of Cape May county six per cent. annually on this sum, or $740.96 a year.

About 1840 there were fears that Cape May citizens might lose through the multiplicity of State laws their rights to the natural privileges in the sounds, and on the 5th of February, 1839, the Board of Freeholders authorized Jeremiah Leaming to go to Trenton to work for the passage of an act to preserve these privileges.

During the year 1839 there were within the bounds of Cape May county ten licensed inns or hotels, kept by the following persons: Richard S. Ludlam, James J. Ludlam, Clark Henderson, Humphrey Hewitt, David Saint (?), Mackey Williams, Benjamin Owen, Mark A. Carroll, John Smith and Stephen Young.

The first signal of danger erected by the government off the Cape May coast was the Five-Fathom Bank lightship. This vessel is located near the shoal called the Five-Fathom Bank, off the entrance of Delaware Bay. She was established in 1839, and last refitted in 1855. She is now moored in twelve fathoms of water. She is supplied with a twelveinch steam fog whistle, giving a blast of four seconds during each half minute. "Five-Fathom Bank" is painted in bold letters on each side. She has two lights, with reflectors, and two hoop-iron day marks, one on each mast. Her lights are a fixed white, forty and forty-five feet above sea level, and visible a distance of eleven nautical miles. Arc illumination, the entire horizon. She is painted a strawcolor, and is distant 17 miles from Cape May light and 231 from Cape Henlopen main light. Shoal part of bank bears, per compass, N. W. N., distant 24 miles. She is in latitude. 38° 51′ 20′′, longitude 74° 36′ 10′′.

The sheriff of the county from 1838 to 1841 was Samuel Springer, who was born September 5, 1800, and died March 7, 1877. He was a prominent resident of Middle township. The population of Cape May county in 1840 was 5324, of which 218 were colored persons, all free. The conditions of the townships by that census are exhibited by the following:

"Upper-Population, 1217. Its surface is level; soil, sand and loam, and well timbered with cedar, oak and pine. It

contains four stores, one grist mill, four saw mills, five schools, 219 scholars.

"The village of Tuckahoe is situated on both sides of Tuckahoe River, on the county line, 18 miles from court house, 11 from the sea, 28 from Bridgeton and 13 from May's Landing. It contains three taverns, several stores, about sixty dwellings and a Methodist church. There are besides in the township one Baptist, one Methodist church and a Friends' meeting house. Wood, lumber and ship building constitute the business of the village.

"Dennis-This township, except that part cultivated, or meadow, is covered with oaks, pines and cedars. There are in the township seven stores, two grist mills, six saw mills, four schools, 205 scholars. Population, 1350.

"Dennisville is a post village, extending on both sides of the creek for a mile. It is eight miles north of Court House, eight south of Tuckahoe, and twenty-eight from Bridgeton. It contains five stores, about seventy dwellings, a neat academy, the upper story of which is used for a lyceum and for religious meetings. Ship building and the lumber trade are carried on here. The Methodist church at this place was the first erected in the county. There is a Baptist church in the eastern part of the township. West Creek, four miles northwest of Dennisville, is a thickly settled agricultural neighborhood.

"Middle-About half the township is salt marsh or sea beach; the remaining portion is mostly sandy loam. The township contains twelve stores, two grist mills, two saw mills, five schools, 328 scholars. Population, 1624. Goshen, five miles northwest of Court House, has a Methodist church and about twenty dwellings. The village of Cape May Court House is in the central part of the township, 110 miles from Trenton, and 36 southeast of Bridgeton, and contains a court house, a jail and the county offices, a Methodist and a Baptist church, and thirty or forty dwellings in the vicinity.

"Lower-A great portion of its surface is covered with at salt marsh and sea beach. On the ocean shore the soil is loamy, the bay shore is sandy, and the central part sandy loam. There is much young timber in the township. The

inhabitants are mostly engaged in agriculture or maritime pursuits. There are in the township six stores, three saw mills, six schools, 240 scholars. Population, 1133.

"Fishing Creek, on the bay shore, six miles southwest of Court House, is an agricultural village similar to Cold Spring. A survey has been made for a breakwater, at Crow's Shoal, in this township, near the mouth of the bay. When the wind is northeast a good harbor is afforded at that place, as sometimes as many as one hundred vessels are anchored off here. On a sudden change of the northwest vessels are frequently driven ashore. The breakwater, if built, would have been an effectual protection against winds from this direction.

"Cold Spring, ten miles south of Court House, is a thickly settled agricultural neighborhood, containing about forty houses within the circle of a mile. It derives its name from an excellent spring of cold water flowing up from the salt marsh, which is much frequented by sojourners at Cape Island. It contains an academy, a Methodist and a Presbyterian church.

"The village of Cape Island is a favorite watering-place in the southern part of this township, thirteen miles south of Court House. It began to grow into notice as a watering place in 1812, at which time there were but a few houses there. It now contains two large hotels, three stories high and 150 feet long, and a third one, lately erected, four stories high and 100 feet long, besides numerous other houses for the entertainment of visitors. The whole number of dwellings is about fifty. In the summer months the Island is thronged with visitors, principally from Philadelphia, with which there is then a daily steamboat communication. It is estimated that about 3000 strangers annually visit the place. The village is separated by a small creek from the main land; but its area is fast wearing away by the encroachments of the sea. Watson, the antiquarian, in a MSS. journal of a trip to Cape Island in 1835, on this point says: 'Since my former visit to Cape Island in 1822, the house in which I then stopped (Captain Aaron Bennett's), then nearest the surf, has been actually reached by the invading waters. * * * The distance from Bennett's house to the sta

bank in 1822 was 165 feet; and in 1804, as it was then measured and cut upon the house by Commodore Decatur, it was 334 feet. It had been as much as 300 feet further off, as remembered by some old men who told me so in 1822.' A large portion of the inhabitants of the village are Delaware pilots, a hardy and industrious race. About two miles west of the boarding houses is the Cape May lighthouse."

CHAPTER XX.

NOTED MEN OF A GENERATION.

In 1840 Jonathan Hand, Jr., was appointed county clerk of Cape May by the Legislature, which position he held continuously thereafter until 1890. He was a descendant of Shamgar Hand, one of two brothers who bought proprietary interests in Cape May county and settled here in 1685. He descended from Shamgar, down through Thomas, Recompence, Jonathan, his grandfather, and Jonathan, his father. His grandfather served in the Colonial Legislature from 1771 to 1776, and when the State's new Constitution was adopted was a member of the first Legislative Council, serving from 1776 to 1778. His father was commissioned a captain of the Cape May regiment in 1802, and is said to have served in the War of 1812 in the coast defense of Cape May county. His mother was Sarah Moore, a daughter of the Trenton ferryman. She, when a girl of twelve years, was selected and was one of the twenty-four girls who, in 1789, when George Washington was on his way to New York to become the first President of the nation, strewed flowers upon his path. When she was married to Jonathan, the second, she was a widow, Wilson by name. She lived at Cape May Court House until she died, in 1871, aged 93 years. She was a devout Christian woman, and a member of the Baptist denomination.

Jonathan, the father, had served as county clerk from 1831 to 1834, and Jonathan, Jr., had assisted his father, who died the latter year. From 1834 to 1835 he assisted Jacob G. Smith, the clerk, and was deputy clerk the five following years under Swain Townsend. In 1840 he was appointed by the Legislature, and was chosen by the people nine times, often receiving every vote in the county.

Jonathan, the third, as he will be known in history, was born at Cape May Court House December 22, 1818. In