Dutch again and again, every time they
attempted to reestablish Pavonia. This kept the Dutch out of East Jersey
until 1660, when they succeeded in establishing Bergen between Newark
Bay and the Hudson.

The Dutch authority in America was overthrown in 1664 by Charles II,
who had already given all New Jersey to his brother the Duke of York.
Colonel Richard Nicolls commanded the British expedition that seized the
Dutch possessions; and he had been given full power as deputy governor
of all the Duke of York's vast territory.

Meantime the New England Puritans seem to have kept their eyes on East
Jersey as a desirable region, and the moment the Connecticut Puritans
heard of Nicolls' appointment, they applied to him for a grant of a
large tract of land on Newark Bay. In the next year, 1665, he gave them
another tract from the mouth of the Raritan to Sandy Hook; and soon the
villages of Shrewsbury and Middletown were started.

Meantime, however, unknown to Nicolls, the Duke of York in England had
given all of New Jersey to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. As has
already been pointed out, they had divided the province between
them, and East Jersey had fallen to Carteret, who sent out, with some
immigrants, his relative Philip Carteret as governor. Governor Carteret
was of course very much surprised to find so much of the best land
already occupied by the excellent and thrifty Yankees. As a consequence,
litigation and sometimes civil war over this unlucky mistake lasted for
a hundred years. Many of the Yankee settlers under the Nicolls grant
refused to pay quitrents to Carteret or his successors and, in spite of
a commission of inquiry from England in 1751 and a chancery suit, they
held their own until the Revolution of 1776 extinguished all British
authority.

There was therefore from the beginning a strong New England tinge in
East Jersey which has lasted to this day. Governor Carteret established
a village on Newark Bay which still bears the name Elizabeth, which
he gave it in honor of the wife of the proprietor, and he made it the
capital. There were also immigrants from Scotland and England. But
Puritans from Long Island and New England continued to settle round
Newark Bay. By virtue either of character or numbers, New Englanders
were evidently the controlling element, for they established the New
England system of town government, and imposed strict Connecticut laws,
making twelve crimes punishable with death. S