The East of Jersey: History of The General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey ~John Cunningham ~Colonial Land Titles

Title: The East of Jersey: A History of The General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey
Author: John T. Cunningham
Publication: Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, 1992

Description: Green cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Interior is clean and unmarked. Illustrated. Index Dust jacket shows rubbed areas, particularly around extremities; in an archival mylar sleeve. Printed letter from the NJHS tucked in. xi + 190 pages. 11.5 x 8.5 inches.

''The East of Jersey is the first book to explore the three-centuries-long history of one of the nation's truly unique institutions--the General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey. Established in 1684, this proprietary organization assume the right to own the land and to govern the people in the eastern portion of the colony of New Jersey. One of several proprietary provinces created by the kings of England, New Jersey is the only state whose colonial proprietary bodes survived the upheavals of the Revolutionary War and continued in existence to the present day.

The East of Jersey explains not only how the East Jersey proprietors came into being, but also how their rights and claims derived from a complicated chain of events extending back to the English ''discovery'' of North America in the fifteenth century. Author John T. Cunningham's perspective places the East Jersey proprietors within the broad panorama of England's efforts to explore and settle the New World.

Considered by some to have been an anachronism, the proprietors nevertheless maintained their institutional identity and remained in the business of selling land through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On occasion during that long span of time proprietors and others suggested disbanding the organization and putting its vital functions and invaluable records in other hands. But pride, perseverance, historical consciousness, self-interest, and the belief that the proprietors performed a valuable service outweighed these suggestions.

As a result, New Jersey today has two proprietary organizations with roots planted in the 1680s--the General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey and its West Jersey counterpart. The East of Jersey examines the often contentious relations between these two bodies. The book also presents a vivid cast of characters: individuals who shaped events and proprietary policies for over three hundred years.

The East of Jersey is not a dry recitation of real estate transactions. Rather it is a dramatic narrative of generations of individuals whose mixed motives and interests have helped to create the rich history of the state of New Jersey. By focusing on one of the nation's oldest institutions, John T. Cunningham has revealed a most important, though long neglected, aspect of New Jersey's past. He shows how, in its Garden State setting, the past continues to influence the present and to shape the future.''

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Jacket Condition: Very Good

ISBN: 0911020241

Keywords: land titles, boundaries, history, colony, colonial, real estate,