The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-04
go M
JERdY'S OLD LAWS
IHe English Projectors
Lived Under Queer
Statutes.
REGULATIONS FOR LOTTERIES AND FENCES
II Cost Six shilIings to Triple on
Sunday Except for Necessary
Refreshments"
REGULATIONS FOR LOTTERIES AND FENCES
speeia. to the Jersey cltp Ne.rs.

TRENTON. Jan. 4. 1S96.-To the embryo
statesman nothing should be of greater
interest than a study of the old statutes
of New Jersey. he must not come to
Trenton supposing that he has a new
scheme. when he desires that all the
youths and maidens desiring to fix upon
their necks the matrimonial yoke shall
take out a marriage license, for marriage
licenses Were in vogue by reason of an act
of the Legislature over one hundred
and twenty years ago. and it is ques-
tionable whether the old statute is not still
in force.
In times of yore when the forest
primevsl covered the broad acres Of the
State. when the old homesteads We're
new and few. and many of them built of
logs and red mud. Esquire Henry Lud-
lam. Justice of the Peace. lived at Den
nisville. Cape May county. and led the life
Of a count magnate. administering JUS
tice to rich and poor alike So great a
man in his day. of course, was obliged to
know the law" and from his we'll
stocked library came a great leather bound
book known as "Allison's collection of
the statutes of the State of New Jer-
sey." The book was printed in Burling-
ton way back in the early part of the
seventeenth century. and is now in the
possession of Francis b. Lee. the we'll
known historian.
From its musty pages the embryo
statesman could $glean much knowledge,
and there is a great deal that is of gem
eral interest concerning the acts passed
by the Assembly and Council from the
year 17o2 until the time of the Revolu-
ton. There are acts in the book that
may be worth repassage by the Legisla-
ture of today. if they be obsolete. and
there is an apparent ~frankness and hon
esty in the quaint old expression in each
that is wei worth cultivation by the pres
ent day statesman. In those days the
Legislature met in Burlington and Perth
Amboy. in the interest of East and West
Jersey. respectively.
In 1904, when good Queen Anne, who
.'sometimes counse took and sometimes
tea" was on the throne of England. the
August General Assembly, in December,
passed an act calculated 10 suppress i'm
morality. A portion of its second clause
reads
And be it further enacted by the au-
thority aforesaid, that no publick House.
keeper within this province shall suffer
any person or persons t9 tipple and
peeially IN time Of Divine Worship lex
Ger the p6Idlly OF six oll4lllSS.
This is the first Sunday liquor law
passed in this State. 1t is worthy of at
tentton,, not only as a herald OF the later
day prohibition forces, but likewise for its
strange wording. How few, when prose-
cuted, took cover under the necessary
refreshment' clause on the first day Of
the week will never be known. And
then, again.. who knows but that the
Statesmen of that day-like the lawmak-
yes a loophole in case of trouble?
On the fourth Of April, 1909, under the
G-uberaatoriai administration of John
Lord Loyelace, it appears that in future
the necessary qualifications, fitting a free
holder to be a representative, were the
personal possession of LOGO acres of
province. There were nine counties rep
resented in the assemblies, cape May,
one of the Oldest counties in the State,
SEM two members, and at the next ses-
sion in Burlington Cape Mays boundaries
were more accurately defined, and the
ounty assumed more nearly its present
Gliding that 'gaols and court houses are
absolutely necessary for the administra-
tion of Justice ordered. a Jail to be built
for Cape May county, near to the prison
there
The holding of slaves was not only
once allowed in New Jersey, but STA, cry
was approved by law. On March II, 1714.
an act for regulating slaves was. passed.
Persons were prohibited from giving to
a negro, Indian, or mulatto slave" any
rum. wine, beer, cider, or any strong
drink, under the penalty of a heavy fine.
IL an Gu Tune JerS6yIldn cOulu capture
a slave five miles. from home without a
pass from his or her master, the finder
could whip the poor creature mot to
exceed twenty lashes. and the. taker-up
of the slave shall have for his reward
five shillings." A slave who stole any
article was to be beaten, and no person
in bondage could be d freebooter.
In 1719, On March 27, whilst Colonel
Robert Hunter was Governor, the AS
sembGy, from their years of experience,
came to the conclusion that ~clandestine
marriages were most harmful. Therefore
as a preamble the following is recorded:
Whereas, OF late years several young
persons and their confederates enticed.
~enviegled and deluded, led away and
e%nveigled and deluded. led away and
been to the Ruin of the parties so mar
ried, as well as the great grief of their
parents and relations in order, therefore,
to permit the like as much to be the
future, be it enacted, etc"
Then the Assembly did enact that any
man or woman, under twenty-one years
of age must take out a marriage Ii
cense. record the same and give 80