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NEW JERSEY.
SETTLEMENT.—The present State of New Jersey was embraced in the territory of New Netherland, and the Dutch made settlements at several places near New York. Soon after New Netherland passed into the hands of the Duke of York, he gave the land between the Hudson and the Delaware to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. In 1664, a company from Long Island and New England settled at Elizabethtown, which they named after Carteret's wife. This was the first permanent English settlement in the State.
[Footnote: This tract was called New Jersey in honor of Carteret, who had been governor of Jersey island in the English Channel.]
EAST AND WEST JERSEY.—Lord Berkeley sold his share to some English
Quakers. This part was called West Jersey. A company of Quakers soon
settled at Burlington. Others followed, and thus West Jersey became a
Quaker colony. Sir George Carteret's portion was called East Jersey.
After his death it was sold to William Penn and eleven other Quakers.
[Footnote: It was settled, however, largely by Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians. The latter having refused to accept the English form of religion, had been bitterly persecuted. Fleming their native country they found an asylum in this favored land.]
NEW JERSEY UNITED.—Constant disputes arose out of the land titles. Among so many proprietors the tenants hardly knew from whom to obtain their titles for land. The proprietors finally (1702) surrendered their rights of government to the English crown, and the whole of New Jersey was united with New York under one governor, but with a separate assembly. Thirty-six years after, at the earnest request of the people, New Jersey was set apart as a distinct royal province.
PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE.
SETTLEMENT.—The first permanent settlement in Delaware was made (1638) by the Swedes, on a tract which they called New Sweden, lying near Wilmington. They also made the first settlement in Pennsylvania, a few miles below Philadelphia. The Dutch subsequently conquered these settlements, but they continued to prosper long after the Swedish and Dutch rule had yielded to the constantly growing English power.
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a celebrated English Quaker, He obtained from Charles II. a grant of the land lying west of the Delaware.