USA > New Jersey > New Jersey biographical and genealogical notes from the volumes of the New Jersey archives : with additions and supplements > Part 25
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GEORGE READING.
George Reading, b. in Amwell, N. J., Feb. 26, 1725, was a son of John Reading (sometime President of the Council and acting Governor of New Jersey) and Mary Ryerson, his wife, dau. of Joris (i. e., George) Ryerson, of Pacquanac, in the present Passaic county. He inherited from his father extensive tracts of land. He was a member of the Assembly, 1761-5, and was appointed Surrogate in 1774. Early in the Revolution he removed to Westmoreland county, Pa., where he was commissioned Sub-Lieutenant, with rank as Lieutenant-Colonel, and was recommissioned June 2. 1780. In this year he removed to what was afterwards Bourbon county, Ky., where he died, Aug. 12, 1792.
THOMAS READING.
Captain Thomas Reading was b. in Amwell township, Hunterdon county, Sept. 27, 1734, being a son of John Reading, some time Presi- dent of the Governor's Council, and acting Governor on two occasions. The Provincial Congress appointed him, Feb. 9, 1776, Captain of the sixth company, third New Jersey regiment, First Establishment, and he was in service with his command in northern New York and Canada until his regiment was discharged, March 23, 1777. By act of the Legis- lature, June 22, 1778, he was appointed one of the agents of the State for procuring provisions for the use of the army, and other supplies for carrying on the war. He was commissioned a justice of the peace for Hunterdon county, Dec. 18, 1782; Sept. 14, 17SS; Oct. 25, 1793; and Nov. 1, 1798; and was appointed judge of the common pleas for said county Nov. 26, 1794, and Oct. 30, 1799. Each of said appointments was for the term of five years. He was one of the founders of the Presby- terian church in Flemington, was a member of the board of trustees, and on July 6, 1797, was ordained an elder of the church, with power to "conduct divine worship and read a sermon when the pastor was absent." He occupied the homestead farm of four hundred acres, near Flemington Junction, devised by his father to his executors in trust for the use of Thomas and his wife for life, with remainder to his two sons, Joseph and Thomas, in fee simple. He probably engaged in the iron industry with his cousins, the Ryersons, and the vicissitudes of the Revolutionary war brought about his ruin. He m. Rebecca Ellis, dau. of Jonathan Ellis, of Waterford, Gloucester county; he d. Dec. 14, 1814, in Amwell township .- The Reading Family, by J. Granville Leach, Philadelphia, 1898, pp. 52, 125; Stryker's Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution; First Century of Hunterdon County, by the Rev.
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READING: REED : REEMER : REYNOLDS
George S. Mott, D. D .; Hist. Presbyterian Church of Flemington, by the Rev. George S. Mott, D. D .; Records of Commissions, Secretary of State's Office.
ANDREW REED.
Andrew Reed was a well-known merchant in Trenton during the Colonial period. He was the father of the distinguished General Joseph Reed, at one time Adjutant-General of the Continental Army. He had lived many years in Philadelphia and was a Trustee of the Third Presbyterian church on Arch street in that city. In 1734 he was ap- pointed the first Postmaster of Trenton, and in 1746 he was made one of the Burgesses and Treasurer of the Borough of Trenton under its new charter. From 1756 to 1759 he was Trustee of the Presbyterian church of Trenton. After residing in Trenton many years, he removed about 1759 to Amwell, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, where he owned extensive tracts of land, and died there December 16, 1769.
GEORGE REEMER.
George Reemer was living, in 1744, in the lower part of Bedminster township, Somerset county, south of Kline's Mills. He subscribed £20 in 1756 toward the erection of St. Paul's Lutheran church at Pluckamin, and it was but natural that he should have been one of the managers of the lottery for the benefit of that church in 1758.
JOHN REYNOLDS.
A petition was presented to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, June 21, 1776, "from John Reynolds and George Riche, paper makers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, setting forth, that they design to carry on their trade in this Colony, and praying that this Congress would encourage the same." The petition was read, and ordered to have a second reading, which it received on July 4, when action was deferred for further consideration."-Minutes, 469, 490. The subject is not men- tioned again in the minutes. However, Reynolds, at least, located in Trenton, for the records of conveyances show that John Reynolds, paper maker, of Trenton, bought from Israel Morris, of the same place, gentleman, son and heir of William Morris, late of Trenton, Esq., deceased, by deed dated June 1, 1778, for £350, a lot situate on the east side of King street, Trenton, touching the late Thomas Smith's land, and land of Israel Morris, being part of a larger tract granted to William Morris by William Trent, April 16, 1745. On Sep- tember 23, 1778, he bought from Israel Morris, for £1400, three lots in Trenton. as follows: 1st lot. Beginning at the southwest corner of Friends' Burying Ground, running thence north to William Tucker's land, thence along Tucker's land west to lot of the Presbyterian con- gregation, along that south to the street leading to the Quaker Meet- ing house, thence along said street east to the beginning, containing one acre. "d lot. Beginning at a corner of the street opposite to said Meeting house and running along the street leading thereto west to the Abraham Cottram estate, thence along his line south to the Pres- byterian Burying Ground, thence along the same to Samuel Tucker's garden lot east and then south to the road leading to Samuel Henry's Mill, then along said road east to the back street and along said street north to the beginning, containing two acres. 3d lot. Beginning at the southwest corner of Joseph Higbee's land on Meeting-house lane
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or back street, thence along his line east to other land of Samuel Tucker, then along Tucker's line to a corner of another lot of said Tucker, then west by the same and Elihu Spencer and Samuel Henry to said Meeting house lane, then along the same north to the be- ginning, containing seventeen acres. He sold these three lots, his wife Catharine joining in the deed, May 28, 1779, to Joseph Milnor, of Trenton. merchant, for £2325. No will of John Reynolds has been found on record in New Jersey. It is not unlikely that after he sold these lands in Trenton, he removed from the State.
The records of the Adjutant General's office show that one John Reynolds was a private of the Hunterdon county militia, during the Revolutionary war, and that he received, in 1784, a certificate for the depreciation of his Continental pay, which amounted to £8:5. It is not at all likely that this was the paper-maker of Trenton.
JOHN RICHMAN.
John Richman is said to have been a German (in which case the name was doubtless Reichmann), who located in Pilesgrove township, and followed the milling business during his lifetime, acquiring a large property, which he left to his two sons, Isaac and Abraham, who added to the wealth derived from their father. Richman's mills, erected in 1833, were for many years a centre of industry in Pilesgrove. The family is still numerous and influential in the northern part of Salem county.
JONATHAN RICHMOND.
Jonathan Richmond, of Nottingham Township, Burlington County, bought from Ilisha Lawrence. of Upper Freehold, Monmouth County, by deed dated October 1st, 1774, for the consideration of £250, a messuage and lot of land situate in Kingsbury (now in the southern part of Trenton, immediately south of the Assunpink), Burlington County, "called Lott 3 in plan of the town: Beginning at a post at the east side of the Broad Street that leads from the Mills towards Cross- wicks and corner to Lott 2; thence along that Lott north fifty-six de- grees east one hundred and eighty-one and one-half feet to another post for a corner. being also a corner of Lott No. 2; thence scutli thirty-four degrees east sixty feet to a post, corner of Lott 4; then along said Lott south fifty-six degrees west one hundred and eighty - one and one-half feet to a post at the east side of the Broad Street and is also another corner to Lott 4; thence along the east side of said Street north thirty-four degrees west sixty feet to the beginning; being one-quarter of an acre." Witnesses -- Benjamin Yard, Thos. Yard .- N. J. Decds, Liber AM., p. 21. "Across the Queen Street bridge on the east side was the site of Mahlon Stacy's flour mill, built in 1680, of hewn logs. In 1714 Wm. Trent purchased the property and built a two story stone building, a mill. Geo. Bright had a bakery next to it and lived opposite. Next to this bakery was Jonathan Richmond's True American Inn, built in 1760, the headquarters of Gen. Wash- ington for the first two days of 1777, but which he was obliged to abandon on the afternoon of January 2d. This building was destroyed by fire in 1843."-Stryker's "Trenton 100 Years Ago." p. 20. Jonathan Richmond was a barrack master at Trenton during the Revolutionary War. in 1779; it is not known how long he held that office. On October 27. 1788, being "weak." Jonathan Richmond, of Nottingham Township, Burlington County. made his will, which was proved at Burlington, April S, 1789. He gave to his wife Emmy one-third of his estate, and
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RICHMOND: ROMEYN
to his niece Sally James, daughter of his sister Mary Watley, 20s; to his nephew, Samuel Wooley, son of his sister Catherine Wooley, the rest of his estate. Executor-nephew, Samuel Wooley. Witnesses- C. Higbie, Abraham Woglaam and Rensellr Williams.
REV. DIRCK ROMEYN.
Dirck Romeyn is said to have been descended from Claes or Klaese (Nicholas) Jansen Romeyn, who, according to family tradition, mi- grated from Amsterdam to Brazil, between 1650 and 1660, and came thence to New Netherland about 1653. It is more probable that it was his father, Jan Romeyn, who was the emigrant, and that Claes was but an infant, if he was here as early as 1653, for it was not until May 2, 1680, that he m. Styntje Albertse Terhune. He bought a plantation. March 3, 1679, at Gravesend, L. I., where he resided several years. In 1696 he bought a tract of 300 acres of land between the Hackensack and Saddle rivers, to which he added 600 acres in 1697. He was a cooper by trade. He lived near Hackensack about ten years, removing thence to Shappekenike, or Greenwich, now in New York city, where he died. Kristyna Ter Heune, wid. of Klaes Jansen Romeyn, Minades Island (i. e., from Manhattan Island), was received into the Hackensack church by letter, May 18, 1732 .- History of Paterson, by William Nelson, I., 210. In the work just quoted details are given of the children and grandchildren of Claes Jansen Romeyn, which indicate this line of descent for Dirck: Jan, son Claes Jansen, m. Lammetie Bongaert, May 20, 1699, and was the father of Klaes, bap. Feb. 25, 1700, m. 1st, Elizabeth Outwater, May 20, 1726; she d. Sept. - , 1732, leaving one son, Thomas, b. March 9, 1729; he graduated at Princeton College in 1762, and became a noted preacher in the Reformed Dutch Church. Nich- olas Romeyn in April, 1733, "trod again in the honorable state of mat- rimony with Rachel Vreelandt," according to his Dutch family bible. (The Hackensack Dutch church records, in chronicling the baptisms of their children, in at least one instance, 1744, gives her name as Marretje.) They had Dirk, bap. at Hackensack Aug. 1, 1736, who d. in inf. On Jan. 12, 1744, was b. another son, who was bap. at Hack- ensack Jan. 29, 1744, Dirk. This was used by the Dutch in Northern New Jersey generally as the equivalent of Richard, but sometimes for Theodorick. The latter interpretation was assumed by the boy born in 1714. Upon graduating at Princeton in 1765 he received, besides his small parchment diploma, a certificate of his religious conduct and standing, signed by President Finley, at Princeton, Sept. 28, 1765. After leaving College he studied theology. part of the time under the. Rev. J. M. Goetschius, of Hackensack and Schraalenburgh, who preached his ordination sermon, in May, 1766, when he was called to the pastor- ate of the Dutch churches of Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing, Ulster county, N. Y. He became pastor of the churches of Hacken- sack and Schraalenburgh in May, 1776, just at the beginning of the Revolution. When the British pursued Washington through Hacken- sack in November, 1776, they plundered Dominie Romeyn's house and destroyed all his furniture, books and papers. He then removed his family to New Paltz, and thence to his mother-in-law's at Marble- town, where they remained nearly two years. He made frequent but brief visits to his congregation, often at great personal risk, he being obnoxious to the British and their tory sympathizers. He received many calls to other and better charges, but it was not until 1784 that he concluded to change, and accepted a call to Schenectady. Here he was largely instrumental in establishing an academy, which subse- quently developed into Union College. He received the degree of D. D.
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in 1789, from Queen's College, and in 1797 was appointed a Professor of Theology by the General Synod. He d. April 16. 1804. He m. June 11, 1767, Elizabeth, dau. of Wessels and Catherine (Dubois) Brodhead; she d. July 27, 1815. One of their children was the Rev. John Brodhead Romeyn
REV. JOHN ROSBROUCK.
John Rosbrough, born in 1714, came from Ireland in 1735, learned a trade, and married, but losing his wife his thoughts were turned to- wards the ministry, and as a preparation therefor he entered Princeton, and having graduated in 1761 he was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, August 18, 1762. He was ordained, and installed as pastor of Greenwich, Oxford and Mansfield churches, in Sussex and Warren counties, December 11, 1764. In 1769 he removed to the Forks of the Delaware, where he was pastor, until his death, of the Presbyterian church of Allen's Township, Penn. As Chaplain of the Northampton county militia he was at the battle of Trenton, and was cruelly mur- dered at Trenton by the Hessians, January 2, 1777.
ROBERT RUTHERFORD.
Robert Rutherford was of a family living in the North of Ireland. Having quarreled with an elder brother, the father took the latter's part, and chastised Robert, who thereupon ran away from home, and shortly after enlisted in Ligonier's troop of Black Horse, a famous regiment in the British regular army. Subsequently he went to Eng- land, but he soon left that country and came to America, settling at Trenton, where he opened a tavern, at the northwest corner of Broad and Front streets, which he called "The Ligonier or Black Horse," after his old regiment. He is first mentioned as of Trenton in March, 1756. Having married. he became the father of four daughters- Margaret, Sarah, Nancy and Frances Mary-who were all grown up in 1770, or thereabout. In or about that year there one day drove up to the tavern. in a coach and four. Colonel Fortescue, an English officer. He dined at the tavern, and after dinner had a conversa- tion in private with the youngest of the girls, Frances Mary. Less than two hours later she, notwithstanding her sisters' entreaties, quit the house in company with Colonel Fortescue. They went to Paris to- gether, where they lived several years, when he died, leaving her, it was supposed, a considerable sum of money. On his death she left Paris and went to England, where she married a well-to-do gentleman, named Shard. In 1799 she conceived a great desire to ascertain what had become of her father's family, and through her confidential solic- Itor inquiries were made of the Rev. James F. Armstrong, a Presby- terian clergyman at Trenton. He advertised in the New Jersey State Gazette, of Trenton, July 9, 1799, asking for information as to what had become of Robert Rutherford and his three eldest daughters, named above, "who were, previous to the American Revolution, living at or in the neighborhood of Trenton, whether they are yet living . This information is most earnestly entreated by a gentleman of re- spectability and fortune in England." The inquiries were fruitless. The family had removed from Trenton soon after the disgrace brought upon them by the youngest daughter, and were supposed to have died. It is understood, however, that some of them returned to Trenton early in the present century, and asserted certain rights in the old tavern property. Mr. Shard died in 1806, and in 1819 his widow died, childless and intestate. Her property went to the Crown. In 1846 it was claimed by a distant relative of Mrs. Shard, and in 1856 the matter was still pending in the English Court of Chancery.
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RUTHERFURD
MAJOR WALTER RUTHERFURD.
Walter Rutherfurd, born December 29th, 1723, was the sixth son of Sir John Rutherfurd, of Edgerston. Roxburgshire, Scotland, and Elizabeth Cairncross, his wife. Sir John was knighted by Queen Anne in 1706. He had twenty-two children, and at one time eighteen of his sons and grandsons were in the army, navy and East India service. Walter entered the army when but fifteen years old, and served on ships-of-war off the coasts of America, Spain and Portugal until the spring of 1746. During the next eight years he served in the army as Lieutenant of the Royal Scots. At the outbreak of the French and Indian War of 1756 he was ordered to America, holding the positions of Battalion Paymaster and Judge-Advocate of the army, with the rank of Captain (commissioned December 30th, 1755), and subsequently as Major of the Sixty-second or Royal American Regiment. After twenty years of active service, he resigned at the close of the successful cam- paign of 1760. In the meantime-December 21st, 1758-he had married Mrs. Catherine Alexander Parker, widow of Elisha Parker. of Perth Amboy, and daughter of James Alexander, one of the most eminent lawyers of the day. Her brother was William Alexander, known as Lord Stirling, who served under Washington during the Revolution as Major-General Stirling. After retiring from the army, Major Ruther- furd lived on Broadway, New York, and later built a handsome resi- dence on the corner of Broadway and Vesey street, opposite St. Paul's Church, where the AstorHouse now stands. He had ample means of his own. and his wife had a large estate in her own right. He and James Parker served on the commission which, in 1769, established the northern boundary of New Jersey. In 1775 he received for his military services a patent for five thousand acres of land in Tryon (now Mont- gomery) county, N. Y. After twenty years of honorable service in the army of his King, which had just been so generously recognized, it was not easy for Major Rutherfurd to take an active part in the rev- olution against his sovereign. On the other hand, many of his nearest connections were outspoken in the American cause. Accordingly, he retired to his extensive summer estate in Hunterdon county. which he called Edgerston, after his father's place in Scotland. John Stevens, his brother-in-law, and James Parker also retired to the same neigh- borhood. where they hoped they might keep out of the turmoil of the struggle then waging in New Jersey. The capture of Judge John Fell and Wynant Van Zandt by Tories, and their subsequent imprisonment with barbarous severity, as reported, aroused the indignation of Gov- ernor Livingston and the Council of Safety of New Jersey, and they ordered the arrest of Walter Rutherfurd and James Parker, and their imprisonment, as hostages for the proper treatment and safe delivery of Messrs. Fell and Van Zandt. The families of Livingston, Ruther furd and Parker were on closest terms of friendship, and Mrs. Ruther- furd personally appealed to the Governor for leniency toward her hus- band. The Governor submitted her letter to the Council of Safety. September 22d, 1777, and it was thereupon agreed that Mr. Rutherfurd "be permitted to go home and remain there for ten days, at the ex- piration of which he must return to his present place of confinement in Morristown." The biographer of the Rutherfurds erroneously says that the Governor was inflexible in resisting Mrs. Rutherfurd's appeals for kind treatment for her husband. Whatever alienation was occa- sioned between the Livingston and Rutherfurd families at the time was healed in later years, when Peter Augustus Jay, grandson of the Governor, married Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson, granddaughter of Mr. Rutherfurd. Walter Rutherfurd lived after the war in his Broadway
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RUTHERFURD : RYERSON : SACKETT FAMILY : SAYRE FAMILY : SCATTERGOOD
house, New York, where he died January 10th, 1804. His son, John Rutherfurd, born September 20th, 1760, resided near the present Ruth- erford, on the Erie railroad in Bergen county, New Jersey. He was United States Senator from New Jersey from 1792 to 1798, when he re- signed. He died in 1840. The latter's grandson, John Rutherfurd. born in 1810, was one of the benefactors of the New Jersey Historical Society in its early years; he was one of its Vice-Presidents, 1865-1871, and President from January, 1871, until his death, November 21st, 1871. He was President of the East Jersey Board of Proprietors for many years.
MARTEN RYERSON.
Marten Ryerson was baptized Oct. 9, 1698, son of Joris (George) Ryerson and Anneken Schouten. They removed from the Walle Bocht (Wallabout), N. Y., about 1719, to Pacquanac, near the pres- ent Mountain View, Passaic County. Marten settled at Readington, Hunterdon county, where he was a surveyor-doubtless through the influence of John Reading, one of the Deputy Surveyors of New Jer- sey, who visited Pacquanac in 1715, and five years later married a sis- ter of Marten Ryerson. The later died in 1790.
SACKETT FAMILY.
This family of Sacketts descended from Simon Sackett, who, about 1628-29, came from the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, and settied at Cambridge, Mass., where he died in 1635. His grandson, Joseph Sack- ett, born at Springfield, Mass., Feb. 23, 1656, was brought by his maternal grandfather, William Bloomfield, to Newtown, L. I .. in 1662, where he died in 1719. His grandson, Joseph Sackett, was a merchant in New York for some years, subsequently removing to Orange county, where he held a large tract of land. His son Joseph was born Feb. 16, 1733-4, became a physician, and practiced in Newtown, L. I., before the Revolu- tion. According to N. J. Archives, XX., 578, it would seem that he was practicing in Somerset county in 1761. During the Revolution, it Is said that he lived at Paramus, N. J. He died in New York, July 27, 1799 .- Riker's Newtown, 344-7.
SAYRE FAMILY.
The Sayre family, in the person of two brothers, Thomas and An- anias, sons of Jonas Sayre, settled about 1716 in Cumberland county, at the place now or lately known as Maskell's Mill, where Thomas bought a large tract of land. Ananias was one of the contributors towards the erection of the Presbyterian church at Greenwich, about 1730. He married Mary, daughter of Richard Gibbon. His children were: 1. Hannah, m. Job Remington, of Greenwich; 2. Rachel, m. Job Tyler, of Greenwich; 3. Mary, m. David Mulford; 4. Sarah, m. Richard Cole; 5. Leonard G., removed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Ananias Sayre was Sheriff of Cumberland county, 1748-1751, and 1754-1757. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the same county in February, 1751 .- Shourds's Fenwick's Colony, 227-232; Elmer's Cumberland County, 34; N. J. Archivcs, XII., 516; XVI., 267; XIX., 380.
JOSEPH SCATTERGOOD.
Joseph Scattergood was admitted to the New Jersey Bar at the May Term, 1748. In March, 1756, Rebecca Scattergood, executrix, and Hugh
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SCATTERGOOD : SCHENCK: SHARP SHINN
Hartshorne, executor, living in the city of Burlington, advertised re- questing accounts to be presented and settled, "the executrix intending shortly to leave the province." They offered for sale "sundry valuable law books," and some small tracts of land .- N. J. Archives, XX., 13.
REV. WILLIAM SCHENCK.
William Schenck was a native of Allentown, New Jersey. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in 1771 and ordained in 1772. After preaching at various places in New York and New Jersey, he was finally settled. in 1780, at Pittsgrove and Cape May, where he remained until 1787, when he removed to Ballston, New York. Toward the close of 1793 he removed to Huntingdon, Long Island, and was in- stalled pastor of the Presbyterian Church, December 27th of that year. In 1817 he left Huntingdon and removed to Franklin. Ohio. where he was pastor for several years, and died September 1, 1822. Mr. Schenck was the grandfather of the Hon. Robert C. Schenck, Minister to Great Britain.
ISAAC SHARP.
Isaac Sharp was a son of Isaac, son of Anthony Sharp, born about 1630, of a family holding a large estate in Tillbury, near Bristol, Eng- land. In the time of Cromwell he removed to Ireland, where he pur- chased a large country seat called Roundwood, in Queens county, and carried on an extensive mercantile business in Dublin. On the 22d of 4th mo., 1681, he bought one-tenth of a one-hundredth share of West Jersey, and by several later purchases he acquired further interests in West Jersey and East Jersey. Isaac Sharp, his grandson, came to America about 1730, and settled at Blessington, now Sharpstown, Salem county. He brought the frame of his house with him. He was ap- pointed a Judge of Salem county in 1739, and again in 1741 and 1767. He was a member of the Society of Friends. He established the "Sharpsborough Iron Works" about a mile south of Hamburgh, Sussex county, perhaps about 1765, which proved a losing venture. He was elected to the Assembly in 1769, dying in office about 1770 .- Shourds's History and Genealogy of Femrick's Colony, 244-6; N. J. Archires, XV., 97; Ibid., XVII., 455; XXVII., 72; First Sussex Centenary, 21; N. J. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1st Series. V., 32.
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