USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 54
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John Armstrong was vice-president of the Warren County Bible Society, presi- dent of the Hardwick Temperance Society, and a member of the first board of directors of the Sussex Bank. He married Sarah Stinson; their children were Jolin, Jr .; Nathan ; Jacob; Mary, the wife of Samuel Snover King; Sarah, the wife of John R. Howell ; Euphemia, the wife of Wilson Hunt ; and Eleanor, the wife of Isaac Shiner.
LINN, William,
Clergyman, Educator.
William Linn, president pro tempore of Queen's, afterward Rutgers College, from 1791 to 1794, was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1752. His
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grandfather, William Linn, and his father, also William Linn, came from the north of Ireland to Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1732.
William Linn, the third of the name, after obtaining a preliminary education in the common schools of his native place, entered the College of New Jersey (Princeton) from which institution of learning he was graduated in the year 1772. He was ordained to the ministry by the Donegal Presbytery in 1775, and in the following year was appointed chaplain in the Conti- nental army. In 1777 he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Big Spring, Pennsylvania, and remained there until 1784, a period of seven years, during which time he performed valuable and effi- cient service. He then took charge of an academy in Somerset county, Maryland, but after an experience of two years in teaching he decided to return to his pastoral labors, and was given charge of a church in Eliza- bethtown, New Jersey, where he remained one year. From 1787 to 1805, a period of eighteen years, he preached in the Collegiate Dutch Church, New York City, and while faithfully performing said duties, also acted, from 1791 to 1794, as president of Queen's (afterward Rutgers) College, of which he had been elected a trustee in 1787.
His interest and wisdom in matters of education are reflected in the fact that for twenty-one years previous to his death in 1808, he served as one of the regents of the University of the State of New York. In 1789 he was first chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, and shortly before his death was chosen presi- dent of Union College, but was not inaugu- rated. Princeton gave him the degree of D. D. in 1789. Dr. Linn was a pulpit orator of great power, an ardent and impassioned preacher, and on special occasions would rise to the grandeur of his theme, and pro- duce masterpieces of eloquence. He had a large and sympathetic nature and his influ- ence was widely extended. He published :
"Sermons, Historical and Characteristical" (New York, 1791) ; "Signs of the Times" (1794) ; a "Funeral Eulogy on General Washington" delivered February 22, 1800, before the New York Society of the Cin- cinnati, together with many separate ser- mons. He died in Albany, New York. Jan- uary 8, 1808.
WALLACE, William,
Exemplary Citizen.
The circumstances connected with the settlement of William Wallace in the town of Newark, New Jersey, form an incident so creditable to its founders that it is worthy of mention in this history.
William Wallace was a native of Glas- gow, Scotland, where he was born October 29, 1757. When a youth of only eighteen years he emigrated to the American colonies and settled in Savannah, Georgia. Here he had fine prospects of success in an en- terprise which he had contemplated and was about to execute, when, unexpectedly, a call to arms flew rapidly from north to south along the sea-coast. putting to flight his pleasing dream. The war of the Revolu- tion had broken out, and, stout-hearted Scotchman as he was, fresh from the free air of the Highlands, he could not fail to take a stand in defense of the land of his adoption, and so a Revolutionist he became. Entering one of Georgia's brave regiments of cavalry he went out to do his duty. His career was, however, suddenly interrupted. He was taken prisoner in the midst of bat- tle, and locked up in a prison-ship on the Savannah river. Many months of confine- ment rolled over his head before he was released, and the war having ended. per- mitted him to return to his new home and to his former pleasant anticipations.
Possessed of rare sagacity and great en- ergy, he was not long in establishing him- self as a commission merchant, active in the exportation of produce from Savannah and Augusta to England, receiving in ex-
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change goods which at home he disposed of to great advantage. Prosperous now in his business, he carried into effect the reso- lution, formed many years before, to retire from business when he had secured a com- petency. Accordingly, in the year 1805, having brought to a close his extensive busi- ness at the south, he left Georgia with his family for the north. In his search for a suitable dwelling place, he visited most of the towns of New England, as well as many thrifty settlements along the Hudson river and throughout New Jersey, and after care- ful consideration selected Newark as the spot most desirable, as well for the beauty of its situation as for the superiority of its schools and the character of its people. Be- lieving that he could here create a home, he purchased a plot of ground later owned by Hon. Cortlandt Parker, and erected there- upon, as his residence, a commodious man- sion. He also built the house in which Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen later resided, and made considerable purchases of property in the vicinity of Newark. In a very short time after his arrival he was made a director in the Newark Banking and Insurance Com- pany, the only office which he held after he left Georgia. He was pre-eminently a Christian gentleman, studying the example and instructions of his Master, and exercis- ing himself "to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man."
Mr. Wallace married Sarah Clay, a daughter of Colonel Joseph Clay, an officer of the Continental army, and from 1778 to 1780 a member of the Continental Con- gress. Mr. Wallace died at a good old age. December 20, 1842.
HULL, John,
Lawyer and Jurist.
John Hull, a judge of the Monmouth county court for a quarter of a century, and a resident of the county for more than sixty years, was born May 28, 1762, in the
family mansion then owned by his father, Hopewell Hull, at the Cross-roads, between Princeton and New Brunswick. The earli- est mention of him, other than the above, with reference to the date and place of his birth, is found in an account given by him- self of his capture by British troops in the time of the Revolution.
In 1776, when he was only fourteen years of age, he went to assist his two older broth- ers, who were engaged in making salt from sea water at a point on the Monmouth county coast. While thus employed, the British and refugees attacked and destroyed the salt works, taking the three brothers as prisoners to New York, where they were confined in the old "Sugar House" prison. After having been there some time the youth was seen and recognized by Dr. Clarke, a distant relative of the family, but a Royalist, who had taken refuge within the British lines. He inquired of the boy how he came to be there, and, on being informed of the facts, said it was no place for one of his tender age, and promised to procure his re- lease. This he did, and soon afterward young John Hull was set at liberty and al- lowed to return home, thus, perhaps, owing his life to the doctor's kind efforts, for it could hardly be expected that a boy of four- teen years could long survive the horrors of the "Sugar House" prison, where scores of strong men died daily of starvation, foul air and ill treatment.
While John Hull was yet but a youth, he lost his father by death, and, under the oper- ation of a law then in force, the large es- tate was inherited by an older brother of John, leaving the latter almost penniless. Under these disheartening circumstances he. with a noble self-reliance that did him honor, apprenticed himself to learn the trade of a blacksmith, and that trade he followed for many years with great success. He was frugal in his habits, untiring in his industry. and of the strictest integrity and honesty in all his dealings and transactions with men ; and he gradually amassed an independent
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fortune. He always took pleasure in re- ferring to his early labors at the anvil, and by his example endeavored to impress upon young men the importance of industry, tem- perance and economy, and the dignity of labor.
At the age of eighteen he married a Miss Vanarsdalen, who died early and was soon after followed to the grave by her infant son, their only child. His second wife was a Miss Cressen, of New Brunswick, with whom he removed to Monmouth county in 1790, and settled in what is now Marlbor- ough township, on a farm which he occupied as a homestead for about forty-nine years. He was greatly interested in the success and prosperity of the old Holmdel Baptist Church, then under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Benjamin Bennett. Shortly after his settlement in Monmouth county, the United Dutch Reformed congregation of Freehold and Middletown was organized under the pastoral care of the venerable Benjamin Dubois. Mr. Hull was among those who favored the establishment of that church, and he became interested in the building of their house of worship, the site of which was but a short distance from his residence. In its burial ground were inter- red the remains of his second wife, who died several years after their removal to Mon- mouth county. Subsequently he married Ann Bowne, daughter of David Bowne, an old-time citizen of Freehold (now Marl- borough) township, and with her he con- tinued to reside on the homestead farm, actively engaged in agriculture, until 1839, when they removed to Freehold village, which from that time was their home during the remainder of their lives.
The appointment of Mr. Hull as a justice of the peace was made by the Legislature in 1808, and in 1813 he was appointed a judge of the county courts of Monmouth. These united offices he held until 1838-a period of twenty-five years-during which time, in the terms of Judge Hull and his colleagues-
Henderson, Patterson and Hoppin-the rep- utation of the Monmouth court became firmly established as one of the most judici- ous, upright and impartial tribunals of the State.
Judge Hull was one of the three founders of the Young Ladies Seminary at Freehold in 1845, the other two being the Rev. D. V. McLean, of Freehold, and the Hon. Thomas G. Haight, of Colts Neck. He always manifested great pride and satisfac- tion with regard to the agency he had ex- erted in founding this seminary, and freely gave his time and attention in ornamenting its grounds and attending to all its material interests. He was entirely a self-made man and the architect of his own fortune and reputation. He was a very remarkable man for one of his position and with his oppor- tunities. He found time to read much, and had an unusually discriminating mind, and treasured up everything valuable which he read. He was always remarkable for his punctuality and strict and prompt attention to business to which it was his duty to at- tend. He was exceedingly entertaining in social intercourse, was very domestic in his habits, and large and liberal in his hos- pitality. During the last fourteen years of his life (the time of his residence in Free- hold) he was chiefly occupied in attending to the interests of his large property in Monmouth county, which consisted prin- cipally of valuable farms, among them be- ing the homestead farm in Marlborough, which came to be owned by one of his daughters. Until within a few months of his death he retained extraordinary vigor for one of his age, appearing many years younger than he really was.
He died on November 8, 1853. aged ninety-one years five months and ten days. Throughout all that long life he possessed the respect and entire confidence of his fel- low-citizens. His wife survived nearly twenty-four years, and died March 19, 1877, aged eighty-six. Their children were two
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made a member of the French Academy, and he belonged to many prominent literary and scientific associations in the United States. . In 1847 he published "Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory," a work containing much au- thentic information, especially on the growth and progress of the State of Ohio. Judge Burnet died in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 10, 1853.
MACLEAN, John,
First Professor of Chemistry in America.
John Maclean was born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 1, 1771, son of Dr. John and Agnes (Lang) Maclean, and grandson of Archibald Maclean, minister of the par- ish of Kilfinichen. He was left an orphan and became the ward of George Macin- tosh, and when thirteen years old was ad- mitted to the University of Glasgow, where in additon to the arts he pursued a course in chemistry, and attended Dr. Alexander Stevenson's lectures on anatomy, midwif- ery and botany in 1786-87, in the latter year going to Edinburgh to hear Dr. Black on chemistry. He studied surgery in Lon- don and Paris, and in 1791 received his M. D. degree in Glasgow, where he practiced as a member of the faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, 1792-95.
He immigrated to America in April, 1795, and settled in Princeton, New Jersey, on the advice of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, and became a partner of Dr. Ebenezer Stockton. He delivered a course of lectures on the Lavoisierian theory of chemistry at the College of New Jersey ; was Professor of Chemistry and Natural History there, 1795-97 ; Professor of Math- ematics and Natural Philosophy, 1797- 1804; Professor of Natural Philosophy and . Chemistry, 1804-08; and Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, 1808-12. In 1812-13 he was Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the College of William and
Mary, at Williamsburg, Virginia, but was compelled to resign on account of ill-health caused by bilious fever, from which ne never recovered. His chemical instruc- tions included the practical application of chemistry to agriculture and manufacture, and his chair at Princeton was the first chair of chemistry in the United States. He was elected a member of the Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia in June, 1799, and a member of the American Philosoph- ical Society in January, 1805. He was ad- mitted to American citizenship in Decem- ber, 1807. He was author of "Lectures on Combustion" (1797), and many articles on the philogistic theory of combustion in the New York "Medical Repository," in controversy with Dr. Joseph Priestley. See "Memoir" by his son, Dr. John Maclean (1876).
He was married, November 7, 1798, to Phoebe, eldest daughter of Absalom and Mary (Taylor) Bainbridge, of Middletown, New Jersey, and sister of Commodore Wil- liam Bainbridge, United States navy. Mr. Maclean died in Princeton, New Jersey, February 17, 1814.
GRISCOM, John,
Distinguished Educator and Scientist.
John Griscom was born at Hancock's Bridge, Salem county, New Jersey, Sep- tember 27, 1774. son of William Griscom, grandson of Andrew Griscom and of John Denn, great-grandson of Tobias Griscom. born in England, and great-great-grandson of Andrew Griscom, one of the earliest emi- grants from London to Philadelphia, who received a grant of land from William Penn, and built the first brick house in Philadel- phia in 1683.
John Griscom attended school in Green -. wich and afterward in Salem, New Jersey, and also worked on his father's farm. In 1790 he opened a school for the instruction of the neighbor's children, and in 1793 en- tered the Friend's Academy in Philadelphia,
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but the school was soon closed on account of a yellow fever epidemic, and in 1794 he be- came principal of the Friends' Monthly Meeting School in Burlington, New Jersey, which position he held until 1807. He was also librarian of the Burlington Library. In 1806 he delivered in Burlington a course of lectures on chemistry, said to be among the first lectures on natural science delivered in America. In 1807. by request of his New York friends, he became principal of a private school there, at a yearly salary of $2,250, the highest salary that had ever been paid in America for a similar purpose. There, in addition to his class room work. he continued his popular lectures on ex- perimental chemistry. In 1808 he opened a school of chemical philosophy on his own account, which he continued with success until 1831. In 1822 he was one of the or- ganizers of the Medical Department of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jer- sey, and was Professor of Chemistry there from 1812 to 1828. He also planned and established the New York High School, con- ducted as a Lancastrian school, and was its supervisor for six years from 1825. In 1831 he removed to Providence, Rhode Island, where he was principal of the Friends' Boarding School from 1832 to 1835. He removed to Haverford, Pennsyl- vania, in 1836, and thence to Burlington, New Jersey, in 1840, where he was for some time trustee and superintendent of public schools. While in New York City he was one of the promoters of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism and Crime, or- ganized in 1817. In March, 1817, on the establishment of natural history lectureships by the New York Historical Society, Mr. Griscom was appointed lecturer on chem- istry and natural philosophy. He was chosen a manager of the New York Auxiliary Colonization Society in November, 1817; was elected an honorary member of the Cornwall (England) Literary and Philoso- phical Society in 1822; a manager of the New York Mechanics' Association in 1822;
a vice-president of the New York Bible Society in 1823; and a director of the American Peace Society in 1829. He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society, and president of the Burlington County Bible Society, 1845-52. He de- livered a course of lectures on natural phi- losophy before the Mercantile Library As- sociation, New York, in 1829-30. He re- ceived the honorary degree of LL.D. from Union College in 1824. He published "A Year in Europe" (1823) ; "Discourse on Character and Education" (1825) ; and "Address to Newark Mechanics' Associa- tion" (1831). He also contributed to Silli- man's "Journal of Science and other Scien- tific Periodicals." See "Memoir of John Griscom, LL.D." (1859), by his son, John H. Griscom, M. D.
He was married, in 1800, to a daughter of John Hoskins, an elder in the Society of Friends. She died in 1818. He died in Burlington, New Jersey, February 26, 1852.
BISHOP, John,
Early Manufacturer.
The Bishops are an English family and their surname is one of the most ancient in all the kingdom. The name was trans- planted on this side of the Atlantic during the early years of the colonial period and its representatives have ranked with the foremost men of the country in all genera- tions to the present time. There are vari- ous traditions regarding the immigration of the particular family here treated, and that which seems most stable has it that several immigrant brothers came from England and settled either on Long Island or in the colony of Connecticut. There were Bishops on Long Island at an early period and in Connecticut the name ap- pears soon after the first planters made their way into that part of New England. The earliest known ancestor of the family here treated is understood to have come to West Jersey from either Long Island or
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Connecticut, but whether he was born in England or America does not appear. His name is not found in any of the genealogi- cal references extant, hence the place of his nativity cannot be given. The following account of the early life of the family in New Jersey is taken largely from the rem- iniscences of John Bishop, 2d, written by him about thirty years ago.
Robert Bishop, earliest ancestor of the family of whom there appears to be any account, was living near Lumberton, Burl- ington county, New Jersey, previous to the Revolutionary War. In speaking of the first settlers in that locality the "History of Burlington and Mercer Counties" says that six brothers of the Bishop surname came from England and located along Rancocas creek from Bridgeboro to Vin- centown, one at each of these places and the other four at or near Lumberton. In a way this account is substantially in ac- cord with the previous statement that sev- eral brothers came from England and set- tled either on Long Island or in Connecti- cut. But, however, this may have been, Robert Bishop was living near Lumberton in Burlington county previous to the Revo- lution, and in 1778 at and about the time of the battle of Monmouth General Kny- phausen's division (Hessians) of the Brit- ish army in its march through that region overran and ransacked Robert Bishop's house from cellar to garret, excepting only the room in which lay his sick wife and her new born child, John Bishop, and it was only with difficulty that the common soldiers were restrained by their officers from entering and pillaging that room of the house. They also removed all live stock and forage from the farm, with the exception of a colt, which proved so frac- tious that it could not be taken away. Of Robert Bishop's family, says Mr. Bi- shop in his reminiscences, "I know at present comparatively little save that there were several brothers who emigrated either from Long Island or Connecticut.
The baptismal name of his wife was Jane and among their children was a son John."
John Bishop, son of Robert and Jane Bishop, was born near Lumberton, Burl- ington county, New Jersey, the 17th day of 6th month, 1778, a few days prior to the battle of Monmouth. "On his mother's side," says Mr. Bishop's narrative.
"He was of the third generation in lineal descent of a full-blooded Indian girl of the Lenni Lenappe tribe, and who previous to her marriage assumed the English name of Mary Carlisle, and married Richard Haines, who with several of his brothers emigrated from Northamptonshire, England, and were the original settiers of Burlington county, at that time a part of the province of West Jersey. John Bishop's mother, who married Robert Bishop, and who was a granddaughter of the Indian maiden, Mary Carl- isle, was of course a quarter blood Indian, and what is singular, it is said by those who remem- ber her that she was of light complexion, a blonde, although some of her children with their bright, piercing, black eyes and swarthy com- plexions, gave unmistakable evidence of their Indian origin. She is represented to have been a woman of sweet disposition and possessed of the most estimable traits of character. When John Bishop was about six years old his parents removed to the north side of Rancocas creek, where it empties into the Delaware, and on a part of which the town of Delanco is now built. Here on account of the proximity to the water, John became an adept as a swimmer, skater and trapper, the country at that time abounding in foxes and other game and the creeks with otter, mink and muskrats, many times going and break- ing the ice with his bare feet to remove the game from his traps; and one of his greatest pastimes at certain seasons of the year was to swim over to the island at the junction of the river and creek and bring geese home to his mother. Soon after removing to this new home John got his first start in life in the ownership of a hen, which was given to him by an Indian squaw who had come to make his parents a visit; and it was not long before nearly all the chickens on the farm were claimed by himself as sole owner. It is related that one day his mother wanting a chicken to make a potpie for dinner, sent one of the family to get one, when John seeing them called out 'that's my chicken.' and so with the second and third attempts, until it was found that they were all 'his chickens.' Then his father proposed that he exchange some
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of his chickens for sheep, which was agreed to and in the course of a year or two, his sheep beginning to multiply pretty fast, his father, having the chicken experience in mind, limited John's to two, and divided the others among the neighbors to raise on shares.
"When John Bishop was about ten or twelve years old his father died. All the education the boy had was obtained in a log schoolhouse in the pine woods. At the age of sixteen he taught school on what is now (1879) the Moorestown and Camden turnpike, and at the end of one winter's teaching he saved sufficient to 'give him an outfit to get to Philadelphia.' After the death of his father he made his home with an elder married brother, whom he helped with the work of the farm; and the latter hearing John talk of going to Philadelphia, made the remark 'you'll come to nothing,' to which the young fel- low replied with his characteristic spirit, 'I miglit as well come to nothing as to stay with you and work for nothing.' However, they remained the best of friends during the entire period of their lives. He went to Philadelphia and being a young man of fine personal appearance and possessed of good business ability, it was not long before he secured a good position as clerk in the counting house of Harry Moliere, a Frenchman, who had an extensive rope walk up in Kensington. Soon afterward he formed the acquaintance of a Scotchman named Couslan, a practical plumber, and former a partnership with him for carrying on the business, besides which the firm rented the first three wharves below Walnut street, and there their plumbing shops were located. Their principal business at that time was work aboard vessels, but as the ship- yards were in Kensington the partners in their work were compelled to walk back and forth between that place and the shops; and it is said that never but once did John Bishop find a man who could outwalk him in traveling this dis- tance."
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