Mathias Campbell
My name is Mary Campbell and Mathias Campbell was my son. He is the youngest person (whose grave could be located!) buried here at St. Peter’s. He was born in December of 1758 and died at the age of 13 months in 1760. My husband was Robert. He was a member of the Vestry of St Peter’s in 1768. We were just ordinary settlers to this new land. Let me give you an idea of how we got here and what our lives were like as some of the very first people to live in Spotswood.
The first white resident of Spotswood was James Johnstone, from Scotland. He built his home between Spotswood and Jamesburg in 1685. At that time the town was actually called “Spotteswoode” after Mr. Johnstone's old hometown.
In 1864 the East Jersey Proprietors, wanting to bring settlers to the region, offered 50 acres of land to potential settlers and 25 additional acres for each household members. Mr. Johnstone took advantage of this by bringing indentured servants with him. Most of the early settlers of Spotswood were refugees from either political or religious persecution. In order to afford to come here, they worked as indentured servants.
Mr. Johnstone described the land as bountiful with friendly Indians. Here is what he had to say: “I have taken up a part of my land 9 miles from Amboy and 4 miles from Piscataway and as far from the nearest part of the Raritan on the Brook side, where there are exceeding great plains without any timber, where there is excellent gunning for deers and turkies of which there is a great plenty and easy shot……In the summer there is plenty [of] fruits, peaches, walnuts, chestnuts, strawberries and another berry like currant. Vines are as good as anywhere. I and all who have come over have kept our health very well; our food hath, for the most part, been venison we got from the Indians, which I like exceedingly well. The Indian corn, Indian beans and peas are pleasing grains. We have good fishing….Wolves are so far from troubling men, that if a man should lay a glove on a carcass or their prey, they will yell but not come nigh it.”
By the 1750’s Spotswood had a grist mill, a sawmill and a forge. If you don’t know, a grist mill grinds grains such as wheat, rye, oat or barley into flour and meal. It uses a water wheel for power. All these establishments were owned by Peter Ten Eyck, an early Dutch settler. He went bankrupt shortly before the Revolutionary War and became a fugitive. In 1764 the Pennsylvania Gazette had the following to say: “Escaped from the Sheriff of Middlesex, Peter Ten Eyck, a lusty, likely man, about five feet 10 inches high, fresh colored, has dark eyes, dwelt lately near Spotswood, owned a grist mill and forge. Ten-pound reward to be paid by James Brooks, Sheriff”
Disease was constant as no one had invented sanitation yet. Many children died at very young ages and life expectancy was short. Cholera, consumption, appendicitis, chicken pox, small pox and scarlet fever were among the diseases that proved fatal to many. Bloodletting or leeches were the common treatment for almost any disease. Some blood diseases were treated by burning toads to a crisp and making a powder that was drunk.
But even in the midst of all this, kids still had fun. They played a popular game called Rounders which is very similar to baseball. Even back then they played checkers, tag, marbles, leap frog and hopscotch.
I was not alone in losing a child so young. The records of St Peter’s show many other children being only a few months old and passing from all the disease that was around. Although it was a hard life, we are proud to have been among the founding families of Spotswood, New Jersey.