USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 28
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 28
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JONATHAN DICKINSON SERGEANT was a son of Jonathan Sergeant and Joanna Dickinson, his wife, and was born in Newark, N. J., in 1746. A few years after this, Jonathan, who was then treasurer of the College of New Jersey, removed with his family to Princeton, when the college was removed there. He graduated at Nassau Hall in 1762, when sixteen years of age, read law with Richard Stockton, and being ad- mitted to the bar began to praetiee in Princeton with high promise of distinction. He was fired with the spirit of patriotism before he was twenty years of age, and he was chosen elerk of the first Provincial Con- vention held at New Brunswiek to eleet delegates to the Continental Congress, July 21, 1774. The next year he was appointed seeretary of the second eon- vention, and also treasurer of that body, and a mem- ber of the Committee of Safety. In February, 1776, he was appointed a delegate to the Continental Con- gress in Philadelphia, and he served in that body till
SAMUEL WITHAM STOCKTON was a younger brother of Riehard, the signer, and was born in Princeton, and graduated at Nassau Hall in 1767. He went to Europe as secretary of the American commissioners - . to the eourts of Austria and Russia. While abroad he negotiated a treaty with Holland. He returned to New Jersey in 1779. He was elected secretary of the convention of New Jersey to ratify the Constitution of the United States. He removed from Princeton to Trenton, and in 1794 he was appointed Seeretary of State of New Jersey, and in 1795 he lost his life May of that year, when he was elected a member of . in being thrown from a chaise in Trenton.1 the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and believing DAVID BREARLY was the son of David Brearly and Mary Clarke, of Maidenhead, a prominent family that he could better serve the cause of independence ! there, he resigned his seat in the Continental Con- , of English ancestry. He read law at Prineeton ; was gress and took his place again in the Provincial Con- gress, which met June 10th, at Burlington. He was on --- the committee to draft a Constitution for New Jersey as a State, and he labored with prominence and suecess in : admitted to the bar before the Revolution, and settled at Allentown, in Monmouth County, N. J. In 1776 he was a member of the first Constitutional Conven- tion, for which he was outlawed by the British govern- ment, and a reward of one hundred pounds was of- fered for his apprehension. He was later commissioned colonel, and on his way to join the army of the West he was appointed to the chief justiceship of New Jersey, an office which he held from June, 1779, till 1789, when he resigned, and was appointed judge of the United States Court for New Jersey, which office
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. accomplishing it. That Constitution was reported on the 26th of June, and was adopted on the 2d of July, 1776, the day the adoptive vote was taken on the declaration of independence in the Continental Con- gress. There was no more devoted son of liberty in New Jersey than Mr. Sergeant. In November, 1776, he was chosen by the Legislature of the first State
as yet organized, New Jersey, with Richard Stoekton, : he held till his death, Aug. 15, 1790, aged forty-four years. In 1787, while chief justice, he was appointed delegate to the convention to frame the Constitution of the United States, and as such he took part in that work, and signed the instrument.
SAMUEL LEAKE was admitted to the bar in 1776. IIc was born in Cumberland County, N. J., in 1748. and graduated at Princeton in 1774. He first settled at Salem, but removed to Trenton in 1785, and resided
1 Dr. Hall's History of Trenton.
Dr. John Witherspoon, Abraham Clark, and Jona. than Elmer to represent the State in the Congress of the United States. In the following year he was ap- pointed attorney-general of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with a salary of two thousand pounds, and lie accepted the office and removed from Prinee- ton, where his handsome new house had been re- duced to a heap of ashes by the Hessian soldiers, and he took up his residence in Philadelphia. There he followed bis profession, and rendered many valuable !
In the summer of 1793 the yellow fever scourged the city of Philadelphia. Mr. Sergeant with several other philanthropie citizens served voluntarily on the board of health, and devoted himself heroically to the eare of the sick and the dying till Oet. 8, 1793, when he fell a martyr victim to the fatal disease.
Mr. Sergeant was distinguished for integrity, learn- ing, and industry, and possessed fine natural elocu- tion. As a eitizen he was generous, benevolent, and courageous. He was hospitable without ostentation. His first wife was a daughter of the Rev. Elihu Spen- eer, D.D., of Trenton. His second wife was a dangh- ter of David Rittenhouse, the astronomer. Hc had eleven ehildren, eight by the first and three by the second wife. Nearly all his sons were distinguished members of the Philadelphia bar, John and Thomas Sergeant being the most illustrious ; his daughter, Mrs. Dr. Samuel Miller, being the only child who spent her life chiefly in New Jersey.
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
there till his death, in 1820. He had a large practice, as may readily be seen by reference to Coxe's "Law Reports." He was an cceentrie man. Chief Justice Ewing read law with Mr. Leake, and ever showed re- spect for him. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He was buried in Trenton.
RICHARD HOWELL, Governor and chancellor of the State from 1793 to 1801, was a son of Ebenezer Howell, and was born in Delaware. He and his brother Lewis came into this State in 1774. They were among those who were engaged in burning the tca in the store-house in Greenwich. Riehard was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1779, having served in the army during the war. In 1778 he was elected clerk of the Supreme Court, having just before taken up his residenee in Trenton, and in 1793 was eleeted Governor. After his official term expired he returned to the practice of the law in Trenton. He died at his residence near Trenton, May 5, 1805, at the age of forty-nine. Mrs. Jefferson Davis was his granddaughter.
WILLIAM C. HOUSTON, after having been professor in Prineeton College for several years, was admitted to the bar in April, 1781, and settled in Trenton. He had held several publie positions. He had been five times elected to the Congress of Confederation ; was elected delegate to Annapolis to arrange for the Con- stitutional Convention. He was elerk of the Supreme Court from 1781 to 1788. He never had much prac- tice; his health was bad, and in 1788 he died on his way to his native State in search of health.
JOHN RUTHERFORD, the son of Walter Ruther- ford, was born in the city of New York in 1760, and graduated at Princeton in 1776. He was admitted to the bar in 1782, having studied law with Richard Stockton (the signer), and with William Paterson. He married a daughter of Gen. Lewis Morris, and settled at first in New York. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1790, at the age of thirty, and again in 1796. He resigned in 1798, and took up his residence at Trenton, at a beautiful site on the
LUCIUS HORATIO STOCKTON was a brother of Richard, " the Duke," and a son of the signer. He was born in Princeton, graduated in the elass of 1787, Delaware, where he remained till 1808, when he re- ; and after studying law was admitted to the bar in moved to tlie Passaic above Newark. He died in 1840.1 He was one of the proprietors of New Jersey, and a man of wealth.
RICHARD STOCKTON, the son of the signer, some- times called "the Duke," was born at Morven, in Princeton, and graduated at the college in 1779. He was thought less promising than his brother Lucius Horatio. His father took him to Philadelphia to place him in a store, but Dr. Rush advised him to study law, as that was to be the great profession. Richard took his adviec, and studied law with Elias Boudinot, his uncle. He was admitted to the bar in 1784, and his father having died in 1781, he com- inenced practice in Princeton, and resided at Morven, which had been devised to him.
Mr. Stockton soon showed signs of ability, and rose to the head of the bar rapidly. He was an eloquent and profound lawyer, a great common law lawyer, stand- ing for a quarter of a century at the head of the New Jersey bar. His praetice was extensive and lucrative. He was a strong Federalist till his death, bitterly op- posed to Jefferson, and was a member of the United States Senate from 1796 to 1799, and a member of the House of Representatives from 1813 to 1815. He seldom spoke, but when he did he commanded marked atten- tion. He was a candidate for Governor against Gov- ernor Bloomfield for several years, but his party was in the minority and he did not sueeeed. He was a trustee of the college and of the Presbyterian Church at Prineeton for many years. He left a large family of children, among whom was Commodore Robert F. Stockton. He was a large, fine-looking man, with dignified and haughty manners, but of high honor and integrity. He was an honor to the bar and to the State. He continued to reside at Morven till his death, which occurred March 7, 1828. He has left but little behind him to remind his descendants of his great abilities. Glimpses may be seen of his labors in his briefs in the law reports of Coxe, Pennington, Southard, down to the close of the fourth volume of Halsted, reaching to the year next preceding his death. He left a large estate, and devised Morven to his son, Robert F. Stockton. He left the Springdale farm to his son, William B. Stoekton, and Tusculum to his son, Lieut. Samuel W. Stockton, United States navy, and he made liberal bequests to his widow, Mary Field, and their several daughters, -- Annis (Mrs. J. R. Thompson), Mary (Mrs. Harrison), Julia (Mrs. Rhinelander), and Caroline (Mrs. Rotch). His eldest son, Richard, practiced law in New Jersey for a few years, and then removed to Mississippi, where he be- came distinguished at the bar, and was killed in a duel.
September, 1791. He settled in Trenton, aequired a large practice, became an eminent lawyer, and was at one time district attorney for New Jersey. In 1801 he was nominated by President Adams to be Sccre- tary of War just before the close of his term, which gave umbrage to Mr. Jefferson. He was eccentric and a strong Federalist. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. His daughter, Sarah Milnor, was married to Rev. William J. Armstrong, D.D., of Trenton. He died May 26, 1835.
AARON D. WOODRUFF, eldest son of Elias Wood- ruff, was born at Elizabeth, N. J., Sept. 12, 1762. Hc was educated at Prinecton College, the honors of which lic received at the commencement in the year 1779, when he delivered the valedietory oration. At sub- sequent periods of that eventful crisis, although in his youth, he took an active part in the defense of
1 Elmer's Reminiscences.
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American liberty, both in eivil and military depart- ments. Admitted to the bar in 1784, he speedily at- tained an elevated and highly respectable standing among many eminent competitors. He early pos- sessed the confidence of his country, manifested by repeated elections to very confidential and honorable
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trusts, to the office of elector of President and Vice- President of the United States, and to a seat in the Legislature from the county of Hunterdon. He was highly distinguished for his talents and usefulness at the important period of fixing on the permanent seat of government, which he actively contributed to es- tablish at Trenton. In 1793 he was elected to the high and responsible office of attorney-general, and notwithstanding he was an undeviating adherent to the polities of the Washington school, he was eontinu- ally re-elected, except at one period, in the year 1811, when through the violence of party spirit he was dis- plaeed. Sueh, however, was the force of public opin- ion that he was unanimously again elected the year following, and discharged the duties of office with dig- nity during the residue of his life. In the domestic sphere he was pre-eminent for the amiable and affec- tionate virtues which adorned his character. His health was such that for several years he was pre- cluded from frequent attendance on public worship, yet he was ever in a high degree respectful to the elergy, ordinances, and institutions of Christianity. In the discharge of his official duties, if the subject required it, he did not fail to manifest the warmest 1
zeal in suppressing every vice. In social life he was the cheerful companion, kind neighbor, sympathizing friend ; unostentatiously merciful, his heart was ever open to the cries of the distressed. He was a very ac- ceptable and highly-esteemed Grand Master of the An- cient Order of Free and Accepted Masons, and as it was the joy of his heart to see the brethren living in unity. and by a consistent life and conversation practicing and adorning those sacred doctrines which in their excellent institution they profess, so where the con- trary appeared in any, it was a source of real grief to his amiable and pacific mind. His health had been rapidly declining for some months previous to his death. He died June 24, 1817, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, at the house of his brother-in-law, Robert C. Thomson, in the county of Sussex (now Warren), on his way to Schooley's Mountain, whither, at the urgent entreaties of near relatives, he had gone for the benefit of his health. His remains were brought to his residence in Trenton, where, on the morning of the 26th instant, notwithstanding very unfavorable weather, a large and respectable collection of the ju- diciary, bar, Masonic brethren, as well as relatives and fellow-citizens having assembled, his body was interred with Masonic honors in the graveyard of the First Presbyterian Church.
Aaron D. Woodruff married a daughter of Col. Thomas Lowrey, of the war of the Revolution. By this marriage two sons and two daughters reached maturity.
Elias Deacon Woodruff, a graduate of Princeton College in 1804, pursued the study of law, settled at Woodbury, N. J., and died early in life. Thomas L. Woodruff, also a graduate of Princeton College, en- tered the medical profession, held the position of president of the Trenton Bank from 1826 to 1832. Retired to rural life, and died in Ewing, near Tren- ton, in 1850. Mrs. Susan S. Thomson, wife of George W. Thomson, of New Jersey ; Mrs. Esther M. Smith, wife of Rev. John Smith, of Connecticut, neither of whom are living.
THOMAS P. JOHNSON is remembered as one of the most distinguished lawyers of New Jersey, and one of the most notable citizens of Princeton. He was not a native of Princeton, nor did he die there. His father, William Johnson, a native of Ireland, a Quaker, emigrated to this country about the middle of the eighteenth century. He married Ruth Potts, of Trenton. They removed to Charleston, S. C.,
where lie established a boarding-school. Thomas Potts Johnson was born about 1761. After a resi- dence of some years the father died, and his wife and five children removed to Trenton, where she opened a store and apprentieed Thomas to the carpenter's trade. His health failed, and he went to teaching. He then became a partner in a mercantile house of Philadelphia, and he was sent to open a branch in Richmond, Va., where he became acquainted with Chief Justice Marshall, and was attracted by the bar
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
of the " Old Dominion." He was warden of the city. His store was destroyed by fire, and he returned to New Jersey and settled at Princeton, where he married a daughter of Maj. Robert Stockton, and en- tered the office of Richard Stockton as a law student. He received his license as an attorney-at-law in 1794, and in due time as counselor. He was a brilliant lawyer, and whether before the court or the jury, he was listened to with attention ; he was particularly strong before a jury. His wit and versatility of tal- ent were captivating. He was a favorite with the masses. His habits were convivial, and in society he was much admired. He had not gone to college, but he had received much self-culture, and was able to speak the French language fluently, and his com- mand of the English was hardly surpassed by any member of the bar. He was a scholarly gentleman of fine personal appearance. He was frequently the antagonist of Richard Stockton in the higher courts, but his practice from home was not as extensive as that of Mr. Stockton. He would appear in justices' courts and try causes before a jury in the neighborhood, greatly to the edification of the community, when mauy came to hear him.
Mr. Johnson was a believer in Christianity, and in the latter period of his life was a close student of the Bible. He spent his last years at New Hope, Pa., with his son-in-law, Dr. R. D. Corson, where he died in 1838. A large portrait of him, painted at the ex- pense of the bar of New Jersey, hangs on the walls of the Flemington court house. He left several chil- dren.
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CHARLES EWING was the son of James Ewing, of Cumberland County, N. J., and Martha Boyd. They were of Scotch-Irish descent. He was a member of the Legislature, and moved to Trenton about 1799. He was much respected and held public office thicre until his death, in 1824. Charles, their son, who be- . came chief justice, was born in 1780, his mother dying while he was still in his infancy. He graduated at Princeton in 1798, with first honor, excelling in mathematics. He read law in Mr. Samuel Leake's office in Trenton. He was admitted to the bar in 1802. He gave his attention closely to his practice, and did not neglect his general culture. He soon took rank among the best lawyers of the State, and in 1824 he was appointed chief justice of the Su- preme Court, to succeed Chief Justice Kirkpatrick. This office he filled with great acceptance and ability. ; He was conscientious, industrious, painstaking, and learned, and he did uot lower the dignity and honor of the office in any measure. Chief Justice Ewing was a well-rounded, well-developed jurist. In every phase of human character he was a complete man, admired and beloved in religious and social life, and revered in the courts. At the expiration of his off- cial terin he was reappointed, though his political faith was not in sympathy with the majority of the joint meeting which appointed him. He had scarcely
entered upon his second term when he verified the common saying that "death likes a shining mark," and he fell a victim to the cholera in 1832, in the midst of his usefulness and honors, and in the fifty- third year of his age. He may be remembered as a model for young lawyers to imitate. His memory still retains its fragrance in the chureli, in the city, and the State. Ewing township was named in honor of him. He left one son, Dr. Francis A. Ewing, and two daughters, one the widow of the late Chief Jus- tice Henry W. Green, and the other the wife of Judge Caleb S. Green.
SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD was a native of Basking Ridge, Somerset. Co., N. J. He went from the classi- cal school of his native town to Princeton College, where he graduated in 1804. His father's uame was Henry Southard. After graduating at college he taught in the family of Col. John Taliaferro, of Virginia, and at the same time studied law there, aud was admitted to the bar in 1809. He then returned to New Jersey, and in 1811 was admitted to the bar of this State and settled at Flemington. In 1814 he was appointed law reporter of the State, and he was appointed prosecutor of the pleas of Hunterdon. He rose high at the bar, and in 1815 lie was elected mem- ber of the Assembly, and in the same year he was chosen associate justice of the Supreme Court in place of Mahlon Dickerson, who had been elected Governor. Justice Southard now removed his resi- dence to Trenton, and retained it till 1838, when he removed to Jersey City and became president of the Morris Canal and Banking Company.
Justice Southard remained on the bench of the Su- preme Court for five years. In 1820 he, with Charles Ewing, was engaged to prepare and publish the re- vised statutes of the State, and as a Presidential elector cast his vote for James Monroe for President. In 1821 he was elected to the United States Senate and resigned his judgeship. The admission of Missouri as a State into the Union was at that time the ex- citing public question. In 1823 he left the Senate and took a seat in the cabinet as Secretary of the Navy under Monroe, and continued it under John Quincy Adams until 1829, when he was elected attorney-general of New Jersey in place of Theodore Frelinghuysen, who was then elected to the United States Senate. He resumed his practice at Trenton, where his residence was. In 1832 he was chosen Gov- ernor of the State, and soon after United States sen- ator, which place he held till 1844. In 1841 he was president of the Senate, after Mr. Tyler succeeded Gen. Harrison, and so continued till his death in 1842. He died at his wife's brother's in Virginia. He mar- ried Rebecca Harrow in 1812.
Mr. Southard was a brilliant man,-brilliant in his whole career as an advocate, as a judge, as a senator, as a statesman, as a public speaker, in society, and in literature. Ile was a Presbyterian. He was once a Democrat in the old school, but a Whig from the
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formation of that party. His daughter Virginia was married to Ogden Hoffinan, of New York City.
PETER D. VROOM was born in Hillsborough town- ship, on the banks of the Raritan, in the county of Somerset, N. J., Dec. 12, 1791. His father, whose name he borc. was Col. Peter D. Vroom, who was boru in 1745, and came from New York and took up his residence on the south side of the Raritan, near
the junction of the north and south branches of that | 1829 he was chosen by the Legislature Governor of
river, and there, on a good farm, resided till his death in 1831. His wife was Elsie Bogert, and both were of Dutch descent. When the Revolutionary war commenced he was one of the first to raise a military company, and he served as lieutenant and captain ; in 1777 he became major, and then lieutenant-colonel. He was in service during the war, and led a company at the battle of Germantown. He was a prominent man in the county, and served as justice of the peace, sheriff, and clerk of the county, and representative in the Legislative Council and Assembly. He was an elder in the Reformed Dutch Church, and was greatly respected by all who knew him.
Peter D. Vroom, Jr., who is the subject of this sketch, was the youngest son of his father, who cher- ished him with pride and with a fond hope of future honors. He was prepared for college at the Somer- ville Academy; entered Columbia College in New York, and graduated in 1808. He read law with George McDonald, an eccentric and noted lawyer of Somerville, and was admitted to the bar as an attor- ney in May, 1813, and as a counselor in 1816, and was made a sergeant in 1828.
He first opened an office at Schooley's Mountain, and after eighteen months he removed to Hacketts- town; after being there about two years he removed to Flemington, the capital of Hunterdou County. While there his practice increased, and he went down to the goodly neighborhood along the Raritan and married a daughter of Col. Peter B. Dumont, whose old homestead is now the summer residence of Secre- tary Frelinghuysen, on the south bank of the river. It is quite evident that Mr. Dumont's daughters were accomplished and attractive, for the three best young men of the county, who had all graduated at college about the same time, namely, Frederick Frelinghuy- sen, William C. Elmendorf, and Peter D. Vroom, Jr., selected their wives from the daughters of Mr. Du- mont. Attorney-General Frelinghuysen appointed Mr. Vroom prosecutor of the pleas of Hunterdon. As early as 1818, two years after he became coun- selor, Chief Justice Kirkpatrick, in rendering a judi- eial opinion in the Supreme Court, referred to him as one " whose discernment and accuracy were inferior to none of his standing at the bar."1
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In 1820 he returned to Somerville, and applied himself earnestly to his practice, taking the house and many of the clients of his former preceptor, who
had just gone West and died. In 1824 he was drawn into politics ; aud though he had been reared by his father in the old school of the Federalists, like many others of that party he took a departure and joined the new Jackson party, and ever after adhered tena- ciously to the Democratic organization. He became the rising mau of the county, and was elected in 1826, 1827, and 1829 to the House of Assembly. In
the State, and ex-officio chancellor and ordinary. He was re-elected in 1830, 1831, 1833, 1834, 1835, when his health compelled him to decline the office.
Governor Vroom's services as chancellor for six ycars were of great importance to that court and of : great value to the State. It was his well-considered opinions which were the first that were reported by that court, and which by their publication disclosed to the public eye the nature and the special jurisdic- tion of our separate Court of Equity. His opinions were laboriously and carefully prepared, and they have done much to settle the principles and formulate the practice of this high court. Upon retiring from office he resumed his practice at Somerville, and his services were in constant demand at the county cir- cuits and in the State courts.
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