SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY 



OF THE 



COUNTY OF CAPE MAY. 



BY MAURICE BEE8LEY, M. D. 



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The difficulties to be encountered in making a historical sketch 

 of the County of Cape May, are perhaps as great, if not greater, 

 than will be found in any other county of our State. Isolated as 

 it vras in early times from the upper districts of the Province, and 

 with a sparse population, we find no material to consult, except a 

 meagre court record; hence the inquirer is compelled to seek from 

 musty manuscripts and books in other places, a goodly portion of 

 the little that has escaped oblivion, in the vista of years gone by, 

 and that little must necessarily be made up of scraps and fragments 

 which owe their interest, if any they have, more to their intrinsic 

 worth, than to the skill bestowed upon their arrangement. 



Order cannot come out of chaos ; and any attempt to make a con- 

 nected history, with the resources at hand, would end in disappoint- 

 ment. Being partially surrounded by water, without a roadstead 

 or harbor to invite the hardy pioneers who first visited the Delaware, 

 to sojourn and rest upon her shores, she was passed by to more 

 inviting regions, on its waters above, where ships could find refuge 

 from winds and storms ; and man, in his inherent thirst for dominion 

 and power, could secure the virgin soil of the country, in extent 



