History & Legends

Mordecai’s Landing was one of the earliest landings on the Mullica River, dating from the early 18th century. There were in fact two landings bearing the name Mordecai. Lower Mordecai Landing was situated a quarter mile above Crowley’s Landing at a bend in the river where Abe Nichols’ tavern stood, while Upper Mordecai Landing was located two meanders upstream. The landings bear the name of Mordecai Andrews, a Quaker of English descent and one of the first white settlers of the Little Egg Harbor area.

Mordecai was born in 1664 in Oyster Bay, Long Island (or, as other records indicate, Sandwich, Cape Cod), the firstborn of eight children. His father, Samuel Andrews, was a shipbuilder, a pioneer, and an early settler of Long Island. His mother, Mary Wright, was a devout and talented minister for the Society of Friends whose preaching once put to open shame Governor Endicott of Massachusetts who had intended to hang several Quakers. Samuel and Mary were married in 1663, five years after a tumultuous time in Mary’s life during which she was imprisoned in Boston for about a year and subsequently banished to the wilderness where she and 27 other prisoners made the treacherous trek from Boston to Oyster Bay where her parents resided.

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Special to The New York Times