Concession and Agreement (full title: ''The Concession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New Caesarea, or New Jersey, to and With All and Every the Adventurers and All Such as Shall Settle or Plant There'') was a 1664 document that provided
religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...
in the
colony of New Jersey. It was issued as a proclamation for the structure of the government for the colony written in 1664 by the two proprietors, Lord
John Berkeley and Sir
George Carteret
Vice admiral (Royal Navy), Vice-Admiral Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet ( – 14 January 1680 New Style, N.S.) was a royalist statesman in Jersey and England, who served in the Clarendon ministry, Clarendon Ministry as Treasurer of the Navy. ...
.
The document promised religious freedom to all inhabitants of New Jersey, and also declared that the proprietors would be in charge of appointing the
provincial governors. The first such governor to be appointed was
Philip Carteret
Rear-Admiral Philip Carteret, Seigneur of Trinity (22 January 1733 – 21 July 1796) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who participated in two of the British navy's circumnavigation expeditions in 1764–66 and 1766–69.
Biography
Carte ...
. The goal of the document was to entice more settlers to farm in New Jersey, so that the two proprietors could earn more profit by collecting
quit-rent
Quit rent, quit-rent, or quitrent is a tax or land tax imposed on occupants of freehold or leased land in lieu of services to a higher landowning authority, usually a government or its assigns.
Under English feudal law, the payment of quit ren ...
s, annual fees paid on granted lands. To encourage such settlement, they allowed religious freedom, which was not available under the policies of the English government.
See also
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Colonial history of New Jersey
European colonization of New Jersey started soon after the 1609 exploration of its coast and bays by Henry Hudson. Netherlands, Dutch and Sweden, Swedish colonists settled parts of the present-day state as New Netherland and New Sweden.
In 1664, ...
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Elizabethtown
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Elizabethtown Tract The Elizabethtown Tract was a property that was purchased on October 28, 1664, by John Baily, Daniel Denton and Luke Watson from the Native Americans that is in the area of (and surrounding) present-day Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Native American w ...
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East Jersey
The Province of East Jersey, along with the Province of West Jersey, between 1674 and 1702 in accordance with the Quintipartite Deed, were two distinct political divisions of the Province of New Jersey, which became the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...
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West Jersey
West Jersey and East Jersey were two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. The political division existed for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often ...
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List of colonial governors of New Jersey
The territory which would later become the state of New Jersey was settled by Netherlands, Dutch and Sweden, Swedish Settler, colonists in the early seventeenth century. In 1664, at the onset of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, England, English force ...
External links
Text of the Concession and AgreementWest Jersey Proprietors Meeting House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Concession And Agreement
Legal history of New Jersey
Pre-statehood history of New Jersey
History of the Thirteen Colonies
Government documents
1665 in New Jersey