A trivia email this week presented this morsel and I have to ask What?
That’s like Texas being Baja Oklahoma.
Anybody got the facts one way or the other? Please, no Wikipedia cites.
Mods Note: I would have put this in GQ but I’m hoping for more general off-topic discussion of similar weird “facts.” Move it if you must.
It looks like it’s not true, though the confusion is understandable. “New Jersey” was not named as such until after Pennsylvania was founded. However, it was called East and West Jersey; West Jersey was sold to Quakers including William Penn. However, eventually East and West Jersey were united into New Jersey.
So Penn was co-owner of East Jersey, but that land was never part of Pennsylvania.
Reality Chuck got there first, but the answer is “No Way”.
as a kid growing up in New Jersey we learned about East and West Jersey, and about the settling of Pennsylvania by the Quakers. Never a hint of Pennsylvania being called part of New Jersey. And I never found anything like that when researching NJ colonial history.
I think “New Jersey” has just become the easy butt of the joke, mainly by NY celebs and comedians who see it as an easy way to get a laugh – nobody would admit to being from NJ, especially with those smelly refineries in Linden and Elizabeth.
So you could say anything about New Jersey, practically, and people will believe you.