New Albion Colony

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NEW ALBION COLONY

NEW ALBION COLONY. The New Albion colony was a project that never materialized. Had well-intentioned plans come to fruition, the colony would have encompassed Long Island and all of New Jersey by virtue of a charter issued on 21 June 1634 to Sir Edmund Plowden. The precise terms of the charter have been variously interpreted by historians. Additionally, what became known as the island of Manhattan, lying between New Jersey and Long Island, was then New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony. Despite Plowden's long-standing intentions to settle the area, four attempts failed because of either financial, legal, or family problems. After his death in 1659, the New Albion charter was apparently misplaced. In 1664 Charles II granted the lands to the Duke of York, who in turn granted the area between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers (New Jersey) to John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Craven, Wesley Frank. New Jersey and the English Colonization of North America. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1964.

Pulsipher, Jenny Hale. "The Overture of This New-Albion World: King Phillip's War and the Transformation of New England." Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 1999.

Christine E.Hoffman

See alsoColonial Charters ; New Jersey .

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