Patents and Deeds and Other Early Records of New Jersey 1664-1703

By: William Nelson, Pub. 1899, Reprinted 2018, 770 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #0-89308-312-7. This book contains abstracts of all the known surveys, patents, and deeds of Proprietary New Jersey (1664-1703). There are tens of thousands of documents pertaining to title and transfer of lands are here sorted and calendared, each revealing the names of grantors and grantees, buyers and sellers, relatives and neighbors. These records are arranged under the headings of East and West Jersey. The indexes reference approximately 50,000 persons. Most of these references give a specific place of residence and also a precise description of the survey, including date, location, and acreage. The researcher will discover abstracts of original grants, concessions, and orders of the first Proprietors and Governors. These records describe the circumstances under which the first settlements were made in the Colony, the evolution of the government, along with the origin of the land titles in the Colony.