In an earlier newsletter we delved into the origin of the name Dock Watch Hollow, along the way citing an Indian deed to Peter Sonmans that referred to Dock Watches Brook. A swindler and scoundrel of the worst sort, Sonmans was the original owner of large tracts of land at the western and eastern edges of Warren Township. Besides claiming 2000 acres in Washington Valley, Sonmans owned another 2500 acres that straddled Green Brook in what is now No. Plainfield, Plainfield, Watchung and Greenbrook. Sonmans, born November l667, was a colorful rascal. The son of Arent Sonmans, a Hollander living in Scotland who was one of East Jersey's original 24 proprietors or owners, Peter inherited his father's considerable holdings when Arent was shot to death near London by a highwayman in l683. On February 17, l685/86, a confirmatory patent was issued to Peter Sonmans "for several parcels, viz: l000 acres in Blue Hills, Essex Co., on the N.W. side of the Green River; l500 acres on the South side of the said river opposite the first and adjoining Robert Fullerton...." [This is the Green Brook tract.] By l687 the Sonmans family owned 5.25 of the 24 proprietary shares in East Jersey, more than any other proprietor. Peter Sonmans settled in Perth Amboy in l686 to look after his family's interests, returned to London about l700, then sailed for New Jersey again in l705/06. In l707, after Viscount Lord Cornbury became New Jersey governor, Sonmans, who was educated at the University of Leyden, was named a justice of the peace for Middlesex and Somerset Counties and appointed "Sole Agent, Superintendent and Generall Attorney" by the Board of Proprietors, most of whom lived in England. Sonmans' commission, executed by the so-called English Proprietors, directly contradicted that of John Barclay, a Scot, who had already been appointed as receiver-general of quitrents. With the backing of Lord Cornbury, Sonmans overcame his numerous enemies to become one of New Jersey's most powerful figures. A member of the Governor's Council, Sonmans supplanted Barclay as receiver general of the East Jersey Proprietors, using his many lofty positions to engineer the sale of thousands of acres of land to speculators, most of them members of Lord Cornbury's circle of friends. In one particularly outrageous case, at least according to allegations by his enemies, Sonmans presented a document indicating he had authority from the Proprietors to sell 4000 acres. Instead, according to the charge, he surveyed and sold 40-50,000 acres. The tide began to turn against Sonmans in l708 when a grand jury indicted him for perjury, embezzlement and adultery. Four years later Cornbury's successor, Robert Hunter, deposed Sonmans from the Council, after which he fled the colony to avoid arrest, carrying with him the East Jersey proprietary records. After a number of years in Pennsylvania and London, Sonmans returned to New Jersey a third time, gaining election in l728 and l729 as a member of the Assembly from Bergen County. Sonmans' stormy career came to an end on March 26, l734, when he died. He is buried in the churchyard of St. John's Church, Elizabeth. Historian John Pomfret calls Sonmans "a swindler and a scoundrel, engaged in mulcting the Sonmans inheritance, then, as the proprietors' agent, in pocketing quitrents...." Sonmans' wheeling and dealing in Indian titles compromised the ownership rights of those settlers who bought lands from him. The Board of Proprietors, for example, never recognized the legitimacy of Sonmans' deed for land along Dock Watch Brook. Thus, anyone who bought land there from Sonmans later discovered that his ownership rights were murky at best. The shady practices of Sonmans and other speculators like him were cause, in large part, for the land riots that convulsed Essex and Somerset Counties in the l740s. To give the devil his due, not every historian has painted so dark a picture of Sonmans. In his history of the Passaic Valley, John Whitehead called Sonmans a "distinguished figure in the colonial history of New Jersey," noting that although he was a member of the Church of England, Sonmans "donated valuable tracts to aid in erecting both a Presbyterian and a Reformed Dutch Church." And when Sonmans died, his friends, in a letter to a New York newspaper, recalled "his Charity, and Clemency, his sincerity in Friendship, Patience in Oppression and undaunted Spirit in Danger...." Sonmans' Indian deed, on file in the State Archives, Trenton, in Deed Book K, Page 131, is typical of the earliest Warren land deeds: "To all People to whom this present writing shall come. Mochosconge Indian Sachamakre a Naturall owner of the Tract of Land hereafter named in the County of Somerset in the Eastern Division of New Jersey Sends greeting. Know Yee that the said Indian Sachamakre a Naturall owner for and in consideration of the following goods to him in hand paid by Peter Sonmans Esq. one of the Proprietors of the said Eastern Division at and before the Sealing and Delivery hereof Receipt whereof the said Indian Sachamakre doth hereby acknowledge and himself herewith fully satisfied contented and paid and thereof and of every Part thereof doth discharge the said Peter Sonmans Esq. thirty Pounds of Gun Powder, thirty Barrs of Lead, one Fowling Piece, one Large brass kettle, Twelve hatchetts, Twelve knives, Six Shirts, two Stroudwatter Coats, two blanketts, and Six hoes, Hath granted bargained & Sold alliened, Enfeoffed Released And by these Presents doth fully fairly and absolutely grant bargain & Sell alliene, Enfeoffe and release, unto the said Peter Sonmans Esq. his heirs and assigns forever all that tract of Land Situate lying and being in the County of Somersett aforesaid Between the first and Second Mountains upon the Branches of Middlesex brook containing about Two thousand acres be the same more or less and is commonly called & known by the Indians by the name of Papatenunk as the Same has been Surveyed & Laid out by Barent Dokleyn Surveyor to and for the use of the said Peter Sonmans Esq. Beginning at a Brook by the Indians Called Doct Watches brook Together with all and all manor of Mines Minerals woods Trees, Pastures Meadows Brooks Stones and all other appurtenances whatsover to the said Tract of Land or any Part thereof belonging.... "In Witness whereof the Indian Sachamakre and Naturall owner hath hereunto set his hand and affixed his Seal the Six and Twentieth Day of July in the Seventh year of her Majestys Reign Anno Domine l708." His Mochosconge X Sachamakre Mark Sealed and Delivered in the Presence of -- Samuel Alling, Joseph Harrison, John Ogdon, Joseph Rogers, Jacob Seabring, Josiah Ogdon. Note: An Indian Sachamakre was a sachem or chief. "Doct," not "Dock," is the word actually used in the Sonmans deed. (Ref: John E. Pomfrit, Colonial New Jersey, l973; E. J. Maas, Ed., North of the Rariton Lotts, l975; John Whitehead, History of the Passaic Valley, l90l; Samuel Smith, The History of the Colony of Nova-Caesaria, or New-Jersey, l765; Milton Rubincam, The Strange Career of Peter Sonmans, Proc. N.J. Historical Society, Vol 57, l939.) |