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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 6114Despite the scandal<\/a> involving Malakiah Bonham and Mary Fox, Malakiah Bonham still had good relations with the Fox family.<\/p>\n On June 7, 1760, he and Gabriel Fox (along with Joshua Waterhouse and John Johnson) witnessed the will of George Fox, brother of the disgraced Mary Fox. (George Fox made no mention of his sister or mother in his will.) On June 23, 1760, Malakiah Bonham made the inventory of George Fox with Joshua Waterhouse and Richard Green.<\/p>\n In 1761, Malakiah Bonham and son Absalom witnessed the will of John Warford of Kingwood. In 1763, Absalom Bonham was chosen to be the guardian of Cornelius Harker of Sussex Co., and Malakiah was fellowbondsman or surety. Absalom Bonham may have been married to Cornelius Harker\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s cousin Jemima Harker, daughter of Rev. Samuel Harker and wife Deborah. Rev. Samuel Harker died in 1764 in Morris County. The widow of Samuel Harker may have married Malakiah Bonham, presumably sometime after 1764, though I have no proof of that. (Samuel Harker made no mention of Malakiah Bonham in his will.)<\/p>\n This raises the question of how Malakiah Bonham could marry a third time without divorcing his second wife, Hannah Buckingham. I have not found a record of divorce in the New Jersey legislature. At the time, divorces were handled by the General Assembly. The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey published divorces by legislative act from 1778 to 1844 in Vol. 53, pg 1-10, but Bonham and Buckingham were not listed.<\/p>\n Some time before Malakiah Bonham married Deborah Harker (if he did), he was obliged to sell his farm in Kingwood. He published an advertisement for the farm in the Pennsylvania Gazette on Nov. 3, 1763. It was very detailed and merits quoting in full, with original spelling:<\/p>\n To be Sold, A Commodious Plantation, containing 210 acres of Land, 100 acres of Plow Land cleared, and in good Repair, 15 acres of Meadow cleared, and 25 or 30 Acres more may be made, well-timbered and watered, a new stone House, finished to the Key, 31 by 21 Feet, two stories high, two rooms on a Floor, with two good Chimnies, commodiously built for a country Store, where one has formerly been kept for a considerable time, well situated in a good Country for Business. Also a good Framed House, with a good Log Kitchen, a good Cellar, and Granary, a good Frame Barn 36 feet by 26 feet, 250 good bearing Apple Trees, the most of them grafted with the best of Fruits, plenty of Peach and other Fruit Trees, lying in Kingwood, a very flourishing Part of Hunterdon County, 25 miles from Trenton and 40 from Philadelphia, about one Mile and a Half from a good Landing, and excellent Fishery on the River Delaware, about a Mile from a good Mill near a School, and different Places of Worship. The Title indisputable. Whoever inclines to purchase the same may know the Terms by applying to the Owner on the Premises. Malakiah Bonham [Penn. Gazette, 3 Nov 1763, quoted in NJArchives, Newspaper Extracts 1762-65, pg 264; also pgs 450, 512].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No one bought the farm, so he advertised again on Nov. 8, 1764. Still no one bought, so Malakiah was forced to sell the farm at public auction on May 1 , 1765. There were slight variations between the three advertisements. For instance, in the first ad, he stated that the stone house was “finished to the key.” By 1765 it was “a new Stone House with two good chimneys and an extraordinary good Cellar.” The frame house with log kitchen in 1763 had “two good Fire Places;” in 1765 it had “a good Kitchen with an Oven in it.” Also in 1765, Bonham emphasized the value of the property for marketing produce by stating that it was “very convenient for sending Produce and bringing goods from Philadelphia by Water.” This meant that produce from the farm, most likely wheat and timber, would be transported by wagon to a landing on the Delaware River, where it would be put on a boat or raft that could handle the shallow water of the Delaware north of Trenton.<\/p>\n During the public sale in 1765, Bonham also offered his farm equipment and livestock for sale: “Twenty-five Acres of Wheat and Rie on the Ground, a Team of good Horses, Cows, and young Cattle, Sheep and Hogs, an Iron bound Waggon, Plow, Harrow, and all farming Utensils, with sundry Shop and Household Goods, too tedious to mention.” This sounds like a man who had to liquidate in order to pay debts, which is, in fact, the case.<\/p>\n Bonham had some minor disputes over debts beginning in 1760, including one with the son of John Warford whose will Bonham had witnessed in 1761. But in 1765, Bonham was forced to come up with \u00ac\u00a3138.7.7 to satisfy his creditor, Daniel Lake of Kingwood. Originally the debt was \u00ac\u00a369.3.9, but it appears that the court doubled the amount when it found in favor of Lake. On Nov. 23, 1764, Malakiah Bonham signed a warrant to attorney Joseph Warrel to represent him before the court in this case. The warrant was witnessed by Charles Hoff and Catharine FitzRandolph. The original was found in the case file [#14853] and a copy made, because it contained the original signature of Malakiah Bonham, in a neat and steady hand.<\/a>Oddly enough, a paper filed with the court on Feb. 7, 1765 in this matter noted that Jos. Warrell was representing Daniel Lake, not Bonham. Bonham\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s attorney was Abraham Cottman. Strange that an attorney would switch sides like that. Perhaps the warrant that Bonham had made to Warrel to represent him was made without knowing that Lake had already hired Warrel. Who knows?<\/p>\n Malakiah Bonham was in court quite a bit in 1765, pursuing his own debtors. Samuel Ketcham owed him \u00ac\u00a318.4.2, John Landis owed him \u00ac\u00a315.1.5, and Marmaduke Leet owned him \u00ac\u00a340. Even if Bonham had collected all of these debts, the total would not come close to the amount Bonham owed to Daniel Lake. And he also was sued by John Coxe in February 1765 for a debt of \u00ac\u00a3380.7.4 made on June 12, 1764 in Trenton. There is nothing further in that case, so perhaps it was dismissed.<\/p>\n In 1767, Malakiah Bonham sued Benjamin Rounsavell for a debt of unknown amount. Rounsavell responded that he had paid Bonham in money, labor and services, as well as several wagons that Rounsavell had made for him, part of which was to be credited toward the debt. The court seems to have ruled in favor of Bonham.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I cannot say where Malakiah Bonham moved after his farm was sold. It appears that he remained in Hunterdon. Shortly after its new church was constructed in 1765, the Flemington Baptist congregation had Malakiah Bonham preach to them, according to John W. Lequear [pg 72]. There seems to have been some forgiveness among the Baptists and among residents of the Rosemont area. In 1767, Malakiah Bonham, along with Edward Prall and Lot Rittenhouse, witnessed the will of the elderly William Rittenhouse of Rosemont, first settler of that name in Hunterdon County.<\/p>\n