In 1677 the Trustees of West New Jersey, residing in England, appointed nine commissioners to administer the government in accordance with the Concessions and Agreements. These commissioners were Thomas Olive, Daniel Wills, John Kinsey, John Penford, Joseph Helmsley, Robert Stacy, Benjamin Scott, Richard Guy, and Thomas Foulke. All except Guy, who had preceded them and was already in Salem, sailed aboard the Kent, which first touched at Sandy Hook so that the commissioners might report to Edmund Andros, Governor of the Duke of York's territories in America.

Andros refused to recognize any authority in the Trustees to govern, stating that he had received no instructions to relinquish jurisdiction over any of the Duke's lands. He and his Council nevertheless resolved that the expedition might proceed and, moreover, appointed the commissioners as magistrates acting under his authority. The commissioners and settlers reached New Castle on 16/26 Aug 1677 and subsequently landed near Raccoon Creek on the Jersey side of the Delaware River.

Under the Concessions, the commissioners were empowered to govern the colony until the election of a General Assembly, which would appoint their successors. However, because Andros refused to recognize their commission, they were compelled to serve as magistrates under him until Edward Byllinge and his Trustees obtained a new patent on 6/16 Aug 1680, vesting them with rights of customs and government.

The original nine commissioners appointed by the Trustees were succeeded by others chosen by the proprietors and inhabitants of West New Jersey in 1680. Olive, Wills, Scott, and Robert Stacy were continued in office. Kinsey had died; Penford and Helmsley had returned to England; Guy had returned to Salem; and Foulke was inactive. By June 1680 only five commissioners remained in service: Olive, Wills, Robert and Mahlon Stacy, and William Emley. In accordance with the Concessions, nine commissioners were thereafter elected for one-year terms by the "Common Vote of the People." Robert Stacy, Olive, Samuel Jennings, Thomas Budd, John Thompson, Thomas Lambert, Mahlon Stacy, Richard Guy, and Edward Bradway made an affirmation at the Burlington court on 25 Mar/6 Apr 1681.

In the summer of 1680 Byllinge appointed Samuel Jennings as deputy governor. Although Jennings arrived in West New Jersey in September 1680, he did not assume office until a year later, after signing the Concessions and being accepted as deputy governor by the General Free Assembly on 25 Nov/5 Dec 1681.