Edgepillock (Brotherton)

Agepelack

39.78495° N, 74.71645° W

Brainerd, John. The Journal of the Rev. John Brainerd from January 1761-October 1762. NJ Courier, 1880; “The Brotherton Indians of New Jersey, 1880.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-indian-history/resources/brotherton-indians-new-jersey-1780; Grumet, Robert. Historic Contact. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. Grumet, Robert. The Munsee Indians: A History. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014; ”Native People of New Jersey.” USGenNet. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state/Lenape.htm; Thomas, JD. “The Colonies’ First and New Jersey’s Only Indian Reservation.” Accessible Archives. http://www.accessible-archives.com/2013/08/colonies-first-new-jerseys-indian-reservation/; Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+Shamong+Township.

Edgepillock (also spelled Agepelack) was an Indian Town created in south-central New Jersey under the Easton Treaty of 1758, the result of negotiations between the colonial governments of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and 13 Indian nations that took place during the French and Indian War. The treaty forced the Lenape peoples to cede all of their land to the Colony of New Jersey in return for a 3,000-acre reservation in Burlington County, known as the first reservation in the colonies. The town of Edgepillock sprung up on these lands after the Unamis and Munsees, both Lenape-speaking tribes, moved to the area and took over existing grist- and sawmills. John Brainerd, a Protestant minister, served as a missionary to the Indians at Edgepillock, which he optimistically referred to as Brotherton, not to be confused with Brothertown, NY. The reservation was subsequently known as both Edgepillock and Brotherton. Brainerd, who corresponded with Wheelock and sent him Moor’s first Native students, lived among the Indians of Edgepillock until 1777. By the time Occom preached at Edgepillock in 1788, the reservation was no longer self-sustaining. By 1796, word of its deteriorating conditions reached the Indians of New Stockbridge, who invited the residents of Edgepillock to join them, and by 1802 almost the entire population of Edgepillock moved to New Stockbridge. The reservation was then sold, with proceeds going to the Lenapes of Edgepillock. In the same year of this migration, the Indian church at which Occom likely preached in Edgepillock was burned down. The lands that were once Edgepillock Indian Town are now a part of the modern-day township of Shamong.