LAMBERTS. The Lamberts were a large family in 18th-century Hunterdon County. The earliest to arrive in Hunterdon was John Lambert (born 1687) and wife Abigail Bumstead (born 1685). Their sons, Gershom and John, and grandchildren played significant roles in the history of Hunterdon. Their great great grandson John was a U. S. Senator during the War of 1812.
Two Letters Written by Sen. John Lambert
Senator John Lambert of Amwell is one of Hunterdon’s most interesting historical figures.1 He served in the state legislature during the Revolution and afterwards served as Acting Governor before being elected to Congress and then to the U.S. Senate.
Twice in his career, Egbert T. Bush wrote about a small family burying ground in Delaware Township. The first time was in 1911, in a paper presented to the Hunterdon County Historical Society which was later published in the Hunterdon County Democrat. This was many years before Mr. Bush became a regular contributor to the Democrat.1
The Lambert family was very prominent in old Amwell Township in the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning with John Lambert and Abigail Bumstead who came to Hunterdon County from Stonington, Connecticut about 1745, and settled in Kingwood Township. John Lambert’s ancestor, Francis Lambert, came to Salem, Massachusetts in 1638, but this tree will deal only with John and Abigail’s children and descendants.
Because there has been some confusion about exactly where Sen. John Lambert lived, I have spent the past two articles determining that his farm was located on Seabrook Road and not on Lambertville-Headquarters Road, as some have thought. The confusion was caused by the fact that both farms were owned at one time by men named John Lambert and Gershom Lambert.
A continuation of the article on Sen. John Lambert’s home farm.
Having discovered which of two farms belonged to Sen. John Lambert, I realized how amazingly interconnected the Lambert family was. That will hold true even more so here in part two. However, I have not done all the research that could have been done before publishing this article. It was a question of when to stop.
There are two farms in southern Delaware Township that are particularly interesting. They were part of the old Dimsdale proprietary tract north of Lambertville until 1750, when John Lambert, a recent immigrant from Connecticut, purchased it.
For those of us who look for genealogical information in deeds, there is a very special word we hope to find: “Whereas.” This wonderful word introduces a clause that should appear in every deed, but often does not—the recital clause, which states who the seller of the property bought it from. Most of the time, that’s all it does—name the preceding property owner. But every once in a while, mostly in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, you will get a recital that goes all the way back to the beginning, to the original proprietary owner.
Of all the one-room schools in Delaware Township, none seems to have inspired more devoted attachment than the Van Dolah School. The number of graduates was large, and many of them were highly accomplished in later life. It was probably one of the best photographed schools in the county. I have included many of them here.
beginning in 1807 when Lambert was a member of Congress
ending in 1815 when Lambert was in his last year as a U. S. Senator
The original letters can be found in the Emma Finney Welch Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I have transcribed the letters as Lambert wrote them, which is why there is an absence of commas and periods. My only change is the addition of paragraph breaks to make the letters easier to follow. Check my running glossary of names mentioned by Lambert to see who he’s referring to.
beginning in 1807 when Lambert was a member of Congress
ending in 1815 when Lambert was in his last year as a U. S. Senator
The original letters can be found in the Emma Finney Welch Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I have transcribed the letters as Lambert wrote them, which is why there is an absence of commas and periods, and many misspelled words. My only change is the addition of paragraph breaks to make the letters easier to follow and letters in brackets where they are needed. For cumulative information on the people mentioned in Lambert’s letters, see the Lambert Glossary.
