Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

WHEN THE CENTURY WAS NEW 3
1668 there was made " an exact list of all ye inhabitants ' names
within ye town of Flushing and Points of Old and Young Freemen,
white or black." In that list is found "Anthony Badg-
ley, Elizabeth, his wife, Anthony, George, Phebe, their children,
and I negro." Under date of March 3, 1740, Anthony Badgley
petitioned the authorities for a warrant to survey a lot in
Flushing called the Hemp Lot, belonging to him, so as to end
the encroachments of Thomas Hedger and others. He was in
comfortable circumstances, for in 1707 he was one of a company
composed of wealthy men who purchased, through its
agent, Peter Sommans, a large tract of 17,000 acres in New
Jersey, for which it paid the Indians "200 pounds in money
and in goods." This land was 33 miles northwest of Elizabethtown
and called New Britain. July, 171 1, the tax rate for
every inhabitant of Flushing was made out, and Anthony
Badgley 's share was "23 pounds of bacon, 6 bushels of wheat,
I bushel of Indian corn." He was a sergeant in Captain
Jonathan Wright's company of militia in 1715, and probably
died a few years after.
In 191 1 our cousin, Frank Sewell Skinner, wrote me an
interesting letter about the Badgleys. This relative, living in
New York, is a grandson of our great-aunt, Hannah Badgley
Scudder, and therefore, as am I, he is a great-grandchild of
Robert and Rachel Vrieland Badgley. This is a part of his
letter:
"We are traveling home to God in the. way our fathers
trod. Charles Badgley (through whose letter to your brother
William, never sent, I happily learned of you and my valued
friend Rosamond) died January 9, 191 1, at the home of his
niece in Plainfield, N. J., whither he had removed from the old,
old home on the mountain only a few months before, he and
his brother John having sold the dear farm, which I came very
near buying. Appropriately his remains were taken to his
lifetime home, and the services were held in the room where the
first Sunday school in the section was organized. He was in
his eightieth year. John, about ten years younger, is still at
Winans.
"The brothers had one hundred and ten acres of the original