# Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1680s

> A new West Jersey Quaker creek settlement stood beside Lenape country, provincial experiment, and cleared farm beginnings.

- Place: Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey (40.117, -74.647)
- Years: 1680 to 1689
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1680s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Chesterfield%2C%20Burlington%20County%2C%20New%20Jersey%2C%20British%20America&at=40.1170,-74.6470&year=1685

## Looking around

You stand by Crosswicks Creek[4][1], the watercourse that gives the place one of its names. The settlement is still young: Quaker immigrants began arriving here in 1677[1][2], and much of the land around it remains a place long known to Unami Lenni Lenape people[1][3]. The European houses are better imagined as scattered starts than as a town, because no online source gives a surviving street-by-street description of Chesterfield’s houses in the 1680s. Somewhere near the creek is land associated with Friends worship: Friends were meeting here by 1684[6], and their monthly meeting was organized in 1688[1][6]. The road outward leads toward Burlington, the West Jersey capital from 1681[7][8], while the legal world around you is new enough that Chesterfield Township was formed on November 6, 1688[1][2].

## Work: Clearing creekside farms

The daily economy is not described in a local 1680s account, but ordinary work here would have centered on clearing land, raising grain and livestock, maintaining fences, and moving produce toward creek and river transport. The creek mattered because the settlement stood along Crosswicks Creek[4][1].

## Faith: Friends shape the calendar

By August 1684, Friends were meeting for worship at the home of Francis Davenport[6]. Their institution became more formal when Crosswicks, or Chesterfield, Monthly Meeting of Friends was founded in 1688[1][6].

## Law & power: Quaker law experiment

Local people lived inside West Jersey’s new proprietary government, where the governor and council were not supposed to make laws without the consent of the General Assembly[12]. The promised protections were unusually broad: trial by twelve neighborhood men[11] and liberty of conscience in religious matters[10][11].

## In the air: Conscience and authority

The arguments of the day were not only local land questions but the shape of liberty itself, because West Jersey’s 1677 Concessions and Agreements protected liberty of conscience[10][11]. The colony also insisted that laws required the consent of the General Assembly[12].

## Home & table: Houses poorly recorded

The built scene is hard to recover: no online source found in this search gives a surviving street-by-street description of Chesterfield’s houses, barns, fences, or fields in the 1680s. What is clear is that European settlement began in 1677[1][2] and was still new.

## Money: No local price book

No reliable local price list, wage table, tax roll, or probate inventory specifically for Chesterfield in the 1680s was found online in this quick search. Trade outward ran through the provincial port system, since vessels bound for West Jersey had to enter and clear at Burlington after April 1, 1682[8].

## Who lived here: Lenape and English Quakers

This was not empty land: the area was inhabited by Unami Lenni Lenape people[1][3]. The newcomers were largely English Friends, and many early Quaker settlers here are described as coming from Derbyshire, England[1].

## Roads & news: Burlington carries news

Provincial news came through Burlington, because Burlington became the capital of West Jersey in 1681[7][8] and the West Jersey Assembly first met there in November 1681[8][9]. Shipping news also gathered there after vessels bound for West Jersey had to enter and clear at Burlington[8].

## Year by year

- **1677** (here): Quaker immigrants began settling the Chesterfield area along Crosswicks Creek.[1][2]
- **1681** (nearby): Burlington became the capital of West Jersey.[7][8]
- **1681** (nearby): The West Jersey Assembly first met at Burlington and began passing provincial laws.[8][9]
- **1682** (nearby): Vessels bound for West Jersey were required to enter and clear at Burlington after April 1.[8]
- **1684** (here): Friends were meeting for worship at Francis Davenport’s house at Chesterfield.[6]
- **1686** (here): A deed referred to Crosswicksum Creek and an Indian town on its banks.[4]
- **1688** (here): Chesterfield Township was formed on November 6.[1][2]
- **1688** (the world): William and Mary replaced James II in England’s Glorious Revolution, news that would have mattered across English America.

## What the sources say

- European settlement at present Chesterfield began in 1677, when Quaker immigrants fleeing religious persecution in England arrived in the township area. (from the sources)[1][2]
- Before and during early English settlement, the area was inhabited by Unami Lenni Lenape people, and local accounts say the first settlers shared the area with Lenape residents. (from the sources)[1][3]
- The settlement stood along Crosswicks Creek, a Delaware River tributary and an important local boundary and route. (from the sources)[4][1]
- A deed dated January 14, 1686 referred to the “small river called Crosswicksum” and to an Indian town on its banks. (from the sources)[4]
- The name Crosswicks comes from a Lenape-language form often given as Crossweeksung, meaning “separation” or “house of separation.” (from the sources)[4][5]
- By August 1684, Friends were meeting for worship at the home of Francis Davenport at Chesterfield, also called Crosswicks in later accounts. (from the sources)[6]
- Crosswicks, or Chesterfield, Monthly Meeting of Friends was founded in 1688. (from the sources)[1][6]
- Chesterfield Township was formed on November 6, 1688. (from the sources)[1][2]
- Many early Quaker settlers here are described by township sources as coming from Derbyshire, England, the home county associated with the Earl of Chesterfield. (from the sources)[1]
- No online source found in this search gives a surviving street-by-street description of Chesterfield’s houses, barns, fences, or fields in the 1680s. (not known)
- Burlington became the capital, or chief town, of West New Jersey in 1681. (from the sources)[7][8]
- The West Jersey Assembly first met at Burlington in November 1681 and passed provincial laws for the new colony. (from the sources)[8][9]
- West Jersey’s 1677 Concessions and Agreements protected liberty of conscience in religious matters. (from the sources)[10][11]
- The same West Jersey frame of government required trial by twelve neighborhood men before a person could be deprived of life, liberty, estate, or privilege. (from the sources)[11]
- In West Jersey, the governor and council were not supposed to make laws without the consent of the General Assembly. (from the sources)[12]
- A West Jersey law of 1681 required vessels bound for West Jersey to enter and clear at Burlington after April 1, 1682. (from the sources)[8]
- Alice Fulwood’s 1686 request to Chesterfield Monthly Meeting for permission to marry a non-Quaker shows that non-Quaker settlers were present locally by that year. (from the sources)[6]
- In July 1686, the Chesterfield Friends organized what one local church history calls their first local charity. (from the sources)[6]
- As across early West Jersey farming settlements, ordinary work here would have centered on clearing land, raising grain and livestock, maintaining fences, and moving produce toward creek and river transport. (inferred)
- No reliable local price list, wage table, tax roll, or probate inventory specifically for Chesterfield in the 1680s was found online in this quick search. (not known)
- No source opened here gives the number of inhabitants in Chesterfield in the 1680s. (not known)

## Sources

1. Environmental Resource Inventory: Chesterfield Township, Chapter 2 Brief Township History. Chesterfield Township, 2026. https://www.chesterfieldtwpnj.gov/media/5836
2. Historical Information. Chesterfield Township Historical Society. https://www.chesterfieldtwphistoricalsoc.org/historical-information.html
3. Crosswicks Community House History. Crosswicks Community House. https://www.crosswickscommunityhouse.org/history.html
4. Beyond Manhattan: A Gazetteer of Delaware Indian History Reflected in Modern-Day Place Names. New York State Museum, 2019. https://nysm.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/nysmrecord-vol5-1.pdf
5. Design Guide History: Chesterfield Township. Chesterfield Township Historical Society. https://www.chesterfieldtwphistoricalsoc.org/uploads/7/5/3/5/7535659/designguide_history.pdf
6. Churches of Trenton and Vicinity. Trenton Historical Society, 1929. https://www.trentonhistory.org/His/churches.html
7. Part V – West Jersey’s Earliest Settlements. New Jersey State Archives, 2014. https://nj.gov/state/archives/pdf/proprietors.pdf
8. West New Jersey in 1681. Goodspeed Histories, 2009. https://goodspeedhistories.com/west-new-jersey-in-1681/
9. Leaming and Spicer: Grants and Concessions. Rutgers School of Law. https://njlaw.rutgers.edu/statutes/LS.php
10. Introduction to the 1677 Concessions and Agreements. West Jersey History Project. https://www.westjersey.org/ca_intro.htm
11. 1677 West Jersey Concessions—Chapters XVI through XXIV. New Jersey Historical Commission, 2014. https://www.nj.gov/state/historical/assets/pdf/it-happened-here/ihhnj-er-west-jersey.pdf
12. Province of West New-Jersey, in America, November 25, 1681. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 1681. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nj08.asp

## The same place in other decades

- [Chesterfield in the 1720s](https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1720s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/skippack-township-montgomery-county-pennsylvania/1710s/md) (65 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-11 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1680s", https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1680s