New Jersey Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

'''Swedes and Finns.''' The first Swedish and Finnish settlers came to the site of modern Wilmington, Delaware, on the Delaware River in 1638. The growth of [[New Sweden|New Sweden]] was slow. Raccoon (now Swedesboro, Gloucester, New Jersey) and New Stockholm (now Bridgeport, Gloucester, New Jersey) were not settled until 1642.<ref>"New Sweden" in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden (accessed 7 November 2008).</ref><ref>Swedes and Finns settled on the New Jersey side of the Delaware river as early as 1642 at Raccoon Creek. By the 1690s, as many as 900 Swedes and Finns had crossed the river to settle in Cape May, Gloucester, and Salem counties, West Jersey.  

'''English in East Jersey'''. In about 1665, the East Jersey proprietors began to attract settlers from Long Island and New England by offering liberal freedoms and choice land. Before the proprietors granted any land, however, Governor Richard Nicolls of New York granted two large patents in East Jersey to settlers from New England and New York:  

*Howe, Paul Sturtevant. ''Mayflower Pilgrim Descendants in Cape May County, New Jersey — 1620-1920 . . . 1921'', reprint ed. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1977. (Family History Library book {{FHL|264865|title-id|disp=974.998 D2h}}; {{FHL|264865|title-id|disp=film 928297 item 1}}; {{FHL|484873|title-id|disp=fiche 6046063.)}} Digital version at [http://books.google.com/books?id=FoQ-AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mayflower+Pilgrim+Descendants+in+Cape+May+County,+New+Jersey&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sprHT8W2NKjL2QXhstnvCg&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Mayflower%20Pilgrim%20Descendants%20in%20Cape%20May%20County%2C%20New%20Jersey&f=false Google Books].

'''Scots'''. The proprietors of East Jersey actively solicited Scottish settlers. From the 1680s to 1750, many Presbyterian Lowlanders from eastern Scotland came to East Jersey, particularly to the present counties of Monmouth, Middlesex, Somerset, and Mercer. Hundreds left Scotland between 1683 and 1685 to settle New Perth at Amboy Point (now Perth Amboy), Plainfield, Freehold, and wilderness areas of the Watchung Mountains. Immigration from Scotland declined after 1690, but the Scots continued to spread west through central New Jersey, eventually reaching the Delaware Valley.