Recounting the History of Shrewsbury Borough's Municipal Complex Property

From Rick Geffken's Shrewsbury Historical Society blog post on the history of the Shrewsbury Municipal Complex:

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2013 Edition of the Shrewsbury Historical Society Newsletter ...

The Tallman family has long been associated with the property on the southwest of the Four Corners intersection in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

And while Tallmans played a significant role in the area, and Monmouth County in general, they are not the first family to own the land where the Municipal Center is today. In fact it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that George D. Tallman first acquired almost 51 acres here. Part of his home survives in the Center.

Recent research paints a complicated and surprising history of the Municipal Center property. In the early days of the founding of Monmouth County, the vast new lands passed quickly from one hand to another, as they were subdivided into farms or plantations.

In 1665, Gov. Richard Nicholls of New York granted land to Twelve Monmouth Patentees. However, James, Duke of York had granted land Patents a year earlier to Berkeley and Carteret - land which overlapped the Nicholls Patent. Years of litigation followed as petitioners tried to unravel conflicting claims.

Though no deed has been found to clarify how Bartholomew West acquired the land, he moved from Rhode Island to Shrewsbury around 1670, and bequeathed his farm to his son William two years later.

After William West married Margaret Wardell, they lived opposite Christ Church in the Village of Shrewsbury. William was High Sheriff of Monmouth County. Although we’re uncertain about the specific transactions after he died in 1746, we do know that Margaret’s nephew John Wardell owned the southwest corner of the major intersection in the Village in 1778.

To finish reading the entire blog post, click here.