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 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.
