Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II, Part 1

Author: Lee, Francis Bazley, 1869- ed
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 618

USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 1

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.

974.9 L51g v.2 1136380

M. L

GENEALOGY COLLECTICI

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02246 7168

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016

https://archive.org/details/genealogicalmemo02leef 0

Lew -

WI Boti NY

GENEALOGICAL

AND

MEMORIAL HISTORY

OF THE

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

A RECORD OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HER PEOPLE IN THE MAKING OF A COMMONWEALTH AND THE FOUNDING OF A NATION

COMPILED UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF

FRANCIS BAZLEY LEE

VOLUME II

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

-1910 --

STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

1136380

This name in America is COLT-COULT not a common one, and outside of Connecticut and New Jersey has not received thorough and painstaking research to ascertain the relation existing between the different local families. Only two of the name appear in the excellent dictionary of living Americans, "Who's Who in America" : Le Baron Bradford Colt, United States circuit judge of Rhode Island, and Sam- uel Pomeroy Colt, a brother of the judge and a lawyer of Paterson, New Jersey. In the Biographical Dictionary of the distinguished dead we find record only of James Denison Colt ( 1819-1881), justice of the Massachusetts supreme court, and Samuel Colt (1814-1862), the inventor of Colt's revolver, which made the name as familiar as Smith, Brown or Jones in the vocabulary of Americans. The rarity in number of the family is discovered only in the course of genealogical research. John Coult, who came to America with the Rev. Thomas Hooker, in 1636, and settled in Hartford, Connecticut Colony, is the pro- genitor of all of the name above mentioned, whether spelled Colt, Coalt or Coult, as his name appears on Colonial records spelled the three ways.

(I) John Colt, immigrant, was born in Col- chester, Essex, England, in 1625, and came to Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony, when eleven years of age. He was probably a ward of the Hooker company and went to Hartford with them about 1638. There is much con- fusion in regard to the individuality of John Coult, the progenitor, as three generations bore the name, and the second and third Johns are rarely distinguished by "Captain John" and "John Jr." They appear indiscriminately as John Colt or John Coult, which spelling of the name appears in the Colonial records, John "Coult" having September 1, 1675, been shot at by the Indians. Styles "History of Ancient Windsor" fixes the date of this occurrence as August 31, 1675, and names the person John Colt, of Windsor, mentioning him again as one appointed in 1672 to work on the high- ways. The same authority records the sale in 1679 of a house by Joseph Fitch to John

Colt, and names John Coult as, October II, 1669, a freeman of Windsor, Connecticut. He married (first) Mary Fitch; (second) Ann, born in Hartford in 1639, baptized February 7, 1646, daughter of John and Mary (Loomis) Skinner. His children were born in Hart- ford as follows: I. Sarah, baptized February 7, 1646-47, in the church at Hartford. 2. John, born 1658, see forward. 3. Abraham, married Hannah Loomis, July 1, 1690; re- moved to Glastonbury in 1691, where he died in 1730. 4. Joseph, married Ruth Loomis, -October 29, 1691 ; lived in Windsor, Connecti- cut, where he died January 11, 1719. 5. Jonathan, who died in 1711. 6. Jabez. 7. Esther, who married Stephen Loomis, January I, 1690-91 ; she died November 6, 1714. The English family of Coult, from which John Coult, the immigrant ancestor, came, lived in Colchester, England. The coat-of-arms of the Coults originated here and is three horses heads and a broken spear. The name has been traced from Sir John Coult through six generations to the American immigrant of the same name as follows: (1) Sir John Coult, born about 1440. (II) Peter. (III) John. (IV) John (2). (V) John (3). (VI) John (4). (VII) John (5), whose son (VIII) John (6), was one of the founders of New London county, Connecticut Colony, and was probably one of the officials who named one of its early inland towns Colchester, after his father's birthplace.

(II) Captain John (2), eldest son of John (I), immigrant, and Mary (Fitch) Colt, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1658. After his marriage he removed to Lyme, at the mouth of the Connecticut river, where he was a farmer and leading citizen of the town. He was in 1709 established and confirmed by the general assembly to be ensign of the company of train band of the town of Lyme, under the command of Captain William Eely. His name is here "John Coult of Lyme." In the general assembly of Connecticut Colony, May 8-23, 1712, he was present as a deputy from Lyme, and his name is then printed "Ensign John Colt." On October 10, 1717, he was commissioned lieutenant by the general assem-

(401)

402

STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

bly, and on October 10, 1723, he was com- missioned captain of the north company of Lyme. He was deputy to the general assem- bly for seven sessions of that body, 1718-24. He married Mary Lord, and their children were as follows: I. A daughter who married a Mr. Sterling, of Niantia. 2. A daughter who married Thomas Ayers, of Saybrook. 3. Benjamin, born 1698, see forward. 4. A daughter who married a Mr. Comstock, of Hadlyme. 5. Samuel, born 1705, died 1743; married, November 7, 1734, Abigail Mervin. (III) Benjamin, eldest son of Captain John (2) and Mary (Lord) Colt, was born in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1698, died in 1754. He resided in Lyme, where he was a deacon of the church and lieutenant-colonel in the militia. He married, May 26, 1724, Miriam Harris, and their children, born in Old Lyme, New London county, Connecticut, were as follows: I. John, born 1725, died 1784; mar- ried (first) Mary Lord; (second) Mary Gard- ner ; (third) Abigail Masten. 2. Joseph. 3. Mary. 4. Sarah. 5. Temperance. 6. Harris. 7. Polly. 8. Benjamin, born 1740. 9. Peter. IO. Isaac, see forward. It is known that Isaac Coult, of Sussex County, New Jersey, came from Connecticut. He is probably the tenth child of Benjamin Coult and born at Lyme in 1743. The birth of one of the children of Colonel Benjamin Colt or Coult, as both he and his father and grandfather frequently had their names written, was in 1725 and another in 1740, and the natal year of none of the others is given. Or Isaac Coult, of Sussex, may have been the son of Samuel, as above stated, born in 1705, who married Abigail Mervin. This it is safe to say that Isaac was a grandson of Captain John and great-grandson of John Coult, the immigrant. Further research in family records may make the parentage of Isaac Coult clear, but the weight of available evidence is in favor of the line as here laid down, and we venture to give it as presumably correct. The Coults in Connecticut were farmers, and naturally they took up the same vocation in New Jersey among the rich high- lands of Sussex county. The name Joseph Coult appears in each generation, both in Con- necticut and New Jersey, with this difference, that in Connecticut portions of the family wrote the name after the first two generations Colt, while Isaac preserved the original spell- ing Coult, as did the family of that name in New London county, Connecticut.

(IV) Isaac Coult, probably son of Colonel Benjamin and Miriam (Harris) Colt, was

born in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1743, died in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1837. He came from Connecticut to New Jersey when a young man. He married, July 13, 1766, Sarah Holbart, born in 1747, died in New Jersey in 1833. Their children, born presumably in Papakating, Sussex county, New Jersey, were as follows: I. Abigail, born 1770, married Hetzel. 2. Isaac, 1772, married Nancy Morris. 3. Anna, 1774, married Norris. 4. Ashel, 1776, died 1804, un- married. 5. Sarah, 1778, died 1779. 6. John, 1781, married English. 7. Elizabeth, 1783, married Bryant. 8. Joseph, 1788, see forward. 9. Lucy, 1789, married Mattison.

(V) Joseph, fourth son of Isaac and Sarah (Holbart) Coult, was born in Papakating, Sussex county, New Jersey, 1788. He mar- ried (first) in 1809, Jerusha Price, and their children born in Papakating, New Jersey, were as follows: I. Robert, 1810, died unmarried in 1838. 2. Sarah, 1812. 3. Elizabeth, 1814, married Charles Roe. 4. Abigail, 1815, mar- ried John Couse. 5. Lucy, 1817, married Charles Roe. 6. John, 1819, married Cather- ine Titman. 7. Henrietta, 1821. 8. Isaac, 1823, married Jane Ketchum. Mr. Coult mar- ried (second) 1825, Hannah Coursen, who bore him two children. 9. Jerusha, 1826. 10. Joseph, see forward.

(VI) Joseph (2), second child of Joseph (I) and Hannah (Coursen) Coult, was born in Papakating, Sussex county, New Jersey, May 25, 1834. He was educated in the Rankin School at Deckertown, studied law under Thomas N. McCarter, and later in the Law School at New Albany, New York, grad- uating with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar in the state of New York and began the practice of law in New York City. Shortly afterward, how- ever, he returned to his native state and was admitted as an attorney-at-law there in Feb- ruary, 1861. He became a law partner with Thomas Anderson in Newton, conducting a general law practice, the partnership continu- ing for several years and being attended with signal success. He was made a full attorney and counsellor-at-law under the laws of New Jersey in 1864, and in 1871 entered into part- nership with Louis Van Blascom. In 1873 he withdrew from the firm and removed to Newark, New Jersey, becoming junior part- ner in the firm of Leonard & Coult. In 1893, when Chancellor Theodore Runyon withdrew from the practice of law in order to accept the

403

STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

position of United States minister to Ger- many, as successor to William Walter Phelps, under appointment of President Cleveland, the firm of Leonard & Coult succeeded to his ex- tensive law practice and they made a specialty of municipal law. Mr. Coult was counsel for the city of Newark for twelve years and prose- cutor of pleas for one year. He is a Repub- lican in politics, taking an active interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of his party, and on numerous occasions he has served as delegate to conventions of various kinds, having the honor of having assisted in the nomination of no less than three of the men who have stood at the head of the nation. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention that nominated Lincoln for a second term, the convention at Philadelphia which nomin- ated Grant, and the Cincinnati convention which nominated Hayes. His club affiliations included membership in the Union Club, the North End Club and the New York Republi- can Club. Mr. Coult married, at Branchville, New Jersey, May 25, 1859, Frances A., daugh- ter of Joseph A. and Margaret Osborne. Their family consists of three daughters and one son: Margaret, Eliza, Lillian, married Frank W. Kinsey, and Joseph, who married Edna Pierson Wheeler and has two children, Edna Clare and Joseph.

The Mercers are of Scotch MERCER origin, and for centuries before the coming of persons of their blood to this country the name was a distin- guished one both in church and state, but par- ticularly in the kirk, where we find them among the foremost in a land and time noted for their eminent divines and reformers. The great- grandfather of the founder of the Mercer family in New Jersey was John Mercer, who was the minister of the kirk in Kinnellan, Aber- deenshire, from 1650 to 1676, in which latter year he resigned his incumbency, probably on account of feebleness or age, as his death occurred about a year later. This worthy divine married Lilian Row, a great-grand- daughter of the reformer, John Row, and from their union sprang three children, one of whom was Thomas Mercer, baptized January 20, 1658, and mentioned in the poll lists of 1696. This Thomas married (first) Anna Raite, and (second) a woman whose last name is un- known but who was christened Isabel. Seven children were the result of one or both of these marriages, but the records at present available are insufficient to enable us to determine which

wife was the mother of any one or more of them. One of these children was baptized William on the 25th of March, 1696, and he is an important personage, not only on his own account, but also because he was the father of two great families of his name in this country, both of them worthily held in high honor by New Jersey, although only one has made this colony and state its home. Will- iam Mercer followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, the Rev. John, and being edu- cated for the ministry, made a name for him- self and won a prominent position in the estab- lished kirk of Scotland, from 1720 to 1748 being in charge of the manse at Pittsligo, Aber- deenshire. He married Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Munro, of Foulis, who was killed in 1746, while commanding the British troops at Falkirk. By this marriage the Rev. William Mercer had three children, one a daughter named Eleanor or Helen; another Hugh, who emigrated to America in 1747, settling first in Pennsylvania and later in Virginia, and won for himself undying glory and national grati- tude, first as captain of militia in Braddock's unfortunate expedition, and afterwards as brigadier-general of the continental army in the campaign culminating in the battles of Trenton and Princeton where he met his doom ; and lastly William, the founder of the Mercer family of New Jersey.

(I) William Mercer, the colonist, above mentioned as the son of the Rev. William Mercer, of Pittsligo, was born about 1715, in Aldie, Scotland, shortly after his father's ordin- ation to the ministry, and died in New Bruns- wick, New Jersey, March 10, 1770, in the fifty- sixth year of his age. From all accounts Will- iam Mercer, the colonist, was a man of retiring and quiet disposition, inclining more to the study and the workshop rather than to the field and forum of public life. He was a scholarly gentleman and physician, whose mills were an easily recognized and well known landmark not only throughout New Jersey but in New York as well. From May, 1747, about six or seven years after his emigration to this coun- try, until February, 1768, about two years before his death, the New- York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy and the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury contain many adver- tisements of lands for sale and houses to sell or rent which were either owned by Dr. Mercer himself or which though owned by others, were to be recognized by their proximity or relation to "Dr. Mercer's Mills," which were situated in the "blue hill country of Somerset

404

STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

county, on the road through Johnstone's Gap to the Valley between the first and second mountains." Dr. Mercer's own home was in New Brunswick, where he held the title to considerable properties, one of them being "a house and large garden situated upon the bank of the river," the house having "three good fine rooms upon the first floor, and four rooms on the second, with a good kitchen, cellar, pantry, &c., below," and the outbuildings con- sisted of "a large barn with very convenient stabling in it, and other outhouses, also two large convenient storehouses adjoining." This property Dr. Mercer had bought from William Donaldson, who had afterward rented it from him for a number of years, and then having determined to go back to England, had given up his lease, whereupon Dr. Mercer advertised it as for rent in the New York papers. From another advertisement in the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury of January 15, 1776, about six years after Dr. Mercer's death, we learned that he was one of the old Jersey slave owners, as on that date Colonel John Reid advertises forty shillings reward for a runaway negro man, named Sam, who had formerly belonged to and lived in the family of Dr. Mercer. Dr. Mercer's will is recorded in Liber K, page 208, of the East Jersey wills, and is on file in the vaults of the office of the secretary of state in Trenton, New Jersey. By his wife, Lucy (Tyson) Mercer, Dr. William Mercer had nine children : William, John, Isaac, Gabriel, Peter, Martha, Achibald, Helen and Robert. Two of these sons went to West Indies, one of them, William, settling about five years after his father's death in Bermuda, and the other in Barbadoes. Another of his sons settled in New Orleans, and two more of his sons died leaving no record be- hind them. Of Martha, the oldest of his daugh- ters, nothing is known. Helen, his other daugh- ter, married Samuel Highway, who settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and after her husband's death, somewhat later than 1814, returned to New Jersey and made her home with her niece, Mrs. Theodore Frelinghuysen, at Newark, New Jersey, where she died in November, 1822. Robert, the youngest son of Dr. William Mercer, the colonist, settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, having married Eleanor Titten- nary, December 2, 1783, who bore him four children : Eleanor Tittennary Mercer, who be- came the wife of Samuel Moss and the mother of five children : Joseph, Lucy, Thomas Freling- huysen, Charlotte Frelinghuysen and Maria Moss; Letitia Mercer, who died young ; Rob-

ert Mercer, who followed his uncle to New Orleans ; and Mary Strycker Mercer, who mar- ried and left one child, Isaac Sydney Jones.

(II) Archibald, sixth son of Dr. William Mercer, of New Brunswick, was born in 1747, either shortly before or just after the father came to this country. He died in Newark, New Jersey, May 4, 1814, after a long and useful life, the early part of which was spent in New Brunswick and New York, the man- hood and middle age in Millstone, Somerset county, New Jersey, and the declining years in Newark where he took his place as a prom- inent citizen of the growing town and the close and valued friend of such men as General John N. Cumming, James Kearney, Elias E. Boudi- not, William Halsey, John and Stephen Van Courtlandt, Jesse Gilbert, Ashbel Upson, David Lyman, Abraham Wooley, Archippus Priest and William Hillhouse. The early years of Archibald Mercer's life were spent in his father's home in New Brunswick, and here, under the scholarly doctor's tuition, he re- ceived his early education. When he was be- tween fifteen and twenty years of age, young Archibald went to New York where he re- mained until after the birth of his first child, but whether he went there to enroll himself among the students of King's College, now Columbia University, or whether he went to the city in order to start himself in a business career is uncertain. That he was there during this time, however, we learn from the fact that his eldest child was born in New York, and that during the period above mentioned there occurs in the advertisement already mentioned which his father inserted in the newspapers the phrase "For further particulars enquire of Doctor Mercer at New Brunswick, or Archi- bald Mercer at Walter and Samuel Franklin's store in New York." The times in which Archibald Mercer's youth and early manhood were passed were indeed stirring ones and just what part he took in them we have never been able to ascertain. The only military record left by the New Jersey Mercer is that of Captain John, who at the beginning of the war was an ensign in Captain Howell's com- pany, first battalion of the first establishment of the Jersey line, who on November 14, 1775, became first lieutenant of the same company. On November 29, 1776, Lieutenant John Mer- cer was transferred to Captain Morris's com- pany, first battalion of the second establish- ment of the Jersey line, and on February 15, 1777, was promoted captain of the same com- pany. He was taken prisoner of war and ex-

405

STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

changed on November 6, 1780, and he was finally retired September 26, 1780. Unless this Captain John Mercer was Archibald Mercer's elder brother, of whom no other record now remains, it is probable that he was either not at all or at most only distantly related to the family we are now considering. However this may be, of one thing we can be reasonably sure, Archibald Mercer's position in later life, the fact that in 1794 he was judge of the court of common pleas for Somerset county, the fact that the men whose names we have already mentioned were his bosom friends and con- sidered that they were honored by being reck- oned such, all goes to show that he must have played his part well and done his duty man- fully, whatever it was, in those times that "tried men's souls." Mr. Mercer's children with the exception of the first born were all of them born in Millstone, New Jersey, so that between the years 1776 and 1794 that was probably his home. At some time between then and the beginning of the new century he removed to Newark, New Jersey, for in 1806 we find that he was chairman of the committee that made the contract for the construction of the Newark turnpike, his fellow committeemen being John N. Cumming, Jesse Gilbert, Ashbel Upson, David Lyman, Abraham Wooley, Archippus Priest and William Hillhouse. On March 10, 1811, he and George Scriba, Esquire, were sponsors in Trinity Church for Joseph Augustus, son of the Rev. Joseph Wheeler, the second rector of the parish. On September 29, 1812, about six weeks after his second marriage, Mr. Mercer wrote his will, which is recorded in the Essex Wills, book A., page 500, and is preserved in the vaults at Trenton. In this, after the customary instructions, com- mitting his soul to God and his body to the earth "to be buried at the discretion of his executors," he divides his property, after cer- tain legacies have been deducted, equally among his five surviving children. To several of his grandchildren he leaves legacies varying in amount ; to the rector, wardens and vestrymen of Trinity Church he bequeathes all the accounts he has against the church, and re- serves his pew for the use of the members of his family and expresses the "hope that they will at least sometimes go there;" to his sister, Helen Highway, and to his "unfortunate brother, Robert," he leaves $10,000.00 each ; he appoints as his executors his four children, Peter, Archibald, Gertrude and Charlotte ; his two sons-in-law, Dr. James Lee and Theodore Frelinghuysen, and his friend, James R. Smith,

of New York; he concludes by saying that he desires "to be buried alongside of my deceased son, William, and that the remains of my dear wife be removed and laid in the same pit with me. And now farewell my beloved children, the best legacy I can leave you is to conjure you to live so as to merit the favour of your God." This will is witnessed by John N. Cum- ming, James Kearney and Elias E. Boudinot, and was proved June 18, 1814. The inventory of his estate made June 1, 1814, by General John N. Cumming and William Halsey, amounted to $120,609.88.

The first wife of the Hon. Archibald Mercer and the mother of all of his children was Mary (Schenck) Mercer, of Somerset county, New Jersey, whom he married July 23, 1770. She died in Newark, January 1, 1808, aged sixty years, after bearing him nine children, seven ·of whom survived her. Their names and birth- days are as follows: Maria, August 19, 1771 ; Peter Schenck, June 14, 1776; Louisa, August 5, 1778; Gertrude, October 25, 1781; Char- lotte, February 5, 1784; William, March 2, 1786; Eliza, June 14, 1787 ; Archibald, Decem- ber 1, 1788; John, May 9, 1790. Two of these children died in infancy, Eliza, March 9, 1793 ; and John, July 1, 1794. Two more of them married and died before their father, Louisa, who married John Frelinghuysen, son of the Hon. Frederick Frelinghuysen, who is con- sidered elsewhere, and William, who will be referred to later. Maria Mercer, the eldest child, married Dr. Peter T. Stryker, and died childless, July 8, 1841. Peter Schenck Mercer, the eldest son, died April 1, 1833, in New London, Connecticut, after being twice mar- ried ; by his first wife he had four children, Mary Schenck, Archibald, John Frelinghuysen, and Frederick; but all that remains of record of them or their mother is a gravestone in the "Red brick grave yard" on the road leading from Millstone to Somerville, inscribed "Mar- garet Mercer, 1814, aged thirty-one years, wife of Peter Mercer and their infant children." By his second wife, Rebecca Starr, he had four more children, Peter, who died young ; Abigail, who married Captain John French ; Margaret, who married a Winthrop ; and Elizabeth, whose husband was Frederick Bidwell. Gertrude Mercer, the fourth child and third daughter, died January 26, 1830, having married, July 22, 1808, Dr. James Lee, of New London, to whom she bore at least one daughter, who was afterwards Mrs. Robert A. McCurdy and the mother of Richard A. McCurdy, of Morris- town. Charlotte Mercer, the next child to

400

STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

Gertrude, married Theodore, another son of the Hon. Frederick Frelinghuysen, and will be referred to under that family. Archibald Mer- cer, junior, the next to the youngest child, died in New London, Connecticut, October 3, 1850. He was twice married ; the first time to Abigail Starr, March II, 1812, who bore him two chil- dren, Charlotte Frelinghuysen, afterwards Mrs. James Morgan, and Sarah Isham, after- wards the wife of George S. Hazard. By his second marriage, June 18, 1817, to Harriet Wheat, who died February 20, 1854, he had eight more children: Louisa Frelinghuysen and Helen Highway, who died in infancy ; Harriet, John Dishon and Abigail Starr, who died unmarried; William, who married Ellen C. Allen; Gertrude Lee, who became Mrs. Adam F. Prentice ; and Maria Stryker, after- wards the wife of Samuel H. Grosvenor, whose only son is the Rev. William Mercer Gros- venor, D. D., the present rector of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, New York City. A little over four years after his wife's death, Archibald Mercer, senior, married (second) July 5, 1812, Catharina Sophia Cuyler, widow of John Van Cortlandt, who survived him about nine years, dying March 25, 1823. Of this marriage there was no issue. By her first husband, Mrs. Mercer had one son, James Van Cortlandt, whom to- gether with her mother, Martha Cuyler, she mentions in her will, written August 3, 1821, and proven August 9, 1823, her estate, left wholly to these two, amounting to $6,737,961.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II, Part 1

Author: Lee, Francis Bazley, 1869- ed Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Lewis Historical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 618

Author: Lee, Francis Bazley, 1869- ed
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 618