By Henry M. Holden                          

Until the mid-17th century, the Lenni Lenape Native Americans, an Algonquian-speaking tribe, were the main inhabitants of what later would be called New Jersey. Initially, there was little conflict between the Lenape and Europeans. Dutch and Swedish colonists prioritized trade over land acquisition, and this was good because the Lenape wanted European goods.

At the time the first Europeans arrived, it is estimated that approximately 10,000 Lenni Lenape lived in New Jersey. Like many Woodlands Natives, the Lenni Lenape lived in riverside villages where they planted fields, hunted, fished, and engaged in trade with other tribes. Their villages stretched across New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York, with an estimated 3,000 in New Jersey.

The Delaware Tribe, originally called the Lenape, meaning “The People” in their Algonquian language, inhabited the eastern woodlands of North America, including present-day Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of New York, Connecticut, and Maryland. 

The discovery of North America came to be appreciated by the nations of Europe. The ownership was seen as a great national prize, and there were several nations who were anxious to win the prize. This new country, approached by the Delaware, became attractive not only to kings and sovereigns, but to settlers and immigrants. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden granted a charter to a company called the West India Company, was formed for the purpose of making settlements on the shores of the Delaware Bay and River, and commissioned them to take possession of this country, without the slightest regard to what the English sovereign and Dutch sovereigns had granted to their subjects.

The Delaware were respected as the “Grandfather” tribe, serving as peacemakers among other tribes while also demonstrating ferocity in warfare when necessary. They viewed land as belonging to the Creator and considered treaties with Europeans more like leases, sharing land generously with settlers.  

The tribe signed the first treaty with the United States on September 17, 1778, but were gradually forced to cede their lands and migrate westward to Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and eventually Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)

The Swedes came to Delaware Bay. They stopped and then, of course, they sailed up the Delaware, when things soon began to be very bad between themselves and the Dutch, who were there before them.

 European settlers named them “Delaware” after the Delaware River, which was itself named for Thomas West, Baron De La Warr, the governor of the Jamestown colony . The Lenape were among the first Native Americans to interact with Dutch, English, and Swedish settlers in the early 1600s

The Swedes were warlike people, and they held their ground very well. Besides making some settlements, they built a fort which they called Elsinburgh; and, if a Dutch ship happened to pass by that fort, it was obliged to strike its flag in token of submission to a superior power.

The Natives, who were as much opposed to the Swedish settlement as they had been to those of other nations, do not appear to have been able to attack this fort with any success; and the Dutch, it is not certain that they even tried. So, the Swedes at that time governed the passage up and down the Delaware, as the English once govern the passage through the Straits of Gibraltar.

It was probably wintertime or at least cool weather when the Swedes built their fort on the banks of the river which they now renamed “New Swedeland Stream;”

But  when the warm and pleasant days came, it was easy to travel from the interior to the river shore. When the weather was so mild that it was quite possible to spend the nights in the woods without injury, there came an enemy to Fort Elsinburgh which proved far more formidable than the Natives or Dutch.

The fort was surrounded; and frequent and violent attacks were made upon it, especially in the night, when it was almost impossible for the garrison to defend themselves. Many bloody hand-to-hand combats took place in which the enemy generally fell, for in bodily prowess a Swede was always superior to any one of the attacking forces.

No matter how many assailants were killed, the main body seemed as powerful and determined as ever. In course of time the  Swedes were obliged to give way before their enemy. They struck their flag, evacuated the fort, and move on entirely from the place where they had hoped a thriving settlement would spring up under the protection of their fort.

The enemy which attacked and routed the Swedes was a large and invincible army of mosquitoes, against whom their guns, pistols, swords, spears, and their ramparts offered them no defense. After that, the deserted fort was known as Mygenborg, meaning Mosquito Fort.

The Dutch looked doubtfully and with great disfavor on the Swedes, who continued to establish themselves at various points; and although they did not make an alliance with the body of natives who had driven these northern people away from Elsinburgh. a compact of that kind would be dangerous in many ways, they took up the matter by themselves; and finally the Dutch, under Peter Stuyvesant, completely conquered the Swedes, and sent their leaders to Holland, while the ordinary settlers submitted to the Dutch.

But this state of things did not last very long. The English, who, although they had not yet settled in New Jersey, had never given up their affectations as the original discoverers, came in strong force, subdued the Dutch, occupied their principal town, of New Amsterdam, and took possession of the country, including New Jersey.

But it seemed to be a good deal easier to discover New Jersey than finally to settle its ownership. Now that the Dutch and the Swedes were disposed of, there arose troubles regarding the English claims to the State. Early in the seventeenth century, Queen Elizabeth had granted an immense tract of land to Sir Walter Raleigh, which was called Virginia, and that included the whole of New Jersey. Afterwards Charles II, granted to his brother, the Duke of York, an immense tract of land, which also included New Jersey, and which was called New York. So, what is now New Jersey was then at the same time both Virginia and New York.

The Duke of York, who then owned this land, leased the whole State lands, forests, rivers, wigwams, people, fisheries, Dutch settlers, Swedish settlers, and everything, to John Berkeley (Baron of Stratton) and Sir George Carteret for the sum of twenty nobles per year (about forty dollars today). Some authorities claim the sum paid was much smaller.

After a time, however, the claims of Virginia were withdrawn; and not only did Berkeley and Carteret enjoy undisturbed possession of the State, but they gave it a name, and called it Nova Cæsaria, or New Jersey, its name because of Carteret’s connection with the Isle of Jersey. The Latin name was used for a time; but the settlers preferred English, and so the name now stands. New Jersey was soon afterwards divided into two provinces,—East Jersey and West Jersey. A line of division between the two provinces, was made in 1676. It ran from the southern end of what is now Long Beach, in Little Egg Harbor, to a point on the Delaware River. Two other lines of partition were afterwards made, both starting from the same point on the seacoast; one running somewhat to the west, and the other to the east, of the original line.

After some changes in the proprietorship of the Colony, West Jersey came into the possession of twelve men, one of whom was the celebrated William Penn, whose connection with West Jersey began six years before he had anything to do with Pennsylvania.

Penn and his colleagues gave West Jersey a purely democratic government, founded upon principles of justice and charity, in which the people themselves ruled. Full freedom in religious views was ensured; trial by jury was granted; and punishments were made as lenient as possible, with a view to the prevention of crimes rather than the infliction of penalties. The result of this was that for a long time there were no serious crimes in this Province, and the country was rapidly settled by thrifty Quakers anxious to live where they would have liberty of conscience.

In 1701, the proprietors proposed terms for turning East and West Jersey over to the Crown. Key aspects of this proposal included relinquishing all government rights, designating Perth Amboy, Burlington, and Cohansey as free ports, and unifying New Jersey as a single colony with an elective assembly.

In 1702, the West Jersey Society and the government of East Jersey turned political control over to the Crown merging East Jersey and West Jersey into a single colony known as New Jersey. From that merger has evolved the unofficial North Jersey and South Jersey.