The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Volume 9) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: UPTON. A Lost Town or Old Gloucester County, West Nsw Jersey. BY JOHN CLEMENT. It is curious and interesting to follow the movements of the emigrants who, under the patronage of the Trustees of Edward Byllynge, settled within the limits of the " Third and Fourth tenths," known as Old Gloucester County, West New Jersey. Although the land was generally located in large tracts, yet the owners remained in small communities for some time after such taking up, doubtless for fear of the Indians, who were at that time the only other occupants of the soil, and whom they only knew as savage and vindictive. Thomas Sharp, in his memorial relating to the settlement at Newton, gives this as a reason for their not separating as soon as they had selected their several tracts of land, and it goes to show that the aborigines were looked upon as the greatest enemy to be encountered in their new adventure. Much time did not elapse, however, before they discovered there was no reason for suspicion or fear, and that with kindness and fair dealing, these children of the forest would soon become their best and most reliable friends. This explains the difficulty so many have had in searching for the sites of villages and towns, known to exist in early times, through this section of the country, yet not being able to discover a trace of them after a century has passed since their first mention. Of these was " Upton," situated on the north side of the south branch of Gloucester River, which name was taken from the town of Upton in Berkshire, England, where resided Thomas Staunton, the purchaser of a right of propriety of Edward Byllynge and his Trustees, who sold to Robert Ever in 1687, and who again sold to John Ladd in 1688, in whose name the landabout that embryo town was located. The frontage o...