18thC NEW JERSEY - roads & villages.kmz

18thC NEW JERSEY - roads & villages

map overlays
References: C.S. Hammond & Co.'s Colonial New Jersey Roads, Peter Wacker's Land & People, & Harold Kraft's Lenape Indians.
All maps are very rough estimates of where these Indian trails were.

Wacker Indian trails [conjecture]

Kraft composite [compare with Wacker]

Hammond map - north

Hammond map - south

Indian trails

[Hammond] Minisink Indian Trail

[Hammond] Indian trail - north

[Hammond] Indian trail - south

[Kraft] Maxatawny Trail

[Kraft] Hackensack Trail

Wacker - north

Pompton Trail

Council > Dover > Morristown

[Minisink Trail]

Manunkachunk Trail

Minisink Trail [Maxatawny]

Branch of Minisink

Tuckaraming Trail

Tuckaraming [future Old York Rd.]

Three Bridges > Clinton > Hampton

Assanpink [north - Newark > Suffern]

Assanpink [Princeton]

Assanpink [Rocky Hill]

Assanpink - Lower [Pensaukin]

Wacker - south

to Toms River [Great Minisink]

to Middletown

to Shrewsbury

Navesink Trail

from Trenton

Burlington Trail

Shamong Trail

Salem Trail / Pensaukin Trail

Manahawkin Trail

Camden >

Cohansey Trail

Bridgeton > Cape May

Toms River > Cape May

18thC roads & villages - northern New Jersey

Plank roads
A plank road is a dirt path or road covered with a series of wooden planks laid side-to-side to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on portions of the road and to reduce travel times with a uniform surface. Normally a toll was charged. These were common in colonial times.

Newark Plank Rd. - 1765
In 1765, an act of the Assembly of the Province of New Jersey stated:
"A road [to be built] from New-Ark to the publick road in the town of Bergen, leading to Poulos Hook, and establishing ferries over the two small rivers, Passaick and Hackensack" for the facilitation of travel and to access major markets.
This newer route was a shorter and faster way to get from New York to Elizabethtowne and beyond.

Newark > Bergen > Paulus Hook

Newark

Bergen

Paulus Hook

Hackensack Plank Rd.

Hoboken/Weehawken

North Bergen/Ridgefield

between rivers

Little Ferry/Hackensack

Hoboken

Hackensack

Paterson Plank Rd. - 18thC
This road was done in the 18thC in sections from Jersey City to Secaucus to Passaic to Paterson.

[Jersey City to Secaucus]

[Secaucus to Passaic]

[Passaic to Paterson]

Jersey City

Secaucus

Passaic

Paterson

Old Mine Road
This road in New Jersey and New York is said to be one of the oldest continuously used roads in the United States. It is 104 miles long and stretches from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to the vicinity of Kingston [Esopus], New York.

Untitled Path

Hoboken to Ramapough

Totowa

Pompton

Hoboken to NY line

Fort Lee

Hackensack to Hackettstown

Hackensack > Hackettstown [speculative]

Aquackanonk [Passaic]

Horseneck

Whippany-Hanover

Morristown

Mendham

Black River [Chester]

Hackettstown

Phillipsburg to Sussex

Sussex > Newton > Oxford > Phillipsburg [speculative]

Sussex Court House

Wallpack [Newton]

Newton > Hope > Phillipsburg

Log Gaol

Hope

Oxford

Phillipsburg

other villages north

Andover

Basking Ridge

Bedminster

Bloomingdale

Charlotteburg

Hibernia

Middlebush

Paramus

Parsippany

Ringwood

Rockaway

Schralerburg [Bergenfield?]

Second River

Suckasonny

Turkey [New Providence]

Vealtown [Bernardsville]

18thC roads & villages - central New Jersey

Old York Rd. - very early 1700s
[see Wiki entries for Old York Rd.]
Also called the King's Road or the King's Highway (as all main roads of any great size were), it was laid out in Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Wells Ferry [New Hope] between 1711 and 1771. It began at Fourth & Vine Streets in the center of the city. This area in the heart of town was lost to a 1960s redevelopment project, but the rest of the road location remains very much the same.
Its continuation in New Jersey was from Coryell's Ferry [Lambertville] to Elizabethtown and on to New York City. It took less time to finish the construction on this half because there was a larger network of existing roads to connect to the project. It was completed in 1764.
In 1764 a new road was built between Newark and Bergen which offered an alternative route from the earlier Staten Island one. This new road was shorter and faster.

New York City

Wall Street [early Dutch settlement]

Staten Island

Coryell's Ferry [Lambertville]

Philadelphia

approximate north route

Swift Sure Path - SCo.

Swift-Sure Path - HCo.

approximate south route

Swift-Sure Stage Line stops
It took two days to travel from New York to Philadelphia and the stage ran three times a week.
It was advertised as follows:
"TO THE PUBLIC
A New Stage Is Erected to go from New York to Philadelphia, by Way of Powles-Hook from thence through Newark and Elizabeth-Town to Bound-Brook and the North Branch of Rariton, to Coryell's Ferry, the only Ferry Between Newark and Philadelphia, noted for its Shortness and Conveniency over the River Delaware.
This Road is know by the Name of the Old York Road through the finest, most pleasant and best inhabited Part of New Jersey. It is proposed to set off from Powles-Hook every Tuesday Morning by Sun-rise.
The Waggon from Philadelphia sets out also on every Tuesday Morning from Josiah F. Davenport's at the Sign of the Bunch of Grapes in Third Street and proceeds over Coryell's Ferry to the South Branch of Rariton where they meet the Newark Waggon. The Price for each Passenger from Powles-Hook to Philadelphia will be Twenty Shillings Proc, or Ten Shillings to each Waggon, Ferriage to the Passengers free. All possible care shall be taken that Justice be done the Public that shall please to employ
Thier very humble Servants,
Joseph Crane
Josiah F. Davenport
September 25, 1769
New York Gazette"

Pennsylvania

4th & Vine Street
Start of Old York Road.

Germantown Ave. & Westmoreland
Picks up Old York Rd. from downtown Philadelphia.

Old York Rd. - PA

Germantown

Jenkintown

Abington

Willow Grove

Hatboro

Warminster

Hartsville

Hartsville deviation

Bridge Valley

Bridge Valley deviation

York Rd. [realignments]

Furlong

Buckingham

Lahaska

Wells Ferry [New Hope]

Hunterdon Co.

Amwell Meeting [Mt. Airy]

Ringoes

Larison's Corner

Manners [Reaville]

Three Bridges

Centerville
Centerville grew up because of a tavern that marked the halfway point on the Swift Sure Stage Line route from New York to Philadelphia. It took two days to make the journey, so this was a logical stopping point for travelers. The tavern was in operation as early as 1829.
[Wiki, HCPN]

Somerset Co.

Raritan

Middle Brook [Somerville]

Bound Brook

villages - route north

Quibbletown [New Market]

Plainfield

Scotch Plains

Westfield

Cranes Ford [Cranford]

Elizabeth Pointe

Holland's Hook/Milliken [Port Ivory]
Begining in 1736, a ferry ran from Holland's Hook [Howland Hook] to Elizabeth Pointe.
[Wiki]

Bergen Point

Powles [Paulus] Hook

Newark to Elizabethtowne

Trenton-Easton Pike

Trent Town

Easton

Trenton-Easton Turnpike - lower

Trenton-Easton Turnpike - middle

Trenton-Easton Turnpike - upper

Warren Co. section

Penny Town/Penning Town

Quaker Meetinghouse [Quakertown]

Hoff's [Pitt's Town]

Hickory

Johnson's [Bloomsbury]

Brunswick-Easton Pike
From New Brunswick, the pike came through the villages listed below. The Brunswick-Easton Stage ran round-trips daily from Somerville to New Brunswick.

"New Jersey Turnpike"

[New] Brunswick

Somerville

Whitehouse

Potterstown

Lebanon

Bonnell's Tavern [Clinton]

Vansickles

Jugtown

Sidney
Shown on maps of the Colonial period. This was a diversion on the way to Pittstown where it connected with the Trenton-Easton Turnpike.
1776 map
1780 map

Old Brunswick Road/New Brunswick Pike

Old Brunswick Road - 1698
Ran from Elizabeth[town] to Rahway, Woodbridge, New Brunswick, Kingston, Princeton [Princetown], and Lawrenceville [Maidenhead] to Trenton.

Assunpink Trail [Old Dutch Rd./ Lincoln Highway]
One of many native American trails across the area, the Assunpink Trail stretched from the Raritan River in the north to the Delaware River at Trent Towne. In the late 17th century Dutch trappers and traders from New Netherland used the trail between their settlements on the Hudson River and those on the Delaware. They were followed by early permanent settlers who began populating the interior in the early 1700s.
After the British takeover of the colony in 1664 and the establishment of the Province of New Jersey, the trail became a part of a major thoroughfare between Philadelphia and Perth Amboy, capital of East Jersey and major port.
By 1698 it was known as a Kings Highway, and in the early 1700s had been cleared and widened. It was chartered as a turnpike road in 1807.

Elizabeth[town]

Rahway

Woodbridge

King's Town

Prince Town

Maidenhead [Lawrenceville]

Assunpink Bridge

New Brunswick Pike
What is now US 1 between Trenton and New Brunswick was originally chartered as the Trenton and New Brunswick Turnpike in 1803.

18thC roads & villages - sourthern New Jersey

Burlington to Salem

Burlington > Salem

Bordentown

Burlington

Moorestown

Haddonfield

Gloucester

Woodbury

Raccoon [Swedesboro]

Salem

Salem to Dorchester

Quinton

Bridgeton

Salem > Greenwich

Hancock's Bridge

Greenwich

Greenwich > Fairfield > Dorcester

Fairfield [Fairton]

Dorchester

New Stage Rd. > Dennis > CM Courthouse

Burlington to Cape May

Black Horse [locate]

Ongs

Leeds > Somers Point > Cape May

Chestnut Neck

Leeds

Somers Point

Cape May

South Amboy to Burlington

South Amboy > Spottswood > Cranbury > Allentown > Burlington

South Amboy

Spotswood

Cranbury

Allentown

South Amboy to Shrewsbury

South Amboy > Shrewsbury

[Perth] Amboy

Middletown

Shrewsbury

Tinton

Toms River

Waretown

Middletown to Allentown

Middletown > Monmouth Cthse > Allentown

Monmouth Courthouse [Freehold]

Marlboro

Imlaystown

other villages south

Alloway

Ayrstown

Batsto

Billingsport

Brotherton [Shamong?]

Coopers Ferry [Camden]

Finns Point

Green Bank

Mount Holly

Penns Neck

Quaker Bridge

Red Bank/Ft. Mercer