Goodspeed Histories: The Haddon Tract, Part I

I have recently finished reading a book titled Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh, 1680-1762, Building the Quaker Community of Haddonfield, New Jersey, 1701-1762, by Jeffery M. Dorwart and Elizabeth A. Lyons.

It is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the life of one of West New Jersey’s early settlers—a young woman who came to the Province on her own in 1701.

I am not the only one intrigued by her history. The people of Haddonfield in Camden County, where Elizabeth lived, have extolled her virtues for many years, sometimes to excess, wandering into the realm of legend. Thankfully, the authors of Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh have relied on careful documentary research to give us a true history of Elizabeth’s life, along with that of her father John Haddon and her husband John Estaugh.

It is not easy to gather information on the lives of New Jersey’s proprietors, especially the ones who remained in England, as John Haddon did. Sources are not easy to come by. The authors have succeeded in giving us the history of a real family, not a mythical one

My focus here will not be on the history of Haddonfield, but rather on a large proprietary tract that was surveyed for Elizabeth’s father, John Haddon, in 1712. It was located in Amwell Township, Hunterdon County. Although the survey was made in John Haddon’s name, it was Elizabeth who applied for the survey on her father’s behalf, and Elizabeth and her husband who managed the property.1

For the full article CLICK HERE.

(1. I had debated categorizing this article as “In My Library,” but realized it really belongs with other articles I have written about proprietary owners and early settlers of Hunterdon County.)