The Town Book of old Dover, containing lists of officers from 1783 down to 1861, was found among the books and papers of the late Washington McKean by his son-in-law, Charles W. Potter. Since the decease of the last named gentleman, it is probable this book will be deposited in the office of the County Clerk at Toms River. The town officials named in it were officials representing a large proportion of the present county. In their day they were the prominent public men of what is now Ocean county, and many of their names are herein recorded.

The village of Toms River was burned in March, 1782. The record in the Town Book begins with the first town meeting after that event.

The following town meeting proceedings are copied from the old Dover Town Book:

A list of the town officers chosen at a town meeting held at Toms River on the second Tuesday of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty three (1783), for the township of Dover, are as followeth:

Town Clerk - David Woodmansee; Chosen Freeholders - Gabriel Woodmansee, John Rogers; Assessor - Gabriel Woodmansee; Collector - James Woodmansee; Freeholders to assist the Assessor - Jacob Applegate, John Jeffrey; Freeholders of Appeal - Isaac Potter, Moses Robins, David Woodmansee; Surveyors of Highways - Abraham Platt, James Allen; Overseers of the Poor - John Stout, Jacob Applegate; Overseers of Highways - Francis Letts, Jacob Foster, Thomas Vannort; Constable - John Woodmansee.

Town meetings were held annually at the residence of different citizens, and the ordinary public business, which was of course limited in character, transacted.

At the annual meeting held March 13, 1787, the town agreed to raise an assessment on the inhabitants of Dover for the support of the poor this year, the sum of fifty pounds (£50).

The following items appear in later records:

At the town meeting held March 11, 1788, it was ordered as follows:

"The town has agreed to pay the last county money that was ordered to be raised, out of the dog tax that was raised for the year 1787. Also the money that Abraham Platt is indebted to the town is to pay the debts of the town."

In 1792 the following record appears:

"1792. Be it remembered that the township of Dover has entered into a resolve this thirteenth day of March, 1792, that all foreigners who shall come within our bay to oyster shall be entitled to pay to the township of Dover for the support of the poor, two pence for every bushel of oysters taken on board by said vessels. Also, John Price and John Woodmansee are appointed by said town to collect the above duty for the use of the said town.

At the same time, the poor of the township of Dover were sold to the following persons, viz:

Abraham Platt took one woman for £7 17 shillings for one year.

John Johnson took one man for £4 9s. one year.

Thomas Bird took one man for £11 17s. one year.

Officers elected at the annual March town meeting, 1793: Moderator - Benjamin Lawrence; Clerk - George Cook; Assessor - Benjamin Lawrence; Collector - George Cook; Freeholders - David Wright, Gabriel Woodmansee; Coms. of Appeal - James Allen, John Rogers, Gabriel Woodmansee; Coms. of Highways - John Price, William Williams; Overseers of Poor - Benjamin Lawrence, George Cook; Overseers of Roads - Paul Potter, William Chamberlain, Timothy Page, Bartholomew Applegate, Thomas Truex; Constables - John Richardson, Job Leming; Judge of Election - John Rogers.

The poor of the township were sold as follows: Joseph Platt took one woman for £8 10s. Timothy Page took one man for £4 15s. Elizabeth Johnson took one man for £12 10s."

At the annual meeting. March 10, 1795, "John Yetman was cleared from tax on account of blindness of his wife."

The following record appears in the proceedings of the town meeting held at the house of John Millar, March 10, 1798:

The town poor were put out for the year as follows: "Gilbert Lane took one man for £12; the town to find him clothes, and Lane to make and mend for him and find him in tobacco. John Worth took a woman for £16, the town to find her clothes and Worth to find her tobacco."

A special town meeting was held April 3, 1799, at the house of John Wildes, when -

"It was resolved to amend the law about striking fish, so that it shall be lawful to strike any fish except sheepshead until June 10th, yearly.

"Resolved, That the members of the Township Committee be allowed one dollar per day for services. William E. Imlay reported expenditures for the poor to the amount of £36 12s. 2d., and that he had in hand of town money, £111 13s. 2d., from which expenses deducted for poor would leave £75."

The next year it was resolved that "the next town meeting be held at the house where William E. Imlay now lives. Also, that the law about striking fish be repealed in full." Constables in those days were required to give bonds in the sum of one thousand dollars.

The following is a list of Presiding Officers, or Moderators, as they were called, and Town Clerks of Dover, from 1846 to 1861, when the records in the old Town Book cease:

1846, William I. James. 1847 to 1855, inclusive, Aaron B. Irons. 1856 to 1861, inclusive, Washington McKean.

1846 to 1855, inclusive, James Gulick. 1856 - John J. Irons. 1857-8 - Benjamin F. Aumack. 1859 - David J. Bowers. 1860 - Emanuel H. Wilkes. 1861 - Joseph Lawrence.

The record of cattle marks and of estrays in the old Dover Town Book gives the names of many old residents not found elsewhere in the book, and in some cases, the parts of the township where they resided.

"In the bay of the North river, about two leagues from Sandy Hook, lies an inlet or small bay; on the south shore of said bay called Neyswesincks, there is also right good maize lands which have not been cultivated by the natives for a long time. This district is well adapted for raising and feeding all sorts of cattle and is esteemed by many as not ill adapted for fisheries; a good trade in furs could also be carried on there and 'tis likewise accessible to all large vessels coming from sea which are often obliged to lie to or anchor behind Sandy Hook, either in consequence of contrary winds or from want of a pilot."

[Note. - Information relative to taking up land in the form of colonies or private bouweries, N.Y. Col. Hist, vol. 1, p. 360.]

According to the familiar story of Penelope Stout, the first attempt to settle in Monmouth was about 1648, when Richard Stout and family, and five Dutch families, six in all, settled where Middletown now is and they remained there about five or six years when they were compelled to leave on account of Indian troubles.

In O'Callaghan's History of New Netherlands is a list of patents for land granted by the Dutch between 1630 and 1664; among them is one to Cornelius Van Werckhoven, granted November 7, 1651, for "A Colonie at Nevisinks." In a letter from Werckhoven to Baron Von der Capellen, in Albany Records vol. 8, p. 27, he says the lands about Nevisinks and Raritan Kills had been purchased for him in 1649 and had not been allotted to him. Werckhoven did not come to this country until 1652. His agent in purchasing these lands was Augustine, or Augustus Heermans, a prominent citizen of New Amsterdam. As Heermans received directions in 1649 from Werckhoven, then in Utrecht, Holland, to purchase the lands, the presumption is that he had previously visited the Navesink Indians and ascertained from them their willingness to part with the lands and on what conditions, and also that his object was to establish "A Colonie at Navesink." The time of his doing this must have been about the time the Stout tradition says an effort was made to plant a colony at Middletown.

Heer Werckhoven came over to this country in 1652. His right to the lands was disputed by Baron Hendrick Vander Capellan, who alleged that he had previously bought lands on south side of the Raritan claimed by Werckhoven and the matter was referred to the Amsterdam Chambers; their decision being adverse to Werckhoven, he then directed his attention to establishing the settlement of New Utrecht on Long Island, near Gravesend. The first house put up in New Utrecht was one by Jacob Swart, of Gravesend, who tore down his house at the latter place and removed it to the new settlement. Augustine Heermans had also purchased this land for Werckhoven, and it is evident that he must have been acquainted at Gravesend with the settlers, of whom, in 1657, Richard Stout seems to have been one of the largest land owners.

In the "account of a voyage to Navesink" in 1663, given in Brodhead's History of New York and Whitehead's East Jersey, it is alleged that an attempt to purchase lands in Monmouth of the Navesink Indians in 1663 was made by a party of twenty Englishmen from Gravesend, L.I., among whom it names John Bowne, James Hubbard, John Tilton, Samuel Speer, Thomas Whitelock, Sergeant Richard Gibbons, and Charles Morgan. This account indicates that the English party were at that time acquainted along the shores of the Raritan Bay and around in by the Highlands.

It is stated in Brodhead's History of New York that in the year 1650 an effort was made to induce Baron Hendrick van de Capellan of Ryssell and several Amsterdam merchants to form an association for the colonization of Staten Island and its neighborhood and a ship was fitted out, but the expedition proved a failure. But an agent of Van Capellan, named Dericklagen, shortly after purchased for him lands "on the south side of the Raritan river"; one reason alleged for this purchase was that it would tend to the better security of a colony planted on Staten Island. This was probably in 1651. During the same year Augustus Heermans purchased for Cornelius Van Werckhoven, an influential member of the provincial government of Utrecht, a tract also "on the south side of the Raritan opposite Staten Island."