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the Province differ so much is, that I see nothing "but Affluence, and you see the Distresses of the Peo"ple." I know not whether you allude here to my Affluence, or to that of the Gentlemen of the Colony with whom I am acquainted. If you mean the former, I have only to say that if I do live in Affluence I must at least spend among the People all I receive from them, to which I presume they cannot have any Material Objection. For so small is the Allowance to a Governor in this Province (much below that of any other of the King's Colonies) that considering the increased Expense of Living, especially to one in that Station, it is impossible for him to lay up a Farthing, unless he lives in a Manner that must disgrace his Commission. This the People, for their own Honour, would not like I believe, even if they were in the distressed Situation you represent them.-The Truth is Gentlemen, I found my Account of the Province on Facts, which it is not in your Power to controvert. know that there are but few People of great Fortunes in it, but at the same Time I am convinced, that there is a very considerable Number in Affluent Circumstances, and tho' there are here, as in every other Country, some distressed Persons, yet the Bulk of the Inhabitants are enabled to live well if they think proper. It gives me Pleasure to see this, and so far as I can contribute to promote their Welfare I shall do it, as I always have done with the utmost Readiness. It cannot be in any Way my Interest to overrate the Ability of the Colony, or to do anything which may increase it's Burthens, I may, with Propriety enough call myself a Farmer of New-Jersey, and my Farm, which is no inconsiderable one, must pay Taxes as well as yours. It is here, if I return to a private Station, that I propose to spend the Remainder of my Days.

You do me great Injustice, Gentlemen, in suppos

I

ing that I had any Intention to set your Conduct in a bad Light with your Sovereign. No Governor, I believe, has ever taken more Pains to make an Assembly appear to Advantage than I have done with respect to you, whenever a proper Opportunity offered. Of this I have the strongest Proofs in my Possession, and some of them appear on your Minutes; and I still hope, however we may differ at present, that I shall have Occasion to do it again. Your Conduct indeed at this Time does appear to me alarming, and I think you are unnecessarily risquing the future Peace and Happiness of this Colony.-I have no Motive in so warmly urging your Compliance with the Requisition, but what ought equally to influence you and your Constituents. You have notwithstanding again resolved not to comply, and informed me that you are desirous of being dismissed. I could not, however, think of parting with you until I had given you my free Sentiments on the Subject, that you might, if you thought proper, communicate them to your Constituents, and consult them on a Matter in which they are so deeply interested, and which is really of as great Importance as any Thing that ever came under their Consideration. Tho' the Recess I can allow you for this Purpose is but short, yet I shall hope it will be sufficient for you to see the Expediency of receding from your Resolution, and thereby restoring that Harmony which is so necessary to the publick Welfare. WILLIAM FRANKLIN.

April 29, 1771.

Instructions of the Freeholders of Hunterdon County

to their representatives' in Assembly, John Hart and Samuel Tucker, adverse to the quartering of troops in the Province.

[From New Jersey Historical Society Manuscripts, W. J., No. 30.]

For John Hart & Samuel Tucker Esq's

We the freeholders of the County of Hunterdon Province of West Jersey; to the Representatives of

1 John Hart, later one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. "Born, where or when, no man now appears to know, and whose handwriting many have sought and few have found, in other form than on a Colonial note."--Col. T. B. Myers, in Hist. Mag., November, 1868, 230. John Hart was a son of Captain Edward Hart, who came from Stonington, Conn., early in the last century, and settled at Hopewell, then in Hunterdon, now in Mercer county. He was said by a granddaughter to have been born in Stonington.-Cooley's Early Settlers in Trenton, 101-5. Captain Hart was a zealous Presbytertan, and recognized as such by the dignitaries of the church.-Ib., 101. The records of the Presbyterian Church at Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville) show that John was baptized there by the Rev. Jedediah Andrews, of Washington Square Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, "12th Mo. 21st, 1713."-Hist. Somerset and Hunterdon Counties, 818. Various writers have interpreted this date to be December 21, 1713, overlooking the fact that it is according to the "Old Style." As a matter of fact, by our present reckoning, the date would be March 5, 1714. Mr. Hart was doubtless brought up on his father's farm, and received little or no education, the few specimens we have of his manuscript indicating an illiterate writer. He was a Justice of the Peace of Hunterdon county in 1755.-Ib., 258. He was elected in 1761 to the twentieth Assembly, which began its sittings April 7, 1761.-N. J. Hist. Society Proc., May, 1850, 32; Allinson's Laws, 238. Upon the dissolution of that Assembly, in 1768, he was again elected a member in June, 1768, and sat in the twenty first Assembly, which first met October 10, 1769.-N. J. Hist. Soc. Proc., May, 1850, 32; Allinson's Laws, 342; ante, 33. He continued a member of that Assembly until its dissolution, December 21, 1771. -Post. Dec. 27, 1771. The minutes show that he was a staunch supporter of the rights of the people during his ten years of service in that body. In 1774 he was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hunterdon county. - Hist. Somerset and Hunterdon, 257. But though thus holding an office at the hands of the Governor, he did not hesitate to accept an election, July 8, 1774, by his fellow-citizens of Hunterdon, to the first Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and he presided at another meeting, held for the like purpose, January 18, 1775, when he was chosen to the second Provincial Congress.- Minutes Provincial Congress, etc., 1775-6, 14, 49. He attended the sessions of that body in May and again in August, 1773, being appointed on the Committee of Correspondence during the recess before the latter session, and on the Committee of Safety afterwards, serving during 1776-7. He was re-elected to the Provincial Congress in September, 1775, and sat in the October

said County appointed to meet att Burlington with the other Representatives of said Province on the 28th day of May Anno Domini 1771—GREETING.

Gentlemen

Whereas we understand his Excellency the Governor has adjourned the House of Assembly in order to Consider further on divers Affairs presented to the House last Session; In which Interval the Members might have an Opportunity to Consult their Con

session of that year, and in January and June, 1776, being named on important committees, among other duties imposed on him was that of signing his name to the reams of paper money issued by the Provincial Congress. On June 15, 1776, he was elected Vice-President, and one week later was elected one of the five delegates to the Continental Congress.--Minutes. He and his colleagues arrived at Philadelphia in season to affix their names to the immortal Declaration, on July 2, 1776. In the selection of a new delegation of Congressmen November 30, 1776, Mr. Hart and Francis Hopkinson were omitted, for what reason does not appear. In August, 1776, Mr. Hart was elected to the first Assembly under the new Constitution, and on the meeting of that body, August 23, he was unanimously elected Speaker, which office he held by successive elections during 1776, 1777, and the first session of 1778, being annually re-elected from his county, until compelled by failing health to retire from active life. Owing to his prominence he was hunted by the British and the Tories with peculiar ferocity when the enemy traversed New Jersey in December, 1776, but he never faltered in his loyalty.-Cooley, 105-6; Lives of the Signers, by Sanderson, Goodrich, Lossing: Hist. Collections of N. J., 262; Governor Parker's Oration, July 4, 1865. Under date of Princetown, November 25th, 1777," while Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Hart addressed this note to Governor Livingston: "Sir, The House of Assembly Request that your Excellency Direct Mr. Collings [Collins] to print fifty Coppies of the Law for purching Cloathing for the New-Jersey Redgment and transmit the same to your Excellency as soon as possable. I am Sir Youre Humble Sevant JOHN HART. To his Excellency William Liveingston."- Sedgwick's Livingston, 192. Mr. Hart paid his dues to the Pennington Presbyterian Church as late as 1769, but gave the Baptists in 1771 a deed for the plot on which their church had been erected in 1747.-Cooley, 110; Edward's Hist. Baptists, II., 45. He died May 11, 1779, at his home in Hopewell. In 1865 the New Jersey Legislature caused a monument to be erected to his memory, on which occasion Governor Joel Parker delivered an eloquent and impressive address, in the course of which he said: "Upon a careful examination of the history of New Jersey during and immediately preceding the Revolutionary War, I am of opinion that John Hart had greater experience in the Colonial and State legislation of that day, than any of his cotemporaries; and that no man exercised greater influence in giving direction to the public opinion which culminated in independence.”—Oration, 18. The monument follows the biographical compilers in giving the date of Mr. Hart's death as 1780. But in this, as in many other particulars, the compilations err. Mr. Hart's will was proved May 23, 1779.-Governor Parker's Oration, Appendix, 26.

Samuel Tucker was born in 1721, and at an early age enlisted in mercantile business at Trenton, then in Hunterdon county, extending his operations occasionally to New England and the West Indies, and soon establishing a reputation as a

stituents. We therefore without the least Defection in our Zeal for his Majesty, or desire to promote Contention between the Different Branches of the Legislative Body in this Province, yet desirous that our Liberties may be secur'd to us, do agree with the Resolution taken by the Assembly at their last Setting; and approve the Reasons given to his Excellency for not Complying with the Several Requisitions made respecting Incouragement for the Augmenting his Majesty's Regular Troops in this Province and Granting supplies

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man of good understanding, a man of probity and veracity."-N. J. Archives, VII., 637, 640. He was a Justice of the Peaee of Hunterdon in 1767.-Hist. Somerset and Hunterdon, 258. He was also Sheriff of the county, probably between 1762 and 1767.-Ib., 258; Field's Provincial Courts, 170. In 1768 he was elected with John Hart to represent Hunterdon, Morris and Sussex counties in the twenty-first As. sembly.-N. J. Hist. Soc. Proc., May, 1850, 32; Allinson's Laws, 70, 109, 195, 314. He at once took an active part in the attempt made to reform the practice of the law, and thereby drew upon himself the attention of the lawyers, who upon investigation found that he had himself charged excessive fees while sheriff.-Field, 170. Nevertheless, he was elected in 1772 to the twenty-second Assembly, and during the next three years was exceedingly zealous in promoting the American cause against British aggressions. He sat in that Assembly until it was prorogued for the last time, December 5, 1775. In the meantime he was Chairman of the Hunterdon county meeting, July 8, 1774, which appointed delegates, himself among the number, to the first Provincial Congress of New Jersey, held for the purpose of choosing delegates to the Continental Congress, and was likewise chosen January 18, 1775, to the second Provincial Congress, held for the same purpose. He had been appointed by the Assembly, February 8, 1774, on a Committee of Correspondence. When the Assembly was prorogued, May 20, 1775, Mr. Tucker stepped into the Provincial Congress three days later, and was made Vice-President, May 25, and when that body adjourned in August, he was named as a member of the Committee of Safety, to sit during the recesses of the Assembly, in which position he was con tinued from time to time subsequently for a year and a half. He was elected President of the Provincial Congress, October 4, 1775 (whence he was often styled "Governor" Tucker), and again June 11, 1776, and as such President had the honor of affixing his official signature to the first Constitution of New Jersey, July 2, 1776, although in the preceding November the Congress over which he presided had declared its "detestation" of "sentiments of independency." In February, 1776, he was elected one of the two Treasurers of New Jersey. On September 4, 1776, the Legislature, elected under the new Constitution, appointed Mr. Tucker to be Second Judge of the Supreme Court, at a salary of £100. –Minutes, passim. On opening the Burlington Courts, November 13, 1776, the Grand Jury addressed" him after the old-country fashion, congratulating him on his appointment, and declared: "We have no doubt of your integrity and assiduity, and can only wish your country had called you to so important an office in times less perilous and dangerous. But, Sir, let the peril and difficulty of the times be a criterion to distinguish who are real friends to their country, and who are not."-5 American Archives, III., 662. These words would appear profoundly significant, in the light of events during the next three weeks. On December 9, the State chest containing money and other valuables, which Treasurer Tucker had sent away from Trenton to keep from fall