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 is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...
in the
colony of New Jersey
The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1783. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherland but came under English rule after th ...
. 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 Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet ( – 14 January 1680 N.S.) was a royalist statesman in Jersey and England, who served in the Clarendon Ministry as Treasurer of the Navy. He was also one of the original lords proprietor of the ...
. The document promised
religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the 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, Trinity Manor, Jersey – 21 July 1796, Southampton) was a British naval officer and explorer who participated in two of the Royal Navy's circumnavigation expeditions in 176 ...
.
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 feudal law, the payment of quit rent (Latin ...
s, annual fees paid on granted lands. To encourage such settlement, they allowed religious freedom, which was not available underneath 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 Sir Henry Hudson. Dutch and Swedish colonists settled parts of the present-day state as New Netherland and New Sweden. In 1664 the entire area, ...
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Elizabethtown
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Elizabethtown Tract
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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 ofte ...
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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 Dutch and Swedish colonists in the early seventeenth century. In 1664, at the onset of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, English forces under Richard Nicolls ousted the Du ...
External links
Text of the Concession and AgreementWest Jersey Proprietors Meeting House
Legal history of New Jersey
Pre-statehood history of New Jersey
History of the Thirteen Colonies
Government documents
1665 in New Jersey
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