The northeastern corner of present Hunterdon County, that was to become the Township of Tewksbury, made its entrance onto the stage of history in 1708. In that year, a purchase was made between the Native Americans and George Willocks. It included a tract of land that is the southeastern third of the present Township. Two years later the West Jersey Society purchased one hundred thousand acres stretching from the Willocks’ purchase to the Delaware River. The northeast extremity of the Society purchase comprises the remaining two thirds of the Township. The line separating the two purchases has always been called the “Society Line” and is still evident from the air and on the ground, where it is marked by hedgerows, and where portions followed by Potterstown, Fox Hill and Homestead Roads.

The Tewksbury and northern Readington Township part of Willocks’ purchase was assumed by James Logan and John Budd in 1716. In 1735, an agent for the West Jersey Society found 98 families of squatters on its land who had begun settling themselves eight years earlier in 1727. The squatters were forced to take leases. James Logan quit-rent leased his Tewksbury holdings in farms of about 200 acres each in 1739 and 1740. Logan had a local agent, Ralph Smith. In the winter of 1742-43 Smith acquired the farm of Tunis Melick, an early settler, situated on what is now Vliettown Road near Cold Brook Road. It was from this very farm that the land comprising the village of New Germantown was sold to the Zion Lutheran Church in 1749.

The church was built on the site and the remaining lands were parceled into lots and leased to tenants by Smith. It was these lots that formed the core of the village, which Smith referred to as ‘Smithfield’ in his lease agreements. In 1754, the name Germantown, used alternately with New Germantown, first appears. There is, perhaps, some significance in its making its first appearance as Germantown, though for many years it was used either with or without the “New.” Its origin is most likely derived from Germantown, Pennsylvania, which was also the home of James Logan.

Tewksbury Township was divided from Lebanon Township and became incorporated on March 11, 1755. The name, Tewksbury, is believed to have originated from a connection with Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, England.

It is generally believed that the settlement of Pottersville began in the early 1750’s as an extension of development along the Lamington River. Pottersville, the “place called Alametunk where a small river has a considerable fall between two hills”, was an early landmark and pre-Revolutionary milling center. A feed and flour mill, also known as the lower mill, as well as a filling mill (upper mill) and sawmill were in operation on the Lamington River by the time of the American Revolution. In 1783, the mills became the property of the Sering Potter family, hence the name “Potter’s Mills.” In 1840, the year the post office was established also completed the name change to “Pottersville.”

Mountainville, so named because it sits at the base of Hell Mountain, is located at the convergence of five streams. The abundance of flowing water allowed a community to develop by servicing the surrounding farmland. The beginnings of Mountainville date back to 1788 with the settlement of Adam Teets along the Rockaway Creek. In 1803, a portion of his land was sold and a sawmill was constructed. As this farming community prospered, two grist mills, a school, and a blacksmith shop were established in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

The earliest settler at what is now upper Fairmount, according to local historians, was German emigrant John Peter Fox (Fuchs) was located there between 1710 and 1720 and after whom Fox Hill is named. Documented visits by itinerant ministers establish the existence of nascent German Reformed and Lutheran congregations at Fox Hill by, respectively, 1747 and 1748, and a log church is traditionally held to have been erected there around that time. By 1760, the log church had been replaced by a shingle-clad church located near the site of the present Presbyterian Church. The site of this church was believed to have provided by James Parker, and the locale thereafter was sometimes called ‘Parkersville’ instead of Fox Hill.

The village of Cokesbury was settled before the middle of the 18th century with a tavern having been established there by the late 1700s, the village did not coalesce until well after 1814 when the Methodist congregation organized and built the church, which gave the locality its name. The church derived its name from Bishop Francis Asbury and Bishop Dr. Thomas Coke, both Methodist missionaries. By the middle of the 19th century Cokesbury had acquired a general store, post office, wheelwright/blacksmith shop, school, and about a dozen dwellings.