The town is named for 1620 Dutch captain
named Cornelius Jacobsen Mey who explored and charted the area between
1611–1614, and established a claim for the province of New Netherland. It was
later settled by New Englanders from the New Haven Colony. What is now Cape May
was originally formed as the borough of Cape Island by an Act of the New Jersey
Legislature on March 8, 1848, from portions of Lower Township. It was
reincorporated as Cape Island city on March 10, 1851, and finally became Cape
May city as of March 9, 1869.
