 Oxford Furnace was the third charcoal furnace in colonial New Jersey and the first constructed at a site where iron ore was mined.The first two furnaces (Tinton Falls and Mount Holly) extracted ore from bogs in South Jersey, impure deposits called bog iron.The furnace was built starting in 1741 by Jonathan Robeson and Joseph Shippen, Jr., both of Philadelphia, and owned by the Shippen family who lived nearby in Shippen Manor.