Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1730s

Work

Farms, creek, and mill

The best local clues point to farming along Pohatcong Creek⁵ and to a house and mill on John Cook’s former 1,111 acres^1,4. As across rural colonial New Jersey, work likely meant clearing land, fencing, planting grain, tending animals, cutting timber, hauling goods, and using local mills.

Who lived here

Many origins, Lenape land

The township stood on Lenni Lenape land before European settlement^1,4. Local history names early settler backgrounds as English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, German, Dutch, and Welsh⁴, while county history emphasizes Quaker, German, and Scots-Irish settlers landing at Philadelphia².

Law & power

Freeholders and distant courts

Political standing belonged especially to landholding men: Greenwich had enough freeholders to be polled for Assembly representatives in 1738^2,3. Before the county change, Hunterdon court business was held at Trenton⁷, far from the Delaware-Musunconetcong border settlements.

Money

Cash details are missing

No local 1730s wage or price list for Greenwich Township was found online in this search. The economy visible in the records is land, farms, mills, ferries, and movement through a valley between New York and Philadelphia¹⁴.

Roads & news

Letters rode the corridor

No local newspaper served Greenwich: New Jersey did not have its own printed newspaper until 1777¹¹. Wider news moved through the postal road world, where weekly Philadelphia-New York mail¹¹ and Franklin’s 1737 Philadelphia postmastership^12,13 mattered.

Home & table

Houses mostly unrecorded

The search finds settlement and landholding, but no surviving online description fixes the exact appearance of Greenwich Township houses in the 1730s. The known landscape is instead the Delaware and Musconetcong confluence region² and farms along Pohatcong Creek⁵.

What people feared

Law, distance, and bondage

Distance itself was a danger when official business lay at Trenton, the Hunterdon County seat⁷. Human unfreedom was also present in the county world: Hunterdon counted 219 enslaved people in 1737-1738⁶.

In the air

Settlement and county lines

The decade’s public questions included representation, land, roads, ferries, and jurisdiction: the area shifted from Hunterdon to Morris County² and freeholders were polled for Assembly representatives in 1738^2,3.

Year by year

1. 1732Emanuel Coryell bought the Delaware ferry at present Lambertville and petitioned for an exclusive charter. nearby¹⁰
2. 1737Benjamin Franklin became Philadelphia postmaster, linking printing, letters, and intercolonial news more tightly in the region. the country^12,13
3. 1738Greenwich freeholders were polled for Hunterdon County representatives to the New Jersey General Assembly. here^2,3
4. 1738New Jersey’s population count recorded 5,288 white inhabitants and 219 enslaved people in Hunterdon County. nearby⁶
5. 1739Morris County was created from the upper parts of Hunterdon County, moving Greenwich into a new county government. here^8,2
6. 1739War broke out between Britain and Spain in the War of Jenkins’ Ear, a conflict colonists would hear about through imperial news. the world
7. 1741Oxford Furnace was built in the broader future Warren County area, beginning an ironmaking center nearby just after the decade. nearby

What the sources say

• The place now called Greenwich Township, Warren County, did not belong to Warren County in the 1730s, because Warren County was not formed until 1824. from the sources^1,2
• From 1713 to 1738 the area of present Warren County was in Hunterdon County, and from 1738 to 1753 it was in Morris County. from the sources²
• Greenwich was already formed before 1738 and was first mentioned in official documents on October 9, 1738, as part of Hunterdon County. from the sources^1,3
• Greenwich lay at the confluence region of the Delaware and Musconetcong rivers and was described by Warren County history as the gateway for northward migration. from the sources²
• The migrants passing into Greenwich in this period are described locally as Quaker, German, and Scots-Irish settlers landing at Philadelphia. from the sources²
• Local histories say John Cook bought 1,111 acres from the Lenni Lenape in 1677 and built a house and mill on his property. inferred^1,4
• The township history lists early settler backgrounds as English, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, German, Dutch, and Welsh. inferred⁴
• A Warren County genealogical summary says late-seventeenth-century pioneers began farming along Pohatcong Creek. inferred⁵
• The land was originally Lenni Lenape land before European settlement, according to both county and township histories. inferred^1,4
• By October 9, 1738, Greenwich had enough freeholders to be polled for Hunterdon County representatives to the New Jersey General Assembly. from the sources^2,3
• The 1737-1738 New Jersey count recorded Hunterdon County with 5,288 white inhabitants and 219 enslaved people. from the sources⁶
• Trenton became the Hunterdon County seat in 1719, and the colonial governor directed Hunterdon court business to be held there. from the sources⁷
• Morris County was created on March 15, 1739, from the northern and eastern upper parts of Hunterdon County, including the future Warren County area. from the sources^8,2
• The broader Hunterdon region, which then included today’s Morris, Warren, and Sussex areas, nearly doubled in population between 1737 and 1745, reaching 9,151 colonists. from the sources⁹
• In nearby lower Hunterdon, Emanuel Coryell bought the Delaware ferry at present Lambertville in 1732 and sought an exclusive charter from the colonial governor. inferred¹⁰
• Around 1720 the post between Philadelphia and New York left Philadelphia weekly on Friday, passed through Burlington and Perth Amboy, and reached New York on Sunday night. from the sources¹¹
• Benjamin Franklin was appointed Philadelphia postmaster in 1737, putting a well-known printer and newspaper man into the postal network that carried news through the middle colonies. from the sources^12,13
• New Jersey did not have its own printed newspaper until the New Jersey Gazette began on December 5, 1777, so 1730s news here came from outside papers, letters, courts, taverns, churches, and travelers. from the sources¹¹
• The Musconetcong River valley was economically strategic because it lay between the colonial commercial centers of New York and Philadelphia. inferred¹⁴
• No railroad, Morris Canal, or turnpike yet shaped Greenwich in the 1730s; the Morris Canal opened in the early 1830s, long after this decade. from the sources^15,4
• No surviving online description found in this search fixes the exact appearance of Greenwich Township houses in the 1730s. not known
• No local 1730s wage or price list for Greenwich Township was found online in this search. not known
• As across rural colonial New Jersey, most ordinary work would have centered on clearing land, fencing, planting grain, tending animals, cutting timber, hauling goods, and using local mills. inferred

Sources

1. County Municipal Histories: Greenwich Township. Warren County, NJ Heritage
2. Historic Sites Survey / Warren County Historical Context. Warren County, New Jersey
3. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey: Greenwich Township. Genealogy Trails, from James P. Snell, 1881, 1881
4. Township History. Greenwich Township, Warren County
5. Warren County NJGenWeb Project: Municipalities. USGenWeb
6. The Number of People in New-Jersey, taken by Order of Government in 1737-8. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 1738
7. Hunterdon County Postal History. New Jersey Postal History Society
8. History of Morris County, New Jersey, Chapter 2. W. W. Munsell & Co., 1882
9. The Musconetcong River Valley. New Jersey Skylands
10. Lambertville Transportation Chronology. Liberty Historic Railway
11. Outline History. New Jersey Postal History Society
12. Colonial Postal Service. Smithsonian National Postal Museum
13. Colonial Period. United States Postal Inspection Service
14. About the Musconetcong. Musconetcong Watershed Association
15. Warren County Past and Present. Warren County, New Jersey

Greenwich Township in other decades

Nearby, about the same time