Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River (Hudson River) across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.
Halve Maen
Explored to The Narrows by Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing on a French expedition in 1524, the area was visited by Spanish and English seafarers during the next century. It was again visited in 1609 by the Englishman Henry Hudson, who had been commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to find a navigable passage to Asia. During this journey his ship, the Halve Maen (Half Moon), laid anchor at Sandy Hook, Harsimus Cove, and Weehawken Cove, and other places along the river which now bears his name.
At the time of his exploration the shoreline was considerably different from today, consisting of huge tidal marshes and oyster beds. Several other expeditions to the coast of North America were made between 1610 and 1614; surveys and charts from them were incorporated in a map made by Adriaen Block which named New Netherland for the first time.
Lenape
At the time the existing population were bands of seasonally migrational Algonquian people, the Lenape. The area that would become Bergen was the territory of Unami, or Turtle Clan, called the Hackensack Indians and the Tappan. While the Hackensack tended to camp on the tidal lands (Upper New York Bay and Meadowlands), the Tappan moved in the highlands (North Hudson to Palisades Interstate Park). Other closely related peoples circulated in the region: the Acquackanonk, the Manhattan, the Raritan, the Haverstraw, the Rockaway, and the Wecquaesgeek. Some were later called Delaware Indians (after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr).
Their larger communities were palisaded villages where they practiced companion planting (of the three sisters) to supplement foraging, hunting, and fishing. Shellfishing in the vast oyster beds spread throughout the entire estuary was essential to their diet. The trapping of beaver and rodents for pelts played a crucial role in their interaction with the Swannukens or Salt Water People, who procured the land from them through "purchases" that were misconstrued by both parties. A basic misconception was that while Europeans thought they were buying land in perpetuity, the Lenape believed they were entering into defense alliances with farming, hunting, and fishing rights. The Tappan and Hackensack had early and frequent contact with the settlers, and their sagamore, Oratam, negotiated many agreements and treaties with them.
Pavonia
In 1621, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) was founded to exploit trade in the Western Hemisphere, and by 1625 had established a colony at New Amsterdam (Lower Manhattan). In the hope of encouraging settlement the company, in 1629, started to offer vast land grants and the feudal title of patroon. In 1630, Michael Pauw, a burgermeester of Amsterdam and a director of the company, purchased two tracts from the native population at Hopoghan Hackingh (Castle Point) and at Ashasimus (Harsimus), though the patroonship likely included the entire peninsula between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers, and possibly his holdings on Staten Eylandt (Staten Island). It was given the Latinized form of his surname (which means "peacock"), Pavonia.
It is said it was sold to him by the Manhattans after they had retreated there after the sale of their home island to Peter Minuit some years before. Initially, a small hut and ferry landing were built at Arresick, called Powles Hoek (Paulus Hook), but Pauw failed to fulfill the other conditions set forth by the company (which included populating the area with at least fifty adults), and was later required to sell his interests back to it. In 1633, the WIC commissioned a house to be built for an appointed superintendent, Jan Everts Bout (aka Jan de Lacher), at Communipaw. Another homestead was built at Ahasimus by his replacement, Hendrick Van Vorst, in 1634. Abraham Isaac Planck (aka Verplank) received a land patent for Paulus Hook on May 1, 1638.