The Montgomery News | Posted November 17, 2025
Land ownership in early colonial times is fascinating. Much of New Jersey was an uncharted, unsurveyed, unsettled wilderness. Property boundaries were bodies of water, trees, and rocks. Many property owners were prosperous absentee investors who had never set foot in New Jersey.
Joseph R. Klett, executive director of the NJ State Archives, will give a presentation titled "Colonial Land Records: When New Jersey was Split in Two" at the Somerset County Library's Montgomery Township branch on Thursday, November 20 at 6 pm. (The library is a co-sponsor).
An old map of "New Jarsey," circa 1677, when the land was divided into West New Jarsey and East New Jarsey. This extremely rare map erroneously depicts New Jersey as an island, with the headwaters of the Walkill River connecting with those of the Delaware.
Courtesy of the NJ Department of State.
In 1664, the King of England, interested in re-establishing English dominance in the area, gave his brother New Netherlands (Cape Cod to Delmarva Peninsula) and his brother, in turn, gave his friends Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley, “...all that tract of land adjacent to New-England, and lying and being to the westward of Long Island and Manhitas Island, and bounded by Hudson’s River, and hath upon the West Delaware Bay or River, and extendth Southward to the Main Ocean as far as Cape-May at the mouth of the Delaware Bay; and to the Northward as far as the Northermost Branch of said Bay or River of Delaware, which is 41 Degrees and 40 Minutes of Latitude, and crosseth over thence in a strait Line to Hudson’s River in 41 Degrees of Latitude; which said Tract of Land is hereafter to be called by the Names or Names of New Ceasarea or New Jersey...” and New Jersey as we know it today (with a few small adjustments) was born.
Soon afterwards, it was divided into the Provinces of East and West Jersey when the Quakers, who had purchased Berkeley’s holdings to create a colony, and Carteret agreed to same. Each province had its own government and governor. It was all done without benefit of a survey. The governors making the decisions had never set foot here. Imagine the room for errors and misunderstandings!
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The unclaimed land and land sales records were maintained by the proprietors – and the proprietors were also the ruling government. That governing part didn't suit them though, so in 1702, they relinquished that role to the British monarch, Queen Anne, while keeping the land part.
The story has continued all these years.
In 1998, the East Jersey Proprietors disbanded, while the West Jersey Proprietors continue to this day (although they finally turned their records over to the State Archives 20 years ago).
Please join us. Register at www.sclsnj.org and direct any questions to Candy Willis at library@vanharlingen.org.
