A (very) brief history of Barnegat

From out of the past: a pictorial history of Barnegat, NJ:

The first early settlers here were English families from Long Island and had settled in Middletown and Elizabethtown. Among those was William Cranmer, formerly of Long Island where he was listed as a freeholder in 1670 and later named as one of the original settler at Elizabethtown, NJ. Subsequently with his brother Josiah, he took up lands near Forked River and Cedar Creek. Then they settled near New Egypt. This land they traded for land and privileges between Manahawkin and West Creek at a point later known as Cranmertown. From there William removed to a point "near Waretown" which point became Barnegat. Other early settlers were William Cranmer's son Levi Cranmer, Timothy Ridgway, Stephen and Nathan Birdsall, Ebbenezer Collins and others. Then came whalers from Long Island, Rhode Island, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard. They followed the whales into the area and were .soon coming to the mainland s to establish homesteads. Notable among these was the Inman family. From Middlesex came the Coxes. Then there were Burrs, Pharos, Vaulls, Stokes, Oliphants and Mills, the Rulons at Cedar Bridge and Sopers at Soper Place, now a part of Pebble Beach. The settlers did not always purchase titles to their land until several years after their arrival