A Note About Places

From Voices of Raritan Landing

The names of places mentioned in the first-person narratives of residents of Raritan Landing may not be familiar to you, even if you know the area well. Many of the place names used in the 1700s have changed. Here are some places and features that you may not recognize at first reading.

Amboy was a name used by the Lenape for the area at the mouth of the Raritan River, where the river meets Raritan Bay. On the north bank, settlers from Scotland who established the town in 1693, named their community Perth Amboy, for the Earl of Perth, a Scottish nobleman who was one of the original proprietors, or land owners, of New Jersey., Perth Amboy, which received a royal charter as a city in 1718, was one of two colonial capitals of New Jersey.

Bound Brook was settled as early as the 1680s, established on a stream of the same name that flows into the Raritan River. Bound Brook was part of Bridgewater Township, which was created in 1749. In 1869 Bound Brook became a separate municipality.

Bristol, a city and port in southwest England, was a center of commercial trade with North America in the 1700s.

Bushwick was a small Dutch settlement on the western end of Long Island. It became part of the city of Brooklyn, which became part of New York City in 1898.

Chimney Rock, a rock formation in the first range of the Watchung Mountains, was a well-known landmark in the Raritan Valley, overlooking a narrow pass between the hills. During the Revolutionary War, that pass was used by American, English, and Hessian troops.

Duykinck's Brook, a small creek at Raritan Landing, is called Metlar's Brook today.

East Jersey was one of the two divisions of the province of New Jersey. The dividing line that separated East and West Jersey ran from southeast to northwest. Perth Amboy was the capital and official port of East Jersey. Burlington, on the Delaware River, was the capital and official port of West Jersey. The colonial Assembly met part of the year in each community.

Lebanon, originally part of Amwell and Tewksbury Township in Hunterdon County, was established in 1714.

Middletown, a township originally comprising the land between the Raritan Bay and the Navesink River, was formed in 1693, in Monmouth County, one of the original four counties of New Jersey.

Millstone, a small community named for the Millstone River, a tributary of the Raritan River, was first settled in the 1690s. It became part of Hillsborough Township in Somerset County in 1771.

New Brunswick, first settled by Dutch families in the early 1600s as a place called Hollander Dorp, meaning Dutch village. In 1626 there were six houses and 31 inhabitants. By 1670, when the village had 32 houses and 180 residents, the English had taken control of Nieuw Netherland. John Inian, one of the three leading landowners in the area during the English proprietary period, began ferry service across the Raritan River in the 1680s, and the community came to be called Inian's Ferry. The community continued to grow, and was know as New Brunswick by the 1720s, in honor of King George I of England, who was born in Germany, where his family was known as the House of Brunswick, and were the rulers of Hanover. Though German by birth, he became king of England in 1714. New Brunswick received a royal charter as a city in 1730. Like Raritan Landing, New Brunswick flourished as a port, a place where ships load and unload, principally grain grown on farms in the Raritan Valley. By 1784, New Brunswick had nearly 3,000 residents, the most populous community in Middlesex County.

New York was originally called Nieuw Amsterdam, named by Dutch settlers from the Netherlands for their capital city in Europe, and was the leading community of Nieuw Netherland, the Dutch colony that included parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, A Note about Places and Delaware. English forces took control of Nieuw Amsterdam and Nieuw Netherland in 1664.

Prince's Bay was the harbor area on Staten Island, opposite Matawan Creek on the New Jersey side of Raritan Bay. Today it is known as Princess Bay.

Raritan was the early name for the community known today as Somerville, in Somerset County. Several residents of Raritan Landing, including Cornelius Low and Bernardus LaGrange, owned farms at Raritan.

Raritan Landing was one of several settlements located within Piscataway, one of the earliest townships established in Middlesex County. Piscataway, today, about 19 square miles, is much smaller in size that it was in 1666 when first settled by John Martin, Charles Gilman, Hugh Dunn, and Hopewell Hull. Raritan Landing was located on the river, at the lin-dt of deep-water navigation on the Raritan River. Piscatawaytown, another settlement within the 300-square mile township, was in the eastern section, along present- day Woodbridge Avenue, County Route 514, in Edison Township.

The Raritan Valley includes all of present-day Middlesex Counties and portions of Somerset, Hunterdon, Mercer, Monmouth, and Morris Counties. The major tributaries include South River, the Millstone River, Bound Brook, Green Brook, and the Larnington River.

Road Up Raritan was the name used in the 1700s for present-day River Road, from Highland Park through Piscataway to Bound Book. Originally, fl-tis road was a trail used seasonally by the Lenape, the Native people of New Jersey.

Second River, where Cornelius Low and his wife Johanna Gouverneur Low had family, is present-day Belleville, in Essex County. The community was originally part of Newark Township, established in 1693. In 1812, it became part of the newly-created Bloomfield Belleville was incorporated as a township in 1839.

Somerset was both a county and a small settlement in that county. Somerset County was created from part of Middlesex County in 1688. Franklin Township, created in 1798, included the settlement known as Somerset.