A Mariner's Center
The First Congress of the United States met in New York on July 31, 1789. A key complaint leading to the American Revolution was the imposition of import taxes levied by England on the Colonies. The new Congress set in place a system to define how the new country would deal with issues pertaining to the import of goods, and it established districts and ports for the new country. New Jersey was assigned three districts: Perth Amboy, Burlington, and Bridgetown.
"Be it enacteed, &e., That for the due collection of the duties imposed by law on the tonnage of ships and vessels, and on goods, wares, and merchandises, imported into the United States, there shall be established and appointed, districts, ports, and officers, in manner following...
. . . The district of Burlington shall comprehend that part of the said State [New Jersey] known by the name of West Jersey, which lies to the eastward and northward of the county of Gloucester, with all the waters thereof, heretofore within the jurisdiction of the said State, including the river and inlet of Little Egg Harbour, with the waters emptying into the same, and the sea coast, sound, inlets and harbours thereof, from Barnegat to Brigantine inlets, in which district the landing places of Lamberton and Little Egg Harbour shall be ports of delivery only; and a collector shall be appointed for the district, to reside at Burlington, and a surveyor at Little Egg Harbour. . . " {SF2.1}
From the very beginning, Little Egg Harbor and the emerging Borough of Tuckerton was an active region for individuals who found their profession linked to the sea. Leah Blackman {SF2.2} said that the industry began in 1724 with a sloop bequeathed by John Ridgway to his son. Blackman lists a number of Egg Harbor families including Mathis, Shourds, and Rockhill as important to an emergent ship building industry. Others including the Falkinburgs became sailors and captains in merchant trade. Blackman indicates that Solomon Rockhill who was one of my 3-greats grandfathers was the principal shipwright of Tuckerton.
The following reference to Samuel Falkinburg 2 is an often quoted from Blackman.
“Captain Samuel Falkinburg (whose posterity reside in Egg Harbor) married Mary, daughter of Josiah Cranmer, of Cranmertown, Ocean county. The children of this marriage were John, Hezekiah, Samuel, Timothy, Josiah, George, Lemuel, Charles, Fountain, Nelson, Mary Jane and a girl who died in infancy. Samuel Falkinburg’s second wife was Hannah, widow of Jacob Truax. The children of this union were Fountain, Ellen, Hannah and Elizabeth. This unusually large family of children have been unfortunate as to the manner of their deaths. The father and all of the sons were seamen, the majority of them being captains. The eldest son, Capt. John Falkinburg, many years ago, was shipwrecked and drowned at Cape Henlopen; Samuel Falkinburg, his brother, was lost in the schooner Greenberry Holsk; Lemuel Falkinburg was drowned in the harbor of New York; George died of the cholera on board of a vessel; Capt. Charles was drowned in the harbor of San Francisco, California; Fountain, the 2nd, was drowned in Chesapeake Bay. Two or three of the grandsons and some of the great grandsons have met death in a like manner.” {SF2.3}
| Notes | |
| {SF2.1} | Acts of the First Congress, Statue I, Chapter 5, Section 1, p. 2. |
| {SF2.2} | Blackman-1868, p192. |
| {SF2.3} | Blackman-1868, p248. |
| References | |
Last updated 10/1/08
© 2008 Donald R. Falkenburg