Somers Point Timeline

1695 John Somers and John Scull held Quaker meetings at the Somerset Plantation, later to be called Somers Point.

1720-1726 Somers Mansion, Somers Point's oldest building still standing, was being constructed.

1776-1783 Revolutionary War. Richard Somers was a Colonel of militia, judge of the county court, and an active Whig in the Revolution. Privateers capture British ships. Lousy Harbor (Bass Harbor) earns its name based on folklore telling of captured British sailors infested with lice.

1797 Customs House established indicating the area's importance as a port and shipbuilding area. The sloops John Clark, John Wesley. J . F. Armstrong and the schooner Ioetta were built. The schooner Eva I. Smith was built at Israel Scull's yard.

1804 Battle of Tripoli, Barbary Wars. Master Commandant Richard Somers dies fighting the Barbary Pirates. Monument erected at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.

1812 The USA fights the British again! A sand fort was built on Bay Avenue. A local story tells that the British Navy entered our Great Egg Harbor Bay. Local people tricked the British by marching in the night with flaming torches that made the British think our area was well guarded with Revolutionary soldiers. There is a monument at Morrow Beach marking the site of a sand fort.