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EARLY HISTORY OF LAMBERTVILLE 1703-1903 by Sarah Gallagher |
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IN 1703, William Biddle, Jr., John Mills and John Reading, acting for the Province of West Jersey, negotiated with two Indian Chiefs, Himhammoe and Copponnockous, for the purchase of the township of Old Amwell, which was ceded to the Province, to the lasting satisfaction of the natives and the Province as well. This Council, in their permission for the sale, strictly ordered the three commissioners to go to the "Wigwam" of Himhammoe and there have the deed properly executed and the lands marked off; also, a like treaty with Copponnockous, who held possession of the more westerly portion af the original tract. This tract contained about 150,000 acres, and was purchased for 700lbs, then divided into proprietary shares of five thousand acres each, of which Benjamin Field took his portion in two lots, one of three thousand acres, fronting on the Delaware river, from Lambertville, southward, thence east, and the other, two thousand acres, in and around Ringoes, of which Field conveyed a smaller tract of two hundred acres, to certain land speculators in succession. John Holcombe, a resident of Abbington township, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, on the 16th of November, 1705, purchased three hundred and fifty acres of land of Richard Wilson, of Bucks county, Pennsylvania. This land was in New Jersey, and was that tract south of Alexsauken creek, bordering the Delaware river on the west, and Coat's line on the south, extending through the city of Lambertville, between Delevan and Jefferson streets, and extending easterly from the river to a distance of about one and one-half miles. The purchase was made on this wise: First, he leased the tract of land for the sum of 5 shillings, and for a release paid 100 sterling per acre. As the township of Amwell had only been purchased from the Indians two years before, his purchase as a, resident owner ranks him among the earliest in all this region. John Holcombe was married to Elizabeth Woolrich, of Abbington, Pa., according to the order of "Friends," as the minutes of the Abbington meeting will show, on fourth month, twenty-eighth day, in the year seventeen hundred and seven. . To them were born six children, three sons and three daughters. The sons were John Samuel and Richard. John died a young man, unmarried. Samuel married Eleanor Barber, and had seven sons and two daughters. Dr. George L. Romine, Dr. Frank Larison, Alexander H. Titus ancl others of the Holcombe family, who are residents of the town at the present time, 1902, are the lineal descendants of Samuel Holcombe. Richard was married twice, his first wife being Mary Harvey, his second, Ann Emley, by whom he had two children. The first, a son, whose name was John, lived near Lambertville. His death occurred in 1851, at the family homestead, which is now known as "Washington's Headquarters," from the fact that this "Commander" was entertained there during his short stay in this vicinity, in 1778. In 1731, nearly thirty years after its purchase from the Indians, this region was still a "howling wilderness," and still inhabited by the indians. The forests were infested with "Wolves, Foxes and Panthers." But civilization was advancing, and the Government put a price on their heads for their extermination. |
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