Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1690s: what life was like

Looking around

You stand in a young West Jersey township, formed only in 1688¹ and settled by Quaker immigrants from England’s north and midlands¹. The ground is still broad country: there are no urban places here¹, only farm clearings and the settlement at Crosswicks Creek². On the Quaker tract, six acres given for Friends’ use², a small wooden meeting house² is already the public center. The road underfoot is part of the Old York Road, carrying movement between . Beyond the English farms is the older Native world: West Jersey’s rules still speak of land and of mixed juries when Indians are concerned. Power is partly local and partly distant, because while London investors and proprietors dispute the province. The decade feels unsettled: , and .

Yore

What the sources say

Chesterfield Township was formed in 1688. inferred¹

The land had been settled about 1677 by Quaker immigrants, many from northern and midland England, fleeing persecution by the British Crown. inferred¹

The modern township history describes Chesterfield as lacking urban areas and having main villages rather than a town center; for the 1690s this points to a rural settlement landscape, not a market town. inferred¹

Crosswicks lay in the northern part of Chesterfield Township on Crosswicks Creek. from the sources²

In 1684 six acres were sold to Francis Davenport, a Crosswicks Quaker and New Jersey assemblyman, who gave the land for Quaker use. from the sources²

By 1692 a small wooden meeting house had been built on the Quaker property in Crosswicks. from the sources²

The Old York Road ran through Chesterfield Township. inferred¹

The Old York Road was an early highway running from Burlington to Perth Amboy. inferred¹

The 1677 West Jersey Concessions said commissioners were to divide lands already taken up or contracted for with Native people. from the sources³

West Jersey’s first assembly met at Burlington in 1681, and the West Jersey Assembly was still convening in the 1690s. from the sources⁵

King William’s War with France began in 1689 and ended in 1697, so the whole decade was lived under imperial war news. from the sources⁵

West Jersey’s governorship changed repeatedly in the 1690s: John Tatham replaced Robert Barclay in 1690, Joseph Dudley was appointed in 1691, Andrew Hamilton was elected in 1692, and Jeremiah Basse was appointed in 1697. from the sources⁵

By 1700, more than two-thirds of West Jersey’s population were Quakers, mostly of English or Irish origin. from the sources⁴

The West Jersey Concessions promised seventy acres to a freeman arriving before April 1677 and forty acres to a freeman arriving in the third year after April 1678, with smaller grants for servants and later land for servants after service. from the sources³

The Concessions set quit-rents at one penny halfpenny per acre for land laid out in towns and one penny per acre for land laid out elsewhere. from the sources³

The Concessions required streets in towns and villages to be not under 100 feet wide and reserved land for highways, wharves, quays, harbors, and public houses. from the sources³

The Concessions gave inhabitants liberty to fish in the Delaware River or on the sea coast and to hunt deer, wild beasts, and wild fowl, except on enclosed or planted private land. from the sources³

In trials involving Native people, the Concessions called for six neighborhood jurors and six Native jurors, chosen impartially. from the sources³

The Concessions said no tax, custom, toll, assessment, or duty could be imposed without the inhabitants’ consent through the General Assembly. from the sources³

West Jersey courts and deeds mattered in daily life: the Concessions required deeds, leases, mortgages, bonds, and wills to be recorded in public registers. from the sources³

No online source found in this quick search gives a 1690s house-by-house description of Chesterfield dwellings, barns, fences, or crops. not known

No opened source gives local prices for bread, shoes, cloth, livestock, or day labor in Chesterfield in the 1690s. not known

Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1690s

Looking around

Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1690s

Looking around

Work

Farms, land, and clearing

Faith

Meeting shapes the week

Law & power

Consent and proprietors

In the air

Liberty on paper

What people feared

War at a distance

Home & table

Houses mostly unrecorded

Money

Acres and quit-rents

Roads & news

Road to larger places

Year by year

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

Sources

Chesterfield in other decades

Nearby, about the same time

Did someone of yours live here?