Page "Hoboken, New Jersey" Paragraph 8

Hoboken was originally an island, surrounded by the Hudson River on the east and tidal lands at the foot of the New Jersey Palisades on the west.

It was a seasonal campsite in the territory of the Hackensack, a phratry of the Lenni Lenape, who used the serpentine rock found there to carve pipes.

The first recorded European to lay claim to the area was Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who anchored his ship the Halve Maen ( Half Moon ) at Weehawken Cove on October 2, 1609.

Soon after it became part of the province of New Netherland.

In 1630, Michael Pauw, a burgemeester ( mayor ) of Amsterdam and a director of the Dutch West India Company, received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would plant a colony of not fewer than fifty persons within four years on the west bank of what had been named the North River.

Three Lenape sold the land that was to become Hoboken ( and part of Jersey City ) for 80 fathoms ( 146 m ) of wampum, 20 fathoms ( 37 m ) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle and half a barrel of beer.

These transactions, variously dated as July 12, 1630 and November 22, 1630, represent the earliest known conveyance for the area.

Pauw ( whose Latinized name is Pavonia ) failed to settle the land and he was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633.

It was later acquired by Hendrick Van Vorst, who leased part of the land to Aert Van Putten, a farmer.

In 1643, north of what would be later known as Castle Point, Van Putten built a house and a brewery, North America ’ s first.

In series of Indian and Dutch raids and reprisals, Van Putten was killed and his buildings destroyed, and all residents of Pavonia ( as the colony was known ) were ordered back to New Amsterdam.

Deteriorating relations with the Lenape, its isolation as an island, or relatively long distance from New Amsterdam may have discouraged more settlement.

In 1664, the English took possession of New Amsterdam with little or no resistance, and in 1668 they confirmed a previous land patent by Nicolas Verlett.

In 1674 – 75 the area became part of East Jersey, and the province was divided into four administrative districts, Hoboken becoming part of Bergen County, where it remained until the creation of Hudson County on February 22, 1840.

English-speaking settlers ( some relocating from New England ) interspersed with the Dutch, but it remained scarcely populated and agrarian.

Eventually, the land came into the possession of William Bayard, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, but became a Loyalist Tory after the fall of New York in 1776 when the city and surrounding areas, including the west bank of the renamed Hudson River, were occupied by the British.

At the end of the Revolutionary War, Bayard ’ s property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey.

In 1784, the land described as " William Bayard's farm at Hoebuck " was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens for £ 18, 360 ( then $ 90, 000 ).