2. The territory of New Jersey was included in the grant made to the duke of York. In 1664 that portion of the province lying between the Hudson and the Delaware, extending as far north as forty-one degrees and forty minutes, was assigned to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Just after the conquest, a company of Puritans received a grant of land on Newark Bay. The Indian titles were purchased; in the following October a village was begun and named Elizabethtown.
3. In August of 1665 Philip Carteret arrived as governor. Elizabethtown was made the capital of the colony; Newark was founded; flourishing hamlets appeared on the shores of the bay as far south as Sandy Hook. In honor of Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the Isle of Jersey, his American domain was named New Jersey. In 1668 the first assembly convened at Elizabethtown. The representatives were Puritans, and the laws of New England were repeated in the legislation of the colony.
4. After the conquest of New York by the Dutch, and the restoration of the province to England, the duke of York received from the king a second patent for the country between the Connecticut and the Delaware. At the same time he confirmed his former grant of New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret. But soon afterwards Sir Edmund Andros was appointed royal governor of the whole country. Carteret defended his claim against Andros; but Berkeley sold his interest in New Jersey to John Fenwick, to be held in trust for Edward Byllinge, who after a time made an assignment of his property to Gawen Laurie, Nicholas Lucas, and William Penn.
Division of New Jersey.
5. These men were Quakers. Here, then, was an opportunity to establish an asylum for the persecuted Friends. Penn and his associates applied to Sir George Carteret for a division of the province. It was accordingly agreed to divide New Jersey so that Carteret's district should be separated from that of the Quakers. The line of division was drawn from the southern point of land on the east side of Little Egg Harbor to a point on the Delaware in the latitude of forty-one degrees and forty minutes. The territory lying east of this line remained to Sir George as sole proprietor, and was named East Jersey; while that portion lying between the line and the Delaware was called West Jersey, and passed under the control of Penn.
Middle Colonies.
6. Early in the following March the Quaker proprietors published a code of laws called The Concessions. The constitution rivaled the charter of Connecticut in the liberality of its principles. The authors of the instrument then addressed the Quakers of England, recommending the province and inviting immigration. Before the end of the year a colony of more than four hundred Friends found homes in West Jersey. An effort was now made by the proprietors of East Jersey to secure a deed of release from the duke of York. The petition was granted, and the whole territory was freed from foreign authority.
7. In November of 1681 Jennings, the deputy-governor of West Jersey, convened the first general assembly. The Quakers now met together to make their own laws. The Concessions were reaffirmed. Men of all races and religions were declared to be equal. Imprisonment for debt was forbidden. The sale of ardent spirits to the Red men was prohibited. Taxes should be voted by the representatives of the people. The lands of the Indians should be acquired by purchase. Finally, a criminal might be pardoned by the person against whom the offense was committed.
Quakers purchase East Jersey.