West Windsor is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located at the cross-roads between the Delaware Valley region to the southwest and the Raritan Valley region to the northeast, the township is considered to be an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 29,518, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 2,353 (+8.7%) from the 27,165 recorded at the 2010 census, which in turn reflected an increase of 5,258 (+24.0%) from the 21,907 counted in the 2000 census.
West Windsor and adjacent East Windsor were established by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 9, 1797, and incorporated on February 21, 1798, as two of the state's initial group of 104 townships, by partitioning provincial Windsor Township.
The Borough of Princeton (now part of Princeton) was formed from a portion of the township on February 11, 1813. The township is closely associated with that now much more widely known town and several localities within West Windsor use Princeton in their name, the most notable of those being Princeton Junction. The Princeton 08540 post office facility is located within West Windsor, and covers parts of the township designated by Princeton mailing addresses.
A portion of Princeton University, covering south of Lake Carnegie, is located in West Windsor. The university agreed in 2009 to make an annual payment in lieu of taxes of $50,000 that would be indexed to inflation to cover of land in the township that the university had purchased in 2002.
West Windsor is frequently ranked among the highest-income municipalities in New Jersey. In 2008, Forbes listed West Windsor as the 15th most affluent neighborhood in the U.S. Using 2012–2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, NJ.com listed the township as the 9th highest-income in the state in its January 2018 article "The 19 wealthiest towns in New Jersey, ranked." Based on data from the American Community Survey for 2013–2017, West Windsor residents had a median household income of $175,684, ranked 4th in the state among municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, more than double the statewide median of $76,475.
History
Prior to individual European land acquisition and settlement around the turn of the 18th century, the primary residents of West Windsor were the Lenape Native Americans. The Assanhicans (Assunpinks) were the subtribe that inhabited the greater Trenton area; artifacts from their society are still found in West Windsor.
The first known European activity in the area now known as West Windsor dates to 1634, during the exploration of Captain Thomas Yong. Yong was an Englishman, who reportedly traded with the native Lenape people. The region was officially claimed for European settlement under the 1682 William Penn treaties, under which the Lenape conveyed vast portions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Quaker colonists.
The West Windsor area was within Piscataway Township when it was chartered on December 18, 1666. This changed upon the formation of Middlesex County in 1683.
New Windsor Township (West Windsor's predecessor), known later as Windsor Township, was unofficially formed in 1731, and officially created by Royal Charter on March 9, 1751, from a partition of Piscataway Township. Its borders encompassed today's West Windsor Township, all of present-day Princeton up to Nassau Street, and pre-partition East Windsor Township. In 1756, The College of New Jersey relocated to Nassau Hall in the village of Princeton. When West Windsor and East Windsor were created from the division of Windsor Township on February 9, 1797, West Windsor's boundaries extended up to Nassau Street. Following the 1838 formation of Mercer County and further land acquisitions by Princeton in 1843 and 1853, West Windsor's borders were again redefined to reflect the township's current .
Historically, West Windsor relied heavily upon agriculture. Common products were wheat, tomatoes, rye, and potatoes. This identity dominated the township from its first settlement until the last half of the 20th century, and was really only extinguished upon the township's most rapid period of growth from the late 1970s-the 2000s.
However, this agrarian dominance incentivized the institution of slavery as well. Although records are sparse, township censuses indicate 190 slaves in Windsor Township in 1790. In West Windsor, there were 21 slaves in 1830 and 3 in 1840. Additionally, several late 1700s wills and 1800s "abandonments" show the presence of slavery in the township around the turn of the 19th century.