CNJ+ March 2024

The Historic Towns of Chesterfield/Crosswicks A PART OF AMERICA’S OLDEST HISTORY By Pam Teel

There is so much history right in our own backyards that people don’t know about, so much to learn about within a short reach. If you like to visit quaint old towns and marvel at the old his toric structures that are still standing, the Chesterfield, Crosswicks area is a quick drive and drenched in history. If you go down route 537 past Great Adventure, you will come to the area known as Chesterfield. (Just follow the signs.) Just two and a half miles away from Chesterfield you will come to Crosswicks. (A few miles short of the Hamilton Marketplace area) Neither town has a significant down town, but if you like history, there is a lot to see. Still relatively rural, with a mix of old and new sprinkled in, the landscape of these small pristine towns

The Quakers chose this area where there was already an established Len ni Lenape community nearby. In ex change for Indian land, the Quakers of fered trade and peace to their neighbor. The name Chesterfield comes from the 2nd Earl of Chesterfield whose seat of Chesterfield was in Derbyshire, where many of the Quakers originally came from. Reformed by royal charter on January 10th, 1713, the town was in corporated as one of New Jersey’s ini tial 104 townships by the Township Act of 1798. Portions of the township were taken to form New Hanover Township and Bordentown Borough. In the winter of 1776, members of the colonial troops under General Cadwalader occupied Crosswicks and camped at the Quaker Meeting House

Crosswicks Friends Meeting House

has done its best to secure its history as a reminder of the past. Everywhere around you, you see the changing scenario, forests being cut down- giving rise to townhouses, corporations going after large portions of land to build warehouses, and strip malls going up at increasing rates. Together, town to town, we must fight to save our countryside and preserve our past. Chesterfield Township, located in Burlington County, is made up of three distinct communities. Chesterfield, Crosswicks, (coming from the Leni Lenape word Crossweeksung, meaning “House of Separation”), and Sykes ville. (Originally called Plattsburg.) Chesterfield, originally called Recklesstown, was named after one of its founders, Joseph Reckless. Reckless constructed one of the first houses in the village, but it was destroyed by fire in 1937. His grandsons, Anthony and Robert, fought in the Revolutionary War. It remained Recklesstown up until 1888 when Congressman Anthony Bullock changed the name to Chester field to be the same as the township’s name and to avoid ridicule.

after successfully crossing the Delaware at Bristol, Pennsylvania, and march ing from the city of Burlington. The troops stayed in Crosswicks until the first of January 1777, when they were then ordered to march to Trenton to join Washington’s troops in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Dr. Benja min Rush delivered the letter from General Washington Cadwalader at 1:00 am. Cadwalader immediately woke up his troops and sent them marching on to Trenton. Later in the war, in June 1778, British troops under General Howe marched through Crosswicks from Burlington on their way to what would be the Battle of Monmouth. While in Crosswicks, the British now occupied the meeting house and engaged in a small skirmish with the Americans, who were camped on the north bank of Crosswicks Creek, trying to impede the British crossing. The skirmish resulted in the death of one man, Job Clev enger, who was shot while attempting to cut away the bridge.

Brigadier General in the New Jersey Mili tia, Philemon Dickinson, and William Max well, a brigadier general in the Continental Army, managed to hold back the march of British troops from proceeding to Trenton. The meeting house was hit three times with cannonball fire. One left an imprint on the brick wall. There is a plaque in front of the meeting house with information about the history of the meeting house, including its Revolutionary War use. The cannonball is permanently affixed to the house structure where it originally hit. There are many old structures still stand ing today that would be interesting to a history buff. I would advise going on to the

The area was settled in 1677 by a group of Quakers who built their homes in the Crosswicks section of town, which is the oldest of the three villages. The Quakers had fled England, primarily from the north and midlands, to escape persecution by the British Crown. Quakers were typical Eu ropeans to have settled in this area of Bur lington County, which was once known as West Jersey. Major industries of Burling ton County included agriculture, glass, and iron. Chesterfield Township was primarily agricultural, and livestock.

Bullock Mansion

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MARCH 2024