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Determination of an exact location for a West Jersey/East Jersey borderline was often a matter of dispute, but the old provinces correspond roughly with North Jersey and South Jersey today.
The Delaware Valley had been inhabited by the Lenape (or Delaware) Indians prior to exploration and settlement starting around 1609 by the Dutch, Swedish and English. Settlement of the West Jersey area by Europeans was thin until the English conquest in 1664.
The Dutch had established one or two Delaware River settlements but by the late 1620s had moved most of their inhabitants to Manhattan which became the center of New Netherland.
The development of the colony of New Sweden in the lower Delaware began in 1638. A fort was built near present-day Wilmington, Delaware at the mouth of the Christina River (named for Sweden's Queen Christina). Most of the Swedish population was on the west side of the Delaware, but after the New Netherland's Fort Nassau was re-established to challenge the Swedes, Ft. Elfsborg was established near present-day Salem, New Jersey. The Dutch defeated New Sweden in 1655.
Beginning in the late 1670's Quakers settled in great numbers first near Salem and then in BurlingtonSee also Burlington Township, New Jersey Burlington is a city located in Burlington County, New Jersey. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 9,736. The City of Burlington is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of mu which became the capital of West Jersey.
see also: List of Governors of New JerseyThis is a list of governors of New Jersey . Governors under the Proprietors (1665-1674) Philip Carteret 1665-1672 John Berry 1672-1673 Anthony Colve 1673-1674 Governors of East Jersey and their Deputies (1674-1702) Philip Carteret 1674-1682 Robert Barclay
reference: Weslager, Clinton Alfred, Dutch explorers, traders, and settlers in the Delaware Valley, 1609-1644. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961.
U.S. colonial history New Jersey history