A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards Call'd Florida, and by the French La Louisiane: As Also of the Great and Famous ... Lakes of Fresh Water, and the Parts Adjacent
(Excerpt from A Description of the English Province of Car...)
Excerpt from A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards Call'd Florida, and by the French La Louisiane: As Also of the Great and Famous River Meschacebe or Missisipi, the Five Vast Navigable Lakes of Fresh Water, and the Parts Adjacent
O N E of thefe Vellels difiofoer'd the Mouths of the great and famous Kirver Mefchacebe, or, a; term'd by the French, Miffifippi, 62e and offended it above One Hundred Miles, and had perfeéted a Settlement therein, if the Captain of the other Ship had done hhs Duty and not deferted them.' They howfoeoer took Pollefllon of thie Conntry in the King's Name, and left, in fene ral Places, the Arms of great-britain afia'd on Boards and Trees fin a 'memorial thereof.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Colonel Daniel Coxe was an English landowner, politician, and author. He served as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly and as a judge of the Supreme court.
Background
Daniel Coxe was born on August 30, 1673 in London, England. He was the eldest son of Daniel and Rebecca (Coldham) Coxe of London. His father (1640 - 1730) was a member of the Royal Society (March 1664/1665), a doctor of medicine of Cambridge (1669), one of the physicians to Charles II and to Queen Anne, and a writer on chemistry and medicine. Daniel's father acquired interests in West Jersey in 1684 and in East Jersey in 1686 and by purchase of land from the heirs of Governor Billinge he was nominally governor of West Jersey from 1687 to 1692, when he sold the greater part of his proprietary. Dr. Coxe was a large speculator in colonial proprietary rights; by 1698 he had procured the assignment of Sir Robert Heath’s patent to Carolana, which included Norfolk County, Virginia, and the English rights to the Mississippi Valley west of the Carolinas. He agitated many years with partial success for the confirmation of this patent. He conceived the magnificent idea of forming a commonwealth within Carolana, and sent two armed vessels to explore the Mississippi, but, having once abandoned his plan for a settlement there, attempted unsuccessfully to settle a body of Huguenots in Virginia. He collected a large body of documentary information concerning colonial travels and explorations and from these compiled his advertising tracts; in his “Account of New Jersey” he wrote that he had “made greate discoveryes towards the greate Lake and contracted Freinshipp with diverse petty Kings, ” but these events were experienced where they were written—in the quiet of his library in Aldersgate Street.
Career
Daniel Cox came to America to assist his father in 1702 with Lord Cornbury, of whom he was a favorite. Appointed by the latter commander of the forces in West Jersey he was thereafter known as Colonel Coxe. He was recommended in 1702 and again in 1705 for a seat on the Governor’s Council; in 1706, despite the opposition of the Quakers, he was appointed. In the same year he was made one of the associate judges of the supreme court of the province.
When Lord Lovelace became governor of the province in 1708 Coxe was again appointed to the Council. He was unable to get along with the succeeding governor, Hunter, and in 1713 was removed from the Council through Hunter’s influence. Having obtained the Swedish vote in Gloucester County, he was elected to the Assembly in 1714 and again in 1716, when he was chosen speaker. Hunter at once prorogued the Assembly, and when it convened again Coxe and his followers absented themselves in an unsuccessful attempt to obstruct the session. When a majority of the Assembly was finally gathered, Coxe and his friends were expelled and fled to Bristol in Pennsylvania. He returned to London, and his father and his brother Samuel petitioned the Lords of Trade in January and February I7I4 against the renewal of Hunter’s commission, but without success.
While in London in 1722 he published A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisiana also of the great and famous river Meschacebe or Mississippi, composed of the memoirs of traders and explorers collected by his father. This book is chiefly remarkable because in the introduction Coxe sets forth what is believed to be the first printed plan for a political confederation of the North American colonies. He proposed that the colonies “be united under a Legal, Regular, and firm Establishment, ” that a Lieutenant or Supreme Governor be constituted to whom the colonial governors should be subordinate, and that two deputies, elected by the Assembly of each province, should “meet together, consult, and advise for the good of the whole, settle and appoint particular Quotas or Proportions of Money, Men, Provisions that each respective government is to raise for their mutual defense and safety. ”
He returned to New Jersey and in 1725 was a candidate for the Assembly from Burlington. In 1730 he was deputized as “Provincial Grand Master of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Pensilvania” and thus became the first appointed Grand Master of Masons in America. He was again appointed to the supreme court in 1734 as third judge, a position which he held until his death in 1739.
Achievements
Daniel Coxe was known as the largest single shareholder in West New Jersey and as an author of an account entitled "A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida, And by the French La Louisiane. "
