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wilderness.
Every thing was of good augury, till, in
1670, the quitrents of a half-penny an acre were seriously spoken of. But on the subject of
real estate in the New World, the Puritans differed from the lawyers widely; asserting that the heathen, as a part of the lineal descendants of
Noah, had a rightful claim to their lands.
The Indian deeds, executed partly with the approbation of
Nicolls, partly with the consent of
Carteret himself, were, therefore, pleaded as superior to proprietary grants; the payment of quitrents was refused; disputes were followed by confusion; and, in May, 1672, the disaffected colonists, obeying the impulse of
independence, rather than of gratitude, sent deputies to a constituent assembly at
Elizabethtown.
By that body,
Philip Carteret was displaced, and his office transferred to the young and frivolous
James Carteret, a natural son of Sir George.
The proprietary officers could make no resistance.
William Pardon, who withheld the records,
found safety only in flight.
Following the advice of the council, after appointing
John Berry as his deputy,
Philip Carteret hastened to
England, in search of new authority, while the colonists remained in the undisturbed possession of their farms.
The liberties of
New Jersey did not extend be-
yond the
Delaware; the settlements in New Netherland, on the opposite bank, consisting chiefly of groups of
Dutch round
Lewistown and
Newcastle, and Swedes and Finns at
Christiana Creek, at
Chester, and near
Philadelphia, were retained as a dependency of New York.
The claim of Lord Baltimore was denied with pertinacity.
In 1672, the people of
Maryland, desiring to stretch the boundary of their province to the bay, invaded
Lewistown with an armed force.
The country was immediately reclaimed, as belonging by conquest
