East Jersey
New Jersey was formally separated into two provinces, East Jersey and West Jersey, for the 28 years between 1674 and 1702.
Where West Jersey involved a fairly focused group of people interested in establishing a Quaker colony, East Jersey felt the influence of a variety of cultures early on. There had been Dutch settlement prior to the English conquest in 1664 but the Dutch had mostly abandoned the west side of the Hudson River after conflicts with the native people.
Between 1664 and 1674 most settlement was from other parts of the Americas, especially New England and Long Island. Elizabethtown and Newark in particular had a strong Puritan character. South of the Raritan River the Monmouth tract was developed primarily by Quakers from Long Island.
Frequent disputes over land ownership and quitrents due to the proprietors plagued the province up until its surrender to Queen Anne's government in 1702. Although a number of the East Jersey proprietors in England were Quakers and the governor through most of the 1680s was the famous Quaker Robert Barclay, the Quaker influence on government was not significant. Even the immigration instigated by Barclay was oriented toward promoting Scottish influence more than Quaker influence.