It is said* that the Dutch, after displacing the Swedes along the Delaware in 1655, and while under the Governorship of Peter Alricks and others, acquired large tracts of country upon the eastern side of New Jersey. According to some traditionary accounts, persons, either Swedes or Dutch, from along the Delaware about this time visited Ocean county and endeavored to induce persons to settle along Toms River, but this point is not as yet conclusively settled.

Besides the reasons offered by the Proprietors to induce persons to settle here we have other causes which actuated many of the first settlers to locate here and in other parts of East Jersey, given in the following extract
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* Hist. Coll. N. J.

from a letter of Lord Cornbury's to the Board of Trade, dated July 1st, 1708.

"Two sorts of people remove out of this Government (New York) to neighboring provinces; the first are trading men; of these but few have removed since I came hither. The other sort are husbandmen. Of this sort many are removed lately, especially from Kings county, Long Island. Many of our early settlers along shore came from Long Island about the time referred to by Lord Cornbury- those on the lower part of our county chiefly by way of Egg Harbor. And the reasons they remove are of two kinds, namely: The first is because Kings county is small and full of people, so as the young grow up they are forced to seek land farther off to settle on. The land in the Eastern Division of New Jersey is good and not very far from Kings county; there is only a bay to cross. The other reason that induces them to move into New Jersey is because they pay no taxes; no, nor no duties."

Lord Cornbury then proceeds to propose plans to check this emigration, but we find that Gov. Robt. Hunter, (April 30th, 1716,) still complains of "the great numbers of the younger sort who leave Long Island yearly to plant in New Jersey and Pennsylvania."

As before stated, many of the early settlers of Ocean county came from Long Island, probably a majority of those in the lower part of the county. Many of these, perhaps most of them, came by the way of Little Egg Harbor.

From Long Island tax rates 1675, to 1683, are gathered the following among other familar Ocean county names:

Oyster Bay: Birdsalls, Willetts, Horners, Townsends. Andrews.

Gravesend: Tiltons, Davis, Woolleys, Johnsons, Stillwells, Wilkins.

Brookhaven: Salmons, Rogers, Platts, Jones, Coxes, Hulses.

Southampton: Roses, Mills, Cooks, Komptons.

Southold: Baileys, Salmons.

East Hampton: Osbornes.

Newtown: Lawrences, Pangborns, Moores, Smiths, Southards, Salmons, Whites, Williams, Formans, Birdsalls, Burchams.

In several Long Island towns are the Lawrences, Conklins, Williams, Rogers, etc.

From Burlington county came the Pharos, Ridgways, Imlays, Jennings, Mills, etc.

Among families supposed to have come from Middlesex are the Parkers,* Gulicks, Randolphs, Predmores, etc.

A large number of early settlers came from Monmouth: the Stouts, Holmes, Conovers, Lawrences, Russells, Herberts, and others too numerous to mention.

Many families of the same name appear to have come, in different parts of the county, from different places, as Mills, Cooks, Johnsons, etc.

Among early settlers who are referred to in ancient deeds but of whom little is known as to their origin, we find Wm. Chamberlain whose house stood on the north side of Oyster Creek, 1739; Robert Hewlett's dwelling, Goodluck, 1748, and Nicholas Brown, Mannahawkin.

Mem: The county was so sparsely populated a century ago that I doubt if it contained over twelve or fifteen hundred people, though so large in territory.

Ocean it will be remembered was once a part of Monmouth, and Monmouth was formerly divided into Middletown and Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury then extended to the most southerly point of the present county of Ocean; it is therefore proper to make some reference to old Shrewsbury.

The celebrated Stout manuscript says that in 1648 there were only six white families in Middletown. It is doubtful if there were any then in Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury
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* For Parker family see "Contributions to E. J. Hist [East Jersey History], by W. A. Whitehead"

was first settled by emigrants from Connecticut in 1664.

The following items relating not only to Shrewsbury, but to other parts of East Jersey, may be new to some; they are from the Dutch records during their brief sway in 1673.

After displacing the English, the Dutch sent officers into East Jersey to administer to the inhabitants:

"Aug. 12th, 1673. The inhabitants of Middletown and Shrewsbury are required and charged to send their deputies unto us on Tuesday morning next to treat upon surrendering their said towns to the Dutch.

           (Signed)      Cornelius Evertie, 
                         Jacob Benckes. 

"14th 7ber 1673. Capt. Knyff and Lieut. Snell returned yesterday morning from Aghter Coll* and reported that pursuant to their commissions they had administered the oath of allegiance to the inhabitants of the undernamed towns, who are found to number as in the lists herewith delivered to Council:"

       Elizabethtown, 80 men, 76 took oath - rest absent. 
       New Wark,      86  "   75  "    "      "     "
       Woodbridge,    54  "   53  "    "  one absent. 
       Piscataway,    43  "   43  "    " 
       Middletown,    60  "   52  "    " 
       Shrewsbury,    68  "   38  "    "    18 Quakers 
promised allegiance- rest absent." 

By the foregoing census it appears that the men in East Jersey that year numbered 391. Allowing the population to have been four times as many as the population of East Jersey that year (1673) would have been 1564, and of Shrewsbury 272.

Many original Monmouth settlers were Dutch from Holland. The Holland Dutch origin is still preserved by many familiar names as shown elsewhere.

The Holland Dutch (or Low Dutch,) are proverbially
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* Aghter Coll, or Achter Coll. meaning "beyond the hills"- beyond Bergen Hills- the name applied to East Jersey.

a remarkably cleanly and neat people- so much so, that we hardly dare call in question the truth of the story of one of our very neat, tidy Monmouth Dutch Grandmothers who scrubbed her floor so thoroughly and so often, that one day she scrubbed through and fell into the cellar and broke her neck.

The following item also relates to Shrewsbury:

"Whereas the late chosen Magistrates of Shrewsbury are found to be persons whose religion will not suffer them to take an oath, it was ordered that a new nomination of four persons of true Protestant Christian religion out of which I shall elect two and continue one of the former Magistrates.

                             Anthony Colve, Gov. 

29th 7th ber 1673.

Magistrates of Shrewsbury, sworn Sept. 1st, 1673:

John Hance, Eleakim Wardil, Hugh Dyckman.

Capt. Knyff and Lieut. Snell reported also that they had sworn in certain officers of the militia in said towns. For Middletown and Shrewsbury were the following:

Middletown- Jonathan Holmes, Captain; John Smith, Lieut.; Thomas Whitlock, Ensign.

Shrewsbury- William Newman, Captain; John Williamson, Lieut.; Nieles Brown, Ensign.

In 1682 the population of Shrewsbury was estimated at 400, and several thousand acres of laud were under cultivation.

The first mention that I now remember to have met with of any part of the present county of Ocean in any official public English records is in the grant of the Duke of York to Berkely and Carteret July 29th, 1674. In giving the bounds of territory it is described as extending "as far southward as a certain creek called Barnegat, being about the middle point between Sandy Hook and Cape May, and bounded on the west in a strait line from said creek called Barnegat to a certain creek in Delaware river next adjoining to and below a certain creek in Delaware river called Renkokus." (Leaming & Spicer, p. 46.)

The above quotation is repeated in Carteret's instructions to planters and settlers, (Leaming and Spicer, p. 50.)

In the Proprietors' Instructions to the Deputy Governor, July 3d, 1685, it is ordered:

"That whenever there is a convenient Plott of land lying together, containing twenty-four thousand acres as we are informed will more especially be the case at Barnegatte, it be divided and marked into twenty-four parts, a thousand acres to each Proprietary and the parts being made as equal as can be for quality and situation, the first comers settling to have the choice of the Divisions and where several stand equal in that respect upon equal Terms and Time of settling it be determined by lot," etc.

(The sections proceed to give farther directions in regard to dividing the lands which are to be found in Leaming and Spicer, pages 210-211.)

Although the majority of persons who earliest visited Ocean county travelled along the shore, yet it is probable that the north-westerly and northerly portions of the county were occasionally traversed by travelers crossing our State long before there were any settlements of whites in the central portion of New Jersey. These travelers crossed the State for various reasons, some for curiosity, perhaps, or to explore it; some on public or private business between the early settlements in New York and East Jersey, adjacent, and the settlements on the Delaware, as in the case of Capt. William Tom and Peter Alricks, 1671; others as missionaries or traveling preachers between settlements in this and other States.

I know of no account which gives the precise route usually travelled then, but it would be reasonable to suppose they followed the usual Indian trails or paths. Among these paths we find occasional mention in ancient Monmouth and Ocean records of "Burlington old path," among other places referred to in 1767 in the act creating the township of Dover now in Ocean.