Chesterfield Township is a township in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 9,422, The township, and all of Burlington County, is a part of the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden combined statistical area and the Delaware Valley.
Chesterfield has permanently preserved more than of farmland through state and county programs and a township-wide transfer of development credits program that directs future growth to a designated "receiving area" known as Old York Village, which is a neo-traditional, New Urbanism community built on incorporating a variety of housing types, neighborhood commercial facilities, a new elementary school, civic uses, and active and passive open space areas with preserved agricultural land surrounding the planned village. Construction began in the early 2000s and a significant percentage of the community is now complete. As of 2024, the majority of the construction is complete, including Old York Village's mixed-use commercial, retail, and housing component. Old York Village was the winner of the American Planning Association's National Outstanding Planning Award in 2004.
History
thumb|left|[[Crosswicks Friends Meeting House]]
The land was first settled in 1677, when a group of primarily Quaker immigrants from England established the settlement of Crosswicks, the oldest of the three communities of the township. The village was named after the Crosswicks Creek that separates Burlington and Mercer counties. The other two villages were Recklesstown (now Chesterfield) and Plattsburg (now Sykesville). Recklesstown was named in honor of one of its founders, Joseph Reckless, until the community's name was changed in 1888 at the urging of a Congressman and local resident in the face of public scorn.
Chesterfield Township was originally formed on November 6, 1688. It was named after the 2nd Earl of Chesterfield whose seat of Chesterfield was in Derbyshire, where many of the township's earliest settlers had lived. The township was reformed by royal charter on January 10, 1713, and was incorporated as one of New Jersey's initial 104 townships by the Township Act of 1798 of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. Portions of the township were taken to form New Hanover Township (December 2, 1723) and Bordentown borough (December 9, 1825).
Crosswicks played a role during the American Revolutionary War. On June 23, 1778, British soldiers near the Crosswicks Creek shot the horse out from under Elias Dayton, a captain with the New Jersey militia. A cannonball from the period remains lodged in the side of the Friends Meeting House.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 21.45 square miles (55.57 km<sup>2</sup>), including 21.31 square miles (55.20 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 0.14 square miles (0.37 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (0.67%).
Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Chesterfield, Crosswicks, Davisville and Extonville.