The sixth installment (paragraph) of the Sesqui-Centennial Address of Sussex County given by Justice Francis J. Swayze on 2 Sep 1903 and printed by the Sussex Independent newspaper.... " THE LAND SYSTEM Sometimes quit rents were reserved, but these soon disappeared. The system afterwards changed but the policy of making grants of land in fee simple to actual settlers was continued. By this fortunate policy the land came to belong to actual cultivators. Gradually larger tracts taken up by the Proprietors themselves were divided, and sold in farms of proper size, but a considerable quantity of land continued to be held in large blocks even into the nineteenth century. The general policy that was adopted is indicated by the course which was taken with 2,500 acres of land on part of which the town of Newton now stands. This land had originally been taken up by the Penns; it became Jonathan HAMPTON's; soon after Hampton's death, and in 1783 and subsequent years, this land was conveyed by Hampton's trustees to different persons in lots of varying size. It would have been quite impossible in such a state of society as existed in the colonies for the Proprietors to retain title to their lands and hold the actual settlers merely as tenants. Such a procedure would not only have stiffled the growth of the colony, but would have rendered the lands unproductive to the Proprietors themselves and might have led eventually to such conflicts as later occurred in New York between the landlords claiming the rights of the old Dutch patroons and the settlers' unwillingness to pay such rents almost led to a civil war. Fortunately, a wiser policy was pursued in this state than that pursued by the patroons in New York. The settlers had difficulties enough to contend with in their struggle to effect a settlement in the wilderness. Trees had to felled, the ground broken up, roads and bridges built, while wolves and panthers were near to despoil the farmer of his flocks." Sounds like a good move on the Proprietors' part, eh? Cathy DiPietro listowner NJSussex-L