164 EAELY HISTORY OF CAFE MAY COUNTY. 



tively concerned in the management of business subsequent to the 

 surrender ; extensive purchases of land were made by him of the 

 natives, and these agreements was assented to by the Council of 

 Proprietors. These several purchases of the natives were made 

 and dated, respectively, on the 30th March, 30th April, and 16th 

 May, 1688. They were laid in the southern part of the province, 

 including part of the present counties of Cumberland and Cape 

 May. Either disheartened by the difficulties he had experienced, or 

 tempted by an offer that would cover the disbursements he had made, 

 Coxe i\esolved upon a sale of the whole of his interest in this province. 

 He accordingly made an agreement, in the year 1691, with a body 

 composed of forty-eight persons, designated by the name of the 

 'West Jersey Society.' To this company, on the 20th January, 

 1692, the whole of the claim of Dr. Coxe, both as to government 

 and property, was conveyed, he receiving therefor the sum of 

 iG9000."* This sale opened a new era to the people of Cape May. 

 As no land titles had been obtained under the old regime of the 

 proprietors, except five conveyances from George Taylor, "f" as agent 

 for Dr. Coxe, the West Jersey Society became a medium through 

 which they could select and locate the choice of the lands, at prices 

 corresponding with the means and wishes of the purchaser. 



The society, through their agents appointed in the county, con- 

 tinued to make sales of land during a period of sixty-four years of 

 their having possession ; at the end of which time, in 1756, having 

 conveyed a large proportion of their interest, they sold the balance 

 to Jacob Spicer the second, for £300. The title is now nearly 

 extinct. 



It has been handed down, that Spicer obtained the grant for the 

 proprietary right in Cape May, of Dr. Johnson, agent of the So- 

 ciety at Perth Amboy, at a time when the influence of the wine 

 bottle had usurped the place of reason, or he could not have ob- 

 tained it for so inconsiderable a sum as three hundred pounds ; and 



* Mulford, 264, 6. f Capo May Eeoords. 



