Name/Title
[FRANKLIN, WILLIAM] A Supplementary Act for Rebuilding Queens BridgeDescription
A manuscript bill of the New Jersey legislature, written in a formal engrossing hand on a single folio sheet. It supplements an earlier act that had empowered named persons to raise money, by subscription or taxation, to rebuild and maintain the bridge over the Raritan River near Bound Brook, known as Queens Bridge. The preamble explains why a second act was needed. The first act had not bound the Board of Justices and Freeholders, and so had not answered its purpose.
The enacting clauses direct the assessors of Somerset County to levy three hundred pounds Proclamation money on the inhabitants, in the same manner and proportion as the provincial taxes. The collectors are to pay it over by the first of January to six named managers: Peter Perine, Benjamin Morgan, Jonathan Smith, Jeremiah Field, Philip French Junior and John Couldtrap. The managers are to build and repair the bridge, and they are made accountable to the Board of Justices and Freeholders for every sum they spend.
The endorsements at the foot record the bill’s passage. The House of Assembly resolved on 11 September 1772 that it pass, signed by Cortlandt Skinner as Speaker. The Council did the same on 15 September, signed by David Ogden. On 26 September William Franklin, royal governor of New Jersey and Benjamin Franklin’s son, wrote below them: “I assent to this Bill, Enacting the same and order it to be Enrolled.” He signed it “Wm. Franklin.”
Franklin was governor from 1762 until the Revolution removed him. This act was signed less than four years before his arrest in 1776. The sheet is folded, with a small loss at the left fold and some toning. Ink from another sheet has offset onto the margin, which suggests it was once pressed against a related document.