Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Netherland, negotiated a deal with the Lenape, and re-purchased the area, naming it Bergen, "by the great rock above Wiehacken," then taking in the sweep of land on the peninsula west of the Hudson and east of the Hackensack River extending down to the Kill Van Kull at Bergen Point and Constable Hook. Bergen was founded by settlers who wished to return to the west bank of Hudson's River and located the village at what is today's Bergen Square. Its semi-independent government was granted on September 5, 1661, by Stuyvesant, as part of his efforts regain a foothold on the North River's western shore and expand beyond New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan, under the condition that a garrison be built. It is the first permanent European settlement and oldest municipality in what would become the state of New Jersey. It became and remained the seat of government for the province until 1709, when the British moved it to Hackensack, which was seen as more centrally located. Colonial America In 1664, a negotiated surrender gave control of New Netherland to the English and on September 22, 1668, the original town charter was confirmed by Philip Carteret, the first English provincial Governor of New Jersey. The Treaty of Westminster finalized the Dutch capitulation in 1674, and the area officially became part of the proprietary colony of East Jersey. In 1675, it was divided in four administrative districts, or counties: Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Bergen. On March 7, 1683, the garrison/village at Bergen and surrounding areas became a town within Bergen County. In 1710, when Bergen County, by royal decree of Queen Anne of Great Britain, was enlarged to include what had been part of Essex County, the village of Hackensack (in the newly formed Township of New Barbadoes) was seen as being more easily reached by the majority of Bergen County's inhabitants, and hence was chosen as the county seat (as it remains today). Bergen was re-established by royal charter on January 4, 1714. Bergen Township was created by the New Jersey Legislature's Township Act of 1798 on February 21, 1798, as one of the first group of 104 townships formed in New Jersey. Bergen County was thus split into two parts: Bergen Township to the south, and Hackensack Township to the north. As originally constituted, Bergen Township included the area between the Hudson River