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Giovanni da Verrazano is the first European to explore what later became New Jersey.
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A Dutch colony called New Netherland is established by Henry Hudson in “the northeast territory.” |
A Swedish colony is established along the Delaware River. |
| Dutch settlers opened the first copper mine in America in the Kittatinny Mountains. A few years later, they take over the Swedish colony (see 1638). | The British take over the Dutch colony and grant the land between the Delaware and the Hudson rivers to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. They name it “New Jersey” after the isle in the English Channel. |  |
Perth Amboy sees the first albeit occasional Anglican services, probably by the Reverend Alexander Innis. By 1698 there is actually something that passes for a church building at the end of a dock, on the Raritan River. |
| An estimated 12 Anglicans in the whole of the province of East Jersey, despite “baptized members and sympathizers [who] probably numbered hundreds.” | George Keith and John Talbot arrive under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. They discover that New Jersey has more than 40 religious groups in a population of 20,000. Welcome to the religious marketplace! |  Talbot
writes to the SPG about Keith: “He has written or printed
ten or a dozen books and sermons, much at his own charge, and
distributed them freely.” |
William Trent settles down in a self-titled village “Trent’s Town.” It eventually becomes, well, Trenton in 1790 and the state’s capital. |
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a trip to England, Talbot, despairing that the colonies would
ever see a resident bishop, is consecrated in London by non-Juring
bishops. |
Lewis Morris becomes the first governor of New Jersey. Think Morris County, Morristown, and Morris Plains. |
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Princeton University is founded. First located in Elizabeth, it later moves to Newark, finally settling in Princeton in 1756. |
| The parish of Christ Church, New Brunswick, is incorporated. It will see as its rectors some of New Jersey’s most prominent Anglican clergymen.
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Thomas Bradbury Chandler, rector of St John’s, Elizabeth, publishes his famous case for a bishop: “Appeal to the Public in Behalf of the Church of England in America.” | The “Corporation for the Relief of Widows and Children of Clergymen” is founded.The endowment continues in the diocese to this day. |
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Right
Onward >> |
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The
Lenni Lenape Indians were the earliest known residents of this
land, living here roughly 10,000 years before the advent of
any European explorers.
On return to New Jersey, his irregular episcopal
status is mostly kept a secret.
The
mesmerising George Whitefield goes on preaching missions in
New Jersey. The Anglican clergy give him the cold shoulder,
rarely allowing him use of their pulpits. 
One-fifth
of the men sailing to England for ordination die at sea. Episcopacy in
America still awaits “the permission
of a cross old gentleman at Canterbury,” as Benjamin Franklin
puts it.