The History of New Jersey is more generally peaceful from its incipience than neighboring New York and Pennsylvania and involves in its history the settlement of Swedes, Dutch and English. Giovanni da Verrazano was the first to explore the coast of New Jersey in 1524 for France.  In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the  Hudson River and claimed [ more northern]  New Jersey and New York for the Dutch.  In 1614, Cornelius May discovered the Delaware River  but in 1603 the Swedes  had established themselves on  the Delaware Bay  at the site of present Wilmington, Delaware [Fort Christina]  from which they established farms and small settlements involving New Jersey  [ Fort Elfsborg, near present-day Salem in New  Jersey] , Penna, Delaware and Maryland. Swedish fur traders began settling southern New Jersey in 1638, but were quickly forced out of the area by the Dutch.⁵New Sweden crumbled to the dutch in 1657. ^{footnote 1}

In the early 1660s, Dutch settlers involved with New  Netherlands began moving south into New Jersey, establishing settlements of Bergen (now Jersey City), and Hackensack in Bergen County, New Jersey. At this time Bergen, or Jersey City, was also part of Bergen County. The settlements were small and grew along the waterways¹The New Jersey colony  took form with English occupation of the region. In 1664 Charles II granted New Jersey to his brother James, Duke of York who the  same year, " disposed of the  province to two of his friends, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and it was  named in honor of the latter, who had been governor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel. "² Soon after 1664 " a permanent settler of record appeared on the site of Burlington: one Pierre Jegou, of French or Dutch blood, who built a tavern at Lisch Point (Water-lily Point) on the mainland to accommodate travelers journeying between New England and the Virginia settlements.
In 1672, Quaker mystic George Fox crossed New Jersey with Indian guides. Hearing that Jegou had been driven away from his tavern by natives of the nearby tribal towns, and finding the place  empty, Fox related that 'we got us some fire and stayed there... and the next day swam our horses to an  island called Upper Tennedonk, and over the river'...Jegou returned to the tavern, and Fox returned to England " ⁶  - but a few years late 1,000 of his followers would appear.

In 1676 Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret' s land was divided forming two provinces, West and East New Jersey; West New Jersey pertained to Lord Berkley and East New Jersey to Carteret.  Berkley soon conveyed the western division to William Penn and several other proprietors.  Carteret died  in 1680, and two years later his widow Lady Carteret conveyed the eastern division to Penn and others³ via auction in which East Jersey was sold at auction to twelve men, one of whom was William Penn⁴. In 1677 , and just a few years after Quaker mystic George Fox returned to England,  " his Quaker  followers appeared on the Delaware, 1 ,000 strong, coming out of persecution in England in such  sailing ships as the Kent of 1677, the Willing Minde and the Flie-boot Martha of the same year, and the  Shield of 1678. With the Quakers were a number of French Huguenots, escaping violent persecution in France after revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
"These venturesome pioneers founded a government for the Province of West New Jersey, with Burlington as the 'chief-town' or Capital, before the coming of Penn to Pennsylvania.
"The founders divided the Province initially into Tenths rather than Counties. The first two of these, Yorkshire Tenth reaching from "the highroad of Burlington to River Derwent alias Assunpink" to the north, and London Tenth "from the highroad to River Cropwell alias Pensauquin" to the south, formed a basis for the coming County of Burlington.
"By 1690 the settlers had established various "out-plantations" on the Rancocas, Assiscunk, and Pensauken Creeks; being joined on the latter waterway by several Swedish families. Another doughty Swede, Eric Mullica, had long since traversed the wilderness to found a small colony at Lower Bank. "" ⁶
East Jersey, having been sold at acution in 1680 to 12 men, soon advanced in its numbers of proprietors.  "Each of  these twelve men sold half his interest to another man, and thus East Jersey came to have twenty-four proprietors, and they chose Robert  Barclay, a Scotch Quaker, governor for life. Everything went smoothly under their mild government; but this tranquility was soon to end....New Jersey, numbering some seventy-five thousand inhabitants in 1760, was settled almost wholly by English people. A few Dutch, Swedes, and Germans were scattered here and there, but not in such numbers as to affect society. The Quakers occupied the western part, while the eastern portion was settled by emigrants from England, New England, and a few from Scotland and the southern colonies. Almost the entire population  were farmers. The numerous towns were little more than centers of farming communities. The colony was guarded, as it were, on the east and west by the two great colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, and it escaped those peculiar perils of frontier life with which most of the other settlements had to contend. This was doubtless the chief cause of its rapid growth. New Jersey was also singularly free from Indian wars, the people living on the most friendly terms with the red men, with whom they kept up a profitable trade in furs and game. "⁴

---

 
 

Footnote One:

The Swedes named their first Delaware Bay settlement  Fort Christina, and it was  the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley.   " During the next seventeen years, twelve more Swedish expeditions left the homeland for New Sweden. A total of eleven vessels and some 600 Swedes and Finns reached their destination. The colony eventually consisted of farms and small settlements along both banks of the Delaware River into modern Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.....New Sweden rose to its greatest heights during the governorship of Johan Printz (1643-1653). He extended settlement northward from Fort  Christina along both sides of the Delaware River and improved the colony's military and  commercial prospects by building Fort Elfsborg, near present-day Salem on the New  Jersey side of the river, to seal the Delaware  against English and Dutch ships. Despite these steps, the Swedish and Finnish colonists lived peacefully with their Dutch and Lenni Lenape neighbors." www.colonialswedes.com and their Brief History of New Sweden  webpage.

Sources for this Page:
1. On the Trail of Our Ancestors: A Bit of Dutch History by Donna Speer Ristenbatt
2.  www.usahistory, New Jersey Page
3. Early New Denville, New Jersey Webpage
4.   www.usahistory, New Jersey Page
5. New Jersey State History from ThingsToDo.com

6. Historic Bucks County, text by Lloyd E. Griscom

To Top of Page To Our American Ancestors

To Within The Vines Homepage