The principal Protestant denominations are the Methodist, with about 19 per cent. of the total number of church members; the Presbyterian, 12 per cent.; the Baptist, 8 per cent.; and the Protestant Episcopal and the Reformed, with about 6 per cent. each.
Education. The question of education received attention at a very early date. Bergen had a school as early as 1661, and the charter of Woodridge (1669) provided for the granting of 100 acres of land for school purposes. The arrival of the Quakers gave an additional impetus. Even before the foundation of Princeton University, a number of classical schools were in existence. The finances for schools were not infrequently obtained by means of lotteries. After the Revolutionary War the matter of education, which had been almost entirely neglected during the struggle for freedom, again came to the fore. In 1816 the State Legislature laid the foundation of a permanent school fund by a grant of $16,000; and in 1824 a provision was made for the addition of one-tenth of all the annual State taxes. In 1871 a free public school system was established.
The educational affairs of the State are under the supervision of a State superintendent, appointed by the Governor and the Senate for three years, and of a board of education, whose 10 members are also appointed by the Governor and Senate. The State has a compulsory education law, and provides free text books and school supplies. The illiterate population in 1900 amounted to 5.9 per cent. of the total population of ten years and over. The proportion of illiteracy among the native whites is 1.7 per cent.; foreign whites, 14.1 per cent.; colored, 17.5 per cent. The 1893 public schools of the State employed, in 1901, 7561 teachers, of whom only 998 were males. The average monthly salaries received were $91.87 for male and $52.88 for female teachers. The length of the school term in 1901 was 183 days. The revenue for educational purposes amounted in 1901 to $6,718,189, of which $200,000 was derived from the permanent school fund and the rent of school lands, $2,399,724 from State taxes, and $4,079,945 from local taxes. The expenditures for the same year amounted to $7,189,712, or $32.49 per pupil in average attendance. The evening schools maintained in the larger cities of the State had an average attendance of 5397 in 1900.
For the preparation and training of teachers there are the State Normal School at Trenton and its auxiliaries and the Model and Farnum Preparatory schools. New Jersey had, in 1900, 170 public and private high schools and academies, with a total of 15,158 students. Technical education is provided by Stevens Institute (q.v.) at Hoboken and the Newark Technical School. The principal institutions for higher education are Princeton University, at Princeton; Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken; Saint Peter's College (R. C.), at Jersey City; Saint Benedict's College (R. C.), at Newark; Rutgers College (Reformed), at New Brunswick; Seton Hall College (R. C.), at South Orange; and Bordentown Female College, at Bordentown.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. There is a State board of charities. Care and instruction of the deaf and dumb were provided in New York City and Buffalo until 1883, when a State institution was completed at Trenton. The blind are taken care of in New York and Pennsylvania institutions. There are a State training school for feeble-minded children and a State institution for feeble-minded women, both at Vineland. The home for disabled soldiers is at Kearney. An industrial school for girls at Trenton is maintained by the State. A State reform school for juvenile delinquents is located at Jamesburg in Middlesex County. The city of Newark also maintains a reformatory home at Verona. The old State lunatic asylum is at Trenton. This institution derives a revenue from the care of private patients. The asylum for the insane near Morristown is one of the finest structures for the purpose in the country, having cost about $2,500,000. It can accommodate upward of 1000 patients. The total expense for the insane and the poor in the fiscal year 1899-1900 was $1,812,962. The State prison is at Trenton. In 1884 the Legislature passed a bill abolishing contract convict labor in the prison. The inmates must now be employed upon goods used in institutions under State control, on the public-account system, or on the piece-price plan. A system of releasing certain inmates of the State prison on parole has been in operation since 1891.
History. The territory included within the limits of the present State was claimed by the Dutch without any definite boundaries as a part of New Netherland, and between 1614 and 1621 settlements were made in what is now Bergen County. Swedes and Danes also settled on the Delaware River, but were brought under the jurisdiction of the Dutch by Governor Stuyvesant. In 1664 this whole region was granted to James, Duke of York, by Charles II., but before James took possession he conveyed to John, Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret the land between the Delaware and Hudson rivers, bounded on the north by a line drawn from 41° 21′ on the Delaware River to 41° on the Hudson, the present boundaries. In 1664-65 Berkeley and Carteret granted a form of government and settlement, the ‘Concessions,’ which allowed a popular assembly, and under which the colony was governed until the Revolution. Philip Carteret was sent over as Governor in 1665, and made Elizabeth-Town his capital. On March 18, 1674, Berkeley sold his interest to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, both Quakers, for £1000, and in 1676 the province was divided by a line drawn from Little Egg Harbor to the northwest corner. The Quakers took the western half, known as ‘West New Jersey,’ while Carteret retained ‘East New Jersey.’ Soon Byllinge surrendered his title to William Penn and others as trustees for his creditors, and West Jersey was divided into one hundred shares, of which Fenwick retained ten. Each of these shares carried with it the same rights of sovereignty which had been granted to the Duke of York. When the question was raised as to whether the Duke of York, not being a sovereign, could transfer the rights of government. Sir Edmund Andros, then Governor of New York, arrested Philip Carteret and Fenwick, and attempted to assume control. He was forced to give way in 1681, however, and the colonies continued to be governed by the proprietors. In 1682 Carteret's heirs sold East Jersey to William Penn and his associates. The
