New Jersey Colonial Records

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Colonial Records

Online Records

Many records from the colonial era in New England were kept at the town or county level. Search the catalog at the town or county level to locate those records.

• 1600-1900 - Indentures collection containing deeds, bonds, commissions, etc. of New Jersey individuals : and other states - images only.
• 1631-1782 - New Jersey, Published Archives Series at Ancestry.com $
• 1637-1655 - Records of 17th century soldiers in New Sweden - images only. Records in German, Swedish, and English.
• 1650-1900s - Early Land Records at New Jersey State Archives.
• 1665-1774 - New Jersey wars; index to colonial period - images only.
• 1665-1799 - Colonial Marriage Bonds. Index available through the New Jersey State Archives.
• 1666-1774 - Deeds, patents and commissions - images only.
• 1667-1783 - East Jersey deeds - images only.
• 1668-1774 - Military officers recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, Trenton, New Jersey; colonial wars - images only
• 1685-1870- Lost deeds - index and images.
• 1687-1859- Extracts from minutes of the Council of Proprietors of the western division of the State of New Jersey, from 1687-1859 : with additional notes and memoranda - images only
• 1700s-1800s - Index to inquisitions on the dead - images only.
• 1703-1862 - Index to naturalization records - images only.
• 1703-1856 - Index to powers of attorney, surveyors reports, commissions, etc., referring to deeds, ca. 1703-1856 - images only.
• 1703-1856 - East Jersey commissions - images only.
• 1712-1866 - Estates and partitions - images and some indexed.
• 1743-1845 - Chancery court cases - images only.
• 1749-1873; card index, 1761-1860 - Naturalization records - images only.
• 1770-1774 - Court records - images only.
• Index to Supreme Court cases before and after the Revolution - images only.
• Index to Prerogative court records, sets one and two - images only.
• Clement papers, warrants, surveys, indentures in New Jersey - images only.
• Index to deeds, grantee and grantor - images only.

History

A trading post built in 1618 by Dutch settlers was the first European settlement in New Jersey although it was not permanent. In 1640, Swedish settlers purchased land from the Lenape people which became part of New Sweden. New Sweden was soon conquered by the Dutch, becoming part of New Netherlands, and remained under Dutch control until New Netherlands was conquered by the British in 1664. Delaware was one of the original 13 colonies of the United States.

Earliest Church Records	Earliest Land Records	Earliest Court Records	Earliest Newspapers
1662	1629	1664	1765

Resources

Church Records

• "Church Records in New Jersey" by William Nelson in Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society. (vol. 2 [March 1904]: 173-88, and 251-66. Reprint. Paterson: Paterson History Club, 1904).
• Guide to local church records in the archives of the Reformed Church in America and to genealogical resources in the Gardner Sage Library : New Brunswick Theological Seminary by Russell L. Gasero. (New Brunswick: Historical Society of the Reformed Church in America, 1979).
• Memorials of Methodism in New Jersey: From the Foundation of the First Society in the State in 1770, to the Completion of the First Twenty Years of its History Containing Sketches of Ministerial Laborers, Distinguished Laymen and Prominent Societies of That Period by John Atkinson. (1860. Reprint. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1990).
• New Jersey Catholic Baptismal Records from 1759-1781: Index by Surname of Baptisms Performed in the State of New Jersey from 1759 to 1781 by the Catholic Missionaries of Old Saint Joseph's Church in Philadelphia by Janet Drumm Dirnberger. (Seabrook, TX: Brambles, 1981).
• The Reformed Church in New Jersey by Herman Harmelink. (Woodcliffon-Hudson: Synod of New Jersey, 1969).

Court and Legal Records

• An Analytical Index to the Colonial Documents of New Jersey, in the State Paper Offices of England, Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society by Henry Stevens. Vol. 5. (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1858).
• Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey by William Nelson. (Newark: The Daily Journal Establishment, 1880-1949).
• Index of Colonial and State Laws: Between the Years 1663 and 1887 Inclusive by John Hood. (Trenton: State of New Jersey, 1877). There is a free e-book version on Google Books.
• Index to Minutes of the Council of East Jersey Proprietors, Liber 1, 1684-1705 by Charles Carroll Gardner. (n.p.:n.d.),
• The Journall of the Procedure of the Governor and Councill of the Province of New Jersey : from and after the first day of December anno D(o)m(i)ni -1682.
• The Law and Practice of New Jersey from the Earliest Times: Concerning the Probate of Wills, the Administration of Estates, the Protection of Orphans and Minors, and the Control of Their Estates; the Prerogative Court, the Ordinary, and the Surrogates by William Nelson. (Paterson, NJ: Paterson History Club, 1909). also available digitally through Archive.org.
• The Papers of Lewis Morris, Governor of the Province of New Jersey, from 1738 to 1746. (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1852).

Early History

• Colonial New Jersey, A History by John E. Pomfret. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973).
• Early Dutch Settlers of Monmouth County, New Jersey by George Beekman. (Freehold, NH: Mareau, 1901).
• The Early Dutch Settlements in New York and New Jersey: The Dutch Colonial Period in America by Kenn Stryker-Rodda. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1969).
• The Early Dutch and Swedish Settlers of New Jersey by Adrian C. Leiby. (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1964).
• The Early Germans of New Jersey: Their History, Churches and Genealogies, with Maps and Illustrations by Theodore Frelinghuysen Chambers. (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1964).
• East Jersey under the Proprietary Governments: A Narrative of Events Connected with the Settlement and Progress of the Province, until the Surrender of the Government to the Crown in 1703 by William Adee Whitehead. New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. 1. 2nd ed. (Newark: Martin R. Dennis, 1875).
• The East of Jersey: An History of the General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey by John T. Cunningham. (Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, 1992).
• The First Settlers of Passaic Valley by John Littell. (1852. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1981).
• A Glance Back in Time: Life in Colonial New Jersey by Richard B. Marrin. (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1994).
• General Index to the Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey by William Frederick Ricord. (1888. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994).
• An historical account of the first settlement of Salem in west Jersey : by John Fenwick, with many of the important events that occurred, down to the present generation, embracing a period of one hundred and fifty years by Robert Gibbon Johnson. (Philadelphia: O. Rogers, 1839).
• A History of New Sweden, or, The Settlements on the River Delaware by Israel Acrelius. (1874. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1972).
• Land and People: A Cultural Geography of Pre-Industrial New Jersey Origins and Settlement Patterns by Peter O. Wacker. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University, 1975).
• The Minutes of the Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey. 4 Vols. (Perth Amboy, NG: The Board, 1949-1985).
• New Jersey and the English Colonization of North America by Wesley Frank Craven. (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand CO., 1964).
• New Jersey as a Royal Province, 1738 to 1776 by Edgar Jacob Fisher. (New York: Columbia University, 1911).
• The Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702 by John E. Pomfret. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962).
• Record of the Governor and Councill in East Jersie, 1682-1703. (1872. Reprint. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997).
• Scotland and its First American Colony, 1683-1765 by Ned C. Landsman. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).
• The Swedes and Finns in New Jersey by the Federal Writers' Project. (1938. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1975).
• The Swedish settlements on the Delaware : their history and relation to the Indians, Dutch and English 1638-1664 with an account of the South, the New Sweden, and the American companies and the efforts of Sweden to regain the colony by Amandus Johnson. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1911).

Other

• An alphabetical list of names of all persons in the province of West New Jersey in America whose names are to be found upon the pages of Leaming and Spicer's Grants and Concessions, edition of 1738 compiled by Francis B. Lee. (Salt Lake City, Utah : Genealogical Society of Utah, 1965).
• For Want of Trade: Shipping and the New Jersey Ports, 1680-1783 by James H. Levitt. (Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, 1981).
• Guide to Family History Sources in the New Jersey State Archives by Bette Marie Barker. (Trenton: Division of Archives and Records Management, 1990).
• Historical Collections of New Jersey: Past and Present: Containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc., Relating to the History and Antiquities with Geographical Descriptions of All Important Places in the State by John Warner Barber. (1868. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing CO., 1996).
• Inventory: Classified Research Data, Primary Source Materials, Secondary Source Materials, Special Subject Files, Draft Volumes for Publication, Surplus Publications Relating to: Local, County, State and Federal Historical Subjects by Historical Records Survey. (Newark: The Survey, 1943).
• New Jersey Marriage Records, 1665-1800. Archives of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 22 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1973).
• Ship Passenger Lists, New York and New Jersey, 1600-1825 by Carl Boyer. (Newhall, CA: The Author, 1978).