1077.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. Ill 



" To Mr. Cliiirlcs Ramsey, Con.stiible In Christoena : 



You are rc(jiiostcd in his Miiy'" name to take a true and exact 

 list of all the Tydable p''sons from Hi to (JO years of adge w"'in 

 the bounds, w'*' is all y" north syde of Crcsteena Creeke up as 

 far as y" bogh' Creeke, above olc fransens house, k y" names of 

 y» a^ Tydables to bring * * * *."' 



At a meeting of Mr. John Moll, President of New Castle 

 Court, with the Justices of Upland Court, held at Upland on the 

 12th of November of the following year, the above division was 

 confirmed and extended: the County of Upland was "to begin 

 from the north syde of Oele fransens Creeke Called Steen Kill, 

 Lying in the boght above ye verdrietige hoerk, and from the 

 said Creek ouer to ye single tree point on the East syde of this 

 River."^ In other directions. Upland county extended as far as 

 settlements had been made; and although the authority of the 

 Duke of York to govern New Jersey had been resisted by Fen- 

 wick and others, it had been maintained on the ground that the 

 sovereignty of the country did not pass to Cartaret and Berkley, 

 the purchasers of the soil. Fenwick, for attempting to exercise 

 authority independently of Governor Andros, had even been 

 forcibly arrested in his own house, and sent to New York, where 

 he was for some time imprisoned. This will account for the 

 jurisdiction of the courts, on the west side of the river, being ex- 

 tended into New Jersey, 



In the accounts of the country during the earlier periods of its 

 settlement, that have come under the notice of the author, not 

 much is said in respect to the depredations of wolves. The num- 

 bers of these animals had probably greatly increased in the neigh- 

 borhood of the settlements, both on account of the increased means 

 to obtain food that civilization had furnished, and the diminished 

 numbers of the Indians, who had heretofore destroyed them for 

 their skins. The depredations of these animals had now become 

 so alarming, that it became necessary to secure their destruction 

 by means of a liberal bounty. At the solicitation of the Justices 

 of the New Castle Court, authority was obtained to pay 40 gil- 

 ders for each wolf scalp brought in.^ This, it will be seen, be- 

 came a heavy item of expenditure. 



It had been supposed that a tax could only be levied by the 

 authority of a " General Court," but the Governor, upon appli- 

 cation being made to him for the holding of such a Court in 

 order to authorize a levy, decided that every Court had the 

 power " to make fitting rates for the highways^ poor and other 

 necessaries as is practiced in England." The Governor had au- 



» New Caetle Rec. Book, A, 153. » Rec. Upland Court, 119. 



» New Caitle Rec. Lib. A : also, Haz. Ann. 430. 



