For most of the 17C, Lenape Algonquian people exerted the greatest political & economic control over the country from central New Jersey through eastern Pennsylvania & along the Delaware Bay to its mouth at Cape Henlopen (Sussex County). Led by sachems & councils of elders, they lived in unpalisaded towns & spoke Unami. Over the course of the century, these Lenape natives created with European settlers a distinctive society that valued peace over conflict, religious freedom, collaboration, respect for diverse people, & local authority. Nonetheless, desire for profits led to contention, & native traders shifted among European nations to obtain the quantity & quality of goods they sought. Exchange provided the source of the Lenapes’ power, which they used to provoke colonial rivalries.
Inland, Susquehannock (Minquas) peoples living in fortified villages along the Susquehanna River proved especially determined to maintain independence in the fur trade, & played Swedes, Dutch, & English against each other. A decade of intermittent war with Lenapes between 1626 & 1636 typified the larger contest for control over furs in the North Atlantic world. The outcome earned Susquehannock traders the right to do business in Lenape areas along Delaware Bay & instigated a trade alliance among the groups.
Native Americans & West New Jersey
By Jean R. Soderlund For The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia & Rutgers University HERE
...Between 1674 & 1702, New Jersey was divided in half: The proprietary West New Jersey colony faced the Delaware River while East New Jersey looked toward the Hudson. Although this political division lasted less than 3 decades, it represented long-standing geographical orientations of the Lenape & Munsee native inhabitants & European colonists. Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) reputedly called New Jersey “a barrel tapped at both ends,” a productive countryside exploited by Philadelphia & New York...
Native Americans lived in the Delaware Valley at least 10,000 years before the Dutch, Swedes, Finns, & English arrived in the 17C. The Lenapes, who controlled southern & western New Jersey, lived in autonomous towns along creeks leading to the Delaware River & along the Atlantic coast near Delaware Bay. Some Lenape peoples, such as the Armewamese & Cohanseys, possessed land on both sides of the river in what are now Pennsylvania, Delaware, & New Jersey. Because Lenapes traveled frequently by canoe, they viewed rivers & streams as highways rather than obstacles.
Prior to the founding of West New Jersey in 1674, European population in the region remained sparse. A small Dutch settlement on Matinicum (now Burlington) Island lasted only from 1624 until 1626 when, on a site across the river from current Philadelphia, Dutch traders established Fort Nassau. A group of New Englanders in 1641 obtained the Lenapes’ permission to colonize several Delaware Valley locations, one at Varkens Kill (now Salem Creek). Dutch opposition & disease destroyed the colony; a small remnant of English settlers became part of the population of New Sweden, which existed from 1638 to 1655 primarily on the west bank of the Delaware. The Dutch conquered New Sweden in 1655 & held the Delaware colony until 1664, when English forces of James, Duke of York (1633-1701) took control.
A few Dutch & French colonists moved to southwestern New Jersey in the late 1660s, purchasing land from the Lenapes. A few years later, Swedish & Finnish settlers followed suit, departing from the west bank of the Delaware River in rebellion against English land policies, including assessment of quit-rents & expropriation of common lands.
The Colony of New Jersey, 1664
The English king Charles II (1630-85) initiated the proprietary colony of New Jersey in 1664, when he granted his brother James, Duke of York the rights of proprietorship, including the power to govern & ability to own & sell land. The duke in turn granted New Jersey to Sir John Berkeley (1602-78) & Sir George Carteret (c. 1610-80). In 1674, the proprietorship of New Jersey was divided in half, with Berkeley taking West New Jersey, which he promptly sold to John Fenwick (c. 1618-1683) in trust for Edward Byllynge (c. 1623-1687). When the English Quakers Fenwick & Byllynge quarreled, 3 Quaker trustees, including William Penn (1644-1718), mediated the dispute. Adding to these difficulties, the Duke of York refused to transfer the power to govern West New Jersey to the Quaker proprietors. Complicated financial deals & lawsuits arising from the dispute between Fenwick & Byllynge resulted in 2 initial Quaker settlements in West New Jersey: Salem, founded in 1675, & Burlington in 1677...
The Quaker colonists arrived in southern New Jersey in 1675, entering a country dominated by Lenapes where some Europeans, mostly Swedes, Finns, & Dutch, had settled during the previous decade. Fenwick promptly purchased land from the Lenapes of the region—the Cohanseys—with whom he maintained good relations. Deeds of 1675 & 1676 specified that Fenwick would receive territory, “excepted always … the plantations in which [the natives] now inhabit,” in return for cloth, rum, guns, & other items.
Despite these deeds, Salem’s status remained insecure because Fenwick, as a result of financial difficulties & legal challenges, lacked English title, deeds, & the right to govern. Governor Edmund Andros (1637-1714) of New York, who for the Duke of York until 1680, claimed authority over both banks of the Delaware, jailed Fenwick in New York for 2 extended periods, leaving the land claims of the Salem colonists unclear.
The West New Jersey Concessions
...In 1676, the Quaker trustees & Edward Byllynge implemented plans for settling the other ninety percent of West New Jersey. Byllynge probably drafted the innovative West New Jersey Concessions (1676) that described the process for distributing land, granted religious freedom & trial by jury, & set out a plan for mediation of disputes between Lenapes & Europeans.
The Swedes, Finns, & Lenapes offered the Burlington colonists assistance despite worry about their increasing numbers. The Swedes & Finns provided shelter soon after the Kent arrived & helped the West Jersey commissioners purchase land from the Lenapes. The winter of 1677-78 came before the new settlers could begin constructing Burlington, so they built wigwams like the Lenapes’ & depended upon the natives for corn, vegetables, venison, fish, & fowl. Unfortunately the Burlington colonists brought smallpox that, like earlier epidemics, killed many Lenapes.
Autonomous Communities
During the proprietary period from 1674 to 1702, the West New Jersey colonists organized themselves much like their Lenape neighbors—in autonomous communities governed by local officials, loosely affiliated with neighboring colonial & native settlements..
Although Quakers, including William Penn, founded both West New Jersey & Pennsylvania, the colonies evolved differently in their initial years. In West New Jersey, the continuing power of the Lenapes, smaller European population, & lack of unified leadership in Burlington created more room for local autonomy & intercultural alliances between natives & colonists than in Pennsylvania, where larger numbers of immigrants & a more hierarchical government held sway...
Dissolution of West New Jersey Colony
The proprietary colony of West New Jersey dissolved in 1702, when the proprietors of both East & West New Jersey surrendered their right of government to the English Crown. ...The governor of New York, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury (1661-1723) assumed office as the 1st New Jersey royal governor in 1703.
See:
Dunn, Mary Maples & Richard S. Dunn et al., eds. The Papers of William Penn. Vols. 1 & 2. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981-1982.
Grumet, Robert S. The Munsee Indians: A History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.
Lurie, Maxine N. & Richard Veit, eds. New Jersey: A History of the Garden State. New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2012.
Offutt, William M., Jr. Of “Good Laws” & “Good Men”: Law & Society in the Delaware Valley, 1680-1710. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Pomfret, John E. The Province of West New Jersey 1609-1702: A History of the Origins of an American Colony. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1956.
Purvis, Thomas L. Proprietors, Patronage, & Paper Money: Legislative Politics in New Jersey, 1703-1776. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986.
Reed, H. Clay & George J. Miller, eds. The Burlington Court Book: A Record of Quaker Jurisprudence in West New Jersey 1680-1709. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1944.
Smith, Samuel. The History of New-Jersey, 2d ed. Trenton, N.J.: William S. Sharp, 1877.
Soderlund, Jean R. Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Wacker, Peter O. Land & People: A Cultural Geography of Preindustrial New Jersey: Origins & Settlement Patterns. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1975.
Jean R. Soderlund is a Professor of History Emeritus at Lehigh University. She is author of Lenape Country: Delaware Valley Society Before William Penn (2015) & is currently researching a social history of colonial West Jersey.
