EARLY HISTOET OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 103 



were those of Abraham Weston, November 24th, 1687, and John 

 Briggs, in 1690. In April, May, and June, 1691, John Worlidge 

 and John Budd, from Burlington, came down the bay in a vessel,* and 

 laid a number of proprietary rights, commencing at Cohansey, and 

 so on to Cape May. They set oif the larger proportion of this county, 

 consisting of 95,000 acres, to Dr. Daniel Coxe, of London, who had 

 large proprietary rights in "West Jersey. This was the first actual 

 proprietary survey made in the county. In the copy of the ori- 

 ginal draft of these surveys, and of the county of Cape May, made 

 by David Jameison, in 1713, from another made by Lewis Morris, 

 in 1706, (which draft is now in my possession, and was presented 

 by William Griffith, Esq., of Burlington, to Thomas Beesley, of 

 Cape May, in 1812,) Egg Island, near the mouth of Maurice River, 

 is laid off to Thomas Budd, for three hundred acres. Since this 

 survey was made, the attrition of the waters has destroyed almost 

 every vestige of it — scarcely enough remaining to mark the spot 

 of its former magnitude. Upon this map likewise is laid down 

 Cape May Town, at Town Bank on the Bay shore, the residence 

 of the whalers, consisting of a number of dwellings ; and a short 

 distance above it we find Dr. Coxe's Hall, with a spire, on Coxehall 

 Creek, a name yet retained by the inhabitants. As no other build- 

 ings or improvements are noted upon this map, than those above 

 mentioned, it is to be presumed there were but few, if any, existing 

 except them, at this day. The only attraction then was the whale 

 fishery ; and the small town of fifteen or twenty houses marked upon 

 this map, upon the shore of Town Bank in close contiguity, would 

 lead us to infer that those adventurous spirits, who came for that 

 purpose, preferred in the way of their profession to be near each 

 other, and to make common stock in their operations of harpoon- 

 ing, in which, according to Thomas and others, they seemed to be 

 eminently successful. 



" Dr. Coxa, in his capacity as proprietor, continued to be ac- 



* J. Townaend's Manuscript. 



