[Illustration:  THE OLDEST CHURCH SOUTH OF THE POTOMAC.]

[Sidenote:  The English conquest of New Netherland, 1664. Higginson. 97-98.]

69.  Conquest of New Netherland, 1664.—­The English government now determined to conquer New Netherland.  An English fleet sailed to New Amsterdam.  Stuyvesant thumped up and down on his wooden leg.  But he was almost the only man in New Amsterdam who wanted to fight.  He soon surrendered, and New Netherland became an English colony.  The Dutch later recaptured it and held it for a time; but in 1674 they finally handed it over to England.

[Sidenote:  New Netherland given to the Duke of York and Albany.]

70.  New York.—­Even before the colony was seized in 1664, Charles II gave it away to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, who afterward became king as James II.  The name of New Netherland was therefore changed to New York, and the principal towns were also named in his honor, New York and Albany.  Little else was changed in the colony.  The Dutch were allowed to live very nearly as they had lived before, and soon became even happier and more contented than they had been under Dutch rule.  Many English settlers now came in.  The colony became rich and prosperous, but the people had little to do with their own government.

[Sidenote:  Origin of New Jersey, 1664.]

[Sidenote:  Settlement of New Jersey.]

71.  New Jersey.—­No sooner had James received New Netherland from his brother than he hastened to give some of the best portions of it to two faithful friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley.  Their territory extended from New York harbor to the Delaware River, and was named New Jersey in honor of Carteret’s defense of the island of Jersey against the Puritans.  Colonists at once began coming to the new province and settled at Elizabethtown.

[Sidenote:  East and West Jersey.]

[Sidenote:  Prosperity.]

72.  Later New Jersey.—­Soon New Jersey was divided into two parts, East Jersey and West Jersey.  West Jersey belonged to Lord Berkeley and he sold it to the Quakers.  Not very many years later the Quakers also bought East Jersey.  The New Jersey colonists were always getting into disputes with one another, so they asked Queen Anne to take charge of the government of the province.  This she did by telling the governor of New York to govern New Jersey also.  This was not what the Jersey people had expected.  But they had their own legislature.  In time also they secured a governor all to themselves and became a royal province entirely separate from New York.  Pennsylvania and New York protected the Jersey people from the French and the Indians, and provided markets for the products of the Jersey farms.  The colonists were industrious and their soil was fertile.  They were very religious and paid great attention to education.  New Jersey became very prosperous and so continued until the Revolution.