New Jersey Legacy: The Two New Jerseys

In 1664, after the English conquered New Netherland, King Charles II granted the former Dutch territories as a proprietary colony to his brother James, Duke of York, who later became King James II. The Duke divided the colony into New York and New Jersey, reserving New York for himself as the “Duke’s province” and giving New Jersey to his friends John, Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret. Berkeley and Carteret eventually sold their shares to other investors, called proprietors, resulting in the division in 1676 of the colony into East and West Jersey.

From the outset of the grant from the Duke of York to Berkeley and Carteret, jurisdictional disputes arose between New York and New Jersey. Before he learned about the gift to Berkeley and Carteret, Governor Richard Nicolls of New York made land grants in New Jersey to some New Englanders, causing a confusion of land titles that lasted into the eighteenth century. There was also a question of whether the grant to Berkeley and Carteret included the right to govern, which led to the arrest of Governor Philip Carteret of East Jersey and John Fenwick of Salem by a later New York governor, Sir Edmund Andros.

During this period the population of New Jersey diversified. Besides Europeans, there were Native–Americans, who were the original settlers, and African–Americans, who first were brought into the colony by the Dutch. To this racial diversity was added ethnic and religious diversity. In addition to the Dutch, Swedish, and Finnish, there were English and Scottish settlers. Among the religious denominations there were the Dutch Reformed, Puritans, Quakers, and Anglicans. In East Jersey resentment accompanied the passing of power from the English Puritans in Newark and Elizabeth to the Scottish Presbyterians in Perth Amboy. In West Jersey, the Quakers resented the growing influence of the Anglicans. Finally, the proprietors of both East and West Jersey gave up their efforts to govern this disorderly, heterogeneous society. In 1702, they petitioned the crown to take over the colony, while retaining their rights to the land. This brought to an end the period of the two New Jerseys.

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https://nj.gov/state/historical/asset...