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“According to Thomas Leaming, an early pioneer who died in 1723 aged 49, ‘in the winter of 1713-1714, the county came near being depopulated by a grievous sickness, which carried off between 40 and 50 of the inhabitants. . . . victims were Nicholas Stillwell, Arthur Cresse Senior and Jr., Reuben Swain, Richard Smith, Samuel Garretson, Comeblius (Cornelius?) Hand, Joseph Hewitt, William Shaw, John Reeves, Richard Fortesque, John Stillwell, James Garretson, Return Hand, John Foreman, Jedidiah Hughes, John Matthews, Daniel Wells, and over 20 others.
‘With a population of only two or three hundred, this was a severe epidemic for the county."
I am interested in 1700s to early 1800s Swain, and in the earliest appearance of the first name of Reuben in any family. One or more Langley and Parsons (Pearson?) were also in CM County those years, and in nearby Cumberland (which was part of Salem County until 1747). Also, of what religious faith were these earlier settlers, and were there actual church buildings or did they meet in homes or travel great distances?
Another reader picked up the above excerpt from “Sketch of the Early History of County of Cape May” by Maurice Beesley, 1857, as reprinted in the Cape May Co. Magazine of History and Genealogy, Vol. 8, No. 5, 1985, page 392.
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