1713 East Jersey Cottage

1713 East Jersey Cottage. . , Before European settlement, this land was home to the Lenni Lenape, whose name means “the first” or “original people.” Starting in the 1680s, the Proprietors of the Province of East New Jersey, including Governor Barclay and other Scots, influenced immigration to America by providing incentives to settle land. Two younger brothers of the Laird of Kinnaber, Thomas and Robert Fullerton, assisted the Proprietors along waterways within a day's travel from the seaport “New Perth,” today Perth Amboy. In 1693, they acquired 550 acres along the Millstone River, amidst woodlands and fertile lands for farming. This timber-frame structure is an excellent example of early 18th century colonial settlement, an archetype known as a One and a Half Story East Jersey Cottage and was recorded in the New Jersey Tax Parcel Database to have been built in 1713., In 1760, Vincent Bodine purchased the cottage and farm, then totaling 150 acres, where he and his wife, Ann Dye Bodine, raised eight children. Their oldest son, James, served in the 3rd Regiment, Middlesex County Militia during the American Revolution. Descendants of this French Huguenot Bodine family passed down an oral legend of a June 1778 visit by General Lafayette with mounted troops. Lafayette quartered nearby at the Stites’ house while his detachment of a thousand troops camped along the village creek., Tenant farmers or enslaved people may have resided here while owned by the Fullerton, Philipse and Bergen families during the 18th and early 19th centuries. More than twenty families owned this cottage, including the Nixons, a Black family who purchased it twice in the late 19th century., In 2018, the Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society saved the cottage from demolition by coordinating and funding relocation across the road to Millstone Park. Deemed eligible for inclusion on the New Jersey and National Register of Historic Places, CHPS will restore and operate the cottage as a seasonal museum. Additional funds were provided by Cranbury Landmarks, Inc. Cranbury Township provided the site in Millstone Park., Grant funding for this marker has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund, 2026.