In June 1664 James, Duke of York of Great Britain, granted a huge expanse of land between the Delaware and Connecticut Rivers to his friends John Berkeley and George Carteret. Soon after, in April 1665, Governor Nicholls of New York granted part of the same land to twelve men who became known as the Patentees of Monmouth. Shrewsbury, Portland, and Middletown were the first towns they created. It would be decades before these overlapping claims were settled.
When Carteret died in 1679, his “East Jersey” had to be sold to pay off his debts. Twelve Proprietors, including William Penn, bought most of it in 1681. Few of them ever visited their North American holdings.
Officially incorporated in 1693, Shrewsbury Township covered an area of almost 1,000 square miles extending to the north to the Navesink River, south to include all of present-day Ocean County, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and west to the present-day border of Monmouth County. It retained its size and scope until 1750, when Stafford Township was formed, taking away most of present-day Ocean County.
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Among the early settlers in Shrewsbury were Col. Lewis Morris of Barbados, Judah Allen from Massachusetts Colony, and Joseph Wardell from New Hampshire. Morris was the largest landowner in East Jersey, and the latter two would play an important part in the creation of the Four Corners area at the very heart of the Village of Shrewsbury.
