# Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1730s

> A thinly settled Upper Delaware frontier of Munsee homeland, Dutch farms, old roads, disputed land titles, and distant county government.

- Place: Sussex County, New Jersey (41.137, -74.692)
- Years: 1730 to 1739
- Known then as: The future Sussex County
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/sussex-county-new-jersey/1730s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Sussex%20County%2C%20New%20Jersey%2C%20United%20States&at=41.1370,-74.6920&year=1735

## Looking around

You stand in a county that does not yet exist: this is northwestern Hunterdon County[1][2], and the settled strip is mostly along the Upper Delaware Valley[3][7]. Turning west, the river road follows an older native path, the Old Mine Road[6][7], linking farms toward Kingston and the Delaware Water Gap. The land is still sparsely populated[1], with settlement named Walpack Precinct[1][4] rather than Sussex. Around the valley are Dutch and French Huguenot families from colonial New York[1][10], while Munsee presence is older and deeper at Minisink[7]. A church record begins in 1737 at Menissing[5], and until such local institutions harden, families look upriver to Kingston for ministers and records. Eastward the Kittatinny Ridge blocks the Upper Delaware Valley[3] from the rest of New Jersey, so law, deeds, courts, and taxes feel far away. Land itself is not quiet: proprietors, buyers, and settlers argue over quit-rents and title[11][12].

## 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 populated[1].

## Faith: A Dutch church frontier

A local Reformed Dutch record begins on August 23, 1737[5], and the church stood about eight miles below Port Jervis[5]. 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 1739[2]. Later petitions for Sussex County complained that travel to county government and courts was inconvenient[1].

## 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 defenses[11], so a farm could sit inside a paper war.

## Home & table: Sparse households, few details

This was a sparsely populated[1] 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 homeland[7]. 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 Ridge[3] helped make the Upper Delaware Valley feel more connected to southern New York than to eastern New Jersey.

## Year by year

- **1731** (here): Walpack was recorded as Walpake in Hunterdon County on October 26, 1731.[1][4]
- **1732** (the country): George Washington was born in Virginia, an event no one here could know would matter, but later colonists would hear his name constantly.
- **1733** (the country): James Oglethorpe founded Georgia as a new British colony on the southern frontier.
- **1735** (nearby): John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel in New York, a case that would be talked about wherever colonial newspapers and politics reached.
- **1737** (here): The Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church record began for the congregation of Menissing.[5]
- **1738** (here): William Ennes came to the Delaware Valley and became remembered as a schoolteacher of the Minisink region.[9]
- **1739** (here): Morris County was created, moving this northwestern frontier out of Hunterdon County.[2]
- **1739** (the world): War of Jenkins’ Ear began between Britain and Spain, a war colonists could hear about through imperial news and shipping reports.

## 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 sources)[7]
- 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 sources)[7]
- 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 sources)[1]
- The Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church record begins on August 23, 1737, for the congregation of Menissing. (from the sources)[5]
- The Minisink church stood about eight miles below Port Jervis on Old Mine Road, in the present township of Montague. (from the sources)[5]
- 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 sources)[9]
- 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 sources)[11]
- Morris County was created on March 15, 1739, taking this frontier area out of Hunterdon County near the end of the decade. (from the sources)[2]
- The area’s later residents petitioned for a separate Sussex County because travel to county government and courts was inconvenient. (from the sources)[1]
- 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 sources)[13]
- 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 sources)[3]
- 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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sussex_County%2C_New_Jersey
2. Sussex County, New Jersey. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_County%2C_New_Jersey
3. Cultural and Historic Resources of Sussex County. Sussex County, New Jersey. https://www.sussex.nj.us/documents/planning/open%20space/C.CulturalandHistoricResources37-46.pdf
4. Walpack, N.J.. Sussex County, New Jersey. https://www.sussex.nj.us/544/Walpack-NJ
5. Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church Records, 1716–1830, Vol. V. LDSGenealogy, 1913. https://ldsgenealogy.com/NY/Minisink-Valley-Reformed-Dutch-Church-records-1716-1830-Vol-V.htm
6. Maps of the Minisink Region. Minisink Valley Historical Society. https://minisink.org/patent.html
7. New Jersey/Pennsylvania: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/watergap.htm
8. Minisink. FamilySearch Memories. https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/242990460
9. William Ennes House, Old Mine Road, Hainesville New Jersey. Historic Structures. https://www.historic-structures.com/nj/hainesville/ennes_house.php
10. Minisink. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minisink
11. Using the Records of the East and West Jersey Proprietors. New Jersey State Archives. https://nj.gov/state/archives/pdf/proprietors.pdf
12. New Jersey at 350 — A Short History of Colonial New Jersey Land Records. Genealogical Society of Bergen County, 2014. https://www.njgsbc.org/nj-colonial-land-records/
13. Documentary Treasures: New Jersey State Constitutions — 1776 State Constitution. New Jersey State Archives, 1776. https://www.nj.gov/state/archives/documentary-treasures-nj-state-constitutions-1776.shtml

## The same place in other decades

- [Sussex County in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-sussex-county-new-jersey/1750s/md)
- [Sussex County in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-or-lopatcong-area-sussex-county-new-jersey/1780s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-township-warren-county-new-jersey/1730s/md) (41 km)
- [Greenwich, Sussex/Warren County, New Jersey in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-sussex-warren-county-new-jersey/1750s/md) (41 km)
- [Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/morristown-morris-county-new-jersey/1760s/md) (42 km)
- [near High Bridge, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/near-high-bridge-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1760s/md) (55 km)
- [Somerset County, New Jersey in the 1740s](https://yorehistory.com/place/somerset-county-new-jersey/1740s/md) (64 km)
- [Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/easton-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1760s/md) (67 km)
- [Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/northampton-county-pennsylvania/1760s/md) (67 km)
- [Bedminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bedminster-township-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1760s/md) (89 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-11 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, "Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1730s", https://yorehistory.com/place/sussex-county-new-jersey/1730s