The Sunday morning news., 1891-11-08
AN OLD-FASHIONED OATH
Req uired of G.and Juries at Bur.
linglon Two Centuries Ago.
Special to the Jerser city Ne,rs.

Special to the Jersey city News
BURLINGTON. Nov. z, ls9l.-The
earliest court of law for the prov
ince OF West New Jersey. which Western
Division included all the southern coun-
ties of the State except Ocean, as we'll as
Eoodly portion of Mercer, Hunterdon
and Warren, convened in this city in
March, 1851. This was established. by
viltue of certain privil eyes granted by
the proprietors. court of lmost unlim-
tied jurisdiction both civil and criminal,
and which formed one of the channels
tending toward the common centre
of Supreme Court, later organized ny
Lord Cornbury In 1702 Among the
records Of this colonial tribunal, q
certain entry has been preserved which
may be Of passing interest inasmuch Ms n
similar occasion today occupies public at
tention. Mercer county's Grand Jury is
now In session. a period of two hundred
and ten years having elapsed since the
first body of its kind net in Burliug-
the 'Falls of the Delaware" or as
the old records have 1t, ''ye falls" and
was, with Nottingham, the township or
constabulary north of Crusswicks creek.
under the jurisdiction OF Burlington
Court. Thus the Grand Juries which
met for Burlington could find bills and
perform other duties for nearly ali Of
Mercer county.
Under the caption Burlington. at ye
Quarterly C0'rt held We Goth. 18th Mo;
falling by reason of ye 1st day, 21st 1886. :"
1t is stated that upon the bench were
John skene, Deputy Governor OF the
ernor-whose claims caused such conten-
tion-together with Justices George
Hutcheson, William Riddle, Thomas
Gardner James Budd ana Richard Guy,
names yet preserved in this section.
win probably the exception S,sp n,. 81 sksns
quite extinct.
At this session Of Court the "forme
of ye Grand Jury's Attestation" was ad-
minstrel, being the first in stance OF its
formal recording in the annals Of the
Court. 1t was rs follows:-
You shall diligently enquire, 81 true
p'sent'm't make. of all such Articles mat
ters g things as shall be given you In
charge, And OF all other matters 81 things
as shall como to your owne knowledge,
touching this p'sent service. The
Kings Councell. your fellow & your owne.
p'sent noe p'son for hatred or malice
neither shall you have any unp'sented
for favour or Election, for Looe or Gaine
or any hopes thereof. But Ia all things
Won shall p'sent ye truth. We whole truth
81 nothing but We truth to ye best OF your
knowledge or otherwise bee accounted g.
p'sented as p'jured In Lave"
In time wnen the courts Of law were
not so crowded as at present, when the
trials were brief aud the ends of justice
were secured often without the interven-
tion Of attorneys-each man pleading his
owa case-the Grand Jury oath seems
quite elaborate. 1t must be remem-
bered however, that the body in
oldeu days, particularly In West
Jersey, had almost unlimited power, even
finding bills against the Justices for not
attending to the building of the Burling-
ton County Saii Every matter from the
slightest quarrel to murder or treason
came before the Burlington jury, which
explains the seemingly wide scope of the
above form of attestation,
FRANCIS b. LEE