170 EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 



" Whereas the inhabitants of Cape May County do represent 

 themselves as under extreme hardship for want of a road from Cape 

 May, through their county to Cohansey, in order to their repair to 

 Burlington to attend the public service ; Be it enacted by the 

 Governor, &c., that George Taylor and John Crafford, be commis- 

 sioners appointed to lay out a road from Cape May the most conve- 

 nient to lead to Burlington, between this and the 10th day of Sep- 

 tember next." 



It was ordered likewise that the expense be borne by the inhabit- 

 ants of Cape May until such time as those lands through which the 

 road goes are settled. This road, so important to the convenience 

 and travel of the people of the county, was not finished till 1707. 

 Prior to this the county was completely isolated from the upper 

 districts of the State by the extensive bed of cedar swamps and 

 marshes stretching from the head- waters of Cedar Swamp Creek to 

 the head-waters of Dennis Creek, and no communication could have 

 been held with Cohansey or Burlington except by the waters of 

 the Delaware, or by horse-paths through the swamps that consti- 

 tuted the barrier. 



By the Act of the 21st January, 1710,* the county of Cape May 

 was reduced to its present bounds, viz : " Beginning at the mouth 

 of a small creek on the west side of Stipson's Island, called Jecak's 

 Creek; thence up the same as high as the tide floweth; thence 

 along the bounds of Salem County to the southernmost main branch 

 of Great Egg Harbor River ; thence down the said river to the sea ; 

 thence along the sea-coast to Delaware Bay, and so up the said 

 Bay to the place of beginning." 



It seems the inhabitants on the western side of Maurice River, 

 the Cape May boundary, were without any legal control until 

 1707,t when an act was passed annexing the inhabitants between 

 the river Tweed, now Back Creek (being the lower bounds of Salem 

 County), and the bounds of Cape May County to Salem County. 



* Patterson's Laws. Smith's N. J. 



