A Tavern & A Courthouse The history of a hotel that once stood on the west side of Flemington’s Main Street has quickly turned into something much more. Part One began with Flemington’s first European property owners and ended with the Revolution. This article goes on from there, but only as far as the 1790s, […]
This is one of my favorite photographs.1 The building is Mount’s Hotel on Flemington’s Main Street, across from and a little north of the Union Hotel. It was replaced in the 1970s by the group of shops called ‘New Market,’ built by Don Shuman.
Following the Revolution, Moore Furman moved back to Trenton and left his Pittstown properties to son John & Benj. Guild, until it was time to build anew.
Well, it looks as if I can’t get more than one year’s worth of information in a single post. Can’t help it—the times were just too interesting.
Edmund Andros
In January 1680/81, Gov. Andros, who had been carrying out the wishes of his patron, James Duke of York, was recalled to England to answer charges of financial corruption. His heavy-handed tactics, especially in East New Jersey, had made him a liability to James, who was having problems of his own. Andros returned home in May 1681, but instead of imprisonment, he was knighted, after the charges were dropped in December 1681.
While Mahlon Stacy was enjoying the fruitful new land he and his fellow Quakers had settled in, a time bomb was ticking, set off by a poorly spelled letter written in Sept. 1679 by the Attorney General in England, Sir John Werden,1, which concluded with this: Quaere?
I was thinking about that cold winter when the ‘Shield’ arrived in the Delaware River and the passengers walked to land over ice, and then, thinking about how Mahlon Stacy wrote about the bountiful life in the Yorkshire Tenth. It was a little surprising that he did not mention the chilly weather. Of course, Stacy intended his letter to be reread to English Quakers who were debating whether or not to make the trip to America, so he put the best face of things.
I have continued to struggle with the problem of finding the origins of Samuel Green, surveyor of West New Jersey, without much success. For one thing, records are limited. There are many deeds and surveys recorded for properties in West New Jersey, but other than the 1/32nd share mentioned before that Richard Green purchased and then sold to Anna Salter, there is nothing much to go on.
Where have I been? Catching up on my research. It’s amazing how much more you can learn when you think you’ve already got a subject covered.
I’ve got lots of good stuff in the pipeline, but some polishing is still needed. In the meantime, I want to acknowledge some help I got from Mary Jackes, who sent me part of a book written by Watson Kirkconnell called “Climbing the Green Tree and some other Branches,” a regrettable title.
Among the first settlers of Hunterdon County, in “the Western Province of New Jersey” were Samuel Green and his family. Samuel Green was my ancestor, so of course I am interested in his history. The bonus for me is that his history gives me a way to learn about the earliest days of settlement here.
Mary Fox, born about 1738 in Kingwood Twp., was the second daughter and sixth child of George Fox (iii) and his wife Mary. Her older sister was Anchor Fox who married Uriah Bonham. We know very little about Mary, except that when she was about 18 years old, in 1756, she got into trouble. Sad to say, this story is more about the man who got her into trouble than it is about Mary. Historical records are woefully silent when it comes to women.
The trouble with writing about families is that the stories get more complicated as you move through the generations. Here is a brief summary of the children of Uriah Bonham and Anchor Fox.