Part of the American History and
Genealogy Project
Old Gloucester County Formation and Divisions
By Frank H. Stewart
Old Gloucester County included the
present counties of Gloucester, Camden and Atlantic. Atlantic
County was created in 1837 and Camden County in 1844.
Prior to the formation of Atlantic
County, Old Gloucester extended from the Delaware River to the
Atlantic Ocean and at one time large quantities of bog iron was
dug out of the swamps and was used to make cannon and cannon
balls for the wars of the Revolution and 1812.
In 1694, eight years after the
inhabitants of Gloucester County had formed the County, the
following law was passed by the Province of West Jersey: "Be it
enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives in this
Assembly met and assembled and by the authority of the same that
the two distinctions or divisions heretofore called the third
and fourth tenths be and is hereby laid into one county, named
and from henceforth to be called the County of Gloucester, the
limits whereof bounded with the aforesaid river called Crapwell
on the North and the river Berkley (formerly called Old Mans
Creek) on the South."
The same year (1694) the people of the
Great Egg Harbour section were allotted to Gloucester County.
The early plan of dividing West New Jersey into tenths met with
considerable difficulty and was soon abandoned.
The third or Irish tenth got its name
from the Irish Quakers who settled there. It extended from
Pensauken to Timber Creeks. The fourth tenth extended from
Timber to Oldmans Creeks and probably got their boundaries from
the deeds given by the Indians. To the best of my knowledge the
boundaries were established by common consent rather than by
law, although an effort was made to divide the frontage on the
Delaware River and each tenth was to extend back into the woods
far enough to make it contain 64,000 acres.
New Jersey
AHGP
Source:
Old
Gloucester County Its Formation and Its Divisions, New Jersey
Society of Pennsylvania, Volume 1, Compiled by Frank H. Stewart,
1917.
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