ACORN HISTORY
Growing a Peaceful, Sustainable Future from the Lessons of the Past
WELCOME
ADVENTURERS
The belief systems of the Lenape, Old Settler (Dutch, Swedes, and Finns), and British Quaker cultures centered on an egalitarian social order and supported a mutual respect proved by a deliberate willingness to communicate, collaborate, and find solutions to problems, thus ensuring that everyone's needs were met prior and up to the division of West and East Jersey in 1702.
Proposed East and West New Jersey Boundaries
The three vertical lines in the midsection of this map indicate efforts to determine the boundary between East and West New Jersey. The New Jersey proprietors loosely defined the boundaries of East and West New Jersey in a 1676 document, but land disputes into the 1700s required a fixed line to define private property and municipal boundaries. This map from 1780 shows three proposed boundaries dividing the state, but only the Lawrence Line (middle) was officially recognized by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1855. (Library of Congress)
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/west-new-jersey/
A Mapp of New Jersey in America, circa 1677
John Seller published the first printed map of New Jersey soon after its proprietors split the province into eastern and western divisions in 1676. This extremely rare map erroneously depicts New Jersey as an island, with the headwaters of the Walkill River connecting with those of the Delaware.
https://www.nj.gov/state/archives/eventadventurersdocs.html
West Jersey Merchant Adventurers Broadside, 1697
This 1697 broadside lists “adventurers” (i.e., stockholders) of the Society of Merchants of London, who had invested in land rights in West New Jersey. It is the only known copy of a printing likely distributed exclusively to the Society’s members.
https://www.nj.gov/state/archives/eventadventurersdocs.html
