The Quintipartite Deed was a legal document that split the

Province of New Jersey The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial history of the United States, Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1776. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherla ...

, dividing it into the Province of

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 ...

and the Province of

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. ...

from 1674 until 1702. On July 1, 1676,

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

, Gawen Lawrie (who served from 1683 to 1686 as Deputy to Governor

Robert Barclay Robert Barclay (23 December 16483 October 1690) was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was a son of Col. David Barclay, Laird of Urie, and his ...

), Nicholas Lucas, and Edward Byllynge executed a deed with 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. ...

known as the Quintipartite Deed, in which the territory was divided into two parts, East Jersey being taken by Carteret and

by Byllynge and his trustees. The Deed divided New Jersey by a straight line from "the Northernmost Branch of said Bay or River of De la Ware which is in forty-one Degrees and forty minutes of latitude…unto the most southwardly poynt of the East syde of Little Egge Harbour." Almost as soon as the Deed was signed, disputes arose over the exact dividing point of the two provinces. The first attempt at resolving the issue, the Keith line, was created by Surveyor-General George Keith in 1686, and runs North-Northwest from the southern part of Little Egg Harbor, passing just north of Tuckerton, and reaching upward to a point on the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

which is just north of the

Delaware Water Gap The Delaware Water Gap is a water gap on the border of the U.S. states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where the Delaware River cuts through a large ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. The gap makes up the southern portion of the Delaware Wa ...

. More accurate surveys and maps were made to further resolve property disputes. This resulted in the Thornton line, drawn around 1696, and the Lawrence line, drawn around 1743, which was adopted as the final line for legal purposes.

Keith Line

The Keith line was created by Surveyor General George Keith in 1686, when he ran the first survey to mark out the border between West Jersey and East Jersey. The Keith line was intended to clarify disputes resulting from the 1676 Quintipartite Deed. The Keith Line runs north-northwest from the southern part of Little Egg Harbor Township, passing just north of Tuckerton. The line was to continue upward to a point on the

which is just north of the

, but Keith was stopped in his survey by Governor of West Jersey

Daniel Coxe Daniel Coxe III ( – 19 January 1730) was an English physician and governor of West Jersey from 1687 to 1688 and 1689 to 1692. Biography The Coxe family traced their lineage to a Daniel Coxe who lived in Somersetshire, England, in the 13th ce ...

, when Keith had reached the South Branch of the

Raritan River The Raritan River is a river of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its Drainage basin, watershed drains much of the mountainous areas in the North Jersey, northern and Central Jersey, central sections of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay near ...

in what is now Three Bridges in Readington Township. Today the Keith Line is still visible and can be seen via a map of New Jersey's

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. Remnants of the most operative line Keith Line can still be seen in the county boundaries between Burlington and

Ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

and between Hunterdon and

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, as well as in a number of municipal boundaries within Mercer and

counties, and the alignment of Province Line Road in Mercer County. In contemporary culture, the Keith Line has been cited as marking the approximate boundary between spheres of influence for

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

sports teams and

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

sports teams; especially in the rivalry between the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

and the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

Coxe-Barclay Line

Coxe stopped Keith, claiming that his line veered too far to the west. To finish the border, Governor Coxe, and his East Jersey counterpart, Governor

met in London to set a compromise boundary following the South and North Branches of the Raritan River, the Lamington (or Black) River, a straight line to the head of the

Passaic River The Passaic River ( or ) is a river, approximately long, in North Jersey, northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburb ...

, along the Pompton and Pequannock Rivers to the latter's head, and then a straight line northeast to New Jersey–New York border. The East Jersey proprietors disowned this line in 1695 and it was formally rescinded by the colonial legislature in 1718.Snyder, John Parr. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968. (Trenton, New Jersey: Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969). Today, the Coxe–Barclay line survives in the eastern boundaries of present-day Morris County and Sussex County and the northern boundary of Somerset County.

Thornton Line

The Thornton Line was surveyed in 1696 in an attempt to replace the errors of the

Keith line The Quintipartite Deed was a legal document that split the Province of New Jersey, dividing it into the Province of West Jersey and the Province of East Jersey from 1674 until 1702. On July 1, 1676, William Penn, Gawen Lawrie (who served fr ...

(1686) and its amendment the Coxe–Barclay Line (1688) which was disowned by the East Jersey proprietors in 1695. While it appears on Worlidge's map of the two Jersey colonies, it was never formally adopted.

Lawrence Line

The Lawrence Line was created by surveyor John Lawrence in 1743 and sought to offer final resolution to the division between the two proprietary colonies. Although West Jersey was merged back with East Jersey in 1702, the previous surveys were still disputed as drawn too far west. Lawrence was commissioned in 1743 to resolve the long-standing disputes. Over a century later, in 1855, the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases cha ...

adopted the Lawrence Line as the final arbiter in all property settlements in ''Cornelius and Empson v. Giberson'', 25 N.J.L 1 (Sup. Ct. 1855). Today, the legacy of the Lawrence line is extant in the boundaries of several New Jersey municipalities, including Walpack Township, Sandyston Township, Stillwater Township, Hampton Township, and Green Township in Sussex County in the northwestern region of the state. In 1995, a group of surveyors attempted to plot the true coordinates of the line using

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

.Aun, Fred
"A Fine Old Line Across New Jersey"
in ''Coordinate'' (Journal of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors) Spring 1993, Volume 15, No. 1. Retrieved 3 May 2013.

Notes

Between the two branches of the Raritan, the plantations adjoining the river that were charted in a 1685 map of the Raritan were included in East Jersey. The line behind these plantations was to be extended on the same course, deviating to match property lines, until hitting the North Branch of the Raritan; however, the true extension of this line struck the Lamington before striking the North Branch, and so no part of the North Branch became part of the boundary line.

References

External links

Council of Proprietors of West Jersey – Origin and HistoryNew Jersey Pinelands on article on the division of East and West Jersey

{{Thirteen Colonies Pre-statehood history of New Jersey Legal documents 1676 in law Borders of New Jersey