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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/goodspeedhist/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114There are two ways of writing about a cemetery. One is to portray the people buried there, which I attempted to do in my previous article. The other is to relate how the cemetery came to be\u201a\u00c4\u00eein other words, the history of the property where the cemetery is located. It usually makes sense to focus on the place since many of its early owners were buried in the cemetery. At first I thought that in this case, none of them were. But, research has changed my mind.<\/p>\n
Identifying the people buried in the cemetery was challenging, but researching the ownership was even more so. Records for the earliest years of ownership are contradictory and confusing. As an example, this is what Egbert T. Bush wrote about its location:<\/p>\n
There is another cemetery not too far away from the Moore Cemetery, now called the Jones Cemetery because it is located on the farm that once belonged to Capt. David Johnes, a Revolutionary War veteran. That cemetery probably predates Johnes\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 ownership; he and his wife Hannah are buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in Mt. Airy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As I mentioned in the previous article, David Johnes never owned this property. His farm was nearby, but did not extend this far. It goes to show how easy it is to get the history wrong. Mr. Bush and the people he talked to assumed that the Jones name referred to Capt. David Johnes,1<\/a><\/sup> whose \u201a\u00c4\u00famessuage and plantation\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 were located some distance to the southwest of the cemetery. They apparently were unaware of James Jones, husband of Jerusha Taylor Jones, whose property was located just north of the old Headquarters mill. Jerusha Jones was buried here, but James was buried in the Moore Cemetery. And of course, Capt. Johnes wasn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t buried here either, as Mr. Bush noted.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
Both the Hart-Taylor cemetery and the old Moore cemetery are located on property north of the Sergeantsville-Ringoes Road, and a short distance east of the intersection with the Sandbrook-Headquarters Road. The two are separated by the farm of William H. Moore.<\/p>\n
The First Owners<\/h2>\n
Because these two cemeteries are so close together, it is not surprising that in the earliest years, they had the same owner. That was John Dennis who had 714 acres surveyed for him in the Lotting Purchase in 1714.3<\/a><\/sup> Actually, it was surveyed for his estate, since he died in early 1713 (which was still considered 1712 at the time, due to the fact that the new year did not begin until March).<\/p>\n
John Dennis never lived in Amwell Township. His home was in Newton Township, Gloucester County. It was there that he wrote his will dated December 28, 1712 which was recorded shortly afterward. I have not seen the will, but the abstract in NJ Archives4<\/a><\/sup> mentions his wife (unnamed), his daughter Rebecca and brother William, and refers to unspecified real and personal property.5<\/a><\/sup> Dennis\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 widow, Martha Hutcheson Dennis, died soon after her husband did, so his property must have gone to his daughter.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
The Recital<\/h3>\n
Obviously, the Dennis property was sold to someone, either as one tract or in parcels, but the conveyances were not recorded. However, there was a recital in a later deed that described several early conveyances for a part of the Dennis property. D. Stanton Hammond was aware of this and showed it on his map of the area, drawn in 1963, below.<\/p>\n