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 50
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 50
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JONATHAN DICKINSON SERGEANT, who graduated at Nassau Hall in 1762, studied law with Richard Stockton, and practiced in Princeton. He married a daughter of Rev. Di. Elihu Spencer, of Trenton. He was a warm patriot, was secretary of the first popular convention in New Brunswick in 1774 for resisting the oppression of Great Britain. He was a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775 and 1776 from Som-
In eolonial times and under the provincial govern- ment the early settlers of Princeton. bore an honora- ble part in publie office. Before the Revolution the Supreme Court, the Provincial Assembly, and the King's Council were represented by members of the Stockton, Clarke, and Leonard families. In the sheriffalty we find the names of Barefoot Brinson, John Riddle, and John Stockton ; and in the Pro- . erset County, with Frelinghuysen and Paterson. He vincial Congress of New Jersey in 1775-76, Princeton . was secretary and afterward- treasurer of that body,
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and was member of the Committee of Safety. He | treasurer of the college and trustee of the Presby- was a member of the Continental Congress both be- terian Church, and his accounts were always exactly correct. His wife was a sister of the Rev. John Davenport, of Pennington, and was a very estimable woman. He died June 26, 1811, and was buried in Princeton. fore and after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. He ranked high as a lawyer. His new house in Princeton was burnt by the Hessian sol- diers, and he was appointed attorney-general of Penn- sylvania and removed to Philadelphia, where he lived till 1793, when he died of yellow fever, having volun- teered to serve on a committee of twelve to stay and relieve the suffering vietims of that dreadful pesti- lence. He left a family of eleven children, among whom were William, John, Thomas, and Spencer Ser- geant, four distinguished lawyers of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Dr. Samuel Miller of Princeton. (See previous chapter on bench and bar.)
JOHN BERRIEN, though he lived a few miles from Princeton, was really a Princeton man, a contempor- ary with Richard Stockton and J. Dickinson Sergeant at the bar of New Jersey for several years before the Revolution. He was a colonial justice of the Su- preme Court, and an intimate friend of Judge Leon- ard, as well as of the gentlemen just named. He was a trustee of the college, and had represented Somer- set County in the Provincial Assembly in 1769, and died in 1772, in the sixty-first year of his age. He was buried in the Princeton Cemetery, where an an- cient monument marks his grave, and his old stone residence on the eastern bank of the Millstone River, at Rocky Hill, where Washington made his private headquarters in 1783, is still standing as an old land- mark.
DR. ABSALOM BAINBRIDGE graduated at Nassau Hall in 1762, and practiced medicine in Princeton for several years, and then removed to New York. He was : born at his father, Edmund Bainbridge's, in Maiden- head, near Princeton. He was secretary of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1771, and was president in - 1773. He died in New York in 1807. He was the father of Commodore William Bainbridge, of the United States navy, who was born in Princeton in 1774. Dr. Edmund Bainbridge, who also resided in Princeton, was his son. He lived in the Bayard house, which he built. He and all other Princeton physicians are noticed in a former chapter on the medical profession.
DR. THOMAS WIGGINS graduated at Yale in 1752, studied medicine, and came to Princeton to practice medicine, and resided here till his death in 1804. He bought a small tract of land on the east side of . Witherspoon Street, by the graveyard. His residence was the brick house, which at his death he devised. with about twenty acres of land, to the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church, of which he had been for several years previous to his death a trustee and a ruling elder. This was after that occupied as the parsonage for nearly fifty years, when it was sold. It now belongs to the gas company. Dr. Wiggins was a prominent physician in New Jersey, and in the New Jersey Medical Society, of which he was one of the original founders. He left no family but several nieces. (See chapter lix.)
JONATHAN BALDWIN graduated in 1755 at the College of New Jersey, and settled at Princeton. He owned and occupied "Prospect" until he sold it to Col. Morgan. He was active in the Revolution, sery- ing in the Provincial Congress of 1775, and was in- trusted by Governor Livingston with the distribution of balls and cartridges in 1778. He aided in the building of the Presbyterian Church in 1762. He was steward of the college. His wife was Sarah Ser- geant, daughter of Jonathan Sergeant by his first wife. He removed to Newark, and died there in 1816.
GEN. JOHN BEATTY, the oldest son of Rev. Charles Beatty, of Neshaminy, Pa., graduated at Princeton in 1769, and studied medicine, married Mary, daugh- ter of Richard Longstreet, a farmer, who lived where J. Boyd Van Doren now lives, and settled in Prince- ton. He joined the army with a captain's commis- sion in the Pennsylvania line in 1775, and was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Washington and suffered a long captivity. Being exchanged in 1778, he returned with impaired health to Princeton, when he was appointed commissary-general of prisoners, with rank of colonel, in place of Dr. Elias Boudinot. In 1780 he resigned and was honorably discharged. He bought a farm near Princeton called " Windsor." where he lived with his family and practiced medi-
MAJ. ENOS KELSEY was a prominent and useful citizen of Princeton, a native of New Jersey, a grad- uate of Princeton in 1766, and then became a mer- chant, and kept his store in the brick property oppo- site the college in Nassau Street, where the Oldens , cine. He served in the Continental Congress in 1783, afterwards kept store, now the Dohn property. He and in the Federal Congress in 1793. He held sev- was an earnest patriot, in service during the Revolu- eral honorable political offices, and was finally ap- pointed Secretary of State, when he sold " Windsor" and removed to Trenton, and built a handsome resi- dence on the banks of the Delaware, above the State- House. He was president of the Trenton Banking Company and of the Delaware Bridge Company. He was a trustee of college for twenty years, and died in tion ; was a member of the Provincial Congress and of the Committee of Safety. He was a justice of the peace, a major in the militia, and was deputy quarter- master and deputy commissary in the Continental army, and filled those offices with uncommon fidelity. Je was trusted at one time with thirty thousand dol- lars to provide clothing for the soldiers. He was . 1826. He was a fine-looking, tall, soldierly person,
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full of humor, intelligent, upright, honorable, and useful.
COL. FRANCIS BARBER was born in Princeton in 1751. His father, Patrick Barber, Esq., came from Ireland in about 1749. What specially attracted him here is not known. The college was not here at that time. Francis graduated at the college in 1767, and then took charge of the grammar school at Elizabeth- town. His father then removed to Orange County, N. Y. When the Revolutionary war broke out Francis and his brothers, John and William, devoted themselves to the service of their country. Francis received a commission of major and then of lieutenant- colonel of the Third Regiment of New Jersey troops. He was in constant service during the war. He was at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, where he was wounded. He was conspicuous in the army of New Jersey, and he and his horse were killed by the falling of a tree upon him, Feb. 11, 1783.
CAPT. WILLIAM HOWARD, an officer of the British army, resided for some years before the Revolutionary war near Princeton, on the Dr. Greenland farm, which ever since has been known as "Castle Howard." Capt. Howard was a strong Whig, but his wife was of different sentiments. He was afflicted with the gout, and died during the war, and his wife returned to England. He built the stone mansion which is still there.
JONATHAN DEARE was a highly-respectable Eng- lish gentleman, a lawyer by profession, who took an active part in New Jersey in the struggle for inde- pendence. He was selected to represent Middlesex County in the first Provincial Congress of New Jer- sey in 1775. After the State organization he was for several years in the Assembly from the same county. While attending upon the Legislature in Princeton, he became acquainted with the beautiful Miss Frances Phillips, of the township of Maidenhead, and mar- ried her. They lived in Princeton for several years, oceupying the house on Nassau Street which after-
and of Dr. Wm. Forman, now standing in Bayard Avenue, having been removed there to give place to the University Hotel. Mrs. Deare was a member of the committee of ladies to aid the soldiers, with Mrs. Richard Stockton, Lady Stirling, Mrs. Col. Morgan, and others. They were honored and useful citizens, and took an interest in the Presbyterian Church. They removed to New Brunswick after the war, he having been appointed to an office in connection with the port of entry in Middlesex County. He died about 1796, and was buried in the Episcopal churchyard in New Brunswick. They left several children, who were highly respected and beloved.
CAPT. JOHN JOHNSON, a grand-on of Rutt John- son, an early settler and large land-owner on Stony Brook, adjoining the Stockton tract of land, occupied the Johnson farm, next to Robert Stockton's Consti- , terian burying-ground.
tution Hill farm, when the Revolution commenced. He was both patriotic and active in the service of his country, and gave much assistance to the war measures carried out in this part of the State. He was also commissioned by Governor Livingston a justice of the peace during and after the war. He suffered much spoliation of property by the Hessian soldiers. Jo- seph Stockton was tried before him and a jury for disloyalty to the liberty cause. He was a farmer and distiller, and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian : Church of Princeton. He was the father of Caleb and Lewis Johnson, and grandfather of the late Henry D. Johnson, who died on the old homestead, and who was the father of Wm. Y. Johnson, Esq. The farm has been in the Johnson family for over one hundred and seventy-five years.
JAMES FINLEY came from Glasgow. Scotland, to Princeton in 1769, through the solicitation of Dr. Witherspoon, his personal friend. He had been a yarn merchant in Glasgow, and here he followed the occupation of weaving. He was a devoutly religious man, and a warm supporter of the American Revo- lution. He was appointed clothier to a brigade of American troops, and held this office while the British officers were quartered at his house. He sac- rificed his property for his adopted country. He attended affectionately upon Dr. Witherspoon in his last sickness, and after his death he went to live with his son, the Rev. Robert Finley, at Basking Ridge, who was a native of Princeton.
THE STOCKTONS multiplied for several genera- tions after their settlement here. Richard, the first settler, had five sons, among whom his large estate was divided. John received the tract which was afterwards known as " Morven ;" Robert received the next tract west of it, called afterwards the "Con- stitution Hill farm ;" and Samuel the next traet on both sides of the Stony Brook, excepting Worth's Mills.
JOHN STOCKTON was a judge of the pleas, and sent his son Richard to the College of New Jersey in the wards became the residence of Dr. John Van Cleve . first class. He was a man of influence and a warm friend of the college, doing much to secure its loca- tion here. He was a friend of the missionary Brain- erd. Maj. Robert Stockton, Jr., a son of Robert, was a quartermaster in the army, and very active in the patriotie cause. Gen. Washington is said to have stayed at his house during the week in December in 1776 when retreating southward. He left several children, among them Dr. Ebenezer Stockton, Job Stockton, Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Ashbel Green. and Mary, wife of Thomas P. Johnson, and several others.
JOB STOCKTON. There was another one by this name who was born in Princeton in 1734. He was commissioned by Governor Bernard sheriff of Som- erset in 1759. He was also judge of the plea- in 1770, and died in 1771, thirty-seven years of age, very much lamented. He was buried in the Presby-
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RICHARD STOCKTON, son of John. the signer of the ! Beatty, brother of Dr. John Beatty, and the father Declaration, was born in Princeton, Oet. 1, 1730. of the Rev. Dr. Charles Beatty, now of Steubenville, His history is well known. He was among the first . Ohio, was a prominent citizen of Princeton. When graduates of the college, was settled as a lawyer in Princeton, rose to eminence, married Annis Boudinot, visited England in 1767, adorned Morven, was a colo- nial justice of the Supreme Court when the Revolu- tion broke out. He united with Dr. Witherspoon and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant in favor of in- dependence, was a delegate to the Continental Con- gress, and signed the Declaration of Independence, was betrayed and captured by the enemy and cruelly imprisoned ; his home was pillaged, and he died in 1781, leaving two sons, Richard and Lueins Horatio, and four daughters,-Mrs. Benjamin Rush, Mrs. Al- exander Cuthbert, Mrs. Rev. Andrew Hunter, and Mrs. Robert Field. He was an accomplished scholar and gentleman, a member of the Presbyterian Church, a trustee of the college. He was buried in the Quaker burying-ground at Stony Brook, with no monument to designate his grave, nor that of his wife beside him. (Sce previous chapter.)
SAMUEL WITHAM STOCKTON, a younger brother of Richard, the signer, graduated at Nassau Hall in 1767. In 1774 he went to Enrope as secretary of the Amer- ican commission to the courts of Austria and Russia. He negotiated a treaty with Holland. He was secre- tary of the convention of New Jersey to ratify the Constitution of the United States. In 1794 he was appointed Secretary of State of New Jersey, and re- moved to Trenton, where, in 1795, he was killed by being thrown from a chaise in Trenton.
REV. PHILIP STOCKTON, the third son of John, and brother of the signer, gradnated at Nassau Hall in 1773, and was a Presbyterian clergyman. He mar- ried a sister of Col. John Noble Cumming, and bought and occupied the Castle Howard farm, and died leav- ing four children. Lieut. Philip Augustus Stockton, of the United States navy, was his grandson.
Hall in 1779. He was one of the most eminent and ; settled at Princeton, his native town, and practiced
RICHARD STOCKTON, LL.D., the son of the signer and successor to " Morven," was a graduate of Nassau able lawyers of New Jersey. He has been noticed among the members of the bar. He died March 7, 1828, leaving a wife and eight children, among . whom was Commodore Robert F. Stockton.
THOMAS P. JOHNSON is remembered as one of the distinguished lawyers of New Jersey, and one of the most notable citizens of Princeton. He was born in 1761. His father, William Johnson, was a Quaker, who emigrated to this country from Ireland about the middle of the last century. He was a self-made inan, and a great favorite with the masses of society. Hc studied law with Richard Stockton, and married a daughter of Maj. Robert Stockton, of Princeton. He lived in the house now owned by John Conover, cor- ner of Nassan and Moore Streets. For a fuller notice see chapter on the bench and bar preceding.
COL. ERKURIES BEATTY, son of Rev. Charles
only sixteen years of age he entered the military service of the country as a private soldier; then he received an ensign's commission in the Fourth Bat- talion, Pennsylvania linc, Col. Cadwalader. He was in the action under Lord Stirling on Long Island and at White Plains; also at the battle of Brandywine, under Lafayette, in 1777. He was shot in the battle of Germantown, and narrowly escaped death. He was in the battle of Monmouth, under Gen. Wayne, and served under Gen. Clinton against the Indians in Western New York, and was in the battle of New- town. He was in the military family of Gen. Lord Stirling at Basking Ridge as his secretary. He was with Washington during the summer of 1780. He was at Yorktown when it was captured, and at the close of the war his property had depreciated and he was penniless, and became paymaster in the Western army. He bought the Castle Howard farm in 1799, and ocenpied it with his wife, who was Mrs. Susan- nah Ferguson, of Philadelphia. He studied the sci- ence of farming, was a justice of the peace, and judge of Middlesex pleas, treasurer of the Cincinnati Soci- ety, president of the Princeton and Kingston Branch Turnpike Company, mayor of the borough, trustee of the Presbyterian Church for twenty years, and warmly espouscd the cause of education, coloniza- tion, and general benevolence. He sold his farm, and removed into the village in 1816. His house has been removed from Nassau Street into Vande- venter Place by the college, after the erection of the scientific school building. He was brave, tall, hon- orable, and soldierly, and very generally esteemed. He died in 1823, and was buried in the cemetery with an inscription of his virtues and services on his tomb- stone, written by Rev. Dr. Miller.
DR. EBENEZER STOCKTON, son of Maj. Robert Stockton, graduated at Nassau Hall in 1780, and entered the army as a surgeon, but soon resigned and medicine here during his life. He was a tall, finc- looking gentleman, was an esteemed, skillful, and ex- cellent physician with a large practice. His old stately brick house on the north side of Nassau Strect, opposite Wilson's corner, is still standing, opposite the School of Science. He died in 1837, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. See notice of him among the physicians of the county in a previ- ous chapter.
RICHARD LONGSTREET was a resident in the vi- cinity of Princeton previous to 1762, for in that year his name appears among the subscribers for building the Presbyterian Church. He was an elder in that church from 1786 to 1797, and also a trustee. He was a farmer, and lived on the Dr. Scudder farm, now J. Boyd Van Doren's, and also owned the adjoining i farms of John Cruser and Leavitt Howe. His daugh-
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
ter Mary was married to Dr. or Gen. John Beatty. Another daughter married Lemuel Scudder, at the Kingston Mills, the father of Dr. Jacob and Elias Scudder. He had two sons,-Riehard and Aaron Longstreet.
Richard was a private in Capt. MeMackin's com- pany in the Revolution, and was killed while in aetion near Morristown. He was buried there.
Capt. Aaron Longstreet was a captain in the mili- tia, and was in service in the Revolutionary war. He , The daughters of Maj. Morford all, except Miss lived on the farm of the late John Cruser, near Prince- Fanny, married prominent gentlemen who resided at the South. ton, and left but one child, Eleanor, who married Maj. Cornelius Cruser, of Washington.
CAPT. ANDREW MICMAKIN was a resident of Prinee- ton, and kept a drug-store and a general store where the Burke building now stands in Nassau Street. He was captain of a militia company, and did service in the Revolutionary war. He claimed to have been in the battle of Germantown, and to have experieneed many dangers in that and other engagements. He was employed by the Council of Safety to make car- tridges for that body.
CAPT. JAMES MOORE lived in Princeton both be- fore and after the Revolution. He carried on the tanner and currier business where Cornelius Cottrell lately died, in Moore Street, a name given to it in honor of Capt. Moore. His residenee was in Nassau Street, and, after having stood about a hundred years, was bought by Mr. Gibby, who removed it a few years . ago, when he built his new house upon the lot. He served as eaptain of a military company in the war, . Fyler, another Rev. Mr. Huntington, and another and was in the battle of Princeton, where he was credited with distinguished bravery in having broken ISAAC ANDERSON was the most prominent of the old Prineeton family of Andersons. Hc built and resided in the briek house on corner of Nassau and Charlton Streets. He owned a considerable property in that vicinity, and was so influential that that por- tion of the town was called Andersontown. It was into the college and demanded the surrender of the British troops, who had fled into it for refuge, which demand was aceeded to. He attended upon the Coun- cil of Safety, and executed the requests and orders of that body in Prineeton. He was very patriotie, and in his old age became blind. He was trustee of midway from the main portion of Princeton to old the Presbyterian Church from 1786 to 1831, and a Jugtown. He was wealthy and a liberal contributor to the Presbyterian Church. He died in 1807. Ile ruling elder from 1807 till his death in 1832, at the age of cighty years. A monument in the cemetery . left no children ; but Isaac L., Aaron, Ephraim, and commemorates his military serviees and his private Stephen were his collateral kindred. virtues.
MAJ. STEPHEN MORFORD was a soldier in the Revolution, first a private, then eaptain, and in 1797 he was appointed major of the First Battalion, Second Regiment, in place of Maj. James Anderson. He was familiar with the details of the battle of Princeton, though not present when it took place. He occupied the house so long known as the old post-office corner, the northwest corner of Nassau and Witherspoon Streets. Maj. Morford was postmaster, and then his son William, and finally his daughter, Miss Fanny Morford, continued the office at that place. It was kept there for about thirty years. Maj. Morford died April 22, 1893, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He married Mary Hamilton, and they had thirteen children; six died in infancy, the others were Ed-
mund, Frances, William, Margaret, Juliet, Jane, and Caroline.
Edmund graduated at Princeton in 1797, and re- moved to Charleston, S. C .; was a lawyer, and edited the Charleston Mercury, and was an influential politi- cian in the State rights' school. He had two daugh- ters,-Harriet, who married Rev. J. D. Mitehell, D. D., and Amelia, who became the wife of Professor John S. Hart, both gentlemen having graduated at Princeton.
Zebulon Morford was a brother of Maj. Stephen Morford, and at one time owned Castle Howard, after Col. Beatty removed from it. He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, and had filled local public offices.
JAMES HAMILTON was long a useful and respect- able eitizen of Princeton. Hc was here before the Revolution, and was commissary in Princeton during the war. He was long an elder and trustee of the church till his death in 1815. In 1804 lie built a brick house, which occupied the ground now occupied by the residenees of Dr. Schanck and Dr. Wikoff in Nassau Street. He was a painter and chair manu fae- turer. His wife survived him twenty-five years, and remained in the same residence till her death. They had two sons and five daughters. Their son James was a professor in the University of Nashville, Tenn. ; one of the daughters married the Rev. Jared D. Rev. Mr. Fiteh.
COL. GEORGE MORGAN came to Princeton imme- diately after the Revolutionary war. He had been in the army of Washington at Valley Forge, and shared its hardships. He purchased in Prineeton the farm of Jonathan Baldwin, known as " Prospect," a name he gave to it, and resided on it while here. He was a scholarly man, and the most scientific farmer in the country. He had an extensive variety of grains, and means for testing their advantages. He studied the nature and habits of the Hessian fly, and the best mode of dealing with that desperado of the wheat- field. He was president of the trustees of the acad- emy which was built on the Presbyterian Church lot. In 1804 he sold his farm, which was held by his son. Col. John Morgan, to John I. Craig, and removed with his family to Western Pennsylvania, near Can-
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onsburg, in Washington County. He had several children. Capt. Bunyan, who resided a few years in Princeton, married one of his daughters. His daughter Maria, who was born in Prineeton in 1787, was married to Dudley Woodbridge, of Marietta, Ohio, in 1811. There were five sons, who removed with their father to the Western country, as it was then called. Col. Aaron Burr was quite intimate with Col. Morgan, and it is said made some treason- able advanees to him, which he communicated to President Jefferson, and which Jefferson acknowl- edged in a letter to Col. Morgan was the first intima- tion he had received of the alleged plot of Burr.
WILLIAM MILLETTE, a French-Canadian gentle- man, lived on the farm now occupied by Purser Gu- lick, United States navy, next beyond Worth's Mills. He was a tall, fine-looking gentleman, with courtly manners. Ile and his family were Presbyterians, and were long connected with the church at Kingston. His wife, Charity Millette, united with the church at Princeton in 1792. Mr. Millette gave ten pounds for repairing the Prineeton church after the war. He
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