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1618
The Dutch establish a trading post at Bergen, now part of
Jersey City.
1623
Dutch traders establish fort near present site of
Gloucester.
1634
English settlers arrive, mostly from New England.
1638 - 55
Swedes and Finns arrive, dominate area.
1655 - 64
The early Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers were first
attracted to the coast of New Jersey and later moved inland
following the many navigable rivers. The migration pattern
was from northeast to southwest.
1664 Dutch surrender New Jersey to England.
John Berkeley and George Carteret become proprietors. Named New Jersey after
the English Channel home of Carteret.
When the English took control in 1664, the
territory was opened up to land seekers. Dutch settlements along
the Hudson grew with the influx of the British. Puritans from Connecticut founded settlements at Newark,
Woodbridge, Piscataway, Middletown, and Shrewsbury. Scotch-Irish came to the eastern counties and English Quakers
came to the fertile regions along the Delaware River. Huguenots who fled France in search of religious liberty also
settled in New Jersey.
1673 Dutch regain possession of New Jersey
briefly.
1674 English regain possession. Quakers arrive from England.
1676 New Jersey divided into East Jersey
and West Jersey. West Jersey is controlled by Quakers and East
Jersey by Carteret.
1702 New Jersey united as a royal colony
under the governor of New York.
1702 Bourgan Broucard
[Brokaw] sold his land in Newtown to William Post, which land
was later bought back by Bourgon's son Isaac. On May 9, 1702,
Bourgon and his son in-law, Jan [John] Coverson [Covert] bought
for L 400, of William Dockwra, a merchant of London, two
thousand acres of land in Somerset County, New Jersey, bounded
on the north and northwest by the Rarity and Millstone Rivers.
1710 Abraham Brokaw,
son of Bourgan and Catherine [Le Fevre] both from France,
married Marietje Davids, daughter of Isaac and Jannetje [Maurits],
in Somerset County. They lived and raised their children
and were members of the Readington Dutch Reformed Church.
1715 Abraham Brokaw,
son of Bourgan, served in Capt. Peter Dumont's Sixth County, in
Col. Thomas Farmer's Regiment of
New York Militia
1738 Lewis Morris, a native of New Jersey,
becomes the first royal governor of united New Jersey.
1742 Isaac Brokaw,
son of Abraham, marrie Millstone. The lived and raised
there children in Summerset County and were members of the
Readington Dutch Reformed Church
1768 Caleb Brokaw,
son of Isaac married Jane Van Nostrand Brokaw, daughter of
Isaac Brokaw [they were 4th cousins] The lived in the Hillsboro
area and raised their children there. Caleb served in the
Revolutionary War, as a Private, in Capt. Peter Dumont Vroom's
Company, 2nd. Regiment of Somerset County Militia. In 1780 he
received $139 for depreciation of his Continental pay. He was in
Piscataway Township New Jersey in 1793 and in Hillsborough
Township 1802.
1776 A provincial congress in Burlington
declares New Jersey's independence on July 2.
1787 New Jersey ratifies the U.S.
Constitution, becomes the third state.
1792 Abraham Brokaw,
son of Caleb, married Mariah Striker, daughter of Peter and Mary
[Van Nortwick] Stricker, the lived in Hillsborough Township
Somerset County until 1823 at that time he moved his family to
Ohio, with seven of their children, leaving three, in New
Jersey Abraham died in 1826 and is buried in Ohio, but his
wife returned to New Jersey and is buried there.
1822 Simon Brokaw,
son of Abraham, married for the 2nd time to Sarah Young and
resided in Bridgewater Township, near Somerville, and their
children born there. He was given as a farmer, in 1850. By 1856 he moved his
family to Ohio to join other family members. After a short stay he moved his family to Burt
County Nebraska.
Along the road near
the old grist mill of the Brokaw's there is a marker, erected by
the Somerset County Historical Society, and worded on it is the
following: "Weston
Grist Mill, built 1700, rebuilt 1744, repaired 1944. It's
contents raided by the British Troops from New Brunswick, and
driven off by the Americans under General Dickinson, January 21,
1777.
Many families moved back and forth between
New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. New Jersey's position
between New York and Philadelphia and between New England and
the South made adequate transportation imperative. By 1830, the legislature
had chartered more than fifty turnpike companies; about 550
miles of road were built. In
1834 the Delaware and Raritan Canal connected the Delaware and
Raritan rivers, providing a short all-water route from New York
to Philadelphia. |
