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History of New Jersey: Early Colonization

by Tyler Shen Thaplook

The new world was truly interesting to the old world. In the early fifteen hundreds with the first European explorer that explored what is now ‘New Jersey’. His name was Giovanni de Verranzano and he landed just off modern day ‘Sandy Hook.’ The colony that would become New Jersey was created after Henry Hudson sailed to the modern day ‘Newark Bay’ in the more recent year of 1609. Mr. Hudson claimed the land in the name of the Dutch, despite himself being British, originally calling it ‘New Netherlands’. Later small trading sites appeared in towns of modern ‘Hoboken’, ‘Bergen’ and ‘Jersey City’ in 1660. The first citizens of the colony were derived from the Dutch, Swedes, and Finns. Four years later the Dutch lost control of New Netherlands and the British took ownership of the colony. The land was than divided and given to Sir George Carteret who took charge of the East side of the colony, and Lord John Berkley who had claim to the West side. The land was then deemed ‘New Jersey’ after the ‘Isle of Jersey’ within the English Channel. The name was potentially changed due to Sir George Carteret being governor of the Isle. The two later sold their land combined at a low price to settlers in search of political and religious freedoms leading to a grand array of diverse citizens of nearly a hundred thousand. The governing power was eventually given back to England and for many years New Jersey shared a ‘royal governor’ with New York. To then have a split in governorship in the year 1783 gaining their own governor ‘Lewis Morris’.