly every
denomination have cropped out to create dissensions and divisions.
Prior to the year 1796 there had been much
contention among the church members concerning the direction and
management of the grave-yard, and so far did some of the
congregation carry their views that they refused to allow any of
their families to be interred within the church-yard, and several
family grave-yards were located on farms in different sections. John
Rudderow interred his family in a private yard which was located
between the late residence of Benjamin Rudderow and Charles H. Dill,
near Merchantville, but after his death the bodies were removed to
Colestown. Another of these grave-yards was located in Burlington
County, near the north branch of Pensaukin Creek, nearly on a line
between the farms now owned by Dr. N. Newlin Stokes and Samuel Slim,
and belonged to another branch of the Rudderow family. Joseph Coles
became so dissatisfied that he interred the dead of his family just
over the church-yard fence, in his field, nearly in front of the
church, where they still remain and where his own remains rest.
Before his death he set apart a piece of ground especially for his
family’s use, and it is now inclosed by the Colestown Cemetery, and
designated as the Coles Family Burying-Ground, and does not belong
to either the church property or the cemetery grounds, but, like the
church-yard, it is now under the care and supervision of the latter
company. The dissensions which led to the establishment of these
private grave-yards was, no doubt, largely owing to the, troubles
about their pastor, the Rev. Samuel Passey, as the following
extracts from the church minutes will enable the reader to adduce.
One thing, however, is certain: if there had been no agitation, the
names of the congregation which comprise the subscribers would never
have been retained to inform after generations who worshipped here a
century ago.
A REGULATION.
"Made and Concluded upon by the Wardens and Vestry
of St. Mary’s Church, Colestown, in the Township of Waterford, and
County of Gloucester, On the first Day of September, 1796, for the
Use of the Church and Burying-Ground.
"Whereas, a Regulation in the
Grave-Yard is most Ardently to be Wished, and has long been Desired,
for the Burden has Lain Heavy On some this Long time, Who have
always been Willing to Cast in their Mite for the Support of The
above-said place, to Keep It in Order, And Again there are others
that will not help to Support Sd place, for, Say they, We shall be
as Well off as they who Do Support it, nor shall we pay more for a
Grave than they Do; therefore Concerning So bad a plan, the Wardens
and Vestry of Sd Church have taken it into Consideration, and have
put Forth this plan to their fellow Brethren, far and Near:
"To all Whome it may Concern, Be
it known that any one Meaning to Hold a Rite to the Church and
Grave-Yard, known by the name of Colestown Church, in The township
of Waterford, and County of Gloucester, Shall pay a Certain Sum of
Money, Yearly, Which Shall be on the First Monday in September in
Each year, for the Support of Sd Church and Yard, and in Case they
Do not pay the first Nor Second years’ Subscriptions to the wardens
or Vestry (who shall meet on the aforesaid Day for that purpose),
Their names shall be Errasd out of the Book, and become A
Non-subscriber, Notwithstanding what they Have done, And It is
Likewise agreed on By the Wardens and Vestry of Sd Church that all
those Who will not Become Subscribers, Yearly, for the Support of
the Church And Burying-Ground (which becomes Every good Christian to
Help Support a place for the Dead), Be it Known unto them That they
Shall pay for Breaking the Ground for Every Time they Cause it to be
Broke, Which Sum Shall be from One Dollar to four Dollars, According
to their abilities, Which Is to be Judged By Joseph Coles, Warden of
Sd Church, Or any other that may be appointed for that purpose
Hereafter Shall think fit, Which Money Shall be put Into the
Treasurer’s Hands for the Use of Repairs, &c., being Free from the
Sexton’s fees - The Sexton’s fees to be Paid Besides, for his Labor.
And thirdly, the Wardens and Vestry have a Serious Consideration for
the poor, Who Can Scarcely Provide for the Cares of this Life, &c.,
thereupon when they Come to lay their Heads in the Lap of Earth,
Such Shall have Free Liberty to Inter their Dead in the Above Sd
Church-yard free from all other Expence but the Sexton’s fees;
Therefore, we, who have hereunto Set our names, Do promise To pay,
or Cause to be paid, the Sum Assigned, Against our names, By the
first Monday in September, 1797, And Continue it Yearly, as Witness
our Hands, this fifth Day of September, 1796.
"Entered According to Order By
"EMMANUEL BEGARY.
"Clark of Sd Church."
SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES.
| |
s. d.
|
1797
|
1798
|
1799
|
1800
|
1801
|
1802
|
|
William Rudderow, Sr
|
7 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Rudderow
|
7 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Coles
|
7 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
William Hunter
|
5 0
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Dec.
|
|
|
Emmanuel Beagary
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Abram Harris
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
John Osler
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Slim
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Plum
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Joseph Githens
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
Kendal Coles, Jr
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Middleton
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frederick Plum
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Peter Slim
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clement Kimsey
|
2 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
John Plum, Sr.
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Joseph Newton
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Gideon Bates
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Jones
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Grayham
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
John Holland
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew Crocket
|
2 6
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas McMasters
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
John Jonson
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elijah Toy
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
John Plum, Jr
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Francis French
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brazilla Allen
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
John Wilson
|
2 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Stiles
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael Stow
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Heppard
|
3
|
Rm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew Maines
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Thomas Morris
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Chambers, Sr.
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Chambers, Jr.
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Brooks
|
2 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Jones
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
Valentine Bowers
|
110 1/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Deborah Kimsey (Decd.)
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Wilson (Decd.)
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ann Jones
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hannah Lippincott
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Wilson
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Hunter
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Johnson
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amos Stiles
|
2 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Davis
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Pearson
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Samuel Wilson
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
James Hale
|
7 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Edward Morgan
|
2 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec.
|
|
Isaac Brady
|
2 6
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Benjamin Fish
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adam Vennal
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Watens
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Daniel
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abram Fish
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew Toy
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Job Archer
|
2 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Dod
|
2 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Whetstone
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hezekiah Ward
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Francis Williamson
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Middleton
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Callins
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amos Ivens
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Benjamin Hollinshead
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Lawrence Vandegrift
|
2 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Stiles
|
1 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Isaac Stiles
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Chambers
|
210 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Isaac Fish
|
7 6
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Joseph Armstrong
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
Michael Korn
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Rudderow
|
7 6
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Henry Crowel
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Clements
|
5 7 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Pike
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Le Ceney
|
110 1/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lissee Thomas
|
110 1/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Stone, Sr
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wm. Holmes, Jr. (Nailer).
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Clements
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abram Stone
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sarah Starn
|
210 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abner Starn
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Mary Clements
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew Starn
|
110 1/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Henry Deets
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
Richard Leceney
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
W. Middleton (deceased)
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Stone
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Stone
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Anderson
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Humphrey Day
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Holmes (poor)
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Dawson
|
7 6
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
James Vaughan
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
Isaac Venable
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Venable
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Pike
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Gomere (deceased)
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
On
|
The
|
twn
|
|
|
|
John Leceney
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Rogers
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Williamson
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
Ann Lonten
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Holmes
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
Simeon Cliffen
|
7 6
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Osler, Jr.
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sarah Osler
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Owen Osler
|
5 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Baxter
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David Wallace
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
Samuel Osler
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joshua Osler
|
3 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Thorn
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Taylor
|
3 9
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Henry Porch
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abraham Browning
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Patience Morgan (dec.)
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Bell
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jacob Stremback
|
8 3
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
James Hunter
|
2 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Mintle
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Githens
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charles Daniel
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
John Berry
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rachel Hannold
|
310 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joseph Whitelock
|
3 9
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Hunt
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nicholas Stiles
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Peacock
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
James Burden
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jane Burden
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elias Fish
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Robert Beck (or Peck)
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
Abraham Johnson
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Joseph Johnson
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
Dec.
|
|
|
John Harden
|
310 1/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Isaac Harden
|
110 1/2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hezekiah Toy
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Philip Terrapin
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dorcas Haines
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Dec.
|
|
|
|
|
David Claypole
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Fish
|
2 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ann Budd
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
William Heulings
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
Jacob Wishenn
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
William Peacock
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Quick
|
2 0
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Quick
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jacob Toy
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Levy Stiles
|
3 9
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
Arthur Quick
|
110
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Hunter
|
110 1/2
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Browning(5*)
|
3 9
|
|
|
Paid
|
Paid
|
|
|
|
James Stiles(6*) L 1
|
10 0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It will be observed that no payments were made by
the subscribers after the year l99; the payments became irregular
and partially stopped, owing to the difficulties with their pastor,
Rev. Samuel Passey, who it is believed was an imposter. These
difficulties came well-nigh dividing the church, and the previous
difficulties about maintaining the yard caused considerable
speculation and talk in the neighborhood, by referring to the
minutes in the church-book. The difficulty took definite shape in
1803, when Samuel Rudderow and Joseph Coles were elected wardens,
and Wm. Rudderow, Wm. Chambers, Edward Harris (declined), Benj.
Hollinshead, Jos. Plum, Isaac Fish, Jacob Toy, John Osler, John
Clements, Clement Kimsey were elected vestrymen; Joseph Coles,
treasurer; Emmanuel Beagary, clerk.
The Rev. Samuel Passey, rector, was present at
this meeting. On the 17th of January, 1803, a business meeting of
the wardens and vestry of the church was held and the following
members were present: Samuel Rudderow, Jos. Coles, wardens; Abraham
Harris, Isaac Fish, Wm. Chambers, Benjamin Hollinshead, Jacob Toy,
John Osler and Clement Kimsey. At this meeting a motion was made and
carried relative to the standing of Rev. Samuel Passey as rector;
the motion reads as follows: "On motion whether it would not be
proper to apply to the standing committee for the ordination of Mr.
Passey, according to the constitution of our church, which does not
allow any person to preach in the pulpit without being an ordained
minister, etc. Resolved, Therefore that a letter of
recommendation be drawn up, signed by the wardens and vestry and
sent to the standing committee for the above said purpose." This was
probably the first action taken in reference to Passey’s rectorship.
At this meeting another motion was entered
relative to the placing of a tombstone at the Rev. John Wade’s
grave, in memory of their late pastor. But it was thought best to
defer it for the present; perhaps the heirs might arrive from
England. Jos. Coles was directed to set out as many Lombardy poplars
for shade as, according to his judgment, he might think proper. By a
vote of five yeas and four nays it was ordered that the vestry carry
the collection box by turns, but this was finally abandoned by the
vestry promising to raise the money necessary by other means. This
was done by six of the vestry taking a list of the subscribers and
making collections, and various sums from time to time were raised
and paid into the treasury, but no list of those making the payments
has been kept. On the 16th of January, 1804, another meeting of the
wardens and vestry was held, and Abraham Harris and Emmanuel Beagary
and John Savage, of Philadelphia, were appointed a committee to wait
on the committee of ministers for the purpose of forwarding the
petition for the ordination of Mr. Passey. Emmanuel Beagary was also
instructed to have some benches made with backs, for the better
accommodation of the people.
On the 2d of June, 1805, a meeting of the vestry
was held, and Abraham Harris and Emmanuel Beagary, the committee to
forward Mr. Passey’s ordination, reported that they had done so, but
failed in the attempt. They then moved for Mr. Passey as a
lay-reader, which was referred to the standing committee, who
reported as follows:
"Resolved, That whenever the
Vestry of the Said Church shall produce to the Chairman of the
Committee a Certificate of the fitness and moral character of Mr.
Samuel Passey, signed by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, and two of the
Clergy of the City of Philadelphia, the Said Chairman shall be
authorized to give a License to the said Mr. Passey to officiate as
a Lay-reader in the Said Church of Colestown and shall prescribe the
mode of his conduct agreeable to the directions of the 10th Canon of
the General Convention of the Church, held in the year 1804. On the
15th of June, the Committee waited upon the Bishop of Pennsylvania
for the purpose of obtaining the above mentioned Certificate, who
informed them that he had no right to recommend any person for the
above purpose, but would use his endeavors to supply us with a
minister as soon as opportunity offered."
On the 23d of June the committee reported the
statement of the bishop to the vestry of the church, when Mr. Passey
moved for the vestry and congregation to declare St. Mary’s Church
an independent church. After deliberating until July 7th, of the
same year, the vestry passed the following resolution:
"Resolved, That it is the
opinion of the vestry that the congregation in general do not
possess a thorough knowledge of or understand the proper nature of
an independent church, and
"Whereas, They taking up the
motion themselves by vote, it is unanimously agreed that it should
not be an independent church."
The motion was, therefore, lost. Mr. Passey was
duly informed of the action of the church, and requested permission
to stay his year out. There being but two turns more, his request
was granted, and he preached his farewell sermon on the 18th of
August, 1805. This action of the church preserved its connection
with the Church of England, and enabled it to become the mother
church of the Episcopalian Diocese of West Jersey.
Emmanuel Beagary was church clerk in 1796. After
him came John Baxter, Thomas P. Clements, Richard M. Hugg, George M.
Risden. In 1851 Mahlon M. Coles was elected clerk, and has continued
to hold the position up to the present time. Joseph Cole was sexton
prior to 1805, at which time John Cole was elected vestryman and
sexton; in 1811 John Mitchel was elected sexton; in 1817 Aaron King
was made sexton, and in 1824 David B. Coles; 1831 John Mitchel was
again sexton; after him came John Coles, Mahlon M. Coles and James
Roberts, who continued to hold the position until the church-yard
was given in charge of the Colestown Cemetery Company, whose grounds
surround it on three sides, and under whose charge it still remains.
The records have been neatly and regularly kept since 1797, and the
church organization faithfully maintained. On February 1, 1886, the
following officers were elected: J. Stokes Coles, Benjamin F.
Hollinshead, wardens; Joseph C. Hollinshead, Joshua B. Hollinshead,
Mahlon M. Coles, Charles C. Coles, J. Foster Coles, William D.
Coles, Isaac W. Coles, Samuel T. Coles, delegates to the convention.
At present the church is under the charge of the
Rev. Richard G. Moses, rector of Grace Church, Merchantville. Mr.
Moses was born in England, October 21, 1833, and graduated at the
University of London. He came to America in 1873. He was a minister
in the Baptist Church from 1858 to 1881, and held several charges,
his first in America being the North Baptist Church of Camden. In
1883 he became rector of Grace Church, at Merchantville, and soon
after St. Mary’s Church, at Colestown, was placed under his care.
Services are held at Colestown on the second Sunday in each month.
The rectorship of Mr. Moses seems to be entirely satisfactory and
the attendance at service is slowly increasing.
COLESTOWN CEMETERY. - The dilapidated
condition of many of the burying-grounds in the vicinity and the
natural desire of those interested in the old grave-yard attached to
St. Mary’s Church, created a feeling in the community to provide a
suitable resting-place for their loved ones that would be
perpetually kept and taken care of for that purpose, and led to the
establishment of the Colestown Cemetery. The Cemetery Company was
organized in 1858 and has located a tract of twelve acres of land
lying adjacent to and surrounding St. Mary’s Church, at Colestown,
the oldest Episcopal Church in West Jersey, now in a good state of
preservation. The site is high and slightly rolling; the soil being
entirely free from stones or rocks, and with a sub-soil of a
beautiful red gravel, makes the drainage a perfect one, no water
being accessible, even in the lowest parts, nearer than twenty feet
of the surface. The location is such that it cannot fail to be
appreciated, being but six miles east of the city limits of Camden,
and equidistant from the thriving boroughs of Haddonfield and
Moorestown. Lying at the intersection of the public roads leading
from Merchantville to Medford and from Moorestown to Haddonfield, it
is of easy access, which, together with its natural advantages, all
tend to make it one of the most desirable places of interment in
West Jersey. This cemetery was created by a special act of the
Legislature, entitled "An Act to Incorporate the Colestown Cemetery
Company." Section 1 names the following incorporators: Joseph H.
Coles, Abraham Browning, David B. Coles, Josiah E. Coles, Genge
Browning, Edward Browning, John S. Wilson, Isaac Browning, Benjamin
Osler, J. Ogden Cuthbert, Isaac Roberts, Joseph E. Roberts, Nathan
S. Roberts, Lawrence Browning, Joseph C. Hollinshead, Joseph Ellis,
Richard B. Champion, J. Stokes Coles, John Buzby, Samuel Jones,
Charles Wilson, Franklin Stiles, John T. Coles, Charles B. Coles,
Joseph C. Haines, Mahlon M. Coles, Benjamin F. Hollinshead, Isaac B.
Lawrence, Eli Browning, Charles E. French, Richard Fetters, Benjamin
H. Browning, Joseph A. Burrough, Hannah H. Browning, Charles W.
Starn, William H. Browning, Joseph Few Smith and William Stiles, and
provides that "their associates shall be and they are hereby created
a body politic and corporate, by the name of ‘The Colestown Cemetery
Company,’ and by that name shall have perpetual succession for the
purpose of continuing, establishing and improving a cemetery or
place for the burial of the dead, at or near St. Mary’s Church,
Colestown, in the township of Delaware, in the county of Camden, in
this State; and for that purpose the said company may purchase and
hold lands not exceeding twenty acres, and enclose, survey, lay out,
and divide the same into lots, roads, paths and avenues, and erect
and construct a chapel, vault, sexton’s house, and other
improvements thereon, and otherwise ornament the same, and sell and
dispose of lots therein for the burial of the dead. . ." By the same
act the following-named persons constituted the first board of
directors: Joseph H. Coles, Abraham Browning, Joseph Ellis, Josiah
E. Coles, Samuel Jones, Edward Browning, David B. Coles, Charles
Wilson, Joseph C. Hollinshead, Isaac Roberts, John Buzby and Joseph
A. Burrough, who were "to serve until the first Monday in May next,
and until others shall be elected in their stead; and the said
Joseph H. Coles shall be the president, and the said Joseph Ellis
shall be the treasurer, and the said Edward Browning shall be the
secretary of said company, until the said first Monday in May next,
and until others shall be elected or appointed in their stead."
But four of the first board of directors are now
living, most of the others being silent occupants of the grounds
they selected and dedicated as the last resting-place of theirs and
succeeding generations.
Under this act a company was organized, and
subscription-books opened for subscriptions to the capital stock of
the company, which was soon taken and work commenced. The land was
purchased of Joseph H. Coles, who was elected president of the
company, which office he held until his death. Edward Browning was
the secretary and Joseph Ellis treasurer. Contracts were awarded for
building the chapel and sexton’s residence, and also the
receiving-vault. Charles Wilson, of Camden, constructed the
buildings. The chapel and sexton’s residence cost $4263.45, and the
receiving-vault $122.12. The shade and ornamental trees were
purchased in Pennsylvania, and were all hauled there at one load, by
Isaac Roberts and Joseph C. Hollinshead. The lots met a ready sale
and the income derived therefrom has been sufficient to pay off the
original costs and charges and keep the grounds in order; and as no
profits can be paid the stockholders after repaying the original
outlay (which is nearly all paid off), the income which must
necessarily arise from the sale of lots is compelled by law to be
exclusively to maintain and improve the grounds, will be sufficient
to provide for its care and improvement for a long period of years.
The following are the names of the original stockholders and the
amount subscribed and paid in by each: A. Browning, $850; Jos. H.
Coles, $1300; Genge Browning, $900; Edward Browning, $900; David B.
Coles, $800; Josiah E. Coles, $150; John Wilson, $100; Isaac
Browning, $100; Benjamin Osler, $50; J. Ogden Cuthbert, $150; Isaac
Roberts, $100; Joseph E. Roberts, $100; Nathan S. Roberts, $100;
Lawrence Browning, $100; Joseph C. Hollinshead, $175; Joseph Ellis,
$300; Richard B. Champion, $70; J. Stokes Coles, $50; John Buzby,
$100; Samuel Jones, $50; Charles Wilson, $175; John T. Coles, $100;
Charles B. Coles, $50; Joseph C. Haines, $150; Mahlon M. Coles, $50;
Benjamin F. Hollinshead, $50; Charles E. French, $100; Benjamin H.
Browning, $100; Joseph A. Burrough, $250; Hannah H. Browning,
$100; Charles W. Starn, $100; William H. Browning, $100; Joseph Few
Smith, $100, - total, $7870.
Following are the officers of the association for
1886: President, Joseph C. Hollinshead; Secretary and Treasurer, J.
Stokes Coles. Directors, - Joseph C. Hollinshead, John Buzby, Joseph
H. Coles, Alfred W. Clement, Edward Burrough, Isaac Browning,
William D. Coles, John Campbell, Benjamin F. Hollinshead, Mahlon M.
Coles, Joseph C. Haines, Isaac W. Coles, Maurice Browning, D. Budd
Coles, Charles B. Coles, J. Stokes Coles. Managers, - Joseph H.
Coles, Edward
Burrough, Charles B. Coles, John Campbell, Alfred
W. Clement, Isaac W. Coles, William D. Coles. Sexton, Elihu Shepperd
Low.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
ELLWOOD EVANS, the well-known and
progressive farmer of this township, is of Welsh descent, and of a
family first represented in America by William and Elizabeth Evans,
who arrived this side of the Atlantic about 1660, and were the first
settlers of Burlington County, N.J. The region being at that time an
unbroken wilderness, inhabited only by Indians, they were obliged to
live for a time in a cave, and eventually built for themselves a
house near Mount Laurel, in Evesham township, where they settled.
Elizabeth was a minister in the Society of Friends. Their children
were Thomas, John and Jane. Thomas, born December 12, 1693, married
Esther Haines on October 1, 1715, and they had six children, -
William, Elizabeth, Isaac, Esther, Jacob and Nathan. Nathan, born in
February, 1727, married Sylvania Gaskill, and had children, - Isaac,
Susanna, Joseph, Jacob and Nathan. Jacob married Deborah Troth, by
whom he had four children, of whom one, Esther, grew to maturity. As
his second wife he married Rachel Borton, by whom he had nine
children, viz.: Abraham, Amos, Sylvania, Uriah, Rachel B., Jacob,
Carlton, Joseph B. and Susanna. Uriah, born October 10, 1801
married, February 17, 1831, Rachel Saunders, daughter of Solomon and
Lydia (Burrough) Saunders, of a very old family of Burlington
County, and was the father of six children, of whom our subject was
the youngest. They were Lydia B., Joseph B., Deborah S., Jacob,
Elizabeth L., and Ellwood Evans, born September 2, 1840.
Ellwood Evans was educated in the schools of the
neighborhood and at the Westtown (Chester County, Pa.) Academy,
which he attended for four years. The next four years were spent on
the farm; he being very fond of machinery, was about to secure a
place in Baldwin’s Locomotive Works, when his only brother dying
suddenly and his father being in poor health, and unwilling to leave
his farms, necessitated his remaining at home. He was chosen one of
the committeemen of his township when only about twenty-five years
of age. When twenty-nine years of age he removed to Marlton, where
he was soon afterwards elected collector, which office he held until
his return to Delaware, in 1876. About that time, his father and
wife’s father dying within a period of a few months, large
responsibilities were thrown upon Mr. Evans and he was obliged to
decline political and official honors, though frequently urged to
accept offices of honor and profit. From this time to the present
his mill, farm and several kindred interests have received his
entire energies and he has developed the fine tract of land on which
his home is located, near Cropwell -so called because of the great
productiveness of the region- into one of the most valuable farms in
this rich region. The farm consists of about three hundred acres, of
which two hundred and fifty are under cultivation. He has erected
all of the buildings upon this property except one barn - four
houses, three barns and a steam saw and feed-mill. One of the barns
has a storage capacity of three hundred tons of hay and grain. In
the mill Mr. Evans does a large amount of custom work and he also
carries on a lumber business of considerable proportions.
He is a farmer of the advanced and progressive
type. His purchase of imported Jersey and Guernsey cattle and the
introduction of steam as a motor for machinery in his farm
buildings, was regarded by his neighbors as a venture not warranted
in his calling, and which would end in loss. This was not the case,
however, for soon others indulged in Jersey and Guernsey herds and
also concluded that the application of steam saved much labor and
time about their plantations. What was several years since regarded
as of doubtful economy in his case, may now be found of practical
utility among agriculturists throughout the county. He is a member
of the American Jersey and of the American Guernsey Cattle Clubs,
and of other organizations of like aims.
He was one of the projectors of the Philadelphia,
Marlton and Medford Railroad, and did much to bring about its
completion, advancing considerable sums of money at a period when
few persons had faith in the success of the enterprise, and when the
other directors and the president refused financial aid, thus
relieving the company from serious embarrassment and insuring the
speedy completion of the road. This project at first was considered
of doubtful success, but it has opened one of the best sections of
West Jersey to markets and travel, and been of much benefit to the
farmers and dairymen. Mr. Evans adheres to the religious belief of
his ancestors.
On March 27, 1873, Mr. Evans married Sarah L.
Evens, only child of Thomas Evens, a descendant of one of the
earliest representatives of the Evans family in America, though the
name was, through some person in the line, changed from the commonly
accepted spelling. She is a descendant of the eighth generation from
William and Elizabeth Evans, through the Thomas Evans’ branch. He
married Esther Haines. Their son William, who married Sarah Roberts,
had a son Jacob, who married Mary Cherrington. Their son Thomas
married Mary Eves, and among their children was Joseph, who married
Rebecca Roberts. Thomas, their son, married Sarah Lippincott, and
she was their only child.
BENJAMIN B. COOPER, in 1803 the first
postmaster at Camden and who later resided near Ellisburg, in
Delaware township, and died in 1835, was an enterprising and
representative man. He was a son of William and Ann (Folwell)
Cooper, and was born March 22,1779. He owned and occupied the farm
first settled by Wm. Cooper, who emigrated from England, from whom
he traced his lineage in a direct line. As a farmer he was always in
advance with any improvement that appeared. He gave much attention
to fruit and had the largest orchards of choice varieties in the
county. He was always an authority on cattle and horses and dealt
largely in both. In the politics of the county and State he took
much interest, representing the county several times in the
Legislature and was a leading man in the Board of Freeholders for
several years. General Jackson, as President of the United States,
was the one person who met his notions of a statesman.
He had scarcely attained man’s estate before a
leading characteristic of his life developed itself - speculation in
land. The first piece of property he purchased was in 1803, and his
dealings were continuous until his death, the records of Gloucester
County alone showing the entry of one hundred and fifty-eight deeds
of purchase and one hundred and thirty-seven deeds of sale, many of
which conveyances contained several tracts of land. His transactions
extended to Cumberland, Salem and Cape May Counties, in West Jersey,
and Sussex, Warren and Monmouth Counties, in East Jersey.
He was agent for the Holland Land Company, whose
possessions were in Pennsylvania, and had large individual interests
in that State, at one time owning nearly the whole of Clearfield
County. He was also attorney for the Pemberton and Kirkbride
possessions in New Jersey. In 1814 he purchased of Thomas
Cadwalader, agent of the West New Jersey Society, all the shares of
propriety owned by that corporation. At the time of his death his
landed estate was large and valuable. He disposed of it by will. His
wife was Sarah Van Meter, of Monmouth County, N.J. Three children
survived him, - Ralph V. M., Sarah Ann and W. Morris. His remains
and those of his wife lie buried in the "Sloan" part of the old
Newton grave-yard.
* By Hon. Edward Burrough.
** Writer of this sketch, in company with a
colored boy by the name of Joseph M. Johnson, remounded the grave on
Thanksgiving Day, 1884.
*** The name Burrough, in books on heraldry, is
recorded as Burg, and De Bourg was the family name of William the
Conqueror’s father, and it is from a brother of William the
Conqueror that a branch of the family claim direct descent. Whether
these claims are strictly true will probably never be ascertained,
but it is evident that the family was a numerous one in England at a
very early day. The present record of the family extends back to the
beginning of the seventeenth century, when they came prominently
before the people as the followers of George Fox and expounders of
the doctrines of the Society of Friends.
(4*) See Haddonfield Borough.
(5*) Absent first two years.
(6*) James Stiles paid four dollars for his right
to the grave-yard February 6, 1826.
SOURCE: Page(s) 713-738, History of
Camden County, New Jersey, by George R. Prowell, L.J. Richards & Co.
1886
Published 2010 by the Camden County Genealogy Project
