History:

Some say it was "Hoops" in honor of Major Hoops. Up until 1777 it had been called "Greenwich on the Delaware." It then changed in honor of General Mercer, who died at Princeton January 12, 1777. Major Hoops had the north side of the Pequest laid out in town lots and called it Mercer.

It has been told that Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution and signer of the Declaration of Independence, named the town as Belvidere. The first settler of Belvidere was Robert Patterson who built a double log cabin on the property purchased from the Penn's.