The lines of the old London and Yorkshire
Tenths were first laid down in 1681, and
that year has sometimes been named as a
beginning date for the County. The formal
County alignment and naming came later,
under this Act of the West Jersey Assembly
dated from Burlington in May, 1694:
"Be it further enacted by the Governor,
Council and Representatives in this present
Assembly... that the two distinctions or
divisions heretofore the first and second
Tenths be laid into one County, named and
henceforth to be called the County of
Burlington."
This early year of formation points to the
fact that, paradoxically enough, the County
became an entity almost a century earlier
than the State and Nation of which it is
today a part.
The early boundaries, extending from
the "Pensauquin" on the south to the
Assunpink or "Falls of Delaware" (later
Trenton) on the north, were next amplified
by naming eastward bounds "from the
mouth of Little Egg Harbour River along the
seacoast to the line... between East and
West New Jersey."
The County was therefore once far-flung
to the sea, and it has been diminished
somewhat in the course of time. The
formation of Mercer County in 1838 carried
the northerly boundary south, to Crosswicks
Creek. The erection of Atlantic and
Ocean Counties in 1837 and 1850 brought
losses years later, after Court decisions
and after, tradition says, gerrymandering
in the State Legislature which took Little
Egg Harbor Township to Ocean County in
1891.
In 1702 the early Province of West New
Jersey became - by mutual agreement
among the West Jersey Proprietors, the
Assembly, and the "Lords of Trade and
Plantations" in England - a Crown Colony
under the protection of "Gracious Queen
Anne."
The Queen named her cousin Edward
Hyde (Lord Cornbury) as the first Royal
Governor. The County of Burlington
became host to a long succession of such
Royal Governors from 1702 until 1776;
their West Jersey residence being a
columned colonial mansion on the
riverfront at Burlington.
Burlington served as Capital of the
Colony, as it had of the earlier Province,
and was also the County Seat. The town's
importance as a center of government
continued after the Revolutionary period,
until the new State Legislature, having led
nomadic existence, finally settled at
Trenton in 1790.
Stocks like these, and a whipping post, helped to enforce "Jersey justice" at Burlington and Mount Holly. This set of stocks could manage two occupants, seated on the slab with feet through the holes (courtesy Old Jail Museum, Mount Holly).
Burlington continued as the County Seat
into the Federal period when, in 1795, the
move to Mount Holly was voted by the
electorate in hotly contested balloting.
The population of the new County of
Burlington in 1694 was less than 2,000
persons. Four decades later, in 1737, the
colonial census named the count as: above
age sixteen, 2,709; under sixteen, 2,186;
slaves, 343; total 5,238. Serving such
scanty numbers, County institutions
emerged slowly and various functions were
combined with those of the Colony at large.
Thus the time-honored Burlington Court
continued much as it had in provincial days,
carrying jurisdiction far beyond the County
bounds.
When the County Coroner was eventually
named, he was to serve as "the
substitute for the High Sheriff" but was
more ordinarily to "take inquests relative
to deaths in prison, and of all violent,
sudden, or casual deaths within thy
County." The County Clerk was assigned
multitudinous tasks, but was forbidden to
"act as a Surrogate, or to practice as an
Attorney."
County government under original
concepts and early laws was to serve as an
agency of the parent Colony and later of
the State, "constituted to perform certain
functions of state government." The early
County Surrogate, therefore, acted as a
substitute for the Governor in supervising
the affairs of orphans, and in the probate of
wills and settlement of estates.
The "Board of Justices and Freeholders
of the County of Burlington" had its
beginnings under enabling colonial legislation
of the year 1713. County Judges
shared the duties of the Board with elected
Freeholders, representing every Township,
until 1798. The role of the Justices having
by then declined and the desire for fully
elective leadership being strong, the new
name under State legislation in that year
became "The Board of Chosen Freeholders."
The requirement for representation from
every Township still prevailed and made
for a large Board, becoming larger as the
Townships multiplied, until 1912 when a
new State law permitted reduction in Board
size to a few members elected from the
County at large.
The term freeholder was a common but
proud one in New Jersey, where land was
held "free" of proprietary quitrents. In
early Jersey any person owning 100 acres
was considered a freeholder, and qualified
to run for election to the Board. In no other
State has the title "Freeholder" been
carried down, across the centuries, to
designate a member of a County governing
body. Among the earliest Board members
in Burlington County were Thomas French,
Jacob Heulings, John Hollinshead, and Elios
Toy, of the period 1713 to 1716.
The early Board named the County
Collector, to raise monies "by precepts to
the Assessors of the respective Town-
ships." The Board of the colonial period
also named the County representatives to
the West Jersey Assembly.
Early and important was the County
Sheriff, an elected official who dealt with
crime in forthright fashion. His associates
were a few "rangers" and the Township
Constables - all of them traveling on
horseback and "armed to the teeth."
Stocks and a whipping post stood before
the original Court House in Burlington, and
later before the Market House at Main and
Mill Streets, Mount Holly, until these
devices were outlawed in 1837. Across two
centuries of County history the high
gallows appeared from time to time at
Bordentown, Burlington, and Mount Holly;
the last of some thirty hangings occurring
in 1906.
The census of 1830, a century and a half
after the beginnings, listed 31,107 persons
in Burlington County - then covering a
larger area than does the County today.
Of the many population explosions
across the next century and a half, leading
to the present, none more dramatically
demonstrates growth than the figure of
45,000 for Willingboro alone, on the site of
an ancient Township numbering less than
100 persons at the outset. The present
County total of more than 300,000 is in
itself a study in contrasts with the earlier
figures for the historic County of
Burlington.
