| Notes |
- . John Tallman married Mary; settled at Flushing, Long Island & is ancestor of the Burlington County, New Jersey, family.
. Original Settlers of Monmouth, New Jersey:
JOHN TILTON, Patentee (2), son of John.1, The Patentee, married Rebecca Terry. He died in 1704, she, sup. Dec. 18, 1715.
Their children were: Sarah, who married Walter Herbert; John, who married Margaret Lippencott; Abraham, not traced; Samuel, married Patience, supposed daughter of Jedediah Allen; Daniel, married, sup. Elizabeth Powell; Thomas, married Faith Lawrence; Mary, married James Grover, Jr.; Hester, married William Lawrence; & Peter, married Lydia Bills.
. A patent confirming those Indian grants to the inhabitants was signed, by Governor Nicolls March 13, 1666.
The municipal history of Gravesend began almost with its settlement. In 1646 the first three "approved honest men" elected as Justices were George Baxter, Edward Brown & William Wilkins; Sergeant James Hubbard was elected Schout & John Tilton (who had accompanied Lady Moody from New England) was chosen to be Town Clerk. All these elections were approved by the Governor.
To take another instance, we extract an Indian deed for the surrender of Barren Island in 1664 from Stiles's History of Kings County:
Know all men, etc., that we, Wawmatt Tappa & Kackawashke, the right & true proprietors of a certain island called by the Indians Equendito & by the English Broken Lands, in consideration of two coats, one kettle, one gun, one new trooper-coat, ten fathoms of wampum prage, 3 shirts, 6 pounds of powder, 6 barrs of lead & a quantity of Brandie wine, already paid unto us by John Tilton, sen. & Samuel Spicer, of Gravesend, L. I., Do &c., sell &c., the said Island called Equendito &c., with all our right both of upland & marshes any way belonging thereto, as the Straun Beach or Beaches, as namely that running out more westerly, with the Island adjoining & is at the same time by the ocean sea wholly inclosed, called Hoopaninak & Shanscomacocke & macutteris, as also all the harbors &c., to the said John Tilton & Samuel Spicer excepting only to ourselves the one-half of all such whale-fish that shall by wind & storms be cast upon the said Island. In witness whereof we have set our hands this 13 day of the 3 month, called May, Anno, 1664.
. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS: In August, 1675, a boat arrived in New York Bay from New England, having on board 11 Quakers who had been expelled from that colony. Two of them, women, as soon as they landed in New Amsterdam, began preaching on the streets to the astonishment & disgust of old Peter Stuyvesant, a straight-laced, single-minded supporter of the Dutch church. He did not understand the Quakers' theology. he Quaker visitors soon scattered in pursuance of their mission to disseminate their doctrines, but at least one of them, Robert Hodgson, went to Long Island & as he journeyed held conventicles by the way. He was arrested for this at Hempstead & promptly lodged in jail, along with 2 women who had entertained him in their home. Stuyvesant at once ordered the 3 prisoners to be sent to New Amsterdam, where he seems to have released the women after giving them the supreme benefit of a piece of his mind. Hodgson, however, was to feel the full force of the ire of the doughty Governor. He was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment at hard labor or pay a fine of 600 guilders. Such a fine was beyond his power to liquidate & he was quickly put to the alternative. Chained to a wheelbarrow, he was ordered to work, but refused & was thereupon lashed by a negro until he fainted. He remained in prison for some months, scourged at frequent intervals until insensibility rendered the infliction of further pain unnecessary & was humiliated in many ways. The cruelty practiced toward him was brutal in the extreme & its effects were threatening even his life. Then from sheer pity at his awful condition the Governor's sister interposed on his behalf & he was released, under a new sentence of banishment from the province. The Governor seems never to have lost his enmity to the Quakers.
Prosecutions were accordingly directed from time to time against William & John Bowne, Henry Townsend, John Townsend, Samuel Spicer, John Tilton, William Noble, Edward Hart & Edward Feake, all of whom openly confessed their adherence to the doctrines of the Quakers. Most of these (including Spicer, Tilton & the Bowne family) were residents of Gravesend.
. The case of John Tilton & his wife, Mary, is also interesting. Tilton settled in Gravesend at the same time as Lady Moody & probably accompanied her from New England, where doubtless he got his first impressions of the doctrines of the Friends, the "abominable sect," according to Stuyvesant, "who vilify both the political magistrates & the ministers of God"s holy Word."
Tilton & his wife were arrested October 5, 1662 & lodged in the prison at Fort Amsterdam. They remained in durance vile for a few days, when they were brought before the Council, found guilty of entertaining Quakers & attending conventicles & ordered to leave the province before the 20th of November following, under the alternative penalty of being publicly whipped. Their sentences seem to have been remitted, however, probably through the influence of Lady Moody, for Mary Tilton continued to reside at Gravesend until her death, May 23, 1683 & John Tilton also maintained his home there until he, too, passed away, in 1688. He was, we take it, a man of deep religious sentiment & so continued to the end, most probably becoming more & more devoted to Quakerism as the time went on, for by his will, which he had drawn up about a year before his death, he bequeathed a piece of land as a burial ground "for all persons in ye everlasting truth of the Gospel."
In many ways the most notable of all Stuyvesant's experiences with Quakers lay around the case of John Bowne, of Flushing, not only because the extreme measure which he adopted showed the malignancy of his feelings toward these people, but because it brought down upon him, what he probably felt more keenly than he could any other form of misfortune, a clear-cut rebuke from his home Government & the nullification of the sentence he imposed.
. The WILL of JOHN TILTON dated Jan. 15, 1657, in which he devised land "for all persons in ye Everlasting truth of ye gospel as occasion serves for ever to have & to hold & to make use of to bury their dead there."' It is thought that the land thus deeded adjoined the original burying ground & Tilton's bequest was in reality an addition & at once incorporated within its boundaries. It was probably part of the original lot, which Tilton received when he settled at Gravesend with Lady Moody. The oldest stone extant now bears the date of 1676 & many of the inscriptions discernible are in Dutch. From the formation of Greenwood Cemetery the Gravesend burial ground began to fall into disuse & interments in it have now practically ceased. [c. 1900.] - - - [1, 2, 3]
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1613 - 1688 (74 years)