Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/41/367/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 21:46:55+00:00

Document:
Ejectment for one hundred acres of land, covered with water, in Raritan Bay, in the Township of Perth Amboy, in the State of New Jersey. The land claimed lies beneath the navigable waters of the Raritan River and Bay, where the tide ebbs and flows, and the principal right in dispute was the property in the oyster fisheries in the public rivers and bays of East New Jersey. The claim was made under the charters of Charles the Second to his brother the Duke of York in 1664 and 1674 for the purpose of enabling him to plant a colony on the continent of America. The land in controversy is within the boundaries of the charters, and in the territory which now forms the State of New Jersey. The territory in the grant, by succeeding conveyances, became vested in the proprietors of East Jersey, who conveyed the premises in controversy to the defendant in error. The proprietors, by the terms of the grant to them, were originally invested with all the rights of government and property which were conferred on the Duke of York. Afterwards, in 1702, the proprietors surrendered to the Crown all the powers of government, retaining their rights of private property. The defendant in error claimed the exclusive right to take oysters in the place granted to him by virtue of his title under the proprietors. The plaintiffs in error, as the grantees of the State of New Jersey, under a law of that state passed in 1824 and a supplement thereto, claimed the exclusive right to take oysters in the same place. The point in dispute between the parties depended upon the construction and legal effect of the letters patent to the Duke of York, and of the deed of surrender, subsequently made by the proprietors.
The right of the King of Great Britain to make this grant to the Duke of York, with all of its prerogatives and powers of government, cannot at this day be questioned.
The English possessions in America were not claimed by right of conquest, but by right of discovery. According to the principles of international law, as then understood by the civilized powers of Europe, the Indian tribes in the new world were regarded as mere temporary occupants of the soil, and the absolute rights of property and dominion were held to belong to the European nations by which any portion of the country was first discovered.
The grant to the Duke of York was not of lands won by the sword, nor were the government and laws he was authorized to establish intended for a conquered people.
The country granted by King Charles the Second to the Duke of York, was held by the King in his public and regal character, as the representative of the nation, and in trust for them. The discoveries made by persons acting under the authority of the government were for the benefit of the nation, and the Crown, according to the principles of the British Constitution, was the proper organ to dispose of the public domain. Cited, Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheat. 595.
by their authority must be tried and determined by different principles from those which apply to grants of the British Crown, where the title is held by a single individual in trust for the whole nation.
The dominion and property in navigable waters and the lands under them being held by the King as a public trust, the grant to an individual of an exclusive fishery in any portion of it is so much taken from the common fund entrusted to his care for the common benefit. In such cases, whatever does not pass by the grant remains in the Crown for the benefit and advantage of the whole community. Grants of that description are therefore, construed strictly, and it will not be presumed that the King intended to part from any portion of the public domain unless clear and special words are used to denote it.
The rivers, bays, and arms of the sea, and all the prerogative rights within the limits of the charter of King Charles, undoubtedly passed to the Duke of York and were intended to pass except those saved in the letters patent.
The questions upon this charter are very different. It is not a deed conveying private property, to be interpreted by the rules applicable to cases of that description. It was an instrument upon which was to be founded the institutions of a great political community, and in that light it should be regarded and construed.
The land under the navigable waters within the limits of the charter passed to the grantee as one of the royalties incident to the powers of government, and were to be held by him in the same manner and for the same purposes that the navigable waters of England and the soils under them are held by the Crown. The policy of England since Magna Charta -- for the last six hundred years -- has been carefully preserved to secure the common right of piscary for the benefit of the public. It would require plain language in the letters patent to the Duke of York to persuade the Court that the public and common right of fishing in navigable waters, which has been so long and so carefully guarded in England, and which was preserved in every other colony founded on the Atlantic borders, was intended in this one instance to be taken away. There is nothing in the charter that requires this conclusion.
prerogatives and regalities which before belonged either to the Crown or the Parliament, became immediately and rightfully vested in the state.
Quaere. Whether on a question which depends not upon the meaning of instruments formed by the people of a state or by their authority, but upon the letters patent granted by the British Crown, under which certain rights are claimed by the state, on one hand, and by private individuals, on the other, if the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey had been of opinion that upon the face of the charter the question was clearly in favor of the state, and that the proprietors holding under the letters patent had been deprived of their just rights by the erroneous judgment of the state court, it could be maintained that the decision of the court of the state on the construction of the letters patent bound the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision of the state court upon the letters patent by which the province was originally granted by the King of Great Britain is unquestionably entitled to great weight. If the words of the letters patent had been more doubtful, quaere if the decision of a state court on their construction, made with great deliberation and research, ought to be regarded as conclusive.
The defendant in error, the lessee of William C. H. Waddell, instituted, to April term 1835, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey, an action of ejectment against Merrit Martin and others for the recovery of certain land covered with water, situated in the Raritan Bay, below high water mark in the State of New Jersey. The defendants appeared to the suit, and at April term 1837, the cause was tried by a jury, which found a special verdict on which judgment was afterwards entered for the plaintiff, from which judgment, the defendants prosecuted this writ of error.
under the authority of the proprietors and duly recorded in the proper office. And if they were authorized to make this grant, he is entitled to the premises as owner of the soil and has an exclusive right to the fishery in question. The plaintiff in error also claims an exclusive right to take oysters in the same place, and derives his title under a law of the State of New Jersey passed in 1824 and a supplement thereto passed in the same year. The point in dispute between the parties therefore depends upon the construction and legal effect of the letters patent to the Duke of York and of the deed of surrender subsequently made by the proprietors.
"together with all the lands, islands, soils, rivers, harbors, mines, minerals, quarries, woods, marshes, waters, lakes, fishings, hawkings, huntings and fowlings, and all other royalties, profits, commodities and hereditaments to the said several islands, lands and premises belonging and appertaining, with their and every of their appurtenances, and all the estate, right, title, interest, benefit and advantage, claim and demand of the King, in the said land and premises,"
"not be contrary to, but as nearly as might be agreeable to, the laws, statutes and government of the realm of England, saving also an appeal to the King, in all cases, from any judgment or sentence which might be given in the colony, and authorizing the duke, his heirs and assigns, to lead and transport out of any of the realms of the King to the country granted, all such and so many of his subjects, or strangers not prohibited, or under restraint who would become the 'loving subjects' of the King, and live under his allegiance, and who should willingly accompany the duke, his heirs and assigns."
The right of the King to make this grant, with all of its prerogatives and powers of government, cannot at this day be questioned.
national domains; by that organ in which all territory is vested by law. According to the theory of the British constitution, all vacant lands are vested in the Crown as representing the nation, and the exclusive power to grant them is admitted to reside in the Crown as a branch of the royal prerogative. It has been already shown that this principle was as fully recognized in America as in the Island of Great Britain."
when the title is held by a single individual in trust for the whole nation.
The questions upon this charter are very different ones. They are whether the dominion and propriety in the navigable waters and in the soils under them passed as a part of the prerogative rights annexed to the political powers conferred on the duke? Whether, in his hands, they were intended to be a trust for the common use of the new community about to be established or private property to be parceled out and sold to individuals for his own benefit? And in deciding a question like this, we must not look merely to the strict technical meaning of the words of the letters patent. The laws and institutions of England, the history of the times, the object of the charter, the contemporaneous construction given to it, and the usages under it for the century and more which has since elapsed are all entitled to consideration and weight. It is not a deed conveying private property, to be interpreted by the rules applicable to cases of that description.
It was an instrument upon which was to be founded the institutions of a great political community, and in that light it should be regarded and construed.
Taking this rule for our guide, we can entertain no doubt as to the true construction of these letters patent. The object in view appears upon the face of them. They were made for the purpose of enabling the Duke of York to establish a colony upon the newly discovered continent, to be governed, as nearly as circumstances would permit, according to the laws and usages of England, and in which the duke, his heirs and assigns, were to stand in the place of the King, and administer the government according to the principles of the British Constitution. And the people who were to plant this colony, and to form the political body over which he was to rule, were subjects of Great Britain, accustomed to be governed according to its usages and laws.
"That although the King is the owner of this great coast, and as a consequent of his propriety, hath the primary right of fishing in the sea, and creeks and arms thereof, yet the common people of England have regularly a liberty of fishing in the sea or creeks or arms thereof as a public common of piscary, and may not, without injury to their right, be restrained of it unless in such places, creeks or navigable rivers, where either the King or some particular subject hath gained a propriety exclusive of that common liberty."
has preserved this common right for the benefit of the public. And there is nothing in the charter before us indicating that a different and opposite line of policy was designed to be adopted in that colony. On the contrary, after enumerating in the clause herein before quoted, some of the prerogative rights annexed to the Crown, but not all of them, general words are used, conveying "all the estate, right, title, interest, benefit, advantage, claim and demand" of the King, in the lands and premises before granted. The estate and rights of the King passed to the duke in the same condition in which they had been held by the Crown, and upon the same trusts. Whatever was held by the King, as a prerogative right, passed to the duke in the same character. And if the word "soils" be an appropriate word to pass lands covered with navigable water, as contended for on the part of the defendant in error, it is associated in the letters patent with "other royalties," and conveyed as such. No words are used for the purpose of separating them from the jura regalia and converting them into private property, to be held and enjoyed by the duke apart from and independent of the political character with which he was clothed by the same instrument.
waters of England, and the soils under them, are held by the Crown.
This opinion is confirmed by referring to similar grants for other tracts of country upon this continent, made about the same period of time. Various other charters for large territories on the Atlantic cost were granted by different monarchs of the Stuart dynasty to different persons for the purposes of settlement and colonization, in which the powers of government were united with the grant of territory. Some of these charters very nearly resembled in every respect the one now in controversy, and none of them, it is believed, differed materially from it in the terms in which the bays, rivers and arms of the sea and the soils under them were conveyed to the grantees. Yet in no one of these colonies has the soil under its navigable waters and the rights of fishery for shellfish or floating fish been severed by the letters patent from the powers of government. In all of them, from the time of the settlement to the present day, the previous habits and usages of the colonists have been respected, and they have been accustomed to enjoy in common the benefits and advantages of the navigable waters for the same purposes and to the same extent that they have been used and enjoyed for centuries in England. Indeed it could not well have been otherwise, for the men who first formed the English settlements could not have been expected to encounter the many hardships that unavoidably attended their emigration to the new world, and to people the banks of its bays and rivers, if the land under the water at their very doors was liable to immediate appropriation by another as private property, and the settler upon the fast land thereby excluded from its enjoyment and unable to take a shellfish from its bottom or fasten there a stake or even bathe in its waters without becoming a trespasser upon the rights of another. The usage in New Jersey has in this respect, from its original settlement, conformed to the practice of the other chartered colonies. And it would require very plain language in these letters patent to persuade us that the public and common right of fishery in navigable waters, which has been so long and so carefully guarded in England and which was preserved in every other colony founded on the Atlantic borders was intended in this one instance to be taken away. But we see nothing in the charter to require this conclusion.
thereof, which were granted, or mentioned to be granted, by the said several above-recited letters patent, or either of them,"
We give the words of the surrender as found by the special verdict, and they are broad enough to cover the jura regalia which belonged to the proprietors. They yield up "all the powers, authorities and privileges of and concerning the government of the province," and the right in dispute was one of these authorities and privileges. No words are used for the purpose of withholding from the Crown any of its ordinary and well known prerogatives. The surrender, according to its evident object and meaning, restored them in the same plight and condition in which they originally came to the hands of the Duke of York. Whatever he held as a royal or prerogative right was restored, with the political power to which it was incident. And if the great right of dominion and ownership in the rivers, bays, and arms of the sea and the soils under them were to have been severed from the sovereignty and withheld from the Crown; if the right of common fishery for the common people stated by Hale in the passage before quoted was intended to be withdrawn, the design to make this important change in this particular territory would have been clearly indicated by appropriate terms, and would not have been left for inference from ambiguous language.
as gathered from the acts, documents and proceedings of the public authorities that the Crown and the provincial government established by its authority always afterwards in this territory exercised the same prerogative powers that the King was accustomed to exercise in his English dominions. And as concerns the particular dominion and propriety now in question, the colonial government from time to time authorized the construction of bridges with abutments on the soil covered by navigable waters, established forts, authorized the erection of wharves, and as early as 1719 passed a law for the preservation of the oyster fishery in its waters. The public usages also, in relation to the fisheries, continued to be the same. And from 1702, when the surrender was made, until a very recent date, the people of New Jersey have exercised and enjoyed the rights of fishery for shellfish and floating fish as a common and undoubted right without opposition or remonstrance from the proprietors. The few unimportant grants made by them at different times, running into the navigable waters, which were produced in the argument do not appear to have been recognized as valid by the provincial or state authorities nor to have been sanctioned by the courts. And the right now claimed was not seriously asserted on their part before the case of Arnold v. Mundy, reported in 1 Halst. 1, which suit was not instituted until the year 1818; and upon that occasion, the supreme court of the state held that the claim made by the proprietors was without foundation.
private individuals on the other. And if this Court had been of opinion that upon the face of these letters patent the question was clearly against the state, and that the proprietors had been derived at their just rights by the erroneous judgment of the state court, it would perhaps be difficult to maintain that this decision, of itself, bound the conscience of this Court. It is, however, unquestionably entitled to great weight. It confirms the construction uniformly placed on these charters and instruments by the other public authorities and in which the proprietors had so long acquiesced. Public acts and laws both of the colonial and state governments have been founded upon this interpretation and extensive and valuable improvements made under it. In the case referred to, the sanction of the judicial authority of the state is given to it. And if the words of the letters patent had been far more doubtful than they are, this decision, made upon such a question with great deliberation and research, ought in our judgment to be regarded as conclusive.
Jersey as the sovereign of the country and are now in their hands, and the legislature may regulate them &c. But the power which may be exercised by the sovereignty of the state is nothing more than what is called the jus regium, the right of regulating, improving and securing the same for the benefit of every individual citizen. The sovereign power itself therefore cannot, consistently with the principles of the law of nature and the constitution of a well ordered society, make a direct and absolute grant of the waters of the state, divesting all the citizens of a common right. It would be a grievance which never could be long borne by a free people.
be made to the fisheries. So that if an oystery is a fishery, the owner is deprived of the exclusive use of it. The act seems to be founded upon a distinction clearly held up, in many cases to be found in the books, between an oystery and a fishery, in the common use of the term. The one applying to the use of land under the water, which is peculiarly adapted to the growing of oysters, and to be used for that purpose in the cultivation of oysters as other lands are used for the purpose to which they are particularly adapted, whereas a fishery in common acceptation has reference to the use of the water for floating fish, and this is a very obvious and natural distinction.
is reserved to the owner. Suppose this mud flat should, by the wash from the shore or the receding of the water or in any other manner be filled up and become solid ground (which is by no means an extravagant supposition), would not the proprietors be considered the owners of this land and have the exclusive right to the use and enjoyment of it if they had in no way parted with such right? This cannot be denied if the soil passed to and became vested in the proprietors under the grant to them. It surely would not be claimed by the state, it being no longer susceptible of public use.
The case of Brown v. Kennedy, 5 Har. & Johns. 195, is fully to this point. The question there related to the right to the soil in the bed of a navigable river which had been diverted to a canal, and it was held that the property in the soil covered by the water was vested in the lord proprietary by the charter of Maryland; that by the common law, the right was in the King, and he might dispose of it sub modo; that the property in the soil may be granted, subject to the jus publicum; that by the terms of the charter to Lord Baltimore, they clearly passed the property in the soil covered by any waters, within the limits of the charter; and if the bed of the river had not been conveyed away, it would have remained in the proprietary, and if an island had sprung up, it would have been his, or if the bed of the river had been left bare, it would be his, as the jus publicum would be destroyed.
great coast, and as a consequence of his propriety hath the primary right of fishing in the sea and the creeks and arms thereof, yet the common people of England have regularly a liberty of fishing in the sea or creeks or arms thereof as a public common of piscary, and may not without injury to their right be restrained of it unless in such places, creeks or navigable rivers, where either the King or some particular subject hath gained a propriety exclusive of that common liberty (p. 11). In many ports and arms of the sea there is an exclusion of public fishing by prescription or custom (p. 12), although the King hath prima facie this right in the arms and creeks of the sea, communi jure, and in common presumption; yet a subject may have such a right in two ways.
1. By the King's charter or grant, and this is without question. The King may grant fishing within some known bounds, though within the main sea, and may grant the water and soil of a navigable river (p. 17), and such a grant (when apt words are used) will pass the soil itself, and if there shall be a recess of the sea, leaving a quantity of land, it will belong to the grantee.
2. The second mode is by custom or prescription. There may be the right of fishing without having the soil, or by reason of owning the soil, or a local fishery that arises from ownership of the soil (p. 18). That, de communi jure, the right of the arms of the sea belongs to the King; yet a subject may have a separate right of fishing, exclusive of the King and of the common right of the subject (p. 20). But this interest or right of the subject must be so used as not to occasion a common annoyance to the passage of the ships or boats, for that is prohibited by the common law as well as by several statutes. For the jus privatum that is acquired to the subject, either by patent or prescription, must not prejudice the jus publicum wherewith public rivers or arms of the sea are affected for public use (p. 22) -- as the soil of a highway, in which, though in point of property may be a private man's freehold, yet it is charged with a public interest of the people, which may not be prejudiced or damnified (p. 36).
as controlling doctrines. They establish that by the common law, the King is the owner of all navigable rivers, bays and shores. That he owns them in full dominion and propriety, and has full power and authority to convey the same; that he may grant a several fishery in a navigable stream, and the common law has annexed only two limitations upon this power: that these waters shall remain highways for passage and navigation and that whilst they remain ungranted, there is a common right of fishery in them; but subject to these limitations, the King has as full power to convey as an individual has to convey the land of which he is the owner.
have been so in the present case. And Yates, Justice, says, he was concerned in such a case, but the right was not proved, and so found common, but such a right may be proved. It may be appropriated by prescription, and he refers to the royal salmon fishery in the River Banne, in Sir John Davies' reports, and says it is agreeable to this, and that it is a very good case. That it appears by it that the Crown may grant a several fishery in a navigable river where the sea flows and reflows, or in the arm of the sea. And he refers to the case in 1 Mod. 105, where, he observes, Lord Hale says truly, if anyone will appropriate a privilege to himself, the proof lieth on his side. Now if it may be granted, it may be prescribed for, for a prescription implies a grant.
In the argument of this case, the counsel on the part of the defendant referred to the case of Warren v. Matthews, as reported in 6 Mod. 73, where it is said every subject of common right may fish with lawful nets &c., in a navigable river, as well as in the sea, and the King's grant cannot bar them thereof, and this case has been much relied on in the argument of the case now before the Court. But this report of the case in 6 Mod. 73 is clearly a mistake. It is the only case to be found in which the broad proposition here stated is recognized, that the King's grant cannot bar the subject of the common right of fishing. And in the report of the same case, 1 Salk. 357, the case as stated is that one claimed solam piscariam in the river Ex, by a grant from the Crown. And Nott, Chief Justice, said, the subject has a right to fish in all navigable rivers, as he has to fish in the sea, and a quo warranto ought to be granted to try the title of this grantee, and the validity of his grant. Lord Nott here, no doubt, meant to speak of the prima facie right of the subject. For if he intended to say that no such exclusive right could be given by grant from the King, it would be absurd to issue a quo warranto to try the title and validity of the grant, if by no possibility a valid grant could be made. At all events, it is very certain that the King's Bench, in the case of Carter v. Murcot, did not recognize the doctrine of Warren v. Matthews, as reported in 6 Mod. 73. And under these circumstances, it is entitled to no weight in the decision of the case now before the court.
Carter v. Murcot is universally recognized as the settled law on the subject, and is fully adopted and sanctioned by the courts of this country. Numerous cases of this description have come before the courts in the State of New York, and the principles and rules as laid down in the case of Carter v. Murcot fully recognized and adopted. In the case of James v. Gould, 6 Cow. 376, the court in referring to that case, place the decision upon it, and say, "this is the acknowledged law of Great Britain and of this state," and cases are referred to showing such to be the settled law.
fishery remains ungranted, it is common and may be used by the public; but when granted to individuals, it becomes private property as much as any other subject whatever, and I think the law is too well settled that a fishery may be the subject of a private grant to be at this day drawn in question.
interest in the soil and passed everything susceptible of private and individual ownership, of which a fishery is certainly one, according to the settled law, by the authorities I have referred to. Subject always, as before mentioned, to the jus publicum or rights of navigation and trade, but of which the right of a common fishery forms no part after the soil has been conveyed as private property.
"together with all the lands, islands, soils, rivers, harbors, mines, minerals, quarries, woods, marshes, waters, lakes, fishings, hawkings, huntings and fowlings, and all other royalties, profits, commodities and hereditaments, to the said several islands, lands, and premises belonging and appertaining, with all and every of their appurtenances, and all our estate, right, title, interest, benefit, advantage, claim and demand of, in, or to the said lands and premises or any part or parcel thereof, and the reversion and reversions, remainder, and remainders thereof, to have and to hold all and singular the premises hereby granted or herein mentioned unto our brother James, Duke of York, his heirs and assigns forever, to be holden of us, our heirs and successors in free and common socage."
by a certain instrument in writing, duly executed, bearing date on the same day and year last aforesaid and reciting the said last-mentioned indenture from the said Duke of York to the said twenty-four proprietors, did recognize their right to the soil and government of the said Province of East New Jersey, whereof the tenements aforesaid, with the appurtenances, in the declaration aforesaid are parcel, and did strictly charge and command the planters and inhabitants and all other persons concerned in the same to submit and yield all due obedience to the laws and government of the said twenty-four proprietors, their heirs and assigns, as absolute proprietors and governors thereof, who, in the words of the said instrument in writing, had the sole power and right, derived under the said Duke of York, from him, the said Charles II, to settle and dispose of the said Province of East New Jersey upon such terms and conditions as to the twenty-four proprietors, their heirs and assigns, should deem meet."
"The first question is whether Lord Fairfax was proprietor of and seized of the soil of the waste and unappropriated lands in the Northern Neck by virtue of the royal grants of Charles II and James II, or whether he had mere seignoral rights therein as lord paramount, disconnected with all interest in the land except of sale and alienation. The royal charter expressly conveys all that entire tract, territory, and parcel of land situate &c., together with all the rivers, islands, woods, timber, &c., mines, quarries of stone, and coal, &c., to the grantees and their heirs and assigns to their only use and behoof, and to no other use, intent and purpose whatsoever."
dominion in the property, it will not be easy to fix any which shall constitute such dominion."
said Province of East New Jersey. And also to nominate, make, constitute, ordain, and confirm any laws, orders, ordinances, directions, and instruments for those purposes or any of them, and to nominate, constitute, or appoint, revoke, discharge, change, or alter any governor or governors, officers, or ministers which were or should be appointed within the said province, and to make, ordain and establish any orders, laws, directions, instruments, forms, or ceremonies of government and magistracy for or concerning the same, or on the sea, in going to or coming from the same, or to put in execution or abrogate, revoke, or change such as were already made for or concerning such government or any of them. And also the powers and authorities by the said letters patent granted to use and exercise martial law in the said Province of East New Jersey. And to admit any persons to trade or traffic there. And of encountering, repelling, and resisting by force of arms any person or persons attempting to inhabit there without the license of them, the said proprietors, their heirs and assigns. And all other the powers, authorities, and privileges of and concerning the government of the province last aforesaid or the inhabitants thereof which were granted or mentioned to be granted by the said several above-recited letters patent or either of them. And that the said Queen Anne afterwards, to-wit, on the 17th day of the same month of April in the year last aforesaid, did accept of the said surrender of the said powers of government so made by the said proprietors in and over the premises last aforesaid."
I do not perceive in this surrender a single term or expression that can in the remotest degree have any reference to the private property conveyed by the grant or to any matter except that which related to the powers of government; all the enumerated subjects manifestly have relation only to such powers. And after this specification of particulars comes the special clause "and all other the powers, authorities, and privileges of and concerning the government," necessarily implying that the specified subjects related to the powers of government, and the acceptance by the queen manifestly limits the surrender to such powers; she accepts the said surrender of the said powers of government so made by the proprietors in and over the premises.
in the least degree render doubtful the object and purpose of this surrender, the memorials of the proprietors, and the correspondence which took place on the subject, referred to on the argument, as contained in the collection of Leaming & Spicer, must remove all doubt and show that the surrender was confined exclusively to the powers of government and intended to operate not only as a surrender of such powers, but as a confirmation of all right and title to the soil and private property of the proprietors. And if so, the proprietors' right must depend upon the power of the King to grant the right claimed in the premises and the construction of the charter as to what it does embrace. And I have endeavored to show that by the settled and uncontradicted principles of the common law, the King had the power to grant the land under the water of a navigable river, and that such grant carries with it to the grantee all rights of private property of which the susceptible, subject to the jus publicum; that the grant of the soil necessarily carries with it a several and exclusive fishery, which is utterly incompatible with the rights of a common fishery, and which, of course, can form no part of the jus publicum, and that the grant in question of Charles II to the Duke of York conveyed all private right in the soil which could be conveyed by the King, all which rights, by sundry mesne conveyances, became vested in the proprietors of East New Jersey, and from them to the lessor of the plaintiff.
the several oyster fishery of the plaintiffs in Burnham River and fishing and dredging for oysters. The defense set up was that the locus in quo was a navigable river in which all the King's subjects had a right to fish and dredge for oysters, and evidence was introduced showing that all who chose had been accustomed to fish in Burnham River for all sorts of floating fish, without interruption, and it was contended that a fishery was entire, and that as it had been proved that it was lawful for all the King's subjects to catch floating fish, so they might lawfully dredge for oysters. But Heath, Justice, ruled otherwise and said a fishery was divisible -- a part may be abandoned and another part of more value may be preserved. The public may be entitled to catch floating fish in the River Burnham, but it by no means follows that they are justified in dredging for oysters, which may still remain private property, and although a new trial was granted upon another point in the case, the doctrine as above stated was not at all impugned by the Court of King's Bench.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.