The original provinces of West and East Jersey are shown in yellow and green respectively. The Keith Line is shown in red, and the Coxe and Barclay line is shown in orange

1698 map showing West Jersey and Pennsylvania

New Jersey was governed as two distinct provinces, East Jersey and West Jersey, for the 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 Delaware Valley had been inhabited by the Lenape (or Delaware) Indians prior to exploration and settlement starting around 1609 by the Dutch, Swedish and English. Settlement of the West Jersey area by Europeans was thin until the English conquest in 1664.

The Dutch had established one or two Delaware River settlements but by the late 1620s had moved most of their inhabitants to Manhattan which became the center of New Netherland.

The development of the colony of New Sweden in the lower Delaware began in 1638. Most of the Swedish population was on the west side of the Delaware, but after the New Netherland's Fort Nassau was re-established to challenge the Swedes, Ft. Elfsborg was established in present day Salem County. The Dutch defeated New Sweden in 1655.

Beginning in the late 1670s Quakers settled in great numbers first in present day Salem County and then in Burlington which became the capital of West Jersey.

See also

• List of colonial governors of New Jersey

External links

• West Jersey History Project
• Maps
• 1677 Charter
• 1681 Regulations

References

• Weslager, Clinton Alfred, Dutch Explorers, Traders, and Settlers in the Delaware Valley, 1609-1644. (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961).

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