Egg Harbor (formerly Great Egg-Harbour)

Identifier
NJS-PLC-00097
Place Type
City, Town, or Village
Alternate Name
Great Egg-Harbour Township
Description
Egg Harbor is a township located in Atlantic County. It takes its name from the Great Egg Harbor River which enters the Atlantic Ocean at Great Egg Harbor Bay. The township had its beginnings in the colonial era and was first mentioned in historical records in 1693. In its early years, it was often referred to as Great Egg-Harbour to differentiate from the Little Egg-Harbour region that sits slightly to the north of it along the shore.

Atlantic County did not exist until 1837, and this township was originally part of Gloucester County and was much larger than it is today. In fact, during the colonial era, the entire area of modern-day Atlantic County was known as "Great Egg-Harbour Township, Gloucester County." Thus, all municipalities in modern-day Atlantic County have their roots in this township. For researchers of slavery in the region, this means that records filed under Egg Harbor or Great-Egg Harbor, Gloucester County, could be referring to any area of modern Atlantic County, and might be describing events that took place far outside the present-day boundaries of Egg Harbor Township.

In 1774, a large portion of the township that lies along the Burlington County line broke off to create Galloway Township (this included the entire territory from Galloway at the shore to modern-day Hammonton). In 1798, the entire area south of the Great Egg Harbor River broke off to form Waymouth Township (the name New Waymouth was associated with this area since the late 18th century). The same year, 1798, the township was reincorporated as "Egg-Harbour," officially dropping "Great" from its name. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the remainder of Egg Harbor splintered into many new municipalities until it arrived at its modern boundaries in 1933.

Note that there are multiple modern municipalities that have "Egg Harbor" in the name due to their proximity to the Great Egg Harbor (south of Atlantic City) and the Little Egg Harbor (north of Atlantic City). When reviewing historical documents, it is important to differentiate between these similarly-named places.

Slavery-era documents that mention "Egg Harbor, Burlington County" are referring to the area just north of modern Atlantic County: the southernmost regions of Burlington and Ocean Counties around the Mullica River (which was historically known as the Little Egg Harbor River). See the related place record for Little Egg Harbor, Ocean County, for information about that region, which belonged to Burlington County until 1891.

Note also that Egg Harbor City in Atlantic County is a more recent municipality that was established in 1858 from portions of Galloway and Mullica townships. As discussed above, since all of modern Atlantic County was originally part of Great Egg-Harbour township, the area of modern Egg Harbor City was likewise part of the historic Great Egg-Harbour township during the colonial era; it then was part of Galloway until it split off to create Egg Harbor City.
Locality
Egg Harbor
County (Modern)
Atlantic County
County (Historical)
Gloucester County
State or Province
New Jersey
Country
United States of America
Related Place
Little Egg Harbor (formerly in Burlington County)
Latitude
39.40720
Longitude
-74.57767
References

John P. Snyder, The Story of New Jersey’s Civil Boundaries, 1606–1968 (Trenton, Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969; New Jersey Geological Survey, 2004), https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf. See p. 68.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_Harbor_Township,_New_Jersey
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Places

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Resource class
Location