<P> The Middle Colonies were explored by Henry Hudson on a journey into the Hudson River and Delaware Bay in 1609 . The Dutch soon claimed the land . Although the Swedes and the Dutch fought over the land in the 1630s through the ultimately the Dutch claimed the land, calling it New Netherland . In the 1660s, the English largely conquered this land from the Dutch, renaming the area New York after the Duke of York, James II . </P> <P> King Charles II renamed the land west of the Hudson River New Jersey and gave the region between New England and Maryland to his brother, the Duke of York (later King James II of England) as a proprietary colony . James II later granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had been loyal to him through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton . This land grant became the Province of New Jersey . </P> <P> In 1665, the Concession and Agreement was written in an effort to entice settlers to New Jersey . This document provided for religious freedom, no taxes without assembly approval, and a governor appointed by the proprietors . The first governor appointed in this way was Philip Carteret, who founded Elizabethtown . Colonists were required to pay annual quit - rent taxes . On March 18, 1674, after encountering difficulty collecting the taxes, Lord Berkeley sold his share in the colony to Edward Byllynge, a Quaker businessman from London . This sale divided New Jersey into East Jersey and West Jersey; however, the border between the two was not agreed upon until the Quintipartite Deed in 1676 . From 1701 to 1765, colonists skirmished in the New York - New Jersey Line War over disputed colonial boundaries . </P> <P> On April 15, 1702, Queen Anne united West and East Jersey into one Royal Colony, the Province of New Jersey . Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon became the royal colony's first governor . After Hyde was recalled to England in 1708 over charges of graft, bribery, and corruption, the governor of New York was charged to also preside over New Jersey . Finally, in 1738, King George II appointed a separate governor, Lewis Morris, to run New Jersey . </P>

Different social classes in new england and the middle colonies