OK: As we approach the 250th celebration of our nation’s founding, it’s time for a Pop Quiz!
Name three causes of the American Revolution?
(Cue the “Jeopardy” counting-down-30-seconds music…)
OK, yes, the events leading to the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party…
Something about a Stamp Act?…
And of course, “taxation without representation!”
I think we’re all generally familiar with the basic reasons for our colonial ancestors to protest and eventually engage in a civil war with their British colonizers.
But the reality is, it was also the result of decades of many local, regional and world events, all contributing to an extremely complicated situation involving exercises of power, infringement of rights, mounting monumental debt, disagreements regarding land and property, protests, unrest, violence, and war.
In contrast to analyzing all of those many complicated reasons, I am interested in understanding, if possible, the LOCAL reasons for individuals to become increasingly committed to engaging in disagreement, confrontation, and ultimately battle with their neighbors. And regretfully, living in this moment in 2026 provides insights that I might otherwise have never considered.
So, there’s a good deal of background to keep in mind as one tries to understand the local angle. And I must acknowledge right here that one source for a more thorough understanding of this is our own Ewing resident and Revolutionary War historian Larry Kidder’s deeply researched books, especially A People Harassed and Exhausted with regard to pre-Revolutionary Ewing and Hopewell. Thank you, Larry, for your work and thorough explanations!
So let’s jump in. In the 17th century, Britain took vast swaths of land in the “New World” from the Dutch, including land that would one day be New Jersey. [Of course, this “new world” was not at all “new” to the original residents, the Lenape and other Native Americans].
The British royals doled out enormous hunks of land as gifts to their wealthy aristocratic friends. These wealthy property holders or “proprietors”, holding land in either “East” Jersey or “West” Jersey, could then profit from the sale of these lands to others. Some were other wealthy individuals, but some of those “others” included second and third English sons, who, unlikely to be heirs of their families’ estates, sought to break free of the hierarchical British class system and emigrate to find fresh opportunities in a new land.
One such proprietor, or actually family of proprietors, was Dr. Daniel Coxe (1640-1730), physician to the royals in London, and three or four successive generations of his family. Dr. Coxe never travelled to America, but his sons and grandsons did, and over several decades they oversaw the sale of parcels of West Jersey land in present-day Hopewell, Ewing, Trenton, Lawrence and surrounding areas in “Nova Cesaria” or colonial New Jersey. Dr. Coxe also owned land in what would be New York state and Virginia, and even was named the Governor of West Jersey for several years — but never stepped foot on this continent.
Hopeful and enterprising young men and their families purchased land from either Dr. Coxe or the West Jersey Society. Early on, they were sometimes charged a “quitrent” (an additional rent on purchased property) of a hen or some other minor item by the Coxe family.
However, they confidently set up farms or artisan trades in the central Nova Cesaria area, believing as many did in the Era of Enlightenment that they personally owned their land. Unfortunately, at the time, the manner by which one’s property was recorded was not always precise.
Procedures for surveying land and recording deeds varied from place to place. To add to the problem, evidently no deed was recorded when Dr. Coxe, seeking to make a hefty profit, sold his sizable land holdings to the West Jersey Society of Proprietors, the “local agents” in this part of the colonies.
Nevertheless, In 1702. Dr. Coxe’s son, Colonel Daniel Coxe (1673-1739, and just one of several successive “Daniel Coxes” in the family line) came to Nova Cesaria, and sued local land owners, claiming they had only purchased the right to use the land, not to own it. Farmers and others were justifiably furious.
And thus began decades of local property conflicts which we will further explore next month.
Helen Kull is an Advisor with the Ewing Township Historic Preservation Society.
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