Guinea  Town  is  another  hamlet  wholly  inhab-
ited by  colored  people.  It  is  located  on  the  Black-
wood turnpike,  on  the  sand-hills  near  Beaver
Branch,  and  was  formerly  more  populous  than  at
present.  The  village  site  was  a  part  of  the  Hugg
estate,  and  the  first  houses  built  belonged  to  the
former  slaves  of  that  family,  who  were  settlers  here
under  the  provisions  of  an  act,  which  required
owners  of  negroes  to  provide  homes  for  them  and
to  prevent  them  from  becoming  a  public  charge.
Some  of  the  inhabitants  of  Guinea  Town  were
Cubit  Waterford,  Archibald  Farmer,  Daniel  Wil-
liamson, Daniel  Stevens,  Edward  Jackson,  Thomas
Quann  and  the  Still  family,  who  had  been  slaves
of  persons  living  near.  The  last-named  claimed
royal  descent,  their  ancestor  being  a  prince  in  the
direct  line,  when  he  was  captured  in  Guinea  and
brought  to  America  as  a  slave.  The  Stills  were
superior,  both  in  stature  and  mental  endowments,
and  after  their  removal  some  of  them  became
prominent  in  the  learned  professions.
The  soil  at  Guinea  Town  being  unproductive,
many  of  the  inhabitants  removed,  after  living
there  a  few  years,  and  the  hamlet  decreased  in  size
until  but  a  few  houses  remained  of  what  was  quite
a  large  settlement  about  1805.
Incidents  of  the  Revolution. — Along  Great
Timber  Creek,  landings  were  established  at  con-


venient points,  where  considerable  business  was
transacted  before  railways  afforded  more  expedi-
tious transportation.  The  landing  at  Clements
Bridge  has  a  Revolutionary  interest  attaching  to
it.  On  the  24th  of  October,  1777,  the  Hessian
troops,  twelve  hundred  strong,  crossed  here  on
their  retreat  from  the  battle-field  of  Red  Bank.
