EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 169 



May 5 members. Cape May continued to have five members until 

 the time of the surrender in 1702, except in the year 1697, when 

 she was reduced to one representative. No record, however, of the 

 names of the members previous to 1702 has come to light. 



Act of Oct. 3d, 1693 : " Whereas it has been found expedient to 

 erect Cape May into a County, the bounds whereof at the last ses- 

 sion of this Assembly have been ascertained ; and conceiving it also 

 reasonable the inhabitants thereof shall partake of what privilidges 

 (under their circumstances) they are capable of, with the rest of the 

 counties in this Province, and having (upon enquiry) received satis- 

 faction that there is a sufficient number of inhabitants within the 

 said county to keep and hold a County Court, in smaller matters 

 relating to civil causes : Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, 

 and Representatives in Assembly met and assembled, and by au- 

 thority thereof^ tJiat the inhabitants of the County of Cape May shall 

 and may keep and hold four county courts yearly, viz : on the third 

 Tuesday of December, 3d March, 3d June, and 3d of September ; 

 all which courts the Justices commissioned, and to be commissioned 

 in the said county, shall and may hear and try, according to law, all 

 civil actions within the said county under the sum of £20." All 

 above the sum of £20 were still to be tried at Salem. 



The same Assembly passed the following, viz : 



" Whereas the whaling in Delaware Bay has bqen in so great a 

 measure invaded by strangers and foreigners, that the greatest part 

 of oyl and bone received and got by that employ, hath been exported 

 out of the Province to the great detriment thereof : Be it enacted, 

 that any one killing a whale or whales in Delaware Bay, or on its 

 shores, to pay the value of tV of the oyl to the governor of the 

 Province." 



In 1697 all restriction was removed from the courts in civil cases, 

 and the same immunities and privileges were granted as were en- 

 joyed by the courts within the several counties of the Province. 



In the same year, May 12, 1697, " An Act for a road to and 

 from Cape May" was passed. 



