The ancient town of Burlington, clustered behind its "Green Bank" or
river-front street on the New Jersey shore, antedates Philadelphia
five years. The Quaker pioneers are believed to have been the first
Europeans who saw its site. The noted preacher George Fox, in 1672,
journeyed from New England to the South, and rode on horseback over
the site of Burlington at Assiscunk Creek, reporting the soil as good
"and withal a most brave country." When Penn became Trustee for the
insolvent Billynge, a Proprietor of West Jersey, much of his land was
sold to Quakers, who migrated to the American wilderness to escape
persecution at home. Thus Burlington was the first settlement founded
by Quaker seekers after toleration in the New World:
"About them seemed but ruin and decay,
Cheerless, forlorn, a rank autumnal fen,
Where no good plant might prosper, or again
Put forth fresh leaves for those that fell away;
Nor could they find a place wherein to pray
For better things. In righteous anger then
They turned; they fled the wilderness of men
And sought the wilderness of God. And day
Rose upon day, while ever manfully
Westward they battled with the ocean's might,
Strong to endure whatever fate should be,
And watching in the tempest and the night
That one sure Pharos of the soul's dark sea--
The constant beacon of the Inner Light."
In the spring of 1677 the "goode shippe Kent," Gregory Marlowe,
master, sailed from London, bound for West Jersey, with two hundred
and thirty Quakers, about half coming from London and the others from
Yorkshire; two dying on the voyage. They ascended the Delaware to the
meadow lands below the mouth of Assiscunk Creek, landing there in
June, and in October made a treaty with the Indians, buying their
lands from the Rancocas as far up as Assunpink Creek at Trenton. Their
settlement was first called New Beverly, and then Bridlington, from
the Yorkshire town whence many of them came, but it finally was named
Burlington. They made a street along the river, bordered with
greensward, and called the "Green Bank," and drew a straight line back
inland, calling it their Main Street, and the Londoners settled on one
side and the Yorkshiremen on the other. The old buttonwood tree, to
which was moored the early ships bringing settlers, still stands on
the Green Bank, a subject of weird romance. Elizabeth Powell, the
first white child, was born in July, 1677. The next May, 1678, they
established a "Monthly Meeting of Friends" at Burlington, of which the
records have been faithfully kept. In June the graveyard was fenced
in, and the old Indian chief, Ockanickon, a Quaker convert to
Christianity, was among the first buried there. In August the first
Quaker marriage was solemnized in meeting, this first certificate
being signed by ten men and three women Friends as witnesses. In
1682, just as Penn was coming over, they decided to build their first
meeting house--a hexagonal building, forty feet in diameter, with
pyramidal roof, which was occupied the next year. In 1685 they decided
that a hearse should be built, the entry on the record being an order
for a "carriage to be built for ye use of such as are to be laid in ye
ground."
Burlington grew, and was long the seat of government of the Province
of West Jersey, being the official residence of the Provincial
Governors, the last of whom was William Franklin, natural son of
Benjamin Franklin. It had wealthy merchants and much shipping, and,
despite its peacefulness, equipped privateers to fight the French. Its
famous old Episcopal Church of St. Mary had the corner-stone laid in
1703 under the favor of Queen Anne, who made a liberal endowment of
lands, much being yet held, and gave it a massive and greatly prized
communion service. This old church is cruciform, with a little belfry,
and a stone let into the front wall bears the inscription "One Lord,
one faith, one baptism." In the extensive churchyard alongside is the
modern St. Mary's Church, of brownstone, with a tall spire, also
cruciform. This is the finest church in Burlington. When "Old St.
Mary's" was built with its belfry, the Friends did not like the
innovation, and long gazed askance at the "steeple house," as they
called it; so that Talbot, the first rector, sturdily retaliated,
calling the Quakers "anti-Christians, who are worse than the Turks."
Many of St. Mary's parishioners of to-day are descended from these
maligned Quakers. The early records of the Meeting are filled with
entries showing that charges were brought against members for various
shortcomings. One was admonished for "taking off his hat" at a funeral
solemnized in the "steeple house;" others gave testimony of
"uneasiness" on account of the placing of "gravestones in the
burial-ground;" a query was propounded, "Are Friends in meeting
preserved from sleeping or any other indecent behavior, particularly
from chewing tobacco and taking snuff?" A record was also made of
testimony against "a pervading custom of working on First days in the
time of hay and harvest" when rain threatened. The descendants of
these good people have established St. Mary's Hall and Burlington
College, noted educational institutions. Probably the most famous son
of Burlington was the distinguished novelist, James Fenimore Cooper,
born in 1789, but taken in his infancy by his parents to his future
home at Cooperstown, in Central New York. The town was bombarded by
the British gunboats that sailed up the Delaware in 1778, but since
then the career of Burlington has been eminently peaceful.