Somerset County, New Jersey in the 1760s

Work

Wheat county

The most telling fact is that wheat was the staple crop¹, grown on rich improved land¹. Much of the county’s surplus moved as flour down the Raritan to New York¹.

Faith

Dutch and English churches

Religious life was not one thing: the county had five Low Dutch Reformed, three English Presbyterian, one Dutch Lutheran, and one Baptist house of worship¹. In 1766, Six Mile Run Reformed Church replaced its earlier building⁷.

Law & power

Court at Somerset Court House

County power gathered at Somerset Court House, the county seat from 1738 to 1784². Taxes reached households through systems visible in Somerset County tax ratables beginning in 1768⁸.

In the air

Empire under argument

People here lived through the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767, measures that made Parliament’s authority a practical question. The debate arrived into a county already tied to markets, courts, and paper money.

What people feared

Slavery and punishment

The county’s labor world included enslaved Black people⁵. Older residents could remember that a slave revolt had been foiled in Somerset County in 1734⁶, a sign of both resistance and white fear.

Money

Paper, barter, labor

Cash was not the only way to settle accounts: a merchant account-book records goods bought by cash, barter, or working off debts¹⁰. New Jersey paper money circulated in this decade through issues dated 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, and 1764⁹.

Who lived here

Low Dutch roots

A 1765 account emphasized that Somerset had been early settled by the Low Dutch and a few others¹. The mix of churches shows Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Baptist communities rather than a single religious culture.

Roads & news

Roads to markets

News and strangers moved along the roads through Somerset Court House’s crossing of routes to Princeton, West Jersey, and New Brunswick². River commerce connected the county outward through nearby Raritan Landing, the head of navigation for ocean-going vessels⁴.

Year by year

1. 1760Bernards Township existed by the opening of the decade, and Lord Stirling’s inherited land lay there after his return. here³
2. 1763Lord Stirling’s “Buildings” at Basking Ridge were underway or newly made as a conspicuous elite estate. here³
3. 1763The Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War, leaving Britain with new debts and a larger North American empire. the world
4. 1764New Jersey issued paper money dated April 16, 1764, part of the currency people used in local accounts. here⁹
5. 1765The Stamp Act made imperial taxation a subject of argument across the colonies, including royal New Jersey. the country
6. 1766Six Mile Run Reformed Church replaced its earlier building in Franklin Township. here⁷
7. 1767The Townshend duties renewed colonial anger over Parliament’s power to tax imports. the country
8. 1768Somerset County tax ratables survive from this year, fixing local households within a documentary tax system. here⁸

What the sources say

• Somerset was a county-level place by this period: it had been divided from Middlesex by proprietary law in 1688, with later boundary changes in 1709, 1713, and 1741. from the sources¹
• Because the place is known only as Somerset County, this description is county-wide rather than village-specific. inferred
• A 1765 provincial history described Somerset’s land as rich, early settled by industrious Low Dutch and others, and much improved. from the sources¹
• The same 1765 account said wheat was the staple of Somerset County and was raised in large quantities. from the sources¹
• Somerset farmers sent flour down the Raritan River to New York, according to the 1765 provincial history. from the sources¹
• In 1765 Somerset County had three English Presbyterian houses of worship, five Low Dutch Reformed houses, one Dutch Lutheran house, and one Baptist house. from the sources¹
• The 1765 account named Bound Brook as a village in Somerset County. from the sources¹
• The county seat in the 1760s was the village then called Somerset Court House, later Millstone, which served as county seat from 1738 to 1784. from the sources²
• Somerset Court House stood at the crossing of two important colonial roads: one between north Jersey and Princeton, and another between West Jersey and New Brunswick. from the sources²
• At Basking Ridge, William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, was building a country seat in the early 1760s; a county account dates “The Buildings” to about 1763. from the sources³
• Bernards Township was newly chartered in this decade: Lord Stirling’s estate lay in the recently chartered township after his 1761 return to America. from the sources³
• Near the county’s river trade, Raritan Landing in Middlesex County was the farthest upstream point that ocean-going vessels could reach on the Raritan and stored agricultural goods and lumber for shipment. from the sources⁴
• Enslaved Black people lived and worked in Somerset County; New Jersey’s Black population was concentrated unevenly, with about 75 percent of enslaved people in Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Hunterdon, Somerset, and Monmouth during much of the slavery period. from the sources⁵
• A foiled 1734 slave revolt in Somerset County remained within living memory for older residents of the 1760s. from the sources⁶
• The Six Mile Run Reformed Church congregation had a new building in 1766, replacing an earlier one on the same site in Franklin Township. from the sources⁷
• A New Jersey State Archives guide identifies surviving Somerset County tax ratables beginning in 1768, showing that county residents were being enumerated for taxation before the Revolution. from the sources⁸
• New Jersey issued paper money during the 1760s, including issues dated April 12, 1760; April 23, 1761; April 8, 1762; December 31, 1763; and April 16, 1764. from the sources⁹
• A local merchant account-book connected with Somerset County land listed rum, salt, pepper, molasses, wheat, stockings, buckles, and nails among ordinary goods bought by cash, barter, or labor. from the sources¹⁰
• The Rocky Hill copper mines lay in Somerset County, but a 1765 account called the nearby copper mine “not yet very profitable.” from the sources¹
• No detailed online description found in this quick search gives the appearance of ordinary Somerset County farmhouses specifically in the 1760s. not known
• No opened source gives 1760s Somerset County wage rates or bread prices, so money can be described by currency and store-account practice but not by a secure local price list. not known
• As a British royal colony in the 1760s, New Jersey residents lived under imperial measures such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767. inferred

Sources

1. The Colonial History of New Jersey. Library of Congress scan, 1765
2. Borough of Millstone Master Plan. Borough of Millstone, 2005
3. Lord Stirling Manor Archaeological Site. Somerset County, New Jersey, 2025
4. Rediscovering Raritan Landing: An Adventure in New Jersey Archaeology. New Jersey Department of Transportation, 2010
5. A Short History of African Americans in New Jersey. New Jersey Historical Commission
6. Slavery and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century New Jersey. African American Intellectual History Society, 2023
7. Six Mile Run Reformed Church. Wikipedia
8. New Jersey State Archives: Tax Ratables (Duplicates), 1768–1846. New Jersey State Archives, 2022
9. New Jersey Colonial Currency Note Values & Prices. Greysheet
10. Guide to the Andrew Leake Merchant Account Book, 1756–1766. New Jersey Historical Society

Somerset County in other decades

Nearby, about the same time