[Rarebooks] FS: 1792 Jersey Shore Manuscript Artifact

[Ian Brabner]

We can offer today:

(NEW JERSEY – 18TH CENTURY – ENGINEERING)
[Tucker, Ebenezer (1758–1845)]
[New Jersey surveyor’s 1792 manuscript notebook, likely kept by Ebenezer
Tucker (1758–1845), for Land in Ocean County, New Jersey, near Little Egg
Harbor and Manahawkin].

[Ocean County, N. J. 1792]. 4ll. 7½ manuscript pages. Notebook. 6¾ x 4¼
inches. Double wrappers consist of a single printed quarto leaf removed
from a book and folded in 4, left untrimmed, stitched to the manuscript.
The wrappers are from pp9–10 of the 1755 New Jersey Session Laws, per Evans
7500, annotated in ink to recto and verso. Separating along spine and along
bottom edges, some foxing and wear along fore-edge.

A rare surviving manuscript documenting the surveying of New Jersey Shore
beach property in the 18th century.

Early American surveyors, per their professional creed, typically kept
excellent records. Many survived to modern times. However, very few 18th
century manuscripts appear on the market which actually document the
surveying of what is now known to millions of America as “The Jersey Shore.”

The surveys described in this notebook were undertaken from mid-November to
the beginning of December 1792 and are for parcels of land along the
“Jersey shore” near Manehocking [Manahawkin], Barnagat [Barnegat], and
Little Egg Harbour [Harbor].

Other places or roadways mentioned in the surveyor’s notes include Barnagat
Old Road, Shore Road, Logg Creek, Old Hocking Cedar Swamp, Cedar Hummock,
Old Whale Quarters, and Guning River. Houses are also used as reference
points: “Bonet House,” “John Laywood’s House,” and “Carters House.”

The notebook also contains scattered journal entries, e.g.:

December 3d 1792. All the Commissioners mett att [sic] Richard Browns [sic]
& . . . calculated the Distance on the Beach from the Testimony of Joseph
Soper & others in Respect of the Old Whale Quarters which give the line on
the Beach…

A reasonable attribution of this notebook’s authorship would be Ebenezer
Tucker (1758–1845), an active surveyor, a native of Burlington County, who
served in the Revolutionary War under George Washington and at the Battle
of Long Island.¹

In 1791 Ebenezer Tucker would become collector at the Custom House at
Little Egg Harbor, a port of entry for many importations into Gloucester
County from Europe and the West Indies.

An active surveyor, a judge, a postmaster, Ebenezer Tucker was also a
member of the United States Congress during its Nineteenth and Twentieth
sessions. The town of Tuckerton, New Jersey is named in his honor.

1. The manuscript is dated, but not signed or autographed by Ebenezer
Tucker, but is attributed to Tucker based upon its particulars. Notes on
Old Gloucester County, New Jersey. I: 313–314. Cf. Biographical Directory
of the United States Congress online.

$450

IB: 145190 3


Standard courtesy discount to the trade.

Best,
Ian Brabner

Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA-ILAB)
(302) 998-2886  www.RareAmericana.com
PO Box 4900  Wilmington, DE 19808 USA

Member: Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, International
League of Antiquarian Booksellers, Manuscript Society