 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
The area around New Brunswick was occupied by the Lenni Lenape Indians and one or two white settlers when John Inian and 10 associates from Long Island bought about 10,000 acres in 1681. Inian and his associates were English. They established an English hegemony which was not threatened until 1730 when Dutch settlers from Albany began to change the national character of the community.
In 1686 Inian established- a ferry, for which he received exclusive rights in 1697, and built a new road to Delaware Falls (Trenton). The locality, previously known as Prigmore's Swamp, was called Inian's Ferry in 1713. On the water front were built the first homes, and taverns for wayfarers.
For a time it seemed that the Landing, 1.5 miles upstream at the head of navigation, would eclipse Inian's Ferry as a townsite. But the fact that ships could reach the Landing only when the tide was favorable, while Inian's Ferry was accessible at all times, spoiled the Landing's chances. Now it is little more than a bridge with a background of meadow lands populated chiefly by cows.
The name Brunswick, in honor of King George I, also Duke of Brunswick, first appears in court records of 1724. In 1730, when the settlement consisted of 125 families, it received a charter from King George II. The Dutch Reformed Church, which is known to have been in existence in New Brunswick as early as 1717, subsequently became a strong influence in civic life. Methodism made a start in 1740 when the evangelist, George Whitefield, preached to an immense crowd from the tail end of a wagon before the Reformed Church.
New Brunswick soon became one of the great agricultural depots of the Colony. Every stream that could turn a wheel had its mill. Warehouses and inns were erected, and the river front was lined with vessels.
Construction of the barracks in 1759 and their occupation by British troops after 1767 strengthened Tory sentiment among the wealthier citizens. Two years before, however, patriots had burned in effigy a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress for refusing to oppose the unpopular act. The crisis reached a head in 1774 when the Provincial Congress met here and chose delegates to the Continental Congress. Subsequent prohibition of trade with the enemy seriously injured commerce in New Brunswick, then a town of about 150 families.
Washington and his defeated army, retreating from New York, entered New Brunswick on November 28, 1776. Later, the general wrote, "In short, the conduct of the jerseys has been most infamous. Instead of turning out to defend their country, and affording aid to our army, they are making their submissions as fast as they can. If the jerseys had given us any support we might have made a good stand at Hackensac, and after that at Brunswick ..." On December i, Sir William Howe led the British into the city for a destructive occupation of seven months.
Compensating for the unsoldierly conduct of the local troops New Brunswick rivermen turned their whaleboats into fighting ships. They did so much damage in nightly raids upon British vessels around New York Bay that an expedition of 300 men was sent here to destroy the fleet of Capt. Adam Hyler, best known of the privateers. The burning of his boats and a skirmish with American militia was the last fight in or around the town.
Washington again brought his army to New Brunswick after the inconclusive battle at nearby Monmouth (Freehold) in the summer of 1778. And it was here that the Commander in Chief issued his unexpected order in 1781 for the march south that resulted in the British capitulation at Yorktown.
|
|
|
Return To |
|
|
