# Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1690s

> A young Quaker farming township stood on Lenape land, tied by creek, road, meeting, deeds, and a troubled proprietary government.

- Place: Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey (40.115, -74.639)
- Years: 1690 to 1699
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1690s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Chesterfield%2C%20Burlington%20County%2C%20New%20Jersey%2C%20United%20States&at=40.1151,-74.6393&year=1695

## Looking around

You stand in a young West Jersey township, formed only in 1688[1] and settled by Quaker immigrants from England’s north and midlands[1]. The ground is still broad country: there are no urban places here[1], only farm clearings and the settlement at Crosswicks Creek[2]. On the Quaker tract, six acres given for Friends’ use[2], a small wooden meeting house[2] is already the public center. The road underfoot is part of the Old York Road[1], carrying movement between Burlington and Perth Amboy[1]. Beyond the English farms is the older Native world: West Jersey’s rules still speak of land contracted for with the natives[3] and of mixed juries when Indians are concerned. Power is partly local and partly distant, because the Assembly meets at Burlington[5] while London investors and proprietors dispute the province. The decade feels unsettled: King William’s War is under way[5], and governors change more than once[5].

## Work: Farms, land, and clearing

The settlement was rural, with no urban places here[1] and land organized through surveys, deeds, and occupation. The legal world behind the fields was exacting: deeds, leases, mortgages, bonds, and wills[3] were to be publicly recorded.

## Faith: Meeting shapes the week

The central institution was the Friends’ meeting on six acres[2] at Crosswicks. By 1692 there was already a small wooden meeting house[2], decades before the brick building now associated with the site.

## Law & power: Consent and proprietors

Local men lived under West Jersey’s Quaker-framed rules, including the principle that no tax, custom, toll, assessment, or duty[3] should be imposed without assembly consent. Yet provincial authority was unstable, with governors change more than once[5] during the decade.

## In the air: Liberty on paper

The big public idea was that settlers’ liberties could be written into government: the Concessions promised jury trial and consent to taxation, and even set rules for six neighborhood jurors and six Native jurors[3] in Native cases.

## What people feared: War at a distance

No opened source describes a battle in Chesterfield in the 1690s, but the decade overlapped King William’s War[5]. News of French, English, and colonial conflict would reach this road-and-creek settlement from larger ports and towns.

## Home & table: Houses mostly unrecorded

The visible domestic world is hard to reconstruct because no online source found gives a house-by-house description for the 1690s. What can be said is that this was not yet a dense town: a rural settlement landscape[1].

## Money: Acres and quit-rents

Land was the chief measure of opportunity: the Concessions offered seventy acres[3] to some early freemen and forty acres[3] to later arrivals. Annual rent was measured by the acre, one penny halfpenny[3] in towns and one penny[3] elsewhere.

## Roads & news: Road to larger places

Chesterfield was not isolated: the Old York Road[1] passed through the township on the way from Burlington to Perth Amboy[1]. Burlington mattered especially because the Assembly meets at Burlington[5].

## Year by year

- **1688** (here): Chesterfield Township was formed as a local civil unit.[1]
- **1689** (the world): King William’s War began, putting English colonies into a wider war with France.[5]
- **1690** (nearby): John Tatham replaced Robert Barclay as governor for the West Jersey proprietors.[5]
- **1692** (here): A small wooden Quaker meeting house stood on the Crosswicks property.[2]
- **1692** (nearby): Andrew Hamilton was elected governor of West Jersey by the Assembly.[5]
- **1697** (the world): King William’s War ended, changing the imperial news reaching West Jersey.[5]
- **1697** (nearby): Jeremiah Basse was appointed governor, one more turn in West Jersey’s unstable proprietary politics.[5]
- **1702** (the country): East and West Jersey surrendered their right of government to the Crown, ending the proprietary political order people here had known.

## What the sources say

- Chesterfield Township was formed in 1688. (inferred)[1]
- The land had been settled about 1677 by Quaker immigrants, many from northern and midland England, fleeing persecution by the British Crown. (inferred)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[1]
- Crosswicks lay in the northern part of Chesterfield Township on Crosswicks Creek. (from the sources)[2]
- 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 sources)[2]
- By 1692 a small wooden meeting house had been built on the Quaker property in Crosswicks. (from the sources)[2]
- The Old York Road ran through Chesterfield Township. (inferred)[1]
- The Old York Road was an early highway running from Burlington to Perth Amboy. (inferred)[1]
- The 1677 West Jersey Concessions said commissioners were to divide lands already taken up or contracted for with Native people. (from the sources)[3]
- West Jersey’s first assembly met at Burlington in 1681, and the West Jersey Assembly was still convening in the 1690s. (from the sources)[5]
- 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 sources)[5]
- 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 sources)[5]
- By 1700, more than two-thirds of West Jersey’s population were Quakers, mostly of English or Irish origin. (from the sources)[4]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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 sources)[3]
- In trials involving Native people, the Concessions called for six neighborhood jurors and six Native jurors, chosen impartially. (from the sources)[3]
- The Concessions said no tax, custom, toll, assessment, or duty could be imposed without the inhabitants’ consent through the General Assembly. (from the sources)[3]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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)

## Sources

1. Historical Information. Chesterfield Township Historical Society, 2024. https://www.chesterfieldtwphistoricalsoc.org/historical-information.html
2. Crosswicks Quaker Friends Meeting House. Crossroads of the American Revolution Association, 2026. https://revolutionarynj.org/sites/crosswicks-quaker-friends-meeting-house/
3. The Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Province of West New-Jersey, in America. West Jersey History Project, 1677. https://www.westjersey.org/ca77.htm
4. South Jersey Heritage: Chapter 2, From Quaker Commonwealth to Crown Colony. West Jersey History Project. https://westjersey.org/sjh/sjh_chap_2.htm
5. West Jersey Chronology. West Jersey History Project, 2016. https://westjersey.org/wj_chron.htm

## The same place in other decades

- [Chesterfield in the 1680s](https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1680s/md)
- [Chesterfield in the 1720s](https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1720s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Staten Island, Richmond County, New York in the 1720s](https://yorehistory.com/place/staten-island-richmond-county-new-york/1720s/md) (65 km)
- [Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/skippack-township-montgomery-county-pennsylvania/1710s/md) (66 km)
- [Flatbush, Kings County, New York in the 1680s](https://yorehistory.com/place/flatbush-kings-county-new-york/1680s/md) (83 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-13 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 1690s", https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1690s