USA > New Jersey > New Jersey biographical and genealogical notes from the volumes of the New Jersey archives : with additions and supplements > Part 19
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Children:
1. William Churchill, a successful merchant in Philadelphia, who married Susan Somers, of Philadelphia.
2. Louisa Ann, married Dr. John Vancleve, of Princeton.
3. Elizabeth, married Horace G. Phillips, who removed to Day- ton, Ohio, about 1804.
4. George S., married Mary Forman.
The foregoing account of William Churchill Houston has been com- piled from a biographical notice by William C. Alexander, published in the New York Observer, of March 18. 1858, and reproduced in great part in Hall's Hist. Presbyterian Church in Trenton, p. 308; Cooley's Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing, N. J., pp. 124-128; Correspondence of the Executive of N. J. during the Revolution; Min- utes Provincial Congress of N. J., 395, 541; Minutes of the Legislature, and of the Joint Meeting, passim; Princeton University General Cat- alogue. Other sources are noticed in the text. Since the foregoing was written there has appeared the fullest sketch of Mr. Houston yet pub- lished-by Thomas Allen Glenn, Norristown, Pa., 1903, 8vo, pp. 96.
1David Evans, cabinet maker, of Philadelphia, enters in his day- book, August 12, 1788: "Made a coffin for William Churchill Houston Esq. of Trenton, who died at Geiss's tavern, on Frankford road."- Penn. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., XXVII., 50.
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HOWELY : HUGG
DAVID HOWELL.
David Howell, a native of New Jersey, graduated from Princeton College in 1766. He subsequently removed to Providence, Rhode Island, and was for three years a tutor in the College of Rhode Island (Brown University); for nine years he was Professor of Natural Philosophy; for thirty years Professor of Law; for fifty-two years a member of the Board of Fellows, and for many years Secretary of the Corporation. He represented Rhode Island in the Continental Con- gress from 1782 to 1785. In 1812 he was appointed United States Judge for the District of Rhode Island, and this office he held until his death. July 9, 1824.
JOSEPH HUGG, Ist.
Joseph Hugg, 1st, a descendant of John Hugg, the founder of the family in Old Gloucester, settled at Gloucester Point in 1722, where he kept the ferry and inn for several years. He d. in 1757, leaving two children-Samuel and Joseph, 2d. The latter was probably the Joseph "Hogg," joiner, in Philadelphia, who advertised land for sale on Little Timber creek, Gloucester, in 1752 and 1753 .- V. J. Archives, XIX., 183, 26S. He was Sheriff of Gloucester county in 1769. The will of Joseph Hugg, Esqr., of Gloucester Town and County, dated March 10, 1795, was proved December 12, 1796, at Woodbury. The testator gives his wife Elizabeth his furniture, carriage, two horses, and £60 half yearly dur- ing life; divides "my plantation where I live" between his two sons- Joseph and George Washington; devises to son Isaac "my plantation at Great Egg Harbour, in Galloway township, late Richard Westcoat's;" gives his daughter, Elizabeth Kennard, wife of Samuel Kennard, £400, some silver, etc .; to grandson, John Hampton (apparently son of a deceased daughter), £300, "and I commit him to the care of his uncle Joseph;" also mentions his brother, Samuel Hugg. Executors-sons Joseph and Isaac. and son-in-law, Saml. Kennard, junior. Witnesses- Charles West, Jas. B. Cooper, Saml. Flaningam. In a codicil, dated the same day, he says he has "heard of my son Isaac S. Hugg's death," and divides that son's share between his dau. Elizabeth and his grand -· son, John Hampton. Witnesses-Edward Lucas, Henry Shevileer, Amos Pearce. In a second codicil, dated Nov. 19, 1796, he says: "Hav- ing lately sold my land in Gloucester township near Long Coming to several persons in the Neighborhood. I hereby empower and direct my Executors to make good Conveyances;" and he appoints his son, George Washington Hugg, one of his executors. The inventory of his estate, taken Dec. 6, 1796, by James Hurley and Jno. Brick, footed up £2973. 3, 10% .- Lib. No. 36 of Wills, f. 206.
WILLIAM HUGG.
William Hugg was a great-grandson of John Hugg, who came from the parish of Castle Ellis, in the County of Wexford, Ireland. He was a Friend, and refusing to pay a tax to repair the church at Rosanellis, Queen's County, in 1669, was imprisoned. In 1683 he bought 500 acres of land of Robert Zane, on Little Timber creek, near the Delaware. His house is supposed to have been on the site of Fort Nassau, con- structed by the Dutch in 1623 .-- Clement's First Settlers of Newton Town- ship, 284. William was living at Gloucester in 1766 .- N. J. Archives, XXV., 255, 274. He kept tavern there in 1767 .- Ib., 374.
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HUGHES : HUNT: HUNTER-First and Second
JOHN HUGHES.
John Hughes was a grandson of John Hughes and Jane Evans, of Merionethshire, Wales. In 1680 their son, Hugh, then nine years old, ran away and came to America, whither his parents followed him settling in Upper Merion, now in Montgomery County, Pa. Hugh, their only child, married Martha, only daughter of Hugh and Martha Jones, of Upper Merion. He was a tanner, in Philadelphia. Hugh Hughes had four children, among them John, who m. Sarah Jones in 1738, and died in Charleston, S. C., Feb. 1, 1772, aged 60 years; he was the Stamp Distributor for Philadelphia. His younger brother, Hugh Hughes, was in business in New York at the beginning of the Revolu- tion, was an active "Son of Liberty," was Deputy Quartermaster General of the Continental Army, and Quartermaster General of the State of New York during the Revolution. He died at Tappan, N. Y., March 29, 1802, in his 75th year. Both John and Hugh left descendants in New Jersey. The latter, Col. Hugh Hughes, had a granddaughter, Sydney Maria Stotesbury, who m. Philemon Dicker- son, Governor of New Jersey, 1836; member of Congress. 1840-41. and U. S. District Court Judge, 1841-63; she d. in Paterson, N. J., in 1900.
ABRAHAM HUNT.
Abraham Hunt, b. 1740; d. Oct. 27, 1821. He was appointed Post- master of Trenton, Jan. 10, 1764, for three years, and again, Oct. 13, 1775, for a like term. It was at his house that the Hessian Colonel Rall spent Christmas night. 1776, in such hilarious fastivities as to make him neglectful of Washington's approach.
REV. SAMUEL HUNTER, Ist and 2d.
Andrew Hunter, 1st, was a native of Ireland. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, May 28, 1745, and was pastor of the churches at Greenwich and Fairfield, Cumberland county, 1746-60, and of Fairfield alone from 1760 until his death, July 28, 1775. Princeton college conferred on him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1760. He m. Ann, a cousin of Richard Stockton, the signer of the Declaration of Independence; she was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard, in Trenton, in October, 1800 .- Webster's Hist. Presbyterian Church, 505; Elmer's Cumberland County, 103; Hall's Hist. Pres. Church in Trenton, 341. His son (?) Andrew S. Hunter, received from Princeton college the honorary degree of A. M. in 1802; at the September term of the New Jersey Supreme Court, in the same year, he was licensed as an attorney, and three years later as a counsellor-at-law. He prac- tised in Trenton .-- Princeton General Catalogues; N. J. Supreme Court Rules. He probably had practised law in some other State before settling in New Jersey.
Andrew Hunter. 2d, was a son of David Hunter, a British officer, and was a nephew of the Rev. Andrew Hunter, of Fairfield. He was born in Virginia, in 1752. He was graduated from Princeton college in 1772, and entered upon the study of divinity wih his uncle. being licensed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia about the middle of June, 1774. He seems to have been master of an academy at Wilmington about this time. Immediately after being licensed he went on a mis- sionary tour in Pennsylvania and Virginia. He was a member of the Greenwich "tea party," Nov. 22, 1774. On the breaking out of active hostilities, at the beginning of the Revolution, he entered the army,
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being commissioned chaplain of Col. Stephen Van Cortlandt's bat- talion, Heard's brigade, of the New Jersey militia, June 28, 1776; chap- lain Third battalion, second establishment, Continental army, Jersey Line, June 1, 1777; chaplain to General Maxwell's brigade, June 15, 1777; chaplain Third regiment and brigade, Sept. 26, 1780; discharged at the close of the war. He received the personal thanks of Gen. Washington for his conduct at the Battle of Monmouth. He was taken prisoner in the raid by the British to Elizabethtown, but escaped. It is probable that he was somewhat feeble in health, and that his strength was still further impaired by his military experiences. We have no further account of his labors until 1789, when he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Woodbury, and represented his Presbytery in the General Assembly of his denomination at Philadelphia. He was again a member of that body in 1794, when he served on an important committee having charge of the re- vision and printing of a report relating to the Confession of Faith and Form of Government of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. He appears to have occupied the pulpit of the Woodbury church for several years prior to 1800, being succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Picton. In 1791 he and others received from Joseph Bloomfield, after- wards Governor of New Jersey. a deed for a plot of land. for the erec- tion of an academy thereon. He became principal of this academy and conducted a classical school there for some years, until he was obliged to give it up on account of ill health; for the same reason we find him, in 1803, cultivating a farm near Trenton. He was a trustee of Princeton college, 17SS-1804, when he resigned to accept the pro- fessorship of mathematics and astronomy. This position he retained until 1808, when he relinquished it for the purpose of assuming charge of an academy at Bordentown. Here he remained until 1810. when he was appointed a chaplain in the United States navy, being stationed at the Washington navy yard. On giving up his professorship at Princeton, in 1808, he was again elected a trustee of the college. until 1811. He owned considerable property in and near Princeton, his resi- dence being afterwards occupied by Prof. Arnold Guyot. His wife d. there. after 1807. He maintained close relations with the Rev. James F. Armstrong, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Trenton, fre- quently preaching for him. Mr. Hunter died in Burlington, Feb. 24, 1823. He in. 1st, Ann Riddell; 2d, Mary Stockton, a dau. of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration. Issue:
i. David, b. in Washington, D. C., July 21, 1802; gradu- ated at West Point in 1822, and served with great distinction in the Civil War as a Major General; d. at Washington. Feb. 2, 1886.
ii. Lewis Boudinot, b. in Princeton. Oct. 9, 1804; graduated there in 1824, and at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1828; Surgeon U. S. army in the Mexican War, and during the Civil War as fleet surgeon under Admiral David Forter.
iii. Mary Manners, m., 1st, Lieut. Samuel Witham Stock- ton, U. S. A .; 2d, July S, 1852, the Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D., of Princeton Theological Seminary; she d. Feb. 25, 1889.
-See Alexander's Princeton College in the Eighteenth Century, 153; Gillett's Hist. Pire. Ch. in the U. S. A., 1: 287, 311; 2: 16; Hall's Hist. Pres. Ch. in Proton, 341; Stryker's Officers and Mon of V. A. in the Revolution, 76. 379: Journal of Philip Vickers Fithian, 7, 157, 162, 164, 216, &c .;
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HUNTER-Second : HUNTER : JACKSON, JELF-First and Second : JONES
Hageman's Hist. of Princeton and its Institutions, 1: 88; 2: 105, 271, 408; Carter's Woodbury and Vicinity, cited in Hist. of Cloucester, Salem and Cape May Counties, 176; Life of Charles Hodge, D. D., LL. D., 391, 392; N. J. Archives, 2d Series, 3: 108.
MICHAEL HUNTER.
Michael Hunter, by will dated June 12, 1758, proved July 8, 1758, in New York, gives "all my hole Estate Wages Sum and sums of money Lands Tenements Goods Chattels and Estate whatsoever . . . unto my loving Eare Phillip Burgin," whom he also appoints sole executor. The will is recorded in Liber 21 of Wills in the Surrogate's office of N. Y. county, p. 56. Hunter was probably a mariner.
REV. WILHELMUS JACKSON.
The Rev. Wilhelmus Jackson studied in Holland four years, and on returning to America was licensed in 1757 to preach, and was pastor of the Reformed Dutch churches of Bergen and Staten Island, 1757- 1789. He died in 1813. He was noted as a powerful preacher, with a far-reaching voice, rivaling Whitefield as an open-air speaker.
JOSEPH JELF, Ist and 2d.
Joseph Jelf was a resident of Elizabethtown at least as early as 1738, for on July 5, of that year, his wife Sarah died, aged 37 years, and was buried in the First Presbyterian churchyard.
Joseph Jelf, 2d, made an affidavit in 1757, that he was of full age, and that he had lived for upwards of three years with Samuel Wood- ruff, as his clerk and bookkeeper. A few years later he was in part- nership with his former eniployer .- V. J. Archives, XX., 124; XXIV., 303. He married Susanna Hampton, who d. April 27, 1792, in her 57th year, and is buried in St. John's churchyard, Elizabethtown. Their daughter Sally, b. March 29, 1766, survived to the extraordinary age of 104 years, dying April 23, 1870 .- Tombstone Inscription. Mr. Jelf d. Sept. 30, 1772.
CHIEF JUSTICE NATHANIEL JONES.
The circumstances attending the appointment of Nathaniel Jones to the office of Chief Justice of New Jersey, and his futile efforts to assume the position, make one of the most interesting episodes in the history of our Supreme Court.
Soon after Gov. Lewis Morris entered upon the duties of his office of Governor of New Jersey, he issued a commission, dated March 12, 1738, appointing his son, Robert Hunter Morris, to the office of Chief Justice of the Province, "for during good behaviour in the same," although his predecessor, Robert Lettice Hooper, had been commissioned by royal warrant dated February 29, 1727-8, only "during the royal pleas- ure."-N. J. Archives, IX., 206-7, 230, 235. In a letter dated Amboy, August 10, 1760, to Gov. Thomas Boone, Morris gives these interesting details:
"In 1738 I was appointed Chief Justice of this Province, during good behuriour; and Continued in the Exercise of that Office till 1749, when at the request of His Majesty's Council, I went to England, to lay be- fore the Ministry the state of the Colony, then disturbed by frequent Riots, and thrown into the utmost disorder and Confusion.
"In March 1754, Just before I was named to the Government of Pen-
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silvania, I wrote to the Board of Trade, desiring their Lordships 'would give me Leave to Resign the Office of Chief Justice.' I had no answer to that Letter: And therefore as I passed through New Jersey to Pensilvania, I made the same request of the Governor and Council; But they declined Accepting my Resignation, Saying the Offices were not incompatible, and the Provinces only separated by a River.
"I went on then in the Discharge of the Duties of the Place, as well as the Perplexed Affairs of Pensilvania would permit, till 1756, when having Resigned that Government, I Returned to New Jersey and Remaind in the full Exercise of the Office till October 1757.
"I beg leave to observe that in All this time; a space of near four years, I had not the least Intimation, that the Board of Trade con- sidered my Request of March 1754 as a Resignation.
"In October 1757, I obtained Leave from the President of the Council to go to England; During my stay there, I Received Information from America, that Mr. Ainsley was, Pursuant to his Majesty's Mandamus, Appointed Chief Justice of this Province: I Expressed my surprise thereon to your Predecessor, then in London; And Endeavoured to see the Earl of Halifax, but was so unfortunate as not to have an oppor- tunity of speaking to his Lordship upon the subject."-N. J. Archives, IX., 235-6. See also ibid., 206-7.
He had used substantially the same arguments in an interview with Governor Bernard, who in a letter to the Lords of Trade, Feb. 25, 1760, makes these shrewd comments on his position:
"The whole amount of it is that, as he proposed a resignation on ac- count of his taking the government of Pennsylvania & he quitted that government & returned to New Jersey before your Lordships had ac- cepted his resignation, the reasons of it ceasing, the resignation itself was revoked. But I observed to him that in his letter to your Lord- ships, He did not attribute his desire to resign the office to his taking the Government of Pennsylvania, but to his private affairs not per- mitting him to attend the duties of it: And therefore your Lordships could not take notice of his quitting that government as a ceasing of his reasons for his resignation; if it were so he should have signified it to your Lordships & prayer leave to withdraw his resignation. As he did not, all this misunderstanding has arose from his own omission."-Ibid., IX., 210-211.
As for Morris's assertion that he "went on in the Discharge of the Duties of the Place, as well as the Perplexed Affairs of Pensilvania would permit, till 1756," this is contradicted by Governor Bernard, who says that after Morris "took upon him the government of Pennsyl- vania," "he never sat as Chief Justice, till after he had relinquisht that government. After that He sat once in Novr Term 1756, and divers times in each of the Terms in March May & August 1757. Soon after the last he went to England."-Ibid., 212.
The records of the Court fail to show that Chief Justice Morris sat in the Court during 1754, 1755 or 1756. Whatever duty he performed in respect to the office must have been attended to off the bench, pos- sibly in consultations with his associates, or in advising the Governor and Council, or in signing papers.
The Lords of Trade, in an address to the King, June 17, 1760, state that Morris, after residing in England a considerable time, "by his Letters to us dated the 31st of March, 1754, desired Leave to resign his said Office, as his private Affairs would not permit him to attend to the Duties of it."-Ibid., 230. Quietly ignoring the evident fact that Morris's resignation was not accepted, they excuse that omission on
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the plea that "It was not till the beginning of the year 1757, that we were enabled to recommend to Your Majesty a proper person to supply the Vacancy Occasioned by this Resignation." Referring to the appointment of William Aynsley as Chief Justice, on February 17, 1757, and his subsequent performance of the duties of that office dur- ing the March and May terms, 1758, and until his death, they make the very good point: "it is remarkable, that, during this Course of time Mr. Morris neither contested the Appointment of Mr. Aynsley here, nor set up any Claim of prior Right in the province."-Ibid., 231.
Chief Justice Aynsley having died in May, 1758, the Lords of Trade proposed to the King the appointment of Nathaniel Jones for the suc- cession, May 22, 1759, saying he had been "recommended to us as a Person well qualified to serve Your Majesty in that Station."-Ibid., 173. He was appointed May 24, and the appointment was approved in Council, May 31, 1759 .- Ibid. This selection for so important an office immediately aroused the strongest opposition in the Province, and was viewed with manifest apprehension and alarm, if we may judge from the few guarded criticisms of the King's action that have come down to us, and which suggest much more than is expressed. In a letter dated Perth Amboy, December 16, 1761, published in the Pennsylvania Journal of January 7, 1762, Jones is contemptuously described as hav- ing been a "Newgate Solicitor" at the time of his appointment. This letter was probably written by Morris. The statement is accepted as true by William Smith, the New York historian .- Hist. of N. Y., 1830, II., 347. According to his own account, Jones was of the Middle Temple, a barrister at law .- N. J. Archives, IX., 342. We have no other particulars regarding his standing at the bar.
Mr. Morris's attitude was described in a letter from Gov. Bernard, dated Perth Amboy, August 28, 1759, to the Lords of Trade: "Some few days ago Mr. [Robert Hunter] Morris arrived in this province [from England] & soon after signified to me that he proposed to re- sume his office of chief justice by virtue of his former patent, which, he said was not surrendered or otherwise determined. I re- peated to him the confusion that would be the consequence of his resuming this office against my protestation, and he expressed his earnest desire to da nothing which should embarrass the government upon which we came to the following agreement: that he should sus- pend his purpose until I could write to your Lordships and receive your commands; and that I would not in the meantime appoint any other Person, unless I received the King's command therefor. . I have not seen Mr. Morris since advices arrived of the appointment of Mr. Jones; I imagine that he will contest Mr. Jones' appointment." -V. J. Archives, IX., 176-7. In reply, the Lords of Trade wrote to Gov- ernor Bernard, December 14, 1759: "Mr. Morris's conduct appears to us to highly reflect upon His Majesty's Honor and Justice, in the sub- sequent appointments which have been made, founded upon Mr. Morris's resignation."-A. J. Archives, IX., 192.
Mr. Jones subsequently stated that upon receiving his appointment he "Relinquished his business in the Law in England, to attend the Duty of his Office, and at a vast Expence, repaired to America, in which he was unhappily obliged to break in on the future Dependance of a most Valuable Wife, and her Children, in Order to Discharge the Trust reposed in him, with Dignity and Fidelity."-Ibid., 342. He arrived in New Jersey in November, 1759, and proceeded to Perth Amboy, where he received a commission under the great seal of the Province, dated November 16, 1759, at the hands of Gov. Francis Ber- nard .- N. J. Archives, IX., 214; XX., 391.
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It was customary to tender so important a representative of the King a series of ovations and addresses on his coming into the Prov- ince. The only demonstration of the kind offered to Mr. Jones was by the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Commonalty of the Borough of Elizabeth; he had intimated a purpose to make that town his place of residence, and having gone thither on a visit the Corporation invited him to "a genteel Entertainment," on December 3, and presented him with an address which is singularly guarded and non-committal, and free from the usual adulatory compliments on such occasions. "Your late designation to the first Seat on the Bench," they cautiously say, "affords a strong presumption of Abilities adapted to the conspicuous Theatre on which you are destined to Act," and they conclude with a perfunctory declaration of their "Respect due to a Person, whom [the King] hath thought worthy to elevate to the second Post of Power and Influence in the Government of his flourishing Province of New- Jersey."-Ante, 396-7. In all this there is a remarkable reserve which is highly significant under all the circumstances. The authorities of Elizabeth were willing to pay the respect due to the King's appointee, but they would not commit themselves to any endorsement of the individual. The dissatisfaction over his appointment, occasioned by his low reputation, was greatly enhanced by his conduct after his arrival in the Province. Even Gov. Bernard, who naturally disliked to reflect upon the new Chief Justice, in a letter to the Lords of Trade declared: "Mr. Jones has been so unfortunate, that there is an uni- versal dissatisfaction at his appointment: so it seems to me it will be difficult for him to hold the office, even if he will serve it for nothing." -Ibid., IX., 210-211. More emphatic were Chief Justice Morris's com- ments, in a letter to Governor Thomas Boone, August 10, 1760: "The Character of Mr. Jones which came here before him, and the Absurdity, to say no worse, of his behaviour, after his Arrival, greatly alarmed the People of all Ranks; And Occasioned the strongest Solici- tations from the most considerate men in the Province, That I would insist on the Tenure of my Commission, and Resume the Bench."- Ibid., IX, 236. As already stated, Mr. Morris had called on Gov. Ber- nard immediately upon his return from England, in August, 1759, and "signified that he proposed to resume his office of chief justice by virtue of his former patent." As he put the matter himself, in his "When I returned to New
letter of August 10, 1760, quoted above:
Jersey, Mr. Ainsley was Dead, and tho' I had no doubt of my Right to Resume the Bench, Yet, as Mr. Bernard apprehended it might Em- barrass his Administration, I declined it till he should hear from England."-Ibid., 236. That is to say, as stated by the Lords of Trade in a letter to the King, June 17, 1760: "It was at length agreed be- tween them, that Mr. Morris should suspend his purpose and that the Governor should not appoint any other Person to the Office, until further Directions should be received from hence."-Ibid., 232. Mr. Morris says that Gov. Bernard, "being soon after informed of Mr. Jones's Nomination, told me, I was quite at Liberty to take any measures I thought Proper, And that he wish'd nothing more than to see me established upon the Bench."-Ibid., 236. Mr. Jones's manifest unfitness increased the pressure upon Mr. Morris to prevent the induc- tion of the new-comer into office, even by the setting up of his own extraordinary claim that he was still entitled to the position by virtue of his ancient commission. As he had been perfectly open with the Governor in this matter, he wrote him a letter, February 22, 1760, notifying him of his intentions, and setting forth again his reasons for
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