I thought I’d choose for my first post an old Hunterdon family whose roots I have been trying to trace for years. The idea came from a discussion on the Fox family of Kingwood Township that took place on the Hunterdon mailing list on Rootsweb.
With the help of several members of the list, I worked my way through this confusing family and was able to answer some questions that had bedeviled me for a long time. Future families to appear here will also follow that pattern. If I am curious about them, and have taken the time to learn about them, they will be blog-worthy. So, to begin–
There were two separate Fox families in early Hunterdon, one of them from Germany (originally Fuchs), and the other from England. It is the English branch I am following today.
George Fox is known as the founder of the Quaker religion in the 17th century, but he is also relevant to Hunterdon County history. If you want details of the life of George Fox, visit Wikipedia or other sites. There is a 1904 edition of his Autobiography on Google Books. As for how he pertains to Hunterdon County, there are two facts to consider: 1) George Fox actually traveled across New Jersey in its very earliest days of European settlement; and 2) a family named Fox that settled near Rosemont is thought to be closely related to the Quaker George Fox.
First, that trip across the state: It happened in 1671. We know about it because Fox kept a diary of his travels. He began in Barbados, but eventually arrived at New Castle, Delaware, which he called a Dutch town, from whence he began his trek across New Jersey. As you might imagine, it was not an easy trip. In 1671 the only thing resembling a road in New Jersey was an Indian path. In 1671, there were hardly any European settlements on the Delaware River side of the state. The only established settlements were in East New Jersey, at Elizabethtown, Middletown and in Bergen County. Just getting across the Delaware River was dangerous. Fox wrote:
‚ÄúWhen we were over we were troubled to procure guides, which were hard to get, and very chargeable. Then had we that wilderness country, since called West Jersey, to pass through, not then inhabited by English; so that we sometimes travelled a whole day together without seeing man or woman, house or dwelling-place. Sometimes we lay in the woods by a fire, and sometimes in the Indians’ wigwams or houses. At length we came to Middletown, an English plantation in East Jersey, and there we found some Friends; but we could not stay to have a meeting at that time, being earnestly pressed in our spirits to get to the half-year’s meeting of Friends at Oyster Bay, in Long Island, which was very near at hand. We went with a Friend, Richard Hartshorn, brother of Hugh Hartshorn, the upholsterer, in London, who received us gladly at his house, where we refreshed ourselves; and then he carried us and our horses in his own boat over a great water, which occupied most part of the day getting over, and set us upon Long Island.‚Äù
From that description, we can guess that Fox took the shortest possible route, which would be more or less the track of Route 1. Which means, he did not pass through Hunterdon County. You can find Fox’s Journal online.
George Fox married, but did not have any children. Members of the Fox family who trace their lineage to him must connect with his brother John, born about 1629, and John’s wife Ann Chambers. They married in Leicestershire, England in 1659, and had a son named George, born in 1662. (There are exact dates in online family trees; I cannot vouch for their accuracy, but they give us a general idea.)
It is thought that this nephew of the Quaker George Fox is the one who settled in Hunterdon County. He was christened in 1670 at Horninghold, Leichester, England. In 1693, he married Jane Palmer, also in England. By this time, Quaker George had died (on Jan. 13, 1691) in England. It is most likely that he had shared news of his trip to New Jersey with his family. And it is also likely that the Fox family were aware of Quakers who had begun to settle along the banks of the Delaware River at Burlington, beginning in 1677.
I have found no evidence that the nephew George Fox was a practicing Quaker, or that he was part of the early Quaker emigration to Burlington, even though some family histories claim he arrived with William Penn. I have not yet found any records in Burlington showing that George Fox bought land there. It appears to me that George and wife Jane, with daughter Mary and son George (born Jan 1700), made the trip about 1705. There were other children (Thomas, John and Elizabeth) who might have been left behind in England, although it is possible Thomas, at least, also came to New Jersey.
As far as I know, George Fox of Hunterdon County was not related to the Quaker James Fox who settled near Philadelphia in 1685. I have looked through the Quaker records for Burlington in the Hindshaw volume for New Jersey and Philadelphia (see Sources) without success. There was a George Fox who married Susannah Hackney in 1696, but I believe he was connected with the family of James Fox.
George Fox does not appear in the Hopewell Town Book or the Burlington Court Book. There is no estate for George Fox in New Jersey (even though those records begin in 1680). So we have very little to go on.
We do know that on May 18, 1719, George Fox bought 284 acres in Amwell Township from Charles Wolverton, and that is important. For one thing, it shows us that the land was bought by George Fox, born 1662, who was the emigrant to New Jersey rather than his son George Fox, born 1700, for the simple reason that it is highly unlikely that George Jr. would be buying such a large tract of land at the age of 19. The land purchased by George Fox was part of the Biddle tract, on the west side of County Rte 519, north of Rosemont.
The other reason it is important is that George Sr.’s daughter Mary married Charles Wolverton’s son Roger (1700-1748) about the year 1725.* So George Fox became acquainted with Charles Wolverton in 1719 or earlier. Wolverton was among the early Quaker settlers of Burlington, and deserves a post or two of his own. Suffice to say that he was a man of means, purchasing considerable property in Burlington in the 1690s. On March 2, 1714, he bought the right to 1665 acres in Amwell Township from William Biddle, and provided for some of his ten children out of that tract of land.
Roger Wolverton remained in Hopewell Township. As late as 1735 he was an overseer of ‚ÄúRoger‚Äôs Road‚Äù in Hopewell. That same year he sold his share in the Amwell land to his brother Dennis Wolverton. Dennis Wolverton’s land bordered George Fox on the north. Roger died in Hopewell in 1748; I do not know when his wife Mary Fox died.
The only other mention of George Fox Sr. in the New Jersey estate records is on Dec. 22, 1721 when he witnessed the will of Thomas Harrison of Amwell, along with Samuel Green and Richard Harrison. This is doubly interesting because Charles Wolverton sold land in Amwell to Thomas Harrison the same day he sold land to George Fox.
It is very odd that there was no will recorded for Fox. We can only guess that he died in Kingwood or Amwell sometime after 1721. For his wife Jane Palmer, there is even less information.
Next post will discuss his son George Fox (1700-c.1754) of Kingwood Township.
* I have been hunting around on the web, looking for a record that would confirm that Roger Woolverton married Mary Fox. Instead, all I found were two conflicting schools of thought. I’ll deal with that in the next post too.
Linda
June 20, 2009 @ 2:14 pm
Hi Marfy,
Great to see you at work. Your angle is a bit different than mine in research.
My family seems to have been in the Hunterdon County area since the mid 1600's.
I also have a blog site for all things Historical in Bloomsbury, Hunterdon County. I am posting tons of newspaper articles and looking for local participation in memories and information regarding the people I post.
Good luck and much success in the future on your blog.
You have contributed so much to maintain the local history.
Linda Huff Muessig
Growing Up Bloomsbury
http://growingupbloomsbury.blogspot.com/
Marfy Goodspeed
June 20, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
MARFY: Hi Linda. I have visited your site, and enjoy it. (I'll add it to the links.)
Your approach, to collect information and publish it, is an important one. Me, I like to tell stories. We supplement each other.
donna
June 22, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
Hi Marfy,
This is your neighbor,Donna Gamberzky. Your research is so fascinating and I look forward to reading more about this great township!
siobhan
June 23, 2009 @ 2:20 pm
Hi Marfy,
Great to find your blog; I am very interested in local history and am descended from the Larison family of Hunterdon County. Thank you!
Siobhan
Ron
June 24, 2009 @ 1:37 pm
Thanks for this great addition to Hunterdon history. The George Fox connection is quite interesting. It also appears from your article that Geo. Jr. was acquainted with my ancestor Samuel Green and had my William Hoagland for an adjacent neighbor. (Now if only I could trace the 18th c. Hunterdon Warricks.)
Ron Warrick – Sergeantsville
Marfy Goodspeed
June 24, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Ron, I too am a Samuel Green descendant, and will certainly want to write about his family in the future.
Glenn
June 25, 2009 @ 2:11 pm
Very interesting article, thank you for your research and time writing this fascinating story. I have been trying to trace my Smith roots, and it is possible that they were Quakers as well, originating in Burlington NJ and coming up to Hunterdon via Wrightstown, PA to the Asbury/Bethlehem Township area.
Glenn Smith, Bethlehem PA
Hal Wolverton
August 8, 2010 @ 7:55 pm
Thanks for filling this information in for me. My line is Charles Wolverton ( that you mention ), Joel, Gabriel, Job, William, William, Floyd, Harold, me.
I’m also descended from the Quick, Dilts, and Housel family in Hunterdon Cty. I’ll be looking for your further reports.
–Harold (Hal) Wolverton, Jr.
Somerset County, NJ
George Fox, Part 3 — GOODSPEED HISTORIES
August 9, 2010 @ 3:33 am
[…] The Quaker George Fox; and a postscript 2. George Fox of Kingwood 2. George Fox of […]
The Fifth George Fox — GOODSPEED HISTORIES
August 9, 2010 @ 3:46 am
[…] with George Fox (i) the Quaker (1624-1691), and his nephew George (ii) born 1662 England, then his great-nephew George (iii) born […]
Michael Thomas Fox
February 9, 2011 @ 2:00 am
Just amazing!
David Teague
April 8, 2016 @ 12:55 am
Marfy,
Have you ever looked into the Lago family (the Quaker George Fox’s maternal line)? If I recall correctly, there were Lagos in the parts of Warwickshire (e.g., Atherstone) and Staffordshire near to GF’s birthplace of Fenny Drayton in the 15th century.
Marfy Goodspeed
April 8, 2016 @ 9:05 am
I have not researched that family, principally because I live in New Jersey and my focus is on Hunterdon County families.
Michael Thomas Fox
November 14, 2020 @ 6:45 pm
My 8th great Uncle and brother to my 8th great grandfather John Fox of Fenny Drayton “Drayton-on-the-Clay “
Michael Fox
September 23, 2017 @ 12:56 am
The founding Quaker George Fox is my 8th great Uncle from Fenny Drayton England. George Fox (Also from England) who landed in the colony of NJ and lived in Hunterdon County is my 6th great grandfather.
Marfy Goodspeed
September 23, 2017 @ 8:29 am
Interesting. Which of his children do you descend from?
Michael Fox
October 17, 2017 @ 11:56 pm
Amos Fox is my 5th great grandfather. He moved to VA with his brother Gabriel in the 1700’s. My direct line stayed in Fairfax/Oakton VA until after the Civil War. We have a Fox private cemetery from this line in Oakton, VA. I’m in NJ right now for the first time and will be heading to Rosemont Cemetery hopefully this weekend. It will be such a honor for me. I have some of my father ashes who passed away this past june at 86 yr old. He’s going to where we all started in the colony of NJ!
S Carlson
March 4, 2021 @ 11:03 pm
3.4.2021 I just now read your post and am so excited. I grew up in Fairfax VA, and went to school w/ the Fox family (classmate Ronnie Fox, & Fox Lake is their namesake). My mother’s father, Gilbert Thompson, lived in Vale, VA, and attended Oakton School. His mother, Mary Virginia Oliver, is buried across from Oakton School in the Church of the Brethren Cemetery. All of my mother’s ancestors go back to 1600s/1700s VA colonists — EXCEPT I recently discovered that my mother’s grandmother, Sarah Jane ROBERSON (maiden name), was born in Hunterdon, NJ. Sarah’s parents, Joseph & Amy (Brown) Roberson (both born in Hunterdon NJ) bought farmland in Fairfax Courthouse, VA, in the 1840’s & moved there w/ their Hunterdon kin, Opdycke/Updike. Joseph Roberson descended from Thomas & Catharine (Peirce) Roberson, both Quakers, b. 1725 & 1728 respectively (possibly in Westmoreland Co., VA); both Thomas & Catharine died in Hunterdon. Note: I see your comment that some of your ancestors moved to Loudoun County VA. Many NJ Quakers moved to Loudoun to found the Hopewell Quaker Meeting there. Many descendants still live there – Updikes for one. In fact, I went to school with Wayne Updike, descended from the Loudoun Updikes/Opdyckes. I’ve been searching for years to find my Roberson Quakers, so this is great. Trying to find Quaker ancestors is so difficult! So, hey, distant kin.
Michael Fox
October 18, 2017 @ 12:02 am
I can’t think you enough for you posting this info over the yrs. It helped lead to so many ancestry discoverys for my and my family. Other family members have had traced us to NJ decades ago but with ancestry and others like you, we have put so much together. I can’t wait to set foot in Hunderton County while I’m here in NJ working for a month. This Fox line wind up all the way west to Los Angeles during the dust bowl Grapes of Wrath
Michael Fox
October 18, 2017 @ 12:06 am
Sorry for the mispelling “Hunterdon” Dyslexic this late at night
Marfy Goodspeed
October 18, 2017 @ 6:08 am
Michael, I hope that you will find time to visit the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society while you’re here in NJ, even if your ancestor Amos left before the Revolution. There are wonderful maps there and lots of books, as well as genealogical files–it is very inspiring.
suzanne bonham burch
October 17, 2017 @ 3:58 pm
wow! advise if we are related. this is wonderful.suzanne
Michael Fox
October 17, 2017 @ 11:57 pm
Hello Suzanne Bonham!
John Fox
October 2, 2019 @ 8:44 pm
As with Michael Fox’s post, I also appear to be a descendant of the founding Quaker George Fox’s brother John Fox. If the genealogical records are correct the following is my direct lineage.
Christopher Fox >> John Fox (Brother of Quaker founder George Fox) >> George W. Fox >> George Fox “The Elder” >> Absalom Fox >> Bonham Fox >> Levi Fox Sr. >> John Newton Fox >> Earl Fox >> Richard Fox >> ME!
This family has been difficult to trace down and for many years my family knew nothing about the Foxes before John Newton Fox (b. 1839 – d. 1914)… my great grandfather.
I’ve been trying to better understand the Fox family in Hunterdon County, NJ as there is very little information other than reference to the m living there after emigrating to the colonies. My line of the Fox family moved west into Pennsylvania or Loudon County, VA and then into Ohio north of Cincinnati. Then in the mid 1850’s moved west again to Chariton, Iowa where my grand father and father were born.
Please post more if there have been any new revelations on the Fox family in NJ !
Thank you!
John Fox
Marfy Goodspeed
October 3, 2019 @ 1:16 pm
John, I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about your ancestor Absalom Fox, who left Hunterdon for parts south and west. His only siblings who remained in Hunterdon County were Anchor (m. Uriah Bonham) and George. Their father George died in 1754 when all his children were still underage. I have not yet worked out exactly what property he owned, but apparently he owned land in both Amwell Township and Kingwood Township. More work to be done here.
Darla
March 11, 2020 @ 6:39 pm
Thank you so much for your informative blog! I have been trying to research the Fox family tree…it appears that I am related to John Fox, the brother of George Fox. I’m so excited! Like the poster above me, John Fox, I am related down to Levi Fox down to Richard Coy Fox. As is evident, my Fox relatives eventually ended up in Alabama, which is so odd, I never knew I had relatives from the Midwest and up North. It’s really thrilling to read about my ancestors and wonder what their lives were like…so different from my own!
Darla Fox Hourigan
Kay H Larsen
March 16, 2020 @ 7:52 pm
May I ask Darla what you know about you or your Husband’s Hourigan family? Of course the Hourigans came from Ireland, but do you know from where in Ireland. My maiden name is Hourigan and my Hourigan ancestor apparently immigrated here in 1864 arriving in NYC. Then he went to Washington County, New York and from there to Meriden, Connecticut. Any of these places ring a bell?
Sandra Miranda
December 23, 2020 @ 4:02 pm
George Fox married at Burlington meeting N. J. May 20 1696 Susannah Jennings daughter of Joseph Hackney & wife Elizabeth Jennings, sister of Gov. Samuel Jennings. The three daughters of Samuel Jennings married three Stevenson brothers, sons of Thomas Stevenson of Newtown NY.
Thomas Stevenson II’s first wife was Elizabeth Lawerence. Her widowed step-mother Elizabeth Smith married Sir Phillip Carteret, the governor of East Jersey and named Elizabethtown after her. Thomas Stevenson, a Quaker, became Overseer, Constable, Commissioner & Justice of Newtown NY. In 1703, the West Jersey Council of Proprietors purchased all the land above the Falls of the Delaware (Trenton from the Native Americans, thereby opening the northwestern portion of the colony to settlement.
In 1715, Thomas Stevenson and John Reading Jr. (neighbour of Charles Woolverton) were commissioned to survey the land that is now Warren County and found within the hills and valleys established Native American foot trails and settlements. Working independently of each other the surveyors followed the beds of rivers and creeks noting mineral and settlements. From 1713-1738 Warren county was part of Hunterdon County, from 1738-1753 part of Morris County, and until its formation in 1824 it was part of Sussex County..
John Reading Jr., an agent for William Penn, surveyed a tract of 2500 acres at the head of the Paulin Kills that was inherited by his heirs. Thomas Stevenson II sold parcels of land to his family & friends in Newtown, NY. The Newton township in New Jersey was named after the colonial village Newtown, Queens, New York from were the Pettit family had origination.
Joseph Mickle Fox III
March 19, 2021 @ 11:40 pm
This fascinating discussion could really use the services of Y-DNA testing. I started the Fox Y-DNA Surname Project at FamilytreeDNA in 2004 and have administered it ever since. I was able to connect my Fox family descending from Justinian Fox who came over with James Fox in 1686 with the Plymouth Friends on the ship Desire in 1686 and show that the two were related. Take a look at our results :https://www.familytreedna.com/public/FoxDNA?iframe=yresults
These Foxes are listed under the heading ‘Haplogroup R-L1/S26 Null at DYS 439′ While James Fox’ male line died out in America, there are many Foxes from the same family living in Britain and America today. I would be happy to assist anyone interested in Y-DNA testing and would particularly like to see descendants of John Fox, the brother of Quaker Founder George Fox take the 37 marker test.