Chatham Township, New Jersey incorporated as an independent borough and its former village boundaries were expanded between 1891 - 1899 with annexed portions of rural lands that had formerly been within the township. The settlement of Chatham had been established in 1710 as "John Day's Bridge" and, in 1773 when New Jersey was an English province, adopted the name of "Chatham" to honor William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, a British supporter of the colonial cause. This village also had been within Morris Township and it was an active community in the Revolutionary War. On August 19, 1892, Chatham seceded from the new township
The Death of the Earl of Chatham to explain." Chatham replied in third person: "It is an unspeakable concern to him, to find himself under so wide a difference with the Duke of Richmond, as between the "sovereignty" and "allegiance" of America, that he despairs of bringing about successfully any honourable issue". Chatham was determined to answer Richmond's motion and so on 7 April he went to the House of Lords, swathed in flannels, supported by crutches and leaning on the arm of his 18-year-old son William Pitt the Younger. Lord Camden wrote to Lord Grafton, describing Chatham as: ...pale and emaciated. Within his large wig little