Early Settlement in Cumberland County

Click here for a list of Cumberland County's early settlers

At the time of the first European settlements in the 17th century, the area that now is Cumberland County was inhabited by a small number of Lenni Lenape Indians who migrated from place to place. Their names remain in the Manumuskin and Menantico Creeks, and their artifacts have been excavated locally for centuries. No conflict is recorded between Indians and Europeans here, and by 1700 almost all had left the area.

By the fourth decade of the 17th century Swedes had moved along the banks of the Delaware Bay and the Delaware River -- a few of them on the east side. Family names such as Hendrickson, Errickson and Peterson still survive from these Swedish settlers. At least one log cabin built by these people in Lower Hopewell Township remains and may be seen on the grounds of the Gibbon House Museum in Greenwich.

The Swedes were conquered by the Dutch in 1654. No Dutch buildings survive, although family names such as Vanaman, Conover and Polhamus, of Dutch derivation still exist in Cumberland County.

Meaningful permanent settlement in what is now called Cumberland County dates from 1675 when John Fenwick purchased his tenth of West New Jersey from Lord John Berkeley. Fenwick established the town of Salem that same year, and in his will dated 1683 called for a second town to be built on the Cohansey Creek. Quakers came from Salem first, but were soon followed by Calvinists from New England and Long Island, naming the village Greenwich for the Connecticut community.

Immediately then, there were Quakers and the New Englanders who were Presbyterians and Baptists. By 1720 the Baptists had subdivided into a Seventh Day group as well as those who continued to observe the First Day as their Sabbath. Great religious diversity among such small numbers, and absolute religious tolerance were ever the rule. Baptists tended to buy lands in Hopewell Township, while the Presbyterians came first to Fairfield and then moved out to purchase new lands in Greenwich and Deerfield Townships. Quakers remained in Greenwich for the most part. Log Meeting Houses, which were later replaced by more substantial buildings were built by the Quakers in Greenwich, by the Baptists in two locations in Hopewell, and by the Presbyterians in Greenwich, Fairfield and Deerfield.