Land Between the Lines

Land Between the Lines. Cedar Bridge Tavern. , The Lawrence Line is a remnant of history that harkens back to a time when the Garden State stood divided. There are in fact two lines that run North to South, dividing our state between East and West Jersey. Cedar Bridge is one of the properties that lies between these lines that have shaped our state, past and present., Nova Caesare, which would later be known as New Jersey, was gifted by James, Duke of York to his friends George Carteret and John Berkley. Carteret, along with later owners William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas, would sign the “Quintipartite Deed” on July 1, 1676, dividing Jersey into East and West., George Keith was hired over ten years later to survey the dividing line in 1687. Straying from the course set by the original deed, Keith ended his survey at the South Branch of the Raritan. At the request of the Governors of East and West Jersey, this line would be later extended to the Hudson River. The Keith Line was accepted until the reunification of East and West Jersey in 1702 and continues to be part of the boundary between some counties., There was still discrepancy after the unification of New Jersey due to property boundaries and in 1779 New Jersey Legislature passed an act for commissioners to determine the lines true northern point. In 1743 John Lawrence was hired to run the line from the North to the South. Today the line can still be identified in Ocean County as the probable source of the road marking Plumsted Township’s eastern boundary.