Somerset County, New Jersey in the 1740s

Work

Farms, mills, and road work

The main economy is rural: mixed farming, stock-raising, milling, carting, household production, and skilled rural trades. As across inland East Jersey, wheat, rye, corn, hay, livestock, cider, butter, timber, and flour move toward mills and market roads.

Faith

Dutch and Presbyterian calendars

Religious life is not one thing: Dutch Reformed churches were central institutions^5,6, while Presbyterian congregations stood at Basking Ridge, Bound Brook, Kingston, Lamington, and perhaps Peapack⁵. The later Old Dutch Parsonage is absent, because it was not built until 1751⁷.

Law & power

Court at Somerset Courthouse

County authority gathers at Millstone, because the new courthouse and jail stood there in the 1740s^2,4. Power is British, local, and property-weighted: courts, sheriffs, freeholders, and justices operated within imperial law, while enslaved people and most women were outside formal political power.

What people feared

Fire, records, bondage

The county had already lost public memory once: the courthouse and jail burned in 1737 with early county records^2,3. The deeper danger for many Black residents was lifelong coercion, since Somerset was among the counties where most enslaved people in New Jersey were concentrated⁹.

Home & table

Scattered households, poor evidence

The county is broad rather than urban, about 305 square miles¹, so most households are spread through farm neighborhoods. A sharp reconstruction is limited because no house-by-house description of Somerset dwellings in the 1740s was found online here.

Money

Shillings, paper, silver

People reckon obligations in several forms: pounds, shillings, pence, bills of credit, and foreign silver¹³. A Spanish milled dollar had an official ceiling of six shillings¹², though local practice could differ.

Who lived here

Many origins, unequal lives

The older Native ground remains present because Lenape homelands included present-day New Jersey¹¹. Colonial society includes Europeans of Dutch, English, Scots-Irish, and German backgrounds, and also Black residents in a colony where 4,606 Black people were recorded in 1745¹⁰.

Roads & news

Roads, courts, and travelers

Without a local Somerset paper found for the decade, news likely arrived from larger towns, travelers, church networks, courts, taverns, and markets. Court days matter because Millstone, then Somerset Courthouse, was the county seat^2,4.

Year by year

1. 1737The first Somerset courthouse and jail at Six Mile Run burned, destroying early county records. here^2,3
2. 1738A new courthouse and jail were provided at Millstone, then called Somerset Courthouse. here^2,4
3. 1739Lamington Presbyterian congregation was dated by a later historical quarterly to this year. here⁵
4. 1740Peapack may have had a Presbyterian organization, though the same source says little was known of it. here⁵
5. 1745New Jersey recorded 4,606 Black residents in a total population of 61,383. the country¹⁰
6. 1746The College of New Jersey began in Elizabeth with six students. nearby¹¹
7. 1746New Jersey issued another round of colonial paper currency on July 2. the country¹³
8. 1748The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended King George's War, news that would have mattered in a British colony tied to Atlantic war and trade. the world

What the sources say

• Somerset County is an inland north-central New Jersey county of about 305 square miles; because the place is known only at county scale, this description stays broad. from the sources¹
• The county had been established by charter on May 22, 1688, with earlier land conveyances in the area dating to 1651. from the sources¹
• Somerset's first courthouse and jail stood at Six Mile Run, now Franklin Park, but burned in 1737 with early county records. from the sources^2,3
• Provision was made in 1738 for a new courthouse and jail at Millstone, then called Somerset Courthouse, making it the county seat during the 1740s. from the sources^2,4
• Courthouse records for roughly 34 years after the 1738 rebuilding were later lost or destroyed, leaving many details of 1740s county government obscure. from the sources²
• Dutch Reformed churches were central institutions in Somerset's colonial history, and later county histories place the Frelinghuysens and the Raritan Dutch churches among the county's early religious powers. from the sources^5,6
• Presbyterian congregations in Somerset were dated by one historical quarterly to Basking Ridge in 1720, Bound Brook in 1720, Kingston in 1732, Lamington in 1739, and possibly Peapack in 1740. from the sources⁵
• The Old Dutch Parsonage at Somerville was not yet standing in the 1740s; it was built in 1751 for ministers serving the Somerville and Raritan congregations. from the sources⁷
• New Jersey's colonial economy used enslaved labor in agriculture, mining, ironmaking, construction, quarries, transport, log-hauling, and crafts. from the sources⁸
• During much of New Jersey's slavery period, about 75 percent of enslaved people were in Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Hunterdon, Somerset, and Monmouth counties. from the sources⁹
• New Jersey's Black population in 1745 was recorded as 4,606 within a total colonial population of 61,383, or about 7.5 percent. from the sources¹⁰
• The Lenape, often called the Delaware by Europeans, had traditional homelands that included present-day New Jersey. from the sources¹¹
• Colonial New Jersey was under British royal government in the 1740s, so local courts, sheriffs, freeholders, and justices operated within imperial law. inferred
• Voting and officeholding in eighteenth-century New Jersey were tied to property, status, race, sex, and household authority, excluding enslaved people and most women from formal political power. inferred
• Ordinary work in the county was chiefly mixed farming, stock-raising, milling, carting, household production, and skilled rural trades. inferred
• As across inland East Jersey, wheat, rye, corn, hay, livestock, cider, butter, timber, and flour connected farms to local mills and market roads. inferred
• A Spanish milled dollar was officially limited in the colonies to six shillings by a royal proclamation governing foreign silver, though local accounting could vary. from the sources¹²
• New Jersey issued colonial paper currency in 1737 and again on July 2, 1746, so people might reckon debts in pounds, shillings, pence, bills of credit, and foreign silver. from the sources¹³
• The College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, began in Elizabeth in 1746 with six students before moving to Newark and then Princeton. from the sources¹¹
• No surviving online source found here gives a house-by-house description of Somerset County dwellings in the 1740s. not known
• No reliable local price list for Somerset County food, cloth, rent, or wages in the 1740s was found in this quick search. not known
• No local newspaper printed in Somerset County in the 1740s was found in this search; news likely arrived from larger towns, travelers, church networks, courts, taverns, and markets. inferred

Sources

1. County History & Historic Sites. Somerset County, New Jersey
2. Somerset County 1688-1930. Somerset Historical Society / Bernards Township hosted PDF, 1930
3. Centennial History of Somerset County, New Jersey. C. M. Jameson; New Jersey Archive transcription, 1878
4. Byway Driving Tour. Millstone Valley National Scenic Byway
5. Somerset County Historical Quarterly. Somerset County Historical Society / New Jersey State Library, 1912
6. Centennial History of Somerset County, NJ. Genealogy Trails transcription, 1878
7. Old Dutch Parsonage. Wikipedia
8. Building a State of Opportunity. State of New Jersey Wealth Disparity Task Force, 2023
9. A Short History of African Americans in New Jersey. New Jersey Historical Commission
10. History of Slavery in New Jersey. Wikipedia
11. A Short History of New Jersey. State of New Jersey
12. The Colonial History of New Jersey. Library of Congress digitized book
13. New Jersey Colonial Currency Note Values & Prices. Greysheet

Somerset County in other decades

Nearby, about the same time