EARLY HISTORY OP CAPE MAY COUNTY. 181 



Leaming. The. written marriage agreement which he entered into 

 with the said Deborah Leaming, before consummating matrimony, 

 is indicative of much sound sense and discriminating judgment. In 

 1756 he purchased the interest of the " West Jersey Society" in 

 the County of Cape May, constituting what has since been known 

 as the Vacant Right. In 1762 he made his will of thirty-nine 

 pages, the most lengthy and elaborate testamentary document on 

 record in this or perhaps any other State. He left four children, 

 Sarah, Sylvia, Judith, and Jacob ; and it would be curious and in- 

 teresting to trace their descendants down to the present day, whose 

 goodly numbers, on the side of the daughter, are still mostly in the 

 home and county of their ancestor; yet, upon the male side, the 

 name of Spicer has nearly run out, and will soon, in this county, be 

 among the things that were. He died in 1765, aged about forty- 

 nine years, and was buried by the side of his father, in his family 

 ground at Cold Spring; a spot now overgrown with large forest 

 timber. 



Henry Stites, ancestor of all in the county of that name, came to the 

 county about or in the year 1691. He located two hundred acres of 

 land, including the place now belonging to the heirs of Eli Townsend. 

 He made his mark, yet he afterwards acquired the art of writing, 

 and was justice of the court for a long series of years, being noted 

 such in 1746. He left a son Richard, who resided at Cape Island, 

 and he a son John, from whom the Lower Township Stites' have 

 descended. His son Isaiah, who died in 1767, and from whom the 

 Stites' of the Upper, and part of the Middle Township have de- 

 scended, lived on the places now occupied by his grandsons John 

 and Townsend Stites, at Beesley's Point. The Middle Township 

 Stites', below the Court House, are descendants of Benjamin Stites, 

 who was probably a brother of Henry, and was in the county in 

 1705. 



Nicholas Stillwell, who was a member of the Legislature from 

 1769 to 1771, was a son of John Stillwell, of Town Bank. He 



