Royce Brook

Royce Brook (sometimes referred to as Royces Brook, Royces Branch, or Royce Brook River) is a tributary of the Millstone River in Hillsborough and Manville, New Jersey in the United States.

Path

Royce Brook does not have a definite starting point, as it consists of several bodies of water flowing into it within its 16-square-mile (41 km2) watershed. However, the website for the Royce Brook Watershed states that it starts at the edge of Sourland Mountain at 40°30′6″N 74°41′48″W. It tends to run north-east and eventually empties into the Millstone River in Manville at 40°31′51″N 74°35′14″W, which is subsequently deposited into the Raritan River.

Name

The origins of the creek's name is unknown, but there is a street that runs parallel to it in Hillsborough called, "Royce Brook Road." Also, there is a local golf club called, "The Royce Brook Golf Club."

One of the earliest settlers of Hillsborough (other than Lenape) was a man named John Royce (also spelled Royse). It is documented that during the late 17th century he owned a large piece of land. This land is pretty much what is now the entire town of Manville. A map titled "Plan of Somerset County in the Province of New Jersey" surveyed by Benjamin Morgan in 1766 and copied from the original by Lieutenant I Hills Assistant Engineer, identifies a stream as Royses Brook flowing through lot 227, which was owned by a John Royse, before emptying into the Millstone River.

Flooding

As with the Millstone River, the Royce Brook can flood to extreme heights. The power of Hurricane Floyd was such that it literally changed the landscape surrounding the creek and deposited much sediment into the lands surrounding it. A resident whose backyard borders Royce Brook estimates that during Hurricane Floyd, the average height in that particular area rose at least 7 feet (2.1 m) - compared to its estimated average at 1-foot (0.30 m).