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is a Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 14,566.
Branchburg Township has a history dating back to before the American Revolutionary War, and was incorporated on April 5, 1845, from portions of Bridgewater Township.
Branchburg ranks seventh in size among Somerset County's twenty-one municipalities, and covers a total area of 20.3 square miles, being eleven miles long and approximately 2 miles across at its widest point. The hamlets of North Branch and Neshanic Station are included within Branchburg Township, which brings the ambiance of small villages and charm to the area.
The land now known as Branchburg Township was originally inhabited by the Raritans, a tribe of the Lenni Lenape Native Americans. By 1686 most of the land was purchased from the Lenape by the Lords Proprietors of East Jersey, who sold the land in small parcels to numerous settlers, mostly of Dutch or English extraction. With the 1688 redrawing of the boundary between East and West Jersey, the Branchburg region was split between Essex County to the north and the newly-formed Somerset County to the south. With Somerset's acquisition of territory from Essex and Middlesex Counties in 1741, Branchburg lay entirely within the County where it is presently located.
Bridewater Township was chartered in 1749. In 1845 the residents of the part of Bridgewater west of the Raritan River petitioned the New Jersey State Legislature for incorporation as a separate township, which was granted by an act dated April 5 of that year.
The first town meeting was held April 14, 1845, in White Oak Tavern, a stagecoach stop and local meeting place along the Old York Road.