Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1730s

Work

River farms and roads

The best-documented work world is the Delaware corridor, where settlement followed the Upper Delaware Valley^3,7 and Old Mine Road^6,7. Farming, hauling, land clearing, and river-valley exchange are safer to imagine here than town trades, because the region was still sparsely populated¹.

Faith

A Dutch church frontier

A local Reformed Dutch record begins on August 23, 1737⁵, and the church stood about eight miles below Port Jervis⁵. Before that local base, the wider Minisink country looked to Kingston, New York, for church authority and records^5,8.

Law & power

Government was far away

The place was not yet Sussex but part of Hunterdon County^1,2, then shifted into Morris County in 1739². Later petitions for Sussex County complained that travel to county government and courts was inconvenient¹.

In the air

Who owned the land?

The sharpest public arguments were about land: colonial New Jersey was tangled with proprietor claims, deeds, surveys, and quit-rents^11,12. In East Jersey, proprietors kept quit-rent accounts and land-right defenses¹¹, so a farm could sit inside a paper war.

Home & table

Sparse households, few details

This was a sparsely populated¹ frontier rather than a village county. No detailed online description survives here of ordinary houses, barns, meals, or clothing for the 1730s.

Money

No local price list

Money obligations included land payments, surveys, and possibly quit-rents and title^11,12 claims. But no reliable local list has been found for grain, cloth, labor, tools, or livestock prices in the future Sussex County in the 1730s.

Who lived here

Munsee, Dutch, Huguenot

The valley was first Munsee Lenape homeland⁷. Early European families included Dutch and French Huguenot settlers^1,10 moving down from the Hudson River world.

Roads & news

Kingston felt nearer

News and strangers came along Old Mine Road^6,7 and the Delaware corridor. The Kittatinny Ridge³ helped make the Upper Delaware Valley feel more connected to southern New York than to eastern New Jersey.

Year by year

1. 1731Walpack was recorded as Walpake in Hunterdon County on October 26, 1731. here^1,4
2. 1732George Washington was born in Virginia, an event no one here could know would matter, but later colonists would hear his name constantly. the country
3. 1733James Oglethorpe founded Georgia as a new British colony on the southern frontier. the country
4. 1735John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel in New York, a case that would be talked about wherever colonial newspapers and politics reached. nearby
5. 1737The Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church record began for the congregation of Menissing. here⁵
6. 1738William Ennes came to the Delaware Valley and became remembered as a schoolteacher of the Minisink region. here⁹
7. 1739Morris County was created, moving this northwestern frontier out of Hunterdon County. here²
8. 1739War of Jenkins’ Ear began between Britain and Spain, a war colonists could hear about through imperial news and shipping reports. the world

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Sussex County did not yet exist in the 1730s; the area that would become Sussex was then part of Hunterdon County until Morris County was created in 1739 and Sussex County in 1753. from the sources^1,2
• The Minisink area of the Upper Delaware was a Munsee Lenape homeland before and during European settlement. from the sources⁷
• The most clearly documented early European settlement in what became Sussex County lay along the Upper Delaware Valley rather than across the whole modern county. from the sources^3,7
• Walpack was already a named civil unit by October 26, 1731, when it was mentioned as Walpake in Hunterdon County. from the sources^1,4
• Old Mine Road followed the Delaware-side settlement corridor and connected the Minisink country toward Kingston, New York, and the Delaware Water Gap. from the sources^6,7
• Local tradition links Old Mine Road to seventeenth-century Dutch copper traffic, but the National Park Service describes the exact early history of the Pahaquarry mines and road as not absolutely clear. from the sources⁷
• Northwestern New Jersey was still sparsely populated in this period; by the 1750s only a few large precincts or townships organized the region. from the sources¹
• The Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church record begins on August 23, 1737, for the congregation of Menissing. from the sources⁵
• The Minisink church stood about eight miles below Port Jervis on Old Mine Road, in the present township of Montague. from the sources⁵
• Before a local Minisink church was organized, many Dutch Reformed settlers in the wider Minisink country relied on Kingston, New York, for church authority and records. from the sources^5,8
• William Ennes came to the Delaware Valley in 1738 and is remembered in local histories as a schoolteacher of the Minisink region. from the sources⁹
• Early European families in the Minisink Valley included Dutch and French Huguenot settlers moving from colonial New York’s Hudson River region. from the sources^1,10
• Across colonial New Jersey, landholding was tangled with proprietor claims, deeds, surveys, and quit-rents, and northern New Jersey had especially complex East Jersey and West Jersey land records. from the sources^11,12
• In East Jersey, proprietors’ quit-rent accounts and land-right defenses remained active record types into the colonial period before 1741. from the sources¹¹
• Morris County was created on March 15, 1739, taking this frontier area out of Hunterdon County near the end of the decade. from the sources²
• The area’s later residents petitioned for a separate Sussex County because travel to county government and courts was inconvenient. from the sources¹
• Colonial New Jersey’s voting and officeholding were tied to property; later constitutional language preserved a £50 clear-estate voter qualification rooted in colonial practice. from the sources¹³
• The Kittatinny Ridge made the Upper Delaware Valley more closely tied in movement and trade to southern New York than to eastern New Jersey. from the sources³
• No detailed online description has been found of ordinary houses, barns, meals, or clothing in the future Sussex County specifically during the 1730s. not known
• No reliable local price list for grain, cloth, labor, tools, or livestock in the future Sussex County in the 1730s was found online. not known

Sources

1. History of Sussex County, New Jersey. Wikipedia
2. Sussex County, New Jersey. Wikipedia
3. Cultural and Historic Resources of Sussex County. Sussex County, New Jersey
4. Walpack, N.J.. Sussex County, New Jersey
5. Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church Records, 1716–1830, Vol. V. LDSGenealogy, 1913
6. Maps of the Minisink Region. Minisink Valley Historical Society
7. New Jersey/Pennsylvania: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. National Park Service
8. Minisink. FamilySearch Memories
9. William Ennes House, Old Mine Road, Hainesville New Jersey. Historic Structures
10. Minisink. Wikipedia
11. Using the Records of the East and West Jersey Proprietors. New Jersey State Archives
12. New Jersey at 350 — A Short History of Colonial New Jersey Land Records. Genealogical Society of Bergen County, 2014
13. Documentary Treasures: New Jersey State Constitutions — 1776 State Constitution. New Jersey State Archives, 1776

Sussex County in other decades

Nearby, about the same time