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
I have transcribed the letters as Lambert wrote them, which is why there is an absence of commas and periods. If there is a blank space underlined, it means I could not read his writing.
In January 1807, John Lambert was a member of the House of Representatives. He and all the representatives from New Jersey were members of Thomas Jefferson’s party, the Democratic Republicans or Jeffersonian Republicans, as they were later known. And they were all elected at large. These were the final days of the Ninth Congress, which had come into session on March 4, 1805, and would end on March 4, 1807.
John Lambert Esq. to Thomas Dennis1
I am going to backtrack a couple years from the first letter that Lambert wrote to his granddaughter Susan Hoppock in 1807.
In this article, Mr. Bush begins with a discussion of the Caleb Farley farm in Headquarters, but strays from the subject of his headline to also discuss a farm just west of Sergeantsville, once owned by the Larew family.
This cemetery on the Emmons farm along Federal Twist Road in Delaware Township was used by residents of Kingwood Twp. in the 19th century. I originally published this article in The Delaware Township Post in 2008. I am republishing it now because of an error in that earlier article that needed to be fixed.
In writing about Nathaniel Saxton in my series on Raven Rock, I learned about his investments outside of that village. One of his earliest deeds involved the sale in 1807 of 47.27 acres to Ann Anderson for $422.69.1 This property in today’s Stockton village has an interesting story, one which shows how vulnerable 18th and early 19th century people were to the miserable consequences of debt.
In 1807, John Lambert, member of Congress from what is today Delaware Township, Hunterdon County, began a correspondence with his granddaughter, Susan M. Hoppock. She was 9 years old, and John Lambert was 61. He loved her very much, but if he saved her letters, they have not survived. However, Susan Hoppock also loved her grandfather, and the letters she received from him were preserved by her descendants and are now kept at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I visited there and took pictures of every single letter, because someday I hope to write something about John Lambert’s very interesting career. But these letters are so charming in themselves, I’ve decided to publish them from time to time.
Barbara Ross recently sent me some very interesting information about the Raven Rock neighborhood. I thought it deserved its own post, so here it is.
by Barbara Ross, 8/12/2012
It has been noted that a ferry ran between Pennsylvania and New Jersey at a point near the southern tip of Bulls Island. Painter’s Ferry ceased operation in 1814 when the Centre Bridge was constructed, but a private quarry ferry may have been operated at that location for a much longer time, even after 1835 when the Lumberville-Bulls Island Bridge was opened. The construction of two canals (The Delaware Division canal on the Pennsylvania and the Delaware and Raritan on the New Jersey side), both in 1830-34, would have made ferry landings impossible, a situation that undoubtedly provided impetus for the bridge.
Ancient “Plantation” Has One of the County’s Oldest Dwellings
Workman Leveled Stones
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, NJ
published in the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, June 4, 1931
The following is a transcript of the article written by Egbert T. Bush. My comments and annotations are in the footnotes. Unlike the articles by J. M. Hoppock in the Democrat-Advertiser, there were no pictures published along with the Bush articles in the Hunterdon Co. Democrat. So I have taken the liberty of adding my own.
This is an update and reworking of one of the first articles I wrote for “The Bridge,” the Delaware Township newsletter, in September 1992. The road is part of the Raven Rock neighborhood, so it might be considered an extension of my series on that village.
