Individual Details

Religion

Early in the year 1665, Thomas STOKES was seized and cast into Newgate Prison, London because of his adherence to Quaker doctrines. With one hundred and nineteen others he was sentenced to banishment. The Sheriffs were puzzled as to the best means of ridding themselves of those persons who had been doomed to life-long exile. The captains of the ships about to sail for the West Indian plantations refused to transport the Friends overseas because they were "conscious of the men's innocence." Moreover, the plague--regarded by some folk as "a judgement on the Nation for thus persecuting the innocent"--was rapidly depopulating the city.

Thomas STOKES was named as one of thirty-seven men (together with eighteen women) who were part of the second wave of deportations which occurred on the 4th of August 1665. The prisoners were dragged, kicked and punched as they were heaved onto the ship. The ship, Black Spread Eagle, with its cargo of hapless victims finally set sailed from Plymouth, England on the 23rd of February 1666 only to fall victim itself to a Dutch Privateer. The ship was quickly overtaken and sailed to Hoorn in Northern Holland were the prisoners were conveyed to the local jail to await their use as exchange for Dutch prisoners of war being held in England.

Since Charles II had no interest in trading Dutch prisoners for members of a despised religious sect, the Dutch authorities decided to provide the Quakers with passports and shipped them home to England where they would be Charles's problem. Upon reaching England, they discovered that the charges against them had been dropped and they were not rearrested.

It would be another eleven years after his return to England that Thomas STOKES and his wife, Mary BARNARD, would once again travel the high seas. This time, he was heading for religious freedom in America.

Document

Early in the year 1677, Thomas STOKES attached his name to the document known as "The Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of the Province of West New Jersey, in America," thus endorsing a program that was destined to have far-reaching consequences in America's colonial history.