History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 53

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 53
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 53

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 (link on the Part 1 page).

Agno Dominy, 1700, passed a law allowing the inhabitants of the county of Hunterdon (ontitled to vote at the general electione), et an election to be noticed by the sheriff of the county of Hunterdon to the said Inhabit- anta that they should assemble at the house of John Mohlrum, in the township uf Amwell, at the place called Ringo Tavern, and by a majority of vutes to fix the place where the court-house and gaol shall be built for the said county, and that thu election should be opened and concluded in the mode in which elections for representatives for said county are, as is particularly set forth in the law. Whoreupon William Lowry, Esqr., high sheriff of the connty of Hunterdon, did give the notice required by law ns aforcenid that on the second Tuesday in October thon next ensning . . . the election would be opened on the day and place aforesald for thu purpuses aforesaid, at which time and place the inhabitants of sald county mot and proceeded us directed by the law, and, on the vutes heing cast up, It appeared that a majority was for the court-house and gaol to be built at Flemington (which Is in the township of Amwell, In the county of Hunterdon), as by the certificato of tho suld sheriff and inspectors of the sald election which is In the following words,-viz. : We du hereby certify to all whom it may concern that nt an election begun on the twelfth instant and ended this day agreeable to an act of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey passed at Perth Amboy the twenty-sixth day of May last for the purpose of fixing on a place for building a court- house and gaol for the county of Ilunterdon, the town uf Flemington, extending half a mile on each of the public road from the house of George Alexander, innkeeper in said town, was fixed by a majority of votes for the above mentioned purpose. Witness our hands and seals the twenty-first day of October Anno Domini une thousand seven hundred und ninety. William Lowry, High Sheriff [L.s.] ; Nathaniel Temple, Iusp. [1.8.]; Androw Rueder, Insp. [1 .. 8.]; Thomas Bowlsby, Insp. [1 .. 8.]; Rouben McPherson, Insp. [L.s.] ; Henry Rockafellow, Insp. [1.8.]; John Dawes, Insp. [L.B.]; Joseph Scudder, Insp. [L.s.]; Arthur Henrie, Inap. [L.B.]; Ezekiel Blue, Insp. [1.8.]; Charles Reading, Inrp. [L.s.]. After which-to wit, the 27th day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one-tho chosen freeholdlers of ench and every township In the county of Hunterdon, together with the jus- tices of tho said county, having been previously notified to meet for the purposes of choosing ninagors to build the said court-house and gool in the way and manner as prescribed by the said low, and a aufilciont nuiu- ber being met and mussking a board on the day ufvresaid, did choose, nom- Inate, and appoint managers, . . . who, pursuant to a law of the State of New Jersey, made this 3d day of March, Anno Domini 1786, agree with George Alexander, of Flemington, in the township of Amwell und county of Hunterdon aforesaid, inokeeper, for one-half acro of luod, to bro bounded on and exclusive of roudls, being a part of the lott of land where- on the said George Alexander lives, and un the southeast end thereof and on the road leading to Trenton, and also Imtting on the road as now used, leading round the sall lott to Howell's Ferry ou Delnwaro River, and the other two sides butting and boundled on other parts of the said George Alexander's lott as aforesnid, which by the survey thereof runs thus,- viz. : Beginning at n stono for a corner In a line of four-rod rond leading to Trenton; thence sonth two degrees cast two chains to a etono corner un snid road, and also n corner in the turn of a four-rod road leading to Howell's Ferry on Delaware River ; thenco on the line of that road south sixty-six and one-quarter degrees west two chains and a half to a stono for a corner ; theneo north two degrees west two chidna to a stone for a corner; thence north sixty -lx and une-quartor degrees cast, two chaina and a half to the place of beginning ; containing half an acro of land. Now this indenture witnesseth that the said George Alexander, etc., etc. . . . for divers good causes and valuable consideration him thereunto moving, and also for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings In gold and silver money to him in hand paid by the said board of justices und freeholders of the county uf Hunterdion, etc., etc. ...

" In witnew whereof the said parties have luterchangably set their hands and scale hereunto. Dated the day and year above written.

" GEORGE ALEXANDER [I.S ..

"Sealed and delivered in presence of " JOSEPH JOHNSON, " JASPER SMITH.

"Acknowledgedl before Josreu READING. " Recoriled Nov. 22, 1793."

On the 27th of August, 1792, at a meeting of the justices and frechohlers held at the house of John Meldrum, a letter was laid before the board by Sam- uel R. Stuart, attorney for Susanna Smith, who

202

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

claimed a right of dower " in the lot of land whereon the court-house and gaol-yard is erected in Fleming- ton." A committee (John Gregg, Joseph Hankersou, and Thomas Reading) was appointed to settle with her " and take her quit-claim for said land and report at the next meeting." On the 5th of August, 1793, the committee reported her claim settled for four pounds five shillings four pence, and produced the neces- sary legal papers. At this meeting, also, the man- agers for building the court-house and jail appeared before the board and offered their account for settle- ment. Andrew Keeler, Joseph Lambert, and Capt. John Phillips, the committee to examine accounts, presented the court-house bill, August 30th, as cor- rect. The amount originally allowed to the construc- tion of the public buildings was £2500. The itemized bill of expense was £2427. 6. 5.

On the 8th of May, 1793, the board met at the court-house, and the May term of court the same year was also held there.

This structure (which embraced the jail) was burned on Wednesday night, Feb. 13, 1828. Owing to the want of an effective fire-engine, all attempts to save the building were futile, and on the following morn- ing all that remained of the venerable structure were the naked walls and the smoking embers of its pon- derous timbers. The fire was supposed to have been the work of design .* The prisoners confined in the jail were transferred to the jail of Somerset County. Fortunately, the county records were saved, the clerk, perceiving the imminent danger of their destruction, having removed them to a place of safety.

HUNTERDON COUNTY COURT-HOUSE.

After the destruction of the court-house the courts were held in the meeting-house of the Methodist Episcopal congregation of Flemington, whose trus- tees, with commendable promptness and liberality, tendered its use for the purpose. An act of the Leg- islature (passed Feb. 15, 1828) made it "lawful to hold the Circuit Courts, Courts of Oyer and Ter- miner and General Jail Delivery, Courts of Common

Pleas, General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, and Orphans' Courts, to be held in and for said county of Hunterdon, in the Methodist Episcopal church in Flemington until the inhabitants of said county shall erect a court-house for said county." (Proceedings General Assembly, 1828.) The corner-stone of the present court-house was laid on Wednesday, May 7, 1828, in the presence of a large concourse of people, with appropriate ceremonies, by His Honor, Justice Drake, of the Supreme Court, in which the Rev. J. F. Clark and Mr. McClay, of New York, participated, and after which Peter I. Clark delivered an appro- priate address.t

It is a large stone structure, rough-cast, with Gre- cian front and Ionic columns, and is two stories in height, the court-room being in the upper and the jail and sheriff's residence in the lower or basement story. Adjoining the court-house, and north of it, is located a neat two-story brick building which contains the clerk's and surrogate's offices of the county, with all the books, records, etc., of their respective depart- ments.

CHAPTER V.

THE BENCH AND BAR OF HUNTERDON COUNTY.

Hunterdon County voted for the Ability of her Judges and the Brilliancy of her Bar-Early Colonial Judges-Judges and Justices-Samuel Johnston, Samuel Tucker, Daniel Coxe, Isaac Smith, Moore Furman, Jasper Smith, John Mehelm, John Dagworthy, Andrew Smith, Stacy G. Potts, John Carr, John S. Stires, Joseph Reading, etc .- Eminent Jurists-Early Lawyers-Later Lawyers-Biographical Notices of George C. Maxwell, William Maxwell, Joseph Bonnell. Thomas Potts Johnson, Sammuel R. Stewart, Nathaniel Saxton, William H. Sloan, Alexander Wurts, Garret D. Wall, Richard Howell, Samuel Lilly, James N. Reading, Samuel Leake, George A. Allon, Richard S. Kubl, etc.

HUNTERDON COUNTY has been, even from colonial times, noted no less for the number and ability of its bench than for the brilliancy of its bar, the members of both embracing an array of names which has given added lustre to the jurisprudence of the State.

Among the names of the early colonial judges of this county we find those of Thomas Leonard, James Trent, Joseph Stout, Daniel Coxe, John Reading, Benjamin Smith, John Dagworthy, Martin Ryerson, Andrew Smith, Theophilus Phillips, Thomas Cadwal- lader, and Andrew Reed, officiating on the bench from about 1724 to 1750 and later .; During the pe- riod extending from 1750 to the Revolution the court records present the names of John Garrison, Jasper Smith, Cornelius Ringo, Philip Ringo, Samuel Stout, Theophilus Severns, William Clayton, Benjamin Byles, Isaac Smith, John Grandin, Micajah Howe, and Lewis Chamberlain.

* Hunterdon Gazette, Feb. 20, 1828.

+ In the corner-stone were inclosed a Bible, the laws of New Jersey, a brass plate upon which was engraved the year of erection, the names of the architect, building committee, etc.

# See preceding chapter, on " Conrts and County Buildings," for many Interesting facts connected with this early period.

203

THE BENCH AND BAR OF HUNTERDON COUNTY.

During the Revolutionary period the bench pre- sents to our notice, among others, the honored names of Samuel Johnston, Joseph Reading, Moore Furman, John Mchelm, Robert Hooper, Nathaniel Hunt, James Ewing, Joseph Beavers, and Jared Sexton.

Many of the above-mentioned judges were "judge and justice," but in that vast army of justices who held court in this county from 1721 to 1800,* other than those before named, are to be found the names of Timothy Baker, Jacob Bellerjeau, Charles Wolver- ton, Ralph Heart, John Porterfield, John Burroughs, Jeremiah Bass, Hezekiah Bonham, John Knowles, Adrian and Harmon Lane, Richard Scudder, Robert Eaton, John Haywood, John Budd, Joshua Ander- son, Francis Bowes, William Cornell, Abr. Ketchell, Benjamin Rounsaval, Abraham Van Horn, Edward Rockhill, Ralph and John Smith, Nicholas and Elias Wyckoff, Henry Woolsey, Daniel, Nathaniel, and Edward Hunt, Andrew Muirhead, Henry Traphagen, Richard and Luther Opdyke, Benjamin Van Cleve, Nathan Stout, David Frazier, William Lowrey, John I ambert, Hugh Runyan, Thomas Reading, Henry Rockafeller, Nicholas Stillwell, Jacob Cline, John Coryell, John T. Blackwell, etc. And during the first quarter of the present century we come across the new names of "justices" of Ananias Mulford, Benjamin Dean, Robert MeNeely, Philip and David Johnston, George Rea, Peter Risler, Jacob Case, David Brearley, Peter and Zachariah Flomerfelt, Paul II. M. Prevost, Matthias Crater, Richard Gano, Baltus Stiger, Morris Fritts, James Larason, Thomas Capner, Asa C. Dunham, David and William Stout, James Honeyman, John Thompson, cte. Those who desire the dates for the above, or wish to trace the line of judges and justices to the present time, are referred to the "Civil List," in a subsequent chapter.

It will be impossible, within the limits of this work, to give personal mention of but a few of the several hundred judges and justices who have figured in the courts of Hunterdon County.

Prominent, however, among the early colonial judges was SAMUEL JOHNSTON, who settled in the county about 1740 and owned a large traet of land in its northern part. Ilis house is said to have been the most stately mansion in all this portion of the State, and in its broad halls he, as chief magistrate of this section of West Jersey, held court on Monday of each week. His house became the resort of culture and talent. He was the father of Col. Philip Johnston, who left his class in Princeton College to serve in the French war in Canada, and who, during the Revolu- tion, was killed while leading his (the First New Jersey) regiment at the battle of Long Island. His daughter Mary, reputed to have been one of the best- read women in the province, became the wife of Charles Stewart, of Hunterdon County.

DANIEL COXE, son of Dr. Daniel Coxe, the pro-

prietor, was born in 1664, probably at Burlington. He became a lawyer, and in 1710 was appointed by Governor Hunter a member of the Provincial Couneil, and in 1734 was made an associate justice of the Su- preme Court of New Jersey. He died April 25, 1739. Ile was a public-spirited citizen, and a judge of no ordinary ability. He did very much in laying the foundation of law and morality for the State of New Jersey. Hle proposed a scheme of confederation of all the American colonies, and the same scheme was adopted, with but slight modification, in 1776. The design of his proposed scheme of union was to limit the influence of the Spaniards and French in the South. The work containing these propositions was published in London in 1722.

SAMUEL TUCKER was, Sept. 4, 1776, elected an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and in No- vember following held a term of the court,-the first under the State constitution, the last at which the colonial justices (Frederick Smyth, chief justice, and David Ogden) were present having been held in May. He was not a lawyer, but was prominent in civil mat- ters, and held many important publie stations. He was a man of much influence at Trenton and through- out Hunterdon County during his time. He was sheriff of Hunterdon, a member of Assembly in 1769, and held the position until the Revolution put an end to the provincial government. Ile was an active member and president of the different Provincial Congresses, and signed the constitution of 1776 in that capacity. He was also treasurer of the State, and as such had a large amount of the paper cur- rency, etc., in his custody, which, in an affidavit laid by him before the Legislature in February, 1777, he alleged were taken out of his possession in December previous by a party of British horsemen who made him prisoner. Governor Livingston disputing the accuracy of his statement, he appeared before the Legislature and resigned his commission. His weak- ness in taking advantage of the offer of British pro- tection during the panie which prevailed at Trenton previous to its capture by the Hessians was attrib- utable, perhaps, to the fact that his wife was an Eng- lish lady. It is certain he thus forfeited his character as a patriot, and died in 1789 still under the cloud.t

ISAAC SMITH, who resided at Trenton, held the office of associate justice of the Supreme Court for twenty-eight years, until 1805, being succeeded by William Rossell. He was a physician, but appears to have made of himself a pretty good lawyer. He was an ardent Whig, and a colonel of militia during the Revolution. From the time of his retirement from the bench, in 1805, until his death, he was presi- dent of the Trenton Banking Company. He died Ang. 20, 1807, aged sixty-eight years .;

MOORE FURMAN, grandfather of the late Capt.

* For more full list seo chapter on "Civil List of Hunterdon County."

+ JJudge Elmer's Reminiscencee, pp. 265, 266.

: Ibhl., p. 271.

204

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

William E. Hunt, of Trenton, was a commissary of the American army in 1776. He was the first mayor of Trenton, in 1777 was judge, and in 1781 first held court as a justice. His office was in a one-story brick building which formerly stood where the Chancery Building in Trenton now stands.

JASPER SMITH was one of the early colonial judges of this county, officiating in 1754, et seq. He was the descendant of one of the early settlers of Hopewell, possibly was related to Benjamin or Andrew Smith, as both were prominent on the bench of the county about 1739 .* It is very probable he was the son of Jasper Smith, whose name appears in a deed of date March 18, 1698-99,f and was a member of the council of Trenton in 1748 .¿ Judge Jasper Smith graduated at Princeton College in 1758. In 1776 he was one of the Committee of Safety from Amwell township. He seems to have taken an active part in the Revolu- tionary struggle. He may have resided near Law- renceville, N. J., about the opening of this century, as his name appears as a ruling elder in the Presby- terian Church, Lawrenceville, on the first preserved record of that church, in 1807. He died in 1814. His son, Jasper, united with the same church in 1808, and left the parsonage property to that body. The will is on record in the Hunterdon County clerk's office. He was a practicing lawyer in Flemington, and built the house now owned by John Jones, Esq. He was prominently connected with the courts and legal business of this vicinity during the early part of this century. His relatives still reside in the bounds of Lawrence township, Mercer Co., to which place he subsequently removed from Flemington, dying there.

JOHN MEHELM, who was judge of Hunterdon County in 1779, emigrated to this country from Ire- land and took an active part in the Revolution. He was located on the North Branch, at a place since known as Hall's Mills. He was also surrogate for Hunterdon and Somerset Counties during Governor Livingston's administration, and was removed by Governor Bloomfield in 1801. In all the old docu- ments his name is coupled with that of John Hart, another member of the bench of Hunterdon County (1774), an honored Revolutionary patriot, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He went by the name of " Honest John Hart."

JOHN DAGWORTHY, who was one of the bench of 1739, was in 1728-29 the high sheriff of the county who complained of the jail being so out of repair that escapes took place daily .¿

ANDREW SMITH was no doubt the eldest son of Andrew, the first of the name in Hopewell, Hnnter- don Co. (whose purchase in 1688, which he named

" Hopewell," was adopted as the name of the town) ; he graced the bench in 1739, and for a number of years. He had brothers, Jonathan and Timothy ; married Mrs. Mershon, and had Charles and Zebulon, unmarried, and Andrew, who married Sarah, daughter of Josiah Hart, Sr., and had Benjamin (deceased), George W., and Nathaniel. |

STACY G. POTTS, for seven years one of the jus- tices of the Supreme Court, became in 1808 a resident of Trenton, then in this county. He was of English Quaker descent, and educated in the Friends' school. He commenced the study of law with Mr. Stockton, but finished with Garret D. Wall. In 1828-29 he was a member of the Legislature; from 1831-41 clerk of the Court of Chancery ; in 1844 the honorary degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Prineeton College; in 1852 he became one of the justices of the Supreme Court. He was at different times connected with various boards and institutions of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a member, and was in 1836 ordained a ruling elder. He died in 1865. Perhaps the most important case before Judge Potts was that of Cornelius vs. Giberson (1 Dutch. 1), involving the location of the line between East and West Jersey. His ruling on that question remains undisturbed, al- though the judgment was reversed on the question of fact as to adverse possession.T

JOHN CARR, who was a judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1829, a justice of the peace, etc., was born in 1763, and died in 1831 (December 9th). He was highly esteemed for his public services and pri- vate worth, as a faithful officer and exemplary Chris- tian. He was for many years a deacon of the Baptist Church of Flemington.

The STOUT family of Amwell and Hopewell was ably represented upon the bench, quite early in the history of the county, by Joseph Stout, in 1726 and again in 1736; Samuel Stout, in 1754; Nathan Stout, 1795 and 1800; David Stout, 1804 to 1828; and Wil- liam Stout, in 1842. Thomas Stout was a judge and justice in 1787 and 1792.

JOHN S. STIRES was a judge and justice of Hun- terdon Connty from 1823 until his death, in 1851.

SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD, who when living was often denominated New Jersey's " favorite son," and who, besides many other honors, was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court, although a native of Somerset County, passed the first few years after his admission to the bar in Hunterdon County, residing in Flem- ington .** When appointed an associate justice, in 1815, he was perhaps the youngest man ever graced with that honor in New Jersey,-only twenty-eight. See further sketch in the chapter on " Bench and Bar of Somerset County," in this work.

JOSEPH READING first appears as a judge of the

* Ifunterdon County Conrt Records.

| Rev. George IIale, D.D., History First Prosbyterian Church, Hope- well, p. 47.

# Raum's History Trenton, p. 72.

¿ Minutes of the Court, vol. ii.

| Rev. Georgo Hale, First Presbyterian Church of Hopewell, pp. 42, 43. T Elmer's Reminiscences.

** He built, and resided in until about 1817, the house now occupied by Alexander Wurts,-the first north of the enrrogate's office.

205

THE BENCH AND BAR OF HUNTERDON COUNTY.

Common Pleas Court in 1777, and served for twenty- of Hunterdon County ; in 1869 was appointed by five or more years. For a more extended notice sec history of the Reading family, elsewhere.

SAMUEL LILLY, of Lambertville, a judge of the Court of Appeals, was born in Geneva, N. Y., Oct. 28, 1815. His grandfather, Samuel, the emigrant an- cestor of the American branch of the family, was an eminent barrister in England, but after coming to America took orders as an Episcopal clergyman, and became rector of St. John's Church, Elizabethtown, N. J. His father, William, was a merchant and an early settler at Lambertville. Samuel, his son, gradu- ated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1837, and, with a doctor's diploma, commenced practice at Lam- bertville, where he soon acquired a reputation as a skillful physician. But it is not with his medical ree- ord we have here to deal ; that may be found treated in another portion of this work, under the heading of " Medieal Profession." From 1849-51 he was mayor of Lambertville; for eight years director of the board of frechoklers of Hunterdon County; in 1852-53 a member of Congress; in 1861 was appointed by Presi- dent Buchanan consul-general to British India. "During his connection with the consulate, the civil war, and our relations with England growing out of the Mason and Slidell affair, rendered the adminis- tration of his office one of great responsibility. Some American merchant-vessels, loaded partly with salt- petre, were detained at Calcutta during that ex- citement. Dr. Lilly contended vigorously for the rights of the American traders, who were then allowed to depart. Previous to his leaving Calcutta for the United States the American merchants there resi- dent presented him a handsome service of plate, and on his arrival at Lambertville he was welcomed by an ovation at the hands of his fellow-townsmen."* In 1868-72 he was judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Hunterdon. He was one of the commissioners to locate and build the new State Lunatic Asylum. In 1873 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Parker one of the judges of the Court of Errors and Appeals. He died in 1879,-April 3d. He left but one child,-John,-who is now practicing law in Lambertville.

Judge Lilly "was a man of good and temperate habits, of refined and literary tastes," eminent as a judge, and honored as a man.

DAVID VAN FLEET, of Flemington, was born in Readington, Hunterdon Co., Aug. 13, 1819, a son of William Van Fleet, of that place, and of Dutch de- scent. He received a good common-school education, followed school-teaching for a time, and elerked in a store at Centreville, N. J. In 1848 he was elected to the State Legislature, and re-elected in 1849. For a few years following he was engaged in mercantile pursuits at Centreville. In 1856 he was one of the Democratie Presidential electors; in 1859 surrogate

President Grant one of the inspectors of customs at New York ; and in 1872 a judge of the Court of Com- mon l'leas of Hunterdon County. He is a Master in Chancery, and also trustee for several estates, as well as a director of the Hunterdon County National Bank. Is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married, 1845, Susan A. Cole, daughter of David O. Cole, of Readington.

EMINENT JURISTS.

New Jersey has always been noted for the intel- lectual ability of its jurists. The high character of those of the past generation is well sustained by the present. As an evidence of this is the fact that dur- ing the present year (1880) the honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred by Princeton and Lafay- ette Colleges upon four distinguished members of the bench and bar of this State, one-half of which honors came to Hunterdon, the Hon. Bennet Van Syckel, of the Supreme Court, and Vice-Chancellor A. V. Van Fleet, being the honored recipients of this county.

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.

History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 53

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170