USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 41
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Thomas, referred to below. 3. Sara, born 1643. 4. Elizabeth, 1645. 5. Mary, 1648. 6. John, 1651. By his second wife, Martha, he had: 7. Robert, 1657. 8. Martha, 1660. Thomas ffrench was buried May 5, 1673. Sara, his first wife, was buried February 9, 1653.
(II) Thomas (2), son of Thomas (I) and Sara ffrench, the progenitor of the French family in New Jersey, was born in 1639 and baptized the same year in the parish church of SS. Peter and Paul, Nether Heyford. When the religious society of Friends arose, he with other members of his family became actively identified therewith, and at different times suffered for his faith. Upon one oc- casion he was sentenced to imprisonment for forty-two months for refusal to pay tithes to the amount of eleven shillings. At this time he was a resident of Upper Norton, Ox- fordshire. An account of this and of other sufferings of his is to be found in Besse's re- markable book, "Sufferings of Friends," in which also the names of five other members of his family appear. In all he was sentenced five times and altogether he served several years in prison.
That Thomas French was a man of great force of character, intense religious conviction, and earnest, consistent life is abundantly evi- dent. He shared with his associates trials and hardships and always resented everything bearing the slightest resemblance to injustice and oppression. He was consequently among the first to take a practical interest in the colo- nization of Friends in America. With Wil- liam Penn, Gauen Laurie, and the hundred and fifty others he was one of the signers of the famous Concessions and Agreements at Lon- don in 1676, which provided for the settle- ment of New Jersey. First of all he made a preliminary prospecting visit to this country to locate his land and to select his home, then three years after the arrival of the pioneer colonists according to his own account which is still preserved he sailed from London in the ship "Kent," Gregory Marlowe, master, the same vessel which brought the first company of settlers, in 1677, to Burlington, about Au- gust 1, 1680, with his wife and nine children, four sons and five daughters, the eldest being sixteen, the youngest not yet four years of age. He settled upon a tract of six hundred acres, along the banks of the Rancocas, about four miles from Burlington, and throughout the remainder of his life he held an influential place in the colony and prospered in business.
During 1684-85 he was the commissioner of highways. At his death in 1699, he was pos- sessed of one thousand two hundred acres of improved land and also his proprietory share of the unsurveyed lands, approximately two thousand acres. During nearly twenty years residence as a leading citizen of Burlington county, Thomas ffrench trained all of his chil- dren in ways of sobriety, industry and religion, they in turn founding families in whom traits of strong character were noted. It is an in- teresting fact that part of the original planta- tion of Thomas ffrench is today owned and occupied by his descendants. An interesting relic of Thomas ffrench is his family Bible which he brought with him from England and which is still in existence and in a fair state of preservation although showing the effects of time. The record transcribed in it is in his own hand and covers entries made during a period of over thirty years. In maintaining his rights as a citizen and property holder Thomas ffrench felt himself called upon almost at the beginning to take action which seems to have excited comment, but he was firm in de- claring the justice of his case although duly regretful that his course had given occasion for criticism. The most striking instance of his thus braving public opinion was a remark- able letter to ex-Governor Thomas Olive, in some respects the leading and most influential man in the colony.
June 12, 1660, Thomas ffrench was married (first) in the parish church of Whilton, by the Rev. Richard Morris. Children : 1. Sara, bap- tized, as were the first twelve children at SS. Peter and Paul, Nether Heyford, March 17, 1661, buried April 10, 1661. 2. Jane, born about June II, 1662, baptized August 8, 1662, buried April 30, 1671. 3. Rachel, born March 24, '1664, baptized April 3, 1664; married (first) Mathew Allen, and ( second) Hugh Sharp. 4. Richard, referred to below. 5. Thomas, baptized October 31, 1667; married (first) Mary Allen, and (second) Mary (Pearce ) Cattell; died in 1745. 6. Hannah, baptized September 5. 1669, died 7th month, 1747 ; married Richard Buzby, of Pennsylva- nia. 7. Charles, born March 20, baptized April 2, 1671 ; married it is supposed twice, the name of his first wife being Elinor. 8. John, baptized January 2, 1673, died 1729; married (first) in 1701, Ann and (second) Sarah (Mason) Wickward. 9. Sarah, baptized February 23, 1674; married Isaac Wood, of Woodbury Creek. 10. Mary, baptized August 8, 1675, died 1728; married
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Nicholas Buzby, of Burlington county. II. Jane, baptized November 19, 1676; married Daniel Hall. 12. Lydia, born probably 1682; married probably, 1708, David Arnold. 13. An infant, died 8th month 12, 1692. Jane (Atkins) French died at Rancocas, 8th month 5, 1692, and Thomas French married ( sec- ond) 7th month 25, 1696, Elizabeth Stanton, of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. To this marriage there was issue one child, 14. Rebecca, born 6th month 8, 1697, died 1753: married Robert Murfin.
(III) Richard French, fourth child and eldest son of Thomas (2) and Jane ( Atkins) French, was born in Nether Heyford, Eng- land, the memorandum in the family Bible of his father reading "December the first about ten at night my son Richard was borne, 1665. The Lord give him grace that hee may con- tinually walk before him." A long and useful life shows how fully this characteristic prayer of a devout and loving father was answered. Richard was a lad of fifteen when he came to America. So far as is known his youth and early manhood were spent on the Rancoca plantation. That he was devoted to farm life is shown in the fact that upon his marriage he purchased an extensive tract of land, four hundred and sixty acres, in Mansfield town- ship, Burlington county, where he seems to have resided for the remainder of his life. A deed of release of all claim to the home farm, after his father's death, to his younger brother Charles, shows the kindly relationship that ex- isted and his contentment with his own lot.
He was a faithful and zealous Friend, his name appearing many times in the meeting records of the period. In 1715 he was chosen overseer of the Chesterfield Meeting and in 1723 an elder and a minister. He was also frequently chosen as a representative to quarterly and yearly meeting. Although now past middle age, he nevertheless continued for a quarter of a century active in the work of preaching and visitation, journeying through the wilderness to New England and the South. In the promotion of the religious life of the colonies he was conspicuous and influential, in business affairs, as his many deeds and other papers show, particularly his will and the ac- companying inventory, he was active and pros- perous. In 1701 he was the collector for Mansfield township. He raised a large fam- ily and all of his ten children reached a mar- riageable age. The peculiar phraseology of his recorded papers indicate a mind exceedingly careful of details, with a just and kindly spirit,
and the monthly meeting fittingly testified after his death that in the exercise of his gift in the ministry "he laboured faithfully in his declin- ing age and travelled much in North America."
Seventh month, 11, 1693, Richard French married (first) Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Scattergood, of Stepney parish, London, England, and New Jersey. She died about 1700, leaving three children. Richard French married (second) eleventh month 13, 1701, Mary, daughter of Harmanus and Mary King, of Nottingham township, Burlington county, New Jersey, by whom he had seven more children: I. Elizabeth, born 1694; mar- ried William Scholey. 2. Richard, Eighth month, 20, 1696; married Rachel 3. Thomas. 4. Mary, born ninth month 3, 1707, died 1783 ; married as his first wife Preserve Brown Jr. 5. Rebecca, married Benjamin Shreve. 6. William, referred to below. 7. Sarah, born seventh month 20, 1715; married William Marlin. 8. Abigail, born seventh month 5, 1717 ; married (first) James Lewis, of Philadelphia, and (second) Jacob Taylor. 9. Benjamin, twelfth month II, 1719, died 1747; married Martha Hall, of Bordentown. IO. Jonathan, eleventh month 27, 1722, died 1778; married Esther Matlack.
(IV) William, sixth child and third son of Richard and Mary (King) French, was born April 7, 1712, died in 1781. He lived and died intestate in Burlington county, letters of administration on his estate being granted to his son William, December 8, 1781, the inven- tory of his goods and chattels having been made the previous October 26. William French married, September 20, 1748, Lydia Taylor, of Bordentown, by whom he had three children: 1. William, referred to below. 2. Richard, born October 15, 1759, died Febru- ary 26, 1823; married Mary Davis. 3. Lydia, March 19, 1763; married Gabriel Allen, of Bordentown.
(V) William (2), eldest son of William (I) and Lydia (Taylor) French, was born in Burlington county, New Jersey, May 10, 1751, died October 27, 1808. He was a millwright and appears to have spent most of his life at Lamberton, New Jersey, although he also seems to have for a considerable time so- journed both in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and in Haddonfield, New Jersey. September 17, 1777, he married at Falls meeting. Rachel. daughter of Thomas and Hannah Rickey, of Lower Makefield township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, who died in Lamberton, New Jersey, August 27, 1827. Their children
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were: I. Lydia, born August 25, 1778, died August 18, 1781. 2. Hannah, December 5, 1779, died May 22, 1782. 3. John Taylor; January 27, 1783, died November 21, 1831. 4. William Rickey, November 23, 1785. 5. Mah- lon Kirkbride, referred to below. 6. Amos Taylor, January 23, 1791; married Ruth Ewing. 7. Rachel Rickey, February 22, 1794.
(VI) Mahlon Kirkbride, fifth child and third son of William (2) and Rachel ( Rickey ) French, was born June 12, 1788. He married, May. 15, 1807, Sarah Stackhouse. Among their children was: William Washington, re- ferred to below.
(VII) William Washington, son of Mahlon Kirkbride and Sarah ( Stackhouse) French, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 14, 1811. The early portion of his life was spent in Trenton, New Jersey, where he served an apprenticeship to the cabinet making trade. In 1851 he moved to Delaware county, Pennsylvania, from which he removed in 1861 to Philadelphia. During the civil war he served in the United States quartermaster's department.
William Washington French married Ann, born in 1815, daughter of John Airy, of Bor- dentown, Burlington county, New Jersey, and their children were: I. Maria, deceased. 2. Emma, deceased. 3. Anna, deceased. 4. Rachel, married the Rev. Benjamin Philips, a Presbyterian divine. 5. Harvey, married Vir- ginia Maston and had two children: Laura, married Henry Eccles, and Ella, married Paul Lockenbacher. Harvey French enlisted in the Eighth New Jersey Regiment of Volunteer In- fantry in 1861, was severely wounded in the hip at the battle of Bull Run and was taken prisoner. He is now living at Haddon Heights, New Jersey. 6. Sarah, deceased. 7. William, lives in Philadelphia, employed in the Baldwin locomotive works. His wife died leaving him with one child, Lilian. 8. John Taylor, referred to below. 9. George, a mill worker, living in Philadelphia and ยท married. IO. Elizabeth, deceased. II. Ella, deceased.
(VIII) John Taylor, the eighth child of William Washington and Ann (Airy) French, was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1852, and is now living at Atlantic City, New Jersey. For his early education he was sent to the schools of Delaware county and of Philadelphia. After spending some time on a farm, he became an apprentice at sixteen years of age and learned the trade of house painting. In 1877 he removed to Ham- monton, New Jersey, and in 1883 built the
paint factory there, which he has since then carried on so successfully. In connection with this factory he established in 1900 at At- lantic City a store for paints and painters' supplies. His legal residence is Hammonton, but he has also a fine cottage at Atlantic City where he spends a good deal of his time and where many of his business interests centre. Mr. French is a director in the Hammonton Trust Company, and for nearly five years was the postmaster at Hammonton, having been appointed to that very responsible position by President Grover Cleveland during his second term. For fourteen years he was a member of the county board of registration and elec- tions, and for a number of years has also been a member of the city council of Hammonton, and an assessor of the town. Mr. French is a Democrat and for six years was a member of the state democratic committee. For eight- een years he was a director of the Hammon- ton Building and Loan Association, one of the most successful of that town's successful or- ganizations. At present he is also president of the Atlantic Realty Company of Atlantic City. He is also a member of M. G. Taylor Lodge, No. 141, of the Free and Accepted Masons, of Hammonton; Improved Order of Red Men, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Artisans' Order of Mutual Protection. He is an independent in religion.
In 1873 John Taylor French married Jennie R., daughter of William Alexandria. Their children are: I. John Taylor Jr., born Sep- tember 15, 1874; unmarried; with his father in the paint supply business. 2. Ida F., July 28, 1876; married Wilson S. Turner, of Ham- monton. and has one child, Spencer Frencli Turner. 3. Howard, July 23, 1878; with his father in the paint business; by his marriage with Mabel Maxwell he has two children, Vir- ginia and Roberta. 4. Walter, December 16, 1880; married Elizabeth Ketes, but has no children. 5. Wilbert A., October 21, 1882; also with his father in the paint business : married Martha Murray and has one child, John Taylor French.
Nathan Armstrong, the ARMSTRONG New Jersey pioneer, was born about 1717, near Londonderry in the province of Ulster, Ire- land. He was a linen weaver by trade, a Scotch-Irishman by race, and a Protestant by religious faith. He came to America about 1740. After living a few years in central New Jersey, he went to the northwestern frontier
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and settled in Warren county, then a part of Sussex, where he met and loved and married a maiden by the name of Euphemia Wright. He bought a tract of five hundred and eighty- one acres of uncleared land, built a log cabin thereon and became a farmer, and continued thereafter during a period of twenty-nine years to enjoy the blessings of health and home and the rewards of industry and thrift.
The defeat of the English army under Braddock near Pittsburg in 1755 caused a panic; and well it might, for the Indians in their exultation began to murder the settlers everywhere, some of the savages even coming eastward and crossing into New Jersey. Na- than Armstrong and his neighbors erected a stockade around a log house at Marksboro and took their wives and children there for safety. His sons, George and John, were at that time only six years of age; but when they were old men, they used to tell how, their father took them to the barn-yard and showed them a pot of money he had buried under the barrack and told them if he were killed and they es- caped they should remember where the money was; then they all went to the fort where the children remained until the danger was over.
Nathan Armstrong was interested in local affairs and held several offices in old Hard- wick. He was a member of the board of jus- tices and freeholders of Sussex county for three years, 1759-61 ; and he was one of the original incorporators of Christ Episcopal Church at Newton, being named as such in the charter granted to that church by the pro- vincial government of New Jersey on August 14, 1774.
The Armstrong homestead is at Johnson- burg in the township of Frelinghuysen; it is crossed by the Lackawanna railroad, and is fourteen miles east of the Delaware Water Gap. Nathan moved into his new home with his wife and infant daughter during the third week of May, 1748. At that time Warren county was really a western frontier. Some Indians still lingered in the valleys of the Paulinskill and the Pequest, living at points convenient for hunting and fishing, and feeling bitter and resentful at the intrusion of the white man. There was not a single house on the ground now occupied by Blairstown, New- ton and Belvidere ; and there were only three postoffices in the entire state of New Jersey, namely: Trenton, Burlington and Perth Amboy. All north Jersey was thickly covered with heavy timber ; the streams were without
bridges, and the king's highways were mere paths through the woods.
Bears, deer and all kinds of game were abundant ; thousands of the finest shad came up the creeks and brooks, and millions of wild pigeons roosted in the forest. There was a panther's lair in every deep ravine ; and wolves fierce with hunger prowled about, seeking to carry off any stray hogs, lambs and calves, hunting in packs during the day and making repeated attacks at night on sheep-pen and cattle-stall. There was a bounty of sixty shil- lings for a full-grown wolf, ten shillings for a whelp not able to prey, and fifteen shillings for a panther. Among the entries found in the account books of the county treasurer, there are several that read thus: "By cash paid Nathan Armstrong for one wolf's head."
Nathan died of small-pox which he con- tracted while delivering produce at the Ameri- can camp in Morristown. He was buried in a private graveyard, as the custom was in colo- nial times, but his tombstone may still be seen at the Yellow Frame cemetery, ornamented at the top with the face and extended wings of a cherub carved in outline, and bearing this inscription below : "Here lies the body of Na- than Armstrong who departed this Life Aug't IIth, Anno Domini 1777, aged about sixty Years." His will, which is dated August 5, 1777, is recorded in the office of the secretary of state at Trenton ; after making ample pro- vision for his wife, he gave a sum of money to each of his daughters and a farm to each of his sons.
Euphemia, Nathan's wife, was born in 1724, and died in 1811, at the age of eighty-seven. The Rev. Caspar Shaffer, in his Memoirs, speaks of her thus: "My grandmother Arm- strong was a lady of superior mental endow- ment. She excelled in conversational power. I well recollect in my childhood and youth with what a glowing interest and fixed attention I sat and listened to her when she was relating to my mother anecdotes and reminiscences of earlier life. Her piety, calm, consistent, and unobtrusiveness, shone in all her daily walk and conversation." Nathan and Eu- phemia Armstrong had seven children, namely : Elizabeth, George and John, William, Mary, Hannah and Sarah; each one of these children grew to maturity, married and has descendants living at the present time.
I. Elizabeth Armstrong, born March 12, 1747, married Archibald Stinson Jr., of Vienna, New Jersey, and had a son John Stin-
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son, who was for twenty years a judge of the court of common pleas, and who invented an improved instrument for determining latitude and longitude and secured a patent for the same, both in the United States and in Eng- land.
2-3. George and John, twins; according to the original entry in the first family Bible, they "were born on Sunday, on the 20th day of August in the year of Our Lord 1749, about twelve o'clock at night." Each spent his life on his own half of the old homestead ; and each left a last will and testament, now on record at Belvidere. George died December 14, 1829. in his eighty-first year ; and John died May 7, 1836, in his eighty-seventh year. All the fam- ilies that now bear the name of Armstrong and that trace their descent from Nathan the pio- neer, have sprung from the one or the other of these twins; and this article will give an account of all the Armstrong households of the tribe of Nathan, beginning with George and John, and coming down to the present time; the account will be brief but accurate ; and it will be complete, for there are no lost lines and no missing links.
4. William Armstrong served during the revolutionary war as ensign in Captain Clif- ford's company of Sussex militia, marching on several expeditions against the Indians and fighting at the battle of Springfield. He had a large farm, and he owned and conducted a store and a grist-mill at Johnsonburg. He married Elizabeth Swazye in 1779, and had four daughters: Lydia, the wife of Abraham Shafer Jr .; Euphemia, the wife of John T. Bray; Mary, the wife of John C. Roy; and Sarah, the wife of Ephraim Green Jr. Wil- liam died in 1842, at the age of ninety.
5. Mary Armstrong in 1773 married Robert Beavers Jr., of Changewater, New Jersey, who served as captain during the revolutionary war and was for fifteen years a judge of the court of common pleas; their children were Elizabeth, the wife of Jacob Stinson; Mary, the wife of John Little; Ann, the wife of Jacob Swayze; Euphemia, the wife of James Reeder, of Ohio; and a son, John Armstrong Beavers, who was a lieutenant in the war of 1812.
6. Hannah Armstrong in 1779 married Alexander Linn, son of Adjutant Joseph Linn ; when a widow she removed in 1800 to Espy- ville, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, with her six children : John ; Mary, who married Robert McArthur : Andrew ; Euphemia, who married Daniel Axtell; George; Joseph. Hannah was
the daughter of a pioneer, a pioneer herself, and the mother of pioneers; she died in 1842 at the age of eighty-six.
7. Sarah Armstrong married Captain Abra- ham Shafer, of Stillwater, New Jersey. Abra- ham fought in the revolutionary war, was an elder in the Yellow Frame church, served four terms in the state legislature, and commanded a troop of volunteer light dragoons in the ex- pedition to Pittsburg in 1794, to suppress the whisky insurrection. Abraham and Sarah had eight children : Maria, the wife of John John- son ; Rev. Casper, M. D., of Philadelphia ; Na- than Armstrong ; Peter Bernhardt ; Euphemia Wright, the wife of Major Henry Miller ; Sarah, the wife of Rev. Jacob R. Castner ; William Armstrong; and Elizabeth, the wife of Rev. Isaac Newton Candee.
(II) George, son of Nathan and Euphemia Armstrong, was born in 1749, and died in 1829. He was active in business but he took special interest in all matters relating to the moral and religious welfare of the community, labor- ing earnestly and faithfully during a long life to promote the growth and extend the influ- ence of the Yellow Frame church.
He was prominent in local affairs. He was the clerk of Hardwick township for twenty-two consecutive years, 1779-1801, and the assessor for thirty-one years beginning in 1782; he was also tax collector and a taker of the census. He was clerk of the board of justices and free- holders of Sussex county; he was also ap- pointed tax collector for the county in 1791, and served five years. He was a member of the state legislature ; on his return from Tren- ton, he brought with him a set of silver tea- spoons, and he was welcomed home by a new daughter ; his great-great-grandchildren are now allowed to use those spoons on special occasions.
George's homestead was a busy place. The fields were kept in a high state of cultiva- tion. Fruit trees of every kind were plant- ed, the best varieties of each being sought out ; and grafting was taught to the boys as a fine art. His house, which stood on a terrace and overlooked a broad meadow, was furn- ished with spinning wheels and a loom. The garden, wagon house, corn crib, barn and stackyard, were on the left ; on the right stood the milk house and the tenant house, and just beyond these were the apple bins and cider presses and tanks, and a distillery forty feet long. Out on the meadow was the tannery, the vats being arranged in parallel rows with wells at convenient distances: and close-by
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stood the bark-house and the bark grinder with its circular horse-path. In those days the making of brandy was not regarded as at all reprehensible; but when the movement in favor of moderation spread over the country in 1825, George was one of the very first men in the community to advocate the cause of temperance; and as the first fruits of this moral awakening, he destroyed his stills and stopped making liquor. Hides and skins were tanned on shares; and sometimes he employed skilled workmen to manufacture his share of the leather at once into boots, shoes and har- ness, for which articles there was a ready sale.
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