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
Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham over twenty years as a friend of her brothers, on 16 November 1754 at her home in Argyle Street, London. They spent their ten-day honeymoon at West Wickham, Kent. The marriage was a happy one and the couple moved to a house in Hayes, Kent in 1756. They had five children: On 4 December 1761, she was created Baroness Chatham, of Chatham, in the County of Kent, with remainder to her sons by William Pitt, who was later created Earl of Chatham in 1766. Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham, 1st Baroness Chatham (; 8 November