In 1810 the population of Newark was 6000; in 1836, when the town became a city, it was 19,732; in 1840 it was 17,290, shortly after which began a stream of immigration which has continued almost uninterruptedly since. In 1850 the population had more than doubled, reaching 38,894; in 1860 it was 71,941, having again almost doubled; during the next decade, including the period of the civil war, it increased to 105,059, and it has since grown in like ratio, being 136,508 in 1880. This had risen to 145,000 (estimated) in 1883. In 1880 there were 17,628 persons of German, 13,451 of Irish, 4478 of English, and 1090 of Scotch birth, together with Italians, French, Swedes, Swiss, and other nationalities in numbers which bring the total of foreign-born population up to 40,330. Those of German and Irish birth, together with their children (minors) born within the United States, constitute fully three-fifths of the entire population.
History.—On or about May 17, 1666—the exact date cannot be determined—there anchored in the Passaic river, opposite what is now Newark, a small vessel from Milford, Connecticut, having on board a company of thirty persons, Puritans, who had come to form a new settlement in the New Jersey wilderness. Before the landing was completed, the Hackensack Indians demanded compensation from the new comers, which they finally received. The price then paid for the land upon which Newark and the adjacent towns and villages of Essex county are built being “fifty double hands of powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty axes, twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, ten swords, four blankets, four barrels of beer, ten pairs of breeches, fifty knives, twenty horses, eighteen hundred and fifty fathoms of wampum, two ankers of liquor (or something equivalent), and three troopers’ coats.” Subsequently another vessel arrived from Connecticut containing a somewhat larger party, but both together numbered, all told, less than seventy persons. Their chief desire was to establish a community whose spiritual and temporal affairs would be controlled and directed “according to God and a godly government.” Their pastor was Abraham Pierson, originally from Newark-on-Trent, in whose honour the name of the settlement was changed from Milford to Newark. The town was laid out in lots, and everything was ordered and governed mainly according to Mosaic law. The foremost among the settlers was Captain Robert Treat, a brave, resolute, wise, and kindly man, who, after remaining long enough to see the new settlement fairly established, returned to Connecticut, and became governor of the colony. He had previously been deputy-governor for thirty-two years. The dream of Pierson and his Puritan followers was not realized. Before many years the Mosaic bars had to be removed one by one, and gradually the townspeople broadened their ideas of government. But even to this day, despite the cosmopolitan character of the population, the old Puritan leaven is still at work, largely leavening the whole lump.
The first occurrence of special interest in the history of the town after its settlement was a schism in the old church. Colonel Josiah Ogden, a rich and influential member, and a man of strong individuality, saved his wheat one dry Sunday, in a wet season. He maintained that it was a work of necessity; the church declared it to be a violation of God’s law. The immediate result was the withdrawal of Ogden and his followers, and the founding of the first Episcopal or Church of England Society in Newark,—Trinity Church. The affair led also to an exacerbating controversy which lasted from 1734 until long after the Revolutionary war which closed in 1783. Newark was, from 1748 to 1756, the seat of the college of New Jersey, thereafter permanently established at Princeton, founded by the Rev. Aaron Burr, father of the more celebrated American of the same name; the latter was born in Newark. During the war of independence, the great majority of the thousand inhabitants of Newark sided with the Americans; the town suffered severely from the ravages of the British and marauding parties of American loyalists; on the other hand the American revolutionists drove out all loyalists, and confiscated their property. After the war, manufactures began to prosper, and have continued to do so ever since. At one time chair-making was carried on extensively, and it is stated that among those who worked at it in Newark was the famous Talleyrand.
NEWARK, a city of the United States, capital of Licking county, Ohio, is situated on the Licking river and on the Ohio and Erie Canal, and is 33 miles from Columbus by the railway to Pittsburg. It is a flourishing agricultural and industrial centre, with extensive railway shops, foundries, and manufactories of glass, paper, steam-engines, and agricultural implements; and sandstone quarries and coal-mines are worked in the neighbourhood. Some of the most extensive and interesting of the earth-work remains of the prehistoric inhabitants of North America are found here. The population was 3654 in 1850, 6698 in 1870, and 9602 in 1880.
NEWARK, David Leslie, Lord (1601–1682), a celebrated Scottish military character during the civil war, was born in 1601, the fifth son of Patrick Leslie of Pitcairley, commendator of Lindores, and Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of the first earl of Orkney. In his early life he served in the armies of Gustavus Adolphus, where he rose to the rank of colonel of horse. On his return he was appointed major-general in the army that was sent into England under the earl of Leven to assist the Parliament. This army engaged the Royalists under Prince Rupert at Marston Moor, and totally defeated them, in July 1644. When Scotland after the battle of Kilsyth was at the mercy of Montrose and his army, Leslie was recalled from England in 1645, and made lieutenant-general of horse. In September he defeated Montrose at Philiphaugh near Selkirk, with great loss, and was rewarded by the committee of estates for this service with a present of 50,000 merks and a gold chain. He completely suppressed the civil war in Scotland in 1647, was declared lieutenant-general of the forces, and, in addition to his pay as colonel, had a pension of £1000 a month settled on him. Leslie then returned to England, and was present at the siege of Newark. On his return to Scotland he reduced several of the Highland clans that supported the cause of the king. In 1649 he purchased the lands of Abercrombie and St Monance, Fifeshire. In 1650 he was sent against Montrose, whom he made prisoner; and on the resignation of the earl of Leven he was appointed to the chief command of the army raised on behalf of Charles II. He baffled the forces of Cromwell, who was then invading Scotland, by shutting him up in Dunbar, and would have cut off his whole army, but, yielding to the advice of the church and state committee, he rashly left his commanding position on the Doon Hill, and was signally defeated on the 3d September 1650. After various skirmishes Leslie afterwards accompanied Charles to Worcester, where he was lieutenant-general under the king, who commanded in person. On the defeat of the royal army, Leslie, intercepted in his retreat through Yorkshire, was committed to the Tower, where he remained till the Restoration in 1660. He was fined £4000 by Cromwell’s “Act of Grace” in 1654. He was in 1661 created Lord Newark, and received a pension of £500 per annum. He died in 1682. The title became extinct in 1790.
