Eliakim Wardell

The Wardell family owned extensive tracts of land not far from Shrewsbury River, New Jersey, near the present site of' Long Branch" Both Eliakim and Lydia Perkins Wardell, his wife, were Puritans, but became Quakers not long after their marriage.

The first monthly meeting of Quakers, or Friends, in the province of New Jersey by families from New England, was held at Shrewsbury in 1666. George Fox stopped there in 1678. Eliakim Wardell was a member of this meeting. It is not known at what time he embraced the Quaker religion, but in 1662 he was fined for absence from the Puritan Church. In the same year, for the same reason, Ann Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose were stripped from their waist up and tied to a cart, in the coldest weather, and driven through several towns and cruelly whipped on entering each town. Eliakim Wardell, who witnessed these cruel proceedings, reproved their persecutors, whereupon he was put in the stocks. Wardell was repeatedly fined for his and his wife's absence from church, and was rendered almost penniless by repeated seizures of his property. Lydia Wardell, in a wifely way, shared the troubles of her husband, to which they had been mercilessly doomed. She had witnessed the flogging of her dear friends, Ann Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose, and had heard the laughter and derision of the Christian ministers as the lash descended upon their "marked bodies." Four of her friends had been hanged and scores of others tortured. The guest of her fireside had been kidnapped under her own eyes. The burden laid upon this youthful bride, who is described as a tender, pure woman, was too heavy for her young spirit, and it is but reasonable to suppose, produced mental aberration. The original narrative of the sad experience of Lydia Wardell states that while these troubles fell thick and heavily upon her, she was repeatedly sent for and importuned to go to church; to give a reason for her separation from it. Pestered and goaded by these demands, and probably with an imagination disordered by her terrible suffering, she answered the summons in May, 1663, by disrobing her body and entering the church in this condition, as a sign of the "spiritual nakedness" of her persecutors. This dreadful scene occurred in the church at Newberry. It was exceedingly trying, says the narrator, to Mrs. Wardell's modest disposition to pass through this terrible ordeal. The sequel to this strange episode in the life of Lydia Perkins Wardell was far more shocking than the deed itself. She was arrested and sentenced by the court at Ipswich to be severely whipped and fined costs and fees. She was tied to the fence-post of the tavern, stripped from her waist up and lashed with twenty or thirty cruel stripes. This historical account of Lydia Wardell is taken from the " Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts."

Source: Colonial Families and Their Descendants, by One of the Oldest Graduates of St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, N. J.: "The First Female Church-school Established in the United States, which Has Reached Its Sixty-first Year, Mrs. Mary Edwardine Bourke Emory, CHAPTER XX.

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1666 Nov. 4. Minute of Permission, granted to Eliakim Wardell and associates to purchase Indian land, South of the Gravesend, men's purchase, called Navesinks.

East Jersey Deeds, Etc., Liber No. 3, p. 10

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Eliakim Wardell was an early settler of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and served as that county's first sheriff.[1]

1683 May 31 Wardell was appointed sheriff by Deputy Governor Thomas Rudyard pursuant to "An Act to Appoint Sheriffs",[2] approved by the Legislature of East New Jersey on March 1, 1682. Two others had previously been appointed but each had declined the position.

The legislation provided for a term of one year; Wardell was succeeded in office by Robert Hamilton.

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1693 East Jersey Representative to Friends Annual Meeting in Philadelphia (see documents)

1700 Moved from Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, NJ to Burlington, Burlington County, NJ (see documents)

1701 Dec. 10. Do. Susanna, widow and executrix of Thomas BUDD, and John BUDD, son and heir of said Thomas, to Eliakim WARDELL of Bur- lington, yeoman, for 100 acres on Delaware R., in Burlington townbounds, between grantors and grantee.

West Jersey Records,Liber B, Part 2, p. 707

1702 May 10. Deed. Eliakim Wardell of Burlington, yeoman, to John Smith of Burlington Co., blacksmith, for 300 acres in three lots, to wit: 40 a. on Delaware R., at the head of Mantinicunck Island, near Burlington (see Liber A, p.40); 160 a. along Singleton's line, between Henry Stacy, Tho: Budd, Tho: Williams and Nathaniel West (Liber A, p138), bought of William West January 4, 1788-1700 (supra, p 706 and 707), and 100 a. on Delaware R. between Budd's land and grantor, bought of Susanna and John Budd (supra, p. 708)

West Jersey Records,Liber B, Part 2, p. 710

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Notes

Thomas Wardell, the father of Eliakim, came to this country and was made a free man at Boston in 1634.

Sources

1. History, Genealogical and Biographical, of the Eaton Families  (Google eBook)nC. W. Bardeen, 1911 - 782 pages. Page 600

Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliakim_Wardell
• http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/h/o/Amy-Thomas-NC/WEBS...

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Eliakim Wardell was an early settler of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and served as that county's first sheriff. Wardell was appointed sheriff on May 31, 1683 by Deputy Governor Thomas Rudyard pursuant to "An Act to Appoint Sheriffs", approved by the Legislature of East New Jersey on March 1, 1682. Two others had previously been appointed but each h…

   Born: Nov 23, 1634

   Died: 1710

   Romance: Lydia Wardell · Eliakim Wardell · Lydia Perkins · Lydia Wardell · Eliakim Wardell

   Children: Margaret West (Daughter) · Lydia Biddle (Daughter) · Meribah Wardell (Daughter) · Elizabeth White (Daughter) · Eliakim Wardwell

   Parents: Thomas (Wardell) Wardwell (Father)

Ancestors of Eliakim WARDELL freepages.rootsweb.com/~wardell/genealogy/397.htm

Eliakim Wardell was a member of this meeting. It is not known at what time he embraced the Quaker religion, but in 1662 he was fined for absence from the Puritan Church. In the same year, for the same reason, Ann Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose were stripped from their waist up and tied to a cart, in the coldest weather, and driven through several towns and cruelly whipped on entering each … Eliakim Wardell - Historical records and family trees ... https://www.myheritage.com/names/eliakim_wardell

Eliakim Wardell was born on month day 1634, at birth place, Massachusetts, to Thomas Wardwell and Elizabeth Wardell (born Woodoffe). Thomas was born in 1602, in Alford, Lincolnshire, England. Elizabeth was born in 1610, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England

http://www.monmouthbeachlife.com/mb-history/eliakim-wardell-monmout...