As New Jersey borders on the Atlantic Ocean we were visited by some of the earliest European explorers and settlers of Dutch, Swedish and English origins. In 1664, a group of Englishmen from Long Island looking for better land for farming and living, purchased from the local Indians an area which became known as the Elizabethtown Tract, which today is roughly that of Union County. In the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth there is a copy of the original indenture signed by both the Indians and the first English settlers who purchased land from the Indians, which included present-day Roselle.

It was also necessary to make a similar deal with the English governor for the rights to the land, for the land known as "New Jarsey", or sometimes "Nova Caesarea", had been granted by King Charles II to his brother, the Duke of York, who in turn, granted it to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret as payment for his debts to them. The new owners from Long Island laid out a town by the river which flowed through the area, and the settlement was named "Elizabethtown", in honor of Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George. This became the first English town in New Jersey.