CHAPTER XV — RELIGIOUS LIFE
97. The State of Religion in the Jerseys" (1700)
For Morris, see No. 65 above. Bibliography of religious affairs : Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 243-245; Tyler, American Literature, II, 210-212; Charming and Hart, Guide, § 106. — For previous history of the Jerseys, see Contemporaries, I, ch. xxv.
THE Province of East Jersey has in it Ten Towns, (viz.) Middle-town, Freehold, Amboy, Piscataway and Woodbridge, Elizabeth Town, Newark, Aqueckenonck, and Bergen, and I Judge in the whole Province there may be about Eight thousand souls. These Towns are not like the towns in England, the houses built close together on a small spot of ground, but they include large portions of the Country of 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 miles in length, and as much in breadth, and all the Settlements within such State and bounds is said to be within such a Township, but in most of those townships there is some place where a part of the Inhabitants sat down nearer together than the rest, and confined themselves to smaller portions of ground, and the town is more peculiarly designed by that Settlement. Those towns and the whole province was peopl'd mostly from the adjacent colonies of New York and New England, and generally by Those of very narrow fortunes, and such as could not well subsist in the places they left. And if such people could bring any religion with them, it was that of the Country they came from, and the State of them is as follows : —
Bergen, and the out Plantations are most Dutch, and were settled from New York and the United Provinces they are pretty equally divided into Calvinist and Lutheran, they have one pretty little Church, and are a sober people, there are a few English Dissenters mixt among them.
Aqueckenonck was peopl'd from New York also, they are Dutch mostly and generally Calvinist.
Eeizabeth Town & Newark were peopled from New England, are generally Independents, they have a meeting house in each town for
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