A large number of the people of Burlington county, N. J., are the descendants of the Andrews, and I think it would be interesting to many of them to learn something about their progenitors, who were people of high standing, greatly distinguished, honored and respected in their day and generation, and for this reason I have compiled the following account of the Andrews family, as I have obtained it from ancient records, traditions and other sources.

Several of the items herein contained I am indebted for to the Hon. George Sykes, who obligingly searched the ancient records of some of the old monthly meetings of the Friends or Quakers of Burlington county, N.J.

I am likewise indebted to the kindness of Franklin W. Earl, of Pemberton, for important items from the Genealogical Record, published by the Historical Society of New York.

Mr. Earl's communication says, "Samuel Andrews and Mary Wright were married 30th of 8th mo., 1663. Three brothers, Peter, Anthony and Nicholas Wright emigrated from England to Massachusetts, as early as 1636 or 1637; they were the descendants of Nicholas Wright and Ann his wife. They removed to Sandwich, Cape Cod, and here some of the children of Peter and Nicholas Wright were born. In 1653 the three brothers joined the company led by the Rev. William Leverick and came to Long Island, where they purchased a tract of land of the Indians, and on this tract so purchased the company fixed the present site of the village of Oyster Bay.

Anthony Wright's house, at Oyster Bay, was, for many years, where Friends held their meetings; finally he conveyed to a committee of Friends a portion of his land for a meeting house and burying ground, by deed dated 15th of 8th mo., 1672, and with the grantees in said deed the name of Samuel Andrews and Mary Andrews appear. Anthony Wright died at Oyster Bay, Sept. 8th, 1680, an old bachelor - never married - and leaving quite a large estate, which, in his will, he bequeaths mostly to his brothers' (Peter and Nicholas) children. To Mary Andrews he gave two shillings and sixpence; to Lydia Wright two shillings and sixpence, both of whom, with several others, were children of Peter Wright. After the above deed of Anthony Wright, conveying said land to Friends, to build a house of worship on, the Friends let out by contract, the building of the meeting house to Samuel Andrews and John Feakes, the whole work to cost but twenty pounds - about one hundred dollars of our present currency - and Andrews and Feakes was to be paid in wheat, peas, Indian corn and pork.

Samuel and Mary Andrews' children, (from the records):

1st. Mordecai, born at Sandwich, Cape Cod, 11th, 6th mo., 1664.
2d. Peter, born at Sandwich, Cape Cod, 12th of 11th mo., 1668: died 3d mo., 1669.
3d. Peter, born at Oyster Bay, 28th of 3d mo., 1671.
4th. Hester, born at Oyster Bay, 12th of 10th mo., 1673.
5th. Hannah, born at Oyster Bay, 23d of 2d mo., 1675.
6th. Edward, born 16th of 1st mo., 1677.
7th. Jacob, born 12th of 7th mo., 1680.
8th. Mary, born 29th of 5th mo., 1683.

From the above and other records it appears that Samuel Andrews had three children who died in childhood, namely: Peter, the first, Hannah and Jacob. Mordecai, Peter the second, and Edward, were left to bear the Andrews' name. Mordecai and Edward have a very large posterity, but I have not seen or heard any account of Peter, 2d, except the record of his birth.

The first marriage recorded in New York Yearly Meeting of Friends was the marriage of Samuel Andrews and Mary Wright, and the following is an exact copy of the record:

"The 30th of ye 8th mo. 1663. We whose names are hereunder written are witnesses yt the usual Meeting House of Anthonia Wright in Oyster Bay in ye presence of ye public assembly their gathered ye day above sd. Samuel Andrews and Mary Wright intending Marriage and having given notice thereof before, did then and their according to ye practice of ye holy men of God in the scriptures of truth and after ye Law of God, take each other for husband and wife, to live together in the feare of God faithfully so long as they shall live:

  Witnesses:
JOHN UNDERHILL,        SAMUEL ANDREWS,
HANNAH WRIGHT,         MARY ANDREWS,
         ELIZABETH UNDERHILL.

The above-named Mary Wright and her sisters, Lydia and Hannah, were all ministers in the Society of Friends, having been called to ministerial work when they were mere girls. About the year 1658 those three young women went to Massachusetts and preached to Governor Endicott, and his council against their hanging Mary Dyer and others for being Quakers. Hannah Wright, then only thirteen years of age, preached with such boldness and power that she put to shame the persecuting Governor and his council. Mary Wright went to Maryland and accompanied Margaret Brinster to Boston where she (Margaret) was tied to a cart and made to walk to three Township corners, at each of which she was cruelly whipped on her bare back, after which they were kept in prison about a year, and then with twenty-seven other prisoners let out of prison and banished through the wilderness, infested with wild beasts, through which they walked from Boston to Oyster Bay, on Long Island, where Mary Wright's parents resided. As before stated, about five years after this terrible adventure Mary Wright married Samuel Andrews, and was the mother of Edward and Mordecai Andrews, the first white settlers in what is now the village of Tuckerton, N.J. Having progressed this far in my history of the Andrews family, I shall take the liberty of transcribing the account furnished me by the Hon. George Sykes. It is so concise, so good and so much better than anything I could furnish that I hope he will excuse my using his name and valuable writings in reference to the history of the Andrews family.

I cannot identify the exact locality of the farm formerly owned and occupied by Samuel Andrews in the township of Mansfield and county of Burlington, but am satisfied that it was at or near Friends' meeting-house, in Mansfield village, about one mile north of Columbus.

In the records of Chesterfield Monthly Meeting of Friends (held at Crosswicks), are the following: "Hannah Andrews, daughter of Samuel and Mary Andrews, was buried the seventh day of the ninth month, 1686."

"Jacob Andrews, son of Samuel and Mary Andrews, was buried the first day of the tenth month, 1686."

"Samuel Andrews, above named, was buried at the burying place near his own house the nineteenth day of the seventh month, 1688."

The following extract is from the records in Monmouth county clerk's office at Freehold:

"Mordecai Andrews and his wife were married the fourteenth day of July, 1691."

The two following sentences are extracts from the earliest book of Burlington county records, now deposited in the Secretary of State's office, in Trenton:

"November 10, 1693. Mary Andrews and Edward Rockhill, executors, proved and filed the will and inventory of Samuel Andrews."

"Edward Andrews and Sarah Ong were married at the house of Thomas Revell the eighth day of February, 1694, before Thomas Revell, justice, and in the presence of Sarah Ong, Sr., Mordecai Andrews, Jacob Ong, John Joener, Mathew Forsyth, Eliakim Higgins, Thomas Douglass and Elizabeth Darling."

Thomas Revell, above named, was a judge of Burlington county Court of Common Pleas, and lived in the city of Burlington. From the above-recited records it appears that Samuel Andrews and Mary, his wife, lost two children in less than a month's time in the autumn of the year 1686.

The said Samuel Andrews died in the seventh month, 1688, leaving a will, which, with an inventory, was proved and filed by his executrix and executor five years after his decease. If his will can be found in the Secretary of State's ofiice, in Trenton, it will probably give us the names of all his surviving children, besides Edward and Mordecai, if he had any others, and the record of the original survey or deed by which he acquired title to his land in Mansfield township, if found in the same office, will probably enable us to fix the time of his first settlement there.

From thy letter of the twelfth month last, taken from Friends' records, Samuel Andrews and wife were married at Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1663, consequently they must have become members of the religious Society of Friends while George Fox, William Penn, Robert Barclay and others, the founders, were living and organizing the Society, more than two hundred years ago, and that subsequently removing to West Jersey, they were among the first permanent settlers and residents of European descent in Burlington county.

I do not know that Samuel Andrews and Mary, his wife, left any other children surviving them except Mordecai and Edward, though it is quite probable there were others. About the year 1700, the two brothers, Mordecai and Edward Andrews, removed from Mansfield township and made their residence where the village of Tuckerton has since been built, in the present township of Little Egg Harbor, where they passed the remainder of their lives. I have seen no documentary evidence of the time Mordecai Andrews died. Thy father told me he was buried on the knoll of reddish colored earth on the southwesterly side of the Mill creek, near and to the southeastward of the mill-dam at Tuckerton. Thomas Chalkley, a minister of the Society of Friends, while on a religious visit from England to Friends in New Jersey and the adjoining colonies, speaks of being at a meeting held under the trees at Crosswicks, in the year 1696. Thomas Chalkley afterwards removing from England settled in Pennsylvania, and paid religious visits to Friends at Cape May and other places in South Jersey, including Little Egg Harbor, where he met Edward Andrews in 1706, who told him his religious feelings were mightily reached at the meeting held under the trees at Crosswicks. Thomas Chalkley, in his journal, page 47, says of Edward Andrews: "The good hand of the Lord being upon him, wrought a wonderful reformation in him, and made him an instrument to lead people into truth and righteousness, and gave him an excellent gift in the ministry of the gospel of Christ, so that he was made instrumental in gathering a large and growing meeting, most of the people thereabouts being convinced, and a great reformation and change wrought in their conduct and conversation."

From the memorial and testimony of the monthly meeting concerning Edward Andrews published in Friends' Miscellany, vol. 8, page 199, &c., and other accounts of him, it is manifest that he was remarkable for his superior intellect and integrity, and that he was a truly sincere and devout Christian. With respect to the children of Edward Andrews, and Sarah his wife, and their descendants, I presume thy information is more general and extensive than mine. I am under the impression, but do not know that I am correct, that Edward Andrews and Sarah his wife had four sons - Samuel, Jacob, Isaac and Peter - and perhaps other children.

Isaac Andrews left home in company with John Woolman in the 3d month, 1746, on a religious visit to Friends and others in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, from which they did not return till in the sixth month of the same year. They traveled entirely on horseback, the country in some places being so thinly inhabited at that time that in several instances they slept at night along the bridle paths in the woods, with no shelter over them but the canopy of heaven. Isaac Andrews paid a number of other religious visits to different parts of the country and died at Haddonfield, near Camden, in the twelfth month, l775, where he had resided a number of years previous to his death. From the accounts of him in the journals of John Woolman, Ephraim Tomlinson, and others, he was an eminent minister of the Society of Friends.

Peter Andrews married Esther Butcher, whose parents resided near Jacksonville, on the road from that place to Mount Holly. He afterwards purchased and resided on the farm now owned and occupied by John Croshaw, about one mile in a southeasterly direction from Mount Holly, one of the most valuable farms and in a situation for an extensive and fine view, unsurpassed in that neighborhood. Peter Andrews was an eminent preacher, and is said to have traveled extensively in the ministry on this continent previous to his going to England in the 4th month, 1755, and traveling through several counties and attending many very large meetings in that country until his death, which occurred at Norwich, in England, on the 13th of the 7th month, 1756, in the forty-ninth year of his age. The testimony of Norwich Monthly Meeting concerning Peter Andrews, printed in the collection of memorials published in London in the year 1760, copied with the addition of the testimony of Burlington Monthly Meeting in the collection of memorials published in Philadelphia in 1787, and the account of Peter Andrews in "Gough's history of the people called Quakers," vol. 4, page 412, published in Dublin, Ireland, in 1790, with the account in Friends' Miscellany, make it unnecessary to prolong the account in this place.

John Woolman, a native and resident of Northampton township, near Mount Holly, is generally considered the most eminent and distinguished minister of the gospel the Society of Friends has produced in New Jersey for the last two hundred years. Peter and Isaac Andrews in the general estimation rank next to John Woolman. Had they kept journals and other writings of their experience and particular views on religious subjects, as John Woolman did, it is the general opinion that they would have been considered his equal in all respects.

It is generally conceded that no other monthly meeting in New Jersey has produced three more eminent ministers of the Society of Friends than Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting, in the persons of Peter Andrews, Isaac Andrews and Ann Gauntt. Edward Andrews, above named, and his son Jacob, were also quite prominent ministers - and members of that monthly meeting, though not traveling extensively as the two first named they were not so generally known.

Jacob Andrews, above named, was the son of the aforesaid Edward Andrews. Jacob Andrews was an approved minister of the Society, but his services in that line were mostly in his neighborhood. I never heard of his going out of Burlington county, except two visits to Long Island. In the summer of 1729, Jacob Andrews, in company with his friend and neighbor, James Pharo, with the approbation of the monthly meeting, made a religious visit to Friends on Long Island, appointing and attending meetings on their way there and on their return home.

In the 4th month, 1732, Jacob Andrews and Ann Sykes were married at Upper Springfield meeting house, then a branch of Chesterfield Monthly Meeting. She was born the 15th day of the 12th month, 1719, and was the third daughter of John Sykes and Joanna, his wife, who were my great-grandparents, and were then living near where the present village of Sykesville has since been built.

In 1738, Jacob Andrews and his family appear to have removed from Little Egg Harbor to some place within the compass of Burlington Monthly Meeting - the exact locality of which I cannot identify, unless it was at or near the present village of Cookstown.

In the 3d month, in the year 1743, Jacob Andrews purchased a farm of one hundred and ninety acres of land and the mills at the present village of Cookstown, in the township of New Hanover, where he continued to reside until he sold them to Isaac Ivins, Jr., in the autumn of 1748.

In the 3d month, 1747, he was at the yearly meeting on Long Island in company with Peter Andrews, John Woolman and several other prominent public Friends. He subsequently founded the present village of Jacobstown, in Burlington county, (which took its name from him,) by opening the first country store and building, the first blacksmith shop and wheelwright shop in that place on the lot now occupied by L. Minor Platt. He also owned the farm at and northeast of Jacobstown now owned and occupied by Michael Rogers.

Jacob Andrews died at Jacobstown, leaving his wife and one son and three (perhaps four daughters) surviving him. John Andrews, the son, married Hannah Parker, and died at or near Jacobstown about the year 1813, leaving a widow, three sons and three daughters. The eldest daughter married and moved with her husband and two of her brothers, Samuel and Jacob, both young men and unmarried, to the Gennesse country, New York, about the year 1816. Neither of them has been heard from by their relations in New Jersey for many years. William Andrews, the third son of John Andrews, after the death of his father went into partnership with a friend of his in selling real estate at Bristol, in Pennsylvania, where he continued a short time and then removed to Philadelphia, renting a house and opening an office the second door from the Friends' meeting house, on Arch street, on his own account as scriviner, conveyancer and real estate agent, where he continued very successful till his death, about the year 1817. At his death I suppose he was between twenty-five and thirty years of age. He never married, and on his removing to Philadelphia his mother and two unmarried sisters went there and lived with him. His mother survived him about a year. Catharine Andrews, daughter of John Andrews and Hannah his wife, married Samuel Cassady, of Philadelphia, who, some years afterward, was lost by the burning of the steamboat Lexington on Long Island Sound, on an excessively cold night about thirty-five years ago - leaving a widow and several children. The widow died about ten or twelve years ago; the children are now living in Philadelphia. Sarah Andrews, the remaining daughter of John Andrews and Hannah his wife, was living unmarried in 1870 at an advanced age with her nephew in Philadelphia.

Catharine Andrews, daughter of Jacob Andrews and Ann, his wife, married Samuel Emley, living near Jacobstown, where a number of their descendants are still living.

Another daughter of Jacob Andrews and Ann, his wife, married ______ Sexton, and left several children. A third daughter of Jacob Andrews and Ann, his wife, married ______ Wardell, and left several children.

I think I have heard my father say there was a fourth daughter of Jacob Andrews and wife, who married either a Sexton or a Wardell - two sisters married two brothers - but I am not certain about it."

This ends my friend George Sykes' history of the Andrews' family, and now I shall resume stating my knowledge of the aforesaid family, of which I am a descendant, being a great-great-great granddaughter of Edward Andrews, the first white man who settled on what is now the village of Tuckerton, Burlington county, New Jersey.

In my former writings about the Andrews family, I have stated that Edward Andrews was an Englishman, and that he came from Long Island to Little Egg Harbor. Such were the assertions of the old people of the place. Since my first publication of the Andrews', I have learned from authentic records that Edward Andrews was born the 16th day of January, 1667, at Oyster Bay, Long Island, and by or before the year 1686, he, with his father, removed to Mansfield, in Burlington county, N.J., where, on the 8th day of February, 1694, he married Sarah, daughter of Jacob and Sarah Ong, Sr., At the time of his marriage he was only seventeen years and twenty-three days old. He is represented as being an enterprising man, and it is evident he manifested an enterprising spirit in the matrimonial line as well as in other affairs.

In old times in England the Andrews were people of high standing, distinguished for piety and learning. In the account of Bishop Andrews, who was Bishop of Ely, it is affirmed that he was an eminent bishop in the Church of England, distinguished for his piety and learning. He was one of the greatest linguists of the age, understanding fifteen different languages, among which were Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic, in all of which he was able to converse with the greatest accuracy. He died the 25th day of September, 1626. His brothers, Thomas and Nicholas, died a short time previous. It is not at all improbable that the Andrews who came to America were descendants of one of the above-named three brothers of the name of Andrews.

Samuel Andrews and Mary Wright, who married in the year 1663, had children, Mordecai, Peter (who died at the age of one year), Peter, the 2d, Hester, Hannah, Edward, Jacob and Mary. At a yearly meeting held at Burlington city, on the 7th day of the 7th month,1692, there was a Samuel Andrews who was at that meeting. At that date Samuel Andrews, Sr., had been dead four years, therefore it was not him, and it seems it was not his son, and his children were not old enough to have a grown-up son. He might have been a son of a brother of Samuel Andrews, Sr.

In the year 1699, and about five years after his marriage, and when he was about twenty-two years of age, Edward Andrews left Mansfield and settled in Little Egg Harbor. In his will he names six of his children, namely, Samuel, Jacob, Peter, Alice, Edith and Elizabeth, and if he had any others he did not refer to them in his will. It is thought that Isaac Andrews, the eminent minister, was Edward's son, and I cannot say to the contrary, but I think it more probable that Isaac and Nehemiah Andrews were brothers, and sons of Edward Andrews' brother Peter. Mordecai Andrews, Jr., in his will, made in the year 1763, calls Isaac Andrews his cousin, and makes him one of the executors of his will; and if he was Mordecai, Jr.'s cousin he must have been a son of Edward Andrews, or else the son of Peter Andrews' brother, of Mordecai and Edward Andrews, for these three brothers were the only male representatives of the Andrews family.

Tradition says that Edward Andrews had a daughter Hannah, who married Joseph Parker, Sr., and also a daughter Mary, who married John Cranmer, Sr., but as there is no positive proof of these assertions, I think it is more likely that the above named Hannah and Mary Andrews were the daughters of Mordecai Andrews - brother of Edward Andrews.

About the year 1699 Edward Andrews removed from Mansfield, Burlington county, N.J., to Little Egg Harbor, where he purchased 500 acres of land of Samuel Jennings (Governor of N.J.) This land lay on the east side of Tuckerton creek, and here Andrews settled, his house being located about where Mr. Auner's dwelling is now situated, and like many of the first emigrants to the wildernesses of America, his first dwelling in Little Egg Harbor was a cave dug in the ground like a cellar, and walled with cedar logs and covered with hewn timber of the same material. Here Andrews cleared a farm (now East Tuckerton) and in the year 1708 deeded two acres of land to the Society of Friends on which to build a meeting house and establish a graveyard.

Tradition says that the first grain raised in Little Egg Harbor township was conveyed on the backs of horses to Mount Holly to be ground in the grist mill at that place. It is affirmed that husbands, wives and sons, and all others who could be spared from home, flung sacks of grain across the backs of horses, mounted them and rode in Indian file along a green-wood bridle path to the grist mill at Mount Holly, and that whilst the farmers and their retinue were gone on their journey to mill, the children who were left at home at night were terrified by the angry growls of bears, wolves and wildcats, which were so tame as to come prowling around their dwellings. Edward Andrews soon tired of going to mill to Mount Holly, and having the enterprise of his English ancestors, and not being one to shrink from difficult undertakings, constructed a cedar log grist mill on or near the site of the present grist mill at Tuckerton. The beavers accommodated Andrews with a dam for his mill pond. Long before the whites came to Little Egg Harbor the industrious beavers constructed what is now the mill dam at Tuckerton. People often ask, "Why was not the Tuckerton mill dam built on a straight line?" and the answer to such questions is, "The finishers of the dam followed the plan laid out by the beavers." Andrews' log-walled grist mill must have been a curiosity to the Indians. They must have considered Andrews a great "Medicine Man." How they must have stared when they saw the grains of Indian corn crushed so fast and to such small atoms; they must have deemed it a great improvement on their mode of manufacturing Indian meal, which was by crushing one grain at a time between two stones.

As Edward Andrews' parents were strict Quakers it is probable they brought him up in the way they thought he should go, but it appears he chose his own course of life, and if ever he had been a member of Friends' Meeting (no doubt but that he had a birthright membership) he must have fallen from grace, for after he settled in Egg Harbor it is recorded that he was of a social and jovial disposition, and having married so young, he had not had time to "sow his wild oats;" and being the owner of a violin, his habitation on Sunday was the resort of his jovial neighbors, the whites and Indians, who came to hear him play on the violin and sing "the merrie songs of old England;" but this state of society did not continue a very long time, for in the 4th mo. 1704, when Andrews was engaged plowing he turned up a human skeleton, or, as some affirm, a skull, (doubtless an Indian's) and this solemn spectacle set him to thinking about man's present and future state, and such were his reflections that the next Sabbath after the exhumation of the bones - when, as usual, his associates came to his dwelling for the purpose of enjoying their accustomed sport of "dancing on the green," while Andrews played on the violin, or related amusing stories for their gratification - great was their astonishment when they saw Andrews seated in his cave engaged in reading the Bible, when, instead of bringing forth his violin, he read a chapter in the Bible, and then knelt down and prayed aloud for his associates and himself, and from that time he became a devout and zealous minister in the Society of Friends, and soon established the Friends' Meeting of Little Egg Harbor, which has continued until the present time. It appears that while Edward Andrews lived at Mansfield he attended a Friends' Meeting held under the trees at Crosswicks, at which Thomas Chalkley (then on a religious visit from England) preached, and his preaching made a strong impression on Edward Andrews' feelings, but it seems that he was not thoroughly awakened and soon relapsed into his former sinful ways, and continued thus until he plowed up the bones, and that event brought about his thorough conversion. For some years Andrews must have held his religious meetings in his dwelling house, or else under the canopy of some of the primitive trees that graced the site of the present village of Tuckerton. In the year 1709 the Little Egg Harbor Friends' Meeting House was built, and for one hundred and fifty-four years it served the Society as a place wherein to await the visits and inspirations of the Spirit. In the year 1863 this venerable edifice was taken down and the present building erected. The window sash of the old meeting house were formed of lead, and during the Revolutionary War they were taken out of the house and hidden behind the wooden ceiling, lest they should fall into the hands of the soldiers, who would have been likely to have converted the lead into bullets. Sometimes during the youthful days of the meeting house there was Yearly Meeting held in it, and Friends came from all parts of Burlington county and also from Monmouth and Atlantic counties to attend the Yearly Meeting at this place. Those who came from the upper section of Burlington county crossed the east branch of Mullica river at the place now known as Quaker bridge. After fording the stream they watered and fed their horses, and then sat down in the shade of a venerable and majestic oak tree and partook of the lunch they had brought with them. Fording the stream was not a very pleasant job, and finally Little Egg Harbor Friends and Friends of the upper section of Burlington county agreed to meet at the east branch of Mullica river at the fording place in order to construct a bridge as a more convenient way of crossing the stream. They met at the appointed time, and the banks of the stream being heavily timbered with large and primitive cedars, a number of them were cut down and a bridge constructed of them - and thus came about the name of Quaker bridge.

Most of the residents of Little Egg Harbor township became converts to Edward Andrews' religious opinions, and ancient chroniclers say that he was instrumental in doing a great deal of good in a religious way. In an old book that once belonged to Edward Andrews' son Samuel, it is recorded on one of the fly-leaves that William Cranmer, who had settled at Barnegat, was the first proselyte that Edward Andrews was instrumental in making after his own conversion, and also that the above named William Cranmer used to walk from Barnegat (twelve miles) to the Little Egg Harbor (Tuckerton) Meeting, where Edward Andrews often preached to the edification of those assembled. For about seventy years after the settlement of Little Egg Harbor the Friends were the only religious denomination in the township, and every one who went to a place of worship bent their course to the Friends' meeting house. Thus it will be seen that Little Egg Harbor was for a long time the most thorough Quaker settlement ever instituted, and existed longer than any other, without the incursions of other denominations.

The graveyard adjacent to the Friends’ meeting house was established about the time of the building of the church, and for nearly a century it was the only public burying ground in the township. Beneath its green turf lies the dust of Edward Andrews, Ann Gauntt, Ann Willits, Daniel Parker and others, whose ministerial voices have been heard in the old meeting house; and here are buried that first and diminutive colony of Friends who meekly endured the many hardships which are the heritage of settlers in a new country; and around them, sleeping the "dreamless sleep," are many generations of their descendants, unconsciously awaiting the morning of the resurrection. No one who is not thoroughly acquainted with the history of the former generations of the inhabitants of Little Egg Harbor, can have an accurate conception of the number of the silent inhabitants of the inclosure called the Friends' graveyard. This graveyard ought to be a venerated spot to every one who claims to be a descendant of any of the ancient inhabitants of Little Egg Harbor township. There are also many of the ancient inhabitants of Washington and Stafford townships who are here sleeping their last sleep.

None of the old-time graves have anything to mark their sites, and none of the friends of the departed can stray among the tombs and say, "This is my kinsman's grave." It would be a solemn satisfaction to many (and no detriment to any one's religion) if they could trace out the graves of all their ancestors who are buried beneath the green sod and simple wild flowers of this ancient garden of the dead.

The time was (and a long time) when the Little Egg Harbor Meeting of Friends was a meeting of renown, and has been visited by a great number of ministers, both native and foreign. and has produced several eminent ministers, and the old meeting house used to be well filled, but at this time the meeting is very small and gradually decreasing. It used to be thought that honor and justice were personified in the officials of the church, but now the officials of the meeting, in the business transactions of the meeting, utterly disregard the discipline and its principles, and act according to their own interests and prejudices - mammon having trampled honor and justice in the dust. In a very few years the final decline and fall of the once celebrated Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting will have been accomplished.

After Edward Andrews became religious he took his violin and threw it away on an island in Tuckerton bay, but afterwards considering about it he thought that some person might find it and use it as he had done, so he went and got it and consigned it to final destruction.

After his conversion he went to Crosswicks Meeting and introduced himself as one having a Divine call to the ministry, but the official members, knowing what a wild life he had lead, were reluctant to receive him as a preacher, and finally refused him a seat among the ministers. But he would not be altogether repulsed, and taking a lower seat he soon arose in the meeting and preached with such earnestness and power that they were compelled to acknowledge that he surely had received his mission from God, and he soon became a noted minister, and many were convinced under his teaching.

Edward Andrews died 26th, 10th month, 1716, aged 79 years, and in the fullest hope of a blessed immortality.

Edward Andrews is the progenitor of all of the Mathis's of Egg Harbor, also the Allens of the same place, and the Higbees and many of the Leeds of Atlantic county, and it is probable that at the present time there are many of Edward Andrews' posterity in every State of the Union, and also in other parts of the world. Many of Edward Andrews' descendants in the various generations have been distinguished for their strong-mindedness, energy, perseverance, firmness, precision in business transactions, and for their high sense of justice, which characteristics it is said they inherited from their ancient progenitor. Edward Andrews' descendants have been remarkable for their longevity, for their excellent memories and for their aptness in acquiring learning. Many of them, though living in an age and locality where school teachers were almost utter strangers, yet under the greatest disadvantages obtained fair educations, which, added to their strong common sense and superior judgment, made them very useful members of society in general.

Edward Andrews had six children, whose names were as follows: Alice, Samuel, Edith, Elizabeth, Jacob and Peter. This paper has already reached such a length that I cannot now carry out but a few generations of his posterity.

Alice, daughter of Edward Andrews [Note: Actually the daughter of Mordecai Andrews, see note below], about the year 1712 married John Higbee, of Long Island. He soon died, leaving two children, Abigail and Edward, and about the year 1716, his widow married John Mathis, who became the wealthiest, most influential and noted man of the township of Little Egg Harbor. He was the first king's magistrate appointed for the township of Little Egg Harbor, and I have his law book that he purchased of Richard Smith, Jr., of Burlington city, who was the father of Samuel Smith, the noted historian of New Jersey. John Mathis's children were Micajah, Job, Daniel, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Eli and Sarah.

Micajah Mathis married Mercy Shreve, of Springfield. Job Mathis married Phebe Leake. Daniel Mathis married Sophia Gauntt, of Burlington city. Jeremiah Mathis married his cousin Hannah, daughter of Samuel Andrews. Nehemiah Mathis married Elizabeth Cranmer. Eli Mathis married Phebe Devinney, Sarah Mathis married Marmaduke Coate, of Mansfield, and after his death she married John Leeds, grandson of Daniel Leeds, one of the noted men among the early settlers of New Jersey.

Samuel, son of Edward Andrews, married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ridgway, Sr. Samuel Andrews died in the year 1763, aged 65 years, 3 months and 1 week. He had children - Peter, Hannah and Esther.

Edith, daughter of Edward Andrews, married Robert Allen, of Shrewsbury, and settled at Bass River, and had children, Peter, Edward and Edith.

Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Andrews, was the second wife of Thomas Ridgway, Sr., and it is said that she had no children.

Jacob, son of Edward Andrews, married Ann Sykes; his posterity is given in George Sykes' account of him.

Peter Andrews married Esther Butcher, of Burlington Monthly Meeting.

Edward Andrews, his sons Jacob and Peter, were eminent ministers in the Society of Friends, and his son Samuel was for many years an elder in the Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting.

Edward Andrews' children all married into families of high standing.

Mordecai Andrews, brother of Edward, it is said, married a French woman and settled on the west side of Tuckerton creek, having purchased a tract of land containing 929 acres, on which he cleared a farm, and where he, and his wife and one child are buried. He had but one son, who was Mordecai Andrews, Jr., in the year 1723 married Mary Taylor, and had children: Isaac, Jacob, Kesiah, Prudence, Edith, Sarah and Elizabeth.

Isaac Andrews married Hannah Johnson, of Atlantic county.

Jacob Andrews married on Long Island, where he settled.

Kesiah Andrews married Joseph Shourds.

Prudence Andrews married John Berry.

Edith Andrews married Joseph Parker, Jr.

Sarah Andrews married Samuel Leeds.

Elizabeth Andrews married William Myers, of Long Island, where she went to reside with her husband, who was a native of that island.

I think that Hannah Andrews, who married Joseph Parker, Sr., must have been Mordecai Andrews, Sr.'s daughter, also Mary, who married John Cranmer, Sr.

In the year 1771, Peter Andrews, and Hannah, his wife, and four children, brought their certificates to the Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting: the childrens' names, Amy, Timothy, Esther and Hannah. In the year 1781 they received certificates to remove within the limits of the Mount Holly Monthly Meeting. It is probable that the above Peter Andrews was a son of the first Peter, son of Edward Andrews. The above said Hannah Andrews was a minister. It is said they resided at Haddonfield, N.J. Timothy, son of Peter Andrews, and Hannah, his wife, settled near Leedsville, Atlantic county, N.J. His wife's name was Sarah, and they had children, Ann Eliza, who married Richard Somers, - he was lost at sea; Edward, who died young; Isaac, who did not marry; Keturah, who married ______ Sanders; Hannah; Rachel; and Sarah, who married Nathan Leeds.

In 1776, the Little Egg Harbor Meeting disowned Hannah, wife of John Andrews, for marrying out of meeting. I do not know where to place this John Andrews in the Andrews family; if he was Jacob Andrew's son he must have married Hannah, daughter of Samuel Parker, who was a son of the first Joseph Parker, of Parkertown, Little Egg Harbor township. Samuel Parker's mother was Hannah Andrews, and Samuel Parker, at that time was living in Egg Harbor, and he had a daughter Hannah. Samuel Parker removed from and back to Egg Harbor, two or three times, and the last removal was at or near Haddonfield, N.J.

In the year 1778, the Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting recommended Hannah Andrews as a minister to the quarterly meeting; she must have been the above Peter Andrew's wife.