New Englanders in a New Land: Newark in the Proprietary Period, 1666-1702 - Paperback

by Timothy J. Crist (Author)

New England Puritans from the former New Haven Colony settled Newark in 1666. Their fierce determination to establish scripture-based government in a close-knit township, with community control over admitting new inhabitants, often put them in direct conflict with New Jersey's proprietary government. Newark's egalitarian system for allocating land diverged sharply from the proprietors' headright approach, adapted from the West Indies and Carolina, that rewarded settler use of indentured servants and enslaved labor with larger distributions of land.

This study provides a fresh interpretation of the founding and settlement of Newark as a self-contained New England community, including their negotiations with Native Americans, formation of godly self-government, gradual allocation of township land, and introduction of slavery. To implement their New England way, Newarkers resisted the proprietary government to the point of rebellion, bringing into stark relief the inherent conflict between two sources of authority, one scriptural and community-based and the other royal and proprietary, and two systems of land distribution.

Author Biography

TIMOTHY J. CRIST is a co-founder and president of the Newark History Society. After earning his PhD in history from Cambridge University, he headed a bibliographical research project at Yale and then held executive positions at Prudential Financial. He has also served as chair of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the Newark Public Library.