Philip carteret nj biography death

By inheritance Philip Carteret was Seigneur of the Manor of La Hougue, Parish of Stain Peter, Jersey, but these honors did not prevent his leaving his native land to assume the government of a province in the new world. It was a wild land, for we are told that when Philip Carteret landed at Achter Coll, a few primitive houses marked the site of Elizabethtown; the rest of Nova Caesarea was a trackless wild.

Brought up on the Island of Jersey, where the spirit of feudalism lingered longer than in more traveled parts, loyal to the house of Stuart and high in favor at court, the training of Captain Carteret hardly fitted him to govern a people in whom the seeds of liberty and self-government seemed already sown. In , the Duke of York had granted to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret all land between Hudson's river and the Delaware River, and in Philip Carteret received his appointment to settle the province and act as governor under the authority of the Lord Proprietors.

On July 29th of that year the good ship "Philip" arrived at New York bearing the new governor and a party of thirty settlers, including eighteen male servants, part French and probably from Jersey. Governor Carteret allowed but a few days to elapse before taking possession.

Who was the first governor of new jersey

He and his party landed without ceremony at Achter Coll and proceeded to lay his credentials before John Ogden and others who had settled there the year before, under a grant from Governor Nichols of New York. Under the grant of the Lord Proprietors, New Jersey had been included with New York and Maine in the territory governed by Colonel Richard Nichols, who had already granted two patents - one the site of Elizabethtown; the other, where Shrewsbury and Middletown were founded in by Quakers and others from the western end of Long Island.

Although the Duke of York repudiated the grants of Governor Nichols as without his authority, Carteret saw fit to confirm them, at least by inference, and sent word far and wide through the colonies that New Jersey was open for settlement under the protection of a governor. In response to this notice, a company of Puritans from Connecticut obtained a grant on the Passaic River from Carteret, and other small settlements were made.

For two years all went smoothly. The people were pleased to have the governor and set of government at Elizabethtown. Carteret bought land and established a residence. Anxious for the growth of the new Province, the Governor was lenient in enforcing the terms of the Concessions and allowed the Hempstead Code of Laws to stand.

The colony prospered. Ships came and went, bring settlers and their goods.