European colonization of New Jersey started soon after the 1609 exploration of its coast and bays by Henry Hudson. Dutch and Swedish colonists settled parts of the present-day state as New Netherland and New Sweden.
In 1664, the entire area, surrendered by the Dutch to England, gained its current name. With the Treaty of Westminster in 1674, London formally gained control of the region; it retained that control until the American Revolution.
The original people of the region of some 13,000 years left behind advanced hunting implements such as bows and arrows and evidence of an agricultural society. The region has probably been continually inhabited from that time as other tribes migrated to the area. At the time of the European colonization, the area of the Lenape, which they called Scheyichbi[1] (see: Unami language), encompassed the valleys of the lower Hudson River and the Delaware River, and the area in between, what is now known as the U.S. state of New Jersey; exonyms given to the different groups by the colonizing population were taken from geographic names of Original Peoples' settlements that included the Hackensack tribe, the Tappan tribe, and the Acquackanonk tribe in the northeast, the Raritan tribe, and the Navesink tribe in the center.
A map from c. 1639, Manhattan situated on the North Rivier, with numbered key showing settlements: 27. Farm of Van Vorst; 28. v (sic): 29. Farm of Evertsen; 30. Plantation at Lacher's Hook; 31. Plantation at Paulus Hook; 32. Plantation of Maerytensen on west bank of North River.The relative location of the New Netherland and New Sweden colonies in modern-day New Jersey
Dutch settlement in the seventeenth century concentrated along the banks of the North River and the Upper New York Bay, though they maintained factories along the Delaware River as well. Although the Lenape did not recognize the European principle of land ownership, Dutch policy required formal purchase of all land settled.[2] The settlement grew slowly, impeded by Willem Kieft's mismanagement.[3] In 1658, the last Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, "re-purchased" the entire peninsula known as Bergen Neck, and in 1661 granted a charter to the village at Bergen, establishing the oldest municipality in the state.[4]
New Sweden, founded in 1638, rose to its height under governor Johan Björnsson Printz (1643–1653). Led by Printz, the settlement extended as far north as Fort Christina (on both sides of the Delaware River).[5] He helped to improve the military and commercial status of the colony by constructing Fort Nya Elfsborg, which is now near Salem, on the east side of the Delaware River. Swedesboro and Bridgeport were founded as part of the colony.[6] In 1655, the Dutch asserted control over the territory.[7]
Italian navigator John Cabot left England in 1496 to explore North America. The English claimed that New Netherland was part of Cabot's discoveries, prior to Hudson. Insisting that John Cabot had been the first to discover North America, the English granted the land that now encompasses New Jersey, who ordered ColonelRichard Nicolls to take over the area.[8] In September 1664, an English fleet under the command of Richard Nicolls sailed into what is now New York Harbor and under threat of attack, forced the provisional surrender of the colony by the Dutch. The English received little resistance due to West India Company's decision not to garrison the colony. Nicolls took the position of deputy-governor of New Amsterdam and the rest of New Netherland, guaranteeing colonists' property rights, laws of inheritance, and the enjoyment of religious freedom.
Within six years, the nations were again at war, and in August 1673 the Dutch recaptured New Netherland with a fleet of 21 ships. Nevertheless, in November 1674, the Dutch Treaty of Westminster concluded the war and ceded New Netherland to the English.[9]
The two proprietors of New Jersey attempted to entice more settlers to move to New Jersey by granting sections of lands to settlers and by passing the Concession and Agreement, a document granting religious freedom to all inhabitants of New Jersey; under the British Church of England there was no such religious freedom. In return for land, settlers paid annual fees known as quitrents. Land grants made in connection to the importation of slaves were another enticement for settlers.[12]Philip Carteret was appointed by the two proprietors as the first governor of New Jersey. Philip Carteret designated Bergen as the first capital of the colony.[13] However, it became difficult for the two proprietors to collect the quitrents. As a result, on March 18, 1673, Berkeley sold his share of New Jersey to two Quakers, Edward Billinge and John Fenwick, who quarreled over the purchase and Quakers brought in William Penn to resolve the dispute without having to resort to court (as Quakers tried to resolve such issues among themselves).[14][15][16]
The original West and East New Jersey provinces, highlighted in yellow and green, respectively. The Keith Line is shown in red, and the Coxe and Barclay line is shown in orange.
With this sale, New Jersey was divided into East Jersey and West Jersey, two distinct provinces of the proprietary colony.[17] William Penn was heavily involved in drawing up the West Jersey Concessions in 1676. This set out a structure of government and a legal framework. It was signed by 31 signatories in America and 150 more in Great Britain. Although never fully enacted, a number of its elements subsequently became core features of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.[18] The political division between the two colonies existed for the 26 years between 1678 and 1712. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often a matter of dispute, as was the border with New York.
The border between the two sides reached the Atlantic Ocean to the north of Atlantic City. The border line was created by George Keith, and can still be seen in the county boundaries between Monmouth and Burlington/Mercer Counties; Burlington and Ocean Counties; and Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, reaching upward to a point on the Delaware River which is just north of the Delaware Water Gap. The border was often disputed, so with the 1676 Quintipartite Deed more accurate surveys and maps were made to resolve property disputes. This resulted in the Thornton line, drawn around 1696, and the Lawrence line, drawn around 1743, which was adopted as the final line for legal purposes.
Religion
New Jersey was very diverse religiously during the colonial period.[19]
Seaville Meeting House in SeavilleTrenton Meeting House in Trenton
Quakers first settled in what is now Monmouth County as early as 1664. They established the first Quaker meeting in Shrewsbury, now Little Silver, in 1665. A meeting house built in 1672 was visited by George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, the same year. This meeting house was replaced by the present meeting house in 1816. Much of West Jersey was settled by Quakers who established congregations and founded towns throughout colonial-era New Jersey, including the eponymous Quakertown in 1744. Colonial-era meeting houses built in New Jersey include:
In 1804, New Jersey enacted a law providing for the gradual abolition of slavery. With the passage of this law, all states north of the "Mason–Dixon line" (the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania) had abolished or provided for the gradual abolition of slavery within their boundaries.[49]
Many major battles were fought in New Jersey during the American Revolution, making it pivotal in the ultimate victory of the American colonists. The important role earned it the titles of "Crossroads of the Revolution" and the "Capital of the Revolution".
↑ Ruttenber, E.M. (2001). Indian Tribes of Hudson's River (3rd ed.). Hope Farm Press. ISBN0-910746-98-2.
↑ Shorto, Russell (2004) The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Colony that Shaped America (New York: Random House) ISBN1-4000-7867-9.
↑ Shorto, Russell (2004). The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the stupid Colony that Shaped America (New York: Random House) ISBN1-4000-7867-9.
↑ Murphy, Andrew R. (2019). William Penn: a life. New York, NY. pp.114–5. ISBN9780190234249.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Murphy, Andrew R. (2019). William Penn: a life. New York, NY. pp.117–8. ISBN9780190234249.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Lucas Litchenberg, De Nieuwe Wereld van Peter Stuyvesant: Nederlandse voetsporen in de Verenigde Staten, ISBN90-5018-426-X, NUGI 470, Uitgeverij Balans, 1999
↑ Arthur Zilversmit, "Liberty and Property: New Jersey and the Abolition of Slavery," New Jersey History, Dec. 1970, Vol. 88 Issue 4, pp. 215-226.
↑ There has been a school at the northeast corner of Bergen Square since 1664. See "Walking Tour of the Bergen Square". Archived from the original on 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2009-08-03. On the northeast corner of Bergen Square stands P.S. 11 (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School). In 1664 the first schoolhouse was built on this lot. From 1790 to 1857 the Columbia Academy stood here until it was replaced by the first of three public schools.
Other sources
Ward, Christopher L. The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609-64 (University of Pennsylvania. 1930)
Leiby, A. C. The Early Dutch and Swedish Settlers of New Jersey (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co. 1964)
Peter Stuyvesant was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was split into New York and New Jersey with lesser territory becoming parts of other colonies, and later, states. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city.
New Netherland was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic located on the east coast of what is now the United States of America. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
West Jersey and East Jersey were two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. The political division existed for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often a matter of dispute.
The Province of East Jersey, along with the Province of West Jersey, between 1674 and 1702 in accordance with the Quintipartite Deed, were two distinct political divisions of the Province of New Jersey, which became the U.S. state of New Jersey. The two provinces were amalgamated in 1702. East Jersey's capital was located at Perth Amboy. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often a matter of dispute.
The Middle Colonies were a subset of the Thirteen Colonies in British America, located between the New England Colonies and the Southern Colonies. Along with the Chesapeake Colonies, this area now roughly makes up the Mid-Atlantic states.
The Raritan are two groups of Lenape people who lived around the lower Raritan River and the Raritan Bay, in what is now northeastern New Jersey, in the 16th century.
The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1776. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherland but came under English rule after the surrender of Fort Amsterdam in 1664, becoming a proprietary colony. The English renamed the province after the island of Jersey in the English Channel. The Dutch Republic reasserted control for a brief period in 1673–1674. After that it consisted of two political divisions, East Jersey and West Jersey, until they were united as a royal colony in 1702. The original boundaries of the province were slightly larger than the current state, extending into a part of the present state of New York, until the border was finalized in 1773.
The Delaware Colony, officially known as the three "Lower Counties on the Delaware", was a semiautonomous region of the proprietary Province of Pennsylvania and a de facto British colony in North America. Although not royally sanctioned, Delaware consisted of the three counties on the west bank of the Delaware River Bay. In the early 17th century, the area was inhabited by Lenape and possibly Assateague Native American Indian tribes. The first European settlers were Swedes, who established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, in 1638. The Dutch captured the colony in 1655 and annexed it to New Netherland to the north. Great Britain subsequently took control of it from the Dutch in 1664. In 1682, William Penn, the Quaker proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania to the north leased the three lower counties on the Delaware River from James, the Duke of York, who went on to become King James II.
Philip Carteret; French: Philippe de Carteret; (1639–1682) was the first Governor of New Jersey as an English proprietary colony, from 1665 to 1673 and governor of East New Jersey from 1674 to 1682.
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the seventeenth-century province of New Netherland in what would become the present Hudson County, New Jersey.
Vriessendael was a patroonship on the west bank of the Hudson River in New Netherland, the seventeenth century North American colonial province of the Dutch Empire. The homestead or plantation was located on a tract of about 500 acres (2.0 km2) about an hour's walk north of Communipaw at today's Edgewater. It has also been known as Tappan, which referred to the wider region of the New Jersey Palisades, rising above the river on both sides of the New York/New Jersey state line, and to the indigenous people who lived there and were part of wider group known as Lenape. It was established in 1640 by David Pietersen de Vries, a Dutch sea captain, explorer, and trader who had also established settlements at the Zwaanendael Colony and on Staten Island. The name can roughly be translated as De Vries' Valley. De Vries also owned flatlands along the Hackensack River, in the area named by the Dutch settlers Achter Col. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 in reprisal for the slaughter of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek Native Americans who had taken refuge at Pavonia and Corlears Hook. The patroon's relatively good relations with the Lenape prevented the murder of the plantation's residents, who were able to seek sanctuary in the main house, and later flee to New Amsterdam. The incident was one of the first of many to take place during Kieft's War, a series of often bloody conflicts with bands of Lenape, who had united in face of attacks ordered by the Director of New Netherland.
Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.
Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape, a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.
Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near Liberty State Park Station through the neighborhoods of Bergen-Lafayette and the West Side that then becomes the Lincoln Highway. Communipaw Junction, or simply The Junction, is an intersection where Communipaw, Summit Avenue, Garfield Avenue, and Grand Street meet, and where the toll house for the Bergen Point Plank Road was situated. Communipaw Cove at Upper New York Bay, is part of the 36-acre (150,000 m2) state nature preserve in the park and one of the few remaining tidal salt marshes in the Hudson River estuary.
New Netherland was the 17th century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America. The claimed territory was the land from the Delmarva Peninsula to southern Cape Cod. The settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, with small outposts in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Its capital of New Amsterdam was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan on the Upper New York Bay.
New Netherlanders were residents of New Netherland, the seventeenth-century colonial outpost of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America, centered on the Hudson River and New York Bay, and in the Delaware Valley.
The English Neighborhood was the colonial-era name for the towns in eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, along the Hudson Palisades between the Hudson River and the Hackensack River, particularly around its main tributary, Overpeck Creek. The region had been part of the Dutch New Netherland colony of Bergen, whose main town was located at Bergen Square in modern Jersey City. The name refers to the geography of the region, bergen being the Dutch word for hills. Earlier attempts at settlement at Achter Col and Vriessendael had been compromised in conflicts with the precolonial population, bands of the Lenape known by their exonyms, the Hackensacks and the Tappans.
The situation of the Catholic Church in the Thirteen Colonies was characterized by an extensive religious persecution originating from Protestant sects, which would barely allow religious toleration to Catholics living on American territory. Nonetheless, Catholics were a part of colonial history from the beginning, especially in Maryland, a colony founded by Catholics, and Rhode Island, a colony founded explicitly for religious toleration. The situation was complicated greatly by the evolving role of the English Crown, which acted as both Supreme Governor of the Church of England and the Head of State of the thirteen colonial governments in almost all periods of colonial rule.
John Berry was an English colonist who migrated from Barbados to become an early major landowner, militia officer and Deputy Governor under the Lords Proprietor of the Proprietary Colony of New Jersey.
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