162 EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 



lands. Somewhere further up, in the same direction, is a beautiful 

 high wood." This was probably Somer's or Beesley's Point, clothed 

 in its primitive growth of timber. 



About 1641, Cape May was again purchased by Swedish agents, 

 a short time before the arrival of the Swedish governor, Printz, 

 at Tinicum. This conveyance included all lands from Cape May 

 to Narriticon, or Raccoon Creek.* 



Campanius, a Swedish minister, who resided in New Sweden, on 

 the banks of the Delaware, from the year 1642 to 48, says, page 46, 

 " Cape May lies in latitude 38° 30'. To the south of it, there are 

 three sand banks, parallel to each other, and it is not safe to sail 

 between them. The safest course is to steer between them and 

 Cape May, between Cape May and Cape Henlopen." But for this 

 account, these sand-banks could only have existed in the imagina- 

 tion, as there have been none there within the memory of man. 



Johnson in his sketch of Salem, says : " The Baptist church at Cape 

 May took its origin from a vessel which put in there from England, 

 in 1675." He evidently obtained this from "Benedict's History 

 of the Baptists," who makes the same assertion, viz : " The founda- 

 tion of this church was laid in the year 1676, when a company of 

 emigrants arrived from England, some of whom settled at Cape 

 May. Amongst these were two Baptists, George Taylor and 

 Philip Hill." 



It is most likely, as Mr. Benedict gives us no references for the 

 above statements, that an error has been made in the date, as no 

 record of the church here is to be found prior to 1711 ; and, as 

 before stated, no fact to prove that our county was inhabited until 

 1685. 



The first will and inventory on file in the Secretary's office, at 

 Trenton, from Cape May, is that of John Story, dated the 28th 

 of the ninth month, 1687. He was a Friend, and left his personal 

 estate, amounting to ^6110, to his wife, having no heirs. The next 



* Miokle, p. 83. 



