Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I, Part 8

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company
Number of Pages: 980

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BREARLEY, David, Jurist, Statesman.

David Brearley was born near Trenton, New Jersey, June II, 1745. He practised law at Allentown, New Jersey. Hc was arrested for high treason against the king, but was rescued by a mob of his patriotic fellow-townsmen, and joined the revolu- tionary army. He rose to the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel, and, in 1779 resigned the service to accept an appointment as Chief. Justice of New Jersey. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and entered a vigorous protest against any inequality in the representation of the States and against the joint ballot of the houses of Congress. He was the presid- ing officer of the State Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution, and a member of the committee appointed to de- termine upon the duties and powers of the President and the length of his term of of- fice. In 1788 he was a Presidential Elector, and in 1789 was appointed Judge of the United States District Court of New Jer- sey. He was one of the compilers of the prayerbook published by the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1785. He died at Trenton, New Jersey, August 16, 1790.

FRENEAU, Philip Morin, Poet, Politician, Sailor.

"Brackenridge, Francis Hopkinson and Freneau are admitted by critics to be the

the eighteenth century" .- "The Magazine of American History,"

The grandfather of Philip Freneau, An- dre Fresneau, 2. Huguenot, came to this country in 1707, then a man of thirty-six. He settled in New York, and in 1710 mar- ried Mary Morin, a daughter of Pierre Morin. Andre Fresneau lived on Pearl street, near Hanover Square, and was an importer. He died in 1725, leaving a large estate in eastern New Jersey, and a pros- perous business, which was carried on by his seven children.

Pierre, second son, married in 1748, Agnes Watson, daughter of Richard Wat- son, of Freehold, and built a large mansion on Frankfort street, New York, where on January 2d, 1752, Philip Morin Freneau was born, one of five children. In 1762 the Freneau family left New York to live in their country mansion, "Mount Pleasant," rear Middletown, New Jersey, which Pierre had built in 1752 on the property left by his father. There Philip was edu- cated and prepared for college by the Rev. William Tennent, of Freehold, and later at Penolopen Latin School, by the Rev. Alexander Mitchell. Freneau entered Princeton College with Samuel Spring, H. H. Brackenridge, and James Madison, with whom he roomed during his college course, forming a warm lifelong friendship. Mad- ison was a frequent visitor at Mount Pleas- ant and courted Freneau's sister Mary, only to be refused, as Mary Frencau elected to remain single.

The genius of Philip Freneau ripened quickly under the influences at Nassau Hall. Many of his best poems were writ- ten there, notably a graduation ode in collaboration with Brackenridge, from which the most famous passage, prophetic of the development of the middle west, is appended :

"I see, I see,

A thousand kingdoms rais'd, cities, and men Num'rous as sand upon the ocean shore ;

Th' Ohio then shall glide by many a town

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

Of note: and where the Mississippi stream, By forests shaded now runs weeping on, Nations shall grow and States not less in fame Than Greece and Rome of old: we too shall boast

Our Alexanders, Pompeys, heroes, kings That in the womb of time yet dormant lie Waiting the joyful hour of life and light. O snatch us hence, ye muses! to those days When, through the veil of dark antiquity, Our sons shall hear of us as things remote, That blossom'd in the morn of days. Alas! How could I weep that we were born so soon, In the beginning of more happy times!"

Aaron Burr and William Bradford were friends and associates of Freneau during his college years, and the American Whig Society owes its origin to him. His ability so impressed President Witherspoon that he wrote a personal letter to Mrs. Freneau praising Philip's mental attainments, or good parts, as the phrase ran in those days. After graduating in 1771, Freneau be- came second master in a school in Mary- land, afterwards known as Washington Academy.

During the summer of 1775, Philip Fre- neau came to New York and devoted him- self to writing. As a publicist and poet, he attacked the British. The "Voyage to Boston" and "General Gage's Soliloquy" were written at this time. The next two years were spent on the Island of Vera Cruz, on the estate of Captain Hanson, where he wrote "Santa Cruz," "The House of Night," and "A Jamaica Fu- neral." In 1778 he returned by way of Bermuda to Mount Pleasant, where "Amer- ica Independent" was written. During 1779, Freneau was a frequent contributor to Brackenridge's "United States Maga- zine."

The next two years were devoted to the sea, cruising between New York and the West Indies. On May 26th, 1780, Fre- neau's ship was captured by the British, and he, among others, was remanded to the prison ship in New York Harbor, where he came so ill with fever that the author-

ties were prevailed upon to release him on the 12th of July.

From 1781-1784, Freneau lived in Philadelphia, employing himself, editing the "Freeman's Journal or North Ameri- can Intelligencer," owned by Francis Bailey. In this work he was successful, but, drawn into a controversy with Oswald, editor of "The Gazette," Freneau became discouraged and resigned his editorship. Freneau's writings at this period showed his proud impetuous nature, his love of all freedom and dislike of any sort of tyranny. He was a firm believer in the rights of women, conservation of forests, temper- ance, kindness to animals, and the aboli- tion of negro slavery. Our modern the- ories are not so new after all. Discouraged in his literary career, Freneau returned to the sea, and sailed as master of the brig "Dromilly," for Kingston, Jamaica, June 24th, 1780, and the next ten years were de- voted to the maritime service.

On April 15th, 1790, Freneau married Eleanor Forman, daughter of Samuel For- man, of Monmouth county, New Jersey, and settled down to a life ashore. Return- ing to literature, Freneau found it a diffi- cult matter to support a family in that pro- fession, and in July, 1791, yielding to the persuasions of Madison and other friends, accepted a clerkship for foreign languages in the Department of State, offered him by Thomas Jefferson with the understanding that its modest salary of $250 a year should be eked out by other work. Jefferson him- self suggested the establishment of a paper of Whig proclivities as competitor to "The Gazette of the United States," published by Fenno. August 16th, Freneau received his appointment and, betaking himself to Phila- delphia, on Monday, October 31st, pub- lished the first number of the "National Gazette." a bi-weekly paper. "The Na- tional Gazette" ran for two years and be- came the most powerful organ of a re- publican form of government. Fre-

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neau, like many others, feared a return to monarchical ideas and devoted his pages to a crusade for his principles. He boldly attacked Adams, Hamilton and even Wash- ington himself. Jefferson valued Freneau's efforts. He said "His paper has saved our Constitution, which was galloping fast into monarchy and has been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that paper." The "National Gazette" was discontinued in 1793 from lack of financial support, partly due to the outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia and partly to a reaction of con- servative people offended by Freneau's rabid support of Citizen Genet, Minister to the United States from the French Repub- lic, who made himself obnoxious to the many by his efforts to obtain the endorse- ment of our government for France.

After a visit to his brother Peter, an in- fluential citizen of Charleston, Freneau re- moved with his family again to Mt. Pleas- ant, became county printer and printed and published a small paper called the "New Jersey Chronicle," which lived a year or two. In "The Chronicle" were printed some of Freneau's best prose efforts, no- tably "On Monarchical and Mixed Forms of Government," "Observations of Mon- archy," and other political sketches and satires on American manners and customs. In 1795 he printed the most interesting edition of his own poems.

"The Time Piece and Literary Compan- ion" made its debut in March, 1797. Less of politics and more of tasteful prose and poetry appeared in its pages. Many women were its contributors, notably Eliza Law- rence, sister of Captain James Lawrence, of naval fame. Retiring from the "Time Piece" in September of the same year, Fre- neau devoted himself to farming at Mount Pleasant, varied by writing verses and let- ters on various interesting and important subjects, many of which appeared in the aurora under the nom de plume of Robert Slender, O. S. M. (One of the Swinish

Multitude). These were some of the best prose he ever wrote.

Like many literary men, always in pe- cuniary straits, Freneau returned to the sea again in 1799, and until 1807 commanded various merchant ships. At fifty-five he retired from the sea and for many years lived quietly at Mount Pleasant, still writ- ing, managing his farm and in the enjoy- ment of his family.

In 1809 a two-volume edition of his poems - were published-an edition of one thousand volumes, and again in 1815 a col- lection was printed by David Longworth, of New York, containing poems inspired by the war of 1812.

When Jefferson was elected President, his admiration of Freneau prompted him to offer him a place under the government, which was declined.

In 1815 Mount Pleasant was burned to the ground. The Freneaus moved to a farm two miles and a half from Freehold where the remainder of his life was spent. Returning home from Freehold on a De- cember night, Freneau was lost in a sud- den snow storm ; wandering off the road, he fell, breaking his hip, and was found in the morning frozen to death.

Prior to the Revolution there was no real American literature and Freneau wrote the first American poems worthy of the, name. He was one of the first to recognize the romance of Indian life. His reputation was more than a local one and his influence on English poetry is generally acknowledged. From a literary point of view he was many years ahead of his generation. The "Maga- zine of American History" says further :- "Next to Washington, Jefferson and Ham- ilton, one figure assumes a prominence su- perior to that of all others engaged in the political contest, not so much perhaps by the weight of his intellect as by his versa- tility and vivacity and the keenness and the readiness of the weapons he brought to the contest. We refer to Philip Freneau.

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

What Tyrtanus was to the Spartans, was Freneau to the republicans or anti-federal- ists. In all the history of American let- ters or of the United States press, there is no figure more interesting or remarkable, no career more versatile and varied, than that of Philip Freneau."

EDWARDS, Jonathan,

Clergyman, Educator, Author.

The distinguished Rev. Jonathan Ed- wards, third president of the College of New Jersey, was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, October 5, 1703. The earliest known ancestor of this noted man was Richard Edwards, a clergyman in London, England, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. He came, it is said, from Wales to the me- tropolis, and was of the Established Church. His wife, Mrs. Annie Edwards, when he died, married James Coles, and with a son, William Edwards, came to Hartford, Connecticut, about 1640. This son William became a merchant of Hartford, and in 1645 married an English woman of high connection. Their only son, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, was Richard, who was born in 1647, and was also a wealthy merchant of Hartford. His wife was Elizabeth Tuthill, daughter of a New Haven, Connecticut, merchant, and to them was born Timothy, the father of the great theologian. The father was a graduate of Harvard College in 1691 ; was ordained minister of the East Parish (Congregational), of East Windsor, in 1694, and continued to preach there for over sixty years. His mother was the daughter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, pas- tor of the First Congregational Church at Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1672 to 1729, a man of much influence in the Mas- sachusetts colony. In later years Jonathan Edwards visited his parents, and was heard in his father's pulpit. Parishioners, who listened to the two preachers, remarked that, "although Mr. Edwards was perhaps

the more learned man, and more animated in his manner, yet Mr. Jonathan was the deeper preacher."

Jonathan Edwards, the renowned son of the East Windsor divine, was graduated from Yale College in 1720. How far his subsequent scholastic acquirements and shortcomings were attributable to his col- iege training we do not fully know, but it was as a thinker, not as a scholar, that he was to make his mark. It is hardly too much to say that as a-theologian, a formulator of creeds, a builder of systems and a spiritual reformer, he was to rank with Calvin on the one hand, and with Wesley on the other. His most recent biographer pays much at- tention to manuscript notes of Edwards' making while he was at college. These notes, which are upon the mind of man and upon natural science, are distinctly Berk- eleian as regards the fundamental defini- tion of the writer's philosophy, and the question is one of interest whether they were penned at a later date than is ascribed to them, or whether Berkeley's writings, first published in 1713, seven years before Edwards was graduated, had become known to hiin. He remained at college two years after graduation, as a student of di- vinity. In 1722 he preached for eight months in a Presbyterian church in the city of New York, returned to his father's house in the spring of 1723, and spent the sum- mer in close study ; then, declining various calls to preach, he became a tutor in Yale College, in which position he continued un- til 1726, when he was invited to become the colleague of his grandfather, Rev. Mr. Stoddard, in the pastorate of his church at Northampton. He was ordained there in February, 1727, and on July 28th of the same year, he married Sarah Pierrepont, of New Haven, Connecticut. His grandfather died in 1729.

The first seventeen years of Mr. Ed- wards' pastorate were happy and useful. About 1734 a religious awakening took place in the congregation, exceeding in

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

breadth and power anything which had been known up to that time in the history of the country. In 1740, Rev. George Whitefield, of England, was in Northamp- ton, and preached more than once for Mr. Edwards. The revival which had taken place in the congregation of the latter now spread throughout New England, and his services in preaching were sought for on every side. He wrote and published about this time, "The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God," "Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Reli- gion," and his famous "Treatise on the Re- ligious Affections," each of them growing from and meant to guide the religious movements which have been noted. It was near this time that agitations arose in his church, which finally brought about his dis- missal from the parish. Their occasions were probably three in number : the evangel- ical and earnest nature of his preaching in general; the stand taken by him in opposi- tion to what is known as the "halfway cov- enant ;" and his attempt to check the read- ing and diffusion of impure books, particu- larly among the younger members of his church, and to discipline those members who should be proven to have them in their possession. A council of churches called upon the question of his retirement, decided against Mr. Edwards by a bare majority ; but the vote of the church ratifying the de- cision of the council was 200 to 20. So implacable, by reason of the considerations heretofore mentioned, was the animosity of parishioners who had sat under his preach- ing for nearly a quarter of a century, that, although he continued in the town for some months after his connection with the church was severed, great reluctance was felt at allowing him to preach, even when the ser- vices of no other minister could be ob- tained. At last a town meeting was called which accomplished its object in a vote that "he should not again be permitted to enter the pulpit in Northampton." This was in June, 1750, and thus the greatest of Ameri-

can theologians, and one of the greatest masters of ratiocination that the world has ever seen, was turned adrift at the end of twenty-three years of service, at the age of forty-seven, with a large family of chil- dren, and with no means of support. But in these straitened circumstances he re- ceived generous contributions from distant Scotland, and his wife and children pa- tiently endeavored to earn something for the support of the household by feminine pursuits. Nor were proofs long wanting that on this side of the Atlantic also, the verdict of Northampton did not meet with general approval.

Before the close of 1750 he was asked to become the pastor of the church at Stock- bridge, then the frontier town of the Mas- sachusetts colony, and before he had ac- cepted that invitation he received another call from a church in Virginia. His short residence at Stockbridge was, we are told by his biographer, a pleasant contrast to the tumult and contention that had marked his later years at Northampton. It was during this period of comparative repose that his monumental treatise on "The Free- dom of the Will" was published. Here. too, he projected an elaborate "History of Redemption" of which we have only a rough draft. In the last year of his life he was invited to become president of the Col- lege of New Jersey, at Princeton, as the successor of Rev. Aaron Burr, who had married his daughter, Esther Edwards, and whose son, Aaron Burr, was afterwards vice-president of the United States. With great reluctance Edwards accepted the new office, and in January, 1758, set out for Princeton. Installed as president of the college January 16th of that year, he soon died there of smallpox. His daughter Esther and his wife soon followed him. The three were interred in the burying- ground in Princeton.

There have been two editions of Ed- wards' works published in England, one in eight volumes octavo, and one in two com-

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pact volumes. The American editions, by John and Ann Maxwell, who settled on a Samuel Austin (eight volumes), and Ter- farm in Greenwich township, Morris county, New Jersey, about 1747. He had two younger brothers-John, a captain, and Robert, a lieutenant, in the Revolutionary service. rence E. Dwight (ten volumes), and a later edition (four volumes), are to be pre- ferred. Along the "Lives of Jonathan Ed- wards," are: That by Samuel Miller ; that by S. E. Dwight; that by Dr. Samuel Mil- ler, in Sparks' "American Biography ;" one in "Lives of Eminent Literary and Scien- tific Men of America ;" and a most com- prehensive and philosophical biography by Professor A. V. G. Allen, of the Protestant Episcopal Seminary at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, published in Boston and New York in 1890.

Whatever may be thought of the achieve- ments that were realized, and the conclu- sions that were reached by President Ed- wards, there have never been two opinions among those competent to make an esti- mate of him, as to his remarkable endow- ments, or the extraordinary ability of most of his written productions. He is placed by common consent in the front rank of great men. "In the arena of metaphysics," said Dr. Chalmers, "he stood highest of all his contemporaries." "A most extraor- dinary man," said Sir James Mackintosh, "who, in a metaphysical age or country, would certainly have been deemed as much the boast of America as his great contem- porary, Franklin." "There is, however," said Dugald Stewart, "one metaphysician of whom America has to boast, who, in logical acuteness and subtlety does not yield to any disputant bred in the universities of Europe. I need not say that I allude to Jonathan Edwards." "Edwards," says an- other, "Sums up the old theology of New England under the fountain-head of the new." President Edwards died in Prince- ton, New Jersey, March 22, 1758.

MAXWELL, William, Revolutionary Soldier.

General William Maxwell was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1733. son of

William Maxwell enlisted in the colonial army, and was under General Braddock at Fort Duquesne, July 9, 1755; with General Amherst at Ticonderoga, in July, 1759; and probably with General Wolfe at Quebec in September, 1759. He was promoted to col- onel and was attached to the commissary de- partment at Mackinaw. Prior to 1773 he re- signed from the British service and was chariman of the Committee of Safety of Sussex county that met at Newton, August IO-II, 1773. On July 16, 1774, he was ap- pointed a deputy to secure representation fot New Jersey in the General Congress. He was a representative in the first and second Provisional Congresses of New Jersey, 1775, and the General Congress commis- sioned him colonel of the New Jersey bat- talion for Continental service, November 8, 1775. He reached the army in Canada in March, 1776, took part in the battle of Three Rivers, June 8, 1776, and conducted the re- treat with merit. He opposed the abandon- ment of Crown Point. On October 23, 1776, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and was sent by Washington to take command of the militia at Morristown, and harass the British army quartered there. While thus engaged, the battles of Trenton and Prince- ton were fought, and the success of Max- well's brigade at Morristown led to his fol- lowing and annoying the retiring army through Newark, Elizabethtown and Spank- town (Rahway). He was then attached to General Stephens' division, and during the summer of 1777 marched through Pennsyl- vania. The Jersey Line opened the battle of Brandywine, and afterward his brigade had a skirmish at White Horse Tavern. His brigade, with some North Carolina troops under General (Lord) Stirling, formed the left wing and reserve of Washington's arıny

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

at Germantown, October 4, 1777. After spending the winter at Valley Forge, on June 18, 1778, he was ordered to harass General Clinton in New Jersey, and on June 18, 1778, took part in the battle of Mon- mouth. On May 11, 1779, he joined Gen- eral Sullivan in his expedition against the Indians, leaving East Pennsylvania, June 18, 1779, and returning, went into winter quarters at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, No- vember 5, 1779. On June 23, 1780, he led his brigade in the battle of Springfield, New Jersey, and on July 20, 1780, he resigned, which act in no way affected his reputation as a brave officer. Personal disagreement with his fellow officers was probably the cause of his resignation, which Washington sent to Congress with a letter in which he said: "The merits of this General are well known . . . I believe him to be an hon- est man, a warm friend of his country and firmly attached to its interests." He was elected from Sussex county to the New Jer- sey Assembly in 1783.

He died at the home of his friend, Col- Dnel Charles Stewart, in Lansdowne, Hunt- erdon county, New Jersey, November 4, 1796.

SYMMES, John Cleves,

Soldier, Lawyer, Jurist.

John Cleves Symmes was born July 21, 1742, at Riverhead, Long Island, province of New York. He appears to have received a fair though not a classical education, and in early manhood became a school teacher and surveyor. He subsequently studied law, and at the time when the difficulties with Great Britain culminated in the war of the Revolution, he abandoned his profes- sional pursuits and entered the Northern army, though exactly in what capacity he served is not recorded. At all events, he was present and participated in the battle of Saratoga.

Shortly after the close of the war he re- moved to New Jersey. taking up his resi- dence at Newton, Sussex county, and sub-

sequently was appointed a delegate to ti .. Provincial Congress, and assisted in fram- ing the State Constitution of 1776. In Feb- ruary, 1777, he was elected by the joint ac- tion of the Council and Assembly an Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, and held that position for several years. In 1784 and 1785 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, retaining, however, his seat on the bench. In 1788 he was chosen by the Continental Congress one of the judges of the North- west Territory, and shortly afterwards re- moved to Ohio. As early as 1787 he began to negotiate for the purchase of lands in that Territory, the coveted tracts being about one million acres lying between the two Miami rivers. Finally a contract for that number of acres was signed by himself and others, at sixty-six cents per acre, payable in instalments. But the troubled state of the country, caused by the hostility of the Indians to the proposed settlement, led to their failure in fulfilling the contract. How- ever, in the spring of 1794, in conjunction with Elias Boudinot, Jonathan Dayton and others, he effected the purchase of 248,000 acres, lying between the two Miami rivers, including the sites of the present cities of Dayton and Cincinnati. In the meantime he established his own residence at the north bend of the Ohio, and laid out a city there to be called after himself; but cir- cumstances led to the adoption of the land around Fort Washington as the site of the "Queen City," and the prospective metrop- olis at North Bend was destined to fail, al- though in those pioneer days it was regard- ed as the rival of Cincinnati. Judge Symmes was one of the most energetic and influential of the early pioneers, and had a method of dealing with the Indians which made them more friendly towards him than to the great majority of his white brethren. Indeed, he was more than once assured by these children of the forest that his life had been thus far spared because of his kindness to them.

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Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I, Part 8

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company Number of Pages: 980

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company
Number of Pages: 980